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An Anti-Materialistic Person's Tribute to A Long Time Metal Comrade

8/17/2021

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In December of 2004, I bought this SUV.  Since that time it has served as my primary vehicle and by primary I mean that thing has driven through Mexico and Canada.  It has carried me across the country.  But, more important than that is the actual reason why I see the need to celebrate a piece of metal.  That vehicle I relied upon through some of the most scary and traumatic moments of my adult life. 

In 2011 and 2012 I was engaged in helping lead some radical and dangerous housing justice work.  I was getting peppered sprayed and getting in fist fights helping protect people’s houses when the big secret I held was that during that time, I myself didn’t have a place to stay.  In the course of abandoning my long time work within the finance industry (trying to play the double role finally caught up with me), I was in between any real job and having never faced that reality before, I didn’t know how to deal with it. How to ask for help.  So, for about 14 months, this piece of metal served as my living quarters.  Southeast Portland, Oregon, U.S. will forever serve as a sentimental place for me because it was throughout that neighborhood that I slept in my vehicle all those nights.  I’ll always remember the night before a huge action and the well intentioned European organizer/accomplices were concerned about the police trying to locate and pick me up to try and derail the event.  I calmly and consistently reassured them.  There was no way the police would know how to find me that night.  I didn’t even know where I would be myself.

I used my political work as cover.  I could serve as security for the houseless vigil at city hall, parked in front, sitting in my vehicle.  No one else needed to know that I would have had no where else to go anyway.  I enjoy the thoughts of it because even if I had a place to live during those days, I know that I would have still been where I was.  Where the danger was, because work needed to be done.  I’ll always remember all those nights having no gas money and worried like hell that I’d run out of gas or worse, that SUV would break down.  Somehow that I’ll never fully understand beyond crediting the ancestors, I never ran out of gas and that SUV never stopped working, even when by all rights it should have because of how much I was unable to maintenance it during that period. 

Many dangerous missions were carried out in that vehicle.  Shots were fired at it by intolerant elements.  Lonely roads were traveled many times late at night.  Sometimes with people of ill intent in pursuit.  By my latest recollection, between California, Washington, and Oregon, I was pulled over in this vehicle at least 20 times.

Then there are the times I needed it to drive through intense snow.  I lived for a time in a place in Oregon where heavy snow happens nine months a year.

I’m the least materialistic person you will ever know.  I don’t care about houses, cars, etc.  As long as the house is comfortable and I can maintain it.  As long as the car looks decent and drives fine, I’m good.  This SUV was special though because it was there for long trips.  Organizing trips.  It was there for every facet of political work I engaged in from 2004 through today, August 17, 2021 (the birthday of Marcus Mosiah Garvey).  It served as a reliable resource in every way I needed, at times when I needed it the most. 

If you can read between the lines here, then you should pick up that this really isn’t a tribute to a vehicle.  Its an acknowledgement of the struggle that takes place everyday.  The ancestors who always guide me through and a reminder of the struggles I myself have come through.  The good times and the bad.  The comrades, rolling from here to there.  The loading of people and equipment for events.  Dang, that was my vehicle when my daughter graduated from high school.  The night I went to jail for defending myself against a domestic abuser who made the mistake of thinking they could abuse me, the police tried to impound my SUV until I challenged them.  The number of events that vehicle played a crucial role in helping organize from sound equipment for African Liberation Days to carrying a vehicle full of folks to the American Indian Movement’s Un-thanksgiving at the crack of dawn.  I can go on and on, but the point is not the black 2005 Tahoe vehicle.  It’s the memories and people.  I traded in the vehicle today, but writing this has helped me recognize that all of those memories are mine forever.

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Black August, COINTELPRO & Learning The Important Lessons

8/9/2021

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As 2021 moves along there are a number of things that, like the sun following the moon, remain constant.  The international capitalist system continues to utilize its control over our brain waves to promote, institutionalize, and normalize lies, confusion, and misinformation.  The masses of humanity continue to resist this oppression in any number of creative and evolving ways.  And, the forces attempting to organize against the system continue to claim complete mastery over how the government manipulated our movements in the past while simultaneously and foolishly behaving in the same destructive ways, especially on social media, that sabotaged our work in decades past.

