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Diddy, ADOs, Opportunism & that Damn Black Bourgeoisie Again

3/28/2021

While exercising, a Notorious B.I.G. song came on and after just completing the book written by Compton Southside Crip Dwayne “Keefe D” Davis, a thought occurred to me. We write, present, and organize often against/about the class contradictions in our struggle for national liberation. In much of that work, we take great pains to clearly define the challenge of the African petti-bourgeoisie and bourgeoisie in subverting our people’s struggle for collective justice and forward movement. P Diddy, Puffy, Puff Daddy, however you know him, the Harlem dancer turned hip/hop mogul and CEO of “Bad Boy” records Sean Combs, is without question a prime example of the African petti-bourgeoisie we speak of often. People like Combs see the masses of humanity through their elitist class vision which dictates that the people are always nothing more than a means to an end. A vehicle to enrich these opportunists. Of course, in this society where truth and justice and material reality are absolute strangers to one another, no one is going to honestly tell you that they are here to exploit you and your experience. Instead, people are intelligent enough to use pro-people rhetoric at every turn despite the fact that they know that everything they are doing has nothing to do with any mass advancement by the people.

Combs personifies this contradiction. And, although most people aware of the beefs in hip/hop in the 1990s that resulted in Tupac Shakur and B.I.G. being murdered (along with many other people), know that Marian “Suge” Knight the CEO of “Death Row Records” was and is a complete piece of scum, many people seem to give Diddy a pass. Or, at least view him differently than they do Knight. Maybe its because Comb’s public image is much more polished than Knight’s outward embrace of the Los Angeles gang culture. Maybe its just because people have capitalist trained short memories. Either way, people need to understand that as much as they fault Knight for the violence of the 90s, Diddy or Combs, or whatever, with his strong petti-bourgeoisie politic, is just as responsible.

The common narrative is that Diddy built a connection to Keefe D and the Compton Southside Crips in explicit reaction to Knight’s bullying from the PIRU (Bloods) dominated “Death Row” team. And, that may be partially true, but what’s undeniable is that Diddy was more than a reluctant player in ratcheting up the atmosphere of violence and intimidation that ended up taking lives. For example, before the conflict between “Death Row” and “Bad Boy” turned deadly, Diddy has been accused by multiple sources, including Keefe D, of offering the Southside Crips money to “take care of big CEO and Tupac.” And, there are several admissions from persons present at the time that Diddy immediately called Los Angeles after Tupac was shot in Las Vegas asking “was that us?!”

Why bring all of this up 25 years later? Because most people have such absent memories when it comes to accountability that all someone like Diddy has to do is pledge a little money to a petti-bourgeoisie African college in the Southern U.S. or pay for one of the funerals of any of the thousands of Africans immorally killed by police gestapos anywhere, and most people would be sold on preaching the immortality of this individual. Meanwhile, those who live on the frontlines fighting against injustice and have done so for years of unwavering service to humanity, these same people will act like those people have done absolutely nothing of value. This contradiction exists because all of us are conditioned by capitalism to value what it tells us to value. And, that means those who achieve “status” within this bourgeoisie system based on the criteria of “success” that capitalism dictates. Diddy has done that so the system gladly trots him out there today as something of a role model to the masses of African people. They want you to emulate him, but what they don’t tell you is that in order for you to do that it would mean you would have to engage in the same manipulative and exploitative practices against our people that rose him to whatever type of heights he’s supposed to occupy today.

Now, I do plenty of movement security work and I’ve done it for years. So, I know that the level of security applied to both Tupac and Biggie on the nights they were killed was Charmin tissue soft. Virtually nonexistent. In other words, there is absolutely no way anyone would ever be able to convince me that it made any type of logical sense for Biggie to be at a party in Los Angeles a mere number of months after Tupac was killed. This is especially true if you know all of the background intrigue related to Diddy’s dealings with the Southside Crips, the conflict with the PIRUs, and all of that information you will only truly understand when you study it much deeper than just watching “Vlad T.V.”

Diddy is no hero. Suge is no hero. All of them, Tupac, Biggie, etc., made the error of thinking they could turn our people’s suffering in these inner city communities into commodities to be bought and sold. Tupac and Biggie both believed in this dysfunctional model so much that each of them believed themselves to be a part of the gangsta underworld to the extent that they permitted themselves to be swept up into it in a way that neither could escape. They both will unfortunately have to pay the eternal price for that error, but you are mistaken if you believe that Diddy is any less responsible than Knight. Diddy, Knight, the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOs), and all these opportunists who commodify our suffering for a potential and/or actual payday are nothing more than the modern day house negroes who are always willing to conspire with our oppressors for their own benefit. And, they will continue to get away with it as long as you continue to keep making excuses for them.

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Tupac/Biggie Deaths. Review of "Keefe D Compton Street Legend"

3/26/2021

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Dwayne “Keefe D” Davis has been a longtime leader of the Compton (California, U.S.) Southside Crips Street organization. His claim to fame is being in the car that fired the shots that killed hip/hop artist Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. in September 1996. In 2019 he released this book to – in his words – tell you what happened from the mouth of “gangsta” and not from the police, entertainment industry, etc. I had the book delivered yesterday at about 3:00pm Pacific time and by 8pm I had completed it. The book is only about 200 pages and I read and comprehend really fast (and you can to if you committed yourself to an ongoing political education program). And, as I do with a lot of what I read, I like to write my thoughts down and share them with others.

