Black-on-Black Violence: A by Product of Capitalism

By Abdul Jabbar Caliph 

Historically, the African working class movement has always had to struggle against the destructive effects of colonialism. From the very first moment that we were kidnapped and forced into slavery we have struggled to liberated ourselves and now once again we in the Pan-African International Coordinating Committee (PICC) are calling on the Pan-African Liberation Movement (PALM) to step forward and take charge in ridding ourselves of this horrible legacy that has left our communities on the brink of destruction.  

All across the nation the colonized African working class community is forced to seek cover in their own houses because of the harsh legacy of domestic colonization and being trapped in cities that are under the indirect control of Neo-colonialist. It is important that we understand that the issue of horizontal violence (Black-on-Black violence) is counter-revolutionary, that it is a part of the counterinsurgency tactics that United States government uses to wage low-intensity-warfare inside of our community.

Here in Baltimore, Maryland we realize that the majority of murders committed in this city, a city that is predominately African and working class, are the direct result of the lack of leadership displayed by the current administration, and the administrations before it. It is this mis-leadership that refuses to represent the majority of its’ citizens: the African working class. They have proven to be counterrevolutionary and aligned themselves with white capitalist who keep us divided, that rob and murder us daily. 

It is this counterrevolutionary attitude that has hindered the advancement of any serious revolutionary formation being established in this city. Many of the residents in this city have remained somewhat loyal to the very same corrupt administration that takes advantage of them daily. They think that the only way that they can make any serious advancement is by adopting the policy of the capitalist: political oppression and economical exploitation (murder and mayhem) followed by selling drugs. It is this policy that had led to the vast increase of murders inside of our communities, not just here in the state of Maryland but also throughout all out our domestically colonized communities.

Here recently we have experienced a sharp increase in the number of murders inside of our communities, incidents that would usually shock us, but that we have begun to accept as normal. They have become business as usual. No outrage, no shock, only limited responses. This is how you know that you are a colonized people when you no longer value human life especially your own. Our children are murdered and many of us sit by saying and doing nothing.

Just this past week we witnessed three murders and all people did was hold candlelight vigils. The first one was the murder of a five year old little girl by her alleged father. She was found dead in the bath tub beaten to death and sexually assaulted. The second one was the a young man, alleged to be involved in the drug game, found shot to death in Lincoln Park, a notorious dumping grounds for dead bodies. Now we discover the death of a young thirteen year old. It is this girl’s death that one would think would thing that the residents of this city would be outraged over.  

On Saturday, March 3, 2012 we learned the death of thirteen year old Monae Turnage. Killed I believe accidental by two African working class children ages twelve and thirteen firing a .22-caliber rifle in the city limits. After the death of this little girl they attempted to cover up the fact that they had killed her by moving her dead body to another location and covering her up with trash. The body was later discovered by someone in her family. Both children were locked up as juveniles and placed in a juvenile detention center on charges of juvenile involuntary manslaughter.

The kicker to this whole incident is that one of the children’s mother’s boyfriends, a Baltimore City Police Officer named John A. Ward, thirty-two year old, four-year veteran of the PIGS; a par-military colonial standing occupying army has had charges brought up against him for the allegations of trying to cover up the murder. The weapon that was used in this murder was discovered in the trunk of his personal vehicle.

This isn’t something new. The PIGS here are always involved in criminal activity. Last year the PIGS were involved in two major incidents.  The first one was in conducting drug sells in the parking lot of Northwestern Police stations parking lot. The second one was in taking kickbacks from a tow truck company. The Mayor of Baltimore City, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has called the behavior in this case “disgusting”.

The real disgusting thing is that his involvement in the case only got him a suspension and that the Mayor refused to fire him or lock him up. The real disgusting thing is in the way the case was handled, the African working class community deserves better and needs to organize itself politically in order to achieve the democratic space that they need in order to fight back. Only through this path will we be able to break free of Capitalism a rotten, oppressive and exploitive, inhuman system that drains the lives out of its victims.

Our children deserve more than candlelight vigils they deserve justice and in order to combat this colonialist legacy of horizontal violence we must begin to institute a cultural revolution which stress the need for a new moral vision inside of our domestically colonized community. This vision must encompass the revolutionary theory and practices of liberation for the African working class and the establishment of true power under the leadership of the African working class.

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Make It Plain: Understanding the Historical Task In Front Of Us

The Completion of the Rebuilding The Pan-African Liberation Movement/Revolution And Understanding The Effects Of COINTELPRO On Our Movement

By Abdul Jabbar Caliph

“Specific steps should be taken to inhibit coordinated activity of the Black movement in the U.S. …Bing into effect a special program designed to perpetuate division in the Black movement to neutralize the most active groups.” (U.S. National Security Council Interdepartmental Group for Africa, National Security Memorandum No.46 [NSC-46]” 1973 Carter Administration 

Uhuru Comrades

I greet you with the Kiswahili word meaning freedom, the most important word in the vocabulary of a Pan-African Revolutionary and the number one priority in the minds of any real Pan-African solider! Currently we are faced with the incredible task of rebuilding a movement that was crushed during the mid-seventies by a ruthless anti-African counterinsurgency program. 

It is because of this defeat that today we find our movement in such a dire state of weakness, a weakness that has kept the people in servitude to the colonialist-capitalist structure that exist in the United States. Meanwhile, the rest of our people are forced in a live of political oppression and economical exploitation throughout the Diasporas by an internationalist monster known as imperialism because of the natural resources that exist in Mother Africa. Those resources being the human labor that we supply and the natural resources that are unearthed daily. 

