Roots of Resistance was an anti-racist organization active in Vancouver, Canada from 1992 to 1996. The organization was formed shortly after a Vancouver demonstration in support of Rodney King during the 1992 L.A. riots, fusing an affinity group called Anarchists of Colour with Langara College's students of colour collective, the Third World Alliance, and other activists. Roots of Resistance was composed of people of colour only, with members of African, Asian, First Nations and Latin American ancestry, including people of mixed-race. Anti-racism, like other general social attitudes, ideas and movements, has many variations and faces. ... Members of Parliament Libby Davies, Ujjal Dosanjh, David Emerson, Hedy Fry, Stephen Owen Members of the Legislative Assembly Gordon Campbell, David Chudnovsky, Adrian Dix, Colin Hansen, Jenny Kwan, Lorne Mayencourt, Wally Oppal, Gregor Robertson, Shane Simpson, Carole Taylor Mayor Larry Campbell Governing Body Vancouver City Council Latitude: Longitude: 49°16... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... An affinity group is a small group of activists (usually from 5-20) who work together on direct action. ... World map showing location of Africa A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second_largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ... The term Asian can refer to something or someone from Asia. ... First Nations is the current title used by Canada to describe the various societies of the indigenous peoples, called Native Americans in the U.S. They have also been known as Indians, Native Canadians, Aboriginal Americans, Amer-Indians, or Aboriginals, and are officially called Indians in the Indian Act, which... Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... The terms multiracial, biracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestors are not of a single race. ...

Members of Roots of Resistance were of various left-wing political tendencies, from anarchism to Marxism, as well as divergent cultural and religious perspectives. Uniting the group was an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist critique, including support of First Nations sovereignty and opposition to global imperialism. Roots of Resistance also criticized parliamentary attempts to restrict immigration, and directly opposed neo-fascist activity, two manifestations of racism that were virulent in early- to mid-1990s Canada. In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of all infringements upon liberty, and all forms of social hierarchy. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Anti-capitalism is any and all opposition to capitalism. ... The terms Neo-Nazism and Neo-Fascism refer to any social or political movement to revive Nazism or Fascism, respectively, and postdates the Second World War. ...

Roots of Resistance's people of colour-only membership was an organizational strategy developed to address racism from a position of strength and affinity, but also to reject what was seen as a white cultural hegemony within the radical left which effectively excluded people of colour and their perspectives. (This critique was aimed at, to name a few examples, the white-led left's reduction of all matters of power to "the class struggle"; its "generation gap"-inflected suspicion of elders; its insensitivity to the importance of spirituality for some communities; its emphasis on counterculture over community; etc.) Class struggle is class conflict looked at from a Marxist, libertarian socialist, or anarchist perspective. ... A generation gap describes a vast difference in cultural norms between a younger generation and their elders. ... In sociology, counterculture is a term used to describe a cultural group whose values and norms are at odds with those of the social mainstream, a cultural equivalent of a political Opposition. ...

These various prejudices of the white-dominated left were essentially challenged by the founding of an allied group with an all brown membership. Roots of Resistance frequently worked in coalition with white allies, and was not a separatist organization, nor was it anti-white. Roots of Resistance's most newsworthy moments were its Anti-Canada Day demonstrations on 1 July, events designed to expose the colonialist and genocidal history of the Canadian state. Colonialism is a system in which a state claims sovereignty over territory and people outside its own boundaries, often to facilitate economic domination over their resources, labor, and often markets. ... Genocide has been defined as the deliberate killing of people based on their ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, or (sometimes) politics, as well as other deliberate actions leading to the physical elimination of any of the above categories. ...

See also

• Anti-racism