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Venezuela Exposes More White Supremacy Among the White Left

5/13/2019

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Recent events in Venezuela have exposed quite a bit. Forces within Venezuela opposed to the revolutionary socialist government that was democratically elected most recently in 2018 (by 67% of the Venezuelan people) is being challenged by elements backed primarily by the U.S. So-called opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself president, dismissing the fact that socialist president Nicolas Maduro is the legitimate president of Venezuela. The U.S. immediately moved to recognize Guaido as president and a nefarious effort to take control of the country through military force was organized by Guaido. That military effort was swiftly and completely put down by the Maduro government.

These recent events in Venezuela are telling on many levels. There is an old African proverb that says when you boil dirty water, the scum always rises to the top. This proverb is indicative of many on the so-called white left of all stripes who could not wait to jump on the side of the illegal Guaido effort. And by jumping on the side I mean all those who claim objectivity, yet they repeat all of the same talking points as the reactionary pro-capitalist elements. Those white left talking points are the focus of this piece. Much of what they are saying is that the Maduro government has jailed opposition leaders and taken steps to undermine the country's decision making processes in order to maintain power. This is an old and overused tactical argument by imperialism in evaluating the behaviors of new socialist societies. Its the social equivalent of someone forcing you and another person into a tank that is slowly filling up with water. You decide you are going to fight for your life so you do everything you can to break the glass in the tank to stop the water from filling, etc. Meanwhile, the other person in the tank with you believes your actions are making the situation worse so they do everything they can to stop you. As a result, you end up taking action to eliminate the other person so that you can figure out how to get free. The person watching, who created the problem in the first place, messages the situation as you being a violent maniac who caused the conflict because you took the other person's life. If you miss the point of the analogy, its that the person watching can create any scenario they want because they are the entity in power. This is the reality for the masses of Venezuelan people and all oppressed people. We are routinely subjected to the narrative provided by our enemies. The ones keeping us in the oppressive state in the first place. And, often, more often than not, the white left - supposedly the friend to oppressed humanity - comes to side with the oppressor instead of the oppressed.

Revolution 101. Revolutions are never fought for the privileged in society. This is true because the privileged are privileged because they benefit from the oppression of the masses of people. The purpose of revolutions is to create a process that will remove the oppression to create a society where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. Obviously, apparatuses like white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, all appendages of capitalism and imperialism, are the vessels that feed the obstacles that keep oppressed people oppressed. Venezuela is no different. Approximately 56% of the country's population are brown people. People who historically have a long history of being on the downtrodden end of the societies they live in. About 43% of Venezuela are descendants of Europe. Just those numbers alone demonstrate there are going to be some very different perceptions of what is taking place, who it benefits, and whether it is in Venezuela's best interest. We would argue that the masses of those brown people, the people the revolutionary process is designed to lift up, see the revolution as a positive. And the clear indications that those elements of the country are out in the street fighting to protect their revolution is unquestionable proof of that. By the same token, the fact that the overwhelming majority of voices condemning Venezuela's government are those of the privileged class of European descendants makes a clear statement also. In other words, 98% of the so-called Cuban "exile" community in South Florida is European people. This means it has never been the African masses of Cuba who are coming over in mass in those rafts. Its always been the Europeans who resent the fact the Cuban revolution is righting the wrongs of centuries of racist caste structure (despite the ridiculous claims of the so-called American Descendants of Slaves - ADOS) characters who ignorantly claim only Africans in the U.S. had legalized racial segregation). The same reality applies for Venezuela. Leopoldo Lopez is being talked about as the mastermind of the coup attempt in Venezuela, but no one discusses who he is and where he came from. He and his wife are descendants of Venezuelan elite classes. His wife is actually the daughter of the Agricultural Secretary under the Romulo Betancourt presidency of the mid to late 40s in Venezuela. Bourgeoisie historical accounts attempt to paint Betancourt's regime as a reformist government, but the reality is that they consistently sided with the interests of U.S. companies and policy in Central and South America, including being a strong U.S. subordinate regime for anti-Cuba activities in the region after Bettancourt was re-elected in 1958, immediately before the conquest of the Cuban revolution that next year.

Being a product of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie, Lopez rose to attend college in the U.S., attending the prestigious HUN School at Princeton University. There he was a leading member of the student organizations that supported bourgeoisie government in so-called "Latin" America. Once he returned to Venezuela, he eventually founded the political organization Primero Justifica or Justice First. Although this organization's stated claim was to be a bastion for all political thought, since 1999, it has been universally committed to overthrowing the Bolivarian revolution led initially by Hugo Chavez and now Nicolas Maduro. Their reasons, despite their claim of neutrality politically, are the same reasons any bourgeoisie group provides for opposing revolution. They want more "economic freedoms" which all poor people know means they want the right to make as much money as they want without any efforts to dismantle the racist class structures that created the need for revolutionary change in the first place.

For us, the poor people of the planet have every right to seize control of the forces of production to use them to eliminate inequality. And, since the bourgeoisie forces acquired those forces of production, not through any hard work or democratic processes as they would have everyone believe, but through force of violence and the imposition of the most oppressive slavery and exploitation systems known to human civilization, the masses are justified in doing whatever they need to do to those bourgeoisie in order to protect their revolution. What that means is we have to stop this bourgeoisie argument that because a government imprisons someone's relatives that you know, that automatically means that government is corrupt. A few years ago, I posted a happy birthday post on Facebook to the leader of Vietnam's resistance against U.S. imperialism -,Nguyen Al Thoc, or Ho Chi Minh as he is better known. Some idiot who has apparently been found out to be an abuser since then, wrote a comment complaining about my post because - I quote - his family was imprisoned in Vietnam. What I'm saying here is pure emotion isn't enough for me to stop there solely because of what happened to your family. I would need more information. What was your family doing in Vietnam? In China? In North Korea" In Cuba? In Venezuela? It could very well be that the government had every right to stop your family from sabotaging the revolution. Or, it could be the government made an error, but they didn't make an error with everyone's family. Based on the behaviors of many of those family descendants today, that's not at all a far fetched thought. Especially since most of the people complaining about that have absolutely no problem believing people that look like me should be incarcerated, regardless of the political circumstances that drive mass incarceration in this country. And the so-called white left is very quick to take up this subjective family argument to justify that a country like Venezuela is locking up opposition without any type of analysis and discussion about who that opposition is.

