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Marcus Garvey, J. Edgar Hoover & Firestone Rubber Corporation

12/17/2020

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Marcus Mosiah Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Assocation. A Pan-African organization and the largest organization African people have ever had, seen here being arrested by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on the trumped up mail fraud charge they would use to eventually deport Garvey from the U.S.
 In 2020, Firestone Tire & Rubber Corporation is about to enter its 97th year of a 100 year contract with the government of Liberia in West Africa.  That contract was signed between those two parties in 1924.  This same story can be retold about every corner of Africa and every natural resource that Africa has to offer.  European, U.S., Israel (and now Chinese) corporations own fertile lands in Africa and control the production and distribution of the natural resources produced from those processes.  Although we have certainly written extensively about the complex differences between China’s relationship with Africa and that of the traditional colonial countries (Europe, the U.S., Australia, etc.), for the oppressed African masses, the issues remain the same.  Whether we are talking about rubber in Liberia, bauxite in Guinea (aluminum), cocoa in Ghana, cobalt in the Congo and Mozambique (cell phones, lap tops, flat screens and all devices that give and receive signals), diamonds in Zimbabwe, gold in Azania (South Africa), the context is corporations and other countries get rich while Africa, and Africans, remain poor.

Malcolm X correctly said that land equals power.  What he said in more detail is the people who control the land control the natural resources mentioned above.  The people who control those resources control their destiny.  What Malcolm’s statement should lead us to is the control of land is our key to self-determination, not voting and/or attempting to gain wealth within the systems that are built and maintained based on exploiting Africa.  And, going further, our land as African people, the only land we have any moral right to – no matter where we live – is Africa.  That’s it, plain and simple.  That’s what Pan-Africanism seeks to do.  Organize Africans everywhere on earth to reclaim the political and economic direction of Africa.  What Pan-Africanists in theory and action understand is that this objective is crucial to addressing every problem we face as people everywhere we exist. 

Marcus Mosiah Garvey certainly understand this.  He understood this so well that he initiated the largest organization African people have ever had to serve as a vehicle to pursue a Pan-Africanist objective.  The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), founded by Garvey in Jamaica in 1915, sought to create an international army of African people focused around liberating Africa to serve the African masses.  And, Garvey’s organization was not just a rhetorical venture.  The UNIA established chapters in dozens of countries around the world.  Its literary organ – “The Negro World” was published consistently in English, French, and Spanish, in 33 countries.  Much has been written about the UNIA’s purchase of three ships and its efforts to launch a shipping line, but possibly the most impactful project the UNIA embarked upon was its political efforts to strengthen relationships between the UNIA and the government of Liberia in West Africa. 

Although it is true that Garvey himself never set foot on the African continent (which further illustrates how ill relevant it is what our individual circumstances are as it relates to worldwide African unity), he was able, along with Amy Ashwood Garvey (his first wife and co-founder of the UNIA), and later Amy Jacque Garvey (his second wife), to organize an organizational apparatus that was able to establish relationships with officials within the Charles King regime in Liberia.  What the UNIA did was win over the King administration in Liberia with ill refutable logic about the need for African people worldwide to bypass the colonial powers and start putting the pieces in place to establish independent African control throughout Africa.  Garvey and the UNIA convinced the King administration that Liberia’s massive rubber plantations could be properly managed if the UNIA secured the commitment from trained engineers and science professionals, trained in the U.S., the Caribbean, etc., to move to Liberia and replace the colonial expertise that permitted the colonial powers to dominate Liberia’s rubber production.  Based on the Pan-African argument advanced by the Garveyites and the fact every person wishes to live in dignity and pride, something Pan-Africanism has always offered the oppressed African masses, an agreement was reached between the King administration and the UNIA on developing this rubber project in Liberia. 

Due to the success of the Garvey movement in galvanizing the African masses, there were countless forces who attempted to sabotage the work of the UNIA.  The white left, guided by the Communist International financed through the Soviet Union, advanced the idea of the Black belt South within the U.S. (where the Southern U.S. states would be acceded to the African masses within the U.S.) to attempt to dissuade people away from the UNIA and a Pan-Africanist objective.  On a much more insidious level, the U.S. government, fearful of the UNIA’s rising influence among African people, started engaging in nefarious activities designed to discredit the work of the UNIA. 

J. Edgar Hoover is well known as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the U.S. where he held that position for 54 years over the bureau.  His infamy is his role in advancing, endorsing, and facilitating the illegal, immoral, and violent counter intelligence program (COINTELPRO) where the FBI carried out systemic and violent sabotage against the African liberation movement.  Countless people were murdered, incarcerated, and discredited due to the dirty tricks and out and out terror the FBI facilitated against African organizations, but most people don’t realize Hoover’s terror in the 50s and 60s was set in motion by work he did several decades before that to sabotage African self-determination.

In 1917, Hoover, as a very young man of 22, joined the Justice Department.  In 1924, the department was completely reorganized into the Bureau of Investigation as its official title and Hoover was given the rank of director which he held until 1974.  His quick rise in the ranks of the highest intelligence organization within the U.S. was facilitated largely by his work to undermine the UNIA.  By 1919 Hoover was fast at work developing strategies and tactics to fire at the work of the UNIA.  One of the most important salvos he fired that caused immeasurable damage against Garvey and his organization was Hoover’s efforts to intimidate Liberia away from its agreement with the UNIA.  During the early part of the 1920s, Liberia was threatened by France with invasion.  Liberia’s government as it was then and as we know it today is a product of the so-called “Americo-Liberian” legacy.  This reality is a reflection of Africans who were enslaved within the U.S. who traveled back to Liberia starting in 1820.  These Africans established a Western style government in Liberia that borrowed heavily from African cultural norms in the slavery dominated U.S.  This quasi-colonial government dominated the traditional Mande, Kwa, and other African ethnic groupings making the Liberian government Africa’s U.S. representation in blackface.

Exploiting the insecurities of the King administration about its standing among the people of Liberia as well as the pending French invasion, partly to exploit Liberia’s vast rubber resources, Hoover through the U.S. government was able to convince the King administration that if they severed their relationship with the UNIA, the U.S. would prevent France from invading Liberia.  The King administration buckled under this threat and the potential of the Pan-African development of rubber in Liberia was eliminated.

France didn’t invade Liberia.  Instead, they invaded Vietnam and the subsequent developments from that led in part to the U.S. invading Vietnam and engaging a 10 year war in that country.  Hoover in his role as the newly reorganized FBI Director, continued to harass and terrorize the Garvey movement.  The FBI was able to generate a mail fraud case against Garvey, although he himself didn’t participate in the alleged crime, and in 1927 he was deported to Britain which more or less eroded the UNIA’s core work within the U.S. and in the African world overall at that time (the UNIA is still active today).   And, a part of the offer the U.S. made to the King administration in Liberia was to replace the technical help the UNIA had promised to develop rubber production, Firestone Rubber would instead “partner” with Liberia.  In 1924, that 100 year contract was signed and Liberia has controlled rubber production, for its corporate profits, not African development, for the last almost 100 years throughout most of Africa.  Firestone has played other sabotage roles including partnering with U.S. imperialism again in 1966.  When the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) illegally overthrew the government of Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, the CIA-backed coup makers closed the Ghanaian Tire Factory in Takaradi, Ghana.  That factory was producing 100,000 tires annually through Ghana’s socialist economy.  More tires than any other entity in Africa at that time.  Once the coup happened, that factory was sold to Firestone who promptly closed it permanently to ensure the competition the socialist Ghanaian factory posed to Firestone’s profit driven production would never happen again. 
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A lesson to be learned from this tragic history is that Pan-Africanism achieved is scientific socialism for all of Africa.  Garvey’s efforts to create a partnership with the neo-colonial government of Liberia was ill fated because the interests of neo-colonialism are always beholden to the power of capitalism.  There was no mass involvement and organization in Liberia, just the existence of a colonially trained leadership who’s only grasp of power was based solely on approval of the forces who are oppressing Africa.  Still, Garvey and the UNIA’s example that Pan-Africanism, even in the lacking method that they pursued it, is clearly the solution to the problems African people face.  And, we were able to generate an agreement between an independent Pan-African organization and a region of Africa, to develop resources for collective African advancement 100 years ago!  That effort generated the full focus of U.S. imperialism to destroy it. So, then imagine what could prosper if we embarked upon a mass, organized effort to control our resources under the banner of socialist Pan-African revolution.  Revolution where no agreement with colonialists or neo-colonialists is appropriate because we are organizing simply to take back what rightfully belongs to us.  So, for this vision, we appreciate and thank the UNIA and we continue to engage our work to advance their efforts. 

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COVID Rise & Resilience Isn't Due Primarily to Individual Actions

12/10/2020

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In numerous areas throughout the U.S. today, conditions resulting from the covid 19 pandemic show no signs of regression.  Each time there is a so-called holiday or any activity like weddings, etc., where people traditionally get together, we are seeing spikes in covid cases.  After the most recent so-called holiday, the annual thankstaking commemoration which ironically celebrates diseased Europeans stealing Indigenous lands, covid cases are producing the most deadly days in the U.S. since the pandemic first struck. 

