Ahjamu Umi's: "The Truth Challenge"
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The Myth of "People of Color" & "Allies" V.S. Principled Solidarity

11/23/2020

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First off, there is no such thing as “people of color.”  The subtle inference in that term is that colonized communities have color and Europeans (white people) do not which is false.  Obviously, all people have color so there is no reason to provide Europeans with that type of status.  Secondly, colonized communities are each their own distinct cultures and histories and therefore needn’t be lumped together as some sort of monolithic entity.  Third, its critical that those of us from these colonized communities began to discuss openly and honestly the dysfunction that white supremacy has marinaded onto our day to day existence, how we see ourselves, and certainly, how we see each other.  Finally, although many people from colonized communities prefer to operate under a fantasy notion that we can simply ignore Europeans because of our lack of desire to interact with the types of dysfunction that occurs between us, our experience has taught us that you have to establish healthy boundaries on how you desire people to interact with you.  This is no less true on a collective basis.

We start by acknowledging, from an African perspective, that there is ill-refutably a foundation of anti-Africa sentiment that drives white supremacy and its practices in this society.  What we mean is this anti-Africa sentiment is institutional and systemic which means its practiced collectively by Europeans, but also many Asian, Indigenous, and even African people – against the African masses.  For examples of this, we point to the systemic criminalization of African people which takes place no matter who African people interact with, including other Africans.  This is primarily the result (as compared to Africans collectively treating other communities this way) because of our often articulated analysis of how capitalism as the world’s dominant economic system came to be.  Capitalism, being born out of financing provided from the trans-Atlantic slave trade – which is responsible for the millions of Africans who exist in the Western Hemisphere today – has had to create the myth of African inhumanity (over and above the shortcomings of all other groups) as a justification for how this corrupt system was established and as cover for how it continues to operate, standing on Africa’s shoulders.  Comedian Richard Pryor had one of many classic stand up routines on white supremacy when he played out a monologue in 1973 about Vietnamese people coming over to the U.S. after the Viet Minh Front in Vietnam effectively defeated U.S. imperialism.  In Pryor’s routine he talks about how U.S. government officials lined up dozens of incoming Vietnamese as they deplaned into this country to teach them how to say the n word “in order to become good citizens!”  Pryor closes out his session by imitating a European official who tells the Vietnamese “that’s good.  If you get your asses kicked, you know you made it!”  Although a comedy routine, Pryor’s commentary captures the very essence of anti-Africa sentiment that infects all communities – against African people.

Why anti-Africa though, instead of anti-Indigenous, etc.?  Its important to realize that the capitalist system in the Western Hemisphere is built on the theft of Indigenous lands and the enslavement of African people.  By default, this means that anti-Indigenous sentiment is a foundational piece of this backward system like anti-Africa sentiment.  The difference is capitalists understood that they needed to base the justification of their conquest on some specific features and practices and the core of that analysis was on keeping oppressed communities focused on each other as threats (instead of all of these communities being focused on the capitalist system as the only real threat).  For a number of reasons, Africa and African people were their scapegoats for this great myth and process.  So, the socialization in capitalism, as the old saying goes, is “if your white, your right.  If your yellow your mellow.  If your brown, hang around, but if your black, step back, and that’s where its at!”  This has been the mantra within the capitalist system for 528 years and results have been a dominant socialization against Africa and the people of Africa.  The error many Africans make is in labeling this phenomenon as “anti-blackness.”  This happens because most Africans within the Western Hemisphere have little to no understanding about Africa and its actual, whether acknowledged or not, role in our everyday lives and our collective future.  Consequently, since we are mostly disconnected from our mother, we see our existence as independent of our homeland and instead, based solely on some arbitrarily “blackness” which is exactly how this system has socialized us (as their strategy to disconnect us from Africa because if we are disconnected we will never come to the realization that land is power and our power is Africa).  In other words, there is no mystery as this strange “anti-blackness” suggests.  We are exploited and oppressed because of the mineral resources and cheap labor we provide as Africans and children of Africa, period.  Everything else about white supremacy is simply a ruse to cover up this ill-refutable reality.

