For those who came of age in the 1960s & 1970s, it’s almost unimaginable the tsunamic power of the Civil Rights & Black Power movements could come to this in 2014: “Don’t shoot; Black men are people too!” But racist subordination is so fundamental to modern capitalism it cannot function without it so they worked tirelessly to co-opt civil rights activists into the power structure (particularly of the Democratic Party) & to destroy, even murder, Black activists like Malcolm X whose souls were not for sale. That’s why political activists like Mumia Abu-Jamal & thousands of Black teens are sitting in jail cells for crimes they did not commit.
Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, & hundreds of other Black teens will not have died in vain. To name only a few: Eric Garner, Ramarley Graham, Oscar Grant, Amadou Diallo, Nicholas Heyward, Jr., Greg Chavis, John Crawford, Sean Bell, Kimani Gray, Shantel Davis, Anthony Baez, Walwyn Jackson, Ernest Duenez, Jr., Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., Noel Polanco, DJ Henry. The call for justice in their names will be emblazoned on the banners of the new civil rights & Black power movement.
The crisis of leadership affects all movements for social change. There is probably no more bought off & mortgaged leadership than that of the trade unions in almost every country. Compromisers wheel & deal themselves into position to more effectively betray the cause of human freedom from tyranny & get a good salary & pension in the bargain. There is almost no instance where the Democratic Party is not in there handing out grants, honorifics that mean nothing, & a chance to meet the US president someday. Big deal! For those with a healthy conscience & a measure of self-respect, it’s not enough reward for a Mephistophelean bad deal.
If you want to know where the necessary Black leadership is coming from, check out the Ferguson protesters & the dozens of solidarity rallies around the country. That leadership will be young, male & female, tough as nails & not open to compromising–the stuff Malcolm X was made of. It’s coming. Can you feel it coming? Can you feel another tsunami gathering strength?