Most of the analysis about why this pandemic continues to be a major challenge in the U.S. (while other countries seemingly have been able to get the outbreaks under control) focuses around the individual behaviors of people in this country and how those individual behaviors aggregated, manifest on the collective society.  In other words, you can turn on any capitalist owned media source, from MSNBC to FOX (the two most widely viewed mediums) and you will hear variances ranging from the virus is not a serious challenge and will disappear on its own, to if only people stopped interacting with one another, stayed in their residences (for those who have one), and wore masks consistently, the virus would be overcome.

From this point, the on the ground reality in the U.S. becomes extremely interesting.  Information sources are everywhere here and available all the time.  Regardless, most people in this society, by design, have limited to no critical analytical skills and view extensive research as unnecessary, on any subject matter.  So, as more and more states are forced to go through their second or third level of shutdowns, the question that comes to mind is what ideas on how this entire scenario could be handled better are out there?  And, who is to blame for the reasons those better ideas are not being implemented? 

We are not medical doctors or physical scientists.  We are political scientists and critical analysts around economic development and sustainability.  As a result, our analysis here is heavily influenced by the actions of revolutionary socialists and Pan-Africanists based on their on the ground practices of organizing societies for the greater good. 

As a result, we argue that the absolute first thing that should happen is a coming home party where the favors, food, and cheers are simply the truth, plain and simple.  And, that truth is that this virus can only be effectively controlled when the needs of people supersedes the financial interests of the superrich.  Consequently, the focus has to be 100% on getting the sick better and keeping the healthy – healthy, regardless of the financial cost.  This message would have to be articulated clearly, consistently, and without compromise on every level of government and society at all times.

Then, the actual work to make that message reality must be implemented.  Priority (as in financial and other resources) given to all elements of this society that must function every day.  The hospitals, etc.  Postal service, food production and distribution, etc.  And, by food distribution, we don’t just mean the supermarkets.  We mean the society placing a priority on mutual aide work that at the present time is carried out mostly through independent grassroots methods with little to no assistance from government structures.  It would actually make the most sense to form unions between all elements of food production and distribution from supermarket chains to local mutual aide.

Vaccines that have only the healing of humanity as an objective, not financial profit as a primary incentive, developed along with testing and these resources provided to everyone, all the time, at absolutely no cost until everyone has access to these critical resources.  This type of effort requires a comprehensive focus on ensuring that these resources are available at increment posts throughout all communities, regardless of economic status (class position) or other reactionary criteria. 

All people who’s jobs do not require them to be in public should be paid to just work from their residences.  If people are unemployed, they should also be paid a livable wage to stay inside.  Focus should be provided to those skilled in the arts, childhood development, and adult social programming, and all of these skilled persons enlisted to create activities and social engagement for all of society to participate with in lieu of actual physical events.  Entertainment programming with socially conscious foundation, should be made available for everyone 24/7 without charge for those who cannot afford it.

Neighborhood committees formed that facilitate all of this work within the neighborhoods they live in.  These committees are united through citywide, state, and national structures that are coordinated nationally.  Still, the power for these committees comes through the neighborhood level with democratic centralist decision making structures and budgets disseminated on that neighborhood level.

A national plan developed with the complete input of the neighborhood councils or committees and that national plan is articulated, activated, and implemented with a consistency and forcefulness that exceeds that of the annual Christmas “go out and buy everything” propaganda.

Of course, none of these things are happening right now.  They didn’t happen under the current empire president and they won’t happen under the incoming empire president.  They won’t happen because the key element to all of these actions is a people over profit consciousness.  The type of consciousness that exists in Cuba where they have had coronavirus under control from the very beginning.  When no vaccine was in sight, back in the spring, Cuba had mass produced and implemented the anti-viral medicine they created to combat HIV in 1981 to effectively treat patients with covid.  That approach worked to stem the tide of covid spread in Cuba and bolstered from that effort they launched a 40 country mission, primarily throughout Africa, to treat millions the same way.  This type of effort was carried out by a small, poor, Caribbean island country of 11 million people.  How?  Because they place people over profits. 

Whether people want to see it or not.  Whether people wish to admit it or not.  The primary reason you  see covid having an opposite impact in the U.S. that you see in Cuba is because the U.S. and its capitalist system have the opposite priority than Cuba.  Money is supreme here.  And, because of that reactionary propaganda, the first question people ask when they see these types of proposals is where the money to pay for all of this will come from?  This is because that is how people here are trained.  To always serve as the defacto accountants for capitalism.  Those same people never ask where the enormous funding required to carry out every U.S. military excursion overseas will come from.  Just programs that are designed to lift people over profit.  Even a fool can see that this is the messaging of the capitalist class to serve the purpose of protecting their vast interests at all times.
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Whatever concessions can hopefully come our way in the coming months, that will only happen because of the pressure applied by the masses of people.  And, this is happening, although disorganized, misdirected, and confused, it is happening.  The right wing is protesting.  The left is protesting.  The people who don’t know what they are still protest.  Just remember that if we can get some concessions while being completely disjointed and disorganized, just imagine what we could get if we were organized?  If we didn’t fall for the anti-socialist/communist propaganda?  If we didn’t expect our enemies to provide solutions to our problems that they profit off of?  Yes, information is everywhere.  The question will be at what point will we learn to reject these ruling class arguments that covid continue solely because of people’s individual actions?  When will people learn to question why we don’t and can’t have the level of societal organization illustrated here and in other places to address these types of challenges?  And finally, at what point do the skyrocketing deaths from the virus start to become largely our fault because of our decision to continue to ignore all of these realities which are visible all around us?

 
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Bourgeoisie Idealism & the Elevation of Anti-Intellectualism

12/5/2020

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Members of the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party from its Ghana, Kenya, Azania (South Africa), Tanzania, Canada, and U.S. chapters along with sister parties from Azania, Nigeria, and Guinea-Bissau having a study session in Ghana in 2018
I know already as I’m writing this piece that its not going to be a piece that’s widely read and/or shared.  I know this because I’ve written a number of pieces that have been read and shared by thousands.  As a result, I’ve learned that the formula for that level of popularity in literature is ensuring the topic is high on the popular culture list.  This relates to what bourgeoisie celebrities, politicians, etc. are doing.  These are the people the capitalist system validates as worthwhile.  And, all of us, whether we know it or not, whether we admit it or not, are programmed to respond the way capitalism has programmed us to respond.  So, celebrities and the issues they are concerned about.  If those two things jibe with what is going on in popular culture, then you are much more likely to have a piece that gains traction if you write about those things.

Due to this phenomenon, many people who make attempts to address the issues confronting humanity feel pressured to somehow navigate through the superficial realm that capitalism has provided for us.  In the ten plus years that I’ve been written this blog, I’ve tried my absolutely best to resist that urge.  What’s been most important to me is presenting an analysis and perspective that speaks truth while attempting to match truth with our material realities as human beings.  And, to be able to do that while writing in a style that still manages to resonate with every day people who are the basis of everything that exists in this world today.  Also, I hear the voice of the honorable Marcus Garvey in my head when he said “what you do today can impact someone tomorrow!”  Once I write each piece, its out in the world and its quite possible that I can write something that may not be widely read today, but will gain the attention of the future Assata Shakurs, Teodora Gomes, Malcolm Xs or Kwame Tures who may not even be born yet.

So, its in that spirit that I present this topic today which is rooted in addressing elements that all of us are impacted by daily, although many of us are not consciously aware of this.  It is the capitalist system which is the complete reason for this confusion.

Capitalism is the dominant economic system on earth today.  It’s a system which prioritizes profit over people.  A system that gained and maintains its stronghold by physically, psychologically, and spiritually dominating the masses of people on earth.  The strategy that capitalism relies on to maintain its grip is ensuring that the masses of people remain confused.  That, as amazing as it seems, the masses envision the very capitalist system that is responsible for all the suffering that exists on earth today, as the only system that can bring them peace and salvation.  For capitalism, ensuring the masses believe this, and never ever question it, is essential to its survival.  As a result, capitalism has spent the last five centuries consolidating lies about its origins and its day to day existence.  Those lies are not just individual misspoken statements.  They are systemic manifestations (white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, individualism, elitism, idealism) that are reinforced 24/7/365.  In other words, since the reality of capitalism is oppression, death, and destruction, all over the world, instead of risking the masses coming to this realization, capitalism creates an illusion and perpetuates it so often and so systemically that most people cannot tell the difference. 

A major reason for the continued success of this strategy is capitalism’s devaluing of the study of ideas.  The capitalists know that the struggle to understand ideas is a key skill that would permit the masses to learn how to see through their tricks.  Consequently, they will never provide and/or endorse that type of skill development.  And, anyone who suggests doing so will be discredited by them (through their massive propaganda mechanisms i.e. mass media, schools, churches, mosques, etc.).  This is why capitalist mass media has millions of people convinced that they are providing you a balanced perspective of what’s happening in the world.  They tell you this, and many people you know, if not you, believe it to some extent.  This is also the reason there is no real study in churches, mosques, etc.  You do not have an atmosphere where congregants can rise up during a service and correct the lies of the pastor.  There is no collective study (just rote dictation) of biblical verses.  That’s why people can quote biblical verses, but can rarely provide historical context.  Its also why movies, news, television shows, etc., promote the same general themes which means most of the time you can predict the outcome without having seen the show before. 

