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For a Revolutionary Black History Month
[The Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804 was the first and only successful slave revolts in world history. It inspired slave revolts in the United States including those of Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey and was a beacon of hope for the brutally oppressed of the Caribbean and Latin America. Toussaint Louverture, in the leadership of an army of former slaves, defeated the colonial powers of France, Spain, and Britain. The capitalist / imperialist powers, terrified by the revolutionary example of Haiti kept it under economic blockade for decades. The United States then occupied Haiti militarily from 1915 to 1934 leaving behind a series of brutal pro-imperialist dictatorships. That intervention continues to this day with U.S. Marines kidnapping the elected president of Haiti in 2004 and the continued presence of U.N. troops to maintain the power of a discredited imperialist imposed government. Let’s join Mumia Abu-Jamal in saluting the Haitian Revolution in celebration of Black History Month. -Steven Argue]
For a Revolutionary Black History Month
[col. writ. 1/21/12] (c) '12 M. A. Jamal
As we once again approach February, the papers and TV stations will feature programming that shows more Black faces than usual. Some will show movies, some documentaries and some will feature history in celebration of Black History Month.
Undoubtedly, Martin Luther King Jr's epic "March on Washington" speech will be sampled, its grainy, black and white videotape the very symbol of a bygone era, and it's key catchphrase....Thank God Almighty, we're free at last!" ~ a haunting and ironic mockery of the real state of most of Black America.
One tape that invariably will not be shown is one of the final press conferences of the nation's first (and perhaps only) Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, aged and ill, yet with the presence of mind to announce, "I'm still not free."
For millions of Black Americans, this Black History Month, while perhaps rich in symbol, comes amidst the greatest loss of collective assets in our history, crippling joblessness, haunting home foreclosures, public schools that perform more mis-education than education, rabid police terrorism and perhaps the highest Black incarceration rates in U.S. history, and all that entails.
That we have Black History Month at all is due to the Black Freedom Movements of the '60's, and the dogged persistence of Black Historian, Carter G. Woodson, who began his efforts with Negro History Week, back in the 1920's! Yet, it begins, as do all struggles for progress, with the Movement.
If Black mothers and grandmothers, and later Black schoolchildren, didn't follow King, we wouldn't know his name, except perhaps as an Historical footnote. For, without followers, there is no movement - and thus no progress.
The late, great Marxist Revolutionary historian, C.L.R. James, in his finest work, Black Jacobins, a History of the Haitian Revolution, illustrates how the leadership - including Gen. Toussaint L'Ouverture - tried repeatedly to betray the Revolution, on to face two immovable forces -the racist recalcitrance of the French government of Napoleon (who wanted to restore slavery), and the militancy of the Black soldiers, who pushed onward to Revolution.
The point? People make history, by mass movements, often ones which go faster and further than the leaders want. And masses make and sustain revolutions - often against 'leaders' whose every instinct is to betray them.
In a forward to one of the many editions of Black Jacobins, James reminds us, "...that it was the slaves who had made the Revolution. Many of the slave leaders to the end were unable to read or write" (James, xvi)
But they sure knew how to fight.
Africans, by the tens of thousands, broke their chains, and though penniless, hungry, and scarred by the ravages of bondage, found weapons and the will to fight for freedom against the defenders of slavery: France, Britain, and Spain. They beat them all, because their hunger for freedom was greater than anything.
ANYTHING.
And by so doing they changed world history.
They shattered French dreams of an American Empire; and enabled the U.S. to double in size after it's purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon.
They also did what no 'slave' army had ever done in modern or ancient history. They defeated an empire.
That is Revolutionary Black History ---and it deserves to be remembered during Black History Month.
(c) '12 maj
==============
Mumia Abu-Jama is a political prisoner in the United States, for more on his case see:
William Singletary, 65, Courageous Witness of Mumia's Innocence
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/01/12/18704643.php
The Revolutionary Tendency of the Socialist Party (RT-SP) demands freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal and calls for Black Liberation through socialist revolution. For more information on us, see our statement of purpose:
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2012/02/251336.php
Liberation News participated in recent successful demands to move Mumia into the general population. Mumia sent the following message to supporters in call from general population, SCI Mahanoy to his wife, Wadiya Jamal:
My dear friends, brothers and sisters -- I want to thank you for your real hard work and support. I am no longer on death row, no longer in the hole, I'm in population. This is only part one and I thank you all for the work you've done. But the struggle is for freedom! From Mumia and Wadiya, Ona Move. Long Live John Africa! =
For more information on what you can work for Mumia’s freedom, see:
http://www.laboractionmumia.org/index.html
This article is being distributed by Liberation News, subscribe free:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news
[col. writ. 1/21/12] (c) '12 M. A. Jamal
As we once again approach February, the papers and TV stations will feature programming that shows more Black faces than usual. Some will show movies, some documentaries and some will feature history in celebration of Black History Month.
