Ahjamu Umi's: "The Truth Challenge"
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Maximum Paradox: Kwame Tures Birthday and July 4 in One  Week

6/29/2019

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Today, June 29th, represents what would be the 78th born day for Kwame Ture.  Formally possessing the slave name Stokely Carmichael, Ture embodied the most principled integrity of today's revolutionary Pan-African work to bring about one unified socialist Africa.  Ture, had the vision and lack of out of control ego (unlike most of us) to recognize that our people's liberation, and the salvation of the planet, were not based on his individual brand - which seems to to be the primary objective of so-called activists today.  Instead, he was focused on acknowledging his mortality and the necessity to ensure that activists were created who could duplicate his dedication, commitment, and clear understanding of the contractions we face.  His approach placed him in the position of sacrificing an overwhelming level of personal comforts, prestige, and recognition in exchange for hard, unappreciated work to build the foundation for that critical Pan-African work.  Often, I was able to observe first hand his principled approach to carrying out his work.  Routinely sleeping on people's couches, going long stretches without meals, insane hours in car travel, while being systemically disrespected by people who didn't have enough credibility to scrub his underwear.  Despite all of this, you never heard that human complain about anything.  Instead, without him even pointing it out, he was committed to providing us his shining example of dignity and discipline.  Well, on his born day I'm here to tell you I was always paying attention.  I have spent my humble time doing my absolute best to emulate his commitment and discipline.  His integrity and courage.  And, in doing so I have been able to experience my own taste of the disrespect that comes with principled work.  I have absolutely no animosity about that though.  Actually, it has served to permit me to have even greater respect for Kwame Ture and what he represented.  It has driven me to push myself even harder every day.  And, although its admittedly difficult sometimes to reconcile the ease in which people dismiss your hard fought contributions, I can always look to his example to remind myself that none of this is ever personal against me and its certainly not ever about me.  For those reasons, I'm eternally thankful to Kwame Ture for his uncompromising example of how to stand up with dignity to this oppressive system without blinking an eye.

Its in that spirit that each year we celebrate his contributions just to turn around four days later and be faced with the glaring contradiction of July 4th in the U.S. which as a day, represents every contradiction that Kwame Ture dedicated his life to stamping out.  In 2019, even school children understand that there were no founding fathers and that the so-called constitution is worth less than toilet paper.  Regardless of the pomp and circumstances that the bourgeoisie political parties put into their circus show debates and campaigns, logically thinking people - at least on some level - recognize that none of that is ever going to be about effecting any real change that will positively address the many problems that this backward system is built on sustaining.  

So, during this day and for the next several days, I'll be thinking of Kwame's glorious contribution while people all around me are wishing me a "good fourth."  So many people regurgitate this foolishness that its virtually impossible to respond to all of them in every situation, but what I am able to do is reinforce within myself that celebrating the "birthday" of a country built on theft, slavery, and murder, is like celebrating the birthday of a mass murderer.  You don't celebrate that birthday.  

Fortunately for me, I come from a tradition, created by people like Kwame Ture, which understands that in order to overcome a backward ideological foundation like July 4th, you must institute a positive ideological foundation.  So, in 2002, we came up with the concept of the "Fourth of the lie."  That first year in Miller Park, Sacramento, California, U.S., about 10 of us gathered, had food, and a lively discussion about the conditions of our people and humanity.  We left that day with such a positive feeling - we hadn't succumbed to the July 4th propaganda, we did something against it - that we decided to continue.  For the next several years we had commemorations that grew to about 75 people before I moved to Oregon where the tradition continued and still continues into next week.  I'll be at our Fourth of the Lie commemoration in New Mexico.

When July 4th comes this week I'll be thinking of several things.  First, making sure I can do everything possible to ensure the people deciding to take a principled position against U.S. imperialism are as protected as possible for making that brave decision.  Especially since we live in a society where people are determined to exhort people into supporting a system that is against the interests of humanity.  Also, I'll be thinking about my parents who never celebrated July 4th, but who did get married that day so they did celebrate their wedding anniversary.  I miss them every year on that day for that reason.  Especially their continued verbal expressions - especially my dad after he had consumed some celebratory nectar - that they were holding up their anniversary, not the hypocrisy of U.S. imperialism and a country claiming a celebration of freedom when Indigenous people were being systemically attacked and Africans were enslaved.  I'll be thinking of Kwame Ture who whether he was sitting in a classroom with 10 of us here in Sacramento at Sacramento State University, or speaking to an audience of hundreds of people at UC Davis, Berkeley, etc., never stumbled in stating clearly, proudly, and with resolute courage, that this country always has been, and always will be, the villain.  Happy born day Kwame Ture.  We continue to burn your candle of dignity and respect.  As for July 4th, the explosions of fireworks for a false holiday, and the millions who participate in it - not because of any real understanding and love of country, but because of the excitement of blowing things up - provide the emphasis for what's really in store for this society as people continue to wake up more and more each day.

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What is Meant by the Term "Bougie" & Where Did It Come From?

6/27/2019

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I cannot say regarding non-African communities, but in African environments all over the world, practices that are deemed to reflect an elitist philosophical foundation are labeled as "bougie."  People who act in a way to appear as if they believe they are better than others are labeled as bougie.  I recall that my father, who was a proud working class African man, used to call any African that he thought was behaving in a way to endear themselves to white society a "bougie a - -  n - - - - r!"  

To the point about my father, the term bougie has evolved into a popular cultural phenomenon all within itself.  Everything from nice expensive things to attitudes that suggest a hint of a superiority complex are labeled as bougie.  My father and the people who generally use the phrase probably never think about it beyond its popular usage, but the common way in which the word is used sheds light on its actual meaning and what people are saying when they use it.

Of course, the term bougie derives from the classical term bourgeois or bourgeoisie which are terms most commonly credited to the writing of economist Karl Marx in the 1800s.  Marx provided us with a manuscript diagram of class structure in society.  The basis of his analysis was the working class people (we Pan-Africanists would of course add the peasantry to that category) who whether industrial or service, provide the foundation of any society.  From Marx's correct perspective, the people who dominate, exploit, and control the working classes are the bourgeoisie who are the spokespersons for the elite classes who own and control the means of production e.g. the resources we depend upon to live, develop, and sustain ourselves.  From Marx's perspective, his analysis of class structure was based strictly on material conditions.  In other words, materialism is the only driving force for class structure.  As African revolutionaries, we take the best that any culture has and we compliment it with the many advances our own culture has contributed.  So, we accept Marx's analysis of class, but we change the conditions to reflect our African reality.  We recognize the role of the peasantry, a segment Marx practically never discussed.  And, we also add in the contributions of Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture and others.  It was Nkrumah who argued that ideology, along with materialism, are factors that must be considered in any class analysis.  Nkrumah answered the question about how someone who has nothing, like a houseless person, could identify with the class interests of the bourgeoisie despite clear proof that their material conditions do not coincide.  That houseless person is ideologically committed to the worldview of the bourgeoisie class and often, as Nkrumah cited, people who are ideologically committed will do more to advance the practical objectives of the bourgeoisie than the bourgeoisie themselves.

The above analysis by Nkrumah is important to understand in order to properly digest the method in which African people use "bougie" today.  Culturally speaking, as Nkrumah articulated, African people use the term bougie, not just in the material sense of how your class position interacts with the power structure, but with an ideological perspective of how you behave.  In fact, I would argue that Africans use the term primarily in an ideological sense.  When my father called other Africans "bougie" he was always referencing people who lived in the same working class environment that we did.  These people he was labeling were never actually a part of the bourgeoisie class in any material sense.  They were people who were as poor as we were, but who acted as if they were better than us.  By calling them bougie, my dad was making the point that those people were acting like house slaves.  He was making a class distinction between between himself, who he saw as a solid representative of the working class - a rebellious field slave - and any African who he perceived to be desiring to be connected to the established leadership in this country.

So, the term bougie has never been viewed as a positive within our communities.  House slaves are not commodities people are raised to strive to achieve.  Despite the efforts by popular capitalist culture, like television shows and movies, to minimize and diminish the hard class statement someone makes when they call you bougie, its still not viewed as a positive.  

