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Revolution and Insurrection aren't Necessarily the Same Thing

4/29/2016

I'm a revolutionary Pan-Africanist who lives in the Pacific Northwest. That's the social equivalent of a shark living in a lake. The fact that this region of the country, particularly Portland, Eugene, and Seattle, are seen as bastions of liberal thought and practice doesn't help the situation. Actually, it makes it often more challenging. The majority of European Marxist groups in this region are knee deep in white supremacist ideology. Within the All African People's Revolutionary Party, we consistently study Marx, Lenin, Engels, Trotsky, Luxemburg, Mao, Le Duan, Kim Il Sung, Fidel Castro, etc., as much, if not more than most of those groups. Yet, that doesn't prevent most of them from preaching to us about "true Marxist" thought as if the history of Europe is the history of the entire world. Then, when we initiate conversations about our African political ideologues like Nkrumah, Ture, Cabral, Sobukwe, Biko, Sankara, etc., there are crickets from them, every single time. And the Marxists aren't even the most irritating. This region is a hotbed of support for so-called theories of Anarchy, but yet, the overwhelming majority of people up here who are claiming that way of life cannot articulate a concrete perspective of how what they are doing is going to change the conditions for the masses of people today, especially African and other people of color. In other words, my principle argument for these folks since I've been up here is that from a philosophical standpoint, I see a lot of similarities between communism, which I believe in, and the Anarchy they say they want. Both societies have yet to happen (so stop saying communism has failed. That's like saying relationships have failed). Both are based on an exceptional level of mass consciousness that creates an altruistic society where the need for state institutions is no longer necessary. That leads to my critique for them, which none of them seem to be able to answer, which is how we get there? For us who are Nkrumahist/Turiests, the answer is the socialist stage is the bridge between capitalism and communism. We cannot have what we need overnight. It will take generations to get there. Generations of very hard work.

So, its the people in the latter category (Anarchy) who being dominant in this region, pose the most headaches. Primarily due to many of their insistence that revolution isn't a process that will take years. They keep advancing the notion that revolution and insurrection are the same thing. Or, at least that spontaneous insurrection (which is how they are defining it) can lead to revolution. They are always talking about seizing the moment as if a spontaneous uprisings due to a police shooting is going to extend into a mass revolutionary effort. Of course, anything is possible, but that is most likely an extremely unlikely result that is based mostly in an idealistic perspective of the world that is devoid of material analysis. There is also a very bourgeois element to it that dismisses the need to actually do organizing work to create the correct conditions for revolutionary change to take place.

Insurrection is spontanenous eruption. The people, tired of the repression of the state, rise up in righteous indignation. We Africans know all about that because we have by far carried out the overwhelming majority of these types of uprisings. In fact, Kwame Ture was succinct when he said "Africans have been burning down this country from plantations to cities." So, we hardly need Europeans, who for most part have never lived, organized in, and/or participated in the type of urban conditions that produce the uprisings, to tell us the potential of those occurrences. There are plenty of other posts here where I have described clear differences between revolution and rebellion. What I will say here is that there are concrete material reasons why none of the hundreds of slave revolts as we call them, have evolved into the revolution these people keep waiting for. The answer is simple. You cannot create revolution without revolutionaries. Being a revolutionary isn't like becoming a Christian. The gospel of Christianity permits you to violate every sin 100 times in a single day and then repent those sins, claim Jesus as your personal savior, and you are born again and now a Christian. Being a revolutionary works differently. You can't have a spiritual experience while breaking a window or throwing a burning cocktail and transform from a knucklehead into a revolutionary. You have to engage in protracted social revolutionary struggle to transform yourself and that process cannot be divorced from your work to organize with others. This is the process that creates the new woman and man that Kwame Nkrumah talked about. In this scenario, the role of the state in a socialist society is to provide everyone with the resources to successfully carry out that transformation. This is scientific, not emotional. Its collective, not individualistic. Its tough and firmly rooted in material conditions. Not evasive and rooted in idealism. The decision making processes within the All African People's Revolutionary Party are the most advanced mechanisms for involving everyone and encouraging all to participate in society that I've ever witnessed. Anyone who claims our practices are authoritarian doesn't know much about us. I''d stayed up all night in to many meetings debating decisions before many of these European critics were born (in the movement and/or the world) to be swayed by that confusion.

By far, the largest contradiction I see from working up here is that most people are not in organizations, and that's not the most egregious part. The worst thing is that most of those people brag about that. They say ignorant things up here like "I'm not trying to organize anyone. I'm trying to resist" as if organizing people in the community to build capacity against the system isn't resistance. These people say other strange things like "the alternatives to organizations are working with people who agree with you on a local level to make change." That's like saying the alternative to the number 6 is a half a dozen. People are so individualistic that their seems to be a dominantly idealistic and very individual impression of what an organization is. That it has to be a structured group with Roberts Rules of order, minutes, and officers. How sad.

I honestly don't know how much longer I'll live here, but don't get me wrong. I like it here. I have actually met many good organizers here from all backgrounds. Currently, we are working with many strong, firmly based European activists and there is a great level of work taking place within those circles. And, many of those good White folks are not in alignment with the people I've described here. We will continue challenging the idealism up here because we know that as long as these people have such limited and warped views, the real victors will be imperialism, which has a 500 year history of establishing and maintaining very materialist based methods of control over the masses of humanity.

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What MLK didn't understand about Israel

4/26/2016

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) at the 1966 March against fear in Mississippi

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was such a principled man that even the slimy snakes who worked so tirelessly against him while he was living have no choice except to speak respectfully about him today. King was a man driven by principles. Something many people have absolutely no understanding about. As it relates to the movement, he had such integrity that he was equally respected by the "establishment" civil rights organizations as well as the Black Power militant groups. One question Dr. King was unfortunately greatly confused about was that of the zionist occupation of Israel. Like most people today, King was unable to make a distinction between the respected religion of Judaism and the despicable political zionist movement. Many people believe these two very different and separate entities are one and the same. Judaism, is one of the world's major religions. Its origins unquestionably evolve from East Africa. In fact, the first known Jews were the Ethiopian Falasha Jews thousands of years ago. Like all religions, Judaism has principles that believers must live up to. If they do, the objective is for them to live higher quality lives based on good and justice. Zionism, on the other hand, is a political movement that was born in 1897 in Balse, Switzerland, at the first zionist conference. The founder of the zionist movement was Theodore Herzl who, according to his own autobiography, was an atheist. For Herzl, zionism was a movement to create a powerful nation/state for all the benefits such a nation/state would provide. Justice for Jewish people had nothing to do with this political objective. And the alleged history the zionists claim gives them the right to Palestine had nothing to do with zionism either since the original zionists debated focusing on Uganda or Venezuela as the original site for Israel. Of course, those countries had nothing to do with the zionist claim to historical and Biblical rights to Palestine. Indeed, the only reasons those countries were not chosen was because they didn't meet the logistical concerns the zionists had for their nation/state e.g. access to control major water ways, etc.

