Ahjamu Umi's: "The Truth Challenge"
  • Home
  • Workshops
  • New Manifesto
  • Hit Me Up
  • Blog
  • Coming Events
  • Videos
  • Donations

Africans (Black People) Stop Making Up Lies about Our History!

12/22/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Our history of resistance to colonialism and slavery as Africans extends far beyond just the experience of the Amistad. And, sadly, most of us wouldn't even know about that had the enterainment industry in the capitalist U.S. not made a movie about it.
 Over the last 528 years, capitalism as an economic system has evolved over the last couple of centuries or so to become the unquestioned dominant economic system on earth.  It has accomplished this objective by prying on the entire planet through colonial intrusions and the manifestation of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  The capitalist system continues to maintain its dominance by relying on exploiting precious African (Africa) human and material resources.  Profitable capitalist industries that carry the economies of the world’s largest capitalist countries – the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Australia, etc., are built upon, and based off of exploiting African resources.  Examples of this are rare earth minerals/foods like gold, diamonds, uranium, bauxite, cobalt, zinc, other hard metals, rubber, phosphates, cocoa, etc.  Products that are produced from those resources include anything aluminum, any device that gives or receives a signal, anything chocolate, any automobile, all gold/diamond jewelry, heating oil, and many, many other things that are rooted in this exploitative relationship between the industrial developed capitalist countries and Africa.

In order to justify this continued exploitation, the early capitalist exploiters created the myth of white supremacy.  This myth claimed that Africans were inferior, had never created and/or contributed any concrete contributions to humanity, and that all we are worth, wherever we are, is that of a burden to the great European (white) capitalist world.  A byproduct of this systemic myth is a great respect for European societies, cultures, and advancements.  Meanwhile, knowledge about Africa and the civilizations of the people of the Western Hemisphere are nonexistent, from the schools, churches, entertainment resources, and everywhere else.

The subsequent result of this psychological and sociological attack against us (that is carried out 24/7/365 overtly and covertly) is that Europeans by and large possess absolutely no knowledge about Africa.  And, Africans, whether born in Africa (same colonial education there) or in the diaspora, possess an equally nonexistent level of knowledge and information about Africa.  The exact same can be said about the civilizations of the actual Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere.

This reality has created some very stunning and devastating dysfunctions.  We are not surprised that most Europeans are racist and unable to see Africa/Africans as anything beyond props to their worlds (whether they know and/or admit it or not).  Even most Europeans who claim to be anti-racist, even those involved in social justice work, most often know slim to none about African resistance movements in the countries they live in like the Nation of Islam for example (beyond what the racist capitalist media says about them) not to mention the Bakongo, Mandinka, Fulani, Ashanti, Maroon, Quilombo, and general Pan-African movements of today.  Nothing at all.  In fact, most of these Europeans view independent African liberation movements (that operate outside of the white left) through the vision of racist European chauvinism i.e. since nationalism has been bad for Europe (which they of course know about), it must be bad for Africa and Indigenous people (which they know nothing about).  This is a result of white supremacy – the chief appendage of capitalism (along with patriarchy).  White supremacy has always, and will always, provide cover to justify the horrible conditions of African and other oppressed people because it blames the victims for our suffering (we aren’t blessed by the great European God, or we don’t work hard enough, and similar garbage).

The other insidious and disgraceful attack that white supremacy wages is against the colonized masses.  Since Africa has been systemically displayed as incompetent, primitive, as essentially the loser in every conceivable way, a large percentage of African people, wherever born and wherever they live, really want absolutely nothing to do with Africa.  And, since we have unfortunately permitted our enemies to shape our perception of our mother – Africa – very few of us have any desire to learn anything about Africa.  Consequently, what has begun to happen (in a very dysfunctional way) in recent years, is many Africans, adverse to any real committed and disciplined study of our history, have resorted to fantasy tales about our history.  Those tales claim that most, if not all of us, have always been in the Western Hemisphere and that we are the true Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere.

This development is tragic because as was previously stated, we have yet to meet one of these people advancing these fantasy notions who knows a single thing about African history.  They haven’t read a single book about it, nor do they have any interest in doing so.  This is distressing to us who are revolutionary Pan-Africanists.  We witness these fake movements like the so-called “American Descendant of Slaves (ADOS), other so-called “Moorish” tendencies, Hebrew Israelites, etc.  Of course, not all of the people advancing those notions are of the same tendencies, but most of them possess some element of this anti-Africa sentiment in their fable rhetoric. 

This entire phenomenon is so extremely disrespectful to our people (and the actual Indigenous people of the Western Hemiphere), especially our loving ancestors who sacrificed so much so that we could be here today.  There are so many critical sources that have documented in clear and certain terms that at a bare minimum, no less than 30 to 50 million Africans were lost in the middle passage from Africa.  Of the millions who arrived in the Western Hemisphere, we have spent 528 years re-populating, expanding, etc., so you do the math.  Yet, there are so many youtube videos (the primary “study” source for most of this foolishness) that raises stupid questions such as “where are the slave ships?”  This is the most amateur example of analysis.  A basic conversation with any structural engineer and historian would educate you on the process of material erosion because there is again, ample scientific data to illustrate what happens to those ships over time, especially the ones lost at sea (due to countless successful slave revolts that some of you foolishly don’t believe ever happened). 

