MESSAGE TO THE BLACK MOVEMENT




 A Political Statement from the Black Underground
(Coordinating Committee Black Liberation Army)
ORIGINALLY RELEASED 1976/1977

 Dedicated to all the comrades killed, captured, and exiled in the struggle. To build the armed urban guerrilla,  from, and to those who supported us.  When all others refused to face up to Reality!

Table Of Contents
 Introduction   Overview View From The Armed Front   Why Build The Armed Front
 Racism And Class  Destructive Sub-culture   Leadership Of The Struggle
 What Is Protracted War In The Black Liberation Struggle?   Alliances With Whites


INTRODUCTION

The following is political overview and statement of general political positions. We
have written these political positions form the perspective of the Armed Front because
we feel that such a perspective is needed in the total revolutionary process for Black
liberation. We are general in our public statement because we are essentially a
military and political front, therefore it would not do to speak in any other terms, for the
actions of the armed front will address themselves to the specifics of our people's
national oppression. We do not wish the ENEMY to gain tactical insight in carrying out
his repressive campaigns, while on the other hand we do desire that the Black
Liberation Movement understand the correct role armed struggle plays in a peoples
struggle and how this role is in motion for us here in North American.

The tool of analysis is for us a further development of the Historical Materialist method,
the dialectical method. We will not even waste our time debating the values of Marxism
with those who are emotionally hung up on white people hung up to the point of
ideological blindness. We understand the process of revolution, and fundamental to
this understanding is this fact: Marxism is developed to a higher level when it is
scientifically adapted to a peoples' unique national condition, becoming a new
ideology altogether. Thus was the case in China, Guinea Bissau, Vietnam, North
Korea, the Peoples Republic of the Congo and many other socialist nations. For Black
people here in north America our struggle is not only unique, but it is the most
sophisticated and advanced oppression of a racial national minority in the whole
world. We are the true 20th century slaves, and the use of the dialectical method, class
struggle and national liberation, will find its highest development as a result of us. This
dialectic holds true not only for Marxism, but for revolutionary nationalism as well it
holds true for concepts of revolutionary Pan-Africanism it is true of the theoretical basis
in developing revolutionary Black culture. All of these ideological trends will find their
highest expression as a result of our advanced oppression.

Yet, we must be ever mindful that the same objective process is true for reactionary
refinement as a result of our struggle. This is the unity of opposites in struggle with
each other. To defeat our enemy and render his reactionary allies impotent, we must
have a truly revolutionary perspective informed by concepts of revolutionary class
struggle, a movement without such a perspective will fail to defeat our common
oppressor. We are not afraid of white people controlling our movement, for our
formations, guns, and ideas are built with our own hands, efforts, and blood. With this
in mind, we address ourselves to the Black Liberation struggle, its activist elements
and organizations. Our call is for UNITY, FOR A NATIONAL BLACK LIBERATION
FRONT. We must build to win!

Nyurba

Black Liberation Army


AN OVERVIEW

We will start with the basic fact that Capitalism and Imperialism as an economical
system is in a deep crisis at home and abroad. The basis of this crisis is, of course,
the exploitive relationships that capital must maintain in order to function. It is these
economic, social and political relationships that signal the eventual doom of our
oppressors and this system of oppression under which we all live.

This crisis of capitalism is of a protracted nature. By this we mean it is a long process
of deterioration that is spread over a considerable length of time. The seeming
material wealth which we see all around us in no way contradict this fact of decay,
deterioration, or the fact of crisis. In fact, over-production and uneven distribution have
led time and time again to a bloated market, cutbacks in employment , and all the
attendant ills of a economy based on private ownership of socially produced
commodities. Inflation, soaring prices, and inadequate wages are all symptoms of an
economy that is based primarily on class exploitation at home ad national domination
of the Third World's resources abroad.

The heightening of oppressed peoples struggles abroad have added to the crisis of
the entire western world, and threaten to cut drastically its essential resources. We
realize that the chief economical and military power in the western world and its ruling
circles, will never allow the demise of its empire without a desperate fight. We, as
Blacks in North America, must realize that to seek inclusion into the prevailing
socio-economic system is suicide in the long run, for the prevailing system cannot
withstand the irresistible world trend of history which is opposed to continued U.S.
exploitation, racist domination and subjugation. To fool ourselves into believing that
"equal opportunity", "justice"," and social equality is the same as the capitalist system
is a grave mistake with genocidal implications for every person of color. Our first
obligation is to ourselves, this means our first obligation is to secure our total liberation
from those forces that maintain our oppressive condition. Related to this self obligation
(not distinct from it), is our obligation to all oppressed peoples throughout the world, for
in striving to liberate ourselves we must abolish a system that enslaves others
throughout the world. This, in essence, is our historical duty, we can either carry it out
or betray it - - but we most certainly will be judged accordingly by the world's peoples.

The B.L.A., as a result of realizing the economical nature of the system under which we
are forced to live, maintains the following principles:

     1. That we are anti capitalist, anti imperialist, anti racist, and anti sexist.

     2. That we must of necessity strive for the abolishment of these systems
     and for the institution of Socialistic relationships in which Black people
     have total and absolute control over their own destiny as a people.

     3. That in order to abolish our systems of oppression, we must utilize the
     science of class struggle, develop this science as it relates to our unique
     national condition.



VIEW FROM THE ARMED FRONT
The Dialectic of Revolutionary Violence, law, and
Reformism

Our recognition of the economical contradictions of capital in no way obscures the
social and political realities that now confront us and our struggle for Black Liberation.
To the contrary, it enhances and deepens our perspective and clarifies the dialectical
role or armed struggle in our liberation process.

We have begun to recognize and analyze those forces in a modern technologically
advanced society that set our particular struggle apart from other Third world people's
struggles, as well as the common factors all oppressed peoples share as a result of
U.S. and western imperialism. One such factor that sets our struggle apart from other
struggles is the profound influence of organized technology on our consciousness,
social relationships, and behavior. People who live in the technologically advanced
societies of the west have been programmed to perceive their needs as being one in
the same as the technology that created these artificial needs. Because the masses of
working people do not control this technology, it has been consistently used to
manipulate their whole lives. We are told what to buy, what to eat, whom to hate, and
what to love, by rulers and controllers of an exploitive system.

Technology in the context of capitalism is the ultimate means by which the masses are
programmed out of the need for real freedom. A whole social value system has
evolved to support the dependence on corporate state technological control. We no
longer know what freedom is  what self determination is. We perceive the value of
competition as being in the natural order of human relationships, instead of contrary to
the fact that people are social animals, more attuned to cooperation than competition.
We must create in the course of destroying our system of oppression, whole new value
concepts, concepts that exist in dialectical opposition to the values that buttress our
oppression - - even more than this, we must create a new need within ourselves for
freedom, so that we can harness technology in our behalf. As it stands how, Black
people cannot even conceive of real freedom; we are afraid of real liberation because
we have been programmed to be afraid by racist class oppression  even more than
this, we must create a new need within ourselves for freedom, so that we can harness
technology in our behalf. As it stands how, Black people cannot even conceive of real
freedom; we are afraid of real liberation because we have been programmed to be
afraid by racist class oppression. Technology has immensely added in reinforcing our
fear of the dominant ruling circles. We must break this social psychosis.

