Prince Imari A. Obadele – New Afrikan, Revolutionary Nationalist … and Anarchist [1996]
[…] to your question about my perspective of anarchism, i really don’t know enough about it to mack it to you properly, Cuz. But from what i think i understand about anarchism i don’t see where it’s inconsistent with what We’re about as Reparators. In fact, the basic tenets of anarchism – as i am aware of them – and, if i’m correct about what i think i know, then, me thinks me’s an anarchist!
Now, “real” anarchist (meaning those who have chosen anarchism as a way of life and are true to the game) probably wouldn’t consider me an anarchist. They would, no doubt, find it a contradiction my being an elected official of a New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalist, pre-independence government. But, i guess the same thing can be said about some Black Nationalists who probably wouldn’t consider me a nationalist, either. After all, i eat pork, hang in after-hour joints, and run with muggers, druggers and thieves. Nationalists don’t fuck with the “lumpen”. So, i guess what it gets down to is a matter of definition, and who’s doing the defining. i have a good track-record, and i’m relatively intelligent, so, i’ll try to make what i’m about to say coherent enough to be able to make some sense out of it. i have to tell you, though, i have no written material on anarchism so most of my analysis is based upon what i’ve been able to gather from reading anarchist newspapers. If i am not mistaken, anarchists struggle for a world with no nations, no states, no exploitation, no racism, no sexism (which includes no homophobia), no repression, no oppression, no forms of aggression and so on and they believe in agitation and confrontation with the “state” and other arms of repression and oppression to reach the ultimate state of liberty. i’m up for all that, and some!
One of the major principles of Amistad-March 31 is: “We believe in personal liberties guided by collective responsibility.” That basically breaks down to this: as long as what one does does not cause anyone else pain and discomfort (spiritually, physically and mentally), or, as in Our case, affect the work of the struggle, no one is going to fuck with another about personal preferences. Our Declaration unequivocally commits and demands of Us active confrontation with oppressive powers, for the express purpose of creating a better world. We just happen to say it in a different way; everything is reparations with Us. This helps to keep Us from getting bogged down in debates and polemics about specific ideologies and what they’re supposed to be and pins Us down to specific work with encompasses almost ALL ideologies.
The New Afrikan Declaration of Independence (which is is what most of Our philosophy is based on) likewise commits Us, indeed, every New Afrikan who has affirmed the Declaration and Creed, to this: socialist, world-wide revolution. And to, in my opinion, the ultimate state of liberty; where there are no laws and repressive governments and other agencies to enforce them; no exploitation of the land and people; where everyone is in harmony, thus no oppression and exploitation being necessary.
The New Afrikan Declaration of Independence says: “…in consequence of Our raging desire to be free of this oppression, to destroy this oppression wherever it assaults mankind in the world, and in consequence of Our inextinguishable determination to go a different way, to build a new and better world…”
Paragraph #3 begins: “Our’s is a revolution against oppression – Our Own oppression and that of all people in the world. In another place: “To support and wage the World Revolution until all people everywhere are so free…”
“To end exploitation…”
“To assure equality of rights for the sexes…” “To end color and class discrimination, while not abolishing salubrious diversity, and to promote self-respect and mutual respect among all people in the society…”
“To place the major means of production and trade in the trust of the state and to assure the benefits of this earth and man’s genius and labor to society and all its members.
“(Note: This is [from] the verbatim document written and signed on
31 March 1968. In light of Our revolution’s present consciousness of the historic oppression of [wimmin] and the concepts and terminology which have supported that oppression, the use of the male-centered language seems a curious anachronism. Our awareness of the inappropriateness of this male-centeredness is a sign of the growth which laboring toward independence has brought Us. Dr. IAO, 1991).”
On the surface, it would appear that it is contradictory for me to interpret a socialist/nationalist/revolutionary document as an anarchist philosophy and to call myself an anarchist. On the surface it would appear so! But, just as some enemies of the NAIM would interpret a Black, or Red Nationalist who is socialist as being the same as a National-Socialist / Nazi (which is White Nationalism, which is White Supremacy, which is racism), or would compare segregation (an oppressive condition imposed upon Us by Our enemy) with separation (an act by Us to relieve Ourselves of that oppressive condition), or the violence of the oppressor with the violence of the oppressed, one would be as wrong as two left shoes on a snake to say that it is a contradiction for a New Afrikan Independence fighter/nation-builder to be an anarchist!
