Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation || This report on Black Rose/Rosa Negra’s (BRRN) 11th national Convention comes to us by way of a member in our Durham, NC Local. Editing support provided by BRRN’s External Education Committee (EEC).
Fall 2025 marked the 11th national Convention of Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra (BRRN). This year’s festivities were hosted in Boston, MA over the weekend of October 9th – 11th. Dozens of BRRN delegates and members, as well as observers from allied organizations, gathered to discuss our work over the last year and how lessons extracted from our experiences should translate to changes in our analysis and strategy for intervening in the present. Our Convention is the highest decision making body of our Federation, a period we reserve each year for considering, debating, and voting on proposals that would make changes to our analysis, strategy, and organizational structure.
Day 1
Following opening remarks from BRRN’s First Secretary, the Day 1 of our 2025 Convention began with international greetings. Every year our sibling organizations from around the world send us words of support and solidarity, much like we do for them during their own conventions and congresses. Below is not an exhaustive list of our sibling organizations, but illustrate the scope of BRRN’s political ties across the globe. Alongside BRRN, many of these organizations belong to the International Coordination of Organized Anarchism (ICOA), a new formation that emerged out of the old Anarkismo international network. These words of solidarity across borders are an important reminder that we are not isolated, but rather that we are a part of a worldwide tradition and movement on the path to liberation and libertarian socialism. This year we received spirited greetings from:
- Construcción Anarquista Federal Argentina (Argentina)
- Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (Uruguay)
- Federación Anarquista Santiago (Chile)
- Coordenação Anarquista Brasileira (Brazil)
- Têkoşîna Anarşîst (Northeast Syria/Rojava)
- Anarchist Group in Sudan (Sudan)
- HEDRA Organización Anarquista (Spain)
- EMBAT Organització Llibertària de Catalunya (Catalonia)
- Die Plattform (Germany)
- 아나키스트 연대 Anarchist Yondae (South Korea)
- Anarchist Communist Federation (Australia)
- LiZA (Spain)
- Union Communiste Libertaire (France & Belgium)
- Midada (Switzerland)
After breaking for lunch we had our first internal discussion panel on “The F Word: Making Sense of MAGA and Naming the Moment.” During this plenary session members discussed and debated both the accuracy and strategic utility of referring to Trump and the MAGA movement as “fascist.” Some of the questions posed to delegates and members included: How accurate is this characterization? How is MAGA similar or dissimilar from previous authoritarian and fascist movements? What kind of traditional anti-facist tactics are useful in this moment and which ones need to be updated in our current times? Members discussed how these national political questions have been impacting our local organizing efforts and how our tactics may have shifted over this past year to combat an emboldened ICE, the erosion of bodily autonomy for women and LGBTQ people, and other attacks on the broader working class.
Day 1 came to a close with a members-only social and art build. Because members and delegates travel from all over the country to attend our organization’s annual Convention, it’s often the only time in the year where comrades living as far apart as Boston and San Francisco are in the same room together. Building a strong, living organizational culture is as crucial as developing an accurate analysis or effective organizing strategy.
Day 2
The second day of our 11th convention began with another open panel discussion on the topic of “Revolutionary Feminism From Below”, led by women militants involved in labor and tenant organizing. Members leading this panel centered on several questions reflecting the current political moment. Are the mass organizations in which we are embedded effectively engaged in struggles around bodily autonomy? If not, how can we develop transversal campaigns in these mass organizations where bodily autonomy does not appear as an immediate or obvious issue? What structured efforts can BRRN undertake to consistently develop the confidence and skills of women and gender non-conforming militants? How does social reproductive work factor into the tenant and housing organizations? How do we make both political and mass organizing more accessible to parents?
The discussion looked at how patriarchal social relations are often reproduced in everyday life, and thus are present in our organizing. Deep relationship building is necessary and consciously altering our own social relations; interpersonally, in our political organizations, and in the mass organizations where we are carrying out social insertion.
