Musings on Art, “Culture”, & Revolution

Nina Simone’s “Young Gifted and Black” a political anthem of affirmation

I want to issue a call out to all artists, revolutionaries, and anyone else who seeks to affiliate themselves with the class struggle. The heading will read: “URGENT!!! Class Struggle Seeks Culture.” Thoughts surrounding the absence of any critical amount of organic art and the lack of any kind of synthesis of the so-called elements of “culture” into the class struggle hae been racing through my mind.

Class struggle is apart of and comes from the cultures of the oppressed but for some reason leftists and ethnocrats have drawn lines in the sand between the two. It has become a tendency in the left to mock cultural events as being non political, when, in my opinion, the expression of culture that differs and establishes its independence under white supremacy is political because it strikes against the very structure that seeks to assimilate it. It’s true, at times strong class struggle politics that seek to organize along more radical, and less “beg the man” lines, are missing and this is a very crucial element. However, the outright absence of the so-called “left” in these spaces does nothing but contribute to this void.

It also follows, that there has become a habit amongst the ethnocrats, and by ethnocrat I mean the large bodies that organize around ethnicity with very dogmatic lines on what is and what isn’t, to ignore more radical class struggle politics. The line of it being a “white man’s thing” in reference to Marxist tradition is often used. And emphasis is placed on finding and creating something of “our own”. The main problem being that if one does not call out and attempt to strike at the nature of capital itself than true liberation cannot happen seeing as though the pillars of capitalism, racism, and sexism all hold up the same house. Striking at one pillar while seeking to preserve the others does not truly serve the cause.This brings us to the core of the empty rhetoric; there is no class consciousness. This comes as a result of lack of exposure to revolutionary text and people or an outright rejection of the contributions to class struggle by Marx and Lenin stemming, in most cases, from a reaction to the vicious racism of the White Capitalist system of the United States. Thus anything “White” is bad. Fred Hampton once stated the following:

people joining the BPP from a background of poverty might not understand the ultimate goal of “a communistic state”. Without political education, those who joined the party because they “wanted something”, would find themselves wanting more. This would lead the revolutionary movement to capitalism, and “before you know it, you’ve got Negro imperialists”.

These two diametric trains of thought provide us with no real path toward people’s liberation because they are missing one another. In the White Supremacist power structure, it is crucial that oppressed people of color reclaim what has been viciously stolen from them, what the system has attempted to beat out of them. Culture informs us, it informs the steps we take and contributes to the creativity and strength of the coming revolution. In the same vein, the contributions to revolutionary thought and action must all be looked at equally and used accordingly. If we are to say that we are about people’s revolution then we cannot lock ourselves into one dogmatic corner of the human experience.

On a similar topic, but maybe not quite, I began talking about the lack of a strong and organic output of art that compliments and a accompanies the movement. I am immediately reminded of Emory Douglas, of the Black Panthers, in the 60′s and 70′s. In an interview Douglas spoke about how the party would make scans of his art and hang them in the streets, on fences and everywhere else as a means of bringing the bourgeois art show concept into the street and of agitation. Music, and image have the power to touch people in a way that not a million words can because they strike at the being of a person, they touch at the “spirit” if you will.

A piece by Douglas

However, looking at the current situation one can see on the horizon a time when this type of renaissance will make a resurgence. If history shows us anything, it is that the majority of the art community becomes political when the conditions intensify to a degree that cannot be ignored.

One of my favorite poems about police brutality.

On Jumping The Broom

It’s an odd feeling. It’s the same odd feeling I had returning home for winter break in 2008 after Obama won the election. Looking onto my mother’s smile as we sat in her section 8 apartment, void of heat in the middle of the winter thanks to faulty city government controlled heating, going over our whereabouts during the historic announcement of Obama’s victory. There was almost something heartbreaking about my silence, I felt as if I was betraying her. She was elated and went on and on about the change that was sure to come, the long struggle of Africans in this country was sure to be on an upswing. The Obama victory, transcended the physical and political for her, and many that grew up in the filth of segregation and the muck of South during that time. The victory was spiritual, sending waves of energy, renewal to Black people everywhere, pulling them up. My concern at the time, and still is today, was where the “up” may lead. As I sat there I felt a profound sadness, that my mind was full of thoughts that contradicted her optimism, that I could only think the Obama presidency would serve to pacify a once radical and active part of the nation, that Black people would trade raised fists and revolution for business suits and capitalist dreams (not to say that the Black population was previously immune to the desire to want to assimilate to the white capitalist oppressor’s idea of success). The presidency makes Blacks and other people of color in this country want what they can never truly have; to be amerikkkan in every sense, while blinding them to the on going brutality of the capitalist system because the great hope sits in the white house. As my mother went on I retreated deeper into meditation on how decades of extreme oppression could have led to a belief and acceptance of the system, all the while she was beaming, near tears.

