African Scientific Socialism vs the US Economic Crisis

[Langalibalele]

African Dialectics:
Build a Black Revolutionary Palenque

by I. Langalibalele, and dedicated to Troy Davis (Long Live Troy!)

While certain people may show their skill at dissecting sentences and grammatical construction as a form of analysis, I never believed SOA was ever intended for conducting English classes. Sons of Africa disseminates information and views of interest to African people, far as I have determined, which is why I choose to post here.

So while the grammarians dissect my sentences to prove me in error, my overstanding depends on another form of analysis called African materialist dialectics. That involves the study of history thru the filter of African Internationalism, which holds that international African unity is the highest expression of Black Political Power. Dialectics studies motion, change, contradictions, opposites and harmony in society. Dialectics studies the primary movement which defines society. Materialism studies no subject outside of scientific theory. So in that spirit, I strive to extend an analysis which serves African people in our struggle for bread, peace and Black Power.

What continues to transpire within the Imperialist economic mode is of utmost importance for us to grasp. The reaction to my posts by Amexem Moor Empire, which claims to exist in some other world, distracts from the core dialectic. When you don’t kno the flavor, don’t dip into the Kool Aid. Amexem Moor Empire may go on with their astral projections and walking thru walls, nobody aims to interrupt that. If they pertain to another world, blessed be their beatification. However, we who must swim with the lampreys -- bloodsuckers that have rigged this capitalist system -- have to devise strategies to cope with, then master and ultimately defeat the system of worldwide Imperialism.

Those who remain interested in the dialectical approach may muster the courage to take on Imperialism. And for those who strive to build a society of maroons or a kilombo republic, that is, a fighting black community, this agitational-organizational work strives to accomplish that.

Amexem Moor Empire’s veiled threats will not delay this work nor discourage or intimidate anyone who fights for African liberation. I have been told many times by many different detractors to guard my statements -- while going about my own business -- but never have any comrades ever made that caution. I have been jumped, attacked, threatened, chased, arrested, jailed, tried and sentenced in the liberation struggle. I am not unique in this experience, as many others have gone on the street and made struggle with Imperialism and its lackeys, only to suffen ever more severe consequences. Amexem Moor Empire may not kno the flavor of the Kool Aid at today’s fish fry, but they will not stop the African uprising.

So the work to deepen this analysis, and therefore the overstanding of all people, moves forward despite some poisonous efforts to hold it back. If people must fear any coming world economic collapse, and all indications point in that direction, the only prospect for social stability comes thru mass proletarian organization. Indeed, if Imperialism collapses without a socialist revolution to bring it down, all the forces of reaction will be unleashed. That is what happened in the two world wars of the last century. During the Second World War, triggered by the Great Depression, eleven million people were immolated in Europe alone.

We must keep in mind, with every boom there follows a bust, and for this primary reason militants of all nations must take heed. Today we find globalism dominated by a militarily rapacious United States, dragging its racist European cousins in tow, causing shock waves to economies thru its own bankrupt domestic policies, followed by buzzard-like IMF/World Bank austerity measures.

The neo-conservative theory of supply-side demand, astonishingly dubbed “voodoo economics” by a reactionary who later went on to preside over the same policies, cannot exist without political backing. Which makes explicit the axiom that politics is concentrated economics, and shows capitalism to be -- as the great Lenin characterized it -- a bloodsucking excrescence on humanity.

Obviously, voodoo economics propounded by Milton Friedman and embraced by US neo-conservatives promotes fascism. Where Friedman’s Chicago School implemented its theories, fascist dictatorships arose in Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay. Extending the fascist trend, the Bush Administration’s so-called war-on-terror is a colonial expedition imposed on the peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and other countries, including America.

Never forget, the US created both Taliban and Al Qaida, beginning with the Carter Administration. Zbigniew Brzezinski, who quietly called the Iraq War a colonial invasion, was architect for smuggling arms and finances into Afghanistan. Right-wing reactionary Pat Robertson, who called for the assassination of Venezuelan presisdent Hugo Chavez two years ago, raised funds to send Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to the then-mujahiddeen, now Taliban. The media still consults Robertson. Ronald Reagan called the mujahiddeen “freedom fighters”. Big Daddy Bush (41) maintained business ties with the Bin Laden family up thru 11 September 01. His administration financed and armed the mujahiddeen. Meanwhile, Bush 43 dispatched super lackey Colin Powell to Durban, South Africa to derail the historic August 2001 World Conference Against Racism. Powell showed up to buck dance for Israel’s abominable record in Africa and Palestine, and to defend international US racism. Then, days after 9/11, Bush secretly smuggled the Bin Laden family out of the US on a Saudi-bound military jet. The Islamo-fascism that US ideologues claim to oppose is a fascism which they nurtured, cultivated and seeded thru their own intimate aid programs and foreign policies.

So for dozens of such reasons, in November 2001 the Little Haiti Black Radical Congress (Pittsburgh, Pa.) held America’s first and perhaps only anti-war conference to formally oppose the Afghan invasion by this terrorist, empire-building police State.

