Incarceration communities rising to end the drug war and mass incarceration 300 protest on 40th anniv. of Nixon’s declaration of war on drugs at sf city hall Photo by Bill Hackwell.
Much of my work for Black Agenda Report has focused on an analysis of US imperialism and its relationship to oppressed people in the United States and abroad. Black Agenda Report covers many issues and topics, including the significance of the Obama era, the privatization of education, the Black Mass Incarceration State, Washington’s imperialist policy in Africa, and much more. The primary function of independent media is to challenge the dominant narrative promoted by the ruling system around the issues that shape the lives of the oppressed. In this article, I define six revolutionary concepts for organizers, activists, and people struggling against exploitation of man by man. It is my hope that these concepts become popularized through our collective participation in the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the broader struggle for liberation that Black Agenda Report covers weekly.
1.) Imperialism
Imperialism is the last stage of capitalism. Russian Revolutionary V.I. Lenin defined imperialism as the economic and political transformation of capitalism into a system dominated by large monopoly corporations and banks. Capitalism’s tendency to monopolize stems from the contradiction between the motivation of capitalists to increase the profits derived from the exploitation of labor and the crisis this creates when such exploitation reaches its natural limits. To reconcile the inherent crisis of capitalism, the capitalist class waged two bloody world wars for markets and resources. After the US became the top imperial power at the end of World War II, capitalism transformed into imperialism permanently.
Imperialism is presently dictated by an interlocked alliance of the capitalist class. This alliance consists of the military and prison-industrial complex, Wall Street, mega-corporations, nation-state alliances like NATO and AFRICOM, and the corporate media. The sole purpose of these institutions is to reproduce the contradictions of racism, increased labor exploitation, and war. These contradictions must be controlled as they develop into harsh antagonisms that necessitate revolutionary upheaval from the exploited classes to stop.
The ruling class, in its quest for profits, unleashes the state’s military and police apparatus to stop rebellion and stabilize imperialism. The imperialist state is responsible for the police murder of Black people and the murder of Iraqi’s and Ukrainians abroad. Under the continued rule of US imperialism, the contradiction between the capitalist system’s supposed ideals of competition and the “free-market” have been exposed for what they really are. Capitalist ideology is merely window-dressing for a genocidal, racist system built on the graves of Black America and the material conditions that brought the #BlackLivesMatter movement to life. However, the fact that Imperialism is the rule of monopoly capitalism still requires emphasis as the struggle continues.
2.) Socialism
Socialism is the opposite of imperialism. Karl Marx defined socialism as the dictatorship of working class and oppressed people and the suppression of the ruling class of imperialism. However, what is most important about socialism is the relationship between the dictatorship of the people and the principles of the theory. The primary tenants of socialism are a planned economy based on human need and the elimination of private ownership and profit. Under a planned economy, workers and oppressed people are able to liberate themselves by taking ownership of the means of production and redistributing wealth so no one is deprived of health, food, housing, and human rights.
Historically, imperialism’s tendency to monopolize wealth and heighten exploitation has created the social and political conditions for socialism. China, Cuba, the Soviet Union (pre-1991), Eritrea, Libya (before 2011), Vietnam, and North Korea are historical and contemporary examples. Although each revolution has experienced challenges and setbacks, socialism has raised the standards of living for these nations through the elimination of foreign occupation and capitalist domination. Cuba has arguably the best healthcare system in the world and the people there don’t suffer from institutional racism or homelessness. In China, the rule of semi-colonialism before the revolution of 1949 left the majority of people without basic access to housing, water, and education. Capitalist elements have reemerged in much of what is left of the socialist bloc. However, the socialist bloc countries of Cuba and North Korea, among others, continue to provide an example of what building a society based on human need and the power of the people looks like.
3.) Revolution
Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution, once stated, “Revolution is the struggle to the death between the future and the past.” More concretely, because history has developed as a struggle between the oppressor and oppressed classes, revolution is the complete overthrow of an old order for a new one. Merchants and traders waged revolutions in the 17th and 18th centuries against feudalism in Europe. These revolutions put the capitalist ruling class into power. Capitalism replaced the old order of landlord ownership and the development of wealth through the exploitation of peasants with the capitalist order of commodity production and labor exploitation in the realm of industry.
Capitalism colonized and underdeveloped much of the planet to maximize the profits of capitalists. Out of the development of capitalism and imperialism arose struggles of national liberation and socialism. The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Chinese revolution of 1949 provided people all over the world with an example of an alternative to exploitation. Cuba, Vietnam, and much of the African continent engaged in people’s war to liberate their nations from colonialism and create a new socialist world system. However, challenges arose and imperialism fought back. Today, the world is divided into three camps as a result of this struggle: the imperialist camp led by the US, the multi-polar camp led by mixed economies in Russia and China, and the socialist camp hanging onto sovereignty in Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea. Another world is possible. It already exists despite the extreme desperation imperialism has imposed all over the world.
4.) White Supremacy
White supremacy is the foundation of US imperialism and the worldwide capitalist system. White supremacy, often termed racism, developed out of the changing conditions of capitalism in colonial North America. In the late 17th century, the Governor of Virginia endowed European servants with a “white” identity and attached formal political rights and novel economic opportunities (slave patrol employment, rations, etc) to it. African servants were placed into hereditary bondage and deemed “inferior” to white colonialists of all classes. This system continued to be manipulated and utilized by the ruling class because it ensured the collection of super-profits for the plantation ruling class of the South and the merchant ruling class of the North. White supremacy, like the capitalist system that created it, has developed in stages and continues to oppress Black and non-white peoples at levels beyond what white workers experience all over the world.
White supremacy justified the formation of the United States of America. The slave-owning ruling class in the colonies believed England’s move to free African slaves was a threat to its slave-economy. After the US nation-state was established, white supremacy justified all subsequent domestic and international wars for expansion, including the war against Fascist Germany in Europe. Although white workers are exploited by the capitalist system, white supremacy provides both a material (slightly higher wages, wealth, political power) and ideological (superiority as the “white” identity) base from which white people are likely to exploit if no alternative is provided. Today, white supremacy continues to extinguish Black America and Indigenous America and ignite wars of aggression all over the world alongside imperialist countries like Israel.
5.) Internationalism
Internationalism is concrete solidarity between oppressed people and nations. Historically, internationalists have asserted that workers and oppressed people all over the world share a common enemy in imperialism. The Soviet Union’s military, economic, and political support for European and African socialist movements and China’s support for Korea during the US war of aggression are examples of concrete internationalism. One of the most important examples of internationalism is Cuba’s relationship with the oppressed of the world. Cuba’s military support for Angola during the nation’s war against Apartheid South Africa helped Angola gain independence and rid the world of Apartheid rule. Furthermore, Cuba has sent more doctors around the world to administer free healthcare than the World Health Organization.
In the US, Black Americans have a long history of connecting the struggle for self-determination in the US to the struggle against imperialism worldwide. The Black Panther Party opened a chapter in Algeria and sent delegations to China, Vietnam, Cuba, and Korea. It also offered to send Black Panthers to Vietnam to join the struggle against US imperialism. Heroic Black women like Claudia Jones and Assata Shakur never failed to relate the struggle against racism in the US to the plight of the colonized everywhere. Despite the oppressive relationship the US holds to the rest of the world, the anti-imperialist movement in the US has an extensive history of reaching out to the world for strength and solidarity.
6.) Black Mass Incarceration State
The #BlackLivesMatter Movement is a response to the Black Mass Incarceration State. The Black Mass Incarceration State is the system responsible for the police murders of Black people that occur every 28 hours. Most people refer to the Black Mass Incarceration State as “mass incarceration” or the “New Jim Crow.” However, these terms do not speak to the historical or current significance of its development.
The Black Mass Incarceration State developed as a means for the imperialist ruling class to control the resistance of Black America. During the Black liberation movement, US imperialism coordinated its police forces, intelligence agencies, and prison infrastructure to repress, kill, and jail freedom fighters. Mumia Abu-Jamal, Julil Muntaqim, Leonard Peltier, and many more remain behind the walls for their service to worldwide revolution. The coordination of imperialism’s prison, police, and military apparatus that put Black, indigenous, and exploited revolutionaries behind the walls make up the anatomy of the present day Black Mass Incarceration State.
The Black Mass Incarceration State was developed to repress the potential of rebellion under the guise of addressing the so-called “drug epidemic” of late 70s and into the 80s. After the Revolutionary movement of prior decades weakened, the US imperial state waged the “War on Drugs” to ensure that developments like increased poverty, unemployment, and deindustrialization were maintained without a challenge from the oppressed. The “War on Drugs” designated crack cocaine as the “Black” drug, effectively criminalizing Black people as a whole. US imperialism went on to invest billions of dollars worth of technology and training for racist militarized police operations in the Black community. The combination of deindustrialization and militarized drug and policing policy led to huge spikes in the prison population. Today, 1 of 8 prisoners worldwide is a Black American. Black Americans make up over half of the prison population in the US, which stands as the largest in the world at 2.3 million people.
Conclusion
Part 2 of this article will define more terms that should be discussed and debated within the political circles and organizations driving the growing movement against police brutality in the United States. As the movement swells, it will need direction. The contradiction between the forces that want to act without a political direction and those that desire to chart a direction before action must be reconciled. Both are necessary forms of political education, but neither can create any change without the other. The rebellions and demonstrations against racist police murder is a monumental step toward uniting spontaneity with concrete organization. Use this tool in your own political development and the political development of the people and movement. Join the struggle.