Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Parable of Oakland Police Riot
Parable of Oakland Police Riot
The Oakland Police are planning to riot. This is the community consensus based on conversations at the crossroads. They shall be waiting for the crowd to gather in front of City Hall after the verdict is announced in the Oscar Grant murder trial. The consensus among the people is that the BART police officer shall not be found guilty of murder. The prosecution has been weak as water, with no real effort to convince the jury Oscar Grant was murdered in cold blood last New Year's day.
Oakland police have been planning for weeks how they will handle the expected protests. They have been training in riot control, the old condemned North County jail has been prepared to handle protesters. Even the jail above City Hall has been made ready. All downtown businesses have been told to close early on Thursday and don't leave cars parked in the downtown area.
OPD Chief Bates says he wants peace but is prepared for war. Mayor Dellums concurs. The religious leaders, aka Pharaoh's magicians, are in league with the police to keeps the masses calm.
Yet the consensus among the people is that, if anything, it shall be a police inspired riot, instigated by agent provocateurs, Cointelpro agents and undercover police. The police want a riot so they can justify not getting laid off, having their budget cut and forced to contribute to their retirement fund. A good riot will make them eligible for Federal funds such as gang abatement monies and other grants from criminal justice and Homeland security.
So the OPD is ready to whup heads and slaughter demonstrators after they are instigated by agent provocateurs.
As far as we're concerned, justice for Oscar Grant was granted by Louvelle Mixon. Dr. Fritz Pointer said Mixon's shootout with the OPD allowed the Oakland masses to enjoy an "obscene pride" after years of police abuse under the color of law.
We are against all violence except in self defense. When the police stop acting like an occupying army and understand they work for the people and not the reverse, perhaps then, and only then, shall there be real peace in the hood.
The Supreme Court's decision to allow Americans to defend themselves with guns must be understood by reading the subtext: let them niggers keep killing each other, so long as they don't cross the line into the white community. If they cross the line, we're ready for them.
We know who sells guns to the brothers and sisters in the hood, and we know who allows the dope in. We cannot disassociate guns and drugs from politicians and developers who are eager to gentrify ghetto neighborhoods with buppies , yuppies and puppies. They will employ such tactics as gang abatement and eminent domain to ethnically cleanse the hood for the pseudo liberal black and white bourgeoisie.
A friend attended a gang abatement meeting full of whites. He wondered aloud where are the guys who are targets of gang abatement? Four of them were in jail and two others are home owners who must now stay one hundred blocks from their homes.
We cannot view this problem solely in a local context, but it must be seen within the wider context of the global wars against the poor in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere. Through the tribal chiefs, America paid insurgents in Iraq to lay down their arms--that was the real surge, not the phony surge of General Patraeus, that was essentially the ethnic cleansing of neighborhoods in Baghdad, separating the Sunnia from the Shia by in numerous checkpoints, along with forcing four million internally and externally displaced refugees. In the most restive Anbar Province, Sunni insurgents were paid to lay down their arms and join the security patrols in their neighborhoods. This is the reason for the dramatic decrease in violence.
They are employing the same tactic in Afghanistan. The plan is to pay the Taliban billions to lay down their arms and pledge allegiance to the corrupt Karzai who is hardly the president of a nation but the Mayor of Kabul, the Capital. The Taliban shall be given jobs, housing and education.
Isn't this fantastic! Jobs, housing and education! Why not try this tactic in the hoods of America, specifically in Oakland, Mayor Ron Dellums, OPD Chief Bates, Attorney General Holder, President Barack Hussein Obama. But oh, no, you rather pay the Taliban because they are a threat to your national security, although there is more violence in the hoods of America annually than the combined violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Is not the violence in the hoods of America a threat to national security? Children can't go to school, men and women can't go to work and come home safely, worshippers can't attend church, the elderly are prisoners in their homes in the day and night. Where is the national security?
It is costing you one million dollars per soldier per year to occupy Afghanistan, yet you have not reported the killing of one Al Queda soldier on the soil of Afghanistan. And then you say you must stay in Afghanistant until you improve the army who is so illiterate they are too retarded to defend themselves, yet these are the people who ran out Alexander the Great, the Monguls, the British, the Russians, and soon they will run your asses out. Yet you tell us you must occupy their land until they are literate enough to defend themselves?