The post-911 police State came down on people in ways we had not seen since the Sixties’ Black Power Movement. Muslim and Arab prisoners, caged seven years in total isolation at Guantanamo Bay and held without trial, were reduced mentally and physically by a regimen that violated international standards of conduct. Not only that, but this concentration camp for Muslims and Arabs tested the strength of US democratic standards and, just like in the Sixties, found them racist and flabby. Some prisoners suffered torture, sensory deprivation and sexual humiliation. Others underwent renditions, where CIA and other State Department personnel delivered them to repressive client states for unrestrained torture. Clearly, this intimidated the mainly Muslim and Arab community from raising any strong, sustained dissent.

How could these alleged fighters be so dangerous if they were trained in jungle gym camps, as the US claims; or are they CIA-brainwashed operatives who have undergone a mind wipe in Guantanamo to keep the world off the trail of history’s biggest inside job? They may pose no threat whatsoever, but simply are victims that US imperialism needs to convince its constituency.

Never forget, Luis Posada Carriles continues to enjoy asylum in the US, wanted in three Latin American countries for the 1973 terrorist bombing of a Cuban jetliner bound for Caracas, Venezuela, which massacred 273 aboard.

Leaving these tracks, fascism had already tiptoed into American society, on a path blazoned by the Clinton Administration’s so-called war-on-crime, which imprisons over one million African men. An anti-democratic chess move which tested the waters, the prisons have been a major source of capital. America depends on divisiveness between its colonially oppressed nationalities to keep this juggling act going. It depends on divisions within the African community -- as well as between it and the Arab and Latino communities -- to exploit a disunity bred from capitalist relations. That is the only way Imperialism can maintain a democratic cover while remaining committed to anti-democratic schemes.

Never forget, US prisons have become a major economic sector, and it is the first place where armed guards enforce labor compliance. Fascism itself is defined as a capitalist emergency regime which maintains armed managers to enforce production quotas. Sometimes the quotas may be merely in preserving the labor reserve (unemployment). These managers can be the police or the army. They may be stationed in the workplace or on the street.

Thus is Friedman’s lassez faire theory implemented thru the apparent paradox of neo-liberalism (“imperialism thru democracy”) during Democratic Party rule, or neo-conservativism (“democracy thru imperialism”) when the GOP wields power.

Just look at the deception. As gas prices fell last July for the first time since 07, the media attributed it to strong statements by Bush and Bernanke on a Monday; then on the following Friday they correctly reported that prices fell because of the lapse in demand by frazzled consumers. Obviously, the imperialist media still needs people to believe in the neo-cons’ failed policies, then slowly realizes the absurdity of that stance.

And home foreclosures continue to rise. The Miami Herald broke a story which partially revealed the corruption of the banking and finance industry. Over 11,000 convicted felons in Florida swindled borrowers out of $85 million. The biggest swindle was by a crook who grossed $37 million. The Florida banking industry encouraged these felons to become brokers.

Meanwhile, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- both of which the Fed declared had sufficient liquidity -- received billions from a Senate-approved cash package so that they might pay the quarterly dividend to their shareholders. The horror compounded when both corporations went bottom up to the tune of $510 billion, and into government receivership. Financial institutions continue to tumble like a house of cards, as the State supplies golden parachutes for financial executives, shareholders and speculators.

Never forget, these are the least people who need money. People need to ask about the real motive behind the so-called bail outs. There is no health plan for poor people, no child care for working mothers, no national maternity leave, no legislated cost-of-living adjustment, no guaranteed benefit plan. No increase in GI benefits or improvement in care for disabled vets. Yet the vast amount of dollars accrued in government coffers derives from the wallets of every day working people. These monies are paid by 150 million working parents and individuals who cannot depend upon their government to provide housing programs, schools, college educations, job training, welfare, unemployment benefits, strike benefits, job security, a funeral. The government undermines all those things, even paying companies to relocate in other countries.

The NAACP presses on with its class action lawsuit against Credit Suisse, Deutche Bank, Countrywide and others for predatory lending practices which exploited blacks and Latinos. Forced to purchase adjustable rate mortgages when interest rates hovered at 5.5%, these rates were bound to become locked in when they rose to 11%. With the faltering economy, rising prices and slumping job situation (the US lost 500k jobs last year), people did not buy more house than they could afford, as the reactionaries puppet-mouth a million times like Hitler’s famous lie. No, they were swindled by the same crooks who went into oil speculation when the president deregulated the industry.

So, while in the Nineties, the fastest growing economic sector was the prisons industry built on the back of one million Africans; in the New Millenium it has to be financial swindles and Fed bailouts.

Last year’s credit crisis caused tremors in Europe and Japan; this time the effects are being felt in Asia and Africa where food shortages and inflationary currency spikes have threatened the shaky stability of many societies. With maize being grown now for bio-fuel and genetically-engineered crops being unfit for human consumption, future mass starvation is likely. It is important to overstand that Imperialism has a certain lag effect where the crises hits other areas before it will reach or be felt within the Imperialist centers. The lag between what goes on in Asia and Africa may be months or even years before it reaches the US. By then the crisis may be corrected .

