Op-Ed

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…True comrades should respect each other and honestly criticize the each other when this respect is breached. In the midst of a society dominated by capitalism the only respect a revolutionary can publicly expect is from the masses and from fellow revolutionaries. On behalf of our beloved brother the late Kwame Ture we must express dismay while clarifying the disquieting article published in the December 4, 1998 issue of the Socialist Worker. The article has many false assertions while at the same time reflects the contradictions between the African masses and the "white left" inside the United States.

Since our comrades did not feel it was necessary to consult or interview us to insure accuracy and fairness, we are unaware of whether these false assertions were intentional or the result of genuine confusion. We can only let whether this commentary is published or not be the deciding factor. Hopefully, by publicly confronting our differences we can come to better mutual understanding and unity among comrades. At the same time, this would contribute to the resolution of some of the general differences between the "white left" in the U.S. and people of African descent. Principally speaking, we view the article as disrespectful to all people of African descent, the A-APRP in general and to Kwame Ture in particular.

The first reason is that; although the article begins by stating "Kwame Ture - the former Stokely Carmichael" it repeatedly (more than 15 times) refers to him as Carmichael. This belittles the significance of African people reclaiming and learning about our African identity. Anytime this comes from an European settler it is no different than the white slave master in the TV mini-series Roots who tried to force the name Toby onto the character Kunta Kinte. It is a denial of the historical fact that we objectively share an experience, culture and world-view that binds us together as an African people. The ideology of the A-APRP asserts that all people of African descent are one people. Not to exclude ourselves from the rest of humanity, but to recognize an identity that has been brutally stripped from us by over 500 years of slavery and colonialism. An Identity that only African people collectively can define. It is an identity that is an integral part of humanity. One of the biggest errors committed by the "white left" in the U.S. is their rejection of African people placing our unity and organization before unity with others. This is not surprising, since most people in the U.S. are in denial that this is a racist settler colony, which obligates them to resolve the contradiction of the land question that exist between them and the struggle of the indigenous people. Thus, we are always Black, Negro, Afro-etc. before we're African, in an attempt to make us accomplices at ignoring the crime of settler colonialism.

The second ahistorical assertion made in the article is their claim that Kwame Ture coined the slogan "Black Power". This is something attributed to him by mainstream media, which he constantly disputed by the African revolution and African revolutionaries. "Black Power" was a concept used by many prior to SNCC's use of it in Mississippi, including Martin Delaney, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the author Richard Wright, and other SNCC agitators involved in the March against Fear, such as Brother Mukasa Ricks (formerly Willie Ricks), were using it before the mass media picked it up during Kwame's now famous speech.

Third, the article focuses mainly on Kwame's contributions during the Civil Rights era and negates the wide range of contemporary contributions he has made to Pan-Africanism and the worldwide struggle for human rights and socialism. This is the same thing that we get from mainstream media and the African bourgeoisie. It over-simplifies our ideology and objectives to say Kwame "believed racism made separate revolutionary organization necessary." This reduces our efforts as a phenomenon of expediency rather than one emerging from the centuries of struggle. It states that his move to Africa was a "tragic" attempt to address this. This ignore historical fact: Kwame and the pre-party leadership recognized that the para-military and counter-intelligence attacks of the US government (through the FBI and CIA; primarily) could only be effectively resisted from the heart of the African Revolution -- Africa itself. Kwame Nkrumah, then co-President of Guinea asked Kwame Ture in 1977 to move to Africa and become his secretary. Thus, Kwame also became and remained a member of the Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG) until his death.

Fourth, the article states that Kwame founded the A-APRP. Our Party was called for in the Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare by Kwame Nkrumah and finally founded by Seku Ture and Nkrumah in 1967. Furthermore, Kwame Ture didn't simply meet Nkrumah and Ture. Thereafter he worked intimately with them both to politically organize African people throughout the world, erase the colonial barriers on the continent and build one united socialist Africa through the medium of the A-APRP and other associated agencies. This is something that every true revolutionary should see as positive.

Fifth, the article refers to Seku Ture and Nkrumah as Pioneers of "African Socialism", which is a concept that both men and the A-APRP reject. There is only one kind of socialism, scientific socialism. Scientific socialism informs us about the necessity for Pan-Africanism as the only way for people of African descent to be totally free. We define Pan-Africanism as an objective: the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism.