The B.L.A. has undertaken armed struggle as a means by which the social psychosis
of fear, awe, and love of everything white people define as being of value, is purged
from our peoples' minds. Our historical experience in North America has shown us that
we as a people have always suffered while the racist ruling circles have never suffered.
We have seen throughout our history pain, blood, rape, exploitation, poverty, our
families torn asunder by a cruel and brutal culture, our youth murdered and socially
crippled, our women degraded, our lives ever at the mercy of the cold American dream
machine. We realize that the results of this historical experience has caused Black
people to fear America's capacity for racist violence, and on the other hand , has
reinforced the racist ruling circles in their attitudes of arrogance and confidence. The
fact that the majority of whites who are equally oppressed and exploited do not really
understand who their real enemy is, does not deter us from doing what must be done
to break not only our people'' mental chains, but theirs as well. We therefore, will
illustrate in the only terms that the ruling classes understand  the terms of blood
their blood. America must learn that Black people are not the eternal sufferers, the
universal prisoners, the only ones who can feel pain. Revolutionary violence is,
therefore, not a tactic of struggle, but a strategy. A strategy designed to drive the
capitalist system further into crisis, while at the same time forcing all those responsible
for oppression to realize that they too can bleed, they too can feel our pain. Only when
this is realized, will any just and equal decisions be made, will we be conceded our
right to self determination. As it stands now, the powerful do not believe they can hurt
and therefore, find concession to our demands for liberation ridiculous. Our
social/psychotic fear of the racists ruling circles must be purged also, and only by
developing our capacity to fight our enemy will this unreasonable and reactionary fear
be eradicated from our social psyche. Revolutionary violence is not so much a self
cleansing process as it is a necessary ingredient in creating a psychological frame of
mind amongst the ruling classes that our liberation must be granted.

We must clarify revolutionary violence in relationship to our actual condition, because
many of our people believe in the "law," or at least the existing code of law of our
oppressor. Most people do not see the real relationship between the development of
western law and the development of western capitalism; therefore, these people
cannot deal with the reality of injustice as being an integral part of the prevailing
system. Not a few people misunderstand the objective class function for the courts, the
police, and various related institutions in maintaining the illusion of North American
democracy.

In a society such as exists here today, law is never impartial, never divorced from the
economical relationships that brought it about. History clearly shows that in the course
of the development of modern western society, the code of law is the code of the
dominant and most powerful class, made into laws for everyone. It is implemented by
establishing "special" armed organs, that are obliged to enforce the prevailing class
laws. In this historical period of human social development such is the objective
function of "law". Under such conditions of the most powerful economic and political
classes. But, what about the law in a democracy, especially one that claims that all its
citizens can elect their representatives who in turn can create new laws? First of all,
such a democracy does not exist in North America, bourgeois democracy as such is
merely a means of political control that evinces a design to subjugate its people, all of
these reasons flow from the necessity to maintain exploitive capitalist relationships.
Thus, the influence of corporate wealth on the politics of bourgeois democracy is
merely an extension of private property's traditional influence and control of the
so-called democratic process. The constant co-optation by ruling classes of the
masses of working peoples, coupled with their complete control of technology and of
working peoples, coupled with their complete control of technology and of working
people, coupled with their complete control of technology and information renders the
so-called democratic process null and void. To a reflections of the class organization
of that society and the reflection of a given technological economical arrangement and
its supporting value system. The political organization of the most powerful classes or
economic groups in a class society has to be, and is, the control by these classes or
economic groups over the entire society and its political system. We ha found the
democratic process under capitalism to be merely a means by which capital controls
the masses. It is a means of mass diversion, designed to keep the powerless classes
politically impotent while at the same time fostering the illusion that real power can be
gained through the electoral process. Black people should know better. In a nation
based on the false principle of majority rule, we are a marginal minority and therefore
our right to self determination cannot be won in the arena of our oppressor.

The rejection of reformism however, is much deeper than the above reasons. For if
reformism is a rejection of any meaningful change, it is also a rejection of revolutionary
violence, and therefore reformism is a functional ignorance of the dynamics of Black
liberation. This is because the character of reformism is based on unprincipled class
collaboration with our enemy. The ideals of class collaboration do not stand in
opposition to our people's oppression, but instead consistently seeks to reform the
oppressive system. Reform of the oppressive system can never benefit its victims, in
the final analysis the system of oppression was created to insure the rule of particular
racist classes and sanctify their capital. To seek reform therefore inevitably leads to, or
begins with, the recognition of the laws of our oppressor as being valid.

Those within the movement who condemn the revolutionary violence of anti capitalist,
anti capitalist, anti imperialist, and revolutionary Black nationalist groups are in
essence weakening themselves. These fools do not understand the inter-active need
for revolutionary violence with other forms of struggle and because they do not
understand the real dynamics involved they seriously inhibit the development of the
liberation movement as a whole. These reformists in liberationist garb should
understand that unless the movement cultivates its capacity to fight the enemy on all
fronts, no front will secure any real victories. It is abysmal ignorance that imagines our
oppression in any other terms than undeclared war.

How will the movement as a whole be able to fight the oppressor in the future when all
other "legal" methods are completely exhausted? How will we implement political
struggle without the machinery and capacity for revolutionary violence when it is
abundantly clear that our oppressor maintains armed organs of violence for the
enforcement of his rules? We as a movement will be unable to fight in the future if we
do not develop the capacity for revolutionary violence in the present. But revolutionary
violence is not an alternative to mass movement and organization, it is complementary
to mass struggle, it is another front in the total liberation process. Those who put the
question of revolutionary violence in "alternative" terms are guilty of crippled politics at
worst. Those involved in the total revolutionary process, yet claim not to "endorse"
revolutionary violence when it occurs, are attempting to "legitimize" their existence at the
expense of the entire struggle. The only "legitimacy" these people can possibly be
seeking in such cases is bourgeois legitimacy. These type people further confuse the
masses, for revolutionary violence is not clarified and extended in order to undermine
the psychological dependence Black people still have on racist reactionary "legality."
This is the vilest of sins, one for which everyone will pay during heightened repression.

We therefore do not view the "law" of our class enemies as valid, no do we feel
restricted in struggle to his laws. On the other hand, we understand the "tactical" value of
using the law and consequently we understand the tactical value of reform in the
liberation process. For example, school takeovers by community parents, rent strikes
by tenants, labor union takeover by dissident members, etc., utilizing their systems and
built-in safeguards to obtain certain goals that place the enemy at a temporary
disadvantage. But we maintain there is only tactical value to reform when there exists
other forms of revolutionary struggle against the whole of the capitalist structure.
Reform as such is inherently reactionary and perpetuated psychological dependence
on the enemy, while confusing the true class contradictions between ourselves and the
enemy. Considering these factors, we maintain that reform can never be anything
more than a tactic, never a complete strategy, never offering in itself any revolutionary
change. While it may offer the Black bourgeoisie rewards, it can never be the road to
self determination for the entire Black populace.