The systemic alienation of African people has created a dysfunctional response from African people where we react by convincing ourselves that we have nothing in common with other oppressed people.  One need not go far to hear commonplace stories within African communities about the disrespect reaped upon our people by other colonized communities.  And, as explained, these claims are real, but its also true that African people who have education, businesses, political positions, etc., have no great collective track record of respect and support for the African masses.  This is true because to advance within the capitalist system its required to, as Pryor illustrated to us, step on the African.  This is a primarily class contradiction more than a racial and/or geographic contradiction because the basis of this behavior is rooted in acting in a way that puts you in with this backward system.  For example, most Africans know that getting pulled over by African police is no relief since most of them are forced to demonstrate their loyalty to the system and the definition of that, since the system is based on exploiting us, is proving that they are willing to contribute to our exploitation and oppression. 

That belief among Africans that we have nothing in common with other oppressed communities (because many of us see them as falling in line with our oppression), along with our lack of understanding of who we are as African people, creates many challenges that stand in way of our collective progress.  The first hurdle we must overcome is our lack of understanding about our identity.  This system was built and is maintained on our backs.  This separates us from all other people because most other colonized communities (except the Indigenous people who were obviously already here), came here to find something better (based on continuing Africa’s exploitation) so for them, leaving their identities and “blending in” as imitation Europeans appears to be a good plan to accomplish their objectives (this is true even for many Africans from other countries, including all of Africa).  For the African masses, since blending in for the majority of us will never be possible here, and the fact that we haven’t been able to collectively blend is constantly thrown in our faces as if the reasons for this failure are our fault, many Africans choose to withdraw from any concept of solidarity.  We sadly believe that we are completely on our own while we ourselves hang onto some of the same backward behaviors that we complain about these other communities having against us (Africans being homophobic and intolerant is an example.  The same type of pile on them to protect ourselves – scarcity model that capitalism depends upon).

Regarding Europeans, since colonized communities are disorganized, there is no true accountability for Europeans to stand up with us in principled ways that require them to deal head on with realities that should be required in order for them to even believe they are just.  For example, this dysfunctional environment makes it possible for Europeans to claim to support Indigenous independence while they refuse to see themselves as anything other than “Americans” which automatically means that they see this land as theirs, a primary contradiction to them being able to claim true respect and solidarity for Indigenous people since the core of their struggle is getting their lands back.  And, Europeans can shout “Black lives matter” while having absolutely no understanding that this system that these Europeans consider their own is the reason our lives don’t matter.  What a comfortable position it must be to believe that relying on slow gradual “changes” while capitalism, the reason we are oppressed, continues to maintain itself, is a position that reflects any real principled behavior.

All of these contradictions stand firmly in the way of us being able to build any true progress in any of our movements for justice, but there are answers.  We must decide that our position in this society must become one based on principled analysis and behavior and that has to start with accepting that this is stolen land.  That the Indigenous people must get their lands back.  And, that this capitalist system is maintained on exploiting Africa and African people.  And, that Africa must be free, unified, and socialist.  None of these principles can be compromised.  None of this can be explained away with liberalism that suggests its somehow possible to have your cake and eat it too by believing that we can have justice under the very system that causes our oppression (just because you don’t have the courage and character to take a principled stand that takes away your individual comfort).
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As we have historically and consistently done, the All African People’s Revolutionary Party takes a leadership position on principled struggle.  We do that, as we always have, by shouting that this is stolen land and providing a blueprint on how we can have principled and honest solidarity with the Indigenous people while requiring the same from them.  How we can overcome the insecurities and dysfunctions that capitalist oppression has imposed on us so that we can build the type of internal organization and power, coupled with strong and necessary support for each other, that will provide the necessary foundations for us to start having the type of real victories that we really need and our future generations actually deserve.  With that, we invite everyone to join us on Sunday, November 29, 2020, from 4pm to 5pm PST when we provide the next installment of our weekly seminar series (every Sunday at 4pm PST).  Myself and daughter Shukura will discuss “True and Just Solidarity with Indigenous People” as an alternative to this disgusting thankstaking sham of a propaganda day (designed to justify this theft of lands).  You can join us at facebook.com/ahjamu.umi (this week and every week) or contact us through this site for a ZOOM link.  Forward to justice for Africa, African people, Indigenous people, and all of humanity!

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Unknown History How Kwame Nkrumah's Last Books were Printed

11/18/2020

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June Milne, here with Kwame Nkrumah in Guinea-Conakry, was Nkrumah's editor and publisher. At his request, she initiated PANAF Press which still today continues to publish his critical theories and analysis of the African revolution
s  In 2020 and beyond, Kwame Nkrumah’s classic revolutionary writings have become must reads for all African revolutionaries and anyone serious about understanding the applications of revolutionary Pan-African ideology and practices.  Books by Nkrumah like the “Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, Class Struggle in Africa, Challenge to the Congo, Consciencism, Africa Must Unite, Neo-Colonialism, and others have become the core study components for revolutionary Pan-African organization.  Its difficult to think of any African revolutionary within the last 60 years who was not heavily influenced by the ideas of Kwame Nkrumah.  From Sekou Ture, Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral, Sam Nujuma, Samora Machel, Eduardo Mondlane, Robert Mugabe, Muammar Qaddafi, Malcolm X, and Kwame Ture, this is unquestionably true, but this was not always so.

