Harry HaywoodIt was recently brought to my attention that African American Communist Harry Haywood's important 1948 book Negro Liberation has recently been made available online in full as a PDF by the kind folk(s) at Marx2Mao.

You can access the PDF at this link.

In addition, two other texts on the Black national question in the U.S. are now available as PDFs on Marx2Mao:

James Allen's Negro Liberation (1938) pdf - This is an abbreviated version of Allen's much longer 1936 text entitled The Negro Question in the United States. The PDF for The Negro Question in the United States (1936, pdf) is also now available at Marx2Mao.

Today, June 19th, is celebrated by people in Texas and around the U.S. as Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day or Liberation Day. What is Juneteenth? Many people don't know.

From the Juneteenth website:

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond. Today Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. It is a day, a week, and in some areas a month marked with celebrations, guest speakers, picnics and family gatherings. It is a time for reflection and rejoicing. It is a time for assessment, self-improvement and for planning the future. Its growing popularity signifies a level of maturity and dignity in America long over due. In cities across the country, people of all races, nationalities and religions are joining hands to truthfully acknowledge a period in our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today.

Click here to keep reading the rest of the post...

Part of the Left Spot site is a special collections of a somewhat random (but important and growing!) assortment of documents of interest to revolutionaries, communists, and historians of the left. There are a few recent additions to the special collections I'd like to make note of.

There are two new small (but good!) archives for Marxist-Leninist groups from the New Communist Movement period in the 1970s-80s.

One is an archive of documents from the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L). The LRS is one of the most important and formidable multinational communist organization formed in this period. It is a shame that more of their materials are not online. I'm hoping to add more over time.

The other is an archive of documents from the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters. The RWH was formed in 1978 out of a split from the Revolutionary Communist Party. In 1985 the RWH merged with other groups to form Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Polemics on the Black National Question

First I'd like to call attention to two recently added documents. One is a pamphlet written by the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters in 1981, Build the Black Liberation Movement.

This is a pamphlet dated June 1981, putting forward the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters line on the Black national question in the U.S. The pamphlet starts out with a polemic against the RCP's line on the Black national question, then stakes out the RWH's own position. This pamphlet represents a serious attempt to break with the RCP's line and practice on the national question, which did serious damage to attempts to build multinational communist unity in the 1970s.

But not everyone felt that the RWH had gone far enough in breaking with the RCP's line on the Black national question. In December 1981, a polemical response was written to the RWH pamphlet by Amiri Baraka of the League for Revolutionary Struggle (M-L). Baraka's pamphlet RWH on the Black Liberation Movement: Wrong Again! is a sharp rebuke of the RWH line from one of the most important Black revolutionaries of the 20th century.

Along with Baraka's polemic with the RWH, there is another document by Baraka published by the LRS, Nationalism, Self-Determination and Socialist Revolution that is now available on Left Spot. It was originally published in 1982.

Early Polemics With the RCP

Over the last couple years, a number of people have left the RCP and put out public critiques. The Single Spark website, and the Kasama Project website have engaged in polemics with various aspects of the RCP's line and practice. Reading these emerging discussions, it is interesting to look back at the first major split in the RCP in the late 1970s, and particularly at the polemics written by the group that left the RCP, the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters. I have re-read some of the RWH's main polemics recently and have made some of the key ones available on Left Spot. More will come later. Many of the main criticisms coming from Single Spark and Kasama have echoes going back to points made by the RWH comrades in the late 1970s. Of course the new polemics raise other issues too that have come up in the years since then, and also put forward some views that are quite different than the RWH on some key questions.

You can find some of the key RWH polemics on the split in the RCP in Red Papers 8, published by the RWH after the split.

Particularly, Appendix B - On the Class Struggle in the U.S. is a series of polemical documents that make a number of sharp points. So Left Spot now has most of those documents available (with descriptions included here from the original text):

THE FUSION OF THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT WITH THE WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT

This section discusses the tasks of US Marxist—Leninists in this period and the retreat by the RCP from the battleground of class struggle against the bourgeoisie to the sidelines of “socialist purity” and “left” idealism.

THE FOUNDING CONGRESS OF THE RCP

This section reviews several of the key line struggles around which unity was reached prior to the founding of the RCP, and their repudiation by the RCP today.

JULY 4, 1976 "BATTLE OF THE BICENTENNIAL"

A discussion of the main campaign of the RCP in 1976, a nationwide political campaign against the plans of the ruling class to focus their Bicentennial activities in Philadelphia on July 4, around a call for national unity and celebration of their rule.

CAMPAIGN TO BUILD A NATIONAL UNITED WORKERS ORGANIZATION

A discussion of the focus of the RCP's work in 1977 among the working class, a campaign to form a nation—wide workers organization, a campaign that largely failed and pointed to the beginning consolidation of a "left" idealist line in the RCP.

"THEORY IN ITS OWN RIGHT" IS OPPORTUNISM IN ITS OWN RIGHT

This section covers the distortion of the relationship between theory and practice that characterizes Bob Avakian's leadership in the RCP. The effect of this "left" idealist line on the work in the US is clear. The task of Marxist-Leninists is to reject such an idealist orientation as it applies to the analysis of conditions in the US today. This is crucial for Marxist-Leninists to be able to serve our class on all three fronts of class struggle—-ideological, political, and economic, Our task is to know the world in order to change it in common battle with the broad masses of people.