The theory here is that capitalism is relentless in promoting the individualistic vision of life as the one and only way that we can effectively carry out our existence.  By individualistic we mean that we are taught that the dysfunctional and subjective ways that we view the world is all that we need to participate in and even lead movement work.  As a result, many people who genuinely believe that they are exercising healthy approaches in the work that they do are actually acting in ways that result in lots of drama and unnecessary conflict.  Conflict that our individualistic vision prevents us from recognizing is being used on a much broader scale against our movement work in ways that will adversely impact us for years to come. 

This past Saturday, August 7, 2021, represents the 51th commemoration of the Marin County Courthouse incident involving Johnathan Jackson, William Christmas, James McClain, and Rutchel Magee.  Most people know the general history of that incident (and if you don’t, information about it is everywhere), but far less people know of the confusion and distrust that influenced the events of that day.  Confusion that was completely and ill-refutably orchestrated by federal police agencies.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had developed a nationally coordinated intelligence program called the Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO).  This program had a number of variations dating back to the 1920s when the Department of Justice (the pre-runner to the FBI) engaged in successful sabotage efforts against Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, but by 1967, a new and improved COINTELPRO was released.  This program, under the seedy direction of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and facilitated by soulless FBI officials like Cartha DeLoach and William Sullivan, had the specific objective of dismantling the African liberation movement.  Back in those days there were very few African FBI agents, so the FBI relied primarily on undercover police informants.  These informants represented African people who were facing criminal charges from the U.S. government. Once the FBI profiled these people and determined that they had the temperament to help them, they would offer these people paid work to join our movement organizations and gather information that the FBI could use to filter down to state and local police departments who were reporting to and cooperating with the FBI through this nationally coordinated program.  Since these people were facing criminal charges if they refused, and most them had zero political education and/or commitment to our liberation struggle anyway, the FBI had little trouble finding plenty of these people to work for them.  From information these people provided to the FBI, the bureau knew that gang antagonisms existed between the US Organization in Los Angeles and the L.A. Black Panther Party membership.  They knew that Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter, the founder of the L.A. Black Panther Party Chapter, was the former head of the Slausens Street organization (what people call gangs) and that para-military elements within the US Organization who led that branch of that organization were recruited from gangs that saw Carter and other Panthers as rivals.  Once the FBI had this information, they knew the weak points and where to push against our organizations.  The results were a number of Black Panthers being killed, including Carter, a complete disruption of political unity in Los Angeles, and all of this happened without anyone at the time having a clear understanding of why this was taking place.

The events of August 7, 1970, were not immune to these contradictions.  There were always struggles within the Black Panther Party over the concept of waging in an out and out war against the empire, and that meant armed struggle, and the focus on the Panther’s “survival programs.”  The FBI knew this and they also knew that many of these contradictions were manifested through divisions in the above ground Panther organizing work and those operating within the underground movements.  For example, there were elements who wanted to take militant action to free comrade and Soledad Brother George Jackson from prison.  Work to create that plan was developed and centered around the 17 year old brother of George, Johnathan Jackson.  Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt) had assumed leadership within the L.A. Panther Chapter after the assassinations of Bunchy Carter and John Huggins in January, 1969.  Ji Jaga, working to try and solidify that Panther chapter that had obviously been under systematic attack (as was the case nationally with Black Panther Chapters and branches), made an attempt to challenge the feasibility of taking action to free comrade George.  In fact, according to eye witness accounts, and FBI records (because remember, everything that was happening, they were aware of), Ji Jaga gave orders to abandon the jail break attempt, but due to COINTELPRO interference, that message apparently never reached young Johnathan on the day of August 7th.    According to FBI file documents, this miscommunication was the objective of the FBI as they hoped the result would be an action that was so poorly carried out that it would have no consequences and would embarrass and discredit the Black Panther Party.  Ji Jaga apparently thought the action was dead and the FBI probably thought nothing significant would come of it, but the feds underestimated the determination of young Johnathan Jackson.  Evidently undeterred by conflicting information and misinformation, Johnathan soldiered his part and entered the Marin County Courthouse on August 7, 1970, armed and prepared to liberate James McClain, William Christmas, and Rutchel Magee, so that they could free George and do much more for our struggle.  Its important that we never forget that the FBI is a soulless organization.  Their sabotage work was designed to ensure that the incident on that day would not succeed in its objective to liberate George Jackson.  Beyond that, they surely had no concern about who was killed, injured, etc., even if some of those people were courthouse employees.  In fact, FBI documents summarizing the days events celebrated the moment Johnathan came into the courtroom, focusing on his moment of indecision due to the lack of people being in place that the plan had called for (when the plan was constructed and before it was blocked, all of which was apparently unknown by Johnathan Jackson).  Able to recover from his momentarily and alleged surprise, Johnathan made his famous announcement “gentlemen!  We are taking over now!”  And, the incident continued with Jackson, McClain, and Christmas, being murdered that day along with a number of courtroom personnel including the judge.  Rutchel Magee, 51 years later, remains incarcerated. 

