N ESSAYS on PAN Afrikan Nationai ISM MUHAMMAD

THE PAN P,FR i i~AN REVOLuT I ~~N

ESSAYS ON PAN AFRiKAN NATiONAI_ISM

MUHAMMAD APiMAD

(a/k/a/ Max Stanford) THE PAN AFRICCAN REVOLUTION

INTRODUCTION 3

THE PAN AFROKAN PARTY AND THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE 15

CULTURAL REVOLUTION LN THE SIXTIES ` 54

REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM AND THE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDENT 105

BLACK NATIONALISM AND 'fHE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDENT 113

BLACK STUDIES AND THE BLACK INTELLIGENTSIA 128

BLACK URBAN GUERRILLA WARFARE ~ 141

ROOTS OF THE PAN AFRICAN REVOLUTION 167

THE PAr1 AFRICAN REVOLUTION 184

THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY 234 n COMBAT COMMANDISM 248

THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY AND THE MASS LINE 258

ROLE OF THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY IN THE NATIONAL LIBERATION STRUGGLE 272

THE POLITICALIZATION OF AfRIKAN CULTURE z9o

WE ARE ALL PRISONERS OF WAR 298

CLASS, NATIONALISM CULTURE AND THE THIRD WORLD 305

APPENDIX '

A . EL HAJJ MALIK EL SHABAZZ PLAN 347

B, AFRICAN PEOPLE'S PARTY TEN POINT PROGRAM 353 INTRODUCTION

" Eves more than the class struggle in the Capitalist countries

and the antagoaism betveea these countries and the eoeiallst world,

the libaratioa struggle o~ the cohial peophes is the essential

characteristic and sre vr~ulJd say the prime n©tive force, of the advance:

of history of our times." ~ilicar Cabral

In the history of revolutions part of its social process has been the production of new ideas . These ideas combined into a rational body of thought iS often called ideology . Revolutionary ideology is the scientific application of ideas derived from experiences of revolution affects other revoluti .ans leaving behind a revolutionary legacy . Revolutions are social upheavals b that radically transform society . Revolutionary ideology is produced by radicals who seek to create a revolution or who are living during the duration of one :

Revolutions are processes of evolution taking years to develop to the upheaval stage . It is the cumulating sequence of revolution that reaches the breaking point . Revolutions are social movements, but not all social movements are revolutions . The African

Liberation movement was not always a revolutionary movement . It was a social movement seeking reform within

the American system . There was a time when most African

people and their organizations felt non-violent

reform was possible . After a period of some l$ years

the African struggle has changed in objective. Most

African people today don't believe they can achieve their

objectives through non-violent reform . That is not to

say that all black people are revolutionary . No . But

what is evident, is a qualitative .change in the thinking

of the majority of African people . African people's

values have changed so that while most still want reform

they are now willing to take to the streets to get free-

dom . Revolutions are not necessarily made with all the

people wanting a 'revolutionary' change . They are made

with people wanting basic reforms that they can't get

under the existing regime . It is the revolutionaries

who want the revolutionary changes . The people support

the revolutionaries because the revolutionary program

includes the people's basic reform demands . In studying

the black liberation movement , . several organizations

are striving for non-reformable demands . They are S .O .B .U .

Studen t Organization of Black Unity ; C .A .P ., Congress

of African People ; B .P .P ., Black Panther Party; The

Republic of New Africa ; the African People's Party of

National Liberation and hundreds of Black Student Unions

and groups . All these groups advocate a fundamental

change in the political and social structure of the

United States . They are revolutionary groups that

have been thrust to the fore of the movement . All

of these groups advocate armed self-defense, meeting

counter-revolutionary violence with revolutionary violence

All have programs that plan to change qualitatively

the relationship between white and black in America and

possibly throughout the world : These groups and others

make up the Pan-African Nationalist wing of the black

liberation movement .

. Revolutionary ideology seeks to explain a revo-

lution in logical terms . In other words, it attempts

to analyze the revolution's social phenomenon by

deductive reasoning . This collection of political

essays attempts~to explain the historical and political

transition of the black liberation movement from a

passive resistance movement to active resistance move-

ment : The notebook traces the thoughts and actions of

lesser known black revolutionaries, attempting to

analyze their thought and their impact on Black America .

It also raises theoretical questions and presents a perspective for the future . The reader must .keep in mind that this is a notebook written in analytical,

dialectical form rather than a conversational text . The

work was not abstractly written . It is part .of a process

of study and practical organizing over a period of 9

years . The work covers organizational questions and

related subject matter writtenv. from 1g62 to 1971 . Articles are not dated because they, have been revised .

While the subject is Pan-African Nationalism, the notebook deals basically with poli`tiical subjects on the

Pan-African revolution, with the students' role, and th.e cultwral revolution .

Pan-African Nationalism is tailed Black lnternation- alism by some theorists . Pan-African Nationalism differs from traditional ar bourgeois black nationalism .

While Black Nationalism in America has many trends, being the underlying philosophy of the Black community, it should be categorized and analyzed to gain a proper perspective of its true meaning .

Nationalism is marked by loyalty to a group characterized by a common cultural experience which separates it from other groups, giving the group a feeling of belonging together . Nationalism is usually, categorized by its exponents that bind the group together - a common language, religion, sense of . past history of great achievement, a common history, the idea of a national homeland and a sense of national mission for the future . There are also different types and forms of nationalism . The different types of nationalism are reactionary nationalism and revolutionary nationalism .

Reactionary nationalism is brougeois, capitalist or aggressive, colonial or oppressive nationalism . It is the nationalism of the bourgeois . ctass designed to vi weld a bourgeois nation state . Reactionary nationalism in its aggressive state suppresses or oppresses a nation or particular group, reaping profits for the bourgeois class of that particular nation from the exploitation, slavery, colonialization of another group or nation . Revolutionary nationalism is the nationalism of an oppressed, colonialized nation that is the binding force of a nation or particular group to free itself from a group or nation that is oppressing it . Revolutionary nationalism is the .nationalism of the people being socialistic or communalistic in its content . The different forms of nationalism ar.e religious, political, and economic . All overlap just enough, with each concentrating in its field of interest .

Black Internationalism or Pan-African Nationalism is the philosophy of peoples of African descent- ,- having a common root cultural history and destiny used as a force_to 1iberate African peoples from Euro pean colonial rule, striving for a free, unified and independent Africa, the creation of a national homeland for - Black- people the world over .

African Nationalism can be broken down into several categories ; bourgeois,~reactionary, or revolutionary, communalistic . There are black nationalists wha believe i.n the capitalist system and the creation of a black capitalist state . They identify with the capitalist class, therefore fall in the realm of being classified vii as bourgeois, not because of their ,class position, but rather because of their mental attitude, because they don't have capital enough to be classified as bourgeois .

Bourgeois black nationalism's main emphasis is economic ; the building of a black capitalist economy and nation either in Africa, through repatriation, the building of a black capitalist nation within the tJnited~States, ar the functioning of a self-supporting black capitalist community .

Black nationalism can be categorized in four areas ; religious, political, economic, and cultural . Bourgeois and revolutionary black nationalism differ in tactics, bourgeois black nationalism being protest nationalism, static, non-activist ; for many years was represented in

Harlem and other cities through street-corner meetings and indoor r :~Tlies, while Pan-African nationalism is : activist-oriented, using direct action tactics, demonstrations, and rebellions. While recent rebellions have been spontaneous in character, they are ideologically united with Pan-African Nationalist theory . Pan-African nationalism is also international in scope, envisioning a world black revolution ; black people of the world,

(black, yellow, brown and red) are all enslvaed by the same forces, have a common international cultural heritage, and destiny, all rising up against their slavemasters .

The purpose of the collection should be viewed as an ideological guide, discussing different questions, viii subjects, topics, and issues of the Pan-African revolution the purpose of which is to present some clarity for the thousands of people who are active in the African liberation struggle .

The main thing that has hindered the African liberation movement is the lack of an indigenous scientific world and national outlook or revolutionary science that could guide each generation through a dialectical approach to the tactical steps of gaining power for the majority of African people . The history of African people in America is marked by periods and tides of rising nationalism, nationalist movements and the crushing of these movements by the colonial oppressors, the federal, state and local governments .

When the nationalist movement is crushed discontinuity occurs in the African community creating a national- i~st vacuum waiting to be fulfilled by the next charismatic leader that comes along . The failure of African people in America to form a dynamic and continuous nationalist movement has been because nationalist discontinuity occurs as a result of the state's oppression of . any mass nationalist movement . This net ionalist disconinuity exists also because Negro inte 1lectuals in the past shied away from Pan-African net ionalist ideology and movements . When the nationalist tide rises, the theory of the charismatic leader is produced and becomes the philosophy of the masses of our people

during that fiime . But after tfie devstructian of the movement, the nationalist philosophy becomes a memory because the ideology of the nationalist leader is not

theorized in an historical setting .

In~order for revolutions to be successful, they

must draw on the historical tradition of indigenous

rebellion and comb i ne the h_i_stor_i ca l_ experi ence with

the new environme nt . Pan-F,frican Nationalism is doing

just that . It is drawing on the historical experiences

of the past and is applying tacti cs used in different

successful national liberation movements to the

American scene .

Pan-African .Nationalism is the philosophy of

African people,9cultural root history used as a creative

force, to liberate African people from European colonial

ist exploitai:ion and create free, self-determining nations

Pan-African nationalism is the belief In black

culture controlling us as opposed to being dominated

by whito (European), culture . Pan-African ,Nationalism

is us ually expressed when African, Asian, and Latin

American groups strive to form independent, self-deter-

mining nations to be contro lled by the black group and

not by European or the European-American or any group

besides their own .

Pan-Afri~an Nationalism means identity or black

group identity . Pan-African Nationalism means black

patriotism, being patriotic to the eultural group .

Pan-African Nationalism is an identification and con-

sciousness of our own cultural group, own kind and self .

Pan-African Nationalism is group love, that is, the love

for the group, our people, and our culture .

Pan-African Nationalism is the philosophy of

cooperation, unity of Pan-African nationalists throughout,

the world to bring about a world revolution in which

Black culture is the lifestyle of the Third World .

Pan-African Nationalism is~the philosophy that Black

people of the world~~black, yellow, brown, and red) are

all enslaved by the same forces . Pan-African Nationalism

is the philosophy of a common international cultural

heritage and identity among non-European people, that is,

African, Asian,~and Latin American people all have

similar, if not the same cultural histories and a common

destiny .

Pan-African Nationalism is the philosophy of a

world black revolution of the black underclass rising

up against their slavemasters .

This collection of essays deals briefly with the

historical roots of nationalism, showing that Pan-

African nationalism is a historical. ideology and

explores theoretical questions of the Pan-African

revolution .

While many historicans negate the influence of

Black nationalism within the Black community, black xi ' nationalism has been tfie underlying ideology within black America since the 1800's, emerging in different periods ; the main period was the 1920's with the creation of t'he only mass movement of black people in America, involving millions in the Garvey movement .

Black nationalist circles remained dormant after the destruction of the Garvey movement . (t resurged . for a brief period in the 1940's . While the petty black bourgeoisie adopted the philosophy if integration, the masses had the ideology of black nationalism . Even the black bourgeoisie would admit that the philosophy of black nationalism had remained latent among our people .

(n the 1950's black nationalism began to recover under the 1'eadershop of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam . Mr . Muhammad introduced Islam into black nationalism and developed a religious conscious- riess for the ideology .

This religious consciousness had a lot to do with future development because it provided the black community with a clear historical and religous sense of destiny .

It gave rise to the expectations of a mass nationalist conciousness and movement . The Nation of Islam kept the continuity of black nationalism going in the black community for a forty-year period . It soon was the best organized of black nationalist groups, being unique in its religous approach . Revolutionary black nationalism is not a new ideology for it has developed from xii

the historical roots of Henry Hig .hland,Garnet, David

Walker, Denmark Vesey, Martin Delaney, the Garvey

Movement, DuBois' Pan African congresses and the

Nation of Islam . Revolutionary Black Nationalism is

a root ideology using the historical experiences and

philosophies of Black Nationalist leaders of the past

and present and combining them with the tactics and

revolutionary ideology of other revolutionary move ments .

. Malcolm X is the transitional figure in the develop-

ment of revolutionary Black Nationalism . From his

speeches and wr i t i ngs come the fouridat i /on of the ideology .

While this essay does not deal with much of

Malcolm's content, it does try to provide insight into

some of Malcolm's organizationaR plans . Though Malcolm's

organization, the OAAU (Orga.nization of Afro-American

Unity), never became an action center for the Black

revolution, part of its program was adopted by younger

revolutionaries who are now making today's headlines .

Revolutionary Black nationalism still very much stands

undefined . It is the philosophy that is being produced

by the Black revolution in America . It becomes inter-

nationalism - or Pan-African - when reflecting on the

international aspects of the process of decolonization .

Today, African peoples in every country are wit-

nessing a new racial awakening . Black consciousness w xiii is rising each day . Black nationalism, the ideology of Black Power and Pan-Africanism and the international expression of Black nationalism are developing mass followings,

THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY AND THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE

The development of colonialized people's revolutions

are a process of building national self confidence,

consciousness~by engaging in struggle against the

colonial system . Through this struggle the colonialized

become self-educated as to the realities of the .system

and true nature of the oppressor :

Colonial revolutions are self-educational processes

Struggle, agitation/social dislocation is the best

method of education fir the people . Because as a

result of confrontations and political/economic struggles

the unity of the colonialized becomes stronger . This

unity is not just an emotional unity but also a poli-

tical unity eased on the fact "we all struggled and

fought the beast .

National consciousness :rises and subsides when the

people feel their demands are being met~or.-not . Also

correct methods of struggle by nationalist revolutionaries

has a lot to do with the rise~or dropping of national

self confidence and consciousness .

The party organizer must master the art of struggle .

He must be able to build party cells among bhe people .

This determines whether he's a party organizer or not .

People make history . People change society . Revolutions

are about involving people, thousands, hundreds of

millions of people in a self-educational socio.-psychological process .

Revolutions are natural processes that occur very

seldom because mastering the dynamics of hidden laws

of moving society is very difficult .

In our national democratic revolution we must

realize that all forces in the black community who are

opposing racism in some form or fashion are good in

the relative sense . We must realize that everything is

moving and that everything in the universe is subject

to change, including any a'nd all forces in the black

community . Therefore, the party does not need to attack

any forces in the black community, because it has the

correct program and line . The party must be the center

for unity and Pan-African Nationalist principle at all

times . But the party's main pre-occupation, knowing the

corruption of the present so-called leadership, is to.

organize the people around the party's program .

The party organizer must make the party program live

in the peop1e's minds . Through patient persuasion, the

party organizer organizes the people into organizations

that will struggle for at least one point of'the party

program . The party organizer does not worry .how this

demand is worded as long as it is the same demand in content .

The only way to build our nation's self confidence, consciousness, and overcome the law of uneven development is through a national Pan-African Na ionalist Party that engages our people in every community across the country in common struggle .

(n order to understand the nature of the Pan-

African Party and the national struggle we must know the historical aspects of our struggle .

w from the beginning of slavery the question " of national power for us has been economic and political .

The basis of slavery was economic and political . The basis of slavery was the reaping of super-profits for the slavemaster from the backs of the forced free labor of kidnapped captive Africans .

The question of slavery was the building of an economic empire, the making of the whole economy based on~King Cotton, not to mention the flourishing slave trade and the super-profits it reaped to Europe . When the Black man was kidnapped by the slave system and its developing counterpart, capitalism, Europeans were living under a feudalist system ; the merchant class, slave traders and towns of Europe became rich from the slave trade and the slave system produced cotton for the Europ- can textile industry was one of the first industries for the new economic system known as capitalism . i8

Mass rebellion against the oppression of the,

political slave state meant total destruction of the

slave state's economy, for it was built off the super

exploitation of the Black man, The captive nation or-

ganized under the tremendous pressure of a fascist

state that was dedicated to its very survival to crush

any signs of revolt . During slavery, some 204

insurre~~tions occurred, some having the objective of

seizing land and forcing an independent Black nation .

.As early as 17,87, Africans in Boston petitioned

the state legislature to help them return to the

motherland . In 1815, Paul Cuffe,. having bu~xt~-ljfs~b'r~n

ships, took some 38 Africans back homer 1800 brought

the Gabriel Prosser conspiracy . The~most organized

attempt of slave revolution was the Denmark Vesey

conspiracy of 1821 . Vesey, who had bought his freedom

from a lottery he won, soon rose to leadership in

the A .M .E . Church in Charleston, S .C . The A .M .E . Church

was so radical with the freedmen agitiating Africans

still in chattel slavery it was banned . First there

were protests and marches demanding the right to freedom of~religion ; the right of A .M .E . to exist . Some his-

torians say that repression of the A .M .E . led Vesey

and others to organize the plot . Further study shows

Vesey was a revolutionary nationalist . Vesey had in

mind first seizing the port town of Charleston, setting

1 9

up a provisional government, eventually seizing the

entire state of South Carolina ~nd~forfiing a Black

Republic . Me also had hoped for the aid of Haitian

troops .

tn~182q. pavid Walker issued an international

call for the overthrow of the slave system . The

Haitian revolution made an impact on the so-called

New World . It threatened the slave owning class in

North America and had much to do with the stoppage,

at least legally, of the slave trade.

On . August 21, 1832 , . the largest slave revolution

started in South Hampton, Virginia. This was the Nat

Turner revolution . Turner had organized a cell-like

organization . Discipline proved to be the African's

major weakness . After slaying 50 Caucasians, their

tanks fell a ;~art when they approached a plantation full

of materials and they chose :to_:engage :in the :,boo~y,

allowing the militia the time it needed to reorganize .

Turner's plan was a national uprising of slaves ;

he planned to go from plantation to plantation, freeing

slaves . It is estimated that 10,000 slaves were involved

in the plan . 7urner himself was not caught for several

months .

(n 1844, in heated debate during a Colored People's

Convention, Reverend Henry Highland Garnet issued another

call for insurrection against the slave system . 2 0

Martin R . Delaney, one of the first major African nationalist leaders advanced important concepts such as Africans in America .are a "nation within a nation in his memorable book, The Conaition, Elevation, Emi- : g_ration, Destiny of Colo red- People of the United States in 1852 , He called for a national African non-public council, encouraged emigration to the east coast of

Africa, and worked with Frederick Douglass as assistant editor of the North Star .

. In 1854, the National Emigration Convention held in Cleveland, Ohio sent investigators to the ea t coast of Africa to take findings for a possible site for repatriation . The convention also resolved : "that no people as such can ever attain to greatness who lose their identity, as they must rise entirely upon their own merits ." In 1858 the African Ci~~ilization Society was formed to encourage mass repatriation to Africa . The reconstruction period is a sad period in our people's history because it was at a time when we were about to get land and power ; stood on the edge of an agrarian revolution when the captive nation was in a position of seizing political and economic power, but the freed man relied on the radical leadership of white

America . While social emancipation became an issue of the Civil War, economic survival and political power for Africans became an issue of the reconstruction 2 1

peri od .

Reconstruction should be a period ww study

and learn historical mistakes from . While the right of political vote - became an issue the radicals fought for in the War Congress, the masses of Africans wanted "40 acres and a mule ."

But white Congress couldn't stomach breaking up the plantation and dividing it among the freedmen .

While the majority of us were living in a bleak economic existence with no income, the turning over of plantation land to African peasants who were displaced not living in an agrarian situation would have been the soundest solution for reconstruction .

But for white Congress this meant going too far, giving Africans the land as well as political power ; the freemen would have power over the South, where we are in the majority ; it would have occurred . While many colored people's conventions petitioned white Congress for land, 20 African leaders demanded land in a meeting with Lincoln . Africans in South Carolina fought for

land but reparations and self-determination were never granted .

Reconstruction left the African captive in a state of economic chaos . Reconstruction was a bloody period as African militias fought the KKK and other white groups .

In order to remain in power the northern white z2

capitalists compromised with the white southern racist forces, withdrawing wnion troops from the South in 1878 leaving the freedmen at the mercy of their former white slavemasters ; this is known as the Hayes-Tiiden

Compromise of 1877 " _

From 1881 to 1910 a little known mass nationalist movement developed . Edward Blyden and Bishop Turner ~.':~: stand out among the many nationalists of the period .

What is interesting to note is during this period an emigration movement existed at the same time as a reparations movement . Though not documented a movement involving one million ex-slaves petitioned/ lobbyed the government for the overdue promise of 40 acres and . a mule .

to 1885, Fort Smith, Ark . became a . base for S .H .

Scott, a Black lawyer disillusioned with failures of re,~onstruction who started a movement to establish an all .Black community . In 1879, some 40,000 Africans left the South for the Midwest.

The leader of exodus movement was Benjamin "Pap"

Singleton, who sought to form a Black state from Kansas and the obtaining of 40 acres and mules . In 1889,

Edwin P . McCabe, farmer state auditor of Kansas, attempted to set up an all Black state .i n the Oklahoma

Territory . (n 1886, African farmers organized the

Colored Farmers National Alliance and Cooperative ~3

Union : By 1891, . it had more than a million members .

The African farmers proposed a general strike of African cotton pickers but it was opposed by the white populist farmers .

In 1890, the Texas Farmers Colored Association proposed the formation of an~independent African state .

In 1913, Chief Alfred C . Sam, who said he was from the Gold Coast Colony in West Africa came to Oklahoma .

He set up a trading company and advocated emigration to the Gold Coast, where he claimed to own land . Also in 1813, Nobel Drew Ali taught his followers that they were descendents of the Moorish Empire of North Africa, an Islamic state . He gave his members Moorish names to replace the slave names given by the slavemaster .

Nobel Drew Ali was arrested in 1929 and died mysteriously after being released on bond . Sorne say he died from beatings by police .

(n 1914 Marcus Garvey organized the Universal

Negro Improvement Association . Within five years .

Garvey built a movement of five million Africans dedicated to liberating Africa from white colonial rule .

On August 1, 1920, Garvey held an International Con- vention of African people of the world . Garvey's movement was seriously divided, Garvey himself jailed and later exiled .

In 1919, Cyril Briggs organized the African Bloo~+

2 4

Brotherhood which eventually had 5000 members . The

African Blood Brotherhood advocated self-determination

for a Black socialist republic in the South .

Cn 1929 'the "Don !.t Buy Where You Can't Work"

movement began . Sufi Abdule Hamid was a key organizer

of the movement-in Chicago and New York . w

In 1930 Master Wallace Difard founded the Nation

of Lslam . His lieutenant, the most Honorable Elijah

Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, has taught from

1933~to 1973 that we are a pation within a nation and

must separate from the United States Government .

to 1939, the National Movement for the Establishment

of the Forty-Ninth State was founded in Chicago by

Oscar C . Brown . d The National NegroCongress organized

in 1936 and attempted to serve as a Black United Front .

t t had over 500 organization in it but ceased to be a

major force whew Black cadres from the Communist Party

took it over .

(n 1837, the Southern Negro Youth Congress was

formed, but it also fell prey to white leftist mani-

pulation .

From 1940 to 1960 nationalism entered a low ebb in

our national democratic revolution . The Nation of Islam

emerged as the major nationalist organization as the

civil rights movement gained momentum .

The revolutionary nationalist movement reached a 2S

new organizational level with the formation of RANT -

Revolutionary Action Movement from 1962 to 18.68 . RAM advocated the formation of an independent Black Republic .

The question of reparations and independent nationhood will become mass cries as our struggle progresses and the African People's Party and the provisional Republic of New Africa, both formed in 1868, gain mass bases .

THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

.Cadres must study and re-study the tactics of organizing for a national democratic revolution .

We are involved in a nationalist .revolution and not a class revolution . Also, new cadres must learn the difference between being militant and a revolutionary .

This is not the time for a hard Tine . You must know what to do in every given period of time or~you wil l fail to achieve your objective . Learn the broad mass

Brie . If the Party masters the mass line it will be successful .

At the present time there are three (3) distinct social classes represented inside the Black Power move- meet . These are : 1) the-black middle classes, 2) the black student youth in .the universities, and 3) the black city youth on the streets .

The Black middle classes, which include Black businessmen, Black politicians, Black professionals, and 2 6

Black preachers are generally taking advantage of the upsurge in Black Pride and Black consciousness and the

tremendous fears aroused in the white power structure

by the spontaneous ghetto rebellions to obtain funds and

support for what they call "building Black economic and

political power ." Doing their "thing" rneans , setting

up projects for economic development, job training, voter

registration, social welfare and education .

These Black middle class elements are the ones

now being celebrated as "black militant leaders" by

the mass media which is doing its best to co-op them

into smooth functioning of the system as "Negro leaders ."

The aim of the white power structure, frankly, is to

build a Black middle class, i .e . to bring as many .Blacks

as possible into the main-stream of American society, and

in the course: of this to create local power groups or

puppet Black administrations who will be too weak t

overthrow the white power structure but strong enough

to contain and pacify the Black masses . . At the end of

the road, if Operation Co-optation could succeed, the

Black communwty from coast to coast would be balkanized

into little Black bailiwicks resembling the tiniest

neo-colonialist nations in Africa, fxut with even less

independence and power than those nations .

Just below the Black middle clases are the Black

university youth, some of whom are simply preparing 2 7

themselves individualistically to ;be co-opted into the system bwt many of whom are carrying on struggles for facets of Black power in the university and seeking to make it and themselves relevant to the Black community . .

Meanwhile, university power structures from coast to coast are trying to anticipate demands and yield con " cessions to these student youth as fast as they can, hoping that by so doing they will produce more candidates for co-optation into the establishment and deprive the Black university student of any excuse for struggle .

Actually, Operation Co-optation cannot succeed because none of the projects organized by the Black middle clsses, even with million dollar subsidies from

the white power structure, can incorporate or contain

the third deepest and fastest-growing layer inside the

Black community, the layer of Black city youth . The

end product of 300 years of an American racist-capitalist

society and, :more specifically, of a system of education

organized by and for the white middle classes, these

youth have recognized that they have become expendable

to a higf~ly automated and cyberhated society acid they

will have to destroy this society or be destroyed by it

Some of these city youth are still in school, some are

working in the unskilled jobs, which~eYven now ,could be

automated out of existence (if the power structure did

not need them for pacification purposes), large numbers 2 8

are in the armed services, and at least one-third !s just unemployed . . .ln every northern city new organizations are springing up to give political direction to these Black street youth .

Party cadres must make an analysis of the Black community and must study the developing movement constantly in order to correctly relate to our people .

The party must relate to Black workers and

Black unemployed . 62 .4 of the total Black population

in America are Black workers . There are approximately

8,560,000 Black workers in the labor force . There are approximately 532,000 unemployed Black workers and 5 .3 million Blacks sixteen (16) years and older who are not a part of the civilian labor force and not in the military service . For us to correctly move Party cadres must understand the tactics of mastering the mass line ; that is flowing with the general demands of ,our people and raising these demands duo a higher political level . White our Prty raises the demand for

five states and reparations, it must be active in securing

democratic political rights for our people, especially

in the South . The Party should try to run and put as

many Party cadre within the political system in the

South as possible . By working within and outside of

the system the Party will have a dual advantage of

being a parallel political institution and will enhance

its information on the workings, resources and personnel

of the system, from a political base or running in

campaigns, the Party will educate a great percentage of

our population, especially the youth, who are the

upcoming struggling generation .

The Party must heretofore be active in the southern

community educating our people to its program, then the

people will make the Party program their program .

"The solution must arise from the living movement itself

out of their struggles for democracy and equal rights .

Its form of expression or coming into being will also

be determined by the level of class relationships in

the country as a whole and by the relation of the 2 Black people to the progressive coalition ."

Observing carefully we can see the South is under-

going an industrial and social. revolution . Southern

agriculture is becoming mechanized and is displacing

Black tenant farmers and Black farm laborers from the

land . Southern . businessmen, to attract industry, are

acting as if they are not racist anymor.e .~ The displaced

Black farmer is migrating to the big urban cities of

the South and North, becoming a socially mobile unem-

ployed force and potential southern urban Black working

class . This rapid transition of social life and economic

status, combined with 15 years tradition of social

protest, makes the South a potential breeding ground for 3 0

nationalism . The Party should concentrate its efforts in the Provisional Republic of tJew Africa in the South

Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South

Carolina . We must work with a11~Black progressive forces in these states, not moving too far ahead of the present trend, build zones, convert these zones into bases and develop a self-reliant Party economy based on land ownership .

THE DRIVE FOR LEGAL BLACK POLITICAL POWER

The movement toward running Black candidates for public office, utilizing the black vote, represents the last legal stage of Black middle class interest in the capitalist political system.

It is extremely important as a Party cadre to understand the broad character of this drive . We are a colonialized nation, and as a colonialized nation that has been dehumanized and demoralized we wilt try anything and everything (exhaust all legal means) before we, as a nation, will collectively move to the point of revolution

Therefore, certain processes take place in national democratic revolutions . We must understand that we are in the beginning stages~of the nationalist phase of our revolution . This is the demand for 109 of the political power of America, (SG,576 black elected officials) .

Congressman Parren Mitchell (D-Md .) recently called for

3 1

a doubling of the present thirteen black U .S . Congressmen

to 26 iR 1972 and a doubling of the proposed 1972

figure to 52 in 1874 :

The attempt to achieve political equality has

been the main emphasis of our national democratic

revolution . While this drive doesn't totally serve

the interests of the Black warking class, it will help

to exhaust the legal means of protest, and eliminate

the illusions that Black people can achieve :`freedom

in the capitalist system by polarizing its inherent

contradictions .

''The intelligentsia always Teads, the nationalist

movement in Fts early stages . It aspires to replace

the colonial power, but not to bring about a radical

transformation of society . The object is to control

the 'system' rather than change it, since the intelli-

gentsia tends as a whole to be bourgeois-minded and " 3 against revolutionary socialist transformation ."

But Party cadre must understand that 'the democratic

revolution has a bourgeois character and cannot be

transformed nto a communalist revolution until its

final stages . Therefore, we support the Black middle

class' drive because the drive heightens the political

and nationalist consciousness of the Black .w Political

representation will probably pre-occupy New Africa's

thinking for the next 10 years . A national democratic revolution cannot be won without extensive and thorough on-going political mobilization and education, A

nationalist communalist revolution ie out of the question

unless the masses become class - conscious ; organized and

trained and educated in nationalist class struggle

against the entire colonialist bourgeoisie .

What does political mobilization of the people

mean? It means telling the people about the political

aim and objectives of the revolution . It is necessary

for every brother and sister to see why the revolution .

It is necessary for every brother and sister to see

why the revolution must be carried out and how it

concerns him .

Two, it is~not enough to merely explain the aim

and objectives to them, but also the steps and policies

of the program . Without a clear-cut political program

it is impossible to mobilize all the people to carry

out the revolution . Three, how should we mobilize the

people? By word of mouth, leaflets, newspapers, books

and pamphlets, through plays, films, drum and dance

groups, through schools, it is not,e~ough ; political

mobilization must be continuous . Our job is not to

recite the Party program to the people, because nobody

will listen to rhetoric . We must link our political

mobilization with . developments in accordance .with the

life of the people and make it a continuous movement . 3 3

This Continuous political mobilization is a

protracted struggle, one which takes many years of

struggle, setbacks, and faiiures~ .Party cadre must

prepare themselves for a long struggle . This is very

important so that Party cadres don't become disillusioned when we have failures and setbacks, which are bound to

happen . Our revolutionary tempering is steeled through

struggle : The more involved in struggle, the more

hard we become and the more knowledgeable ~we become of what revolution is about . This is a protracted

struggle and the revolutionaries must be well-steeled in enduring long, hard, and bitter struggle . People's

revolution means sacrificing for the people .

To awaken the people to nationalist consciousness,

the Party must engage in a community political education

program . The Party must engage in three things ; register- .

ing 1$ year-olds to vote nationally ; getting on the

ballot and running candidates in as many cities and

states as possible ; and conducting its ~pefition drive

for regional reparations, which in itself is a propaganda

drive .

Also, the Party must be busy building mass organ-

izations among the people . The Party must organize every

element of the people into a mass organization : Black

workers and unemployed must be organized into the

African People's Unions . Students must be organized into

the Pah African Student Union . Black women must be

organized into an African Women's Congress, Black

soldiers must be organized into an African People's

Veteran Association, teachers, nurses, artists, writers,

musicians, etc . Athletes should be organized into an

African People's Athletic Club and conduct nationwide

Pan African Games ; businessmen, police, street people,

welfare mothers ; ministers could becrganized into an

African People's Spiritual Association along with other

relay people with various religious backgrounds .

Party cadre must use their heads in talking to

our people . Rap with the people on their level .. Don't

be foaming at the mouth with a lot of revolutionary

rhetoric . Don't alienate yourselves from the people .

Stop rapping the hard line . Be polite and kind to our

people . Carry yourselves in a humble manner . Carry

yourself as a responsible person in the community .

The people will eventually learn to respect you . ~ -

WE RAISE THE DEMAND OF INDEPENDENT NATIONHOOD TACTICALLY

"Our advocacy of the slogan must correspond more

closely to the general stage of the national, development

which the young ',Black' nation has attained . We must

adopt as a major task the awakening of the 'Black' peoples' consciousness of nationhood, purposefully seizing upon those sound and permanent trends developing among them and fighting. beside them to develop them to higher levels . The-slogan of self-dtermination should not be presented in a schematic, or mechanical manner .or in any other fashion as would assume that . . ."

Black people should not repeat the mistakes of other groups . When developing zones in the South, the

Party should not immediately move on the question of an independent nation, but gradually as the movement progresses raise the question of independence . The key to national mobilization is a Southern ;`African

Peoples' Congress . But .i t may take years for a .

Southern African Peoples' Congress to form . To be effective and meaningful it would have in attendance approximately 10,000 delegates representing over 2 million from all areas of the South .

What we are saying is that before the independent nationhood concept will become acceptable to our people and the progressive peoples of the world, there must be a large body to present the demand and carry forth it's mandate . This is nation building, organizing in a democratic manner . That is, it is within the law for a people to petition their grievance to a government, thereby exhau~tin.g all avenues of legal demands . This is a democratic revolution, the emergence of legal 3 6

demands of national autonomy of a colonialized nat .i~on, through petition or peaceful demonstration . It isn't until this phase is exhausted that the revolution can progress further .

"In order to establish a republic it is absolutely necessary to have an .assembly of peoples' representatives and it must be a popular {elected on the basis of universal and equal suffrage, direct elections and secret ballot), and a constituent . assembly . . .ln order to establish the new order that will really express the will of the people, it is not enough to call a representative assembly a consitutent assembly . This assembly must have the authority and .power to constitute .

Taking this into consideration, the resolution of the

Congress does not confine itself to the formal slogan of a constitutent assembly, but adds the material conditions which alone will enable ,that assembly really 5 to .carry out its talks ."

(t is very important that party cadre understand

that being part of the party requires more discipline

and hard work on their part than their previous involve-

ment in the movement . The party is the highest form of

organization within our national democratic revolution .

Everyone cannot make the grade to be the party cadre .

A Black Revolutionary party cannot come into being

ready-made . It has to be molded and shaped by hard

work and the criticism and self-criticism which cease-

lessly transform and develop the revolutionist and

the revolutionary organization . The American racist-

capitalist system has caused much backwardnes,, ignorance

selfishness, suspicion, deception, and competition among

Black people and has thereby kept them disorganized,

divided, and politically unaware . The alteration that

is necessary to man on a mass scale can only take place

through revolution . Meanwhile, in the: Black Revolutionary

Party, this alteration of revolutionary cadres can

take place through the constant learning and teaching

that are inseparable from conscious interaction with

masses in revolutionary struggle ."

It is very important that party cadres understand

the tactics of struggle . Also, they must understand

that you change methodology of struggle in different

periods of the revolution and refine techniques as you

learn .

"As far as social movements are concerned, true

revolutionary leaders must .not only be good at correcting

their ideas, theories, plans or programs when errors

are discovered . . .but when from one .stage of development '

to another, they must also be good at making themselves

and all their fellow revolutionaries progress and change

in their subjective knowledge along with it, that is and 3 8

new working programs correspond to new changes in the situation . In a revolutionary period the situation changes very rapidly in accordance with the changed situation, they will be unable to lead the revolution to victory ."

THE DRIVE FOR LEGAL BLACK ECONOMIC POWER

We are in a nationalist revolution of a colonialized nation in which all classes must surge forth to obtain their national class interests as one class . Being suppressed, the Black middle class was not allowed to develop into a bourgeois class, a class to obtain economic power within the system . It is important that we understand the dynamics of class, class str.uc- ture, colonialism, and national liberation movements .

Dur revolution is a national, liberation revolution ; it is :one of a coionialized nation seeking independence and self-determination from the colonizer . We must understand that there are antagonistic contradictions. between all classes of Black America and the colonizer .

"The contradictions between ourselves and the enemy are antagonistic contradictions . Within the ranks of the people, .the contradictions among the working people are non-antagonistic, while those between the exploited and the exploiting classes have a non-antagonistic aspect in addition to an antagonistic aspect . There have aiways, been contradictions among the people, but their content differs in each period of the revo-

lution . . .The only way to settle questions of an ideo-

logical nature or controversiai issues among the people

Is by the democratic method, discussion, criticism, of persuasion and education, and :not by the method of g coercion or repression ." The black bourgeoisie, because

it lacks political and economic power is more of a petty bourgeoisie than a bourgeoisie and will have more of a tendency to support the revolution than a classical bourgeoisie . If we understand why the black middle class responds the way that it does .

"Black revolutionaries must criticize the black middle class drive towards black capitaiism, but at the

same time, support it because we must realize that rt is

a ",necessary historical stage . We must support the

existence and expansion of black businesses and at the

same time we point out that profits from black businesses

should go back to the community . Black economic develop-

ment must be a collective effort . The party must

be able to organize black professionals to become the

economic development and skill bank .of the party .

The Black Revolutionary Party must devise strategies

which give their conditions of life through struggle

and which enable them to create dual or Parallel power 4 0

structures out of struggle . Struggle therefore must be on issues and terrains which enable the Black community to create a form of liberated area out of what are at present occupied areas .'

:order to get our people to support us they must see us make some material success or gains within the system . This means the party must prov-ide the commun-ice with the goods and services it needs to survive and move to se]f-reliance . The party must be able to fulfill the basic needs of the people ; food , . clothing, and shelter .

As we refine our outlook, it is necessary for us to understand that organization of the black working class must be the central focus of the party . The black working class not only constitutes the maJority of our people, but also the most sta'ale element in the black cort~munity with the most potential economic and political power needed to win . The party must make the black working class aware of its potential power, mobilize/organize it to seize more and more power and move to nationhood .

(n order to make point one of our program a reality, the key is the national black general strike . The national black general strike will take years to develop .

But we must develop tactics that will lead our community to supporting and carrying out a general strike . 4 1

The key to `this is to work infhe factories and struggle around loc al economic/political issues . The main basis of work and development of party ot'ganizations is work in the factories . Up until now the party has not found the proper methods for carrying on factory work . The content of this work is not merely organizational . What are the correct methods of organizing in the factory?

The first essential condition for successful work in the factory is daily contact with the mass of black workers in it and thorough knowledge of the position of black worker, i .e ., white union, management and the concrete conditions for struggle . Cadres must firmly grasp all the countless conflicts of a minor and major character arising daily with the employers, trade unions, spies, etc ., such as disputes, incidents, demands and grievances of black .workers including women and youth, hours of work, working conditions, infringements on black workers' rights, dismissals in case of arrests of black workers etc, It is the :ask of cadres to investigate very carefully the causes'of any failure in their efforts to penetrate the factories and to continue the work with renewed energy on the basis of carefully considered measures to overcome the previous shortcomings .

How does a newly formed party chapter establish contact with black workers? hisconducthavecontactwhoindependencefollowathrowembracesrepublic,andplantkeypersistently,intoisunderpoli±icalAndtrainingpartyofLouisiana,blackwhich,theareconvincingaworking,selectpositionifsthewithupintheorsurveyourParty'sseveraloncannotthetheseworkersAPPgettingifparty,thethethroughoftheleadershipimportancehavinglargestmustofwhere,FrominandtheprimarypeopletirelesslyindustrieshimmostpenetrateinformationprogrambeingwaysthenweinSouththestatesbethesurveythetonocanthecommunitywhostrategicoppressor'snumberapartyandobjectivesonebecomeimmediatethatfsystematicCarolinasoutherngainiplantswantsItrstofgivingallwintois~obtainedofinformation,ouri5Mississippi,partyselectabythetheseregional,tofactoriesblackoffootholdinpartypartytobasedcontacts,Theknowingpartyproduction,wouldorganizefactoriestheandthecadrebecomebrothersthosesurveyworke-rs,organ*zermostshallplannedSouthParty,cadrebeautoautonomyaestablish-canwhichAlabama,fac-atoblackandtre-atisthere-findandcare-once

4 2

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4 3

Being a southern based party it would be basically

southern urban based Party working to organize southern ' i0 Black workers and the urban southern Black unemployed . . ."

(n line with our final revolutionary perspective,

in line with winning the masses ~of black workers not

only for immediate struggles, but for the struggle for

power-key industries, southern strategic industrial

cities and towns will be a determining factor in

deciding the victory of the national democratic revolution .

Uniess permanent organizational connections are es-

tablished with black workers in key industries, there

can be no guarantee for rapid development of our Party,

nor will the black general strike became a reality .

ON WHAT LEVELS DO WE ORGANIZE BLACK WORKERS?

On all levels . We not only organize black workers

in the plants and struggle for better working conditions,

benefits and pay but also organize black workers out

side the plant in all forms of life . All activity

may not be able to be harnessed by the Party or the

African Peoples' Union, therefore other organizations

and groups will have to be formed .

The Party organizer organizes groups around anything

or any form of activity the people are involved in .

Why does the Party organizer do this? Because by forming

organizations, the Party organizer is providing the 4 4

Party with an organized community structure and avenues to the people and also he is building indigenous community leadership through the creation of these structures. people are neded to head and run these community organizations, so with the Party organizer being a member of these organizations he has a chance to groom, work with and build a community infra-structure and leadership that is loyal to the Party. Each Party member/organ iz:er _must be- a . leader of nir~e (9} non-Par-ty members . This further embeds our roots among the people .

Stay in touch with brothers and sisters not in the movement and not in the Party . Socialize with them .

Circulate among them . Don't always wear national dress . Change u'p sometime . Put on a suit, tie, etc .

Look like the people because the people will identify

with you more . In outward appearance the Party organizer

should look just like the people . This also helps

him blend in with the people better . Party organizers

must circulate. among all elements of the people . The

Party must form African peoples' athletic clubs/teams,

social clubs, fraternities, and sororities, etc . The

Party must even be involved in community activities such

as bowling, card playi-ng, chess and partying . All these

activities provide links to the people .

BUILpING THE COMMUNITY CQNGRCSS

Besides organizing on the job, politically and

socially the Party organizes the people on the community

level . Community Partycells are very important

because fih party is the community and the community is

the Party . Community cells provide the basis of the

Party infra structure and intelligence . Community cells

should be organized from the block level, to preceinct,'

to ward . The community organization section in each

local branch would be responsible for building community

cells .

The Party must build a parallel political sfructure

This structure must be built around involving people in

the democratic centralist process of the Party ; that is,

many leaders with one central command . In order to do

this Party organizers must be busy recruiting members

from the community and encouraging them to form precinct

Party organizations . What does this do? It helps

build second, third, and fourth line leadership within

the Party and entrenches the Party among the people .

y The po licy of the Party is to bore in or be well-

entrenched in the community . First, every Party cadre

must know who`s who in his immediate area . He must

know who's the appointed leader ,by the power structure,

the real grass roots, local leaders, the street culture

4 6

leaders, etc . The Party cadre must make an in-depth

study of his are a.acqui .ri.n g knowledge -:of its history

and the people . Party cadre appear to be just another

brother or sister, not revealing his political identity

at first,. The cadre must be good at making friends

and making people answer questions for themselves in

general conversation . After the cadre makes a few

friends on the block he then picks one or two persons

to politically groom . The cadre checks to see if the

block has a block committee . If it does, then his

tactic will be to politicize the existing committee, developing eventually Party cadre in the committee . If a block committee doesn't exist, then~he can proceed

to advance to a higher level of organization . He can

build an African Peoples' Block Committee . The Party

organizer can explain that the APP is trying to build

a community congress based upon block committees . Coffee

clutches can be held in people's houses in the block to

make the people familiar with aspects of the Party pro-

gram . Then, after consolidating the block association,

Party cadre can then recruit block committee members into

the APP . Before bringing block people into the Party,

the cadre should have studied them for at least three

months and would take them through vigorous orientation

during political education/discussion . Once a person is

accepted in a community (block) cell his role then is to :

i . : Greate another°Party :'cell'..on~:~.the block :

2 .. pevelop a Party cell on'his job .