We also strongly condemn those who claim to be progressive, yet depreciate
revolutionary violence of an oppressed people in their struggle for liberation. There can
be no conditions on our fight for freedom except those set by the oppressed
themselves. Those who claim that revolutionary violence gives the enemy the
opportunity to repress the movement in general are profoundly mistaken if they think
the reactionary government needs such excuses for repression, or that the government
does not recognize the real danger in allowing a movement to develop the full blown
capacity to wage armed struggle. The B.L.A. has undertaken the task of building just
such a capacity, along with other comrades on the clandestine level.


WHY BUILD THE ARMED FRONT ?

We have chosen to build the armed front, the urban guerilla front, not as an alternative
to organizing masses of Black people, but because the liberation movement as a
whole must prepare armed formations at each stage in its struggle. A failure to build
these armed formations can be fatal to both the struggle and Black people.

Our Ultimate or strategic goal at this point in creating the apparatus of revolutionary
violence is to weaken the enemy capitalist state, creating at the same time
objective subjective conditions that are ripe for the formation of a National Black
Liberation Front composed of many progressive revolutionary, and nationalist
groupings, and in this same process create the nucleus of the armed clandestine
organs which such a front would need in order to carry out its political tasks. These are
the broad reasons for our devotion to armed struggle. The fact that no such national
united front exists now, in no way precludes the fact that the creation of one will
become necessary in the future (as the contradictions of capitalist society increase
repression, racism and social deterioration). We are of the opinion that subjective
conditions are not ripe for such unity.

Because of objective conditions, namely, enemy activity and the relative low degree of
unity within the Black struggle, we have decided to build the apparatus separate and
distinct (organizationally) from all other mass type groups. This is a tactical necessity,
but this tactical necessity does note contradict our strategic all for all groups in the
Black liberation movement to form a national united front, with the principle of armed
action as one of many "legitimate" forms of political policy.

At present the contradictions that any B.L.A. activities may cause are not to be
avoided. Every progressive should welcome the exposure and development of
contradictions, for it is through the development of contradictions that we will all move
forward. Every brother, every sister on the side of liberation should and must support
the struggle on all fronts, and clarify to our people the acts of revolutionary violence
committed against our common oppressors and class enemies of all colors. This
means the revolutionary violence must be supported by those in the movement on all
levels. While such support will be difficult at first, objective conditions and time will
remove much of the difficulty which primarily ideological myopia to begin with. We
know from experience that because of the class nature of our struggle and its racist
aspect, many of our actions may very well be tactical action of a purely
military psychological nature, and because of this clear political support may seem
quite difficult. Nonetheless we intend to clarify all acts of revolutionary violence and
accepts responsibility for these acts. The important factor, however, is that the
progressive movement, the liberation movement, and comrades on all levels of
struggle understand that failure to support the armed urban guerilla front (military,
politically) is a failure to support the mass front, is a failure to support the "legal" thrusts
of our struggle in "civil rights," and in the final analysis, an abdication of responsibility.
Cowardice can be understood, but not opportunism and an abdication of commitment
to our total liberation.


RACISM AND CLASS
 

Our recognition of the class nature of our struggle has led us to certain objective
conclusions which have been borne out by actual conditions. We have for some time
now observed how the influence of certain class values determine how one acts or
reacts in society. We have observed the class differences among the majority white
population in the United States, and the reflection of these difference among Black
people. As we have said years before this, the class difference among Black people
are difference in consciousness, attitudes, and behavior, but unlike these same class
difference among whites, economic status or economic position is not the major
determinate. The overwhelming majority of Blacks (with the exception of very few) are
essentially in the same economic class, and suffer essentially the same relationship to
the productive forces of capital.

Despite this fact however, the difference in consciousness and in attitudes are real,
and therefore must be dealt with as if these attitudes were economic class distinctions.
The reality of our people tells us that not only are there Black enemies of Black people,
but that these Black enemies are first and foremost class enemies of our struggle for
liberation. It is their class values, ideas, and class ideals that make them what they are,
coupled with the fact that these enemies in Black face can hide among us, spreading
their various reactionary liberal philosophies of gradualism, Black capitalism,
"integration," cultural nationalism, reformism, etc.

The reason why these Black class enemies find acceptance are many. The first and
foremost reason is our unique social psychology, or our emotional response to racism.
This reflex has primed us to think in terms of color first (just as it programmed whites to
view color as a determinant factor), and when such thinking becomes culturally typical
of us, we are vulnerable to class infiltration by Black enemies of our struggle. We tend
to blame the color and not the class values of our oppressor when we are betrayed or
exploited by one of our own people. Thus when a Black person betrays or hurts us we
say, "n-words ain't shit!" (this also indicates self hatred and/or self pity); instead, what
we should say is that "certain classes of n-words ain't shit!"

Why should we have such a class perspective, and maintain class vigilance for ruling
class lackeys? The first reason is that in a class society such as the one that we suffer
under, every brand of thought, every form of behavior are stamped with the mark of a
particular class. This has deep meaning for us, for the dominant classes in this country
are white and their culture racist. We as Blacks reflect in our thinking the values, and
ideas of these dominant classes, as well as the defensive response to their
social cultural racist. We as Blacks reflect in our thinking the values, and ideas of these
dominant classes, as well as the defensive response to their social cultural racism
manifested in their system of rule. For these reasons we are vulnerable, we can easily
be misled, abused and misused. We become easy targets for the racist ploys of our
collective enemy. The enemy can use skin color to confuse us into thinking that if we
attack another Black we are necessarily attacking ourselves; when it may very well be
the other way around we are attacking him! It is to our advantage to have a clear
principled class view. It is to the oppressors disadvantage if we are principled class
conscious individuals, opposed to unprincipled class collaboration.

If we look at most of the organizations on the scene today, and their philosophies,
leadership, and methods of. Struggle, we will see the reflection of certain class ideals,
ideas and values. Overwhelmingly these groups each reflect the goals of a particular
class of Black folks. Without a revolutionary class perspective, we who are striving to
acquire total emancipation from the forces which enslave the whole of our people, will
be unable to distinguish true friends from true enemies, those who are confused from
those who are conscious tools of the oppressor, and we will not be able to win
potential allies.

This brings us to the dialectical role of culture, for if we understand that as members of
a class society (or victims) we all are influenced by the class perspectives of that
society, and for Black people this means the values, standards, etc., of the dominant
racist classes, then we must understand the tool by which we are programmed into
these perspectives of class. Culture is the tool. We view culture as the means by which
a dominant class programs the whole of society into that classes' ideals, values, and
standards, thereby perpetuating its dominance.

