Click on the headline to link to updates from the Occupy Boston website. Occupy Boston started at 6:00 PM, September 30, 2011. I will post important updates as they appear on that site.
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An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend All The Occupation Sites And All The Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against All Protesters Everywhere!
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Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It, It’s Ours! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
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Below I am posting, occasionally, comments on the Occupy movement as I see or hear things of interest, or that cause alarm bells to ring in my head. The first comment directly below from October 1, which represented my first impressions of Occupy Boston, is the lead for all further postings.
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Markin comment October 1, 2011:
There is a lot of naiveté expressed about the nature of capitalism, capitalists, and the way to win in the class struggle by various participants in this occupation. Many also have attempted to make a virtue out of that naiveté, particularly around the issues of effective democratic organization (the General Assembly, its unrepresentative nature and its undemocratic consensus process) and relationships with the police (they are not our friends, no way, when the deal goes down). However, their spirit is refreshing, they are acting out of good subjective anti-capitalist motives and, most importantly, even those of us who call ourselves "reds" (communists), including this writer, started out from liberal premises as naive, if not more so, than those encountered at the occupation site. We can all learn something but in the meantime we must defend the "occupation" and the occupiers. More later as the occupation continues.
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As part of my comment here, dated October 20, 2011, I noted the following:
“… The idea of the General Assembly with each individual attendee acting as a “tribune of the people” is interesting and important. And, of course, it represents, for today anyway, the embryo of what the “new world” we need to create might look like at the governmental level.”
A couple of the people that I have talked to were not quite sure what to make of that idea. The idea that what is going on in Occupy Boston at the governmental level could, should, would be a possible form of governing this society in the “new world a-borning” with the rise of the Occupy movement. Part of the problem is that there was some confusion on the part of the listeners that one of the possible aims of this movement is to create an alternative government, or at least provide a model for such a government. I will argue here now, and in the future, that it should be one the goals. In short, we need to take power away from the Democrats and Republicans and their tired old congressional/executive/judicial doesn’t work checks and balances form of governing and place it at the grassroots level and work upward from there rather than, as now, have power devolve from the top. (And stop well short of the bottom.)
I will leave aside the question (the problem really) of what it would take to create such a possibility. Of course a revolutionary solution would, of necessity, have be on the table since there is no way that the current powerful interests, Democratic, Republican or those having no named politics, is going to give up power without a fight. What I want to pose now is the use of the General Assembly as a deliberative executive, legislative, and judicial body all rolled into one. In that sense previous historical models come to mind; the short-lived but heroic Paris Commune of 1871 that Karl Marx tirelessly defended against the reactionaries of Europe as the prototype of a workers government; the early heroic days of the Russian October Revolution of 1917 when the workers councils (soviets in Russian parlance) acted as a true workers' government; and the period in the Spanish Revolution of 1936-39 where the Central Committee of the Anti-Fascist Militias acted, de facto, as a workers government. All the just mentioned examples had their problems and flaws, no question. However, merely mentioning the General Assembly concept in the same paragraph as these great historic examples should signal that thoughtful leftists and other militants need to investigate and study these examples.
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Recently (see October 22, 2011 comment above) I noted the following while arguing for the General Assembly concept as a form of alternate government using historic examples like the Paris Commune (1871), the early soviets in Russia (1905 and 1917), and the early days of the antifascist militias in the Spanish Civil War (1936-37):
“However, merely mentioning the General Assembly concept in the same paragraph as these great historic examples should signal that thoughtful leftists and other militants need to investigate and study these examples.”
In order to facilitate the investigation and study of those examples I will, occasionally, post works in this space that deal with these forbears from several leftist perspectives (rightist perspectives were clear- crush all the above examples ruthlessly, and with no mercy- so we need not look at them now). I started this Lesson Of History series with Karl Marx’s classic defense and critique of the Paris Commune, The Civil War In France and today’s presentation noted in the headline continues on in that same vein.
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Markin comment January 15, 2012
In several recent comments in this space (in late December) my old radical friend and alternative newspaper commentator, Josh Breslin, noted that the Occupy movement seemed to have lost energy and was , as he vividly described it, a movement of generals without an army. I, initially, argued with him about that characterization saying that this was just a period of growing pains and things would sort themselves out over the next several months. Then a series of disturbing events occurred topped off by what I will here call the “sex registry question” to make me thing that old Josh, once again, was right. Only I would characterize things, unlike Josh, as a succumbing to the circle spirit and as yet another example of the revolution devouring its own. In either case not a healthy situation.
With that said, I have long noted that although I believed that the General Assembly concept was potentially the embryo of an alternate form of government that would drive our vision for a new society there were some structural problems with the concept as practiced. Among those criticisms were the simple notions that majority rule and representative government based on political positions were concepts better suited to the struggle. Well, apparently others have, in the crucible of struggle, learned some of those lessons. Lessons that, perhaps, needed to be painfully worked through in practice before their shortcomings could be exposed. In any case this latest news from OB (consenting to a once a week strategic assembly) about a willingness to think about other governing forms is welcome news. Whether we remain generals without an army can now be hashed out but one thing seems certain this will go a long way toward breaking out of the circle spirit.
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A Five-Point Program As Talking Points
*Jobs For All Now!-“30 For 40”- A historic demand of the labor movement. Thirty hours work for forty hours pay to spread the available work around. Organize the unorganized- Organize the South- Organize Wal-Mart- Defend the right for public and private workers to unionize.
* Defend the working classes! No union dues for Democratic (or the stray Republican) candidates. Spent the dough on organizing the unorganized and other labor-specific causes (example, the November, 2011 anti-union recall referendum in Ohio).
*End the endless wars!- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops (And Mercenaries) From Afghanistan! Hands Off Pakistan! Hands Off Iran! Hands Off The World!
*Fight for a social agenda for working people!. Quality Healthcare For All! Nationalize the colleges and universities under student-teacher-campus worker control! Forgive student debt! Stop housing foreclosures!
*We created the wealth, let’s take it back. Take the struggle for our daily bread off the historic agenda. Build a workers party that fights for a workers government to unite all the oppressed.
Emblazon on our red banner-Labor and the oppressed must rule!
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I. Origin and Youth of Babeuf
FRANÇOIS NOEL BABEUF, it has now been decided by the researches of M. Victor Advielle, was born at St Quentin, on Sunday the 23rd November 1760. Babeuf, in some of the notes intimes which the industry of the same investigator has unearthed, states, that he was born of so delicate a constitution that he was not expected to live. This he attributes to the poor circumstances of his parents, and the privations of his mother during her pregnancy. Babeuf’s father appears to have been many years older than his mother. The former is described in the certificate of birth as “employé des fermes du roy au Faubourg St Martin de la ville de St Quentin”, of which town his mother was also a native. There is little doubt, however, that they originally came from the small town of Bobeuf, or Baboeuf, in Picardy, in the present department of the Oise. This commune is stated to have been founded by a descendant of the family of Calvin, to have been peopled by a colony of Protestant refugees from various quarters, and to have maintained relations with other similar Calvinist colonies, all composed of peasant cultivators.
It is related of Babeuf’s father that, on account of his abilities, he was in his younger days deputed by the members of the colony to undertake some negotiations in various foreign countries with a view to the union of the Lutheran and Calvinist sects, but his mission proving a failure, he took service in the troops of Maria Theresa, where he attained the rank of major under the name of l’Epine Babeuf, and that he was subsequently appointed tutor to the children of Maria Theresa. It is further related that in after years the Emperor Joseph II, as he happened to be passing through Picardy, became acquainted with the son of his former major, the hero of this book, to whom he made the most brilliant offers of employment at the Court of Vienna. François Noel’s severe democratic principles, even at that date, induced him resolutely to decline them. These details are taken from some manuscript notes respecting his youth, written by Babeuf at the close of his life. Considering the enthusiasm of the philosophic Emperor Joseph II for the very same revolutionary ideas to which Babeuf himself was devoted, and his expressed intention, as related in these same memorial notes, of using his power to carry these ideas into effect, the rigid refusal of Babeuf to accept employment under him seems strange, and, taking all the circumstances into consideration, not a little improbable, more especially when we consider the immaturity of Babeuf’s revolutionary principles at that time. One is inclined to suspect some exaggeration or distortion of the facts, probably unintentional, in Babeuf’s account of his relations with Joseph II.
Babeuf speaks of his father, Claude Babeuf, as of a man “as proud as a Castilian, always counting himself rich and happy even in the midst of profound misery”. He never, he says, “went to a wine shop, but delighted on rare occasions to don his soldier’s uniform, which he carefully preserved, together with his formidable sabre, which he handled with the greatest ease and dexterity.” He taught his son the elements of Latin, mathematics, and of the German language.
When about fifteen years of age, François Noel entered the service, as junior clerk, of a land commissioner, who taught him land surveying. Two years later it is stated that he became attached to a landowner, near the small town of Roye in Picardy. The elder Babeuf appears to have died some time in 1781, and henceforth his mother and sisters became the charge of François Noel. He kept them for over sixteen years. Old Claude
Babeuf, we are told, on his deathbed, handed to his son, as a last gift, a well-worn copy of Plutarch’s Lives, telling him that the book had been his solace throughout the joys and sorrows of his life. He continued to press upon his son to study the lives of the great men of antiquity. “As for me,” he went on to say, “I could have wished to have resembled Caius Gracchus, even though I were doomed to perish like him and his for the greatest of all causes, the cause of the common welfare; but circumstances have not been favourable to the accomplishment of my designs.” Expressing his conviction that his son would follow in his steps: “Swear,” said he, “upon this sword, that has never yet departed from the path of honour, never to abandon the interests of the people, which are everything, and to pour out, if need be, the last drop of your blood to enlighten and defend this downtrodden race.” The oath on the sword was taken as desired.
On the 13th of November 1782, young Babeuf married one of the lady’s maids of the Countess in whose husband’s service he was. His wife was a native of Amiens, of poor parents, and seems to have been, to a great extent at least, illiterate. Babeuf afterwards called her “a woman of nature”. Soon afterwards Babeuf found a position at Noyon in connection with land administration. The following year, after the birth of his first child, he again removed to the town of Roye, where he soon obtained a similar position as land-commissioner, [There seems to be some difficulty in ascertaining the status of Babeuf, or the precise nature of the office he held in the French bureaucratic system of the ancien régime. The exact title of Babeuf’s office was “Commissaire à Terrier”, the “Terrier” being a kind of “Domesday” of the various feudal holdings within the jurisdiction of the French monarchy.] the highest he had yet held, which was confirmed to him by letters patent.
At the age of twenty-five, François Noel Babeuf thus found himself in a position, not only fairly remunerative, but involving a certain social standing. He was by this time a prosperous father of a family, the head of an office, with clerks employed under him, and with leisure enough to devote himself to literary pursuits and public affairs. During these years Babeuf had relations with the Academie Royale des belles lettres at Arras. The Academy of Arras was one of the numerous literary societies that sprang up in the course of the eighteenth century in most French towns of any importance, one of the functions of which was to start competitions for the solution of given questions. As is well known, Rousseau’s first important essay in literary composition was the attempted solution of a problem put forward for competition by a similar society at an earlier date.
In 1785 the Arras Academy started the following question: “Is it advantageous to reduce the number of roads in the territories of the villages of the province of Artois, and to give to those preserved a breadth sufficient to enable them to be planted with trees? Indicate, in the case of the affirmative, the means of effectuating such reduction.” Babeuf was one of the first to enter the lists as candidate, and sent in his paper on the 25th November 1785. In spite of his practical knowledge of matters connected with the subject in question, the paper was among those rejected by the society. The incident, however, was the occasion of a friendship and correspondence, which lasted some years, with Dubois de Fosseux, the secretary of the society, who, twenty years older than Babeuf, came, in course of time, to seek his opinion on all subjects.
Fosseux seemed to have been immediately struck with Babeuf’s capacity, and wrote him a friendly letter, suggesting he should continue his efforts to obtain recognition by the society. He, however, would not appear to have been a person remarkable for tact – and proceeded, in the ensuing letters, to inflict upon Babeuf posers entirely out of the range of his line of thought, such as, “Why are negroes born black?” “Which is the more happy in the social order, the sensitive man or the apathetic man?” and so forth. At the same time he loaded Babeuf with effusions of his own, poetical and otherwise. Notwithstanding the correspondents indulged in mutual flattery, they were not always in accord. Fosseux found some verses, sent to him by Babeuf, not fit to be read before ladies “with delicate nerves.” To this the future Tribune of the people suggests that they might be furtively brought under the notice “of robust men, who might acquire fresh force from them.”
In March 1787 Babeuf makes an appeal to Fosseux to circulate a brochure entitled La Constitution du Corps-militaire en France, dans ses rapports avec celle du Gouvernement et avec le caractère National, of which he sends him a copy. He says that it is written by a person of his acquaintance, who was particularly anxious that it should be widely read in the town of Arras. The work was of a distinctly revolutionary character, criticising severely the aristocratic caste-system of grades in the French army, by which all the higher positions were in the hands of courtiers and aristocrats; and also advocates the convocation of an assembly of the people, to which the king should be responsible for his acts, and which should be the ultimate court of appeal. M. Advielle would attribute this little work to Babeuf himself; but, although this may be so, no conclusive evidence as to authorship is adducible. Fosseux acknowledges the receipt of the book, with compliments to the anonymous author, in his usual effusive style; but a little later he writes “that it has been impossible for him to find anyone to undertake its distribution.” “All our booksellers,” he says, “fear to compromise themselves with the police, and, in my capacity as sheriff; it would be equally unsuitable for me to become the distributor, since, from beginning to end, it does not cease to attack the government. For the rest, the work seems to me to be well put together, excellently written, and very interesting. I should be extremely flattered to make the acquaintance of the author, who is assuredly a man of much spirit and merit. In these circumstances, Monsieur, and not having better fulfilled my commission, I feel bound to return to you the copy you confided to me. I have been well recompensed for the little trouble I have taken by the pleasure I have had in reading it.”
It is curious that in the very same letter in which he shirks the danger of helping to circulate La Constitution du Corps-militaire, Fosseux is enthusiastic over the project of a book bearing the title Le Changement du monde entier. It was to be divided into six parts: the first to contain a detailed table of the misery afflicting the society of the day, “of the abuses, the disorders, the calamities, the wrongs, the injustices, the bankruptcies, the subjects of despair, the brigandages, the thefts, the assassinations, the crimes and horrors of all sorts, which take place”; the second was to contain the cause of these evils; the third, to expound principles and preliminary notions; the fourth, the expedients, means, and regulations by which “all citizens who are in necessity, or who only enjoy a modest fortune, may, together with their wives and children, be in the future well nourished, clothed, lighted, and warmed, receive a perfect education, and enjoy, by means of their honest labour, each according to his or her strength, abilities, sex, age, talent, trade, or profession, much more ease, liberty, justice, comfort, and advantage than nowadays.” The fifth section should deal with the means of procuring at once an adequate sum of money without the imposition of taxes on the peoples! The sixth should consist of a reply to all objections.
This syllabus, sketched out by Dubois de Fosseux, is not only noteworthy as showing the beginnings of Utopian Socialism, which had been already formulated in Morelly’s Le Code de la nature, published in 1755, though at first attributed to Diderot. But what is especially interesting is the fact, that the Utopian scheme which so fascinated his friend Fosseux, in spite of its suggestion of the programme of the Equals of eight years later, does not seem to have attracted the future “people’s tribune” at all at this time. Writing a little later, he treats the supposititious author of the scheme, who may well have been Fosseux himself, as “a mere dreamer”.
