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

ESSAYS ON PAN AFRiKAN NATiONAI_ISM

by

MUHAMMAD APiMAD

(a/k/a/ Max Stanford)

THE PAN AFRICCAN REVOLUTION

INTRODUCTION

15

THE PAN AFROKAN PARTY AND THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE

CULTURAL REVOLUTION LN THE SIXTIES

` 54

REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM AND THE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDENT 105

BLACK NATIONALISM AND 'fHE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDENT

113

BLACK STUDIES AND THE BLACK INTELLIGENTSIA

128

BLACK URBAN GUERRILLA WARFARE

141

ROOTS OF THE PAN AFRICAN REVOLUTION

167

THE PAr1 AFRICAN REVOLUTION

184

THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY

234

COMBAT COMMANDISM

248

THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY AND THE MASS LINE

258

ROLE OF THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY IN THE NATIONAL

LIBERATION STRUGGLE

272

THE POLITICALIZATION OF AfRIKAN CULTURE

z9o

WE ARE ALL PRISONERS OF WAR

298

CLASS, NATIONALISM CULTURE AND THE THIRD WORLD

305

APPENDIX

'

A.

EL HAJJ MALIK EL SHABAZZ PLAN

347

B,

AFRICAN PEOPLE'S PARTY TEN POINT PROGRAM

353

INTRODUCTION
" Eves more than the class struggle in the Capitalist countries
and the antagoaism betveea these countries and the eoeiallst world,
the libaratioa struggle o~ the cohial peophes is the essential
characteristic and sre vr~ulJd say the prime ntive force, of the advance:
of history of our times."

In the history of

~ilicar Cabral

revolutions part of its social

process has been the production of new ideas .

ideas combined
often called

into a rational

ideology .

body of thought iS

Revolutionary ideology

scientific application of

is the

ideas derived from experiences

of revolution affects other revoluti .ans

a revolutionary legacy .

These

leaving behind

Revolutions are social

that radically transform society .

upheavals

Revolutionary ideology

is produced by radicals who seek to create a revolution

or who are living during the duration of one :
Revolutions are processes of evolution taking
years to develop to the upheaval

stage .

It

is

the

cumulating sequence of revolution that reaches the

breaking point .

Revolutions are social movements, but

not all social movements are revolutions .

The African

Liberation movement was not always a revolutionary movement .

It was a social

movement seeking reform within

the American system .

There was a time when most African

people and their organizations felt non-violent

reform was possible .

After a period of some l$ years

the African struggle has changed in objective.

Most

African people today don't believe they can achieve their

objectives

through non-violent reform .

That

say that all black people are revolutionary .

what

is evident,

is a qualitative .change in

of the majority of African people .

is not to
No .

But

the thinking

African people's

values have changed so that while most still want reform

they are now willing to
dom .

take

to the streets to get free-

Revolutions are not necessarily made with all the

people wanting a

'revolutionary' change .

They are made

with people wanting basic reforms that they can't get

under the existing

regime .

It

is the revolutionaries

who want the revolutionary changes .

The people support

the revolutionaries because the revolutionary program

includes the people's basic reform demands .

In studying

the black liberation movement , . several organizations

are striving for non-reformable demands .

They are S .O .B .U .

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

of African People ; B .P .P .,

Black Panther Party; The

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

National

Liberation and hundreds of Black Student Unions

and groups .
change

in

All these groups

advocate a fundamental

the political and social

structure of the

United

States .

They are revolutionary groups that

have been thrust to the fore of the movement .

All

of these groups advocate armed self-defense, meeting

counter-revolutionary violence with revolutionary violence
All have programs that plan to change qualitatively
the relationship between white and black
possibly

throughout the world :

in

America and

These groups and others

make up the Pan-African Nationalist wing of the black

liberation movement .
. Revolutionary ideology seeks to explain a revolution

in

logical

terms .

In other words,

to analyze the revolution's

deductive reasoning .

social

it attempts

phenomenon by

This collection of political

essays attempts~to explain the historical

and political

transition of the black liberation movement from a

passive resistance movement
ment :

to active resistance move-

The notebook traces the thoughts and actions of

lesser known black revolutionaries,

attempting to

analyze their thought and their impact on Black America .

It also raises theoretical questions and presents a
perspective for the future .
mind that

this

The reader must .keep

in

is a notebook written in analytical,

dialectical form

rather than a conversational

work was not abstractly written .

It

text .

is part .of a process

of study and practical organizing over a period of 9

years .

The

The work covers organizational

questions and

related subject matter written

from 1g62 to 1971 .
v.

Articles are not dated because they, have been revised .

While the subject is Pan-African Nationalism,

the note-

book deals basically with poli`tiical subjects on

the

Pan-African revolution, with the students' role, and

th.e cultwral

revolution .

Pan-African Nationalism is
alism by some theorists .
differs from traditional

tailed Black lnternation-

Pan-African Nationalism

ar

bourgeois black nationalism .

While Black Nationalism in America has many trends, being

the underlying philosophy of the Black community,
should be categorized and analyzed
perspective of

to gain a proper

its true meaning .

Nationalism is marked

by loyalty to a group

characterized by a common cultural

separates

it

experience which

it from other groups, giving the group a

feeling of belonging together .

categorized by

Nationalism is usually,

its exponents that bind the group

together - a common

language, religion, sense of .

past history of great achievement, a common history,

the idea of a national

homeland

mission for the future .

and a sense of national

There are also different

types and forms of nationalism .

The different types of

nationalism are reactionary nationalism and revolutionary

nationalism .
Reactionary nationalism is brougeois, capitalist
or aggressive, colonial
is the nationalism of

or oppressive nationalism .

the bourgeois . ctass designed

vi

It
to

weld a bourgeois nation state .

in

Reactionary nationalism

its aggressive state suppresses or oppresses a

nation or particular group, reaping profits for the

bourgeois class of that particular nation from the
exploitation, slavery, colonialization of another group
or nation .

Revolutionary nationalism is the nationalism

of an oppressed, colonialized nation that

is the binding

force of a nation or particular group to free

a group or nation that

is oppressing

it .

itself from

Revolutionary

nationalism is the .nationalism of the people being

socialistic or communalistic in

its content .

different forms of nationalism ar.e

and economic .

The

religious, political,

All overlap just enough, with each

concentrating in

its field of

interest .

Black Internationalism or Pan-African Nationalism

is the philosophy of
a common

peoples of African descent- ,- having

root cultural

history and destiny used as

force_to 1iberate African peoples from Euro pean colonial

rule, striving

for a free, unified and independent Africa,

the creation of a national

homeland for - Black- people the

world over .
African Nationalism can be broken down
categories ;

bourgeois,~reactionary,

communalistic .
believe

i.n

or revolutionary,

There are black nationalists wha

the capitalist system and the creation of a

black capitalist state .

class,

into several

therefore fall

They

identify with the capitalist

in the realm of being classified

vii

as bourgeois,

not because of their ,class position, but

rather because of their mental attitude, because they

don't have capital enough to be classified as
Bourgeois black nationalism's main emphasis

bourgeois .

is economic ;

the building of a black capitalist economy and nation

either

in Africa, through repatriation, the building

of a black capitalist nation within

the tJnited~States,

ar the functioning of a self-supporting black capitalist

community .
Black nationalism can be categorized in
religious,

political,

economic, and cultural .

and revolutionary black nationalism differ

four areas ;
Bourgeois

in tactics,

bourgeois black nationalism being protest nationalism,

static, non-activist ;

for many years was represented

in

Harlem and other cities through street-corner meetings

and indoor r :~Tlies, while Pan-African nationalism is :
activist-oriented,

using direct action tactics, demon-

strations, and rebellions.

While recent

rebellions have

been spontaneous in character, they are ideologically

united with Pan-African Nationalist theory .
nationalism is also international

in scope, envisioning

a world black revolution ; black people of

(black, yellow, brown and red)
same forces, have a common

Pan-African

the world,

are all enslvaed by the

international

cultural heritage,

and destiny, all rising up against their slavemasters .

The purpose of the collection should
as an

be viewed

ideological guide, discussing different questions,

viii

subjects, topics, and issues of the Pan-African revolution

the purpose of which is to present some clarity for
the thousands of people who are active

in

the African

liberation struggle .
The main thing that
liberation movement

has hindered the African

is the lack of an

scientific world and national

indigenous

outlook or revolutionary

science that could guide each generation through a

dialectical approach

to the tactical

steps of gaining

power for the majority of African people .

of African people

The history

in America is marked by periods and

tides of rising nationalism,

nationalist movements and

the crushing of these movements by the colonial

oppressors, the federal,

state and local governments .

When the nationalist movement

uity occurs

in

is crushed discontin-

the African community creating a national-

i~st vacuum waiting to be fulfilled by the next charismatic leader that comes along .
people

The failure of African

in America to form a dynamic and continuous

nationalist movement has been because nationalist discontinuity occurs as a result of the state's oppression
of . any mass nationalist movement .

This net ionalist

disconinuity exists also because Negro inte 1lectuals

in the past shied away from Pan-African net ionalist
ideology and movements .
rises,

When the nationalist tide

the theory of the charismatic leader

is produced

and becomes the philosophy of the masses of our people

during that

fiime .

But after tfie devstructian of

the

memory

because the ideology of the nationalist leader

is not

movement, the nationalist philosophy becomes

theorized in an historical

setting .

In~order for revolutions to be successful, they

m ust draw on the historical

tradition of

indigen- ous

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

the new environme nt .
just

that .

It

Pan-F,frican Nationalism is doing

is drawing on the historical

of the past and is applying tacti cs used

successful

national

experiences

in different

liberation movements to the

American scene .
Pan-African .Nationalism is the philosophy of
African people,9cultural
force,

to

root history used as a creative

liberate African people from European colonial

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

Pan-African nationalism is

the belief

In black

culture controlling us as opposed to being dominated

by whito (European), culture .

Pan-African ,Nationalism

is us ually expressed when African,

American groups

strive to form

Asian, and Latin

independent,

self-deter-

mining nations to be contro lled by the black group and

not by European or

the European-American or any group

besides their own .

Pan-Afri~an Nationalism means
group identity .

identity or black

Pan-African Nationalism means black

patriotism, being patriotic to the eultural

group .

Pan-African Nationalism

is

an

sciousness of our own cultural

identification and congroup, own kind and self .

Pan-African Nationalism is group love, that

is, the love

for the group, our people, and our culture .

Pan-African Nationalism is the philosophy of
cooperation,

unity of Pan-African nationalists throughout,

the world to bring about a world revolution

in which

Black culture is the lifestyle of the Third World .

Pan-African Nationalism is~the philosophy that Black
people of

the world~~black, yellow, brown, and red)

all enslaved by the same forces .

is the philosophy of a common
heritage and

are

Pan-African Nationalism

international cultural

identity among non-European people, that

is,

African, Asian,~and Latin American people all have

similar,

if not the same cultural

histories and a common

destiny .
Pan-African Nationalism is the philosophy of a
world black revolution of the black underclass

rising

up against their slavemasters .

This collection of essays deals briefly with the
historical

roots of nationalism, showing that Pan-

African nationalism is a historical . ideology and

explores

theoretical questions of the Pan-African

revolution .
While many historicans negate the influence of
Black nationalism within the Black community,
xi
'

black

nationalism has been tfie underlying

ideology within

black America since the 1800's, emerging

in different

periods ; the main period was the 1920's with the

creation of t'he only mass movement of black people

in

America,

involving millions

in the Garvey movement .

Black nationalist circles remained dormant after

the destruction of the Garvey movement .
for a brief period

in the 1940's .

While the petty black

bourgeoisie adopted the philosophy if

masses

(t resurged .

integration,

had the ideology of black nationalism .

black bourgeoisie would admit that

the

Even the

the philosophy of

black nationalism had remained latent among our people .

(n the 1950's black nationalism began to recover under
the 1'eadershop of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and
the Nation of

Islam .

Mr . Muhammad

introduced

Islam into

black nationalism and developed a religious consciousriess for the ideology .

This

religious consciousness had a lot to do with

future development because it provided

with a clear historical

and religous

the black community

sense of destiny .

It gave rise to the expectations of a mass nationalist

conciousness and movement .

The Nation of

Islam kept

the continuity of black nationalism going in

community for a forty-year period .

the black

It soon was the

best organized of black nationalist groups, being unique

in

its religous

approach .

Revolutionary black nation-

alism is not a new ideology for

xii

it has developed from

the historical

roots of Henry Hig .hland,Garnet, David

Walker, Denmark Vesey, Martin Delaney, the Garvey

Movement, DuBois' Pan African congresses and the
Nation of
a root

Islam .

Revolutionary Black Nationalism is

ideology using the historical

experiences and

philosophies of Black Nationalist leaders of the past

and present and combining them with the tactics and
revolutionary ideology of other revolutionary move
ments .
. Malcolm X is the transitional

figure

ment of revolutionary Black Nationalism .

in the developFrom his

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

ideology .
While this essay does not deal with much of
Malcolm's content,

it does try to provide insight

some of Malcolm's organizationaR plans .

into

Though Malcolm's

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

Unity), never became an action center for the Black
revolution, part of

its program was adopted by younger

revolutionaries who are now making today's headlines .

Revolutionary Black nationalism still very much stands
undefined .

It

is the philosophy that

by the Black revolution

in America .

is

being produced

It becomes

inter-

nationalism - or Pan-African - when reflecting on the

international
Today,

aspects of the process of decolonization .

African peoples

nessing a new racial

w

in every country are wit-

awakening .
xiii

Black consciousness

is rising each day .

Black nationalism,

the ideology

of Black Power and Pan-Africanism and the international

expression of Black nationalism are developing mass
followings,

THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY AND THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE

The development of colonialized people's revolutions

are a process of building national
consciousness~by engaging
colonial

system .

self confidence,

in struggle against the

Through this struggle

become self-educated as

the colonialized

to the realities of the .system

and true nature of the oppressor :

Colonial

revolutions are self-educational

Struggle, agitation/social

processes

dislocation is the best

method of education fir the people .

Because as a

result of confrontations and political/economic struggles

the unity of the colonialized becomes stronger .

This

unity is not just an emotional unity but also a political unity eased on the fact "we all struggled and
fought

the beast .

National
people feel

consciousness :rises and subsides when the

their demands are being met~or.-not .

Also

correct methods of struggle by nationalist revolutionaries

has a lot to do with

the rise~or dropping of national

self confidence and consciousness .

The party organizer must master the art of struggle .
He must be able to build party cells among bhe people .
This determines whether he's a party organizer or not .

16

People make history .

People change society .

Revolutions

are about involving people, thousands, hundreds of

millions of people
logical

in a self-educational

socio.-psycho-

process .

Revolutions are natural processes that occur very

seldom because mastering the dynamics of hidden laws
of moving society is very difficult .
In our national

democratic revolution we must

realize that all forces

opposing racism

in the black community who are

in some form or fashion are good

the relative sense .

We must realize that everything

moving and that everything

to change,
community .
any forces

in

in the universe

including any a'nd all forces

Therefore,

in

is

is subject
the black

the party does not need to attack

in the black community, because

correct program and line .

The party must

it has the
be the center

for unity and Pan-African Nationalist principle at all

times .

But the party's main pre-occupation,

knowing the

corruption of the present so-called leadership,

is to.

organize the people around the party's program .

The party organizer must make the party program live
in the peop1e's minds .

Through patient persuasion, the

party organizer organizes the people

into organizations

that will

struggle for at

program .

The party organizer does not worry .how this

demand

is worded as

least one point of'the party

long as

it

is the same demand

in

content .
The only way to build our nation's self confidence,
consciousness, and overcome the law of uneven development
is through a national

Pan-African Na

that engages our people

ionalist Party

in every community across the

country in common struggle .

(n order to understand the nature of
African Party and the national
the historical

the Pan-

struggle we must know

aspects of our struggle .

w from the beginning of slavery the question " of

national

power for us has been economic and political .

The basis of slavery was economic and political .

The

basis of slavery was the reaping of super-profits for

the slavemaster from the backs of the forced free

labor

of kidnapped captive Africans .

The question of slavery was the building of an
economic empire, the making of the whole economy based
on~King Cotton, not to mention the flourishing slave
trade and the super-profits it reaped to Europe .

When

the Black man was kidnapped by the slave system and its
developing counterpart, capitalism, Europeans were
under a feudalist system ; the merchant class,

living

slave

traders and towns of Europe became rich from the slave

trade and the slave system produced cotton

for the Europ-

can textile industry was one of the first industries

for the new economic system known as

capitalism .

i8
Mass rebellion against the oppression of the,
political

slave state meant total destruction of the

slave state's economy,

for it was built off the super

exploitation of the Black man,

The captive nation or-

ganized under the tremendous pressure of a fascist

state that was dedicated to its very survival
any signs of revolt .

During

slavery,

insurre~~tions occurred, some having

seizing land and forcing an
.As early as

some 204

the objective of

independent Black nation .

17,87, Africans

in Boston

petitioned

the state legislature to help them return

motherland .
ships,

In

1815, Paul

to the

Cuffe,. having bu~xt~- ljfs~b'r~n

took some 38 Africans back homer

the Gabriel

to crush

Prosser conspiracy .

1800

brought

The~most organized

attempt of slave revolution was the Denmark Vesey

conspiracy of 1821 .

Vesey,

from a lottery he won,

the A .M .E . Church
was so
still

soon rose to leadership

in Charleston, S .C .

radical with
in chattel

who had bought his freedom

in

The A .M .E . Church

the freedmen agitiating Africans

slavery it was banned .

First there

were protests and marches demanding the right to freedom

of~religion ;

the right of A .M .E .

torians say that

and others

to exist .

repression of the A .M .E .

to organize the plot .

Some hisled Vesey

Further study shows

Vesey was a revolutionary nationalist .

Vesey had in

mind first seizing the port town of Charleston, setting

19

up a provisional government, eventually seizing the

entire state of South Carolina ~nd~forfiing a Black
Republic .

Me also had hoped for the aid of Haitian

troops .
tn~182q. pavid Walker
call

issued an

international

for the overthrow of the slave system .

Haitian revolution made an

New World .

The

impact on the so-called

It threatened the slave owning class

in

North America and had much to do with the stoppage,

at least

legally, of the slave trade.

On . August 21,

1832 , . the largest slave revolution

started in South Hampton,

Turner revolution .
organization .

Virginia .

This was the Nat

Turner had organized a cell-like

Discipline proved

to be the African's

major weakness . After slaying 50 Caucasians, their

tanks fell

a ;~art when they approached a plantation full

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

allowing the militia the time
Turner's plan was a national

it needed to

reorganize .

uprising of slaves ;

he planned to go from plantation to plantation, freeing

slaves .
in

It

is estimated that

the plan .

10,000 slaves were

7urner himself was not caught

involved

for several

months .
(n 1844,

in heated debate during a Colored People's

Convention, Reverend Henry Highland Garnet

call

issued another

for insurrection against the slave system .

20

Martin R . Delaney, one of the first major African

nationalist leaders advanced
as Africans

important concepts such

in America .are a "nation within a nation

in his memorable book, The Conaition,

Elevation, Emi- :

g_ration, Destiny of Colo red- People of the United States

in 1852 ,

He called for a national African non-public

council, encouraged emigration

to the east coast of

Africa, and worked with Frederick Douglass as assistant

editor of the North Star .
. In 1854, the National
in Cleveland,

Ohio sent

Emigration Convention held

investigators

to the ea

t coast

of Africa to take findings for a possible site for

repatriation .

The convention also resolved :

"that no

people as such can ever attain to greatness who lose

their identity, as
own merits ."

In

they must

rise entirely upon

their

1858 the African Ci~~ilization Society

was formed to encourage mass repatriation

The reconstruction period

is

to Africa .

a sad period

in our

people's history because it was at a time when we were

about to get land and power ; stood on

the edge of an

agrarian revolution when the captive nation was

position of

seizing political and economic power,

freed man relied on the radical

America .

in a

While social

for Africans became an

leadership of white

emancipation

the Civil War, economic survival

but the

became an

and political

issue of
power

issue of the reconstruction

21
peri od .
Reconstruction should be a period ww study
and learn historical mistakes from .
of political vote - became an
for in

While the right

issue the radicals fought

the War Congress, the masses of Africans

wanted "40 acres and a mule ."

But white Congress couldn't stomach breaking up the
plantation and dividing

it among the freedmen .

While the majority of us were living

economic existence with no

in a bleak

income, the turning over of

plantation

land

not living

in an agrarian situation would have been the

to African peasants who were displaced

soundest solution for reconstruction .

But for white Congress

this meant going too far,

giving Africans the land as well as political power ;

the freemen would have power over the South, where we
are in the majority ;

it would have occurred .

While

many colored people's conventions petitioned white Congress

for land, 20 African leaders demanded
with Lincoln .

Africans

land

in a meeting

in South Carolina fought

for

land but reparations and self-determination were never

granted .
Reconstruction left
of economic chaos .

the African captive in a state

Reconstruction was a bloody period

as African militias fought the KKK and other white groups .

In order to remain

in power the northern white

z2

capitalists compromised with the white southern

racist

forces, withdrawing wnion troops from the South in

1878

leaving the freedmen at the mercy of their former

white slavemasters ; this

is known as the Hayes-Tiiden

Compromise of 1877 " _

From 1881

to 1910 a little known mass nationalist

movement developed .

Edward Blyden and Bishop Turner ~.':~:

stand out among the many nationalists of the period .

What

is

interesting to note

is during this period an

emigration movement existed at

reparations movement .
movement

the same time as a

Though not documented a

involving one million ex-slaves petitioned/

lobbyed the government for the overdue promise of 40

acres and . a mule .

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

Scott,

a Black lawyer disillusioned with failures of

re,~onstruction who started a movement to establish an

all .Black community .

In

1879, some 40,000 Africans

left the South for the Midwest.

The leader of exodus movement was Benjamin "Pap"
Singleton, who sought to form a Black state from Kansas
and the obtaining of 40 acres and mules .

In

1889,

Edwin P . McCabe, farmer state auditor of Kansas,

attempted to set up an all
Territory .

(n

Black state .i n the Oklahoma

1886, African farmers organized the

Colored Farmers National Alliance and Cooperative

~3

Union :

By

1891, . it had more

than a million members .

The African farmers proposed a general strike of African

cotton pickers but it was opposed by the white populist
farmers .
In 1890,

the Texas Farmers Colored Association

proposed the formation of an~independent African state .

In 1913, Chief Alfred C . Sam, who said he was from
the Gold Coast Colony

in West Africa came to Oklahoma .

He set up a trading company and advocated emigration to

the Gold

Coast,

in 1813, Nobel

where he claimed to own land .

Also

Drew Ali taught his followers that they

were descendents of the Moorish Empire of North Africa,

an

Islamic state .

He gave his members Moorish names

to replace the slave names given by the slavemaster .

Nobel Drew Ali was arrested
after being released on
beatings
(n

in

bond .

1929 and died mysteriously

Sorne say he died from

by police .
1914 Marcus Garvey organized the Universal

Negro Improvement Association .

Within five years .

Garvey built a movement of five million Africans

dedicated to liberating Africa from white colonial
On August

1,

1920, Garvey held an

International

vention of African people of the world .

movement was seriously divided,

rule .

Con-

Garvey's

Garvey himself jailed

and later exiled .

In 1919, Cyril

Briggs organized the African Bloo~+

24

Brotherhood which eventually had 5000 members .

The

African Blood Brotherhood advocated self-determination

for a Black socialist republic
Cn

in the South .

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

movement began .

Sufi

Abdule Hamid was a key organizer

of the movement-in Chicago and New York .

In 1930 Master Wallace Difard founded the Nation

of

Lslam .

His lieutenant, the most Honorable Elijah

Muhammad, head of the Nation of

Islam, has taught from

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

must separate

from the United States Government .

to 1939, the National

of

Movement for the Establishment

the Forty-Ninth State was founded in Chicago by

Oscar C . Brown . d The National

in

NegroCongress organized

1936 and attempted to serve as a Black United

t t had over 500 organization

in

Front .

it but ceased to be a

major force whew Black cadres from the Communist Party

took

it over .
(n 1837, the Southern Negro Youth Congress was

formed, but it also fell

prey to white leftist mani-

pulation .
From 1940 to 1960 nationalism entered a low ebb in
our national
emerged as

democratic revolution .

The Nation of

Islam

the major nationalist organization as the

civil rights movement gained momentum .

The revolutionary nationalist movement

reached a

2S

new organizational

level with the formation of RANT -

Revolutionary Action Movement from 1962 to 18.68 .

advocated the formation of an
The question of
will

RAM

independent Black Republic .

reparations and independent nationhood

become mass cries as our struggle progresses and

the African People's Party and the provisional Republic

of New Africa, both formed

in

1868, gain mass bases .

THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

.Cadres must study and re-study the tactics of
organizing for a national
We are involved

democratic revolution .

in a nationalist .revolution and not a

class revolution .

Also, new cadres must

learn the

difference between being militant and a revolutionary .

This

is not the time for a hard Tine .

what

to do

fail

to achieve your objective .

Brie .

You must know

in every given period of time or~you wil l

Learn the broad mass

If the Party masters the mass

line

it will

be

successful .
At the present time there are three (3) distinct
social

classes represented inside the Black Power move-

meet .

These are :

1)

the-black middle classes,

black student youth in .the universities, and 3)

2)

the

the

black city youth on the streets .

The Black middle classes,
businessmen,

Black politicians,

which include Black

Black professionals,

and

26

Black preachers are generally taking advantage of the

upsurge in Black Pride and Black consciousness and the
tremendous

fears aroused in

the white power structure

by the spontaneous ghetto rebellions to obtain funds and

support for what they call
political power ."

"building Black economic and

Doing their "thing" rneans , setting

up projects for economic development,

job training, voter

registration, social welfare and education .

These Black middle class elements are the ones
now being celebrated as "black militant

leaders" by

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

into smooth functioning of

the system as "Negro leaders ."

The aim of the white power structure,

build a Black middle class,
as possible
in

i .e .

frankly,

is to

to bring as many .Blacks

into the main-stream of American society,

the course: of

this

to create

local

puppet Black administrations who will

and

power groups or
be too weak t

overthrow the white power structure but strong enough

to contain and pacify the Black masses . .
the road,

At the end of

if Operation Co-optation could succeed,

the

Black communwty from coast to coast would be balkanized

into little

Black bailiwicks resembling

the tiniest

neo-colonialist nations in Africa, fxut with even

independence

and power than

those nations .

Just below the Black middle clases

university youth,

less

are the Black

some of whom are simply preparing

27
themselves

individualistically to ;be co-opted

into the

system bwt many of whom are carrying on struggles for

facets of Black power in the university and seeking to
make

it and themselves

Meanwhile,

relevant to the Black community . .

university power structures from coast to

coast are trying to anticipate demands and yield con "

cessions to these student youth as fast as
that by so doing they will

they can, hoping

produce more candidates for

co-optation into the establishment and deprive the Black

university student of any excuse for struggle .
Actually, Operation Co-optation cannot succeed
because none of the projects organized by the Black
middle clsses, even with million dollar subsidies from
the white power structure,

can incorporate or contain

the third deepest and fastest-growing

Black community,

layer inside the

the layer of Black city youth .

The

end product of 300 years of an American racist-capitalist

society and, :more specifically, of a system of education
organized by and for the white middle classes,
youth have recognized that

these

they have become expendable

to a higf~ly automated and cyberhated society acid they

will

have to destroy this society or be destroyed by it

Some of these city youth are still

working in

in school, some are

the unskilled jobs, which~eYven now ,could be

automated out of existence (if the power structure did

not need them for pacification purposes),

large numbers

28

are in the armed services, and at least one-third

!s

just unemployed . . .ln every northern city new organizations are springing up to give political direction
to these Black street youth .
Party cadres must make an analysis of the Black
community and must study the developing movement
constantly

in order to correctly relate to our people .

The party must relate to Black workers and

Black unemployed .

62 .4

of the total

in America are Black workers .

Black population

There are approximately

8,560,000 Black workers in the labor force .

There are

approximately 532,000 unemployed Black workers and 5 .3

million Blacks sixteen (16)
not a part of the civilian
the military service .

years and older who are

labor force and not in

For us to correctly move Party

cadres must understand the tactics of mastering the

is flowing with the general demands

mass line ; that

of ,our people and raising these demands duo a higher

political

level .

White our Prty raises the demand for

five states and reparations,

democratic political
in the South .

it must be active in securing

rights for our people, especially

The Party should try to run and put as

many Party cadre within the political system

South as

possible .

By working within and outside of

the system the Party will

being a parallel

in the

political

have a dual

advantage of

institution and will

enhance

29
its information on the workings, resources and personnel
of

the system, from a political base or running in

campaigns,

the Party will educate a great percentage of

our population, especially the youth, who are the

upcoming struggling generation .
The Party must heretofore be active
community educating our people to
people will

in

the southern

its program,

then the

make the Party program their program .

"The solution must arise from the living movement

itself

out of their struggles for democracy and equal rights .

Its form of expression or coming into being will

also

be determined by the level of class relationships in

the country as a whole and by the relation of the
2
Black people to the progressive coalition ."
Observing carefully we can see the South is
going an

industrial

agriculture is

and social. revolution .

under-

Southern

becoming mechanized and is displacing

Black tenant farmers and Black farm laborers from the

land .

Southern . businessmen,

acting as

to attract industry, are

if they are not racist anymor.e .~

Black farmer

The displaced

is migrating to the big urban cities of

the South and North,

becoming a socially mobile unem-

ployed force and potential southern urban Black working

class .

This rapid transition of social

status, combined with

life and economic

15 years tradition of social

protest, makes the South a potential breeding

ground for

30

nationalism .

The Party should concentrate its efforts

in the Provisional Republic of tJew Africa

in the South

Louisiana,

Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia,

and South

Carolina .

We must work with a11~Black progressive

forces

in these states, not moving too far ahead of

the present trend,

build zones, convert these zones

into bases and develop a self-reliant Party economy

based on

land ownership .

THE DRIVE FOR LEGAL BLACK POLITICAL POWER

The movement toward

running Black candidates for

public office, utilizing the black vote, represents

the last

legal

stage of Black middle class interest

in the capitalist political system.

It

is extremely important as a Party cadre to

understand the broad character of this drive .

We are

a colonialized nation, and as a colonialized nation that

has been dehumanized and demoralized we wilt
and everything
nation, will

(exhaust all

legal means)

try anything

before we, as

collectively move to the point of revolution

Therefore, certain processes take place in national

democratic revolutions .

We must understand

that we are

in the beginning stages~of the nationalist phase of our

revolution .

This

power of America,

is

the demand for 109 of the political

(SG,576 black elected officials) .

Congressman Parren Mitchell (D-Md .)

recently called for

31

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

to 26

iR 1972 and a doubling of

the proposed 1972

figure to 52 in 1874 :
The attempt to achieve political equality has
been

the main emphasis of our national

revolution .

democratic

While this drive doesn't totally serve

the interests of the Black warking class,

to exhaust the legal means of protest,

it will help

and eliminate

the illusions that Black people can achieve :`freedom

in the capitalist system by polarizing

its

inherent

contradictions .
''The intelligentsia
movement

in

always Teads, the nationalist

Fts early stages .

the colonial power,

but not to bring about a radical

transformation of society .
the

'system'

rather

It aspires to replace

The object

than change

is

to control

it, since the intelli-

gentsia tends as a whole to be bourgeois-minded and

"
3
against revolutionary socialist transformation ."
But Party cadre must understand that 'the democratic
revolution has a bourgeois character and cannot be
transformed
final
class'

stages .

nto a communalist revolution until

its

Therefore, we support the Black middle

drive because the drive heightens the political

and nationalist consciousness of the Black .w Political

representation will
thinking

probably pre-occupy New Africa's

for the next

10 years .

A national

democratic

revolution cannot be won without extensive and thorough

on-going political mobilization and education,

nationalist communalist revolution ie out of the question

unless the masses become class - conscious ; organized and
trained and educated

in nationalist class struggle

against the entire colonialist bourgeoisie .

What does political mobilization of the people
mean?

It means telling the people about the political

aim and objectives of the revolution .

It

is necessary

for every brother and sister to see why the revolution .

It

is necessary for every brother and sister to see

why the revolution must be carried out and how it

concerns him .
Two,

it

is~not enough to merely explain the aim

and objectives
of the program .
it

is

to them, but also the steps and policies

Without a clear-cut political program

impossible to mobilize all the people to carry

out the revolution .

people?

Three, how should we mobilize the

leaflets, newspapers, books

By word of mouth,

and pamphlets,

through plays,

groups, through schools,

it

films, drum and dance

is not,e~ough ; political

mobilization must be continuous .

Our job is not to

recite the Party program to the people, because nobody

will

listen to rhetoric .

We must

mobilization with . developments

life of the people and make

link our political

in accordance .with the

it a continuous movement .

33

This Continuous political mobilization

is a

protracted struggle, one which takes many years of

struggle, setbacks, and faiiures~

.Party cadre must

prepare themselves for a long struggle .

This

is very

important so that Party cadres don't become disillusioned

when we have failures and setbacks, which are bound to
happen .
struggle :

Our revolutionary tempering is steeled through

The more involved

in struggle, the more

hard we become and the more knowledgeable ~we become of

what revolution

is about .

This

is a protracted

struggle and the revolutionaries must be well-steeled

enduring

long, hard, and bitter struggle .

in

People's

revolution means sacrificing for the people .

To awaken the people to nationalist consciousness,
the Party must engage
program .

in a community political education

The Party must engage

in three things ; register- .

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

ballot and running candidates

in

the

as many cities and

states as possible ; and conducting

its ~pefition drive

for regional

itself

reparations, which in

is a propaganda

drive .
Also, the Party must be busy building mass organizations among the people .
element of the people

The Party must organize every

into a mass organization :

workers and unemployed must be organized into the

Black

3k

African People's Unions .

Students must be organized into

the Pah African Student Union .

Black women must be

organized into an African Women's Congress, Black

soldiers must be organized into an African People's
Veteran Association,
musicians, etc .

teachers, nurses, artists, writers,

Athletes should be organized into an

African People's Athletic Club and conduct nationwide

Pan African Games ; businessmen, police, street people,
welfare mothers ; ministers could becrganized into an
African People's Spiritual Association along with other
relay people with various religious backgrounds .
Party cadre must use their heads
our people .

Rap with the people on

in talking to

their level .. Don't

be foaming at the mouth with a lot of revolutionary

rhetoric .

Don't alienate yourselves from the people .

Stop rapping the hard

people .

line .

Carry yourselves

Be polite and kind to our

in a humble manner .

Carry

yourself as a responsible person in the community .

The people will

eventually

learn to respect you .

WE RAISE THE DEMAND OF INDEPENDENT NATIONHOOD

TACTICALLY
"Our advocacy of the slogan must correspond more
closely to the general stage of the national, development
which the young ',Black'

nation has attained .

adopt as a major task the awakening of

We must

the 'Black'

peoples' consciousness of nationhood, purposefully

seizing upon those sound and permanent trends developing
among them and fighting. beside them to develop them
to higher

levels .

The-slogan of self-dtermination

should not be presented

in a schematic, or mechanical

manner .or in any other fashion as would assume that . . ."

Black people should not repeat the mistakes of
other groups .

When developing zones in the South,

Party should not

an

the

immediately move on the question of

independent nation, but gradually as the movement

progresses

raise the question of

independence .

The

key to national mobilization is a Southern ;`African

Peoples'

Congress .

But .i t may take years for a .

Southern African Peoples'

effective and meaningful

Congress to form .

To be

it would have in attendance

approximately 10,000 delegates representing over 2 million

from all areas of the South .
What we are saying
nationhood

concept will

is

that before the independent

become acceptable to our people

and the progressive peoples of the world,

there must

be a large body to present the demand and carry forth

it's mandate .

This

a democratic manner .
a people to petition

is nation building, organizing in

That

is,

it

is within the law for

their grievance to a government,

thereby exhau~tin.g all avenues of

legal demands .

is a democratic revolution, the emergence of

legal

This

36

demands of national

autonomy of a colonialized nat .i~on,

through petition or peaceful

until

demonstration .

It

isn't

this phase is exhausted that the revolution can

progress further .
"In order to establish a republic it
necessary to have an .assembly of peoples'
and it must be a popular

is absolutely
representatives

{elected on the basis of

universal and equal suffrage, direct elections and secret

ballot), and a constituent . assembly . . .ln order to
establish the new order that will
will of the people,

it

really express the

is not enough to call

representative assembly a consitutent assembly .

This

assembly must have the authority and .power to constitute .

Taking this

into consideration,

Congress does not confine itself

the resolution of the

to the formal

slogan

of a constitutent assembly, but adds the material

conditions which alone will
5
to .carry out its talks ."
(t

is very

enable ,that assembly

really

important that party cadre understand

that being part of the party requires more discipline

and hard work on their part than their previous
ment

in the movement .

involve-

The party is the highest form of

organization within our national

democratic revolution .

Everyone cannot make the grade to be the party cadre .

A Black Revolutionary party cannot come

into being

ready-made .

It has to be molded and shaped by hard

work and the criticism and self-criticism which ceaselessly transform and develop the revolutionist and
the revolutionary organization .

The American

racist-

capitalist system has caused much backwardnes,,

selfishness,

suspicion, deception,

ignorance

and competition among

Black people and has thereby kept them disorganized,

divided,

and politically unaware .

The alteration

is necessary to man on a mass scale can

through revolution .
Party,

Meanwhile,

only

that

take place

in the : Black Revolutionary

this alteration of revolutionary cadres can

take place through the constant

learning and teaching

that are inseparable from conscious interaction with

masses
It

in

revolutionary struggle ."

is very

important that party cadres understand

the tactics of struggle .

Also,

they must understand

that you change methodology of struggle

in different

periods of the revolution and refine techniques as you

learn .
"As far as

social

movements are concerned,

true

revolutionary leaders must .not only be good at correcting

their ideas,

theories, plans or programs when errors

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

to another,
and all

they must also be good at making themselves

their fellow revolutionaries progress and change

in their subjective knowledge along with

it, that

is and

'

38

new working programs correspond

situation .

to new changes in the

In a revolutionary period the situation

changes very rapidly in accordance with the changed

situation,

they will

be unable to lead the revolution

to victory ."
THE DRIVE FOR

LEGAL BLACK ECONOMIC POWER

We are in a nationalist revolution of a colonialized

nation

in which all classes must surge forth to obtain

their national

class interests as one class .

Being

suppressed, the Black middle class was not allowed

to develop into a bourgeois class,

a class to obtain

economic power within the system .

It

is

important

that we understand the dynamics of class,

ture, colonialism,
Dur revolution

and national

liberation movements .

is a national, liberation revolution ; it

is :one of a coionialized

nation

seeking independence

and self-determination from the colonizer .

understand

class str.uc-

We must

that there are antagonistic contradictions.

between all classes of Black America and the colonizer .

"The contradictions between ourselves and the
enemy are antagonistic contradictions .

Within

the ranks

of the people, .the contradictions among the working

people are non-antagonistic, while those between the
exploited and the exploiting classes have a non-anta-

gonistic aspect

aspect .

in addition to an antagonistic

There have aiways, been contradictions among the people,

but their content differs

in each period of

the revo-

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

logical nature or controversiai

ideo-

issues among the people

Is by the democratic method, discussion, criticism, of

persuasion and education, and :not by the method of
g
coercion or repression ."
The black bourgeoisie, because
it lacks political and economic power is more of a
petty bourgeoisie than a bourgeoisie and will
of a tendency to support the revolution
bourgeoisie .
class responds

have more

than a classical

If we understand why the black middle

the way that

it does .

"Black revolutionaries must criticize the black

middle class drive towards black capitaiism, but at the
same time, support it because we must
a ",necessary historical

stage .

realize that

rt

is

We must support the

existence and expansion of black businesses and at the

same time we point out that profits from black businesses
should go back to the community .
ment must be a collective effort .

Black economic developThe party must

be able to organize black professionals to become the

economic development and skill bank .of the party .
The Black Revolutionary Party must devise strategies
which give

their conditions of

life through struggle

and which enable them to create dual

or Parallel

power

40

structures out of struggle .

be on

Struggle therefore must

issues and terrains which

munity to create a form of

enable

the Black com-

liberated area out of what

are at present occupied areas .'

:order to get our people
see us make some material
system .

to support us

they must

success or gains within

the

This means the party must prov-ide the commun-ice

with the goods and services

to se]f-reliance .

it needs to survive and move

The party must be able to fulfill

the basic needs of the people ; food , . clothing, and shelter .

As we refine our outlook,

it

is necessary for us

to understand that organization of the black working

class must be the central focus of the party .

The

black working class not only constitutes the maJority

of our people, but also the most sta'ale element in

the

black cort~munity with the most potential economic and

political

power needed

to win .

black working class aware of

mobilize/organize it

The party must make the

its potential

power,

to seize more and more power and move

to nationhood .
(n order to make point one of our program a reality,
the key is
national

the national

black general strike .

black general strike will

The

take years to develop .

But we must develop tactics that will

lead our com-

munity to supporting and carrying out a general

strike .

41

The key to `this is to work

around

infhe factories and struggle

loc al economic/political

issues .

The main basis

of work and development of party ot'ganizations

in the factories .

is work

Up until now the party has not found

the proper methods for carrying on factory work .

content of this work

The

is not merely organizational .

are the correct methods of organizing

in

What

the factory?

The first essential condition for successful

work

in

the

factory is daily contact with the mass of black workers

in

it and thorough knowledge of the position of black

worker,

i .e ., white union, management and the concrete

conditions for struggle .

Cadres must

firmly grasp all

the countless conflicts of a minor and major character

arising daily with
etc .,

the employers,

such as disputes,

ances of black .workers

incidents, demands and grievincluding women and youth,

of work, working conditions,

ers'
etc,

rights, dismissals
It

is

trade unions, spies,

hours

infringements on black work-

in case of arrests of black workers

the :ask of cadres to

investigate very

carefully the causes'of any failure in their efforts to

penetrate the factories and to continue the work with
renewed energy on the basis of carefully considered
measures

to overcome the previous shortcomings .

How does a newly formed party chapter establish

contact with black workers?

his
conduct
have
contact
who
independence
follow
athrow
embraces
republic,
and
plant
key
persistently,
in
to
isparty
under
poliical
And
training
of
Louisiana,
black
which,
the
are
aconvincing
working,
select
position
ifs
the
with
up
in
the
or
survey
our
Party's
several
on
cannot
the
these
workers
APP
getting
if
party,
the
the
through
of
the
leadership
importance
having
largest
must
of
where,
From
in
and
the
primary
people
tirelessly
industries
him
most
penetrate
information
programbeing
ways
the
nthe
we
in
South
the
states
be
thesurvey
the
to
no
can
the
community
who
strategic
oppressor's
number
aand
party
objectives
one
become
immediate
fthat
systematic
Carolina
southern
gain
i wants
plants
It
rst
of
giving
all
win
tois~
obtained
of
information,
our
i5party
Mississippi,
aselect
by
the
these
regional,
to
factories
black
of
foothold
in
party
party
to
based
contacts,
The
knowing
party
production,
would
organize
factories
the
and
the
cadre
become
brothers
those
survey
worke-rs,
organ*zer
most
shall
planned
South
Party,
cadre
be
auto
autonomy
awhich
establishcan
Alabama,
afacto
black
and
treat
is
therefind
and
and
careonce

42

There

worker

.a

in
to

multi-pu~rposed,
ing
valuable

out

then

.
Our

We
have
which
fully,
sisters

mendous
f.orei

.forces

the

place

into

steel .
tories
activity

With
and
Georgia,
black
organize
understand

. . ."We

43

Being a southern based party

it would be basically

southern urban based Party working to organize southern

'
i0
Black workers and the urban southern Black unemployed . . ."
(n
in

line with our final revolutionary perspective,

line with winning the masses ~of black workers not

only for immediate struggles, but for the struggle for

power-key industries, southern strategic industrial
cities and towns will

be a determining factor

deciding the victory of the national

Uniess permanent organizational
tablished with black workers

in

democratic revolution .

connections are es-

in key

industries, there

can be no guarantee for rapid development of our Party,

nor will
ON

the black general

WHAT

On all

LEVELS

levels .

DO

WE

strike became a reality .

ORGANIZE

BLACK WORKERS?

We not only organize black workers

in the plants and struggle for better working conditions,

benefits and pay but also organize black workers out
side the plant in all forms of
may not be able

All

activity

to be harnessed by the Party or the

African Peoples'
and groups will

life .

Union,

therefore other organizations

have to be formed .

The Party organizer organizes groups around anything

or any form of activity the people are involved
Why does

the Party organizer do

organizations,

this?

in .

Because by forming

the Party organizer is providing the

44

Party with an organized community structure and avenues

to the people and also he

is building

indigenous

community leadership through the creation of these

structures.

people are neded to head and run these

community organizations,

so with the Party organizer

being a member of these organizations he has a chance to

groom, work with and build a community
and leadership that

is

infra-structure

loyal to the Party.

Each Party

member/organ iz:er _must be- a . leader of nir~e (9} non-Par-ty

members .
Stay

This further embeds our roots among the people .

in touch with brothers and sisters not

movement and not in

the Party .

Circulate among them .

dress .

in the

Socialize with them .

Don't always wear national

Change u'p sometime .

Put on a suit, tie, etc .

Look like the people because the people will

In outward appearance the Party organizer

with you more .

should

look just

him blend

identify

like the people .

This also helps

in with the people better .

Party organizers

must circulate. among all elements of the people .

Party must form African peoples'
social

clubs,

as bowling,

athletic clubs/teams,

fraternities, and sororities, etc .

Party must even be involved

The

The

in community activities such

card playi-ng, chess and partying .

activities provide links to the people .

All

these

45

BUILpING THE COMMUNITY CQNGRCSS

Besides organizing on the job,

politically and

socially the Party organizes the people on the community

level .

Community Partycells are very

important

because fih party is the community and the community is

the Party .

Community cells provide the basis of the

Party infra structure and intelligence .

Community cells

should be organized from the block level,

to ward .

to preceinct,'

The community organization section in each

local branch would be responsible for building community

cells .
The Party must build a parallel
This structure must be built around
the democratic centralist

political

sfructure

involving people

process of the Party ; that

many leaders with one central command .

in
is,

In order to do

this Party organizers must be busy recruiting members

from the community and encouraging them to form precinct
Party organizations .

What does

build second, third, and fourth

It helps

this do?
line

leadership within

the Party and entrenches the Party among the people .

y The po licy of the Party is
entrenched
must

in the community .

know who`s who

to bore

in or be well-

First, every Party cadre

in his immediate area .

He must

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

the real

grass roots,

local

leaders,

the street culture

46

leaders, etc .

The Party cadre must make an

in-depth

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

and the people .

Party cadre appear to be just another

brother or sister, not revealing his political

at first,.

identity

The cadre must be good at making friends

and making people answer questions for themselves

general conversation .

After the cadre makes a few

friends on the block he then picks one or

to politically groom .

two persons

The cadre checks to see if the

block has a block committee .

tactic will

in

If

it does, then his

be to politicize the existing committee,

in

developing eventually Party cadre

a block committee doesn't exist,
to advance to a higher

the committee .

then~he can proceed

level of organization .

build an African Peoples'

Block Committee .

organizer can explain that the APP

He can

The Party

is trying

to build

a community congress based upon block committees .

clutches can be held

If

in people's houses

Coffee

in the block to

make the people familiar with aspects of the Party program .

