Blog Archives

Black Power forward to Pan-Africanism 50 Years Later and Snoop Dogg and "Roots"

5/31/2016

Dr. Martin Luther King, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) and Mukassa (Willie) Ricks, trying to have a light moment together during the June, 1966, March against Fear

Calvin Broadus aka Snoop Dogg walking with African women chained up in 2016

While many people are lamenting the comments of rapper/actor (I guess you can call what he does acting) Calvin Broadus aka Snoop Dogg regarding the revised "Roots" mini-series, let us remind those of you engaged around this to remember that Hollywood will never properly tell our story. They didn't do it in the original "Roots" from 1977. They didn't do it in the "Malcolm X, Selma, Ali" or "12 Years a Slave" movies, and they won't do it with this movie. Why? Because Hollywood's objective is making money, not educating about truth. You will have to do your own work to find truth. That's why I can't understand why so many of you still waste your time tripping over what someone like Calvin has to say about our people's history? If I want direction on how to record a song for the record industry, I'll listen to Calvin. And, I wouldn't expect him to come to me about advice regarding the entertainment industry so why would I be interested in listening to what he says about our people's struggle? To my knowledge he has no experience engaging in organizational work to free our people so why would people think his opinion matters about anything? Just because he is a star in the capitalist world you defer to him on issues about our future as a people? Very strange indeed.

Instead, I'd recommend you go to the source of our history. This month commemorates the 50 year anniversary of that March against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. That march is significant because it was started by James Meredith, the first African admitted to the University of Mississippi. He was shot by a European the second day of the march and the civil rights movement organizations vowed to continue the march from the spot Meredith was shot. So, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Congress of Racial Equality, led by Flody McKissick, and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), led by newly elected chairperson Stokely Carmichael (later of course to become Kwame Ture), came together to continue the march. SNCC had a strategy. Having grown weary of the European dominance of the African movement, SNCC had long preached for European/White organizers to leave the organization of Africans to Africans and to go to the European communities and organize White people against capitalism and white supremacy. Consequently, to force this contradiction and to infuse more militancy into the movement, SNCC had a strategy of changing the theme of the march, which had started with the standard "freedom now" to the new and much more militant "Black Power!" SNCC cadre spread out in front of the march preparing the share croppers with the new slogan with mini rallies and informational sessions that were designed to discuss with the people the need for African nationalism now! As the march, which was fraught with racist violence from the klan and other white racists, neared Greenwood, Mississippi, SNCC organizer Willie (later Mukassa) Ricks informed Carmichael that he should drop the new theme on the people because Ricks had been using it and the people were ready for it. Once the marchers had been forced to prepare to be assaulted on a Canton, Mississippi school yard when European city official overturned the African school board's decision to permit the marchers to camp out on the school grounds, Carmichael captured international attention by leading a loud and militant chant of "Black Power" through the Mississippi night. From there, despite the efforts by King and others to derail it, that theme became the dominant thrust of that march and it soon became the dominant thrust of the entire movement.

Just a cursory study of history reveals that the Black power movement broke the hold of the status quo and subsequent movements for LGBTIQ (Gay liberation at the time), women's liberation, etc., followed suit changing the political, social, and economic foundations of this society. I thought of this as I watched a video just now of Dada Mukassa (formally Willie) Ricks speaking at the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) sponsored African Liberation Day rally to hundreds of African youth in Accra, Ghana last week. Dada Mukassa, along with Seku Neblett who is still very active in A-APRP in Ghana, are virtually unknown to activists/organizers today. They are unknown to the masses of African people, but that doesn't give you an excuse not to do the work to find out. If you did, you would discover that there are plenty of people who actually made serious contributions in the 60s who are still here today. Still fighting. And, you would learn that you have access to these people to find out what really happened. If you studied this history, you would know that without their sacrifices, there would be no Snoop Dogg lavishing in the comforts of capitalism today because without the Black Power movement, America would never have evolved to the point of letting a Snoop Dogg become mainstream enough to make Pepsi/Coke or whatever type of silly commercials he makes.

So, instead of us spending so much time worrying about what empty headed people like Snoop, Ravin, Bill Cosby, Pharrall, Kanye West, or whomever is just consuming the benefits of our real struggle for justice has to say about something they know absolutely nothing about, find out about Dada Mukassa, Kwame Ture, etc. Let's start to do the work to find out about our true history like the March against Fear so we aren't letting our children rely on Hollywood to shape our interpretations of our history. Anyone who let's their enemies tell their history is a fool. And, anyone who spends time listening to an empty head's opinions about our enemies interpretation of our history (when you don't know it) is even more foolish than the first fool. We can do better than this.

3 Comments

Memorial Day; Another Effort to Keep Us Confused

5/30/2016

0 Comments

I have to give it to imperialism. They understand how to imbue the people with the ideas they want them to have. They do it by employing the age old tactic of telling the same lie over and over again, with nothing to confront the lie, until people unwittingly start to believe it. They institutionalize the values of capitalism and imperialism by appealing to people's emotional sentiments which prevents people from being able to think critically about what imperialism is presenting to them. Memorial Day is another excellent example of how this imperialist strategy is played out.

Every year, imperialism prepares for its presentation of this day. They display red, white, and blue everywhere to spark you to see your interests as the same of those of imperialism. This is especially the strategy with our European/White family. Imperialism's wars, fought for its multi-national corporate interests, are presented as if they are being fought for you. The images of fallen soldiers are depicted everywhere. all the time, and you are encouraged to see the day as a day that is all about you if you served in the military. A day that's all about your loved ones who have served. Many people buy this narrative, but if you examine Memorial Day closer, its clear that it has absolutely nothing to do with you or your loved ones. If that were true, U.S. military veterans who return from war wouldn't be facing such an uphill battle to receive benefits. They wouldn't be forced to fight post-war trauma on their own. They wouldn't be forced to stand on highway off ramps to beg for resources. You wouldn't be able to identify veterans everywhere who struggle to find basic resources for finding jobs, counseling, and housing. And don't tell me there are so many resources for these people. I've sat with and worked with to many vets who get nothing from these programs to believe that nonsense.

The sad truth is imperialism promotes Memorial Day in order to justify its illegal domination of the planet and its exploitation of you and your relatives. And most people support Memorial Day not based on any type of solid principles, but because the subtle messages being transmitted are that somebody is trying to take something away from you. So, in order for your way of life to be protected, those wars have to happen and these people have to be defeated. The message is if this doesn't happen, you will lose everything. Even if you already have nothing. You will lose the opportunity to get something that doesn't belong to you in the first place. All of this thinking is just the continued manifestation of white supremacy and manifest destiny which promotes that European people deserve the riches of the planet and everyone else isn't fit to lead the world. And, the message to people of color is that your only way to win is to side with imperialism against the masses of people on the planet. This is the real propaganda value of Memorial Day and all of the manifestations of imperialist propaganda. The truth is imperialism, will reap the spoils and you, white or not, will get nothing.

I am sure that all of you reading this know that Iraq and even Osama bin Laden couldn't have posed any real threat to you because if this was true, how is it that all the chemical weapons Iraq had were provided to them compliments of U.S. companies like Dow Chemical? That would be like someone telling you somebody is a threat to you when the person telling you has consistently armed and trained the person they are now warning you about. You may keep an eye on the person you are being warned about, but common sense would dictate that your first concern should be the person talking to you since they created the problem in the first place. All the hardware Iraq possessed was provided to them by the U.S. Saddam Hussein and Iraq were set up by the U.S. to wage an eight year war against Iran in the 80s and even Iraq's claim to Kuwait in 1990 was a challenge to Britain's imperialist partitioning of that region in connection to the Ottoman Empire. The point is if the U.S. was searching for mass weapons in Iraq, they shouldn't have had any problem finding them since they provided Iraq with whatever they had. And, the U.S. so-called opposition to the Taliban in Afghanistan was simply a ruse to convince you that imperialism was the good guy and those evil Muslims were the enemy trying to steal your birthright. If bin Laden was so evil, why has the U.S. had a strong business relationship with bin Laden International, one of the largest construction companies in the world and the source of all the money they loved to tell you Osama had at his disposal? The real story is with the fall of the Soviet Union the U.S. finally had its opportunity for Uniocal Oil, to build the Caspirian pipeline. They actually tried to work with the Taliban to build this piepeline for decades. The U.S. was working with the Taliban to build this pipeline because Afghanistan was the best geographical route to make this happen. The Bush family had meetings with Omar Mullah, the so-called evil leader of the Taliban in the 90s to try and work out this deal. When the Taliban wouldn't cooperate, the next step was military engagement and thus the propaganda started. They said they wanted to protect women in Afghanistan from militant Islam. They told you the Taliban was behind 9/11 and had to be stopped before you woke up and they were in your bedroom, etc. And, you and your relatives were sent there to die, be dismembered, and traumatized, to advance the imperialist agenda. So, instead of you being able to figure out that you and your people are being used, they present to you Memorial Day, to try and suggest that there was some noble cause behind your efforts. There wasn't. Its a difficult pill to swallow, but its ill refutable.

