Archives for May 2021
PANAFU-SL Statement on African Liberation Day
PAN-AFRICAN UNION (PANAFU-SL)
LIBERATION, UNIFICATION AND DEVELOPMENT
STATEMENT ON AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY (ALD) – MAY 25
On the occasion of the African Liberation Day – 25 May 2021, the Pan-African Union of Sierra Leone (PANAFU-SL) wishes to extend solidarity and to ally with all Pan-Africanist forces worldwide commemorating this historic occasion born out of the desire to fulfil the onward liberation cause of all Africans at home and in the diaspora as well as for humanity.
The 5th Pan-African Congress in Manchester, 1945 adopted Revolutionary Pan-Africanism and Scientific Socialism as political and economic ideology and sloganized ‘Positive Action’, which invigorated African leaders like Kwame Nkrumah to achieve the first independence in Africa, Ghana 1957. On 15 April 1958, Nkrumah organised the first Congress of independent African States convened in Accra, and found African Freedom Day, later renamed African Liberation Day in 1963 and the date was changed to May 25 as an institution set aside “to mark each year the onward progress of the liberation movement, and to symbolise the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation.” On this very day 25 May 1963, the OAU (now AU) was also established but which has been converted to leadership club with neglect for its historic significance and now in alliance with former colonial forces to continue to rob Africa of its immense riches plunging the continent into awful misery and dependence.
However, as we continue to fulfil the onward task of our proud ancestors, we carry on ALD as a permanent institution for ideological training and constant organisation to inspire the masses into higher heights for revolutionary action, led by the working class, students and youths, prioritising the liberation of women who form more than 51% of society.
Since 1981, PANAFU has been commemorating ALD with constant organisation and political education on the significance of this revolutionary institution and has adopted this year’s theme as: UNITY AND ORGANISATION: THE WAY FORWARD FOR AFRICAN LIBERATION.
Revolutionary Pan Africanism condemns the act of imperialism in exterminating true African leaders like the recent assassination of John Magufuli in Tanzania because of his opposition to capitalism and for uplifting the Tanzanian citizens.
In our solidarity with all oppressed people worldwide, we are strongly opposed to the West-backed Israeli massacre of Palestinian people, without peaceful home since 1948.
We strongly denounce neo-liberal corrupt regimes in Africa including Sierra Leone where 60 years of so-called independence has had insignificant development in the livelihood of our people. Instead, we have over the years witnessed tribalism, regionalism and mass corruption.
In our determination to continue the liberation cause of ALD as an institution to combat the enemy against the African masses, PANAFU recognises the effort of all struggling forces at home and abroad as we rally for the formation of mass coalition nationally and internationally to defeat the enemy and establish a Revolutionary Pan-Africanist Socialist State to stop the oppression and exploitation of our people by capitalism and its agents.
EVER LIVE REVOLUTIONARY PAN AFRICANISM TO DEFEND THE OPPRESSED MASSES!
AFRICANS (WORKERS, YOUTHS, STUDENTS) UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!
Join PANAFU commemorates ALD, 125 Regent Road, Freetown, Saturday 29 May 2021, 3pm.
Contacts: +232 76 473585 / 77 500649 / 30 635873
African Liberation Day 2021 Tabloid
These are hard times for Africans. We are a people who have been dispersed to all corners of the world where we have been enslaved and oppressed for centuries and where we now cope with the continuing horrors of a pandemic, police terrorism, theft of natural resources, widespread poverty and illness, racial discrimination, inadequate education and much more. In every corner of the African World, our people experience isolation and a growing sense that a united effort to end our misery is more a dream than a realistic possibility.
African Liberation Day is the one day during each year when African people throughout the world stand united in their commitment to liberation. This year we want to use this special day to dedicate ourselves to sustaining that level of world-wide unity every day of every year. It’s not an easy job. By participating in the 2021 commemoration of African Liberation Day, you are striking a blow against the enemies of oppressed people everywhere by fighting for unity.