Still, if the US Supreme Court does not anticipate social instability, explain the timing of its recent ruling which minimizes restrictions on gun ownership.

People continue to believe in Capitalism as if it came from heaven and will last forever. That belief relies on the Imperialist lag, where developing nations get hit first and hardest. Yet manna did not even last forever, and the Bible claims that it was sent from god.

A threat to the two-party State arises from the very authoritarian character of the ruling class (a numerically insignificant minority) and its need to consolidate as much power as possible in this crisis situation. How can democracy be a limited resource when theoretically it uses the maximum political coin to unite society? Because that is not how bourgeois democracy operates. This system manipulates the masses for the selfish ends of a social strata which wields power and owns wealth far out of proportion to its size. Imperialism dragged the world into a pivotal, militaristic conflict on two battlefronts, which has already begun to transform the American political landscape. No democratic process oversaw that development.

The torpor and lack of resolve by the American fighting man who does not believe in his mission swamps Imperialist ambitions. It tears a schism in a society which has concentrated the greatest fortune and force in history into the hands of a few people. A vast international social fabric contributes to the exotic wealth of a few nations, which themselves see instability arising thru rampant looting and rape of the economy by bankers, stockholders, and government officials. This breakdown derives from the political deception and ideological treachery of capitalism.

The Hollywood version of a post-capitalist society depicts people living as survivalists -- Costner in Waterworld, Gibson in Mad Max, and Fishburne and Co. in The Matrix, for example -- still behaving as capitalism conditioned them before its collapse. In the post-apocalyptic view, Hollywood envisions a society which holds onto the antagonistic relationships which have been shaped by class society. That may happen without a movement united by the self-led proletariat.

More likely, as in the two world wars, the forces of reaction will seize initiative, which in that case the masses may need to organize until the next crisis weakens Imperialism. The bourgeoisie will struggle for power over the meager resources that remain. The most important prize for them is control of labor. What ever faction controls the producing classes will rule the earth. Which means outright slavery for those of us who toil for a living. It means more rape by the US government, which already takes our money and uses it against us. It means entrenched racism in a post-racial society, which means the African proletariat must lead the anti-imperialist movement.

Capitalism is a finite system. Capital itself has a finite duration and limited usage. You cannot use money for everything. Money cannot buy love, health or happiness. Living as a survivalist is no life for most people, and not doable for the vast numbers who populate cities and suburbs. Therefore, developing our humanity is the most precious resource that society must cultivate.

This points the way for revolutionary organizers who must transform unions, neighborhoods and other zones into committees of resistance. And that way is thru the stony heart of the ruling class with the spear of Black Liberation. The self-led African revolutionary has to build the black community into a sphere of duel and contending political power. Our struggle has to be defined as one for black liberation, after examples set by 1803 Haiti, modern Cuba, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.

In guarding against racism, we have to assume leadership not only over the black working class but the entire US working class. Our ideas and views must be articulated clearly and forcefully, because it is the marginalization of our people which exposes racism and those who have practiced it for so long must not be allowed to declare its end. When we acquire duel and contending power, when we have our own apparatus and infrastructure, we will decide for ourselves whether or not racism has been smitten. African people must refuse to accept a second-rate political system with a poor economy and a dependent culture as the consequences of self-determination.

As for Amexem Moor Empire and other shrill “Official-Responses”, as there arise debates about which world we live in, it shouldn’t confuse the self-led proletariat or the revolutionary movement. Any debate about not living in a class society, or a question about bringing racists or other reactionaries into this work, must not trip up the advanced section of the African working class. Degenerate attacks on our theory thru semantics or syllopsism (circular logic) or other subjectivist deflections has to be pushed to the back of the line so that urgent, day-to-day priorities can be addressed. The “what do you mean by what world” arguments can be dramatized in the more superficial forums.

While the world changes and folks carve out pockets and enclaves, that does mean anyone lives in a world unaffected by the larger society, and any pretense to such a world is delusional. While Amexem Moors may raise an artificial struggle with this viewpoint, remember Troy Davis, who was legally lynched by US imperialism. Troy is due to be murdered tonight, Tuesday 23 September 08. He never received a fair trial, evidence which could have exonerated him was suppressed by the courts, and the system has at the last moment granted him a stay (this very evening).

Amexem Moors may consider themselves Pan Africanist or Garveyites, who knows. However it is important to define Garveyism in modern terms rather than how it served history in 1916 or 1940, if we are to build a successful Maroon Society. The world has leapt forward any number of generations from that period, and in so doing has become unrecognizable from what it was then. If people do not live like they did in 1940, nobody certainly will go backwards to the days of sackcloth-wearing prophets or sword-wielding dervishes. That will not emancipate African people; Africans refuse to go there, and only suckers will accept such a primitive lifestyle.