Undoubtedly, Martin Luther King Jr's epic "March on Washington" speech will be sampled, its grainy, black and white videotape the very symbol of a bygone era, and it's key catchphrase....Thank God Almighty, we're free at last!" ~ a haunting and ironic mockery of the real state of most of Black America.
One tape that invariably will not be shown is one of the final press conferences of the nation's first (and perhaps only) Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, aged and ill, yet with the presence of mind to announce, "I'm still not free."
For millions of Black Americans, this Black History Month, while perhaps rich in symbol, comes amidst the greatest loss of collective assets in our history, crippling joblessness, haunting home foreclosures, public schools that perform more mis-education than education, rabid police terrorism and perhaps the highest Black incarceration rates in U.S. history, and all that entails.
That we have Black History Month at all is due to the Black Freedom Movements of the '60's, and the dogged persistence of Black Historian, Carter G. Woodson, who began his efforts with Negro History Week, back in the 1920's! Yet, it begins, as do all struggles for progress, with the Movement.
If Black mothers and grandmothers, and later Black schoolchildren, didn't follow King, we wouldn't know his name, except perhaps as an Historical footnote. For, without followers, there is no movement - and thus no progress.
The late, great Marxist Revolutionary historian, C.L.R. James, in his finest work, Black Jacobins, a History of the Haitian Revolution, illustrates how the leadership - including Gen. Toussaint L'Ouverture - tried repeatedly to betray the Revolution, on to face two immovable forces -the racist recalcitrance of the French government of Napoleon (who wanted to restore slavery), and the militancy of the Black soldiers, who pushed onward to Revolution.
The point? People make history, by mass movements, often ones which go faster and further than the leaders want. And masses make and sustain revolutions - often against 'leaders' whose every instinct is to betray them.
In a forward to one of the many editions of Black Jacobins, James reminds us, "...that it was the slaves who had made the Revolution. Many of the slave leaders to the end were unable to read or write" (James, xvi)
But they sure knew how to fight.
Africans, by the tens of thousands, broke their chains, and though penniless, hungry, and scarred by the ravages of bondage, found weapons and the will to fight for freedom against the defenders of slavery: France, Britain, and Spain. They beat them all, because their hunger for freedom was greater than anything.
ANYTHING.
And by so doing they changed world history.
They shattered French dreams of an American Empire; and enabled the U.S. to double in size after it's purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon.
They also did what no 'slave' army had ever done in modern or ancient history. They defeated an empire.
That is Revolutionary Black History ---and it deserves to be remembered during Black History Month.
(c) '12 maj
==============
Mumia Abu-Jama is a political prisoner in the United States, for more on his case see:
William Singletary, 65, Courageous Witness of Mumia's Innocence
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/01/12/18704643.php
The Revolutionary Tendency of the Socialist Party (RT-SP) demands freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal and calls for Black Liberation through socialist revolution. For more information on us, see our statement of purpose:
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2012/02/251336.php
Liberation News participated in recent successful demands to move Mumia into the general population. Mumia sent the following message to supporters in call from general population, SCI Mahanoy to his wife, Wadiya Jamal:
My dear friends, brothers and sisters -- I want to thank you for your real hard work and support. I am no longer on death row, no longer in the hole, I'm in population. This is only part one and I thank you all for the work you've done. But the struggle is for freedom! From Mumia and Wadiya, Ona Move. Long Live John Africa! =
For more information on what you can work for Mumia’s freedom, see:
http://www.laboractionmumia.org/index.html
This article is being distributed by Liberation News, subscribe free:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news
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SCI Mahanoy, February 2, 2012. Mumia Abu-Jamal celebrates his move off of death row with Heidi Boghosian and Professor Johanna Fernandez. This was Mumia's second contact visit in 30 years. His transfer to general population comes after a federal court ruled that instructions to jurors during his trial influenced them to choose death. A broad people's movement secured this victory, and it can now refocus on the goal of freedom. Join us on April 24, Mumia's birthday, as we Occupy the Justice Department in Washington, DC! — with Mumia Abu Jamal.
