You are the Makers of History!

We Share Some of the Responsibilities for all These Sellouts

1/21/2025

If you have been paying attention, you could see the ground swell building over the last several decades. During the 1950s and 1960s, Africa embarked on a courageous movement of mass independence that swept the entire continent. Some of those struggles were won legislatively, but several i.e. Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Zimbabwe, Azania (South Africa) required bloodshed to achieve independence. Similar mass movements swept across Europe, the Caribbean, and the U.S., equally non-violent, but also including Malcolm X’s refrain of freedom “by any means necessary!”

After that period of mass struggle, a new phase began to manifest itself. This period brought in the dominance of individualism and idealism. These beliefs, reinforced consistently by the propaganda arms of the international capitalist system, have promoted the fallacious concepts that the collective advancement of the 50s/60s that required freedom has been replaced. Instead, progress is now measured through individual advancement into the capitalist system. In other words, the strong, independent and principled representation of Malcolm and Betty has been replaced by the nonthreatening entertainment represented by the television show “Malcolm and Eddie.”

In this mindset, any methodology focused on individual advancement i.e. “getting paid” is a manifestation and continuation of our struggle to be free. And that individualism is augmented with visions that are firmly entrenched in idealist thought, meaning whatever subjective interpretation of reality that is developed and exists between people’s ears becomes objective and material reality – “your truth is your truth!”

Fast forward to 2025 and what this onslaught of idealism and individualism has brought us is religious leaders all throughout Africa today who openly call themselves prophets, meaning they speak directly to God. As a result, these people are treated like rock stars. In fact, celebrities are generally regarded within African communities everywhere as the mouthpieces for our people. This is true today despite Malcolm X’s clear refutation of this foolishness in an interview he participated in at the UC Berkeley campus in 1964. In that interview, the interviewers criticized him as not representing the African community. Malcolm’s classic response was that only within the African community are “ballplayers, singers, and trumpet players” given the status of leaders of our community. He continued that these people are created by “white society (the capitalist system)” to be our mouthpieces.

Along with all of the above is the proliferation of social media. Now, with no research required and zero organizing experience and work, with simply an internet account and the ability to manipulate social media platforms, every raccoon and fool now has an opinion about our people’s condition which is punctuated by all the form and no essence of a great presentation with no substance. Coupled with so many people’s unwillingness to exercise their brain cells beyond being entertained, these superficial social media analysts are able to enjoy viral status while activists who offer substantive and insightful analysis about the problems of the day work tirelessly to reach handfuls of people.

Where our complicity in all of this comes in is our unwillingness to confront and challenge this liberalism which has permitted these opportunists to thrive under this individualism and idealism. Where is the collective pushback against these so-called “activists” who have effectively reduced the collective interpretation of reparations from a collective movement for independent Pan-African power centered on Africa into an individual pursuit of a check that’s negotiated with the terrorists who are responsible for all of our suffering? Where is the mass rejection of all of these charlatans who openly and ignorantly claim that we are not Africans, openly disrespecting our African ancestors and the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere? Where are the people who are challenging these unchecked and overwhelming attacks against African women?

Our inability to organize any type of cohesive responsibility for the Candace Owens and Akito Dangotes of the world have to bear some responsibility for the Snoop Doggs and Nellys. This is true because in being so liberal and doing everything to avoid any conflict, because it does nothing to advance us individually, we have helped create an environment of subjective reality where truth, and even study, is regarded as unnecessary and even elitist. And, this liberalism is the direct result of so many of us prioritizing our individual desires against the interests of the masses of our people. For example, so many of us in the U.S. see the accension of people like Barack Obama as some sort of symbol of advancement for African people. We want to buy into this corrupt individual model so much that we ignore the serious damage and suffering Obama’s presidency reaped upon the entire planet, especially Africa. Some of us are so invested in this idealism and individualism that while we criticize Trump supporters for displaying blind loyalty to him, we cannot even see how what we do with Obama is no different. No critical analysis. No independent thought. No courage required.

Its easy for us to blame people like Dangote for being a billionaire while the masses of people in Africa have nothing. Its equally easy for us to blame Snoop and Nelly for making career moves at the expense of the African masses. What’s not so easy is acknowledging the class contradictions that exist that permit so many of us to refuse to support genuine efforts at dignity and self-determination for our people. The liberalism that permits us to create alternative realities of idealism while we ignore the real work required to uplift the masses of our people. All of this makes all of us equally responsible. So, if you are mad at Snoop, Nelly, or any other sellout today, and you are not involved in organizing work to build capacity for our people to fight back against these ills, then your next move has to be directing your anger at the image staring back at you in the mirror.

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Capitalism and the Myth of Individual Saviors

12/15/2024

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Social media is crowded with drop in your feed videos of luxury houses, apartments, and condominiums for sale or rent in Ghana, Tanzania, and other parts of Africa for alarmingly low asking prices compared to comparable properties in Europe, Canada, the U.S., etc. At the same time, many so-called progressives and revolutionaries are celebrating the murder of the Chief Executive Officer of United Healthcare – one of the largest private health insurance companies in the world – by an alleged lone assassin.

What are the common trends between these two situations? In each case the underlining assumption is that our collective problems as African and exploited/oppressed communities can be solved through individual actions taken within the capitalist system.

In the example of marketing these properties throughout Africa, the strategy is clear. The segment of the world’s population naturally inspired to consider moving to the African continent are the descendants of those Africans kidnapped and transported to the Western Hemisphere. And it is within certain geographies in the West i.e. the U.S. Europe, Canada, Australia, that a considerable percentage of the Africans living in those countries possess access to the financial resources to follow through on that dream to move to the motherland. The contradiction here is that this push to have Africans from the West move to Africa isn’t motivated or centered around any genuine and collective Pan-African struggle to revitalize Africa. Instead, this work is centered around a collection of Africans, most of whom were not born in Africa themselves, who have mimicked the investment models of the capitalist systems. Models that encourage investment rooted in exploitative practices that raise your individual financial portfolio without regard for the impact your actions have on the masses of our people and humanity. The end result of this strategy is the creation of an elite class of primarily Western born petti-bourgeoisie Africans, with some locally born petti-bourgeoisie Africans thrown in, that grows to represent a new type of settler colonialism in Africa. We say settler colonialism because none of these transplanted Africans have any plans or intentions of getting involved in anything designed to collectively uplift Africa. In fact, their best contribution is one of offering low paying exploitative jobs to local people to work on their properties (while their individual financial portfolios continue to grow). An objective continuation of the colonial model that has kept the majority of Africans throughout the continent poor and dependent for centuries. For these individual African investors, Africa is merely a means to an end, just like the capitalists and colonists who are responsible for the condition of Africa and African people today.

Regarding the death of the U.S. healthcare executive, many people on the left within the U.S. are lauding this action as if it represents some triggering consciousness that speaks to the awakening of the masses of people to the need to take up arms against the capitalist class. The cold reality is an individual was most likely distraught about one of millions of examples of mistreatment and disrespect the U.S. money over people healthcare system practices daily. As a result, that individual took an action that will ruin the rest of their life while United Healthcare will hire another Chief Executive Officer who will more than likely be just as bad a human being, if not worse, than the one who was killed.

Unfortunately, the left in the U.S., particularly the white left, has a long history of this type of idealism and fantasy. There is this unfortunate and consistently misguided belief within those communities that individual acts can blossom into mass revolutionary change despite the lack of one single example in history where this has happened. At least, not one successful example.