In order to overcome this crisis we must examine the tactics that were used to halt the Pan-African Liberation Movement (PALM) of the 60’s and 70’s. The counterintelligence program of that decade, better known as the COINTELPRO was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had five stated goals and objects that had a global impact on our movement while it was in its infancy. Those stated goal and objectives were as follows:

1. The prevention of the coalition of any black militant nationalist organization, for in unity there is strength. They realized that this might be the first step towards a real “Mau Mau” in America, the beginning of a true black revolution; 
2. The prevention of the development and raise of a “Messiah” figure that could have the ability and the desire to direct a unified black militant nationalist movement
3. The prevention of violence on the part of black militant nationalist organization, this was of primary importance to this program. The identification and neutralization of any potential troublemaker to the internal security of this nation and its oversea interest
4. The prevention of any black militant nationalist organization from gaining any type of respectability
5. The prevention long-range growth of black militant organizations, especially among the youth.

It is because of this counterinsurgency program that we have lost many of our noble son and daughters of Africa due to political assassinations, imprisonment, forced exile and political slander conducted by this government. This program has not only affected us physically but it has damaged us psychologically. Many of our comrades are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder due to the affects of being under the constant threat of death in war time situation, low-intensity-conflict.

Comrades what we need to understand is that no domestic counterinsurgency program can be successful without it’s international counterpart. The Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, National Ssecurity Aagency, and all the other US spook organizations, have made it a habit to practice the domestic repression campaigns overseas. While many of us recognize the counterinsurgency program COINTELPRO many of us are unaware of the counterinsurgency program established by the CIA in the United States of America to destroy the domestic part of the Pan-African Liberation Movement.

Three such programs have been identified as being launched by the CIA domestically to help crush the movement. The United States Senate reveled this information after they conducted an investigation into the illegal activities of the CIA during the late 1960s and the early 1970s. The first counterinsurgency program was identified as Project CHAOS which involved illegal tampering with mail by the agency of those organizations identified as security threats on its “watch list”. The next program to be identified was named Project RESISTANCE which illegally gathered and compiled counterintelligence information on a number of alleged radical organizations. The last program to be identified during this period was called Project MERRIMAC which illegally operated in this country from the years of 1967 to 1973. Its primary mission was to conducted anti-black operations of infiltration of various Black political organizations.

During the 60’s many of us were already aware of the CIA involvement in Africa to a certain extent. They were responsible for the death of Patrice Lumumba and overthrowing Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana through the use of the military, through the use of coups d’état. They attempted to assassinated Castro of Cuba over 100 times, only to fail. We know that they followed Malcolm X while he was overseas and are even believed to have tried to assassinate him. Who can forget the assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark here in the United States? Yes, this is the type of stuff that the United States government does to those who wish to free their people from political oppression and economical exploitation and establish justice under a socialist government that will truly offer real change.  Hell, in 1969 we witnessed the death of 28 panthers and the arreste and imprisonment 749 people who were activists.

"The nationalist liberation movement in Black Africa can act as a catalyst with far-reaching effects on the American Black community…(D)ue weight must be given to the fact there are 25 million American Blacks whose roots are African and who consciously or subconsciously sympathize with African nationalism.”    (U.S. National Security Council Interdepartmental Groups for Africa, National Security Memorandum No.46 [NSC-46])."                                          

The international implications of this counterinsurgency programs on the movement is not really understood nor is it discussed among us. We have to realize that every since 1963 the FBI has been requesting CIA intervention in the illegal investigation of Americans abroad. It was through these procedures that the FBI secured the assistances of the CIA in conducting illegal investigations of black militant leaders and antiwar activists who went overseas.  The United States Government is no fool, they recognized the fact that Pan-African Liberation Movement in Africa could act as a catalyst with far- reaching effects on Black people here in America. 

"With Africa now a crucible of great-power maneuver, we cannot afford to have our Africa policies hostage to the bitter memories still cherished by those who struggled for racial equality in America. We cannot let Africa become a stage on which America act out their psychic traumas. (Richard M. Nixon, The Real War, p.9)"

It is not widely known to the public that all law enforcement agencies, which are considered paramilitary organizations, receive some sort of counterinsurgency or counterintelligence training. This training is often masked as gang identification training. Those that are unfortunately labeled as such are identified under the label as “security threat groups” or “person of interest” and or often placed in photo binder with a photo of the individual(s) along with important information. Organizations such as Homeland Security, FEMA and other private agencies such as MARGIN and MACGLOCEEN often are given federal grant money to conduct such training programs. The majority of public gun ranges even conducted such training as well as the military with joint law enforcement agency.

Sister Comrade Assata Shakur was not wrong when she stated the fact that she believed that this program still existed just in another form. It doesn’t matter if you call it Safe Streets, Officer Friendly, McGruff the Dog, Weed and Seed, a War on Crime/Gangs or call it a War on Drugs they all are counterinsurgency programs designed to cripple the movement for the liberation of African People. Today we see the emergence of another counterinsurgency program designed to further oppress the people called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which allows you to be illegally arrested and detained without questioning or due process of law, as if due process every really existed for  Black people. Under this act you can housed in a secret prison without anyone knowing for an undisclosed amount of time and be charged as a terrorist for what every crime the government see fit to charge you with: even for speaking out against this government.

It is because of this counterinsurgency program that we see the massive incarnation of the African working class today in the penal system of this country. Comrade Mumia Abu Jamal, a political prisoner points out the following in his article “From the Realm of the Dead” about the drastic effects of the COINTELPRO:

“The 1970’s marked a pivotal phase in U.S. history, as a time of the emergence of the Black Liberation Movement via militant groups like the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), The Republic of New Africa (RNA), and The Black Panther Party (BPP). The striking emergence, the author argues, gave rise to the often startling disparity reflected in statistics which show, in 1990 rates, how whites, roughly 90% of the U.S. population, can become a minority percentage (46%) of those admitted to state prisons, and how blacks (to be precise, black men), roughly 12% of the U.S. population, can balloon upwards to a majority percentage (53.2%) of state prison admissions.”