Join a communitya- ganization and develop a Party cell inside the organization .

4 .. Bu i ld a Party cell among his friends and associates (Social cell) .

Organization affects the basic mass structure : the

family . Having influence on the black family is . . . The`

family is the most influential local institution around which mass activity is carried, The family is the basic unit of cultural values . It is the perpetrator of

informal law, morals, political ide.-ology . and social ha-

bits .

This type of organization is very important to the

south . Community congresses will take years to fully

develop :

To build the Party that is necessary to~take power

and revolutionize society, the members of the Party

themselves must undergo rapid political development

into a new people . The only means available to them to

acfiieve this is also the best means, i .e . the method of

constant struggle, constant criticism and constant

transformation, utilizing the energy created by t:he dy-

namics of error to advance the political maturity of the

organization, getting rid of every vestige of liberalism,

opportunism, sectarianism, adventurism, egoism, and every

4 8

tendency towards "miiltarism" o~ th;e separation of m-ilitary from political struggle .

The ideological struggle against a tendencies and against remnants of~these tendencies

in . every. member removes political education from the

sphere of abstract generalizations about other~revolu-

tions which come so easily, to intellectual revolution-

areas, lt . compels the revolutionary organization . to

develop its own revolutionary concepts from its concrete

experiences and practices in Party building,~internally 12 and in `elation to the masses and other organizations .

It is very .important that we also understand that

our party is a muTti-level party . As , we develop as a

party and cadre become professional organizers, they

will be reassigned to different areas and assignments .

Many will be phased out to get the party resources a,nd

information which means they will be part of the intel-

lig`ence section and other sections of the party .

"From the outset, any Black Liberation Party in

America, if it is to be successfu l, must apply both the

tactics of above and below . Meaning it must work on all

fronts . It must be both above and below ground party .

It's network must consist of an underground machine,

cadre, battery, three times larger than the above ground .

Over 1/3 to 1/,2 of its membership must remain anonymous,

remaining in fronts with no direct appearance of sup-

4 9

porting the party whatsoever . . :But in order to mo~ilize~

our people, the party must be .legal from its beginning,

fight for legality and must be public, spreading the ~ ~, ` , doctrine of Black lnternatfonalis'm .

METHODS OF BUILDING THE BLACK UNITED OR LIBERATION

FRONT

Point Ten of our program calls for a Black liberation

front . The reason the APP calls for the establishment

of the front is the, more unity in the Black communi ty

against the colonial oppressor the better : Ideal- l,y,_ - in

nationalist democratic revolutions the total nation

sf niggles f-or independence ; therefore the united or

1 i be ration-front _i s the overt form of organ izat ion _that

leads the struggle . The revolutionary people's party

which is the political and military hard core is within

the front . The 'f,ront protects the hard core from being

flu~sh.ed our . It gives them a broad base . The formation

of 'the united front is, not the setting up of a new mass

organization with its own individual membership . The

basic organizational form is the committee of action elec-

ted .from their existing organizations where these support

the struggle or from militant groups within these organ-

izations and from unorganized brothers and sisters . All

these organizational forms of~the united front must be

suited to the special concrete conditions of each 'indi-

vidual struggle and locality . Any attempt to force the united front within the s.trait~jacket oi` preconceived perfect plans is certain to defeat its purpose . The

essential feature of the united front is that it unites

hitherto separated groups for a joint struggle which

would otherwise be more difficult or impossible .

Within such united front activities, the efforts of the

APP must not, under any circumstances, be that of trying

to secure a mechanical monopoly of . leadership, but

on strengthening and dveloping the honest, militant

non-Party leading cadres . When developing methods of

creating a Black united front in a city, the organizer

must first ask the questions, why is there disunity? Who

and what groups ,a re the main reasons for disunity?

Has there ever been unity in the community before, and

if so, why isn't there now?

The organizer whouid then do a detailed study of all

organizations and personalities who calim to represent

our people . Study their strengths and weaknesses ., The

organizer whould gather enough information on the people

involved in the movement that he knows them better than

they know themselves . This ~s important because the organizer will have to be very flexible and wil have to "ply by ear'" how to move people who have different moti-

vations, psychological make-ups, economic interests,

and political ties to come together as one organized unit

5 1

After surveying the community, finding out who are the

recognized and unrecognized leaders, the organizer should

seek out the neutral group or force in the community :

He should attempt to work through the neutral force :

The neutral force must have street culture respect that is -respect of reef people . This is very important if the organizer is going to create a united front that

has firm "live" roots among the people . They who are

never seen, heard, but only felt . If the word goes out

to '!f r.eeze:" someth i ng because it's jive, then i t will be

frozen in every community . You have more leader ,

leaders who are unrecognized by the mass media, but are

respected by the people in .the community because 'of

their commitment, to the community over the years . If

these brothers put on a freeze on something, the whole

community will clam up .

The organizer should identify with these brothers

and explain to them what he is trying to do . The: or-

ganizer will usually find that these street,leade:rs can

give him a wealth of information on anyone in the com-

munity, right down to their own personal life and habits .

There are two ways to build a united front . One is from

above and the other is from below . Organizing from

above is the gathering together the . recognize~d leaders

and organizatinns~and appealing to them on some issue

which they can unite on and basically rely on them to make up the basfis of the front-. The front organizel from above will appear _to have a broad base but it's base won't have "live" roots in the community .

The other is organizing from below which will take at least nine (g) months to a year to establish .

Through the neutral force and/or street force, coalitions and-alliances should be established with other community groups . These coalitions and alliances don`t have to be on a formal basis . What is needed is rap sessions or work sessions . The other is a ce~ntraT issue around which the black community in general can unite . United fronts emerge around some kind of emergency .

In order to know how to properly organize, cadre must have a general and overall analysis of our developing national democratic revolution .

FOOTNOTES

Grace Boggs, The Black Revolution In America, pgs : 4-5

2 ;l, b 5 . _~ d c , p .

3 Kwame Nkrumah, Class Struggle In Africa, p . 38 4 Ben Davis,"The Path of Negro liberation" B lack Nation_[n America, p . 390

5 V .I . Lenin, Two Tacticsp . of Social Democracy In the Democratic Revo-lotion, 13

6 James Boggs, Mani festo For A Black Revolutionar Party; P " 32

7 Mao Tse Tung, Selected Works, Vo,l . I, p . 306

8 Mao Tse lung, On The Correct Handling of C ontradic - tion-s Among The,Peo~ e, pgs . 2,

9 James Boggs, Op C it ., p . 33

i0 The Formation of A National Centralized Black liberation Party, p . 3

Black Guard Study Manual No . . ], . p . 4

12 James ~ Grace Boggs, The Awesome Responsibility of Revolutionary Leadership, pgs . 13. X14. ' . 13 The Formation of A National Centralized Bl<~ck liberation Party, p . 1 5 4

CULTURAL REVOLUTION (N THE SIXTIES

The mass protest era of our struggle started on

February, 1960, when four Black students staged a sit

~in in Greensboro, N .C . Within weeks, Black students throughout the south were demonstrating against public aspects of segregation . A spontaneous movement began to form as demonstrations picked up in numbers, locale, and impact . In order to better coordinate the student movement, a student leadership conference was called by SCLC on Easter weekend, April 15, 1960, organized largely from the efforts of Mrs . Elta Baker who identi- fled strongly with the young Black students . The late

Dr . King wanted the students to become the youth wing

,of the SCLC, but~_the students wanted to be independent acrd formed their own organization :

They called their organization SNCC, the Student

No-Violent Coordinating Committee . As the sit-in movement progressed and the American press felt it was no longer a peice of "sensational" news, SNCC began to face problems of how to wage a mass protracted struggle against Jim Crow .

In . l96l , CORE - The Congress of Racial Equality - recently reorganized, decided to test federal regualtions of discrimination in public interstate transportation . 5 5

They started the Freedom Rides, but CORE, because~of the lack of finance and other th .i~~rgs, decided to abandon the freedom rides after a bus wes ::burned in Alabama .

A group of SNCC students decided to leave college to . finish the Freedom Rides . Other students joined in and

Freedom Rides were taken to all parts of the South :

Robert F . Williams, then president of Manroe, N .C .

N .A .A .C .P ., who had organized the Black self-defense guards to protect the Black community against raids by the KKK in 1957, called on help from the Freedom

Riders to test nonviolence in Monroe and other.ssto~ t~elp defend the Black communityfrom racist attacks .

White violence erupted in Monr .oe, the white national guard was called in, and a national white power kidnapping conspiracy was trumped up o-n Rob with the word

"Shoot to Kill ." What resulted was Robert Willlams being forced into exile in Cuba .

As the summer and fall went on, SNCC held another conference and decided to send a fulltime staff of field secretaries into the Black Belt communities of the

South to mobilize poor Blacks for voting rights and mass desegregation . (t was also decided to continue the sit-

ins among students .

An interesting development occurred at Central State

College ; a Negro college in~Wilberforce, Ohio in the fall of 1961 . Black students who had been involved in 5 6

sit-ins, Freedom Rides, around Robert Williams, Black nationalist organizations and also the Nation of lslam~, began- to discuss what they felt were some shortcomings witfiin the movement . They first formed a political action group called Challenge . The role of Challenge was to bring a Black political awareness on campus and' to try to get tTie students involved in the movement .

As members,of Challenge grew politically by confrontations with the college's administration and continued i.nvolve- ment .i n the movement, they decided to form a student political party that would attempt to seize control of the student government and through student government it felt it could rechannel the .student body's values .

Thus unnoticed, Black students on a , small Negro college campus began to form the beginnings of a revolutionary

Black nationalist movement and began to formulate ideas

~of creating a mass Black Cultural Revolution .

Some of these students began intensive study of

Black History ; some of their ideological leaders were

Marcus Garvey, Robert Williams, Harold Cruse, the

Honroable Elijah Muhammad,~Malcolm X, and Dr . DuBois .

1862 saw the SNGC and King attempt to desegregate

Albany, Georgia in an all-ou. t effort at mass community mobilization which failed . Also, the Nation of Islam began to rise in prominence~as its major speaker, Malcolm

X became the fiery figure of the protest era . The attack 5 7

on the Muslims in Los Angeles brought nation-wide . attention on the "Nation" as~the world awaited the reaction of retaliation .

As these Black student revolutionaries began to formulate ideas for their party, some decided to leave school and go into northern Black communities and organize like .SNCC did in southern communities, After some debate a name was chosen for their Black student party ; it was called the RAM party, .later to become known as the

Revolutionary Action Movement . RAM won the student elections at Central State, with its whole slate gaining control of student government . That was in May of 1962 .

Being Black or Black-minded wasn't too popular then and RAM organizers found that they did not get support, especially financially, the way SNCC did . SNCC during this time was engaged in full community organization in southwest Georgia . After careful deliberation in the fail of 1962, the organizers who had left school or gore into communities realized that they would have to create a revolutionary Black nationalist movement from peanuts, from their own resources which were very limited .

The students decided that because conditions weren't ripe they would "bore in", work -within existing organizations especially SNCC, CORE and sometimes NAACP, pushing them

"as far a .s fas,t as possible" until conditions had been

set that a new movement and mass organization could be S8

formed ; they decided to work quietly, forming cells or units that would emerge when the Black nationalist climate had been set . These young B1'ack nationalist students would try to attend every SNCC conference they could to "pull costs" witn brothers and sisters within

SNGC and other groups over to the practice of self- defense and revolutionary Black nationalism .

1963 produced the second phase of the protest era .

By Spring through efforts of SNGC and SCLC organizers, various southern cities were seething with protest revolt .

The turning point of mass Black consciousness and for the protest movement came during the "spring non-violent offensive" in Birmingham, Alabama . Dr . Martin Luther

King, who had become the symbol of the direct action nonviolent struggle through the efforts of SCLC and SNCC organizers pushed Birmingham to the brink . The honkies bringing out dogs, tanks, water hoses on women and children was too much for the African-Americans to stomach . Within months mass demonstrations had occurred all over the South .

In Philadelphia on May 27, an interesting event occurred, but for a large part went unnoticed . Black organizers were attacked on a school construction site, demanding jobs for Black workers ledwby the local NAACP .

As the struggle went on into the week, thousands of

Black workers and unemployed were mobilized,~being the

5 9

first mass direct action demonstration in the lVort'h of

the era . A group named~RA, trad organized the demon-

stration using the NAACP as a front organization . Within

weeks, the mass demonstrations had spread from southern

(regional) to national with demonstrations in Brooklyn,

Boston, Detroit and Chicago . v

As a result of . the mass activism in the North and

South, a conference was held in August, 1963 called the

"Black Vanguard" conference . The students discussed

the forthcoming March on Washington and how it would

be compromised, and began formulating ideas of in-

volving brothers from the street.i n the forefront of the

movement . They decFded to continue nationalist activism

in the North, slowly building a nationalist conscious-

ness .

1963 was climaxed by the assassination of Medgar

~Evera, Mississippi leader, the bombing of six Black

cFiildreen while attending Sunday Schoo) in Birmingham,

Alabama .

In the fall of 1963 the Grssroots Conference was

called in Detroit, calling together grassroots leaders

of the then civil rights movement . The Grassroots

Conference took a Black nationalist stand, supporting the

Freedom Now Party, an all-Black party organized during

the March on " Washington . Then Brother Malcoim X was

expelled from the Nation of Islam and began to formulate 6 0

his own ideas . . Twostudent movements had formulated, one integrated, southern based organized mainly through

SNCC, a,nd the other northern-based, revolutionary Black nationalist, . represented largely through, the organizing efforts of RAM .

As RAM began to recruit brothers and sisters from the street, it decided it couldn't just reamin a student group or movement, but had to expand in o~rganlzation, scope and focus as a Revolutionary Black Nationalist movement .

As elder brothers began to exchange their experiences with the students, RAM became more political and

internationalist, that is, Black Internationalist in approach .

1964 can be seen as the year of transition of the protest era . It was the transition from non-violent protest to violent protest ; from regional, national, civil rights orientation to national, international human

rights orientation .

Malcolm X's break from the Nation of Islam can be

seen as the major force in the development of this

transition : Malcolm first organized the Muslim Mosque,

Inc ., in March, then the OAHU (organization of Afro-

American Unity) in June and made several trips to Africa .

Within this period several developments were occurring .

One was the theoretical analysis o,f February 1964 by

6 1

Robert F . Williams that African-Americans could win a

revolution in America . ~This .thesis gave a potent ideo-

logical weapon to the African-Amer.i can struggle and had

the effect of David Walker's Appeal of 1829. in many

circles . As the year progressed, many developments

occurred .

As 19.64 progressed, a group of Black students at

Fisk University formed a Black nationalist student

movement called ASM, the Afro-American Student Move

ment . ASM called the lst National Afro-American Student

Conference on Black Nationalism on May 1st to 3rd, 1964

held in Nashville .

Close to the time of the May lst conference, the

Nashville Student Movement of which some ASM members

were part, started mass demonstrations which resulted

in bringing King to Nashville in which he blasted the

,conference in : his speech .

` Prior to the conference, ASM organizers went to

t17e annual SNCC. spring conference to recruit partici-

pants and to get SNCC to turn to a Black nationalist

outlook and t,o identify more closely with Africa and

Brother Malcolm X .

The convening of ,the ls .t National Afro-American

Student Conference on Black Nationalism held May lst

to 4th in Nashville, Tenn .,~was the ideological cata

lyst that eventually shifted the civil rights movement into the Black Power movement . Auring the summer months, ftAM organizers through the agreement of John

Lewis, then chairman of SN-CC, wentinto Mississippi to work with SNCC . RAM organizers soon came into conflict with white SNCC workers, who opposed an all-Black

force and the practice of self-defense ; soon, RAM began a movement to force whites out of SNCC .

Brother t)on Freeman, in his article "Black Youth and

Afro-American Liberation'' in the Fa11, 1864 edition of Black America describes the conference: "May

1-3, 1964, the Afro-American Student Movement representing young Nationalist groups and tendencies throughout the

North and South, convened in Nashville, Tennessee, to

form a Black Nationalist Youth Movement . . .The impotence of traditional or "bourgeois" nationalism was examined .

The delegat°s agreed that the traditional nationalist

approach of rhetoric rather than action was ineffectual

because it posed no pragmatic alternative to "bourgeois

reformist" civil rights activities . . .Nationalist

demands for an autonomous Black American .economy were

termed bourgeois due to failure to differentiate such an

economy from capitalism and unfeasible because of the

white and Jewish capitalists' intention to perpetuate

"suburban colonialism" - their exploitation of Black

Ghettos . The consensus was that Afro-Americans must

control their neighborhoods, but the realization of this 6 3

aim necessitates, in Rev : Albert~Cleage's terms, a

"strategy of chaos" involving more devastating civil disobedience than the kind undertaken by the established reformist groups ."

The participants supported Minister Malcolm (~f) Shabazz°s contention that it is erroneous to define

Afro-America's fight as "civil rights" and protest exclusively in Congress ; instead, we should utilize the UN Declaration on Human Rights and petition in the

UnHted Nations for ''human rights ."

"The young nationalist insisted that prerequisite to a genuine Black Revolution is a fundamental "Cultural

Revolution" - "Re-African3zation of Black People in

America ." "Re-Africanization" repudiates decadent bourgeois, materialistic values and the "Rat race" or

"oathological" egoism and individualism inherent in

American society . It embraces a humanism derivative to the African heritage which exalts authentic, Intel lectual, and spiri-tual development and "Communalism", or cooperation rather than exploitation . "Re-Africanization is preferable to American materialism as a source of cultural values . Afro-Americans must know their authentic

~nistory in . Africa and America in order to demolish the

"psychological rape" or inferiority instilled by American

''indoctrination ." The Afro-American's self-,image and the conception must be revolutionized to foster a collective 6 4 ethnic identity" as a unique Black people before .Black~

Nationalism can emerge triumphant . . .The assembled nationalists asserted that young nationalists are the vanguard of a Black Revolution in America, but they must create l) an organizational apparatus to "translate"

Nationalist ideology into effective action ; this requires

Black financing to insure Black control ; 2) dedicated, disciplined, and decisive youth cadres willing to make the supreme sacrifices to. build and sustain .a dynamic

Nationalist Moveme.nt ."

The conference stimulated nationalist cells in the

North and polarized the contradictions between white and Black field workers within SNCC . The conference

sent organizers into Mississippi to~work with SNCC and to begin to build self-defense units . Greenwood, Miss, became a base for revolutionary Black nationalist activity

~as the organizers worked with the Black field workers bringing them over to the cause of Black nationalism,

rather than the goal of integration . A showdown occurred

in Greenville, Miss in May at the Mississippi SNCC staff meeting . Tfie brothers from the field staff revolted against the SNCC hierarchy then represented by Bob

Moses and the white radicals . By the next morning the

brothers"- Black nationalism had been drained from them

by their white female co-workers . . This event and many

similar ones are what kept SNCC from turning Black 6 5

Nationalist much sooner . Brother Roland Spellings in his "The Long, Hot Summet- "- in the Fa11 edition of

Black America , 1964, . .gives a vivid description of the era .

RAM-Revolutionary Action Movement, had developed into a national movement by '64, electing Robert F .

Williams as its international Chairman . The national formation of RAM gave Robert F . Williams for the first time since his exile, an organization and propaganda arm on the American mainland in which fie could transmit his ideas . Mal,colm X, while not a public member of RAM, was RAM ° s secret public relations mass spokesman whose role was to propagandize RAM's line and open up avenue$ for ,the movement while the movement concen- t.rated on organizing underground, independent small, tightly-knit . cells of armed self-defense units capable of moving in times of community crisis . RAM described itself as the vanguard movement, highly disciplined and centralized through common ideology, thought and action .

While the movement had some organizational form , it considered itself the Black guerilla force in America, or Black Liberation Front . Leaders of the movement weren't known . Only a Field Chairman was known, something like the Minutemec .

As a RAM propagandist, brother Malcolm's political perspective became most profound in the period from April 6 6

to June 1964 . During this time he emphasized the internationalization of our cause, f creating Afro-

American-African (Pan-African) Unity, guerilla warfare, organization of rifle clubs, economic and political control' of the Black community (Black Nationalism= Black Power).

Many persons have confused what Brother Malcolm was all about since his death . Very few have explored his organizational objectives . Since the author was one of Matcolm's aides, he shall attempt to~give a brief analysis of what Malcolm was trying to do . One of the main things Malcolm was trying to do was to bridge the gap between bourgeois reform and Black nationalism . Malcolm understood dialectics from common sense and was planning a strategy of action for Black Nation- alists . He was a PevoTutionary Nationalist . Malcolm believed that if Black Nationalists joined the civil rights movement they would eventually take it over and transform it into a revolution .

Malcolm saw great similarities between the Algerian situation and ours . Upon returning from hi.s first trip to Africa, Malcolm called for a Black United Front .

A Black United Front was his constant theme and objective .

He often said that the Afro-American couldn't get any outside support because different nations didn't know what group to support ; therefore, a United Front was necessary .

6 7

To move in this direction he formed the Organization

of Af ro-Amer i can Un i ty ("OAAU~'. P"o l i t i cal l y he wanted to

form a Black Nationalist political party, This party

was to come out of a conference . .which never came off .

The QAAU program hints at this direction . "The Organ-

ization of Afro-American Unity will organize the Afro-'

American community block by block to make the community

aware of its power and potential ; we will start immediately

a voter registration dirve to make every unregistered

voter to the Afro-American community an independent

voter ; we propose to support and/or organize political

clubs to run independ-ent candidates for office . . ."

Malcolm planned through the Black Nationalist

party to provide a political alternative for Black

people . . .Self-defense was a major part of Malcolm's

program . He later had to de-emphasize it b"e cause too

'many brothers started "packing" (carrying) guns and

getting busted. In the Spring and Summer of '64

Malcolm was developing a Black Studies program and was

demanding community control of schools . "A first step

in the program to end the existing system of racist

education is to demand that the ten percent of the

schools the Board of Education will include in its plan

to be turned over to and run by the Afro-American com-

munity . We want Afro-American principals to, head these

schools . We want Afro-American teachers in these schools .

6 8

We want textbooks written by Afr'o-Amer~cans that are

acceptable to us to be used in these schools . . .We .must

establish all over the country schools of our own to

train our children to become scientists and mathematicians .

We must realize the need for adult education and for~job

retraining programs that will emphasize a changing society

in which automation plays the key role : .,"

Malcolm also planned to establish a Black brain

trust . He asked college students to do research and

to-send the research papers to him . His description

of Black Nationalism as Black control of B ack communities

was a short-range plan . He said he would hold out on

a long-range plan because. Afro-Americans were not yet

ready to accept a long-range plan . On culture Malcolm

envisioned a cultural revolution: "We must .recapture our

heritage and our identity if we arE: ever to liberate

ourselves from the bonds of white supremacy . We must

launch a cultural revolution to unbrainwash an entire

people . Our cultural revolution must be the means of

bringing us closer to our African brothers and sisters .

It must being in the community and be based on community

participation :' Malcolm had in mind of going into

the civil rights movement, taking it, over and eventually

forming a national liberation front patterned after the

FLN in Algeria and the N't.F in Vietnam . This was to happen

as the struggle was being internationalized . These are

some of Malcolm's basic plans . Malcolm was planning to

train guerillas and ryas a student of guerilla warfare .

Though many felt that Malcolm had changed his views,

he hadn't ; he only changed his tactics ; Malcolm told

this writer that he had made certain public statements

in order to get certain things done intern a-tionally ; it

was a matter of tactics and notfiing else . The overall

ramifications of Maleolm's plan are toa broad for this

essay . I hope to deal with them at some future date .

Brother Malik's message was one of unity of African

peoples throughout the world to unite against the

universal stavemaster, the European and the European-

American and to use any means necessary to obtain wmrld

Black liberation .

In October of 1964, ASM sponsored another student

conference but this time the conference was much more

political . The purpose of the conference which was

called the Black Revolution's Relationship to the

Bandung World, was to consolidate the efforts of the

May 1st conference participants and to expand on its

13 points . An example of the political trend can be

analyzed from some of the conference's content . The

conference dealt with such subjects as : "What the World

Revolution means to Black America,' ."Plight of the

Qppressed Peoples,'' "The Birth of .the New World", "Black

Youth", "What is to Be Done" . In . ;the session "Black Youth :

Vanguard of . a New World",~ which was later republished 7a

under the title of "Black Youth Manifesto", the speaker outlined a detailed and ,step for step program of how to establish Black .national~ist groups on Negro college campuses and would cause a cultural revolution, infil- trating Negro fraternities and sororities and taking over student government . The speaker said that the main role of these groups would be to .train Black nationalist cadres to go back into their local communities, setting up Black institutes or liberation schools that would train junior high ahd high school youth in the ideology of Black internationalism . The main role of the Black re-education movement, the Black cultural revolution, was to organize Black youth into apolitical army that would mobilize and prepare the Black natioh for self-determination, national independence and massive collective self- defense . A progress report on tfi.e May lst conference's l.3 ,points was made . The Ma .y 1st conference's 13 points we re

1 . Development of a permanent underground secretariat to carry out plans .

2 . To push the bourgeois reformist as far "up tempo" as fast as possible, while at the same time laying a base for an underground movement .

3 .' The conference elects Robert F . Williams as

leader in exile . 71

5 . Conference endorses moves towards African-Afro-

American solidarity, to push for the restoration of the revolutionary spirit to " Pan Africanism .

6 . Conference philosophy is Pan African Socialism to be popularly known as Black Internationalism .

7 . Conference to establish internal bulletin .

8 . Conference endorses the construction of a Pan

African Student Conference to become the first Black

Internationale .

9 " Secretariat to contact all student liberation organizations around the world to develop a national organ

10 . Conference to develop a national organ .

11 . Conference to organize Black Nation to charge

U .S . Imperialism of having comcaitted the crime of

Genocide against it before the United Nations .

12 . Secretariat to develop program for revolutionary

Black nationalists .

13 . Conference to develop two revolutionary 5 centers .

These Black Student conferences and their proposals were advanced in many respects and provided guidelines for the later to develop Black Power Movement .

The year 1865 brought the "Statue of Liberty" bomb plot frame up, the assassination of Brother : .

Malcolm X, and the firing of Dcn Freeman, a Cleveland,

Ohio schoolteacher Erom his job _because he was a Black

7 2

Nationalist . Two significant developments in 1965 were

the emergence of Le Roi Jones and- .the Black Arts .Move-

menu and the Watts, Los Angeles rebellion . In August

of 1965 came the turning point, or third phase, of the

protest era, the Watts rebellion . The Los Angeles

uprising was the signal of a transition between non- violent and violent protest . The Los Angeles rebellio n was a mass revolt against police brutality (the police

are the occupation troops, the colonial overseers of

a c,ap.tive colony) . The Watts rebellion was the first

major mass violent rebellion having been part of a move-

ment . It was a colonial uprising against domestic (in-

ternal) colonialism . The ,Los Angeles rebellion was one

of the first stages of urban guerrilla warfare and the

call of the Watts freedom fighters, "Burn, Baby, Burn"

still rings throughout the world . While Dr . King was

trying to desegregate part of lily-white Cicero Chicago,'

foF~ming in New York around Le Roi Jones was a Black Arts

movement which consisted of Black poets, artists, writers,

musicians and actors, who began to theorize of how to

make Black Arts meaningful to Black people . Several

cultural workshops and conferences were held in which line

a Black Cultural Revolution began to be formulated .

Brother Le Roi Jones began to take Black Art~into the

streets, instilling Black pride and self-respect . From

his travels and speeches on Black campuses brother Roi

7 3

spread the philosophy of Black nationalism and the

Black cultural revolution in circles where it had never

penetrated before . In 19.66 Brother Le itoi returned to

has hometown of Newark, N .J ., where is he presently

working for B ack Community Control .'

During 1965 SNCC began discussing how to form a

Black student movement . NSM began to organize Afro-

American student groups of Black students on white

campuses in the North while SNCC again began to focus

on -Black students in the South . Another deveiopment

of great significance was the development of the

Deacons for Defense, a Black armed se1f-defense group in

the South . Lerning from the lessons of the Mississippi

Freedom Democratic Party, SNCC decided to organize an

all-Black political party in Alabama after the Selma,

Ala ., march . SNCC had been going tl-frough internal re-

orientation resulting from John :Lewis' trip to Africa .

Ahso, a group of Black students working in Atlanta

polarized the contradictions within SNCC between white

and Black workers ; the confrontations sometimes came

close to gun battles . These students served~as a catalyst

of pushing SNCC towards the Black Power position . These

students were from the now infamous Atlanta Project which

led in demonstrations agains.t .the draft in 1966 and

developed the Black consciousness movement within SNCC .

In their position paper they stated, "In attempting to 7 4

analyze where the movement is going, certain questions

have arisen as to tfie future roles played by white per-

sonnet In order to make this issue clearer, we have written a few paragraphs, stemming from our observations and experiences, which serve as a preview to a broader

study on the subject . . .The answers to these questions lead us to believe that the form of white participation, as practiced in the past, is now obsolete . Some of these

reasons are as follows:

. .The inabilit y of whites to relate to the cultural aspects of Black society ; attitudes . that whites, conscious-

ly or unconsciously, bring to Black communities a-bout themselves (western superiority) and about Black people (paternalism) ; inability to shatter white- sponsored community myths of Black inferiority and self-negation ; inability to combat v:he views of the

Black community that white organizers being "whites, corr- tr`ol Black organizers as puppets ; insensitivity of both

Black and white workers towards the hostility of the

Black community on the issue of interracial "relationships"

(sex) ; the inwillingness of whites to deal with the roots of racism which lie within the white community ; whites though individually "liberal" are symbols of oppression to the Black community due to the collective power that whites have over~Black l.ives . . .ln an attempt to find a solution to our dilemma . . .we propose that our organization 7 5

(SNCC) should be Black staffed, Black controlled . and Black financed . We do not want to fall into a similar dilemms that other civil rights organizations have fallen . (f we continue to rely upon white financial support we will find ourselves entwined in the tentacles of the white power complex that controls this country .

It is also important that a Black organization (devoid of cultism) be projected to our people so that it can be demonstrated that such organizations are viabl-e : . .

Toa long have we allowed white people to interpret the importance and meaning of the cultural aspects of our society . We have allowed them to tell us what was good about our Afro-American music, art and literature . How many Black critics do we have on the "jazz"scene? How can a white person who is not part of~ the Black psyche

(except in the oppressor's role) interpret the meaning of the blues to us who are manifestations of the songs

_themselves? . . .A thorough examination must be made by

Black Peopd.e concerning the contributions we have' made in shaping this country . if this re-examina/re-evaluation is not made, and Black people are not given their proper and ude respect, then the antagonism and contradictions are going to become more and more glaring, more and more 6 intense until a national explosion may result . . ."

By Spring of 1966 SNCC was internally at war, the

Black nationalists vs . the Black leftists who had trad-

7 6

itionally controlled SNCC's policy since its formation .

As quiet as it's kept, the leadership that did emerge

was a compromise .

Brother Stokely Carmichael became chairman of SNCG

in 1966 . During the Meredith March in Mississippi,

Willie Ricks, A SNCC field worker raised the cry of

"Black Power' . The next night Stokely raised it in a mass

rally . 1966 became the year the Black Power movement

was born on a mass scale . Black nationalist cells of

student began to emerge and enlarge as the movement

took on mass proportions . Even SNCC, the catalyst

for the movement, was still being pressured from within

and from the outside fo dp so . In New York a Black Panther

Party formed to work in unity with the Lowndes County

Freedom organization, but because of internal friction

among the organizers and heavy infiltration by the

intelligence section of the N .Y .Police Department, it '

soon became defunct . A major development of the N .Y .

Black Panther Prty was that it had made contact with . youth

and a youth gang called "The Five Percenters" who first

formed the Black Panther Athletic and Social~Club and

later transformed themselves into Black Guards . The

Black Guards said," . . .in order for the Black Cultural

Revolution to be effective, it must be political . The

Cultural Revolution must give our people a new political

and economic philosophy that is beneficial to them before

7 7

the black nation wilt be able to wage a successful 7 campaign for liberat.ion ." From the Black Guards'

material we gef . . ."Why is the Cu ltural Revolution

Necessary?"

Because our people having been brainwashed, forced

to adopt`-the oppressor's ways and culture are backward

and must be re-educated that their present ways are

harmful to their existence and the struggle for national

liberation and independence .

" . .The purpose of a black cultural revolution is

to destroy the conditioned white oppressive mores,

attitudes, ways, customs, philosohies, habits which the

oppressor has taught and trained us to have . !n other

words, to lose + our "negro" minds . This means establishing

on a mass scale a new revolutonary culture . . .The cultura 1

revolution is a revolution of one's values and values

determine one's actions . The reason why the Black nation

is not prepared for political revolution is because

its cultural values are tied to the oppressor's system .

Once Black America's cultural values are remade to

benefit Black people, we will be prepared for liberat ion .

A cultural revolution is a reconstruction of a people 's

culture or way of life, occurring in a short span of

time very rapidly to move a people to a given objective .

The black cultural revolution is the reconstruction of

the culture of Black America to make it relate to the

7 8

world black revolution . This means all schools in

the black community must move the Black nation to

cultural revolution, Black survival and Black Victory .

What does a cultural revolution change? It changes the

values of a people, the way they think, act and react

to everything ; changes the social habits of a people

(informal mores) ; changes the people's relationship

to one another ; heavily influences the family structure

of a people ; changes the dress and . language of a

people (formal and informal) ; changes the religion of

philosophy of a people ; changes the political and economic

and cultural ideology of a people . . .A cultural revolution

brings a new :

'1 . Historical interpretation _ clear analysis,

forms a new historical continuity ; causes a re-evaluation

of self, nation and others .

2 . Political - presents a political system which

the nation has. power ; in our historical experience

living under democracy has produced Bath, misery, and

suffering for our colonialized nation, therefore . the

concept of a black people ; .s dictatorship of the new society

is the political system that guarantees that we will not

be at the mercy of a racist or bourgeois element of the "

population.

3 . Economic - the cultural revolution brings forth a new

economic system that is beneficial to the black nation .

7 9

When the blackman was kidnapped by the slave system and

its developing counterpart, capitalism, the white man

was living under a feudalist system ; the merchant class,

a lave traders and coastal towns of Europe became rich

from the slave trade and the slave system that produced

cotton for the European textile industry was one of the

first industries for the new white economic system known

as capitalism . As a capitalist class began to develop,

they wanted to gain control over the U .S ., then in

control by the slave owner class . The slave system was

the economic heart of America for some three hundred

years . Once the merchants (middle men) became rich

from their textile industry in the~North and began in-

vesting in other fields off the profits he got from the

sweat and blood of our forced free labor, he decided that

the slave system was of no more use to him so he began':

tp challenge the slave owners for. power over the country .

When he saw that he couldn' .t get control peacefully,

he fought and defeated the slave owner class and~used you

and me as a piece of political propaganda saying the

Civil War was over us to trick the world into believing

he was a humanitarian and really had our interests at heart

The Civil War was a capitalist revolution The capitalist

class came to power . We have lived over BOO years under

the capitalist system in America . Our plight is most the

same as it was under slavery . The capitalists betrayed 8 0

us at the hands of the KKK when they withdrew the Union

troops in 1878 from the~South. : Auring the Civil War and early days ofi Reconstruction they 'promised us 40 . acres and a mule, but reneged on their promise because they saw that giving the blackman land would give him power and would cause an agrarian revolution in which we would form a communalist system in which the people had control of the economy . The cultural revolution presents the concept of Black Socialism or African communalism (UJAMAA) where black people working together for the benefit of the whole black nation and not for the benefit of a few greedy uncle toms, control the economy of the community .

~4 . Social and Cultural - the cultural revolution changes the social life of a nation . It influences the family structure giving the black family a purpose

.and a new direction that will help the nation come to power . The cultural revolution changes all aspects of the people's culture making it revolutionary, making it serve the interest of the world black revolution ; for

instance, in the case of African-American singers and musicians, they would serve to heighten the people's 8 nationalist consciousness ."

LeRoi Jones in his book Black Music said, !! . .The slave ship destroyed a great many . forma1 art traditions of the Black man . The white man enforced such cultural

rape . A 'Cultureless' people is a people without a

memory . No history . This is~ the . best state for slaves

to be objects, just like the rest of massa's possessions .

The breakdown of Black cultural tradition meant

finally the destruction of most formal art and social

tradition . Including the breakdown of the black pre-

American religious forms . Forcibly so, Christianity

replaced African religions as the outlet for spirit

worship . And Christian forms were traded, consciously,

for their won . Christian forms were emphasized under

threat of death . What resulted was Afro-Christian

forms, These are forms which persist today .

The stripping away, gradual embracing of mixed

Afro-Christian, Afro-American forms~is an initial

reference to the cultural philosophy of Blackpeople, y Black Art ." Brother LeRoi Jones further explains

.Black Power in his article, "The Need for a Cultural

Base to Civil Rights and Black Power Movements" in his

book, The Black Power Revolt, " . . .Black Power !s nation-

alization . Absolute control of resources beneficial to

a national . group . . .Black Power cannot be complete unless

it is the total reflection of black people . Black powers

must be spiritually, emotionally and historically in tune

with black people, as welt as serving their economic and

political ends . To be absoTutely .i n tube, the seekers

of Black power must know what it is they seek . They must

8 2

what is this power culture alternative through wh,i.ch

they bring to focus the .world's energies . They must

have an understanding and grounding in the cultural

consciousness of the nations they seek to bring to

power . . .to provide the alternative, the new, the needed

strength for this nation, they must proceed by utilizing

the complete cultural consciousness of this black

nation's people . We should not cry black power unless

we know what that signifies . We .must know full well

what it is we are replacing white power with, in all its

implications . We are replacing not only a white sheriff

for the values that sheriff carries with him are, in

fact, an extension of the white culture . That black

sheriff had better be an extension ~of black culture,

or there is No Change : . . .q culturally aware black

politics would wse ail the symbols of the culture, all

the keys and images out of the black past, out of the

b,~ack present, to gather the people with a past clear

hack to the beginning of the planet, . channeling the

roaring energies of black to revive black power .~. .A

cultural base, a black base, is the completeness the

Black power movement must have . . .The teaching of Black

History (African and African-Americans would put our

people absolutely in touch with themselves as a nation,

and with the reality of their situation. . You want them

to move to take power, they must know they can deserve

this power . . .Black Power movements not grounded ~n

Black culture cannot move beyond .the boundaries of Western

thought ."

Brother Harold Cruse in his book 'Rebellion or

Revolution presents the same theme, "A truly radical

black program for social change in America must include

the elements of economics, politics, and culture in a

proper programmatic combination . . . In the same way that

the Nation of Islam used ,religion to bind Negroes

together into a social and economic movement (without

politics), the secular black radical movement must use

the cultural ingredient in black reality to bind

Negroes into a mass movement with economics and politics

. . .a cultural revolution in America cannot come as an

after-product of a political and economic revolution ; this

is a foreign historical scheme of social progress . (n

America, the cultural revolution (which has also been

aborted) must be recognized as a way of opening up the

path to radical social change by removing certain road-:

blocks within the system which are barriers against

political and economic travsformation ." Cruse in

his earl ier book, Cri s-i-s of the Negro `Intel lectual , pre-

sented nationalists with an outline of struggle . "The

program of Afro-American Nationalism must activate a

dynamism on dll social fronfs. under the guidance and

direction of the Negro intelligentsia . This already im- . 8 4

plies that Afro-American Nationalism be broken down

into three parts : political nationalism, economic nationalism, and cultural nationalism ; in other words, organizational specialization ."

The Black Guards being a political black youth movement agree with brothers LeRoi and Harold on the cultural revolution . They say the Black student movement's main focus should be on re-educating the black community and not seizing build-ings on white campu es .

Their view on Art and Cultore can be studied from their

Manual .~l : . "Black revolutionary nationalist culture

is a good weapon for our people . Black revolutionary

nationalist culture prepares them ideologically for the

program of the African People's party before the

revolution and serves as a motivator in the struggle for

national liberation and independence . Black litera.t.ure

and art must be a part of the National Black United

Front and must serve as a weapon to bring Black Unity

and educate our people to the thoughts of the Party . . .

All iniritings, plays, poems, songs and art must be for

the people and must represent the people's revolutionary

will and destiny . RIB affecting 90 percent of our

people must be transformed into message or grapevine

music, RIB must be the mass cultural transmitter of the

revolutionary black nationalist movement . RIB, jazz .

singers, musicians and song writers must study the

science of Black internationalism and learn how to

translate revolutionary theory through the lyrics of

their music . Iw::this way the whole cultural mind of our people will change ."

Black Guards have been active in bringivg the

cultural revolution to high school and junior high school

youth . Starting activity on Negro colleges they say

the true role of the black college student is to return

to the black community to set up community-based black

institutes and liberation schools . Black Guards while

believing in armed, self-defense like the Black Panthers,

concentrate more on oryanization and wisdom .

"High and junior high schools hould first be

flooded with culural, revolutionary and Black Guards

propaganda after an initial student group has been

formed . . .After making contact with brothers in the school

a~rneeting should be set up . At the meeting you can ..

discuss setting up Black History Clubs and BTacl Student

Leagues . . .During the summer months the Black Guards

(co liege students) can set up liberation schools in the

communities (especially southern communities) using

someone's home or renting a store front . Out of these

liberation schools wi~ll~come ideological training for

the Black Guards and also serve as a base for the Black

Guards . These schools will teach African and African-

American history and the philosophy of Pan Africanism . . .

8 6

The Black Guards are the protectors, defenders and re-

educators of the black nation . The Black Guards are the

APP youth . league being a pan African youth movement .

Believing in the practice of self-defense, Karate and

other form sof hand-to-hand combat is the Black Guards'

national pas~ttime . Also believing that no nation has

achieved true liberation without the use of guns,

the Black Guards believe in Black people buying guns

like they buy wine and whiskey . But Black Guards do

not believe in letting the enemy know how many guns

they have by foolishly displaying them before the enemy,

selling him a bunch of wolf tickets that he usually

buys . As the African proverb goes : "A wise man is not

seen but :felt .'m Having inferior forces materialistically

(logistically speaking), the element of surprise is the

key to winning a people's war along with complete organ-

ization of the people . . .ln order to build a strong student

movement and organization .

Black students must have their own communications

system . Communications is the heart of the organization

and organization is the core or power and government .

To be effective, student organization must be

city-wide and in order to have a strong city-wide student

organization, students must build strong student bases

in each school . The most successful type of . organization

in liberation movements has been the cell or unit structure

organization : . .This type of organization is built . i n

teams of twos to three that pread the word or chain of

command from the leadership to the rest of the organization .

By organizing this way, people `,s movements have been

able to organize and mobilize millions of people .

Student organization should be broken down into three :

a . communications - inside of the group and outside ;

b . information ; c . protection . A . Communications

would be concerned with getting the word out from the

leadership bf thestudent organization to the student

body . This would be by word of mouth, through code,

by courier-person delivering message (code) by hand,

newspaper, walkie-talkie, student newsletter or leaflet

Throughout the organization would be a communications

person who would be responsible for making sure that

all students in the school knew what happened, why it

happened, what decision was made by the student leader-

ship and what action should be taken and how it should

be carried out .

B . Information is the student spy system . The information

officers are responsible for knowing what everyone is

planning to do': students, teachers, parents, admini-

strators, police, community and the enemy . Students

report anything they see or hear to .t,he information person

and he in return takes it back to~the student leadership .

In this way the student leadership is always aware and

8 8

up on what's going on or what's about to go down .

~C . Protection - ;unit is responsi-ble for the protection

of the student body . When they need help they call on

other protection units from other student unions .

They are the hard core trained students in the arts of

self-defense . Upon decision of the student leadership

the protection unit will move to protect the student

body and organization using the tactics developed in

the student chain of command .

To avoid being crushed, students should be organ-

ized city-wide into a city wide student union .

Organization of the union should be a city-wide co

ordinating committee made up of representatives from

student union . a City-wide activity should be planned

by the coordinating committee and .through a student

chain of ca~romand selected by students carried out in

every school through student unions . To keep students

informed on what's happening in each school, each student

union should put out its own newsletter in each high

and jr . high school, but to develop unity and organization,

students should first work to organize strong student

unions in each of their schools . These unions should

control student government and should be welt-entrenched '

in each class and grade . To arouse the interests of the

students in .t he unions, .t hey should sponsor student

conferences on Black student power and Black history in

8 9

their area and school . Then after interest has been

built up, a city-wide student conference could be held,"

The year 1967 was the year the black cultural

revolution took on national proportions and it was_

also the year the white power structure opened up on

the movement ; we call it the WHITE POWER CONSPIRACY .

