"Any time you throw your weight behind a political party that controls two-thirds of the government, and that party can't keep the promises that it made to you during election time, and you're dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify with that political party, you're not only a chump but you're a traitor to your race" Malcolm X in Detroit April 12, 1964
Why a black political party is a very puzzling idea to a lot of our so-called black leadership. It seems to be a very hard thing to do for some to leave the Democratic and Republican Party plantation. They like to continue to receive their paychecks from their political masters and also have you believe that they are serving us. Let me state why we need a black political party and hopefully they might see the light come on in their head. We need a black political party so we can have our own voting bloc and we can go to either party and cut deals that you will only receive our votes if we receive what we demand not ask but demand. When you have a voting bloc you are no longer asking or begging for things but demanding. You only have to look at what a few million Cuban people have done with their voting bloc that they give the Republican party in Florida. They control South Florida and have control of a policy that allows Cubans that touch United States soil to stay in this country.
Yet when a Haitian has reached the shores of the United States they are turned away and sent back to Haiti. This is a very racist policy that this country has, but without a powerful voting bloc it continues to allow ourselves to stay fragmented we will never have the power that the Cuban's have in South Florida and we out number them by sheer numbers and our representation in congress and other political offices around the country. You ask how can that be. Well we allow it to be by not being ORGANIZED and placing people into these offices that neither have the will to serve us nor the desire to serve us. The Cubans aren't the only small group of immigrants that came here and organized their voting bloc and demanded policies that help their communities. You can see it with the Chinese with their china towns, and you see it in any major city that has a section of town that another group of immigrant people control that section of city and the policies that concern them on a national level.
Let's define Leadership, leadership suggests to lead and that you have followers and others to follow you, you must be superior to them in the things that they must follow you for. I say this for that here in Black America we have church leaders, organization leaders, community leaders .business leaders, political leaders, but the question that I don't hear asked by the followers is " Oh leader where are you leading us" As a follower you mustn't assume that your leadership is leading you down the right path you must collectively know where you are going at all times. How I see black political leadership in the United States is that they lead us blindly and not having to answer to their followers at all. This must end, we must take the leadership role back and give it to the follower's and the leader act's and speaks for their followers according to what the followers want and demand from their representative and what most people assume is their leaders. So what a leader really is, is your representative that we allow to speak for the masses. In a corporation the CEO listens to the shareholders and does what the shareholders want or he's looking for another job. So let's look at our situation as if we're running a corporation.
Let's take a look at what African people are doing in other parts of the world. In the majority of African countries they have several political parties of their own. You can go to several countries in Africa and the people belong to a political party from the youth to the adults. The ANC party in South Africa which is in power today was even in existence during apartheid but was illegal under apartheid and would land you in prison for just belonging to the ANC. African American's who don't have to worry about going to prison will not create a political party of their own. Yet if the ANC hadn't been in existence after apartheid they wouldn't be in control of South Africa today. You have a political party so that people who feel the same way that you do morally are put into a position to represent you. Also so that when the opportunity arises that you are in a position to lead accordingly to the desires and wishes of the people. We can see this in the Caribbean as well after independence and colonialism the people who were organized by their political party were the one's who assumed power. Some people believe that you only have power when you are in control and that is wrong. You also have power when you're organized and your party can work in a coalition with the party in power. You might be small in numbers but your group numbers might be enough to place that other group in power and giving you some say in how power will be shared.
You now have people who I call the Talented Tenth pushing their belief of their Black Covenant with Black America. I asked them how can you have a covenant meaning a "formal or solemn binding agreement" with Black America without having as one of the main proposals of having our own political party, it runs contrary to having a covenant with each other. Their response back was that currently we have in place people who would lose seat's in congress, state and local governments that would no longer be in their positions if we started our own political party. This could be nothing further from the truth, for by having our own political party we insure that those people would continue to represent us. At this time in history in this country we need to have a evaluation on each and every person who is in some type of political office that got there by our votes. Let's see who is really representing and working for us and who is not. Also by starting another political party we can demand things that we're not getting from our representation now. Also it really empowers the people to say that. Hey we have a alternative to you and we plan to go with our alternative then with you. In the democratic and the Republican Party you're not even given the right to choose who is running on a slate of candidates.
