{"id":794,"date":"2011-03-03T02:59:22","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T02:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/?p=794"},"modified":"2013-02-18T12:02:59","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T18:02:59","slug":"class-struggle-dont-get-fooled-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/class-struggle-dont-get-fooled-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Class Struggle: Don’t Get Fooled Again!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published in Issue 416 of The Black Commentator on March 3, 2011<\/a>
\nRepublished in thepeoplesvoice.org on March 4, 2011<\/a>
\nThe second paragraph of this article was quoted in Africa: Race, Class Struggle And Organised Labour in the ‘Age of Wisconsin’<\/em>\u00a0by Ajamu Nangwaya, published\u00a0March 31, 2011<\/a>\u00a0(linchpin.ca),\u00a0April 2, 2011<\/a>\u00a0(dissidentvoice.org), April 21, 2011<\/a>\u00a0(pambazuka.org),\u00a0April 21, 2011<\/a>\u00a0(allAfrica.com, page 3-4) and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

By Larry Pinkney<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHistory is the only true teacher, the revolution the best school for the proletariat…Marxism is a revolutionary\u00a0worldview<\/em>\u00a0that must always struggle for\u00a0new revelations<\/em>.\u201d\u2013Rosa Luxemburg<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIndustry required ever greater\u00a0skills<\/em>, thus closing their doors to the poor.\u00a0Unions<\/em>, fearing automation,\u00a0warded off the poor<\/em>; their predominantly White members often developed a\u00a0paranoiac racism<\/em>.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013Introduction by Franz Schurmann for the book,\u00a0To Die for the People<\/a><\/em>, by Huey P. Newton<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Being euphorically oblivious to the inherent contradictions of class struggle in a corporate-capitalist society is a certain recipe for\u00a0perpetuating<\/em>\u00a0hypocrisy and assuring catastrophe.<\/p>\n

While it is certainly heartening to see some people making and taking a stand in\u00a0Madison,\u00a0Wisconsin, this does not mean that Wisconsin has somehow become\u00a0Egypt. It has not. There are numerous inherent contradictions that have yet to be forthrightly addressed in\u00a0Wisconsin,\u00a0U.S.A., and which strongly impact the\u00a0most<\/em>\u00a0economically and politically dispossessed and despised of people in\u00a0Wisconsin and throughout the\u00a0United States.<\/p>\n

A major portion of the so-called \u201cprogressive\u201d media has thus far committed an\u00a0enormous disservice<\/em>\u00a0to the\u00a0poorest and most downtrodden<\/em>\u00a0of everyday Black, White, Brown, and Yellow people by pretending that the struggle in\u00a0Madison,\u00a0Wisconsin, is truly reflective of the\u00a0aforementioned everyday<\/em>\u00a0people. It is\u00a0not<\/em>. It\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0perhaps an important\u00a0beginning-awakening<\/em>\u00a0of a kind, but it is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0a people\u2019s movement led by and for\u00a0the most dispossessed<\/em>\u00a0of that state or of the\u00a0United States\u00a0as a whole. Nor is the clash in Wisconsin,\u00a0fundamentally<\/em>\u00a0one between the Republicans and Democrats [i.e. the Republicrats]; as the Democrat and Republican parties there have worked together\u00a0for many years<\/em>\u00a0– particularly with reference to\u00a0disenfrachising and incarcerating<\/em>\u00a0Black and Indigenous people in that state. It warrants taking a closer look at\u00a0Wisconsin, the home state of the former and notoriously infamous U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy.<\/p>\n

Though meticulously ignored by both the corporate-stream media\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0the so-called \u201cprogressive\u201d media,\u00a0Wisconsin, despite its relatively small Black population, has the\u00a0highest proportional rate<\/em>\u00a0of Black incarceration\u00a0in the nation<\/span><\/em>, followed closely by the \u201cliberal\u201d state of\u00a0Minnesota (with its own outrageously high rates of racial disparity relating to Black and Indigenous incarceration). This is\u00a0absolutely no coincidence<\/em>, and has been consistently supported by\u00a0Republican and Democratic party politicians alike<\/span><\/em>. A similar massively disproportionate and horribly high rate of racial disparities can also be found in Wisconsin, as they pertain to\u00a0unemployment, under-employment, and police brutality<\/em>\u00a0afflicting the Black and Indigenous populations there. Let us\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>be euphorically oblivious.\u00a0Wisconsin is\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>Egypt. Indeed, most everyday brown and black-skinned North African-Egyptians would be hard pressed to live in\u00a0Wisconsin, being accorded real dignity and respect.<\/p>\n