The central problem here is that there is a wealth of credible and accurate information about our proud African history, but within capitalist societies, READ is the dirtiest four letter word.  There is a shameful and dominant attitude functioning out here today where people actually think reading titles of social media articles (not even the often worthless articles themselves) and/or watching portions, or even all, of somebody’s youtube video, is superior research to actual comprehensive study of volume books on this subject matter.  We have so many outstanding historians who have written with clarity and accuracy about our African history.  Africans from all over the world.  Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Amilcar Cabral, Walter Rodney, Franz Fanon, Cheik Anti Diop, Ivan Van Sertima, W.E.B. DuBois, Amy Jacque Garvey.  The list goes on and on like the books they produced, yet we can sadly state comfortably that none of these people have truly studied this material.  If they had, they would know the outstanding history and contributions Africa has made to humanity (study, not skim through).  They would know our contributions to religion i.e. without Africa, there would be no Christianity, Islam, or Judaism, as we presently understand them.  They would know that the first universities in the world were in Africa in Mali (Timbuktu), Kemit (Egypt), and other places.  They would know that our people for 528 years – from the Tigranian and Kikuyu in East Africa to the Shona, Zulu, and Xhosa in Southern Africa, to the Bakongo, Mandinka, and Wolof in the West, organized relentless struggle to repeal European colonialism and slave raids.  The La Bodi in Ghana were so strong in resistance that the Europeans learned the hard way to leave them alone.  Knowledge of this type of history flies in the face of this consistent ignorance “we are not our ancestors.”

Those of us who have a strong command of African history are clearly aware of two things.  First, we know instantly when you don’t have that command.  And, we know that because we know that if you did have knowledge of self you wouldn’t have to make up these fantasies.  Anyone who knows African history has to respect and be proud of Africa.  No disrespect to the actual Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, they have a very proud history in every sense of the word, but I have zero desire to be Indigenous to the Western Hemisphere because I have such a strong love for Africa.  And, all the studying, traveling there, and most importantly, Pan-African organizing work I’ve done there, has completely solidified my connection to Mother Africa.  Its solidified it by helping me understand things about myself that you will never understand being completely focused on integrating into the slave plantation.  This is exactly what’s lacking with these folks who are stuck in the United States with no experience with and/or knowledge about Africa beyond any random conversations they may (or may not) have had with random Africans born on the continent who are here who know even less about Africa then they do.  Surely, you know people around you where you are who are completely ignorant of the history of your city, town, this country, etc.  So, stop acting like just being born somewhere is all the qualification that is required to articulate something about places.  These anti-Africa folks (wherever born) can get mad (they often do) at us talking this way, but what they absolutely never do is respond with any type of comprehensive and critical analysis of African history because they haven’t done that work.  Its obviously much easier to watch videos and read social media article titles than it is to engage in concrete and comprehensive research.  And, there is clearly no comparison between the two.  Its like comparing a fully prepared gourmet meal to Top Ramon noodles in the cup.  You would look like a fool sitting there with Top Ramon arguing that it is a higher source of nutrition, flavor, etc., than an expertly and deliciously healthy gourmet meal. 
​
We are not meaning to insult anyone, but we keep pushing for ideological struggle, sources, and analysis on these fictional historical accounts and all we get in return is “we have always been here.”  Even this article will generate the same hollering and personal insults directed at me, with no refutation of the information contained here.  How is that any different than the millions of Trump zombies who believe whatever he says with absolutely no critical analysis to articulate their points?  We can tell you how it’s the same.  Both segments are relying on easy and quick sound bite information instead of actual research.  As adults, we have the right to be ignorant if we are satisfied with that, but for the safety, development, and positive future of our children and subsequent generations, we have just got to do much, much better family.  There are many of us out here who desire nothing further than to help you in learning who we are as African people displaced on these plantations.  There is absolutely no shame in our people being enslaved for those of us who know how valiantly our people always fought back.  To suggest otherwise is to say that if you are attacked by five people with weapons and you have none, and they get the best of you, but you courageously fight back with every bit of energy you could muster, that you have something to be ashamed of.  That is clearly absurd thinking yet that is unfortunately what many of us believe about our history and people when in reality if the analogy was our experience, we would never tire of letting the world know loud and clear that we fought back.  Well, those of us who know are history are doing exactly that.  The reality is the only shame about us being enslaved is so many of us refuse to liftup the honor of our people by getting serious about finding out what exactly happened instead of taking the word of our enemies because you mistakenly believe the U.S. to be the winner and you want to ride with those you consciously or unconsciously perceive to be on top (at least for now).  Stand up African and unleash that Mother Africa inside in you that is struggling to be free from this oppressive experience that so many of us unfortunately keep struggling to discover some creative and dysfunctional way to integrate into.  As far as I’m concerned, they can have all of that back.  I stand proudly on Africa and in being a strong African who will organize to walk right over their chest.  And, there is no doubt whatsoever that when we organize and Africa is united and socialist, no matter where they are, these Africans who are today claiming to be everything except what they actually are will be pushing us out of the way to join the African freedom experience.  Every African reading this knows this to be true because at the root of this foolishness is opportunism, not a serious desire to liberate our people.  Some, like this Antonio Moore, Yvette Carnel, and Tariq Nasheed, push this nonsense for opportunist economic advancement while most who follow them, or have some other fantasy version of our history, do so out of complete ignorance.  Either way, you will never win.  Africa is on the rise and no force on earth will stop her so as we get stronger, we will see you then – African.

0 Comments

Marcus Garvey, J. Edgar Hoover & Firestone Rubber Corporation

12/17/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Assocation. A Pan-African organization and the largest organization African people have ever had, seen here being arrested by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on the trumped up mail fraud charge they would use to eventually deport Garvey from the U.S.
 In 2020, Firestone Tire & Rubber Corporation is about to enter its 97th year of a 100 year contract with the government of Liberia in West Africa.  That contract was signed between those two parties in 1924.  This same story can be retold about every corner of Africa and every natural resource that Africa has to offer.  European, U.S., Israel (and now Chinese) corporations own fertile lands in Africa and control the production and distribution of the natural resources produced from those processes.  Although we have certainly written extensively about the complex differences between China’s relationship with Africa and that of the traditional colonial countries (Europe, the U.S., Australia, etc.), for the oppressed African masses, the issues remain the same.  Whether we are talking about rubber in Liberia, bauxite in Guinea (aluminum), cocoa in Ghana, cobalt in the Congo and Mozambique (cell phones, lap tops, flat screens and all devices that give and receive signals), diamonds in Zimbabwe, gold in Azania (South Africa), the context is corporations and other countries get rich while Africa, and Africans, remain poor.

Malcolm X correctly said that land equals power.  What he said in more detail is the people who control the land control the natural resources mentioned above.  The people who control those resources control their destiny.  What Malcolm’s statement should lead us to is the control of land is our key to self-determination, not voting and/or attempting to gain wealth within the systems that are built and maintained based on exploiting Africa.  And, going further, our land as African people, the only land we have any moral right to – no matter where we live – is Africa.  That’s it, plain and simple.  That’s what Pan-Africanism seeks to do.  Organize Africans everywhere on earth to reclaim the political and economic direction of Africa.  What Pan-Africanists in theory and action understand is that this objective is crucial to addressing every problem we face as people everywhere we exist. 

Marcus Mosiah Garvey certainly understand this.  He understood this so well that he initiated the largest organization African people have ever had to serve as a vehicle to pursue a Pan-Africanist objective.  The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), founded by Garvey in Jamaica in 1915, sought to create an international army of African people focused around liberating Africa to serve the African masses.  And, Garvey’s organization was not just a rhetorical venture.  The UNIA established chapters in dozens of countries around the world.  Its literary organ – “The Negro World” was published consistently in English, French, and Spanish, in 33 countries.  Much has been written about the UNIA’s purchase of three ships and its efforts to launch a shipping line, but possibly the most impactful project the UNIA embarked upon was its political efforts to strengthen relationships between the UNIA and the government of Liberia in West Africa. 

Although it is true that Garvey himself never set foot on the African continent (which further illustrates how ill relevant it is what our individual circumstances are as it relates to worldwide African unity), he was able, along with Amy Ashwood Garvey (his first wife and co-founder of the UNIA), and later Amy Jacque Garvey (his second wife), to organize an organizational apparatus that was able to establish relationships with officials within the Charles King regime in Liberia.  What the UNIA did was win over the King administration in Liberia with ill refutable logic about the need for African people worldwide to bypass the colonial powers and start putting the pieces in place to establish independent African control throughout Africa.  Garvey and the UNIA convinced the King administration that Liberia’s massive rubber plantations could be properly managed if the UNIA secured the commitment from trained engineers and science professionals, trained in the U.S., the Caribbean, etc., to move to Liberia and replace the colonial expertise that permitted the colonial powers to dominate Liberia’s rubber production.  Based on the Pan-African argument advanced by the Garveyites and the fact every person wishes to live in dignity and pride, something Pan-Africanism has always offered the oppressed African masses, an agreement was reached between the King administration and the UNIA on developing this rubber project in Liberia. 

Due to the success of the Garvey movement in galvanizing the African masses, there were countless forces who attempted to sabotage the work of the UNIA.  The white left, guided by the Communist International financed through the Soviet Union, advanced the idea of the Black belt South within the U.S. (where the Southern U.S. states would be acceded to the African masses within the U.S.) to attempt to dissuade people away from the UNIA and a Pan-Africanist objective.  On a much more insidious level, the U.S. government, fearful of the UNIA’s rising influence among African people, started engaging in nefarious activities designed to discredit the work of the UNIA. 

J. Edgar Hoover is well known as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the U.S. where he held that position for 54 years over the bureau.  His infamy is his role in advancing, endorsing, and facilitating the illegal, immoral, and violent counter intelligence program (COINTELPRO) where the FBI carried out systemic and violent sabotage against the African liberation movement.  Countless people were murdered, incarcerated, and discredited due to the dirty tricks and out and out terror the FBI facilitated against African organizations, but most people don’t realize Hoover’s terror in the 50s and 60s was set in motion by work he did several decades before that to sabotage African self-determination.