Hillary Clinton was chosen to represent the Democratic Party in the state of New York without a election by the people of New York. The party officials didn't allow the people of New York to decide who would be senator by a primary election that no one else would run against her and that she would be their choice to run on the Democratic Party line. Now how democratic was that? Where was black leadership then? if we had our own political party we could of ran our own candidate in New York against Hillary and there would have been no way that she would be in the senate today if we didn't support her with our black votes. Also quite possibly we could of had another black person in the senate. let's not forget that Hillary at the time had only lived in the state of New York for less then a year. Yet the talented tenth don't see the bigger picture and want to be still be on the democratic and republican party plantation. Real Men and Women decide their own future and not let others to decide it for you.
We would be failing our children if we didn't take the time to organized to give them power in decisions that concern their future. Jesse Jackson had a political party but he looked at it as a coalition. If Jesse had organized the Rainbow Coalition into a political party we wouldn't have to choose between the democratic and republican party today as the only two alternatives. The Rainbow Coalition was such a factor that it gave him the power to give a speech at the democratic party convention on their biggest convention night, the choosing of the president night. His coalition also had several delegates that allowed him to decide policy on the democratic platform. What he did with that power we will never know because we never made Jesse accountable to us. Jesse used his delegates to get what the people who supported him wanted and not what the masses wanted. What this show's is that this can be done, for Jesse did it. What he failed to do is to make the Rainbow coalition into a political party. Imagine that the Black People Party someday having a opportunity to speak at either the democrat or republican party convention. You don't get that right unless you have delegates that would allow that party to say who the next president would be.
Black political parties give you as a community economic power on what districts will receive federal or state money for industry and commerce also on what types of businesses are allowed into our community. Also Black political parties would allow you to decide what judges, district attorneys, law enforcement agencies to represent you and to stop our people from going to prison for life for non violent crimes. Your political party also allows you to choose your school board and what and how our children are taught. How long teachers are tenured for and when they receive that tenure. What politics really decides is who get food, healthcare, jobs, education and what countries get aid and who's allowed into America and who's not.
When we decide to organize whether for establishing, a political party or anything else the most important thing is that we are organized. Also this is not to say that this should be the only Black political party, it shouldn't be. We are a diverse people and by our diversity we have diverse thoughts and opinions. So let others who feel differently with our views and platform go form their political party as they wish and that the Black People Party will be happy to work with other groups to the betterment of the masses. We will not be closed minded whereas we won't accept other views then our own. Also don't join into covenants that don't support the masses and given to us by people who don't take the time to find out what the masses truly want or desire.
A New Black Power
By Walter Mosley:Most black Americans have been Democrats for at least the fifty-three years that I've been alive. What have the Democrats done for us in all that time? We have the lowest average income of any large racial group in the nation. We're incarcerated at an alarmingly high rate. We are still segregated and profiled, and have a very low representation at the top echelons of the Democratic Party. We are the stalwarts, the bulwark, the Old Faithful of the Democrats, and yet they have not made our issues a high priority in a very long time.
Why should we be second-class members in the most important political activities of our lives? Why shouldn't the party we belong to think that our problems are the most important in this land?
I'm not saying that we should become Republicans. The Republicans don't care about us either. But at least they don't pretend to be on our side. And you have to admit that, of late, the Bush Administration has put black faces into high-profile jobs that carry clout on the international playing field. I don't have to like Colin Powell or Condoleezza Rice to appreciate that once a black person has been put into a position of power, the second time around is much, much easier.
We are a racial minority in a country where racism is a fact of life, a country that was founded on economic and imperialist racism. Taking this into account and adding it to the fact that our issues are regularly put on a back burner, I believe that it is not out of order to send out a call for the formation of an African-American interest group, or maybe a political unit, that would bring our issues, and others, to the forefront of American political discourse.
If we had our own political voting bloc that paid attention to issues that reflect our needs in domestic and international affairs, things would change for us. The first thing is that many more of us would be likely to vote. Imagine the interest young people would have if they felt we were organizing based on our own interests: They could work for a candidate who represented their issues; they could run for office themselves.
And even though the party would be based on the racial identity that has been shoved down our throats since the first days we came here in chains, we wouldn't work only for ourselves. We'd argue about medical care and Social Security and the good jobs that are disappearing from this nation like fleas off a dead dog's back.
America's corporations, CEOs and portfolio managers don't have to worry about the euro and the devaluation of the dollar. They belong to an international club. It doesn't matter where the most recent SUV is being produced; what matters is that my stockholders and I own a piece of the company that makes and sells those cars.
It takes many companies working in unison to make secure the wealth of American capitalism. Two of the major-interest corporations that facilitate the needs of our wealthiest citizens are the Republican and Democratic (so-called) political parties. They exonerate their actions with numbers of votes, but the wheels they run on are greased by money, and lots of it.
