A United Front
Written By People’s Programs
“The people are the backbone of positive action. It is by the people’s effort that colonialism is routed, it is by the sweat of the people’s brow that nations are built.” — Kwame Nkrumah via Consciencism (pg.103)
“We have to guard against sectarianism.” — Jalil Muntaqim
As we at People’s Programs continue to read/learn about revolutionary nationalism as it pertains to the Republic of New Afrika and Pan-Africanism — we are starting to analyze some of the setbacks to building this collective identity in the united states. The easy answer is 400+ years of genocide via the trans Atlantic slave trade, Jim Crow, the prison industrial complex, COINTELPRO, and many other white supremacist structures and initiatives to oppress Afrikans and repress any collective growth.
What we hope to offer in this piece is an analysis that touches more so on the culture and not so much the right wing systems. When we say culture — we mean developing a revolutionary culture, which calls for a collective identity (deeps roots in communal pre colonial Afrika & post colonial revolutionary struggles) vs individualism (ravaging through Amerikkka society in present day). This is not to be confused with reactionary cultural nationalism, which argues having culture alone will solve our people’s problems. With our claim to the politics and principles of the New Afrikan Independence Movement, People’s Programs is starting to assess what we will need to struggle for in efforts to see the mission of freeing the people and the land through to the end. We understand that revolutionary Pan-Africanism calls for the unification of all Afrikan people’s across the diaspora, and for that unification we must first begin to recognize all Afrikans as one and that we have a collective fate/destiny! Which, from a scientific approach-is the direct opposite of what European colonizers did when they carved up the continent and removed Afrikan people (via slavery) and placed us all over the world.
To align with a collective identity would be to combat the morals and values of amerikkkan rulers who constantly preach individualism by any means necessary. The economic system that governs this very country (capitalism) calls for the exploitation of the 99% by the ruling white supremacist 1% class. By default to thrive in this country you must automatically separate yourself from the majority of people based on class. Laying the foundation for separatism. The rat race that is capitalism conditions us to believe it is “you vs them” — individual vs individual. It is a sadistic warping of the mind that forces you to remove the humanity from those around you. Usually another Afrikan or victim of white supremacist capitalism.
It must also be stated that for some reason(s) (anti-communists, anti-Afrikan, and anti- socialists reasons) collective identity has been demonized. Through colonial propaganda we have been taught to believe that “collective’’ means being a mindless drone and losing all sense of self(Although one could argue that as colonized people we already wander this land mindlessly, being told what to do at every turn by our capitalists rulers). Which couldn’t be further from the truth. Under a New Afrikan Nation and a united Afrikan Diaspora we will develop a new sense of self and individuality, that is much more empowering than this pseudo self-serving, exploitative, “get it at the expense of humanity”, individualism that monopoly-capitalism encourages.
In his book Consciencism (Kwame Nkrumah highlights the scientific and philosophical approach to revolution) Nkrumah said it best, “…promote individual development, but in such a way that the conditions for the development of all become the conditions for the development of each; that is, in such a way that the individual development does not introduce such diversities as to destroy the egalitarian basis.” To sum it up — true individualism does not have to be at the expense of another human!
Let it be stated clearly that we are not to blame for our conditionings. Our minds are the result of 400+ years of strategic colonization. Our ideologies have been forced upon us by a ruling class that will stop at nothing to acquire/amass wealth and land- even if it comes at the expense of humanity. But we can fight back. We must fight back! And to combat the separatists and exploitative nation that is the united states — we must come together. And for Afrikans we have the framework and guidelines to get it done- Revolutionary Pan-Africanism. They divided us up to conquer us — science says that our (Afrikan) unification is what can correct this wrongdoing against generations of our people. And let it not be lost upon us that the liberation, the power, the sense of self-worth, the luxuries, all that has been dangled in front of us on the treadmill of capitalism, bargained to us by integration, it all exists in our unity and ultimate liberation.
It was through the people of People’s Programs identifying as Afrikan where we found power. It was through aligning with the New Afrikan Independence Movement where we found our purpose. It was through a commitment to the unification of all Afrikan peoples where we found OURSELVES!
Free the people!
Free the land!
