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May Day 2020 Critique. Time for Action, but Even More Reflection

4/30/2020

May Day, or May 1st, every year represents the international day of the worker. By worker, we mean those who labor to produce the products and services that make the societies we live in function effectively. As the shutdowns from the covid 19 crisis have clearly shown everyone who was previously unaware, the absence of labor, not the injection of capital, is the key element to keeping this exploitative capitalist system afloat.

The origins of May Day reflect the struggles of people in the Chicago, Illinois, U.S. area, to fight for the eight-hour work day. This fight was carried out in conjunction with workers worldwide who were fighting for the same things. Previous to that struggle, people within the U.S. were often forced to slave for unlimited hours in grueling work conditions. Throughout Africa, and the Americas today, the masses of workers still routinely work under those inhumane environments. Those struggles in Chicago, centered around unsung heros and sheros like the African Lucy Parsons (regardless of the critics who love to point out her lack of overt consciousness about being African, the fact that she was is objective), the struggle was waged, at the cost of life and limb, to bring about the eight hour work day that so many people take for granted now.

Within the midst of this global pandemic, we are experiencing millions who are unable to work. Most countries, pushed by the will of their populations, are being forced to respond with actions designed to either replace lost incomes or eliminate expected monthly debts. The super rich U.S. on the other hand, has no organized answer for the millions who are unable to work. The U.S. has no program to replace their income and instead, is pressuring these workers to want to go back to work without any comprehensive program of virus testing and vaccine implementation. On top of that incredible reality, the masses of people within the U.S. are so utterly uninformed about what’s going on in this world that they focus their anger at lost wages on local political leaders instead of the multi-national capitalist companies that are the real reason they are in this situation. Large banks and other corporations are enjoying the complete protection of having their financial obligations wiped out with our tax dollars while everyday working people, without income, are still expected to meet every financial obligation they possess. The U.S. government, without being pushed by its people, would never push for any type of universal income because doing so would take money away from corporate pockets while putting it in the pockets of the working masses. Unable to recognize this contradiction, millions of people in the U.S. are misdirecting their anger.

The above is a clear example of the problem of a lack of political education. We understand fully that so many people wonder why we always talk about mass political education. So many people want action now, that they see the call for political education i.e. consistent study, as an obstacle to forward movement. We respectfully disagree and claim, with evidence, that it is indeed possible to engage both at the same time. May Day 2020 is here. Millions are out of work with no means of support for their families and the official government response to that sober reality is to tell these workers to ignore the clear health risks and just go back to work, despite no plan to keep them safe. This strange reality can only happen because of the lack of political education. There are scattered calls for a national strike on May Day. The usual participants will do everything they can to spread the word on a limited basis, but the reality for the masses of people is that May Day will be just another day of misery under this reality. Labor unions, which obviously should be the dominant voices in calling for a national strike to support low wage workers, are crickets right now with no plan of support for anything happening on May Day. Most labor union members are probably completely unaware of the specifics of the national call to strike. This surreal reality can only exist because of the lack of political education. The fact racism and xenophobia are prominent during this pandemic. Asians are being targeted and the political leadership of the U.S. empire are openly demeaning and blaming Asian people for this pandemic is about as absurd of a reality as any sane person can imagine. Yet, in a society where information is everywhere, but is accessed and utilized almost nowhere, this insane reality is commonplace. Why? Because of the complete lack of political education.

In a society that makes a sincere effort to educate their people, May Day would never be just another day. Especially with the oppression and turmoil workers are currently facing. In socialist Cuba, May Day is a national holiday and millions will come out for their annual May Day demonstrations and commemorations. That’s because worker consciousness is a staple in their society. So, we must continue to talk about political education because political education is the fuel that powers political organizing action. And, its that political organizing action (mass work with the people to build revolutionary creating capacity, not participation in bourgeoisie elections) that creates the political victories we are looking for.

Whenever you find yourselves in a predicament where a politized day like May Day, a day that represents the hard work you contribute to make the communities you live in function, is basically ignored, that should be a sign to you that there is a serious problem. Whenever May Day is just a historical recollection, or a radical assembly of the same radicals who do the same thing all the time, that should signify a problem to you. Whenever we cannot effectively mobilize a mass strike at a time when the conditions of the masses of people clearly indicates that a mass strike is in all of our interests, that should identify this problem for you. The missing element is the lack of organized, political education. You can run as many “progressive” candidates as you want for as many offices as you want. No mass political education? No empowerment to create and achieve a real progressive agenda. You can break as many windows on May Day and make as much noise as you want to. No mass political education? No progress. Just the eventual need for more people be distracted from the real fights so that they can raise bail money and support individuals while no revolutionary capacity is being built.

The people who commemorate May Day every year will find a way to do something on May 1st. The masses of people will carry on in misery like they do every other day. For those who recognize the historical significance of May Day, maybe consider using May 1, 2020, to reflect on what we can do differently in 2021 to make May Day, African Liberation Day, and all days of liberation reflect the values they represent. Maybe it’s a good idea to use May Day 2020 to reflect on how to build your local community defense projects so that you can set a goal by May 2021 to not just talk about a national strike, but be in the position to contribute communities to that strike. Imagine if even 20 communities were prepared to make that type of contribution? None of it will ever happen just based on individual frustration and individual aspirations. Only the masses of people make history. If we are truly committed to ensuring that May Day, African Liberation Day, etc., fulfill their objectives that people like Lucy Parsons, Kwame Nkrumah, Amy Jacque Garvey, etc., intended, then isn’t it time for us to reach beyond our individual insecurities, and stubbornness? Isn’t it time for us to reach out to one another and start building the necessary work that we need? And, doesn’t the core of whatever we do, have to be that mass, organized, political education work? Its like the water or energy drink for the runner who has just ran 30 miles. Without it, our capacity to continue to move forward s nonexistent.

So Happy May Day 2020. And, remember, until we get as many people involved in organizations and ensure those organizations have mass political education programs – anti colonialist, anti-white supremacy, anti-patriarchal, anti-homophobia, and of course, anti-capitalist and imperialist, political education, May Day will continue to just be a day we commemorate while everyone we know continues to wonder what it is we keep blabbering to them about.

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100 Million Don't Vote. Why? Capitalism/Covid Provide the Clues

4/28/2020

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Some undeniable facts about bourgeoisie elections within the U.S. We call them bourgeoisie because they are created and carried out primarily for the interests of the super rich i.e. the bourgeoisie class. For the masses of working class people, the best we can ever hope for through this process is slight crumbs. We have been reduced to this low level of respect for so very long that some of us have actually convinced ourselves that crumbs is the best that we can expect to fight for. If objective voting numbers tell us anything, its that the majority of working people obviously believe differently.