Then, after consolidating the block association,

Party cadre can then recruit block committee members

the APP .

Before bringing block people

into

into the Party,

the cadre should have studied them for at

least three

months and would take them through vigorous orientation

during political education/discussion .
accepted in a community (block)

cell

Once a person

his role then

is

is to :

i .:

Greate anotherParty :'cell'..on~:~.the block :

2 ..

pevelop a Party cell

on'his job .

Join a communitya- ganization and develop

a Party cell inside the organization .
Bu i ld a Party cell among his friends and
associates (Social cell) .

4 ..

Organization affects the basic mass structure :

family .
family

Having influence on the black family

is

the most

which mass activity

influential

is

carried,

unit of cultural values .

informal

law,

local

It

the
is . . .

The`

institution around

The family

is

the basic

is the perpetrator of

morals, political

ide.-ology . and social

ha-

bits .
This type of organization
south .

is very

Community congresses will

important to the

take years to fully

develop :
To build the Party that
and revolutionize society,

is necessary to~take power

the members of

the Party

themselves must undergo rapid political development

into a new people .
acfiieve this

The only means available to them to

is also the best means,

i .e . the method of

constant struggle, constant criticism and constant

transformation,

utilizing the energy created by t:he dy-

namics of error to advance the political maturity of the

organization, getting rid of every vestige of
opportunism,

liberalism,

sectarianism, adventurism, egoism, and every

48

o~

tendency towards "miiltarism"

th;e separation of

m-ilitary from political struggle .

The ideological

struggle against

tendencies and against remnants of~these tendencies

in . every. member removes political education from the
sphere of abstract generalizations about other~revolutions which come so easily, to
areas,

intellectual

revolution-

lt . compels the revolutionary organization . to

develop its own revolutionary concepts from its concrete

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

is very .important that we also understand that

our party is a muTti-level party .

As , we develop as a

party and cadre become professional organizers, they

will

be reassigned to different areas and assignments .

Many will

be phased out to get the party resources a,nd

information which means they will

be part of the intel-

lig`ence section and other sections of the party .

"From the outset, any Black Liberation Party in
America,

if

it is to be successfu l, must apply both the

tactics of above and below .

fronts .

Meaning

it must work on all

It must be both above and below ground party .

It's network must consist of an underground machine,

cadre, battery,

three times larger than the above ground .

Over 1/3 to 1/,2 of

its membership must

remain anonymous,

remaining in fronts with no direct appearance of sup-

49

porting the party whatsoever . . :But

our people, the party must be .legal

in order

to mo~ilize~

from its beginning,

fight for legality and must be public, spreading the

,
~ ~, `
doctrine of Black lnternatfonalis'm .
METHODS OF BUILDING THE BLACK UNITED OR LIBERATION
FRONT
Point Ten of our program calls for a Black liberation
front .

The reason the APP calls for the establishment

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

against the colonial

oppressor the better :

Ideal- l,y,_ - in

nationalist democratic revolutions the total nation

sf niggles f-or

independence ; therefore the united or

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

leads the struggle .

The revolutionary people's party

which is the political and military hard core

the front .
flu~sh.ed our .

The 'f,ront protects

is within

the hard core from being

It gives them a broad base .

The formation

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

organization with

its own individual membership .

basic organizational

form is

The

the committee of action elec-

ted .from their existing organizations where these support

the struggle or from militant groups within these organizations and from unorganized brothers and sisters .
these organizational
suited

to the special

forms of~the united front must

All
be

concrete conditions of each 'indi-

S0

vidual

struggle and locality .

Any attempt to force the

united front within the s.trait~jacket

perfect plans

is certain to defeat

oi`

preconceived

its purpose .

essential feature of the united front is that

it

The
unites

hitherto separated groups for a joint struggle which

would otherwise be more difficult or impossible .
Within such united front activities, the efforts of the
APP must not, under any circumstances,
to secure a mechanical

be that of trying

monopoly of . leadership, but

on strengthening and dveloping the honest, militant

non-Party leading cadres .

When developing methods of

creating a Black united front in a city, the organizer

must first ask the questions, why is
and what groups ,a re the main

there disunity?

Who

reasons for disunity?

Has there ever been unity in the community before, and

if so, why isn't there now?
The organizer whouid then do a detailed study of all
organizations and personalities who calim to represent
our people .

Study their strengths and weaknesses .,

organizer whould gather enough

involved

information on

The

the people

in the movement that he knows them better than

they know themselves .

organizer will

have

This

~s

important because the

to be very flexible and

wil

have

to

"ply by ear'" how to move people who have different motivations,

psychological make-ups, economic

and political

interests,

ties to come together as one organized unit

51

After surveying the community, finding out who are the

recognized and unrecognized

leaders,

the organizer should

seek out the neutral group or force in the community :

He should attempt to work through the neutral force :
The neutral force must have street culture respect that
is -respect of

reef people .

This

is

very important if

the organizer is going to create a united front that

has firm "live"

roots among the people .

never seen, heard, but only felt .

They who are

If the word goes out

to '!f r.eeze:" someth i ng because it's jive, then

frozen

in every community .

i t will

You have more leader ,

leaders who are unrecognized by the mass media,

respected by the people

but are

in .the community because 'of

their commitment, to the community over the years .

these brothers

put on a freeze on something,

community will

clam up .

The organizer should

ganizer will usually find

is trying to do .

information on anyone

to their own personal

There are two ways

to build a united front .

above and the other is from below .

is

the whole

The: or-

that these street,leade:rs can

munity, right down

above

If

identify with these brothers

and explain to them what he

give him a wealth of

be

in the com-

life and habits .

One is from

Organizing from

the gathering together the . recognize~d leaders

and organizatinns~and appealing to them on some

which they can unite on and basically rely on

issue

them to

make up the basfis of

from above will

the front-.

The front organizel

appear _to have a broad base but it's

base won't have "live" roots in the community .

The other is organizing from below which will
at

least nine

take

(g) months to a year to establish .

Through the neutral force and/or street force, coalitions and-alliances should be established with other
community groups .

These coalitions and alliances

don`t have to be on a formal

basis .

rap sessions or work sessions .

What

is needed

is

The other is a ce~ntraT

issue around which the black community in general can

unite .

United fronts emerge around

some kind of emer-

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

democratic revolution .

S3

FOOTNOTES

Grace Boggs, T he Black Revolution

pgs : 4-5
2

;l, b _~

d c , p.

In America,

 5 .

Kwame Nkrumah,

Class Struggle

In Africa, p . 38

Ben Davis,"The Path of Negro liberation" B lack

Nation_[n America, p . 390
5

V .I . Lenin, Two Tactics

of Social
p.
Democratic Revo-lotion,
13

Democracy In

the

James Boggs, Mani festo For A Black Revolutionar

Party ; P " 32
7

Mao Tse Tung, Selected Works,

Vo,l .

I,

p . 306

Mao Tse lung, On The Correct Handling of C ontradic tion-s Among The,Peo~ e, pgs . 2,
9

James Boggs,

Op C it .,

p . 33

i0

The Formation of A National

liberation Party, p . 3
Black Guard Study Manual
12

Centralized Black

No . . ], . p . 4

James ~ Grace Boggs, The Awesome Responsibility of

Revolutionary Leadership, pgs . 13 . X14. '
.
13
The Formation of A National Centralized Bl<~ck
liberation Party, p . 1

54

CULTURAL REVOLUTION

(N THE SIXTIES

The mass protest era of our struggle started on

February, 1960, when four Black students
~in in

Greensboro, N .C .

Within weeks,

staged a sit

Black students

throughout the south were demonstrating against public

aspects of segregation .

A spontaneous movement began

to form as demonstrations picked up

and impact .

in numbers,

locale,

In order to better coordinate the student

movement, a student leadership conference was called

by SCLC on Easter weekend, April

15, 1960, organized

largely from the efforts of Mrs . Elta Baker who identifled strongly with the young Black students .

The late

Dr . King wanted the students to become the youth wing

,of the SCLC, but~_the students wanted
acrd formed

to be

independent

their own organization :

They called

their organization SNCC, the Student

No-Violent Coordinating Committee .

As

the sit-in

movement progressed and the American press felt

it was

no longer a peice of "sensational" news, SNCC began to

face problems of how to wage a mass protracted struggle
against Jim Crow .
In . l96l , CORE - The Congress of Racial

Equality -

recently reorganized, decided to test federal

of discrimination

in public

interstate

regualtions

transportation .

55

They started the Freedom Rides, but CORE, because~of the

lack of finance and other th .i~~rgs,

decided to abandon

the freedom rides after a bus wes ::burned in Alabama .

A group of SNCC students decided to leave college to .
finish the Freedom Rides .

Other students joined

in and

Freedom Rides were taken to all parts of the South :

Robert F . Williams, then president of Manroe, N .C .
N .A .A .C .P ., who had organized the Black self-defense
guards to protect the Black community against raids
by the KKK in 1957, called on help

from the Freedom

Riders to test nonviolence in Monroe and other.ssto~

t~elp defend the Black communityfrom racist attacks .
White violence erupted in Monr .oe, the white national
guard was called

in, and a national

white power kid-

napping conspiracy was trumped up o-n Rob with the word

"Shoot to Kill ."
being forced

What resulted was Robert Willlams

into exile in Cuba .

As the summer and fall went on, SNCC held another

conference and decided to send a fulltime staff of field
secretaries

into the Black Belt communities of

South to mobilize poor Blacks

desegregation .

the

for voting rights and mass

(t was also decided to continue the sit-

ins among students .

An

interesting development occurred at

College ; a Negro college in~Wilberforce,

fall

of 1961 .

Central State

Ohio

Black students who had been

in

the

involved

in

56

sit-ins,

Freedom Rides, around Robert Williams, Black

nationalist organizations and also the Nation of

lslam~,

began- to discuss what they felt were some shortcomings

witfiin the movement .

They first formed a political

action group called Challenge .

The role of Challenge

was to bring a Black political

awareness on campus and'

to try to get tTie students

involved

in the movement .

As members,of Challenge grew politically by confrontations

with the college's administration and continued i.nvolvement .i n the movement, they decided to form a student
political party that would attempt to seize control of
the student government and through student government
it felt

it

could rechannel the .student

Thus unnoticed,

body's values .

Black students on a , small Negro college

campus began to form the beginnings of a revolutionary

Black nationalist movement and began to formulate ideas
~of creating a mass Black Cultural
Some of these students began

Revolution .
intensive study of

Black History ; some of their ideological

leaders were

Marcus Garvey, Robert Williams, Harold Cruse,

the

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

1862 saw the SNGC and King attempt to desegregate
Albany, Georgia in an all-ou. t effort at mass community
mobilization which failed .

Also, the Nation of

began to rise in prominence~as

Islam

its major speaker, Malcolm

X became the fiery figure of the protest era .

The attack

57

on the Muslims in Los Angeles brought nation-wide .

attention on the "Nation" as~the world awaited the
reaction of retaliation .
As these Black student revolutionaries began to
formulate ideas for their party, some decided to
school

and go

leave

into northern Black communities and organize

like .SNCC did in southern communities,

a name was chosen

After some debate

for their Black student party ;

it

was called the RAM party, .later to become known as

Revolutionary Action Movement .

RAM won the student

elections at Central State, with

control of student government .

the

its whole slate gaining

That was

in May of 1962 .

Being Black or Black-minded wasn't too popular then

and RAM organizers found that they did not get support,
especially financially,
this

time was engaged

southwest Georgia .

the way SNCC did .

in full

SNCC during

community organization

After careful

deliberation

in

in the

fail

of 1962, the organizers who had left school

gore

into communities realized

or

that they would have to

create a revolutionary Black nationalist movement from

peanuts,

from their own resources which were very limited .

The students decided that because conditions weren't ripe

they would "bore in",

work -within existing organizations

especially SNCC, CORE and sometimes NAACP,

"as far a .s fas,t as

pushing them

possible" until conditions

had been

set that a new movement and mass organization could be

S8

formed ; they decided to work quietly,

forming cells

or units that would emerge when the Black nationalist

climate had been set .

These young B1'ack nationalist

students would try to attend every SNCC conference

could to "pull

they

costs" witn brothers and sisters within

SNGC and other groups over to the practice of selfdefense and revolutionary Black nationalism .
1963 produced the second phase of the protest era .
By Spring through efforts of SNGC and SCLC organizers,
various southern cities were seething with protest revolt .
The turning point of mass Black consciousness and for
the protest movement came during the "spring non-violent
offensive"

in Birmingham, Alabama .

King, who had become the symbol

Dr . Martin

Luther

of the direct action

nonviolent struggle through the efforts of SCLC and SNCC

organizers

pushed Birmingham to the brink .

The honkies

bringing out dogs, tanks, water hoses on women and

children was too much for the African-Americans
stomach .

to

Within months mass demonstrations had occurred

all over the South .

In Philadelphia on May 27, an

interesting event

occurred, but for a large part went

organizers were attacked on a school
demanding jobs

unnoticed .

Black

construction site,

for Black workers ledwby the local

As the struggle went on

NAACP .

into the week, thousands of

Black workers and unemployed were mobilized,~being the

59

first mass direct action demonstration in the lVort'h of

the era .

A group named~RA, trad organized the demon-

stration using the NAACP as a front organization .

weeks,

the mass demonstrations

(regional)

Within

had spread from southern

to national with demonstrations

in Brooklyn,

Boston, Detroit and Chicago .

As a result of . the mass activism

South, a conference was held
"Black Vanguard" conference .

in the North and

in August, 1963 called

the

The students discussed

the forthcoming March on Washington and how it would

be compromised,

and began formulating

ideas of

in-

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

movement .

They decFded to continue nationalist activism

in the North, slowly building a nationalist consciousness .

1963 was climaxed by the assassination of Medgar
~Evera, Mississippi

leader, the bombing of six Black

cFiildreen while attending Sunday Schoo)

in Birmingham,

Alabama .
In the fall of
called

1963 the Grssroots Conference was

in Detroit, calling together grassroots

of the then civil

rights movement .

leaders

The Grassroots

Conference took a Black nationalist stand,

supporting

the

Freedom Now Party, an all-Black party organized during

the March on " Washington .
expelled

Then Brother Malcoim X was

from the Nation of

Islam and began to formulate

60

his own ideas . .

Twostudent movements had formulated,

one integrated, southern based organized mainly through

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

RAM began to recruit brothers and sisters from

the street,

it decided it couldn't just

group or movement, but had to expand

reamin a student

in o~rganlzation,

scope

and focus as a Revolutionary Black Nationalist movement .

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

that

is, Black

and

Internationalist

in

approach .
1964 can be seen as
protest era .

the year of transition of the

It was the transition from non-violent

protest to violent protest ; from regional, national,

civil

rights orientation to national,

international human

rights orientation .
Malcolm X's break from the Nation of
seen as

the major force in the development of this

transition :
Inc .,

Islam can be

Malcolm first organized the Muslim Mosque,

in March,

American Unity)

then the OAHU

(organization of Afro-

in June and made several

trips to Africa .

Within this period several developments were occurring .

One was the theoretical analysis o,f February

1964 by

61
Robert

F . Williams that African-Americans could win a

revolution

in America .

logical weapon

~This .thesis gave a potent

to the African-Amer.i can struggle and had

the effect of David Walker's Appeal

circles .

As

ideo-

of

1829. in many

the year progressed, many developments

occurred .
As

19.64 progressed, a group of Black students at

Fisk University formed a Black nationalist student

movement called ASM,
ment .

the Afro-American Student Move

ASM called the lst National

Afro-American Student

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

held

in Nashville .
Close to the time of the May lst conference, the

Nashville Student Movement of which some ASM members

were part, started mass demonstrations which resulted
in

bringing

King to Nashville in which he

blasted the

,conference in : his speech .

`

Prior to the conference, ASM organizers went to

t17e annual

SNCC. spring conference to

recruit partici-

pants and to get SNCC to turn to a Black nationalist

outlook and t,o identify more closely with Africa and
Brother Malcolm X .
The convening of ,the

ls .t National

Afro-American

Student Conference on Black Nationalism held May lst

to 4th in Nashville, Tenn .,~was
lyst

the

ideological

that eventually shifted the civil

cata

rights movement

into the Black Power movement .

months, ftAM organizers
Lewis,

Auring

the summer

through the agreement of John

then chairman of SN-CC, wentinto Mississippi

to work with SNCC .

RAM organizers soon came

into con-

flict with white SNCC workers, who opposed an all-Black

force and the practice of self-defense ; soon, RAM
began a movement to force whites out of SNCC .
Brother t)on Freeman,
Afro-American Liberation''

in his article "Black Youth and

in the Fa11, 1864 edition

of Black America describes the conference :

1-3,

"May

1964, the Afro-American Student Movement representing

young Nationalist groups and tendencies throughout the

North and South,

convened

in Nashville, Tennessee,

form a Black Nationalist Youth Movement . . .The

to

impotence

of traditional or "bourgeois" nationalism was examined .

The delegats agreed

that the traditional

nationalist

approach of rhetoric rather than action was

because it

ineffectual

posed no pragmatic alternative to "bourgeois

reformist" civil

rights activities . . .Nationalist

demands for an autonomous

Black American .economy were

termed bourgeois due to failure to differentiate such an

economy from capitalism and unfeasible because of the
white and Jewish capitalists'
"suburban colonialism"
Ghettos .
control

intention to perpetuate

- their exploitation of Black

The consensus was that Afro-Americans must

their neighborhoods,

but the realization of

this

63

aim necessitates,

in Rev : Albert~Cleage's terms,

"strategy of chaos"

involving more devastating civil

disobedience than the kind undertaken by the established

reformist groups ."
The participants supported Minister Malcolm (~f)
Shabazzs contention

that

it

is erroneous to define

Afro-America's fight as "civil

exclusively

in Congress ;

rights" and protest

instead, we should utilize

the UN Declaration on Human Rights and petition

in the

UnHted Nations for ''human rights ."

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

is a fundamental "Cultural

Revolution" - "Re-African3zation of Black People

America ."

"Re-Africanization" repudiates decadent

bourgeois, materialistic values and the "Rat

race" or

"oathological" egoism and individualism inherent

American society .

in

It embraces a humanism derivative

to the African heritage which exalts authentic,

lectual,

in

and spiri-tual

Intel

development and "Communalism", or

cooperation rather than exploitation .

"Re-Africanization

is preferable to American materialism as a source of

cultural
~nistory

values .

Afro-Americans must

know their authentic

in . Africa and America in order to demolish the

"psychological

rape" or

''indoctrination ."

inferiority instilled by American

The Afro-American's

the conception must be

self-,image and

revolutionized to foster a collective

64
ethnic

identity" as a unique Black people before .Black~

Nationalism can emerge

triumphant . . .The assembled

nationalists asserted that young nationalists are the

vanguard of a Black Revolution
create l)

an organizational

Nationalist ideology
Black financing to
disciplined,

in America,

but they must

apparatus to "translate"

into effective action ; this requires

insure Black control ; 2)

dedicated,

and decisive youth cadres willing to make

the supreme sacrifices

to. build and sustain .a dynamic

Nationalist Moveme.nt ."

The conference stimulated nationalist cells in the
North and polarized the contradictions
and Black field workers within SNCC .
sent organizers

into Mississippi

between white
The conference

to~work with SNCC and

to begin to build self-defense units .

Greenwood,

Miss,

became a base for revolutionary Black nationalist activity

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

of integration .

A showdown occurred

in Greenville, Miss 

in May at the Mississippi SNCC staff

meeting . Tfie brothers

from the field staff revolted

against the SNCC hierarchy then

Moses and the white radicals .

represented by Bob
By the next morning the

brothers"- Black nationalism had been drained from them

by their white female co-workers . .

This event and many

similar ones are what kept SNCC from turning Black

65

Nationalist much sooner .

Brother

in his "The Long, Hot Summet- "-

Roland Spellings

in the Fa11

edition of

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

the era .
RAM-Revolutionary Action Movement, had developed
into a national

movement by '64, electing Robert F .

Williams as

international

its

Chairman .

formation of RAM gave Robert F . Williams

The national
for the

first time since his exile, an organization and propaganda arm on the American mainland
transmit his ideas .
of RAM,

Mal,colm X,

was RAM s secret public

in which fie could

while not a public member

relations mass

spokes-

man whose role was to propagandize RAM's line and open

up avenue$ for ,the movement while the movement concent.rated on organizing underground,

independent small,

tightly-knit . cells of armed self-defense units capable

of moving

in times of community crisis .

itself as

the vanguard movement, highly disciplined and

centralized through common

ideology,

RAM described

thought and action .

While the movement had some organizational

form , it

considered

in America,

itself the Black guerilla force

or Black Liberation
weren't known .

Front .

Leaders of the movement

Only a Field Chairman was known,

something

like the Minutemec .

As a RAM propagandist, brother Malcolm's political
perspective became most profound

in

the period from April

66

to June 1964 .

During this time he emphasized

internationalization of our cause,

American-African
organization of

(Pan-African)
rifle clubs,

the

f creating Afro-

Unity, guerilla warfare,

economic and political

control' of the Black community (Black Nationalism=

Black Power).
Many persons have confused what Brother Malcolm
was all about since his death .

Very few have explored

his organizational objectives .

Since the author was

one of Matcolm's aides,

he shall attempt to~give a

brief analysis of what Malcolm was trying to do .

of the main

things Malcolm was trying

One

to do was to

bridge the gap between bourgeois reform and Black nationalism .

Malcolm understood

dialectics from common sense

and was planning a strategy of action for Black Nationalists .

He was a PevoTutionary Nationalist .

believed that

if Black Nationalists joined

rights movement

they would eventually

and transform it

take

Malcolm

the civil
it over

into a revolution .

Malcolm saw great similarities between the Algerian

situation and ours .

Upon returning from hi.s

to Africa, Malcolm called

A Black United

for a Black United

Front was his constant

He often said that

first trip
Front .

theme and objective .

the Afro-American couldn't

get any

outside support because different nations didn't

group to support ; therefore, a United

know what

Front was necessary .

67
To move

in this direction he formed the Organization

of Af ro-Amer i can Un i ty

("OAAU~' .

P"o l i t i cal l y he wanted to

form a Black Nationalist political party,

This party

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

The QAAU program hints at

this direction .

ization of Afro-American Unity will

"The Organ-

organize the Afro-'

American community block by block to make the community

aware of

its power and potential ; we will

start immediately

a voter registration dirve to make every unregistered

voter to the Afro-American community an

independent

voter ; we propose to support and/or organize political

clubs to run

independ-ent candidates for office . . ."

Malcolm planned through the Black Nationalist

party to provide a political alternative for Black
people . . .Self-defense was a major part of Malcolm's
program .

He

later had to de-emphasize

it b"e cause too

'many brothers started "packing" (carrying)

getting busted.

In

guns and

the Spring and Summer of

'64

Malcolm was developing a Black Studies program and was

demanding community control of schools .

"A first step

in the program to end the existing system of

racist

education is to demand that the ten percent of the

schools the Board of Education will

include in

its plan

to be turned over to and run by the Afro-American community .

schools .

We want Afro-American principals

We want Afro-American teachers

to, head these

in these schools .

68

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

acceptable to us

to be used

in these schools . . .We .must

establish all over the country schools of our own to

train our children

to become scientists and mathematicians .

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

retraining programs that will

emphasize a changing society

in which automation plays the key role : .,"

Malcolm also planned to establish a Black brain
trust .

He asked college students to do research and

to-send the research papers to him .

His description

of Black Nationalism as Black control of B ack communities

was a short-range plan .

He said he would hold out on

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

ready to accept a long-range plan .
envisioned a cultural

revolution :

On culture Malcolm
"We must .recapture our

heritage and our identity if we arE: ever to

ourselves from the bonds of white supremacy .
launch a cultural
people .

revolution

Our cultural

bringing us closer
It must

being in

participation :'
the civil

liberate
We must

to unbrainwash an entire

revolution must be the means of

to our African brothers and sisters .

the community and be based on community

Malcolm had

rights movement,

forming a national

in mind of going into

taking

it, over and eventually

liberation front patterned after the

FLN in Algeria and the N't.F

in Vietnam .

This was to happen

as the struggle was being internationalized .

These are

69
some of Malcolm's basic plans .

Malcolm was planning to

train guerillas and ryas a student of guerilla warfare .

Though many felt that Malcolm had changed his views,
he hadn't ; he only changed his tactics ; Malcolm told
this writer that he had made certain public statements
in order to get certain things done

intern a-tionally ; it

was a matter of tactics and notfiing else .

The overall

ramifications of Maleolm's plan are toa broad for this

essay .

hope to deal with them at some future date .

Brother Malik's message was one of unity of African

peoples throughout the world to unite against the
universal

stavemaster,

the European and the European-

American and to use any means necessary to obtain wmrld

Black liberation .
In October of 1964, ASM sponsored another student
conference but this time the conference was much more
political .
called

The purpose of the conference which was

the Black Revolution's Relationship to the

Bandung World, was to consolidate the efforts of the

May 1st conference participants and to expand on
13 points .

An example of the political

analyzed from some of

trend can be

the conference's content .

conference dealt with such subjects as :

its

The

"What the World

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

Qppressed Peoples,'' "The Birth of .the New World", "Black
Youth", "What is to Be Done" .

In . ;the

session "Black Youth :

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

7a

under the title of "Black Youth Manifesto", the

speaker outlined a detailed and ,step for step program of
how to establish Black .national~ist groups on Negro college
and would cause a cultural

campuses

revolution,

infil-

trating Negro fraternities and sororities and taking

over student government .

The speaker said that the main

role of these groups would be to .train Black nationalist

cadres to go back

into their local communities, setting

up Black institutes or liberation schools that would

train junior high ahd high school
of Black internationalism .

youth

in the ideology

The main role of the Black

re-education movement, the Black cultural

to organize Black youth

into apolitical

revolution, was
army

that would

mobilize and prepare the Black natioh for self-determination,

national

independence and massive collective self-

defense .

A progress

l.3 ,points was made .

report on tfi.e May lst conference's

The Ma . y 1st conference's

13 points

we re
1 .

Development of a permanent underground secretariat

to carry out plans .

2.

To push the bourgeois reformist as far "up

tempo" as fast as possible, while at the same time laying

a base for an underground movement .
3 .'
leader

The conference elects

in exile .

Robert

F . Williams as

71
Conference endorses moves towards African-Afro-

5.

American solidarity, to push for the restoration of the

revolutionary spirit to " Pan Africanism .
6.

Conference philosophy

is

Pan African Socialism

to be popularly known as Black Internationalism .

7.

Conference to establish internal

8.

Conference endorses the construction of a Pan

bulletin .

African Student Conference to become the first Black

Internationale .
Secretariat to contact all student liberation

9"

organizations around the world to develop a national organ

U .S .

10 .

Conference to develop a national

11 .

Conference

organ .

to organize Black Nation to charge

Imperialism of having comcaitted the crime of

Genocide against it before the United Nations .

12 .

Secretariat to develop program for revolutionary

Black nationalists .
13 .

Conference to develop two revolutionary

centers .
These Black Student conferences and their proposals
were advanced

in many respects and provided guidelines

for the later to develop Black Power Movement .

The year

1865 brought the "Statue of Liberty"

bomb plot frame up,

Malcolm X,

the assassination of Brother : .

and the firing of Dcn Freeman,

a Cleveland,

Ohio schoolteacher Erom his job _because he was a Black

72

Nationalist .

Two significant developments

in 1965 were

the emergence of Le Roi Jones and- .the Black Arts .Movemenu and the Watts,
of

Los Angeles rebellion .

In August

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

protest era,

the Watts rebellion .

uprising was the signal

The Los Angeles

of a transition between non-

violent and violent protest .

The Los Angeles rebellio

was a mass revolt against police brutality (the police

are the occupation troops, the colonial overseers of

a c,ap.tive colony) .

The Watts rebellion was the first

major mass violent rebellion having been part of a movement .

It was a colonial

ternal) colonialism .

uprising against domestic

(in-

The ,Los Angeles rebellion was one

of the first stages of urban guerrilla warfare and the

call
still

of the Watts freedom fighters, "Burn,

rings throughout

the world .

Baby, Burn"

While Dr . King was

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

foF~ming

in New York around Le Roi Jones was a Black Arts

movement which consisted of Black poets, artists,

writers,

musicians and actors, who began to theorize of how to

make Black Arts meaningful
cultural

to Black people .

workshops and conferences were held

a Black Cultural

Revolution

Several
in which line

began to be formulated .

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

streets,

instilling Black pride and self-respect .

From

his travels and speeches on Black campuses brother Roi

73

spread

the philosophy of Black nationalism and the

Black cultural

revolution

penetrated before .

in circles where it had never

In 19.66 Brother Le itoi

returned

to

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

working for B ack Community Control .'
During

1965 SNCC began discussing how to form a

Black student movement .

NSM began to organize Afro-

American

student groups of Black students on white

campuses

in

the North while SNCC again began to focus

on -Black students

in the South .

Another deveiopment

of great significance was the development of the

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

Lerning from the lessons of the Mississippi

Freedom Democratic Party,

all-Black political
Ala ., march .

SNCC decided to organize an

party in Alabama after the Selma,

SNCC had been going tl-frough

orientation resulting from John :Lewis'

internal

re-

trip to Africa .

Ahso, a group of Black students working in Atlanta

polarized the contradictions within SNCC between white
and Black workers ; the confrontations sometimes came
close to gun battles .
of pushing SNCC

These students served~as a catalyst

towards the Black Power position .

These

students were from the now infamous Atlanta Project which

led in demonstrations agains.t .the draft in

1966 and

developed the Black consciousness movement within SNCC .

In their position paper they stated, "In attempting

to

74
analyze where the movement

is going,

certain questions

have arisen as to tfie future roles played by white personnet

In order to make this

issue clearer, we have

written a few paragraphs, stemming from our observations

and experiences, which serve as a preview to a broader
study on

the subject . . .The answers to these questions lead

us to believe that the form of white participation, as

practiced in the past,

is now obsolete .

Some of these

reasons are as follows:

.

.The

inabilit y of whites to relate to the cultural

aspects of Black society ; attitudes . that whites, consciously or unconsciously,

themselves
people

(western

bring to Black communities a-bout

superiority)

(paternalism) ;

and about Black

inability to shatter white-

sponsored community myths of Black inferiority and

self-negation ;

inability to combat v:he views of the

Black community that white organizers being "whites,

tr`ol

Black organizers as puppets ;

corr-

insensitivity of both

Black and white workers towards the hostility of the

Black community on

the issue of

interracial "relationships"

(sex) ; the inwillingness of whites to deal with the roots

of

racism which lie within the white community ; whites

though

individually "liberal" are symbols of oppression

to the Black community due to the collective power that

whites have over~Black l.ives . . .ln an

attempt to find a

solution to our dilemma . . .we propose that our organization

75

(SNCC)

should be Black staffed,

and Black financed .

Black controlled .

We do not want to fall

similar dilemms that other civil

have fallen .

into a

rights organizations

(f we continue to rely upon white financial

support we will

find ourselves entwined

in

of the white power complex that controls

the tentacles

this country .

It is also

important that a Black organization

(devoid

of cultism)

be projected to our people so that

it can

be demonstrated that such organizations are viabl-e : . .

Toa long have we allowed white people to

interpret the

importance and meaning of the cultural

aspects of our

society .

us what was good

We have allowed them to tell

about our Afro-American music,

art and literature .

many Black critics do we have on the "jazz"scene?

can a white person who is
(except

in

How
How

not part of~ the Black psyche

the oppressor's role)

interpret the meaning

of the blues to us who are manifestations of the songs

_themselves? . . .A thorough examination must be made by
Black Peopd.e concerning the contributions we have' made
shaping this country .

if this

in

re-examina/re-evaluation

is not made, and Black people are not given their proper
and ude respect,

then the antagonism and contradictions

are going to become more and more glaring, more and more
6
intense until a national explosion may result . . ."
By Spring of 1966 SNCC was internally at war,

the

Black nationalists vs . the Black leftists who had trad-

76
itionally controlled SNCC's policy since its formation .
As quiet as

it's kept, the leadership that did emerge

was a compromise .
Brother Stokely Carmichael

in

1966 .

became chairman of SNCG

During the Meredith March

in Mississippi,

Willie Ricks, A SNCC field worker raised the cry of

"Black Power' .
rally .

The next night Stokely raised

it

in a mass

1966 became the year the Black Power movement

was born on a mass scale .

Black nationalist cells of

student began to emerge and enlarge as

took on mass proportions .

Even

for the movement, was still

the movement

SNCC, the catalyst

being pressured from within

and from the outside fo dp so .

In New York a Black Panther

Party formed to work in unity with the Lowndes County

Freedom organization,

but because of

internal

friction

among the organizers and heavy infiltration by the

intelligence section of the N .Y .Police Department, it
soon became defunct .

A major development of

Black Panther Prty was that

'

the N .Y .

it had made contact with . youth

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

formed the Black Panther Athletic and Social~Club and
later transformed themselves
Black Guards
Revolution
Cultural

into Black Guards .

The

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

to be effective,

it must be political .

The

Revolution must give our people a new political

and economic philosophy that

is

beneficial

to them before

77

the black nation wilt

be able to wage a successful

7
campaign for liberat.ion ."
From the Black Guards'
material

we gef . . ."Why is the Cu ltural

Revolution

Necessary?"
Because our people having been brainwashed, forced
to adopt`-the oppressor's ways and culture are backward
and must be re-educated that their present ways are
harmful

to their existence and the struggle for national

liberation and

independence .

" . .The purpose of a black cultural

revolution

is

to destroy the conditioned white oppressive mores,

attitudes, ways, customs,

philosohies, habits which the

oppressor has taught and trained us to have .

words,

to lose + our "negro" minds .

!n other

This means establishing

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

revolution

is a revolution of one's values and values

determine one's actions .

The reason why the Black nation

is not prepared for political

its cultural

revolution

is because

values are tied to the oppressor's system .

Once Black America's cultural

values are remade to

benefit Black people, we will

be prepared

A cultural

revolution

culture or way of

for liberat ion .

is a reconstruction of a people 's

life, occurring in a short span of

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

The black cultural
the culture of

revolution

is the reconstruction of

Black America to make

it

relate to the

78

world black revolution .

This means all

schools

in

the black community must move the Black nation to

cultural

revolution, Black survival

What does a cultural

values of a people,

and Black Victory .

revolution change?

It changes the

the way they think, act and react

to everything ; changes the social

habits of a people

(informal mores) ; changes the people's

to one another ; heavily influences

relationship

the family structure

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

people

(formal and

informal) ; changes the religion of

philosophy of a people ; changes the political and economic

and cultural

ideology of a people . . .A cultural

revolution

brings a new :
'1 .

interpretation _ clear analysis,

Historical

forms a new historical

continuity ; causes a re-evaluation

of self, nation and others

2.

Political

- presents a political system which

the nation has. power ;

in our historical

experience

living under democracy has produced Bath, misery, and

suffering for our colonialized nation, therefore . the
concept of a black people ; .s dictatorship of
is the political
be at

the new society

system that guarantees that we will

not

the mercy of a racist or bourgeois element of the

"

population .
3.

Economic - the cultural

economic system that

revolution

is beneficial

brings forth a new

to the black nation .

79

When the blackman was kidnapped by the slave system and

its developing counterpart, capitalism, the white man
was living under a feudalist system ;

a lave

the merchant class,

traders and coastal towns of Europe became

from the slave trade and the slave system that

cotton for the European

rich

produced

textile industry was one of the

first industries for the new white economic system known

as capitalism .

As a capitalist class began to develop,

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

control by the slave owner class .

in

The slave system was

the economic heart of America for some three hundred

years .

Once the merchants (middle men)

became

rich

from their textile industry in the~North and began

vesting

in-

in other fields off the profits he got from the

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

the slave system was of no more use to him so he began':
tp challenge the slave owners for. power over the country .
When he saw that he couldn' .t get control peacefully,
he fought and defeated

the slave owner class and~used you

and me as a piece of political propaganda

Civil War was over us

saying the

to trick the world into believing

he was a humanitarian and really had our interests at heart

The Civil War was a capitalist

revolution

class came to power .

We have

the capitalist

in America .

same as

system

it was under slavery .

The capitalist

lived over BOO years under

Our plight

is most the

The capitalists betrayed

80

us at the hands of the KKK when

they withdrew the Union

troops

Auring the Civil War

in

1878 from the~South . :

and early days ofi Reconstruction

they 'promised us 40 .

acres and a mule, but reneged on their promise because

they saw that giving the blackman

land would give him

power and would cause an agrarian

revolution

in which we

would form a communalist system in which the people had

control of the economy .

The cultural

revolution

presents the concept of Black Socialism or African

communalism (UJAMAA)
for the benefit of

where black people working together

the whole black nation and not for the

benefit of a few greedy uncle toms, control the economy

of the community .
~4 .

Social

and Cultural

changes the social

- the cultural

life of a nation .

It

revolution

influences

the family structure giving the black family a purpose

.and a new direction that will
power .

The cultural

help the nation come to

revolution changes all aspects of

the people's culture making it revolutionary, making

serve the

interest of the world black revolution ;

instance,

in the case of African-American singers and

it

for

musicians,

they would serve to heighten the people's

8
nationalist consciousness ."
LeRoi Jones in

his book Black Music said, !! . .The

slave ship destroyed a great many . forma1

of the Black man .

art traditions

The white man enforced such cultural

81

rape .

A 'Cultureless'

memory .

No history .

people
This

is a people without a

is~ the . best

state for slaves

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

The breakdown of Black cultural

tradition meant

finally the destruction of most formal

art and social

tradition .

the black pre-

American

Including the breakdown of

religious forms .

Forcibly so, Christianity

replaced African religions as the outlet for spirit

worship .

And Christian forms were traded, consciously,

for their won .

Christian forms were emphasized under

threat of death .
forms,

What

resulted was Afro-Christian

These are forms which persist today .

The stripping away, gradual embracing of mixed

Afro-Christian, Afro-American forms~is

an

initial

reference to the cultural philosophy of Blackpeople,

y
Black Art ."
Brother LeRoi Jones further explains
.Black Power in his article,
Base to Civil

"The Need for a Cultural

Rights and Black Power Movements"

in his

book, The Black Power Revolt, " . . .Black Power !s nationalization .

Absolute control of resources beneficial

to

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

it

is the total reflection of black people .

must be spiritually,

emotionally and historically

with black people, as welt

political ends .
of

Black powers
in tune

as serving their economic and

To be absoTutely .i n tube, the seekers

Black power must know what

it

is

they seek .

They must

82

what

is

this

power culture alternative through wh,i .ch

they bring to focus the .world's energies .

They must

have an understanding and grounding in the cultural

consciousness of the nations they seek to bring to
power . . .to provide the alternative,
strength for this

the new,

the needed

nation, they must proceed by utilizing

the complete cultural

consciousness of

this black

nation's people .

We should not cry black power unless

we know what that

signifies .

what

it

We .must know full well

is we are replacing white power with,

in all

its

implications .

We are replacing not only a white sheriff

for the values

that sheriff carries with him are,

fact, an extension of

the white culture .

That

in

black

sheriff had better be an extension ~of black culture,

or there is No Change :

. . .q culturally aware black

politics would wse ail

the symbols of the culture, all

the keys and

images out of the black past, out of the

b,~ack present,

to gather the people with a past clear

hack to the beginning of the planet, . channeling the

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

base, a black base,

is

the completeness

the

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

History (African and African-Americans
people absolutely
and with

in touch with

would put our

themselves as a nation,

the reality of their situation. .

to move to take power,

they must

You want them

know they can deserve

$3

this power . . .Black Power movements not grounded

~n

Black culture cannot move beyond .the boundaries of Western

thought ."
Brother Harold Cruse

in

his book 'Rebellion or

Revolution presents the same theme, "A truly radical

black program for social

change in America must

include

the elements of economics, politics, and culture in a

proper programmatic combination . . .
the Nation of
together

Islam used ,religion to bind Negroes

into a social

politics),

In the same way that

and economic movement

(without

the secular black radical movement must use

the cultural

ingredient

in black reality to bind

Negroes into a mass movement with economics and politics

. . .a cultural

revolution

in America cannot come as an

after-product of a political and economic revolution ; this

is a foreign historical
America,

the cultural

aborted)

must

be

path to radical
blocks within

scheme of social

revolution

progress .

(n

(which has also been

recognized as a way of opening up the

social

change by removing certain road-:

the system which are barriers against

political and economic

travsformation ."

his earl ier book, Cri s-i-s of

Cruse in

the Negro `Intel lectual , pre-

sented nationalists with an outline of struggle .

"The

program of Afro-American Nationalism must activate a

dynamism on dll

social

fronfs. under the guidance and

direction of the Negro intelligentsia .

This already im- .

84

plies that Afro-American Nationalism be broken down

into three parts :

political nationalism, economic

nationalism, and cultural

organizational

nationalism ;

in other words,

specialization ."

The Black Guards being a political

black youth

movement

agree with brothers LeRoi and Harold on the

cultural

revolution .

movement's main

They say the Black student

focus should

be on re-educating

the black

community and not seizing build- ings on white campu es .

Their view on Art and Cultore can be studied from their
Manual .~l : .

"Black revolutionary nationalist culture

is a good weapon for our people .

Black revolutionary

nationalist culture prepares

ideologically for the

them

program of the African People's party before the

revolution and serves as a motivator in the struggle for
national

liberation and independence .

and art must be a part of the National

Front and must serve as a weapon
and educate our people
All iniritings, plays,

Black litera.t.ure
Black United

to bring Black Unity

to the thoughts of the Party . . .

poems,

songs and art must be for

the people and must represent the people's

will

and destiny .

people must be
music,

RIB affecting 90

revolutionary

percent of our

transformed into message or grapevine

RIB must

be the mass cultural

transmitter of the

revolutionary black nationalist movement .

RIB, jazz .

singers, musicians and song writers must study the

8S

science of Black internationalism and learn how to

translate revolutionary theory through the lyrics of
their music .

Iw: :this way the whole cultural

will

our people

change ."

Black Guards have been active

cultural
youth .

mind of

revolution to high school

in

bringivg the

and junior high school

Starting activity on Negro colleges

they say

the true role of the black college student is to return

to the black community to set up community-based black
institutes
believing

and liberation schools .

in

Black Guards while

armed, self-defense like the Black Panthers,

concentrate more on oryanization and wisdom .

"High and junior high schools
flooded with culural,
propaganda after an

revolutionary and Black Guards

initial student group has been

formed . . .After making

a~rneeting should be

hould first be

contact with brothers

set up .

At

in the school

the meeting you can ..

discuss setting up Black History Clubs and BTacl Student

Leagues . . .During the summer months the Black Guards
(co liege students) can set up
communities

(especially southern communities)

someone's home or

renting a store front .

liberation schools wi~ll~come

the Black Guards
Guards .

liberation schools

These schools will

the

using

Out of

ideological training

and also serve as

in

these
for

a base for the Black

teach African and African-

American history and the philosophy of Pan Africanism . . .

86

The Black Guards are the protectors, defenders and reeducators of the black nation .

The Black Guards

are the

APP youth . league being a pan African youth movement .

Believing in the practice of self-defense, Karate and
other form sof hand-to-hand combat
national

pas~ttime .

achieved true

is the Black Guards'

Also believing that no nation has

liberation without the use of guns,

the Black Guards believe in Black people buying guns

like they buy wine and whiskey .
not believe in

But Black Guards do

letting the enemy know how many guns

they have by foolishly displaying

them before

the enemy,

selling him a bunch of wolf tickets that he usually

buys .

As the African proverb goes :

seen but :felt .'m

Having

(logistically speaking),

"A wise man is not

inferior forces materialistically

the element of surprise

is

the

key to winning a people's war along with complete organization of the people . . .ln order to build a strong student
movement and organization .
Black students must have their own communications
system .

Communications

and organization

is

the core or power and government .

To be effective,
city-wide and

is the heart of the organization

student organization must be

in order to have a strong city-wide student

organization, students must

in each school .

build strong student bases

The most successful

in liberation movements has been

type of . organization

the cell

or unit

structure

87

organization : . .This type of organization

teams of twos to three that

is

built . i n

pread the word or chain of

command from the leadership to the rest of the organization .

By organizing this way,

people `,s movements have been

able to organize and mobilize millions of people .

Student organization should be broken down

into three :

a.

communications - inside of the group and outside ;

b.

information ; c .

protection .

A.

Communications

would be concerned with getting the word out from the

leadership bf thestudent organization
body .

to the student

This would be by word of mouth, through code,

by courier-person delivering message (code)

by hand,

newspaper,

walkie-talkie,

student newsletter or

leaflet

Throughout

the organization would be a communications

person who would be responsible for making sure that

all

students

in

the school

knew what happened, why it

happened, what decision was made by the student leadership and what action should be taken and how it should
be carried out .
B.

Information

is

the student spy system .

The information

officers are responsible for knowing what everyone is

planning to do':

students, teachers, parents,

strators, police, community and the enemy .

report anything
and he
In

admini-

Students

they see or hear to .t,he information person

in return takes it back to~the student leadership .

this way the student leadership

is always aware and

88

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

~C .

Protection - ;unit

of the student body .

is

responsi-ble for the protection

When they need help they call on

other protection units from other student unions .

They are the hard core trained students
self-defense .

in

the arts of

Upon decision of the student leadership

the protection unit will move to protect the student

body and organization using the tactics developed

in

the student chain of command .

To avoid being crushed,
ized city-wide
Organization of

students should be organ-

into a city wide student union .

the union should be a city-wide co

ordinating committee made up of

student union . a

representatives from

City-wide activity should

be planned

by the coordinating committee and .through a student

chain of ca~romand selected by students carried out in
every school

through student unions .

informed on what's happening

To keep students

in each school, each student

union should put out its own newsletter in each high

and jr . high school, but to develop unity and organization,
students should first work to organize strong student
unions

in each of

control

their schools .

student government and should

in each class and grade .

students

These unions should

be welt-entrenched '

To arouse the interests of the

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

conferences on Black student power and Black history

in

89

their area and school .

Then after interest

has been

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

The year 1967 was the year the black cultural
revolution took on national

proportions and it was_

also the year the white power structure opened up on

the movement ; we call

it the WHITE POWER CONSPIRACY .

Early in 1867 a group of Black students

in Orangeburg,

South Carolina began protesting about the firing of a

white professor .

At Howard University a group of Black

students formed and began discussing creating a Black

nationalist student movement and cultural

revolution .

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

Dr . Nathan Hare ..

On March 21, 1967 these students

interrupted Hershey,

head of the Selective Service,

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

22, 1867 they held a press conference announcing

On March

the

formation of the Black Power Committee .

The Black Power
r
Committee, through its Black nationalist activism took
the Black student movement to a new level .

The Black

Power Committee's political understanding comes out

parts from its March 22.,,18.67 news
many a decade the black race
failure of

the Negro college .

swept potential

release :

in

"For full

in America has suffered the

Such

institutions have

theorist s . from the black community and

converted them into sterile lackeys for an oppressive

and morally decadent society .

As of now,

the situation

0
shows no signs . . .of mending itself, and indeed appears
to grow worse each hour of the day . . .We must unite or
perish . . .we must have complete overhauling of the
present curricula and the building of courses of study
more pertinent to the present and future demands of
the black st.ruggle. . . .in America and the world .
for example,

a major African language,

Swahili

should be com-

pulsory just as major European languages are compusory

now .