Any true revolt in any society has to evolve from the masses of that society. Not some bourgeoisie Princeton graduate with blood ties to the elite of the country. We cannot ignore the reality that those on the white left choose to side with the narrative of other Europeans above that of the objective conditions of the masses of brown people on earth. Even if those Europeans are the same elite class that white left in the U.S. claim to want to overthrow. Well, now you know why no Africans and other brown people are joining your political circles.

Probably the most racist statement of all is how the white left doesn't have enough faith in the humanity and abilities of dominantly brown countries to work through their stuff to figure out their revolutions. Obviously, the 20 short years of the Bolivarian revolution is not anywhere near enough time for that process to play itself out. The 60 years since the Cuban revolution isn't enough time. I'm almost that old myself and I'm still trying to figure out my own self so how the hell can an entire country be expected to do that in that short time period. All of that is ill refutable besides the point that the U.S., and anyone inside it, is in absolutely no position to pass judgment on any people. This country is going on 250 years old and its getting worse, not better. The Venezuelan people are the only people who can decide their future. That means most of that 56% brown population and the 20% of Europeans there who are on the side of justice. They can do that and they will. I believe it because I have confidence in them, in us. If you don't believe that, and any narrative saying anything else means you don't, then we just wish to thank you for helping us get more and more people to see what we have been saying forever, for the most part, left or right, still white.

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Create Your Own Vision for What Mother's Day Should Look Like

5/12/2019

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Its always been a significant source of humor for me that the moment you question whether people think for themselves in this society, people immediately and completely take offense. No one wants to be thought of as following someone else's plan for how they live their lives. Yet, there are examples all around us that clearly demonstrate that very few people really do any concrete thinking for themselves and the way so-called holidays are carried out in this society is textbook curriculum to make this point. Without knowing any history of the day. Without even bothering to create our own context for the day, most people in this society follow along with the dictates of this power structure for what days we celebrate, when we celebrate them, and how we celebrate them.

Today is Mother's Day right? Who choose the second Sunday in May? Who decided that the method of honoring mother's is to take them to brunch, buy flowers, etc.? If you ask me, the whole thing sounds like a set up by corporations because at the end of the day, they are the ones who come out on top. As I'm writing this, the restaurants, candy stores, and flower shops are booming with business. Yet, we all do all of our thinking for ourselves.

Of course, none of what I'm saying in any way suggests we shouldn't honor our mothers and if that is what you are taking from this, you are a poster child for the point I'm making about not thinking for ourselves. We should not only honor our mothers, but we should have a completely different definition of what a mother actually is. Clearly, its much more than just a biological unit who has born children. A mother is a person who nurtures human beings and helps them reach their fullest potential. A mother isn't the personal property of her children on this day, she is a valued and respected member of the community she helped nurture and develop. And, that value cannot be expressed through how much money is spent today. It can only be expressed by how this mother is honored daily.

Clearly, with this expanded and much healthier definition of what a mother should be, we are not just talking about women who have born children. We are really not even necessarily talking about just women. And, we certainly aren't just talking about someone who raises their biological children. We are actually talking about the people who advance human society. That's who we should honor and we should do so by showing them respect everyday and definitely, we should honor them by working daily to improve the world they nurtured us to participate in.

I fully realize that no one wants to deal with the definitions I'm putting out here because they require much more commitment and morality than just paying a bill once a year at a restaurant or flower shop. And, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the restaurant and flower shop. What's wrong is that we have permitted the value of mothers, even if you just want to see it as your biological mother, as being reduced to just simply providing material recognition for human sacrifice. This is the very definition of how capitalism evaluates human beings. You are just a reflection of how much money needs be tossed your way. Yet, we are thinking for ourselves alright.

As usual, the objective here isn't to ruin anyone's capitalist dominated day. It is to hopefully get us thinking a bit about how we function because doing so helps us get to the point of understanding the root causes of much of the problems we face today. So, the suggestion here is use today to make a commitment to not only your biological mother, but anyone in your life who has played the role of nurturing and supporting you. And, if you don't have that person, start thinking about how you can nurture and support someone because that's the quickest way to develop a reality for all of that to come back into your life. Make a pact to build regularly with that person/s going forward. Decide what that will look like and how you will keep that flame lit. Then follow up and do it. Imagine if all of us did something like this. Not only will we cease being pimped every month by having to spend money on whatever imperialism tells us to spend money on, but we will be building deeper and more true connections to the people in our lives who positively impact us. And, by doing that we will be building deeper connections within the entire society in a way that teaches us what really matters in life. By learning this we will start to understand what is worth fighting for. When we get to this point, we may find that a lot of the problems we sit around today wondering why they exist (especially since we are doing all this thinking for ourselves) can be resolved much easier than someone has led us to believe.