State Repression is an everyday occurrence if you’re Black and a member of the African working class. It doesn’t matter if you are born in the United States, Africa or any part of the African Diaspora. Under the current global political administration, you have everything to lose including your life. If you’re down for the freedom and liberation of African people then you are at war with Imperialism and it Neo-colonialist, boot-licking henchmen

What do you think AFRICOM is doing in Africa? They are running another counterinsurgency program under the disguise of an aid for humanity program which is designed to destabilize African countries. No matter how much aid they offer we must never let our guards down. AFRICOM is there for one reason and that is control of the resources in Africa! If that means the death and destruction of Africa as we know it, then so be it, they are prepared to do what they deem needs to be done in order to maintain their control over Africa. The questions for us is: are we prepared to do what it takes to win the freedom and independence of Africa? 

Comrades I leave you with the following quote from the late Fred Hampton of the BPP, brutaly murdered by the State of Chicago on December 4, 1968: 

“You can kill the revolutionary, but you can’t kill the revolution. You can jail the liberator, but you can’t jail the liberation. You can run the freedom fighter all around the country, but you can’t stop freedom fighting.”

 

References:

1.       “Black Prison Movements” NOBO, 1995

2.       “Racial Matters” Free Press,1989

3.       “An Unlikely Warrior” By Iyaluua & Herman Furguson ,2011

4.       “Lockdown America” By Christian Parenti ,1999

5.       “The Plot to Destroy” By Ahamadiel Ben Yehuda

6.       “Agents of Repression” By Ward Churchill & Jay Vander Wall, 1998

7.       “Fugitive Thought” By Michael Hames-Garcia, 2004 

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Meet the People Where They Are - Replace Rhetoric With Reality

Abasi Shomari Baruti

In trying to understand the weaknesses of the African Liberation Movement in the 21st century, and what needs to happen to fix those weaknesses, it is important to have a decent understanding of how things have gotten to be the way that they are. My PICC comrades and I have lain out in other places before now, what we see as the general character of the African liberation movement (ALM) at this point. Our position is that the movement is isolated from the main life of the African working class and is struggling to revive the African revolution. We recognize that there are a number of forces doing good work and we see the advances that are being made, especially in what has become an era of mass rebellion against naked imperialist robbery and rape. However, the positive tendencies are still in the minority of the ALM and those of us who are fighting to win still have plenty work to do in order to get the movement back on track.

One of the things that we are faced with in our struggle to re-mount the African revolution are the traps we set for ourselves. After severe repression by the U.S. government, and some real backwards nonsense coming from within the movement, the masses of African workers do not relate to revolutionary ideas in a serious way. In fact, if you have tried to recruit our people into revolutionary work in the last ten years, you have probably heard all kinds of responses about why our people just do not unite with "that black power shit.” This attitude is reflective of the effect of U.S. government propaganda, but it is also tied to our own mistakes and errors. Many of us have either fallen into the traps set for us by our enemies, or we have shot ourselves in the foot and hindered our own progress. Of the many ways that we trip ourselves up, one is of deep importance: being so caught up in our own rhetoric that we lose the people when we talk with and try to organize them - in short we, too often, confuse ideological principles with strategic principles.

All too often, the discussions that happen among us play out like arguments in petty-bourgeois families where one spouse is a republican and the other a democrat: its bloody war to the knife. How many times have we seen it: a fervent believer, normally new to the belief, goes on a rampage like a European crusader, demanding that everyone get with their ideas or perish? How many times have we seen, right in the midst of our movement, die-hard believers dismiss everything that is not of their own understanding and leave nothing but destruction and disarray in their wake? And, how many times have we seen people dress up nonsense, negativism, and pessimism in the clothing of "passion" and "commitment"? And when it has all been said and done, usually more has been said than done. This is a real problem. What is worse, is that, while we criticize the religious believers for their vehement "bible-thumping" or even "Qur’an-thumping,” we turn right around and beat our people upside the head with our ideologies, special language, and theories. The real fact is that the leading elements of the ALM must do more of what have not been doing, and that is leading - effective leading.

I want to deal with the question of working with the masses of African people, because, in the final analysis, our ideologies, platforms, programs, rap, and fieldwork must be aimed squarely at winning our folks to struggle. There is the tendency, for some of us, to confuse rhetoric with what is real. There are comrades who are so focused on being correct in theory, that they completely miss the point of our theory, and that is to win the people. In a place like Kansas City, MO where, as far as I can tell, there has not been a truly revolutionary organization that was anything more significant than a small study group since the 1980's, the strategy and tactics that have to be used to build the movement here are far different from what must happen in a place like New York, Atlanta, or Chicago. Here, African people continually reject overt radicalism, and stay away from African revolutionary politics. We know the score, we understand the why's and what for's However, since the 1980's, organization after organization has sprung up in this town, simply to die out due to near complete isolation from the African working class. My experience, and the experience of others, has pointed to a number of problems with the previous attempts. The one problem that seems to stand out is that the revolutionaries have been so caught up in showing just how revolutionary we are that we could never really understand or get past the resistance that African people put up to the kind of organizing we have tried to establish. Time and again, we have fallen back, disgusted; rejected by phrases like

"I ain't fuckin' with that black power shit", or "Man, I'm tryin' to get this money, and that shit you talkin' 'bout ain't 'bout to make me no paper, so I ain't really tryin' to hear it"

and so on. And, almost like clockwork, the despondent revolutionary organizer blames the inability to organize the people ON THE PEOPLE!

"Niggas don't want revolution." "Niggas scared of struggle."

And so on.

