“I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who 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 system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don’t think it will be based on the color of the skin . . .”—Malcolm X [el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz]
As the struggle by everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people, including those in the Occupy Movement continues, in this nation and abroad, many are increasingly beginning to understand the need for collective unity in these challenging and legitimate efforts to attain real systemic change.
Notwithstanding the ongoing covert and often brutally overt activities by the U.S. corporate-government, its police, “intelligence” agencies, and its operatives of both the Democratic Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves to distort, co-opt, discredit, and neutralize the everyday people’s struggle, including the Occupy Movement; there is the pressing necessity to creatively find the ways and means to nurture and support this incredibly important people’s struggle.
We everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people all have our important narratives to tell and lessons to learn, in and from, this ongoing struggle. In this vein it is of the utmost imperative to grasp the fact that that those of us who support and/or are within this protracted people’s struggle have varying levels of historical and political consciousness. This fact necessitates that we learn, and quickly, how to collectively address the inevitable challenges and systemically inherent contradictions that are bound to be within any struggle that seeks to throw-off systemic psychological ingraining and bring about genuine change.
With the exception of systemic operatives and others whose de facto objective is to neutralize and/or destroy this people’s struggle, every effort must be made to openly and honestly communicate, while remembering that public disunity should be avoided whenever possible. There of course will and must be honest disagreement, reflecting differing experiences and perspectives of those within the people’s struggle, otherwise someone would be lying. However, it is tactically and strategically of great import to air said differences away from the glare and systemic opportunism of the corporate-stream media, et al, keeping in mind that the aim of the corporate-government, its operatives, and the corporate-stream media is to distort and sow seeds of division within the everyday people’s struggle. Vigilance in this regard is necessary, while utilizing common sense and staying focused in the people’s movement are also simultaneously necessary.
The time has come to intensify in this collective struggle. Even so, it will remain a protracted and an extremely challenging struggle, full of pit-falls; but in the words of Frederick Douglass, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
It is now the 21st century, and in the further words of Malcolm X, “we are today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter.” There remains much work to be done.
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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The Occupy Movement: Another collective step by the exploited against the exploiters
Posted on December 6, 2011 by Larry Pinkney
As the struggle by everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people, including those in the Occupy Movement continues, in this nation and abroad, many are increasingly beginning to understand the need for collective unity in these challenging and legitimate efforts to attain real systemic change.
Notwithstanding the ongoing covert and often brutally overt activities by the U.S. corporate-government, its police, “intelligence” agencies, and its operatives of both the Democratic Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves to distort, co-opt, discredit, and neutralize the everyday people’s struggle, including the Occupy Movement; there is the pressing necessity to creatively find the ways and means to nurture and support this incredibly important people’s struggle.
We everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people all have our important narratives to tell and lessons to learn, in and from, this ongoing struggle. In this vein it is of the utmost imperative to grasp the fact that that those of us who support and/or are within this protracted people’s struggle have varying levels of historical and political consciousness. This fact necessitates that we learn, and quickly, how to collectively address the inevitable challenges and systemically inherent contradictions that are bound to be within any struggle that seeks to throw-off systemic psychological ingraining and bring about genuine change.
With the exception of systemic operatives and others whose de facto objective is to neutralize and/or destroy this people’s struggle, every effort must be made to openly and honestly communicate, while remembering that public disunity should be avoided whenever possible. There of course will and must be honest disagreement, reflecting differing experiences and perspectives of those within the people’s struggle, otherwise someone would be lying. However, it is tactically and strategically of great import to air said differences away from the glare and systemic opportunism of the corporate-stream media, et al, keeping in mind that the aim of the corporate-government, its operatives, and the corporate-stream media is to distort and sow seeds of division within the everyday people’s struggle. Vigilance in this regard is necessary, while utilizing common sense and staying focused in the people’s movement are also simultaneously necessary.
The time has come to intensify in this collective struggle. Even so, it will remain a protracted and an extremely challenging struggle, full of pit-falls; but in the words of Frederick Douglass, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
It is now the 21st century, and in the further words of Malcolm X, “we are today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter.” There remains much work to be done.
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.