During the 1960s, when Nkrumah was president of Ghana, the first country in Africa to gain independence from British colonialism,  Nkrumah and the governing Convention People’s Party embarked on a program of socialist development in Ghana and Pan-African unity throughout Africa.  Much is written about Nkrumah’s selflessness, but what should be made clear here is that due to Nkrumah’s political work, the forces of reaction, led by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), British M16, the Israeli Mossad, and other imperialist intelligence forces, a concerted campaign was initiated in Ghana designed to overthrow Nkrumah’s government.  Documented files illustrate clearly that the CIA was working with reactionary forces in Ghana as early as 1961 to build a network that would carry out the vicious deed.  And, internationally, imperialism waged a carefully constructed campaign of misinformation designed to paint Nkrumah as corrupt and dictatorial.  In February of 1966, this tragic work was successful when backward forces loyal to imperialism carried out a successful coup to overthrow Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party while Nkrumah was traveling to Vietnam to lead a delegation seeking to facilitate peace talks to end the U.S. – Vietnam war.  The fact that after the coup, it became quite obvious that Nkrumah had none of the overseas bank accounts that his distractors accused him of (although while they were in power, they amassed numerous Swiss bank accounts full of Ghanaian cash), or the reality that during his term as president, not one execution for political reasons was carried out by his government.  None of those truths generated the backlash against the forces who overthrew him as he genuinely hoped would occur.  Of course, for those who know the history, Nkrumah never again returned to Ghana after the 1966 coup, remaining as co-president of Guinea with the Democratic Party of Guinea, and mutual revolutionary Pan-Africanist Sekou Ture.  In 1972, Nkrumah died in Romania while seeking treatment for a multitude of illnesses that remain a mystery to this day. 

What has not been widely discussed was the method in which Nkrumah’s critical writings i.e. the Handbook and Class Struggle, etc., were produced so that we have them today to help us define and direct our work to continue the legacy Nkrumah gave us.  June Milne was a European woman from Australia who lived in London, England (Britain).  She was skilled in literary matters as an author, editor, and eventually, publisher.  When Ghana became independent, she, like thousands of people around the world, identified with the mission Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party embarked upon and she was able to meet Nkrumah and develop a relationship with him.  That relationship led to her responding to his request (after his government was stolen) to create PANAF press.  And, from that publishing entity, the latter books he produced were published and are still available through PANAF today.

Although I don’t know for sure, my guess is much of why this woman, who played a critical role in making Nkrumah’s works available, is rarely discussed is because the fact she was European doesn’t fit the narrative of many of the race oriented nationalists involved in Pan-African work.  And, with the experiences we all have with systemic white supremacy, no one can really blame those folks who do their best to diminish any role any European plays in truly being an accomplice to our struggle for justice.  I’ve always seen that issue much differently than most of the Africans I’ve engaged in with this struggle.  I’ve always been quite sensitive to other people’s suffering.  As a result, its always been important to me to never become the type of unfeeling person who represents the thousands of racist and inhuman encounters I’ve experienced in my life.  I see my humanity clearly and as a result, I have no trouble seeing other people’s humanity.  And, I also believe the greatest sin is being ungrateful.  So, its within that spirit that I believe it warranted to discuss Ms. Milne’s role because like it or not, it was a critical one.  I’m convinced this is how Nkrumah saw not only Ms. Milne, but humanity as a whole.  I am much more interested in providing examples like Milne to the European masses to demonstrate to them what a real accomplice against our oppression actually does (for the most part) to support our struggle.  This to me is a much more practical and useful display then trying to diminish anyone’s real contributions, no matter who they are.  The Pan-African struggle will always be guided, directed, and participated in by African people . Yet, there have always been, and there will always be, some Europeans who decide to make contributions to us that we can definitely use. 

