"...'Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence.' The German Ideology
What is the present state of things? What group of people is pointed at for making up the modern bourgeois of the 21st century?"
If you haven't guessed who the bourgeoisie are yet, perhaps this picture might help:
...They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Chapter IV Communist Manifesto
"...we have all internalized some aspects of white culture-including people of color."
"In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate."
No offense to Ms. Morrison but no, no you don't. The first instance that can be found of the term actually came from a sermon written in 1782 in which a preacher refers to himself as African American. This was a year before the Revolutionary War ended and 79 years before the civil war even began. 2
According to the same site, hyphenating was popularized by none other than Jesse Jackson as a preferred alternative in place of calling someone black.
This whiteness article claims to want "to foster and cultivate conversations that are respectful and constructive and provide increased understanding." "What's wrong with that?" one may ask. It is what's unspoken. What they really mean is "increased understanding on part of white people". It only desires a one-sided understanding. To get you to understand your white privilege and that white people need to understand that they have been complicit in the biases stemming from systemic racism.
You can't say "but wait I'm not racist", that just further proves you are. The more you fight, the more guilty you are. If you say you aren't then prove it, become active anti-racist activist allies. Join them to fight against the system ie the bourgeoisie.
The definition of racism is prejudice against those of different races, feeling your race is superior above all others. By this definition anyone can be racist. However, now that we are able to redefine terms it has been redefined as prejudice + power and I believe success would be a part of that redefinition.
Yes, there have been and still are individuals who hold prejudices based on skin color but they do not have widespread power to dictate the affairs of the country. The claim that the whole system is inherently racist has no leg to stand on when you know that power and success are had in all races within our system today. That's why it is "whiteness" or "white culture". That way you can say that whoever is successful within the system have only been able to do so because either they are white, can pass as white, or they must have conformed to the "white culture" way. Their voices in defense of said system are now irrelevant.
"...don’t wrangle with us so long as you apply, to our intended abolition of bourgeois property, the standard of your bourgeois notions of freedom, culture, law, &c. Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into a law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economical conditions of existence of your class." Chp II Manifesto
You may be familiar with the following terms and if you are not, you need to be:
"...religion, family, state, law, morality, science, art, etc." Private Property and Communism
"The task of the new communist schools is to impose upon bourgeois and petty-bourgeois children a proletarian mentality...to adapt the mentality of adults to the changed social conditions." N.I. Bukharin and E. Preobrazhensky: The ABC of Communism
White Culture is the enemy of all. Division and destruction is the way. Communism is the goal.
"It would be absurd to speak of democracy without publicity, moreover, without a publicity that is not limited to the membership of the organisation. We call the German Socialist Party a democratic organisation because all its activities are carried out publicly; even its party congresses are held in public. But no one would call an organisation democratic that is hidden from every one but its members by a veil of secrecy. What is the use, then, of advancing ”the broad democratic principle“ when the fundamental condition for this principle cannot be fulfilled by a secret organisation?" What is to be done Vladimir Lenin 3
False Consciousness refers to ideology dominating the consciousness of exploited groups and classes which at the same time justifies and perpetuates their exploitation.1. Protect Marxism from outside corruption from other ideas as well as advance it concepts. (anti-revisionist)2. Educate with Marxism in order to cleanse them of their "false individual consciousness" and instill the revolutionary "class consciousness" in them.
Class consciousness is the awareness of ones social class/economic rank in society, the structure of their class and their class interests.
"Not only will our students and liberals, etc., themselves take care of “the struggle that brings them face to face with our political regime”...if “we” desire to be front-rank democrats, we must make it our concern to direct the thoughts of those who are dissatisfied only with conditions...to the idea that the entire political system is worthless. We must take upon ourselves the task of organising an all-round political struggle under the leadership of our Party in such a manner as to make it possible for all oppositional strata to render their fullest support to the struggle and to our Party." What is to be done 4
The founders are Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Khan-Cullors. Alicia and Opal have since moved on "to focus on other impactful, like-minded projects and initiatives".
In July 2015, Patrisse Khan-Cullors said in an interview with The Real News Network, "The first thing, I think, is that we actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories. And I think that what we really tried to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk. We don’t necessarily want to be the vanguard of this movement..." 5
Except, that's exactly what they are.
Patrisse, in another interview, said she was influenced by Assata Shakur and in another she states that Eric Mann is her mentor. 6 & 7Eric Mann was a leader in the Weather Underground.
Assata Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard, is a former member of the Black Liberation Army. She was involved in a shoot out which resulted in the death of a police officer to which she was convicted and jailed. She escaped from custody and fled to Cuba and as far as is known, is still there.
In a letter penned to honor Fidel Castro after his death they write:
"...we must push back against the rhetoric of the right and come to the defense of El Comandante.
...we are particularly grateful to Fidel for holding Mama Assata Shakur, who continues to inspire us. We are thankful that he provided a home for Brother Michael Finney Ralph Goodwin, and Charles Hill, asylum to Brother Huey P. Newton, and sanctuary for so many other Black revolutionaries who were being persecuted by the American government during the Black Power era.
As Fidel ascends to the realm of the ancestors, we summon his guidance, strength, and power as we recommit ourselves to the struggle for universal freedom. Fidel Vive!" [Fidel Lives] 8
If you are wondering about Finney, Goodwin, and Hill here is a link https://www.cbsnews.com/news/getting-away-with-murder/
Huey Newton was a co-founder of the Black Panther Party another Vanguard group of the 60s. 9 (yes I used wikipedia, doesn't make it not true).