At

the same

vigorous campaign

time,

it

is necessary to launch a

to change the names of -black univer-

sities~to commemorate the courage and deeds of black

thinkers and theorists rather than white imperialists
l5
and their black lackeys ."
The Black Power Committee didn't stop .
until Howard

University's administration expelled

students and fired Dr . Hare .

of the Black Cultural

occurred at Howard in
198 .

revolution and student movement

that

1867 and San Francisco State College

The Black Power Committee he . ld . a Black Committee

held a Black Power Conference

May 27.,

some

The present developments

to a large extent are influenced by events

in

It agitated

19.67 .

Some of the resolutions show how the

students were thinking :

l5th amendments

in Washington, D .C . on

''We

reject

the 13th,

loth, and

to the Constitution which brought us

under hypocritical

U .S .

law without the consent .

This

was in violation of our human rights as now set forth

9t

in the United Nations charter .

The national
for a National

Black Power Committee therefore calls

African-American Congress for ,the purpose

of drafting the principal bjectives and perspectives

of the African captive nation and to draft a Declaration
of

Independence .

organize on
develop an

'the

The National
local,

Black Power Committee will

state and regional

levels to

independent governmental voice and economic

control of our communities,

the right to self-defense

and the right to refuse to serve imperialist wars

of aggress ion .
fihe National

Black Power Committee charges the U .S .

government with genocide t the systematic psychological,

physical, mental and cultural

castration of our people .

We charge the U .S . government with flagrant disregard

of the United Nations charter in failing to endorse
the section dealing with "Human . Rights ."
We demand that the United States government pay
Reparations for centuries of enslavement of African
peoples .

We demand the unfulfilled promise of "40

acres and a mule" for twenty-seven million African

captives, plus

Reparations for the inhuman cruelties

of enslavement and for the severance of our African

heritage and lineage as manifested

in the dehumanizing

of the African into a concoction called

We call

the_"negro" . . .

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

92

us

in forming a Black United Liberation`Front .

Af ter

careful deliberation, we have concluded that Robert

Williams, among the many others who qualify to lead us
in

this gigantic struggle, best

represents

aspirations of our captive people

national

liberation .

convention

the highest

in their struggle for

Therefore, at this historic

in Washington, D .C ., May 2o.th,

X967, we
~6
elect-Robert Williams as our first Premier .= . ."
Black students took up the Black Cultural
and began to demonstrate,
campuses, and then
Nov .

first on Negro college

in high and jr . high schools .

t7, 1967, 7,000 $lack students

marched on

Revolution

On

in PhiTadel .phia

the board of m'is-education demanding~Black

History classes, a revamping of the curriculum, the

wearing of African dress
and natural

(national dress)

to school,

hair, and the right to salute the Black

Nation's flag - the red,

black and green .

The students

were attacked by the white racist police force, which

framed more than 30 Black nationalists
"riot conspiracy''

in

the summer of

student movement began to grow by

1968 Black students
seizing school
up to 30,000

in

in a so-called

'67 .

But the Black

laps and bounds .

in places never heard of were

buildings, boycotting classes en masse,

Chicago .

Black students

battled police

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

schools .

By

93

Questions of the cultural

revolution :

present resurgence of Black pride is

beginnings of a Black cultural
revolution

The

in essence .t he

revolution .

The cultural

is the base of the Black Liberation movement

for it allows a significant number of people to participate in the movement

know how .

The cultural

iogical .

in

the only way they presently

revolution

is basically psycho-

Maulana Karenga describes

being fought now is a revolution

our people .

If we faii

it, " . . .The revolution

to win the minds of

to win this we cannot win the

violent one ."

The cultural

revolution changes Black people's

basic psyche, that

beauty,

Before the cultural

themselves
Saxon

is, changing the cultural

as ugly .

revolution, Negroes saw

They worshipped the white,

image of beauty :

blue eyes, white skin,

bland hair, sharp, small nose, thin

hips .

context of

Anglolong

lips and small

Negroes constantly tried to change their basic

cultural, physical, Afroid traits and tried to look as

close to the white, Anglo-Saxon
For years the image of

the .ideal

image as possible .
Negro was

light skin,

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

small" Anglo-Saxon features .

(n essence the mu,iatto

or near mulatto wes the ideal

image .

merged

themselves

Black . women sub-

in weekly practice of going to the

hairdresser to get their hair "done" fried lifeless to

look straight, or curly,

-Skin bleach was used to

like the -white woman's :

lighten one's complexion .

Any number of gadgets were devised to make the Negro

woman more "beautiful", dig that .

in

a1 so caught up

The Negro man was

the psychological castration .

In

the

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

(processes) .

Oo's became a subtle symbol of rebellion

of the aggressive man or what the Negro man thought was

aggressive .

But since 1966 the lifestyle of many Black

people has changed .

as people.

First comes the definition os us

The late Ma .lcolm X described that

"Negro" was used

the word

in a derogatory way,had negative

connotations attached to

it and meant nothing historic-

ally .

He preferred to use the word Afro-_American or

18
African-American .
Afro-American, African-American, Black and African
have become new definitions of African peoples held
4

captive inside the United States .

Overseas African .
in use .

"Negro"

So the cultural

Some people used

Black has became the most common

is now used to describe an

revolution

Uncle Tom .

has brought a revolution

the thinking of the Black people

in America in the way '.

they see themselves ; seeing themselves as African,

people and feeling proud .they are Black .
revolution

in

in

That

Black

is a

itself, because only a Black person knows

the psychological change Black people have gone through

95
in the last

ten years and what

.in social movements,

it means to Black people .

before major political and economic

changes come about, a psychological change among the

people occurs, a change

in mood . .~ln the African~American

revolution

this change

in mores .

Racism and psychological degradation has

become

in mood

institutionalized

America's culture .

deepens to be a change

in America and has become

Revolution uprrots the old

cul-

tural standards and replaces them with new culture

standards .

This

Black community .

i s what

:a s, happen i ng

i ns .i de the

black youth are especially affected

in the cultural . revolution .

More Black men and women

are wearing their hair natural .

in

remember back

1863 and 1964 there were quite a few brothers wearing

their hair

in .Afro style, but you could almost count

the sisters with naturals on your hands .

Now the Black

community looks like an African village .

Young Black

women are being liberated in

their sense of being

beautiful and the brothers dig it .

look more beautiful .

The sisters even

From a blackman's pout of view,

Black women are fine with their hair fried or not .

But

when a sister hasher hair fried she looks sleepy or

mentally dead .

A conscious Black man will' just

that something is wrong that

off .

It's

throws her whole appearance

that mop ; the fried sky :

goes natural,

feel

something happens .'

But when the sister

The sister`s outer

96

and inner beauty just shows through .

self .

She's her natural

Her hair brings out her beautiful big brown or

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

juicy lips .

Why, a brother has to struggle to keep his

Jones from .droppin' .

What

is so hip is that at

last

Black people are truly diggin' and loving one another

with no hang-ups .
always be

As

long as society exists there will

ideal symbols of beauty :

But dig brother, who

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

sister, Malcolm X or Rock Hudson?
is there?

Or

There's : :no comparison,

Not if you dig yourself .

There is no question

that Abbey and Malcolm should be the symbols of. manhood and womanhood for Blsck America :
who you want to be

Because that's

like or you want to find a man or

~worman like that person both consciously andWnconsciously - that's what cultural

identific ;~tion

is all about,

whoever you idealize .

Eldridge Cleaver secribes the concept of beauty :
"Our concepts of beauty enter our minds through social
indoctrination .
plexion,

We think a person with a certain com

a certain type oftair, a certain shape of

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

possessed of beauty, not because he

is

is beautiful per se,

but rather because we have been culturally Conditioned

to look upoWthe~particular traits of which he

is

possessed as being the most desirous, the most becoming,

97

the most beautiful . . .

When we judge ourselves~by the Caucasian standards
of beauty and find

that

it does not fit us,

if we have

accepted that standard as absolute, then our reaction

is not merely that we think our own individual
ugly,

it extends much farther than that ;

every facet of our existence,

it

selves

it touches

influences the very

value which we set on ourselves as

individuals,

it

colors our thinking and oUr opinion of the race as a

whole - in short = it
Black cultural
the cultural

has a disastrous effect ."

So

identification with Blackness affects

institutions within the Black community .

It affects the school, home, church and businesses .

tt affects they whole cultural
The cultural

life .

revolution has affected some Afro-

Americans mode of dress .

wear dashikis, bubas,

Many African-Americans now

and African . wraps as symbols

of their new Black consciousness .

Young people especially

have changed their mode of dressing .

The cultural

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

Such

is the case with college students who used to be

uptight in sports jackets and ties. and are now donning

bush

leather jackets and army jackets,

Nehru jackets,

tunics and other varied forms are accepted as even formal

dress .
shirts .

Ties'are becoming obsolete for tuttl,eneck

A woman's wrap can substitute for an evening

gown .

Of course, these changes haven't affected, all

social

circles, especially the inner circles of Black

bourgeoisie .

lf the African-American owned the means

of production of producing his 'own clothes and if the

social

norm accepted the African-American wearing his

own cultural
African

style, we~would see millions wearing

(movements"clothing

in the present era .

though wearing of movement clothing

to work

ally unaccepted, many youth have~led

African clothing

Even

is basic-

struggles to wear

to school .

Because the African-American doesn''t control any

social

insitutio:ns in American

revolution exhibits

society,

the cultural

itself only through forms that the

African-American can express this change

a minimum amount of conflict .

in value with

One of the avenues the

African captive is allowed to express himself in

through music .

,Over the last

ten years Black music

has undergone .a gradual but significant change .

greatest change, has been
music .

dangerous

The

in'.the development of message

Messge music is not new .

slavery,

is

It was passed on from

but isn't sung much because it was considered

in

the past .

In a sense, all

Black musl:c

is

message music .

What makes message music different in

the present era

is that

political statements

the lyrics are clear social

in musical

form .

and

Message music

was revived by the jazz artists, notably Max Roach and

99

Abbey Lincoln, and later this trend

rhythm and blues, singers .

influenced some

Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln

set the trend in

1860 with Freedom Now Suite and

followed up with

later albums Bitter Sweet and Members ,

Don't Get Weary . Oscar Brown,

Jr .,

contributed much

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

Oliver Nelson followed suit with Afro-American Sketches .
Cannonball
Preacher

Adderley created African Waltz , and Coun try

is

Breadbasket .

dedicated to Rev . Jesse Jackson and Operation

Rufus Harley's Profiles for Cou- rage with

his unique bagpipes gives a penetrating sound .

late John Coltrane

let with message music with African

Brass , Love Supreme,

internal

The

Kula Se Mama, and others .

dynamism seemed

anything he played .

Coltrane's

to make message music out of

He was a prophet and like Bird

(Charlie Parker)

before him,

American music .

Coltrane, more than any other musician,

revolutionized African

has become a spiritual

symbol

Being a spiritual man,

he encouraged Black youth to have

a new spiritual outlook on

for Black revolutionaries .

life and developed around him

a new breed of Black musicians .

playing Black revolution
has dedicated some of
and pharoah Sanders,

These brothers are

in their music .

Archie Shepp

his music to the late Malcolm X

in his latest album Karma , seems

to f .it the vibratory pattern of Coltrane :

Coltrane

not only a Black legend, his music remains with us

is
as a

too

spiritual food of the cultural

revolution .

Rhythm and blues began to shake in

Martha and the Vandellas'
with Dancin'

'63 with

Heat Wave, and then

In The Streets .

Dancin'

in

1964

1n The Streets

had a particular SOCIAL significance because

it was

released right after the first wave of urban rebellions .

In 1965 Sam Cooke produced the historical
Gonna Come .

A Change

1s

This was followed~by the Impressions'

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

Winner .

Aretha Franklin came close to the message

music with Think .

And then

thing with Say - It - Lou d,

'68 there has been an

in 1968 James Brown did his

I'm Black and !'m Proud .

increase

like Black Pear-1, Hard Times,

Is

in message music .

Songs

Concrete Reservation,

It Because I'm Black?, Tryin'

Flack, Mississippi- Goddam

Since

?-imes by Roberta

(done in 1966), To Be Young ,

Gifted and Black by Nina Simone, Thank You , by Sly and

the Family Stone,

B lack Woman by Don Covay and Message

From a Blackman by the Temptations aye becoming more

common .

And

if

the cultural

develop up tempo,
day will

it

revolution continues to

is hoped that all Black music one

be message music .

The main question now is which .direction wilt

cultural

revolution

take?

Within

the

its ranks are two

trends, both bidding for influence and power .-

They

are bourgeois nationalism and revolutionary Black Nation-

tol

alism .

Ernie Mkalimoto in r'Revo~lufraonary Black Culture :

The Cultural

Arm of Revolutionary iVationalism'' describes

cultural : nationalism :

"Cultural nationalism . . .is the

expression of the struggle to promote/sustain a particular way of life, a devotion

the national

community,

to that way of

life within

but a struggle either divorced

from politics, or one in which so-called cultural

im-

peratives are allowed to dominate political necessities ."

Cultural nationalists! main theme
molds all facets of

life .

is that culture

In contrast, revolutionary

Black nationalists believe any given culture is a reflec

tion of the politics and economics of a given society .
Revolutionary nationalists believe that a people's
cultural

revolution will

only come about when the people

begin to transform through struggling against the system .

They believe a cultural

revolution

's

the ideological

reflection of a political and economic

Cultural

revolution

isn't just wearing a dashiki,

Cultural

buba or being super-Black .

transforming the cultural

revolution .

revolution means

mores of the Black community .

i'seudo-bourgeois super-Black intellectuals cannot bring

forth a cultural
African people
Cultural

revolution .

Guttural

revolution among

in America must come from the street .

revolution must be well

imbedded

i~

the, fiber and

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

by being firmly rooted

in

the Black community will

Only

Black revolutionaries

be able

o~ take the present street

culture of our people and transform it

for liberation .

into a force

FOOTNOTES
Freeman, pon, "Black Youth and Afro-American
Libera tion," Black America, (Fall , }964)
2
3
4

BlackNationalism in America, p . 425

Ibid .,

424

Ibid ., p .

May 1st Conference, "13 Points", Revolutionary

Nat ion al_i_s-t (No . 1 , Vol . 1 )
6
7
8

9
.

1 0.
11

Black Consc_i -ousness Paper . Att.anta SNCC

Black Guards Study Manual No .
Black Guards Study Manual
Jones, LeRoi, Black Music , p .

18.2

Jones, LeRoi, Black Power Revolt, p .

138-144

Cruse, Harol d . ' . Reb_el_l 'vom~ .'or- ;Revol u'twi.~on

p . 246-247

12. .

P " 452

CrusE, Harold, Crisis of the Negro Intellectual,

13. .

Black Guards Study Manual

No :

Black Power Committee, News Release, March 22, 1967

Black Power Conference, News `Rel'ease , Washington,

D . C ., May 27, 1967
17
195
18

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

Malcolm X - Conversation

19

Cleaver, Eldridge, "As Crinkly As Yours",

Negro-- H i story Bul l et_i n, XXV (March, 1962) , p, 12.7.-132
20

Mkalimoto, Ern're, "Revolutionary Black Culture :

The .Cultural Arm of Revolutionary Black Nationalism",
Negro Digest, (December, 1969), p . 13

105

REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM AND THE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDENT

"For years the Afro-American student

has been .

faced with contradictions of trying to assimilate

into

a society that had no room for him ."

THE WORLD OF REALITY AND THE WORLD OF THE AFRO-STUDENT
The world of the Afro-American student has changed
tremendously since World War 11 .

Prior to that time

only a few Afro-Americans ever got a chance to go to

college .
II

Afro-American college youth before World War

were from the established black middle class and

very seldom associated themselves with the black-working class .

After the war and during the early fifties,

more and mork: black working-class families were able to

send

their children off to college .

Contradictions

began to polarize among black students when this happened .

The crystallization of

these contradictions

development of the sit-ins,

freedom rides,

led to the
etc .

Black

working-c1as5 families with bowrgeois aspirations attempted

to force their offspring into a society that had no place
for them .
The myth of a "college education and having
was finally beginning to crumble .

it made"

For generations

the black American had figured that by obtaining a

l 0 6'

college education he would be

stream of American

integrated

into

the main

Bu .t what h.as happened

life .

is

that

the Afro-American has produced-a whole generation

(war babies

that has made

it

to the top of whitey's

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

there is no "pie
years,

in the sky" .

Now,

after all

these

the black student is faced with the fact that

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

degree before being able to survive in this society :
With the rise of automation
faced with a new dilemma :

the Afro-American Student is

The job market

is

shrinking,

qualifications are getting higher and, competition

sharper .
when he

The black student must face many contradictions

leaves school

subjective, since he
the world
world will

and finds out that reality i -s

is taught

is objective .

He

accept him if he

of color ; but he

leaves

savage, white world .

is

in the classroom that

taught that

the white

is qualified regardless

school

only to find a hostile,

In many cases t,his~has led to

revolt among black youth .

Most Afro-American students,

not being ab'e to cope with the sharp contradictions

openly, have created a little protest world of their own
This world is called

the "hip society'' .

The hip society is a result of conditioning and of

the last hope that

the American dream is

truer The

hip society transcends all class barriers among blacks

10.7

and has its .own :social,values :.arid norms .

The h'ip society

is developed from the frustration of not being able to

do anything about one's condition and serves as a
release from daily pressures .

The hip society its built

around the concept of manhood and womanhood,

rei= lecting

a lack of security and identity, and alienation .

man who can make the most women,
maintain his "cool"

The

dress the best and

is considered a hero among his peers :

The woman who gets the most "noses open",

climbs

the

ladder with prestige men, and can jilt a cat and not
mean nothing to her is supposed to be

into something .

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

most of them go
pressions such
tak i ng

to college to find a husband .

E:x-

"into something, all that's good,

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

hip society .

Adherents of the hip society release

themselves by being "hard", digging jams

to jazz records), "getting off"
through dancing to rock

'n'

(listening

(releasing frusi:ration

roll), .smoking pot, tasting,

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

business" (loose sex morals, sometimes see orgie:s) .
hip society is a hedonistic society. . .it
extreme pleasure

seeking

in order to forget about the

reality of the hard contradictions

must face .

is built on

the' black student

The

10 8

We can see that the Negro callege

factory" :

is

truly a~"freak

Built upon an escape from reality,

it

becomes a "professional'! house Chat breeds prostitutes,

perverts , and "f reaks"
are white .

(black people who th i nk i:hey

The world of the Afro-American student is

built around a complete escape from reality and tries to

strengthen the concept of being able to make
this society .

It reinforces capitalism, takes on

extreme patriotism and drowns itself

strife for prestige :

in the internal

The black student is geared

becoming more an all-American boy or girl

white student .
"extra white'',
make it .
of

than

1:he

neat, nice and respectable in order to

Therefore,

conformity to the sdcial

norms

the hip society becomes a protective measure .

It

if he steps out of his armor

he won't be able ~to survive in

This

to

The black student has to be extra good,

warns the black student that

on

in

it

the outside world .

is one of the reasons why stress

is

being hard, tough, emotionless--,because of

planed
tFie un-

conscious realization of the rough road ahead .

CONTRADICTIONS OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDENT'
The Afro-American student must
dictions .

If his background

is of

face many contrathe working class,

then he faces the contradiction of becoming something

10 9

that his family has oriented him to both envy and . .hate .
The concept of .the black bourgeoisje not being able to
"let their hair down" be down to . the nitty gritty, constantly alienates and antagonizes him .
that

in order to be successful

He also finds

in his field and be

with people of his position, he must take on ways

he had previously considered "phony" .
diction of black students
their aspirations .

level

in failure to reach

society has little or no place

The constant living a lie,

(college)

Another contra-

They sometimes realize that,

because they are black,

for them .

lies

that

completing dream

education and still having to struggle

for human existence is

the sharpest contradiction for

the Afro-American student .

The more black students

learn

about the outside world the morethey realize that there

is

little chance for them to make fiheir goal ; thus they

settle for some

hits

lesser choice .

the black students square

not he wants to admit

This contradiction
in the ,face whether or

it .

The contradictions for the black student are

beginning to polarize .
the sit-ins,

This

pod~arization has led to

freedom rides, mass demonstrations,

black nationalist youth organizations and finally the

riots

in

the summer of

18.64 .

our enslaved black nation

pletely new outlook .

What

is~developing for

is a generation with a com-

Out of this generation

is

developing the revolution. a r~r intelligentsia capable of

a soc:ial

revolution cannot

develop until all means .of ~egal protest have been

exhausted and the image of ~ourgeois democracy is
destroyed .
is

This

is when a r~evolufionary

intelligentsia

of the ultra-right, Gold-

produced .

see more clearly that for

means and has always
course we all shou'Id know
e been exhausted .
e "war baby" generation

is

his system are beginning

The ."war baby" gene; ration
was the generation that was supposed t'o have . "arrived",
to get the "pie

in the skyr" .

This generation

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

sky was a trick bag .
matter what

They a lso see that

in the

it daescn't

they do, how qua lified they are,

never arrive .

isc slowly

they will

t t was nat un til black America could

develop a generation capable of being "on top"

in the

capitalist system, that the contradictions of the

system could totally crystal l ize:. and a revolutianary
intelligentsia develop .
ring true :

Hee~ce the words .of Dr . DuBois

A system that enslaves you cannot

free you ."

THE HIGH SCHOOL AND JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL AFROAMER1 CAN STUDENT
Overt social
usually begins

in

protest for the Afro-American student

the junior high school .

By the time

a black youth reaches the age of. 14:, he begins to feel

the contradictions of his relationship to this society .
He is
make

led to believe in school

that

he

it~'if he tries", and after school

again and enters the hip world .

run snack into a brick wall

is white "can
he becomes black

The feeling of being

by the educational system

is being felt by junior high and high school

students .

t o the South more and more junior high acid high schooi
students are leading the movement, whereas in 1960
it was the black college youth who were
of the movement .
junior high school

the vanguard

We see in the North black high and

youth touched off the riots in Harlem

and played a major role

in the riots in other cities .

If black college youth are feeling that there

is nowhere

for them to go, then :it will

to tfie black

high and junior high school

surely seep down

youth .

The only

role left

Almost every black community has gangs .

Very few

for them

is to rebel .

GANGS

people understand the natureaF these gangs and how they

can be transformed into a constructive force for Black

liberation .

Gangs develop because .b lack youth have

no out in this white man's racist, capitalist

system :

Afro-American youth have no room for expression

savage society .

in this

They have no image of manhood ~or

womanhood that they can identify with .

Black youth

know unconsciously that they are not a part of the

"man's world" .
velops .

Thus,

The gang

in contrast, the hip world de-

represents organization,

and power for black youth .-

Living

in a hostile world

they experience no we of these things .

belonging,

The feeling of

being part of something "boss"

part of a gang .

This sense of

identity,

is a big

identity leads to

organization of a gang and from the gang's strength

and

influence comes

its power .

This comes from the

feeling of being powerless over one's destiny (the

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

Gangs are the most

community .
sisters,

Instead of fighting their brothers sand

they cap be trained to fight "Charlie" 

can be developed
army)

dynamic force in the black

that will

into a blood brotherhood

They

(black youth

serve as aliberation force in the

Black Revolution .

BLACK NATIONALISM AND THE AFRO-AMERICAN STUDENT

Many changes have occurred

in the world of the

Black student since the convening of the first black

conference on black nationalism which was held

in Nashvile,

Tenn ., by the Afro-American Student Movement

1964 .

This conference, while small

in

in number, represented .

a growing tendency among black students and black youth

towards a new trend of black awareness among black
people .

The black nationalist, trend spread among black

students, and in

1966 the Atlanta SNCC project drafted

a black consciousness paper that had much to do with

moving SNCC

from a policy of

integration to Black Power .

The emergence of the slogan Black Power was the

turning point for the black student community .

'The

concept of black power challenged the whole value struc

ture of the Negro community .

In essence it forced black

people to think about black people

as powerless .

in the United States

Black Power challenged the pseudo-class

structure of the middle class Negro satiety a nd black

became the new and fashionable thing ;
to be black :

it was now hip

.

Though these changes may sound superficial,

they

were necessary steps in altering the hip society of

black student :

the

The hip society was a result of condition-

sing and of

the false hopes of the American dream ""

(bourgeois-equal-existence with

whites) .

it transcended

all class barriers and had its own social

norms .

values and

It was built on escapism, to escape the reality

of a racist society and of the necessity to change that

society if our people were to achieve liberation .
making "black" popular,

By

the values of black students

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

black America .
sti11

This value ; cultural

revolution,

is

in process .
Each day the black student faces more and more

contradictions .
oppressed nation,
colonial

Being the more eiiucaLed class of an

it is sociologically the potential

bourgeoisie, but like colonial bourgeaisies

of all oppressed nations,

their class interests cannot

be fulfilled under the colonial

regimes .

Because

America is a racist capitalistic society,

it cannot

absorb all black students as a class into its economic

system because its system is built on

racial and economic

exploitation .
be future black

For the most part black youth will

workers .

The black worker is a super-exploited  wage

slave, meaning that he still a slave .

slavery has been changed,

Only the name of

the condition remains almost

the same .
Black students, therefore,

like all

black people,

are discriminated on the basis of

class alone .

race and not that of

Being an educated class, black students

have traditionally had "higher expectations" from the

system than most black captives .But as

the struggle

intensifies, and more and more black students become

alienated from the system because they cannot achieve
their goals within the system, black students will
transform as a class ; from being a bourgeois
alienated elite~to becoming a revolutionary
asimlton,
nationalist intelligentsia for the movement, developing
a vanguard on

the road to independent nationahood .

Faced with growing contradictions of fighting for

a system that enslaves us, fighting
Vietnam and for ,.democratic rights

in a racist war in

in America,

students began to develop an anti-imperialist,

colonialist attitude .

The turning point in

black
anti-

this attitude

ahd the black student movement came on March 21,

1967

at Howard University when a group of black students

chased selective service director Hershey off Howard's
Champton Auditorium stage,

chanting "America is the

blackman's battleground ."

what

As the year continued,

these students engaged in

they called a cultural

revolution at Howard, a

re-channeling of the student body's values

Howard

from a "negro co11ege with white

black university

toward changing

innards'" to a

relevant to the black community and its

struggle .
Black students at other colleges slowly began to
pick-up an what was going on at Howard, and by

1968

the black studies rebellion had swept San Francisco

State College and on
across

to campuses

(white and Negro)

the country and had spread as well

high schools .

to black

In the process of the black rebellion,

middle class European values began to be swept away .

.

By 1969 the black studies revolt had hit over 50 Negro

- .
colleges alone .
The black student movement

that was just a small

nucleus four years ago has now taken on proportions of

a mass movement with wide ramifications for the black
community .
lution,

In

Ness

the cultural

than three years of

internal

revo-

values of the black student's

world have been challenged and are in the process of

being remolded .

The world of the Afro-American student

which was once built around a complete escape from

reality is now striving to "relevant" to the black
.

comunity

With more and more students

coming

working class backgrounds (families)

reality-based, striving to make
the needs of their mothers,
sisters at home .

from black

they are mare

their education meet

fathers, brothers, and

This growing sense of

reality in the

student Community is producing a new sense of black love,

respect,

pride, and nationalism in the overall black

community .

Black students are no longer trying to become

white, and if black students

don't want to become white,

(the future bourgeoisie)

then who does anymore?

The process of destroying the false class barriers

between black college students and the black community
is a difficult and important task .
the two was a false one,
historical

scars .

didn't want

The friction between

but one tfiat has left many

Previously, black college students

to associate with

the "brother" and "sister"

from the streets because they wanted to be as white,

as European, or respectable as

possible .

But now,

with the upsurge of black awareness, ,this is changing

and, the black college student is coming back home .
(What this
that

is

is,

in essence,

is a cu .itural

first affecting the colonial

or petty bourgeoisie who,

revo lution

alienated elite

through a process of r'e-

orientation and .re-organization, will

develop into a

revolutionary nationalist intelligentsia which will

play a significant role to independent nationhoo d
rn our democratic revolution .)
In most nationalist revolutions the beginnings have
come from student movements ; students who are the
potential

petty national

nation who no . longer seek

bourgeoisie o'f the colonialized

integration with

the mother

(colonial)

country,

but begin to demand

independence,

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

This has not happened yet with .the black student movement because the movement
stage .

But as

is still in the transitional

the cultural

revolution and students

become more politically sophisticated,

the question of

an

become a popular

independent black nation-state will

demand .
The cultural

revolution which began in

19b6 with

the call

for Black Power and which reached mass pro-

portions

in

1967 has now affected the vast majority

of Black America .

The contradictions of the Vietnam

War and the rise of unemployment among black youth are

rapidly affecting the African-American student .

To the

extent that the contradictions polarize, the student

community ha< changed .
Prior to 1964,
school

little attention was paid to high

and junior high school youth by black revrilu-

tionaries .

In

1967 black nationalists began to organize

high school

youth which resulted in high school

organizing themselves, and in October,

black high school

1967,

youth

five thousand

students went on strike and held one

of the first major black high school

demonstrations

for black history and black freedom in the country .

Since that time, black high school

students have become

a new dynamic force in the black revolution, and

eventually they may be forced to play a vanguard role .
The cultural

revolution

in the black high school and

junior high school community has~more far reaching

ramifications than

in the black college community

because the black high school

student is

directly tied

cent of them will

(and junior high school)

Lo the community .

Ninety per

be the future black workers,

and mothers of Black America ;

fathers

the generation yet to

come .
If the black revolution

is

to grow and continue,

these students must be trained in revolutionary-nationalist .theory, practice, and organization and must be
geared to carry the revolution on .
wilt

then become an

new cultural

inter-oenerational'revolution,

dynamic producing the cultural

the~next gnerati.on .
of schools is

The black revolution

The struggle

its

values of

for community control

therefore a struggle to nationalize

schools in the black community ..

In order to make

education relevant to black folks,

black nationalist training centers .

schools must become

Education for black

children must be black nationalist education, a black

nationalization of the educational

system .

This

is what

black studies means to black students .

The struggle for community control of schools is

a struggle to gain control or power over the system

that affects eight to ten million black youth .

'The

fierce struggle for black student power will occur in

the high school

and junior high schools as more and more

students gain the awareness of the necessity for community

control .

The struggle for black history courses,

the

wearing of hair natural, and the wearing of national

dress are beginnings of the black student tevolution .
But the real
to say :

test will come when black students begin

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

demand all black teachers ."

We

This will be another

degree in the nationalization of the school

systE:m :

Ta demand black teachers, principles, and administrators

who are relevant~to the black community .
The next step comes

in the demand to change the

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

after black liberation fighters and the right to salute
the black nation's flag

(the red, black and green)

the right to fly it over the school at all

comes the complete change

times,.

and
Then

In curriculum to make of

relevant to the black high school-and junior high school

student .
t3lack college stu-dents could be very helpful
organizing black high school

students

serve as "liberation" teachers

in

in

and could

liberation schools .

As the cuitural
the schools,

revolution sweeps

inta the communi~~y from

it may raise demands such as changing

street corner names, naming

ers or African nations .

them after liberation fight

In the South,

whole communities changing

their names .

things are already occurring but will

when broadened to a national
cultural

it may lead to

level .

Some of these

have more effect

In order for the

revolution to reach its fullest dimension,

black youth must organize nationally to make their

demands felt .
The role of black youth in the cuitural
is to serve as agitators,
and unifiers
hood .

revolution

re-educators, organizers,

in the struggle for independent black nation-

The black college student can play a very con-

structive role in the cultural

struggle for black studies,
college or university

revolution .

In . his

he should strive to make the

(if on a black campus)

into a

community cneter, with all the facilities of the:

college open to the community free .of charge .
encourage local community groups
participate in school

Me .must

to came on campus and

programs .

The black college student must make the black

college a base for revolutionary black nationalist
thought .

The college must become the black freedom

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

The college becomes his office .

The black college

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

he is acquiring back

into the community by establishing

black community institutes and new Schools for black

thought and by setting up liberation schools and adult
education classes .
should be active

At the same time, the black student

in community projects that help build

local community power .

He should be helping the Mississi-

ppi Freedom Democratic Party,

Party of Alabama,
Student National

Democratic

the Republic of New Africa, the

Coordinating Committee,

community projects .
form institutions

the National

and other

The black college student must

in the community uniting their efforts

with community youth to establish permanent bases

in

the community .
At the same time, many black college youth should
be thinking of re~-orientating the black middle class
t
by infiitrating~and becoming part of the black middle
class, obtaining positions of power and respect .
a revolution,

it

is not necessary for all

to be known as such .

We must use wisdom .

great need for more Julian Bonds .

in

revolutionaries
There is

More and more black

college students should~think .about running for public

offices challenging those who do not represent our
interests .

S1'ack high school ' acid junior high school

students must actively push their parents,

re-educating

12 3

them, shaming them if necessary . to becoming active

in the community-cantrol-of-schools struggle .
high school

and junior high school

vanguard . of

the struggle ;

work on
of

their parents,

the black revolution .

students are in the

therefore,

teaching

Black

they must constantly

them the real . itie,s

It has been said :

"ln the

last days the children shall be the teachers ."

Black students must push for black parent-t~:acher
associations to back up their student unions .
develapi .n g strong local

student unions,

After

black students

should encourage their mothers and fathers to form black

unions
role

in their jobs .

Black youth can play a catalytic

in politicalizing the black community .

home there. shoul6d be a liberation school .

revolution
mitted

is a revolution of values

In <:very
The cultural

that can be trans-

from this youth generation to the adult generation,

closing "the generation gap" .

Black youth must begin

to structure themselves as a nation ; be active

forming black community government, parties,

in

and

functioning as part of the black liberation army .

Finally,
suring

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

leaders to form a national

black united front .

As the legal means of protest begin to be exhausted,

more and more black youth will
only solution

begin to. see that the

is self-determination .

t~ith Robert F .

12 4

Williams back in the country, black youth now have a

symbol which they can rally and . unite around .
Black student rebellions have not been as effective
as they could because they are still un-coordinated
and spontaneous

in character .

revoluionary perspective,
campaign they engage

in as

In order to reach a

black studen s must see each

part of the overall

liberation

struggle and must see each demonstration as a guerrilla

action .
Student demonstrations must serve as "Black Offenslues" helping to dislocate the enemy's system, helping
the brothers

in

the street

in the protracted war .

TL~e

student community must be seen as a part of the total

community .

Effective action must be national

in scope .

The reason t~~e sit-in movement had 5o much effect was

because of

its blitzkrieg character,

hitting different

communities in rapid sequence, dislocating the entire

nation .
Black students must try to work their demands where
their deomns~.rations will

really touch,

affect their mothers and fathers .

reach,

and

In this content,

black students after developing a national organization,

could be very helrtul
For

to the black liberation struggle .

instance, 'if hospital workers in Charleston, S .C .

should go on strike, black students~vacrass America

shauid strike

in support of them and call on their mothers

and fathers and black workers at

support of them .

large to strike in

In this way, black students would be

playing a direct role

in the liberation struggle .

One-of the first attempts at national

organization

was the convening of th.e Black Youth Congress held

in

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

effective,

they must develop local community based

organizations that can mobilize their area on a moment's

notice .

Black youth have the power of causing dis-

location

in a sensitive part of the system :

Social

or community dislocation has long been a tactic of the

struggle .

Black youth must explore new ~peans of

community dislocation .
Black people have more power than we realize, but
what hinders us
zation .

from having power is our lack of argani-

Black workers,

forming 90 peocent of our

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

Therefore,

the {Cey quest ion for black youth, students, and revolutionaries is

the organization, coordination, and unity

of black workers .
national

If black workers should go on a

strike, all

of America would be dislocated .

This must become one of the organizational goals of

black youth :

the National

Black Strike .

With the enemy preparing to put black militants

in

12 6

concentration camps,

black youth have only one alternative,

to unito or perish :
Our tasks are these :
1 .

Educate the Afro-American to the economic,

political,

social, and cultural

bases of the racisl

situation in the United States and the world .

2.

Develop unity with Africans and other peoples

of the world .
3.

Unite and organize Afro-American students

become the active

national

leadership

to

in the Afro-American

liberation struggle .

Our purpose calls for the development of caste and

class ,consciousness of the black youth of
States,

the United

to arouse them to see the true nature of

racist society .

We must

urination, ability,

become

its

imbued with the deter

and readiness to unite and organize

our forces for liberation .

We must transfrom the will

of millions of people otherwise disunited, dispersed,

and scattered over the country,
dedicated to liberation .
bombs

When a child is murdered by

in the Congo or Vietnam,

child murdered
Bloodshed is
justice .

into a single will ;

it

is the same as a

in a church bombing in Alabama or Harlem

the same everywhere and so ds

freedom and

Young people over the world oppose injustice .

We should not let any barrier be placed betaaeen us

in

our struggle to obtain freedom and Justice.

the whole world at stake,

so we must_not

We have

fail .

We

must unite, we must struggle together for freedom, and

build the world anew .

BLACK STtfQIES AND THE BLACK INTELLIGENTSIA

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

Studie s,

(Black Scholar, May,

1972, Vol . 3, No . 9)

a classical case histary,of Black social

action

is

in the

late 19b0's and early 70's .

It provides us with a sound foundation for making
a scientific analysis of the social
and material

phenomena, classes

factors which affect the black liberation

struggle .
This analysis will

help the black intelligentsia

to structure our black ideology, and .when this

cadres and the masses of our people will

is done,

be able to

carry out a protracted struggle regardless of setbacks .

The Ba ttle fo r Black Studie s is one that has deep
~chologica l_ra mifications b ecause

it

is a stru~e

for th e red e finitio n of education in relati on to African

people

in the western world .

Black Studies leads to

the questioning of legitimacy/relevancy of the entire

western educational

system, which is

in essence a

questioning of the whole European cultural

frame of

reference .
Black Studies,
engaging

if correct leads Africans

in a Black Cultural

Revolution .

into

lzg

"Black education must be education for liberation,

or at

least for change .

prepare black students

Black cul. turai

In this respect,

it was to

to become the catalysts for a

revolution .

All courses whether history,

literature, ar, . mathematics would be taught from a

revolutionary ideology or perspective .

Black education

would become the instrument for change ."

Because of the upsurge of

the Black Studies Battle

and the risa of the [hack Panthers

in

the late 1g60's

programs .such as Project Upward Eiaund, Project 500 and

300, which gave black working class youth a chance to
enter white colleges, have been deluded and almost
eliminated .
The power structure hoped to develop a "buffer"
group or a petty bourgeoisie fron urban black working
class youth that, would be trained in white universities
as ~,he new leaders who would "have it made ."

These

new leaders would contain urban insurrection and would

insure the black working class that the white capitalist
system can work for them too .

But when the San Francisco

State rebellion began to spread

to other campuses, the

power structure realized these black working class

students were becoming

radicalized in~their own - campus

struggles and had the potential of becoming a revolutionary

intelligentsia .

Even worse,

they had the potential of

13 0

becoming an
"The

intellectual

intellectual

proletariat intelligentsia .

proletariat is the ~3ement of the

mass that comes into consciousness of

itself using its

intellect in relation to power for the people .

intellectual
student,

The

proletariat does not have to be a~university

but often is self educated writers, artists,

musicians,

poets,

directly coming from the masses .

When the intellectual

proletariat enters

oppo'sftion with the established order,

backbone for the social
professional

into conscious

it makes up the

revolution and becomes the

spokesman for the masses

in the struggle ."

The greater the threat to the power structure was

this potential black intellectual
radicalizing
leading it
it

it's

future

proletariat was

(white college)

middle class

in mass campus activity helping to transform

into a~revolutionary intelligentsia .

The Black Panther Party in

the 1968-70 period

did not properly evaluate our struggle, failed to apply

the tactics according to i3rotracted struggle and in
essence burned out (exhausted) a whole generation of
black working class students and brothers from the streets .
The failure of the Panthers to back up the rhetoric
"Pick :, Up The Gun" and disillusionment within
of the Republic of New Africa

(RNA),

Just about finished by

Students who had been

1970 .

left

the ranks

the movement
in

in the vanguard of political revolutionary nationalism

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

Many retreated to mysticism, joining astra-

logy cultis or the Nation of

Islam .

Some joined t:he

American Communist Party and some became the new emerging

Black Mafia .
Since the Upward

Bound program had stiffer require-

merits and greater cutbacks, a new class of student began

to appear on the white campus ; this social_transiition
did not reach the Black college campus because their
composition never relied on external
bringing B ack students
Also a poi n,

programs of

in .

to note that Brother Hare previously

mentioned in the Battle for Black Studies is the struggle

for Slack Studies never really reached Negro colleges
but rather took the farm of rebellion against adrninistration and faculty paternalism and authoritarianism,.
What we must deal

with now is the black,

basically

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

college campuses and how we will

relate to the national)

democratic revolution for independence

Our question

is a historical

in the 1970's?

question-because

we are dealing with the question of cultural

or political/oultural

identification

nationalism .

The basis of our problem is of socio-psychological

13 2

nature .

There is a class correlation between so<:ial

psychology and revolution .

study social
this

psychology .

Black revolutionarie :~ should

To gett .off the point briefly,

is why Marcus Garvey, Nobel Drew Ali,

Malcollm X

and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad have been the ones

who have come the closest to providing a solution to
our plight and developed a mass fol3~owing .
Because we, African people, held captive by the
U :S . Government, suffer
cultural

from 400 years of mental

genocide ; we are still wavering,

and

in the year

1972, hetween the questions of nationalism,-integration,

refiorm, and revolution :
"Waverance between nationalism and integration
comes from ambivalence, and ambivalence comes from
systematic brainwashing .

Thi.s .brainwashing over a

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

self-destructive complex within the African-American
psyche .

So complete has been the brainwashing

and cultural

genocide),

inferiority reflex

that

(educational

it has produced a conditioned

in the African-American .

The very

nature of American society causes each African-American

to have negative traumatic experiences sometime
life as to being born black,

of having Afroid features .

With all of the heroes, power symbols,

casian

in America,

in his

the African-American

etc . being cauis

constantly

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

and magazines with an anti " b lack image .

This

is backed

up with a 400 year negative complex of positive

African existence,

and has left Lht . ; African-American

with a complex personality .

Ambivalence is the mixed' or conflicting feell lugs
about Lhe oppressor and comes from the desire to be
like the power or dominant symbols .

Ambivalence'

occurs between extra-love and' extra-hafred~which

is,

in graup~ emotion, directed towards the oppressor .

The

most common conflicts occur between intra-hatred and

extra-hatred and intra-love a'nd extra=love .
traumatic experiences,racism

in America,

From

the African-

American develops and extra hatred toward the oppressor

(caucasians) .,

but through the Coneitioned reflexes

he also develops a false extra love for the oppressor .

This comes from fear and respect of power and success .
Also, from conditioned reflexes comes intra-hatrE:d,
being that the love and beauty symbols are , caucasian .
These intra-hatred feelings
natural

intra-love feelings .

constantly conflict with

The African-American both

laves and hates himself and also hates and loves his
oppressor .

While 400 years of traumatic experiences

would seem rational

the

proof that his oppressor willl not

reform,he still wants to believe that

he will . refarm .

lab

Therefor~,the more
casian and black,

intimate the relations between cauthe more the African wilt

have intra-

hatred and extra-love, unless traumatRc experiences

have destroyed the drive . of extra-love .
There will

be a higher degree of ambivalence among

those who have a high. respect for the Caucasian's

intellectual capacities ."
To destroy ambivalence among a colonialized people,
a nationalist intelligentsia must constantly present
them with the traumatic experiences of the past and
present and intensify their nation's anger until they
judge the oppressor as the enemy and conclude from
nationalist mass action that he must~be destroyed .
intelligentsia must show the people

The

its link with the

past, the past relationship with the present and how

it applies to the future .


The new black college students. are the children of

the radicalized black bourgeoisie of the 1950's and

6
early 1960's .
When we say the black bourgeoisie 'is
radicalized, we mean they have been badly challenged
in .their Anglo-Saxon middle class orientation but the
radicalization has not fully taken place .
college student

The new black

is a transitory class within the radical-

ized black bourgeoisie .

and the rise of African

The late Dr . Martin

Luther King

independence movements along

with the black liberation struggle did much

to challenge

13 5

the Black bourgeoisie in the l~tev1~50's and early '60's .

The fiate E . Franklin Frazier predicted this

radicalization

or transformation of the Black bourgeoisie in some of his .

later writings .
The new black college students are living
era of high
and critical

inflation,
lull

exterhal

in an

imperialist war,

in our national

recession

democratic revolution .

These are some of the environmental factors which will

affect his thinking :
With the talk of "Nation Time" coming from most
liberation groups, such as the Congress of African People,
Nation of

lsiam, P .t1 .S .H . and the Black Political

Convention, the grapevine ha$

and make

it

too ."

Or,

drive to obtain skills

it, "You can have your pie

in other words,

there is a great

(expeetise) get a hog, and

$25,000 crib and be called a nationalist at the same

time .

Eco nomicism
So, more than

is prevailing everywhere .
likely the new black college student,

being the radicalized sector of

will

the black middle class,

support drives toward black mass voter registration ;

greater black representation within the Democratic

Party and possibly

formivg a'third Black Political

Party that demands equality dccording to population

numbers .

If the present Pan-African Movement becomes

more action prone, black college students may again

13 6

explode into a mass black students movement .

this to happen there will

But for

have to be a greater degree

of clarity as to where our movement

is going .

The Black

Political` Convention and African Liberation Day were

two very

important events

in the destiny of African Peop}e .

African Liberation Day especially, when ~bb,000

Africans worldwide showed our support for the total
liberation and unification ofi mother Africa .
The Battle for Black Studies must take a deeper
.dimension

in

the 1970's .

factor of colonialization .

It must attack the central

flack students everywhere

must move against their camp~ISes'

oration that do business with or

investment
invest

in corp-

in Portugal,

Union of South Africa, Rhodesia, and Israel .

Coordinating this mass fiction movement must be
connected wi,:h an

intense struggle for autonomous

Black Studies departments that

teach the "history of

Black political thought" .

Black Studies programs

All

must deal with the ideology of Pan African Nationalism,

the ideology that was born from our liberation struggle .
The battle for Black Studies must spread
community,
institutes

into the

uniting with the high schools ; community

must

be established during the time of the

Black Studies revolution, teaching African political

history .

The " Battle for BiaCk Studies will be won .

13 7

The racist
will
or

European orientated educational system

teach African youth : and other minorities the truth,

it will

be destroyed .

The battle for Black Studies has just begun .

It will

evolve into a social

yet unconsidered .

It

movement of dimensions

is the first stage

in

developing

a mass black intelligentsia .

"The problem of most social
mass . intelligentsia's
economic and social

is howing the mass that their

future

theory of the movement .

masses complex concepts
the intelligentsia

movements in training

is connected to the political

To do this, they must

i.n simple terms .

teach the

The role, of

to take complex theories, systema7

tize and clarify them for mass consumpfion ."
is

" . . .The intelligentsia must know the history of

the people and must know how to make this history<:al
experience useful

in the peopl'e's struggle for power .

The intelligentsia must know the history of the people

in order to organize them .
history,

it will

determine a real

Without knowing their

be very hard to it

to relate ,and to

situation fram a false one .

It must

constantly study the people and the enemy in order that

it may better understand their strengths and weaknesses . . ."
" . . .In propagandizing and training cadres

from the

mass, the intelligentsia must deal with the law of

uneven development .

The lav!,,of uneven development

is when one section of the pe~opie advance in struggle

before another .

Due to diffe rent conditions, backgrounds

consciousness,

and training, I~bne section, area, or city

i
may advance or come closer to~'~the nation's objectives
than another .

A social movem~nt cannot be successful

until mast of the people are ~venly . developed and basically understand the abjective~of their revolutionary
intelligentsia .