I'm proud to say that no one has ever called me bougie although I've used that label for many Africans and other people.  I consider never being called bougie a badge of honor.  I would like to preserve the class basis of that statement. I  wish to honor my father and other people's work who never read a book by Marx or Nkrumah in their lives, but who clearly understood that the interests of the ruling classes of this system, and theirs, could never be the same.  And, that those of us who mimic our masters, will always be the enemies of humanity.  So, the next time someone uses the word "bougie" think about the class components that are actually driving that analysis and how you fit into that picture.

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Tips to Living Your Best Life Despite the Obstacles We Face Daily

6/22/2019

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Reading from my latest novel "The Paradox Principles" last night at the Vision Voices Bookstore in Cleveland, Ohio

I've always had the ability to feel things deeply.  I remember feeling like that ability was a curse because I felt such pain, embarrassment, and discomfort with experiences that everyone seemed to just take in stride.  As I've matured, I've learned that this is no curse.  Its a blessing to be able to feel and experience life on all levels.  And, by experience I mean pain as well as happiness.  From a dialectical perspective, pain is the gauge from which we learn to evaluate and experience happiness.  You cannot have one without the other.  So, instead of being unscientific and seeing pain from a position of isolation, I see the pain I experience as education on how to improve errors so as to enable myself to experience more happiness.  So, I've grown appreciation for being able to fully experience everything, even that which hurts because that is what life is really all about.

For example, today, I'm sitting right now in a restaurant enjoying a great lunch.  I'm in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.  A city and state that before yesterday I had never visited before.  Last night, I had the opportunity to share my vision of Pan-African work, Pan-African fiction through my book, and community defense with a small, but spirited, audience.  I met some great people and got to spend time with people I already knew were great.  I was able to talk about my book in great detail.  Doing that is my personal dream come true.  From the time I was quite little, I realized that my voice was not valued.  It certainly wasn't valued by the state.  I'm not even respected as a human being by the state.  My voice wasn't valued in my own family because of the intense oppression my family experienced, there was no time and energy to entertain the fears and development needs of a terrified and traumatized young boy.  My experiences functioning within this reality taught me that what I felt and what I had to say was not important.  It has only been because of an incredible amount of pain, determination, and support at the right times from the right people, that has enabled me to learn how to use my voice.  My writings are the best manifestation of how I use my voice and that's why being able to talk about my book(s) unashamedly and with passion and commitment, is the best version of me being myself and more importantly, making a contribution to this world we live in with my voice.  

I'll have another opportunity tonight here in Cleveland to do the same thing.  I'm hopeful for a larger turnout, but I'm even more hopeful for the same spirit that was experienced last night.  I'm also anxious to explain to you why all of this represents my best life and how my experiences can hopefully help you do the same.

What I've learned from my journey is we are never under any obligation to accept the definitions of our existence that are imposed upon us by the system that oppresses us.  Any system, and this capitalist economy certainly is included in this, that places more value on money than people is not a system that you should listen to about anything pertaining to you and anyone else.  Its always important for us to surround ourselves with reaffirming resources in the midst of this rampant negativity.  That means positive people e.g. folks who are doing more than satisfying their egos.  People who recognize that you have value and encourage you to reach your full potential.  Of course, in order to benefit from relationships like that you have to be that same person who is feeding those values into other people.  In other words, if you don't value and trust people.  If you don't believe in people, guess what?  Nobody is going to be there to value, trust, and believe in you.  So, make sure you are doing everything you can to appreciate people and let them know you are there for them.  Make investments in people even if there is no material return for you.  Especially if there is no material return for you. Institutionalize doing that in your daily life.   When you do that you find that people will be there for you.  Not everyone, but enough so that you will develop a stable enough foundation to go out and make the contribution you are here to make.

The other important factor is you have to develop your vision for what it looks like for you to  live your best life.  And that vision cannot be based in any way on the values being pumped into us by this backward system.  So many people unconsciously live their lives through negative rules imposed upon them by this system.  They'll tell you "I can't do that because...
No one will accept this from me because...I've got to do that differently because...."  If the things you are doing are about enriching humanity and the planet and not just personal advancement, I'm here to tell you that you have absolutely no responsibility to listen to any negative reinforcement about the things you are doing.  Spend time developing your vision and the only things driving that vision should be values rooted in justice and a formula to make you become the best person you are capable of becoming, period.  The only way you can create this type of environment for yourself is you have to develop tools to help you prepare to combat the negative.  I have spent years institutionalizing positive self talk techniques that today jump in immediately whenever the negative self talk starts up.  I've gotten to the point where I have regular internal discussions and battles which are very healthy for me because by the time I come to the point of making decisions, I have learned to feel confident about my reasons for doing so.  And, once you learn how to do that, you will find you experience much less stress in your life.  I'll give you an example.  My trip here to Cleveland.  Obviously making such a trip is not inexpensive.  And, I spend much of my money investing in this type of activity.  For other people, that may seem insane.  Why would I spend literally thousands of dollars traveling somewhere to do events where I don't even know how many people will show up?  Those people would believe I should be investing in something tangible (by capitalist standards) like a house or car.  Nothing wrong with the house and car, but I've had all of those things throughout my life and those things have never been my focus whereas I know plenty of people who's entire lives are set up around those things.  All they do is invest all their time and resources in projects to improve their homes and more power to them, but I know people doing that are not discovering any magic formula for happiness and stress release.  Most of the time they are just as depressed, if not more, and dysfunctional as anyone, despite how good their lawn and backyard looks.  So, that gets back to establishing your own vision based on values of justice.  With that you do the most I believe you can do to avoid that empty feeling that so much of our lives are subjected to in this money over people society.

Yes, I sacrificed to come here.  When I did the same with my sweetie to go through the state of Texas in February, I sacrificed then also, including a $300.00 ticket after being pulled over twice in four days there.  When I travel to Memphis and hopefully several other places for book/political events, I'll be sacrificing then as well.  And, I'm enjoying and benefiting from every moment of it and the people I'm meeting are telling me that they are doing the same.  The joy comes from being able to deliver messages of hope to communities and being able to feel, without question, that your presence is uplifting people.  That you are planting necessary seeds that will germinate in time.  That feeling for me is so empowering and life giving that its the plateau I seek in every bit of work that I do.  Its the reason, at least for me, that I haven't needed any artificial mechanisms to permit me to function.  As Fred Hampton once said "I'm high because the people are high!"  There is no amount of money that can give me that feeling of worth and accomplishment.  I feel that way right now and provided at least one person comes out tonight and I can make a positive connection for the forward progress of humanity, I'll enhancement that feeling again.

Finally, you have to have a plan.  And, you cannot confuse your vision with a plan.  Your vision or mission is the objective you want your life to serve.  The plan is the mechanism you implement to get you there.  My life plan is dictated mostly by the political objectives of the organization I've committed my entire life's work to.  From that, I've been able to implement my personal creativity to have my own voice in that work and my books are the manifestation of that.  Can you imagine a more healthy way to validate yourself?  To give yourself hope and feelings of being formidable to face all challenges come your way?  People constantly tell me I'm an inspiration to them and that I'm an example of how to be strong for them and that's not an egotistical compliment for me.  Its a confirmation that the things I've worked on for so long hold some of the keys for us to get out of this terrible situation we and the planet find ourselves in today.  

Develop your tools to reinforce your psychological and physical foundation.  Create your mission and vision.  Organize your plan and implement all of it based on principles of justice and forward human progress.  I mentioned that much of my process is tied to my organizational work.  Yours needs to be also.  You cannot do the things I'm talking about on a strictly individual basis.  This system is all about individualism.  Rampant individualism.  You cannot use the tactics of our enemies to liberate you from their oppression.  The solution to rampant individualism based on the model of capitalism is collectivism based on the principles of socialism.  If you don't understand that, you are missing the entire essence of what's being presented here.

So, think about and rethink all of this.  Wish me well on my book event tonight and future events.  Support people who are doing good work for justice and develop your process for moving forward.  The only way we cannot win is if we give up.

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I'm Proud of the Fact I've Been Fired Before from Jobs

6/20/2019

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I hear people bragging about it all the time. "I've never been fired from a job!  I've never been arrested!  I've got great credit", etc.  Well, I actually have good credit, but its had its  downs over the years.  I've certainly been arrested and I've been fired from four different jobs in my lifetime.  The point is having great credit, never having been arrested, and never having been fired could be signs of great discipline, commitment, and maturity on your part, but probably just as much, if not more, having all of those "accomplishments" means you are someone who has never really taken any risks for anything beyond your personal comfort and advancement.  It doesn't have to mean that, but I would argue that in most cases, it probably does mean that.