Now, last I recalled, if the revolution fails, it is the fault of the revolutionaries. In other words, if we claim to be the leaders, the advanced force, the most conscious of our people, but fail to get our folks on freedom's road, then we have got to begin with a self-criticism and proceed from there. The easy thing to do is to close one's ears and eyes to the truth, regurgitate the "line" to those who already believe it, blame the people, and run in place, mistaking activity for progress. It is simple to do what we can, remain at the fringes of the African colony, talk about the '60s and hope that the ruling class will make a mistake so openly despicable that the people will come running to us, begging for us to tell them how to make the revolution. That is the easy thing to do. The only problem is: it ain't worked all this time, and, regardless of what anyone thinks, it ain't bout to start working.

Let's begin with the basics. The first problem, especially in a place like Kansas City, MO, that so many of us find out the hard way, is that the language we use is so foreign to the masses of our people that when they hear it, they immediately tune out or go into defense. We go to the streets with revolutionary jargon on our lips and come back with little more than frustration. However, when the idea is proposed that we try to talk to folks in language that they understand, it is rejected as non-revolution, backwards, and incorrect. When the idea is suggested that we begin with simple programs that the people can get with, instead of more advanced strategies, our comrades look at us as if we have lost our minds. And so, we find ourselves in a trap, running on a revolutionary tread mill to nowhere, and in the mean time, the people, the ones we are supposed to be the "vanguard" of, continue on, working out their own problems with little concern about whatever the hell we talkin' about.

What we must do is take a hard look at our rhetoric and ask the honest question: is this working? If it isn’t, then we have got to take the next step, and honestly, ask the next question: what will work better? As dialectical materialist, we talk endlessly about investigation and scientific struggle, well, the most basic thing a "scientist" or "dialectician" can do is investigate and find out the answer to those question. After some years of working in Kansas City, MO, finding a little success here, and a little success there, but mostly finding failure, I had to swallow the hard pill, and admit that if the revolution is going to happen here because of something I said or did, I had better find a better way to say it or do it. What I have come to find is that on the one hand, we don't have to be non-revolutionary in our strategy and tactics, but on the other hand, our strategy and tactics have to meet the understanding of the people. So instead of focusing on producing a revolutionary news paper that talks about the merits of scientific materialism and the dynamics of socialist economic theory, for instance, we need to produce something that is begins with how dope, unemployment, and the democrats are all linked together. Instead of putting on programs that castigate the people about being unhealthy and points the finger of blame at the people and our self-destructive habits, we need to build programs that seek to demonstrate a better way through servicing the real needs of the people. We begin with a simple screening, then talk about some simple ways get the high blood pressure under control, and continually follow up. At some point during our interaction with our people, we can discuss Monsanto and why HMO's are a bunch of crooks and how genetically modified foods are harming our people. Once the people trust that we are serious about what they are serious about, we can some real success in winning our people to pick up a healthier lifestyle. In short, the African working class in this town is like any other group of people, if they don't understand it or don't see their self-interest in it, they ain't getting ready to deal with it. If we want the people here to not only deal with, but commit to revolutionary struggle, we have got to start with words and actions that don't require a whole lot of explanation, that the people understand right away, and build from there.

When we let the letter of our ideals and positions become more important than the realization of the content, we are, in the illustrious words of my Uncle Gregory, "baggin' the fuck up" - we're losing. But when we get serious about dealing with the reality as it is, then we can start winning, and then it won't be long before Kansas City, MO becomes a place where a revolutionary is born every day. When we let being ideologically pure and squeaky clean in the way we approach the mission become more important than actually accomplishing the mission, what we are doing is being the dogmatists we claim to hate; we are setting ourselves up to be isolated and marginalized. If it is the masses of the people that make the revolution, then the last place the revolutionary organizer can afford to be is on the sidelines.

The Chinese Communist Party, before it became the vanguard of Chinese imperialism, developed a slogan that I think is one of the best formulas a revolutionary could ever adopt: "From the People, to the Party. From the Party to the People." In other words, we have to go to the people and see what THEY want, take that back to the huddle, sharpen it, and take a position and program back to the people that reflects the their  point of view and interests. When we do this, we can start winning the people to basic work. Once we win them to basic work, then we set ourselves up to winning our people to intermediate work. Once we get them into intermediate work, then winning them to become advance, revolutionaries is not far off.

In the end, we must never forget that our task is to meet the people where they are, win them to unity right where they are, and then walk with them, arm-in-arm, to where we all need to be - free from oppression and exploitation for all time.

Uhuru Sasa! Uhuru Daima!

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Make It Plain: Class Struggle in Africa - Which Way to Freedom, Socialism or Capitalism?

By Abdul Jabbar Caliph, Chief Editor

For years the people all over the world have asked themselves which path will the people of the U.S. follow. Will it be the parasitic path of Capitalism or will it be the path of Socialism, the only path of liberation for the masses of African people, particularly the African working class? In 1994 Nelson Mandela became the first black President of South Africa, a doomed state. Despite the fact that he was a political prisoner for 27 years, Mandela choose the path of Capitalism, a path of continued oppression and exploitation under the administration of Neo-Colonialism. 

Recent activity inside of South Africa (Occupied Azania) has proven that a new form of defiance has emerged among the masses, particularity among its youth. It is this population that is suffering the most from lack of employment, denial of educational opportunity, and inadequate health care due the raise of HIV/AIDS. It is this segment of the population that this author is attempting to reach out to in order to give guidance to.  They are the advanced guard and true hope of achieving the liberation and freedom of the toiling masses in this Neo-colonialist state. 

