
A Political Statement from the Black Underground
(Coordinating Committee Black Liberation Army)
ORIGINALLY RELEASED 1976/1977
Dedicated to all the comrades killed, captured,
and exiled in the struggle. To build the armed urban guerrilla,
from, and to those who supported us. When all others refused
to face up to Reality!
Table Of Contents
Introduction Overview
View From The Armed Front Why
Build The Armed Front
Racism And Class Destructive
Sub-culture Leadership Of The Struggle
What Is Protracted War In The Black Liberation
Struggle? Alliances With Whites
INTRODUCTION
The following is
political overview and statement of general political positions.
We have written these political positions form the perspective of
the Armed Front because we feel that such a perspective is needed
in the total revolutionary process for Black liberation. We are
general in our public statement because we are essentially a military
and political front, therefore it would not do to speak in any other
terms, for the
actions of the armed front will address themselves to the specifics
of our people's national oppression. We do not wish the ENEMY to
gain tactical insight in carrying out his repressive campaigns,
while on the other hand we do desire that the Black
Liberation Movement understand the correct role armed struggle plays
in a peoples struggle and how this role is in motion for us here
in North American.
The tool of analysis
is for us a further development of the Historical Materialist method,
the dialectical method. We will not even waste our time debating
the values of Marxism with those who are emotionally hung up on
white people hung up to the point of ideological blindness. We understand
the process of revolution, and fundamental to this understanding
is this fact: Marxism is developed to a higher level when it is
scientifically adapted to a peoples' unique national condition,
becoming a new ideology altogether. Thus was the case in China,
Guinea Bissau, Vietnam, North Korea, the Peoples Republic of the
Congo and many other socialist nations. For Black people here in
north America our struggle is not only unique, but it is the most
sophisticated and advanced oppression of a racial national minority
in the whole world. We are the true 20th century slaves, and the
use of the dialectical method, class
struggle and national liberation, will find its highest development
as a result of us. This dialectic holds true not only for Marxism,
but for revolutionary nationalism as well it
holds true for concepts of revolutionary Pan-Africanism it is true
of the theoretical basis in developing revolutionary Black culture.
All of these ideological trends will find their highest expression
as a result of our advanced oppression.
Yet, we must be ever
mindful that the same objective process is true for reactionary
refinement as a result of our struggle. This is the unity of opposites
in struggle with each other. To defeat our enemy and render his
reactionary allies impotent, we must have a truly revolutionary
perspective informed by concepts of revolutionary class struggle,
a movement without such a perspective will fail to defeat our common
oppressor. We are not afraid of white people controlling our movement,
for our formations, guns, and ideas are built with our own hands,
efforts, and blood. With this in mind, we address ourselves to the
Black Liberation struggle, its activist elements
and organizations.
Our
call is for UNITY, FOR A NATIONAL BLACK LIBERATION
FRONT. We must build to win! Nyurba
AN
OVERVIEW
We will start with
the basic fact that Capitalism and Imperialism as an economical
system is in a deep crisis at home and abroad. The basis of this
crisis is, of course, the exploitive relationships that capital
must maintain in order to function. It is these economic, social
and political relationships that signal the eventual doom of our
oppressors and this system of oppression under which we all live.
This crisis of capitalism
is of a protracted nature. By this we mean it is a long process
of deterioration that is spread over a considerable length of time.
The seeming material wealth which we see all around us in no way
contradict this fact of decay,
deterioration, or the fact of crisis. In fact, over-production and
uneven distribution have led time and time again to a bloated market,
cutbacks in employment , and all the attendant ills of a economy
based on private ownership of socially produced
commodities. Inflation, soaring prices, and inadequate wages are
all symptoms of an economy that is based primarily on class exploitation
at home ad national domination of the Third World's resources abroad.
The heightening of
oppressed peoples struggles abroad have added to the crisis of the
entire western world, and threaten to cut drastically its essential
resources. We realize that the chief economical and military power
in the western world and its ruling circles, will never allow the
demise of its empire without a desperate fight. We, as Blacks in
North America, must realize that to seek inclusion into the prevailing
socio-economic system is suicide in the long run, for the prevailing
system cannot
withstand the irresistible world trend of history which is opposed
to continued U.S. exploitation, racist domination and subjugation.
To fool ourselves into believing that "equal opportunity", "justice","
and social equality is the same as the capitalist system is a grave
mistake with genocidal implications for every person of color. Our
first obligation is to ourselves, this means our first obligation
is to secure our total liberation
from those forces that maintain our oppressive condition. Related
to this self obligation (not distinct from it), is our obligation
to all oppressed peoples throughout the world, for
in striving to liberate ourselves we must abolish a system that
enslaves others throughout the world. This, in essence, is our historical
duty, we can either carry it out or betray it - - but we most certainly
will be judged accordingly by the world's peoples.
The B.L.A., as a
result of realizing the economical nature of the system under which
we are forced to live, maintains the following principles:
1. That we are anti capitalist,
anti imperialist, anti racist, and anti sexist.
2.
That we must of necessity strive for the abolishment of these systems
and for the institution of Socialistic relationships in which Black
people have total and absolute control over their own destiny as
a people.
3. That in order to abolish our systems of oppression, we must utilize
the science of class struggle, develop this science as it relates
to our unique national condition.
VIEW FROM
THE ARMED FRONT
The Dialectic of Revolutionary Violence, law,
and Reformism
Our recognition of
the economical contradictions of capital in no way obscures the
social and political realities that now confront us and our struggle
for Black Liberation. To the contrary, it enhances and deepens our
perspective and clarifies the dialectical role or armed struggle
in our liberation process.
We have begun to
recognize and analyze those forces in a modern technologically advanced
society that set our particular struggle apart from other Third
world people's struggles, as well as the common factors all oppressed
peoples share as a result of U.S. and western imperialism. One such
factor that sets our struggle apart from other struggles is the
profound influence of organized technology on our consciousness,
social relationships, and behavior. People who live in the technologically
advanced societies of the west have been programmed to perceive
their needs as being one in
the same as the technology that created these artificial needs.
Because the masses of working people do not control this technology,
it has been consistently used to manipulate their whole lives. We
are told what to buy, what to eat, whom to hate, and what to love,
by rulers and controllers of an exploitive system.
Technology in the
context of capitalism is the ultimate means by which the masses
are programmed out of the need for real freedom. A whole social
value system has evolved to support the dependence on corporate
state technological control. We no
longer know what freedom is what self determination is. We
perceive the value of competition as being in the natural order
of human relationships, instead of contrary to the fact that people
are social animals, more attuned to cooperation than competition.
We must create in the course of destroying our system of oppression,
whole new value concepts, concepts that exist in dialectical opposition
to the values that buttress our
oppression - - even more than this, we must create a new need within
ourselves for freedom, so that we can harness technology in our
behalf. As it stands how, Black people cannot even conceive of real
freedom; we are afraid of real liberation because we have been programmed
to be afraid by racist class oppression even more than this,
we must create a new need within ourselves for freedom, so that
we can harness
technology in our behalf. As it stands how, Black people cannot
even conceive of real freedom; we are afraid of real liberation
because we have been programmed to be afraid by racist class oppression.