If we took the vote into our own hands, we wouldn't have to ask the Democrats for their support--we could demand it. George W. Bush, or whoever takes his place, will send for our representatives to come to his home to discuss his plans. This is because they have not yet figured out how to dispose of the vote in the American political system.
Imagine it. We could actually democratize America by taking power away from the two-party system and handing it over to the people. Other special parties would arise splintering off from the centrist attendants of the rich once we show them the way.
What I'm talking about here is the beginning of an American Evolution, a movement that will create a series of political interest groups that will transform our two-party system into a kind of virtual parliament. We could construct smaller political groups based on specific interests. There could be Black Party Congress members from Watts, Harlem, the Motor City and a dozen other inner-city bastions. All we have to do is have a fair representation in the House of Representatives to have an extraordinary impact on the wheels of government.
Farmers, women, the aged, angry young white men and, for that matter, true Republicans might create their own small parties/interest groups. These groups would not only have direct representation in the House of Representatives but would also begin to make deals with those people running for senator and President, police chief and mayor.
It's past the time when we black Americans can complain about how we are treated without ourselves trying to take the reins of power. A Black Voting Bloc would be a bold move. Some might say a radical move--too radical. But a country that incarcerates people of color at an eight-to-one ratio to whites played the race card way before Johnnie Cochran. If we could come together and see a way to put balance back in the American political landscape, then we should do it.
Why?
Because if we do not lead we will be led. And if those who have learned to despise, distrust and diminish us are the leaders, then our path will lead even farther away from our homes. We will wake up like strangers in our own beds. We, and our children, will be walking in uncomfortable shoes to poor jobs. We will be jeered on every corner, and every mirror we come across will distort our image.
Just so that it doesn't seem that I'm giving short shrift to this argument, let me try to explain why this kind of "political party" will be different from its interest-corporation counterparts. First, this kind of group will be a political unit more than a party. This unit should be patterned after interest groups that form around specific necessities of our particular community. As I've mentioned before, I would like to see many of these units evolve, but for the moment let me address the Black Voting Bloc.
What we need for this group is a short list of demands that define our political aspirations at any given point. These demands might change over time, but at any given moment we should have no more than eight expectations of the candidates or legislation we vote for. I am not positioning myself as the leader or even as a central designer of this group, but let me put forward a list of possible demands that our unit might embrace:
(1) A commitment to revamping the legal system and the penal system to make sure that citizens of color are getting proper treatment and that all inmates are given the utmost chance to rehabilitate and re-establish themselves in society. (This rehabilitation will include suffrage for all ex-convicts who have served their sentences.)
(2) An expectation that there be equal distribution of all public wealth and services among the citizens, no matter their income, race or history.
(3) A demand that a true accounting for the impact of slavery be compiled by all government bodies in authority over records that give this information.
(4) A universal healthcare system.
(5) A retirement system that will assure older Americans the ability to spend their later years in relative comfort and security.
(6) A commitment to assemble a general history of our nation in both its glory and its shame.
(7)
(8)
I left 7 and 8 blank because I think you should fill these out. This is, after all, a communal effort meant to bring our intelligences together. And if you don't feel that you're an affiliate of the Black Voting Bloc, write your own demands and see what kind of group you might attract. I believe that any group concerned with the rights of Americans will have at least half of these demands in common.
One last comment on the idealistic part of this notion:
All black people don't have to join right off. If we can put together just 10 percent of the voting black population, we will be wielding a great deal of power. Others will join us if our political strategy works. In time we might tip the scales against the rich and the ultra-rich. If we do that we might very well make this a better world.
I know many of you will say that we don't have the time to allow the United States to evolve politically. Like many Americans, you believe that our nation faces urgent problems that must be solved by the next election; and the elections after that. My answer is, That is just what they want you to think. Our so-called political parties want you to believe that only they can save you when, really, they have no intention of doing so. The Democrats, the Republicans--they're in business for themselves in this vast religion of capitalism. They will never solve Americans' problems, not fully. We have to strive against the system, change it, make it reflect our inexpert visions of right and good. As long as you vote Democratic, as long as you vote Republican, you will be assuring that true democracy has no chance to exist. As long as we believe in the fearmongers' light show, the world will suffer under our misguided convictions.
There's no question that a Black Voting Bloc would be a fine context for us and for people of the black diaspora around the world. It would be a forum that would express perceptions from the underbelly of the American experience. That experience, I believe, would find resonance on an international scale and help to bring our maverick nation into concert with certain other countries that would like to get along with us.
