Palestine
by Marvin X
Black Scholar magazine, circa 1970
I am not an Arab, I am not a Jew
Abraham is not my father, Palestine is not my home
But I would fight any man
who kicked me out of my house to dwell in a tent
I would fight to the ends of the earth
someone who said to me
I want your house because my father lived here two thousand years ago
I want your land because my father lived here two thousand years ago
Jets would not stop me from returning to my home
Uncle toms would not stop me
Cluster bombs would not stop me
bullets I would defy.
No man can take the house of another
and expect to live in peace
There is no peace for thieves
for those who murder for myths ancient rituals
wail at the wall
settle in Judea and Samaria
fate awaits you
you will never sleep in peace
you will never walk without listening.
I shall cross the River Jordan
with justice in my hand
I shall return to Jerusalem
and establish my house of peace
thus said the Lord.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Gaza and Global Politics
Gaza may go the way of Falujah, the city in Iraq that was completely eradicated of resistance fighters by American troops after two American mercenaries were hung from a bridge. Except Gaza may suffer worse by the Zionists. Even as we write American made bunker -buster bombs are dropping on Gaza, one of the highest population density areas in the world, surely innocent civilians are “collateral damage” to a high degree. Four hundred have died already. Mosques, schools, hospitals and office buildings are being systematically destroyed by the bunker busting bombs of the made-in-America Zionists.
The Vandals are at it again, destroying the holy land. Because a Zionist child is peeing in her pants, you must destroy a nation of people who have every right to live, certainly as much right as your peeing children. At least only a few Palestinian children have been bombed to death in Gaza.
But let us be clear, this present battle was not only hatched in Israel and America, but in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It is a conspiracy between all of the above Sunni Muslims (with Jews and Christian Americans) against the coming power of Iran in the Shite crescent which includes Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and occupied Palestine, including the Gaza Strip.
Does the Hamas people of Gaza who voted in democratic elections for the rule of Hamas have the human right of self determination? So what if they are defined as terrorists by Israel, USA, and the Sunni Muslim reactionary regimes of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, along with the neo-colonial collaborator regime of Abbas and his PLO, who reminds us of Mbeki and his billionaire ANC revolutionaries in South Africa.
We only know that similar to the Black Panther Party in the USA, Hamas won the loyalty of the people by providing their essential needs, food, clothing and shelter, schools, clinics, and security, while the PLO partied in Europe with women and booze and money stolen from the national treasury of the Palestinian people.
The Zionists may win the battle of Gaza but they shall not win the war of liberation by the Palestinian people. The reactionary regimes of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and others have revealed their running dog connection with Zionism and American imperialism now called Globalism.
------------------
If you are brave in the African warrior tradition, invite Marvin to you black history celebration. Call 510-355-6339.
Gaza may go the way of Falujah, the city in Iraq that was completely eradicated of resistance fighters by American troops after two American mercenaries were hung from a bridge. Except Gaza may suffer worse by the Zionists. Even as we write American made bunker -buster bombs are dropping on Gaza, one of the highest population density areas in the world, surely innocent civilians are “collateral damage” to a high degree. Four hundred have died already. Mosques, schools, hospitals and office buildings are being systematically destroyed by the bunker busting bombs of the made-in-America Zionists.
The Vandals are at it again, destroying the holy land. Because a Zionist child is peeing in her pants, you must destroy a nation of people who have every right to live, certainly as much right as your peeing children. At least only a few Palestinian children have been bombed to death in Gaza.
But let us be clear, this present battle was not only hatched in Israel and America, but in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It is a conspiracy between all of the above Sunni Muslims (with Jews and Christian Americans) against the coming power of Iran in the Shite crescent which includes Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and occupied Palestine, including the Gaza Strip.
Does the Hamas people of Gaza who voted in democratic elections for the rule of Hamas have the human right of self determination? So what if they are defined as terrorists by Israel, USA, and the Sunni Muslim reactionary regimes of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, along with the neo-colonial collaborator regime of Abbas and his PLO, who reminds us of Mbeki and his billionaire ANC revolutionaries in South Africa.
We only know that similar to the Black Panther Party in the USA, Hamas won the loyalty of the people by providing their essential needs, food, clothing and shelter, schools, clinics, and security, while the PLO partied in Europe with women and booze and money stolen from the national treasury of the Palestinian people.
The Zionists may win the battle of Gaza but they shall not win the war of liberation by the Palestinian people. The reactionary regimes of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and others have revealed their running dog connection with Zionism and American imperialism now called Globalism.
------------------
If you are brave in the African warrior tradition, invite Marvin to you black history celebration. Call 510-355-6339.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Plato's Last Class
"Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."
--Ishmael Reed, author, novelist, McArthur Genius Award winner
After three years teaching on the streets of Oakland, Plato (Marvin X) was recently told by the Oakland Police that he can no longer vend his books or teach at 14th and Broadway, the crossroads of Oakland, no matter that the youth and adults of Oakland have had the pleasure of a leading writer and intellectual freely at their disposal, someone with whom they could engage on any topic, personal or political, religious or spiritual, matters of black consciousness and history.
In New York recently to see a production of his play Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam, at Woody King's New Federal Theatre, Marvin returned to his open air classroom but was soon approached by a police officer who informed him the area was off limits to vending (after three years with no hassle, with police present on the block daily)--although vending was merely a front for Marvin X to engage the people, discussing their needs. The poet had set up a micro-credit bank on his table from which anyone could borrow money to satisfy their hunger, need for transportation or whatever critical need they had. People who borrowed from the micro credit bank (basket) would come by to repay their loan.
Intellectuals and politicos such as OCCUR's David Glover, entrepreneur Geoffrey Pete, attorney Walter Riley, actor Michael Lange, photographer Gene Hazzard, educators Ptah Allah El and math teacher Ramal Lamar often gathered to discuss current events, especially happenings at Mayor Ron Dellums' City Hall across the street, or the Obama Drama Plato wrote about in the Oakland Post newspaper whose office is located down the block at 14th and Franklin Streets.
Is it possible the OPD moved on Plato because of his series of articles on OPD connection to the murder of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey? (See the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, San Francisco Bay view Newspaper; also the Cross and the Lynching Tree and Who Killed Chauncey Bailey, Oakland Post.)
Before the OPD arrived to close his classroom/clinic down, Plato had to deal with a potential suicide. A brother came to him saying he wanted to kill himself because he and his woman had gotten into it the night before. She had a restraining order on him but called his hotel room begging him to come over, so he did and soon they were arguing. He left assuming she would call the OPD. He told Plato he loved her, even though she was ball headed, had a hump in her back and walked with a limp. He said she told him she would search for him to the ends of the earth because she loved him too. Plato told him to get a grip on himself, but the young man said he wanted to kill himself. He was on the way to cash his check and turn himself in to the OPD since he presumed his woman had called them. He wanted to cash his check so he would have money on the books in jail. He said he had a good job with the City of San Francisco but didn't go to work that day because he was so upset. Plato saw tears coming from the eyes of this tall warrior who stood before him, humbled as a midget. Plato begged him not to commit suicide. He told him things have a way of working themselves out even when it appears all hope is lost. The brother left to cash his check so he would have money on the books.
A short time later several young black males gathered in front of Plato's table with Obama T shirts and Plato's books. The young brothers began shouting, "Obama, Obama, the first Black President." Plato joined them, but added to their chant, "Obama, Obama, the first Black President--now pull your pants up for the first Black President. Pull your pants up for the first Black President!" The brothers pulled up their pants, then asked for a free Obama button which Plato gave them. But then here comes an OG Negro who intervened, saying, "Leave them children alone, if they want to sag let them sag." Plato told the OG Negro to shut up and get out of his mix. He saw that maybe the source of youth ignorance is parental or elder ignorance. When the blind lead the blind they both fall into the ditch together, as the Bible tells us.
And then came the pig telling Plato to close it down, saying he was only doing his job to feed his family. Plato, being his arrogant self, took his time packing, especially since he had no fear of the OBP-- after all, his Black Panther friends Huey, Bobby and Eldridge used to shoot the OPD.
But on the spiritual plane one door closes and another opens. Down the block is De Lauer's Newsstand and bookstore which sells Plato's books. The century old business was recently bought by Ethiopians. Plato asked the owner Solomon if he knew what a writer in resident is? Solomon said yes. Plato said what is a writer in residence? Solomon said you! And so it is. Plato's new classroom will likely be at De Lauer's. Stay tuned.
"Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland."
--Ishmael Reed, author, novelist, McArthur Genius Award winner
After three years teaching on the streets of Oakland, Plato (Marvin X) was recently told by the Oakland Police that he can no longer vend his books or teach at 14th and Broadway, the crossroads of Oakland, no matter that the youth and adults of Oakland have had the pleasure of a leading writer and intellectual freely at their disposal, someone with whom they could engage on any topic, personal or political, religious or spiritual, matters of black consciousness and history.
In New York recently to see a production of his play Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam, at Woody King's New Federal Theatre, Marvin returned to his open air classroom but was soon approached by a police officer who informed him the area was off limits to vending (after three years with no hassle, with police present on the block daily)--although vending was merely a front for Marvin X to engage the people, discussing their needs. The poet had set up a micro-credit bank on his table from which anyone could borrow money to satisfy their hunger, need for transportation or whatever critical need they had. People who borrowed from the micro credit bank (basket) would come by to repay their loan.
Intellectuals and politicos such as OCCUR's David Glover, entrepreneur Geoffrey Pete, attorney Walter Riley, actor Michael Lange, photographer Gene Hazzard, educators Ptah Allah El and math teacher Ramal Lamar often gathered to discuss current events, especially happenings at Mayor Ron Dellums' City Hall across the street, or the Obama Drama Plato wrote about in the Oakland Post newspaper whose office is located down the block at 14th and Franklin Streets.
Is it possible the OPD moved on Plato because of his series of articles on OPD connection to the murder of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey? (See the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, San Francisco Bay view Newspaper; also the Cross and the Lynching Tree and Who Killed Chauncey Bailey, Oakland Post.)
Before the OPD arrived to close his classroom/clinic down, Plato had to deal with a potential suicide. A brother came to him saying he wanted to kill himself because he and his woman had gotten into it the night before. She had a restraining order on him but called his hotel room begging him to come over, so he did and soon they were arguing. He left assuming she would call the OPD. He told Plato he loved her, even though she was ball headed, had a hump in her back and walked with a limp. He said she told him she would search for him to the ends of the earth because she loved him too. Plato told him to get a grip on himself, but the young man said he wanted to kill himself. He was on the way to cash his check and turn himself in to the OPD since he presumed his woman had called them. He wanted to cash his check so he would have money on the books in jail. He said he had a good job with the City of San Francisco but didn't go to work that day because he was so upset. Plato saw tears coming from the eyes of this tall warrior who stood before him, humbled as a midget. Plato begged him not to commit suicide. He told him things have a way of working themselves out even when it appears all hope is lost. The brother left to cash his check so he would have money on the books.
A short time later several young black males gathered in front of Plato's table with Obama T shirts and Plato's books. The young brothers began shouting, "Obama, Obama, the first Black President." Plato joined them, but added to their chant, "Obama, Obama, the first Black President--now pull your pants up for the first Black President. Pull your pants up for the first Black President!" The brothers pulled up their pants, then asked for a free Obama button which Plato gave them. But then here comes an OG Negro who intervened, saying, "Leave them children alone, if they want to sag let them sag." Plato told the OG Negro to shut up and get out of his mix. He saw that maybe the source of youth ignorance is parental or elder ignorance. When the blind lead the blind they both fall into the ditch together, as the Bible tells us.
And then came the pig telling Plato to close it down, saying he was only doing his job to feed his family. Plato, being his arrogant self, took his time packing, especially since he had no fear of the OBP-- after all, his Black Panther friends Huey, Bobby and Eldridge used to shoot the OPD.
But on the spiritual plane one door closes and another opens. Down the block is De Lauer's Newsstand and bookstore which sells Plato's books. The century old business was recently bought by Ethiopians. Plato asked the owner Solomon if he knew what a writer in resident is? Solomon said yes. Plato said what is a writer in residence? Solomon said you! And so it is. Plato's new classroom will likely be at De Lauer's. Stay tuned.
A Look inside Baraka’s Toilet
By definition a classic is a work that withstands the test of time, fad, beyond the ephemeral. A classic theme deconstructs one or more of the eternal concerns of humanity, love, hate, life and death, or the problems of life that never seem to get solved even when the solution is quite apparent. The simple solution to hate is love, so simple we must revisit the question and solution from time to time.
Almost forty-five years ago, Amiri Baraka examined the themes of racism and homophobia in his one-act play The Toilet. The set is a high school men’s room, wherein he gathers a group of young men to decipher the meaning of love and hate. Mostly black, the young men appear to be at an urban manhood training rite. We see a myriad personalities expressing themselves in the rhythm and rhymes of the time—there are no pants sagging, no grills in teeth, but they are there seeking to discover their manhood, racial and sexual identity.
The tragedy of that time and this time is that their search for manhood and sexual identity is unorganized and haphazard, thus then and now young men must grapple with self discovery in isolated groups without mentor, elder or guide. No adult appears in the Toilet to give words of wisdom, thus the young men are adrift in their ignorance, seeking to find themselves in the midst of darkness. How ironic the setting is a high school where we assume learning is taking place, and yet learning occurs not in the classroom but the toilet. The toilet becomes the bush in African or primitive tradition, for there is terror, violence to bring transformation from hatred to love and interracial understanding.
A white boy writes a love letter to a black boy and the drama involves the resolution of this event. The white boy has crossed the racial line into the black brotherhood and suffers violence as a result—he his beaten into a pulp, bloody as a beet, half-dead when brought into The Toilet.
Gang violence is a natural happening in urban culture, senseless violence to express manhood; even sexual violence is a natural part of this oppressed society. And so the black boy is finally confronted by the white boy who loves him and the brother is physically overcome by the white boy to the chagrin of the black brotherhood. The white boy is again attacked by the toilet gang and all depart, including another white boy who had come to the defense of his white brother.
The Toilet ends with the black boy returning to embrace the white boy. Lights down.
What was Baraka trying to tell us forty-five years ago and what relevance has his message now? Since then gays and lesbians have come out of the closet, although the passage of California’s Proposition 8 denies them the right of marriage, and the gays are miffed at Blacks for supporting the proposition, although the president of the state NAACP in her role as a lobbyist opposed the bill, along with many black newspapers and several ministers who were probably paid to do so. Apparently a majority of blacks do not equate gay rights with civil rights. Are sexual rights human rights?
The question Baraka raised had to do with transcending hatred in favor of love. Proposition 8 denied gays and lesbians the right to codify their love in marriage.
Blacks are known to be sexually conservative, although they now have many children on the streets embracing the gay/lesbian lifestyle. Blacks are thus hypocritical and drowning in denial, in similar fashion to the black brothers in The Toilet who refused to consider that one of their own might have crossed the line, not only racially but sexually as well.
On my recent visit to New York to see Woody King’s production of my play (with Ed Bullins) Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam, Baraka’s The Toilet and Hugh Fletcher’s Amarie, I was accompanied by two lesbian assistants. Of course, being a dirty old man, I tried to get at them. (See my poem Why I Love Lesbians.) And they were highly upset at my offensive language, something they should have known I am known for by those who know me. Although I imagined them to be young women, with whom I could talk adult talk, they were suffering arrested development, in search of their sexual identity, much like the brothers in The Toilet.
Nevertheless, I wanted them to spend some time with Amina Baraka who is still in grief over the lost of her daughter Shani and her lover Rayshan to homicide. I thought conversing with the young ladies, 19 and 25, would help Amina heal from the horror of losing her only daughter by Baraka. She did meet the young ladies at the theatre and immediately saw the physical similarity between one girl and her daughter, Shani. “I knew you would see that,” I told Amina. The girl, Raushanah, like Shani, had been a point guard as well. We agreed to come to Newark to spend time with Amina, but after my verbal insults, the girls declined to make the trip, even though we reconciled our issues as best we could.
I made the trip to Newark alone to hang out with the Barakas, who had me bar hoping after a wonderful dinner at the Spanish restaurant across from city hall. One of the bars we visited is owned by former mayor Sharp James, now doing prison time for corruption.
I hadn’t planned to spend the night but Amina had other plans, so she made room for me in the space they have preserved for Shani. On my last visit, she had told me that I was the first person to spend the night in Shani’s room, filled with her artifacts, several basketball size trophies, numerous awards and proclamations to her athletic prowess and mentorship.
After the last bar, we headed home. Tired, I said goodnight to the Barakas and went upstairs to my room or rather, Shani’s room. I shut the door and looking around at Shani’s archives, something told me to say a prayer, so I did.
I got up the next morning early, way too early to disturb the Barakas, so I purveyed the room, and seeing the trophies were dusty, wiped them. I just happened to have a poem in my back pocket When Thy Lover Has Gone to Eternity, so I placed it between the trophies as an offering. I said another prayer before departing. And then I heard Shani speaking, saying, “No, no, no, no to hate, no, no, no, no.” She said, “Yes, yes to love, yes, yes, yes, yes.”
I shut the door and made my way downstairs, passing the sleeping Barakas and out into the cold Newark morning. At South Tenth and Clinton Streets I hailed a taxi, telling him to take me to John’s Place, my favorite breakfast spot in Newark . I ordered Whiting, grits and eggs, with biscuits that melted in my mouth. After breakfast, I walked to the bus stop for the ride to Penn Station and the train back across the river to New York . As I stood waiting for the bus, Shani spoke again in the winter wind, “No, no, no, no to hate. Yes, yes, yes to love.”
Shall we not love our gay children, the many young men and women who have chosen the gay lifestyle for whatever reason: we can say they were born that way, or have an identity crisis from feminine or matrifocal socialization (lack of manhood rites or womanhood rites), or there was sexual assault by a gay or lesbian relative, or incest by father, uncle, brother, cousin who turned the girl against all men. We can catalogue all the possibilities yet not get to the end of the road on this matter: our gay children need help!
They need love and support as they go through their daily round. We cannot simply look at them and reduce them to social rejects, pariahs we must shun at all costs as if they are not natural but some kind of mutants from Mars.