Then there are criticisms of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Well, if they made mistakes, we have learned from them and moved ahead by avoiding their pitfalls and congratulating their valiant efforts in service of Africa. However, they had developed a theory much advanced from Garvey and from DuBois’s 1940s Pan Africanism.

Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah transformed Pan Africanism into a revolutionary theory, and we must appreciate his special contribution. Because when DuBois initiated the First Pan African Congress it was not scientific, it was not socialist and it was not revolutionary.

Never forget, anyone who fails to acknowledge the primary role of change is foolhardy. Change and transformation are dialectical processes. Just the discussion pertaining to the capitalist economic crisis illustrates the rapidity of changing circumstances and the need to prepare society for drastic, antagonistic transformations.

Malcolm X became the man who advanced Garvey’s idea. He took Garveyism to the next level, at least in North America. He introduced the critique of Imperialism and the concept of solidarity into Black Nationalism. So if we lapse to recognize the necessity of development, we have no right to call ourselves Pan Africanists or Garveyites. Of course, no democratic congress of Pan Africanists codifies this definition, but we cannot just hold onto bare fundamentals promulgated by those trailblazers and stagnate where they were forty, sixty or one hundred years ago.

If we accept science when it comes to jumping on the information highway, then turn around and place revolutionary theory in a time capsule, that does a disservice to African people. As much as we admire Marcus Garvey, WEB DuBois, George Padmore, Henry Sylvester Williams and Malcolm X, we must advance their knowledge. It was they who advanced the African militancy of our one great ideological predecessor, Edward Wilmot Blyden, the Apostle of Blackness.

Do not repudiate the great theoretical works upon which our analysis depends. Do not reject the accumulated political wisdom of such thinkers as Nkrumah, Cabral, Rodney, E. Franklin Frazier, Cheik Anta Diop, John Henrik Clarke, Huey P. Newton, Frantz Fanon, Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, Winnie Mandela, Cynthia McKinney and Akua Njeri.

Nobody has a theory superior to theirs when nobody has proven to have a sharper, more accurate viewpoint than they, and no other path has ever liberated African people from colonialism. Period! All the preachers, imams, grand poobahs, community leaders, history teachers, conspiracy buffs and five percenters combined have not liberated one African from colonialism. Pan Africanism and scientific socialism have defeated white power in the Caribbean and in Africa. African freedom fighters armed with this theory have whupped ass on the battlefield. They have defeated UDI Rhodesia, decolonized Mozambique and Algeria, and defeated apartheid South Africa. I only strive to extend their great theory, and the errors I make may nobody pay for them in blood, except the Imperialists.

Today, such great thinkers have labored over a theory which has been proven in the fire. We kno what it takes to liberate African people. Only a cacophony of half-baked analyses has drowned out the revolutionary voices. Such can only assist Imperialism in its quest to exploit African labor.

For the masses of working people to avoid slaughter and disaster, we must rise above the cacophony of opportunists and agents provocateur. We cannot wait for collapse to set in but we must hustle to gain power for African people. We have a responsibility to forge greater and broader unity thru our revolutionary theory. By building Committees of Resistance in neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and even prisons, people acquire power in their own name. A fighting, black palenque, built by the workers for the workers, is the only guarantee against Imperialist repression and warfare.

[MsLioness]

I, personally, really enjoyed this piece.

Its a very comprehensive contemporary historical analysis.

One thing that I am confused on is the title of African Scientific Socialism.

What is this African Internationalism?

Finally, who's ideology are you presenting to the People?

[Langalibalele]

Originally Posted by MsLioness

I, personally, really enjoyed this piece.

Its a very comprehensive contemporary historical analysis.

One thing that I am confused on is the title of African Scientific Socialism.

What is this African Internationalism?

Finally, who's ideology are you presenting to the People?

Much respect, and thanks for the praise, my sister. I am not trying to invent any new theory, yet attempting to define and clarify positions already staked out in the African liberation movement. African Internationalism is Nkrumah's Pan Africanism as articulated by the self-led African proletariat (working class revolutionary). It is Pan Africanism for the masses and has a sharper class analysis.

By African scientific socialism (okay, I was like slinging terms, but this is still accurate) you may refer to an earlier discussion where people were posting about the end of capitalism. I wrote something to the effect that we have to bring down Imperialism, it cannot just be allowed to fall because that will unleash all the forces of reaction. Not only that, but we have to destroy the economic fodder of capitalism.

That is -- in the gist of what I sed -- we must diminish the power of asset-backed paper. Not because we have paper, since we don't. But because the Imperialists will still be able to buy what they need, including armies, entire communities, etc., to hold onto power. Scientific socialism is a class state which turns society upside down and places the masses in power to destroy the ruling classes. So African scientific socialism is that same thing applied to Africa, and to African people wherever we are. But more importantly, African scientific socialism unites with other revolutionary formations and movements. Yet it claims singular leadership over the African people. In doing so, we claim leadership over the revolution in the US because the white Left is incapable of fighting racism and Imperialism, and Africans at this time have the sharpest analysis.

