This little known picture is a shining example of sterling and historical revolutionary organizing. The late Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), fourth from the right, shortly before his death. Standing in front of the Democratic Party of Guinea headquarters with fellow A-APRP cadre from Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Gambia, and Senegal. Without Kwame's quiet and consistent work in Africa for 30 years, the conditions that permitted me to just do A-APRP work in Tanzania probably wouldn't exist. He is no longer here, but the example he gave still contributes to our struggle and helps us get stronger!
Virtually since the moment I stepped back inside the U.S. last month I've been un-indated with questions, requests, and statements about what the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) is doing to protest Trump being sworn in as U.S. President on January 21st. Where are our events? What will we be doing? What positions will we be pushing? I can't speak for every A-APRP chapter, but I'm pretty sure that the answer to all those questions is going to be we aren't doing anything particular to Trump taking office. Since many of our chapters are outside of the U.S., its a given that they have much larger concerns and work than who occupies the highest bourgeois office in this country. And, even our chapters inside the U.S. have much work to do. None of this is to say that we do not support the wide variety of protest actions that will be taking place across this country. We definitely support all those actions. In fact, if you are any type of protest, social justice, reform and challege the system type of organization worth the space you occupy, you better be out there raising all types of hell. Again, we respect and encourage your efforts to challenge the system and attempt to hold it accountable to justice. So, please repeat that last refrain several times to yourselves so we can move past it.
For us, the question is a larger one. Our politics are revolutionary which means we are not interested in challenging the system to hold it accountable. We are only interested in dismantling the system through a mass revolutionary process. So, since revolutionaries focus on the system, not the issues the system creates, we are not concerned about who the U.S. president is because regardless of who it is, we still want to overturn the entire system. Actually, we have never made a statement about any elected official, either in the U.S., Africa, or anywhere else because we are always focused on the system. We are always attempting to get the masses of people to focus on the system. So, we won't be offering any specific focus on Donald Trump, Barack Obama, or who they appoint or appointed. Even if they appointed a current grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan we wouldn't react to that besides to say that at least they are being open about the racist system that this has always been. In other words, since we have been telling you for decades that the system is the problem, nothing the system produces surprises us. And, we don't depend upon events and occurrences to inspire us. We are inspired by our revolutionary ideology which comes from the historical struggle of the masses of African people. Our allegances are to them, not this backward system. This system balances itself on our backs. So, when we fight, we are fighting for a better world for our future generations and we know that no system that advances capitalism, no matter who the president is, can ever be for our people.
So, what will we be doing about Trump? The answer is the we will doing the same thing we always are doing to fight the capitalist system. We will be engaging in the methodical and tedious work of attempting to promote the revolutionary political education of the masses of African people. This is our strategic approach because we know that every African that we win over is one less African there to serve imperialism. We know that our struggle isn't just a fight against Trump because he is simply a symptom of our problem and if we were to focus on him we would be accepting the narrative provided to us by elements of the capitalist system. Then, we would be getting all wrapped in the solution being getting the right person when the actual solution is getting the right system. Our message is that the right system is one unified socialist Africa and that creating that empowers Africans everywhere while also helping our allies who are also fighting against imperialism because a united socialist Africa weakens imperialism and makes it much harder for it to continue to oppress other people. So, by taking the strategic approach that we do, we are automatically helping the Indigneous people's of the Western Hempmishere. We are automatically helping the Irish struggle. The Palestinian and Filipino struggles.
This is our work and revolutionary work is never event oriented. Its about creating structures. Its about building relationships, strengthening work being done on the ground. So, while mobilization activists often are individualistic people who aspire personal advancement in the struggle (notice how many of them always have the work they are doing centered around them as individuals), you will find that revolutionary organizers never have the work centered around them. Instead, their work is focused on creating space for others to develop their organizing skills. This requires a focus instead on studying the conditions of the struggle so that budding organizers learn points of attack and how to sustain their work. Revolutionary organizers, in order to be successful, always have to be patient. They always have to understand that being slighted is a regular aspect of their work because what's most important is the work, not them. And, revolutionary organizers are never seeking personal attention. They don't want fame or money. They just want to empower the masses of the people. Nothing else. These people understand that even if they have to start over, they are starting over at a higer qualitative level of production. They have a dialectical and historical materialist perspective to guide their work, not an emotional or ego driven approach. They are consistent. So consistent that the best revolutionary organizers are routinely taken for granted. Even ignored, possibly disrespected on a regular basis. And, they are ok with all of that because again, its not about them, its about the work. These people don't mind those slights because all they care about is after they are no longer there, the skills and work they put in place will still continue. Its not important who makes this happen, only that it does. Revolutionaries understand this.
So, you will probably see our cadre out and about, but if you do, its not because we are caught up in the emotion of the moment. In fact, if you pay close attention to us, you will probably see us out there building relationships because that's what we do. You see, to us, the real objective isn't whatever happens on January 21st, but what happens afterward. What we are able to build to further strengthen our revolutionary work. What efforts we can make to further concretise our capacity. We will be doing that work once Trump is president and long after he's dead and gone.