For anyone with a soul, the results of August 7, 1970, should disturb you.  A 17 year old warrior and other comrades were lost and although we understand the moral victories we derive from that action 51 years later, the adverse impact the incident had in helping create the atmosphere that pretty much made it open season on attacking African liberation organizations are things we still struggle with today.  Also, anyone who knows of the devastating internal antagonisms that resulted from the aftermath of the incident and the miscommunications and distrust within the Black Panther Party membership understands what’s meant when we say our enemies got their way.  The same can be said for the internal dynamics that have haunted the American Indian Movement surrounding the circumstances of the murder of American Indian Movement leader Anna Mae Pictoh Aquash.  Just like the Panthers, those wounds are still wide open in 2021.  This is important because those wounds impacted the capacity of each organization.

What all of this should mean for us in 2021 and beyond is you are extremely naïve if you don’t believe  that the same level of monitoring against all of our organizations is taking place in 2021 that was taking place in 1967.  As was stated, COINTELPRO came through several manifestations so clearly, what we are facing today is not going to be the same as it was in 1967, but its still happening.  And, just because you don’t see it means absolutely nothing.  No one saw it in 1967 either and the level of technical capacities available today to prevent you from seeing far exceed what was in existence 50+ years ago.  So, although we probably won’t have the clear evidence for some years now, you can bet your bottom that everything you say, do, talk about, think about, etc., is being monitored, filed, and strategized around for how it can be used against all of us.  Some of us talk so much that you may say 1000 things and none of them are ever used, but don’t let that confuse you into thinking nothing is happening.  Also, the level of participation you have or think you have is completely ill-relevant.  Even a movement nonentity like William O’Neil could be molded to get close enough to a significant leader like Fred Hampton to cause ill-reversible damage.  This is actually a constant strategy used by our enemies.  Another thing they rely upon is our indoctrination in that individualism and the proliferation of the ego being centered in whatever capacities we have.  The reliance of social media in today’s organizing work is a strong catering tool for that proliferation of ego and the ability of people to create whatever type of reality for themselves and others that they desire.  All of this is being closely monitored, studied, and strategized around by the enemies of humanity.  And, people today are probably as naïve as we were 50 years ago in thinking that nobody cares about what we are saying, etc.  At least we hope that this is the case because if not, it would have to mean that people just don’t care how much what they are doing is harming real movement building. 
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Best practices to combat this effort to bring us down is to practice time tested things that strengthen our movement instead of providing our enemies all of the fuel they need to attack us.  Remember that disagreements are a natural part of the growth process and that there is no rule that we have to agree with everyone to have a positive relationship with them.  It’s the strong who can work with and respect people they don’t agree with because those people understand that everyone has a contribution to make.  Its only the egotistically fragile who believe that their way is the only way and anyone who doesn’t see the world the way they do is the enemy.  The FBI loves those of you who believe that last sentence.  Develop some intellectual maturity and discipline.  When disagreements arise make it a practice to take them to the people they involve and absolutely no one else.  Learn how to engage in principled ideological struggle over disagreements and practice keeping those disagreements ideological and not personal.  If you cannot subvert your dislike for someone in the interest of not providing fuel for our real enemies, then you lack the maturity to be involved in this work on any meaningful level.  Dislike them, but struggle principally with them.  Doing so will make you feel better about yourself and will make the person you dislike respect you more which will help stall out negativity because you will recognize the courage you manifested in taking the struggle directly to the parties involved.  In turn, they will also see that because they will feel the accountability you brought to them with your principled approach.  All of this only makes us stronger while denying our enemies the fuel they are looking for to use against us.  If we aren’t willing to implement these simple practices and if we continue to refuse to learn from the lessons of the past, then we are demonstrating that what we are doing now has little to do with mass liberation and more to do with personal advancement and ego gratification.  Don’t be that person.  Let’s make sure our elders and ancestors didn’t suffer for nothing.
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Simone Biles, African Athletes, U.S. Patriotism & White Supremacy