In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the winner received approximately 25 million votes. The loser received approximately 28 million votes (the corrupt Electoral College. Go figure). According to numbers provided by the U.S. Census bureau, there were approximately 330 million people living in the U.S. at the time of that national election. If you deduct persons ineligible to participate in bourgeoisie elections (persons convicted of felonies, immigrants, persons not yet 18 years of age). The Census tells us there were approximately 100 million people who chose not to vote. These are people who are 18 or above who can “legally” vote, but made the decision to forfeit that act. To those people who believe 100% that voting in these bourgeoisie elections is the best vehicle we have to make change, it seems so incredibly difficult for them to believe this reality that they seldom even talk about it. Those people dismiss that 100 million as if they are an insignificant and completely ill responsible and selfish segment of the population. The only time these people talk about the 100 million with any degrees of acknowledgement to their influence is when making the point that by not participating, the 100 million are somehow to blame for all of the dysfunction operating within this society.

If you stop and think clearly about this for any period of time, the only logical conclusion can be that their analysis blaming nonvoters is about as absurd as suggesting that someone who decides to refrain from driving drunk with friends is just as guilty as the friends when they get in a driving accident. Despite the fact the friend who didn’t go tried to convince the others not to go, if you follow the logic of these bourgeoisie election predators, the one who didn’t go is to blame.

No where in this bourgeoisie society within mainstream analysis centers is this warped level of thinking ever mentioned. Just like its rarely actually mentioned that the overwhelming majority of so-called eligible people don’t vote in bourgeoisie elections. I say vote in bourgeoisie elections because the argument I’m presenting is that by not participating in these elections, that 100 million is actually casting a vote. If you listen, that 100 million is saying loud and clear that they refuse to go along with the charade. They refuse to pretend that casting a vote in a system that is rigged completely in favor of the super rich is a democratic process. And this covid 19 pandemic is providing us examples everywhere to demonstrate how correct the voiceless 100 million really are.

The president of this empire can go on national television everyday and tell clear and ill-refutable lies without flinching. He can tell you that the U.S. is testing “more than anybody” when simple arithmetic demonstrates that after having only tested 5 million people in the U.S., that means only 1.4% people here have been tested. Of all of the countries that have sustained significant covid 19 cases, the countries in Europe and the U.S. currently, the U.S. has by far the worst testing percentages. Meanwhile, the U.S. is so busy refusing to let socialist Cuba advance their Interferon Alfa 2B anti-viral drug that they are successfully treating people in over 50 countries worldwide, that no one is noticing that there is no reliable treatment drug even on the horizon here in the U.S.

Other countries with lessor resources, even technologically disadvantaged countries in Africa like Senegal, are testing better than the U.S. and those countries are providing income relief to their people. And, if they cannot provide income relief, they are ensuring that rent and other monthly expenses are being waived. While this is happening in other countries, in the richest country on earth, the U.S., 30 million people have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Those jobs were lost because they were primarily in the service industries. The prototype jobs that pay very little with no benefits, etc. The jobs the leaders of this empire keep attempting, even with the present pandemic, to convince you were signs of such a strong economy. Most of those 30 million have not received a cent of income for over a month. Any economy that only needs one month of inactivity to bring it to its knees was never strong. Socialist Cuba has sustained 60 years of economic hardship imposed by the U.S. and their socialist economy is arguably on the best footing it has ever been on, including during the years when they received preferential trade treatment from the former Soviet Union.

Again, in this super rich country, the business infrastructure is crumbling after only one month of inactivity. Smaller business owners are angerly protesting their right to work despite clear and present health risks involved. Despite the backward and absurd political positions of many of these people, they cannot be solely blamed for their moronic behavior. If this was a government that truly and genuinely cared for the people who live here, those people, like the folks in those other countries, would be provided with compensation to offset their inability to work right now. They aren’t receiving any help and as a result, these people are scared and angry. They don’t understand that their blame should go against the capitalist system so instead they focus their anger on their traditional targets who have absolutely nothing to do with their current circumstances. In fact, the people these people have historically blamed for everything in this country, i.e. colonized people, African people, Indigenous people, etc., are in a much worse predicament. We are the people who work those low paying “essential” jobs of cleaning hospitals, offices, driving buses, carrying luggage, unloading ships, delivering packages, mail, etc. This is why we are contacting covid 19 at much higher rates than the petti bourgeoisie Europeans who are unable to operate their businesses.
The angry protesters should be directing their anger not at local level politicians within the capitalist system, but at the capitalist system itself. Their anti-communist conditioning prevents them from seeing with clear eyes what’s happening to them. J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Golden Sachs, and the usual assortment of companies that initiated from seed money from the transatlantic slave trade, are of course the primary receivers of those so-called “stimulus” monies. Those large corporations, as is always the case, received millions in free money while the best you could hope for was at most $1,200.00 that you will be taxed on as income next year (in other words, you get no free money). After the big corporations were bailed out, there wasn’t enough left for the small business owners. As a result of that scam, they find themselves being forced to decide between paying their mortgage and paying their shop rent. Thus, forcing them to believe their only course of action is to angerly resist any efforts suggesting they are risking continuing to spread the virus.

The overwhelming majority of these gun/U.S. flag waving “fight tyranny – open up now” people are folks who unconditionally support this empire president. They are those 25 million who voted for him. They have voice for their singular mission of listening and supporting everything he says and does despite unquestionable evidence that his incompetence and mismanagement are going to get a lot of them killed by this virus. The other 28 million who voted against him are offering absolutely nothing as a reasonable alternative. All they can offer up is a quieter version of an old bourgeoisie European rapist, racist, patriarch.

All of these reasons are why that 100 million quietly refuse to participate. They don’t have the collective voice of that 25 million tyranny fighting empire president supporting lot, or the 28 million neo-liberal supporting lot, but come November, that 100 million will again be heard loud and clear. They are again going to say no to all of it. And, when that absolutely happens, you other 28 million, please save us your tired old same response of blaming the 100 million because they don’t wish to be sheep like you. They aren’t the blame for this fiasco. You are, because you refuse to work for anything better than the sellout you have to offer yet again. Some people have just enough integrity that they do their best to live by James Brown’s refrain in the classic jam “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.” He sang “we’re people. We like the birds and the bees, but we’d rather die on our feet, then live on our knees!”

Anyone paying attention knows that capitalism isn’t working. I’m not arguing that the 100 million agree with that last statement yet. What I am saying is their unwillingness to cooperate with the bourgeoisie democracy sham called a national election is their first stop at coming to a point where they recognize that they need to keep going if they seriously desire something better for themselves and future generations.

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The U.S. Relies On Your Ignorance/Arrogance to Win Against Us

4/25/2020

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The U.S. is expected to have a national election in six months while the entire world struggles with the conditions of this pandemic. Objectively, the U.S. currently has over a third of the world’s coronavirus cases while only having provided resources to test a little over 1% of the population of this country. Cuba with their Interferon Alfa 2B anti-viral drug and their test phase covid 19 vaccine, are leading the pace worldwide in treatment of the virus. Meanwhile, the U.S., the richest country on earth, not only has no vaccine or even reliable anti-viral treatments to speak of, but the leadership of the U.S. empire are telling people to try the most scientifically absurd treatments for lack of any type of comprehensive healthcare approach. Then, to add insult to injury, the capitalist U.S. media, bought and paid for (literally) by multi-national corporations, not only refuses to inform the U.S. public about Cuba’s efforts, but completely ignores the sinister works by the U.S. government to obstruct Cuba’s commitment to bring their successful treatments to a world community that desperately wants and needs them.