And, if you don't see us out there, don't assume its because we aren't doing anything. Rest assured. We are always doing something for our people. No, we aren't inside watching "Good Times" reruns. Instead, we are talking to high school students. Speaking at colleges and universities. Working with the youth at our freedom schools around the world. We are collecting names. Writing and distributing articles. Studying. Following up with people. Mentoring people. All of the daily elements of our work focused around encouraging people to join this struggle, if not in our party, in some organization working for justice. We are even recruiting people to join the protests if that's where they want to be.
We have to help create the conditions for people to have somewhere to go and something concrete to do after January 21st.
For us, the question is a larger one. Our politics are revolutionary which means we are not interested in challenging the system to hold it accountable. We are only interested in dismantling the system through a mass revolutionary process. So, since revolutionaries focus on the system, not the issues the system creates, we are not concerned about who the U.S. president is because regardless of who it is, we still want to overturn the entire system. Actually, we have never made a statement about any elected official, either in the U.S., Africa, or anywhere else because we are always focused on the system. We are always attempting to get the masses of people to focus on the system. So, we won't be offering any specific focus on Donald Trump, Barack Obama, or who they appoint or appointed. Even if they appointed a current grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan we wouldn't react to that besides to say that at least they are being open about the racist system that this has always been. In other words, since we have been telling you for decades that the system is the problem, nothing the system produces surprises us. And, we don't depend upon events and occurrences to inspire us. We are inspired by our revolutionary ideology which comes from the historical struggle of the masses of African people. Our allegances are to them, not this backward system. This system balances itself on our backs. So, when we fight, we are fighting for a better world for our future generations and we know that no system that advances capitalism, no matter who the president is, can ever be for our people.
So, what will we be doing about Trump? The answer is the we will doing the same thing we always are doing to fight the capitalist system. We will be engaging in the methodical and tedious work of attempting to promote the revolutionary political education of the masses of African people. This is our strategic approach because we know that every African that we win over is one less African there to serve imperialism. We know that our struggle isn't just a fight against Trump because he is simply a symptom of our problem and if we were to focus on him we would be accepting the narrative provided to us by elements of the capitalist system. Then, we would be getting all wrapped in the solution being getting the right person when the actual solution is getting the right system. Our message is that the right system is one unified socialist Africa and that creating that empowers Africans everywhere while also helping our allies who are also fighting against imperialism because a united socialist Africa weakens imperialism and makes it much harder for it to continue to oppress other people. So, by taking the strategic approach that we do, we are automatically helping the Indigneous people's of the Western Hempmishere. We are automatically helping the Irish struggle. The Palestinian and Filipino struggles.
This is our work and revolutionary work is never event oriented. Its about creating structures. Its about building relationships, strengthening work being done on the ground. So, while mobilization activists often are individualistic people who aspire personal advancement in the struggle (notice how many of them always have the work they are doing centered around them as individuals), you will find that revolutionary organizers never have the work centered around them. Instead, their work is focused on creating space for others to develop their organizing skills. This requires a focus instead on studying the conditions of the struggle so that budding organizers learn points of attack and how to sustain their work. Revolutionary organizers, in order to be successful, always have to be patient. They always have to understand that being slighted is a regular aspect of their work because what's most important is the work, not them. And, revolutionary organizers are never seeking personal attention. They don't want fame or money. They just want to empower the masses of the people. Nothing else. These people understand that even if they have to start over, they are starting over at a higer qualitative level of production. They have a dialectical and historical materialist perspective to guide their work, not an emotional or ego driven approach. They are consistent. So consistent that the best revolutionary organizers are routinely taken for granted. Even ignored, possibly disrespected on a regular basis. And, they are ok with all of that because again, its not about them, its about the work. These people don't mind those slights because all they care about is after they are no longer there, the skills and work they put in place will still continue. Its not important who makes this happen, only that it does. Revolutionaries understand this.
So, you will probably see our cadre out and about, but if you do, its not because we are caught up in the emotion of the moment. In fact, if you pay close attention to us, you will probably see us out there building relationships because that's what we do. You see, to us, the real objective isn't whatever happens on January 21st, but what happens afterward. What we are able to build to further strengthen our revolutionary work. What efforts we can make to further concretise our capacity. We will be doing that work once Trump is president and long after he's dead and gone.
And, if you don't see us out there, don't assume its because we aren't doing anything. Rest assured. We are always doing something for our people. No, we aren't inside watching "Good Times" reruns. Instead, we are talking to high school students. Speaking at colleges and universities. Working with the youth at our freedom schools around the world. We are collecting names. Writing and distributing articles. Studying. Following up with people. Mentoring people. All of the daily elements of our work focused around encouraging people to join this struggle, if not in our party, in some organization working for justice. We are even recruiting people to join the protests if that's where they want to be.
We have to help create the conditions for people to have somewhere to go and something concrete to do after January 21st.
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