Under conditions of Terror,
Most comply—but some do not.²
We tell ourselves who we are each day—
Or else we’d become what they make us.³
Only the Elect at the dawn of Revolution
Remain loyal to the Wound, to the truth
Of Death, to the meaning of the Song.⁴
The only way to deal with an Unfree world is to be
So Free that our very Existence is an act of Rebellion:⁵
In our blood a Million Suns defy a multitude of cruelties.⁶
We Resist, knowing that our Fate, regardless of
The consequences, is better than to accept and
Pass on oppression to Future Generations.⁷
We hate them that Oppress us—
They shall either Release us
Or we shall Destroy them!⁸
Revolutions are Festivals of
The Exploited & Oppressed.⁹
We rise as Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number—
Shake off our chains to the earth like dew—
For we are Many and they are few!¹⁰
¹ Louis Lingg, Trial Speech
² Hannah Arendt tr. original, Eichmann in Jerusalem
³ Gabrielle Otero, Self-Portrait Despite What They Say
⁴ ‘Ali al-Khalili, Dialectics of the Homeland
⁵ Albert Camus, The Rebel
⁶ Tawfiq Zayyad, A Million Suns in My Blood
⁷ Kuwasi Balagoon, A Soldier’s Story
⁸ Walt Whitman, The Sleepers
⁹ Vladimir Lenin tr. original, Two Tactics of Social Democracy
¹⁰ Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Mask of Anarchy