Recently, we have seen the firing of Julius Malema from his leadership position as the head of the African National Congress (ANC) youth coordinator. Malema was once considered the “future leader of South Africa” and on November 10, 2011 he was suspended from all party activity for five years after being accused of being a “reckless populist with the potential to destabilize South Africa and spark racial conflict.”  He dared to question the leadership of President Jacob Zuma, a Neo-colonialist administrator of white imperialism; he called for the nationalization of all industry in South Africa and dared to continue to sing the song after being hit with a two year sentence after calling for the death of the Boars. This gained him massive popularity among the youth of South Africa and, as is obvious, shocked the old guard, the regime of Neo-Colonialism. 

Julius Malema's proposal is by far the most radical position of any member of the ANC in recent times. This young man understands that by transforming the national economy to that of a socialist political economy that he would be thereby transforming society into that of a real Pan-African society, a Pan-African society under the leadership of the African working class, the main force in the history of social changge! Malema by now realizes that for any real change to occur such as those that he has proposed the following must happen immediately:

1. Malema must be willing to have open dialogue with PAC and other Pan-African forces inside of occupied Azania. This hopefully will led to a united Pan-African Front.
2. He must establish a way to unite the African working class in the participation of the development a new Pan-African socialist political economy which will be under the direct leadership of the African working class;
3. He must work towards the removal of all Neo-colonialist administrators from their political position and replace them with loyal, dedicated Pan-African political forces;
4. He must establish a method of releasing all Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War currently held in the penal system of South Africa;
5. He must be willing to destroy all of the artificial created colonialist boarders and sub-boarders inside of occupied Azania and inside of Africa itself. This will lead to the development of a People's Democratic Republic of Africa.
6. The greatest and possibly most difficult task for them is to separate from their current ideology and accept Pan-African Internationalism, the theory that calls for the total liberation and freedom of all African people all over the Africa Diaspora.

Comrades this is the minimum of what is required to free South Africa and the rest of Africa. There is no substitute for this task. We must either choose to move forward or forever move backwards into a total state of slavery and misery, forever at the beck and call of our former colonialist masters. To choose the second course of action is to betray our ancestors and to betray the African Revolution. It is the acceptance of Neo-colonialism! 

In order to free Africa of her legacy of colonial domination which is still in effect in Africa we must develop a Direct Action plan that will lead us to the liberation that we so desire! This action plan must include the common ordinary African citizens, the African working class participation within the struggle for the destruction of Neo-colonialism and the complete overthrow of Imperialism. This is the true course of action that must be taken, this is the course of action that must be used to unite the people and mobilize them towards true freedom!

Not only must Joseph Malema accept these truths so too must all of those who call for the total liberation of Africa. We must put aside our subjective, petty views and work towards the development of a society that is truly worthy of being called an African society, a society under the leadership of the African working class, the African proletariat the most noble and humble group of people in the world! 

The question we have to ask ourselves is, are we Africans or not? If we are African people then we have an obligation to rebuild Africa and transform her into a society truly worthy of being called an African society! It is an embarrassment to the descents of a noble nation of people to allow a small segment of Neo-colonialist and their imperialist puppet-masters to continue to oppress and exploited us! We are not chattel or property, we are human beings, we are African people and we should be proud!

 We as Pan-Africanist must realize that no amount of opposition must be allowed to stand in our way of seeing an unified Africa, an Africa that will usher us into a new era of leadership! It is this leadership that will pave the way for a new direction in the lives of African people as a whole throughout the Diaspora!

We must remember that no amount of protest or demonstration can or has every guaranteed a peoples liberation or freedom. No amount of environmental concerns will be able address the massive issues that we as a people face. Real power is achieved by the seizure and consolidation of power; therefore let the struggles inside of South Africa be the launching pad for the beginning of a new era inside Africa, the era of the Republic of Africa!

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Make It Plain: Pan-African Culture-What It Should Look Like and Accomplish

By Abdul Jabbar Caliph, Chief Editor

“The time has come to draw practical conclusion from the years of studying African problems, to sum them up in formulas that are as clear as possible and easy to apply.”  Cheikh Anta Diop

Uhuru Comrades, Brothers and Sisters!

I greet you with this Kiswahili word meaning freedom, for freedom should be the most fundamental issue on the minds of African people of all over the Diaspora! As a Pan-African Internationalist I understand the importance in the need for the development of a Pan-African culture that is reflected of the values and morals of African people. In order for this to be accomplished it is important for us to understand that we must replace the values and morals of the old colonialist regime that we suffered under with the values and morals of the new society that we wish to develop. 

These values and morals must be developed along an African centered approach to life. This means that we must not only understand our history we must also understand some of the traditional concepts of African culture and begin to chart its’ development and progression as it relates to African people all over the world. Some of this traditional customs must be disregarded for they no longer have any value or importance to the new society which we are seeking to develop.  They are out dated and ancient. 

The new society in which we seek to develop requires that we educated and train our youth in the Pan-African Internationalist concept of social living instead of the individual based concept taught to us by the colonialist approach to life that we have been trained within. Under colonialism we existed as slaves and under the new society that we are seeking to develop we will live as free men and women who control their own destiny. We will live according to means of production that our society needs, no waste no mess. Each person must live according to his political means and the political needs of family.

In order for this to happen we must have a complete radical break with the bourgeoisie culture that has been the dominated culture in our life. This can only occur with the complete transfer of power to the African working class, the most proletariatarian class that exists in the world! This break must be a total and complete break with parasitic capitalism.

Comrades we must understand that our struggle here is a twofold struggle, a struggle against racism that also has a class component. We who call ourselves Pan-Africans would do well to not forget this. For it is through the combination of the two that we will be able to insure that our people never again experience the African holocaust (MAAFA).  It is through this process that we will be able to control our destiny, control over the political economy and the means of production of Africa’s natural resources.