The capitalist system really only talks to you about two or three things and they tell you only what they want you to know about those two or three things as often as they possibly can.  If you think about 2020, the only things all of the bourgeoisie news stations have been telling you is how they intend to frame the U.S. presidential election and coronavirus.  You learned nothing about the political, economic, and social realities in Africa, Asia, or Central, South America, or the Caribbean in 2020.  You didn’t even learn anything about those realities in communities across the U.S.  And, on the elections and covid they don’t give you a broad perspective with critical information.  You are never provided much of a glimpse into the on the ground mutual aide work (carried out by mass organizational efforts, not government) which has been necessary and essential to helping people exist over the last year.  They ignore that because if they provided that information people would be led to question why these efforts should even be necessary in such a rich country.  They don’t show you the disparate impacts of covid on poor colonized communities in concrete and consistent ways that would help you understand how oppression manifests itself in this society.  And, they certainly don’t ever expose you to the efforts others have made and are making to address covid, especially if those others are their enemies like socialist Cuba for example.  Despite these glaring contradictions, they will come before you every day with a straight face and tell you that this is democracy at work.  The same democracy that harps over and over that the November 2020 U.S. presidential election is “democracy at work.”  The obvious contradiction is they have convinced millions of this while just a few weeks ago, the U.S. was exposed as having played a leading role in subverting democracy in Bolivia and Venezuela’s elections.  This contradiction is as obvious as the sun coming up this morning, but because the so-called mass media never talks about Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, etc., except to demonize them, they have been able to create the reality where millions of people believe this one sided dishonest portrayal is a balanced view.  Think of it like this.  If your parents and/or your partners (and for many of us, unfortunately this is true) told you unstop that you are worthless then eventually, you would come to believe on some levels that this is a the true and correct analysis about you. 

These capitalist dirty tricks tactics are continuously successful also because they have been able to convince so many of us that studying information is a waste of time and a poor example of human behavior.  Think about how seldom you see people reading comprehensive material.  We are not talking about internet articles, magazines, and the like.  We are talking about how often do you see people reading books on philosophy, ideology, history, etc.?  And, even if you can say you have seen people doing this, that’s only on an individual level.  A small finite number of you can claim you know of people collectively and consistently engaging in these practices.  Practically never is going to be the consistent answer.  Most of you reading this probably rarely do this.  This is the reality because we have permitted them to convince us that doing so is not necessary.  That we already know all we need to know to properly conduct our lives.  And, we believe this because they have trained us to see the world from an idealist and individualist perspective.  This means whatever we think we know, that’s all that matters, nothing else.  We need not be concerned about anything outside of our individual experience i.e. what directly impacts us in ways we understand.  Once they have convinced us to believe this nonsense, then we will effectively turn off all elements of life that we do not see as directly impacting what we are doing in our individual lives.  If it isn’t helping us understand how to buy a house or car.  If it doesn’t help us get our hands on more money, then its not relevant.  This is the most effective anti-intellectual campaign since Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany in the 1930s. 

This is why it has become so difficult to convince people of common logic.  Regardless of the fact you have all the information and evidence, they still refuse to accept it because it doesn’t fit their only criteria – relevance to what they are thinking and doing.  On top of that, capitalism has these systems of oppression that work day and night to convince people that regardless of how oppressed they are, they still have the chance to become a millionaire. Win the lottery.  Marry a billionaire.  So, they should always maintain faith in the capitalist system because if they don’t, they could miss that opportunity.  Even if they have been houseless for 25 years.  Even if they have been oppressed by white supremacy and/or patriarchy, still maintain that faith.  And, certainly and absolutely reject any inclination that another reality could be possible.  Under these dysfunctional circumstances, a houseless person will defend capitalism against you even if you drop clear evidence of greed and oppression as the reason for their suffering on them.  I can think of no better example of anti-intellectualism.

Many people are confused and can only view this and other discussions like it through that individualistic vision.  As a result, they see us talking about anti-intellectualism being a problem and to them this means we are criticizing people who do not study.  If you have the means and capacity to study and you don’t, then absolutely, you are to be criticized, but that’s not the point of the argument.  The point is how the capitalist system has convinced us that studying is a bad idea.  What happened to “information is power” and what great minds like Malcolm X said when he told us that “history is best qualified to reward our research.”  Don’t get us wrong.  We have great faith in the masses of humanity, but we are not confused. Our people died and were savagely beaten to win our right to gain access to organized education not just in the U.S., but all over the world.  All over the world.  Faith in the masses cannot just mean faith in you individually, especially if you haven’t really done much to warrant that level of respect.  It has to include, and even start with, respect for the sacrifices and contributions of those who fought for us to have a better life on a collective level.  Our people didn’t fight for education because they wanted an individual education.  They fought, without receiving the education they fought for themselves, because they knew that we as a people needed that victory.  They knew we needed that victory because they understood, even if we have lost this understanding today, that education, properly organized, is a tool that we can use effectively to find solutions to liberate our people from the oppression the capitalist system continues to reap upon us.
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Being anti-reading is not cool, its stupid.  If people have physical and/or psychological impediments that make it difficult or impossible for them to study, then we have to work to develop mechanisms to address this with/for them, but under no circumstances should we buy into this backward concept that studying is a bourgeoisie concept.  It’s the bourgeoisie that don’t want you to study because they know you doing that is their downfall.  What an irony!  They know they can use the threat of appearing to mimic them as a tool to prevent so many of us from doing what’s needed to eliminate them.  If you don’t understand the clear difference between revolutionary political education and bourgeoisie elitist academics, we are happy to demonstrate the difference.  We want the former, not the latter.  And, we want and need all of us to understand and accept this reality so that we can get to work.  The problems of this world require education.  Not a few select people gaining it and solving the problems for everyone, but the masses of people having the tools to collectively solve our problems on a collective level.  That is the most logical and clear definition of a revolutionary process that we can provide for you.

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Ill Refutable Evidence of How Institutionalized White Supremacy Is

12/3/2020

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 The U.S., dominated exclusively by bourgeoisie misinformation, proudly advances the insane notion that white supremacy as an institutional instrument of oppression against colonized communities doesn’t exist on any type of wide-spread level.  If left up to this system, they would have you believe that white supremacy is mostly an imaginary concept.  The go to argument is that any issues will always be easily overcome by hard work and an adherence to the father of white supremacy (as well as patriarchy, homophobia, and all forms of oppression against humanity) capitalism.  This is of course a consistently proven lie, but most people lack the organized understanding about how capitalism manifests itself as a system on a day to day basis to present any type of cogent argument that explains this dysfunctional reality.

The purpose of this piece is to provide some basic examples of how this oppressive system institutionalizes itself.  And, the examples provided here are things all of us see and experience daily. 

As previously mentioned, one example is how most defenders of capitalism/white supremacy will tell you that this is the land of opportunity for anyone who believes correctly in the God of white supremacy and the institutions that uphold this system.  The contradiction is even while telling you this with a straight face, those same people would never agree to change places with the experiences of colonized people.  Take for instance the situation that occurred in a small Midwest U.S. community a few short years ago.  A school board there decided that they wanted to honor the humanist works of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by renaming the town’s high school after Dr. King (the school was named after some colonizing Indigenous people murderer). The townspeople, citing concerns for the impact on their children’s future, came out by the mass to oppose the name change.  The reasons they stated in front of the board meeting was that they were (of course) not racist at all.  Instead, their point was they had concerns about how colleges and universities would view their children because schools named after Dr. King typically exist in the inner cities.  And, due to this reality, these people expressed publicly with straight faces that they didn’t want their children stereotyped and stigmatized as inferior students due to this.  The stark paradox here is that these European (white) parents, many of whom would instantly deny that white supremacy is an obstacle for colonized peoples, failed to see the obvious disconnect.  The concerns they have for their youth are the concerns African and Indigenous communities are faced with every day of our existence.  As amazing as it is, these people would deny the challenges we face from systemic white supremacy while at the same time using our arguments against white supremacy to justify raising hell against perceived challenges they may or may not encounter.

Another basic example is the often heard statement from many Europeans that being white offers them absolutely no advantages over anyone else in this society.  These people are always so quick to point to houseless Europeans and other white people who suffer under capitalism as evidence of this claim.  Meanwhile, there are few Africans who have not experienced a European houseless person who confronts them on the street in hostile ways, immediately invoking the n word in these encounters.  This happened to me just the other day (its happened numerous times over the years).  In the most recent instance, a European person walked by while I was talking to another African.  This person stopped, turned around towards me, and shouted “shut up n _ _ _ _ r!”  There was no question this person was in dire straights so there was absolutely no reason for me to respond or take offense.  That person didn’t know me from Eve or Adam so their outburst had absolutely nothing to do with me.  Their outrage is without question a reflection of their anger at the oppression they face from the capitalist system.  Of course, they lack the ability to express that anger to the perpetuators of the oppression so instead, they take it out on whomever they perceive they can talk to that way.  That last part is significant because this person, based on several of the behaviors they exhibited, was clearly suffering from some form of mental illness.  Despite suffering from this as well as being impoverished and existing on the streets, this person still has enough of a comprehensive understanding of the hierarchy of white supremacy that they knew they could attempt to pull the only weapon available to them in their current reality – white supremacy – to attempt to level an insult towards me.  Of course, the insult doesn’t stick with me because I’m a proud African.  And, being such permits me to grow in love and respect for myself and my people which consequently builds love and respect for all of humanity.  Yet, we still must not miss the fact that even those struggling to grasp reality with nothing to cling to still understand that they have white supremacy to attempt to elevate themselves over us. 