The best example of change in a society in 2024 and beyond is the Cuban Revolution and this is objectively true. Far from perfect, because no one who knows anything about revolution has ever claimed that revolutions are perfect, the Cubans have demonstrated for everyone who is willing to pay attention how a successful revolution can be carried out. Despite the crippling impacts of the 62 year old U.S. economic blockade against Cuba, that small island nation of 11 million people has managed to develop what even the capitalist supported World Health Organization has called the most accomplished healthcare system on earth. They are the only country to effectively neutralize mother to child HIV infections while also stunting cervical cancer. They have accomplished so much more in the health field while being prevented by the blockade from purchasing pharmaceuticals on the international market. Their education system has been praised by the capitalist supported United Nations as being among the best on earth. They have accomplished this by including curriculum on African and Indigenous histories and LGBTQ communities in their core learning. Their objective behind this approach is without question revolutionary. After this level of mass education for multiple generations and the subsequent dying off of backward ideas, in a few short years, they will be best positioned to have raised the collective level of consciousness in their society while the U.S. is still denying stealing these land from Indigenous people while continuing to attempt to deny the devastating impacts of the transatlantic slave trade on Africa and African people everywhere.

The absolute truth is Africans buying lands in Africa without those efforts being connected to a concrete plan for collective revolutionary Pan-Africanism is nothing more than another capitalist scam to build wealth for a few on the backs of the many. Equally true is that our existence cannot be solved by action movie sequences where the good guy vanquishes the villain. Its only when the masses of people are properly politically educated and organized, like they are attempting to accomplish in the Cuban Revolution, where we will create a qualified population that will reclaim Africa and all of her resources for collective use and advancement. It is also this model that will create an organized force that can topple the collective and exploitative corporate machine in a way where it cannot be replaced instead of just an individual leader of one entity who will be immediately replaced.

The collective approach is always harder, but history has shown us that there are never any shortcuts. Not for collective advancement. The shortcuts like buying land in Ghana or sentimental actions against symbols of state power only serve to make some of us feel better and others of us convince ourselves that we are making a contribution. For people genuinely concerned about collective forward progress this could never be enough.

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Who Are the 100 Million People Who Didn't Vote?

11/17/2024

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Its November, 2024, and another presidential election has just concluded within the U.S. Approximately 81 million people voted successfully for the person representing the Republican Party. Another almost 70 million voted for the Democratic Party candidate. A few million others voted for a variety of options. The 81 million or so Republican voters seem to have proudly and confidently voted for fascist leadership grounded in principles of the most exploitative capitalism known to human history. Such capitalism is of course rooted firmly in principles of white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, and every form of anti-human ideologies and practices imaginable.

The 70 million who voted for the Democratic Party represent themselves as the option for working class people including European women, colonized communities, LGBTQ communities, etc. The fascist right in the U.S. is making their case quite clear. They are opposed to any efforts to forge towards justice. My grandmother always told me that if a dog barks it’s a dog. Using this unquestionable African logic, its completely insane for us to hear the constant barking, feel the pain from the consistent bites and then continue to try and perceive the dog as anything other than it is.

On the other hand, the 70 million who voted for the Democrats provide a much more difficult challenge for us because these people are by and large people who are close to us i.e. our friends, family, etc. The right wing makes no effort to pretend that we are on the same page while the Democratic Party supporters genuinely see themselves as being on the side of justice. They demonstrate this perspective by their self-righteousness. The Africans supporters of the Democratic Party have drank the kool aid that has been prepared by the corporate elite. That kool aid argues that the primary thing that emerged from the U.S. civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s was the fight for the vote. Of course, this is far from the truth. That movement certainly had voting as one of its objectives, but it also had a focus on reclaiming our African identity (the Black Power movement), changing the racist immigration policies in the U.S. (the 1965 Immigration Reform Act), dismantling racist Jim Crow segregation laws, etc. Despite this unquestionable reality, the capitalist system and its mass propaganda mechanisms have spent the last 30 years pumping out nonstop messaging that our only viable option in life is to participate in U.S. capitalist elections i.e. the Democratic and Republican Party (not even third party consideration). As a result of this propaganda effort, voting in the U.S. for African people has developed into a practice of principle and anyone who refuses to participate in doing it is written off as someone who is ill-responsible, apathetic, and selfish as if that simple minded analysis contains even a shred of logic to it.

Our history in the U.S. is full of rock solid examples of constant struggles for justice that produced very effective results that had absolutely nothing to do with the capitalist electoral process. The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) provided mass consciousness that we are African people tied to the future of Africa and we must develop ways to concretize that understanding. People like W.E.B. DuBois gave us the visionary Pan-African perspective that Marcus Garvey’s UNIA attempted to create in our daily reality 100 years ago. Malcolm X and others built on the UNIA/DuBois model expanding African consciousness and real life Pan-African work that was based on the African continent as it properly should be. The Black Panther Party of course taught an entire new generation that we can effectively stand up against police terrorism. In fact, there would most likely not be any consciousness today about the value of African lives if there had not been a Black Panther Party. It can even easily be said that the thousands of African politicians who currently exist are only the result of the type of independent activism displayed in this paragraph.

So, to restate, what all of those organizational examples have in common is none of them were focused on voting in bourgeoisie capitalist elections. What they actually did is provide models of work that intentionally functioned outside of the capitalist society, instead building independent capacity to challenge the system. Their correct logic being that we cannot ever seriously believe that we can build our liberation using tools sanctioned and provided by the very people who hold us in a position of oppression. Still, despite this ill refutable logic, millions of our people – connected at the hip to the Democratic Party and its strange political agenda – have demonstrated repeatedly that they cannot see any of these historical examples. They are equally blind to the reality of how those activists who actually fought for the vote envisioned voting being used as a tool in our interests. There was never among those brave activists this belief today that voting is our only option. Those activists from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, etc., engaged in all levels of organizing and mobilization work. As a result, they understood the limitations of voting. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tied voting to mass movement work. Although he led efforts to push through the 1965 Voting Rights Act, this is the only aspect of his work that is ever highlighted. His efforts to build a poor people’s campaign, although that campaign still exists today, is completely ignored.

Mass organizing beyond just voting is ignored by the capitalist system in framing our history because as long as they keep us convinced that voting (within a system they completely control) is our absolute only option, we will never be any serious threat to concrete social change. And, its this point that brings us to some basic math as it relates to capitalist elections within the U.S. Although the capitalist system has most people in this country believing that the responsible majority votes and the others are the scum of the earth, the truth is much more complex. In other words, the continuous efforts to shame those that don’t vote isn’t lining up with conventional math. By all demographic sources like the 2020 U.S. Census, and operating within predictive models that allow an acceptable social science range of highs and lows, the approximate population living in the U.S. today is 350 million people. Of that number, approximately 100 million are ineligible to vote because they are either too young, convicted of a felony, or in some category of immigrant status, etc. Of the 250 million people remaining, about 150 million of them combined voted. These results would reveal that about 100 million people eligible to vote did not. The significance of this last number is that 100 million represents more people than either the Republicans or Democrats can claim as supporters.

If anything, this revelation demonstrates that neither bourgeoisie capitalist party is appealing to a majority of people. In other words, there was no mandate about anything. And, although the liberal elite from the Democratic Party would like nothing more than to assume that a significant portion of that 100 million belong to their camp. The truth is little to no analysis of this 100 million is ever made in this country. It should be stated clearly that the 100 million isn’t a new phenomenon. Its still never going to be discussed by capitalist media because their job is to convince everyone to buy into their system and that becomes a much more difficult task when more people are deciding to ignore the process than support either bourgeoisie party.
As for the 100 million themselves, who are they? Well, we know what they aren’t. They aren’t millions of apathetic people. Of course we have already pointed out that the lack of participation in the bourgeoisie process can mean many different things. It could mean apathy, but more likely, it means a lack of faith in this process that is consistently shoved down our throats as our only alternative. Our people do not lack agency. People see the misery being inflicted on the world, very disproportionately against our people. They have seen politician after politician make promises with no delivery. It has been 50 years since Dr. King stated publicly that he was afraid that all his anti-segregation/voting rights act work had served the purpose primarily of “integrating our people into a burning building.” Could it be possible that those 100 million people of all nationalities are people who understand Dr. King’s statement?

The truth is a significant number of those 100 million are involved in consistent political work. The type of work that far supersedes just becoming political one day every few years. The type of work that builds upon the contributions of past organizations and individuals who shunned the capitalist political process. Along with that, the vast majority of that 100 million are folks who may not be yet engaged, but if we say – correctly – that a lack of activity to engage against injustice is an objective vote for injustice, its equally logical to say that the refusal to participate and support the capitalist electoral process is itself a vote against the validity of that system.

On this last point the 100 million are certainly on to something because whatever reason they choose not to participate, they have successfully severed the hold of the capitalist system over their agency. The one criticism that must be waged against those within that number who are not engaged in consistent independent organizing work is that not participating in the enemy’s system is never enough. Its essential that those within that 100 million accept their position as shock troops for the emancipation of African and all opposed people’s from slave plantation electoral politics within the capitalist system.

There is no middle ground. Just seeing the contradictions with the capitalist system will never be good enough. Once you see and understand that both the Republicans and the Democrats are both different ends of the same stick, you then have the unending responsibility to lend your talents to helping more and more people understand the importance of all of us creating our own independent stick which will effectively wield power for the masses of people on earth who are tired of being extorted into compromising their entire future just to appeal to the whims of a liberal population which refuses to entertain the prospect that they are being pimped. That sometimes, not permitting yourself to be used and manipulated is indeed better than continuing to believe in fantasies that cover up continued and serious damage being inflicted against all peace and justice loving people by a political party process that represents – as Malcolm X told us – two different versions of the canine family.

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We Ask & Expect Nothing From this Capitalist System/Supporters

11/13/2024

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There is a ton of chest thumping going in the right wing world in the U.S. today. Plenty of people are making it known that they thrust a middle finger towards any attempts by African people to push back against the oppression we’ve experienced in this Hemisphere for 532 years.

Let’s start by contextualizing the European, African and other supporters of this capitalist system (they are simply supporters as being a capitalist requires one to have capital to which 99.9% of these people have none) all into a couple of categories. First, there are the folks who are just confused by the never ending barrage of capitalist propaganda. For those people we continue to work to bring about consciousness. The other category is for people who enthusiastically support the capitalist/colonial empire and will never listen to a single word being said that doesn’t agree with them.

For that latter category of sub-humans we have a simple message for those concerned about them. We think about them just about as much as they think about us. In other words, we couldn’t care less about how they feel about our ideological and practical positions about this backward system. We aren’t listening to them when they tell us to “go back” because their capitalist system has built and maintained its wealth by stealing everything from Africa (all of its human and material resources). We are here to continue to do work to wake our people up so that once we as the African masses can collectively understand that we are being systemically robbed, we can effectively organize to get our resources firmly under our control. When that revolutionary Pan-Africanist reality takes hold, there won’t be an empire for those people to pretend to own. And in that world, these lands return to the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere that their rachet European ancestors stole every inch of these territories from (Alaska down to Chile). We don’t care about them and what they think so the best thing they can do for themselves is get that kayak or canoe ready so that they can paddle their way back to Europe.

We are not moved by their efforts to destroy African history and we will never be derailed into thinking that their attacks against women, other colonized people, and LGBTQ folks are not tentacles of the same attacks being waged against us. We understand class struggle. We realize that there are a number of confused Africans – from Waka Flocka to Ye (Kanye West) to whoever the hell you want to name – who are going to do their bidding. Any African with a conscious mind has written off those clowns long ago. In fact any conscious African would never look towards any celebrity for any analysis about the capitalist system. Malcolm X told us 60 years ago that the role of these people is to perform as jesters for the capitalist system in exchange for money. Anyone trusting their analysis on anything having to do with our people should seek psychiatric treatment immediately.

We are not interested in any of the confused Africans who instantly jump up to declare they are not Africans. We have understood for decades that that these people couldn’t tell you anything comprehensive about African history, culture, and politics if you put a gun to their head. Actually, most of these people couldn’t even point out a specific African country on a map if their lives depended upon it. As a matter of fact, we should just be completely real here. These people know they haven’t read anything since they were forced to do so in one of these colonialist schools so don’t think you can fool us today. All we have to do is bring one of our African history books to you and ask you to read it out loud and, well we already know the tragic result that would come from that experiment.

We are not the least bit intimidated by Europeans who would use these times to act out their long dormant terrorist white supremacist fantasies. The best advice we have for them make sure they pick on the right one because enacting their pathetic efforts against a proud and conscious African will result in a very bad day for them.

As Arrested Development sang in the song “Ease My Mind”, “To resist this wack society. I ain’t accepting it, I keep my focus, I ain’t accepting it!” They can continue to throw their capitalist institutions at us and they won’t make a dent. Their Veterans Day is useless to us because we know the sole purpose of the U.S. military is to enforce terror on the planet earth to ensure capitalist interests are protected. They don’t respect the people they send into battle which is why so many of them commit suicide, domestic abuse, etc. They use them up fighting their criminal and worthless battles then leave them out on the battlefield of life. We are only sorry that so many of them continue to be committed to symbolism. Unfortunately for the system, we understand why. They have given their life’s energies to this backward system and have nothing to show for it so they create this mythical image that they have performed honorable service to humanity mostly just so they can live with it. Most sad indeed.

We reject their thankstakings, their fourth of the lie, and all of their justifications for colonialism and terrorism. No matter how many books they remove from the schools, we are training our children all over the world to see this system as it is – an enemy of humanity.

Finally, we will continue to struggle resolutely against their zionist oppression against Palestinians, their settler colonialism against the Indigenous people’s of the Western Hemisphere and within Africa. We will continue to struggle against their neo-colonialism in Africa and their police terrorism around the world. We are not intimidated or afraid one bit by the works they are carrying out against us. We know who they are so we would be confused if they didn’t continue to work against our efforts to bring about justice. The few of us who are afraid are only that way because they don’t yet know what we know, but many of them will and the system knows that. This is why it works so hard to control the narrative. They are a cesspool of contradiction. They criticize Kaepernick for eight years because (according to their warped thinking) “the job isn’t the place to be political, but they praise Bosa for wearing a MAGA hat on the field. They praise police and vigilantes who shoot us down, but when we shoot back and take a terrorist down, there’s silence from them. They criminalize immigrants while still expecting the fruits and vegetables to be reasonably priced when none of them would ever consider doing the work immigrants do. Don’t get us wrong. We are not complaining about this capitalist system and its supporters because again, they are who we thought they are. We are just pointing out these contradictions for those who still need to see and understand them. And, that leads to the most important portion of this piece. If you are a defender of capitalism, this really isn’t even for you. We just tricked you into reading this. This piece is for the coming generations who will be doing the work to bring about a better world that we wouldn’t even waste time attempting to explain to someone who thinks like you do.

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Ideas for Preventing Counter Intelligence Against Movements

11/12/2024

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The domestic and international intelligence agencies from the capitalist/imperialist countries – from the FBI/CIA to the Israeli Mossad – are well known for their terrorist tactics against freedom fighters over the previous several decades. Common techniques like badjacketing – where honest organizer/activists are labeled by intelligence agencies as corrupt, dishonest and/or police informants. This particular tactic has worked extremely well resulting in internal (surrogates of the state) murders against trusted activists like the Congo’s Patrice Lumumba, Maurice Mpolo, and Thomas Okoto, or the American Indian Movement’s Anna Mae Pictoh Aquash, or the Black Panther Party’s Alex Rackley.

In 2024 and beyond, these same tactics will continue to be utilized against us, but look for more digitally based tactics. The digital world is a much more desirable arena for intelligence agencies to exert their terrorism because they can do so behind the cloak of the internet, being thousands of miles away from their intended targets. Since plausible deniability has been a go to response by these terrorist agencies forever, the digital approach offers them ample opportunities and space to sabotage our efforts to build effective social movements.

Their pathway to internet based terrorist tactics is of course aided by the fact there are many newer activists on the scene who have little to no guidance and direction. Take the outpouring of support for the Palestinian people for example. This is excellent conscious raising and action oriented work designed to help people see the immorality of how the zionist movement oppresses the Palestinian people while zionism continues to use the religion of Judaism as shield for their criminal program. More people are aware of these contradictions today than ever before, but at the same time, most of the seasoned voices who first articulated this problem (while providing strong analysis to define the problem) are quiet now. For example, much of the anti-zionist fervor within the U.S. today can be directly credited to the work of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s, but the architects of their anti-zionism – Ethel Minor, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) etc., have all made their physical transitions so these younger organizers are left to their own devices. And those devices often include a ton of energy and passion surrounded by inexperience and a lack of knowledge. These are fertile ingredients for imperialist intelligence agencies to take root and there are plenty of signs that this is happening. With many of these newer activists having little to no hesitation expressing everything online from their distrust and dislike of activists to their wildly underdeveloped and flat-out wrong analysis about social issues, intelligence agencies are using this lack of discipline and inexperience to discover the weak spots within movements. With that knowledge they can then use informants to prick those weaknesses causing schisms to develop that often have the potential to rip a lot of effective work too pieces. And, the most insidious element to all of this is all of that sabotage can happen without anyone being targeted by this devious work having the slightest clue where the sabotage is originating from.

With the capitalist world in a continued state of perpetual decline we are observing all of these capitalist states moving farther and farther to the right. This strategy from them is designed to consolidate control over resources for the capitalist multi-national corporate world by squeezing any possible opportunities for working people to achieve justice out of existence. Consequently, the need for mass movement is more relevant today than ever and we will continue to see these movements develop with clear anti-oppression foundations. What will be necessary within this work is for activists and organizers to consider new ideas for how to effectively engage the work in ways that are inclusive because mass strength is our only true defense. As Kwame Ture often said “only the masses of people make history, not individuals!” So to build this strength we will have to commit to:

Building mass movements/organizations. This is a hard pill to swallow, especially for the white left which has a history of elitist organizing approaches which feed directly into this false narrative that people cannot be trusted. Imagine attempting to build a mass movement while believing that you are the only person who can be trusted? This model clearly does not work and African and other colonized people who operate within this sphere would do well to Return to the Source as Amilcar Cabral advised us. Begin to build collective organizing circles where revolutionary consciousness and development is heightened and individualistic based perceptions of people are de-emphasized.
Number one happens by building structures within our organizing circles designed to strengthen our commitment to the work. This includes regular and consistent political education processes that are collective and designed to build collective consciousness and cadre leadership, not individual decision makers.
Instituting strong criticism/self criticism processes that are designed to build and strengthen our abilities to hold ourselves and each other accountable to our vision and our work thus decentralizing bourgeoisie idealism which is so prevalent today while emphasizing collective consciousness and work.

The simple focus on these principles in our work will do wonders to strengthen us, making it much more difficult for us to be manipulated by imperialist intelligence work. For one, we will develop ideological analysis and discipline which will prevent us from reacting emotionally when things don’t go the way we believe that they should. In fact, even the concept of believing things should go as we believe they should at the rate we want them to is elitism which a strong ideological struggle foundation (political education) helps us eliminate.

Once we begin to build this capacity, we develop much more steeled and skilled organizers/activists/ People who cannot be derailed just by a random person no one really knows coming into our circles generating acts of confusion and sabotage. In circles developing and practicing the revolutionary principles laid out here, the rise in collective consciousness will make it much more difficult for one or two persons acting to disrupt the work to sway everyone. We have seen many organizational models where this has proven to work. The work/study process of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) being one. Much of the ideological training being developed within the A-APRP comes from the work of our older and more experienced sibling parties in Africa like the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau (PAIGC) or the Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG). On a consistent basis since imperialism and neo-colonialism acted in the summer of 2023 to illegally refuse to seat the democratically elected president and National Assembly of the PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau, we are seeing the police and military engage in continuous harassment and sabotage against the PAIGC, but we are also seeing the PAIGC demonstrate its ideological commitment to its revolutionary path by its militants refusing to be intimidated and thrown off their mission. Imagine consistent police raids against U.S. activists to the same magnitude. It would probably only need to happen once to completely dismantle any potential for positive work. What’s the difference? The ideological commitment to all of the principles identified here within PAIGC structures like the General Union of Guinea-Bissau Women
(UDEMU), Amilcar Cabral African Youth (JAAC), the A-APRP workstudy circles there, etc.

True progress is never easy. In truth, nothing in life worthwhile is easy, but for those serious about change, this approach is absolutely necessary if we intend to continue to build capacity to fight empire while keeping ourselves as safe as we possibly can. You can always find out more detailed analysis of this approach in my 2021 book – “A Guide for Organizing Defense against White Supremacist, Patriarchal, and Fascist Violence.”

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We Ain't Afraid or Concerned about Their MAGA Machine

11/6/2024

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Today in the U.S. after the latest national election, my phone has seen a flurry of activity. People are reaching out asking “what are we going to do?” regarding Donald Trump’s second election victory as president of the U.S. in the last eight years. The fact people are reaching out is exciting. The reason for the excitement is unlike most of these people, my political activism isn’t limited to just voting in these capitalist elections every two and four years. My activism exists on a daily basis. The planning and executing events, traveling, speaking, organizing, risking harm to build capacity, writing about our conditions, and mentoring countless young people on how we organize to build our revolutionary Pan-Africanism movement. The people reaching out to me know all of this. They also know that I’ve been doing this work for decades. These people are working class people with families. People who are African, Indigenous to the Western Hemisphere, European, all types of people. What they all have in common is I’ve never felt that many of them held much value in my politics since my engagements with them have been overwhelmingly about their fears, concerns, and actions over the years with little to no engagement around the solutions we offer.

Yet, this morning, here they are. A lot of people would view this as insulting. You pour your soul into working for humanity and most people around you couldn’t appear to care less. Never do they ask you about your work or show any interest in it. Even the people closest to you. Despite this reality, any revolutionary organizer would relish these moments. The reason why is the question we always search for in our work is that one I have been getting all day – “what do we do?”
We certainly welcome the opportunity to offer our insights into this question. When all is said and done, approximately 80 million people will have voted for the Trump ticket. That’s about 22% of the 350 million people who inhabit this country. There are a few important takeaways here.

First, our revolutionary organizing and demographic work informs us that of the 350 million people, approximately 100 millions are ineligible to vote i.e. to young, convicted of felonies, immigrants, etc. Of the 250 million left, approximately 150 million of them participate in the voting process in national elections. What this tells us is particularly as it relates to people with higher incomes, or the perception of higher incomes, and with primarily European communities, and/or those who desire to relate to the European capitalist paradigm in this country, the overwhelming majority of those people have made it crystal clear. They agree with a rightwing fascist agenda that is anti-African, anti-Indigenous, anti-women, anti-LGBTQ, anti-humanity, while being pro-capitalist and big business. These people represent over 50% of those who voted in this country. This isn’t just the sentiments of one man. Its much more than that. This is what this country wants. These are ill refutable facts and as African and other oppressed peoples, its our responsibility in 2024 and beyond to accept this cold hard reality. What that means is its far past time for us to continue pretending that this is a country where we have a place. From our perspective, its incredible how a single person with any sense of dignity would even desire a place in such a backward country, but for those who do, you at least owe it to yourselves and your communities to approach this question from a position of the dignity just mentioned. That means you have to stop begging these people to fit into a society where you don’t fit. Stop playing exclusively by their rules because those rules were never configured with you in mind. Instead, if you continue to insist upon participating in this electoral process then start coming into it with intentions to advance the masses of our people, not just a few individuals. Get serious about building a movement to hold this corrupt system accountable to our interests. A movement that is mass in character and committed to tearing this system down to the ground when they mess with us.