A new form of education must emerge out of this process, an education that will be free of our former 

colonialist masters’ control. It is through this educational process that our people will learn the true history of our people and the purpose of their historical mission, the liberation and freedom of Africa and her people throughout the Diasporas. It is the completion of this mission that will allow us to control and establish a global economy that will launch Africa into the next phase of development as the rightful masters of our own lives and put an end to the capitalist-imperialist parasitic relationship that has dominated non-white people for centuries.

We must remember that as we seek the destruction of this parasitic way of life we must also be about the work of serious transformation of our society, a society that is in serious need of healing. We must educate our people about how to control the means of production that currently exist in our Pan-African society and the development of a new approach to this very end. To fail to do so will mean the failure of the revolution, it is a betrayal of the revolution and history may not absolve us!

Let us as Pan-Africans remember the wise saying of Amilcar Cabral, the leader of the PAIGC who was brutality assassinated by imperialist forces nine months before Guinea-Bissau was to achieve it liberation, “Always remember that people are not fighting for ideas, nor for what is in men’s mind. The people fight and accept the sacrifices demanded by the struggle in order to gain material advantages, to live better and in peace, to benefit from progress, and for the better future of their children. National liberation, the struggle against colonialism, the construction of peace, progress and independence are nothing but hollow words devoid of any significance unless they can be translated into a real improvement of living conditions.”   

To achieve the afore mentioned objective we must begin to established Liberated Zones, the transformation of our neighborhoods and domestically colonized communities into communities of political consciousness and awakened freedom fighters who willing do the work of fighting for the rights of the African working class. This will give us the democratic space that is needed to broadly organize the people into future cadre forces that will focus on the seizure and consolidation of power into our own hands. The establishments of survival program such as food co-operatives, after-school and weekend programs for African Children are examples of dual and contending institutions that will help achieve this mission. 

Comrades this is what a true Pan-African culture should look like and be able to accomplish.  For it not to accomplish this mission is to mean that we failed as Pan-Africans in winning the revolution, a revolution that our ancestors died to see fulfilled, they laid down their lives to see their children and future generations of African people grow up to live a life free of slavery and misery! 

We must accomplish this noble sacred mission. We must complete the revolution and free our people in order to assume our rightful place in society. This mission can only be accomplished by the African working class, the most noble and humble race and class of people on the planet!

In conclusion, I would like us to remember what Barry Munslow said “The greatest danger was that the state might well be able to transform the revolution before the revolution could transform the state.” This means that we as members of the African working class must be the organization of the people, educated the people and mobilize the people to participate in their own liberation. 

 “African development is possible only on the basis of a radical break with the international capitalist system, which has been the principal agency of underdevelopment of Africa over the last five centuries.” Walter Rodney

Long live the Revolution!

Long live the struggle for African Independence!

Bread, Peace and Black Power!

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The Revolutionary and the Family - A Question of Loyalty and Comitment

By Abasi Shomari Baruti
I have been thinking about this subject for a while, and initially had come to understand it because with the direction of one of my brother-comrades. I was finally inspired to write this note after a dear sista-comrade and I had a discussion on what I had been referring to as the hierarchy of loyalty that I try to maintain as a revolutionary. Initially, I thought it was something that needed to be said because it seemed to me that there was and still is some serious confusion about what the difference is between a comrade and a friend. After engaging in this discussion over the course of some years, I was able to sum it up for myself and put out what, in my view, was the correct position on what and who a revolutionary owes their loyalty to and in what order.

Well, the sista-comrade asked a question that immediately made me reconsider this hierarchy: what about family? It was such a critical question but one I had completely left out. In my development as a political force, I have witnessed all kinds’ political relationships and all kinds of subjective (personal) relationships that political forces have. I have seen two revolutionaries live, struggle, and love each other with what appeared to be no breaks or gaps. just as well, I have witnessed to two revolutionaries who made excellent comrades and terrible partners. I have witnessed revolutionary men and women raise children, paying as close attention to the rearing of their babies as they do the wording in a leaflet or the security for an event. On the other hand, I have watched some of the best political forces allow their children to languish and grow up to eventually hate all things political and despise all things revolutionary. Along with all of that, I have witnessed organizations which encourage subjective (personal) relationships and work to support family, marriage and these kinds of things, as a rule and practice. However, I've witnessed organizations tear people apart, and demand that partners act in ways that undermine their commitment to each other; I have watched as the relationship eventually fails, or the couple leaves the organization. In short, I've seen it really good and I've winced as I've watched it get really bad.

The issue here is that in understanding our new found roles in the struggle, we cannot lose sight of the most basic element of our day to day lives: familial relations. Some of us, for various reasons (some malicious and others not-so-malicious) take the stance that revolutionaries, somehow, should not have families or should not respect the institution of family-hood the same way they respect the struggle. They believe that somehow family competes with the commitment to fight tirelessly, that family creates a contradiction which can only be resolved by the revolutionary forgoing the basic human desire to love and procreate. I also know of instances where the unspoken order of the day is to abandon family: the family which we come from and the family we create. I've seen comrades make it a point of honor that they have left their wives and sons, husbands and daughters, in order to pursue the revolution. I have to say, that this is utterly backwards. The revolutionary is just as much, if not twice as much, responsible for building strong, healthy relationships within her or his family unit, as much so as he or she is for advancing the struggle. To neglect the family is to deny that the basis of all human social organization is the family unit, and in the end to undermine their own efforts.

Revolution is about, in part, creating the new woman, the new man. Part and parcel of the struggle for a new, just world is the struggle for people who are fit to inhabit that world and ensure that it can continue to exist and develop. This means that not only are we responsible for tearing down the machinery of oppression in the form of the State, but we are just as responsible for tearing down the horrible, ugly, poisonous social practices which come out of our condition as oppressed people and which feed right back into it. This being the case, if there is one place that the revolutionary is truly exposed, in terms of his or her real ability; it is in the family unit.

