Haitian Education Deepens Its Ties to Colonial Education

By Nnamdi Lumumba
 

On December 13, 2011 the Haitian government announced a partnership with two well known tools of U.S. imperialism, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Non-governmental organization Teachers Without Borders. Both organizations are front organizations for carrying out U.S. policy in formally colonized and neo-colonialized nations.

Supported by the neo-colonial U.S. puppet government in Haiti, Dr Frantz Casseus, chief of staff of the Education Minister, was quoted as commending the OAS for this initiative and reiterated continued support from his ministry. Over the next three years, the OAS will facilitate training for more than 260 teachers.

Dr. Casseus is commending the OAS, an organization formed by the infamous imperialist General George Marshall when he was the U.S. Secretary of State. The OAS was created with the explicit purpose of fighting socialist democracies from taking root in the Americas.

As early as 1960, the Cuban administration correctly characterized the OAS as the "Ministry of Colonies" of the United States of America.  In 1962, at the instruction of the U.S., the nation of Cuba was suspended from the OAS as an active member.  The wording of the resolution put forward for Cuba’s suspension spoke directly to the fact that Cuba was a worker’s state that defeated and expelled blood sucking white nationalist and capitalists. It called Cuba’s socialist democracy, “… incompatible with the principles and objectives of the inter-American system.”

Teachers Without Borders are an NGO founded in the U.S. in 2000. It puts forward an agenda that articulates itself as a tool to help teach educators in poor nations teach its children better. It promotes its agenda with the following programs: Certificate of Teaching Mastery, Emergency Education, Peace, Education, Millennium Development Ambassadors, Voice of Teachers Radio Show and Voice of Teachers Journal. None of these education programs seem capable of criticizing imperialism, capitalism and the oppression of the laboring peoples of the world by parasitic ruling classes.

Teachers Without Borders, like so many of programs that send young U.S. teachers throughout the world are similar function similar to the Peace Corps. An organization that on its face pretends to be about helping people but in reality helps feed the U.S. intelligence gathering services.

No nation of formally enslaved, colonized and oppressed people can be gullible enough to believe an imperialist nation like the U.S. is sincerely interested in education of the masses. Within the U.S. borders, the education system provided to domestically colonized Africans, colonized Mexican and other indigenous people serve to reinforce the socio-economic relationship of parasitic white power.  There is no education to teach African people how to be free and self-determined. There can be no such education exported outside the U.S!

The education received by colonized peoples only attempts to deepened their dependency and allegiances to the forces of imperialism. This is not an education that can be used to answer our issues and solve our problems. In the words of Chairman Fred Hampton Sr, “ You’ll get answers that don’t answers and conclusions that don’t conclude…”

Pan-African Internationalists must build the capacity to develop our own programs that will train and transport educators throughout the African and oppressed world. We must engage in the work of building dual and contending institutions so the people can clearly see what forces in the world represent their true interests.  African educators must not only be committed to educating the people but also arming the people with knowledge that serves their need to be free and independent on their own terms.

Pan-African Internationalists must be clear that Dr. Casseus’ support of the OAS is a veiled support for U.S. imperialist control of Haiti and the brains of our African people.  It is doubtful that any support by the OAS and Teachers Without Borders that does not come without a struggle by progressive and revolutionary nations in the Americas can be good for Haiti or any member state.

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Electoral Politics and The Class Struggle

By Nnamdi Lumumba, UPP State Organizer

African people worldwide exist during a time of great crisis both internally to our own communities and externally under international capitalism. Parasitic capitalism under the control of the international white ruling class and in alliance with neocolonialist ruling class elements in oppressed nations are fighting a desperate struggle to maintain the system of imperialism. In oppressed nations, neocolonialism stands as the last line of defense keeping the masses from attacking imperialism directly to liberate themselves from the parasitic relationships set upon us that rob us of the ability to live as full human beings.

The struggle of African workers and poor people to overthrow neocolonialism is a fundamental task in our liberation. In many places, it is not White people that commit crimes against the people but African petty bourgeoisie elements which keep the people in poverty and desperation. The class conscious sector of the African working class most strive fully and completely to unseat neo-colonialism and to raise the political consciousness of the masses to their full stature as makers of history.