It could be that many Pan-Africanists, Nkrumahists, Nkrumahist/Tureists, are unaware of this, but when the coup happened in February 1966, to overthrow Nkrumah’s government, Milne had just left Ghana days before the coup.  She had been there, as she often was during Nkrumah’s presidency (and just as frequently as she traveled to Guinea-Conakry to see Nkrumah after the coup in Ghana) to edit his writings and prepare them for publishing.  When Nkrumah left for his trip to Vietnam, he encouraged Milne to stay in Ghana and take a holiday.  Wanting to get back to Britain and continue her work, she declined and had she not left, its quite possible we would have been robbed of “Challenge of the Congo” which was the absolute best book written about the imperialist and neo-colonialist sabotage in that country five years before (1960/61).  When Milne left days before the coup, she had in her possession the finished draft of “Challenge” that she had just feverishly gone over with Nkrumah before his trip to Hanoi.  Had she stayed in Ghana when the coup broke out, due to her close relationship with Nkrumah, she would have unquestionably been detained and all her notes seized.  The neo-colonialists would have had the final draft of “Challenge” in their possession and like they did with Nkrumah’s draft on apartheid in Southern Africa, they certainly would have destroyed it. 

As was mentioned, Milne continued to visit Nkrumah consistently once he relocated to Guinea after his government in Ghana was stolen.  During their visits and other correspondence, Milne helped Nkrumah edit and publish what many consider to be his most influential books on PANAF – the Handbook and “Class Struggle in Africa.” 

Nkrumah entrusted Milne to be his personal publisher and PANAF was the result of that relationship.  And, based on the fact we have all his books today and his ideas influence the African revolution more now than they did when he was alive, Ms. Milne deserves recognition for her tireless work to ensure Nkrumah’s writing would be available for us as they are today.  This doesn’t mean she is beyond criticism.  In all her writings, whether its “The Conakry Years” the 1990 book of Nkrumah’s letters while being in Guinea from 1966 to 1972 or the biography on Nkrumah that Milne penned, she makes a point each time to publish things unflattering about Kwame Ture (formally Stokely Carmichael).  Based on Nkrumah’s letters she published in “The Conakry Years” she made it appear as if Nkrumah saw Kwame Ture as immature and completely unfit to play a role in the African revolution.  Of course, there are always moments between every teacher and student where the teacher loses patience with the student, but its important to remember that Kwame Ture at that time was a young man in his mid-twenties who was faced with unbelievable international pressure due to his standing as the primary spokesperson for the U.S. Black power movement.  If Nkrumah had no confidence in him, he would not have ever invited Kwame Ture to move to Guinea-Conakry and become his political secretary.  He would certainly not have given Kwame Ture the finished draft of the Handbook to read and he would not have invited Kwame Ture to be a building block in initiating the work to build the All African People’s Revolutionary Party. 

Fortunately, another book of Nkrumah’s letters from Conakry was published a few years ago by a current Pan-African cadre/comrade Sister Doreatha Drummond MBalia, and this book contains letters not included in Milne’s 1990 version.  In this second book, much more flattering letters about Kwame Ture were included which brings the question to mind why Milne chose to present such an unflattering image of Kwame Ture?  And, in case more clarification was required, her bio on Nkrumah mentions Kwame Ture only once, to replay how much Nkrumah argued with Kwame Ture about his political immaturity.  This is an unfortunate flaw to Milne’s otherwise good work in assisting Nkrumah on the publishing front.  I can only guess, but based on the focus Milne has on Kwame Ture’s ideas, she seemed to have the impression that he was not fond of Europeans, or at least that he wasn’t interested in expending any energy towards them.  Maybe, she felt he didn’t care for her relationship with Nkrumah.  Still, its intellectually dishonest to dismiss Kwame Ture’s role in also assisting in developing Nkrumah’s work because Kwame Ture’s contributions in this regard cannot be diminished and Milne, who just died a few short years ago, certainly had to be aware of those contributions.  She was not just a disconnected white editor/publisher.  She had a strong understanding of African politics, taking ideologically developed positions in support of people like Sekou Ture, something that almost never happens in the publishing arena.  So, I cannot dismiss her mistreatment of Kwame Ture as an accident.  Its unfortunate, especially since as was stated earlier, one of the most essential features of any accomplice to a struggle for justice is to never center themselves in that struggle they are assisting and to understand that even if the people in that struggle dismiss them, there are historical reasons that explain that behavior and therefore, conscious people cannot take such things personal. 
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Still, Ms. Milne gets a measure of respect because without her work, we would probably not have the same access to Nkrumah and Sekou Ture that she has helped provide us.  Access that we will continue to transmit into future generations so that the ideas these Pan-African giants provided can continue to be developed in ways that bring us closer to the freedom they envisioned for us and humanity.
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Ice Cube & The Idealism of Bourgeoisie Individualism

