The Black Scholar

Journal of Black Studies and Research

ISSN: 0006-4246 (Print) 2162-5387 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtbs20

Black Nationalism and Confused Marxists

Tony Thomas

To cite this article: Tony Thomas (1972) Black Nationalism and Confused Marxists, The Black
Scholar, 4:1, 47-52, DOI: 10.1080/00064246.1972.11431260

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00064246.1972.11431260

Published online: 14 Apr 2015.

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Download by: [University of Massachusetts, Amherst] Date: 29 March 2016, At: 19:18
 BLACK NATIONALISM AND
CONFUSED MARXISTS
BY TONY THOMAS
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OR MANY YEARS, a debate has raged
F within the black liberation struggle, and
among those who call themselves Marxists,
as to what is the relationship between
Marxism and black nationalism. Tradition-
ally, reformist pseudo-Marxist organizations
like the U.S. Communist party have taken
the position that black nationalism and
Pan-Africanism are "divisive," "bougeois,"
and generally reactionary. Some black lib-
erationists have falsely judged these atti-
tudes as "Marxism"and have gone on to
brand Marxism irrelevant or dangerous to
the struggle for black liberation.
As proof of the revolutionary thrust of
African-American nationalism, Malcolm X's
concept, that black liberation and socialism
are directly linked as are racism and capi-
talism, has become widely popular in recent
years. Many black nationalists and Pan-
Africanists have developed pro- Marxist
views out of their experiences in the
struggle.
Some of these brothers and sisters sup-
posedly coming· from "Marxist-Leninist"
and "class" positions, have now denounced
black nationalism, employing many of the
terms used by reformist anti-nationalists
such as the Progressive Labor Party and
the Communist Party.
ToNY THOMAS is a staff writer for the Militant,
Associate Editor of the International Socialist Re-
view and member of the National Committee of
the Socialist Workers Party.
7Hf II.ACK SCHOLAR SEPrEMIER, l972
In the October, 1971 Black Scholar El-
dridge Cleaver described how this process
took place in the Black Panther Party:
"Those who were revolutionary black na-
tionalists went through many changes and
one very important thing which many of
them did, particularly those who went on
to build the Black Panther Party, was to
become ideological, adopting the Marxist-
Leninist class analysis, which even negated
our nationalism.
... We were getting further and further
into ideology, deeper and deeper into
Marxism-Leninism, and the other aspects of
our African connectedness was definitely
downgraded, as part of our struggle with
the cultural nationalists." (page 35, empha-
sis added.)
A RECENT SPOKESMAN for the former revo-
lutionary-nationalist, now anti- nationalist
"Marxist Leninists," is brother Earl Ofari.
In an article commenting on an interview
with Kathleen Cleaver-who herself criti-
cizes "excesses" of nationalism in the N.Y.
Panthers-Ofari states:
. . . The more advanced sections of the
black movement in America now argue that
black nationalism, including 'revolutionary
nationalism,' is reactionary and does nothing
but retard the struggle.
Nationalism often leads to alliances with
some of the most backward elements in the
black community. There can never be a
principled 'all-class' unity with black million-
aires, politicians, police officals, busim•ssmt•u,
PAGE 47
 professionals, etc. on the part of true revolu-
tionaries. . . .
I hope the Cleaver faction recognizes that
black nationalism at this point. represents a
retreat from revolutionary principles. (L.A.
Free Press, Oct. 30, 1971, page 27.)
Ofari proposed "that new organizational
forms must revolve around the black wor-
king class," and also attempted to claim
that the uprisings in Detroit and Newark
in 1967 "were working class uprisings," as
opposed to expressions of the nationalist
consciousness of our people.
Ofari is guilty of ignorance of the real
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Marxist position on the nationalist move-
ment of oppressed peoples. He formally
counterposes the struggle for national liber-
ation of all black people to the struggle of
African-American workers against class ex-
ploitation. He also falsely identifies the
politics of reformists and sellouts in the
black nationalist movement with the es-
sence of black nationalism.
L E.'lliN IS CONSIDERED the chief Marxist
authority on the question of national liber-
ation, due to his experiences in the Russian
revolution and the Communist Interna-
tional. In summary, his position on the
national liberation struggle-which can be
seen as the basics of Marxism on this ques-
tion - can be stated in these four main
points.
1) Revolutionaries must give uncondi-
tional support to all sections of the
oppressed people in the struggle against
their oppressors, including the uncondi-
tional right of the oppressed to self-deter-
mination.
2) The struggle for national liberation
is a combination of the class struggle for
liberation of the most oppressed sections
of the oppressed, and the overall struggle
of oppressed people as a whole for national
liberation. The solution of all the problems
of oppressed nations cannot take place
without destroying capitalism. This does
not negate the importance of nationalist
demands that do not explicitly call for the
downfall of capitalism; rather it proves
PAGE 48
that by posing them in a revolutionary
fashion, such nationalist demands can play
a decisive role in making a socialist revo-
lution.
