The Renegade
Observing the World
Through the
Lens of Resistance
About
Created in 2020 by organizer Brendan S. (original outlet: @war_pic), The Renegade is a human conflict and liberation journal which strives to close the gap between civil society and international resistance.
The Renegade adheres to no single political ideology, but stands against all systems of oppression, whether they be derived from state or non-state actors. It aims to spread knowledge from a range of international perspectives, to defy isolation and act as a voice for groups that have been stripped of their own. While The Renegade emphasizes human conflict, it is by no means limited to human conflict, and also includes geopolitical, sociopolitical, cultural, and economic concerns among other topics.
The Renegade operates from the idea that it is paramount for us, the members of civil society, to arrive at the basic understanding that empathy is the nucleus of all social progress, and that those who reject empathy in the pursuit of self-interest are the enemies of humanity.
When we arrive at this understanding, we must consciously mobilize in solidarity as members of the international front.
International solidarity is a weapon of revolution which challenges occupiers with concurrently intangible and renewable power.
It is a weapon which occupiers cannot reach.
The international front is a facet of civil society which not only acts as a weapon, but as a reservoir from which international liberation struggles can renew their strength and find immortality in hope.
Therefore, The Renegade functions as an international renegade to all states and neoliberal structures, to confront hegemonies across the world as a unit of the international front.
What is the Lens of Resistance?
In a global modernity where shards of colonialism are established borders,
where hegemony is bred through codified structures of hierarchy,
where neoliberalism has constructed an underclass to be perpetually eaten alive, resistance becomes integral to the preservation of human existence.
The Lens of Resistance is a conscious of revolution, empowerment, and solidarity in the name of self-determination and human rights worldwide.
The Renegade Logo
The Renegade logo was designed by Sacramento artist Ken Y. (IG: @low_sector_1996). At its center is a Dragunov (SVD) sniper rifle, the Soviet-era firearm often found in the hands of revolutionaries and resistance groups across the world. Its inclusion in the logo is not intended to represent violent chaos, but rather the necessity of armed resistance to oppression, the ranged power of the international front, and the universal importance of the lens of resistance.
California poppies are included in the logo as an homage to Brendan S.’s home region of California, and as a symbol of remembrance to the hundreds of thousands of indigenous who were slaughtered and forced onto reservations during the California Genocide.
The sun, which encircles the Dragunov and California poppies, represents the divinity of the Hvare-khshaeta (Radiant Sun) in ancient Zoroastrian belief. It serves as a symbol of remembrance to the ancestors of Kurds, Yazidis, Armenians, Lurs, Persians, Parsis, and Iranis.
It also concurrently serves as a symbol of solidarity to the farmers and agriculturalists of SWANA, who must depend on the sun for their livelihoods, and especially to the farmers of Kurdistan, who face constant economic warfare from the Turkish, Iraqi, Syrian, and Iranian regimes.
-Brendan S.