Those familiar with the drama around the so-called “East Coast/West Coast beef” in hip/hop in the 1990s already know most of the details Davis lays out in his book surrounding the circumstances around Tupac’s murder as well as that of Christopher Wallace aka the Notorious B.I.G. just seven months later. Still, it was interesting to hear Davis’s perspectives. Especially his repeated take about the African community’s strength in dealing with adversity and how most of us had to be raised to learn individual skills to help us overcome anxieties and difficulties. This is a discussion the African community today is no where close to being able to have, but I could partially relate to what Davis was saying. I never had the benefit of people wanting to support my trauma fused life and I knew when I was 14 that I either had to figure out how to forge forward on my own, or I would be crushed. I chose the former and I’m so much stronger as a result of all of that work. What I disagree with Davis on is these are problems connected to our oppression by this system. A collective oppression. So, if we know that then at some point we have to grow to developing the understanding that our healthiest solution to this problem will have to result from a collective solution. Some of us may have figured out some tools to help us maintain our balance, but clearly, the majority of us haven’t. And, I am honest enough to understand that even many of the ways I adopted are not the best.

Another interesting portion of the book was Davis’s attempted justification for why he admitted what he knew about the Tupac murder to the police. There are far too many variables to recount them here, but the basic scenario is that Death Row Records was formed by Marian “Suge” Knight who grow up in the PIRU (Blood) area of Compton. As a result, he flooded Death Row with street PIRUs to serve as security and as a result, Death Row, despite having multiple artists – including Snoop Dog – who claimed Crip affiliations, became a Blood record label. As a result of the so-called feud between Death Row and P. Diddy’s “Bad Boy records from New York, Diddy struck up a relationship with Davis and the Southside Crips to generate an ability to neutralize any threats from the Death Row camp against Bad Boy. Some of the Southsiders, including Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’s blood nephew, got into a scuffle at the Lakewood mall with some of the PIRU affiliated Death Row folks and that seemingly daily minor incident in L.A. gang life proliferated when one of the Death Row folks jumped at that mall recognized Anderson at the MGM Grand in Vegas after the Tyson fight on September 7, 1996. Alerting Tupac of the recognition, Tupac took off to attack Anderson and most people have seen the video of multiple PIRUs stomping Anderson in the lobby of that casino. Later that evening, Anderson, Davis, and two other Southside Crips apparently drove up beside the BMW driven by Suge Knight with Tupac in the passenger seat and the rest is history. Although Davis claims his motivation for writing this book was to take the narrative away from opportunistic police like former LAPD Detective Greg Kading, its pretty clear in the font of the writing that Davis’s primary concern is trying to paint of picture of justification for why he clearly broke the most important street code – do not talk to the police. Davis’s justification was that the FBI and LAPD had broken down all of the Southside Crips around him, including those closest to him who had been intricately involved in his high level cocaine dealing in several cities throughout the U.S. based on his reported connections to Columbian figures linked to Pablo Escabor’s Medallion Cartel. In Davis’s words, the police had him cold to rights for life in prison and his family was pleading with him to talk to the cops. He also stressed that he didn’t snitch on anyone else besides himself because the three others in the car during the Tupac shooting are dead, including his nephew Anderson – the reported trigger man who killed Tupac (the three died for various reasons, Anderson during a shootout with other Compton Crips in 1998 that was completely unrelated to the Tupac killing).

Its impossible to know if Davis did indeed only snitch on himself, but true or not, without question, he did snitch. My take on his focus on this issue is that he appears to have a huge amount of internal trauma related to his decision to cooperate with police and his writing about it the way he did seems to be his methodology to attempt to come to terms with it.

As for my overall assessment of the book, there are several. First, the ease from which police agencies were able to dismantle the Southside Crips speaks to the contradiction we discuss all of the time. All of that supposed loyalty and uncompromising behavior by so-called “hard” inner city living took all of about two minutes to be dissected by the police. A comparison would be some of our steeled warriors for the African liberation movement who have been incarcerated for decades without uttering a word of cooperation to the police about anything as insignificant as the weather. Even our beloved European comrade Marilyn Buck – imprisoned for 30+ years for her supposed role in helping Assata Shakur escape prison – never cooperated with police despite knowing that doing so would have reduced her prison time. As a result, she ultimately died in prison (pretty much) and its obviously the same story for people like Jamil al-Amin, Mutulu Shakur (convicted with Buck), Russell Maroon Shoats, Rutchell Magee, Sundiata Acoli, etc. There is no loyalty that can withstand the immoral and railroad tactics of police gestapos, but the difference is those committed to ideals that extend beyond their individual lives can find the character to resist this intimidation and I have just provided you with multiple examples. Also, as sad as it is that these Africans in Davis’s world were able to figure out how to gain access to millions of dollars and today, only a token number of them are still “”ballin” while most of them are literally dead or in prison speaks to the sham concept of advancing within the capitalist system. Most of those PIRUs and Compton Crips have absolutely nothing today to show for their “work” and many of them are dead as a result of their participation during this period. This is a testament to the contradictions of this capitalist system that oppresses us. Davis makes an effort to make this assessment in his book, but he unfortunately doesn’t possess the tools of analysis to make a concrete analysis so what he ends up doing is focusing on the individuals who betrayed him, everyone from Suge Knight to Diddy to his Southside Crips homies who turned on him to the feds. Well, as Davis himself says within the book “those cops and entertainers cannot tell the street gangstas story. Only we can do that!” By the same token no one can properly assess the contradictions in an oppressive society like those who are engaged in constant and organized struggle to overthrow that backward system and that would be those of us who dedicate ourselves to that task. What Davis misses is that this system is based on exploiting us and any effort to try and minimize that reality by trying to take what you can get from the system is not only shortsighted, it’s a sell out move. The police agencies benefitted the most from bringing Davis and his crew down. Their only motivation for solving the Tupac/Biggie murders was backing Mrs. Wallace and her lawsuits off of them and gaining fame as a result. This Greg Kading, ex-cop – in a just world – would be prison right along side Suge Knight. He has gone around making a name for himself, writing books, and doing everything he can to portray himself as the expert on these murders. And, he apparently did well enough to retire from the LAPD. He and the other scum like Vlad from Vlad T.V. and all of them are the lowest level criminals because the only thing worse than the criminal is the one who profits off of the criminal acts. Davis errs in thinking that his experience is his individual experience. As he himself says, his involvement changed hip/hop forever. That’s a wise statement and true. Its too bad he doesn’t have the foresight to extend that logic to his cooperation with Vlad and these other bottom feeders because his story is the story of all Africans. It could never just be his alone. Same template. We do all the work and maybe one or two of us rise up, but the majority us end up worse off while the Europeans involved who did nothing end up with all of the wealth and prestige. Anyone who wants to compromise with something like that is nothing except a sell out, or at the very least, they are very shortsighted, no matter how tough they are or think they are.