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Defining Political Education & Demystifying the Black Panther Party

5/10/2019

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The Black Panther Party was a wonderful organization. I, like millions of others, have spent my entire life inspired by their courageous example. Their fearless pursuit of police terrorists in the streets of Oakland, California. Their blossoming into a national, and then international, organization that developed an outstanding legacy of struggle and resistance.

Fifty plus years since their inception, people are still reading about the Black Panther Party (BPP). And, there is plenty of literature about them to read. There are books on every aspect of Panther life and existence. There are multiple books by Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton. There are books by co-founder Bobby Seale and other internationally known Panther leaders like Elaine Brown, David Hilliard, Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt), Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Assata Shakur, and Eldridge Cleaver. There are books by regional Panther leaders like Aaron Dixon, Wayne Pharr, and Flores Forbes. There are critical books written by Joshua Bloom, Waldo Martin, Charles Earl Jones, George Ketsiaficas, Huge Pearson, and others. There are countless videos, children's books, and other material on the Panther party and their impact. Some of this material is great. Some of it subpar. Some of it not good at all, but its out here and people are reading it. Still, it must be said that just because people are reading everything about the BPP doesn't equate to people getting politically educated about what the Panthers mean to us.

The fundamental difference between reading books and political education is significant. Many people believe just reading books is getting politically educated and on a mini level this could be true, but this is not what we mean by political education. We mean organizing components of study that are designed to take place within a collective and committed structure of analysis where collective reading and discussion is consistently carried out. For us, creating this type of process is head and shoulders above any individual reading hundreds of books because collective study creates a systemic and comprehensive educational process. The old saying that "two heads are better than one" applies here. Having collective study and conversation that takes place regularly ensures that everyone who participates benefits from the perspectives and experiences of everyone else participating in the process. On the other hand, the individual approach is good, certainly better than nothing, but its difficult to imagine a scenario where any logically thinking person could claim individuality is better than a collective effort.

Although people are reading about the BPP, mostly on an individual level, the fact this is the reality reflects the many problems with this approach. First, we should add we say most people are engaging this on an individual level because of the results we see coming forth. Most of the idealistic perceptions of the Panthers are still pretty much dominant. There is very little critical analysis of their work and there is virtually no clear analysis developing of their core contradictions e.g. how their lack of political maturity nurtured the effectiveness of the government's efforts to destroy their organization. Serious analysis around these questions isn't dominant as it relates to how the Panthers are perceived today because the majority of people talking about them are not themselves involved in collective struggle to advance our people and humanity. The individual approach relies mostly on preserving idealism and subjective interpretations of who the Panthers were, what they did, and how we can best learn from their experiences. Only collective and critical political education will bring out the type of analysis we really need about the Panthers.

The encouragement of more collective disciplined political education struggle around the Panthers will produce more concrete critique around the patriarchy dominant within the party. Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, probably the most influential leaders within the BPP, and their terrible treatment of multiple women within the party including Kathleen Cleaver. Surface level analysis around this question chooses to focus exclusively on Newton's speeches and writing on the subject instead of his actual behaviors. Meanwhile, Cleaver's admitted history as a rapist is used to make him the fall guy while ignoring the culture within the BPP that supported his predator behavior. Also in need of reanalysis is the Panthers subjective glorification of the lumpen proletariat with a serious lack of concrete political education taking place around class. Equally as problematic is this strange infatuation with some of Newton's ideas in the latter stages of his tenure as a leader in the BPP during a period when he was clearly unraveling at the seams. His latter year analysis that because of imperialism's international stranglehold on world economics there is no longer such a thing as a nation state is understandable, but dismisses the objective reality that colonized people, in order to achieve our self-determination, must pursue our nationhood. In fact, imperialism's efforts to destroy the nation concept was and is firmly rooted in its understanding that colonialism and neo-colonialism depend upon denying colonized people our nationhood e.g our self-determination - in order for us to prosper. So, our solution isn't adopting the position of the European left that nations are ill-relevant. Instead, African people must circle our wagons around reclaiming our national identity e.g. the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism as articulated by Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Amilcar Cabral, etc. Also, the Panthers early focus on the gun, without an equal focus on the political education of the masses of African people (so that the masses become armed, not just a few activists) is an error that too many groups today are still copy catting 50+ years later.

There is much to learn good and bad about the BPP, but the objective here isn't to tear down the Panthers. As stated, we love the Panthers. We certainly would not be here were it not for them, but what we need is to learn and grow from their work. Not to manipulate their existence to justify our individual agenda for what we are or aren't doing today. If people are sincere about building upon the Panther's legacy, then we must decide today that we all must be in organization's working for justice. Revolutionary realities will never emerge without organization. No individual can accomplish this so anyone claiming to want to build on the Panthers legacy while being without organization is someone who either doesn't really know how actual change takes place or they are are just unknowingly wasting their time and all of ours. Only the masses of people make history so we have to move to a place where anyone talking about what we need, no matter who it is, without an organization, is considered for what they are, a hypocrite and someone not really serious about our liberation. You can't name one serious African revolutionary and/or activist who wasn't in an organization. Malcolm left one and started two. Kwame was in several. Marcus and Amy/Amy = organization. Nkrumah was always in organization. Sekou Ture. Cabral, etc. What is happening now where people are acting like they don't need organization needs to become akin to a crime against our people. After we start getting people in organizations, we have to ensure those organizations have serious political education processes in place. That means concepts of study e.g. nationalism, Pan-Africanism, Nkrumahism-Tureism, Marxist-Leninism, socialism, communism, organizing, etc., where these concepts are studied as modules. Reading is assigned regularly and completed. Facilitation is shared so that all can become effective at leading discussions. The, the material studied can be used as intended, to be worked on in the field where our people suffer. And, anyone who struggles with reading, comprehension, etc., is able to benefit from strategies to help them become comfortable. With all of these essential things in place, we will begin creating political education apparatuses that will start to raise the level of consciousness all around us.

