> [EMAIL PROTECTED] know. I know. When I was a member of the CP I constantly
>reinforced,
reiterated, restated... what white and black workers had in common. Unity
and all that. But I papered over differences in the process, and that was
dishonest of me. We were oversimplifying a historical development and and
existing reality in order to make it conform more closely to an
oversimplified orthodoxy. For reasons that would take far too much space
in this reply, I have come more and more to believe that the struggle for
African-Americans is not one of unity with white workers--which is holding
African-Americans back in many respects--but for self-determination.
Yes, black folk have a common enemy with white workers, etc. But the
majority of white workers--now--are collaborating with the enemy, so to
speak, in the oppression of blacks, and my own experience tells me there's
no end in sight of that. White workers must (1) expereince the full weight
of the crisis of the system before they are shaken from their ideological
inertia, and (2) will only make equal alliances with black folk when black
folk have enough political power to hold them accountable. So, for me, the
struggle, the central struggle in the USA, is the fight for black political
power--first. And I believe this struggle has much of the character of a
nationalist struggle.
((((((((((((
CB: I think Stan ,as a white comrade, makes a very good statement here. It is very
uniting for a white person to affirm Black power. Many and most white people are
afraid of Black power, so Stan's affirmation of that alone is an important political
example to follow.
Also, honesty and frankness is very important in working out these issues.
I do think that Stan and whites like Stan, with his advanced thinking on racism, are
important in the struggle with other whites to give up their racism. So, after some
rest from that struggle, I hope Stan will consider going back into that fray, as
impossible as it may seem to succeed in ending racism and collaborationism among white
workers.
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