I rest my case. Let us pray for peace in the streets of Oakland, a valiant city, home of the Western Pullman Porters, home of the Black Panthers. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
--Marvin X
Academy of Da Corner
14th and Broadway
6/29/10
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – JUNE 30TH, 2010
Contact: Tony Coleman, Rachel Jackson
(510) 225-4083 or info@oaklandforjustice.org
OAKLAND ORGANIZERS DEFEND RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE AFTER MEHSERLE VERDICT
WHO: Oakland General Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant
WHAT: Press Conference
WHEN: Thursday, July 1st, 11:00 AM
WHERE: 14th & Broadway, Oakland (at the flag poles in Frank Ogawa Plaza )
As the Mehserle murder trial verdict draws near, Oakland community organizers fear that the Mayor and Oakland Police Department’s contradictory actions will hinder the exercise of First Amendment rights. Officials claim to support free speech, while video of heavily armed officers – marching in military formation, swinging batons on peaceful mock-protesters, and preparing pepper spray, tear gas, and tanks – sends the opposite message: that protestors will be brutalized, for the “crime” of protesting police brutality.
Despite this intimidation, the Oakland Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant and all victims of police abuse, supports the call for a community gathering at the intersection of 14th Street and Broadway in Oakland , 6pm, the day the verdict is announced.
Tony Coleman of OneFam raises key questions, “After years of cuts to youth services, now the City can pay for PSA’s and pay outreach workers to say that Oakland officials love young people? Where was funding or action against police abuse last year, when Dellums told protesters he ‘was too busy,’ to comment on the shooting of Oscar Grant? And why are gang-prevention officers high on the list of officers to be cut from the OPD? This is hypocrisy, and it’s way too little, way too late.”
“The police are out of control in California and beyond, from Seattle to Detroit to New York , and it’s past time for Obama to step up,” says Rachel Jackson of the New Years Movement for Justice. “Despite the hype, there are no ‘outside agitators’ when a problem is nationwide. The ‘outsiders’ are officers who don’t live in cities they patrol, would never send their children to Oakland schools, and believe the solution to crime is to pack prisons with non-violent offenders.”
Hannibal Shakur from the Laney Black Student Union drives the point home: “I get targeted by the police regularly, including for the ‘crime’ of documenting police abuse on video. It’s offensive and condescending to imply that young black men need ‘outsiders’ to tell us how to respond to racism.”
Regardless of the Mehserle verdict, police violence must stop. At this historical moment, the Oakland Assembly urges us to look to each other for healing and solutions to community problems. The Oakland Assembly for Justice will facilitate a youth-focused program to express and process emotions our on the day of the verdict, in a space where our voices will be heard.
RALLY * OPEN MIC * SPOKEN WORD * YOUTH SPEAK OUT!
Day of the Verdict – Community Gathering – 14th & Broadway, 6pm
The Oakland General Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant is a grassroots coalition of concerned citizens working with statewide partners to stop the epidemic of police abuse. For more information, see www.oaklandforjustice.org.
From: "Brooks, Desley" <DBrooks@oaklandnet.com>
Date: June 30, 2010 1:07:02 PM PDT
To: "Brooks, Desley" <DBrooks@oaklandnet.com>
Subject: Press Release from the Black Electeds and Clergy of the East Bay.
Contact: Desley Brooks (510) 238-7006
Keith Carson (510) 272-6695
For Immediate Release
Black Elected Officials and Clergy of the Eastbay’s statement regarding Upcoming Oscar Grant Verdict
An Open Letter to the Community:
Within the next couple of days and/or weeks there will be a verdict in the Oscar Grant case. This case has struck a nerve in Oakland and around the world. In anticipation of the verdict the Black Elected Officials and Clergy of the Eastbay wanted to share some information with our community.
Representatives of our organization have been monitoring this case since Oscar Grant was senselessly murdered by Johannes Mehserle on January 1, 2009. We demanded that a reluctant District Attorney file criminal proceedings against Mehserle; we helped to organize community pressure on BART to bring about organizational change and implementation of polices and procedures to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again; we have attended all of the court proceedings; and most importantly we have demanded justice for Oscar Grant, his family and everyone that Oscar represents – because we all could be Oscar Grant.
A community needs to know that its leadership will stand to protect their interests. While we are hopeful that our Justice System will be just; we are mindful of incidences where it has failed us. When the system failed us in the Rodney King case, the Justice Department stepped in to ensure that the Community’s interests were protected. We, the Black Elected Officials and Clergy of the Eastbay, stand prepared to call upon all State and Federal agencies to seek any and all recourse if an unjust verdict is rendered in this case.
We know that emotions may run high depending on the outcome of Johannes Mehserle’s criminal proceedings. The current State Court proceedings are just one step on the road to justice for Oscar Grant. As such, we are asking that you work with us to shut down anyone who would engage in destructive behavior in our community. We are also asking that you work with us as we continue to demand justice for Oscar. We have been assured that the Justice Department is monitoring the Mehserle case.
