Malcolm X's evolution on Black nationalism
http://www.themilitant.com/2010/7419/741950.html
'Last bulwark of capitalism is America …
You can't have capitalism without racism'
May 17, 2010
BY JACK BARNES
What about Black nationalism? Malcolm's evolution here is easier to
understand today than it was twenty-two years ago, because of what
has been conquered in the U.S. working class since that time. Today
we have a working class in this country that is different in
significant ways from the one Malcolm knew. It is more reflective of
the gains of the Black struggle of the 1950s and 1960s, both in
composition and social and political attitudes. It is more
international in makeup, bringing in experiences of struggles in
other countries, a working class in which broader layers have been
affected and inspired by advances of the world revolution.
When Malcolm began his final fifty weeks outsideand then beyondthe
Nation, he considered himself a Black nationalist. That's
unambiguous. Speaking of the launching of the Muslim Mosque, Inc.,
Malcolm said, "Our political philosophy will be black nationalism.
Our economic and social philosophy will be black nationalism. Our
cultural emphasis will be black nationalism." …
By the last months of Malcolm's life, however, he had come to a
different conclusion. During the January 19, 1965, Toronto television
interview mentioned earlier, Pierre Berton asked Malcolm whether he
still advocated a Black state in North America. "No," Malcolm
replied, "I believe in a society in which people can live like human
beings on the basis of equality."
Malcolm had explained the reasons for his changing views on Black
nationalism more fully the day before flying up to Toronto, during an
interview for the Young Socialist magazine on January 18, 1965. "How
do you define Black nationalism, with which you have been
identified?" I asked Malcolm… .
Malcolm said that when he had been in Ghana during the first of his
trips to Africa in 1964, he had met with the Algerian ambassador
there, "who is extremely militant and is a revolutionary in the true
sense of the word (and has his credentials as such for having carried
on a successful revolution against oppression in his country)." When
they started talking about Black nationalism, Malcolm said, the
ambassador responded, "Well, where did that leave him? Because he was
white. He was an African, but he was Algerian, and to all
appearances, he was a white man. And he said if I define my objective
as the victory of Black nationalism, where does that leave him? Where
does that leave revolutionaries in Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Mauritania?
So he showed me where I was alienating people who were true
revolutionaries dedicated to overturning the system of exploitation
that exists on this earth by any means necessary."
And that was the goal Malcolm now believed had to be fought for and
achieved: "overturning the system of exploitation that exists on this
earth by any means necessary." So, he told us, "I had to do a lot of
thinking and reappraising of my definition of Black nationalism. Can
we sum up the solution to the problems confronting our people as
Black nationalism? And if you notice, I haven't been using the
expression for several months." …
Malcolm made a similar point the very next day in the Toronto TV
interview with Pierre Berton that I've referred to before. Malcolm
said he was convinced the world was heading toward "a political
showdown, or even a showdown between the economic systems that exist
on this earth." And due to the colonial powers' attitude "of
superiority toward the darker-skinned people," he said, the divisions
in the world often do "almost boil down along racial lines." But then
Malcolm went on:
I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the
oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will
be a clash between those who want freedom, justice, and equality for
everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation.
I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don't think
that it will be based upon the color of the skin, as Elijah Muhammad
had taught it.
Malcolm had also started thinking more and talking more about the
ways that racism and national oppression are embedded in the very
workings of the capitalist system. Speaking at a Militant Labor Forum
in May 1964, right after returning from his first trip to Africa and
the Middle East that year, Malcolm pointed to the example set by the
Chinese and Cuban revolutions, where the capitalists and landlords
had been expropriated. In contrast, he said, "The system in this
country cannot produce freedom for an Afro-American. It is impossible
for this system, this economic system, this political system, this
social system, this system, period."
Malcolm returned to this point in the question period, when he was
asked what political and social system he advocated. "I don't know,"
he replied. "But I'm flexible." And he repeated: "You can't have
capitalism without racism." …
[I]n his last public talk, on February 18, three days prior to his
assassination, Malcolm told an audience of 1,500 at Barnard College
in New York City that "it is incorrect to classify the revolt of the
Negro as simply a racial conflict of Black against white, or as a
purely American problem." Rather, Malcolm said, "we are today seeing
a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the
exploited against the exploiter." That's the revolution that must be won.
This evolution is important, because Malcolm took Black nationalism
dead seriously. He recognized that Blacks in the United
Statesdescendants, in their great majority, of Black Africans
kidnapped and brought in bondage to be sold into chattel slavery in
the New Worldhad been forged as a nationality over the century
following the Civil War, emancipation, and then the rise and defeat
of Radical Reconstruction. In struggling against that oppression,
Blacks had a right to national self-determinationall the way from
their own forms of political organization, to control over schools
and other institutions in their own neighborhoods, up to the
establishment of an independent state on the soil of this country, if
they became convinced conditions had reached the point that
separation offered the only way forwardWe've had enough!
Malcolm, however, had come to understand that there's a very
important difference between recognizing the right to a separate
stateanyone who doesn't can't help but be an apologist for American
imperialism and its racist underpinningsand advocating that course
or acting on it. Because if in order to open the road to ending Black
oppression, it is necessary to make a revolution to overturn the most
powerful capitalist state on earthas Malcolm was becoming convinced
it wasthen first you have to think seriously about the social forces
and alliances necessary to accomplish such a historic task.
Malcolm's decision to stop referring to his political course as Black
nationalism had nothing to do with a retreat from encouraging Blacks
to take pride in their own heritage and history of struggleto
recognize their own worth as human beings, as the equals of all other
human beings. It had nothing to do with denying the historical
culpability of the ruling landowners and capitalists in the United
Stateswho were overwhelmingly Caucasian and largely remain so
todayfor chattel slavery, national oppression, and exploitation… .
[W]hat Malcolm did changeand he did so openly and franklywas his
recognition that to eliminate racism in the United States and
worldwide, you must overthrow the international social system that,
in order to survive and expand, produces and reproduces that
exploitation and oppression every minute of every day of every year.
Malcolm came to understand that this task could not be accomplished
without a movement reaching well beyond the United States and well
beyond peoples of African originwithout a struggle involving all
those with nothing to lose but their chains, all those organizing for
revolutionary change, whatever their skin color or national origin.
.
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