Black Liberation and Socialism. Ahmed Shawki

      To Kaya & Smitch

      ©2006 Ahmed Shawki

      Published in 2006 by Haymarket Books

      P.O. Box 180165 Chicago, IL 60618

      773-583-7884

      www.haymarketbooks.org

      ISBN 978-1-60846-061-8

      Cover design by Josh On and Amy Balkin

      Cover photograph: Malcolm X waits at Martin Luther King press conference, March 26, 1964. Courtesy Library of Congress

      This book has been published with the generous support of the Wallace Global Fund.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the publisher

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

      Acknowledgments

      This book has been a long time in the making, and would not have been possible without the contributions of many people who helped improve the manuscript. I owe them special thanks. I am, of course, responsible for any errors that remain. In particular, I want to thank: Anthony Arnove, Paul D’Amato, Lance Selfa, Lee Sustar, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Alan Maass, Joel Geier, Sharon Smith, Julie Fain, Sherry Wolf, Jessie Kindig, Dao X. Tran, Tristin Adie, and Eric Ruder.

      Introduction

      Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Gulf Coast at the end of August 2005, left areas of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama devastated. Katrina exposed the priorities of the U.S. government, as thousands of people were abandoned to fend for themselves. Hurricane Katrina also exposed—or rather, exposed again—the simple fact that African-Americans in the United States are the victims of deeply rooted racism. As the images of devastation and desperation were broadcast across the country and around the world, the chief of the U.S. government’s agency charged with dealing with such disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, blamed the victims of the hurricane for the situation they were in. After all, argued Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, they should have left town as advised by local authorities.1 Leaving aside that evacuation orders went out late, the simple fact that a good portion of New Orleans’ poor—largely Black—didn’t have the means to leave town, or had nowhere to go, was not a matter of concern. The message being sent by the Bush administration was clear: If you’re poor and Black you are plain out of luck. You are not a priority.

      Less than a month later, at a mass demonstration of opposition to war and the occupation of Iraq, a Black woman held up a sign that evoked the now well-known phrase used by Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight boxing champion. When asked by a reporter why he was applying for conscientious objector status instead of going to fight the U.S. war against Vietnam, Ali replied, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.”’2 He added pointedly, “no Viet Cong ever called me nigger.’’3 The sign held at the antiwar demonstration in September 2005 read: “No Iraqis left me on a roof to die.” This woman was not alone in making the connections among the unnatural effects of Hurricane Katrina, the priorities of the system, and the war in Iraq. Many resources that could have been mobilized to cushion the impact of Katrina were not available because they were diverted—funds, equipment, and people—to the war and occupation of Iraq. Thousands if not millions understood what many signs at the September 2005 antiwar demonstration spelled out, “Make levees, not war.”

      With their disgraceful mishandling of the aftermath of Katrina, George Bush and his administration stood naked in front of the world. This has fuelled a tremendous anger already brewing in the United States against the way this society works—or doesn’t—for the majority of people. As many writers have suggested, it is a grave mistake to think that U.S. society is stable, or that the promise of neoliberalism is the solution for most people. The United States is headed for an inevitable and tumultuous conflict.

      And as in every other period of radicalization in the past, Blacks will be at the heart of the effort to change the United States. The aim of this book is twofold: (1) to give an overview of some of the main ideological and political currents in the struggle for Black liberation in the United States; and (2) to argue the case that both historically and in the future, socialist ideas and organization are an integral part of this struggle. In today’s political climate, many may find this idea untenable. But it is irrefutable that the United States has gone through waves of radicalization on a mass scale—when millions of people showed their opposition to the existing system and how it is run. In the late 1960s, radical politics, including Marxism, were integrally connected to the movements for social change in the United States. Key figures and organizations in the Black freedom struggle identified themselves with some form of socialist or Marxist politics. And the Black struggle had profound effects on U.S. society.

      The mass mobilizations of the late 1950s and 1960s to end segregation in the South helped break the stranglehold of McCarthyism and conservatism that dominated U.S. politics. The civil rights movement smashed “Jim Crow” laws—the apartheid-like segregation laws introduced at the turn of the century—that denied Blacks the most basic rights. The Black Power movement of the late 1960s represented a further radicalization of the movement involving hundreds of thousands of activists, Black and white, in political activity and mobilization.

      All kinds of political ideas flourished during this period. For the first time since the demise of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in the 1920s, Black nationalist ideas gained a hearing on a mass scale. By the late 1960s, sections of the movement underwent an even greater radicalization. The Black Panther Party and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, for example, spoke of the need for revolution and declared themselves “Marxist-Leninist” organizations. It was commonly asserted, in however partial, confused, or ill-conceived ways, that reformism was a dead end and that only revolutionary politics could achieve Black liberation. Whatever weaknesses the movement had, it remains a tremendous source of inspiration and holds many lessons for us today.

      Yet, more than three decades later, the situation has changed completely. While the officially sanctioned racism of Jim Crow is a thing of the past, there has been a steady erosion of the gains Blacks won in the 1960s. Still today, in 2006, the polarization between Blacks and whites in incomes, living standards, education, health care, and just about any other marker remains substantial.

      The State of Black America 2005, an annual report published by the National Urban League, documents the continuing reality of racism and discrimination in the United States. The executive summary of the report points out:

      The biggest divide between Blacks and whites is economic status, nearly 20 percent worse than any other category.

      In 2005, Black unemployment remained stagnant at 10.8 percent while white unemployment decreased to 4.7 percent, making Black unemployment over 2.3 times more than whites.

      Home Ownership: The homeownership rate for Blacks is nearly 50 percent versus more than 70 percent for whites. While African Americans’ mortgage denial and home improvement loans rates did improve, Blacks are still denied these types of loans at twice the rate of whites.

      Health: The health index showed slight declines compared to 2004 due to a faster increase in obesity rates for African Americans than whites....

      Education: Teachers with less than three years experience teach in minority schools at twice the rate that they teach in white schools.

      Social Justice: 2005 showed the equality gap between whites and Blacks in the criminal justice system is worsening, going from 73 percent to 68 percent. Blacks are three times more likely to become prisoners once arrested and a Black person’s average jail sentence is six months longer than a white’s for the same crime; 39 months versus 33 months.4

      At the same time as these major inequalities have hardened, there was a corresponding retreat from left-wing ideas, leading to an almost complete absence of mass political activity today around these fundamental questions. The decline and disorientation of the left movements of the 1960s began in the late 1970s and has affected not just Blacks, but also the labor movement, and movements for women’s and gay rights, among others.