This

law of uneven development will

occur often prior to success

f the people's

The role of the intelligentsia

consciousness to an even

revolution .

is to being the people's

level of development where they

can act in unity . The people'Icannot achieve victary

until

they

learn movement disc l~,ipline and'how to carry

out the principles of the inte l~lligentsia's

ideology .

A movement of the people canno~ emerge until the people

embrace the intell,lgentsia's ideology and become
examples of

its principles .

living

Wfhen, the people unite with,

and follow the revolutionary l.~adership .,

organize themselves effective)

its prog.r~am and

. .to seize power .

is a tre eodousrundettarcing that

9
requires great patience and strategy ."

Organizing the masses

" . . .lt

is becoming obviousll ,to many Third World

revolutionaries that when we anlalyze historical

development

139

in a race and class analysis we see there is a cultural

contradiction

in the world .That cultural contradiction

historically has been betwee~t European and Third World

people and continues even toc~<ay : ~ So in our case,
cultural

genocide,

imperialism was the thesis that the

European coa~onialist present~d to African people, particularly those prisoners of~lwar taken to foreign lands .
of the basic African psyche
ities, was the anti~thes~s
sternization of African
ge became
t it .

inevitable, as

The synthesis

is

the combination of our histor~icai resistance while

under the domination of Europeans . .
of the African cultural

revolution :

This

is the essence

To purge ourselves

of the negative aspects of our European, capitalist,

bourgeoisization . but to deal li with objective realiity
that there are positive aspects of our learned experience
which can be used to the bendfit of building a po sitive
10
new world ."

FOOTNOTES

1
MaY~

~1a .than hare,

1972 . Vol . 3~

Battl e fo
No . 9,
pi,.i

Robert Michaels,
.5,~' i r i t " P P " 7 5 4 - 7 5 5
3
4
5
6
7
8

B.

Pershnev,

Social

Muhammad Ahmad,
lbid,

p.

Muhammad

The

The

7
Ahmad,

Muhammad . Ahmad,
Ibid,

p .

30

oayd :

p .

z9

Black Studies .
33

Black Scholar,

I rigin of Anti .____.8_.__

-Ca it alist
~

Ps~cholo~y
Bl

~
i

ck

and

History..

I ntelligentsia ,

pp .

5-7

I
The

aleck

Cultural

Revolution

The -Bl~-c k- _tnte- l- i igentsia,

p.

28

10
,:`Muhammad Ahmad,"The Pdr i t i ca 1 i za t ion .of Af r i can
Culture", Contrast, May 27, 1972, Vol . 4, No . ll .
pg .

14

BLACK URBAN GUERRILLA WARFAR

The most significant de elopment

recently

African-American struggle fo
been the internationalizing
broad masses .

in the

liberation has
f its intelligentsia and
reasons that have con-

tributed to this have bean t e Honorable Elijah Muhammad,

leader of the Nation of

Robert F . W .illiams, and

the late Malcolm X .

But in order for
correct perspective,

o-American to have a
he mush first de,3tray

of defeatism in the black ca munity .

our historical

the philosophy

We must understand

destiny and d velopments

in the world in

order to have a clear view o

our position

Revolution .

must forget about whether

First of all, w

or now we now have all

M

in the Black

the a ms and must stop thinking

that because we don't have a y or ail of the arms, we

can't win .

In order to free ourselves mentally, we must

know the power black people

These powers are, one,
ery of the government - that

in this country .
he power to stop the machinis, the power to cause

chaos, and make the situatio

such that nothing runs .

Two,

economy .

is the power to hurt th

tdith Black people

lly in the major urban areas

in the North - and disrupting the agricultural

in the South,

setup

the economy of the oppressor would came

to almost a standstill .

Three, . is +the power of un-

Ieashir)g violence .

is the power that black people

This

have to tear up "Charlie's'' house .

that probably . every Asian,

This

is something

African and Latin American

revolutionary wished he could do .

But this goody is

left to the Afro-American .

All Afro-Ar~ericans must begin to think like guerrilla
fighters, since we are all "blood brothers" in the
struggle .

Let us

learn from our mistakes

in

the past .

Appealing to a power structure does no good .

The only

thing that power -reacts to is more passer .

if we don't

think we can win, then there is no use in trying .

Cowards give up when the odds look bad .

A guerrilla

fighter knowa he or she is

right and attempts

matter what

Many of us

chaos,

the odds are .

but can't take state power .

Others say we cannot be successful

to win'no

think we c<an create

This

is not true .

without . the physical

help of our Asian, African and Latin American retrolutianary

brothers .
It

is

This

is also a degree of defeatism .

true that our struggle is

part of a world

black revolution, and we must unite with the "Bandung"

forces, but it

is

incorrect and defeatist to say that

we cannot win 'under any circumstances .

We must, under

143

all conditions, be united with our Asian, African,~~and

Latin American brothers and ~isters, but as Fide1 Castro
says, "revolutionaries must make the revolution ."
This means that we (Afro-Ame~lricans)
revo lution .

Also, we must b!le willing to accept the res-

ponsib. ility of
way,

must make our own

revolution and be willing to go all

the

no matter what happens .l

Robert F . Williams

in Fiebruary of

1964 advanced

the theory of "urban c~uerril la warfare :"

mass eruptions have occurred

Since that time,

in over i00 U .S, cities

where Afro-Americans have f ught gallantly against superior military forces .

has treen the Watts,
of

1965 .

Thelmost noticeable

Los Angeles,

California

rebellion
rebellion

These uprisings t~ke an a different character

in the present world scene ~or they become

part of the World Black Rev lution .

an

integral

The Afro-American

is . the vanguard of the 4lorl~! Black Revolution, being

America's Achilles heel .
American will
fire'

RAM states that, "The Afro

be the 'single spark that starts

in the World Black Revolution ."

1964 stated,", . .any kind of,~ racial

Malcolm X in

explosion that can

be confined to the shores a f America .

fire that can

the prairie

It

is a racial

ignite the pdwder keg that exists all over

the planet we call earth,"

Each year more rebellions occur in American cities

1~4

and each year they obtain movie support among the

Bi~ack masses, are .linked more! with organized resistance
and tied more to revolutionary .slogans and programs .

In

1966, many of the eruptions came under the psychological

influence of the Black Power !slogan raised by Stokely
Carmichael, chairman of SNCC~i~(Student Non--iolent: Coordinating Committee) .

There il~s a dialectical progressio~

arising and developing as a ~,esult of these rebellions .

It

is a revolutionary national

consciousness

(Black

Nationalism} which sees

Revolution .

itsel ll,f linked to the World Black

~
The rebellions afire "curtain raisers" to

a developing Afro-American's people's war .

"A people's

war inevitably meets with manlly difficulties, with ups

and downs and setbacks

in the',, course of

its developments,

but no force can alter its geilneral trend towards anevitable tritvmph . . .To despise) the enemy strategic:a " ly
is an elementary requirement l~,for a revolutionary,
Without the courage to d espise the enemy and without
daring to win,

it will

be simllply

impossible to make

revolution and wage a people' ;is war, let alone achieve

i
victory . . ." "lt is also very jimportant for revolutionaries
to take
likewise

full

account of the ell,nemy tactically .

It

is

impossible to win vil,ctory in a people`s war

without taking 5u11

account o~f the enemy tactically,

and without ex8mining the con;lcrete conditions, without

i45

being prudent and giving grdat attention to the study

of the art of struggle and v~ithout adopting appropriate
forms of struggle in the coc~rete practice of revolution
in each country and with recjard to each concrete problem
1
of the struggle ."
RAM is

the only known rational

ganization that does

publicly
states

empt

to project itself

(using the oppressor's mass media) .

Williams

that the concept of'~rban guerrilla warfare that

is taking place inside the

.S .

revolution . . .''The concept i~

ducted

Afro-American or-

in highly

is a new concept of

lightning campaigns con-

sensitive~'~urban communities and spread-

ing to the farm areas .

The l~',old method of guerrilla

warfare, as carried out fror~ the hills and countryside,

would be

ineffective in a powerful, country like the U .S .A .

Any such force would be wiped out in an hour .

concept is
so as

to huddle as clo~e to the enemy as

The new
possible

to neutralize his modern and fierce weapons :

~,

new concept creates conditiens that

involve or not .

sustains confusion and destr~uction,of property .

dislocates the helpless, sprlawling, octopus .

The
It

It

During

the hours of day sporadic rioting takes place and massive

sniping .

Night brings all-cut warfare, organized fight-

ing and unlimited terror ag~inst the oppressor and his

forces ."

~I,

14 6

Urban guerrilla warfarelis~ an ever-growing concept

as a solution
masses

to the end of oppression among the Black

in America .

Americans,

blacks will
This will

warfare .

As racis~s continue to attack Afroresor~ more and more to guerrilla

bring a confrontation between the

black and white races , in Ame~ica . . ."When massive violence

comes,

the U .S .A . will

and chaos .

becom~ a bedlam of confusion

The factory work~rs will

be afrais to venture

out on the streets t.o report''~to their jobs .

workers and radio workers wi~l
A11 transportation will
Stores will

be afraid to report .

come~~o a :.complete stand-still .

be destroyed and~li looted .

Property will

be damaged and expensive buildings will

ashes .

The telephone

Essential pipelines

up and all manner of sabotag

be reduced to

ill be severed and blown

will

occur .

Violence and

terror will spread like a fi estorm .

.
"A clash will occur ins de the armed forces .
U .S . military bases around tfhe world,
will

side with Afro-G .I .'s .

covered by

the holocaust,

their families .

revolutionaries

Because of the vast area

U :~ . forces will

too thin for effective actin

caught on their jobs will

local

be spread

U .S . workers who are

try to return home

Trucks and

At

rains will

to protect

not move the

necessary supplies to the bi~~ur.ban,centers .

2
will fall into a state of ch~os ."

.The economy

14 7

"The weapons of defense

mploy'ed by Afro-American

freedom fighters must consist of

Gasoline fire bombs (Molotov
bombs
of

(made by injecting lye

light bulbs)

poor man's arsenal .

ocktails),
acid

in

can be used e tensively .

night hours such weapons,

the metal ends

During the

thr wn from rooftops, will

make the streets impossible f

Hand grenades, bazookas,

lye or acid

ligh

racist cops to patrol .

mortars,

rocket

launchers,

machine guns and ammunition c n be bought clandestinely from servicemen anxious to make a fast dollar .
Freedom fighters
give

in military

amps can be contacted t

instruction on usage . . .E tensive sabotage is possible .

Gas tanks on public vehicles can be choked up with sand .

Sugar is also highly effective in gasoline tanks .

Lang

nails driven through boards a nd tacks with large heads

are effective to sfiow the mo ement of traffic on con
Bested roads at night .

This can . cause havoc on turnpikes .

Derailing trains causes p n i c .

traps on police telephone

Exp 1 as i ve book>y

es can be employed .

High-

powered sniper rifles are

piercing bullets will
distance,

penetr

fhosporous matcf ;~

air conditioning systems wil

which will

destroy expensive

can be manufactured at home

servicemen can easily solve

Combat experienced ex3

1~8

in

the process of

revol tion, the mass communications

system would be the first to go .

Why?

Because the

enemy's populace and support rs rely on mass

cations system to know how t

commun't-

relate to events .

BY

destroying the oppressor's c mmunication system the

revolutionary nationalist cr ates a vacuum in the oppressor's apparatus and iaola es him from,his machinery .
Also,

it sets the oppressor

he wall

t a disadvantage because

have to attempt ~osr build his system in the

middle of a battlefield .

Th

be the first target, then ra

newspaper buildings, etc .

lines would be the number tw

electrical

plants should

i,o and. T .V : stations,

union areas transportation
target - sabotage of subway

systems, derailing to trolle s or trains, etc .

'The

destruction of airports, esp ciaily the tower,

dents

the beasts' transportation s stem ; telephones should be

out .

In

rural areas the roa s leading in and out should

be set up for ambush and tra s for trucks, etc .

urban areas,

gasoline across highways, road blocks

hold up traffic for hours .

With Wa11

Street, Madis n Avenue, and half of the

complex in Washington blown

bits, the oppressor will

have to function under warti e plans .

of property

(the concept of

basis of the system) would b

The destruttion

rivate property , being the

the chief concern of the

'

14 9

revolutionary national

fiber t ion fighters .

lition of industry would com

transportation .

after communication and

The destruc ion of steel plants, auto

plants, oil fields and plant

chemPcal plants would

divide the energies of the o pressor .

outside the cities like New
Buffalo, N :Y .,

The demo-

Lansing, Mich

The complex

ork, Detroit, Chicago,

Philadelphia, Cleveland,

etc :, are convenient for rev lutionary nationalists .

The destruction of such comp exes could be achieved
by stationary mortars or mor ars from an automobile .
The mayor's areas should als
This

b e completely demolished .

keeps the lower elite s ction of the capitalist

ruling class isolated

in the suburbs without communication

for days with the outside wo ld .

Bombs on traina

would stop the commuter syst m entirely ; occasional

terror raids in the "super e ite" sections killing
important executives would c eate chaos
communities,

in the oppressor's

holding, mainta ping and sustaining

If psychological warfar

is used with physical, then

the oppressor's forces and s pporters will

considerable disadvantages .

it .

be .put at

We can see through phase

one - destruction of communi ations systems, destruction

of transportation systems, d struction of
property of the oppressor's

Wall

etc .,)

s tee l ,

industrial

complexes,

important

Street, Madison Ave .,

iron , che~n i cY~

l ,

150

oil, gas industries, etc ., ~I ,Birmingham, Ala,

main

industrial

complex in t he South .

social, economic and politic al

is the

Being that the

structure is divided

into

two different categories ., ou r partisan war of national

liberation must have a dual

front .

The South is a rural

area, but because of .communi ~ation, terrain (basically

flat) and transportation
urban character .

(hi hways),

The North is highly

it takes on a semiindustrialized

being urban, almost super-ur an, on the East

The dual
urban campaign
North .

Coast .

front of our f rcees would be a semiin the South

nd an urban campaign

The struggle in the

in

the

be to wreck the

oppressor's political and ec nomic apparatus - government

buildings,

assassination of

overnment officials, state

and city, police machinery,

rmy, etc .~, business execu-

hives and business buildings

suburbs at night,

Strategic raids

in certain

blowing up executives' homes would be

total dislocation of major c i,ties and will

of activity of the Northern

ampaing .

be the type

While in the south

there would be semi-urban gu rriila warfare with more

emphasis on occupying

(fiber ting) certain areas es-

tablishing the people's gove nments and waging campaigns

against the enemy .

7hts

typ

of warfare would take place

within the Black Belt area - Louisiana,

Georgia and South Carolina .

Mississippi,,

Iln this area black people

constitute near the major~a~y 'and live

in anaarea that

extends from the Atlantic ca ast to the Gulf of Mexico .

Partisan vrarfare and the est ablishment of people's
liberation bases could cut t he oppressor's
Blacks constitute at
Louisiana,
Georgia,

in half .

least 4 5~ of the population of

in Mississipp i, 45~ in Alabama,

5gro

and S5~ bn South Ca roiina .

~0$ in

The revotution "

would probably pread from th e Northern cities to Southern

cities, then
would fall

to Southern rur al

on

areas ; then the initiative

the rural area 5 defeating the enemy in

small campaigns while libera ting the community .

The Southern front woul d shift rluickly fram guerrilla
to mobile warfare .
forced to call

At

this

time the opppessor would be

in the Nation sl

Guard and the army battle

forces would be divided beta use of i nt,erna l d issens ion due

to the racial

issue .

would be called

The Na tional

Guard and the Army

in to crush mobile warfare in the rural

areas, because i~ would be th e most advanced form of

guerrilla warfare .

At this

t i me guerr i l l a un i is

i.n

urban areas could engage the enemy in "mass ambush"

while the enemy is preparing to mobilize against: the
Aouthern fOrRt .

The elite

of

the mobile guerrilla

Southern 'forces would wage a t~ encirclement offensive on

one of the major Southern wo rk centers .
At the same time the No rthern guerrilla _could wage

15 2

a suburban offensive throwin

apparatus far into white Ame
mobile guerrilla could close~:the encirclement extending
the war in a protracted mann per splitting the enemy
forces

in two .

The accupyin g of cities

- Black communi-

ties would be basically in t he South where there are

a great number of Black people both within and out of
the city .

The play of move ent would develop sabotage

within a Southern city with

riot

(far areas),

taking over plantation,

Organization would require many facets .

Groups

dedicated to militant demonstrations arould have .to apply

r structure,

constant pressure

create chaos

and confusion and

oppressor to unmask his

ugly face before the world

y reacting even more ; brutally

and indiscriminately agains

Constitutional

forr.es .

of the power structure

ce to it .
uld have to be formed thr.ough;uld be organized wil:hin the

out
confines of the law and whe

possi ;bls become sporting

rifle clubs affiliated with the National

Rifle Elssociation .

They would function only as defense units to safeguard

life, limb and property

in

hetto communities .

form of central direction' w uld be necessary .

Some
A tightly

15 3

organized and well

disciplin

force would also have to be ~ormed to perform a more

aggressive mission .

have to be clandestinely

organized and well-versed in explosives .

Its mission

would be retaliation and a f rce used to pin down and

disperse concentrated fascis

p04Je r

l t would prevent

the power structure from rus ing reinforcements to encircle

and crush other defense grou s engaged in battle against
terrorist forces by ambushin

, sniping,

bombing bridges,

booby trapping and sabotagin

highways .

A welfare corps

would have to be organized t

build morale, raise funds,

promote legal defense and to e charge of the general

welfare of the fighting foPc s and their families .
of the members ofi the Welfar
not understand

their total

Organization front would

f nction .

recruited on a~ .humanitarian

Many

They would be

asis .

The most aggressive and irrepressible arm of the

overall organization would b~ the fire teams :
would work

in complete secre y and would be totally

divorced from the main bodie

forces

They

in the organizational

complete autonomy .

The grou

to them would be in time of

of defense and other

sense :

They would enjoy

's only tangible

istress .

loyalty

Their legal aid

in court defense would be re dered by Afro-Americans

giving

legal aid to victims

f kangaroo court systems,

15 4

as

is commonly known where B hack people stand no chance

of obtaining Justice .

This ~I rould be similar to, but

more militant

P's role .

mission would be sabotage .

~'housands of these groups

would be organized throughou

teams would consist of from

The fire teams'

racist America .

These

hree to four persons .

They

would only know the members f their immediate team .

They would not identify with the civil

rights movement .

They would appear to be apat eti'c and even Uncle Toms .

They. would sometimes masquer d e ws super-patriots and
be more than willing,
with the police .

in a d deceptive way,

They would even

to cooperate

infiltrate the police

force and armed forces when possible, and work in the

homes of officials as dourest
official

meet

d ons,

There would be no
only emergency calls

and sudden missions .

The mission of these th usands of active fire teams
would be setting .:strategic f fires .
America's cities and country fide
travel

They could render

impotent .

They could

from city to city pla ing lighted candles covered

by large paper bags

in Ameri a's forests,

and have time

to be far removed from the s Gene by the time the lighted

candle burned to the dried 1 eaves .

White unsparingly

setting the torch to everyth ing that would burn

in the

cities and while concentrati ng on guerrilla warfare,

rural countryside would not be neglected .

Aside from

the

15 5

the devastating damage that could be visited upon the

countryside, such a mission (could serve a twofold purpose :
(t would also diverC enemy farces from the urban centers,
State forces would be forced~to spread their ranks and
would not be able to sustain massive troop concentrations in a single community .
The heat and smoke generated from the fires would
render some of the highways
troop reinforcements .

jmpassable to repressive

The r ral countryside covers

vast areas and would require exhaustive manpower,

equipment and security force .,

America cannot afford

to allow its rich timber resurces and crops to i~o up

in smoke .

The fire teams ro~ing

in automobiles would

find unguarded rural objectifies even more accesslbie .

A few teams could start miles and miles of fires from
one city to another .
be tremendous .

The psychological

impact would

By day the billowing smoke would reflect

reddish flames that would elicit panic and a feeling

of

impending doom .

Operating in teams of two's and

three's, one freedom fighter

ould pour gasoline or

lighter fluid and toss a lighted candle

into public waste

baskets earlier prepared by other pouring lighter fluid

into them from small flasks .

Near closing time,

kitchen matches could be plac d

systems of

in the airconditioning

industrial and publ .ic,buildings .

The property

ls~

Through this method, the-rac

reduced to poverty in a shot
In order to unite the b
Afro-American organizations
a Black Liberation Front .
A Black General Strike to st
have to be called
oppressor's
sys
economy and dist rb his soc i a l.
tem .
all

the . black servants are n

blhen

longer there o~r cannot

be trusted for fear they may

enemy will

faced with a soc

l crisis .

Strike will cause complete s vial

American

i- acist~system .

The Black General

dislocation with the

You th, especially those .in

gangs, would have to be

Black Liberation Army .

nized into a political

liberation army would become

Black America's regular

rilla army that would become

the "shack force" of the li

eration .

A11 forms of

revolutionary order would h ve to be established to

keep superior community org nization within the
liberation tortes ranks .

revolutionary Afro-american

government would be establi had to govern the liberated

areas .

In non-liberated ar as,

form of

instituting revolut

would have to be structured on

it -would exist in

the

Organizations
the cadre level . . .

15 7

" . . .A cadre organization cann dt be made up of ,just

enthusiastic and eager people

its essential core 'o

must be cold, sober individua 1s who are ready to accept

discipline and who recognize the absolute necessity of
a strong

leadership which can organize and pro~.ect

a strategy of action to mobil lze the conscious and not

so conscious masses around th air grievances for a life
and death struggle against th ose in power :"

Such a

cadre must be able to oontinu e the revolutionary

struggle despite the setbacks 'that are inevitable

in

every serious struggle becaus- e the members of the: cadre

feel

that

it

is only through the revolution that their

own future~is assured .

At the same time

it

reco gnizes the inevitability

of setbacks, such an organiza Cion must

build itself

consciously upon a perspectiv e of victory .

This

is

particularly necessary in the United States where the

idea of perfect defeat of the black man .has been so
systematically rooted

into th

black people themselves

that a tendency to self-destr bction or martyrdom lurks

unconsciously within the orgy Aization unless
systematically rooted out of every member,
supporter .

it

is

leader and

The movement for t3Jack Power cannot afford

other Emmett Tills, other Med gar Evers,

other . Malcolms,

lout must build first and fore most the kind of organization

which has the strength and discipline to assure that

there will

be no more of these .

The afilure to realize our power and position

in

this country has been the failure of Afro-Americans

to see themselves as revolutionary nationalists .

In

doing this, they don't see our struggle as a national

liberation struggle .

instead, our struggle has pre-

viously been defined along class lines only :

This

leads

to confusion and failure to make a clear analysis,

because there are more factors

involved than class .

What most young black intellectuals . must do

seeing

is stop

themselves, our people, a :~d our struggle through

"Charlie's" eyes .'

We must become familiar with ouc

revolutionary history as an oppressed nation .

For a period of three hundred years,
States was t~ .e scene of constant

revolt .

period, white Americans - especially

the united
During this

in the South

developed a fear of the "black hordes ."

The South was

an armed camp, with every white man . delega~ted with the

authority of Taw and order in matters concerning the
black man .

gut then, as now,~law and order has meant

the enslavement of a black nation .

intellectuals fail

to do

What most young

is thoroughly study the siEave

system, the development of slavery from the sixteenth

century on to . the twentieth century,

how our nation

15 9

was taken into bondage, and the psychology of white

America during this period .
Contrary to the oppressor's statistics, the slave
revolts were well

organized,

involved

and sometimes had international

thousands of slaves,

implications .

These

revolts occurred on the average of every three weeks

for a three hundred year period :

The international

perspective of the Denmark Vesey revolt with his attempted coordination with Toussaint L'Ouverture (military leader of

the Haitian revolt which had defeated

both the French and t3ritish armies

shook white America to
of African captives

in

liberating Haiti)

its ,roots . . .With the population

in the United States much greater

than "Charlie" has ever been willing to admit,. white

Americans were faced with a black take-over or black
revolution .

[iJ~ack revolution plagued them constantly .

Ther"e was never any peace of mind .

The fear of having

a Haitian revolution on United States soil

a major role

in

played

the official abolishment of the slave

system when black revolution entirely became a~feasible

and pracitical

concept .

Contrary to what most white historians would have

us believe,

the Turner revolt was so well

and planned that

coordinated

i~t involved hundreds of slaves .

Turner struck fear

into all of white America by his

16 0

tactic of "strike by night and spare none ."

in

revolt was short-lived, many persons

Though the

positions of

power realized that they would have to cope with a

black revolution
They knew that

if the slave system wasn't destroyed .

if they didn't do something quick,

the

slaves would develop national organisation and they

feared

that

the "blacks" would take over the country .

Tfi e horror of thinking what the "blacks" would do to the

whites

if they were

in power was the nightmare of America

The slave system would have to in order to "save the

Union"

(white Amec~#aa) .

led to the Civil War .

This was the situation that

White power had to fight white

power in order too keep control over

The next step

the "blacks ."

is to develop the tactics for national

liberation as "black brothers and sisters"

gle .

What we must understand is

system runs

like an

IBM machine .

has a weakness, and that weakness

Put somethin

tacist,

time .

imperialist system .

and rapid transportation,

But an
is

And so

its complexity .
IBM machine and
it

Without mass

this system

IBId machine

is

is with this
communications
through .

millionaires who control this country would be

from their flunkies who do their dirty work .
breaks out

in this country,

if

the strug-

that "Charlie's"

in the wrong place in an

its finished for a long

in

the action

The

isolated
When war

is directed

institutions of power and "compCete

toward taking over

annihilation" of the racist capitalist oligarchy,

the black revolution will

Guns, tanks,

be successful .

and police will mean nothing .

then

The Armed Forces will

for the struggle of black revolution will

be in chaos,

be directed against the racist governemtn of white

It wilt

America .

be a war between two governments ; the

revolutionary Afro-American governments in exile against

will

It

imperialist white American government .

the racist,

also be a mar of the forces of the Black Liberation

Front against the ultraright coalition .

Black men and women in the Armed Forces will

defect
Whites

and come over to join the Black Liberation forces .

who claim they want

to help the revolution will

be sent

into the white communities to divide them, fight the

fascists, and frustrate the efforts of the counterrevolutionary forces .

Chaos will

be everywhere and with

the breakdown of mass communications, mutiny will

occur

in great numbers in all facets of the oppressor's

The stock market will

government .
will

fall ; Wall

stop functioning ; Washington, D .C . will

apart by riots .
lives .

Thus

Carnegies,

Officials everywhere will

Street
be torn

run for their

the William Buckleys, Goldwaters,

Rockef.ellers,

Kennedys, Vanderbilts,

Jchnsons, Wallaces, Burnetts, etc . will

t)uponts,
Hunts,

be the first

16 2

to go .

The revolution will

none ."

Mass riots will

"strike by night and spare

occur in the day with the

Afro-Americans blocking traffic, burning buildings, etc .

Thousands of Afro-Americans will~be in the street
fighting,
will

for they will

be "It's On :"

know that this

This will

battle for human survival .

Thousands of our people

will

be there to fight

The black revolution will use sabotage

knocking out the electrical

The cry

it .

be the Afro-American's

get shot down, but thousands more will

on .

is

power first,

in the cities

then transpor-

tation, and guerrilla warfare in the countryside in

the South .

With the cities powerless,

the oppressor

will 'be helpless .

Nat Turner's philosophy of ."strike by night and .
spare none" is very

important because~it shows us that

Turner knew the psychology of white America,

we .had

leadership with

the guerrilla

and that

instinct .

Turner

knew what black terrorism meant to the whites, and

struck, even though the odds were against him .
sense of annihilation of the enemy i.s very

His

important for

au r. struggle even today, because unlike Asia, Africa, and

Latin America,

the Afro-American has a great bulk of

the mass against him .

White America can be neutralized

only be fear of high stakes .,

whole families, communities,

That

is~ ;

i, f they know that

etc . of their loved ones

16 3

will

be wiped off the face of the earth if they attack

Afro-~,mericans,
against us .

they won't be too eager to go to war

This will

be especially true

if the Afro-

American revolutionary forces make it clear that

are fighting the capitalist
but

they

ruling class oligarchy -

if white Americans fight on the side of the white

racist oppressor's government, they will

with no questions asked .
government

For to support the oppressor's

is to be murderers, and they would be treated

iike~murderers .
out,

be wiped out

this will

With the terms of the revolution spelled

divide white America ; so, we can see that

just by observing Nat Turner, we can gain something for

our coming revolution .
The whites have had to use terrorism in order to
control black America .

By the proportion of the

population - in the South especially - Afro-Americans

constitute a nation within a nation .

As

in

slavery times

the only thing that has kept us enslaved

is

the white

man's superior political machinery .

machinery,

1 mean the governmental

By the political
controls

communications and transportation has kept

in power .

the mass
the white man

If we would look at our situation today,'

we would see that

if the white man did.n't deny us the

right to vote or gerrymander our vote in the North, we

would have significant po litical

power-

if not poli-

16 4

tical control of this country.

We see that in the Southern states
Mississippi
very

- where the blacks outnumber whites

by a

large portion - the situation would be completely

turned around .

in

, especially

And with us controlling our communities

the North, we could have the ten major urban centers

tied up .

if white America wasn't a racist, capitalist,

state, half of Congress would be Black .

trol

know this and this

will

never do anything about it

character,

Yes,

it's

perpetrates racism .
doesn't count,
government .

will

the llnited States government who

because the U .S . government

destiny,

the a'ay .

Ff31, National

Guard, Army or

local

be able to control our people, due to their

conflicts .

The oppressor's racist government

weaken and begin to fall

imperialists'

holdings will

revolutionary movements

more and more with every

Foreign

in Asia, Africa and Latin America .

lackey governments will

to their aid .

its hands .

be seized by the various

topple everywhere, once the

racist white American government

come

is a "cracker"

Knowing our position, our historical

day of revolutionary struggle on

U .S .

to change its racist

The Southern "cracker" (bigot)

Neither the CIA,

internal

in con-

is why the . federal~government

we should be willing to all

po lice will

The whites

is no longer able to

l~lith the white American ruling class

16S

wiped off the face of this planet, and the remaining

reactionary forces suffering eventual

defeat, the

revolutionary American government of the Afro-Americans

will

call

on the help of other revolutionaries and

revolutionary governments to help restore order and to

fulfill the ultimate objectives of the World Black
Revolution .
Thus we will
years destiny,

have the fulfillment of four hundred

and with

the Beast (Western

destr-oyed - the birth of a New World :

Imperialism)

We must realize

that we are the key to the World Black Revolution and

that the rest of the world is waiting for us .
remember that history is on~our side .
win, we will win :.

We. must

Not only can we

16 6

FOOTNOTES

Robert Williams, "Revolution Without Violence,"

The Cr us ader , V, No . 2, February 1964 .
2

Ibid .

Robert Williams, The :Potentiel of a Minority

Revolution, part 1, The Crusader, V . June, 1964 .
4

Robert Williams, "The; Potential of a Minority

Revolution, part 11", The Cr u sade r, VII, No : 1, Aug . 1965
PP " 5,6
5
.James Boggs, _Ra cism and the C las s Struggle , Monthly
Review Press, 1970 .

R00TS Of THE PAN-AFRICAN REVOLUTION

While many historians negate the influence of

black nationalism within the black community,
nationalism has been the underlying
America since the 1800's, emerging

black

ideology within Black

in different periods,

the main period being the 1920's creating the only mass
movement of Black people in America,

involving millions

in the Garvey movement .

When the nationalist tide rises,
charismatic leader

the theory of the

is produced and becomes the philosophy

of the, masses of our people during that

time .

Gut after

the destruction of the movement, .t he nationalist philosoppy becomes just a memory because the ideology of

the

nationalist leader is not theorized in a historical

setting .

The failure of B ack people

in America to

form a dynamic a .nd continuous nationalist movement

has been because nationalist discontinuity occurs as
a result of the state's oppression of any mass nationalist
movement .

This nationalist discontinutity exists also

because Negro intellectuals in xhe past

from revolutionary,

shied away

nationalist ideology and movements .

Thus, once a particular nationalist movement

discontinuity occurs

in

is crushed,

the black community's ranks,

16 8

creating a nationalist vacuum waiting to be fulfilled

by the next charismatic leader that comes along .
Black nationalist circles remained dormant after
the destruction of the Garvey movement .
for a brief period

in the 1940s .

It

resurged

While the petty Black

bourgeoisie adopted the philosophy of

integration,

the masses had the ideology of Black nationalism .

Even

the black bourgeoisie would admit that the phikosophy of

Black .nationalism had remained latent among our people .
In the 1950s Black nationalism began to recover under
the leadership of the Honorable Eli~jah Muhammad and the
Nation of

Islam .

Mr, Muhammad introduced

Islam into

Black nationalism and developed a religious consciousness

for the ideology .

This

religious consciousness har:' a lot to do with

future development because it provided the black

cpmmunity with a clear historical and religious sense
of destiny .
mass
of

It gave rise to the expectations of a

nationalist consciousness and movement .

The Nation

Islam kept the continuity of black nationalism going

in the black comaunity for a fortyyear period .

It

soon was the best organized of black nationalist

groups, being unique

in

its religious approach .

Revolutionary .Black nationalism is not a new ideology

for

it has developed from the historical

roots of Henry

16 9

Highland Garnet, David Walker, Denmark Vesey, Martin

Delaney,

the Garvey movement, Dut3ois'

grasses and the bation of

nationalism is a root

Islam .

Pan African con-

Revolutionary black

ideology using the historical

experiences and philosophies of black nationalist leaders

of the past and present and combining them with the
tactics and revolutionary ideology of other revolutionary
movements .
Maicolm X is the transiti-oval figure

in the de-

velopment of revolutionary black nationalism .

From his

speeches and writings come the .foundat~con of the ideology .

While this essay does not deal with much of Malcoim's
content,

it does try to provide insight

Maicolm's organizational
organization the OAAU
Unity)

plans .

into some of

Though Malcolm's

(Organization of Afro-American

never became an action center for the black

revolution, part of

its program was adopted by younger

revolutionaries who are now making today's headlines .

Revolutionary black nationalism still very much stands
undefined .

It

is

by the revolution

the philosophy that

in America .

is being .produced

It becomes internationalism

or Pan-African - when reflecting on the international

aspects of the process-of decolonization .
Today, African peoples

in every country are wit-

nessing a new racial awakening .

Black consciousness

is rising each day .

Black nationalism,

the ideology

of Black Power and Pan Africanism and the international

expression of black nationalism are developing mass
followings .
The Black Power Movement
tively young .

still

in America is

The white power structure,

rela-

realizing w-hat

the Black Power philosophy would mean once our people

digested

it, moved to crush the movement .

Black nation-

alists were soon hit with mass conspiracy cases .

found H .

Rap Brown, Huey Newton,

Imamu Amiri

myself and a number of other brothers

1967

Baraka,

in jail .

These

failings were part of a white power conspiracy to .crush

the emerging Black Power Movement .

The power structure

could not have assassinated Dr . Martin Luther ,King when

they did if these brothers and others had been on the
streets during

'67 and '68, because the brothers would

have had sizable followings

(if not an army) and could

have mobilized the millions of our people .

KING'S ASSASSINATION AND AFTERMATH
After King's assassination,

the power structure

moved through its fifth column - the Ford Foundation and

the white American left .

The Ford, other foundations, and

local banks attempted to buy off the Black Power leadership .

C .O .R .E . was almost completely usurped .

Philadelphia, the black nationalist

In

leadership split

into factions ;. fighting over a measly million dollars

during the black coalition conspiracy .

i t was at

that

time that the movement suffered serious setbacks .

Bourgeois "Black Power" spokesmen,

all of a sudden,

began to crop up with powerful white financial backings

They traveled under the garb of cultural

nationalism .

These new house niggers were sanctioned by the "man"

to keep the masses confused through black cultural
rhetoric .
~- .

Mysticism became a way of

brothers and sisters .

life for many young

This new form of escapism was

propagated to keep black youhth from becoming revolutionary black nationalists andforming a Black Revolutionary Party and Liberation Army
On

(Black Guard) .

the other hand, brothers who romanticized black

revolution on
We must

the West Goast, made some serious mistakes .

realize that revolutions are not made over

television,

radio, or through the enemies'

press .

revolutionary never warns the enemy of what he

to do ; he does
The year

is going

it .
1970 opened up a new decade for the uni-

versal African .
in America is ;

The question

for the African captive

How should we proceed to nation building?

In order to answer that question we must first analyze

the alternatives

that are being presented to :us .

THE DRIVE FOR LEGAL BLACK POLITICAL POWER

The movement

toward

running black candidates for

pub lic office, utijizing the bloc vote, represents

last

the

legal stage of the black middle class interest

the capitalist political system .

It

in

is a continuation

from post Civil War days ; when the black middle-class

obtained a degree of political power in the South .
attempt to achieve political equality has been

The

the main

emphasis of our national democratic revolwtion .

While

this drive doesn`t totally serve the interests of the

black working class - the vast majority of our people will

help to exhaust the legal means of protest, and

eliminate the illusions that black people can achieve

freedom in

the capitalist system .

At the same time, this

drive helps weaken the racist political system by polarizing

its
Full

inkierent contradictions .
black political representation will

America into posit ical

chaos .

throw

But it should be remem-

tiered that the enemy has plans of just changing faces wil:h
M

the game remaining the same .

people control

The enemy will

let black

the political machinery of the cities,

while he still controls the industry .

The enemy plans

to establish neu-colonialism in America as he has done

in many other places
are in a national

in Africa and Asia .

Because we

democratic revolution, black revo-

lutionaries must support the drive of the black middleclass to get legal black political power :

41e must do

this because the drive heightens the political and

17 3

nationalist consciousness of the black working class,

organizes them

i wpolitical

o:rganization and polarizds

contradictions within the colon.izer's system,

At the

same time that we organize to get black political

re-

presentation within the system, .we must constantly

teacfi the people, that this will

not get them liberation .

7HE DRIVE FOR LEGAL BLACK fCONQMIC POWER

l~lhile most black revolutionaries criticize black
capitalism as being a hoax - that

it will

not benefit

most of our people - we must stilt support the black

middle class drive to become a capitalist class .

We:

do this not because we feel

freedom

black people can gain

under the capitalist system, or that black capitalists

are any better than white capitalists .
We are in a
<, ;:
nationalist revolution of a colonialized nation in which
=.

all

classes wust surge forth to obtain their national

class interests as one class .

Being suppressed, the

black middle class was not allowed to develop into a

bourgeois class .

Black capitalism is

the .last

legalist

drive by the black middle class to obtain economic power

within the system .
dynamics of class,

It

is

important that we understand the

class structure, colonialism and

national

liberation movements .

national

liberation

revolution

Our revolution
;

is a

is one of a colonial-

ized nation seeking independence and self determination

from the colonializer .

We must

realize that there arc antagonistic

contradictions between all classes of black America

and the colonializer .

The bt.ack bourgeoisie, because

it lacks political and economic power,

is more of a

petty bourgeoisie and bourgeoisie and will

have more

of a tendency to support the revolution than a classical.

bourgeoisie .
we will

If we understand

these contradictions,

then

understand why the black middle class responds

the way that

Black revolutionaries must cri-

it does .

ticize the black middle class drive toward black capitalism, but,

at the same time, support it because we

must realize that

is

is a necessary historical stage

before our nation can move to open revolution .

In other words, we must

support the existence and

expansion of black businesses and . at

the same .t'rme we must

point out that profits from black businesses should go

back to the community .

Black economic development must

be a coliective .e-fort .

Our colonialized nation needs

an independent economic system .

reliant .

We need to be sel.f-

Black cooperatives must be encouraged .

communalism,

the joint ownership of

Black

the means of

production and commerce by the community, must become

a way of life .

This

is . black economic self-determination :

economic development that

people .

benefits

the majority of our

41e must constantly teach our people .that this

not totally possible without a complete social

is

revolution .

17 5

To develop a collective spirit and prepare our community

for economic survival, we must develop economic cooperatives whenever we can .
CULTURAL REVOLUTION AND REVOLUTtONARY BLAGK NATIONALISM
Since 1968, African people . have been undergoing a
cultural

revolution .

The cultural

revolution has pro-

duced a pride in being of African stock .

I'm Black and I'm proud"
of thought .
the Nation Of
cultural

"Say

it

loud,

represents the present mood

The honorable Elijah Muhammad,

leader of

Islam is the spiritual father of the black

revolution

in America .

For some thirty years,

the messenger has taught and propagandized our people

with the importance of being self-rel#ant .

The "Lamb"

teaches us'why we should separate and form an

dent

nation of our own .

indepen-

From the last Messenger of A-1ah

came a mass spokesman who has given this generation of

youth anew direction .

Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali are

two brothers who were personally groomed by the Messenger .

Many groups have cropped up to brig about a "reAfricanization" of our people .
these groups

As a result, some of

have formed the position that all things

came from culture .

While revolutionary black nation

alists see black culture as a stage ~of development

the national

in

consc .cousness of our people, they do not

see it as a stage of development in the national

cons-

17 6

ciousness of our people, they do not s'ee

in

itself .

nation

it as an end

We ,she that we are at present a cultural

(a colonialized nation whose culture is

and exploited)

seeking to become~an

Independent nation

state .

This means that we African people held

tivity

inside the United States, have a common

way of

life and history,

a common territory .
believe cultural

in capculture,

heritage, and destiny .

also have a common economic existence,

and up until recently

suppressed

We

political posture,

(the last twenty years

occupied

Revolutionary black nationalists

nationalism is only beneficial

when

it

leads to helping revolutionary political nationalism .

The two major supporters of cultural
are Maulana Ron Karenga and

nationalism

imamu Amiri Baraka .

While

both Maulana and lmamu . work together,"there are major

differences
strongly

in their approach .

Maulana, who believes

in one . man leadership, has a dangerous tend-

ency toward being very egotistical .

is counter-revolutionary,

only

Egotistical

is

leader-

lead to endless internal war over who is

greater than "me" .

war .

The black nation needs

leadership devoid of ego that

dedicated to serving our people .

ship will

leadership

anti-people and only serves

to further divide the community .

a selfless collective

Egotistical

It will

lead to nationalist gang

Egotistical, self-centered,

self-styled leaders,

17 7

who usually work secretly with the enemy, must be

iso-

fated and if necessary, driven out of the black community .

If black n8tionalists are going to build a new
value system,
beneficial

it must be built on new values that are

to the unification and liberation of the

black nation .

Anew black value system cannot be based

on messianic (one man)

fascist authority,

egotistical

leadership and

It must be based on collective

leadership, communalism and democratic centralism .

Brotfier

Imamu Amiri Baraka seems to be building a

collective

leadership which is necessary to build a

World African Party .

THE SOUTHERN 5TRUGGLE FOR A REGIONAL

INDEPENDENT

NATION
As the black middle class drive "a for political
representation within the system,

if will

begin to

realize that

its class interests cannot be satisfied

by reform of

the political system of the United State$ .

This,

in

return, will

force the black middle class and

the black working class to become more nationalistic .

The next
an

logical step will

be to raise the demand for

independent black republic .

who call

for open revolution

enemy government) . must

to be done,

Black revolutionaries

(the overthrow of

the entire

realize that rJhile this may have

it os necessary to .move our people to

revolution, step by step .

Our people have been mentally

oppressed and do not as .yet anderstand their power, so

we must constantly move them to objectives which they
understand they are capable of achieving .
The REpublic of New Africa which is demanding the
states of Mississippi,
and Louisiana call
region

Georgia,

Alabama,

South Carolina

this "limited objective ."

is where 50~ of our people live .

There are

appraximately 15 million black people living

South .

Many are becoming the majority of

southern cities .

in the

the major

Some southern states have a black

majority, population-wise .

If the black population

in the South is mobilized to demanding an

nation,

The southern

independent

it will polarize the contradictions of the

whole nation .

Nationalism is usually an urban pheno-

menon .
The historical contradiction of black nationalism
lies

in the fact

that

in the pest

it was a northern

based urban movement, while the majority of our people

were southern rural based .

But the social

stratification

of black America has changed with many of our people

the South being displaced from the land .
of our people

in

proletariat .

Black nationalists must

in

The majority

the S~eutt~ are becoming urban black

of moving our people step by Step to

develop tactics
independent nation-

17 9

hood .

If black nationalists organize our people

South in the plants, then they will

in the

have a base among

the people .
While the struggle for an

independent black repub-

lic may not be the ultimate phase of the black nationalist

revolution,

it

is a necessary historical

stage .

THE AFRICAN AMERICAN AND PAN-AFRICANISM

The African captive in America
has always been active
land, Africa .

(overseas African}

in the liberation of our mother-

. W .E .B . DuBoi s as early as

organized the first Pan-African Congress :

1919

From

1919 to

1945, the Pan-African congresses served as a forWm far

African intellectuals at home and abroad .
African Congress b in 195,
direct action

The Pan-

developed the tactics of

for the liberation of the mainland .

Pan-African movement has advanced

The

in gradual steps .

Marcus Garvey, the father of nationalism, also had as

an objective the liberation of a unified central African
government .
Stokely Carmichael, the mass spokesman for Black
Power,

returned from Africa

in

1971 saying that Pan-

Africanism must become the mass philosophy of

can American .

the Afrir

Stokel ystudied for some time under

Nkrumah in Guinea .

At

that time, Brother Carmichael's

new strategy called for the African-American

to concen-

trate his efforts on possibly bringing Nkrumah back

18 0

into power in Ghana .

The land base Lhat would be

liberated wound became a Pan-African state on which the

Pan-African revolution would be based .

Brothers and

sisters in the states are told that struggling

revolution

in~the United States will

for

be a protracted

affair and not possible at this times

Many call bis

We must realize that all people

position a "cop-out ."

must make tfieir own indigenous revolution led by people

This doesn't mean we shouldn't

from their own , country .

help the brothers and sisters on the mainland .

help where we can,
where we are .

We should

but we must concentrate our efforts

And if we understand

the nature of

perialism aid neo-colonialism, we wili

im-

realize that

we did create a Pan-African socialist state,

if

it would

be faced with encirclement and intervention from the.

Africans

United States government .

in America and the

Carribbean are actually Africa's military

In order for Africa
war of

is

to be truly liberated,

a world

liberation must be fought between Africa, Europe,

and America .
It

rear .

We are engaged in a world black revolution .

then necessary to develop tactics far all Africans

worldwide .

Being in a protracted

of national liberation,

it

is

international war

necessary for Africans

to

wage struggle'in the country where they are colonialized .

4!e are up against an

international

crisis

in the capi-

talist-imperialist system .
national

This means we must organize

Pan-African movements' that can move to seize'

state power in their region .

At the same

time, we must develop an

international

African consciousness among our people so that when

enemy moves to encircle and crush a national
revolution, we can come to

the

African

its aid by creating a crisis

somewhere else, forcing the enemy to overextend himself .

While this may be our war strategy, we must

encourage Africans

in America and the Caribbean with

skills to go to progressive African states and build those

states

into strong Pan-African bases .

REPRESSION AND BLACK REVOLUTION

As

the black revolution

'

intensifies,

it will

become more threatening to the white power structure .

The urban insurrections of the 1960's showed the
revolutionary potential of the black national
movement .

The federal government, through its intel-

ligence apparatus,
movement

liberation

has analyzed the black liberation

to be a potential national

democratic revolution .

