Since a lot of well meaning people, and others who desire to spread confusion, are so easily directed down the wrong ideological path, its important that we reiterate the difference between strategy, tactics, and principles. Your principles are your values which define your existence. These, you never compromise. If you do compromise your principles, you send the message that you have abandoned them. Strategy is the process you use to carry out your principles and tactics the specific actions you take to carry out your strategy. An example is if you believe that revolutionary Pan-Africanism is the only solution to the problems facing Africans everywhere, as I do, then your principles are that Africa is primary. All people of African descent are Africans. And, that Africa must be liberated, united, and socialist. These beliefs you can never compromise on because the minute you do, you no longer believe them. Your strategy for achieving Pan-Africanism can be to unite all Pan-African formations all over the world by doing work to build and solidify relationships between the organizations (which we are doing). Your tactics are to integrate your Pan-African cadre into various Pan-African formations, build work study circles in those formations advancing revolutionary Pan-African ideology, and build African united front formations everywhere with the objective of getting every African to join an organization. Your strategies and tactics may change based on conditions and effectiveness., but their objective is to help you achieve your principles.
As it relates to the multitude of cowardly and dishonest white supremacists who are surfacing everywhere, its important that we don't cloud the difference between principles and strategy and tactics. We/I have echoed the 50 year old call from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee many times when we have said Europeans need to organize other Europeans into formations that are socialist, meaning 100% opposed to white supremacy and capitalism. These are the principles. The strategies and tactics we have proposed have been to organize European (White) communities. We often say talk to your mothers and fathers. Sisters and brothers. We advocate that constantly. We helped originate the Marilyn Buck Abolitionist Collective here in the PNW to encourage the development of European revolutionaries who will do that work. Those are the principles and the strategies and tactics, but remember, the conditions dictate the strategy and tactics. The current conditions call for a relentless and uncompromising denial of space and opportunity for white supremacists to organize. This is not a contradiction to anything we have been preaching. White supremacists are not going to be the low hanging fruit for genuine White revolutionaries to talk to, especially right now. The conditions don't warrant it. Instead, the conditions warrant White revolutionaries doing what is starting to happen. Prohibit these people from having platforms and access to other White people. And do that by any means necessary. So, we commend the actions taking place to prevent these terrible people from speaking out. What's missing is while you are stopping them from spreading their filth, you still need to be speaking to Europeans who aren't members of white supremacist organizations and explaining to them why it's important to prohibit these people from having spaces to organize. Its important because by them having space, it legitimizes their ideas and you cannot permit this to happen on any level. So, carry on and develop strategies to inform the public why this is important. And, your messaging is going to be important. Stop using these watered down terms like "white nationalist" and "Alt-right." You cannot juxtapose white nationalism and Black nationalism. Black nationalists exist only because African people have been colonized on the basis of us being Africans so the Black nationalist movement has been a response to that by calling for African people to unite to fight back against that oppression. The basis here is Black nationalism is a prerequisite struggle to socialist development and an African contribution to the worldwide struggle to achieve this. That's why we Pan-Africanists say that Pan-Africanism is the highest expression of Black power and that Pan-Africanism is our contribution to the world struggle for justice and human progress. There is no historical way to frame white nationalism in this context because white people have never been systemically oppressed by non-Europeans because of their race/nationality so to permit them to use the term white nationalism suggests that they need a movement based on their race to organize themselves. The correct term always has been and always will be white supremacists. I've heard them try to explain away the difference. White supremacists want to exterminate brown people whereas white nationalists simply want to separate. This is nothing except nonsense to legitimize their ideologies. If White people want to separate there are all types of ways they can do that. There are plenty of places, for example, in Eastern Europe, where there are no brown people. Those who want that can and should move to those places, but that's not what these slick white supremacists really want, separation. What they want is to rid the Americas of all brown people. And, clearly, the only way that happens is by removing us. So, they advance ideas among White people that suggest they are better off without us. That's what they have always done. Whether they do it by ideological manipulation or organized violence to remove us, the objectives are the same. White revolutionaries have to develop and advance the correct notion that the U.S. and the Americas, Israel, and Australia, don't belong to European people. The Europeans invaded those territories and are settler colonial invaders. The brown people are in those places because they were either there before the Europeans came there, the Europeans kidnapped them and brought them there, or the Europeans destroyed those people's national homelands so that they have been forced for political and economic reasons to go to those places. So, Europeans don't get to request us to leave. We have asked the Indigenous people many times and they have consistently told us we are welcome to stay here and their opinion is the only one that matters to us. Besides, this is really not going to be an issue for African people once Africa is free, but I digress.
European/White comrades. Organize, organize, organize! Stop these white supremacists whenever and wherever they raise their ugly heads. Develop counter narratives to disrupt and challenge their backward views and mount a massive unrelenting campaign to politically educate the masses of European people around the questions and connections between capitalism and white supremacy. There will come a time again where your strategies will need to shift to having more conversations with the white supremacists so that you are attempting to move them ideologically, but that time is not now. This is the time to interrupt backward ideas, every time, everywhere. Its the time to do this in an organized fashion that wins the tide among your communities. Meanwhile, we'll keep organizing our communities. This is the best way we can work together. Its really the only materialist way we can work together effectively.
As it relates to the multitude of cowardly and dishonest white supremacists who are surfacing everywhere, its important that we don't cloud the difference between principles and strategy and tactics. We/I have echoed the 50 year old call from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee many times when we have said Europeans need to organize other Europeans into formations that are socialist, meaning 100% opposed to white supremacy and capitalism. These are the principles. The strategies and tactics we have proposed have been to organize European (White) communities. We often say talk to your mothers and fathers. Sisters and brothers. We advocate that constantly. We helped originate the Marilyn Buck Abolitionist Collective here in the PNW to encourage the development of European revolutionaries who will do that work. Those are the principles and the strategies and tactics, but remember, the conditions dictate the strategy and tactics. The current conditions call for a relentless and uncompromising denial of space and opportunity for white supremacists to organize. This is not a contradiction to anything we have been preaching. White supremacists are not going to be the low hanging fruit for genuine White revolutionaries to talk to, especially right now. The conditions don't warrant it. Instead, the conditions warrant White revolutionaries doing what is starting to happen. Prohibit these people from having platforms and access to other White people. And do that by any means necessary. So, we commend the actions taking place to prevent these terrible people from speaking out. What's missing is while you are stopping them from spreading their filth, you still need to be speaking to Europeans who aren't members of white supremacist organizations and explaining to them why it's important to prohibit these people from having spaces to organize. Its important because by them having space, it legitimizes their ideas and you cannot permit this to happen on any level. So, carry on and develop strategies to inform the public why this is important. And, your messaging is going to be important. Stop using these watered down terms like "white nationalist" and "Alt-right." You cannot juxtapose white nationalism and Black nationalism. Black nationalists exist only because African people have been colonized on the basis of us being Africans so the Black nationalist movement has been a response to that by calling for African people to unite to fight back against that oppression. The basis here is Black nationalism is a prerequisite struggle to socialist development and an African contribution to the worldwide struggle to achieve this. That's why we Pan-Africanists say that Pan-Africanism is the highest expression of Black power and that Pan-Africanism is our contribution to the world struggle for justice and human progress. There is no historical way to frame white nationalism in this context because white people have never been systemically oppressed by non-Europeans because of their race/nationality so to permit them to use the term white nationalism suggests that they need a movement based on their race to organize themselves. The correct term always has been and always will be white supremacists. I've heard them try to explain away the difference. White supremacists want to exterminate brown people whereas white nationalists simply want to separate. This is nothing except nonsense to legitimize their ideologies. If White people want to separate there are all types of ways they can do that. There are plenty of places, for example, in Eastern Europe, where there are no brown people. Those who want that can and should move to those places, but that's not what these slick white supremacists really want, separation. What they want is to rid the Americas of all brown people. And, clearly, the only way that happens is by removing us. So, they advance ideas among White people that suggest they are better off without us. That's what they have always done. Whether they do it by ideological manipulation or organized violence to remove us, the objectives are the same. White revolutionaries have to develop and advance the correct notion that the U.S. and the Americas, Israel, and Australia, don't belong to European people. The Europeans invaded those territories and are settler colonial invaders. The brown people are in those places because they were either there before the Europeans came there, the Europeans kidnapped them and brought them there, or the Europeans destroyed those people's national homelands so that they have been forced for political and economic reasons to go to those places. So, Europeans don't get to request us to leave. We have asked the Indigenous people many times and they have consistently told us we are welcome to stay here and their opinion is the only one that matters to us. Besides, this is really not going to be an issue for African people once Africa is free, but I digress.
European/White comrades. Organize, organize, organize! Stop these white supremacists whenever and wherever they raise their ugly heads. Develop counter narratives to disrupt and challenge their backward views and mount a massive unrelenting campaign to politically educate the masses of European people around the questions and connections between capitalism and white supremacy. There will come a time again where your strategies will need to shift to having more conversations with the white supremacists so that you are attempting to move them ideologically, but that time is not now. This is the time to interrupt backward ideas, every time, everywhere. Its the time to do this in an organized fashion that wins the tide among your communities. Meanwhile, we'll keep organizing our communities. This is the best way we can work together. Its really the only materialist way we can work together effectively.
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