Technology has immensely added in reinforcing our fear of the dominant
ruling circles. We must break this social psychosis.
The B.L.A. has undertaken
armed struggle as a means by which the social psychosis of fear,
awe, and love of everything white people define as being of value,
is purged from our peoples' minds. Our historical experience in
North America has shown us that we as a people have always suffered
while the racist ruling circles have never suffered. We have seen
throughout our history pain, blood, rape, exploitation, poverty,
our families torn asunder by a cruel and brutal culture, our youth
murdered and socially crippled, our women degraded, our lives ever
at the mercy of the cold American dream
machine. We realize that the results of this historical experience
has caused Black people to fear America's capacity for racist violence,
and on the other hand , has reinforced the racist ruling circles
in their attitudes of arrogance and confidence. The fact that the
majority of whites who are equally oppressed and exploited do not
really understand who their real enemy is, does not deter us from
doing what must be done
to break not only our people'' mental chains, but theirs as well.
We therefore, will illustrate in the only terms that the ruling
classes understand the terms of blood their blood. America
must learn that Black people are not the eternal sufferers, the
universal prisoners, the only ones who can feel pain. Revolutionary
violence is, therefore, not a tactic of struggle, but a strategy.
A strategy designed to drive the
capitalist system further into crisis, while at the same time forcing
all those responsible for oppression to realize that they too can
bleed, they too can feel our pain. Only when
this is realized, will any just and equal decisions be made, will
we be conceded our right to self determination. As it stands now,
the powerful do not believe they can hurt and therefore, find concession
to our demands for liberation ridiculous. Our
social/psychotic fear of the racists ruling circles must be purged
also, and only by developing our capacity to fight our enemy will
this unreasonable and reactionary fear be eradicated from our social
psyche. Revolutionary violence is not so much a self
cleansing process as it is a necessary ingredient in creating a
psychological frame of mind amongst the ruling classes that our
liberation must be granted.
We must clarify revolutionary
violence in relationship to our actual condition, because many of
our people believe in the "law," or at least the existing code of
law of our
oppressor. Most people do not see the real relationship between
the development of western law and the development of western capitalism;
therefore, these people
cannot deal with the reality of injustice as being an integral part
of the prevailing system. Not a few people misunderstand the objective
class function for the courts, the police, and various related institutions
in maintaining the illusion of North American
democracy.
In a society such
as exists here today, law is never impartial, never divorced from
the economical relationships that brought it about. History clearly
shows that in the course
of the development of modern western society, the code of law is
the code of the dominant and most powerful class, made into laws
for everyone. It is implemented by establishing "special" armed
organs, that are obliged to enforce the prevailing class
laws. In this historical period of human social development such
is the objective function of "law". Under such conditions of the
most powerful economic and political classes. But, what about the
law in a democracy, especially one that claims that all its citizens
can elect their representatives who in turn can create new laws?
First of all, such a democracy does not exist in North America,
bourgeois democracy as such is merely a means of political control
that evinces a design to subjugate its people, all of these reasons
flow from the necessity to maintain exploitive capitalist relationships.
Thus, the influence of corporate wealth on the politics of bourgeois
democracy is
merely an extension of private property's traditional influence
and control of the so-called democratic process. The constant co-optation
by ruling classes of the masses of working peoples, coupled with
their complete control of technology and of
working peoples, coupled with their complete control of technology
and of working people, coupled with their complete control of technology
and information renders the so-called democratic process null and
void. To a reflections of the class organization of that society
and the reflection of a given technological economical arrangement
and its supporting value system. The political organization of the
most powerful classes or economic groups in a class society has
to be, and is, the control by these classes or economic groups over
the entire society and its political system. We ha found the democratic
process under capitalism to be merely a means by which capital controls
the masses. It is a means of mass diversion, designed to keep the
powerless classes politically impotent while at the same time fostering
the illusion that real power can be gained through the electoral
process. Black people should know better. In a nation based on the
false principle of majority rule, we are a marginal minority and
therefore
our right to self determination cannot be won in the arena of our
oppressor.
The rejection of
reformism however, is much deeper than the above reasons. For if
reformism is a rejection of any meaningful change, it is also a
rejection of revolutionary
violence, and therefore reformism is a functional ignorance of the
dynamics of Black liberation. This is because the character of reformism
is based on unprincipled class collaboration with our enemy. The
ideals of class collaboration do not stand in
opposition to our people's oppression, but instead consistently
seeks to reform the oppressive system. Reform of the oppressive
system can never benefit its victims, in the final analysis the
system of oppression was created to insure the rule of particular
racist classes and sanctify their capital. To seek reform therefore
inevitably leads to, or begins with, the recognition of the laws
of our oppressor as being valid.
Those within the
movement who condemn the revolutionary violence of anti capitalist,
anti capitalist, anti imperialist, and revolutionary Black nationalist
groups are in essence weakening themselves. These fools do not understand
the inter-active need for revolutionary violence with other forms
of struggle and because they do not understand the real dynamics
involved they seriously inhibit the development of the
liberation movement as a whole. These reformists in liberationist
garb should understand that unless the movement cultivates its capacity
to fight the enemy on all fronts, no front will secure any real
victories. It is abysmal ignorance that imagines our oppression
in any other terms than undeclared war.
How will the movement
as a whole be able to fight the oppressor in the future when all
other "legal" methods are completely exhausted? How will we implement
political
struggle without the machinery and capacity for revolutionary violence
when it is abundantly clear that our oppressor maintains armed organs
of violence for the enforcement of his rules? We as a movement will
be unable to fight in the future if we do not develop the capacity
for revolutionary violence in the present. But revolutionary violence
is not an alternative to mass movement and organization, it is complementary
to mass struggle, it is another front in the total liberation process.
Those who put the question of revolutionary violence in "alternative"
terms are guilty of crippled politics at worst. Those involved in
the total revolutionary process, yet claim not to "endorse" revolutionary
violence when it occurs, are attempting to "legitimize" their existence
at the expense of the entire struggle. The only "legitimacy" these
people can possibly be seeking in such cases is bourgeois legitimacy.
These type people further confuse the masses, for revolutionary
violence is not clarified and extended in order to undermine
the psychological dependence Black people still have on racist reactionary
"legality." This is the vilest of sins, one for which everyone will
pay during heightened repression.
We therefore do not
view the "law" of our class enemies as valid, no do we feel restricted
in struggle to his laws. On the other hand, we understand the "tactical"
value of using the law and consequently we understand the tactical
value of reform in the liberation process. For example, school takeovers
by community parents, rent strikes by tenants, labor union takeover
by dissident members, etc., utilizing their systems and built-in
safeguards to obtain certain goals that place the enemy at a temporary
disadvantage. But we maintain there is only tactical value to reform
when there exists other forms of revolutionary struggle against
the whole of the capitalist structure. Reform as such is inherently
reactionary and perpetuated psychological dependence on the enemy,
while confusing the true class contradictions between ourselves
and the enemy. Considering these factors, we maintain that reform
can never be anything more than a tactic, never a complete strategy,
never offering in itself any revolutionary change. While it may
offer the Black bourgeoisie rewards, it can never be the road to
self determination for the entire Black populace.