In short, they need our help with their growing pains. All children need love, recognition and acceptance. Do you think the gay children are not suffering the normal white supremacy virus of parental abandonment, abuse and neglect? Even more so, our gay young men are suffering the highest rate of HIV infection. What shall we do—surely we can reach out and touch these young men on a suicide path—at the very least, we can educate them about the dangers of their unsafe sexual behavior.
Our lesbian children need our love and acceptance as well. Maybe some of them will return to the straight life (as if that’s anything to brag about until we evolve our spiritual consciousness from the patriarchal mentality of domination.)
Again, no matter the cause of the explosion of the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it is a reality we need to deal with. Those who want to be straight should be guided, others who want to be accepted as gay or lesbian should be shown unconditional love as well.
It is wrong for anyone to hate another human being, and especially to hate a child. So let us put on the armor of God and exercise Supreme Wisdom. Either we are working with Divine power or we are on the animal plane, from which our actions are devoid of spiritual consciousness
The Toilet is a state of mind, toxic and transfixed. It must be flushed clean with pure water. There is a moment in the play when a brother goes down the row of urinals flushing each one and laughing with joy as the water flows loudly like a river. Let us flush ourselves with the royal flush of all the urine and defecation in our lives, in our minds that have a strangle hold on the eternity of love, for love is all there is that is precious and real, radical and revolutionary, love, the meaning of the morning, the essence of the night, the why we rise to try again the daily round, to suffer the pain and joy—only love makes the day possible and the night bearable.
In conclusion, moral propositions become just that and nothing more, a momentary thing, until the destruction comes, then we see some things are beyond mere propositions, thoughts, a consensus of the moral or the immoral, for who is moral today, who is immoral? Who are the good guys, bad guys? Who is without sin? You are against gays and lesbians, yet you are a child molester! You are against gays and lesbians, yet you are a wife beater, a murderer, a dope dealer, a wicked teacher, a corrupt banker. Who has the high moral ground? Is it he who does the most good—in the hood? Shall he or she determine the moral code, or is this a free for all, do yo thing, I do my thing—in the Arabic: lakum dinu kum waliyadin (to you your way and to me mine, Al Qur’an).
Unless there is a consensus, who is to say what is right or wrong? We must come to a consensus on the new morality, no matter what ancient mythologies have taught us. In Divine consciousness surely we can find the Way of Love in all matters. Let us search the ancient holy books, texts, inscriptions, for the sure path, since there is doubt persisting into the night. What do the holy books say?
Shall we be swayed by illusions of any kind, spirituality or physicality, mentality or sexuality? If we reinstituted manhood and womanhood rites of passage, we might go a long way toward helping our children cross the threshold of sexual identity and toward spiritual maturation as divine beings in human form. Sexuality and other illusions become secondary to the primary objective of reaching spiritual maturity, following our true bliss, as Joseph Campbell taught us.
--Marvin X
November, 2008
Berkeley CA 94702
Marvin X, poet, playwright, essayist, philosopher, social activist, teacher, is one of the founders of the black arts movement and the father of Muslim American literature. His next collection of essays is Up from Ignut, the Soulful Musings of a North American African Thinker, Black Bird Press, 2009. He is available for speaking and performing engagements. Write to him at 1222 Dwight Way , Berkeley CA 94702 . Call 510-355-6339. Email: jmarvinx@yahoo.com. www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com. Also see www.nathanielturner.com and www.aalbc.com. Search Google as well.
By definition a classic is a work that withstands the test of time, fad, beyond the ephemeral. A classic theme deconstructs one or more of the eternal concerns of humanity, love, hate, life and death, or the problems of life that never seem to get solved even when the solution is quite apparent. The simple solution to hate is love, so simple we must revisit the question and solution from time to time.
Almost forty-five years ago, Amiri Baraka examined the themes of racism and homophobia in his one-act play The Toilet. The set is a high school men’s room, wherein he gathers a group of young men to decipher the meaning of love and hate. Mostly black, the young men appear to be at an urban manhood training rite. We see a myriad personalities expressing themselves in the rhythm and rhymes of the time—there are no pants sagging, no grills in teeth, but they are there seeking to discover their manhood, racial and sexual identity.
The tragedy of that time and this time is that their search for manhood and sexual identity is unorganized and haphazard, thus then and now young men must grapple with self discovery in isolated groups without mentor, elder or guide. No adult appears in the Toilet to give words of wisdom, thus the young men are adrift in their ignorance, seeking to find themselves in the midst of darkness. How ironic the setting is a high school where we assume learning is taking place, and yet learning occurs not in the classroom but the toilet. The toilet becomes the bush in African or primitive tradition, for there is terror, violence to bring transformation from hatred to love and interracial understanding.
A white boy writes a love letter to a black boy and the drama involves the resolution of this event. The white boy has crossed the racial line into the black brotherhood and suffers violence as a result—he his beaten into a pulp, bloody as a beet, half-dead when brought into The Toilet.
Gang violence is a natural happening in urban culture, senseless violence to express manhood; even sexual violence is a natural part of this oppressed society. And so the black boy is finally confronted by the white boy who loves him and the brother is physically overcome by the white boy to the chagrin of the black brotherhood. The white boy is again attacked by the toilet gang and all depart, including another white boy who had come to the defense of his white brother.
The Toilet ends with the black boy returning to embrace the white boy. Lights down.
What was Baraka trying to tell us forty-five years ago and what relevance has his message now? Since then gays and lesbians have come out of the closet, although the passage of California’s Proposition 8 denies them the right of marriage, and the gays are miffed at Blacks for supporting the proposition, although the president of the state NAACP in her role as a lobbyist opposed the bill, along with many black newspapers and several ministers who were probably paid to do so. Apparently a majority of blacks do not equate gay rights with civil rights. Are sexual rights human rights?
The question Baraka raised had to do with transcending hatred in favor of love. Proposition 8 denied gays and lesbians the right to codify their love in marriage.
Blacks are known to be sexually conservative, although they now have many children on the streets embracing the gay/lesbian lifestyle. Blacks are thus hypocritical and drowning in denial, in similar fashion to the black brothers in The Toilet who refused to consider that one of their own might have crossed the line, not only racially but sexually as well.
On my recent visit to New York to see Woody King’s production of my play (with Ed Bullins) Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam, Baraka’s The Toilet and Hugh Fletcher’s Amarie, I was accompanied by two lesbian assistants. Of course, being a dirty old man, I tried to get at them. (See my poem Why I Love Lesbians.) And they were highly upset at my offensive language, something they should have known I am known for by those who know me. Although I imagined them to be young women, with whom I could talk adult talk, they were suffering arrested development, in search of their sexual identity, much like the brothers in The Toilet.
Nevertheless, I wanted them to spend some time with Amina Baraka who is still in grief over the lost of her daughter Shani and her lover Rayshan to homicide. I thought conversing with the young ladies, 19 and 25, would help Amina heal from the horror of losing her only daughter by Baraka. She did meet the young ladies at the theatre and immediately saw the physical similarity between one girl and her daughter, Shani. “I knew you would see that,” I told Amina. The girl, Raushanah, like Shani, had been a point guard as well. We agreed to come to Newark to spend time with Amina, but after my verbal insults, the girls declined to make the trip, even though we reconciled our issues as best we could.
I made the trip to Newark alone to hang out with the Barakas, who had me bar hoping after a wonderful dinner at the Spanish restaurant across from city hall. One of the bars we visited is owned by former mayor Sharp James, now doing prison time for corruption.
I hadn’t planned to spend the night but Amina had other plans, so she made room for me in the space they have preserved for Shani. On my last visit, she had told me that I was the first person to spend the night in Shani’s room, filled with her artifacts, several basketball size trophies, numerous awards and proclamations to her athletic prowess and mentorship.
After the last bar, we headed home. Tired, I said goodnight to the Barakas and went upstairs to my room or rather, Shani’s room. I shut the door and looking around at Shani’s archives, something told me to say a prayer, so I did.
I got up the next morning early, way too early to disturb the Barakas, so I purveyed the room, and seeing the trophies were dusty, wiped them. I just happened to have a poem in my back pocket When Thy Lover Has Gone to Eternity, so I placed it between the trophies as an offering. I said another prayer before departing. And then I heard Shani speaking, saying, “No, no, no, no to hate, no, no, no, no.” She said, “Yes, yes to love, yes, yes, yes, yes.”
I shut the door and made my way downstairs, passing the sleeping Barakas and out into the cold Newark morning. At South Tenth and Clinton Streets I hailed a taxi, telling him to take me to John’s Place, my favorite breakfast spot in Newark . I ordered Whiting, grits and eggs, with biscuits that melted in my mouth. After breakfast, I walked to the bus stop for the ride to Penn Station and the train back across the river to New York . As I stood waiting for the bus, Shani spoke again in the winter wind, “No, no, no, no to hate. Yes, yes, yes to love.”
Shall we not love our gay children, the many young men and women who have chosen the gay lifestyle for whatever reason: we can say they were born that way, or have an identity crisis from feminine or matrifocal socialization (lack of manhood rites or womanhood rites), or there was sexual assault by a gay or lesbian relative, or incest by father, uncle, brother, cousin who turned the girl against all men. We can catalogue all the possibilities yet not get to the end of the road on this matter: our gay children need help!
They need love and support as they go through their daily round. We cannot simply look at them and reduce them to social rejects, pariahs we must shun at all costs as if they are not natural but some kind of mutants from Mars.
In short, they need our help with their growing pains. All children need love, recognition and acceptance. Do you think the gay children are not suffering the normal white supremacy virus of parental abandonment, abuse and neglect? Even more so, our gay young men are suffering the highest rate of HIV infection. What shall we do—surely we can reach out and touch these young men on a suicide path—at the very least, we can educate them about the dangers of their unsafe sexual behavior.
Our lesbian children need our love and acceptance as well. Maybe some of them will return to the straight life (as if that’s anything to brag about until we evolve our spiritual consciousness from the patriarchal mentality of domination.)
Again, no matter the cause of the explosion of the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it is a reality we need to deal with. Those who want to be straight should be guided, others who want to be accepted as gay or lesbian should be shown unconditional love as well.
It is wrong for anyone to hate another human being, and especially to hate a child. So let us put on the armor of God and exercise Supreme Wisdom. Either we are working with Divine power or we are on the animal plane, from which our actions are devoid of spiritual consciousness
The Toilet is a state of mind, toxic and transfixed. It must be flushed clean with pure water. There is a moment in the play when a brother goes down the row of urinals flushing each one and laughing with joy as the water flows loudly like a river. Let us flush ourselves with the royal flush of all the urine and defecation in our lives, in our minds that have a strangle hold on the eternity of love, for love is all there is that is precious and real, radical and revolutionary, love, the meaning of the morning, the essence of the night, the why we rise to try again the daily round, to suffer the pain and joy—only love makes the day possible and the night bearable.
In conclusion, moral propositions become just that and nothing more, a momentary thing, until the destruction comes, then we see some things are beyond mere propositions, thoughts, a consensus of the moral or the immoral, for who is moral today, who is immoral? Who are the good guys, bad guys? Who is without sin? You are against gays and lesbians, yet you are a child molester! You are against gays and lesbians, yet you are a wife beater, a murderer, a dope dealer, a wicked teacher, a corrupt banker. Who has the high moral ground? Is it he who does the most good—in the hood? Shall he or she determine the moral code, or is this a free for all, do yo thing, I do my thing—in the Arabic: lakum dinu kum waliyadin (to you your way and to me mine, Al Qur’an).
Unless there is a consensus, who is to say what is right or wrong? We must come to a consensus on the new morality, no matter what ancient mythologies have taught us. In Divine consciousness surely we can find the Way of Love in all matters. Let us search the ancient holy books, texts, inscriptions, for the sure path, since there is doubt persisting into the night. What do the holy books say?
Shall we be swayed by illusions of any kind, spirituality or physicality, mentality or sexuality? If we reinstituted manhood and womanhood rites of passage, we might go a long way toward helping our children cross the threshold of sexual identity and toward spiritual maturation as divine beings in human form. Sexuality and other illusions become secondary to the primary objective of reaching spiritual maturity, following our true bliss, as Joseph Campbell taught us.
--Marvin X
November, 2008
Berkeley CA 94702
Marvin X, poet, playwright, essayist, philosopher, social activist, teacher, is one of the founders of the black arts movement and the father of Muslim American literature. His next collection of essays is Up from Ignut, the Soulful Musings of a North American African Thinker, Black Bird Press, 2009. He is available for speaking and performing engagements. Write to him at 1222 Dwight Way , Berkeley CA 94702 . Call 510-355-6339. Email: jmarvinx@yahoo.com. www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com. Also see www.nathanielturner.com and www.aalbc.com. Search Google as well.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
The Myth of the Soul
Myth under girds the soul story, the soul energy. The soul could not exist without myth, for myth makes the soul possible, its reason for being. Without myth there is no soul, for the soul by its very nature is communal not personal, and myth is the essential element is the communal. Jung taught us this: that there is a universality to myth, with basic elements common to the mythology of humanity. We all have the same basic myths, evident in our dreams, our ritual ceremonies and celebrations.
Mao taught us the class nature of mythology, as in propaganda, literature and art, it reflects class values. You love certain art and disdain other art because of your bourgeoisie education or miseducation. The grass roots appreciate certain art because it speaks to their reality and possibility, especially when it promotes radical consciousness.
Diop has taught of Northern and Southern Cradle myths, and how they differ. Diop said in the Northern Cradle or Europe they kill rather than welcome the stranger, while in the Southern Cradle or Africa they welcome the stranger, and this is true in Asia and the Americas as well, “Su casa is mi casa.” In the Arabic, “Ahlan wa sahlan”—welcome into my home and may you walk on level ground is the common greeting beyond As-Salaam Alaikum.
But in Europe the stranger was first killed then questions asked. Was he an enemy or friend, oh, sorry if he was a friend. In the Destruction of African Civilization, Chancellor Williams tells us our lack of xenophobia caused our destruction six thousand years ago. Yet to have killed the stranger first would have violated our basic mythology, our cultural prerogative. I saorw my grandmother feed strangers who knocked on her door in the projects in search of food, even white people. And all that I remember about Granny is her spirituality not her religiosity, for she was not a church going woman but she was a spiritual woman. She told my brother Ollie he would spend his life in the pen--and she told him this when we were small children. She was right. He has probably spent at least fifty of his sixty-five years in prisons and jails.
The Myth of the Soul is extracted from Marvin X's work in progress, Radical Mythology, 2009.
Myth under girds the soul story, the soul energy. The soul could not exist without myth, for myth makes the soul possible, its reason for being. Without myth there is no soul, for the soul by its very nature is communal not personal, and myth is the essential element is the communal. Jung taught us this: that there is a universality to myth, with basic elements common to the mythology of humanity. We all have the same basic myths, evident in our dreams, our ritual ceremonies and celebrations.
Mao taught us the class nature of mythology, as in propaganda, literature and art, it reflects class values. You love certain art and disdain other art because of your bourgeoisie education or miseducation. The grass roots appreciate certain art because it speaks to their reality and possibility, especially when it promotes radical consciousness.
Diop has taught of Northern and Southern Cradle myths, and how they differ. Diop said in the Northern Cradle or Europe they kill rather than welcome the stranger, while in the Southern Cradle or Africa they welcome the stranger, and this is true in Asia and the Americas as well, “Su casa is mi casa.” In the Arabic, “Ahlan wa sahlan”—welcome into my home and may you walk on level ground is the common greeting beyond As-Salaam Alaikum.
But in Europe the stranger was first killed then questions asked. Was he an enemy or friend, oh, sorry if he was a friend. In the Destruction of African Civilization, Chancellor Williams tells us our lack of xenophobia caused our destruction six thousand years ago. Yet to have killed the stranger first would have violated our basic mythology, our cultural prerogative. I saorw my grandmother feed strangers who knocked on her door in the projects in search of food, even white people. And all that I remember about Granny is her spirituality not her religiosity, for she was not a church going woman but she was a spiritual woman. She told my brother Ollie he would spend his life in the pen--and she told him this when we were small children. She was right. He has probably spent at least fifty of his sixty-five years in prisons and jails.
The Myth of the Soul is extracted from Marvin X's work in progress, Radical Mythology, 2009.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
American Gangsta: J. Edgar Hoover
BET must be congratulated for presenting a real American gansta: the FBI’s founder J. Edgar Hoover. Those of us in the movement know too well his activities with COINTELPRO or the counter-intelligence program to disrupt, destroy and neutralize the liberation movement. We suffered their spying, lying, murder and other activities during the 60s. For the hip hop and younger generation of today, we urge them to study this video as ardently as they have the socalled black American ganstas.
Even though we now have a black president, this fact doesn’t preclude the continuation of similar activities under the Patriot Act or fighting terrorism. Amiri Baraka has warned us, “In the end, Blacks will be the terrorist.” Black people must therefore be aware of snitches, agent provocateurs, and undercover black FBI and police agents out to destroy our liberation movement in the same manner and zeal as in the days of J. Edgar Hoover.
Watching American Gansta: J. Edgar Hoover brought tears to my eyes because I am so familiar with events during this time. Any person involved in black liberation was a subject for intelligence gathering. I remember being followed home by strange negroes on the bus while I was a student at San Francisco State College (now university).
While living on San Francisco’s infamous Haight Street, a strange negro came to my apartment asking what I wanted. Did I want guns, money, what? I looked at him and told him to get out of my motherfucking house.
During the time I was on the run and in exile for refusing to fight in Vietnam, the FBI came to my mother with photos of me in various situations, begging her to reveal my whereabouts. Mom refused, but later told me they had photos of me with my girlfriend at the time, Ethna X (now Hurriyah).
After my exile in Toronto, Canada, Mexico City, living underground in Chicago, Harlem and Philly, I was finally apprehended in Belize, Central America. At the ministry of home affair, my deportation order was read aloud: “Your presence is not beneficial to the welfare of the British Colony of Honduras. Therefore you are under arrest until a plane departs at 4pm for the United States.” I was taken to police headquarters and told to have a seat. Then suddenly I was surrounded by police who begged me to teach them about black power—the very reason I was being deported. The spies had reported to the government I was teaching black power and was therefore suspected of being a Communist. This was the label given to anyone fighting for liberation throughout the Americas, and one could be killed, jailed or deported for being a revolutionary.