Early in May of this year Babeuf went to Paris, on a visit of a few days, where he made the acquaintance of a rich merchant named Audiffret, who proved a true friend to him, and to whose purse he had recourse when, later on, he found himself abandoned by everyone. At this time he started a work on the simplification of the land register, but it did not appear until three years later, when it was associated with the name of his friend Audiffret, who had doubtless contributed to defray the cost of publication. Writing to a proposal of one Lemoignan to reform the magistracy, about this time, Babeuf expresses himself as partisan of a unified code of law, which would once for all sweep away the chaos of medieval customs and regulations, valid in one province and invalid in the next, and would “procure for all individuals indiscriminately, as regards the blessings and advantages enjoyed in this lower world, an absolutely equal position”.
We may regard this and other expressions of opinion in the correspondence of Babeuf at this time as showing that the beginnings of the future People’s Tribune, and leader of the “Equals” of 1796, were already present in the land-commissioner of 1787. The last letter in the correspondence between Fosseux and Babeuf was by the former, dated the 11th March 1788, and complains of the neglect of Babeuf to return certain literary pieces sent, and concludes with an urgent wish that this should be done promptly, even though without accompanying letter. From whatever reason, all relations between the two correspondents seem to have abruptly terminated at this time. Up to the present the future Tribune had not shown any marked signs of revolutionary sentiment or conviction, beyond a few expressions of opinion such as those above quoted – at least, unless we are to consider the Constitution militaire as coming from his pen.
Babeuf, we gather, read but few papers, and these irregularly, amongst which are mentioned Le Mercure de France and the Journal de la langue française. Neither, as far as we can see, was his other reading of a revolutionary character. Coming into contact, however, in the course of his professional duties, it may be mentioned, with the king’s Field-Marshal, the Comte de Casteja, who seems to have treated him with the haughtiness of the aristocrat of the ancien régime, Babeuf had a passage of arms with him, in which he defended himself with tact and dignity.
The year before the outbreak of the Revolution found Babeuf at the zenith of his prosperity as a land-agent, with a considerable clientele among the nobility and clergy, all of them eager to avail themselves of his knowledge of land tenure and of his practical ability as a business man. About this time he was charged by the Prior of St Taurin, a religious foundation in the neighbourhood of the town of Roye, to form an abstract of all the titles of the priory, together with all possible rights and privileges that could be invoked. The work occupied him six months. Shortly after, he also undertook important researches into the territorial archives of the Marquis de Soyecourt, one of the many nobles of the ancien régime who had exhausted his available substance in hanging round the court at Versailles, and who, in spite of his immense landed possessions, had at that time the not unusual aristocratic notoriety of not paying anyone, not even the innkeepers to whose houses he had resort on his travels. As might be expected, on the termination of his arduous labours, Babeuf found his bill of 12,000 livres (francs) disputed by his patron, who refused to hand over more than a hundred louis, a sum with which the creditor, hard driven as he was, and quite unable to risk the expenses of a lawsuit, had to be content. The affair absolutely ruined Babeuf, as it had occupied all his time for months, and had in consequence caused him to refuse several advantageous offers of other work. In this matter a certain influential family of the town of Roye, named Billecocq, had, it appears, been involved. The Billecocqs seem to have had an implacable hostility to Babeuf, whom they suspected of having done them an evil turn, they having lost their position as attorneys to the Marquis de Soyecourt, as they imagined, owing to the influence of Babeuf.
It was now the eve of the opening of the world-renowned series of events constituting the French Revolution; and our hero, under the combined influence of personal troubles, and of the social and political atmosphere in which he lived and moved, was rapidly becoming a changed man. Babeuf, at the time, it should be said, was the father of an increasing family.
Thursday, February 02, 2012
The Latest From The “Occupy Oakland” Website-This Is Class War-We Say No More- Take The Offensive- Defend The Oakland Commune!- A Five Point Program For Discussion
Click on the headline to link to Occupy Oakland website for the latest from the Bay Area vanguard battleground in the struggle for social justice.
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An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend The Occupation Movement And All The Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against All Occupy Protesters Everywhere!
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Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It, It’s Ours! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
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A Five-Point Program As Talking Points
*Jobs For All Now!-“30 For 40”- A historic demand of the labor movement going back to the 1930s Great Depression the last time that unemployment, under-employment, and those who have just plain quit looking for work was this high in the American labor force. Thirty hours work for forty hours pay is a formula to spread the available work around. This is no mere propaganda point but shows the way forward toward a more equitable distribution of available work. Work that would be divided through local representative workers’ councils which would act, in one of its capacities, as a giant hiring hall where the jobs would be parceled out. This would be a simpler task now than when it was when first proposed in the 1930s with the vast increase in modern technology that could fairly accurately, via computers, target jobs that need filling and equitably divide up current work. Without the key capitalist necessity of keeping up the rate of profit the social surplus created by that work could be used to redistribute the available work at the same agreed upon rate rather than go into the capitalists’ pockets. The only catch, a big catch one must admit, is that no capitalist, and no capitalist system, is going to do any such thing as implement “30 for 40” so that it will, in the end, be necessary to fight for and win a workers government to implement this demand.
Organize the unorganized is a demand that cries out for solution today now that the organized sectors of the labor movement, both public and private, in America are at historic lows, just over ten percent of the workforce. Part of the task is to reorganize some of the old industries like the automobile industry, now mainly unorganized as new plants come on line and others are abandoned, which used to provide a massive amount of decent jobs with decent benefits but which now have fallen to globalization and the “race to the bottom” bad times. The other sector that desperately need to be organized is to ratchet up the efforts to organize the service industries, hospitals, hotels, hi-tech, restaurants and the like, that have become a dominant aspect of the American economy.
Organize the South-this low wage area, this consciously low-wage area, where many industries land before heading off-shore to even lower wage places cries out for organizing, especially among black and Hispanic workers who form the bulk of this industrial workforce. A corollary to organizing the South is obviously to organize internationally to keep the “race to the bottom” from continually occurring short of being resolved in favor of an international commonwealth of workers’ governments. Nobody said it was going to be easy.
Organize Wal-Mart- millions of workers, thousands of trucks, hundreds of distribution centers. A victory here would be the springboard to a revitalized organized labor movement just as auto and steel lead the industrial union movements of the 1930s. To give an idea of how hard this task might be though someone once argued that it would be easier to organize a workers’ revolution that organize this giant. Well, that’s a thought.
Defend the right of public and private workers to unionize. Simple-No more Wisconsins, no more attacks on collective bargaining the hallmark of a union contract. No reliance on labor boards, arbitration, or bourgeois recall elections either. Unions must keep their independent from government interference. Period.
Guest Commentary
From The Transitional Program Of The Leon Trotsky-Led Fourth International In 1938Sliding Scale of Wages and Sliding Scale of Hours
Under the conditions of disintegrating capitalism, the masses continue to live the meagerized life of the oppressed, threatened now more than at any other time with the danger of being cast into the pit of pauperism. They must defend their mouthful of bread, if they cannot increase or better it. There is neither the need nor the opportunity to enumerate here those separate, partial demands which time and again arise on the basis of concrete circumstances – national, local, trade union. But two basic economic afflictions, in which is summarized the increasing absurdity of the capitalist system, that is, unemployment and high prices, demand generalized slogans and methods of struggle.
The Fourth International declares uncompromising war on the politics of the capitalists which, to a considerable degree, like the politics of their agents, the reformists, aims to place the whole burden of militarism, the crisis, the disorganization of the monetary system and all other scourges stemming from capitalism’s death agony upon the backs of the toilers. The Fourth International demands employment and decent living conditions for all.
Neither monetary inflation nor stabilization can serve as slogans for the proletariat because these are but two ends of the same stick. Against a bounding rise in prices, which with the approach of war will assume an ever more unbridled character, one can fight only under the slogan of a sliding scale of wages. This means that collective agreements should assure an automatic rise in wages in relation to the increase in price of consumer goods.
Under the menace of its own disintegration, the proletariat cannot permit the transformation of an increasing section of the workers into chronically unemployed paupers, living off the slops of a crumbling society. The right to employment is the only serious right left to the worker in a society based upon exploitation. This right today is left to the worker in a society based upon exploitation. This right today is being shorn from him at every step. Against unemployment, “structural” as well as “conjunctural,” the time is ripe to advance along with the slogan of public works, the slogan of a sliding scale of working hours. Trade unions and other mass organizations should bind the workers and the unemployed together in the solidarity of mutual responsibility. On this basis all the work on hand would then be divided among all existing workers in accordance with how the extent of the working week is defined. The average wage of every worker remains the same as it was under the old working week. Wages, under a strictly guaranteed minimum, would follow the movement of prices. It is impossible to accept any other program for the present catastrophic period.
Property owners and their lawyers will prove the “unrealizability” of these demands. Smaller, especially ruined capitalists, in addition will refer to their account ledgers. The workers categorically denounce such conclusions and references. The question is not one of a “normal” collision between opposing material interests. The question is one of guarding the proletariat from decay, demoralization and ruin. The question is one of life or death of the only creative and progressive class, and by that token of the future of mankind. If capitalism is incapable of satisfying the demands inevitably arising from the calamities generated by itself, then let it perish. “Realizability” or “unrealizability” is in the given instance a question of the relationship of forces, which can be decided only by the struggle. By means of this struggle, no matter what immediate practical successes may be, the workers will best come to understand the necessity of liquidating capitalist slavery.
* Defend the independence of the working classes! No union dues for Democratic (or the stray Republican) candidates. In 2008 labor, organized labor, spent around 450 million dollars trying to elect Barack Obama and other Democrats (mainly). The results speak for themselves. For those bogus efforts the labor skates should have been sent packing long ago. The idea then was (and is, as we come up to another presidential election cycle) that the Democrats (mainly) were “friends of labor.” The past period of cuts-backs, cut-in-the back give backs should put paid to that notion. Although anyone who is politically savvy at all knows that is not true, not true for the labor skates at the top of the movement.
The hard reality is that the labor skates, not used to any form of class struggle or any kind of struggle, know no other way than class-collaboration, arbitration, courts, and every other way to avoid the appearance of strife, strife in defense of the bosses’ profits. The most egregious recent example- the return of the Verizon workers to work after two weeks last summer when they had the company on the run and the subsequent announcement by the company of record profits. That sellout strategy may have worked for the bureaucrats, or rather their “fathers” for a time back in the 1950s “golden age” of labor, but now we are in a very hard and open class war. The rank and file must demand an end to using their precious dues payments period for bourgeois candidates all of whom have turned out to be sworn enemies of labor from Obama on down.
This does not mean not using union dues for political purposes though. On the contrary we need to use them now more than ever in the class battles ahead. Spent the dough on organizing the unorganized, organizing the South, organizing Wal-Mart, and other pro-labor causes. Think, for example, of the dough spent on the successful November, 2011 anti-union recall referendum in Ohio. That type of activity is where labor’s money and other resources should go.
*End the endless wars!- As the so-called draw-down of American and Allied troops in Iraq reaches it final stages, the draw down of non-mercenary forces anyway, we must recognize that we anti-warriors failed, and failed rather spectacularly, to affect that withdrawal after a promising start to our opposition in late 2002 and early 2003 (and a little in 2006). As the endless American-led wars (even if behind the scenes, as in Libya) continue we had better straighten out our anti-war, anti-imperialist front quickly if we are to have any effect on the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops (And Mercenaries) From Afghanistan! Hands Off Pakistan!
U.S. Hands Off Iran!- American (and world) imperialists are ratcheting up their propaganda war (right now) and increased economic sanctions that are a prelude to war well before the dust has settled on the now unsettled situation in Iraq and well before they have even sniffed at an Afghan withdrawal of any import. We will hold our noses, as we did with the Saddam leadership in Iraq and on other occasions, and call for the defense of Iran against the American imperial monster. A victory for the Americans (and their junior partner, Israel) in Iran is not in the interests of the international working class. Especially here in the “belly of the beast” we are duty-bound to call not just for non-intervention but for defense of Iran. We will, believe me we will, deal with the mullahs, the Revolutionary Guards, and the Islamic fundamentalist in our own way in our own time.
U.S. Hands Off The World!- With the number of “hot spots” that the American imperialists, or one or another of their junior allies, have their hands on in this wicked old world this generic slogan would seem to fill the bill.
Down With The War Budget! Not One Penny, Not One Person For The Wars! Honor World War I German Social-Democratic Party MP, Karl Liebknecht, who did just that. The litmus test for every political candidate must be first opposition to the war budgets (let’s see, right now winding up Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran preparations, China preparations, etc. you get my drift). Then that big leap. The whole damn imperialist military budget. Again, no one said it would be simple. Revolution may be easier that depriving the imperialists of their military money. Well….okay.
*Fight for a social agenda for working people!. Free Quality Healthcare For All! This would be a no-brainer in any rationally based society. The health and welfare of any society’s citizenry is the simple glue that holds that society together. It is no accident that one of the prime concerns of workers states like Cuba, whatever their other political problems, has been to place health care and education front and center and to provide to the best of their capacity for free, quality healthcare and education for all. Even the hide-bound social-democratic-run capitalist governments of Europe have, until recently anyway, placed the “welfare state” protections central to their programs.
Free, quality higher education for all! Nationalize the colleges and universities under student-teacher-campus worker control! One Hundred, Two Hundred, Many Harvards!
This would again be a no-brainer in any rationally based society. The struggle to increase the educational level of a society’s citizenry is another part of the simple glue that holds that society together. Today higher education is being placed out of reach for many working-class and minority families. Hell, it is getting tough for the middle class as well.
Moreover the whole higher educational system is increasing skewed toward those who have better formal preparation and family lives leaving many deserving students in the wilderness. Take the resources of the private institutions and spread them around, throw in hundreds of billions from the government (take from the military budget and the bank bail-out money), get rid of the top heavy and useless college administration apparatuses, mix it up, and let students, teachers, and campus workers run the thing through councils on a democratic basis.
Forgive student debt! The latest reports indicate that college student debt is something like a trillion dollars, give or take a few billion but who is counting. The price of tuition and expenses has gone up dramatically while services have not kept pace. What has happened is that the future highly educated workforce that a modern society, and certainly a socialist society, desperately needs is going to be cast in some form of indentured servitude to the banks or other lending agencies for much of their young working lives. Let the banks take a “hit” for a change!
Stop housing foreclosures now! Hey, everybody, everywhere in the world not just in America should have a safe, clean roof over their heads. Hell, even a single family home that is part of the “American dream,” if that is what they want. We didn’t make the housing crisis in America (or elsewhere, like in Ireland, where the bubble has also burst). The banks did. Their predatory lending practices and slip-shot application processes were out of control. Let them take the “hit” here as well.
*We created the wealth, let’s take it back. Karl Marx was right way back in the 19th century on his labor theory of value, the workers do produce the social surplus appropriated by the capitalists. Capitalism tends to immiserate the mass of society for the few. Most importantly capitalism, a system that at one time was historically progressive in the fight against feudalism and other ancient forms of production, has turned into its opposite and now is a fetter on production. The current multiple crises spawned by this system show there is no way forward, except that unless we push them out, push them out fast, they will muddle through, again.
Take the struggle for our daily bread off the historic agenda. Socialism is the only serious answer to the human crisis we face economically, socially, culturally and politically. This socialist system is the only one calculated to take one of the great tragedies of life, the struggle for daily survival in a world that we did not create, and replace it with more co-operative human endeavors.