Behind this insane reality, this election in six months features the current buffoon clown president of the empire, a proven rapist, racist, and imbecile who sounds like a drunk outside of a liquor store the moment he turns away from the teleprompter. This sad human being is running against another proven rapist, racist, and imbecile who apparently has to be propped up in front of the teleprompter in order to provide any type of presentation. And, in all of this absurdity, we are being told that we must select the latter imbecile over the former one and if we don’t, we are somehow abandoning the sacrifices of our ancestors who had to fight this immoral system just to acquire basic human rights.

We are here to tell you that our ancestors didn’t engage such courageous sacrifices for us to sell out their legacies by crumbling under these lies. There is an old African proverb that I’m sure is reiterated throughout generations universally. That proverb advises that when people tell you who they are, pay attention to them. This U.S. empire has been telling us who it is for 500+ years. Democrats, Republicans, as Malcolm X told us 50+ years ago are just “foxes and wolves.” Different hunting approaches, but at the end of the day “both are canines.”

For those of us centered within the African liberation movement, who have received our political education awakening within this glorious movement, it is absolutely impossible for us to be swayed in anyway by the trickery of this capitalist system. Those ancestors that people who haven’t read a single book about their sacrifices keep telling us about, faced the open and naked hypocrisy, barbarism, and terrorism of this system just for daring to stand up for justice. As a result of their sincere and legitimate efforts, this government unleashed its intelligence programs designed to discredit, traumatize, and eventually murder our ancestors who refused to be derailed. For those of us who know this history, it is very difficult for us to understand those who continue to attempt to tell us the appropriate ways to engage our struggle for justice.

Mr. Kent Ford, a founder of the Portland, Oregon, U.S. Black Panther Party chapter in 1968, told me in recent years after we had made a sincere effort to help him visit his son (incarcerated based on illegal U.S. efforts to frame him) that “there is no level to low that these people (the U.S. government) will stoop to!” Whenever I observe (often) the overflowing sentiment of shock that spills from so many people whenever this government and/or its agents does something insane, I think of Mr. Ford’s words. Honestly, it is often a mighty struggle for me to understand how people, despite overwhelming evidence all around them, can continue to be so extremely naïve. On one hand, I understand completely that there will always be different levels of development, but then on another hand, I don’t understand it. We live in the most information based society in the world. Information about anything from step by step tutorials on how to change a tire on any vehicle produced to how to disassemble any weapon ever manufactured, can be obtained within moments from the comforts of your residence. There is that part of me that cannot shake the notion that some of us make choices to avoid encountering information that is unpleasant to the type of world view more comfortable to us. The worldview that we want to have. And, my better sense tells me that there are intense class contradictions that drive all of that. Class is the vehicle that drives the values we live for. Many of us adopt our position for how we choose to see this government based on class consciousness. If we desire to see ourselves integrated fully into this capitalist society, we find ways to justify this system. We think of it as a system that simply needs a serious tune up. We look to vehicles like the Democratic Party as tools for that tune up. Others of us who see this system as an evil empire where revolution to destroy it is the tonic, will see nothing this system does as worthy of our respect or trust.

This system has provided the latter segment (of which I am humbly a proud member) with so much evidence to support our position that at times, its astounding to me. This is the country where the largest corporations like Citicorp, J. P. Morgan Chase, and Golden Sachs, are the entities who just received millions of dollars in free money from this government from the so-called “stimulus” plan. All of those companies are the very same companies who got their initial capital from investing in the enslavement of my African ancestors. So, in essence, those companies are screwing us not once, but multiple times, over and over again. And, since both political parties engaged and support this process, its impossible for me to see how anyone could not understand why I could never twist my principles to support anything like that.

This is the same government that sent anti-Cuban revolution Africans living in Miami into the Congo to pass as so-called opposition to the National Congolese Movement (MNC) in the early 1960s. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) wanted to convey on capitalist news reports that the masses of Congolese didn’t support the MNC to convince the public here that the CIA inspired assassination of democratically elected Patrice Lumumba was the will of the Congolese people. It was only when the MNC captured some of these so-called opposition troops, some of them captured by African Cubans in the Congo operating under the command of Ernesto Che Guevara, that we learned that these so-called Congolese couldn’t speak a word of Lingala, Ki-Swahili, or French, Dutch, or any language that would be required in that region of Africa. In fact, those people spoke only Spanish and English, languages foreign to that region and some of them described how they were bribed by U.S. imperialism to go there to “work off” petty crimes they had committed within the U.S.

This is the same government that sent over 300 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents into South Los Angeles, California, U.S., after the urban rebellions (I also call them slave revolts) against police terrorism and merchant exploitation of our African communities there in April of 1992. African street organizations, otherwise known as “gangs” had worked out a treaty of unity against the police. There were even pockets of African street organizations who had also done the same with Indigenous (Mexican, Chicano, Central American) street organizations. The FBI knew that all it would take was one drive by here and one there to destroy all the work that had taken place. If you dispute this reality, you cannot provide one tangible piece of evidence to explain what those hundreds of FBI agents did otherwise in those communities throughout the 90s. On the other hand, we can provide mountains of evidence demonstrating that their primary role was to keep tensions going in order to keep the violence happening in our communities. They used the same tactics in South L.A. that they implemented successfully in the Congo thirty years before. Since the majority of people in this country lack political education, when they watch the news reports, it appeared to them that the majority of Congolese didn’t support Lumumba. That the African street organizations were incapable of stopping their destructive presence in our communities.

“When someone tells you who they are, pay attention to them.” I just finished reading the book “A Black Panther in Exile.” It’s the story of Pete and (Mama C) Charlette O’Neal. They are an African couple who have been married and together since the 1960s when they were both Black Panthers in the U.S. Midwest. The same U.S. criminality described in the above paragraphs was used against Pete O’Neal and when the O’Neal’s realized there was no way they would beat the mounting illegal and immoral charges being leveled against him, they chose to flee, first to Algeria, and then to Tanzania, where they have spent the last four decades. For us as Pan-Africanists, we cannot see an African who escapes the U.S. plantation, as being in “exile” in Africa, the home we were kidnapped from, but this is the framework Brother O’Neal chooses to describe his experience. And, if nothing else, he has certainly earned the right to define it as he sees fit. I am beyond grateful to have had the opportunity in 2016 to visit the United African Community Center the O’Neals run not far from the town of Arusha, close to Mount Kilimanjaro. I was able to sit with Brother O’Neal and Mama C there at their compound. I sat and meditated at the monument they built there for fallen comrade Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt) who spent his final days living there with the O’Neals after spending 27 years in prison in U.S. as a clear target of the FBI’s illegal program to destroy African liberation.