Unity is not totally absent from our struggles. For example, in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, Africans throughout the world have been united in action against police terrorism. Many thousands have participated in street manifestations and militant uprisings. However, among the ranks of these demonstrators, the individuals have countless ideas about their objectives, and why they are engaged in these actions. For example, in any demonstration against police terrorism, you will find some who march to defund the police, and others who want only for police forces to hire more Africans. Some want civilian control of police. Others want police abolished altogether. They are united in their actions, but they are not united in thought.
This unity in action and disunity in thought is nothing new. Even during Africa’s colonial era, there were members of Africa’s bourgeoisie who united in nationalist action with workers and peasants to purge the continent of European colonizers. However, they were not united in thought with respect to what should happen in Africa after the colonizers were chased out. The supposed “unity” lasted only long enough for the bourgeoisie to take the place of European colonizers as new African bosses, and without any concerns about the workers and peasants who shed their blood for independence.
We will be free only when we are united in both thought and action. As Kwame Nkrumah observed: “Unity presupposes organization.” We will achieve world-wide Pan-African unity of thought and action when we achieve world-wide Pan-African organization. That’s what the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party fights to achieve every day of every year. Organization for the sake of organization is insufficient. Organization to achieve unity of thought and action will liberate Africa and Africans. An organization that strives to achieve unity of thought and action needs a clear objective and an ideology to focus and guide it. The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party has both.
The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) has made its annual African Liberation Day Tabloid available in advance of their International ALD Webcasts happening on the May 23rd and May 25th 2021. In this edition, which can be viewed in its entirety HERE, the following stories are included:
The A-APRP’s Objective and Ideology Were Created by and for Africans
Pan-Africanism Won’t Fall Into Our Laps – We Must Fight!
What’s So Frightening About Revolution?
World-Wide Pan-African Unity Holds the Key to the Defeat of Imperialism
World-Wide Pan-African Unity will Lead to the Liberation of the Sahrawi
Africa Needs Unity Now — Time is Running Out, It’s a Choice Between Life and Death contributed by the Zimbabwe Movement of Pan African Socialists (ZIMPAS)
The A-APRP’s Objective and Ideology Were Created by and for Africans
Our Objective is Pan-Africanism
Our Party provides African people organizing globally a vehicle for the achievement of one primary objective – Pan-Africanism, which is: the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism.
There are many other objectives our organization might have that could focus on our local circumstances and that could facilitate our integration into existing systems and institutions. But our liberation requires more than positions in local government, or ownership of small businesses, or membership on corporate boards of directors, or even the support of well-meaning non-governmental organizations. Genuine African liberation requires power. Power does not mean money. Power does not mean fame. Power does not mean close association with those who have power. When Africans gain real power, Africa and Africa’s people worldwide will have the ability to determine and pursue their own destiny without anyone having the capacity to stop them. Fighting for Pan-Africanism is the time-tested strategy for achieving power. It is a strategy implemented by African people organizing globally to achieve one primary objective: the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. It will place within the hands of the masses of African people the wealth of the world’s most mineral rich continent, and a truly democratic government that will use it for their benefit and their protection.
Total Liberation
The total liberation of Africa is a critical element of Pan-Africanism. African countries may have African presidents, prime ministers and parliaments, but most of these countries are not under African control. Africa is largely controlled by western governments and foreign corporations. European countries understood back in the 19th Century that Africa possesses enormous natural resources of inestimable value. This one continent has gold, oil, coltan, chromium, bauxite, diamonds and numerous other valuable minerals. Imagine if these resources were in the hands of Africans. Imagine what Africa’s resources could do for Europe. By 1885, European countries had resolved to colonize and dominate African countries to gain full access to the continent’s wealth.
African resistance to colonialism was protracted and fierce. By the end of the 20th Century this resistance had succeeded in driving European governments out of Africa and leaving African countries nominally independent. However, this independence was illusory. Unwilling to surrender access to the valuable natural resources of Africa, imperialists devised a new form of colonialism that to all appearances was not colonialism at all. This new form of colonialism – or “neo-colonialism” relies heavily on the betrayal of Africa’s people by Africans who by one means or another control the reins of African governments.