In order to prevent the black revolution from reaching

its objectives, certain forces within the power structure
are moving to crush our struggle before it reaches the
stage where it cannot be stopped .

As a result, a

conspiracy has'been brewing and widening over athe last

10 years .

Groups such as the John

Birch Society,

Minutemen,

Ku Klux Klan, American-Independent Party,

White Peoples Party,

Rangers, White Christian Movement,

have consolidated as the "radical

right ."

These groups

are intertwined and connected with big business, Pentagon,

Government

Service, Army

Intelligence

(CIA, DIA),

LRS,

Secret

Intelligence, FBI, Nouse Internal

Sommittee, National

Security

Defense, and southern racist and

nofthern conservative

liberals who constitute the

"legal . istic right ."

These forces are moving as fast~as they can to create
political atmosphere of hysteria ;

in order to make

conditions such that the President would appear . ;justified

in declaring a national emergency .

The "right" is pre-

paring to make America an open fascistic state .

the provisions of the McCarren Act,
the U .S . can declare a national

Under

the President of

emergency on grounds

of"insurgency or attack from a foreign enemy .

At ptesent,

through the files and dossiers of the government

intelligence agency, all

black groups and leftist

political groups are under 24 hour surveillance .

Approximately one million people can be picked up and
put in concentration camps within 24 hours .
Much of
government

the intelligence information gets

intelligence sources by way of

to

local police

who have a system of surveillance on all known black and

leftist groups, who constantly send

in agent provocateurs

I
I

18 3

to destroy these groups .

is the climate,

This

that black people must face

in . the 1970's .

in~reality,

As white

police become more politically racist, repression will

became more

intense for black America .

all black people will

soon be

As a result,

lumped together to be

referred to ws S1ack . Panthers or Black Panther sympathizers .

Black people must understand the historical

condition that we are in .

We must either unite or perish

under a fascist racist America .

There are several

forms

of struggle and organization that we must move to if we

are to achieve self-determination .
Within our community, we must build a disciplined
black revolutionary party that

is capable of destroying

the oppressors' pmeans of oppression .

This black

revolutionary party must be highly.sop.histicated in the

art of deception .

It must

the black community .

form an

infra-structure within

This party must constantly move

in uniting sectors of black America.

raises the need for a National

The present period

Black Liberation Front .

18 4

THE PAN-AFRICAN 13EVOLUTION

The formation of the pan African movement was born

from the 'realities of African peoples having been subjected
to the sinister exploitation of a white European western
world through its social, political, cultural

and economic

system .
Since the beginning of the 16th century, when Europe
began to engage

itself

in the interriationai

Africa, ripping African society to threads,

more than

rape of
kidnapping

100 million Africans, binding them as cattle

and enslaving them and exposing them to rape, genocide,

and the abuse of slavery through an
which reaped

billions

international

trade

in profits to all of European

society, Africans have been subjected to the worst kind

of abuse and crimes of

inhumanity the world has ever

known .
For over 400 years the European has attempted to '
impose his will
world .

on dark people, the majority of

the

As his society developed from the international

trade of African men, women and children as chattel

slaves, i .e .,
homes,

steal.i~g families, tribes from their

the European uprooted society in African and

brpught slavery to the "New World", North, South,

America and the Caribbean .

Central

The European bourgeois,

in order to pacify

-contradictions, developed the concept of

racism, ex-

ploitation and enslavement on the basis of

enslaved people were considered
This was done

its own

race ;

less than human beings .

in order to justify their international

of exploitation of man by mankind .

system

The system of capital-

ism which developed to a large extent from the stave

trader, later developed

into

highest stage of development .

neo-colonialism,

imperialism, capitalism's
imperialism developed

the last stage of

imperialism .

imperialists have spread the system of

and have developed an
the European
an

international

is on top (white

international

areas of peaceful

racism

racial

is right)

curtain based on color,

into

The

in Asia

caste of which

and has developed

limiting

the

communication between the haves and the

have nots .
The Pan African movement developed as a result of
white colonial
in an era
used as

rule

in the Black world .

i t struggled

in which Black people were manipulated and

pawns by all forces of the white world,

by

white internationalists both .from the left and the right .

The historical
movement

development of a world Black revolutionary

in which African peoples have forged a revolution-

cry .scientific . :outlook (ideology

to liberate themselves from

the oppressive systems of racism, colonialism,

capitalism, and neo-colonialism .

imperialism,

18 6

The Pan Africam movement began as a movement .of

bourgeois nationalist
formed

ante}1~ectuals before being trans-

into a revolutionary force for African liberation .

lw July, 1900, H . Sy1veste,r i"(illiams, a West

lawyer practicing
Conference .

Indian

in hondon, founded the first Pan African

puBois said

that the problem of the 20th

z
cenfury is the problem of the color line .
Dr . DuBols
was elected vice-president of

the first Pan African

conference .

The Pan African conference did not receive

support from

the masses of Africans at that time because

for a large part, the movement was

alienated Black intellectuals, who,

in the hands of
though brilliant,

had basically severed their roots with the mass of Black

people,

to

it's early years,

the Niagara Movement's

Pan African department . corresponded with African intellectuals .

Even Thomas

were interested

Fortune and Booker~T . Washington

3
in the concept of Pan Africanism :
But

the main organizational

maintained by

development of Pan Africanism was

the efforts of Dr . DuBois and Marcus Garvey .

In 1919 DuBois organized the second Pan African Congress

which was held

in Paris .

fifty-seven delegates,
Americans,

The Congress consisted of

sixteen of whom were African-

twenty-oneWest .lndian,

remainder European .

twelve African and the

The Congress was a mild one in

of formulathng a program of social

terms

action for the liberation

of Africa, but it went a long v~ay towards laying

the

rs~
groundwork for international Black organization and
communication .

During this time puse Muhammad Ali,

edifor of the Africa n .Tiraes and'~Orient Review, worked

very closely with Marcus Garvey and other Pan Africanists .
tw 1920 Marcus Garvey, the most significant internafiional mass

leader of

the twentieth century, organized

the l nternat i ona l Convention of

the World .

the Negro People 'of

Unlike DuBois, Garvey was not an alienated

intellectual, but was a mass leader who organized thousands

to support the concept of Pan African Nationalism (Black
Internationalism)

and the immediate liberation of Africa .

One of the most severe blows to the cause of Pan Africanism

was the clash that occurred between DuBais and .Garvey
in the 1920's .

DuBois was a master organizer,

ganalist, and agitator .

the nucleus for an

Within five years he had formed

international

had millions of followers .

powers were well

propa-

Black movement that

But the white colonial

aware of the potential of an

international

Black nationalist movement and they immediately organized

to stop Garvey .

They formed an

international white

power conspiracy to keep Garvey from theshores of Africa,

banned the Negro Wor_id- , Garvey's weekly newspaper in
African colonies, and with the help of

the United States

Government, caused division within his ranks,, used the

Negro inte1ligen .tsia to wage a character assassination
campaign against him,

framed, jailed, and exiled

him .

18 8

The second Pan African Congress was held

and Brussels

in ]g21 . .

in London

There were:]l3. official delegates,

25 from the United States and .4] :from Africa .

In

gussets a split occurred among the Pan Africanists .

Diagne, then the Chairman of the Congress, led the moderate
faction and DuBois

led the militant faction .

faction of the Congress was still

according to Garvey .

The militant

considered moderate

It should be noted while two

forces were organizing

international

Black movements

(Du

Bo.i s~ and Garvey) , nei then were looked upon pos it ively
by the white Russian revolutionary leaders, for they saw
the Pan African movement as only ~a tool or
their

international

pawn

chess game for power .

The Th i rd Pan Af r ican Congress was held

Lisbon

in 1923 .

i n London and

Because of DuBois' conflicts with Garvey,

the Congress was not well

attended .

The~Fourth Pan African Congress was held

York in ]927 .
under DuBois'

in

in New

It was the last Congress held directly

leadership .

Again because of DuBois',

histor .i.al~conflict with Garvey, the Congress did not

4
from
the
Black
world
.
receive mass support
The 1930's, the depression, the opportunist moved
by the left and the impending war years hindered further
development of
]940's .

the Pan African movement until

the mid

A personality that began to, become the spark

for Pan Africanism was George Padmore, a brother who had

18 9

recently

left the communist movement and who was now in

nationalist circles .

M~aking~residence in London, he came

in contact with other brilliant Black men

such as his

childhood friend, C .L . R . James- , ~tallace Johnson, and

Jomo Kenyatta .

In ]g44 various Black organizations united

to form the Pan African Federation under the leadership

of

the International Service Bureau .

Padmore became the main organizer for another Pan

African Congress which was to become the turning point

for the Pan Af-rican movement .

Padmore corresponded with

DuBois and DuBois gave all the encouragement to the Pan

African Federation to hold

the Fifth Pan African Congress .

The Fifth Pan African Congress held

in Manchester,

England in 1845 was the turning point of

movement .

For the first time

in

the Pan African

the development of

the

Black International movement, Africans drafted a scientif

6
program for immediate liberation of the motherland .
Some notable African leaders who played a major role
were Nkrumah, who organized the West African National
Secretariat from the Congress and Jomo Kenyatta, later
to become known as
.

the "Burning Spear ."

In ]g46, the West African National

its own conference announcing

of

Secretariat held

i-ts dedication to the concept

ideas among bourgeois intellectuals into a scientific

ideology welded by an deveToping .African

into organizational

form to serve as an

intelligentsia
instrument for

19 0
a national

liberation revolution .

Col in L.egun in his Pan Africanism

historical
he says :

, describes the

need and development of fan Africanism when

~'Rccognition of the unique historical

position

of Black peoples as the universal bottom dog lead to a

revolt against passive submission to this

situation .

The

emotions associated with Blackness were antellectualized

analyze Pan Africanism became a vehicle for the struggle
of Black people to regain their pride .'"
_ .Pan Africanism became an ever growing force in the
1950's with the emergence of the Mau Mau revolution
Kenya,

the success of the anti-colonial

obtaining

in

revolution,

independence for Ghana and then the chain of

events that

led to decolonialization and the emergence

of seemingly independent political African . states .

i s a theor-

Padmore's book Pan Africanism or Crmnmun i sm

etical~c7assic

in the definition of historical

Teading to the development of Pan Africanism .

Africanism won many victories
1g60's

in the late

experiences
While Pan

1950's and early

its leaders made serious errors and the course of

true Af r i can l i bera t i on suf f ereci many setbacks

late t960's .

The major setbacks

lie in the change

perspective of the Pan African .movement from

1958, when the emphasis was changed from an
Black movement ~to a coalition of
Pan Africanism then began to

i w the
in

1945 to
international

independent African states .,

lose its revolutionary

fervor with

its

immediate 'objecti've being achieved

in the early 60!s .

The early 1960 :'s erected the

Illusion that true Independence had at last been won .

But to the contrary only the method of coloniakiza.t~on
was changed .
When Nkrumah began focusing pan Africanism on the
newly independent states, overseas Africans were
an organizational

in

vacuum .

Nationalizing of Pan Africanism proved fatal as coup

upon coup,

invasion upon

invasion marked the overthrow

of several progressive African governments and assassin

ation of African freedom fighters .
In 1963 and 1864 efforts to build a strong Organization
of African Unity was misdirected with emphasis being
placed on

leaders of African governments .

the flexibility of

This

the Pan African movement .

Pan African movement being well

entrenched

limited

With the

in African

youth instead of head of state, pressure could not be

brought upon
say ; "I

it because the heads of state could always

have nothing to do with

it ;

it

is

the will

of

the

people ."
Brother Malcolm X saw the great need for

international

Black unity and organization and attempted to fulfill

the gap left by the Manchester Congress .
structure, :once again well

aware that

But the power

internatio nal

organization would mean death to colonialism,

Black

imperialism

19 2
and neo-colonialism, assassinated Brother Malcolm
before he could organize an . jnternatjonal Black Congress
Africans the world over must understand

that the white

colonialists have changed their strategy, they have

seen that African masses have awakened, developed an
African nationalist conscjou$ness and realize they
cannot rule Africa

jn the same way they did before :

cover up their sinister design of world domination and

super exploitation of Africa, they do not seek overt
political control . of African states any longer .
did this

in the. stage of

They

imperialism and colonialism,

but they have consolidated, changed their base of

operations

in order to deceive and trick us and as

Nkrumah has brilliantly described

( The Last Stage of

Colonialism

Imperialism),, the imperialists have

changed their tactics .

economic

in Neo-

Through trade agreements, bribes,

investments and Peace Corps projects, they

plan to re-colonialise Africa

in a manner that will

take another 100 years to recover from .

Their latest

moves have been to cause division within the ranks of

African governments buying off whole African armies,
assassinating progressive African leaders or overthrowing
them .

These Toms who . have sold

their souls to the devil

have a high .price'to pay on the day 'of retributisn .

Africans world wide must understand the new
dynamisms that divide the world, created and fortified

19 3

by the system of neo-colonialism .

~JORCD~;~AFR I CAN L I BERAT I ON

African peoples must realize that the present period
calls for a reevaluation of all positions and above
everything else, African peoples the world over must
realize that they are engaged

in a world

protracted war of Black liberation .

do this,

(international)

1f Africa

does, not

it and all Africans abroad face neo-colonialist

rulE and possible extermination soon .

The white m.an is a white internationalist .

When

the

Black world becomes Black Internationalist, no more coups

could be pulled on progressive African nationalist leaders .
When

it comes to racism, we must destroy it by any means

necessary .
The Black Underclass must make the decisions for
themselves .

The Black revolutionary must become more

aggressive and bold

in terms of national

and self-determination .

Black revolutionaries must

create a condition which will

the world over
National

force all African people

to support the world African Revolution

Liberation, control of a nation

the present era, an

ism, will

liberation

isolated

state,'. in

base in an era of neo-colonial-

be usurped and set back or destroyed

surrounded by other bases of

if not

revolutionary action that

are constantly harassing the enemy,

not allowing

him to

19 3
focus on the particular

liberation force .

The whole

world must be seen as one large bat lefield

in the world

African Revolution, and given land areas viewed as

liberated or colonialized zones In a world-wide protracted war to out-maneuver the enemy .

Control of

nation states becomes part of wortd liberation tactics

rather

than ends

Underclass

in themselves,

to free

in strategy of tfie Black

itself of world racism .

Pan Africanism or Black Nationalism obtains a new

dynamism, that of
achieving

international

consciousness,

that of

international world power for the people .

Control of, the formation of a world state that

represents

and works for the benefit of the world's majority,: the

Black Underclass, becomes the ultimate focus of
Africanism, Black Nationalism or
liberation of nation states 'is an

Black Power .

Pan
National

intermediate period

for the creation of a world union of peoples'

republics .

Bnlack nationalism becomes Pan African Nationalism and

Black Power becomes World Black Power .
African and other oppressed people of the world
are beginning to conceive the concept of world peoples'
war, and world Black Unity,
lose your colonia_Tize:d
because we

live

Afric an people of

the world,

brainwashing that we are differ ent

in different geographic locations, and

were colonial ized 'by d ifferen-t Europeans 'from different

nation states .

Bl ack people o-f . the world, wake upvand

19 4

real ize ~~hat we were co1-oriial ized and are being - .

neo-colonial ized
world,

by ~Europea~rrs .

B1 :a~cK People of . ~the

rea-l~i'ze that the i uropeari rvhite " Amer 'ican ',is ' the

world devil .

THE SWEEPING WORLD BLACK REVOLUTION

All over Africa, Asia, South, Afro and Central
America, a revolution

is

haunting and sweeping .

ruling circles of U .S .

imperialism and

(Europe, Soviet Union,

etc .1-have united

The

its lackeys
in a ''white

united .front" in order to try and stop this revolution of

non-white peoples in fear of being swept out of power
and of

losing control

The United States

of their domination of the world :

is leader of , this counter-revolution-

ary alliance of Britain,

France, Germany, Soviet Union,

Portugal, Belgium, and the European countries .

Though on the surface they appear disunited, underground,
behind closed doors,

in secret conferences,

of the "White Un-Holy Alliance" is "Never

the pact

let the Black

Revolution Succeed ."

European powers

led by U .S .

imperialism,

so-called European-United States radicals

socialists, communists ,

including the

(liberals,

realize that the success of the

World Black Revolution would mean the end of European

rule of

the world .

The international

unification, mobil-

ization and organization of Africa, Asia, South, Central

lg5

and Black America (non-white majority of

what they ,f ear most .

the world)

is

Thelr~tactlGS have been those of

divide and rule in order to keep this from happening .

Two things r.esu l t from these facts : v
l .

In order for the World Black ReVol~ution to 'be

successful, all

non=white peoples must unite to~destroy .

the existing white powers .

2.
a final

Black Internationalists must begin to prepare for

showdown with the.whtte

imperialist oppressors

and must begin to~organize for a World Black Revolution

which will

create a "New World" which they will

rule and

master .

THE PRINCI-PLE CONTRADICTION IN THE WORLD AND THE LINE

OF REVOLUTIONARY BLACK INTERNATIONALISTS
"The problem of
of the color tine ."

the Twentieth Century ,is the problem

The contradiction between the

revolutionary peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America

and the imperialists headed 'by the United

States . i s the

principle contradiction in the contemporary world .

development of
of

The

this contradiction is prompting the struggle

the people of the whole world against United

imperialism and its lackeys .

States

19 6

COMMON GRIEVANCES AMONG AFRICAN,

ASIAN,

SOUTH,

CENTRAL

AMERICAN ANA CARIBBEAN PEOPL.E:S AGgINST THE EUROPhANgMFRICAN

For over 400 years the European has attempted to
impose his will
world .'

on dark peoples, .the majority of the

As,his society developed from the international

trade of African men, women, and children as slaves,

stealing families, tribes from their homes,

the European

uprooted society in Africa and brought slavery to .the

"New World'! = North,' South,

Centra 1 Amer i ca and the

Caribbean .
The European

(rul .ing class)

Bourgeoisie in order

to pacify its own contradictions, developed the concept

of racism, exploitation and enslavement on the basis of
race .

This was done

in order to justify their inter-

national sysfiem of exploitation of man by mankind .

The

system of capitalism developed to a large extent from

slave trader,

later developed

highest stage of development ;

neo-colonialism,
imperialists

imperialism .

have spread the system of racism

international

is on top ; "White

developed an :
the areas of

imperialism, capitalism's

imperialism developed to

the last stage of

have developed an
the European

into

international

the

The

into Asia and

racial system of which

is Right" - and has

curtain based on color,

limiting

peaceful communication between the haves and

the .have nuts .

The dark majority of the world have come

19 7
to find

that their common enemy-isJ'has been the European

and his wild younger brother, .the white American, unjust

and unfit for world leadership and. have found them to
be ' bar barians to man and an outlaw to universal' harmony
a rid peace . The European and European-American,
own crimes and injustices to man,

by their

have set the stage for

their own destruction .

Class becomes the secondary and not the primary
manifestation of the principle contradiction .

It

becomes

pertinent to analyze the present state and to draw a

clear line for the future .
be resolved,

In order that this contradiction

imperialism, capita lism, and all

that maintains

the systems of exploitation must be destroyed by the

have pots .

Th,e destruction of

these systems will

mean

the end of class exploitation and will also mean the end
of

(racial)

exploitation .

THE EUROPEAN RULING CLASS, WORKING CLASS AND THE

BLACK UNDERCLASS

Dr . DuBois foresaw and correctly analyzed

the

principle contradiction of the Twentieth Century in

1902

in Th.e Souls Of Black Folk . These cultural

(race)

contradictions ex 'tsted even at the time Marx and Engels

were writing the "Communist Manifesto" .

Marxism being

primarily a .European movement did not have

lectually" with the cultural

to deal

''intel-

(racial contradictions)

until

19 8
after the October revolution .
Lenin, the architect of the October B~ol-shevik
Russian Revolution,~analyzed
class being racist

had allowed the bourgeoisie to con-

olida. te capitalism
i sm" ~

that the European working

internationally to develop "imperia l

(,en i n devel oped the thes i s t-hat the .pr i nc i pl e

contradiction was between oppressing nations and oppressed

nations .

Lenin pleaded for the European working crass

to rally to the support of the oppressed nations before

the avenues of communications and working class unity
broke down .

This des cribed vividly in the Right 0f Nations

to self determination . Lenin's hope was for the European

working class to rally to support the October Russian
Revolution .
Even Lenin could not deal
contradictions for at
International. held

thoroughly with the racial

the Second Congress of

the Communist

in Moscow in J920, M .N . Roy of

India

challenged and debated Lenin on the future world

revolution .

Roy's position was the world revolutionary

initiative was going to come from Asia and the European

proletariat would be

lead by colonial

revolutions while,

Lenin, a European, did not foresee the hopelessness of

fihe European proletariafi .

As far as he was concerned,

had taken the matter a little too~far .

Roy

Lenin 'stated

that `he saw arid' ~r- ecognized the emergence ' o. f!~riatiorial
bourgeo l-s - revo-lutions

in the colonies

(Asia, Africa, etc .)

19 9

buf did not see where

the world revolution .
Roy

Mould becom e-the vanguard of

l h.

and Lenin debated for hours to a draw .

the Second Congress of the Communist (third)

Although

International

approved and adopted both Roy's and Lenin's theses, Roy's

was seldom referred

to and little heard of .

History .

has proved Lenin wrong .

The initiative came from Asia .

Stalin

in Lenin's shoes of remaining

likewise followed

indifferent to racial contradictions .

wrote on the national

While Stalin

question he manipulated the

American Communist Party to use the Afro-American

liberation struggle to benefit Russian European Nationalism .

The American Communist Party fought, subverted

and helped crush Marcus Garvey, who refused to be con

trolled by them

(the American racist communists) .

By

helping to crush Garvey, they helped no one but the

European Bourgeoisie because Garvey threatened
control over Africa and other colonies .

their

The American

Communist Party later dropped the "Negro struggle"

to form a united

front against fascism .

They urged

everyone to support Roosevelt (orders coming from Stalin

who had a pact with Roosevelt after Hitler attacked

Russia)

The Communist Party even opposed A . Phillip Randojph's

prgpqs.ed March on ~(asfiington
ination against Blacks
work .

in

]9 .~+~

against job dtscrim-

in federal government contracted

Time and time again

the American Communist Party

20 0

sold

the gfrican-American out for the "MC~ther Country .  ]2

Goerge padmore's di~sillu'sipnment with Stalin came

while he was head of "Negro Affairs" in Moscow .

He

saw Stalin make opportunistic maneuvers with the African

liberation Movement
In China,
cast

in order tp save "the Mother Country" .

Stalin made disastrous blunders which almost

th.e lives of the entire Chinese Communist movement .

M .N . Roy, who had been sent

to China by Sta}in to assess

the situation, was soon to disagree with Stalin over

his China policy and had to flee the Communist movement
for fear of his 1 ife .

All Black (Africa, Asia, South,

Central arid Afro-A.~neric~) movements were set back arid

suffered many
alism .

losses at the expense of Russian nation-

Padmo~e attempted to deal

with the racial

contra-

dictions by organizing the Fifth Pan African Congress

held in ]g45

in Manchester, England :

Padm~ore's ex-

periences were 'similar to the experiences other brothers

suffered with~the European Communists, particularly between
the French Communists and African and Asian revolutionaries .
The racial contradictions began to manifest more when
the Chinese Communists came to power
struggling against the social
Soviet Union,

chauvinism

Long

(racism)

of the

the emergence of Revolutionary China began

to polarize racial
world .

in China .

and class contrad,'rctions within the

In both the bourgeoisie imperialist camp and also

in the European bourgeois Communist-Socialist camp .

20 1

The modern
- has

sprouted

European Communist. -Socia}ist

from

society,

though elminating

have not

done away with

but

es~tabllshed

in

the . weak spots

major

racial

society

that

luroiaean capitalist

class antagonpsms,

antagonisms .

It has

new condi ^ticins ~'f._ppr'ess ion, . - new~forrns

. . old, .. ories ~.

for stru g9l_e in pl ac e o f

TH.1:
The
the

._N

iSTOR t CAL

present

European

QUES"TI~ON

era

presents

proletariat ;

unite with the

Btack

UN (TE
an

the

(Third

the vast majority of

European

historical

question

for

European must either

Wortd)

the world,

bourgeoisie and

OR PER I SH

or

underclass

(have

perish with

revisionist

Marxist

nuts)

the

leaders

do

the world . revolution .

Lin

Piao

stated

in 'l,orig-~ L-iv:e_ :P~oP,le's

War :

Taking the entire globe, if North

America and Western Europe can be ca lied
the cities of the world, then Africa,
Asia, and Latin America constitute 'the
rural areas of the world' . . .
In a sense,
the contemporary world revolution also
presents a picture of the encirclement of
cities by the rural areas :
In the final
analysis , t he whole cause of world revo_lu tion _hinge s on the revolutionary struggles
of the African, Asian, and Latin American
peoples who make up the overwhelniing majo rity
of the wo rld's populatio n .

THE

t NTERNAT ( ONAI_

Ear.h historical
The cl~?se

links

R,AG TAI .

CUR,TA I N

situat(on develops

between class and

in

Its own

race developed

dynamics .
in Afric, .a

20 2
alongside capitalist exploitation .

Slavery,

he master-

servant relatl~onship, and cheap labor evere basic to

it .

The classic example is South Africa, where Africans

experience a double exploitation, both on the ground
of color and of

class.

U .S .A. ,, the Caribbean,

Similar conditions exist

in Latin America, and

in the

in other

parts of the world where the nature of the development

of productive forces has resulted
lure .

in

a racist class struc-

to these areas, even shades of color count - the degree

of blackness being a yardstick by which social
is measured-

While a racist social structure is not

the colonial

situation,

economic development .

it

is

inherent

in

inseparable from capitalist

For race is

with class exploitation ;

structure,

status

inextricably linked

in a racist-capitalist power

capitalist exploitation and race oppression

are complementary ; the removal of one ensures the removal

of the other .
In the modern world,
of the class struggle .

the race struggle has become part

In othervards, wherever

a race problem it has become

there is

linked with the class struggle .

A11 of European society becomes the Overc1ass or

colonial

overseer, oppressor classes .

"

A11 of the non-

white peoples have been victims of the system that

has been

formed by the European, built on the concept of his racial

2~3

superiority,

in order to justify his "minority" rule

of . the warld . .~ The racial

system has been established far

a period of five hundred years and is embedded as a way

of life

in European society and transplanted

the rest of the world .

throughout

The essence of world revolution

being a total "Social Revolution" is not just the elimlnation of the reactionary political and economic
institutions of the old order,
and cultural
national

but also the social

institutions of the old order .

racial

T-he

inter-

system predetermines all'relatians between

Third .World peoples and~European,'regardless of class

(economic and political}, status 'or position .
becomes interlocked with race .

I worder for Third World

peoples to revolutionize the world,

r acial system, European racial

Class

they must destroy the

"cultural" superiority,

at the sam e time destroying the class system .

This means destruction of the existing reactionary
European way of

life and the submission of the European

to the revolutionary peoples - the Black Underclass of

the world .
Cultural

racial

antagonisms in contemporary world

society as a whole are more and more splitting up

two great hostile camps ;

into

into two classes directly

facing each other - the white averclass (haves} and the

Third World Underclass

( .have pots} .

Since . . :"in the final

analysis, the whole cause of world revolution hinges on

20 4
the revolutionary struggles of the Asian, African, and
Latin American people who make up the overwhelming majority
16
of the world's population"
, the world revolution takes
on a different character .

It takes on a racial

character

or nature of being largely a world "Black" revolution .

The Third World revolution

is a new democratic revolution

of the world's majority rising up, seFzing power and

destroying

the international racial

the oppressor .

system created by

At the same time it destroys the foundations

of~ capitalism, the class system.

This stage is

the first

step for the transformation to a world communalist

society .

The Third World revolution

all others .
national
vinism)

It must

is different from

be a revolution against the inter-

racia~(European-American racial
system,

imperialism,

social-chau-

capitalism, and neo-colon-

ialism, led by the non-white masses of the world under

the leadership of

the peasantry working class element of

the Black Underclass .

embraces

in

The World Black Revolution

its ranks all classes within the Black Under

class for a final showdown with

imperialism .

ECONOMIC WHITEMAIL AND THE S0~!IET-U .S . AXIS

Sometime ago,

the U .S . and some "other powers"

decided that to have a nuclear World War 111 would kill

700 to 800 r~illion people, most of whom would be Europeans
and Americans (white peopte~ -"'" but that
NOTE :

there would 6e

There are approximately 500 million white people

living in Europe acid the U .S .

plenty of

yellow, Black,

"inherit the earth" .

brown, and red people t.eft to

These powers

stated that the majority

of the world was colored and that a war~ld revolution would

mean

the dark majority would come to power .

WORLA REVOLUTIONARY INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP

IN THE

HANDS OF THE BLACK UNDERCLASS

M .N . Roy of

India in the Second Congress of the

Communist International

held

in Moscow in 1920 stated

that the proletariat and revolutionary movement

in

Europe was dependent upon the course of the revolution

in Asia ;

if the Western European working class was going

to cause a revolution, they would

order to save p t heir o~+n skins .

in essence do

it

in

Instating this, Roy

actually repudiated Marx's theory that "the proletariat

l7 .
alone is a really revolutionary class ."
from the colonies and semi-colonies,
reaped

Roy saw that

the proletariat

the benefits of super profits (standard of European

living) and were not about to give

it up .

Lenin also

saw this but failed to see that revolution would be

by the Third World because he,
"permanent

like Trotsky,

attained

thought the

revolution" was coming from Europe .

saw clearly what Marx, having died before

lead

"Lenin

imperialism

its zenith, 'r+as unable to foresee ; namely, the

gradual corruption of

the E~uropea,n Socialist movements

through ~~Bourgeoisification" .

The capitalist

system, which

20 6
Marx had so brilliantly analyzed, had,

in Lenin's

lifetime, reached out .inta the remotest corners,pf the

earth ^ into Asia and Af,ric~ - drawing the great contivents into
the tail

its tentacles and squeezing super profits from

of hundreds of millions . . .Lenin's

thesis was

that Western world scale and whole continents and

countries, Africa, China,

India,

Indonesia, Burma,

Indo-

China, etc . had been reduced to colonies and economic

dependencies of European nations .

The financial and

military strength of the Great Powers re~sted :upon the

continued exploitation of the colored peoples and the
super profits derived from colonial
the ruling classes of
workers

of

spoilation enabled

the West to corrupt the white

the metropolis and blunt their revolutionary

ardor . . .Hence, argued

Lenin, the Western domination of

the world can only be broken by stirring the colored

colonial

and semi-colonial peoples of Asia and Africa to

achieve their national

Karl

independence .

According to

Marx, the proletarian revolution which was to usher

in Communism would occur first in the highly developed

countries where there existed the economic and social
prerequisites as well

as an educated and cultured

indus-

trial working class to form the first foundations of

socialism .

After the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin,

fihat the western European workers were

perform the historic

seeing

in no hurry to

role which Marx had assigned

to them

20 7

in his Communist Manifesto, decided to forget about them

and reach out to those who were still uncorrupted by
capitalist reform and yearned to
imperialist domination .

break the fetters of

i,enin stated

in tkWSocialist

Revolution and the RIght of Nations to Self Determination

that "the proletariat must demand freedom of political
secession for the colonies and nations that are oppressed
by its nation .

Unless

it does this, proletarian inter-

nationalism will remain a meaningless phrase ; neither mutual

confidence no r . class solidarity between the workers of
the oppressing and oppressed nations will

be possible ."

19

Though Lenin even admitted that Marx ~Nas thinking

mainly of the interests of the proletarian class
strugglewin the advanced countries,

thesis on revolutionary initiative

incorrectness of Marx's
and who wa

he could not see the

the vanguard of

the world revolution .

He,

therefore, could not understand that M .N . Roy was correct

on both the national

and international questions .

Roy correctly analyzed

colonial

tactics. t o~be~used

in the

revolution when he developed the theory for

revolutions;ries to only cooperate with bourgeoisie nationaljsts when necessary,

primarily in the initial

stages

and with caution ; develop working class parties which would

organize workers and peasants and inspire them to
revolution "from below ."

Lenin's thesis was of using

tactics primarily from above but the debating over

the

Los
Issue was so great between him and Roy at
Congress of

the Communist International

the Second

that Lenin com-

promised and met Roy half way, and the Congres

a dual

thesis for the colonial

situation,

adppted

that of organizing

from above and below .

Marx foresaw that socialist revolutions would occur
in Western Europe in countries where capitalism had
developed to a high level and where the proletariat
was organized and strong .

Instead,

revolutions occurred

in essentially underde vel_o-ped count-pie-s, whet-e capi-tali_sm

was just developing and where the proletariat was basicall y
unorganized and w eak .
According to the present world situation,~th e European
prole_ta_riat_-its- no longe r a revolutionary class . The
proletariat through the opportunism of a European labor
aristocracy have refused to unite with their nation's
colonies
to demand
F

their right of self-determination,

and still do oppose the liberation of

oppressor, country .

them from the

They are acting as the counter-

revolutionaries for the Western bourgeoisie . by supporting

their regime's domestic and foreign policies .

So as Lenin

foresaw but did not throughly deal with, "Proletarian

Internationalism" has remained a meaningless phrase and

there 1s no mutual
the workers of

confjdence nor class solidarity between

the oppressing . and oppressed nations .

Proletarian internationalism has been superseded

by

2a9

Third World

internationalism

(the unification of

peoples of Asia, Africa, Afro, South and Central America) .

The Black 1Jnderclass becomes the revolutionary class
within fihe world with the working class-peasant element
being . its most revolutionary sector,
cannot achieve "national

The Black underclass

liberation'' or self determination

of their respective colonialized countries, except by

abolishing the oppressor's economic system of capitalism
irnits advanced stages known as colonialism,

imperialism,

and neo - colonialism and by waging people's wars against

the universal

slavemaster

No co .onialized or
free until all
are free .

(U .S .

imperialism) .

semi-colonialized

people will

be

colonialized and semicolonialized .peoples

The . B'iack Underclass will

totally l iberate itself until

never be able to

imperialism,riea-colonia l'~ism

and al 1 _i_ts_ ,su -p porters, a_re destro yed . The Black Underclass
has nothing to secure and fortify in the present decadent
world, while the European proletariat does
European way of

life, economic standard of

Black Underclass mission is to destroy all

(The U .S .living) .

The

previous and

present securities and insurances of European bourgeoisie

society .
History shows us that the European proletarian movement
was a European nationalist mo ement ;

its

interests

being of the European working class basically in the different European countries, thereby being a movement of the

zto
"minority"

in relation to the vast majority of the world :

The Third 4lorld

internationalist Movement

of the Black Underclass

organized
ment and

is the movement

'the vast majority of the worid~

independent of

the European proletarian move-

in the interest of the overwhelming majority of

the world's population - the Asian, African, Afro-American,

South and Central American peoples .
In world society,
lowest stratum,

the Black Underclass

cannot achieve national

self- determination,

being the

liberation,

power without the whole of U .S . -

European society being completely destroyed . The first

stage of the struggle for liberation of
class against the white overclass

is

the Black Under-

a national

struggle .

The Black Underclass must struggle against the particular

imperialist power that
ally, but

is directly oppressing

it must be remembered that the backer of all

imperialism today is U .S .
waging a war of
pressor,

it nation-

imperialism .

Therefore, while

liberation against its immediate op-

it must also wage war against U .S .

imperialism

internationally .
Since the end of the second

imperialist war, U .S .

imperialism has become the leader of world

"L,Ike a vicious wolf,
peoples,

is bullying and enslaving various

plundering their wealth ; encroaching upon their

countries'
affairs,

it

imperialism .

sovereignty and interfering in their internal

it

is

the most rabid aggressor

in known history .

and the most ferocious common enemy of the people of

Fvery people or~country in the world that

the world .

wants revolution,

independence and peace cannot

direct the spearhead of

ism . . .The U .S .

but
imperial-

its struggle against U .S .

imperialist's policy of

seeking world

darnination makes it possfible for the people throughout

the forces that can be united and

the-world to unite all

form the broadest possible united front far a conveying

21
attack. on U .S . imperialism . . .
Successful

movements of

the Black underclass against

the white overclass since the erid of the second

war have taken the form of "people's war ."
of these peoples'

The nature

wars are protracted wars that mobilize

the "Black underclass ~to form national

the mass of
democratic

imperialist

The revolution embraces

revolutions" .

ranks not only workers,

in

its

peasants, and the 'urban petty

bourgeoisie and other

22
but is led
patriotic and anti-imperialist democraCs . . .
bourgeoisie,

but also the national

~by the working crass element of the Black Underclass .

"What the bloodsucking
along

is a free hand

oppressed peoples'

imperialists have wanted ali

in exploiting

lands .

Finding

the riches of
it

the

impossible and

too costly, both poli .tlcaily and militarily, to continue

maintaining direct control of Africa, the imperialists came
t4 t^ely more and more upon~th .eir . puppets, and they found
that

these dedicated lackies are able to get the job done

21 2

for them .
fabulous
life of

They are still able ~to drain off the

riches of Africa and thet~eby continue to enjoy a

luxury and splendor

i;n

the mother country at

the expense of Africa .

There is no country in Africa that has an
independent economy .
of the Western

Those that are not

in the clutches

imperialists are depende-nt either upon

the Soviet Union or China .

The monopoly which these

developed countries have on technology

is

thrpugh which they are able to control

the economics of

African countries .

the key means

Also, by blocking their products on

the world market, the imperialists are able to force

Third World countries to,their .knees, thus forcing them to
capitulate to their economic demands .
By far,

the Socialist countries offer the most

favorable terms and conditions for the aid that they

give tq Third World countries,
Africa, we again find that
bottom of

it comes to

the black man is at the

the list, receiving far less than the amount

of aid they need

in order to develop independent

econornies . . .The United States

freedom and liberation
of the world .
in ~f~i,ca,

but when

is the chief .enemy of

in Africa, just as

in all parts

The United Staines is the main exploiter

even though most of this exploitation

(s done

indirectly,,through the control which the U .S, has over

all the other Western imperialist countries .

On this

21 3

world scale,

France, );ngland,

Rhodesia, and Portugal are

ism .

Through it's rich

South Africa, Southern

a,ll

supp1Y

puppets of U,S :

of finance capital, and

through it's controlling investment

interests in the

economies of other Western countries,

fists are actually at the head of an
23
imperialist em pire ."
Marx stated

in

imperial

the U .S,

imperial-

international

the Communist Manifesto "every form

of society has been as we have already seen, on the

24
antagonism of oppressing and oppressed c u sses ."
In today's world society, fhe oppressing class is the
whito overclass,and the oppressed is the Black'lTnde:rcl'as s ;
therefore,
ship - i_s

.i - n

the world revolutionar

the hands of _t he Black Underclass .

BLACK ~aaNDERCLASS ANA BLACK INTERNA710NALISTS

What

is the relationship of

to the Black Underclass

and as a whole?
of

Black Internationalists

in their respective countries

Black internationalists,are the vanguard

the Black Underclass .

Black internationalists'

loyalty is with the mass of colored peoples - ''the Black

Underclass' - and their principles are derived from the
concept of "from the masses to the masses" .
t~lack i.nternationali,sts~ revolutionary nationalists,
cons, .tantly struggle through various stages of their
national

movements against colonialism, capitalism,

imperialism and neo-colonialism but always emphasize

that without the correct int~ernationa)

perspective,

national

prey to neo-

liberation movements can fall

colonialism .

Black internationalists are the Blac k

"avant garde" of

the Black Underclass

in every country ;

they act as catalysts, vanguard and theoretical clearing

house in national

revolutions .

Black internationalists
Underclass

the formation of

is

into a powerful

overthrow of

colonialism,

The immediate aim of

national

the Black

liberation movement,

imperialism, and neo-colonial-

ism and the con9uest of world political power by the Black

Underclass .

While Black internationalists are at

sametime Revolutionary Nationalists

countries,

they understand

in

the

their own

that "the world

is

the Black

Man's land" and a world government under the . dictatorship

o .f>the Black Underclass

is

the World Black Revolution,

the ultimate solution of

25

The question of a dictatorship of the Black

Underclass as opposed to the theory of a dictatorship
of the proletariat (the working classy
question .

To be a Third World

is an historical

Internationalist

is

to

admit the need for the dictatorship of the Black UnderClass .

The dictatorship of

central

(slue of the ideological differences between

the Black Underclass

Third World 'internationalists and reformists .

theory of

the Black Underclass dictatorship

is the

The

is the only

215
R. , .r
means capable of putt}ng an end t'o the universal

s;lave-

master, the white man's evil, cruelty and his ex-ploit :ing
nationalists' movements and their leaders .

t t is not

enough to see the necessity of el .}.urinating entireay the

European's rule,

influence and control o~6er the world

by the establishment of a dictatorship of the Black

Underclass .

This

is what constitutes the most profound

difference between Third World

others .

This is

internationalists and

the ::birthstone on which real

standing and recognition of Third World

is to be tested .

under-

internationa}}sm

The- quest- ion of the d}ctatorship of

the

?hird World Underclass should occup_L-a special pt"ace

in Thir World

internationalism because :

without the

seizure~of political power, w}thout the diCtators'h}p

of the Third World Clnderol~ss,
for commu n alism .

fiher.'e can

The Third World

be no- victory

internationalists'

theory of~the establis-hment of- a society without race

and exploitation would remain wishful
T hird World Underclass and

thinking

if

the

its_ Rev-olu- tianary Nat-ionali -sts

Movements did not concentrate their efforts on what

mos_f d:ec i_s ive- , the sei zure of
a tong

is

power to reorganize society

communalist tines .

The i,nternati,onal

importance o.f Third World

nationalists conscious~e~s is reflected

to Afra-Amer}cans,
Secretary of

inter-

in the message

}ssued by Claude Nda11a, . the first

the Congolese Workers Party .

216

Y.nowing

that

the

U .N

is

nothing but a

oppressed must withdraw from

anather

E3andung

body for

scheme,

U .N .

the

Conference, making

and

it

trick,

the

form

the policy-making

the vast majority of the world .

S.0 - CALLED REVOLUTIONARY PROPAGANDA

The Struggle
men's minds,
control
oker
A

in the world today

for

and

their actions

their

reactions

revolution

oppressed

is a

In

is annihilated

in

also

the

process

revolution .

revolution between

That

is

reform,

co-existence

an

means

The

need

Marx said :
people

to
27
people" .
.

the oppressed

peaceful

have

the

in

the

That

is

co-exis~ence

in

and

the oppressor .

revolution .
not

need

Peaceful

revolution .
for evolution .

revolution .

"Theory will
such an

extent

R.evol ut i or1 has

because

class

There _i_s- . no

the oppressed

evolution,

don't

oppressed

uncompleted

The oppressed

among

in

no

control

of elmination

honorable

is

to

power ~us,i:ng any means

process, .the oppressor

surrender

for

in which the

war

order .

There

is

to have some

bringing of a new social

reform .

battle

men's minds

political

that

to actions .

class comes to

necessary .

the

control

to

is

it

always become
as

it

become

meets
a

reality

the

rea li ty

meets our needs ..

needs of
arnong

21~

Counter-revolutionary Communists
Underclass

tell

to forget about the (racial)

the Blacl

contradictions

between the Western (white) world and the Eastern

(Black) World .

They tell

the Black Underclass

Black Nationalist-Internationalist
stincts)

feelings

to submit

(i

for working class proletarian unity and Marx-w

ist-Leninist science-religion .
Uniderclass to forget all
them and above all

They tell

the Black .

the atrocities committed against

never to think of or discuss

reparation or retribution for "all white people are not

the same" .

They say, "Black and white unite and fight

for a ::worker's world ."

that

They tell

the white working class

colonialism,

is nmt to blame for slavery,

semi-colonialW m,

colonialism .

They

say

the Black Underclass

imperialism and neo-

it was the European and American

bourgeoisie who was responsible .

The Black Underclass must "beware of Greeks
(Europeans and Americans)

bearing gifts" because they

have "tricks" up their sleeves .

Peaceful

co-existence

whether it be termed Marxism-Leninism or any other

science-religion,

is nothing but a "psychological

to keep the Black Underclass

trick"

from seeing that they are

the Vanguard of the World Black Revolution and they are

at war with the white world be
or Communist .
This does

Reality makes it

it

Capitalist,

Socialist,

that way,

not mean that the Black Underclass will

z18

use the bourgeoisie's concept of

racism and just

.indiscriminately_set about to kill

rather means that

all

(the Black Underclass) will

the basis of being exploited racially

the

international

whites ; .but
unite on

in order to destroy

race and class systems .

The Black Underclass will

destroy all those who

oppose the World Black Revolu- t ion regardless o-f ra ce,

color, creed,
let

religion, science or any other thing . But

it be known that any and all who oppose the world

revo lution wilt

be destroyed (annihilated)

of the world revolution . because in opposing

~in the process

it, they

become counter-revolutionary and counter-revolution and

revolution cannot peacefully co-exist at any time ; one
must win .. History makes
to make

it necessary for the oppressed

revolution win .

PETTY BOURGEOIS COMMUNISM

In European countries,

Russia and Cuba where

revolutions have occurred, a new class .ofi petty bourgeois

has formed .

Calling themselves Marxist-Lenin~Sts and

purporting to be Communists, they seem afraid

the world revolution
want all

to an end .

to carry

The Communists bourgeoisie

the advantages of their "national

revolutions"

without the struggle, dangers and sacrifices necessarily

resulting from the continuing international world
28
_
They do not want the Black Underclass
revolution .

to

21 9
"rock the boat or upset the apple cart ." "They des i re
the existing state of society misfits revolutionary and
29
disintegrating elements :'
They wish for a world
revolution ., with

the Blaek- Underclass .

The Communist

bourgeoisie conceive s of a world in which the

the rulers and of a world revolution
by the Black Under clas s will
Universal

in which retribution ;

be nullified .

(cancelled out)

Harmony can onl y be- achieved - through

World Black Revolution and the establishment of a

Revolutionary World Government .
The international

race system has produced two

nations internationally - the Black nation

nation) and the white nation

(oppressed

(tt~e oppressing nation) .

There are two types of nationalism :

Ane type suppresses

or oppresses,_i .e ., a nation or particular group reaps

profits or advances materially at the expense, exploitation, slavery or tor~ture .of another group or
na-t ion .

In this nation and in the world today,

this

nationalism is considered "white nationalism" or

the

cooperation of the white western nations to kelp the new

emerging oppressed world in

bondage.

or reactionary nationalism .
is to liberate or' free

This

is capitalism

The other type of nationalism

from exploitation .

That

is

the

binding force of a nation ar particular group to free

itself from a group or nation
oppressing

it .

In

that_is suppressing or

this country and in

the world,

this

22 0

is considered Black Nationalism or

revolutionary'

nationalism .
We can see that Black Nationalism is

the opposite

of white nationalism - Black Nationalism being revolutionary and white being reactionary .
nationalism is

We see also. that

30
internationalism today .

really

Brother Malcoim in his Me-s sage to the Grass Roots

Conference said ; "All

the revolutions going on

in Asia

and Africa today are basezi on Black Nationalism . . .

If you're afraid o~f Black Nationalism,

you're afraid of

revolution and if you love revolution, you love Black

31
Nationalism ."
We can see that
the world today is

the

international

built on anti

perspective

in

nationalistic interests,

dividing the world into two international

nations :

the

white nation and the Black nation .

The present world scene is one of chaos and turmoil
caused by white nationalism (white power) .
majority of the world,

The vast

the Black Underclass, knot that

they can only achieve peace and harmony through a World

Black Revolution that demolishes white power .
can the world be

in "universal

harmony" .

nationalism gill

then prevail .