Uhuru, sister, hope this is clear enuf for people to understand. Sometimes my articulation leaves a lot to be desired.

[MsLioness]

Originally Posted by Langalibalele

Much respect, and thanks for the praise, my sister. I am not trying to invent any new theory, yet attempting to define and clarify positions already staked out in the African liberation movement. African Internationalism is Nkrumah's Pan Africanism as articulated by the self-led African proletariat (working class revolutionary). It is Pan Africanism for the masses and has a sharper class analysis.

By African scientific socialism (okay, I was like slinging terms, but this is still accurate) you may refer to an earlier discussion where people were posting about the end of capitalism. I wrote something to the effect that we have to bring down Imperialism, it cannot just be allowed to fall because that will unleash all the forces of reaction. Not only that, but we have to destroy the economic fodder of capitalism.

That is -- in the gist of what I sed -- we must diminish the power of asset-backed paper. Not because we have paper, since we don't. But because the Imperialists will still be able to buy what they need, including armies, entire communities, etc., to hold onto power. Scientific socialism is a class state which turns society upside down and places the masses in power to destroy the ruling classes. So African scientific socialism is that same thing applied to Africa, and to African people wherever we are. But more importantly, African scientific socialism unites with other revolutionary formations and movements. Yet it claims singular leadership over the African people. In doing so, we claim leadership over the revolution in the US because the white Left is incapable of fighting racism and Imperialism, and Africans at this time have the sharpest analysis.

Uhuru, sister, hope this is clear enuf for people to understand. Sometimes my articulation leaves a lot to be desired.

Thank you for the explanation, brother.

I understand what you are saying....

As an Nkrumahist-Toureist (obviously..lol), my understanding is that there is no such thing as African Scientific Socialism.

Let us struggle ideologically.....also.

Dialectical-materialism is the philosophy that protects and attaches the ideology to the people. We can never go wrong with dialectical materialism and historical materialism.

Both of our ideologies agree on this.

So we both understand that Socialism is not foreign to any country, for communalism is the first system of five systems, communism being the last. Is African unique to this? No.

So we both agree that Africa underwent communalism, feudalism, capitalism, then to socialism, finally communism. As all People undergo these same systems...rightly at different times, but these all come to past. And we agree on that.

We learn that Socialism is applied to different cultures and people with different civilizations. We know that there is no such thing as superior or inferior cultures nor civilizations. Why? Because all culture is culture and all civilization is civilization and there are no exceptions in truth. And we agree on that.

Kwame Nkrumah have taught us that there is no such thing as African Socialism...only Scientific Socialism. It is important that we understand this, as Nkrumahist-Toureist, so as to not exclude Africa from the Socialist/Communist world. Being scientific allows Africans to govern Africans in an African way....under Socialism.

For example, we can accept that there is no such thing as Cuban Scientific Socialism nor Chinese Socialism. Socialism is socialism because communalism is non-foreign and all inclusive to the world of people.

Socialism requires the proletariat... Kwame tells us that the unqualified are actually qualified. For change, the intelligentsia is important, also. We should not assume if we all dropped out of institutions that we could run a government. Surely, Socialism says that "work is work." There is no superior work nor inferior work, but advancements that require rigorous study and preservation of history are very important.

Even in Dark Days in Ghana, Nkrumah tells us about all of the insurgents who ran the puppet-regime after Feb. 24, 1966....they knew nothing of politics, and even dissed the conception that that was a "coup." He argued that a "coup" is when that seizure of power is for a political reason. No, once that maniacs "secured" themselves, they ran a muck. They had no experience and no true study of government.

Even Che was a doctor.

Most of our leaders have attended some form of "higher" education. The students are the "spark" of the revolution. What mouths are more fitter to push the peoples demand? Most of us, Africans, of parents who are the proletariat and see the contradictions. The intelligentsia has connections and rights, unlike those of the proletariat. Its sad, but it is true. Even so, the students actually know how to organize.

The proletariat is to be identified and highlighted in Socialism, period. All of the work is for the proletariat...the proletariat is the most prized possession to the revolution. It is the proletariat that we are to mimic.

There is no greater force in life than the People. We all are. We just need to organize ourselves.

[rebelAfrika]

Originally Posted by Langalibalele

By African scientific socialism (okay, I was like slinging terms, but this is still accurate)

Oh. This had me confused for a minute. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Langalibalele]

Scientific socialism is an always developing theory. Nkrumah contributed a great deal with the analysis of neo-colonialism. He was by no means the first to give an analysis of neo-colonialism. Lorraine Hansberry had a clear view of it as we kno from the soliloquoy from the brother from home. Fanon had a clear view. But Nkrumah defined it as the final stage of Imperialism, which is correct. And Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism.

But there is more theoretical work to be done. We have to cultivate an analysis of the depletion or reduction of capital, that is, the idea that the world socialist revolution can deplete or reduce capital to a form which is unusable for capitalism/Imperialism. This is extremely important for us to understand. If capital can be diminished, reduced or eradicated by transforming it from abstract forms (stocks, bonds, futures, chips, exotic currencies, etc.) into local economic structures which are used for collective development, then the capitalists will not be able to buy any refuge. They will not have any enclaves or niches in society. This is how all activities will gain transparency and corruption will be eradicated from the socialist society.