Some of these African neo-colonial heads of state are vicious dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko of Congo, who during his tyrannical tenure stole much of the country’s treasury and had innumerable people killed. The U.S. and Western Europe turned a blind eye to his crimes for many years because he allowed foreign interests to steal and exploit Congo’s resources. There are still other African neo-colonial government officials who mean well, but they are constrained and directed by a well-organized system of imperialism (i.e., domination of African territory by non-African foreign forces). Even these well-meaning government officials are bound to carry out the agenda of their puppet-masters in the U.S. and Europe.
Imperialist control of Africa is by force. If an African leader attempts to steer an independent course even after experiencing threats and coercion, intelligence agencies of the western governments will engineer a coup, or in some cases an assassination. In other cases where an African leader not only attempts to act independently but establishes effective defenses to subversion, imperialists may resort to economic warfare. This happened in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s governing party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front, initiated a program for the return of land occupied by European settlers to Africans. In response, the U.S., England and other western countries commenced and maintained an economic embargo against Zimbabwe for many years that caused substantial economic decline and consequent social and political instability.
Africa Command (AFRICOM). The purpose of AFRICOM is to dominate Africa militarily without appearing to dominate Africa militarily. The way it works is U.S. military forces serve as behind the scenes “advisors” to the armies of African countries. These African armies are directed to carry out missions that advance imperialist interests. One example is AFRICOM’s leadership in the overthrow and vicious murder of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya. AFRICOM armed reactionary and racist forces whose campaign of terror allowed the U.S. and France to gain control of Libyan oil fields and end Gadhafi’s plans for an independent gold-backed Pan-African currency. AFRICOM now has operations in almost all African countries.
Pan-Africanism requires Africa to be totally liberated from all these foreign forces and interests so that Africa can not only genuinely govern itself but also control its own natural wealth for the benefit of its own people in Africa and in other parts of the world.
Unification
“Divide and conquer” is a very old strategy used by oppressors. Africa is extremely divided, and it is for that reason that Pan-Africanism can be achieved only if Africa is united. How did Africa become divided in the first place? As the year 1884 neared its end, the major European powers that lusted after Africa’s wealth concluded that it made no sense for them to fight each other because there was enough in Africa for everyone to exploit. Representatives of the various European countries came together in Berlin and cut up and distributed portions of a map of Africa in much the same way one would divide a birthday cake. Each European country proceeded to colonize the African territory assigned to them.
When dividing the African continent, Europe paid no heed to existing communities and nation states. Borders and boundaries were established for European convenience, and in the process, Africans with political and social differences were forced into relationships with those they did not necessarily want in their communities. Language differences and other factors created tension and division within the colonies, and these territories were much easier to dominate.

Notwithstanding the intra-African conflicts in the colonies, resistance to colonialism occurred nevertheless. As these movements gained momentum, conditions became ripe during World War II for African countries to begin to win at least nominal independence. With its attention and resources consumed by the war, Europe lacked the capacity to maintain direct control of its colonies. Independence ushered in a new era of struggle.
Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, became a vocal proponent of Pan-Africanism. Other heads of state like Sekou Toure of Guinea and Patrice Lumumba of Congo echoed these calls much to the chagrin of the United States and Western Europe. The continuing interest in the exploitation of Africa made these African revolutionaries a threat to efforts to establish a new form of colonialism, or neo-colonialism. Consequently, Nkrumah was overthrown by a plot devised by the CIA. Toure was repeatedly attacked and harassed by the French. Lumumba was assassinated by African stooges of the CIA. Other African revolutionaries were also targeted by imperialist forces in the years that followed.