The need

boundaries and barriers will

sovereignty,'though still
alism in

Black interfor national

be el~imi .nated .

respected,

its aggressive form will

Only then

the need

National
for nation-

be e liminated .

With

zzl

white counter-revolutionary riatianalism destroyed and

completely annihilated,

a "United World Peoples'

Republic" a new level of social . .order, can be created .

The World Black Revolution brings with it a new world
society, a new world .
of universal

It also brings with

it

the concept

law and order .

REVOLUTIONARY SOt.UTI~ON-DICTA?ORSHIP OF THE WORLD

BY THE BLACK~UNDERCLASS THROUGH WORLD BLACK
REVOLUTION
" . . .Today, we
who have

live at the end of the world of people

ruled the Black man and his various colors

between Black and White for the last 6,000 years . . .

The old world must be removed to make .way for the new
world .

There is a v .~iversal struggle being waged by the

32
old world against the beginning of the new world : . ."
The phenomenon of racism is not, as Western
"thinkers" would have us believe,

either a "sickness of

the mind" or a product of certain economic conditions .

This

is the most convenient attitude

since it

for whites to adopt,

implies a process of self-exoneration

attitudes which says :' if

not contracted

it

(a . Pilatus

is a sickness, then

it consciously ;

if

it .

had

it, is a product of

economic circumstances c~rhich took place long ago,

had nothing to do with

Yet the truth

then

is quite

22 2
different

(regardless of wh~ther .accepted or not by

those implicated), since racism is a product of Western

thought, Western civilization and Western values .
The phenomenon of
academic part of

racism is nothing else but a

the Western Weltanschauauung .

The

need t. o assimilate all cultures and to prove all different

non-white cultures

inferior has prompted the systematic

pillage and destruction .of the latter

and South America, : ."'as Karl
surely

ignoring that

in Asia, Africa,

Marx himself stated,

the society of which he himself

was a product would represent the dialectical opposite

of societies he had not .taken
of society never giving
struggle .

into account,old orders

into new ones without fi,er- ce

Marx's version of the struggle between an

underpriviliged .on a national

scale as

he predicted,

but on a world level, since Western societies because

of their exploitation and pillage of others

constitute

today a world bourgeoisie, while its antithetical

opposite

is found in

which have suffered

struggle

is

contend that

the non-Western peoples and nations

for centuries .

to be played out on a world scale .

To

the conflict can be avoided, which is a matte

of evasive convenience or
way which

Thus Marx's class

to try to avoid it by the only

it could be avoided {i .e . the acceptance of

assimilation ; cultural

assassination)

implies far the

latter the perpetuation of this hegemony and thus

the

22 3

acceptance of an

indefinite period of subordination

(neo-colonialism) . .
The Black Underclass has-only one alternative to
free

itself of colonialism,

neo-colonialism ; that~is,
(bourgeois)

civilization

imperialism,

capitalism and

to completely destroy Western

(the cities of the world)

through a World Black Revolution,and establishing a

Revolutionary World Black Dictatorship can bring about
the end of exploitation of man by mankind . and the
new revolutionary world can be created .

is

. a must -

in

order that

revolutionary lines .
and culture is

the world be reconstructed along

Inherent

racism .

This dictatorshi p

In W~,stern civilization

In order for man to

peace, all forms of counter-revolution must

live

in

be purged

from the earth .

For any; Black Nationalist to be a revolutionary
today,

they must be for a total change by revolutionary

means of this

society which eliminates

the exploitation

of other races,

classes and nations which are inseparable

34
from capitalism and democracy .

POSITION OF BLACK INTERNATIONALISTS

As a result of European so-ca lied propaganda
(psychological

warfare)

by the West and all

prevailing among the Black Underclass

the world as

the confusion

in various parts of

to the direction and objectives of the World

22 4
Black Revolution, it becomes necessary for revolutionary
Black internationalists

to form a new context

the Black Underclass can see themselves .

formation of a "NEW" universal

in which

This means the

fevo]utionary science-

philosophy, Black ;Internationalism,

stemming

from the

reality of the present world situation and not holding

onto -the "white

revolutionary gods" of the lgth and 20th

Century Marxism-Leninism :
the

Blac k In ternationalism

is

ideology of coop erat_ion_ ; un - ity - o f- ,revolut_ionary

nationalists
revolution

thr o

the worl - d to bring_ about a world

in which Black culture dominates and rules

the p_1 anet . _ I t i s the ph- i 1 osoph .y of a common

cultu- ra- 1
people,

i nternat i ona l

ar7ong all non-European

heritage and _identit

i .e ., - African , Asian - ,_ and South - Ame - ri - can Qeople

all have similar if not the same .cultural

histories and

have a common destiny .

.

This

revolutionary science must provide guidelines

fcsr the reconstruction of the "NEW WORLD" and the

development of~a world communal
to flow and be
(Socialism),

in harmony with

society that

n a ture .

Communalism

the collectivization of economy with

decentralization of a social

and cultural

the organization of communes wilt

cultural

is constructed

base of the New World .

like America',s,super complexes)

the

life based on

be the economic arid

Super cities

(metropol

being the product of

capitalist development, exploitation and Western Civil-

zz5

ization will
~a slave or

be de-emphasized where man has become

replaced

Dialectical

by the machine .

humanism - the method of analyzing,

planning and developing

motivations as

the sociological

related to the material

and cultural

factors which

affect man's psyche for the raising of his revolutionary

humanism towards man - is a vital part of Black Internationalism .

Black Internationalists are not only

concerned with the influence of the material

man,

but also with the sociological

because as

recent events

factors on

and cultural

aspects

have proven, the material

factors may somewhat change

(economic systems}, but if

the basic core roots of the bourgeois culture are not

changed,~then the counter-revolutionary
will

tendencies

reoccur in the people and all vestiges of the

counter-revolutionary revisionists will

us again .

(t

tend

to crop

(Bourgeois Western, Culture) must be des-

troyed to very root .

When this occurs, a world revolution-

ary culture and language can be established . .

The Black Internationalists must
that will

s~?rve as

have a Secretariat

the leadership of the provisional

world people's government of the New World .

secretariat must
nationalists

form guidelines fo.r all

Black

Inter-

then they could be organized into a central

international' revolutionary action movement .ment

This

in order to be successful

would have

This move-

to organize a

z26

People's Liberation Army an a world scale to complete

the World Black Revolution and to thoroughly defeat
and annihilate all vestiges of counter-revolution .
The International

Revolutionary Movement would

organize all possible support among all

elements of the Third World Underclass

levels and
into an

International

Third World Liberation Front for a final showdown with

imperialism,
Liberation

particularly U .S .

Front,

imperialism .

This

uniting all of the progressive elements

of the Black Underclass would be the broad organizational

form of uniting Africa, South and Afro-America
people's war against

imperialism and neo-colonialism .

Black Internationalists
will

be attackePd from "all

realize that

their position

corners of the earth" by

revisionists and counter-revolutionaries,

everything

in a world

~>ut what our program is

Internationalists stand firm

for being

- the TRUTH .

Black

in these "white days" of

revisionism and imperialist exploitation .

Black Internationalists call

upon the Black Under-

class everywhere to use "any means necessary" to achieve

the objectives of the World B.leck Revolution .
Black Internationalists say, "There
compromise with

can be no

imperialism and its lackeys", the cry of

the world oppressed must be "LIBERATION OR DEATH" .

The

Black Underclass has nothing to lose but the chains

that

are both around their bodies and minds .

is

"The world

22 7

the Black Man's Land ."

The Black Underclass has a

"New World" to create and as 90 percent of the people

of the world say, "WE WILL WIN" .

22 8

FOOTNOTES

Legun,
2

c:ol ir~, Pan Africa nism .

Du Bois, W .E .B .,

p . 24

Souls of Black Folk

Contee, Clarence G ., "Afro-Americans and Early

Pan-Africanism", Negro Digest , Feb ., 1970, p . 25
4
5
6

7
8
9
10

Legun

op

Ibid ., p . 30
Ibid ., p . 30
Ibid .,

p ; 32

Ibid .,

p . 33

Du Bois, op .

cit .,

Lin Piao~,. L ong Live TheVictory o f Pe ople_'_s War,

11

p . 53 - 54

Lenin, The Socialist Revolution and the Rig hts of

Nations
to Self Dete rmination
, p.
170,171
17
_

12

North, M .N .
",

Roy', s Mi -s-sion to China,

Chinese Communism

Piao, op . cit .,

22 9
15

Nkrumah,

16

China, ,
1 $.

20
21
22

in

Africa , P " 2 .1 7

Piao, op . cit .,

17

19

Kwame,~ Class Struggle

Roy,

M .N .,

Kautsky,

Revolution and Counter Revolut ion in

Nati onalism in

Underdeveloped_ Countries,

Lenin, op . cit .,
North,

M .N, Roy's Mission to China,

Piao, op . cit .,
Ibid .,

23

Cleaver, Eldridge,"The Number One Problem in

Africs Today : =Neo-Colonialism," Right On , Vol . 3,
Aug . 3~ 1971
P~ 13 .
24
25

Mar~r,

Karl, Commun ist Man- Sfe-s to

p : 34

Green,"The World's the Biackman's Land, SoulBook,

26

Ndalla,"Mess age to Afro-America .ns',', Right On, Vol . 1,

Aug . 3~ 1971, p . 6
27
1, P~

Mar ;, Karl, Collected~Works of Marx and Engets, Vol

386

28
29
30

Marx, Communist - Manifesto,

Stanford, Max,
.
Malcolm X,

R . 7l

Correspondence, March, .1964,

Message to The Grass Roots

p . ~,5

23 0

266,267
32

Muhammad, Elijah, Message To The Blackman , p .

Moore, Carlos, "Cuba - Untold Story"

Africaine , XXIV, p . 225 . 267
3 3~

Presence

Boggs, James, "Ttvo Myths, Integration and Aemoci`acy", Black Ame rica , Fall, 1964, p . 4,5

23 1
"" NOTE

FROM 11 .
Lenin, The- Socialist Rev o lutio n and The-~Ri-ghts of

Nations to Se lf-D e te-rminati on -(Thesi ) p .

167,

16.8,

170,

166-

171, .178 .

"Socialists must not only demand

and

16.3 ;.16.4,

the unconditional

immediate liberation of the colonies without com-

pensation - and this demand

in

its political expression

signifies nothing also but the right to self-determination - but they must render determined support to the
more revolutionary elements
movements for national

in the bourgeois-democratic

liberation

in

these countries

and assist their uprising - and 'if need be, their

revolutionary war - against the imperialist powers
oppress them . . " p .

that

178

Padmore points out in Pan Africanism or . Communism

that the opposite of what Lenin described happened .
'The Socialists

(Communists)

fought against national

lip beration of the colonies .

*NOTE (FROM FOOTNOTE 20)
"Marxism and Marx himself developed it did not
foresee or predict a "socialist
agrarian country such as Russia .

revolution"

in a backward

According to Mar.

the revolution he predicted had to come about

highly

in a

industrialized nation which had necessarily

class of workers, well-organized,

created a large,

industrial

and well-trained

in production si~ills of capitalist

23 2
industry .

class of .

The Capitalist

owners would get richer and

more compact due to monopoly groups and the working class

would ; get poorer to the point where they would revolt
and overturn the system and expropriate the owners .
But this did .not happen .

Instead these workers began

to benefit from the superexploitation of the "Bandung"

world .

Russia, being a semi-colonial nation, with

political autonomy proved to be

the weakest

type of exploitation .

fact that world rev-

olutionary

The very

initiative had passed

link in this

from white nations

of the capitalist world to non-white nations of the

colonial
factor
May,

and semi-colonial world introduced another

in revolutionary politics, the racial

factor" . . .

1964, Liberator
"After the outbrak of World War d,

fronted by the fact

Lenin was con-

that Western European working crass

was not revolutionary,

thus did not behave

with Marx's predictions as

in accordance

Lenin interpreted them .

Since

his chief concern was revolution rather than, as with

Western Marxists

(including Marx ,

rise to political

power,

labor's inexorable

Lenin needed both

to account for

this phenomenon within a Marxian frameword and to find a

new agent of
an

revolution .

influential

He did bath by

the theory that

section of the Western proletariat,

labor aristocracy,

was being permitted to share with

X33
the capitalist the super-profits derived from
exploitation of the colonies .
conclusion, this theory
society,

Carried to

its logical

implies that all of Western

including the proletariat assumes the role of .

exploiter or capitalist, while all

society,

imperialist

of the colonial

including its upper class, become exploited or

proletarians .
Marx's domestic class struggle
by

international

is no

replaced

conflict between the colonial

and the colonies .

countries

is thus

The agent of revolution

in

power
the colonial

longer the proletariat but nationalism . . .

Kautsky, Political_ Change

i n Underd ev eloped Countries

THE PAN-AFRiKAN PARTY

The~African captive in America hss always been

active

in the~liberetion of our motherland, Africa .

Dr . DuBois as early as
African Congress .

1919 organized the first Pan-

From

1919 to 1945, the Pan-African

Congresses served as a forum for African intellectuals

at home and abroad .

The Pan African Congress

in

1945

developed the tactics of direct action for the liberation

of fihe mainland .
vanced

The .Pan-African movement has ad-

in gradual . steps .

nationalism,

Marcus Garvey,

also had as an objective,

the father of

the liberation of

a unified central African government .

Stokely Carmichael, the mass
Power,

recently

spokesman for Black

returned from Africa saying that Pan-

Africanism must become the mass philosophy of the AfricanAmerican .

in Guinea .

Stokely studied for some time under Nkrumah

Brother Carmichael's new strategy

is that the

African-American concentrate h .is efforts on possibly

bringing Nkrumah back
that would be

into power in Ghana .

The land base

liberated would become a Pan-African state

on arhich the Pan-African revolution would be based .

Brothers and sisters in
for revolution

the states are told that struggling

in the states will

be a protracted affair

23 5

and not possible at

this

time .

Stokely fails to

that all people must make their own,lndigenous

led by the people from their own country .

realize

revolution

This does not

mean we should not help the brothers and sisters on the

mainland .

We should help where we can,

centrate our efforts where we are .

the nature of
that

imperialism,

but we must con-

And if we understand

neo-colonialism, we will

if we did create a Pan-African socia list state,

=ealize
it

would be faced with encirclement and intervention for the

United States government .

Africans

in America and the

Caribbean are actually Africans military rear .

In order far Africa
war of

liberation must be fought between Africa, Europe,

and America .
It

is

to be truly liberated, a world

tJe are engaged in a world black revolution.

then necessary to develop tactics for a1 .1

worldwide .

Being in a protracted

national

liberation,

struggle

in

it

Africans

international war of

is necessary for Africans to wage

the .country where they are colonialized .

We are up against an

international .crisis in the capitalist-

imperialist system .

This means vre must organize national

Pan-African movements that can move to seize state power

in

their regions .

At the same time, we must develop an

international African consciousness among our people so

that vrhen the enemy moves to encircle and crush a national
African revolution we can come to

its aid by creating a

136

crisis somewhere else, forcing the enemy to over-extend

himself .

While this may be our war strategy, we must

encourage Africans

in America and the Garibbean with skills

to .go to~progressive African states and build those

states

insto strong Pan-African bases .

In developing a scientific position that

African people,
national

it

is

related to

important that our interests of

liberation and self-determination be protected

and organized through the formation of Pan-African parties

Pan-African parties are the highest form of organization
of African people

in

the struggle

for national

While scientifically analyzing the historical

African people, ,it is

role of

necessary"at the same time to know

that African people need an

and ideologi~;-a1

liberation .

independent political

party

framework to create a revolutionary ,

change of society and develop African communalist society .

Of all organization created by African people only
a political party can give proper expression to the basic
interests of the black underclass
victory,

and lead

While the basis of the struggle

organizing our people

organizations ; with
people will

it to complete
is

through

into unions and immediate issue

these organizations alone African

never be able to defeat capitalism and build

an African communalist society,

To do this, African people need an organization of

23 7

a 'higher type, an organization that does not confine itself

to the current needs of the people but aims at be'inging
the people to power through an economnc, political and
cultural

revolution .

The organization best suited

to

bring a complete revolution and to serve the needs of

,.
African peapl~ ~is'the Pan-African Party .
Working through all channels and avenues,

the white

overclass tries to persuade the black underclass

doesn't need a black internationalist party,
`ideology or
a~

its own internationale .

This

that

it

its own

is nothing but

neo-colonialist trick to keep the . African people from

having our awn power base and theoretical

reference . .

frame of

Only a political party of African people

is

capable of uniting, educating and organizing a vanguard

of African people .

The party must be able to fight .

incorrectness, vacillations, narrowness and falsehood

within our people .

By doing this the party can lead the

overall actions of the people .

The~main characteristics of Pan-African parties is
their goal :

to

replace capitalism with communalism,

Pan-Africa~ists are in the forefront of African people's

struggle for power because they believe that for revolutionary change of capitalist society, African people must
seize political power and establish
ized government

democratic central-

controlled by us . Pan-African parties do

z~s

not act blindly .

They are guided by the revolutionary

theory of Pan-Africanism, which scientifically expresses

the basic will

of the people .

The party is a voluntary union of

and sisters united for the purpose of

likeminded brothers
implementing the

black world outlook and carrying out the historic mission

of our people .
determines

The revolutionary character of the party

its organizational

pr~incipies,

identity of action and flexibility of

its unity,

ita tactics .

its
Pan-

African parties get their strength from the people ; therefore, they must constantly guard against becoming parties
of

isolated

individuals of nar'raw groups of professional

revolutionaries :
grounded

Pan-African parties must be firmly

in the people, keeping (a) constant contact with

the people and

(b)

learning from the people and (c) applying

the principle of "from the people back to the people ."

The Pan-African party is the vanguard of African
people, their advanced conscious section ,capable of
leading the people in the struggle for the building
of national
munalism .

independence, self-determination, .and comThe Pan-African party, while being a black

working class party,

has deep roots not only among workers-

and street people, but also among other sections of the

people .

Pan-Africanists are people only distinguished

by greater nationalist consciousness,

a more serious

revolutionary character (s,elf discipline) and readiness

23 9

to develop any situation for the cause .- Our life

is

bound with the people and we are deeply. concerned with

everything

that agitates our peop,le's minds .

History shows us

that before becoming real

vanguards

revolutionary parties usually pass through several stages

of political and organizational
l.

development :

They are propagandist groups conducting most

of their work within their own ranks .

This

is necessary

to insure :

2.

a,

ideological

b,

educate the membership

c.

improve the organization .

(poiitical)unity

Then the party goes

to the people and begins to

lead mass actions of the people .

This period signifies

the merging of the spontaneous movement with the

ideas of Pan-~fricanism and the development of a revolutwonary movement .

3:

The party becomes a real

political force capable

of leading the majority of our people as a whole .

order to do this the party must be active

In I

in organizing

unions among our people, preparing them for the general

strike, the last

legal stage of nationalist struggle

in

the process of decoloriialization .

The Party must be able to unite the people around
party's program before

it can become a significant

the

24 0

political force capable of

leading the people to national

liberation .
The principle of tfie organizational

structure of a .

Pan-African party is called democratic centralism .

The

interests expressed by a Pan-African party are not the

private interests of

individuals ar groups ; they are

interests of all our people and express themselves only

through the united will which fuses various
actions into one struggle .
is

capable of uniting all

isolated

Only a centralized leadership

the forces, directing them

towards a single goal, coordinating the uncoordinated

actions of
united will

individual

brothers-, sisters and groups .

The

of the party cannot be created except by

democratically, collectively comparing the different

opinions and proposals and then adopting decisions binding
for all . .The united will

has the advantage in that

gives the fullest and therefore truest expression

it

to the

objective needs of the nationalist struggle of our people .

t o practice democratic centralism means all

the leading

party bodies from top to bottom are elected . . Strict

party discipline means subordination of the minority to
the majority .

A Pan-Africanist

out the party program and works

is one who actively carries

in one of

its, organizations :

The inter,nal,~life of the party is organized to have

full

participation of party members in practical work .

24 1

Canditions are established for giving party members the

opportunity to discuss questions,

to elect the leaders, and to know

of adopted decisions,

and check their activities .

mental

to check the fulfillment

Discussion of all funda-

issues and collective elaboration of decisions form

one of the most

important methods of party work .

Each discussion

involves extensive criticism,

closing shortcomings, finding their roots,

proposals for their elimination .

dis-

and submitting

Such criticism assists

progress and properly educated the membership .

But the

party always distinguishes criticism which strengthens

it from that which weakens

Under all conditions, the party

for criticism's sake .

program,

the decisions of the party,

to determine its line .

members,
to

it, which turns into criticism

the party at

White granting rights

the same

tolerate advocacy of anti

its

ft does nat

party views, considering it

incampatibiP with the membership

is adopted,

to

time demands loyalty

its programs,~aims and objectives .

decision

and its rules serve

in the party .

various views may clash

Before a

in the party

but ante a decision has been adopted, all Pan-Africanists

act as one person .
This

is

the essence of party discipline, which requires

subordination of

the minority to the majority and makes

the adopted decisions absolute .

Discipline supports

the

24 3

party decisions in. which they have taken an active

Pan-Africanists can become a party only
closely linked with

part :

if they are

the people and enjoy their support .

A party may declare itself the vanguard as much as

it

likes,

force

and yet fail

to become one .

A party cannot

the people to follow it, nor can it win prestige by

merely claiming a leading role in
people .
a real

its statements

to the

There .~s only one way for the party to become

leader and that

is by convincing

the people

it correctly expresses and defends their

that

interests,

by convincing them through deeds rather than words,

its policies,

initiative and devotion .

The party must

win the confidence and recognition of the people by

work .

through

its

A . Pan-African party has a program - a scientific

statement of

its aims which corresponds to the vital

interests of the people .

aims of the struggle
At

the same

The party must make the final

intelligible to the people .

time the party must have a program of

action to satisfy the immediate needs of the people .

Party members work wherever our people are .
the closest day to day ties with the people .

This requires
To serve

the people and express their interests properly, the party

must cohduct all of

its activities

in the core of

the people

drawing from t'he people the best forces, checking with

each step, thoroughly and objectively,

(1) whether the

24 3

ties with the people are maintained,

real

(3) and alive .

Only

(2) whether they are

in this way does

educate our people, guiding all

the party

the activity of the

people along the path ofwconscious

revolutionary nationalist

action .
Party members attach great importance to mass organizations - black labor unions, neighborhood groups,
black women's associations, and black youth groups .
The African people's party has no desjre to deprive these
organizations of their independence .

The party believes

that mass organizations can play their role only when

each of them effectively accomplishes

its own tasks.

Party members respect the decisions and discipline of

mass organizations in which they work, observe their rules
and make

it their duty to help each organization defend

the interests of

the people .

i n unions, party members

show themselves consistent fighters for the interests of

black workers .
themselves

When

It comes to strikes,

they show

the strongest and most energetic organizers

of the strike .

Among youth, women's ~~nd other organ-

izations, party members build the influence of the party

not by commanding, but by consistency . (self-discipline)
whether they are members or
Party members must find ways

leaders of the organization .

to the people ; we ..should

belong to organizations where leaders and sometimes a

large number of the members are indifferent o.r hostile

24 4

to nationalism .
We must find a way to the minds and hearts of the
people without fearing sacrifices .

To lead

the people

does not mean continually preaching to them .

canists should take part

Pan-Afri

in solving our people's everyday

problems and by dealing with them from a Pan-Africanist

point of~view, we will win them over to nationalism .
order to

lead the people we must take into account our

. .
people's experience and their present ieve) of consciousness .

will

This way we wit)

not run ahead .

not lose touch with reality and

Otherwise ;here is a risk of being

in the position of a vanguard that has lost co~it~ct with

the main elements of

the people .

The revolutionary nationalist party generalizes the

experiences of

the whole people and interprets

lessons of our historical

experience .

it fram the

The party must

be able to perceive tendencies which have not fully maniTested

themselves, but which will

develop in

the future .

A black internationalist party does not invent cirtumstances ;

it moves from life, being part of the spontaneous

(present} movement .

The party can lead the people and

it

itself

learns

teach the people only

if

carefully studies all

that arises out of

from the people,

the people's

prattical activity, and assimilates the wisdom of the

people .

To

learn fram the people

in order to~teach the

24y

people

the principle of leadership practiced by the

is

Pan--Africanist party .

Party prestige will

be continuously

increased by winning the support of the people by actions

carried oe~t

by it .

At

the same time, the party cannot

adopt the attitude of a-n infallible teachat- ;

it speaks

to the people frankly about both their success and

failures .

Pan-Africanists ae~e not of-raid to speak of

their weaknesses .

tie must show the people we are

human and are capable of

learning from our mistakes .

-The activities of the Pan-African party are not just

creations of the party leadership .
expressions of

They are the concrete

line elaborated by the party

the political

on the basis of a scientific analysis of the given stage

The term "tactic"

of the struggle~in a given situation .

means a political line drawn up for a . short period of

time determined by particular concrete conditions .
tegy" means the line for a whole historical
Strategy, or the strategic line,
general

stage .

is a question of the

tasks of a given historical

Political

"Stra-

stage .

leadership requires not only a correct,

scientifically trust~orthy. analysis of

the situation

and drawing up the correct line, but also great ability and
skill in putting this

line

into effect .

skill, even the best political

For political~leader~hip,,it

is

line will

Without such
be pf no avail .

important not only to

know, but also to be able to put this

knowledge into

24 6

practice .

Theoretical studies alone are nat enough .

The party can master the art of

its practical experience .
there is .no school

for a revolutionary party,

that can replace the school

struggle, trial and error, with all

of practical

its trials and

tribulations, victories and defeats,

failures .

leadership only from

successes and

Clut by studying other peoples' mistakes we can

avoid many mistakes ourselves and can learn from other

peoples'

struggles of what not and what to do .

The people

view reality from the facts they experience day to day

which directly affect them .
A revolutionary party can only become the vanguard of
the people by

leading the struggle for immediate eeonomic

needs and political

interests of the people, by putting

forth and fighting for demands that meet the people's

needs .

An

ership is

important aspect

in the art of political

the ability to unite the efforts of all

with whom it's

possible to achieve unity,

forces

including those

with whom there are fundamental differences .

political

lead-

The art of

leadership means having the ability to apply

correct tactics for a certain period and the ability to

change

tactics when the historical

different tactics,

situation calls for

to find the proper tactics that

provide the people with victories .

Within

the collective unconsciousness of the people

24 7

(discontinuity)

is a people's mind's eye ;

that

is,peaple

respond when they see their interests collectively being

moved aeon .

A collective urban fire .

the interconnection of events .

Show the people

Provide them with his-

torical continuity, linking events with the main problem

on their minds .

Show them

it

is

to their interests to carry

out the revolution, to move to the next step and finally

to the final step, peop le's powe r .

24 8

COMBAT COMMANDISM

In concerning

incorrect ideas in the party, we must

analyze our internal

weakness and must fight against counter-

revolutionary tendencies within our party and in

the move-

ment .
While engaging

in criticism and self-criticism first

we will .criticize ourself in saying

that

have also been guilty of commandism .

in years past we

Commandism comes from

a lack of sound understanding of reva~lutianary theory

and organization of a People's mavment .
`we went too far too fast and 'a=nly

led and advanced section

~of the people ; therefore, we became

stream of the movement .

In our wan case

isolated from the main-

This was bad,

because it .was part of a historical

but then

it was good

process which ful-

filled and need and an example from which we can learn .

In revolutions we
from practice .

learn from struggle ; our theory enriches

While our practice was not totally correct

it did produce some positive results .

Now, when we say the position -we took in our organizing practice, while not totally correct,

in historical

perspective fulfilled a need among our~peaple, what do

we mean?
We mean at that historical

junction

in our liberation

24 9

movement, there was the need for a clear-cut hard black

internationalist line and for the type of movement we
created,
in

or else the movement would have never thrown us up

regards of leadership .

Now,

the contradiction was,

we were thrown to the forefornt before we were ready and

because of

the dialectical development of the movement

couldn't or wouldn't retreat or

lacked the knowledge of

how to surround ourselves with broad segments of the

people .
While~we were guilty of degrees of commandism, maybe
today even, but we are working on purging ourselves of
incorrect tendencies much of the commandism came from cadres
who had a lesser degree of understanding of revolutionary
theory and had less organizing experience .
Movement cadres more than anything else
party from the broad masses of our people .

isolated the
Repression and

reaction to the . repression was the number two factor and

our.lack of self discipline and organixationel
zation was the number

centrali-

three factor .

Our lack of constant political education and self criticism

is what gave further growth to commandism and

also regionalism,
super-black,

brothers came super-revolutionary,

super-marxistm developed and arrogant attitude

towards the people, scared the people rather than work

with and among the people .

tlany brothers

felt

if a brother

z5o

or sister didn't take a certain position or disagreed with

us they were jive .

While we fought against this tendency,

instead of totally checking

it we were preoccupied with

building mass forces from the street :

This preoccupation

came from not :having total faith in the people, molders

of their destiny, and the lack of patience on our parts as
community organizers .

We want to take the struggle from the

talking stage into the real

stage and attempted to do

that". Whether this was totally correct or

not,

incorrect or

is difficult to properly analyze now and we will

need help from the party in this attempt at self-criticism .

We may have been guilty of .adventuris ;

if so,

it~was not

conscious and we are attempting to reform ourselves .

are trying

We

to learn as much as possible from the people .

"If we have cshortcomings, we are:: not afraid to have

them pointed out and criticized, ,because we serve the people
. . .If,

in the interest of the people, we persist in

doing what
will

is

right and correct what

1
surely thrive" . . .

The party under the

was misguided

is wrong, our ranks

leadership of RabertvF . Williams

in many aspects .

Some we can discuss at this

time .
7h~ugh many may not know it, we engaged in

ideological

debate with Rob many times while he was in exile .

tie

25 1

was not saying what was need for our situation internally ;
but was,

as he said, speaking

This was incorrect .

4Je will

to the international audience

not engage

polemics, but at a later date will

the leadership of
incorrectness,
When

discuss the party under

Robert F . Witliams ;

and historical

in persona l

its correctness,

necessity .

the Central Committee etected our new chairman

of the party in January 1970, we began a political

educational

program within

the party .

?his

re-

ideological

struggle against incorrect method/styles of work and ideas

within the party has been a rough one .
on many of

us .

It has taken toll

Some old cadres, not being able to reform,

have dropped out of the party ;many people have bitter

feelings and same are still antagonistic towards correct
f~lnctioning of

the party as a centralized organization

because it means reforming some of their corrupt habits

and ways .
~1s of

present commandism, which comes from bourgeois

individualism,
have

is still

rampant

in our party .

resorted to not responding to directives

chairman, giving

the impression

and over-demanding .

the chairman

Many brothers
from the
is

irrational

In following the principle of

democratic centralism, collective

responsibility and the

leadership, the deamnds and directives'to certain cadres

are for their own good as cadres

functioning organizationally

zsz

and are not of a personal nature .

The inability of these

cadres to understand the importance of directives,

their

lack of organizing experience

sa they project indifference .

is

ins}de the party,

but they are and will

be

held responsible by the people and the majority of the

party .

All events are being recorded and will

be reviewed

at the proper time .

Even though these tendencies are counter revolutionary
and hinder proper developmnet of the party,
goad

they are

in a sense because they reflect the incorrect ten-

dencies within our people and give us an opportunity to

dean with them now .

We grow by every experience and

if

we properly deal with the contradict}ons among us and

crush all counter-revolutionary tendencies within
party, we wilt

be richer

deal with these things

the

in experience and know haw to

in the future .

. Because we had not developed a centralized organization

with a decentralized Style of work, we suffered many setbacks from

1968 to 1970 .

Much of these setbacks

came from

other tendencies that were rampant in our party at the

time - liberalism, guerriia}sm,

reg}onalism, and commandism .

A11

themselves as key party

these tendencies manifested

'

leadership was forced 'to go under as a result of repression .

Our party became a closed door paranoid revolutionary
cult .

While it did not cease to function,

it degenerated

25 3

as a political organization .
to replace old cadres .
by January 1970 .
committee meeting,

As

New cadres were not 'trained

The party was

in a state of crisis

a result of the January '70 central

much has changed .

We, as a political

organization, are becoming a people party and are transforming from a revolutionary cult, but much
political

re-education

is needed .

"The revolutionary cultist uses

change ;

internal

they use words for 'being

dev~l~opment of society ; he uses

the words social

interested
that

in the

terminology .

his actions are far divorced from the process,

izing the community until he

is

But

and organ-

living-in a fantasy world .

So we talk to each other on the campuses, or we talk

to

each other in tte conspiracy of the night, with concentration upon the weapons,

thinking

that

these .things will

produce some change, without people themselves changing

i~t .

Of course pe'opie will

themselves the vanguard .

do courageous things and call

But the people who do things

like that are either heroes or criminals .

They ar.e-not

the vanguard because the vanguard means spearhead,

and

the spearhead has to spearhead something,

if nothing

it, then you are divorced

2
not the vanguard ."

the masses,

behind

from all

We must fight against commandism~and closed doorism i

the party .

Closed'doorism comes from~a fear of

infiltrati

25~+

of being framed and from going to jail, and also a fear

of being taken out of the position of leadership if the
doors of the party were opened .
Oniy by opening up the doors of the party can we
become a people's party .

To do this we must

with the tide of our people's movement .

every historical
to advance that

learn to flow

This means at

stage we must be involved and attempt

level of stru-gle to a higher level .

doing this we will

gain the respect of

being true servants and also we will

By

the people of

learn from the people .

We, as a vanguard, African People's :Party must first move

to organize our people around their basic needs .
"All work done for the masses must start from their
needs and not from the desire of any individual, however,
wept

intentioned .

It often happens tFiat objectively the

masses need a Certain change , . but subjectively they are

not .yet willing or determined to make the change .
such cases, we should wait patiently .
the change until,

in

We should not make

through our work, most of the masses have

become conscious of the need and are willing and determined

isolate ourselves

to carry it out .

Otherv~ise eye shall

from the masses .

Unless they are conscious and willing,

their participation will

3
turn out to be a mere formality and will fail ."

and kind of work that requires

We must ask ourselves what .have we done for the

people?

Only by doing sa.mething for the people that

produces concrete results will

work with us .

the people ;loin us and

Then and only then will we begin to

from the people back to .the people

really means .

We must remember that the anly gray to

people

is to mingle among the people .

unlike cultural

learn

learn from the

This means that

nationalists we , do not distinguish our

selves by wearing cultural

garb or being super black .

We must blend in with the people, not suspecting so we

can do pf~oper investigat~i_on .

tide you will

exposed for attack .

in complete

If you are not in harmony with

harmony with the people .

the people's

We must be

be isolated and thrown aut,

So this means we must

with the people~on a day to day basis,

talk and work

not commanding,
is-the only

but working with the people side by side .

This

way Hre will

revolutionary

leadership .

learn how to master the art of

"However active the leading group may be,

its activity wi~Tl amount to fruitless ,effort by a handful of people unless combined with
masses .

On the other hand,

active without a strong

the activity of the

if the masses alone are

leading group to organize

their

activity properly, such activity cannot be sustained for

long, or carried forward in the right direction,
to a high

level .

The masses

or raised

in any given place are

generally composed of three parts,~the relatively active,

the

intermediate and the relatively backward .

The leaders

25G

must

tfierefore be skilled in uniting the small number of

active elements around the leadership and must

rely on

them to raise the level .of the intermediate elements

and to .win over
that

the backward elements .

A leading group

is genuinely in the process of mass struggle, and in

isolation from it .

In the process of a great struggle,

the composition of the leading group in most cases should

not and cannot

remain entirely unchanged throughout

the initial, middle and final stages ;

comes .forward in

the activists who

the course of the struggle must con-

stantly be prompt to replace those original members of the

leading group who are inferior by compa~isan or who have
degenerated'" . . . .'"It

is part of the plan accordingly

in the light of the historical

circumstances pf each

conditions and existing

locality, decide correctly for the

centre of gravity and the sequence of the work for each

period, steadfastly carry through the decision and make
4
sure that definite results are achieved" . . .
Only be re-educating ourselves and constantly humbling
ourselves, and working with the people on a day to day
basis vJi.ll we be able to cure commandism in our ranks .
When we do this we will

be at a higher stage in our struggle .

25 7

FOOTNOTES

Serve The People, pg . 227,

Tse Tung, Vol . 3
2
3

Se le cted Works of tl ao

Huey P . Newton, The Black Panther,

Mao Tse Tung, _.__

The U nite
_. . d Fro n t
vol . 3, Pg . 236

May 29,

1971

1 n,
_ Cultural W ork ,

Mao Tse Tung, "Co-ncerning Methods of Leadership"

Selected Works, Vol . 3, pp116-21

25 8

THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY AND THE MASS LINE

(TACTICS OF OUR NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC

It

is

REVOLUTION)

important, during the process of transforming

our movement from a crisis oriented struggle

trcal nation building
People's Party,
eleven years .

revolution

into a poli-

led by the Pan African

to reassess our experience over the last

We must deal with our contradictions,

order that we develop a party style of work that

in

relates

to the needs of our people.

The party style of work and program must correspond
with the objective,
This

is

concrete realities of our people .

the only way the :Pan African People's Party will

truly become a mass

party and Pan African Piatiana .lism

became the living philosophy of our people .

Revolutionaries
have

learn from trial and error .

We

learned from our past mistakes and failures, that,

we must develop a multi-level organization that has

mass

support and working day to day p- ogram, as well

a long range program .

wealth of
things

as

The 1960's provides us with a

revolutionary experience .

There are several

that shiuld have become very clear tows .

our struggle i~ of~a protracted nature .and aril)

years to fully develop into a national

One is
take many

democratic

25 9

revolution .

Two is, politics must command the gun .

saw too many of our brothers die fruitlessly,

or no mass support,
gun and isms

our

having

We
little

because they got carried avray with the

people knew nothing about .

Any serious

Pan African People's Party, must have sound based leadership Chat sees

itself responsible to the people and not

above them .
First, we must
democratic

realize we are involved

revolution .

A national

in a - national

democratic

revolution

is when a,n oppressed nation struggles against the colon

ializer

nation

(oppressor) for national

political

inde-

pendence and self-reiiance .

It

is

important to understand this because many

brothers and sisters confuse this point .

Many

think we're

in the phase of a class .or socialist revolution, and there

fore, apply the wrong tactics to organizing our nation .
They

leap over a complete histo rical phase, and therefore,

isolate themselves from the community .

democratic

While a national

liberation revolution can make~a'historical

leap

into the primary stage of a socialist revolution, this

can only be do,ie the eve of seizing power .
While the working class leads national
revolutions,

it unites with all classes of the oppressed

nation vlho oppose oppression by the colonial

Therefore,

democratic

cauntry .

the broad term "the people" becomes ail whc~

z~v

support the revolution .

is played down

Class antagonism, though present,

in an effort to unite the whale nation

into

a broad National African Peoples United Frant against

domestic colonialism and repression .
So,

the main objectives of the Pan African People's

Party must be to unite our nation around saund principles

which will

advance our struggle .

other farces
real

unity,

below .

in our community have

less commitment

for

the party must build the front primarily from

Organizing

the front from below means that

party concentrates its efforts

workers,

But understanding that

the

in organizing Black

unemployed, street force,

students, and youth .

Only when having soldified a strong base among the people

would the party actively push for the front .

It realizes

that unless "the people" are fully mobilized and organized

and national
sistent .

<~ront will

not be able to be strong and~con-

So, the party's tactics in organizing

community would be the 'broad front'

applying these tactics to reality,
have to be flexible .
ibility,
object

is

or mass

in

the

line .

In

party organizers will

At the same time of applying flex-

the organizer never comprises principle .

The

to mobilize as many people as possible .

"A revolution
upshot of plots .

is not a coup d'etat ;

It

is

it

is not the

the work of the masses .

to mobilize and rally the farces of

the masses ;

Hence,
to set up

and expand the political army of the revolution,

fundamental,

decisive .problem .

This

is a

task must be attended

to in an unflagging and sustained way throughout all periods,

both when no revolutionary . situation has arisen andgrown
mature .

To this end, one must mingle avith the masses

in everyday

life and be active wherever the masses are,

even within enemy organizations ; one must keep abreast

of tfie situation both

in

the enemy's camp and ours,

correctly appraise ali schemes, moves,

of the enemy,

accurately assess all changes happening

his ranks, and,

at

After mobilizing,
this mobilization,

in

the same time, be fully acNare of the state

of mind, wishes, and potential

been used

and capabilities

power o-f the masses ."

the party then, has to consolidate

A method of mobilization

that has

in recent years is the Black political convention

The Black po'~iticai

convention

is the structure to mobi-

l~ize people, but not the structure to consolidate that

mobilization .

Mobilization of

the people can only be

consolidated through struggle around . day to day needs .

It

is only by winning gains (economic)

we consolidate our people .

step by step can

Such consolidation can only

come about through the organization of a broad mass

league

of Black workers .
The Party must, therefore, have close relations with Black
workers
increase

in their locales .

The party must more

than ever

its activity among Black workers because the

26 2

Black workers movement has been seriously set back by

the split within and between the League of Revolution-ry
Black Workers and the Black Workers Congress .
and nature of the split is tao deep to go
in this

paper,

The origin

into detail

but the major contradiction goes back -to

alienated petty bourgeois so cailed'Biack Marxist

Leninist

intellectuals and the revolutionary nationalist

workers from the plants .

When the League was formed

in

1968, these contra

dictions existed but did not polarize because elements

from the street were around who knew how to Jeep the
sectarian elements

in line ; but as soon as

were forced to go into exile,

its head

those elements

sectarianism began to raise

inside the League .

SECTARIAN MARXISM-LENINISM AND DIALECTICAL WHITE

WOMEN
Sectarian Marxism-Leninism and dialectical white
women is the conscious or subconscious justification for
a brother to "sleep white" and still be "coal"
movement .

in the

Brothers who reflect this view pretend to

be "orthodox Black Marxists",

but ir~ reality they are

only justifying their Jones for white women or rationalization

far having

left a t3lack wife for a white one .

may not sound scientific, but if one takes

the psychological aspects of our struggle
States, they would see it .

Now,

this

into account
iw the United

Fanon .often .taiked of psycho -

26 3

logy and liberation .

These bro.the.rs, . without realizing it,

become alienated from the Black psyche and serve to set

our movement back,
revolutions .

This

has happened

in other colonial

Mao waged a struggle for 15 years against

alienated "orthodox" Marxist-Leninists

Communist Party .

inside the Chinese

The .same thing happened

in Vietnam and

Korea .
" . . .Revolution is creation ; without imagination and
inventiveness,

a revolution cannot succeed .

never been and will

is

suited

country,

never be a unique formula, one that

to all circumstances and aYT

a revoTutson .

There has

times for making

One given method may be adapted to a certain

but unfit for another ; a correct one in certain

times and under certain circumstances .

concrete historical

Ail

depends on

conditions . . .-

A method, a form of struggle, can only be considered

the best and most jusicious one when

it

fully staisfies

the rwquirernents of a given concrete situation ; when

is wholly suited
when

to the conditions

in which it

it

is~appTied ;

it makes iC possible to put on their mettle

the

revolutionary and progressive forces and rouse them to

action .

If one has mastered

the concrete historical

point of view and takes . the peculiar Craits of one's country

then the more one knows about the
2
revolutionary inventiveness in ane~'s own country ."
into . full

account,

26 4

~So,

in order that

can function

the majority of Black workers

in a Black workers movement, Pan African

Nationalists must develop a nationalist Africa n,Pe.ople's

Union that speaks to the basic needs of the Black workers
in a way they can understand what we're talking about .
From our experiences in the 60's, we learned the
need far a multi-level organization built on democratic
centralism with a constitution and by-laws that every
member understands .
the isarty
he

This way, every party member knows

is just as much his as

is just as

the leadership's and that

important as the leadership .

Guards organizing

From the Black

in Detroit and Philadelphia, where

sections of the city became~Black Guard areas, we'learnedthe importance of developing community (area}
from the November

cells,

17, 1967 mass demonstration in Philly,

where 50,000 Black students demonstrated,

led by the

Black Guards, we

learned the importance of developing

political cells .

The policy of the party is to bore

or be well

entrenched :in .the'community :~

who's the appointed

etc .

leaders,

grass roots local

the

the street culture leaders,

The party cadre must make an

area, acquiring knowledge of

Ne must know

by the power structure,

leaders,

in

First, every party

cadre must know who's in his immediate area .

real

and

indepth study of his

its history and the people .

The cadre must'be good at making friends and making people

answer questions for themselves

in general conversation .

z65

After the cadre makes a few friends . on the block  they

should

then pick one or two brothers and sisters to

politically groom .

The cadre checks

has a block committee .

If

it does, then politicalize

the existing committee, developing

committee .

to see if the block

party cadre in the

If a block committee doesn't exist,

party cadre builds one .

then the

Ne will explain the party is

trying to build community programs based on block

committees .
Coffee and tea gatherings
houses an

can be held

in people's

the block to make the people familiar with

aspects of the party program .

Then, after consolidating

the block association, party cadre can then recruit

black committee members
block people
them for at

into the A .P .P .

into the party,

Before bringing

the cadre should have studied

east three months and would take them through

vigprous orientation during political education discussion .

Once a person
is

is . accepted

in a community cell, his rule

to :
i)

Create another party cell

block or in the area

on the

2)

Develop a party cell

3)

Join a community organization and

develop a party cell inside the
organization

4)

Build a party cell

friends (social)

on his job

among
his
_

26 6

Mass organizations of the people will

how the party organizes parallel economic
African peaple's

cooperatives .

This

depend upon
institutions,

is very

important

because being in a protracted struggle and a patio

building revolution, we must

realize that

it's

independent

institutions and not rhetoric that keeps- continuity

in

the struggle :
Therefore, we must

further consolidate our present

institutions and expand to others .

tution

is the African People's

Our political

insti-

Party ; our educational

insti-

tutions are the Pan African Institute and the African

Peoples Liberation School ; our cultural/spiritual
tutian and our economic

in,sti-

institutions are the African

Peoples Union cooperatives ; and our defense institution

is

the African Guard .

7his provides us with the basic

ingredients of a cultural

nation .

Now comes the hard

tad.k of transforming our cultural

nation,.

nation

into a political

As our "way" Jihad becomes the way of

African youth,

life for

our political culture will 'reach mass

dimensions . . ."Revolutionary Black Nationalism must unite

Black people, must arouse the collective consciousness of
the Black nation, and pose an alternative to the moribund,
decadent culture of the oppressor,
move

it makes on

of ail,

Black terrain .

challenging every

And perhaps most

re-oppression must be brought to an end .

~"~ise, the question would no longer

important
Other-

remain ape of culture,

26 7

but of pure and simple mystificat :ian ."

This is very

important because some cultural

nation-

alists have really tripped out with the mystification bit .

And what makes
and need

it so bad,

same of our people believe it

it .

As a developing cultural

natian, our people are

culturally messianic prone and will

be so for some time,

but it

revolution that we

is

important

in-our cultural

destroy the counter revolutionary "Son of God" complex, .

Ho man ' is, was, or shall be the Son of God himself and
that should always
and always will

be understood by ,everyone .

be divinely

inspired men,

not God, and to warship them as

ary .

such

There have

but they are

is counter-revolution-

This alone destroys the concept ; the people. make

history .
It

is

important for the . party tc always do

gation among the people .

