The Marxist-Leninist

Entries categorized as ‘Black Liberation’

Letter from Harry Haywood to the POC from the new Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism Online

November 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment

A new Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism Online has been launched  as part of the Marxists Internet Archive. It includes a history of anti-revisionist politics and an archive of anti-revisionist documents and newspapers. The new encylcopedia is divided into sections by country. The U.S. section includes “The First Wave of Anti-Revisionism: 1946-1958” and “Second Wave: The POC, 1956-1962” with two more sections in the works: “Third Wave: 1960-1969″ and “Fourth Wave: Maoism and ‘The New Communist Movement,’ 1969-1989″.

Here is an important document from the encylopedia of anti-revisionism by Harry Haywood, the great communist theoretician of the African American national question:

cs1-haywoodLetter from Harry Haywood to the Provisional Organizing Committee

Class Struggle, theoretical journal of the October League (Marxist-Leninist), No.1, Spring 1975

October League (M-L) Introduction: Harry Haywood is a veteran Black Marxist-Leninist, now living in Detroit. He has spent several decades as a leading member of the Communist Party USA and as a fighter against modern revisionism.

In 1928 and 1930, Haywood helped draft the Resolutions of the Communist International as well as the position of the CP on the Afro-American national question. His thoughts on this question were summed up in his famous book, “Negro Liberation.”

Haywood broke from the CPUSA in the late 50’s after the party had thoroughly abandoned the revolutionary struggle for socialism and Black liberation. Along with other anti-revisionists, he helped form the Provisional Organizing Committee (POC). The POC, like many of the new communist organizations of today set as its main task, the building of a new Marxist-Leninist party.

The POC failed in this first attempt at a new, anti-revisionist party. Haywood’s letter upon leaving the POC shows some of the reasons why it failed and serves as a lesson to those who might try to follow in the ultra-“left” footsteps of these sectarians.

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Categories: Black Liberation · Marxism-Leninism
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30th Anniversary of the Greensboro Massacre

November 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

On November 3rd, 1979, the Workers Viewpoint Organization (which would become the Communist Workers Party) held a anti-Klan rally in Greensboro, North Carolina. Five WVO cadres were killed by the Ku Klux Klan with the assistance of the Greensboro Police. The following is an excellent documentary about the Greensboro Massacre, called “Greensboro’s Child“.

The Beloved Community Center, Greensboro Justice Fund, and other organizations in Greensboro are hosting a conference and other events to commemorate the “30th Anniversary of the Tragic Killing of Five Labor and Community Organizers by Klan and Nazis in 1979″ from Nov. 4-7th.

Categories: Black Liberation · Marxism-Leninism · Movies
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Claudia Jones: Marxist Pioneer of Black and Proletarian Feminism

October 29, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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.

Categories: Black Liberation · Marxism-Leninism · Theory · Women's Liberation
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Malcolm X on John Brown

October 16, 2009 · 1 Comment

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

Categories: Black Liberation
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COINTELPRO: The FBI’s War on Black America

September 26, 2009 · 1 Comment

For more information on the FBI’s COINTELPRO, check out the wikipedia page, along with Paul Wolf’s COINTELPRO reference site.

Categories: Black Liberation · Imperialism · Movies
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Video: New Orleans 4 Years After Katrina

September 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

A tour through the most damaged neigbourhood, the lower 9th ward. Why didn’t the people come back?

For further reading on the relationship between Katrina and the political economy of national oppression, see:

Categories: Black Liberation
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May Day 2009: Fighting the Crisis

April 29, 2009 · 5 Comments

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

index_1

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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Categories: Black Liberation · Chicano Liberation · FRSO · Immigrants Rights · Labor Movement
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Harry Haywood: The Negro Nation

April 3, 2009 · 2 Comments

 

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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Categories: Black Liberation · Marxism-Leninism
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Remembering Richard Aoki

March 19, 2009 · 1 Comment

The following was first posted on the Kasama blog. Richard Aoki, who passed away Sunday at the age of 70, was an Japanese American revolutionary, former Field Marshall of the Black Panther Party, and a leader of the historic Third World Liberation Front strike at San Francisco State.  According to Diane C. Fujino’s article “The Black Liberation Movement and Japanese American Activisim: The Radical Activism of Richard Aoki and Yuri Kochiyama” (the article is in the book Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political & Cultural Connections Between African Americans & Asian Americans, edited by Fred Ho), Aoki was “in the first couple of years of the BPP…the party member most well versed in Marxist-Leninist thought.” The video is from the trailer of a documentary about his life. 

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Categories: Asian Americans · Black Liberation
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Two Articles by Mao Zedong on the African American National Question

December 26, 2008 · Leave a Comment

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The following two articles by Mao Zedong deal with the African American national liberation struggle and how it relates to the class struggle and the international revolutionary struggle against U.S. imperialism. I am posting them here, on December 26, 2008, to honor the 115th anniversary of the birth of Chairman Mao Zedong.

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Categories: Black Liberation · Classics · Imperialism · People's Republic of China
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40th Anniversary of the Historic San Francisco State Strike

December 22, 2008 · Leave a Comment

strikedemandsThe following is from Fight Back! News:

40th Anniversary of the Historic San Francisco State Strike

For nearly five months in the fall and winter of 1968-1969, San Francisco State College was paralyzed by a student strike.

The strike was initiated by oppressed nationality students and supported by thousands of white students who accepted their leadership. Its target was a publicly-funded university which had become increasingly inaccessible to black, brown and Asian communities whose tax dollars supported it.

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Categories: Black Liberation · Student Movements
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Celebrate Comrade Stalin’s Birthday!

December 18, 2008 · 18 Comments

RUSSIA/

“Congratulating Stalin is not a formality. Congratulating Stalin means supporting him and his cause, supporting the victory of socialism, and the way forward for mankind which he points out, it means supporting a dear friend. For the great majority of mankind today are suffering, and mankind can free itself from suffering only by the road pointed out by Stalin and with his help.”

- Mao Zedong, “Stalin, Friend of the Chinese People

Today is the 130 anniversary of the birth of Joseph Stalin. To mark the occasion, here is the eulogy to Stalin from the great African American leader, W.E.B. Du Bois:

On Stalin

By W.E.B. DuBois

Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature. He was simple, calm and courageous. He seldom lost his poise; pondered his problems slowly, made his decisions clearly and firmly; never yielded to ostentation nor coyly refrained from holding his rightful place with dignity. He was the son of a serf but stood calmly before the great without hesitation or nerves. But also – and this was the highest proof of his greatness – he knew the common man, felt his problems, followed his fate. (more…)

Categories: Black Liberation · Marxism-Leninism · Soviet Union
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