Twenty three years
International Viewpoint #138 • April 4, 1988
USA communities, in neighborhoods and in unions. Particular dates should be designated by anti-racist activists for special attention and actions. For example, October 12 is now celebrated as "Columbus Day," a national holiday honoring the "discoverer of
America." Anti-racist activists should transform this into a day of infamy, markassassination of ing the advent of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and genocidal war against the inhabitants of the North and South American con-
Malcolm X tinents. The birthday of Civil Rights leader
Martin Luther King, Jr., is in many areas of the country still a "token" holiday; socialists should join the campaign to close down business and state institutions, organizing
DEVELOPMENTS over the twenty-three years following the alternative events on this date to honor assassination of the Malcolm X show how much his absence
King and to protest racism.
has affected both the Black struggle and the revolutionary
Strategy for the antimovement in the US. When Malcolm was shot on February racist movements
21, 1965, the Black revolt was about a dozen years old and heading into a worsening crisis of leadership. The dedication,
Whatever the difficulties and unique feabravery and mobilization of Black communities across the US tures of the present time, the opportunities for effective participation by socialists — had been phenomenal. But their struggles were increasingly by activists with a political analysis of rahampered and side-tracked by established national cism and a vision of the route to its eradication - are many.
organizations and individual leaders.
In formulating strategy and tactics for the
The proliferation of small, new groups and the strengthening new anti-racist movements, there is a cruof Black nationalist sentiments testified to the search for a cial continuity of the present moment with many of the past efforts of socialists, espestructure and leadership capable of carrying the struggle to cially of the 60s and 70s.
new heights and new victories.
The basic program of demands raised by the far left of that earlier time - for independent political action; for use of corporate dollars to build educational, health and other facilities; for the defence of the rights of prisoners of color; for the honoring to treaties with Native Peoples; for the demo-
EVELYN SELL cratization and cultural transformation of the school system; for the elimination of racist practices at work, in courts and elsewhere - has been vindicated by recent events.
What is required is not a complete overhaul or new start in theoretical and programmatic work, but a development and fresh application.
Finally, revolutionary socialists have a special attitude that they bring to struggles of people of color and the working-class movement, regardless of their own individual backgrounds.
Socialists are at war with the culture and institutions of class society, and do not come to the anti-racist struggle as dogooders, or social workers, or to cure their souls of guilt.
They come to the struggle because they genuinely believe that it is in their own interest to uproot racism and all that produces it from their own society and other societies.
They are not motivated by condescending pity, like many liberals; they feel at one with the people of color who are waging struggle now and have done so in the past, and they are honored by having the privilege of joining as front-line combatants in
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after the
M ALCOLM X had the potential to
fill the vacuum existing in the leadership of the Black movement of the 1960s. During his dozen years as a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI, popularly known as the Black Muslims), he quickly displayed his abilities as an organizer and speaker. Accepted into the NOI in 1952, he rose with meteoric speed to the very top ranks of the group's hierarchy, and became second in command to Elijah Muhammad, the movement's
When the NOI attracted national attention at the end of the 1950s, it was Malcolm who received the most publicity. His charismatic personality and fiery speaking talents made him the focal point of public knowledge about the movement he
Radio and television appearances, magazine interviews and articles, and speeches at meetings and public rallies introduced Malcolm to increasing numbers of Americans. He was one of the most requested speakers for college debates and forums — where his intelligence, wit and personality made him a favorite of the most militant students and won him grudging admiration from his opponents and detractors.
I can personally testify to the power he exerted over a campus audience. I first heard Malcolm speak at a Wayne State University debate where he changed a jeering, overwhelmingly white crowd into a respectful audience. Loud heckling was transformed into resounding applause. His power over a group — even a hostile one - was astounding.
### Insistence on Black self-reliance
His impact during more informal discussions was no less remarkable as I discovered when I stayed after the debate to ask him about the role of women in the NOI. For over an hour he devoted as much energy and concentration to discussing with me and another student as he had to the hundreds who had packed the campus meeting.
Malcolm's influence was not confined to the borders of the US. His relations with top African delegates to the United Nations and his trip to Africa to pave the way for Elijah Muhammad's 1959 visit to Mecca established Malcolm abroad. He became known as "the St. Paul of the Black Muslim movement."