The reason I say that is because these "accomplishments" are not really the criteria for success that we have been programmed to believe they are.  What they are measurement gauges for is someone who goes to great lengths to avoid any difficulty.  When you live in a backward, anti-human society like this one, avoiding trouble is more the sign of cowardice and selfishness than virtue.  I mean, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was unquestionably correct when he said "the only place for a just man in an unjust society is jail!"  In other words, Jesus was persecuted because he refused to stay silent and inactive against the oppression he witnessed.  And somehow, the followers of Jesus have learned its ok to ignore that reality and instead become the person who avoids the trouble Jesus instigated, instead of being the person challenging the corrupt status quo.  

My own life is an example of what I'm arguing here.  Each time I've encountered police that led to me being taken into custody resulted from me standing up for issues of injustice.  Its never been for anything else so not only will I never be ashamed of being arrested, using King's dictum, I consider it a badge of honor.  The same goes for the backward and racist jobs I've lost.  I lost them because I refused to remain silent in the face of inequity and injustice, typically against other people, not myself.  Today, I work in the labor movement which is obviously far more tolerant than the credit union/finance industry I worked in during the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.  Still, even today, I had an encounter with a racist woman in a work place.  While I was tabling there she informed me that she didn't support labor unions because she is 100% against immigration.  She was so quick and gleeful to include that she "voted for Trump" and supports him wholeheartedly.  I informed her that all of that was her problem and she needs to read more because she's woefully uninformed when she kept saying "the law has to be followed on immigration."  I told her that she wouldn't even be able to come into the building we were in if women before her had refused to break unjust laws and I certainly couldn't be there based on "the law" so her laws mean nothing to me.  I also told her she was uninformed on a criminal level about the degrees of financial resources immigrants pump into this society by paying taxes through their employment while  being unable to benefit from most of the services their tax dollars finance.  I told her that her beloved president built much of his undeserved "wealth" from exploiting that same immigrant labor she's ignorantly talking about.  She tried to talk over me, but that's rarely an effective method against me.  It ended with her leaving in a huff to me telling her repeatedly to read, read, read, and stop letting someone else tell her what to think.

My point is behaving like the above on most jobs is absolutely vital to changing the backwards narratives that pose as analysis in this society today, but doing so will get you in hot water with most employers.  So, if you lose a job because you refuse to just silently endure racist commentary like that coming from that woman, I don't believe you have anything to brag about for "never being fired."  Instead, you should be bragging about being a complete minion for the empire.

Its absolutely no fun to be arrested or to lose your job.  I know this from experience, but how you manage through all of those things comes down to what's important to you.  For me, I'll always choose personal discomfort to myself in exchange for long term dignity.  I regret nothing about my decisions in these areas.  Its made me a much stronger person than most people and I enjoy being able to try living on a standard of principles instead of selling out to every bit of adversity that comes my way.  What I'm saying is living by principle builds character and its that character that holds you when you make difficult decisions that cost you on a personal level.  Its difficult, but you learn the capacity to move through it.  Painfully through it, but eventually, I've come out better from every bit of that adversity.  And, since my goal is never to co-exist with injustice, I have learned to respect my choices and whether people admit it or not, they respect me for my decisions as well.  That level of dignity is worth more than any lottery could win for me as it relates to riches and it wouldn't trade it for anything.  Also, what matters to me more than anything else is that I honor my commitment and responsibility to those who paved the way for me to exist.  Our ancestors struggled through more than most people today could spend five minutes enduring.  Some of us are so entitled and self centered today that if slavery was instituted right now we would never survive with the dignity that our ancestors demonstrated to us.  I live to honor that dignity for future generations as they did for us.  That's where the strength comes from and to me that's why I can function in this backward society without a lot of the issues some people face with just making it through the day.  

So, the next time someone's bragging about achievement in this oppressive society turn your thoughts to how you can do what you need to do to survive while not sacrificing your dignity in the process.  Its a decision you will never regret.

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The Unraveling of This Society Means Intense Danger for Us

6/19/2019

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The zombie apocalypse movie, show, and gaming industry is a multi-billion dollar industry today.  Many people are probably unaware that the zombie concept has been around for decades, but its current manifestation was popularized by the 1968 low budget movie "Night of the Living Dead" created by a college dropout film student.  The foreboding line in that movie's beginning happens when the brother and sister are in the graveyard.  There is a person wandering around the graveyard some 100 yards away.  In the course of ribbing the sister, the brother sees the man and tells his sister; "their coming to get you Barbara!"  Neither of them are aware at that moment that the wandering man is the first of 60 years of zombies intent upon eating our flesh, converting us, and wiping out all of humanity.

In a surreal and literal sense, like the zombies, acts of dehumanization within a dying society have been present in this decadent capitalist empire for quite some time, but like the movie, the danger is right upon us right now, and most of us are completely oblivious to it.  There is still a prevalent effort on behalf of the liberal elite establishment to convince the masses that the violent intolerant elements are still of a fringe variety and do not reflect the dominant consciousness of the majority of people in this society.

Far too many members of targeted populations e.g. colonized people, LGBTQ people, still believe that the instruments of state control are there to protect them and when the time requires it, those entities will provide the protection needed.  Like the beginning of "Night of the Living Dead" this is a belief rooted in false security.  The reality is that we are in incredible danger right now and unless we move to make drastic changes to better prepare ourselves for this danger, there are going to large numbers of us who pay the price.

What I'm talking about is the fact this capitalist economy is in a steady and consistent state of decline.  By decline we mean the intensity of worldwide class struggle is reaching unprecedented heights and the fact you may not know how to detect that does nothing to alleviate the legitimacy of its presence.  Uprisings in Africa, reflective of our people's fatigue at being the exploitation shop for capitalist countries, are happening everywhere throughout the continent.  Millions of people are rising up and demanding an end to exploitative practices that steal their natural and human resources while leaving them with death and disease.  This reality has forced capitalism to focus so much more of its resources into containment and control, but the reality is they are challenged with maintaining their systems of oppression while facing internal dissent against those practices of oppression as well as against manifestations of it within the capitalist empires e.g. houselessness, poverty, white supremacy, etc.  The inability of the capitalist empire to maintain control in all those areas is becoming more and more evident which fuels the confidence and motivation of the masses of people worldwide to increase their resistance.  

A resulting fallout from this reality is the inability of capitalism to provide the vision of security to its most loyal constituents, the European masses within its borders.  The consequence of this are the masses of Europeans within industrialized countries are facing challenges they have never had to face before. 

Beyond its enormous military capabilities, the other area the capitalist system relies on to implement its control over the masses is its dominance of propaganda e.g. controlling the way people think, Conditioning and coloring every thought that swims around in our heads.  A clear sign that this second, and most important control characteristic of capitalism is failing is that increasing numbers of these European masses are demonstrating that unlike so many of us, they do not trust the institutions of capitalism to protect their interests.  They are turning in large numbers to their own independent organizations e.g. militias, etc., imbued with ideologies of settler colonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy, to strengthen their abilities to fight for what they believe naturally belongs to them.  The election of hard right candidates into national offices within the capitalist empires is merely proof of this phenomenon.  This explains why racist views that would be deemed inappropriate in mainstream circles a few years ago are now common place on capitalist media outlets.  It also explains why more and more violent attacks by people within this social paradigm e.g. Europeans previously dedicated wholeheartedly to capitalism (patriotism) are taking place.  

The danger to us is these people are acting out their vile and inhumane fantasies as the capitalist system would have them do.  What I mean is consistent with Lyndon Johnson's statement in 1964, "the way to get the support of the poor white man is to just keep reminding him that at least he's not a black man!"  This means that whatever insecurities the European masses experience, they are not going to blame the capitalist system for their woes.  They are going to blame colonized people.  The African masses.  The Indigenous people.  Arabs.  Asians.  LGBTQ people.  These are the people who lack voices and thus these are the people the capitalist system routinely scapegoats.  Why do you think they constantly portray us as criminals?  Because they just haven't been enlightened to our humanity?  No!  They do it because they seek to dehumanize us because once that happens, we will always be their scapegoat and based on how these Europeans are acting, that strategy continues to produce outstanding results for them.