We also strongly
condemn those who claim to be progressive, yet depreciate revolutionary
violence of an oppressed people in their struggle for liberation.
There can be no conditions on our fight for freedom except those
set by the oppressed themselves. Those who claim that revolutionary
violence gives the enemy the opportunity to repress the movement
in general are profoundly mistaken if they think the reactionary
government needs such excuses for repression, or that the government
does not recognize the real danger in allowing a movement to develop
the full blown capacity to wage armed struggle. The B.L.A. has undertaken
the task of building just
such a capacity, along with other comrades on the clandestine level.
WHY
BUILD THE ARMED FRONT ?
We have chosen to
build the armed front, the urban guerilla front, not as an alternative
to organizing masses of Black people, but because the liberation
movement as a
whole must prepare armed formations at each stage in its struggle.
A failure to build these armed formations can be fatal to both the
struggle and Black people.
Our Ultimate or strategic
goal at this point in creating the apparatus of revolutionary violence
is to weaken the enemy capitalist state, creating at the same time
objective subjective conditions that are ripe for the formation
of a National Black
Liberation Front composed of many progressive revolutionary, and
nationalist groupings, and in this same process create the nucleus
of the armed clandestine organs which such a front would need in
order to carry out its political tasks. These are
the broad reasons for our devotion to armed struggle. The fact that
no such national united front exists now, in no way precludes the
fact that the creation of one will become necessary in the future
(as the contradictions of capitalist society increase repression,
racism and social deterioration). We are of the opinion that subjective
conditions are not ripe for such unity.
Because of objective
conditions, namely, enemy activity and the relative low degree of
unity within the Black struggle, we have decided to build the apparatus
separate and distinct (organizationally) from all other mass type
groups. This is a tactical necessity, but this tactical necessity
does note contradict our strategic all for all groups in the Black
liberation movement to form a national united front, with the principle
of armed action as one of many "legitimate" forms of political policy.
At present the contradictions
that any B.L.A. activities may cause are not to be avoided. Every
progressive should welcome the exposure and development of contradictions,
for it is through the development of contradictions that we will
all move forward. Every brother, every sister on the side of liberation
should and must support the struggle on all fronts, and clarify
to our people the acts of revolutionary violence
committed against our common oppressors and class enemies of all
colors. This means the revolutionary violence must be supported
by those in the movement on all levels. While such support will
be difficult at first, objective conditions and time will remove
much of the difficulty which primarily ideological myopia to begin
with. We know from experience that because of the class nature of
our struggle and its racist aspect, many of our actions may very
well be tactical action of a purely
military psychological nature, and because of this clear political
support may seem quite difficult. Nonetheless we intend to clarify
all acts of revolutionary violence and accepts responsibility for
these acts. The important factor, however, is that the progressive
movement, the liberation movement, and comrades on all levels of
struggle understand that failure to support the armed urban guerilla
front (military, politically) is a failure to support the mass front,
is a failure to support the "legal" thrusts of our struggle in "civil
rights," and in the final analysis, an abdication of responsibility.
Cowardice can be understood, but not opportunism and an abdication
of commitment to our total liberation.
RACISM
AND CLASS
Our recognition of
the class nature of our struggle has led us to certain objective
conclusions which have been borne out by actual conditions. We have
for some time now observed how the influence of certain class values
determine how one acts or
reacts in society. We have observed the class differences among
the majority white population in the United States, and the reflection
of these difference among Black people. As we have said years before
this, the class difference among Black people are difference in
consciousness, attitudes, and behavior, but unlike these same class
difference among whites, economic status or economic position is
not the major determinate. The overwhelming majority of Blacks (with
the exception of very few) are essentially in the same economic
class, and suffer essentially the same relationship to the productive
forces of capital.
Despite this fact
however, the difference in consciousness and in attitudes are real,
and therefore must be dealt with as if these attitudes were economic
class distinctions. The reality of our people tells us that not
only are there Black enemies of Black people, but that these Black
enemies are first and foremost class enemies of our struggle for
liberation. It is their class values, ideas, and class ideals that
make them what they are, coupled with the fact that these enemies
in Black face can hide among us, spreading their various reactionary
liberal philosophies of gradualism, Black capitalism, "integration,"
cultural nationalism, reformism, etc.
The reason why these
Black class enemies find acceptance are many. The first and foremost
reason is our unique social psychology, or our emotional response
to racism. This reflex has primed us to think in terms of color
first (just as it programmed whites to view color as a determinant
factor), and when such thinking becomes culturally typical of us,
we are vulnerable to class infiltration by Black enemies of our
struggle. We tend to blame the color and not the class values of
our oppressor when we are betrayed or exploited by one of our own
people. Thus when a Black person betrays or hurts us we
say, "n-words ain't shit!" (this also indicates self hatred and/or
self pity); instead, what we should say is that "certain classes
of n-words ain't shit!"
Why should we have
such a class perspective, and maintain class vigilance for ruling
class lackeys? The first reason is that in a class society such
as the one that we suffer under, every brand of thought, every form
of behavior are stamped with the mark of a particular class. This
has deep meaning for us, for the dominant classes in this country
are white and their culture racist. We as Blacks reflect in our
thinking the values, and
ideas of these dominant classes, as well as the defensive response
to their social cultural racist. We as Blacks reflect in our thinking
the values, and ideas of these dominant classes, as well as the
defensive response to their social cultural racism
manifested in their system of rule. For these reasons we are vulnerable,
we can easily be misled, abused and misused. We become easy targets
for the racist ploys of our collective enemy. The enemy can use
skin color to confuse us into thinking that if we attack another
Black we are necessarily attacking ourselves; when it may very well
be the other way around we are attacking him! It is to our advantage
to have a clear principled class view. It is to the oppressors disadvantage
if we are principled class conscious individuals, opposed to unprincipled
class collaboration.
If we look at most
of the organizations on the scene today, and their philosophies,
leadership, and methods of. Struggle, we will see the reflection
of certain class ideals, ideas and values. Overwhelmingly these
groups each reflect the goals of a particular class of Black folks.
Without a revolutionary class perspective, we who are striving to
acquire total emancipation from the forces which enslave the whole
of our people, will
be unable to distinguish true friends from true enemies, those who
are confused from those who are conscious tools of the oppressor,
and we will not be able to win potential allies.
This brings us to
the dialectical role of culture, for if we understand that as members
of a class society (or victims) we all are influenced by the class
perspectives of that society, and for Black people this means the
values, standards, etc., of the dominant racist classes, then we
must understand the tool by which we are programmed into these perspectives
of class. Culture is the tool. We view culture as the means by which
a dominant class programs the whole of society into that classes'
ideals, values, and standards, thereby perpetuating its dominance.