It was not his religious message, however, that attracted the attention and respect of Blacks across the US. They responded to his searing attacks against racism, his insistence on Black self-reliance, his criticism of compromising Black leaders, and his denunciation of Democratic and Republican politicians who wooed Black votes but failed to follow through on campaign promises. An anonymous Harlem cab driver told Life photographer Gordon Parks "that Malcolm ain't afraid to tell Mr. Charlie, the FBI or the cops or nobody where to
At the same time that Malcolm and the NOI were gaining more influence within the Black community, the progress of the Black liberation movement was affecting him and the Black Muslim organization. There was growing pressure within the ranks of the NOI to join in the civil rights struggles taking place and, as the 1964 national election campaign loomed on the horizon, there was strong sentiment to engage in independent political action. Toward the end of 1963 there were persistent rumors of a division within the NOI, and that a split was imminent between Malcolm, leading the young militants, and Elijah Muhammad, who would not allow the NOI to get involved in civil rights battles.
Mass actions against segregation
While Blacks were mobilizing in mass actions to fight against segregation and for equality, the NOI maintained a different goal and strategy: the separation of the races and the creation of an independent Black nation on either American or African soil; the establishment of separate Black businesses, schools and so on; and a pledge of obedience to all civil authority in the US (with the sole exception of their refusal to serve in the armed forces because this violated their religious teachings).
Malcolm's potential for becoming the most authoritative voice of the Black masses was evident during a November 10, 1963, public rally that climaxed the two-day Northern Negro Grass Roots Leadership Conference held in Detroit. The great majority of the audience was not affiliated with the NOI and did not come to hear to Malcolm X, NOI minister, but to hear Malcolm X, the most eloquent spokesperson for Black liberation. As a member of the audience, I can report that the cheers, applause and shouts during Malcolm's talk were clear signs of the extraordinary standing he had within the militant wing of the
A few weeks after this conference, the rumored split between Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad was set into motion. The head of the NOI had ordered all his ministers to make no comment about the assassination of President John Kennedy. But in response to a question at a December 1, 1963, meeting in New York, Malcolm noted that Kennedy's death was a product of the climate of violence and hate created by whites in the US. For this violation, Malcolm received a public 90-day suspension.
In March 1964, Malcolm announced his departure from the NOI and his plan "to organize and head a new mosque in New York City, known as the Muslim Mosque, Inc." But there was more behind Malcolm's break with NOI than a simple matter of disobeying an order. This became clear to all when his new independence
USA from Elijah Muhammad made it possible for Malcolm to get involved in the battles of the Black community for "better food, clothing, housing, education and jobs right now."
In mid-April Malcolm went to Africa to organize support among the independent nations of that continent for his proposals to carry the American Black struggle into the United Nations. His views were deeply affected by his pilgrimage to Mecca and his discussions with government leaders, journalists, students and others in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. His followers in the US began to receive letters from him indicating deep-going changes in his previously sweeping denunciations of all whites and the goal of establishing a separate Black state.
Organization of Afro-American Unity
Upon his return to the US at the end of May, he stated that he thought Blacks should stay and fight in the United States for what was rightfully theirs. His public remarks showed that his thinking on political and social issues was developing in a revolutionary direction.
On June 28, 1964, Malcolm launched the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), patterned after the Organization of African Unity which was founded in May 1963 to unite all Africans in the fight to eliminate colonialism. The OAAU program showed a further development of Malcolm's ideas and a much more concrete approach to the daily tasks of the Black struggle. Its major theme was that the Black community would control its own destiny through its own organs of power.
The OAAU began to hold meetings, set up a liberation school to teach African and Afro-American history, and published a biweekly newsletter, Backlash. These initial steps were taken while Malcolm was overseas. He spent the summer and fall of 1964 in Africa and the Middle East pursuing his campaign to put the US on trial in the World Court, and solidarizing contacts with government officials and Black leaders.
On November 24, 1964, Malcolm returned to the US and carried out a heavy 25 schedule of activities. The ideas he exApril 4, 1988 • #138 International Viewpoint
USA pressed at OAAU rallies and at meetings across the country showed that he was still going through a process of changing his views and expanding his understanding of society. In the last weeks of his life, he repeatedly asserted that he was a target for assassination. On February 14, 1965, his home was firebombed while he, his wife, and their four young children were asleep. They managed to escape unharmed and Malcolm insisted on carrying out a Detroit speaking engagement although he was suffering from fatigue, strain, smoke inhalation and a bad cold. As a participant in the meeting that night I could see how tired and ill he was, but it was clear that he had no intention of swerving from his course and that his views were still evolving.
Malcolm X cut down by assassins' bullets
Less than a week later his development as a central leader of the Black movement was cut short by assassins' bullets. His enough to overcome the loss of his guidance, although it continued to function for a time. His legacy has been passed down primarily through recordings and written transcriptions of his talks.
Although present and future generations can learn from and be inspired by what Malcolm said and did, his absence from the living movement had a disastrous effect on the development of a Black leadership. Both his accomplishments during his life and the vacuum left by his death testify to the crucial role which can be played by individuals in shaping historical events.
The life experiences and the accomplishments of Malcolm X demonstrate his capacity to become the central leader of the Black struggle. His autobiography shows that he was a fairly typical product of social conditions in the Black community.
Born in Nebraska during the late 1920s, he experienced the oppression of a racist society. In his late teens he became a successful petty criminal in the Harlem underworld. After several trips to jail, he landed in a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts. It was here that Malcolm began to distinguish himself as a non-typical product of racist social conditions. He read "thousands of books because I wanted to know what made people the way they were." He didn't find answers in the prison library. His brother, a member of the Detroit temple of the NOI, visited him in prison and began Malcolm's conversion to the Black Muslim movement.
Released from prison in August 1952, Malcolm soon became a member of the small Detroit Temple Number One and volunteered his services. When he produced a threefold increase in membership, he was made an assistant minister. At the end of 1953, he went to Chicago to live 26 Muhammad. By Sue rainedlole had with and be personally trained by Elijah International Viewpoint #138 • April 4, 1988 established Boston's Temple Eleven in three months and Philadelphia's Temple Twelve in less than three months, and was appointed minister of New York City's Temple Seven. He transformed the small storefront mosque into a large and powerful organization in Harlem, the largest Black ghetto in the US.
The ruling class power structure in New York was compelled to recognize Malcolm as a potent force when a member of the NOI was jailed on April 14, 1958. Hundreds of fellow NOI members surrounded the police station. Fearing a riot, the authorities called on well-known Black leaders to handle the situation — with no success. Malcolm went to the station, negotiated hospital care and release for the Muslim brother, and then stepped outside and made a slight gesture to the silent crowd. Within minutes, they vanished. The awed police captain remarked, "No man should have that much power over that many people. We cannot control this town if one man can wield that kind of power."
Malcolm soon reached even greater national and international prominence. He became chief trouble-shooter and public voice for Elijah Muhammad both within the United States and abroad. The record of his successes during this period showed that Malcolm had extraordinary abilities — a powerful combination of native talents augmented by his personal experiences, studies and travel abroad. His leadership qualities were proven. Though there are never any historical guarantees, it seems likely that, had he lived, he might well have proven capable of passing history's test, answering the crucial need for leadership of the Black liberation struggle.
Malcolm joined the National of Islam on the eve of the civil rights explosion in the South. Although the majority of Blacks did
Malcolm X
(right) with Martin Luther
King (DR)
not support NOI's religious doctrine and goal of a separate Black nation, that organization did articulate most clearly and symbolize most dramatically significant new attitudes in Black communities around the country: self-reliance, self-confidence and racial solidarity in the fight against the dominant white power structure. In their schools and publications, the NOI emphasized the true history of Black people in the US, the past record of Black contributions to world culture, and the contemporary struggles and achievements of colored peo-
The NOI played no role in the eruption of civil rights battles in the mid-1950s and the growing movement of the early 1960s. In fact, it rejected the sit-in movement and argued that, instead of "going into those stores where we are neither wanted nor invited," Blacks should concentrate on developing their own businesses. The NOI criticized the NAACP and the Urban League as being controlled by white men, and opposed Martin Luther King's passive resistance philosophy — calling it a "slave philosophy" which preached love for the
This abstention from and opposition to the civil rights struggle ran counter to the mood of many NOI members. After his break with Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm explained: "The Black Muslim movement attracted the most militant young Black people in this country. The most restless, the most impatient, and the most uncompromising Black men and women were attracted to the Black Muslim movement....It actually developed, it grew, it became powerful - but it was in a vacuum. And it was filled with extremely militant young people who weren't willing to compromise with anything and wanted action. More action, actually, than the organization could
produce."
Malcolm's personal inclination to get involved in the Black liberation movement was expressed openly after his departure from the NOI. He said that Elijah Muhammad had restrained him from participating more vigorously but "it's going to be different now. I'm going to join in the fight wherever Negroes ask for my help, and I suspect my activities will be on a greater and more intensive scale than in the past...I am prepared to cooperate in local civil rights actions in the South and elsewhere."
"I'll tell them what a real revolution means"
Malcolm's entrance into the civil rights street battles added a pungent ingredient to a pot already boiling over with civil disobedience actions, rent strikes, school boycotts and countrywide demonstrations. His statements were a challenge to the recognized leadership of the civil rights movement.
"There's no use deceiving ourselves," he stated. "Good education, housing and jobs are imperatives for the Negroes, and I shall support them in their fight to win these objectives. But I shall also tell the Negroes that while these are necessary, they cannot solve the Negro problem.
"I shall also tell them what a real revolution means - the French revolution, the American revolution, Algeria, to name a few. There can be no revolution without bloodshed, and it is nonsense to describe the civil rights movement in America as a
These pronouncements were greeted coldly by the acknowledged leaders of the civil rights struggle. James Farmer, then national director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), was quick to disclaim any sympathy with Malcolm's remarks. "All participants in CORE projects are pledged to non-violence in every project,"
Paul Zuber, a Black attorney practicing in New York commented, "CORE can't get 400 members in Harlem, but Malcolm X can draw from 4,000 to 10,000 people when he speaks on 125th Street. I think the power play is now on, and the ultimate decision does not rest with Roy Wilkins [head of the NAACP], Malcolm X, or Jarnes Farmer; it rests with 22 million Negroes living in this country."
The alternative leadership offered by Malcolm was codified in the program of the OAAU. It addressed critical needs of Blacks across the US, advocated a strategy of independent united action to gain Black control of the Black community, and explained, "What we do here in regaining our self-respect, manhood, dignity, and freedom helps all people everywhere who are fighting against oppression."
Specific projects included support to rent strikes and a housing self-improvement program, community action to improve schools and textbooks, and community mothers, drug ad-
OAAU political action plans included "a voter registration drive to make every unregistered voter in the Afro-American community an Independent voter; we propose to support and/or organize political clubs, to run Independent candidates for office, and to support any Afro-American already in office who answers to and is responsible to community."
In his public speeches, Malcolm attacked the two major parties with equal fervor and stated, "Any Negro who registers as a Democrat or a Republican is a traitor to his own people." The significance of Malcolm's call for independent political action took on added weight when the Michigan Freedom Now Party gained ballot status and ran militant Black nationalist candidates in the state's 1964 election campaign. This was the most advanced expression of independent Black political action in the
In order to carry out the goals he envisaged, Malcolm spent the summer and fall of 1964 in Africa and the Middle East where he gained further stature as an outstanding leader. In July he addressed a conference of the Organization of African Unity and urged the members, "In the interests of world peace and security, we beseech the heads of the independent African states to recommend an immediate investigation into our problems by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights." While in Kenya he was given time on the government radio and met with top-level government officials. The US embassy protested according such honors to a person held in low repute in the United States, but the Kenya government rejected the protest. The World Muslim League, founded in 1962 as the supreme religious body in the Muslim world, designated Malcolm as their official representative in the US. "You can't have capitalism without racism"
Malcolm visited over a dozen countries and spoke with such African leaders as Nasser, Nyerere, Sekou Toure, Nkrumah, Azikiwe and Jomo Kenyatta. US newspapers complained bitterly that Malcolm was responsible for the African opposition to US policies in the United Nations' discussions on the Congo.
While Malcolm was overseas, the civil rights movement in the US was carrying out intensive activities in the South, and there were Black ghetto explosions in the North. When he returned to New York in November, it was clear that his views had continued to develop. Speaking at a symposium in May 1964, Malcolm was asked what political system he favored. He said:
"I don't know. But I'm flexible. As was stated earlier, all of the countries that are
USA emerging today from under the shackles of colonialism are turning toward socialism. I don't think it's an accident. Most of the countries that were colonial powers were capitalist countries and the last bulwark of capitalism today is America, and it's impossible for a white person today to believe in capitalism and not believe in racism. You can't have capitalism without racism. And if you find a person without racism... usually they're socialists or their political philosophy is socialism."
Nine months later, when I heard him speak days before his assassination, he explained the connection between the internal struggle against American imperialism and the external struggle against US imperialism being waged by peoples throughout the world. I am not claiming that Malcolm was a socialist or Marxist at the time of his death. He was going through a process of deepening his understanding of long-held views and gaining new insights into social
It was the direction of his thinking that was so exciting to Marxists who see the combined character of the coming American revolution, that is, a proletarian revolution to provide the preconditions for the establishment of a socialist society and a nationalist revolution to win full equality and liberation for oppressed national minorities. Because of their key role in helping to shape and reshape American society and their social weight in contemporary life, Blacks have acted and will act as a vanguard within the revolutionary movement. Malcolm's leadership qualities, ideologically and organizationally, marked him as a prime candidate to help forge the needed unity between the working class movement and the struggles of oppressed nationalities.
Marxists celebrate Malcolm's life as proof of the capacity of exploited and oppressed persons to overcome tremendous obstacles as they strive to build a better world. We mourn Malcolm's death as a severe setback to the progress of the Black liberation movement and the development of the revolutionary movement. *
[From the February 1988 issue of Bulletin in Defense of Marxism, produced by the Fourth Internationalist Tendency and avail13l7. ew for, NI 10009, US. P.O. Box 27 1317, New York, NY 10009, USA.] April 4, 1988 • #138 International Viewpoint
AFGHANISTAN
N FEBRUARY 8, Mikhail Gorbachev announced that Soviet troops would withdraw from Afghanistan in the ten months following May 15, 1988.
The fact that the withdrawal of these troops was decided on when "the causes that led to their presence in the country" — to repeat the phrase used by Leonid Brezhnev in the wake of the Soviet intervention — have not disappeared but are more operative than ever, is in itself a striking recognition of failure. More than eight years after the start of the intervention, the balance sheet is terribly negative:
• The USSR is bogged down in an invasion, which has led to slaughter and enor-
• Its intervention has run up against deepgoing hostility from the great majority of the Afghan population.
• The Afghan reactionary forces have been able to increase their influence enormously in the name of a struggle against
• The "progressive" regime in Kabul is even more unpopular and more fragile than it was on the eve of the Soviet intervention.
• The intervention in Afghanistan by US imperialism and its regional partners including in particular Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, through their aid to the "Mujahadin" — is greater than ever.
• US imperialism and its European allies have gained considerable political advantage from the the vast revulsion of world public opinion, including in the workers' movement, against the Soviet war in
• In the USSR itself, this "dirty war" has engendered "moral gangrene" in the ranks of the army and deepgoing discontent in the population. This is especially true in the "Muslim" republics, where anticommunist Islamic propaganda has enjoyed a vigor unequalled for several decades.
Why the we called for withdrawal
The Fourth International correctly judged that the massive intervention of Soviet troops, as it unfolded, was not only contrary to the right of self-determination of the people of Afghanistan but also to the real interests of the struggle of the exploited and oppressed throughout the region and to those of the Soviet workers' state. The prolongation of this intervention could only aggravate the harm that it did to these interests. This is why the Fourth International called for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
The withdrawal decision announced by Mikhail Gorbachev will be executed when the damage that it aims to limit has long since grown to enormous proportions.
In his February 8 statement, Gorbachev 28 clearly refused to link the withdrawal of Soviet troops to an agreement with WashInternational Viewpoint #138 • April 4, 1988