8/4/2021

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During the 2020 Olympic games, which due to the pandemic are being carried out in the summer of 2021, gymnast Simone Biles, suddenly withdrew from competition for the U.S. team.  Biles, who has been so dominant in her performance over the last several years that she has earned the title of GOAT (greatest of all time), has been so outstanding that many judges have admitted being confused about how to properly evaluate other gymnasts in comparison to Bile’s incredible capabilities. 
Biles, apparently feeling pressure to justify her decision to withdraw, took the painful step of revealing publicly that she has struggled with depression and needed time away from the sport to manage her mental health.  She expressed that the depression results in large part from the abuse she experienced for an extended time from her gymnast coach.  Neither her dominant performance in gymnastics or her admission about the reasons for her withdrawal have muted the incredible level of criticism that is being waged against her by a large swath of people who are calling her a coward and someone who has abandoned her teammates at the Olympics.  And this harsh criticism hasn’t just originated from random people.  It has been echoed by national media personalities, politicians, etc.  These people are exhibiting zero empathy for her suffering whatsoever.

We have seen this same scenario many times as it relates to how African athletes are evaluated.  Professional athletes like Barry Bonds and Kevin Durant are often criticized for their demeanor during press conferences and in interacting with the public.  They are often called “ungrateful” and “spoiled” because of their unwillingness to be everything the general public wants them to be at any given moment.  Meanwhile, follow professional athletes like Larry Bird and Aaron Rodgers, both European (white) will never win any magnanimous personality awards.  Neither has a shining reputation for being patient and engaging with the public, yet neither has been subjected to the venom that comes for Bonds, Durant and other African athletes on a daily basis.

Another instance revolves around San Francisco Giants Baseball Pitcher Jay Jackson.  An African relief pitcher, Jackson has performed well for the Giants this season up to last week of July when he had three consecutive rough outings.  For those unfamiliar with baseball jargon, what that means is Jackson was batted around by the opposition in three games and for that he received such a barrage of racist hate mail that the Giants baseball organization felt the need to respond to repudiate the racism directed at Jackson.

What ties all of these incidents together is the underlining white supremacy that operates on a systemic level within every crevice of every function within this society.  The foundation of rightwing pundit Laura Ingraham’s admonition to LeBron James last year to “shut up and dribble” is the belief on behalf of millions of people in this country that every breath we take as African people is somehow a privilege that we have not earned, but has been provided to us by the glorious United States of America – the citadel of freedom and democracy.  This belief is firmly rooted in the myth of white supremacy that advances the notion that African/Indigenous, and other colonized people have never contributed anything to the “development” of this country.  Instead, this myth argues that we been the benefactors of the hard-work, values, and ordained blessings of white Jesus on this great European nation.  And, as a result of this lucky position we find ourselves in, we should consider ourselves fortunate to have the opportunity to earn money playing a sport for the entertainment of large, mostly European crowds and owners.  We should be honored that Europeans, the only true “Americans”, even permit us to represent their great country because certainly, we have done absolutely nothing to earn such an honor.

