Comrade Diallo (left) is one member of the Brooklyn Burning Spear Squad that hussles The Burning Spear Newspaper on the trains among other places.
BROOKLYN, NY — The Brooklyn Unit of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) has created a new faction of the Party called the Burning Spear Squad (BSS). The Burning Spear Squad is a group of Africans who sell The Burning Spear Newspaper full time, for income. If you live in Crown Heights, Brownsville or East New York and you are reading this newspaper, chances are that you purchased it from a Burning Spear Squad member.
The purpose of the Burning Spear Squad is dual in nature. On one side, we create the capacity for economic development and creative employment that promotes the needs of the people. On the other side, we are getting The Burning Spear Newspaper into the hands of thousands of Africans every month, therefore keeping Africans up to date on the developments of the International African Revolution.
Both roles are an integral part of our revolutionary process. We cannot create the capacity to fight against domestic colonialism without our own economic development, and we cannot popularize the politics of our revolution without getting The Burning Spear into the hands of the people. The Burning Spear Squad has the ability to fulfill both needs.
Burning Spear Squad will help defeat domestic colonialism
The fundamental contradiction facing African people within U.S. borders is colonialism. Colonialism is a system where a foreign and alien power has complete and total control over our community for the purpose of economic exploitation. We, as African people within U.S. borders, are a domestically colonized people. Through domestic colonialism, the U.S. government can carry out its hypocritical laws that benefit the white community while we suffer.
This is part of the reason why the U.S. government has imposed the drug economy on the African community. And at the rate it is going, this genocidal business scheme will have nearly every African male under the age of 35 behind bars very soon. This is why we must fight domestic colonialism.
Another feature of domestic colonialism is our lack of ability to create the capacity for economic development. If we had the ability to be economically self-sufficient we would no longer have to rely on the drug economy that has been imposed upon our community for survival. Nor would we have to work for crackers to make their businesses successful while we still live in the worst conditions.
This is why institutions like the Burning Spear Squad are significant. We create the capacity for economic development in a manner that allows us to make revolution happen at the same time.
The Burning Spear Squad provides the people the opportunity to earn income without being exploited by the State or the white ruling class. This is especially significant during a period where the only recognized means of survival for the African working class is drugs, minimum wage jobs, sports or music.
Obviously, not everybody can play ball or make hit records for a living. At the same time, nobody grows up with dreams of being a drug dealer. However, it is not long before the reality of no education, no money and no jobs forces young brothers to start hustling. This is why we must be creative in our efforts to employ ourselves. The Burning Spear Squad is one of many tactics that the African People’s Socialist Party is using to create economic development.
So, instead of chasing the “American Dream” — which really ain’t nothing but an “African Nightmare” — the Burning Spear Squad gets on the grind. However, instead of grinding for the paper, we grind with the paper — The Burning Spear Newspaper. At the same time, we pay our bills.
Burning Spear Squad on frontline of ideological warfare
The work being done by the Burning Spear Squad also plays a large role in our community’s ideological development. Currently, we are engaged in a battle of ideas: the capitalist ideology put out by the white ruling class vs. the ideology of African Internationalism put out by the revolutionary sector of the African working class.
This is an intense battle and a decisive battle, whose outcome will determine the future of the poor and oppressed African working class community. Every single day, the African community is under assault — politically and ideologically. All ideas put out by their schools, courts and media are designed to keep us from being conscious of our real material interests, while keeping us dependent on white power.
This is why the BSS goes amongst the people every single day as they go to work, church or shopping — and again as they come home, constantly spitting out the politics of African Internationalism — the politics of our freedom.
It is our task to remind the people of the oppression we are enduring everyday. We remind the people of how even though we go to work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., working hard to sustain white power, we have to come home to the most oppressive conditions the U.S. government has to offer.
We remind the people of how even though we have been working for 400 years, we still come home to police brutality, crack, AIDS, a poisonous food supply, lead paint and apartment buildings literally crumbling to the ground.
We remind the people that MTV and wearing Nikes don’t make us free. If Nikes have any use, they help us run from the police who hunt us down like animals. More importantly, we explain why this is the reality that confronts us. It is because we are colonized and our oppression keeps the U.S. economy alive. To get free, we must organize. If we built this economy it ain’t no thing to take it back.
BROOKLYN, NY — The Brooklyn Unit of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) has created a new faction of the Party called the Burning Spear Squad (BSS). The Burning Spear Squad is a group of Africans who sell The Burning Spear Newspaper full time, for income. If you live in Crown Heights, Brownsville or East New York and you are reading this newspaper, chances are that you purchased it from a Burning Spear Squad member.