Early in 1867 a group of Black students in Orangeburg,

South Carolina began protesting about the firing of a

white professor . At Howard University a group of Black

students formed and began discussing creating a Black

nationalist student movement and cultural revolution .

They found there was a "brother" on the faculty named

Dr . Nathan Hare .. On March 21, 1967 these students

interrupted Hershey, head of the Selective Service,

chanting ''America's the Black man`s Battleground" . On March

22, 1867 they held a press conference announcing the

formation of the Black Power Committee . The Black Power r Committee, through its Black nationalist activism took

the Black student movement to a new level . The Black

Power Committee's political understanding comes out in

parts from its March 22.,,18.67 news release : "For full m

many a decade the black race in America has suffered the

failure of the Negro college . Such institutions have

swept potential theorist s . from the black community and

converted them into sterile lackeys for an oppressive

and morally decadent society . As of now, the situation 0

shows no signs . . .of mending itself, and indeed appears to grow worse each hour of the day . . .We must unite or

perish . . .we must have complete overhauling of the

present curricula and the building of courses of study more pertinent to the present and future demands of

the black st.ruggle. . . .in America and the world . Swahili

for example, a major African language, should be com-

pulsory just as major European languages are compusory

now . At the same time, it is necessary to launch a

vigorous campaign to change the names of -black univer-

sities~to commemorate the courage and deeds of black

thinkers and theorists rather than white imperialists l5 and their black lackeys ."

The Black Power Committee didn't stop . It agitated

until Howard University's administration expelled some

students and fired Dr . Hare . The present developments

of the Black Cultural revolution and student movement

to a large extent are influenced by events that

occurred at Howard in 1867 and San Francisco State College

in 198 . The Black Power Committee he . ld . a Black Committee

held a Black Power Conference in Washington, D .C . on

May 27., 19.67 . Some of the resolutions show how the

students were thinking : ''We reject the 13th, loth, and

l5th amendments to the Constitution which brought us

under hypocritical U .S . law without the consent . This

was in violation of our human rights as now set forth 9t

in the United Nations charter .

The national Black Power Committee therefore calls for a National African-American Congress for ,the purpose of drafting the principal ©bjectives and perspectives of the African captive nation and to draft a Declaration of Independence . The National Black Power Committee will organize on 'the local, state and regional levels to develop an independent governmental voice and economic control of our communities, the right to self-defense and the right to refuse to serve imperialist wars of aggress ion .

fihe National Black Power Committee charges the U .S . government with genocide t the systematic psychological, physical, mental and cultural castration of our people .

We charge the U .S . government with flagrant disregard of the United Nations charter in failing to endorse the section dealing with "Human . Rights ."

We demand that the United States government pay

Reparations for centuries of enslavement of African peoples . We demand the unfulfilled promise of "40 acres and a mule" for twenty-seven million African captives, plus Reparations for the inhuman cruelties of enslavement and for the severance of our African heritage and lineage as manifested in the dehumanizing of the African into a concoction called the_"negro" . . .

We call upon the leaders 'of SCLC, CORE, and SNCC to join

9 2

us in forming a Black United Liberation`Front . Af ter

careful deliberation, we have concluded that Robert

Williams, among the many others who qualify to lead us

in this gigantic struggle, best represents the highest

aspirations of our captive people in their struggle for

national liberation . Therefore, at this historic

convention in Washington, D .C ., May 2o.th, X967, we ~6 elect-Robert Williams as our first Premier .= . ."

Black students took up the Black Cultural Revolution

and began to demonstrate, first on Negro college

campuses, and then in high and jr . high schools . On

Nov . t7, 1967, 7,000 $lack students in PhiTadel .phia

marched on the board of m'is-education demanding~Black

History classes, a revamping of the curriculum, the

wearing of African dress (national dress) to school,

and natural hair, and the right to salute the Black

Nation's flag - the red, black and green . The students

were attacked by the white racist police force, which

framed more than 30 Black nationalists in a so-called

"riot conspiracy'' in the summer of '67 . But the Black

student movement began to grow by laps and bounds . By

1968 Black students in places never heard of were

seizing school buildings, boycotting classes en masse,

up to 30,000 in Chicago . Black students battled police

in N. . Y . and Brooklyn over Black community control of

schools .

9 3

Questions of the cultural revolution : The

present resurgence of Black pride is in essence .t he

beginnings of a Black cultural revolution . The cultural

revolution is the base of the Black Liberation movement

for it allows a significant number of people to parti-

cipate in the movement in the only way they presently

know how . The cultural revolution is basically psycho-

iogical . Maulana Karenga describes it, " . . .The revolution

being fought now is a revolution to win the minds of

our people . If we faii to win this we cannot win the

violent one ."

The cultural revolution changes Black people's

basic psyche, that is, changing the cultural context of

beauty, Before the cultural revolution, Negroes saw

themselves as ugly . They worshipped the white, Anglo-

Saxon image of beauty : blue eyes, white skin, long

bland hair, sharp, small nose, thin lips and small

hips . Negroes constantly tried to change their basic

cultural, physical, Afroid traits and tried to look as

close to the white, Anglo-Saxon image as possible .

For years the image of the .ideal Negro was light skin,

"goad hair - straight as opposed to firm and kinky - with

small" Anglo-Saxon features . (n essence the mu,iatto

or near mulatto wes the ideal image . Black . women sub-

merged themselves in weekly practice of going to the

hairdresser to get their hair "done" fried lifeless to

look straight, or curly, like the -white woman's :

-Skin bleach was used to lighten one's complexion .

Any number of gadgets were devised to make the Negro

woman more "beautiful", dig that. The Negro man was a1 so caught up in the psychological castration . In the

late 19.40's ~to the 1960's more brothers got "do's

(processes) . Oo's became a subtle symbol of rebellion

of the aggressive man or what the Negro man thought was

aggressive . But since 1966 the lifestyle of many Black

people has changed . First comes the definition os us

as people. The late Ma .lcolm X described that the word

"Negro" was used in a derogatory way,had negative

connotations attached to it and meant nothing historic-

ally . He preferred to use the word Afro-_American or 18 African-American .

Afro-American, African-American, Black and African

have become new definitions of African peoples held 4 captive inside the United States . Some people used

Overseas African . Black has became the most common

in use . "Negro" is now used to describe an Uncle Tom .

So the cultural revolution has brought a revolution in

the thinking of the Black people in America in the way '.

they see themselves ; seeing themselves as African, Black

people and feeling proud .they are Black . That is a

revolution in itself, because only a Black person knows

the psychological change Black people have gone through

9 5

in the last ten years and what it means to Black people .

.in social movements, before major political and economic

changes come about, a psychological change among the

people occurs, a change in mood . .~ln the African~American

revolution this change in mood deepens to be a change

in mores . Racism and psychological degradation has

become institutionalized in America and has become America's culture . Revolution uprrots the old cultural standards and replaces them with new culture

standards . This i s what :a s, happen i ng i ns .i de the

Black community . black youth are especially affected

in the cultural . revolution . More Black men and women are wearing their hair natural . I remember back in 1863 and 1964 there were quite a few brothers wearing

their hair in .Afro style, but you could almost count

the sisters with naturals on your hands . Now the Black

community looks like an African village . Young Black

women are being liberated in their sense of being

beautiful and the brothers dig it . The sisters even

look more beautiful . From a blackman's pout of view,

Black women are fine with their hair fried or not . But

when a sister hasher hair fried she looks sleepy or

mentally dead . A conscious Black man will' just feel

that something is wrong that throws her whole appearance

off . It's that mop ; the fried sky : But when the sister

goes natural, something happens .' The sister`s outer 9 6

and inner beauty just shows through . She's her natural

self . Her hair brings out her beautiful big brown or

black eyes, her beautiful broad nose, her firm, full

juicy lips . Why, a brother has to struggle to keep his

Jones from.droppin' . What is so hip is that at last

Black people are truly diggin' and loving one another

with no hang-ups . As long as society exists there will

always be ideal symbols of beauty : But dig brother, who

y~ould you pick - Abbey Lincoln or Raquel Welch? Or

sister, Malcolm X or Rock Hudson? There's : :no comparison,

is there? Not if you dig yourself . There is no question

that Abbey and Malcolm should be the symbols of. man-

hood and womanhood for Blsck America : Because that's

who you want to be like or you want to find a man or

~worman like that person both consciously andWnconscious-

ly - that's what cultural identific ;~tion is all about,

whoever you idealize .

Eldridge Cleaver secribes the concept of beauty :

"Our concepts of beauty enter our minds through social

indoctrination . We think a person with a certain com

plexion, a certain type oftair, a certain shape of

nose, a certain color of eyes - we think that person is

possessed of beauty, not because he is beautiful per se,

but rather because we have been culturally Conditioned

to look upoWthe~particular traits of which he is

possessed as being the most desirous, the most becoming,

9 7

the most beautiful . . .

When we judge ourselves~by the Caucasian standards

of beauty and find that it does not fit us, if we have

accepted that standard as absolute, then our reaction

is not merely that we think our own individual selves

ugly, it extends much farther than that ; it touches

every facet of our existence, it influences the very

value which we set on ourselves as individuals, it

colors our thinking and oUr opinion of the race as a

whole - in short = it has a disastrous effect ." So

Black cultural identification with Blackness affects

the cultural institutions within the Black community .

It affects the school, home, church and businesses .

tt affects they whole cultural life .

The cultural revolution has affected some Afro-

Americans mode of dress . Many African-Americans now

wear dashikis, bubas, and African . wraps as symbols

of their new Black consciousness . Young people especially

have changed their mode of dressing . The cultural

revolution has brought a more "peo.ple'' way of dressing .

Such is the case with college students who used to be

uptight in sports jackets and ties. and are now donning

bush leather jackets and army jackets, Nehru jackets,

tunics and other varied forms are accepted as even formal

dress . Ties'are becoming obsolete for tuttl,eneck

shirts . A woman's wrap can substitute for an evening gown . Of course, these changes haven't affected, all social circles, especially the inner circles of Black bourgeoisie . lf the African-American owned the means of production of producing his 'own clothes and if the social norm accepted the African-American wearing his own cultural style, we~would see millions wearing

African (movements"clothing in the present era . Even though wearing of movement clothing to work is basically unaccepted, many youth have~led struggles to wear

African clothing to school .

Because the African-American doesn''t control any social insitutio:ns in American society, the cultural revolution exhibits itself only through forms that the

African-American can express this change in value with a minimum amount of conflict . One of the avenues the

African captive is allowed to express himself in is through music . ,Over the last ten years Black music has undergone .a gradual but significant change . The greatest change, has been in'.the development of message music . Messge music is not new . It was passed on from slavery, but isn't sung much because it was considered dangerous in the past . In a sense, all Black musl:c is message music . What makes message music different in the present era is that the lyrics are clear social and political statements in musical form . Message music was revived by the jazz artists, notably Max Roach and

9 9

Abbey Lincoln, and later this trend influenced some

rhythm and blues, singers . Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln

set the trend in 1860 with Freedom Now Suite and

followed up with later albums Bitter Sweet and Members ,

Don't Get Weary . Oscar Brown, Jr ., contributed much

to message music with Bitter em and his many~.songs .

Oliver Nelson followed suit with Afro-American Sketches .

Cannonball Adderley created African Waltz , and Coun try

Preacher is dedicated to Rev . Jesse Jackson and Operation

Breadbasket . Rufus Harley's Profiles for Cou-rage with

his unique bagpipes gives a penetrating sound . The

late John Coltrane let with message music with African

Brass , Love Supreme, Kula Se Mama, and others . Coltrane's

internal dynamism seemed to make message music out of

anything he played . He was a prophet and like Bird

(Charlie Parker) before him, revolutionized African

American music . Coltrane, more than any other musician, Y has become a spiritual symbol for Black revolutionaries .

Being a spiritual man, he encouraged Black youth to have

a new spiritual outlook on life and developed around him

a new breed of Black musicians . These brothers are

playing Black revolution in their music . Archie Shepp

has dedicated some of his music to the late Malcolm X

and pharoah Sanders, in his latest album Karma , seems

to f .it the vibratory pattern of Coltrane : Coltrane is

not only a Black legend, his music remains with us as a too

spiritual food of the cultural revolution .

Rhythm and blues began to shake in '63 with

Martha and the Vandellas' Heat Wave, and then in 1964 with Dancin' In The Streets . Dancin' 1n The Streets had a particular SOCIAL significance because it was released right after the first wave of urban rebellions .

In 1965 Sam Cooke produced the historical A Change 1s Gonna Come . This was followed~by the Impressions'

Keep- On Push- in - ', People Get Ready and later, We're A`

Winner . Aretha Franklin came close to the message music with Think . And then in 1968 James Brown did his thing with Say - It-Lou d, I'm Black and !'m Proud . Since

'68 there has been an increase in message music . Songs like Black Pear-1, Hard Times, Concrete Reservation,

Is It Because I'm Black?, Tryin' ?-imes by Roberta

Flack, Mississippi- Goddam (done in 1966), To Be Young ,

Gifted and Black by Nina Simone, Thank You , by Sly and the Family Stone, B lack Woman by Don Covay and Message

From a Blackman by the Temptations aye becoming more common . And if the cultural revolution continues to develop up tempo, it is hoped that all Black music one day will be message music .

The main question now is which .direction wilt the cultural revolution take? Within its ranks are two trends, both bidding for influence and power .- They are bourgeois nationalism and revolutionary Black Nation-

tol

alism . Ernie Mkalimoto in r'Revo~lufraonary Black Culture :

The Cultural Arm of Revolutionary iVationalism'' describes

cultural : nationalism : "Cultural nationalism . . .is the

expression of the struggle to promote/sustain a parti- ,

cular way of life, a devotion to that way of life within

the national community, but a struggle either divorced

from politics, or one in which so-called cultural im-

peratives are allowed to dominate political necessities ."

Cultural nationalists! main theme is that culture

molds all facets of life . In contrast, revolutionary

Black nationalists believe any given culture is a reflec

tion of the politics and economics of a given society .

Revolutionary nationalists believe that a people's

cultural revolution will only come about when the people

begin to transform through struggling against the system .

They believe a cultural revolution 's the ideological

reflection of a political and economic revolution .

Cultural revolution isn't just wearing a dashiki,

buba or being super-Black . Cultural revolution means

transforming the cultural mores of the Black community .

i'seudo-bourgeois super-Black intellectuals cannot bring

forth a cultural revolution . Guttural revolution among

African people in America must come from the street .

Cultural revolution must be well imbedded i~ the, fiber and

psyche of the, community .t hat produces street culture . Only

by being firmly rooted in the Black community will Black revolutionaries be able o~ take the present street culture of our people and transform it into a force for liberation . FOOTNOTES

Freeman, pon, "Black Youth and Afro-American Libera tion," Black America, (Fall , }964) 2 BlackNationalism in America, p . 425 3 Ibid ., 424

4 Ibid ., p .

5 May 1st Conference, "13 Points", Revolutionary Nat ion al_i_s-t (No . 1 , Vol . 1 )

6 Black Consc_i-ousness Paper . Att.anta SNCC

7 Black Guards Study Manual No .

8 Black Guards Study Manual

9 Jones, LeRoi, Black Music , p . 18.2 . 1 0. Jones, LeRoi, Black Power Revolt, p . 138-144 11 Cruse, Harol d . ' . Reb_el_l 'vom~ .'or- ;Revol u'twi.~on p . 246-247 12. . CrusE, Harold, Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, P " 452

13. . Black Guards Study Manual No :

Black Power Committee, News Release, March 22, 1967

Black Power Conference, News `Rel'ease , Washington, D. C ., May 27, 1967

17 Maulana Ron Karenga, The~Blac-k Power- Revolt, p . 195

18 Malcolm X - Conversation

19 Cleaver, Eldridge, "As Crinkly As Yours", p, Negro-- H i story Bul l et_i n, XXV (March, 1962) , 12.7.-132

20 Mkalimoto, Ern're, "Revolutionary Black Culture : The .Cultural Arm of Revolutionary Black Nationalism", Negro Digest, (December, 1969), p . 13 105

REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM AND THE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDENT

"For years the Afro-American student has been . faced with contradictions of trying to assimilate into a society that had no room for him ."

THE WORLD OF REALITY AND THE WORLD OF THE AFRO-STUDENT

The world of the Afro-American student has changed tremendously since World War 11 . Prior to that time only a few Afro-Americans ever got a chance to go to college . Afro-American college youth before World War

II were from the established black middle class and very seldom associated themselves with the black-work-

ing class . After the war and during the early fifties, more and mork: black working-class families were able to

send their children off to college . Contradictions began to polarize among black students when this happened .

The crystallization of these contradictions led to the

development of the sit-ins, freedom rides, etc . Black working-c1as5 families with bowrgeois aspirations attempted

to force their offspring into a society that had no place

for them .

The myth of a "college education and having it made"

was finally beginning to crumble . For generations

the black American had figured that by obtaining a

l 0 6'

college education he would be integrated into the main

stream of American life . Bu .t what h.as happened is that

the Afro-American has produced-a whole generation

(war babies that has made it to the top of whitey's

society .only to awaken to the hard fact of reality that

there is no "pie in the sky" . Now, after all these

years, the black student is faced with the fact that

he or she has to obtain a master's degree or doctor's

degree before being able to survive in this society :

With the rise of automation the Afro-American Student is

faced with a new dilemma : The job market is shrinking,

qualifications are getting higher and, competition

sharper . The black student must face many contradictions

when he leaves school and finds out that reality i -s

subjective, since he is taught in the classroom that

the world is objective . He is taught that the white

world will accept him if he is qualified regardless

of color ; but he leaves school only to find a hostile,

savage, white world . In many cases t,his~has led to

revolt among black youth . Most Afro-American students,

not being ab'e to cope with the sharp contradictions

openly, have created a little protest world of their own

This world is called the "hip society'' .

The hip society is a result of conditioning and of

the last hope that the American dream is truer The

hip society transcends all class barriers among blacks

10.7

and has its .own :social,values :.arid norms . The h'ip society

is developed from the frustration of not being able to

do anything about one's condition and serves as a

release from daily pressures . The hip society its built

around the concept of manhood and womanhood, rei= lecting

a lack of security and identity, and alienation . The .

man who can make the most women, dress the best and

maintain his "cool" is considered a hero among his peers :

The woman who gets the most "noses open", climbs the

ladder with prestige men, and can jilt a cat and not

mean nothing to her is supposed to be into something .

The women play, but usually they are trying to "hook",

most of them go to college to find a husband . E:x-

pressions such "into something, all that's good,

tak i ng care of bus i ness' , express . the ,sent iments> of

hip society . Adherents of the hip society release

themselves by being "hard", digging jams (listening

to jazz records), "getting off" (releasing frusi:ration

through dancing to rock 'n' roll), .smoking pot, tasting,

(heavy drinking), "doing the thing or taking care of

business" (loose sex morals, sometimes see orgie:s) . The

hip society is a hedonistic society. . .it is built on

extreme pleasure seeking in order to forget about the

reality of the hard contradictions the' black student

must face .

10 8

We can see that the Negro callege is truly a~"freak

factory" : Built upon an escape from reality, it

becomes a "professional'! house Chat breeds prostitutes,

perverts , and "f reaks" (black people who th i nk i:hey

are white . The world of the Afro-American student is

built around a complete escape from reality and tries to

strengthen the concept of being able to make it in

this society . It reinforces capitalism, takes on

extreme patriotism and drowns itself in the internal

strife for prestige : The black student is geared to

becoming more an all-American boy or girl than 1:he

white student . The black student has to be extra good,

"extra white'', neat, nice and respectable in order to

make it . Therefore, conformity to the sdcial norms

of the hip society becomes a protective measure . It

warns the black student that if he steps out of his armor

he won't be able ~to survive in the outside world . This is one of the reasons why stress is planed

on being hard, tough, emotionless--,because of tFie un-

conscious realization of the rough road ahead .

CONTRADICTIONS OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDENT'

The Afro-American student must face many contra-

dictions . If his background is of the working class,

then he faces the contradiction of becoming something 10 9

that his family has oriented him to both envy and . .hate .

The concept of .the black bourgeoisje not being able to

"let their hair down" be down to . the nitty gritty, constantly alienates and antagonizes him . He also finds that in order to be successful in his field and be with people of his position, he must take on ways that he had previously considered "phony" . Another contradiction of black students lies in failure to reach their aspirations . They sometimes realize that, because they are black, society has little or no place for them . The constant living a lie, completing dream level (college) education and still having to struggle for human existence is the sharpest contradiction for the Afro-American student . The more black students learn about the outside world the morethey realize that there is little chance for them to make fiheir goal ; thus they settle for some lesser choice . This contradiction hits the black students square in the ,face whether or not he wants to admit it .

The contradictions for the black student are beginning to polarize . This pod~arization has led to the sit-ins, freedom rides, mass demonstrations, black nationalist youth organizations and finally the riots in the summer of 18.64 . What is~developing for our enslaved black nation is a generation with a completely new outlook . Out of this generation is

developing the revolution.a r~r intelligentsia capable of

a soc:ial revolution cannot

develop until all means .of ~egal protest have been

exhausted and the image of ~ourgeois democracy is

destroyed . This is when a r~evolufionary intelligentsia

is produced . of the ultra-right, Gold-

see more clearly that for

means and has always

course we all shou'Id know

e been exhausted .

e "war baby" generation is

his system are beginning

The ."war baby" gene; ration

was the generation that was supposed t'o have . "arrived",

to get the "pie in the skyr" . This generation isc slowly

butb surely waking up and see ing tha-t the pie in the

sky was a trick bag . They a lso see that it daescn't

matter what they do, how qua lified they are, they will

never arrive . t t was nat un til black America could

develop a generation capable of being "on top" in the

capitalist system, that the contradictions of the

system could totally crystal l ize:. and a revolutianary intelligentsia develop . Hee~ce the words .of Dr . DuBois

ring true : A system that enslaves you cannot free you ." THE HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL AFRO-

AMER1 CAN STUDENT

Overt social protest for the Afro-American student usually begins in the junior high school . By the time a black youth reaches the age of. 14:, he begins to feel the contradictions of his relationship to this society .

He is led to believe in school that he is white "can make it~'if he tries", and after school he becomes black again and enters the hip world . The feeling of being run snack into a brick wall by the educational system is being felt by junior high and high school students . t o the South more and more junior high acid high schooi students are leading the movement, whereas in 1960 it was the black° college youth who were the vanguard of the movement . We see in the North black high and junior high school youth touched off the riots in Harlem and played a major role in the riots in other cities .

If black college youth are feeling that there is nowhere for them to go, then :it will surely seep down to tfie black high and junior high school youth . The only role left for them is to rebel .

GANGS

Almost every black community has gangs . Very few people understand the natureaF these gangs and how they can be transformed into a constructive force for Black

liberation . Gangs develop because .b lack youth have

no out in this white man's racist, capitalist system :

Afro-American youth have no room for expression in this

savage society . They have no image of manhood ~or

womanhood that they can identify with . Black youth

know unconsciously that they are not a part of the

"man's world" . Thus, in contrast, the hip world de-

velops . The gang represents organization, identity,

and power for black youth .- Living in a hostile world

they experience no we of these things . The feeling of

belonging, being part of something "boss" is a big

part of a gang . This sense of identity leads to

organization of a gang and from the gang's strength

and influence comes its power . This comes from the

feeling of being powerless over one's destiny (the

man has control of that) and of being less than a

man . Gangs are the most dynamic force in the black

community . Instead of fighting their brothers sand

sisters, they cap be trained to fight "Charlie" They

can be developed into a blood brotherhood (black youth

army) that will serve as aliberation force in the

Black Revolution .

BLACK NATIONALISM AND THE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDENT

Many changes have occurred in the world of the

Black student since the convening of the first black

conference on black nationalism which was held in Nashville,

Tenn ., by the Afro-American Student Movement in

1964 . This conference, while small in number, represented .

a growing tendency among black students and black youth

towards a new trend of black awareness among black

people . The black nationalist, trend spread among black

students, and in 1966 the Atlanta SNCC project drafted

a black consciousness paper that had much to do with

moving SNCC from a policy of integration to Black Power .

The emergence of the slogan Black Power was the

turning point for the black student community . 'The

concept of black power challenged the whole value struc

ture of the Negro community . In essence it forced black

people to think about black people in the United States

as powerless . Black Power challenged the pseudo-class

structure of the middle class Negro satiety a nd black

became the new and fashionable thing ; it was now hip

to be black : .

Though these changes may sound superficial, they

were necessary steps in altering the hip society of the

black student : The hip society was a result of condition- sing and of the false hopes of the American dream ""

(bourgeois-equal-existence with whites) . it transcended all class barriers and had its own social values and norms . It was built on escapism, to escape the reality

of a racist society and of the necessity to change that

society if our people were to achieve liberation . By making "black" popular, the values of black students

began to slowly change and so di-d the values of all

black America . This value ; cultural revolution, is

sti11 in process .

Each day the black student faces more and more

contradictions . Being the more eiiucaLed class of an

oppressed nation, it is sociologically the potential

colonial bourgeoisie, but like colonial bourgeaisies of all oppressed nations, their class interests cannot

be fulfilled under the colonial regimes . Because

America is a racist capitalistic society, it cannot

absorb all black students as a class into its economic

system because its system is built on racial and economic

exploitation .

For the most part black youth will be future black

workers . The black worker is a super-exploited wage

slave, meaning that he still a slave . Only the name of

slavery has been changed, the condition remains almost

the same .

Black students, therefore, like all black people,

are discriminated on the basis of race and not that of

class alone . Being an educated class, black students

have traditionally had "higher expectations" from the

system than most black captives .But as the struggle

intensifies, and more and more black students become

alienated from the system because they cannot achieve

their goals within the system, black students will

transform as a class ; from being a bourgeois

alienated elite~to becoming a revolutionaryassimilationist,

nationalist intelligentsia for the movement, developing

a vanguard on the road to independent nationahood .

Faced with growing contradictions of fighting for

a system that enslaves us, fighting in a racist war in

Vietnam and for ,.democratic rights in America, black

students began to develop an anti-imperialist, anti-

colonialist attitude . The turning point in this attitude

ahd the black student movement came on March 21, 1967

at Howard University when a group of black students

chased selective service director Hershey off Howard's

Champton Auditorium stage, chanting "America is the

blackman's battleground ."

As the year continued, these students engaged in

what they called a cultural revolution at Howard, a

re-channeling of the student body's values toward changing

Howard from a "negro co11ege with white innards'" to a

black university relevant to the black community and its struggle .

Black students at other colleges slowly began to

pick-up an what was going on at Howard, and by 1968

the black studies rebellion had swept San Francisco

State College and on to campuses (white and Negro)

across the country and had spread as well to black

high schools . In the process of the black rebellion,

middle class European values began to be swept away .

. . By 1969 the black studies revolt had hit over 50 Negro - . colleges alone .

The black student movement that was just a small

nucleus four years ago has now taken on proportions of

a mass movement with wide ramifications for the black

community . In Ness than three years of internal revo-

lution, the cultural values of the black student's world have been challenged and are in the process of

being remolded . The world of the Afro-American student which was once built around a complete escape from

reality is now striving to "relevant" to the black

. community

With more and more students coming from black working class backgrounds (families) they are mare

reality-based, striving to make their education meet

the needs of their mothers, fathers, brothers, and

sisters at home . This growing sense of reality in the

student Community is producing a new sense of black love,

respect, pride, and nationalism in the overall black

community . Black students are no longer trying to become

white, and if black students (the future bourgeoisie)

don't want to become white, then who does anymore?

The process of destroying the false class barriers

between black college students and the black community

is a difficult and important task . The friction between

the two was a false one, but one tfiat has left many

historical scars . Previously, black college students

didn't want to associate with the "brother" and "sister"

from the streets because they wanted to be as white,

as European, or respectable as possible . But now,

with the upsurge of black awareness, ,this is changing

and, the black college student is coming back home .

(What this is, in essence, is a cu .itural revo lution

that is first affecting the colonial alienated elite

or petty bourgeoisie who, through a process of r'e-

orientation and .re-organization, will develop into a

revolutionary nationalist intelligentsia which will

play a significant role to independent nationhoo d

rn our democratic revolution .)

In most nationalist revolutions the beginnings have

come from student movements ; students who are the

potential petty national bourgeoisie o'f the colonialized

nation who no . longer seek integration with the mother

(colonial) country, but begin to demand independence,

national autonomy, and the formation . of a nation-state .

This has not happened yet with .the black student move-

ment because the movement is still in the transitional

stage . But as the cultural revolution and students

become more politically sophisticated, the question of

an independent black nation-state will become a popular demand .

The cultural revolution which began in 19b6 with

the call for Black Power and which reached mass pro-

portions in 1967 has now affected the vast majority

of Black America . The contradictions of the Vietnam

War and the rise of unemployment among black youth are

rapidly affecting the African-American student . To the

extent that the contradictions polarize, the student

community ha< changed .

Prior to 1964, little attention was paid to high

school and junior high school youth by black revrilu-

tionaries . In 1967 black nationalists began to organize

high school youth which resulted in high school youth

organizing themselves, and in October, 1967, five thousand

black high school students went on strike and held one

of the first major black high school demonstrations

for black history and black freedom in the country .

Since that time, black high school students have become

a new dynamic force in the black revolution, and

eventually they may be forced to play a vanguard role .

The cultural revolution in the black high school and

junior high school community has~more far reaching

ramifications than in the black college community

because the black high school (and junior high school)

student is directly tied Lo the community . Ninety per

cent of them will be the future black workers, fathers

and mothers of Black America; the generation yet to

come .

If the black revolution is to grow and continue,

these students must be trained in revolutionary-nation-

alist .theory, practice, and organization and must be

geared to carry the revolution on . The black revolution

wilt then become an inter-oenerational'revolution, its

new cultural dynamic producing the cultural values of

the~next gnerati.on . The struggle for community control

of schools is therefore a struggle to nationalize

schools in the black community .. In order to make

education relevant to black folks, schools must become

black nationalist training centers . Education for black

children must be black nationalist education, a black

nationalization of the educational system . This is what

black studies means to black students .

The struggle for community control of schools is

a struggle to gain control or power over the system

that affects eight to ten million black youth . 'The

fierce struggle for black student power will occur in

the high school and junior high schools as more and more

students gain the awareness of the necessity for community

control . The struggle for black history courses, the

wearing of hair natural, and the wearing of national

dress are beginnings of the black student tevolution .

But the real test will come when black students begin

to say : "A white teacher can't teach me anythinc~ : We

demand all black teachers ." This will be another

degree in the nationalization of the school systE:m :

Ta demand black teachers, principles, and administrators

who are relevant~to the black community .

The next step comes in the demand to change the

names of black high and junior high kchools to be: named

after black liberation fighters and the right to salute

the black nation's flag (the red, black and green) and

the right to fly it over the school at all times,. Then

comes the complete change In curriculum to make of

relevant to the black high school-and junior high school

student .

t3lack college stu-dents could be very helpful in

organizing black high school students and could

serve as "liberation" teachers in liberation schools .

As the cuitural revolution sweeps inta the communi~~y from

the schools, it may raise demands such as changing

street corner names, naming them after liberation fight

ers or African nations . In the South, it may lead to

whole communities changing their names . Some of these

things are already occurring but will have more effect

when broadened to a national level . In order for the

cultural revolution to reach its fullest dimension,

black youth must organize nationally to make their

demands felt .

The role of black youth in the cuitural revolution

is to serve as agitators, re-educators, organizers,

and unifiers in the struggle for independent black nation-

hood . The black college student can play a very con-

structive role in the cultural revolution . In. his

struggle for black studies, he should strive to make the

college or university (if on a black campus) into a

community cneter, with all the facilities of the:

college open to the community free .of charge . Me .must

encourage local community groups to came on campus and

participate in school programs .

The black college student must make the black

college a base for revolutionary black nationalist

thought . The college must become the black freedom

fighter's haven, where he is protected and defended .

The college becomes his office . The black college

student's main emphasis shou,ld~be to bring the skills

he is acquiring back into the community by establishing

black community institutes and new Schools for black

thought and by setting up liberation schools and adult

education classes . At the same time, the black student

should be active in community projects that help build

local community power . He should be helping the Mississi-

ppi Freedom Democratic Party, the National Democratic

Party of Alabama, the Republic of New Africa, the

Student National Coordinating Committee, and other

community projects . The black college student must

form institutions in the community uniting their efforts

with community youth to establish permanent bases in

the community .

At the same time, many black college youth should

be thinking of re~-orientating the black middle class t by infiitrating~and becoming part of the black middle

class, obtaining positions of power and respect . i n

a revolution, it is not necessary for all revolutionaries

to be known as such . We must use wisdom . There is a

great need for more Julian Bonds . More and more black

college students should~think .about running for public

offices challenging those who do not represent our

interests . S1'ack high school ' acid junior high school

students must actively push their parents, re-educating 12 3

them, shaming them if necessary . to becoming active

in the community-cantrol-of-schools struggle . Black high school and junior high school students are in the vanguard . of the struggle ; therefore, they must constantly work on their parents, teaching them the real . itie,s of the black revolution . It has been said : "ln the

last days the children shall be the teachers ."

Black students must push for black parent-t~:acher associations to back up their student unions . After develapi.n g strong local student unions, black students should encourage their mothers and fathers to form black unions in their jobs . Black youth can play a catalytic

role in politicalizing the black community . In <:very home there. shoul6d be a liberation school . The cultural

revolution is a revolution of values that can be trans- mitted from this youth generation to the adult generation, closing "the generation gap" . Black youth must begin

to structure themselves as a nation ; be active in

forming black community government, parties, and

functioning as part of the black liberation army .

Finally, black youth can p " ay a unifying role by pres-

suring leaders to form a national black united front .

As the legal means of protest begin to be exhausted,

more and more black youth will begin to. see that the

only solution is self-determination . t~ith Robert F . 12 4

Williams back in the country, black youth now have a symbol which they can rally and . unite around .

Black student rebellions have not been as effective as they could because they are still un-coordinated and spontaneous in character . In order to reach a revoluionary perspective, black studen s must see each campaign they engage in as part of the overall liberation struggle and must see each demonstration as a guerrilla action .

Student demonstrations must serve as "Black Offen- slues" helping to dislocate the enemy's system, helping the brothers in the street in the protracted war . TL~e student community must be seen as a part of the total community . Effective action must be national in scope .

The reason t~~e sit-in movement had 5o much effect was because of its blitzkrieg character, hitting different communities in rapid sequence, dislocating the entire nation .

Black students must try to work their demands where their deomns~.rations will really touch, reach, and affect their mothers and fathers . In this content, black students after developing a national organization, could be very helrtul to the black liberation struggle .

For instance, 'if hospital workers in Charleston, S .C . should go on strike, black students~vacrass America

shauid strike in support of them and call on their mothers

and fathers and black workers at large to strike in

support of them . In this way, black students would be

playing a direct role in the liberation struggle .

One-of the first attempts at national organization

was the convening of th.e Black Youth Congress held in

Cincinnati, Ohio . But if black students are to be.

effective, they must develop local community based

organizations that can mobilize their area on a moment's

notice . Black youth have the power of causing dis-

location in a sensitive part of the system : Social

or community dislocation has long been a tactic of the

struggle . Black youth must explore new ~peans of

community dislocation .

Black people have more power than we realize, but

what hinders us from having power is our lack of argani-

zation . Black workers, forming 90 peocent of our

people, are the base of our people's movement . Therefore,

the {Cey quest ion for black youth, students, and revo-

lutionaries is the organization, coordination, and unity

of black workers . If black workers should go on a

national strike, all of America would be dislocated .

This must become one of the organizational goals of

black youth : the National Black Strike .

With the enemy preparing to put black militants in 12 6

concentration camps, black youth have only one alternative, to unito or perish :

Our tasks are these :

1 . Educate the Afro-American to the economic, political, social, and cultural bases of the racisl situation in the United States and the world .

2 . Develop unity with Africans and other peoples of the world .

3 . Unite and organize Afro-American students to become the active leadership in the Afro-American national liberation struggle .

Our purpose calls for the development of caste and class ,consciousness of the black youth of the United

States, to arouse them to see the true nature of its racist society . We must become imbued with the deter urination, ability, and readiness to unite and organize our forces for liberation . We must transfrom the will of millions of people otherwise disunited, dispersed, and scattered over the country, into a single will ; dedicated to liberation . When a child is murdered by bombs in the Congo or Vietnam, it is the same as a child murdered in a church bombing in Alabama or Harlem

Bloodshed is the same everywhere and so ds freedom and justice . Young people over the world oppose injustice .

We should not let any barrier be placed betaaeen us in our struggle to obtain freedom and Justice. We have

the whole world at stake, so we must_not fail . We must unite, we must struggle together for freedom, and

build the world anew . BLACK STtfQIES AND THE BLACK INTELLIGENTSIA

Brother Nathan Hare.'s article, The Battle for Black

Studie s, (Black Scholar, May, 1972, Vol . 3, No . 9) is a classical case histary,of Black social action in the

late 19b0's and early 70's .

It provides us with a sound foundation for making a scientific analysis of the social phenomena, classes and material factors which affect the black liberation struggle .

This analysis will help the black intelligentsia to structure our black ideology, and .when this is done, cadres and the masses of our people will be able to carry out a protracted struggle regardless of setbacks .

The Ba ttle fo r Black Studie s is one that has deep

~chologica l_ra mifications b ecause it is a stru~e for th e red e finitio n of education in relati on to African people in the western world . Black Studies leads to the questioning of legitimacy/relevancy of the entire western educational system, which is in essence a questioning of the whole European cultural frame of reference .

Black Studies, if correct leads Africans into engaging in a Black Cultural Revolution . lzg

"Black education must be education for liberation, or at least for change . In this respect, it was to prepare black students to become the catalysts for a

Black cul. turai revolution . All courses whether history, literature, ar, . mathematics would be taught from a revolutionary ideology or perspective . Black education would become the instrument for change ."

Because of the upsurge of the Black Studies Battle and the risa of the [hack Panthers in the late 1g60's programs .such as Project Upward Eiaund, Project 500 and

300, which gave black working class youth a chance to enter white colleges, have been deluded and almost eliminated .

The power structure hoped to develop a "buffer" group or a petty bourgeoisie fron urban black working class youth that, would be trained in white universities as ~,he new leaders who would "have it made ." These new leaders would contain urban insurrection and would insure the black working class that the white capitalist system can work for them too . But when the San Francisco

State rebellion began to spread to other campuses, the power structure realized these black working class students were becoming radicalized in~their own - campus struggles and had the potential of becoming a revolutionary intelligentsia . Even worse, they had the potential of 13 0

becoming an intellectual proletariat intelligentsia .

"The intellectual proletariat is the ~3ement of the mass that comes into consciousness of itself using its

intellect in relation to power for the people . The intellectual proletariat does not have to be a~university student, but often is self educated writers, artists, musicians, poets, directly coming from the masses .

When the intellectual proletariat enters into conscious oppo'sftion with the established order, it makes up the backbone for the social revolution and becomes the 2 professional spokesman for the masses in the struggle ."

The greater the threat to the power structure was this potential black intellectual proletariat was radicalizing it's future (white college) middle class leading it in mass campus activity helping to transform it into a~revolutionary intelligentsia .

The Black Panther Party in the 1968-70 period did not properly evaluate our struggle, failed to apply the tactics according to i3rotracted struggle and in essence burned out (exhausted) a whole generation of black working class students and brothers from the streets .

The failure of the Panthers to back up the rhetoric

"Pick :, Up The Gun" and disillusionment within the ranks of the Republic of New Africa (RNA), left the movement

Just about finished by 1970 . Students who had been in

in the vanguard of political revolutionary nationalism

began to drop out of school, become strung out on "horse"

or speed . Many retreated to mysticism, joining astra-

logy cultis or the Nation of Islam . Some joined t:he

American Communist Party and some became the new emerging

Black Mafia .

Since the Upward Bound program had stiffer require-

merits and greater cutbacks, a new class of student began

to appear on the white campus ; this social_transiition

did not reach the Black college campus because their

composition never relied on external programs of

bringing B ack students in .

Also a poi n, to note that Brother Hare previously

mentioned in the Battle for Black Studies is the struggle

for Slack Studies never really reached Negro colleges

but rather took the farm of rebellion against adrnini-

stration and faculty paternalism and authoritarianism,.

What we must deal with now is the black, basically

middle-class-minded students,~an both black and iNhite

college campuses and how we will relate to the national)

democratic revolution for independence in the 1970's?

Our question is a historical question-because

we are dealing with the question of cultural identification

or political/oultural nationalism .

The basis of our problem is of socio-psychological

13 2

nature . There is a class correlation between so<:ial

psychology and revolution . Black revolutionarie :~ should

study social psychology . To gett .off the point briefly,

this is why Marcus Garvey, Nobel Drew Ali, Malcollm X

and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad have been the ones

who have come the closest to providing a solution to

our plight and developed a mass fol3~owing .

Because we, African people, held captive by the

U :S . Government, suffer from 400 years of mental and

cultural genocide ; we are still wavering, in the year

1972, hetween the questions of nationalism,-integration,

refiorm, and revolution :

"Waverance between nationalism and integration

comes from ambivalence, and ambivalence comes from

systematic brainwashing . Thi.s .brainwashing over a

period of years has produced a self-hatred, masochistic,

self-destructive complex within the African-American

psyche . So complete has been the brainwashing (educational

and cultural genocide), that it has produced a conditioned

inferiority reflex in the African-American . The very

nature of American society causes each African-American

to have negative traumatic experiences sometime in his

life as to being born black, of having Afroid features .

With all of the heroes, power symbols, etc . being cau-

casian in America, the African-American is constantly

bombarded through radio,. T .V ., movies, newspapers ;

and magazines with an anti " b lack image . This is backed

up with a 400 year negative complex of positive

African existence, and has left Lht. ; African-American

with a complex personality .

Ambivalence is the mixed' or conflicting feell lugs

about Lhe oppressor and comes from the desire to be

like the power or dominant symbols . Ambivalence'

occurs between extra-love and' extra-hafred~which is,

in graup~ emotion, directed towards the oppressor . The

most common conflicts occur between intra-hatred and

extra-hatred and intra-love a'nd extra=love . From

traumatic experiences,racism in America, the African-

American develops and extra hatred toward the oppressor

(caucasians) ., but through the Coneitioned reflexes

he also develops a false extra love for the oppressor .

This comes from fear and respect of power and success .

Also, from conditioned reflexes comes intra-hatrE:d,

being that the love and beauty symbols are, caucasian .

These intra-hatred feelings constantly conflict with the

natural intra-love feelings . The African-American both

laves and hates himself and also hates and loves his

oppressor . While 400 years of traumatic experiences

would seem rational proof that his oppressor willl not

reform,he still wants to believe that he will . refarm .

lab

Therefor~,the more intimate the relations between cau-

casian and black, the more the African wilt have intra-

hatred and extra-love, unless traumatRc experiences

have destroyed the drive . of extra-love .

There will be a higher degree of ambivalence among

those who have a high. respect for the Caucasian's

intellectual capacities ."

To destroy ambivalence among a colonialized people,

a nationalist intelligentsia must constantly present

them with the traumatic experiences of the past and

present and intensify their nation's anger until they

judge the oppressor as the enemy and conclude from

nationalist mass action that he must~be destroyed . The

intelligentsia must show the people its link with the

past, the past relationship with the present and how it applies to the future .

The new black college students. are the children of

the radicalized black bourgeoisie of the 1950's and 6 early 1960's . When we say the black bourgeoisie 'is

radicalized, we mean they have been badly challenged

in .their Anglo-Saxon middle class orientation but the

radicalization has not fully taken place . The new black

college student is a transitory class within the radical-

ized black bourgeoisie . The late Dr . Martin Luther King

and the rise of African independence movements along

with the black liberation struggle did much to challenge 13 5

the Black bourgeoisie in the l~tev1~50's and early '60's .

The fiate E . Franklin Frazier predicted this radicalization or transformation of the Black bourgeoisie in some of his . later writings .

The new black college students are living in an era of high inflation, exterhal imperialist war, recession and critical lull in our national democratic revolution .

These are some of the environmental factors which will affect his thinking :

With the talk of "Nation Time" coming from most liberation groups, such as the Congress of African People,

Nation of lsiam, P .t1 .S .H . and the Black Political

Convention, the grapevine ha$ it, "You can have your pie and make it too ." Or, in other words, there is a great drive to obtain skills (expeetise) get a hog, and

$25,000 crib and be called a nationalist at the same time . Eco nomicism is prevailing everywhere .