Since these Europeans are organizing against us and its clear to anyone who has any ability to see what's going on that the state instruments are not here to protect us, our only solution is that we have to get organized.  Everyone has to join some organization with a political education program and a community defense component and we must continue to forge bonds across community lines so that we can work together against these onslaughts against us.  And, while we are doing that, those Europeans truly concerned about justice must work diligently within white communities changing the narrative on why those people are upset and who they actually need to be upset against.

This is without question needed and to argue and debate around it is futile.  The only people wanting that argument are people who have no intention of engaging the solution.  At this point, we must let historical circumstances deal with them.  For the rest of us, we have to get organized in the hopes that our preparation will encourage those folks to join us, but we have to get moving.  We don't have much time.

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The False Belief in Revolution Happening in a Settler Colony

6/18/2019

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Richard Oaks and other Indigenous activists after the 1969 takeover (not occupation - the Europeans are the occupiers) of Alcatraz in the San Francisco, California, U.S., Bay

This is a concept that originates and is maintained by so-called European (white) revolutionaries.  People who are supposed to be friends to humanity.  They have spent the last 100 years advancing a concept of revolutionary change (that they see themselves as leading of course) that's supposedly going to be taking place in the U.S.?  Or maybe Australia?  Or Azania as African people call it while everyone else calls it South Africa?  This is even a thing in occupied Palestine?

We have to clarify first what we mean when we say revolution because that word is used so often and in ways of utter confusion that its always necessary to clarify what you mean when you advance the concept.  What we mean is an ultimate class struggle between the masses of working people - both industrial and service, the revolutionary intelligentsia, and the peasantry, against the bourgeoisie (ruling classes) for control of the means of production e.g. the food, water, and all resources we use to maintain and develop.  This class struggle has bloody components, but primarily, its a battle over ideals.  Its the overthrow of the elite class by the masses of humanity.  Revolution is uncompromising change from one existing social order to another.  From capitalism to socialism.  Some people may say anarchism instead of socialism.  We don't argue.  We merely suggest that our choice is to be socialists because our ultimate goal in our present world vision is communism which is a society where class structure has been completely obliterated.  Where state apparatus no longer exists.  The anarchists say they want no class apparatus also, but they have yet to explain how we go from capitalism, where the state is the dominant instrument of suppression of the masses, to no class structures whatsoever.  For us, that bridge is socialist construction.  So, that's what we mean when we say revolution.

The problem we have with these so-called first world revolutionaries or socialists is that socialism is a system of justice that is based on the principles of humanism.  As Sekou Ture explains, socialism reflects the will of the masses of people to construct a society where people's dignity is valued above all else.  With those values defining socialism - at least for us - its impossible to consider valid the contradictions about socialist revolution that drip regularly from the corroded walls of European culture.  For example, any number of nazi and neo-nazi formations have always considered their movement a movement for socialism.  We just discussed our principles for socialist construction.  Its impossible to accept those principles while also acknowledging legitimacy for a movement that is rooted in white supremacy and the theft of Indigenous people's lands as a socialist movement.  Its also impossible to accept the claim of many from the zionist occupation of Palestine who claim their zionist state is based on any type of legitimate socialist model.  Its also impossible for any socialist party in Azania - whether the historical "South African Communist Party" or any of the current manifestations of the white left in Azania (The Metal Workers of South Africa, etc.) to legitimately pursue a socialist agenda in that country.  And, yes, so-called white revolutionaries attempting to bring about revolution within the U.S. outside of any movements led by Indigenous peoples is nothing except a new age settler colonial movement.

The above examples are not viable because you cannot build socialism on someone else's land, period.  Socialism must seek to address injustices by removing barriers of oppression.  If your socialist system isn't doing that, it ain't socialism.  So, I would need someone to explain to me how any socialist revolution can be led by Europeans who are the descendants of settlers who violently stole the land these Europeans claim to be championing revolution on without any redress of that theft of land and how it impacts the people who had it stolen from them?

This is a problem you won't even see white left circles even talking about.  Most of them see absolutely no contradiction in them advocating for system change while holding their position on the lands where the native inhabitants are being viciously oppressed in their favor.  They will tell you that their socialism seeks to alleviate this problem, but that's like someone who has stolen your car telling you to accept and ignore that because they are going to be making other cars available to you.  Only sammy sausagehead would accept that type of nonsensical logic.

This is why you never hear us talking about revolution in the Indigenous people's lands because our struggle is based on those principles of justice.  So, the first thing out of our mouth is that the Americas belong to the Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere and Africa belongs to us.  We even have a march chant to that end - "America is the Indigenous people's land, Africa for the Africans!"  Our talk of and for Pan-Africanism is rooted in the reality that our revolution is based on bringing revolution to the only  land base we have any legitimate right to - Africa.  The Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere have been overwhelmingly gracious hosts to us for over 500 years.  They have shared their neighborhoods, schools, communities, and prison cells with us.  We can ask nothing more of them. Now, its time for us to liberate our mother - Africa - with one unified socialist Africa.  As for the Indigenous people of the West?  They have the options of deciding what type of system is best for them and whatever they decide, we will support them to the fullest extent of our capabilities.

This talk scares white people.  Even so-called revolutionary white people because they don't see a place for them in the vision I articulated above.  The reason they don't see it isn't because it doesn't exist.  They don't see it because despite what they say about justice their definition of it really never includes a cold hard look at settler colonialism.  It never actually acknowledges that settler colonialism has to be destroyed.  These people - even the so-called revolutionary ones - freak out at any suggestion of land reclamation.  There are no white revolutionaries in Azania acknowledging land reclamation.  They oppose it at every turn.  There are certainly no white revolutionaries within the U.S. talking about returning U.S. lands to the Indigenous peoples and you already know that isn't happening in occupied Palestine.  

This is why we so aggressively promote our African dominated solution of Pan-Africanism and we encourage all other colonized people to do the same.  Those white "revolutionaries" can't stand talk of Pan-Africanism, not because they can challenge it ideologically, but because they just don't like the fact that it doesn't cater to them and center them in this struggle.  Well, later on for that now.  Its past time for us to define the parameters for our forward movement.

What genuine white revolutionaries need to be doing is talking about themselves redefining their identity as European descended settlers who are fighting against settler colonialism, capitalism, and oppression for socialism, etc.  That should become the identity for every white person who is truly concerned about revolutionary consciousness and development.  There is no revolution without addressing land reclamation and the reason why we can come into any area dominated by white revolutionary organizations and instantaneously recruit more Africans than they ever can is because our people understand that.  We know that no one is going to resolve our problems except ourselves and we also know that justice cannot be built on a platform of injustice.  

So, when you are looking for a revolutionary organization, especially if you are a colonized person, the first question you have to ask them is what their position is on settler colonialism and land reclamation.  And, when the answer is whiteplaining this and that you know immediately that you are dealing with pirates, not revolutionaries.

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A Real Assessment of Farrakhan's Role in Malcolm's Assassination

6/17/2019

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I've written often and from multiple angles about the life and contributions of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz aka Malcolm X.  In many of those pieces I've mentioned the role of Minister Louis Farrakhan, the current leader of the Nation of Islam, the organization Malcolm left in an antagonistic way in 1964.  I'm writing here what I believe makes a further contribution to clearing up this still fire-lit discussion taking place within African communities everywhere about the actual role, if any, Farrakhan played in the scenario that ended up with Malcolm X being killed by 16 bullets on February 21, 1965 in the Audubon Ballroom in his beloved Harlem, New York. 

This piece should serve as my continued contribution on this subject and I strongly encourage any and everyone who takes the actual time to seriously study this important subject to contribute your work and analysis around this question because what the current buzz makes unquestionable is that there are plenty of voices on this issue, but very little concrete analysis being presented.  This issue has contributed to major damage, including death, within the African community for the last 50+ years so the last thing we need is egotistically fueled, bombastic, accusations from people who just have a few books to become automatic experts on this subject. 