I find myself in a similar situation now with the overturning of prop 8 in california, which now means it’s legal for gay couples to marry in this state. As a parade marches down Market street I sit finding little joy in the situation and feeling terrible about it. I want to see people happy, and it means the world to me to see people who have been beat down, by this barbarous system, experience some piece of happiness. However, as someone committed to radical change and someone who believes that the fight for revolution is just as much one about ways of thinking as it is about physical change, I cannot be completely happy or silent in this victory, just as I am not with many reforms the state throws down. I find little joy in the fact that my decision to couple monogamously has been approved by the state and that I may now enter into bourgeois property relations with another, just as my hetero counterparts do.

I have arrived at my conclusion, as I stated before, because I don’t believe in the institution of marriage. Marriage serves as one of the pillars of the capitalist system, supporting racism, sexism and the like. To understand this, one must understand the history and function of marriage in the capitalist state. The institution of marriage has served a means of power accumulation through the merging of property, and wealth. Womyn, in this scheme have been made into pawns, things to be traded. It is partially through marriage that bourgeois society has been able to accumulate, and maintain wealth. Currently, it maintains this function but also serves as it’s purpose to a higher degree when the factor of race coupled with class come into play. Meaning, it (marriage) has served to maintain the economic gap between whites and non whites, in particular Blacks and Latinos, who find themselves in lower social economic levels. This gap is kept by the fact that usually people marry in their same socio-economic bracket, thus wealth in the higher brackets finds it easier to consolidate and accumulate while it has disastrous effects in the lower ones, due to existing economic oppression and political repression. All of this is said in the hopes that I can give a basic outline of how marriage is a.) a tool of bourgeois society, b.) a engine in the capitalist machine, and c.) an institution which helps to maintain racism and sexism. One reading this can then ask the question: “But aren’t there benefits to marriage? and doesn’t gay marriage help to break down the old order?”

The benefits found in marriage, esp the ones being used as reason to vote “yes” on gay marriage, are privatized rights and incentives. For example, being visited in the hospital shouldn’t be something controlled by the state in the first place and shouldn’t be limited. People, who are capable of being in control of themselves should be able to assert their judgement over who is and isn’t allow. In this sense, as in many others, gay marriage serves only to strengthen state authority and capitalist social relations through the allure of obtaining what should already be yours.

Proponents of gay marriage also usually state that legalized same sex marriage can serve to break down patriarchy and sexism through it’s inherent radicalism. This is another false statement, seeing as though the basis of the campaign is assimilation and built on exploitation. One of the chief things at work in the organizing to legalize same sex marriage is racism and patriotism rivaling manifest destiny. The rights of immigrants have haphazardly been thrown around stating that many same sex couples consist of amerikkkans coupled with immigrants. Usually this picture consist of a white and a non white immigrant, and paints the picture of an immigrant of color bound to the hellish conditions of the third world while their white partner offers them “freedom” in this new world we call amerikkka. Never once, however, has the gay rights movement sought to link itself to the struggles of immigrants of people of color in any way which is genuine and parasitical. Slogans of “Gay is the New Black” seem cheap and hollow when Black queers were reported to be attacked at anti prop 8 rallies with the rhetoric of the Black vote deciding the prop 8 verdict in the air. It all seems pretty cheap when never once has a position on the immigrant struggle been taken by the leaders of the gay rights movement. In San Francisco, where I live, the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) has never mobilized to go down the street to the Mission (a predominantly Latino community) and intervene in the terrorist ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) raids that occurred frequently. This lack of solidarity makes the blanket statements claim otherwise seem transparent. It must be realized that this movement is led by the bourgeois sectors of the gay community and thus fought with their ideology. And what of womyn? What has this male centric movement done to address sexism and incorporate queer womyn? It has often been the case that queer womyn have gone to bat, protested and fought for gay rights and all the while the word “gay” may as well be replaced with “male”. The gay thing in many cases has always been about the dick. As violence against womyn through the state apparatus increase, in particular in the case of abortion, the gay rights movement has been dangerously silent. Where was GLAAD when Missouri enacted a law stating that womyn considering abortion must be made to listen to the heartbeat of the unborn, that they must undergo psychological evaluations as if they are not adults in control of their own bodies and lives? A car made of faulty parts is inherently faulty and made worse when it is pointed and steered in the wrong direction. It is important that we continue to make these arguments, that despite momentary excitement, we stay critical and argue for what we believe is correct because if we don’t then we become slaves to reformism and not advocates of the revolutionary society we ascribe to.