The above example of the houseless person has been experienced by millions of Africans so its not a one off.  What it does show us is that everyone in this society has been programmed with the belief that European people are superior and that all of us walk around everyday with that understanding and the subsequent life practices that affirm that understanding. 

Neither of these examples are things that we ever talk about.  None of these things are issues we are even consciously aware of.  And, that’s the strength of white supremacy.  It can and does operate systemically every day, all day, among us, in ways we activate in remote control fashion, unaware that we are even doing it for the most part.  The same applies for patriarchal and homophobic practices.  And, this is what makes calling out these dysfunctional behaviors so difficult because most people are not the slightest bit aware of what they do everyday to manifest these behaviors and perpetuate these systems of oppression.  Not only that, but most people aware of these practices find it difficult to articulate how the behaviors are manifested because of the stealthy way these practices are institutionalized.
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Probably the largest obstacle in creating greater consciousness around this is due to the fact most people here see the world through a bourgeoisie individualist perspective.  What capitalism has done is make intellectualism a negative concept.  Under this backward environment, most people see individual subjective opinions as more valid and valuable than concerted research and analysis of problems and solutions.  As a result, people are used to evaluating phenomenon based on primarily an emotionally driven basis and not scientific and historical analysis.  Built within this reality is the elevation of individualist perspectives over collective and historical interpretations.  For example, I recently wrote an article about this confusion surrounding the petti bourgeoisie political actions of entertainer Ice Cube.  Someone, a misinformed African, criticized the article without – clearly – reading it.  To illustrate the boldness of this bourgeoisie reality, he didn’t even pretend to read it.  Instead, he defended himself saying he didn’t need to read something to understand it.  Then he went into a tirade about how smart he is and how he understands things most people don’t – a classic example of bourgeoisie individualism.  This is the type of confusion that comes to dominate when idealism is permitted to overshadow serious study and analysis.  The solution – yes you guessed it – is as many of us as possible, articulating in an organized fashion, that intellectualism, specifically that which is tied to the liberation of the masses of people on earth – is not only positive, but is the sole purpose of information.  That we are collective beings and information is the property of the masses of humanity, not individuals.  And, all of this is for the collective progress of humanity, not individual financial profit.  This is the approach that will be required to lift the invisible shield protecting white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, and all the anti-human tactics of this backward capitalist system.  Those of us serious about engaging this fight towards victory have no choice except to accept this reality, join organizations, and get as many people as possible to participate in revolutionary and organized political education processes within our organizations.  It is becoming painfully obvious that anyone who isn’t doing this work is wittingly or unwittingly contributing to the further survival of all systems of oppression that continue to wreck havoc on all of humanity.

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The Myth of "People of Color" & "Allies" V.S. Principled Solidarity

11/23/2020

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First off, there is no such thing as “people of color.”  The subtle inference in that term is that colonized communities have color and Europeans (white people) do not which is false.  Obviously, all people have color so there is no reason to provide Europeans with that type of status.  Secondly, colonized communities are each their own distinct cultures and histories and therefore needn’t be lumped together as some sort of monolithic entity.  Third, its critical that those of us from these colonized communities began to discuss openly and honestly the dysfunction that white supremacy has marinaded onto our day to day existence, how we see ourselves, and certainly, how we see each other.  Finally, although many people from colonized communities prefer to operate under a fantasy notion that we can simply ignore Europeans because of our lack of desire to interact with the types of dysfunction that occurs between us, our experience has taught us that you have to establish healthy boundaries on how you desire people to interact with you.  This is no less true on a collective basis.

We start by acknowledging, from an African perspective, that there is ill-refutably a foundation of anti-Africa sentiment that drives white supremacy and its practices in this society.  What we mean is this anti-Africa sentiment is institutional and systemic which means its practiced collectively by Europeans, but also many Asian, Indigenous, and even African people – against the African masses.  For examples of this, we point to the systemic criminalization of African people which takes place no matter who African people interact with, including other Africans.  This is primarily the result (as compared to Africans collectively treating other communities this way) because of our often articulated analysis of how capitalism as the world’s dominant economic system came to be.  Capitalism, being born out of financing provided from the trans-Atlantic slave trade – which is responsible for the millions of Africans who exist in the Western Hemisphere today – has had to create the myth of African inhumanity (over and above the shortcomings of all other groups) as a justification for how this corrupt system was established and as cover for how it continues to operate, standing on Africa’s shoulders.  Comedian Richard Pryor had one of many classic stand up routines on white supremacy when he played out a monologue in 1973 about Vietnamese people coming over to the U.S. after the Viet Minh Front in Vietnam effectively defeated U.S. imperialism.  In Pryor’s routine he talks about how U.S. government officials lined up dozens of incoming Vietnamese as they deplaned into this country to teach them how to say the n word “in order to become good citizens!”  Pryor closes out his session by imitating a European official who tells the Vietnamese “that’s good.  If you get your asses kicked, you know you made it!”  Although a comedy routine, Pryor’s commentary captures the very essence of anti-Africa sentiment that infects all communities – against African people.

Why anti-Africa though, instead of anti-Indigenous, etc.?  Its important to realize that the capitalist system in the Western Hemisphere is built on the theft of Indigenous lands and the enslavement of African people.  By default, this means that anti-Indigenous sentiment is a foundational piece of this backward system like anti-Africa sentiment.  The difference is capitalists understood that they needed to base the justification of their conquest on some specific features and practices and the core of that analysis was on keeping oppressed communities focused on each other as threats (instead of all of these communities being focused on the capitalist system as the only real threat).  For a number of reasons, Africa and African people were their scapegoats for this great myth and process.  So, the socialization in capitalism, as the old saying goes, is “if your white, your right.  If your yellow your mellow.  If your brown, hang around, but if your black, step back, and that’s where its at!”  This has been the mantra within the capitalist system for 528 years and results have been a dominant socialization against Africa and the people of Africa.  The error many Africans make is in labeling this phenomenon as “anti-blackness.”  This happens because most Africans within the Western Hemisphere have little to no understanding about Africa and its actual, whether acknowledged or not, role in our everyday lives and our collective future.  Consequently, since we are mostly disconnected from our mother, we see our existence as independent of our homeland and instead, based solely on some arbitrarily “blackness” which is exactly how this system has socialized us (as their strategy to disconnect us from Africa because if we are disconnected we will never come to the realization that land is power and our power is Africa).  In other words, there is no mystery as this strange “anti-blackness” suggests.  We are exploited and oppressed because of the mineral resources and cheap labor we provide as Africans and children of Africa, period.  Everything else about white supremacy is simply a ruse to cover up this ill-refutable reality.

The systemic alienation of African people has created a dysfunctional response from African people where we react by convincing ourselves that we have nothing in common with other oppressed people.  One need not go far to hear commonplace stories within African communities about the disrespect reaped upon our people by other colonized communities.  And, as explained, these claims are real, but its also true that African people who have education, businesses, political positions, etc., have no great collective track record of respect and support for the African masses.  This is true because to advance within the capitalist system its required to, as Pryor illustrated to us, step on the African.  This is a primarily class contradiction more than a racial and/or geographic contradiction because the basis of this behavior is rooted in acting in a way that puts you in with this backward system.  For example, most Africans know that getting pulled over by African police is no relief since most of them are forced to demonstrate their loyalty to the system and the definition of that, since the system is based on exploiting us, is proving that they are willing to contribute to our exploitation and oppression. 

That belief among Africans that we have nothing in common with other oppressed communities (because many of us see them as falling in line with our oppression), along with our lack of understanding of who we are as African people, creates many challenges that stand in way of our collective progress.  The first hurdle we must overcome is our lack of understanding about our identity.  This system was built and is maintained on our backs.  This separates us from all other people because most other colonized communities (except the Indigenous people who were obviously already here), came here to find something better (based on continuing Africa’s exploitation) so for them, leaving their identities and “blending in” as imitation Europeans appears to be a good plan to accomplish their objectives (this is true even for many Africans from other countries, including all of Africa).  For the African masses, since blending in for the majority of us will never be possible here, and the fact that we haven’t been able to collectively blend is constantly thrown in our faces as if the reasons for this failure are our fault, many Africans choose to withdraw from any concept of solidarity.  We sadly believe that we are completely on our own while we ourselves hang onto some of the same backward behaviors that we complain about these other communities having against us (Africans being homophobic and intolerant is an example.  The same type of pile on them to protect ourselves – scarcity model that capitalism depends upon).