In 1917, Hoover, as a very young man of 22, joined the Justice Department.  In 1924, the department was completely reorganized into the Bureau of Investigation as its official title and Hoover was given the rank of director which he held until 1974.  His quick rise in the ranks of the highest intelligence organization within the U.S. was facilitated largely by his work to undermine the UNIA.  By 1919 Hoover was fast at work developing strategies and tactics to fire at the work of the UNIA.  One of the most important salvos he fired that caused immeasurable damage against Garvey and his organization was Hoover’s efforts to intimidate Liberia away from its agreement with the UNIA.  During the early part of the 1920s, Liberia was threatened by France with invasion.  Liberia’s government as it was then and as we know it today is a product of the so-called “Americo-Liberian” legacy.  This reality is a reflection of Africans who were enslaved within the U.S. who traveled back to Liberia starting in 1820.  These Africans established a Western style government in Liberia that borrowed heavily from African cultural norms in the slavery dominated U.S.  This quasi-colonial government dominated the traditional Mande, Kwa, and other African ethnic groupings making the Liberian government Africa’s U.S. representation in blackface.

Exploiting the insecurities of the King administration about its standing among the people of Liberia as well as the pending French invasion, partly to exploit Liberia’s vast rubber resources, Hoover through the U.S. government was able to convince the King administration that if they severed their relationship with the UNIA, the U.S. would prevent France from invading Liberia.  The King administration buckled under this threat and the potential of the Pan-African development of rubber in Liberia was eliminated.

France didn’t invade Liberia.  Instead, they invaded Vietnam and the subsequent developments from that led in part to the U.S. invading Vietnam and engaging a 10 year war in that country.  Hoover in his role as the newly reorganized FBI Director, continued to harass and terrorize the Garvey movement.  The FBI was able to generate a mail fraud case against Garvey, although he himself didn’t participate in the alleged crime, and in 1927 he was deported to Britain which more or less eroded the UNIA’s core work within the U.S. and in the African world overall at that time (the UNIA is still active today).   And, a part of the offer the U.S. made to the King administration in Liberia was to replace the technical help the UNIA had promised to develop rubber production, Firestone Rubber would instead “partner” with Liberia.  In 1924, that 100 year contract was signed and Liberia has controlled rubber production, for its corporate profits, not African development, for the last almost 100 years throughout most of Africa.  Firestone has played other sabotage roles including partnering with U.S. imperialism again in 1966.  When the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) illegally overthrew the government of Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, the CIA-backed coup makers closed the Ghanaian Tire Factory in Takaradi, Ghana.  That factory was producing 100,000 tires annually through Ghana’s socialist economy.  More tires than any other entity in Africa at that time.  Once the coup happened, that factory was sold to Firestone who promptly closed it permanently to ensure the competition the socialist Ghanaian factory posed to Firestone’s profit driven production would never happen again. 
​
A lesson to be learned from this tragic history is that Pan-Africanism achieved is scientific socialism for all of Africa.  Garvey’s efforts to create a partnership with the neo-colonial government of Liberia was ill fated because the interests of neo-colonialism are always beholden to the power of capitalism.  There was no mass involvement and organization in Liberia, just the existence of a colonially trained leadership who’s only grasp of power was based solely on approval of the forces who are oppressing Africa.  Still, Garvey and the UNIA’s example that Pan-Africanism, even in the lacking method that they pursued it, is clearly the solution to the problems African people face.  And, we were able to generate an agreement between an independent Pan-African organization and a region of Africa, to develop resources for collective African advancement 100 years ago!  That effort generated the full focus of U.S. imperialism to destroy it. So, then imagine what could prosper if we embarked upon a mass, organized effort to control our resources under the banner of socialist Pan-African revolution.  Revolution where no agreement with colonialists or neo-colonialists is appropriate because we are organizing simply to take back what rightfully belongs to us.  So, for this vision, we appreciate and thank the UNIA and we continue to engage our work to advance their efforts. 

1 Comment

COVID Rise & Resilience Isn't Due Primarily to Individual Actions

12/10/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
In numerous areas throughout the U.S. today, conditions resulting from the covid 19 pandemic show no signs of regression.  Each time there is a so-called holiday or any activity like weddings, etc., where people traditionally get together, we are seeing spikes in covid cases.  After the most recent so-called holiday, the annual thankstaking commemoration which ironically celebrates diseased Europeans stealing Indigenous lands, covid cases are producing the most deadly days in the U.S. since the pandemic first struck. 

Most of the analysis about why this pandemic continues to be a major challenge in the U.S. (while other countries seemingly have been able to get the outbreaks under control) focuses around the individual behaviors of people in this country and how those individual behaviors aggregated, manifest on the collective society.  In other words, you can turn on any capitalist owned media source, from MSNBC to FOX (the two most widely viewed mediums) and you will hear variances ranging from the virus is not a serious challenge and will disappear on its own, to if only people stopped interacting with one another, stayed in their residences (for those who have one), and wore masks consistently, the virus would be overcome.

From this point, the on the ground reality in the U.S. becomes extremely interesting.  Information sources are everywhere here and available all the time.  Regardless, most people in this society, by design, have limited to no critical analytical skills and view extensive research as unnecessary, on any subject matter.  So, as more and more states are forced to go through their second or third level of shutdowns, the question that comes to mind is what ideas on how this entire scenario could be handled better are out there?  And, who is to blame for the reasons those better ideas are not being implemented? 

