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Why These Africans Stand 100% with the Palestinian People

5/15/2018

The entire world is watching this completely disrespectful and insulting move by the imperialist U.S. government to "announce" their criminal embassy in the holy city of Jerusalem within occupied Palestine, or what is known as the state of Israel. We have witnessed the Palestinian people, fatigued and determined to continue to rise up to protest this move by the U.S., only to be met with maximum brutality. All of this within the last 24 hours. The supporters of imperialism, all over the world, see events only through the lenses of their oppressive tactics. So, to them, all is well with the continued dehumanization of the Palestinian people. Since the criminals and their supporters view Palestinians, Africans, Indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere, etc., as less than roaches, to them, killing us for simply speaking out for justice is no different than spraying roaches for existing.

That is the reason that we African revolutionaries have always, and will continue, to stand on the side of the Palestinian people in their just fight for self-determination and an elimination of the zionist entity known as the state of Israel. To us, our work in doing this revolves primarily around educating our African masses about the Palestinian question as a part of our overall strategy to achieve Pan-Africanism; or one unified socialist Africa. And, for those who wonder what our struggle has to to with the Palestinian situation, again, to those causing all of our problems, we are all the same. So, we take a page from our enemies on this question. We know that the zionist state of Israel is the capitalist/imperialist network's key ally in the Middle East. That is the reason imperialism offers unwavering support for zionism. They have done so since the imperialist Lord Balfour in Britain, as a part of their deranged dominance of the world through control of the Ottoman Empire, decreed that Palestine belonged to the worldwide zionist movement. This incident occurred in 1919, and since that time, zionism has worked overtime, with the full support of worldwide imperialism, to steal Palestinian land, culminating with the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Like all settler colonies (Europeans stealing other people's land) e.g. Australia, Azania, South Africa, and the U.S., the state of Israel and the people who support it, will never admit to their theft. They will always claim, as the Europeans in Azania, South Africa are claiming, and as the zionists are saying today, that whenever the oppressed rise up, as the Palestinians are doing, and imperialism brutalize them, it is the fault of the people resisting oppression.

We know that no people in power, particularly these criminals who obtained power through theft and violence, have ever surrendered that power. We know that the Palestinian people, and no oppressed people, will ever achieve their liberation through bourgeois elections in these societies. We know that our freedom will only come when we organize and fight against the power structures for that freedom. This is why we know we must make sure our people are clear about why we support the Palestinian people because the more they struggle against zionism, the weaker zionism becomes. The weaker zionism becomes, the weaker imperialism becomes. The weaker imperialism becomes, the stronger all forces fighting against imperialism become. In other words, we benefit from the Palestinians winning. We benefit from the Filipino people winning their fight against imperialism. We benefit from the Indigenous people winning their struggle against our enemies. We win when the Irish win. And all of those people win when we win. So, strictly from a position of logic, it makes sense strategically for us to support the Palestinian people and all of the struggles just mentioned. And, it makes sense for them to support us. Any other argument is shortsighted, naive, and nonscientific. This is what we tell our people everyday. This is what we will be telling them all over the world during African Liberation Day in two weeks. And, representatives from all of those struggles will be there explaining that as well.

We will also add in that our reasons for being against zionism have direct connections to the suffering of African people as well. The zionist government of the state of israel relies on its illegal diamond polishing industry to provide a large sector of its gross national product. This industry depends upon the continued exploitation of African diamonds since there are no diamonds mines in occupied Palestine (israel). Since israel currently supplies about 40% of the polished diamonds on the world market right now, this is certainly no exaggeration. Again, a Palestinian victory helps alleviate our suffering.

This is our message to Africans everywhere, yesterday, today, tomorrow, and going forward. We will never accept settler colonialism and we will continue to say that zionism is the most potent face for white supremacy worldwide. We call upon all peace loving people to do any and everything you can to support the Palestinian people. Support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Support rallies and protests standing with the Palestinian people. Whatever you can. We will continue to do what we have been doing for decades since Kwame Ture, as chairperson of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) led that organization to become the first national organization in the U.S. to take a clear anti-zionist position. Kwame and others from SNCC brought that principled position into the All African People's Revolutionary Party (compliments to Sister Ethel Minor). We must continue to apply more and more pressure to the zionist regime and their puppet masters in the U..S, Britain, etc. We cannot be swayed at the arrogance of the imperialists. As Kwame Ture told us, appealing to their morality is a waste of time because they have no conscience. So, don't let their arrogance rattle you. They will never admit any wrong doing. They have never admitted that their brutal savagery against the Indigenous people was/is wrong. They have never admitted their devastation of African and African people was/is wrong. And, they will never admit their oppression of the Palestinian people is wrong. We can't be confused into thinking an imperialist acknowledgement of their wrongdoing is our objective. We must gain strength in the fact we are on the right side of history. In other words, our struggles are just. And, that is more important than any of the other legitimate reasons we are supporting the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people, like the African masses, the Filipino people, the Indigenous people, the Irish, all are fighting for power. So, we have to work to develop that power. That should be our focus. Achieve power and walk right over imperialism's chest. And, even while we are doing that, they will still be denying any knowledge of the havoc they've wrecked upon the world. The difference will be, at that stage, it will no longer matter what they think.

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Celebrating Women, Mothers, and The Trauma and Loneliness of It

5/13/2018

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In a world dominated by an economic system (capitalism) that relegates human beings to commodities - especially women - grasping a day that honors women is critically important. This is certainly true as it relates to mothers who in every culture, are the source of light and glue that holds any semblance of family together in this anti-family society we live in. We of course should honor women this way everyday, not just on the day that capitalism designates us to do it (so we can spend money of course). And, most of us who make every attempt to be conscious of our existence, do try to engage in this honor daily, but since today is the day most people are going to recognize in this light, we wish to bring a spot light to the power and struggles of the day.

I of course remember my own mother. Born and raised in Monroe, Louisiana, U.S., her life was a very difficult one and like all of us, those experiences shaped her. Since she would never explain the sources of her anger and difficulties, I had to take time to do my own investigative work and what I found is the realities of her experiences were more horrific than she could have ever communicated. The most sad thing about this is her experiences were by no question unique. They were the typical experiences of African women, everywhere. And, despite her best efforts, those dysfunctions transferred to me as is the systemic case for the vast majority of our people and humanity.

Today, I sit here on this day with my mother - Clothilde Dewhart - no longer present in her physical form. She, along with my father - Richard Dewhart - and my sister and brother, are all deceased. All of them left the Earth well before they should have and I'm convinced this is the direct result of the complex elements of our oppression as a people. The stress, early poverty, institutional racism, all of it. I saw my parents frustration at the system on a daily basis and I internalized it long before I began to experience my own frustrations on a systemic level.

Like all of us, I absorbed all of my dysfunctions and I've spent my entire life fighting against them. The attention I didn't get from my parents I spent much of my life pursuing from relationships. Trying to fill that hole. That didn't work. I sit here today thinking of my mother, loving her, appreciating all that she sacrificed for me (and it was a lot). I hold no negative feelings about anything from my youth. I know my parents both did the best they could with what they each had to work with, which wasn't much. In fact, they did an outstanding job considering the pressures they were under. Still, I sit here today, lonely as hell. Thinking about the dysfunctions that haunt me, the work I've done against them, and how I declare myself ready to move on and improve my abilities to meet someone. I think I'm in a place where I've concluded that its all a process and I'll meet whomever I'm supposed to meet whenever I'm supposed to meet them. In the interim, I know I need to keep doing what I'm trying to do. Fight through my issues and continue to struggle to grow and be a better human being. That's hard because on the surface anyway, it doesn't feel as if too many women are interested in men like me. It feels like my intensity often intimidates women and my values and lifestyle e.g. African liberation, socialism, no smoking, drinking, studying, etc., seems completely unattractive to most people. I don't know, but I tell myself that regardless of those feelings, I know I'm fun to be around. I try hard to be an asset to any situation. Its a dilemma, but I want to believe there are enough who do appreciate what I am. I know I bring a lot to the table so it must be that the timing just isn't right I guess. And, one day everything will come together.