In the first part of the 20th century, Britain, the major colonial power in the world at that time, became the primary player in support of zionism when they created the Balfour Declaration with essentially affirmed their control over Palestine and their right to hand that country to the zionists. From that point on, the zionists began advocating European settlers physically moving into Palestine, occupying it, and making it increasingly more difficult for the Palestinians to resist these people's criminal effort to steal their country. In this context, the holocaust, as horrific as it was, really had nothing to do with the creation of the zionist state in occupied Palestine. In fact, the suffering of the Jewish people was used, as it always had been, to justify the creation of Israel. Going back as early as the turn of the century, the zionists had begun using the suffering of European Jews to justify their political movement. The leaders of the World Zionist Congress even went as far as to collaborate with European countries, including the Third Reich in Germany, to encourage mistreatment of the Jews in these countries. Their hope was the mistreatment of the Jews would expedite their support for the zionist effort and the holocaust pretty much sealed the deal on that strategy.

Many previously anti-zionist Jews were persuaded to support the zionist effort after Hitler's reign of terror as a desperate attempt to try and salvage some security for Jewish people. It was this often well meaning and highly emotional approach to the zionist effort that confuses many people on this question, including Dr. Martin Luther King.

King, like many Africans, was emotionally swayed by the zionist argument of the right to "return home" to escape persecution. It would make sense that African people, the people with the most legitimate justifiable claim in the Western world to return home (to Africa) would find sympathy with a people who's case is being presented in a very similar vein. So, Dr. King's support for Israel was unconditional. He even supported the founding of a pro-zionist African organization in the mid 60s called BASIC - Black Americans in Support of Israel. Many of the people involved in this disgraceful organization's development had their own unprincipled reasons for supporting it, but King? He was as sincere, and confused, as the driven snow. That's why the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee's (SNCC) bold stance against zionism in 1967, rocked King due to his close relationship with many SNCC organizers, especially the young Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture). Ture pushed King on this question and being the principled man that he was, King, began to slowly move on his position. Had he lived longer, he certainly would have come to see the contradiction between the just religion of Judaism and the criminal zionist political movement.

Much of what zionism really is doesn't appear in mainstream discourse. The zionists have been very tactical in creating an environment where most people don't know the difference between Judaism and zionism. Consequently, an attack against zionism is considered by many people to be an attack against Judaism. Going further, the zionists have confused everyone about Judaism as a spiritual way and life and Semitism which speaks to biological specifications. So, anti-zionists like Kwame Ture have been called anti-Semitic when Semitic people are people of color. New ways of looking at this contradiction must continue to be explored and that, fortunately, is happening. And, one of the primary reasons it is happening is because of the tireless work of Kwame Ture, including his work to advance Dr. King's perspective around this issue. For those in the Pacific Northwest, Portland area. On Wednesday, April 27th at 6pm at Portland State University, Smith Memorial 236, a lecture by Kwame Ture on zionism's impact on Africa will be screened and a discussion will follow. Zionism is the enemy of Africa and African people just as much as its the enemy of Palestinian and all peace loving people.

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May Day in Conjunction with African Liberation!

4/25/2016

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I've said it many times before. I only celebrate two holidays every year and each of them takes place in May. I celebrate May Day - the international day of the workers - every May 1st, and African Liberation Day - the day designated to commemorate our Pan-Africanist objective - every May 25th. Since we understand that "celebrate" means we do work to bring consciousness around these days, my commemoration of each day has nothing to do with BBQs, lounge chairs, or casual activity (although I'm not opposed to those things). It means having work to do every year around each of those days. It means sponsoring rallies and events around each day. It means being completely exhausted after each day, every year, in a way that makes you feel alive and fulfilled.

Why commemorate these two days and is there a connection between these institutions? Materially, there is a strong connection between the two days, but due to white supremacy, that connection is obscured at best, and completely denied at worst. This is so because May Day, the day created to commemorate the sacrifice of workers in Chicago in 1886 who lost their lives protesting in support of the eight hour work day, has not escaped the clutches of white supremacy in that the dominant narrative of May Day is that of European workers toiling against the bosses in factories. This is so because that narrative has been controlled for a long time by white left - primarily Stalinist, Trotskyist, and Maoist formations. These groups, more influenced by white supremacy than they will ever probably have the capacity to acknowledge, paint a picture of the worker's struggle that is centered around the White worker. In fact, the labor movement as a whole, of which I earn my living within, is still infected with this White worker focus. This is strange since the most dynamic things happening in the labor world are happening in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Its in these areas where hundreds of thousands of workers are facing tanks and bullets standing up against the exploitation of the natural resources industries of which the economies of the capitalist countries are based upon. Its these areas where the most creative forms of worker struggles are being defined e.g. worker's cooperatives, mass strikes, and mass struggle. All of this is happening while White workers in the U.S. are being told their primary struggle should be "regaining the middle class." A middle class that by its very definition is dependent upon the continued exploitation of the majority of the planet. This is a corrupt analysis that promotes the bourgeois concept that the masses of White workers are really fighting for a piece of the capitalist pie at the expense of the masses of people on the planet. This is clearly a message that must be changed.

I celebrate May Day and do work around it because I believe - and I have plenty of company - that we must snatch the narrative of May Day from white supremacy and create the proper narrative that May Day is the day to commemorate the organization of all workers against the capitalist system. Its a day that should highlight the struggles of peoples of color, the folks who are doing the lion's share of the work within the labor movement today, including within the U.S. For example, in this country, the low wage workers, primarily people of color, in fast food, WalMart, etc., are doing the most cutting edge work within the labor movement here. The proper narrative of May Day must also promote the true interests of White workers who are starting to feel the crunch of a declining capitalist economy. These workers must be informed that their interests are the same as their Black, Brown, and Yellow comrades and that they must stop seeing themselves as in allegiance with the ruling capitalist classes. These folks must become aware that their salvation comes in eradicating white supremacy, not in hiding behind it.

There is where the true connection between May Day and African Liberation Day is made. African Liberation Day (ALD) seeks to inform the African masses worldwide that our freedom and liberation is tied to the freedom and liberation of the African continent. Created as Africa Freedom Day on April 15th, 1958, the day was changed to African Liberation Day in 1963 and the day changed to May 25th to reflect the international day of recognition for the objective of Pan-Africanism which we define as one unified socialist Africa. The message from ALD is that we cannot achieve freedom in the U.S. or anywhere else until Africa is free because capitalism is based on keeping Africa in a state of poverty and disorganization so that the capitalist classes can continue to exploit Africa's mass resources as cheaply as possible (to maximize profits). There will be no freedom for Africans as long as Africa is subordinated and oppressed because the only way the imperialists can protect their subjugation of Africa is by making sure the African masses are firmly held in check. In fact, Pan-Africanists argue that the reason we are oppressed in capitalist societies is to insure we are controlled in order to enable the capitalists to continue to have free reign in exploiting Africa. This is why Africans are oppressed in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa. Not because Europeans are "anti-Black." The anti-Blackness is simply a justification for the continued domination of Africa. Its just the same old Manifest Destiny argument that we don't know how to "properly" control Africa's immense wealth, so we need the European capitalist to show us how. After 500+ years we are still waiting because they can never show us anything except how to remain subservient to them and their interests. Instead, we should be fighting for Africa's liberation from those snakes. And, in the process, we will be uniting with other colonized and oppressed people doing the same e.g. the Indigenous people's of the Western hemisphere. The people of the Philippines. The Palestinian people. The Irish Republican struggle. And, the masses of white workers who have properly identified their interests as being in league with the majority of people on the planet.

