THE DEVELOPMENT OF WORKING-CLASS ORGANIC INTELLECTUALS IN THE CANADIAN BLACK LEFT TRADITION: HISTORICAL ROOTS AND CONTEMPORARY EXPRESSIONS, FUTURE DIRECTIONS by Christopher Harris A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto © Copyright by Chris Harris 2011 THE DEVELOPMENT OF WORKING-CLASS ORGANIC INTELLECTUALS IN THE CANADIAN BLACK LEFT TRADITION: HISTORICAL ROOTS AND CONTEMPORARY EXPRESSIONS, FUTURE DIRECTIONS “Doctor” of Education (2011) Christopher Harris Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education University of Toronto Abstract This thesis explores the revolutionary adult education learning dimensions in a Canadian Black anti-racist organization, which continues to be under-represented in the Canadian Adult Education literature on social movement learning. This case study draws on detailed reflection based on my own personal experience as a leader and member of the Black Action Defense Committee (BADC). The analysis demonstrates the limitations to the application of the Gramscian approach to radical adult education in the non-profit sector, I will refer to as the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC) drawing on recent research by INCITE Women of Colour! (2007). This study fills important gaps in the new fields of studies on the NPIC and its role in the cooptation of dissent, by offering the first Canadian study of a radical Black anti-racist organization currently experiencing this. This study fills an important gap in the social movement and adult education literature related to the legacy of Canadian Black Communism specifically on the Canadian left. ii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the support of my committee who provided me with great insight, and quite simply, an in-depth understanding of the fields of radical adult education and social movement learning. Professor Peter H. Sawchuk has supported me throughout the past six years, helping me shape and finalize my thesis to meet the necessary requirements. In addition, I am indebted to Professor Stephanie Ross for her extensive feedback to strengthen my revisions and ensure the thesis made an important contribution to the literature. I would like to thank Professor David W. Livingstone, whom I consider to be an elder, for providing valid insight into some of the weaknesses in the arguments of my thesis, so I could improve them. And lastly, I would like to thank Professor Bob Boughton and Professor John D. Holst in the international field of radical adult education, whose commentary and scholarship inspired me to develop a thesis on the Canadian Black Communist tradition in the first place. I cannot forget the Black Left activists and elder organic intellectuals who provided me with the intellectual and moral foundation that made this thesis possible. Canadian Black Power organic intellectuals, Norman Richmond, Owen Sankara, Dudley Laws, and Dr. Akua Benjamin mentored me, each in their own way throughout the past decade. I am indebted to Keisha, Dashawn, Quanche, and the dozens of BADC/Freedom Cipher youth who are no longer street-involved and successfully entered the working- class. To the Set It Off Ladies who successfully graduated high school and made it to college and university, I must say that I learned a great deal from you all which broadened my insights on the contradictions of organic intellectual formation in the 21st century. iii Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... iii List of Acronyms .....................................................................................................v Preface .....................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Introduction ...........................................................................................5 Chapter 2: Reclaiming the Revolutionary Gramsci: The Centrality of the Revolutionary Vanguard and Communist Adult Education to the Production of Working-Class Organic Intellectuals ....................................................................21 Chapter 3: Overview of Marxism, Black Liberation, and Black Working-Class Organic Intellectuals .................................................. 65 Chapter 4: Canadian Black Power, Organic Intellectuals and the War of Position in Toronto (Canada), 1967-1975 ...........................................................................................105 Chapter 5: BADC‘s Freedom Cipher Program and the Challenges of Black Working-Class Organic Intellectual Production in 21st Century Canada ....................................131 Chapter 6: Moving Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC): The Case for Liberation Schooling in African- Canadian Civil Society ........................................................................................194 References ...........................................................................................................216 iv List of Acronyms AAPA Afro-American Progressive Association ABB African Blood Brotherhood AIM American Indian Movement ALD Actual Level of Development ALD African Liberation Day ALMC African Liberation Month Coalition ALSC African Liberation Support Committee ANLC American Negro Labor Congress APSP African Peoples Socialist Party ASM Afro-American Student Movement BADC Black Action Defense Committee BLFC Black Liberation Front of Canada BPP Black Panther Party BSCP Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters BSG Black Study Group BWA Black Workers Alliance BWC Black Women‘s Congress BYO Black Youth Organization CAW Canadian Auto Workers CBTU Coalition of Black Trade Unionists CIO Congress of Industrial Organizations COINTELPRO Counter Intelligence Program CORE Congress of Racial Equality CPC Communist Party of Canada CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union CP USA Communist Party of the United States of America CSR Common Sense Revolution CUPE Canadian Union of Public Employees DRUM Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement FRELIMO Front for the Liberation of Mozambique FRSO Freedom Road Socialist Organization FSLN Sandinista National Liberation Front FYI For Youth Initiative IBW Institute of the Black World KUTVA University of Toilers of the East LRBW League of Revolutionary Black Workers LRNA League of Revolutionaries for a New America MNSJ Metro Network for Social Justice MPLA Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NDP New Democratic Party NGO Non-Governmental Organization NPDUM National People‘s Democratic Uhuru Movement v NPIC Non-Profit Industrial Complex NSM New Social Movement OAAU Organization of Afro-American Unity OSM Old Social Movement OW Ontario Works PAIGC African Party for the Independence of Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands PCI Italian Communist Party PEF Peoples Educational Forum PEL Paid Educational Leave PSI Italian Socialist Party RAM Revolutionary Action Movement RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police RUM Revolutionary Union Movement SDS Students for a Democratic Society SIU Special Investigations Unit SNCC Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee SPA Socialist Party of America SPIRIT Sisters in Action for Power TCHC Toronto Community Housing Corporation TDSB Toronto District School Board UAIA Universal African Improvement Association UAW United Auto Workers UNIA United Negro Improvement Association UNITA Union for the Total Independence of Angola USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics UT University of Toronto YCF Youth Challenge Fund YCL Young Communist League YOU Young Onkwehonwe United vi Preface The point of this short Preface is to provide a basic overview of where its contributions fit within multiple bodies of research literature. The general rationale for this thesis revolves around both its political significance and several serious gaps in the existing academic literature. In terms of social significance, the anti-racist, black communist movement in Canada has served as a vital axis around which progressive organizing and mobilization for social change has revolved. This Canadian Black Communist Left has targeted many of the most oppressive structures and practices that contemporary society has thrown forward and I suggest here that a richer and deeper critical understanding of it carries with it the potential for enormous positive change in the future. With its roots deep in the struggle against Canadian imperialism generally, but with the last half of the 20th century serving as a key moment in its ongoing evolution, the Canadian Black Communist Left‘s relative invisibility in the academic literature, in my view, demands a response. Moreover, if part of the intellectual outcome of this work is to recover a history that has yet to be formalized, then in practical terms it is a goal of the thesis that this recovery be shaped by the needs to further support and contribute to the charting of a viable path forward. In terms of the academic literature, this thesis sheds light on and contributes analysis that, to this point, has been almost completely absent from any sustained research attention. This is the case in several ways. As I will show, first, there is a general under-development of research on the relationship