Ahjamu Umi's: "The Truth Challenge"
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If Police Murder Me, Please Don't Just Rebel.  Please Organize!

5/29/2020

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Black Panther Party Chair Bobby Seale speaking at a press conference in April 1968 after Oakland police murdered Lil Bobby Hutton in cold blood. Seale said retaliation is a question of the masses of people organizing to move in coordinated action against the state to seize power
If you are looking for someone African who will denounce the folks rebelling in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., and in other cities across the world, you are in the wrong place.  People are sick of spokespersons from the bourgeoisie speaking for the masses of people and making the destruction of property more important than the brutal loss of African lives.  Malcolm X spoke eloquently to urban rebellions in December of 1964 (long before most of the defining urban rebellions had happened).  Malcolm was asked the same questions then that people continue to ask 50+ years later – “what good does it do for people to burn up the communities that they live in?  How does doing that address the issue of police terrorism against African people?” His response was when the masses of people grow tired of oppression they have no faith in the institutions that represent this system.  They see those institutions, correctly, as representing their oppression.  So, they aren’t going to call and/or rely on those institutions.  They also see the institutions within “their communities” such as businesses, housing, etc., as being owned by the bourgeoisie class that perpetuates and benefits from their oppression.  The landlords who own the buildings they live in exploit them every month by overcharging for rents for dwellings that are often not fit for human occupation.  The people see this.  They don’t see those buildings as “their community.”  They see those building, despite the fact they live in them, as properties owned by the exploiting classes.  Since those exploiting classes don’t live in the communities with the oppressed, the oppressed cannot strike against them directly.  So, they strike against their properties.  Its really just that simple. 

Bernice Ligon, the co-owner of Aquarian Books in Los Angeles, California, U.S., suffered the loss of her store, then the oldest African owned bookstore in Los Angeles, to fire during the 1992 urban rebellion against police terrorism.  Arson investigators confirmed later that Aquarian Books wasn’t the target of the fire.  Instead, neighboring businesses in the strip mall where the bookstore was housed were set on fire and the blaze spread to destroy the bookstore along with several other businesses.  Even before that last bit of information was confirmed, immediately after losing the store, Mrs. Ligon was asked on live television how she felt.  She responded that she was heartbroken, but if losing her store was part of the price that had to be paid to bring about justice against police terror, it was a price she was willing to pay.  The analysis provided by Brother Malcolm and Mrs. Ligon is all that’s needed to confirm that no one who cares about justice and humanity is paying any attention to the fact the bourgeoisie and petti bourgeoisie are suffering a little financial inconvenience. 

That’s an important backdrop because lots of African people, expressing their frustration and anger at this continued oppression are saying if they are murdered by police, they wish to encourage people to burn the system down.  Every bit of that anger and frustration is valid, but for me, that wish is nowhere near enough.  Every African life, every life period, is worth so much more than any capitalist entity that I cringe at the notion that burning down a building is somehow equivalent to the injustice of systemic murder against our people.  Plus, if I’m murdered by police, that isn’t just a personal assault against me.  If I’m in a conflict with the police, that’s a reflection of the systemic oppression directed at African people.  That oppression is directed at us because the capitalist system is fueled by its exploitation of Africa.  The police repression against us exists because police exists to ensure we are kept under thumb to prohibit us from recognizing the reasons for our oppression.  Sekou Ture was correct when he said “imperialism will find its grave in Africa!”  The ruling classes know that the moment the African masses recognize our connection to Africa we will ask why Africa is so rich, yet we are so poor.  The moment that is the primary question on our minds we will start to organize to address that reality.  The minute we do that, capitalism’s days are numbered.  That is the sole reason they utilize their police to repress us everywhere we live on earth.  Since I recognize that, I cannot individualize my death if it comes at the hands of police and/or their wannabes.  I want my death to be political like everything else in my life.  I want my death to symbolize our work to eradicate police and the capitalist system.  So, for me, that translates to asking that if I’m murdered by police, my wish for everyone is that you join an organization.  If you wish to honor me, join an organization and by that I mean make a lifelong commitment to struggle with other people for mutual objectives.  Make a commitment to work through adversity, challenges, fatigue, etc., to build a vehicle to move us farther along towards revolution.  For most of us, making that level of commitment is going to require some serious changes in our lives.  In looking at that way, it should be quite clear that with this approach, we are talking about much more than my individual death.  That’s exactly how I wish people would respond.  And, joining an organization is just the first step.  I wish people would do that and then engage serious work to ensure that organization you are a part of has a strong and consistent political education component.  That means regular study around things like police terrorism against African people everywhere, the history of capitalism’s ties to our enslavement, the method in which our poverty fuels capitalism’s wealth. 

To accompany your organizational membership and your political education program, the last component must be a community defense project.  A project that requires you to go into communities and do work to prepare communities to defend themselves against police terror in particular, and generalized white supremacy attacks in general.  If you study, you will find that after the Los Angeles police murdered Nation of Islam member Ronald Stokes in 1962, Malcolm X responded by calling for the same types of responses I’m calling for here, even if the Nation of Islam prevented Malcolm from building those types of structures at that time.  If you study, you will find that the Black Panther Party, through its chairperson Bobby Seale, called for the same types of responses when the Oakland, California, U.S., police murdered Lil Bobby Hutton in April of 1968.  When asked by a reporter if the Panthers intended to “retaliate” Seale cleverly responded that the people need to be organized to retaliate.  In other words, Malcolm and Seale didn’t call for people to hit the streets and break windows after the deaths of their comrades at the hands of police.  Each organizer called on communities to get organized.

I realize that my wish is a lot more involved than burning a building and that’s the point.  Burning a building takes a few minutes.  The actions I’m wishing for if I’m murdered by police requires a lifelong commitment.  Also, my request, somewhere along the way, probably includes burning things, but not as an individual act, but a part of an organized effort to achieve something larger whereas just stopping with burning a building doesn’t necessarily include anything else to advance us.
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Finally, my request is based in my emotional fatigue at seeing us suffer through brutal oppression everyday with no response other than reactions against each individual act against our dignity.  I’m way past reacting.  I sincerely desire to see us move from reaction to pro-action which means getting to work to build revolutionary institutions that can dismantle police and all institutions of oppression.  I’m so to that point that if all you are willing to do is one simple act like burning a stupid car if I’m murdered, and you are not willing to organize for permanent change, I would prefer that you just not do anything.  So, consider this my public will.  if I’m murdered, please respect my wishes and join an organization.  Build a political education program within that organization and a community defense project to accompany your political education work.  Don’t shortchange my life and my contributions by just reducing my life, and other people’s lost lives, to just a stupid window being broken.  If that’s all you do, you are demonstrating that your true objective is just to feel better at the frustration you feel.  This discussion needs to evolve past that.  We are not trying to just find ways to co-exist with the capitalist system.  We should be trying to work to destroy it and build something better.  Avenge my death by contributing to doing something better.  I can make that request of you because you are still living and my contribution and respect towards you is already doing all of the things I’m asking you to do once I’m killed.  That of course means you don’t really need to wait for me to be killed to do these things now either.
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Changing Our Playbook When Police Terror Tragedy Strikes

5/28/2020

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On the question of police terror against the African masses, I realize that my point of view is going to be much different than a lot of people.  I’ve been pulled over, harassed, and disrespected by police without cause dozens of times in my life.  Much of that has occurred due to the militant actions and political work I’ve been involved with.  That political work provides a perspective that most people just haven’t invested the time and energy to develop.  For example, yesterday, I was reading about an African man named Reverend George Lee.  In the mid 1950s, Reverend Lee was a leader for the Regional Council of Negro Leaders (RCNL) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the Delta town of Belzoni, Mississippi, U.S.  To the racist European (white) leadership of Belzoni, Reverend Lee was an unwanted troublemaker simply because he was the first African to dare to successfully register to vote in Belzoni since reconstruction i.e. almost 100 years before.  Reverend Lee and many of the activists in Belzoni had experienced consistent terrorism from the local sheriffs office and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), who were well known to be one and the same.  On May 7, 1955, Reverend Lee was brutally and savagely murdered in broad daylight on the streets of Belzoni by persons who were mutually identified as members of the KKK and the sheriff’s department.  As I read the tragic story of Reverend Lee and many others during that period of history, I of course thought of recent events of police terror against our people.  George Floyd in Minnesota, U.S.  Armaud Arbury, and the countless other African, Indigenous, and other oppressed community members who are shot down daily by white supremacists hiding behind so-called police “authority” (as well as state agents of repression, official or unofficial, of all nationalities).  Along with those readings, I also reflected upon my participation yesterday in an online event on police terror against Africans in Nova Scotia, Canada.  For that event, I was required to engage in research around police/African community relations in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  In doing that research, I’ve reaffirmed a reality that mirrors that of Reverend George Lee, George Floyd, and Africans all over the world. 