So, more than likely the new black college student, being the radicalized sector of the black middle class, will support drives toward black mass voter registration ; greater black representation within the Democratic

Party and possibly formivg a'third Black Political

Party that demands equality dccording to population numbers . If the present Pan-African Movement becomes more action prone, black college students may again

13 6

explode into a mass black students movement . But for

this to happen there will have to be a greater degree

of clarity as to where our movement is going . The Black

Political` Convention and African Liberation Day were

two very important events in the destiny of African Peop}e .

African Liberation Day especially, when ~bb,000

Africans worldwide showed our support for the total

liberation and unification ofi mother Africa .

The Battle for Black Studies must take a deeper

.dimension in the 1970's . It must attack the central

factor of colonialization . flack students everywhere

must move against their camp~ISes' investment in corp-

oration that do business with or invest in Portugal,

Union of South Africa, Rhodesia, and Israel .

Coordinating this mass fiction movement must be

connected wi,:h an intense struggle for autonomous

Black Studies departments that teach the "history of

Black political thought" . All Black Studies programs

must deal with the ideology of Pan African Nationalism,

the ideology that was born from our liberation struggle .

The battle for Black Studies must spread into the

community, uniting with the high schools ; community

institutes must be established during the time of the

Black Studies revolution, teaching African political

history . The " Battle for BiaCk Studies will be won . 13 7

The racist European orientated educational system will teach African youth : and other minorities the truth, or it will be destroyed .

The battle for Black Studies has just begun .

It will evolve into a social movement of dimensions yet unconsidered . It is the first stage in developing a mass black intelligentsia .

"The problem of most social movements in training mass .intelligentsia's is howing the mass that their economic and social future is connected to the political theory of the movement . To do this, they must teach the masses complex concepts i.n simple terms . The role, of the intelligentsia is to take complex theories, systema- 7 tize and clarify them for mass consumpfion ."

" . . .The intelligentsia must know the history of the people and must know how to make this history<:al experience useful in the peopl'e's struggle for power .

The intelligentsia must know the history of the people in order to organize them . Without knowing their history, it will be very hard to it to relate ,and to determine a real situation fram a false one . It must constantly study the people and the enemy in order that it may better understand their strengths and weaknesses . . ."

" . . .In propagandizing and training cadres from the mass, the intelligentsia must deal with the law of uneven development . The lav!,,of uneven development is when one section of the pe~opie advance in struggle before another . Due to diffe rent conditions, backgrounds consciousness, and training, I~bne section, area, or city i may advance or come closer to~'~the nation's objectives than another . A social movem~nt cannot be successful until mast of the people are ~venly . developed and basically understand the abjective~of their revolutionary intelligentsia . This law of uneven development will occur often prior to success f the people's revolution .

The role of the intelligentsia is to being the people's consciousness to an even level of development where they can act in unity .° The people'Icannot achieve victary until they learn movement disc l~,ipline and'how to carry out the principles of the inte l~lligentsia's ideology .

A movement of the people canno~ emerge until the people embrace the intell,lgentsia's ideology and become living examples of its principles . Wfhen, the people unite with, and follow the revolutionary l.~adership ., its prog.r~am and organize themselves effective) . .to seize power .

Organizing the masses is a tre eodousrundettarcing that 9 requires great patience and strategy ."

" . . .lt is becoming obviousl ,to many Third World revolutionaries that when we anlalyze historical development

139

in a race and class analysis we see there is a cultural

contradiction in the world .That cultural contradiction

historically has been betwee~t European and Third World

people and continues even toc~

cultural genocide, imperialism was the thesis that the

European coa~onialist present~d to African people, par-

ticularly those prisoners of~lwar taken to foreign lands .

of the basic African psyche

ities, was the anti~thes~s

sternization of African

ge became inevitable, as

t it . The synthesis is

the combination of our histor~icai resistance while

under the domination of Europeans . . This is the essence

of the African cultural revolution : To purge ourselves

of the negative aspects of our European, capitalist,

bourgeoisization . but to deal li with objective realiity

that there are positive aspects of our learned experience

which can be used to the bendfit of building a po sitive 10 new world ."

FOOTNOTES

1 ~1a .than hare, Battl e fo Black Studies . Black Scholar, MaY~ 1972 . Vol . 3~ No . 9, pi,i. 33

Robert Michaels, The I rigin of Anti .____-Ca.8_.__it alist .5,~' i r i t " P P " 7 5 4 - 7 5 5 ~

3 B . Pershnev, Social Ps~cholo~y and History.. ~ 4 i Muhammad Ahmad, The Bl ck I ntelligentsia , pp . 5-7

5 lbid, p . 7 I 6 Muhammad Ahmad, The aleck Cultural Revolution

7 Muhammad . Ahmad, The -Bl~-c k- _tnte- l- i igentsia, p . 28

8 Ibid, p . 30

9 F oayd : p . z9

10 ,:`Muhammad Ahmad,"The Pdr i t i ca 1 i za t ion .of Af r i can Culture", Contrast, May 27, 1972, Vol . 4, No . ll . p g . 14 BLACK URBAN GUERRILLA WARFAR

The most significant de elopment recently in the

African-American struggle fo liberation has been the internationalizing f its intelligentsia and broad masses . reasons that have contributed to this have bean t e Honorable Elijah Muhammad,

leader of the Nation of Robert F . W.illiams, and the late Malcolm X .

But in order for o-American to have a correct perspective, he mush first de,3tray the philosophy of defeatism in the black ca munity . We must understand our historical destiny and d velopments in the world in order to have a clear view o our position in the Black

Revolution . First of all, w must forget about whether or now we now have all the a and M ms must stop thinking that because we don't have a y or ail of the arms, we can't win . In order to free ourselves mentally, we must know the power black people in this country .

These powers are, one, he power to stop the machinery of the government - that is, the power to cause chaos, and make the situatio such that nothing runs .

Two, is the power to hurt th economy . tdith Black people

lly in the major urban areas

in the North - and disrupting the agricultural setup

in the South, the economy of the oppressor would came

to almost a standstill . Three, . is +the power of un-

Ieashir)g violence . This is the power that black people

have to tear up "Charlie's'' house . This is something

that probably . every Asian, African and Latin American

revolutionary wished he could do . But this goody is

left to the Afro-American .

All Afro-Ar~ericans must begin to think like guerrilla

fighters, since we are all "blood brothers" in the

struggle . Let us learn from our mistakes in the past .

Appealing to a power structure does no good . The only

thing that power -reacts to is more passer . if we don't

think we can win°, then there is no use in trying .

Cowards give up when the odds look bad . A guerrilla

fighter knowa he or she is right and attempts to win'no

matter what the odds are . Many of us think we c

chaos, but can't take state power . This is not true .

Others say we cannot be successful without . the physical

help of our Asian, African and Latin American retrolutianary

brothers . This is also a degree of defeatism .

It is true that our struggle is part of a world

black revolution, and we must unite with the "Bandung"

forces, but it is incorrect and defeatist to say that

we cannot win 'under any circumstances . We must, under

143

all conditions, be united with our Asian, African,~~and

Latin American brothers and ~isters, but as Fide1 Castro i says, "revolutionaries must make the revolution ."

This means that we (Afro-Ame~lricans) must make our own

revo lution . Also, we must b!le willing to accept the res-

ponsib. ility of revolution and be willing to go all the

way, no matter what happens .l

Robert F . Williams in Fiebruary of 1964 advanced

the theory of "urban c~uerril la warfare :" Since that time,

mass eruptions have occurred in over i00 U .S, cities

where Afro-Americans have f ught gallantly against sup-

erior military forces . Thelmost noticeable rebellion

has treen the Watts, Los Angeles, California rebellion

of 1965 . These uprisings t~ke an a different character

in the present world scene ~or they become an integral

part of the World Black Rev lution . The Afro-American

is. the vanguard of the 4lorl~! Black Revolution, being

America's Achilles heel . RAM states that, "The Afro

American will be the 'single spark that starts the prairie

fire' in the World Black Revolution ." Malcolm X in

1964 stated,", . .any kind of,~ racial explosion that can

be confined to the shores af America . It is a racial

fire that can ignite the pdwder keg that exists all over

the planet we call earth,"

Each year more rebellions occur in American cities 1~4

and each year they obtain movie support among the

Bi~ack masses, are .linked more! with organized resistance and tied more to revolutionary .slogans and programs . In

1966, many of the eruptions came under the psychological

influence of the Black Power !slogan raised by Stokely

Carmichael, chairman of SNCC~i~(Student Non--iolent: Coor- dinating Committee) . There il~s a dialectical progressio~ arising and developing as a ~,esult of these rebellions .

It is a revolutionary national consciousness (Black

Nationalism} which sees itsel ll,f linked to the World Black ~~ Revolution . The rebellions afire "curtain raisers" to a developing Afro-American's people's war . "A people's war inevitably meets with manlly difficulties, with ups and downs and setbacks in the',, course of its developments, but no force can alter its geilneral trend towards an- evitable tritvmph . . .To despise) the enemy strategic:a " ly

is an elementary requirement l~,for a revolutionary,

Without the courage to d espise the enemy and without daring to win, it will be simllply impossible to make revolution and wage a people' ;is war, let alone achieve i victory . . ." "lt is also very jimportant for revolutionaries to take full account of the ell,nemy tactically . It is likewise impossible to win vil,ctory in a people`s war without taking 5u11 account o~f the enemy tactically, and without ex8mining the con;lcrete conditions, without

i45

being prudent and giving grdat attention to the study

of the art of struggle and v~ithout adopting appropriate

forms of struggle in the coc~rete practice of revolution

in each country and with recjard to each concrete problem 1 of the struggle ."

RAM is the only known rational Afro-American or-

ganization that does empt to project itself

publicly (using the oppressor's mass media) . Williams

states that the concept of'~rban guerrilla warfare that

is taking place inside the .S . is a new concept of

revolution . . .''The concept i~ lightning campaigns con-

ducted in highly sensitive~'~urban communities and spread-

ing to the farm areas . The l~',old method of guerrilla

warfare, as carried out fror~ the hills and countryside,

would be ineffective in a powerful, country like the U .S .A .

Any such force would be wiped out in an hour . The new

concept is to huddle as clo~e to the enemy as possible

so as to neutralize his modern and fierce weapons : The

_ ~, . new concept creates conditiens that involve or not . It

sustains confusion and destr~uction,of property . It

dislocates the helpless, sprlawling, octopus . During

the hours of day sporadic rioting takes place and massive

sniping . Night brings all-cut warfare, organized fight-

ing and unlimited terror ag~inst the oppressor and his ~I, forces ." 14 6

Urban guerrilla warfarelis~ an ever-growing concept as a solution to the end of oppression among the Black masses in America . As racis~s continue to attack Afro-

Americans, blacks will resor~ more and more to guerrilla warfare . This will bring a confrontation between the black and white races , in Ame~ica . . ."When massive violence comes, the U .S .A . will becom~ a bedlam of confusion and chaos . The factory work~rs will be afrais to venture out on the streets t.o report''~to their jobs . The telephone workers and radio workers wi~l be afraid to report .

A11 transportation will come~~o a :.complete stand-still .

Stores will be destroyed and~li looted . Property will be damaged and expensive buildings will be reduced to ashes . Essential pipelines ill be severed and blown up and all manner of sabotag will occur . Violence and terror will spread like a fi estorm . . "A clash will occur ins de the armed forces . At

U .S . military bases around tfhe world, local revolutionaries will side with Afro-G .I .'s . Because of the vast area covered by the holocaust, U :~ . forces will be spread too thin for effective actin U .S . workers who are caught on their jobs will try to return home to protect their families . Trucks and rains will not move the necessary supplies to the bi~~ur.ban,centers . .The economy 2 will fall into a state of ch~os ."

14 7

"The weapons of defense mploy'ed by Afro-American freedom fighters must consist of a poor man's arsenal .

Gasoline fire bombs (Molotov ocktails), lye or acid

bombs (made by injecting lye acid in the metal ends

of light bulbs) can be used e tensively . During the

night hours such weapons, thr wn from rooftops, will

make the streets impossible f racist cops to patrol .

Hand grenades, bazookas, ligh mortars, rocket launchers,

machine guns and ammunition c n be bought clandestine-

ly from servicemen anxious to make a fast dollar .

Freedom fighters in military amps can be contacted t

give instruction on usage . . .E tensive sabotage is possible .

Gas tanks on public vehicles can be choked up with sand .

Sugar is also highly effective in gasoline tanks . Lang

nails driven through boards a nd tacks with large heads

are effective to sfiow the mo ement of traffic on con

Bested roads at night . This can . cause havoc on turnpikes .

Derailing ®£ trains causes p n i c . Exp 1 as i ve book>y

traps on police telephone es can be employed . High-

powered sniper rifles are

piercing bullets will penetr

distance, fhosporous matcf;~

air conditioning systems wil

which will destroy expensive

can be manufactured at home Combat experienced ex- 3 servicemen can easily solve

1~8

in the process of revol tion, the mass communications

system would be the first to go . Why? Because the

enemy's populace and support rs rely on mass commun't-

cations system to know how t relate to events . BY

destroying the oppressor's c mmunication system the

revolutionary nationalist cr ates a vacuum in the opp-

ressor's apparatus and iaola es him from,his machinery .

Also, it sets the oppressor t a disadvantage because

he wall have to attempt ~osr build his system in the

middle of a battlefield . Th electrical plants should

be the first target, then ra i,o and. T .V : stations,

newspaper buildings, etc . 1 union areas transportation

lines would be the number tw target - sabotage of subway

systems, derailing to trolle s or trains, etc . 'The

destruction of airports, esp ciaily the tower, dents

the beasts' transportation s stem ; telephones should be

out . In rural areas the roa s leading in and out should

be set up for ambush and tra s for trucks, etc .

urban areas, gasoline across highways, road blocks '

hold up traffic for hours .

With Wa11 Street, Madis n Avenue, and half of the

complex in Washington blown bits, the oppressor will

have to function under warti e plans . The destruttion

of property (the concept of rivate property , being the

basis of the system) would b the chief concern of the

14 9

revolutionary national fiber t ion fighters . The demo-

lition of industry would com after communication and

transportation . The destruc ion of steel plants, auto

plants, oil fields and plant chemPcal plants would

divide the energies of the o pressor . The complex

outside the cities like New ork, Detroit, Chicago,

Buffalo, N :Y ., Lansing, Mich Philadelphia, Cleveland,

etc :, are convenient for rev lutionary nationalists .

The destruction of such comp exes could be achieved

by stationary mortars or mor ars from an automobile .

The mayor's areas should als b e completely demolished .

This keeps the lower elite s ction of the capitalist

ruling class isolated in the suburbs without communication

for days with the outside wo ld . Bombs on traina

would stop the commuter syst m entirely ; occasional

terror raids in the "super e ite" sections killing

important executives would c eate chaos in the oppressor's

communities, holding, mainta ping and sustaining it .

If psychological warfar is used with physical, then

the oppressor's forces and s pporters will be .put at

considerable disadvantages . We can see through phase

one - destruction of communi ations systems, destruction

of transportation systems, d struction of important

property of the oppressor's Wall Street, Madison Ave .,

etc .,) industrial complexes, s tee l , iron , che~n i cY~ l ,

150

oil, gas industries, etc ., ~II ,Birmingham, Ala, is the

main industrial complex in t he South . Being that the

social, economic and political structure is divided into

two different categories ., ou r partisan war of national

liberation must have a dual front . The South is a rural

area, but because of .communi ~ation, terrain (basically

flat) and transportation (hi hways), it takes on a semi-

urban character . The North is highly industrialized

being urban, almost super-ur an, on the East Coast .

The dual front of our f rcees would be a semi-

urban campaign in the South nd an urban campaign in the

North . The struggle in the be to wreck the

oppressor's political and ec nomic apparatus - government

buildings, assassination of overnment officials, state

and city, police machinery, rmy, etc .~, business execu-

hives and business buildings Strategic raids in certain

suburbs at night, blowing up executives' homes would be

total dislocation of major c i,ties and will be the type

of activity of the Northern ampaing . While in the south

there would be semi-urban gu rriila warfare with more

emphasis on occupying (fiber ting) certain areas es-

tablishing the people's gove nments and waging campaigns

against the enemy . 7hts typ of warfare would take place

within the Black Belt area - Louisiana, Mississippi,,

Georgia and South Carolina . Iln this area black people

constitute near the major~a~y 'and live in anaarea that

extends from the Atlantic ca ast to the Gulf of Mexico .

Partisan vrarfare and the establishment of people's

liberation bases could cut t he oppressor's in half .

Blacks constitute at least 4 5~ of the population of

Louisiana, 5gro in Mississipp i, 45~ in Alabama, ~0$ in

Georgia, and S5~ bn South Ca roiina . The revotution "

would probably pread from the Northern cities to Southern

cities, then to Southern rur al areas ; then the initiative

would fall on the rural area 5 defeating the enemy in

small campaigns while libera ting the community .

The Southern front woul d shift rluickly fram guerrilla

to mobile warfare . At this time the opppessor would be

forced to call in the Nation sl Guard and the army battle

forces would be divided beta use of i nt,erna l d issens ion due

to the racial issue . The Na tional Guard and the Army

would be called in to crush mobile warfare in the rural

areas, because i~ would be th e most advanced form of

guerrilla warfare . At this t i me guerr i l l a un i is i.n

urban areas could engage the enemy in "mass ambush"

while the enemy is preparing to mobilize against: the

Aouthern fOrRt . The elite o f the mobile guerrilla

Southern 'forces would wage a t~ encirclement offensive on

one of the major Southern wo rk centers .

At the same time the No rthern guerrilla _could wage 15 2

a suburban offensive throwin apparatus far into white Ame mobile guerrilla could close~:the encirclement extending the war in a protracted mann per splitting the enemy forces in two . The accupyin g of cities - Black communities would be basically in t he South where there are a great number of Black people both within and out of the city . The play of move ent would develop sabotage within a Southern city with riot (far areas), taking over plantation,

Organization would require many facets . Groups dedicated to militant demonstrations arould have .to apply constant pressure r structure, create chaos and confusion and oppressor to unmask his ugly face before the world y reacting even more; brutally and indiscriminately agains Constitutional forr.es .

of the power structure

ce to it .

uld have to be formed thr.ough- out ;uld be organized wil:hin the confines of the law and whe possi ;bls become sporting rifle clubs affiliated with the National Rifle Elssociation .

They would function only as defense units to safeguard life, limb and property in hetto communities . Some form of central direction' w uld be necessary . A tightly

15 3

organized and well disciplin

force would also have to be ~ormed to perform a more

aggressive mission . have to be clandestinely

organized and well-versed in explosives . Its mission

would be retaliation and a f rce used to pin down and

disperse concentrated fascis p04Je r . l t would prevent

the power structure from rus ing reinforcements to encircle

and crush other defense grou s engaged in battle against

terrorist forces by ambushin , sniping, bombing bridges,

booby trapping and sabotagin highways . A welfare corps

would have to be organized t build morale, raise funds,

promote legal defense and to e charge of the general

welfare of the fighting foPc s and their families . Many

of the members ofi the Welfar Organization front would

not understand their total f nction . They would be

recruited on a~.humanitarian asis .

The most aggressive and irrepressible arm of the

overall organization would b~ the fire teams : They

would work in complete secre y and would be totally

divorced from the main bodie of defense and other

forces in the organizational sense : They would enjoy

complete autonomy . The grou 's only tangible loyalty

to them would be in time of istress . Their legal aid

in court defense would be re dered by Afro-Americans

giving legal aid to victims f kangaroo court systems,

15 4

as is commonly known where B hack people stand no chance

of obtaining Justice . This ~rouldI be similar to, but

more militant P's role . The fire teams'

mission would be sabotage . ~'housands of these groups

would be organized throughou racist America . These

teams would consist of from hree to four persons . They

would only know the members f their immediate team .

They would not identify with the civil rights movement .

They would appear to be apat eti'c and even Uncle Toms .

They. would sometimes masquer d e ws super-patriots and

be more than willing, in a d deceptive way, to cooperate

with the police . They would even infiltrate the police

force and armed forces when possible, and work in the

homes of officials as dourest There would be no official meet d ons, only emergency calls and sudden missions .

The mission of these th usands of active fire teams

would be setting .:strategic f fires . They could render

America's cities and country fide impotent . They could

travel from city to city pla ing lighted candles covered

by large paper bags in Ameri a's forests, and have time

to be far removed from the s Gene by the time the lighted

candle burned to the dried 1 eaves . White unsparingly

setting the torch to everyth ing that would burn in the

cities and while concentrati ng on guerrilla warfare, the

rural countryside would not be neglected . Aside from

15 5

the devastating damage that could be visited upon the

countryside, such a mission (could serve a twofold purpose :

(t would also diverC enemy farces from the urban centers,

State forces would be forced~to spread their ranks and

would not be able to sustain massive troop concentra-

tions in a single community .

The heat and smoke generated from the fires would

render some of the highways jmpassable to repressive

troop reinforcements . The r ral countryside covers

vast areas and would require exhaustive manpower,

equipment and security force ., America cannot afford

to allow its rich timber res¢urces and crops to i~o up

in smoke . The fire teams ro~ing in automobiles would

find unguarded rural objectifies even more accesslbie .

A few teams could start miles and miles of fires from

one city to another . The psychological impact would

be tremendous . By day the billowing smoke would reflect

reddish flames that would elicit panic and a feeling

of impending doom . Operating in teams of two's and

three's, one freedom fighter ould pour gasoline or

lighter fluid and toss a lighted candle into public waste

baskets earlier prepared by other pouring lighter fluid

into them from small flasks . Near closing time,

kitchen matches could be plac d in the airconditioning

systems of industrial and publ .ic,buildings . The property

ls~

Through this method, the-rac

reduced to poverty in a shot

In order to unite the b

Afro-American organizations

a Black Liberation Front .

A Black General Strike to st

have to be called

sysoppressor's economy and dist rb his soc i a l. tem . blhen

all the . black servants are n longer there o~r cannot

be trusted for fear they may

enemy will faced with a soc l crisis . The Black General

Strike will cause complete s vial dislocation with the

American i- acist~system . Youth, especially those .in

gangs, would have to be nized into a political

Black Liberation Army . liberation army would become

Black America's regular rilla army that would become

the "shack force" of the li eration . A11 forms of

revolutionary order would h ve to be established to

keep superior community org nization within the

liberation tortes ranks . revolutionary Afro-american

government would be establi had to govern the liberated

areas . In non-liberated ar as, it -would exist in the

form of instituting revolut Organizations

would have to be structured on the cadre level . . . 15 7

" . . .A cadre organization cann dt be made up of ,just enthusiastic and eager people its essential core 'o must be cold, sober individua 1s who are ready to accept discipline and who recognize the absolute necessity of a strong leadership which can organize and pro~.ect a strategy of action to mobil lze the conscious and not so conscious masses around thair grievances for a life and death struggle against those in power :" Such a cadre must be able to oontinu e the revolutionary struggle despite the setbacks 'that are inevitable in every serious struggle becaus-e the members of the: cadre feel that it is only through the revolution that their own future~is assured .

At the same time it reco gnizes the inevitability of setbacks, such an organiza Cion must build itself consciously upon a perspectiv e of victory . This is particularly necessary in the United States where the idea of perfect defeat of the black man .has been so systematically rooted into th black people themselves that a tendency to self-destr bction or martyrdom lurks unconsciously within the orgy Aization unless it is systematically rooted out of every member, leader and supporter . The movement for t3Jack Power cannot afford other Emmett Tills, other Med gar Evers, other . Malcolms, lout must build first and fore most the kind of organization

which has the strength and discipline to assure that

there will be no more of these .

The afilure to realize our power and position in

this country has been the failure of Afro-Americans

to see themselves as revolutionary nationalists . In

doing this, they don't see our struggle as a national

liberation struggle . instead, our struggle has pre-

viously been defined along class lines only : This leads

to confusion and failure to make a clear analysis,

because there are more factors involved than class .

What most young black intellectuals . must do is stop

seeing themselves, our people, a :~d our struggle through

"Charlie's" eyes .' We must become familiar with ouc

revolutionary history as an oppressed nation .

For a period of three hundred years, the united

States was t~ .e scene of constant revolt . During this

period, white Americans - especially in the South

developed a fear of the "black hordes ." The South was

an armed camp, with every white man . delega~ted with the

authority of Taw and order in matters concerning the

black man . gut then, as now,~law and order has meant

the enslavement of a black nation . What most young

intellectuals fail to do is thoroughly study the siEave

system, the development of slavery from the sixteenth

century on to . the twentieth century, how our nation 15 9

was taken into bondage, and the psychology of white

America during this period .

Contrary to the oppressor's statistics, the slave revolts were well organized, involved thousands of slaves, and sometimes had international implications . These revolts occurred on the average of every three weeks for a three hundred year period : The international perspective of the Denmark Vesey revolt with his attempted coordination with Toussaint L'Ouverture (military leader of the Haitian revolt which had defeated both the French and t3ritish armies in liberating Haiti) shook white America to its ,roots . . .With the population of African captives in the United States much greater than "Charlie" has ever been willing to admit,. white

Americans were faced with a black take-over or black revolution . [iJ~ack revolution plagued them constantly .

Ther"e was never any peace of mind . The fear of having a Haitian revolution on United States soil played a major role in the official abolishment of the slave system when black revolution entirely became a~feasible and pracitical concept .

Contrary to what most white historians would have us believe, the Turner revolt was so well coordinated and planned that i~t involved hundreds of slaves .

Turner struck fear into all of white America by his

16 0

tactic of "strike by night and spare none ." Though the

revolt was short-lived, many persons in positions of

power realized that they would have to cope with a

black revolution if the slave system wasn't destroyed .

They knew that if they didn't do something quick, the

slaves would develop national organisation and they

feared that the "blacks" would take over the country .

Tfi e horror of thinking what the "blacks" would do to the

whites if they were in power was the nightmare of America

The slave system would have to in order to "save the

Union" (white Amec~#aa) . This was the situation that

led to the Civil War . White power had to fight white

power in order too keep control over the "blacks ."

The next step is to develop the tactics for national

liberation as "black brothers and sisters" in the strug-

gle. What we must understand is that "Charlie's"

system runs like an IBM machine . But an IBId machine

has a weakness, and that weakness is its complexity .

Put somethin in the wrong place in an IBM machine and

its finished for a long time . And so it is with this

tacist, imperialist system . Without mass communications

and rapid transportation, this system is through . The

millionaires who control this country would be isolated

from their flunkies who do their dirty work . When war

breaks out in this country, if the action is directed toward taking over institutions of power and "compCete annihilation" of the racist capitalist oligarchy, then the black revolution will be successful . Guns, tanks, and police will mean nothing . The Armed Forces will be in chaos, for the struggle of black revolution will be directed against the racist governemtn of white

America . It wilt be a war between two governments ; the revolutionary Afro-American governments in exile against the racist, imperialist white American government . It will also be a mar of the forces of the Black Liberation

Front against the ultraright coalition .

Black men and women in the Armed Forces will defect and come over to join the Black Liberation forces . Whites who claim they want to help the revolution will be sent into the white communities to divide them, fight the fascists, and frustrate the efforts of the counter- revolutionary forces . Chaos will be everywhere and with the breakdown of mass communications, mutiny will occur

in great numbers in all facets of the oppressor's government . The stock market will fall ; Wall Street will stop functioning ; Washington, D .C . will be torn apart by riots . Officials everywhere will run for their

lives . Thus the William Buckleys, Goldwaters, t)uponts,

Carnegies, Rockef.ellers, Kennedys, Vanderbilts, Hunts,

Jchnsons, Wallaces, Burnetts, etc . will be the first

16 2

to go . The revolution will "strike by night and spare

none ." Mass riots will occur in the day with the

Afro-Americans blocking traffic, burning buildings, etc .

Thousands of Afro-Americans will~be in the street

fighting, for they will know that this is it . The cry

will be "It's On :" This will be the Afro-American's battle for human survival . Thousands of our people will get shot down, but thousands more will be there to fight

on . The black revolution will use sabotage in the cities

knocking out the electrical power first, then transpor-

tation, and guerrilla warfare in the countryside in

the South . With the cities powerless, the oppressor

will 'be helpless .

Nat Turner's philosophy of ."strike by night and .

spare none" is very important because~it shows us that

Turner knew the psychology of white America, and that

we .had leadership with the guerrilla instinct . Turner

knew what black terrorism meant to the whites, and

struck, even though the odds were against him . His

sense of annihilation of the enemy i.s very important for

au r. struggle even today, because unlike Asia, Africa, and

Latin America, the Afro-American has a great bulk of

the mass against him . White America can be neutralized

only be fear of high stakes ., That is~ ; i, f they know that

whole families, communities, etc . of their loved ones

16 3

will be wiped off the face of the earth if they attack

Afro-~,mericans, they won't be too eager to go to war

against us . This will be especially true if the Afro-

American revolutionary forces make it clear that they

are fighting the capitalist ruling class oligarchy -

but if white Americans fight on the side of the white

racist oppressor's government, they will be wiped out

with no questions asked . For to support the oppressor's

government is to be murderers, and they would be treated

iike~murderers . With the terms of the revolution spelled

out, this will divide white America ; so, we can see that

just by observing Nat Turner, we can gain something for

our coming revolution .

The whites have had to use terrorism in order to

control black America . By the proportion of the

population - in the South especially - Afro-Americans

constitute a nation within a nation . As in slavery times f the only thing that has kept us enslaved is the white

man's superior political machinery . By the political

machinery, 1 mean the governmental controls the mass

communications and transportation has kept the white man

in power . If we would look at our situation today,'

we would see that if the white man did.n't deny us the

right to vote or gerrymander our vote in the North, we

would have significant po litical power- if not poli-

16 4

tical control of this country.

We see that in the Southern states , especially

Mississippi - where the blacks outnumber whites by a

very large portion - the situation would be completely

turned around . And with us controlling our communities in the North, we could have the ten major urban centers tied up . if white America wasn't a racist, capitalist,

state, half of Congress would be Black . The whites in con-

trol know this and this is why the . federal~government

will never do anything about it to change its racist

character, Yes, it's the llnited States government who

perpetrates racism . The Southern "cracker" (bigot)

doesn't count, because the U .S . government is a "cracker"

government . Knowing our position, our historical destiny,

we should be willing to all the a'ay .

Neither the CIA, Ff31, National Guard, Army or local

po lice will be able to control our people, due to their

internal conflicts . The oppressor's racist government will weaken and begin to fall more and more with every day of revolutionary struggle on its hands . Foreign

imperialists' holdings will be seized by the various

revolutionary movements in Asia, Africa and Latin America .

U .S . lackey governments will topple everywhere, once the

v racist white American government is no longer able to

come to their aid . l~lith the white American ruling class

16S

wiped off the face of this planet, and the remaining

reactionary forces suffering eventual defeat, the

revolutionary American government of the Afro-Americans

will call on the help of other revolutionaries and

revolutionary governments to help restore order and to

fulfill the ultimate objectives of the World Black

Revolution .

Thus we will have the fulfillment of four hundred

years destiny, and with the Beast (Western Imperialism)

destr-oyed - the birth of a New World : We must realize

that we are the key to the World Black Revolution and

that the rest of the world is waiting for us . We. must

remember that history is on~our side . Not only can we

win, we will win :. 16 6

FOOTNOTES

1 Robert Williams, "Revolution Without Violence," The Cr us ader , V, No . 2, February 1964 .

2 Ibid .

3 Robert Williams, The :Potentiel of a Minority Revolution, part 1, The Crusader, V . June, 1964 .

4 Robert Williams, "The; Potential of a Minority : 1, Revolution, part 11", The Cr u sade r, VII, No Aug . 1965 PP " 5,6

5 .James Boggs, _Ra cism and the C las s Struggle , Monthly Review Press, 1970 .

R00TS Of THE PAN-AFRICAN REVOLUTION

While many historians negate the influence of

black nationalism within the black community, black

nationalism has been the underlying ideology within Black

America since the 1800's, emerging in different periods,

the main period being the 1920's creating the only mass

movement of Black people in America, involving millions

in the Garvey movement .

When the nationalist tide rises, the theory of the

charismatic leader is produced and becomes the philosophy

of the, masses of our people during that time . Gut after

the destruction of the movement, .t he nationalist philo-

soppy becomes just a memory because the ideology of the

nationalist leader is not theorized in a historical

setting . The failure of B ack people in America to

form a dynamic a .nd continuous nationalist movement

has been because nationalist discontinuity occurs as

a result of the state's oppression of any mass nationalist

movement . This nationalist discontinutity exists also

because Negro intellectuals in xhe past shied away

from revolutionary, nationalist ideology and movements .

Thus, once a particular nationalist movement is crushed,

discontinuity occurs in the black community's ranks, 16 8

creating a nationalist vacuum waiting to be fulfilled by the next charismatic leader that comes along .

Black nationalist circles remained dormant after the destruction of the Garvey movement . It resurged for a brief period in the 1940s . While the petty Black bourgeoisie adopted the philosophy of integration, the masses had the ideology of Black nationalism . Even the black bourgeoisie would admit that the phikosophy of

Black .nationalism had remained latent among our people .

In the 1950s Black nationalism began to recover under the leadership of the Honorable Eli~jah Muhammad and the

Nation of Islam . Mr, Muhammad introduced Islam into

Black nationalism and developed a religious consciousness for the ideology .

This religious consciousness har:' a lot to do with future development because it provided the black cpmmunity with a clear historical and religious sense of destiny . It gave rise to the expectations of a mass nationalist consciousness and movement . The Nation of Islam kept the continuity of black nationalism going in the black comaunity for a forty°year period . It soon was the best organized of black nationalist groups, being unique in its religious approach .

Revolutionary .Black nationalism is not a new ideology for it has developed from the historical roots of Henry

16 9

Highland Garnet, David Walker, Denmark Vesey, Martin

Delaney, the Garvey movement, Dut3ois' Pan African con-

grasses and the bation of Islam . Revolutionary black

nationalism is a root ideology using the historical

experiences and philosophies of black nationalist leaders

of the past and present and combining them with the

tactics and revolutionary ideology of other revolutionary

movements .

Maicolm X is the transiti-oval figure in the de-

velopment of revolutionary black nationalism . From his

speeches and writings come the .foundat~con of the ideology .

While this essay does not deal with much of Malcoim's

content, it does try to provide insight into some of

Maicolm's organizational plans . Though Malcolm's

organization the OAAU (Organization of Afro-American

Unity) never became an action center for the black

revolution, part of its program was adopted by younger

revolutionaries who are now making today's headlines .

Revolutionary black nationalism still very much stands

undefined . It is the philosophy that is being .produced

by the revolution in America . It becomes internationalism

or Pan-African - when reflecting on the international

aspects of the process-of decolonization .

Today, African peoples in every country are wit-

nessing a new racial awakening . Black consciousness is rising each day . Black nationalism, the ideology of Black Power and Pan Africanism and the international expression of black nationalism are developing mass followings .

The Black Power Movement in America is still relatively young . The white power structure, realizing w-hat the Black Power philosophy would mean once our people digested it, moved to crush the movement . Black nationalists were soon hit with mass conspiracy cases . 1967 found H . Rap Brown, Huey Newton, Imamu Amiri Baraka, myself and a number of other brothers in jail . These failings were part of a white power conspiracy to .crush the emerging Black Power Movement . The power structure could not have assassinated Dr . Martin Luther ,King when they did if these brothers and others had been on the streets during '67 and '68, because the brothers would have had sizable followings (if not an army) and could have mobilized the millions of our people .

KING'S ASSASSINATION AND AFTERMATH

After King's assassination, the power structure moved through its fifth column - the Ford Foundation and the white American left . The Ford, other foundations, and local banks attempted to buy off the Black Power leadership . C .O .R .E . was almost completely usurped . In

Philadelphia, the black nationalist leadership split into factions ;. fighting over a measly million dollars during the black coalition conspiracy . i t was at that

time that the movement suffered serious setbacks .

Bourgeois "Black Power" spokesmen, all of a sudden,

began to crop up with powerful white financial backings

They traveled under the garb of cultural nationalism .

These new house niggers were sanctioned by the "man"

to keep the masses confused through black cultural

rhetoric .

~- . Mysticism became a way of life for many young

brothers and sisters . This new form of escapism was

propagated to keep black youhth from becoming revo-

lutionary black nationalists andforming a Black Revo-

lutionary Party and Liberation Army (Black Guard) .

On the other hand, brothers who romanticized black

revolution on the West Goast, made some serious mistakes .

We must realize that revolutions are not made over

television, radio, or through the enemies' press . A

revolutionary never warns the enemy of what he is going

to do ; he does it .

The year 1970 opened up a new decade for the uni-

versal African . The question for the African captive

in America is ; How should we proceed to nation building?

In order to answer that question we must first analyze

the alternatives that are being presented to :us .

THE DRIVE FOR LEGAL BLACK POLITICAL POWER

The movement toward running black candidates for

pub lic office, utijizing the bloc vote, represents the

last legal stage of the black middle class interest in

the capitalist political system . It is a continuation

from post Civil War days ; when the black middle-class

obtained a degree of political power in the South . The

attempt to achieve political equality has been the main

emphasis of our national democratic revolwtion . While

this drive doesn`t totally serve the interests of the

black working class - the vast majority of our people -

will help to exhaust the legal means of protest, and

eliminate the illusions that black people can achieve

freedom in the capitalist system. At the same time, this

drive helps weaken the racist political system by polar-

izing its inkierent contradictions .

Full black political representation will throw

America into posit ical chaos . But it should be remem-

tiered that the enemy has plans of just changing faces wil:h M the game remaining the same . The enemy will let black

people control the political machinery of the cities,

while he still controls the industry . The enemy plans

to establish neu-colonialism in America as he has done

in many other places in Africa and Asia . Because we

are in a national democratic revolution, black revo-

lutionaries must support the drive of the black middle-

class to get legal black political power : 41e must do

this because the drive heightens the political and

17 3

nationalist consciousness of the black working class,

organizes them i wpolitical o:rganization and polarizds

contradictions within the colon.izer's system, At the

same time that we organize to get black political re-

presentation within the system, .we must constantly

teacfi the people, that this will not get them liberation .

7HE DRIVE FOR LEGAL BLACK fCONQMIC POWER

l~lhile most black revolutionaries criticize black

capitalism as being a hoax - that it will not benefit

most of our people - we must stilt support the black

middle class drive to become a capitalist class . We:

do this not because we feel black people can gain freedom

under the capitalist system, or that black capitalists

are any better than white capitalists . We are in a <, ;: = . , nationalist revolution of a colonialized nation in which

all classes wust surge forth to obtain their national

class interests as one class . Being suppressed, the

black middle class was not allowed to develop into a

bourgeois class . Black capitalism is the .last legalist

drive by the black middle class to obtain economic power

within the system . It is important that we understand the

dynamics of class, class structure, colonialism and

national liberation movements . Our revolution is a

national liberation revolution ; is one of a colonial-

ized nation seeking independence and self determination

from the colonializer .

We must realize that there arc antagonistic

contradictions between all classes of black America

and the colonializer . The bt.ack bourgeoisie, because

it lacks political and economic power, is more of a

petty bourgeoisie and bourgeoisie and will have more

of a tendency to support the revolution than a classical.

bourgeoisie . If we understand these contradictions, then

we will understand why the black middle class responds

the way that it does . Black revolutionaries must cri-

ticize the black middle class drive toward black capi-

talism, but, at the same time, support it because we

must realize that is is a necessary historical stage

before our nation can move to open revolution .

In other words, we must support the existence and

expansion of black businesses and .at the same .t'rme we must

point out that profits from black businesses should go

back to the community . Black economic development must

be a coliective .e-fort . Our colonialized nation needs

an independent economic system . We need to be sel.f-

reliant . Black cooperatives must be encouraged . Black

communalism, the joint ownership of the means of

production and commerce by the community, must become

a way of life . This is . black economic self-determination :

economic development that benefits the majority of our

people . 41e must constantly teach our people .that this is

not totally possible without a complete social revolution . 17 5

To develop a collective spirit and prepare our community for economic survival, we must develop economic cooperatives whenever we can .

CULTURAL REVOLUTION AND REVOLUTtONARY BLAGK NATIONALISM

Since 1968, African people . have been undergoing a cultural revolution . The cultural revolution has produced a pride in being of African stock . "Say it loud,

I'm Black and I'm proud" represents the present mood of thought . The honorable Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation Of Islam is the spiritual father of the black cultural revolution in America . For some thirty years, the messenger has taught and propagandized our people with the importance of being self-rel#ant . The "Lamb" teaches us'why we should separate and form an independent nation of our own . From the last Messenger of A-1ah came a mass spokesman who has given this generation of youth anew direction . Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali are two brothers who were personally groomed by the Messenger .

Many groups have cropped up to brig about a "re-

Africanization" of our people . As a result, some of these groups have formed the position that all things came from culture . While revolutionary black nation alists see black culture as a stage ~of development in the national consc .cousness of our people, they do not see it as a stage of development in the national cons-

17 6

ciousness of our people, they do not s'ee it as an end

in itself . We ,she that we are at present a cultural

nation (a colonialized nation whose culture is suppressed

and exploited) seeking to become~an Independent nation

state . This means that we African people held in cap-

tivity inside the United States, have a common culture,

way of life and history, heritage, and destiny . We

also have a common economic existence, political posture,

and up until recently (the last twenty years occupied

a common territory . Revolutionary black nationalists

believe cultural nationalism is only beneficial when it

leads to helping revolutionary political nationalism .

The two major supporters of cultural nationalism

are Maulana Ron Karenga and imamu Amiri Baraka . While

both Maulana and lmamu . work together,"there are major

differences in their approach . Maulana, who believes

strongly in one . man leadership, has a dangerous tend-

ency toward being very egotistical . Egotistical leadership

is counter-revolutionary, anti-people and only serves

to further divide the community . The black nation needs

a selfless collective leadership devoid of ego that is

dedicated to serving our people . Egotistical leader- .

ship will only lead to endless internal war over who is

greater than "me" . It will lead to nationalist gang

war . Egotistical, self-centered, self-styled leaders, 17 7

who usually work secretly with the enemy, must be iso-

fated and if necessary, driven out of the black community .

If black n8tionalists are going to build a new value system, it must be built on new values that are beneficial to the unification and liberation of the black nation . Anew black value system cannot be based on messianic (one man) egotistical leadership and fascist authority, It must be based on collective leadership, communalism and democratic centralism .

Brotfier Imamu Amiri Baraka seems to be building a collective leadership which is necessary to build a

World African Party .

THE SOUTHERN 5TRUGGLE FOR A REGIONAL INDEPENDENT

NATION

As the black middle class drive "a for political representation within the system, if will begin to realize that its class interests cannot be satisfied by reform of the political system of the United State$ .

This, in return, will force the black middle class and the black working class to become more nationalistic .

The next logical step will be to raise the demand for an independent black republic . Black revolutionaries who call for open revolution (the overthrow of the entire enemy government) . must realize that rJhile this may have to be done, it os necessary to .move our people to revolution, step by step . Our people have been mentally

oppressed and do not as .yet anderstand their power, so

we must constantly move them to objectives which they

understand they are capable of achieving .

The REpublic of New Africa which is demanding the

states of Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina

and Louisiana call this "limited objective ." The southern

region is where 50~ of our people live . There are

appraximately 15 million black people living in the

South . Many are becoming the majority of the major

southern cities . Some southern states have a black majority, population-wise . If the black population

in the South is mobilized to demanding an independent

nation, it will polarize the contradictions of the whole nation . Nationalism is usually an urban phenomenon .

The historical contradiction of black nationalism

lies in the fact that in the pest it was a northern

based urban movement, while the majority of our people were southern rural based . But the social stratification of black America has changed with many of our people in

the South being displaced from the land . The majority of our people in the S~eutt~ are becoming urban black

proletariat . Black nationalists must develop tactics of moving our people step by Step to independent nation-

17 9

hood . If black nationalists organize our people in the

South in the plants, then they will have a base among

the people .

While the struggle for an independent black repub-

lic may not be the ultimate phase of the black nationalist

revolution, it is a necessary historical stage .

THE AFRICAN AMERICAN AND PAN-AFRICANISM

The African captive in America (overseas African}

has always been active in the liberation of our mother-

land, Africa . . W .E .B . DuBoi s as early as 1919

organized the first Pan-African Congress : From 1919 to

1945, the Pan-African congresses served as a forWm far

African intellectuals at home and abroad . The Pan-

African Congress b in 195, developed the tactics of

direct action for the liberation of the mainland . The

Pan-African movement has advanced in gradual steps .

Marcus Garvey, the father of nationalism, also had as

an objective the liberation of a unified central African

government .

