Several people have asked me already whether I was present when Hillary Clinton spoke at the SEIU National Convention here in Detroit yesterday ,and yes, I was actually directly in front in the audience when she appeared and made her presentation. I have to say it was an extremely interesting experience. First, I have to be honest with you and state clearly that I have always been and will always be an adherent to the words of Malcolm X when he uttered during his famous "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech; "I'm not a politician. I'm not a student of politics. I'm not a democrat, nor a republican, nor an american, and got sense enough to know it." And, yesterday was not my first experience hearing a U.S. presidential candidate give a speech. Way back in 1984, I attended the presentation of Geraldine Ferraro - the then Vice Presidential Candidate to Walter Mondale's failed attempt to beat Ronald Reagan - when she visited Cal State University Sacramento while I was a student/activist there. I didn't hear much of Ferraro's presentation that day because I was escorted out by Secret Service shortly after she started because I refused to stop booing her after she referred to the African National Congress and the Palestine Liberation Organization as terrorist organizations. So, clearly, my space, as it relates to electoral politics, is much more comfortable on the outside than in, but I still found Clinton's presence yesterday very interesting. What was interesting was watching the psychological elements at work. The atmosphere in the convention hall, before, during, and after Clinton's appearance, was most reflective of the type of atmosphere found at a Beyonce concert. The room was electric and emotions were high. Practically all of the approximately 2500 people were standing when she came to the podium (outside of myself, I didn't see anyone else who was not standing in the area I was sitting in. Even when the convention started with the so-called national anthem, I was able to see several people around me who like me, stayed seated). To make the point about emotions isn't a stretch. The morning leading up to Clinton's presentation was filled with a highly charged discussion and resolution adoption around the Union making a commitment for racial justice. Dozens of African delegates (a large percentage of the convention participants were African people) gave moving and personal testimonies in favor of the racial justice resolution and shortly after that discussion concluded, Clinton took the stage. So, the emotional energy was overwhelming. Maybe that's the reason I was unable to comprehend why no one else around me seemed to be taking in her presentation the same way that I did.
First, it was painfully obvious that she was given a summary of the discussions that had taken place at the convention leading up to her presentation. She clearly memorized that list and she spoke with a talking point approach to 15 now, racial justice, immigranion reform, and economic justice, some of the main planks adopted by the convention before her arrival. It felt to me like being on a first date with someone who tells you any and everything flattering they can think of that they know you want to hear. Then, she relied heavily on cliches, delivering the same knockout punches she is apparently using wherever she speaks. Although I'm told she used the "deal me in" line (response to Donald Trump's statement that she's using the woman card) during at least one of the previous debates, when she said it yesterday, people reacted as if it was the greatest thing they have ever heard. So, although her speech was so scripted it could have been given by anyone, the crowd, overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment, stayed on their feet for her entire presentation. She was given thunderous applause with every statement. In fact, were I to judge her presentation based strictly on the reaction to it, instead of my own sober assessment of it, I would have had to come to a completely different conclusion as to the quality of her words than I've articulated here.
The main thing I walk away with is there is so much work that needs to be done around getting people to understand that we cannot place our faith in any capitalist political party to solve our problems for us. I know. And I hear people saying over and over again that we have to do anything within our power to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president. The truth is, whether its Trump, Clinton, or Donald Duck, my work, the mass organization of African people and the consolidation of alliances in our worldwide fight against capitalism and for Pan-Africanism and scientific socialism, will remain absolutely unchanged. So, my message for those who are so moved by Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Justin Trudeau (Canada) or any bourgeois politician and/or party, is that we better get to work building that mass movement. Right now there is no mass movement that is positioned to push the capitalist system. Instead, the strategy seems to be place all our faith in these individuals who run and take office. Whether we take that approach with Hillary Clinton in the White House or Chokwe Lumumba as the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, in 2013, we have to organize. We have to have that movement. If we don't, then its your word against the word and money of the multi-national capitalist/corporate machine. And, we already know we haven't fared very well historically against those odds? Good intentions are not enough. We must build a movement that is strategically positioned to challenge the political process. Challenge Chevron, the Waltons and WalMart, the Koch Brothers, J.P. Morgan Chase, Shell, etc. We have to build networks that can shutdown those Chevron stations and make them feel the loss of your dollars and we need to build the capacity to do the same with all those other corporations. Unless that happens, you have no way to hold Clinton or anyone else accountable to your concerns and interests.
Some of us pay attention. We heard their arguments that if we just voted in the right people in the right places, we could have the majority in the House and the Senate. We could have the president. And therefore, we could have comprehensive policy developed with that strategy. Actually, when Obama was elected, you had that and you still got very little in terms of concrete policy around all of the issues mentioned above e.g. racial justice, immigration reform, etc. In truth, we are so confused around what actually should constitute progress that many of us are walking around considering the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which benefited corporate health insurance companies to the tune of approximately 7 million new customers based on the ACA mandate as progress. The fact so many more people have health insurance when we already know that health insurance in capitalism is only good as long as you don't get seriously ill. So, that's a false sense of security. The only real security we can be assured of comes from the organized masses. That means we must get people in organizations and we must get those organized united around platforms of justice. When we move to this level of organization, we can do much better than ACA. We can get free universal health care which is really what we need and deserve. For those of you who have faith in the electoral process, you must get people in organizations focused around building that movement. If you don't see those organizations, start the "Hold the Demopublicans Accountable" organization.
I know that the capitalist system is so organized that no matter the personal integrity of any politician, there has to be a movement in place that can demonstrate immediately that the system can be shut down by boycott, direct action, etc., if the things we need e.g. sustainable wages, and an end to white supremacy, etc., aren't prioritized. Now, my politics have been stated as clearly in this space as I believe to be humanly possible. So, I'm talking to those of you who believe in this electoral process. If you do, please work to push for and organize movement around forcing these politicians to move in the direction you want them to. For me, its incomprehensible that so many African people would react with such excitement towards Hillary Clinton. She and her husband have done plenty to sabotage our people, but it's important to note that the only reason she can fix her mouth to utter the words "racial justice" is clearly in my mind because of the pressure that has been applied against her by the African youth led social movements taking place in this country. So, that should be your evidence of how important it is to do this work. We won't get what we want through emotion. If that was going to work it would have worked a long time ago. People with more emotion and passion than any of us could even imagine today still couldn't defeat this backward system based on that alone. Without the movement building work. without the organizing work, Hillary Clinton and any bourgeois politician in the type of environment I experienced yesterday, is nothing more than a concert. You go, you get hyped, you enjoy yourself. And then you go back to life under this miserable capitalist system. Without that movement, in four or eight more years, you will be stuck with getting hyped again for the next great performer.
First, it was painfully obvious that she was given a summary of the discussions that had taken place at the convention leading up to her presentation. She clearly memorized that list and she spoke with a talking point approach to 15 now, racial justice, immigranion reform, and economic justice, some of the main planks adopted by the convention before her arrival. It felt to me like being on a first date with someone who tells you any and everything flattering they can think of that they know you want to hear. Then, she relied heavily on cliches, delivering the same knockout punches she is apparently using wherever she speaks. Although I'm told she used the "deal me in" line (response to Donald Trump's statement that she's using the woman card) during at least one of the previous debates, when she said it yesterday, people reacted as if it was the greatest thing they have ever heard. So, although her speech was so scripted it could have been given by anyone, the crowd, overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment, stayed on their feet for her entire presentation. She was given thunderous applause with every statement. In fact, were I to judge her presentation based strictly on the reaction to it, instead of my own sober assessment of it, I would have had to come to a completely different conclusion as to the quality of her words than I've articulated here.
The main thing I walk away with is there is so much work that needs to be done around getting people to understand that we cannot place our faith in any capitalist political party to solve our problems for us. I know. And I hear people saying over and over again that we have to do anything within our power to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president. The truth is, whether its Trump, Clinton, or Donald Duck, my work, the mass organization of African people and the consolidation of alliances in our worldwide fight against capitalism and for Pan-Africanism and scientific socialism, will remain absolutely unchanged. So, my message for those who are so moved by Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Justin Trudeau (Canada) or any bourgeois politician and/or party, is that we better get to work building that mass movement. Right now there is no mass movement that is positioned to push the capitalist system. Instead, the strategy seems to be place all our faith in these individuals who run and take office. Whether we take that approach with Hillary Clinton in the White House or Chokwe Lumumba as the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, in 2013, we have to organize. We have to have that movement. If we don't, then its your word against the word and money of the multi-national capitalist/corporate machine. And, we already know we haven't fared very well historically against those odds? Good intentions are not enough. We must build a movement that is strategically positioned to challenge the political process. Challenge Chevron, the Waltons and WalMart, the Koch Brothers, J.P. Morgan Chase, Shell, etc. We have to build networks that can shutdown those Chevron stations and make them feel the loss of your dollars and we need to build the capacity to do the same with all those other corporations. Unless that happens, you have no way to hold Clinton or anyone else accountable to your concerns and interests.
Some of us pay attention. We heard their arguments that if we just voted in the right people in the right places, we could have the majority in the House and the Senate. We could have the president. And therefore, we could have comprehensive policy developed with that strategy. Actually, when Obama was elected, you had that and you still got very little in terms of concrete policy around all of the issues mentioned above e.g. racial justice, immigration reform, etc. In truth, we are so confused around what actually should constitute progress that many of us are walking around considering the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which benefited corporate health insurance companies to the tune of approximately 7 million new customers based on the ACA mandate as progress. The fact so many more people have health insurance when we already know that health insurance in capitalism is only good as long as you don't get seriously ill. So, that's a false sense of security. The only real security we can be assured of comes from the organized masses. That means we must get people in organizations and we must get those organized united around platforms of justice. When we move to this level of organization, we can do much better than ACA. We can get free universal health care which is really what we need and deserve. For those of you who have faith in the electoral process, you must get people in organizations focused around building that movement. If you don't see those organizations, start the "Hold the Demopublicans Accountable" organization.
I know that the capitalist system is so organized that no matter the personal integrity of any politician, there has to be a movement in place that can demonstrate immediately that the system can be shut down by boycott, direct action, etc., if the things we need e.g. sustainable wages, and an end to white supremacy, etc., aren't prioritized. Now, my politics have been stated as clearly in this space as I believe to be humanly possible. So, I'm talking to those of you who believe in this electoral process. If you do, please work to push for and organize movement around forcing these politicians to move in the direction you want them to. For me, its incomprehensible that so many African people would react with such excitement towards Hillary Clinton. She and her husband have done plenty to sabotage our people, but it's important to note that the only reason she can fix her mouth to utter the words "racial justice" is clearly in my mind because of the pressure that has been applied against her by the African youth led social movements taking place in this country. So, that should be your evidence of how important it is to do this work. We won't get what we want through emotion. If that was going to work it would have worked a long time ago. People with more emotion and passion than any of us could even imagine today still couldn't defeat this backward system based on that alone. Without the movement building work. without the organizing work, Hillary Clinton and any bourgeois politician in the type of environment I experienced yesterday, is nothing more than a concert. You go, you get hyped, you enjoy yourself. And then you go back to life under this miserable capitalist system. Without that movement, in four or eight more years, you will be stuck with getting hyped again for the next great performer.
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