On the one hand, there is the family which produced us (mother, father, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, etc.), then there is the family we create (husband, wife, children). Each section of our family unit has its differences, both objective and subjective, but no matter what, it our obligation to understand what makes them tick and then to make unrelenting struggle to win them over. Now, a big part of this discussion has everything to do with influence. One of the main problems which causes the African revolution to be so weak is that we have lost and had destroyed the influence we once held as a movement. After the defeat of the African revolution of the 60's and '70s we were thrust into the corner of political action and were scrambling for our lives in far too many cases. The struggle had been dealt a vicious blow and in the place of righteous leadership and effective organization, our people were fed mis-leadership in the form of sellout-traitors, and given the pipe-dream of wealth and abundance in exchange for unity with our oppressors. Veiled behind these false hopes and false leaders was the threat of violence. When put together and used in the absence of revolutionary leadership and organization, they made for a potent and almost completely effective weapon to lure our people away from the struggle for freedom. A significant part of that was the undermining of the revolutionary as a viable political force and the revolution as a viable political option. So, in short, we have lost our influence to a significant degree, and we struggle to regain it and regain the position as the leading forces in our community. This relates directly to how we interact with our families.

So many of us, have had to go through the rough and tumble of making known our revolutionary positions to our families and the consequent ridicule, disdain, dismissing, and general rejection that comes with it. Most of us grew up in families that were nowhere near revolutionary or who had at best been on the fringes of the Black Power movement and fell away. Very few of us have had the opportunity to be a part of a family unit which has been consistently attached, in some way, to the struggle. As a result of this, we tend to develop a rebellious, fuck-you (excuse my Swahili) attitude towards our family because of the pain of rejection. That rejection mixed with our unswerving faith and commitment to revolutionary struggle, when left unchecked, too often leads to extremely unhealthy family relations with the families which produced us. On the other hand, because of our experiences with our family, and other things, we develop relationships with the families we produce that are also unhealthy. By unhealthy, I mean a relationship which does not improve the people in it. The most extreme version of this is the abandonment of our children, and this abandonment is not always physical, it is also spiritual and that is just as heinous as if we would up and leave, and never come back.

What must be made clear is this, as committed to our ideologies, organizations, and comrades as we are, we must be just as committed to our families. We must learn to use our families for our own good. One reason I love the family which produced me so much, other than the fact that they made it possible for me to be here, is that all of their rejection, ridicule, and so on made me a better revolutionary. Instead of becoming emotionally unhinged and losing myself in an argument, I learned to respond. It made me have to study my ideology more, get better at expressing my position, learn to see the errors in theirs, and to make good struggle. They forced me to learn diplomacy, and how to maintain a warm relationship with people in spite of our disagreements. It made me a better organizer in that I had to learn how to approach people, how to disagree with people and still be able to win them to some level of unity and work for our people. It made me learn how to deal with African people from all walks of life, which in turn, gave me the capacity to go out and win total strangers to our work. On the other hand, when we create families, we must understand that that kind of family is partly our creation and our responsibility. Again, it is here that we learn to win people and how to develop people. Whether our mates are revolutionaries or not, we must learn to relate to them in a way that is good for the struggle. Constant discord, bitter feuds, and unending arguments don't contribute to anything, and in fact sap our energy and strength to fight. Furthermore, as with the families which produce us, it pushes our people away from struggle. When we are antagonistic with our families, especially the ones we create, we continue to undermine our own influence.

The key thing is to win the trust of our families develop influence with them on the basis of that trust. The only way to develop trust and influence is by acting. Instead of looking to win an argument with words, we must win with actions. We must use our understanding of the world to PROVE to our families that what we believe and do is worth paying attention to and supporting. Our work has to be seen to benefit our families by our families if we are going to ever win them. Our children will follow us at first out of instinct. They can't help it, they have an instinctive need for protection and care, so they follow us without thinking about it (that's why they end up in the bathroom with you when they are toddlers). However, at some point, their natural intelligence will begin to override that instinct and they will question everything you do. It is at this point that our work with them will tell off. If we have been working to imbue in them revolutionary principles from the beginning, when they get to the point where they begin to think for themselves, they will see the world through the lens we have given them. However, if what they see is that the revolution makes life unbearable, they will associate pain and discord with revolution and will be forever lost to the struggle. Again, what I am saying is that we must develop influence, even with our children. We must, inch-by-inch, day-by-bloody-day, show and prove, and we must win the trust of and then influence in our families which will then translate into their unity with the struggle. What better recruiter is there than the family member who is a shining example of what Africa's best sons and daughters look and act like? Where is there a better testament to the correctness of revolutionary struggle than the father, sister, aunt who lives in a principled way and who's actions benefit the family, unselfishly, in the true spirit of socialism? There are none.

In the end, the key thing is this: we must treat our families like we should be treating the people, because they are the people. If you don't believe the people are the ones who will make the revolution, with the revolutionary guiding the way, then you should go back to the drawing board. However, if you know and understand that to be the case, then you can only fail when you refuse to apply that to your family. Regardless of how they perceive it, we should never stop being good African people to our people. We should never stop being good socialist to our people. We should never stop defending our people, and that means our families too. It has long been noted that the hardest people to win to struggle is our family, and I find this to be somewhat accurate, however, this can only mean that at the point where we have developed the ability to do so, we have become some of the best organizers there are. If you love African people, but not your family, you have fallen short and must rectify that error. As it pertains to the families we create, it is part of your primary duty to ensure that the family you produce is given what they need not only to survive but to unite whit the work to be free.

If you build the revolutionary family, you build the revolution.

I am and always will be,
Abasi Shomari Baruti
Uhuru!