This white supremacist thinking explains where the venomous response to Silver medal winning Shot-putter Ravin Saunders medal stand protest (against injustice against colonized and oppressed people) comes from.  It also explains why fans at professional basketball games feel perfectly justified cursing at players, throwing popcorn and spitting on them (Atlanta’s Trae Young and Washington’s Russell Westbrook).  It also explains why tennis player Naomi Osaka was met with the same disdain for pulling out of the Wimbledon and Olympics tournaments for similar reasons as the ones Biles provided.  This marginalization of African athletes, whether anyone admits it or not, is rooted in the white supremacist notion that we are nothing beyond the tools of European capitalism, to be used completely to their satisfaction.  Beyond that, we have no agency they need to respect and the idea of viewing us as complete human being is as absurd as suggesting during the enslavement of our ancestors that they were full human beings. 

I love sports and baseball is one of them.  I’ve been a fan of my San Francisco Giants (my city of personal origin) since being a little boy.  As I listened to the Giants game earlier this week when pitcher Jay Jackson was having a difficult time getting opposing batters out, I was keenly aware of the rancor being directed at him by the announcers, who are allegedly supposed to always be objective.  They were talking about how “horrible” the pitches he was throwing were and how poorly his approach was to trying to get hitters out.  I have played, watched, and listened to thousands of basketball, football, baseball, etc., games over the years.  Anyone else who has already knows that bad performance is a part of sports, but all one has to do is compare the sentiment expressed around it when African athletes struggle compared to their European counterparts to see the glaring contradictions.

The underlining issue is African people are not respected as human beings.  Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, we are viewed as show animals.  Pay attention to how African athletes, regardless of what country they “represent” are labeled and analyzed.  Clearly, the values of chattel slavery are still very evident today.  The dehumanization of African people is an essential part of maintaining the capitalist system.  They have to separate us from our humanity because to see us as fully functioning human beings would bring into play the contradictions that exist within this society.  Contradictions that if fully exposed, shine bright lights on the international capitalist system that depends upon those contradictions to continue to exploit and profit from our human and material resources, particularly in Africa, but everywhere African people exist. 
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The positive thing is these examples illustrate clearly how the manifestations of capitalism work.  Nothing falls outside of the realm of white supremacy.  Not a single thing.  From a single gymnast in the Olympics to the performance of the garbage worker to even a Hollywood actor, white supremacy permeates every crevice of this society.  And the only thing that will change this reality is when the African masses demand and achieve the respect we rightfully deserve and the only thing that will ever produce this result is the liberation and unification of Africa (under one continental socialist government) = Pan-Africanism.  As we currently exist, even an African gymnast or shot-putter in the U.S. doesn’t fall outside of these parameters.  A professional basketball player playing in the U.S. who was born and raised in Greece doesn’t fall outside of this.  Nothing and no one does.  And, for those who doubt Pan-Africanism is our solution to these problems, just stop and think for a moment why it is that you will never hear the same disrespect and dehumanization being leveled at athletes (or anyone) from any European country or even China (where they are engaged in a similar type of building up of China that we need for Africa).  This is ill-refutably true whether athletes from those countries have failings in their performances (which they do) or not.  As long as African people in general, and Africa in particular, are disunified, even being a famous millionaire athlete is never going to be enough to protect anyone from the ravages of this backward system.  And, if Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka are subjected to this inhumane treatment, just imagine the experiences of the everyday masses of African people.  What we are seeing with how our athletes are being treated is another very clear example that individualism, regardless of how much money it generates, is never going to be the solution for us to acquire the dignity that no amount of money on earth will ever be enough to purchase.  As Kwame Nkrumah correctly articulated, our problem is political, not economic.  Political in the sense that we need organization of our people.  Even the silly Olympic games provide insight to how unity would show our power.  Imagine a team representing a united Africa.  Where Africans born in Brazil, Jamaica, the U.S., Britain, and every country of Africa are on the same united Africa team against the rest of the world.  It would be a struggle for anyone else to win even a single bronze medal in anything except the few sports that African people don’t participate in like that silly horse jumping nonsense.  And, that’s just the Olympics.  The same dynamic would be in play for international politics and economics and every sphere of life that African people currently struggle to gain a seat at the table in.  Its past time that we recognize this because even if we don’t, the people brutalizing us understand this clearly.  This is the reason they come at us as hard as they do because they know that the moment we recognize that playing by their rules will never benefit us is the day they know their days are numbered.

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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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