One such area that most be contested is the electoral arena. Electoral politics in Africa and the Americas have been traditionally dominated by elements of the African petty bourgeoisie. The African petty bourgeoisie participates in electoral politics not to advance the interests of African people and the African community but to fill their own pockets and those of their class.

There should be no safe place for the African petty bourgeoisie to attack the people, we most elevate the consciousness of the masses of African people to understand that the election process is not about democracy but instead a struggle for power by the ruling class, that currently international capitalism is in crisis and that the capitalist parties are  working to maintain the wealth of the ruling class at the expense of all workers and poor people and finally that the African working class must rise to assume leadership of the African community's struggle for liberation. The electoral process is a form of political struggle that offers the vanguard of the African working class space to wage open class struggle with the African petty bourgeoisie and white ruling class for influence and power over the African community.

The first myth spread by the white ruling class is that the voting is equivalent to freedom and that change can be made at the ballot box. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Based on a concrete analysis of the real world, we assert that the election process is not about democracy but instead a nonviolent struggle for power by the ruling class. The so-called “two-party system” of the U.S. is in fact a two-headed single party system dominated by capitalist/imperialist parties. In practice it is like being given the choice of one slave master or another, no matter who is chosen, the slave can never vote to have freedom!

To be more specific, elections are used as a means for different sectors of the ruling class to struggle non-violently for control of the state apparatus. The state apparatus are the courts, legislature, police, schools and other government institutions that enforce the laws of the ruling class. Candidates are tied to various local, regional and national interests that fund and support candidates to forward their agenda. The participation of independent or populist candidates is minimal and limited as the two ruling class parties make it difficult for non-mainstream candidates and parties to participate and win elections.

In places around the world where the state apparatus is weak, political killings, coup d'etats and civil wars are carried out by contending sectors of the ruling class to gain power. Elections rarely take place and if they do, they are shame elections. The instability created by these contests are not good for overall economic growth and profit, so the capitalist forces in the West do all they can to regularly hold elections and to win working class participation in the elections.

We most also be clear that elections are used by the ruling class to legitimize the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The political parties that compete against each other represent the same social class. They represent the interests of the capitalist class. The issues and solutions that African working class and other working and poor people need are never put forward.

International capitalism is in crisis and the capitalist parties will look to maintain themselves at the expense of the workers and poor people.

Both major parties are legalizing the assault on African people, workers and poor people via the political process. Attacks on welfare, social security, Medicare are becoming popular targets by politicians to take away from the masses in an effort to preserve the interests of the ruling class. Funding for education, recreation and other services are being cut while increases in police and prisons are being passed in preparation of locking down more African and other oppressed peoples.

Candidates from both major parties are apologists for the increasingly repressive policies being implemented to protect the ruling class. Black democrats have openly abandoned the African community, only looking out for their middle class friends and supporters. Liberal candidates have been driven towards the political right in support of wars, spending cuts and other policies which attack colonized, oppressed and exploited people.

The African working class most rise to assume leadership of the African community's struggle for liberation and economic and social justice.

The mis-leadership of the African middle class has helped facilitate the escalation of the theft of the human and material resources of the African community. African politicians at the federal, state and local levels now lead the charge in creating and implementing policy that serves the interests of the capitalist class at the direct expense of the African community. The economic crisis for imperialism has been held at bay by draconian policies which have cause depression era unemployment, unprecedented lost of homes for African families and the widening of the wealth gap between African and White families.

The African working class most seizes all the democratic space possible to put forward its solutions to the crisis in the African community and to organize the community to defend itself. Electoral politics is not the only legitimate form of political struggle. The African working class most learn to strategically use all methods of political struggle to advance its agenda. The major of African people have been effectively demobilized and de-politized by the mis-leadership of the African middle class, they most have the opportunity to hear and participate in new ideas and politics if they are to be organized in their own interests.

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The Occupy Wall Street Movement: Opportunity for Revolution or Opportunism Instead of Revolution?

In this period of the African struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism, internationally capitalism – military and economic white supremacy is in crisis; a crisis that has shaken the U.S. financial markets and promises to destabilize the European Union. It is a crisis reaching the scale of the depression era in the early 1930's in the U.S., Japan and many countries in Europe. 