Earlier today I had a conversation with someone about the nature of this newest reform by the state and it’s connection to the revolution. They referred me to a piece written on the subject by Sherry Wolf on the website “Socialist Organizer” (http://socialistworker.org/2008/11/20/case-for-gay-marriage). In this piece, Wolf argues that the left mustn’t denounce the battle for marriage equality, which I agree with, but should work within the struggle. The point of divergence from my agreement with Wolf comes when she states:

“Leftists take these stands for reforms because we understand that the capitalist system and its imperial might won’t fall in one fell swoop. Reformist struggles themselves create the organizational and human material necessary for a further transformation of society. Moreover, it does make a difference in the here whether workers have more pay and couples have more rights.

As Rosa Luxemburg put it in Reform or Revolution, “Legislative reform and revolution are not different methods of historic development that can be picked out at pleasure from the counter of history, just as one chooses hot or cold sausages. Legislative reform and revolution are different factors in the development of class society. They condition and complement each other, and are at the same time reciprocally exclusive, as are the north and south poles, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.”

In other words, professing hostility to gay marriage in the name of opposing the “hetero-normative institution” of marriage is like attacking demands for an end to the death penalty because the criminal injustice system would remain otherwise intact.”

It is in this part of the piece that she begins what is all to common in the left, especially in the Trotskyist tendency, she begins to negate criticism and debate of the currents guiding a movement and advocates a system of reformation as a means to achieving revolution. She quotes Luxemburg, from the piece “Reform or Revolution” without realizing that in the same piece Luxemburg also says:

But doubly important is this knowledge for the workers in the present case, because it is precisely they and their influence in the movement that are in the balance here. It is their skin that is being brought to market. The opportunist theory in the Party, the theory formulated by Bernstein, is nothing else than an unconscious attempt to assure predominance to the petty-bourgeois elements that have entered our Party, to change the policy and aims of our Party in their direction. The question of reform or revolution, of the final goal and the movement, is basically, in another form, but the question of the petty-bourgeois or proletarian character of the labour movement.

It is, therefore, in the interest of the proletarian mass of the Party to become acquainted, actively and in detail, with the present theoretic knowledge remains the privilege of a handful of “academicians” in the Party, the latter will face the danger of going astray. Only when the great mass of workers take the keen and dependable weapons of scientific socialism in their own hands, will all the petty-bourgeois inclinations, all the opportunistic currents, come to naught. The movement will then find itself on sure and firm ground. “Quantity will do it”

What does all of this mean? Luxemburg is stating that the ultimate goal of revolution cannot be made through reform and especially not through paternalistic relations between the revolutionary tendency and the proletariat when it comes to a fundamental class consciousness and understanding. Meaning that the method of entering into reformist battles without any provocation from the more class conscious elements as to the direction and character of the movement, without any objective of raising consciousness and building networks and structures that can challenge capital is misguided and counter revolutionary and serves the movement no justice.

To hear incorrect views without rebutting them and even to hear counter-revolutionary remarks without reporting them, but instead to take them calmly as if nothing had happened. This is a sixth type.

To be among the masses and fail to conduct propaganda and agitation or speak at meetings or conduct investigations and inquiries among them, and instead to be indifferent to them and show no concern for their well-being, forgetting that one is a Communist and behaving as if one were an ordinary non-Communist. This is a seventh type. – Mao on Liberalism

This is easily applicable when we look at the severe lacking of class consciousness and critical analysis in the gay rights movement.

To make it clear I am against discrimination of any kind, but to oppose the oppression without analysis of the fight back is not scientific and not conducive to progressive results. A similar case can be found in the debate over “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” (DADT) Of course I want equality but I also will not hold back in discussing that entering the army means entering an institution, bankrupt of morality, that serves as the state imperialist arm as it seeks to find capital through expansion, genocide, and exploitation. We must have open criticism to have a successful movement, because all oppression and exploitation is connected under the world capitalist system and we cannot afford to gain at the cost of others.