We are not medical doctors or physical scientists.  We are political scientists and critical analysts around economic development and sustainability.  As a result, our analysis here is heavily influenced by the actions of revolutionary socialists and Pan-Africanists based on their on the ground practices of organizing societies for the greater good. 

As a result, we argue that the absolute first thing that should happen is a coming home party where the favors, food, and cheers are simply the truth, plain and simple.  And, that truth is that this virus can only be effectively controlled when the needs of people supersedes the financial interests of the superrich.  Consequently, the focus has to be 100% on getting the sick better and keeping the healthy – healthy, regardless of the financial cost.  This message would have to be articulated clearly, consistently, and without compromise on every level of government and society at all times.

Then, the actual work to make that message reality must be implemented.  Priority (as in financial and other resources) given to all elements of this society that must function every day.  The hospitals, etc.  Postal service, food production and distribution, etc.  And, by food distribution, we don’t just mean the supermarkets.  We mean the society placing a priority on mutual aide work that at the present time is carried out mostly through independent grassroots methods with little to no assistance from government structures.  It would actually make the most sense to form unions between all elements of food production and distribution from supermarket chains to local mutual aide.

Vaccines that have only the healing of humanity as an objective, not financial profit as a primary incentive, developed along with testing and these resources provided to everyone, all the time, at absolutely no cost until everyone has access to these critical resources.  This type of effort requires a comprehensive focus on ensuring that these resources are available at increment posts throughout all communities, regardless of economic status (class position) or other reactionary criteria. 

All people who’s jobs do not require them to be in public should be paid to just work from their residences.  If people are unemployed, they should also be paid a livable wage to stay inside.  Focus should be provided to those skilled in the arts, childhood development, and adult social programming, and all of these skilled persons enlisted to create activities and social engagement for all of society to participate with in lieu of actual physical events.  Entertainment programming with socially conscious foundation, should be made available for everyone 24/7 without charge for those who cannot afford it.

Neighborhood committees formed that facilitate all of this work within the neighborhoods they live in.  These committees are united through citywide, state, and national structures that are coordinated nationally.  Still, the power for these committees comes through the neighborhood level with democratic centralist decision making structures and budgets disseminated on that neighborhood level.

A national plan developed with the complete input of the neighborhood councils or committees and that national plan is articulated, activated, and implemented with a consistency and forcefulness that exceeds that of the annual Christmas “go out and buy everything” propaganda.

Of course, none of these things are happening right now.  They didn’t happen under the current empire president and they won’t happen under the incoming empire president.  They won’t happen because the key element to all of these actions is a people over profit consciousness.  The type of consciousness that exists in Cuba where they have had coronavirus under control from the very beginning.  When no vaccine was in sight, back in the spring, Cuba had mass produced and implemented the anti-viral medicine they created to combat HIV in 1981 to effectively treat patients with covid.  That approach worked to stem the tide of covid spread in Cuba and bolstered from that effort they launched a 40 country mission, primarily throughout Africa, to treat millions the same way.  This type of effort was carried out by a small, poor, Caribbean island country of 11 million people.  How?  Because they place people over profits. 

Whether people want to see it or not.  Whether people wish to admit it or not.  The primary reason you  see covid having an opposite impact in the U.S. that you see in Cuba is because the U.S. and its capitalist system have the opposite priority than Cuba.  Money is supreme here.  And, because of that reactionary propaganda, the first question people ask when they see these types of proposals is where the money to pay for all of this will come from?  This is because that is how people here are trained.  To always serve as the defacto accountants for capitalism.  Those same people never ask where the enormous funding required to carry out every U.S. military excursion overseas will come from.  Just programs that are designed to lift people over profit.  Even a fool can see that this is the messaging of the capitalist class to serve the purpose of protecting their vast interests at all times.
​
Whatever concessions can hopefully come our way in the coming months, that will only happen because of the pressure applied by the masses of people.  And, this is happening, although disorganized, misdirected, and confused, it is happening.  The right wing is protesting.  The left is protesting.  The people who don’t know what they are still protest.  Just remember that if we can get some concessions while being completely disjointed and disorganized, just imagine what we could get if we were organized?  If we didn’t fall for the anti-socialist/communist propaganda?  If we didn’t expect our enemies to provide solutions to our problems that they profit off of?  Yes, information is everywhere.  The question will be at what point will we learn to reject these ruling class arguments that covid continue solely because of people’s individual actions?  When will people learn to question why we don’t and can’t have the level of societal organization illustrated here and in other places to address these types of challenges?  And finally, at what point do the skyrocketing deaths from the virus start to become largely our fault because of our decision to continue to ignore all of these realities which are visible all around us?

 
0 Comments

Bourgeoisie Idealism & the Elevation of Anti-Intellectualism

12/5/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Members of the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party from its Ghana, Kenya, Azania (South Africa), Tanzania, Canada, and U.S. chapters along with sister parties from Azania, Nigeria, and Guinea-Bissau having a study session in Ghana in 2018
I know already as I’m writing this piece that its not going to be a piece that’s widely read and/or shared.  I know this because I’ve written a number of pieces that have been read and shared by thousands.  As a result, I’ve learned that the formula for that level of popularity in literature is ensuring the topic is high on the popular culture list.  This relates to what bourgeoisie celebrities, politicians, etc. are doing.  These are the people the capitalist system validates as worthwhile.  And, all of us, whether we know it or not, whether we admit it or not, are programmed to respond the way capitalism has programmed us to respond.  So, celebrities and the issues they are concerned about.  If those two things jibe with what is going on in popular culture, then you are much more likely to have a piece that gains traction if you write about those things.