Build a workers party that fights for a workers government to unite all the oppressed. None of the nice things mentioned above can be accomplished without as serious struggle for political power. We need to struggle for an independent working-class-centered political party that we can call our own and where our leaders act as “tribunes of the people” not hacks. The creation of that workers party, however, will get us nowhere unless it fights for a workers government to begin the transition to the next level of human progress on a world-wide scale.
Emblazon on our red banner-Labor and the oppressed must rule!
Guest Commentary from the IWW (Industrial Workers Of The World, Wobblies) website http://www.iww.org/en/culture/official/preamble.shtml
Preamble to the IWW Constitution (1905)
Posted Sun, 05/01/2005 - 8:34am by IWW.org Editor
The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.
Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.
We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.
These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.
Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."
It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.
******
An Injury To One Is An Injury To All!-Defend The Occupation Movement And All The Occupiers! Drop All Charges Against All Occupy Protesters Everywhere!
*******
Fight-Don’t Starve-We Created The Wealth, Let's Take It, It’s Ours! Labor And The Oppressed Must Rule!
*******
A Five-Point Program As Talking Points
*Jobs For All Now!-“30 For 40”- A historic demand of the labor movement going back to the 1930s Great Depression the last time that unemployment, under-employment, and those who have just plain quit looking for work was this high in the American labor force. Thirty hours work for forty hours pay is a formula to spread the available work around. This is no mere propaganda point but shows the way forward toward a more equitable distribution of available work. Work that would be divided through local representative workers’ councils which would act, in one of its capacities, as a giant hiring hall where the jobs would be parceled out. This would be a simpler task now than when it was when first proposed in the 1930s with the vast increase in modern technology that could fairly accurately, via computers, target jobs that need filling and equitably divide up current work. Without the key capitalist necessity of keeping up the rate of profit the social surplus created by that work could be used to redistribute the available work at the same agreed upon rate rather than go into the capitalists’ pockets. The only catch, a big catch one must admit, is that no capitalist, and no capitalist system, is going to do any such thing as implement “30 for 40” so that it will, in the end, be necessary to fight for and win a workers government to implement this demand.
Organize the unorganized is a demand that cries out for solution today now that the organized sectors of the labor movement, both public and private, in America are at historic lows, just over ten percent of the workforce. Part of the task is to reorganize some of the old industries like the automobile industry, now mainly unorganized as new plants come on line and others are abandoned, which used to provide a massive amount of decent jobs with decent benefits but which now have fallen to globalization and the “race to the bottom” bad times. The other sector that desperately need to be organized is to ratchet up the efforts to organize the service industries, hospitals, hotels, hi-tech, restaurants and the like, that have become a dominant aspect of the American economy.
Organize the South-this low wage area, this consciously low-wage area, where many industries land before heading off-shore to even lower wage places cries out for organizing, especially among black and Hispanic workers who form the bulk of this industrial workforce. A corollary to organizing the South is obviously to organize internationally to keep the “race to the bottom” from continually occurring short of being resolved in favor of an international commonwealth of workers’ governments. Nobody said it was going to be easy.
Organize Wal-Mart- millions of workers, thousands of trucks, hundreds of distribution centers. A victory here would be the springboard to a revitalized organized labor movement just as auto and steel lead the industrial union movements of the 1930s. To give an idea of how hard this task might be though someone once argued that it would be easier to organize a workers’ revolution that organize this giant. Well, that’s a thought.
Defend the right of public and private workers to unionize. Simple-No more Wisconsins, no more attacks on collective bargaining the hallmark of a union contract. No reliance on labor boards, arbitration, or bourgeois recall elections either. Unions must keep their independent from government interference. Period.
Guest Commentary
From The Transitional Program Of The Leon Trotsky-Led Fourth International In 1938Sliding Scale of Wages and Sliding Scale of Hours
Under the conditions of disintegrating capitalism, the masses continue to live the meagerized life of the oppressed, threatened now more than at any other time with the danger of being cast into the pit of pauperism. They must defend their mouthful of bread, if they cannot increase or better it. There is neither the need nor the opportunity to enumerate here those separate, partial demands which time and again arise on the basis of concrete circumstances – national, local, trade union. But two basic economic afflictions, in which is summarized the increasing absurdity of the capitalist system, that is, unemployment and high prices, demand generalized slogans and methods of struggle.
The Fourth International declares uncompromising war on the politics of the capitalists which, to a considerable degree, like the politics of their agents, the reformists, aims to place the whole burden of militarism, the crisis, the disorganization of the monetary system and all other scourges stemming from capitalism’s death agony upon the backs of the toilers. The Fourth International demands employment and decent living conditions for all.
Neither monetary inflation nor stabilization can serve as slogans for the proletariat because these are but two ends of the same stick. Against a bounding rise in prices, which with the approach of war will assume an ever more unbridled character, one can fight only under the slogan of a sliding scale of wages. This means that collective agreements should assure an automatic rise in wages in relation to the increase in price of consumer goods.
Under the menace of its own disintegration, the proletariat cannot permit the transformation of an increasing section of the workers into chronically unemployed paupers, living off the slops of a crumbling society. The right to employment is the only serious right left to the worker in a society based upon exploitation. This right today is left to the worker in a society based upon exploitation. This right today is being shorn from him at every step. Against unemployment, “structural” as well as “conjunctural,” the time is ripe to advance along with the slogan of public works, the slogan of a sliding scale of working hours. Trade unions and other mass organizations should bind the workers and the unemployed together in the solidarity of mutual responsibility. On this basis all the work on hand would then be divided among all existing workers in accordance with how the extent of the working week is defined. The average wage of every worker remains the same as it was under the old working week. Wages, under a strictly guaranteed minimum, would follow the movement of prices. It is impossible to accept any other program for the present catastrophic period.
Property owners and their lawyers will prove the “unrealizability” of these demands. Smaller, especially ruined capitalists, in addition will refer to their account ledgers. The workers categorically denounce such conclusions and references. The question is not one of a “normal” collision between opposing material interests. The question is one of guarding the proletariat from decay, demoralization and ruin. The question is one of life or death of the only creative and progressive class, and by that token of the future of mankind. If capitalism is incapable of satisfying the demands inevitably arising from the calamities generated by itself, then let it perish. “Realizability” or “unrealizability” is in the given instance a question of the relationship of forces, which can be decided only by the struggle. By means of this struggle, no matter what immediate practical successes may be, the workers will best come to understand the necessity of liquidating capitalist slavery.
* Defend the independence of the working classes! No union dues for Democratic (or the stray Republican) candidates. In 2008 labor, organized labor, spent around 450 million dollars trying to elect Barack Obama and other Democrats (mainly). The results speak for themselves. For those bogus efforts the labor skates should have been sent packing long ago. The idea then was (and is, as we come up to another presidential election cycle) that the Democrats (mainly) were “friends of labor.” The past period of cuts-backs, cut-in-the back give backs should put paid to that notion. Although anyone who is politically savvy at all knows that is not true, not true for the labor skates at the top of the movement.
The hard reality is that the labor skates, not used to any form of class struggle or any kind of struggle, know no other way than class-collaboration, arbitration, courts, and every other way to avoid the appearance of strife, strife in defense of the bosses’ profits. The most egregious recent example- the return of the Verizon workers to work after two weeks last summer when they had the company on the run and the subsequent announcement by the company of record profits. That sellout strategy may have worked for the bureaucrats, or rather their “fathers” for a time back in the 1950s “golden age” of labor, but now we are in a very hard and open class war. The rank and file must demand an end to using their precious dues payments period for bourgeois candidates all of whom have turned out to be sworn enemies of labor from Obama on down.
This does not mean not using union dues for political purposes though. On the contrary we need to use them now more than ever in the class battles ahead. Spent the dough on organizing the unorganized, organizing the South, organizing Wal-Mart, and other pro-labor causes. Think, for example, of the dough spent on the successful November, 2011 anti-union recall referendum in Ohio. That type of activity is where labor’s money and other resources should go.
*End the endless wars!- As the so-called draw-down of American and Allied troops in Iraq reaches it final stages, the draw down of non-mercenary forces anyway, we must recognize that we anti-warriors failed, and failed rather spectacularly, to affect that withdrawal after a promising start to our opposition in late 2002 and early 2003 (and a little in 2006). As the endless American-led wars (even if behind the scenes, as in Libya) continue we had better straighten out our anti-war, anti-imperialist front quickly if we are to have any effect on the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops (And Mercenaries) From Afghanistan! Hands Off Pakistan!
U.S. Hands Off Iran!- American (and world) imperialists are ratcheting up their propaganda war (right now) and increased economic sanctions that are a prelude to war well before the dust has settled on the now unsettled situation in Iraq and well before they have even sniffed at an Afghan withdrawal of any import. We will hold our noses, as we did with the Saddam leadership in Iraq and on other occasions, and call for the defense of Iran against the American imperial monster. A victory for the Americans (and their junior partner, Israel) in Iran is not in the interests of the international working class. Especially here in the “belly of the beast” we are duty-bound to call not just for non-intervention but for defense of Iran. We will, believe me we will, deal with the mullahs, the Revolutionary Guards, and the Islamic fundamentalist in our own way in our own time.
U.S. Hands Off The World!- With the number of “hot spots” that the American imperialists, or one or another of their junior allies, have their hands on in this wicked old world this generic slogan would seem to fill the bill.
Down With The War Budget! Not One Penny, Not One Person For The Wars! Honor World War I German Social-Democratic Party MP, Karl Liebknecht, who did just that. The litmus test for every political candidate must be first opposition to the war budgets (let’s see, right now winding up Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran preparations, China preparations, etc. you get my drift). Then that big leap. The whole damn imperialist military budget. Again, no one said it would be simple. Revolution may be easier that depriving the imperialists of their military money. Well….okay.
*Fight for a social agenda for working people!. Free Quality Healthcare For All! This would be a no-brainer in any rationally based society. The health and welfare of any society’s citizenry is the simple glue that holds that society together. It is no accident that one of the prime concerns of workers states like Cuba, whatever their other political problems, has been to place health care and education front and center and to provide to the best of their capacity for free, quality healthcare and education for all. Even the hide-bound social-democratic-run capitalist governments of Europe have, until recently anyway, placed the “welfare state” protections central to their programs.
Free, quality higher education for all! Nationalize the colleges and universities under student-teacher-campus worker control! One Hundred, Two Hundred, Many Harvards!
This would again be a no-brainer in any rationally based society. The struggle to increase the educational level of a society’s citizenry is another part of the simple glue that holds that society together. Today higher education is being placed out of reach for many working-class and minority families. Hell, it is getting tough for the middle class as well.
Moreover the whole higher educational system is increasing skewed toward those who have better formal preparation and family lives leaving many deserving students in the wilderness. Take the resources of the private institutions and spread them around, throw in hundreds of billions from the government (take from the military budget and the bank bail-out money), get rid of the top heavy and useless college administration apparatuses, mix it up, and let students, teachers, and campus workers run the thing through councils on a democratic basis.
Forgive student debt! The latest reports indicate that college student debt is something like a trillion dollars, give or take a few billion but who is counting. The price of tuition and expenses has gone up dramatically while services have not kept pace. What has happened is that the future highly educated workforce that a modern society, and certainly a socialist society, desperately needs is going to be cast in some form of indentured servitude to the banks or other lending agencies for much of their young working lives. Let the banks take a “hit” for a change!
Stop housing foreclosures now! Hey, everybody, everywhere in the world not just in America should have a safe, clean roof over their heads. Hell, even a single family home that is part of the “American dream,” if that is what they want. We didn’t make the housing crisis in America (or elsewhere, like in Ireland, where the bubble has also burst). The banks did. Their predatory lending practices and slip-shot application processes were out of control. Let them take the “hit” here as well.
*We created the wealth, let’s take it back. Karl Marx was right way back in the 19th century on his labor theory of value, the workers do produce the social surplus appropriated by the capitalists. Capitalism tends to immiserate the mass of society for the few. Most importantly capitalism, a system that at one time was historically progressive in the fight against feudalism and other ancient forms of production, has turned into its opposite and now is a fetter on production. The current multiple crises spawned by this system show there is no way forward, except that unless we push them out, push them out fast, they will muddle through, again.
Take the struggle for our daily bread off the historic agenda. Socialism is the only serious answer to the human crisis we face economically, socially, culturally and politically. This socialist system is the only one calculated to take one of the great tragedies of life, the struggle for daily survival in a world that we did not create, and replace it with more co-operative human endeavors.
Build a workers party that fights for a workers government to unite all the oppressed. None of the nice things mentioned above can be accomplished without as serious struggle for political power. We need to struggle for an independent working-class-centered political party that we can call our own and where our leaders act as “tribunes of the people” not hacks. The creation of that workers party, however, will get us nowhere unless it fights for a workers government to begin the transition to the next level of human progress on a world-wide scale.
Emblazon on our red banner-Labor and the oppressed must rule!
Guest Commentary from the IWW (Industrial Workers Of The World, Wobblies) website http://www.iww.org/en/culture/official/preamble.shtml
Preamble to the IWW Constitution (1905)
Posted Sun, 05/01/2005 - 8:34am by IWW.org Editor
The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.
Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.
We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.
These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.
Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."
It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
The Latest From The United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) Website- Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops, Mercenaries, Contractors, Etc, From Afghanistan! Hands Off Iran! All Out In Boston On February 4th
Click on the headline to link to the United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC) Website for more information about various anti-war, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist actions around the country.
Hands Off Iran! March and Rally
Park Street Station, Boston Common
February 4th, 1:00 PM
Markin comment:
Every once in a while it is necessary, if for not other reason than to proclaim from the public square that we are alive, and fighting, to show “the colors,” our anti-war colors. While, as I have mentioned many times in this space, endless marches are not going to end any war the street opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as protests against other imperialist adventures has been under the radar of late. It is time for anti-warriors to get back where we belong in the struggle against Obama’s wars. The UNAC appears to be the umbrella clearing house these days for many anti-war, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist actions. Not all the demands of this coalition are ones that I would raise but the key one is enough to take to the streets. Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops, Mercenaries, Contractors, Etc, From Afghanistan and Iraq!
BostonUNAC.org | 781-285-8622 | BostonUNAC(S)gmail.com
Hands Off Iran! March and Rally
Park Street Station, Boston Common
February 4th, 1:00 PM
Markin comment:
Every once in a while it is necessary, if for not other reason than to proclaim from the public square that we are alive, and fighting, to show “the colors,” our anti-war colors. While, as I have mentioned many times in this space, endless marches are not going to end any war the street opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as protests against other imperialist adventures has been under the radar of late. It is time for anti-warriors to get back where we belong in the struggle against Obama’s wars. The UNAC appears to be the umbrella clearing house these days for many anti-war, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist actions. Not all the demands of this coalition are ones that I would raise but the key one is enough to take to the streets. Immediate, Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S./Allied Troops, Mercenaries, Contractors, Etc, From Afghanistan and Iraq!
BostonUNAC.org | 781-285-8622 | BostonUNAC(S)gmail.com
In Honor Of The 93rd Anniversary Of The Founding Of The Communist International-From The Pen Of Leon Trotsky-"The Third International After Lenin"
Click on the headline to link to the Leon Trotsky Internet Archives for an online copy of the document mentioned in the headline.