Stokely Carmichael, the mass spokesman for Black

Power, returned from Africa in 1971 saying that Pan-

Africanism must become the mass philosophy of the Afrir

can American . Stokel ystudied for some time under

Nkrumah in Guinea . At that time, Brother Carmichael's

new strategy called for the African-American to concen-

trate his efforts on possibly bringing Nkrumah back

18 0

into power in Ghana . The land base Lhat would be

liberated wound became a Pan-African state on which the

Pan-African revolution would be based . Brothers and

sisters in the states are told that struggling for

revolution in~the United States will be a protracted

affair and not possible at this times Many call bis

position a "cop-out ." We must realize that all people

must make tfieir own indigenous revolution led by people

from their own , country . This doesn't mean we shouldn't

help the brothers and sisters on the mainland . We should

help where we can, but we must concentrate our efforts

where we are . And if we understand the nature of im-

perialism aid neo-colonialism, we wili realize that if

we did create a Pan-African socialist state, it would

be faced with encirclement and intervention from the.

United States government . Africans in America and the

Carribbean are actually Africa's military rear .

In order for Africa to be truly liberated, a world

war of liberation must be fought between Africa, Europe,

and America . We are engaged in a world black revolution .

It is then necessary to develop tactics far all Africans

worldwide . Being in a protracted international war

of national liberation, it is necessary for Africans to

wage struggle'in the country where they are colonialized .

4!e are up against an international crisis in the capi-

talist-imperialist system . This means we must organize

national Pan-African movements' that can move to seize' state power in their region .

At the same time, we must develop an international

African consciousness among our people so that when the

enemy moves to encircle and crush a national African

revolution, we can come to its aid by creating a crisis

somewhere else, forcing the enemy to overextend him-

self . While this may be our war strategy, we must

encourage Africans in America and the Caribbean with

skills to go to progressive African states and build those

states into strong Pan-African bases .

REPRESSION AND BLACK REVOLUTION '

As the black revolution intensifies, it will

become more threatening to the white power structure .

The urban insurrections of the 1960's showed the

revolutionary potential of the black national liberation

movement . The federal government, through its intel-

ligence apparatus, has analyzed the black liberation ,

movement to be a potential national democratic revolution .

In order to prevent the black revolution from reaching

its objectives, certain forces within the power structure

are moving to crush our struggle before it reaches the

stage where it cannot be stopped . As a result, a

conspiracy has'been brewing and widening over athe last

10 years . Groups such as the John Birch Society,

Minutemen, Ku Klux Klan, American-Independent Party,

White Peoples Party, Rangers, White Christian Movement,

have consolidated as the "radical right ." These groups

are intertwined and connected with big business, Pen-

tagon, Government Intelligence (CIA, DIA), LRS, Secret

Service, Army Intelligence, FBI, Nouse Internal Security

Sommittee, National Defense, and southern racist and

nofthern conservative liberals who constitute the

"legal . istic right ."

These forces are moving as fast~as they can to create

political atmosphere of hysteria ; in order to make

conditions such that the President would appear . ;justified

in declaring a national emergency . The "right" is pre- I I paring to make America an open fascistic state . Under

the provisions of the McCarren Act, the President of

the U .S . can declare a national emergency on grounds

of"insurgency or attack from a foreign enemy . At ptesent,

through the files and dossiers of the government

intelligence agency, all black groups and leftist

political groups are under 24 hour surveillance .

Approximately one million people can be picked up and

put in concentration camps within 24 hours .

Much of the intelligence information gets to

government intelligence sources by way of local police

who have a system of surveillance on all known black and

leftist groups, who constantly send in agent provocateurs

18 3

to destroy these groups . This is the climate, in~reality,

that black people must face in . the 1970's . As white

police become more politically racist, repression will

became more intense for black America . As a result,

all black people will soon be lumped together to be

referred to ws S1ack . Panthers or Black Panther sym-

pathizers . Black people must understand the historical

condition that we are in . We must either unite or perish

under a fascist racist America . There are several forms

of struggle and organization that we must move to if we

are to achieve self-determination .

Within our community, we must build a disciplined

black revolutionary party that is capable of destroying

the oppressors' pmeans of oppression . This black

revolutionary party must be highly.sop.histicated in the

art of deception . It must form an infra-structure within

the black community . This party must constantly move

in uniting sectors of black America. The present period

raises the need for a National Black Liberation Front . 18 4

THE PAN-AFRICAN 13EVOLUTION

The formation of the pan African movement was born

from the 'realities of African peoples having been subjected

to the sinister exploitation of a white European western world through its social, political, cultural and economic system .

Since the beginning of the 16th century, when Europe

began to engage itself in the interriationai rape of

Africa, ripping African society to threads, kidnapping more than 100 million Africans, binding them as cattle and enslaving them and exposing them to rape, genocide,

and the abuse of slavery through an international trade which reaped billions in profits to all of European

society, Africans have been subjected to the worst kind of abuse and crimes of inhumanity the world has ever

known .

For over 400 years the European has attempted to '

impose his will on dark people, the majority of the world . As his society developed from the international

trade of African men, women and children as chattel

slaves, i .e ., steal.i~g families, tribes from their

homes, the European uprooted society in African and

brpught slavery to the "New World", North, South, Central

America and the Caribbean .

The European bourgeois, in order to pacify its own

-contradictions, developed the concept of racism, ex-

ploitation and enslavement on the basis of race ;

enslaved people were considered less than human beings .

This was done in order to justify their international system

of exploitation of man by mankind . The system of capital-

ism which developed to a large extent from the stave

trader, later developed into imperialism, capitalism's

highest stage of development . imperialism developed into

neo-colonialism, the last stage of imperialism . The

imperialists have spread the system of racism in Asia

and have developed an international racial caste of which

the European is on top (white is right) and has developed

an international curtain based on color, limiting the

areas of peaceful communication between the haves and the

have nots .

The Pan African movement developed as a result of

white colonial rule in the Black world . i t struggled .

in an era in which Black people were manipulated and

used as pawns by all forces of the white world, by

white internationalists both .from the left and the right .

The historical development of a world Black revolutionary

movement in which African peoples have forged a revolution-

cry .scientific . :outlook (ideology to liberate themselves from

the oppressive systems of racism, colonialism, imperialism,

capitalism, and neo-colonialism .

18 6

The Pan Africam movement began as a movement .of

bourgeois nationalist ante}1~ectuals before being trans-

formed into a revolutionary force for African liberation .

lw July, 1900, H . Sy1veste,r i"(illiams, a West Indian

lawyer practicing in hondon, founded the first Pan African

Conference . puBois said that the problem of the 20th z cenfury is the problem of the color line . Dr . DuBols

was elected vice-president of the first Pan African

conference . The Pan African conference did not receive

support from the masses of Africans at that time because

for a large part, the movement was in the hands of

alienated Black intellectuals, who, though brilliant,

had basically severed their roots with the mass of Black

people, to it's early years, the Niagara Movement's

Pan African department . corresponded with African intel-

lectuals . Even Thomas Fortune and Booker~T . Washington 3 were interested in the concept of Pan Africanism : But

the main organizational development of Pan Africanism was

maintained by the efforts of Dr . DuBois and Marcus Garvey .

In 1919 DuBois organized the second Pan African Congress

which was held in Paris . The Congress consisted of

fifty-seven delegates, sixteen of whom were African-

Americans, twenty-oneWest .lndian, twelve African and the

remainder European . The Congress was a mild one in terms

of formulathng a program of social action for the liberation

of Africa, but it went a long v~ay towards laying the

rs~

groundwork for international Black organization and

communication . During this time puse Muhammad Ali,

edifor of the Africa n .Tiraes and'~Orient Review, worked

very closely with Marcus Garvey and other Pan Africanists .

tw 1920 Marcus Garvey, the most significant inter-

nafiional mass leader of the twentieth century, organized

the l nternat i ona l Convention of the Negro People 'of

the World . Unlike DuBois, Garvey was not an alienated

intellectual, but was a mass leader who organized thousands

to support the concept of Pan African Nationalism (Black

Internationalism) and the immediate liberation of Africa .

One of the most severe blows to the cause of Pan Africanism

was the clash that occurred between DuBais and .Garvey

in the 1920's . DuBois was a master organizer, propa-

ganalist, and agitator . Within five years he had formed

the nucleus for an international Black movement that

had millions of followers . But the white colonial

powers were well aware of the potential of an international

Black nationalist movement and they immediately organized

to stop Garvey . They formed an international white

power conspiracy to keep Garvey from theshores of Africa,

banned the Negro Wor_id- , Garvey's weekly newspaper in

African colonies, and with the help of the United States

Government, caused division within his ranks,, used the

Negro inte1ligen .tsia to wage a character assassination

campaign against him, framed, jailed, and exiled him .

18 8

The second Pan African Congress was held in London

and Brussels in ]g21 . . There were:]l3. official delegates,

25 from the United States and .4] :from Africa . In

gussets a split occurred among the Pan Africanists .

Diagne, then the Chairman of the Congress, led the moderate

faction and DuBois led the militant faction . The militant

faction of the Congress was still considered moderate

according to Garvey . It should be noted while two

forces were organizing international Black movements (Du

Bo.i s~ and Garvey) , nei then were looked upon pos it ively

by the white Russian revolutionary leaders, for they saw

the Pan African movement as only ~a tool or pawn in

their international chess game for power .

The Th i rd Pan Af r ican Congress was held i n London and

Lisbon in 1923 . Because of DuBois' conflicts with Garvey,

the Congress was not well attended .

The~Fourth Pan African Congress was held in New

York in ]927 . It was the last Congress held directly

under DuBois' leadership . Again because of DuBois',

histor .i.¢al~conflict with Garvey, the Congress did not 4 receive mass support from the Black world .

The 1930's, the depression, the opportunist moved

by the left and the impending war years hindered further

development of the Pan African movement until the mid

]940's . A personality that began to, become the spark

for Pan Africanism was George Padmore, a brother who had

18 9

recently left the communist movement and who was now in

nationalist circles . M~aking~residence in London, he came

in contact with other brilliant Black men such as his

childhood friend, C .L . R . James- , ~tallace Johnson, and

Jomo Kenyatta . In ]g44 various Black organizations united

to form the Pan African Federation under the leadership

of the International Service Bureau .

Padmore became the main organizer for another Pan

African Congress which was to become the turning point

for the Pan Af-rican movement . Padmore corresponded with

DuBois and DuBois gave all the encouragement to the Pan

African Federation to hold the Fifth Pan African Congress .

The Fifth Pan African Congress held in Manchester,

England in 1845 was the turning point of the Pan African

movement . For the first time in the development of the Black International movement, Africans drafted a scientif 6 program for immediate liberation of the motherland .

Some notable African leaders who played a major role

were Nkrumah, who organized the West African National

Secretariat from the Congress and Jomo Kenyatta, later

to become known as the "Burning Spear ."

. In ]g46, the West African National Secretariat held

its own conference announcing i-ts dedication to the concept

of ideas among bourgeois intellectuals into a scientific

ideology welded by an deveToping .African intelligentsia

into organizational form to serve as an instrument for

19 0

a national liberation revolution .

Col in L.egun in his Pan Africanism , describes the

historical need and development of fan Africanism when

he says : ~'Rccognition of the unique historical position

of Black peoples as the universal bottom dog lead to a

revolt against passive submission to this situation . The

emotions associated with Blackness were antellectualized

analyze Pan Africanism became a vehicle for the struggle

of Black people to regain their pride .'"

_ .Pan Africanism became an ever growing force in the

1950's with the emergence of the Mau Mau revolution in

Kenya, the success of the anti-colonial revolution,

obtaining independence for Ghana and then the chain of

events that led to decolonialization and the emergence

of seemingly independent political African .states .

Padmore's book Pan Africanism or Crmnmun i sm i s a theor-

etical~c7assic in the definition of historical experiences

Teading to the development of Pan Africanism . While Pan

Africanism won many victories in the late 1950's and early

1g60's its leaders made serious errors and the course of

true Af r i can l i bera t i on suf f ereci many setbacks i w the late t960's . The major setbacks lie in the change in

perspective of the Pan African .movement from 1945 to

1958, when the emphasis was changed from an international

Black movement ~to a coalition of independent African states .,

Pan Africanism then began to lose its revolutionary fervor with its immediate 'objecti've being achieved in the early 60!s . The early 1960:'s erected the

Illusion that true Independence had at last been won .

But to the contrary only the method of coloniakiza.t~on was changed .

When Nkrumah began focusing pan Africanism on the newly independent states, overseas Africans were in an organizational vacuum .

Nationalizing of Pan Africanism proved fatal as coup upon coup, invasion upon invasion marked the overthrow of several progressive African governments and assassin ation of African freedom fighters .

In 1963 and 1864 efforts to build a strong Organization of African Unity was misdirected with emphasis being placed on leaders of African governments . This limited the flexibility of the Pan African movement . With the

Pan African movement being well entrenched in African youth instead of head of state, pressure could not be brought upon it because the heads of state could always say ; "I have nothing to do with it ; it is the will of the people ."

Brother Malcolm X saw the great need for international

Black unity and organization and attempted to fulfill

the gap left by the Manchester Congress . But the power

structure, :once again well aware that internatio nal Black organization would mean death to colonialism, imperialism

19 2

and neo-colonialism, assassinated Brother Malcolm

before he could organize an .jnternatjonal Black Congress

Africans the world over must understand that the white

colonialists have changed their strategy, they have

seen that African masses have awakened, developed an

African nationalist conscjou$ness and realize they

cannot rule Africa jn the same way they did before :

cover up their sinister design of world domination and

super exploitation of Africa, they do not seek overt

political control . of African states any longer. They

did this in the. stage of imperialism and colonialism,

but they have consolidated, changed their base of

operations in order to deceive and trick us and as

Nkrumah has brilliantly described in Neo- Colonialism

( The Last Stage of Imperialism),, the imperialists have

changed their tactics . Through trade agreements, bribes,

economic investments and Peace Corps projects, they

plan to re-colonialise Africa in a manner that will

take another 100 years to recover from . Their latest

moves have been to cause division within the ranks of

African governments buying off whole African armies,

assassinating progressive African leaders or overthrowing

them . These Toms who. have sold their souls to the devil

have a high .price'to pay on the day 'of retributisn .

Africans world wide must understand the new

dynamisms that divide the world, created and fortified

19 3

by the system of neo-colonialism .

~JORCD~;~AFR I CAN L I BERAT I ON

African peoples must realize that the present period

calls for a reevaluation of all positions and above

everything else, African peoples the world over must

realize that they are engaged in a world (international)

protracted war of Black liberation . 1f Africa does, not

do this, it and all Africans abroad face neo-colonialist

rulE and possible extermination soon .

The white m.an is a white internationalist . When the

Black world becomes Black Internationalist, no more coups

could be pulled on progressive African nationalist leaders .

When it comes to racism, we must destroy it by any means

necessary .

The Black Underclass must make the decisions for

themselves . The Black revolutionary must become more

aggressive and bold in terms of national liberation

and self-determination . Black revolutionaries must

create a condition which will force all African people

the world over to support the world African Revolution

National Liberation, control of a nation state,'. in

the present era, an isolated base in an era of neo-colonial-

ism, will be usurped and set back or destroyed if not

surrounded by other bases of revolutionary action that

are constantly harassing the enemy, not allowing him to 19 3

focus on the particular liberation force . The whole

world must be seen as one large bat lefield in the world

African Revolution, and given land areas viewed as

liberated or colonialized zones In a world-wide pro-

tracted war to out-maneuver the enemy . Control of

nation states becomes part of wortd liberation tactics

rather than ends in themselves, in strategy of tfie Black

Underclass to free itself of world racism .

Pan Africanism or Black Nationalism obtains a new dynamism, that of international consciousness, that of achieving international world power for the people .

Control of, the formation of a world state that represents and works for the benefit of the world's majority,: the

Black Underclass, becomes the ultimate focus of Pan

Africanism, Black Nationalism or Black Power . National

liberation of nation states 'is an intermediate period for the creation of a world union of peoples' republics .

Bnlack nationalism becomes Pan African Nationalism and

Black Power becomes World Black Power .

African and other oppressed people of the world are beginning to conceive the concept of world peoples' war, and world Black Unity, Afric an people of the world,

lose your colonia_Tize:d brainwashing that we are differ ent

because we live in different geographic locations, and were colonial ized 'by d ifferen-t Europeans 'from different nation states . Bl ack people o-f . the world, wake upvand

19 4

real ize ~~hat we were co1-oriial ized and are being - .

neo-colonial ized by ~Europea~rrs . B1 :a~cK People of . ~the

world, rea-l~i'ze that the i uropeari rvhite " Amer ican' ',is ' the

world devil .

THE SWEEPING WORLD BLACK REVOLUTION

All over Africa, Asia, South, Afro and Central

America, a revolution is haunting and sweeping . The

ruling circles of U .S . imperialism and its lackeys

(Europe, Soviet Union, etc .1-have united in a ''white

united .front" in order to try and stop this revolution of

non-white peoples in fear of being swept out of power

and of losing control of their domination of the world :

The United States is leader of , this counter-revolution-

ary alliance of Britain, France, Germany, Soviet Union,

Portugal, Belgium, and the European countries .

Though on the surface they appear disunited, underground,

behind closed doors, in secret conferences, the pact

of the "White Un-Holy Alliance" is "Never let the Black

Revolution Succeed ."

European powers led by U .S . imperialism, including the

so-called European-United States radicals (liberals,

socialists, communists , realize that the success of the

World Black Revolution would mean the end of European

rule of the world . The international unification, mobil-

ization and organization of Africa, Asia, South, Central

lg5

and Black America (non-white majority of the world) is

what they ,f ear most . Thelr~tactlGS have been those of

divide and rule in order to keep this from happening .

Two things r.esu l t from these facts : v

l . In order for the World Black ReVol~ution to 'be

successful, all non=white peoples must unite to~destroy .

the existing white powers .

2 . Black Internationalists must begin to prepare for

a final showdown with the.whtte imperialist oppressors

and must begin to~organize for a World Black Revolution

which will create a "New World" which they will rule and

master .

THE PRINCI-PLE CONTRADICTION IN THE WORLD AND THE LINE

OF REVOLUTIONARY BLACK INTERNATIONALISTS

"The problem of the Twentieth Century ,is the problem 9 of the color tine ." The contradiction between the

revolutionary peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America

and the imperialists headed 'by the United States. i s the

principle contradiction in the contemporary world . The

development of this contradiction is prompting the struggle

of the people of the whole world against United States

imperialism and its lackeys .

19 6

COMMON GRIEVANCES AMONG AFRICAN, ASIAN, SOUTH, CENTRAL

AMERICAN ANA CARIBBEAN PEOPL.E:S AGgINST THE EUROPhAN- gMFRICAN

For over 400 years the European has attempted to

impose his will on dark peoples, .the majority of the

world .' As,his society developed from the international

trade of African men, women, and children as slaves,

stealing families, tribes from their homes, the European

uprooted society in Africa and brought slavery to .the

"New World'! = North,' South, Centra 1 Amer i ca and the Caribbean .

The European (rul .ing class) Bourgeoisie in order

to pacify its own contradictions, developed the concept

of racism, exploitation and enslavement on the basis of

race . This was done in order to justify their inter-

national sysfiem of exploitation of man by mankind . The

system of capitalism developed to a large extent from the

slave trader, later developed into imperialism, capitalism's

highest stage of development ; imperialism developed to

neo-colonialism, the last stage of imperialism . The

imperialists have spread the system of racism into Asia and

have developed an international racial system of which

the European is on top ; "White is Right" - and has

developed an : international curtain based on color, limiting

the areas of peaceful communication between the haves and

the .have nuts . The dark majority of the world have come

19 7

to find that their common enemy-isJ'has been the European

and his wild younger brother, .the white American, unjust

and unfit for world leadership and. have found them to

be ' bar barians to man and an outlaw to universal' harmony

arid peace . The European and European-American, by their

own crimes and injustices to man, have set the stage for

their own destruction .

Class becomes the secondary and not the primary

manifestation of the principle contradiction . It becomes

pertinent to analyze the present state and to draw a

clear line for the future . In order that this contradiction

be resolved, imperialism, capita lism, and all that maintains

the systems of exploitation must be destroyed by the

have pots . Th,e destruction of these systems will mean

the end of class exploitation and will also mean the end

of (racial) exploitation .

THE EUROPEAN RULING CLASS, WORKING CLASS AND THE ~ BLACK UNDERCLASS

Dr . DuBois foresaw and correctly analyzed the

principle contradiction of the Twentieth Century in

1902 in Th.e Souls Of Black Folk . These cultural (race)

contradictions ex 'tsted even at the time Marx and Engels

were writing the "Communist Manifesto" . Marxism being

primarily a .European movement did not have to deal ''intel-

lectually" with the cultural (racial contradictions) until

19 8

after the October revolution .

Lenin, the architect of the October B~ol-shevik

Russian Revolution,~analyzed that the European working

class being racist had allowed the bourgeoisie to con-

olida.te capitalism internationally to develop "imperia l

i sm" ~ (,en i n devel oped the thes i s t-hat the .pr i nc i pl e

contradiction was between oppressing nations and oppressed

nations . Lenin pleaded for the European working crass

to rally to the support of the oppressed nations before

the avenues of communications and working class unity

broke down . This described vividly in the Right 0f Nations

to self determination . Lenin's hope was for the European

working class to rally to support the October Russian

Revolution .

Even Lenin could not deal thoroughly with the racial

contradictions for at the Second Congress of the Communist

International. held in Moscow in J920, M .N . Roy of India

challenged and debated Lenin on the future world

revolution . Roy's position was the world revolutionary

initiative was going to come from Asia and the European

proletariat would be lead by colonial revolutions while,

Lenin, a European, did not foresee the hopelessness of

fihe European proletariafi . As far as he was concerned, Roy

had taken the matter a little too~far . Lenin 'stated

that `he saw arid' ~r-ecognized the emergence ' o. f!~riatiorial

bourgeo l-s - revo-lutions in the colonies (Asia, Africa, etc .) 19 9

buf did not see where Mould becom e-the vanguard of l h. the world revolution .

Roy and Lenin debated for hours to a draw . Although the Second Congress of the Communist (third) International approved and adopted both Roy's and Lenin's theses, Roy's was seldom referred to and little heard of . History . has proved Lenin wrong . The initiative came from Asia .

Stalin likewise followed in Lenin's shoes of remaining indifferent to racial contradictions . While Stalin wrote on the national question he manipulated the

American Communist Party to use the Afro-American liberation struggle to benefit Russian European Nation- alism . The American Communist Party fought, subverted and helped crush Marcus Garvey, who refused to be con trolled by them (the American racist communists) . By helping to crush Garvey, they helped no one but the

European Bourgeoisie because Garvey threatened their control over Africa and other colonies . The American

Communist Party later dropped the "Negro struggle" to form a united front against fascism . They urged everyone to support Roosevelt (orders coming from Stalin who had a pact with Roosevelt after Hitler attacked Russia)

The Communist Party even opposed A . Phillip Randojph's prgpqs.ed March on ~(asfiington in ]9.~+~ against job dtscrim- ination against Blacks in federal government contracted work . Time and time again the American Communist Party

20 0

]2 sold the gfrican-American out for the "MC~ther Country .

Goerge padmore's di~sillu'sipnment with Stalin came

while he was head of "Negro Affairs" in Moscow . He

saw Stalin make opportunistic maneuvers with the African

liberation Movement in order tp save "the Mother Country" .

In China, Stalin made disastrous blunders which almost

cast th.e lives of the entire Chinese Communist movement .

M .N . Roy, who had been sent to China by Sta}in to assess

the situation, was soon to disagree with Stalin over

his China policy and had to flee the Communist movement

for fear of his 1 ife . All Black (Africa, Asia, South,

Central arid Afro-A.~neric~) movements were set back arid

suffered many losses at the expense of Russian nation-

alism . Padmo~e attempted to deal with the racial contra-

dictions by organizing the Fifth Pan African Congress

held in ]g45 in Manchester, England : Padm~ore's ex-

periences were 'similar to the experiences other brothers

suffered with~the European Communists, particularly between

the French Communists and African and Asian revolutionaries .

The racial contradictions began to manifest more when

the Chinese Communists came to power in China . Long

struggling against the social chauvinism (racism) of the

Soviet Union, the emergence of Revolutionary China began

to polarize racial and class contrad,'rctions within the

world . In both the bourgeoisie imperialist camp and also

in the European bourgeois Communist-Socialist camp .

20 1

The modern European Communist. -Socia}ist society that

- has sprouted from the . weak spots in luroiaean capitalist society, though elminating major class antagonpsms,

have not done away with racial antagonisms . It has

but es~tabllshed ion,. - new condi ^ticins ~'°f._°ppr'ess new~forrns for stru g9l_e in pl ac e . of . old, ..ories ~.

._N - TH.1: iSTOR t CAL QUES"TI~ON UN (TE OR PER I SH

The present era presents an historical question for

the European proletariat ; the European must either

unite with the Btack (Third Wortd) underclass (have nuts)

the vast majority of the world, or perish with the

European bourgeoisie and revisionist Marxist leaders do

the world . revolution .

Lin Piao stated in 'l,orig-~ L-iv:e_ :P~oP,le's War :

Taking the entire globe, if North America and Western Europe can be ca lied the cities of the world, then Africa, Asia, and Latin America constitute 'the rural areas of the world' . . . In a sense, the contemporary world revolution also presents a picture of the encirclement of cities by the rural areas : In the final analysis , t he whole cause of world revo- _lu tion _hinge s on the revolutionary struggles of the African, Asian, and Latin American peoples who make up the overwhelniing majo rity of the wo rld's populatio n .

THE t NTERNAT ( ONAI_ R,AG TAI. CUR,TA I N

Ear.h historical situat(on develops in Its own dynamics .

The cl~?se links between class and race developed in Afric,.a

20 2

alongside capitalist exploitation . Slavery, he master-

servant relatl~onship, and cheap labor evere basic to it .

The classic example is South Africa, where Africans

experience a double exploitation, both on the ground

of color and of class. Similar conditions exist in the

U .S .A. ,, the Caribbean, in Latin America, and in other

parts of the world where the nature of the development of productive forces has resulted in a racist class struc- lure .

to these areas, even shades of color count - the degree

of blackness being a yardstick by which social status is measured- .

While a racist social structure is not inherent in

the colonial situation, it is inseparable from capitalist

economic development . For race is inextricably linked

with class exploitation ; in a racist-capitalist power

structure, capitalist exploitation and race oppression

are complementary ; the removal of one ensures the removal

of the other .

In the modern world, the race struggle has become part

of the class struggle . In othervards, wherever there is

a race problem it has become linked with the class struggle .

A11 of European society becomes the Overc1ass or "

colonial overseer, oppressor classes . A11 of the non-

white peoples have been victims of the system that has been

formed by the European, built on the concept of his racial

2~3

superiority, in order to justify his "minority" rule

of . the warld . .~ The racial system has been established far

a period of five hundred years and is embedded as a way

of life in European society and transplanted throughout

the rest of the world . The essence of world revolution

being a total "Social Revolution" is not just the elim-

lnation of the reactionary political and economic

institutions of the old order, but also the social

and cultural institutions of the old order . T-he inter-

national racial system predetermines all'relatians between

Third .World peoples and~European,'regardless of class

(economic and political}, status 'or position . Class

becomes interlocked with race . I worder for Third World

peoples to revolutionize the world, they must destroy the

r acial system, European racial "cultural" superiority,

at the sam e time destroying the class system .

This means destruction of the existing reactionary

European way of life and the submission of the European

to the revolutionary peoples - the Black Underclass of

the world .

Cultural racial antagonisms in contemporary world

society as a whole are more and more splitting up into

two great hostile camps ; into two classes directly

facing each other - the white averclass (haves} and the

Third World Underclass ( .have pots} . Since . . :"in the final

analysis, the whole cause of world revolution hinges on

20 4

the revolutionary struggles of the Asian, African, and

Latin American people who make up the overwhelming majority 16 of the world's population" , the world revolution takes

on a different character . It takes on a racial character

or nature of being largely a world "Black" revolution .

The Third World revolution is a new democratic revolution

of the world's majority rising up, seFzing power and

destroying the international racial system created by

the oppressor . At the same time it destroys the foundations

of~ capitalism, the class system. This stage is the first

step for the transformation to a world communalist

society . The Third World revolution is different from

all others . It must be a revolution against the inter-

national racia~(European-American racial social-chau- .

vinism) system, imperialism, capitalism, and neo-colon-

ialism, led by the non-white masses of the world under

the leadership of the peasantry working class element of

the Black Underclass . The World Black Revolution

embraces in its ranks all classes within the Black Under

class for a final showdown with imperialism .

ECONOMIC WHITEMAIL AND THE S0~!IET-U .S . AXIS

Sometime ago, the U .S . and some "other powers"

decided that to have a nuclear World War 111 would kill

700 to 800 r~illion people, most of whom would be Europeans

and Americans (white peopte~ -"'" but that there would 6e

NOTE : There are approximately 500 million white people living in Europe acid the U .S .

plenty of yellow, Black, brown, and red people t.eft to

"inherit the earth" . These powers stated that the majority

of the world was colored and that a war~ld revolution would

mean the dark majority would come to power .

WORLA REVOLUTIONARY INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP IN THE

HANDS OF THE BLACK UNDERCLASS

M .N . Roy of India in the Second Congress of the

Communist International held in Moscow in 1920 stated

that the proletariat and revolutionary movement in

Europe was dependent upon the course of the revolution

in Asia ; if the Western European working class was going

to cause a revolution, they would in essence do it in

order to save p t heir o~+n skins . Instating this, Roy actually repudiated Marx's theory that "thel7 . proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class ." Roy saw that

from the colonies and semi-colonies, the proletariat

reaped the benefits of super profits (standard of European

living) and were not about to give it up . Lenin also

saw this but failed to see that revolution would be lead

by the Third World because he, like Trotsky, thought the

"permanent revolution" was coming from Europe . "Lenin

saw clearly what Marx, having died before imperialism

attained its zenith, 'r+as unable to foresee ; namely, the

gradual corruption of the E~uropea,n Socialist movements

through ~~Bourgeoisification" . The capitalist system, which

20 6

Marx had so brilliantly analyzed, had, in Lenin's

lifetime, reached out .inta the remotest corners,pf the

earth ^ into Asia and Af,ric~ - drawing the great conti-

vents into its tentacles and squeezing super profits from

the tail of hundreds of millions . . .Lenin's thesis was

that Western world scale and whole continents and

countries, Africa, China, India, Indonesia, Burma, Indo-

China, etc . had been reduced to colonies and economic

dependencies of European nations . The financial and

military strength of the Great Powers re~sted :upon the

continued exploitation of the colored peoples and the

super profits derived from colonial spoilation enabled

the ruling classes of the West to corrupt the white

workers of the metropolis and blunt their revolutionary

ardor . . .Hence, argued Lenin, the Western domination of

the world can only be broken by stirring the colored

colonial and semi-colonial peoples of Asia and Africa to

achieve their national independence . According to

Karl Marx, the proletarian revolution which was to usher

in Communism would occur first in the highly developed

countries where there existed the economic and social

prerequisites as well as an educated and cultured indus-

trial working class to form the first foundations of r

socialism . After the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin, seeing

fihat the western European workers were in no hurry to

perform the historic role which Marx had assigned to them

20 7

in his Communist Manifesto, decided to forget about them

and reach out to those who were still uncorrupted by

capitalist reform and yearned to break the fetters of

imperialist domination . i,enin stated in tkWSocialist

Revolution and the RIght of Nations to Self Determination

that "the proletariat must demand freedom of political

secession for the colonies and nations that are oppressed

by its nation . Unless it does this, proletarian inter-

nationalism will remain a meaningless phrase ; neither mutual

confidence no r . class solidarity between the workers of 19 the oppressing and oppressed nations will be possible ."

Though Lenin even admitted that Marx ~Nas thinking

mainly of the interests of the proletarian class

strugglewin the advanced countries, he could not see the

incorrectness of Marx's thesis on revolutionary initiative

and who wa the vanguard of the world revolution . He,

therefore, could not understand that M .N . Roy was correct

on both the national and international questions .

Roy correctly analyzed tactics. t o~be~used in the

colonial revolution when he developed the theory for

revolutions;ries to only cooperate with bourgeoisie nation-

aljsts when necessary, primarily in the initial stages ,

and with caution ; develop working class parties which would

organize workers and peasants and inspire them to

revolution "from below ." Lenin's thesis was of using

tactics primarily from above but the debating over the

Los

Issue was so great between him and Roy at the Second

Congress of the Communist International that Lenin com-

promised and met Roy half way, and the Congres adppted

a dual thesis for the colonial situation, that of organizing

from above and below .

Marx foresaw that socialist revolutions would occur

in Western Europe in countries where capitalism had

developed to a high level and where the proletariat

was organized and strong . Instead, revolutions occurred

in essentially underde vel_o-ped count-pie-s, whet-e capi-tali_sm

was just developing and where the proletariat was basicall y

unorganized and weak .

According to the present world situation,~th e European

prole_ta_riat_-its-no longe r a revolutionary class . The

proletariat through the opportunism of a European labor

aristocracy have refused to unite with their nation's

right self-determination, coloniesF to demand their of

and still do oppose the liberation of them from the

oppressor, country . They are acting as the counter-

revolutionaries for the Western bourgeoisie . by supporting

their regime's domestic and foreign policies . So as Lenin

foresaw but did not throughly deal with, "Proletarian -

Internationalism" has remained a meaningless phrase and

there 1s no mutual confjdence nor class solidarity between

the workers of the oppressing . and oppressed nations .

Proletarian internationalism has been superseded by

2a9

Third World internationalism (the unification of

peoples of Asia, Africa, Afro, South and Central America) .

The Black 1Jnderclass becomes the revolutionary class

within fihe world with the working class-peasant element

being . its most revolutionary sector, The Black underclass

cannot achieve "national liberation'' or self determination

of their respective colonialized countries, except by

abolishing the oppressor's economic system of capitalism

irnits advanced stages known as colonialism, imperialism,

and neo- colonialism and by waging people's wars against

the universal slavemaster (U .S . imperialism) .

No co .onialized or semi-colonialized people will be

free until all colonialized and semi°colonialized .peoples

are free . The . B'iack Underclass will never be able to

totally l iberate itself until imperialism,riea-colonia l'~ism

and al 1 _i_ts_ ,su -p porters, a_re destroyed . The Black Underclass

has nothing to secure and fortify in the present decadent

world, while the European proletariat does (The U .S .-

European way of life, economic standard of living) . The

Black Underclass mission is to destroy all previous and

present securities and insurances of European bourgeoisie

society .

History shows us that the European proletarian movement

was a European nationalist mo ement ; its interests

being of the European working class basically in the dif-

ferent European countries, thereby being a movement of the zto

"minority" in relation to the vast majority of the world :

The Third 4lorld internationalist Movement is the movement of the Black Underclass 'the vast majority of the worid~ organized independent of the European proletarian movement and in the interest of the overwhelming majority of the world's population - the Asian, African, Afro-American,

South and Central American peoples .

In world society, the Black Underclass being the lowest stratum, cannot achieve national liberation, self- determination, power without the whole of U .S . -

European society being completely destroyed . The first stage of the struggle for liberation of the Black Under- class against the white overclass is a national struggle . The Black Underclass must struggle against the particular

imperialist power that is directly oppressing it nationally, but it must be remembered that the backer of all

imperialism today is U .S . imperialism . Therefore, while waging a war of liberation against its immediate op-

pressor, it must also wage war against U .S . imperialism

internationally .

Since the end of the second imperialist war, U .S .

imperialism has become the leader of world imperialism .

"L,Ike a vicious wolf, it is bullying and enslaving various

peoples, plundering their wealth ; encroaching upon their

countries' sovereignty and interfering in their internal

affairs, it is the most rabid aggressor in known history .

and the most ferocious common enemy of the people of

the world . Fvery people or~country in the world that

wants revolution, independence and peace cannot but

direct the spearhead of its struggle against U .S . imperial-

ism . . .The U .S . imperialist's policy of seeking world

darnination makes it possfible for the people throughout

the-world to unite all the forces that can be united and

form the broadest possible united front far a conveying 21 attack. on U .S . imperialism . . .

Successful movements of the Black underclass against

the white overclass since the erid of the second imperialist

war have taken the form of "people's war ." The nature

of these peoples' wars are protracted wars that mobilize

the mass of the "Black underclass ~to form national

democratic revolutions" . The revolution embraces in its

ranks not only workers, peasants, and the 'urban petty

bourgeoisie, but also the national bourgeoisie and other 22 patriotic and anti-imperialist democraCs . . . but is led

~by the working crass element of the Black Underclass .

"What the bloodsucking imperialists have wanted ali

along is a free hand in exploiting the riches of the

oppressed peoples' lands . Finding it impossible and

too costly, both poli .tlcaily and militarily, to continue

maintaining direct control of Africa, the imperialists came

t4 t^ely more and more upon~th .eir . puppets, and they found

that these dedicated lackies are able to get the job done 21 2

for them . They are still able ~to drain off the

fabulous riches of Africa and thet~eby continue to enjoy a

life of luxury and splendor i;n the mother country at

the expense of Africa .

There is no country in Africa that has an

independent economy . Those that are not in the clutches

of the Western imperialists are depende-nt either upon

the Soviet Union or China . The monopoly which these developed countries have on technology is the key means

thrpugh which they are able to control the economics of

African countries . Also, by blocking their products on

the world market, the imperialists are able to force

Third World countries to,their .knees, thus forcing them to

capitulate to their economic demands .

By far, the Socialist countries offer the most

favorable terms and conditions for the aid that they

give tq Third World countries, but when it comes to

Africa, we again find that the black man is at the

bottom of the list, receiving far less than the amount

of aid they need in order to develop independent

econornies . . .The United States is the chief .enemy of

freedom and liberation in Africa, just as in all parts

of the world . The United Staines is the main exploiter

in ~f~i,ca, even though most of this exploitation (s done

indirectly,,through the control which the U .S, has over

all the other Western imperialist countries . On this

21 3

world scale, France, );ngland, South Africa, Southern

Rhodesia, and Portugal are a,ll puppets of U,S : imperial ism . Through it's rich supp1Y of finance capital, and through it's controlling investment interests in the

economies of other Western countries, the U .S, imperial-

fists are actually at the head of an international 23 imperialist em pire ."

Marx stated in the Communist Manifesto "every form

of society has been as we have already seen, on the 24 antagonism of oppressing and oppressed c u sses ."

In today's world society, fhe oppressing class is the

whito overclass,and the oppressed is the Black'lTnde:rcl'as s ;

therefore, the world revolutionar

ship - i_s .i -n the hands of _t he Black Underclass .

BLACK ~aaNDERCLASS ANA BLACK INTERNA710NALISTS

What is the relationship of Black Internationalists

N to the Black Underclass in their respective countries

and as a whole? Black internationalists,are the vanguard

of the Black Underclass . Black internationalists'

loyalty is with the mass of colored peoples - ''the Black

Underclass' - and their principles are derived from the

concept of "from the masses to the masses" .

t~lack i.nternationali,sts~ revolutionary nationalists,

cons, .tantly struggle through various stages of their

national movements against colonialism, capitalism, imperialism and neo-colonialism but always emphasize that without the correct int~ernationa) perspective, national liberation movements can fall prey to neo- colonialism . Black internationalists are the Blac k

"avant garde" of the Black Underclass in every country ; they act as catalysts, vanguard and theoretical clearing house in national revolutions . The immediate aim of

Black internationalists is the formation of the Black

Underclass into a powerful national liberation movement, overthrow of colonialism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism and the con9uest of world political power by the Black

Underclass . While Black internationalists are at the sametime Revolutionary Nationalists in their own countries, they understand that "the world is the Black

Man's land" and a world government under the . dictatorship o .f>the Black Underclass is the ultimate solution of 25 the World Black Revolution,

The question of a dictatorship of the Black

Underclass as opposed to the theory of a dictatorship of the proletariat (the working classy is an historical question . To be a Third World Internationalist is to admit the need for the dictatorship of the Black Under-

Class . The dictatorship of the Black Underclass is the central (slue of the ideological differences between

Third World 'internationalists and reformists . The theory of the Black Underclass dictatorship is the only

215 R. , .r

means capable of putt}ng an end t'o the universal s;lave-

master, the white man's evil, cruelty and his ex-ploit :ing

nationalists' movements and their leaders . t t is not

enough to see the necessity of el .}.urinating entireay the

European's rule, influence and control o~6er the world

by the establishment of a dictatorship of the Black

Underclass . This is what constitutes the most profound

difference between Third World internationalists and

others . This is the ::birthstone on which real under-

standing and recognition of Third World internationa}}sm

is to be tested . The- question of the d}ctatorship of the

?hird World Underclass should occup_L-a special pt"ace

in Thir World internationalism because : without the

seizure~of political power, w}thout the diCtators'h}p

of the Third World Clnderol~ss, fiher.'e can be no- victory

for commu nalism . The Third World internationalists'

theory of~the establis-hment of- a society without race

and exploitation would remain wishful thinking if the

T hird World Underclass and its_ Rev-olu- tianary Nat-ionali -sts

Movements did not concentrate their efforts on what is

mos_f d:ec i_s ive- , the sei zure of power to reorganize society

a tong communalist tines .

The i,nternati,onal importance o.f Third World inter-

nationalists conscious~e~s is reflected in the message

to Afra-Amer}cans, }ssued by Claude Nda11a, . the first

Secretary of the Congolese Workers Party .

216

Y.nowing that the U .N is nothing but a scheme, a trick, the

oppressed must withdraw from the U .N . and form

anather E3andung Conference, making it the policy-making

body for the vast majority of the world .

S.0 - CALLED REVOLUTIONARY PROPAGANDA

The Struggle in the world today is a battle for

men's minds, for to control men's minds is to

control their actions and also to have some control

oker their reactions to actions .

A revolution is a political war in which the

oppressed class comes to power ~us,i:ng any means

necessary . In that process, .the oppressor class

is annihilated in the process of elmination in the

bringing of a new social order . There _i_s- . no

honorable surrender in a revolution . That is

reform . There is no peaceful co-exis~ence in

a revolution between the oppressed and the oppressor .

That is reform, an uncompleted revolution . Peaceful

co-existence means evolution, not revolution .

The oppressed don't have the need for evolution .

The oppressed need revolution .

Marx said : "Theory will always become reality

among people to such an extent as it meets the needs of 27 the people" . . R.evol ut i or1 has become a rea li ty arnong

the oppressed because it meets our needs ..

21~

Counter-revolutionary Communists tell the Blacl

Underclass to forget about the (racial) contradictions

between the Western (white) world and the Eastern

(Black) World . They tell the Black Underclass to submit

Black Nationalist-Internationalist feelings (i

stincts) for working class proletarian unity and Marx-w

ist-Leninist science-religion . They tell the Black .

Uniderclass to forget all the atrocities committed against

them and above all never to think of or discuss

reparation or retribution for "all white people are not

the same" . They say, "Black and white unite and fight

for a ::worker's world ." They tell the Black Underclass

that the white working class is nmt to blame for slavery,

colonialism, semi-colonialW m, imperialism and neo-

colonialism . They say it was the European and American

bourgeoisie who was responsible .

The Black Underclass must "beware of Greeks

(Europeans and Americans) bearing gifts" because they

have "tricks" up their sleeves . Peaceful co-existence

whether it be termed Marxism-Leninism or any other

science-religion, is nothing but a "psychological trick"

to keep the Black Underclass from seeing that they are

the Vanguard of the World Black Revolution and they are

at war with the white world be it Capitalist, Socialist,

or Communist . Reality makes it that way,

This does not mean that the Black Underclass will

z18

use the bourgeoisie's concept of racism and just .indiscriminately_set about to kill all whites ; .but

rather means that (the Black Underclass) will unite on

the basis of being exploited racially in order to destroy

the international race and class systems .

The Black Underclass will destroy all those who

oppose the World Black Revolu-t ion regardless o-f ra ce,

color, creed, religion, science or any other thing . But

let it be known that any and all who oppose the world

revo lution wilt be destroyed (annihilated) ~in the process

of the world revolution . because in opposing it, they

become counter-revolutionary and counter-revolution and

revolution cannot peacefully co-exist at any time ; one

must win .. History makes it necessary for the oppressed

to make revolution win .