For African people the economic ramifications of this current crisis has long been felt and has gotten worse for us than any other community of people in the U.S. Currently there is a listed unemployment rate of 16.5% for all Black people looking for work, there is a 22% unemployment rate for Black men and for Black youth 16 - 25 the unemployment rate is a staggering 45%. Again, this is for those looking for employment, it does not take into account those who have given up looking and those who are underemployed working part-time. 

Because of the U.S. banking system crisis in 2008, Black families have suffered the hardest in the lost of homes to foreclosures. Baltimore has the second highest number of foreclosures for African people in the whole U.S. One of the root causes of the banking system crisis the uncontrolled speculation and manipulation of the market by banks as they used predatory lending policies disproportionately against African families. African families were tricked into taking incredibly exploitative loans that would steal billions of dollars from our community on the initial promise of affordable home ownership.

In addition to the predatory lending policies, which extracted greater amounts of wealth from our community, discriminatory hiring practices in the labor market and the increased incarnation of African people cut into the overall economic stability of the African community. We are now in a situation where the wealth gap between Black and White families is reported to be the largest in the history of this country. White families are now on average 20 times wealthier than African families ($113,150 compared to $5,680) and some estimating it would take centuries for the gap to be closed.

The crisis in capitalism however is so deep that now the precious white middle class of America is feeling the effects. Once able to feel secure about their future and bribed by imperialism to be content with the exploitation and oppression of the African, Latino and other oppressed nations, the economic crisis now threatens white workers comfortable lives. Now the wealth gap between the average white person and the elite 1% ruling class has expanded into all time proportions. The national ratio for CEO-to-worker pay grew 20 percent from last year to hit a whopping 325 to 1.

In response to the crisis for finance capitalists and the military industrial complex, the U.S. government initiated a stated $700 billion bailout of banks. Many predict the actual amount spent to be in trillion-dollar range. The U.S. government also increased its spending of trillions of dollars to make war on Arab and African people abroad. All this was done at the expense of jobs, homes, and education for white people, a violation of the unwritten rules of class peace between the ruling class and the so-called white working class, pushing the white community to the edge.

Currently there is a national mobilization in various cities called the Occupy Wall Street movement. It obviously started in New York on Wall Street and has spread to Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Seattle, Detroit and Baltimore as well as others. It has allowed for white people to express their narrow petty disagreements with U.S. imperialism about how they have been treated and want to share more in the looting of the world's resources. 

In almost every case, attempts by African, Latino and Indigenous people to participate on behalf of the contradictions that exist in our own communities have been met with hostility and suspicion. In addition, issues with woman and the LGBT community have also sprung up, exposing the true nature of these demonstrations as not being progressive and revolutionary but instead opportunist, racist and sexist.

In Baltimore, a city with 65% African population, we have the opportunity to turn the Occupy Baltimore mobilization into a showcase for the issues of the African community. We are able to expose the opportunism, opportunism, classism, and racism of the white middle class and the so-called white left for the lack of unity with the plight of the majority of people in this city and the world. Instead of unity with the demands of African people for real social justice and economic justice, the participants in the Occupy Baltimore action have attempt to be as vague as possible about the goals and objectives of the demonstration and have attempted to minimize all attempts by non-white and oppressed people to get our interests on the platform.

Just days ago, members of the Ujima People’s Progress Party (UPP) went to a meeting in East Baltimore at community church to participate in a meeting between white leftist and oppressed community forces who were upset with the state of the mobilization in Baltimore to this time. There were about 30 people there with the ratio being about 12 Africans to 18 white people. However as the meeting had no agenda and no formal leadership, the UPP was able to seize the moment and take over the meeting.

Comrade Jabbar took charge by being the facilitator of the whole meeting, he was able to control the flow of the meeting and recognize speakers. I was able to set out many of the goals the African community needed addressed and struggled with opinions that attempted to minimize a platform that spoke directly to African people. Essentially everyone at the meeting had to interact with the UPP as though we called the meeting.