This objective class
function of culture should not lead us to the incorrect conclusion
that if we adopt a "cultural" orientation in our fight for liberation
that such would be sufficient. This is the essential view of the
cultural nationalists who orient all around
culture, such a view is incorrect. For it does not deal with the
economic, class, and psychological basis of the struggle between
two opposing cultural entities. The dominant reactionary culture
must be destroyed before any revolutionary culture can truly manifest
itself. In other words, it is in the active struggle of the two
that the seeds of a revolutionary culture are laid. Not in the passive
creation of an alternative "culture". Such could only be an alternative
life style, allowed to exist at the will of the dominant capitalist
culture. In this sense cultural nationalism is bourgeois nationalism
because it
does not propose the abolishment of the capitalist system and culture.
In dealing with the
objective function of culture then, we understand its social role
in maintaining certain class relationships. A racist culture does
this and more. A racist
culture programs not only the members of the dominant racial group
into class ideals, standards, and values, but it also psychologically
creates the necessary racist attitudes needed to maintain these
class perspectives as a whole) against the targets of that racism.
Thus the feelings of superiority, fear of Blacks, and hostility
toward the strivings of Black people (and all Third World peoples
in general) is deeply ingrained into the white psyche along with
the class phobias and standards. Even more than this, the victims
of the racist culture are rogrammed into feelings of self hatred,
inferiority, and impotency. Very often this creates a mental social
state that views the prevailing system as eternal and everlasting.
Coupled with the class values of the dominant culture, Black folks
are constantly torn between wanting what the oppressor defines as
desirable, and the inability to get it. Or, to get it and then realize
that it was only a hoax, he is still, as Black as ever. All of this
is crippling for the oppressed Black person, for it ties their brains
irrevocably' to their oppressors for salvation, often leading to
the clownish pursuit of all that is defined as "good" by the standards
of the oppressor.
In order to break
these psychological class chains of 20th century enslavement, we
must build a revolutionary culture. A culture that not only programs
our minds out of oppression, but at the same time impels us against
the enemy classes and culture. The B.L.A. contribution in building
such a culture will be to strive to create an armed tradition of
resistance to our oppression, and to create a socio-psychological
frame of mind on both oppressed and oppressor alike, that will lead
to our eventual self determination as a people.
We therefore make
few distinctions based on the color of our enemies. The same treatment
will be meted out to white ruling class enemies and their lackeys
as will be meted out to Black bootlickers and Black class enemies
of our struggle. Our only
consideration is that our armed formations and leadership are of
our own people.
DESTRUCTIVE
SUB-CULTURE, CRIME AND PRISON
The Black communities
of the United States are the tragic results of class/ race subjugation,
an oppressive situation created and exploited by the rich white
capitalist class of this corrupt country, and systematically perpetuated
and reinforced through their various institutions. The wretched
conditions that are inherent within these ghettos continue to exist
not because there are no means of erasing them, but rather because
they have proven profitable to the class that created them.
The ruling class
of the racist descendants of the chattel slave holders. They have
amassed a vast portion of the world's wealth through their rapacious
practice of profiting off the misery and discomfort of humanity
in general, and Third World people in particular. They use this
enormous concentration of wealth to buy, bribe, steal, influence,
murder, enslave, Blackmail, control, and repress any nation, organization,
group or individual that would speak out against, or offer any serious
opposition to their self imposed right to power.
In order to maintain
the present mis-arrangement, the social imbalances, the bourgeois
class continues to use repressive tactics in various forms. The
effects of this repression becomes clearly evident upon examination
of the destructive sub-culture
(the Black community) born out of American politics.
This sub-culture
materialized out of the need of Black folks for security and a sense
of belonging that had been denied them since their arrival in this
country; an attempt by the rejected and dispossessed a totally de-culturalized
people to integrate
bourgeois society by imitating the life-style and adopting the value
system of their oppressors.
The destructive nature
of this sub-culture manifests itself in the living reality of Black
folks' attitudinal and philosophical outlook on life. The self preserving
quality of unity is almost totally absent in the Black community.
In its place there is an unhealthy atmosphere of individuality which
is detrimental and inconsistent with the needs of our people, for
it is precisely this thinking that has kept us divided and un-organized
for so
long.
It would seem that
brothers and sisters would recognize the fact that by accepting
and perpetuating the values of the class that oppresses us, that
they are only aiding in their own genocide. They have all the physical
evidence necessary to prove that the values that they now cherish
so dearly are not complimentary to their best interests.
In our community
we continuously come face to face with the reality of our situation.
The dilapidated, fire hazard tenements; the Black mother with her
un-fed child; the brother overdoses from the C.I.A.'s right to free
enterprise; the sister that sells herself to an abominable pleasure
seeking fool the unemployed/unskilled/miseducated remains of a once
beautiful people.
It's sickening to
listen to "Negro's" talk about how much profit they've made from
selling dope and pimping sisters about the brand name automobile
they're driving, while their children are starving because they
have ceased to be men or to hear some
bad talking, chicken-hearted punk describe how he has ripped off
some poor Black's life savings because he does not have the courage
to take it from the criminals who oppress us.
We can't afford to
continue as we have for the past one hundred years if we expect
to ever be in the position to determine the quality of our own lives,
and more important,
the lives of our children. Already the influence of the negative
images projected by some Black folks have filtered down to our offspring.
In their attempts to emulate their elders, Black kids are beginning
to take on the psychological posture of the street wise. They are
being taught (through words and action) that the only way to get
ahead in this world is to "get the money" and "go for self." Such
values are mere reflections of
a potentially destructive sub-culture organized within the social
order of a modern technological society. What we must understand
is the institutional process that is constantly at work in our daily
lives. Only with such an understanding can we begin to make the
struggle for liberation a part of our peoples' everyday life, uniting
the large objective struggle for liberation with our people's subjective
struggle, and make them one continuous movement.
Every institution
in this racist class society serves the intended or unintended purpose
of maintaining the attitudes, and relationships of our destructive
sub-culture. Welfare,
housing agencies, systems programs, courts, prisons and countless
other ruling class institutions reinforce negative relationships
among Blacks. Our relationship and dependence on these enemy institutions
is total, and only with their collapse can true alternative institutions
prosper, but the process must begin now. We must not only build
alternative social, economic, and political institutions, but we
must intentionally sabotage, overload, and destroy existing ruling
class institutions in the process.
Part of our socialization
process is the reality of prison and "crime." Crime in a capitalist
society has a class basis, and is punished in accordance with this
class basis. The whole of capitalist society is predicated upon
exploitive relations, and thus lower class crime is a reflection
of ruling class criminal values and practices. In the Black community
the average inmate is exposed to, and preyed upon by these very
criminal values. We knock each other in the head, rob each other,
burglarize each other's apartments, sell dope as a means of "getting
over" because we each want what the system of capital has defined
as being of value, but has forbidden us to acquire in "legitimate"
fashion. In a society that views a persons material things as determining
his or her worth, we are the most hungry to be of "worth," crime
is
essentially illegitimate capitalism in such an arrangement. We are
socialized into this distorted existence and can hardly see the
root causes that make our community havens for dope sellers, mack
men, and hustlers.
The reality of the
Black experience in America has not only socialized us into living
illegitimate lives (in terms of capitalist law) but it has programmed
us to expect and look to the very institutions that created this
socialization in the first place, for solutions to our plight. We
ask for more police in our community, when it is the police that
serve a repressive role in maintaining our oppression. We condone
and glorify traitors and snitches, when in the future our very survival
will depend on ideals contrary to such vile acts. We ask for stiffer
jail sentences for those convicted as "criminals," when it is
prisons that help maintain destructive social relations in our community.