In Brother’s O’Neal’s book, he disclosed that during the 1990s, the FBI approached his U.S. attorney and asked him to take an offer to Brother O’Neal (remember, he still has charges against him from the early 70s in the U.S. and is still considered a felony fugitive by the U.S. government). The offer? That if Brother O’Neal would invite Sister Assata Shakur, living peacefully in Cuba since the mid 80s (after being courageously broken out of prison in the U.S. after she was wrongfully convicted by the same illegal campaign we have detailed repeatedly) to come to Tanzania. Those people told Brother O’Neal that they would provide him the resources to pay to have Sister Assata come to Tanzania and if Brother O’Neal alerted them of her arrival, they would promptly arrest her, take her back into U.S. custody, and the charges against Brother O’Neal would be dropped. These bumbling idiots assumed everything incorrectly. They assumed that because Brother O’Neal and Sister Assata are African, and were members of the Black Panther Party, they must know each other (they don’t). And, that Brother O’Neal wouldn’t have integrity to say no (which he did) because so many times in the past, they have been able to get some of us to say yes. Its like the audio recording of FBI agents who stopped by Malcolm X’s house when the tensions between him and Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam were at their height in late 1964. Unknown to the FBI agents, Malcolm recorded the interaction. Once Malcolm rejected their offer, the agent can be heard telling him that they have to ask because many have accepted.

Think about it. Had Brother O’Neal accepted their offer and Sister Assata somehow accepted his offer, they would have come on their propaganda television news shows and made up another of a long line of lies to substantiate how they win every time. And, they can do this because the majority of us are just not paying close enough attention.

In the next six months, they will rely significantly on that lack of attention when they attempt to shove another scam down our throats. In the meantime, they are scamming us everyday during this pandemic. Most of us surrender all of our thinking capabilities and agency to rely completely on what they tell us. The people who have lied to us as policy for centuries. Its mind boggling. Our situation is going to get increasingly more difficult if we continue to avoid stopping this absurd course of action. What you are doing may seem to have worked well enough up to this point, but the signs are all around you, everywhere, that those days are running out. We implore everyone to start paying better attention. Start listening to thoughts about national strikes. Investigate what that’s all about. Become well versed in understanding what it means. Join organizations that have political education programs. Being able to escape to sports and entertainment is not going to provide you viable options much longer. At some point, the onus for whatever bad happens to us is going to fall squarely on our own shoulders, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The common denominator in all of the adverse examples I described above is their ability to win over us is always tied to our disorganization and their ability to manipulate us and for us to cooperate with them in that manipulation. The moment we are ready to acknowledge that last part and change our ways, the faster we can lift all of this off of our collective shoulders, together. When we learn how to do that, we win you’ll, plain and simple.

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The Prospects and Possibilities of Revolutionary Organizing Online

4/23/2020

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We are currently pushing past one full month’s time of some version of shelter in place practices being implemented in most countries worldwide. Here in the U.S. there are segments of this population, concerned mostly about protecting capital accumulation for large corporations, and continued revenues for smaller businesses, who are pushing to “get back to normal” now. Despite those so-called protest elements, we are urging people to evaluate this situation with clear and precise information. A great place to start this analysis here is without a comprehensive process for testing and no effective and safe anti-viral treatments for the virus, any talk about “opening up” is just code speak to colonized and working poor white people to get back to work for the privileged classes. Their message to you is if you get sick and die doing that, its not important. They’ll just replace you.

Sober minded people who have a strong pulse on what’s actually happening in this world beyond what they see at the end of their nose, understand that as colonized and oppressed people, we are insane if we listen to anything these capitalist empire countries tell us about how we should proceed through this pandemic. For us, covid 19 is just the latest variation of oppression that targets, attacks, and attempts to destroy us. We say oppression because the political components that drive how information and resources flow follows the same pathway of everything else as it relates to us in these oppressive societies. We don’t benefit from testing, treatment, or anything. We are forced to work low paying, disrespected “essential” jobs because those are the jobs we can get. So, while we constantly hear white supremacist dominated propaganda tell us that we are lazy, we are the ones who get up early every day and spend long hours driving buses, trains, carrying luggage, selling food on the streets and expressways, delivering mail, cleaning up after people, and all the jobs that many Europeans would rather starve than do. The jobs where social distancing is pretty much impossible. Therefore, we are always going to be a higher risk. Just like everything else adverse, we are always the frontline targets.

That’s why this period presents some unique challenges for organizers, activists, and people genuinely concerned about continuing to do work to address these systemic problems. I am a firm believer that there will never be an adequate substitute for face to face organizing, but in light of the present circumstances, there are clearly some things we can do to continue to raise the questions that need to be raised. And, we can also use this time to get more and more people involved in the on the ground struggles for justice and self-determination for the masses of people on earth.

Some of the positives that online organizing offers us right now are that most people, confined to specific areas, are constantly looking for things to do. Plus, people are hungry for reliable information and inspiration for how we can win against what could feel too many to be overwhelming odds. These are all ingredients for a recipe of ready audiences ready to listen and participate in our work providing the information indicated above. And, with online forums to express these ideas, geography isn’t a factor in anyone’s ability to participate. For us as Pan-Africanists, this presents wonderful opportunities. Since we don’t recognize or let colonial borders limit our political organizing work, online forums fit nicely into our perspective that we are all Africans, wherever we are. For example, the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) is organizing this year’s African Liberation Day commemoration online. We will be offering a number of streaming options to watch the event. Twitter, Facebook, youtube, etc. We will have panel participants from our sister parties the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Zimbabwe Movement for Socialists as well as representatives from the Venezuelan Bolivarian revolution. Clearly, this level of international participation would be much more difficult in person. Online, the costs for bringing this type of programming are nominal compared to having to fly people out and offer accommodations. This demonstrates how online organizing can easily make our efforts more visible to a wider audience with minimal effort. Plus, following up on that theme, we can record our events and make them available indefinitely on sites like youtube. Another example is I’ve started implementing weekly seminars that I broadcast through an online system while live streaming through Facebook (I’m working on learning how to restream through other social media outlets as well like we plan on doing with this year’s African Liberation Day). This work has been as simple as choosing a topic every week. I started with Scientific socialism. Then organizing conversations, capitalism, building revolutionary community defense, and last week – Africans, Asians, and white supremacy. This Sunday, the topic will be “The Politics of Right, White, Protests.” These seminars are getting up to 300 viewers a week and I’m starting to gather up follow up lists of people interested in joining the A-APRP and other organizations. Our A-APRP New Mexico chapter does a weekly news program online that is also attracting large numbers. We already have an active online A-APRP work study circle process so none of this work is limited by geography. In other words, its possible for a person to tune into a seminar and/or African Liberation Day who lives in Ethiopia. Once that person expresses an interest in the A-APRP (for example) we can connect them to one of our online circles. The circle may have people in it from Canada, Britain, various parts of Africa, the U.S., etc. Clearly, this type of organizing capacity would not be possible without the technology that permits us to engage online organizing approaches. So, we certainly should maximize these resources as much as we can to reach as many people as possible.