Due to this phenomenon, many people who make attempts to address the issues confronting humanity feel pressured to somehow navigate through the superficial realm that capitalism has provided for us.  In the ten plus years that I’ve been written this blog, I’ve tried my absolutely best to resist that urge.  What’s been most important to me is presenting an analysis and perspective that speaks truth while attempting to match truth with our material realities as human beings.  And, to be able to do that while writing in a style that still manages to resonate with every day people who are the basis of everything that exists in this world today.  Also, I hear the voice of the honorable Marcus Garvey in my head when he said “what you do today can impact someone tomorrow!”  Once I write each piece, its out in the world and its quite possible that I can write something that may not be widely read today, but will gain the attention of the future Assata Shakurs, Teodora Gomes, Malcolm Xs or Kwame Tures who may not even be born yet.

So, its in that spirit that I present this topic today which is rooted in addressing elements that all of us are impacted by daily, although many of us are not consciously aware of this.  It is the capitalist system which is the complete reason for this confusion.

Capitalism is the dominant economic system on earth today.  It’s a system which prioritizes profit over people.  A system that gained and maintains its stronghold by physically, psychologically, and spiritually dominating the masses of people on earth.  The strategy that capitalism relies on to maintain its grip is ensuring that the masses of people remain confused.  That, as amazing as it seems, the masses envision the very capitalist system that is responsible for all the suffering that exists on earth today, as the only system that can bring them peace and salvation.  For capitalism, ensuring the masses believe this, and never ever question it, is essential to its survival.  As a result, capitalism has spent the last five centuries consolidating lies about its origins and its day to day existence.  Those lies are not just individual misspoken statements.  They are systemic manifestations (white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, individualism, elitism, idealism) that are reinforced 24/7/365.  In other words, since the reality of capitalism is oppression, death, and destruction, all over the world, instead of risking the masses coming to this realization, capitalism creates an illusion and perpetuates it so often and so systemically that most people cannot tell the difference. 

A major reason for the continued success of this strategy is capitalism’s devaluing of the study of ideas.  The capitalists know that the struggle to understand ideas is a key skill that would permit the masses to learn how to see through their tricks.  Consequently, they will never provide and/or endorse that type of skill development.  And, anyone who suggests doing so will be discredited by them (through their massive propaganda mechanisms i.e. mass media, schools, churches, mosques, etc.).  This is why capitalist mass media has millions of people convinced that they are providing you a balanced perspective of what’s happening in the world.  They tell you this, and many people you know, if not you, believe it to some extent.  This is also the reason there is no real study in churches, mosques, etc.  You do not have an atmosphere where congregants can rise up during a service and correct the lies of the pastor.  There is no collective study (just rote dictation) of biblical verses.  That’s why people can quote biblical verses, but can rarely provide historical context.  Its also why movies, news, television shows, etc., promote the same general themes which means most of the time you can predict the outcome without having seen the show before. 

The capitalist system really only talks to you about two or three things and they tell you only what they want you to know about those two or three things as often as they possibly can.  If you think about 2020, the only things all of the bourgeoisie news stations have been telling you is how they intend to frame the U.S. presidential election and coronavirus.  You learned nothing about the political, economic, and social realities in Africa, Asia, or Central, South America, or the Caribbean in 2020.  You didn’t even learn anything about those realities in communities across the U.S.  And, on the elections and covid they don’t give you a broad perspective with critical information.  You are never provided much of a glimpse into the on the ground mutual aide work (carried out by mass organizational efforts, not government) which has been necessary and essential to helping people exist over the last year.  They ignore that because if they provided that information people would be led to question why these efforts should even be necessary in such a rich country.  They don’t show you the disparate impacts of covid on poor colonized communities in concrete and consistent ways that would help you understand how oppression manifests itself in this society.  And, they certainly don’t ever expose you to the efforts others have made and are making to address covid, especially if those others are their enemies like socialist Cuba for example.  Despite these glaring contradictions, they will come before you every day with a straight face and tell you that this is democracy at work.  The same democracy that harps over and over that the November 2020 U.S. presidential election is “democracy at work.”  The obvious contradiction is they have convinced millions of this while just a few weeks ago, the U.S. was exposed as having played a leading role in subverting democracy in Bolivia and Venezuela’s elections.  This contradiction is as obvious as the sun coming up this morning, but because the so-called mass media never talks about Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, etc., except to demonize them, they have been able to create the reality where millions of people believe this one sided dishonest portrayal is a balanced view.  Think of it like this.  If your parents and/or your partners (and for many of us, unfortunately this is true) told you unstop that you are worthless then eventually, you would come to believe on some levels that this is a the true and correct analysis about you. 

