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Books by Amiri
Baraka
Tales of the Out &
the Gone
/
The Essence of Reparations /
Somebody Blew Up
America & Other Poems
/
Blues People
Autobiography
of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka /
Selected Poetry of
Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones
/
Black Music
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Obama '08—Act Like We Know
By Amiri Baraka
The anti-Obama
claptrap from Black people is most times Negro trickery,
either they are with Bill 2(Hillary)—I read there’s even
a Negro for Biden—or else like the anarchist-minded
folks who come on the Super Left, they are so militant
they opt for passivity & content themselves with merely
calling their perceived enemies names. The mask of the
foolish juvenile delinquent left who sees no progress in
doing anything but name calling.
That’s how you got rid of David Dinkins, he was too
conservative, so you hooted and hollered until you got a
real militant, Adolph Giuliani & here we are today w/ yr
boy the billionaire mayor whose nose opens wider each
day at the sight of Obama running. Like Rock & Roll, it
needs our inspiration!
But it has got to be clear that the less we do, the less
we can expect Obama to respond to us. It is the
fundamental reaction of most politicians that they
respond to the sharpest presence, although we shd know
that under the capitalist election shenanigans, it is
always money that speaks loudest, which is why one of
our constant calls in trying to transform the U.S.
political culture, is that we demand all private monies
be eliminated from elections.
In fact the first
of our ongoing political tasks is to relentlessly call
for the transformation of the U.S. Political culture!
The elimination of the Electoral College, One Person,
One vote, to eliminate the anti-democratic
Winner-take-all system. The abolition of the Senate to
be replaced by a single (unicameral) House of
Representatives. Restoration of voting rights to ex
felons. Elections of a single day, direct democracy, i.e.,
voting at the workplace, school & compulsory voting? If
taxation is compulsory, voting shd be too.
But those are a few of the tasks to be taken up by an
energized Black population and in alliance with a Left
Block of the broadest population no matter what happens
ultimately to Obama. Yet it is the most obvious
infantile left-anarchist error that haunts our movement,
to constantly be talking about Revolution and not even
participate in one of the most obvious ways of seizing
some power.
I have heard seriously flawed arguments that Obama is
not “Black enough”! You better be checking out his
politics not his melanin. Though w/ an African father
and very Black grandmother, he is probably closer to the
Mother land than most of us straight out Black
Americans, for whom our direct connection with Africa
was over by the 19th century.
Plus, is Hillary or Edwards blacker? Despite some
deluded Bloods I know who called Bill Clinton “the lst
Black president,” is that why he passed that crime bill,
wasted welfare & established states’ right on many
social programs?
We are the people of the double consciousness, both
Black & American, but if we understand Du Bois’ equation
properly we shd know that means that we struggle for
equal Citizenship rights as well as Self Determination!
To support Obama is to grasp both ends of that double
consciousness, aware of the contradiction but also the
dialectic that makes that social twoness of use to us.
But we must understand that we are now at a stage of
struggle for a People’s Democracy, a Revolutionary
Democracy, where our maximum accomplishment at this
stage of struggle wd be a United Front Government, based
on an alliance of multinational workers, the progressive
petty bourgeoisie, farmers, all democratic forces and
even with the shaky national bourgeoisie. Such an
accomplishment wd still be a transitional stage, but an
incrementally closer step toward socialism.
National oppression, racism, the oppression of women and
gays will never cease until monopoly capitalism is put
under control and then depowered and then eliminated.
But we cannot airbrush or dismiss as unnecessary all
those stages that will one day enable us to do that.
The mass support of Obama by the national Afro American
movement, especially its progressive sector, will
reinvigorate our struggle. We cannot merely stand on the
side lines and be chumped-off, mumbling as one
super-militant sister in DC recently read in a poem
putting down Hillary & Obama & ending “Only the white
man will win.” A White racist cd’ve said that! Is that
all we’re good for now?
The Republican Right has co-opted the Negro as a bow to
the civil rights movement. Slicker than the Democrats,
Condoleeza, Tom Ass and The Colon have been energized
like that battery operated rabbit to delude the lowest
of us here & around the world. That somehow that
represents real democracy. We must enter into that
mainstream struggle & make our own demands, utilize the
pressure of our needs & our numbers. We are almost 50
million people with the 16th GNP in the world . . . almost
600 Billion dollars a year. We have the muscle and the
money We need to make our move.
A massive Afro American presence around Obama’s campaign
shd be utilized by us not only to renew the Afro
American struggle, but also as a method of recreating
the reality of a national Afro American political
assembly, democratically elected from all 50 states,
able to support our friends, oppose our enemies in
whatever way we see fit!
With such a presence we cd have stopped the Bush seizure
of power in Florida & so prevented the Ohio recurrence.
The Black American must have a self-determined power
base and the ignition spark can be brought into focus
and perhaps one ignition spark can be supplied by our
consolidating a correct relationship to the Obama
campaign. No matter what America does in the nomination
or election!
Source:
Seeing Black
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Pray the Devil Back to Hell
A film directed by Gini
Reticker
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
is a captivating new film by director Gini Reticker.
It exposes a different story angle for the largely
forgotten recent events of the women of Liberia
uniting to bring the end to their nation's civil
war. This film is amazing in the way it captivates
your attention from the earliest frames. It doesn't
shy away from showing footage of the violent events
that took place during the Liberian civil war. But
the main story of the film is that of
Leymah Gbowee
and the other women uniting, despite their religious
differences, to force action on the stalled peace
talks in their country. Using entirely nonviolent
methods, not only are the peace talks successful,
but Charles Taylor, the president of Liberia, is
forced into exile leading to the first election of a
female head of state in Africa. The women of this
film are truly an inspiration and no one can fail to
be moved by the message of hope that comes through
clearly in this film. These are heroes that deserve
to be remembered and with Pray the Devil we are able
to do that, gaining both a knowledge of the history
we are ignorant of through archival footage and an
understanding of the leaders of this movement
through close-up interviews with the many women who
lead it. The film also offers a great soundtrack &
inspirational song- "Djoyigbe" by Angelique Kidjo &
Blake Leyh.—Amazon
Reviewer |
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Mighty Be Our Powers
How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War
By Leymah Gbowee
As a young woman, Leymah Gbowee was broken by the Liberian civil war, a brutal conflict that tore apart her life and claimed the lives of countless relatives and friends. Years of fighting destroyed her country—and shattered Gbowee’s girlhood hopes and dreams. As a young mother trapped in a nightmare of domestic abuse, she found the courage to turn her bitterness into action, propelled by her realization that it is women who suffer most during conflicts—and that the power of women working together can create an unstoppable force. In 2003, the passionate and charismatic Gbowee helped organize and then led the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, a coalition of Christian and Muslim women who sat in public protest, confronting Liberia’s ruthless president and rebel warlords, and even held a sex strike. With an army of women, Gbowee helped lead her nation to peace—in the process emerging as an international leader who changed history. Mighty Be Our Powers is the gripping chronicle of a journey from hopelessness to empowerment that will touch all who dream of a better world.—Beast Books / Pray the Devil Back to Hell |
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posted 23 February
2008 / updated 23 February 2008
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