11/16/2020

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I’m over it.  The “Oh my God!  Ice Cube met with Trump!  Ice Cube met with Biden!  Ice Cube is speaking at a zionist conference!”  Whatever Ice Cube is doing or not doing, many of you are sharing and talking about his reactionary exploits on a viral basis and the only thing that befuddles me about that is why and how so many of you evidently remain so easily confused about why this happens.  The people who actually do movement work including, but beyond, just social media jaw bumping, have been telling anyone who will listen not to follow these capitalist celebrities.  Many of us, overtly and/or covertly, accept the dysfunctional reasoning that whatever the capitalist system raises up and respects is what deserves respect and recognition.  For many of us that means whatever token negroes the capitalist system presents as “successful” house slaves, we embrace as our leadership.  Or, at least we accept them as people we need to listen and pay attention to.  We operate on superficial levels of information, gleaning 20% of poorly researched social media articles and pretending that this substitutes for organized and consistent political education.  As a result, we continue to ignore warnings that go back as far as Malcolm X telling us in 1962, almost 60 years ago, that we are the only people who let our enemies convince us that “ballplayers, singers, trumpet players, are the people who know what’s best for our people!”

And, please don’t say you are just informing people about what’s happening when you share the exploits of people like Ice Cube because we know that’s not true.  There are people all around us doing consequential work to organize our people to wage serious struggle against our oppression and many of us never share not one of those genuine efforts.  So, we are really not concerned about educating our people, at least not nearly as much as we are interested in spreading the type of information that we believe will bring attention to us as individuals.  Meanwhile, the masses of our people continue to suffer.

Quoting a former football coach, Ice Cube is “exactly what we thought he was!”  For anyone who studies his history on even a cursory basis, you know his petti bourgeoisie origins.  Yes, he has petti bourgeoisie origins in Compton, California, U.S.  In fact, had his hip/hop career stalled without advancing, O’Shay Jackson, his actual name, was headed to drafting school to study in the field of architecture.  He was never a gangster, never a Crip, never even in the streets of Compton.  This has been confirmed by everyone around him during the 1980s.  Los Angeles recording industry folks in African hip/hop music, described Jackson as a “nice kid.”  What he gave us with his lyrics while in NWA was drama designed to inflame the racist stereotypes of European youth who had never been to Compton and who will never go to Compton.  The entire so-called gangsta rap industry was focused on creating imagery for these white youth, who represented upwards of 70% of the rap record buying public.  Creating an image for white youth from Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, etc.  An image that Ice Cube may have observed pieces of, but that he never participated in and/or apparently had any intention of participating in.

The above is important because it demonstrates Ice Cube’s business acumen for creating and sustaining a money making image that he was able to translate into a multi-million dollar career.  In other words, when it was profitable to project the image of gangsta rap, Ice Cube did that.  When he saw a benefit in manipulating the growing consciousness that was fueled largely by militant organizing efforts on college campuses in the late 80s and early 90s to win the hearts and minds of the African intelligentsia, he became a Black Nationalist rapper.  And, just like he was innovative and powerful in portraying a Compton gangsta in NWA lyrics, he was even more convincing in portraying himself as a soldier within the Nation of Islam and a colleague of the late Dr. Khalid Muhammad, but it was all nothing except an act.  An act designed to bring in the benjamins.  And, this guy was great at capitalizing on the emotions of our people.  I never listened to NWA, but when Ice Cube became the narrator/lyricist of albums like “Death Certificate” where the struggle of African people was his thesis, I bought each and every album he produced with this focus between 1990 and 1995.  Once he realized that the focus of hip/hop had transitioned from Black Nationalism to gangsta/partying, he formed the Westside Connection and changed from rapping about clubbing our oppressors to clubbing, period.  Then, when his opportunity came to practically abandon hip/hop (except to rake in money touring, from which he completely negates those political songs from the early 90s), he easily transitioned to big screen movies like the “Are We There” and other movie features which propelled his career and opened him up to an audience that would never listen to a hip/hop record of any type. 

Ice Cube is today what’s he’s always been.  A shrewd businessman.  A supporter of the capitalist system.  A reactionary opportunist who rides the waves to ensure his best economic interests are developed.  And, consistent with anyone in this mindset, he now promotes his course of action as the solution to our oppression in this backward system.