After five months in federal prison, I was released and returned to Fresno, California, in time for the birth of my first daughter, Nefertiti, January 29, 1971. I began organizing a black theatre company that soon gathered youth together in great numbers. Even the rehearsals were packed with young people eager to participate in theatre. But we faced opposition from people who should have been supporters, such as the NAACP and the local black newspaper. The community center suddenly wanted us out, even though we were in full production on the musical version of my play Flowers for the Trashman, not titled Take Care of Business. With the concurrence of local black officials, a worker at the center was told to get a shotgun to get us out since we were supposedly trespassing.
He was the janitor but obtained a shotgun and shot our choir director in the back, killing him. Winfrey Streets was not only our choir director, but was one of the few conscious black people in town. He had been president of the Student Body at Edison High, wore the first natural haircut in town, and most importantly, was the local leader of the Black Panther Party. The black newspaper did a full page story labeling me the cause of my friend’s murder—actually they said I killed him. I believe this was part of the FBI’s Cointelpro activities in Fresno. As we know, J. Edgar Hoover said go after any leader, any potential leader, no matter how prominent. In spite of the murder of Winfrey, the show was performed.
Soon after I was told there was a hit on me because someone had insulted a white boy across told and supposedly the assaulter was associated with me. Actually, as the bogey man of the town, brothers would use my name to scare white people, especially after I came to Fresno in 1969 to teach at Fresno State College, now University. Then Gov. Ronald Reagan told the State College Board of Trustees to get me off campus by any means necessary. But Jack Kelly, one of the first black police officers in Fresno, told me, “Marvin, when you fought to teach at Fresno State College, you made it better for all of us, not only black students. Before you came to FSU, black police were not allowed to patrol the white side of town.” FYI, this was the same year Reagan kicked Angela Davis out of UCLA. The same year Bunchy Carter and John Huggins were murdered in the BSU meeting room at UCLA—as noted in the BET video, this was a COINTEPRO action, as well as the Black Panther shootout at their Los Angeles headquarters. When I came to Los Angeles on a speaking tour during my struggle to teach at FSU, students showed me the BSU room with blood and bullet holes still evident. Lil Joe was part of a group of Los Angeles students who gave me the tour and who supported me during my struggle to teach black studies at FSU.
Although I was fearless concerning the hit, my friends encouraged me to leave Fresno for the Bay area, so I departed and organized my Black Educational Theatre (BET) in San Francisco’s Fillmore. Sun Ra and his Arkestra worked with me as he had done on the East coast. In fact, Sun Ra encountered the hit man outside my theatre. He said the hit man showed him a photo of myself. Sun Ra claimed he used his Ra power to dismiss the hit man. Truth is, after Sun Ra’s encounter, I never heard anymore about the hit. Sun Ra gave me another prophecy. He was teaching in black studies at UC Berkeley. One day he said, “Maavin, you gonna teach at UC Berkeley.” I told him he was crazy, since I had been kicked out of FSU by Gov. Reagan. But Sunny was right: a few weeks later I was invited to lecture in Black Studies with the same qualifications that were used to deny my lectureship at FSU. But in a matter of months, not only myself, but almost the entire black studies faculty was removed and replaced with a passive crew who would do the administration’s bidding, meaning an end to radical, black nationalist based ideology and instruction. This was not unique to UCB but occurred nationwide: radical instructors who had fought to expand black studies and relate it more directly with the community, were removed and replaced with house negroes. At UCB it was professor Bill Banks and his crew of sycophants. A reading of UCB documents from the chancellor’s office will reveal it was a concerted move to eliminate black radicals from the faculty, in line with Cointelpro. Forty years later, black studies is weak, passive and pitiful, although black studies faculty will attempt to defend themselves of such charges as they did recently at the 40th anniversary of the BSU/Third World Strike at San Francisco State University.
Bottom line, Cointelpro is alive and well. We were privy to a meeting between a US Marshall and Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb. The officer was there as a private security company person to discuss providing security for Paul Cobb who has been threatened since his editor Chauncey Bailey was assassinated in broad daylight downtown Oakland. The officer revealed that he was also a minister and informed us that there were many ministers who are official FBI and police agents.
And with respect to the assassination of journalist Chauncey Bailey, we call for the investigation of the investigators of the investigators! Mayor Ron Dellums has called upon California Attorney General Jerry Brown to investigate the Oakland Police investigators of the Chauncey Bailey murder—the suspects being young black Muslims.
But the lead police investigator has had a personal relationship with the young Muslims and yet continues on the case, even though he refused to interrogate an eye witness at the crime scene. And as Mayor, Jerry Brown instigated the firing of Chauncey Bailey from the Oakland Tribute because “the nigger was snooping around city hall and the police department.” Jerry Brown’s internet records disappeared when he departed to become attorney general, so how can he investigate the investigators when he himself needs to be investigated?
--Marvin X
Brooklyn, NY
22 November 2008
jmarvinx@yahoo.com/www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
BET must be congratulated for presenting a real American gansta: the FBI’s founder J. Edgar Hoover. Those of us in the movement know too well his activities with COINTELPRO or the counter-intelligence program to disrupt, destroy and neutralize the liberation movement. We suffered their spying, lying, murder and other activities during the 60s. For the hip hop and younger generation of today, we urge them to study this video as ardently as they have the socalled black American ganstas.
Even though we now have a black president, this fact doesn’t preclude the continuation of similar activities under the Patriot Act or fighting terrorism. Amiri Baraka has warned us, “In the end, Blacks will be the terrorist.” Black people must therefore be aware of snitches, agent provocateurs, and undercover black FBI and police agents out to destroy our liberation movement in the same manner and zeal as in the days of J. Edgar Hoover.
Watching American Gansta: J. Edgar Hoover brought tears to my eyes because I am so familiar with events during this time. Any person involved in black liberation was a subject for intelligence gathering. I remember being followed home by strange negroes on the bus while I was a student at San Francisco State College (now university).
While living on San Francisco’s infamous Haight Street, a strange negro came to my apartment asking what I wanted. Did I want guns, money, what? I looked at him and told him to get out of my motherfucking house.
During the time I was on the run and in exile for refusing to fight in Vietnam, the FBI came to my mother with photos of me in various situations, begging her to reveal my whereabouts. Mom refused, but later told me they had photos of me with my girlfriend at the time, Ethna X (now Hurriyah).
After my exile in Toronto, Canada, Mexico City, living underground in Chicago, Harlem and Philly, I was finally apprehended in Belize, Central America. At the ministry of home affair, my deportation order was read aloud: “Your presence is not beneficial to the welfare of the British Colony of Honduras. Therefore you are under arrest until a plane departs at 4pm for the United States.” I was taken to police headquarters and told to have a seat. Then suddenly I was surrounded by police who begged me to teach them about black power—the very reason I was being deported. The spies had reported to the government I was teaching black power and was therefore suspected of being a Communist. This was the label given to anyone fighting for liberation throughout the Americas, and one could be killed, jailed or deported for being a revolutionary.
After five months in federal prison, I was released and returned to Fresno, California, in time for the birth of my first daughter, Nefertiti, January 29, 1971. I began organizing a black theatre company that soon gathered youth together in great numbers. Even the rehearsals were packed with young people eager to participate in theatre. But we faced opposition from people who should have been supporters, such as the NAACP and the local black newspaper. The community center suddenly wanted us out, even though we were in full production on the musical version of my play Flowers for the Trashman, not titled Take Care of Business. With the concurrence of local black officials, a worker at the center was told to get a shotgun to get us out since we were supposedly trespassing.
He was the janitor but obtained a shotgun and shot our choir director in the back, killing him. Winfrey Streets was not only our choir director, but was one of the few conscious black people in town. He had been president of the Student Body at Edison High, wore the first natural haircut in town, and most importantly, was the local leader of the Black Panther Party. The black newspaper did a full page story labeling me the cause of my friend’s murder—actually they said I killed him. I believe this was part of the FBI’s Cointelpro activities in Fresno. As we know, J. Edgar Hoover said go after any leader, any potential leader, no matter how prominent. In spite of the murder of Winfrey, the show was performed.
Soon after I was told there was a hit on me because someone had insulted a white boy across told and supposedly the assaulter was associated with me. Actually, as the bogey man of the town, brothers would use my name to scare white people, especially after I came to Fresno in 1969 to teach at Fresno State College, now University. Then Gov. Ronald Reagan told the State College Board of Trustees to get me off campus by any means necessary. But Jack Kelly, one of the first black police officers in Fresno, told me, “Marvin, when you fought to teach at Fresno State College, you made it better for all of us, not only black students. Before you came to FSU, black police were not allowed to patrol the white side of town.” FYI, this was the same year Reagan kicked Angela Davis out of UCLA. The same year Bunchy Carter and John Huggins were murdered in the BSU meeting room at UCLA—as noted in the BET video, this was a COINTEPRO action, as well as the Black Panther shootout at their Los Angeles headquarters. When I came to Los Angeles on a speaking tour during my struggle to teach at FSU, students showed me the BSU room with blood and bullet holes still evident. Lil Joe was part of a group of Los Angeles students who gave me the tour and who supported me during my struggle to teach black studies at FSU.
Although I was fearless concerning the hit, my friends encouraged me to leave Fresno for the Bay area, so I departed and organized my Black Educational Theatre (BET) in San Francisco’s Fillmore. Sun Ra and his Arkestra worked with me as he had done on the East coast. In fact, Sun Ra encountered the hit man outside my theatre. He said the hit man showed him a photo of myself. Sun Ra claimed he used his Ra power to dismiss the hit man. Truth is, after Sun Ra’s encounter, I never heard anymore about the hit. Sun Ra gave me another prophecy. He was teaching in black studies at UC Berkeley. One day he said, “Maavin, you gonna teach at UC Berkeley.” I told him he was crazy, since I had been kicked out of FSU by Gov. Reagan. But Sunny was right: a few weeks later I was invited to lecture in Black Studies with the same qualifications that were used to deny my lectureship at FSU. But in a matter of months, not only myself, but almost the entire black studies faculty was removed and replaced with a passive crew who would do the administration’s bidding, meaning an end to radical, black nationalist based ideology and instruction. This was not unique to UCB but occurred nationwide: radical instructors who had fought to expand black studies and relate it more directly with the community, were removed and replaced with house negroes. At UCB it was professor Bill Banks and his crew of sycophants. A reading of UCB documents from the chancellor’s office will reveal it was a concerted move to eliminate black radicals from the faculty, in line with Cointelpro. Forty years later, black studies is weak, passive and pitiful, although black studies faculty will attempt to defend themselves of such charges as they did recently at the 40th anniversary of the BSU/Third World Strike at San Francisco State University.
Bottom line, Cointelpro is alive and well. We were privy to a meeting between a US Marshall and Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb. The officer was there as a private security company person to discuss providing security for Paul Cobb who has been threatened since his editor Chauncey Bailey was assassinated in broad daylight downtown Oakland. The officer revealed that he was also a minister and informed us that there were many ministers who are official FBI and police agents.
And with respect to the assassination of journalist Chauncey Bailey, we call for the investigation of the investigators of the investigators! Mayor Ron Dellums has called upon California Attorney General Jerry Brown to investigate the Oakland Police investigators of the Chauncey Bailey murder—the suspects being young black Muslims.
But the lead police investigator has had a personal relationship with the young Muslims and yet continues on the case, even though he refused to interrogate an eye witness at the crime scene. And as Mayor, Jerry Brown instigated the firing of Chauncey Bailey from the Oakland Tribute because “the nigger was snooping around city hall and the police department.” Jerry Brown’s internet records disappeared when he departed to become attorney general, so how can he investigate the investigators when he himself needs to be investigated?
--Marvin X
Brooklyn, NY
22 November 2008
jmarvinx@yahoo.com/www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Plato Negro's Parable of the Weather
Sutter County Jail
Yuba City CA
10.1.08
And the Holy Spirit spoke to me through the night, saying speak to them, my servant, about the weather. Tell them they are unaware of the coming weather. The weather station is telling of conditions in nature but the people are ignorant, thus they shall be destroyed. They do not listen to the news but are preoccupied with music, games of chance, idol gossip, lustful sex, mind altering drugs and material gain, usually at the expense of the poor. They cannot see the coming storm on the horizon that shall consume them. “Oh, the Calamity, what will make thee know the Calamity?”
If they would only peek outside the window, they would see the coming storm. They would then prepare themselves, secure the doors, the windows, tie the horses and cows, but the people are in a mind-altered state, medicated against the pain of life. They will not stop dancing to put on their boots, but wink and blink at each other as the sun fades behind the clouds, and the thunder roars, yet they hear it not, for they are consumed in the moment.
Put on your trench coat, carry your umbrella, a voice admonishes them, but they are deaf, dumb and blind, so the storm proceeds to consume them.
And then they wail as the water approaches and their children are broken from their grasp. Oh, they cry, only if we had known the storm was coming. Only if we had listened to the weather station, we might have avoided the Calamity! We might have grabbed our silver and gold and fled to higher ground. We would have gathered our children, our wives and taken them to safety. But in our hard-headedness, we heeded not the warnings and prepared not for the danger. We partied like the fools on the Titanic, until the ocean swallowed the great ship.
And so it is with the economic weather. Any fool knows things go up and then come down—nothing lasts forever. But the greedy persist until the end. They are like children in the candy store who can never get enough of the sweet stuff until they eat themselves sick, then cry to Mama they have a stomach ache.
Now their bank accounts are empty, homes in foreclosure, life savings blown to the winds of chance. What shall we do now, they wail, where shall we go? They join the army of the homeless and the hungry, pushing shopping carts through the streets. No more Hennessey and Champagne. They join the poor drinking rot gut wine to quench their thirst. Oh, if we had not been greedy, if we had not become addicted to games of chance. Oh, if we had listened to the weather man. But we were too busy dancing, drinking, winking and blinking. Now we must suffer the water and the fire.
From Up From Ignorance, the Soulful Musings of a North American African, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, 2009. www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com. jmarvinx@yahoo.com.
Sutter County Jail
Yuba City CA
10.1.08
And the Holy Spirit spoke to me through the night, saying speak to them, my servant, about the weather. Tell them they are unaware of the coming weather. The weather station is telling of conditions in nature but the people are ignorant, thus they shall be destroyed. They do not listen to the news but are preoccupied with music, games of chance, idol gossip, lustful sex, mind altering drugs and material gain, usually at the expense of the poor. They cannot see the coming storm on the horizon that shall consume them. “Oh, the Calamity, what will make thee know the Calamity?”
If they would only peek outside the window, they would see the coming storm. They would then prepare themselves, secure the doors, the windows, tie the horses and cows, but the people are in a mind-altered state, medicated against the pain of life. They will not stop dancing to put on their boots, but wink and blink at each other as the sun fades behind the clouds, and the thunder roars, yet they hear it not, for they are consumed in the moment.
Put on your trench coat, carry your umbrella, a voice admonishes them, but they are deaf, dumb and blind, so the storm proceeds to consume them.
And then they wail as the water approaches and their children are broken from their grasp. Oh, they cry, only if we had known the storm was coming. Only if we had listened to the weather station, we might have avoided the Calamity! We might have grabbed our silver and gold and fled to higher ground. We would have gathered our children, our wives and taken them to safety. But in our hard-headedness, we heeded not the warnings and prepared not for the danger. We partied like the fools on the Titanic, until the ocean swallowed the great ship.
And so it is with the economic weather. Any fool knows things go up and then come down—nothing lasts forever. But the greedy persist until the end. They are like children in the candy store who can never get enough of the sweet stuff until they eat themselves sick, then cry to Mama they have a stomach ache.
Now their bank accounts are empty, homes in foreclosure, life savings blown to the winds of chance. What shall we do now, they wail, where shall we go? They join the army of the homeless and the hungry, pushing shopping carts through the streets. No more Hennessey and Champagne. They join the poor drinking rot gut wine to quench their thirst. Oh, if we had not been greedy, if we had not become addicted to games of chance. Oh, if we had listened to the weather man. But we were too busy dancing, drinking, winking and blinking. Now we must suffer the water and the fire.
From Up From Ignorance, the Soulful Musings of a North American African, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, 2009. www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com. jmarvinx@yahoo.com.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Plato Negro on the Diffusion of Power
Sutter County Jail
Yuba City, CA
10.4.08
In society power must be diffused. If not, the natural and usual result is corruption and domination, such as we see in the patriarchal, white supremacy society. In the family the father and husband must diffuse power to the mother/wife, making matters in the family more functional than the absolute patriarchy which makes the woman feel like a slave and the man a brute, since he has final say in all matters , with violence his ultimate weapon. Such a family construction can never be free and just because one person can never make the right decision all the time. The human mind is bound to make mistakes in judgment occasionally, and sometimes mistakes can be fatal, causing the destruction of the family, such as fighting a wild beast or confronting a stranger. As Solomon suggested, two are better than one, two that are in unity and harmony. If one falls, who can pick us up? If we travel and get lost, shall not the mind of another be an aid in getting us back on the right path?
It is the same in organizations such as the gang, the corporation and the state. Ultimate power corrupts absolutely. The gang leader wields so much power he begins to fear his friends because he knows they want to be the leader one day, even his closest friends, but in his ego blindness, he feels it is his divine right to be the gang king for life.
It is the same with the leader of the state, even the democratic state. Not only did George Bush win the 2000 election by voter fraud and the right wing supreme court, but once in power pushed aside the constitution to claim absolute executive power, negating the congress, declaring unilateral war against Iraq when that country was no threat and had committed no act of aggression. In a devil’s mind, what looks more lucrative: the oil fields of Iraq or the barren mountains of Afghanistan? Bush fantasized Iraq was the cause of 9/11, was associated with Al Qaida and possessed weapons of mass destruction. Two trillion dollars later, none of the above is true, but America is determined to acquire long term oil contracts before she exists Iraq.
