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:
- 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;
- 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
- 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
- The prevention of any black militant nationalist organization from gaining any type of respectability
- 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
Posts
0 Response(s):
Post a Comment