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Make It Plain: The Death of Muammar Gaddafi - What significant is there to the Pan-African Liberation Movement?

The Death of Muammar Gaddafi - What significant is there to the Pan-African Liberation Movement?

By Abdul Jabbar Caliph, Chief Editor

On October 20, 2011 Muammar Gaddafi was brutally murdered by pro-capitalist insurgent members in an effort to usher in new era oppression; exploitation; rape and pillage within the colonialist boarders of Libya for African people! This is a fact that we in the Pan-African International community full understand, for we are aware of the implications of the murder of Gaddafi and what it means to the African Liberation Movement and it forces! As Revolutionary soldiers of the movement we understand that it is our task to help you to understand what this means to the movement!

Libya is a country that approximately made up of 679,362 sq. miles. It is located in the northern part of Africa that is heavily populated by Arab speaking people. Its economy is heavily depending upon the production of petroleum (oil) and petroleum based goods which only employs a small percentage of it people. Libya also products a small amount of gypsum, iron ore, lime, and natural gas along with sulfur. The rest of this country economy is based on service industries, construction and agriculture goods. Currently Africa is responsible for 25% of the world’s oil export.   

Into his death Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi had been the head of state since September 1969, 42 years, due to a successful revolution that overthrew the King and allowed the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) to seize and consolidate its power base. Immediately upon becoming the head of State he begin to preach an ideology, Pan-Arabism, that was detrimental to Africa and her people in an effort  to gain unity among various Arab States. They out rightly reject any type of unity with him regardless of the fact that he was an Arab and a Muslim. 

Throughout the Seventies and Eighties Gaddafi begin supporting a number of liberation movements throughout the world, particularly the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Chad, Morocco, Uganda and Western Sahara region of Africa. This had led to many so called leaders publically coming out against him. Because of his stance against the imperialist aggression shown towards people of color he had a fall out in 1986 with the United States of America, this result in breaking off all relationships with Libya and accused Libya of supporting international terrorism.  

This resulted in a bitter war between these two nations. In March of 1986, the government of Libya opened fire on US military aircraft over the Gulf of Sidra, a clear violation of Libya’s airspace. This resulted in the United States launching a vicious bombing campaign against Libya. The second part of this war erupted in 1989 when two United States of America military aircraft shot down two Libyan military aircraft flying over the Mediterranean Sea.

Because of this bitter antagonism between these two nations and a drop in Libya oil price Gaddafi was forced to improve relationships with other nations and establish a more promenade role inside of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) now called the African Unity (AU). A group of weak, spineless neo-colonialist bootlicking Negros, they don’t even deserve to be called Africans. Gaddafi sought leadership inside of this organization by daring to offer them the chance for serious change in the affairs of Africa.

The death of Gaddafi exposed some serious weakness and contradictions in the African Liberation Movement and in the socialist movement as it exist under its’ current backward leadership. First, no African country or socialist country came to the aid of Gaddafi, instead they stood by and watched his cold bloody murder and that of thousands of Africans living and working inside of Libya. Second, the African Union never ones opposed the bombing of Libya (only in lip service) and the removal of Gaddafi if they did they would have never recognized the current regime as representatives of Libya, some people will do anything for money. Third, the death of Gaddafi ushered in a new era of capitalism and neo-colonialism that is a planned attack against the masses of African people not only in Libya but also throughout Africa itself. Finally, the plans of imperialist conquest have been espoused for all to see through the use of AFRICOM, an imperialist counter-revolutionary army that is involved in military campaigns in Southern Sudan; Somalia; the Congo and Uganda for the control of the natural resources in these countries.  

As a Pan-African Internationalist is my duty to point out to you that Neo-colonialism poses a serious threat to the security Africa for it defines its relationship through its ties to Imperialism. It is this relationship that is responsible for the current backwards development inside of many African nations.  Neo-colonialism is responsible for the continued rape and pillage of the natural resources of Africa and the oppression and exploitation of many Africans because of the lack of development of an infrastructure that will support the positive development of any Pan-African institution that will push forth the liberation and freedom of African people. 

Comrades let us remember the words of Kwame Nkrumah when he pointed out the following facts about neo-colonialism “Neo-colonialism is the worst form of imperialism. For those who practice it, it means power without responsibility, and for those who suffer from it, it means exploitation without redress.” Neo-colonialism must be crushed and overthrown for it is just a cancer and must be surgical removed.  

 Before his untimely death Gaddafi purposed such revolutionary changes as a central African Monterey Banking system that would have freed African people of the parasitic relationship that currently exist between Africa and the International Monterey Fund (IMF) which charges Africa an enormous price for development loans of the resources that she already owns and of which the global economy is based upon and the formation of a United States of Africa as purposed by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah a revolutionary giant that fought for the freedom and unification of Africa. 

 

Comrades if Africa is to truly know any freedom and independence then she must complete the revolutionary phase of the sixties. She must begin so by demanding the immediate removal of AFRICOM from the shores of Africa because of her imperialist wars of aggression, along with the demand for the immediate dismissal of the neo-colonialist agency known as the OAU/AU for its ineffectiveness and betrayal of the revolutionary principals put forth by the African working class. Immediately after issuing these two demands we must begin the immediate mobilization for the establishment of the Republic of Africa under the leadership of the African working class this would allow for the removal of the artificial colonialist boarders that currently exist in Africa today. 

Comrades let us be about the work, the work of gaining genuine independences and freedom for all African people particularly the African working class who are suffering the most. Let us be about the work of making revolution; progress and establishing a Republic of Africa under the leadership of the African working class, the only class that loves Africa and is fit for leadership! It is this class that will led Africa and her people into a new glorious future ending the parasitic relationship that has currently existed for over five hundred years. 

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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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