Martin Luther King said that peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice. In the same vein as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Rodney King, and many others we will receive JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT.
The struggle continues,
Hon. Desley Brooks
Hon. Keith Carson
Minister Keith Muhammad
Rev. Dr. Harold R. Mayberry
Rev. Zachary Carey
Hon. Darleen Brooks
Hon. Kathy Neal
Hon. Marlon McWilson
Bishop Keith Clark
Rev. Dr. Kevin Barnes
Hon. Darryl Moore
Hon. Alice Spearman
Partial listing
Parable of Value
Parable of Value
Dat Dere
Brother Khalid came to Plato Negro wanting to know why his latest book was priced a hunid dollars? Plato replied, did not a character in one of Shakespeare's plays say, "I know my price"?
Plato told Khalid I want people to value wisdom as opposed to the common, Miller Lite trash promoted as literature by the bourgeoisie press. Value is based on truth and beauty. Will you not, Khalid, admit The Wisdom of Plato Negro contains a generous amount of truth and beauty. Khalid agreed. But he said, times are hard, people don't have money.
Plato replied, I know times are hard, but I see people flocking to music and rap concerts, paying one hunid dollars and more for tickets. I see them paying two hunid for tennis shoes made in China for fifty cents. Khalid, he said, you went to college. You bought textbooks that cost over a hunid.
True, said Khalid.
You did not cry crocodile tears nor snivel, and the books were full of white supremacy and helped fuck up your mind even more than before you got to college.
True, said Khalid.
So why not a hunid for a book of original wisdom by your indigenous North American African brother? It might make you sane again, help you regain your mental equilibrium. Dr. Nathan Hare calls it biblotherapy.
But a hunid is a lot, Plato!
Now the common people use their common sense to figure out a way to get what they want in life, especially when they sense something has value. People here in the Bay who've been reading my books the last fifty years don't hesitate to rush me the hunid. Or they come with twenty, forty, or sixty and I give them the book. They pay me the rest later. All you need do is ask, can I get a deal? Bargain Negro, you so damn African, but you have forgotten how to bargain. I don't give a damn what price the white man has on his shit, when I go to him, I want a bargain, yes, even at his department stores.
The book is hunid because I want you to appreciate my labor, aside from the wisdom that Fahizah Alim says, "...Reaches in and pulls from a life lived hard, deep, wide, high and low, i.e., a sacrifice in blood. At the root of sacrifice is sacred, which is of God and for God. He has lived and examined the lives of the proverbial 10,000 black men and women...."
Plus, it is a limited edition, thus the cost of printing is high. I'm dealing with quality, not quantity.
More than anything, give me something for my labor, if you don't mind. You are not going to sit on your ass two or three weeks, two or three months, two or three years, so show me appreciation for the value of my labor and discipline.
If I went the regular book selling route, let's examine the process. If the book cost twenty dollars to print or 20% of the hunid, the distributor wants 70% (or more depending on his additional mysterious fees--the book stores take 40%), so we are down to 90% or ninety dollars of the hunid. Don't forget the tax man--let's say 5% to 9%, so I come out with $l.00 to $5.oo off a hunid dollar book. Now what kind of trick do you think I am? My Mama was a businesswoman and my father a businessman, don't you think they taught me better than to get pimped like a two dollar hoe?
Of course if I cut out the middle man and sell direct to you, I come out with my shirt on--I can even give you my publisher's discount and still buy me some new socks! Do you mind, Khalid?
No, sir. I see your point.
You don't mind if I get paid for the multi-tasking: writer, editor, typist, proof reader, cover designer, layout designer, promoter, publisher, salesman?
That makes sense, Khalid said.
As-Salaam-Alaikum, brother.
Wa-Alaikum Salaam.
After Khalid departed, Plato thought further on the matter of value. Value, he mused, can be surmised by considering the relationship between two women. One woman is a classic, another a two dollar hoe. Yet, the classic woman has hoe qualities and the hoe has classic qualities. Thus they both have intrinsic value. The classic woman has holiness and hoeness, and the hoe has holiness and hoeness.
The classic woman has the value of selflessness in her holiness. And the hoe has selflessness in her hoeness, i.e., she is willing to give her love to all willing to pay for her services. The classic woman reflects the hoe's selflessness in sharing her love with many, except she doesn't charge for her services. She may request flowers and wine, and maybe trinkets from her lovers from time to time. The hoe may get these items in addition to her fee, especially if she has a positive attitude that tricks appreciate in a hoe. She will often get a bonus because tricks value attitude.
We see both ladies have intrinsic value as human beings and must be respected as such--they are not to be abused nor disrespected in any way, physically, verbally or emotionally. We can try to make a distinction between the value of the two women, but it is false, especially if one has an emotional connection to both types of women. In either case, as spiritual beings, both emanate a positive vibration, an aura of holiness that is external and internal.