We believe that its absolutely despicable how often these bourgeoisie celebrities manipulate the African masses around capitalist inclusivity while lining their pockets through our ignorance.  What’s even more offensive though is those of us who continue to wittingly or unwittingly support these bourgeoisie efforts.  Some of us do it, constantly sharing and talking about these people, because we secretly believe that we one day will occupy the same privileged position of capitalist advancement that we see people like Ice Cube benefiting from.  Others of us promote people like him because we just don’t have the political sophistication to understand how the capitalist system actually functions and how it engages us.  Included in each group is the belief that there is a seat for us at the capitalist table and these folks use the individual examples of people like Ice Cube to justify this backward and long disproven belief. 

For once and for all, Ice Cube is not a representative for African emancipation.  He cannot be that because the only people qualified to play that role are people who are committed and physically involved in the struggle for the collective advancement of the African masses.  What he is – is an individual representative of the court jester class of African buffoons and clowns who entertain the masses of people for the capitalist system in order to keep people focused on making light of the suffering we experience in neighborhoods like “Friday” or “Barbershop” instead of us organizing against those conditions.

As for who some of you thought Ice Cube was after “Death Certificate?”  You wonder where that guy went?  I recall years ago when we were making copies of flyers in Kinkos Copy Store when the manager asked me questions about the African Liberation Day material we were copying originals to work from.  The guy asked to read our anti-capitalist, pro-socialist Pan-Africanist literature and then he began to tell us how Kinkos could help us make our best presentation.  Of course, we turned this offer down, but I have never forgot the logic of capitalism where it was willing to work with us to produce our literature and even make it more marketable if doing so ushered in profits.  When being a Black Nationalist was profitable for Ice Cube and no other messaging was more advantageous, he was that.  When broader and more profitable messages presented themselves, he abandoned Black Nationhood faster than Candace Owens switched from using the NAACP to win a discrimination lawsuit against her to becoming an arch right-wing critic of the existence of white supremacist discrimination. 
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So, enough of Ice Cube and any of these bogus celebrities.  They are what they are.  Opportunists.  Stop looking at them like they are anything more than that.  And stop being free advertising for their pimp efforts against our people.  Instead, start helping those who could really use your help in spreading the word of significant and valuable work for our people.  Think about how you can do whatever you can to share independent and revolutionary work designed to build capacity for our people and all oppressed humanity.  If you are unwilling to do these things and if you continue to just be another bridge for bourgeoisie confusion, then if nothing else, it becomes clear that you have no true interest in advancing our struggle.  What you are really interested in doing is trying to find a niche to join people like Ice Cube in what they are doing at the expense of the masses of our people who all of us, owe every single breath that we take.

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What's Next 4 Us Primary Targets of White Supremacists/Fascists?

11/12/2020

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 In the U.S., despite the grumblings of the current empire president and his regime, regardless of whether the incoming neo-liberal fascist assumes office, or if the current dictator stages a coup, neither should be the primary question for us.  For colonized people i.e. African, Indigenous, etc.  Revolutionary and truly progressive women, revolutionary and progressive LGBTG folks, etc., the primary question should be how are things going to look for us going forward.  And, this question isn’t just a question for people in the U.S.  This is a worldwide question.

European governments are tilting favorably (and even farther than usual) towards fascist regimes in countries like Britain and zionist Israel.  Imperialism continues to mount its domination and sabotage with its increasing military presence in Africa.  And, we say imperialism because the U.S. has the largest military budget in Africa, but France actually has more troops operating there.  Conclusively, their objectives are the same.  Dominate, repress, and control Africa so that imperialism can continue to extort and rob Africa of its critical human and material resources because those resources fuel capitalism’s very survival.

And, here in the U.S., 70 million plus people voted for an open fascist white supremacist while another 75 million voted for a neo-liberal white supremacist.  That’s roughly half the country that is saying, intentionally or not, that they are ok with status quo imperialism.  It’s the social equivalent of voting to be stabbed by a dagger instead of being shot by a 9mm pistol. 
For us as revolutionary organizers, the question isn’t which colonized community can better stand up for the softer colonizer.  The question is how can we effectively organize our communities to develop their own safety mechanisms because clearly, the security plan of calling the police has failed us miserably.  And, anyone who is relying on this plan of self-destruction is betting on a horrible experience regardless of the situation.