From this humble perspective, the most qualified people to write about this Farrakhan/Malcolm issue are not necessarily  the people who believe they were close to Malcolm during that time, although the perspectives of people like Charles 37X Kenyatta, Benjamin 2X, Herman Furguson, and others are obviously important.  Certainly, the views of current members of the Nation of Islam (NOI) on this subject have to be conditioned with caution.  They obviously are going to be motivated to protect their leaders - Elijah Muhammad and Minister Louis Farrakhan (for those NOI laborers and believers who follow him) - because both men represent all that they believe in.  This is certainly understandable, but it cannot serve as the end of any analytical discussion on this subject.  So, again, this piece humbly suggests that really those who engage in the same revolutionary Pan-Africanist politics that we believe (and are ready to demonstrate at any time) represents the pathway that Malcolm was building upon at the time of this death are the best qualified to investigate and provide analysis on this subject.  I say this because we believe the only way one can properly understand what happened is to have a concrete understanding of organizational development, egos, capacity, and challenges peppered with a clear perspective of the activities of the U.S. government to sabotage our organizations.  We believe those who engage in revolutionary Pan-Africanist politics are the best suited to understand and analyze those variables which we believe color in the actual facts behind what really happened with Minister Louis Farrakhan and his speeches and actions during the time period that eventually led to Malcolm being taken from us.

We have to certainly acknowledge the complexity of the contradictions around this issue.  Contradictions that are casually dismissed by many people talking so much about this today.  For some of them, the issue is as simple as Farrakhan sold out Malcolm, the NOI is corrupt, and cult like, and that's it.  The truth is much more challenging.  Whether the critics of the Nation of Islam can be mature enough to admit it or not, the NOI is respected by the masses of African people and there is legitimate reason for this.  They have functioned in a seminal independent fashion within the inner cities of African life within the U.S. since the 1930s.  They have done many things in those almost 90 years, but one of the productive things they've done is make honest attempts to organize our people.  No one raised in African environments in this country hasn't had their life touched at one time or another by the NOI.  And by touched of course we employ dialectics, meaning touched in positive ways, and sometimes not so positive, but we believe, primarily positive ways.  One of those examples is that the NOI had an influence in teaching us how to deconstruct the colonially inspired deification of European people.  During Malcolm's time as a leading minister in the NOI, his long lectures on European people from the way they smelled to how they had "dog like noses" was tonic in demystifying the toxic belief system we had been forced to live by that Europeans were the closest living human beings to God.  Malcolm, and by default every other NOI minister - including Minister Farrakhan - embodied Franz Fanon's basic thesis that in order for us to be free, we had to break the psychological dominance European culture holds over our dignity.  Despite whatever problems people have with the NOI, and some of those problems having plenty of merit, none of us can deny their role in helping us learn, at some level of our developing consciousness, that Europeans are not God.  This understanding is a critical component of our ability to advance our struggle and all of us, whether we admit it or not, have built off of that foundation that the NOI played an undeniable role in helping create.  

On the flip-side, many of us are, and have always been, drawn to the political development of Malcolm X.  As mentioned, some of that stems from his work within the NOI, but lots of it also reflects his developing international and Pan-African consciousness that was best expressed after he left the NOI.  Were it not for those eleven months my own life would be drastically different.  It was those eleven months that cemented Malcolm's connection to the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and his influence over them contributed mightily towards taking the struggle beyond just one of our plight in the U.S.  Malcolm in that last year was the bridge that connected me to Africa and he was so many other people's bridge as well.  So, it only makes sense that we would view with suspicion anyone, including Minister Farrakhan, who could have played any type of role in helping silence our surrogate and ideological father - Malcolm X.

So, what role did Farrakhan play in Malcolm's murder?  Many folks want to speculate what Farrakhan knew or what he didn't know.  The argument exists that because of the structure of the NOI, which at least during that time was heavily based on protecting the ministers within the mosques, there will never be a way to tie any NOI minister to any of the nefarious activities that existed - without question - within the NOI in the 60s and 70s.  Still, based on clear evidence, what we know is that Farrakhan was the main minister at the NOI's Boston Mosque 11 (the NOI had a minister rotation system in place where ministers traveled to different mosques) and Fruit of Islam (FOI - the NOI's internal security force) captain Clarence X Gill, a bitter critic of Malcolm - and someone widely suspected of being involved in Malcolm's assassination team - reported to Farrakhan during that time.  At best, this is circumstantial evidence, but Farrakhan's continued relationship with Gill - there are pictures of them together as recently as the 1990s - does a lot to fuel people's suspicion of Farrakhan.

The most substantial evidence against Farrakhan is actually the same thing that has often gotten him into conflict, the things he says.  His comments during the most heated periods of the conflict between Malcolm and the NOI without question did much to pour oil on the fire significantly.  Farrakhan was at least a partial protege of Malcolm's.  He was partially recruited through Malcolm's work (we say partial because unlike the capitalist concept of everything happening based on individual action, we know that everything is collective, including the work to recruit anyone into any organization).  He became minister of the Boston Mosque largely based on Malcolm's recommendation to Eljah Muhammad (after Malcolm was promoted to Mosque 7 in Harlem).  We know that Malcolm continued to mentor Farrakhan up until the time Malcolm split from the NOI.  The close relationship between these two men makes it easy for many people to conclude that Farrakhan's words in that crucial period of time in 1964 after Malcolm's break with the NOI - where Farrakhan called Malcolm a traitor that needed to be dealt with - has made many people believe Farrakhan's role was to encourage the murderers.

This is a very sensitive point.  There really isn't a way to deny that Farrakhan's statements, along with those of Elijah Muhammad Jr., Captain Joseph - the captain under Malcolm in Harlem, National Secretary John Ali (a highly suspected informant for the U.S. government), and other NOI officials, did create the environment where people were encouraged to murder Malcolm under the illusion that they would be carrying out the "will of God."

The transgression above could and would be forgiven by the majority of the African community were it not for Farrakhan's continued, up through current times, insistence on defending his and the NOI's actions during that time.  It would very simple for Farrakhan to just say in public that he and the rest of the NOI's leadership in 1964/65, were clearly manipulated by the U.S. government to set up Malcolm X for murder.  If he were to do this, I believe this controversy would have averted long ago.  Even Maulana Karenga, the founder of the Organization US, formally the US Organization - the group that engaged in multiple U.S. government inspired shootouts with the Black Panther Party in which Panthers were killed - doesn't generate the same level of anger that many of our people hold towards Farrakhan for what he said about Malcolm.  We of course, understand that as great as people like Bunchy Carter and John Huggins were to our struggle, they aren't Malcolm X in people's minds, but at least part of the fact people have looked past Karenga's errors, celebrated Kwanza - his creation - etc, is because he hasn't gloated about the dead Panthers the way Farrakhan has about Malcolm.  Many people are still angry with Farrakhan for his speech in 1993 where he talked about Malcolm being "treated like any nation treats its traitors!"  Karenga, for the most part, has shied away from anything close to that.

Of course we are going to say much of the blame for the tragedy with Malcolm resulted from the lack of political education within the NOI.  Malcolm himself was guilty of helping to create the environment that permitted him to be so easily murdered.  He erred in making his complaints against Elijah Muhammad public.  Clearly, he was under pressure.  Losing his home after all the work he did in the NOI and having everyone in the NOI turn against him forced him to make some very badly calculated mistakes that were based primarily on emotion.  There's no way anyone can argue that taking any disagreements we have within our organizations to the capitalist media is going to do anything to improve our situation and that's exactly what Malcolm erroneously did.  As much as we love Malcolm, we have to acknowledge that this was a terrible blunder that reflected his lack of political sophistication.  Of course, we have the benefit of understanding the U.S.'s role in sabotaging our organizations much better today, but Malcolm was visited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the time of his alleged "suspension."  So, he knew the government was trying to sabotage the NOI.  Then, during his travels throughout Africa he was certainly made aware of the efforts of imperialism to sabotage him.  While he was in Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah's security forces informed Nkrumah that the Central Intelligence Agency was fishing for ways to murder Malcolm.  This was part of the reason Nkrumah offered Malcolm a home in Ghana, but Malcolm didn't accept the offer.  Then, after Malcolm's poisoning in Egypt and the refusal of France to permit him to enter that country just days before he returned to the U.S. and was murdered, Malcolm himself was saying it was the U.S. government, not just the NOI, that was attempting to silence him.  So, Malcolm's desperation at that time, certainly understandable, but needing analysis and assessment, reflected the weakness of our organizations and the lack of political education.  

Clearly, Farrakhan and other NOI leaders acting based on petty ego and more political immaturity, made their contribution.  That lack of political education is further exasperated by Farrakhan's continued adherence to that line as recently as the 2015 Million Man Commemoration where I was present and heard Farrakhan say himself that the NOI was basically faultless in Malcolm's assassination.