And what of the economically disenfranchised White farmers and their families in Wisconsin, many of whose farms have been nefariously gobbled-up by the avaricious multinational corporations of agribusiness et al? What of them?! These people, like many others, do not even have union jobs or protections, no matter how tenuous such jobs might be. Their lives are cynically toyed with by both Democratic and Republican party politicians, as if they are expendable ping-pong balls. They must not be forgotten!<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding the historical (and still present) racism on the part of far too many unions in this nation;\u00a0everyday rank and file<\/em>\u00a0union members of\u00a0all colors and both genders\u00a0<\/em>have nonetheless\u00a0tenaciously struggled and given their very lives for<\/em>\u00a0the right of collective bargaining, only to be often sold out by \u201cconcessions\u201d made by much of their own union\u00a0leadership<\/em>. The right of collective bargaining\u00a0should be viewed as a fundamental human right<\/em>, not only in\u00a0Madison,\u00a0Wisconsin, but\u00a0throughout this nation<\/em>. However, there is a very real danger, as has been consistently demonstrated, particularly in the past thirty years, of unions becoming the hapless political pawns of\u00a0most especially<\/em>\u00a0the Democratic Party, which patronage is always at the expense of their\u00a0rank and file<\/em>\u00a0union membership. Whether this will occur or not with respect to the struggle in\u00a0Madison,\u00a0Wisconsin, remains to be seen. What is clear is that there needs to be a concerted, clear, educated, and consistent struggle for bringing about an end to corporate-capitalism in all of its odious forms,\u00a0not<\/span><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0a revising or\u00a0re<\/em>forming of it. This applies not only to unions but also to any organization engaged in a viable people\u2019s struggle for real,\u00a0systemic<\/em>\u00a0change.\u00a0The corporate-capitalist pie is a filthy and poisonous one that is utterly and wholly politically bankrupt in favor of a relatively tiny corporate \/ military\u00a0elite<\/em>. If the\u00a0leadership<\/em>\u00a0of unions in\u00a0Madison,\u00a0Wisconsin, or in any other part of this nation for that matter, fails to\u00a0steadfastly demand and organize<\/em>\u00a0for the right of collective bargaining and systemic change – said leadership should be\u00a0swiftly and uncompromisingly replaced<\/em>\u00a0– without missing a beat!<\/p>\n

Observing much of the so-called \u201cprogressive\u201d and\/or Left media in this nation falling all over itself as it proclaims that the struggle in\u00a0Wisconsin is somehow\u00a0the same<\/em>\u00a0as the people\u2019s struggle in\u00a0Egypt\u00a0and other parts of North Africa and the \u2018Middle East\u2019, etc. is inaccurate, disingenuous, and utterly hypocritical. The \u201cactivists\u201d in\u00a0Madison, Wisconsin, may want to seriously consider, as a part of the struggle there, exposing, for example, the\u00a0connection<\/em>\u00a0between corporate capitalism, the corporate weapons research and\/or development carried out at the\u00a0University of\u00a0Wisconsin\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0U.S.corporate-government\u2019s ongoing support for repressive puppet regimes\u00a0around the world<\/em>. To be sure, the ongoing struggle in\u00a0Egypt\u00a0is a\u00a0legitimate and much-needed and wonderful inspiration<\/em>\u00a0to the people of\u00a0Wisconsin and no doubt elsewhere, but it is definitely not the same as\u00a0Wisconsin. Moreover, \u201cprogressives\u201d and Leftists in this nation must\u00a0openly and forthrightly address the contradictions<\/em>\u00a0contained within any genuine \u201cclass struggle\u201d in this society, with a view towards\u00a0eradicating<\/em>\u00a0them,\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>ignoring them and pretending they don\u2019t exist. Being\u00a0in solidarity with<\/em>\u00a0struggles of oppressed peoples worldwide, including in\u00a0Egypt, is\u00a0extremely important<\/span>. But it is quite a different thing from\u00a0being<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Egypt, or\u00a0Tunisia, or\u00a0Haiti, etc. We must\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0be infantile or \u201cromantic\u201d in the political sense. We must be\u00a0real<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Let us hope for and\u00a0work to ensure<\/em>\u00a0that the struggle in Wisconsin becomes a\u00a0national<\/em>\u00a0one that encompasses and, in a major way, is led by,\u00a0the everyday dispossessed<\/em>\u00a0Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people of this land, even as we grapple with our own contradictions while being in\u00a0active solidarity<\/em>\u00a0with struggling peoples\u00a0globally<\/em>. In this struggle,\u00a0recognizing and addressing<\/em>\u00a0contradictions, be they class, gender, or, color contradictions, serves to sharpen [e.g.clarify<\/em>] the struggle. Clarification in this ongoing struggle is enormously important. After all, this people\u2019s struggle for economic and political justice and human rights – is a\u00a0process<\/em>, not an end to itself.<\/p>\n

Remember, as Rosa Luxemburg stated, \u201chistory is the only true teacher,\u201d even as we maintain a \u201cworldview<\/em>\u201d in \u201cthis struggle for\u00a0new revelations<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Onward my sisters and brothers! Onward!<\/p>\n

Larry Pinkney<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil\/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil\/Lehrer News Hour, and more recently on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones Show. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, San Francisco BayView newspaper, Black Commentator, Intrepid Report, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), 107 Cowgate (Ireland and Scotland), and Mayihlome News (Azania\/South Africa). He is in the archives of Dr. Huey P. Newton (Stanford University, CA), cofounder of the Black Panther Party. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book,\u00a0Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker<\/a>, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to read excerpts from the book.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published in Issue 416 of The Black Commentator on March 3, 2011<\/a>
Republished in thepeoplesvoice.org on March 4, 2011<\/a>
The second paragraph of this article was quoted in Africa: Race, Class Struggle And Organised Labour in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20,4,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1734,"href":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions\/1734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}