So, the true connection/purpose of May Day and African Liberation Day should be to promote the message that the masses of workers must fight to overcome/throw capitalist exploitation and that the masses of Africans must organize for the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. These two occurrences will in the words of Kwame Nkrumah advance the worldwide socialist movement leading to paving the way for worldwide communism, the highest expression of human existence yet to be achieved. And for those who are quick to react to words they don't understand, just focus on the phrase "yet to be achieved" before you ignorantly respond with an anti-communist rant when you clearly have idea what communism is outside of what NBC and CIA networks told you it was.

So, like every year, I look forward to helping the local A-APRP to help organize the May Day rally being held in Portland, Oregon on Sunday, May 1st. The theme this year is "Stand Up! Resist!" The rally will take place at 1pm at Shemansky Park in Portland. I also equally and enthusiastically look forward to traveling with my A-APRP family to Oakland next month to help support our African Liberation Day program down there on May 28th at East Side Alliance at noon. The A-APRP will be hosting ALD in cities in Africa, Europe, Canada, and throughout the U.S. Our international theme, which will be used at all A-APRP organized ALDs, will be "Women on the Frontlines Stand Up! Youth on the Frontlines! Stand Up! There are also other co-sponsored commemorations taking place throughout the world. Get in where you fit in. For me, May is pretty much my favorite month of the year.

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Really Tired of Obama's Hypocrisy

4/23/2016

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From a policy standpoint I could check off the drone strike program and the adverse impact its had on Africa and the Middle East. I could point to the proliferation of the U.S. African Command, or Africom, and its over 60 confirmed military installations throughout Africa. I could talk about the National Defense Authorization Act signed in 2012. Or, I can simply express how since 2008, the number of Africans incarcerated has not decreased, the number of people in poverty has intensified, and police terrorism and other forms of institutional white supremacy still dominate our daily lives. But, this post isn't even about policy. Its about Obama himself and his tired hypocrisy. You see, his election almost eight years ago has been seen as a watershed moment, not just for Africans in the U.S., but really all over the world. His trips to Kenya and Ghana have been met with am equal amount of excitement and pride. This emotional pride has prohibited the existence of any critical assessment of Obama within African circles and any attempt to infuse such analysis has been met with anger. This response by Africans is understandable because one good thing Obama's presidency has done is expose the fact that this society is racist to its very core. The masses of Europeans, programmed 24/7 to see the interests of the capitalist system as their own personal interests, have been primed with white supremacist ideology for 500+ years. Consequently, many of them have been unable to conceal their contempt for an African being elected to the White House. Their complete lack of respect for Obama and their naked hatred of African people has caused many Africans to rally around Obama, but what we should be doing is rallying around our people, not him. He has done very little to be worthy of the loyalty we have provided to him. In fact, sadly, his presidency has been simply the latest chapter of the Democratic Party's complete disrespect and contempt for the African masses who continue to support that party more consistently than any other ethnic group in this society.

Its time for African people to start talking honestly about what Obama's legacy really means for us. Going back to 2008, he has established a pattern of disrespecting our people and our experience that he has built upon over the last eight years. His initial speech on race relations either during his first campaign or at the beginning of his term, was lauded by liberals as a landmark statement on race, but in reality, it was little more than the same veiled contempt for African independence and determination. Since that time he has given several speeches on race relations and all he has done in those speeches is challenge African people to be better while saying nothing about the institutional racism that we face or making any type of similar challenge towards the masses of White people. He has told African men we need to be responsible which is an insult for those of us who have been working with African men while Obama was playing at Ivy league schools. Those of us who do this work know of the many obstacles that obstruct the capabilities of brothers in our communities. We don't need sell outs like Obama and Bill Cosby to tell us that we need to be responsible. We already know of the problems in our communities. We need people who have positions of authority and prestige to help break down the barriers that prevent African men from creating opportunities to help their communities. In other words, its much easier to go to prison than it is to go to college. Certainly, Obama knows this and for him to not talk about this and the frame these issues as simply ones of individual initiative is a crime. Then, he goes to Africa and tells our people there that they cannot talk about colonialism any longer. That the problems in Africa today are the fault of the African people. That's like placing the blame for global warming on the glaciers for melting. Africa is poor today. The Debeers, colonizing Europeans who brutally control the diamond industry in Africa today, rake billions in profits while leaving nothing behind while Obama acts like the fact Africa is poor is a mystery. The same can be said for the cocoa, rubber, coltan, bauxite, uranium, gold, and other industries. Then, on top of that, political manipulation by the zionists in israel and the U.S. have created and maintained instability in places like Somalia that have given foundation to the develop of forces like al Shabad in those places. Obama's response to all of this is to increase the U.S. military presence in East Africa, yet all he can say is that the instability there is our fault?

Then, Obama takes his arrogance to Cuba and tells the Cuban people that they need to permit protests and disagreements there while ignoring the fact that many U.S. citizens have asylum in Cuba, including Assata Shakur, because they were framed in the U.S. for their political views. Obama's show in Cuba was dishonest and criminal, since he knows the people of the U.S. have absolutely no information about Cuba's political system which is much more democratic than anything that pretends to provide freedom of choice in the U.S. capitalist electoral process. Finally, Obama tells an audience this week that the Black Lives Matter movement needs to do more than yell. Anyone who says something that ignorant either knows nothing about that movement or is purposely spreading confusion. The Black Lives Movement isn't my politics, but there's no denying the positive impact that movement has provided to the dialogue and push for better policy in this country. This has been done not just by the protests, although they have contributed much towards this end (although if you listened to Obama in Cuba you would think such protests aren't necessary in this country), but also because of the multitude of events, discussions, political education forums, etc., they have sponsored. I have conducted seminars on Pan-Africanism and scientific socialism to Black Lives Matter groups on several occasions so to characterize their work as simply "yelling" as Obama did is again either stupid or insidious.

Barack Obama is of African descent, but more important than that, he is the president of the U.S. That means his primary responsibility, and the only reason he occupies that position, is so that he can advance the interests of international capital at all costs. The advancement of capital has absolutely nothing to do with justice. So, anyone who looks at Obama, because of his biological background, and thinks they have an ally in him against white supremacy is just unfortunately out of touch with reality. I've said it many times. The U.S. will elect anyone to be president with the right political pressure, but that person will still be the commander of capitalism and it's appendages - white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, etc. This is the reason you have not heard Obama make one principled criticism of White people in the world. Not one peep about their arrogance and denial of clear tragedy reaped against the masses of people on the planet while they benefit from it. Nothing about the fact they continue to be duped into believing billionaires and millionaires have the interests of White working class people at heart. Nothing about the fact that White people have not effectively organized to eliminate violent white supremacist groups and/or institutional white supremacy. Therefore, there is no real material difference at the end of the day between the average White person and a neo-nazi since both of them in one way or another are advancing capitalism and white supremacy. On all of this, Obama is silent.

