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Interesting. I believe a minimum basis for a black left unity journal would begin with basic class concepts of American history and then strive for a new narrative of our history. Labor in the black tended to be looked at a on the periphery of American history and counter posed to something called "the working class" or "proletarian movement" when the control, manipulation and exploitation of the African American was at the heart of every major and most of the minor decisions of state prior to the Civil War, and a good many of them after. The various forms of survival organization amongst Northern blacks after say the 1790’s and the changing form of "Negro Labor Councils," and Colored Labor Unions during every boundary of development of our industrial system might be worth exploring, up to groups like the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, Black Workers Congress and Coalition of Black Trade Unions. The form of organizations of labor in the black after the Civil War, evolving through the 90 year period of segregation and the so-called black workers insurgency of the 1970s into the 1980s needs to be reconceptualized. Although such groups have become redundant - in their old equality form, and it is impossible today to re-segregate and isolate labor in the black on the old basis, the history of these groups are worth attention. I went to the link for this group and "its call" for a journal seemed to lack even a rudimentary Marxist conception of the modern proletariat. This was disturbing in as much as the "Negro People" - as a people, were initially formed as a class prior to their segregation which at one point allowed them to acquire characteristics of a "people." Prior to the Civil War, say 40 - 50 years, these black slaves were actually proletarians in chains deeply engaged in commodity production. Being formed as a class as the condition for the emergence of a distinct cultural trait setting them apart from the evolution of the Anglo - during that phase of our history, is a development that seems peculiar to America. A journal for "Black Liberation" would seem to have to be predicated upon clear and precise concepts of class, property, legal structures and then the various elements of the ideological and political superstructure. Black liberation or the emancipation of labor in the black is purely a question of the emancipation of the proletariat. This was not always the case. The abolition of slavery did not necessitate the annihilation of capital - bourgeois property, as the condition for emancipation of the slave. Nor was the annihilation of capital - bourgeois property, the condition for the destruction of Jim Crow. Labor in the black needs a new narrative; a Marxist narrative spoken in the language and from the specific standpoint of labor in the black. Such an approach is needed to fully narrate the long intense ideologically struggle to overcome the historic petty bourgeois tendency within labor in the black. A large section of my generation's parents were sharecroppers facing destruction as a class. As newly arriving proletarians their economic aspirations were to "have my own thing" or to improve their station in life based on capital accumulation and owning ones own business. This historical era has ended today involving the destruction of a class of small owners and their transition to proletariat, but needs a narrative. Even a demand for reparations cannot escape the lens of class, unless one feels the bourgeoisie of color is owed something more than annihilation from history. Reparations to the current generation of blacks, and I believe deeply such is owed, cannot be distinguished from reparations owed to this generation of proletarians and the retired, without regard to color or gender. The shortest route to reparations - at this juncture of history, would seem to entail expropriation of the bourgeoisie. This includes the bourgeoisie of color. A thoughtfully done journal of Black Liberation would fill a void, although one might want to consider restoring the word "emancipation" to its rightful place on the throne of human liberation. II. The call states: "(2) it would be an organ for political education, especially for young activists or others who are new to the struggle. One way in which basic political education can be provided is through articles by or about Black left thinkers and activists, e.g., W.E.B. Du Bois, C. L. R. James, Claudia Jones, Frantz Fanon, Amilcar Cabral, Walter Rodney, Angela Davis, James Boggs, Assata Shakur, etc. Articles on organizers and activists in the Freedom Struggle/ Black Liberation Struggle circa 1954 to 1976 would also be very instructional." Perhaps, I am making mountains out of hillocks, but did not Du Bois identify with Marxism and was a member of the Communist Party USA, as well as Angela Davis and Claudia Jones? Were not C.L.R. James and James Boggs Marxist in their own right associated with the Trotskyist/ite movement? Identifying these intellectuals and activists as Black left thinkers seems . . . . .odd, to say the least. WL. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