The downside and/or limitations of online organizing do present some challenges. For instance, for our Pan-African work, using our upcoming African Liberation Day program, we are currently grappling with the difficulty of providing the necessary bandwith for people throughout Africa to be able to participate in our program. Most people in Africa don’t have laptop computers and in house internet. Most people access the internet through their cell phones. This is why the Whatsapp platform is so widely used throughout Africa. The app is free to download and people buy internet minutes to add to their cell phones. Last weekend, our comrades in our sister Pan-African party – the Amilcar Cabral Ideological Institute in Nigeria hosted a forum on current events through Whatsapp. Participants were organizers who belonged concurrently to the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and the A-APRP and members of our A-APRP chapter in Ghana. I participated in listening in to this forum and although the sound was difficult to follow at times, it did happen. This problem of access, which is always a challenge in Pan-African organizing, or any type of independent revolutionary organizing work, is something else we are going to have to continue to work on developing solutions for. Another issue is security. For anyone thinking of doing online organizing using platforms like ZOOM for example, you will need to take time to ensure you are comfortable working with others to implement effective security mechanisms to make sure cowards aren't able to interrupt and/or derail your work.

Finally, despite the many difficulties and new twists that online organizing presents, its certainly a means from which we can effectively reach people during this period. Plus, as evidenced above, through these mediums, its possible for a small organization to broadcast in ways in which it can reach thousands of people weekly with no expenses beyond an internet account and a monthly online platform subscription fee. None of this is perfect, but with calls for a May Day strike for example, what we have available to us online is an effective tool. We are not going to have millions of people in the U.S. participating in a May Day strike in 2020, because the organizing groundwork has not happened leading up to it, but we can certainly use these channels to start talking to people about the need for us to take our destinies into our own hands. To stop waiting and depending upon empire to take care of our needs.

People worry about these governments taking over our ability to use these platforms to communicate our ideas. Without question, once our ideas begin to really catch fire, these governments will certainly shut us out of these platforms with the full cooperation of these corporations we rent these platforms from, but until then, we have so much work to do. Instead of worrying about the day they shut us down while doing nothing in the interim, lets work overtime with the understanding that their efforts to stop us are indications that our work is making inroads. Leading up to, and at that time, we will continue figuring out ways to continue, to expand, just like we are doing right now.

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The Pandemic, Fascism & Whats In Store for Us if We Don't Act

4/16/2020

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This reactionary rightwing protest against social distancing policies in the state of Michigan, U.S., is simply a peephole into the future. And, a measure of how state capitalism will respond with brutality

In the previous weeks, I wrote two separate articles published here, and through other social media channels, discussing how the COVID 19 pandemic – currently existing primarily in the industrialized capitalist countries – is giving these fascist states cover to implement police state policies. The thesis of those two articles was that a combination of state disorganization, misinformation, incompetence, and mismanagement are pushing capitalist states to redirect our attention away from them and onto people’s reactions to them to justify normalizing fascist policies against us. Now, we are seeing even clearer evidence that this is indeed happening.

After thirty (30) days of social distancing policies, people are beginning to demonstrate their unwillingness to continue this way of life any longer. Mass street protests have occurred in Paris, France. Just this week in the U.S. alone, mass protests from right wing elements have protested at state houses in Ohio, Michigan, and South Carolina. Youth all over the world from Europe to the streets of East Oakland, U.S., have started defying “stay at home” orders by having street races and events where hundreds and thousands gather. Churches are exposing thousands to covid 19 by having open church while declaring that “God falls to no virus!”

The analysis presented on all of this by capitalist media outlets like NBC, CNN, FOX, BBC, MSNBC, etc., has focused on the recklessness and “ill-responsibility” of those participating in these activities, but a deeper analysis is needed. In the U.S., for example, the top leadership of the country – led of course by the current empire president – has been preaching a need to “open things back up” for weeks now. Their actual motivation for wanting this is to protect the capital accumulating interests of multi-national corporations which rely on worker production to produce that capital. Many of the spokespersons for this bourgeoisie thinking are even coming out in public and expressing that the masses of working people need to be prepared to die in the interest of protecting capital accumulation. And, since the masses of working people in industrialized capitalist countries have been programmed to believe that corporations are more important than they are, there are plenty of working people who will take up this torch of exposing themselves and others to infection because the billionaires and bourgeoisie spokespersons they believe in are telling them this is the best way.

It should be quite clear to anyone reading this blog by now, and if it isn’t, we will make it clear again, that we are 100% opposed to capital accumulation. We oppose it because its based and maintained on the continued exploitation of Africa and the rest of the colonized world, along with the masses of workers in industrialized countries. What’s extremely dangerous here is the behaviors of everyday people in displaying restlessness and anxiety about social distancing is fueled completely by their distrust (either consciously or unconsciously) of bourgeoisie leadership. In other words, although most people probably haven’t taken the time to sit down and work all of this out in an intellectual manner, what we are really seeing as a common thread underneath these mass protests, social gatherings, church services, etc., is people’s uncertainty for the future and their desire to try to the best of their abilities, whichever why they express it, to have some agency in that future. And, why wouldn’t they feel this way? These governments have completely lied to them about everything for their entire lives. Take the U.S. response to covid 19 for example. The U.S. government is telling people that the only solution to beating this virus is our physical separation from each other. They are repeatedly and consistently saying this every chance that they get. Most people are not without intellect, even if they don’t display it readily. People have to know that the formula of social distancing without the ability to test the masses of people and without a comprehensive anti-viral vaccine available for treatment, is a formula for disaster. Although people may not understand it completely, more and more people are becoming aware that anti-viral drugs do exist – socialist Cuba’s Interferon Alfa 2B is performing wonderfully on covid 19 patients – despite efforts by U.S. bourgeoisie leaders to keep telling people the only available drugs are ones that even U.S. scientists are warning could be dangerous. We don’t even know for sure if people who were previously infected can heal and then be re-infected. Therefore, its suicide (for us) for these bourgeoisie leaders to suggest in any form that we should be talking about “opening up” when less than 1% of the people in the U.S. have been tested for covid 19. In some type of garbled up formula, I have to believe that everyone, from the church preachers in the Southern U.S., to the rightwing gun masturbators, to the youth at the beaches, etc., has been influenced, at least in part, by this contradictory messaging. And, that this unfortunate phenomenon has created a reality where these profit over people values could create an even greater social calamity then we are currently witnessing.

As these bourgeoisie capitalists “open up” we are probably going to see increased infections which equals more death and panic. When and if all of this happens, this is where fascist policies will play their prominent role. Since the capitalist state has no means, capabilities, or intentions and desires to keep any of us safe (remember, they are only concerned about capital accumulation, despite what they tell you), their only course of action when anything gets out of control is to release terrorist police and military apparatuses on people as a means of controlling our movements. Kwame Nkrumah told us that the class struggle to overthrow capitalism and replace it through socialist revolution reflects a “plenum of forces in tension.” This means many things that should not exist together will exist together and will generate conflict as a result of this phenomenon. Bourgeoisie politicians disagreeing i.e. some wanting to open up while others impose tighter restrictions is an example of this. People defying social distancing while science indicates the need for distancing is another example. Bourgeoisie leaders having “open up plans” with no plans for comprehensive testing and treatment is another glaring contradiction. The fact bourgeoisie leaders from capitalist countries like France are advocating testing unvetted vaccines in Africa despite the fact all of Africa currently has only about 2000 covid 19 cases (about 70% of those are in Azania or South Africa, and reflect Europeans who had travel experience in the U.S., Europe, or China) while the core of these infections are without question based in capitalist industrialized countries is another example that rankles us concerned about Africa. And, since capitalism has absolutely no intention of rectifying any of these and other contradictions, only ensuring capital accumulation takes place unabated, eventually, people are going to react. And, right now, those reactions take on forms that don’t make sense to a lot of people, but before long, those manifestations will grow. More and more people will participate in them, as well as other manifestations of resistance. When this phenomenon reaches a specific critical mass, the state will respond with force because that is the only methodology the state is organized to respond with.