I’ve had plenty of scuffles over the years with police, white supremacists, and/or all at once.  I have an organizational foundation with roots all over the African world.  A foundation that is based in successful revolutionary organization and not spontaneous mobilization.  I benefit from participating in an intense and ongoing political education process that is a part of my organizational foundation.  As a result, I have a strong nation, gender, class, analysis of oppressive systems that guides everything I think and do.  So, I’m not someone who is going to be moved primarily by emotion when tragedy strikes.  And, I say that not criticizing those people who react based primarily on emotion.  Seeing African people’s humanity crushed so often and without any regard for the impacts of this terrorism is enough to drive any sane person over the edge.  All of us are triggered by all of this, all the time. 

Even when I was a young teen, and I was first getting accustomed to being mistreated by police, I was fortunate to have elder African revolutionaries who helped me process through those experiences.  Granted, I grew up in San Francisco, California, U.S., in the 1970s.  Finding African revolutionaries there during that time was not a hard task.  Much different than today in places I’ve been like Portland, Oregon, U.S., for example, or Sacramento, California, U.S., where I currently live, where African revolutionaries are few and far in between.  On the other hand, we have access to resources today that we didn’t’ even dream of in the 70s.  We have capacity to reach many more people much faster.  We can transmit clear messages accompanied by organizational structures and guidance for how to build this capacity electronically without ever physically meeting people.

So, with this reality in mind, I use the mediums I have to try and perform the valuable functions that those who reached out to me provided to me when I was young and angry.  Let me clarify. I’m still angry.  In fact, I’m much angrier than I was at 17 because today I know exactly why I’m angry, who I’m angry with, and that my anger is legitimate and can and should be used constructively to advance our struggle.  So, its my responsibility today to do all the work I can to expose the forces who deserve our scorn and anger.  Police departments are terrorist organizations.  Even if they were not completely infiltrated by practicing white supremacists, the institutional structure of capitalism requires systemic discrimination against us, even by police who may attempt to approach their jobs as objectively as possible.  That’s definitely a point that needs to be presented, over and over again.  The problem is the system, not individual police.  The system is corrupt.  If we grow to understand that fact, we can eliminate this absurd analysis that the problem is just certain “bad” police officers.  The best anti-snitch culture alive belongs to police departments.  There are no gangs, cartels, or crime families alive who are better at protecting their people than police culture is at protecting gestapo cops.  So, clearly, the ones who protect the abusive cops are just as guilty as the abusive cops so its past time to abandon this emotionally driven argument that we shouldn’t criticize police departments because your loved one is a cop.  I don’t see many people advancing this analysis so I definitely see it as my role to do so.  Once I do, I try and carry out any and every action I know to spread this analysis, but I cannot do it without the help of people who wish to inject further analysis into the emotional oceans that erupt when tragedy strikes.  And, until that correct analysis takes hold, its not possible for us to engage the on the ground political work needed to create the changes we need.

Another example where I feel I have a contribution that should be made is in addressing the question of spontaneous reaction compared to revolutionary organization.  There are plenty of people out here today who believe that spontaneous action i.e. rebellions, can evolve into revolutionary change.  I’m not here to argue with them, but I will say they have plenty of work to do to verify their thesis.  What history has shown us is these spontaneous eruptions, valid, legitimate, and completely understandable, happen, and then as Kwame Ture (formally Stokely Carmichael) said so clearly “we rise up, rebel, and then sit down for 29 years!”  No one wants the military overthrow of the capitalist empire more than we do.  A number of the Pan-African forces we organize with to achieve our objective of one unified socialist Africa have histories of engaging in organized armed struggle against the state.  The African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau (PAIGC), Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG), and Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania (South Africa), are just three examples.  So, we need no lectures from people who barely know how to properly set a fire on the need for armed struggle.  Our disagreement is actually about how and when the armed phase happens?  We disagree about how mass struggle, non-violent direct action, or armed struggle happens?  How its organized and what objectives its employed to achieve.  Does it happen with no organized training?  With people hitting the streets with no change of clothes?  No where to rest and recharge?  No food to sustain themselves?  No water?  No reinforcements and replacements so that people can take breaks to tend to their families and live life?  Just people running out, fueled by emotion and righteous anger.  The problem is emotion and righteous anger only last so long.  To us, the challenge we really want with the state only happens when we are organizing communities to prepare for those confrontations.  When we are able to prepare to win.  To help communities develop capacity to sustain those challenges over a long enough period of time where the capitalist system starts to break down.  The pandemic is showing anyone who pays attention that it really won’t take nearly as long as many people thought to bring capitalism down to its knees.  Several months of intense and consistent organizing and we could begin to see the breaches starting to rip open in this system.  This happens because more and more people are won over to the people’s side and we ultimately reach the point where the police themselves, those who attempt to approach their jobs objectively?  Those police come to a place where the resistance is so consistent and the messages being transmitted are so clear that they begin to win people over and those police we are talking about now reach the point when they refuse to oppose the people any longer.  This reality is achievable, but only when the appropriate political work is developed and carried out.  It doesn’t happen in two or three days when the capitalist system and its media mechanisms are in full operation.  Where they are able to create narratives about “rioters” as they are doing right now in Minnesota.  Where they manipulate the family members of police terror, like they are doing in Minnesota now, to come out and publicly denounce “outside agitators.”  Their mechanisms are well enough organized, and ours are so disorganized, that even most of your family members, people who have known you for your entire life, they are influenced by the narrative of capitalism and they will be the first in line to denounce your participation in the spontaneous eruptions. 

I feel like its my role to struggle over the questions raised above.  To agitate around those questions.  And, I should warn you that I didn’t fall in with the rain yesterday.  So, I know there are many of you who, despite your inability to logically refute any of the arguments I’m making here, you will still reject it.  You will do so because we live in societies rooted in injustice where that injustice is portrayed as mainstream and legitimate.  As a result, there is no accountability here, even within our movements for justice.  So, there’s nothing pushing you to be accountable to truth.  Bourgeoisie truth i.e. idealism, lives and thrives in capitalism.  In other words, you can create in your head the truth you want to exist under, regardless of how much your “truth” clashes with objective reality based on material conditions.  So, you reject this and that’s ok.  I’m not the least bit mad at you because to be honest, you are probably not the audience I’m seeking right now.  You are probably just not ready to hear these points.  When and if you ever do become ready, I and others like me, will be right here, ready to engage with you.  We are revolutionaries.  We understand the forces at work.  What’s important to us is the correct work to liberate humanity, not our egos. 

For those who feel that you are ready, we are ready for you.  We are ready to work with you.  We are ready to provide you with the tools to start the work to build the type of revolutionary organizing capacity that will begin to build up our ability to eliminate police completely.  Eliminate them in the pathway towards building more people focused revolutionary societies.  With all of this we have to say that none of this will be easy so if ease is what you are seeking, this is not the work for you.  And, in saying that, we have to add that you probably aren’t as ready as you wish to believe that you are.
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We have analysis and answers and we are ready to share them with those serious enough to participate and build something real.  The alternative is you develop a plan of your own, which we encourage, or we can continue to operate on the emotional realm solely.  Tragedy happens and we react.  We emote and feel triggered for a time and then it passes and we continue to co-exist with the backward capitalist system that causes our oppression in the first place.  Until the next tragedy.  Meanwhile, we are here working and we are here for those who want something more.
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You Are Our Wasting Time Waiting on Europeans to Change

5/26/2020

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Whether its that Carolyn Bryant lying on Emmet Till and causing his brutal murder in 1955 or this Melody Cooper using the same white damsel in distress call on an African in Central Park, New York, U.S. in May of 2020, the reality is the same.  And, the contradictions are overwhelming.  The same Europeans who shamelessly brandish weapons at so-called public buildings during these sham protests are the same Europeans who would be calling the police on Africans who showed up in public with weapons the way they are doing.  Its the same Europeans who are telling us halting a crumbling capitalist economy is much more important than saving the majority African and poor lives who are being lost through this pandemic.  The very same white people who continue to shame Africans for not wanted to support a liberal racist like Biden with the ridiculous argument that Biden is “better” than the current empire president.  African people suffer regardless of who the empire president is.  To present us with the lessor evil argument makes as much sense as trying to convince a chicken that choosing a fox as their assassin is a better choice than a wolf because the fox will kill them slower. 

