black power
Articles about the theory and practice of various groups and movements under the black power banner.
The League of Revolutionary Black Workers and the coming of revolution - Eric Perkins
Contemporary article on the League of Revolutionary Black Workers from Radical America which, though uncritical of their nationalistic sentiments, contains a lot of interesting information.
(Radical America Vol 5, #2 1971)
DRUM: vanguard of the black revolution
A short history of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, detailing their beginnings as well as their opposition to the United Auto Workers union.
(from an article by Luke Tripp which appeared in The South End, the student newspaper at Wayne state University, January 23, 1969)
DRUM is an organization of oppressed and exploited black workers.
From repression to revolution - speech by Kenneth V. Cockrel
Kenneth V. Cockrel's speech at a repression conference in Detroit outlining some problems with the focus of radical black groups away from struggle and towards fighting repression.
The ensuing speech was made by Kenneth V. Cockrel at a repression conference held at Saint Joseph's Church, January 30, 1970, under the planning and sponsorship of Newsreel in Detroit. The speakers were Robert Williams, former President of the Republic of New Africa; Emory Douglas, Minister of Culture of the Black Panther Party; and Attorney Kenneth V.
The carrot and the stick: December 11, 1968
DRUM's attack on the spectacle of the Chrysler Corporation's "milestone agreement" to "pour $1,000,000 into colored-owned banks in three US cities".
(from DRUM Newsletter Number 24)
A disgrace before God: Striking black sanitation workers vs. black officialdom in 1977 Atlanta
This article is a case study of the betrayal of the African American working class by the Black political class brought to power by the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960's.
"A disgrace before God"
Black particularity reconsidered - Adolph L. Reed Jr.
An in-depth 1970s analysis of how the management of black dissent by the black American middle-class/professional elite helped restructure capitalism to its own advantage.
"[i]Black Power presupposed a mass-organizational model built on the assumption of a homogeneity of black political interests to be dealt with through community leadership. It is this notion of "black community" that has blocked development of a radical critique in the Civil Rights movement by contraposing an undifferentiated mass to a leadership stratum representing it.
Black Autonomy: Civil Rights, the Panthers and Today
[b]In May 2000 two anarchist ex-Black Panthers from America did a British speaking tour. Lorenzo KomBoa Ervin and JoNina Abron talked to groups ranging from white anarchos to mass black meetings on police racism.
The Black Panther Party for Self Defense
A short history of and comment on the revolutionary black American socialist organisation, the BPP, which at its height reached around 5,000 members, before disintegrating due to a campaign of state terror and internal problems.
(For a more critical look at the Panthers and their times see James Carr, The Black Panthers, & All That).
A Proletarian critique of the Nation of Islam - Melancholic Troglodytes
This is a proletarian critique of the U.S. based Nation of Islam (NOI). With anything between 20,000 and 100,000 members and capable of engineering massive reactionary mobilizations, the Nation represents a significant counter-revolutionary force. The pamphlet looks at NOI's history and evolution, the way it exploits its membership and its promotion of anti-working class, sexist, homophobic and racist ideology. Melancholic Troglodytes hope this text will encourage further analysis of NOI, religion and race from a class perspective.
James Carr, the Black Panthers and all that
"Jimmy was the baddest motherfucker..." - George Jackson.
A look at the life and times of James Carr and the Black Panthers and their relationship to the prison struggles and wider social movements of the 1960s.