As for the loneliness, I feel like I just need to embrace it. Let it run its course. Its here today because I wish I had my mother (and father) to reach out to. I wish their lives had been better. I wish I could have done more to make their lives better. And, I wish I had learned to take better care of myself earlier. I wish I had known the value of me because I used to give it away so easily. Its a lot. I wish I could go with parents to visit my daughter and that we could sit around and laugh and enjoy each other. I wish I had a partner to go with us, with me. Someone who isn't intimidated. Who sees my attributes as strengths and who appreciates the support I would provide for her. Who my daughter would look up too. A person to be in my life. I don't have that. And, my parents obviously can't take that trip with me. At least not physically. Thus, the loneliness. I hate feeling this way on such a nice day, but I guess I just need to live in it and live through it.

So, I'm going to try my best today, and everyday, to take a positive bend on all of this. The losses I've suffered are without question the result of our oppression as a people so instead of sulking about that, I commit my life to struggling for our liberation. That makes me feel better. And, in doing so, I continue to work on myself and that will hopefully place me in the position for the things I wish to come into my life. Sweat now to avoid bleeding later. That's always been my approach, but no matter what happens to me, one lesson I definitely leave today with. The enemies cannot and will not define my perception of my mother or any African woman, or any woman period for me. The work of our struggle for justice will do that. And, I'll honor my mother and all women for what they did and try to do. So, even though imperialism only promotes today to make money off of it (as evidenced by all the people buying flowers and candy, etc., in the supermarket I just left), I'm going to use it to reaffirm what's right. I'm also going to use it to remind myself that whatever sadness I feel, is there for a reason. I won't deny it. I'll sit with it today. And, I hope for something better while doing everything I can to make that happen. She didn't always know how to say or it and/or she didn't usually communicate it the right way, but I know that's exactly what Ms. Cleo always wanted for me. So, if you still have your mother, instead of focusing on the problems, try to figure out how to work through them. My mother and I did that, but we ran out of time. Don't waste yours if you still have some. And, if your situation is like mine, celebrate the beauty of what you shared and use it to build on yourself. That's what today should mean beyond the brunches and flowers.

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From MOVE to Malcolm to ALD; A Tribute to the Martyrs

5/13/2018

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For those among us who wonder why focus on police,
the work we do among us provides an analysis at least,
that internal violence comes as a result of the organized beast,
who subjects us to oppression every second of every day of the week.
Their violence is monumental and they objectively oppose peace,
They dropped bombs and killed MOVE members, including children, before they would cease,
They bought the bullets, created the plan, and paid off the participants who blew Malcolm a piece,
they continue to sabotage African liberation on every level at least,
But, they will not and cannot win because of our commitment to a justice feast,
Our unwavering courage and desire to see our future rise in peace,
Our time is now and the way they are acting is proof this is no lease,
Our freedom isn't for rent, sale, or donation, and our enemies know this piece,
So celebrate our struggle, participate in it, and help us build capacity to walk right over the chest of this beast.

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White Women & Police on Africans; As American as Appie Pie

5/11/2018

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The videos have been coming in left and right. A European (white) woman calls the police on an African woman at a university for napping in a dorm room. A white woman calls the police on two Native youth during a university campus tour. A white woman calls the police on Africans leaving a home they rented. A white woman employee in Starbucks calls the police on two Africans waiting for a business partner. A white woman calls police on a group of Africans peacefully grilling meat on a barbecue. White people call police on us for breathing too much oxygen.

With the emergence and dominance of social media in everything we do these days, its easy to attribute all of this to a developing trend since the election of the latest U.S. so-called president, but as easy as it could be to accept that narrative, its not one grounded in reality. And this is true for several very connected reasons. One, this phenomenon of calling the police on Africans for absolutely nothing isn't a strictly U.S. issue. There is data to demonstrate this is happening throughout Europe, Canada, and Australia so this issue cannot be confined within the context of U.S. presidential politics. Secondly, these people are calling the police on us because they wish to exert their power over us and doing so is very effective for them. When the police arrive, its not as if they question the logic of harassing us for occupying space. They typically arrive and react as if we are indeed guilty of breathing without the required permits. And often, despite the absurdity of the accusation, we end up in the back of the police car for the egregious offense of blinking more than once in the presence of white folks.

The third reason interacts with the first two. Despite the appearances, this isn't a new issue. White women, white people, even brown people, have been calling the police on us at the slightest, or even nonexistent, violation as policy for quite some time now. It happens because African people, Indigenous people, all poor people, are criminalized in capitalist societies. The vast majority of Europeans believe the capitalist hype that we are all criminals who are always committing crimes. And, since one of the staples of white supremacist ideology is to convince white people, especially working class white people, that they are still several rungs above us, its imperative that those white people accept their age old and honored responsibility to serve as overseer to ensure the slaves don't organize and revolt. So, whenever an African stops to take a break, shut our eyes, or just wait for the next act on our daily agenda, white people are programmed to view us with suspicion if we are doing anything other than serving their interests.

This process only works because of the premise behind it. Capitalism is built and maintained on exploiting Africa. The forces who benefit from that exploitation realize that it is only a matter of time before we are able to figure out all of our confusions and dysfunctions so that we can organize against them. So, the image of us being criminals, coupled with the historic depictions of Africa as savage, serve to indoctrinate people that we are not to be trusted. So, an African sitting in a Starbucks, walking down the street, shopping in a store, driving a decent car, etc., are all potential crime suspects because its not the alleged "act" that generates the suspicion. Its the fact we exist. That we are here. This is the hard pill for African people to swallow. The reality that in 2018 we are in the exact same condition we were when we plotted a slave revolt outside the master's plantation at midnight in 1700. Understanding this means we cannot be confused into thinking all of this is new. These recent occurrences are no different than Carolyn Donham (and the thousands of white women like her) accusing Emmit Till of rape in 1955. Its no different than the white woman who called the police on me in 1979 when I was just a 17 year old kid playing basketball on a playground. Its all a part of the same process. The job of white people is to protect the plantation from the rebellious slaves. And the role of white women in this is to do what white women have done for hundreds of years. Serve as chief accomplices to white supremacy. There's no escaping the reality that the Ku Klux Klan, motivated by imposed class friction against African workers as a result of the nullification of chattal slavery (and thus the need to start paying Africans something for our labor) when it was created during reconstruction years in the U.S. But, there is also no way to refute the fact that protecting white womanhood was used as the emotion dynamic behind fueling the klan's rise. Instead of rejecting that premise, white women as a whole have always played right into it and they continue to do so today. Although African people have suffered immensely and savagely because of the behaviors of white women for centuries, white women have never sacrificed anything for justice for African people. These are all hard facts.

For white people who claim to be different, your task for addressing this is simple. In each of the instances described as examples here, there were plenty of white people present at the time the Africans were being discriminated against. Although the white people in that Starbucks did appear to offer some protests about what was happening, for the most part, Europeans do nothing when this type of disrespect is being meted out against us. Protests alone are not enough anyway. If you are white and you truly object to this dehumanizing activity against our people, you must get to work. Regular and consistent workshops, seminars, and work study groups for white people on white supremacy. You need to get to work challenging this dominant narrative attacking African people. Doing so is your responsibility and just talking about and/or reposting these videos of our oppression is doing nothing to help the problem. You must decide to construct a movement that confronts this dysfunction by white people in militant and uncompromising fashion. By any means necessary. You have the responsibility to create an environment where this type of behavior by white people is unacceptable by the majority of white people. Clearly, we are a long way from this reality. You'll must get to work. Otherwise stop telling us how progressive you are. We ain't listening.