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Intellectualism & Political Consciousness in a Backward Society

3/25/2021

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Contrary to the backward propaganda constantly promoted about revolutionary thinkers and actors being fueled by anger, a thirst for violence, and an anti-human desire to simply replace the current oppressors with a facelift, those of us who study revolution know a vastly different reality. If we truly study the life works of dedicated revolutionaries from Malcolm X to Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Carmen Peirera, Imbalia Camara, Assata Shakur, Kwame Ture, George Padmore, etc., we find overwhelming evidence of the best human examples of selflessness and devotion to justice. Even in the case of the aforementioned revolutionaries, as well as others like Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Nguyen al Thoc (Ho Chi Minh), etc, - who have been viciously victimized by some of the worse misinformation and defamation campaigns in human history – once we do the proper study, we become more than equipped to dismiss all of this negative propaganda with strong kernels of truth.

Why, even the entertainment industry within capitalist societies, privately owned and dependent upon a public with a sheep mentality – serves the purpose of propaganda arm for international imperialism, often contributing mightily towards the negative portrayal of revolutionary consciousness and action. The examples are endless. The Killmonger character in the “Black Panther” movie. Vicious, ruthless, impatient, fueled by a thirst for revenge. Yet, with all of those negative traits, this person is supposed to be an African revolutionary. Any person with no research background on revolutions, and an eye open to popular culture like that movie – of which that definition easily represents about 90% of the general population – is going to be covertly and overtly influenced by this overwhelmingly negative example of what being a revolutionary is based upon. And, anyone operating in their right mind would not want to pursue that type of existence which is exactly the objective the enemies of humanity who own and control the entertainment industry have for us. This is the reason all of the fictional portrayals of people like Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Kwame Ture, Patrice Lumumba, Huey P. Newton, Fred Hampton, etc., may or may not have merit in the personal portrayals of these historical giants, but the actual foundation of the fictional accounts always comes up severely lacking.

The fundamental strategy of capitalism is to keep the masses of people ignorant. They do this by flooding popular media with nonstop nonsense designed to keep the people distracted. Reality shows, sports, entertainment gossip. The glorification of celebrity personalities. This is why the average person can tell you all about Lil Wayne and Kodak Black being pardoned from prison time while those same people couldn’t tell you anything about political prisoners like Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, Mutulu Shakur, or Russell Maroon Shoats, if their lives depended upon it. All of this keeps people focused on those things along with consistently purchasing items through a nonstop consciousness of retail therapy (to sooth the pain of being exploited by the capitalist system). Consequently, the environment has been created and solidified where intellectualism i.e. the pursuit of clarity around ideas, has been relegated to being viewed primarily as a negative. Even something elitist and anti-human as if trying to gain clarity to the problems of the world can be anti-human? Yet, this system has accomplished this and you can see the results by taking notice of the fact you will almost never see anyone reading large volume books anywhere. And, for those of you who just look for reasons to be contrary to any statement being made, lets quantify that last statement. Engage in a study and compare how many people you see reading comprehensive books (ideology, history, philosophy, etc.) compared to how many people you see on their phones and I think the point we are making is clearly established.

Along with this strong implementation of anti-intellectual culture, the concept of revolutionary consciousness is effectively diminished in this society to the point where people who express revolutionary consciousness i.e. building ideological mass and unity for action to create systemic change from capitalism to socialist development (revolution) are vilified as insane, dangerous, and untrustworthy. There was a time previously when one of the main critiques against revolutionary organizers was our inability to make our messages mass in character. Revolutionary organizers have gotten much better in this area, evolving beyond the 1960s, 70s, etc., Stalinist rhetoric of the “proletariat taking over the means of production.” Today, revolutionary organizers are efficient with using popular themes, and sometimes even popular figures, to advance messages through a broad and sophisticated knowledge of social media usage. So, in response to those developments, revolutionary organizers are now just easily dismissed primarily by a wide spread train of thought that doesn’t require even a half-hearted attempt to even realistically challenge the revolutionary thought and action being presented in any type of cognitive way. For example, how many times have you seen revolutionary literature immediately dismissed by naysayers who clearly didn’t even take time to read the literature before denouncing it? I wrote an article about a year ago and some dude gets on social media denouncing the article (it was a Pan-Africanist refute of the so-called American Descendant of Slaves (ADOs) movement). The sad thing was from a theoretical basis, this person considered themselves a Pan-Africanist who was vehemently opposed to ADOs (as they should be). The problem was this dude was so quick in pushing to achieve his only apparent objective – having his voice heard – that he clearly didn’t take 10 seconds to read any of the article I wrote and posted. When I pointed that obvious fact out to him, his response was to pivot to personal attacks against me despite the fact that dude wouldn’t know me if I walked right up to him and slapped him. At face value the scenario I just described is absolutely insane. Yet, this is a very common and very much acceptable practice today. Truth and justice and material reality couldn’t be more separated from one another. As a result, “your truth is your truth (who hasn’t heard that nonsense)” as if someone articulating the absurd notion that 1 + 1 equals 50 should somehow be permitted to believe that foolishness because “that’s their truth.”