There is obviously much more to our ideology than can be given justice in this brief commentary, just as there is to Marxism or any other ideology. It is the obligation of revolutionaries to study the writings and practices of others before interpreting and judging their ideology. We suggest a good beginning would be to study Consciencism by Kwame Nkrumah and Dialectical Approach to Culture by Seku Ture. Our Ideology is based on, but not limited to the extensive writings and practices of Seku Ture and Kwame Nkrumah from whom it gets its name. Surely one can't claim to understand Marxism-Leninism without first studying the writings and practices of Marx and Lenin. It is evident to us that the author of the article has not studied our ideologues or our history and thus makes assertions about them and us that are incorrect.

It is our opinion that when we study a philosophy which is not ours, we must see it in the context of the intellectual history to which it belongs, and we must see it in the context of the milieu in which it was born. That way, we can use it in the furtherance of cultural development and in the strengthening of our human society. (Consciencism, Nkrumah, p. 55)

The article also makes the false claims that Ghana and Guinea under Nkrumah and Seku Ture were "socialist in name only and enriched a tiny elite at the expense of workers and peasants." It further says "Nkrumah was ousted in a military coup -and Seku Ture became a brutal dictator."

If we didn't know better we would think that these were the words of the capitalist media as opposed to comrades in the struggle.

First of all both these nations were struggling to maintain control in the face of imperialist covert operations. Still they made tremendous strides in the historically brief time they had to work with. Both countries fulfilled the first exigency of democracy building, which is establishing youth, women and workers wings as structures in the state. Nkrumah was not simply ousted in a military coup but overthrown in a CIA orchestrated plot. The Industrial Police Intelligence Complex (IPIC) became very preoccupied with Africa at that time and had a hand in everything that became independent. Seku Ture was never a dictator but did have to deal with counter-revolution several times within the PDG, as well as outright invasion by the neo-colonial state of Portugal, as a tool of NATO. We welcome any facts that may prove he was such. No dictator can remain in power for 25 years, under the opposition and covert destabilizing operations of imperialism. Where there are long lasting dictators there is always imperialist support, unless you are referring to the dictatorship of the mass.

Lastly it is totally misleading to claim that Kwame Ture's strategy was to "build a separate Black revolutionary organization based in Africa." The term "Black" is an attempt to stagnate our consciousness and keep us divided. There are no such things as black or white people. We assert that "African" is the next logical and uniting step for a people divided by the terms n*gger, Negro, Colored, black, African-American, Afro-Jamaican, etc. and geographical pseudo-boundaries. We can speak for our comrade and brother Kwame Ture when we say we are trying to build an African revolutionary party that recognizes that our people scattered throughout the Diaspora are African people and part of the African nation. Comrades, you refer to "the task of building a multi-racial party in the U.S." (For us there is only the human race.), but we Africans are not only in the U.S. Furthermore, we can not justly have plans for America which exclude the aspiration and concerns of the indigenous people. Our sisters and brothers the Native Americans.

Our tasks lie with Africa. You can work as comrades in solidarity with us, but you can not politically educate our masses, define what our objectives and identity should be or reach the masses of Africans worldwide that are tired and skeptical of the impositions of others. Martin Luther King Jr. correctly stated "It is the feeling that Negroes (Africans) must be their own spokesmen, that they must be in the primary leadership of their own organizations. White liberals must understand this. It is a part of the search for manhood. It is the psychological need for those who have had such a crushed and bruised history to feel and know that they are men, that they have the organizational ability to map their own strategy and shape their own destinies, that they can be their own spokesmen. Where Do We Go From Here, M.L.K. Jr., p.94-95) To unite with African people you must understand us. To understand us you must study our history of struggle inherent in a Pan-Africanism. Our goals and objectives, strategies and tactics, which are often labeled separatist by the white left, is actually the only scientific process with hopes of contributing to the real unity of humankind.

We hope that your misstatements were simply a consequence of your ignorance. For ignorance though regrettable can be excused if its possessors simply seek the knowledge needed to eliminate it. If this is not the case then we must assume that you were prompted by arrogance born of dedication to a political line that excludes all others and their contributions to the world socialist movement. As fellow revolutionaries we are sure that you would agree with Kwame Ture when he said that "..for a revolutionary arrogance compounded by ignorance is a crime against humanity.."