Markin comment:
After the struggle inside the Russian Communist Party in the mid-1920s around internal party democracy and the economics of the transition period the Leon Trotsky-led Left Opposition (and later the International Left Opposition) concentrated on Communist International policies. And chief among them was the contour and fate of the Second Chinese Revolution of 1925-27. While Leon Trotsky was not around to write about the successful revolution of 1949 he did write many polemics on that second revolution and how, in the end, it like in Russian would have to follow the path that he outlined in his Theory Of Permanent Revolution in order to be successful. In the event, although successful, it never developed those soviet forms that would have eased the transition to socialism. This material is still very helpful in sorting things out, and readable.
Markin comment:
After the struggle inside the Russian Communist Party in the mid-1920s around internal party democracy and the economics of the transition period the Leon Trotsky-led Left Opposition (and later the International Left Opposition) concentrated on Communist International policies. And chief among them was the contour and fate of the Second Chinese Revolution of 1925-27. While Leon Trotsky was not around to write about the successful revolution of 1949 he did write many polemics on that second revolution and how, in the end, it like in Russian would have to follow the path that he outlined in his Theory Of Permanent Revolution in order to be successful. In the event, although successful, it never developed those soviet forms that would have eased the transition to socialism. This material is still very helpful in sorting things out, and readable.
February Is Black History Month-From The Pages Of The Socialist Alternative Press-The Life And Legacy Of Malcolm X
Click on the headline to link to the Socialist Alternative (CWI) website.
The Life And Legacy Of Malcolm X
Introduction
"You're living at a time of revolution...people in power have misused it and now a better world has to be built."
— Malcolm X
On 21 February 1965 Malcolm X was shot dead minutes before he was about to address a rally in Harlem, New York. As with the firebombing of his home a week earlier, the finger was automatically pointed at the Nation of Islam with whom Malcolm had split the previous year.
Threatened by his radical ideas and appeal to young blacks, the FBI had Malcolm X under surveillance. Speculation continues that the capitalist state itself used its own agents to eliminate their number one public enemy.
Of what there is no doubt is that after the murder the American state drew a huge sigh of relief. One of the most vocal, uncompromising opponents of their system had apparently been silenced. However history continues to show that revolutionary ideas can never be silenced.
The assassination of Malcolm X spawned the Black Panther Party. In Seize The Time, the story of the Black Panthers, Co-founder Bobby Seale tells us the tremendous effect the killing of Malcolm X had on him: "I got mad, I put my fist through a window. I told them all, I'll make my own self into a Malcolm X, and if they want to kill me they'll have to kill me...That a big change for me...Malcolm X had an impact on everybody like that". The next year the Black Panther Party was formed. They represent the highest point in the civil rights movement that engulfed the US for over two decades. They took Malcolm's message of self-defense for blacks and translated it into action. During the 1970s they became a focal point for young blacks wanting to fight back against the racist police and state in America. They inspired youth and blacks internationally with their preparedness to fight racism and police brutality. They too posed a threat to the American state. At one stage300 of their leaders were imprisoned on various trumped up charges. Many more were gunned down by police.
For many youth today - black and white - the life and ideas of Malcolm X a great inspiration. The X icon we see depicted on T-shirts, baseball caps etc. represents a lot more than merely a fashion accessory. It shows a layer of people groping for the ideas and strategy to take them forward. There're few if any obvious leaders that young people today identify with. Internationally the leaders of the labor movement certainly have no attraction. Their "do nothing" policy does nothing but frustrate radical youth looking for away out of the conditions they are condemned to live in.
In the 1990s little has changed. The situation certainly hasn't improved for most blacks in the US or Britain. Every social statistic from education to housing to employment finds blacks at the bottom of the heap. The rise of racism and fascism across Europe has resulted in blacks being brutalized and murdered. The public lynchings that were commonplace for decades in the US have not gone away, they have merely been replaced with less visible racist attacks and murders. In New York alone there were 1,110 "hate crimes" committed against blacks and Jews in 1992. There are over 300 white supremacy groups active in the United States. Against this background Malcolm's message of fighting back "by any means necessary" is as relevant as ever.
Big business has jumped on the bandwagon of a man who wholeheartedly denounced their system. They attempt to sanitize his message and make a profit out of doing so! A mass industry has developed that expects to net over £63million in 1993 from the sale of X merchandise, including board games, crisps and air fresheners!
Eighty four percent of young black Americans consider Malcolm X their hero. However it is claimed that only one in four of those aged under 24 know what he actually stood for. Almost every black leader in America now attempts to claim the mantle of Malcolm - even those reformist leaders embroiled in the Democrat Party that Malcolm consistently condemned. Louis Farrakhan, current leader of the Nation of Islam, while quick to sing the praises of Malcolm X today, joined in denouncing him at the time of Malcolm's split with the Nation. He wrote in the Nation's main publication: "such a man as this is worthy of death."
There is much debate over which direction Malcolm's ideas were going in the last year of his life. Militant believes that his experiences and international outlook was leading him to understand that the system had to be overthrown. There is no doubt however that he was an internationalist and a revolutionary, who clearly perceived the rottenness of world capitalism.
Militant have produced this pamphlet to trace the life and ideas of Malcolm X and the civil rights movement and most importantly to explain their relevance today. His courageous stand must not be forgotten and his ideas must be built on. In the 1990s we must draw the same conclusions that Malcolm X and hundreds of other heroic blacks drew in the course of their struggle. Only a revolutionary fight to change society will truly lead to black liberation. But Militant goes further. We fight for a socialist society based on the needs of working-class people, black and white. We believe that only a society run democratically by ordinary people will end once and for all the racism and exploitation that is part and parcel of this capitalist system.
Andrea Enisuoh, 1993
The Early Years
"They called me the angriest Negro in America."
— Malcolm X
Malcolm Little was born in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. Malcolm was still very young when after threats from the Ku Klux Klan his family was forced to move to Omaha. He was only six years old when his father was savagely murdered by a local white supremacy group. The same group had earlier torched his family's home.
At school he proved a promising pupil with the talents and enthusiasm that exist in all young people. Unfortunately, as with numerous other young blacks even today, the system was unable or unwilling to develop those talents and aspirations. Instead they were to be crushed. He was told by his teacher that his dream to become a lawyer was "unrealistic for a Nigger."
After school Malcolm turned to a life of petty crime. He spent some time in state detention centers. In 1945 he was sentenced to 8-10 years in prison for burglary. There is little doubt that the severity of his sentence was provoked by the outrage of the jury after they were told that Malcolm had been assisted by his white mistress.
For the first 20 years of his life Malcolm experienced nothing but racism. It was those experiences that alienated him, firstly from whites, but also from the whole American system. It was later that he began to realize that the "American system" that failed to offer him any hope of a decent future was the capitalist system. Militant believes that the political consciousness of individuals is formed by their day-to-day experiences. It was Malcolm's own conditions and accumulated experiences that eventually led him to the correct conclusion: "You can't have capitalism without racism."
During his first year in prison Malcolm expressed his frustration and despair in the only way he knew. He deliberately alienated himself, not only from prison guards but also other inmates.
Eventually he used his time to educate himself. He began classes in English and Latin and read so voraciously, even after lights out, that he permanently impaired his vision.
It was in prison that Malcolm eventually converted to the Nation of Islam, a Black Muslim organization espousing separatism as the way forward for the black race. It was this radical religion, described to him as "the natural religion for the black man" that seemed to offer him a way out. Malcolm grasped it with his heart and soul.
The Nation of Islam (Black Muslims)
"Any time I have a religion that won't let me fight for my people, I say to hell with that religion. That's why I am a Muslim."
— Malcolm X
The Nation of Islam was founded in 1931 by Wallace D Fard. He presented himself as a Muslim prophet and preached a message of "black redemption within Islam". He claimed "the Asiatic Black Man" had been the original inhabitant of the earth. The white race had been given 6,000 years to rule and eventually whites and white Christianity would be destroyed. Elijah Muhammad, who became leader of the Nation after Fard disappeared, developed this. He claimed originally that the black race had inhabited the moon and that at one time the moon and earth were one. A black scientist, Yakub, supposedly caused an explosion that separated the two. The first people to inhabit the earth were members of a black tribe called Shabazz. While these theories seem, they are no more so than the Christian theory of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. However, white Christianity in all its permutations has been developed over centuries. It has been used to justify slavery, racism and imperialism. It is a religion that the ruling class needed and continue to uphold.
The attraction of the Nation of Islam to blacks was its apparent ability to voice the anger and discontent that existed in every black community. In terms of rhetoric they were amongst the strongest advocates of black pride but their separatist outlook and refusal to actively engage in the civil rights struggle left them spectating from the sidelines of the movement. They produced proud books on black history. Discarding their surnames as marks of their slave past, they replaced them with the suffix "X". Converts had to follow a strict code of discipline - no pork, tobacco, alcohol, drugs or extra marital sex. Engagement in political activity with non-Muslims was not permitted. Until their demand for a separate state was met Muslims were to have no social, political or religious contact with whites. They demanded self-determination; an independent black state in America or a return to Africa.
As Marxists, Militant would argue that this policy is fundamentally flawed. We believe that the sustained division of the working class along racial lines will greatly weaken the potential of the struggle against capitalism. It can also aid the policy of the ruling class to keep divisions running through the class. It was to keep black and white workers divided that the ruling class created and nurtured organizations like the Ku Klux Klan.
While holding this position we do not arrogantly condemn blacks attracted to nationalist ideas. We would support the right to self-determination for any nation, but we also have a duty to point out that under the capitalist system this is unrealistic. We need only look to Zionism - the establishment of Israel on a capitalist basis - to illustrate the point Israel is no safe haven for Jews. It is an armed camp for US imperialism. The creation of a separate black state in America would pose even more difficulties. By the l960s, blacks did not make up the majority in any one state. Two in three blacks lived in the cities so for a black nation to be created, tens of millions of blacks and whites would have to be forcibly uprooted.
Black nationalism is not black racism. Of course, taken to ludicrous extremes, it can be thoroughly reactionary. Louis Farrakhan today uses Black Nationalism to try to justify black capitalism. Malcolm X as a leader of the Nation of Islam met with the Ku Klux Klan to discuss ways of ensuring separatism. However many ordinary blacks who conclude that there is no road out of this capitalist system turn to the ideas of separatism. The job of Marxists is not to dismiss blacks drawn to these conclusions but to show that struggle for a socialist revolution is the only true road to black liberation.
From having just a few hundred supporters initially, by the early 1960s the Black Muslims had 100,000 members. The liberation struggles sweeping Africa and Asia at the time undoubtedly affected blacks in the US. Racial pride was stimulated amongst the whole of the black population. It was on the tide of this new wave of confidence that the Nation of Islam was able to grow. Malcolm X was one of their foremost ministers; his oratory skills attracted a new section of youth towards the religion. Even the media and press hyped up the Black Muslims. A section of the ruling class recognized that they would eventually be forced to make concessions to the black masses of America. They deliberately portrayed the Nation as the nasty vicious side of the black movement, thus bolstering the respectable non-violent mainstream of Martin Luther King.
It was a conscious strategy of the Nation of Islam to target prisons as a recruitment ground. This can be traced back to 1942 when Elijah Muhammad and 62 of his followers were convicted of draft evasion (their religion does no tallow them to serve in the armed forces) and jailed for three years. While in prison Muhammad recognized the fertile ground that existed for any radical ideas amongst what was known as the black underclass. After the war much time and energy was devoted specifically to winning over prisoners.
But to many, the Black Muslims were rife with contradictions. It wasn't enough for them to simply attack white society and preach black unity. In the early 1960s demonstrations, sit-ins and marches swept almost every state. At a time when militant blacks were involved in mass action the Nation were seen to be doing nothing. They would attack the strategy of the mainstream civil rights movement and yet offer no alternative struggle outside the confines of their own organization.
Malcolm X became a popular leader of the Nation. He threw himself into his work and into the black community. He was catapulted to fame in the press. Much more able than Elijah Muhammad to gauge the killings of young blacks, he became frustrated by the restraints of the organization. When he eventually split with them in 1964 he said: "If I harbored any personal disappointment whatsoever, it was that privately I was convinced that our Nation of Islam could be an even greater force in the black man's overall struggle if we engaged in more action. It could be heard increasingly in the Negro communities 'Those Muslims talk tough, but they never do anything.'" Although the eventual split was put down to "internal differences" there is no doubt that his desire to politically organize blacks in action was unimportant factor. At his first press conference after the split he still defended the Nation, Elijah Muhammad and their 'back to Africa' policy. But he did say: "separation back to Africa is a long term program and while it is yet to materialize 22 million of our people who are still here in America need better food, clothing, housing and jobs right now...Now that I have more independence of action, I intend to use a more flexible approach toward working with others to get a solution to this problem."
The Civil Rights Movement
"The black revolution is much more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is interrelated...racism, poverty, militarism and imperialism. Evils that are deeply rooted in the whole structure of our society."
— Martin Luther King
"If George Washington didn't get independence for this country non-violently...and you taught me to look upon heroes, then it's time for you to realize - I have studied your books well."
— Malcolm X
The tremendous Civil Rights movement of the 1950s, 60s and early 70s shook America to its very foundations. It was a movement that in one or another touched every black family in the US. Internationally throughout Africa, the Caribbean and even Europe blacks were imbued with a new confidence. It seemed on every continent a liberation struggle was taking place. America the 'land of the free' was no exception.
Jim Crow (Racial Segregation)
This was a struggle that had to be fought Blacks in America did not just face poverty, but a degrading, racist social system commonly known as Jim Crow (racial segregation). In the South rights to vote, organize, even to assemble were taken away from blacks. Segregated schools, transport, public toilets etc. condemned blacks to the worst conditions.
Jim Crow was not simply some nasty piece of legislation that evolved over the. It was a carefully worked out, carefully executed, social system devised by the ruling class. At times of economic crisis the ruling class often use racism to divide working people. It is also used to drive down wages and working conditions thus providing pools of cheap labor. Before World War Two in the South there were vast amounts of land and yet an enormous shortage of labor. Taking away the rights of blacks enabled the bosses to force them to work for pitifully low wages. After World War Two the mechanization of agriculture solved the bosses problem and blacks were literally driven off the land. There now existed, after the war, a labor shortage in the factories of the North. Migration of huge numbers of blacks to the North began. This continued through the 1950s and 1960s and created the black ghettos we see there today.
During World War Two over 3 million blacks registered for the army. Over 500,000 fought and many died "to defend democracy" in racially segregated units. Those that returned did so in the knowledge that things would never be the same again. Blacks came back wanting, expecting and prepared to fight for change.
1954 Supreme Court Ruling
There had often been struggles through the courts by blacks to end segregation, but before 1954 they had little effect. Now the ruling class realized there had to be change. Throughout Africa and Asia there were huge movements for independence, against military and economic domination by Imperialism. Colonial rule in its previous form was coming to an end. Imperialist America found itself having to negotiate with new, confident black governments. To uphold their position of influence the US had to try to convince these governments that they were the friends of blacks. They therefore looked to produce cosmetic changes at home.
This was the reason for the 1954 Supreme Court Ruling that deemed segregation in schools illegal. But rather than satisfy blacks in the US it led to them demanding more. Blacks demanded the right to vote and boldly went to register.
Lynchings
There was always strong resistance to the dismantling of Jim Crow. The Southern Democratic Party, made up of white small property owners was based on this racist system. While industrialization benefited big capitalist firms, the small property owners still needed to exploit blacks to make their profits.
