First Published: Revolution, Vol. 2, No. 8, June 1977.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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May 28 this year marks the sixth celebration of African Liberation Day by the American people. In past years, tens of thousands of Americans have come out around the country to show their support for the freedom fighters battling to overthrow the imperialist backed system of apartheid and white minority rule. Black Americans, who not only share historical roots with the African peoples but suffer discrimination and national oppression, here, have been the strongest force in African Liberation Day and other battles in support of African freedom. Workers, students and others of all nationalities have taken part as well, fighting at the same time injustice and a common enemy of the people of this country and the people of southern Africa, the U.S. ruling class.
These struggles have given concrete aid to the fighters in southern Africa, exposing and damaging the capitalists here who back the white minority regimes, from Ford to Chase Manhattan, from International Harvester to General Electric. Support for African liberation is not only an internationalist task for the working class and other enemies of imperialism, it advances the revolutionary struggle against the U.S. ruling class.
African Liberation Day this year comes at a critical time. The flames of liberation are spreading through Zimbabwe, Azania and Namibia, and in the front ranks of those getting charred-and trying to put out the fire are the rulers of this country. The heroic uprisings in Soweto, the despicable maneuvers of the doomed white minority regimes have put inspiration and outrage in the hearts of many people in this country. Battles against the South African Krugerrand coin, university complicity and corporate investment in apartheid have been growing. All this is the backdrop of this year’s powerful ALD.
There are problems – a wide variety of African liberation Day celebrations and events have been called in different places and some fall far short of upholding the proud tradition of ALD and building the kind of struggle the situation demands. The contrasting methods and aims are clearest in Washington, D.C., where ALD will be centered this year. Stokely Carmichael and the Pan-Africanist organization he heads, the All African People’s Revolutionary Party, are holding a rally which is primarily a recruiting drive for the AAPRP (an outfit which holds the defeatist line that any fight against national oppression in the U.S. is entirely dependent on fighting for an Africa which is “united under a socialist government ”). The rally will probably have in large part the character of a festival of African culture – AAPRP literature has made little mention, Iet alone analysis, of the struggle in southern Africa.
The mock Marxists of the Workers Viewpoint Organization have essentially the same view of ALD as Stokely – a recruiting ground to snare “advanced elements.” Workers Viewpoint is trying to pull together some kind of activity in which to push its contention that support for African liberation should focus mainly on doing propaganda about why the USSR is the main danger to the people of southern Africa – thus letting the U.S. ruling class off the hook.
In sharp contrast stands the demonstration called by the African Liberation Day Coalition which carries on the fighting tradition of ALD and serves as a starting point in working for ever more powerful, more conscious and more united support for the heroic fight of the African people to control their own destinies. Its heart is a militant march on the White House, clearly and directly in support of African liberation struggles and in opposition to the white minority regimes, their backers on Wall Street and In Washington, and Wall Street’s imperialist rivals in Africa – the USSR.
The Revolutionary Communist Party hails this year’s celebration of African Liberation Day and has worked to help build the Coalition’s demonstration as a battle in the war against the ruling class, as a beacon for the many thousands who will take part in ALD activities this year, and as a step in mobilizing still greater support for and solidarity with the African peoples’ struggle. Powerful actions like the march on the White House, aimed at the U.S. ruling class and hampering their freedom to act, are the best material support we the American working class and people can give our brothers and sisters in southern Africa.
The African Liberation Day demonstration is being built in the best possible spirit – of mobilizing everyone possible on the basis of linking the struggles of the southern African and the American people. As the general theme of ALD proclaims: Fight Imperialism and National Oppression from the Union of South Africa to the United States of America!