As much as we may love our people who served for imperialism, we do them a disservice by perpetuating the lies. Start telling the truth. They were used by imperialism and the reason they struggle now is because their purpose for imperialism had expired. Tell the truth that the real heroes are those who have stood up against imperialism. In fact, I would like to honor some of them here. The courageous people of the Cuban revolution. The people of the Democratic Party of Guinea. The people of the Philippines. The Palestinian people. The Irish Republican socialist struggle. The American Indian people. The Universal Negro Improvement Association. The Black Panther Party. The Land and Freedom Movement of Kenya. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. The Vietnamese people. These are the types of people you should be honoring today. Nothing against anyone, but it takes nothing heroic for someone to follow criminal orders. The true test of a hero is someone who will stand up against injustice, especially when it produces consequences for them to do so. The best thing you can do for veterans is to guide them to outstanding anti-war vet groups and continue to build the movement for justice and liberation by joining organizations that are fighting against imperialism. The system can consistently pump their propaganda on time every year because they have organization. That's why even some of you who consider yourselves conscious still cannot resist submitting to the emotional tugs of imperialism by calling out support for your loved ones who served imperialism. We don't blame you because without organization, that's exactly what will happen. Instead, we encourage you to stand up on the right side of justice. Imperialism has its institutions and we have ours. We just concluded an outstanding week of African Liberation Day commemorations all over the world. These are institutions being built to battle against imperialism. Let's strengthen those institutions and build more.

There's nothing wrong with having a day off. People under U.S. capitalism work more than any people in the so-called industrial world. What we want are days off for African Liberation Day and other days of unity and liberation and the elimination of false propaganda days like Memorial Day. The only thing we need to memorialize today is the suffering of those who imperialism terrorized. The political prisoners like Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier who spend decades in prison for standing up to imperialism and of course the masses of people on Earth who suffer from imperialism. Those are the people who's lives you stand on while living under U.S. imperialism. I know that like many of my posts/articles, I'll get plenty of hate mail for this one. I get it. They have many of you based on emotional extortion, but we don't bow down to extortion. We are revolutionaries which means we operate based on science. We will continue to organize against this system and if that upsets you, that's only just the latest clear sign that we are winning.

0 Comments

Recollecting My Years of Living on the Edge Organizing African Liberation Day

5/26/2016

0 Comments

A flyer from African Liberation Day (ALD) 2006 in Sacramento, California. Jamaican/African reggae artist Mutabaruka performed. I didn't know it then, but after 22 years of living/organizing in Sacramento, that would be my last ALD living in Sacramento.

any of you chart and file your life's memories through regular occurrences? For example, if you and/or your family has ever celebrated the imperialist holidays like Christmas, New Years,.etc., do you recollect what was going on in your life during those e.g. in 2000 at Christmas, I did this. In 2005 Christmas, I was here, etc.? Well, although I try to struggle hard not to visualize my life through the lenses of imperialist experiences, I have had great joy permitting myself to do this using our liberation institutions such as African Liberation Day (ALD). Since I attended my first ALD in 1980 and I have been organizing ALD for over three decades, I have quite a few wonderful memories. My life has evolved and changed significantly over the years, but ALD has always been there and has always been a big part of it. And, for as long as I live, my life will continue to evolve, but ALD will always be a significant part of what I'm doing, wherever I am.

That first ALD in 1980 was organized by the Pan Afrikan Secretariat. An organization that to my knowledge, no longer exists. The event was held in a park in Oakland. I was 18 and assigned the job of security. I had no experience besides the fights I had gotten into growing up. I was given a shirt that said "African Liberation Day Security." And that, and the fact I remember speakers talking a lot about the problems our people faced in a very disjointed and disorganized fashion, is all I really remember about that first one. I didn't attend ALD again until 1984 when the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) was organizing ALD for the first time in Sacramento, California, where I lived at the time. Several A-APRP members were recruiting me to join up from the Pan-African Student Union at Cal State University where I had been a member as a student. I was convinced and I ventured to ALD in McClathcy Park in Sacramento to join. The A-APRP had posted up about 50,000 (no lie) posters around town with Sekou Ture's picture on them since he had just died two months before. At the time, I had no idea that Sekou Ture would become one of the most influential ideological figures on my life. In fact, I didn't know or care who he was at the time. I just knew these were some brave Africans and I was going to join up with them. I arrived at the park to find about 10 people there who were not A-APRP members and about 30 party members running around, none of which could direct me as to how I could join. I didn't realize until later that practically all of those people didn't live in Sacramento, but they had come in from L.A. and the Bay to help the party establish itself there. I was unfazed. This was especially true after I saw the brother reading a long (extremely long) speech from the stage. I didn't understand 80% of what he was talking about, but I heard him call Fidel Castro "comrade" and although I didn't know anything about Castro at the time, I knew he was no friend to the U.S. and for me, that was all I needed to know. Anyone who allied themselves with him at the height of the cold war enough to call that out in public was cool enough to impress me. I was hooked! Plus, although I really didn't understand a lot of what was said from the stage, it was clear to me that the A-APRP had a much crisper and clearer analysis of Pan-Africanism, what it meant, and scientific socialism, which I had started to believe on my own, than the organization who hosted the 1980 ALD I attended in Oakland.

By ALD 1985 I was involved enough in organizing ALD that I took the fact very few community people came out personally. Especially after all of the work I had done to pass out flyers, post up posters, etc. We continued to work year round, every year, and by 1989, we pulled our first large crowd to ALD in Sactown and I had graduated to being the MC at the rally in McClatchy Park that year. By that time I had become accustomed to the annual routine. Pass out thousands of flyers on the campuses in the area until we had passed out a flyer for every African student on those campuses. Then, pass out about 50,000 invite brochures door to door and at Black Family Day at UC Davis the week before. Post up 20,000 posters around Sacramento, have ALD and be exhausted for two days afterwards, but I loved it. A-APRP organizers came in from all over the state and relationships were built, many that exist still today. We would stay up all night debating ideological understanding of the Party line. My understanding was growing and my commitment was too.

By 1991 we were routinely expecting thousands at ALD and we were getting it. Spurned by the reawakening African consciousness that swept through that period with the African medallions, etc., ALD became the cultural event to be at. That year, we even had the privilege of a guest MC at the rally named Tupac Amaru Shakur. Yes, that Tupac. And although we were always pressed thin for resources, I was able to capture his performance by just setting up my camcorder by the stage, with no one managing it, for the entire day. I wasn't even going to do it were it not for the urging of 6 foot 6 Chameni, the comrade from the Cameroons who went on to achieve a PhD in Math from UC Berkeley before returning to Africa. That video can now be seen years later on youtube if you type in "Tupac Shakur Performs at African Liberation Day in Sacramento." You can see me, standing behind the stage wearing glasses with other comrades, most of whom are still around.