3) The national capitalist classes are
incapable of bringing real national liber-
ation due to their neocolonial ties with
world imperialism and their fear of the
power of the masses and workers and
peasants who might transform the struggle
for national rights into a complete social
revolution. This is expressed by the national
capitalists' attempts to brake the struggle
for national liberation and by their eco-
nomic and political ties with world capi-
talism. Likewise, being the most exploited,
workers and other oppressed classes of the
oppressed nations are the best fighters
for nationalist demands.
4) Revolutionaries can and should sup-
pors and participate in nationalist move-
ments of oppressed peoples that are not
based on the national-capitalist elements,
utilizing them as a key weapon in the fight
for socialism. (For a more detailed sum-
mary of Lenin's views on nationalism see
my article on the question in the January
1972, International Socialist Review).
This Leninist position on the national
struggle has been suppressed by the leader-
ship of the Soviet Union and the Commu-
nist parties since the 1920's. On one hand
they have substituted the two-stage theory
of revolution, in which the national libera-
tion struggle and the struggle for socialism
are separated into different historical stages
-and in theory and practice the "back-
ward" nations are told that they cannot
directly proceed to socialism. On the other
hand they have developed the idea that
nationalist movements, like the black na-
tionalist movement in the U.S., are com-
pletely reactionary. (For a fuller picture
of the positions of the Communist party
and the real Leninist position on the Black
struggle see "Leninism, Stalinism and
Black Nationalism," in the Oct. 1970 Inter-
nationalist Socialist Review.)
Ofari's view flows from a misconception
of Marxism, fostered by these falsifications
THE BUCK SCHOLAR SEPTEMBER, J972
 of Lenin's ideas on national liberation.
From a Leninist point of view as we have
seen, support to black nationalism is a
principled revolutionary position.
The subjection of African-Americans in
the U.S. has been basic to the existence of
capitalism here for four hundred years·.
This is not only true in terms of the vast
economic gains imperialism · has gotten
through the exploitation of our people,
but also due to political advantages gained
for imperialism by the permeation of the
European-American masses with racist de-
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ology. If anything, the position of the
African-American nation in the U.S. is even
more strategic today because we are con-
centrated in the major industrial and urban
centers on which the entire economy rests
and because our links with African people
and other oppressed peoples internationally
are increasingly strong.
This oppression is more than simple ex-
ploitation of black workers "at the point of
production." It covers every facet of the
lives of all African people in this country.
Every institution is used to maintain this
oppression. All black people are targets of
this oppression. The overall national op-
pression of all our people, and the class
exploitation of black workers are indis-
solvably linked. A program for the libera-
tion of African-Americans from one aspect
of this oppression, must be a program for
the liberation from the other as well.
Black nationalism demands complete
African-American control over the eco-
nomics, politics, culture, education and
every other sphere of the life of black
people. It recognizes that we must rely on
our own power to gain this. In its revo-
lutionary form, as advocated by Malcolm
X, it proposes a program for mass action
and mass organization to gain black liber-
ation.
Obviously, these goals cannot be
achieved without a revolution that could
destroy capitalism. Obviously, these goals
will result in the death of U.S. imperialism.
Obviously, Marxist-Leninists whose main
aim is to destroy capitalism and imperial-
THE BLACK SCHOlAR SEPTEMBER, J972
ism can only define a movement of op-
pressed people for such goals as a revolu-
tionary, not a reactionary movement.
Ofari and other opponents of black na-
tionalism claim that black nationalism leads
to "all-class unity" and alliances with black
reactionaries. Ofari counterposes to these
"pitfalls" building black workers' organ-
izations.
It is incorrect to counterpose black wor-
kers' organizations to black nationalism.
Nationalism can play a decisive role in the
organization and mobilization of black
workers.
Historically, black urban workers have
been the base for black nationalism. It is
no coincidence that the rise of Garveyism
coincided with the mass influx of our peo-
ple into industry during and after World
War I and that the U.N.I.A.'s main base in
the U.S. was in the big cities, North and
South. Malcolm's main following was
amongst black workers.
BLACK WORKERS, after all, do not face
oppression simply as workers, but as blacks
as well. Black workers face the same racist
conditions in housing, education, medical
facilities, police brutality, cultural genocide
that all of us face. Even "at the point of
production," black workers face national
as well as "class" oppression.
Indeed, exactly because of their class ex-
ploitation, black workers feel the effects of
our national oppression much more sharply
than the 'black millionaires, politicians,
police officials, businessmen, profession-
als," that Ofari fears.
As Lenin pointed out, the oppression of
black workers, the overwhelming bulk of
our people-is national and class oppression
combined. These are not two separate