–Patrice Emery Lumumba, Prime Minister of Democratic Republic of Congo
The attacks on African revolutionaries and revolutionary forces have historically been made easier by disunity in Africa. For example, one country that has thrown off imperialist control and is traveling a revolutionary path may be regarded as a “liberated zone.” However, a country on its border may still be a “zone under enemy control” that still bears the burden of western domination. Such a country may be used as a convenient staging ground for attacks and invasions of the neighboring liberated country. Such a strategy could not be pursued if Africa were united in its opposition to neo-colonialism.
There is a yet larger and more important benefit of a united Africa. To understand it, imagine the state of New York in the U.S. as an independent, sovereign country. Even the fact that it has one of the largest, most cosmopolitan cities in the world would not give it very much power or influence on the world stage. It would be overwhelmed economically, diplomatically and militarily by not only the world’s superpowers, but also by many smaller countries. However, if you annex New York to 49 other states that together call themselves the United States of America, then New York along with these other states becomes a force to be reckoned with. The more than 50 little countries in Africa are no different. Alone, they have no more power than would a “country” called New York. However, if all these countries come together to form the United States of Africa, there will be no other country on the planet with as much economic, diplomatic, or military power. That can mean only good things for Africans worldwide.
Scientific Socialism
When Africa unites to achieve Pan-Africanism, scientific socialism must guide and govern the continent’s economics. Many Africans not only fail to include scientific socialism as part of their agenda, they also don’t even know what it is. It’s really not as complicated as it sounds.
Any country is always faced with a basic question: “How are we going to deal with the nation’s money and resources?” If those answering the question believe in a capitalist approach to economics, they will say: “Let’s put the wealth of the nation in the hands of a small elite group. This group can determine whether the broad masses of people will share in this wealth, and if so, to what extent.” Africa has already had many years of experience with capitalism, and the results have not been good.
Among other things, capitalism gave Africa the slave trade, colonialism, widespread poverty, environmental disasters, wars, foreign theft and exploitation of natural resources, corruption, and disease. There is another path that Africa must follow. It is the socialist path.
A socialist will say: “Let’s put the wealth of the nation in the hands of everyone. This will ensure that decisions about what to do with it will always be in the best interests of the broad masses of the people. The people themselves will never purposely make decisions that will hurt themselves.” Why, for example would the people ever decide to allow foreign corporations to come into Africa to steal their oil and most valuable minerals? Socialism just makes good sense. It is a scientific approach to economics because it is based on concrete, practical considerations rather than romantic, theoretical notions about how money and resources should be handled.
It should therefore be clear that Pan-Africanism is the objective that Africans throughout the world must pursue. For those who conclude that Pan-Africanism is the proper objective, there is a need to ensure that as efforts are made to achieve it, those efforts are properly directed and effective. This is accomplished through the adoption of an ideology. There are many socialist ideologies that are based on the ideas of Marx, Lenin, Mao, Trotsky, and others. But the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party has adopted an ideology that is both proper and effective because it is grounded in the analyses of Africans themselves.
Our Ideology is Nkrumahism-Toureism
Nkrumahism-Touréism is grounded in the consistent, revolutionary, socialist and Pan- African principles, practices and policies followed, implemented, and taught by Kwame Nkrumah and Ahmed Sekou Touré. It is an ideology drawn from their speeches, writings, actions, achievements, and lives. The ideology also includes accumulated practical and theoretical contributions and achievements of struggles for Pan-Africanism and socialism over many generations.
Nkrumahism-Touréism is anchored by a set of fundamental principles. They include: the primacy and unity of Africa; the integrity of the revolutionary African personality; humanism, egalitarianism, and collectivism; dialectical and historical materialism; and the harmony of spirituality and revolution. We will consider each in turn.

The Primacy and Unity of Africa
The primacy of Africa speaks to our primary identity as Africans regardless of where we were born or live. We are African even if we are regarded by others as Nigerian, Ivorian, Kenyan, Ethiopian, Jamaican, Brazilian, African American, etc. Nkrumah himself said: “…[T]he core of the black revolution is in Africa and until Africa is united under a socialist government, the black man throughout the world lacks a national home… All people of African descent, whether they live in North or South America, the Caribbean or in any other part of the world are Africans and belong to the African nation.” Because we are Africans first, last, and always, we must also regard the African continent as one nation rather than as a collection of artificial micro-states created by Europe in 1885 at the Berlin Conference.
