Malcolm X Grassroots Movement - Let Your Motto Be Resistance: A Handbook on Organizing New Afrikan and Oppressed Communities for Self-Defense

Organizing

Short Definition

Organizing is the process of uniting people around a common set of interests and beliefs, and building the structures they need to carry out democratically agreed upon strategies and programs of action to exercise their power to solve social issues or address their material needs.

New Afrikan people are in a heighted state of crisis. Since being brought to the shores of North America as captives from European wars of aggression we have constantly battled one crisis after another. However, there are times that are more critical and intense than others. We are presently living through one of these super-critical periods.

Since the 1980s and the start of the rollback of the social and material gains won by our people in the 1950s and 60s, New Afrikans have been confronted with the crisis of a slow, but calculated, genocide. After the urban rebellions of the 1960s capital (mainly multi-national corporations) contributed to this genocidal assault by introducing more computers and robots into the productive process and moving more and more of their factories overseas to eliminate the need for New Afrikan workers.

Since the financial and economic collapse of 2008 and the reaction of sectors of the white settler population to the 2008 presidential election, the level of these genocidal assaults has intensified. We have been hunted and killed in cold blood by the US government in increasing numbers and herded into prisons like cattle in record numbers. We are confronting the cold reality of a jobless future and permanent economic exclusion being imposed upon us by the forces of white supremacy, capitalism and imperialism and our youth are fighting among themselves and with the internalization of hopelessness with deadly consequence not seen since the late 1980s and early 90s during the height of the crack wars.

Why we face genocide now:

• The rapidly changing demographics of the US continental empire. For the first time since the 1700s, within the next 15 to 20 years, the white settlers of North America will be out-numbered by non-whites. A significant portion of white people are not only concerned about becoming a minority, they are outright scared. These fears stimulate different reactions, one of which is increased hostility to non-whites and targeted violence directed at New Afrikans and other colonized and oppressed people.

• The militarization of society. The US government started militarizing its domestic law enforcement agencies in the 1960s in response to the Black Liberation Movement. This escalation of repression expanded with the so-called wars on drugs and gangs. This internal militarization expanded exponentially after the events of September 11, 2001. Since then the national security apparatus has grown unchecked and racial profiling has become accepted doctrine and practice targeting not only New Afrikans, but also Latinos, Arabs, South East Asians, and Muslims. These developments have fostered a seek and destroy mentality amongst the police and various other law enforcement agencies. The militarization of law enforcement has expanded to the rest of society so we find armed guards in schools and hospitals and transportation centers. Instead of seeking humane social solutions to social problems, the government and communities rely on the military and police.

• Downsizing from the financial and economic crisis. One of the major outcomes of the economic crisis is the implementation of severe austerity and the downsizing of social services and many police forces throughout the empire. Austerity measures place a greater strain on the police, as they have to do more with less to protect the haves from the have nots. These strains generate a siege mentality within law enforcement seeking to justify its funding and existence by engaging in more extreme patrol and control tactics in oppressed communities.

• The promotion of reactionary and irrational politics. Conservative political forces, particularly forces like the Tea Party and the Religious Right, have been escalating the promotion of their hostile and increasingly openly racist propaganda. This is creating an atmosphere of pervasive racial hostility and resentment throughout the empire.

• Racial resentment and revenge. Perhaps the greatest expressions of racial hostility are the countless attacks against US President Barack Obama as a symbol of Black progress and equality. Many forces associated with the military and the police throughout the country have been openly saying that they refuse to follow the orders of Obamas Justice Department and that they will take extreme measures to prevent their privileges as whites from being further eroded. Add this to the narrative that New Afrikans and Latinos are being awarded unjust privileges thru affirmative action, are stealing decent jobs, and bankrupting the country with special entitlement programs, and it is clear that there is a climate of racial hostility the likes of which hasnt been seen expressed this openly since the late 1970s and early 80s.

• The repression and criminalization of dissent. In the wake of the various social eruptions against austerity like the Wisconsin workers fight back initiative and the Occupy Movement in 2011, the government responded by intensifying repression in 2012. It smashed the Occupy movements encampments throughout the empire, infiltrated it on a massive scale, intensified raids in immigrant communities, and escalated and intensified its stop and frisk and racial profiling operations and tactics in New Afrikan communities.

A New Afrikan is a person of Afrikan descent, particularly those historically enslaved and colonized in the Southeastern portion of the North American continent, that presently live under the colonial subjugation of the United States government. New Afrikan is the connotation of the national identity of this Afrikan people that recognizes our political aspirations for self-determination, national independence, and sovereignty.

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