To further the goals of the fascist state (communism for the rich), Bush came forth with the Patriot Act to curtail civil liberties, and contrary to his conservative principles, let the oil barons run free to earn 300 billion in profits. He allowed Wall Street to usher in the greatest pyramid scheme (sub prime loans) since the Great Depression. Suddenly the supreme capitalist free marketers became overnight socialists, i.e. state socialists, i.e. fascists!
The duped workers were forced to let free market forces play out, meaning they will get no bail out or substantial aid to reverse foreclosures caused by the sub prime loan scams. The people who gambled on Wall Street, lost their shirts and stand naked with their dicks in the hands and hearts racing! They are like a trick when the whore departs, telling him she will be right back!
The Wall Street bandits, in cahoots with the supreme ruler of the land and his international political cronies in conspiracy with the national banks around the world, have organized multi-trillion dollars bailouts of the banks to restore confidence in the capitalist system suddenly turned communist. Free market capitalism does not nationalize financial institutions and corporations—they let market forces play out—and the strong will survive. Those who lose in the capitalist games of chance—well, that’s life! The world leaders in political economics have defied their fundamental principles to save their buddies, yes, at the expense of the masses, the wage slaves, the working poor, the gamblers.
This debacle could have been avoided with the diffusion of power, with strident regulation of financial institutions, but with the executive hand in the cookie jar, there is no mystery why so many cookies have disappeared. With checks and balances out the window, the supreme leader does as he wishes with the body politic. With a three page letter, he requested the US Treasury deliver 800 billion of the people’s money to his brothers on Wall Street. In fact, he moved the headquarters of Wall Street to the White House.
We will shortly see if there shall be a legitimate transfer of power or will he connive to usher in another right wing regime to further the goals of the fascist state, again, depriving the democratic state the diffusion of power to maintain the just society.
In Stalinism, Nazism and now Bushism, we see how men seize power for personal aggrandizement. They will execute world wars to extend their power until checked by a people’s democratic revolution. Somehow, someday soon, our mental health experts must cast their digging rigs down into the oceans of our minds to decipher the meanderings of the wretched psyches of men whose egos compel them to execute power over people, to the detriment of society and civilization.
In making state violence their ultimate weapon, such men must be confined to the deepest spaces of our prisons until their consciousness evolves to the level where the diffusion of power is no more a problem for them than walking or jogging.
In conclusion, theatre is a model of diffusion. No matter how great the playwright, he alone cannot produce the finished product without the aid of others. Even the one man show needs a director, contrary to the thinking of most spoken word performers who have never heard of the director—the one man show needs lighting and sound technicians, set and costume designers, promoters, ticket sellers and front house people. The one man show needs music arrangers and choreographer, make-up artists,etc.
With such needs, the playwright and or the actor with the greatest egomania, should humble himself with the reality that he is not alone in the show business, that he is in need of a chorus of workers, designers, technicians—in short, geniuses like himself to get from process to product.
Certainly, this was true for me in theatre. And if it’s true for me, then it is true for everyman for all the world is a stage. And for everyman there comes The End, when the lights go down and all is quiet on the set. For the tragic hero, this is the moment of dred, especially when the torturer becomes tortured, falling into his own puke as he exits the stage of history.
Sutter County Jail
Yuba City, CA
10.4.08
In society power must be diffused. If not, the natural and usual result is corruption and domination, such as we see in the patriarchal, white supremacy society. In the family the father and husband must diffuse power to the mother/wife, making matters in the family more functional than the absolute patriarchy which makes the woman feel like a slave and the man a brute, since he has final say in all matters , with violence his ultimate weapon. Such a family construction can never be free and just because one person can never make the right decision all the time. The human mind is bound to make mistakes in judgment occasionally, and sometimes mistakes can be fatal, causing the destruction of the family, such as fighting a wild beast or confronting a stranger. As Solomon suggested, two are better than one, two that are in unity and harmony. If one falls, who can pick us up? If we travel and get lost, shall not the mind of another be an aid in getting us back on the right path?
It is the same in organizations such as the gang, the corporation and the state. Ultimate power corrupts absolutely. The gang leader wields so much power he begins to fear his friends because he knows they want to be the leader one day, even his closest friends, but in his ego blindness, he feels it is his divine right to be the gang king for life.
It is the same with the leader of the state, even the democratic state. Not only did George Bush win the 2000 election by voter fraud and the right wing supreme court, but once in power pushed aside the constitution to claim absolute executive power, negating the congress, declaring unilateral war against Iraq when that country was no threat and had committed no act of aggression. In a devil’s mind, what looks more lucrative: the oil fields of Iraq or the barren mountains of Afghanistan? Bush fantasized Iraq was the cause of 9/11, was associated with Al Qaida and possessed weapons of mass destruction. Two trillion dollars later, none of the above is true, but America is determined to acquire long term oil contracts before she exists Iraq.
To further the goals of the fascist state (communism for the rich), Bush came forth with the Patriot Act to curtail civil liberties, and contrary to his conservative principles, let the oil barons run free to earn 300 billion in profits. He allowed Wall Street to usher in the greatest pyramid scheme (sub prime loans) since the Great Depression. Suddenly the supreme capitalist free marketers became overnight socialists, i.e. state socialists, i.e. fascists!
The duped workers were forced to let free market forces play out, meaning they will get no bail out or substantial aid to reverse foreclosures caused by the sub prime loan scams. The people who gambled on Wall Street, lost their shirts and stand naked with their dicks in the hands and hearts racing! They are like a trick when the whore departs, telling him she will be right back!
The Wall Street bandits, in cahoots with the supreme ruler of the land and his international political cronies in conspiracy with the national banks around the world, have organized multi-trillion dollars bailouts of the banks to restore confidence in the capitalist system suddenly turned communist. Free market capitalism does not nationalize financial institutions and corporations—they let market forces play out—and the strong will survive. Those who lose in the capitalist games of chance—well, that’s life! The world leaders in political economics have defied their fundamental principles to save their buddies, yes, at the expense of the masses, the wage slaves, the working poor, the gamblers.
This debacle could have been avoided with the diffusion of power, with strident regulation of financial institutions, but with the executive hand in the cookie jar, there is no mystery why so many cookies have disappeared. With checks and balances out the window, the supreme leader does as he wishes with the body politic. With a three page letter, he requested the US Treasury deliver 800 billion of the people’s money to his brothers on Wall Street. In fact, he moved the headquarters of Wall Street to the White House.
We will shortly see if there shall be a legitimate transfer of power or will he connive to usher in another right wing regime to further the goals of the fascist state, again, depriving the democratic state the diffusion of power to maintain the just society.
In Stalinism, Nazism and now Bushism, we see how men seize power for personal aggrandizement. They will execute world wars to extend their power until checked by a people’s democratic revolution. Somehow, someday soon, our mental health experts must cast their digging rigs down into the oceans of our minds to decipher the meanderings of the wretched psyches of men whose egos compel them to execute power over people, to the detriment of society and civilization.
In making state violence their ultimate weapon, such men must be confined to the deepest spaces of our prisons until their consciousness evolves to the level where the diffusion of power is no more a problem for them than walking or jogging.
In conclusion, theatre is a model of diffusion. No matter how great the playwright, he alone cannot produce the finished product without the aid of others. Even the one man show needs a director, contrary to the thinking of most spoken word performers who have never heard of the director—the one man show needs lighting and sound technicians, set and costume designers, promoters, ticket sellers and front house people. The one man show needs music arrangers and choreographer, make-up artists,etc.
With such needs, the playwright and or the actor with the greatest egomania, should humble himself with the reality that he is not alone in the show business, that he is in need of a chorus of workers, designers, technicians—in short, geniuses like himself to get from process to product.
Certainly, this was true for me in theatre. And if it’s true for me, then it is true for everyman for all the world is a stage. And for everyman there comes The End, when the lights go down and all is quiet on the set. For the tragic hero, this is the moment of dred, especially when the torturer becomes tortured, falling into his own puke as he exits the stage of history.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Plato Negro's Parable of the Basket
A wise street brother suggested Plato place a basket on his table at his open-air classroom at the crossroads of Oakland, 14th and Broadway. The brother said the basket would be for donations people wanted to make to his cause: the education of the people through the sale of his books and by facilitating dialogue with street people, adults and youth, also intellectuals and politicos who passed by on their way to and from City Hall across the street.
The basket was immediately filled with change and dollars, some days there were five and ten dollars in the basket. When people asked Plato for a dollar or two to buy a hamburger at Burger King down the block, he told them to reach into the basket to get what they need. A lady came by who said she needed two dollars to get on the subway (BART) so she could pick up her check.
The basket became a micro-ATM machine for the poor, the hungry, the mentally ill, or anyone in need. And those able would put donations into the basket, often without being asked. The basket became the poor people's petty cash fund. The people who had gotten money from the fund would come by to replace it, sometime a week or two later. As Plato kept no record, he would often forget who had drawn from the basket.
Plato thanked the wise brother who suggested the idea. And the people truly appreciated having a place where their small needs could be met.
Plato Negro (aka Marvin X)
Sutter County Jail,
Yuba City CA
10-6-08
A wise street brother suggested Plato place a basket on his table at his open-air classroom at the crossroads of Oakland, 14th and Broadway. The brother said the basket would be for donations people wanted to make to his cause: the education of the people through the sale of his books and by facilitating dialogue with street people, adults and youth, also intellectuals and politicos who passed by on their way to and from City Hall across the street.
The basket was immediately filled with change and dollars, some days there were five and ten dollars in the basket. When people asked Plato for a dollar or two to buy a hamburger at Burger King down the block, he told them to reach into the basket to get what they need. A lady came by who said she needed two dollars to get on the subway (BART) so she could pick up her check.
The basket became a micro-ATM machine for the poor, the hungry, the mentally ill, or anyone in need. And those able would put donations into the basket, often without being asked. The basket became the poor people's petty cash fund. The people who had gotten money from the fund would come by to replace it, sometime a week or two later. As Plato kept no record, he would often forget who had drawn from the basket.
Plato thanked the wise brother who suggested the idea. And the people truly appreciated having a place where their small needs could be met.
Plato Negro (aka Marvin X)
Sutter County Jail,
Yuba City CA
10-6-08
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Plato Negro on the Death of Dreams
The death of dreams occur when reality has become so overwhelming, so dreadful that our imagination is exhausted and thus our ability to navigate the conundrums of life. We presently have an entire civilization on the brink, on the precipice, the chasm we created by accepting the corrupt and imbecilic leadership of the political, economic and spiritual
blood suckers of the poor. In our passivity, we permitted the blood suckers to drain the body politic of its vitality, to empty to coffers of the global village, and so we find ourselves at the bottom of the well with no exit, for who shall lead us out of the bottomless pit—was not God unable to find one righteous man to save the town?
Thus, as we seek solutions to the present economic meltdown, we are afraid to admit we are devoid of leadership, unless the hens accept the guardianship of the wolves. The robbers are able to resupply their booty from the treasury of the people, the trillions stolen from unregulated, free market capitalism now called globalism, the new form of monopoly capitalism that transcends nationalism and borders, with no sympathy for the citizens of any state who are mere cogs in the wheel of gamblers, speculators and fascists who practice an archaic socialism of the wealthy, looking out for their brothers at every turn, bailing them out from every blunder, every losing roll of the dice. Imagine, the robbers who bankrupted the nation’s largest insurance company proceeded to celebrate with a $400.000 retreat at taxpayer’s expense. There is no end to their arrogance and addiction to white supremacy.
But, again, where shall we find the honest man, the righteous man who shall not take a bribe, who is not addicted to greed, lust and conspicuous consumption? From what ivory tower shall our radical thinkers emerge to guide us on the right path? Are they not tainted with their white supremacy education? Have they gone through the process of deracialization and decolonialism, have they detoxified to the degree that they are clear and sober minded enough to offer us a plan out of the matrix?
We have suggested the 13 Step Model to recover from the addiction to white supremacy, but of course we are smarter than God, so we have no need of any plan other than to continue in our inordinacy, “blindly wondering on.” Even before the economic meltdown, our intellectuals were impotent and bereft of any ideas that would guide us safely into the new millennium.
In spite of the two million imprisoned, there is no call for a general amnesty to free the non-violent, drug related offenders, who should be working or learning skills to work in the reconstruction of the hood, economic as well as social, with radical plans and programs of substance rather than window dressing and band-aids. With all the brothers locked down, what choice do women have other than to mate with each other for comfort and love? The new demographics do not bode well for the future of the family in the hood, with so many reconfigurations of male/female relations: the women becoming men, the men becoming women. A young lady was overheard on her cell phone telling her girlfriend that she is the baby daddy and the baby daddy is the baby mama. “He stay home with the baby while I bounce….”
Even when we have the possibility of some forward movement, disillusionment sets in or we intellectualize ourselves out of enjoying the moment, suggesting that joy is sinful and we shall not be guiltridden, even after we who imagaine ourselves leaders and thinkers are forced to confess we are running to board the freedom train.
The great philosopher Sun Ra would say, "We so right we wrong, " for in our revolutionary purity we escape the motion of the masses, ultimately becoming their followers rather than leaders.
And the pseudo hip hop intellectuals and artists fare no better than the 85% deaf, dumb and blind, for the hip hop are blind with spurius antiquated African philosophy
that is doing nothing for Africa, and thus can do nothing for Africans in North America.
Better to search for ancestral bones in Mississippi rather than digging for King Tut's relatives only to be embarrassed at discoveries that will reveal a glorious past that at our present rate will take eons to equal.
--Plato Negro (Marvin X)
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
The death of dreams occur when reality has become so overwhelming, so dreadful that our imagination is exhausted and thus our ability to navigate the conundrums of life. We presently have an entire civilization on the brink, on the precipice, the chasm we created by accepting the corrupt and imbecilic leadership of the political, economic and spiritual
blood suckers of the poor. In our passivity, we permitted the blood suckers to drain the body politic of its vitality, to empty to coffers of the global village, and so we find ourselves at the bottom of the well with no exit, for who shall lead us out of the bottomless pit—was not God unable to find one righteous man to save the town?
Thus, as we seek solutions to the present economic meltdown, we are afraid to admit we are devoid of leadership, unless the hens accept the guardianship of the wolves. The robbers are able to resupply their booty from the treasury of the people, the trillions stolen from unregulated, free market capitalism now called globalism, the new form of monopoly capitalism that transcends nationalism and borders, with no sympathy for the citizens of any state who are mere cogs in the wheel of gamblers, speculators and fascists who practice an archaic socialism of the wealthy, looking out for their brothers at every turn, bailing them out from every blunder, every losing roll of the dice. Imagine, the robbers who bankrupted the nation’s largest insurance company proceeded to celebrate with a $400.000 retreat at taxpayer’s expense. There is no end to their arrogance and addiction to white supremacy.
But, again, where shall we find the honest man, the righteous man who shall not take a bribe, who is not addicted to greed, lust and conspicuous consumption? From what ivory tower shall our radical thinkers emerge to guide us on the right path? Are they not tainted with their white supremacy education? Have they gone through the process of deracialization and decolonialism, have they detoxified to the degree that they are clear and sober minded enough to offer us a plan out of the matrix?
We have suggested the 13 Step Model to recover from the addiction to white supremacy, but of course we are smarter than God, so we have no need of any plan other than to continue in our inordinacy, “blindly wondering on.” Even before the economic meltdown, our intellectuals were impotent and bereft of any ideas that would guide us safely into the new millennium.
In spite of the two million imprisoned, there is no call for a general amnesty to free the non-violent, drug related offenders, who should be working or learning skills to work in the reconstruction of the hood, economic as well as social, with radical plans and programs of substance rather than window dressing and band-aids. With all the brothers locked down, what choice do women have other than to mate with each other for comfort and love? The new demographics do not bode well for the future of the family in the hood, with so many reconfigurations of male/female relations: the women becoming men, the men becoming women. A young lady was overheard on her cell phone telling her girlfriend that she is the baby daddy and the baby daddy is the baby mama. “He stay home with the baby while I bounce….”
Even when we have the possibility of some forward movement, disillusionment sets in or we intellectualize ourselves out of enjoying the moment, suggesting that joy is sinful and we shall not be guiltridden, even after we who imagaine ourselves leaders and thinkers are forced to confess we are running to board the freedom train.
The great philosopher Sun Ra would say, "We so right we wrong, " for in our revolutionary purity we escape the motion of the masses, ultimately becoming their followers rather than leaders.
And the pseudo hip hop intellectuals and artists fare no better than the 85% deaf, dumb and blind, for the hip hop are blind with spurius antiquated African philosophy
that is doing nothing for Africa, and thus can do nothing for Africans in North America.
Better to search for ancestral bones in Mississippi rather than digging for King Tut's relatives only to be embarrassed at discoveries that will reveal a glorious past that at our present rate will take eons to equal.
--Plato Negro (Marvin X)
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Dr. Nathan Hare: Will You Vote Nigguh?
Dr. Nathan Hare raises the most serious issue in the Black community--will we vote in the coming election or sit around smoking blunts talking playa hatin bs. We know this will be a close election and we may be the sole persons to blame if Obama loses because of our lethargy, passivity and negativity. Wearing Obama buttons and T shirts is not enough. Get
your black behinds to the polling booths on election day. The devil will have enough tricks for you in this election, but don't trick yourself, then blame him.
--Marvin X
--- On Tue, 9/23/08, Nathan Hare wrote:
From: Nathan Hare
Dr. M,
I agree that many blacks will be upset, and rightfully so, if they perceive that Obama was tricked out of his victory – but not blacks alone – and we will be hitting the streets again, black, white and polka dot.
The real problem is that blacks may be left with their arms around the bag of blame for Obama’s defeat. Indeed, I heard a fellow say on television the other day that Al Gore lost Florida in 2004 by something like 389,000 votes, and hence the election, while 500,000 blacks were registered in Florida but sat home watching television lollygagging and theorizing but didn’t go out and vote. The commentator, admittedly white, also said that five million white college students failed to vote, as I recall it, but he left the clear impression that only a portion of the half a million blacks who were registered but neglected to vote in Florida could have won the state of Florida and therefore the presidential election in 2004.