Does this now mean that I am against gay marriage and should join the West Borough  Baptist Church as the claim that god hates fags? No. That’s the same foolishness and dogma, which draws these “pro gay”/ “anti gay” binaries, that has kept the discussion and critical thought at a minimum. This entire posting merely means that I am against the state objectification of social relations for the strengthening of capital. If people choose to couple monogamously that is their choice as is the opposite. However, bourgeois society has conditioned us to think negatively of the latter and believe that the former is perfected in a union under the state. And since the battle for liberation is also a battle for transformative thought, it is a dis-service to the movement to remain silent.

Crunch.

conforming. . .contradictions. . .reflections. . .and survival

Illustration by Bruce Nugent

As some of you know I currently live in San Francisco, I’m originally from Washington DC. Coming from the ghettos of DC to live in the very capitalist, very liberal, very racist, very sexist city of San Francisco has been a very interesting experience. I have seen myself develop and change in many ways and noticed strange urges and thoughts come and go through my mind in my time here.

I grew up all over DC because my family was very poor so we were constantly moving from hood to hood. That’s why I often list different hoods in DC that I say I’m from. In any case, I was always in the hood and one thing that became very clear to me at a very young age was the way in which I was supposed to behave as a young male, especially as a young Black male. Naturally, I am timid, and very gender neutral in my opinion. I say this meaning that I am not very effeminate or masculine. However, when I was growing up, my lack of masculinity was perceived as feminine. Since I refused to play with the boys, talk like the boys, and walk like the boys I had to be a sissy. I hung out with girls as much as possible because they were more accepting of me but ultimately there are limits in male/ female friendships even at younger ages. So I became in a way anti-social and began to develop those habits. I knew that I was queer before I knew what words existed to describe it. I remember distinctly wanting to have sex with my best friend, who was a male, in 2nd grade and I also knew that it was not something everyone else need to know about, I knew it wasn’t something normal. As I grew an I learned what “gay” was and what I was I began to despise effeminate boys, both out of self hatred and envy. I hated who I was and envied their ability to be so open. I envied the way in which they challenged the gender binaries without any kind of hesitation, know good and well that when they stepped out of the house it would most likely mean conflict, physical and emotional. Naturally I wasn’t very effeminate and felt lucky that my natural self didn’t lend it self to the social taunting that came along with it but I also began to feel as though I was deficient in someway. And like before with the development of anti-social behaviour, I began to act out, subconsciously being guided by a need to purge myself of the contradictions, and consciously guided by a need to please the Christian leadership of my after school program, of which I was a part for my entire life since the age of 5. The climax of all of this being my divorcing of the queer friends I had in school at the time. The part of me that needed to strongly to belong to the church demanded that these connections be severed, out of the fear of being lost in the world and void of love from God. The part of me that envied their flamboyance and hated it at the same time felt sated, albeit temporarily. I could be alone now to think and purge. I could be at temporary peace now that the outside representations of my Waring self were partially gone. I felt a small sense of joy, confused and lost, but still some sad glimmer of joy. I suppose these warring parts of me have always driven me to be very distant from people, for fear of not being accepted because I have yet to accept myself. I suspect this to be one of the chief reasons behind the aloof nature, which until recently has dominated my friendships.

In any case I came to San Francisco queer, but not too sure of what that meant for me, I am still not but 5 years ago it was worse. Immediately I was hit with an onslaught of images and ideas about what queer was and how it should manifest in society. However, contrary to prior years, this time I began to try and absorb it all. I found my self trying to emulate the “snap queens” that I would outwardly despise and quietly envy in the past. It felt strange, temporarily liberating, but alien at the same time. It wasn’t me but I so desperately wanted it to be. I felt lost because for years I had smothered and repressed instead of building and shaping. I was lost. I was scared and twisted from years of battling and conforming to social norms, from years of trying to find some kind of acceptance, some kind of family that would help me escape poverty, addiction, & abuse. I have seen and found that I am not the only person left scarred by this society. We are all walking wounded. For all of us, but particularly people who are Black and queer there is sometimes a difficulty in defining and finding self because of what is expected and projected on us by society. The historical development of the Black community in this country has left our concepts of gender and sexuality limited. The ways in which the white supremacist, capitalist society has exploited, policed, commoditized, and objectified our sexuality has left us sensitive and almost distrusting of it, in my opinion. While our concepts of what it means to be male and female, while influenced by the over all patriarchy, sexism and homophobia of the culture, have been twisted into stereotypes that are violently re-enforced. All the while the pressure of the oppression we face under capitalism and racism forces us to turn on one another in destructive ways. All of this, limiting healthy growth and self discovery. It exist everywhere, because the system of Capitalism and the social relations it manifest in people can do nothing but divide destructively, but it is magnified in the Black community.