If people are not serious enough about our future to build such a movement than at best, you are only upset because what’s happening makes you personally uncomfortable and if this is who you are, you should continue to be uncomfortable. Extremely so because why should our enemies take you seriously if you don’t have enough regard for us to ensure we are fighting for the legacy that so many of our ancestors lost everything to provide for us.

The other significant factor we need to be cognizant of is the 100 million people who don’t vote. They are not voting because they are apathetic. This is a pathetic and elitist analysis that originates from the capitalist system itself. What a large percentage of these people are telling us from their refusal to participate is that despite all the capitalist propaganda efforts to shame them for not voting, they are taking the courageous position that they don’t want to have to choose between the violent rapist and the rapist who talks nice to you while they rape you. Both are rapists. Both are terrorists. Or, as Malcolm X
told us “both are canines.”

For us, these 100 million represent the potential converts in the population. People who w/could be open to revolutionary messaging. Africans within this number who would be open to joining the African revolution. Non-Africans who could accept that a revolutionary change is truly the only solution.
What all of this actually means is this country today is the same country it has been for 531 years. A terrorist settler colony bent on protecting its interests at the expense of all of humanity. There are no more excuses. No more lame justifications. If you are committed to reform than you have to accept that a mass movement dedicated to disrupting this system on all levels is an absolute necessity. If you are ready for something else beyond that, then there is plenty of work needing to be done to build the revolutionary consciousness and capacity necessary to bring empire to its knees. Anything else is simply voting for our continued demise. We are so much better than that. Its time for us to stop moping and prove it.

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A Simple Vision for Understanding Bank Failures

3/19/2023

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According to a February 2023 Federal Deposit and Insurance Corporation (FDIC) audit, 563 U.S. banks have failed and/or come under regulatory authority since 2021. Here in California, U.S., the latest casualty has been the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). This latest rash of bank failures, especially within the software start up SVB, have alarmed apologists for capitalism all over the world. With this piece, we are hopeful we can bring some fundamental understanding of what’s happening for everyday working people.

First, it should be explained that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an institution of the U.S. federal government. Its reason for existing is to provide some level of guarantees against bank failure. They do this by regulating banks, auditing them, and insuring bank deposits for up to $250,000 USD (aggregate deposits per institution). What this means – for example is if you have $275,000.00 in liquid asset deposits in any U.S. bank, if that bank fails and/or comes under FDIC jurisdiction, your deposits for up to $250,000.00 are insured by the federal government, meaning the government should issue you a check for that amount. The remaining $25.000.00 in deposits that you had in the failed bank makes you now a creditor for that bank, meaning they owe you that money just as you owe your credit card companies, car finance institutions, etc.

Of course, like any creditor/borrower relationship, your ability to get repayment has no guarantee. The bank can come under bankruptcy protection, etc., which means you would lose all or most of that $25,000.00 using that hypothetical example, but that is a fundamental definition of the role of the FDIC. Its worth noting that credit unions are governed by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), which serves the same general purpose for credit unions that the FDIC serves for banks, including insuring deposits for up to an aggregate $250.000.00 per customer/member per institution.

Its important to also note that the FDIC was formed in 1933 as a result of the Banking Act legislation. This happened four years after the great stock market crash of 1929 which means the FDIC was created as a vehicle to encourage renewed trust in the U.S. banking system. Its that question of trust that provides the basis for creating a simple way of analyzing and understanding what is happening with banks within the capitalist system and how to interpret these bank failures.

When we look at the operational functionality of the banking system, we have to start with its origins. Contrary to popular opinion, the international banking system, and the concept of capital as the foundation of that system, did not start from the creative and intellectual genius of the fathers of the capitalist system. Instead, the start up capital for the international banking system came directly from proceeds produced from the enslavement of kidnapped Africans. The labor of their work was converted to revenues that were invested to initiate the banking system and the capital it would rely on to facilitate its existence. Every large international bank today from Chase to Barclays owes its origins to this nefarious beginning. If we understand and accept this ill-refutable history, it should be easy to understand that the capitalist banking system, from its beginning, has been about exploitation and its that reality that paves the way for greater understanding of what’s happening today.

Banks operate by taking your deposits, no matter how large or small, and investing those deposits to generate capital. The more money you have to deposit, the greater incentives the banks provide you for doing so i.e. no fees, more services, slightly higher dividends (returns on your deposits), etc. Regardless, whether you have $250,000.00 deposited in a bank, or $25.00, the process works the same. Your money is used by the bank to invest in any number of financial projects designed to provide a positive return for the bank on your deposit. For the overwhelming majority of us, this is done with little to no return for you. In other words, if you have a job where your paycheck is direct deposited into your bank account every two weeks – say $2500.00 twice per month. And, from each check you have $300.00 automatically transferred into your savings account, that means you are saving $600.00 USD per month. You will receive next to nothing for that money sitting and growing in that bank, but the bank will use your deposits and invest them in any number of profit generating projects – primarily exploitative projects around the world because those types of investments are the best suited to produce the highest return on the dollar. Think exploitative companies that steal resources from Africa for example. Companies like Dutch Royal Shell, or Shell Oil, rob Nigeria’s Niger Delta blind drilling for oil. There is no over-sight and the workers are paid peanuts. As a result, Shell’s profits continue to break records. Well, a bank will invest in Shell’s stocks and profit from Shell’s theft of resources from Nigeria. So, as Shell’s profits grow, the bank’s profits grow. And, by profits we mean capital i.e. money the bank earns that serves the sole and specific purpose of being reinvested for additional profits.

That’s why when the capitalist commentators talk about most U.S. banks being “well capitalized” they are primarily telling the truth. These banks have millions of dollars – dollars they made investing your deposits – sitting around ready for them to invest to make even greater profits. Meanwhile, you get slim to nothing from them using your money and you will even be penalized if you come upon rough times and cannot maintain the minimum requirements they demand to keep your account(s) going. They have to make those demands of you because if your money isn’t available to them, they have nothing to invest and profit off of it. If you think about it, the banking model is basically the same as someone coming to you, taking your paycheck when you cash it, using your money to make additional money from it, and just returning to you what they took from you in the first place. And, if they are unable to get a return on your paycheck, they are usually supported by the government in their financial challenges while you are left to figure out how to proceed on your own with no help or support.

That’ still not even the full story. Besides the example of investing in the exploitative practices of Shell and other criminal multi-national exploitative capitalist corporations, the banks invest heavily into shady and high risk ventures like securities from the secondary market. These type of investments are often bundled high risk mortgage loans – meaning loans provided to buyers who’s repayment potential is questionable, but who agreed to repayment terms at much higher, and profitable, interest rates. These types of unscrupulous business practices by banks have resulted in devastating consequences such as the 2008 mortgage crash in the U.S. where everyday consumers were left houseless while the banks were bailed out by the 2009 multi-billion dollar gangster deal – compliments of the Obama Administration – the most lucrative welfare scheme in human history.

As it relates to banks like the Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, California, U.S., the same principles apply. This bank was the home for software start up companies who invested incredible sums of money in highly questionable ventures for most its 40 year existence. As has been alluded to, this has always been the program of capitalist banks, but in recent years we are seeing the limitations of this strategy much easier because the decline of capitalism i.e. its inability to meet production demands and produce on a consistent basis (due to contradictions with labor, resistance to this exploitation, global insecurity, higher costs of production, etc.) has created conditions where the once assumed stability of capitalist banks is now more and more in question. This is a reality that will continue to create hardship for millions of people, worldwide, but in the long run, this also has the potential to represent a new day for the masses of humanity where capital no longer controls the narrative everywhere on earth. There are a lot of variables to unpack in order to create that reality, but for now, the best thing all of us can do is engage every effort that we can to educate our communities about the role of banking institutions to profit from our continued exploitation and how the system is set up to support their existence, and failures, while making us the main source of accountability for ourselves and their greedy exploitative practices. This problem, like every other problem we face, cannot be resolved through any level of individual initiative. It cannot be resolved by any other approach to stabilizing the capitalist system. This problem is a reflection of the exploitative basis from which capitalism developed hundreds of years ago and its simply a manifestation that this profit over people model of operation is existing in its final days. This may be a scary thought to many, but at the end of the day, Kwame Ture was 100% correct when he said that “if we don’t struggle for revolution, we suffer so why don’t we organize and take the suffering as a pathway to our liberation and forward progress instead of just continuing to suffer with no end in sight?” Capitalist banks are viewed as vehicles to provide us with houses, cars, loans, etc. What they are in reality is a criminal operation that is 100% supported by the U.S. government which is nothing more than a mouthpiece for international capitalism. The sooner we can do the necessary work to create broader consciousness around this, the sooner we can reclaim the resources that rightfully belong, not to a small and criminal elite, but to the masses of people on earth.

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"Say It Loud" - A Sad Attempt to Dishonestly Discredit Kwame Ture

2/12/2023

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It was November 2022 when I first saw notification that Mark Whitaker’s “Say It Loud – When Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement” book was going to drop in February, 2023. I typically prefer books written by journalists with activist backgrounds as opposed to strictly news media histories, so I had concerns about Whitaker, who’s experience contains U.S. magazine editing and related fields. Still, I’m without question a student of our movement history and whenever anything is written that provides a perspective on revolutionaries who contribute to our movement for justice, especially African revolutionaries, I make it my business to study that material.

Whitaker’s book, focusing on the events that exploded out of the June 1966 Mississippi march where the Black power chant started a new phase of the civil rights movement, had a specific focus on Kwame Ture, formally Stokely Carmichael. After his work in the U.S. movement, Ture played a significant role in laying the foundation for the work of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP), the party I have spent my entire adult life contributing to, so I knew I had to study this book. Doing so is a priority because there has been a concerted effort, unnoticed by the untrained eye, directed at discrediting the work of uncompromising radicals like Kwame Ture. Former U.S. empire president Bill Clinton, speaking at former civil rights activist and U.S. congressman John Lewis’s funeral in 2020, provided an example of this trend when he took a swipe at Kwame’s legacy within the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

It is without question, our responsibility as African revolutionaries to protect the legacy of our soldiers so that our people can know that its perfectly okay for us to decide to chart a of action that isn’t in any way defined by capitalist norms and values. Consequently, I immediately pre-ordered Whitaker’s book in November of 2022, and the book arrived on February 7, 2023. A 307 page book, I completed it by Saturday, February 10, 2023. And, I don’t say that to brag, but to illustrate how frustrating the contents of the book were and how determined I was to get through it so I could use our platforms to let people know. As is the case within the capitalist paradigm of history, Whitaker’s book made every effort to discredit Kwame Ture as is their practice with anyone who exhibits genuine African militancy that doesn’t cow tow to worldwide imperialism.

We will say first that you are strongly encouraged here to read the book. We will always encourage people to read everything, regardless of how bad, because we believe one of the primary reasons poor works like Whitaker’s book are able to continue to pass as major literature on our movement is because the overwhelming majority of us have made little to no effort to take it upon ourselves to seriously study and articulate our history for ourselves. And by ourselves, I don’t mean anyone with “Black” skin. We recognize the necessity at all times for a nation, class, gender analysis in anything we study and use so we are talking about a revolutionary Pan-Africanist perspective, not the race of the author.

“Saying It Loud” fell short by using tired old tropes about the civil rights movement being the highest expression of African existence while the Black Power era of that movement is depicted as poisoning the sanctity and pureness of the anti-segregation phase of the movement. And, as can be expected, Kwame Ture’s rise to chair of SNCC was consistently portrayed in the book as the demise of the organization while John Lewis’s tenure was discussed, as is usually the case in reformist literature, as pristine and without major contradiction.

The above would actually be okay, because there are always going to be serious ideological differences between the revolutionary and reformist perspectives of history. This is to be expected, but what’s offensive about Whitaker’s book is its efforts to minimize the intellectual capacity and seriousness Kwame Ture had for our struggle. The author constantly paints a picture of Ture as never truly being serious about the struggle as if Kwame’s style and practice during the most dangerous periods of the movement provide some sort of evidence about his lack of seriousness and even worse, his lack of mental stability. For example, Whitaker saw Kwame’s use of humor while being incarcerated at the notorious Parchmen Prison in Mississippi, for his civil rights work as proof of his lack of seriousness. Whitaker insinuates the same regarding Kwame’s reaction to a number of terrorist events that Kwame was directly involved in. Anyone who knows anything about the torture and degradation Kwame and others experienced routinely, knows that any method the organizers could use to get through, and help others get through, the experience, should be praised, whether you understand those tactics or not. This is true because regardless of how people processed that trauma, they were there because of their courage and commitment to our struggle for justice. Kwame’s willingness to consistently risk his life had no personal upside. He never cashed in on those experiences such as could be argued about a number of his political contemporaries. This fact can never be questioned, especially by someone in the media who never risked a toenail for anything beyond themselves.

Unfortunately, Whitaker continues with this logic throughout the book, criticizing everything Kwame does without even the slightest analysis applied in the process. For instance, he focuses a lot on Kwame’s individual speaking engagements as if to imply that Kwame was only interested in the spotlight that the SNCC chair position afforded him and not movement building. This point is further brought out in the book by Whitaker’s insistence that Kwame’s speeches were “incendiary” and that he never explained what was meant by Black Power. To Whitaker, incendiary apparently means anything that doesn’t fit neatly within the capitalist paradigm. For instance, Kwame’s insistence that African people should use whatever means are available to them to secure their human rights is incendiary to Whitaker because we are never supposed to have agency and humanity. We are always only supposed to accept what the capitalist system is willing to provide to us. In this colonialist/slave master framework, any suggestion that we should take our freedom from an empire that has everything it has solely because of what it steals from us, is always considered ill responsible. As to Whitaker’s criticism about Kwame’s refusal to define Black Power for the U.S. capitalist media, its incredible that he cannot understand that a major underpinning of Black Power is the concept that we will determine our own destiny. A major element of that self determination is recognizing that we no longer need to base our movement on what is understood by the people holding up the system that is oppressing us. If you want to understand Black Power or Pan-Africanism, etc., do your own emotional labor and study to understand it. It is not the responsibility of the oppressed segment to define their vision in a way that makes sense to you and its unfathomable that this still needs to be explained to people in 2023. And, to add insult to injury, Whitaker suggests that Kwame’s reaction to the military draft board and some of his responses to the frantic pressure within SNCC, suggest mental instability on his part. This worthless analysis isn’t even worth the time it would take to respond to it.