We don’t have much time, but we can still certainly utilize the mechanisms that, for the present time, are still available to us. Those concerned about justice and a way out of this situation cannot just resign themselves to it, panic, give up, and complain about how stupid people are. Instead, we need front line soldiers right now, more than ever. We need people who are willing to use whatever method you can generate to engage in propaganda. For me, I do that from my residence several times a week, especially at 4pm on Sundays (information is available on the current events tab of this site). I’m disseminating propaganda designed to communicate certain pro-people messages. Messages like social distancing is good and necessary, but it cannot solve this problem alone. We need mass testing available from sources we trust. We need trusted anti-viral drugs which means the absurd U.S. economic blockade against Cuba must be ended immediately so that we can get some of that effective Interferon Alfa 2B here in the U.S. as countries like China have done with great success. Messages like African, other colonized people, and working class whites who are willing to listen, must resist this attempt to use white supremacy against Asian people for this go around (the topic of this Sunday’s seminar). And, finally, that these difficulties result from the fact we live in a capitalist dominated world that cares only about what? – capital accumulation, and not the welfare of the masses of people.

You may not have a channel like me or others to disseminate your ideas, but you can pick up a phone or write a letter to your family members and friends extolling the pro-people ideas I’m articulating here. There are many people calling for a national strike on May 1. At least, we can start talking about this concept to people to get them thinking about it.

This is not the time for people to feel down and defeated. If you suffer from some form of mental illness, this doesn’t mean you, but everyone else who claims to have an analysis on these things and claims to want to fight back, now is the time for you to show your stuff in whatever type of organized fashion you can think of. And, the beauty of it is you can do it without leaving your house (if you have one). It should be painfully obvious by now that our lives are literally at stake if we don’t act.

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The Cuban anti-COVID 19 Drug They Want to Hide From You

4/10/2020

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For anyone who spends time watching pandemic reports from any of the bourgeoisie news outlets these days, such as the U.S. sponsored NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc., or British BBC, etc., you are not going to hear a single word spoken about the Cuban drug Interferon Alfa B. What this so-called news is reporting instead is that there is no vaccine and that the only solution to curtailing COVID 19 is the continued practice of social distancing.

As a result, millions of people in the Western world specifically, are under this false belief. Within countries like the U.S., people are even being told that social distancing can possibly be eliminated in just a few short weeks despite less than 1% of the population being tested and, according to U.S. leaders, no vaccine for the virus being in sight.

Technically, they are correct about there being no vaccine if the rigid definition of vaccine is a drug that will make the virus disappear once administered. What’s misleading about this is all of us know enough about viruses to know that there is no actual vaccine or cure for the common cold. Instead, when you come down with a cold, you know to engage in a series of practices that are designed to increase the strength of your immunity system so that your own body can fight off the cold virus. All of us have engaged this process of strengthening our immunity systems to fight off illness.

That’s why its so criminal and tragic that so many millions of people are being kept unaware of Cuba’s Interferon Alfa B. This drug was developed by Cuba in the early 1980s as a part of the research being conducted by their national bio-chemical department. Their objective was to prioritize the development of such drugs to ensure they had a methodology to treat immunity attacking viruses like COVID 19 since they were (and still are) forbidden to receive pharmaceuticals on the open market due to the decades old U.S. economic blockade against Cuba’s socialist development. The way in which the drug works is that it helps the body develop and organize its proteins to serve as a defense against virus intrusion into the body as the proteins serve to strengthen the body’s own immunity system.

Cuba used Interferon Alfa B to treat Dengue fever with great results. They used the drug exclusively throughout the 90s and 2000s to effectively eliminate Hepatitis B and by treating HIV/AIDs patients with Interferon Alfa B, Cuba became the first country on earth to eliminate mother to child HIV transmissions (the U.S. and all other capitalist countries cannot make these claims).

Once COVID 19 came to Cuba by way of Italian tourists (Italy is Cuba’s largest tourist population), the socialist state began using Interferon Alfa B to treat patients of this deadly new virus. Their results compared to the capitalist countries like the U.S. have been overwhelming. As of this writing, Cuba has only 500 reported COVID 19 cases and less than 50 deaths. The U.S. will pass 500,000 cases and 20,000 deaths by the end of this day and although Cuba has a population of only 11 million people compared to approximately 350,000,000 in the U.S., the trending of these numbers indicates Cuba’s ability to flatten their curve is taking place while the most conservative estimates in the U.S. indicate at least 60,000 deaths by August (and everything about where these numbers are going confirms that those numbers are conservative estimates).

Additional concrete reasons to support the belief that the worse is yet to come in the U.S. compared to Cuba is that Cuba, like most countries who are seriously fighting the spread of this virus, has prioritized testing its people. So, based on the high percentage of people in Cuba who are testing negative and the success of Interferon Alfa B as a treatment for those suffering from the virus, the logical assumption is that they are on top of the pandemic. By contrast, there is virtually no testing taking place throughout the U.S. In fact, the empire president of the U.S. is saying as late as today that widespread testing isn’t even needed. For even the casual observer who is paying the slightest attention, this makes very little sense. While the empire president blusters everyday about “opening the economy with a bang (ending social distancing practices)”, a person would have to be insane to feel confident with anything like that happening with no effective treatment drugs in sight in the U.S. and no testing to confirm whether the people you will be working, eating, exercising, or traveling next to are infected or not.

This is the absurd logic of capitalism, but the saddest part to it is none of this has to happen. None of the suffering and mass death that is taking place, and will continue to take place, has to happen. The saddest part is Cuba, as a part of their historic revolutionary internationalism and humanity, has offered Interferon Alfa B to anyone anywhere on Earth who can benefit from it. At last count, at least 40 countries have requested Interferon Alfa B and Cuba has sent hundreds of medical personnel to these countries to help administer the drug. Currently, there are more Cuban doctors in Africa than there are doctors trained anywhere else, including Africa itself. This is astounding when you consider over a billion people live throughout Africa while Cuba again, is simply an island country with only 11 million occupants, suffering from a 60 plus year economic stranglehold on their country’s socialist development.

China and Vietnam have credited Cuban Interferon Alfa B with helping them get on top of the COVID 19 virus outbreaks in their countries. Yet, instead of accepting Cuba’s offer to bring Interferon Alfa B to the U.S., the arrogant and soulless leadership of the U.S. are not only defiantly blocking any attempt to bring Interferon Alfa B to the U.S., but they are actively working to block Cuba’s efforts to help other countries from benefiting from the drug. A shipment of medical supplies and personnel from Cuba was blocked from entering Jamaica and Haiti earlier this week as a part of this criminal blockade. When you think about it, its utterly amazing that Cuba would even be willing to offer their limited resources to the richest country in the world. The country that is strangling them economically, but Cuba has a long history of doing this and therein lies the issue. Its already come out this week that the U.S. empire president has financial stock in the company that produces the anti-malarial drugs – Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine. This of course explains why he has been openly encouraging people in the U.S. to use the drug to treat COVID 19 despite no evidence that it can effectively treat the virus and cautious rebukes by his own medical staff towards his ill responsible claims.