This dysfunction has created an extremely dangerous reality where people operate openly under the false pretense that there is no universal truth. As a result, there can be no universal accountability. This is a wonderful state of affairs for the enemies of humanity because while they have us debating back and forth about everything under the sun except how we organize to get rid of them, their powerbase stays intact.

The primary goal of any revolutionary thinker and actor has to be stay motivated to challenge this difficult reality while continuing to advance messages that counter the common narrative. We need more messaging about collectivism to counter the dominant capitalist message of individualism (which plays so nicely along with the “my truth is my truth nonsense).” Within the current dominantly individualistic environment we function in, a simple (and scientifically ill refutable) statement like “join an organization working for justice” is met with intense hostility. We need more imagery depicting the narrative that if we come together, we can win to combat this constant barrage of propaganda (displayed so clearly in movies like “Queen and Slim”) where the dominant message is if we stand up (as individuals of course) we will lose every single time and lose drastically. We need messaging to promote the concept that faith in people is a realistic goal and that there are plenty of people out here worthy of trust to counter the backward and individualistic notion that no one can be trusted because (capitalist ideology) “if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” And, finally, we have to strongly refute this anti-intellectualism by promoting organization and ongoing political education. We have to letting the backward narrative that watching imperialist news like MSNBC, BBC, CIA, and even al-Jazeera is worthy political education go unchallenged. We have to advance the correct notion that the only reliable way to get politically educated is for people to engage in collective study processes where they immerse themselves in political education study and struggle like they would immerse themselves in a workout at the gym. Full strength. Full speed ahead. And, with no hesitation. That’s the only way you make progress getting in shape and guess what, that’s the only way you advance your political consciousness. Thinking that reading social media articles individually is political education is like believing that doing television aerobics once every six months (while the rest of your time is spent engaging in unhealthy behavior) is getting in shape. Anti-intellectualism and anti-socialist, anti-communist ideology are the weapons of the oppressors. Mass organization and political education are the weapons for the oppressed. Choose your weapons wisely.

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A Review of the book "Mark Clark - Soul of a Panther"

3/18/2021

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I ordered, received, and read this book, as I do many, many books, as soon as I became aware of its existence. Why? Because too many of us are far too comfortable believing that watching movies and/or documentaries like “Judas and the Black Messiah” or “Harriet” or “Malcolm X” or “Who Killed Malcolm X”, etc., is enough to acquire the necessary level of political education about our history of struggle against empire. We believe in science. Consequently, we know that the only way to develop reliable information about medical science is by studying and practicing medicine. By the same token, we know that the only way to truly understand our people’s history and struggle is by studying and engaging in that struggle. Watching movies/documentaries and engaging on social media while belonging to no organizations fighting for justice is widely accepted as credible today, but in our humble view, this approach can never prepare you for a serious understanding of our people’s conditions.

That’s why I read this book (and all others). This particular one was written by Gloria Clark Jackson, the sister of Mark Clark. It’s a short book. Just over 100 pages. The focus is on a sister providing her version of who her brother was. This part of the book was essentially important to me because historically, Mark Clark is mentioned mostly as the person who was murdered by Chicago, Illinois, U.S., police along with Chairman Fred Hampton on December 4, 1969. Besides that, not much about Mark Clark is known and/or discussed. This book by his sister helps fill in much of the void. She clarifies that Clark was the Deputy Minister of Defense for the Peoria, Illinois, Black Panther Party branch. Most people outside of Illinois who have heard of Peoria most likely know the town due to it being the birthplace of comedian/actor Richard Pryor. As a result, it was refreshing to learn about Clark’s development in Peoria and his uncompromising commitment to become a part of the Black Panther Party’s militant advance towards challenging the injustices against African people.

Gloria Clark Jackson does a strong job illustrating the dedicated and commitment of Mark Clark, even admitting that he was the driving force towards encouraging her to join the Black Panther Party in Peoria which she did, and participate in its daily work to serve the African community. She also provides valuable insight into Mark Clark’s focus on supporting the work Hampton and others were carrying out in Chicago and how Clark spent much time in Chicago working closely with Hampton to ensure he had the dedicated people around him to support the enormous work Hampton was engaged in. According to Clark Jackson, during this time, Clark and Hampton developed a close comradery/friendship. And, from this relationship, Clark Jackson expresses how Clark saw the need to move to Chicago to serve as a close confidante to Hampton. Probably the strongest element of the book was Clark Jacksons recounting the atmosphere surrounding the Black Panther Party in 1969. The constant police repression which included two physical confrontations between the Panthers and police where death resulted. Clark Jackson conveys that her and Mark’s mother was extremely concerned about Clark planning to move to Chicago, and she begged Mark not to go. Ironically, it was the family that drove Clark to Chicago with his bags packed. Clark Jackson retells how when they dropped Clark off he told them that no matter what, he loved them before he walked off, never looking back. Unfortunately, this would be the last time the Clark family saw Mark alive.

