First, let's give credit where credit is due. Twice in the last 20 years, Minister Louis Farrakhan has mobilized millions of people to come out and focus on a struggle for human justice and dignity. Regardless of whatever you feel about Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam, or whatever your issue is, I respect his organizing capabilities. In 1977, he made the decision to break away from Warith Deen Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad's son, who was ordained the successor to the elder Muhammad upon Elijah's death in February of 1975. Warith deconstructed the Nation of Islam. Dismantled the Fruit of Islam and the Muslim Girls Training and General Civilization Classes, and the teachings of his father. Farrakhan spent years going from city to city, reorganizing and resurrecting the Nation of Islam in the image and teachings of his mentor; Elijah Muhammad. Today, Farrakhan doesn't have the number of followers that Elijah Muhammad had back in the mid 60s - a then estimated 250,000, but Farrakhan has demonstrated a skilled ability to rebuild the Nation and his work to mobilize for the original Million Man March in 1995 and the commemoration march three days ago, is testimony to his organizing skills. Although less people in the U.S. know of it, Farrakhan's organizing to rebuild the Nation is similar to the work the late Kwame Ture did to build Pan-African cadre for the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP). Brother Joseph's recently released book - "Stokely - A Life" honors Kwame's organizing work in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC - pronounced SNICK) in Mississippi and Alabama in the mid sixties when he was known as Stokely Carmichael. Unfortunately, Joseph, as pretty much every capitalist scholar, chooses to ignore Kwame's even more impressive organizing work in Africa to build the A-APRP, expanding the party from one work study circle in Guinea-Conakry to Pan-African cadre all over the African continent, Europe, and the Americas today. Of course, none of this is on CNN, BET, or CIA network, so most people know nothing about it. This is especially true in this "if it ain't in my face, it don't exist" consciousness of the capitalist world in 2015. In spite of these difficulties, understand that there is extensive work taking place. Farrakhan has done that work for 60 years inside of the Nation of Islam and that should be respected. I am objective enough to see that regardless of whatever other problems I do have and you should be too, especially since most of you can't even organize yourself to do what you want to do, not to mention millions of people.
And it is this organizing capacity that explains why the capitalist media has been silent on the Million Man March. Please realize that the corporate/capitalist media - CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CNBC, and all the rest of them, are owned by the people who stand in complete opposition to the masses of people on the planet. The people who exploit the worlds human and material resources for the purpose of private profit and control over the universe. There is no objective reporting in a capitalist society. This is why Africans shot down like dogs by slave catcher police are consistently criminalized and the police who murder them are humanized. It's why people who stand up against U.S. imperialism are labeled terrorists while the U.S. can and does kill millions without the slightest accountability from the media. It's why Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam can be compared to the kkk and neo-nazis with a straight face by the media while anyone with an intelligence level slightly above that of a fool knows that the Nation of Islam has never killed a single European while those white supremacist organizations have murdered, terrorized, and traumatized millions of innocent persons. So, those of you waiting and wondering why there was no coverage of the march should just accept that it's not going to happen. Yes, we know that they cover us when there are killings. They cover Chicago when there are 40 shootings in our communities over a weekend. They cover that so you think, logically, why wouldn't they cover the Million Man March where millions us come together without as much as a scratch being reported? The problem is you are thinking with logic and they are thinking with dollar signs. They know they have to keep the masses of people asleep, afraid, and disconnected from reality because that's their job as the propaganda organs of their masters. They want everyone, including as many Africans as possible, to be angry and distrustful of the masses of Africans. Especially those who have the audacity to rise up and challenge the legitimacy of the always in the right uncle sam.
In spite of all of that, we are here to tell you not to fret. Kwame Ture taught us that we can organize our people without the capitalist media. Kwame knew from his experiences in SNCC in the 60s that the media was not a friend to our movements. So, the A-APRP has never used the capitalist media to do our work. We never call them. We never expect them to report our work and when they do come out, we may talk to them, we may not, depending upon whether we believe doing so will help what we are trying to do. And, since 1972, we have put the word African on the lips of every African. Even this fraudulent "African-American" is a compromise to our relentless work to convince our people that we are Africans fighting against the capitalist/imperialist network. We have an anti- FBI/CIA campaign. When I started in the A-APRP in 1984, we would do programs on those terrorist organizations. I have been involved in hundreds of programs where we educated people about how the CIA murdered Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, Allende in Chile, Che Guevara in Bolivia. How they overthrew the democratically elected governments of Nkrumah in Ghana, how they invaded Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. How the FBI illegally sabotaged African organizations like the Black Panther Party as well as our comrades in the American Indian Movement. I've done educational programs like this on everyone from Anna Mae Pictoh Aquash to Fred Hampton to Mumia Abu Jamal to Thomas Sankara. Today, pretty much everyone except a few slow thinkers understand that the FBI/CIA are not to be trusted. This is because of the work of the A-APRP and many other organizations and we have done it without one media article, one television news report, one tweet to support our work. I remember in 1998 when Kwame Ture made his physical transition and the so-called Black Entertainment Network, then owned by dark people, did a report on Kwame and life in Guinea-Conakry, the place Kwame spent the last 30 years of his life. The report was rifled with racism and the very same miss-information that the capitalist media has been reporting since the 60s. They said Kwame somehow lost his mind when he moved to Guinea. Sekou Ture was a dictator. Socialism has failed.
