#intercommunalism

[moribondslut]

WHY BLACK MARXISM? WHY NOW?

[Cedric J. Robinson] found in the culture, in the anthem "Nkosi Sikelel' ¡Afrika" sung across the continent, a liberatory vision of "people building, sweating, and toiling for a new world." He met people determined to be free, willing to take on a settler regime backed by Western capitalist nations, by any means necessary. In this brief essay, we can see Cedric coming to terms with the Black Radical Tradition:

The African, unable to operate openly, resorted to the only weapons he has been allowed to keep; his mind and his hands. He burns down missions and farms in the country areas because he is not strong enough yet to face the guns in the cities and townships; where meetings are banned or closely watched, he sings spirituals as the American slaves did a hundred years ago, to tell his people that they will be free again, soon. He has sent delegations repeatedly to the U.N. to plead for his life. He has not been rejected but he has not been effectively helped either, but still he tries.

[Robinson] situates the revolt in Zimbabwe within a global context that links the Third World to the plight of Black America. "Africa understands, Asia understands, you and I and the millions of blacks in the U.S., Brazil, and the West Indies understand, not because we are black or brown but because we have lived it and are living it now." In a letter to his aunt Lillian and uncle Bill Kea, he is even more explicit about how Southern Africa clarified and bolstered his identification with radical nationalism. "Americans are afraid of nationalism," he mused, "so Negroes are admonished not to use terms such as Black folk. But as a recalcitrant nationalist... it was one of my greatest thrills to come to this place, to see my people and, in Nairobi, see them function as complete and responsible human beings. The smallest thing is significant to those who are hungry." — Robin D.G. Kelley's new foreword to the revised and updated third edition of Cedric J. Robinson's Black Marxism (1983, 2020)

[reasoningdaily]

The Black Panther Party [Reconsidered]

This FREE BOOK DOWNLOAD is from THE BLACK TRUEBRARY

The Black Panther Party [Reconsidered]

A collection of essays written by scholars and former Panthers incorporates participant-observer perspectives in an exploration of the party's organization, gender dynamics, and legacy

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Here is a searing, illuminating and unapologetic look at the Black Panther Party, whose 1966-1982 history is one of the most controversial and dynamic political dramas of our time.

Georgia State University African American studies professor Jones uses original writings from insiders, including former officials like former communication secretary Kathleen Neal Cleaver (who now teaches law in N.Y.C.), who writes about the Algerian exile she and her then-husband Eldridge Cleaver experienced during that era; and rank-and-filers like Steve D. McCutchen, whose Panther-era diary makes engrossing reading. The 18 chapters include original essays and memoirs by, and interviews with, former Panthers.

Contributors include scholars of Panther history like Stanford's Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest, Nakhil Pal Singh of N.Y.U., Clarence Lusane of American University and Trayce Mathews, a Chicago-based political activist whose dissertation explores gender dynamics in the Black Panther Party. Founded in Oakland, Calif., by Bobby Seale and the late Huey P. Newton to promote armed self-defense of the black community from an allegedly brutal police force, the Panthers soon grew into a national force.

The Panthers, argues contributor Chris Booker, "embodied the highest aspirations of a generation of radical African American youth." These essays are mainly sympathetic to the Panthers' aims, and there lingers among some of them a bit of uncritical nostalgia. But contributors also critically investigate the party's complex attitude toward violence (police reprisals and inner-party conflict killed over two dozen Panthers from 1967 to 1969), inner-party gender relations, the consequences of the unstable membership mix of political activists and quasi-criminal types, and the group's romantic notions of social revolution.

From Library Journal

Revisiting the revolutionary reputation of the Black Panther Party (BPP) of the turbulent 1960s, political scientist Jones (African American studies, Georgia State Univ.) contributes a six-part, 18-chapter probe of the reality behind the rhetoric and the substance behind the much-maligned Panther image.

The anthology mixes interviews with analysis, reflections, and recollections. Former BPP members such as Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Regina Jennings, and Melvin E. Lewis and others delve into the contextual landscape of the BPP's founding in October 1966, recruitment of rank and file, organizational and gender dynamics, decline, and complex legacy.

This work provokes serious thought about how authority in government and media manipulate public perception of black protest. But even more, it unfolds dimensions of the BPP as a base of black nationalism and a bridge to intercommunalism, signaling a move beyond mere memoir to helpful scholarship on the BPP's integrity and interactions.