SCI Mahanoy, February 2, 2012. Mumia Abu-Jamal celebrates his move off of death row with Heidi Boghosian and Professor Johanna Fernandez. This was Mumia's second contact visit in 30 years. His transfer to general population comes after a federal court ruled that instructions to jurors during his trial influenced them to choose death. A broad people's movement secured this victory, and it can now refocus on the goal of freedom. Join us on April 24, Mumia's birthday, as we Occupy the Justice Department in Washington, DC! — with Mumia Abu Jamal.
Comrades, Brothers and Sisters:
Heidi Boghosian and I just returned from a very moving visit with Mumia. We visited yesterday, Thursday, February 2. This was Mumia's second contact visit in over 30 years, since his transfer to General Population last Friday, Jan 27. His first contact visit was with his wife, Wadiya, on Monday, January 30.
Unlike our previous visits to Death Row at SCI Greene and to solitary confinement at SCI Mahanoy, our visit yesterday took place in a large visitor's area, amidst numerous circles of families and spouses who were visiting other inmates. Compared to the intense and focused conversations we had had with Mumia in a small, isolated visiting cell on Death Row, behind sterile plexiglass, this exchange was more relaxed and informal and more unpredictably interactive with the people around us...it was more human. There were so many scenes of affection around us, of children jumping on top of and pulling at their fathers, of entire families talking intimately around small tables, of couples sitting and quietly holding each other, and of girlfriends and wives stealing a forbidden kiss from the men they were there to visit (kisses are only allowed at the start and at the end of visits). These scenes were touching and beautiful, and markedly different from the image s of prisoners presented to us by those in power. Our collective work could benefit greatly from these humane, intimate images.
When we entered, we immediately saw Mumia standing across the room. We walked toward each other and he hugged both of us simultaneously. We were both stunned that he would embrace us so warmly and share his personal space so generously after so many years in isolation.
He looked young, and we told him as much. He responded, "Black don't crack!" We laughed.
He talked to us about the newness of every step he has taken since his release to general population a week ago. So much of what we take for granted daily is new to him, from the microwave in the visiting room to the tremor he felt when, for the first time in 30 years, he kissed his wife. As he said in his own words, "the only thing more drastically different than what I'm experiencing now would be freedom." He also noted that everyone in the room was watching him.
The experience of breaking bread with our friend and comrade was emotional. It was wonderful to be able to talk and share grilled cheese sandwiches, apple danishes, cookies and hot chocolate from the visiting room vending machines.
One of the highlights of the visit came with the opportunity to take a photo. This was one of the first such opportunities for Mumia in decades, and we had a ball! Primping the hair, making sure that we didn't have food in our teeth, and nervously getting ready for the big photo moment was such a laugh! And Mumia was openly tickled by every second of it.
When the time came to leave, we all hugged and were promptly instructed to line up against the wall and walk out with the other visitors. As we were exiting the prison, one sister pulled us aside and told us that she couldn't stop singing Kelly Clarkson's line "some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this." She shared that she and her parents had followed Mumia's case since 1981 and that she was overjoyed that Mumia was alive and in general population despite Pennsylvania's bloodthirsty pursuit of his execution. We told her that on April 24 we were going to launch the fight that would win Mumia's release: that on that day we were going to Occupy the Justice Department in Washington DC. She told us that because she recently survived cancer she now believed in possibility, and that since Mumia was now in general population she could see how we could win. She sent us off with the line from Laverne and Shirley's theme song - "never heard the word impossible! "- gave us her number, and asked us to sign her up for the fight.
We're still taking it all in. The journey has been humbling and humanizing, and we are re-energized and re-inspired!!
In the words of City Lights editor, Greg Ruggiero:"
"Long Term Goal: End Mass Incarceration.
Short Term Goal: Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!"
--Johanna Fernandez
Heidi Boghosian and I just returned from a very moving visit with Mumia. We visited yesterday, Thursday, February 2. This was Mumia's second contact visit in over 30 years, since his transfer to General Population last Friday, Jan 27. His first contact visit was with his wife, Wadiya, on Monday, January 30.
Unlike our previous visits to Death Row at SCI Greene and to solitary confinement at SCI Mahanoy, our visit yesterday took place in a large visitor's area, amidst numerous circles of families and spouses who were visiting other inmates. Compared to the intense and focused conversations we had had with Mumia in a small, isolated visiting cell on Death Row, behind sterile plexiglass, this exchange was more relaxed and informal and more unpredictably interactive with the people around us...it was more human. There were so many scenes of affection around us, of children jumping on top of and pulling at their fathers, of entire families talking intimately around small tables, of couples sitting and quietly holding each other, and of girlfriends and wives stealing a forbidden kiss from the men they were there to visit (kisses are only allowed at the start and at the end of visits). These scenes were touching and beautiful, and markedly different from the image s of prisoners presented to us by those in power. Our collective work could benefit greatly from these humane, intimate images.
When we entered, we immediately saw Mumia standing across the room. We walked toward each other and he hugged both of us simultaneously. We were both stunned that he would embrace us so warmly and share his personal space so generously after so many years in isolation.
He looked young, and we told him as much. He responded, "Black don't crack!" We laughed.
He talked to us about the newness of every step he has taken since his release to general population a week ago. So much of what we take for granted daily is new to him, from the microwave in the visiting room to the tremor he felt when, for the first time in 30 years, he kissed his wife. As he said in his own words, "the only thing more drastically different than what I'm experiencing now would be freedom." He also noted that everyone in the room was watching him.
The experience of breaking bread with our friend and comrade was emotional. It was wonderful to be able to talk and share grilled cheese sandwiches, apple danishes, cookies and hot chocolate from the visiting room vending machines.
One of the highlights of the visit came with the opportunity to take a photo. This was one of the first such opportunities for Mumia in decades, and we had a ball! Primping the hair, making sure that we didn't have food in our teeth, and nervously getting ready for the big photo moment was such a laugh! And Mumia was openly tickled by every second of it.
When the time came to leave, we all hugged and were promptly instructed to line up against the wall and walk out with the other visitors. As we were exiting the prison, one sister pulled us aside and told us that she couldn't stop singing Kelly Clarkson's line "some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this." She shared that she and her parents had followed Mumia's case since 1981 and that she was overjoyed that Mumia was alive and in general population despite Pennsylvania's bloodthirsty pursuit of his execution. We told her that on April 24 we were going to launch the fight that would win Mumia's release: that on that day we were going to Occupy the Justice Department in Washington DC. She told us that because she recently survived cancer she now believed in possibility, and that since Mumia was now in general population she could see how we could win. She sent us off with the line from Laverne and Shirley's theme song - "never heard the word impossible! "- gave us her number, and asked us to sign her up for the fight.
We're still taking it all in. The journey has been humbling and humanizing, and we are re-energized and re-inspired!!
In the words of City Lights editor, Greg Ruggiero:"
"Long Term Goal: End Mass Incarceration.
Short Term Goal: Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!"
--Johanna Fernandez
Mumia is right to call for a Revolutionary Black History Month as the progressive historical influence of black people - often in the face of vicious repression - is all too often ignored by mainstream historians and media commentators. Steven Argue highlights the widespread influence of the Haitian Revolution 1791-1804 which was the subject of CLR James' The Black Jacobins. I felt it necessary to comment simply to add the following quote from Shelley's A Philosophical View of Reform (1820) which shows us that the Haitian Revolution impacted European political thought as well:
`One of the signs of the times was that the oppressed peasantry rose like the negro slaves of West Indian plantations, and murdered their tyrants when they were unaware. So dear is power that the tyrants themselves niether then, nor now, nor ever, left or leave a path to freedom but through their own blood.`
True when Shelley was writing and still true today. As capitalism shudders from crisis to crisis the tyrannical ruthlessness of the business and financial classes has become clear for all to see. Especially in the post-earthquake Haiti which is struggling to recover some sense of normality with very little assistance from global corporate capitalism because the basic needs of the Haitian people will not generate profits. This criminal neglect of the Haitian people needs to be viewed in its own historical context and a Black History Month would certainly go some way to achieving that aim.
`One of the signs of the times was that the oppressed peasantry rose like the negro slaves of West Indian plantations, and murdered their tyrants when they were unaware. So dear is power that the tyrants themselves niether then, nor now, nor ever, left or leave a path to freedom but through their own blood.`
True when Shelley was writing and still true today. As capitalism shudders from crisis to crisis the tyrannical ruthlessness of the business and financial classes has become clear for all to see. Especially in the post-earthquake Haiti which is struggling to recover some sense of normality with very little assistance from global corporate capitalism because the basic needs of the Haitian people will not generate profits. This criminal neglect of the Haitian people needs to be viewed in its own historical context and a Black History Month would certainly go some way to achieving that aim.
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