PETTY BOURGEOIS COMMUNISM

In European countries, Russia and Cuba where

revolutions have occurred, a new class .ofi petty bourgeois

has formed . Calling themselves Marxist-Lenin~Sts and

purporting to be Communists, they seem afraid to carry

the world revolution to an end . The Communists bourgeoisie

want all the advantages of their "national revolutions"

without the struggle, dangers and sacrifices necessarily

resulting from the continuing international world 28 _ revolution . They do not want the Black Underclass to

21 9

"rock the boat or upset the apple cart ." "They des i re

the existing state of society misfits revolutionary and 29 disintegrating elements :' They wish for a world

revolution ., with the Blaek- Underclass . The Communist

bourgeoisie conceive s of a world in which the

the rulers and of a world revolution in which retribution ;

by the Black Under clas s will be nullified . (cancelled out)

Universal Harmony can onl y be- achieved - through

World Black Revolution and the establishment of a

Revolutionary World Government .

The international race system has produced two

nations internationally - the Black nation (oppressed

nation) and the white nation (tt~e oppressing nation) .

There are two types of nationalism : Ane type suppresses

or oppresses,_i .e ., a nation or particular group reaps

profits or advances materially at the expense, ex-

ploitation, slavery or tor~ture .of another group or

na-t ion . In this nation and in the world today, this

nationalism is considered "white nationalism" or the

cooperation of the white western nations to kelp the new

emerging oppressed world in bondage. This is capitalism

or reactionary nationalism . The other type of nationalism

is to liberate or' free from exploitation . That is the

binding force of a nation ar particular group to free

itself from a group or nation that_is suppressing or

oppressing it . In this country and in the world, this

22 0

is considered Black Nationalism or revolutionary' nationalism .

We can see that Black Nationalism is the opposite

of white nationalism - Black Nationalism being revolu-

tionary and white being reactionary . We see also. that 30 nationalism is really internationalism today .

Brother Malcoim in his Me-s sage to the Grass Roots

Conference said ; "All the revolutions going on in Asia

and Africa today are basezi on Black Nationalism . . .

If you're afraid o~f Black Nationalism, you're afraid of

revolution and if you love revolution, you love Black 31 Nationalism ."

We can see that the international perspective in the world today is built on anti nationalistic interests,

dividing the world into two international nations : the

white nation and the Black nation .

The present world scene is one of chaos and turmoil

caused by white nationalism (white power) . The vast

majority of the world, the Black Underclass, knot that

they can only achieve peace and harmony through a World

Black Revolution that demolishes white power . Only then

can the world be in "universal harmony" . Black inter-

nationalism gill then prevail . The need for national

boundaries and barriers will be el~imi .nated . National

sovereignty,'though still respected, the need for nation-

alism in its aggressive form will be e liminated . With

zzl

white counter-revolutionary riatianalism destroyed and

completely annihilated, a "United World Peoples'

Republic" a new level of social. .order, can be created .

The World Black Revolution brings with it a new world

society, a new world . It also brings with it the concept

of universal law and order .

REVOLUTIONARY SOt.UTI~ON-DICTA?ORSHIP OF THE WORLD

BY THE BLACK~UNDERCLASS THROUGH WORLD BLACK

REVOLUTION

" . . .Today, we live at the end of the world of people

who have ruled the Black man and his various colors

between Black and White for the last 6,000 years . . .

The old world must be removed to make .way for the new

world . There is a v.~iversal struggle being waged by the 32 old world against the beginning of the new world : . ."

The phenomenon of racism is not, as Western

"thinkers" would have us believe, either a "sickness of

the mind" or a product of certain economic conditions .

This is the most convenient attitude for whites to adopt,

since it implies a process of self-exoneration (a. Pilatus

attitudes which says :' if it is a sickness, then I had

not contracted it consciously ; if it, is a product of

economic circumstances c~rhich took place long ago, then

had nothing to do with it . Yet the truth is quite 22 2

different (regardless of wh~ther .accepted or not by those implicated), since racism is a product of Western thought, Western civilization and Western values .

The phenomenon of racism is nothing else but a academic part of the Western Weltanschauauung . The need t.o assimilate all cultures and to prove all different non-white cultures inferior has prompted the systematic pillage and destruction .of the latter in Asia, Africa, and South America,: ."'as Karl Marx himself stated, surely ignoring that the society of which he himself was a product would represent the dialectical opposite of societies he had not .taken into account,old orders of society never giving into new ones without fi,er- ce struggle . Marx's version of the struggle between an underpriviliged .on a national scale as he predicted, but on a world level, since Western societies because of their exploitation and pillage of others constitute today a world bourgeoisie, while its antithetical opposite is found in the non-Western peoples and nations which have suffered for centuries . Thus Marx's class struggle is to be played out on a world scale . To contend that the conflict can be avoided, which is a matte of evasive convenience or to try to avoid it by the only way which it could be avoided {i .e . the acceptance of assimilation ; cultural assassination) implies far the latter the perpetuation of this hegemony and thus the

22 3

acceptance of an indefinite period of subordination

(neo-colonialism) . .

The Black Underclass has-only one alternative to

free itself of colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and

neo-colonialism ; that~is, to completely destroy Western

(bourgeois) civilization (the cities of the world)

through a World Black Revolution,and establishing a

Revolutionary World Black Dictatorship can bring about

the end of exploitation of man by mankind . and the

new revolutionary world can be created . This dictatorshi p is . a must- in order that the world be reconstructed along revolutionary lines . Inherent In W~,stern civilization

and culture is racism . In order for man to live in

peace, all forms of counter-revolution must be purged

from the earth .

For any; Black Nationalist to be a revolutionary

today, they must be for a total change by revolutionary

means of this society which eliminates the exploitation

of other races, classes and nations which are inseparable 34 from capitalism and democracy .

POSITION OF BLACK INTERNATIONALISTS

As a result of European so-ca lied propaganda

(psychological warfare) by the West and all the confusion

prevailing among the Black Underclass in various parts of

the world as to the direction and objectives of the World

22 4

Black Revolution, it becomes necessary for revolutionary

Black internationalists to form a new context in which

the Black Underclass can see themselves . This means the

formation of a "NEW" universal fevo]utionary science-

philosophy, Black ;Internationalism, stemming from the

reality of the present world situation and not holding

onto -the "white revolutionary gods" of the lgth and 20th

Century Marxism-Leninism : Blac k In ternationalism is

the ideology of coop erat_ion_ ; un-ity -o f- ,revolut_ionary nationalists thr o w the worl-d to bring_ about a world revolution in which Black culture dominates and rules

the p_1 anet . _ I t i s the ph- i 1 osoph .y of a common i nternat i ona l cultura- 1 heritage and _identit ar7ong all non-European people, i .e ., - African , Asian-,_ and South- Ame-ri -can Qeople

all have similar if not the same .cultural histories and

have a common destiny .

. This revolutionary science must provide guidelines

fcsr the reconstruction of the "NEW WORLD" and the

development of~a world communal society that is constructed

to flow and be in harmony with n a ture . Communalism

(Socialism), the collectivization of economy with the

decentralization of a social and cultural life based on

the organization of communes wilt be the economic arid

cultural base of the New World . Super cities (metropol

like America',s,super complexes) being the product of

capitalist development, exploitation and Western Civil-

zz5

ization will be de-emphasized where man has become

~a slave or replaced by the machine .

Dialectical humanism - the method of analyzing,

planning and developing the sociological and cultural

motivations as related to the material factors which

affect man's psyche for the raising of his revolutionary

humanism towards man - is a vital part of Black Inter-

nationalism . Black Internationalists are not only

concerned with the influence of the material factors on

man, but also with the sociological and cultural aspects

because as recent events have proven, the material

factors may somewhat change (economic systems}, but if

the basic core roots of the bourgeois culture are not

changed,~then the counter-revolutionary tendencies

will reoccur in the people and all vestiges of the

counter-revolutionary revisionists will tend to crop

us again . (t (Bourgeois Western, Culture) must be des-

troyed to very root . When this occurs, a world revolution-

ary culture and language can be established . .

The Black Internationalists must have a Secretariat

that will s~?rve as the leadership of the provisional

world people's government of the New World . This

secretariat must form guidelines fo.r all Black Inter-

nationalists then they could be organized into a central

international' revolutionary action movement .- This move-

ment in order to be successful would have to organize a z26

People's Liberation Army an a world scale to complete the World Black Revolution and to thoroughly defeat and annihilate all vestiges of counter-revolution .

The International Revolutionary Movement would organize all possible support among all levels and elements of the Third World Underclass into an International

Third World Liberation Front for a final showdown with imperialism, particularly U .S . imperialism . This

Liberation Front, uniting all of the progressive elements of the Black Underclass would be the broad organizational form of uniting Africa, South and Afro-America in a world people's war against imperialism and neo-colonialism .

Black Internationalists realize that their position will be attackePd from "all corners of the earth" by revisionists and counter-revolutionaries, for being everything ~>ut what our program is - the TRUTH . Black

Internationalists stand firm in these "white days" of revisionism and imperialist exploitation .

Black Internationalists call upon the Black Under- class everywhere to use "any means necessary" to achieve the objectives of the World B.leck Revolution .

Black Internationalists say, "There can be no compromise with imperialism and its lackeys", the cry of the world oppressed must be "LIBERATION OR DEATH" . The

Black Underclass has nothing to lose but the chains that are both around their bodies and minds . "The world is 22 7

the Black Man's Land ." The Black Underclass has a

"New World" to create and as 90 percent of the people of the world say, "WE WILL WIN" .

22 8

FOOTNOTES

Legun, c:ol ir~, Pan Africa nism . p . 24 2 Du Bois, W .E .B ., Souls of Black Folk 3 Contee, Clarence G ., "Afro-Americans and Early Pan-Africanism", Negro Digest , Feb ., 1970, p . 25 4 Legun op

5 Ibid ., p . 30

6 Ibid ., p . 30

7 Ibid ., p ; 32 8 Ibid ., p . 33 9 Du Bois, op . cit .,

10 Lin Piao~,. L ong Live TheVictory o f Pe ople_'_s War, p . 53 - 54 11 Lenin, The Socialist Revolution and the Rig hts of 17Nations to Self Dete rmination_ , p . 170,171

12 North, M .N . Roy', s Mi -s-sion to China,

", Chinese Communism

Piao, op . cit .,

22 9

15 Nkrumah, Kwame,~ Class Struggle in Africa , P " 2 .1 7 16 Piao, op . cit .,

17 Roy, M .N ., Revolution and Counter Revolut ion in China, ,

1 $. Kautsky, Nati onalism in Underdeveloped_ Countries, 19 Lenin, op . cit .,

20 North, M .N, Roy's Mission to China,

21 Piao, op . cit .,

22 Ibid .,

23 Cleaver, Eldridge,"The Number One Problem in Africs Today : =Neo-Colonialism," Right On , Vol . 3, Aug . 3~ 1971 P~ 13 . 24 Mar~r, Karl, Commun ist Man- Sfe-s to p : 34 I 25 Green,"The World's the Biackman's Land, SoulBook,

26 Ndalla,"Mess age to Afro-America .ns',', Right On, Vol . 1, Aug . 3~ 1971, p . 6 27 Mar ;, Karl, Collected~Works of Marx and Engets, Vol 1, P~ 386 28 Marx, Communist - Manifesto, R . 7l

29 Stanford, Max, Correspondence, March, .1964, p . ~,5 . 30 Malcolm X, Message to The Grass Roots 23 0

Muhammad, Elijah, Message To The Blackman , p . 266,267

32 Moore, Carlos, "Cuba - Untold Story" Presence Africaine , XXIV, p . 225 . 267

3 3~ Boggs, James, "Ttvo Myths, Integration and Aemo- ci`acy", Black Ame rica , Fall, 1964, p . 4,5

23 1

"" NOTE FROM 11 .

Lenin, The- Socialist Rev o lutio n and The-~Ri-ghts of

Nations to Se lf-D e te-rminati on -(Thesi ) p . 16.3 ;.16.4, 166-

167, 16.8, 170, 171,.178 .

"Socialists must not only demand the unconditional

and immediate liberation of the colonies without com-

pensation - and this demand in its political expression

signifies nothing also but the right to self-determin-

ation - but they must render determined support to the

more revolutionary elements in the bourgeois-democratic

movements for national liberation in these countries

and assist their uprising - and 'if need be, their

revolutionary war - against the imperialist powers that

oppress them . . " p . 178

Padmore points out in Pan Africanism or . Communism

that the opposite of what Lenin described happened .

'The Socialists (Communists) fought against national

lip beration of the colonies .

*NOTE (FROM FOOTNOTE 20)

"Marxism and Marx himself developed it did not

foresee or predict a "socialist revolution" in a backward

agrarian country such as Russia . According to Mar. ,

the revolution he predicted had to come about in a

highly industrialized nation which had necessarily

created a large, industrial class of workers, well-organized,

and well-trained in production si~ills of capitalist 23 2

industry .

The Capitalist class of . owners would get richer and more compact due to monopoly groups and the working class would ; get poorer to the point where they would revolt and overturn the system and expropriate the owners .

But this did .not happen . Instead these workers began to benefit from the superexploitation of the "Bandung" world . Russia, being a semi-colonial nation, with political autonomy proved to be the weakest link in this type of exploitation . The very fact that world revolutionary initiative had passed from white nations of the capitalist world to non-white nations of the colonial and semi-colonial world introduced another

factor in revolutionary politics, the racial factor" . . .

May, 1964, Liberator

"After the outbrak of World War d, Lenin was con-

fronted by the fact that Western European working crass was not revolutionary, thus did not behave in accordance

with Marx's predictions as Lenin interpreted them . Since

his chief concern was revolution rather than, as with

Western Marxists (including Marx , labor's inexorable

rise to political power, Lenin needed both to account for

this phenomenon within a Marxian frameword and to find a

new agent of revolution . He did bath by the theory that

an influential section of the Western proletariat, a

labor aristocracy, was being permitted to share with X33

the capitalist the super-profits derived from imperialist exploitation of the colonies . Carried to its logical conclusion, this theory implies that all of Western

society, including the proletariat assumes the role of . exploiter or capitalist, while all of the colonial

society, including its upper class, become exploited or

proletarians .

Marx's domestic class struggle is thus replaced

by international conflict between the colonial power

and the colonies . The agent of revolution in the colonial

countries is no longer the proletariat but nationalism . . .

Kautsky, Political_ Change i n Underd ev eloped Countries

THE PAN-AFRiKAN PARTY

The~African captive in America hss always been

active in the~liberetion of our motherland, Africa .

Dr . DuBois as early as 1919 organized the first Pan-

African Congress . From 1919 to 1945, the Pan-African

Congresses served as a forum for African intellectuals

at home and abroad . The Pan African Congress in 1945

developed the tactics of direct action for the liberation

of fihe mainland . The .Pan-African movement has ad-

vanced in gradual. steps . Marcus Garvey, the father of

nationalism, also had as an objective, the liberation of

a unified central African government .

Stokely Carmichael, the mass spokesman for Black

Power, recently returned from Africa saying that Pan-

Africanism must become the mass philosophy of the African-

American . Stokely studied for some time under Nkrumah

in Guinea . Brother Carmichael's new strategy is that the

African-American concentrate h .is efforts on possibly

bringing Nkrumah back into power in Ghana . The land base

that would be liberated would become a Pan-African state

on arhich the Pan-African revolution would be based .

Brothers and sisters in the states are told that struggling

for revolution in the states will be a protracted affair

23 5

and not possible at this time . Stokely fails to realize

that all people must make their own,lndigenous revolution

led by the people from their own country . This does not

mean we should not help the brothers and sisters on the

mainland . We should help where we can, but we must con-

centrate our efforts where we are . And if we understand

the nature of imperialism, neo-colonialism, we will =ealize

that if we did create a Pan-African socia list state, it

would be faced with encirclement and intervention for the

United States government . Africans in America and the

Caribbean are actually Africans military rear .

In order far Africa to be truly liberated, a world

war of liberation must be fought between Africa, Europe,

and America . tJe are engaged in a world black revolution.

It is then necessary to develop tactics for a1 .1 Africans

worldwide . Being in a protracted international war of

national liberation, it is necessary for Africans to wage

struggle in the .country where they are colonialized .

We are up against an international .crisis in the capitalist-

imperialist system . This means vre must organize national

Pan-African movements that can move to seize state power

in their regions . At the same time, we must develop an

international African consciousness among our people so

that vrhen the enemy moves to encircle and crush a national

African revolution we can come to its aid by creating a 136

crisis somewhere else, forcing the enemy to over-extend himself . While this may be our war strategy, we must encourage Africans in America and the Garibbean with skills to .go to~progressive African states and build those states insto strong Pan-African bases .

In developing a scientific position that related to

African people, it is important that our interests of national liberation and self-determination be protected and organized through the formation of Pan-African parties

Pan-African parties are the highest form of organization of African people in the struggle for national liberation .

While scientifically analyzing the historical role of

African people, ,it is necessary"at the same time to know that African people need an independent political party and ideologi~;-a1 framework to create a revolutionary , change of society and develop African communalist society .

Of all organization created by African people only a political party can give proper expression to the basic interests of the black underclass and lead it to complete victory, While the basis of the struggle is through organizing our people into unions and immediate issue organizations ; with these organizations alone African people will never be able to defeat capitalism and build an African communalist society,

To do this, African people need an organization of 23 7

a 'higher type, an organization that does not confine itself

to the current needs of the people but aims at be'inging

the people to power through an economnc, political and

cultural revolution . The organization best suited to

bring a complete revolution and to serve the needs of ,. African peapl~ ~is'the Pan-African Party .

Working through all channels and avenues, the white overclass tries to persuade the black underclass that it

doesn't need a black internationalist party, its own

`ideology or its own internationale . This is nothing but

a~ neo-colonialist trick to keep the . African people from

having our awn power base and theoretical frame of

reference . . Only a political party of African people is

capable of uniting, educating and organizing a vanguard

of African people . The party must be able to fight .

incorrectness, vacillations, narrowness and falsehood within our people . By doing this the party can lead the

overall actions of the people .

The~main characteristics of Pan-African parties is

their goal : to replace capitalism with communalism,

Pan-Africa~ists are in the forefront of African people's

struggle for power because they believe that for revolution-

ary change of capitalist society, African people must

seize political power and establish a democratic central-

ized government controlled by us . Pan-African parties do z~s

not act blindly . They are guided by the revolutionary

theory of Pan-Africanism, which scientifically expresses

the basic will of the people .

The party is a voluntary union of likeminded brothers and sisters united for the purpose of implementing the black world outlook and carrying out the historic mission of our people . The revolutionary character of the party determines its organizational pr~incipies, its unity, its

identity of action and flexibility of ita tactics . Pan-

African parties get their strength from the people ; therefore, they must constantly guard against becoming parties of isolated individuals of nar'raw groups of professional

revolutionaries : Pan-African parties must be firmly grounded in the people, keeping (a) constant contact with

the people and (b) learning from the people and (c) applying

the principle of "from the people back to the people ."

The Pan-African party is the vanguard of African people, their advanced conscious section ,capable of

leading the people in the struggle for the building of national independence, self-determination, .and communalism . The Pan-African party, while being a black working class party, has deep roots not only among workers-

and street people, but also among other sections of the

people . Pan-Africanists are people only distinguished

by greater nationalist consciousness, a more serious

revolutionary character (s,elf discipline) and readiness 23 9

to develop any situation for the cause .- Our life is bound with the people and we are deeply. concerned with everything that agitates our peop,le's minds .

History shows us that before becoming real vanguards revolutionary parties usually pass through several stages of political and organizational development :

l . They are propagandist groups conducting most of their work within their own ranks . This is necessary to insure :

a, ideological (poiitical)unity

b, educate the membership

c . improve the organization .

2 . Then the party goes to the people and begins to lead mass actions of the people . This period signifies the merging of the spontaneous movement with the ideas of Pan-~fricanism and the development of a revo- lutwonary movement .

3 : The party becomes a real political force capable of leading the majority of our people as a whole . In I order to do this the party must be active in organizing unions among our people, preparing them for the general strike, the last legal stage of nationalist struggle in the process of decoloriialization .

The Party must be able to unite the people around the party's program before it can become a significant 24 0

political force capable of leading the people to national liberation .

The principle of tfie organizational structure of a .

Pan-African party is called democratic centralism . The

interests expressed by a Pan-African party are not the

private interests of individuals ar groups ; they are

interests of all our people and express themselves only through the united will which fuses various isolated actions into one struggle . Only a centralized leadership

is capable of uniting all the forces, directing them towards a single goal, coordinating the uncoordinated actions of individual brothers-, sisters and groups . The united will of the party cannot be created except by democratically, collectively comparing the different opinions and proposals and then adopting decisions binding for all . .The united will has the advantage in that it gives the fullest and therefore truest expression to the objective needs of the nationalist struggle of our people . t o practice democratic centralism means all the leading party bodies from top to bottom are elected . . Strict party discipline means subordination of the minority to the majority . A Pan-Africanist is one who actively carries out the party program and works in one of its, organizations :

The inter,nal,~life of the party is organized to have full participation of party members in practical work .

24 1

Canditions are established for giving party members the

opportunity to discuss questions, to check the fulfillment

of adopted decisions, to elect the leaders, and to know

and check their activities . Discussion of all funda-

mental issues and collective elaboration of decisions form

one of the most important methods of party work .

Each discussion involves extensive criticism, dis-

closing shortcomings, finding their roots, and submitting

proposals for their elimination . Such criticism assists

progress and properly educated the membership . But the

party always distinguishes criticism which strengthens

it from that which weakens it, which turns into criticism

for criticism's sake . Under all conditions, the party

program, the decisions of the party, and its rules serve

to determine its line . White granting rights to its

members, the party at the same time demands loyalty

to its programs,~aims and objectives . ft does nat

tolerate advocacy of anti party views, considering it

incampatibiP with the membership in the party . Before a

decision is adopted, various views may clash in the party

but ante a decision has been adopted, all Pan-Africanists

act as one person . .

This is the essence of party discipline, which requires

subordination of the minority to the majority and makes

the adopted decisions absolute . Discipline supports the

24 3

party decisions in. which they have taken an active part :

Pan-Africanists can become a party only if they are

closely linked with the people and enjoy their support .

A party may declare itself the vanguard as much as it

likes, and yet fail to become one . A party cannot force

the people to follow it, nor can it win prestige by

merely claiming a leading role in its statements to the

people . There .~s only one way for the party to become

a real leader and that is by convincing the people that

it correctly expresses and defends their interests,

by convincing them through deeds rather than words, through

its policies, initiative and devotion . The party must

win the confidence and recognition of the people by its

work . A. Pan-African party has a program - a scientific

statement of its aims which corresponds to the vital

interests of the people . The party must make the final

aims of the struggle intelligible to the people .

At the same time the party must have a program of

action to satisfy the immediate needs of the people .

Party members work wherever our people are . This requires

the closest day to day ties with the people . To serve

the people and express their interests properly, the party

must cohduct all of its activities in the core of the people

drawing from t'he people the best forces, checking with

each step, thoroughly and objectively, (1) whether the

24 3

ties with the people are maintained, (2) whether they are

real (3) and alive . Only in this way does the party

educate our people, guiding all the activity of the

people along the path ofwconscious revolutionary nationalist action .

Party members attach great importance to mass or-

ganizations - black labor unions, neighborhood groups,

black women's associations, and black youth groups .

The African people's party has no desjre to deprive these

organizations of their independence . The party believes

that mass organizations can play their role only when

each of them effectively accomplishes its own tasks.

Party members respect the decisions and discipline of

mass organizations in which they work, observe their rules

and make it their duty to help each organization defend

the interests of the people . i n unions, party members

show themselves consistent fighters for the interests of

black workers . When It comes to strikes, they show -

themselves the strongest and most energetic organizers

of the strike . Among youth, women's ~~nd other organ-

izations, party members build the influence of the party

not by commanding, but by consistency . (self-discipline)

whether they are members or leaders of the organization .

Party members must find ways to the people ; we ..should

belong to organizations where leaders and sometimes a

large number of the members are indifferent o.r hostile 24 4

to nationalism .

We must find a way to the minds and hearts of the

people without fearing sacrifices . To lead the people

does not mean continually preaching to them . Pan-Afri

canists should take part in solving our people's everyday

problems and by dealing with them from a Pan-Africanist

point of~view, we will win them over to nationalism . order to lead the people we must take into account our . . people's experience and their present ieve) of conscious-

ness . This way we wit) not lose touch with reality and will not run ahead . Otherwise ;here is a risk of being

in the position of a vanguard that has lost co~it~ct with

the main elements of the people .

The revolutionary nationalist party generalizes the experiences of the whole people and interprets it fram the

lessons of our historical experience . The party must

be able to perceive tendencies which have not fully mani-

Tested themselves, but which will develop in the future .

A black internationalist party does not invent cirtum-

stances ; it moves from life, being part of the spontaneous

(present} movement . The party can lead the people and

teach the people only if it itself learns from the people,

carefully studies all that arises out of the people's

prattical activity, and assimilates the wisdom of the

people . To learn fram the people in order to~teach the 24y

people is the principle of leadership practiced by the

Pan--Africanist party . Party prestige will be continuously increased by winning the support of the people by actions carried oe~t by it . At the same time, the party cannot adopt the attitude of a-n infallible teachat- ; it speaks to the people frankly about both their success and failures . Pan-Africanists ae~e not of-raid to speak of their weaknesses . tie must show the people we are human and are capable of learning from our mistakes .

-The activities of the Pan-African party are not just creations of the party leadership . They are the concrete expressions of the political line elaborated by the party on the basis of a scientific analysis of the given stage of the struggle~in a given situation . The term "tactic" means a political line drawn up for a . short period of time determined by particular concrete conditions . "Stra- tegy" means the line for a whole historical stage .

Strategy, or the strategic line, is a question of the general tasks of a given historical stage .

Political leadership requires not only a correct, scientifically trust~orthy. analysis of the situation and drawing up the correct line, but also great ability and

skill in putting this line into effect . Without such

skill, even the best political line will be pf no avail .

For political~leader~hip,,it is important not only to

know, but also to be able to put this knowledge into 24 6

practice . Theoretical studies alone are nat enough .

The party can master the art of leadership only from its practical experience . for a revolutionary party, there is .no school that can replace the school of practical struggle, trial and error, with all its trials and tribulations, victories and defeats, successes and failures . Clut by studying other peoples' mistakes we can avoid many mistakes ourselves and can learn from other peoples' struggles of what not and what to do . The people view reality from the facts they experience day to day which directly affect them .

A revolutionary party can only become the vanguard of the people by leading the struggle for immediate eeonomic needs and political interests of the people, by putting forth and fighting for demands that meet the people's needs . An important aspect in the art of political leadership is the ability to unite the efforts of all forces with whom it's possible to achieve unity, including those with whom there are fundamental differences . The art of political leadership means having the ability to apply correct tactics for a certain period and the ability to change tactics when the historical situation calls for different tactics, to find the proper tactics that provide the people with victories .

Within the collective unconsciousness of the people 24 7

(discontinuity) is a people's mind's eye ; that is,peaple

respond when they see their interests collectively being moved aeon . A collective urban fire . Show the people

the interconnection of events . Provide them with his-

torical continuity, linking events with the main problem on their minds . Show them it is to their interests to carry

out the revolution, to move to the next step and finally

to the final step, peop le's powe r . 24 8

COMBAT COMMANDISM

In concerning incorrect ideas in the party, we must

analyze our internal weakness and must fight against counter-

revolutionary tendencies within our party and in the move-

ment .

While engaging in criticism and self-criticism first

we will .criticize ourself in saying that in years past we

have also been guilty of commandism . Commandism comes from

a lack of sound understanding of reva~lutianary theory

and organization of a People's mavment . In our wan case

`we went too far too fast and 'a=nly led and advanced section

~of the people ; therefore, we became isolated from the main-

stream of the movement . This was bad, but then it was good

because it .was part of a historical process which ful-

filled and need and an example from which we can learn .

In revolutions we learn from struggle ; our theory enriches

from practice . While our practice was not totally correct

it did produce some positive results .

Now, when we say the position -we took in our organ-

izing practice, while not totally correct, in historical

perspective fulfilled a need among our~peaple, what do

we mean?

We mean at that historical junction in our liberation 24 9

movement, there was the need for a clear-cut hard black

internationalist line and for the type of movement we

created, or else the movement would have never thrown us up

in regards of leadership . Now, the contradiction was, we were thrown to the forefornt before we were ready and

because of the dialectical development of the movement

couldn't or wouldn't retreat or lacked the knowledge of

how to surround ourselves with broad segments of the people .

While~we were guilty of degrees of commandism, maybe

today even, but we are working on purging ourselves of

incorrect tendencies much of the commandism came from cadres who had a lesser degree of understanding of revolutionary

theory and had less organizing experience .

Movement cadres more than anything else isolated the

party from the broad masses of our people . Repression and

reaction to the . repression was the number two factor and our.lack of self discipline and organixationel centrali-

zation was the number three factor .

Our lack of constant political education and self cri-

ticism is what gave further growth to commandism and also regionalism, brothers came super-revolutionary,

super-black, super-marxistm developed and arrogant attitude

towards the people, scared the people rather than work with and among the people . tlany brothers felt if a brother z5o

or sister didn't take a certain position or disagreed with

us they were jive . While we fought against this tendency,

instead of totally checking it we were preoccupied with

building mass forces from the street : This preoccupation came from not :having total faith in the people, molders of their destiny, and the lack of patience on our parts as community organizers . We want to take the struggle from the talking stage into the real stage and attempted to do that". Whether this was totally correct or incorrect or not, is difficult to properly analyze now and we will need help from the party in this attempt at self-criticism .

We may have been guilty of .adventuris ; if so, it~was not conscious and we are attempting to reform ourselves . We are trying to learn as much as possible from the people .

"If we have cshortcomings, we are:: not afraid to have them pointed out and criticized, ,because we serve the people

. . .If, in the interest of the people, we persist in doing what is right and correct what is wrong, our ranks 1 will surely thrive" . . .

The party under the leadership of RabertvF . Williams was misguided in many aspects . Some we can discuss at this time .

7h~ugh many may not know it, we engaged in ideological debate with Rob many times while he was in exile . tie

25 1

was not saying what was need for our situation internally ;

but was, as he said, speaking to the international audience

This was incorrect . 4Je will not engage in persona l

polemics, but at a later date will discuss the party under

the leadership of Robert F . Witliams ; its correctness,

incorrectness, and historical necessity .

When the Central Committee etected our new chairman

of the party in January 1970, we began a political re-

educational program within the party . ?his ideological

struggle against incorrect method/styles of work and ideas

within the party has been a rough one . It has taken toll

on many of us . Some old cadres, not being able to reform,

have dropped out of the party ;many people have bitter

feelings and same are still antagonistic towards correct

f~lnctioning of the party as a centralized organization

because it means reforming some of their corrupt habits

and ways .

~1s of present commandism, which comes from bourgeois

individualism, is still rampant in our party . Many brothers

have resorted to not responding to directives from the

chairman, giving the impression the chairman is irrational

and over-demanding . In following the principle of .

democratic centralism, collective responsibility and the

leadership, the deamnds and directives'to certain cadres

are for their own good as cadres functioning organizationally

zsz

and are not of a personal nature . The inability of these

cadres to understand the importance of directives, is

their lack of organizing experience ins}de the party,

sa they project indifference . but they are and will be

held responsible by the people and the majority of the

party . All events are being recorded and will be reviewed at the proper time .

Even though these tendencies are counter revolutionary

and hinder proper developmnet of the party, they are

goad in a sense because they reflect the incorrect ten-

dencies within our people and give us an opportunity to

dean with them now . We grow by every experience and if

we properly deal with the contradict}ons among us and

crush all counter-revolutionary tendencies within the

party, we wilt be richer in experience and know haw to

deal with these things in the future .

. Because we had not developed a centralized organization

with a decentralized Style of work, we suffered many set-

backs from 1968 to 1970 . Much of these setbacks came from

other tendencies that were rampant in our party at the

time - liberalism, guerriia}sm, reg}onalism, and commandism .

A11 these tendencies manifested themselves as key party '

leadership was forced 'to go under as a result of repression .

Our party became a closed door paranoid revolutionary

cult . While it did not cease to function, it degenerated 25 3

as a political organization . New cadres were not 'trained to replace old cadres . The party was in a state of crisis by January 1970 . As a result of the January '70 central committee meeting, much has changed . We, as a political organization, are becoming a people party and are transforming from a revolutionary cult, but much internal political re-education is needed .

"The revolutionary cultist uses the words social change ; they use words for 'being interested in the dev~l~opment of society ; he uses that terminology . But his actions are far divorced from the process, and organizing the community until he is living-in a fantasy world .

So we talk to each other on the campuses, or we talk to each other in tte conspiracy of the night, with concentration upon the weapons, thinking that these .things will produce some change, without people themselves changing i~t . Of course pe'opie will do courageous things and call themselves the vanguard . But the people who do things like that are either heroes or criminals . They ar.e-not the vanguard because the vanguard means spearhead, and the spearhead has to spearhead something, if nothing behind it, then you are divorced from all the masses, 2 not the vanguard ."

We must fight against commandism~and closed doorism i the party . Closed'doorism comes from~a fear of infiltrati

25~+

of being framed and from going to jail, and also a fear

of being taken out of the position of leadership if the

doors of the party were opened .

Oniy by opening up the doors of the party can we

become a people's party . To do this we must learn to flow

with the tide of our people's movement . This means at

every historical stage we must be involved and attempt

to advance that level of stru-gle to a higher level . By

doing this we will gain the respect of the people of

being true servants and also we will learn from the people .

We, as a vanguard, African People's :Party must first move

to organize our people around their basic needs .

"All work done for the masses must start from their

needs and not from the desire of any individual, however,

wept intentioned . It often happens tFiat objectively the

masses need a Certain change , . but subjectively they are

not .yet willing or determined to make the change . in

such cases, we should wait patiently . We should not make

the change until, through our work, most of the masses have

become conscious of the need and are willing and determined

to carry it out . Otherv~ise eye shall isolate ourselves

from the masses . Unless they are conscious and willing,

and kind of work that requires their participation will 3 turn out to be a mere formality and will fail ."

We must ask ourselves what .have we done for the people? Only by doing sa.mething for the people that produces concrete results will the people ;loin us and work with us . Then and only then will we begin to learn from the people back to .the people really means .

We must remember that the anly gray to learn from the people is to mingle among the people . This means that unlike cultural nationalists we , do not distinguish our selves by wearing cultural garb or being super black .

We must blend in with the people, not suspecting so we

R can do pf~oper investigat~i_on . We must be in complete harmony with the people . If you are not in harmony with the people's tide you will be isolated and thrown aut, exposed for attack . So this means we must talk and work with the people~on a day to day basis, not commanding, but working with the people side by side . This is-the only way Hre will learn how to master the art of revolutionary leadership . "However active the leading group may be, its activity wi~Tl amount to fruitless ,effort by a hand- ful of people unless combined with the activity of the masses . On the other hand, if the masses alone are active without a strong leading group to organize their activity properly, such activity cannot be sustained for . long, or carried forward in the right direction, or raised to a high level . The masses in any given place are generally composed of three parts,~the relatively active, the intermediate and the relatively backward . The leaders 25G

must tfierefore be skilled in uniting the small number of active elements around the leadership and must rely on them to raise the level .of the intermediate elements and to .win over the backward elements . A leading group that is genuinely in the process of mass struggle, and in

isolation from it . In the process of a great struggle, the composition of the leading group in most cases should not and cannot remain entirely unchanged throughout the initial, middle and final stages ; the activists who comes .forward in the course of the struggle must constantly be prompt to replace those original members of the leading group who are inferior by compa~isan or who have degenerated'" . . . .'"It is part of the plan accordingly in the light of the historical conditions and existing circumstances pf each locality, decide correctly for the centre of gravity and the sequence of the work for each period, steadfastly carry through the decision and make 4 sure that definite results are achieved" . . .

Only be re-educating ourselves and constantly humbling ourselves, and working with the people on a day to day basis vJi.ll we be able to cure commandism in our ranks .

When we do this we will be at a higher stage in our struggle .

25 7

FOOTNOTES

1 Serve The People, pg . 227, Se le cted Works of tl ao Tse Tung, Vol . 3

2 Huey P . Newton, The Black Panther, May 29, 1971

3 Mao Tse Tung, _The.__ U nite_. . d Fron t 1 n,_ Cultural Work , vol . 3, Pg . 236

Mao Tse Tung, "Co-ncerning Methods of Leadership" Selected Works, Vol . 3, pp116-21 25 8

THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY AND THE MASS LINE

(TACTICS OF OUR NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION)

It is important, during the process of transforming our movement from a crisis oriented struggle into a poli- trcal nation building revolution led by the Pan African

People's Party, to reassess our experience over the last eleven years . We must deal with our contradictions, in order that we develop a party style of work that relates to the needs of our people.

The party style of work and program must correspond with the objective, concrete realities of our people .

This is the only way the :Pan African People's Party will truly become a mass party and Pan African Piatiana .lism became the living philosophy of our people .

Revolutionaries learn from trial and error . We have learned from our past mistakes and failures, that, we must develop a multi-level organization that has mass support and working day to day p°- ogram, as well as a long range program . The 1960's provides us with a wealth of revolutionary experience . There are several things that shiuld have become very clear tows . One is our struggle i~ of~a protracted nature .and aril) take many years to fully develop into a national democratic

25 9

revolution . Two is, politics must command the gun . We

saw too many of our brothers die fruitlessly, having little

or no mass support, because they got carried avray with the

gun and isms our people knew nothing about . Any serious

Pan African People's Party, must have sound based leader-

ship Chat sees itself responsible to the people and not

above them .

First, we must realize we are involved in a - national

democratic revolution . A national democratic revolution

is when a,n oppressed nation struggles against the colon

ializer nation (oppressor) for national political inde-

pendence and self-reiiance .

It is important to understand this because many

brothers and sisters confuse this point . Many think we're

in the phase of a class .or socialist revolution, and there

fore, apply the wrong tactics to organizing our nation .

They leap over a complete histo rical phase, and therefore,

isolate themselves from the community . While a national

democratic liberation revolution can make~a'historical leap

into the primary stage of a socialist revolution, this

can only be do,ie the eve of seizing power .

While the working class leads national democratic

revolutions, it unites with all classes of the oppressed

nation vlho oppose oppression by the colonial cauntry .

Therefore, the broad term "the people" becomes ail whc~ z~v

support the revolution . Class antagonism, though present,

is played down in an effort to unite the whale nation into a broad National African Peoples United Frant against domestic colonialism and repression .

So, the main objectives of the Pan African People's

Party must be to unite our nation around saund principles which will advance our struggle . But understanding that other farces in our community have less commitment for real unity, the party must build the front primarily from below . Organizing the front from below means that the party concentrates its efforts in organizing Black workers, unemployed, street force, students, and youth .

Only when having soldified a strong base among the people would the party actively push for the front . It realizes that unless "the people" are fully mobilized and organized and national <~ront will not be able to be strong and~consistent . So, the party's tactics in organizing in the community would be the 'broad front' or mass line . In applying these tactics to reality, party organizers will have to be flexible . At the same time of applying flex-

ibility, the organizer never comprises principle . The object is to mobilize as many people as possible .

"A revolution is not a coup d'etat ; it is not the

upshot of plots . It is the work of the masses . Hence,

to mobilize and rally the farces of the masses ; to set up and expand the political army of the revolution, is a fundamental, decisive .problem . This task must be attended to in an unflagging and sustained way throughout all periods, both when no revolutionary . situation has arisen andgrown mature . To this end, one must mingle avith the masses in everyday life and be active wherever the masses are, even within enemy organizations ; one must keep abreast of tfie situation both in the enemy's camp and ours, correctly appraise ali schemes, moves, and capabilities of the enemy, accurately assess all changes happening in his ranks, and, at the same time, be fully acNare of the state of mind, wishes, and potential power o-f the masses ."

After mobilizing, the party then, has to consolidate this mobilization, A method of mobilization that has been used in recent years is the Black political convention

The Black po'~iticai convention is the structure to mobi- l~ize people, but not the structure to consolidate that mobilization . Mobilization of the people can only be consolidated through struggle around . day to day needs .

It is only by winning gains (economic) step by step can we consolidate our people . Such consolidation can only come about through the organization of a broad mass league of Black workers .

The Party must, therefore, have close relations with Black workers in their locales . The party must more than ever

increase its activity among Black workers because the 26 2

Black workers movement has been seriously set back by the split within and between the League of Revolution-ry

Black Workers and the Black Workers Congress . The origin and nature of the split is tao deep to go into detail

in this paper, but the major contradiction goes back -to alienated petty bourgeois so cailed'Biack Marxist

Leninist intellectuals and the revolutionary nationalist workers from the plants .

When the League was formed in 1968, these contra° dictions existed but did not polarize because elements from the street were around who knew how to Jeep the sectarian elements in line ; but as soon as those elements were forced to go into exile, sectarianism began to raise

its head inside the League .

SECTARIAN MARXISM-LENINISM AND DIALECTICAL WHITE

WOMEN

Sectarian Marxism-Leninism and dialectical white women is the conscious or subconscious justification for

a brother to "sleep white" and still be "coal" in the

movement . Brothers who reflect this view pretend to

be "orthodox Black Marxists", but ir~ reality they are

only justifying their Jones for white women or rationalization

far having left a t3lack wife for a white one. Now, this

may not sound scientific, but if one takes into account

the psychological aspects of our struggle iw the United

States, they would see it . Fanon .often .taiked of psycho - 26 3

logy and liberation . These bro.the.rs,. without realizing it, become alienated from the Black psyche and serve to set our movement back, This has happened in other colonial revolutions . Mao waged a struggle for 15 years against alienated "orthodox" Marxist-Leninists inside the Chinese

Communist Party . The .same thing happened in Vietnam and

Korea .

" . . .Revolution is creation ; without imagination and inventiveness, a revolution cannot succeed . There has never been and will never be a unique formula, one that is suited to all circumstances and aYT times for making a revoTutson . One given method may be adapted to a certain country, but unfit for another ; a correct one in certain times and under certain circumstances . Ail depends on concrete historical conditions . . .-

A method, a form of struggle, can only be considered the best and most jusicious one when it fully staisfies the rwquirernents of a given concrete situation ; when it

is wholly suited to the conditions in which it is~appTied ; when it makes iC possible to put on their mettle the

revolutionary and progressive forces and rouse them to

action . If one has mastered the concrete historical

point of view and takes . the peculiar Craits of one's country

into. full account, then the more one knows about the 2 revolutionary inventiveness in ane~'s own country ."

26 4

~So, in order that the majority of Black workers

can function in a Black workers movement, Pan African

Nationalists must develop a nationalist Africa n,Pe.ople's

Union that speaks to the basic needs of the Black workers

in a way they can understand what we're talking about .

From our experiences in the 60's, we learned the

need far a multi-level organization built on democratic

centralism with a constitution and by-laws that every

member understands . This way, every party member knows

the isarty is just as much his as the leadership's and that

he is just as important as the leadership . From the Black

Guards organizing in Detroit and Philadelphia, where

sections of the city became~Black Guard areas, we'learned-

the importance of developing community (area} cells, and

from the November 17, 1967 mass demonstration in Philly,

where 50,000 Black students demonstrated, led by the

Black Guards, we learned the importance of developing

political cells . The policy of the party is to bore in

or be well entrenched :in .the'community :~ First, every party

cadre must know who's in his immediate area . Ne must know

who's the appointed leaders, by the power structure, the

real grass roots local leaders, the street culture leaders,

etc . The party cadre must make an indepth study of his

area, acquiring knowledge of its history and the people .

The cadre must'be good at making friends and making people

answer questions for themselves in general conversation .

z65

After the cadre makes a few friends . on the block they

should then pick one or two brothers and sisters to

politically groom . The cadre checks to see if the block

has a block committee . If it does, then politicalize

the existing committee, developing party cadre in the

committee . If a block committee doesn't exist, then the

party cadre builds one . Ne will explain the party is

trying to build community programs based on block

committees .

Coffee and tea gatherings can be held in people's

houses an the block to make the people familiar with

aspects of the party program . Then, after consolidating

the block association, party cadre can then recruit

black committee members into the A .P .P . Before bringing

block people into the party, the cadre should have studied

them for at ¢east three months and would take them through

vigprous orientation during political education discussion .