It is possible to learn the value of life from both types of women. The classic woman can teach one to appreciate the finer things of life, to not be a brute, a savage, to be gentle and civil. She will not tolerate disrespect, unless she becomes addicted to the golden handcuffs syndrome wherein she submits to harsh treatment by her well heeled mate to the extent she will reduce her value to that of the two dollar hoe to maintain a certain standard of existence, better known as the world of make believe.
The holly hoe will tell you to not be so rough, be gentle. You're too rough to be a pimp! And so, Plato mused, love the one your with, recognize and respect their value. No one is useless, valueless, everyone has a function. Thus, one object of life is to discern the value of each human being, beginning with self.
What is one's own value or self worth?How can one recognize and respect value in another without knowing the value of oneself? It is abysmal ignorance of self worth that allows human beings to kill and destroy each other in the hood.
In the interconnectedness of the universe, to kill another is to kill oneself! When you kill your brother you kill yourself. How can you enjoy life when you have taken life. As a special forces soldier said to me, no one who has ever been to war is sane. In Iraq, some US soldiers said they used to stand watch at night until they said they knew they deserved death because of all the killing they'd done, so they stop doing post at night and went to sleep. They knew in devaluing others, they had devalued themselves.
When you kill, you are a dead man walking yourself. You must eternally watch your back, watch your siblings, your children, your mama and daddy, because you know revenge is coming for your ass, it is only a matter of time.
Further, how can you enjoy eating while your brother is starving. Why will you not feed your brother? Why will you not give him a dollar for a hamburger when you have a hunid in your pocket? Can you not imagine a day when your brother may need to feed you? Thus, your brother has value--every dog has his day, to use a cliche.
During slavery the North American African had value as chattel property. You were "chattel real" or personal property of your master. You were not real estate which is land and buildings, but you were property none the less. You could not destroy the master's property without compensation. You would not think of killing another African unless you were able to pay compensation to the master. We think there was little black on black homicide during slavery.
Of course the slave catchers could kill you if you resisted, but even the slave catcher had to compensate your master for your value.
Today you have no value other than intrinsic, but you don't value yourself. You are the master of yourself today. You are the captain of your ship, yet you are reckless and destructive to yourself and kind because of your consciousness or the lack thereof. You destroy your brother and yourself in senseless negative activity, as though you have no value.
Your former master and his slave catchers, today known as police, recognize you yet have value. You are worth $30,000 to $60,000 per inmate per year in jail and prison. A correctional officer was overheard saying, "Come on back, nigger. I just bought me a yacht. Come on back so I can get one for my son!"
--Marvin X
6/29/10
from Hustler's Guide to the Game Called Life, in Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself by Marvin X, Black Bird Press, 2010.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Plato Negro's Republic: Newark, A Case Study
photo by Kamau Amen Ra
Parable of Plato Negro's Republic:
Newark, A Case Study
Newark, New Jersey may be a prototype city in the People's Republic of North American Africa.
It may hold answers to many questions raised or to be raised in Plato Negro's Republic, a work in progress. Of course, Newark is home of Amiri Baraka, poet-playwright, activist, chief architect of the Black Arts Movement. More importantly for this discussion, Baraka has been deeply involved in Newark politics, most recently his son Ras won a seat on the city council. But the father's organization was critical in the election of Newark's first black mayor Kenneth Gibson back in the 60s. Since then, his children have not known a white mayor, although the black mayors have been severely addicted to white supremacy, including the present mayor Cory Booker. In an effort to help the mayor and city council recover from their addiction to white supremacy, Baraka gave them copies of my book How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2007). He doubts they will follow the manual that calls for detox and recovery based on the 12- step model.
Baraka recently admitted that perhaps he should have run for office rather than put in the Negroes, beginning with Gibson who had sold out before he took the oath of office. It is for this reason that Plato Negro's Republic calls for men and women of high morals and spiritual consciousness to be about the political business of the Republic of North American Africans.
How can we advance by repeatedly putting sick, corrupt Negroes in political office. It is an effort in futility. At some point we must transcend the black face and get to the black heart and soul. That must be our focus, yet we continue to get stuck on stupid, like children in pre-school learning their colors! Yes, Newark is a black city and deserves a black mayor, yes, one that is not a black with a white heart! Let's get to the heart of the matter!
With Ras Baraka we know we have a child born with consciousness in his DNA, so he is the model of the political personality needed in the Republic. A few years ago he jumped into the race for mayor without informing his father, and of course he lost. Nothing happens in Newark without the consent and blessing of the godfather Amiri who was honored with a week long celebration of his 75th birthday last year.