This objective class function of culture should not lead us to the incorrect conclusion
that if we adopt a "cultural" orientation in our fight for liberation that such would be
sufficient. This is the essential view of the cultural nationalists who orient all around
culture, such a view is incorrect. For it does not deal with the economic, class, and
psychological basis of the struggle between two opposing cultural entities. The
dominant reactionary culture must be destroyed before any revolutionary culture can
truly manifest itself. In other words, it is in the active struggle of the two that the seeds
of a revolutionary culture are laid. Not in the passive creation of an alternative "culture".
Such could only be an alternative life style, allowed to exist at the will of the dominant
capitalist culture. In this sense cultural nationalism is bourgeois nationalism because it
does not propose the abolishment of the capitalist system and culture.

In dealing with the objective function of culture then, we understand its social role in
maintaining certain class relationships. A racist culture does this and more. A racist
culture programs not only the members of the dominant racial group into class ideals,
standards, and values, but it also psychologically creates the necessary racist attitudes
needed to maintain these class perspectives as a whole) against the targets of that
racism. Thus the feelings of superiority, fear of Blacks, and hostility toward the strivings
of Black people (and all Third World peoples in general) is deeply ingrained into the
white psyche along with the class phobias and standards. Even more than this, the
victims of the racist culture are programmed into feelings of self hatred, inferiority, and
impotency. Very often this creates a mental social state that views the prevailing
system as eternal and everlasting. Coupled with the class values of the dominant
culture, Black folks are constantly torn between wanting what the oppressor defines as
desirable, and the inability to get it. Or, to get it and then realize that it was only a hoax,
he is still, as Black as ever. All of this is crippling for the oppressed Black person, for it
ties their brains irrevocably' to their oppressors for salvation, often leading to the
clownish pursuit of all that is defined as "good" by the standards of the oppressor.

In order to break these psychological class chains of 20th century enslavement, we
must build a revolutionary culture. A culture that not only programs our minds out of
oppression, but at the same time impels us against the enemy classes and culture.
The B.L.A. contribution in building such a culture will be to strive to create an armed
tradition of resistance to our oppression, and to create a socio-psychological frame of
mind on both oppressed and oppressor alike, that will lead to our eventual
self determination as a people.

We therefore make few distinctions based on the color of our enemies. The same
treatment will be meted out to white ruling class enemies and their lackeys as will be
meted out to Black bootlickers and Black class enemies of our struggle. Our only
consideration is that our armed formations and leadership are of our own people.


DESTRUCTIVE SUB-CULTURE, CRIME AND PRISON
 

The Black communities of the United States are the tragic results of class/ race
subjugation, an oppressive situation created and exploited by the rich white capitalist
class of this corrupt country, and systematically perpetuated and reinforced through
their various institutions. The wretched conditions that are inherent within these ghettos
continue to exist not because there are no means of erasing them, but rather because
they have proven profitable to the class that created them.

The ruling class of the racist descendants of the chattel slave holders. They have
amassed a vast portion of the world's wealth through their rapacious practice of
profiting off the misery and discomfort of humanity in general, and Third World people
in particular. They use this enormous concentration of wealth to buy, bribe, steal,
influence, murder, enslave, Blackmail, control, and repress any nation, organization,
group or individual that would speak out against, or offer any serious opposition to
their self imposed right to power.

In order to maintain the present mis-arrangement, the social imbalances, the
bourgeois class continues to use repressive tactics in various forms. The effects of this
repression becomes clearly evident upon examination of the destructive sub-culture
(the Black community) born out of American politics.

This sub-culture materialized out of the need of Black folks for security and a sense of
belonging that had been denied them since their arrival in this country; an attempt by
the rejected and dispossessed a totally de-culturalized people to integrate
bourgeois society by imitating the life-style and adopting the value system of their
oppressors.

The destructive nature of this sub-culture manifests itself in the living reality of Black
folks' attitudinal and philosophical outlook on life. The self preserving quality of unity is
almost totally absent in the Black community. In its place there is an unhealthy
atmosphere of individuality which is detrimental and inconsistent with the needs of our
people, for it is precisely this thinking that has kept us divided and un-organized for so
long.

It would seem that brothers and sisters would recognize the fact that by accepting and
perpetuating the values of the class that oppresses us, that they are only aiding in their
own genocide. They have all the physical evidence necessary to prove that the values
that they now cherish so dearly are not complimentary to their best interests.

In our community we continuously come face to face with the reality of our situation.
The dilapidated, fire hazard tenements; the Black mother with her un-fed child; the
brother overdoses from the C.I.A.'s right to free enterprise; the sister that sells herself
to an abominable pleasure seeking fool the unemployed/unskilled/miseducated
remains of a once beautiful people.

It's sickening to listen to "Negro's" talk about how much profit they've made from selling
dope and pimping sisters about the brand name automobile they're driving, while their
children are starving because they have ceased to be men or to hear some
bad talking, chicken-hearted punk describe how he has ripped off some poor Black's
life savings because he does not have the courage to take it from the criminals who
oppress us.

We can't afford to continue as we have for the past one hundred years if we expect to
ever be in the position to determine the quality of our own lives, and more important,
the lives of our children. Already the influence of the negative images projected by
some Black folks have filtered down to our offspring. In their attempts to emulate their
elders, Black kids are beginning to take on the psychological posture of the street
wise. They are being taught (through words and action) that the only way to get ahead
in this world is to "get the money" and "go for self." Such values are mere reflections of
a potentially destructive sub-culture organized within the social order of a modern
technological society. What we must understand is the institutional process that is
constantly at work in our daily lives. Only with such an understanding can we begin to
make the struggle for liberation a part of our peoples' everyday life, uniting the large
objective struggle for liberation with our people's subjective struggle, and make them
one continuous movement.

Every institution in this racist class society serves the intended or unintended purpose
of maintaining the attitudes, and relationships of our destructive sub-culture. Welfare,
housing agencies, systems programs, courts, prisons and countless other ruling class
institutions reinforce negative relationships among Blacks. Our relationship and
dependence on these enemy institutions is total, and only with their collapse can true
alternative institutions prosper, but the process must begin now. We must not only build
alternative social, economic, and political institutions, but we must intentionally
sabotage, overload, and destroy existing ruling class institutions in the process.

Part of our socialization process is the reality of prison and "crime." Crime in a
capitalist society has a class basis, and is punished in accordance with this class
basis. The whole of capitalist society is predicated upon exploitive relations, and thus
lower class crime is a reflection of ruling class criminal values and practices. In the
Black community the average inmate is exposed to, and preyed upon by these very
criminal values. We knock each other in the head, rob each other, burglarize each
other's apartments, sell dope as a means of "getting over" because we each want
what the system of capital has defined as being of value, but has forbidden us to
acquire in "legitimate" fashion. In a society that views a persons material things as
determining his or her worth, we are the most hungry to be of "worth," crime is
essentially illegitimate capitalism in such an arrangement. We are socialized into this
distorted existence and can hardly see the root causes that make our community
havens for dope sellers, mack men, and hustlers.