It was in the early years of college that I lost myself, as most do during this time, trying to build anew. I was being confronted with so much at once. I sprang into my new life, hoping to find family, and instead learning that all parts of society are interconnected and no part is immune from the ills that affect us all. Being queer and Black, and coming to the realization of the double alienation is akin to being pushed from the proverbial nest. The gay community which I had romanticized and dreamed about joining once I escaped DC was not what I imagined. I found hatred and racism. I found myself lost again surrounded by men who saw me as flesh, frightened and enticed by me at the same time, wanting to kill and bed me at the same time. San Francisco is not the mecca of homosexuals it is proclaimed to be if you are not a white male. Prior to this I had grown up in an all Black neighborhood (for those unfamiliar with DC it is very possible to go on for most of your day without seeing someone of another ethnicity. You have to consciously go out of your way.) This pain was new, strange and new. I dealt as I always did, by retreating into myself. Don’t get me wrong, I was among friends, I was developing a friend circle of queer people of different ethnicities but I felt isolated still in the sense that I was the only “Black” one. My attempts to connect with Black people on campus had failed tremendously. After attending one session of our campuses BSU men’s meeting and being utterly turned off by the patriarchy. Black men talking about how real Black men helped to spread the seed and strengthen the race was not something that I needed to hear, I did not need to be apart of the rampant sexism reinforced but high fives. I felt othered amongst the Black population, which at this time was mostly made up of Nationalists and didn’t look too kindly on my rainbow coalition of friends. Determined not to scare off my friends I kept the internal angst to myself, choosing instead to be a listener of other’s problems.

I suppose that I developed the habit of repressing and self negation as a defense to my external conditions as a youth and my intense longing to be apart of something. I thought it better at times to continue these tendencies in order to be apart of something and also because of the loneliness I felt, because the isolation I felt, not just as a queer Black child but as one who grew up in an atmosphere dominated by drugs and abuse. I have always longed to escape and find my “true home”.

That was 5 years ago. Many habits have changed while some still remain. The reason I am writing this more personal blog entry is partially apart of an excercise of letting go of baggage and accepting that it for what it was. It is important for me to look at the past, understand it and do my best to use my experience to help others. As someone who plans on dedicating their life to changing this miserable condition we are all in, things like this are of chief importance. I can see the ways in which the false masculinity, and patriarchy forced upon Black men combined with the experience of growing up in the drug infested ghettos, that cripple the Black community, have effected me. I know that this is a similar and shared experience. It is a dangerous one and teamed with the larger system of white supremacy under capitalism it threatens to destroy scores of queer Blacks that are in search of a place called home.

Legends of the Ball V: Essex Hemphill

Bold. Raw. Blatent. Powerful.

When you read one of his pieces or you have the rare pleasure of hearing him speak, Essex Hemphill hits a part of your soul and conscious that is often hidden from yourself. On a personal note, even though I always recognized my own queerness, my first reading of Hemphill hit at a spot within me that I hadn’t even realized was there. I felt offended and taken aback by the poet’s honesty and brashness. His willingness to express the Black Queer experience with pretense, with out bullshit fluff. Essex was straight to the point. You felt the pain of a young Black man who had loved, been exoticized by White society, felt the sting of racism, been smothered by the trappings of the inner city, been dealt a cruel hand by contracting HIV and above all who had survived to live and ACT UP! Essex, stands as a mountain of inspiration for myself. Often one of my friends always ask me why I carry around Essex’s book of poetry & prose; “Ceremonies” and I smile and think to myself; “for survival, I need this to survive.”

Get Into Hemphill:

“Heavy Breathing”

I wanted to give you

my sweet man pussy,

but you grunted me away

and all other Black men

who tried to be near you.

Our beautiful nigga lips and limbs

stirred no desire in you.

Instead you chose blonde,

milk-toned creatures to bed.

but you were still one of us,

dark like us, despised like us.