So, as Obama's term comes to a merciful end, its time for African people to wake up from our fantasy sleep. This man and his lovely wife and children are not there to advance our people. In fact, their presence has stunted our growth and his actions continue to disrespect and derail our people. We cannot get justice from individuals, especially if they are members and spokespersons for the international bourgeois. Our future can only be addressed through mass organization. Maybe that's one good thing about these foolish people running to replace Obama. All of them are far less impressive than even Obama has been, but at least with them, maybe the African people, and everyone else, will not be so easily lulled to sleep while being brutally and ideologically attacked at every turn by someone who is supposed to be working in our interest.

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Why Placing Harriet Tubman on the Twenty Dollar Bill Should Insult You

4/20/2016

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There is the old classic song "Everybody Plays the Fool" by the Main Ingredient (the lead vocals of which were actually sang by Cuba Gooding Sr., the father of the well known actor) so I know most people have experienced putting yourself out for someone you were interested in, only to have that person give you not even the time of day. If you were anything like I used to be, you tried so hard to get that person's attention that even the slightest effort they made to look at you, smile at you, extend even a casual word your way, created happiness in your life. I long ago abandoned that co-dependent method of approaching relationships, but the model reminds me how we as oppressed people interact with the power structure that oppresses us today. The slightest symbol of recognition towards us by the capitalist system generates excitement from all quarters of our communities. The election of someone who looks like us as president. We are so trapped in holding onto the presentation of this that we ignore the serious harm his administration has done to our people. And before that, all Bill Clinton had to do was blow a saxophone and we were sold. Playing a musical instrument, singing Al Green, all types of superficial acts and we respond with a level of respect and loyalty towards the system as if those people had offered us their only born child.

Its as if we are just so oppressed that we will accept just about anything from the slave master and treat it like its our liberation they are offering us. That's why I understand how many Africans undoubtedly reacted with great joy at the announcement today that the U.S. Treasury Department is going to start printing images of Harriet Tubman on the twenty dollar bill, replacing the image of Andrew Jackson. To many people this act symbolizes a level of recognition from the system against the wrongs that have been perpetrated against us. First, let's state that for Africans in the know, Harriet Tubman is iconic. This is the woman who sacrificed her life countless times helping guide at least 300 documented Africans to freedom from slavery. Just to negotiate the extremely dangerous terrain of transporting Africans from slave states to so-called free states, she had to endure life threatening conditions as a way of life. Yet, she did it with dignity, grace, and courage. She is a true heroine who deserves all of the respect afforded to her legacy and much more. That's the reason why in spite of our emotional desire to see this gesture of placing her image on the money as recognition of her contribution, we should see this move for exactly what it is, a slap in the face to African people everywhere and let me explain why.

First, it is impossible for the capitalist system to properly honor Harriet Tubman's efforts to lead the underground railroad to liberate Africans from slavery when this system has yet to even acknowledge the system of slavery itself. The capitalist system has never acknowledged the extent to which the slavery system has devastated, terrorized, and traumatized the African masses. It has never acknowledged that hundreds of millions of Africans were brutally murdered during this system. That we live all over the world, mostly in places that don't want us, as a result of this system. Meanwhile, there are no major slavery museums in this country today. There is no comprehensive curriculum on slavery in the public school system and there is absolutely no acknowledgement of the fact that the entire economic foundation of industrialization and the capitalist system was built on slavery and oppression. Wall street was established as the financial center of this country as a result of that area of New York being the primary slave trading post of African people on the East Coast of this country. Even Andrew Jackson, the thug who Sister Harriet's picture is slated to replace on the bill, came to fame as a killer of the Indigenous people's of the Western Hemisphere. In fact, most of the people currently on the money were Indian killers and/or slave owners. I have always felt this was fitting since U.S. currency more than anything else represents the blood and suffering to which this country is based upon. So, why would I want one of our most sacred and respected leaders to be desecrated by having her likeness placed on that currency if I understand all that it represents?

Any logical person would have to agree that you cannot recognize the leader of the abolition movement when you haven't even acknowledged slavery as the tragic, traumatic, and horrific institution that it was. To underscore, a recent Gallup poll indicated upwards of 60% of Europeans (White people) today do not even believe slavery to be that terrible of an institution! Since such little effort has been made to truly educate people about the legacy of slavery, then this move involving Ms. Tubman can be seen as nothing more than the habitual effort by capitalism to take our images of integrity and justice and compromise them into the likeness that connects them to the capitalist system as if they are a part of the legacy of this terrorist society. The purpose of changing the money in this way is to continue to confuse developing generations into believing that the U.S. is the just society they are constantly trying to pretend that they are. If the country can tolerate an African president and African people on its money than surely the country cannot be racist? The truth is that president is permitted to be president because he represents the interests of capitalism and white supremacy. No less number of Africans are being incarcerated under his regime. No less number of us are facing poverty, police terrorism, predatory lending, housing discrimination, job discrimination, disrespect, and alienation. So what difference does it make to have Harriet Tubman on the twenty dollar bill if so many of us don't possess the capacity to have any of these bills for our usage?

Some of you are perfectly ok with symbolic progress, but many of us are not. Keep your twenty dollar bill and keep that murderer you had on it there. That way, I can use that bill to educate our youth about the hypocrisy of this system. As it stands, the bill and the system are completely compatible. That's why I could never be impressed with superficial change like adding Ms. Tubman to the bill. We are talking about a woman who dedicated her life to integrity. Something the capitalist system knows absolutely nothing about. I'm sure Ms. Tubman is turning over in her grave at the notion while some of you are satisfied with her face on the bill, Malcolm X's on the stamp, and streets named after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Me? I say keep your streets, your stamps, and your killers on your money because either way, I'm going to continue to educate about the true values of Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and everyone else who dared stand up against this backward system. Such irony. The money was built on slavery and now one of the best slavery abolitionists will be on the money. Its sick. Like a rapist creating a commemoration for the persons they assaulted without ever acknowledging their role in traumatizing those survivors forever.

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Thoughts on Touring Rural Oregon Discussing Race with White Folks

4/17/2016

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Oregon's Past KKK Governor, Walter Pierce

Truthfully, there aren't many people in Oregon that I'm very close to. Not because I have issues having close relationships with folks. I have many very close and fulfilling relationships thank you very much. The reason I don't have many of those with people in Oregon is because far too many people up here are passive aggressive and cowardly in my humble opinion. And the fact that I develop quite a bit of significant and consequential work (if I do say so myself), makes me a perfect target for many people for many different dysfunctional reasons. So, I've found its best to stay on my own course for the most part. One of the handful of people I've come to know since I've been here is Sister Walidah Imarisha. I've fought hard to build my work on a foundation of honesty, consistency, and courage. These are all things I try very hard to implement with all that I do. I discovered immediately that Walidah possesses very similar values in the outstanding work that she does to bring consciousness around the struggles of African people so it didn't take very long for she and I to develop what I'd call a mutual respect and support for each others work. That's why I was infuriated in 2014 when I became aware that neo-nazis had attended and threatened her while she was facilitating her landmark "Why there are no Black People in Oregon" presentation in Grants Pass, Oregon. I immediately contacted her and offered to travel with her to insure that no harm would come to her while she did her work. Please understand that my circumstances are not that I have plenty of idle time to kill. If you follow this blog, you should be quite aware by now that I have a great deal of work that I'm involved in developing as well, but my philosophy has always been that I'll find a way to do what needs to be done. So, my offer to Walidah was a sincere and serious offer. As is her custom, she very humbly and graciously accepted my offer and in late 2014, myself and another African accompanied Walidah on a six city, six day tour of her presentation to Grants Pass, Redmond, Astoria, Tillamook, Newport, and Albany. During that tour, my thinking and focus was specific to insuring my Sister was able to present her outstanding research on the racist history of the Pacific Northwest and the courage and tenacity of the African masses who fought back against that oppression.