Ras continued his political sojourn, building his organization until he was finally successful. Ras and his hip hop generation are a model of what shall be needed in the Republic, whether it is a separate state or exists within the borders of these United Snakes.
But it is not simply about age or youth, rather consciousness. Are you addicted to the white supremacy agenda, attracted to materialism, trinkets, gadgets, rocks, animal skins, plastic. Will you take a bribe, get set up with a woman.
Let us pray for Ras, for as we look around the country, we see corruption in the land, from the fall of Detroit's young Kwame to other cities where North American African political officials are either in jail or under indictment for corruption. If I'm correct, all the black mayors in Newark were either indicted and/or were found guilty of corruption and served time, including the last mayor, Sharp James. What shall be the fate of the young Cory Booker? Will he detox and recover from the addiction to white supremacy? Maybe Councilman Ras will be able to lend him a back bone!
--Marvin X
6/28/10
The following is an update on Newark by the Godfather himself:
Ras Baraka, Darrin Sharif Victories in Newark!
A few weeks after Ras Baraka beat down Mayor Corey Booker’s candidate, Oscar James, Jr. by over 1000 votes to become South Ward Councilman, Darrin Sharif edged another Booker backed candidate, Charles Bell, in a Central Ward run-off election, by 11 votes! These election victories suggest significant changes in the future of
The interesting twist in all this good news ,at least for people who want a city council out from under Mayor Booker’s well advertised thumb, is that the local (Booker Backing) media, like the Star Ledger , and it’s channel 12 New Jersey News, have barely mentioned these happenings, which are both stunning political upsets.
The reason why these races have been under covered and left relatively obscure, is that Booker’s handlers want to continue to feed the image they have created ,with their “outside handler bias”, is that Corey Booker is invincible and “The Next!” whatever they want him to be. The fact that two “chilly homeboys” (even though they are the sons Amiri and Amina Baraka and Carl Sharif)could lay Booker’s champion low with much less money than the vaunted Booker Bux, has important, and for them, very embarrassing lessons. First that it is People that vote, not money, even though the “Extreme court” has seen fit to let the dogs out, by voting to remove limits on Corporate spending in elections, allowing the corpses theoretically to dominate all elections they want. This , of course, makes any declarations of “Democracy quite false.
But despite this, which seems a capitalist (and perhaps racist tinged) reaction to Obama’s grass roots fueled victory, there are things yet that money can’t automatically buy. In both Baraka’s and Sharif’s campaign, the priority was face to face door knocking campaigning. While Booker bashed away with his money ball. Booker spent literally millions of dollars trying to stop Ras Baraka, by presenting expensive ads on CNN every few hours. One with the stock stereotype middle class negress city council president saying “she liked Ras Baraka” but how could he be a high school principal and City councilman at the same time. Plus her candidate helped the crossing guards.
In Sharif’s race, Booker had his opponents literature pasted up all over the place. Although the Mayor told me in an earlier conversation when I called him to protest his thugs tearing down Ras’ signs, that they “were only tearing down illegal signs”. (The ones without green cards?”) But to no avail, despite all that money spent, and incidences of Booker people trying to vote more than once (My wife and other co workers actually witnessed this at the polling place where she was working…and the offender confessed).
At any rate, what it means is that Booker’s rubber stamp council is no more! The Emperor is standing on the second floor of City Hall naked as a jay bird. And his handlers, including the local media are still adjusting to that reality. Plus there might be more bad news the bare assed Mayor, this election breakthrough might free a few other members of the City Council to begin to represent the people of Newark not just Mayor Booker’s handlers.
- -Amiri Baraka
www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Plato Negro's Republic and Morality
Plato Negro's Republic and Morality
There are those who claim we don't want a nation of saints or holy men and women. For sure, we don't need a theocracy, a nation ruled by the religious clergy. Iran has destroyed any desire for such a nation of religious purists, and the Taliban have put nails in the coffin. The pall bearers in Saudi Arabia make us repel at the notion of a nation under the rule of Sharia or Islamic law, and Christian America has negated any possibility of a theocracy in the name of Jesus. The Bible belt in the South is a land of ignorance no civilized human being would want to inhabit. Such mythological ignorance is totally unacceptable in the modern world of the new millennium.
Yet the secular nation is a travesty of morality with its notion of total freedom that is anathema to moral consciousness. For as the Pointer Sisters cried Free me from my freedom, the secular nation has failed to halt the animal nature of man from approaching the abyss, since he and she are now free to marry a tree, no matter that a tree shall not perpetuate the species, yet, in the name of freedom, one has every right to marry a tree.