Regarding Europeans, since colonized communities are disorganized, there is no true accountability for Europeans to stand up with us in principled ways that require them to deal head on with realities that should be required in order for them to even believe they are just.  For example, this dysfunctional environment makes it possible for Europeans to claim to support Indigenous independence while they refuse to see themselves as anything other than “Americans” which automatically means that they see this land as theirs, a primary contradiction to them being able to claim true respect and solidarity for Indigenous people since the core of their struggle is getting their lands back.  And, Europeans can shout “Black lives matter” while having absolutely no understanding that this system that these Europeans consider their own is the reason our lives don’t matter.  What a comfortable position it must be to believe that relying on slow gradual “changes” while capitalism, the reason we are oppressed, continues to maintain itself, is a position that reflects any real principled behavior.

All of these contradictions stand firmly in the way of us being able to build any true progress in any of our movements for justice, but there are answers.  We must decide that our position in this society must become one based on principled analysis and behavior and that has to start with accepting that this is stolen land.  That the Indigenous people must get their lands back.  And, that this capitalist system is maintained on exploiting Africa and African people.  And, that Africa must be free, unified, and socialist.  None of these principles can be compromised.  None of this can be explained away with liberalism that suggests its somehow possible to have your cake and eat it too by believing that we can have justice under the very system that causes our oppression (just because you don’t have the courage and character to take a principled stand that takes away your individual comfort).
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As we have historically and consistently done, the All African People’s Revolutionary Party takes a leadership position on principled struggle.  We do that, as we always have, by shouting that this is stolen land and providing a blueprint on how we can have principled and honest solidarity with the Indigenous people while requiring the same from them.  How we can overcome the insecurities and dysfunctions that capitalist oppression has imposed on us so that we can build the type of internal organization and power, coupled with strong and necessary support for each other, that will provide the necessary foundations for us to start having the type of real victories that we really need and our future generations actually deserve.  With that, we invite everyone to join us on Sunday, November 29, 2020, from 4pm to 5pm PST when we provide the next installment of our weekly seminar series (every Sunday at 4pm PST).  Myself and daughter Shukura will discuss “True and Just Solidarity with Indigenous People” as an alternative to this disgusting thankstaking sham of a propaganda day (designed to justify this theft of lands).  You can join us at facebook.com/ahjamu.umi (this week and every week) or contact us through this site for a ZOOM link.  Forward to justice for Africa, African people, Indigenous people, and all of humanity!

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Unknown History How Kwame Nkrumah's Last Books were Printed

11/18/2020

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June Milne, here with Kwame Nkrumah in Guinea-Conakry, was Nkrumah's editor and publisher. At his request, she initiated PANAF Press which still today continues to publish his critical theories and analysis of the African revolution
s  In 2020 and beyond, Kwame Nkrumah’s classic revolutionary writings have become must reads for all African revolutionaries and anyone serious about understanding the applications of revolutionary Pan-African ideology and practices.  Books by Nkrumah like the “Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, Class Struggle in Africa, Challenge to the Congo, Consciencism, Africa Must Unite, Neo-Colonialism, and others have become the core study components for revolutionary Pan-African organization.  Its difficult to think of any African revolutionary within the last 60 years who was not heavily influenced by the ideas of Kwame Nkrumah.  From Sekou Ture, Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral, Sam Nujuma, Samora Machel, Eduardo Mondlane, Robert Mugabe, Muammar Qaddafi, Malcolm X, and Kwame Ture, this is unquestionably true, but this was not always so.

During the 1960s, when Nkrumah was president of Ghana, the first country in Africa to gain independence from British colonialism,  Nkrumah and the governing Convention People’s Party embarked on a program of socialist development in Ghana and Pan-African unity throughout Africa.  Much is written about Nkrumah’s selflessness, but what should be made clear here is that due to Nkrumah’s political work, the forces of reaction, led by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), British M16, the Israeli Mossad, and other imperialist intelligence forces, a concerted campaign was initiated in Ghana designed to overthrow Nkrumah’s government.  Documented files illustrate clearly that the CIA was working with reactionary forces in Ghana as early as 1961 to build a network that would carry out the vicious deed.  And, internationally, imperialism waged a carefully constructed campaign of misinformation designed to paint Nkrumah as corrupt and dictatorial.  In February of 1966, this tragic work was successful when backward forces loyal to imperialism carried out a successful coup to overthrow Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party while Nkrumah was traveling to Vietnam to lead a delegation seeking to facilitate peace talks to end the U.S. – Vietnam war.  The fact that after the coup, it became quite obvious that Nkrumah had none of the overseas bank accounts that his distractors accused him of (although while they were in power, they amassed numerous Swiss bank accounts full of Ghanaian cash), or the reality that during his term as president, not one execution for political reasons was carried out by his government.  None of those truths generated the backlash against the forces who overthrew him as he genuinely hoped would occur.  Of course, for those who know the history, Nkrumah never again returned to Ghana after the 1966 coup, remaining as co-president of Guinea with the Democratic Party of Guinea, and mutual revolutionary Pan-Africanist Sekou Ture.  In 1972, Nkrumah died in Romania while seeking treatment for a multitude of illnesses that remain a mystery to this day. 

What has not been widely discussed was the method in which Nkrumah’s critical writings i.e. the Handbook and Class Struggle, etc., were produced so that we have them today to help us define and direct our work to continue the legacy Nkrumah gave us.  June Milne was a European woman from Australia who lived in London, England (Britain).  She was skilled in literary matters as an author, editor, and eventually, publisher.  When Ghana became independent, she, like thousands of people around the world, identified with the mission Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party embarked upon and she was able to meet Nkrumah and develop a relationship with him.  That relationship led to her responding to his request (after his government was stolen) to create PANAF press.  And, from that publishing entity, the latter books he produced were published and are still available through PANAF today.

Although I don’t know for sure, my guess is much of why this woman, who played a critical role in making Nkrumah’s works available, is rarely discussed is because the fact she was European doesn’t fit the narrative of many of the race oriented nationalists involved in Pan-African work.  And, with the experiences we all have with systemic white supremacy, no one can really blame those folks who do their best to diminish any role any European plays in truly being an accomplice to our struggle for justice.  I’ve always seen that issue much differently than most of the Africans I’ve engaged in with this struggle.  I’ve always been quite sensitive to other people’s suffering.  As a result, its always been important to me to never become the type of unfeeling person who represents the thousands of racist and inhuman encounters I’ve experienced in my life.  I see my humanity clearly and as a result, I have no trouble seeing other people’s humanity.  And, I also believe the greatest sin is being ungrateful.  So, its within that spirit that I believe it warranted to discuss Ms. Milne’s role because like it or not, it was a critical one.  I’m convinced this is how Nkrumah saw not only Ms. Milne, but humanity as a whole.  I am much more interested in providing examples like Milne to the European masses to demonstrate to them what a real accomplice against our oppression actually does (for the most part) to support our struggle.  This to me is a much more practical and useful display then trying to diminish anyone’s real contributions, no matter who they are.  The Pan-African struggle will always be guided, directed, and participated in by African people . Yet, there have always been, and there will always be, some Europeans who decide to make contributions to us that we can definitely use. 

It could be that many Pan-Africanists, Nkrumahists, Nkrumahist/Tureists, are unaware of this, but when the coup happened in February 1966, to overthrow Nkrumah’s government, Milne had just left Ghana days before the coup.  She had been there, as she often was during Nkrumah’s presidency (and just as frequently as she traveled to Guinea-Conakry to see Nkrumah after the coup in Ghana) to edit his writings and prepare them for publishing.  When Nkrumah left for his trip to Vietnam, he encouraged Milne to stay in Ghana and take a holiday.  Wanting to get back to Britain and continue her work, she declined and had she not left, its quite possible we would have been robbed of “Challenge of the Congo” which was the absolute best book written about the imperialist and neo-colonialist sabotage in that country five years before (1960/61).  When Milne left days before the coup, she had in her possession the finished draft of “Challenge” that she had just feverishly gone over with Nkrumah before his trip to Hanoi.  Had she stayed in Ghana when the coup broke out, due to her close relationship with Nkrumah, she would have unquestionably been detained and all her notes seized.  The neo-colonialists would have had the final draft of “Challenge” in their possession and like they did with Nkrumah’s draft on apartheid in Southern Africa, they certainly would have destroyed it. 

As was mentioned, Milne continued to visit Nkrumah consistently once he relocated to Guinea after his government in Ghana was stolen.  During their visits and other correspondence, Milne helped Nkrumah edit and publish what many consider to be his most influential books on PANAF – the Handbook and “Class Struggle in Africa.” 

Nkrumah entrusted Milne to be his personal publisher and PANAF was the result of that relationship.  And, based on the fact we have all his books today and his ideas influence the African revolution more now than they did when he was alive, Ms. Milne deserves recognition for her tireless work to ensure Nkrumah’s writing would be available for us as they are today.  This doesn’t mean she is beyond criticism.  In all her writings, whether its “The Conakry Years” the 1990 book of Nkrumah’s letters while being in Guinea from 1966 to 1972 or the biography on Nkrumah that Milne penned, she makes a point each time to publish things unflattering about Kwame Ture (formally Stokely Carmichael).  Based on Nkrumah’s letters she published in “The Conakry Years” she made it appear as if Nkrumah saw Kwame Ture as immature and completely unfit to play a role in the African revolution.  Of course, there are always moments between every teacher and student where the teacher loses patience with the student, but its important to remember that Kwame Ture at that time was a young man in his mid-twenties who was faced with unbelievable international pressure due to his standing as the primary spokesperson for the U.S. Black power movement.  If Nkrumah had no confidence in him, he would not have ever invited Kwame Ture to move to Guinea-Conakry and become his political secretary.  He would certainly not have given Kwame Ture the finished draft of the Handbook to read and he would not have invited Kwame Ture to be a building block in initiating the work to build the All African People’s Revolutionary Party. 

Fortunately, another book of Nkrumah’s letters from Conakry was published a few years ago by a current Pan-African cadre/comrade Sister Doreatha Drummond MBalia, and this book contains letters not included in Milne’s 1990 version.  In this second book, much more flattering letters about Kwame Ture were included which brings the question to mind why Milne chose to present such an unflattering image of Kwame Ture?  And, in case more clarification was required, her bio on Nkrumah mentions Kwame Ture only once, to replay how much Nkrumah argued with Kwame Ture about his political immaturity.  This is an unfortunate flaw to Milne’s otherwise good work in assisting Nkrumah on the publishing front.  I can only guess, but based on the focus Milne has on Kwame Ture’s ideas, she seemed to have the impression that he was not fond of Europeans, or at least that he wasn’t interested in expending any energy towards them.  Maybe, she felt he didn’t care for her relationship with Nkrumah.  Still, its intellectually dishonest to dismiss Kwame Ture’s role in also assisting in developing Nkrumah’s work because Kwame Ture’s contributions in this regard cannot be diminished and Milne, who just died a few short years ago, certainly had to be aware of those contributions.  She was not just a disconnected white editor/publisher.  She had a strong understanding of African politics, taking ideologically developed positions in support of people like Sekou Ture, something that almost never happens in the publishing arena.  So, I cannot dismiss her mistreatment of Kwame Ture as an accident.  Its unfortunate, especially since as was stated earlier, one of the most essential features of any accomplice to a struggle for justice is to never center themselves in that struggle they are assisting and to understand that even if the people in that struggle dismiss them, there are historical reasons that explain that behavior and therefore, conscious people cannot take such things personal. 
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Still, Ms. Milne gets a measure of respect because without her work, we would probably not have the same access to Nkrumah and Sekou Ture that she has helped provide us.  Access that we will continue to transmit into future generations so that the ideas these Pan-African giants provided can continue to be developed in ways that bring us closer to the freedom they envisioned for us and humanity.
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Ice Cube & The Idealism of Bourgeoisie Individualism

11/16/2020

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I’m over it.  The “Oh my God!  Ice Cube met with Trump!  Ice Cube met with Biden!  Ice Cube is speaking at a zionist conference!”  Whatever Ice Cube is doing or not doing, many of you are sharing and talking about his reactionary exploits on a viral basis and the only thing that befuddles me about that is why and how so many of you evidently remain so easily confused about why this happens.  The people who actually do movement work including, but beyond, just social media jaw bumping, have been telling anyone who will listen not to follow these capitalist celebrities.  Many of us, overtly and/or covertly, accept the dysfunctional reasoning that whatever the capitalist system raises up and respects is what deserves respect and recognition.  For many of us that means whatever token negroes the capitalist system presents as “successful” house slaves, we embrace as our leadership.  Or, at least we accept them as people we need to listen and pay attention to.  We operate on superficial levels of information, gleaning 20% of poorly researched social media articles and pretending that this substitutes for organized and consistent political education.  As a result, we continue to ignore warnings that go back as far as Malcolm X telling us in 1962, almost 60 years ago, that we are the only people who let our enemies convince us that “ballplayers, singers, trumpet players, are the people who know what’s best for our people!”

And, please don’t say you are just informing people about what’s happening when you share the exploits of people like Ice Cube because we know that’s not true.  There are people all around us doing consequential work to organize our people to wage serious struggle against our oppression and many of us never share not one of those genuine efforts.  So, we are really not concerned about educating our people, at least not nearly as much as we are interested in spreading the type of information that we believe will bring attention to us as individuals.  Meanwhile, the masses of our people continue to suffer.

Quoting a former football coach, Ice Cube is “exactly what we thought he was!”  For anyone who studies his history on even a cursory basis, you know his petti bourgeoisie origins.  Yes, he has petti bourgeoisie origins in Compton, California, U.S.  In fact, had his hip/hop career stalled without advancing, O’Shay Jackson, his actual name, was headed to drafting school to study in the field of architecture.  He was never a gangster, never a Crip, never even in the streets of Compton.  This has been confirmed by everyone around him during the 1980s.  Los Angeles recording industry folks in African hip/hop music, described Jackson as a “nice kid.”  What he gave us with his lyrics while in NWA was drama designed to inflame the racist stereotypes of European youth who had never been to Compton and who will never go to Compton.  The entire so-called gangsta rap industry was focused on creating imagery for these white youth, who represented upwards of 70% of the rap record buying public.  Creating an image for white youth from Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, etc.  An image that Ice Cube may have observed pieces of, but that he never participated in and/or apparently had any intention of participating in.

The above is important because it demonstrates Ice Cube’s business acumen for creating and sustaining a money making image that he was able to translate into a multi-million dollar career.  In other words, when it was profitable to project the image of gangsta rap, Ice Cube did that.  When he saw a benefit in manipulating the growing consciousness that was fueled largely by militant organizing efforts on college campuses in the late 80s and early 90s to win the hearts and minds of the African intelligentsia, he became a Black Nationalist rapper.  And, just like he was innovative and powerful in portraying a Compton gangsta in NWA lyrics, he was even more convincing in portraying himself as a soldier within the Nation of Islam and a colleague of the late Dr. Khalid Muhammad, but it was all nothing except an act.  An act designed to bring in the benjamins.  And, this guy was great at capitalizing on the emotions of our people.  I never listened to NWA, but when Ice Cube became the narrator/lyricist of albums like “Death Certificate” where the struggle of African people was his thesis, I bought each and every album he produced with this focus between 1990 and 1995.  Once he realized that the focus of hip/hop had transitioned from Black Nationalism to gangsta/partying, he formed the Westside Connection and changed from rapping about clubbing our oppressors to clubbing, period.  Then, when his opportunity came to practically abandon hip/hop (except to rake in money touring, from which he completely negates those political songs from the early 90s), he easily transitioned to big screen movies like the “Are We There” and other movie features which propelled his career and opened him up to an audience that would never listen to a hip/hop record of any type. 

Ice Cube is today what’s he’s always been.  A shrewd businessman.  A supporter of the capitalist system.  A reactionary opportunist who rides the waves to ensure his best economic interests are developed.  And, consistent with anyone in this mindset, he now promotes his course of action as the solution to our oppression in this backward system.

We believe that its absolutely despicable how often these bourgeoisie celebrities manipulate the African masses around capitalist inclusivity while lining their pockets through our ignorance.  What’s even more offensive though is those of us who continue to wittingly or unwittingly support these bourgeoisie efforts.  Some of us do it, constantly sharing and talking about these people, because we secretly believe that we one day will occupy the same privileged position of capitalist advancement that we see people like Ice Cube benefiting from.  Others of us promote people like him because we just don’t have the political sophistication to understand how the capitalist system actually functions and how it engages us.  Included in each group is the belief that there is a seat for us at the capitalist table and these folks use the individual examples of people like Ice Cube to justify this backward and long disproven belief. 

For once and for all, Ice Cube is not a representative for African emancipation.  He cannot be that because the only people qualified to play that role are people who are committed and physically involved in the struggle for the collective advancement of the African masses.  What he is – is an individual representative of the court jester class of African buffoons and clowns who entertain the masses of people for the capitalist system in order to keep people focused on making light of the suffering we experience in neighborhoods like “Friday” or “Barbershop” instead of us organizing against those conditions.

As for who some of you thought Ice Cube was after “Death Certificate?”  You wonder where that guy went?  I recall years ago when we were making copies of flyers in Kinkos Copy Store when the manager asked me questions about the African Liberation Day material we were copying originals to work from.  The guy asked to read our anti-capitalist, pro-socialist Pan-Africanist literature and then he began to tell us how Kinkos could help us make our best presentation.  Of course, we turned this offer down, but I have never forgot the logic of capitalism where it was willing to work with us to produce our literature and even make it more marketable if doing so ushered in profits.  When being a Black Nationalist was profitable for Ice Cube and no other messaging was more advantageous, he was that.  When broader and more profitable messages presented themselves, he abandoned Black Nationhood faster than Candace Owens switched from using the NAACP to win a discrimination lawsuit against her to becoming an arch right-wing critic of the existence of white supremacist discrimination. 
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So, enough of Ice Cube and any of these bogus celebrities.  They are what they are.  Opportunists.  Stop looking at them like they are anything more than that.  And stop being free advertising for their pimp efforts against our people.  Instead, start helping those who could really use your help in spreading the word of significant and valuable work for our people.  Think about how you can do whatever you can to share independent and revolutionary work designed to build capacity for our people and all oppressed humanity.  If you are unwilling to do these things and if you continue to just be another bridge for bourgeoisie confusion, then if nothing else, it becomes clear that you have no true interest in advancing our struggle.  What you are really interested in doing is trying to find a niche to join people like Ice Cube in what they are doing at the expense of the masses of our people who all of us, owe every single breath that we take.

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What's Next 4 Us Primary Targets of White Supremacists/Fascists?

11/12/2020

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 In the U.S., despite the grumblings of the current empire president and his regime, regardless of whether the incoming neo-liberal fascist assumes office, or if the current dictator stages a coup, neither should be the primary question for us.  For colonized people i.e. African, Indigenous, etc.  Revolutionary and truly progressive women, revolutionary and progressive LGBTG folks, etc., the primary question should be how are things going to look for us going forward.  And, this question isn’t just a question for people in the U.S.  This is a worldwide question.

European governments are tilting favorably (and even farther than usual) towards fascist regimes in countries like Britain and zionist Israel.  Imperialism continues to mount its domination and sabotage with its increasing military presence in Africa.  And, we say imperialism because the U.S. has the largest military budget in Africa, but France actually has more troops operating there.  Conclusively, their objectives are the same.  Dominate, repress, and control Africa so that imperialism can continue to extort and rob Africa of its critical human and material resources because those resources fuel capitalism’s very survival.

And, here in the U.S., 70 million plus people voted for an open fascist white supremacist while another 75 million voted for a neo-liberal white supremacist.  That’s roughly half the country that is saying, intentionally or not, that they are ok with status quo imperialism.  It’s the social equivalent of voting to be stabbed by a dagger instead of being shot by a 9mm pistol. 
For us as revolutionary organizers, the question isn’t which colonized community can better stand up for the softer colonizer.  The question is how can we effectively organize our communities to develop their own safety mechanisms because clearly, the security plan of calling the police has failed us miserably.  And, anyone who is relying on this plan of self-destruction is betting on a horrible experience regardless of the situation.

Instead, we suggest everyone strongly consider linking up with others to form organizations who can engage community defense efforts designed to keep neighborhoods, families, communities, safe.  If you don’t have an organization and/or collective to initiate this work, start one.  You can start a community defense initiative with two or three people.  I know this because I’ve done it.  Multiple times.  Get your two or three people and decide what area you are going to focus your operations in.  Your objective will be to build blocks for organizing neighborhoods block by block.  Maybe your range is 10 people.  Maybe 50.  Maybe 100 people.  Maybe 500.  Maybe more, but everyone is qualified to carry out this work on some level and our failure to do so is really going to place many, many people in danger.  As we always illustrate in this space, if you want specific help in how you would go about building this work, we offer continuous resources to help you learn how to do so. 
For specific resources, you can watch the one hour video on building revolutionary community defense work.  You can watch either through the All African People’s Revolutionary Party page on youtube @ the link https://youtu.be/AkFesGWbksQ.  Or you can just click the tab on this site entitled “videos” and watch the video here.  We are also coming out with an approximately 130 page manual on step by step work to build revolutionary community defense work which will be out in the spring of 2021.

We certainly don’t relish in having to be distributors of bad news, but we really hope to challenge us to get prepared so that we don’t have to see the disheartening images of people savagely attacked by terrorists with no defense besides complaining to police who just left having coffee with the terrorists before the attack.  Or, as Malcolm X told us “going to Frank James to complain about being brutalized by Jesse James, his brother.”  We have mentioned countless times in these pages that we have extensive experience dealing with the people who you need to focus on right now.  The Proud Boys, militia groups like the Three Percenters, etc.  These people are not going to go away just because sleepy Joe is here.  Actually, these people are more dangerous now than ever and if you are from one of the groups previously mentioned and you are not walking around every-day like you are in perpetual danger, you are living in a fantasy world.  We hope you are not violently forced awake from your slumber.  And, the absolute best way to ensure that doesn’t happen is to learn how to take the most basic precautions as an individual and community to protect yourselves.  Imperialism takes no breaks in devastating the entire world and we cannot take breaks either.  Get organized!  For so many of us, this is a warning we just simply cannot afford to ignore any longer.

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Nigeria; SARS; Imperialism/Zionism & Pan-African Unity

11/5/2020

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​ A major day to day challenge we face is we are revolutionary Pan-Africanists living in the most technologically advanced, yet politically unconscious, society in human history.  Despite the fact 50 million Africans live in the U.S., and that we are here because of the largest kidnapping crime in human history, the vast majority of people living here possess absolutely no information about Africa and/or the African people they see on television and through their car windows.  Unfortunately, most Africans living in the U.S., regardless of where on earth they were born, do not escape this sad commentary. 

As a result, its always difficult to talk about Africa to a predominantly U.S. audience.  Not because I don’t want to talk about Africa.  I am overwhelmingly proud of Africa and being African.  What is undesirable  is the context white supremacy provides us.  Since capitalism, the dominant economic system on earth, was built and is maintained on exploiting Africa and African people, the misinformation that passes as education and media today forces any analysis of Africa and African people that challenges the usual racist rhetoric to be routinely dismissed as insane.  This is the role of white supremacy as the safeguard of capitalism and imperialism.  These are the reasons many people will see a title for an article about Africa and immediately move past it.  Its also the reason most people will openly question what’s happening in Africa and/or with African people, anywhere, but those same people won’t take five minutes to look at what qualified African people have already said about the very issue they are questioning.  By qualified we mean those Africans engaged in the work to liberate the African masses.  Unlike the bourgeoisie politicians, academics, and system validated leaders, these ground warriors for African liberation are engaged daily with the experiences and ups and downs of the African existence.  Yet, for the most part, these figures are written out of history. 

All of the above is also the reason something like what has been happening in Nigeria can happen and most people have no idea why beyond the imperialist media narrative (for those few who even explore that far into it) that the problem is simply defined as African corruption and indiscipline from the African masses.  For those reading this far, we hope this analysis can provide some foundation based in a Pan-Africanist perspective for what has been taking place in Nigeria.

The country of Nigeria, named in the late 1800s by a colonizer from Britain, derives its name from the fact the Niger river runs through the country.  Located on the Gulf of Guinea portion of the Atlantic Ocean (the underhanging section of Africa on the westside of the continent), Nigeria borders Niger in the North, Chad in the Northeast, Cameroon in the East, and Benin in the West.  Africa’s most populous country, and the seventh largest country in the world, Nigeria’s population totals appropriately 206 million inhabitants.  Lagos is Nigeria’s largest city with a population of around 10 million people.  Like most larger African urban centers, Lagos has experienced overwhelming growth over the last 50 years increasing from a population just over one million to its current numbers.  This is a reflection of the westernization/urbanization of Africa and the push for people in the rural areas to move to the cities for economic opportunities that are increasingly more difficult to find in rural areas. 

This demographic reality in current day Africa is evident in large part because of the forces that control Africa today.  Those forces are the multi-national corporate dominance of Africa’s human (labor) and material (natural minerals) resources for the purpose of further enriching capitalist corporations.  Royal Dutch Shell, better known as Shell Oil in the West, is a primary corporation in Nigeria.  Relying on its substandard operations throughout the Niger Delta region of Nigeria for up to one third of its annual international profits, Shell has been challenged over the last few decades by local Ogoni activists in Niger Delta because of its business practices.  Like all these capitalist entities operating in Africa, Shell’s priority is generating profits with as little investment as possible.  Consequently, safe and humane working conditions on Shell facilities in the Niger Delta has always been a fantasy.  Subsequently, the protests have caused operational interruptions and delays in production.  Mass protests continue and because of this threat to Shell’s interest, imperialism has been active in finding ways to ensure those corporate economic operations are protected at all costs.  The political leadership in Nigeria and everywhere else in Africa, is beholden to doing everything to uphold the dominance of imperialism.  Muhammadu Buhari is the current president of Nigeria and his role is to do everything necessary to protect British and U.S. capitalist interests in Nigeria.  In return, like all of Africa’s neo-colonial leadership, he gets to line his pockets with a small portion of the profits stolen from the people’s resources and labor.

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was founded in 1983 with a stated mission of doing something to challenge Nigeria’s street crime rates.  Whatever SARS did during those years, even the original framers for this unit had come to denounce its operations in recent years.  From 2017 through 2020, SARS agents have carried out hundreds of brutal violent assaults against Nigeria’s people.  In most of these incidents, no actual evidence of criminal activity was present.  This is the reason thousands of Nigerians have hit the streets in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and other major urban areas.  The protests have been militant and uncompromising to the point where Buhari and the corrupt Nigerian government was forced to accede to the people’s demands by disbanding SARS as of October 11, 2020. 