Fast forwarding to January 2016, we have seen the Rural Organizing Project (ROP) come under attack by far right groups for its efforts to sponsor talks like Walidah's (as well as presentations by yours truly and others) and its other solid on the ground work against white supremacy in rural areas of the state. As a result of this adverse exposure, ROP received numerous threats by confused persons who are unwittingly drinking the kool aid of the ruling classes who continue to convince working class Europeans (White people) that the source of their suffering and misery is the African masses, immigrant labor, and every other community except the one that is actually causing the misery - the capitalist classes themselves. So, when our friends at ROP reached out to me about helping out with security for the 2016 tour, I of course readily accepted. And, to be completely honest, when I accepted their invitation to have a conference call to discuss the logistics for this tour, I was really only thinking in terms of standard discussion e.g. when, where, how, etc. When the ROP folks began the call by talking about the degree of the violent threats that have been directed at the tour I could feel the anger welling up inside of me. Here today, confused persons who attempt to have pro-Donald Trump rallies in Portland are whining about youth and students shutting down their efforts. They are complaining about being denied their "free speech" as if perpetuating systematic racism and oppression qualifies as something anyone has a right to express. Meanwhile, most people are completely unaware of the violent threats being made against a presentation that simply exposes the well researched and documented history of the brutal suppression of human rights endured by African people in Oregon who simply wanted to assert their rights to live in peace. So, when the respected officer from ROP asked me during the call to express my thoughts on whether it seemed feasible to consider continuing on with the 2016 tour, I was shocked for a few reasons. First, in light of the trauma those brave folks from ROP have experienced from those cowardly people in Southern Oregon, I was impressed that in spite of what they have endured, they were still willing to respect our security model from 2014 which explicitly rejected the notion of calling, relying upon, and even dialoguing with police on any level. Second, I was inspired by Walidah's willingness to trust my judgement on whether we could effectively address any threats that would arise on the tour. So, my response on that call was to recollect my December 2015 trip to Ghana where I had the privilege of staying at the All African People's Revolutionary Party's Garvey/Nkrumah Centre in suburban Accra. There, I had the honor of spending time with legendary Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Freedom Singer and Black Panther Party Field Marshall Seku Neblett. Ironically, when I arrived in Ghana, I was reading a book about the 60s civil rights movement where Seku was prominently featured. Reading about and hearing his stories of confronting ku klux klan violence in Mississippi pumped pride into my soul. I explained to the folks on that conference call that I come from a long tradition of people who refuse to bow down. I heard the ancestors telling me clearly at that moment that we had to find a way to support our Sister's tour, by any means necessary. We cannot let the forces of reaction intimidate us on any level. So the phone discussion evolved into ideas on how to prepare for any issues that could arise during the tour. We discussed recruiting people from the local areas where we would be traveling to help us. If I recall correctly, I suggested that idea and the ROP folks committed to identifying some people, but I had no idea what we would have to work with.

What I did know is I had committed to keep everyone safe and there was no way I wasn't going to fulfill that promise. So, I thought about who I could recruit to join me. I went through many people in my mind, but the two people who ended up accompanying me couldn't have been better suited if I had picked them with a magic wand. Dedicated, courageous, disciplined, and focused, they had all the qualities that I knew we needed if we were going to be prepared for any issues.

Fast forward to April 2016. The tour was set to go to Cave Junction, Cottage Grove, Monmouth, La Grande, Prineville, and Scappose. Per what we decided during that January phone conference, volunteers in each of those locales would be recruited to help and the plan was we would arrive in each of those towns 90 minutes before each of the events to conduct security trainings for those folks. All in all, we ended up working with approximately 100 people in all of those towns. We had older community folks, young people, LGBTQ folks, members of the Western Oregon football team, an ex-cop, and other elements of an extremely diverse selection of people from each of those communities. During our long car ride to the first event, the three of us on our security team decided that we wouldn't just have a security training, but we would facilitate a discussion in each city about why this tour and this work in their city? Better yet, why were they there? And, that we are doing this work because we respect people and want to build a better world. We conducted trainings with the volunteers in each city on non-violent conflict resolution if someone showed up to disrupt the event. We told the folks that they were the first line of defense and we role played for them how to engage people who were disruptive. We also were very up front in each town with the volunteers. We told them in no uncertain terms that the three of us were the last line of defense. In other words, if someone attempted to get violent in an event, we made sure the volunteers understood clearly that our intention was to make sure that person or those persons had a very bad rest of their evening.

So, on that premise we entered each city by engaging in a facilitated African libation. Then we conducted our justice conversations with these rural White people in every city we went to. All of the events were extremely well attended. And, despite some cowardly aggression in the parking lot towards women leaving the Cottage Grove event, the rest of the events happened without the slightest hitch.

What I am left with from that experience is that ROP is taking the issue in Cottage Grove to the community to determine the best ways to properly address it, but its important to note that of those 100 or so volunteers that I was able to interact with, I observed good decent people who desire to see a society where white supremacy is confronted and wiped out. The pre-event conversations we had with all those volunteers were deep and very impactful. I was also able to see the psychological impact this racist society has on European people. This system has been killing Africans and other people of color for centuries. It also appears to be having similar impact on White people's mental health as well. The fact that many of these people live in communities where no Africans live, they are still strongly impacted by what happens to our people in this society. That underscores the belief that in spite of the lack of Africans in their communities, they are just as responsible for eradicating anti-African racism and all other forms of white supremacy as anyone else.

I look forward to the next opportunity to provide the same protection to Sister Walidah. Her work and presentation is a must for everyone to experience and as long as I'm in Oregon and able, I'm committed to making sure people can interact with her presentation without fear of disruption and/or attack. Even if I leave Oregon, I'll make sure she has protection to continue her critical work. I also want to point out that the tour isn't over just because the presentations are over. ROP will I'm sure continue to work in all those communities to build capacity to continue to fight racism in rural Oregon. In many ways, I came to realize that I prefer those rural White people I met these past two weeks to many of the two faced and hypocritical liberals and so-called radicals that parade around Portland pretending to be friends to African liberation.