Capitalism i.e. its media mouthpieces, aren’t telling you about Cuban Interferon Alfa B because they don’t want you to realize that Cuba is utilizing this drug for usage all over the planet with no motivation of profitability. Clearly, Cuba could certainly use financial benefits from sharing this drug. Financial benefits that would offset the devastating impacts of the blockade against them as well as the expenses they are generating by sharing the drug far and wide. They offer it not for a return on investment, but for humanitarian purposes. This is not a message these capitalist systems want you to receive and embrace because once this happens, their ability to profit off of everything, even mass death, is seriously threatened. Instead, they are perfectly willing to watch you die, especially the African masses who due to the systemic exploitation of the capitalist system against us, are of course suffering and dying at much higher rates than anyone else.

So, you will never hear anything on capitalist media about Interferon Alfa B. In fact, they will continue to act as if the only positive developments in the fight against COVID 19 are whatever they say they are doing. The majority of people outside of the capitalist centers know this to be untrue. Its these and other contradictions emerging from the crisis that are making it more and more plain each day how useless capitalism is for anyone besides the top 1% while the socialist example Cuba continues to demonstrate makes it more and more difficult for logically thinking people to succumb to the same old anti-communist propaganda that just a few short years ago, worked with unquestionable consistency.
The actions of the capitalist ruling classes, especially those within the U.S. which is the ringleader for this grouping of international thugs and vermin, cannot come as a surprise to anyone who studies history. The selfless and humanistic actions of socialist Cuba cannot come as a surprise to anyone who seriously studies their revolution. What does continue to be surprising is in the midst of constant lies, misinformation, profit over people policies, racial disparities in suffering, and naked disregard for the masses of working people, so many millions of us are still content to bury our heads in the sand and pretend these difficulties don’t impact us. These times are stressful and even overwhelming to some and this is extremely difficult and unfortunate, but at some point, in order for us to survive, our heads must come up and we must pay attention to what is going on outside of our individual realities. The forces intent on taking advantage of us are depending upon our inability to do this. Its really past time for us to prove them wrong.

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My Honest Peek Into Spending a Birthday Isolated From Everyone

4/7/2020

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With daughter here in California , fall of 2019

On Wednesday, April 8th, 2020, I will be experiencing my 58th trip around the sun. I’ve seen a number of people express through social media how depressing it must be for people who are having life events during this isolation phase of this horrible pandemic. My life is probably a lot different than most people in the sense that I haven’t actually “celebrated” my birthday in years. Typically, on the day, I just go through it. I historically haven’t even told most people about it and I usually end up working on my birthday. I haven’t had any type of gathering or get together around it in decades.

My practices are not because I’m a party pooper or not a celebratory person. Quite the opposite. I love to celebrate. I’m probably the best person you could have around you if you are celebrating anything in your life. Literally nothing gives me more joy than seeing people come up. Especially oppressed and marginalized people. I’m just not very good at celebrating myself. And, I don’t say that with false modesty. I’m probably the absolute worst promoter for anyone who has books they have written and have for sale. Oftentimes, I don’t even bring it up. Even if I’m talking/presenting before people.

There just wasn’t much positive messaging directed at me when I was growing up. There were a multitude of reasons for this, most of which can be easily explained by understanding the trauma of white supremacy and the unquestionable impact these things had on the spiritual and mental health of my parents and family. I, like millions of others, was scarred violently by this process and as a result, it has taken me about 40 years to finally start to realize that I deserve space to walk on this earth like anyone else.

The other element is that in African culture, or I should say the Revolutionary African Personality of the Nkrumahist/Tureist revolutionary Pan-Africanist ideology that have spent decades working intensely to make a genuine aspect of my life, teaches us to prioritize being collective beings. Consequently, in our way of looking at the universe, things like birthdays are not just opportunities for individual recognition and adulation. Besides being a method of attempting to combat oppression and depression, I can’t see how or why I should be celebrated for something I had no control over. Instead, we/I see birthdays as a day of reflection. A day to commemorate our continued journey to improve and become better people. A day to assess how I can contribute more, contribute better.

Honestly, I don't know much of how I do birthdays is the challenging upbringing and how much is my obtained values. Its a mixture for sure. I can say my birthday method has been how I've done it for as long as I can remember. Just thinking about things. Staying within myself. No presents. I honestly cannot even remember the last time I received anything of material value and that’s perfectly fine with me. I can tell you that I have spent my birthdays contemplating the progress I’ve made on the new year’s resolution I made three months before. This year, I decided in December that 2020 would be a year of increased assertiveness on my part in everything that I do. I’ve tried my best to deliver on this resolution. Whenever I get tentative about engaging someone, or doing something, I revisit this resolution. And, then I decide to push forward. My birthdays typically serve as check in points for this process. Internal debate on how to tweak and/or change my approach. I can also tell you that alongside the positive practices, I probably feel like I don't deserve attention. In fact, I know that feeling is certainly there. That upbringing.

So, for whatever reason, I am not concerned about having to spend this 58th one by myself. To be perfectly honest, I probably would’ve done the same thing if the pandemic wasn’t happening. Instead, I hope someone somewhere can be encouraged when I say that I’ll be fine because I refuse to let outside, mostly unhealthy, influences convince me that I should be defined by capitalist criteria i.e. buying things for me to evaluate the quality level of my birthday. Of my being. My birthday(s) will never be used to question how “successful” my life is based on capitalist materialistic values. My strength always comes through my abilities to extend my middle finger towards all of those values. My strength is tied to the glorious contributions of our ancestors. Of all people who dare stand up and live a life of justice. Also, maybe someone can be inspired by me admitting that alongside the positives, I secretly confront my fears and anxieties about my birthdays reflecting what I could be that I'm not.

I don’t know how many of these I’ll have left. I continue to focus on my mental, spiritual, and physical well being. I’m far from perfect, but ever since I was very young, I’ve always been a fighter. That hasn’t changed one bit. In fact, its intensified. Be encouraged that the more you decide to live based on values of justice the stronger you will feel because the stronger you will be. And, its that fighter spirit that has refused to let me submit entirely to my fears.