Finally, the book relies on more tired and played out tactics of disrespect such as refusing to acknowledge that Stokely Carmichael becomes Kwame Ture in 1977. Although Whitaker articulates the name change, he continues to refer to Kwame as Stokely Carmichael, a fundamental and basic form of disrespect not just for Kwame, but for our efforts to de-colonize ourselves as a people. Also, this book falls into the exact same bourgeoisie trap that Peniel Joseph’s work on Kwame’s life and so many other depictions of Kwame’s life after he leaves the U.S. for good in 1969. Since these people wholeheartedly accept the bourgeoisie and racist conception that everything is always centered around the U.S., anyone like Kwame Ture who decides otherwise must be insane and this is the basis from Whitaker and so many others reference to Kwame’s decision to move to Africa. Relying on the same discredited allegations against Sekou Ture and the Democratic Party of Guinea, Whitaker uses Kwame Ture’s move to Guinea-Conakry to again question his intellectual stability while relegating any further analysis of Kwame’s work to his annual appearances in the U.S. (since for these people that’s the definition of anything and everything).
This sad analysis of Kwame’s life completely ignores his work from 1969 to 1998 to become a Central Committee member for the Democratic Party of Guinea and the A-APRP while using his contacts and influence to expand the A-APRP throughout Africa as called for in Kwame Nkrumah’s “Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare”, the strategy to achieve Pan-Africanism. After just returning from Guinea-Bissau a few short weeks ago, I was able to again see the results of Kwame Ture’s initial work in Africa in building the A-APRP and Pan-Africanism as I’ve seen in previous trips to Ghana, Tanzania, Gambia, Senegal, etc. Even a cursory observation of this massive body of work reveals that Kwame Ture retained consistency in elevating his relation to Black Power to a broader and more comprehensive understanding of Pan-Africanism, the highest expression of Black Power the world knows. This elevation was progress from Kwame Ture, not evidence of an eroding mental state. Its hard to imagine a more racist and reactionary framework as that suggested in Whitaker’s book around this question, no matter who or where it originates from.

So, again, we encourage you to read Whitaker’s book if you desire to do so. We also encourage you to study up on the work of the A-APRP, particularly Kwame Ture’s life after he moved to Africa. We encourage this because its ill refutable that the more we practice this type of study, the easier it becomes for us to interpret these things through the critical vision necessary to have the healthiest perspective humanly possible. Things like acknowledging that this period Whitaker covers in his book represents a period when Kwame Ture was a mere 25 years old facing opposition from every corner of the capitalist power structure. Imagine a 25 year old speaking to the contradiction of a powerless and oppressed people coming to see their agency as being their responsibility and truly justice minded people rising to support that concept instead of acting as if such a perspective could only exist among people who have some other ulterior motive and/or or are just not truly serious about their messaging. Pay attention to how if Whitaker provided a fraction of critique towards notoriously corrupt and racist individuals like Ronald Reagan and Federal Bureau of Investigation terrorists Cartha Deloach and William Sullivan (he barely mentions them) that he did Kwame Ture he would have had a 1000 page book.

We realize that imperialism’s role is always going to be to discredit any efforts by anyone to challenge its hegemony. We will never be taken aback by that. What we are concerned about is just how easy it continues to be for so many of us to be led astray by their continued dirty tricks.

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Will We Ever Accept that Police Are Never Our Friends?

1/27/2023

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The most recent and tragic story of police violence against a defenseless African in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. is yet another triggering event for the African masses everywhere on earth. Its especially triggering to this author for multiple reasons. First, my daughter and only child currently resides as a graduate student in Memphis and the ancestors know that I count the days when she can finish her studies and be closer to us. My other reasons for being triggered may also be emotionally based, but there is significant objective analysis to justify those concerns.

The first of these concerns is the constantly superficial and dishonest method in which these incidents are dominantly portrayed within the capitalist media. Its always the same nonsense regurgitated over and over again. African people who either work as police, are related to police, or know police, come out from under every rock to say over and over again that “not all police are bad!” Or, as I heard one African woman who’s husband was a police captain somewhere put it, “my husband is Black, not blue.” The other headache producing phenomenon which surfaces after each shooting or beating is the tired refrain that comes from so-called African community leaders, the police leadership themselves, and even the families of the shooting victims. They are shocked and as the mother of the African killed in Memphis said over and over in her statemen’; “where was the humanity in those officers?”

Then, there is the consistently injected weak analysis that seeks to somehow justify police terrorism against us when the perpetuating police are African, as is the case in this Memphis incident. People point to this as if they are doing anything besides giving our revolutionary analysis of police a boost.

At some point in history, when we do not know because we cannot predict the future, but whenever it happens, whether this year or 50 years from now, it will not be soon enough, we as a people will have to take accountability for some of this suffering we experience. What is meant by this statement is that there have been plenty of us on the radical left within the African community who have been talking about police terrorism for decades, centuries even. We have talked and written extensively about police as an institution emerging from the chattel slavery system. We have expounded repeatedly about the terror directed against us being a result of the systemic requirement of the capitalist system to ensure the African masses stay repressed (and how police exist specifically to maintain that repression). And, we have explained in great detail, over and over again, that the nationality of the police officer is 100% ill-relevant because we are talking about that systemic institution of repression against our people.

And you cannot argue that this work has not penetrated deep among our people because the seeds of this consciousness has emerged even within popular capitalist culture on a consistent basis. The number of motion pictures that demonstrate police corruption are too many to name and movies like “Boyz in the Hood”, a 30+ year old movie, clearly articulated the uselessness of African police officers in creating safety for the African masses. Yet, despite all of this, there are still so many of us who absolutely refuse to accept reality. In fact, we can say with relative confidence that unless most of us personally experience police terrorism against us or our families, we refuse to accept that this is a problem we have any responsibility to do anything about. Far to many of us in 2023 still believe that the road to progress is lined with us integrating into police departments when incidents like Memphis clearly show us that this strategy is not working.

We could talk in detail about so many things about this latest incident and any other incident, but the bottom line is our people have to at some point take responsibility for recognizing who we are in this system. We have to take responsibility for waking up from this fantasy that we wish to believe that we have the “rights” that everyone else has. That we are free in these societies.

From the perspective of this author, its far past time for us to take the kid gloves off with our people. As someone how has offered free self defense training and political education about who we are in this society for years, only to have most people ignore those efforts, its becoming more and more difficult to not shake my head when these attacks continue to happen against us. For those of us who preach organization until our throats are sore just to have most people dismiss us in their pursuit for capitalist integration, its time for you to be accountable to yourselves and our communities.

Don’t misconstrue what is being said here. Our job is to wake up our people and regardless of how many of us remain asleep, we will continue to do our work, but its time for that work to take on more militancy. This liberal “I can be on the side of African people and still support police” insanity needs to be called out at every turn. The right wing and its racist analysis talking points i.e. we are only concerned about police shootings against us and not violence in African communities needs to be shut down among our people. And, we need to start calling out this malaise that dominates our existence until something happens to you and your family. Because at some point, if you continue to ignore reality, you have to take some responsibility for what happens. So, let’s reiterate some key points again. The police are never our friends. Those institutions were never created to serve us anywhere on earth. They exist to serve the interests of international capital. And, any African, other people of color or working people period, who join those institutions are doing nothing besides allying themselves to those anti-people institutions. In other words, where is the massive outcry from African police about the corruptness of policing institutions? We are not talking about quiet off the record confirmations of things we already know. We are talking about active resistance to the repression their jobs perpetuate against us. That resistance doesn’t exist so stop talking about African police because they are worthless to us.

Start paying attention to sincere effort to provide our people with the tools to organize ourselves to protect us because those efforts are truly all we have and its really all that we need. The only thing lacking with those efforts is that most our people don’t support them. Its time to change that once and for all. There are any number of independent organizations who have programs that speak directly to how we organize against police terrorism. The All African People’s Revolutionary Party, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Nation of Islam, Black Alliance for Peace, etc., etc., etc. Join those organizations and/or start one of your own that has a political education program that educates about the role of police in protecting the capitalist system and how we organize against them.

If our people continue to ignore these resolutions while operating as if calling 911 is your primary protection plan for your loved ones, then you are the one who becomes responsible when those terrorists that you called, come and create even greater trauma for you and your family. We can do so much better. The only thing stopping us is us.

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The Undeniable Similarities Between Trump & Obama Supporters

6/5/2022

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Since the emergence of Donald Trump as a dominant political figure in U.S. capitalist politics, the narrative coming out of the liberal bourgeoisie has been to criticize the lack of analytical capabilities coming from Trump supporters. For several years now, there has been a consistent focus around the lack of intellectual foundation contained within the thinking of anyone who supports Trump’s thoughts and actions. And, without question, there is overwhelming evidence to support this critique. Even surface level students of history can see clearly the lack of truth coming from Trump and his supporters with their superficial and uninformed analysis of white supremacy, patriarchy, and the basic working of the capitalist system (especially as it relates to politics in general and international politics in particular). The dominant arguments from the so-called Trump right-wing around white supremacy are so paper thin that they can be destroyed by the most basic talking points that exist beyond capitalist news media propaganda (from either the so-called “left” or “right”).

Without question, white supremacy objectively is a system of institutionalized discrimination against colonized folks (people of color), period. By institution we mean this system of oppression operates independent of who is the conduit. That is why the Trumpian view that someone like Candace Owens denying the existence of white supremacy is valid to them simply because she is (biologically) an African is ridiculous. This poor understanding of the mechanisms of white supremacy is absurd to anyone who has read even one simple book on the subject. Yet, this backward approach of analyzing systemic challenges through an individualistic, subjective, and ahistorical viewpoint is almost universally practiced and supported by Trump supporters on every issue.

What’s interesting is if we are to take a look at that same individualistic, subjective, and ahistorical approach as it relates to people who support Barack Obama the same way we do with people who support Donald Trump we find very little difference between the two camps beyond the appearance and style between Trump, Obama and their respective supporters. This is true because truth is universal and objective and capitalism is the economic system that drives white supremacy, patriarchy, etc. So, regardless of who is at the helm of the capitalist system, regardless of what they look like, what they sound like, how they walk, and whether they prefer chicken or beef, as long as we are talking about capitalism, at the end of the day, we are talking about people who have the same objective. Even if their route to achieve that objective looks and/or feels different.

Trump supporters deny reality by denying their support for Trump is rooted in white supremacy, regardless of whether they are African or not. They do so because there is something in racist ideology that they feel is of use to them i.e. Candance Owens, Larry Elder, and others figuring out that there is a niche for Africans who agree with white supremacy and a lucrative payday that comes with that. Or, for the majority of Europeans who support Trump, they feel a sense of emotional validation because his rhetoric speaks to their insecurities about living in a world where white supremacy will no longer be tolerated. Most of them will never be in a position where they will have to admit those illogical insecurities. And since their entire thinking is motivated by fear perpetuated by the capitalist system, which feeds upon the scarcity model to convince people they have to be fearful of each other instead of the people on top, we know that capitalism has produced an entire society of people who do not know how to think critically. Consequently, when they don’t think, their actions are facilitated by sentiment instead of reason. And, that explains the entire Trump phenomenon.

In a different approach, it also explains the Obama phenomenon. The perspective that individual advancement within the capitalist system can somehow represent progress for the masses of people is a theory rooted in sentiment because there is no practical evidence to support that claim. Clearly, an Obama, Kamala Harris, or whomever, who advances through the capitalist system as in individual, while the masses of Africans remain powerless, does absolutely nothing to advance the masses of people. Even if Obama, Harris, etc., were determined to fight 100% for the advancement of African people, with the masses of Africans disorganized, there is no collective power to hold the capitalist system accountable to us in any way shape or form. And, that’s still true even if every individual African who advances to hold positions within the capitalist system is sincere about our liberation when Obama, Harris, and others clearly are not.

All one would have to do is evaluate the track record and policy work from Obama, Harris, etc., to see that their existence has nothing to do with our advancement. Since 2008 when Obama was first elected, African people are still victimized by mass incarceration, poverty, healthcare disparities, police terrorism, etc., None of things have gotten better and its not as if Obama developed any type of campaign to even attempt to address any of those things in a serious way. He couldn’t do that even if he wanted to because again, our people are disorganized. We control no power base within the Democratic Party that elected him. We are only continuously pimped by that party, nothing else. And for those who trot out the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) as evidence of something that supposedly separates Obama from Trump and/or others, that’s a historically low bar argument. It’s the equivalent of praising McDonalds for feeding starving people from their scraps. It looks good, but does virtually nothing to address the fundamental problem.

And, we haven’t even offered an evaluation of Obama’s devastating policies internationally of which the overwhelmingly majority of African people who support him could not even give you a comprehensive discussion around. Africom in Africa i.e. up to 80 U.S. military bases overseeing neo-colonialism in Africa. The annihilation of the Libyan Jamahiriya in 2011. The support for the illegal and immoral coup in Honduras in 2008. The support for the fascist regime in Brazil. Support for fascist elements who led the coup attempt in the Ukrainian government in 2014. All of this terror and more was carried out under Obama’s watch as president, but if you bring any of these things up to Obama supporters, they will always respond with the same subjective sentimentality about how good he looks with Michelle and their daughters. How good it makes people feel to see them in that position.

How is any of this any different than how Trump supporters see Trump? The dismissal of actual and factual devastation against human beings while raising up ill relevant emotional responses based upon our individual desire to feel better about our personal realities and what space we occupy within this backward society without recognizing the necessity to take action and make changes.

Its an absolutely sick dichotomy that is a systemic indictment against the capitalist system as a whole. Its only this capitalist system, with its unprecedented 24/7/365 propaganda mechanisms, that can so effectively program millions of people on a consistent basis who come from completely different backgrounds to respond to phenomena the exact same way. In the case of Trump supporters its rural people, people with no college education, people with college education, primarily European people, non-white people who see a lane for them to benefit in supporting Trump, whomever. Appeal to their insecurities and fears and convince them that as long as Trump and what he represents validates them in some emotional way, there is absolutely no reason to consider any other critical pieces of information about the consequences of his work on all of humanity.

In the case of Obama supporters its city based working people, people of color, people with college degrees, people without college degrees, people suffering from white supremacy, patriarchy, and all forms of institutional oppression, whomever. Appeal to their pain and suffering and convince them that as long as Obama and what he represents validates them in some emotional way, there is absolutely no reason to consider any other critical pieces of information about his work and the devastating impacts it has on all of humanity.

Just for context and for the record, we are revolutionary Pan-Africanists who stand for and organize for the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. We are 100% opposed to the capitalist system anywhere it operates in this galaxy. We have no dog in the bourgeoise political arena of the Democratic and Republican parties and any capitalist political parties anywhere. Like Malcolm X, another revolutionary Pan-Africanist, told us in 1964, we aren’t politicians. We aren’t students of politicians. We’re neither Democrats, nor Republicans, nor Americans, and got sense enough to know it! We are people who recognize that the capitalist super rich classes know that they do not have the capacity to defeat the masses of people. They know they rely on their propaganda to keep the masses loyal to their elite interests. They know that to ensure their system continues, they have to make sure that we never learn how to truly think for ourselves. If you understand that, then you should be able to understand that even if they sound different. Even if they look different. Even if they come from different places. Even if the people who support them come from different places. Even if the two sides kill each other on sight. At the end of the day, Obama and Trump will always have more in common with each other then they will ever have with any of us.

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