1992 really stands out because that was the year the City of Sacramento, capitalizing off of our cleaning up McClatchy Park, which was nothing except a haven for gang banging and drug dealing before we started organizing ALD there, decided to build a permanent stage in the park so they could make it a centerpiece for their activities. Consequently, we were forced to William Land Park to the Amphitheater right across from the zoo. The City made it clear to us they didn't want us or our message there at their center of European family activity and they consolidated that by refusing to issue us a sound permit. Their reasoning? Because they didn't want any noise competing with the zoo. This was also the spring where the L.A. rebellion had taken place just a few short weeks before. Also that month, the U.S. had engaged in one of their bombing mission against Libya. We were hot and the masses of Africans everywhere seemed to be as well. We always got a gauge on that by the conversations we had passing out our ALD materials. So, we gambled. We had a late night meeting a few days before ALD and through heated discussion about risk and reward, the majority opinion was that we would FTP and have our rally, with sound, despite the fact we had no permit. I was one of the lead voices for this, dispute the fact it was our house in which the park permit was taken out in which meant any consequences would fall directly in our laps. Undeterred, I decided if we got enough people out by start time of 1pm, there wouldn't be much the police could do. So, I didn't think much about it until about noon when no more than about 50 people were there. It was at least 98 degrees out and since we had changed locales, I remember the doubt creeping in. If we didn't follow through, we would lose credibility. I was the MC that year also which meant the program started when I started it. By the time 12:45 came around, at least 500 people were present and my confidence was bolstered. When I started speaking at 1pm, I immediately invoked the rage we carried from seeing four European police released for beating Rodney King just weeks before. I tried my best to create a vision of America terrorizing our North African people in Libya to steal their oil and their birthright, our birthright. I was doing a decent job of firing up the crowd and so I wasn't concerned when eight police started approaching the stage just minutes after I started. Surely, some of the good White folks who had come to take their children to the zoo to have a fantasy celebration on this great Memorial Day weekend had complained about the rebellious slaves who just a few feet away, were ungratefully railing away against this great nation. I remember stepping off the stage while a band performed to greet the police with our A-APRP security folks. I also remember at least 50 or so members of the audience, inspired by recent events, and probably instigated somewhat by my agitation laden opening to the rally, joining us to confront those eight police. Once surrounded by 60 very aggressive and agitated Africans, the police woman indicated that their only concern was that someone had left their keys in their car door. She smirked at realizing we knew all eight of them didn't come down to tell us about any car keys and we learned again another valuable lesson about how the masses of people are the true makers of history.

Several more years of ALD experience after that. There are memories from all of them. Too many. I will recall 2002 when we were again denied a march permit by the City of Sac so we again decided collectively to challenge them. We did so by organizing what I believe to be our best march in all of the years we did ALD in Sacramento (1984-2008). We organized about 20 Aztec dancers to lead the march. We had three different African biker clubs to block the streets and we were aided by the strong presence of the Nation of Islam's Fruit of Islam in securing the march. The police approached us several times with lights flashing, but they never dared interrupt our 500 militant people strong march. I just remember all the white motorists, smiling and being patient while huge Africans on Harleys stone stared them down at intersections. Then there was 2004 or 5 when the City of Sacramento tried to sue me for ALD posters that the good white folk had complained about. Whatever year it was, the complaints were because Gaddafi's face was on the posters. Anyway, I had to enlist the ACLU to stop the city from suing me for $40,000.00. There was an instance where several police cars pulled me over on J Street in Sacramento and one of them, using the n word liberally, mentioned the posters and how upset he was that we would post pictures of a terrorist around town.

We held ALD in Sac until 2009 when I was one year removed from Sac, and resettled in Portland, Oregon, I drove down to ALD which had been moved to Oakland. I'm not going to say when I left Sac the resources to organize there were impacted, but if that's at least partially true, I'll take it as a compliment. There was 2010 when I had just lost my job in Bend, Oregon, and I drove my truck down to Oakland with an RV hitched to it. I remember sleeping that weekend in an RV park with my daughter and us having a great time. Then, 2012, I was unemployed and unable to afford to go to Oakland. I was depressed, but I organized an ALD program in a house of a sister who we had helped liberate the house back from the bank just three weeks before. About 20 people came to my little ALD program and I was proud to keep the fire lit. By 2013, I had started organizing a chapter of the A-APRP in Portland and so 7 of us went down, although none of them were in the A-APRP. The next year everyone who went was in work study and last year, I helped organize ALD in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. This year, a large crew from Portland is going down. Several of them, including two youth who are going with us, have never been to California before. That's what excites me the most. Giving my folks a chance to experience strong, vibrant, and militant African culture. Something that just doesn't exist in the Pacific Northwest. I'm also looking forward to seeing my long comrades again, many who I went through all of the wars indicated above with. I'm up at 11pm right now writing this because I still feel that same buzz in my stomach that I felt at 22 back in 1984 when I signed up. I feel the presence of David Brothers, the long time A-APRP Central Committee member who was also the founding member of the Brooklyn Black Panther Party, who came out here in 1985 and helped me learn how to organize ALD. I feel the spirit of Mawina Kouyate, the long time All African Women's Revolutionary Union Coordinator who also came out to California often. I distinctly remember her leadership during a contentious Central Committee meeting at Compton Community College in 1993 where the CC had come out to try and mend differences between cadre at that time. Finally, I of course feel the energy of Kwame Ture, or Stokely Carmichael, who while he was alive embodied the A-APRP. Its funny, but when I joined, most of the people who did were doing it because of Kwame's influence, speaking, presence, etc. Today, most who join don't even know who he is. This is progress. They join today for the mission, not the man. And, I've lasted 32 years because of the mission. Many who started with me are no longer here. Some are no longer living. Many are still here, still organizing, still fighting. I look forward to linking with them this weekend. And, I hope this gives you a snapshot of why we do what we do. I wouldn't be the person I am today without these memories. Without ALD. Without the struggle for our liberation. All of this has taught me that the greatest gift a person can receive is a sense of having something to live for. I certainly do and I wish the same for you because if all you have is imperialism, I can't even begin to explain to you the extent of what you are missing.

0 Comments

African Liberation Day: Our Institution for Awareness and Capacity Building

5/25/2016

0 Comments

The capitalist system has it's ideological institutions. It has it's vehicles for shaping, promoting, and advancing it's backward narrative of why it should continue to dominate and exploit the majority of people on the planet. And most of you are firmly entrenched in one way or another in perpetuating capitalism's ideological institutions. Every year you ask someone "what are you doing for the 4th" you are perpetuating that there is legitimacy to the fraudulent concept that July 4th somehow could represent freedom and democracy when many of the authors of the so-called declaration of independence were slave owning racists as well as committed imperialists and patriarchal maniacs. Every year you wish someone a "Happy Thanksgiving" you are perpetuating the lie that we should be thankful for the fact Europeans celebrated their brutal butchering of the Pequot people of the Eastern seaboard. Every year you wish someone a "Happy Veterans" Day you are perpetuating the myth that anyone who fights for U.S. imperialism is performing a heroic act when what they actually are doing is being economically strangled into joining a gang that must at all times be dedicated to fulfilling the military objectives of the most barbaric and criminal regimes in human history.

