SEIZE the TIME M
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SEIZE THE TIME m Vol.2 No. 3 October 1975 This Issue: THE BLACK COLONY- A PROGRAM FOR LIBERATION part I NATIONAL LIBERATION WITHIN THE U.S. THE ECONOMICS OF IMPERIALISM WITHIN THE U.S. NATIVE AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY. CLASS STRUGGLE:WORKPUCE ORGANIZING. FROM THE SISTERS: A CRITIQUE OF THE WHITE WOMAN'S MOVEMENT. WORLD REVOLUTION: PORTUGAL, AN ANALYSIS. CULTURAL REVOLUTION: DIEGO RIVERA The Black Colony-A Program for Liberation INTRODUCTION PART 1 A hundred years ago, Black people were much. We have learned the power, creativ• They take the decade of Malcolm X, urban the victims of the "great betrayal." The ity and critiufiMi' of the masses in pop• rebellions and Panther Party in isolation dreams of freedom, equality and democracy ular movements, broad coalitions such as without understanding the historical basis that had been built up during the Recons- ALSC, mass organization such as the League for this period. The militance of the six• trucion era were brutally shattered by the of Revolutionary Black Workers and cadre ties was based on massive economic and Hayes-Tilden Compromise of 1877. The rise organizations such as the Black Panther social changes that had occurred during of the KKK, the former slaveowners and the Party. We have learned the great dangers and prior to world war II. The major change brutal repression of Black people was tra• of trying to combine mass and cadre organ• was the completion of the migration pro• ded tor the Northern ruling class's right izations, of not building strong mass bas• cess and further urbanlaation of Blacks. to economically exploit the south. The es, o£ unprincipled strugg laK security The ship and airplane factories of the first Centennial of the birth of the United and adventurism. west coast brought further urbanisation Stat«s was celebrated by the riss o£ the Now is the time for Black Revolution• of Blacks. This final "great migration" KiGC, the rise of the Northern imperialist aries to examine our history, sum up the led to the almost equal distribution of ruling class( and a campaign o£ rs«nslave- experience of past twenty years of strug• Blacks between the North and South. The main thrust of this migration was accom• ment and genocide against Black people. gle in the US as it enters its third cent• panied by a secondary movement o£ Black Another hundred years have passed, and ury. Strong leadership is necessary i£ people into the Southern cities. This ur• Amerlka is preparing for the Blcentinnlal Black people are to collectively heighten banization process would lead to the sit• celQbrations- The us has grown to be the our struggle for freedom, self determina• uation that by 1970, 84% of Black people most hated Imperialist power in the history tion and democracy, AS Mao stated many would live in urban centers. of the world. Black people within the US years ago, the three required tools for have struggled for the last twenty years the liberation of a people are a strong Secondly, Blacks, as a people, advanced to gain the same rights of democracy, e- national unified front and a people's economically during the second World War. quality and freedom we struggled hard for revolutionary army both led by a strong Barron, in Demand for Black Labor states, a hundred years ago. Over the past years, revolutionary party. We feel that at this "World War II marked the most dramatic im• our struggle has more and more been iden• time the formation of a Black revolution• provement in economic status of Black people tified with the anti-imperialist struggles ary cadre organization is absolutely nec• that has ever taken place in the urban in• o£ the world's colonized peoples. Malcolm X essary. Only such an organization can dustrial economy. The income o£ Black work• and Robert Williams brought our struggles coordinate mass struggle, throughout the ers increased twice as fast as that of to the attention of the freedom fighters US. Only such an organization can coord• whites. Occupatlonally, Blacks bettered of other lands. Since the early sixties, inate and build different forms of strug• their positions in all of the preferred our struggle has grown and intensified un• gle and lead Black people through times occupations. The biggest improvement was der the leadership of InQlviduals such as Of rising revolution and stategic retreat. brought about by the migration from South Malcolm X, Dr. King and organizations such Such an organization would have the stren• to North (a net migration of 1,600,000 as the old Black Panther Party, SNCC and gth and experience to confront such diff• Blacks between 1940 and 1950.)" Barron con• AIJSC. icult questions as combatting the attempt• tinues, ''The changes that took place in the The seventies saw broad retreat by our ed consolidation of fascism, making