The purpose of the Burning Spear Squad is dual in nature. On one side, we create the capacity for economic development and creative employment that promotes the needs of the people. On the other side, we are getting The Burning Spear Newspaper into the hands of thousands of Africans every month, therefore keeping Africans up to date on the developments of the International African Revolution.
Both roles are an integral part of our revolutionary process. We cannot create the capacity to fight against domestic colonialism without our own economic development, and we cannot popularize the politics of our revolution without getting The Burning Spear into the hands of the people. The Burning Spear Squad has the ability to fulfill both needs.
Burning Spear Squad will help defeat domestic colonialism
The fundamental contradiction facing African people within U.S. borders is colonialism. Colonialism is a system where a foreign and alien power has complete and total control over our community for the purpose of economic exploitation. We, as African people within U.S. borders, are a domestically colonized people. Through domestic colonialism, the U.S. government can carry out its hypocritical laws that benefit the white community while we suffer.
This is part of the reason why the U.S. government has imposed the drug economy on the African community. And at the rate it is going, this genocidal business scheme will have nearly every African male under the age of 35 behind bars very soon. This is why we must fight domestic colonialism.
Another feature of domestic colonialism is our lack of ability to create the capacity for economic development. If we had the ability to be economically self-sufficient we would no longer have to rely on the drug economy that has been imposed upon our community for survival. Nor would we have to work for crackers to make their businesses successful while we still live in the worst conditions.
This is why institutions like the Burning Spear Squad are significant. We create the capacity for economic development in a manner that allows us to make revolution happen at the same time.
The Burning Spear Squad provides the people the opportunity to earn income without being exploited by the State or the white ruling class. This is especially significant during a period where the only recognized means of survival for the African working class is drugs, minimum wage jobs, sports or music.
Obviously, not everybody can play ball or make hit records for a living. At the same time, nobody grows up with dreams of being a drug dealer. However, it is not long before the reality of no education, no money and no jobs forces young brothers to start hustling. This is why we must be creative in our efforts to employ ourselves. The Burning Spear Squad is one of many tactics that the African People’s Socialist Party is using to create economic development.
So, instead of chasing the “American Dream” — which really ain’t nothing but an “African Nightmare” — the Burning Spear Squad gets on the grind. However, instead of grinding for the paper, we grind with the paper — The Burning Spear Newspaper. At the same time, we pay our bills.
Burning Spear Squad on frontline of ideological warfare
The work being done by the Burning Spear Squad also plays a large role in our community’s ideological development. Currently, we are engaged in a battle of ideas: the capitalist ideology put out by the white ruling class vs. the ideology of African Internationalism put out by the revolutionary sector of the African working class.
This is an intense battle and a decisive battle, whose outcome will determine the future of the poor and oppressed African working class community. Every single day, the African community is under assault — politically and ideologically. All ideas put out by their schools, courts and media are designed to keep us from being conscious of our real material interests, while keeping us dependent on white power.
This is why the BSS goes amongst the people every single day as they go to work, church or shopping — and again as they come home, constantly spitting out the politics of African Internationalism — the politics of our freedom.
It is our task to remind the people of the oppression we are enduring everyday. We remind the people of how even though we go to work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., working hard to sustain white power, we have to come home to the most oppressive conditions the U.S. government has to offer.
We remind the people of how even though we have been working for 400 years, we still come home to police brutality, crack, AIDS, a poisonous food supply, lead paint and apartment buildings literally crumbling to the ground.
We remind the people that MTV and wearing Nikes don’t make us free. If Nikes have any use, they help us run from the police who hunt us down like animals. More importantly, we explain why this is the reality that confronts us. It is because we are colonized and our oppression keeps the U.S. economy alive. To get free, we must organize. If we built this economy it ain’t no thing to take it back.
Also, through this work done by The Burning Spear Squad a meaningful relationship is established and sustained between our Party and the people — a relationship that will no doubt be of critical importance in the many battles to come.
The BSS enhances a certain unity amongst the broadest sectors of our community that the State has attempted to liquidate ever since its military defeat of the Black Power Revolution of the 1960s. This attempt was part of a counterinsurgency waged against the African community to criminalize the entire African community, particularly our younger population. In doing so, the entire world — including elements within our own community — began to believe that Africans are in the oppressive situation we are in because we wear baggy clothes, because we are uneducated and because we choose to sell drugs to each other. “We do it to ourselves!” is the cliché. As if 400 years ago, Africans sent a messenger pigeon to the Queen of Spain stating,
“Your Majesty,
“We are tired of living in our beautiful, resource-rich homeland Africa. We are requesting the right to be brought to the ‘new world’ to work as slaves where we will make you and your people very rich. Please, don’t worry too much about travel arrangements. You can just stuff me and my people in the bottom of your boats like sardines. We’ll manage.” Kunta Kinte
“PS: Don’t forget to pass this on to all the other kings and queens in Europe. Make sure you all split our continent up into fair shares. I know how greedy you all can be sometimes.”
Of course not.
The Burning Spear Squad reveals that the fundamental contradiction is not our dress or our slang. Nor is it the fact that we dropped out of high school. The fundamental contradiction is domestic colonialism, preventing us from working in the interests of our people.
However, no longer is it safe to assume that young Africans wearing baggy clothes, using slang and criticizing the public school system don’t want to improve the conditions of their people, especially when their actions and statements are supported by the scientific, revolutionary theory of African Internationalism.
“In the final analysis, no counterin”
Also, through this work done by The Burning Spear Squad a meaningful relationship is established and sustained between our Party and the people — a relationship that will no doubt be of critical importance in the many battles to come.
The BSS enhances a certain unity amongst the broadest sectors of our community that the State has attempted to liquidate ever since its military defeat of the Black Power Revolution of the 1960s. This attempt was part of a counterinsurgency waged against the African community to criminalize the entire African community, particularly our younger population. In doing so, the entire world — including elements within our own community — began to believe that Africans are in the oppressive situation we are in because we wear baggy clothes, because we are uneducated and because we choose to sell drugs to each other. “We do it to ourselves!” is the cliché. As if 400 years ago, Africans sent a messenger pigeon to the Queen of Spain stating,
“Your Majesty,
“We are tired of living in our beautiful, resource-rich homeland Africa. We are requesting the right to be brought to the ‘new world’ to work as slaves where we will make you and your people very rich. Please, don’t worry too much about travel arrangements. You can just stuff me and my people in the bottom of your boats like sardines. We’ll manage.” Kunta Kinte
“PS: Don’t forget to pass this on to all the other kings and queens in Europe. Make sure you all split our continent up into fair shares. I know how greedy you all can be sometimes.”
Of course not.
The Burning Spear Squad reveals that the fundamental contradiction is not our dress or our slang. Nor is it the fact that we dropped out of high school. The fundamental contradiction is domestic colonialism, preventing us from working in the interests of our people.
However, no longer is it safe to assume that young Africans wearing baggy clothes, using slang and criticizing the public school system don’t want to improve the conditions of their people, especially when their actions and statements are supported by the scientific, revolutionary theory of African Internationalism.
In the final analysis, no counterin surgency can undermine the fact that we are all African workers, and that we all experience the same colonial oppression, whether young or old, male or female.
The fact is that everyone in our community is interdependent on one another. Nobody wants to see an entire generation of their own people dead or in jail. What will become of our community if this were the case?
The only thing lacking is revolutionary leadership to overturn this reactionary situation. The Party must guide the entire people to class-consciousness and a proper understanding of our situation and how we can overturn it. This is what we do with the Burning Spear Squads.
Finally, through its ability to sell high quantities of newspapers, the Burning Spear Squad is helping build towards the day when The Burning Spear can come out every other week and eventually weekly. Increasing the frequency of publication is very important, especially as the struggle picks up momentum. Information not carried or distorted by bourgeois newspapers like the NY Daily News (aka Daily Confusion) must be gotten out immediately, not a month after the fact.
Revolution is the only way to truly ‘come up’
The Burning Spear Squad works under the leadership of the African People’s Socialist Party — a revolutionary organization whose efforts revolve around a 14-Point Platform designed to defeat domestic colonialism, destroy U.S. imperialism and put the white ruling class and its allies before the firing squad.
The white ruling class will never address the need for economic development inside of our poor and oppressed communities. It is the role of the African People’s Socialist Party to defend the interests of the people — not only by providing jobs for the people, but doing so in a way that unveils the true nature of this vicious capitalist-colonialist state which runs our lives.
Points number 1 and 2 of our platform clearly demand, “The right to…build a prosperous life through our own labor and in our own interest” and… “The right to economic development through creative employment which promotes the needs and well being of our entire people.”
While economic development is important, Africans will never know any real peace, dignity or freedom until we have seized political and State power in the name of the African working class. That is to say, even if we all had “legitimate” jobs we would still be terrorized and oppressed by the State and the white ruling class would still exploit us for our labor and resources.
This is why point number 14 also demands “The total liberation and unification of Africa under an all-African socialist government.”
Build a revolutionary Party to destroy imperialism and colonialism.
Build the APSP!
Popularize The Burning Spear Newspaper!
Grind for Freedom! Join The Burning Spear Squad!