But how do we get our people to feel strongly about political unity? What in our experience will bring us together? Should we turn to a charismatic leader to guide us safely through the minefield of fanaticism? I've been told so many times that the problem in this world is that so-and-so died too young. A couple of years ago I heard another public figure say that it was because Robert Kennedy died that American liberalism lost its way. What might Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X have achieved if assassins' bullets had not cut them down in their prime?
If only we had leaders now like we did back then, so many lament. It's hard for me to write these words without a hint of sarcasm. Nostalgia belongs in the retirement home. Any organization, movement or people who rely solely (or even greatly) on a charismatic leader for their strength and their motivation are in the most precarious position possible.
"Cut off the head and the body will fall," their enemies murmur. This is a way to let those enemies dissolve your context. Just put all your belief in one leader, and sooner or later you will be lost.
Some might say that I should end this section with those words. This may be true, but I think they open the door to other considerations. We do need leadership. We have to have people who will make decisions and blaze trails; people who will stand up to warmongers and moneylenders; people who might create context, illuminate the darkness with an electronic billboard; people who could organize our vote.
I could spend a lot of time and space here criticizing our current leaders. But what would be the purpose? These leaders, no matter how much they have lost their way, are not our enemies. If I follow a man or woman who is leading me astray, then I have to accept my own culpability and blindness.
"Didn't you see the millions dying in Africa while your leaders argued about the references and jokes in the movie Barbershop?" someone in a later year may ask. And how will we answer? If we don't lie we might say, "I knew what was happening, but I didn't know how to act. I felt powerless and helpless and so I did nothing."
The truth hurts. We all know that. But if we can see that we need leadership and that we don't have the leadership we need, then we might begin to question why. I believe a vacuum in our leadership has been caused by a natural conservatism in the black community that echoes the smug confidence of America in general. This conservatism harbors a deep dread of our young people.
This problem has to be approached by using a two-tiered process. First, we (the elders) have to realize how we exclude young people from taking leadership roles in our community. Why do we celebrate the blues but denigrate hip-hop? Why don't we distinguish between the major thinkers among our youth and the thugs? What are the young people telling us when they talk about bitches and ho's, motherfuckers and niggahs and bling? These are questions we shouldn't gloss over. We bear the responsibility for the lost generations of our people. Even if we see their actions as self-defeating and self-hating, we have to take responsibility for having allowed this situation to occur.
On the other hand, why do we get so upset when young men and women of African descent also want to identify with their other racial sides? Are we afraid that they're trying to abandon us? Do we want to hold them back so that they don't have a broader and more sophisticated view of their identities? Don't we know that this is their world and it is our job to support them while they gain a solid footing?
These are only the first few questions we should ask, and answer. And as we respond we should edit out all cynicism and derogatory notions from our voices and words. These young people are our only hope. We have to liberate them where we can, decriminalize them when necessary, detoxify them if possible--but most important we have to hear what they're telling us and make way for their leadership.
And to the youth I say, You have to take the reins. You have to realize that many members of the older generation have gotten what they wanted out of the Struggle. They aren't worried about the problems of America's urban youth; at least not enough to, once again, charge the ramparts and put what they have on the line. Revolutions (both violent and nonviolent) are manned by the young. Older people have retirement accounts and diseases to support, weak constitutions and a justified fear of imprisonment. We have fallen to the rear of the column. You, the urban youth of America, must lead us.
If you, the youth, do not forgive us for fumbling, our race will be very far behind in the twenty-first century. And if we lose, the world suffers because most of America is on the wrong road already.
America has carried the notion of property and power to such an intensely negative degree that we have very little room left for humanity and art in our hearts. We work long hours, eat bad food, close our eyes to the atrocities committed in our name and spend almost everything we make on the drugs that keep us from succumbing to the emptiness of our spiritual lives. We gobble down antidepressants, sleeping pills, martinis, sitcoms and pornography in a desperate attempt to keep balance in this soulless limbo.
In a world where poetry is a contest at best and a competition at worst, where the importance of a painting is gauged by the price it can be sold for--we are to be counted among the lost. And so when I say that we need leaders and that those leaders must come from our youth, it is no idle statement. We need our young people because without their dreams to guide us we will have only cable TV and grain alcohol for succor.
"When you tell this blackman in America who he is, where he came from, what he had when he was there, he'll look around and ask himself, "Well, what happened to it, who took it away from us and how did they do it?" Why, brothers, you'll have some action just like that. When you let the blackman in America know...that knowledge in itself will usher in your action program. And it will be BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY." Malcolm X