Here is the hit: Political power, indeed life, is a process. Ideally We move from a bad state of existence to a higher, or better, state of existence. Marxists put it this way: We move from capitalism, to socialism, to communism. According to them, communism being the highest level of existence that people as societies can obtain. The anarchist takes the process a step further. The anarchist believes that people can obtain a level of existence without any dictatorship. (The Marxists believe that the governmental structure must still exist and that the ideal situation is that the proletariat becomes the government hence the dictatorship of the worker.) i’m for no government at all! Ultimately.
i say ultimately because, at this stage in the process of Reparating there have to be organized entities to mash on suckers who want to oppress the rest of Us, and i’m talking about all forms of oppression: political, social, economic and religious. Which brings Us to the absolute necessity of New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalism, and why Black Nationalism is beginning to be more appealing to the masses of Blacks.
Da Doc (Dr. Obadele, PGRNA) puts it this way: “[There is] the reality of an underlying dynamic in America. People make events and history, but they do not make events or history in a vacuum. White control of the information media and the schools has always been a factor operating against Us. …It is clear to most of Our people that the strategy of using electoral politics to gain Our larger goals has failed Us. Our youth in the public schools are being ‘pushed out’ in large, unacceptable numbers, and those who remain are being assaulted and often damaged physically by White supremacist teaching and an abundance of White, female teachers who know nothing of Black love and are supported by a dominating abundance of purposeful White male and female supervisors. The drug economy has become pervasive in Our necessary pattern of producing, earning and exchanging. …Many of Our people – not just teenagers – are without either self-confidence or hope. “The u.s. congress is boldly and openly pursuing an anti-New Afrikan agenda, symbolized by its prison campaign and its refusal to deal, so far, with reparations. The u.s. supreme court’s gutting of Black Congressional and judicial districts is being done, in the words of Sandra Day O’Connor, to save Us from segregation.
“The Congressional Black Caucus today demonstrates neither comprehensive vision nor a willingness to fight. The NAACP has so far failed to move beyond palliatives.
“The united [snakes] staged an armed attack [several of them] on the RNA Provisional Government in mississippi and then jailed several leaders. ..Along with the killing of Black Panthers and George Jackson and the assault on Attica…
“We may say today that while the Provisional Government has not been simply waiting, the enemy, as predicted, is driving Our people toward Us.” That pretty much says it relative to the necessity and appeal of Nationalism to the masses of Blacks.
The White Supremacy Power System is driving people to Nationalism. It also says that We did not create the conditions and that in spite of all our efforts to “get along,” as Rodney King would have it, Whites don’t want to get along with Us and they have made that perfectly clear enough for even the dumbest trick to understand. We must not forget that power is a process AND that people are moved more by conditions and events than it is that they make conditions and events. We did not create these conditions. The White Power system did.
Oppression, by its very nature, means that we have to work within the framework of oppression until We can bust out of it. What i mean by that is as long as We don’t control Our lives everything We do in the attempt to control Our lives is dictated by the oppressive conditions that the oppressor created. Yeah, Cuz, me thinks me’s an anarchist, but at this stage of the game where i have to work from is, and must be, Black Revolutionary Nationalism. It is the only effective counter-measure to oppression for Us at this time. Anarchism is the IDEAL state of existence, but it is the last step in the process. So, theoretically, i am an anarchist, but practically speaking, i’m a Reparator. With all the problems that Black people are beset with, and all of them are racially based; internally WE have Our niggahs, bitches and boys. Externally We have the multi-faceted assaults on Black by Whites, and there is the attitude that people have that people cannot control themselves without being controlled.
With all these things facing Us we have to deal with the separation of idealism and practice. We’ve got too much ass to kick right now. i mean, WE’ve got a lot of reparating to do. So, that’s my perspective on anarchism. i believe in and struggle for an anarchist society. But i don’t control the existing conditions, so i practice New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalism.