After addressing the relationship of such struggles to space (issue 21), publications (issue 22), architectures (issue 23), and futurisms (issue 24), issue 25 Self-Defense takes on difficult questions such as: why should we always comply to a practice by default of non-violence? Could we even think of an ethics of violence applicable to the struggles with which we are involved? And finally, when is self-defense legitimate?

In this issue, the baseball bat behind the counter of the Bay Area punk record store (Mimi Thi Nguyen), the incendiary kites of Palestinian resistance in Gaza (Jehan Bseiso & Mohammed Zaanoun), the Kashmiri and Palestinian slingshots (Meriam Soltan & Azza Ezzat), the bombs of the Algerian National Liberation Front (Bhakti Shringarpure) and of the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front (Chelsea Szendi Schieder), or the guns of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Sinthujan Varatharajah) and of the Rojava Autonomous Women’s Army (Dilar Dirik), constitute direct strategies of self-defense in contexts where that against which the resistive violence is directed (the neo-nazis, the Israeli, Indian, French or Sri Lankan armies, ISIS…) have engaged in processes of attempted annihilation towards those who practice and stand for the right to self-defense. In this context, self-defense is not just an act of survival, but also an act of existence.

As usual, our News from the Fronts section takes on current political struggles in the world: the Hawaiian Indigenous struggle to protect the sacred mountain of Mauna Kea (K. Kamakaoka’ilima Long), the resistance to the Indian military occupation of Kashmir (Suchitra Vijayan), the fight against corruption in Haiti (Fania Noël), the spatialization of structural racism in Denmark (Aysha Amin), and the tradition of protest songs in the football stadiums of the Middle East and North Africa (Hajer Ben Boubaker).

Editor-in-Chief: Léopold Lambert
Editorial assistant: Nadia El Hakim and Sara Clark
Head of Strategic Outreach: Margarida Nzuzi Waco
Punctual members of the team: Suzanne Labourie & Jehane Yazami
Copy Editor: Carol Que
Contributing translator: Chanelle Adams

 

CONTENTS ///

Cover FuturismsThe Funambulist 25 Index
COVER | GAZA KITE
Mohammed Zaanoun

2 | THE FUNAMBULIST BY ITS READERS: INTRODUCTION
Léopold Lambert

— NEWS FROM THE FRONTS ///
4 | THE FIGHT OF THE INDIGENOUS PROTECTORS OF MAUNA KEA
K. Kamakaoka’ilima Long

7 | KASHMIR UNDER SIEGE: RESISTING THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF THE OCCUPATION
Suchitra Vijayan

10 | ON THE SHOULDERS OF ANCESTORS: HAITI’S POST-DICTATORSHIP GENERATION FIGHTS CORRUPTION
Fania Noël

13 | POST MASTERPLANS AND THE ON- GOING STRUCTURAL RACISM IN DENMARK
Aysha Amin

16 | AGAINST OBLIVION: DOCUMENTING PROTEST MUSIC TRADITIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Hajer Ben Boubaker

— MAIN /// SELF-DEFENSE
20 | GAZA LOVESONG
Jehan Bseiso

22 | INTRODUCTION
Léopold Lambert

26 | IN DEFENSE OF
Mimi Thi Nguyen

30 | BLACK REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE: THE LUXURY OF ETHICAL THINKING FROM A TEMPORAL DISTANCE
Grégory Pierrot

36 | EAST ASIAN ANTI-JAPAN ARMED FRONT: A TALE FOR THESE TIMES
Chelsea Szendi Schieder

42 | EFFECTIVE, DISCIPLINED, AND FEARED: THE LIBERATION TIGERS OF TAMIL EELAM
Sinthujan Varatharajah

48 | THE REVOLUTIONARY WOMEN’S ARMY OF ROJAVA
Dilar Dirik

52 | UNDERSTANDING VIOLENCE THROUGH THE (MISREAD) WORKS OF FRANTZ FANON AND GANDHI
Bhakti Shringarpure

56 | A SHORT POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLINGSHOTS FROM PALESTINE TO KASHMIR
Meriam Soltan (text) & Azza Ezzat (artwork)