And, that’s just the everyday, liberal, or so-called right wing Europeans.  Probably worse, are the Europeans who claim to be progressive and revolutionary.  Who claim to be allies and accomplices to the daily challenges of white supremacy.  These are the people who stand with us only up to the point where our agency doesn’t center and/or present something palatable to their world view.  At the point of that divide, it can suddenly become almost impossible to tell the difference between “progressive” and “revolutionary” white people and those from the far right.  To illustrate this point, if you lined up any so-called revolutionary and/or progressive white people i.e. communists, anarchists, liberals, etc., next to neo-nazis and other right wing scum.  If you asked all of them to tell you the history of African movements for dignity like the Pan-Africanist movement, the Afrocentricity movement, Black nationalist movements, very, very few of these white people could tell you much of anything of any value.  That tells us that these people, none of them, are serious about respecting us as complete human beings because if they were, they would have to make a legitimate effort to understand our journey.  We can make this claim because we can talk to you intelligently about the struggle against colonialism waged by the Irish people in Ireland.  We can discuss the history and struggles of the Indigenous people’s of the Western Hemisphere in a qualified manner.  We can discuss the history and critical points of the Palestinian struggle for justice and dignity.  We can do these things because we love our African people.  And, that love provides us the space and desire to understand the struggles of other peoples on earth.  So, we make an informed choice to study their movements with the same commitment that we study our own.  The fact so few white people know anything about African people besides viewing us as caricatures and victims indicates how dysfunctional these white people are and how impossible it is for them to actually be any type of accomplices to us on anything.

Its not a question of us needing white people for anything anyway.  Those of us engaging in revolutionary Pan-African organizing work are focused on that which doesn’t involve or require any participation, validation, acceptance or existence of any Europeans.  So, please be clear that the focus of this piece isn’t to plead with white people to change.  White people can change.  They can go on being what they mostly are today, selfish and focused only on what matters to them.  Either way makes no difference.  We are going  to build our work and we are going to win, regardless of what white people do.  The purpose of this piece is directed specifically at African people.  Those Africans who continue to focus their entire existence around what white people do.  Those who continue to place their allegiance with the institutions controlled by capitalism and white supremacy.  The people who wish to reform police and other institutions within this system.  Those approaches on some level rely on white people being better.  Our inquiry to those people is that we recognize that power concedes nothing without a demand.  We cannot expect anyone to do the right thing just because it’s the right thing.  Instead, we know that people do the right thing when they are forced to do the right thing.  Bullies began to leave you alone and find other victims when they are forced to suffer consequences for messing with you.  And, the other victims they find after you are going to be people who beg and plead with them to demonstrate their humanity.  After 500+ years, we should know by now that this approach is useless with these people in this society. 

None of this is to say that there are no Europeans/white people who are just.  Of course there are.  Just like there are Africans who are against the masses of Africans and humanity.  We do not lack a clear class analysis here.  What we are saying is those legit white people do not have the influence over the masses of their people and they have not demonstrated yet that they have a mechanism to achieve that influence.  So, we cannot base any element of our work on them.  Instead, we have to focus on building our own independence and strength.  We have to understand, believe, and accept that once we establish that independence, the respect you are attempting to achieve by appealing to their institutions you will see overnight. 
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Accept that white people, particularly plenty of white women who continue to try and pose as something better, are going to call the police on us for passing gas in public.  Accept that the majority of white men are cowards who will always refuse to push themselves in ways colonized people have to do as a daily practice to hold themselves accountable.  Its not going to happen.  Accept that the majority of white people and the institutions they dominate are going to continue to center themselves and deny your humanity.  And, accept the fact that those few and are in between white people who are making sincere efforts are not going to have influence over the majority of their people anytime soon.  They don’t even have a plan to accomplish this.  Most of them are in fact trying to get farther away from white people than most of us.  So, we cannot wait on fantasies.  What African Liberation Day told us if you took time to pay attention is that the masses of African people everywhere on earth are ready to move forward towards unity and empowerment.  You want to hold white people accountable?  Build our movements to the place where its clear we no longer need them, and I can guarantee you they will learn how to become accountable overnight.
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Malcolm Was So Much More than an Icon and an Image

5/19/2020

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 Some people may be offended by this piece.  I feel like if the shoe fits, wear it snugly.  Today is El Hajj Malik El Shabazz’s aka Malcolm X’s birthday.  It’s a day that represents the born day for many important people in the struggle for justice and forward human progress.  Yuri Kochiyama was born on May 19th.  Nguyen al Thoc aka Ho Chi Minh was born May 19th.  Lorraine Hansberry.  All of them are giants, but this piece will be focused on Malcolm because of the interesting position his presence has taken over the last 55 years. 

Since Malcolm’s death, he has become quite the iconic figure.  His face can be seen regularly adorned across someone’s tee shirt, hoodie, and his X on jewerly, ball caps, and other apparel.  His voice is dubbed into countless hip/hop records and the U.S. Post Office even created a stamp with his likeness.

I say none of the previous things to suggest any of that defines for me who Malcolm X was.  Its just interesting that this celebrity phenomenon has created the reality where everyone wanted to watch the recently released docu-series on Malcolm’s assassination, but very few people want to seriously examine the assassination plot beyond the tired and limited perspective that the Nation of Islam was solely responsible for killing Malcolm X.  As the elders used to say – “the Nation may have fired the guns, but they didn’t buy the bullets.”  So, since we know a larger force was actually behind putting everything in place to carry out the assassination, and the Nation of Islam people who participated were simply pawns in that game, the question remains, why was Malcolm assassinated?  The people rushing to watch the mediocre at best docu-series aren’t really asking that question.

The mass of people who have never read a single book by Malcolm (speeches) or about Malcolm.  I’m talking about the ones who’s primary reference for Malcolm was Spike Lee’s C – movie from 1992.  Those people love to watch Denzel and Angela, etc., in that movie, but those folks also never ask why Malcolm was assassinated?  What was he doing to provoke people in powerful places to want to see him dead?  That conversation remains something not often broached by the multitudes who celebrate Malcolm’s birthday.

The folks in the Nation of Islam love to claim that without them, there would have been no Malcolm, but they, beyond attempting to distance themselves from Malcolm’s assassination, haven’t produced anything of merit over the last 55 years providing an analysis that helps steer people away from looking at them for the assassination.  In fact, they have produced nothing talking about Malcolm’s work after he left them in 1964.

I say all of this in concert with the Last Poets lyrics from their 1968 classic “N - - - - r’s are Scared of Revolution” - “N - - - er’s love to hear Malcolm rap, but they didn’t love Malcolm!”  What did the Last Poets mean when they dropped those lines?  That song, specifically that part, engulfed me when I heard it as a child and its stayed with me ever since.

My basis of analysis here stems from a brief conversation I had with Dr. Betty Shabazz, the late widow of Malcolm X in 1996, just months before her own death.  She was the guest speaker at San Francisco State University for the premiere of the re-done Malcolm X mural that adorned the Student Union.  That mural had been defaced by Zionists and so a huge ceremony was instituted to celebrate its rebirth with Dr. Shabazz as the keynote.  I served as one of her security people that day.  After the program, as we ate, comrades – knowing my life long dedication to Malcolm as my ideological father (a role he still continues to play today) encouraged me to talk to her.  I was hesitant.  She had a reputation for letting you know if she didn’t want to hear from you and I just didn’t feel like it was my place to talk to her, but eventually I did approach her to tell her how much her husband meant to me.  I’m sure I rambled, but I communicated clearly the impact his work has had on my life.  And, more importantly, I tried to convey how much I worked to live my life in contributing and building upon his work.  She finally smiled and told me “yeah…He is your spiritual father!”

