Our Party and the Uhuru Movement often refers to the Black Revolution of the Sixties when speaking of the development of our struggle for freedom in the U.S. This is not because of some nostalgic pining for better days.
The 1960s was an era that is notable for its revolutionary character. It was an era that best revealed the deeply experienced desire by the oppressed masses of the world for fundamental change.
It was an era within which revolution was the main trend and imperialist white power was pushed back on its heels politically and ideologically by the most crucial agents of history: the oppressed and exploited peoples upon whose backs world capitalism was constructed.
The Cuban Revolution punctuated the era with its success in 1959 that overthrew the neocolonial U.S.-supported Batista regime. The 1960s would also be underscored by the magnificent revolutionary war made by the Vietnamese to liberate themselves from the clutches of U.S. imperialism following their successful defeat of the French colonialists in 1954.
The sixties was informed by earlier struggles
Of course the 1960s did not fall from the sky full blown. The era of the sixties was informed by earlier struggles: The Kenyan Land Freedom Army or Mau Mau against British colonialist in the 1950s, the escalation of anti-colonial demands and struggles in Africa––Ghana and South Africa being examples.
The revolutionary Algerian liberation struggle against France that began in 1954 and succeeded in 1962 was another example of the Black Revolution of the Sixties being informed by struggles of an earlier era of revolutionary upheaval. The same can be said of the election of Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister of the newly independent Congo.
The tactical, strategic, ideological and political differences that distinguish many of the struggles are obvious. But the one common characteristic of most of them was revolution.
These were struggles of the 1950s and 1960s, two and three generations ago. They are important points of reference. Today, after more than two generations, the African revolution is rearing its head again worldwide, including within the strategically critical location of the U.S.
Ferguson exposed growing consciousness of African people
Since the August 9, 2014 uprising of African working class young people on Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Missouri, following the murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown, a rapidly growing consciousness of African people is exposing itself to the world.
However, the young African working class women and men represented by the Ferguson resistance are hardly to be found, either in the political direction of the nascent movement or the ideological influence that would shape that direction.
It is seldom if ever referenced today, but the rallying cry in Ferguson that first startled the ruling class was the reported militant response from the people to the murder of their working class young brother, Mike Brown: “Kill the police!”
This is a far cry from the mournful whimper of “Black Lives Matter” that has become a hashtag hijacking of a revolutionary impulse that sprang from the bowels of our oppression and the intimate relationship that mostly young, mostly working class African people have with the domestic military force known as the police.
The fact is that the African working class is far ahead of its mostly middle class, if youthful, leadership that is often on the payroll of the billion dollar foundations of George Soros or the Ford Corporation. And, yes, it does make a difference!
The African People’s Socialist Party is the Party of the African Working class
We have given examples of past revolutionary movements in the 1950s and sixties. However, today what we are witnessing is an attempt to retrogress, to go backwards in time past the 1950s when even the most moderate black leaders pursuing middle class objectives pursued agendas beyond belly flopping before the Democratic party.
Not only are there no identifiable, long-term objectives being pursued by the self-appointed leaders of the moment, the absence of an agenda is being touted by the white rulers and their militantly exuberant black sycophants as advantageous.
The African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement that we lead represent the interests of the African working class, the most significant and dynamic sector of the African nation.
When the young African workers on Canfield Drive yelled, “Kill the police!” on August 9, 2014, they were expressing the viewpoint of a sector of our brutalized, colonized population that lives daily with the ubiquitous presence of an occupation military force that is relentless in its pursuit of new indignities and harassments to heap upon the heads of our people.
There was not a single cry for body cameras or police review boards. They were demanding an end to the police presence in our colonized communities. Yet none of the professed leaders of the people have even approached a solution that contributes to that end.
Our Party makes demands for revolutionary transformation, unlike today’s neocolonial leaders
Point 8 of our Party’s platform demands “the immediate withdrawal of the U.S. police from our oppressed and exploited communities.”
Our Party also unites with the demand by the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) and the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations (BIBC) for Black Community Control of the Police.
This is not a new demand. The original Black Panther Party and the Junta of Militant Organizations (JOMO), a precursor to the African People’s Socialist Party, also forwarded this demand in the 1960s.
Today’s computer-generated leaders are not talking about revolutionary transformation. Many of them do everything possible to disassociate themselves as quickly as possible from any action that might be possibly associated with revolution.
It is unlikely that we will see any of them recognize the positive, heroic, contributions made to the struggle by comrades like Micah Xavier Johnson or Gavin Cosmo Long who had to act and die alone because Soros, the Ford Foundation and the Democratic party have captured the political and ideological leadership of too many people put in motion by young African workers in Ferguson who did not have the immediate leadership of their own revolutionary party.
Malcolm X on revolution
Fifty-three years ago, on November 10, 1963, Malcolm X engaged an audience in Detroit in a discussion similar to that I am advancing now. It was during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and the question of what we were fighting for had to be asked then also.
The word “revolution” had become quite trendy with some within the Civil Rights Movement, and in his “Message to the Grassroots” presentation, Malcolm X made these enlightening comments:
“There’s been a revolution, a black revolution, going on in Africa. In Kenya, the Mau Mau were revolutionaries; they were the ones who made the word ‘Uhuru.’ They were the ones who brought it to the fore. The Mau Mau, they were revolutionaries.
“They believed in scorched earth. They knocked everything aside that got in their way, and their revolution also was based on land, a desire for land.
“In Algeria, the northern part of Africa, a revolution took place. The Algerians were revolutionists; they wanted land. France offered to let them be integrated into France. They told France: to hell with France. They wanted some land, not some France. And they engaged in a bloody battle.
“The white man knows what a revolution is. He knows that the black revolution is worldwide in scope and in nature. The black revolution is sweeping Asia, sweeping Africa, is rearing its head in Latin America. The Cuban Revolution––that’s a revolution. They overturned the system.
“Revolution is in Asia. Revolution is in Africa. And the white man is screaming because he sees revolution in Latin America. How do you think he’ll react to you when you learn what a real revolution is?”
Our Party’s revolutionary 14-Point Platform
Thirty-seven years ago, long before Ferguson, the African People’s Socialist Party laid out a 14-Point Platform that clearly stated our objectives. These are objectives Soros, the Ford Corporation and the Democratic Party will never agree with.
We have already pointed out Point 8 of that program, something we are certain the forgotten young working class warriors of Ferguson can unite with. But there is more:
Point 13: “We want an end to U.S. colonial domination of African people within the U.S.”
Point 14: “We want the total liberation and unification of Africa under an All-African Socialist government.”
The African People’s Socialist Party has been in the trenches for more than forty years, struggling against the oppression of our people. We have named and defined this oppression and we have created institutions, organizations and tactics and strategies to defeat it.
African Internationalism is the way forward
Our political theory is African Internationalism. It is our adherence to this theory that allows us to develop a way forward that allows us to be measured for our fidelity and our success.
Our task is to overturn the system of our oppression and to establish our own independent socialist system.
We must destroy the colonial power that oppresses us and create an independent State power of our own. This is the way to revolution.
This is not the way of the hashtag milquetoast militants who have hijacked the movement of the African working class to facilitate our own agenda.
The African People’s Socialist Party is the Party of the colonized African working class and it is our task to win the working class to its own position of leadership by pursuing its aims through participating in its own Party.
In a 1972 debut spoken word album, The Last Poets featured a poem titled, “Niggas are Scared of Revolution.” We agree. They need not apply.
Uhuru!
Forward the African Liberation Movement!
Join the African People’s Socialist Party!
