Ahjamu Umi's: "The Truth Challenge"
  • Home
  • Workshops
  • New Manifesto
  • Hit Me Up
  • Blog
  • Coming Events
  • Videos
  • Donations

Here's How to Organize and Build Institutions in Oppressed Communities

3/28/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
Its time to ratchet up the struggle to get people to understand the fundamental difference between mobilization and organization because in my humble opinion, there is still rampant confusion around this question.  We won't spend a lot of time defining mobilization.  All we need to say about it is mobilization is spontaneous and temporary.  Examples?  Someone gets shot by the police.  Maybe its an African.  An Indigenous person.  A trans person of color.  The usual persons murdered through systematic state sponsored violence.  People hear about the latest victim of this violence and everyone is pissed.  People hit the streets.  There's a huge amount of adrenaline that fuels the righteous anger the people feel.  The police show up in mass, usually in riot gear.  There is at least the potential for a confrontation if there isn't one.  Substitute the police with a white supremacist outfit.  Any of them will do.  There's that same threat of a confrontation.  Maybe a few people get arrested.  The action eventually comes to an end and the people on the street go to a bar and debrief the thrill ride they just experienced.  Sometimes, the focus then becomes about raising bail money for those arrested.  This is all done in a reactive way.  Very little analysis of the situation is presented, at least not in a way the people participating are willing to listen to.  That's why with mobilization work you have situations develop all the time like the scenario from Anaheim, California, recently where the person people were lifting up as a true fighter for justice (because that person was hurt in a spontaneous confrontation with the KKK), ended up being someone who was advancing their own racist ideology.  Another even better example are the bourgeois elections currently taking place.  That one is really funny because the propaganda around it actually has people convinced that pulling a lever once every couple of years for a bunch of millionaires who claim they can solve the problems of working class people has more value than people who do day to day organizing work.

Its the day to day organizing work that we will discuss here.  For those people who are concerned about the problems of exploitation and how capitalism oppresses people, the work to create revolutionaries is the most important work that can be done.  This is true because the more consciousness spreads, the more difficult it is to wipe out.  Once there is one high profile leader, as is often the case with mobilization work, that person is easy to pick off, discredit, etc.  Organizing work isn't about developing the high profile leader.  It's about developing collective leadership e.g. cadre.  The definition of cadre is people who are dedicated to the mission.  With cadre development, we don't die, we multiply.  Examples?  In Portland, Oregon, we are engaged in a community organizing model.  Next month, the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) will be celebrating one year of carrying out our free breakfast program in the North Portland community known as New Columbia.  Twice a week, we feed dozens of children.  One of those days we spend just talking to the youth, asking them questions. Listening to their concerns, fears, hopes, and dreams.  The other day we present something to them designed to promote African identity, revolution, culture, and liberation.  We take them on field trips to further develop the relationships.  We build relationships with their parents in the process.  The past year has seen many, many, challenges with this work.  Organizing work often lacks the glamour of mobilization work.  There is no adrenaline rush.  Getting up at 5:30am is not fun.  Being worried about having enough bowls, spoons, and juice is not the stuff that appeals to many people.  And, having to come up with curriculum for the youth is a constant worry and challenge.  When we first started, we really struggled.  Many of the people we had at that time had good intentions, but simply lacked the discipline and maturity to uphold the work.  Organization work requires you to generate all the energy.  All the commitment.  All the effort.  And it requires you to do that not once or twice.  Not a few times, but on a consistent basis.  So, one year later, pretty much everyone we started with is gone now, except for a couple of us, but this isn't a negative.  In fact, we knew this would happen because we understand the science of organizing.  

One year later, we have made great gains with the program.  The idea behind the breakfast program was never just to have a breakfast program.  Serving breakfast was just a tactic to introduce ourselves to New Columbia.  You see, organizing requires a scientific approach.  Unlike mobilizing, it's not spontaneous.  We researched going into New Columbia.  We saw that due to its high concentration of federally subsidized housing, it houses the highest concentration of African people in the entire state of Oregon at almost 20%.  It has the highest percentage of police calls, poverty, and high school dropout rates.  Eleven percent of the neighborhood is bilingual and there is a large percentage of Africans from all over the planet living there.  All of these factors, which would be a turnoff to most people, were jewels to an organization with a Pan-Africanist vision.  So, we went in and we worked through the problems we mentioned encountering above.  We learned to create consistency in what we present to the children and we developed a process.  As a result, the people who have stuck with it have become much stronger organizers as a result.  And, more importantly, when we came into New Columbia a year ago, we didn't know anyone there.  Now we have relationships with many of the parents who actually help us in supporting the program.  Plus, as was mentioned, the idea was never to stop at breakfast.  The idea was to use breakfast to build relationships that could hopefully propel us into advanced work to build revolutionary consciousness and community in New Columbia.  For example, many of the parents, at least partially inspired by the breakfast program, see the need to develop an independent school.  So, now, parents and community organizations are united in creating a project to create a Saturday school in New Columbia.  The focus of this school will be the political, cultural, and spiritual upliftment of our youth.  The roll-out date for this school project is July, 2016.  

The breakfast program, and school, and further work that will be built on top of those programs are examples of building capacity in oppressed communities.  These programs are 100% controlled by the community for the community. No institutional money or support is utilized or sought after for this work.  And it must be understood that this work requires a commitment to building relationships which means being consistent, following through, taking initiative, and subverting the ego.  These are all organizing 101 techniques for any serious organizer.  These are also things that anyone can do in any community.  As Fidel Castro correctly stated, the only requirement and skill is sincerity.  

Since organizing work is long term and about sustainability, another major aspect of the work is building revolutionary cadre who will do the work.  This has been one of the challenges we have had to face.  We are continuing to seek out people to join us in our work, but we have learned (the hard way) that we don't just want or need anybody.  We want people who have some level of maturity.  People who are reflective and responsible.  People who are balanced enough to give as much as they receive.  People who are here to make a contribution.  That's not easy to find in this instant gratification, me centered world we find ourselves faced with today where people think activism means spending all day behind a keyboard.  Still, we are never elitists.  We know that the same way people found us to do this work, we will find those youth who are up to the challenge.  This is all the world of an organizer and this is what an organizing workshop looks like.  You won't be in the news much.  You won't be the center of attention.  You will work your behind off and in doing so you will be expected to do more, but no one will ever give you credit for that.  To do this work, you have to be in a place of comfort around all of that.  You have to realize that by pushing people to reach their highest potential you will frighten some of them who are not ready.  As a result, they will turn on you instantly rather than face themselves.  But, we are not reformers.  We are revolutionaries.  We understand that we cannot change society without changing ourselves.  All of this is the work we are doing to contribute to that transformation of society.  We cannot be selfish.  There are many people who are much more deserving than I to see the fruits of the work and they didn't live to see it so who the hell am I to expect that I should get some reward.  My job is to contribute to this work and carry it forward for the next wave of organizers, who I can hopefully play a role in creating, to work with.  That's organizing work.  Its lonely, hard, and the best thing on the planet Earth.  When you are ready to grow up and really challenge yourself to rise to another level, you will know you are ready.