These capitalist dirty tricks tactics are continuously successful also because they have been able to convince so many of us that studying information is a waste of time and a poor example of human behavior.  Think about how seldom you see people reading comprehensive material.  We are not talking about internet articles, magazines, and the like.  We are talking about how often do you see people reading books on philosophy, ideology, history, etc.?  And, even if you can say you have seen people doing this, that’s only on an individual level.  A small finite number of you can claim you know of people collectively and consistently engaging in these practices.  Practically never is going to be the consistent answer.  Most of you reading this probably rarely do this.  This is the reality because we have permitted them to convince us that doing so is not necessary.  That we already know all we need to know to properly conduct our lives.  And, we believe this because they have trained us to see the world from an idealist and individualist perspective.  This means whatever we think we know, that’s all that matters, nothing else.  We need not be concerned about anything outside of our individual experience i.e. what directly impacts us in ways we understand.  Once they have convinced us to believe this nonsense, then we will effectively turn off all elements of life that we do not see as directly impacting what we are doing in our individual lives.  If it isn’t helping us understand how to buy a house or car.  If it doesn’t help us get our hands on more money, then its not relevant.  This is the most effective anti-intellectual campaign since Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany in the 1930s. 

This is why it has become so difficult to convince people of common logic.  Regardless of the fact you have all the information and evidence, they still refuse to accept it because it doesn’t fit their only criteria – relevance to what they are thinking and doing.  On top of that, capitalism has these systems of oppression that work day and night to convince people that regardless of how oppressed they are, they still have the chance to become a millionaire. Win the lottery.  Marry a billionaire.  So, they should always maintain faith in the capitalist system because if they don’t, they could miss that opportunity.  Even if they have been houseless for 25 years.  Even if they have been oppressed by white supremacy and/or patriarchy, still maintain that faith.  And, certainly and absolutely reject any inclination that another reality could be possible.  Under these dysfunctional circumstances, a houseless person will defend capitalism against you even if you drop clear evidence of greed and oppression as the reason for their suffering on them.  I can think of no better example of anti-intellectualism.

Many people are confused and can only view this and other discussions like it through that individualistic vision.  As a result, they see us talking about anti-intellectualism being a problem and to them this means we are criticizing people who do not study.  If you have the means and capacity to study and you don’t, then absolutely, you are to be criticized, but that’s not the point of the argument.  The point is how the capitalist system has convinced us that studying is a bad idea.  What happened to “information is power” and what great minds like Malcolm X said when he told us that “history is best qualified to reward our research.”  Don’t get us wrong.  We have great faith in the masses of humanity, but we are not confused. Our people died and were savagely beaten to win our right to gain access to organized education not just in the U.S., but all over the world.  All over the world.  Faith in the masses cannot just mean faith in you individually, especially if you haven’t really done much to warrant that level of respect.  It has to include, and even start with, respect for the sacrifices and contributions of those who fought for us to have a better life on a collective level.  Our people didn’t fight for education because they wanted an individual education.  They fought, without receiving the education they fought for themselves, because they knew that we as a people needed that victory.  They knew we needed that victory because they understood, even if we have lost this understanding today, that education, properly organized, is a tool that we can use effectively to find solutions to liberate our people from the oppression the capitalist system continues to reap upon us.
​
Being anti-reading is not cool, its stupid.  If people have physical and/or psychological impediments that make it difficult or impossible for them to study, then we have to work to develop mechanisms to address this with/for them, but under no circumstances should we buy into this backward concept that studying is a bourgeoisie concept.  It’s the bourgeoisie that don’t want you to study because they know you doing that is their downfall.  What an irony!  They know they can use the threat of appearing to mimic them as a tool to prevent so many of us from doing what’s needed to eliminate them.  If you don’t understand the clear difference between revolutionary political education and bourgeoisie elitist academics, we are happy to demonstrate the difference.  We want the former, not the latter.  And, we want and need all of us to understand and accept this reality so that we can get to work.  The problems of this world require education.  Not a few select people gaining it and solving the problems for everyone, but the masses of people having the tools to collectively solve our problems on a collective level.  That is the most logical and clear definition of a revolutionary process that we can provide for you.

0 Comments

Ill Refutable Evidence of How Institutionalized White Supremacy Is

12/3/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
 The U.S., dominated exclusively by bourgeoisie misinformation, proudly advances the insane notion that white supremacy as an institutional instrument of oppression against colonized communities doesn’t exist on any type of wide-spread level.  If left up to this system, they would have you believe that white supremacy is mostly an imaginary concept.  The go to argument is that any issues will always be easily overcome by hard work and an adherence to the father of white supremacy (as well as patriarchy, homophobia, and all forms of oppression against humanity) capitalism.  This is of course a consistently proven lie, but most people lack the organized understanding about how capitalism manifests itself as a system on a day to day basis to present any type of cogent argument that explains this dysfunctional reality.

The purpose of this piece is to provide some basic examples of how this oppressive system institutionalizes itself.  And, the examples provided here are things all of us see and experience daily. 

