It is an unfortunate vacuum that the NOI is filling. There isn't much NOI
action in many Black communities, and where there is, the NOI presence is
small, so it's a big vacuum filled sparsely and with particles carrying little
force or potential at this point to do much but fill. The individuals and
caucuses within the Democratic Party and labor movement and civil rights and
religious organizations have far, far more force. Just mouthing "tut tuts" at
these folks for not being more radical may make some feel good and superior, but
that's cheap talk.
As to the question of reactionary nationalist trends: On one hand, a people
undergoing genocidal pressures may well make use of some forms of preservation,
defense and fightback that "progressives" find unfortunate. But who are they to
judge? On the other hand, we can assist in the sorts of organizing and acting
that Stan mentions that would tend to accentuate the positive (or the "truly
progressive," as it were).
Having been the editor in chief of Muhammad Speaks in the late '60s and early
'70s, though not a member of the NOI, I have fond feelings for many rank and
file members of the Nation. The experience gave me, I think,, pretty good
insight into such movements. I would not like to see their leaders at the helm
of a large Black American movement (or leaders from any similar group based
upon a similar ideology and brute internal practice). That's something that
could occur only if we in the USA enter a horrendous period of economic woe
and vilent communalism. At that point, we're in the former Yugoslavia and a
"you're with us or against us" scene.
That would be the day of the New Ben Chavis and similar demagogues.
bon moun wrote:
> I hope I was clear with the bit of post-election hypothesizing about trends
> in black communities. No one was endorsing Ben Chavis conversions. I
> simply pointed out that this is a trend growing out of frustration.
> Moralizing about it doesn't seem very helpful, and in fact falls into the
> trap I see capturing many academic leftists and sectarian "marxists," who
> demonstrate an unwillingness to acknowledge unpleasant realities--especially
> if those realities complicate their mechanical, often simplisitic, often
> manipulative premises ( a general critique, not directed at anyone here).
> This is precisely the predisposition, seems to me, that leads to the error
> of moving from the theortetical assumption to the concrete conslusion,
> instead of dialectically relating the concrete to the theoretical.
> Marxists, especially--given that we have laid claim to the title scientific
> socialists--should actively resist the ossification of theory into dogma,
> and continually subject our tentative generalizations to critical scrutiny
> based on actual--and changing--conditions.
>
> Some first impressions of CONDITIONS here in the hegemon:
>
> Black communities are politically bound to Democrats because the only real
> option at this juncture is to risk exclusion from the political arena
> altogether.
>
> Black communities still suffer from the same kinds of problems other
> neo-colonial communities do--dependence, poor infrastructure, domination by
> colonial surrogates and opportunists, poor educational systems, crime, etc
> etc. By and large, the functional core of black communities is still
> religiously centered, and in many ways very socially conservative.
>
> Democrats need black voters but they also must take them for granted,
> because the "center" they have to target for campaign activity is steeped in
> the ideology of white supremacy.
>
> The crisis in black communities is getting steadily worse, and anger is
> growing faster than consciousness. The cowardly sell-out of those
> communities by the Clinton Justice Department when Florida re-introduced
> elements of Jim Crow during the election has fanned the flames of that anger
> and led many to question--yet again--their connection to the Democrats.
>
> The NOI and others are at least articulating that anger through the message
> of nationalism.
>
> With all the obvious problems of the NOI, nationalism is rooted in
> the--legitimate, I think--perception that the situation of African-Americans
> is analogous, in many ways, to that of a colonized people.
>
> With the voices of the black left still weak, and often extremely academic
> and "intellectual", it is difficult to connect pan-Africanism, socialism,
> and other progressive perspectives to the masses.
>
> Black progressives have worked very hard to build multi-racial alliances
> with white progressives, who themselves often manifest the symptoms of white
> supremacy and reflect the power structures of a white supremacist society,
> especially in their refusal to give up aspirations to "lead" blacks and
> these "coalitions."
>
> Every bit of time, energy, and resources devoted by black progressives to
> these black-white coalitions--a very resource and time intensive
> activity--has taken away from direct contact with the communities in crisis.
> That's the void that the NOI stands to fill, and is filling in many cases.
>
> These are not judgements, but assessments.
>
> The Republicans, who have taken power, have their own contradictions to deal
> with... they are a coalition of factions, some theocratic, some
> petit-bourgeois, some libertarian ideologues, some corporate, and some
> fascist-like. Their popular appeal and their electoral strategies, ever
> since Nixon's initiation of the southern strategy, has been an appeal to and
> fueling of white resentment of perceived loss of privilege at the hands of
> blacks. The centrality of racist ideology gives the proto-fascist elements
> in the RP a special influence, partiularly in the realm of policymaking.
>
> But if Democrats lose the loyalty of significant sectors of black voters,
> and Republicans--while in power--can manage to hold together, this will have
> very real and very devastating consequences. Just as we talk about how to
> manage and organize when the inevitable crashes happen, we need to factor
> these very likely IMHO political developments--unpalatable as they may
> seem--into our organizng strategies.
>
> Given the inordinate amount of influence the US government and US economic
> establishment exercises over the rest of the world, this has implications
> for everyone.
>
> That's all I was saying.
>
> Stan Goff
>
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