The Integrity of The Revolutionary African Personality
The African personality reflects Africans’ conception of the world, their way of life, their ethics and moral principles that reflect African culture. This African personality has been under constant attack by Africa’s enemies in diverse and sometimes subtle ways. These attacks assert that Africans are morally, intellectually, and culturally inferior. When effective, these attacks cause even Africans themselves to embrace these lies and to internalize their own oppression.
Sekou Touré said: “…[T]he science of depersonalizing the colonized people is sometimes so subtle in its methods that it progressively succeeds in falsifying our natural psychic behavior and devaluing our own original virtues and qualities with a view to our assimilation.”
Affirming and asserting the personality of an oppressed people can become the catalyst for national liberation. Nkrumah and Touré both called for re-personalization – or the successful affirmation of the cultural personality of the oppressed.
Humanism, Egalitarianism and Collectivism
Humanism, Egalitarianism and Collectivism are the cluster of humanist principles which underlie traditional African society and define the African personality. Respect for human beings and social solidarity, coupled with a keen sense of fraternity, justice and cooperation are the very foundation of traditional African society.
Imperialism exacerbated negative, destructive notions that conflict with the humanism that existed in traditional Africa. Our ideology is based on the idea that everything we have in life reflects the struggles and contributions of the people, and people must not be treated as means to an end but rather as an end in themselves.
Dialectical and Historical Materialism
Dialectical materialism and historical materialism are analytical tools that analyze material rather than metaphysical/spiritual conditions. More particularly, they involve analysis of social, political, economic, and historical forces in conflict, and how those conflicts are resolved. By recognizing that systems (like capitalism and socialism) that are fundamentally in conflict cannot coexist in the same place at the same time, revolutionaries are better equipped to struggle for the profound changes needed and demanded by the people.
The Harmony of Religion/Spirituality and Socialist Revolution
Religion and spirituality are dominant features of the African Personality. Religion generally consists of beliefs and principles that serve as a moral compass while also affirming respect for human dignity and human virtue. Both socialism and religion share positive, life-affirming values and challenge people to aspire to the defeat of evil forces and the achievement of a just world. Suffering and sacrifice are regarded by both socialist revolution and religion as redemptive. Religion and socialism revolve around ideas of community and collective welfare. Unfortunately, both socialism and religion have been distorted and reconfigured for use by corrupt forces as tools of exploitation and oppression. Consequently, socialism and religion must be judged by their principles rather than by negative actions of some of their adherents.
What Must You Do?
Our unity of thought and action can be achieved within a struggle for Pan-Africanism. Unity is required because Pan-Africanism cannot be accomplished by an individual. The capitalist propaganda about individualism drives myths about super heroic feats of individuals, when in fact no individual accomplishes anything of significance alone. These individualist ideas are absorbed by osmosis even by many of those who are oppressed, and they wait in vain for a “leader” who will rescue them from their misery. This mortal messiah will never come because it is not possible for an individual – even a well-meaning one – to liberate a people. On the other hand, when individuals work together, they have the capacity to overcome even the fiercest oppressors. Organization is the stuff of which revolutions are made. Organization contemplates a steadfast and abiding commitment that involves both work and study. A member of an organization engages in a consistent collective process of self-education to ensure that any work done on behalf of the organization is fully informed and effective.
What must you do? You must join an organization. Africa needs you! Africa’s people scattered around the world need you! The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) needs you! In the A-APRP you will have the opportunity to not only work for your people, but to also learn things universities don’t teach, and to otherwise gain knowledge that will make you the most effective organizer you can be.
Pan-Africanism Won’t Fall Into Our Laps – We Must Fight!