The reality of the Black experience in America has not only socialized us into living
illegitimate lives (in terms of capitalist law) but it has programmed us to expect and
look to the very institutions that created this socialization in the first place, for solutions
to our plight. We ask for more police in our community, when it is the police that serve
a repressive role in maintaining our oppression. We condone and glorify traitors and
snitches, when in the future our very survival will depend on ideals contrary to such vile
acts. We ask for stiffer jail sentences for those convicted as "criminals," when it is
prisons that help maintain destructive social relations in our community. The fact that all
of America is a prison escapes us. This reality has enabled Black folk to adapt so
readily to the transition from "street life" to life behind the walls. There is a dialectical
and fundamental relationship between the two that reinforces the destructive aspect of
Black social relationships.

The weakening of the Black family, the socialization of exploitive male female
relationships, the basic fabric that supports cultural genocide can all be found in the
social role that prisons and crime play in a destructive subculture. Hardly a Black
family, hardly a Black person is without at least one relative or friend behind prison
wails, or know of someone in human cold storage. Our social acceptance of this cold
fact is in reality our cultural response to the effect of powerlessness as a people. We
must begin to determine our lives by creating community institutions of revolutionary
justice outside the structure of capitalist law. This means we must create armed
political organs in our community to enforce our community interest, and create new
values based on our people's social interest. It will not do to forego this vital aspect of
our struggle, we must build it now.

Why is the construction and maintenance of community based armed cadres
necessary? Because the enforcement of revolutionary justice in our communities is
first a political question that cannot be answered by the existing oppressive system,
but outside its control. Secondly, the very nature of corruption, crime in our
communities, the negative class role of the courts, prisons, and other related
institutions, must be combated with enforcement of our own laws, laws beneficial to our
people and our struggle for liberation. Thirdly, if we construct our own agencies of
revolutionary justice, arm them and politicize their ranks, we are creating the necessary
machinery for survival, while actively repressing those values and elements in our
community that prey on our people. Finally, we should realize that until our powerless,
poor, and unconscious people can call someone else other than the oppressors' storm
troopers for protection, we are ineffective as a revolutionary movement.

Complementary to creating our own social force of "law" enforcement is the struggle to
take over, dismantle, and weaken the oppressors police apparatus in our community.
This apparatus must be neutralized at the same time that our own apparatus is being
built. The two are dialectically opposed to each other, yet there is a complementary
aspect. Community control of police, residence of the police in the community in which
they work, are all reform issues that tactically are complementary to building our own
system of community revolutionary justice. These reform issues should be the
continued target of the mass front, while the creation of community based armed
cadres for the enforcement of revolutionary justice is the proper province of
clandestine activity.

We maintain that in the social revolution for Black liberation, it is a principled necessity
that any creation of a national Black front must first and foremost deal with the social
effects of a destructive sub-culture by creating and directing a system of revolutionary
justice that will protect and defend our people against reactionary behavior. This is the
social aspect of Black liberation for the immediate future.


LEADERSHIP OF THE STRUGGLE

It is important that the leadership of our struggle come from among our own people,
just as it is crucial that we build the necessary machinery that will develop this
leadership. The problem of leadership has always been a vexing one for Black people.
We must break with the old style of leadership forced upon us by the prevailing class
standards or we will fail in our struggle. Nonetheless, leadership is important,
especially to Black people, and without it we will never triumph in our struggle.

It is past time that Black intellectuals, professionals, and so-called Black scholars
assumed a more active role in the leadership of the liberation struggle, instead of
laying back theorizing and writing essays in a vacuum, or in various Black bourgeois
publications.

We realize that many of our Black scholars have their minds in pawn to the ruling class,
we are not primarily addressing ourselves to these particular individuals, but to those
brothers and sisters who have a relatively high level of awareness (political) and to
those Black intellectuals who are anti imperialist, anti capitalist) and pro Black
liberation. It is these Black intellectuals who must assume new positions of leadership
in our struggle by helping to build the necessary revolutionary apparatus that will forge
total liberation.

On the armed front it is these intellectuals who must become the political leadership
and work in creating a far reaching and effective apparatus. Our struggle for Black
liberation is a revolutionary struggle, for it implies the transformation of the whole of
American society if it is to succeed, and Black intellectuals have a clear obligation to
this process. We have seen how the capitalist state uses its intellectuals and
institutions of "higher education" In order to continue, its exploitive policies) and we as
a people must utilize our professionals and intellectuals in the total process of

liberation and destruction of capitalistic society. Our principled call for a national Black
revolutionary front will never become a reality without such leadership of Black
intellectuals with concrete and clear revolutionary politics. The B.L.A. will never
subordinate itself to such a front unless leadership of this caliber is evident. Our
intellectuals must make a firm commitment to improving the quality of our struggle on
all fronts, military, mass front, electoral politics, legal front, etc. For us the creation of a
revolutionary front and its military arm are worthy tasks for our intellectuals to pursue in
the revolutionary process. There can be no struggle without sacrifice, and our Black
intellectuals must begin to apply this principle to themselves as well as others.

It is clear to us that the so-called lumpen class cannot carry our liberation struggle
forward on its own. This is because of their class nature: undisciplined, dogmatic, and
easily prone to diversion. This class however will supply some of the most dedicated
comrades to the struggle. 'But we must clarify our view of the lumpen class as a whole.
The traditional concept of lumpen as a category of the lowest social strata in an
industrialized society, unemployed, etc., is a description that fits not only brothers and
sisters that hang out in the street all day long and survive in that fashion, but it also fits
a great segment of Black people who are marginally employed and who for various
socio-economic reasons think essentially the same as the classical "lumpen."
Therefore, we must make a clear distinction between the economic definition of
lumpen (the relationship of that class to the means of production) and the attitudinal,
behavioral definition which can readily apply to a larger proportion of our people. When
we use the term lumpen, we are using the broad definition.

The unemployment rate among Black people is a little over twice that of the white
population, placing it roughly at 20%. This to us is still a conservative estimate. But if
we consider the population ratio of Blacks to whites, such a high rate of unemployment
represents a considerable number of the total amount of Black people. Therefore, in
strictly social terms, the lumpen class represents a very large segment of the Black
population, a segment who in our estimation will be the first to grasp the realities of
capitalist repression. This as it may be, we still realize the limitations of this class in
moving our struggle forward, their class tendencies make them ideal targets of the
enemy, as agents, infiltrators, as well as some of these same tendencies contribute to
making the lumpen class staunch comrades in struggle. When we realize the real
limitations of this class, we as a movement will begin to create a more dynamic
revolutionary process.

The Black bourgeoisie (from which most Black intellectuals, professionals, come)
cannot by themselves lead our struggle, not because they are incapable of leadership
but because their class nature is more reactionary than revolutionary. The tendency to
vacillate, compromise with the ruling class enemy, opportunism, and lack of
commitment to any revolutionary principles, are typical traits of this class. It is from this
class that the enemy has drawn the majority of so-called "endorsed" spokesmen, and
it is this class from which the majority of poverty pimps spring forth.