Given the crisis of leadership in the African community and the long track record of opportunism in the white left, it was the most correct action available to the UPP comrades to take control of the discussion on behalf of the interests of African workers and other oppressed people.

At the end of the meeting, we had Comrade Chris volunteer to help craft a preamble statement to the Occupy Baltimore organizers and to the community in general. This preamble was a criticism of the Occupy Baltimore mobilization and pointed to the correct stance that should be taken. We also worked to create goals that would be presented to the Occupy Baltimore movement to challenge the rudderless leadership and as well as to speak to our own community about why they should participate in the local mobilization.

We summarize our basic goals for participating in this mobilization as the following:

1. Use the Occupy Baltimore mobilization to get signatures for the UPP and to recruit young/new African activists into working with our organization to build the party.

2. Push the mobilization to acknowledge and address the contractions and interests of the African community as we make up the largest segment of people in the city.

3. To make contact with organizations that can have principled unity with us to help push the UPP work forward and to build work in the community in general.

In addition to the goals consolidated in the meeting, we also won support for not bringing in the emerging body as a “People of Color” committee. In several locations around the country, oppressed people have consolidated themselves as an auxiliary committee in the Occupy Wall Street mobilization.

We resist submitting ourselves to the opportunist, racist and sexist leadership of the Occupy Baltimore movement, instead we stand as a separate “Power to the People” committee who come to the mobilization in support of our goals. We also resist using the term “People of Color” to define ourselves, we are Africans, and many of the committee attendees are left forces looking for concrete goals and objectives. The term “people of color” is a term used by white society to define what they believe to be minority populations but as Africans, we understand we are billion strong!

The goals we were able to push for and win with the meeting of organizers were:

1. End Gentrification of the African community and to end foreclosures on people's homes

2. Demand for jobs and a living wage.

3. Ending Police Brutality and the occupation of Baltimore by Baltimore City Police

4. End the school to prison pipeline and stop the Prison Industrial complex

5. Healthcare for all and the ending of Food Deserts in the Black community

6. More funding to public education

7. More funding to Youth Programs

8. Ending of the war on drugs and the racist immigration policies

9. End the wars in the Middle East and Africa

Bcde. Nnamdi Lumuma,

State Organizer,

Ujima People's Progress Party

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African Community Refuses to Participate in Neo-Colonial Elections in Baltimore

Baltimore, MD – On Tuesday, September 13, 2011, voter turnout for the primary elections for Baltimore city local government officials hit an all-time historic low for the city. Only 17% of eligible voters in the city bothered to participate in the elections that would pick Democratic Party and Republican Party candidates for Mayor and 14 city council positions. Despite the attempts by the bourgeois media and pundits to cast the low participation numbers on voter apathy, the lack of participation in choosing between contending elements of the two ruling class parties represents a continuation of the breakdown in the people’s perception of the legitimacy of the state and its leadership.

Baltimore is a city of nearly 630,000 people with 64% of the population being Africans. the African working class is the largest sector of people in the city; but with 21% of all families living below the poverty level  African workers are also some of the poorest. Baltimore is a city with an overall unemployment rate of 11.4% which is higher than the 9.7% national average. Take into account that nationally 16.7% of African people, 19.4% of African men and a whopping 45% of African youth ages 16-24 are unemployed, the economic situation in the city of Baltimore for African people is critical.

The Democratic Party attempts to project itself as the liberal party in the United States and a friend of the African and other minority causes. Simultaneously, it has vilified the Republican Party as the party of the rich and the enemy of African people. However, in the face of all this, the Democratic Party has ruled the Baltimore city government for over 44 years and in that time, the economic, educational and health conditions of African people have steadily declined. It has not been the policies of the Republican Party which has failed the African community in Baltimore but the policies and leadership of the Democratic Party. The fact is both the Democratic and Republican parties are capitalist-imperialist parties that serve the interests of the white ruling class in the United States. Both parties are united in the philosophical and ideological belief in maintaining the domination of parasitic white power over all the oppressed peoples and nations of the world. Practically, they really only differ in the tactics and strategies they implement in order to achieve these goals.