The personal touch of Clark Jackson’s story was a welcome sight. Whether intentional or not, it reaffirmed the foundation of revolutionary work being rooted in love and a commitment to justice. Not anger and a thirst for retaliation as is often conveyed and incorrectly assumed about revolutionary organizers. That warm and positive manifestation of revolutionary work is one that needs to be reinforced in every narrative shared about revolutionary organizers. Since the book focused heavily on Clark Jackson’s recollection of her brother, and not the political program of the Black Panther Party, the only critique I have for the book is actually related to that reality. Many Black Panthers haven’t engaged in organizational radical politics since the 1970s. Although Clark Jackson doesn’t disclose her current engagement, based on her pronouncements about current conditions (being framed from the standard liberal bourgeoisie perspective of “our government” and police reform, etc.), its my bet the characterization of retiring from active radical struggle applies to her as well. As a result, although she makes a strong attempt to convey Mark Clark as a committed warrior for justice, the loss of her brother and the subsequent denial of justice afforded to her family, the Hampton family, and all families of our liberation fighters, there is still the understandable, yet unproductive, aura of regret apparent in the book in connection to Mark’s involvement in the Panther party. Of course, no person should be killed at 22, especially due to terrorist oppression from a backward state apparatus, but the inescapable reality is until we gain a consciousness and commitment to struggle against this empire, on a mass and consistently organized basis, we will continue to suffer losses on all levels. Any of our casualties from the Black Panther Party or any liberation movement should be seen as people who should be honored for doing so. Not lost lives who died unnecessarily. This isn’t to say that was the message in Clark Jackson’s book. It wasn’t. The point here is the capitalist system has perfected its propaganda through its instruments of indoctrination like “Veterans Day” and that worthless national anthem being played everywhere. As a result, the hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops who have died in war fighting for this backward country – deaths that certainly could and should have been avoided – are instead generally thought of as honorable sacrifices to maintain freedom (a freedom that of course doesn’t exist). If the framers of imperialism who have no material basis to justify their terrorist violence worldwide, have the capacity to frame their efforts as honorable, certainly we should figure out how to do the same for our soldiers who, unlike U.S. troops, have justifiable reason to be honored and considered heroic.

As with any book, we encourage you to read “Mark Clark – Soul of a Panther” because political education is an absolute necessity at all times. Far too many people are utterly confused simply because their only exposure to any information about our struggles is being generated by the entities who profit from our oppression. Mark Clark is without question a brave solder who died defending the struggle he was committed to. He is a true veteran of our struggle for justice and human forward progress. He should be remembered that way by all of us.

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The Unknown Connection between Malcolm X & Socialist Cuba?

3/12/2021

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The assassination of Malcolm X, who did it, what role did Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam play, etc., etc., has been a constant topic of discussion for 56 years. Most recently, we were “treated” to the mediocre documentary on Netflix entitled “Who Killed Malcolm X.” With a razor focus on the people who directly participated in Malcolm’s assassination as opposed to who didn’t, for example, this limited work spent much of its time demonstrating how Muhammad Abdul Aziz, formally known as Norman 2X Butler, and Khalil Islam, formally known as Thomas 15X Johnson, each spent prison time for the assassination, but were not involved. This of course is something people in the revolutionary Pan-Africanist community have known for decades. And, this documentary, as is the trend with recent works, discredits even its own thesis about Aziz and Islam by pretty much ignoring the fact that each of them were known gangster enforcers within the Nation of Islam in the 60s. This is the reason every member of Malcolm’s Organization of Afro-American Unity swore those two were never present at the Audobon Ballroom that fateful day. Those two men had brutalized people in Harlem for years and this was widely known so although they certainly should not have spent time in prison for the one crime they didn’t commit – the assassination of Malcolm X – excuse us if we feel that focusing on their “innocence” is nothing more than subterfuge designed to keep us from realizing the true stories in play here. Even for those who are stuck on focusing on the Nation of Islam’s role in the entire drama, an analysis around that question that doesn’t place Elijah Muhammad’s children i.e. Eljah Jr. front and center is going to be incomplete. Also, the Supreme Caption of the Fruit of Islam; Raymond Shariff and his wife Ethel, National Secretary (and probable Federal Bureau of Investigation informant) John Ali, Philadelphia Minister Jeremiah Shabazz, , Yusef Shah, formally Captain Joseph Stephens, New Jersey Minister and Captain James Shabazz and Clarence X Gill, as well as Minister Farrakhan and of course Warith Deen Muhammad (Elijah Muhammad’s son who succeeded him when the elder Muhammad passed in 1975) all have to be examined in order to fully even understand the Nation of Islam’s role. Regardless, the point of this piece is even with all of that information, people focused on who killed Malcolm still miss the important point. Why was he killed, or what exactly was he doing that caused him to be killed in the first place? If you rely on the Netflix documentary or Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic film, you would believe that Malcolm disclosing that Elijah Muhammad fathered children out of wedlock was the smoking gun. I first saw the 1970s documentary about Malcolm’s assassination in 1979 at 17 years of age and I knew even then that the out of wedlock children couldn’t have been the real story. The question of what the real story is has caused lots of influential entitles, from Netflix to Warner Brothers (who distributed Lee’s movie in 1992) to find it necessary to stick to the narrative that gossip and jealously were the primary reasons Malcolm was killed. We didn’t buy that in the 60s, and we aren’t buying it now.

Instead, we suggest a much more logical narrative around Malcolm’s assassination beyond just that the U.S. government killed him because they didn’t like his rhetoric. No one gets assassinated just because of what they are saying. The assassination takes place because they are building capacity to bring what they are saying into reality. So, analysis is needed today that relegates the issues of Elijah Muhammad’s sexual urges where they belong, in the background of importance around this critical issue. Malcolm X was assassinated because he had emerged as the dominate voice of African discontent with the U.S. capitalist system. And, he wasn’t just a voice speaking on a lone stoop. He was someone who’s voice had impact on the people in Northern inner cities as well as activists working on civil rights in the deep South, and even throughout Africa and other parts of the world. Malcolm’s experiences and influences, broadened significantly from his travels, had made him most notably the chief critique of U.S. imperialism and millions of people were waiting for additional analysis and direction from him as to how we should proceed. This is what this power structure was frightened of. They knew that people were paying close attention to Malcolm and that if permitted to live, his influence would grow far beyond even the extensive levels he had developed while a minister within the Nation of Islam. They even knew that there were significant players in the worldwide revolutionary and socialist movements who were not only paying attention to Malcolm, but were establishing relationships with him with the intent of furthering their work together. This was a development that U.S. imperialism was intent on ensuring would never happen.

