the status quo was realized early in the careers of both men. For over thirty years, have been actively a black nationalist. a soD.P: What did Malcolm X mean when he said 'There must be Black unity before there can be Black and white unity'? Kwame: I believe he meant that blacks must unite around our special types of oppres sion, and develop confidence, cultural, political unity, and a programme based on our concrete needs. Then we would be in a better position to discuss programmatic unity with whites around some common issues without our needs being left out. D.P: But this kind of black nationalism could be interpreted as either autonomous sell-organization or separatist development? Kwame: Yes, it can be either one, or both. We support the right to take either course. That is because in the development of black unity - different views will be a part of it and will develop and change in the process of struggle and growing consciousness.
A black unity movement must forit. There does not exist a common definition of black nation. alism among its adherents in the United States As I explained at the public meeting, socialist black nationalism stands for 'association' of all the oppressed, not "integraThe Civil Rights movement exemplified one of the two main Americans in their long freedom struggle. This strategy of inte gration is based on the simple idea that Black Americans should have the rights of all other citizens. They should have the YOUNG POPIC Asian youth march in defence of threatened facilities in Leicester right to integrate themselves into American society "with freedom and justice for all'.
The other strategic road folwhen the road to freedom through integration is blocked by the withdrawal of white allies from such an alliance. The history of the African American freedom struggles shows that this other road came under the heading of Black nationalism The struggles by blacks for Hocration occame a struggic against national oppression. But this struggle goes on side by side with the working class struggle against wage slavery, as I have my conception of the coming American revolution is a combined revolution for both black liberation and socialism. D.P: Why do you feel that socialism is a necessary component of black liberation? Kwame: Blacks are being oppressed not only racially, but also by their being overwhelmingly part of the exploited working class.
The capitalist system supports racism and encourages white supremacist, elitist feelings among white workers to prevent class unty against the system The huge profits from the African slave trade stimulated incultural basis first. This already exists in Britain" dustrial development and was a major foundation for modern capitalism. Capitalism and Star ery by Eric Williams, is one of that development. I am against domination that puts profits over human welfare and dominates the lives of the producers of the goods and services that are the The rulers of capitalism and their agents have continually proven by their actions, that they realize the danger to their system posed by blacks and other oppressed peoples.
They recognise, often better than the oppressed themselves. that movements for racial and autional iberatice in our apoch grammes for liberation. direction by Malcolm X in his The year 1963 was a time the American form of apartheid, states to the black working class tion has a multi-ethnic majority of second and former British colonies as cheap labour. How wold a European liberation stratKwame: All of the varieties oppressed in different deprees on the basis of gender. no, no and clan.
Whether it is advocated or unity on a cultural basis first. This already exists in Britain. Their economic, cultural, gender and racial oppression will develop a consciousness for organisations to struggle against incar vance oppressions Eventually they will see the need for finding common ground for broader unity of all peoples of African and Asian ancestry and eventually with the white working class.
Whether they call themselves black collectively or, for exam. ple, the *Afro-Asian Unity Movement. is not relevant 35 long as they move in the direction of a broader unity. •A HISTORICAL sketch on the origins of slavery in the ancient world and the continuation of brutal practices by slave-masters thousand years -impossible to do justice to all the areas it covers. economic developments in society, specifically to the beginnings of stable, agricultural communities and the discovery that human shows the links between religion, slavery and the oppression of "priests were the first pimps". western Europe acquired slaves in great rumbers... from slave hunts among the Slavonic peoples.. opened up the Volga and Dnieper as siave routes... Europeans were selling other Europeans to Muslims or any purchasers'. on black peoples by white Christians is false. Arab Muslims - as well as white Christians - played a key role in the ensiavement of The second section deals with the 100 years after the first American revolution. it was the conflict between the Norther merchants and the British over who would control the slave and rum trades that led to American independence. However, independence brought no noticeable benefits to most blacks. Almost 700,000 out of a total black population blacks had few - if any - rights. issue his Emancipation Proclamation. However, Lincoln did not Union were allowed to retain slavery. nied land, their former owners were not. President Andrew States. Former Confederate politicians and nilitary figures were Klan waged a campaign of terror against blacks. have been the result of their own struggles. He shows how the poorest white workers - Southern 'Rednecks'. Irish immiorants -Nevertheless, he concludes, manent in this world...The potential is getting greater for the masses throughout the world, to organise in rebellion against alienation from control over the basics of their existence should read this book critical, Exploitative, Brutally Racist Policies, Practices, and Socialist Outlook E6, post free.
ADA ARA Afro-Caribbean community fighting fascist violence and other exploiters into the modern era' is how Kwame M.A. SomThe work covers the history of slavery over a period of several including modern wage slavery. It is, therefore.
in the first section, Kwame relates the existence of slavery to beings - as well as animals - could be 'domesticated" and made to He argues that all religions have historically justified slavery and women. Earty religions had slave prostitutes. According to Kwame The term slave is derived from "Slavs'. The Vikings of North.By 850 the Swedes had Thus the notion that slavery was only a phenomenon imposed The Civil War also had little to do with abolishing slavery. It was a war for economic domination between the Southern Planters and Northern merchants against the industrial bourgeoisie of the North.
It was mainly the military successes of the Confederacy - alongside pressure from blacks and abolitionists - that forced Lincoln to WORLD NEWS free a single slave. The Proclamation only covered the Confederate States - where he had no power. Slave States that remained in the The Union victory brought few gains for blacks. They were deJohnson allowed whites only elections in the former Confederate welcomed in Washington: in the South the newly formed Ku Klux Kwame insists that whatever gains have been made by blacks have frequently been the most active in opposing black demands.
'Change is the only thing that is perEveryone who believes in the possibilityof ending oppression Kwame M.A. Somburu: A Succinct Analysis of The Social, Economic, Political Foundation for the Murderous, Diabolical, HypoEnslavement of Africans and African Americans. Available from
Conference delegates stand and cheer for cameras: but who really pays Party? SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No.46, July 10 1993. Page 10 lin orward Business Age believes that the Tories have received £30 million from overseas sources in the last eight years, with over a third of this coming via Hong Kong.
Another man with close Norinco links. Tsui Tsin-Tong (better known as T.T. Tsui) is understond to have given the Conservaure Fauty a six-gure sunt Tsui has strong personal connections with the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping.
Another top Beijing bureaucrat. Rong Yiren. has also alreadly made donal tions. Rong Yiren is the former chair of Citic, the Chinese government's foreign investment arm, and in his new role as vice-president of the People's Republic. arguably the thind most powerful man in the country. Citic has a stake in up to