The fact that all of America is a prison escapes us. This reality
has enabled Black folk to adapt so readily to the transition from
"street life" to life behind the walls. There is a dialectical and
fundamental relationship between the two that reinforces the destructive
aspect of Black social relationships.
The weakening of
the Black family, the socialization of exploitive male female relationships,
the basic fabric that supports cultural genocide can all be found
in the
social role that prisons and crime play in a destructive subculture.
Hardly a Black family, hardly a Black person is without at least
one relative or friend behind prison
wails, or know of someone in human cold storage. Our social acceptance
of this cold fact is in reality our cultural response to the effect
of powerlessness as a people. We must begin to determine our lives
by creating community institutions of revolutionary justice outside
the structure of capitalist law. This means we must create armed
political organs in our community to enforce our community interest,
and create new values based on our people's social interest. It
will not do to forego this vital aspect of our struggle, we must
build it now.
Why is the construction
and maintenance of community based armed cadres necessary? Because
the enforcement of revolutionary justice in our communities is first
a political question that cannot be answered by the existing oppressive
system, but outside its control. Secondly, the very nature of corruption,
crime in our communities, the negative class role of the courts,
prisons, and other related institutions, must be combated with enforcement
of our own laws, laws beneficial to our people and our struggle
for liberation. Thirdly, if we construct our own agencies of revolutionary
justice, arm them and politicize their ranks, we are creating the
necessary
machinery for survival, while actively repressing those values and
elements in our community that prey on our people. Finally, we should
realize that until our powerless, poor, and unconscious people can
call someone else other than the oppressors' storm troopers for
protection, we are ineffective as a revolutionary movement.
Complementary to
creating our own social force of "law" enforcement is the struggle
to take over, dismantle, and weaken the oppressors police apparatus
in our community.
This apparatus must be neutralized at the same time that our own
apparatus is being built. The two are dialectically opposed to each
other, yet there is a complementary aspect. Community control of
police, residence of the police in the community in which they work,
are all reform issues that tactically are complementary to building
our own system of community revolutionary justice. These reform
issues should be the continued target of the mass front, while the
creation of community based armed cadres for the enforcement of
revolutionary justice is the proper province of clandestine activity.
We maintain that
in the social revolution for Black liberation, it is a principled
necessity that any creation of a national Black front must first
and foremost deal with the social effects of a destructive sub-culture
by creating and directing a system of revolutionary justice that
will protect and defend our people against reactionary behavior.
This is the social aspect of Black liberation for the immediate
future.
LEADERSHIP
OF THE STRUGGLE
It is important that
the leadership of our struggle come from among our own people, just
as it is crucial that we build the necessary machinery that will
develop this leadership. The problem of leadership has always been
a vexing one for Black people. We must break with the old style
of leadership forced upon us by the prevailing class standards or
we will fail in our struggle. Nonetheless, leadership is important,
especially to Black people, and without it we will never triumph
in our struggle.
It is past time that
Black intellectuals, professionals, and so-called Black scholars
assumed a more active role in the leadership of the liberation struggle,
instead of laying back theorizing and writing essays in a vacuum,
or in various Black bourgeois publications.
We realize that many
of our Black scholars have their minds in pawn to the ruling class,
we are not primarily addressing ourselves to these particular individuals,
but to those brothers and sisters who have a relatively high level
of awareness (political) and to those Black intellectuals who are
anti imperialist, anti capitalist) and pro Black liberation. It
is these Black intellectuals who must assume new positions of leadership
in our struggle by helping to build the necessary revolutionary
apparatus that will forge total liberation.
On the armed front
it is these intellectuals who must become the political leadership
and work in creating a far reaching and effective apparatus. Our
struggle for Black liberation is a revolutionary struggle, for it
implies the transformation of the whole of American society if it
is to succeed, and Black intellectuals have a clear obligation to
this process. We have seen how the capitalist state uses its intellectuals
and
institutions of "higher education" In order to continue, its exploitive
policies) and we as a people must utilize our professionals and
intellectuals in the total process of
liberation and destruction
of capitalistic society. Our principled call for a national Black
revolutionary front will never become a reality without such leadership
of Black intellectuals with concrete and clear revolutionary politics.
The B.L.A. will never
subordinate itself to such a front unless leadership of this caliber
is evident. Our intellectuals must make a firm commitment to improving
the quality of our struggle on all fronts, military, mass front,
electoral politics, legal front, etc. For us the creation of a revolutionary
front and its military arm are worthy tasks for our intellectuals
to pursue in the revolutionary process. There can be no struggle
without sacrifice, and our Black intellectuals must begin to apply
this principle to themselves as well as others.
It is clear to us
that the so-called lumpen class cannot carry our liberation struggle
forward on its own. This is because of their class nature: undisciplined,
dogmatic, and easily prone to diversion. This class however will
supply some of the most dedicated comrades to the struggle. 'But
we must clarify our view of the lumpen class as a whole. The traditional
concept of lumpen as a category of the lowest social strata in an
industrialized society, unemployed, etc., is a description that
fits not only brothers and sisters that hang out in the street all
day long and survive in that fashion, but it also fits a great segment
of Black people who are marginally employed and who for various
socio-economic reasons think essentially the same as the classical
"lumpen." Therefore, we must make a clear distinction between the
economic definition of lumpen (the relationship of that class to
the means of production) and the attitudinal, behavioral definition
which can readily apply to a larger proportion of our people. When
we use the term lumpen, we are using the broad definition.
The unemployment
rate among Black people is a little over twice that of the white
population, placing it roughly at 20%. This to us is still a conservative
estimate. But if we consider the population ratio of Blacks to whites,
such a high rate of unemployment represents a considerable number
of the total amount of Black people. Therefore, in strictly social
terms, the lumpen class represents a very large segment of the Black
population, a segment who in our estimation will be the first to
grasp the realities of capitalist repression. This as it may be,
we still realize the limitations of this class in moving our struggle
forward, their class tendencies make them ideal targets of the enemy,
as agents, infiltrators, as well as some of these same tendencies
contribute to making the lumpen class staunch comrades in struggle.
When we realize the real
limitations of this class, we as a movement will begin to create
a more dynamic revolutionary process.
The Black bourgeoisie
(from which most Black intellectuals, professionals, come) cannot
by themselves lead our struggle, not because they are incapable
of leadership but because their class nature is more reactionary
than revolutionary. The tendency to vacillate, compromise with the
ruling class enemy, opportunism, and lack of commitment to any revolutionary
principles, are typical traits of this class. It is from this
class that the enemy has drawn the majority of so-called "endorsed"
spokesmen, and it is this class from which the majority of poverty
pimps spring forth.
But this class can
supply the movement with some dynamic leadership as well as devoted
comrades. Those truly progressive elements of the Black bourgeoisie
that
can be won over to the side of the liberation struggle should be
focused on by the movement and principally dealt with. The failure
of the liberation movement to put the Black bourgeoisie principally
against the wall is inexcusable. For if the people are to understand
the impotency of our bourgeoisie, its opportunism, and the role
they are made to play in maintaining our collective oppression,
the movement as a whole must
create conditions that will lead to such an understanding.