I wish the people in Cottage Grove well in addressing the problems that exist in that town. I wish the students at Eastern Oregon University well in challenging the fact their library is named after Oregon's KKK governor Walter Pierce. I wish all of the good folks I met well with their work to confront the issues of oppression in their small communities. I'm still processing, but there is an awful lot in my mind to be optimistic about. I think many of those rural White people realize completely that they have more in common with the African people I work with in New Columbia, North Portland, than they do with the capitalist ruling classes. If you don't see it, that can only be because you aren't privy to the type of organizing work I've attempted to describe here. It's never too late for you to take steps to address that.

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Talking out of Both Sides of your Mouth on white supremacy

4/13/2016

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All lives matter. All lives matter? Clearly all lives don't matter because if they did you wouldn't be praying for the victims in Belgium and France when a handful of people get killed, stopping your life to acknowledge their loss in concrete ways, while completely ignoring scores more people dying under the same conditions in Somalia, Nigeria, and occupied Palestine. So, don't open your mouth telling us all lives matter, police lives matter, etc., because we can see right through your hypocrisy.

Stop talking about achievement is based on merit and that everyone has the opportunity to "succeed" if they work hard because clearly, this isn't true. David Bowie dies and everything stops. His songs are played everywhere and everywhere you look his work is being honored and respected. Maurice White of Earth Wind & Fire dies and there is hardly a blip compared to the outcry at the loss of Mr. Bowie. This disparity is reflected in record sales, awards, and every aspect of their experiences as European (white) and African musicians/performers in a racist society. And, since no logical person can argue that David Bowie is a more talented song writer, producer, and performer than Maurice White, then there's no question that hard work and ability have absolutely nothing to do with success. Or, as the old saying says, its not what you do, its who you know. Or, who you are.

And, please stop telling African youth that the reason they are having difficulty is because they won't pull their pants up and speak "proper English." The problems they experience have absolutely nothing to do with any of those things. The problems result from African people being universally disrespected and that disrespect will remain until Africa is free, unified, and socialist. It isn't until that happens that we have the power to force people to respect us. This need for power and our lack of it is the reason why our youth are disrespected. It cannot be because of how they speak English because depending upon which part of the world you are in, and because of Britain's colonial legacy, English is spoken all over the world, quite differently. It doesn't sound in Australia like it sounds in Britain. It doesn't sound in Jamaica like it sounds in California. It doesn't even sound in Oregon like it does in Mississippi. So where does the hierarchy come in? Who decided that the African style of English was inferior? If people can communicate effectively what's the problem? And, if there was a hierarchy wouldn't the British way of pronouncing words, which is quite different from the U.S. way, be the standard since that's where the language originated from? So, by that standard, isn't everyone in the U.S. speaking inferior English, not just African people? Of course, the answer to all of that is we are singled out and disrespected because of white supremacy. It devalues everything we produce because that's its methodology for keeping us oppressed. This is also why so much time and energy is placed into shaming the way our youth dress. Please don't be simple minded and assume I'm saying I have a burning desire to see every young man's booty crack. I don't. But, what I'm saying is the standards of dress that we respect have been provided to us by the people who oppress us. Its a totally subjective standard that they created so just like language, there really is no hierarchy on dress. There's really no qualification on people not even wearing clothes as being something on a lower level of human dignity. Based on what would that have merit? How does wearing pants make you more civilized than not wearing them? My point is the issue isn't the sagging its who's doing it and how those people have to be controlled. Many Africans are confused around this question, choosing to "police" our youth for the power structure. Saying things like sagging is a prison tactic as a way of attempting to discourage our youth while at the same time continuing to ignore the blatant disrespect our people experience at the hands of the demopublican party every two years for decades. In other words, don't shame our youth for supposedly disrespecting our legacy while ignoring the ways in which you do the exact same thing.

The point here is the youth are seeing these contradictions more and more. So stop and think about this stuff a little deeper before becoming a message delivery person for the capitalist system and its chief aide - white supremacy. This system is built, run, and maintained on oppression. There's no fair opportunity or reward for the masses of African people. There's only continued exploitation as long as this system continues to exist. Possibly the force of those last statements knocks some of you over. If so, that's because their spoken with clarity straight out the front of the mouth. Not through both sides like what most of us are accustomed to.

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Why Students Should be Praised for Shutting Down the PSU Trump Gathering

4/10/2016

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I live here in Portland and if you are reading this, you know I do an awful lot of organizing here in this town. Consequently, I know, love, and respect, many of the youth who shut down that Trump meeting at Portland State the other day, but that has nothing to do with why I'm writing this. I'm writing this because I completely reject the fallacy that by shutting that meeting down and taking it over, the protesters were somehow denying free speech to the Trump supporters. For starters, if you were there, or if you watched the videos (and hundreds of thousands of you are watching them) then you know that the way the students/protesters facilitated the meeting, everyone was given a fair chance to speak and express their views. That included the pro-Trump people, many of whom stayed at the meeting, spoke, and participated in the back and forth dialogue.

In truth, I applaud the students from the Portland State University Student Union (PSUSU) Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MECHA), Marilyn Buck Abolitionist Collective (MBAC) United Indian Students in Higher Education, Muslim Students Association (MSA), and the other groups for their willingness and patience in permitting space to the Trump people to speak. There is much the greater society can learn from those folks about building dialogue across ideological lines and having difficult and constructive conversations. That doesn't mean they were perfect in how they took over the meeting. It was a highly charged emotional situation, but all that considered, the degree in which the students painstakingly made sure every voice was heard was inspirational and praiseworthy.

I'm saying that because I don't think intelligent people are under any obligation to be subjected to the backward views expressed in that meeting by the people supporting Trump. I believe that there is free speech and then there is right and wrong and your right to bump your gums doesn't outweigh our rights to be safe from an environment of oppression. In other words, expressing hate speech and perpetuating oppression - both painful trauma for oppressed communities - isn't free speech no more than shouting "fire" when no fire exists in a crowded theater is free speech. What do I mean? If you have children, and one of them said "one plus one equals 40" you would be my nominee for bad parent of our generation if your response to your child was to say "that's your right to express your views!" Of course, the correct response to that child is that they are incorrect and to instruct them on the correct equation. This is no different when it comes to Trump, Cruz, Clinton, Sanders, George Washington, the Alamo, the Pilgrims, or anything else. For example, one young Trump supporter got up in the video and spoke about how people of color are responsible for most of the violent crime and therefore, that was his justification for why more people of color should be incarcerated. He underscored his statements by saying "that's fact" yet he could not say how those comments are fact because of course no such facts exist. What we do know is that most rapes are never reported because most women don't want to subject themselves to the trauma they will be forced to experience by a patriarchal society that believes on many levels that if they are sexually assaulted, they must have done something to fuel that traumatic experience. So, since most rapes are never reported, how the hell can anyone claim to know who commits most rapes? Since many murders are unsolved, how can anyone claim ti know what race most murderers belong to? The truth is no one knows what race commits most crime. The only thing we do know is that Africans and Indigenous folks are convicted of an overwhelming percentage of crimes. Of course, committing crimes and being convicted of crimes are far from the same thing. Why? Because, sentencing disparities based on race are proven beyond a doubt. So is the disparity in representation and the fact 94% of cases don't go to court (plea bargained). Many of those go to poorer and darker defendants who don't have the resources to fight their charges. This doesn't mean they are guilty. Not even close. So, we know many people of color are in prison while Europeans (White people) who commit the same crimes roam free. We are talking about literally millions of people who are adversely impacted by this discrepancy in this society. We are talking about millions of lives that are destroyed as well as the continual and generational impact this injustice reaps upon our communities. Its easy for some ignorant student to make those statements, but by permitting that type of behavior to exist and acting like that person's rights are somehow being infringed upon when his ignorance is confronted is actually saying that its ok that so many people are being wrongly incarcerated, or at least you either don't care that its happening, or you support it happening. If you can look me in the eye and say you would be perfectly fine if your loved one was wrongly convicted for any reason (although I'm speaking specifically about reasons related to white supremacy and systematic discrimination within the injustice system) then I'll accept your position, but you and I both know no one is going to do that. So, for someone to get up and express that people of color commit more crimes to those of us who are suffering as a result of the inequities of this system is like taking a knife in our back and twisting it to increase the pain. As a result, that type of speech should be interrupted because its not free speech, its ignorant speech. And its not just speech. Its an ideological framework that protects and perpetuates the system of oppression against so many people and that is the reason such speech shouldn't ever be permitted to exist unchecked and uncorrected. What should be happening instead is that ignorant young person should be respected enough to be provided a real education where he can develop an analysis of what's going on that is based on science and data and not fear and stupidity. By not providing that to him, this society demonstrates that it not only doesn't care about us people of color, but it clearly doesn't care about White people either.

