February 22, 1995 marked the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X.
Gunned down as he was about to give a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem N.Y., in 1965, his death was a devastating blow to the black liberation movement. One of black America's most dynamic, articulate and principled fighters was cut down just when it needed him AROSLA While he was alive Malcolm X was slandered and vilified by politicians, big business, and the media because he called capitalist society in America by its name: racist. If he were alive today he would have to level the same charge.
Over the last few years The New York Times has published articles about the life of Malcolm X, carefully omitting his condemnations of capitalism and the role of the Democratic and Republican parties.
Different tune
The Times editors, however sang a different tune at the time he was killed.
"He was a case history, as well as an extraordinary and twisted man" the Times pontificated. " His ruthless and fanatical belief and violence...marked him for fame, and for a violent end..
He did not seek to fit into society or into the life of his own people. The world he saw through those horn rimmed glasses of his was distorted and dark. But he made it darker still with his exaltation of fanaticism. Yesterday someone came out of that darkness that he spawned and killed him."
But what made Malcolm X a candidate for assassination was not "his exaltation of fanaticism" but his uncompromising opposition to U.S. capitalism and the connection he was making between the struggle for black emancipation and the need for fundamental social change.
Indeed far from refusing to "fit into the life of his own people" he sought to organise his people around a programme of action to fight politically against racist oppression. The logic of his positions led inexorably to revolutionary conclusions and this was why he had to die.
In the early 1960's, Malcolm X's ideas about which road to take for black equality and freedom represented the left-wing of the civil rights movement. And his strategy for getting results -constantly evolving and expanding - is as applicable today as it was in 1965.
Malcolm X first came into Malcolm X's nationalism was that of an oppressed people who were seeking self-determination in a society that had consigned them to pariah status. One legacy of Malcolm X's powerful message is the fact that even today the Nation of Islam is the most powerful Black nationalist organisation in America.
Popular
What made Malcolm X so popular with Black America -and so dangerous to the ruling rich - both before and after his split with the Nation? Spike Lee: his movie 'Malcolm X' reflected widespread interest in Malcolm's ideas Malcolm X believed that political organisation and action was the most effective means to win Black liberation. Malcolm X's bottom line was:
African Americans will only get their freedom by fighting for The U.S. government is a racist government and an enemy of Black people.
The strategy of slow reform, the programme of the liberals -black and white, Democrat and Republican - is the road to betrayal and defeat, not justice and equality.
Black people must rely on their power, control their own struggle, determine their own strategy and tactics, and select their own leaders. Malcolm X made a synthesis of Black nationalism and socialism African Americans have the right to self-defence in the face of racist attacks.
"There can be no Black-white unity until there is Black unity."
Malcolm X was labelled a "Black racist" because he disagreed with the "turn the other cheek" approach of Dr Martin Luther King and other more "acceptable" leaders of the civil rights struggle:
"If we react to white racism with a violent reaction," he said, "to me that not black racism. If you come and put a rope around my neck, and i hang you for it, Black united front against the racist ruling class.
Tragically, the assassinations of both these central Black leaders cut short this promising alliance, which would have become a powerful combination for social change.
Malcolm X connected the struggle of Black people in America to the revolutionary events taking place all over the "We are living in an era of revolution and the revolt of the American Negro is part of the rebellion against oppression and colonialism which has characterised this era."
Final year
During the last year of his life Malcolm X made two separate trips to Europe and the Middle