We are taught about the balance, the Mizan, Ma'at, and other terms that denote avoiding the extremes, for it is the extremes that take us to the outter limits wherein we sink too deep to resurface and come up for air, thus we drown.
In our time, we have seen the revolutionary nations turn reactionary, repressive-- as oppressive as the regimes they overthrew. So what was the point of all the shedding of blood and bones? Only to change the names of the oppressor from white to black. Is a black hangman better than a white hangman?
You say morality should be a personal thing? But in recovery they say the addict affects seven other people, therefore our behavior affects others, it is not personal but communal. When my play One Day in the Life was performed in Brooklyn, New York at Sista's Place, Viola Plummer of Sista's Place said, "What upset me about the play is the selfishness of the addict in pursuing his goal of self destruction, totally ignoring the concern of those who love him."
Thus we are caught in a love net, connected with those we love and who love us, and therefore we must do our very best to honor and respect this love, for ultimately love is all there is. Once the sand drips out of the hour glass of love, the relationship in over, dead in the water.
And so we must strive to do good by each other, not harm, not abuse and terror. The recklessness and evil we subject each other to in our relationships must be totally unacceptable in the Republic of North American Africans.
This is why I call for a Republic of North American Africans with great caution, for no one that I know wants to be in a nation of nigguhs! Let me repeat, nigguhs! Nobody wants to be with nigguhs, not even nigguhs! Ask them, I beg you!
Ideally, it would be, yes, a nation of saints, but let's be real, few people are able to reach high spiritual consciousness. We are not talking about persons steeped in religiosity, quoting various scriptures in the variety of religions. But we are seeking persons with the spirit of the Divine in their heart and in their social activism to relieve oppression and suffering wherever it may be, first of all in their nation, yes, in the Republic of North American Africans.
Have we not seen enough of greed and materialism, and what is the end of this endeavor? What is the end of those who drown in trinkets and gadgets? Is it not insane to see the former revolutionaries in South Africa become billionaires while the masses are yet without housing, electricity, water, toilets, health clinics and schools. Yet you were a revolutionary, now you are a billionaire flying in your private jet while you people suffer ignorance, poverty and disease.
This is not the revolution we see for we have a Pan Africa full of such abject revolutionary failures. How can it be that out of all the nations in Africa that gained independence from colonialism, only Ghana is the example of righteousness and democratic consensus?
In America, we probably would have advanced our revolutionary national liberation movement had we practiced high morals, discipline and spiritual consciousness, honoring our ancestors, elders, the living and the yet unborn. But we disrespected all the above, submitted to our animal selves, shouted freedom, yet oppressed our women, beating them into submission when they spoke out against our moral and political contradictions. Why are we beating them, they cried as our children watched in horror, why don't you go beat the white man?
So how can we move forward to the next level with the ghosts and demons not exorcised? We are like the dope addict who lives in denial that he has a problem, yet the community can see he has turned into a zombie of himself, a skeleton of the man who used to be the hero, come to save us all.
In short, there can be no Republic of North American Africans who insist on maintaining the immorality of their wretched past in the wilderness of North America. No, no, no, it must not be that kind of party. That party is over. You can't enter the Republic with negrocities, only if you are prepared to enter recovery. You must be prepared to detox, recover and discover your divine mission in life as a spiritual being in human form.
--Marvin X
6/27/10
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Parable of Plato Negro's Republic of North American Africans
Parable of Plato Negro's
Republic of North American Africans
In loving memory of
Sister Njere Aghanee, a nationalist
If you are not for yourself, who shall be for you? Those who are for everybody are often for nobody. For sure, all nations move in their national interests. Even the most revolutionary internationalist nation will give you up when it is in their national interest to do so. Black in the 60s, the Algerian Government gave refuge to the Black Panther Party until some BPP members hijacked a plane with a million dollar ransom aboard. When they landed in Algeria, the Panthers were jailed and the million dollars seized, simply because the Algerians were negotiating a thirteen billion dollar natural gas contract with America, so it was obviously not in their national interest to aid some crazy Negroes with a million when they were seeking billions. So much for revolutionary internationalism.
Black Panther revolutionary Asata Shakur, exiled in Cuba, better watch her ass when the post-Castro government normalizes relations with the Gringos. At one point the USA Black Caucus supported her extradition, claiming they didn't know who she was. Beware, for a few pieces of fried chicken, Negroes might again support the extradition of revolutionary Queen Asata.
We must understand there are reactionary nationalists and revolutionary nationalists. In China, the reactionary nationalist was Chiang Khi- shek, the uncle tom nationalist, that Mao, the revolutionary nationalist, ran to the island of Taiwan. Lumumba in the Congo was a revolutionary nationalist, Mobutu a reactionary.