To sustain the Jim Crow system lynchings and murders became commonplace. Blacks who registered to vote were assassinated and any blacks that fought for their rights in any way were met with a reign of terror.
Lynchings became an integral part of the Jim Crow system. Far from being an aberration they became an American institution. Many people traveled for miles see the lynching of a black take place, with discounts introduced on the railroads for those traveling to a lynching. Rallies with Democratic Party speakers were held before some lynchings took place and photographs of the events were even taken and sold as souvenirs.
In 1955 things began to change. Emmett Till, a 14 year old black boy from Chicago was visiting family in Mississippi. Coming from the North he was seen by Southern whites to have ideas above his station. The final straw came when he sweet-talked' a white woman. For this "crime" he was beaten, shot through the head and his body mutilated. Yet this was not allowed to become just another lynching. His mother had his body shipped back to Chicago and demanded an open casket funeral so the whole world could see what America had done to her son. Over 250 000 people came to view the body. Jet magazine carried a picture of Emmett's mutilated body that sent shockwaves through every black community. Meetings were called in every black ghetto. Demands for troops to be sent to Mississippi to protect blacks spread, not only through the North, but also through the South. Till's mother demanded a meeting with President Eisenhower but this was refused. Instead the FBI was sent to investigate who was organizing the protests. A mock trial with an all white jury let the lynchers off scott free. Everywhere demands for action for demonstrations could be heard. The tide had begun to turn.
Against this background the mass movement began to evolve. In Montgomery, Alabama, action began. In December 1955 Rosa Parks, an activist in the National Association for the Advancement of Black people (NAACP), made her stand.
The bus system in Montgomery was totally segregated, with priority given to whites for the best seats. While 70% of the passengers were black they had to board at the backs of the buses. If all the white seats were taken then whites could demand that blacks gave up their seats. When a white demanded Rosa Parks' seat she refused saying, she was tired from work and tired of giving in. For this she was arrested and fined $ 10. She along with E D Nixon, a black trade union organizer, decided it was time to fight back. They used her case to organize one-day boycott of the buses.
Through the churches, which were the backbone of the black community the campaign was organized. Ministers who were the traditionally accepted leaders of the black community were approached to lead the campaign. One of those that accepted was a new minister in town, Martin Luther King. He went on to become the most famous leader of the Civil Rights movement.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The whole black community in the area rallied behind the boycott. As the boycott spiraled from one day to almost a year, its demands got bolder. While initially the campaign simply demanded sensitive treatment for blacks on buses, they soon realized they had to go the whole way and they demanded the end of segregation on buses.
Even with support from the whole community it was a long, hard struggle. A complex system of private cars had to be used to transport blacks. Martin Luther King put out a call for 100 station wagons to come to Montgomery to be used as free shuttle services. Some sympathetic whites even gave lifts to blacks. Even so many were forced to walk miles every day to get to work. But the resolve hardened each day. When asked by a reporter why she was walking, one middle aged black woman replied, "For me, my children and my grand children."
The resolve of racist whites also hardened. The white Citizens council developed as the main organization against the boycott and grew massively during this period. Violence spiraled and during the campaign at least eight bombings took place. The Ku Klux Klan held highly visible, intimidatory rallies. Nevertheless six months into the boycott another began in Florida, forcing the bus company there out of business. Eleven months on the battle was won. Enormous pressure forced the desegregation of Montgomery buses and a small taste of what mass action could achieve left the black community hungry for much more.
After the Montgomery boycott Martin Luther King became greatly respected for his leadership qualities. However Malcolm X was quick to condemn his ideas of pacifism and non-violence as ideas that disarmed the black community. "You don't have to criticize Reverend King, his actions criticize him. Any Negro who teaches other Negroes to turn the other cheek is disarming that Negro."
Segregation in Schools
The late 1950s saw the famous Brown vs. Brown case that ruled against segregation in schools. But it would take a lot more than paper legislation to have any effective change.
In Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957, came the first major confrontation to desegregate schools. Nine black teenagers were set to attend a school in Little Rock and the state Governor Orval Faubus, a Democrat, had initially been elected with the backing of groups like the NAACP and the trade union movement. But, once in office he soon shed his liberal image. Playing on the discontent that existed amongst whites to integration, he became a hardened segregationist. Refusing to enforce any law to integrate schools. Racist mobs rallied to physically stop the black teenagers getting to the school. Pressure forced President Eisenhower to act. He sent Federal troops to ensure passage for the blacks students. The fact that the state had been forced to intervene represented another victory for the black movement and greatly demoralized the racists.
Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides
Until the early 1960s the struggles of blacks against segregation had mainly consisted of local action. 1960 changed that and the movement rapidly spread from state to state with young people playing a key role.
It began with the sit-in movement. A new generation inspired by the movements already taking place in the US and internationally, decided they too should get involved. They would enter lunch bars and demand to be served and when they were refused they would literally sit-in! The invasion of the bar meant that its owners lost money. Eventually the police would be called and the youth, predominantly students, would be arrested. Many were beaten. Every time a group was arrested another group would come to take their place. Thousands were arrested and many were expelled from school but the sit-ins continued.
Then came the Freedom Rides where black and white students would board buses and travel through the Southern states. These actions were taken to force the integration of buses that had already been passed in law. Many of the freedom riders were beaten and brutalized by racist mobs. But still the Freedom Rides continued.
It became clear to the youth that they needed their own organization to discuss the strategies and actions they needed to take. They were invited by Martin Luther King to form the youth wing of his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization that although had a strong pacifist thread, supported direct acts of disobedience. But this offer was rejected and instead the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed. While still defending the tactic of non- violence, this was for them a tactic not a principle.
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King evolved as the most important leader of the Civil Rights Movement. His principles of pacifism were the dominant feature of the movement for a long period. But once youth entered the scene of battle it was much harder for him to hold this line. Faced with beatings, lynching and petrol bombings, the idea of non-violence somehow did not ring true. Figures like Malcolm X with his message of militant action, became a much more attractive focus for young blacks. Malcolm totally rejected the idea of turning the other cheek and he advocated black people defending themselves "...by any means necessary. If someone puts a hand on you, send him to the cemetery."
While King believed that mass peaceful protests would convince the government to implement reforms Malcolm X soon became one of the most vocal opponents of King's strategy for the movement After the famous 250,000 strong 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his well remembered "I have a Dream," speech, Malcolm X was later to comment "While they're dreaming, our people are living a nightmare." Malcolm was not alone in criticizing aspects of King's leadership. He was effectively voicing the thoughts of many younger activists. Anne Mood who was at the Washington demonstration recalled: "I sat on the grass and listened to the speakers to discover we had dreamers instead of a leader leading us. Martin Luther King went on and on talking about his dream. I sat there thinking that in Canton, Mississippi, we never had time to sleep much less to dream."
After King was presented with the Nobel peace Prize Malcolm again used the opportunity to highlight their different approaches. "He got the Peace Prize, we got the problem. I don't want the white man giving me medals. If I'm following a general and he's leading me into battle, and the enemy tends to give him rewards or awards. I get suspicious of him, especially if he gets a peace award before the war is over."
However even Martin Luther King was to talk of revolution towards the end of his life. In 1967 he commented "For the last 2 years we have been a reform movement...But after Selma and the Voting rights Bill (1965) we moved into a new era which must be an era of revolution. What good does it do a man to have integrated lunch counters if he can't buy a hamburger?" This was too much for the ruling class. King started supporting marches of striking workers and was gunned down as he prepared to march with refuse workers in Memphis.
The Last Year
"We are seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter."
— Malcolm X
Behind the Split
Malcolm's eventual split with the Nation of Islam was finally provoked by the death of John F Kennedy. Unlike the leaders of the mainstream movement Malcolm had never sown illusions in Kennedy or the big business Democrat Party. Kennedy had come to government on the back of the Civil Rights movement. In 1960 when he closely beat Richard Nixon he had received 68% of the black vote. But like US President Clinton today, he soon ditched many of his election promises. For this Malcolm rightly denounced him: "Kennedy ran on a platform as a white liberal three years ago and said all he had to do was take out his fountain pen put his name on some paper and our problem could be solved. He was three years in office before he found where his fountain pen was...and the problem isn't solved yet". It was therefore true to form for Malcolm to refuse to be silent after Kennedy's death. Elijah Muhammad ordered his members not to publicly comment on the issue. Yet when quizzed by the press Malcolm said simply "The chickens have come home to roost. Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad." An outraged Muhammad suspended Malcolm for ninety days. During that period Malcolm was not to speak publicly on behalf of the Nation. After the 90 days the suspension was not lifted, it had in reality become an expulsion. This was not a real surprise to Malcolm and reflected the growing differences between Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad. On March 8 1964 Malcolm formally announced that he was leaving the Nation of Islam to build a new organization.
It was clear that Malcolm and Muhammad had begun to differ on the question of how to struggle long before the split. In 1962 the Los Angeles Police, in a highly provocative attack, gunned down seven black Muslims. Sixteen were arrested and charged with "criminal assault against the police."
Malcolm was shipped to LA to deal with the case. He automatically recognized the huge potential that existed to unite Muslims and non-Muslims in a campaign against police brutality. Mass meetings were organized immediately. Media coverage raised the awareness of the campaign. Material was produced that aimed to cross religious divides leaflets pointed out that "It was a Muslim mosque this time; next it will be the Protestant church, the Catholic cathedral, the Jewish synagogue." But Malcolm's plans to launch a massive nation-wide campaign were eventually vetoed by the leadership. It was quickly becoming clear that Malcolm represented the militant tendency within the organization. Elijah Muhammad's conservative tendencies were holding things back. In a statement after the split Malcolm made it clear where he now stood. Talking about the new organization he was to launch he said: "It's going to be different now, I'm going to join in the fight wherever Negroes ask for my help and I suspect my activities will be on a greater and more intensive scale than in the past."
Malcolm did not want to be left on the sidelines of the great revolutionary struggle that was sweeping America. But the Black Muslims abstentionist message of "boycott the civil rights struggle, have nothing to do with the white man and his society" made it inevitable that unless he broke with them he would be left on the sidelines. The break came at the height of the civil rights movement, when Malcolm X realized he had to take part in the struggle.
A week before his assassination Malcolm X publicly revealed that the leaders of the Black Muslims had been colluding with the Ku Klux Klan and Rockwell, the leader of the US Nazi Party. They had looked to giving Elijah Muhammed financial aid. In return he was to continue churning out the separatist message and at the same time keep the heat off racist organizations. This graphically shows how Black Nationalism could play into the hands of the racists. In the course of struggle Malcolm X was forced to question whether Black Nationalism was the correct philosophy. He did not break with the idea of blacks organizing separately but he recognized using the term Black Nationalist was setting him apart from "true revolutionaries dedicated to overturning the system of exploitation that exists on this earth." he said, "Can we sum up the solution to the problems confronting our people as Black Nationalism? If you notice, I haven't been using that expression for several months now."
Muslim Mosque Inc.
Malcolm's new organization, the Muslim Mosque Inc. aimed to organize in action both Muslims and non-Muslims. While he was still a committed black nationalist, his aim being the return of Blacks to Africa, he saw this as a long way off. He wanted the Muslim Mosque Inc., working alongside other civil rights groups to spearhead a campaign for decent housing, education, jobs etc. He correctly saw the crucial importance that youth would play in any radical organization saying "Our accent will be on the youth. We need new ideas, new methods, new approaches. We are completely disenchanted with the old, adult established politicians. We want some new, more militant faces."
He also began to develop his ideas on self-defense for black communities. "Concerning nonviolence: It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of racial attacks." He called for blacks to take up their legal right to own a shotgun or rifle. Where the state refused to intervene in communities under attack he said those communities should form rifle clubs. "We should be peaceful, law abiding - but the time has come for the American Negro to fight back in self-defense whenever and wherever he is being unjustly or unlawfully attacked. If the Government thinks I am wrong for saying this then let the government start doing it's job."
However from it's inception the Muslim Mosque Inc received little funding or support from established civil rights groups. The SNCC refused to enter into any sort of working alliance. The media also refused to portray the new direction that Malcolm was moving in. In his own words he was "caught in a trap". He wanted to build an all-black organization "whose ultimate objective was to help create a society in which there could exist honest white-black brotherhood." Perhaps the leaders of the Civil Rights movement recognized just what a threat Malcolm's new leftward direction posed. He was now more than just an angry black man. He was beginning to work out tactics and strategies that would mobilize blacks into action. Now more than ever he posed a threat to the leadership of the civil rights movement He was evolving into a revolutionary and challenging not just racism, but the whole of the capitalist system.
Malcolm spent just 50 weeks apart from the Nation of Islam before he was assassinated. But even in that brief time his political thinking changed dramatically. He spent over half this time abroad touring Africa and the Middle East. This was biggest factor to change his way of thinking. "They say travel broadens your scope," he said "and recently I've had the opportunity to do a lot of it. While I was traveling I noticed that most of the countries that have recently emerged into independence have turned away from the so-called capitalistic system in the direction of socialism." "Most of the countries that were colonial powers were capitalist countries...You can't have capitalism without racism."
Initially he still rejected the idea of black and white workers uniting against oppression. "They'll never do it with working-class whites. The history is that working-class whites have been just as much against not only working Negroes but all Negroes period. I think one of the mistakes Negroes make is this worker solidarity thing. There's no such thing -it didn't even work in Russia." But history tells another story. Blacks, in struggles against racial oppression, have always looked to unite with other oppressed groups. During the great slave revolts of the past, black slaves formed strong alliances with Native American Indians. During the Civil War, alliances were formed with northern trade unionists and in 1880, black and white small farmers came together to form the Populist movement to defend their common interests.
Again after visits abroad Malcolm's position on this began to change. "In my recent travels into the African countries and others, it was impressed upon me the importance of having a working unity among all peoples, black as well as white. But the only way that this is going to be brought about is that the black ones have to be in unity first." He went on to say: "We will work with anyone, with any group, no matter what their color is, as long as they are genuinely interested in taking the type of steps necessary to bring an end to the injustices that black people in this country are inflicted by."
Even on the issue black nationalism, Malcolm's thoughts began to change. "I used to define Black Nationalism as the idea that the black man should control the economy of his community, the politics of the community and so forth. But when I was in Africa in May, in Ghana, I was speaking with the Algerian ambassador who is extremely militant and is a revolutionary in the truest sense of the word...When I told him my political, social and economic philosophy was black nationalism, he asked me where did that leave him? Because he was white. He was an African but he was Algerian and to all appearances, a white man. And I said I define my objective as the victory of Black Nationalism - where did that leave him? Where does that leave revolutionaries in Morocco, Egypt, Iraq and Mauritania? So he showed me where I was alienating people who were true revolutionaries, dedicated to overthrowing the system of exploitation that exists on this earth by any means necessary. So I had to do a lot of thinking and reappraising of my definition of Black Nationalism. Can we sum up the solution to the problems confronting our people as Black Nationalism? And if you noticed I haven't been using the expression for several months. But I would still be hard pressed to give a specific definition of the overall philosophy which I think is necessary for the liberation of black people in this country."
Organization of Afro American Unity (OAAU)
In June 1964 Malcolm announced the formation of the Organization of Afro American Unity. Self Defense of Afro Americans was an important feature in the program of this organization.
A voter registration drive was launched in the black community to make "every unregistered voter an independent voter." This in no way detracted from his position that the two capitalist parties of America: The Republican Party and the Democrat Party should in no way be supported by black people.