But this class can supply the movement with some dynamic leadership as well as
devoted comrades. Those truly progressive elements of the Black bourgeoisie that
can be won over to the side of the liberation struggle should be focused on by the
movement and principally dealt with. The failure of the liberation movement to put the
Black bourgeoisie principally against the wall is inexcusable. For if the people are to
understand the impotency of our bourgeoisie, its opportunism, and the role they are
made to play in maintaining our collective oppression, the movement as a whole must
create conditions that will lead to such an understanding.

We have witnessed the ruling class crisis of Watergate, and the division it has caused
within the ruling circles. This division was essentially based on repairing the body
politic of capitalist rule. The "crisis of confidence in government" was a crisis for the
ruling economical circles, for they had to not only restore "faith" in their system of rule
(political system) but they also had to find a political front man upon which they all could
agree, and in whom the masses would have some degree of confidence. Yet the
revelations of Watergate (which were essentially of a political nature dealing with the
ruling class parties) had profound implications for our struggle. It hinted at the extent to
which our movement has and is repressed by the reactionary government. An ideal
opportunity existed for the movement as a whole to put our so-called "elected leaders"
of the Black bourgeoisie against the wall. But the movement never seized the
opportunity presented. No consistent widespread call was put to Black politicians to
conduct a unilateral investigation into the government repression of the Black liberation
struggle, and into political espionage against the Black movement. Such a demand
could have revealed glaring repression (and thereby weaken the mental residual belief
in our oppressors' "fair" system) or as was more likely, the real impotency of our Black
elected officials would have been clearly revealed (thereby weakening the confidence
in bourgeois electoral politics to effect change). Of course no such widespread call
was made, and therefore no such result. It is this lack of practical class struggle that
inhibits the growth of the mass front. The Black bourgeoisie must be put into objective
conditions that can benefit our struggle, or enhance the people's awareness as to what
they are "truly about. Only in this way can those progressive elements within their ranks
come to the fore.

The majority of Black people are workers and as such suffer all the exploitation of the
working class in a capitalist society. In addition to this, however, Black workers suffer
the vicious effect of institutionalized racism. Black workers are the lowest paid, the
most marginally employed, and the most economically insecure. The impact of
technology will further erode -the employ-ability of the Black worker, for in the majority
of cases the educational background of Black workers are lower than their white
counterparts. Education for Blacks has always been another method of programming
Black people into the lowest strata of capitalist society insuring generations of
exploitable and marginal labor.

We view the Black working class as the basis for the success of our struggle, not
because of its political consciousness (which is still very low) and not because of its
class nature (more disciplined, industrious), but because of its sheer numbers and
because of its economic role in the Black community. We do not think that Black
workers' relationship to the productive forces of this society is essentially different from
any other class of Blacks due to racism. Although there are some differences there
seem to be no essential differences. Black folks in total suffer the same relationship to
capitalist productive forces, some more so than others, but all essentially the same.

Just as we have made a distinction between the purely economic definition of the
lumpen and the attitudinal definition of the lumpen, we are forced to make a similar
distinction between bourgeois attitudes and working class attitudes. All those who
must work are workers, but all workers are not of the working class. Such as police
and prison guards who serve a reactionary class function, or those that work, yet
maintain the upper middle class behavioral patterns and attitudes.

We therefore define the working class (and bourgeoisie) not solely on their economic
relationship to the productive forces, but also on how they view themselves and society
and behave as a result. Thus the Black bourgeoisie is a sham bourgeoisie, for it has
no real economic base (in comparison to white capital) but its attitudes are real and
strongly affect their class character. The Black working class has the economical basis
of a working class, but many of them have the mentality of the sham bourgeoisie, which
effects their social response to certain class ideas. Thus you have a Black family that
can barely make ends meet with all the ideas of the Black bourgeoisie, "putting their
daughter through school society," attending "cocktail sips," etc. Nonetheless, we
perceive the Black working class as the socioeconomic basis of Black liberation.
The Black working class, like any other unconscious working class has no
revolutionary identity at best, no consciousness of itself as a revolutionary class. To
move the enemy is to move the working class, for the enemy is the factor that
determines our relationship to each other. This can only be done through active
struggle on all fronts, it is the sum total of this process that brings about revolutionary
conditions, not the parts in and by themselves.

We can then say that the leadership 'of the Black liberation struggle will come from the
most advanced elements within each class of the Black population, and because of
the objective conditions certain classes will gravitate toward particular fronts of
struggle more so than others, and it is on these particular fronts of struggle that
leadership will be developed, culminating in some form of collective leadership for the
entire movement (as conditions dictate such unity for mutual survival). We already see
this trend in the movement today. However, the basis of the movement will increasingly
depend on the Black working class and its ability to perceive the nature of capitalism,
racism, and the politics of these twin evils as they relate to our survival as a people.
The primary factor in developing such a consciousness is the enemy, is increasing
crisis, and social reaction to his dilemma. Therefore we must increase his problems a
thousand fold, while building our capacity to struggle. Yet we do not see the Black
bourgeoisie as the primary class leading the masses of Black people into a higher
degree of revolutionary consciousness. Experience has taught us that the Black
bourgeoisie as a class has certain ideological tendencies. It is these tendencies if not
curbed, that limit the revolutionary potential of this class of Blacks. The era of civil
rights, has shown us that any thrust of our liberation struggle primarily led by this class
will never exceed the bourgeois goals of the class itself. Such being the case, the
racist ruling circles have always found it more "acceptable" to concede to Black
bourgeois demands and thereby diffuse any revolutionary movement among the
masses of Blacks who are not yet conscious of their revolutionary potential. The racist
oppressor has a natural ally in the Black bourgeoisie, because this class above all is
the most opportunist.

We still hold fast to the premise that the Black bourgeoisie in the U.S. is essentially a
colonial type bourgeoisie, that at one moment supports the legitimate aspirations of
the "colony" (for its own bourgeois ends) and at other moments opposes these
aspirations when their bourgeois leadership position is threatened. The history of the
reformist civil rights phase of the Black liberation struggle proves "this beyond a doubt.
Recognition of these tendencies in this class of Blacks should not deter the
revolutionary segment of the movement from requiring of the Black bourgeoisie certain
responsibilities, namely, that it is still their duty to build a movement that will lead in the
ultimate destruction of the capitalist state and self determination for Black people for
only under these conditions will our survival as a people (a free people) manifest itself.

Considering our just given overview of the classes, and class nature of the Black
liberation struggle, we contend that if the Black working class is the basis for our
struggle succeeding, and that each of the primary categories of the Black population
will assume some leadership responsibilities in leading the struggle, the primary
category of Blacks that will constitute the dynamic revolutionary leadership of the
movement will be the Black students, and youth as well as those young Black adults
who have acquired the basics of professional training but have refused to continue in
the same narrow vein as their parents. The crucial element in developing this dynamic
potential is the training of this segment of the Black population. Our youth, students and
young fledgling professionals must be politicized more, involved in struggle, and
trained in the art of protracted war. Over half of the Black population is under the age of
30, and we as a movement must realize their true potential. For, if we don't, the enemy
surely will, and intensify their programs aimed at dehabilitating our young.


WHAT IS PROTRACTED WAR IN THE BLACK LIBERATION STRUGGLE?
 