THIS BOOK IS PROVIDED FREE COURTESY OF THE BLACK TRUEBRARY here on Tumblr

[embodiedfutures]

introductory excerpts on intercommunalism:

Introduction

Intercommunalism is an ideology which was adopted by the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party after its turn away from revolutionary nationalism in 1970. According to Huey P. Newton the development of intercommunalism was necessary "because nations have been transformed into communities of the world."[1] Intercommunalists believe that most forms of nationalism are obsolescent, because international corporations and technologically advanced imperialist states have reduced most nations down to a series of discrete communities which exist to supply an imperial center, a situation called reactionary intercommunalism. They also believe this situation can be transformed into revolutionary intercommunalism and eventually communism if communities are able to link "liberated zones" together into a united front against imperialism.[2] Intercommunalism is a lesser-known aspect of the Panthers' legacy as much of its development occurred at the height of the party's suppression and reorientation towards survival programs.[3][4][5]

Reactionary Intercommunalism

Newton believed that imperialism had developed into a stage of reactionary intercommunalism. Reactionary intercommunalism is typified by the development of a tiny community of elites with a monopoly on technology and state power within a single hegemonic empire (currently the United States).[15][5]

This 'ruling circle' is different from the Bourgeoisie, which the Panthers treated as a much broader phenomenon. Newton said that "[t]here are very few controllers even in the white middle class. They can barely keep their heads above water, they are paying all the bills, living hand-to-mouth, and they have the extra expense of refusing to live like Black people." The Black bourgeoisie in particular is a "fantasy bourgeoisie" which could be rallied to a revolutionary cause through sufficient education.[12]

The ruling circle's monopoly on technology and education is important to maintaining reactionary intercommunalism, as it prevents the rest of the world's communities from fulfilling their material needs independently of the center, leaving them dependent on the Empire for advancement.[15] The ruling circle uses 'peaceful co-optation' more often than military invasion to reinforce its aims.[5]

Reactionary intercommunalism allows for no independent national sovereignty, as the dominance of the global hegemon means that all nations bend to the 'weight' of its interests.[4] Instead nations have been reduced down to constituent communities, or "a small unit with a comprehensive collection of institutions that exist to serve a small group of people." Each of these communities "want to determine their own destinies," but can only do so by joining into a revolutionary bloc. All of the communities have no superstructure apart from global capitalism, and while they have different economic conditions they are all 'under siege' by the same forces.[15][4][5][10][9]

Newton believed that if allowed to continue, reactionary intercommunalism would bring more and more of the world's population into the lumpenproletariat, including white workers. However he did not think that this would end racism, in fact he thought white workers would increasingly blame their exploitation on minorities, especially the increasingly proletarianised third world.[5]

Revolutionary Intercommunalism

Intercommunalists believe that Revolutionary Intercommunalism will come about when communities are able to break the technological monopoly of the center. Through technology, communities would be able to solve material contradictions and "develop a culture which is essentially human." Even though the Panthers disavowed the nation-state as a viable form of revolutionary political struggle, they continued to support state socialist countries such as China, North Vietnam and North Korea against American Imperialism. Indeed, they were considered the vanguard of revolutionary intercommunalism through liberating territories and establishing provisional governments ahead of the global turn towards revolutionary intercommunalism.[16] However such states could still be co-opted into reactionary intercommunalism through the introduction of western markets.[5]

While the party no longer believed in Black nationalism, they continued to believe that Black Americans would play a special role within the struggle for revolutionary intercommunalism. Due to the Atlantic slave trade, Newton believed that Black Americans were the "first real internationalists" due to their mixed cultural origin and wide dispersal among a range of communities. Since he believed Black Americans constituted a significant force for revolution within the United States, and the destruction of the United States seemed to be a prerequisite for world revolution, the Panthers continued to view Black Americans as "the vanguard of the world revolution."[17]

Criticism

Intercommunalism was strongly opposed by some Black Panthers, especially those invested in the Party's strategy of forming internationalist alliances with foreign states. Cleaver denounced the Oakland chapter as the 'right wing' of the party for their rejection of guerrilla warfare. Assata Shakur was also critical of the theory's rejection of nationalism, saying that "The problem [with intercommunalism] was that someone had forgotten to tell these oppressed communities they were no longer nations." Others, like Mumia Abu-Jamal thought that intercommunalism was a terrible rhetorical strategy, as few understood the theory and many disliked Newton's public speaking. The differences over intercommunalism were also exacerbated by FBI wire-tapping and fake letters sent between the Oakland and Algiers sections of the party.[9]