I like having this discussion because it broadens our understanding and our ability to relate the struggle in terms that everyone can grasp.

[MsLioness]

Originally Posted by Langalibalele

Scientific socialism is an always developing theory. Nkrumah contributed a great deal with the analysis of neo-colonialism. He was by no means the first to give an analysis of neo-colonialism. Lorraine Hansberry had a clear view of it as we kno from the soliloquoy from the brother from home. Fanon had a clear view. But Nkrumah defined it as the final stage of Imperialism, which is correct. And Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism.

But there is more theoretical work to be done. We have to cultivate an analysis of the depletion or reduction of capital, that is, the idea that the world socialist revolution can deplete or reduce capital to a form which is unusable for capitalism/Imperialism. This is extremely important for us to understand. If capital can be diminished, reduced or eradicated by transforming it from abstract forms (stocks, bonds, futures, chips, exotic currencies, etc.) into local economic structures which are used for collective development, then the capitalists will not be able to buy any refuge. They will not have any enclaves or niches in society. This is how all activities will gain transparency and corruption will be eradicated from the socialist society.

I like having this discussion because it broadens our understanding and our ability to relate the struggle in terms that everyone can grasp.

I enjoy these struggles also.

Of course we should advance and improve upon theories, and adjust them to fit our current situations. The intelligentsia should keep that afloat.

I do not understand the role the poor proletariat plays in the disinvestment in stocks....I do not understand how the poor proletariat even invests... Every poor working person I know, does not have the luxury of saving any money or even the slightest capability of allowing some of it to go into someone's company or major corporation.

When you say:
"We have to cultivate an analysis of the depletion or reduction of capital, that is, the idea that the world socialist revolution can deplete or reduce capital to a form which is unusable for capitalism/Imperialism."

The Revolutions allow those Socialist countries to take care of each other (with integrity).

And we always remember that corporations run capitalist government.

In essence, each time a country becomes Socialist, america looses power.

I am simply asking, if capital is depleted for america by the market theory (the proletariat simply not investing), what would our plight be as Africans still in america? What would African countries and other countries suffering by the hand of the oppressor plight be? What would Socialists states become? Is this type of happening of one that has been tested? Even so/not, what becomes of america? Would Pan-Africanism just....happen? Are not the markets international?

Is this something before or after "The World Socialist Revolution?"

(I know only a little about markets, so lay it on me properly...*wink*)

[Majadi]

I have usually thought of Socialism in any form as an invader's idea to Afrika, that was before Dr. Clarke stated that Africans have always practiced Socialism. I have a friend who always describes me as a Black Nationalist, through and through! He is more in the lines of a pure Afrikan Historian so I found this distinction quite funny. Now these terms African Socialism, Scientific Socialism, even after having read, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare and Dark Days by Nkrumah yet remain confusing to me! I would love if you all would enlighten me as to these terms or point me in the right direction. I adhere I think to some of those concepts of Socialism I just can't make a proper determination on that without correct information, besides you cats are off the hook with this discussion!!!

[Langalibalele]

Originally Posted by MsLioness

I enjoy these struggles also.

Of course we should advance and improve upon theories, and adjust them to fit our current situations. The intelligentsia should keep that afloat.

I do not understand the role the poor proletariat plays in the disinvestment in stocks....I do not understand how the poor proletariat even invests... Every poor working person I know, does not have the luxury of saving any money or even the slightest capability of allowing some of it to go into someone's company or major corporation.

When you say:
"We have to cultivate an analysis of the depletion or reduction of capital, that is, the idea that the world socialist revolution can deplete or reduce capital to a form which is unusable for capitalism/Imperialism."

The Revolutions allow those Socialist countries to take care of each other (with integrity).

And we always remember that corporations run capitalist government.

In essence, each time a country becomes Socialist, america looses power.

I am simply asking, if capital is depleted for america by the market theory (the proletariat simply not investing), what would our plight be as Africans still in america? What would African countries and other countries suffering by the hand of the oppressor plight be? What would Socialists states become? Is this type of happening of one that has been tested? Even so/not, what becomes of america? Would Pan-Africanism just....happen? Are not the markets international?

Is this something before or after "The World Socialist Revolution?"

(I know only a little about markets, so lay it on me properly...*wink*)

Let me try to take this one first. Capital is not depleted merely by the proletariat/working class not participating in the market system, altho this strips a great deal of liquidity away from the capitalists. The market theory just does not belong to the capitalist era of development, however some purely contrived markets must be totally eliminated and destroyed, such as the market for exotic paper. What the stock speculators refer to as "asset-backed commercial paper" (ABCP). Stuff like "bearer bonds" which the banks print with serial numbers and security paper approved by the SEC and adhering to international standards.