You should understand why Minister Farrakhan and Kwame Ture were such good friends. Although they had different perspectives on what is best for our people, they respected one another because they both understood that whatever good is going to happen to African people, we are the ones who are going to have to create it. And, since this backward system is based on our continued exploitation, that means our liberation is tied to the destruction of capitalist uncle sam. So, don't hold your breath waiting for CNN and the others to give anything resembling a balanced report of a historically important occasion like the Million Man March. Don't sweat it though. There will be a day soon when they will be begging to report whatever we want them to, but by then, their time will be up.
And it is this organizing capacity that explains why the capitalist media has been silent on the Million Man March. Please realize that the corporate/capitalist media - CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CNBC, and all the rest of them, are owned by the people who stand in complete opposition to the masses of people on the planet. The people who exploit the worlds human and material resources for the purpose of private profit and control over the universe. There is no objective reporting in a capitalist society. This is why Africans shot down like dogs by slave catcher police are consistently criminalized and the police who murder them are humanized. It's why people who stand up against U.S. imperialism are labeled terrorists while the U.S. can and does kill millions without the slightest accountability from the media. It's why Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam can be compared to the kkk and neo-nazis with a straight face by the media while anyone with an intelligence level slightly above that of a fool knows that the Nation of Islam has never killed a single European while those white supremacist organizations have murdered, terrorized, and traumatized millions of innocent persons. So, those of you waiting and wondering why there was no coverage of the march should just accept that it's not going to happen. Yes, we know that they cover us when there are killings. They cover Chicago when there are 40 shootings in our communities over a weekend. They cover that so you think, logically, why wouldn't they cover the Million Man March where millions us come together without as much as a scratch being reported? The problem is you are thinking with logic and they are thinking with dollar signs. They know they have to keep the masses of people asleep, afraid, and disconnected from reality because that's their job as the propaganda organs of their masters. They want everyone, including as many Africans as possible, to be angry and distrustful of the masses of Africans. Especially those who have the audacity to rise up and challenge the legitimacy of the always in the right uncle sam.
In spite of all of that, we are here to tell you not to fret. Kwame Ture taught us that we can organize our people without the capitalist media. Kwame knew from his experiences in SNCC in the 60s that the media was not a friend to our movements. So, the A-APRP has never used the capitalist media to do our work. We never call them. We never expect them to report our work and when they do come out, we may talk to them, we may not, depending upon whether we believe doing so will help what we are trying to do. And, since 1972, we have put the word African on the lips of every African. Even this fraudulent "African-American" is a compromise to our relentless work to convince our people that we are Africans fighting against the capitalist/imperialist network. We have an anti- FBI/CIA campaign. When I started in the A-APRP in 1984, we would do programs on those terrorist organizations. I have been involved in hundreds of programs where we educated people about how the CIA murdered Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, Allende in Chile, Che Guevara in Bolivia. How they overthrew the democratically elected governments of Nkrumah in Ghana, how they invaded Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. How the FBI illegally sabotaged African organizations like the Black Panther Party as well as our comrades in the American Indian Movement. I've done educational programs like this on everyone from Anna Mae Pictoh Aquash to Fred Hampton to Mumia Abu Jamal to Thomas Sankara. Today, pretty much everyone except a few slow thinkers understand that the FBI/CIA are not to be trusted. This is because of the work of the A-APRP and many other organizations and we have done it without one media article, one television news report, one tweet to support our work. I remember in 1998 when Kwame Ture made his physical transition and the so-called Black Entertainment Network, then owned by dark people, did a report on Kwame and life in Guinea-Conakry, the place Kwame spent the last 30 years of his life. The report was rifled with racism and the very same miss-information that the capitalist media has been reporting since the 60s. They said Kwame somehow lost his mind when he moved to Guinea. Sekou Ture was a dictator. Socialism has failed.
You should understand why Minister Farrakhan and Kwame Ture were such good friends. Although they had different perspectives on what is best for our people, they respected one another because they both understood that whatever good is going to happen to African people, we are the ones who are going to have to create it. And, since this backward system is based on our continued exploitation, that means our liberation is tied to the destruction of capitalist uncle sam. So, don't hold your breath waiting for CNN and the others to give anything resembling a balanced report of a historically important occasion like the Million Man March. Don't sweat it though. There will be a day soon when they will be begging to report whatever we want them to, but by then, their time will be up.
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