1 Comment

The Criminal Myth of "Black on Black" Crime

3/27/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
With active social media and the rapid nature in which information spreads around today, the only people still aggressively claiming that African people kill each other as a genetic shortcoming are people firmly committed to white supremacist ideology.  Those folks wouldn't accept truth if they were stuck on an island with truth being the only edible thing available.  Everyone else has by now been exposed to information that confirms that since people generally function socially with people from their same cultural, economic, and social background, that of course means the bulk of people who kill other people are much more likely to kill people who look like them. Not because of some racial inferiority, but because people who are going to kill, are going to mostly have people who look like them around them when they go off.  So, for as long as such phenomenon has been been tracked, we know that Africans kill Africans 91% of the time.  Asians kill Asians 84% of the time.  Indigenous people kill indigenous people 88% of the time.  And, Europeans kill Europeans 86% of the time.  In case you are not familiar, social science experimentation practices would say the differences in those stats is negligible, meaning not enough to make any type of scientific statement.  So, besides the racist filth who thrive on fantasy to justify their intellectual laziness, you can now chill on that foolishness.

What we should be talking about instead is the degree in which white supremacy and oppression play in creating conditions of stress and turmoil in oppressed communities.  This is important because there is certainly an argument to be made that these communities suffer from adverse conditions that make the possibilities of violence more obtainable.  There are plenty of studies that can help us develop a comprehensive understanding of this.  For example, you can look at Rwanda in Central Africa.  That country is unfortunately most known for the neo-colonial issues which prompted violence between the Hutus and Tutsis in the last few decades, most notably, in 1994.  The way the capitalist media has spun this issue, the problem is something inbred in the hatred between these two ethnic groups.  This analysis, of course, completely ignores the fact that these two very same ethnic groups have lived together for thousands of documented years without the hostilities that have emerged in the last few decades.  So what changed?  The common denominator is the colonial system which created the social system of repression based on competition between the ethnic groups.  That system created inequity between the two groups and systematized it.  The same is true in Sudan where the Nubian and Arab ethnic groups have existed together in that region for hundreds of years without the violence and trauma which led to the separation of Sudan into two countries with the creation of South Sudan in 2011.  Again, its easy to point to neo-colonialism as the common denominator because the intensification of conflict is tied directly to the time period in which high quality oil reserves were discovered in Sudan.  This is critical because at this point, oil corporations from China, the U.S., and Europe began competing heavily for drilling opportunities which created far fewer settlement options for the nomadic and farming cultures in Sudan.  This created a competition for space that had previously been non-existent in Sudan.  Finally, lets take away the prized example the racists use to illustrate their backward point about African violence - the so-called African gang problem.  Whether its Somalia or the U.S. - they work overtime to dehumanize the African masses by claiming our barbarism whenever a drive by weekend concludes in Mogadishu, Chicago, Kingston, Los Angeles, San Juan, or anywhere else where us Africans reside.   Even many Africans parrot these racist narratives, but they have nothing besides ignorance and white supremacy to support their perspectives about us.  My daughter, who last year took up residence in Memphis, Tennessee, to pursue her advanced education and life goals, excitedly conveyed a story to me earlier this week about her experience with inner city youth in Memphis while working in that community.  Memphis is a city with a large African population and immense poverty, which means everything that comes with that poverty, e.g. crime, etc.  My daughter, working for a community program, was running a booth at a community event designed to educate folks about the diseases that the capitalist system inflicts on oppressed communities - diabetes, hypertension, etc.  She had a box of balls that she and the Memphis raised European young woman with her handed out to everyone who took the stress test.  When my daughter left the booth and came back minutes later, the European colleague informed her with great fear that young terroristic African boys had stolen the entire box of balls.  My daughter, indicating that her first thought was of my, her mother, and our organization's efforts to constantly expose her to being around her people growing up, told me that she could hear my voice in her head telling her - correctly - that we can never be afraid of our people.  So, she ended up going over to the young men, who were playing with all the new balls in plain view of everyone, to explain to them why what they did wasn't cool and to collect her balls.  Meanwhile, the European woman called the police on the young men.  As the police pulled up, my daughter took time to explain to them that she had the situation under control and that they were not needed and not necessary on any level.  Of course the youth listened to my daughter.  Of course no harm came to her.  In fact, her experience was that the youth drank up the attention she gave them, in spite of some of it being harsh.  They knew she was coming at them from a place of love.  This story of inner city life is complimented with the same analysis provided in regards to Rwanda and Sudan e.g. we can easily track the time in which relatively peaceful communities became more violent and that time again is when social conditions became more intolerable.  When the number of people who descended into South Chicago or Los Angeles, far exceeded logical levels.  Where no opportunities for stability existed which fed into the frustrations and anger.  Where the institutions, instead of providing solutions to these problems, inflamed them.  I'm talking about social service agencies and of course the police and injustice system. 

The main thread through all of these examples is social conditions.  Social development, dysfunctional, and oppressive social organization and institutions.  Not racial inferiority.  Actually, a lot of the same social problems you see in African communities you can easily find in working class European communities and every other community.  And don't think we are making any type of special critique of working people besides pointing out that these communities are the exploited communities.  Someone told me once that rich people make more mistakes than anybody, they just have the resources to cover them up.  A rich kid gets busted with drugs, that kid doesn't get caught up in the system.  They get boarding school. 

These are the types of questions which intelligent people should be discussing as it relates to community violence.  How the social situation with that community plays a distinct role in what happens in that community.  A genuine socialist approach to solving problems would immediately take that into account because that type of system is designed to plan around solving problems.  So, the social analysis is endemic within that whereas the capitalist system only plans around profit for the super rich.  So, some food for thought whenever your uncle, father, mother, (no matter their color) etc. makes the next ignorant statement about Africans killing one another. 
1 Comment

Why I Have Faith in the Cuban Revolution in spite of Obama

3/22/2016

2 Comments

 
Picture
Like many of you who understand the gruesome history of U.S. imperialism, I'm watching the events unfolding in Cuba with a close eye.  Unlike most of you, I belong to an organization that has required me to seriously study the Cuban Revolution, along with traveling there, for the last three decades.  I see what the U.S. has done to sabotage attempts at building socialism in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Libya, among others, but I also know that there are distinct differences between those wonderful people and countries and the Cuban people and their revolution.  Since 1959, the Cuban people have worked hard to consolidate the gains of their revolution.  They have institutionalized one of the best educational systems in the world, and that's according to the United Nations - no friend to Cuba with its U.S. controlled budget and agenda.  So, although I understand the skepticism and concern many of you have, I encourage you to have some faith in the Cuban people and what they have spent the last 55 years consolidating. 

Camilo Guevara, the son of Che, was correct when he spoke earlier this week about the approach Cuba will take to this so-called reconciliation with the U.S.  And, although Mr. Guevara has no official position in the Cuban government, Marelia Castro, the daughter of Raul Castro and Vilma Espin, was more direct when speaking as the National Director of Human Services (Cuba's equivalent to Planned Parenthood more or less), she said that the U.S. is crazy if it thinks they will move Cuba away from socialist construction.

Here's why I'm not as concerned as many of you.  I know that 70% of Cuba's population today was born since the revolution.  They have never lived without free education, free health care, and guaranteed employment by the constitution.  They have never experienced hunger.  Unlike most people in the U.S., who have absolutely no understanding of anything happening outside of their own personal lives, the people of Cuba, according again to the United Nations, are some of the best educated and informed people on the planet.  They understand and see what is happening in Eastern Europe with the collapse of the state capitalist sponsored social programs that used to exist there.  They see the poverty and increase in crime, things that are nonexistent in Cuba.  In other words, Cubans know the benefits of socialism and the hazards and pitfalls of capitalism.  They don't want student debt.  They don't want health insurance and the bills that come with it.  They don't want rent that is 150% of your income.  They don't want capitalism.  And you better believe they will fight to the death to defend their way of life.