Aside from that, its comical that Europeans actually have the nerve to walk around talking about they are being disrupted and denied something in a society where African people, and others, who stood up and simply expressed their rights to exist peacefully as human beings were subjected to systematic and institutional violence and oppression as the rule of the land for hundreds of years. So, the fact this real history isn't even acknowledged today is further proof that these people are not interested in free speech.

Look. We know White people are pissed. We believe they should be pissed. The question is whom they should be pissed at? Most of them seem to believe their anger needs to be directed in some way at us. Why do they believe this garbage? Because the super rich - the capitalist classes - have always depended upon pulling the wool over the eyes of European people, white people, as the last line of defense for their vicious capitalist system. Since capitalism is in such a severe state of decline around the world, this tactic of fanning the flames of white nationalism and convincing the masses of Europeans that their self identity is 100% tied up with the capitalist system is the most potent weapon the power structure has to insure it stays afloat. That's the only thing that makes sense in explaining how so many working poor White people have actually convinced themselves that some billionaire truly has the solutions to the problems they face everyday. Its the only reason they actually believe that if they continue to work hard for the super rich, one day those rich people will create an avenue to cease their suffering. This is nothing except pure fantasy.

For someone to say that America can be great again is like saying a maryjane weed can grow into a blossoming rose. America was never great. What it was, and is, is an empire that was built and is maintained on the backs of humanity, primarily people of color. And, what those Trump supporters are doing is working overtime to create a wall of denial to avoid facing the truth that this country's days are numbered, as they should be. What should be happening is an educational system that provides those Trump supporters with enough real information to understand that America ending doesn't mean they are ending. It means we are starting a new and better beginning.

So, thank you to the youth of Portland who stood up the other night and took over that meeting. The capitalist media and all the mindless minions on youtube and everywhere else are going to call you all types of names. What you actually represent is hope for the future. You demonstrated how to respect the people you vehemently disagree with. That was worth you taking over the meeting all by itself. After Africa is free and all of humanity is liberated, if people want to stand on the highest mountain and express whatever view they want, I say more power to them, because then, their words won't reflect a perpetuation of our oppression, but for now, your actions were warranted and greatly appreciated. You took a stand in bringing so-called higher education where it should be - higher. Your facilitation of that meeting should be required viewing in all public schools. You may not have done everything perfectly, but that's ok. You never got the proper instruction within this system in the first place. So, thank you for starting the process of figuring it out on your own. All the rest of us have to do is help you more and we are probably on to something here.

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Some Ways that We Continue to Empower the System against Us

4/5/2016

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We believe wholeheartedly in Kwame Ture's statement that "power belongs to the organized masses." We also believe that the masses of people are the true makers of history. There is no such thing as individual history. In fact, people - all of us - are born in debt to humanity. Proof? If you believe that you don't owe a debt to society for existing and that you can accomplish all that you need to accomplish without anyone else, our question for you is how well would you have survived had you been born in the wild to a mother who died at childbirth, with no other humans within hours of this episode? Of course, you would have died in that forest on your own because you would not have had the capability to sustain yourself without the help of others. And that's true no matter how fine you look, how snarky you can be, or how smart you think you are. The only way this is not true is if you were born a dog, cat, or other form of animal. They do possess the capacity to survive on their own so if a dog walked up to me and told me "If you want something done right, do it yourself. I can take care of myself! I don't need anybody else!" I wouldn't have much of an argument for that dog, but for everyone capable of reading this, you were born in debt, whether you acknowledge that or not. It's still as true as the sun following the moon each day.

If you look around you with open eyes, its clear by everything you see (if you looking at it correctly) that you have benefited from institutions, struggles, and work that you didn't do. That the people who put in that work didn't have the opportunity to benefit from their sacrifices the way you do. This fact alone unquestionably establishes that although they don't often get credit, the masses are truly the makers of history. Before the eight hour work day, had you demanded that by yourself, you would have been fired at best, shot at worst. So, the fact you have it today means you owe someone you don't know. This also proves that the individualistic model that dominates within the capitalist system is fraudulent. Their continued effort to convince you that a single bourgeois politician holds the power to fixing your destiny is contradictory to the understanding that the masses make history and it behooves us to stop tricking ourselves into believing this nonsense. At the very least, it is the masses of people who apply social pressure on the political establishment which produces all of the reforms we have received from it. In other words, no civil rights and Black Power movements, no anti-racism legislation. No women's movement, no pro-women's legislation. No gay rights movement, no LGBTQ legislation. These facts are ill refutable. So, let's stop crediting individual politicians for these "victories" because doing so reinforces the concept that individuals make history and that you as an everyday person cannot make change. This backward position advances the notion that only the people recognized in positions within the capitalist system can effect any changes, but without that movement pushing the political establishment, how will you even hold the system accountable to you? How will you hold the politicians accountable to you? How you even get in front of the elected official(s)? So realize, this is our critique against the electoral process and it's a correct one. No one here has ever told you not to vote, but if that's all you do, without building a movement to back up your votes, then you are giving your power to the system. In fact, you are letting the system pimp you.

Finally, we have to stop reacting to oppression and start organizing against it. Listen carefully. Trump, Cruz, Clinton, Sanders, they all say racist things. They all do racist things. Obama has enacted policy that is racist against people of color. This is how the capitalist system works. If all we are willing to demand from this system is visual diversity, if pressured to do so, the system will elect a one eyed, transgender, blue skinned alien as president, but one thing I guarantee you; once elected, that alien will be an agent for the bourgeois and will carry out the agenda of the capitalist class. So lets get serious about this fight. Everything within this society is racist and patriarchal so stop picking out one stupid restaurant or issue and start looking at this entire system. Name anything about this country's history and institutions that isn't racist? Not the so-called founding. Not the holidays celebrated. Are you joking? Veterans Day? Fourth of the lie? Thankstaking? The banking industry? Insurance? All any of these do is perpetuate the empire while stomping on the backs of the masses of people on the planet.