things added together but a complete
mixture of the two aspects of black opres-
sion into one distinct entity.
The idea that struggling around nation-
alist demands prevents the mobilization
and organization of black workers is wrong.
The main forces involved in the mass
PAGE 49
 struggles of the African-American people
have been made up of black workers,
employed and unemployed and their chil-
dren. The massive uprisings that shook the
black communities in places like Watts,
Detroit and Newark in the mid-1960's were
not conceived of as special ''black workers"
uprisings, but as part of the overall revolt
of African-Americans as a people. It is by
projecting an overall revolutionary-nation-
alist program that African-American Marx-
ist-Leninists can mobilize the masses of
black workers as well as by "workers'
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organizing."
This is not to deny the importance of
black workers. Especially with Nixon's
"New Economic Policy," the struggle of
black workers "at the point of production"
plays an increasingly crucial role in the
liberation of our people. The appearance
of black union caucuses and the develop-
ment of other black workers' organizations
such as the League of Revolutionary Black
Workers are results of the nationalist con-
sciousness sweeping the plants.
THE POWER and extent of black workers'
organizations can be increased by their
relating to a nationalist strategy for the
overall community. Forces from every sec-
tor of the black community can be utilized
to support the black workers' struggles,
and likewise the power of black workers
at the point of production can be utilized
in every portion of the black struggle.
In developing a strategy and program for
black liberation, we must reject the econo-
mist view-which places the importance of
black workers' economic role out of all
proportion-for a political view aiming at
every single aspect of our oppression.
Ofari claims that black nationalism is
"all-class" unity and claims that it will "lead
to alliances with some of the most back-
ward elements of the black community."
Ofari has no understanding of the Marxist
view of the national capitalists, or for
that matter, of the need to fight them, as
opposed to nmning away from them.
PAGE 50
The fact that many who pose as nation-
alists advocate black capitalism and work
in the Democratic party, does not prove
black nationalism to be reactionary any
more than the fact that there are a number
of African-American unionists who have
reconciled themselves with the racist class-
collaborationist policies of the top union
bureaucrats, proves that black workers'
organizing is reactionary. Just as the poli-
cies of these bureaucrats are against the
needs and interests of black workers, so
these phony "porkchops" carry out strate-
gies that are against the grain of black
nationalism.
Operating in the Democratic party, try-
ing to build black capitalism under Nixon's
aegis, being a poverty-program pimp hardly
meets the definition of consistent black
nationalism. All these strategies of reliance
and alliance with the institutions that main-
tain the oppression of black people, can
hardly be called consistent black nationism.
To write off the black nationalist and
Pan-Africanist movements because such
"porkchop" elements are in them, is to
bestow to the "porkchops" a monopoly of
leadership of the black nationalist move-
ment, and the masses of black workers,
students, women and unemployed who sup-
port it. It is by waging "class-struggle"
within the black nationalist movement, by
projecting a consistent program for mass!
nationalist action, by demanding that black
people build organizations financed by
black people, controlled by black people,
which will fight for freedom from all of
the institutions of this system for our peo-
ple by any means necessary, can black
Marxist-Leninists hope to win the leader-
ship of the masses of our community from
the "porkchops."
The most important organization within
the black liberation struggle attempting to
deal with the question of the relationship
between black nationalism and Marxism in
recent years has been the Black Panther
Party. Unfortunately as Cleaver has poin-
ted out, the Panthers failed to understand
THE BLACK SCHOLAR SEPTEMBER, 1972
 the consistency of the two political strate-
gies.
This idea that becoming black Marxist-
Leninists negates black nationalism en-
couraged the Panthers to retreat from the
black nationalist principles that they had
been founded on, and from the means that
could have enabled them to mobilize and
involve masses of black people. Failure to
understand the importance of black na-
tionalism was one of the main reasons, in
my opinion, for the demise and subsequent
splits in the Black Panther Party.
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As HAS BEEN pointed out by Robert
Allen in his Black Awakening in Capitalist
America, the ten point program which the
Panthers originally adopted could have
been the key to a massive movement raising
demands for African-American control over
the lives of our people. Instead the Pan-
thers shunted these demands to the back-
ground, with the exception of their police
"decentralization" program. (Even in this
case, Bobby Seale, chairman of the party,
pointed out that it was "decentralization,
not black community control," at the 1969
United Front Against Fascism Conference
in Oakland. )
The Panthers were afflicted with one
of the maladies that seem to strike many
black would-be "Marxist-Leninists"-using
pseudo-Marxist rhetoric to substitute for
the development of a real revolutionary