If Africans throughout the world aspire only to drive a Mercedes, eat a chocolate bar, wear a diamond ring, and pump gasoline into our vehicles, we will never achieve the liberation we have craved for generations. We will be free only when we realize that we should be the people managing the auto, cocoa, diamond, and oil industries. Not only should we be managing those industries, we should be managing them within a socialist development system that places the needs of people over profit so that our riches are not exploited, but instead made available for collective good and development.
The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) didn’t choose “Forward Ever to Worldwide Pan-African Unity!” as our international theme for African Liberation Day on a whim. The A-APRP understands that global African unity is essential to achieving Pan-Africanism, which means the liberation of Africa from the control of exploitative foreign capitalist interests and the unification of the African continent under a continent-wide socialist government. Accomplishing that objective will make it possible for African people everywhere to not only control the industries mentioned above, but to also make it possible for Africans around the world to benefit from them.
The A-APRP is not guessing about the benefits of Pan-Africanism. We have seen how others have achieved global power when they have liberated territory and consolidated it into a super state that has the capacity to impose its will economically, diplomatically, and militarily. Consider China. At one time, China was subordinate to colonizers, warlords, and feudal landowners. Chinese immigrants were disrespected and exploited, and often found work outside of China as laborers whose low wages allowed lifestyles that were qualitatively comparable to those of enslaved persons. The old saying: “He doesn’t have a Chinaman’s chance” reflected an abusive, discriminatory reality.

However, China underwent a socialist revolution that fundamentally transformed the country’s reality. Since then, China has been and remains a world power and a growing force to be reckoned with. China’s success may have inspired resentment among western imperialists that has trickled down to racist individuals who have engaged in recent acts of abusive violence, but it can’t be denied that the power of China and its people is highly respected, and in some cases feared. China’s people benefit from this respect regardless of whether they are born in Beijing or San Francisco. This respect will continue to grow, and racist propaganda aimed at China for whatever reason will do nothing to stop this.
Africans around the world do not enjoy that type of respect. When Africans are gunned down like mad dogs by police in New York, Toronto, Paris, and Lagos, it is suggested that the victims’ brought violence on themselves by their actions. When Africans’ resources are shamelessly exploited and they suffer premature deaths because of this blatant exploitation, those who plunder claim their deeds encourage “development.” Africans’ resistance is met with suggestions that Africans too can get a piece of the action if they join in and play the imperialist game. It’s all a lie of course, and the living conditions of Africans everywhere prove it. There are government crackdowns against people in Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, and elsewhere. There is the continued domination of the Horn of Africa by outside imperialist interests, intent on ensuring control of that region. Apple, Samsung, Shell, Chevron, Firestone, DeBeers, Ford, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, Chevrolet, Nestle, Hershey, Alcoa Aluminum, and many other foreign corporations exploit both Africa’s mineral wealth and its people. Outside of Africa, the experiences of Africans throughout Europe, Australia, Canada, the U.S., Haiti, Brazil, and elsewhere involve daily, systemic attacks on Africans’ dignity.

What then are we to do? First, we must be wary of hazards we create for ourselves. Sekou Toure warned that class struggle was a human challenge in Africa long before the Europeans invaded, and that often, the greatest enemy is the internal one. The evidence is found in many neo-colonial regimes throughout Africa and countries with large African populations. So-called African leaders make symbolic Pan-Africanist gestures, but then implement policies that serve the interests of international imperialism at the expense of the African masses. Even outside of Africa there are opportunists who claim they seek reparations for the historical abuse of Africans, but they use a scarcity model and appeal to the ignorance and fears of Africans in the U.S. by claiming Africa and Africans born outside of the U.S. do not share the oppressive history of those descended from Africans enslaved in North America and should therefore be excluded from their so-called movement.