The point is so many people today think its cute to make sure you know it was said that Malcolm was gay.  They want to let you know that Manning Marable wrote in his trash 2011 book that “Fifi” the Swedish woman went to Malcolm’s room in Egypt at midnight.  They are clear about Marable’s claim in that same book that Dr. Shabazz had an affair with Malcolm’s post Nation of Islam comrade Charles 37X Kenyatta.  They wish to tell you that Malcolm didn’t really start “Muhammad Speaks” by himself.  That he was disobedient to Elijah Muhammad when he spoke, eloquently and correctly, about Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.  Well, on his birthday, after spending 40 years being heavily influenced by his ideas and actions, I want to let you know whether he was gay or not.  Whether he was with Fifi or not.  Whether he started the paper or not.  Whether he was jealous about one of the women who allegedly had a baby with Muhammad (whom Malcolm had an earlier brief relationship with) or not.  None of that matters one bit to me because none of that had a bearing on why I chose in 1979 to try and emulate Malcolm’s model.  And, why 40+ years later I’ve done as good as job as anyone in trying to live up to those principles.

The question for me has always been simple regarding Malcolm.  He wasn’t our shining black prince as Ossie Davis eulogized him.  He was our Pan-Africanist revolutionary who wasn’t afraid to stand up for what our people needed which was independence and dignity.  He was a person who grew to understand that Africa’s liberation was central to achieving that freedom and dignity.  Just because you may not have grown to understand that reality, don’t try and diminish what Malcolm was doing that served as the real reason he was killed. 

In 1964, when Malcolm was visiting with Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, another significant element of Malcolm’s life that is still very much undiscussed, Nkrumah told him in confidence some critical information that had been discovered.  Nkrumah informed Malcolm that Ghanaian intelligence forces had intercepted a communique indicating the plans by U.S. intelligence to ensure Malcolm was permanently silenced by a certain time period.  Nkrumah relayed this information to Malcolm and asked him to consider staying on in Ghana to continue to help building the Pan-African work they and others were fervently working on.  According to Nkrumah’s letters, Malcolm listened and told him he had to come back to the U.S.  Nkrumah knew Malcolm’s time was limited.  Nkrumah probably knew his time was limited.  The important thing about that to me is Malcolm continued on because he knew that work was essential.  He knew that imperialism would use the Nation of Islam to stop him from carrying out the Pan-African vision he was never permitted to articulate at that meeting on February 21, 1965. 

For some of us, he didn’t need to say it from that podium where he was gunned down.  His actions that previous year had already told us what direction he was traveling in.  If we accept the correctness of his vision, which we do, all we have had to do is jump in and carry out that work.  We are not perfect.  In fact, we have made countless errors and we will make countless more.  Still, what cannot be said about us is that we abandoned Malcolm’s vision and instead view him as an icon on a pedestal.  As we watch all the people saying today how much they love him, we wonder where those people are on a daily basis?  Malcolm was no bourgeoisie hero.  No reformist.  He was a revolutionary so if all these people love him, where is their revolutionary work?  You won’t hear me saying I love Barack Obama because I don’t.  Nothing he did motivates me to do anything except continue to organize against the system he represented at its highest position.  So, if everyone loves Malcolm, where are the people continuing his work? 
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We don’t just wear his image and commemorate him on certain days of the year.  We live out his vision every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year of our lives.  We err, but we keep working because that’s the only way you demonstrate love for anyone.  So, we feel like we are justified to ask, if you love him, show him some love by doing what he did.  Malcolm started two organizations when he left the Nation of Islam while most of these people claiming to love him don’t even belong to one.  We have to do better otherwise Malcolm will never be more than just a simple icon who’s meaning will diminish like everything else in this commodified society.

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Against White Supremacy?  African Liberation Day for Beginners

5/16/2020

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May 25th, 2020, represents the 62nd commemoration of African Liberation Day (ALD).  ALD was originally founded on April 15th, 1958, as Africa Freedom Day during the All African People’s Conference held by Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party in Ghana. 

For many people of African descent today (all people of African descent are Africans and belong to the African nation – Kwame Nkrumah “Class Struggle in Africa” 1970), it can be difficult for them to understand our focus on Africa and African liberation.  For some Africans throughout Europe or the Western Hemisphere, their entire existence has been defined since birth as nationality based on where they are born and raised.  Even many Africans throughout Africa have been socialized the same way based on the geography restrictions violently forced upon them by European colonizers.

These Africans have been taught to view the world as African-Americans or Afro-Brazilians, Jamaicans, Nigerians, Ethiopians, Black British, African-Nova Scotians, etc.  This reality and lack of consciousness among the African masses has served to divide us and prevent us from seeing our common destiny.  We have unwittingly accepted the imperialist definition of identify as that of common language and geography.  Our reality is that colonial definition of identify can never adequately apply to us because Africa was forcibly attacked and dominated by imperial, colonial powers.  As a result, the institutionalization of colonialism and slavery has violently placed African people all over the world today.  In other words, although you may be born in Canada, our ancestors were kidnapped and taken all over the world for slave labor.  Plus, colonial conditions have forced us to leave Africa in search of resources we should have had access to in Africa. Consequently, African people are in the unusual and surreal situation where we can be born in Brazil and have biological relatives in Nigeria, or the U.S., or the Dominican Republic.  We can be born in France and have relatives in Burkina Faso and Haiti.  Relatives we don’t know who don’t know us.  Relatives we have no way to speak to language wise.  Those limitations do nothing to deny the fact we exist and maintain the same interests for a better reality.  This reality makes Nkrumah’s redefinition of identify essential for us.  Our identify must be defined strictly by our common history and culture, not language and geography.  If we understood this definition of identify, we would be able to explain many aspects of our existence that we are confused about today.  For example, sickle cell anemia, which widely affects Africans born in the West, is a manifestation of our bodies adapting to ways to fight off malaria which is common throughout much of Africa. 

So, there’s no question, despite the rampant confusion and unfounded conspiracy theories that circulate with such popularity throughout social media, that African people have common interests, wherever we are on earth.  This is true because wherever we are – Africa, Europe, North America, Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Australia, India, etc. – we are at the bottom of those societies.  Why?  Because our mother – Africa – is poor and exploited.  She’s exploited because her mineral and human resources are the backbone of the profitability of multi-national capitalist corporations.  Without that cheap human and material resource pool, there is no Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Shell, Chevron, Firestone, Debeers Diamonds, Kaiser Aluminum, Alcoa Aluminum, Ford, Toyota, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Mercedes Benz, BMW, etc.  And since the very same multi-national capitalist corporations who rely on exploiting Africa are the same entities who shape educational curriculum in schools everywhere on earth through their foundational monies, it should surprise no one that our people remain extremely confused about who we are as Africans, period. 

These reasons explain the necessity for Africa to be our focus.  If you want a key to ending African poverty, patriarchal oppression against our women and non-men, exploitation of our children, ragged terrorism against us by state police and agencies, etc., the total liberation of Africa under scientific socialism is a must.  It’s a must because we know that until Africa is free, united, and socialist, no African anywhere on earth will have freedom and self-determination.  And, we know that this objective, which we define as Pan-Africanism, cannot happen without the international organization of African people into a worldwide fighting force that will facilitate a worldwide revolution against the forces of capitalism.  Pan-Africanism means agency for us.  The ability to control most of the essential resources needed to conduct world relations.  The purpose of this revolution is to seize back the power that has been stolen from us for 500+ years of slavery, colonialism, and neo-colonialism.  With the ability to collectively manage that level of power, we will no longer need to worry about being respected, something we consistently struggle to achieve today. 

African Liberation Day is simply a manifestation for us to articulate the values expressed in this article and the need for our people to embrace these Pan-African values and to get to work to bring about our victory for all of our people everywhere.  ALD is also a method for us to express our support for other liberation movements who are fighting the same enemies of humanity that we are i.e. The Filipino, Palestinian, Irish, and Indigenous people’s of the Western Hemisphere liberation struggles. 

Some people will continue to cling to that extremely limited political perspective that imperialism insists we hang onto that African people within specific metro areas, not to mention countries or the world, will never unite We advance a much healthier and realistic perspective.  We use African Liberation Day to demonstrate for the world that African people in every corner of earth, in multiple languages and practices, are already working for unity and empowerment to achieve our liberation collectively.  The African Liberation Day program for 2020 will be held on May 25th.  It will kick off at 8:30am PST, 9:30am MST, 10:30am CST, 11:30am EST, 3:30pm Ghana time, and 5:30pm Azanian (South African) time. The theme for this year’s program is “Imperialist Sanctions on Zimbabwe, Cuba, and Venezuela are Acts of War.  Africans Everywhere Must Fight!”
This program will feature presenters and performers from Ghana, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau, Cuba, Venezuela, the U.S., and more.  Demonstrating that we are building on the ground Pan-African organizing work in every corner of the African world.  Independent, revolutionary, socialist, and dedicated to organizing uncompromising revolutionary change for a better reality for our future generations. 