There are other securities too, if you have ever read a "Nigerian Scam Letter." It may be in the form of rubies, diamonds, gold, etc. Wealth in these forms may be difficult to eradicate, without complete collectivization of the economy. However they represent purely liquid value and not entire modes of capital resources, so they pose less of a threat to socialist society.

Back to ABCP. That can be, aside from the exotic paper, anything. From liquid assets in a bank, such as millions or billions of dollars in money or treasure socked away in a vault (as in bearer bonds) to futures in oil or food crops or any product yet to be brought to the market. (I got an education in how the commercial money market operates from a few issues of the London Financial Times during last years meltdown.)

And these things are represented on pieces of paper. Futures, for instance, may represent millions of shares to billions of shares and are based on pure market speculation. If you buy futures in, say, a tanker nine months from now at X-amount of dollars per barrel, that price is locked in. So if the price of oil dramatically rises over that period, you will make a killing on the price (not cost) of oil. You can send your tanker on a circuitous route to nowhere if you have not already auctioned it off, and wait for the price to rise even further. That is how the futures market works, so if you have futures in fruit of other perishable goods, you can allow a portion to perish so that the price can be pushed upwards. Who cares about ending starvation, in this system.

A piece of paper can control entire companies with balance sheets larger than many countries. Coca Cola, Pepsi, Millers Beer and other beverage manufacturers have facilities which could end the crisis for water purification in Africa, thereby stopping disease epidemics like guinea worm, infant diarrhea, and the back breaking labor of women who must travel miles to retrieve drinking water from wells. Ownership and control of such companies is determined on paper. On a damn ass abstraction! A piece of shit, as Lenin called it (a "parasitic excresence" is "shit" in Russian). Now tell me you don't understand what I'm is talkin bout. I kno you feel me.

We tear up the paper and redistribute the resources. The resources must be totally redistributed, not only owned by the working class, but redistributed thru Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. This is why I say the self-led African proletariat (in North America) must assume leadership over the entire revolutionary struggle, because the white Left will not be down for such a redistribution. They will object if they are allowed to define the struggle and the process of "uneven development" which Marx attributes to capitalism will also be a feature of "socialism".

[Majadi]

That is how the futures market works, so if you have futures in fruit of other perishable goods, you can allow a portion to perish so that the price can be pushed upwards. Who cares about ending starvation, in this system.

This quote right here put the whole thing in perspective for me, thank you for the education. How do you think we would need to gain and maintain control of these natural resources? In other words how do we produce the mass movement enough or even on a more infantesimal level to make this happen! I am about the work, theory has to be put into play!!!

[Langalibalele]

Originally Posted by Majadi

I have usually thought of Socialism in any form as an invader's idea to Afrika, that was before Dr. Clarke stated that Africans have always practiced Socialism. I have a friend who always describes me as a Black Nationalist, through and through! He is more in the lines of a pure Afrikan Historian so I found this distinction quite funny. Now these terms African Socialism, Scientific Socialism, even after having read, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare and Dark Days by Nkrumah yet remain confusing to me! I would love if you all would enlighten me as to these terms or point me in the right direction. I adhere I think to some of those concepts of Socialism I just can't make a proper determination on that without correct information, besides you cats are off the hook with this discussion!!!

Cde Majadi. Now for you, si vous plait. Socialism never invaded Africa. Altho Karl Marx was a European, socialism was a tool which he gave to the world for its liberation from European colonial and Imperialist domination. While this seems contradictory, while it appears a paradox. it also shatters the idea that white and blacks are diametrically opposed, that we are natural enemies, if you will, and must annihilate one another.

I use to hold onto this idea, despite having grown up with white friends and schoolmates. This idea assumes that the primary contradiction in society is racial, that races are monolithic social formations born out of nature and unable to harmonize between themselves. You have to cleanse your mind of this assumption. Racial harmony is necessary only in capitalist society which invented race and racism, because if forced races together when it conquered entire continents and relocated millions of people onto foreign lands. It forced Africans and Chinese and East Indians and Europeans together in the Caribbean and the US. Then it devised a belief in the inferiority of non-European peoples. Capitalism did that. Had the system of capitalism not arisen with its antagonisms, we would harbor no ill will to European. We would have no reason to.

Marx, in some way, recognized this. Remember Frederich Nietsche, who developed the philosophy of existentialism? He also came up with this idea of the European as superman. Not a natural superman, as the reactionaries like to believe, but a superman who became one based on the massive wealth, power and knowledge accumulated from the European's vast colonial empire. Marx was a product of that process (he was a predecessor of Nietsche, who really did not subscribe to any form of Marxism). Marx had the ability to define society in objective terms because he was exposed to the wealth, power and knowledge accumulated by Europe from Africa, China, India, the Americas, etc. This is what Marx has given back to the world thru his theory. Thru his theory we will all regain our wealth.