Then why even meet with the U.S.?  Why try and build a relationship with the number one imperialist power on the planet?  Surely, this must be a trick by U.S. capitalism to take over the Cuban system right?  Look, the U.S. is all about hegemony and dominance over everyone.  This is an imperialist country right down to the chocolate you eat, so there's no questioning that.  Still, try for a second to look at this from the standpoint of the Cubans.  Try to resist the programmed input we receive 24/7 that tells us every decision on the planet Earth is engineered by U.S. capitalism.  Let's evaluate what's happening here from the perspective of Cuba continuing to build their socialist system.  As every critic of capitalism - from Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, to Mao Tse Tung to Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Ture, have pointed out, since socialism is based on having a planned economy that seeks to organize the available materials within the society into resources that serve the interests of the masses of people who live in that society, a necessary prerequisite for socialism to grow properly is industrialization.  This is an important component because industrialization increases production and increased production equals more cash flow.  More cash flow permits your country to compete in the capitalist controlled markets.  At first, and for the time being, this places socialist countries in a limited position, but while this is happening, those socialist countries are continuing to build the political consciousness of their people.  They continue creating a conscious society that encourages moral consciousness over material consciousness.  As previously mentioned, Cuba has clearly made concrete strides in this area.  So, this industrial development will help them to further consolidate socialism because they will have the capacity to strengthen their industries, thus creating more resources for them to provide even more to their efforts to build up their society.  By building up their society I mean their capacity to do even more in the area of medicine to build on their socialist inspired and ground breaking elimination of mother to child HIV transmissions, creating a vaccine for cervical cancer, wiping out ebola in Africa, etc.  Building on the wonderful things they are doing is going to be extremely difficult while the economic blockade that has hindered them since 1961, is still in force.  So, their motivation for improving relations with the U.S. is unquestionably, to remove the blockade.  Not to pave the way for Cuba to become a capitalist country, but to create more resources to further build their socialist system.  I believe they are primed to do this.  Cuba isn't the same as China, Vietnam, or even Libya, where there isn't the same level of evidence of the type of political consciousness and commitment to socialism that has been clearly displayed in Cuba for decades.

None of this means we shouldn't be concerned.  I don't trust Obama and U.S. imperialism any farther than I can pass gas.  The point is I have confidence in the Cuban people to uphold the principles of their revolution.  Especially since they have been doing that and outsmarting the U.S. for the last 60 years.  From the release of Fidel and Raul Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida, and others from that Mexico City jail in 1955, to the defeat of U.S. forces in Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs) in 1961, to the missiles in October the next year, to the Marial boot lift in 1980, to Elian Gonzales in 2000, to I believe, the current scenario, Cuba has been using the U.S. to get what they need to build socialism.  And, besides, even if things turn against the Cuban people for some reason, that doesn't defeat socialism.  It will just delay it a little longer.  So, don't dis-pair.  Instead, what we can do to help is start to study Cuba.  Read "The Academic Advantage" which will explain to you Cuba's excellent educational program.  Read Fidel Castro's "In Defense of Socialism" where he predicts in 1988 everything that is happening now.  Study and learn about Cuba's National Assembly, their chief unilateral legislature so that you can stop and resist the constant confusion being articulated that Cuba is a dictatorship and that the people have no democracy.  Understand that Cuba has made decisions that dictate that social justice is more important than some personal freedoms so you can't have the freedom to make as much money as is humanly possible there.  And, that's a good thing, but people here need to learn to understand why and how that's good.  People here need to learn that you have no democracy here so why do you think you are in the moral position to criticize Cuba or anyone else?  Also, everyone who truly supports the Cuban Revolution should travel there.  Let's build international solidarity with the Cuban people.  My political party has been doing that for years.  That's why most of our cadre have been to Cuba at least once.  We need more of that and I'm not talking about taking your capitalist and white supremacist fueled ideologies down there.  I'm talking about taking a true revolutionary consciousness and solidarity there so that the Cuban people know we support them and what they are building.  Everything's going to be alright. No matter what happens.  Fidel already told us that years before this latest thing. 
2 Comments

Question?  How Do you Define Hypocrite?

3/22/2016

1 Comment

 
Its a question I have for any and everyone reading this.  I define hypocrisy as saying one thing in public and doing something totally contradictory to what you profess in private.  I believe we are ripe with hypocrisy today.  Don't get me wrong.  No one is perfect.  We are all works in progress and I'm at the top of that list.  Besides, I'm the last person who can cast any judgement on anyone.  So, that's not the point of this post.  The point is there is a distinct difference in my mind between being judgemental and/or insensitive to people's inability to wage consistency between thought and action and a culture where people can say whatever, but they are never accountable to what they say with their actions.  To me, the latter is a serious problem that must be addressed.

My definition isn't meant to target people's personal lives or habits either.  In other words, I'm not talking about those of you who cheat on a partner or steal from your parents, etc.  Those are issues you need to address with yourself, the person you have a relationship with, and your God if you believe in one.  I'm more interested and focused on the aspects of our lives that impact greater society.  Like, is it hypocritical for us to say we want justice against oppression that impacts our particular communities e.g. African, Indigenous, women, etc., when we also believe that oppression against Trans people, for example, is not something we need to connect with or talk about?  Is it hypocritical for us to denounce state sponsored violence against our communities while some of us inflict violence against our partners and other people who are not oppressive instruments in society?  Is it hypocritical for us to challenge the legacy and work of serious activists for social change when we know all that we do is front while doing nothing to challenge the status quo?  Is it hypocritical for us to hold up institutions that further oppression, like Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, or the Fourth of July, simply because we don't possess the backbone to properly challenge those entities?

Is it hypocritical for us to take up time and space, consuming a lot, and contributing virtually nothing?  No reason to get mad at these questions.  Just things to think about. 
1 Comment

Exposing Efforts to Disrespect Kwame Ture's Legacy and our African Identity

3/20/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) with Kwame Nkrumah and Shirley Graham DuBois in Guinea-Conakry in 1969
If you don't know, Kwame Ture was formally known as Stokely Carmichael.  Possibly you may not know that the young Stokely Carmichael was elected chairperson of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1966.  From that point forward, the capitalist white power structure viewed him as the heir apparent to Malcolm X as the voice of African liberation and nationalism.  He was targeted and even primarily identified within the documents from J. Edgar Hoover detailing the objectives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) counter intelligence program.  And in case you may not know, those objectives were to destroy the independent African liberation movement (and replace it with the non-profit industrial complex which impersonates independent organization today).

The fact that much of this history is obscured coupled with the unfortunate reality that many of us in this social media world today do not have the discipline to engage in serious study around history, creates an environment where misinformation thrives.  So, although I was a little disappointed, I wasn't shocked or upset when I read the comments of a very young African on Face Book today, who commenting on a video depicting the young Carmichael talking to Mike Wallace in the late 60s, said that Kwame was a sell out who sold out the BPP.  The comments this youth made do have context.  There is plenty of misinformation about the BPP out here today, including the true history of how they were actually founded.  There are scores of accusations against Huey P. Newton, Elaine Brown, Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt), George Jackson, and Kwame Ture.  A major reason why this misinformation exists is intentional.  The FBI, to this day, continues to spread confusion by sponsoring dishonest biographies and articles, underwriting less than truthful documentaries, and doing everything they can to keep our youth confused.  So, I wanted to set the record straight on what Kwame Ture did and didn't do as it relates to the BPP.