Make a commitment to abandon the backward untrue allegations of our inabilities to unite.  Join us on May 25th.  You can view this virtual program through the All African People’s Revolutionary Party’s Facebook, youtube, or Twitter accounts.

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Instead of "Be Like Mike" Tell the Youth to be Like Kwame

5/15/2020

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 In these pandemic times of limited options and activities, the ESPN television special entitled “The Last Dance” is setting ratings records for sports documentaries.  If you are not familiar, the mini-series is the story of the 1990s Chicago Bulls, U.S., professional basketball team.  That team won six of the 10 championships for that decade and of course showcased Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and for a time, Dennis Rodman.  Jordan and Pippen were two of the very best basketball players of all time and for the three years they had him, Rodman, in between Rodmanisque episodes, was a key contributor.

For many people, Michael Jordan represents for them the very best basketball player of all time.  And, the pull of this series is its focus on him as the focal point not only for the Bulls basketball team, but for basketball, sports, and popular culture during that era.  Even today, most people throughout out the world pretty much know who Michael Jordan is, almost 20 years since his playing days.

For me as a person who has played and watched basketball as one of my favorite sports since my childhood, I’ve always been confused by the talk about Michael Jordan.  I got the chance to see him play often during the 80s and 90s, in person and on television.  He was without question something to watch, but I also got to see Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson, etc.  Especially with Wilt and Kareem, its always been hard for me to look past them and crown Jordan as the all time best.  Wilt still holds many basketball records almost 50 years since his playing days.  Plus, there is another reason why I haven’t grown with the tide to award Jordan. I’ve never been a fan of his.  One thing I can say is I’ve never been a hypocrite on anything.  I wasn’t a fan of Jordan, or Kobe Bryant for that matter.  I’m not someone who jumps on bandwagons. 

Also, I’m aware that even as a youngster, I was attracted to athletes not just for their physical accomplishments on the court or field, but also for their willingness to speak out against the injustices that I became acutely aware of when I was just a young child.  That’s why even as a nine year old who loved baseball, my favorite player was Roberto Clemente, not Willie Mays, even though I was in San Francisco, going to see Mays play.  And, Mays was the guy that many people today still say was the best all around player in the game.  That may be true, but to me, Clemente was the most well rounded.  He was the one who stopped for me in the back lot at Candlestick Park in 1971 and signed my ball while asking me if I knew I was African (I didn’t).  I also didn’t understand why this person who looked like me talked with such a strange accent.  I don’t think I had ever encountered anyone African before Clemente in that parking lot who had another language besides English as their first language.  What I did know is unlike Mays (who took my autograph pen to jot down some woman’s phone number while not only never signing my ball, but never even giving me my pen back), Clemente saw me, embraced me, and talked to me.  Something I was desperate for in my severely alienated state as a young person.  From that day forward, I loved Clemente.  I was absolutely devastated when he was killed in a plane crash in 1972 while delivering mutual aide supplies to the people of Nicaragua after an earthquake there. 

I was also a huge fan of Muhammad Ali for his well known stance as a proud member of the Nation of Islam and refusal to fight for imperialism.  I even liked Kareem Abdul Jabbar initially because I mistakenly thought he was also a member of the Nation.  I also had an affinity for Curt Flood, an African baseball player in the 60s who pushed the league for the right to establish himself as a free agent.

Of course, as I’ve grown older, and more dedicated to fighting against injustice, I’ve still maintained my love for sports.  Watching and playing sport has always been my escape.  Yes, I don’t like the contradictions of capitalism and organized professional sports, but if you take your space to get high or take a drink, etc., I don’t feel like you have moral authority to question my desire to watch a few minutes of a game for my release.  And for me today, I care less about the player’s physical dominance as I do their moral convictions.  So, for the last 20 years or so the names that stand out for me are Craig Hodges, someone who played on Bulls teams with Jordan and Pippen, but who’s career was taken away from him for his militant political stance for African rights and respect.  Mahmoud Abdul Rauf who refused to honor the toilet rag U.S. flag before his basketball games.  Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid who initiated the protest against the worthless U.S. national anthem before football games.  African football (soccer) players like Romelu Lukaku who take similar stances. 

This is why beyond liking to watch his basketball capabilities, I never cared much for Jordan.  He was the exact opposite of Clemente, Ali, Kaepernick, etc.  He never used his tremendous social capitol to speak out against injustice.  In fact, he even consciously avoided doing so as his infamously arrogant “Republicans buy sneakers” comment demonstrated.  He made that comment when asked by Hodges, his then teammate, to call for a player protest against white supremacy.

Some people, fueled by individualistic capitalist logic, would argue that Jordan did the work, earned his billions, and doesn’t have an obligation to do anything he doesn’t want to do.  My response to those who think that way is that there is no African (no person actually) who isn’t born in debt to humanity.  Just using the African experience for example, Jordan, and all of us, benefit directly from our mass struggle for justice.  Earl Floyd, inspired by those who struggled for African and human rights during that time, became the first African to play in the National Basketball Association in 1950.  If Jordan had been born before that time, despite his outstanding abilities, he wouldn’t have had the opportunities he benefitted from.  So, by default, he owes a debt to our movement that paved the way for him to become a billionaire today.  And, its that ill refutable logic that squares up people who ignorantly attempt to label people like Clemente or Kaepernick as trouble makers.  What they are is people who recognize where they fit into history.  It seems like Jordan thinks he is history.  What’s interesting in relationship to that is how its just normalized and accepted that people like Jordan or Bryant, Tiger Woods, etc., are acknowledged as a - - holes because that’s what you have to be in order to reach their level of “success.”  Maybe the real issue is our distorted understanding of exactly what success is. 

There isn’t a single child that I have access to, and because of my revolutionary organizing work, I have access to lots o them, who I would encourage to be like Mike.  I encourage them all to be like Kwame Ture.  To embody the values that he demonstrated during his lifetime.  Someone who used his great array of skills, personality, and courage to work for and articulate some of the best methods for our people to become free.  And, he did that without concern for the sacrifices that would be required for him to take such principled stances.  That’s why Kwame, when he was a young man named Stokely Carmichael, was arrested, beaten, and tortured on 27 different occasions between 1961 and 1966 while fighting for your right to vote in the U.S. (as a tactic, not a principle.  Ture was clear about this, even if you aren’t).  Then, after being directly targeted by the U.S. government through its illegal counter intelligence program, Ture moved to Africa and spent the last 30 years of his life engaging in the non-prestigious work of building the international Pan-African party to fulfill Kwame Nkrumah’s dream of one unified socialist Africa.  Ture’s work in this regard as a Central Committee member for the Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG), the Central Committee for the All African People’s Revolutionary Party, and a member of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau (PAIGC) laid the groundwork for the revolutionary Pan-African work we will be able to provide the entire world with a glimpse of during this year’s virtual African Liberation Day program on May 25th, 2020.

Having had the opportunity to spend time about Kwame Ture during his visits here to help educate about Pan-Africanism, one enduring thought I always have about him is his integrity.  I didn’t have the political maturity to think much about that when he was among us, but I think about it often now.  Here was a man who stood above his contemporaries during the 1960s civil rights movement.  People like Marion Berry, Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, Julian Bond, and even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  All of them except King went on to hold prestigious positions within the U.S. capitalist system, earning large salaries and benefits as a result.  Meanwhile, Kwame Ture, shunned all of that, despite the fact he could have gained access to all the material comforts before the others.  Instead, he chose to live in Guinea, one of the worlds’ poorest countries.  To Ture, that was exactly where he needed to be because despite having little in terms of industrial technology, Guinea is one of the most beautiful places on earth with the best people you could imagine.  People dedicated to justice and forward progress.  Courageous people.  And, Kwame was clearly loved while he was there.  He’s still loved there just like he’s loved here.  That’s what we mean by integrity. 