One of those entities were the principled revolutionaries within the Cuban revolution. Firmly supported by the masses of Cuban people. And, well within the journey of beginning to consolidate their socialist revolution just 90 miles from U.S. imperialism, the Cubans had established ties with Malcolm while he was still in the Nation of Islam. Most students of this era know that Malcolm met with Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban revolution when a delegation from the newly victorious revolution came to the U.S. in 1960. What has been mostly ignored is that the contact between Malcolm and the Cuban revolutionaries didn’t stop there. What we know about the Cuban revolution that no knowledgeable person can ever dispute is that they have written the book on building principled relationships across ideological lines. They have always been intelligent enough to realize that whether Nkrumahist-Tureist (Pan-Africanist) Maoist, or whatever, building broad anti-imperialist ties is always going to be the most important thing for them and the strength of our worldwide movement. So, they forged relationships with Malcolm because they studied the situation enough within the U.S. to recognize that he had integrity, courage, commitment, and a following.

Intense study of Malcolm’s connections with Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Sekou Ture in Guinea, Gamal Abdul Nasser in Egypt, Mrs. Shirley Graham DuBois (who played a key role in introducing Malcolm and Kwame Ture – formally Stokely Carmichal – to Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Ture) Fidel and Che’s writing from Cuba, and Malcolm’s own diary, provides some insight. What we glean from this study is that there is a strong probability that Malcolm had other meetings with the Cubans, including their probable invitation to him to come to Cuba and participate in worldwide revolutionary activities that would be based in Havana. Malcolm makes subtle references to this in several of his speeches. He talks about welcoming Che Guevara to New York when Guevara went there to speak to the United Nations in 1964 (when Che gave his famous “two, three Vietnams for the U.S. speech). Malcolm’s words suggest much more than just arbitrary solidarity with the Argentine revolutionary. They suggest a larger agenda. One that Malcolm was primed to engage with and support.

For their part, Castro and Guevara helped establish a clear and unquestionable level of support for the African struggle for liberation within the U.S. They spoke consistently about the injustices of white supremacy within the U.S.. They did that in 1959 and they continue to do that in 2021. They provided concrete backing to their rhetoric by providing safe grounding for African revolutionaries all over the world, including those from the U.S. like Robert Williams, Eldridge Cleaver (before he flipped), Huey P. Newton, Kwame Ture, Bill Brent, Assata Shakur, and many others who like Assata, still reside in Cuba. Based on that firm history, there is absolutely no reason for us to believe the Cuban revolutionaries were not ready, willing, and active in offering the same levels of support for Malcolm, the man who helped shape (with the possible exception of Williams) all of the people just mentioned.

Of course, like with everything else about Malcolm’s radicalization period after leaving the confines of the Nation of Islam, there is only scant time and evidence from which to suggest which direction he was headed in during the 11 months between his split from the Nation and his death. Still, what we do know is that he traveled extensively. Much more than his sister Ella could have financed. And, Malcolm had no declarable income i.e. job, etc., during that 11 month period. We know that his thinking evolved a great deal while he was in the Nation, but at the lightening pace after he left the Nation. We also know that the Cuban revolutionaries, expressed through their own words, admired the radical Muslim minister. And, that in their serious fight against U.S. imperialism during the 60s, they actively sought allies within the U.S. and there was none better during that time with more credibility than El Hajj Malik El Shabazz.

As time continues to pass, more and more information will become available to us. Don’t be shocked, and don’t forget that we told you so, when it becomes revealed that Malcolm did indeed meet with Che Guevara. And, that they were working on projects, to be carried out like the equally unknown projects Malcolm was working on with Nkrumah, Ture, and other Pan-Africanists. Concrete projects. Projects that imperialism, who will most likely be the eventual leak for this information, whether that’s their intention or not, knew it had to do whatever it could to prevent from happening. We encourage everyone to study these workings and leave the babies out of wedlock jealously narratives behind. If you want to engage gossip, then those perspectives will help you, but if you want to seriously understand the concrete reasons why Malcolm was taken from us, much more is required. Meanwhile, you can depend upon imperialism to continue to endorse and finance propaganda designed to confuse us and keep us from realizing who Malcolm and other genuine revolutionaries actually were. What they were fighting for, and the reasons their work was sabotaged because as long as they can keep us from understanding those elements, they know we won’t see the need to continue that work. And, if we don’t continue that international revolutionary solidarity and unity work, they know that they will continue to win.

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Denying Africa; DNA Tests & White Supremacy

3/7/2021

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The definition of a paradox are two things existing simultaneously that should not be able to co-exist at the same time. For example, someone claiming to be an American while also claiming to be anti-white supremacy is a great example of a paradox because the concept of America as a nation is built on and maintained on the systemic oppression of African and Indigenous people, but we digress.