The summary here is what we believe Farrakhan is actually guilty of is not putting the interests of our people above himself and his organization.  We are still waiting for him to just let it go.  The NOI was wrong and we all paid for it with Malcolm's death.  Beyond that, there is no evidence that Farrakhan had any concrete connections to the assassination or that he was an informant of any kind to the U.S. government.  So, people need to stop suggesting that unless they can produce anything further.

Finally, the ignorance and amateurish nature of many of these NOI critics walking around today is that they don't understand the strategies behind mass organizing (because the overwhelming majority of them never have and never will belong to any organization).  Simple things that reveal their inexperience, like not understanding why revolutionary organizers would attend the Million Man March.  To an individual with no clear analysis, something like that event is a traitorous act to attend.  To them, attending validates Farrakhan while they completely dismiss the outstanding organizing opportunities an event like that presents.  For those truly interested in organizing our people for change, we don't just see Farrakhan at the Million Man March.  We see Kwame Ture's dictum that if "the devil is fighting U.S. imperialism, than the devil is my comrade in arms!"  We see the millions of Africans who are in one place, just waiting to be organized.  I talked to hundreds of Africans from all over the world during the MMM 2015 about our struggle for liberation.  When these critics can create that level of environment for organizing, I'll stop and listen to them.  Until that time, while those critics would struggle to organize passing gas effectively, pardon us if we go where our people are so we can talk to them.  Those people clearly don't see the problem of leaving a paramilitary organization political education free.  The NOI isn't going anywhere. The history of internecine violence within organizations like the NOI in the 60s/70s and the US Organization in the 60s/70s are clear examples of what happens when they are isolated, as these critics are suggesting, without political education.  That's why Kwame Ture was correct when he refused to be baited into engaging in open ideological warfare with people like Omali Yeshitela (African Peoples' Socialist Party) who never tired of attacking Kwame when he was alive and after his death.  I spent enough time with Kwame to know that he was very aware of their attacks against him and no one would doubt his capacity to mount a very successful response if he had wanted to do so.  The reason he didn't is because he understood that our job as revolutionaries is to create revolutionaries and nothing about that task is ever going to be easy.  He constantly preached that our job is to never do our enemy's work for them.  We won't publicly get into arguments against other African organizations that our enemy's can manipulate as they did in the 60s/70s.  We are the political offspring of Kwame Ture so we certainly adhere to the same approach today.  We are determined to organize everyone, including the police, to work for the African revolution!  And, part of that work is clarifying confusion among our people and humanity so that we can refuel and continue to march forward!






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Do You Feel Folks Close to You Don't Embrace Your Achievements?

6/17/2019

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Especially for those folks who have done things that don't happen with everyone e.g. initiated some outstanding organizing projects that empower people?  Written and published revolutionary music, screen plays, books, paintings, etc?  Traveled extensively and engaged in work to build up people throughout the world?  I mention revolutionary work because that work is never going be recognized by this capitalist power structure.  That's a critical piece of this analysis because the overwhelming majority of people are trained to respond to everything based on that thing's connection to the power structure.  If the power structure acknowledges it, then to most people, it has legitimacy.  If the power structure doesn't acknowledge it, then to most people its not valid.  Since revolutionary art and achievements are never acknowledged by the state those works are designed to discredit, most people are not trained to recognize that category of work as legitimate.  So, for those of you who have worked hard to have the types of accomplishments indicated above, the question is how much do the people close to you in your life acknowledge and celebrate your contributions?

By celebrate I mean how aware of your accomplishments are the people close to you?  How do they react to your accomplishments?  Do they support you and your work?  And, by people close to you I mean the people who tell you they care about you and are there for you as human beings whether biological or ideological families, friends, co-workers, etc.?

My guess is going to be most people who produce this type of work are going to experience that most people close to them are generally not overwhelmingly supportive and active in their work.  Of course, there are always exceptions, but for the most part, I'm betting this is universally true.

The reasons for this phenomenon are layered.  Everyone is programmed 24/7 in this society.  That programming directs us to steer absolutely clear of anything challenging the status quo.  We are reinforced with the thinking that doing that is tantamount to desiring to live in the devil's hell.  Avoid it at all costs.  Any values, principles, themes for justice, all must go out the window when confronted with facing off this power structure.  This conditioning is so consistent that its subtle at this point.  Most people are completely unaware of it.  So, when you raise up work that challenges the status quo, we are trained to recognize the challenge immediately while being oblivious to any concrete information about what we are reacting to.  That's the reason the best strategy to challenge anyone arguing against you with a reactionary position is to ask them repeated questions about their position (instead of arguing with them about yours).  The more questions posed, the quicker it becomes clear there is not real understanding of the issue.  As it relates to how people close to use react, we are just conditioned to react with caution against anything that challenges the status quo vision.  That's one thing.

The next issue is the capitalist system works overtime to convince us that we are simple commodities.  People are to be bought and sold like any other material item.  These barbarians have even offered what they think the average cost is for a human being.  The reduction of human beings down to items has created a cultural component where people's confidence is completely eroded and people have no faith or trust in other people.  This is the reality because if you accept that we are commodities, then you cannot see us as having specific value that supersedes that of any product for sale.  There is no greater destroyer of personal confidence than that of dehumanizing people and making them into no more than things.  And, if we have no respect or value in ourselves, we are incapable of having those values for other people.  What these dynamics do is create a reality where it becomes very difficult for people, even those close to you, to see the value in the work you are doing.  Since everyone is programmed to see everything as a means to an end, then if people cannot see a profitability model in the work you are doing, they don't understand why you are doing it.  And, many people will conclude that your reason for doing it has be linked to some unstated profit objective that you are carrying out.  Therefore, you are really conducting a scam so they cannot trust it.  This conclusion is inevitable if people see everything as a means to an end and if they see people as commodities.

Finally, the above dynamics make it very difficult for people to express genuine support for you when they themselves feel marginalized, disrespected, and unappreciated.  This is going to be true even with the people you deem the closest to you in your life.

The end result is the capitalist system is the culprit behind this dehumanization.  Its just that the folks who are producing content that challenges that narrative are the people who are going to see first the reactions that their work generates.  Your family, friends, etc., are so caught up in survival and trying to hang onto their humanity, that there's no time for them to analyze the messages you are promoting in your work.  There are exceptions.  I've been fortunate to accomplish quite a bit in my life.  After some initial years of fear driven caution, my parents came around to become ardent supporters of my revolutionary work.  Their support grew to become unconditional.  And, the fact they are both gone now still haunts me because I have felt that the unconditional faith and respect they grew to exhibit in my work I've gone without for the most part since their departure.  Certainly, there are a few others who have grown in that area, but most of the people who consider themselves close to me I believe have trouble grasping my work.  I'm talking about people I have known for years, decades.  Those people; who I know have to be aware that I've published books, co-founded important organizations and resources for our people, and travel and work to improve our people's destiny.  Those people have said absolutely nothing to me about any of it over the years.  Since they don't bring it up, I don't either because I struggle with talking about myself to the extent of criminal neglect of my work.  Still, I know that if any of those people produce any accomplishment, I would not hesitate to express my support for their work.  I also know that I would do that because I possess a great degree of personal confidence and self comfort that I know so many people struggle with.  

Its the above that reminds me of the necessity to be patient.  My own daughter never had much of anything to say to be about my work for years.  I know that much of that was because to her, I was just her dad.  Not the revolutionary organizer/activist/writer.  She didn't ask about my books, nothing.  I didn't take it personal because I don't believe any of it is personal.  One day, she started asking me questions about my political work.  Specific questions about the work happening in my world now because she grew up within the context of the work.  Her questions increased and now she's talking about organizing book events for me.  So, its not personal.  I believe its all of the capitalist factors indicated above.  That's 80% of it, but there are people close to you, who believe they love you to the best of their abilities, who just find it difficult to root for people.  Those folks in that category are so fired upon by capitalist exploitation, humiliation, and trauma, that they just struggle to see anyone's accomplishments as anything beyond just a stab against them because of what they have struggled to try and accomplishment, yet haven't.  Even this cannot be taken personal.  People are doing the absolute best they can with the little they have to work with.