As per China, have no doubt, these days she is making moves in her national interests, and she doesn't give a damn about internationalism, some would claim she has lost her revolutionary edge, yes, to pursue her national interests. She will close down native factories in Africa to force cheap Chinese goods upon the continent, and of course reactionary African leaders will go along since they have a penchant for aiding and abetting the suffering of their people.
Those who believe in majority rule must surely embrace the coming rule of the BRIC nations: Brazil, Russia, India and China. Where is Africa in the new paradigm? North American Africans strive to be Pan African, but do not come to the table as a nation state, perhaps de facto, but the North American African Pan Africanists are largely a group of intellectuals spouting internationalist rhetoric because they have no base in the North American African community, thus they cannot represent themselves as legitimate leaders of the Republic of North American Africans. No one elected them, there has been no vote, no consensus. Thus they represent a variety of groups and individuals, mainly out for their own interests and self aggrandizement , many of whom are pure unadulterated opportunists who make "world tours" raising millions and billions of dollars in the name of North American Africans, while the masses never see a dime. Some of these individuals align themselves with reactionary oppressive leaders, for a fee, of course, and spread propaganda in support of repressive African, Arab and other right wing leaders.
North American Africans must first educate our people regarding the concept of national sovereignty and the human right to self-determination, then get a consensus from the people to represent them on the international level, only then can they approach other nations in the name of the forty million North American Africans. More importantly, as Baba Lumumba notes, we must first get a consensus on freedom. Is freedom a job, a land, winning political office, marrying a white woman, an abundance of trinkets and gadgets--what the hell do we collective agree is freedom?
Otherwise, our national interests shall be pursued by "leading blacks" (the usual suspects), individuals and groups of opportunists out for their personal interests, not the people's.
Our Black President Obama cannot represent North American Africans while afraid to utter the word Black, afraid to openly uplift the poor and oppressed North American Africans and others--yet he is not afraid to uplift international financiers, to uplift the USA military hegemony around the world. How can our "Black" President represent imperialism and the oppressed simultaneously ?
There must be a clear distinction between the reactionary US government and a radical/revolutionary Republic of North American Africans. We give honor and praise to those valiant brothers and sisters throughout our history who fought to establish a nation of North American Africans. We honor Garvey, Elijah, Malcolm, Queen Mother Moore, Ella Collins, and those in the Republic of New Africa, especially ancestor Imari Obdele.
With the death of Malcolm X in '65, the transition of Elijah Muhammad in '75, also the betrayal of elected politicians at the Gary Convention of '72, nationalism died a tragic death and is today derided by socalled progressives as narrow minded, especially those proponents of Pan Africanism and/or Diaspora "studies," which essentially means don't focus on North American Africans, let's go find bones in Egypt rather than save dry bones in the hood.
Consequently, the condition of dry bones in the hood becomes dire by the moment, with young black males being jailed and imprisoned, and simultaneously young females imprisoned in academia getting a thorough brainwashing in Western mythology and ritual, including gender confusion,and/or they struggle in poverty as single mothers--neither the academic sister nor the ghetto single mother has much, if any, possibility of finding a husband among their own kind.
Many sisters who reach out to their Pan African brothers end up in sham/scam marriages so the African can get his Green card, then he is gone home to his several wives in Africa.
We thought Minister Farakhan would advance the nationalist tradition but he settled for religiosity and the cult of personality rather than concrete steps to establish a viable nation of North American Africans. The million men who marched should have stayed in DC until liberty or death. Yes, what is wrong with sacrificing one million for forty million? If we had stayed
around after sundown, the US Government would have certainly attended our agenda requests in a most serious manner. A million black men in DC for two or three days might have netted us Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi!
Black intellectuals (in perpetual crisis) have shifted toward this vague and effete Pan Africanism rather than focus on a concrete nation state to which we are entitled for four hundred years of free and nearly free labor and the present wage slavery and neo-slavery under the constitution, i.e. involuntary servitude while imprisoned.
Can we not see what the Zionist have established in Israel in sixty years? Or look at Pakistan, carved out of India. We have every right to carve up America--again, Liberty or death! But, no, let us go down with America, for we are Americans, no matter what. It is the fate of the gods! What gods, the gods who dwell in hell?
A revolutionary nationalist focus would have surely enabled us to receive the necessary assistance to recover from the global financial meltdown, or to have avoided it altogether, rather than get duped of our national wealth at the insistence of our "leading blacks."
A nationalist perspective and organization would have allowed North American Africans to receive the necessary help and assistance during Katrina when our Pan African and internationalist brother nations tried to aid us but were prevented by the reactionary US regime. We are thus very similar to the Palestinians in the Gaza concentration camp. We are thus is a pitiful situation as supposedly free men and women.