Once a person is . accepted in a community cell, his rule

is to :

i) Create another party cell on the block or in the area

2) Develop a party cell on his job

3) Join a community organization and develop a party cell inside the organization

4) Build a party cell among_ his friends (social)

26 6

Mass organizations of the people will depend upon

how the party organizes parallel economic institutions,

African peaple's cooperatives . This is very important because being in a protracted struggle and a patio n building revolution, we must realize that it's independent

institutions and not rhetoric that keeps- continuity in

the struggle :

Therefore, we must further consolidate our present

institutions and expand to others . Our political insti-

tution is the African People's Party ; our educational insti-

tutions are the Pan African Institute and the African

Peoples Liberation School ; our cultural/spiritual in,sti-

tutian and our economic institutions are the African

Peoples Union cooperatives ; and our defense institution

is the African Guard . 7his provides us with the basic

ingredients of a cultural nation . Now comes the hard

tad.k of transforming our cultural nation into a political

nation,. As our "way" Jihad becomes the way of life for

African youth, our political culture will 'reach mass

dimensions . . ."Revolutionary Black Nationalism must unite

Black people, must arouse the collective consciousness of

the Black nation, and pose an alternative to the moribund,

decadent culture of the oppressor, challenging every

move it makes on Black terrain . And perhaps most important

of ail, re-oppression must be brought to an end . Other-

~"~ise, the question would no longer remain ape of culture,

26 7

3 but of pure and simple mystificat :ian ."

This is very important because some cultural nation-

alists have really tripped out with the mystification bit .

And what makes it so bad, same of our people believe it

and need it .

As a developing cultural natian, our people are

culturally messianic prone and will be so for some time,

but it is important in-our cultural revolution that we

destroy the counter revolutionary "Son of God" complex, .

Ho man ' is, was, or shall be the Son of God himself and

that should always be understood by ,everyone . There have

and always will be divinely inspired men, but they are

not God, and to warship them as such is counter-revolution-

ary . This alone destroys the concept ; the people. make

history .

It is important for the . party tc always do investi-

gation among the people . Sometimes, in order to do this, ,

brothers and sisters must change their lifestyle, stop

hanging out with one another (nationalist), take off

that cultural garb, cut ar fry that bush, and melt back

into the people . This way, you can find out what. all

segments of the people are thinking about and what level

of development they ar,e, what's agitating their minds .

For three years, the party leadership has circulated

through different elements' of the people to see how the

majority of us are thinking . While many nationalists are 26$

talking pride in their new A-titan suits and name and playing "Black" games of who's~gaing to be the first to come to fame, to the vas majority of our people, the moverrrent still seems unreal or cnrifused : This means we have much work to do .

Brother Owusu Saduaki (Howard duller) recently said .;

"Too many of us who call ourselves revolutionaries are carbon copies of our oppressor . Those of us who arc

Black revolutionaries must reappraise ourselves and that does'nat only mean we should wear dashikis, but we must do whatever is necessary for revolution . It might mean that you will have to straighten your hair or dress like the man, but if you must straighten you hair so that you can eventually wear a natural, then you would straighten your hair .

Revolutionary struggle is designed to change the system and not just the clothes we are wearing. If we k do not see this reality, we will change our clothes and st 'il} be oppressed . Without practice ; revolutionary 4 analysis is invalid ."

The healthiest development in this direction is the

developments in the South . The struggles for mass Black

or voter registration being led by Julian Band <~nd John

t.ewis have tremendous potential for our nationa'I democratic

revolution, and all party cadre should give them a helping 26g

hand in their drive . The running for Governor of Missi- ssippi by Mayor Evers .and the statewi-de campaign of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party showed us the method of consolidating on the county level . The st -rugglw in North Carolina has reached anew stage with the formation of the statewide Black Peoples Union Party . Ali these developments are dialectical struggles which inevitably from practice will lead to making the APP demand of reparations and independence a reality . Al-1 Pan African lJational . ists must arork in the people's present movement i~ order to show them the road to national independence and self reliance .

" . . .The possibility of reparations and land are infinitely greater than the probability of white people ever fully accepting Black people . History offers not a single example of a people ever accepting another group that it regards as its inferior . Many of us have yet to learn, despite so much rhetoric that you simply cannot educate a man to act in a manner that he believes would 5 be contrary to his self-interest ."

!t is important that the demand for reparations and national indepedence can only become a mass demand by waging struggle around issues our people presently under stand and linking reparations with it . The base of this will be an economic struggle as well as political . It

Z7o

is orrly by having a strong Black workers movement that

is willing to call a national Black Strike for independence

will our national democratic revolution be succes>sful .

'.! We believe that the burn'rnq question confronting

the Afro-American people is whether or not we want to

be integrated into the United States of America ar liberated

in-to a sovereign nation of our own, with full status and

rights with other nations of the world, including

United Nations membership and diplomatic recognition by 6 the other nations of the world ."

By `~organizing and educating Black workers, our call ~ r ; for an Africaw Peoples Plebiscite wrill have a mass base .

This a,nd only this will make the APP Ten Point Program

which is the program of the :late El Najj Malik Shabazz

a .reatity .

By correctly applying the mass line and having . .the

support of the people of the world,. w~,know, without a

doubt, we wi 11 ta.in .

27i

FOOTNOTES

Le Duan, The Vietnamese Revolution Fundamental Problems Essential Tasks, pp . 50-51

2 Ibid, pp . 41-43

3 Ernie Mkalimoto, Revolutionary Black Culture, The Cultural Arm of Revolutionary f,ationalism . Reprinted in The Ideology_of Blackness, p . 205

4 . ' Howard Fuller, Fuller Hits Out . At Revolutionaries, Co ntra st, December 20, 1971, Vol . 3 ° 5 Lenton Aikens, Pan-Africanism : Self-Determination and Nation Building, Black k~orl d, 'iovember, 1971 . Vol . XXI, No . 1 °

6 Eldridge Cleaver, Black Peoples Plebiscite, Ba byl on, Vol . 1, No . 3, December 15, 1971, p . 14 . . . . ~ , . . . i~ . _ ° . , ~ , ~ , ; . l

. 272

ROLE OF THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY IN THE NATIONAL LIBERATION

STRUGGLE

In order to draw a scientific analysis of the role

of the APP in our struggle, we must assess ourselves,

our allies and our enemy . As a vanguard movement for

five years we presented the black nation with a black

ideological perspective and began to-develop e military

unit . From our efforts and the efforts of others, a

national black movement has now taken shape .

While the . Pen African movement represents more of

a mood than an organization, it has laid the climate for

the emergence of a mass black revolutionary party . At

present -t he African People's Party of National Liberation

is a small minority within the movement, but its influence

and supporters are more than tenfold . One of the reasons

the APP is a small minority is because many, of our people

don't knovr of the APP's existence, others would like to

join but don't know how and still others are unaware of

the APP's scientific program, The APP, being a young

party is still weak organizationally,, therefore it has not

been able to recruit members as it should . For the most

part the first year of the APP's existence was concentrated

on developing a collective leadership and party unity .

Developing and maintaining party unity is very important

because unless we are a cohesive organization, we will

cease to be a political force . One of the main contradictions

of the movement is the low level of political conscious-

ness . Also there is an uneven development regionall-y

of political sophistication . 1Jithin the ranks of our

party, there is also an uneven development of political

understanding . While the APP in the form of a m<~vement

led the national democratic revolution ideologice~lly

it failed to lead the struggle organizationally . As a

vanguard party the panty's main task will be ~to llead the

struggle organizationally becoming the main eente:r for

our struggle's tar..tics . But in order to do this,, the

APP must have a clear perspective line and must t>e well

centralized . All metubers of the APP must understand and

be able to articulate the APP's line . On this point we

will begin tc.~ discuss the factors of Pan A-titan Nationalism

(Black Int:e:rnationalism) . t Nationalism and internationalism : Many brothers

and sisters tend to get nationalism and internationalism

confused and don't know how to correctly relate t:o both .

How do we cl a=ss i fy nurse 1 ves? ~ 1Je say we are Pan-~Af r i can

Nationalists . We say we are Pan-African Nationalists

(Black Internationalists) because we .see that the: main

contradiction in the world today is the super exploitation

of Black (African, Asian and South American) peoples by

European and American Peoples . We see that even European

27 4

specialist countries are working hand in hand with

European capitalist countries to oppress Black (llfrican/

Asian? nations : Race (Cultural) exploitation is .secondary .

Our outlook is similar .to that .of the late Marcus Garvey

and Dr . DuBois, only we have taken the essence of both

men's philosophies, compiled and reorganized thorn to

fit contemporary times on a scientific basis . So Black

Internationalism or Pan African Nationalism envisions

a wotl .d revolutions of the oppressed class (Black under- ~

class ) worldwide . So as Black Internationalists we

are Revolutionary African Nationalists at the same time .

How is this so? . .

Seeing the Black (African/Asian) peoples of the

world as the 'vanguard of the world revolution engaging

in a national democratic revoluti-on, we likewise see

African peoples in America as part of the world vanguard ,

and~the vanguard of revolution in America . See our people

as an enslaved captive colonial nation within a nation,

we see their ultimate interests is national independence Ii

and self-determination .

Many people confuse these terms and on't understand

what they mean . This is why many people are confused

on the land question . Land is a part~of national liberation

and self-deter,min,ation because they mean a nation governing

itself which means control of the land space and everything

that transpires on the land that the people live .

27 5

Broken down, national liberation means liberation of a

nation - national liberation : Self-determination means

nation determining (its) self (destiny) . So as Pan-African

Nationalists, we see the, ultimate solution for the revo-

lution in America is independent self-government for the

Black Nation, The APP therefore supports the establishment

of an African People's Republic .

Now we must deal with the primary question of how

can the APP become the vanguard of the struggle without

over-extending its organization . Thls can only come about

by the APP members being involved in the heart of the struggle . .

P,an-African Nationalists must se,t the example in

our struggle . What have we learned from our experiences?

We learned as early as 1963 and 1964 that only b~y joining

the broad mass mohements of our people, were we .able to

effectively mobilize and lead them . Applying "born-in"

tactics we joined organizations such as SNCC, CORE, and

NAACP . 4lhile we were in these organizations, we represented

their most militant winQS and from doing this we were

gain the respect of many people and so influenced

these organizations that they eventually changed their .

philosophy . It is only .be being active in our broad

struggle, by testing theory with practice, setting the

example, will we be able to organize our people . . Our

cadres have been active in most of the developments of

27 6

the struggle during the last ten years . From the: sit-in

movement and freedom rides we recruited a small nucleus .

From the voter registration projects in the South and mass

demonstrations in the worth, our nucleus became Larger ;

by organizing in the South we developed the beginnings

of a nationalist movement . When we formed the Black

Panther Party, we further expanded the movement and when

are organized community youth into para-military units,

we started our transformation into a disciplined party .

Now comes the next test, to transform from a minority

party to a disciplined mass party .This process will

be slow . It will only take, place . b y APP members showing

they are the most organized and consistent people: in

our struggle . This can only be done by active participation

in community organizations . This means cadres must be good in working with our people . Cadres must present v themselves in a manner of brotherhood and sisterhood .

Party cadres should be free of arrogance and should be

flexible enough to work with other groups . Every cadre

working among the people should be their friend, brother

and sister, and not boss over them . We should be humble

teachers and not arrogant-: militants .

At no time should party cadre place his personal

interests first ; he should subordinate them to the interests ,

of the nation and the people . Selfishness, loafing, cor-

ruption, seeking the limelights are not tolerated by the party and is inconsistent with being a party cadre. .

Working hard to achieve party objectives, devotion

the people our nationalist duty and quiet work are the attributes of a party member . Cadres should learn to . work in harmony with all black revolutionaries outside

Party ranks and move the entire nation and weed out what

is undesirable .

What is important is that we understand we form only a small element of our nation and that there are: large numbers of activists outside the party with whom we must work . We should view people in a relative nature ; that most groups are contributing something positive and they can be educated to the Pan African nationalist pasition .

Above all, cadres should set an example in being practical as well as farsighted . Only by being practical can we fulfill our tasks and by being farsighted we~won't lose our bearings . At~all times, cadres should learn from the'"people as well as teach them . Only by learning from the people, from actual circumstances and by knowing the people well, can we be practical in our work and farsighted . Only by mingling with the people, being one with and part of the people will we be examples for the people .

In this way we will be able to expand the ranks of the party .

Expand the African People's Patty and prevent infil-

tration by enemy agents . The only reason the APf is a

27 8

minority party is because it isn't organized enough yet

bring the mass of our people . into its ranks . To over-

come our organizational problems and build a People's

Republic of Flew Africa, the APP must expand its organization

and become a mass party by opening its doors to the mass

of brothers and sisters who are truly dedicated to the

revolution, who believe in the party's principles, support

its policies and are willing to accept new party members in.- .

to our party, to train them to become good party cadre

but a.t the same time screen them acid test them and be an

guard against enemy infiltration . The government has

a constant surveillance on the Party and wants as much

information on the Party as~ possible, therefore the

Party should be on guard in protecting its secrets . But

on the other hand the Party should not become paranoid

and shut its doors because it fears infiltration . The

Party must boldly expand its ranks by requiring potential

members through fronts . Each local Party Central Committee

should establish an intelligence unit that does nothing

but check up on other members and to check out rumors

and to know what the enemy is planning . The Party can

best expand its ranks by expanding its youth movement, .

the Black Guards . The Black Guards which consist: of

junior high, high school, street and college ~yout:h make

a vast reserve of Party cadre . Being that Party membership

is open to any African 18 years or older, youth will be

27 9

prepared to take up positions of leadership when they

join . The Black Guards is the most disciplined and best

organized segment of Black youth . The Black Guards should

expand its mass organization, the Young African PJation

(YAN} : Also by organizing black workers into African .

People s Unions, the Party can expand its ranks . Also

by forming African Studies Institutes and African Student

Unions, the Party can expand . The~Party must also be

involved in the community control of school issues and

help the National Welfare Rights Qrganizations and African

Women's groups that are forming around the country .

Build the Black United Front or Slack Liberation

Front and maintain independence of ttie Party . In the last

few years the Party has made great strides in forming

Black United Fronts around the country . But t"he Party

has to be very careful in organizing United Fronts

because the black bourgeoisie often use these fronts

to'consolidate their power over the movement and split

the ranks of the Party . This was done in Philadelphia

in 19ba in the Black Coalition . We must study this ex-

perience so it won't reoccur . The Party when forming

United Fronts must maintain it's organizational inde-

pendence and must never compromise its lines or else it

will lose povler in the front .. The object of the: Front is

to have a broad mass base for the Party, not the: bourgeois

28 0

In this period because our people are not mobilized and

because the bourgeoisie are basically counter revolutionary

and well organized, the Party should concentrate its

efforts on mobilizing for the Front from the street .

More feasible at this time would be the unification

f nationalists organizations to form a black liberation

front . The formation of a black liberation fronC should

be primary concern for the Party . This front should be

organized around broad objectives . The purpose of the

liberation front is to create a broad' Pan African Nationalist

Front that could help all groups in : the front . The Black

liberation front can change the struggle qualitatively .

The next stage of our struggle is the development of a

National African People's Liberation Front .

Consolidate community power (by considering the sit-

tuation as a whole in terms of the majority) . Each party

chapter must learn how tp consolidate community power ; that

we must learn the tactics of "bore-in ." Bore in tactics

are that of joining the local movement and becoming the

leadership of the local movement . This means .different

cadre joining different groups and bringing these groups

to agree an some points of the party program. By boring

in into different groups, the Party's influence will be

broadened and will become a powerful force .

Party members must apply the tactics of ~pal:iently

moving the community step . by step . In moving the community 28 1

step by step, the party YJlll move the community t:o accept its program . The Partymust also set up functional liberation groups such as the Young African Nation, African

Writers Association, African Unemployed League, African

Woman's Association, African Student Union, African Workers

Union and other special interest groups . These group's role will be to consolidate and organize each segment of the population they are concerned with . These functional groups would organize functional congresses, laying the base for community structure and government . Each con- press, African Workers, Student, Youth, Unemployed,

Writers, would all be part .of the National Afric~a~n Peaple'

Congress, a

In organizing the Party keep in mind all . party work done is done from the needs and interests of the people .

All work~for the masses must start from their needs and not from the desire of any individual, however well-

intentioned . It often happens that objectively the masses

need a certain change, but subjectively they are not yet

conscious of the need, not yet willing or determined

to make the change . In such cases, we should wait patiently,

we should not make the change until through our work,

most of the masses have become conscious of the need and

are willing arcd determined to carry it out . Otherwise

we shall isolate ourselves from the masses .

If we keep in mind the Party moves from tt~e basic

zsz

needs of the people, we will never. separate ourselves

from the majority of our people by leading only a few

progressive elements in an isolated way but will form

a link between progressive forces and the broad masses :

Cadre Policy : One of the most important roles of the

party is training of cadre . Being that our nation is

unorganized, the Party must be concerned with training large

numbers of cadre in a planned way . This means he must

know how to guide cadre, evaluate and train them . The

Party must`~let them have enough room try their own

methods of organizing and must encourage independence

and initiative . The Party must be patient with cadres

and must use persuasion as 'a method of showing what is

correct to do . The four basic principles for cadre to

follow are :

l . Total devotion to the Pan Afs- ican Revolution

2 . Daily contact with the people

3 . Ability to work Independently 4 . Upholding of Party discipline .

Party Organization : The key question now is how do

we build the internal structure of ou " Party, prevent

enemy infiltration and expand . In other words we must

build a mass Party : All revolutionary Parties start with

the convening of a small nucleus to form a Party . First

the Party's central committee is created, then other

sections of the Party is created . The Party once created

28 3

engages itself in political mobilization of the people .

A party consitution is drafted . and a program established .

Our Party has developed a program and has drafted By-Laws

to its Constitution . The Party's central committee and

National Council has formulated . PJ~ow we must build

regional, state, and local Party structure . The Party

as a whole shall be represented by its Central Committee

and its propaganda organs ; political (newsletter,) and

theoretical (internal journal) . The functions of the

Central Committee are to exercise general direction of

all the practical activities of all its forces ; to

ensure proper utilization and allocation of all its

forces ; to control tfie activities of ,all sections of the

Party ; to supply the local organizations with literature ;

to organize the technical apparatus of, the Party ; to

convene Party congresses .

shall be responsible for the . a The National Council

functioning of all lower party bodies ; shall maintain

Party discipline and be responsible for building lower

party organization . The National Council is the second

in .chain of command and shall be responsible for carrying

out directives of the Central Committee . At tfiis point

in our Party's development, the National Council should

be made up of people who are representatives of the

Central Committee . When this is not possible br-..cause of . the lack of people, then city councils should be; established

2134

But if there are more than one~city council, a state

council and state chairman selected to coordinate the

building of a state party section . When other city councils

are formed in the state then a state party congress Can form .

4lhenever possible regional councils should be es-

tablished . When the party becomes a mass party than it shall

organize congresses . The Central Committee will organize

the party from the top down as well as from .the bottom

up to minimize enemy infiltration . By slow building of party membership, it gives party intelligence enough tim e to check out party personnel . !,le are attempting to learn

from the mistakes ~of the Black Panther Party, of building

too fast, therefore we must be acreful . At the same time

we are trying to establish a system whereby agents will

be neutralized if they have already infiltrated . We must

continue our vigilance against enemy infiltration .

The Party would avoid premature confrontations arith

the power structure . We should study they Black Panther

Party situation . The Black Panther Party's leadership

has either bee~~ jailed, assassinated or exiled . Some of our

Party's jeadership is in exile asn in the past has been

jailed . There are unavoidable in the process of organizing .

But in the future, party organizers must avoid jail

and exile unless necessary . Going to jail should

just consist of minor charges resulting from demonstrations .

z85

The,Party, in the future must avoid conspiracy cases

because they drain the resources of the organization .

But we realize that some set-ups cannot be avoided because

conspiracy cases are a tool of the enemy, To prepare for this ell party cadre should organize supporters committees . of people who are willing to raise funds for the party .

These committees would be legalistic and would fight for

the right of the party to exist .

,The overall objective of the party is not the over-

throw of the U .S . government, but the establishment of

self-governing black (African} government and nation . The

party of natronai liberation is a broad party encompassing

all pPogressive elements of the African nation far the

goal of self-government . The party states its limited

political goal as its legalistic program .

The party sees spontaneous urban rebellions as an

organized part of the national liberation movement . The

organized urban revolution would take .t he form of a national

black strike and dislocation for the demand of independent

nationhood .

The party supports the concept of the potential of

a minority revolution but sees the stage envisioned by

Robert F . Williams as being the last stage of a long protracted .

organizing effort . The party.'s main concern is mass

organization and meeting the needs of the people: . Meeting

the needs of the people will makes the party the vanguard

28 6

of the movement . The Black Panther Party has raised the

slogan "Serve the People. ." This is a good slogan and must

be put in practice .

1967-G8 URBAN REBE .LLION~S

The party in the form of the revolutionary action

movement provided the spontaneous urban rebellions from

1964 to 1968 with an ideological base . The party, because

of the nature of the American situation decided that due

to constant surveillance and encirclement and destroy

campaigns by the enemy, the party had to build an under-

ground base first . In the formative years the party

organized from below organizing,basicaily the lumpen

proletariat element of the people to support the program

of the party . The party was the ideological vanguard

in providing urban rebellions with a broader context . Now

the party, must organize an organized urban movement

that serves as the spark for other organized urban move

ments . The party wilt suffer many setbacks in its struggle

to organize but in the final ~naiysis we will vrin .

Because our situation is basically urban ; the vast majority south, of our people living in urban areas, basically in the

our organization can be easily encircled . For this reason

the party must be a national party whereas it can organize

campaigns in other communities to support local struggle .

Also the party must be both above and below t+o wage off

encirciement . campaigns . The party being a b uck working

28 7

class party must have power through black workers in the

factorFes and plants . By having strong roots in the black

working class, the party can always use the power of the

black strike to support the demands of its programs .

T,he party must then prepare an above ground apparatus

to educate the people to its program . The aboveground

party would build a movement of national liberation ;

a movement towards independent black nationhood .

STUDY

All party members should study the theory of Pan

African Nationalism, study our nation's history and study

the current movement and trends . . All party cadre should

help party members in their political education . Cadres

in particular should study carefully, while senior

cadres should undergo serious study . "No political party

can possibly lead~a great revolutionary movement to vic-

tort' unless it possesses revolutionary theory and. a

knowledge of history and has profound grasp of the prac-

tical movement ."

The theory of Pan African Nationalism is applicable

to our situation . Too many brothers and sisters study

Marxism-Leninism and get, hung up on "revolutionaryism ."

That is, they don't know to apply their theory to our

situation, We, must apply total translation to this sit-

cation . Which means wa must_study our movement, history

and adapt theory to fit our conditions . In our study we

28 8

don't make our theory dogma, but u .se it as a gui

action . We use it as a science of revolution . We only

study other revolutions to find out how they won .

All party cadre shoald attend party school for general

orientation and political education . Party school is

continuous through a cadre's political life for it pre-

pares him with lessons of struggle . All party cadre shauld

study the party internal journal because the interns l

journal presents general guidelines for mass activities

ON ALLIES

The party has two sources for . allies, national and

international . While farces internationally support our

cause,~they are not ready to provide material aid . Because

of the party's political line, it receives less support

than those who follow the revisionist line . Unity Hrith

th,e Third World can only come about through struggle .

" The party must concern itself 4Jith finding allies

within these shores . Groups that are potential allies

are Puerto Ricans, t9exican-Americans, Indians, Japanese,

Chinese-Americans and other ethnic minorities . The

other possible group of allies are radical whites . The

pasty's position is one of self determination for our

colonial~ized nation . Any white radicals who are disci-

plined an d, not ,adventuristic and,who,support the party's

program and are willing to accept the party's leadershiF 28 9

are classified as party allies . The party takes a prin- cipled stand on white allies and that is that any assistance given to the party by allies is one of political principle and agreement of the party's program and aid in no way binds the party in any way to follow the will of the allies . That is aid-with no strings attached . The party seeks allies in bringing about the revolution and will work with those groups who have, thrQUgh struggle, proven themseldes worthy of being allies THE POLITtCAL12ATI0N OF AFRICAN CULTl1RE

In this new era (70's) of rising tide of Pan Afri-

canism among the African middle class and revolutionary

nationalism among the African working class, it is impor

tant that all Africans wherever they may reside, under-

stand the importance of African culture to the .Pan

African revolution .

Our culture is rich and can become very revovlutionary

if properly palicalized . Culture provides the people with continuity . It is part of the super-structure,

an institution within itself, of any society .

Culture is the mass transmitter of ideas and provides

the people with the "esprit de corps" necessary to wage a protracted struggle for national liberation .

The cultural revolution that is taking place in

all African communities around the world then, is very

important . Our cultural revolution must be political'

and in being political, it must be geared to the complete

uncompromising world liberation of all-African and all

peoples of the world .

Being subjugated-and oppressed by neo-imperialism,

we as a people suffer cultural imperialism, the systematic

crushing, manipulating, deluding and controlling our

2g1

culture to the benefit of the western capitalist world .

Culture as projected by the western eapitalist world

is exported to progate the cultural. ideas of capitalist

mentality lifestyle .

Observing the rising tide of Pan African Nationalist

consciousness of the African masses, the imperia'I1sts are

moving day and night to capitalize and subvert the Pan

African revolution through the manipulation and contro l

of our culture . -

Therefore it`s important that Pan African revolution-

aries everywhere gain control of owr culture and inter-

ject clear Pan African nationalist viewpoint in it beofre

our culture is turned into a force for counter revolution,

the negro revolution, to fight the real revolution .

But this is a very subtle move . The oppressor is pre-

sently busy creating a false bourgeois "Pan African moveme-

meat" of petty bourgeois middle crass intellectuals and

CIA agents to fight the real Pan African working class

street force revolution that is brewing~in the Harlems,

Watts, and Detroits of the world .

Real Pan African revolutionaries shouldn't withdraw

in a hole just because you see how the "jive" people have,

the power in the Pan African movement .

We should realize that when the oppressor encourages

the middle class to assume the leadership of 'the Pan

African movement, it is because it is weakening and

z9z

because it's stalling for time .

But this is a good thin as well . We must realize,

that everything has its duality in the hiistoricai dia-

iectical sense .

While presently the oppressor is creating a bourgeois

cultural revolution in our community, which does not

encourage resistance to the power structure based on

a race and class analXsis, it does raise the national pride

and Self confidence of our people and helps in the future

development of a Pan African Pdational .ist mass conscious-

ness .

So it's important that,we understand the relation of

present day African culture to our revolution, what

happened to it and its future role . African .culture was

suppressed by many slave colonial regimes in the last 500

years of our enslavement . It was only allowed to flourish

when its content reinforced the psychological conditioning

of our enslavement . This meant that content was turned

inwards, playing to the negative aspects of our destructive

mentality and social disillusionment with one another

without of course explaining the root cause, capiitalist

colonialist exploitation by a racist state .

Whenever message culture developed, it :; was suppressed,

so message content had to be well covered which oftimes

became lost over a period of years .

29 3

In the west, this resulted in the formation o'f a

"Blue Culture", which has grown into a new rhythm and blues culture .

For the most part, our culture is still bourgeois,

even though there is a conscious movement among African

artists to transform it .

To understand the importance of culture in our revo-

lution, we must understand certain things . One is while

the formal cultural instituions were for the most part,

not totally destroyed, it was suppressed .

Sa the africanisation of African peoples can be

explained in a dialectical sense . This is important if we

are to understand the New African Cultural Revolution .

The impact~of invasion by Europeans upon Africa in

the late 15 and early 16th centuries led to the most

traumatic era our planet has ever known . 1~1e are still in

the traumatic era~dn will not be over it far some time to

come, even long after emancipation .

It is becoming obvious to many third world revolution-

aries that when we analyze historical development in a

race and class analysis, we see there is a cultural

contradiction in the world . That cultural contradiction

historically has been between Europeans and third world

people and continues even today . .

So in our case, cultural genocide, imperialsim, was

the thesis that the European colonialist presented to

29 4

African people, particularly those prisoners of Hrar

taken to foreign lands . . w

Resistance, the maintaining of . the basic African

psyche way of life in African communities, was the antithesis to cultural genocide .

The westernization of African people held in colonial

bondage became inevitable, as much as we don't tike to

admit it . The synthesis is the combination .a f owr his

torical resistance to the European experience and the

positive aspects of our learned experience while under

domination of Europeans . This is th-e essence of the

African cultural revolution . To purge ourselves of the

negative aspects of our European, capitalist, bourgeoisi-

zatian but~to deal with objective reality that there are

positive aspects of our learned. experience which can be

used to the benefit of building a positive flew World .

The role of Hlack artists in the politicalization of

the Pan African nation : For us to understand the role of

African artists in the Pan African revolution, we must

understand the role they play socially, culturally, and

also historically .

Sometimes this is hard to see because our historical

continuity (consciousness, psyche) has been tampered with .

So we no longer see with out people's mind's eye (psyche)

seeing with the car of the mind (feeling, thowght) ;

revelation, but in the systematization of rationalization

~9S

of European philosophy : Therefore, African peoples like

most Third World peoples live in a dual reality o~F having

a coaonialized consciousness (mind) and native indigenous

mind at the same time .

This dual reality becomes less confusing as the 7hird

4lorld revolution comes closer to victory .

African artist is the traditional African priest,

priestess, whose role has been transfused in the can-

temporary situation . The African artist in the African

context is political, social, economic, relLg~ious, spiri-

tual leader or spokesman "for the nation at the same time . .

This is because he feels, sees or hears the cultural

psyche of our people and is able to transmit and reflect

it back to~the people, through the African context, which

is Nommo or the word vibration of the mind, that is in

the collective unconscious of all African people . The

African artist times the rhythm within the space (of the r people's mond, the tempo of the cultural heartbeat)

beween artist and audience . .

He thus fulfills the role of African priest, his

performance ~" eing an African experience of call and res-

ponse from audience . The African artist is the natural

charismatic spokesman of our people . . Ne is the symbol

of the folk hero and is our cultural nation's represen-

tative . Qut in order to keep from being co-opted the

African artist must be a Pan-African Nationalist and

29 6

must reflect the ideology of Pan African Nationalism

through his media at all times . This is important

because being that our people, as most African Asian

people have an oral tradition, ideology or the new way of life will be popularized through Nommo, the oral word .

Being that the vast majority of our people do not

deal with the foreign language of English, Frenchi, Spanish,

etc ., because these languages are foreigg to our experience

and have only been imposed on us in the last 500 years,

we as a .people have not developed the written or reading

tradition . So, the African artist plays a great role in

popularizing the _ideology of the All African Peoples

Party .

The African artist in this 1 fight is the -may>s tra~+s-

mitter of thv Pan African cultural revolution :, In order

to foster a revolution among African people, the African

artist must revolutionize himself, his lifestyle . s o that

he lives his ideology . Then and only then can he be

considered revolutionary . This means the new spiritual

political African culture must start within the ranks of

African artists themselves .

African artists are knoavn for starting fads and

dances . The fads and new dances started must be hvighly

political . Dances like "do the Fanther and strike by

night" must be created .

zg7

Dances that incorporate martial art moves that

encourage the development of a new spiritua l, martial African

culture must be started . African artists themselves

must return to a eastern revolutionary way of life and

repudiate the decadence of western bourgeois culture in

their day to day lifestyle .

This is very important because African artists are

folk heroes and millions upon millions of African youth

worldwide want to be just like them, so whaf they do is

very' important .

Therefore, they must begin to gravitate to t:he real

Pan African revolutionaries who a.t this point in history

may not have the popularity of a bourgeois mass media

society, because they have engaged in real resistance,

which i5 agitational and another struggle .,against: the

system . African artists must leave the bourgeois

syndrome of middle class Pan Afri.canists and unite with

the coming Pan African working class, street force

revolution . WE ARE ALL PRISONERS OF WAR

We want to address ourselves to the war prisoners movement and the concepts we must understand to make our movement a reality .

As we look around the eountry, we see the prisons fil ed with brothers : 90q of the prison population in

America is Black . Every African community. i s faced with constant harassment and terrorism from the racist civilian occupation army.

Most of our leaders are either in jail, exile or

fighting the racist legal system in one form or another .

Brother Jame1 Abdu1 Almin (N . Rap Brown) is in

Rikers Island prison serving five years on a- trumped up

charge and {'acing twenty years on another . Brother'Imari,

president of the RNA and 10 other brothers and sisters

are in prison in Mississippi . Otis Johnson is in prison

in Texas . Martin Sostre is in . Ahmed~Evans is still

on Death Row in the Ohio State pen . Ron Karenga, Ruchell

Magee, and 'avid Hilliard are~in prison in California .

Eldridge Cleaver is still in exile . Robert Williams

is fighting extradition to North Carolina from 6lichigan .

I'm fighting extradition to New York from California thousands Robert 35 Smith is still in prison in flew york, and

299

of others are struggling with thisracist system .

The movement has . been attacked, crushed and setback .

The assassinations of brothers-George Jackson, Fred

Hampton, Mark Clark, Lil' . Bobby Nutton, Medgar Every,

the Birmingham Six, Malcolm, Dr., PI .L, King and Attics

inmates are deep wounds and sacrifices of our national liberation .

But the time has come for us to stand up as . men and

women, unite and organize ourselves against every racist

attack unleashed on us .

When we do this, assassination,, jailing or exile

will not benefit the enemy, We must .make the enemy pay

for his acts of aggression . Every time he attacks, we

must make 'the odds even-Steven . It must be a head for

a head, a throat for a throat, a life for a life . Our

blood must be just as important to us, as the enemy's blood is to him .

The war prisoners novement must take the struggle

to a higher level of development or it will not be suc-

cessful . Our movement recognizes that we are a captive

colonial nation, therefore, vae see the legal and politics

system being a racist colonial ill-legal system . We

declare our independence from the system,

We want national independence by any means necessary

The war prisoners movement is the broad united front of

our nationalist revolution . Our movement calls upon - 300

all Africans to unite regardless of ideology and religion .

To move to self reliance we must have a national bt -ack united front . But unity must be based on principle and action, and not words alone .

When we say, "We want freedom for all black people held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails .

We believe under the present system that no black people have received a fair and impartiai trial . We believe that this racist system is organized in all ways against black people . .." . we feel there are no laws in America that

African peoples need to abide . b y until we have the right to determine our own destinies .

We say this because we recognize that we (African people in America) are not citizens denied our rights but aae are captives of war . War was declared on the

African nation 500 years ago end has not stopped yet . If we are not captives of war, then we wouldn't be in America .

We would still be in Africa .

There is . n o such thing as a second class citizen. A second class citizne is a 20th century slave. You are either a first class citizen or a_wa~d of the state, which means no class at all - it means captive . We are forced to abide by the responsibilities of citizenship

Gut are denied the equal rights of citizens . So, our status has changed from chattel slavery to ci-tizen slavery .

30l

After the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation,which

supposedly made 'us freedmen, a vote was never taken to

see whether we wanted to be citizens of the kidnapper

government, return to our motherland or whether we wanted

land right here . So, the so-called citizenship that we

are supposed to have, but don't enjoy, is a forced

citizenship aid is therefore ill-legal, making our status

colonial subjects held in'captivity . Every Afri~:an

person in America is therefore in prison .

'We ,. as a peoplelnation, will not have the sl:atus

of freedmen or women until we secure the right to determine

our own destiny . Until African people have the right

to self-determination, America is a police state to 30 mi n ion Africansm. PPrisons are concentration camps of the worst farm

to contain and ,break the will of rebellious African aptives .

The civilian occupation force (police) engages in

search and destroy campaigns daily to capture the. usually

unpoliEicized guerrillas (so-called black criminals),

to put them In pacification strategic hamlets (prisons),

to psychologically annihilate New Africa's people's

iiberation army :

The black prisoner, who is faced with living under

the constant threat of racist attack, must endure the

worst conditions of all African captives ; he gets the worst

food, is grossly underpaid for his labor, lives with 30 2

unsanitary conditions, having to struggle and possibly

risk his life for black studies materials and the right

to pracitce his own religion if it is different from the oppressor's,

The black prisoner is the captured captive within

the captive nation and is-treated as the worst of a class of people in the whole Amerikan empire .

The black prisoner, like the black soldier, is the tota.l,anl:i-thesis of this racist society ; he is the rebellious captive that the colonial regime cannot control so his radicalization and awareness is treated with the most blatant form of fascism - outright cold blooded murder,Because once the black prisoner realize<.: his historical role as . a political liberation soldier then the prisons will become African nationalist training centers producing thousands of Pan-African nationalist rE:volution- ari"es . Then our struggle will take a qualitiative leap .

In order to advance the Pan-African revolution, from working together regardless of ideology, we must develop a style of work which is effective in mobilizing the millions of our people, w'e call this work style the

Amen-Ra (RAM) method, It is the building of cells among our people, quietly working on community problems and projects, working . towards the emergence of a Pan-African

Nationalist Party .

The Pan-African movement in America in many respects

30 3

is still a petty bourgeois movement . There are still

many utopian concept s. in the movement such as the fantasies

of "going back to Africa" and ''ego .tripping on messianic

cultural nationalism ."

Culture is important but is not the predominating

factor in a~revolution . Political development of the

masses is the central factor in a revolution . Mass mobii-

ization that disrupts and overturns a system is the heart

of a revolution .

The war prisoners movement means Pan African nationalists

must move .in a new direction . We must move to unite with

the overall majority of our people .

We must move to have mass demonstrations in support

of .African~capti+ve prisoners . The war prisoners move-

ment must not be separated from other direct actions

over community issues . The struggle for community

control of schools, Black Studies and African Lit~eration

Day must be welded into one movement . The Pan-African

movement must be action-oriented . Vahile w~e build inde-

pendent nationalist instituions we must move and dislocate

the enemy's Wstitutions .

We must move to disrupt the political system by .

starting an African lndepdence Political Movement: .

Our movement must be built upon consistent cadres .

Meeting halls .should 6e filled every week . when we must

plead, beg brothers and sisters to come to a meeting

then that means we collectively are 'not ready for' revo-

lution, When we must hold emergency .meetings for defense,

when we allow our personal interests to interfere: with the

functioning of the movement, then we become counter

revolutionary .

We must learn that consistency, correctness on a

day to day basis, is the only thing that Trill make our

movement work . A war prisoners movement is the highest

level of struggle because it demands a cease fire and

amnesty (released for all prisoners of war :

Only by raising a mass political army will the enemy

grant amnesty to our war prisoners . Theh, you must

remember we are in war . You must learn the importance

of being on' time ; of carrying out orders correctly, of

fulfilling your own task . We wage mass demonstrations

against all i~nperia~list holdings in Africa . Only by waging

struggle here can we help liberate the Motherland .

Revolution takes thousands of people working, together .

We need mass political education to make~th.e war prisoners

movement successful . We need an All-African People's

Party that is built on collective and noncompromi~sing

leadership . . We must unite on these principles of revolution-

ary action, 'cause remember, the life. you save may be

your own .

3oS

CLASS, NATIDNALISM, CULTURE AND THE THIRD WORLD

"Mankind is a single nation . {271) So Allah raised

prophets as bearers of good news and as warners, .and We

revealed with them the Book with truth, that it might

judge between people concerning that in which they

differed . (271a) And none but the~very people who were

given it differed about it after clear arguments had

come to them, envying one another . (272)

So Allah has,guid~d by His will those who believe to

the truth about which they differed (273) And Allah

guides whom He pleases to the right path ." (Qur'an, Ch .

2,- Section 2b : Trials and Tribulations, 23, 213)

"Surely Allah changes not the coridition.of a people,

until they change their own condition" . . .(Qu'ran, Ch .,13,

Section 2 : Fall and Rise of Nations 11)

"Where the majority of the people in a particular

society are black then most of . those who benefit: from

socialism will be . black . B,ut it has nothing to do with

their blackness ; only with their humanity" . . . (f resident

Plyerere, Tanzania)

As Salaam Alaikum,

In this paper 1 will try to lay an putline of thought

re.presentina a system of thinking developed from ten years 30 6

of practice, and research, and study, The subject covered in this paper are too broad .to be dealt with in depth at this time so this paper wiil be the first of a series dealing with the subject of the Pan African/

Asian Cultural Revolution,

Whether those present at this conference agree with the paper or not, we askrB1ack scholars to research our conclusions and statements because we like ali present to represent a line of thought . i n the Pan African community which was derived from our collective historical experience .

The main question before Pan African scholars is the developing of a scientific Pan African ideology .

This process is just beginning and may take years to occur .

What is very important in these times .i s for Pan African scholars to think objectively . We must study everything and reassoci .ete our frame of reference to serve t:he best interest of our people . Thrs means that our thesis may be the unconventional view in the present world . Our world outlooks may not be agreeable to the~Europe:an capitalist academic frame of thought nor the European

Marxist/Lenir;ist/socialist nor~even some Asian and African

Marxist-Leninists who have a predetermined frame of reference of future human behavior .

So as revolutionary Pan African scholars, we must be willing to tell the truth of what our research, experiences, and feelings (instincts) tell us, even if we

30 7

stand out alone in the world, temporarily isolated

(ideologically) for the time being .

One of the first th- inas that we must do is to

analyze contemporary events, trace their development,

draw conclusions inrorder to master the dialectics of

changing our condition and creating a new world free

of exploitation and injustice .

Of the many blocs and forces opposing the western

European capitalist, neo-colonialist/imperialist coun-

tries, Pan Africanism, Islam and Marxism-Leninism are

fihe three main ideologies presently, influencing the Black World .

Many Pan-AfricanlAsian scholars are confused on

the nature of our oppression, the development of our present

condition and the classical theory of caste (race or .

culture) and class . This question is very important

because it is precisely this question or . lack of under

standing it that the Pan African/Asian community is

sorely divided on . '

There are forces in the Pan African/Asian community

who attempt to negate the question o~ race or cultural

differences and contradictions between nations ; oppressed

and oppressor and a-tempt to delude the nationalist fiber

in our people's revolutions . These people present us

with the classical Marxia~n interpretation of -e vents and 3oa

say that the main motivating factor in human society

is that of economics . Ile are not here to argue that point

of view but to say that we feel that the dialectical.

development of human society is much more .complex than

what the classical Marxist thinks it is and that recent

events and future research will prove .

Many tlarxists argue that racialism as a basis of wexploitation, economic or otherwise, developed aiQng with'

the emergence of capitalism . If one studies history of the

ancient world, they would see that racialism was prevalent

among certain peoples for an extended period of time .

The Haly Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of

Allah be upon him) had to struggle against the racism

of the Arabs in the early stages of the Islamic revolution .

Historical research has unveiled that the capitalist

system ows its basic foundation to slavery and the slave

trade .

"Historically, the great press for black labor as

the work force for planatation slavery simultaneously

supplied the momentum for the formation of institutional

racism and set the framework for the creation of the black

community in the United States . The strength of this -

demand for black slaves, in regard tb both the vast

numbers of persons involved and its duration over centuries

was based on the dialectics of .the reiationship between

slavery in the New World and the development of capi-

30 9

talism in Europe : Each provided necessary conditions 1 far the other's growth :

Race and class system go hand + in hand but in order

to fully understand this development the question of

culture must be analyzed . Because we must ask ourselves

why a . certain nation of people developed a racist culture

and another didn't . But before we investigate these

factors, we must further understand the development of the

capitalist system to scientifically analyze the nature of our oppression .

"Slaves from Africa, at first in the mines and then

on the plantations of the New World, produced goods that

enlarged the magnitude of the circulation of commodities

in international trade process that was essential to the

mercantilist phase of capitalist history . Although

this slavery was ,not capitalist in . the form of production

itself, that is . was not based on the purchase of alienated 3 wage labor , the plantation system of .the New World

composed ark integral part of the international market

relations of the growing capitalist system . The demand

for slaves was subject to mercantile calculations regarding

production costs and market prices : .

. . .by the end of the sixteenth century sugar had

become the most valuable of the agricultural commodities

in international tradc, . . .Production from the slave plan-

tations greatly increased the volume of commodities in

31A

circulation through trade, but the social relations of

slavery and racism rendered t-he black producers so distinctly

apart that it was through any other established mechanisms

that defined lowly social status . The problem besetting

many Pan African scholars is that the historical develop-

ment of their nation did not follow classical Marxist lines

but a class system is developing in their countries along

with a rising tide of nationalism among the people as a

whole . Trying to interpret world development within the

philosophical Marxist framework they find themselves

isolated in an ideological vacuum . Frustrated, they have

a tendency to become sectarian trying to put our situation

in an abstract orthodox 'Marxist-Leninist thesis . What

they fail to realize is as a man's social conditions

change and man's knowledge increases, the social science

of historical and dialectical development of peoples

revolution changes too .

What was reality to iMarx, Engels, and Lenin may not

be reality to revolutionaries today . Then again, what

was reality to Marx and Engels of Europe, was not reality

to Samory Toure and Muhammad Ahmad of the Sudan . It

all depends on the historical stage, extent of knowledge -

of past historical development and one's cultural (national

or ethnic) frame of reference .

"Each historical situation develops its own dynamics,

The close links between class and .race developed in Africa

alongside capitalist exploitation . Slavery, the: master-

servant relationship, and cheap labor were basic; to it .