[rasairui]

Idk I just have no patience for trans men/masculine people who refuse to acknowledge transmisogyny. Like. The worst experience I ever had with transphobia was when I was mistaken for a trans women. In a culinary program, I was cutting bell peppers, and one of the other students, a really big dude in a student leadership position, walks in and accusatory goes "so are you trying to be a woman, or something?" And I'm like. Well I'm trying to small dice these peppers. And I tell him I'm not a she and he says something to the effect of "Yeah I know that much." He makes some comment abt how whatever I'm doing doesn't make sense and he doesn't get it and when I tell him he doesn't have to, that he just has to respect it, he says "I don't have to do shit!" And gets real mad! Like actual threats mad! Tells me he could bash my skull in and to meet him outside for a fight and yeah it was fucking scary! The entire interaction I'm reminding myself that I'm the one currently holding a knife, if he tries anything.

Fast forward a few days later and my period is kicking my ass. Just absolutely destroying me. I'm in the dish pit, and I am visibly struggling, I'm nauseous, I'm in pain and bracing myself against walls. I'm not walking straight. And the same student leadership guy who was so aggressive with me when he thought I was transfem?

He tells me I look like I'm going to pass out. He says it's obvious I'm in pain, I shouldn't be in class, I can go sit down and if nobody can replace me he'll do the dishes himself.

Like. Do you get it yet. It's not just that he felt comfortable openly threatening me in a room full of other people when he thought I was a trans woman. It's that he did a complete 180 and was not only willing to support me, but actually pick up my slack once he knew I wasn't "that kind" of transgender. As soon as one of our classmates confirmed to him that I wasn't the wrong type of trans person I suddenly became someone who actually deserved care and compassion in his eyes. The "bigots think we're all the same and hate all of is equally" rhetoric isn't fucking true. It's just peddled to deny the privilege we have over other members of our community so it's easier to ignore how inhospitable supposedly trans-centric spaces are for TMA people.

[starryroe]

People in the transmisogyny tag stop saying trans men and nonbinary people are inherently more likely to be misogynistic than other people challenge

People in the transandrophobia tag stop saying or implying that trans women are the cause of every one of your problems, especially by saying things like "well they used to identify as boys" challenge

People in the exorsexism tag stop implying or even outright saying that society loves binary trans people challenge

Trans people venting about our oppressions stop saying that the biggest problems to said oppressions are caused by other trans people existing challenge

[intersexcat-tboy]

Calling people "afabs" is the "females" of the trans community

[giritina]

I just read maia crimews great article on the BRG tiktoks and felt vindicated to see the dog whistles called out for what they are. There are tons and tons of angles to analyze this from but I wanted to talk about the anti schizospectrum ableism. I get these videos on tiktok a lot and they're the biggest example I can think of of the aestheticized ~schizoposter~

I just want to highlight to people who might be thoughtlessly using the word schizo because it's becoming sort of memetic lately that this is the kind of person who started that meme.

People on 4chan and in alt right circles know that schizo is a slur and use it as such. But now they realize applying it to the self is a great way to normalize this edgelord shit while ostensibly being sort of "anti-ableist" or pseudo leftist via the framing of it as reclamation. People start out being minorly edgy, thinking they're joking about universal stereotypes people apply to the mentally ill, but it's a useful dog whistle for a reason.

I want to emphasize that you can't reclaim words that don't apply to you. Schizospectrum symptoms are real and that slur applies to real, specific people. The "schizo", a delusional, paranoid person, is not a trope formed from thin air. Learn about us and be our allies in the fight for disability justice and you'll be better for it. It'll be easier to spot this kind of shitty rhetoric even when it's disguised as harmless memes.

[actualalivecreature]

the fact that this has 500 notes, while just casually dropping ‘transandrophobia isn’t serious or real’ is so fucking sad and scary to me. how can you hate your fellow trans folks so much that you flat out deny their oppression exists (which in itself is an example of that oppression).