As previously mentioned, one example is how most defenders of capitalism/white supremacy will tell you that this is the land of opportunity for anyone who believes correctly in the God of white supremacy and the institutions that uphold this system.  The contradiction is even while telling you this with a straight face, those same people would never agree to change places with the experiences of colonized people.  Take for instance the situation that occurred in a small Midwest U.S. community a few short years ago.  A school board there decided that they wanted to honor the humanist works of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by renaming the town’s high school after Dr. King (the school was named after some colonizing Indigenous people murderer). The townspeople, citing concerns for the impact on their children’s future, came out by the mass to oppose the name change.  The reasons they stated in front of the board meeting was that they were (of course) not racist at all.  Instead, their point was they had concerns about how colleges and universities would view their children because schools named after Dr. King typically exist in the inner cities.  And, due to this reality, these people expressed publicly with straight faces that they didn’t want their children stereotyped and stigmatized as inferior students due to this.  The stark paradox here is that these European (white) parents, many of whom would instantly deny that white supremacy is an obstacle for colonized peoples, failed to see the obvious disconnect.  The concerns they have for their youth are the concerns African and Indigenous communities are faced with every day of our existence.  As amazing as it is, these people would deny the challenges we face from systemic white supremacy while at the same time using our arguments against white supremacy to justify raising hell against perceived challenges they may or may not encounter.

Another basic example is the often heard statement from many Europeans that being white offers them absolutely no advantages over anyone else in this society.  These people are always so quick to point to houseless Europeans and other white people who suffer under capitalism as evidence of this claim.  Meanwhile, there are few Africans who have not experienced a European houseless person who confronts them on the street in hostile ways, immediately invoking the n word in these encounters.  This happened to me just the other day (its happened numerous times over the years).  In the most recent instance, a European person walked by while I was talking to another African.  This person stopped, turned around towards me, and shouted “shut up n _ _ _ _ r!”  There was no question this person was in dire straights so there was absolutely no reason for me to respond or take offense.  That person didn’t know me from Eve or Adam so their outburst had absolutely nothing to do with me.  Their outrage is without question a reflection of their anger at the oppression they face from the capitalist system.  Of course, they lack the ability to express that anger to the perpetuators of the oppression so instead, they take it out on whomever they perceive they can talk to that way.  That last part is significant because this person, based on several of the behaviors they exhibited, was clearly suffering from some form of mental illness.  Despite suffering from this as well as being impoverished and existing on the streets, this person still has enough of a comprehensive understanding of the hierarchy of white supremacy that they knew they could attempt to pull the only weapon available to them in their current reality – white supremacy – to attempt to level an insult towards me.  Of course, the insult doesn’t stick with me because I’m a proud African.  And, being such permits me to grow in love and respect for myself and my people which consequently builds love and respect for all of humanity.  Yet, we still must not miss the fact that even those struggling to grasp reality with nothing to cling to still understand that they have white supremacy to attempt to elevate themselves over us. 

The above example of the houseless person has been experienced by millions of Africans so its not a one off.  What it does show us is that everyone in this society has been programmed with the belief that European people are superior and that all of us walk around everyday with that understanding and the subsequent life practices that affirm that understanding. 

Neither of these examples are things that we ever talk about.  None of these things are issues we are even consciously aware of.  And, that’s the strength of white supremacy.  It can and does operate systemically every day, all day, among us, in ways we activate in remote control fashion, unaware that we are even doing it for the most part.  The same applies for patriarchal and homophobic practices.  And, this is what makes calling out these dysfunctional behaviors so difficult because most people are not the slightest bit aware of what they do everyday to manifest these behaviors and perpetuate these systems of oppression.  Not only that, but most people aware of these practices find it difficult to articulate how the behaviors are manifested because of the stealthy way these practices are institutionalized.
​
Probably the largest obstacle in creating greater consciousness around this is due to the fact most people here see the world through a bourgeoisie individualist perspective.  What capitalism has done is make intellectualism a negative concept.  Under this backward environment, most people see individual subjective opinions as more valid and valuable than concerted research and analysis of problems and solutions.  As a result, people are used to evaluating phenomenon based on primarily an emotionally driven basis and not scientific and historical analysis.  Built within this reality is the elevation of individualist perspectives over collective and historical interpretations.  For example, I recently wrote an article about this confusion surrounding the petti bourgeoisie political actions of entertainer Ice Cube.  Someone, a misinformed African, criticized the article without – clearly – reading it.  To illustrate the boldness of this bourgeoisie reality, he didn’t even pretend to read it.  Instead, he defended himself saying he didn’t need to read something to understand it.  Then he went into a tirade about how smart he is and how he understands things most people don’t – a classic example of bourgeoisie individualism.  This is the type of confusion that comes to dominate when idealism is permitted to overshadow serious study and analysis.  The solution – yes you guessed it – is as many of us as possible, articulating in an organized fashion, that intellectualism, specifically that which is tied to the liberation of the masses of people on earth – is not only positive, but is the sole purpose of information.  That we are collective beings and information is the property of the masses of humanity, not individuals.  And, all of this is for the collective progress of humanity, not individual financial profit.  This is the approach that will be required to lift the invisible shield protecting white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, and all the anti-human tactics of this backward capitalist system.  Those of us serious about engaging this fight towards victory have no choice except to accept this reality, join organizations, and get as many people as possible to participate in revolutionary and organized political education processes within our organizations.  It is becoming painfully obvious that anyone who isn’t doing this work is wittingly or unwittingly contributing to the further survival of all systems of oppression that continue to wreck havoc on all of humanity.

0 Comments

    Picture

    Author

    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?"

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    June 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly