Despite oppression, exploitation and racial discrimination, the out-right murder and imprisonment of our peoples by a handful of racist-imperialist, the Black liberation movement has kept on pushing, like a powerful train headed for freedom. Through hundreds of years of unremitting struggle the Black liberation movement has been steadily maturing despite the class forces that have held the reign of leadership. In recent times the most important and significant trend has been the dramatic awakening of the Black working class in its fight for its own independent organization and ideological and political leadership of the Black struggle. The Black Bourgeoisie (Uncle Toms) has already proven to the masses of Black people that it is incapable of leading the great struggle for Black emancipation, and not only are these “Toms” incapable of leading the struggle, they themselves have proven to be one of its mortal enemies.
The main forces of the Black Liberation movement are the Black proletariat Black youth, revolutionary intellectuals and students, and other revolutionary nationalists in the Black community, with the Black proletariat in the lead as the key and most through going revolutionary class. The political task of the Black liberation movement is complete emancipation of Black people through a revolutionary union with the entire U.S. working class, of which it is an important part, to overthrow capitalism and imperialism in the U.S. In a word, Black Liberation today means freedom for Black people through proletarian revolution.
Which road should the Black liberation struggle travel? Should it take the road of Jesse Jackson and “Black Capitalism”? Should it rely on Mr. Muhammad and Allah’s wheel in the sky to save the Black Masses? Should it take the “pork chop” road of cultural nationalism – Immamu Barakaism? Should it dream with Stokely Carmichael of returning to Africa to “free Ghana”. Should it take the road of electing the black Bourgeoisie to puppet, show-front, positions of mayor, City-councilman, Legislators, and Congressmen? Or should it take the road of “Pan-Africanism”, where the Black masses are asked to play “first aid” for the liberation struggles in Africa? Of all these “roads” which one is correct?
Anyone who takes a serious look at the world today cannot help but see that oppressed and exploited peoples are locked in a death-bed struggle against international capitalism. Who can deny that the major enemy of the peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America, are a gang of international imperialist, head by the two “super-powers” the U.S. and the Soviet Union? Who are the murderers of the miners of South Africa? The peasants and workers of Vietnam? The Attica Brothers? The people of Chile? The Indians at Wounded Knee? Who is responsible for police brutality in Detroit? In Chicago? In Atlanta? Who benefits from the high price of bread and meat? Who benefits from the lowest possible wages?
Whether we like it or not our position in the world as an oppressed people does not allow us to follow the bankrupt road of U.S. imperialism which is heading for its doom. In the present international situation, the Black masses must line up with the heroic peoples of the world who have struck blow after blow at imperialism, or we must line up with the imperialists themselves who send their puppets into the Black communities to preach “Black Capitalism”. There is no third path.
Only the Black proletariat deserves to lead the Black liberation movement. As far as we are concerned, none of the other classes in the Black community can do it. If none of the bourgeois and petty bourgeois “isms” cited above is capable of lighting the road for the Black liberation struggle, then what is? We say it is Marxism-Leninism and the Thought of Mao Tse Tung. All those who genuinely (in word and deed) take up Marxism-Leninism and Mao’s Thought and put it into practice are communists. Chairman Mao runs it down like this: “Communism is at once a complete system of proletarian ideology and a new social system. It is different from any other ideology and social system, and is the most complete, progressive, revolutionary and rational system in human history”. (New Democracy)
Marxism-Leninism and the Thought of Mao Tse Tung is the ideology of the working class in the present era. It takes its name from the great teachers of the working class and oppressed-Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Tse Tung. Without Marxism-Leninism Mao Tse Tung Thought to guide it, the Black liberation movement cannot possibly be victorious. And whom do we think is most hostile to this ideology, proletarian ideology? What class and their lap dogs do the most to try and poison our minds against communism? The very same class that is the cause of our oppression and exploitation–the imperialist ruling class and their agents in the Black Nation.
While constantly preaching to us about the “horrors and perils of communism”, the imperialist bourgeoisie and their lackeys in the U.S. have concocted the most insane arguments possible for the rejection of communist ideology. Everyone, knows how the bourgeoisie hates everything which hints of socialism and communism. We are even treated to the spectacle of a person like ’Senator Eastland’ of Mississippi, practically a slaveholder today, talking about how communism is “bad for the people”. What people is this blood-sucker talking about? Certainly not Black people, especially those who work on “his” plantation, or even the masses of white people for that matter. Eastland knows that communism is “bad” for people like himself, ex-slaveholders and modern imperialists, who communists and communism seek to wipe off the face of the earth. No, it is not so difficult to see the motives behind the massive anti-communist hysteria in the U.S.
The buffoons who really take the cake are those among us. The Jesse Jacksons, Imamu Barakas, Thomas Mathews, Stokely Carmichaels, and the jive Black politicians and sinister Black capitalists who roam about the Black community. These people feel that Senator Eastland is not enough, he needs an echo. After the many years of bitter experience that Black people have had in this country one would have thought, perhaps, that when ’massa’ says “something is bad for you”, that it is likely to be something good. Malcolm summed it up this way: “There are basically two kinds of Negroes. The first kind of Negro when he sees his master is sick he says good, let him die. If he sees his master’s house burning down he prays for a strong wind. He hates his master because he wants to be free. The other kind of Negro is a fool. He identifies himself with his master. When the ’massa’ wants something, he runs and gets it. When the master gets sick, he says: “’massa’ we sick?” This Negro loves his master because he wants to stay a slave.” So it is today. The Black Nation is and has always been divided into classes, and each class has its own ”ism”, and there are even different groups within the same class with different “isms.” The ruling circles of the U.S. preach that capitalism is the best of all possible worlds. Black bourgeois forces echo and mimic the “big” bourgeoisie under the cover of “assimilationism” “integrationism” and now and then, “back to Africanism.”
This same Black bourgeoisie spreads its own form of nationalism, “bourgeois nationalism.” Mr. Muhammad talks about meeting Allah on a street corner in Detroit one cold winter day. Therefore, Islamism is the road to freedom and salvation, even though it hasn’t served the Arabs too well in. the Middle East; in fact it hinders their liberation. And there is the ”Black ’Christian Nationalism” of certain Black preachers who are trying to convince us how “revolutionary” Christianity can be if you only paint Jesus Black! And then there’s Imamu Baraka (Swahili for “high priest”) who loves to enlighten us by calling Marxism-Leninism “a honky thing.” There is the “Pan-Africanism” of the Black bourgeois and petty bourgeois classes who want to fight the U.S. and Portugal in Africa, but who don’t want to fight the rulers of the U.S. and Portugal who live in the United States and who murder Black people right under their noses! And they do this without the blessings of the African revolutionaries who have consistently told them that the best way to help Africa become free and independent is to take up the struggle against U.S. imperialism right inside the U.S.A. Additionally, the Black bourgeois and petty bourgeois classes have the many other “isms” of ’cultural nationalism’, communalism, ’lumpenism’, and etc., etc., etc..
Since there are so many “isms” in the Black community representing the interests of the Black bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, what is wrong with the Black proletariat having Communism for its ideology, since it is the one ideology which doesn’t rely on magic, and the one ideology standing up to the imperialists of the world, and the one ideology which has changed the material conditions for over a billion of the world’s people? Clearly it is the only ideology leading people to their liberation in the modern era.
When Imamu Baraka claims that Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought is a “Honky Thing”, what is he really saying? Is he saying that the millions of dead Vietnamese workers and peasants who were guided by this outlook were dying in the interest of a “honky thing?” Is he saying that the great Chinese revolution was led by a “honky thing?” Or maybe he is saying that the great TANZAM Railway Project’ which is being built through Zambia and Tanzania, with the fraternal aid of the Chinese, is a “honky thing” project. The entire international anti-imperialist united front today depends on the international proletariat and its ideology of Marxism-Leninism and the Thought of Mao Tse Tung as a guiding light and an unshakable force. For Imamu Baraka and his like to reject Marxism-Leninism means they are rejecting the leading role of the Black proletariat in the Black liberation movement, and in the final analysis, selling out the Black liberation movement altogether. Despite their phrase-mongering, people like Baraka cannot possibly have the interests of the Black Nation at heart. These elements like Baraka himself, accuse us communists of “dividing Black people along class lines,” “keeping us from all uniting as one,” etc. But they are wrong. It is not us communists who “divide Black people along class lines,” but the objective development of society itself. Booker T. Washington preceded the Bolshevik Revolution by fifty years! Whether we like it or not, class divisions exist in the Black community and they will not, be “wished” away by rhetoric, only by the establishment of world communism and a classless society. Black magic just will not do!
Before Marx and Engels and the development of capitalist society it was impossible for man to have a deep-going and comprehensive understanding of the nature of social life itself. The real world, the objective world, is revealed to man through the struggle for production, class struggle and scientific experiment. With the development of large-scale production (the Industrial Revolution) and the working class, Marx and Engels participated in the class struggle of their time and were able to conduct profound scientific investigation on the history and nature of human society. The end result of their study and hard work was a scientific theory of society – how societies arose and throve, developed, came into being and died. This science has been further developed and enriched by the greatest teachers of the working class and oppressed – Lenin, Stalin and Mao Tse Tung.
Today Marxism-Leninism and the Thought of Mao Tse Tung is the only true social science in the world. It is a sharp weapon in the hands of the working class and oppressed peoples. Nevertheless, at the same time, it is as objective as any of the other sciences like physics, chemistry, etc. This is so because proletarian ideology is the most complete reflection in the realm of ideas of what is actually going on in real life. The two great weapons and essence of this science is what we call dialectical and historical materialism. Though the words may sound big, the meaning is simple. Dialectical materialism is based on the fact that in life, both human and natural, everything is constantly changing and transforming itself through a struggle of opposing sides, through opposites, through contradiction. Historical materialism is nothing but dialectical materialism applied to man’s social history, to the development of society and the transformation of one society into another. In order to use these two great weapons effectively, one has to always keep in mind that Marxism-Leninism is not an abstract dogma, but a guide to action. It is based on a concrete analysis of concrete situations. In other words there are no blueprints allowing us to “copy” other peoples experience without thoroughly understanding our “own” reality. It is very clear, the bourgeoisie and its agents have no use for this science, Marxism-Leninism, because in using this science and its two great weapons all the bourgeoisie can see their disappearance as a class along with their social system, capitalism. This is why they spread so much poison about “communism” while promoting such nonsense as “everybody” in the U.S. is “middle class”, or that “god intended that there be rich men and poor men”, or that there is no such thing as class struggle “only race war”, or that everyone is equal “because we all have the right to vote” (Rockefeller has only one vote too, so, despite his billions, we are still equal “under the law”), or that there is nothing you can do to change the system” (you can’t beat city hall, etc.), and finally, that the best way “to change the system is through the system” (like putting a fire out by pouring gasoline on it), etc., etc., etc. When none of the above madness is working to stop the people, and even when it does, the bourgeoisie always has its informers, spies, police departments, Army, Navy, FBI, and CIA, to try to hold back the peoples revolution.
In the Black Nation there are classes that represent the interest of the imperialist bourgeoisie and they do their best to try to keep the system of capitalism alive and well. They promote the theory that religion will free our people: they promote defeatism and spread all kinds of imperialist culture such as “Superfly and Superpimp” and “Grand Mack and Hero Junkie”, and hold up Black buffons like Sammy Davis Jr. as heroes of our people.
We have consistently made the point that it is primarily the bourgeoisie and their agents who have carried on a vile attack against Marxism-Leninism and the thought of Mao Tse Tung. This attack is world wide in scope and is carried out in every corner of the earth. We all know the situation in the U.S. We are well aware that there are many honest people who have been poisoned against communism by the propaganda of the bourgeoisie, and the cowardly, Judas performance of what masquerades for a communist party in the U.S. We are speaking here of the CPUSA and its revisionist leaders Gus Hall and Henry Winston. It is understandable that the masses of American people, seeing the weak-kneed, sell-out, racist performance of these jive opportunists would conclude that somehow all “communist” were cut from the same cloth. We understand even more so why many Black revolutionaries would feel this way. But allow us to get something straight.
Many Black revolutionaries who are not yet able to distinguish genuine Marxism from sham Marxism, imagine that communism and nationalism are incompatible. Communism is the ideology of the international working class, and as such, operates with the interest of the proletariat above the interest of any individual nation or country, even the proletariat of a particular nation or country. But the world is divided into a handful of oppressor nations and a great mass of oppressed nations. This makes the task of the proletariat of these respective countries different. The proletariat and communist of the oppressor nations like the U.S. and the Soviet Union, have the task of defeating the imperialist policies of their “own” bourgeoisie. They have no other “national” interest other than that of proletarian revolution and giving concrete aid and support to the struggles of the oppressed nations. In other words, if a war were to break out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the task of the communist of these countries would not be to “root” for their “own” side, but to work for the defeat of both governments and turn that war into a civil war for proletarian revolution. Nations which are oppressed by imperialism, on the other hand, can play a progressive role in world politics because every step forward to genuine freedom and independence weakens the imperialist system and aids the world revolutionary movement of the proletariat. As such, communist within these oppressed nations are at the same time “patriots”, revolutionary nationalist, because not only do they defend and protect the national interest of their respective peoples, but they actively take the lead in doing so. Communists of an oppressed nation cannot for one moment be indifferent to the sufferings and humiliations of their people who are fighting daily for the very right to survive. Any “communist” who stands aloof from the national- revolutionary movement of oppressed peoples, including oppressed peoples and nations “within” imperialist countries themselves, who confines themselves to phrase mongering about “class struggle” and “smashing capitalism” in the abstract, is in practice, no communist at all, but a childish fool who knows no more about Marxism-Leninism than someone in kindergarten knows about algebra. There is no Marxism-Leninism in the abstract, only Marxism-Leninism in the concrete. The fact that a man or woman is a communist makes him or her not a worse, but a better fighter for the interest of their peoples. Applied to the concrete political and economic conditions of oppressed nations, revolutionary nationalism is applied internationalism. Communists of these countries are at the same time, revolutionary nationalist, or “patriots”, because their duty as communist is to fight unconditionally, thoroughly, and resolutely for the freedom and liberation of their people from imperialist oppression and exploitation.
On the other hand, not every revolutionary nationalist is a communist. Many of the workers, peasants and students, even some elements of the bourgeoisie, in China, Vietnam, Africa and Latin America gave their lives for their countries. Though they were not necessarily for socialism, they were against the imperialist penetration of their countries and wanted genuine freedom and independence. Albizu Campos of Puerto-Rico, Franz Fanon of Algeria, Patrice Lumumba of the Congo and Malcolm X of the U.S. are a few examples of revolutionary nationalist, who were not yet communist. But every communist of an oppressed nation is a revolutionary nationalist – Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh, Kim II Sung, and so on. Although for socialism and the international proletariat, these men were the most consistent fighters for the legitimate interests of their respective peoples.
A word must be said about the U.S. Of course, conditions change from place to place and so does the political task of communist. But many Sham Marxist-Leninist simply do not understand the political reality of the United States. They cannot open their mouths without mentioning something about “Russia and China”, but either they don’t know or don’t care about the realities of the U.S. The U.S. is a multi-national state with a single proletariat. The principal problems in the U.S. as a result, are the contradictions between the working class and the capitalist class on the one hand, and the contradiction between the oppressed Black nation and oppressed nationalities and the other. As such, the proletariat and communists have two principal political tasks – proletarian revolution and national liberation. These principal tasks are the principal tasks of all communists, both of the “white” oppressor or Anglo-American can nation and the “Black” oppressed nation and national minorities. Because of the class nature of the Black Nation (overwhelmingly proletarian), and the level of economic development of the U.S. (highly industrialized and urban), Black people cannot be free except through proletarian revolution. On the other hand, there can be no proletarian revolution except in union with the oppressed peoples and oppressed classes.
Communists in the U.S. as elsewhere, represent the interest of the entire proletariat – black, brown, yellow, and white. But communist don’t live in a political vacuum. “White Communists” are called such because they are members of an oppressor “white nation” which oppresses billions of the world’s people. Black communists are at the same time, revolutionary nationalists, because they lead the fight for black emancipation. They are revolutionary nationalists because they fight the bourgeois nationalism of the Black bourgeoisie (who are interested in preserving imperialism and the oppression of Black people(, at the same time they are for socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The revolutionary nationalism of black communists is not opposed to their internationalism, because while keeping black people at heart they have the whole proletariat in mind.
Although all “black communists” are revolutionary nationalist, not all revolutionary nationalists are communists. But unlike the Third World countries, a revolutionary Black nationalist must of necessity be a genuine anti-imperialist and for the overthrow of Monopoly Capitalism. Why? Because there is no future for Black people under capitalism. Unlike the Third World countries where the task is to drive out foreign imperialism and establish “New Democracy,” here the next stage has to be socialism because the productive forces are already highly developed and rotten-rip for socialism. The difference between a revolutionary nationalist and a Black communist is that the Black communist has the outlook and ideology of the proletariat and fights for the dictatorship of the proletariat while fighting for Black liberation, while the revolutionary nationalist is concerned primarily with Black people, and though he recognized that capitalism must go if black people are to be free: he does not have the outlook of the working class, nor does he see the necessity for the dictatorship of the proletariat. Malcolm X was a revolutionary black nationalist in his later years. He clearly saw that the liberation of black people was tied to the destruction of the capitalist system, although he was clearly no communist. People like Baraka, Roy Innis, Jesse Jackson, Ron Karenga, Stokley Carmichael and others, are bourgeois nationalists, despite their “militant” posture. Though always preaching “black this and black that”, these people want to accommodate black people to the capitalist system in one form or another. They are tied to the Black bourgeoisie and represent their interests. In the final analysis, the progressive or reactionary nature of nationalism in the Black community, is determined by what class is leading the Black struggle. Many revolutionaries are confused by the dual characteristics of Black nationalism and either reject all “nationalism as reactionary” or opportunistically make no distinctions between the two, saying that even the black bourgeoisie can be “revolutionary nationalist,” Revisionists and confused “left radicals” negate the national question in the U.S. “Its only a matter of pure class struggle”, they say. In doing so, not only do they turn their backs on the Black liberation movement, making the oppression and exploitation of black people by the racist-imperialists that much easier, they are turning their backs on class struggle of the proletariat itself. These people, like those in the CPUSA, are in practice not Marxist-Leninists at all, but white racists and white chauvinists, and opportunists hiding themselves under Marxist phrases.
How can “white communists”, who belong to a nation which has been oppressing other peoples since it was founded demand that black and brown revolutionaries repudiate the legitimate interests of their people, argue that because black and white workers have a common class interest they are opposed to the liberation of black people, to self-determination for the Afro-American Nation? For how many decades have opportunists counterposed the class struggle to the national question as a means of liquidating the latter? Under this law is hidden their white chauvinism and support of the imperialist policies of the U.S. government.
They go on to say that Black nationalism and separatism are growing among Black people and this is a bad sign. Of course Black nationalism and separatist tendencies exist and will continue to grow within the Black community as long as Black people are oppressed by U.S. imperialism. Black people simply want to determine their own destiny in their own way, and any “white revolutionary” who denies them this right, under the guise of “pure proletarian class struggle”, is no communist, but a white racist and a chauvinist.
Certain Revolutionaries and Communists fail to understand that the main danger in the U.S. in regards to the working class movement is not the “bourgeois nationalism” of black people, but the racism and white chauvinism (bourgeois nationalism if you will) of whites. Both tendencies exist and have to be combatted of course, but unless we concentrate our efforts on defeating the main one through ideological struggle and revolutionary practice, all the phrasemongering about “petty bourgeois nationalism” will get us nowhere. The history of the working class movement in the U.S. is saturated with examples where the proletarian movement became bogged down and defeated because of the failure of its leadership to understand the correct relationship between proletarian revolution and the national question, between the liberation of the whole working class and it allies on the one hand, and the freedom and liberation of Black people on the other. We will go into this some more later on.
We hold that the proletariat is the only class capable of leading the whole people in overthrowing U.S. monopoly capitalist rule. We hold that within the Black nation that the only class capable of leading the Black liberation movement in unity with the entire U.S. working class, is the Black proletariat. We hold that the ideology of the proletariat is Marxism-Leninism Mao Tse Tung Thought and that without this guiding, beacon, we will not be able to find our way and achieve victory. We hold that the main danger holding back the unity of the working class at this time in the U.S. is white chauvinism, racism and right opportunism with the CPUSA as the main perpetuator, and secondarily the left opportunism of the “left wing radicals”. We would no more let these people define themselves as Marxist-Leninist, as we would let Roy Innis and Sammy Davis Jr. define themselves as genuine revolutionary nationalist!
These are perilous times when ghosts, monsters and rats, standing on their hind legs have openly come into the broad daylight of the Black community. This is a good thing because it’s much easier to kill something you can see. These creatures are spreading all kinds of poison and its high time for the Black worker and all genuine communists to take the lead in ridding the earth forever of these ghosts, monsters and rats that walk on their hind legs. This is what one black worker and revolutionary communist had to say:
Things are changing now because there is a huge Black proletariat amongst the Black masses and a Black industrial proletariat at that! Niggers are urban now and they can see much more of the real world. Its going to be much harder for preachers, magicians and scalawags of all sorts to fool the Black masses.