If this kind of situation should emerge in November, then blacks, not whites, will bear the bolder blame for the defeat of the first black candidate of a major party for election to the presidency of America, the world’s most powerful nation, the refuge of our slave masters, the number one oppressors of all the world, then history itself, with or without Michelle Obama, will “put her foot in the behind” of a whole lot of brothers, and I must promise my god that I will be standing at his side to kick in anytime I am needed, cane, coins and all.
Nathan Hare, Ph.D., Ph.D.
Author of the “Foreword,” to How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy: A Pan African 12-Step Model for a Mental Health Peer Group. By Dr. M.,
Blackbird Press,
21222 Dwight Way ,
Berkeley , CA 94702 , $19.95.
Phone: 510-355-6339.
Obama's Last Ghost
Elijah told us the white wo”man is the white man's last weapon against the black man. We thought once Obama overcame Hillery, he would be home free. But up popped the devil woman number two. Of course she lacks Hillery's political chicanery but she's still white, so never forget this. And white America went into a tizzy over her until the fall of Wall Street, then she became second page news because America cares more about its money than its mama, and no matter the fall began on Clinton's watch, the blame game goes to Bush and the Republicans, thus Obama has another chance now that devil woman number two is backstage. She may pop up again before the race is over, but for now all eyes are on the economy and the robber barons of international finance.
As former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown noted in the Sunday Chronicle, we all should have known something was wrong when a man who couldn't qualify for a $13,000 car loan was able to qualify for a $300,000 house loan. But let's be honest, Obama and McCain have friends and contributors on Wall Street, after all, it is Wall Street who calls the shots in American elections, not the men and women on Main Street, who do not exercise one man one vote anyway, but the matter is decided in the Electoral College, although international finance predetermines the victor, the rest is media drama, unless the Trickster or Legba appears at the crossroads to block, as happened in 2000 and 2004, at which time Shango and Ogun will need to make their appearance. But they will need to act with caution since the US Army has a unit on hand for any domestic disturbance.
We know Blacks will be highly upset if it is perceived Obama is tricked out of his victory.
We must be wise enough to survive so we can fight another day. Or as Bruce Lee said, "Learn to fight by not fighting."
No matter what, America is on the down, and even if he wins, it is doubtful Obama can save her since she is suffering a multitude of sins, not just economically, but her military is overstretched, her educational system is in total disarray, and she is morally bankrupt with no respect in the global village. While the winds of revolution blow throughout the Americas, the United States is yet the bastion of reaction and white supremacy backwardness. Instead of providing leadership in the new era, she is lagging in political foresight, like a retarded child who cannot tell the time of day.
As we go into the stretch with this Obama drama, we hope Michelle will put her foot in his behind and push him over the finish line, for his victory will only be a step in our overdue attempt to reach the mountain top.
--Marvin X
Marvin X is a revolutionary nationalist whose spiritual philosophy is to push man to accept his divinity and act accordingly, for all things are divine but many humans do not recognize their essence which is spirituality. . Do not be blinded by color, ethnicity, gender or any other illusion of the monkey mind.
--from Up From Ignorance, Marvin X, the Soulful Musings of a North American African, Black Bird Press, 2009
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Dr. Nathan Hare raises the most serious issue in the Black community--will we vote in the coming election or sit around smoking blunts talking playa hatin bs. We know this will be a close election and we may be the sole persons to blame if Obama loses because of our lethargy, passivity and negativity. Wearing Obama buttons and T shirts is not enough. Get
your black behinds to the polling booths on election day. The devil will have enough tricks for you in this election, but don't trick yourself, then blame him.
--Marvin X
--- On Tue, 9/23/08, Nathan Hare
From: Nathan Hare
Dr. M,
I agree that many blacks will be upset, and rightfully so, if they perceive that Obama was tricked out of his victory – but not blacks alone – and we will be hitting the streets again, black, white and polka dot.
The real problem is that blacks may be left with their arms around the bag of blame for Obama’s defeat. Indeed, I heard a fellow say on television the other day that Al Gore lost Florida in 2004 by something like 389,000 votes, and hence the election, while 500,000 blacks were registered in Florida but sat home watching television lollygagging and theorizing but didn’t go out and vote. The commentator, admittedly white, also said that five million white college students failed to vote, as I recall it, but he left the clear impression that only a portion of the half a million blacks who were registered but neglected to vote in Florida could have won the state of Florida and therefore the presidential election in 2004.
If this kind of situation should emerge in November, then blacks, not whites, will bear the bolder blame for the defeat of the first black candidate of a major party for election to the presidency of America, the world’s most powerful nation, the refuge of our slave masters, the number one oppressors of all the world, then history itself, with or without Michelle Obama, will “put her foot in the behind” of a whole lot of brothers, and I must promise my god that I will be standing at his side to kick in anytime I am needed, cane, coins and all.
Nathan Hare, Ph.D., Ph.D.
Author of the “Foreword,” to How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy: A Pan African 12-Step Model for a Mental Health Peer Group. By Dr. M.,
Blackbird Press,
21222 Dwight Way ,
Berkeley , CA 94702 , $19.95.
Phone: 510-355-6339.
Obama's Last Ghost
Elijah told us the white wo”man is the white man's last weapon against the black man. We thought once Obama overcame Hillery, he would be home free. But up popped the devil woman number two. Of course she lacks Hillery's political chicanery but she's still white, so never forget this. And white America went into a tizzy over her until the fall of Wall Street, then she became second page news because America cares more about its money than its mama, and no matter the fall began on Clinton's watch, the blame game goes to Bush and the Republicans, thus Obama has another chance now that devil woman number two is backstage. She may pop up again before the race is over, but for now all eyes are on the economy and the robber barons of international finance.
As former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown noted in the Sunday Chronicle, we all should have known something was wrong when a man who couldn't qualify for a $13,000 car loan was able to qualify for a $300,000 house loan. But let's be honest, Obama and McCain have friends and contributors on Wall Street, after all, it is Wall Street who calls the shots in American elections, not the men and women on Main Street, who do not exercise one man one vote anyway, but the matter is decided in the Electoral College, although international finance predetermines the victor, the rest is media drama, unless the Trickster or Legba appears at the crossroads to block, as happened in 2000 and 2004, at which time Shango and Ogun will need to make their appearance. But they will need to act with caution since the US Army has a unit on hand for any domestic disturbance.
We know Blacks will be highly upset if it is perceived Obama is tricked out of his victory.
We must be wise enough to survive so we can fight another day. Or as Bruce Lee said, "Learn to fight by not fighting."
No matter what, America is on the down, and even if he wins, it is doubtful Obama can save her since she is suffering a multitude of sins, not just economically, but her military is overstretched, her educational system is in total disarray, and she is morally bankrupt with no respect in the global village. While the winds of revolution blow throughout the Americas, the United States is yet the bastion of reaction and white supremacy backwardness. Instead of providing leadership in the new era, she is lagging in political foresight, like a retarded child who cannot tell the time of day.
As we go into the stretch with this Obama drama, we hope Michelle will put her foot in his behind and push him over the finish line, for his victory will only be a step in our overdue attempt to reach the mountain top.
--Marvin X
Marvin X is a revolutionary nationalist whose spiritual philosophy is to push man to accept his divinity and act accordingly, for all things are divine but many humans do not recognize their essence which is spirituality. . Do not be blinded by color, ethnicity, gender or any other illusion of the monkey mind.
--from Up From Ignorance, Marvin X, the Soulful Musings of a North American African, Black Bird Press, 2009
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Monday, September 22, 2008
Plato on the Poetic Victory
The poetic victory is simply this: when the people come to the poet to praise him because his work has transformed their lives. The poet has no other mission than to inspire the people to be their better selves. Thus, we were honored and praised a few days ago when two hip hop youth passed the poet on the street, then, upon recognizing who he was, returned to shake his hand to thank him for changing their lives. They claimed they found a half of his book Wish I Could Tell You the Truth, essays, 2005, on the bus and they were transformed into conscious activist poets, who presented to the master poet their latest CD on the anti-violence theme.
People called the master poet mad when he decided to give out free copies of his books at the crossroads of Oakland, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. He gave out $3,000 to $5,000 worth of books. He said God told him to do so. After hearing from the youth, he knew he had done the right thing. Surely we will give away $3,000 or $4,000 to save a youth!
But the glory is in the reaction rather than the action. He is duty bound to spread the truth.
“Will you hide the truth while you know?” says Qur’an. But from the response of the young men the poet felt vindicated. And other youth have told similar things: not so long ago a youth just released from the Santa Rita County Jail told the poet he had read his book How to Recover from the Addiction of White Supremacy, and he was changed. He vowed to never again deal dope to our people, based of the testimony of Dr. M. He was searching for a job when he ran into the poet at 14th and Broadway.
And so we call these happenings the poetic victory, for we see the power of words to transform and raise us from the dead, Nommo, the sacred word made real and breathing, water for the weary traveler.
This
This is not about making money
selling books
ego or fame
women or children
Old age and sex
sin or some preacher
Some holy book or how one prays
a simple thing
tears in eyes
working last nerve
standing when feet tired
Talking when silence is desire
showing love when hatred is behind smile
feeding poor when they ask
Like listening to an old woman homeless
story of a mad negro and a mad African one after another
street children with grills in their mouths
telling stories of spirit world
the daily round
work unfinished
truth no matter
a circle coming
round and round and round
This is not the personal
A lover lost in traffic
about the teacher
but the student who learns to stand
to teach
what he is taught
About comrades who will gather on the corner
to save themselves
about the black the white the mixed or the mad
coming together to realize
life is a moment to seize
or be lost in eternity.
action and reaction
Passing the tone test in the presence of the beast.
getting through the day so one can fight tomorrow.
seeking knowledge above food, rent and pleasure.
Knowledge powers
universe into ball
We throw into space
and time
until it explodes
particles
a new world
to see
and wonder.
--Dr. M
10/2/07
The poetic victory is simply this: when the people come to the poet to praise him because his work has transformed their lives. The poet has no other mission than to inspire the people to be their better selves. Thus, we were honored and praised a few days ago when two hip hop youth passed the poet on the street, then, upon recognizing who he was, returned to shake his hand to thank him for changing their lives. They claimed they found a half of his book Wish I Could Tell You the Truth, essays, 2005, on the bus and they were transformed into conscious activist poets, who presented to the master poet their latest CD on the anti-violence theme.
People called the master poet mad when he decided to give out free copies of his books at the crossroads of Oakland, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. He gave out $3,000 to $5,000 worth of books. He said God told him to do so. After hearing from the youth, he knew he had done the right thing. Surely we will give away $3,000 or $4,000 to save a youth!
But the glory is in the reaction rather than the action. He is duty bound to spread the truth.
“Will you hide the truth while you know?” says Qur’an. But from the response of the young men the poet felt vindicated. And other youth have told similar things: not so long ago a youth just released from the Santa Rita County Jail told the poet he had read his book How to Recover from the Addiction of White Supremacy, and he was changed. He vowed to never again deal dope to our people, based of the testimony of Dr. M. He was searching for a job when he ran into the poet at 14th and Broadway.
And so we call these happenings the poetic victory, for we see the power of words to transform and raise us from the dead, Nommo, the sacred word made real and breathing, water for the weary traveler.
This
This is not about making money
selling books
ego or fame
women or children
Old age and sex
sin or some preacher
Some holy book or how one prays
a simple thing
tears in eyes
working last nerve
standing when feet tired
Talking when silence is desire
showing love when hatred is behind smile
feeding poor when they ask
Like listening to an old woman homeless
story of a mad negro and a mad African one after another
street children with grills in their mouths
telling stories of spirit world
the daily round
work unfinished
truth no matter
a circle coming
round and round and round
This is not the personal
A lover lost in traffic
about the teacher
but the student who learns to stand
to teach
what he is taught
About comrades who will gather on the corner
to save themselves
about the black the white the mixed or the mad
coming together to realize
life is a moment to seize
or be lost in eternity.
action and reaction
Passing the tone test in the presence of the beast.
getting through the day so one can fight tomorrow.
seeking knowledge above food, rent and pleasure.
Knowledge powers
universe into ball
We throw into space
and time
until it explodes
particles
a new world
to see
and wonder.
--Dr. M
10/2/07
Marvin X Defined
Marvin X is a revolutionary nationalist whose spiritual philosophy is to push man to accept his divinity and act accordingly, for all things are divine but many humans do not recognize their essence which is spirituality. Do not be blinded by color, ethnicity, gender or any other illusion of the monkey mind.--,Up From Ignorance, Marvin X, the Soulful Musings of a North American African, Black Bird Press, 2009
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo. com
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo. com
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Obama's Last Ghost
Elijah told us the white woman is the white man's last weapon against the black man. We thought once Obama overcame Hillery, he would be home free. But up popped the devil woman number two. Of course she lacks Hillery's political chicanery but she's still white, so never forget this. And white America went into a tizzy over her until the fall of Wall Street, then she became second page news because America cares more about its money than its mama, and no matter the fall began on Clinton's watch, the blame game goes to Bush and the Republicans, thus Obama has another chance now that devil woman number two is backstage. She may pop up again before the race is over, but for now all eyes are on the economy.
As former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown noted in the Sunday Chronicle, we all should have known something was wrong when a man who couldn't qualify for a $13,000 car loan was able to qualify for a $300,000 house loan. But let's be honest, Obama and McCain have friends and contributors on Wall Street, after all, it is Wall Street who calls the shots in American elections, not the men and women on Main Street, who do not exercise one man one vote anyway, but the matter is decided in the Electoral College, although international finance predetermines the victor, the rest is media drama, unless the Trickster or Legba appears at the crossroads to block, as happened in 2000 and 2004, at which time Shango and Ogun will need to make their appearance. But they will need to act with caution since the US Army has a unit on hand for any domestic disturbance.
We know Blacks will be highly upset if it is perceived Obama is tricked out of his victory. We must be wise enough to survive so we can fight another day. Or as Bruce Lee said, "Learn to fight by not fighting." No matter what, America is on the down, and even if he wins, it is doubtful Obama can save her since she is suffering a multitude of sins, not just economically, but her military is overstretched, her educational system is in total disarray, and she is morally bankrupt with no respect in the global village. While the winds of revolution blow throughout the Americas, the United States is yet the bastion of reaction
and white supremacy backwardness. Instead of providing leadership in the new era, she is lagging in political foresight, like a retarted child who cannot tell the time of day.
As we go into the stretch with this Obama drama, we hope Michelle will put her foot in his behind and push him over the finish line, for his victory will only be a step in our overdue attempt to reach the mountain top.
--Marvin X
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Elijah told us the white woman is the white man's last weapon against the black man. We thought once Obama overcame Hillery, he would be home free. But up popped the devil woman number two. Of course she lacks Hillery's political chicanery but she's still white, so never forget this. And white America went into a tizzy over her until the fall of Wall Street, then she became second page news because America cares more about its money than its mama, and no matter the fall began on Clinton's watch, the blame game goes to Bush and the Republicans, thus Obama has another chance now that devil woman number two is backstage. She may pop up again before the race is over, but for now all eyes are on the economy.
As former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown noted in the Sunday Chronicle, we all should have known something was wrong when a man who couldn't qualify for a $13,000 car loan was able to qualify for a $300,000 house loan. But let's be honest, Obama and McCain have friends and contributors on Wall Street, after all, it is Wall Street who calls the shots in American elections, not the men and women on Main Street, who do not exercise one man one vote anyway, but the matter is decided in the Electoral College, although international finance predetermines the victor, the rest is media drama, unless the Trickster or Legba appears at the crossroads to block, as happened in 2000 and 2004, at which time Shango and Ogun will need to make their appearance. But they will need to act with caution since the US Army has a unit on hand for any domestic disturbance.
We know Blacks will be highly upset if it is perceived Obama is tricked out of his victory. We must be wise enough to survive so we can fight another day. Or as Bruce Lee said, "Learn to fight by not fighting." No matter what, America is on the down, and even if he wins, it is doubtful Obama can save her since she is suffering a multitude of sins, not just economically, but her military is overstretched, her educational system is in total disarray, and she is morally bankrupt with no respect in the global village. While the winds of revolution blow throughout the Americas, the United States is yet the bastion of reaction
and white supremacy backwardness. Instead of providing leadership in the new era, she is lagging in political foresight, like a retarted child who cannot tell the time of day.
As we go into the stretch with this Obama drama, we hope Michelle will put her foot in his behind and push him over the finish line, for his victory will only be a step in our overdue attempt to reach the mountain top.
--Marvin X
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Friday, September 19, 2008
Bank the Bankers
Bank the bankers
Fleeing Russia with pants in hand
Fleeing Wall Street cross Brooklyn Bridge
The fundamentals are sound said Bush/McCain
Then Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bit the dust
Bank the bankers
Those communist in capitalist drag
Sharing the robbery of workers
Homeless in the snow
Bankers ski in the Alps
Gleaming Wall Street Journal
Sliding down the slope
Champagne on ice
Bank the bankers
Bear Sterns
Washington Mutual
Bank of America
Thieves in the night
Who is Federal Reserve?
To workers in the cold
Who is the Treasury?
To grandma’s house gone
She in shelter bout to stroke
Don’t understand the sub prime loan
Her son took out
He gone on dope
Like the president
Drunk in white house
Fundamentally sound
Just ride out this crisis
Don’t lose yo cool
He tells American people
Fleeing Katrina and Ike
Hurricane hit Wall Street
Taxpayers took tab
Bank the bankers
Let them taste jail
Eat zoo zoos and wham whams
no end in sight
Let the dollar fly in the air
bankers don’t care
They home by the fire
In the pickle room
don’t care
workers have no homes
No car
No stocks, no bonds, retirement gone
Burial insurance in hand,. thank God
What good is that?
Bank the bankers
Those loose loaning pigs
Even the jobless got loans
Bankers didn’t care
Sell the notes to China, Russia
Saudi Arabia
Sell Citibank and Chase
Sell America to whomever
Give a loan to whomever
No credit check
No collateral
No job
Sell America
Sell yo mama
Bankers don’t care
Greed rules this day
The heartless have their homes
Their summer & winter retreats
Bank the bankers
Let them eat pizza on Riker’s Island
Or Leavenworth.