The example of a paradox we will focus on for this piece is this social media (Youtube) inspired confusion floating around the anti-study circles within our communities. This school of thought by some Africans (people of African descent) who live somewhere within the Western Hemisphere, most prominently within the U.S., is that they have no historical connection to Africa. Instead, these people claim that their heritage and linage has always existed within the Western Hemisphere for thousands of years. The only evidence these people ever present to validate this position are ancient historical landmarks like the Olmec heads in Southern Mexico. These heads, built thousands of years ago, clearly display African facial features, so to these Youtube PhD’s this represents evidence that Africans have always been here. We won’t dwell upon the fact that these people completely ignore concrete research and analysis by noted scholars like Ivan Van Sertima. In his classic book “They Came Before Columbus” Van Sertima, expertly argues with substantial scientific evidence that Africans and Indigenous peoples, as well as people from Asia and Europe, engaged in consistent trade long before colonialism. In fact, Van Sertima and many other scholars like W.E.B. DuBois, Yusef Ben Jochannan, Cheikh Anti Diop, and John Henrik Clarke, make the same arguments that monuments like the Olmec heads represent symbols of honor that were either built by the visiting Africans as tribute to their Indigenous trade hosts or were built by the Indigenous peoples to serve as honors to their visiting guests. I have been fortunate enough to sit down and talk to Van Sertima and Clarke so I was able to confirm directly from their lips that this was the intention of their scholarly work. Not, to suggest that Africans were not Africans and have always been in the Western Hemisphere. Another faulty claim these people make is the supposedly absence of physical evidence of slave ships. This is such a weak argument its astounding that we even have to have it today with Africans. Shipping experts have published analysis of the disintegration process sunken ships experience for decades now. And, even if you don’t know about that scientific perspective, virtually all of us understand that anything submerged in water, especially harsh salt water, for a period of time is going to experience disintegration of its particles. That is all true despite the reality that its not as if there have ever been any concerted efforts made to retrieve evidence of sunken slave ships. That has never happened.

Still, its quite clear within this anti-intellectual, social media earned PhD environment that dominates today that these basic facts won’t matter much to these people. So, I had an idea. Since so many Africans are getting these DNA tests that trace your family’s genealogical histories, and so many people are spending money and believing in this process, it would seem like this phenomenon would provide the appropriate research to clear up this question once and for all.

In other words, all of these Africa-denying Africans who are getting these DNA tests, all you have to do is publish the results of your testing. To validate your claims of absolutely no psychological and historical connection to Africa, from a scientific basis, there should be a significant percentage of you who are able to present test results that confirm no connection to Africa – right? Since these people are claiming upwards of 50% of us here in the Western Hemisphere who have no connection to Africa, proving this based on these tests should provide us the evidentiary basis to put this argument to bed once and for all. You are not Africans. You are something else – right?

Of course, we are dialectical and historical materialists here which means we don’t operate within fantasy worlds. We recognize and respect the historical and scientific laws of the universe we live in. As a result, despite our sarcasm above, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that these people cannot produce DNA tests disconnecting themselves from Africa. Certainly, we know the history of the Aboriginal people of Australia and the Dalit people of India (the so-called “Untouchables).” These are African people, but their journey is different. Unlike us, they did not leave Africa through the transatlantic slave trade. They physically left Africa under much different historical circumstances thousands of years ago, but each of those peoples realize how they are. They know they are Africans despite being removed from Africa so long ago. The Aboriginal Rights Society and representatives from the Dalit participated in Pan-African Congresses designed to bring African people everywhere together so these folks have never advanced conspiracy and fantasy tales about who they are. The related point of the Aboriginals and Dalit is that certainly, there will be a handful of our people who indeed do have histories that extend far beyond colonialism, but we refuse to sit here today and pretend that this is anything beyond a very small, negligible portion of our people in the Western Hemisphere. We cannot carry on this travesty to appease Africans who are ignorantly ashamed of our actual history.

There are multiple reasons for this dysfunctional thinking. First and foremost, when you find an African in the U.S. who is peddling this fiction, we will guarantee you that you will be dealing with an African who has absolutely no understanding of Africa’s history. And, we mean a person who hasn’t read one book about Africa, not one. This is a critical point because the capitalist white supremacy system has spent centuries perfecting its dehumanization of Africa and African people to justify the construction of the capitalist empire. Consequently, when Africans and everyone else doesn’t study true and objective African history, its unavoidable to be swept into the anti-Africa propaganda that is designed to create a mentality among us of shame and resentment. This is the design because if we respond this way we will never see our continued and future necessity to connect with Africa and our inability to see this will always prevent us from recognizing the methods in which this capitalist system continues to build its wealth on exploiting Africa while they keep us convinced that we have no wealth because we are not like them. The shame at not being them has convinced us to avoid Africa and instead make up fantasy. Or, to create a more palatable history instead of us seriously learning about our own true and proud history. For us to connect ourselves to the Americas because it is in this country where “success” has been achieved. Meanwhile, the glorious history of Africa’s great contributions to world civilizations, forms of spiritual worship, and our great resistance at all times to colonial intrusion into Africa is available for all who desire to learn it, but its always much easier to instead just watch Youtube videos and be entertained isn’t it?

Secondly, this fictional account of our history is so utterly disrespectful to the wonderful legacy of our African ancestors as well as that of the original and only true Indigenous people’s of the Western Hemisphere. With the dire conditions our people face, its far past time for children’s games. Its time to either put up or shut up. You can’t produce mass test results proving no connection to Africa because no such proof exists. You are Africans and its time to embrace that and challenge the backward thinking (reaped in ignorance and shame) that is represented by stupid statements by people like Kanye West when he said that slavery “sounds like a choice.”

I have no interest in obtaining a DNA test and more than likely, I probably won’t ever have that interest because I’m a Pan-Africanist which means I claim my mother Africa proudly and completely from Cairo to the Cape. From Nairobi to Nigeria. I love being in Africa around the Akan, Wolof, Mandinka, Ashanti, Kikuyu, etc., and having them claim me as one of them. Its all true to me because I know my future and Africa’s future are inseparable. And, I also know that no tests, snake oil salespeople, pretend reparations advocates (who only wish to enrich themselves), or fake profit driven Pan-African Black power pimps can do or say anything to change this ill-refutable reality. I only want that for you, but like anything worth having, it requires you putting in the work. There’s no pride in being ignorant, especially about our true and proud history.