RWH on the Black Liberation Movement: Wrong Again!

By Amiri Baraka

Also including a commentary
"Notes on Baraka's 'RWH on the BLM: Wrong Again' From a White Communist" By Jim Woods

Response by the U.S. League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L) to "Build the Black Liberation Movement," by the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters (M-L).

$1.00

Contents

Introduction
List of readings by the LRS on the Afro-American question ii
RWH on the Black Liberation Movement: Wrong Again By Amiri Baraka 1

Revolutionary Workers Headquarters Pamphlet:
Build the Black Liberation Movement
June 1981

[obsolete contact information:]
Available from:
Pole Publications, Box 5597 Chicago, Ill. 60680
Under 5 copies
$2.50 plus $.50 postage each 5 or more copies: $2.00 plus $.20 postage

Preface . . . Page 1
Introduction: Two Great Revolutionary Movements . . . Page 3
Basic Theory on the National Question . . . Page 5
Against the RCP . . . Page 7
Three Key Points in the History of the Black Nation . . .Page 22
Classes in the Black Nation . . . Page 36

This isn't a movie review, because I haven't yet seen The Great Debaters.

But some friends who have seen it recommend it highly. Check out the People's Weekly World review and the Socialist Worker review. Comparing the two reviews, I find the Socialist Worker review to be much better, so if you only read one that's the one to read.

I encourage any readers who have seen the movie to post your thoughts in the comments here. After I see it I'll chime in too.

In 1971, a documentary was released titled The Murder of Fred Hampton. A reviewer on the Internet Movie Database wrote this review of it:

Fred Hampton, founder of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was assassinated by a special unit of the Chicago Police Department on December 4th, 1969 as he lay face down in bed. He was 21 years old when he was murdered. The police fired 99 unanswered shots into his apartment, wounding Fred as he slept. Apparently drugged by an informant, Hampton was unable to awaken. After the raid the police put two more shots into Hampton's head and said "Now he's good and dead."

This film follows the last year or so of Fred's life and the investigation immediately following his murder.

The first part of the film shows Fred speaking and organizing and provides a brief glimpse into the Panther community programs such as free breakfasts for school children, as well as a fairly good portrayal of Hampton's dynamic speaking abilities, vast depth of knowledge for someone so young, and his passion for the revolutionary struggle of all oppressed people worldwide regardless of race.

The remainder of the film focuses on Fred's murder including footage of the crime scene. The attacking police unit was so secret that the local precinct was not notified to clean things up after the bodies were removed. As a result the Panthers and their attorneys filmed and collected a vast amount of evidence which proved the police and states' attorneys were lying. The police and government arguments are given, interspersed with contradictory proof by the Panthers and their attorneys proving that this was not a raid gone sour, but rather a carefully planned assassination. The photo of the police smiling joyously as they carry Hampton's body out of the apartment is ominous.

This film was made right after Fred Hampton was murdered, and before the Panthers were aware that one of their own - William O'Neal - was actually an FBI informant who provided the police with the map of Fred Hampton's apartment. It was also filmed years before the information about the FBI's COINTELPRO campaign was made public. It is a great piece of history which gives a rare fair treatment to the Black Panther Party.

YouTube has the video in four pieces. Here is the first piece:

From there you can click the links to the other three pieces of the video.

Fred HamptonOn December 4, 1969, Chicago Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton was assassinated as part of the U.S. government's campaign to neutralize the Black Panthers' growing revolutionary influence. Hampton was one of the most dynamic and politically on-point leaders in the Black Panther Party. His death was a huge loss to the BPP, to the Black Liberation Movement, the communist movement and to the revolutionary movement overall in the U.S. Since December 4 is approaching, I'd like to propose that bloggers who are interested should take that day to write and post something inspired by the legacy of Fred Hampton.

It could be something about the politics and legacy of the Black Panther Party; something about Fred Hampton specifically; something about the history or the current state of the Black Liberation Movement or the revolutionary movement in the U.S. in general; Something about how the Black Panthers tried to apply Marxist-Leninist or Maoist politics to the conditions in the U.S. and take out revolutionary politics around mass issues in a way the masses would understand and embrace, etc. Or just make up your own topic.

Almost a year ago (seemingly eons ago in internet-time) way back in January 2007, there was an interesting attempt to have a Blog Against White Supremacy Day on Martin Luther King Day. About 12 or 13 leftist bloggers participated in that and some good and interesting things were written.

I've always been frustrated that Fred Hampton is not better known and that the date of his assassination isn't more widely recognized or commemorated. I don't anticipate that there will be tons of participants in this blogging day, but if even just a few people write something, I think it will be a successful contribution toward the popularizing of Fred Hampton and his outstanding revolutionary spirit.

If you plan to participate, leave a comment here to let folks know.

September 2007 statement from Freedom Road Socialist Organization about the Jena 6.

This is a document on the African American National Question which was published by the Revolutionary Communist League, a U.S. communist group which merged into the League of Revolutionary Struggle (ML) in the early 1980s. Read more...