For us, we have to stop acting like its a travesty of justice when these things happen. Capitalism has no morality or conscience so its foolish for us to keep acting as if it does. Its time for us to wake up from this fantasy where we want this backward capitalist system to be what we wish it was instead of us recognizing it for what it is - a ruthless, backward system that must repress us to ensure its interests. An empire that we must get serious about organizing against if we are ever going to stop this system from brutalizing us. After 500 years if we continue to be surprised that police brutalize us and that we just simply do not have the rights of other people than at a certain point, many of us become accomplices to this oppression. Or as Fanon said, we either fulfill our mission or betray it.

We need to acknowledge that all of these things happening are reflections of what happens in a dying system. The power structure knows its days are limited and its utilizing its most treasured resource - its dominance over the ideology of white working people - to pit everyone against each other so as to ensure that if we are looking at each other, we won't be looking at them. Many of these white women/people calling the police on us are doing it because of their own insecurities and fears. Regardless, its not our responsibility to educate them, as if they would be open to that even if it was. Its our responsibility to liberate ourselves. We cannot do that by attempting a moral argument against a system that possesses no moral capacity. Power doesn't concede anything without a demand. We are going to have fight for our liberty if we are ever going to get it. We are going to have to be prepared to sacrifice and we are going to have to develop the political maturity to deal with the consequences of that. These examples are simply the manifestation of a dying system attempting to preserve itself. That means this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. We are either going to get serious about getting out in front of it and changing the tide or we are going to be swept up by it.

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A Real Conversation: Unmasking Huey P. Newton?

5/8/2018

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In this new age of activism, particularly within the U.S., grassroots organizing is defined for most people through the visual provided by the non-profit industrial complex model. Fortunately, there are enough of us around who grew into this work by way of the model provided by independent African organizations. Radical African organizations. Groups like the Democratic Party of Guinea, Pan-African Congress of Azania, South Africa, Republic of New Afrika, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Revolutionary Action Movement, Nation of Islam, and of course, the Black Panther Party. When I was a teenager, my role models weren't entertainers. They were people like Malcolm X, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Assata Shakur, Marcus and Amy Jacque Garvey, and without question; Huey P. Newton, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.

By the time I was twenty years old I had ready Huey's "Revolutionary Suicide" and "To Die for the People." I had also read the "Black Panther Party Manifesto," Bobby Seale's "Seize the Time; the Story of Huey P. Newton" and everything else about Huey P. that I could get my hands on.

As a young African growing up in the inner-city, Huey P. Newton's work to provide the philosophical groundwork for the Black Panther Party (BPP), just minutes away from where I grew up, and his fearlessness in confronting police, had a profound impact on me. By the time I was 11, I had already experienced police terrorism. And that was just the beginning of my exposure to the true role of police; to repress all potential pockets of resistance, particularly the African masses. So, for me, Huey P. Newton personified that identity in my mind. His example of personal courage was the model I used to try and model my own behavior off of. For a young African man growing up, he was the epitome of what I thought I wanted to be like.

That's why the accusations against Newton that have surfaced in recent years have been extremely troubling to me. He has been accused by close Panther associates of behaving erratically and in abusive manners towards comrades, particularly women. Now, unlike lots of folks, I don't react to things that bother me by letting those things overwhelm me. When the negative talk about Newton first surfaced for me, about 20 years ago (its escalated quite a bit in the last 10 years or so with the resurgence of interest in the BPP) I went to work doing extensive research to understand as much as I could. Plus, I benefit from having exposure with many former Panthers, some of which had much face time with Huey P. So, I'm probably a little more aware of the extent to which the federal government e.g. the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), played a crucial role in doing everything it possibly could to undermine Newton once he was released from jail on August 5th, 1970 (after the initial conviction for the death of Oakland policeman Frey was overturned). What I mean is a cursory study of the FBI's counter intelligence files, which they were forced to make public in the 1974 Freedom of Information Act, demonstrates that the FBI closely studied the day to day interactions within the BPP. As they freely indicated in their documents, the FBI understood that the BPP that existed when Newton first went to jail in the police shooting in 1967 was a totally different organization from the one Newton stepped into when he was released in 1970. In October, 1967, when the confrontation that left Frey dead and policeman Heanes and Newton injured occurred, the Panthers had a limited number of members and although their work was swiftly creating a reputation for them, they were still basically a regional organization. By 1970, largely as a result of the "Free Huey" movement that expanded into an international effort, the Panthers had almost 40 chapters throughout the U.S., a clear presence, and relationships internationally. By 1970, most people, including many of the most visible and active Panthers besides Newton, had no real relationship with Huey P. Newton. For many people, he was the leader in the ratan chair with the spear and the rifle. The FBI had done extensive work by 1970 to undermine the Panthers. Bobby Seale and David Hilliard were incarcerated on questionable charges. Eldridge Cleaver was in Africa (an African going to Africa cannot be in exile since Africa is our national home). Much had been done by the FBI (forged attack letters and having informants sew seeds of mistrust for examples) to weaken the foundation of the BPP. Keep in mind that by 1970, dozens of Panther offices had been raided illegally by police across the country. Panther leaders Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, John Huggins, Fred Hampton, and Mark Clark, and original member Lil Bobby Hutton, had been killed either by police informant work and/or direct police terrorism. Panthers all over the country were being arrested on mostly fabricated charges and faced with serious prison time. Much of the party needed a spiritual boost in the face of this intense repression. The prospect of having the bold and courageous Huey P. Newton out and ready to again lead the Black Panther Party created a condition that Huey P. Newton, or any living or dead human being, could ever hope to live up to. The FBI was acutely aware of this reality and they plotted methodically on ways to exploit this issue. Specifically, they sought to find imaginative ways to discredit Newton. This was done by more informant work, letters, etc. For example, we know now that the conflict that led Newton to expel the hugely popular Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt) was completely instigated by the FBI. This is also true for the widening of the divide between Newton and Cleaver. The FBI worked to exacerbate this split for months focusing on manipulating the actions of people like Connie Mathews who served as an aide to Cleaver and Newton at one point pretty much during the same general time period until those relationships were completely blown apart. When Newton and Cleaver openly argued on a television show in 1971, the FBI enthusiastically celebrated the spoils of their work.

We also know that the pressures of all these realities were clearly not lost on Newton himself. From all reports, he struggled mightily to be the leader he knew people expected him to be. Preferring to articulate his ideas through his writing, Newton was not even comparable as a orator to Cleaver or Bobby Seale. With the pressure of his imprisonment and the weight of the besieged BPP on his shoulders, it can be effectively argued that Newton melted from the weight of this pressure. He had always displayed reactionary tendencies, even before the creation of the BPP, but at no time before he left imprisonment did he demonstrate the erratic behavior that came to define him throughout the 70s. So, there's no question that FBI inspired repression took its toll on Huey P. Newton. There's also no question that its no accident that these discrediting efforts against Newton (and Malcolm X, Che Guevara, and any revolutionary who has extensive respect and following) are reflections of COINTELPRO 2018, but that's a another article.

Still, as a person committed to revolutionary politics and organizing, I make it my business to struggle with myself to not be that "rugged individual revolutionary male" organizer that our All African Women's Revolutionary Union (A-AWRU) has always warned us about. From that education, I knew that despite the fact I greatly admire men like Newton, Che Guevara, Kwame Nkrumah, Kwame Ture, etc., its fair to say none of them excelled in their personal relationships with women. Even Malcolm X, who starts that list of admired men for me, cannot be categorized as successful with building and maintaining relationships with women (Malcolm was married to Sister Betty Shabazz for seven years, and during that time, she left him on three different occasions). None of those men will ever win best social skills awards as it relates to their abilities to connect with people on smaller day to day levels. The common denominator is all of them were forced to endure an overwhelming level of pressure to carry the movement on their backs so I can excuse the fact they probably were not always the best people to go out bowling with. What has troubled me about Newton, which separates him from the others, is the accusations of abuse against women. I think I understand better than most people the pressures on him after he came out of prison, but that is absolutely no excuse for the abuse. And, the allegations are strongly supported. The stories of beatings of Panther women. The whipping of the 17 year old sex worker in Oakland. Those things more than likely happened and that's problematic and inexcusable.

Believe me when I tell you I have stayed up at night thinking about this often. The reason I think about it is because I love Huey P. Newton and I've tried to struggle to understand how I can love someone who abuses women. I mean, I went to jail for beating up a domestic abuser so my position on that subject is pretty clear. I haven't wanted to give Newton a pass and I don't think that I have. Instead, where I've landed is that Newton, drug infused due to the repression and pressure or not, was wrong. His abusive behavior was reactionary and unacceptable. The element that has stuck with me is how Newton could write such an eloquent statement about the need to respect women and LGBTQ people in our communities (50 years ago when such thoughts being articulated in an organization was extremely rare), and then engage in such abusive behavior? I don't think the answer is any different than it is for any inconsistent behavior people in the movement and world exhibit. One of Kwame Ture's most consistent criticisms of the Black Panther Party (as well as the criticism of numerous Panthers who became All African People's Revolutionary Party cadre - and there are many) was the lack of consistent and ongoing political education within the BPP. By that, we don't mean weekly political education classes. We mean defined reading, discussion, and praise/criticism/ self-criticism. The Panthers never institutionalized these critical elements and their failure to do this opened the door for the FBI. The best protection against police infiltration is a strong political education program. With that, you need not worry about police infiltration because your members are steeled in your ideological direction and will not veer off of it for anyone. With strong political education you don't need the false sense of security that security culture practices provide. Huey P. Newton is part and parcel of African people who are part and parcel of humanity. He was the victim of a failed political education process like all the Panthers, the African community, and all of humanity. The A-AWRU has said that the revolutionary process requires not just a change in who manages the production apparatus, but a change in our values. A change in the people that we are. Without that social revolution and changing of hearts and minds, what we have is socialism on paper and capitalism in our hearts and minds.

I still love Huey P. Newton. I see his shortomings and I use them (as I'm attempting to do now) to frame how we move forward. It is possible to admire the courage and commitment of the young Huey P. Newton while deploring the erratic behavior and abuse of the 70s Huey P. Newton. I choose to take the best of Huey P. and educate on how we can create institutions and processes that permit us to challenge conditions that produce the unacceptable behaviors. I speak this out loud every night to the framed picture of Huey P. in that ratan chair that I'm looking at right now as I type this. And I give thanks to the A-AWRU and I focus on keeping myself as honest as I can while appreciating the fact I have an organization that is committed to helping me do that.

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Wakanda, Kanye, etc; You All Are Killing Us

5/6/2018

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Please don't halfway read this and then ignorantly misinterpret the message here. No one is saying you can't think what you want. Say what you want. Truthfully, with the nonsense coming out of many people's mouths today, its too much of a confusion fest to get too seriously invested in a lot of it. Besides, in capitalist societies, which rely on bourgeois democracy - the perception that you have a voice just because you can make noise, even if you make absolutely no sense - people being able to say what they want is all that matters. You can say 1 plus 1 equals 30 and "that's your truth" in a bourgeois society. So, censorship isn't the point of what will be said here.

Instead, all I want to do is make a simple ask to those of you have have your social media PhD's (or maybe some of you put a little extra effort into it - you got your Masters and PhD from CNN, FOX, CIA, etc) to please think of those of us who take this liberation work seriously. Help me keep the headaches caused by overwhelming nonsense to a minimum. Just please think about what you are saying, posting, etc., before you do it. I mean, you have to admit, its really hard for those of us who live for Africa's liberation. Those of us who dedicate our lives 24/7 to this cause, to listen to you with your overnight expertise on Africa after you saw the Black Panther movie. Then, to add insult to injury, you actually had the nerve to get offended when we checked your perspective of the movie. You apparently only believe in freedom of speech when it comes out of your mouth. And, you definitely believe that your 24 hour degree has more credibility than our life long work for this cause. When we made critical assessments of Killmonger's role, you know the subtle elements behind it that quite possibly many of you aren't trained yet to see, we have a lot of science behind our analysis. I can assure you it isn't just an emotional reaction like...Well, you get the point. So, I know you only really give respect to whomever the capitalist system tells you to respect, like its mercenaries in its military, or bourgeois politicians, or corrupt religious leaders, etc. But, although many of you see absolutely no value in respecting the people who genuinely stand up for you everyday, can you at least give us headache breaks by thinking first?

And, speaking of respecting those who genuinely stand up, I realize people like Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, and Kanye West are role models in some way or another to many of you, but do you have the capacity to imagine a slightly different world? One where clowns and jesters within our enemy's system aren't the people that represent our dignity. Instead, could it be possible that some of us choose people who sincerely represent the best of our dignity by standing up and fighting the system that oppresses us instead of entertaining for it? That there are those of us who instead choose to honor people like Malcolm, Assata, Kwame Nkrumah and Kwame Ture, Sekou Ture, Carmen Pereira, Amy Jacque Garvey, etc? And, since those courageous and principled people are our role models, can you understand for one moment that since we have those giants, we could never pay one second to anything Kanye says, thinks, or does? And, since that makes sense e.g. meaning we seem to be doing pretty well in knowing what we are talking about right (you are reading what we have to say), then could it be possible that you could maybe consider our approach? Just for one moment consider it?

Lastly, let us remember the ill refutable words of one Kwame Ture. "One cannot understand something unless one participates in that something." You cannot intelligently discuss Physics unless you study the science, engage in experimentation, understand the natural and universal laws that guide the laws of physics. The same principle is true for our struggle for liberation. You cannot understand the elements of our struggle just by reading social media articles and watching Youtube videos. You can only understand our struggle by participating in organizations that are fighting for justice for our people and humanity. This is ill refutable truth because individuals cannot change the social conditions. Only the masses of people can do that so just engaging on an individual level does not, and can never, quality you to understand our struggle. Or, as Marcus Garvey put it "no one person who lives 70 or 80 years will live long enough to understand the forces that have shaped a world that has existed millions of years." That's why collective struggle is essential to being able to understand our struggle. If you aren't involved in organized study against our oppression, you can vent, post, yell, all you want...Your analysis has to be somewhat limited. Or, at the very least, even if you are the most intelligent person on Earth, if you united with others and participated with them, your greatness would only be expanded. No one can argue we would benefit from that boost right?

We know your opinion is the most important thing in the world to many of you, but if you care at all about actually solving these problems, and not co-existing with them, can you consider these points the next time Kanye vomits? The next time Hollywood produces a movie about us? The next time one of these system clowns takes action. Any type of action? Unfortunately, I can promise you plenty of opportunities to practice because if we hold our breath long enough, their next manifestation of stupidity should be upon us any second from now.