When I first began this several months ago, I went to the BLM website because I wanted to know exactly what they say they stand for and what their mission is.
The organizers claim that blacks are, "systematically and intentionally targeted for demise" that they face "deadly oppression". They make reference to implicit and purposeful violence 20 times in the sections I reviewed stating, "...the rampant and deliberate violence" is "inflicted on us by the state" and mentioned once, by vigilantes.
"...they never cease, for a single instant, to instill into the working class the clearest possible recognition of the hostile antagonism between bourgeoisie and proletariat..." Chapter IV Communist Manifesto
In a letter Patrisse wrote she mentions George Zimmerman and refers to him as "a white passing person". She goes on in the letter to then say, "I didn't want his name to be the name held up over and over again by the media, by his fellow white supremacists". When this sad incident first happened, they were pushing the racist narrative, a white man shoots a black man. When the details of the case came out and turned out George was actually hispanic, they didn't want to backtrack the narrative so they switched to white passing instead.
She also goes on to claim that black people have been fighting for their freedom for over 500 years (antagonism). She goes on, "we fight against elected officials, be it Democrat or Republican, who don't share a vision that is radical and inter-sectional"(must consider everything and anything that can marginalize people – gender, race, class, sexual orientation, physical ability, etc) 10
BLM is what they call a project. This project consists of the following characteristics:
- a member-led global network
- members organize and build local power
- leadership is centralized around women and queer/trans people to maximize movement muscle and to ensure they don't repeat previously male centered leadership of previous movements of the 60s.
- it is a platform and organizing tool
- adaptive and decentralized with a set of guiding principles (meaning you have the principles and goals how you implement and fight to achieve them are yours to execute)
- support the development of new black leaders
- create a network where black people can feel empowered to determine their own destinies in their own communities (this is similar to the 10-point program of the BPP)
- help catalyze other movements and shift culture with their focus on the dangerous impacts of anti-blackness (not just black individuals but black culture is what I assume here)
- collective efforts to ensure the liberation [independence] and freedom for black people
- they commit to healing themselves and others and co-creating alongside comrades, allies and family a culture where each person feels seen, heard, and supported
- intentionally build and nurture a community bonded together (collective)
- see themselves as part of the global black family
- self-reflexive (aware that in past movements like these they were male centric) and [therefore] do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege
- create a space where black women are free from sexism, misogyny, and environments in which men are centered
- practice empathy and engage comrades to understand their contexts
- create family-friendly work spaces and enable parents to participate with their children (see part 2)
- dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work "double shifts" so they can mother in private and participate in public justice work (see part 2)
- disrupt the western-prescribed nuclear family structure by supporting each other as extended families and "villages" that collectively care for one another, especially our children (see part 2)
- are an inter-generational and communal network free from ageism
"We are a collective of liberators who believe in an inclusive and spacious movement. We also believe that in order to win and bring as many people with us along the way, we must move beyond the narrow nationalism that is all too prevalent in Black communities. We must ensure we are building a movement that brings all of us to the front."11
Well that's eerily familiar.
"...if “we” desire to be front-rank democrats, we must make it our concern to direct the thoughts of those who are dissatisfied only with conditions...to the idea that the entire political system is worthless. We must take upon ourselves the task of organising an all-round political struggle under the leadership of our Party in such a manner as to make it possible for all oppositional strata to render their fullest support to the struggle and to our Party." What is to be done Vladimir Lenin
What is narrow nationalism in this context?
"...a tendency has developed in the new US communist movement [revisionists] towards tailing behind bourgeois nationalism, both among white communists and those of other nationalities, in essence, this comes down to raising the national struggle above the class struggle, and writing off white workers as unable to make revolution. And this narrow nationalism...is the main deviation on the national question in the U.S. communist movement today.
The national question –the struggle against the oppression of the minority nationalities, and the relation of this struggle to proletarian revolution–is at the very heart of the revolutionary struggle in this country.
The mobilizing and uniting of the whole class, of workers of all nationalities, to take up and lead the fight against national oppression–and the fight against white chauvinism (as well as narrow nationalism) as a part of this–are crucial to achieving the revolutionary unity of the class, together with its allies, for the historic task of overthrowing imperialist rule, building socialism and advancing, together with the peoples of the world, to communism.
...what divides us from the opportunists [revisionists] is that we insist that this struggle be based on a proletarian class stand, identifying the bourgeoisie as the source of national oppression and white chauvinism (as well as narrow nationalism). We insist on directing our attack against the ruling class and not against the white workers...
The communists are the conscious element in the struggle...based on Marxism-Leninism to lead the masses and, while learning from them, raise their consciousness in the course of struggle. Especially at this crucial stage of forming a genuine vanguard Party of the proletariat, after so long a period without one, it is decisive that the new Party be based on a correct line to be able to lead the masses in revolutionary struggle." 12
What I interpret narrow nationalism to be within the black community in particular, is the tendency to forget all other minority or marginalized groups and believing yours to be the only legitimately recognized group of oppressed people. This, according to the above quote, raises the national struggle ABOVE that of the class struggle and it puts the struggle of all oppressed classes and nationalities at odds with the movement as a whole. To expand narrow nationalism is concentrating solely upon ones own country and not being inclusive of all around the world. Hence the drive for no borders or nationalities.
Remember, "the immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat." Chp I Manifesto
If the movement just concentrates on one group/country and not all "oppressed" individuals globally, this is a deviation from the true goals of Communism. Communism needs to be all inclusive.
"Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution." Chapter IV Communist Manifesto"Change is coming." 13