If you are going to do revolutionary work, particularly work that penetrates beyond the small revolutionary organizing circles (and if you are seriously doing this type of work this should always be your objective), you are just going to have to figure out how to prepare yourself to be thick-skinned.  I find that its helpful for you to spend plenty of time thinking through the reasons why you do the work you do (because the people stuck in the hating realm are very good at finding all sorts of reasons to question your intentions).  So steel yourself in your reasons and stand strong behind your principles.  In doing that, you must accept that you will encounter resistance and doing this isn't going to bring these people close to you any truer, but it will strengthen you to be able to withstand the realities you have to face.  This is just the stage that we are at.  I embrace my role within it and I am confident that one day, maybe even after I'm gone, people will be able to express that they apprecaited all I was trying to do was make a contribution towards peace.

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CBS's Mike Wallace ; No Friend to the African Liberation Movement

6/13/2019

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A promo from the 1959 Mike Wallace produced hit program against the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X - "The Hate that Hate Produced." Pictured clockwise is Mike Wallace, Malcolm X, Journalist Louis Lomax, and Elijah Muhammad
He used our movement and struggles to advance his own personal media career, but long time CBS reporter/journalist Mike Wallace, who died in 2012, never saw our existence any differently than any other capitalist media operative.  Its important that this is said loud and clear because somewhere along the way, Wallace became known as some sort of friend of Malcolm X and our liberation movements.  

The myths around Mike Wallace and his support for African liberation evolved from his role in broadcasting one of the most vile and incorrect versions of one of the most influential and independent movements in the history of African people within the U.S.  Wallace was the brainchild behind the 1959 television program "The Hate that Hate Produced."  As the title of the program demonstrates, it was not intended to be a promotional piece on our struggle.  Instead, it was a propaganda piece designed to dehumanize the growing work and influence of the Nation of Islam in our communities during that period of history.  The entire thesis of the program was that there was a sect of African people running around that were intent upon hating Europeans (white people).  Wallace's narration of the program did a lot to further advance that backward notion.  Many African people, possibly operating under the concept that any publicity is good publicity, have long credited Wallace because that one program was this country and the world's first official introduction to the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad in general and Minister Malcolm X in particular.  And possibly because of the airing of that program, which was widely watched throughout the nation, Malcolm and the Nation of Islam were able to use the popularity of that program to further recruit our people into its ranks.  This is a reasonable assumption.  Most Africans recognize that anything the system criticizes about us is something we should look closer embracing while anything the system directs us to is something we cannot trust.  With that understanding, maybe some people have oddly felt the need to give Wallace some credit for this phenomenon.

If the above is true, Wallace doesn't deserve any credit.  Wallace was prodded into working to develop the television program by the likes of Louis Lomax, an African reporter who was an avowed "conservative" who also saw the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X as vehicles to advance his journalistic career. Lomax was quite clear at the time that he saw the views of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam as reprehensible. He and Wallace both agreed that Malcolm and his then organization were not the positive examples that African people should pursue (like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.).  The interesting thing about this argument is as Malcolm himself was fond of saying in those days, the only reason that King and the mainstream civil rights movement received the attention they received was because of the growing presence of much more militant components within our community like the Nation of Islam.  Lomax and Wallace saw producing "The Hate that Hate Produced" as a tactic to discredit the Nation of Islam while holding up the virtue of other more accommodation oriented African organizations.  This perspective is proven by the method in which the program highlighted any mention of "white devils" with plenty of commentary to further focus on that element within the Nation of Islam while ignoring the conditions African people experienced that caused the need for organizations like the Nation to form in the first place.  The same old imperialist tactic of blaming the victim.  There is no hate from any African organization towards Europeans in this world.  There is only the cry out for justice and anyone who tries to misrepresent that cry as an attack against white people is someone who has an agenda of discrediting any independent voices for change that don't bow down to the system.  

Wallace's "reputation" as our friend was somehow further enhanced after the brutal assassination of Malcolm X.  For many people, Wallace's was the voice who informed them about the assassination that sad day of February 21, 1965.  Wallace's subsequent connection to many of the people attached to Malcolm and his ability to convince them to conduct interviews with him, further strengthened his image as a friend to Malcolm.  A friend to African people.

A significant factor in this confusion is the high regard for Mike Wallace that has always been on public display from the Shabazz daughters of Malcolm X.  Attallah Shabazz, the oldest daughter who at nine years old witnessed the tragic event of 1965, had been consistent throughout years in calling for African people to respect Wallace.  It was that relationship that led Attallah Shabazz to agree to come on 60 Minutes in 1995 with Minister Louis Farrakhan in an effort that was billed as a reconciliation between the Shabazz family, Farrakhan (for his incendiary comments against Malcolm during that last year of Malcolm's life) , and the Nation of Islam.  Only Ms. Shabazz can answer why she held Wallace in the high regard that she apparently did, but the facts calling for a more critical view of Wallace are indisputable.

Less than one year after Malcolm's assassination, Wallace conducted a national television interview with Kwame Ture, who was then known as Stokely Carmichael.  Ture was the poster child for the then emerging Black power movement and Wallace wasted little time during that interview working diligently to make Ture appear to be a monster.  As Ture attempted to articulate the simple, and ill-refutable, perspective that we as African people have the human right to define our movement, leaders, and direction by any means necessary, Wallace engaged in an extremely crude and racist attack against Ture and the Black power movement as a whole.  He accused Ture of being dishonest and ungrateful for the opportunities he had to come into this country from the Caribbean and achieve a college education. He treated Ture's claim that we as a people have the human right to defend ourselves as treason.  All of that is classic deflection and paternal dismissal of the legitimate concerns for our dignity that Ture expressed as a 25 year old activist/organizer during that interview.  Anyone watching that, and its available today on youtube, cannot in good conscience justify Mike Wallace as anything except a tool for the system against us and our movement.

Whatever type of "friendship" Wallace supposedly had with Malcolm has more than likely been overstated by apologists for the capitalist system.  Malcolm does speak of Wallace in his autobiography, but not in the glowing terms that Wallace has benefited from since 1965.  And certainly, Malcolm's oldest daughter's reluctance to criticize Wallace is puzzling.  Its possible that Wallace had a relationship with the Shabazz family after Malcolm's murder that we are not aware of.  Still, its certainly true that even if Wallace played a major role in supporting the Shabazz family after Malcolm's life was cut short, Wallace's work to discredit the militant elements of our movement in this country, including that which was best articulated by Malcolm himself, has to overshadow any personal good he hypothetically could have done for the Shabazz family.  I think the best testimony to who Mike Wallace was is represented by who attended his funeral.  Everyone there from Attallah Shabazz to Donald and Melania Trump was present.  The diversity of attendees was addressed by one of the speakers, a fellow journalist, who stated that the wide range of personalities reflected the fact that Wallace knew "everyone."  This indicates his proficiency as an opportunistic journalist.  Not his concern for humanity.  We can come to that conclusion because Wallace rode the waves of our movement to great benefit to himself.  His work with "The Hate that Hate Produced" in 1959 launched his career and that and his subsequent work around Malcolm's assassination certainly played a role in helping him land the spot as an anchor on the 60 Minutes program and its that gig that defined his career.  He was no friend of ours.  He was just another capitalist operative flunky who saw an opportunity to exploit our suffering for another story.



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Marcus Garvey; FBI Sabotage Against Him, & Political Education

6/11/2019

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Marcus and Amy Jacque Garvey


Like any and every African who has ever dared stand up for African dignity, Marcus Mosiah Garvey has been ridiculed with efforts to assassinate his image on a consistent basis for the last 100 years.  Even antagonisms directed at him by other Pan-African giants like C.L.R. James and George Padmore are being used as evidence that Garvey was not to be respected.  

We are politically sophisticated enough to understand that everything is dialectical, meaning there are different variables engaging in different levels of conflicts in every material interaction taking place within the universe.  In other words, its quite possible for James and Padmore to heckle Garvey, as they often did when hearing him speak on street corners while its equally possible that Garvey made a significant contribution to African people's forward progress.

Of course, we cannot speak of Marcus Garvey without acknowledging the contributions of Amy Ashwood Garvey and Amy Jacque Garvey.  Without both of these courageous women, the accomplishments of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), particularly during the 1920s, could not have been possible.  