--Marvin X
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
Bank the bankers
Fleeing Russia with pants in hand
Fleeing Wall Street cross Brooklyn Bridge
The fundamentals are sound said Bush/McCain
Then Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bit the dust
Bank the bankers
Those communist in capitalist drag
Sharing the robbery of workers
Homeless in the snow
Bankers ski in the Alps
Gleaming Wall Street Journal
Sliding down the slope
Champagne on ice
Bank the bankers
Bear Sterns
Washington Mutual
Bank of America
Thieves in the night
Who is Federal Reserve?
To workers in the cold
Who is the Treasury?
To grandma’s house gone
She in shelter bout to stroke
Don’t understand the sub prime loan
Her son took out
He gone on dope
Like the president
Drunk in white house
Fundamentally sound
Just ride out this crisis
Don’t lose yo cool
He tells American people
Fleeing Katrina and Ike
Hurricane hit Wall Street
Taxpayers took tab
Bank the bankers
Let them taste jail
Eat zoo zoos and wham whams
no end in sight
Let the dollar fly in the air
bankers don’t care
They home by the fire
In the pickle room
don’t care
workers have no homes
No car
No stocks, no bonds, retirement gone
Burial insurance in hand,. thank God
What good is that?
Bank the bankers
Those loose loaning pigs
Even the jobless got loans
Bankers didn’t care
Sell the notes to China, Russia
Saudi Arabia
Sell Citibank and Chase
Sell America to whomever
Give a loan to whomever
No credit check
No collateral
No job
Sell America
Sell yo mama
Bankers don’t care
Greed rules this day
The heartless have their homes
Their summer & winter retreats
Bank the bankers
Let them eat pizza on Riker’s Island
Or Leavenworth.
--Marvin X
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Marvin X Replies to Lil Joe on the Fall of America and Marxists
Lil Joe, thank you for slapping me upside the head for downing the Marxist analysis of society and those brothers and sisters who had a clear vision of "what's going on" for a long time. I stand corrected, although you need to read Elijah on "The Decline of the Dollar" and other writings on economics, as in The Fall of America. As I listen to the news this morning, it is crystal clear to me the capitalists are more socialist than socialists, but only when it comes to their brother/sister capitalists in danger of losing what they have stolen and robbed from the masses. As I write, they are bailing out the blood sucking bankers with unlimited billions from the US treasury while the poor and workers go about with empty pockets, the streets full of baby prostitutes working for food. It seems to me that if this is how the capitalists crumble under pressure, why is it so impossible for us revolutionaries to put mass pressure on them for our agenda, including reparations, national sovereignty, land and whatever else we desire as a people. Why are we not demanding the billions and trillions we need for our national aspirations. Surely, a few days or weeks of a general strike will make the capitalist bandits say, "Let's make a deal." Meanwhile, the capitalist bloodsuckers of the poor will continue bailing out each other, practicing their primitive communism as the masses go down, down, down, believing a better day is coming. Obama, as transformer, has inspired the people. Will he be able to transact any business for our national aspirations, it is doubtful since he can hardly utter the word black without being accused of partiality. His foreign policy is indeed reactionary and no better than Bush/McCain- -the stupid idea of attacking Pakistan revealed his desire to appear Hawkish, yet it reveals raw ignorance since Pakistan has the ultimate weapon to deter aggression from the US or anyone else. --Marvin X
--- On Tue, 9/16/08, Lil Joe wrote:
From: Lil Joe
Subject: Fwd: [blackantiwar] Fw: The Fall of America
To: blackantiwar@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 8:17 AM
Hello Marvin, You know that I acknowledge you as a critical thinker and [subjectively, i.e. an honest] revolutionary, and I respect your religion. However, we here have a disagreement which was the revolutionary side of the historical critique of capitalism - what you call "America" - the Nation of Islam i.e. Elijah Muhammad, or the Marxist e.g. C.L.R. James. You wrote: "The fall of America was foretold by Elijah but his teachings were rejected by the Black intellectuals in Crisis whose Marxist analysis was not crystal clear on this point." Reply:I don't know what "Black intellectuals in Crisis" you are writing in reference to. If you are referring to the book "Crisis of the Negro Intellectual" , written as the pro-capitalist' s black bourgeois "intellectual" Harold Cruz, who attacked Blacks for becoming revolutionary class struggle communists, personified by the teacher played by Denzil Washington in the film on a Black Debating club, who also organized Black and white sharecroppers in the evenings, this is the kind of person Cruz was attacking and the NOI called "assimilationists" and "integrationists" , these black communists knew exactly what they were doing. The foremost "Black intellectual" who openly declared himself a communist revolutionary was C.L.R. James, who mastered both Hegel and Marx. Yes, he rejected prophesy and Elijah as a prophet, and Elijah's teaching that the white man is a 'devil' and the "fall of America" being accomplished by earth quakes, floods, and other natural disasters, being directed by Black aliens in space ships from "the Mother Ship". James was a clear thinking Marxist concerning the collapse of capitalism engendered by its internal material contradictions, and of working class revolution in response to it:, He wasn't a "Black intellectual in Crisis". This, for instance is from an article by C.L.R. James:
Marxism and the IntellectualsA review of Raymond Williams' Culture and Society and The Long Revolution
I. The Creative Power of the Working Class
"Honor to whom honor is due. There is a campaign on by the capitalist class in all the advanced countries to prove that capitalism is so affluent, that is to say, so prosperous that workers everywhere are becoming middle class. The rulers of society want to imply that not only has capitalism solved what Marxists say it cannot solve its, economic difficulties, but they want to throw water on the idea that socialism is an inherent need for working people. Where, as in England, there is a powerful Labor Party, they want to encourage voters to vote middle class, i.e. to abandon the idea that as workers they have their special political interests. By the same means they want to encourage voters everywhere to vote for reactionary parties. Raymond Williams, the English socialist writer, has given that bold example of capitalist lying propaganda a knock-out blow which I gladly reproduce. This is what he says:- "Before World War II the condition of the working class in England was a world-wide scandal. Poverty, unemployment, social degradation in many "depressed areas" seemed permanent. Undoubtedly the Labor victory in 1945 improved working class conditions of life. What is called "prosperity" is that the worst of the of the shocking conditions have been eliminated. The Conservatives accepted the change and promised, if they got back to power, not to go back to the old days. They have got back to power since 1951. They spend a vast amount of their resources and energy seeking to convince ordinary Se that, owing to this new prosperity, labor must now desert the very idea of labor politics. ... "But Mr. Williams can say with some justification: if the class has not made the decisive step, has not faced the necessity of thinking its own thoughts and working out its own actions, what do you expect me to do? Here we come face to face with another fundamental of Marxism, the inevitability of socialism. It is possible that Mr. Williams believes this to be Marxist jargon, or a phrase to keep up the spirits of devoted fanatics. It is in reality the key to any serious Marxist political analysis of socialism. Marx did not use it as an incitement. It can be said that philosophically he never accepted it as truth, as absolute truth. Over and over again he carefully said: socialism or barbarism. That is to say, either the working class establishes the socialist society or the contradictions of capitalism will lead society to barbarism. The precise meaning of barbarism is a matter for debate, for those who wish to. For my part, not only were Fascism and Stalinism barbarisms (literally), but the ultimate in human barbarism has been reached when the most powerful statesmen of today organize their societies with the physical destruction of total societies as their main object. This is due to the necessity of preserving what they very rightly call their way of life. Marx's inevitability of socialism was a philosophical, a theoretical postulate, a necessity of thought, based on his conviction that capitalism would inevitably end as it is ending. With this postulate you approach every political, every social, every economic problem or set of circumstances; you look for those forces, movements, objective or subjective, which advance the cause of socialism and hasten the destruction of capitalism." http://www.marxists .org/archive/ james-clr/ works/1962/ destruction- paper/ch01. htm
You wrote:"But Elijah told you the dollar would be floating in the street soon and very soon. He told you men's hearts would be failing them due to the fear caused by the fall of the international finance system called Global capitalism or imperialism. He told you this in his book Fall of America. But you intellectual Negroes are so smart you have outsmarted yourselves, thus your crisis." Reply: I am not familiar with Elijah Muhammad doing and presenting any analysis of material use value and exchange value of commodities, money as the commodity commensurate with other commodities as use value and exchange value, becoming use value as exchange value embodied and quantified in gold, silver, nickle and copper to serve as means of circulation of commodities, currency displacing material money and inflation; nor, am I familiar with any of Elijah Muhammad's treatise or articles on finance capital and its collapse. In any event, it is great to see you writing as you have done in this piece. Yet, it sames a contradiction that you refer to America and its political system as evil, the Beast and the Great Whore, on a divinely ordained path to destruction; but, at the same time, you endorse Obama and the Democrats - a party that is part of the peopling of this "Beast"/ "Great Whore" - as the party and the man to save "America" the "Beast" and "Great Whore, from its divinely engineered "fall" Lil Joe
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marvin X JackmonDate: Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 10:03 PMSubject: [blackantiwar] Fw: The Fall of AmericaTo: blackantiwar@ yahoogroups. com, TheAfrikanConscious nessCenter@ yahoogroups. com, theblacklist@ lists.riseup. net--- On Tue, 9/16/08, Marvin X Jackmon wrote: From: Marvin X Jackmon Subject: The Fall of America To: jmarvinx@yahoo. com Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 5:00 AM The Fall of America The fall of America was foretold by Elijah but his teachings were rejected by the Black intellectuals in Crisis whose Marxist analysis was not crystal clear on this point. But Elijah told you the dollar would be floating in the street soon and very soon. He told you men's hearts would be failing them due to the fear caused by the fall of the international finance system called Global capitalism or imperialism. He told you this in his book Fall of Amerca. But you intellectual Negroes are so smart you have outsmarted yourselves, thus your crisis. You can't figure your asses from a hole in the ground. You see American falling before your very eyes, yet you are dumbfounded on the reality before your eyes. The Great Beast cannot fall, not yet, he must recover, it is only a matter of time. No, brother, this is the fall of the Great Whore, Babylon the Great. And you may fall with him unless you pull your nuts out of the sand and get a grip on your Divinity. Keep thinking Sunni Islam can save you, or any other religiosity full of reaction rather than a radical destruction of the status quo. All your prayers are for naught, your meaningless praying and fasting can go to the winds that you see in the hurricanes blowing your asses into the skies from city to city, state to state. Pray and see of God will help you in your pitiful hour of need. This is the end for you and your master, whether white, Arab, Asian, European, African or whatever. They shall go down with you in your iniquity. You persist in hanging around the rich man's gate while he is suffering in misery because of his greed and desire for domination.
Lil Joe, thank you for slapping me upside the head for downing the Marxist analysis of society and those brothers and sisters who had a clear vision of "what's going on" for a long time. I stand corrected, although you need to read Elijah on "The Decline of the Dollar" and other writings on economics, as in The Fall of America. As I listen to the news this morning, it is crystal clear to me the capitalists are more socialist than socialists, but only when it comes to their brother/sister capitalists in danger of losing what they have stolen and robbed from the masses. As I write, they are bailing out the blood sucking bankers with unlimited billions from the US treasury while the poor and workers go about with empty pockets, the streets full of baby prostitutes working for food. It seems to me that if this is how the capitalists crumble under pressure, why is it so impossible for us revolutionaries to put mass pressure on them for our agenda, including reparations, national sovereignty, land and whatever else we desire as a people. Why are we not demanding the billions and trillions we need for our national aspirations. Surely, a few days or weeks of a general strike will make the capitalist bandits say, "Let's make a deal." Meanwhile, the capitalist bloodsuckers of the poor will continue bailing out each other, practicing their primitive communism as the masses go down, down, down, believing a better day is coming. Obama, as transformer, has inspired the people. Will he be able to transact any business for our national aspirations, it is doubtful since he can hardly utter the word black without being accused of partiality. His foreign policy is indeed reactionary and no better than Bush/McCain- -the stupid idea of attacking Pakistan revealed his desire to appear Hawkish, yet it reveals raw ignorance since Pakistan has the ultimate weapon to deter aggression from the US or anyone else. --Marvin X
--- On Tue, 9/16/08, Lil Joe
From: Lil Joe
Subject: Fwd: [blackantiwar] Fw: The Fall of America
To: blackantiwar@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 8:17 AM
Hello Marvin, You know that I acknowledge you as a critical thinker and [subjectively, i.e. an honest] revolutionary, and I respect your religion. However, we here have a disagreement which was the revolutionary side of the historical critique of capitalism - what you call "America" - the Nation of Islam i.e. Elijah Muhammad, or the Marxist e.g. C.L.R. James. You wrote: "The fall of America was foretold by Elijah but his teachings were rejected by the Black intellectuals in Crisis whose Marxist analysis was not crystal clear on this point." Reply:I don't know what "Black intellectuals in Crisis" you are writing in reference to. If you are referring to the book "Crisis of the Negro Intellectual" , written as the pro-capitalist' s black bourgeois "intellectual" Harold Cruz, who attacked Blacks for becoming revolutionary class struggle communists, personified by the teacher played by Denzil Washington in the film on a Black Debating club, who also organized Black and white sharecroppers in the evenings, this is the kind of person Cruz was attacking and the NOI called "assimilationists" and "integrationists" , these black communists knew exactly what they were doing. The foremost "Black intellectual" who openly declared himself a communist revolutionary was C.L.R. James, who mastered both Hegel and Marx. Yes, he rejected prophesy and Elijah as a prophet, and Elijah's teaching that the white man is a 'devil' and the "fall of America" being accomplished by earth quakes, floods, and other natural disasters, being directed by Black aliens in space ships from "the Mother Ship". James was a clear thinking Marxist concerning the collapse of capitalism engendered by its internal material contradictions, and of working class revolution in response to it:, He wasn't a "Black intellectual in Crisis". This, for instance is from an article by C.L.R. James:
Marxism and the IntellectualsA review of Raymond Williams' Culture and Society and The Long Revolution
I. The Creative Power of the Working Class
"Honor to whom honor is due. There is a campaign on by the capitalist class in all the advanced countries to prove that capitalism is so affluent, that is to say, so prosperous that workers everywhere are becoming middle class. The rulers of society want to imply that not only has capitalism solved what Marxists say it cannot solve its, economic difficulties, but they want to throw water on the idea that socialism is an inherent need for working people. Where, as in England, there is a powerful Labor Party, they want to encourage voters to vote middle class, i.e. to abandon the idea that as workers they have their special political interests. By the same means they want to encourage voters everywhere to vote for reactionary parties. Raymond Williams, the English socialist writer, has given that bold example of capitalist lying propaganda a knock-out blow which I gladly reproduce. This is what he says:- "Before World War II the condition of the working class in England was a world-wide scandal. Poverty, unemployment, social degradation in many "depressed areas" seemed permanent. Undoubtedly the Labor victory in 1945 improved working class conditions of life. What is called "prosperity" is that the worst of the of the shocking conditions have been eliminated. The Conservatives accepted the change and promised, if they got back to power, not to go back to the old days. They have got back to power since 1951. They spend a vast amount of their resources and energy seeking to convince ordinary Se that, owing to this new prosperity, labor must now desert the very idea of labor politics. ... "But Mr. Williams can say with some justification: if the class has not made the decisive step, has not faced the necessity of thinking its own thoughts and working out its own actions, what do you expect me to do? Here we come face to face with another fundamental of Marxism, the inevitability of socialism. It is possible that Mr. Williams believes this to be Marxist jargon, or a phrase to keep up the spirits of devoted fanatics. It is in reality the key to any serious Marxist political analysis of socialism. Marx did not use it as an incitement. It can be said that philosophically he never accepted it as truth, as absolute truth. Over and over again he carefully said: socialism or barbarism. That is to say, either the working class establishes the socialist society or the contradictions of capitalism will lead society to barbarism. The precise meaning of barbarism is a matter for debate, for those who wish to. For my part, not only were Fascism and Stalinism barbarisms (literally), but the ultimate in human barbarism has been reached when the most powerful statesmen of today organize their societies with the physical destruction of total societies as their main object. This is due to the necessity of preserving what they very rightly call their way of life. Marx's inevitability of socialism was a philosophical, a theoretical postulate, a necessity of thought, based on his conviction that capitalism would inevitably end as it is ending. With this postulate you approach every political, every social, every economic problem or set of circumstances; you look for those forces, movements, objective or subjective, which advance the cause of socialism and hasten the destruction of capitalism." http://www.marxists .org/archive/ james-clr/ works/1962/ destruction- paper/ch01. htm
You wrote:"But Elijah told you the dollar would be floating in the street soon and very soon. He told you men's hearts would be failing them due to the fear caused by the fall of the international finance system called Global capitalism or imperialism. He told you this in his book Fall of America. But you intellectual Negroes are so smart you have outsmarted yourselves, thus your crisis." Reply: I am not familiar with Elijah Muhammad doing and presenting any analysis of material use value and exchange value of commodities, money as the commodity commensurate with other commodities as use value and exchange value, becoming use value as exchange value embodied and quantified in gold, silver, nickle and copper to serve as means of circulation of commodities, currency displacing material money and inflation; nor, am I familiar with any of Elijah Muhammad's treatise or articles on finance capital and its collapse. In any event, it is great to see you writing as you have done in this piece. Yet, it sames a contradiction that you refer to America and its political system as evil, the Beast and the Great Whore, on a divinely ordained path to destruction; but, at the same time, you endorse Obama and the Democrats - a party that is part of the peopling of this "Beast"/ "Great Whore" - as the party and the man to save "America" the "Beast" and "Great Whore, from its divinely engineered "fall" Lil Joe
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marvin X Jackmon
Plato Negro on Muslims and Communists
Muslims and Communists should not only agree to disagree but agree on what they have in common which is a radical view of this society and civilization. We should agree that though we use different terminology, we come to the same conclusion on many matters concerning the social, economic and political analysis of society and the need for radical change or revolution.