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.

May Our Coals Turn To Diamonds. . .

one piece of metal. . .

I am often in awe at the way in which society values one life over another. I am often silenced that our country can lead a man hunt for a lost white womyn in a South American country and yet barely give a 7 year old Black girl killed by invading pigs more than five minutes on the evening news. I am stunned that a White transit officer, caught on film shooting an unarmed Black man in the back as he lies face down on a platform, will most likely serve under six years in the prisons of Amerikkka. I understand that the system is set up this way. I should by now because these things happen daily. Lives are lost and names are never given the chance to be forgotten daily. But, if I weren’t affected, I believe that would be a bigger issue.

The murder of Oscar Grant, an Oakland youth, by White transit officer Johannes Mehserle on the morning of Jan 1, 2009 served as a wake up call for me. It took me out of the Obama induced haze that I was in and cemented me back into the real world. It brought things back into perspective for me tenfold and I heard the a voice in my head speak loud and clear “Having the President of the United States change color means little to nothing.”

We know that the United States sits at the head of  a capitalist, racist, sexist, homophobic society that expresses itself mostly through violence and oppression. Thus, changing the color of the president is like sweeping leaves on a windy day, you ain’t accomplishing shit. True change comes through revolution, through the revolutionary restructuring of this society so that it works for all and not just the few, the bourgeoisie.

Grant, like many Black youth represented a thorn in the side of the White Capitalist power structure. The working class Black population in this country, due to it’s historical developing, represents a giant surplus in the labor needed to make the system function, and is thus more profitable in the eyes of the capitalist in the prison industrial complex and the military. This means their is a vast amount of this population that Capitalism in this country has no where to place in the work force. Many who opt out of those two options and choose to resist and rebel may as well paint targets on their backs. Because we exist in a system that has almost little to no place for Blacks in this country it thus becomes necessary to police the community because the contradictions of this decadent society are more apparent to them, meaning the line between the haves and the have nots is more clear in the eyes of many Black people in this country. Although, in many cases Black people have not yet chosen to abandon all hope in this system for various reasons, but the nature of this system, I would still wager, is very clear in the mind of most Black people. This means that the potential to organize and develop resistence then becomes greater in these communities and they represent a real threat to the State and to the White Capitalist power structure. It now becomes necessary for the State to rain down with extreme force. This is why we see the extreme numbers of Blacks incarcerated, many of which for trumped up charges or non violent drug offences (using drugs that were implanted into the communities in the first place mind you.). This is why you see the occupation of the ghetto by the police reach terrifying heights. The State must control the population and it does this primarily through a police force armed with racist ideology.

The State, under Capitalism, cannot function, without the ills of racism, sexism and the like. It would be impossible, for if it weren’t for these forces the working people would rise and take the means of production and make the system run for them, they would in effect overthrow Capitalism. Police, the foot soldiers of the State, are usually for a similar social economic background, they are usually white and middle class. Meaning those who’s position in society makes them more prone to the ills of racism, are usually those who serve as officers. The hit the community armed with guns and racism, and we see this in the harassment and murder of Blacks. We see this in the murder of Sean Bell, the Black New Yorker shot with over 20 times by the fascist pigs of the NYPD. We see this in the the murder of Ayana Jones, the 7 year old Black girl, shot in the throat by Detroit pigs storming her house guns blazing. And we see this in the murder of Oscar Grant, the Oakland youth pinned down and executed by a BART transit officer. The Pigs, under the guidance of the State, suppress Blacks through any means necessary and they do so in many instances acting on racist ideals. They do so in many instances acting on the fear and disdain of Black people society has embedded in them. They do so in many instances acting on the disregard society has taught them to have for the Black community and Black lives. They do so in many instances acting on the superiority complex given to them by the badge. The cycle of murder is vicious and seems never ending and most assuredly will be under this system and in the absence of serious revolutionary organizing by the Left in general and the Black Left specifically.

The Grant case, however, is unique in the fact that it was caught on film. The film sparked more outrage than a mere word of mouth ever would. People, wherever they were, could tune into the brutality and this served as a catalyst for outrage, and in the early weeks of January people rioted in downtown Oakland. Though not on the same scale as the sometimes romanticized riots of the 60′s, the outrage was still evident, the message clear. People are tired of this blatant disregard for what is preached but never practiced by this heartless system; common humanity and dignity. This outrage was what pushed the State to put Mehserle, the transit officer, on trial.