Elections are non-violent contests between contending elements of the ruling class to determine which sector will have control of the state apparatus for a specific period of time. Once they have control of the state apparatus, they begin the work of implementing and maintaining policies that advance the economic and social agenda of their supporters. Elections legitimize the authority of these sectors of the ruling class even as they operate in opposition to the needs of the electorate.As a result of the large African population in Baltimore, there is also a large Black middle class that functions as gate keepers in the administration of resources and services. This Black middle class has proven itself to be visionless and traitorous to the interests of the general African population. Therefore it can only be recognized as performing a neo-colonial function in relationship to the masses of African and poor people in the struggle against the U.S. parasitic white ruling class.As a class, the Black petite-bourgeoisie can not be counted on as a social force to transform the poverty and disenfranchisement experienced by African people. As a class, it has attempted to consolidate its gains off the backs of African workers, the youth and other poor people.

The mayoral campaign was contested by 6 Africans and one white man. With the exception of one lone, under funded African worker in the campaign, all the other class elements were middle class African people who refuse to raise the issues the masses needed to have addressed.The mayoral election was won by the incumbent mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, an African woman with a long history of serving the Democratic Party machine and only ascended to the mayor position when her fellow Democratic Party crony, Shelia Dixon, was kicked out of office for a scandal in which she stole monies allotted for poor families and made backdoor deals with capitalist developers.

Other petite-bourgeoisie African forces in the race were Catherine Pugh, a current Democratic State Senator and former Baltimore City councilmember and former chief of state to the former mayor Dixon Otis Rolley. Despite being African, neither of these candidates dared to speak directly to the issues of the masses of African and poor people in this city. Neither was able to make a class distinction between themselves and the incumbent mayor. Many feared the lone white candidate, Jody Landers, a former city council member and local businessman would be able to steal the election with so many African candidates splitting the Black vote. However he finished a distant fourth in the election and could not inspire working class white voters to come out to support his campaign.

Ultimately, the refusal of the vast majority of people to participate in the local election is a key indictment of the current political process. The people when inspired have shown they will come out to vote and can be energized but when given the choice of one neo-colonialist agenda against another, they would rather stay home

Now is the time to put forward a party and candidates that take the issues of the people and make them primary to their campaigns. Now is time to build a political machine that is connected to the interests and needs of African workers and poor people in the region to expose the class orientation of the current crop of misleadership that rules local politics.

Brother-Comrade Nnamdi Lumumba, UPP State Organizer 

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Pan-African Internationalism and the Land Question

The Pan-Africanist International Coordinating Committee has pledge itself to further develop and propagate revolutionary Pan-Africanist ideas and strategies so that African liberation forces worldwide can be more prepared and capable of leading a struggle to liberate Africa and African people from the grips of imperialism. As a part of this process, we want to explain our position on the land question for Africa and African people world wide.

It has often been stated that basis for all revolution is land. For colonized and neo-colonized people, the need to free the land from the grips of imperialism is fundamental. We initiate this discussion on the land question with the primary understanding that Africa is the national homeland of all African people, those in Africa and those of us forcibly dispersed throughout the world as a consequence of the transatlantic slave trade. Africa, her culture and all her wealth are the sole birthright of African people. We believe that African people no where on the planet Earth will know neither justice nor freedom until the parasitic relationship Africa has to the U.S., Europe, Japan and China is severed and Africa is able to produce for her own children’s interests.

We recognize that the crimes of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism are attacks committed against Africa. Slavery is not simply an attack against so-called African-Americans, Jamaicans or Afro-Brazilians, instead is a part of a series of assaults against Africa to facilitate the looting of Africa; with each phase of attack helping to disperse African people and exploit our labor.

The transatlantic slave trade first looted the human resources of Africa. Then, with a dispersed African population, came the subjugation and division of Africa and African people to implement colonialism in order to carry out the extraction of natural resources and launch international capitalism. Finally, to sustain imperialism and keep Africa dependent, neo-colonialism was implemented so that we could never feed, cloth and house ourselves on our own terms.