Anyone reading here who interprets this as an attack against anyone only needs to seriously study the works I described in the beginning to see that most of the serious leaders within the BPP e.g. Kwame Ture, Assata Shakur, etc., said the very things I'm saying here. In fact, it was directly from those historical giants that I learned how to see things this way. Assata says quite clearly in "Assata" that the BPP lacked a clear political education program and the lack of this essential vehicle prohibited the party being able to critique the actions of the BPP. She gives examples of how there was no criticism of the actions of Huey Newton after his release from jail in 1970. How he actually transformed the BPP into an Oakland gang, exhorting money from African businesses in the mid 70s and carrying on much more egregious actions within the African community. No criticism about any of this. Kwame Ture talks about how the Panthers lack of discipline led to easy access into Panthers affairs by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Kwame makes it clear that it was these contradictions, not the often repeated lie that Kwame was against working with European militants that caused him to seek a different path, thankfully, which eventually led him home to Africa.

The Black Panther will forever live on as a critical contributor to our people's forward progress and that contribution only grows in value the more we dig down deeper to learn how we can benefit more from what they left for us. The burden now is on us.

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Is There a Place for Europeans (Whites) in the African Struggle?

5/7/2019

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We believe the answer to that question is technically yes, but not in the way you would necessarily think. Historically, whether we are talking about Whites aligned with our struggle for liberation in Azania (South Africa) or in the U.S., etc., the model being discussed has always been around the question of multi-racial organizations. This line has been certainly promoted within white left socialist formations. Their position has been that the primary contradiction is with the capitalist system so only when people unite across racial lines to form a multi-racial class struggle socialist party will we see collective progress.

We believe the above analysis is far to simplistic. Its wishful thinking on the part of white leftists who are unwilling to face the racist history of white left organizing efforts. The reality is a major component of white supremacy, the core appendage of capitalism and imperialism, is its assertion that European culture is the driving force for the universe. This thinking, which is dominant within every community on the face of the earth today, by extension suggests that no people can ever dream of addressing anything without a strong dose of European culture and European people. By default, white people believe this and African, indigenous, etc., people believe this, whether its admitted or not.

For us, a mutually respectful relationship between African revolutionaries and European revolutionaries must be centered around an anti-colonial analysis that respects the necessity for Pan-Africanism as African people's contribution to the struggle for justice for humanity. You can count on one hand the number of European formations that are willing and active in supporting this requirement. So, with this uneven level of respect dominant, even within so-called progressive and revolutionary circles, it is impossible for us to see how we can ever trust our future in the hands of multi-racial organizations where any agenda item focused on African self-determination will come down to a vote dominated by white people. A clear example of this is the history of the Communist International during the 1920s. The white left, anxious about the growing influence of the Garvey movement of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, came up with the idea, initially advanced by Russian revolutionaries (maybe Joseph Stalin or Leon Trosky), that a black belt South strategy in the U.S. should be supported by white left parties. Yes, this means the idea of Africans getting the Southern U.S. came from a European and that idea wasn't even rooted in any real commitment to African self-determination, but an insincere desire by white leftists to attempt to control our movements. This to us is a classic example of white revolutionaries subscribing to the most basic racist inclinations. As Public Enemy said "can't truss this!"

Eighty years later, you cannot even find a dominantly European organization that even studies African liberation movements unless they make an effort to redesign our contributions within the framework of European focused struggle e.g. labeling Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Amilcar Cabral, etc., as Marxist-Leninists, ignoring each of those ideologues clear statement declaring their dedication to Pan-Africanism.

No, the answer isn't multi-racial organizing for us, although we are not against anyone who chooses to follow that pathway because we stand supportive of any organizing work designed to bring progress to humanity. We just believe that the role of white people in the African liberation struggle is in those Europeans working to bring revolutionary organizing to white communities. Our question, which is the very same question the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee asked 50+ years ago, is where are the white people willing to organize among white people? Where are the white people willing to de-colonize their people, educating them about the white supremacist system, and providing them an analysis that permits them to abandon their shock troop status for the capitalist system?

There are some groups active today who seemingly are attempting to engage the work we implore is needed. Those groups should continue to build upon their work. By doing so, they make a significant contribution to our struggle. A conscious white working class is a major obstacle removed from our path for liberation. Historically, whether on this continent, Africa, or wherever, every step we make forward, it is white working people who step in front of us to protect the capitalist system, despite their shared lack of access to the system alongside us. So, we definitely welcome the efforts of white activists who are sincerely working to stem this tide. We even look forward to the day when we can work alongside these organizations, coordinating our work - them in white communities, us in African communities - to advance our agendas for revolutionary organization and progress. This type of reality is real solidarity that respects our self-determination as colonized peoples. Anything else, especially any insistence that multi-racialism is the only organizing way forward, is dysfunctional and heavily slated towards the wants of white activists, not the needs of African people. And, we believe wholeheartedly that any white activists that truly want African liberation would not only respect this, but insist upon it.

In 2019, there is no reason for white people to continue to come to us asking how they can become a part of our work. Instead, go to your communities and start there. If you need help organizing we are always happy to provide our experience, etc. to help you.