Now you have to get into your head that no social system is monolithic -- except ant society, or bee society -- but the society of human beings is not monolithic. By a monolith, I mean it is made of a single substance and have one nature. Society is made of composite parts which may or not operate in harmony. While ant society is monolithic, it does not have to operate on ideas, on politics, on verbal communication. There are no chinks in ant society which can be exploited other than physically. I mean you cannot swindle, deceive, infiltrate, split or use any strategy born of a political concept to overthrow ant society. But you can with humans.

For this reason, the US says that it never lost a battle in Vietnam, that it was defeated politically. The mightiest country in world history defeated by a nation and people who were vastly inferior on a material basis. Not a natural basis, but materially, economically. Their resolve was forged thru a socialist theory derived from Marx and articulated by Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap (you gotta read Giap's books on Vietnam military struggle)! When the infinitesimally small country of Guinea-Bissau took on the colonial empire of Portugal, the world thought those niggers were crazy. Amilcar Cabral led the protracted armed revolution and they eventually defeated the Portuguese in an amazing feat. It was a Marxian class theory which helped liberate Africans, and articulate by people like Cabral, Fanon, Machel, Mugabe, Biko, Nkrumah, Rodney, Huey Newton. Only a class theory has ever liberated African people from colonialism. While some countries have been "de-colonized", they weren't necessarily been LIBERATED.

Plus, the class society existed before the racial society. While races existed, they did not have friction between one another (a few isolated examples like the Hyksos, and the Hindi invaders of the Indus Valley make the exception). But class society existed wherever you found king and peasant, master and slave, capitalist and worker. This goes way back and is more pervasive than racial struggle, and is the definitive form of struggle within society. This struggle is defined by starvation, homelessness, warfare, public construction of pyramids and great walls, dams, roads, etc. Those who take credit for such activities differ drastically from those who made them possible. The great pyramids were built by peasants. The great wall was built by peasants. Commerce was carried out by farmers and merchants. And so on. I hope this helps you. But socialism is revolutionary, and the world can only be defined between socialism and capitalism. All modern societies are either part of one or the other; there is no "third way" no mothership and no rapture to solve the crisis in social relations. Revolution.

[MsLioness]

Originally Posted by Majadi

I would love if you all would enlighten me as to these terms or point me in the right direction.

Brother, Socialism is just what you think it is. Most people try to add and subtract....

Free education, no unemployment, free shelter, free food, free health care, free public transportation....

A way of life based off of the common needs.

Its important that you join a revolutionary party as soon as possible. The A-APRP has been pointing Africans in the right direction since its inception...*hint hint*

[Majadi]

Originally Posted by MsLioness

Brother, Socialism is just what you think it is. Most people try to add and subtract....

Free education, no unemployment, free shelter, free food, free health care, free public transportation....

A way of life based off of the common needs.

Its important that you join a revolutionary party as soon as possible. The A-APRP has been pointing Africans in the right direction since its inception...*hint hint*

I have been flirting with the A-APRP since I was in the Lost-Found Nation Of Islam, perhaps I need to make a date with the organization. When I hear revolutionary however, I actually think revolution so I will see for myself...*hint hint*. See sista' you think you slick don't ya'? LMAO

[RWalker]

While it is necessary to base ourselves in the context of African reality, African history, African culture and so on...we must remember that there is only scientific socialism, not a separate scientific socialism for Africans. It we fail to understand this then you will make the mistake of following a line that takes you away from scientific analysis and processes as relating to our struggle. This is precisely the thing that the key leaders of Africa folks like Nkrumah and Sekou Toure, fought the reaction, Senghor, Nyerere and that whole bunch of sellouts over.

[Langalibalele]

Originally Posted by RWalker

While it is necessary to base ourselves in the context of African reality, African history, African culture and so on...we must remember that there is only scientific socialism, not a separate scientific socialism for Africans. It we fail to understand this then you will make the mistake of following a line that takes you away from scientific analysis and processes as relating to our struggle. This is precisely the thing that the key leaders of Africa folks like Nkrumah and Sekou Toure, fought the reaction, Senghor, Nyerere and that whole bunch of sellouts over.

I only used that term to attract Africans to the concept. However, I do not think it is correct to categorize Mwalimu Julius Nyerere as a sell out. The contribution made by Tanzania -- under his and TANU leadership -- to the liberation struggles in Southern Africa cannot be matched anywhere else on the contintent, except perhaps in Zimbabwe. Nkrumah's contribution in the area of theory is great but his commitment lacked a political component in the real world; that is, Nkrumah made blunders which actually harmed the African liberation movement, as far back as the crisis in the Congo and even applying to conditions which led up to his coup. Nkrumah was certainly no infallible saint. Far as a statesman goes, I prefer Nyerere, hands down to anybody else on the continent.

Moreover, this article leaves more to consider than just its title. Titles are used as eyecatchers. The fundamental theory which drives this piece is the need to build a revolutionary Palenque, a Kilombo, or a Maroon society, if you will. Now we may quibble over how we piece together our Pan African theory as it applies to different individuals during different periods, the main struggle is how we apply it to the conditions of African people for their liberation and advancement. How do we apply Nkrumahist thought towards international African unity? That is the question. Help me answer that in real, concrete terms.