[Langalibalele]

This is the contradiction with black middle class leadership. We used to have discussions which often degenerated into arguments inside the AAPRP years ago. These heated sessions revolved around defining the role of the petty bourgeoisie, whether the heads of the microstate represented the bourgeoisie or the petty bourgeoisie, and how our interpretation of their status helped define the situation inside Africa. Needless to say, we read plenty of literature but could never come to any definitive agreement.

A strictly Marxist approach defines class forces according to their relationship to the means of production. The workers are the producers. There are other producing classes, altho the worker is the most mature because of his/her relation to the most organized methods of production. By that definition, the worker is called the majority social force.

The petty bourgeoisie is the small capitalist class. They are basically the managers in society. They exist on a plane between the capitalists and the workers; they intervene in the class struggle, they mediate the class struggle, and they think because of this relationship they are the leadership in society. Marx does not define class affiliation thru how much wealth one owns but by one's relationship to how wealth is produced and accumulated. So the petty bourgeoisie can be billionaires, theoretically, if they are managing property, labor and wealth for the bourgeoisie. In this scenario, even slavemasters were nothing but small businessmen who operated large-scale plantations.

The real capitalists own and control the means of production. That is, they own and control labor, mines, real estate, factories, agriculture, shipping and all sectors of society. They privately distribute the wealth in society and concentrate it so that wealth becomes compact and readily transferrable. I do not see how the despots in Africa reflect this role. They marginally control the means of production; not for any indigenous economic development but for international finance capital. They are in hock to the IMF/World Bank. They manage on a national scale for foreign or transnational corporations.

We can debate this for awhile. The discussion is not closed. In fact, it is important to extend this analysis into something which helps us overstand what forces in Africa, the Caribbean and stateside are committed to the upliftment of African people. Obviously, a class analysis will not fail us. We see how far the black middle class has gone to betray us. Now we have to cultivate our own self-led black w/c revolutionaries. Uhuru!