I just released my third novel which is a story where a white woman is accepted into a revolutionary African organization. Its a very interesting story line to me which stems from my imagination spouted from Kwame Nkrumah's statement in the "Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare" that "foreigners" who take a genuine interest in the African liberation struggle can be accepted as comrades in arms. Don't be confused though. Just because I expanded upon this concept in the fictional realm doesn't mean I see this happening in the real world. The character in my book is someone I've never come close to meeting in real life. In fact, if such white people really existed in real life, we probably would be much farther along in our struggle for justice than we are. That's why that's fiction. In real life, we have to be scientific in how we advance our work. In this present world, that means we desperately need to work within our communities and grow to coordinate that work across communities. The more we do this work now, the better positioned we will eventually be to reach potential for that post-race society some people are so desperate for that they insist upon imposing their fantasies on our current reality.

We are a long, long, way from that point. For now, we will continue building our Pan-African work and we implore white activists groups to continue to build for the massive amount of work needed in white communities. We also implore them to continue to provide material support to African, Indigenous, Palestinian, Filipino, etc., organizations. Our comradeship should be judged and based solely on our mutually respectful work to attack capitalist ideology at all tender points possible within each of our respective communities.

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Context for the Murder of Malcolm X; Farrakhan & COINTELPRO

5/5/2019

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Malcolm X, an unidentified Nation of Islam member, and a young Louis X in 1957 at a Harlem rally before Malcolm spoke

Whether people like Minister Louis Farrakhan or hate him, one thing no one can deny him, he consistently finds ways to keep his work in the discussion. Facebook recently blocking him from using its platform has again placed the Minister in the forefront of many discussions raging among African people. The purpose of this piece isn't to dissect the legitimacy of the Minister and/or the Nation of Islam. We have faith in the legitimacy of the African masses to figure out for themselves who they will respect. The purpose of this piece is to address much of the misinformation being vomited out about the murder of Malcolm X, formally a member of the Nation of Islam. The role of the Nation, particularly Minister Farrakhan, in that assassination, and how we look at and discuss those events today.

Its important to state clearly that the U.S. government assassinated Malcolm X. Or, as we say in Pan-Africanist organizing circles, members of the Nation may have pulled the trigger, but the government bought the bullets. Freedom of Information released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files provide ill-refutable evidence that the FBI had paid informants within the highest levels of the Nation of Islam (NOI) as early as the mid 1950s. Declassified documents confirm that the NOI National Secretary - John Ali - was most likely one of the FBI's highest placed informants/agents. The irony that Malcolm was the person who helped raise Ali up to the position of National Secretary (Malcolm recommended to Elijah Muhammad that John Ali be considered for that position) stings, but nonetheless, Ali undoubtedly played a significant role in isolating and dehumanizing Malcolm as a part of the FBI's strategy to set Malcolm up for murder. The FBI, along with multiple U.S. intelligence entities, wanted Malcolm gone we believe because they recognized the power of the work he was engaged in with worldwide revolutionary and Pan-Africanist organizers like Kwame Nkrumah - then in Ghana, Sekou Ture in Guinea, Che Guevara in Cuba, etc. The basis of those political connections is available now for all to study so the U.S. government was not confused. They were making numerous attempts to destabilize all of those organizers mentioned. They ended up successfully overthrowing Nkrumah's government and removing Ture's political party from power. Guevara was of course assassinated by the Central Intelligence Agency - by way of the Bolivian military - in 1967, and they made arrangements to silence Malcolm's voice in 1965.

The imperialist intelligence agencies are experts at studying sabotage techniques so obviously, they recognized the opportunities available to them if they exploited the bad blood between the leadership of the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X in 1964. And, those tensions were real. Yes, people in the Nation were upset about Malcolm talking about the women Elijah had impregnated outside of his marriage to Sister Clara Muhammad, but that was only part of the reason some in the Nation wanted Malcolm dead. In the early 1960s, Elijah Muhammad suffered from a variety of serious physical ailments. His respiratory issues were severe enough to require him to move from Chicago to Phoenix during that time. There were many people who feared "the Messenger" would not live much longer. At that time, Malcolm was the most likely successor as leader of the Nation of Islam. He was the most widely known and respected. He was also increasingly expressing much more militant and political objectives than the Nation cared to engage itself in. Malcolm had also developed a level of integrity that was unquestionable and it was this principle that frightened many within the NOI leadership. Much of that leadership was composed of Elijah's family, most of whom saw the NOI as a vehicle for personal wealth and comfort for them and their families. In 1975, when Elijah Muhammad died, the Internal Revenue Service estimated annual revenues for the Nation of Islam at approximately 80 million dollars. In the early 60s, Elijah's family, particularly Herbert Muhammad (the long time boxing manager to Muhammad Ali who certainly bilked Ali out of much of his money), Elijah Muhammad Jr., and daughter Ethel Muhammad and her husband NOI Fruit of Islam Supreme Caption Raymond Sharriff, had grave concerns that if Malcolm assumed leadership of the NOI, their ability to continue to live off the labor of the believers and followers would come to an end. In 1963, Ethel Muhammad went on a national speaking tour to the women in the Nation - the Muslim Girls Training and Civilization classes (MGT) where in several cities she told rooms full of Muslim women that Malcolm was unable to satisfy his wife Betty in their marriage. When Malcolm left the Nation, Elijah Muhammad Jr. told several hundred Fruit of Islam members in New York City that they were being cowards for not killing Malcolm themselves. All of this can be summed up as partly idealistic religious fanaticism, political jealously, and outside manipulation, but there's no doubt that the atmosphere was established for Malcolm's life to be taken.

