Just because the educational work of the Anarcho-Syndicalists is directed toward the development of independent thought and action, they are outspoken opponents of all those centralizing tendencies which are so characteristic of all political labour parties. But centralism, that artificial organisation from above turns over the affairs of everybody in a lump to a small minority, is always attended by barren official routine; and this crushes individual conviction, kills all personal initiative by lifeless discipline and bureaucratic ossification, and permits no independent action.
The organization of Anarcho-Syndicalism is based on the principles of Federalism, on free combination from below upward, putting the right of self-determination of every member above everything else and recognizing only the organic agreement of all on the basis of like interests and common convictions. It has often been charged against federalism that it divides the forces and cripples the strength of organized resistance, and very significantly, it has been just the representative of the political labour parties and of the trade unions under their influence who have kept repeating this charge to the point of nausea. But here , too, the facts of life have spoken more clearly than any theory.
Chapter 4. Objectives of Anarcho-Syndicalism Pg. 65 Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice by Rudolf Rocker
She acknowledges, however, that there are many Chumash people who are urban Indians and have lost their tribal membership. In many cases, what makes them Chumash is the value they place on reproducing their culture and remaining knowledgeable of their history. Elena added that urban Indians do not have to fit the stereotypical image of Indians who attend powwows in order to prove that they are “real Indians—rather than wannabes.” She believes that urban Indians must manifest their culture in some outward way, such as being familiar with their indigenous genealogy or being knowledgeable to about their people’s oral tradition. According to Elena, when families lose their people’s poems or stories, this indicates that they no longer value their American Indian culture, because they don’t respect it enough to pass it down to the next generation.
Epilogue Pg. 305 Recovering History Constructing Race by Martha Menchaca
The Mexican American also desires to revive and absorb into himself the best of the past in order to confront the future with an equilibrium of purpose and motivation. The Chicano understands that he has been denied his past, his language, and his culture by the Anglo-American system of education, the end product of which is mediocrity, with the Anglo as the lowest common denominator. He knows that his land has been stolen and his rights and rightful opportunities withheld by the Anglo system of laws and courts, which foster prejudice and discrimination above justice and compassion. Now he seeks to retrieve those basic values of his past. Zapata, the rebel is a symbol of that desire. Although not yet fully realized, but here and there promised in some men, that desire may soon be embodied in a Chicano Zapata. Perhaps there will be a Zapata in the South and a Villa in the North as well. At any rate, Chicano historians of the next decade will have to gather the bits and pieces of history which are fragmented today in order to portray the new revolu-tionary hero or heroes. For the time being, the only true hero of the Chicano revolt that is just beginning is the Chicano people. If gigantic heroes are to emerge, the Chicano people will create them and establish their names, just as in the past decade the people have begun to test and shape leaders according to their need.
Pg. 101 Chicano Manifesto by Armando B. Rendon
To many Anglo-Americans, no revolution is yet in evidence from the Southwest, and as far as they are concerned. Mexican American is a term describing a dirty little war that the United States fought with Mexico over some land. A few Mexican Americans still don’t know who they are or what their fellow Mexican Americans are shouting about. But now that Chicanos have made Basta Ya! a war cry and Viva La Raza! a ralling call, much of that indifference and ignorance will change. After decades of intimidation that have forced many Mexican Americans to forsake their background, many agringados are returning to the Chicano fold. They realize the hypocrisy of their Anglo role-playing and the self-denigration it has involved, and now seek to reunite themselves with the raza they once denied. They have a long path to retrace.
Pg. 102 Chicano Manifesto by Armando B. Rendon
These first skirmishes in the Chicano struggle for self-conception and self-determination were grounded in efforts in the early sixties, when Chicano sophistication about his rights and power burgeoned, and his determination to change his destiny through his own efforts, even making his own mistakes, deepened into an obsession. The Chicano revolution is not merely the product of a world-wide reassertion by poor and oppressed peoples of their dignity and rights, nor is it only an imitation of the black movement, If there had been no blacks in this country, the Chicano revolt would still have occurred because we have been at least as oppressed and even more ignored than the blacks.
Pg 105 Chicano Manifesto by Armando B. Rendon
One of the most fascinating witnesses to Chicano self-preservation techniques and community insulation through embryonic organizing is the Beneficencia Society, barrio groups which sprang up, whenever Mexican people congregated, to assist one another when sickness or death struck. Beneficencia (or Mutualista) members contributed a small sum each month as membership dues; the funds collected would be used to tide over a family hit by sickness or calamity, or to pay part or all expenses of funeral. Such groups still operate here and there, and occasionally while traveling through the Southwest, I have seen a paint-chipped store front office with a faded sign above the door attesting to the existence in the days gone by such a neighborhood insurance society. The innate sense of organization and terrible need and isolation that generated them is a story in itself. Postwar groups cleared away much of the debris which had lain around for generations, predating the activities of today’s black activists; they helped expose the deeper problems that existed. Not until the sixties, however, did the job begin of radicalizing the Chicano community and rooting out those really massive, adamantine barriers of Anglo prejudice and indifference, as well as our own self-distrust and self-assertion. The calculated revolt that we now observe is but a continuation of struggle Chicanos have maintained through a century and a half of oppression. Certain development in the last decade have only accelerated our cause.
Pg. 107-108 Chicano Manifesto by Armando B. Rendon

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