program for our struggle. Incomprehen-
sible rhetoric about "dialectics," "inter-
communalism," "the popular front," "Kim
II Sung," etc. hindered their abilities to
voice the demands and concerns of the
black community. They forgot that Marx-
ism is based not on rhetoric, but on the
conviction that the everyday problems
faced by the masses of people can only be
solved by socialist revolution, and that the
duty of Marxist-Leninists is to mobilize
and organize the masses in struggles around
these questions. To do this you have to
be able to speak in terms the masses under-
stand, and pose serious solutions to the
problems they face.
THE BLACK SCHOLAR SEPTEMBER, 1972
In attempts to fight "cultural" pseudo-
nationalists like Ron Karenga, many Pan-
thers forsook any expression of black cul-
ture, beyond Emory Douglas' cartoons. In
many areas they opposed the black student
movement and the struggle for black stu-
dies, as cultural nationalism. They were
forgetting the important role in main-
taining capitalism that the ideological dom-
ination of the masses plays, especially how
that is exercised through capitalist control
of the culture.
The real meaning of Karengaism could
have been clarified if he and others of his
kind were identified not so much as "cul-
tural nationalists," but on a political basis.
Then we would have to call them political
and economic collaborationists and "assimi-
lationists" with the capitalist system and
political and economic institutions that
are bent on throttling real African and
African-American culture.
What excited many brothers and sisters
about the Black Panther Party was their
concept of a black political party. Malcolm
had called for our people to break off
from the Democrats and form our own
nationalist political party. The Panthers,
inspired by the Lowndes County (Ala-
bama) Freedom Party, seemed at the be-
ginning to have the potentiality for leading
the way to the all-black mass political
party many nationalists had been calling
for.
INSTEAD, the Panthers backed away from
this perspective. In the fall of 1968, when
the Panthers' popularity was at its peak,
the Panthers launched the national presi-
dential campaign of Eldridge Cleaver. This
campaign could have been used to call
together nationalists and other forces in
the black liberation struggle that wanted to
break our people away from the Demo-
cratic party and wage a political struggle
for the demands raised in the ten-point
program. Such a campaign could have had
a decisive effect on the struggle. We can
see the vitality that has swept through
the Chicano struggle due to their forma-
PAGE 51
 tion of independent Raza Unida parties,
and this suggests what such a campaign
could have done for our struggle.
Instead of running an independent na-
tionalist campaign, the BPP allied with the
middle-class Peace and Freedom Party that
countered the "liberal" capitalist politics of
the Democrats only with "radical" capital-
ist politics. If anything the Panthers' asso-
ciation with the Peace and Freedom Party,
diminished rather than increased their sup-
port within the African-American nation-
alist movement and in "the community."
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This policy has further deteriorated with
the Panthers' backhanded support to Ron
Dellums' congressional campaign in 1970,
and their more open support to the Ber-
keley and Oakland "Coalitions" of Demo-
cratic party liberals in the 1971 elections.
The Panthers' most serious error was
their underestimation of the importance of
reaching and organizing the masses of our
people. Rather than struggling for unity of
the masses of our people around a pro-
gram for mass nationalist action, it seems
that they attempted to substitute them-
selves as an armed vanguard for the power
of the whole black nation. This view is
still apparently held by the section of the
party loyal to Cleaver, while Newton's
faction has gone on a more openly refor-
mist course.
The view of terrorism and armed strug-
gle as strategies rather than tactics to be
used at specific stages of the struggle to
organize and mobilize the mass of our
people is completely contrary to every-
thing Marxism has to say on the subject.
The brutal suppression of the Panthers has
proven that no matter how well-prepared
your "technical equipment" is, the most im-
portant question is your relations with the
masses of our people. For Marxists, the
first rule of politics is: with the masses we
are everything, without them, nothing.
These errors isolated the Panthers from
the masses of African people in the U.S.
and from other sectors of the black liber-
ation movement. Black revolutionaries who
want to follow a course consistent with
PAGE 52
Marism and Leninism must not repeat
these errors.
THE MAIN STEPS we can take toward
building mass revolutionary-socialist con-
sciousness among our people must be to
apply the revolutionary nationalist strategy
developed by Malcolm X. Tiris strategy
combines the class demands of black peo-
ple fighting against capitalist exploitation
with the nationalist demands of our people
fighting for overall national liberation
Tiris strategy recognizes the primary task
facing our struggle is to break from any
dependence or support to the Democrats
and to organize a mass African-American
political party to direct our struggle on all
fronts. Such a revolutionary nationalist
strategy will play a decisive role in devel-
oping the type of black liberation move-
ment that can lead to the destruction of
U.S. imperialism.
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THE BLACK SCHOLAR SEPTEMBER, 1972