Months later, days before this post, a jury in LA (without a single Black on it) decided that Mehserle was guilty of involuntary manslaughter, effectively slapping the murderous transit pig on the wrist. That night, with the anticipation of riot in the air, non profit organizations in Oakland held a peaceful rally. Throughout this rally, which was surrounded by riot police, the non profits encouraged people to speak but continued to spread the State sponsored message of pacification, urging people not to riot. Never once in this rhetoric were the more serious issues of State violence addressed, instead the destruction of property owned by outside companies that help to gentrify and exploit the working people of Oakland was shunned as a means of expressing anger at the verdict. Property destruction cannot be and should never be equated the murder of Oscar Grant the way it was during this rally. Nonetheless, the rally continued without addressing any issues relevant to further organization beyond Grant. It astounds me that never once was the presence of the riot police at a peaceful assembly addressed, nor were the issues of extreme poverty, police brutality, environmental racism, red lining, inadequate schools, housing and food (which are the real ways in which the State violence manifest daily in the lives of Oaklanders). During one speech it was almost implied that the murder of Grant was justified by saying that Blacks invite police violence by being violent towards one another.

Two things became strikingly clear to me during this rally. The first being the true role of the non profit in this society. The non profits serve as the right hand of the State in many ways. They provide services that should be provided by the Government and thus gain community support and reduce the pressure from below on the State and when events like this happen they use that community support to pacify and demobilize the community by channelling righteous energy into the wrong channels. Legislation has rarely brought about the change needed by the oppressed in this society, because to change society in a way that benefitted all would be a revolution, meaning the overthrow of the racist capitalist bourgeois state. The non-profits also, in these moments, seek to insult and vilify the youth and working class of Oakland by claiming that those who riot are committing an assault against the community and must be guided by outside forces (in this case it is usually White anarchist who are blamed). The second thing made clear to me was the need for serious organizing in the Black community independent of the non profits. It is clear that the bodies present in the political scene are not adequate, and haven’t been in a long time, for challenging the rhetoric of the non profit State puppets. The people of this country in general, and the Black people in specific, are in need of new revolutionary bodies that can work in conjunction with them to develop strategies that can win under the pressure of the capitalist state.

The riot that broke out was much larger than the ones that occurred originally. One of the popular events of the riot has been the looting of the downtown Footlocker. Despite seeking to vilify and take away all agency from the youth that were involved in the riot, the media also, as in previous incidents, has sought to take the political content out of the rioting and portray it merely as a giant playground for criminals. The rioting and looting of Footlocker represents more than just youth wanting to gain a new pair of Jordans. It represents the youth of Oakland striking out against a symbol of the companies the exploit and gentrify the working class Oakland community. The riot expanding hitting other stores such as Sears and Tullys coffee and like all riots it was eventually ended, which begs the question; “What’s next?”

If we want the murder of Oscar Grant to not be in vain and meaningless, we must use it as a point of further mobilization. As the economic crisis deepens, the crisis in the Gulf heightens, and global political struggle rises we will see more acts like Arizona’s racist SB1070 law and more Oscar Grants. Reaction racism always accompanies crisis, usually it is used by the Right to rally the working class white population in this country (as we can see with the Tea Party and the “take America back” rhetoric). So if we are to mobilize around this, and not let Oscar Grant become another in a long list of those killed by the State without critical fight back we need to organize. It is clear that the non-profits and the majority of groups in play cannot properly address the coming crisis and the struggle that will follow. It is time for new revolutionary pedagogy, which includes working with the working class and not speaking to it from an empty high ground. Their needs to be a real effort to work with the communities of people effected by this crisis and to organize not only along the lines of single issues but to raise questions about the system as a totality, to bring up how we can strike a blow to the system in a real way. The gauge of success in struggle is always, in my opinion, the number of people that come out of the struggle politicized and connected. So far the majority of organizing bodies have not been able to connect in a real way to the communities they claim to fight for and thus have this paternal position in relation to them. This stands in direct contrast to what needs to happen, organizers creating more organizers through horizontal community building and consciousness raising. As things deepen and working people are pressured more and more we may see more resistance from working people in the form of strikes. Connecting the two seemingly different struggles, strikes that come in solidarity oppressed communities or strikes led by people of those communities, people who are close to the means of production and are responsible for making the gears of society turn, are a start. In a system dominated by capital, fighting back means attacking the flow of capital, which working people control. It’s time that we use the disgust we have and channel it in the direction of a strategy that can win. For Oscar, For Ayana. For Sean. And for all oppressed people.