Instead, we suggest everyone strongly consider linking up with others to form organizations who can engage community defense efforts designed to keep neighborhoods, families, communities, safe.  If you don’t have an organization and/or collective to initiate this work, start one.  You can start a community defense initiative with two or three people.  I know this because I’ve done it.  Multiple times.  Get your two or three people and decide what area you are going to focus your operations in.  Your objective will be to build blocks for organizing neighborhoods block by block.  Maybe your range is 10 people.  Maybe 50.  Maybe 100 people.  Maybe 500.  Maybe more, but everyone is qualified to carry out this work on some level and our failure to do so is really going to place many, many people in danger.  As we always illustrate in this space, if you want specific help in how you would go about building this work, we offer continuous resources to help you learn how to do so. 
For specific resources, you can watch the one hour video on building revolutionary community defense work.  You can watch either through the All African People’s Revolutionary Party page on youtube @ the link https://youtu.be/AkFesGWbksQ.  Or you can just click the tab on this site entitled “videos” and watch the video here.  We are also coming out with an approximately 130 page manual on step by step work to build revolutionary community defense work which will be out in the spring of 2021.

We certainly don’t relish in having to be distributors of bad news, but we really hope to challenge us to get prepared so that we don’t have to see the disheartening images of people savagely attacked by terrorists with no defense besides complaining to police who just left having coffee with the terrorists before the attack.  Or, as Malcolm X told us “going to Frank James to complain about being brutalized by Jesse James, his brother.”  We have mentioned countless times in these pages that we have extensive experience dealing with the people who you need to focus on right now.  The Proud Boys, militia groups like the Three Percenters, etc.  These people are not going to go away just because sleepy Joe is here.  Actually, these people are more dangerous now than ever and if you are from one of the groups previously mentioned and you are not walking around every-day like you are in perpetual danger, you are living in a fantasy world.  We hope you are not violently forced awake from your slumber.  And, the absolute best way to ensure that doesn’t happen is to learn how to take the most basic precautions as an individual and community to protect yourselves.  Imperialism takes no breaks in devastating the entire world and we cannot take breaks either.  Get organized!  For so many of us, this is a warning we just simply cannot afford to ignore any longer.

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Nigeria; SARS; Imperialism/Zionism & Pan-African Unity

11/5/2020

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​ A major day to day challenge we face is we are revolutionary Pan-Africanists living in the most technologically advanced, yet politically unconscious, society in human history.  Despite the fact 50 million Africans live in the U.S., and that we are here because of the largest kidnapping crime in human history, the vast majority of people living here possess absolutely no information about Africa and/or the African people they see on television and through their car windows.  Unfortunately, most Africans living in the U.S., regardless of where on earth they were born, do not escape this sad commentary. 

As a result, its always difficult to talk about Africa to a predominantly U.S. audience.  Not because I don’t want to talk about Africa.  I am overwhelmingly proud of Africa and being African.  What is undesirable  is the context white supremacy provides us.  Since capitalism, the dominant economic system on earth, was built and is maintained on exploiting Africa and African people, the misinformation that passes as education and media today forces any analysis of Africa and African people that challenges the usual racist rhetoric to be routinely dismissed as insane.  This is the role of white supremacy as the safeguard of capitalism and imperialism.  These are the reasons many people will see a title for an article about Africa and immediately move past it.  Its also the reason most people will openly question what’s happening in Africa and/or with African people, anywhere, but those same people won’t take five minutes to look at what qualified African people have already said about the very issue they are questioning.  By qualified we mean those Africans engaged in the work to liberate the African masses.  Unlike the bourgeoisie politicians, academics, and system validated leaders, these ground warriors for African liberation are engaged daily with the experiences and ups and downs of the African existence.  Yet, for the most part, these figures are written out of history. 

All of the above is also the reason something like what has been happening in Nigeria can happen and most people have no idea why beyond the imperialist media narrative (for those few who even explore that far into it) that the problem is simply defined as African corruption and indiscipline from the African masses.  For those reading this far, we hope this analysis can provide some foundation based in a Pan-Africanist perspective for what has been taking place in Nigeria.

The country of Nigeria, named in the late 1800s by a colonizer from Britain, derives its name from the fact the Niger river runs through the country.  Located on the Gulf of Guinea portion of the Atlantic Ocean (the underhanging section of Africa on the westside of the continent), Nigeria borders Niger in the North, Chad in the Northeast, Cameroon in the East, and Benin in the West.  Africa’s most populous country, and the seventh largest country in the world, Nigeria’s population totals appropriately 206 million inhabitants.  Lagos is Nigeria’s largest city with a population of around 10 million people.  Like most larger African urban centers, Lagos has experienced overwhelming growth over the last 50 years increasing from a population just over one million to its current numbers.  This is a reflection of the westernization/urbanization of Africa and the push for people in the rural areas to move to the cities for economic opportunities that are increasingly more difficult to find in rural areas. 