Our suggestion is that you feel free to take pages from our book here. Raise your children as we did to not honor the backward history of this country. Tell them the truth because by doing so, you empower them to make decisions based around justice and when they learn to do that, they build character. And, that's what we need, people with character. Not the here one day, gone tomorrow, limp backed, cowardly people that are far to easy to find in this society today. Let's stop reacting to the oppression and organize against it. Look at the system. Learn about the system. Understand the system. The classic book "Art of War" tells us the first assignment in war is to know your enemy. That means you have got to get educated about capitalism. If you don't understand how cartels work. What imperialism is, how products are produced and how international trade is managed, you don't understand this oppressive system. That's where you can start. Begin study groups where you begin to learn about capitalism, its origins. If you don't know those origins, you cannot explain why this system has become such a problem today. Find the people who want to learn with you. Read texts like "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Imperialism, Neo-Colonialism, Class Struggle in Africa" etc. Grow to study works like "Das Kapital." Learn this system. Know it inside and out. And, then study the history of movements so we can begin to truly understand just how change is actually made and how it has been the masses that have made it. If we can do that, then we can overcome this defeatist, individualistic, and negative view of humanity that is masquerading around today as some sort of revolutionary consciousness.

The key to our victory is in organizing the masses to act, but we must believe in the masses before we can do that. We have much to learn my friends. The sooner we get started, the better.

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Why you Can't Build Wealth through Capitalism without Exploiting Africa

4/2/2016

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You can take any country in Africa, from Cairo to the Cape, from Cameroon to Kenya, and the reality is going to be the same. Mass poverty, a lack of infrastructure, corruption, and sharp class oppression, particularly against women. These sober realities are systematically true for one clear reason; as it relates to imperialism, Africa is capitalism's endless supply of cheap human and material resources.

For those people with good intentions, your vision of creating opportunities for African people through capitalist ventures like small businesses, and other capital accumulating practices, will never be the solution to the collective oppression of African people. Even the seemingly harmless action of investing money to produce money, for any well meaning and sincere goal - even something as genuine as building a school for example - would still objectively be exploitative against our people and the rest of humanity. How? Whether you invest through a certificate of deposit, individual retirement account, savings account, money market, etc., all of those approaches are designed to take your money and buy stocks in other investments, companies, and projects that are producing surplus so as to create a financial return on your investment. So, if your certificate of deposit is invested in oil per say, then the return from that oil is what grows your portfolio and makes you money. The problem is of course that oil is a commodity that is exploitative in terms of how the oil reserves are located, how the oil is drilled for, and the refining process to produce the product that ends up in your car, and/or heating mechanisms. In other words, in order to insure there is a profit to provide to you for your investment, which is essential to make sure the model works (because if it isn't profitable, people won't invest in it right?), the refining process has to be set up to insure its as efficient as possible. That means less people, more work. That means less oversight and more injuries and death. That means less pay and harder exploitation. This is the same process for any investment you can think of. None of them fall outside the parameters of this exploitative system so when you invest, you are essentially saying you accept and agree that it is ok to make money off of a process that systematically kills and destroys Africa and her people.

Some Africans and other people in America, having shortsighted vision, view the investment process as one of them sending their money into a black hole (that they have no idea what happens once the money goes there). Their only insight into the process is of course the return on investment and so that's their focus. This was the same shortsightedness and ignorance that led people to invest in the chattel slave system. As you should know by now, this process led to the industrialization of the Western world and the development of capitalism e.g. mechanized production of products and the profit of producing their products off the backs of workers and peasants. There is absolutely no way around this reality. To make money through the capitalist system, you have to exploit Africa. Investing in gold exploits Africa. Investing in diamonds does. Uranium, columbite tantilite, zinc, iron, manganese, bauxite, rubber, oil, phosphates. All of these materials, and any industry related to them, makes you an accomplice to oppression if you invest in it. Plus, the other side of that equation is because the current (capitalist) system in place is structured in the type of oppression being described here, this is the central reason that Africa remains poor while a few entities are acquiring the wealth, off the backs of our people's suffering.

So, investment within capitalism will produce a few African millionaires, but it won't solve the mass poverty and oppression that our people face and it won't do anything to contribute towards ending oppression across the planet. The only way to make this real type of contribution is to build a mass movement that is dedicated to eradicating the oppressive system and replacing it with a system that prioritizes people's needs over profit. The key here is mass because it is only the masses of people who make history, not individuals. The ability to transform this oppressive system is going to require the masses of people being involved, not just in discussing oppression, but involved in organizing work to change society. That means we have to get as many people as we can active in participating in the process to organize society to make change. The problem now is so many people are taking up so much energy and space without committing to working collectively to solve the problem. This is such an essential piece because the only way you can understand how to move people forward is by participating in that work. You will never understand it just by going to events other people organize and just taking up space during those events because by just doing that, you will never learn how to see the real work. That real work doesn't come from the events, it comes from the follow up after the event. The reaching out to the people who attended or didn't attend. The offer to meet them for coffee/tea. The effort to sit down with them and explain your ideals and aspirations as an organization and the process to get them to commit to dedicate their time to helping achieve the mission. Then, its the process to work with them to understand that mission and to work through all of the frustrations and problems that will be there to prevent us from achieving our objectives. The ability to create capacity to respond to adversity and work through it. The process of building trust and a high standard of commitment and integrity in the work. Learning the ability to self reflect and to not center our egos and dysfunctional vision of the world in the work, but to learn how to challenge ourselves to grow past all of those shortcomings so we can effectively make progress. All of these critical elements of the work most people are missing simply because they are not involved beyond just talking about it and engaging in individual actions that don't produce the type of accountability required to address all of the aspects of the work described above.

In truth, the primary reason so many people still stick to the capitalist model as their solution to suffering is also the result of the individualistic interpretation of the world. If a collective interpretation is dominant, there is no way we could just see our space in making money without also having to see the impact it has on our family in Africa and across the world. There is no way we could ignore the suffering of our people who dig out the columbite tantilite mineral ore by hand while getting sick and dying just so you can buy an iPhone. There is no way you couldn't see that a collective (socialist) production of that iPhone would give you a much better product than even the one you have now because your product would be made with the collective energy and commitment of the masses of workers because that product would be designed to serve humanity. This would be a step above the current scenario where your iPhone is built as quickly as possible by exploited workers where corners are cut to get as many of them out as fast as can be to increase profits.

The solutions to our problems lie in collective interpretations and approaches to solving those problems. The concept of the rugged individual (usually man) who will save the day is a long ago discredited model that is reaped in patriarchy, idealism, and not reality. In no way form or fashion can capitalism save the day for us on any level and there is no way anyone can even feasibly show how this can be the case. And anyone still hanging onto that vision is either highly confused, or running game to muddle their efforts to use our collective advancement as a smoke screen to create wealth for themselves, of course, at the expense of the masses of people because capitalism and exploitation is like the beat to music. You cannot have one without the other.

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