Crunch.

Not as much. . .

I was once asked at the end of my freshman year in college “what do you think is the biggest change in personality or thought that you’ve had since you  came to this college.”

“I don’t hate White people as much.” I replied.

I used to hate white folk.

I was raised to hate white folk

Every single one , I was taught, was the sole reason behind my oppression. I viewed them as agents of oppression, as physical manifestations of a system that want my people in jail, dying in the streets, or in the cemetary. Growing up in a place where everyday, looking out onto your neighborhood is constant reminder of the brutality of the system makes one very prone to blanketed reactionary politics. I grew up in Washington DC where is it is quite possible to go about your entire day without seeing someone of another ethnicity, the city is that divided. Thus, for me, seeing White people came in two forms; teachers and police. Both oppressive forces in my life, though this was not always true of the teachers. As I begin to navigate myself through the world I constantly came up against the wall of racism as most people of color, Blacks in particular, do.

The State, which has a particular interest in suppressing and terrorizing Blacks seeing as though they occupy a specific position of excess labor in the White capitalist system and thus are more prone to the most brutal aspects of Capitalism; ie unemployment, police brutality, poor medical attention. These conditions, which are faced by the majority of Blacks in this country, create a rage in the belly of many Blacks, the youth in particular who look onto a world of haves and have nots with perfect clarity about their positioning. It is because of this that we see police presence and terrorism reach terrifying heights in Black communities and it is also no mistake that the overwhelming majority of the pigs parading as officers are White and middle class. The State apparatus feeds on the race divisions set up and uses them to suppress the rebellion which would arise as the result of the lower classes realizing the contradictions of this system. This is all a very long winded way of saying that the pigs fucked with me and my friends to no end and usually were white. (I was trying to give too much theory, sorry  I hope you didn’t get lost in it, I kinda did. . . =()

When I entered the work place I was always met with awe and dismay when I would accomplish task, remedial ones mind you) on time and proficiently. My White overseers (supervisors) would often greet me with compliments like “that’s why your my favorite” or “wow it’s just incredible how fast you can do this”. I know that to some people, this may sound trivial and not important, but when placed in the context of me being a young Black man and my overseers being White men, it takes on a different character. One in which, I felt demeaned, commoditized and tokienized.

My interactions with White people were usually limited to these, and other smaller ones with those who arrived in the city as a result of gentrification or work. In both cases, Black youth were usually treated with disdain and as the White population in the city increased, and continues to do so, more restrictions and laws were erected and targeted at controlling and restricting the liberties of the Blacks in the city, in particular the youth. One example being the 10pm curfew law.

One of the few positive relations I had with a White person was the one I had with my mentor at the after school program I attended, although looking back now I see many areas where her positioning above me and ability to set certain standards was problematic and helped to reinforce the same white supremacist/ anti Black ideology that dominates the culture.

In any case, I grew to be very hostile towards White people, which is why when I first arrived in San Francisco for college, I was in complete culture shock. I was in more shock when my best friend became a White womyn. This relationship became the beginning of the deconstruction of my hatred for Whites. Later on, a greater understanding of class and history drove me away from plain hatred of White people and anything associated with them. Instead of seeing them as these villainous characters on the stage of history, I know see them as a people who have been shaped and molded by the material conditions of history. Capitalism, fueled by racism, drove many European nations to build this society on the backs of slaves and some have profited financially from that ever since. The white supremacist ideology that was so intrenched in the birth of this nation legitimized the constant terrorism and oppression of Black on one hand while on the other it birthed White privilege, the buffer that initially blinds Whites from understanding and analysing their place in this decadent society and thus causes destructive behavior.

At this point, I am pretty much rambling and want to stop because I am tired. But the point of this excercise was to begin to explore how my attitudes have chaged over the years towards White people in general and understanding my place in this society specifically. Does this mean that I don’t from time to time get upset at White people for their ignorance, due to the fact that their hasnt been some serious revolutionary education and organizing in the white working and middle class communities? No I am often furious at the effects that White privilege has had on some of my friends, comrades, and people I run into. However, I try to demonize the culture and work with the person, it’s a new motto I am trying to follow. It has to be if I want this revolution thing to happen.