Despite the dribblings of our enemies against those who did their absolute best to represent our struggle with integrity and commitment, we continue to honor the work of the UNIA and its 100+ year commitment to uniting Africa and African people everywhere.  The only crime Garvey was guilty of was believing that we could achieve Pan-African unity without challenging the hegemony of the capitalist system e.g. Garvey thought we could buy our independence from the capitalist system.  And, this naivete, which is dominant in many areas of the African world today, is a problem that we must scientifically address.

The UNIA's Black Star Line shipping business was but one clear example of where they fell short.  Believing that the key to our solution was creating a "Black" shipping line that could challenge the corporate dominance of product shipping around the world, Garvey purchased three ships with the intent of using them to facilitate economic trade among Africans throughout the planet.  The mistakes Garvey made in this approach were manifested many times.  The people he bought the ships from did everything in their power to make him believe he was buying ships that were in much better shape than they actually were.  Garvey and his people's inexperience in the matter contributed to them buying ships that were ill prepared to sail in open waters.  In fact, one of the ships sank almost immediately upon being purchased.  There was very little due diligence performed in the process of buying these ships and much of the rush to complete these transactions was encouraged by the people around Garvey, many of which viewed the UNIA as a vehicle for their personal advancement and not an organizational mechanism for African liberation.

Key to the problem with the ships was the lack of understanding of the capitalist shipping model.  The UNIA, despite its presence in 33 countries, didn't have the capacity to challenge existing capitalist entities that used shipping lines to move every product you use today that is made in another country (China for example).  Garvey's people didn't understand basic capitalist principles that required the ability to make shipping with them cost effective for manufacturers who had no concerns about justice and liberation.  Only profits.  

The other issue that feeds into the challenges of the ships is that the UNIA did not possess any type of comprehensive political education program.  Therefore, much of the organizational chatter about Africa was simply rhetorical and not based in any solid foundation that the millions of members were required to study and understand critically.  As a result of this idealistic interpretation of Africa and the actual role Africa should play in our liberation around the world, limited concrete organizing on the ground work was waged to this end within the UNIA.  The weakness of this was even the practical relationships that the UNIA struggled to form were sentimental and not based in a strong ideological foundation of Pan-African principles.  For example, Garvey sought to establish a working relationship with Liberian President Charles King who was president of Liberia throughout all of the 1920s.  In the course of this work, Garvey was able to secure a promise from King that if Garvey could deliver science trained experts to Liberia, that country could parlay its massive rubber plantations into some sort of Pan-African entity that would own and control rubber production in Africa.  The problem is Garvey was naive about class struggle.  He and his people didn't see the interference by U.S. imperialism coming.  And, they had no response when imperialism convinced the King government in Liberia to abandon its principled agreement with the UNIA to instead commit to a 100 year contract with Firestone Rubber, effectively selling off Liberia's rubber wealth to capitalism while completely cutting off the Garvey movement from its subjective, yet idealistic, goals of rubber equaling power for African people.

Garvey had the right idea with Liberia.  The extensive mineral wealth of Africa should be used to alleviate the suffering of African people while serving as our vehicle to engage in our full liberation.  Garvey's mistake was in trusting the neo-colonial puppet regime in Liberia while having no strong mass movement there to hold the government accountable to the interests of the people.  This lack of political sophistication was linked to consistent type problems that plagued the Garvey organization and eventually ran it into the ground.  The primary thrust of sabotaging the UNIA/Liberia agreement was instigation by the then Department of Justice (now the Federal Bureau of Investigation - FBI - within the U.S.).  The FBI was then, and still is today, a principle appendage designed to maintain imperialism throughout this globe.  In the 20s, the department was being built by a young man named J. Edgar Hoover who went on the lead that agency for its first 50 years of existence.  Hoover's initial trumph, before prohibition and the liquor industry, was his sabotage of the Garvey movement.  It would be simple to write off the decline of the UNIA in the 20s to FBI sabotage and certainly that was a major issue.  It was the FBI that framed Garvey, eventually deporting him (Garvey was a Jamaican national) in 1927.  The FBI, through its own documents freed up by the 1974 Freedom of Information Act, confirmed that they knew Garvey himself was not using the U.S. Post Office to commit fraud, but because they had firm evidence that two of his closest aides were in fact committing such acts, they were able to mount a case that led to Garvey being convicted and deported, thus weakening the UNIA during that era.  And, even just the fact that the elimination of one leader always seems to be an effective way to derail an organization is another example of why political education is so important.  Cadre parties with strong political education produce mass leaders.  This model makes individual assassinations and discrediting campaigns ineffective.  As long as we still have so many believing that the problems in our movements are because "we don't have strong leaders" the propaganda war waged against us by our enemies continues to win.  The masses of the people are the leaders and we can build that collective model of leadership.  

So, no question, as has always been the case, the FBI was engaging in cointelpro during the 20s, long before it targeted socilaist organizations in the 50s and eventually the Black power organizations of the 60s.  Still, as revolutionaries who wish to continue our just struggle for forward progress and liberation, we have to also include an analysis that speaks to the role the lack of political education played in permitting all of this sabotage to take place.  For far too many Africans, the UNIA was simply a vehicle for them to progress.  The UNIA had developed massive resources, especially for an African organization.  They had scholarships that they handed out to Africans everywhere enabling our people to achieve college educations.  Most of the people seeking these opportunities saw the UNIA as a means to an end for them to benefit without them doing anything to contribute in return.  This is a clear example of lack of political education.  Had the UNIA had such a process, they could have done much to instill within our community the necessity to see the UNIA as the living, breathing manifestation of our desire to be free.  The people would have learned that anything they received from the UNIA came from the struggles of the masses of African people so that scholarship didn't and couldn't belong to any individual.  Instead, anyone who took that benefit was obligated to use that benefit for the benefit of the masses of our people.  This level of consciousness was sorely lacking within the UNIA.  This was confirmed by the sad story told by Amy Jacque Garvey in her book "Garvey and Garveyism" where she detailed that after her husband was deported, and one of her son's needed serious medical care, the doctor she took him too, who only became a doctor because of scholarships he received from the UNIA, refused to treat her son because she didn't have the money to pay him.  

Of course, this criticism against the UNIA isn't just indicative of their shortcomings.  In fact, this political education question is a challenge for every African organization ever created. Every organization period.  Clearly, this lack of political analysis is the reason our organizations struggle so mightily to advance past the most basic of contradictions and issues.  Its the reason why so many people interact with our organizations like a revolving door.  The level of consciousness within our community is so low that we have no organized mechanisms to hold our people accountable to us.  That's why so many people "advance" through the ranks of our social justice organizations just to accumulate personal fame and recognition that they turn into personal opportunities and advancements while doing little to advance the masses of our people who placed them in the position to advance in the first place.

That's why the experiences of the UNIA and Garvey should be so instructive for us today.  Its necessary to stop looking at the UNIA and the Black Star Line through rose colored lenses.  Any question of corporatizing our liberation must be squarely debated from the foundational point that we cannot expect to use the system that oppresses us to advance us to liberation.  No where in history does anyone in power create a system that permits those exploited from power from achieving it by "playing the game."  Whomever is pushing that agenda is actually saying they are seeking to find a niche for themselves to advance regardless of our people's suffering.

Also, its instructive for us to realize that enemies of humanity like the FBI are only ever effective because of our willingness to cooperate with them.  This is true from the UNIA to the Convention People's Party in Ghana to the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau (PAIGC -it was PAIGC militants to set up Amilcar Cabral to be assassinated in 1973), the assassination of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, the sabotage in the Congo, the Black Panther Party, etc.  And, in each of these instances it is quite easy to illustrate how our lack of political education was and is a key component in helping our enemies make life more difficult for all of us.

We love the UNIA.  We love Marcus and Amy/Amy Garvey.  We love the fact that they had millions of members in multiple countries.  We relish the reality that they produced their newspaper, the Negro World, in 33 countries in English, Spanish, and French.  We love the hundreds of thousands of working members of the UNIA who gave everything they had for their vision of Pan-Africanism which without question built the foundation for the concrete Pan-African work taking place today.  We just ask those reading this to think for a second where we could be if we had all of their organizational resources and capacities while having a strong political education program that steels its members in who the true enemy is (capitalism/imperialism and any manifestation of their systemic mechanisms) and what we need to do to defeat them and gain our true liberation (The Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare by Kwame Nkrumah for example).  

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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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