If the nature of the crisis of the system of oppression is protracted, that is, drawn out
over a considerable period of time, then our struggle to defeat this exploitive system
and acquire self determination is also of a protracted nature. But why a protracted
war?

The very reality of Black people's experience in North America proves that we are and
have been in a state of war. This is a difficult realization for many to make, especially
those who still have their minds in pawn to the great American delusion, but often the
truth is harsh in its naked form. The nature of this war assumes many different guises,
sometimes overtly violent, sometimes economically restrictive, and still other times
socially repressive. If we bear in mind that the modern wars of U.S. imperialism waged
against Third World people have not all been completely military campaigns, but have
also included social pacification programs, economic aid to reactionary regimes,
political police extermination of legitimate opposition and the like, then it should not be
too hard for us to realize that in its policies against Blacks, poor people, and other
national minorities, the U.S. government is waging an undeclared war. The primary
aspects of this undeclared war are class repression, and casualties can be counted on
both the welfare unemployment rolls, and the statistics of murdered Black youth and
prison crime reports.

This undeclared war has masked itself as "domestic reform," "law and order," and "a
return to traditional American values" a la Nixonian doctrine. The ending of overt U.S.
military involvement in Vietnam has led to an increasingly reactionary stance on the
part of the majority of white Americans. The vile and deceitful nature of America's
institutions were revealed glaringly by the Vietnam imperialist venture, and has cast
many into the pit of uncertainty.

Of course the post Vietnam revelations of government deception told Black people
nothing "new" about the ruling class institutions of American society. But it revealed
these institutions for what they are, for the first time America could see what was
perpetrated in their name. This was/is most uncomfortable, for white America
cherishes its self deceptions of righteousness and democracy. With the eroding of
these self delusions, our position as a national minority has become increasingly
endangered. There is the foul odor of reactionary "Americanism" in the air, fanned and
blown into the confused faces of white America by a ruling class beset with all manner
of economic political and social ills - - which demand attention. (The landslide victory of
Nixon in '72 was an endorsement, conscious or unconscious, of white America's
deep seated reactionary nature and confusion as manifested in the Nixonian doctrine).

Imperialism is the final stage of over-developed capitalism. It is the international control
of monopoly corporate capital over the economic, social, and political lives of over half
the world's people. Imperialism is also the extension of the capitalist ruling class's
political control on the international level, which has called into existence the
organization of neo-colonial relationships with the national bourgeoisie of former
colonies. Neo-colonialism, then, is the highest stage of imperialism, for it substitutes
the faces of the oppressor while maintaining the exploitive relationship of imperialism.
Because imperialism is international in scope, the fight against it must also be
international. For until all people affected by it are free, no one will be free. Capitalism
must be destroyed wherever it exists and we must mutually support each others
struggles against it. To relate Pan-Africanism to the realities of the world today, we
must never lose sight of the true nature of imperialism and its number one exponent,
U.S. imperialism. Pan-Africanism that does not deal with neo-colonialist lackeys, but
instead obscures the exploitive policies of these lackeys for the sake of Blackness, is
nothing more than bourgeois nationalism taken to the international level. A
Pan-Africanism that does not support the struggles of other Third World peoples
against reactionary imperialist control, is not true revolutionary internationalism, and
hence narrow cultural nationalism on the international level. In order for Pan-Africanism
to be truly progressive, it must not only advocate the necessity for Black international
unity against racism, it must put racism in its true perspective. It must also advocate
Black and Third World unity against imperialism and neo-colonialism everywhere.
Which means internal solidarity among national minorities within the confines of the
U.S. A Pan-Africanism that does not clarify to Black people the economic basis for all
national oppression cannot possibly explain the very fact that there are Black
governments that exploit and assist in the oppression of Black people, and therefore
will be unable to deal with the dialectics of racism correctly. It is the duty, therefore, of
Pan-Africanism, to clarify and explain to Black people exactly who the enemy is. The
enemy is international capitalism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism, and all those in
league with these reactionary forces on the world scene.

The question of which road against racism and imperialism for the Black liberation
movement here in the U.S., is a question that has been kicked around by everyone
from doctrinaire narrow Black nationalists to the most reformist minded "Black
intellectuals." Although it is not our intention to answer this question in its entirety, it is
our intention to make the following points:

               1. Whatever the ideological differences within the
               liberation movement here in the U.S., our
               movement must persuade those countries that are
               Black and truly anti imperialist, to take a principled
               stand on the issue of political fugitives from the
               shores of the U.S.A.

             2. That the nature of imperialism and racism
               requires of all those that oppose these twin evils the
               utmost in mutual support short of actual interference
               within the national struggle of a particular people.

In respect to point number one, it should be obvious to all elements of the Black
liberation movement that things will get worse before they can possibly get better. The
crisis of the capitalist system, increased domestic reaction, and other factors indicate
that Black people will feel the ramifications of contradictions more so than any other
class or group in this country. We can no longer sit by and rationalize the fact of the
repressive apparatus of the ruling classes arrayed against our struggle. It would be
incorrect for any responsible movement activist not to prepare for eventualities that the
struggle for liberation may be confronted with.

We all must consider that any intensification of our struggle will lead to an increase of
repression. This should not be feared as the pseudo revolutionaries would have us do.
Instead, we should see any intensification of repression as a necessary result of our
increased efforts toward full freedom and prepare for it. Essential to such preparation
is the establishment of principles of political sanctuary beyond the shores of the
imperialist U.S.

We cannot but note that a real friend does not turn you away from his door in times of
danger, and just as those independent and progressive nations of Africa principally
support and give sanctuary to the freedom fighters of Africa, it is equally as principled
that the movement for Black liberation within the U.S. be supported in a like fashion.
Every group, every organization in the struggle for self determination, should put "this
request high on the agenda of tasks to be dealt with. Our movement as a whole should
make the principled stand that our right to struggle) and the mutual obligation to
support all anti imperialist movements is more than mere rhetoric, and as such we as
a movement should be supported on the international level.

The second point deals with the basis for our contention that support is necessary, for
without a unity in effort world wide imperialism will not be defeated, nor racism
eradicated.

It is the international web of U.S. imperialism, its profound effect on the lives of the
worlds people that puts our struggle in such a crucial strategic position. International
support should be based on this strategic premise, for if self determination is a
legitimate goal of our struggle it will ultimately become an international question. As a
movement we will be unable to create the principled international support necessary if
we do not speak as one voice. Thus the principle of a National Front has clear
international implications and is conducive in creating a unity in effort on the
international level. To create the type of solidarity needed we should emphasize
practical approached. Sanctuary for our movement's activists is a practical approach
that can develop into the establishment of a permanent strategic headquarters abroad,
out of the immediate reach of the enemy, and able to give strategic guidance to the
movement during heightened repression. There are other such practical approaches
already in motion.