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White Women; The Unquestionable Allies to White Supremacy

5/3/2018

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I'm not a big fan of Dave Chappelle. I don't enjoy it when entertainers throw around the n word like its nothing. I know better. I know it represents and perpetuates dehumanization and oppression against my people, so I don't listen or watch him often, but the analysis he gave recently on European (White) women is right on target. When relaying his experience with a white woman heckler, Chappelle shared that when the woman shouted that they were both victims of oppression, he responded by telling the woman that she couldn't compare the suffering of women with that of African people. His words were "you were in on the heist. You just didn't like your cut!"

Now, I have a number of White women I know and have known over the years and many of them, Marilyn Buck leading the way, have been some of the best examples of humanity at every turn. Those white women who struggle for justice with integrity (those I know and don't know) should have no difficulty understanding the correctness of my words here. The masses of white women continue to side with white supremacy and capitalism against the interests of humanity, over and over again.

Chappelle's comment may have been meant as a joke, but there is plenty of truth within it. White women supported the institution of slavery despite the suffering it inflicted against Africa and African people. White women supported the theft of Indigenous lands. White women by and large supported and support the upholding of this backward capitalist system and the white supremacy that serves as this system's chief weapon against the majority of people on the planet. In other words, where are the armies of white women opposed to police terrorism? Where are the masses of white women organizing against mass incarceration? The industrial war complex? And most importantly, where are the masses of white women organizing other white women against those systems of oppression and in respecting the contributions of their sisters from Africa, the Americas, Asia, etc.?

I'm not blind. I see the few white women who try and I respect them for their individual efforts, but while they are trying, their sisters, mothers, aunts, cousins, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and acquaintances are doing every and anything within their power to undermine our existence. And most of the time, the white women who try are ineffective, or unwilling, to even engage their white sisters around their racism. I've had far too many white women admit this to me. Then, there are white woman tears when I challenge them back to not be so weak. African people don't have a choice about struggling against injustice. As an African man, I struggle against patriarchy, homophobia, and all forms of injustice from my people on a daily basis so I have the right to expect the same from white women and everyone else. And the level of disrespect that far too many white women display against African women, Indigenous women, etc., on a daily basis is barbaric.

I see the multitude of posts by African women criticizing white women and calling out African men who defend white women. And these African women have a strong point. The white women being defended are not the Marilyn Buck type. If they were, I know my African sisters well enough to state confidently that there wouldn't be anywhere near the issues we see today. All one has to do is participate with an African family, any African family. Or, you can travel to Africa, anywhere in Africa. And, you will see that our people interact regularly with Europeans - white women - everyday with respect and acceptance for who they are. There is no history of African women lynching or even beating up white women so stop with this utter nonsense that African women are mad and unreasonable as it relates to white women. There is no history of this accusation while there is overwhelming evidence, starting from the slave plantations, to Emmet Till, to Tomi Lauren, of white women castigating African people. I've addressed this topic in my novels. There are online pieces I've read from African women, who clearly didn't read my books by the way, who object to my having a white woman in my stories. Despite them not reading my books, and therefore not understanding my strategy in how I'm writing my stories, I completely understand the anger these sisters display. The onus is 100% on white women to demonstrate they are not our enemy and until that happens, I don't think a single African women (or man) has any obligation to give white women an inch of leeway.

The other element of this is the adding salt to the wound part. You can look all over the world and see where white women have directly benefited from the struggles of African people in our fight for liberation and justice. You can see this in Azania, South Africa, where our anti-apartheid fight has pushed the system there to open its doors to white women. They repay us by standing with white supremacy against our efforts there to redistribute land stolen from African people during colonialism back to its rightful caretakers. In the U.S., no one can argue that white women have emerged from the civil rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s with the most victories. There was no such thing in this country as equity on any level and it was the civil rights movement and the Black Power movement that ushered in this question which led to the women's liberation movement, women's lib, and the blossoming of the white feminist movement. Yet today, all you hear from white feminists is solidarity with capitalism, provided some reforms are provided for white women, while they completely ignore African people and other oppressed brown communities. The reason we don't like seeing the activism that we trained this country on how to use being used by white women to take selfies with police terrorists during "women's" marches because we realize this symbolizes the white women's solidarity with white supremacy.

This article isn't about asking white women for anything. We have our movement today as we always have had our movement. We are moving forward with, or without you. And despite the absurd confusion I've heard from white women over the years ("we are more oppressed then you") I just want to remind them that 51% of African people are women. Or, maybe you are so focused on white women that you forget this fact? Remember Sojourner Truth and her statement: "Ain't I a woman?"

This article is about supporting the righteous anger expressed regularly by African women on this issue. The only concern I have about that anger is far too many of these African women expressing this anger aren't themselves involved in our struggle for liberation. Huey P. Newton was right when he said "no participation, no right to observation." So, sisters, join some organization working for justice because you cannot just complain about a social problem. You must be a part of the struggle to resolve it. Besides that, their anger is completely justified. This article is also about challenging white women to be better. For white women to work with other white women and for white women to listen to your more conscious sisters with integrity who are attempting to get you to develop a more legitimate frame of the world we live in and your roles in it. We are not elitists so we can never accept the notion that any people are not capable of change, but there does come a time when we have to acknowledge that some elements of our population have not demonstrated the right to be respected because they haven't provided that respect themselves. At this stage, in 2018, white women as a collective (our analysis cannot be individual because individuals don't make history, the masses do), have failed miserably and its time for them to correct their dysfunctions.

Finally, for those Africans who may be reading this skeptically, white women getting themselves together has direct benefits for us. One of the biggest challenges to us today are violent white men. White men who are being raised by white women. Imagine if you will a reality where white women mass organized against the white male capitalist dominated agenda of wars for profit, white supremacy, and world domination? What if white women said no more to this? What if that happened? Don't be confused. We are not waiting for that to happen, but wanting it to happen takes nothing away from us and our work and having it happen certainly makes our work that much easier. Do I think that day will ever come where white women collectively are better? Right now, based on the evidence in front of me, I have to say honestly that I don't see that day ever coming, but I would love nothing better than for white women to prove me wrong.

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Gentrification; Bloods & Crips And an Institutional Racist System

4/30/2018

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Eighty plus year old Ms. Annette Steele speaking to reporters during a press conference in July, 2012, in Portland, Oregon, U.S., after we (I'm standing at right) helped her regain her house from predatory lenders and developers

In 1987, the day after returning to Sacramento from one of many organizational trips we took by car to Los Angeles in those days, I picked up the Sacramento Bee newspaper to see a front page article about African “gang violence” in the city of Portland, Oregon, U.S. At that point, my knowledge of Portland was limited to a road trip my family had taken there when I was 12 in 1974. And, the thing I remembered most about that trip was being chased by a dog while riding my cousin’s bike and having my father and uncle threaten to shoot the dog, and its owner.

That article was what the Bee considered one of its deep studies of an issue – in this case, Bloods and Crips and their expansion up the Interstate 5 corridor through Sacramento, Portland, and Seattle. The article painted a picture of a highly organized street organization network that sold large quantities of drugs. As I mentioned, we had just returned from L.A. where we had done some community organizing work in South L.A., or what popular culture deems “South Central.” I knew from my personal exposure and experience that 99.9% of these L.A. street organizations lacked the experience, resources, or capacity to organize anything even closely resembling what was being described in that newspaper article. I remember having a huge laugh with the comrades I was with when I read to them how the article claimed that Bloods and/or Crips in Portland had the ability to communicate in sign language in such a sophisticated fashion that police were unable to understand what they were saying. Yes, we laughed at that. The level of organization described there was the type of organization we strived and worked for, and yet we were no where close to having those capabilities. We certainly knew that these street organizations didn’t possess that in L.A., not to mention Sacramento or Portland. In fact, the more we thought about that, the less funny it became. Without knowing anything about Portland at that time, it was clear to me then that the objective of that article was to set up something against African people, but just what that something was, I didn’t know.

Today, 30+ years of organizing experience later, and with 10 years of that experience living and organizing in Oregon (70% of that time in Portland) under my belt, I have a much better understanding of what was at play in that 1987 article. Ironically, I ended up doing quite a bit of intensive housing justice work during my initial years in Oregon. This work permitted me to gain a very deep understanding of the foreclosure and eviction industries, how those industries are connected to Bloods and Crips, and how institutional racism is used to make profits for development companies.

Since we are talking about a span of almost 40 years between my initial visit to Portland and my move there, I can’t say for certain that I’m right about this next part, but I’m pretty sure that the neighborhood where my family lived in 1974 is the very same N.E. Portland neighborhood that I lived and did the bulk of that housing justice work in 2012, 2013. I’m also not certain about this, but I’m pretty sure that the park that 1987 article claimed these “gang members” were speaking in sign language in front of police was and is Woodlawn park in N.E. Portland. Today, Woodlawn Park and most of N.E. Portland is primarily inhabited by yuppie, petti-bourgeois, European urban professionals. There are approximately 50,000 Africans in Portland and historically, most of them lived in N.E. Portland. Although the King neighborhood in Portland is still the most densely populated area of African people in all of Oregon (according to the 2010 Census), no where in N.E. Portland are African people the majority any longer. And, I know from the countless doors we knocked on in those neighborhoods while doing the housing justice work that a large percentage of those yuppie white people bought those properties sight unseen while living in Idaho, Wyoming, Ohio, Montana, etc. Nowadays, Africans are arrested from so-called “stop and frisk” activities in N.E. Portland at a rate of hundreds per month. Having lived in this “traditionally African neighborhood” I can tell you that the actions of city institutions and their message is clear to us there – “you may have been here longer, but you don’t belong here now!”

If you haven’t caught on yet, what all of this has to do with Bloods and Crips is that starting in the early 90s, city officials in Portland were exposed for having worked out deals with private development companies. Their strategy was for the city development commissions and agencies to secure funding for city projects. The role of the developers was to tap into that money in order to help finance their efforts to seize as many properties as they could so that they could “flip” them and make handsome profits. Their methodology for doing that would require property values to sink at an alarming rate in order to make these transactions profitable. The way these public agencies and private companies, along with a strong assist from the capitalist media, were able to accomplish this was to create this image that African youth e.g. street organizations – Bloods and Crips – were taking over N.E. Portland. And as Boots Riley raps in the classic anti-gentrification song “Fat Cats and Bigga Fish” – “We’ll say that gangs run the streets…Then we bring in the police fleets, to beat and harass people until they look inebriated…Pretty soon people will appreciate it!” This was the basic strategy in Portland, Sacramento, L.A., San Francisco and cities all across the world, including Accra, Ghana, West Africa. Move African people around like pawns to make profits for big capitalist corporations with assistance from municipal agencies which are basically government appendages for capitalism.
As was just mentioned, its important to understand that the model used in Portland isn’t new. It was perfected in larger cities like L.A. long before it happened in Portland. Even the development of the Bloods and Crips is rooted in this gentrification model of moving African people around in very racist and systemically oppressive ways.

There was virtually no African population in L.A. until the 1950s when literally hundreds of thousands of African people packed up from Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, etc., and moved out to L.A. in search of the suddenly available industrial jobs that were hiring African people as a result of their need for labor due to World War II and the Korean War. As these Africans arrived into L.A. to claim those jobs, we were brutally redlined and only permitted to live in what is today known as “South Central.” The whites who lived there when we got there were committed to continuing the institutionalized tradition of white supremacy. So, they formed brutal gangs like the “Spookhunters” who were committed to terrorizing African families in South L.A. Since the role of police is always to contain and repress African people, our folks in L.A. knew they would have to develop their own solution to the Spookhunter problem. Consequently, African street organizations like the “Gladiators, Businessmen”, and “Rabblerousers” were formed with the intent of protecting African people from these white supremacist gangs. This continued until the industrial jobs vanished in the 60s. At this point, white flight had eliminated any white people in South L.A., thus also eliminating the Spookhunters. Meanwhile, mounting poverty from the lack of employment, coupled with continued police containment and repression keeping Africans locked in South L.A., caused tensions to grow. Resources were few, opportunities non-existent. As any social experiment on these types of tensions will bear out, people will eventually turn on one another in these types of circumstances. And, as would be the case with any people, those African street organizations began to battle each other for a little piece of something, anything.

For their actions, these youth are not the real criminals. The real criminals are the agents for the system who designed redlining, the private developer industry, and all forms of systemic racism. The city government’s are complicent as is the capitalist media which has played a prominent role in presenting such consistent anti-African youth propaganda that many African people have foolishly bought into that nonsense. There were plenty of Africans who called for a “war on drugs” which ended up being a war against African people. And this discussion could never be complete without a focus on the federal government’s counter intelligence program that was designed in the 60s to target the African liberation movement for liquidation. Federal agencies like the so-called Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), under the direction of J Edgar Hoover, raised the stakes on their counter intelligence program (cointelpro) “designed to prevent the rise of a Black Messiah who can electrify the African (Black) masses.” The cold blooded objective of the FBI’s cointelpro was to create a national atmosphere with police departments in every city where the message was that any African liberation movement was anti-white with the potential of violence against police (why do you think so many primarily white people even today view the Black Panther Party, Nation of Islam, and any African liberation organization as anti-white and violent toward police). This meant it would be ok for those police to do whatever they wanted to anyone participating in the African liberation movement. When Hoover stated in 1968 that “the Black Panther Party is the greatest threat to America’s security” he wasn’t so much talking about any imagined military might the Panthers possessed. He was talking about the fact the FBI had determined that 44% of all African youth 25 and under supported the Black Panther program. It was the Panther’s potential to galvanize the African masses that scared the power structure. And, their way of addressing their fears was not only to destroy the Black Panther Party, which they did, but to also attack African communities everywhere. Besides the influx of hard addictive drugs like heroin, another way this was accomplished was by partnering with those same city commissions (yes, in the 1960s) and devising plans to “redevelop inner city communities.” In other words, what they called “urban renewal” was in fact African removal. Their objective? Break up African communities in the inner city to eliminate the potential of those communities to become breeding grounds for developing revolutionaries.

Inner city people who commit so-called crimes (nothing in comparison to the mass crimes committed by capitalist corporations) do so to survive. Until the conditions that oppress them change, they will have to continue to engage in whatever behavior is required to survive. Capitalist media is now trumpeting this tune that crime is down. Of course its down in cities like Portland and L.A. because it’s the poor who are disproportionately arrested and convicted. And, it’s the poor who have been systematically removed from those cities. So, while these bogus crime rates in L.A. decrease, the petty crime rates in smaller metropoles like Pasadena, Rosemead, and Culver City, have risen. But, we are not concerned about petty crime rates and neither should you. We are expressing the reality that this disbursement of African people was designed to eliminate African communities within the inner cities because doing so would eradicate the potential for those communities to become power bases for the African masses. And, that’s power bases on all levels.

So, gentrification isn’t just about white people buying homes in African or Indigenous neighborhoods. It isn’t just about white people taking spaces we previously occupied. Its really about breaking up the organizing potential of those neighborhoods while providing vulture capitalist developers the opportunity to make money in the process. And, as always, the African masses are used in Southern Strategy code language to justify for the racist white masses why this entire process is necessary.

Even a child could ascertain that the most dangerous gangs are always going to be the organized and resource rich police departments across this society. Those entities have been terrorizing innocent people for centuries. Any reference to African street organizations going criminal can be directly traced to the objective conditions of Africans within this racist society. That’s why Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt), one of our many victims of the FBI’s cointelpro (Geronimo spent 27 unjust years in prison) was correct when he said “all people in prison are political prisoners because if the people in prison for committing crimes had been placed in different circumstances where committing crime wasn’t necessary, they wouldn’t have done it so the fact they did is a political condition. The fact they participated in street organizations is a political situation as well. And, the fact those street organizations are criminalized, demonized, and targeted for repression is a very defined political process that is designed to continue to exploit, and oppress the African masses while making sure we never develop the capacity to come together and deal conclusively with this backward system.

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Defending Cosby While Ignoring Mumia & Sundiata is Disgraceful

4/28/2018

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I remember back in 1995 when O.J. Simpson was acquitted. I was dating a sister and we went to her family's place in Oakland for a BBQ. Of course, the "trial of the century" was the topic of conversation. The conspiracy theories were flying that day and the overall feeling was joy that O.J. had "beat the system." At one point, probably because I was remaining out of the conversation, I was asked point blank what my position on the trial was. With all eyes on me, I asked if anyone heard O.J. lawyer Johnnie Cochran's statement after the verdict was read? In his statement, Cochran said that now that the O.J. trial was over, he was focused on representing his "most important client." I asked all assembled if they knew who that "most important client" was? Unfortunately, no one knew anything about Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt) who at that time had served 25 years of a frame-up conviction because of his work with the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party. To their credit, a couple of people asked follow up questions about Geronimo, but eventually, the conversation turned back to celebrating O.J.'s victory.

Today, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who will admit they celebrated for and/or defended O.J., but even more tragic than that, you will find even less people who know anything about Geronimo Ji Jaga, Mumia Abu Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, Jamil Abdullah Al Amin, or any of the African political prisoners who have spent decades in prison because of their principled work fighting to liberate African people from oppression. Kwame Ture talked often about how sad it is that we African people "are so disorganized and ignorant that we leave our soldiers on the battle field!" Our thinking is that our soldiers aren't the people who enlist in the imperialist U.S. military (they aren't fighting for us). Our soldiers are those people like Geronimo, Mumia, and Sundiata. And, we have shamefully left them on the battle field. A few months ago, I went to see one of those honored soldiers. Sekou Odinga was a political prisoner for 33 years. Recently, he was released. I've read and followed Sekou's case, along with the others, for decades so I didn't hesitate at the opportunity to go meet and talk to him. It was difficult for me to sit and listen as this brave warrior talked about how state terrorists pulled his fingernails out and tortured him relentlessly because of their hatred of his integrity for standing up against them, for us.

That's why I'm so disgusted that we continue to ignore our true freedom fighters who deserve our love, respect, and support, but just like with O.J., we are quick to jump up and defend an absolute loser like Bill Cosby. Then, to add insult to injury, some of our most misguided elements have the audacity to even equate what's happening with Cosby to our collective oppression as African people. There are several absolutely disgraceful aspects to this. First, besides the fact Bill Cosby has been an ally to white supremacy for decades, he is the person who recently remarked that the reasons behind mass incarceration are we name our children cultural names that cause us to deviate from a path of legitimacy. He has a history of making these types of new age uncle tom remarks. I saw him speak in person back in 1984 here in Sacramento. This was I believe at the height of the Cosby show's popularity. He spoke during Black Culture Day at the state fair. I recall that a woman made a comment about how important it was for us to have positive role models on television and this fool cut her off exclaiming assertively that his show wasn't an African (American) show, it was an American show and that the problem we have as a people is we are so unwilling to just accept the fact that we are Americans which prohibits us from being able to properly integrate into this "wonderful society" the way other people have.

At that point, my experience with Cosby was primarily his movies with Sidney Poitier in the 70s which were important cultural components in my life growing up, but after that day at the fair, I lost all respect for Cosby, his show, and anything he was doing. Over the years, I've followed his ignorant anti-African statements and his efforts to buy a Major League baseball team, etc. And, now we come to this conviction against him. Its sick how we can take the most basic and low quality human being and wrap them up in imaginary principles because of our need to acknowledge the trauma we feel from the oppression we experience everyday. Its also sick how someone like Cosby, who has consistently denied our oppression as a people, immediately gets a pass as being victimized by systemic racism. And, its absolutely gruesome how because of these dysfunctions, so many of us, particularly our men, can so quickly and effortlessly throw away the assertions by so many women - African women, European women, regardless. And we can do this without offering even a semblance of a case to support Cosby. The only thing people are able to say in his behalf is that he tried to buy a baseball team? That a small percentage of the many women accusing him haven't polished their stories to a level of our acceptance (a level that will never be achieved)? That he's being convicted when European predators aren't? That we should have sympathy for him because he lost two children?

I try to live my life based on principle. For me, that means doing what's right. That means recognizing and acknowledging the systems of oppression that dominate this society. It means understanding how patriarchy works and how men are socialized not to believe women and that women are commodities who can be assaulted raped, etc., and the burden of proof is going to be on them to prove they weren't. What all that boils down to for me is we cannot expect justice for us when we are unwilling to consider granting it to anyone else.

Last, but certainly not least, one of the most heinous elements of this reaction is that we cape for a loser like Cosby while ignoring and remaining ignorant about all those legitimate freedom fighters who languish in prison today. You directly benefit from their sacrifices whether you know it or not. Their bold stand against injustice has reshaped much of the institutional structure in this country in ways that opened many doors for you to walk through. Educational doors. Employment doors, etc. You owe them, yet you don't even have the integrity to find out who they are. Meanwhile, Bill Cosby hasn't done anything for you because his opportunities resulted from the same movement that yours did. Its no accident that his ability to land the first full-time role for an African in a drama series (1965's "I Spy" with Robert Culp) came about during the height of the civil rights movement. Instead of honoring that movement, he has repeatedly spit on it by denouncing the people it represents. And, with his shameful comments on why we go to prison, he has poured acid on the sacrifices of our brave soldiers who are not in prison because of the ignorant reasons he expresses, but because they posses a courage and integrity he could never even imagine. And he is the type of person you choose to defend? That tells us all we need to know about you and him. As for me, I celebrate when our freedom fighters like Herman Bell gain justice. I do work to educate people about our heroes and sheroes who still remain trapped by our enemies. As for Cosby, if he rots in prison I won't give it another thought.

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The Unknown Connection Between Ho Chi Minh & Marcus Garvey

4/25/2018

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If you possess even a cursory history of oppressed peoples, then you have undoubtedly heard of the great Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh and the outstanding Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey. Ho Chi Minh, who's actual name was Nguyen Ai Quoc, was the founder and leader of the Viet Minh Front, which was the organized force of Vietnamese people that led their national liberation against colonial invading forces (including the U.S.) from the 1920s through the 1970s. Marcus Garvey was the Jamaican born African who helped initiate and lead the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) which grew to be the largest liberation organization African people have ever known.

Both Ho Chi Minh and Marcus Garvey have been targeted by reactionary forces for their work. We would be more than happy to take on those charges against both men here, but that is not the topic of this piece and there are plenty of other pieces on this blog that directly address those charges as it relates to the contributions of both men. For this article, we focus on the connection between this Vietnamese political organizer and military tactician and this Pan-African leader and organizer.

Garvey started the UNIA in the 1916 in Jamaica, but the organization didn't began to take on steam until he moved to New York City and began to establish roots there that same year. By the mid 20s, the UNIA had millions of members on three continents and the Caribbean. To help the UNIA spread their message of African identity and the need for African self-determination, they had the "Negro World" newspaper which was published in English, Spanish, and French in 33 countries. The UNIA's success in capturing the imagination of the African masses towards a vision of a united Africa for African redemption caught the attention of the 24 year director of the newly formed U.S. Department of Justice in 1919. That director - a man by the name of J. Edgar Hoover - would go on to become director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) until 1971. Hoover played a significant role in working to discredit Garvey and the UNIA, and Hoover orchestrated the trumped up charges of mail fraud against Garvey that led to the creator of the red, black, and green flag being deported from the U.S. in 1927. After Garvey's imprisonment and deportation, the UNIA struggled to maintain the clout it enjoyed in the mid 20s and by 1940, Garvey had died in Britain, depressed, and separated from the organization he helped make into a worldwide fighting force.

Ho Chi Minh was completely unknown to Hoover or any other U.S. bureaucrat when he researched, penned, and mailed off a multi-paged document to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in 1918. The document was Ho Chi Minh's declaration for independence for the Vietnamese people from French colonialism and an appeal for the U.S. to help Vietnam achieve this objective. Its unlikely that Wilson himself ever saw the document. Ho Chi Minh held out hope that the fact he had modeled his independence document from the U.S. constitution would be enough to encourage U.S. officials to take his efforts seriously, but he never received any type of response to his document. Undeterred, Ho Chi Minh went to work building his consciousness around struggling for his people. In doing so, he began to question capitalism as the solution to those problems. Consequently, he began working to lay the initial foundation for the creation of the Vietnamese Worker's Party, or the Vietnamese Communist Party. The party then went on to play the crucial role in creating and developing the Viet Minh Front which was comprised of local organizations of Vietnamese workers, students, peasants, women, and all segments of the country. In the early 1960s, the U.S. had military advisors in Vietnam making assessments of this Viet Minh Front, or what the U.S. called, in typical racist fashion, the Vietcong. By the mid 60s, U.S. troops were present in Vietnam and by the late 60s, the U.S. was engaged in a full scale war against the Vietnamese people. By 1975, Ho Chi Minh had been deceased for six years and the Vietnamese had lost approximately 1.5 million people in the war. The U.S. had lost over 55,000 troops, and Vietnam was free and independent.

What's amazing is that despite the fact the U.S. lost so many people in the Vietnam war, one is hard pressed to find any comprehensive material about the Vietnamese people, especially Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh Front anywhere in the U.S.. This is so much so that even in 2018, most people in the U.S. would be surprised to learn that Ho Chi Minh actually went to college in the U.S. He attended Columbia University in Harlem, New York in the early 20s. It was there, working as an undocumented dishwater at various restaurants, including soul food outlets, that Ho Chi Minh became quite acquainted with life in the U.S. Particularly life in the U.S. for a poor man of color. And, since he lived and worked in Harlem, then the most vibrant African community in the U.S., he had specific exposure to the rampant, brutal, and systemic white supremacy that permeated every aspect of U.S. society. And since all repression always breeds resistance, since Ho Chi Minh did live in Harlem, he got the opportunity to observe first hand the methods African people employed in standing up and fighting against that oppression. Ho Chi Minh wrote in his memoirs that one of his favorite past times whenever not working or studying in Harlem was listening to African street speakers who displayed daily passion and determination to challenge the African masses to stand up against the system that was dedicated to holding us down. The speakers he indicated he enjoyed hearing the most were Father Devine, Daddy Grace, and several others, but the one he mentioned most consistently was Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

As Garvey railed against the evils of white supremacy and the necessity for African people to look towards Africa to achieve our salvation, the young Ho Chi Minh paid close attention. Decades later, he used what he learned from Garvey about the racist system in the U.S. to employ strategies that would help lead his country to defeat U.S. imperialism. The scenes utilized in popular movies like the 1995 "Dead Presidents" (starring Lorenz Tate, Keith David, and Chris Tucker) where U.S. troops fighting in Vietnam were presented with leaflet drops where the Vietnamese encouraged African troops to abandon U.S. forces by declaring "Black man go home! This is not your war!" actually happened. There are numerous documented accounts of the Vietnamese capturing African U.S. troops and engaging in political education sessions with the captured troops, imploring them to abandon the immoral war effort because the Vietnamese were not their enemies. The Vietnamese explained over and over to these U.S. Africans that they should join the Vietnamese in fighting the U.S. government for the same freedom and democracy that neither the Vietnamese or the Africans enjoyed. There is no question these efforts played a central role in demoralizing a significant number of Africans and other U.S. troops fighting in Vietnam. A great portrayal of this process is outlined in the 1984 book "Bloods" edited by Terry Wallace. This book presents several perspectives of the war from African troops and how much the Vietnamese efforts began to cause African troops to openly question the war. The stories recount how this effect, coupled with the massive anti-war effort in the U.S., and around the world created an unwinnable situation for the U.S. in Vietnam.

Another significant historical element that has been left out of most history books is the role Ho Chi Minh played in helping contribute towards Pan-Africanism with one simple act in 1967. Kwame Ture, who was known then as Stokely Carmichael was the main voice and face for the emerging Black power movement. Due to his militancy and defiance, the then Stokely Carmichael was branded as public enemy number one. He was a chief target of J. Edgar Hoover's counter intelligence program (COINTELPRO) which illegally targeted African liberation leaders and organizations for murder and disruption. The system's disdain for the young Stokely Carmichael of course caused him to be loved by the masses of African people. Due to this reverence, the Black Panther Party in its ongoing discussions with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee to unite their efforts, drafted Ture as its Prime Minister in 1967. Unfortunately, COINTELPRO was in full operation and the FBI's concerted efforts to plant seeds of distrust began to bear fruit. As Ture began to question the Panther's apparent lack of commitment to systemic political education and other contradictions he observed in the party, the FBI continued to pour oil on the fire. There were rumors of contracts being put out on Ture's life by Panther leadership. In an effort to sort out how to proceed with making his best contribution to the struggle, the young Carmichael arranged to take a trip to Hanoi, Vietnam in 1967 to have an audience with Ho Chi Minh. While sitting in the war torn country having lunch with the leader of that country's resistance against U.S. imperialism, the young Ture explained his dilemma and asked "Uncle Ho" what he thought he should do. While pouring tea, Ho Chi Minh quietly told the future Kwame Ture; "your African...Why don't you go to Africa?" Already being steered in this direction from a number of objective circumstances, Ture went to Guinea-Conakry the next year and by 1969 he was political secretary to Kwame Nkrumah. House guest to Sekou Ture. Comrade to Amilcar Cabral, and he would spend the last 30 years of his life in Guinea working to to contribute to the struggle for one unified socialist Africa.

This virtually unknown history of Ho Chi Minh and his connection to Marcus Garvey, Kwame Ture, and the African liberation struggle gives an entirely different perspective to Muhammad Ali's famous declaration in 1967 that "No Vietnamese ever called me a n - - - - r!" And, today, we believe that from a political standpoint, the initial ideas for African unity that were articulated by Marcus Garvey in the 1920s, have been solidified through the work of Kwame Nkrumah in the "Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare." As 2018 represents the 50th year since the publication of the Handbook, we can say confidently that the concrete on the ground manifestations of Pan-Africanism are stronger today than they have ever been. This is part of the legacy of Kwame Ture, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Amilcar Cabral, Marcus Garvey, and many, many others. In a very seldom talked about, but no less significant way, its also the legacy of Nguyen Ai Quoc aka Ho Chi Minh.

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