[chainmail-butch]

This means that I think the best way for communism to be practiced in the US is through the eviction of the police, the creation of citizen militias, and through Marxist control of local governing bodies.

A strong community is a well-educated community that protects its weakest members and denies the American military its recruits.

Revolutionary communities must support other revolutionary communities both domestically and abroad in order for any of us to succeed.

Vote blue and sharpen your knives.

I just got a hundred new followers which means I gotta post all my radical commie thoughts and separate the wheat from the chaff.

Anyway, I'm an intercommunalist and I believe that all communist action in the untied states should have the end goal of complete independence from the federal center.

[viciouslyrobotic]

Its not trans fems we need to be taking issue with, its patriarchy and polarizing ourselves only serves that. Trans radfeminism is already a polarized ideology and we do not need to feed into it to have our criticisms of those perpetuating transandrophobia.

Its also been primarily folk like fite-club (fellow trans mascs) going abt being egregiously transmisogynistic and transandrophobic, too, and it should NOT escape our purview that trans fems like starryjoy, velvetvexations and intersex trans fems like impunkster-syndrome have been called fakers or straight up cis/trans men pretending to be trans women for speaking up and supporting us including the trans fem HARASSED INTO SHOWING ID for fighting alongside us. Intersex folk in general have ALSO been getting thrown under the bus and ran over repeatedly by the discourse on all sides and we shouldn't be doing that!

It not only trans mascs that are continuously sticking up for us against trans radfeminism! And they are getting hurt with us because this ideology hurts ALL of us bc trans radfeminism relies on transmisogyny, exorsexism, intersexism and transandrophobia to sustain itself. Please don't lose sight of that.

Also fite-club if u see this purchase some glass cleaner or better yet a mirror bc not a single one of us is a reflection for you.

[embodiedfutures]

BFP just had a wonderful meeting and we talked about so many things! if you wanna be involved in conversations like these and help us start IN-PERSON, GLOBAL LIBERATION SCHOOLS, beginning with Washington, DC, New Orleans, LA, and Sydney, NSW, Australia (yep, that’s the big news we’ve been hiding), join our discord server (link in bio)! any and all ages/walks of life are welcome, but our main focus is on middle school through university-aged youth, esp youth of color!

i’m so excited to work with y’all :D

image description below

[ID: Screenshot of Reaux’s text message in Discord: “thank you everyone for coming, y'all were super engaged even tho it was a **3 HOUR MEETING!** the meeting recording will be uploaded within the next hour! as a VERY simplified recap we discussed:

- how chapters will function procedurally

- translocal organizing

- the Black Panther Party's oakland community school

- reactionary vs revolutionary intercommunalism

- dialectical materialism

- ALL 4 CHAPTERS of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed

- Stop Cop City updates and what that means for us”

/End ID.]

[shyjusticewarrior]

Chappell Roan being openly demisexual is really neat. I worry our community will ignore the ace part and only acknowledge her lesbianism.

[rasairui]

"The bigots up top think we're ALL fucked up! They want us ALL dead!" Hey that's cool dude you're right! Now are you saying this as a genuine expression of solidarity and community, or do you only bring this point up when the acknowledgement of intersectionality makes you uncomfortable? Is it a rallying cry, or a way to shut down people affected by intercommunity bigotry?

[starryroe]

I'll be fully honest rn, sometimes I get kinda scared of pointing out transmisogynistic and/or exclusionary behavior within some accounts that post in the transandrophobia tag, but it is mostly because I am terrified of my posts about it going out of target audience and people telling me "see!!they're turning on you now!!!" when every single transmasc I've ever shown these things to has agreed that yeah, they look pretty bad

anyways if your focus on defeating transandrophobia is on how there's some really mean trans women and you only ever talk about that (when the transandrophobic Tumblr community is full of self hating transmascs and there still being cis people yk) OR if you talk about such things as "every non-transmasc hates transmascs" / "trans men don't need trans women" (actual things I've seen in the tag) then I don't trust you and I never will

[ratmans-notebooks]

you guys HAVE to figure out how to be normal about aroallos yes even if you are on the ace/aro spectrum yourselves !

[intersexcat-tboy]

Twitter thread I just saw:

"he has no problem talking down to dead trans men who don't fall in line with his MRA worldviews either"

The quote from the nb trans guy in question: "this murdered trans man deserved better ):"