The classic example is South Africa, where Afric;ans

experience a double exploitation - both on the ground of

color and class . Similar conditions exist in the U .S .A .,

the Caribbean, in Latin America, and in other parts of

the world where the nature, of thedevelopment of productive

forcevs has resulted .i n a racist class structure .

these areas, even shades of color count - the degree of

blackness being a yardstick by which social status is

measured .

While a racist social structure~is not inherent

in the colonial situation, it is inseparable from capitalist

economic development . For race is inextricably linked

with class exploitation ; in a racist-capitalist power

structure, capitalist exploitation and race oppression

are complementary ; the removal of one ensures the removal

of the other . In the modern world, the race struggle has

become part of the class struggle . In other words,

wherever there is a race problem it . has become linked with 5 . the class struggle ." So the nature of our struggle is

both a radial (national) and class (international) one .

The problem then becomes ho4r do we apply ourselves

to the national and international questions .

31 2

' Constantly running through same Pan African/Asian

scholars' minds is will the European/American working class

in western European nations support the Pan African/Asian

revolution . Because of the n~o-colonialist empire, the

European working class profits from the super-exploitation of the Pan African/Asian world .

The Pan African/Asian revolution is a national demo-

cratic revolution and a communalist class revolution at

the same time . In applying tactics nationa lly, the Pan

African/Asian revolution uses the tactics of organizing

a broad national liberation front led by the peasants,

working class supported by students and intellettuals

to oppose _the national bourgeoisie who has aligned itself

with the neo-colonial forces .

At this point in our struggle and from historical

experience, while a significant portion of the European

working class may give neutral support, it doesn't look

as if the European working class Yiill rally to the defense

of the Pan African/Asian revolution .

So, tactically speaking,_Pan African/Asianists

particularly inside the United State must encourage

radical development in the European community that would

neutralize the European working class from being used es

fascist pawns ; trying to stop the formation of an indepen-

dent Pan African communalist state . 31 3

. To seriously consider this question and the success of the Pan African/Asian revolution there is no question about it, we must seriously tackle the subject of historical cultural development and racism . This is very important, because. i n order for any Europeans to be attuned to the coming new world, they must revolutionize their cultural references, because the Pan African/Asian revolution is not only an economic and political revolution but a cultural revolution at the same time .

'SOME HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF RACISt1 AND CULTURE

The most sensityive subject among revolutionaries is racism and eulture . The reason why is because to date there is no scientific explanation of the European's ethnic "super-ego" racist complex . His behavior doesn't and hasn't gone according to how Marx predicted it would go according to economic conditions and interests . At best, Marx and Engels were trying to give a rationalization to a confused racist European superstructure reinforced by economic and political institutions . So to attempt to explain these factors we must make a historical review of racism and then ask ourselves vrhat is culture and how do they develop?

"The first recorded instance of~color prejudice I have been able to find is in India of some five thousand years ago when the Aryas, or Aryans, invaded the valley

31 4

of the Indus and found there a black people, the Dasysus,

or Dasys . In any case we find very clear evidences o-f

it in Aryan writings . In the Rig-Veda (Boox 1X, Nymrs 42 :1)

Indra, their national go,d, is depicted as 'Blowing away

with supernatural might from earth and from the heavens

the black skin far away .' The blacks were called 'Anassahs'

(noseless people) . Book V, Hymn 29 :10 tells how India

'slew the flat nosed barbarians' .

India's caste system was based on color . 1'he word

varna (caste) literally means 'color .' Arya varwa (white

skin) ; Krishna varna (black skin) .

.The Aryans of India, says tine Encyclopedia of Religion

and Ethics, prided themselves on their fairer skins and

more acquiline features and held, in derision thc: black

color and flatter physiognomies of the aborigines,

regarded them much as conquering whites regarded blacks

in Africa .

Thanks, however to time and the Muslim invasion of and the eleventh century color pie j ud ice weakened . At- yan and the Dasyu, the Negro and white Muslims from African population . Near East amalgamated into the present Indian revive Later, the incoming of the Europeans did much to

find is The next evidence of it I have been able to

in Ancient Egypt . Gerald Massey,~perhaps the greatest

315

o~f all authorities on ancient Egyptian lore said, "On the monuments the dark people are commonly called 'the evil race of Kush' but when the Ethiopian element dominates

the dark people retort by calling the light complexions,

'the pale. degraded race of Arvad' . But this prejudice of

fair for dark . and the converse was, it is safe to say,

never nearly as strong as in India . The whites did not

come in any considerable number to Egypt until the Ptolemaic

invasion of the third century B .C . by which time inter-

mixture had already taken too firm a root for any appreci- 5 able degree of color prejudice .

If we carefully study the Punic Wars between Carthage

and Rome we will see many racial undertones . t4any Roman

leaders developed a deep-seated hatred for Africans .

When the Romans invaded Africa during the second Punic

War and destce- oyed Carthage, the cry among Africans was

"Africa for the Africans ."

Recent research shows Isa was an African nationalist

political leader . The Romanswere hated~by. the Plorth

Africans . While they might not have been racist in the

American con':ext, they could be classified as cultural

or social imperialists . If Pan African scholars do more

research on our ancient native indigenous revolutionary

religious movements we will see that the present world

situation is occurring more to their predictions than

that of Marx, Engels, or Lenin . It is very important 31 6

that Pan African scholars study our ancient movements in

the light of recent findings because this . will provide

a new light on the historical aspects of the Pan African/

Asian revolution : Muslims don't believe Isa (Jesus)

died on the cross but rather he died in Kashmir, India at the age of 120 .

It was precisely the lack of knowledge of African his-

tory and the development of the Christ movement (Anointed

one, followers of) movement that made tlarx ; Engels and

Lenin so. far off base historically . If we look at the

history of Christianity we will see~ratism after the Roman

state took it over . There soon developed an indeological and physical war .between "western" Roman Catholic Church and the "eastern" Coptic (Egyptian) and Persian churches.

This struggle was long and bloody . The Romans eventually won .

"To quote Topinard, in the first century when Christ-

ianity was beginning to seat itself in Rome the doctrine of a separate creation for whites and blacks was defended by the Babylonian rabbis and later by Emperor Julian .

In 415 A .D . when one council was debating whether the

Ethiopians descended for Adam and the theory they weren't . making progress, St . Augustine in his City of God inter- vened and declared that no true Christian would doubt that all men, of no matter what form, color, or height 7 were of the same protoplasmic origin ."

In order to understand the historical nature of

cultural racism among European peoples in the last 500

years, Pan African/Asian scholars must investigate the

Islamic revolution an d . its ramifications of its social

impact .. From 711 A .A, when Tariq ibn-Zays entered Spain

to 1492, Muslims (moors) were in Europe and Europeans

fought Muslims .

This aspect of history has been left our of classical

t4arxian analysis . Because of this Africans and Asians

who become Marxist-Leninist are usually very confused

about the cultural _contradiction between Asian, African

and European people . They, have no frame of reference to

put European cultural racism . But if one investigates

this period it is easy to see how and why the,"4ahite

supremacy myth" was developed and where the age-old saying

of "never, let a blackman get hoid of a white woman' came ,

f ra'm .

The Moors were Black Africans . Sometimes they are

written in history as Arabs because they spoke Arabic .

By the time Islam had expanded in Europe, its army was

made up of many Africans ; some say it was predominantly

black . Islam fought against racism among Asiatic/African +

peoples so it was nothing to Muslims ~to have ,a black army

but you can imagine what a shock effect it must have been

to Europeans to be conquered by black men and for centuries 31 8

be at the mercy of black men . Think about it .

In many instances the conquering Moors did put great demands on the European community concerning their women .

Some even demanded white Christian virgins as booty . the conquered European male this must have been a very traumatic shock to his psychological cultural ego of manhood,

Here lies the basic insecurity of the European about the Black man . The Biack man took over everything and if he did it then, he can do it again . lJe can not

imagine what went through European men's minds at this time and what was passed down secretly to each generation o'f wh i to man .

"During the Crusades (1096-1270) so many Negroes were taken out of Ethiopia and the Sudan to fight .the white

Christian invader that in 1196, Negro troops in Egypt,

50,000 strong dominated the court and the armies . . . .Ibn

Alatir, Muslim writer of the time, says the revolting

Negroes made the streets of Cairo run blood for da~rs .

General Menoin, in an article on the role of Negro troops in Europe, tells of the important part they played

in the conquest and development of Spain, especially under

Abderrahman 1 . (757-787) Ne founded the independent

kingdom of Cordova . This caliphate flourished, he said,

until black contingents disappeared from the army . But a rival Moorish leader brought from Africa a great number 313

of Negroes from which .he formed a redoubtable regiment of cavalry in 1016 and restored it . . .

In 1036 Yusef ben Tachfin, who is described as dark and wooly haired and was. probably a Nigerian, brought in an army composed largely of pure Negroes and defeated a much superior white Christian force at Zalucca, Spain. Another, Yakub ei-Mansur, definitely recorded as the son of a Negro woman, invaded the peninsula in 1194 and made himself master of almost the whole of it . The guards of these Moorish kings avere gigantic Negroes, jet-black and of immense strength, recruiteed from the Atlas,

Timbuctoo, and t~igeria .

Moorish sultans, whoe fathers might be of any hue from black to white, were sometimes the sons of white

Christian mothers captured on the .ships or the coasts g of Western Europe, including the British Isles ."

CULTURAL CONTRADICTIONS : PROBLEMS OF TWE 20TH CENTURY

"The problem of the-2gth century is the problem ,of 3 the color line ."

Our hypothesis is that racial prejudice existed among

Eu .ropeans .before the rise of capitalism but that racial exploitation reinforced through their instutitions did not occur until the balance of power in the world shifted in their favor .

"When thus qualitative change~in world poaaer took

32 0

place in the 18th century, racism as a social philosophy begins to materialize throughout all avenues of European thought .

When we raise the question cultural contradictions

or life style we are dealing with the dialectics of nature

historical and dialectical materialism, plus the emotional,

character of a people to find out achy they are the way they are .

g0 percent of man's behavior is learned . Culture

therefore is a particular people's learned behavior

developed or influenced by their relationship to physics l

environment such as climate, terrain, natural resources,

and by its other contacts with other cultural groups .

Culture of °a people then, is basically their dis-

tinctive modal behavior patterns and beliefs such as 10 values, norms and folkways ."

African/Asian peoples seem to have a basically

compatible cultural life style . Friction betaaeen and

among aboriginal peoples has increased with their Contact

with European civilization .

Engles stated in the preface to "The Origin of the

Family, Private Property and the State" the decisive

element of history is pre-.eminently the production and

reproduction of life and its material requirements . This

implies, on th'e one hand, the production of the mans

of existence, (food, clothing, shelter and the necessary

tools} ; on the other hand, the generation of child'ren,'

the propagation of the species . The social institutions,

under which the people of a certain historical period

and of a certain ,country are living, are dependent on

these two forms of production ; partly ort that of the family ."

Objectively speaking, one would say the European produced

a relatively different culture from African/Asiatic peoples

because :

l . The climate of Europe over a period of time

produces ingrained motor responses, combined with cultural

isolation and cultural interbreeding .

2, The lack of natural resources, develop a

soceity of economic scarcity therefore produced a

competitive di" iv.e based on economic survival . This later

formed into the individualist spirit and the survival of

the fittest .

3 " The cultural contact with African/Asian cultures

was often based~ort (economics) securing resources that

Europe lacked . This experience was usually one resulting

in war and therefore was traumatic . '

African/Asian peoples on the other hand lived in basically

a different climate, occupied lands that had natural

resources, their contact w,ith .other cultures was not as

traumatic except when the Europeans came foaming out

the mouth of Europe and therefore developed different

motor responses, values, folkways and life style . This

32 2

is the objective point of view .

What we are trying - to establish is a dialectical

approach to the present contradiction between the past

and west, oppressed and oppressor, .haves and have nots .

This division is one presently of the Pan African/Asian

world being oppressed by the European world . ~ The sections

of the Pan African/Asian world that align themselves with

the European racist world (the bourgeoisie) culturally

identify with the western European cultural context .

Culture stabilizes economic and political institutions and

insures their continuity . Marx and Engels overlookd

this factor or either felt it wasn't important . For

Engels stated, "All past history, with the exception

of its primitive°stages, was the history of class .struggles ;

that these warring classes of society are always the pro-

ducts of the mode s . of production and of exchange - in

a word, of the economic conditions of their rime ; that

the economic structure of society always furnishes the

real basis, starting from which we can alone work out

the ultimate explanation of the whole superstructure of juridicial~and political inst vitutians as well as of the

religious, philosophical and other ideas of a given hi- 12 storical period ."

Pan African/Asian scholars must understand the his-

torica) nature'of cultural contradictions if they are

going to rnake the Pan African/Asian revolution successful .

32 3

We say,_that unless revolutionaries repudiate the . existing

bourgeois culture and establish a revolutionary counter

culture the revolution krill be incomplete . To change

society qualitatively, revolutionaries must change the

goal, achievement of that society . While Marx, Engels

and Lenirr took stands on colonial oppressed peoples they failed to change their cultural frame of reference and thus failed to see how the world revolution wes going to

develop . Their thesis is still basically European .

"Marxism provides a justification for the enslavement

of blacks and the spread of European imperialism . Marx

commends, in fact applauds, capitalism at many points ;

but fAr blacks this has meant nothing but a system of

negations . For~Marx, capitalism . i s a necessary step .toarards

final salvation since only this can create the economic

and technological infrastructure necessary for a rounded

development of individuals . . . In effect Marx visualize

the history of the Third World merely as an appendage

of Europe . Thus, for him Africa and Asia, before 'the

coming of the white man, was 'static! and without 'any

history at all' . He used epithets like 'barbarians' 'semi-

barbarian' 'nation of peasants, anf the 'Asiatic mode of ,

production t~ refer to these societies . He reasoned that

since these societies lacked internal 'dynamics for, develop- 13 ment then some external factor was necessary .-"

32 4

The importance and extent of this paper on historical

contradictions is a challenge to Pan African/Asian

scholars to do independent research so that in developing

our ideology o-f Pan Africen/Asian nationalism, we will

draft a thesis based on truth and not' abstraction . The

cultural antagonism though apparent will not become an

open major factor until the Pan African/Asian revolution

seizes economic and political power or at least the balance

of power in the world is overwhelm.iRg in its favor :

"In human history, antagonise+ between classes exists

as a particular manifestation of the struggle of opposites .

Consider the contradiction between the exploiting aid ex-

ploited cusses . Such contradictory classes exist for

a long time in the same society, be it slave society,

feudal society, or capitalist society, and they strugg}e

with each other ; but }t is not until the contradiction between

the two classes develops to a certain stage that it assumes }4 the form of open antagonism and develops into revolution ."

Once we hawe-a clear world outlook we~can predetermine

events and organize tactics for our revolution : 7o do

this we must understand the present shift in world power

which has many confused . Emerging from,all this }s a -

new world .

32 5

THE WORLD DEVIL : GOG, HAGOG, AND THE ANTI-CHRIST

In dealing with the question of a Pan African/Asia .n

cultural revolution we must ask ourselves what kind of

world do we want to see created . What would be retained

from this one and what would be left out . What will the

main emphasis or goal achievement be for the new world?

As event unfold we see the United States and the

Soviet Union developing closer and closer links and

a re~even talking about inter-investing in one another's

economy . Commercialism is on the rise in the Soviet Union .

A continental European security conference is being called .

Britain has recogni2ed Rhodesia and the U .S . supports

South Africa and Israel .

The two major powers ; the Soviet Union ('No . l in the

world) and the U .S . (now No . 2) have"formed an axis to con-

trol the"world, economically, politically, culturally and R militarily .

Wlo can explain this international European power

conspiracy? Is revisionism broad or deep enough to

explain it? Is national chauvinism (racism) a word to

explain it? In the midst of rapid realignment o-f nations,

will someone please tell us r~rhat's going on? The European

powers are preparing for the final showdown with the

black world . ' ~ "

Through their intelligence sources, they are aware 32 6

of muci~ more development of Pan African nationalists consciousness among our people than even we are . They know what a real world peoples revolution would mean .

They know they would be in the minority, whether working class or not . They could not stand this . They also know that in the New World the resources would have to go to those who need them the most . This means the Third

World or underdeveloped countries must be given .prefer- ential treatment . The question of reparations would also rise in which Europe would have to pay Africa and Asia for years of genocide . The New 4Jorld will be ruled by

Black (Asian and African people .) Why Africans, 704 million worldwide and Chinese alone, £344 million on the mainland,constitute the great majority of the people of the world . Combined with all aboriginal people we a. constitute 95q of the world`s population . So even worker's world would be controlled by Black (Third World) workers .

This is important to understand because vrhen you see that world revolution is going to take this form because of the neo-c-~lonialis't relationship between oppressed and oppressor . Then we are no longer dealing with Marxism-

Leninism . Marxism-Leninism will not allow for the conclusions based on class and race struggle and world revolution to~come to this . This is precisely Yrhat Marx,

Engels, and Lenin were trying to negate and avoid . All 32 7

of them would turn over in their grave if they knew it was coming to this . So when brothers talk about a "Black" translation or revision of Marxism-Leninism they don't know what they are talking about . blhat they are actually talking about is taking the dialectical method of ana= lyzing events, history, and obje-ctive laws of society from a materialist point of view or how materialistically do things interact and using some of the organizational tactics of Lenin in perfecting the art of seizing political power . But when they raise the question of race and~African/Asian history they have destroyed the philosophical content of Marxism-Leninism and therefore have create a ne.w science . Brothers don't want to admit this . In fact they are scared to think about it .' 41hy?

Because it means they have ledt the "eastern frame of

intellectual reference ." It means they have lost their

European dialectical, rational, scientific mind . They have returned to the Black psyche .

You see, Europeans for 500 years have told African/

Asian people that theFr traditions) beliefs, what yau . feel and believe is unscientific and therefore wrong .

Marxism-Leninism is one of the worst of these European colonialist conditionings because it de-naturizes the

brother and sister, makes them have an inferior complex

about their nationalist instincts, which are natural

because they derived from~our situation .

3z8

For thousands of years in the~Black tJorld it was

prophesied the coming . of the Anti-Christ . Most people

thought and still think the Anti-Christ just deals with

something about Isa (the prophet tailed Jesus Christ) .

But prophesy concerning the Anti-Christ goes back long

before Isa's brith .

In many different books o,f many different nations

the mention of the Anti-Christ occurs . A great master

deceiver was supposed to emerge . Also for. years throughout

the Black World, the theme of a worldwide race war occurs .

This is also a reoccuring theme in .P an Africanism . If

we take into accou~~t the question of .race, culture and

class then we see the world revolution will be very

near that~of a worldwide race war . The difference being

black will be fighting black, ,white fighting white, and

black fighting white . Therefore, the worldwide racial

revolution will not be racist in character but will

definitely be a,worldwide race arar .

All Europeans are afraid of the worldwide racial

revolution because they fear it vrill become racist and

they fear being wiped out . If the worldwide racial revo

lution becomes racist in character it will lose its real

purpose and that is to elminate racism and class oppression .

So we have to see this thing from a black perspective .

Marx didn't invent the laws of class struggle nor dialectics

32 9

nor of applying dialectics to the material conditions of

society : He may have been the first~to apply dogma to

these laws saying the material is more important than the

sp .iritua .l forces and negated the spirital forces : In

Eastern society, dialectics goes all the way back to

ancient Egypt to the scribe Thoth, who the Greeks renamed

Hermes . Dialectics also goes back to China to Lao Tse

who developed the Yin/Yan principle in Taoism . ~If one

studies closely the thoughts of Chairman Mao, one can see

T~o`ism at the base of. his thinking and his military

writings based on Sun Tze . Muslim scholars for years

applied the dialectical method of analyzing history and

mate,rialfst Taws of human society . Ibn Khadun should

be studied by all Pan African/Asian scholars . Remeber

what made Ma y's words have such an impact on the world

was the relationship of Europe to the rest of the world .

Intellectuals of the~most dominant world force always

have tremendous influence during their times . It was

Engels who made Marx infallible and much so after his death .

Engels should be studied . Very curious fellow .

It was Engels who financed Marx . It was Engels who

laid the philosophical base to Marxism . It was Engels

who suggested to the communist league of which it is said

he was a member, to commission Marx instead of another

fellow to write their manifesto . This paper is too brief

to go into detail concerning these events, but you should do research on the life of Marx and~Engels ; find out what kind of men they were and what motivated them to ' do what they did at different times before you jump all over the world in their name .

Lenin revised Marxism to fit his way of thinking .

After Lenin's death, the Russian communist government created the religion (often called science) of Marxism-

Leninism . First of all, if M-L is supposed to the science of bringing a communist society into being, then it should be called the science of scientific socialism and .not Marxism-Leninism which is the glorification of individuals .

Now, many might say, this brother sure is anti-communist . I'm not anti-communist, I'm pro-Black and pro truth . I don't believe in a class society . I believe the development of class society is one of the major contradictions of human development and must be destroyed .

I believe in a classless society based on no economic divisions, but I also believe in God, who Muslims know as Allah and who other people know by many different names but he is still The One God .

"The class system is based on the wrong assumption that property means power and that the class which owns property is the power as yell . Such a class will exercise an influence over the legislative power . Consequently such a class will, by direct or indirect means, make

33 1

the legislati.ons Hrhich protect itself and subject the

common people to ;t:s own authority, thus depriving

tfiem of their 1e~14t1 rights . ,

_ In the light of the above mentioned definition of

classes it may be truly said that there has never been 15 . . a class system in Islam ."

When China accuses the Soviet Union of "social imper=

ialism" .carrying out socialism in .words and .imperialism

in deeds, Pan Africanists should take note of what they

are saying .

China has accused both the U .S . and theSoviet Union

of having formed an axis to control the world . These are

st~romg statements . If taken out of Marxist jargon they

are accusing the Soviet Union of being a white racist

imperialist country . There are many ways to explain the

present-situation . In this paper we are trying to present

our argument from several different viewpoints, all draw-

ing the same conclusion . The objective is to present

a challenging analyses that will stimulate further research .

Muslims see the present world situation going accor-

diwg to prophecy. Mentioned in several Hadiths is the

subject of Dajjal (the Anti-Christ) and in the ~ur'an in .

the chapter, Al-Y.ahf : The Cave is a thorough explanation

of Ya' juj and Ma' juj (Gog and Magog) . ~ D,aj ja1 (the Anti-

Christ) is known for being a liar, covering or concealing 33 2

the truth with falsehood, practicing deception or fraud

in matter religious or other . Ya'juj and Ma'juj are described as two nations . The following is prophecy from

ttie holy Qur'an and a commentary by Maulana Muhammad. Ali .

For a more detailed description read the Anti-Christ and

Gog and Magog also by Ali .

''lfe said : This is a mercy from my Lord, but when the promise of my Lord comes to pass he will crumble it, and the promise of my Lord is ever true . (1524a)

Qn that day 41e shall let some of them surge against others and the trumpet wi_11 be blown, then k~e shall gather them all together . (1525)"

. . .Gog and htagog are described as two nations, and after desribing the history of - these nations, whose des- criptions on peaceful nations were brought to an end by

Darius, we are now told that Gog and Magog will again be let loose in the latter days . In fact, this is clearly r foretold in another chapter of the same period "At length when Gog and Magog are let loose, and they will sally

forth from everyplace of eminence"

. . .the ancestors of Gog and Magog are tfie Slav and

Teutonic races, and in the world domination of Gog and

Magog is thus clearly hinted the domination of the Eruopean

nations over the whole world, and the prophecy has thus

found fulfillment in our days . A mighty conflict of the

33 3

nations is clearly spoken of here, and the words no doubt

refer to some catastrophe . . .The Qur'an makes it clear

that the reference in neat ion rising against nation is

to the great European conf lists which we witness nowadays

Gog and Magog, or European nations, having subdued the

whole world, couldn't agree on the division-of spoils,

and they are ruling at one another's throats, and the

whole world being subject to them, their struggle has

assumed the form of a world conflict . One world war ends

only-t~o be followed by another . But the Qur'an tells

that a mighty revolution will come about . 7hat is what

is meant by the lowing of the trumpet . This revolution

will be a change. i n the mentality of the nations . . .This

revolution would unite them ; it would drive them to one

common faith . Material benefits having turned man into

tfie enemy of mama spiritual awakenirg will, we are told, 16 be brought about which will change the world entirely ."

Some v~ill agree with this and some won't . We won't

argue the point ; we just presented it for those who ar.e

unaware of it .

If one carefully studies the history of Russia since

1917 we will see that it has definitely been socia l

imperialistic when dealing with the people of .central Asia .

There would be several independent central Allan republics

if the Soviet government didn't by force or threat of force

keep them in it's empire . This is one of China's charges 33 4

against the Soviet Union . Muslims inside the Soviet Union have suffered oppression at the hands of the white government in Moscow .

The Muslim people of Central Asia came under

Russian .rule as a result of the expansionist policy of the Tsarist Empire . This policy was continued by the

Soviet leaders, who turned the Russian protectorates of

Bukhara (an Emirate) and Khiva (A Khanate) into peoples republics In 1919-1920, liquidating them in

1g24-as part of the new policy of "national demarcation of

Central Asia ." The Soviet Union thus held sway aver vast territories cont pining a populatipn that had adopted the Ftuslim religion and culture long before i~t fell under the domination of the Tsars . The Azerbaidzhanis embraced

Islam in the seventh century, the Turkestanis in the eighth, the Bulgars in the tenth, the golden Horde in the thirteenth and the Adzhars of southern Georgia in the sixteenth . Part of the population of Abkhazia became Muslim in the 17th and 18th centuries . The Pasetian.s, and the

Chechens and Kabardinians of the northern Caucasus had already converted by the 18th and l~tl eenturies respective- 17 1y .

Russification under the guise of political re-education has been the cover up of cultural genocide of non-European peoples inside 'the . Soviet Uwion . NATIONALISM ANq INTERNATIONALISM

From our collective ~historic~l experience we have developed a new dialectical science . The nature of our' oppression having been both international and national ; based on economic, class and cultural, racial exploitation ; our science deals with both factors . This science is the synthesis of the'two ideologies which have come from . our liberation struggles ; Pan Africanism and African nationalism developed to the ievet of the dialectical science of Pan

African nationalism .

Nkrumah says, "Marx had argued that the development of capitalism would produce a trial within each individual capitalist state because within each State the gap between the haves and the have nots would widen to a point where a conflict was inevitable and that it would be the capitalists who would be defeated . The basis of~his argument is not invalidated by the fact that the conflict which he dad predicted as a national one, did not everywhere take place on a national scale but has been transferred instead to the world stage : World capitalism has postponed its crisis but only at the cost of transferring it into an international crisis . The danger is now not civil war within those States, but international war provoked ultimately by the misery of the majority of man- '18 kind who daily .graw pourer and poorer ."

In 1964, we developed a brief but basic statement on

33 6

Pan African nationalism,

'Our' . . :philosophy may be described as revolutionary

nationalism, black nationalism or just plain bl .ackism . It

is that black people of the world {darker races, black,'

yellow, brown, red, oppressed peoples) are all enslaved

by the same forces . 'Our' philosophy is one of the world

black revolution or world revolution of oppressed peoples

rising up against their former slavemasters, Our movement

is a movement of black people who are co-ordinating their

efforts to, create a "new world" free from exploitation 19 and oppression of man to man :" ~<

Sa in the present era of neo-colonialism we .say African

peoples must organize worldwide . Key to this development

is a Pan African°Internationale . this Internationale

along with a Pan Asian Internationale both working -inde-

pendent but unifying to form a Pan African/Asian Inter-

nationale~is one of the major steps towars the birthof

a new world .

The Pan African Internationale would be composed .

of those Pan African nationalist parties, movements and

organiations throughout the Pan Afr,ic.an world . Working

on the broadest level possible they would constitute a

Pan Africaw Liberation Front .

"Basically when we speak of ?an African 'nationalism,

we mean simply the knowledge that we are an African people,

despite our slavery or colonization by Europeans or

dispersal throughout the countries_of the world . 33 7

Pan Africanism is thus the global expression of Black nationalism . We believe that our destiny as free people can only be realized as politically, economically, socially self-dtermining people conscious of the fact that what we will have brought to power is what Nkrumah and Sekou

Toure have called "The African Personality ."

It is imperative that we raise the nationalist- internationalist consciousness of our people . Only by having a highly developed Pan African~Nationalist conscious ness.will they be able to fight the ma.neuverings'of neo- colonial imperialism, reactionary regimes of the bourgeoisie and foreign intervention . Africans worldwide must be trained to come to the defense of Africa . The liberation of African people is key to the destruction of neo-olonial- imperialism .

Chairman Mao Tse Tung in his statement supporting the struggle of African people i~ America on August 8, 1963 said :

" . . .The evil system of colonialism and imperialism grew up along with the enslavement of Africans and the trade in Africans and it will surely come to its end ~ ~ 21 wifih l the thorough emancipation of the black people ."

The position taken by Pan African nationalists is not new . Of the many Pan African nationalists to study we should study Cyril Briggs and the African Blood

Brotherhood . Duse Muhammad Ali and Garve .y and the Pan 333

African nationalist movement of the 1g2Os .

We say our ideology Pan African nationalism is tfie

ideology of the Pan African world which has been the develop

ing historical and dialectical science leading to our eventual decolonization and self-determination .

The international goal of Pan African nationalists

is the formation of an independent All (Pan) African

Peoples Republic, . The All-African Peoples Republic is a new form of social institution . It is an international nationystate made up of self governing republics centralized through a central government .

The All-African Peoples Republic base and central government Hrould bein Africa, controlled by the continental government . Wherever African people reside and constitute an majority struggle for national indepen- deuce and self determination and form an indepdent nation state ; they too wouldbe part of the All-African Peoples

Republic . So al.l governments of nations whose population

is of persons of African descent would be represented in the All African Peoples Republic .

Thus African people would form an international government of nation states . This is what we mean when we say

the Pan African world must unite, isn't it? This is what we mean when ire say One Peopl e, On_e Aim,_ One Destiny .

It is in~this context that we~see the implications

33 9

of nationalism and internationalism as objectively

related to us, African people .

To complete the Pan African revolution,,supreme power

has to be given to the field slaves, the classes within

our people who are oppressed and exploited, the workers

and the poor peasants . They must conquer real political,

social, economic and military power . Through their class

"struggle culminating in a socialist revolution, .the kind

of Pan African society can be built that will-do away with

the reactionary indigenous classes, backed by imperialism, 22 such as overthrew Lumumba .

ThfE TACT ICS OF THE PAfJ AFR t CAtd REVOLUT I ON

Every revolution must ask itself who are its friends

and who are its enemies . IJe see as our friends all those

e~rho support us in our struggle against neo-colonial

imperialist oppression, regardless of race, creed or

color . We are not racist but nar are we apologists for

our nationalism either . It is our historical right to

be nationalistic .

We see as our enemies all those who support our neo-

colonial-Imperialist oppressors regardless of race, creed,

or color . But we do not go to extremes of branding people

traitors when they can be our potential friends .

4Je are confronted by two different types of social

contradictions - those betv"~een ourselves and . the enemy

and those among the people themselves . The two are totally 34 0

different in their nature .

To understand these two different types of contradictions correctly, we must first be clear on what is neant by ''the people" and what. i s meant by "the enemy . The concept of "the people" varies in content in different countries and in different periods of history in the same 23 country .

For Pan African nationalists _in America the question arises of forming coalitions nationally and consolidating ties with allies internationally . Pan African nationalists must develop both a long range and short range plan .

We must realize that our struggle 4vi11 be protracted because of the relative forces in our community, level of . consciousness and organization o .f our people and strength of our enemy . So our straggle may take 34 years or more, all depending on given conditions which we cannot time .

So,we must move to consolidate power where we can and in the time element which allows us minor victories .

The cadre Pan African Peoples Partymust move the

African community towards developing .a mass broad black political party whose aim will be to secure total political rights for African people in the U :S . The difference in , the two parties is that the latter may not consist of primarily Pan African nationalists, therefore it is a much broader mass organization . Utilizing this instrument, 34 1

Pan African N .atonalists can- tregin to mobilize . a broad segment of our people towards the Pan African revolution :

Pan African nationalists will also have to develop a day to day program which mobilizes African workers, stud- ewt~s anal unemployed . We must develop African Peoples

Unions which consist of African workers and unemployed to fight for better working conditions for our people and better wages and unemployment rights . These will coin,ci.de with our long range demands for reparations and self-dtermination . At the same time~we must be building our own political economy by setting up African Peoples community cooperatives, and factories, all based ,on

UJAMAA, cooperative economics .

As we do this v1e vrill unite the African community because our people will see we are d

Pan African nationalism will be our peoples mass living ideology .

Upon uniting the African community, the next step would be to develop a coalition with other oppressed minorities such as ~1exican-Americans,' Puerto Ricans,

Indians, Japanese ., Chinese, to form a 7hird 4Jarld

Political bloc in the European-colonial congress in

34 2

in Washington, O .C .

There is a-need far a non-European minority conference

to be held in the U .S . To being al . l these forces together .

The Third ldorld in America constitute 40 million or -more

of the population, approximately one fourth to one-fifth .

of the population . Combined with radical America and

other European youth, they can weld together a political

bloc that would be at least 60~ of the vofing agcy pop-

ulation . So before dealing with the international as-

pects of the Pan African Revolution, Pan African natian-

alists must deal with the tactics of building a mass base

whc>.rever° they ~~re . They rrWUSt master the r~ass 1 ine . They

must realize the Pan African revolution -is a generation

(protracted) revolution therefore they must concentrate

their efforts educating the,mass of African youth .

African youth can become a great base of power and

strength for the Pan African Peoples Party . They are our

African Guards . We should constantly be among ttiem,

conducting voter registration drives . From these drives,

we can bring them into this party . So, the greatest

way we can coordinate our domestic struggle with the inter-

national one is by intensifying our struggle on our

"national fronts" .

Only by having the overwhelming majority of our people

thousands upon thousands, million, can vre come to mother

Africa's defense . X43

This means wP must be constantly in our committees

teaching_ our people the science of Pan African Nationalism

At the same time, we must be building our parallel

Pan African nationalist institutions . ~'e need Pan African

institutes in every African community . Fram there we

can teach on a mass level and prepare aurselved in the

mass development of technical skills . This should be

the main drive of our youth, the development of ,

technical skills . Then we~can take these skills backhome

and help the motherland make the great leap forward .

~So in this aspect the cultural revolution is also

a technological revolution .

DYNAMICS

The dynamics of our revolution are very clear, not

only will it produce a cultural re-evaluation of all

people of the world, but it wilt also change the material

ist balance and inter-relationship of social forces .

''So far as .the orientation of national culture is

concerned, Pan African nationalist ideology plays the

guiding role, and we should work hard bath to disseminate

socialism and communism throughout the working class and

to educate the peasantry and other sections of the people in socialism properly anal step by step . However, our national culture as a whole is not yet'socialist .

The points we must learn here are first, to grasp 34 4

correctly the . character of au ;r culture at the present stage and act accordingly ; secondly, to grasp correctly our objective for the next stage and proceed . In fact, this explains the relationship between the theory of uninterrupted . revolutian and the theory of th.e development of revolution by stages . Ta understand and handle this relationship correctly is also very important for the Afro-Asian peaples~and writers who are now engaged

in national democratic revolutions . . .

. . .an urgent task of us Afro-Asian writers is in cooperation with, the masses of our people to destroy such a reactionary culture and create a new national progressive culture in our respective countries . This new culture must be such as to serve the masses of people eventually t~~ belong to them . It must primarily serve their revolutionary struggles against imperialism and for national independence, particularly their revolutionary armed struggles . Thereby, the revolutionary progressive

Afro-Asian writers are required to share weal and woe with the people, take part in their sCrugg~i~es and reflect their revolutionary demands . And only by plunging themselves into the torrent of these struggles, can they rid themselves of the ideological filth they have tainted with and create, with dynamic revoluionary zeal, such good works as acquiring both a rich revolutionary content and 24 a nice artistic form and as vrorthy of our era ." FOOTNOTES

Harold M . Baron, The Demand Far Black Labor : Historical Notes on the . Politcal Economy of Racism . Radical America, Vol . 5, ido . 2, March-April, 1971, p . 2 2 lbid . p . 5

3 Kwame Nkrumah, Class Struggle In Africa, p . 27

4J .A . Rogers, Nature Knows No Color Line, p . 7-9

~5 Baal, Christ and Muharnmad, p . 25

6 sbid . p . lp .

7 ,lbid : p . 58-59

8 Engels, Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, p . 25

9 Du Bois, Souls Of Black Folk

10 Krech, Critchfield and Balluchay, Ondividuals in Society P . 345-6 11 Engels, Prefecto, lst ed . 18$4, The Origin of the Family

12 Engels, Socialism Utopian and Scientific, p . 25

13 Forsythe Blacks and the Rialectics, Black Scholars, Sept . 1971, p . 54

Mao, On Contradiction, P . 47 15Muhammad Qutb, !slam the Misunderstood Religion, P " 160-161

34G

16 Floly Qur'an Ch . 18, p . 590-591

Fletcher and Staver, Religion and the Search for New Ideals in the USSR, p . 91 _ 18 Nkrumah, Pleo-Calu~~ial ism, p . zS$ -256

19 Muggins, Kilson and Fox, Key issues in the Afro- American Experience, p . 270 zQ Saraka, Ideological Statement of the Congress of African People, PLC Organizinc; manual

21 . F-taa - August 8, 1963 . . .Support . . .American Negroes . . . Author replaced word Negro with African

2~ Thomas, Pan Africanism and Black Liberation Today, International Socialist Review, Oct . 1971, p . 31

z3 Maa, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the Peaple, p . 1-2

24 African Brothers Show Relevance of Mao Tse Tung Thought, APPENDIX A

EL HAJJ MALIi< EL SHABAZZ PLAN

( THE BLACK CONSITUTIONAL PLAN)

Without a'doubt, a social revolution is in process inside of America and throughout the world . In advancing the Pan African revolution, it is important that we assess where we're at and arhat is to be done in this period .

Seven years after of El Najj'Malik El Shabaxx, it becomes necessary for'us to reveal tlalcolm's plans, revised to the new situation .

We cats this plan the Ei Hajj P1alik El Shabazx or the Black Constiutionai Pian .

A . 41hat roes Malcolm trying to do?

The main aspect of :Malcolm's plans vas changing our movement from a civil rights struggle to a human rights struggle or ~rhat we~would call today, .a national democratic revolution . Even though Maicairn had left the ration of

Is~iam, he still maintained the basic Pl.ation of Islam position of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed . Eiis disagree- ment with the hierarchy of the Pdation was aver tactics and not so much ideology . So 1lalcolm's preoccupation was develapin5 the tactics of awakening the national consciousness of our peopie through involving them in short range programs that led to indepdent nationhood, exhausting ali the means of social protest through social action exhausting ali the means of social pretest through

34 8

social action and internationalizing <~~rr struggle by

forming a Pan African united front a~~~-~ taking the U .S .

before the United Nations and charging her with crimes of

genocide, which tlalcolm often said would be what we

know as the "judgement" in the Bible . Complementing

social action in Malcolm's thought was the carrying forth

of the cultural revolution among our people .

Malik saw that the Black man in America, united with

the liberation struggle of the Third World would be the

new force for creating a new world society : He saw that

the Black liberation struggle .i n the U .S . was the spark

that WOUId ignite the international racial powder keg .

Malik said that if we didn't change the basic psyche

life style and culture of our people, our struggle for

political indepen-ence would be futile .

Also, he attempted to bring an awareness of the inter

national forces that will dominate future world society .

He said that a Yrise man would study Chinese and Arabic,

because they are are the languages of the future . '

Many ~rriters who had no direct involvement with

Brother Malik had, for their own-pur~ooses, distorted Malik

image and life .

blhy Plalik changed his public political, line

Contrary to what most people think, Plalcolm did not

change his political phil~osophy . . .he changed 'his political 34 9

line and there were reasons why . To understand the real

Malcolm, we must understand that three important themes influenced his life up until the time of his death. The first was'Islam, the second was Pan African Nationalists, and the third was international social revolu>:ion .

Malik changed his line to involve the broad masses " of our people in a step by step approach (dialectics} towards mobilizing them to strive for independent nation-

Hood .

Also, arhile he never said it publicly, he received strong reaction from many non-progressive African leaders and from some corners of the Islamic world . Ne said that the U .,5 .I .A . (United States Information Agency) had given Africa the image that he was a racist and had even gone so far as to make his pictures appear darker than he actually was . He said that many Africans were shocked to see haw light-complexioned he was . Ne. also said that he knew there rlould al~"~ays be a hard-core nationalist element in the states but the main problem was getting the broad masses of our people who were still integrationist in attitude . For these reasons, and others, he softened the line .

C . tlalcolm's Tactics

Malcalm's " tactics wore to form a broad national

liberation front . The OAHU (Organization of Afro- 35 0

American Unity) a~as to be the beginnings of such a front .

The brother began to use the tactic of infiltration (slipp into darkness) : He was interjecting himself into the civil rights movement, was planning to take it over and transform it into a nationalist .revolution .

So the question before us now is : How will we carry out Malcolm's perspective into our times? Malcolm was applying dual tactics of organizing from below and above . He saw that . the key to our liberation was the formation of a Pan African nationalist political party that . involved all segments of a Black community but that represented the "little people ."

D . The El Hajj Malik Shabazz Plan

A second class citizen is~a twentieth century slave .

There is no such thing as a second class citizen, you're either first class or no class at all . You have the responsibilities of citizens but are denied the rights of citizenship . That's the burden of double jeo- party .

After the civil war, a vote was never taken nor a consensus taken among the so-called freedmen to see whether they wanted to be . citizens of the U .S ., returned to their homeland, or whether they wanted sand of their own on this continent . We must remember that prior to the

Civil War we were captives of war . 41e were l~frican

35 1

captives held in colonial bondage under a racist

slave system . 1.'e were captured and brought here by

force which was in essence a declaration of war . Any

attempt to overthrow the slave system was considered

insurrection for over 300 years . So we must understand

the historical social context of what we are involved in .

This is the only way we can come to a clear and scientific

understanding . Understand that we are African captives,

a lack of understanding of fhis fact may mean the death

of our national liberation . The oppressor teaches us

that we are a national minorijray striving far equal

minraty rights in a pluralistic society, lJhat he fears

most is our understanding that we are captives, colonial

subjects held today under colonial bondage under a

pseudo-democratic dictatorship .

America is a democratic dictatorship and will reamin

so~until it allows its African colonial subjects the right

F to self determination . Our status has only changed

from chattel slavery to citizenship slavery . The govern-

menu does not want us to understand that we are under an

illegal form of citizenship because, according to

international protocol and international law, the U .S .

would have to pay us reparations for not only 300 years of

slavery and 300 years of enforced citizenship, but genocide .

Now wMar does tlii s mean? This ,means 'that i f tye . ever rea 1 i ze 35 2

that we had no decision or choice of becoming citizens, we would also realize that th,e U .S, government and all state governments are unlawful, as far as all African peoples are concerned . . Therefore, there are no law in America that African peoples need to abide by until we have the right to determine our own destinies .

Internationally, our struggle is a legal question .

So, the coming national Constitutional Convention to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1976 will be our historical question deciding point for a 400 year revolution .

If we vote yes for independence, then we are saying to the world that we 4aii .1 not be part of the exploitative, racist, colonial system . At his time, we can appeal to all freedom loving nations and peoples of the world to come to our aid in our just strug~,le for national independence :. Then we will see who are our true friends and who are our true enemies . This will be the first phase of the Black Constitutional Plan . . .the vision of El Hajj

Mallk Shabazz .

35 3

APPENDIX B

AFRICAN PEOPLE'S PARTY TEN POINT PROGRAM

l . We want self determination and independent nationhood .

We believe African captives in America will not have freedom until

they have land of their own and a government ; a nation that we

govern and run and control, We demand the states of Mississippi,

Georgia, South Caro Tina, Alabama and Louisiana as partial re-

payment for- injustices done to us over 400 years .

2, We want an independent self-governing economy to guarantee

full employment for our people . We believe the U .S . Federal

government owes us for 400 years of slavery and T00 years of

forced citizenship=servitude . We demand the U .S . government pay

the colonialized captive African 400 billion dollars, including the

five states stated in point one and the said sum of 400 billion

dollars for ten years as partial repayment for its crimes of

genocide against our people .

To organize pressure, for this demand we advocate the

forming of black unions and the convening of a national Black

strike to make our demands met . We~advocate the establishment

of an independent Black communalist economy because from suffering

under the capitalist system for years we have learned that capi-

talism cannot meet the overall needs of our people,

3 .' We want community control of all businesses in the Black

community and an end to the economic, po litical and cultural

exploitation by the capitalist class waged against our people . We