The key points to take away from this clear victory is that we have been telling you that despite the fact the imperialist BBC, CNN, FOX, CBS, CIA, etc., are not going to tell you much of anything about what’s happening in Africa, Africa remains on fire.  And, the fact you may not know or understand that doesn’t diminish that reality one inch.  The people of Africa are sick and tired of Africa’s riches being pirated out by capitalist interests while the masses of Africans suffer in horrible poverty.  They are tired of being repressed just for pointing out this obvious contradiction.  And, they are tired of people in the U.S. not recognizing how much this government contributes to their instability.

Police terrorism against the African masses in Nigeria and the same happening in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Brazil, etc., should be seen through the same lenses.  This repression takes place because imperialism knows its in a dogfight to continue to control its resource rich backyard – Africa.  To do this, they know they have to brutally repress the African masses in Africa as well as the Africa masses outside of Africa.  Despite the fact so many Africans in the U.S., etc., have no clue about our actual clear political, economic, and cultural connection to Africa, our enemies understand that our confusion today can become our clarity tomorrow.  That’s why they have proliferated the African Command program of expanding imperialist U.S. military bases throughout Africa as well as bolstering their police repression of the African masses throughout the diaspora.  The point of these military installations is to train African police and military in counter insurgency measures to confront the mass uprisings against the repression.  Zionist Israeli forces, equally dependent upon imperialism to continue to ensure the theft of diamonds from Africa, which Israel relies on to uphold its national economy, trains these African police in Krav Maga (hand to hand fighting techniques). 

SARS, operational or not, should be seen as a result of this repressive strategy in Africa.  People in the West, particularly the U.S., play a crucial role in developing consciousness around this tragedy because much of this repression is contributed to by U.S. tax dollars. 
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Of course, the problems in Nigeria are simply part of parcel of Africa’s problem as a whole.  We lack organization to stop the oppression and theft of our land and resources.  That organization is revolutionary Pan-Africanism i.e. one unified socialist Africa.  The people of Nigeria are making it plain that they desire something new, something better.  Our work is simply that of helping people understand what that better (Pan-Africanism) looks like.  We applaud the efforts of our comrades on the ground in Nigeria – the Amilcar Cabral Ideological School – Pan-Africanists fighting in Nigeria for one unified socialist Africa – in their efforts to propagate and organize around this Pan-African ideal.  We will continue this work until we are free or until there is not one single one of us left.
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My 2016/20 Election Time PTSD Goes Far Beyond Trump, Etc.

10/30/2020

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The Lowndes County Freedom Organization, better known as the original Black Panther Party's organizing against white supremacist terror in the mid 60s in Alabama reminds us that what's happening today is nothing new. I've had more more than a taste of that terror and all it does is make me want so much more for us than what we are being told is possible.
As the U.S. braces for this next national election in a few days, my feelings are flooded with emotions from the experiences I had four years ago.  The bourgeoisie liberal side of the capitalist media has been engaging in a nonstop barrage of propaganda designed to pressure people into believing breath will stop flowing through their bodies if they don’t vote out the current empire president next week, but that’s not the focus that’s driving my swirling emotions.  Popular African athletes and entertainers from LeBron to Rhianna, etc., are placing their image and work towards building up voting efforts by African youth, but that’s not what’s fueling my emotional output.  Any and everyone who has a voice is telling us that if we don’t participate in this election process we have no right to talk about anything and we are the reason this capitalist exploitative society is as backward as it is, but along with the fact that this is about as worthless an analysis as you can generate, its not this dysfunctional thinking that’s energizing my memories and emotions.

Unlike the multitudes of people who besides attending a demonstration here and there and voting, do absolutely nothing to organize against oppression, my daily life consists of sacrificing everything I can to fight against oppression.  The approach I commit my life to has nothing to do with the institutions of power that oppress us and because of that, most people who pass ignorant judgement against the work people like I do have no idea what our work looks like.  Or, how much our work empowers even the bourgeoisie efforts they’re making.  My work has to do with working with the masses of people so that they can build capacity to seize control of the forces that are oppressing humanity.  This work is hands on and people oriented and has nothing to do with the nonsense beamed at us everyday by people who couldn’t identify what the lives of oppressed people looks like if you placed a gun to their head.

That’s why I don’t expect many people outside of revolutionary organizing work to understand or relate to my particular experiences from four years ago, yet this is my forum so I’m going to share them because doing so helps me process my emotional trauma which is a healthy and necessary thing for me to do.  You see, my personal experiences of note started four years ago while living in the state of Oregon.  I work for a labor union and as is the case come every election, a lot of the work consists of engaging around election issues.  That all by itself is traumatic enough for me, but fortunately, there is usually at least a semi-people oriented ballot measure that I can mobilize my required participation around which I always do because this prevents me from having to do work for any of these bourgeoisie political parties.  In 2016, there was a corporate taxing measure on the ballot and I was knocking on doors to talk to people about supporting that measure. 

As the race became tighter, towards this last weekend of campaigning, we were forced to canvass in even more rural areas of the state.  For most places, especially colorless Oregon, this automatically means areas where there are absolutely no Africans and potential open hostility to our presence.  Often, these people would never open their doors for me.  I remember one time in particular when a young white woman, standing frozen in plain view in front of the picture window, stayed statue like until I laughingly left.  Well, at one house with a winding stairway in Southwest Portland, Oregon, U.S., that citadel of liberalism, a white man about 50 something opened his door and once he blankly listened to my short initial salvo, asked me to hold on a moment.  He came back immediately and raised his right hand from behind the door to reveal a 1911 semi-automatic pistol.  I remember eyeing the pistol and thinking “again?” as this was by far not the first time someone had pointed a gun at me for no reason.  The man then said “get your black a --…”  That was as much as he got out before I pushed hard against his door, knocking him backward.  I bolted down the stairway and away from there.  I pushed hard enough against his door that I know he lost his balance and fell, hopefully breaking some bones in the process as far as I’m concerned. 

This is the very first time I’ve talked about this incident although I did make a Facebook post on our canvass page about white supemacists after this happened, but I didn’t go into detail.  I was too angry. Too traumatized. Angry that I was even out there in the first place and angry that I didn’t take that pistol from that man and shove it down his throat.  Angry and sick of being disrespected just for being a human being on this earth.

I didn’t have time to ponder much on that incident because within a day of that a call came out from a wonderful activist in rural Oregon who’s house had been besieged and threatened by white supremacist militia groups.  These groups are much more in the national consciousness now then they were four years ago, but while they mostly exist in pictures, television, or across the street at protests to most people, my organizing experiences in Oregon gave me close and personal exposure to them.  When I say close I mean having physical confrontation on multiple occasions with them.  Being shot at and threatened multiple times.  So, when this activist, who sustains regular threats from these people, made that call, several of us didn’t hesitate to respond. 
After participating in a rain drenched debrief of the defeat of that ballot measure, I hopped in the car with others and we drove the couple of hours to this activist’s house in rural Oregon to stand guard against the numerous threats to “come and burn you out once Trump wins!”  There was no calling the police for this person since at best, the police must likely had sympathies for these terrorists and at worse, they belonged to those militia groups themselves.  So, while most people spent election night watching television and rehashing the results, I spent that night parked combat style across this long rural road, ready to aggressively confront anyone who was foolish enough to follow through on the threats that were issued against these peaceful people. 

I’ve had multiple instances where the line between continuing a life of love and hope was blurry.  Where the difference between life and death could be a moment or two.  That night was yet another one.  And, staying there for a few days to ensure nothing inappropriate happened, getting virtually no sleep, enjoying the presence of good comrades and wonderful animals.  All of this is how I process to balance out the underlining terror. 
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So, the next day it was confirmed that Trump had won.  For me this represented nothing more than what should have been expected all along.  The beast known as the united snakes had been exposed for what it has always been.  This isn’t to say that people shouldn’t wish to do something to stop people like Trump, of course we should.  In fact, we should be willing to go much farther than just that.  If we truly care about justice for the majority of people on earth, which I do, then our consciousness has to expand much farther beyond just replacing one rabid demon for another less rabid demon.  That strategy is ok even as a short term approach, but for the most part, that’s the endgame for most of you.  There is absolutely no plan on your part beyond that except extorting and shaming the rest of us to go along with the scam you are participating in.  I wonder, wonder, wonder, why its asking so much for people to just open our minds to the possibility that we can do so much better than living like roaches, just seeking enough to survive for a few hours.  No one in their right mind would disagree that we deserve much better.  The breakdown comes when we start talking about the work required for us to do a higher level of organizing work.  Most apparently want the short fix.  They want to feel like they are doing something worthwhile when the truth is we aren’t.  Its this reality that fuels my emotional trauma.  Trump and everyone who agrees with him is nothing more than what the united snakes has been revealing to me since the day I was born in 1962.  No surprises there.  I am bewildered by how many of us are unwilling to push ourselves beyond this roach – crumb – to mouth approach.  I’m not going to ever give up though.  I’ll use these memories of four years ago to propel me to do more work to wake people up so that we can get out of this terror maze that people keep trying to tell us is freedom and democracy.

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    I don't see disagreement as a negative because I understand that Frederick Douglass was correct when he said "there is no progress without struggle."  Our brains are muscles.  Just like any other muscle in our body if we don't stress it and push it, the brain will not improve.  Or, as a bumper sticker I saw once put it, "If you can't change your mind, how do you know it's there?"

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