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Andrew Stewart writes: "[George] Breitman's Eurocentric Trotskyism articulates the claim that Black nationalism is an ideological delusion that diverts from the revolutionary cause. This is contrary to the Marxist-Leninist view, one embraced by Cuba and China during the years El-Shabazz sought to build the bloc supporting the UN petition, that the national liberation struggles are themselves revolutionary." This is an outrageous misrepresentation. Anyone who has read George Breitman or who knew him personally (as I did) would consider the view attributed to him by Stewart to be beyond reason or belief. Breitman was one of the most far-sighted Marxist sympathizers of Black nationalism in the United States. He probably did more than anyone else to publicize Malcolm's revolutionary legacy (the real legacy ignored by the Netflix series). Consider just this one brief excerpt from his extensive writings spanning several decades. It is from "In Defense of Black Power," (October 1966), available with many other works in the Breitman Archive on Marxists.org.: "Organizationally, the Black Power tendency is only in the early stages of its development; the various groups and individuals who have raised the Black Power banner have not yet defined their relations to each other or united into a single movement or federation. But numerically it is already considerably stronger than the organized adherents of Malcolm's movement. The Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), groups in the new tendency, are national organizations, with thousands of members or sympathizers. They have an experienced cadre of dedicated leaders and activists, hardened in battle along many fronts and equipped with a variety of skills. They represent the best of the new generation of young freedom fighters who appeared on the scene around 1960, with a consistently more militant outlook than that of previous generations and an enviable ability to learn from experience and grow. "Ideologically and politically, the Black Power tendency is also still in the process of crystallization. But its direction-to the left-is unmistakably indicated by the way it has broken away from several of the premises and shibboleths of the old "civil rights" consensus. Internationalist and anti-imperialist, it expresses solidarity with the worldwide struggle against colonialism and neo-colonialism, condemns the US war in Vietnam and rejects the contention that the freedom movement "should not mix civil rights and foreign policy." It spurns the straitjacket of "non-violence" and proclaims the right of self-defense. It challenges the fraudulent claim that freedom can be won through the passage of a series of civil-rights laws that are largely un-enforced and benefit mainly middle-class Negroes. "Some of its adherents still believe in working inside the Democratic Party, but others advocate a complete break with the Democrats and Republicans and the establishment of independent black or black-led parties - not only in Lowndes County, Ala., but in the Northern ghettos. Some accept capitalism; others are talking rather vaguely about a cooperative based economy for the black community that they think would be neither capitalist nor socialist; and there is also evidently a pro-socialist grouping, as was shown when delegates at a Black Power planning conference in Washington Sept. 3 posed the need to "determine which is more politically feasible for the advancement of black power, capitalism or socialism." Unfortunately, the book cited by Stewart (The Last Year of Malcolm X: The Evolution of a Revolutionary) is not on-line, although it can be purchased from several sources. But anyone with a copy can see countless statements in it that refute Stewart's libellous allegation. In particular, I recommend what Breitman writes on pp. 55-56 and 66-69. As he states in the final paragraph of those pages: "[Malcolm's] uncertainty about the name to call himself arose from the fact that he was doing something new in the United States -- he was on the way to a synthesis of black nationalism and socialism that would be fitting for the American scene and acceptable to the masses in the black ghetto. (An example of the tendency of revolutionary nationalism to grow over into and become merged with socialism can be seen in Cuba, where Castro and his movement began as nationalist.) Malcolm did not complete this synthesis before he was assassinated. It remains for others to complete what he began." -- Richard -----Original Message----- From: Marxism [mailto:marxism-boun...@lists.csbs.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Andrew Stewart via Marxism Sent: Friday, February 28, 2020 6:50 AM To: rfid...@ncf.ca Subject: [Marxism] How Netflix And "Manning Marable" Killed Malcolm X (The Third Time) - CounterPunch.org ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. ***************************************************************** https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/28/how-netflix-and-manning-marable-killed-m alcolm-x-the-third-time/ Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/rfidler%40ncf.ca _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