What role did Louis Farrakhan play in the hunting down of Brother Malcolm? Farrakhan has been involved with the NOI since the 1950s when he joined the NOI, partly due to Malcolm's influence, after being a nightclub singer from Boston, Mass, U.S. Despite the rampant conspiracy videos circulating on Youtube about Farrakhan's role in Malcolm's murder, Farrakhan's contribution to this was actually not nearly as significant as some people today would have you believe. There is absolutely no evidence that Farrakhan was in any way connected to the FBI ala John Ali. In fact, all Farrakhan did was talk about Malcolm. What he said during those days was indeed very shameful. And, his words certainly contributed to the atmosphere that helped dig Malcolm's grave, but this is trademark cointelpro tactics. Farrakhan's role with Malcolm is not much different than much of what happened within the Black Panther Party. The FBI sent letters to Huey Newton while he was locked up in 1969 and 1970 that suggested to him that Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) was an FBI informant. There is credible evidence that Huey responded by dispatching people to cause harm to Kwame Ture. And, the murders of Panthers Sam Napier and Alex Rackley now demonstrate clear cointelpro sabotage to cause people to create negative environments that led to both men being killed.

The point here is the FBI creates an environment and fans the flames of that environment to create the climate to get the result they want. They definitely did that in the NOI around Malcolm X. What Farrakhan is guilty of is falling prey and contributing to that environment. Than, to add salt to the wound, he has never just come forward and acknowledged he was manipulated. Instead, for years and years since then, up to and including the 2015 Million Man March reunion, he chooses to make half hearted excuses for selling out Malcolm if not out and out justifications. For anyone upset with him about this, you are 100% justified in feeling this way and I've told countless NOI members this for years. What's not justified is blaming Farrakhan for Malcolm's death because if you are going to do that you would also have to blame Huey, Bobby Seale, David Hilliard, Emory Douglas, etc., for the 27 year imprisonment of Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt) because all of them knew Geronimo wasn't on some tennis court in Santa Monica the night that European woman was shot and killed because they knew he was in Oakland for a Panther Central Committee meeting. Huey Newton ordered everyone present at the meeting to not say a word about Geronimo's presence there because the FBI had convinced Newton that Geronimo was a police agent. There is ample evidence today to support this. And, despite his five day protest at San Quentin prison in 1988 when he was there while Geronimo was there, and his confirmed personal apology to Geronimo during that time, Huey never publicly apologized for his role in that and other cointelpro influenced actions that harmed African people who were sincerely trying to liberate our people.

The important take away here isn't whether people like the NOI or not. The facts are the NOI has been active in African communities for decades doing their work in places most of the people criticizing them would never dare venture into. As revolutionaries, we know revolution cannot happen without revolutionaries being created in this capitalist dominated world. That doesn't happen by condemning and attacking everyone who doesn't agree with us because if we do that, we are attacking 90% of the population and no 10% of the population will ever accomplish revolutionary victory. That's what we want and for many of these people out here, they probably couldn't care less about achieving that. Yes, we work with the NOI because our work is in political education. We want to raise the consciousness of our people in order to create conditions where revolutionary work and victory is possible. We cannot do this by being exclusive and judgmental against any of our people. So, as revolutionaries, we will struggle with NOI, Moors, Hebrew Isrealites, drug addicts, drug dealers, gang bangers, frats, sororities, petti bourgeoisie, anyone who can be brought around to support revolutionary struggle and we leave it at that. We are strong enough so that none of those people are going to change our position on things. We have confidence enough in our abilities to not worry about that. I've spent many days inside NOI Mosques struggling with them on everything from homphobia to Africa and I'll continue to do so. How can we expect people to grow if we aren't willing to do this work? And how elitist is it for anyone to look down on anyone's else's lack of consciousness around issues as if you were born with the consciousness you currently possess. As if no one ever had to struggle with you over anything. If you don't see the point of that, you don't understand revolutionary organizing work.

And by taking this approach we aren't selling out Brother Malcolm. Excuse us if we don't willingly participate in your cointelpro initiated set trip with the NOI. We are embodying the essence of what Malcolm wanted for our people. Up until the final weeks of his life, Malcolm made sincere attempts to stall out the tensions between his people and the NOI. Despite his going back and forth, an understandable reality for someone under the pressure he was under, some of his actions illustrated how much he understood the importance of not letting the conflict with the NOI get out of hand. Many people today don't understand that. The FBI is salivating at all this anti-NOI back and forth among our people. We haven'' learned anything from the method in which the FBI used the same isolation against the US Organization to instigate them to shoot at Panthers. Whether you like it or not, the NOI is the largest independent African organization in the U.S. They can get millions of us together and we want to use those opportunities to talk to our people about our revolutionary program. There are no benefits to our people to isolating them and we will continue to talk to our people in efforts to challenge their consciousness. While some of us are being polite to police when you get pulled over, something we would never do, we will continue to talk to our people. We refuse to help the FBI and our enemies lay their eggs among our people.

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May Day; Worker Solidarity & Revolutionary Pan-Africanism

4/30/2019

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The people of Venezuela should be center to everyone this May Day.

Tomorrow is May 1st which is May Day, the international day of the worker. By worker we mean anyone who provides labor to achieve a specific objective. Whether its working a job where you receive a paycheck or being a parent who raises a child, all of that and everything in between is work. May Day is the recognition of the work everyday people do everyday to push the world forward. African and other colonized people should honor May Day. We should because we are the most exploited workers on Earth and May Day, in its essence, is the commemoration of worker's fighting to free themselves from capitalist exploitation.

Us colonized people should definitely honor May Day, but we approach May Day completely different from the organized white left. And, by white left we mean Marxist/Leninist, Trots, Maoists, anarchists, etc. As was previously alluded to, African people are without question a part of the international working class, but because of international white supremacy, colonialism, and neo-colonialism, we will not heed the tired old refrain of the white left that we forget about those elements, push aside racist subjugation - including that within the white left - and pretend on days like May Day that we are all one unified working class movement.