Following the panel and breakouts on revolutionary feminism, we came next to our annual discussion on updating the Federation’s national Conjunctural Analysis and Limited Term Strategy. Responding to internal reflection and critique of the process we carried out at our 2024 Convention, this year we experimented with a new approach. This time we engaged in a process that emphasizes discussion and debate during a month-long pre-Convention period, rather than during the limited time afforded during the weekend-long Convention alone.
Deliberation on our Limited Term Strategy was also more focused, as each committee within the organization came prepared with a draft of their own committee-specific Limited Term Strategy for the coming year. In this way, members outside of each committee are enabled to provide outside feedback on how the committee is orienting itself to accomplish its tasks. There were reports and analytical discussions around the Labor Committee, the Tenant & Territorial Committee, the External Education Committee, the International Relations Committee, the Internal Education and Development Committee, and the Internal Communications Committee.
Following a lunch break, debate and voting began in earnest on the dozen proposals submitted for consideration this year. As mentioned in the introduction to this report, our national Convention is reserved for discussing and debating proposals that will affect the entire federation. This includes amendments to our core organizational documents, structure, and proposals to take on Federation-wide initiatives.
Committees, Locals, or any 5 members in good standing can sponsor a Convention proposal. These proposals are submitted months in advance of Convention and released to the organization’s general membership for discussion and debate. Locals then elect a delegate to deliver their votes, feedback, and amendments. While some proposals pass outright, others require amendments to pass. During the Convention, proposal sponsors accept or deny amendments proposed by delegates. Proposals amended and passed on the floor of the Convention are then submitted for a national referendum at a later date, during which any amended proposals are ratified or rejected by BRRN’s general membership.
While sometimes drawn out, this process reflects BRRN’s commitment to genuine, bottom-up democracy. Proposals within the organization originate with the membership and the decision to adopt or reject them can only be made by the membership.
We wound down the Convention’s second day with a panel discussion and social, both open to the public. The panel focused on organizing in the face of repression, a topic selected for its all-too-real relevance to our present moment. Panelists included a BRRN member engaged in tenant organizing in Chicago, a dedicated organizer with a local Muslim organization involved in a variety of campaigns against the US backed genocide in Gaza, and a lifelong movement organizer from El Salvador.
The event took place in both English and Spanish, with simultaneous interpretation via headsets. After the presentation portion of the event concluded, questions were posed to the audience who were encouraged to form breakout groups. Groups discussed lessons learned from the panelists, what our own organizing projects look like in the current moment, and how our efforts can stay focused in the deluge of crises that define the conjuncture. This portion of the event naturally bled into the party portion of the night, with food and drinks provided by BRRN. We capped the evening by bashing an ICE officer shaped piñata. Kids, of course, got the first crack at it.
Day 3
The final day of our 2025 Convention continued the voting and debate on the remaining Convention proposals, as well as the election of members to national officer posts. Discussions on this final day were much more lively as the Convention body was tasked with considering competing proposals. Amendments to the proposals, caucus discussion breakouts, delegates following up with members who weren’t present, and votes shifting based on how the language and debate developed all followed. As a new member, it was exciting to see this level of active direct democracy and spirited debate within our organization. It speaks to the level of trust between militants and the dedication that BRRN members bring to the work we do within the Federation and in our local organizing efforts.
With votes and discussion on proposals and officer elections complete, business on the third day of Black Rose/Rosa Negra’s 2025 national Convention started to wind down. As the Convention chair brought the official proceedings to a close, members and delegates began saying their goodbyes. While we’ll all see each other in some capacity during our national level committee work throughout the year, Convention represents an all-too-rare opportunity for so many of us to be in the same place, at the same time. Dozens of moments throughout this short weekend served as reminders that our revolutionary project is a living, vital thing—something that cannot be sustained without the support and clarity that a revolutionary political organization, our political home, offers.
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