It is incorrect for those involved in the struggle to attend international conferences
without putting -the question of practical and principled support of our movement on the
agenda, this every organization should at least agree with in principle. In terms of
international solidarity, the same principle holds true for other progressive nations that
also holds true for us. We rely primarily upon our own resources but we do not refuse
revolutionary aid offered in the spirit of solidarity. Our principle of self reliance is not
compromised as a result of seeking concrete international support, it is enhanced by
its revolutionary nature.

We find it absurd that many brothers and sisters can support the armed struggles in
Africa and not support the armed front at home. This is adopting the posture of
solidarity with the essential spirit and revolutionary substance. It comes as no surprise
than that progressive struggles do not support our movement as they should, how can
they when we ourselves do not support our own? In the final analysis true revolutionary
internationalism begins at home. It begins with basic principles of revolutionary
struggle.

In summation, the Black Liberation Movement must move forward into the international
arena with clear revolutionary politics instead of "community oriented perspective"
devoid of broad and far reaching understanding. Revolutionary nationalism is and
must be revolutionary internationalism, Pan-Africanism if it is to be revolutionary must
express not only international Black solidarity, but revolutionary solidarity with ail
oppressed peoples struggles against U.S. imperialism.


ALLIANCES WITH WHITES
 

We are opposed to unprincipled class collaboration in our struggle for liberation, for
unprincipled class collaboration can only weaken and dilute our struggle. On the other
hand, we uphold the principle of unity based on struggle around issues that relate to
our peoples revolutionary development. The principle of unity on struggle does not
remove our right to principled criticism of reactionary ideas and struggle with incorrect
views.

The question of Black White alliances is both a tactical and strategic question of
policy, that can only be answered by given objective conditions and not by emotional
reflex. Many brothers and sisters think that under no circumstances should we as Black
people enter into alliances with whites. These comrades consistently confuse alliance
with bourgeois integration, or they maintain that all whites are our enemy, and therefore
to have any alliance with whites can only lead to co-optation of our forces. Still other
arguments maintain that in Black White alliances we will be "fronted off" and for whites'
own benefit. Some argue these views ideologically, in that they believe that a method)
ideological system, if invented by whites cannot be adapted to, modified and
developed to serve Black folks. It is a good thing Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Amilcar Cabral,
Kim II Sung and a host of other revolutionaries who led successful struggles did not
think with such blinders.

The root cause of such incorrect views of alliances with whites is "fear" and lack of
confidence in the forces that we ourselves build, we as a people are not at all used to
dealing with white folks from a position of power and we fear that we will be
manipulated against our will. Another contributing factor in creating our narrow
perspectives is the fact that because we lack a clear understanding of class struggle
we are unable to see the real differences that exist among whites themselves, and are
unable to exploit these differences for our own struggle. Nothing is absolute, including
white folks and their alleged unity. To persist in the incorrect view that whites are
all embracing in their unity among other whites is a stupid and childish myth that we
have as a people. It is a confusion an oppressed people make when confronted with a
seemingly all powerful system of oppression, we have confused the appearance of the
system with its substance. In capitalist society class struggle, inter group antagonism,
ethnocentric divisions, are all at the basis of such a system. Competition is the order of
the day, and class unity, group unity, are all transitory, subject to change at any given
moment. The historical fact that out of such conflict racism has evolved as culturally
typical of all white society should not obscure the real differences among whites based
on economic, social, and political position, we combat racism with revolutionary
nationalism and a Black revolutionary united front, not with reactionary nationalism and
racism. We combat economic exploitation with revolutionary class struggle waged
against the capitalist class and their flunkies. These are the methods the movement
should employ, revolutionary nationalism secures in our own hands our movement for
self determination, and thus combats the historical dynamic of white racism, while
revolutionary class struggle allows us to defeat our class oppressor and enter into
alliance beneficial to us.

Revolutionary struggle is a process, and like all things, goes through stage of
development, setbacks, and periods of dormancy, at one point uniting seemingly
contradictory elements, and at another eliminating these elements. The principles of
united fronts, principled alliances, are basic recognition of this dialectical process of
social change. Alliances based on revolutionary class consciousness and around our
national interests as a people can never be "integration." Integration is a class
collaboration of an unprincipled and reactionary nature, for it is based on the
revolutionary considerations of our struggle must be principled ones, its principle
characteristic being our own working class interests as a people.

Does this mean Black White worker solidarity at any coast? Black White worker
solidarity cannot be attained at any cost, but at a particular cost. We do not agree with
white leftist revisionists the Black and white workers share the same interests because
they are both workers. While this may be true on a tactical level (specific struggles
around certain issues), it is not true on a strategic level. Strategically speaking (long
range) the Black workers ultimate goal is the same as the masses of Blacks, which is
toward national self determination as a people, the creation of a socialist state, or
Black nation places different requirements on Black worker our move is for
autonomy our working class must not exist for any other state but our own. Whereas
the white worker has an historical obligation to create his own socialist relationships.
The cultural, and social dynamics of racism mandates this distinction if we are not to
fail victim to poorlessness in the future when capitalist relations are abolished. National
self determination is therefore a necessary stage for both Blacks and whites in
creating new human beings able to relate to each other. Thus Black worker white
worker solidarity can only be a tactical policy not a complete strategy having as its end
one socialist entity as the revisionists would have us believe. Recognition of our right
to national self determination is not compromised when we clearly understand our
tasks as a movement. Both the establishment of a Black revolutionary Nation based on
socialist relations, and overthrowing the present capitalist system and establishment of
predominantly white workers state, are complementary struggles, and as such there
will be tactical unity around issues that affect both Black and white workers. This is not
integration.

On the armed front, solidarity is based upon revolutionary action. We recognize the
legitimacy of all revolutionary violence against the capitalist corporate state, its ruling
classes, and its institutions. Militarily speaking, clandestine alliances between different
revolutionary armed formations is a matter of coordinating command first. Until such
time as the armed front develops its logistical machinery in depth, such coordination of
command is unlikely. But for the Black liberation movement, its armed front, and its
entire clandestine network, there is no hang-up concerning ideological, or military
control of our struggle by whites. Organized armed struggle has freed us of this fear so
typical on the mass front. Our formations are Black led controlled and organized to win
our fight for liberation.

The Black liberation movement must be a principled and revolutionary movement, or it
will be unable to lead our struggle for freedom forward to final victory. The question of
Black White alliance is not a question of should we form such alliances, but a question
of when and with whom. To consider an tactical alliances that are in our own best
interests, and that strengthen our struggles position as "integrationist," is therefore an
incorrect view to ally oneself with something is not to necessarily bring that thing into
your ranks and give it control over your political policy. We refute all ideas that confuse
principle revolutionary unity with unprincipled class collaboration.

In closing, it is clear that there is still much to be learned, and our movement will surely
encounter difficulties and setbacks in the coming years. We must prepare ourselves,
our people, and our ideas for the long and difficult road ahead. Our preparation must
be thorough and complete, for our very existence will depend on how well we prepare
on all fronts of the struggle. We are in the turbulent years, the hard years. Black people
and oppressed people throughout the world are entering the season of struggle.

            THE SOONER BEGUN, THE SOONER DONE!  The BLA

ORIGINALLY RELEASED 1976/1977



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