Tag Archives: Black Liberation

Freedom Road looks at the U.S. domestic situation

The following is the Domestic section of the Main Political Report from the 6th Congress of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. The Economic section has been previously published, and the section on the international situation is forthcoming.

Decline of American Power, Leftward Shift Define New Period

For the past three years, the conditions shaping domestic politics in the United States have been marked by the economic crisis, a qualitative shift away from the free market capitalism of Ronald Reagan on the part of the bourgeoisie, and a leftward political shift amongst the people. The massive economic and financial crisis, which began in December 2007, and the continuing decline of U.S. imperialism globally, have come together to judge the Reagan Era and its aftermath as a failure.  The economic crisis swept from power the party of George Bush and brought into office the first African-American President of the United States–Barack Obama.

This set of qualitative changes is in part the foundation of and in part manifestations of a new period.  It is this new set of conditions which sets the context for the peoples struggle against U.S imperialism.

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40 Years After his Assassination, let us Live Like Fred Hampton!

Fred Hampton was only 21 when he died on December 4, 1969. In such a short time, he distinguished himself as one of the greatest fighters for African American liberation and socialist revolution in the history of the United States. He so distinguished himself that the FBI and the Chicago Police Department found it necessary to gun him down in cold blood while he slept in his bed. Looking back, 40 years later to the day, it is important for revolutionaries and Marxist-Leninists to commit themselves to fight with the energy and tenacity that he did.

Please read this statement from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization: Fred Hampton – A Fighter for Black Liberation, Revolution and Socialism

Collected Documents on the National Question in the United States

The following is a collection of statements, resolutions, books, articles and other documents by various Marxist-Leninists which provide a theoretical analysis of the national question in the U.S. Generally speaking they are listed chronologically. This collection, though necessarily different in format, has been incorporated into the M-L Study Guide.

General

African American National Question

Chicano National Question

Indigenous Peoples

The Debate Over White Skin Privilege

Claudia Jones: Marxist Pioneer of Black and Proletarian Feminism

claudia-jonesClaudia Jones was born in Trinidad in1915 but migrated to Harlem in 1924. She became active in the Scottsboro struggle. She became a leader of the Comunist Party in the 1940’s, until she was indicted under the Smith Act (under which teaching Marxism was illegal) and imprisoned in 1955. She was then deported to London, where she lived and worked until her death 1965. She was buried beside of Karl Marx.

To get an idea of her importance, read her article, “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Women” (PDF), which analyzed the situation of black women from a Marxist viewpoint, and which was her major contribution to feminist thought.

Malcolm X on John Brown

Malcolm_X_NYWTS_4John Brown  was a guerrilla fighter, who worked together with Harriet Tubman, and who fought and died for African American National Liberation.

Today is the 150th anniversary of militant white abolotionist John Brown’s armed raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, an important moment in the African American Liberation struggle. To mark the occasion, here is a quote from Malcolm X in 1965:

There are many white people in this country, especially the younger generation, who realize that the injustice that has been done and is being done to black people cannot go on without the chickens coming home to roost eventually. And those white people, even if they’re not morally motivated, their intelligence forces them to see that something must be done. And many of them would be willing to involve themselves in the type of operation that you were just talking about.

For one, when a white man comes to me and tells me how liberal he is, the first thing I want to know, is he a nonviolent liberal, or the other kind. I don’t go for any nonviolent white liberals. If you are for me and my problems – when I say me, I mean us, our people – then you have to be willing to do as old John Brown did. And if you’re not of the John Brown school of liberals, we’ll get you later – later.

John_Brown_Painting

May Day 2009: Fighting the Crisis

The following statement is from Freedom Road Socialist Organization (en español):

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May Day 2009: Fighting the Crisis

By Freedom Road Socialist Organization

On May 1, International Workers Day, millions upon millions will be marching against the capitalist economic crisis that has engulfed most of the world. Working people in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America will hit the streets to protest the soaring unemployment, shorter hours and cuts in pay that are sweeping the world.

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Harry Haywood: The Negro Nation

 

Harry Haywood, 1948

Harry Haywood, 1948

The following is chapter VII of Harry Haywood‘s 1948 book, Negro Liberation.

 

In the struggle against the plantation system of the South, the Negro people are necessarily the chief driving force. The liberal “remedies” which shy away from the fundamental economic changes indispensable for the democratic transformation of the South, ignore this crucial fact and, with it, they ignore the special character of the social and political struggle of the Negroes.

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