Aaron Bushnell
"To burn oneself by fire is to prove that what one is saying is of the utmost importance." —Thích Nhất Hạnh
"I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it is not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.
Free Palestine! Free Palestine! Free Palestine! Free Palestine! Free Palestine!"
I fundamentally reject the framing of this self-immolation as a product of mental illness. Most often, this framing is of bad faith and willfully does not ask what conditions brought someone to illness; it seeks to disempower resistance. Folks here in the Imperial Core are so scared of dying for what they believe in, so scared of ultimate protest that it is nigh impossible to imagine a healthy person doing it, whatever healthy may mean. Instead, we learn to belittle others and ourselves for revolutionary acts, rather than engaging with their gravity. For Bushnell, as with Thích Quảng Đức and Mohamed Bouazizi, this was a thought-out, righteous act to command our attention. He knew the statement he was making. As said by Nadia Irshaid Gilbert,
"That a world that normalizes what is happening is intolerable. He's saying, 'Witness me, and let my sacrifice wake you up.'"
To those in power, they were all crazy. And to that, maybe so—madness is required for a revolutionary. But even if, Bushnell did not suffer from a detachment from reality, as some have put forth. Youtuber Anark, speaking on his understanding of Aaron's situation, tweeted:
"Aaron's message was not rambling, nor did his words suggest desperation and despair. He was slightly cryptic, but very sober. I believe he committed this act of completely sound mind."
Furthermore, I wholly thwart the framing that we who see this as a sacrifice are incentivizing or glorifying suicide and self-harm. Our honoring is a refusal to pathologize Aaron. We celebrate his moral conscience, solidarity, and dissent while we also mourn a lost comrade. We connect with and understand his message, thereby, the message of countless other martyrs who have resisted occupation. We are carrying on his call to action. The Bronx Anti-War Coalition said the same when they wrote,
"Bushnell burned himself alive to call attention to the martyrdom and struggle of the Palestinian people. He is immortalized as a defender of humanitarian values and the plight of the oppressed Palestinian people, but let's also recognize the martyrs who came before him. We now carry on the struggle and turn our eyes back to the resistance with renewed vigor and clarity of purpose."
His sacrifice spoke to the heart of the empire, loud and clear;
Free Palestine.
That message must be centered. Always.
The Biden Administration has put Airmen in a drastic situation by mandating they abet genocide, and drastic situations bring folks to drastic action. The forced complicity in state violence had already changed Aaron, seen in his ever-growing distaste for the military and police. One can reason that what killed him was the march of the empire's War Machine, the Military-Industrial Complex, not the fire. When asked if Aaron himself would think of his burning as suicide, Levi Pierpont, a friend of Aaron and a conscientious objector, told Democracy Now!,
"No, absolutely not. ... he didn’t have thoughts of suicide. He had thoughts of justice. That’s what this was about. It wasn’t about his life. It was about using his life to send a message."
Aaron was a principled anarchist, loyal friend, community member, and organizer, who deeply respected those facing occupation and genocide in Palestine, as well as his homeless neighbors. Answering questions he wrote for his mutual aid group, Aaron said,
"I have come to believe in the importance of solidarity politics and I view the enforcement of homelessness as a major front in the class war which must be challenged for all our sakes. I view helping my houseless neighbors as a moral obligation, a matter of social justice, and a matter of good politics. If I don’t stand with those more marginalized than me today then who will be left to stand with me tomorrow?"
In his will, his deep respect for the Palestinian people is central;
"I wish for my remains to be cremated. I do not wish for my ashes to be scattered or my remains to be buried as my body does not belong anywhere in this world. If a time comes when Palestinians regain control of their land, and if the people native to the land would be open to the possibility, I would love for my ashes to be scattered in a free Palestine."
Aaron refused to stand by a system he knew to be unjust. To say he was disturbed is to say that he was aware, as many Palestinian martyrs and resistance fighters are forced to be. To say he was ill is to say he would no longer bend to a government so evil, so vile, so cold—it is to say he was principled beyond flesh. You do not have to agree with or aspire to a self-burning level of protest, but you must acknowledge that his sacrifice has drawn eyes to Palestine once again, more so than most of our protests have.
Margaret Killjoy wrote about Aaron in her most recent article, In The Land of Burning Children, saying of his protest,
"I can’t say I think others should follow Aaron’s example. I doubt he wanted anyone to. An act like this needs attention, not imitation. What we can follow is the moral courage. What we need to decide for ourselves is how to act, not whether or not to act."
Indeed, a post by Aaron on his Reddit account in March of last year showed he too believed action is needful.
"I’ve realized that a lot of the difference between me and my less radical friends is that they are less capable of imagining a better world than I am. I follow YouTubers like Andrewism that fill my head with concrete images of free, post-scarcity communities and it makes me so much more prepared to reject things about the current world, because I’ve imagined how things could be and that helps me see how extremely bullshit things are right now.
What I’m trying to say is, it’s so important to imagine a better world. Let your thoughts run wild with idealistic dreams of what the world should look like, and let the pain and anger at how it’s not that way flow through you. Let it free your mind and fuel your rage against the machine.
It’s not too late for you or anyone. We can have the world of our dreams tomorrow, but we have to be willing to fight today."
The prime mover of change is action. It is not an option, it is the option. And we have ghosts to make it up to. Erik Baker profiled it wonderfully in his piece for N+1 Magazine, Burnt Offerings, where he puts forth:
"There may or may not be additional self-immolators before the slaughter comes to an end... But the purpose of lighting yourself on fire is not to encourage other people to light themselves on fire. It is to scream to the world that you could find no alternative, and in that respect it is a challenge to the rest of us to prove with our own freedom that there are other ways to meaningfully resist a society whose cruelty has become intolerable."
We mustn't let ourselves feel unchanged or paralyzed. To do so is to let Aaron Bushnell and those before die in vain—again; "We can have the world of our dreams tomorrow, but we have to be willing to fight today." I think of Refaat Alareer, and his writing, especially. We must deepen our commitment to act against imperialism and occupation—our commitment to community, justice, and resistance. As I have said before, we must escalate. Aaron knew this, and you do too.
As an offering of hope, here is a quote from musician Hamed Sinno.
"We've always said Palestine would liberate the world. What you are witnessing might very well be the beginning of that."
If you want some quick ways to act in Aaron's honor, please consider donating to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, to which he left his savings. Please also consider donating E-Sims to Gaza, and get some art with it. If you haven't already, join the Resistance New Network Telegram to be updated on the fight for Gaza and the rest of occupied Palestine. Operation Olive Branch is also a wonderful resource to help families on the ground in Gaza.
Please, please, please read the most recent Crimethinc article on Aaron: Memories of Aaron Bushnell, As Recounted by His Friends. It is a beautiful tribute to someone with a bright mind and big heart, who could not live to see his uniform burning ceremony.
Lastly, get out there! Don't just mourn, organize! Form groups to help your local homeless folk. Set up free markets. Network. Build your community up with community resilience and planning. Palestine can free us all, but not without a fight!