We have witnessed
the ruling class crisis of Watergate, and the division it has caused
within the ruling circles. This division was essentially based on
repairing the body politic of capitalist rule. The "crisis of confidence
in government" was a crisis for the
ruling economical circles, for they had to not only restore "faith"
in their system of rule (political system) but they also had to
find a political front man upon which they all could
agree, and in whom the masses would have some degree of confidence.
Yet the revelations of Watergate (which were essentially of a political
nature dealing with the ruling class parties) had profound implications
for our struggle. It hinted at the extent to which our movement
has and is repressed by the reactionary government. An ideal opportunity
existed for the movement as a whole to put our so-called "elected
leaders"
of the Black bourgeoisie against the wall. But the movement never
seized the opportunity presented. No consistent widespread call
was put to Black politicians to conduct a unilateral investigation
into the government repression of the Black liberation struggle,
and into political espionage against the Black movement. Such a
demand could have revealed glaring repression (and thereby weaken
the mental residual belief in our oppressors' "fair" system) or
as was more likely, the real impotency of our Black elected officials
would have been clearly revealed (thereby weakening the confidence
in bourgeois electoral politics to effect change). Of course no
such widespread call was made, and therefore no such result. It
is this lack of practical class struggle that inhibits the growth
of the mass front. The Black bourgeoisie must be put into objective
conditions that can benefit our struggle, or enhance the people's
awareness as to what they are "truly about. Only in this way can
those progressive elements within their ranks
come to the fore.
The majority of Black
people are workers and as such suffer all the exploitation of the
working class in a capitalist society. In addition to this, however,
Black workers suffer the vicious effect of institutionalized racism.
Black workers are the lowest paid, the most marginally employed,
and the most economically insecure. The impact of technology will
further erode -the employ-ability of the Black worker, for in the
majority of cases the educational background of Black workers are
lower than their white counterparts. Education for Blacks has always
been another method of programming Black people into the lowest
strata of capitalist society insuring generations of exploitable
and marginal labor.
We view the Black
working class as the basis for the success of our struggle, not
because of its political consciousness (which is still very low)
and not because of its class nature (more disciplined, industrious),
but because of its sheer numbers and
because of its economic role in the Black community. We do not think
that Black workers' relationship to the productive forces of this
society is essentially different from any other class of Blacks
due to racism. Although there are some differences there seem to
be no essential differences. Black folks in total suffer the same
relationship to capitalist productive forces, some more so than
others, but all essentially the same.
Just as we have made
a distinction between the purely economic definition of the lumpen
and the attitudinal definition of the lumpen, we are forced to make
a similar distinction between bourgeois attitudes and working class
attitudes. All those who must work are workers, but all workers
are not of the working class. Such as police and prison guards who
serve a reactionary class function, or those that work, yet maintain
the upper middle class behavioral patterns and attitudes.
We therefore define
the working class (and bourgeoisie) not solely on their economic
relationship to the productive forces, but also on how they view
themselves and society and behave as a result. Thus the Black bourgeoisie
is a sham bourgeoisie, for it has no real economic base (in comparison
to white capital) but its attitudes are real and strongly affect
their class character. The Black working class has the economical
basis
of a working class, but many of them have the mentality of the sham
bourgeoisie, which effects their social response to certain class
ideas. Thus you have a Black family that can barely make ends meet
with all the ideas of the Black bourgeoisie, "putting their daughter
through school society," attending "cocktail sips," etc. Nonetheless,
we perceive the Black working class as the socioeconomic basis of
Black liberation. The Black working class, like any other unconscious
working class has no
revolutionary identity at best, no consciousness of itself as a
revolutionary class. To move the enemy is to move the working class,
for the enemy is the factor that determines our relationship to
each other. This can only be done through active
struggle on all fronts, it is the sum total of this process that
brings about revolutionary conditions, not the parts in and by themselves.
We can then say that
the leadership 'of the Black liberation struggle will come from
the most advanced elements within each class of the Black population,
and because of the objective conditions certain classes will gravitate
toward particular fronts of struggle more so than others, and it
is on these particular fronts of struggle that leadership will be
developed, culminating in some form of collective leadership for
the entire movement (as conditions dictate such unity for mutual
survival). We already see this trend in the movement today. However,
the basis of the movement will increasingly
depend on the Black working class and its ability to perceive the
nature of capitalism, racism, and the politics of these twin evils
as they relate to our survival as a people. The primary factor in
developing such a consciousness is the enemy, is increasing crisis,
and social reaction to his dilemma. Therefore we must increase his
problems a thousand fold, while building our capacity to struggle.
Yet we do not see the Black
bourgeoisie as the primary class leading the masses of Black people
into a higher degree of revolutionary consciousness. Experience
has taught us that the Black bourgeoisie as a class has certain
ideological tendencies. It is these tendencies if not
curbed, that limit the revolutionary potential of this class of
Blacks. The era of civil rights, has shown us that any thrust of
our liberation struggle primarily led by this class will never exceed
the bourgeois goals of the class itself. Such being the case, the
racist ruling circles have always found it more "acceptable" to
concede to Black bourgeois demands and thereby diffuse any revolutionary
movement among the
masses of Blacks who are not yet conscious of their revolutionary
potential. The racist oppressor has a natural ally in the Black
bourgeoisie, because this class above all is
the most opportunist.
We still hold fast
to the premise that the Black bourgeoisie in the U.S. is essentially
a colonial type bourgeoisie, that at one moment supports the legitimate
aspirations of the "colony" (for its own bourgeois ends) and at
other moments opposes these
aspirations when their bourgeois leadership position is threatened.
The history of the reformist civil rights phase of the Black liberation
struggle proves "this beyond a doubt.
Recognition of these tendencies in this class of Blacks should not
deter the revolutionary segment of the movement from requiring of
the Black bourgeoisie certain responsibilities, namely, that it
is still their duty to build a movement that will lead in the ultimate
destruction of the capitalist state and self determination for Black
people for only under these conditions will our survival as a people
(a free people) manifest itself.
Considering our just
given overview of the classes, and class nature of the Black liberation
struggle, we contend that if the Black working class is the basis
for our struggle succeeding, and that each of the primary categories
of the Black population
will assume some leadership responsibilities in leading the struggle,
the primary category of Blacks that will constitute the dynamic
revolutionary leadership of the movement will be the Black students,
and youth as well as those young Black adults
who have acquired the basics of professional training but have refused
to continue in the same narrow vein as their parents. The crucial
element in developing this dynamic potential is the training of
this segment of the Black population. Our youth, students and young
fledgling professionals must be politicized more, involved in struggle,
and trained in the art of protracted war. Over half of the Black
population is under the age of
30, and we as a movement must realize their true potential. For,
if we don't, the enemy surely will, and intensify their programs
aimed at dehabilitating our young.
WHAT
IS PROTRACTED WAR IN THE BLACK LIBERATION STRUGGLE?
