“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”—Malcolm X [el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz]
“The leadership has failed. Even so, the leadership can and must be recreated from the masses and out of the masses.”—Rosa Luxemburg
What awesome times in which to be alive! The rainbow of everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people are awakening! The protracted national and global people’s struggle for genuine systemic change is stirring!
An increasing number of everyday people are demanding an end to corporate rule, political chicanery, economic austerity, and perpetual wars. Everyday people are demanding and organizing for systemic change and justice, not reform or rhetoric, but real change and actualized justice! Despite actions by the U.S. corporate-controlled government, its agents, agent-provocateurs, and the machinations in the form of distortions and omissions by the corporate-stream ‘news’ media—the yearning of the masses of everyday people has already taken root.
The Democratic Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves, in service to the corporate/military elite, are frantically attempting to “neutralize” the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the people. Ultimately, these foxes and the wolves will fail, and the people will prevail in this protracted struggle. This however, is not an overnight affair or some scripted Hollywood movie. It is real.
This struggle is, and will continue to be, a rocky road with many pitfalls along the way. Thus, it is essential that we everyday people, grasp and adhere to, firm political principles that give no quarter whatsoever to those who would co-opt and distort this ongoing people’s movement.
Instead of this Mr. “hope & change”—predator drone-missile president Barack Obama unequivocally siding with everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people, he will continue to offer up a combination of regurgitated misleading rhetoric and simultaneous de facto repression on the altar of political expediency. This must be recognized for precisely what it is: more of the same—only much worse.
We must remember that being consciously Black transcends the obvious physical reality of color. “Beyond mere color, being Black is, first and foremost, a conscious political, social, and economic commitment to the struggle for the collective betterment of the descendants of the Black slavery holocaust in what has now become the United States of America, in conjunctionwithother people of color and humanity as a whole.” We, as Black people must rejoin and take our places in the present collective political reawakening of everyday people of all colors, in this nation and throughout the world. This is incredibly challenging and difficult but it can and must be fulfilled. Among other things, racism and classism, are quite strong and they must also be addressed within this collective people’s struggle in which we must be a part, even as we seek to nurture this movement.
The time is here not only to physically ‘Occupy’ the bastions of corporate greed throughout this nation and world, but just as importantly, to mentally occupy (or re-occupy) our own minds with our precious and collective everyday people’s narrative, telling our own stories as we carry out our roles in the ongoing people’s movement and struggle. After all is said and done we really are not helpless in this regard.
It is up to each of us to help bring about a new day, a better and different society, and a fairer and more just world. In the words of Frantz Fanon: “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” Surely, we must fulfill rather thanbetray our individual and collective humanity. Let us be firmly principled as we creatively carry on in this struggle on behalf of humanity and Mother Earth.
Onward, then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!
BlackCommentator.comEditorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.) Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.
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On principled struggle for systemic change
Posted on November 18, 2011 by Larry Pinkney
What awesome times in which to be alive! The rainbow of everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people are awakening! The protracted national and global people’s struggle for genuine systemic change is stirring!
An increasing number of everyday people are demanding an end to corporate rule, political chicanery, economic austerity, and perpetual wars. Everyday people are demanding and organizing for systemic change and justice, not reform or rhetoric, but real change and actualized justice! Despite actions by the U.S. corporate-controlled government, its agents, agent-provocateurs, and the machinations in the form of distortions and omissions by the corporate-stream ‘news’ media—the yearning of the masses of everyday people has already taken root.
The Democratic Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves, in service to the corporate/military elite, are frantically attempting to “neutralize” the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the people. Ultimately, these foxes and the wolves will fail, and the people will prevail in this protracted struggle. This however, is not an overnight affair or some scripted Hollywood movie. It is real.
This struggle is, and will continue to be, a rocky road with many pitfalls along the way. Thus, it is essential that we everyday people, grasp and adhere to, firm political principles that give no quarter whatsoever to those who would co-opt and distort this ongoing people’s movement.
Instead of this Mr. “hope & change”—predator drone-missile president Barack Obama unequivocally siding with everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people, he will continue to offer up a combination of regurgitated misleading rhetoric and simultaneous de facto repression on the altar of political expediency. This must be recognized for precisely what it is: more of the same—only much worse.
We must remember that being consciously Black transcends the obvious physical reality of color. “Beyond mere color, being Black is, first and foremost, a conscious political, social, and economic commitment to the struggle for the collective betterment of the descendants of the Black slavery holocaust in what has now become the United States of America, in conjunction with other people of color and humanity as a whole.” We, as Black people must rejoin and take our places in the present collective political reawakening of everyday people of all colors, in this nation and throughout the world. This is incredibly challenging and difficult but it can and must be fulfilled. Among other things, racism and classism, are quite strong and they must also be addressed within this collective people’s struggle in which we must be a part, even as we seek to nurture this movement.
The time is here not only to physically ‘Occupy’ the bastions of corporate greed throughout this nation and world, but just as importantly, to mentally occupy (or re-occupy) our own minds with our precious and collective everyday people’s narrative, telling our own stories as we carry out our roles in the ongoing people’s movement and struggle. After all is said and done we really are not helpless in this regard.
It is up to each of us to help bring about a new day, a better and different society, and a fairer and more just world. In the words of Frantz Fanon: “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” Surely, we must fulfill rather than betray our individual and collective humanity. Let us be firmly principled as we creatively carry on in this struggle on behalf of humanity and Mother Earth.
Onward, then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.) Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.