This demographic reality in current day Africa is evident in large part because of the forces that control Africa today.  Those forces are the multi-national corporate dominance of Africa’s human (labor) and material (natural minerals) resources for the purpose of further enriching capitalist corporations.  Royal Dutch Shell, better known as Shell Oil in the West, is a primary corporation in Nigeria.  Relying on its substandard operations throughout the Niger Delta region of Nigeria for up to one third of its annual international profits, Shell has been challenged over the last few decades by local Ogoni activists in Niger Delta because of its business practices.  Like all these capitalist entities operating in Africa, Shell’s priority is generating profits with as little investment as possible.  Consequently, safe and humane working conditions on Shell facilities in the Niger Delta has always been a fantasy.  Subsequently, the protests have caused operational interruptions and delays in production.  Mass protests continue and because of this threat to Shell’s interest, imperialism has been active in finding ways to ensure those corporate economic operations are protected at all costs.  The political leadership in Nigeria and everywhere else in Africa, is beholden to doing everything to uphold the dominance of imperialism.  Muhammadu Buhari is the current president of Nigeria and his role is to do everything necessary to protect British and U.S. capitalist interests in Nigeria.  In return, like all of Africa’s neo-colonial leadership, he gets to line his pockets with a small portion of the profits stolen from the people’s resources and labor.

The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was founded in 1983 with a stated mission of doing something to challenge Nigeria’s street crime rates.  Whatever SARS did during those years, even the original framers for this unit had come to denounce its operations in recent years.  From 2017 through 2020, SARS agents have carried out hundreds of brutal violent assaults against Nigeria’s people.  In most of these incidents, no actual evidence of criminal activity was present.  This is the reason thousands of Nigerians have hit the streets in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and other major urban areas.  The protests have been militant and uncompromising to the point where Buhari and the corrupt Nigerian government was forced to accede to the people’s demands by disbanding SARS as of October 11, 2020. 

The key points to take away from this clear victory is that we have been telling you that despite the fact the imperialist BBC, CNN, FOX, CBS, CIA, etc., are not going to tell you much of anything about what’s happening in Africa, Africa remains on fire.  And, the fact you may not know or understand that doesn’t diminish that reality one inch.  The people of Africa are sick and tired of Africa’s riches being pirated out by capitalist interests while the masses of Africans suffer in horrible poverty.  They are tired of being repressed just for pointing out this obvious contradiction.  And, they are tired of people in the U.S. not recognizing how much this government contributes to their instability.

Police terrorism against the African masses in Nigeria and the same happening in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Brazil, etc., should be seen through the same lenses.  This repression takes place because imperialism knows its in a dogfight to continue to control its resource rich backyard – Africa.  To do this, they know they have to brutally repress the African masses in Africa as well as the Africa masses outside of Africa.  Despite the fact so many Africans in the U.S., etc., have no clue about our actual clear political, economic, and cultural connection to Africa, our enemies understand that our confusion today can become our clarity tomorrow.  That’s why they have proliferated the African Command program of expanding imperialist U.S. military bases throughout Africa as well as bolstering their police repression of the African masses throughout the diaspora.  The point of these military installations is to train African police and military in counter insurgency measures to confront the mass uprisings against the repression.  Zionist Israeli forces, equally dependent upon imperialism to continue to ensure the theft of diamonds from Africa, which Israel relies on to uphold its national economy, trains these African police in Krav Maga (hand to hand fighting techniques). 

SARS, operational or not, should be seen as a result of this repressive strategy in Africa.  People in the West, particularly the U.S., play a crucial role in developing consciousness around this tragedy because much of this repression is contributed to by U.S. tax dollars. 
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Of course, the problems in Nigeria are simply part of parcel of Africa’s problem as a whole.  We lack organization to stop the oppression and theft of our land and resources.  That organization is revolutionary Pan-Africanism i.e. one unified socialist Africa.  The people of Nigeria are making it plain that they desire something new, something better.  Our work is simply that of helping people understand what that better (Pan-Africanism) looks like.  We applaud the efforts of our comrades on the ground in Nigeria – the Amilcar Cabral Ideological School – Pan-Africanists fighting in Nigeria for one unified socialist Africa – in their efforts to propagate and organize around this Pan-African ideal.  We will continue this work until we are free or until there is not one single one of us left.
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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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