The OAAU launched a petition to be presented to the United Nations Human Right Commission, calling for the prosecution of the US government for their crimes against Afro Americans. While this may have been an effective propaganda campaign, that was all it could ever be. The United Nations has never and will never be an international upholder of justice. Rather it plays the role of a cover for US interests. We need only look at its role today in the Gulf war with the UN's refusal to lift a finger against Israel despite that government's treatment of Palestinians. Its role has never been to protect the rights of small countries or oppressed minorities.
If anyone was clear what a threat to the system he posed then Malcolm himself knew. He experienced weekly diatribes against him in the Nation of Islam newspaper, the firebombing of his home, FBI surveillance. He himself said, "Anything I do today, I regard as urgent. No man is given but so much to accomplish whatever his life's work...l am only facing facts when I know that any moment of any day, or any night, could bring me death." Malcolm X was assassinated before he was able to effectively translate his new ideas into action. He was buried at the age of 40 but as the next chapter shows, his ideas lived on.
The Black Panther Party
"Working class people of all colors must unite against the exploitative, oppressive ruling class. Let me emphasize again - we believe our fight is a class struggle not a race struggle."
— Bobby Seale, co-founder Black Panther Party
The death of Malcolm X spawned a new, determined layer of black youth. Having tried and tested the strategy of peaceful, non-violence they had found it wanting. They were now prepared for a different kind of action.
The Black Panther Party formed in 1966, drew much inspiration from the ideas of Malcolm X. They rejected pacifism and reformism in favor of militant action and self-defense against racists. They were the logical development of the struggle onto a higher level.
From their formation in Oakland, California, support grew rapidly for the Black Panthers. Their uncompromising Ten-point program called for full employment, decent housing and education for blacks. They demanded that blacks should be exempted from military service because they did not want to defend the American racist government. Most popular of all was their demand for an end to police brutality. Many young blacks, sick of daily harassment from the police were attracted to the Panthers, not only their program but their ability to organize a fight on these issues. Yet the Black Panthers went further, they recognized that to effectively change things they had to fight for an end to capitalism and for the establishment of a socialist society.
They are most famous for exercising their legal right to carry guns. This they used to patrol their communities and monitor the actions of the police.
They also established free food, clothing and Medicare programs for the poor. Much of this was financed by money they demanded off local business. They campaigned for democratic control of the police, for blacks to register as voters and called for a 30-hour week, without loss of pay to create more jobs from the unemployed.
All over America Panther chapters were formed. Panthers drafted into the army during the Vietnam War formed groups there. Panther caucuses were also set up within trade unions.
The state was terrified of the potential for the Panthers to gain mass support. White youth were in rebellion against the Vietnam War. Forty five percent of blacks fighting in Vietnam said they would be prepared to take up arms to secure justice at home.
The government replied to the movement, on the one hand, with concessions to the mass of blacks but they also meted out vicious repression to the most militant black leaders. At one stage, out of a leadership of 1000 three hundred of these were awaiting trial. Thirty-nine Panthers were gunned down in the street by the police.
Prisons became a fertile place where Panther members would recruit and educate other blacks. George Jackson, a young black, was won to the Panthers in this way. When he was eighteen he was convicted of robbery. After poor legal advice he had pleaded guilty expecting a sentence of one year or less. He was sentenced to one year to life imprisonment. Technically the parole board should determine when a prisoner on this sentence could be released. Racist violence was commonplace in the prisons. Any black that fought back would lose their parole. This happened to Jackson year after year.
As revolutionary socialists the leaders of the Black Panthers looked to other revolutionary leaders for guidance. They looked to Mao-Tse-Tung in China and Fidel Castro in Cuba. Although both had successfully carried through revolutions the vital missing ingredient in both cases was a working class leadership and workers democracy. The main mistake of the Panthers was not to clearly recognize the crucial role of the organized working class, both black and white in the struggle for socialism. The Panthers needed to organize black workers and appeal to white workers to form a united struggle to change society. Genuine Marxism would have advised the Panthers to win over the workers not by them robbing the rich to feed and defend the poor but by agitating for working people to take action to defend and feed themselves - by strikes and mass protests which would have given them the confidence of their own strength. This would prepare the movement for the greater confrontations with the ruling class that would inevitably be necessary to change society. In Revolutionary Suicide, Huey Newton, one of the founders of the Party said, "we were looked upon as an ad-hoc military group, acting outside the community fabric and too radical to be part of it. We saw ourselves as the revolutionary vanguard and did not fully understand that only the people can create the revolution. And hence the people did not follow our lead in picking up the gun."
We believe nevertheless that the Black Panthers represented a great step forward in the movement against racial oppression.
Some try to claim that the Panthers stood for black separatism. This is totally incorrect In Seize the Time, Bobby Seale, the other founder of the Black Panthers stressed, "We do not fight racism with racism. We fight racism with solidarity. We do not fight exploitative capitalism with black capitalism. We fight capitalism with basic socialism. We fight imperialism with proletarian internationalism."
They recognized that the working class could not afford to let racial or national prejudices divide them. Speaking about black separatists within the movement Bobby Seale said: "Those who want to obscure the struggle with ethnic differences are the ones who are aiding and maintaining the exploitation of the masses. We need unity to defeat the boss class - every strike shows that. All of us are laboring class people...in our view it is a class struggle between the massive proletarian working class and the small minority ruling class. Working class people of all colors must unite against the exploitative ruling class."
There is no doubt that the potential of the Panthers organizing terrified the American state. J Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, declared them the number one threat to the internal security of the US. The state tried to stamp them out in any way they could. Yet even now the message of the Black panthers can be heard. Internationally from the Middle East to the Caribbean to Britain; groups carrying their name have been formed. From Malcolm X to the Black Panthers to the present day the ideas of struggle and of socialist revolution live on.
Conclusion - Change the System
"The system cannot produce freedom for the Afro American. It is impossible for this system, this economic system, this political system, this social system, this system period. "
— Malcolm X
Governments, press and media would have us believe that much has improved for blacks since the days of the civil rights movement. Yet the illusion they try to create flies in the face of reality. Yes there maybe more black MPs, mayors and businessmen, but facts show that for the vast majority of black people nothing has fundamentally changed.
America
The scenes of wealth and happiness we see portrayed on television in The Cosby are a world apart from the average black family in the United States. Of the urban underclass in America 59% are black. The average white household is 32 times more wealthy than the average black household. One in three of the black population lives below the poverty line.
Britain
In Britain the unemployment rate amongst blacks is twice that of whites. While making up just 4.4% of the population blacks make up over 20% of the prisoners on remand.
These figures show that the few black "high flyers" have become totally removed from the reality of life for black people.
After the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, violent protests swept over 100 cities in America, 146 people were killed in riots that shook the government In response to the racial upheavals of the time the Kerner Commission was set up by President Johnson to investigate the causes. It drew the conclusion: "Our nation is moving towards two separate societies, one black, one white - separate and unequal," (with the likelihood of more and more blacks) "extending support to extremists who advocate civil disruption." The ruling class realized that unless reforms were carried out, revolutionary upheavals would develop. The Commission concluded that it would be unrealistic to try to abolish the ghettos i.e. poverty. Instead it recommended a strategy to take "substantial numbers of Negroes into the society outside the ghettos." Black tokenism followed and a practice that in essence amounted to a policy of liberation one at a time. For some this was of benefit. The number of black businesses rose 50% in the six years after 1970. But for most blacks things stayed the same. America, the richest, most powerful country in the world was unable to solve the problems facing ordinary African Americans.
After the upheavals of the early 1980s in Britain - Moss Side, Toxteth, London, Bristol - the ruling class tried a similar strategy here. To take the heat out of the struggle black leaders were drawn into the Government sponsored Race Relations Industry. Thousands of documents were written about meaningless equal opportunity programs and a small minority of blacks has well paid jobs within this industry. Many in effect have turned their back on the struggle. But for most blacks nothing has changed.
This system, capitalism, has miserably failed as far as black people are concerned. Also for white workers and youth this system has nothing to offer. Every major black struggle against racial oppression has been forced to draw the conclusion that unity against class oppression is imperative.
The anti-slavery movements, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton all traveled down the road of believing black liberation could be achieved under capitalism. They were however forced to conclude the need for revolution and class unity.
Militant calls on all people, black-and white who want to fight racism to join us. But our battle will not stop at challenging the evils of racism. This entire system has to be changed. We fight for a socialist society that would eradicate racism, oppression and exploitation once and for all. Join with the Militant in the campaign for socialism internationally.
The Life And Legacy Of Malcolm X
Introduction
"You're living at a time of revolution...people in power have misused it and now a better world has to be built."
— Malcolm X
On 21 February 1965 Malcolm X was shot dead minutes before he was about to address a rally in Harlem, New York. As with the firebombing of his home a week earlier, the finger was automatically pointed at the Nation of Islam with whom Malcolm had split the previous year.
Threatened by his radical ideas and appeal to young blacks, the FBI had Malcolm X under surveillance. Speculation continues that the capitalist state itself used its own agents to eliminate their number one public enemy.
Of what there is no doubt is that after the murder the American state drew a huge sigh of relief. One of the most vocal, uncompromising opponents of their system had apparently been silenced. However history continues to show that revolutionary ideas can never be silenced.
The assassination of Malcolm X spawned the Black Panther Party. In Seize The Time, the story of the Black Panthers, Co-founder Bobby Seale tells us the tremendous effect the killing of Malcolm X had on him: "I got mad, I put my fist through a window. I told them all, I'll make my own self into a Malcolm X, and if they want to kill me they'll have to kill me...That a big change for me...Malcolm X had an impact on everybody like that". The next year the Black Panther Party was formed. They represent the highest point in the civil rights movement that engulfed the US for over two decades. They took Malcolm's message of self-defense for blacks and translated it into action. During the 1970s they became a focal point for young blacks wanting to fight back against the racist police and state in America. They inspired youth and blacks internationally with their preparedness to fight racism and police brutality. They too posed a threat to the American state. At one stage300 of their leaders were imprisoned on various trumped up charges. Many more were gunned down by police.
For many youth today - black and white - the life and ideas of Malcolm X a great inspiration. The X icon we see depicted on T-shirts, baseball caps etc. represents a lot more than merely a fashion accessory. It shows a layer of people groping for the ideas and strategy to take them forward. There're few if any obvious leaders that young people today identify with. Internationally the leaders of the labor movement certainly have no attraction. Their "do nothing" policy does nothing but frustrate radical youth looking for away out of the conditions they are condemned to live in.
In the 1990s little has changed. The situation certainly hasn't improved for most blacks in the US or Britain. Every social statistic from education to housing to employment finds blacks at the bottom of the heap. The rise of racism and fascism across Europe has resulted in blacks being brutalized and murdered. The public lynchings that were commonplace for decades in the US have not gone away, they have merely been replaced with less visible racist attacks and murders. In New York alone there were 1,110 "hate crimes" committed against blacks and Jews in 1992. There are over 300 white supremacy groups active in the United States. Against this background Malcolm's message of fighting back "by any means necessary" is as relevant as ever.
Big business has jumped on the bandwagon of a man who wholeheartedly denounced their system. They attempt to sanitize his message and make a profit out of doing so! A mass industry has developed that expects to net over £63million in 1993 from the sale of X merchandise, including board games, crisps and air fresheners!
Eighty four percent of young black Americans consider Malcolm X their hero. However it is claimed that only one in four of those aged under 24 know what he actually stood for. Almost every black leader in America now attempts to claim the mantle of Malcolm - even those reformist leaders embroiled in the Democrat Party that Malcolm consistently condemned. Louis Farrakhan, current leader of the Nation of Islam, while quick to sing the praises of Malcolm X today, joined in denouncing him at the time of Malcolm's split with the Nation. He wrote in the Nation's main publication: "such a man as this is worthy of death."
There is much debate over which direction Malcolm's ideas were going in the last year of his life. Militant believes that his experiences and international outlook was leading him to understand that the system had to be overthrown. There is no doubt however that he was an internationalist and a revolutionary, who clearly perceived the rottenness of world capitalism.
Militant have produced this pamphlet to trace the life and ideas of Malcolm X and the civil rights movement and most importantly to explain their relevance today. His courageous stand must not be forgotten and his ideas must be built on. In the 1990s we must draw the same conclusions that Malcolm X and hundreds of other heroic blacks drew in the course of their struggle. Only a revolutionary fight to change society will truly lead to black liberation. But Militant goes further. We fight for a socialist society based on the needs of working-class people, black and white. We believe that only a society run democratically by ordinary people will end once and for all the racism and exploitation that is part and parcel of this capitalist system.
Andrea Enisuoh, 1993
The Early Years
"They called me the angriest Negro in America."
— Malcolm X
Malcolm Little was born in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. Malcolm was still very young when after threats from the Ku Klux Klan his family was forced to move to Omaha. He was only six years old when his father was savagely murdered by a local white supremacy group. The same group had earlier torched his family's home.
At school he proved a promising pupil with the talents and enthusiasm that exist in all young people. Unfortunately, as with numerous other young blacks even today, the system was unable or unwilling to develop those talents and aspirations. Instead they were to be crushed. He was told by his teacher that his dream to become a lawyer was "unrealistic for a Nigger."
After school Malcolm turned to a life of petty crime. He spent some time in state detention centers. In 1945 he was sentenced to 8-10 years in prison for burglary. There is little doubt that the severity of his sentence was provoked by the outrage of the jury after they were told that Malcolm had been assisted by his white mistress.
For the first 20 years of his life Malcolm experienced nothing but racism. It was those experiences that alienated him, firstly from whites, but also from the whole American system. It was later that he began to realize that the "American system" that failed to offer him any hope of a decent future was the capitalist system. Militant believes that the political consciousness of individuals is formed by their day-to-day experiences. It was Malcolm's own conditions and accumulated experiences that eventually led him to the correct conclusion: "You can't have capitalism without racism."
During his first year in prison Malcolm expressed his frustration and despair in the only way he knew. He deliberately alienated himself, not only from prison guards but also other inmates.
Eventually he used his time to educate himself. He began classes in English and Latin and read so voraciously, even after lights out, that he permanently impaired his vision.
It was in prison that Malcolm eventually converted to the Nation of Islam, a Black Muslim organization espousing separatism as the way forward for the black race. It was this radical religion, described to him as "the natural religion for the black man" that seemed to offer him a way out. Malcolm grasped it with his heart and soul.
The Nation of Islam (Black Muslims)
"Any time I have a religion that won't let me fight for my people, I say to hell with that religion. That's why I am a Muslim."
— Malcolm X
The Nation of Islam was founded in 1931 by Wallace D Fard. He presented himself as a Muslim prophet and preached a message of "black redemption within Islam". He claimed "the Asiatic Black Man" had been the original inhabitant of the earth. The white race had been given 6,000 years to rule and eventually whites and white Christianity would be destroyed. Elijah Muhammad, who became leader of the Nation after Fard disappeared, developed this. He claimed originally that the black race had inhabited the moon and that at one time the moon and earth were one. A black scientist, Yakub, supposedly caused an explosion that separated the two. The first people to inhabit the earth were members of a black tribe called Shabazz. While these theories seem, they are no more so than the Christian theory of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. However, white Christianity in all its permutations has been developed over centuries. It has been used to justify slavery, racism and imperialism. It is a religion that the ruling class needed and continue to uphold.