Anyone who calls for the division of Africans works against the best interests of Africans. When the slave raiders entered Africa, they had no concerns about keeping families together. Consequently, any African whose family was touched by the slave trade is likely to have blood relatives living anywhere and everywhere from Eritrea to Ghana to Congo to Canada to Cuba to Haiti to the U.S. This irrefutable fact makes any efforts to separate Africans illogical, unscientific, and unproductive. When one considers that Africa’s enemies have worked hard to divide Africans and that Africa possesses the greatest mineral wealth on Earth, it becomes easy to understand why African people everywhere are the poorest. African division allows Africa’s enemies to maintain their dominance, and they are eager to eliminate any possible chance that Africans will embrace the concept of Pan-African unity.
Pan-Africanism realized represents African people everywhere combining our intellectual, scientific, artistic, creative, and practical skills to determine how to utilize and manage Africa’s mass mineral wealth to serve the purpose it should serve – service to the masses of African people. No African (or any justice-loving human being for that matter) can credibly oppose Pan-Africanism. But Pan-Africanism will never just fall into our laps. We are going to have to fight for it, and that means getting organized and creating the unity we need to be free. The A-APRP represents that. The theme for African Liberation Day 2021 represents that. The only remaining question is how many of us are willing to demonstrate our commitment to those values?
What’s So Frightening About Revolution?
Some years ago, a member of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party spoke to university students about the thousands of years of African history that preceded slavery, explaining that the length and breadth of that rich history and culture meant descendants of enslaved Africans are not simply emancipated slaves, but they have been and remain “Africans.” The lecturer recalls: “A student came up to me after the presentation and said she understood and agreed that she should have an allegiance to Africa, but she also suggested: ‘you would attract more people if you didn’t call yourselves revolutionary. Revolution scares people away.’”
What’s so frightening about the word revolution? The capitalists always use that word to advertise their products. The pictures below are three examples.
So why do capitalists train us to become frightened when socialists use the word revolution? The reason is simple. Socialist revolution requires the destruction of capitalism. This would mean the elimination of a system where a few own and control the factories, banks, farms, mines, and oil fields across the planet. The wealthy don’t want this to happen, so their media outlets make people think fighting for revolutionary social and economic change is harmful and dangerous and buying more and more of their “revolutionary” junk is good.
It has been this way for a very long time. Years ago, students were taught that the invention of the transistor was a “revolutionary” advance in technology. Transistors replaced vacuum tubes. When it comes to technology, revolutionary change is applauded. Integrated circuits replaced transistors, then computers on a chip replaced circuit boards of integrated circuits. We are taught that the industrial revolution was a great thing. Now there is much discussion of how Africa must embrace the fourth industrial “revolution.”
Each year individuals are awarded Nobel prizes in a range of disciplines. We are told that it is for their “revolutionary” contributions in physics, chemistry and even peace-making. An award-winning physicist once spoke of the days and hours of running experiments. After a breakthrough, he was so excited he ran from his lab into the hallway to share his excitement, only to find the building empty. He then realized it was 3 a.m. on a holiday weekend. It was evidence of the fact that revolutionary change of any kind, including scientific change, requires hard work, determination, sacrifice, and discipline. Organizing to bring an end to neo-colonialism and capitalism is no exception.
Although capitalists imply socialist revolutionaries are dangerous or criminal, socialists are actually fighting for a better world. Capitalism is based on a few people owning and controlling all production and distribution and operating to make personal profits. The so-called free market system involves cutthroat competition and a drive to increase profits to survive. Where do these profits come from? They come from the labor of workers and the cheap extraction of natural resources. Capitalism increases the wealth of a few while increasing the toil, work, and exploitation of the many. That toil, work and exploitation are the basis for capitalist profits. It is only natural that well-meaning people – good socialist people – want an end to this system of exploitation. The elimination of capitalism and its replacement with a system that asks people to contribute according to their abilities and to receive according to their needs is the revolutionary change capitalism demonizes. However, it is in the best interest of humanity for us to struggle for this revolutionary change. In fact, our collective conscience demands that we do all we can to support and improve humanity and our world. This is the essence of being human. Therefore, the highest expression of humanity is to struggle for revolution!
Are you ready for revolution?
“Forward Ever to World-Wide Pan-African Unity”