There are a number of things those of us who genuinely desire a better world can do during this pandemic crisis. I’ve had a working definition of “dialectical and historical materialism” since I first studied the concepts back in the 80s in the work study circle process of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP), but it wasn’t until years later that I gained a practical understanding of what those concepts actually mean. In short, dialectics is the struggle of opposites. The struggle for dominance. Good versus bad. Right versus wrong, etc. The struggle is one of variables from each side struggling to become dominant. As I’ve come to understand it better, what dialectics has taught me is that in order for there to be good in something, there has to also be bad within it. It usually isn’t a 50/50 split. Maybe the good is 75%. Maybe the bad is 80%, but there is each element in everything. The primary struggle is which will dominate.
Consequently, a dialectical approach to the current pandemic situation informs me that despite the great tragedy and trauma associated with the coronavirus crisis, there is also some good that will come from it. That good is that we suddenly find ourselves, during social isolation, with more time to ourselves. More time to think. More time to figure things out. More time to study. More time to link up with people. And, thanks to the sacrifices of the masses of Africans in the Congo and Mozambique, and other oppressed humanity, we have the technology to discuss how to end their suffering, ours, and everyone else’s who has been suffering long before COVID 19. We should take advantage of the trauma to create things that are good.
Everyone doesn’t have internet, but a lot of people do. Especially people who have skills and capacity to do things. Aren’t these some of the people we should trying to get engaged in the struggle for liberation? Provided those people are organized to use their skills to advance all of humanity there is no shame in focusing on politically educating and organizing them. I struggle mightily with ZOOM and other internet conference/communication platforms, but I’m getting better. Still, due to my growth, I definitely see the importance of people who possess strong technology skills. Don’t we need to recruit those people? People who have strong technology skills and can help us understand how to use these platforms more effectively to reach more people. People who possess strong social media skills. Don’t we need more and more of those people on our side? People who know how to publicize events on line? Of course, we are greatly concerned about the houseless communities and other vulnerable segments of our population. We do everything we can to help, but that doesn’t mean we can’t figure out ways to bring political education to segments of the population who have internet and the skills to help us build capacity for the long term struggle for justice. The struggle that will end houselessness and other ills in society?
So, for those who are thinking about and interested in building that long term capacity to create revolutionary potential, this is the time for us to consolidate much of that work. Kwame Nkrumah encouraged us to work with what we have and with what we can use. We should take maximize advantage of what we have to work with right now.
Online political education. We should make sure we have organizations we belong to that have political education processes. We can use ZOOM, Skype, and other platforms to continue political education. In fact, our study and discussion should intensify now because we have fewer distractions than we are used to. Let’s take advantage of that. Recruit people to participate in your study group and start ongoing political education.
Organize online seminars on any number of topics. Scientific socialism. Community defense. Pan-Africanism. International solidarity. Anti-white supremacy. Anti-patriarchy. Anti-homophobia. There’s an endless number of topics we can discuss. And with online access we can invite people from all over the world to participate with us. Solidarity. Building those bridges. Let’s take advantage of this.
We can do organizational orientations online. We can recruit people. We can develop work, do research, and determine what our course of action will be and how we will carry them out. We can do all of that right now. We can write and share our writings as I’m doing right now. The article I wrote on fascism during this pandemic has received over 17,000 reads in the last four days. Effective propaganda. Let’s take advantage of this.
There’s so much we can do folks. There are a lot of us who suffer from depression and that’s understandable beyond a doubt. For those of us who are ready and in a stable enough place to do work right now, we say lets use these ideas and others to start doing that work. Think about it, we can have thousands and more discussing how we can organize for justice everyday. Let’s take advantage of the time and make positive emerge amongst all the negativity.
Consequently, a dialectical approach to the current pandemic situation informs me that despite the great tragedy and trauma associated with the coronavirus crisis, there is also some good that will come from it. That good is that we suddenly find ourselves, during social isolation, with more time to ourselves. More time to think. More time to figure things out. More time to study. More time to link up with people. And, thanks to the sacrifices of the masses of Africans in the Congo and Mozambique, and other oppressed humanity, we have the technology to discuss how to end their suffering, ours, and everyone else’s who has been suffering long before COVID 19. We should take advantage of the trauma to create things that are good.
Everyone doesn’t have internet, but a lot of people do. Especially people who have skills and capacity to do things. Aren’t these some of the people we should trying to get engaged in the struggle for liberation? Provided those people are organized to use their skills to advance all of humanity there is no shame in focusing on politically educating and organizing them. I struggle mightily with ZOOM and other internet conference/communication platforms, but I’m getting better. Still, due to my growth, I definitely see the importance of people who possess strong technology skills. Don’t we need to recruit those people? People who have strong technology skills and can help us understand how to use these platforms more effectively to reach more people. People who possess strong social media skills. Don’t we need more and more of those people on our side? People who know how to publicize events on line? Of course, we are greatly concerned about the houseless communities and other vulnerable segments of our population. We do everything we can to help, but that doesn’t mean we can’t figure out ways to bring political education to segments of the population who have internet and the skills to help us build capacity for the long term struggle for justice. The struggle that will end houselessness and other ills in society?
So, for those who are thinking about and interested in building that long term capacity to create revolutionary potential, this is the time for us to consolidate much of that work. Kwame Nkrumah encouraged us to work with what we have and with what we can use. We should take maximize advantage of what we have to work with right now.
Online political education. We should make sure we have organizations we belong to that have political education processes. We can use ZOOM, Skype, and other platforms to continue political education. In fact, our study and discussion should intensify now because we have fewer distractions than we are used to. Let’s take advantage of that. Recruit people to participate in your study group and start ongoing political education.
Organize online seminars on any number of topics. Scientific socialism. Community defense. Pan-Africanism. International solidarity. Anti-white supremacy. Anti-patriarchy. Anti-homophobia. There’s an endless number of topics we can discuss. And with online access we can invite people from all over the world to participate with us. Solidarity. Building those bridges. Let’s take advantage of this.
We can do organizational orientations online. We can recruit people. We can develop work, do research, and determine what our course of action will be and how we will carry them out. We can do all of that right now. We can write and share our writings as I’m doing right now. The article I wrote on fascism during this pandemic has received over 17,000 reads in the last four days. Effective propaganda. Let’s take advantage of this.
There’s so much we can do folks. There are a lot of us who suffer from depression and that’s understandable beyond a doubt. For those of us who are ready and in a stable enough place to do work right now, we say lets use these ideas and others to start doing that work. Think about it, we can have thousands and more discussing how we can organize for justice everyday. Let’s take advantage of the time and make positive emerge amongst all the negativity.
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