The primary struggle for African and other colonized people today has to be our organization against our colonized state in the world. That means movements like revolutionary Pan-Africanism, Filipino national liberation, Palestinian national liberation, Indigenous National Liberation in the Americas, etc., has to be our primary focus. Clearly, the white left can be continuously counted on to ignore the realities of our suffering e.g. their May Day talking points never address the components of white supremacy that dominate our lives. A defeat of capitalism with no anti-colonial recognition where colonized people have the right to fight for our national liberation will bring no salvation for colonized communities. Even V.I. Lenin, in his classic work "Imperialism" acknowledges this despite his and Marx's limited analysis of colonized struggles. As Lenin indicates, national liberation is the "pre-requisite" to socialist revolution.

Due to the systemic disrespect and outright racism directed at colonized people by the white left, trying to talk most African activists/organizers into commemorating May Day is like trying to get an atheist to go to church. The suggestion here is that we approach May Day with the same approach we should use for all of our work. Our participation is defined by our culture, meaning we come with our own revolutionary Pan-Africanist analysis. So, we help organize May Day events and we ensure our reality as colonized African masses is central to any May Day themes (along with other colonized people). We ensure we invite our follow up people we are working with to May Day. We inoculate our follow up to the contradictions of white supremacy that will be present while at the same time helping our follow up people understand that our struggle is part and parcel of all worldwide struggles. That last part is critical for us because we must continue to promote the balanced perspective that only we can save ourselves e.g. Pan-Africanism, but our struggle must be class based, meaning our connection to other liberation struggles is essential. We cannot demote into this endless and unproductive and xenophobic black nationalist conspiracy theory based negative analysis of our place in the world. Or, as we call it in our Nkrumahist/Tureist ideological analysis; we hold a nation (race), class, and gender analysis of our struggle.

Finally, May Day for us must talk about eradicating capitalism. It must have a strong anti-capitalist message with a clear understanding that the alternative to capitalism is socialism. We must talk about how socialism will only come about through organized revolution, including the component of revolutionary violence as a part of our struggle to dismantle capitalism. These talking points must be used to confront the bourgeoisie dominance of most May Day commemorations, particularly in the capitalist epicenters, where the entire focus is on workers joining the bourgeoisie class. And, that break through is not going to happen from the white left. Its only the colonized masses, particularly the African masses, who can develop this level of consciousness among our people and societies as a whole.

So, keep organizing and happy May Day because for me, May Day and African Liberation Day are the only holidays I commemorate. African liberation tied into worldwide worker solidarity. We maintain our dignity and independence while contributing to the worldwide struggle.

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Antonio Moore; Yvette Carnell; ADOs v.s. The Logic of Sekou Ture

4/29/2019

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What has Pan-Africanism done for us? 90% of what makes Malcolm X iconic is what he learned once he connected the African struggle in the U.S. to Africa. Shirley Graham DuBois was a central figure in Pan-African work in the 1960s. Living in Ghana and Egypt she was a major connector for work taking place at that time. DuBois and Malcolm's work, unquestionably connected to mother Africa, provides much of the framework that defines our path today.

If you haven't come across them yet, ADOS is short for the so-called American Descendants of Slaves movement. Taking a dishonest page from the playbook of capitalists Charles and David Koch (the Koch Brothers), Antonio Moore, Yvette Carnell, and other assorted opportunists like Tariq Nasheed and Cornel West, have taken a discredited political position and given it a name that is bound to resonate with Africans here in the U.S. who continue to suffer as a daily ritual.

By discredited position, we mean ADOSs attempts to claim that Africans born in the U.S. are being exploited by Africans born in other parts of the world. Therefore, according to their "logic" it is in the interests of Africans born in the U.S. to adopt a xenophobic view of other Africans in order to oppose their presence here in the U.S. because those other Africans are taking economic opportunities away from Africans here in the U.S. Its discredited because these people, and anyone else, cannot demonstrate any data that confirms their claim about opportunities for Africans in the U.S. being taken away from us by our other African family members, or any other immigrant communities for that matter. I mentioned the Koch Brothers because they have been instrumental in creating effective political lobbying mechanisms like the so-called "American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is the lobbying body in the U.S. that has brought you racist "Stand your Ground" laws along with so-called "Right to Work" laws that have stripped workers in the U.S. of their rights to collectively bargain contracts for greater worker stability. Slogans like "Right to Work" sound good enough so that the very people who are targeted by Koch Brother policies - the working poor - are very much likely to be people who voted in favor of some form of "Right to Work" legislation. The same tactical approach is utilized by these ADOS people. Like the Koch Brothers, ADOS uses the scarcity theory that capitalism doesn't have enough to go around. Therefore, they argue we must turn towards pointing fingers at immigrants, even those who look like us and are us, instead of growing the courage to challenge the real culprits for our suffering; the capitalist/imperialist classes of elite multi-national corporations who control governments and exploit and oppress the masses of people on earth.

Scarcity theory, of course, operates based on fear. There is no intellectual foundation promoted in scarcity theory politics. For ADOS this looks like telling our people here in the U.S. that we need to take up a position against our other family members. And, we are supposed to tell our people here this without any evidence of anything beyond some individual subjective examples like "I didn't get hired at this company, but this dude from Nigeria did!" We are in no way ever limited to subjective individualism. There is much data we can look to in order to illustrate that our poor economic standing is specifically linked to capitalist exploitation of African human and material resources. The disparity of opportunities for African people in areas of education and employment that have existed long before African immigration was even a thing (only over the last couple of decades). We have white supremacist violence directed against us by state institutions and everyday people without impunity. And, the only people provided a voice to speak to our issues are those who are unquestionably committed to the values and interests of the capitalist system.

These are just some of the reasons for the conditions we face, not Africans born outside of the U.S., but ADOS, like their political mentors the Koch Brothers and other capitalists, continue to stick to this tactical approach because unfortunately, it continues to work so well with so many of us. The capitalist system has a vested interests in keeping Africans within the U.S. as ignorant as is humanly possible about the plight of Africans everywhere and only a very small percentage of us do anything to combat this. The rest of us are happy to be ignorant provided the Warriors games remain televised, we can continue to live vicariously through the lives of Beyonce and Jay Z, and we have social activities available to us to absorb the pain from the suffering we don't know what to do with. This ignorance fuels the ability for sham analysis coming from people like ADOS to flourish, and we'll give a clear example.

Lately, this Antonio Moore ADOS person allegedly called for Africans born within the U.S. to be classified as "biracial" if they were born with an African parent born outside of the U.S. This is a typical xenophobic tactic coming straight out of the pages of Nazi Germany after 1933 when the Third Reich came to power. Using this example, we can easily demonstrate how the foolishness and anti-intellectualism of this ADOS scam flies directly into the face of the materialist based scientific theories articulated by revolutionary Pan-African Giants like Sekou Ture - the former president of Guinea, West Africa, and co-founder of the Democratic Party of Guinea - still one of the many Pan-African political parties struggling to advance Pan-Africanism - the only real solution to our suffering around the world.

In his landmark pieces on "Negritude" and "The History of Class Struggle" Ture clearly lays out how African identity, because of the ravages of colonialism and neo-colonialism, can never again be defined based simply on biologically or where one was born. Being African has to have a primarily political definition that is driven by one's commitment to unity of African people based strictly on our understanding that until Africa is free, no African anywhere can be free. Ture also pointed out that imperialism will always seek to divide African people because its interests demand that our focus be anywhere except on Africa. Its like the old babysitting tactic of hiding the treats from the child while playing a game with them designed to get them to focus on something else, anything else, besides the treats you don't want them to know you have. ADOS is gladly taking on a leadership role in playing this game with the African masses within the U.S.

We encourage our people to use our own culture and common sense to dispense of the foolishness these people are promoting. No one can dispute that the European countries committed thousands of slave raids throughout all parts of Africa for hundreds of years. This meant they rounded up millions of our people. Only a complete idiot would suggest that during this terrifying process, the enslavers took time to provide lap tops for each captured African with a survey monkey for what ethnic group and/or family that African was stolen from so the colonizers could ensure you were never separated from your family. You were separated from your family as policy so that means any African from any other part of the world could be your biological relative. Just from that simple perspective, any talk of classifying us as different people can only be a ploy designed to benefit the interests of those seeking to continue to oppress us because there is not one material benefit to Africans within the U.S. in accepting this absurd logic. ADOS would tell you that reparations from slavery are most possible from us separating from the rest of the African world, but this is coming from people who have not played one active role in the reparations movement, ever. Those who have courageously championed that movement have always done so from a clear Pan-African foundation for obvious reasons to anyone seriously studying the reparations question. And, this goes beyond even discussing how crazy it is for these ADOS people to even suggest that even one dime is coming your way without some form of active and relentless struggle against the system causing our oppression. In fact, you don't even challenge these people for a comprehensive plan for reparations. The bar is so low that all they have to do, like every other hustler out here, is feed us a good sounding line, like their Koch Brothers masters, and many of us - without any study and/or investigation - will buy it hook, line, and sinker.

The problem here, as Ture points out in this class struggle piece, is we must grow in our understanding to a place where we recognize that Ture was correct when he said class struggle is the driving force in human relations. Class being the interests that represent what's best in your life and how you are willing to fight for those interests. It is the driving force. Not race, and certainly not where we are born. Our collective class interests as African people everywhere exploited ruthlessly by capitalism in its quest to develop, consolidate, and control the planet, is the key to finding our salvation. And, just the fact that these opportunists are maybe better at using social media to the extent that they are even able to claim being any type of "movement" doesn't change anything. It actually confirms Ture's class analysis. The masses of African people struggled for more educational opportunities for African people during all of the great social movements we have initiated and sustained in this country's history. Africans were in the streets fighting for justice. Most of those who paid that price never reaped any benefits they sacrificed for. Many of them in this country, from Marcus Garvey, Amy Garvey, Louise Little (the mother of Malcolm X), Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Roberto Clemente, Miariam Makeba, and thousands upon thousands others, were not even born in the U.S., although they made unquestionable contributions to the African struggle within the U.S. So, clearly, the issue isn't where you were born. Its what your class interests are. ADOS people, continuing the strategy of subjective individualism, are always quick to point out that one or two Africans born outside the U.S. who said or did something against the interests of Africans born within the U.S. Of course they did because like ADOS, they are constantly jockeying for position within the exploitative capitalist system to carve our resources for themselves at the expense of the masses of our people. So, in essence, these negative petti bourgeoisie Africans born outside the U.S. are competing with the petti bourgeoisie Africans born in the U.S. e.g. ADOS, to gain positioning in the master's courtyard while the masses of us are not even in the real equation for these people. That my friends is what class struggle looks like. As my mother used to always tell me; don't allow yourselves to be so easily confused!

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Jim Crow Louisiana; My Mother's Journey & Mother's Day

4/26/2019

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The only picture I possess of my mother - Clothilde Dewhart - taken in 1977 when she realized her dream of directing a group of us inner city children in a stage production at the San Francisco Opera House. I never realized at the time, how much she endured to give us that opportunity