For people who know the operating tactics of the FBI's counter intelligence program, you know that one of their most used methods was to "badjacket" people.  That's an FBI term which means creating a negative image of someone in the movement in an effort to create mistrust and confusion within the movement.  The FBI did this by spreading malicious and untrue rumors about honest and dedicated activists.  This was done to many people.  They sent accusatory letters to Huey P,. Newton about Geronimo Ji Jaga which contributed to the scenario where no one spoke up on his behalf, thus setting the stage for him to spend 27 unjust years in prison.  They played a role in the communication with young Johnathan Jackson, the younger brother to George Jackson, which had some influence on the actions which led to the courthouse takeover and shootout in Marin County in 1970.  They badjacketed Samuel Napier, the hard working editor for the Black Panther Newspaper which led to Napier being viciously murdered.  And, the FBI targeted Kwame Ture in numerous ways, including sending letters to Huey P. Newton while Newton was in jail, accusing Kwame of being an FBI informant.  This is the unfortunate misinformation the young African was repeating in his comments on FB.  Like all the other FBI generated lies, this one has been repeated often.  Kwame sold out the BPP and ran to Africa. 

What actually happened is that Kwame was summoned in 1970 to testify in front of the then House of un-American Activities which was a congressional committee which was enacted to engage in witch hunts against activists and people who dissented against the U.S.  Advised by movement attorneys to testify to avoid jail time, the young Carmichael appeared for his hearing.  Although it was a closed hearing, everyone who was there, including those representing the government, have acknowledged that Kwame gave them nothing to work with that day, instead choosing not to comment on any of the questions that were posed against him.  Clearly, had the young Stokely Carmicahel - the poster child for the Black Power movement - snitched on anyone or any organization within the African liberation movement, the FBI would have sang it from the mountain tops in an effort to discredit the movement.  Yet, although the lie that Kwame sold out is repeated, none of the people repeating it can illustrate anything concrete he did to discredit the BPP, because no such actions existed.  In fact, the only evidence of any of this was Huey P. Newton's statement made shortly after his 1970 release from jail where he accused Kwame of being an informant, charges Huey later renounced as being influenced by the misinformation letters he was receiving.


Its important to address these issues because that youth isn't the only person operating on this confusion.  The other often repeated element, and this one is more widely copied than the BPP allegation, is that Kwame ran to Africa.  Just the fact that this statement could even be made speaks volumes to the level of identity confusion that exists among African people.  The logic of such a statement is based in the belief that America is the core and center of the African liberation struggle, and every other struggle, and that in order for someone to really be doing serious work, they have to be in America.  This point of view is wildly influenced by white supremacy and capitalism.  The U.S. isn't the center of anything except greed and confusion.  If one understands anything about world politics and economics, its quite clear that the U.S. economy is based squarely on the backs of the African continent.  Exploiting everything from Africa, all the way down to the columbite tantilite that is powering the device you are using to read these comments.  There is no question that Kwame Nkrumah was correct when he said "the core of the Black revolution is in Africa and until Africa is free, no African anywhere will be free!"  Capitalism is a worldwide system of exploitation.  There is no place on the planet, not even the few socialist countries like Cuba, where you can escape capitalist domination.  Certainly not in Africa which has been the resource pool for capitalism for 500+ years.  What also must be included in this part of the discussion is this extremely sad and uninformed sentiment rising up today that is attempting to separate Africans in America from Africa.  This new confusion even boldly and ignorantly asserts that we are not descendants of Africa and that we have always been in the Western Hemisphere.  This is a very unfortunate aspect of this intellectually devoid society we live in today.  I'm quite sure there are some Africans who left Africa on their own before colonialism.  These people traveled to the Western Hemisphere when Europeans believed the world to be flat.  They engaged in civil and respectful trade relationships with Asians and the Indigenous people's of the Western Hemisphere.  This happened, but this was no where close to the majority of people.  It was not even a large percentage.  That's why I don't know a single person who's origins point in this direction and neither do you, but I can stop any African on the street, no matter what country they were born in throughout the Western Hemisphere, and I can point out in a fast and ill-refutable way where that African's family name and ties point directly to the slave ship.  So, there is clearly no scientific and historical basis for this confusion which leads me to conclude that it's only purpose is to further separate us philosophically and psychologically from Africa.  Separating Africans from Africa has always been a primary tactic of the capitalist system because in order for it to insure it has free rein to continue to steal our wealth, they have to make sure we are looking the other way.  If we don't see ourselves as being connected to Africa, we won't question their continued plundering of our homeland.  And, we won't make the connection between our continued suffering and what they are doing in Africa.  Their objective is to continue to own Africa, while leaving us to be satisfied with the nebulous and unscientific concept of black pride.

Finally, those who are serious about studying history and taking responsibility to carry it forward, should study the work Kwame Ture did once he moved to Guinea-Conakry in 1969.  Guinea is one of the three or four poorest countries on the planet today and Kwame lived there the last 30 years of his life organizing for revolutionary Pan-Africanism by building the All African Committee for Political Coodination (A-ACPC) into the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) as called for by his mentors Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Ture (the two people he took his name from).  Kwame could have been mayor of any big city in the U.S.  Possibly governor, maybe more, but he had no interest in any of that.  His interest was in the total liberation of his people.  So he lived and worked humbly for those last 30 years while the people spreading misinformation about him - saying he sold out - live in comfort within U.S. capitalism today, eating well, living well, and doing absolutely nothing to attack the capitalist system which manages our oppression.  We have far to many keyboard revolutionaries right now.  People who do nothing except watch and critique other people's perspectives and work while you do nothing except front like a revolutionary behind the comfort of your computer.  We don't need or want anymore people like that.  What we need is more selfless and courageous people like Kwame Ture who worked tirelessly to educate and organize us to the necessity to unite and liberate Mother Africa.  Kwame Ture deserves our respect.  He helped stabilize an organization dedicated to fighting our people's liberation that continues on 16 years after his physical transition in several countries around the world while you who spread lies about him cannot even organize a neighborhood get together. 

0 Comments

Stop Pretending that Trump is the Definition of white supremacy

3/16/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
I know I'm far from alone, especially within the African liberation movement, when I say a lot of you people talking and writing right now about Donald Trump turn our stomachs.  You are acting as if this country has suddenly taken an incredible turn towards overt racism and fascism.  I understand that there are people who have always believed the lie that this is a great country based on democratic ideals, but that's your problem if you can't tell a lie from the truth.  This country has always held the official position that white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, and class oppression against all working people, including Europeans, is just some subordinate side note that is an aberration, and not the definition, of what America really is.  Yeah, we've been hearing that narrative for 500+ years, so we understand it.  That doesn't mean we are going to sit by and let you continue to perpetuate it.  

America isn't broken.  It's not great.  It never has been great.  It's not sidetracked.  It's not in an unusual state of confusion.  America is the exact same thing today that it was in 1776, 1876, and 1976; a brutal empire that is based on exploitation, murder, and destruction.  Its history defines what's happening today with Trump and we'll explain how.  The American capitalist system dominates world economics today.  The U.S. funds almost half of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF)  budget and the IMF is responsible for setting the economic agenda for the majority of the world today.  The U.S. capitalist system also financially dominates the political and economic agenda for the United Nations which is the highest body of international cooperation on the planet today.  This U.S. capitalist system is also the very same system that got its initial seed money from investing in the tri-angular slave trade which horrifically and brutally displaced literary hundreds of millions of Africans.  The forced labor these Africans carried out created the seed money that started this entire banking and insurance industry which we already just mentioned finances the world today.  What this means is without this brutal terrorism that was systematically carried out against Africa and Africans for hundreds of years, there would be no Barclays Bank, Lloyds Bank of London, Aetna Insurance, New York Life Insurance, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, BankAmerica, Wachovia, Merchantile Bank, Brooks Brothers Suits, Wells Fargo Bank.  Yes, what we are saying is the very foundation of the capitalist system was built and maintained through systematic racism.  We are saying that each of those corporations, under decades of pressure from the reparations movement, have come out recently and admitted everything indicated here (google it and see for yourselves).  Plus, the other aspect of this heavily guarded secret is that these corporate giants, understanding their gruesome secret would not endear them to the masses of people on the planet, manufactured the lie of white supremacy to justify their rape and pillaging.  They established curriculum in the schools which taught you nothing about Africa, Asia, or the Americas before 1492.  They taught you that Europe is the pinnacle of world civilization.  This basis made it easy for them to use their corporate media to pound home the message that we did nothing to contribute to the planet Earth.  As a result, it became easy for the masses of confused Europeans (white people) to see us as less and it became equally as effective for us to see ourselves the same way.  And, none of this is conspiracy theory.  To understand how all of the above manifests itself, all one has to do is follow the course of the ruling class families who started and continue to rein on top of the capitalist system.  Study the history of the Rockafeller family for example.  You will see that they are the family that maintains controlling interest (stock) in NBC, Chevron, and Chase Manhattan Bank.  Over the last 100 years, they have had something like 15 governors and 20 congress people in their family.  They have had at least one vice president of the country.  They have been in decision making positions on all of the Ivy League universities which set the curriculum for the entire education system in this country.  So, just by following that one family, and their interests, you can see a clear example of how white supremacy has been systematically implemented for hundreds of years. 

Its critical to understand that just because we frame the exploitation in the past, the oppression isn't a thing of the past.  The foundation we speak of set up a system that continues to perform the same level of oppression everyday.  Its just so automatic that most of you don't even know how to identify it's workings.  King Leopold is dead, but the IMF serves the same purpose in Africa today that he did hundreds of years ago.  Colonialism no longer exists, but neo-colonialism places a black face in a leadership position, but that black face represents and carries out the same interests that colonialism carried out previously.  So, Belgium, France, Germany, the U.S., etc., no longer directly govern in the Congo, but they have established a long series of reactionary politicians in their image so that the columbite tantilite industry (coltan) - the mineral ore that motors electronic devices like cell phones and computers, continues to be exploited wholesale while Africa is left with nothing.  This process continues to fuel Europe and America's rise and dominance while keeping Africa poor and dependent.  And that system could not continue to work without the racist narrative of us being incapable of developing Africa ourselves to back it up.  This history is important because it explains to you where the mentality of the people at the Trump rallies comes from.  It explains why he's so popular and it gives clues as to how this problem should be addressed.  We know the capitalist system is in a severe state of decline.  We know that the frustrations articulated by Trump and his supporters are just the manifestations of what happens when the ruling classes divide working class communities.  Racism has historically been their most potent weapon to do this.  We've already seen this movie when the masses of Europeans in Azania, South Africa, or Zimbabwe, are asked to accept justice in policy and we certainly see it with the actions of the zionist state of Israel.  We can even see it in how the Indigenous people's of the Western Hemisphere are systematically treated.  America, like Israel and the other European powers, is as racist today as they were yesterday.  And, they will always be racist because racism is profitable for them.  Nothing new to see here.  And even the stale argument that they are acting out in racist ways more often today doesn't hold water because they have never stopped acting out.  If overt acts of racism are increasing, that's not a reflection of any new phenomenon as much as it is the results of failing to address the foundations of white supremacy in this society.  African people have been educating about the mentalities being expressed at Donald Trump rallies for decades.  The problem isn't that its happening now.  The problem is many of you just won't listen until its too late.

So, don't tell us the focus of the problem is stopping Trump.  You act like we don't know that the African women who disrupted Bernie Sanders in Seattle were not treated any better than the Africans at these Trump rallies.  Those women heard many of the same things said to them that you are all up in arms about Trump supporters saying.   I've been hearing White people tell me to go back to Africa since the 70s.  The only difference now is I've been to Africa many times and I love and live to fight for Africa today as opposed to being ashamed of her as I was when I was a child hearing those racist remarks.  So, it's not just about Trump, Sanders, or any bourgeois politician.  Its this country which has always been based on white supremacist ideology.  So, to us, its appropriate that the KKK should be front and center to this discussion.  Trump, Sanders, Clinton, Cruz, the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. flag.  All of it represents white supremacy.  The only real question is the one Malcolm X raised 50+ years ago.  It's whether you want to deal with a fox or a wolf.  Clinton and Sanders are foxes.  Trump and Cruz are the wolves.  One pretends to be your friend whereas the other one lets you know immediately that you are in danger.  Different tactics, but either way you are still dealing with a canine that will eat you up at the end of the day. 

The real focus of the problem is that too many people in this country view capitalism as their personal identity.  So, millions of people who have this vision are incapable of accepting a vision for the future that isn't based in capitalism.  You accept that this campaign scam is the best vehicle to make change and you focus most, if not all, of your attention on this clown show instead of actual organizing work that can build capacity in communities to truly transform this society.  No one is talking to European people in America with a revolutionary message on a systematic basis.  No one is really even trying to do that.  That leaves them to the KKK, the skinheads, and Trump, etc.  Meanwhile, you continue to empower millionaires and billionaires to solve working class people's problems and then you wonder why you don't make progress.  You continue to buy into this lie that America is the center of the world and that the empire can be somehow salvaged and reformed when there is 500+ years of evidence that clearly tells us otherwise.  So, stop looking and talking so much about the trauma you feel about Trump because Trump and George Washington were cut from the exact same cloth.  The problem is your country, its values, and its foundation.  And until you wake up and accept that and stop trying to rewrite history, you are as much the cause of the Trumps that develop as the KKK or anyone else you want to blame and separate yourself from.
0 Comments

Challenging How our Families are Influenced to view Protests.

3/13/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Since I doubt that anyone who considers themselves existing on the sane side of reality would agree that they don't think for themselves, I'm going to challenge that belief for you.  My question for all of you who claim independent thinking; how do you explain how people you have never met, never seen, and never even shared the same spaces with, basically talk, dress, listen to the same music, and eat the same foods as you do?  More importantly, they share many of your core values and political beliefs?  How is that possible if we all think for ourselves?

Of course, no matter how intelligent and stubborn you may think you are, all of us within this capitalist society are fed a never ending tirade of ideas, values, and thought processes 24/7 for our entire lives.  The process is so systematic that we are not to blame for mistakenly believing we are thinking of this stuff ourselves.  The thing that's important, is we have to acknowledge that much of what we believe we are led to believe for a reason, and that reason is to convince us to support specific political and economic agendas.  Often, that don't represent our own interests.  Let's use the example of protests because demonstrations of all types have been hot topic news for some time now.  Protests against police terrorism.  Protests against discrimination against trans people.  Protests against taking away reproductive rights.  Protests at clown rallies for clowns running for president.  Protests are talked about so often that what I'm finding is a lot of people who have never actually attended a protest of any kind are being led to believe they have an analysis and perspective on protests without ever having participated in one.  Since news is heavily slanted towards corporate interests, any type of protest is labeled as bad because corporations function as policy in ways that don't represent the public interest.  Therefore, most protests are aimed against them so since they finance the commercial media, they want your family, friends, co-workers, and the people you are seated across from at the restaurant, to believe protests are bad.  Even if those people have never attended a protest and don't even know the reasons why the protesters are demonstrating.