“The Last Dance” is reigniting Jordan’s legacy to some extent, and his popularity will continue for a while, but I know that none of that will forever.  It won’t last because you cannot build a lasting legacy playing basketball and selling sneakers.  You can only do that by doing things that inspire people to become better human beings.  At some point, people will forget who Michael Jordan is, but the energy that Kwame Ture represents, still almost 25 years since his physical passing, and still growing, will always burn eternal.

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Stop Using Trump Incompetence to Justify Romanticizing Obama

5/7/2020

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In the midst of this pandemic crisis, the incompetence and absurdity of the current empire president is causing many nostalgic people to suggest that things would be better now under the previous president – Barack Obama.  A critical analysis of this subjective perspective is necessary. 

We are very aware that millions of people, especially the African masses, not only in the U.S., but around the world, idolize Obama.  We do this because our conditioning by the capitalist system has been to view the capitalist U.S., the richest country in human history, as the citadel of civilization and forward progress.  Therefore, it follows that the bourgeoisie class, or the leaders of the U.S. capitalism empire, would be viewed by many of us as the best examples of success to emulate.  Due to this perspective, Obama is viewed by Africans, and many others, as their greatest individual symbol of our quest to achieve justice in this country. 

This perspective is understandable from an emotional point of view, but unfortunately, it doesn’t stand up to any critical analysis.  Look at the instant, alarming, collapse of this capitalist economy.  Thirty plus million unemployed with no safety net.  That thirty plus million represents about 20% of the qualified work force being currently unemployed.  There is this great “debate” about “opening up” the economy again and ending these coronavirus shutdowns.  The motivations behind the people pushing for this quick open up, without any of the obvious variables being in place to even pretend to protect our health, is the need to continue capital accumulation for the super rich and the desire of that class to ensure the current empire president’s re-election chances. 

The reasons for this economic collapse have made naked the weaknesses of this system.  The world’s richest label that applies to this country clearly represents the unprecedented unequal distribution of wealth.  The top 1% of wealth owners in the U.S. control over 60% of the business assets in this country.  No one can argue today that the masses of people own nothing here.  Ninety percent of the masses of people have negligible assets, meaning they are in debt.  This is the reality that drives the statement being passed around today that the overwhelming majority of people in this country don’t even have a couple of hundred dollars for an emergency.  Obviously, none of these circumstances, can be blamed exclusively on the current empire president.  These are conditions that define U.S. capitalism, and capitalism everywhere.  This type of exploitative economic system requires an “underclass” because its based on the exploitation of labor.  This is the reason the rich are demanding that working people go back to work because workers are the basis of wealth development in capitalist societies.  We work, they get rich off of our labor.  That’s how this system functions and its been predicated on that injustice since the seed money for industrialized capitalism was derived from the sweat, blood, and tears of our African ancestors working on plantations all over the Americas.

This backward system demands people being exploited and the current reality of the millions who are suffering with no recourse is simply a reflection of how this system works.  It only has concerns for the exploiters who control it, not the exploited who are beaten up by it.  This is why this country has no answer for those millions who are penniless and unable to successfully negotiate the bureaucracy of attempting to get unemployment payments.  There is no income replacement or debt forgiveness in this capitalist system.  This is true despite the fact those huge capitalist companies, who are driving you to go back to work, are receiving about 70% of the 2 trillion dollars in so-called stimulus money with no requirements for them to pay it back.  They are getting their lease requirements waived on their facilities and all types of government subsidies (your tax dollars) while you only get a one time payment that you’ve probably already spent that you will be taxed on for income.

None of the above was created by the current empire president.  That person probably doesn’t even have the cerebral capacity to properly understand how this system works.  These same conditions would have been in place when Obama was president.  In fact, for millions of the most vulnerable among us, it already was.  The dire straights that so many people find themselves in today are the day to day realities for poor people in this country, millions of them.  There is absolutely nothing the Obama administration ever did to properly address that fundamental contradiction with the capitalist system i.e. it’s a system based on exploitation.

The exploitation of the African masses in Africa during the Obama administration is overwhelming.  Subsidies and support are provided to U.S. corporations who exploit Africa and her people in the coltan/cobalt industry, diamond industry, gold industry, cocoa industry, bauxite industry, uranium industry, etc., etc.  And, when the African masses stand up and demand an end to this corporate fleecing of our resources and labor in Africa, Obama’s response was to proliferate the expansion of the African Command program.  This program, more widely known as Africom, has established almost 100 U.S. military bases and outlets throughout Africa.  Their purpose?  To train and equip Africa’s neo-colonial controlled militaries and police to make sure our people in Africa stop protesting and get back to work.  Just like they want you to get back to work.  Us working means them profiting, period.  Their capitalist system is based on this dynamic.

The millions of African and poor people who are incarcerated, most of them for non-violent drug crimes, many during Obama’s regime, are still incarcerated.  Clearly, prisons are hotbeds for coronavirus infections.  The uneven economic conditions force African and other working poor to have to work low paying jobs where social distancing is impossible like custodian work, driving buses, etc.  Instead of initiating policy changes that address the inequity in employment opportunities in this capitalist system, Obama lectured African people on working harder, not once, but multiple times while he was president.  Never did he lecture Europeans about being so racist and entitled and how much they damage so many people’s lives by being that way.  Never once was that broached, but we were lectured by him in very insulting ways.  And, the reason he did that was because he knew that he could tell us to go to hell and some of you are so traumatized by this system that you would take it.  Some of you even justify it.  Meanwhile, he could demonstrate to the European masses and power structure that he could be just as hard on us as they are. 

Obama is nothing except the soft spoken, easy going, make you comfortable version of the current empire president.  Its like Malcolm X told us in 1964.  One is a fox and the other is a wolf.  One sneaks up on you.  One makes you think there’s no danger afoot.  One waits it out.  And, that one, as soon as you drop your guard, that one attacks you.  That one is Obama.  The other one, it doesn’t bother to sneak up on you.  It comes at you fangs snarling. It immediately attacks you and leaves no doubt about its intentions to completely wipe you out.  That’s the current empire president.  Like Malcolm said, at the end of the day “both are canines.  Both will kill you.”  Millions of Africans and other people are very confused about this phenomenon.  Its like the old song said “smiling faces, sometimes, pretend to be your friend.”  Obama is the smiling face. He always has been, but his administration was deadly to Africa and the African masses. 
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The current trauma we are experiencing isn’t solely the fault of the current empire president, although he certainly deserves his share of blame.  His incompetence and his amateur inability to even hide it as Obama does, exposes how worthless he and his “leadership” are.  Still, that doesn’t change the undisputed reality that all of these current problems were already here.  These problems are systemic to this capitalist system.  Anyone who is empire president presides over this inequitable situation that the pandemic didn’t create.  It just exposed.  The job of the president is strictly to represent the interests of the international bourgeoisie class.  To ensure their control over the world is held intact.  Not to solve the problems of working people.  So, stop glorifying the Obamas.  They are a bourgeoisie family that has demonstrated for anyone able and willing to see beyond the surface, that they are no different than any other bourgeoisie family, from that of George Washington to George Bush to the current empire president.
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Guns, Capitalism & White Supremacy vs Organized Political Ed.

5/4/2020

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There is an old African proverb; “when you boil dirty water, the scum always rises to the top!”  One thing this virus pandemic has certainly done is completely expose the contradictions within the capitalist system.  Its done so in a way that even a 12 year old can see the obvious inconsistencies.  The only people who cannot see them are the ones who have chosen a set of selfish and reactionary values that prevents them from admitting what is clearly evident.

The capitalist economic system, despite its constant practice of beating its chest and claiming its immortal superiority, has proven to be unable to sustain itself after just over a month of inactivity.  Just over a month of not being able to benefit from its operational model of depending upon the exploitation of low paid workers for its profits.  Here in the U.S., the heartbeat of international capitalism, the giant clothes retailer J. Crew – who’s clothes Michelle Obama wore – just filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy at the time this piece is being written.  And, if things continue, its doubtful they will be the only large retailer to be forced to take this action.  They have been in business for over 70 years with 450 retail outlets nationwide.  It only took 30 days for them to come to the place where their accounting and legal representatives concluded that they need and qualify for bankruptcy protection.  What the J. Crew example should demonstrate for you is it clearly wasn’t just the last 30 days that forced them into the position they are in.  Without question, the capitalist model of large corporations depending upon their ability to exploit labor while relying on public subsidies and not paying taxes is a model that isn’t sustainable.  Yet, you will see absolutely no public outcry about the fact these corporations will receive welfare subsidies and protections that you will never see.

The Iowa Tyson meat packing plant, ordered to stay open as essential business, has reported hundreds of employees testing positive for covid 19.  And, these are the people who have handled the pork that is headed to your supermarket.  What collective response is there to this obvious travesty?  Nothing, besides people flocking to markets to buy this more than likely tainted meat.  One thing is for sure, like the above example, there will be no outcry about the injustices surrounding this clearly avoidable situation. 

Meanwhile, there is overwhelming evidence that U.S. politicians gained illegal insider information about the adverse impact the coronavirus would have on the economy.  They used this illegal information to leverage manipulating the buying and selling of stocks they held in companies.  This news story lasted for a few days and now most people have forgotten it.  Along with that one, there is also significant evidence to demonstrate that the empire president has financial stock in the company that produces the hydroxychloroquine drug.  That’s the drug that he anxiously encouraged people to consider as a vaccine against covid 19, despite the collective outcries against this by medical and science professionals.  Again, this story ran for about a day or two before people have largely stopped talking about it. 

These examples are daily indicators of how corrupt the capitalist system is as policy.  Despite the fact millions of people in the U.S. choose to ignore these dangerous facts, they are examples that those 12 year olds can dissect with the greatest of ease.  Still, some of the most striking contradictions in this society that are being exposed right now are in relationship to the role guns play here.  Unlike any other society in the history of human civilization, guns are an inseparable element in the fabric of this empire.  We will be hosting a very dynamic discussion on “Guns in the U.S. – Used for Justice instead of Terror” this coming Sunday (4pm to 5pm PST facebook.com/ahjamu.umi).  This is such a fascinating topic because of the glaring contradictions.  The regular sight these days of Europeans holding tactical weapons at state houses is interesting for reasons beyond what the mainstream capitalist media is ascribing to it.  Despite the claims by capitalist media, those of us who struggle to gain an understanding of the workings of the capitalist system, and who have gained an understanding of gun usage, are not frightened by the sight of Europeans with guns.  The very foundation of this country is one of Europeans with guns.  Guns, terrorism, white supremacy, all of these things are as “American” as apple pie (which unfortunately somewhere along the way became associated with U.S. capitalism in some symbolic sense).  What’s interesting is since its no secret that these contradictions are never seriously considered inside of capitalist media circles, how is it that so many people who regard themselves as social justice warriors are so easily taken in by capitalist narratives around this issue?  Its not hard to understand why the people on the right act as they do.  Although they claim they are “standing up” for freedom and some imaginary fight against “tyranny” we are able to see straight through their dysfunction.  At the core of their actions is their fear of losing their real, imagined, or hoped for place within the capitalist system.  In their minds, steeled by years of white supremacist indoctrination, they believe that they should naturally occupy higher positions of status within the system then the African, Indigenous masses, etc.  As a result, occurrences like the Black Lives Matter movement, immigrant rights, and the shutdowns from covid appeal to these people’s most intimate fears.  Their overwhelming terror that they will not be able to hold us off. They won’t be able to maintain a separation in their quality of life and ours.  This is true because for them, any type of equality with the rest of us equals failure.  As a result, they desperately seek to avoid that from happening.  How else do you explain the guns?  Who are they going to shoot?  And, why are they going to shoot them?  The answer is these people have clearly demonstrated through their actions that despite their cries of “bluelivesmatter” or “alllivesmatter”, their disrespectful treatment of police at these rallies, and their callus disregard for their own safety from covid 19, shows all of us that no lives matter to these deranged people.  In other words, they are convinced that maintaining capitalist operations is the only way to maintain their position.  Their identities.  Therefore, their commitment this objective is a principle of them. One they are apparently willing to die for. 

These are all the problems of the European warriors for justice who have the historic responsibility to figure out how to craft an effective message to these dysfunctional people.  We wish them well in this endeavor, but as was mentioned, our interest is mostly how people who believe themselves to be decent people who desire justice react, or don’t react, to these contradictions?  How there is no organized outcry to any of these things from the masses of people who consider themselves just people?  And, the contradictions about how guns are perceived, accepted, and discussed is yet another example.  There is this prevailing logic within left organizing circles that the left talking about guns in anything short of condemnation at their very existence is contradictory to the goals and objectives of all social justice movements.  This logic is rooted in the false belief that the civil rights movement was always a non-violent movement.  Meaning, if physically attacked, the role and responsibility of the social justice warrior is to accept that attack without retaliation.  Not even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the poster child of non-violent disobedience in this country, held such a dysfunctional position. 

The point here is that the capitalist system has implemented an extremely clever strategy of propaganda designed to convince the left that there are particular issues that we betray the principles of the movements just by mentioning.  The idea of the left including weapons – not just for self defense – but for the purpose of revolutionary struggle, is betrayal to everything decent is an example.  The idea that any criticism of the Zionist state of Israel, anything that it does, even a legitimate critique of an individual person who identifies as Jewish, is anti-semitic as a rule, is an example.  And, without question, the idea of African people on the left having arms as a part of any movement we are promoting is considered equal to resurrecting the devil.  This is why the Black Panther Party going to the California state house with guns is considered a terrorist act while white supremacist militias showing up at the Michigan state house is seen as people exercising their constitutional right to bear arms.  The two groups showed up at those state houses for completely different practical and moral reasons.  The Panthers did it because they wanted to challenge the racist concept of eliminating open carry as a tactic designed to prevent the Panthers of carrying weapons during their community patrols against police terrorism.  The patrols were happening in 1967 because of the brutal reality of police terrorism that continues with enough consistency to have generated an entirely new movement against it today.    On the other hand, these white supremacist militias are showing up with guns when the objectives of the protests they are participating in have absolutely nothing to do with any attacks against any community.  The protests are to push governments to open up economies.  This is a political question.  In no way should or can guns be a part of this type of political question, unless the people holding them in this situation are desperate.  In complete fear of losing their standing and position in this capitalist white supremacist system.  And, their guns symbolize their willingness to kill and/or be killed before they will ever accept anything short of a recognition of their entitlement and privileged position in this society. 

Despite ill refutable logic to separate the two examples, the Panthers are still seen as the thugs and the white supremacists as “very good people.”  This is only possible because of the lack of political education within this society.  By political education we do not just mean reading books and we certainly don’t mean people individually devouring books.  Reading in any form is good, but when we say political education its important that we clarify exactly what we mean.  We are talking about a process that starts with the collective study of comprehensive reading materials.  By collective we mean a consistent group that engages in studying the same concepts, together.  A collective group where there are consistent meetings to engage this study.  Where facilitation of these meetings is rotated to ensure the collective development of facilitation skills for all participants.  Where the materials are studied and not just read.  What’s the difference?  Just reading means you glide through the material.  No questions to ponder and research.  No process to engage the elements of the reading you may not have understood.  With study, there are always collective questions that the group engages together.  There is always study where terms and concepts are broken down and discussed to ensure clear understanding on behalf of all who participate.  This is what collective political education actually looks like.  And, once those pieces are in place, the process of collective criticism/self criticism must be included.  A process where our shortcomings are discussed, openly, and those who issue criticism have an understanding and responsibility to help those they are criticizing address correction of the contradictions.  Just reading through this section it should be quite clear to you that participation in that type of political education will bring anyone involved great skills in the areas of comprehension, articulation, and practice of the principles being studied. 
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Since nothing anyone who has only participated in U.S. organized “education”, whether public or private, comes close to that type of comprehensive political education, people here have nothing to help them combat the contradictions that place their lives in danger.  This is why people who are serious about protecting people and building capacity for people to fight back effectively, have to start talking about the need for organized political education.  These forces have to start implementing this component into their organizations immediately.  People on the left have to stop pretending that placing all of our faith in single candidates is going provide us the strength we need.  Even if a candidate is filled with nothing except the most noble of principles, the fact the masses of people are as politically immature as this piece provides examples to demonstrate, the sincerity of individuals is useless when placed in opposition to this well organized, well organized system.  People on the left have to release this fantasy that spontaneous eruptions are going to morph on their own into disciplined and consistent struggles to build new and better societies without any organized process to facilitate that happening.  These people who believe and continue to flaunt that theory have absolutely no examples to illustrate its success and they are not even in the streets during these uprisings practicing what they claim they believe in.  This is a fairytale that is dangerous and unproductive.
If the concern is organized political education is so much harder than the bourgeoisie political model, or the spontaneous model, you get no argument here.  It is much harder, but if we truly want a solution we cannot be searching for easy work around.  Clearly, the only solution is to confront this problem of lack of political education head on.  We again ask everyone reading this far to ask yourself if you are in an organization?  If not, how do you expect to solve these problems on your own?  At least, at this point you have to acknowledge your lack of seriousness about addressing these problems in any mature type of way.  For those in organizations, you have to ask yourself do you have an organized political education program?  If not, what steps do you need to take to build such a program?  We have offered, numerous, countless times, to offer to help you develop such a program in your organization and thus far, only a handful of people have responded with serious inquiries about this.  If you have a better solution that will work better, we are certainly more than happy to hear it.  On that last one, we again will hear crickets.  Again, and again, for those who are serious, we encourage you to engage this work, starting with the building of organized political education within your organizations.  Everyone is depending on us getting this right.
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Recognizing Our Limits For These Tired White People Activities

5/1/2020

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If you are one of these fragile minded superficial folks, who may see this headline and immediately react without reading the content, do yourself a favor and just don’t go any further.    

This piece is triggered by European (white) people everywhere in the world today who are making huge fusses because they cannot do whatever they want to do (due to the covid 19 crisis and sheltering in place restrictions).  These people are whining and crying about being oppressed and being trampled by the tyranny of governments.  They are telling everyone that unless we support their “protesting” we are the ones who are “giving up our freedoms.”

Talk about coming to the dance late.  We need no petti bourgeoisie, or even working class white people, telling us about tyranny and oppression.  We have been dealing with more tyranny and oppression in our pinky toes than white people combined have experienced their entire lives.  I’ve used that logic multiple times when having the conversation about race with white men.  To close the discussion down (usually after it gets insane), I tell them that they already know I can be in their environment (which we usually are) and I can do as well, if not much better, than they can.  By the same token, they know, and I know, that they couldn’t last more than a short period in the environments that produced me.  Why?  Because our collective experience has been one of oppression.  And, guess what, we have had to adapt to that, any way that we can.  For most of these white people, feeling like they are losing something or being treated unfairly is a somewhat new phenomenon.  Unlike us, they are not used to it.  At least no where near the level that we are.  And, unfortunately, also unlike us, they don’t know how to manage it the way we are accustomed to doing (I believe we need to undue the practice of accepting trauma the way we do).

Anyway, the whole white people are oppressed act is tired, stupid, and I’m really sick of it.  Of course the government is tyrannical and oppressive!  We have telling you that for centuries, but you never batted an eye during our suffering.  The contradiction is so naked that most of them cannot even see the glaring inconsistencies.  For example, one of these classically misinformed humans was attempting to challenge me earlier today (via social media) on my understanding of the need to “stand up against the government.”  This person had already taken the time to check out my online presence, which is significant, so they should have been able to figure out quickly that standing up against the government is my middle name.  Nevertheless, they wanted to challenge me on this question.  My response to them was to ask them what protests against the government they had ever participated in.  After some chest pounding, they finally had to just admit that they have never attended a single demonstration of any kind in their life.  I then told them that they obviously have no experience, or understanding of what they are talking about, but still, the one cause they support is one they see as representing their individual interests.  I told them this is the reason they have absolutely no credibility because I’ve attended more demonstrations than I can count.  And, just as many of those demonstrations I’ve participated in, helped plan, etc., are for immigrant families, women, Trans people, etc.  Not just African liberation.  In other words, I have a platform to claim I stand for justice because my response is universal.  You don’t get to do that when all you have to speak about is something you personally stand to benefit from (at least from your warped perspective).

It’s a tired act, absolutely.  We had distrust for the government before most of them could spell government, so clearly, we understand that concept better in the middle of rim sleep then most of them can articulate at the highest level of their consciousness.  Yet, their arrogance and white supremacy places them in the center of everything, so they cannot discern simple elements, like the fact their anger, somewhat justified, is completely misdirected.  They should be angry at the capitalist system.  Its that system that has no plan to take care of people living within its confines because its only priority is capital accumulation for the super rich.  No plan for income replacement.  No plan to ensure the millions of unemployed have food, housing, shelter.  No plan of any kind for the houseless.  Nothing.  We are completely left to our own despite giving everything we have in our essence to work and try to sustain ourselves, along with the trillions we pay in taxes..  So, people should be angry, but that anger needs to be directed at the super rich.  The Rockafellers who own controlling interest in J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup, two of the largest benefactors from the so-called “stimulus” package.   Our hard earned tax revenues are being provided as corporate welfare for those capitalist thieves and instead of being angry about that fleecing and organizing to do something about it, these people instead go to empty government building and engage in pass the virus ceremonies.  Meanwhile, the ruthless corporations receive absolutely no anger from any of these people. 

My training is to always make the effort to provide an analysis to everything that happens.  Some of that is indicated above.  And, there is certainly more.  I know that I cannot just ride my emotional reactions to all of this because those reactions are strong. I know part of my visceral reaction is connected to seeing these people get such respectful and compassionate treatment from the police, something I’ve never gotten, even when I was just sitting down minding my own business.  This contradiction is so vivid to me because I know none of those people are trained to see the disparity.  Their arrogance is so institutionalized that they even flaunt the contradiction, claiming still that our protests against police terrorism are fueled by nonexistent factors living in their idealistic heads, while they are convinced that they are really the real victims.

The other piece to the analysis is that these people are being intentionally confused by capitalism to focus on numerous non-issues instead of the real issue – the inefficiency and incompetence of the capitalist system to do anything except further exploit everyone.  Since they don’t recognize this glaring contradiction, they are simply reacting to the immediate circumstances of their realities.  Since they have no concept of history i.e. studying the true history of these lands, they see the entire world, as capitalism wants them to, as simply an extension of their personal experiences.  As a result, since they are personally uncomfortable, more uncomfortable than they have ever been (both physically, mentally, and spiritually), to their extremely low level of consciousness, their perception is they are being targeted.  They have no tools and/or desire to contextualize what’s happening and they probably never will.  On the positive side, the fact they are waging struggle against government is good.  Them waging struggle against government and us doing the same makes our chances for success much better even with us not fighting for the same things.  This is objectively true.

All of this leads me to conclude that its in our best interest to ramp up our focus on our own struggle for liberation.  This isn’t difficult for us to do because our work to bring about revolutionary Pan-Africanism is not in any way, form, or fashion dependent or needing of white involvement for our work to progress.  Never has been that way and never will be that way.  And, certainly, I can count on one hand the number of Europeans who have really provided any concrete and consistent support against white supremacy.  Related to the analysis provided at the beginning of this piece, my experience is they more so need our insights on how to navigate this system then they are in a position to help us.  So to me, the internal focus loses very little in capacity on our part, but what it does is provide us the mental space to try and develop our work without being bogged down in white confusion.  For those white people sincere about justice work, you have your work cut out for you with these people.  For us, at this stage, we have no other alternative but to prepare our people for the future.  And, any cognitive analysis of that future has to conclude that the longer these self entitled, selfish, and unwilling to think people have to endure what they believe to be the most heinous crimes against humanity (by being forced inside to stop the virus from spreading), its only a matter of time before their very short fuse causes them to start acting out.  History has confirmed for us that we need to be ready to straight up defend ourselves against them and the government.  They have a long line of practice of physically turning against us when things get difficult for them.  And, this fascist government is the entity that has trained and supported them doing so for centuries.  So, my call here is for us to really seriously contemplate the work we need to do to get ourselves prepared.   We have to begin to engage in the type of community defense work that will make anyone who tries to terrorize us pay dearly.
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While we are building that capacity, there will certainly be some of those people who will figure this out correctly and come to the side of justice.  We can’t trust that to happen thought and we definitely can’t wait on it.  History has been extremely unkind to Africans who placed any stock in waiting on white people to do what’s right, just because its right.
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    I don't see disagreement as a negative because I understand that Frederick Douglass was correct when he said "there is no progress without struggle."  Our brains are muscles.  Just like any other muscle in our body if we don't stress it and push it, the brain will not improve.  Or, as a bumper sticker I saw once put it, "If you can't change your mind, how do you know it's there?"

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