The age of classical colonialism in Africa changed the course of history. Exploited trade agreements and pseudo alliances between African nobility and European merchants led to heightened warfare, looting, and genocide across the continent. No mineral or raw material was safe, from gold to palm oil to diamonds. The transatlantic slave trade emptied the continent of capable hands, bodies, and minds to the tune of 12 million Africans. The developing European capitalist class burned their way across Africa from all sides, exploiting every contradiction and weakness they could find. Then came the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, which was an exercise in . . .
revolutionary socialism
On Neo-colonialism
(Excepted from the book, “WAR: The Blood in Our Eyes” by Rafiki Morris) The enemy, who we seek to defeat, must be named precisely. Especially since, at this time in history, the enemy is the most sophisticated system of human exploitation that ever existed. The enemy is capitalism and imperialism. We are told that people don’t understand this capitalism and imperialism, that dominates their lives. But nobody knows capitalism better than those who are exploited and dehumanized by it. The people know and understand the enemy, even when they cannot call them by name. What we must do is to . . .
Lessons from the Pan-African Community Garden
Last summer the Southwest chapter of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party started the Pan-African Community Garden with the help of comrades, relatives, neighbors, and social justice organizations in Tiwa territory (Albuquerque, New Mexico). We did this without non-profit status, corporate sponsorship, grant funding, or financial backing of any kind – spending very little out of pocket when it came to the construction and maintenance of the garden. We also did this without any formal experience as a chapter undertaking such a project – meaning we had never built something like this together before. And yet in just a bit . . .
Only Socialism Will Save Our Planet
Two important characteristics of socialism point to why it is the only process that will avert the march to environmental and human destruction that we are currently on. First, socialism is a system where people contribute based on their ability and receive based on their labor. Second, socialism eliminates the type of private ownership that allows individuals to own and control massive amounts of wealth. The first characteristic means that people across the planet will stop engaging in the crass consumerism that is particularly rampant in the most developed countries and amongst the most privileged in less developed countries. Today, . . .
The Role of Women in the Revolution
An essay by Josina Machel of FRELIMO, the Mozambique national liberation organization. It was in October 1966, in a meeting of the Central Committee, that FRELIMO decided that the Mozambican woman should take a more active part in the struggle for national liberation, at all levels. It was decided that she should receive political and military training in order to make her more capable of fulfilling whatever tasks the revolution might demand of her. Thus, a few months later, in the beginning of 1967, the first group of women from Cabo Delgado and Niassa began their training. At first this . . .
Women in the Zimbabwean Revolution
A speech by Naomi Nhiwatiwa of ZANU-PF given in Los Angeles, CA in July 1979 It is a very strange feeling to be a delegate from the United States of America. I was a ZANU delegate from the United States of America, therefore I carried the burden of the United States and I had to explain myself many times. I had to explain what is happening in the US and why. I told them that there were progressive people in the US who are sympathetic to our cause even though it appears that the majority of Americans seem to be supporting . . .
Misogyny and Homophobia in Kenyan Leftist Spaces
The rallying cry you will hear at almost every leftist gathering in Kenya is “Liberation for the masses! End all forms of oppression!” Often, it is men who send out this noble clarion call for emancipation from the shackles of capitalism and all the ills it represents. But, whose liberation is it anyway? What oppression are we ending when many leftist movements in Kenya harbor persons who hold on to harmful patriarchal attitudes like misogyny and homophobia? . . .
African Nationalism is not European Nationalism. Stop Projecting.
Everyday, everywhere on Earth, some European is coming into spaces with African people (or Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere) to express their perspective that nationalism is a primitive form of human consciousness. Even most of these people who claim to support national liberation for colonized people still see any semblance of national identity as reactionary and contrary to forward human progress. We have the European socialist left to primarily thank for this racism disguised as class analysis. How and why do we call nationalism racist? Mostly because the basis of this inept analysis is that the history of Europe . . .