As truly free men and women, we may have had the insight and foresight to prevent the oil barons from polluting the Gulf coast by denying them deep ocean drilling rights if we controlled the Gulf states--as we should in any legitimate reparations agreement. Anything less than three states is poppycock. We have the human and divine right after four centuries of free labor to own at least three of these fifty odd states in the United Snakes of America.
Your preachers, teachers, and politicians have sold you a out for a mess of pottage, from which you may never recover--you may very well be doomed to enjoy the destruction of your master.
Time is short. Do you not see the oceans coming to consume us for the evil of your master?
The entire Gulf coast may soon be contaminated due to the greed and arrogance of your master, yes, even your master in black face, whose support and bailout of international finance propels the oil barons to continue their banditry and destruction of the planet.
North American Africans must see another course of action, an agenda that is independent and free of American decadence and destruction. The Republic of North American Africans is your alternative. Other than annihilation , you have no choice.
Pontificate and equivocate as the water rises, as other nations move in their interests. Take note of your neighbors throughout the Americas, in Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Venezuela and elsewhere as they establish their national sovereignty and self determination, not since the campaign of Simon Bolivar and Toussaint's revolt in Haiti. They are freeing themselves of US hegemony and you must do the same. Otherwise, you are less than human beings and shall continue to be treated as such. Malcolm X told you a hint to the wise is sufficient.
Up you mighty nation, Republic of North American Africans! By the way, did you cheer for Ghana or America in the World Cup today? lol
--Marvin X
6/27/10
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Pull Yo Pants Up fada Black Prez and Yoself!
--Marvin X
Marvin X
Pull Yo Pants Up
fada Black Prez
and Yo Self!
Essays on
Obama Drama
plus
the Hustler’s Guide to the Game Called Life
Stay connected to new generation. they really can feel you. as much as you dislike rap. your style is very hip hop. Lol! brash. raw. in your face. not givin a F what anybody thinks albeit a much stronger message.--Muhammida El Muhajir
This is a dangerous book, for it reveals the inner workings of capitalist and imperialist governments around the world. It's a book that stands with and on behalf of the poor, the dispossessed, the despised, and downtrodden.
--Rudolph Lewis, editor, Chickenbones
You are the voice of the Black Man whose cry has been muffled by the clank of prison bars, the explosion of gunfire, and the loud silence of apathy and compliance.
--Fahizah Alim
The
--Bob Holman
Black Bird Press
1222 Dwight Way
Berkeley CA 94702
2010
150 pages
$19.95
Mail order only
not available in bookstores
Parable of the General as a Rolling Stone
Parable of the General as a Rolling Stone
In action reminiscent of Harry Truman firing General MacArthur during the Korean war, President Obama relieved General McChrystal
of his duties in Afghanistan for denigrating remarks in Rolling Stone magazine.
We think the general orchestrated his departure to escape being part of America's neo-Vietnam, especially after calling for a surge of troops that have done nothing to stop the forward march of Taliban. Clearly, the Taliban has stopped the US and NATO who should have marched victoriously into Kandahar by now.
Enter General Petraeus (betray us), author of the "surge" in Iraq, although we know the "surge" was a 30 million dollar monthly payoff to the Sunni fighters, mainly in Anbar Province. This is the main reason violence decreased, not the 30,000 troops who occupied Baghdad by following the General's highly touted counter-insurgency text.
We wonder will General Betray-us come with money bags in tow? Of course, the US and NATO are already paying war lords, tribal chiefs and Taliban (two billion dollars to date) for safe passage on the roads to deliver 80% of their supplies. They paid "security fees" is Iraq as well.
The plan is to offer the Taliban fighters more billions for jobs, housing and schooling if they lay down their arms and pledge allegiance to the Mayor of Kabul, the dope dealing President Karzai, whose brother controls the opium trade that expanded since the US occupiers arrived. At least while the Taliban were in power, they curtailed the opium trade under pain of execution.
The opium has devastated the land with entire families addicted, including babies. One of the main reasons progress has been slow in constructing the Afghan army is because the soldiers are addicted. They fight for a moment, then disappear to chase the dragon.
What is most striking is the mantra that the US is in Afghanistan to deny Al Queda a sanctuary, while most sources say there are only one hundred of these socalled terrorists in that war torn nation. Why does it take 30,000 troops to defeat one hundred? When was the last time you heard Al Queda soldiers killed in Afghanistan?
Obama's policy is thus to continue the permanent war that feeds the US military-corporate complex. Hey, hey, how many did you kill today, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and soon Iran?
--Marvin X
6/24/10