Although Communist deny the existence of God, in Elijah Muhammad’s theology, God has a material basis which is man and the material world. Thus those of us taught by Elijah do not accept God as a spook or spirit floating through the air, and we certainly do not believe we must die to go to heaven, but we know heaven and hell are conditions of life, not death. Such teachings that heaven is up in the sky is slavery teachings which render us tools and fools of the white man.
I’m not waiting around to go to heaven. I’m in heaven everyday I am blessed to get up and walk down the street. And even this hell we can turn into heaven with radical action, flipping the script of ignorance by spreading knowledge and wisdom to the people, thus bringing them into the light from the darkness of slavery teachings.
The Muslims and Communists should work together as we did during the 60s. There is no doubt that Marxists and Muslims provided the ideological and spiritual energy for the liberation movement. The Muslims, though nationalist, were just as internationalist as the Communist, for the Muslims saw and see the world as the Nation of Islam. And we have a radical Christian tradition as well, from David Walker, Nat Turner, Prosser, Vesey down to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Of course, Muslims see Communists as Godless devils. And Communists see Muslims as
people lost in the metaphysical. But we believe in the physical and metaphysical. And I dare say Communists believe in the material and spiritual world. I have seen my Communist friend, Amiri Baraka, express his spirituality in performance. And don’t tell me when his son was shot in the head with a 357 Magnum, he and his wife and friends didn’t pray for that boy! Was it Marxism that healed that boy or the healing power of prayer with medical attention? And when you Marxists are flying at thirty thousand feet and hit turbulence, whom do you call, Marx or God and the Ancestors?
Some would say our contradictions are so great we cannot do anything together, but the 60s put the lie to this notion because we did many things together—if nothing else, we learned from each other. The so-called Marxist-Leninist Black Panther ten point program derived from Elijah’s What the Muslims Want, What the Muslims Believe. The Black Arts Movement was steeped in Muslim ideology, and what is the source of Black Studies if not the Pan Africanist and Islamic teachings of Marcus Garvey and Elijah Muhammad.
Many of our people turned to Islam and Communism for the same reasons: disillusionment with hypocritical Christianity, for as Baldwin told me in an interview at his Harlem apartment, 1968, “Your condition proves Christians don’t believe what they say.”
The great Pan Africanist Wilmot Blyden commanded Muslims and Christians to unite and work together for mutual benefit (Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race, 1887), and I say today those of us who are Marxist and Muslims should do the same. We should stop debating terminology while our people are suffering from poverty, ignorance and disease.
We should not question their newfound hope in Obama, but take full advantage of the hour to educate them around Obama rather than playa hatin. Imagine Obama is Crack. Now it was some time before Crack took hold on the intellectuals and radicals, but in the end it got the best of us. So if the people are on Crack, we should tell them the evils of this drug but don’t doctor the patients to death because they ain’t gonna stop smoking, just as they are going to go with Obama down to the wire. We should be intelligent enough to know this—yes, even though we have a continent in Africa full of black presidents not worth the time of day. You know babies love candy—let the babies have their candy. Why do you want to snatch the candy out their mouths, making them cry. They have not had candy in a long time, maybe 45 years—so let them celebrate the little candy, if only for a moment. The people have a choice, Obama or McCain, so which would you prefer being realistic and intellectual, looking at reality cold blooded, not starry eyed romantics.
Marxists should provide our people with a clear analysis of how they see this political matter. As per Muslims, Elijah told us no politician of this world can save us, only us can save us. So the job of Muslims and Marxists is to provide our people with ideological clarity. And if he wins, celebrate and educate, and if he loses, celebrate and educate.
Those of us claiming radical consciousness should be the leaders, not lagging and playa hatin. We should let the people know if we do not put forth a radical agenda for Obama, he will respond to the agenda of those who do pressure him, especially from the right.
Those of us on the Left should stop the silly mess about he ain’t black when half the black population is tainted with white blood as much if not more than Obama.
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
Muslims and Communists should not only agree to disagree but agree on what they have in common which is a radical view of this society and civilization. We should agree that though we use different terminology, we come to the same conclusion on many matters concerning the social, economic and political analysis of society and the need for radical change or revolution.
Although Communist deny the existence of God, in Elijah Muhammad’s theology, God has a material basis which is man and the material world. Thus those of us taught by Elijah do not accept God as a spook or spirit floating through the air, and we certainly do not believe we must die to go to heaven, but we know heaven and hell are conditions of life, not death. Such teachings that heaven is up in the sky is slavery teachings which render us tools and fools of the white man.
I’m not waiting around to go to heaven. I’m in heaven everyday I am blessed to get up and walk down the street. And even this hell we can turn into heaven with radical action, flipping the script of ignorance by spreading knowledge and wisdom to the people, thus bringing them into the light from the darkness of slavery teachings.
The Muslims and Communists should work together as we did during the 60s. There is no doubt that Marxists and Muslims provided the ideological and spiritual energy for the liberation movement. The Muslims, though nationalist, were just as internationalist as the Communist, for the Muslims saw and see the world as the Nation of Islam. And we have a radical Christian tradition as well, from David Walker, Nat Turner, Prosser, Vesey down to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Of course, Muslims see Communists as Godless devils. And Communists see Muslims as
people lost in the metaphysical. But we believe in the physical and metaphysical. And I dare say Communists believe in the material and spiritual world. I have seen my Communist friend, Amiri Baraka, express his spirituality in performance. And don’t tell me when his son was shot in the head with a 357 Magnum, he and his wife and friends didn’t pray for that boy! Was it Marxism that healed that boy or the healing power of prayer with medical attention? And when you Marxists are flying at thirty thousand feet and hit turbulence, whom do you call, Marx or God and the Ancestors?
Some would say our contradictions are so great we cannot do anything together, but the 60s put the lie to this notion because we did many things together—if nothing else, we learned from each other. The so-called Marxist-Leninist Black Panther ten point program derived from Elijah’s What the Muslims Want, What the Muslims Believe. The Black Arts Movement was steeped in Muslim ideology, and what is the source of Black Studies if not the Pan Africanist and Islamic teachings of Marcus Garvey and Elijah Muhammad.
Many of our people turned to Islam and Communism for the same reasons: disillusionment with hypocritical Christianity, for as Baldwin told me in an interview at his Harlem apartment, 1968, “Your condition proves Christians don’t believe what they say.”
The great Pan Africanist Wilmot Blyden commanded Muslims and Christians to unite and work together for mutual benefit (Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race, 1887), and I say today those of us who are Marxist and Muslims should do the same. We should stop debating terminology while our people are suffering from poverty, ignorance and disease.
We should not question their newfound hope in Obama, but take full advantage of the hour to educate them around Obama rather than playa hatin. Imagine Obama is Crack. Now it was some time before Crack took hold on the intellectuals and radicals, but in the end it got the best of us. So if the people are on Crack, we should tell them the evils of this drug but don’t doctor the patients to death because they ain’t gonna stop smoking, just as they are going to go with Obama down to the wire. We should be intelligent enough to know this—yes, even though we have a continent in Africa full of black presidents not worth the time of day. You know babies love candy—let the babies have their candy. Why do you want to snatch the candy out their mouths, making them cry. They have not had candy in a long time, maybe 45 years—so let them celebrate the little candy, if only for a moment. The people have a choice, Obama or McCain, so which would you prefer being realistic and intellectual, looking at reality cold blooded, not starry eyed romantics.
Marxists should provide our people with a clear analysis of how they see this political matter. As per Muslims, Elijah told us no politician of this world can save us, only us can save us. So the job of Muslims and Marxists is to provide our people with ideological clarity. And if he wins, celebrate and educate, and if he loses, celebrate and educate.
Those of us claiming radical consciousness should be the leaders, not lagging and playa hatin. We should let the people know if we do not put forth a radical agenda for Obama, he will respond to the agenda of those who do pressure him, especially from the right.
Those of us on the Left should stop the silly mess about he ain’t black when half the black population is tainted with white blood as much if not more than Obama.
www.marvinxwrites.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Decline of the Dollar
By Messenger Elijah Muhammad
Reprinted from The Fall of America, Chapter 20
The strong-hold of the American government is falling to pieces. She has lost her prestige among the nations of the earth. One of the greatest powers of America was her dollar. The loss of such power will bring any nation to weakness, for this is the media of exchange between nations. The English pound and the American dollar have been the power and beckoning light of these two great powers. But when the world went off the gold and silver standard, the financial doom of England and America was sealed. 2 The pound has lost 50 percent of its value. America’s dollar has lost everything now as power backing for her currency, which was backed by gold for every $5 note and up. All of her currency was backed by silver, from a $1 note up. 3 But today, the currency of America is not backed by any sound value - silver or gold. The note today is something that the government declares they will give you the value in return, but does not name what the value is. But they definitely are not backing their currency with silver or gold. 4 This is the number - one fall, and it is very clear that the loss of the power of the American dollar means the loss of the financial power of America. What will happen since there is no sound backing for her notes we do not know.. 5 What should we expect even in the next twelve months under the fall of the power of America’s dollar? This means that we have 100 percent inflation. What could happen under 100 percent inflation? Your guess is as good as mine. The power of gold and silver was once abundant in America. But the touch of the finger of God against the power of so mighty a nation has now caused the crumbling and fall of America. 6 We can easily and truthfully liken the fall of America to the prophetic symbolical picture given in the (Bible) Revelation of John 18:2. The name Babylon used there does not really say whether it is ancient Babylon or a picture of some future Babylon. 7 The description it gives is as follows: "And he (angel) cried mightily with a strong voice (with authority) saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen and is become the habitation of devils, (Allah has declared the people to be a race of devils) and the hole of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." The description here give to the Babylon by the prophets compares with the present history and people of America and their fall. 8 The picture shows the cause of her fall. Number one, she had become the habitation of devils, and being the habitation of devils makes her a haven for every people that love the works and doings of the devil. Here the prophet refers to them, symbolically, as being a hole of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 9 People are referred to as birds, snakes, beasts, fish and other animals to tell or represent the characteristics of that person. It is universally known that the very beginning of the American people was from the lower class of European people. And their first ruler (President Washington) was a fugitive from England. And the common, dissatisfied and lower grade of European people followed and boosted his authority. This filled and inhabited America with a very low class and low-based people. 10 And then this type of people went into Africa and purchased slaves from among our people who were also uneducated, most of them; but there were a few who were highly educated. All of these began to mix with the low-based, evil-minded, real citizens of the Western Hemisphere (whites). And when America began to get strong in power, she opened her doors to the underprivileged (laborers) in overpopulated countries such as China, Japan, and in Europe to seek citizenship in America. 11 This brought into America one of the most mixed people, who were granted the freedom to live any kind of life they chose. They were not forced to serve the God of the universe who made heaven and earth nor any religion. They had freedom of worship. This made America a haven for any people who wished to be free of the compellers of religion and just rule and authority. This people for the past five hundred years have put into practice every evil that is imaginable. 12 The freedom of uncleanliness is granted and is worshiped. The percentage of sexual worship of the same sex is greater than any government on the face of the earth. Little children are bing taught sex almost from the cradle, making the whole nation, as one man put it, "nearly 90 percent freaks of nature." 13 It is common to see on the streets of any metropolitan city of America men sweethearting with men and women sweethearting with women. Little boys with boys and little girls with girls. 14 It is common that a decent family is puzzled as to where to send their children for schooling. There are no all girl schools as there once were. They are all girls schools of sweethearts; the same sex falling upon their own. Boys’ colleges are breeding such filthy practice; the jail houses, prisons, and the federal penitentiaries are all breeding dens of homosexuals. 15 As the Prophet says in the 18th chapter; "She is a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." There are types of hateful birds. This is why a symbolical name is given. It means human beings. There are birds of prey and birds that are unclean such as crows, owls, buzzards and ravens who live and thrive off the carcass of others. And there are unclean people living and thriving off the unclean. 16 It is time that God intervenes to bring about an end of such people as the wicked of America. She offers the same filth to all of the civilized of the earth, and she hates you if you are against her way of life and will threaten you with death as the Sodomites did Lot and his followers. But I say to you as the 4th verse of Revelations, Chapter 18 says: You that want to be a better people than this, "come out of her." 17 The so-called American Negroes are referred to here in the 4th verse as being God’s people ("My people") Come out of her...that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues." 18 This is a call to the American so-called Negroes to give up a doomed, wicked people that has destroyed them from being a people worthy of recognition, and who have now become lovers of their enemies and destroyers. 19 The 5th verse tells us that "Her sins have reached into heaven and God has remembered her iniquities and is ready to destroy her." Her destruction cometh quickly, according to the 8th verse, that plagues of death, mourning and famines which cometh in one day (one year) then after that she shall be destroyed by fire, utterly burned." 20 This is backed up by the words: "Strong is the Lord God who judge her." Here it gives us a knowledge that He who judges is well able with power, with wisdom, and with deliberate and careful maneuvering to make judgement against her.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Muhammad Speaks Newspaper
P.O Box 44261
Detroit, MI 48244
Phone: 313-371-7033 Fax: 313-922-0801
E-mail: MhmdSpeaks@netzero. net
By Messenger Elijah Muhammad
Reprinted from The Fall of America, Chapter 20
The strong-hold of the American government is falling to pieces. She has lost her prestige among the nations of the earth. One of the greatest powers of America was her dollar. The loss of such power will bring any nation to weakness, for this is the media of exchange between nations. The English pound and the American dollar have been the power and beckoning light of these two great powers. But when the world went off the gold and silver standard, the financial doom of England and America was sealed. 2 The pound has lost 50 percent of its value. America’s dollar has lost everything now as power backing for her currency, which was backed by gold for every $5 note and up. All of her currency was backed by silver, from a $1 note up. 3 But today, the currency of America is not backed by any sound value - silver or gold. The note today is something that the government declares they will give you the value in return, but does not name what the value is. But they definitely are not backing their currency with silver or gold. 4 This is the number - one fall, and it is very clear that the loss of the power of the American dollar means the loss of the financial power of America. What will happen since there is no sound backing for her notes we do not know.. 5 What should we expect even in the next twelve months under the fall of the power of America’s dollar? This means that we have 100 percent inflation. What could happen under 100 percent inflation? Your guess is as good as mine. The power of gold and silver was once abundant in America. But the touch of the finger of God against the power of so mighty a nation has now caused the crumbling and fall of America. 6 We can easily and truthfully liken the fall of America to the prophetic symbolical picture given in the (Bible) Revelation of John 18:2. The name Babylon used there does not really say whether it is ancient Babylon or a picture of some future Babylon. 7 The description it gives is as follows: "And he (angel) cried mightily with a strong voice (with authority) saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen and is become the habitation of devils, (Allah has declared the people to be a race of devils) and the hole of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." The description here give to the Babylon by the prophets compares with the present history and people of America and their fall. 8 The picture shows the cause of her fall. Number one, she had become the habitation of devils, and being the habitation of devils makes her a haven for every people that love the works and doings of the devil. Here the prophet refers to them, symbolically, as being a hole of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 9 People are referred to as birds, snakes, beasts, fish and other animals to tell or represent the characteristics of that person. It is universally known that the very beginning of the American people was from the lower class of European people. And their first ruler (President Washington) was a fugitive from England. And the common, dissatisfied and lower grade of European people followed and boosted his authority. This filled and inhabited America with a very low class and low-based people. 10 And then this type of people went into Africa and purchased slaves from among our people who were also uneducated, most of them; but there were a few who were highly educated. All of these began to mix with the low-based, evil-minded, real citizens of the Western Hemisphere (whites). And when America began to get strong in power, she opened her doors to the underprivileged (laborers) in overpopulated countries such as China, Japan, and in Europe to seek citizenship in America. 11 This brought into America one of the most mixed people, who were granted the freedom to live any kind of life they chose. They were not forced to serve the God of the universe who made heaven and earth nor any religion. They had freedom of worship. This made America a haven for any people who wished to be free of the compellers of religion and just rule and authority. This people for the past five hundred years have put into practice every evil that is imaginable. 12 The freedom of uncleanliness is granted and is worshiped. The percentage of sexual worship of the same sex is greater than any government on the face of the earth. Little children are bing taught sex almost from the cradle, making the whole nation, as one man put it, "nearly 90 percent freaks of nature." 13 It is common to see on the streets of any metropolitan city of America men sweethearting with men and women sweethearting with women. Little boys with boys and little girls with girls. 14 It is common that a decent family is puzzled as to where to send their children for schooling. There are no all girl schools as there once were. They are all girls schools of sweethearts; the same sex falling upon their own. Boys’ colleges are breeding such filthy practice; the jail houses, prisons, and the federal penitentiaries are all breeding dens of homosexuals. 15 As the Prophet says in the 18th chapter; "She is a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." There are types of hateful birds. This is why a symbolical name is given. It means human beings. There are birds of prey and birds that are unclean such as crows, owls, buzzards and ravens who live and thrive off the carcass of others. And there are unclean people living and thriving off the unclean. 16 It is time that God intervenes to bring about an end of such people as the wicked of America. She offers the same filth to all of the civilized of the earth, and she hates you if you are against her way of life and will threaten you with death as the Sodomites did Lot and his followers. But I say to you as the 4th verse of Revelations, Chapter 18 says: You that want to be a better people than this, "come out of her." 17 The so-called American Negroes are referred to here in the 4th verse as being God’s people ("My people") Come out of her...that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues." 18 This is a call to the American so-called Negroes to give up a doomed, wicked people that has destroyed them from being a people worthy of recognition, and who have now become lovers of their enemies and destroyers. 19 The 5th verse tells us that "Her sins have reached into heaven and God has remembered her iniquities and is ready to destroy her." Her destruction cometh quickly, according to the 8th verse, that plagues of death, mourning and famines which cometh in one day (one year) then after that she shall be destroyed by fire, utterly burned." 20 This is backed up by the words: "Strong is the Lord God who judge her." Here it gives us a knowledge that He who judges is well able with power, with wisdom, and with deliberate and careful maneuvering to make judgement against her.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Muhammad Speaks Newspaper