Sometimes,

investi-

in order to do this, ,

brothers and sisters must change their lifestyle,

hanging out with one another (nationalist),
that cultural

garb, cut ar

into the people .

stop

take off

fry that bush, and melt back

This way, you can find out what. all

segments of the people are thinking about and what

level

of development they ar,e, what's agitating their minds .

For three years,

the party leadership has circulated

through different elements' of the people to see how the

majority of us are thinking .

While many nationalists are

26$

talking pride

in

their new A-titan suits and name and

playing "Black" games of who's~gaing to be the first

to come to fame, to the vas
moverrrent

still

seems unreal

majority of our people, the

or cnrifused :

This means we

have much work to do .

Brother Owusu Saduaki
"Too many of us who call

(Howard duller)

recently said .;

ourselves revolutionaries are

carbon copies of our oppressor .

Black revolutionaries must

Those of us who arc

reappraise ourselves and that

does'nat only mean we should wear dashikis, but we must

do whatever

is necessary for revolution .

that you will

the man,

but

It might mean

have to straighten your hair or dress like

if you must straighten you hair so that you

can eventually wear a natural,

then you would straighten

your hair .
Revolutionary struggle

is designed to change the

system and not just the clothes we are wearing.

k

do not see this

reality, we will

st 'il} be oppressed .
analysis

is

invalid ."

change our clothes and

Without practice ; revolutionary

4

The healthiest development in this

developments

in

If we

the South .

direction is the

The struggles for mass

Black

or voter registration being led by Julian Band <~nd John

t.ewis have tremendous
revolution, and all

potential for our nationa'I democratic

party cadre should give them a helping

26g

hand

in their drive .

ssippi

The running for Governor of Missi-

by Mayor Evers .and

the statewi-de campaign of

the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party showed us the

method of consolidating on the county

level .

The st -rugglw

in North Carolina has reached anew stage with

of the statewide Black Peoples Union Party .

the formation

Ali

these

developments are dialectical struggles which inevitably

from practice will

lead

to making

the APP demand of

reparations and independence a reality .

lJational . ists must arork in the people's

Al-1

present movement

i~ order to show them the road to national

and self

Pan African

independence

reliance .

" . . .The possibility of

infinitely greater than

reparations and

land are

the probability of white people

ever fully accepting Black people .

History offers not

a single example of a people ever accepting another group

that

it

learn,

regards as

its

despite so much

inferior .

Many of us

have yet to

rhetoric that you simply cannot

educate a man to act in a manner that he believes would

5
be contrary to his self-interest ."
!t
national

is

important that

the demand for reparations and

indepedence can only become a mass demand by

waging struggle around

issues our people presently under

stand and linking reparations with

will

it .

be an economic struggle as well

as

The base of this

political .

It

Z7o

is orrly by having a strong Black workers movement that

a national

is willing to call
will our national

Black Strike for independence

democratic revolution be succes>sful .

'.! We believe that

the burn'rnq question confronting

the Afro-American people is whether or not we want

be integrated

to

into the United States of America ar liberated

in-to a sovereign nation of our own, with full status and

rights with other nations of

the world,

United Nations membership and diplomatic

6
the
world
."
the other nations of

including
recognition by

By `~organizing and educating Black workers, our call

~r ;
for an Africaw Peoples Plebiscite wrill have a mass base .
This a,nd only this will
which is

make the APP Ten Point Program

the program of the :late El

Najj

Malik Shabazz

a .reatity .
By correctly applying the mass
support of

line and having . .the

the people of the world,. w~,know, without a

doubt, we wi 11

ta.in .

27i

FOOTNOTES
Le Duan, The Vietnamese Revolution Fundamental
Problems Essential Tasks, pp . 50-51
2

Ibid, pp . 41-43

Ernie Mkalimoto, Revolutionary Black Culture, The

Reprinted in
Cultural Arm of Revolutionary f,ationalism .
The Ideology_of Blackness, p . 205
4.
' Howard Fuller, Fuller Hits Out . At Revolutionaries,

Co ntra st, December 20, 1971, Vol . 3

5

Self-Determination and
Lenton Aikens, Pan-Africanism :
Nation Building, Black k~orl d, 'iovember, 1971 . Vol . XXI,

No . 1
6
Vol .
. . ..

Eldridge Cleaver, Black Peoples Plebiscite, Ba byl on,

1, No . 3, December 15, 1971, p . 14
~

..

i~

272

ROLE OF THE PAN AFRICAN PARTY IN THE NATIONAL LIBERATION

STRUGGLE

In order to draw a scientific analysis of the role

of the APP in our struggle, we must assess ourselves,
our allies and our enemy .

As a vanguard movement

for

five years we presented the black nation with a black

ideological perspective and began to-develop e military
unit .

From our efforts and the efforts of others, a

national

black movement has now taken shape .

While the . Pen African movement

a mood

than an organization,

the emergence of a mass

represents more of

it has laid the climate for

black revolutionary party .

present -t he African People's Party of National

At

Liberation

is a small minority within the movement, but its influence

and supporters are more than tenfold .
the APP is a small minority

One of

the reasons

is because many, of our people

don't knovr of the APP's existence, others would like to

join but don't know how and still others are unaware of
the APP's
party is

scientific program,

The APP,

being a young

still weak organizationally,, therefore it has not

been able to recruit members as

it should .

For the most

part the first year of the APP's existence was concentrated

on developing a collective leadership and party unity .
Developing and maintaining party unity is very

important

because
cease
of

to be

we are

Also

is

there

political

party, there

it

the

is

vanguard

is

low

an

also an

to

party

of

APP must

panty's

tar..tics .

have a

centralized .
be

able

will

All

in

the

tc.~

discuss

sisters

confused

But

tend

and

Nationalists .

in

be ~to

to do

line and
APP must

line .

factors

As
llead

the main eente :r

order

the

the APP's

of

On
Pan

internationalism :

to get

this,,
must

this

a
the

for
the

t>e well

understand

and

point we

A-titan Nationalism

don't

We

Black

in

know how

say we are

European and

~ 1Je

American

relate

t:o both .

say we are Pan-~Af r i can

Pan-African Nationalists

because we .see

Asian and

brothers

internationalism

to correctly

the world today

(African,

Many

nationalism and

Internationalists)

contradiction
of

ideologice~lly

task will

perspective

the

a m<~vement

organizationally .

main

How do we cl a=ss i fy nurse 1 ves?

(Black

ranks of our

Int:e:rnationalism) .

Nationalism and
and

regionall-y

form of

revolution

metubers of

to articulate

begin

(Black
t

clear

the

conscious-

uneven development of political

struggle organizationally becoming

our struggle's

we will

the main contradictions

political

1Jithin

the struggle

the

of

One

uneven development

democratic

lead

organization,

level

While the APP

national

failed

the

force .

sophistication .

understanding .
led

a cohesive

political

the movement

ness .
of

unless

is

that

the super exploitation

South American)

Peoples .

We

the : main

see

that

peoples
even

by

European

27 4

specialist countries are working hand

in hand with

European capitalist countries to oppress Black (llfrican/

Asian? nations :
Our outlook is

Race

(Cultural)

exploitation

is .secondary .

similar .to that .of the late Marcus

Garvey

and Dr . DuBois, only we have taken the essence of both

men's philosophies, compiled and reorganized thorn to
fit contemporary times on a scientific basis .

So Black

Internationalism or Pan African Nationalism envisions

a wotl .d revolutions of the oppressed class
class ) worldwide .

(Black under-

So as Black Internationalists we

are Revolutionary African Nationalists at the same time .

..

How is this so?

Seeing the Black (African/Asian) peoples of the

world as the 'vanguard of

the world revolution engaging

in a national democratic revoluti-on, we

likewise see

African peoples in America as part of the world vanguard

and~the vanguard of revolution

in America .

See our people

as an enslaved captive colonial

nation within a nation,

we see their ultimate interests

is

national

independence

and self-determination .
Many people confuse these terms and on't understand
what they mean .

This

on the land question .

is why many people are confused

Land

is a part~of national

liberation

and self-deter,min,ation because they mean a nation governing

itself which means control of the land space and everything
that

transpires on the land that

the people

live .

Ii

27 5

Broken down, national

nation - national
nation determining

liberation means

liberation :
(its)

self

liberation of a

Self-determination means
(destiny) .

So as Pan-African

Nationalists, we see the, ultimate solution for the revolution

in America is

Black Nation,

independent self-government for the

The APP therefore supports

of an African People's

the establishment

Republic .

Now we must deal with the primary question of how

can the APP become the vanguard of the struggle without
over-extending

its organization .

by the APP members being

Thls can only come about

involved

struggle .

in the heart of the

.

P,an-African Nationalists must se,t the example in

our struggle .
We

What have we

learned as early as

learned from our experiences?

1963 and 1964 that only b~y joining

the broad mass mohements of our people, were we .able to

effectively mobilize and

lead them .

Applying "born-in"

tactics we joined organizations such as SNCC, CORE, and

NAACP .

4lhile we were

in

these organizations, we represented

their most militant winQS and from doing this we were

gain the respect of many people and so influenced
these organizations that they eventually changed their
philosophy .

It

is only .be being active

in our broad

struggle, by testing theory with practice, setting the

example, will
cadres

we be able to organize our people . .

have been active

Our

in most of the developments of

27 6

the struggle during the last ten years .

From the: sit-in

movement and freedom rides we recruited a small nucleus .

From the voter registration projects
demonstrations
by organizing

in the South and mass

in the worth, our nucleus became

Larger ;

in the South we developed the beginnings

of a nationalist movement .

When we formed the Black

Panther Party, we further expanded the movement and when

are organized community youth into para-military units,
we started our transformation

into a disciplined party .

Now comes the next test, to transform from a minority

party to a disciplined mass party .This process will
be slow .

It will

only take, place . b y APP members showing

they are the most organized and consistent

our struggle .

This can only be done by active participation

in community organizations .
good

This means cadres must be

in working with our people .

themselves

people: in

Cadres must present

in a manner of brotherhood and sisterhood .

Party cadres

should be

free of arrogance and should be

flexible enough to work with other groups .

working among the people should

Every cadre

be their friend, brother

and sister, and not boss over them .

We should be humble

teachers and not arrogant-: militants .

At no time should party cadre place his personal
interests first ; he should subordinate them to the interests
of the nation and the people .
ruption,

Selfishness,

loafing,

cor-

seeking the limelights are not tolerated by the

party and is

inconsistent with being a party cadre. .

Working hard to achieve party objectives, devotion

the people our nationalist duty and quiet work are
the attributes of a party member .
work

in harmony with all

Cadres should

learn to .

black revolutionaries outside

Party ranks and move the entire nation and weed out what
is

undesirable .
What

is

important

is that we understand we form only

a small element of our nation and that there are: large

numbers of activists outside the party with whom we must
work .

We should view people in a relative nature ; that

most groups are contributing something positive and they

can be educated to the Pan African nationalist pasition .
Above all,
as well

cadres should set an example in being practical

Only by being practical can we

as farsighted .

fulfill our tasks and by being farsighted we~won't

our bearings .

At~all

the'"people as well

times,

cadres

as teach them .

the people, from actual

Only by

learn from
learning from

circumstances and by knowing the

people well, can we be practical

sighted .

should

lose

in our work and far-

Only by mingling with the people, being one with

and part of the people will we be examples

In this way we will

be able to expand

for the people .

the ranks of the

party .
Expand

the African People's

tration by enemy agents .

Patty and prevent infil-

The only reason

the APf

is a

27 8

minority party

is because it

isn't organized enough yet

bring the mass of our people . into

come our organizational

its ranks .

To over-

problems and build a People's

Republic of Flew Africa, the APP must expand

its organization

and become a mass party by opening its doors to the mass

of brothers and sisters who are truly dedicated to the
revolution, who believe in the party's principles, support
its policies and are willing to accept new party members
to our party,

in.- .

to train them to become good party cadre

but a .t the same time screen them acid test them and be an
guard against enemy infiltration .
a constant surveillance on

The government

has

the Party and wants as much

information on the Party as~ possible, therefore the

Party should be on guard

in protecting

its secrets .

But

on the other hand the Party should not become paranoid

and shut

its doors because it fears infiltration .

Party must boldly expand

its ranks by

members through fronts .

Each local Party Central

should establish an intelligence unit

The

requiring potential
Committee

that does nothing

but check up on other members and to check out rumors

and to know what the enemy is
best expand

planning .

The Party can

its ranks by expanding its youth movement,

the Black Guards .

The Black Guards which consist: of

junior high, high school, street and college ~yout:h make

a vast reserve of

Party cadre .

Being that Party membership

is open to any African 18 years or older,

youth will

be

27 9

prepared to take up positions of leadership when

join .

The Black Guards

is

the most disciplined and best

organized segment of Black youth .

expand

The Black Guards should

the Young African PJation

its mass organization,

(YAN} :

they

Also by organizing black workers

People s Unions, the Party can expand

into African

its ranks .

Also

by forming African Studies Institutes and African Student

The~Party must also be

Unions, the Party can expand .

involved

in the community control of school

issues and

Welfare Rights Qrganizations and African

help the National

Women's groups that are forming around

Build the Black United Front or
Front and maintain

the country .

Slack Liberation

independence of ttie Party .

few years the Party has made great strides

Black United Fronts around the country .
has to be very careful

In the last

in forming

But t"he Party

in organizing United Fronts

because the black bourgeoisie often use these fronts

to'consolidate their power over the movement and split
the ranks of the Party .
in

19ba

This was done in Philadelphia

in the Black Coalition .

perience so

it won't reoccur .

United Fronts must maintain

We must study this exThe Party when

it's organizational

forming
inde-

pendence and must never compromise its lines or else it

will

lose povler

in

the front ..

The object of the: Front

to have a broad mass base for the Party,

is

not the: bourgeois

28 0

In this period because our people are not mobilized and

because the bourgeoisie are basically counter revolutionary
and well

organized, the Party should concentrate its

efforts on mobilizing
More feasible at

for the Front from the street .

this

time would be the unification

f nationalists organizations to form a black liberation

front .

The formation of a black liberation fronC should

be primary concern for the Party .

This

organized around broad objectives .

liberation front is

front should be

The purpose of the

to create a broad' Pan African Nationalist

Front that could help all groups

in : the front .

The Black

liberation front can change the struggle qualitatively .

The next stage of our struggle
National

is the development of a

African People's Liberation Front .

Consolidate community power (by considering the sittuation as a whole in terms of the majority) .
chapter must
we must

Each party

learn how tp consolidate community power ; that

learn the tactics of "bore-in ."

Bore in tactics

are that of joining the local movement and becoming

leadership of the local movement .

the

This means .different

cadre joining different groups and bringing these groups

to agree an some points of the party program.
in

By boring

into different groups, the Party's influence will

broadened and will

become a powerful

be

force .

Party members must apply the tactics of ~pal:iently

moving

the community step . by step .

In moving

the community

28 1

step by step, the party YJlll move the community t:o accept
its program .

The Partymust also set up functional

liberation groups such as

the Young African Nation, African

Writers Association, African Unemployed League, African

African Workers

Woman's Association, African Student Union,

Union and other special
role will

These group's

interest groups .

be to consolidate and organize each segment of

the population

they are concerned with .

groups would organize functional

These functional

congresses,

base for community structure and government .

press,

African Workers,

the

Each con-

Student, Youth, Unemployed,

Writers, would all be part .of the National

Congress,

laying

Afric~a~n Peaple'

In organizing the Party keep in mind all . party work

done

is done from the needs and interests of

the people .

All work~for the masses must start from their needs and
not from the desire of any individual, however wellintentioned .

It often happens that objectively the masses

need a certain change, but subjectively they are not yet

conscious of the need, not yet willing or determined
to make the change .

In such cases, we should wait patiently,

we should not make the change until

through our work,

most of the masses have become conscious of

are willing arcd determined to carry
we shall

it out .

the need and

Otherwise

isolate ourselves from the masses .

If we keep

in mind

the Party moves from tt~e basic

zsz

needs of the people, we will never . separate ourselves

from the majority of our people by
progressive elements

in an

leading only a few

isolated way but will

form

a link between progressive forces and the broad masses :

Cadre Policy :
party is

One of the most

training of cadre .

unorganized,

important roles of the

Being that our nation is

the Party must be concerned with training

numbers of cadre in a planned way .

This means he must

know how to guide cadre, evaluate and train them .

Party must`~let them have enough

large

room

The

try their own

methods of organizing and must encourage independence

and initiative .
and must

The Party must be patient with cadres

use persuasion as 'a method of showing what

correct to do .

The four basic principles

is

for cadre to

follow are :
l .

Total devotion to the Pan Afs- ican Revolution

2.

Daily contact with the people

3.

Ability to work Independently

4.

Upholding of Party discipline

Party Organization :
we build the internal

The key question now is how do

structure of ou " Party,

enemy infiltration and expand .

build a mass Party :

All

prevent

In other words we must

revolutionary Parties start with

the convening of a small nucleus to form a Party .

the Party's central committee is created,
sections of

the Party is created .

First

then other

The Party once created

28 3

engages itself

in political mobilization of the people .

is

A party consitution

drafted . and a program established .

Our Party has developed a program and has drafted By-Laws

to

its Constitution .

National

The Party's central committee and

Council has formulated .

PJ~ow we must build

regional, state,

and local Party structure .

as a whole shall

be represented by

its Central Committee

and its propaganda organs ; political

theoretical

The Party

(newsletter,) and

The functions of the

(internal journal) .

Central Committee are to exercise general direction of

the practical activities of all

all

its forces ;

ensure proper utilization and allocation of all

tfie activities of ,all

forces ; to control

to
its

sections of the

Party ; to supply the local organizations with

literature ;

to organize the technical apparatus of, the Party ;

to

convene Party congresses .

.

The National

Council

functioning of all

shall be responsible for the

lower party bodies ; shall maintain

Party discipline and be responsible for building

party organization .

The National

Council

lower

is the second

in .chain of command and shall be responsible for carrying

out directives of the Central Committee .
in our Party's development,

the National

At tfiis point
Council

should

be made up of people who are representatives of the

Central

Committee .

When this

is not possible br-..cause of

.
the lack of people, then city councils should be ; established

2134

But if there are more than one~city council, a state

council and state chairman selected to coordinate the
building of a state party section .
are formed

When other city councils

in the state then a state party congress Can

form .
4lhenever possible regional
tablished .

councils should be es-

When the party becomes a mass party than

organize congresses .

it shall

The Central Committee will organize

the party from the top down as well

as

up to minimize enemy infiltration .

By slow building of

party membership,

it

from .the bottom

gives party intelligence enough tim

to check out party personnel .

!,le are attempting to

from the mistakes ~of the Black Panther Party,

too fast, therefore we must be acreful .

learn

of building

At the same time

we are trying to establish a system whereby agents will

be neutralized if they have already infiltrated .

We must

continue our vigilance against enemy infiltration .

The Party would avoid premature confrontations arith
the power structure .
Party situation .

We should study they Black Panther

The Black Panther Party's leadership

has either bee~~ jailed, assassinated or exiled .

Party's jeadership
jailed .
But in

is

Some of our

in exile asn in the past has been

There are unavoidable in the process of organizing .

the future, party organizers must avoid jail

and exile unless necessary .

Going to jail

should

just consist of minor charges resulting from demonstrations .

z85

The,Party,

in

the future must avoid conspiracy cases

because they drain the resources of the organization .

But we realize that some set-ups cannot be avoided because
conspiracy cases are a tool
this

ell

of the enemy,

To prepare for

party cadre should organize supporters committees

. of people who are willing to raise funds for the party .

These committees would be legalistic and would fight for
the right of the party to exist .
,The overall objective of the party is not the overthrow of the U .S . government, but the establishment of
self-governing black (African} government and nation .
party of natronai
all

liberation

The

is a broad party encompassing

pPogressive elements of the African nation far the

goal of self-government .
political goal

as

The party states

its limited

its legalistic program .

The party sees spontaneous urban rebellions as an

organized part of the national

liberation movement .

The

organized urban revolution would take .t he form of a national

black strike and dislocation for the demand of

independent

nationhood .
The party supports
a minority

revolution

the concept of

but sees the stage envisioned by

Robert F . Williams as being the last

organizing effort .

the potential of

stage of a long protracted .

The party.'s main concern

is mass

organization and meeting the needs of the people: .

the needs of

the people will

Meeting

makes the party the vanguard

28 6

of

The Black Panther Party has raised the

the movement .

slogan "Serve the People. ."

be put

This

is a good slogan and must

in practice .

1967-G8 URBAN REBE .LLION~S

The party in the form of the revolutionary action
movement provided the spontaneous urban rebellions
1964 to

1968 with an

of the nature of

ideological

base .

from

The party, because

the American situation decided that due

to constant surveillance and encirclement and destroy

campaigns by the enemy,
ground base first .

the party had to build an under-

In the formative years the party

organized from below organizing,basicaily the lumpen

proletariat element of the people to support the program
The party was the ideological vanguard

of the party .

in providing urban rebellions with a broader context .

Now

the party, must organize an organized urban movement

that serves as the spark for other organized urban move
ments .

The party wilt

to organize but

suffer many setbacks

in the final

in

its struggle

~naiysis we will vrin .

Because our situation is basically urban ; the vast majority

of our people

living

in urban areas,

basically in

our organization can be easily encircled .

the party must

be a national

the south,

For this reason

party whereas it can organize

campaigns in other communities to support local struggle .

Also the party must be both above and below t+o wage off
encirciement . campaigns .

The party being a b

uck

working

28 7

class party must have power through black workers in the

factorFes and plants .
working class,

By having strong roots in the black

the party can always use the power of the

black strike to support the demands of

then

T,he party must

to educate the people to

its programs .

prepare an above ground apparatus

The aboveground

its program .

party would build a movement of national

liberation ;

a movement towards independent black nationhood .

STUDY
All

party members should study the theory of

African Nationalism,

study our nation's

the current movement and trends . .

help party members

in

Pan

history and study

All party cadre should

their political education .

Cadres

in particular should study carefully, while senior

cadres should undergo serious study .
can possibly
tort' unless

"No political party

lead~a great revolutionary movement

to vic-

it possesses revolutionary theory and. a

knowledge of history and has profound grasp of the practical movement ."
The theory of
to our situation .

Pan African Nationalism is applicable

Too many brothers and sisters study

Marxism-Leninism and get, hung up on "revolutionaryism ."

That

is,

they don't know to apply their theory

situation,
cation .

We, must apply total

to our

translation to this sit-

Which means wa must_study our movement, history

and adapt theory

to fit our conditions .

In our study we

28 8

don't make our theory dogma,

action .

but u .se it as a gui<fe

We use it as a science of revolution .

to

We only

study other revolutions to find out how they won .

All

party cadre shoald attend party school

orientation and political education .

Party school

continuous through a cadre's political

pares him with

lessons of struggle .

study the party internal

for general
is

life for it pre-

All

party cadre shauld

journal because the interns l

journal presents general guidelines for mass activities

ON ALLIES
The party has two sources for . allies, national
international .

While farces

internationally support our

cause,~they are not ready to provide material

of the party's political

and

line,

it

receives

aid .

Because

less support

than those who follow the revisionist line .

Unity Hrith

th,e Third World can only come about through struggle .

" The party must
within these shores .

concern
Groups

itself 4Jith finding allies

that are potential allies

are Puerto Ricans, t9exican-Americans,

Indians,

Chinese-Americans and other ethnic minorities .

Japanese,
The

other possible group of allies are radical whites .

pasty's position

The

is one of self determination for our

colonial~ized nation .

Any white radicals who are disci-

plined an d, not ,adventuristic and,who,support the party's

program and are willing to accept

the party's

leadershiF

28 9

are classified as party allies .

The party takes a prin-

cipled stand on white allies and that

is that any

assistance given to the party by allies

is one of

political principle and agreement of the party's program

and aid

in no way binds the party in any way to follow

the will of the allies .

attached .

That

is aid-with no strings

The party seeks allies

in bringing about the

revolution and will work with those groups who have,

thrQUgh struggle, proven themseldes worthy of being allies

THE POLITtCAL12ATI0N OF AFRICAN CULTl1RE

In this new era (70's) of

rising

tide of Pan Afri-

canism among the African middle class and revolutionary

nationalism among the African working class,
tant that all Africans wherever

it

is

impor

they may reside, under-

stand the importance of African culture to the .Pan

African revolution .
Our culture is

rich and can become very revovlutionary

if properly palicalized .
with continuity .
an

It

institution within
Culture is

is

Culture provides

the people

part of the super-structure,

itself, of any society .

the mass transmitter of

ideas and provides

the people with the "esprit de corps" necessary to

wage a protracted struggle for national
The cultural

revolution that

liberation .

is taking

place in

all African communities around the world then,

important .

Our cultural

and in being political,

is very

revolution must be political'

it must be geared

to the complete

uncompromising world liberation of all-African and all

peoples of the world .
Being subjugated-and oppressed by neo-imperialism,
we as a people suffer cultural

imperialism,

the systematic

crushing, manipulating, deluding and controlling our

2g1

culture to the benefit of the western capitalist world .

Culture as projected by the western eapitalist world
is exported to progate the cultural . ideas of capitalist
mentality lifestyle .
Observing the rising
consciousness of

tide of Pan African Nationalist

the imperia'I1sts are

the African masses,

moving day and night to capitalize and subvert the Pan

African revolution through the manipulation and contro l
of our culture .

important that Pan African revolution-

Therefore it`s

aries everywhere gain control of owr culture and interject clear Pan African nationalist viewpoint

in

it

beofre

our culture is turned

into a force for counter revolution,

the negro revolution,

to fight the real

But this

is a very subtle move .

revolution .

The oppressor is

pre-

sently busy creating a false bourgeois "Pan African movememeat" of petty bourgeois middle crass
CIA agents

to fight the real

street force revolution that

Watts,

intellectuals and

Pan African working class

is brewing~in the Harlems,

and Detroits of the world .

Real

Pan African revolutionaries shouldn't withdraw

in a hole just because you see how the "jive" people have,
the power in the Pan African movement .
We should

realize that when the oppressor encourages

the middle class to assume the leadership of 'the Pan

African movement,

it

is

because it

is weakening and

z9z

because it's stalling for time .

But this

is a good thin as well .

that everything has

iectical

realize,

We must

its duality in the hiistoricai dia-

sense .

While presently the oppressor is creating a bourgeois

cultural

revolution

in our community, which does not

encourage resistance to the power structure based on

a race and class analXsis,

raise the national

it does

and Self confidence of our people and helps in

pride

the future

development of a Pan African Pdational .ist mass consciousness .

So

it's

important that,we understand the relation of

present day African culture to our revolution, what

happened to

it and its future role .

suppressed by many slave colonial

years of our enslavement .
when

African .culture was

regimes in the last 500

It was only allowed to flourish

its content reinforced the psychological conditioning

of our enslavement .

This meant that content was turned

inwards, playing to the negative aspects of our destructive

mentality and social

disillusionment with one another

without of course explaining the root cause,

capiitalist

colonialist exploitation by a racist state .

Whenever message culture developed,
so message content had to be well
became

it

:; was suppressed,

covered which oftimes

lost over a period of years .

29 3

In

the west, this

resulted

"Blue Culture", which has grown

in the formation o'f a

into a new rhythm and blues

culture .
For the most
even

part, our culture is

still

bourgeois,

though there is a conscious movement among African

artists to transform it .
To understand

the importance of culture in our revo-

lution, we must understand certain things .

the formal

cultural

One is while

instituions were for the most

not totally destroyed,

part,

it was suppressed .

Sa the africanisation of African peoples can be

explained in a dialectical

sense .

This

is

are to understand the New African Cultural

important if we
Revolution .

The impact~of invasion by Europeans upon Africa

the late

15 and early 16th centuries led to the most

traumatic era our planet has ever known .

the traumatic era~dn will not be over
come, even
It

in

1~1e are still

in

it far some time to

long after emancipation .

is becoming obvious to many third world revolution-

aries that when we analyze historical

development in a

race and class analysis, we see there is a cultural

contradiction

in the world .

That cultural

contradiction

historically has been between Europeans and third world

people and continues even today .
So

in our case, cultural

genocide,

imperialsim, was

the thesis that the European colonialist presented to

29 4

African people, particularly those prisoners of Hrar

taken to foreign lands . .
Resistance,
psyche way of
antithesis

the maintaining of . the basic African

life

in African communities, was the

to cultural

genocide .

The westernization of African people held

bondage became
admit it .

in colonial

inevitable, as much as we don't tike to

The synthesis

torical resistance

is

the combination .a f owr his

to the European experience and the

positive aspects of our learned experience while under

domination of Europeans .
African cultural

This

revolution .

is

th-e essence of

the

To purge ourselves of the

negative aspects of our European, capitalist, bourgeoisizatian but~to deal with objective reality that there are
positive aspects of our learned. experience which can be
used to the benefit of building a positive flew World .
The role of Hlack artists
the Pan African nation :
African artists

For us

in the politicalization of
to understand the role of

in the Pan African revolution, we must

understand the role

they play socially, culturally, and

also historically .
Sometimes this
continuity

is hard to see because our historical

(consciousness, psyche)

has been tampered with .

So we no longer see with out people's mind's eye (psyche)

seeing with the car of the mind
revelation, but

(feeling,

in the systematization of

thowght) ;
rationalization

~9S

of European

Therefore, African peoples like

philosophy :

most Third World peoples live in a dual

a coaonialized consciousness
mind at

the same

This dual
4lorld

(mind)

reality o~F having

and native

indigenous

time .
the 7hird

reality becomes less confusing as

revolution comes closer to victory .

African artist

the traditional African priest,

is

priestess, whose role has been

transfused

in

in

the can-

temporary situation .

The African artist

context

social, economic, relLg~ious, spiri-

is political,

tual

leader or spokesman "for

This

is

because he feels,

psyche of our people and

the African

the nation at the same time . .

sees or hears the cultural

is able to transmit and reflect

it back to~the people, through the African context, which

is

is Nommo or the word vibration of the mind, that

the collective unconscious of all African people .

in
The

African artist times the rhythm within the space (of the
r

people's mond, the tempo of the cultural

beween artist and audience .
He thus fulfills

heartbeat)
.

the role of African priest, his

performance ~" eing an African experience of call

ponse from audience .

The African artist

charismatic spokesman of our people . .

of the folk hero and
tative .

is

our cultural

Ne

and res-

is

the natural

is

the symbol

nation's represen-

Qut in order to keep from being co-opted the

African artist must be a Pan-African Nationalist and

29 6

must

reflect the ideology of Pan African Nationalism

through his media at all times .

This

is

important

because being that our people, as most African Asian

people have an oral
of

life

will

tradition,

ideology or

the new way

be popularized through Nommo,

the oral

word .
Being that

the vast majority of our people do not

deal with the foreign language of English,

Frenchi,

Spanish,

etc ., because these languages are foreigg to our experience

and have only been

imposed on us

in

the last 500 years,

we as a .people have not developed the written or reading

tradition .

So, the African artist plays a great role in

popularizing the _ideology of the All African Peoples

Party .
The African

artist

in this

1 fight is

mitter of thv Pan African cultural

the -may>s

revolution :,

to foster a revolution among African people,

tra~+s-

In order

the African

artist must revolutionize himself, his lifestyle . s o that

he lives his ideology .
considered

Then and only then can he be

revolutionary .

This means the new spiritual

political African culture must start within

the ranks of

African artists themselves .

African artists are knoavn for starting fads and
dances .

The fads and new dances

political .

Dances

started must be hvighly

like "do the Fanther and strike by

night" must be created .

zg7

Dances that

incorporate martial art moves that

encourage the development of a new spiritua l, martial African

culture must be started .

African artists themselves

must return to a eastern revolutionary way of

life and

repudiate the decadence of western bourgeois culture in

their day to day lifestyle .

This is very important because African artists are

folk heroes and millions upon millions of African youth
worldwide want to be just

like them, so whaf they do

is

very' important .
Therefore,

they must begin to gravitate to t:he real

Pan African revolutionaries who a.t this

point in history

may not have the popularity of a bourgeois mass media

society,

because they have engaged in

which

agitational and another struggle .,against : the

i5

system .

real

resistance,

African artists must leave the bourgeois

syndrome of middle class Pan Afri.canists and unite with

the coming
revolution .

Pan African working class,

street force

WE ARE ALL PRISONERS OF WAR

We want to address ourselves to the war prisoners

to make our

movement and the concepts we must understand

movement a reality .
As we

look around the eountry, we see the prisons

the prison population

fil ed with brothers : 90q of

America is Black .

in

Every African community. i s faced with

constant harassment and terrorism from the racist

civilian occupation army .
Most of our leaders are either in jail, exile or
fighting the racist legal system in one form or another .
Brother Jame1 Abdu1 Almin (N .
Rikers

Rap Brown)

in

Island prison serving five years on a- trumped up

charge and {'acing twenty years on another .

are in prison
in Texas .

in Mississippi .

Martin Sostre

is

in .

Otis Johnson is

Ron Karenga,

'avid Hilliard are~in prison

Eldridge Cleaver is still

in prison

Ahmed~Evans is still

on Death Row in the Ohio State pen .

and

Brother'Imari,

the RNA and 10 other brothers and sisters

president of

Magee,

is

in exile .

Ruchell

in California .

Robert Williams

is fighting extradition to North Carolina

from 6lichigan .

I'm fighting extradition to New York from California

Robert 35 Smith is

still

in prison

in flew york, and thousands

299

of others are struggling with thisracist system .

The movement has . been attacked, crushed and setback .
The assassinations of brothers-George Jackson,
Hampton,

Mark Clark,

the Birmingham Six,

inmates are deep

Fred

Lil' . Bobby Nutton, Medgar Every,

Malcolm,

Dr.,

PI .L, King and Attics

wounds and sacrifices of our national

liberation .
But the time has come for us
women,

to stand up as . men and

unite and organize ourselves against every racist

attack unleashed on us .
When we do this, assassination,, jailing or exile
will

not benefit the enemy,

for his acts of aggression .

We must .make the enemy pay

Every time he attacks, we

must make 'the odds even-Steven .

It must be a head

a head, a throat for a throat, a life for a life .

blood must be just as
blood is

important to us, as

for
Our

the enemy's

to him .

The war prisoners novement must take the struggle

to a higher
cessful .
colonial

level of development or

Our movement

it will

not be suc-

recognizes that we are a captive

nation, therefore, vae see the legal and politics

system being a racist colonial

declare our independence
We want national

ill-legal system .

We

from the system,

independence by any means necessary

The war prisoners movement

our nationalist revolution .

is the broad united

front of

Our movement calls upon

all Africans

to unite regardless of

To move to self
united

front .

300

ideology and religion .

reliance we must have a national

bt -ack

But unity must be based on principle and

action, and not words alone .

When we say,
held

in federal,

"We want
state,

freedom for all black people

county and city prisons and jails .

We believe under the present system that no black people

have received a fair and impartiai

trial .

We believe that

this racist system is organized in all ways against black

people . . ." . we feel

there are no

laws

in America that

African peoples need to abide . b y until we have the right

to determine our own destinies .
We say this
people

because we

recognize that we

(African

in America) are not citizens denied our rights

but aae are captives of war .

War was declared on the

African nation 500 years ago end has not stopped yet .
we are not captives of war,
We would still be

If

then we wouldn't be in America .

in Africa .

There is . n o such thing as a second class citizen.

A second class citizne

is

a 20th century slave.

either a first class citizen or a_wa~d of

which means no class at all

You are

the state,

- it means captive .

We are

forced to abide by the responsibilities of citizenship

Gut are denied

the equal

rights of citizens .

status has changed from chattel

So, our

slavery to ci-tizen slavery .

30l

After the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation,which

supposedly made 'us freedmen, a vote was never taken to
see whether we wanted to be citizens of the kidnapper
government, return to our motherland or whether we wanted
land

right here .

So, the so-called citizenship that we

are supposed to have, but don't enjoy,

is a forced

citizenship aid is therefore ill-legal, making our status

colonial
person

subjects held

in America

in'captivity .

Every Afri~:an

is therefore in prison .

'We ,. as a peoplelnation, will

not have the sl:atus

of freedmen or women until we secure the right to determine

our own destiny .

Until African people have the right

to self-determination, America is a police state to 30

mi

n ion

Africansm.

PPrisons are concentration camps of the worst farm

to contain and ,break the will

of rebellious African aptives .

The civilian occupation force (police)

engages

in

search and destroy campaigns daily to capture the. usually

unpoliEicized guerrillas
to put them

(so-called black criminals),

In pacification

strategic hamlets

to psychologically annihilate New Africa's

(prisons),

people's

iiberation army :
The black prisoner, who is

faced with

the constant threat of racist attack, must

living under
endure the

worst conditions of all African captives ; he gets

food,

is grossly underpaid for his

labor,

the worst

lives with

30 2

unsanitary conditions, having to struggle and possibly

risk his

life for black studies materials and the right

to pracitce his own religion

if

it

is different from the

oppressor's,
The black prisoner

is the captured captive within

the captive nation and is-treated as the worst of a class

of people

in the whole Amerikan empire .

The black prisoner,

tota.l,anl:i-thesis of

like the black soldier,

this racist society ; he

rebellious captive that

the colonial

so his radicalization and awareness

is

is the
the

regime cannot control

is

treated with the

most blatant form of fascism - outright cold blooded

murder,Because once the black prisoner realize<.: his
historical

role as . a political

prisons will

liberation soldier then the

become African nationalist training centers

producing thousands of Pan-African nationalist rE:volutionari"es .

Then our struggle will

take a qualitiative

leap .

In order to advance the Pan-African revolution, from

working together regardless of

ideology, we must develop

a style of work which is effective in mobilizing

millions of our people,
Amen-Ra (RAM) method,

w'e call
It

the

this work style  the

is the building of cells among

our people, quietly working on community problems and

projects, working . towards the emergence of a Pan-African
Nationalist Party .
The Pan-African movement

in America in many respects

30 3

is still a petty bourgeois movement .

There are still

many utopian concept s. in the movement such as the fantasies

of "going back to Africa" and ''ego .tripping on messianic
cultural

nationalism ."

Culture is

important but is not the predominating

factor

in a~revolution .

masses

is

the central

Political development of the

factor

in a revolution .

ization that disrupts and overturns a system

Mass mobiiis

the heart

of a revolution .
The war prisoners movement means Pan African nationalists
must move .in a new direction .

We must move to unite with

the overall majority of our people .

We must move to have mass demonstrations
of .African~capti+ve prisoners .

in support

The war prisoners move-

ment must not be separated from other direct actions

over community issues .
control of

schools,

Day must be welded

The struggle

Black Studies and African Lit~eration

into one movement .

movement must be action-oriented .

pendent nationalist
the enemy's

for community

The Pan-African

Vahile w~e build

inde-

instituions we must move and dislocate

Wstitutions .

We must move to disrupt the political system by

starting an African

lndepdence Political Movement: .

Our movement must be built upon consistent cadres .

Meeting halls .should
plead, beg brothers

6e

filled every week .

when we must

and sisters to come to a meeting

then that means we collectively are 'not

lution,

ready for'

revo-

When we must hold emergency .meetings for defense,

when we allow our personal

interests to

functioning of the movement,

interfere: with

the

then we become counter

revolutionary .
We must

learn that consistency,

day to day basis,

movement work .

is

correctness on a

the only thing that Trill make our

A war prisoners movement

is the highest

level of struggle because it demands a cease fire and

amnesty (released

for all prisoners of war :

Only by raising a mass political army will the enemy

grant amnesty to our war prisoners .
remember we are in war .

You must

Theh, you must

learn the importance

of being on' time ; of carrying out orders correctly, of

fulfilling your own task .
against all

We wage mass

i~nperia~list holdings

struggle here can we help

Revolution

demonstrations

in Africa .

Only by waging

liberate the Motherland .

takes thousands of people working, together .

We need mass political education to make~th.e war prisoners

movement successful .
Party that
leadership . .
ary action,
your own .

We need an All-African People's

is built on collective and noncompromi~sing

We must

unite on these principles of revolution-

'cause remember,

the life. you save may be

3oS

CLASS, NATIDNALISM,

"Mankind

CULTURE AND THE THIRD WORLD

is a single nation .

{271)

So Allah raised

prophets as bearers of good news and as warners, .and We

revealed with them the Book with truth,
judge between people concerning that
differed .
given

(271a)

that

it might

in which they

And none but the~very people who were

it differed about it after clear arguments had

come to them, envying one another .

(272)

So Allah has,guid~d by His will

the truth about which they differed

those who believe to

(273) And Allah

guides whom He pleases to the right path ."

(Qur'an,

Ch .

2,- Section 2b : Trials and Tribulations, 23, 213)

"Surely Allah changes not the coridition .of a people,
until they change their own condition" . . .(Qu'ran, Ch .,13,
Section 2 :

Fall

and Rise of Nations 11)

"Where the majority of the people

in a particular

society are black then most of . those who benefit: from

socialism will

be . black .

their blackness ; only with

B,ut

it has nothing to do with

their humanity" . . .

(f resident

Plyerere, Tanzania)
As

Salaam Alaikum,

In this paper 1 will

try to lay an putline of thought

re.presentina a system of thinking developed from ten years

30 6

of practice, and research, and study,

covered in

The subject

this paper are too broad .to be dealt with

depth at this

time so this paper wiil

in

be the first of

a series dealing with the subject of the Pan African/

Asian Cultural

Revolution,

Whether those present at

this conference agree with

the paper or not, we askrB1ack scholars to research our

conclusions and statements

because we

like ali

present

to represent a line of thought . i n the Pan African community

which was derived from our collective historical
The main question

experience .

before Pan African scholars

is

the developing of a scientific Pan African ideology .

This process

is just beginning and may take years to occur .

What

important in

is very

scholars

these times .i s for Pan African

to think objectively .

We must study everything

and reassoci .ete our frame of reference to serve t:he best

interest

of our people .

be the unconventional

Thrs means that our thesis may

view

in the present world .

Our

world outlooks may not be agreeable to the~Europe :an

capitalist academic frame of thought nor the European
Marxist/Lenir;ist/socialist

nor~even some Asian and African

Marxist-Leninists who have a predetermined frame of

reference of future human behavior .
So as

revolutionary Pan African scholars, we must

be willing to tell
periences,

the truth of what our research, ex-

and feelings

(instincts)

tell

us, even

if we

30 7

stand out alone in the world,

temporarily isolated

(ideologically) for the time being .

One of the first th- inas
analyze contemporary events,
draw conclusions

that we must do

is

to

trace their development,

inrorder to master the dialectics of

changing our condition and creating a new world free

of exploitation and injustice .
Of the many blocs and forces opposing the western
European capitalist, neo-colonialist/imperialist countries,

Pan Africanism,

fihe three main

Islam and Marxism-Leninism are

ideologies presently,

influencing the Black

World .
Many Pan-AfricanlAsian scholars are confused on
the nature of our oppression, the development of our present
condition and the classical
culture)

and class .

because it
standing

theory of caste (race or

This question

is very

important

is precisely this question or . lack of under

it that the Pan African/Asian community is

sorely divided on .
There are forces

'
in the Pan African/Asian community

who attempt to negate the question o~ race or cultural

differences and contradictions between nations ; oppressed
and oppressor and a-tempt to delude the nationalist fiber
in our people's revolutions .
with the classical Marxia~n

These people present us

interpretation of -e vents and

3oa

say that the main motivating factor

is that of economics .

in human society

Ile are not here to argue that

of view but to say that we feel

point

that the dialectical.

development of human society is much more .complex than

what

the classical Marxist thinks

events and future research will

it

is and that

recent

prove .

Many tlarxists argue that racialism as a basis of

wexploitation, economic or otherwise, developed aiQng with'
the emergence of capitalism .
ancient world,

If one studies history of the

they would see that

racialism was prevalent

among certain peoples for an extended period of time .

The Haly Prophet Muhammad

(peace and blessings of

Allah be upon him) had to struggle against the racism

of the Arabs

in the early stages of the Islamic revolution .

Historical

research has unveiled that

system ows

its basic foundation

the capitalist

to slavery and the slave

trade .
"Historically,

the great press for black labor as

the work force for planatation slavery simultaneously

supplied the momentum for the formation of

institutional

racism and set the framework for the creation of

community in the United States .
demand

for black slaves,

numbers of persons

the black

The strength of this

in regard tb both the vast

involved and its duration over centuries

was based on the dialectics of .the reiationship between

slavery in the New World and the development of capi-

30 9

talism in

Europe :

Each provided necessary conditions

1
far the other's growth :
Race and class system go hand + in hand but
to fully understand

in order

this development the question of

culture must be analyzed .

Because we must ask ourselves

why a . certain nation of people developed a racist culture

and another didn't .

But before we

investigate these

factors, we must further understand the development of the

capitalist system to scientifically analyze the nature
of our oppression .
"Slaves from Africa, at first in

the mines and then

on the plantations of the New World, produced goods that

enlarged the magnitude of the circulation of commodities
in

international

trade process that was essential to the

mercantilist phase of capitalist history .

this slavery was ,not capitalist
itself, that
3
wage labor ,

in . the form of production

is . was not based on the purchase of alienated

the plantation system of .the New World

composed ark integral

relations of

Although

part of the international

the growing capitalist system .

market

The demand

for slaves was subject to mercantile calculations

regarding

production costs and market prices :

. . .by the end of the sixteenth century sugar had

become
in

the most valuable of the agricultural

international

commodities

tradc, . . .Production from the slave plan-

tations greatly increased the volume of commodities in

31A

circulation through trade,

but the social

relations of

slavery and racism rendered t-he black producers so distinctly

apart that

it was through any other established mechanisms

that defined lowly social

status .

many Pan African scholars

is that the historical

The problem besetting

develop-

ment of their nation did not follow classical Marxist lines

but a class system is developing

in their countries along

with a rising tide of nationalism among the people as a

whole .

Trying to

philosophical
isolated

in an

a tendency

interpret world development within

Marxist framework they find

ideological vacuum .

themselves

Frustrated, they have

to become sectarian trying

to put our situation

in an abstract orthodox 'Marxist-Leninist thesis .

they fail

to realize is

as a man's social

change and man's knowledge increases,

of historical

the

What

conditions

the social

science

and dialectical development of peoples

revolution changes too .

What was reality to iMarx, Engels, and Lenin may not
be reality to revolutionaries

today .

Then again, what

was reality to Marx and Engels of Europe,

to Samory Toure and Muhammad Ahmad of
all depends on the historical
of past historical

stage,

was not reality

the Sudan .

It

extent of knowledge

development and one's cultural

(national

or ethnic) frame of reference .

"Each historical

situation develops

its own dynamics,

The close links between class and .race developed in Africa

alongside capitalist exploitation .

Slavery,

the: master-

servant relationship, and cheap labor were basic; to it .

The classic example is South Africa, where Afric;ans
experience a double exploitation - both on the ground of
color and class .
the Caribbean,

Similar conditions exist in

the U .S .A .,

in Latin America, and in other parts of

the world where the nature, of thedevelopment of productive

forcevs has resulted .i n a racist class structure .
these areas,

even shades of color count - the degree of

blackness being a yardstick by which social

status

is

measured .
While a racist social
in the colonial

situation,

economic development .

it

inseparable from capitalist

is

For race

with class exploitation ;

structure,

structure~is not inherent

is

inextricably linked

in a racist-capitalist power

capitalist exploitation and race oppression

are complementary ; the removal of one ensures the removal

of the other .

In the modern world,

become part of the class struggle .

In other words,

is a race problem it . has become

5
.

wherever there

the class struggle ."

both a radial

the race struggle has

linked with

So the nature of our struggle is

(national)

and class

(international) one .