If the nature of
the crisis of the system of oppression is protracted, that is, drawn
out over a considerable period of time, then our struggle to defeat
this exploitive system
and acquire self determination is also of a protracted nature. But
why a protracted war?
The very reality
of Black people's experience in North America proves that we are
and have been in a state of war. This is a difficult realization
for many to make, especially those who still have their minds in
pawn to the great American delusion, but often the truth is harsh
in its naked form. The nature of this war assumes many different
guises, sometimes overtly violent, sometimes economically restrictive,
and still other times
socially repressive. If we bear in mind that the modern wars of
U.S. imperialism waged against Third World people have not all been
completely military campaigns, but have also included social pacification
programs, economic aid to reactionary regimes, political police
extermination of legitimate opposition and the like, then it should
not be too hard for us to realize that in its policies against Blacks,
poor people, and other national minorities, the U.S. government
is waging an undeclared war. The primary aspects of this undeclared
war are class repression, and casualties can be counted on both
the welfare unemployment rolls, and the statistics of murdered Black
youth and prison crime reports.
This undeclared war
has masked itself as "domestic reform," "law and order," and "a
return to traditional American values" a la Nixonian doctrine. The
ending of overt U.S. military involvement in Vietnam has led to
an increasingly reactionary stance on the part of the majority of
white Americans. The vile and deceitful nature of America's institutions
were revealed glaringly by the Vietnam imperialist venture, and
has cast
many into the pit of uncertainty.
Of course the post
Vietnam revelations of government deception told Black people nothing
"new" about the ruling class institutions of American society. But
it revealed
these institutions for what they are, for the first time America
could see what was perpetrated in their name. This was/is most uncomfortable,
for white America cherishes its self deceptions of righteousness
and democracy. With the eroding of these self delusions, our position
as a national minority has become increasingly endangered. There
is the foul odor of reactionary "Americanism" in the air, fanned
and blown into the confused faces of white America by a ruling class
beset with all manner
of economic political and social ills - - which demand attention.
(The landslide victory of Nixon in '72 was an endorsement, conscious
or unconscious, of white America's deep seated reactionary nature
and confusion as manifested in the Nixonian doctrine).
Imperialism is the
final stage of over-developed capitalism. It is the international
control of monopoly corporate capital over the economic, social,
and political lives of over half the world's people. Imperialism
is also the extension of the capitalist ruling class's political
control on the international level, which has called into existence
the organization of neo-colonial relationships with the national
bourgeoisie of former
colonies. Neo-colonialism, then, is the highest stage of imperialism,
for it substitutes the faces of the oppressor while maintaining
the exploitive relationship of imperialism.
Because imperialism is international in scope, the fight against
it must also be international. For until all people affected by
it are free, no one will be free. Capitalism must be destroyed wherever
it exists and we must mutually support each others
struggles against it. To relate Pan-Africanism to the realities
of the world today, we must never lose sight of the true nature
of imperialism and its number one exponent, U.S. imperialism. Pan-Africanism
that does not deal with neo-colonialist lackeys, but instead obscures
the exploitive policies of these lackeys for the sake of Blackness,
is nothing more than bourgeois nationalism taken to the international
level. A Pan-Africanism that does not support the struggles of other
Third World peoples against reactionary imperialist control, is
not true revolutionary internationalism, and hence narrow cultural
nationalism on the international level. In order for Pan-Africanism
to be truly progressive, it must not only advocate the necessity
for Black international unity against racism, it must put racism
in its true perspective. It must also advocate
Black and Third World unity against imperialism and neo-colonialism
everywhere. Which means internal solidarity among national minorities
within the confines of the U.S. A Pan-Africanism that does not clarify
to Black people the economic basis for all national oppression cannot
possibly explain the very fact that there are Black governments
that exploit and assist in the oppression of Black people, and therefore
will be unable to deal with the dialectics of racism correctly.
It is the duty, therefore, of Pan-Africanism, to clarify and explain
to Black people exactly who the enemy is. The enemy is international
capitalism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism, and all those in league
with these reactionary forces on the world scene.
The question of which
road against racism and imperialism for the Black liberation movement
here in the U.S., is a question that has been kicked around by everyone
from doctrinaire narrow Black nationalists to the most reformist
minded "Black
intellectuals." Although it is not our intention to answer this
question in its entirety, it is our intention to make the following
points:
1.
Whatever the ideological differences within the liberation movement
here in the U.S., our movement must persuade those countries that
are Black and truly anti imperialist, to take a principled stand
on the issue of political fugitives from the
shores of the U.S.A.
2. That the nature of imperialism and racism requires of all those
that oppose these twin evils the utmost in mutual support short
of actual interference within the national struggle of a particular
people.
In respect to point
number one, it should be obvious to all elements of the Black liberation
movement that things will get worse before they can possibly get
better. The crisis of the capitalist system, increased domestic
reaction, and other factors indicate that Black people will feel
the ramifications of contradictions more so than any other class
or group in this country. We can no longer sit by and rationalize
the fact of the
repressive apparatus of the ruling classes arrayed against our struggle.
It would be incorrect for any responsible movement activist not
to prepare for eventualities that the struggle for liberation may
be confronted with.
We all must consider
that any intensification of our struggle will lead to an increase
of repression. This should not be feared as the pseudo revolutionaries
would have us do. Instead, we should see any intensification of
repression as a necessary result of our increased efforts toward
full freedom and prepare for it. Essential to such preparation is
the establishment of principles of political sanctuary beyond the
shores of the
imperialist U.S.
We cannot but note
that a real friend does not turn you away from his door in times
of danger, and just as those independent and progressive nations
of Africa principally support and give sanctuary to the freedom
fighters of Africa, it is equally as principled that the movement
for Black liberation within the U.S. be supported in a like fashion.
Every group, every organization in the struggle for self determination,
should put "this request high on the agenda of tasks to be dealt
with. Our movement as a whole should make the principled stand that
our right to struggle) and the mutual obligation to support all
anti imperialist movements is more than mere rhetoric, and as such
we as a movement should be supported on the international level.
The second point
deals with the basis for our contention that support is necessary,
for without a unity in effort world wide imperialism will not be
defeated, nor racism eradicated.
It is the international
web of U.S. imperialism, its profound effect on the lives of the
worlds people that puts our struggle in such a crucial strategic
position. International support should be based on this strategic
premise, for if self determination is a
legitimate goal of our struggle it will ultimately become an international
question. As a movement we will be unable to create the principled
international support necessary if we do not speak as one voice.
Thus the principle of a National Front has clear international implications
and is conducive in creating a unity in effort on the international
level. To create the type of solidarity needed we should emphasize
practical approached. Sanctuary for our movement's activists is
a practical approach
that can develop into the establishment of a permanent strategic
headquarters abroad, out of the immediate reach of the enemy, and
able to give strategic guidance to the movement during heightened
repression. There are other such practical approaches already in
motion.
It is incorrect for
those involved in the struggle to attend international conferences
without putting -the question of practical and principled support
of our movement on the
agenda, this every organization should at least agree with in principle.
In terms of international solidarity, the same principle holds true
for other progressive nations that also holds true for us. We rely
primarily upon our own resources but we do not refuse revolutionary
aid offered in the spirit of solidarity. Our principle of self reliance
is not compromised as a result of seeking concrete international
support, it is enhanced by
its revolutionary nature.
We find it absurd
that many brothers and sisters can support the armed struggles in
Africa and not support the armed front at home. This is adopting
the posture of solidarity with the essential spirit and revolutionary
substance. It comes as no surprise than that progressive struggles
do not support our movement as they should, how can they when we
ourselves do not support our own? In the final analysis true revolutionary
internationalism begins at home. It begins with basic principles
of revolutionary struggle.
In summation, the
Black Liberation Movement must move forward into the international
arena with clear revolutionary politics instead of "community oriented
perspective"
devoid of broad and far reaching understanding. Revolutionary nationalism
is and must be revolutionary internationalism, Pan-Africanism if
it is to be revolutionary must express not only international Black
solidarity, but revolutionary solidarity with ail oppressed peoples
struggles against U.S. imperialism.
ALLIANCES
WITH WHITES
We are opposed to
unprincipled class collaboration in our struggle for liberation,
for unprincipled class collaboration can only weaken and dilute
our struggle. On the other hand, we uphold the principle of unity
based on struggle around issues that relate to our peoples revolutionary
development. The principle of unity on struggle does not remove
our right to principled criticism of reactionary ideas and struggle
with incorrect views.
The question of Black
White alliances is both a tactical and strategic question of policy,
that can only be answered by given objective conditions and not
by emotional reflex. Many brothers and sisters think that under
no circumstances should we as Black people enter into alliances
with whites. These comrades consistently confuse alliance with bourgeois
integration, or they maintain that all whites are our enemy, and
therefore to have any alliance with whites can only lead to co-optation
of our forces. Still other arguments maintain that in Black White
alliances we will be "fronted off" and for whites' own benefit.
Some argue these views ideologically, in that they believe that
a method) ideological system, if invented by whites cannot be adapted
to, modified and developed to serve Black folks. It is a good thing
Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Amilcar Cabral, Kim II Sung and a host of other
revolutionaries who led successful struggles did not think with
such blinders.
The root cause of
such incorrect views of alliances with whites is "fear" and lack
of confidence in the forces that we ourselves build, we as a people
are not at all used to dealing with white folks from a position
of power and we fear that we will be
manipulated against our will. Another contributing factor in creating
our narrow perspectives is the fact that because we lack a clear
understanding of class struggle we are unable to see the real differences
that exist among whites themselves, and are unable to exploit these
differences for our own struggle. Nothing is absolute, including
white folks and their alleged unity. To persist in the incorrect
view that whites are
all embracing in their unity among other whites is a stupid and
childish myth that we have as a people. It is a confusion an oppressed
people make when confronted with a seemingly all powerful system
of oppression, we have confused the appearance of the system with
its substance. In capitalist society class struggle, inter group
antagonism, ethnocentric divisions, are all at the basis of such
a system. Competition is the order of the day, and class unity,
group unity, are all transitory, subject to change at any given
moment. The historical fact that out of such conflict racism has
evolved as culturally typical of all white society should not obscure
the real differences among whites based on economic, social, and
political position, we combat racism with revolutionary
nationalism and a Black revolutionary united front, not with reactionary
nationalism and racism. We combat economic exploitation with revolutionary
class struggle waged
against the capitalist class and their flunkies. These are the methods
the movement should employ, revolutionary nationalism secures in
our own hands our movement for
self determination, and thus combats the historical dynamic of white
racism, while revolutionary class struggle allows us to defeat our
class oppressor and enter into alliance beneficial to us.
Revolutionary struggle
is a process, and like all things, goes through stage of development,
setbacks, and periods of dormancy, at one point uniting seemingly
contradictory elements, and at another eliminating these elements.
The principles of united fronts, principled alliances, are basic
recognition of this dialectical process of social change. Alliances
based on revolutionary class consciousness and around our
national interests as a people can never be "integration." Integration
is a class collaboration of an unprincipled and reactionary nature,
for it is based on the revolutionary considerations of our struggle
must be principled ones, its principle characteristic being our
own working class interests as a people.
Does this mean Black
White worker solidarity at any coast? Black White worker solidarity
cannot be attained at any cost, but at a particular cost. We do
not agree with white leftist revisionists the Black and white workers
share the same interests because they are both workers. While this
may be true on a tactical level (specific struggles around certain
issues), it is not true on a strategic level. Strategically speaking
(long range) the Black workers ultimate goal is the same as the
masses of Blacks, which is toward national self determination as
a people, the creation of a socialist state, or Black nation places
different requirements on Black worker our move is for
autonomy our working class must not exist for any other state but
our own. Whereas the white worker has an historical obligation to
create his own socialist relationships. The cultural, and social
dynamics of racism mandates this distinction if we are not to fail
victim to poorlessness in the future when capitalist relations are
abolished. National self determination is therefore a necessary
stage for both Blacks and whites in
creating new human beings able to relate to each other. Thus Black
worker white worker solidarity can only be a tactical policy not
a complete strategy having as its end one socialist entity as the
revisionists would have us believe. Recognition of our right to
national self determination is not compromised when we clearly understand
our tasks as a movement. Both the establishment of a Black revolutionary
Nation based on
socialist relations, and overthrowing the present capitalist system
and establishment of predominantly white workers state, are complementary
struggles, and as such there
will be tactical unity around issues that affect both Black and
white workers. This is not integration.
On the armed front,
solidarity is based upon revolutionary action. We recognize the
legitimacy of all revolutionary violence against the capitalist
corporate state, its ruling
classes, and its institutions. Militarily speaking, clandestine
alliances between different revolutionary armed formations is a
matter of coordinating command first. Until such time as the armed
front develops its logistical machinery in depth, such coordination
of command is unlikely. But for the Black liberation movement, its
armed front, and its entire clandestine network, there is no hang-up
concerning ideological, or military control of our struggle by whites.
Organized armed struggle has freed us of this fear so typical on
the mass front. Our formations are Black led controlled and organized
to win our fight for liberation.
The Black liberation
movement must be a principled and revolutionary movement, or it
will be unable to lead our struggle for freedom forward to final
victory. The question of
Black White alliance is not a question of should we form such alliances,
but a question of when and with whom. To consider an tactical alliances
that are in our own best interests, and that strengthen our struggles
position as "integrationist," is therefore an incorrect view to
ally oneself with something is not to necessarily bring that thing
into your ranks and give it control over your political policy.
We refute all ideas that confuse principle revolutionary unity with
unprincipled class collaboration.
In closing, it is
clear that there is still much to be learned, and our movement will
surely encounter difficulties and setbacks in the coming years.
We must prepare ourselves, our people, and our ideas for the long
and difficult road ahead. Our preparation must be thorough and complete,
for our very existence will depend on how well we prepare on all
fronts of the struggle. We are in the turbulent years, the hard
years. Black people
and oppressed people throughout the world are entering the season
of struggle.
THE
SOONER BEGUN, THE SOONER DONE!
The
Black Liberation Army
ORIGINALLY
RELEASED 1976/1977 |