The attraction of the Nation of Islam to blacks was its apparent ability to voice the anger and discontent that existed in every black community. In terms of rhetoric they were amongst the strongest advocates of black pride but their separatist outlook and refusal to actively engage in the civil rights struggle left them spectating from the sidelines of the movement. They produced proud books on black history. Discarding their surnames as marks of their slave past, they replaced them with the suffix "X". Converts had to follow a strict code of discipline - no pork, tobacco, alcohol, drugs or extra marital sex. Engagement in political activity with non-Muslims was not permitted. Until their demand for a separate state was met Muslims were to have no social, political or religious contact with whites. They demanded self-determination; an independent black state in America or a return to Africa.
As Marxists, Militant would argue that this policy is fundamentally flawed. We believe that the sustained division of the working class along racial lines will greatly weaken the potential of the struggle against capitalism. It can also aid the policy of the ruling class to keep divisions running through the class. It was to keep black and white workers divided that the ruling class created and nurtured organizations like the Ku Klux Klan.
While holding this position we do not arrogantly condemn blacks attracted to nationalist ideas. We would support the right to self-determination for any nation, but we also have a duty to point out that under the capitalist system this is unrealistic. We need only look to Zionism - the establishment of Israel on a capitalist basis - to illustrate the point Israel is no safe haven for Jews. It is an armed camp for US imperialism. The creation of a separate black state in America would pose even more difficulties. By the l960s, blacks did not make up the majority in any one state. Two in three blacks lived in the cities so for a black nation to be created, tens of millions of blacks and whites would have to be forcibly uprooted.
Black nationalism is not black racism. Of course, taken to ludicrous extremes, it can be thoroughly reactionary. Louis Farrakhan today uses Black Nationalism to try to justify black capitalism. Malcolm X as a leader of the Nation of Islam met with the Ku Klux Klan to discuss ways of ensuring separatism. However many ordinary blacks who conclude that there is no road out of this capitalist system turn to the ideas of separatism. The job of Marxists is not to dismiss blacks drawn to these conclusions but to show that struggle for a socialist revolution is the only true road to black liberation.
From having just a few hundred supporters initially, by the early 1960s the Black Muslims had 100,000 members. The liberation struggles sweeping Africa and Asia at the time undoubtedly affected blacks in the US. Racial pride was stimulated amongst the whole of the black population. It was on the tide of this new wave of confidence that the Nation of Islam was able to grow. Malcolm X was one of their foremost ministers; his oratory skills attracted a new section of youth towards the religion. Even the media and press hyped up the Black Muslims. A section of the ruling class recognized that they would eventually be forced to make concessions to the black masses of America. They deliberately portrayed the Nation as the nasty vicious side of the black movement, thus bolstering the respectable non-violent mainstream of Martin Luther King.
It was a conscious strategy of the Nation of Islam to target prisons as a recruitment ground. This can be traced back to 1942 when Elijah Muhammad and 62 of his followers were convicted of draft evasion (their religion does no tallow them to serve in the armed forces) and jailed for three years. While in prison Muhammad recognized the fertile ground that existed for any radical ideas amongst what was known as the black underclass. After the war much time and energy was devoted specifically to winning over prisoners.
But to many, the Black Muslims were rife with contradictions. It wasn't enough for them to simply attack white society and preach black unity. In the early 1960s demonstrations, sit-ins and marches swept almost every state. At a time when militant blacks were involved in mass action the Nation were seen to be doing nothing. They would attack the strategy of the mainstream civil rights movement and yet offer no alternative struggle outside the confines of their own organization.
Malcolm X became a popular leader of the Nation. He threw himself into his work and into the black community. He was catapulted to fame in the press. Much more able than Elijah Muhammad to gauge the killings of young blacks, he became frustrated by the restraints of the organization. When he eventually split with them in 1964 he said: "If I harbored any personal disappointment whatsoever, it was that privately I was convinced that our Nation of Islam could be an even greater force in the black man's overall struggle if we engaged in more action. It could be heard increasingly in the Negro communities 'Those Muslims talk tough, but they never do anything.'" Although the eventual split was put down to "internal differences" there is no doubt that his desire to politically organize blacks in action was unimportant factor. At his first press conference after the split he still defended the Nation, Elijah Muhammad and their 'back to Africa' policy. But he did say: "separation back to Africa is a long term program and while it is yet to materialize 22 million of our people who are still here in America need better food, clothing, housing and jobs right now...Now that I have more independence of action, I intend to use a more flexible approach toward working with others to get a solution to this problem."
The Civil Rights Movement
"The black revolution is much more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is interrelated...racism, poverty, militarism and imperialism. Evils that are deeply rooted in the whole structure of our society."
— Martin Luther King
"If George Washington didn't get independence for this country non-violently...and you taught me to look upon heroes, then it's time for you to realize - I have studied your books well."
— Malcolm X
The tremendous Civil Rights movement of the 1950s, 60s and early 70s shook America to its very foundations. It was a movement that in one or another touched every black family in the US. Internationally throughout Africa, the Caribbean and even Europe blacks were imbued with a new confidence. It seemed on every continent a liberation struggle was taking place. America the 'land of the free' was no exception.
Jim Crow (Racial Segregation)
This was a struggle that had to be fought Blacks in America did not just face poverty, but a degrading, racist social system commonly known as Jim Crow (racial segregation). In the South rights to vote, organize, even to assemble were taken away from blacks. Segregated schools, transport, public toilets etc. condemned blacks to the worst conditions.
Jim Crow was not simply some nasty piece of legislation that evolved over the. It was a carefully worked out, carefully executed, social system devised by the ruling class. At times of economic crisis the ruling class often use racism to divide working people. It is also used to drive down wages and working conditions thus providing pools of cheap labor. Before World War Two in the South there were vast amounts of land and yet an enormous shortage of labor. Taking away the rights of blacks enabled the bosses to force them to work for pitifully low wages. After World War Two the mechanization of agriculture solved the bosses problem and blacks were literally driven off the land. There now existed, after the war, a labor shortage in the factories of the North. Migration of huge numbers of blacks to the North began. This continued through the 1950s and 1960s and created the black ghettos we see there today.
During World War Two over 3 million blacks registered for the army. Over 500,000 fought and many died "to defend democracy" in racially segregated units. Those that returned did so in the knowledge that things would never be the same again. Blacks came back wanting, expecting and prepared to fight for change.
1954 Supreme Court Ruling
There had often been struggles through the courts by blacks to end segregation, but before 1954 they had little effect. Now the ruling class realized there had to be change. Throughout Africa and Asia there were huge movements for independence, against military and economic domination by Imperialism. Colonial rule in its previous form was coming to an end. Imperialist America found itself having to negotiate with new, confident black governments. To uphold their position of influence the US had to try to convince these governments that they were the friends of blacks. They therefore looked to produce cosmetic changes at home.
This was the reason for the 1954 Supreme Court Ruling that deemed segregation in schools illegal. But rather than satisfy blacks in the US it led to them demanding more. Blacks demanded the right to vote and boldly went to register.
Lynchings
There was always strong resistance to the dismantling of Jim Crow. The Southern Democratic Party, made up of white small property owners was based on this racist system. While industrialization benefited big capitalist firms, the small property owners still needed to exploit blacks to make their profits.
To sustain the Jim Crow system lynchings and murders became commonplace. Blacks who registered to vote were assassinated and any blacks that fought for their rights in any way were met with a reign of terror.
Lynchings became an integral part of the Jim Crow system. Far from being an aberration they became an American institution. Many people traveled for miles see the lynching of a black take place, with discounts introduced on the railroads for those traveling to a lynching. Rallies with Democratic Party speakers were held before some lynchings took place and photographs of the events were even taken and sold as souvenirs.
In 1955 things began to change. Emmett Till, a 14 year old black boy from Chicago was visiting family in Mississippi. Coming from the North he was seen by Southern whites to have ideas above his station. The final straw came when he sweet-talked' a white woman. For this "crime" he was beaten, shot through the head and his body mutilated. Yet this was not allowed to become just another lynching. His mother had his body shipped back to Chicago and demanded an open casket funeral so the whole world could see what America had done to her son. Over 250 000 people came to view the body. Jet magazine carried a picture of Emmett's mutilated body that sent shockwaves through every black community. Meetings were called in every black ghetto. Demands for troops to be sent to Mississippi to protect blacks spread, not only through the North, but also through the South. Till's mother demanded a meeting with President Eisenhower but this was refused. Instead the FBI was sent to investigate who was organizing the protests. A mock trial with an all white jury let the lynchers off scott free. Everywhere demands for action for demonstrations could be heard. The tide had begun to turn.
Against this background the mass movement began to evolve. In Montgomery, Alabama, action began. In December 1955 Rosa Parks, an activist in the National Association for the Advancement of Black people (NAACP), made her stand.
The bus system in Montgomery was totally segregated, with priority given to whites for the best seats. While 70% of the passengers were black they had to board at the backs of the buses. If all the white seats were taken then whites could demand that blacks gave up their seats. When a white demanded Rosa Parks' seat she refused saying, she was tired from work and tired of giving in. For this she was arrested and fined $ 10. She along with E D Nixon, a black trade union organizer, decided it was time to fight back. They used her case to organize one-day boycott of the buses.
Through the churches, which were the backbone of the black community the campaign was organized. Ministers who were the traditionally accepted leaders of the black community were approached to lead the campaign. One of those that accepted was a new minister in town, Martin Luther King. He went on to become the most famous leader of the Civil Rights movement.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The whole black community in the area rallied behind the boycott. As the boycott spiraled from one day to almost a year, its demands got bolder. While initially the campaign simply demanded sensitive treatment for blacks on buses, they soon realized they had to go the whole way and they demanded the end of segregation on buses.
Even with support from the whole community it was a long, hard struggle. A complex system of private cars had to be used to transport blacks. Martin Luther King put out a call for 100 station wagons to come to Montgomery to be used as free shuttle services. Some sympathetic whites even gave lifts to blacks. Even so many were forced to walk miles every day to get to work. But the resolve hardened each day. When asked by a reporter why she was walking, one middle aged black woman replied, "For me, my children and my grand children."
The resolve of racist whites also hardened. The white Citizens council developed as the main organization against the boycott and grew massively during this period. Violence spiraled and during the campaign at least eight bombings took place. The Ku Klux Klan held highly visible, intimidatory rallies. Nevertheless six months into the boycott another began in Florida, forcing the bus company there out of business. Eleven months on the battle was won. Enormous pressure forced the desegregation of Montgomery buses and a small taste of what mass action could achieve left the black community hungry for much more.
After the Montgomery boycott Martin Luther King became greatly respected for his leadership qualities. However Malcolm X was quick to condemn his ideas of pacifism and non-violence as ideas that disarmed the black community. "You don't have to criticize Reverend King, his actions criticize him. Any Negro who teaches other Negroes to turn the other cheek is disarming that Negro."
Segregation in Schools
The late 1950s saw the famous Brown vs. Brown case that ruled against segregation in schools. But it would take a lot more than paper legislation to have any effective change.
In Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957, came the first major confrontation to desegregate schools. Nine black teenagers were set to attend a school in Little Rock and the state Governor Orval Faubus, a Democrat, had initially been elected with the backing of groups like the NAACP and the trade union movement. But, once in office he soon shed his liberal image. Playing on the discontent that existed amongst whites to integration, he became a hardened segregationist. Refusing to enforce any law to integrate schools. Racist mobs rallied to physically stop the black teenagers getting to the school. Pressure forced President Eisenhower to act. He sent Federal troops to ensure passage for the blacks students. The fact that the state had been forced to intervene represented another victory for the black movement and greatly demoralized the racists.
Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides
Until the early 1960s the struggles of blacks against segregation had mainly consisted of local action. 1960 changed that and the movement rapidly spread from state to state with young people playing a key role.
It began with the sit-in movement. A new generation inspired by the movements already taking place in the US and internationally, decided they too should get involved. They would enter lunch bars and demand to be served and when they were refused they would literally sit-in! The invasion of the bar meant that its owners lost money. Eventually the police would be called and the youth, predominantly students, would be arrested. Many were beaten. Every time a group was arrested another group would come to take their place. Thousands were arrested and many were expelled from school but the sit-ins continued.
Then came the Freedom Rides where black and white students would board buses and travel through the Southern states. These actions were taken to force the integration of buses that had already been passed in law. Many of the freedom riders were beaten and brutalized by racist mobs. But still the Freedom Rides continued.
It became clear to the youth that they needed their own organization to discuss the strategies and actions they needed to take. They were invited by Martin Luther King to form the youth wing of his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization that although had a strong pacifist thread, supported direct acts of disobedience. But this offer was rejected and instead the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed. While still defending the tactic of non- violence, this was for them a tactic not a principle.
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King evolved as the most important leader of the Civil Rights Movement. His principles of pacifism were the dominant feature of the movement for a long period. But once youth entered the scene of battle it was much harder for him to hold this line. Faced with beatings, lynching and petrol bombings, the idea of non-violence somehow did not ring true. Figures like Malcolm X with his message of militant action, became a much more attractive focus for young blacks. Malcolm totally rejected the idea of turning the other cheek and he advocated black people defending themselves "...by any means necessary. If someone puts a hand on you, send him to the cemetery."
While King believed that mass peaceful protests would convince the government to implement reforms Malcolm X soon became one of the most vocal opponents of King's strategy for the movement After the famous 250,000 strong 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his well remembered "I have a Dream," speech, Malcolm X was later to comment "While they're dreaming, our people are living a nightmare." Malcolm was not alone in criticizing aspects of King's leadership. He was effectively voicing the thoughts of many younger activists. Anne Mood who was at the Washington demonstration recalled: "I sat on the grass and listened to the speakers to discover we had dreamers instead of a leader leading us. Martin Luther King went on and on talking about his dream. I sat there thinking that in Canton, Mississippi, we never had time to sleep much less to dream."
After King was presented with the Nobel peace Prize Malcolm again used the opportunity to highlight their different approaches. "He got the Peace Prize, we got the problem. I don't want the white man giving me medals. If I'm following a general and he's leading me into battle, and the enemy tends to give him rewards or awards. I get suspicious of him, especially if he gets a peace award before the war is over."
However even Martin Luther King was to talk of revolution towards the end of his life. In 1967 he commented "For the last 2 years we have been a reform movement...But after Selma and the Voting rights Bill (1965) we moved into a new era which must be an era of revolution. What good does it do a man to have integrated lunch counters if he can't buy a hamburger?" This was too much for the ruling class. King started supporting marches of striking workers and was gunned down as he prepared to march with refuse workers in Memphis.
The Last Year
"We are seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter."
— Malcolm X
Behind the Split
Malcolm's eventual split with the Nation of Islam was finally provoked by the death of John F Kennedy. Unlike the leaders of the mainstream movement Malcolm had never sown illusions in Kennedy or the big business Democrat Party. Kennedy had come to government on the back of the Civil Rights movement. In 1960 when he closely beat Richard Nixon he had received 68% of the black vote. But like US President Clinton today, he soon ditched many of his election promises. For this Malcolm rightly denounced him: "Kennedy ran on a platform as a white liberal three years ago and said all he had to do was take out his fountain pen put his name on some paper and our problem could be solved. He was three years in office before he found where his fountain pen was...and the problem isn't solved yet". It was therefore true to form for Malcolm to refuse to be silent after Kennedy's death. Elijah Muhammad ordered his members not to publicly comment on the issue. Yet when quizzed by the press Malcolm said simply "The chickens have come home to roost. Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad." An outraged Muhammad suspended Malcolm for ninety days. During that period Malcolm was not to speak publicly on behalf of the Nation. After the 90 days the suspension was not lifted, it had in reality become an expulsion. This was not a real surprise to Malcolm and reflected the growing differences between Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad. On March 8 1964 Malcolm formally announced that he was leaving the Nation of Islam to build a new organization.
It was clear that Malcolm and Muhammad had begun to differ on the question of how to struggle long before the split. In 1962 the Los Angeles Police, in a highly provocative attack, gunned down seven black Muslims. Sixteen were arrested and charged with "criminal assault against the police."
Malcolm was shipped to LA to deal with the case. He automatically recognized the huge potential that existed to unite Muslims and non-Muslims in a campaign against police brutality. Mass meetings were organized immediately. Media coverage raised the awareness of the campaign. Material was produced that aimed to cross religious divides leaflets pointed out that "It was a Muslim mosque this time; next it will be the Protestant church, the Catholic cathedral, the Jewish synagogue." But Malcolm's plans to launch a massive nation-wide campaign were eventually vetoed by the leadership. It was quickly becoming clear that Malcolm represented the militant tendency within the organization. Elijah Muhammad's conservative tendencies were holding things back. In a statement after the split Malcolm made it clear where he now stood. Talking about the new organization he was to launch he said: "It's going to be different now, I'm going to join in the fight wherever Negroes ask for my help and I suspect my activities will be on a greater and more intensive scale than in the past."
Malcolm did not want to be left on the sidelines of the great revolutionary struggle that was sweeping America. But the Black Muslims abstentionist message of "boycott the civil rights struggle, have nothing to do with the white man and his society" made it inevitable that unless he broke with them he would be left on the sidelines. The break came at the height of the civil rights movement, when Malcolm X realized he had to take part in the struggle.
A week before his assassination Malcolm X publicly revealed that the leaders of the Black Muslims had been colluding with the Ku Klux Klan and Rockwell, the leader of the US Nazi Party. They had looked to giving Elijah Muhammed financial aid. In return he was to continue churning out the separatist message and at the same time keep the heat off racist organizations. This graphically shows how Black Nationalism could play into the hands of the racists. In the course of struggle Malcolm X was forced to question whether Black Nationalism was the correct philosophy. He did not break with the idea of blacks organizing separately but he recognized using the term Black Nationalist was setting him apart from "true revolutionaries dedicated to overturning the system of exploitation that exists on this earth." he said, "Can we sum up the solution to the problems confronting our people as Black Nationalism? If you notice, I haven't been using that expression for several months now."
Muslim Mosque Inc.
Malcolm's new organization, the Muslim Mosque Inc. aimed to organize in action both Muslims and non-Muslims. While he was still a committed black nationalist, his aim being the return of Blacks to Africa, he saw this as a long way off. He wanted the Muslim Mosque Inc., working alongside other civil rights groups to spearhead a campaign for decent housing, education, jobs etc. He correctly saw the crucial importance that youth would play in any radical organization saying "Our accent will be on the youth. We need new ideas, new methods, new approaches. We are completely disenchanted with the old, adult established politicians. We want some new, more militant faces."
He also began to develop his ideas on self-defense for black communities. "Concerning nonviolence: It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of racial attacks." He called for blacks to take up their legal right to own a shotgun or rifle. Where the state refused to intervene in communities under attack he said those communities should form rifle clubs. "We should be peaceful, law abiding - but the time has come for the American Negro to fight back in self-defense whenever and wherever he is being unjustly or unlawfully attacked. If the Government thinks I am wrong for saying this then let the government start doing it's job."
However from it's inception the Muslim Mosque Inc received little funding or support from established civil rights groups. The SNCC refused to enter into any sort of working alliance. The media also refused to portray the new direction that Malcolm was moving in. In his own words he was "caught in a trap". He wanted to build an all-black organization "whose ultimate objective was to help create a society in which there could exist honest white-black brotherhood." Perhaps the leaders of the Civil Rights movement recognized just what a threat Malcolm's new leftward direction posed. He was now more than just an angry black man. He was beginning to work out tactics and strategies that would mobilize blacks into action. Now more than ever he posed a threat to the leadership of the civil rights movement He was evolving into a revolutionary and challenging not just racism, but the whole of the capitalist system.
Malcolm spent just 50 weeks apart from the Nation of Islam before he was assassinated. But even in that brief time his political thinking changed dramatically. He spent over half this time abroad touring Africa and the Middle East. This was biggest factor to change his way of thinking. "They say travel broadens your scope," he said "and recently I've had the opportunity to do a lot of it. While I was traveling I noticed that most of the countries that have recently emerged into independence have turned away from the so-called capitalistic system in the direction of socialism." "Most of the countries that were colonial powers were capitalist countries...You can't have capitalism without racism."
Initially he still rejected the idea of black and white workers uniting against oppression. "They'll never do it with working-class whites. The history is that working-class whites have been just as much against not only working Negroes but all Negroes period. I think one of the mistakes Negroes make is this worker solidarity thing. There's no such thing -it didn't even work in Russia." But history tells another story. Blacks, in struggles against racial oppression, have always looked to unite with other oppressed groups. During the great slave revolts of the past, black slaves formed strong alliances with Native American Indians. During the Civil War, alliances were formed with northern trade unionists and in 1880, black and white small farmers came together to form the Populist movement to defend their common interests.
Again after visits abroad Malcolm's position on this began to change. "In my recent travels into the African countries and others, it was impressed upon me the importance of having a working unity among all peoples, black as well as white. But the only way that this is going to be brought about is that the black ones have to be in unity first." He went on to say: "We will work with anyone, with any group, no matter what their color is, as long as they are genuinely interested in taking the type of steps necessary to bring an end to the injustices that black people in this country are inflicted by."
Even on the issue black nationalism, Malcolm's thoughts began to change. "I used to define Black Nationalism as the idea that the black man should control the economy of his community, the politics of the community and so forth. But when I was in Africa in May, in Ghana, I was speaking with the Algerian ambassador who is extremely militant and is a revolutionary in the truest sense of the word...When I told him my political, social and economic philosophy was black nationalism, he asked me where did that leave him? Because he was white. He was an African but he was Algerian and to all appearances, a white man. And I said I define my objective as the victory of Black Nationalism - where did that leave him? Where does that leave revolutionaries in Morocco, Egypt, Iraq and Mauritania? So he showed me where I was alienating people who were true revolutionaries, dedicated to overthrowing the system of exploitation that exists on this earth by any means necessary. So I had to do a lot of thinking and reappraising of my definition of Black Nationalism. Can we sum up the solution to the problems confronting our people as Black Nationalism? And if you noticed I haven't been using the expression for several months. But I would still be hard pressed to give a specific definition of the overall philosophy which I think is necessary for the liberation of black people in this country."
Organization of Afro American Unity (OAAU)
In June 1964 Malcolm announced the formation of the Organization of Afro American Unity. Self Defense of Afro Americans was an important feature in the program of this organization.
A voter registration drive was launched in the black community to make "every unregistered voter an independent voter." This in no way detracted from his position that the two capitalist parties of America: The Republican Party and the Democrat Party should in no way be supported by black people.
The OAAU launched a petition to be presented to the United Nations Human Right Commission, calling for the prosecution of the US government for their crimes against Afro Americans. While this may have been an effective propaganda campaign, that was all it could ever be. The United Nations has never and will never be an international upholder of justice. Rather it plays the role of a cover for US interests. We need only look at its role today in the Gulf war with the UN's refusal to lift a finger against Israel despite that government's treatment of Palestinians. Its role has never been to protect the rights of small countries or oppressed minorities.
If anyone was clear what a threat to the system he posed then Malcolm himself knew. He experienced weekly diatribes against him in the Nation of Islam newspaper, the firebombing of his home, FBI surveillance. He himself said, "Anything I do today, I regard as urgent. No man is given but so much to accomplish whatever his life's work...l am only facing facts when I know that any moment of any day, or any night, could bring me death." Malcolm X was assassinated before he was able to effectively translate his new ideas into action. He was buried at the age of 40 but as the next chapter shows, his ideas lived on.
The Black Panther Party
"Working class people of all colors must unite against the exploitative, oppressive ruling class. Let me emphasize again - we believe our fight is a class struggle not a race struggle."
— Bobby Seale, co-founder Black Panther Party
The death of Malcolm X spawned a new, determined layer of black youth. Having tried and tested the strategy of peaceful, non-violence they had found it wanting. They were now prepared for a different kind of action.
The Black Panther Party formed in 1966, drew much inspiration from the ideas of Malcolm X. They rejected pacifism and reformism in favor of militant action and self-defense against racists. They were the logical development of the struggle onto a higher level.
From their formation in Oakland, California, support grew rapidly for the Black Panthers. Their uncompromising Ten-point program called for full employment, decent housing and education for blacks. They demanded that blacks should be exempted from military service because they did not want to defend the American racist government. Most popular of all was their demand for an end to police brutality. Many young blacks, sick of daily harassment from the police were attracted to the Panthers, not only their program but their ability to organize a fight on these issues. Yet the Black Panthers went further, they recognized that to effectively change things they had to fight for an end to capitalism and for the establishment of a socialist society.
They are most famous for exercising their legal right to carry guns. This they used to patrol their communities and monitor the actions of the police.
They also established free food, clothing and Medicare programs for the poor. Much of this was financed by money they demanded off local business. They campaigned for democratic control of the police, for blacks to register as voters and called for a 30-hour week, without loss of pay to create more jobs from the unemployed.
All over America Panther chapters were formed. Panthers drafted into the army during the Vietnam War formed groups there. Panther caucuses were also set up within trade unions.
The state was terrified of the potential for the Panthers to gain mass support. White youth were in rebellion against the Vietnam War. Forty five percent of blacks fighting in Vietnam said they would be prepared to take up arms to secure justice at home.
The government replied to the movement, on the one hand, with concessions to the mass of blacks but they also meted out vicious repression to the most militant black leaders. At one stage, out of a leadership of 1000 three hundred of these were awaiting trial. Thirty-nine Panthers were gunned down in the street by the police.
Prisons became a fertile place where Panther members would recruit and educate other blacks. George Jackson, a young black, was won to the Panthers in this way. When he was eighteen he was convicted of robbery. After poor legal advice he had pleaded guilty expecting a sentence of one year or less. He was sentenced to one year to life imprisonment. Technically the parole board should determine when a prisoner on this sentence could be released. Racist violence was commonplace in the prisons. Any black that fought back would lose their parole. This happened to Jackson year after year.
As revolutionary socialists the leaders of the Black Panthers looked to other revolutionary leaders for guidance. They looked to Mao-Tse-Tung in China and Fidel Castro in Cuba. Although both had successfully carried through revolutions the vital missing ingredient in both cases was a working class leadership and workers democracy. The main mistake of the Panthers was not to clearly recognize the crucial role of the organized working class, both black and white in the struggle for socialism. The Panthers needed to organize black workers and appeal to white workers to form a united struggle to change society. Genuine Marxism would have advised the Panthers to win over the workers not by them robbing the rich to feed and defend the poor but by agitating for working people to take action to defend and feed themselves - by strikes and mass protests which would have given them the confidence of their own strength. This would prepare the movement for the greater confrontations with the ruling class that would inevitably be necessary to change society. In Revolutionary Suicide, Huey Newton, one of the founders of the Party said, "we were looked upon as an ad-hoc military group, acting outside the community fabric and too radical to be part of it. We saw ourselves as the revolutionary vanguard and did not fully understand that only the people can create the revolution. And hence the people did not follow our lead in picking up the gun."
We believe nevertheless that the Black Panthers represented a great step forward in the movement against racial oppression.
Some try to claim that the Panthers stood for black separatism. This is totally incorrect In Seize the Time, Bobby Seale, the other founder of the Black Panthers stressed, "We do not fight racism with racism. We fight racism with solidarity. We do not fight exploitative capitalism with black capitalism. We fight capitalism with basic socialism. We fight imperialism with proletarian internationalism."
They recognized that the working class could not afford to let racial or national prejudices divide them. Speaking about black separatists within the movement Bobby Seale said: "Those who want to obscure the struggle with ethnic differences are the ones who are aiding and maintaining the exploitation of the masses. We need unity to defeat the boss class - every strike shows that. All of us are laboring class people...in our view it is a class struggle between the massive proletarian working class and the small minority ruling class. Working class people of all colors must unite against the exploitative ruling class."
There is no doubt that the potential of the Panthers organizing terrified the American state. J Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, declared them the number one threat to the internal security of the US. The state tried to stamp them out in any way they could. Yet even now the message of the Black panthers can be heard. Internationally from the Middle East to the Caribbean to Britain; groups carrying their name have been formed. From Malcolm X to the Black Panthers to the present day the ideas of struggle and of socialist revolution live on.
Conclusion - Change the System
"The system cannot produce freedom for the Afro American. It is impossible for this system, this economic system, this political system, this social system, this system period. "
— Malcolm X
Governments, press and media would have us believe that much has improved for blacks since the days of the civil rights movement. Yet the illusion they try to create flies in the face of reality. Yes there maybe more black MPs, mayors and businessmen, but facts show that for the vast majority of black people nothing has fundamentally changed.
America
The scenes of wealth and happiness we see portrayed on television in The Cosby are a world apart from the average black family in the United States. Of the urban underclass in America 59% are black. The average white household is 32 times more wealthy than the average black household. One in three of the black population lives below the poverty line.
Britain
In Britain the unemployment rate amongst blacks is twice that of whites. While making up just 4.4% of the population blacks make up over 20% of the prisoners on remand.
These figures show that the few black "high flyers" have become totally removed from the reality of life for black people.
After the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, violent protests swept over 100 cities in America, 146 people were killed in riots that shook the government In response to the racial upheavals of the time the Kerner Commission was set up by President Johnson to investigate the causes. It drew the conclusion: "Our nation is moving towards two separate societies, one black, one white - separate and unequal," (with the likelihood of more and more blacks) "extending support to extremists who advocate civil disruption." The ruling class realized that unless reforms were carried out, revolutionary upheavals would develop. The Commission concluded that it would be unrealistic to try to abolish the ghettos i.e. poverty. Instead it recommended a strategy to take "substantial numbers of Negroes into the society outside the ghettos." Black tokenism followed and a practice that in essence amounted to a policy of liberation one at a time. For some this was of benefit. The number of black businesses rose 50% in the six years after 1970. But for most blacks things stayed the same. America, the richest, most powerful country in the world was unable to solve the problems facing ordinary African Americans.
After the upheavals of the early 1980s in Britain - Moss Side, Toxteth, London, Bristol - the ruling class tried a similar strategy here. To take the heat out of the struggle black leaders were drawn into the Government sponsored Race Relations Industry. Thousands of documents were written about meaningless equal opportunity programs and a small minority of blacks has well paid jobs within this industry. Many in effect have turned their back on the struggle. But for most blacks nothing has changed.
This system, capitalism, has miserably failed as far as black people are concerned. Also for white workers and youth this system has nothing to offer. Every major black struggle against racial oppression has been forced to draw the conclusion that unity against class oppression is imperative.
The anti-slavery movements, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton all traveled down the road of believing black liberation could be achieved under capitalism. They were however forced to conclude the need for revolution and class unity.
Militant calls on all people, black-and white who want to fight racism to join us. But our battle will not stop at challenging the evils of racism. This entire system has to be changed. We fight for a socialist society that would eradicate racism, oppression and exploitation once and for all. Join with the Militant in the campaign for socialism internationally.
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