An example of the problem.  The rally just a couple of days ago in Chicago that was shutdown.  Pay close attention to the narratives coming out on all corporate media about that action.  They are saying the rally was shutdown by "Bernie supporters."  Think about how stupid that is.  The demonstrators at that rally were clearly people who support Bernie as well as people who support Clinton.  Many of them were also people who support the Green Party as well as revolutionaries who don't support any party that participates in capitalist elections.  The reason why I know that is because I've attended and organized so many rallies and protests that I have a good sense of who generally shows up.  In other words, I have my own frame of reference besides the filth they put out, but if you don't, how do you have anything to compare (and challenge) to what they are saying to you all the time?  Another example.  The corporate media pronouncements that the protesters were violent.  Think about that one for a moment.  You will have to conclude that this premise is equally as stupid.  They don't even bother to offer a shred of proof.  All the videos that they show demonstrate all types of people engaging in all types of physical activity.  It is impossible based on these videos to confirm who started what, yet the corporate media assumption is always that the protesters are guilty.  That's especially odd since the only proof of clear blame are those videos of unprovoked Trump supporters aggressively and cowardly punching, pushing, and kicking people at previous rallies in other cities.  This is clear evidence of Trump supporters promoting violence.  At least much more evidence than any protesters doing so.  Yet, the capitalist media uses none of that to label those Trump people as violent. 

Since the capitalist media has worked so hard to dehumanize people who stand up against injustices, it becomes so much easier for people who depend upon capitalist media not to care what happens to these subhuman protesters.  Its the same as if an ant or roach died.  Its something that was supposed to happen in these people's minds.  So, what's important here is to realize that this isn't about Trump or any other issue.  It's about the capitalist system and how it manufactures values and guides people to take the action it wants them to take.  The violence surrounding the Trump presidential campaign certainly is his fault, but the problem existed long before his tired routine came along and it will be here long after he's good and gone.  What's actually happening is the capitalist media, which is simply the propaganda arm for the capitalist class, is working overtime to get the people around you to focus on individuals like Trump and not on the fact the reason these protests are happening is because people are tired of being oppressed by capitalism.  And, the reason people are reaching that breaking point is because capitalism is unable to supply for the needs of the people existing within it because it is a dying system that is declining more and more each day.  This is true for the protesters demonstrating against capitalist oppression, and believe it or not, it's also true for the people supporting Trump and all the backward ideas he represents.

As long as the capitalist media has people convinced protesters are criminals, Africans are criminals, Indigenous peoples are criminals, Arabs are terrorists, Muslims are terrorists , women are out of control, LGBTQ people are destroying your family, and White working class people are the face of white supremacy, they keep us from focusing on the real culprits.  As long as people are believing all of this nonsense coming from the capitalist system, your family and friends won't be thinking about why it is that any of you would actually believe for five seconds that a billionaire, from either party, really cares about what you need?  Millionaires, billionaires, they don't pay taxes the way you do.  They don't work the way you do.  They don't have or care about the problems you have because much of your difficulty is the result of the system they have created and maintained, at your expense.  But, they cannot risk your family coming to that realization.  So, the protesters are criminals.  Run to your family and tell them the protesters are college students.  The protesters are workers.  The protesters are parents, neighbors, the people driving beside you.  The people seated next to you on public transportation.  The protesters are you.  Tell your family that and get prepared for the capitalist propaganda you will receive in return.  And when you stumble as to how to respond to them, that's your signal that you have received quite a dose of that capitalist propaganda yourself.  Once you get to that place, we should talk.
0 Comments

The Masses in Chicago Demonstrate Its Never been about Trump

3/12/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
For a lot of people, the multitudes of protesters who shut down the Donald Trump rally in Chicago yesterday will symbolize some sort of victory against hate.  For me, there is a much larger message contained in that action.  My usual concern about spontaneous mobilizations is that when they achieve their goal e.g. turning a drilling ship away, stopping Trump's hate rally, or prohibiting the klan from marching, the sentiment on the left is that we have won something by the course of the action itself.  This has never made sense to me because the reality is whether Trump has a rally or not, and he's going to have many more rallies, the backward ideology that dominates among those who support him is not going to be impacted by the events in Chicago.  In fact, those people will become further entrenched.  And since the reason the disruption of the rally is significant is because of the massive support Trump is receiving, what all this tells us yesterday's events reveal an already existing deep political divide in this society.  That divide is extremely complex as there are many  variables at work, but for us, the larger question is who has power and why power is so important.

The question of power, and the message sent yesterday around that question in Chicago, is the central point that we don't want people to miss.  The dominant narrative about Trump - and all the other candidates within either party for that matter - and anything else associated with the capitalist system, is that these are the forces that determine everything.  In other words, people with great intentions on the left have been talking about how critical it is to recognize what Trump's rise in popularity means to the future of human civilization.  This is being talked about as if Trump and all the other proponents and mouthpieces of the capitalist system are the only stakeholders and decision makers that matter.  The same type of analysis is utilized when assessing capitalism's relationship to the non-capitalist world.  Of course, the U.S. is going to dictate the opening of relationships with Cuba right?  Of course the Cubans will capitulate on everything they have spent the last half century fighting and dying for just to get access to Iphones, right?  Of course the North Koreans are insane because capitalism said they are.  They cannot possibly be permitted to have nuclear capabilities because only the capitalist world, or anyone they have a workable relationship and understanding with - like China, will ever be permitted to have access to those resources.

Of course, this is the analysis of imperialism.  Its designed to convince you that all real power rests in the hands of your enemies.  This way, you will believe that the only option you ever have is to appeal to those enemies because taking power from them - power that actually belongs to you in the first place - is never an option.  The real strength in the protest yesterday is that it conveyed the simple message that the real power belongs to the masses of people.  That it is those masses that make history.  That despite all the worries about Trump, yesterday was a reminder to all that the masses of people are not going to just sit back and be brutalized.  People are going to tolerate oppression and fascism up to a point.  That the history of the African cultural resistance against imperialist oppression that Sekou Ture so eloquently talked about is alive and well.  The disruption of the rally yesterday is probably as much about justice seeking people attempting to challenge the myth of capitalist hegemony as anything else.  We can disrupt the machinery of this system.  We can confront capitalist power bases.

So, understand that the people spoke in Chicago yesterday, but that should be viewed as only the opening salvo.  Spontaneous demonstrations cannot ever be seen as the solution or result.  They must be seen in the context of moving from mobilization to organization.  This means there shouldn't be any celebrating about what happened yesterday and we definitely shouldn't look at it as some sort of step forward.  Instead, we should hopefully view yesterday in the context of thinking about the next steps.  That means creating serious organizational approaches to address the conditions that produced a fool like Trump in the first place.  And, how we can continue to engage millions of people, even with committed European activists breaking down the ideological stagnation that produces Trump clones in European communities.  So, we are still for the most part interpreting our reality as one of reacting to white supremacy, patriarchy, and their father - capitalism, but this is simply one of the lower rungs in the struggle ladder.  Chicago is yet another reminder wake up call to the truth beneath the confusion.  As our people in Azania, South Africa say - "Amandela, Awetu (the power is ours!)


0 Comments

They Don't Talk About Us, but Everyone Knows of Our Work

3/10/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
I was meeting with a strong comrade in our new chapter here yesterday and this person, who makes it a point to stay connected to what's going on in African activist circles, made the point that no one anywhere ever mentions the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) when talking or writing about relevant work that's taking place today.  This comrade has seen enough quality on the ground to have a pretty good idea of the importance of our work.  I think the point they were making was one of wonderment.  Why is it that our work isn't a primary focal point in the dominant discussions our people are having about critical African (Black) liberation work taking place today?

Although the two of us had a conversation about the question yesterday, I continued to think quite a bit about it last night and it actually raised some points in my mind that are worth sharing.   I joined the A-APRP in 1984.  Obviously, the political landscape during that time was very much different than it is today.  Still, the A-APRP at that time did have a level of public presence.  We were regularly featured and attacked in white left publications from groups like the Progressive Labor Party and the Revolutionary Communist Party.  We were also prominent in African publications such as the Nation of Islam's Final Call newspaper and we could depend upon regular attacks against us within every issue of the African People's Socialist Party's Burning Spear newspaper.  In fact, I even remember and have news clippings from several capitalist newspapers about our work.  Of course, anyone who knows anything about the A-APRP's history knows that during those days we benefited from the presence of a very high profile member - Kwame Ture - formally Stokely Carmichael.  Kwame's presence and impact cannot be overstated.  He gained international prominence as the chairperson of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the mid 60s and a little later, as the Prime Minister for the Black Panther Party.  Its not an understatement to say that from the period of mid 1966 through 1969, Kwame was the single most identifiable face within the so-called Black Power movement in the U.S.  He was certainly a prime target of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) counter intelligence program (COINTELPRO).  The now infamous memo from J. Edgar Hoover to all FBI field offices calling for coordinated attacks against African liberation organizations named Kwame as "the obvious heir to (the Black Nationalist) throne" after the murder of Malcolm X.  Kwame's work and leadership during this time was so widely respected and/or hated that Edward Brooke, the first elected African in the U.S. Senate since reconstruction, propelled himself into office in 1966 based on a block of support from the republican white petit-bourgeois from his New England district.  Brooke's campaign slogan?  "A vote for me is a vote against Stokely Carmichael."

Kwame used his popularity with the African masses to spread his developing consciousness around Pan-Africanism and the need for organization.  He used his name recognition from the 60s to help build the A-APRP.  In 1972, the A-APRP had a press conference in Washington D.C. officially launching the A-APRP in the U.S.  The focus during that press conference was on the A-APRP being built as a mass, independent, revolutionary, Pan-African political party, based in Africa.  The emphasis on revolution, not reform.  This is important because the focus on revolutionary organizing, as opposed to reform oriented mobilization, situated the A-APRP in a much different position than pretty much every other organization doing work.  Our focus from that day forward was on the work, not on us, and that remains the reality to this day.  This was of course much more difficult with Kwame's presence because people always wanted to focus on him the individual, as opposed to the A-APRP and/or the work.  Most of our relationships were at least in part governed by people's connection to him as a high profile individual within the African liberation movement.  That's why when he died in November of 1998, much of the focus we received, which was based in large part on his presence, went away with his physical transition.  For many people, the A-APRP was simply Kwame Ture in manifestation.  And there is no question that we have stumbled as an organization after losing Kwame's physical presence.  Any organization with such a high profile person would struggle to find it's footing, but we have always been a party based on cadre development, not individual cult of personality worship. 

Going back to that press conference in 1972 at Howard University, it was previously stated that the focus was on revolutionary organizing.  There was a statement made at that press conference that the A-APRP would build a revolutionary Pan-African institution in the form of this political party without using the capitalist media.  Kwame and others, learning first hand the manipulative basis of capitalist owned media, understood that revolutionary organizing work didn't require being in the corporate media because revolutionary work requires constant work with the people and this work isn't aided by media.  In fact, a public profile with revolutionary organizing work has many more negatives than positives.  Understanding these variables is crucial to realizing the answer to the comrade's question because as the title of this post indicates, in spite of Kwame's presence, our focus has always been on our revolutionary organizing work, not on getting you to know who we are.  At that 72 press conference, the programs the A-APRP would focus it's work on were also announced.  One of those programs was the "Smash the FBI/CIA" program.  During the press conference, it was stated that we would expose the criminal nature of the FBI and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and again, we would do it without the media.  I can tell you that at the time I joined the A-APRP, 32 years ago, that was an extremely bold pronouncement even twelve years after it was made.  Most people during the 80s - when the CIA was running rampant in Greneda, Chile, El Salvador, Angola, Mozambique, and everywhere else, were deathly afraid of even talking about U.S. intelligence agencies.  Imagine that this was at a time when the violence from COINTELPRO activities from the 60s was still fresh on people's minds.  I remember people saying the A-APRP was crazy to be talking about that and I was crazy to join them.  I remember one of the first events I organized for the A-APRP.  It was a film series at the Cal State University, Sacramento campus in 1984.  We reserved a room and I made a very crude flyer advertising the film we were going to show.  The murder of Black Panther Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton.  My headline on that flyer was "The FBI Killed Fred Hampton."  I recall having several conversations with people I passed that flyer to.  People who were offended, hurt, and frightened, that I would place such words on a flyer, but the cadre I was being consolidated under were resolute.  This is the correct message and we were sticking to it.  So I did.  And, the night of that film the room was packed.  And three decades later I can tell you I've done hundreds of COINTELPRO lectures, seminars, workshops, and I've written dozens of articles on the same.  And this is the same for A-APRP cadre everywhere.  The results?  Today, everyone everywhere knows that the FBI and CIA are terrorist organizations and this change of consciousness isn't the result of educational reporting from CNN or the New York Times.  I would guess that 90% of the folks who today understand clearly that the FBI and CIA are terrorist and corrupt organizations couldn't tell you a single thing about  the A-APRP, but they know our political position about the FBI/CIA.  I'm not saying we were the only organization taking that position.  We weren't, but we were and continue to be in the forefront of that work, providing cutting edge information on it, even if the people receiving the information don't know where it came from.

Another example of our political influence and contributions is around the question of African unity and joining an organization.  For 40 plus years the A-APRP has systematically argued the need for African unity and for Africans to join organizations.  We have worked to bring organizations together.  Since our revolutionary organizing work includes training people on how to properly organize, that means we have put a lot of time and effort into bringing African organizations together.  This requires strong facilitation skills and rock solid follow through, attributes A-APRP cadre possess as second nature.  So, although they may not bring us up by name, you can go to any city and the Nation of Islam may not have more than a nominal relationship with the people in Malcolm X Grassroots Movement who have the same with the local Black Lives Matter chapters, but its pretty certain that all of those people will know the local A-APRP cadres.  And they will know them because of their consistent efforts to appeal and work to encourage them to come together.  And, our calls for everyone to join an organization have become one of the main staples of political work, not just in African organizing circles, but with everyone.

Finally, the A-APRP has taken a principled position for decades on the question of settler colonialism.  We have always said, and we will continue to say, that the Americas are the land of the Indigenous people's of the Western Hemisphere - the American Indian people and that the Palestinian people have the complete right to their self determination.  We have forged principled relationships with organizations like the American Indian Movement and the International Indian Treaty Council that those organizations have documented on their own websites.  We have done the same with the Palestinian movements and the Irish Republican Socialist network.  So, it feels wonderful to see Palestinian youth activists connecting with Black Lives Matter activists, but it was telling when one of those youthful African activists, who had recently visited Palestine as a part of an African delegation, reported back that the Palestinians were very well informed about the history of the African liberation movement.  How?  Because there have been African organizations forging those ties for decades and the A-APRP has been credited by even our enemies like the so-called anti-defamation league as being principled players in maintaining this relationship between our communities.  So, pardon us if we take pride in seeing the prominence of American Indian activists and Palestinian activists at the October 2015 Million Man March.  The millions there, including most of the youthful A-APRP in attendance, don't fully grasp that history, but the work has been done and it continues to be done.

Probably our greatest contribution has been bringing the masses of African people closer to Africa, which means closer to each other.  By this we mean helping our people understand that we are one, no matter where we are from.  African people being divided only benefits imperialism so much of our work has been simply getting Africans to understand that the only difference between us is a boat stop.  No organization has been as clear and forthright about this question of identity than the A-APRP and that can be stated confidently.  Sure, there is still confusion around this question.  The concept of black identity, or negritude as Sekou Ture correctly classified it, is still very prominent.  African people are encouraged to relate to and see our struggle as one of being black, as opposed to the exploitation of Africa.  Our enemies promote this because they desire to continue to have African resources at their cheap beck and call and as long as we are philosophically disconnected from Africa, we will not notice that everything needed to fuel our existence, they are stealing from our homeland, while we continue to beg them for jobs.  In spite of this confusion, we have done an outstanding job of breaking down the psychological barriers around Africa.  More Africans than ever are traveling to Africa and the psychological separation is being weakened more and more each day.  On the continent, we have done much to help embolden the African masses there that organizing our people is possible.  Much of this is being prompted by our consistent push for Africans to connect to Africa.  Yet again, many Africans see these connections today, but they don't necessarily know who the A-APRP is.

Since our objective is Pan-Africanism, which we define as one unified socialist Africa, we know revolutionary organizing is necessary for our people's forward progress.  The core of this is the political consciousness of our people.  So, this is where our work is eternally focused - the masses of our people organized into political ideas and actions fueled by revolutionary Pan-African ideology.  The focus is in spreading this work and idea, not in getting people to know who the A-APRP is.  Actually, if you study that "Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare" by Kwame Nkrumah, you should read pages 56 to 60.  In those pages, he describes that our strategy to achieve Pan-Africanism is to build the All African Committee for Political Coordination (A-ACPC) which consists of all of the revolutionary Pan-African organizations on the ground, everywhere.  Those organizations, once united into that A-ACPC, will form the actual A-APRP, the one political party governing the African continent.  This is our work and we have made great strides in advancing it.  If you understand that, you will see where the United Front strategy fits into the A-ACPC structure.  African Liberation Day, another strong institution the A-APRP has been in the forefront of sustaining, is proof positive of that.  Every year, Africans on three continents and the Caribbean are speaking in one voice, setting the stage for actual Pan-Africanism.  Again, you probably know people who know about African Liberation Day, but don't know the A-APRP.  We are fine with things the way they are.  We will continue to spread the ideas.  Since the A-APRP is still under construction, it's not important that people know who we are yet anyway.  One telling variable about the future is in the masses of young Africans who are joining the A-APRP all over the world, especially in Africa today.  When I joined, much of the reason was related to Kwame Ture.  Today, most of these youth are being attracted by the ideas.  They have no idea who Kwame Ture is.  I think that reality says all that needs to be said about the title of this post.




0 Comments

Only a Confused Man (or Woman) doesn't Value Women's History

3/7/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Several times over the last few years I've been engaged in conversations about oppression/liberation with European (White) women of various ages.  As I articulated the conditions that African people face around the world, these different women all responded by telling me that the oppression of women surpasses that experienced by African people.  Each time, I took that to mean that I needed to remind these women that 51% of African people are women.  I also reminded them that for my entire life I've lived with, worked with, struggled with, and help raise African women.  My point being I hardly think these White women speak for African women, or Indigenous, Asian, and Arab women either for that matter.  I bring up that example because the very fact that I had to remind them that there are African women reflects a sad reality that they must see their White existence as the single definition of womanhood.  This is obviously an extremely bourgeois perspective, fueled by an individualistic and a-historical class analysis and history that characterizes capitalist oppresion.  In fact, its actually an analysis fueled by patriarchy which promotes the oppression Olympics based on competition between oppressed people instead of a united effort against the forces of oppression.  Clearly, this competition must be generated by the male dominated capitalist class because it is they who primarily benefit from it because instead of focusing on them and their oppression, this competition keeps us focused on fighting over the crumbs dangled in front of us. 

So, in the spirit of breaking the patterns of oppression, as a man, as a person who is defined as cis or heterosexual (for lack of a better term), I proclaim loudly that we should use March, and every month, as a sounding point to express respect and appreciation for the contributions of women to our human advancement. And when we say that men, we must mean it earnestly and resolutely.  The way we demonstrate that sincerity is not just by saying it, but by living it.  That means if we say women are oppressed, we must be involved in organizations that are fighting with a platform that is dedicated to dismantling patriarchy.  I will even go as far as to say that organization has to be anti-capitalist (which means pro-socialist) because capitalism as a system is built upon the oppression of women.  We demonstrate our commitment by encouraging and supporting the advancement of issues raising up women all over the world.  That means we work towards making that our priority and we refuse to let anyone derail us from that mission.  This means we live to interrupt patriarchal behavior, but beyond reaction, we are actively involved in work to build up anti-patriarchal institutions.  And, it means doing the necessary work on ourselves.  The harder than hard, emotionless, no feelings, no talking man has proven to be harmful to our families, especially to the development of our children who clearly need to hear from our lips how important they are to us.  And none of these dysfunctional behaviors should ever be confused with being strong.  I say this with full confidence.  I'm as strong, whether mentally or physically, as the next man, but none of that can be confused with the strength that really matters, the spiritual strength that permits us to admit we are wrong.  That we need work.  That we can grow.  That we are works in progress and that we need to raise our level of commitment to the women in society. 

Let's use March as a jump off point to dedicate ourselves to listening to women.  That means constructively listening to women, not just tolerating what they have to say.  This should be done on the relationship level, friendship level, organizational comrade level, co-worker level, etc.  Wipe out reactionary patriarchal language like telling children "stop acting like a little girl."  If you have a hard time remembering that, then just think of the comment I heard a woman activist state recently when she said "why do you tell someone who needs to toughen up to grow some balls when testicles are actually extremely sensitive and unable to absorb punishment.  On the other hand, a vagina easily handles everything from rough physical interaction to delivering a child, the highest level example of toughness.  So, we should actually be telling people to grow a vagina or at least grow some estrogen."  With that level of true consciousness, it becomes absurd to tell children something as asinine as that.

Let's make March about true partnership towards fighting to eliminate the oppression of women, and that means also eliminating the oppression of trans-women.  If someone tells me they are spiritually a woman trapped physically in a man's body that's good enough for me and it should be good enough for you because its none of your business and it doesn't impact you one way or another.  Stop trying to be the human whisperer.  We don't need your rules and judgements because none of that is helping our people or humanity advance so please stop it.  To those African (Black) nationalists, stop saying our men are under attack.  Our people are under attack and African trans-women are at the top of that list. 

People always ask what the purpose of these recognition months actually is.  My answer is the purpose should be to use as launching points to fuel the movements behind the day, week, or month being recognized.  Let's use this March to reaffirm our true commitment to women's liberation and if next March we cannot look at our lives the last year and identify measurable points to document our progress, then there's your proof that you doing a lot of talking, but nothing else. 



0 Comments
<<Previous

    Picture

    Author

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

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    June 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly