First step in labor backlash
Last month's amazingly successful Million Man March in the nation's capital may well go down as a turning point in
American history, writes Nat Weinstein. The massive turnout by Black men has sent a stunning message to white capitalist America. Although profoundly peaceful and orderly, this action was, nonetheless a warning that super-exploitation and oppression will not be passively endured for much longer.
IN WHICH THE WORKING CLASS HAS in order to normalize relations, was experienced a mounting assault on its living standards, it's treated with contempt by those no accident that those who have suffered most have taken organizations as well as the by the the first big step toward mounting a fightback. mass media. And the presence the fact that many respected Black
Make no mistake, the American ruling class has been deeply women speakers like Betty Shabazz shaken by this massive turnout. This march was led by (Malcolm X's widow) and poet Maya people they don't understand and deeply distrust.
Angelou appeared on the platform in
Furthermore, they are especially disturbed at the united front solid support of their men was between Black leaders, some who see themselves as ignored and downplayed in significance.
"separatists," and others as "integrationists."
It seems obvious that Black leaders like Benjamin Chavis,
The mass media and the white capitalist power structure it who had joined with Farrakhan to build the march, were represents claim that their hostility to this action is based on
"Farrakhan's racist, sexist and anti-Semitic agenda." Nothing embarrassed by some of the ideological baggage that the
NOI leader carried with him into their alliance. And it's could be further from the truth. They opposed the event only reasonable to believe that some of them prevailed on because it revealed the potential power of a united mass
Black movement, independent of and in
Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam
Black liberation movement that he leads. And once set into motion, history has repeatedly shown, the masses of the exploited and
Minister Farrakhan's two-and-a-half hour speech in Washington contained a significant number of of anti-Semitism was not just to give cover to his allies, and these corrections, along with a reaffirmation of some of this that it was a genuine step in the right direction. This came through when he quoted from a speech made by a slaveowner by the name of Lynch in the year 1713. Lynch
The mass media, however, dwelt almost exclusively on the told his fellow slavemasters how he kept resistance to a shortcomings of his speech, like the NOI's version of minimum. He said, you must look for every difference religious mythology and numerology. However, that among them and use it to divide "men from women, and ideology is no more bizarre than that of the solidly women from men" and "those with lighter from those with established religions and pseudo-scientific rubbish like darker skin," and so use "every other difference you can astrologyQfar more widely represented in the mass media.
find." That way, Lynch said, he was able to keep his slaves
Farrakhan's effort to retreat from anti-Semitism and male fighting each other instead of fighting him.
chauvinism was highly significant. But these efforts, Farrakhan may only have had in mind this strategy's especially his appeal for dialogue with Jewish organizations application to African Americans. But this basic capitalist
International Viewpoint n° 271 — November 1995 29
AFTER DECADES opposition to the racist status quo.
Farrakhan to retreat from these counterproductive and indefensible positions.
But what's important is that he took their advice!
(NOI) surely have developed a political orientation that is deeply flawed and highly contradictory. But it's not the negative features that the ruling class opposes, it's the positive ones. Even more important, it's the corrections that Farrakhan made of some of his flawed political positions that worries them most. Clearly, the forces that Louis Farrakhan has helped set in motion are having an impact on society as a whole, including on himself and the sector of the oppressed majority are hard to stop group's mistaken concepts, as well.
The white ruling class, however, refused to accept his disavowals of antiSemitism and sexism as good coin, and for the very worst reasons. They want Black nationalism to be identified with bigotry because this serves to undermine its potential for becoming a powerful mass movement. They love it when a scapegoated people blame other scapegoats, diverting attention from the capitalist scapegoaters, and hate it when their victims see their mistake. DIVIDE-AND-RULE STRATEGY Farrakhan actually gave some rather convincing evidence that his disavowal
* USA strategy is applied by the ruling class to divide the working class as well. Whatever his intentions, the lesson is far-reaching and objectively serves to lower the barrier erected by capitalism between Black America and the workers' movement. Thus, all those supporting the struggle for freedom and justice have everything to gain by accepting his self-criticism at face-value. Only America's white capitalist ruling class stands to lose from Farrakhan's self-correction. And if he sticks to his small but significant turn away from white capitalistinduced bigotry, and follows its logic through to the end, he can make a giant contribution to the struggle for emancipation. WHY THE MASSIVE TURNOUT? There can be little doubt that the main reason is that this was the first big response to the relentless assault on working people, especially those who can least abide being driven deeper below the so-called poverty line. Further impetus for the march came after the prosecution's chief witness in the O.J. Simpson trial, Detective Mark Fuhrman, was caught redhanded on tape proudly telling how he and the criminal "justice" system routinely frame up innocent Blacks and cover each other's tracks. Adding insult to injury, the media strongly implied that the "right to a jury of one's peers" is okay for whites but not for BlacksQand that O.J. may have been acquitted by "a predominantly Black jury (horrors!) but he was still guilty." And third, was the media's hysterically racist campaign to intimidate people by tagging anyone who went to the Million Man March as "racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic." This campaign boomeranged, guaranteeing the success of the event.The New York Times and other mouthpieces of the racist capitalist establishment went so far as to feature calls to boycott the march by prominent Black political "leaders," Black and white "feminists," and such Black "militants" as Angela Davis. It was as if to say: See, even these "feminists" and "Black militants" say, "Don't go!" The fact that all their machinations didn't work testifies to the good sense of African Americans and reveals a rising mass consciousness that is an inspiring portent of bigger things to come. IS THE NOI RACIST? The main charge against the Nation of Islam is that it is an advocate of the racial supremacy of African Americans. This is designed to ensnare those who may reject racism in general but cannot see the difference between the abstract idea of racism and the concrete reality. It sucks in those that blind themselves to the fact that only America's white capitalists have the social, economic, and political power to enforce racism. But the NOI and its leaders have never advocated racism; they advocate "Black nationalism." Their nationalism is directly caused by their having been segregated and violated as a people by the rulers of capitalist America, who certainly don't deny that they are American patriots (meaning, white nationalists). Moreover, only fools and scoundrels deny the qualitative difference between segregation, which is imposed by the powers that be, and the voluntary and proud grouping 30 International Viewpoint n° 271 - November 1995 together of an oppressed people for mutual comfort and defense against a segregationist oppressor. There is no way that the African American minority can reverse the relations between themselves and the white ruling class, at this time, except by organizing themselves into a mass Black political movement. Ultimately, however, they will need to form an alliance with others who are exploited and oppressed by capitalism. The lack of such an alliance, however, is not the fault of Blacks. Rather, it has been blocked by the bureaucratic misleaders of the AFL-CIO (trade union federation). The workers' movement has everything to gain and nothing to lose by forging an iron-clad alliance with all those oppressed by racism and sexism. But the labor bureaucracy believes its interests lie in an alliance with "their" bosses. In the meantime, a united Black movement has considerable independent force and can mobilize effective resistance to oppression. The intelligent exercise of that power will attract and inspire the working class as a whole to join the Black struggle against social, economic, and political injustice. Besides, Blacks constitute 20% of union members. They are thus a potentially mighty force tor change inside the unions. WHY SUPPORT BLACK NATIONALISM? In the first place, the nationalism of the American ruling class is totally racist and reactionary, while the nationalism of African Americans and other oppressed nationalities, being a defensive reaction against white racist oppression, is totally anti-racist and progressive. Throughout American history, the fates of African Americans and the working class as a whole have been organically linked together. But the divisive strategy of the capitalists has succeeded to a greater or lesser degree in deluding white workers with racist myths. The biggest myth is that Black and white workers are adversaries with opposing interests. And even worse is the notion inculcated in many workers, Black and white, that the privileges of whites are a deduction from the living standard of Blacks. This false notion is deliberately encouraged by the capitalist class in countless subtle and not so subtle ways. But whenever white workers have come to understand that they are not the beneficiaries of racism; and that their class interests are basically identical with those of their Black brothers and sisters; and therefore reach out with solidarity to Black workers, the positive results for both Black and white workers have been earthshaking. And even more power can be generated through an alliance of the entire working class with the entire Black nationality!
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