The problem then becomes ho4r do we apply ourselves

to the national

and international

questions .

31 2

'

Constantly running through same Pan African/Asian

scholars' minds

is will

the European/American working class

in western European nations support the Pan African/Asian

revolution .

Because of the n~o-colonialist empire, the

European working class profits from the super-exploitation

of the Pan African/Asian world .
The Pan African/Asian revolution

is

a national

demo-

cratic revolution and a communalist class revolution at

the same time .

In applying tactics nationa lly,

the Pan

African/Asian revolution uses the tactics of organizing

a broad national

liberation front led by the peasants,

working class supported by students and intellettuals

to oppose _the national
with the neo-colonial
At this

bourgeoisie who has aligned itself

forces .

point in our struggle and from historical

experience, while a significant portion of the European

working class may give neutral support,
as

if the European working class Yiill

it doesn't look

rally to the defense

of the Pan African/Asian revolution .

So, tactically speaking,_Pan African/Asianists
particularly

inside the United State must encourage

radical development

in

the European community that would

neutralize the European working class from being used es

fascist pawns ; trying to stop the formation of an
dent Pan African communalist state .

indepen-

31 3

. To seriously consider this question and the success

of the Pan African/Asian revolution there is

no question

about it, we must seriously tackle the subject of historical

cultural

development and racism .

This

is very important,

because . i n order for any Europeans to be attuned to the

coming new world,

they must

revolutionize their cultural

references, because the Pan African/Asian revolution

not only an economic and political
cultural

is

revolution but a

revolution at the same time .

'SOME HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF RACISt1 AND CULTURE

The most sensityive subject among revolutionaries
is

racism and eulture .

The reason why is because to

date there is no scientific explanation of the European's

ethnic "super-ego" racist complex .

His behavior doesn't

and hasn't gone according to how Marx predicted it would

go according to economic conditions and interests .
best, Marx and Engels were trying

to give a rationalization

to a confused racist European superstructure

by economic and political

At

institutions .

reinforced

So to attempt

to explain these factors we must make a historical

review

of racism and then ask ourselves vrhat is culture and how

do they develop?
"The first recorded
have been able to find

is

instance of~color prejudice

in

India of some

years ago when the Aryas, or Aryans,

five

thousand

invaded the valley

31 4

of the Indus and found there a black people,

In any case we find very clear evidences o-f

or Dasys .
it

In the Rig-Veda

in Aryan writings .

Indra,

the Dasysus,

their national

with supernatural

(Boox 1X, Nymrs 42 :1)

go,d, is depicted as

'Blowing away

might from earth and from the heavens

the black skin far away .'

(noseless people) .

Book V,

The blacks were called

'Anassahs'

Hymn 29 :10 tells how India

'slew the flat nosed barbarians' .

India's caste system was based on color .
varna (caste)

literally means

skin) ; Krishna varna

.The Aryans of

'color .'

1'he word

Arya varwa

(white

(black skin) .
tine Encyclopedia of

India, says

Religion

and Ethics, prided themselves on their fairer skins and

more acquiline features and held, in derision thc: black
color and flatter physiognomies of
regarded

the aborigines,

them much as conquering whites

regarded blacks

in Africa .
Thanks, however to time and the Muslim invasion of
the eleventh century color pie j ud ice weakened .
Dasyu,

the Negro and white Muslims from African and the

Near East amalgamated into the present

Later,

At- yan and

the incoming of

the Europeans did much

The next evidence of

in Ancient Egypt .

Indian population .

it

to revive

have been able to find

is

Gerald Massey,~perhaps the greatest

315

o~f all authorities on ancient Egyptian

lore said, "On the

monuments the dark people are commonly called

race of Kush'

'the

evil

but when the Ethiopian element dominates

the dark people retort by calling the light complexions,

'the pale . degraded
fair

But this

for dark . and the converse was,

never nearly as
come

race of Arvad' .

strong as

in

India .

it

prejudice of

is safe to say,

The whites did not

in any considerable number to Egypt until the Ptolemaic

invasion of the third century B .C . by which time

inter-

mixture had already taken too firm a root for any appreciable degree of color prejudice .

If we carefully study the Punic Wars between Carthage

and Rome we will

see many racial

undertones .

t4any Roman

leaders developed a deep-seated hatred for Africans .

When the Romans

invaded Africa during the second Punic

War and destce - oyed Carthage, the cry among Africans was
"Africa for the Africans ."
Recent
political
Africans .

research shows

leader .

The Romanswere hated~by. the Plorth

While they might not have been

American con':ext,
or social

Isa was an African nationalist

racist

in the

they could be classified as cultural

imperialists .

If Pan African scholars do more

research on our ancient native

indigenous revolutionary

religious movements we will

see that

situation is occurring more

to their predictions than

that of Marx, Engels, or Lenin .

It

the present world

is very

important

31 6

that Pan African scholars

the light of recent
a new light on

study our ancient movements in

findings because this . will

the historical aspects of the Pan African/

Asian revolution :

Muslims don't believe

died on the cross but rather he died

at

the age of

provide

Isa

(Jesus)

in Kashmir,

India

120 .

It was precisely the lack of knowledge of African history and the development of the Christ movement
one, followers of) movement

that made tlarx ; Engels and

Lenin so. far off base historically .

history of Christianity we will
state took it over .

(Anointed

If we

look at the

see~ratism after the Roman

There soon developed an

indeological

and physical war .between "western" Roman Catholic Church

and the "eastern" Coptic

(Egyptian) and Persian churches.

This struggle was long and bloody .

The Romans eventually

won .
"To quote Topinard,

in the first century when Christ-

ianity was beginning to seat

of a separate creation

itself

for whites

in Rome the doctrine

and blacks was defended

by the Babylonian rabbis and later by Emperor Julian .

In 415 A .D . when one council was debating whether the
Ethiopians descended for Adam and the theory they weren't
making progress, St . Augustine in his City of God

inter-

vened and declared that no true Christian would doubt that

all men, of no matter what form, color, or height
7
were of the same protoplasmic origin ."

In order to understand the historical nature of

cultural
years,

racism among European peoples in the last 500

Pan African/Asian scholars must

investigate the

Islamic revolution an d . its ramifications of

impact ..

its social

From 711 A .A, when Tariq ibn-Zays entered Spain

to 1492, Muslims

(moors) were

in Europe and Europeans

fought Muslims .
This aspect of history has been left our of classical
t4arxian analysis .

Because of this Africans and Asians

who become Marxist-Leninist are usually very confused

about the cultural _contradiction between Asian, African
and European people .

They, have no frame of reference to

put European cultural

racism .

this period

it

But if one investigates

is easy to see how and why the,"4ahite

supremacy myth" was developed and where the age-old saying

of "never, let a blackman get hoid of a white woman'

came ,

f ra'm .
The Moors were Black Africans .

Sometimes they are

written in history as Arabs because they spoke Arabic .

By the time

Islam had expanded

in

Europe,

its army was

made up of many Africans ; some say it was predominantly

black .

Islam fought against racism among Asiatic/African +

peoples so it was nothing to Muslims ~to have ,a black army

but you can

imagine what a shock effect

it must have been

to Europeans to be conquered by black men and for centuries

31 8

be at the mercy of black men .

In many

Think about

it .

instances the conquering Moors did put great

demands on the European community concerning

their women .

Some even demanded white Christian virgins as booty .

the conquered European male this must have been a very
traumatic shock to his psychological cultural ego of
manhood,
Here lies the basic insecurity of
about the Black man .

The Biack man took over everything

and if he did it then, he can do

imagine what went

the European

it again .

lJe can not

through European men's minds at this

time and what was passed down secretly

to each generation

o'f wh i to man .
"During the Crusades

(1096-1270) so many Negroes were

taken out of Ethiopia and the

Christian

invader that

in

Sudan to fight .the white

1196, Negro troops

in Egypt,

50,000 strong dominated the court and the armies .

Alatir, Muslim writer of

. . .Ibn

the time, says the revolting

Negroes made the streets of Cairo run blood for da~rs .

General Menoin,
troops

in an article on

the role of Negro

in Europe, tells of the important part they played

in the conquest and development of Spain,

Abderrahman

1 .

(757-787)

kingdom of Cordova .

especially under

Ne founded the independent

This caliphate flourished, he said,

until black contingents disappeared from the army .

But

a rival Moorish leader brought from Africa a great number

313

of Negroes from which .he formed a redoubtable regiment

of cavalry in
In

1016 and restored

it . . .

1036 Yusef ben Tachfin, who is described as dark

and wooly haired and was. probably a Nigerian, brought

an army composed

largely of pure Negroes and defeated

Spain .

a much superior white Christian force at Zalucca,

Another, Yakub ei-Mansur,
of a Negro woman,

definitely recorded as

invaded the peninsula

himself master of almost the whole of

in

it .

the son

1194 and made

The guards

of these Moorish kings avere gigantic Negroes,

and of

in

jet-black

immense strength, recruiteed from the Atlas,

Timbuctoo,

and t~igeria .

Moorish sultans, whoe

fathers might be of any hue

from black to white, were sometimes the sons of white

Christian mothers captured on the .ships or the coasts
g
of Western Europe, including the British Isles ."
CULTURAL

CONTRADICTIONS :

"The problem of
3
the color line ."
Our hypothesis

PROBLEMS

OF TWE

20TH

CENTURY

the-2gth century is the problem ,of

is

that racial

Eu . ropeans .before the rise of

prejudice existed among

capitalism but that

racial

exploitation reinforced through their instutitions

did

not occur until the balance of power in the world shifted

in their favor .
"When thus qualitative change~in world poaaer took

32 0

place in the 18th century,

racism as a social

begins to materialize throughout

all

philosophy

avenues of European

thought .

or

When we raise the question cultural

contradictions

life style we are dealing with the dialectics of nature

historical

and dialectical materialism,

plus the emotional,

character of a people to find out achy they are the way

they are .
g0 percent of man's behavior
therefore

learned .

Culture

is a particular people's learned behavior

developed or

influenced by their relationship to physics l

environment such as climate,

and by

is

terrain,

natural

its other contacts with other cultural

Culture of a people then,

is

resources,
groups .

basically their dis-

tinctive modal

behavior patterns and beliefs such as

10
values, norms and folkways ."
African/Asian peoples seem to have a basically
compatible cultural
among aboriginal

life style .

peoples has

Friction betaaeen and

increased with their Contact

with European civilization .

Engles stated

in the preface to "The Origin of the

Family, Private Property and the State" the decisive

element of history is pre-.eminently the production and
reproduction of
implies,

life and its material

requirements .

This

on th'e one hand, the production of the mans

of existence,

(food,

clothing, shelter and the necessary

tools} ; on the other hand, the generation of child'ren,'

the propagation of the species .

The social

institutions,

under which the people of a certain historical

period

and of a certain ,country are living, are dependent on

these two forms of

production ; partly ort that of

the family ."

Objectively speaking, one would say the European produced

a relatively different culture from African/Asiatic peoples
because :
l.
produces

The climate of Europe over a period of time

ingrained motor responses,

isolation and cultural

2,

combined with cultural

interbreeding .

The lack of natural

resources, develop a

soceity of economic scarcity therefore produced a

competitive di" iv.e based on economic survival .
formed

This

later

into the individualist spirit and the survival of

the fittest .
3"

The cultural contact with African/Asian cultures

was often based~ort (economics) securing resources that

Europe

lacked .

This experience was usually one resulting

'

in war and therefore was traumatic .

African/Asian peoples on the other hand
a different climate, occupied
resources,

lived in basically

lands that had natural

their contact w,ith .other cultures was not as

traumatic except when the Europeans came foaming out

the mouth of Europe and therefore developed different
motor responses,

values, folkways and

life

style .

This

32 2

is the objective point of view .

What we are trying - to establish is a dialectical
approach to the present contradiction between the past
and west, oppressed and oppressor, .haves and have nots .
This division

is one presently of

the Pan African/Asian

world being oppressed by the European world . ~ The sections

of the Pan African/Asian world that align themselves with
the European

racist world

(the bourgeoisie) culturally

identify with the western European cultural

Culture stabilizes economic and political

context .

institutions and

insures their continuity .

Marx and Engels overlookd

this factor or either felt

it wasn't

Engels
of

stated, "All

important .

For

past history, with the exception

its primitivestages, was the history of class .struggles ;

that these warring classes of society are always the products of the mode s . of production and of exchange - in
a word, of the economic conditions of

their rime ;

the economic structure of society always

real

basis,

that

furnishes the

starting from which we can alone work out

the ultimate explanation of

juridicial~and political

the whole superstructure of

inst v itutians

as

well

as of the

religious,
storical

philosophical and other ideas of a given hi12

period ."

Pan African/Asian scholars must understand the historica) nature'of cultural

contradictions

if they are

going to rnake the Pan African/Asian revolution successful .

32 3

We say,_that unless

revolutionaries repudiate the . existing

bourgeois culture and establish a revolutionary counter

culture the revolution krill be
society qualitatively,

incomplete .

To change

revolutionaries must change the

goal, achievement of that society .

While Marx, Engels

and Lenirr took stands on colonial oppressed peoples they

failed

to change their cultural

and

frame of reference

thus failed to see how the world revolution wes going to

develop .

Their thesis

is

still

basically European .

"Marxism provides a justification for the enslavement

of blacks and the spread of European
commends,

imperialism .

Marx

in fact applauds, capitalism at many points ;

but fAr blacks this has meant nothing but a system of

negations .

For~Marx, capitalism . i s a necessary step .toarards

final salvation since only this can create the economic

and technological
development of

infrastructure necessary for a rounded

individuals . . .

In effect Marx visualize

the history of the Third World merely as an appendage

of Europe .

Thus, for him Africa and Asia, before 'the

coming of the white man, was 'static!

history at all' .

He used epithets

and without

like

'any

'barbarians'

'semi-

barbarian'

'nation of peasants, anf the 'Asiatic mode of

production

t~ refer to these societies .

then some external

that

internal 'dynamics for

, develop13
factor was necessary .-"

since these societies lacked

ment

He reasoned

32 4

The importance and extent of this

paper on

historical

contradictions

is a challenge to Pan African/Asian

scholars

independent research so that

to do

in developing

our ideology o-f Pan Africen/Asian nationalism, we will

draft a thesis
cultural

based on

truth and not' abstraction .

antagonism though apparent will

open major factor until

the world

is overwhelm .iRg

"In human history,

not become an

the Pan African/Asian revolution

seizes economic and political power or at

of power in

The

in

least the balance

its favor :

antagonise+ between classes exists

as a particular manifestation of

the struggle of opposites .

Consider the contradiction between the exploiting aid exploited cusses .

Such contradictory classes exist for

a long time in the same society, be

feudal

it

slave society,

society, or capitalist society, and they strugg}e

with each other ; but }t

is not until

the contradiction between

the two classes develops to a certain stage that

the form of open antagonism and develops

it assumes
}4
into revolution ."

Once we hawe-a clear world outlook we~can predetermine

events and organize tactics for our revolution :
this we must understand
which has many confused .
new world .

7o do

the present shift in world power

Emerging

from,all

this

}s a

32 5

THE WORLD DEVIL : GOG, HAGOG,

AND THE ANTI-CHRIST

In dealing with the question of a Pan African/Asia .n

cultural

revolution we must ask ourselves what kind of

world do we want to see created .

from this one and what would be
main emphasis or goal

What would be retained

left out .

What will

the

achievement be for the new world?

As event unfold we see the United

States and the

Soviet Union developing closer and closer

links and

a re~even talking about inter-investing in one another's

economy .

Commercialism is on the rise in the Soviet Union .

is being called .

A continental European

security conference

Britain has recogni2ed

Rhodesia and the U .S . supports

South Africa and

Israel .

The two major powers ;

world)
trol
R

and the U .S .

the Soviet Union ('No .

(now No . 2)

in the

have"formed an axis

the"world, economically, politically,

to con-

culturally and

militarily .
international European power

Wlo can explain this

conspiracy?

Is revisionism broad or deep enough to

explain it?

Is national

explain it?

In

will

chauvinism (racism)

a word to

the midst of rapid realignment o-f nations,

someone please tell

us r~rhat's going on?

The European

powers are preparing for the final showdown with the

black world . '

"

Through their intelligence sources,

they are aware

32 6

of muci~ more development of Pan African nationalists

consciousness among our people than even we are .

They

know what a real world peoples revolution would mean .

They know they would be
class or not .
know that

in the minority, whether working

They could not stand this .

They also

in the New World the resources would have to go

to those who need

them the most .

This means the Third

World or underdeveloped countries must be given .preferential

rise

treatment .

The question of reparations would also

in which Europe would have to pay Africa and Asia

for years of genocide .

The New 4Jorld will

Black (Asian and African people .)

be ruled by

Why Africans, 704

million worldwide and Chinese alone,

344 million on the

mainland,constitute the great majority of the people

of

the world .

Combined with all aboriginal

constitute 95q of the world`s population .

people we
So even

a.

worker's world would be controlled by Black (Third World)

workers .
This

is

important to understand because vrhen you see

that world revolution

is going to take this form because

of the neo-c-~lonialis't relationship between oppressed

and oppressor .
Leninism .

Then we are no

longer dealing with Marxism-

Marxism-Leninism will

not allow for the con-

clusions based on class and race struggle and world

revolution to~come to this .
Engels, and Lenin were trying

This

is precisely Yrhat Marx,

to negate and avoid .

All

32 7

of

them would turn over

was coming

to this .

translation or
know what

in their grave if they knew it

So when brothers

revision of Marxism-Leninism they don't

they are talking about .

talking about

talk about a "Black"

blhat they are actually

is taking the dialectical method of ana=

lyzing events, history,

and obje-ctive

laws of society

from a materialist point of view or how materialistically

do things

interact and using some of the organizational

tactics of Lenin in perfecting the art of seizing political

power .

But when they raise the question of race

and~African/Asian history they have destroyed the

philosophical

content of Marxism-Leninism and therefore

have create a ne.w science .

this .

Brothers don't want to admit

In fact they are scared to think about it .'

Because it means they have ledt

intellectual

reference ."

European dialectical,
have

the "eastern

41hy?

frame of

It means they have lost

rational, scientific mind .

their
They

returned to the Black psyche .

You see,

Europeans for 500 years have told African/

Asian people that theFr traditions) beliefs, what yau .

feel

and believe is unscientific and therefore wrong .

Marxism-Leninism

is one of the worst of

these European

colonialist conditionings because it de-naturizes the

brother and sister, makes them have an
about their nationalist

inferior complex

instincts, which are natural

because they derived from~our situation .

3z8

For thousands of years in the~Black tJorld

prophesied the coming . of the Anti-Christ .

Most

it was
people

thought and still think the Anti-Christ just deals with

something about Isa

(the prophet tailed Jesus Christ) .

But prophesy concerning the Anti-Christ goes back long

before

Isa's brith .

In many different books o,f many different nations

the mention of the Anti-Christ occurs .
deceiver was supposed to emerge .
the Black World,
This

A great master

Also for. years throughout

the theme of a worldwide race war occurs .

is also a reoccuring theme in .P an Africanism .

we take

into accou~~t

the question of .race,

class then we see the world revolution will

near that~of a worldwide race war .
black will

If

culture and
be very

The difference being

be fighting black, ,white fighting white, and

black fighting white .

Therefore,

revolution will

racist

not be

the worldwide racial

in character but will

definitely be a,worldwide race arar .

All

Europeans are afraid of the worldwide racial

revolution because they fear

they fear being wiped out .
lution becomes racist
purpose and that

is

it vrill become racist and

If the worldwide racial

in character it will

to elminate

So we have to see this

lose

revo

its real

racism and class oppression .

thing from a black perspective .

Marx didn't invent the laws of class struggle nor dialectics

32 9

nor of applying dialectics to the material

society :

He may have been the first~to apply dogma to

these laws saying the material

sp .iritua .l

conditions of

is more

important than the

forces and negated the spirital

Eastern society, dialectics goes all

forces :

the way back to

ancient Egypt to the scribe Thoth, who the Greeks

Hermes .

Dialectics

In

renamed

also goes back to China to Lao Tse

who developed the Yin/Yan principle in Taoism .

~If one

studies closely the thoughts of Chairman Mao, one can see

T~o`ism at the base of. his thinking and his military
writings

based on Sun Tze .

Muslim scholars

for years

applied the dialectical method of analyzing history and

mate,rialfst

Taws of human society .

Ibn Khadun

be studied by all Pan African/Asian scholars .

what made Ma y's words have such an

should
Remeber

impact on the world

was the relationship of Europe to the rest of the world .

Intellectuals of the~most dominant world force always
have tremendous

influence during their times .

Engels who made Marx

It was

infallible and much so after his death .

Engels should be studied .

Very curious fellow .

It was Engels who financed

Marx .

laid the philosophical base to Marxism .

It was Engels who

It was Engels

who suggested to the communist league of which it

is said

he was a member, to commission Marx instead of another

fellow to write their manifesto .
to go

into detail

concerning

This

paper is too brief

these events, but you should

do research on

the life of Marx and~Engels ;

find out

what kind of men they were and what motivated them to

'

do what they did at different times before you jump all over
the world in their name .
Lenin revised Marxism to fit his way of thinking .
After Lenin's death,

the Russian communist government

created the religion

(often called science) of Marxism-

Leninism .

First of all,

if M-L is supposed to the

science of bringing a communist society into being,

then

it should be called the science of scientific socialism

and .not Marxism-Leninism which is

the glorification of

individuals .
Now, many might say,
munist .

this brother sure

I'm not anti-communist,

truth .

is anti-com-

I'm pro-Black and pro

I don't believe in a class society .

believe

the development of class society is one of the major

contradictions of human development and must be destroyed .
I

believe in a classless society based on no economic

divisions, but

also believe in God, who Muslims know

as Allah and who other people know by many different names

but he

is still The One God .

"The class system

is based on the wrong assumption

that property means power and that the class which owns
property
an

is

the power as

yell .

Such a class will

influence over the legislative power .

such a class will, by direct or

exercise

Consequently

indirect means, make

33 1

the legislati.ons Hrhich protect itself and subject the

common people to

;t:s own authority,

tfiem of their 1e~14t1

_

In

classes

rights .

the light of

thus depriving

the above mentioned definition of

it may be truly said

that there has never been
15

a class system in

. .

Islam ."

When China accuses the Soviet Union of "social

imper=

ialism" .carrying out socialism in .words and .imperialism

in deeds,

Pan Africanists should take note of what

they

are saying .
China has accused both the U .S . and theSoviet Union
of having formed an axis to control
st~romg statements .

the world .

These are

If taken out of Marxist jargon they

are accusing the Soviet Union of being a white racist

imperialist country .

There are many ways to explain the

In this paper we are trying to present

present-situation .

our argument from several different viewpoints, all drawing the same conclusion .

The objective is to present

a challenging analyses that will

stimulate further research .

Muslims see the present world situation going accordiwg

to prophecy.

subject of Dajjal

Mentioned in several
(the Anti-Christ)

the chapter, Al-Y.ahf : The Cave

of Ya' juj and Ma' juj
Christ)

is

is

and

Hadiths

is the

in the ~ur'an

in

a thorough explanation

(Gog and Magog) . ~

D,aj ja1

known for being a liar, covering or

(the Anticoncealing

33 2

the truth with falsehood,

practicing deception or fraud

in matter religious or other .

described as

two nations .

Ya'juj

and Ma'juj are

The following is prophecy from

ttie holy Qur'an and a commentary by Maulana Muhammad. Ali .

For a more detailed description read the Anti-Christ and
Gog and Magog also by Ali .
''lfe said : This

is

a mercy from my Lord,

promise of my Lord comes to pass

the promise of my Lord

he will

is ever true .

Qn that day 41e shall

crumble it, and

(1524a)

let some of

others and the trumpet wi_11 be blown,

them all together .

but when the

them surge against

then k~e shall gather

(1525)"

. . .Gog and htagog are described as

two nations, and

after desribing the history of - these nations, whose descriptions on peaceful

nations were brought to an end by

Darius, we are now told that Gog and Magog will

again

be let loose in the latter days .

In fact, this is clearly
r
foretold in another chapter of the same period "At length
when Gog and Magog are let loose, and they will

sally

forth from everyplace of eminence"

. . .the ancestors of Gog and Magog are tfie Slav and
Teutonic races, and in the world domination of Gog and
Magog is thus clearly hinted the domination of the Eruopean
nations over the whole world,
found fulfillment in our days .

and the prophecy has thus

A mighty conflict of the

33 3

nations is clearly spoken of here, and the words no doubt

refer to some catastrophe . . .The Qur'an makes
that

it clear

the reference in neat ion rising against nation

is

to the great European conf lists which we witness nowadays

Gog and Magog, or European nations,
whole world, couldn't agree on

having subdued the

the division-of spoils,

and they are ruling at one another's throats,

and the

whole world being subject to them, their struggle has

assumed the form of a world conflict .
only-t~o be followed by another .
that a mighty revolution will
is meant by the lowing of
will

One world war ends

But the Qur'an tells

come about .

the trumpet .

7hat is what

This

revolution

be a change. i n the mentality of the nations . . .This

revolution would unite them ;

common faith .

it would drive them to one

benefits having turned man into

Material

tfie enemy of mama spiritual awakenirg will, we are told,

16
be brought about which will change the world entirely ."
Some v~ill agree with this and some won't .
argue the point ; we just
unaware of

We won't

presented it for those who ar.e

it .

If one carefully studies the history of Russia since

1917 we will

see that

it has definitely been socia l

imperialistic when dealing with the people of .central

There would be several

Asia .

independent central Allan republics

if the Soviet government didn't by force or threat of force

keep them in

it's empire .

This

is one of China's charges

33 4

against the Soviet Union .

Muslims

have suffered oppression at

ment

in

inside the Soviet Union

the hands of the white govern-

Moscow .

The Muslim people of Central Asia came under

Russian . rule as a result of the expansionist policy of
the Tsarist Empire .
Soviet
Bukhara

This policy was continued by the

leaders, who turned

(an Emirate)

the Russian protectorates of

and Khiva (A Khanate)

into peoples republics

In

1919-1920,

liquidating them in

1g24-as part of the new policy of "national demarcation of

Central

Asia ."

The Soviet Union thus held sway aver

vast territories cont pining a populatipn that had adopted

the Ftuslim religion and culture long before

i~t fell

under

the domination of the Tsars .

The Azerbaidzhanis embraced

Islam in the seventh century,

the Turkestanis in the

eighth, the Bulgars

in the tenth,

the golden Horde in the

thirteenth and the Adzhars of southern Georgia in the sixteenth .

Part of the population of Abkhazia became Muslim

in the 17th and

18th centuries .

The Pasetian.s, and the

Chechens and Kabardinians of the northern Caucasus had

already converted by
17
1y .

the 18th and l~tl

eenturies respective-

Russification under the guise of political

has been the cover up of cultural
peoples inside 'the . Soviet

Uwion .

re-education

genocide of non-European

NATIONALISM ANq INTERNATIONALISM

From our collective ~historic~l

experience we have

developed a new dialectical science .

The nature of our'

oppression having been both international and national ;

based on economic, class and cultural,
our science deals with both factors .

racial

exploitation ;

This science is

the

synthesis of the'two ideologies which have come from . our

liberation struggles ; Pan Africanism and African nationalism
developed to the ievet of the dialectical

science of Pan

African nationalism .
Nkrumah says, "Marx had argued that

the development

of capitalism would produce a trial within each

individual

capitalist state because within each State the gap between

the haves and the have nots would widen to a point where
a conflict was

inevitable and that

talists who would be defeated .

is not

invalidated by the fact

he dad predicted as a national

take place on a national

it

into an

its crisis

The basis of~his argument

that

the conflict which

one, did not everywhere

scale but has been transferred

instead to the world stage :

postponed

it would be the capi-

World capitalism has

but only at the cost of transferring

international

crisis .

The danger

is

now not

civil war within those States, but international war

provoked ultimately by the misery of the majority of man'18
kind who daily .graw pourer and poorer ."
In

1964, we developed a brief but basic statement on

33 6

Pan African nationalism,

'Our' . . :philosophy may be described as revolutionary
nationalism,

black nationalism or just plain bl .ackism .

It

is that black people of the world {darker races, black,'

yellow, brown,
by

red, oppressed peoples)

the same forces .

'Our' philosophy

are all enslaved

is one of the world

black revolution or world revolution of oppressed peoples

rising up against their former slavemasters,

Our movement

is a movement of black people who are co-ordinating their

efforts to, create a "new world" free from exploitation
19
and oppression of man to man :"
Sa in the present era of neo-colonialism we .say African
peoples must organize worldwide .

Key to this development

is a Pan AfricanInternationale .

this

Internationale

along with a Pan Asian Internationale both working -independent but unifying to form a Pan African/Asian
nationale~is one of the major steps towars

Inter-

the birthof

a new world .
The Pan African Internationale would be composed .
of those Pan African nationalist parties, movements and
organiations

throughout

on the broadest

the Pan Afr,ic.an world .

Working

level possible they would constitute a

Pan Africaw Liberation

Front .

"Basically when we speak of ?an African 'nationalism,

we mean simply the knowledge that we are an African people,
despite our slavery or colonization by Europeans or
dispersal

throughout the countries_of the world .

~<

33 7

Pan Africanism
nationalism .

is thus the global

expression of Black

We believe that our destiny as free people

can only be realized as politically, economically, socially

self-dtermining people conscious of the fact that what
we will

have brought to power is what Nkrumah and Sekou

Toure have called "The African Personality ."

It

is

imperative that we raise the nationalist-

internationalist consciousness of our people .

Only by

having a highly developed Pan African~Nationalist conscious

ness.will they be able to fight the ma.neuverings'of neocolonial

imperialism, reactionary regimes of the bourgeoisie

and foreign

intervention .

Africans worldwide must

trained to come to the defense of Africa .

of African people

is key to the

be

The liberation

destruction of neo-olonial-

imperialism .
Chairman Mao Tse Tung
struggle of African people

in his statement supporting

i~ America on August 8, 1963

said :
" . . .The evil

system of colonialism and imperialism

grew up along with the enslavement of Africans and the

it will surely come to its end ~ ~
21
wifih l the thorough emancipation of the black people ."
trade in Africans and

The position
not new .

Of

taken by Pan African nationalists

the many Pan African nationalists

we should study Cyril

Brotherhood .

is

to study

Briggs and the African Blood

Duse Muhammad Ali and Garve .y and the Pan

the

333

African nationalist movement of the 1g2Os .

We say our ideology Pan African nationalism is
ideology of the Pan African world which has been
ing historical
eventual

tfie

the develop

and dialectical science leading to our

decolonization and self-determination .

The international goal of Pan African nationalists

is the formation of an
Peoples Republic, .
a new form of

independent All

(Pan) African

The All-African Peoples Republic

social

institution .

It

is an

is

international

nationystate made up of self governing republics centralized

through a central government .
The All-African Peoples Republic base and central
government Hrould bein Africa, controlled by
ental government .

Wherever African people

the continreside and

constitute an majority struggle for national

deuce and self determination and form an

indepdent nation

they too wouldbe part of the All-African Peoples

state ;

Republic .
is of

indepen-

So al.l governments of nations whose population

persons of African descent would be represented in

the All African Peoples Republic .

Thus African people would form an
ment of nation states .

This

international govern-

is what we mean when we say

the Pan African world must unite,

isn't it?

This

is what

we mean when ire say One Peopl e, On_e Aim,_ One Destiny .
It

is

in~this context that we~see the implications

33 9

of nationalism and internationalism as objectively

related to us, African people .
To complete the Pan African revolution,,supreme power
has to be given to the field slaves, the classes within
our people who are oppressed and exploited,
and the poor peasants .

the workers

They must conquer real

social, economic and military power .

political,

Through their class

"struggle culminating in a socialist revolution, .the kind

of Pan African society can be built that will-do away with
the reactionary indigenous classes, backed by
22
such as overthrew Lumumba .

imperialism,

ThfE TACT ICS OF THE PAfJ AFR t CAtd REVOLUT I ON

Every revolution must ask itself who are its friends
and who are its enemies .
e~rho support us

IJe see as our friends all

those

in our struggle against neo-colonial

imperialist oppression, regardless of race, creed or

color .

We are not racist but nar are we apologists for

our nationalism either .

It

is our historical

right to

be nationalistic .
We see as our enemies all

those who support our neo-

colonial-Imperialist oppressors regardless of race, creed,

or color .

But we do not go to extremes of branding people

traitors when they can be our potential

friends .

4Je are confronted by two different types of social

contradictions - those betv"~een ourselves and . the enemy
and those among the people themselves .

The two are totally

34 0

different

in their nature .

To understand

these two different types of contra-

dictions correctly, we must first be clear on what

by ''the people" and what. i s meant by "the enemy .
concept of "the people" varies

is neant
The

in content in different

countries and in different periods of history in the same

23
country .
For Pan African nationalists _in America the question
arises of forming coalitions nationally and consolidating
ties with allies

internationally .

must develop both a long

Pan African nationalists

range and short range plan .

We must realize that our struggle 4vi11 be protracted

because of the relative forces

in our community,

level of .

consciousness and organization o .f our people and strength

of our enemy .

So our straggle may take 34 years or more,

all depending on given conditions which we cannot

time .

So,we must move to consolidate power where we can and

in

the time element which allows us minor victories .

The cadre Pan African Peoples Partymust move the
African community towards developing .a mass
political

broad black

party whose aim will be to secure total political

rights for African people

the two parties is

in the U :S .

The difference

in

that the latter may not consist of

primarily Pan African nationalists, therefore

much broader mass organization .

it

Utilizing this

is a
instrument,

34 1

Pan African N .atonalists can- tregin to mobilize . a broad

segment of our people towards the Pan African revolution :
Pan African nationalists will

also have to develop

a day to day program which mobilizes African workers,

ewt~s anal unemployed .

stud-

We must develop African Peoples

Unions which consist of African workers and unemployed

to fight for better working conditions for our people
and better wages and unemployment

rights .

These will

coin,ci.de with our long range demands for reparations and

self-dtermination .

At

the same time~we must be building

our own political economy by setting up African Peoples

community cooperatives, and factories, all based ,on
UJAMAA, cooperative economics .
As we do this v1e

vrill

because our people will

see we are d<oing something

constructive and not just

nationalists will

unite the African community

theorizing .

Pan African

then be operatives of

services of our community .

Pan African nationalism will

We will

the goods and

then become one and

be our peoples mass

living

ideology .
Upon uniting the African community,

the next step

would be to develop a coalition with other oppressed

minorities

such as ~1exican-Americans,' Puerto Ricans,

Indians, Japanese .,
Political

bloc

Chinese,

to form a 7hird 4Jarld

in the European-colonial

congress

in

34 2

in Washington, O .C .
There

is a-need

to be held

far a non-European minority conference

in the U .S .

The Third ldorld

To being al . l

these forces together .

in America constitute 40 million or -more

of the population, approximately one fourth to one-fifth .

of

the population .

Combined with radical America and

other European youth,

they can weld

bloc that would be at

least 60~ of the vofing agcy pop-

ulation .

So before dealing with

together a political

the international

as-

pects of the Pan African Revolution, Pan African natianalists must deal with the tactics of building a mass base
whc>.rever they ~~re .
must

They

rrWUSt

master the r~ass 1 ine .

They

realize the Pan African revolution -is a generation

(protracted)

revolution therefore they must concentrate

their efforts educating the,mass of African youth .

African youth can become a great base of power and
strength for the Pan African Peoples Party .
African Guards .

They are our

We should constantly be among ttiem,

conducting voter registration drives .

we can bring them into this party .

From these drives,

So, the greatest

way we can coordinate our domestic struggle with the international

one is by

intensifying our struggle on our

"national fronts" .
Only by having the overwhelming majority of our people
thousands upon thousands,
Africa's defense .

million,

can vre come to mother

X43

This means wP must be constantly

in our committees

teaching_ our people the science of Pan African Nationalism

At the same time, we must be building our parallel
Pan African nationalist institutions .
institutes

in every African community .

can teach on a mass

the main drive of our youth,

This should be

the development of

Then we~can take these skills backhome

and help the motherland make the great

~So in this aspect the cultural
a technological

Fram there we

level and prepare aurselved in the

mass development of technical skills .

technical skills .

~'e need Pan African

leap forward .

revolution

is also

revolution .

DYNAMICS
The dynamics of our revolution are very clear,
only will

it produce a cultural

people of the world,

but it wilt

re-evaluation of all
also change the material

ist balance and inter-relationship of social

''So far as .the orientation of national
concerned,

not

forces .
culture is

Pan African nationalist ideology plays the

guiding role, and we should work hard bath to disseminate

socialism and communism throughout the working class and
to educate the peasantry and other sections of the people
in socialism properly an a
national

step by step .

However, our

culture as a whole is not yet'socialist .

The points we must

learn here are first,

to grasp

34 4

correctly the . character of au ;r culture at

stage and act accordingly ; secondly,

the present

to grasp correctly

our objective for the next stage and proceed .

In fact,

this explains the relationship between the theory of

uninterrupted . revolutian and the theory of th.e development of
this

revolution

by stages .

Ta understand and handle

relationship correctly is also very important for

the Afro-Asian peaples~and writers who are now engaged

in national

democratic revolutions . . .

. . .an urgent

task of us Afro-Asian writers

is

in cooperation with, the masses of our people to destroy

such a reactionary culture and create a new national
progressive culture in our respective countries .
new culture must be such as

This

to serve the masses of people

eventually t~~ belong to them .

It must primarily serve

their revolutionary struggles against imperialism and for

national

independence, particularly their revolutionary

armed struggles .

Thereby,

the revolutionary progressive

Afro-Asian writers are required to share weal

with the people, take part

in their sCrugg~i~es and reflect

their revolutionary demands .

selves

and woe

And only by plunging them-

into the torrent of these struggles,

themselves of the ideological

rid

filth they have tainted with

and create, with dynamic revoluionary zeal,

works as acquiring both a rich

can they

such good

revolutionary content and

24
a nice artistic form and as vrorthy of our era ."

FOOTNOTES
Harold M . Baron, The Demand Far Black Labor :
Historical Notes on the . Politcal Economy of Racism .
Radical America, Vol . 5, ido . 2, March-April, 1971, p . 2
2
3

lbid . p . 5
Kwame Nkrumah,

Class Struggle

In Africa, p . 27

4J .A . Rogers, Nature Knows No Color Line, p .

~5
6

7-9

Baal, Christ and Muharnmad, p . 25

sbid . p .

lp .

7
,lbid : p . 58-59
8
9
10

Engels, Socialism,

Du Bois, Souls Of Black Folk

Krech,
345-6
P.
11
Family

Utopian and Scientific, p . 25

Critchfield and Balluchay,

Engels, Prefecto,

lst ed .

Ondividuals

18$4, The Origin of the

12 Engels, Socialism Utopian and Scientific,

13

Forsythe
Scholars, Sept .

Blacks and the Rialectics,

1971, p . 54

Mao, On Contradiction,
P"

15Muhammad Qutb,
160-161

P.

in Society

p . 25

Black

47

!slam the Misunderstood Religion,

34G

16

Floly Qur'an Ch .

18,

p.

590-591

Fletcher and Staver, Religion and the Search for

New Ideals in the USSR, p . 91
_
18

Nkrumah, Pleo-Calu~~ial ism,

19

Muggins, Kilson and Fox,

American Experience, p . 270

p . zS$ - 256
Key issues in the Afro-

zQ

Saraka, Ideological Statement of the Congress

of African People, PLC Organizinc; manual
21 .
F-taa - August 8, 1963 . . .Support . . .American Negroes . . .
Author replaced word Negro with African
2~

Thomas, Pan Africanism and Black Liberation Today,

International Socialist Review, Oct . 1971, p . 31
z3

Maa, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions

Among the Peaple, p . 1-2
24

African Brothers
Thought,

Show Relevance of Mao Tse Tung

APPENDIX A
EL HAJJ MALIi< EL SHABAZZ PLAN
( THE BLACK CONSITUTIONAL PLAN)
Without a'doubt, a social

revolution

is

inside of America and throughout the world .

the Pan African revolution,

it is

in process
In advancing

important that we assess

where we're at and arhat is to be done

in this period .

Seven years after of El

Shabaxx,

Najj'Malik El

becomes necessary for'us to reveal

it

tlalcolm's plans,

revised

to the new situation .

We cats

this plan the Ei

Hajj

P1alik El

Shabazx or

the Black Constiutionai Pian .

A.

41hat roes Malcolm trying to do?

The main aspect of :Malcolm's plans vas changing our

movement

from a civil

rights struggle to a human rights

struggle or ~rhat we~would call

revolution .

today, .a national

Even though Maicairn had left the ration of

Is~iam, he still maintained the basic Pl.ation of

position of

democratic

the Honorable Elijah Mohammed .

Islam

Eiis disagree-

ment with the hierarchy of the Pdation was aver tactics

and not so much

ideology .

So 1lalcolm's preoccupation

was develapin5 the tactics of awakening the national

consciousness of our peopie through involving them
short range programs
exhausting ali

that

led to

indepdent nationhood,

the means of social

action exhausting ali

in

protest through social

the means of social

pretest through

34 8

social

action and internationalizing

forming a Pan African united

<~~rr

struggle by

front a~~~-~ taking the U .S .

before the United Nations and charging her with crimes

of

genocide, which tlalcolm often said would be what we

Complementing

know as the "judgement" in the Bible .

social action

in Malcolm's thought was the carrying forth

of the cultural

revolution among our people .

Malik saw that the Black man

in America, united with

the liberation struggle of the Third World would be the

new force for creating a new world society :

He saw that

the Black liberation struggle .i n the U .S . was the spark

that WOUId

ignite the international

Malik said that

powder keg .

racial

if we didn't change the basic psyche

life style and culture of our people, our struggle for

political

indepen-ence would be futile .

the inter

Also, he attempted to bring an awareness of

national

forces that will

dominate future world society .

He said that a Yrise man would study Chinese and Arabic,

because they are are the languages of the future .
Many ~rriters who had no direct

'

involvement with

Brother Malik had, for their own-pur~ooses,

distorted Malik

image and life .

blhy Plalik changed his public political,
Contrary to what most people think,

line

Plalcolm did not

change his political phil~osophy . . .he changed 'his

political

34 9

line and there were reasons why .

Malcolm, we must

understand that three important themes

influenced his life up until

first was'Islam,

the time of his death.

The

the second was Pan African Nationalists,

and the third was international

Malik changed his
of our people

To understand the real

line to

social

revolu>:ion .

involve the broad masses "

in a step by step approach

(dialectics}

towards mobilizing them to strive for independent nationHood .

Also, arhile he never said
strong

it publicly, he received

reaction from many non-progressive African

and from some corners of the Islamic world .

that the U .,5 .I .A .

(United States

leaders

Ne said

Information Agency)

had given Africa the image that he was a racist and had
even gone so far as
than

to make his pictures appear darker

he actually was .

He said that many Africans were

shocked to see haw light-complexioned he was .

Ne. also

said that he knew there rlould al~"~ays be a hard-core

nationalist element in

the states but the main problem

was getting the broad masses of our people who were still
integrationist

in attitude .

For these reasons,

and others,

he softened the line .

C.

tlalcolm's Tactics

Malcalm's " tactics wore to form a broad national

liberation front .

The OAHU

(Organization of Afro-

35 0

American Unity)

a~as

to be the beginnings of such a front .

The brother began to use the tactic of

into darkness) :
civil

He was

infiltration

interjecting himself into the

rights movement, was planning to take

transform it

it over and

into a nationalist .revolution .

So the question before us now is :

out Malcolm's perspective
was applying dual
above .

(slipp

How will

into our times?

we carry

Malcolm

tactics of organizing from below and

He saw that . the key to our liberation was the

formation of a Pan African nationalist political party

that . involved all segments of a Black community but that
represented the "little people ."
D.

The El

Hajj

Malik Shabazz Plan

A second class citizen is~a twentieth century slave .

There is no such thing as a second class citizen,
you're either first class or no class at all .

You have

the responsibilities of citizens but are denied

rights of citizenship .

the

That's the burden of double jeo-

party .
After the civil war, a vote was never taken
a consensus taken among the so-called freedmen
whether they wanted to be . citizens of the U .S .,
to their homeland, or whether they wanted
own on this continent .

nor

to see
returned

sand of their

We must remember that prior to the

Civil War we were captives of war .

41e were l~frican

35 1

captives held

in colonial

slave system .

bondage under a racist

1.'e were captured and brought here by

force which was

in essence a declaration of war .

Any

attempt to overthrow the slave system was considered

insurrection for over 300 years .
the historical
This

is

social

So we must understand

context of what we are involved

in .

the only way we can come to a clear and scientific

understanding .

Understand that we are African captives,

a lack of understanding of
of our national

fhis

liberation .

fact may mean

the death

The oppressor teaches us

that we are a national minorijray striving far equal

minraty rights
most

in a pluralistic society,

lJhat he fears

is our understanding that we are captives, colonial

subjects held today under colonial

bondage under a

pseudo-democratic dictatorship .
America is a democratic dictatorship and will
so~until

it allows

its African colonial

subjects the right

Our status has only changed

to self determination .

from chattel slavery to citizenship slavery .

menu does not want

reamin

The govern-

to understand that we are under an

us

illegal form of citizenship because, according to

international

protocol

would have to pay us

and

international

law,

reparations for not only 300 years of

slavery and 300 years of enforced citizenship,

Now wMar does

the U .S .

tlii s mean?

This ,means 'that

but genocide .

i f tye . ever rea 1 i ze

35 2

that we had no decision or choice of becoming citizens,

we would also realize that th,e U .S, government and all
state governments are unlawful, as

far as all African

peoples are concerned . . Therefore,

there are no

law

in America that African peoples need to abide by until

we have the right to determine our own destinies .
Internationally,

our struggle

So, the coming national

is a legal question .

Constitutional

in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

in

Convention to be held

1976 will

be our historical

question deciding point for a 400 year revolution .

If we vote yes for independence,

then we are saying

to the world that we 4aii .1

not be part of

racist, colonial

At

all

system .

the exploitative,

his time, we can appeal

to

freedom loving nations and peoples of the world

to come to our aid in our just strug~,le for national

pendence :.

see who are our true friends and who

Then we will

are our true enemies .

This will

the Black Constitutional

Mallk Shabazz .

inde-

be the first phase of

Plan . . .the vision of El

Hajj

35 3

APPENDIX B
AFRICAN PEOPLE'S PARTY TEN POINT PROGRAM

l .

We want self determination and

independent nationhood .

We believe African captives in America will not have freedom until

they have land of their own and a government ; a nation that we
govern and run and control,

We demand the states of Mississippi,

Georgia, South Caro Tina, Alabama and Louisiana as partial repayment for - injustices done to us over 400 years .
2,

We want an independent self-governing economy to guarantee

full employment for our people .

We believe the U .S . Federal

government owes us for 400 years of slavery and T00 years of

forced citizenship=servitude .

We demand the U .S . government pay

the colonialized captive African 400 billion dollars, including the

five states stated in point one and the said sum of 400 billion
dollars for ten years as partial

repayment for its crimes of

genocide against our people .

To organize pressure, for this demand we advocate the
forming of black unions and the convening of a national Black
strike to make our demands met .

We~advocate the establishment

of an independent Black communalist economy because from suffering

under the capitalist system for years we have learned that capitalism cannot meet the overall needs of our people,
3 .' We want community control of all businesses in the Black
community and an end to the economic, po litical and cultural
exploitation by the capitalist class waged against our people .

We