princ• economic deployment of Black labor in WWII movement under the external pressure of in• ipled alliances with other revolutionary were clearly an acceleration of developments tense governmental repression and the in• forces, seeking international support that had been under way since WWI. In a ternal pressures o£ incorrect political lines , throughout the world for out struggle and process of transition, at a certain point lack of understanding of organizational forms , combatting the fascist forces in the work• the quantityof change becomes so great that lack of discipline and lack of principled ing class. the whole set of relationships assume an unity. Black organizations folded or were entirely different character." This change rrelycrippled by the d\ial mer.ances of in improvement in economic status slowed attacks and internal weaJcness. during the post war years of the late for• fcwian revolutionar pointed out that ties and again surged during the Korean War. ti»e true test of a revolutionary organiz• After the Korean War, Black people's cond• ation is not how well it leads during per• itions continually declined. In a period iods of mass rebellions and revolutionary of 'no war' the US economy had no choice fervor, but how well it leads during the but to decline. In the following economic darkest periods when repression is most slowdown, the worst hurt were the Black workers. This decline in the economic life intense, mass support at its lowest ebb, was heightened by major industries such as and the balance of forces is such that the packinghouse and steel industries moving the ruling class is clearly dominant. to the South, Southwest and West. These in• Vietnamese revolutionaries take this th• dustries were "running away"from powerful ought further by saying that revolution• and stibstantially Black unions of the North. aries recruited during the low ebb of One of the most powerful was the United revolution are generally more reliable Packinghouse Workers based in Chicago. This than those recruited during high points union was mostly Black and very powerful. because their commitment will be based Black activists inside of this union, mostly less on emotionalism and more in firm middle level officials and shop stewards, beliefs of the justness of their struggle. waged a campaign to win Black control of As 1976 approaches, mass struggle and the Union. The battles these activists resistance are on the rise. Urban rebell• waged over conditions in the plant, com• ions are occuring in the ghettoesof the ••The\ don'l use the wurd violence until y,iu 're about to explode..Wtei munity issues and control for the union, it roiiifs time for a Eilack man to explode thev call it violence.. But white towns and cities of the US. These spontan• peojic tai he exploding u^iiat blacK people all day long, and it 5 never fortold the latter massive battles be• eous rebellions occur in response to dep• called >iotcnct I cncn haw; some of y<xi come to me and ask me am I for tween the League of Revolutionary Black viotoiee'' I'm the victim of violence, and you're tfie victiin of violence. ression level economic conditions, incr• But > ou've been so victimized by it that you can't recignize it for what Workers against the automotive industry. eased police and vigilante repression and it is today.." '.lalaHm X Dec. 12. 1964 United Auto Workers and the united bourg- massive governmental cutbacks in educat• eoise of Detroit. As in Detroit, the union ional and social programs. Unemployment and the industry combined to attack the is over thirty percent in the inner city, struggle of Black workers. Unlike the strug• A SHORT HISTORY OF THE PAST THIRTY YEARS inflation reduces worker's paycheks by gle in Detroit, the Packinghouse workers in up to twenty precent, while welfare cut• We understand that such an organization Chicago were decisively defeated. The union backs threaten disaster for many poverty can only be built on principled unity, officials were worried about future organ• stricken households, vigilante activity scientific analysis and a sound concrete izing drives by the Packinghouse workers is on the increase. Six counties in Cal• program. We put forward our analysis and and abandoned Chicago for the non-union ifornia are being terrorized by a massive program for evaluation- discussion and havens of Ohmaha, Nebraska. The steel and white fascist milita. This militas has struggle by our comrades in the movement. auto industries would follow the packing• fired on and ran UFW organizers off ranch• Many activists have a poor understan• house industries into the non-union South es and fields. In a Florida county the ding of the Black Liberation Struggle. This and West. Industries such as the electron• militia rides in the sheriffs cars during is because they refuse to take a histori• ics industry would take those "runaway patrol.