The economic and political domination of Africa is a key component in the maintenance of international capitalism. The socio-political structures of neo-colonialism have escalated many times over the theft of resources from Africa to maintain the capitalist development of the U.S., Europe and increasingly China. The poverty of African people, as a group internationally, is directly tied to the lack of wealth produced and controlled by Africa for herself. Nations in Africa and the western hemisphere controlled by large populations of African people are forced to have economic relationships with imperialist nations because Africa is not able to establish its own economic relationships to serve itself and its children. This state of existence has to be undone.

African people need to be free of imperialism and the neo-colonial governments that conspire with imperialism to hold the masses in check. A struggle for power, lead by African workers, to seize state power wherever we may be, under the principle African proletarian nationalism, should be the task of all revolutionary forces. In the process of building this organizational strength and capacity, the life of African workers, poor people and peasants must be transformed. In most places in the world, the immediate task of revolutionary parties lead by African workers will be to deal with neo-colonial forces functioning as gatekeepers protecting the interests of imperialist forces in their national territories. In Europe and North America, African workers are often the lowest paid or least employed while in Africa and the Caribbean, African workers and peasants are forced to produce wealth at near slave wages to supply international capitalist interests with materials to be sold at considerably marked up prices on the open market. The end result is that African workers and peasants are no longer producing resources that can be used to feed and cloth themselves and are forced to purchase products imported at cheaper prices than they can produce for themselves.

As the capacity of the revolutionary forces increase, the program of creating dual and contending institutions to serve the people must be use to seize liberated territory. These liberated zones must be established to create working models of socialist society that empower the masses of African people and gives them the ability to have power over their own lives. In the liberated zones, the influence of the African working class must rise and all efforts to undermine the African petty bourgeoisie must be carried out. The revolutionary capacity of the masses of African workers and poor people to challenge neo-colonialist governments must be heighten and used to win more space for the revolution. Revolutionary action that is able to overthrow neo-colonial governments should do so and implement a socialist workers’ state.

Once these liberated territories are secured, revolutionary forces leading the struggle must find ways to get resources and international support to revolutionary forces on the continent to sustain and support the struggle to liberate Africa from imperialism. History shows us that the existence of liberated territories will always be under threat while international capitalism is still able to function. To quicken the defeat of imperialism, resources liberated by the people must be sent to the legitimate revolutionary forces making struggle in Africa and other African nations in the western hemisphere to assist in the overthrow of imperialism.

Furthermore, liberated territories under the leadership of African workers must be consolidated and utilized to forward the building of a united Socialist Africa under the leadership of African workers and poor peasants. This means that on the African continent, African workers must over throw neo-colonialist forces to build a People’s Republic of Africa out of the liberated territories, regardless of the borders defined by imperialism. Citizenship most be bestowed on all African descendants world-wide you unite with the workers state and should have the right to repatriate to the Africa to assist in the building of the People’s Republic of Africa as full citizens.

In the Caribbean, African workers must overthrow neo-colonialism and implement workers states that are organized under the policy of proletarian nationalism domestically and Pan-African Internationalism internationally. The suppression of the comprador, African petty-bourgeoisie and building of a socialist society that distributes the wealth to African workers and poor peasants must begin. Resources, both human and material, badly needed by the revolutionary forces in other areas should be set up as quickly as possible to forward the defeat of imperialist.

In South America, the masses of African people led by African workers must unite with the indigenous peoples struggle to liberate their land from neo-colonialist and imperialist forces. In places where African workers have significant numbers, a national plebiscite should be called to determine the national destiny of African people in those regions to determine if they should repatriate back to Africa, create an independent workers’ socialist state or live in the states established by the indigenous liberation forces. Negotiations with indigenous forces as to the availability of land to build an independent state should begin when liberated territories are established to ensure principled acquisition of land by African people. Failure to secure land from the indigenous forces should not stop African people from taking control of resources created by our ancestors to serve autonomous African territories until repatriation to Africa can be secured.

In North America, the masses of African people led by African workers must unite with the indigenous peoples struggle to liberate their land from neo-colonialist and imperialist forces. It is incumbent of the revolutionary African front in North America to make it impossible for the reactionary forces of the U.S. to be able to deploy its sizable military and economic might to impact the revolutionary struggles of African workers in Africa and throughout the world. The liberating and deployment of material and human resources to key forces in Africa and other locations is fundamental as the U.S. has plundered and horded the wealth of the world in quantities never seen before. Liberated space in the African community must be won and consolidated through the strategy of dual and contending institutions. A national plebiscite should be called to determine the national destiny of African people in the U.S. and Canada to determine if they should repatriate back to Africa, create an independent workers’ socialist state or live in the states established by the indigenous liberation forces. Negotiations with indigenous liberation forces as to the availability of land to build an independent state should begin when liberated territories are established to ensure principled acquisition of land by African people. Failure to secure land from the indigenous forces should not stop African people from taking control of resources created by our ancestors to serve autonomous African territories until repatriation to Africa can be secured.

In Europe, African workers should unite with legitimate revolutionary forces to overthrow imperialist governments. Liberated zones should be established, where possible, in order to begin the process of preparing the African masses for self-rule. Since Europe is a major benefactor in the theft of African resources, revolutionary forces must work to liberate resources for the use by African revolutionaries to wage struggle in Africa or regions outside of Africa. A continental plebiscite should be called to determine the national destiny of African people in Europe to determine if they should repatriate back to Africa, create an independent workers’ socialist state or live in the states established by European revolutionary forces. Negotiations with revolutionary forces as to the availability of land to build an independent state should begin when liberated territories are established to ensure principled acquisition of land by African people. It is a general stance of the Pan-African Internationalist Coordinating Committee that Africans in Europe repatriate back to Africa or another African workers state with the liberated resources consolidated by the revolution.

Those this position does not go into detail how the land question should be resolved in any particular location; our intent is to present our overall position on how the liberating of land should play out as the demise of imperialism is complete.

Brother-Comrade Nnamdi Lumumba, UPP State Organizer

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Is There Room for African Working Class Leadership in the Black Community?

If the African community is to have self-determination, economic and social justice, now is the time for the African working class to struggle for leadership of our community on all of its various fronts. Now is the time to put forward solutions for genuine progress and change in the areas of economic development, institution building, public policy, education and electoral politics.

The defeat of the Black Power movement in the late1960’s dispersed and disrupted the development of working class, militant leadership for the African community. Unchallenged, the Black middle class was able to consolidate its ideological, economic, political and social subordination to the liberal sector of the white ruling class for its own interests and at the expense of the masses of African people.

Increasingly, the democratic space, hard-fought for by African people, has begun to be rolled back. Not only have the democratic gains been rolled back but, with the assistance of liberal black middle class leadership, nearly all forms of democratic participation except elections have become stigmatized. African revolutionary and progressive forces have been driven to the margins of influence and as a result, the condition of the masses of the African community has worsened.

Beginning in the mid-1970’s, the most dominant and consistent form of political activity the African community has participated in is the electoral process, by voting, running as candidates or participating in electoral campaigns. Voting has become synonymous with politics, and to the disadvantage of the majority of the African community, has marginalized other forms of democratic struggle.

Representatives of the African middle class, who are now entrenched in the status quo of electoral politics, almost completely spurn the use of direct-action politics and, because they are government officials, increasingly are the targets of such political tactics in urban centers.

Thirty plus years of voting by the African community for Black political leaders and liberals in the Democratic Party have not translated into economic or political wealth for the general African community. Because of this, many elements of the African community have become apathetic to the elections. In the 2007 Baltimore City mayoral race, an African woman was able to win the election with a total voter turnout of 29% of eligible voters. Despite not having anywhere near a mandate to run the city, there is no consolidated opposition to challenge her anti-African and anti-working class agenda. The relative weakness of her neo-colonial administration in Baltimore has not translated into power for the African working class or its allies.

We believe that the masses want genuine progress; not empty promises, worthless trinkets, or opportunities to sell out. We want to improve our community and we believe this progress should not come at the cost of us abandoning our principles. We believe now is the time for African workers – regular everyday people – to find the solutions to our problems and struggle to retain the benefits of our work instead of allowing it to fall in to the hands of the few. Under the leadership of the African working class, we believe it is possible to forge a principled unity that serves the masses of our people and moves us closer to self-determination.

Brother-Comrade Nnamdi Lumumba, UPP State Organizer

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