I haven’t obtained all the goals that I desire. I’m not the person I ultimately want to be, but I’ve been constantly moving in that direction. I keep struggling for all of it. And its that knowledge that gives me peace. That helps me keep the negativity at bay, most of the time. Even if no one else can see me. Even if no one else is necessarily thinking about me. All I can control is who I am. What I do. All I can do is honestly confront that part of me that's unsure and at least make even that part push me forward. I’m excited to continue to explore how I can do an increased amount of that work because I can finally see the impacts it has on everything around me. Even if no one else can. In a way, maybe that's what birthdays have become for me. A way for me to reaffirm what I have as a body of work, good and bad. No matter what, it will always be who I am. What I've contributed. What I'm working to improve. Maybe that's the little piece of my existence that I feel I can control. Whatever it is, I look forward to it for as many as I have left.
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The Fascist State is Depending Upon Individualism to Distract Us

4/1/2020

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Look, I understand that most people are not involved in any serious study and/or activism/organization around social justice. Even a lot of the people who have plenty of opinions about social justice work aren’t really involved in the work, beyond their verbalisms about it. So, I don’t have false expectations that most people would do anything in a crisis moment besides hunkering down, panicking, and trying to fight through anxieties each day. When society is disorganized, which means people are kept powerless, any response is a normalized response and that’s the reality we face here in the U.S. today.

Still, despite the understandable desire by many to express wariness about the COVID 19 crisis, to focus on fun things and create distractions, it is absolutely imperative that people pay attention to all the variables taking place right now. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have fun. Have fun. Be creative. Have a ball. Laugh out loud. No one is doing more of that than I am, but that can never be all that we can do. You have to always keep at least one eye open.

If we don’t pay attention, we can be presented with so much confusion that we miss critical things happening that are definitely not in our collective and individual interests. Those unfortunate things are happening, and a lot of people are not paying attention.

For starters, there are literally millions of low wage workers who are not working right now. They are not being paid. All the restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc., employ the largest percentage of growing industries within the U.S. i.e. service jobs. None of those people are getting paid right now and their rents are due. Groceries have run out and desperation is surely present. Millions of people within the richest country in human history. Meanwhile, while other capitalist countries like Denmark are paying their stalled workforces up to 90% of their regular wages, this U.S. government has drafted this ridiculous “stimulus package.” A two trillion dollar deal that is mostly designed to save corporate welfare thieves instead of taking care of the everyday working people who make all societies go.

There are approximately 350 million people living within the U.S. Even if every one of them got an insulting one time $1,200.00 check (millions will not get that amount or anything), that’s still only $420,000.000, only one fourth of the package. Some dollars go to small businesses, but the majority of the remaining approximately 77% of that package goes to multi-national corporations. Not working people. Not working people. I don’t know about you, but to me, that should be unacceptable to everyone reading this. Yet, there’s no real outrage about this. No calls for immediate change. Nothing by most people except calls to play games and post pictures dealing with anything besides this crisis.

Again, have as much fun as you can, but you have to keep paying attention. Shelter in place is clearly the thing to do to curb the spread of this virus. There’s no question about that. Still, people have to continue to be vigilant to ensure these measures don’t evolve into state practices that target already oppressed communities, restricting their movements and existences. We already see some examples where that is happening. One example is the houseless communities. They are being systemically targeted, even more than ever, to restrict their presence. Its impossible for houseless people to socially distance provided people don’t have a place to live. If people don’t want to see houseless people it would make sense to house them in empty hotels. The government could do this. They could nationalize hotels in every city and give them to houseless people. This should be happening as regular policy in any society that cares more about people than money, but we don’t live in that type of society. So, at least give those folks some humanity and safety while this crisis is happening. Doing so makes those communities safer as well as all of us. Clearly, the more of us who are inside, the safer all of us are going to be.

Nothing like the suggestions about housing houseless people are ever going to happen as long as the rest of us are not paying attention. Not demanding action. As long as we are only wanting to watch Netflix and HULU while nursing our own individual sorrows while shutting out the rest of the world.

For years, I’ve endured unjustified criticism that I’m anti-religion. I’ve heard it a million times. I’ve never been anti-religion. How could I be? I’m an African. I understand that no major religion – Islam, Christianity, or Judaism, would exist today without strong origins and/or contributions by Africa. Europe cannot make that claim. So, I could never be anti-religion because religions like Christianity are manifestations of my African culture. What I am anti is anyone who uses the word of righteousness and justice for cover to make money and build mega-churches. I’m against the multitudes of these mega-churches who instead of opening up their luxurious sanctuaries for the houseless and others in need, are instead using the prominence of their word to frighten their congregation into believing that social distancing isn’t needed. Only prayer. While more and more of them are coming out in open confrontation against shelter in place policies at the peril of their misinformed members who actually believe they will go to hell if they don’t continue to give all their dwindling income to their churches and even show up to these mass church services that many of these backward preachers are calling for. Again, none of this could ever work without our quiet and disassociated compliance. Saying nothing about it to our family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors. Instead, hunkering down. Being individualistic. Only working to ensure our individual safety because we have the privilege to do so.

And, now this backward administration is trying to tell you that Iran is threatening U.S. troops stationed abroad. The first and obvious question is why those troops are there? What are they doing? Very few in this country are asking those questions to our peril. Then, besides that, the claim itself is absurd. If you believe Iran is threatening anything against anyone I truly feel for your ability to be that absolutely ignorant about what’s actually happening in this world today. I can guarantee you Iran is concerned about using what resources they have to protect their people.

In this country, medical workers are overwhelmed and that’s going to get worse. Instead of having a government like the one in socialist Cuba, which is coordinating and facilitating protection for their people – as well as about 40 other countries worldwide that need support, this country cannot even facilitate a national coordination program. It cannot do that for even basic equipment like masks and ventilators. In fact, the federal government is actually competing with states for supplies. State leadership in various states have compared this process to being at a swap meet or garage sale. Again, this is the most resource rich country on earth. All of this is only able to happen (or not happen) because of our willingness to permit it to happen.

Finally, socialist Cuba has been utilizing Interferon – the drug they developed to treat HIV patients. Its an anti-viral drug and they are experiencing so much success with the patients they have used it on that those other 40 countries asked, and received, Cuban medical personnel and Interferon to treat their people. Meanwhile, the U.S. has the most COVID 19 cases in the world. Over 200,000 at this writing, with no treatment drugs in sight. Cuba has offered Interferon to this government and they have not only refused, but the U.S. is actively working to attempt to sabotage Cuba’s ability to use the drug in other countries. Why? Because profit is all that matters to these people who run this country. Cuba’s socialist model, where they are providing Interferon without profiting as an act of internationalism, not money making, is an absolute threat to capitalism. Its not what Big Pharma wants its political spokespersons to advocate for. That’s why most people don’t know any of this. The other reason people don’t know is they aren’t paying attention.

One last time, no one is criticizing anyone for trying to maintain their sanity, but that can never relinquish us from our responsibility to humanity. No matter what difficulty you believe you are facing today, someone before you had 50 times as much and that person(s) never had the luxury of giving up. Of not paying attention. You are in the position of privilege you are in today because of those people who wouldn’t give up. So, that can never be an excuse. We have got to start paying attention. We have got to start speaking up. We have got to start coming together and building organizational mechanisms that hold this system accountable to us. This is necessary to address all of these issues raised here and many that were not. If we don’t do that, if we just hunker down, we are putting in place a reality where at some point, none of us will be safe. Once we move down that road, and that day is not that far in front of us, the anxiety and fears people are doing so much to avoid now will look like a day at Disneyworld compares to what awaits us.

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