Conversations in the park

She was like the city itself, broken from a lifetime of struggle, barely standing. Yet, there was still a fire there, still a spark of revolution in her eye. As she spouted pseudo Black nationalist rhetoric, mixed with a tinge of astrology and conspiracy, I was overcome with a strong sense of grief. It was obvious that she had been using some kind of substance, that the ills of Reagan’s final blow to Black radicalism were flowing through her veins. Still, there was a fiery determination in her speech, a need to educate and liberate, a need to get free. Like the city, itself, she was broken and devastated from waging a battle against the state and yet, despite loosing, she soldiered on. She was Oakland.

Oakland is a city shaken from struggle. The increased pig presence reminds the onlooker that there is a deep fear of the population. This is the city that spawned the Black Panther Party, after all. This is the city that dared to stand against the fascist and demand liberation. The people of Oakland stand on the legacy of the Panther’s war with the White capitalist state apparatus. And though they were ultimately defeated there is still the residue of struggle here. It’s in the air. The children know they stand on hallowed ground, and every pseudo revolutionary from Riverside to Richmond VA is dying to come set up shop in the former base of the revolution. This is the city whose ports were shut down by the militant longshoremen in protest of Apartheid in South Africa, this is the city where the last general strike in US history was held, this is Oakland. And sadly like many sites of former battle it has walking wounded.

This womyn brought out both pride and grief in me, simultaneously. She was the perfect example of what happens when one gives their all to an organization believing that their every move is bringing revolution closer, only to have the rug yanked violently and suddenly from underneath. Like many rank and file ex-panthers she probably succumb to the onslaught of drugs in the 80′s and without enough focus on developing the rank and file theoretically by the organization, fell into confusion and disarray after the party’s destruction. But still, equipped with her pamphlets and rhetoric, she marches on, an army of one. Not all of the heroes from the 60′s can be found photographed on the shiny pages in the middle of long self-important autobiographies. Many of them are walked past daily, many found singing songs of revolution to themselves on the BART, asking for change. This system may have won the battle against them, stripping them of public dignity, but the spirit of revolution still burns bright in many of them. Still yearns to get free and set the world ablaze.

I have lived in the Bay Area for 5 years and Oakland for a few months and it has been one of the richest experiences of my life to be here, to develop politically here, to experience love, loss, struggle and strife here. There is no place like it. This meeting, although filled with mixed feelings, affirmed that for me.

If Ridge St Could Talk II: To The Lumpen Mass. . .

* lumpen= people who aren’t working class or the bourgeoisie. The lower class ie prostitutes, pimps, dboys, etc. . .

I was recently in a discussion with some friends about the lumpen proletariat and their place in the over all revolution against Capitalism. One of my friends, an activist in the homeless rights struggle was at odds with another of my friends because he diss the lumpen, claiming that they have no place in the revolution. I said the following

It’s really interesting because I agree and disagree with Huey and the Panthers on this point. Organizing oppressed communities, in particular Black and Brown ones, means your going to be dealing with the Lumpen. And I agree with Huey that they need to be placed inside of the thought of bringing about revolution under capitalism. Marx analysis was based and limited to the time he lived in, he did not project into the future and so his analysis of the lumpen follows the same way. What constitutes the lumpen now is very different and Boone is right in his aggression towards certain parts of the Lumpen. Huey himself said that certain parts of the Lumpen couldn’t be organized such as pimps. It is very difficult growing up in a place where you are surrounded by pimps, prostitutes, DBoys etc. . . I know when I was growing up I developed a hostility towards them and still harbor ill feelings (it’s hard not to when people are selling poison to their own, you know and your immediate family are victims of that) However, I am trying to always remember that I hate this system, which has produced the lumpen, more. That people are shaped by their conditions. Another interesting point that I picked up speaking to an ex panther the other day was how detrimental the Panthers being the party devoted to organizing the lumpen was. The Ex Panther was saying, and I agree, that the working class is the only class that can bring about revolution under the Capitalist system because of their relations to the ruling class and the means of production. Thus, the working class is the revolutionary class. Marx was right on this, however I agree that it is essential that we start a new pedagogy that has a place for the lumpen, they are the most effected by this Capitalist system in many ways. And if we are talking about updating the Left and making it relevant well. . .

It’s funny cause this all started with me reciting a lyric from a Digable Planets song. “To the lumpen mass. . .”

If Ridge. St Could Talk: Casual Blog 1

So last night I went to an event in West Oakland, a forum of sorts. Usually I am not a forum type of person because they bore and aggravate me to no end. Alot of the big political organizing bodies tend to put on these forums that usually end with the endorsement of some whack candidate for some office, and to top it off they usually cost. People who know me know that I am forever trying to find “free” events because I am broke, and that I hate to be in places that are filled with people who annoy me, so needless to say, I usually don’t go to these forums/ talks.

This one, however, was different. First off it was free, so you know a brotha was already hooked. Secondly, it was being put on by people in my political milieu, who are not creepy and off putting, like most other shower deprived revolutionaries trying to sell you a newspaper. =) Anyway, I need to be talking about this event!

So the event was all about the role of the Black Panther Party in Labor struggles (or lack thereof). Interesting right? I know. And it was basically, a former member of the New York branch of the Panthers running down some history and his thoughts on the group. Alot of the stuff I already knew about the Panthers. For example: the fact that they were an organization made up primarily of young men (16-19) who gained inspiration from Malcolm X and third world/ anti-imperialism struggles and who sought to bring about Black Liberation in this country.

The talk got interesting when the speaker began to talk about one of the key problems with the Panthers being their romantic relationship with those who would be called the lumpen-proletariat. For those of you who don’t know what that means, lemme break it down. In base Marxist theory, the proletariat are the revolutionary class, the class of people that will bring about the revolution to over throw Capitalism. They are the working class of people, those who are responsible for making society run, producing commodities, etc. . . They are revolutionary because of their proximity to the means of production and their alienation/ oppression under Capitalism by the ruling class which owns the means of production and wealth of society. The contradiction being that if organized the working class, the proletariat, could completely over throw the system as is and instead run it for themselves, communally. (Anyway that ain’t what this is about) SO. . . the lumpen-proletariat (which roughly translates to “depressed worker”) are those who would be involved in the informal economy or those who are more or less in some instances parasites on the working class. ie Pimps, & DBoys and homeless people & prostitutes (the last two not so much parasites) The speaker suggested that one of the prime problems with Panther pedagogy was the chose of the Panthers to be organizers of the lumpen primarily, which is why you don’t see so much labor struggle going on.

He went on to say that one of the problems with organizing the lumpen is that they are not in the position to create revolution in this country, the lumpen do not have the relationship with the means of production, with the bourgeoisie to over throw capital. He also suggested that part of the party’s gang like mentality, which led to alot of unhealthy internal behavior came from their “lumpenism” as he called it.

The speaker also made the interesting point that, like many other groups in the 60′s, the Panthers came about with no real guidance from the “old left” (thanks red scare) and bypassed reading Marx, instead cheerleading Third World anti-imperialism struggles and guerrilla warfare.

Criticisms aside we did begin to talk about how the Panthers were key in organizing and working with workers at a Nummi plant and helping them to go on strike, this being a part of history that is often overlooked and ignored. All and all it was an interesting discussion, I would say more but I am feeling my midday nap come on a little early and I have run out of notes.

Crunch.