Still, everyone participates and perpetuates these fake institutions without so much as batting an eye. And hundreds of years of everyone playing their part in carrying out this charade has produced a situation where the lies are accepted as truth today and no one seriously challenges that sick and highly dysfunctional vision for the world we live in. Consequently, we know that if we want to defeat their backward and exploitative institutions, we have to create and perpetuate some institutions that advance notions of human dignity and truth. African Liberation Day (ALD) one of those institutions. It is an institution that is designed to bring focus into the vision of African people everywhere. It has as its objective the task of helping perpetuate the concept that everyone of African descent in the world today, wherever you live, wherever you were born, whatever language you speak, are a part of the African nation and that Africa is your national home. There are over 900 million people of African descent, or Africans, in the world today. We live in well over 100 countries around the world in plentiful numbers. We speak literary thousands of languages and we have many different customs and practices that we engage in. Nevertheless, the things that make us similar are much more important and significant than everything that makes us different. For example, we are all in positions of subservience to the imperialist system. We are all reliant on imperialism to provide the infrastructure for whatever society we exist in. And, we are all dominated, exploited, oppressed, and brutalized by imperialism. This is true no matter who we are, where we are, and what we know. We battle police terrorism in Britain. We battle police terrorism in France. In Australia. In Belgium. In Canada. In the U.S. We battle poverty in Haiti, Kenya, Sudan (both Sudans), Jamaica, Honduras, and Mexico. We fight for dignity in Azania, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Germany. The message from ALD regarding all of that is the key that brings all of those things into focus at once is that we suffer as we do because we lack dignity and respect. And, we lack dignity and respect because we do not have the capacity to determine our own lives. We are totally dependent upon the societies that oppress us for our basic needs. Plus, imperialism needs to continue to perpetuate the myth of white supremacy in order to justify its brutal treatment of us in order for it to continue to steal and exploit our human and material resources. So, ALD comes along to tell the African people that we are Africans period. We can keep and enjoy all of our specific identities. I will always love soul and R & B music. I will always love fried fish and greens, but I understand that none of these things will bring us the liberation that we need and deserve. So, enjoy our identities, but recognize that until we unite as one people and rally to bring victory and liberation to the African continent, regardless of where we decide to be physically, our people will never be free anywhere on Earth. This is the message of African Liberation Day and the idea is to create an institution of ideological thoughts and practices around ALD just like those that exist around the reactionary institutions within the capitalist system.

African Liberation Day was created by Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana in 1958 as Africa Freedom Day. In 1963 the name was changed to African Liberation Day (today) and May 25th was designated as the day ALD would be commemorated every year. Today, 58 years after ALD was initiated, the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) continues to use ALD as an institution to educate and organize our people around the necessity for Pan-Africanism or one unified socialist Africa as the solution to all of our problems. And for those haters who want to attempt to diminish our work, understand that ALD isn't just an event to highlight the contributions of African people. It's an institution to rise up all struggles for justice and self determination. That's why we annually invite the comrades from the Irish Republican Socialist movement, as White as they are, because they are true revolutionaries. We invite the comrades from the Palestinian struggle and we invite representations from organizations from the Indigenous people's of the Western Hemisphere. We have these relationships because we recognize that we are not waging our struggle in isolation. The Irish fight against British imperialism and that imperialism is no friend to Africa or her children so obviously, a victory for the Irish people is a victory for us. The Palestinians fight zionist israel which is a hip pocket creation of imperialist amerikkka, so a victory for the Palestinians will certainly weaken U.S. imperialism which benefits us. And obviously, the stronger the American Indian people are with their movement, the weaker U.S. imperialism is which benefits all of us who are also fighting against them. We believe all of these things, but we feel most strongly attached to the words articulated by that great Pan-Africanist Sekou Ture who said "imperialism will find it's grave in Africa." The imperialist countries of Europe and the U.S. stand on economies that are based on exploiting Africa so there is no question that the closer we get to Pan-Africanism, the closer we get to wiping capitalist/imperialism off the face of the Earth!

The A-APRP is organizing African Liberation Day in 2016 in cities in Africa, Europe, the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. For more information about the ALD location closest to you, you can go to www.africanliberationday.net to find out about ALD activities sponsored by the A-APRP and other African organizations around the globe. The theme at all A-APRP sponsored ALD activities this year is "Women and Youth on the Frontline! Forward to Pan-Africanism! The theme reflects the recognition that women and youth, being critical segments of any society, must be supported and encouraged to engage in full participation on all levels of our society, without restriction, if we are to build the type of mass movement we need to overcome capitalist domination.

Even if you cannot attend ALD for some reason, don't think that's all to it because its just an event you can try to catch next year. ALD is an institution so be aware of what it represents and join some organization helping to advance the values contained within it. This is how we will win!

0 Comments

Observations from Hearing/Seeing Hillary Clinton

5/24/2016

3 Comments

Several people have asked me already whether I was present when Hillary Clinton spoke at the SEIU National Convention here in Detroit yesterday ,and yes, I was actually directly in front in the audience when she appeared and made her presentation. I have to say it was an extremely interesting experience. First, I have to be honest with you and state clearly that I have always been and will always be an adherent to the words of Malcolm X when he uttered during his famous "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech; "I'm not a politician. I'm not a student of politics. I'm not a democrat, nor a republican, nor an american, and got sense enough to know it." And, yesterday was not my first experience hearing a U.S. presidential candidate give a speech. Way back in 1984, I attended the presentation of Geraldine Ferraro - the then Vice Presidential Candidate to Walter Mondale's failed attempt to beat Ronald Reagan - when she visited Cal State University Sacramento while I was a student/activist there. I didn't hear much of Ferraro's presentation that day because I was escorted out by Secret Service shortly after she started because I refused to stop booing her after she referred to the African National Congress and the Palestine Liberation Organization as terrorist organizations. So, clearly, my space, as it relates to electoral politics, is much more comfortable on the outside than in, but I still found Clinton's presence yesterday very interesting. What was interesting was watching the psychological elements at work. The atmosphere in the convention hall, before, during, and after Clinton's appearance, was most reflective of the type of atmosphere found at a Beyonce concert. The room was electric and emotions were high. Practically all of the approximately 2500 people were standing when she came to the podium (outside of myself, I didn't see anyone else who was not standing in the area I was sitting in. Even when the convention started with the so-called national anthem, I was able to see several people around me who like me, stayed seated). To make the point about emotions isn't a stretch. The morning leading up to Clinton's presentation was filled with a highly charged discussion and resolution adoption around the Union making a commitment for racial justice. Dozens of African delegates (a large percentage of the convention participants were African people) gave moving and personal testimonies in favor of the racial justice resolution and shortly after that discussion concluded, Clinton took the stage. So, the emotional energy was overwhelming. Maybe that's the reason I was unable to comprehend why no one else around me seemed to be taking in her presentation the same way that I did.

First, it was painfully obvious that she was given a summary of the discussions that had taken place at the convention leading up to her presentation. She clearly memorized that list and she spoke with a talking point approach to 15 now, racial justice, immigranion reform, and economic justice, some of the main planks adopted by the convention before her arrival. It felt to me like being on a first date with someone who tells you any and everything flattering they can think of that they know you want to hear. Then, she relied heavily on cliches, delivering the same knockout punches she is apparently using wherever she speaks. Although I'm told she used the "deal me in" line (response to Donald Trump's statement that she's using the woman card) during at least one of the previous debates, when she said it yesterday, people reacted as if it was the greatest thing they have ever heard. So, although her speech was so scripted it could have been given by anyone, the crowd, overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment, stayed on their feet for her entire presentation. She was given thunderous applause with every statement. In fact, were I to judge her presentation based strictly on the reaction to it, instead of my own sober assessment of it, I would have had to come to a completely different conclusion as to the quality of her words than I've articulated here.

The main thing I walk away with is there is so much work that needs to be done around getting people to understand that we cannot place our faith in any capitalist political party to solve our problems for us. I know. And I hear people saying over and over again that we have to do anything within our power to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president. The truth is, whether its Trump, Clinton, or Donald Duck, my work, the mass organization of African people and the consolidation of alliances in our worldwide fight against capitalism and for Pan-Africanism and scientific socialism, will remain absolutely unchanged. So, my message for those who are so moved by Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Justin Trudeau (Canada) or any bourgeois politician and/or party, is that we better get to work building that mass movement. Right now there is no mass movement that is positioned to push the capitalist system. Instead, the strategy seems to be place all our faith in these individuals who run and take office. Whether we take that approach with Hillary Clinton in the White House or Chokwe Lumumba as the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, in 2013, we have to organize. We have to have that movement. If we don't, then its your word against the word and money of the multi-national capitalist/corporate machine. And, we already know we haven't fared very well historically against those odds? Good intentions are not enough. We must build a movement that is strategically positioned to challenge the political process. Challenge Chevron, the Waltons and WalMart, the Koch Brothers, J.P. Morgan Chase, Shell, etc. We have to build networks that can shutdown those Chevron stations and make them feel the loss of your dollars and we need to build the capacity to do the same with all those other corporations. Unless that happens, you have no way to hold Clinton or anyone else accountable to your concerns and interests.

Some of us pay attention. We heard their arguments that if we just voted in the right people in the right places, we could have the majority in the House and the Senate. We could have the president. And therefore, we could have comprehensive policy developed with that strategy. Actually, when Obama was elected, you had that and you still got very little in terms of concrete policy around all of the issues mentioned above e.g. racial justice, immigration reform, etc. In truth, we are so confused around what actually should constitute progress that many of us are walking around considering the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which benefited corporate health insurance companies to the tune of approximately 7 million new customers based on the ACA mandate as progress. The fact so many more people have health insurance when we already know that health insurance in capitalism is only good as long as you don't get seriously ill. So, that's a false sense of security. The only real security we can be assured of comes from the organized masses. That means we must get people in organizations and we must get those organized united around platforms of justice. When we move to this level of organization, we can do much better than ACA. We can get free universal health care which is really what we need and deserve. For those of you who have faith in the electoral process, you must get people in organizations focused around building that movement. If you don't see those organizations, start the "Hold the Demopublicans Accountable" organization.

I know that the capitalist system is so organized that no matter the personal integrity of any politician, there has to be a movement in place that can demonstrate immediately that the system can be shut down by boycott, direct action, etc., if the things we need e.g. sustainable wages, and an end to white supremacy, etc., aren't prioritized. Now, my politics have been stated as clearly in this space as I believe to be humanly possible. So, I'm talking to those of you who believe in this electoral process. If you do, please work to push for and organize movement around forcing these politicians to move in the direction you want them to. For me, its incomprehensible that so many African people would react with such excitement towards Hillary Clinton. She and her husband have done plenty to sabotage our people, but it's important to note that the only reason she can fix her mouth to utter the words "racial justice" is clearly in my mind because of the pressure that has been applied against her by the African youth led social movements taking place in this country. So, that should be your evidence of how important it is to do this work. We won't get what we want through emotion. If that was going to work it would have worked a long time ago. People with more emotion and passion than any of us could even imagine today still couldn't defeat this backward system based on that alone. Without the movement building work. without the organizing work, Hillary Clinton and any bourgeois politician in the type of environment I experienced yesterday, is nothing more than a concert. You go, you get hyped, you enjoy yourself. And then you go back to life under this miserable capitalist system. Without that movement, in four or eight more years, you will be stuck with getting hyped again for the next great performer.

3 Comments

: Malcolm X, My Life, and Yours

5/19/2016

2 Comments

Cuban Revolution Leader and Premier Fidel Castro and Malcolm X in the Hotel Theresa in Harlem in 1960

In 1979 when I was 17 years old and barely graduating from high school, I read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" and it greatly influenced my then very confused and underdeveloped life. After reading that book I realized that El Hajj Malik El Shabazz or Malcolm's transformation from selfish petty criminal to internationally respected Pan-Africanist spokesperson and organizer inspired me to focus more seriously on my own existence. His emphasis on discipline as a methodology to drive him in the right direction made a strong impact on me and his unwillingness to compromise his principles marked me significantly. From that point forward, I did my best to focus on Malcolm's works, words, life, and contributions. He was the primary reason I decided to refrain from drinking alcohol, smoking weed, or engaging in any mind altering activity. He was the reason I taught myself how to organize my days and my life so that I would respect my time and the time of others. He was one of my most potent motivators to do my best to be not only an actively involved and influential father in the life of my daughter, but also to serve as a mentor to all youth that my path crossed. He was the one who taught me to make my mark by my actions, not my words. To follow through. I believed, and he has been proven correct, that doing all of those things would improve my life and the lives of those I interact with. I was so influenced by Malcolm that I studied his speaking style. It wasn't until years later that I realized there isn't a single person who speaks on African liberation who hasn't studied and copied some element of Malcolm's speaking style. Early on, I physically retraced his political steps. I followed his path to Omaha, Nebraska. Detroit, Michigan. Harlem, New York, and Accra, Ghana. I took my then five year old daughter to the Audobon Ballroom in Harlem in 1992 (the sight of Malcolm's assassination). I forced my way into the closed down building and I stood there with my slightly confused daughter, attempting to explain to her through my emotions the importance of this place. I body guarded for Malcolm's oldest daughter Attallah when she visited UC Davis in 1987 and for Dr. Betty Shabazz, Malcolm's widow, when she spoke at San Francisco State University in 1996. During that event with Dr. Shabazz, my All African People's Revolutionary Party comrades, long considering me a local party scholar on Malcolm, encouraged me to speak with her. I was hesitant, but while we were all enjoying plates of catered West African food in the student lounge room, I sat down next to Dr. Shabazz and started telling her, in a very awkward way, how much I loved her husband and how much of an inspiration he had been to my life. I felt that I must have sounded like a blubbering fool, but she was extremely patient with me. And, in spite of my feeling that I wasn't making sense, she was at least impressed enough with my detailed knowledge of Malcolm's life that she commented to me, jokingly of course, that I knew as much about her husband as she did! Completely knocked off guard, I remember stammering before I asked her if she felt I had the right to consider Malcolm my ideological father? She responded by smiling widely. Then she told me softly that he already was and that he always had been. She said that was the reason I had turned out the way I had.

Fast forward to 2016. I have read everything I've ever seen produced on Malcolm X. Some of these works are pretty good. Oba Shaka's "The Political Legacy of Malcolm X" and "From Civil Rights to Black Liberation" by William Sales stand out for some reason, but my favorites are the books of Malcolm's speeches. Especially "The Final Speeches of Malcolm X (not to be confused with "The Last Speeches of Malcolm X)." The Final Speeches book is literally that. The last eleven speeches Malcolm made before his murder. Anyone can verify that these speeches do actually constitute the last speeches Malcolm made and if one does that, and studies those speeches, its clear that Malcolm's orientation at the time of death was not to return to the Nation of Islam. It was not to start another Black nationalist organization in the U.S. It was to become more firmly rooted in the worldwide Pan-African struggle with socialism as the objective. I strongly encourage all reading this to study all of those works, especially the books of Malcolm's speeches because most of the popular information on Malcolm, like Spike Lee's 1992 movie, are worthless in terms of providing any depth and comprehensive understanding of Malcolm's actual life and work. Although I completely despise it, I even encourage you to read Manning Marable's "Malcolm X - A Reinvention" from 2011. This book is promoted as the most prolific of all of the biographies on Malcolm, but I found it to be wrought with unproven allegations and innuendo as well as a healthy dose of Marable attempting to impose his politics on Malcolm's legacy. Still, you should read it. And my point for going through that is it should be obvious by now that I take Malcolm X pretty seriously. And, everything that comes out about him, from the ill advised postal stamp to the various clothing bearing his likeness and words, I try to stay on top of it so that an assessment and critique can be made. I believe this is important, because I don't trust most of the sources/forces I see attempting to speak with authority on Malcolm today.

Every year on May 19th - his born day - and February 21st - his martyr day - I find myself being hyper vigilant. With the experience and hopefully wisdom I've gained over the years, I think I understand why I'm that way. I've found that any genuine expression of African liberation is subject to attack by this backward system and Malcolm is about as genuine as you can get. The capitalist system, if it gets its way, will have you thinking that Malcolm was on his way to becoming a spokesperson for GM products or State Farm Insurance if you don't know better (and sooner or later, if not already, some of us won't). I don't agree with Ossie Davis's eulogy. I don't believe Malcolm was anyone's shinning prince. Malcolm was our conscious. He was our internal voice sparking, pushing, and challenging us to wake up and organize for our liberation. He was that 50 years ago and he remains that today. This is why he is just as relevant in 2016 as he was in 1966. And, he will continue to remain relevant because his analysis hit the nail on the head in terms of what we need to do in order to march forward to victory. His perspectives and analogies about the Democratic and Republican Parties as they relate to African people. His searing condemnation of the U.S. political apparatus and it's hypocrisy as it relates to supporting and implementing repression against African people. His early and clever support for the Cuban revolution. His admiration and political connection to Pan-Africanist leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Ture. His uncompromising support for revolutionary struggle as the means in which we will achieve our liberation. His courageous anti-zionist position. And his clear and precise assessment of our African identity - "when a cat has kittens in an oven you don't call them biscuits! We are still Africans!" Brilliant! Malcolm also rose up the contributions of African women, very honestly and forthrightly speaking about the women who influenced his life. From his mother Louise Little to his sister Ella Collins to Shirley Graham DuBois (the widow of W.E.B. DuBois) in Ghana, Malcolm always wrote and spoke with great reverence for these women who challenged him to push to achieve his full potential. This is even more remarkable if you understand that Malcolm had to overcome an early distrust and disrespect for women that could be heard very clearly in his early Nation of Islam speeches in the 50s, but he worked hard to fight through that dysfunction and that serves as yet another example of his commitment to moving forward. For all of those, Malcolm gave us the framework that we have had the benefit of building upon for our work for the last 50 years. So, on his born day today, to you he may just be another figure in history. To me, he is my ideological father. My inspiration. My hope for the type of work I want to engage in going forward. He may be gone to you, but to me, his impact is eternal. And because of this, we will defend him and his legacy to our fullest potential and abilities. So, every day marked for Malcolm like today, we will leave our mark. And, every other day we will do the same. We refuse to let our enemies write our history. Malcolm was a revolutionary. And he understood there is no revolution without organization. When he left the Nation of Islam he started two organizations; the Muslim Mosque Inc. and the Organization of Afro American Unity (patterned after Nkrumah's Organization of African Unity). So, if you want to emulate Malcolm's model, you don't have to go to the extremes that I have, but you do need to follow his example. You can't claim Malcolm if you are not in an organization fighting for justice. You can't claim Malcolm if you are more of a problem than you are a solution. And you can't claim Malcolm the revolutionary if you are too lazy to actually find out what revolution actually is. Malcolm was about action. I've heard him imploring me to act for the last almost 40 years and history will record that I've responded to his call to the best of my ability. And, if you train yourself to listen closely enough, you will hear him too.

2 Comments

Fact: The Majority of Eligible People in the U.S. Do Not Vote. Why?

5/18/2016

0 Comments

In spite of the relentless and nonstop rhetoric that is violently forced down our throats 24/7 that is telling us the decision not to participate in the capitalist U.S. electoral process is an act of human betrayal, the majority of eligible people still do not participate in this process. What that means is the majority of people who are at least 18 years of age, who qualify for all the bourgeois criteria to vote e.g. being "citizens" of this capitalist country while having no so-called legal restrictions that prevent them from voting, still choose not to participate. Of course, many of you reading to this point are going to have an extremely difficult time believing this claim because we are all trained to just accept the capitalist narrative as the universal truth. And, if they are consistently saying everyone with any morality and integrity is voting, then it must be true right? Wrong. Its not true and anyone who can pass basic math can figure it out for yourself. According to all policy institutes that track voting like the Bipartisan Policy Center, U.S. Census, U.S. and state by state election commissions, etc., presidential elections consistently, and by far, bring out the highest number of voters. So, every four years that there is a general election for president, these are the elections where most people vote. Time and time again this is true. The election in 2008, where Obama was elected, had the highest voter turnout of any election in the previous 20 years and that election saw 62% of eligible voters participate. Over the last 20 years, the average has been 57.5% of voters participating in presidential elections. Non-presidential elections consistently see participation fall off as much as 6 or 7% so on average, about 50% of eligible voters participate overall. If you average for a longer period, like the last 30 years, the numbers drop below 50%, which supports my statement that the majority of people don't vote. In other words, according to the 2010 Census, there are 321 million people living in this country. Approximately two hundred and forty million of those people (240) are 18 or older and approximately 190 million of those people meet the bourgeois criteria previously mentioned to be eligible to vote. What all this means is approximately 100 million so-called eligible people in this country, despite the onslaught of propaganda calling them lazy, ill responsible, and terrible people, DO NOT VOTE!

It is absurd and ridiculous to dismiss such a significant number of people as an anomaly. Clearly, this phenomenon is worth discussing, yet the question why such a large percentage of people are refusing to participate is never seriously addressed within bourgeois capitalist media circles. Why? Why? I believe the reason is because it is so much easier to just dismiss 100 million intelligent people - a portion that would surpass the population of most countries on Earth - instead of dealing with the reasons they won't participate. Could it be because these people know enough about truth and are therefore not swayed by weak propaganda? Maybe they are not buying the capitalist lies that "people died for right the vote and therefore if you don't vote, you have no right to complain?" First off, the capitalist system was the mechanism that repressed so many people's ability to vote. The state is the entity that enforced discriminatory voting laws against Africans, women, etc., so its stupid for that same state to somehow pose as the mouthpiece for those rights today. They have absolutely no credibility and everyone who paid the physical price for voting rights - people like Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., etc., have not minced words in telling you so. What those courageous folks have said is they didn't die for the vote, they died for freedom, and voting was simply a tactic to obtain freedom. You see, the capitalist system has people confused about the difference between principles and tactics. Principles are values you live by that you never compromise. People die living by principles. Tactics are methods you use to achieve your principles. You change tactics based on effectiveness. Kwame Ture and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) articulated voting as a tactic, meaning it was a method used to achieve freedom. Once he realized that tactic was not an effective one to bring needed power to African people, Ture changed tactics and began pursuing revolutionary politics where voting was not the focus. What the capitalist system is attempting to do is convince everyone that there is absolutely no other methodology available for social change outside of the capitalist system. If they can convince people of this, than voting has to become a principle and since this principle is our only weapon, then any refusal to vote can be seen as betrayal. That's why so many people use shaming tactics to attack people who do not vote.

Clearly, we must build a mass movement that attacks the capitalist system on all levels. This means a diversity of ideologies and tactics. Those who advance electoral politics should continue to advance that work, but you must stop acting like those tactics are actually principles and therefore the only viable method of creating change in this world. Also, you must see the necessity to build a movement behind your electoral work that pushes the capitalist system for reforms because without that, all you are doing is being pimped by the system without having any mechanism to hold the system accountable. Equally as clear, let's stop acting like voting is the be all, end all. Let's stop saying "this election is the most important one (the same thing that's said for every election) and if you don't participate, you are betraying humanity." This is an absurd argument which ignores the outstanding organizing contributions of organizations like the Black Panther Party, Universal Negro Improvement Association, Nation of Islam, American Indian Movement, and many other independent organizations that did not have platforms focused around voting. I would argue each of these groups, and many, many, more, have done more for capacity building in communities than all of the voting combined. I would also claim that SNCC, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, although organizations largely responsible for winning the vote, didn't themselves endorse or engage in running for office. And, if those organizations lived on influential levels today, I'd argue they would be pursuing courses of action that do not focus on bourgeois voting. Finally, from the African liberation movement, there are plenty of independent organizations today - the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the African People's Socialist Party (Uhuru Movement), Nation of Islam, Black United Front, and of course the All African People's Revolutionary Party - that make daily and substantive contributions to African liberation without being based on a voting platform. This reality is true for all communities. Instead of shaming people into voting, the principled and more scientific call is for everyone to belong to organizations. That's been our call for almost 50 years and it will continue to be our call because its the correct call. Its the correct strategy, and its the correct course of action that will push people to realize how ineffective it is to fight for freedom based solely on the tools provided to us by our enemies.

0 Comments

A Weekend of Protecting against White Nationalists in Central Oregon

5/16/2016

0 Comments

The Rural Organizing Project (ROP) is an organization of primarily Europeans (White people) who do a very interesting and highly underrated work in the State of Oregon. They establish and maintain networks of White activists in rural areas of the state with the focus of engaging in organizing work against white supremacy among European/White communities. Their work takes place in areas of Oregon like Grants Pass, Medford, Newport, Bend, Prineville, Hood River, La Grande, etc. And when I say "their work" I'm talking about an effort to build and sustain capacity among White communities to fight against racism in rural Oregon. The way ROP goes about doing this is very consistent with the organizing model utilized by the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP - my organization) in that they do events, but they recognize that the real work isn't the event. Its the follow up with those people to get them involved in doing capacity building work in their communities.

Within the predominantly adrenaline fueled, individualist, adventure/activist culture that is dominant in many sectors of the Oregon, and especially Portland, activist scene, the approach ROP and the A-APRP take towards organizing, as opposed to mobilizing, is not well understood and/or respected, yet. Still, ROPs work is fast becoming a primary target of the forces of reaction and white nationalism. The forces of white supremacy and violence. Those backward forces have targeted ROP for some time now in efforts to intimidate individual and collective ROP activist work and existence. So, when the ROP staff asked for support in providing security at their weekend Annual Caucus meeting in Bend, Oregon, we of course didn't hesitate to say we would support. In spite of the fact our schedule is extremely full, we immediately made adjustments to make being there a priority. Three of us ventured down to Bend on Friday night. An African, an Asian, and a non cis European. Of course, we were greeted with the welcome to town stares the minute we walked in the Deschutes Brewery on Friday night in downtown Bend, but we didn't pay it much mind. We were focused on our security plan for the weekend, which we continued to discuss over dinner.

For the next two days, the three of us carried out that plan in two different locations. While the over 100 most White delegates for the meeting met, had workshops, engaged in discussions, and made plans for how they would organize to combat white supremacy, us three primarily non-European persons patrolled the outside grounds of the buildings, stopped unregistered persons from entering, and stayed alert for any challenge to the people's right to engage in their work. Several times throughout the weekend, the conference participants passed us at the entrances/exits, or throughout the buildings, and they would say things like "you must be bored. Nothing is happening. You had an easy time of it fortunately." From the standpoint of most who are not in tune with the realities and danger of white nationalist terrorism, its not difficult to understand how they would perceive us being idle and not having much to do all weekend. For us, we were constantly alert. Every sound, movement, activity, that took place we documented, investigated, and made sure no threat was present. We may not have seem engaged to the untrained eye, but we were very engaged. So much to the point that everything people came to point out to us we had identified long before they did. On the ride back to Portland yesterday, the three of us discussed how exhausted we were from a weekend of being "on" the entire time. We pledged to place our bodies on the line if any threat arose and we were/are committed to doing that so there was no rest. Even if we appeared to be resting, it may have been happening on some level physically, but mentally, the focus remained sharp for the entire weekend. In fact, I choose to believe our diligence and presence is a major reason why nothing happened.

Many people may wonder why a Pan-Africanist revolutionary would see the necessity of providing security for Europeans/White people? The answer is because I respect and support the work groups like ROP is doing. For people that criticize that work, they are certainly people who are not engaged in organizing work because anyone who is, has to recognize the importance of this work. Of the people assembled this weekend, they had senior activists, youth, LGBTQ, women. They had Bernie supporters, anarchists, and socialists. And if I would have wondered why I was there, all I had to do was listen to the wonderful workshop presenter they had from Kentucky who spoke of the need for White people to heed the vision of Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) when he told White people in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee as early as 1962 to start working to organize their people in their communities. It was also enriching to hear the delegates state all weekend that they must educate the White masses about the connection of capitalism to the system of white supremacy.

Fast forwarding from 1962, I belong to the A-APRP which was the body Kwame Ture placed his confidence in building as the solution to the problems African people face today. So, its easy for me to see the connection between what I do and what ROP is attempting to accomplish. I was highly inspired by those White activists this weekend. And, the trainings I helped facilitate and the relationships being built will hopefully lead towards building capacity for White activists to create their own mechanisms for safety among their organizing networks for future capacity building work. Future community building work. For anyone who still has difficulty seeing the connection, I'll just remind you that the capitalist class has always used White working people as cannon fodder against the African liberation movement. The work ROP is doing is essential in breaking that spell and convincing White people that their alliance need not be to the super rich, but to a broad based working class network of oppressed people that most White people should naturally belong to anyway. The discussion I had with the workshop presenter said it all. We want White people to do this work, not to help us. We are certainly capable of achieving our objective; the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. We don't need Europeans to accomplish this. We do want them to organize their people, not to help us, but because they should want a better world for humanity, and their children, than capitalism can and will ever provide them. With this approach, we are helping each other. We are building capacity for all of humanity.

In many ways, ROP, and organizations like them, are the answers to Kwame's prayers. And I believe he is proud of the work I did this past weekend (along with everything else I try to do). I know the power structure is terrified of the relationships the A-APRP is building and let them quake in their boots because we are just getting started. I'm exhausted today, but I'm proud and inspired. Its clear to me why the departure from my wonderful two comrades yesterday ended with us thanking each other for the opportunity to do this work.

0 Comments

White nationalist militias and why They Don't Scare Us Anymore

5/10/2016

0 Comments

Black Panther Party members in 1969. Most African youth today, instead of seeing this as a militant image, probably see it as normal as a picture of parents with their child at the park.

Kwame Ture, formally Stokely Carmichael, was fond of saying that "human progress doesn't stand still. It moves!" He said this in the context of being asked in the 80s why he, the person credited with popularizing the phrase "Black power" in the 60s, had moved to referring to us as Africans. His logic was that in the 60s, we defined our struggle as one against racism. So, we affirmed that we were Black as a way of combating that racism, but our consciousness continued to grow. We moved to realize our real struggle wasn't just against racist attitudes or even institutions. Our real struggle is a fight to achieve power. And, in Kwame's words, power for African people is the "total unification and liberation of Africa under scientific socialism." This understanding requires an affirmation that capitalism is the enemy of Africa and consequently, all African people. One of the capitalist system's strongest weapons has been promoting the concept of white supremacy. This concept is the drive train for capitalism because it convinces Europeans (White people) that no matter no difficult capitalism makes their lives, at least they are not us e.g. the Donald Trump supporters who foolishly side with billionaires while scapegoating people of color who have less than they do. Capitalism also convinces people of color that manifest destiny and white supremacy are lived principles and that we suffer as we do because something is wrong with us. With everyone focused on these mythical and dysfunctional reasons for why the world is in the sorry shape that it's in, no one is focusing on the true problem - the multi-national corporate structure and its unquenchable thirst to steal all of the world's resources for its quest for domination and power.

I cannot logically argue that the majority of people have advanced to a point of having a clear focus on the tricks of the capitalist classes to keep all working people disunited and fighting against one another, but it is quite clear that more people than ever are aware of these contradictions and people are talking about it more and more each day. In fact, the move to the right, not just in the U.S., but in Europe and other European dominated areas, although seen by most sensible people right now as cause to fear and worry, is actually a sign that we are winning. I say this because the left has always distrusted the government at best, and mobilized/organized against the government when at its best. Now, we are seeing the right, traditionally the government's best ally, doing the same thing. For example, in the 1960s, the white right were the shock troops for capitalism against the African civil rights struggle. White working class people joined the KKK and carried out its terrorist campaigns against us because the ruling classes continued to convince them that it was us they were competing against for jobs, schools, and other needed resources. Now today, the masses of white people remain committed to racism, but they no longer serve as the goon squad for the government. In fact, they are actively fighting against the capitalist system. So, with both sides pushing against the capitalist system, our chances of toppling it are greater. The only task at hand is to convince more people, particularly the eternally confused white working classes, who's side they should be on. We will leave that task to the growing number of dedicated and sincere European anti-capitalist and anti-white supremacy activists to sort our their issues and start effectively organizing their people. For us, its clear that the latest rise of the violent white right and their open embrace of weapons as a tactic to intimidate us, is no longer going to work with the African masses. When these white reactionaries announce their intention to show up at primarily Arab and South Asian Mosques and Masjids to express their disdain for Islam, those communities, still stuck in the myth that if they demonstrate to racist white America that they are civilized, they will be accepted, go to great lengths to show the country there is no reason to fear them. In time, I'm certain they will grow tired of that tactic, especially when they learn how ineffective it is. For those folks, we direct them to Kwame Ture who told us that using morality to appeal to America is pointless because America has no conscience.

For African people, those days are over. In the 1920s, in the aftermath of the violent period following World War I where thousands of Africans were lynched for nothing other than sport, Africans took to the streets in cities all across the country. We wore white and marched in complete silence as a method of demonstrating to White America that we are peaceful people who only want to live as non troublesome citizens in this society. The greater response of this country to those actions was to brutalize us even more. The Black Power movement in the 60s, if anything, was a statement that we were no longer willing to prove anything to White people. We had paid our way and we would have our way, or there would be no way at all. This level of consciousness among the African masses has intensified. Fast forward to today and the African youth, energized by police terrorism against our people, are again leading the mass charge for change in this society and they are doing it in militant ways that speak more to our legacy of struggle than most of those young folks probably realize. The air of the current struggle is one of militancy and the demand, unlike that of the civil rights movement, isn't as much about fitting into America as it is demanding we have justice or else no one will have justice. This explains the disruptions of White people's meals to force them to recognize African suffering. It also explains the disruption of the icons of capitalist America e.g. the political elections, which are supposed to epitomize democracy and justice. The African youth are disrupting Trump, Clinton, Sanders, all of them. They are placing into action Malcolm X's words that "the Democrats and Republicans are both dogs, both canines. They just have different tactics to eat you up!" The effectiveness of African led boycotts of the holidays, which even the capitalists have had to acknowledge had an impact on their profitability, are further examples of African people deciding to disrupt this system on every level.

You should not be confused because the African masses may not articulate this struggle the same way you would or how Cornel West would. They clearly demonstrate that they understand the message of justice for us, or else. So, although white militia groups probably made the mistake of lumping African people in with other people of color when they decided to announce they would show up at a Nation of Islam Mosque in Dallas recently with guns, their confusion could have easily cost them their lives. Five white men showing up with guns at that Mosque were meant with dozens of angry people, including about 20 armed Africans, who were ready to send those white men where they belonged on the underside of the Earth. That should be a lesson to these macho gun symbol fools that their efforts at intimidation won't work with us anymore. If they really wanted some sort of race war, all they would have to do is venture into any African inner city and announce their intentions, and they would have all that they wanted and then some by a community of people who have nothing to lose.

So, with that backdrop, we again venture into Central Oregon this weekend to provide security and educate our friends for justice down there about how to protect themselves against these white militia bullies. It's fitting that African people should be in the forefront of that discussion. We have been doing this work for decades. We have endured too much pain and suffering. The only thing that matters now is justice. And, more and more of us are finally realizing that if we can't have it, then nobody is going to have it. So, if your sick intention is to kill us, then we will do what we have been doing for quite some time now. We will teach the rest of this nation how to be civilized and how to move forward. ,But those with evil intentions should heed this warning. The days of the non-violent saint who will take punishment until they can take no more is probably over forever. They may kill us, but in the process of that, we will be teaching everyone how to take a few of them down with us.

And most importantly, we will be continuing to build solid bonds with people, all people, who want to build capacity to create healthy communities based on mutual respect and justice. And we will not tolerate those who wish to sabotage those sincere efforts. Welcome to 2016. This isn't your parent's struggle. This is a new day with new ideologies. New strategies and tactics. And new outcomes. Its not too late to make sure you end up on the right side this time.

0 Comments

Separating Mothers from State Sponsored Holidays for Profit

5/8/2016

2 Comments

Mrs. Louise Little, the mother of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X). State sponsored terrorists killed her husband and state institutions drove her to the brink of insanity simply for attempting to raise her children with dignity

My mother died in December of 2009. She was an extremely complicated woman who grew up under strict Jim Crow segregation in 1930s/40s Louisiana. She did her very best for me all the time and I love her deeply for that and I dream of her often. I also have a great deal of respect for all the wonderful mothers that I have come to know over the years. They are African women, European (White), Indigenous, Asian. All of them are strong, dedicated, and committed to sacrificing for their children. Many of them have been doing it alone with no help. In fact, many of them actually perform the roles of mother and father. I honor the mother of my daughter. We have been divorced for 22 years, yet I have as much respect for her as I do anyone else on the planet. We consciously decided to raise our daughter together and we have done that. And, although my daughter is 29 now, we continue to support her and play active roles in her life, together. We moved her across country together last year and we will continue to support her. There are many, many mothers like her. I know, see, and interact with them everyday. One single mom very close in my life tells the story of how she had to be extremely creative in raising her daughter in an extremely low income environment. She would "liberate" items from capitalist stores and then return them to use the money to buy gifts for her daughter on birthdays, etc. A dysfunctional thinking person might see that one way, but I see it as a story about love.

These women I'm describing are so incredible that I hardly need state capitalism to dictate to me how and when I should honor them. I don't need corporations establishing an annual day to recognize amazing women because the state isn't the least bit interested in women in general and mothers in particular. If the state was interested in women, it wouldn't systematically reduce them to being the property of men. It would prioritize education around respecting women and it would have policies and practices that reinforced that. Of course, the only reason the state is sponsoring "Mother's Day" every year is obviously because it wants you to spend money with its institutions. For capitalism, Mother's day is all about buying flowers, candy, jewelry, etc. Taking the family out to eat. Even the church systems get into it by viewing Mother's Day as one of its big collection days of the year. None of this actually honors mothers. Instead, it disrespects their contributions because it makes the day as much about material manifestations as it is about honoring the women who hold up this society.

I'm not a hypocrite about this. I believe the same thing about Father's Day and I have always raised my daughter to view it the same way. She demonstrates regularly to me that she loves, respects, and appreciates, my involvement and contributions to her life. She and I don't need a day imposed by the very system we want to see destroyed to underscore our relationship to one another. So, I suggest here that we think about these false "institutions" that are imposed upon us and the superficial realm from which days like today trivialize what should be a consistently respected phenomenon. Don't just call your mother today. Call her tomorrow, Tuesday, next Saturday, and all the time. Develop real and meaningful relationships based on healthy values of human dignity. Resist the urge to force a so-called holiday of spending when you have such a poor relationship with one another that you cannot stand to talk to each other for more than 10 minutes. If we truly want to honor mothers, then we would work on that part of our relationships. And, we wouldn't stop there. We would work on confronting this system that is the cause of the struggles women, including mothers, experience everyday. Holidays in this capitalist system are about maintaining the values of profit over people. All of them are designed to do that. We cannot honor each other under that corrupt banner. We can only do it by stepping outside of it and establishing institutions that honor our mothers, fathers, each other, and all of humanity. And that requires new values and new work designed to challenge the status quo values that perpetuate the confusion that dominates our lives today. So, let's pledge to honor our mothers not by staging some fake honor one day a year, but by working to build healthy and constructive relationships with mothers all the time. You cannot really honor any humans in this society while also honoring this society because capitalism is anti-human. This is the core contradiction that explains why there is this pressure to "perform" for these "holidays" while the relationship itself is wrought with struggle, contradiction, and dysfunction. Shouldn't we be talking about all of this instead of acting on days like today that these contradictions don't exist? That for today, we are going to rise up above this confusion as if we thought of Mother's Day ourselves and it is not a part of this contraction? If anything, use today to reach out and have a real conversation.

So, for all you real mothers, you know who you are and you are honored. Anytime you need my support, you know you have it. That's true for May, July, September, January, etc. That's all the time. I hope you enjoy this day because I hope you enjoy as many days as you possibly can. You deserve it. This isn't about taking anything away from you. You deserve much more than you get. This post is about re-framing the system's pimping of our lives because I know that the more we challenge that, the closer we will get to establishing a reality that provides you greater honor than you have ever imagined up to this point. When we do that, we won't need a designated Mother's Day because everyday will reflect true values of love, honor, and respect for our hardworking mothers.

2 Comments

<<Previous

Black Power forward to Pan-Africanism 50 Years Later and Snoop Dogg and "Roots"

Memorial Day; Another Effort to Keep Us Confused

Recollecting My Years of Living on the Edge Organizing African Liberation Day

African Liberation Day: Our Institution for Awareness and Capacity Building

Observations from Hearing/Seeing Hillary Clinton

: Malcolm X, My Life, and Yours

Fact: The Majority of Eligible People in the U.S. Do Not Vote. Why?

A Weekend of Protecting against White Nationalists in Central Oregon

White nationalist militias and why They Don't Scare Us Anymore

Separating Mothers from State Sponsored Holidays for Profit

Author

Archives

Categories