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Why Radical Independent Organizing Work is the Only Solution

3/4/2021

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In 1983 there was a popular poem that circulated throughout “conscious” events entitled “Africa is Burning while the Black Man is doing the Freak.” In 2021 and beyond, Africa is burning at an even higher temperature. Political unrest from Somalia to Sudan to Kenya to Zimbabwe to Ghana reflects the people of Africa’s fatigue at being ruthlessly exploited for cheap labor and mineral resources for the benefit of the entire capitalist world. Don’t expect this to change. In fact, these struggles will intensify. Africa will become much more front in center as the image of struggle against oppression worldwide. For anyone who knows anything about Africa’s ravaging from colonialism, this makes perfect sense.

In response to these developments, Kwame Nkrumah – probably the most critical revolutionary African thinker of the 20th century – wrote the “Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare” in 1968. The handbook is viewed by revolutionary Pan-Africanists as the strategic directive on how to organize the masses of people in Africa towards revolutionary Pan-Africanism i.e. one unified socialist Africa.

You won’t learn about it on BBC, NBC, MSNBC, FOX, or CIA networks, but this important work has been taking place consistently over the last 50 years since the handbook was written. Organizations like the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau (PAIGC), Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG) and Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC – South Africa), are struggling to forge bonds to concretize their work as Nkrumah called for. The All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) serves as a critical component in continuing to develop this work.

For those of us within the A-APRP who have organized around this work for quite some time in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Canada, South America, Central America, and throughout the U.S., we have developed strong lived experiences that have consistently reaffirmed for us the correctness of Africa’s liberation being the key component for progress and justice for Africans everywhere on earth. The question this reality has raised for us continuously has been what role the one billion Africans living outside of Africa will concretely play in contributing towards this revolutionary Pan-Africanist effort?

At this stage most of the work everywhere is political education around the need and value in fighting for one unified socialist Africa. Obviously, this is a monumental phase. We are battling 528 years of systemic anti-Africanism and 100 years of anti-communism. Still, as this work continues, that burning question about the role of Africans outside of the U.S. rages on. And, along with that, the question of what concrete work we can engage people in that will bring to life the studying element present in the political education work? Finally, the continued decline of international capitalism has contributed towards the rise of white supremacist and fascist violence aimed against oppressed populations. What can be done to address all of these very real problems?

One humble method that has been developed to attempt to address these questions is the 76 page manifesto entitled “A Guide for Defense against White Supremacist, Patriarchal, and Fascist Violence.” Written over a three year period, this manifesto attempts to provide a work plan for Africans, specifically those located within the U.S., about how to get the communities they live in organized to resist oppression while linking that work to our revolutionary Pan-Africanist work taking place throughout Africa.

The manifesto provides guidance on how to approach communities to initiate organizing efforts. There are tactics provided on how to interact and engage people around the problems they see in their neighborhoods. Then there are methods which when employed, serve to recruit people into doing this revolutionary community defense work. There are tools to establish and maintain democratic decision making processes. Guidelines how how to start political education programs that operate within neighborhoods. There are tools designed to help develop the necessary resources needed to organize and proven approaches designed to help people learn how to address the inevitable contradictions that arise whenever people attempt to come together. Also, there are arguments presented about healthy ways to engage the work and keep the work going. And, there is a section dedicated on how to continue to grow the work while linking the work to others engaged in similar projects.
Another important element of the manifesto is despite being designed for the African revolution, the components of the manifesto are written and provided in a way that can serve as a model for organizing Indigenous people in neighborhoods/reservations. Indigenous (so-called) Latino people in barrios. Asian neighborhoods. LGBTQ neighborhoods. And, European neighborhoods. And, the manifesto provides suggestions around how all of this work can be supportive among projects.

Everyone who has any experience with revolutionary organizing and struggle knows that no one who writes about revolutionary organizing is going to make money doing so. What this means is that anyone who spends three years writing a manifesto such as this one is someone who understands and recognizes that their goal is to get the concepts contained within the manifesto in the hearts and minds of as many people as humanly possible.

The rising level of violent attacks against Asians throughout the U.S., the continued gunning down of Africans by police and vigilantes, especially the targeting of African Trans women, the rise in attacks against all women identifying people and all LGBTQ people. All of this, coupled with growing open revolt throughout Africa, brings into clear view the necessity for a manifesto like this one. Anyone in 2021 and beyond who sincerely believes that our first line of defense against this oppression is relying on bourgeoisie governments and their apparatuses like police, etc., is someone living completely within a fantasy world. These institutions are not only not designed to protect us, but they exist to subjugate and repress us. What this makes clear is that the only solution for these issues is for people on the ground to start organizing to defend themselves the only way this can effectively happen, through collective organization.

Another important point for everyone to consider is that a major reason why mass organizing doesn’t take place is the absolute difficulty revolutionary organizers have in advancing their messages. We previously mentioned hundreds of years of anti-Africa and anti-communist/socialist propaganda being institutionalized in this society. As a result, there are no publishers lining up to help publish and promotes manifestos like this one. Consequently, we ask that those reading this take on the assignment of bringing this manifesto to your organizations and reading groups to read and discuss. If you don’t have an organization or reading group, we encourage you to start them. If you need help doing so, we again offer our humble assistance in working with you to engage that work.

There is this manifesto and multiple accompanying videos at the www.abetterworld.me site to help people understand more about this work and the manifesto in particular. Also, we would love to speak to your group about the manifesto. You can reach out to us at the site above. Comrade Fidel Castro was correct when he said the only qualification for leadership is sincerity and that people are all the resources needed to solve all the problems we face on the planet earth. Let’s get organized!

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Diddy, ADOs, Opportunism & that Damn Black Bourgeoisie Again

Tupac/Biggie Deaths. Review of "Keefe D Compton Street Legend"

Intellectualism & Political Consciousness in a Backward Society

A Review of the book "Mark Clark - Soul of a Panther"

The Unknown Connection between Malcolm X & Socialist Cuba?

Denying Africa; DNA Tests & White Supremacy

Why Radical Independent Organizing Work is the Only Solution

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