P.O Box 44261
Detroit, MI 48244
Phone: 313-371-7033 Fax: 313-922-0801
E-mail: MhmdSpeaks@netzero. net
Re: [blackantiwar] Fw: The Fall of AmericaTuesday, September 16, 2008 2:12 PM
From: "Amirib@aol.com"View contact details To: jmarvinx@yahoo.com
Lil Joe is a Trotskyist His God is a dead white man
--Amiri Baraka
In a message dated 9/16/2008 10:07:18 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, jmarvinx@yahoo.com writes:
Lil Joe, thank you for slapping me upside the head for downing the Marxist analysis of society and those brothers and sisters who had a clear vision of "what's going on" for a long time. I stand corrected, although you need to read Elijah on "The Decline of the Dollar" and other writings on economics, as in The Fall of America. As I listen to the news this morning, it is crystal clear to me the capitalists are more socialist than socialists, but only when it comes to their brother/sister capitalists in danger of losing what they have stolen and robbed from the masses. As I write, they are bailing out the blood sucking bankers with unlimited billions from the US treasury while the poor and workers go about with empty pockets, the streets full of baby prostitutes working for food. It seems to me that if this is how the capitalists crumble under pressure, why is it so impossible for us revolutionaries to put mass pressure on them for our agenda, including reparations, national sovereignty, land and whatever else we desire as a people. Why are we not demanding the billions and trillions we need for our national aspirations. Surely, a few days or weeks of a general strike will make the capitalist bandits say, "Let's make a deal." Meanwhile, the capitalist bloodsuckers of the poor will continue bailing out each other, practicing their primitive communism as the masses go down, down, down, believing a better day is coming. Obama, as transformer, has inspired the people. Will he be able to transact any business for our national aspirations, it is doubtful since he can hardly utter the word black without being accused of partiality. His foreign policy is indeed reactionary and no better than Bush/McCain--the stupid idea of attacking Pakistan revealed his desire to appear Hawkish, yet it reveals raw ignorance since Pakistan has the ultimate weapon to deter aggression from the US or anyone else. --Marvin X
--- On Tue, 9/16/08, Lil Joe wrote:
From: Lil Joe
Subject: Fwd: [blackantiwar] Fw: The Fall of America
To: blackantiwar@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 8:17 AM
Hello Marvin, You know that I acknowledge you as a critical thinker and [subjectively, i.e. an honest] revolutionary, and I respect your religion. However, we here have a disagreement which was the revolutionary side of the historical critique of capitalism - what you call "America" - the Nation of Islam i.e. Elijah Muhammad, or the Marxist e.g. C.L.R. James. You wrote: "The fall of America was foretold by Elijah but his teachings were rejected by the Black intellectuals in Crisis whose Marxist analysis was not crystal clear on this point." Reply:I don't know what "Black intellectuals in Crisis" you are writing in reference to. If you are referring to the book "Crisis of the Negro Intellectual", written as the pro-capitalist's black bourgeois "intellectual" Harold Cruz, who attacked Blacks for becoming revolutionary class struggle communists, personified by the teacher played by Denzil Washington in the film on a Black Debating club, who also organized Black and white sharecroppers in the evenings, this is the kind of person Cruz was attacking and the NOI called "assimilationists" and "integrationists", these black communists knew exactly what they were doing. The foremost "Black intellectual" who openly declared himself a communist revolutionary was C.L.R. James, who mastered both Hegel and Marx. Yes, he rejected prophesy and Elijah as a prophet, and Elijah's teaching that the white man is a 'devil' and the "fall of America" being accomplished by earth quakes, floods, and other natural disasters, being directed by Black aliens in space ships from "the Mother Ship". James was a clear thinking Marxist concerning the collapse of capitalism engendered by its internal material contradictions, and of working class revolution in response to it:, He wasn't a "Black intellectual in Crisis". This, for instance is from an article by C.L.R. James:
Marxism and the IntellectualsA review of Raymond Williams' Culture and Society and The Long Revolution
I. The Creative Power of the Working Class
"Honor to whom honor is due. There is a campaign on by the capitalist class in all the advanced countries to prove that capitalism is so affluent, that is to say, so prosperous that workers everywhere are becoming middle class. The rulers of society want to imply that not only has capitalism solved what Marxists say it cannot solve its, economic difficulties, but they want to throw water on the idea that socialism is an inherent need for working people. Where, as in England, there is a powerful Labor Party, they want to encourage voters to vote middle class, i.e. to abandon the idea that as workers they have their special political interests. By the same means they want to encourage voters everywhere to vote for reactionary parties. Raymond Williams, the English socialist writer, has given that bold example of capitalist lying propaganda a knock-out blow which I gladly reproduce. This is what he says:- "Before World War II the condition of the working class in England was a world-wide scandal. Poverty, unemployment, social degradation in many "depressed areas" seemed permanent. Undoubtedly the Labor victory in 1945 improved working class conditions of life. What is called "prosperity" is that the worst of the of the shocking conditions have been eliminated. The Conservatives accepted the change and promised, if they got back to power, not to go back to the old days. They have got back to power since 1951. They spend a vast amount of their resources and energy seeking to convince ordinary Se that, owing to this new prosperity, labor must now desert the very idea of labor politics. ... "But Mr. Williams can say with some justification: if the class has not made the decisive step, has not faced the necessity of thinking its own thoughts and working out its own actions, what do you expect me to do? Here we come face to face with another fundamental of Marxism, the inevitability of socialism. It is possible that Mr. Williams believes this to be Marxist jargon, or a phrase to keep up the spirits of devoted fanatics. It is in reality the key to any serious Marxist political analysis of socialism. Marx did not use it as an incitement. It can be said that philosophically he never accepted it as truth, as absolute truth. Over and over again he carefully said: socialism or barbarism. That is to say, either the working class establishes the socialist society or the contradictions of capitalism will lead society to barbarism. The precise meaning of barbarism is a matter for debate, for those who wish to. For my part, not only were Fascism and Stalinism barbarisms (literally), but the ultimate in human barbarism has been reached when the most powerful statesmen of today organize their societies with the physical destruction of total societies as their main object. This is due to the necessity of preserving what they very rightly call their way of life. Marx's inevitability of socialism was a philosophical, a theoretical postulate, a necessity of thought, based on his conviction that capitalism would inevitably end as it is ending. With this postulate you approach every political, every social, every economic problem or set of circumstances; you look for those forces, movements, objective or subjective, which advance the cause of socialism and hasten the destruction of capitalism." http://www.marxists .org/archive/ james-clr/ works/1962/ destruction- paper/ch01. htm
You wrote:"But Elijah told you the dollar would be floating in the street soon and very soon. He told you men's hearts would be failing them due to the fear caused by the fall of the international finance system called Global capitalism or imperialism. He told you this in his book Fall of America. But you intellectual Negroes are so smart you have outsmarted yourselves, thus your crisis." Reply: I am not familiar with Elijah Muhammad doing and presenting any analysis of material use value and exchange value of commodities, money as the commodity commensurate with other commodities as use value and exchange value, becoming use value as exchange value embodied and quantified in gold, silver, nickle and copper to serve as means of circulation of commodities, currency displacing material money and inflation; nor, am I familiar with any of Elijah Muhammad's treatise or articles on finance capital and its collapse. In any event, it is great to see you writing as you have done in this piece. Yet, it sames a contradiction that you refer to America and its political system as evil, the Beast and the Great Whore, on a divinely ordained path to destruction; but, at the same time, you endorse Obama and the Democrats - a party that is part of the peopling of this "Beast"/ "Great Whore" - as the party and the man to save "America" the "Beast" and "Great Whore, from its divinely engineered "fall" Lil Joe
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marvin X JackmonDate: Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 10:03 PMSubject: [blackantiwar] Fw: The Fall of AmericaTo: blackantiwar@ yahoogroups. com, TheAfrikanConscious nessCenter@ yahoogroups. com, theblacklist@ lists.riseup. net--- On Tue, 9/16/08, Marvin X Jackmon wrote: From: Marvin X Jackmon Subject: The Fall of America To: jmarvinx@yahoo. com Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 5:00 AM The Fall of America The fall of America was foretold by Elijah but his teachings were rejected by the Black intellectuals in Crisis whose Marxist analysis was not crystal clear on this point. But Elijah told you the dollar would be floating in the street soon and very soon. He told you men's hearts would be failing them due to the fear caused by the fall of the international finance system called Global capitalism or imperialism. He told you this in his book Fall of Amerca. But you intellectual Negroes are so smart you have outsmarted yourselves, thus your crisis. You can't figure your asses from a hole in the ground. You see American falling before your very eyes, yet you are dumbfounded on the reality before your eyes. The Great Beast cannot fall, not yet, he must recover, it is only a matter of time. No, brother, this is the fall of the Great Whore, Babylon the Great. And you may fall with him unless you pull your nuts out of the sand and get a grip on your Divinity. Keep thinking Sunni Islam can save you, or any other religiosity full of reaction rather than a radical destruction of the status quo. All your prayers are for naught, your meaningless praying and fasting can go to the winds that you see in the hurricanes blowing your asses into the skies from city to city, state to state. Pray and see of God will help you in your pitiful hour of need. This is the end for you and your master, whether white, Arab, Asian, European, African or whatever. They shall go down with you in your iniquity. You persist in hanging around the rich man's gate while he is suffering in misery because of his greed and desire for domination.
From: "Amirib@aol.com"
Lil Joe is a Trotskyist His God is a dead white man
--Amiri Baraka
In a message dated 9/16/2008 10:07:18 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, jmarvinx@yahoo.com writes:
Lil Joe, thank you for slapping me upside the head for downing the Marxist analysis of society and those brothers and sisters who had a clear vision of "what's going on" for a long time. I stand corrected, although you need to read Elijah on "The Decline of the Dollar" and other writings on economics, as in The Fall of America. As I listen to the news this morning, it is crystal clear to me the capitalists are more socialist than socialists, but only when it comes to their brother/sister capitalists in danger of losing what they have stolen and robbed from the masses. As I write, they are bailing out the blood sucking bankers with unlimited billions from the US treasury while the poor and workers go about with empty pockets, the streets full of baby prostitutes working for food. It seems to me that if this is how the capitalists crumble under pressure, why is it so impossible for us revolutionaries to put mass pressure on them for our agenda, including reparations, national sovereignty, land and whatever else we desire as a people. Why are we not demanding the billions and trillions we need for our national aspirations. Surely, a few days or weeks of a general strike will make the capitalist bandits say, "Let's make a deal." Meanwhile, the capitalist bloodsuckers of the poor will continue bailing out each other, practicing their primitive communism as the masses go down, down, down, believing a better day is coming. Obama, as transformer, has inspired the people. Will he be able to transact any business for our national aspirations, it is doubtful since he can hardly utter the word black without being accused of partiality. His foreign policy is indeed reactionary and no better than Bush/McCain--the stupid idea of attacking Pakistan revealed his desire to appear Hawkish, yet it reveals raw ignorance since Pakistan has the ultimate weapon to deter aggression from the US or anyone else. --Marvin X
--- On Tue, 9/16/08, Lil Joe
From: Lil Joe
Subject: Fwd: [blackantiwar] Fw: The Fall of America
To: blackantiwar@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 8:17 AM
Hello Marvin, You know that I acknowledge you as a critical thinker and [subjectively, i.e. an honest] revolutionary, and I respect your religion. However, we here have a disagreement which was the revolutionary side of the historical critique of capitalism - what you call "America" - the Nation of Islam i.e. Elijah Muhammad, or the Marxist e.g. C.L.R. James. You wrote: "The fall of America was foretold by Elijah but his teachings were rejected by the Black intellectuals in Crisis whose Marxist analysis was not crystal clear on this point." Reply:I don't know what "Black intellectuals in Crisis" you are writing in reference to. If you are referring to the book "Crisis of the Negro Intellectual", written as the pro-capitalist's black bourgeois "intellectual" Harold Cruz, who attacked Blacks for becoming revolutionary class struggle communists, personified by the teacher played by Denzil Washington in the film on a Black Debating club, who also organized Black and white sharecroppers in the evenings, this is the kind of person Cruz was attacking and the NOI called "assimilationists" and "integrationists", these black communists knew exactly what they were doing. The foremost "Black intellectual" who openly declared himself a communist revolutionary was C.L.R. James, who mastered both Hegel and Marx. Yes, he rejected prophesy and Elijah as a prophet, and Elijah's teaching that the white man is a 'devil' and the "fall of America" being accomplished by earth quakes, floods, and other natural disasters, being directed by Black aliens in space ships from "the Mother Ship". James was a clear thinking Marxist concerning the collapse of capitalism engendered by its internal material contradictions, and of working class revolution in response to it:, He wasn't a "Black intellectual in Crisis". This, for instance is from an article by C.L.R. James:
Marxism and the IntellectualsA review of Raymond Williams' Culture and Society and The Long Revolution
I. The Creative Power of the Working Class
"Honor to whom honor is due. There is a campaign on by the capitalist class in all the advanced countries to prove that capitalism is so affluent, that is to say, so prosperous that workers everywhere are becoming middle class. The rulers of society want to imply that not only has capitalism solved what Marxists say it cannot solve its, economic difficulties, but they want to throw water on the idea that socialism is an inherent need for working people. Where, as in England, there is a powerful Labor Party, they want to encourage voters to vote middle class, i.e. to abandon the idea that as workers they have their special political interests. By the same means they want to encourage voters everywhere to vote for reactionary parties. Raymond Williams, the English socialist writer, has given that bold example of capitalist lying propaganda a knock-out blow which I gladly reproduce. This is what he says:- "Before World War II the condition of the working class in England was a world-wide scandal. Poverty, unemployment, social degradation in many "depressed areas" seemed permanent. Undoubtedly the Labor victory in 1945 improved working class conditions of life. What is called "prosperity" is that the worst of the of the shocking conditions have been eliminated. The Conservatives accepted the change and promised, if they got back to power, not to go back to the old days. They have got back to power since 1951. They spend a vast amount of their resources and energy seeking to convince ordinary Se that, owing to this new prosperity, labor must now desert the very idea of labor politics. ... "But Mr. Williams can say with some justification: if the class has not made the decisive step, has not faced the necessity of thinking its own thoughts and working out its own actions, what do you expect me to do? Here we come face to face with another fundamental of Marxism, the inevitability of socialism. It is possible that Mr. Williams believes this to be Marxist jargon, or a phrase to keep up the spirits of devoted fanatics. It is in reality the key to any serious Marxist political analysis of socialism. Marx did not use it as an incitement. It can be said that philosophically he never accepted it as truth, as absolute truth. Over and over again he carefully said: socialism or barbarism. That is to say, either the working class establishes the socialist society or the contradictions of capitalism will lead society to barbarism. The precise meaning of barbarism is a matter for debate, for those who wish to. For my part, not only were Fascism and Stalinism barbarisms (literally), but the ultimate in human barbarism has been reached when the most powerful statesmen of today organize their societies with the physical destruction of total societies as their main object. This is due to the necessity of preserving what they very rightly call their way of life. Marx's inevitability of socialism was a philosophical, a theoretical postulate, a necessity of thought, based on his conviction that capitalism would inevitably end as it is ending. With this postulate you approach every political, every social, every economic problem or set of circumstances; you look for those forces, movements, objective or subjective, which advance the cause of socialism and hasten the destruction of capitalism." http://www.marxists .org/archive/ james-clr/ works/1962/ destruction- paper/ch01. htm
You wrote:"But Elijah told you the dollar would be floating in the street soon and very soon. He told you men's hearts would be failing them due to the fear caused by the fall of the international finance system called Global capitalism or imperialism. He told you this in his book Fall of America. But you intellectual Negroes are so smart you have outsmarted yourselves, thus your crisis." Reply: I am not familiar with Elijah Muhammad doing and presenting any analysis of material use value and exchange value of commodities, money as the commodity commensurate with other commodities as use value and exchange value, becoming use value as exchange value embodied and quantified in gold, silver, nickle and copper to serve as means of circulation of commodities, currency displacing material money and inflation; nor, am I familiar with any of Elijah Muhammad's treatise or articles on finance capital and its collapse. In any event, it is great to see you writing as you have done in this piece. Yet, it sames a contradiction that you refer to America and its political system as evil, the Beast and the Great Whore, on a divinely ordained path to destruction; but, at the same time, you endorse Obama and the Democrats - a party that is part of the peopling of this "Beast"/ "Great Whore" - as the party and the man to save "America" the "Beast" and "Great Whore, from its divinely engineered "fall" Lil Joe
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marvin X Jackmon
Monday, September 15, 2008
The Fall of America
The fall of America was foretold by Elijah but his teachings were rejected by the Black intellectuals in Crisis whose Marxist analysis was not crystal clear on this point. But Elijah told you the dollar would be floating in the street soon and very soon. He told you men's hearts would be failing them due to the fear caused by the fall of the international finance system called Global capitalism or imperialism. He told you this in his book Fall of Amerca. But you intellectual Negroes are so smart you have outsmarted yourselves, thus your crisis. You can't figure your asses from a hole in the ground. You see American falling before your very eyes, yet you are dumbfounded on the reality before your eyes. The Great Beast cannot fall, not yet, he must recover, it is only a matter of time. No, brother, this is the fall of the Great Whore, Babylon the Great.
And you may fall with him unless you pull your nuts out of the sand and get a grip on your Divinity. Keep thinking Sunni Islam can save you, or any other religiosity full of reaction rather than a radical destruction of the status quo. All your prayers are for naught, your meaningless praying and fasting can go to the winds that you see in the hurricanes blowing your asses into the skies from city to city, state to state. Pray and see if God will help you in your pitiful hour of need. This is the end for you and your master, whether white, Arab, Asian, European, African or whatever. They shall go down with you in your iniquity. You persist in hanging around the rich man's gate while he is suffering in misery because of his greed and desire for domination.
--Marvin X
The fall of America was foretold by Elijah but his teachings were rejected by the Black intellectuals in Crisis whose Marxist analysis was not crystal clear on this point. But Elijah told you the dollar would be floating in the street soon and very soon. He told you men's hearts would be failing them due to the fear caused by the fall of the international finance system called Global capitalism or imperialism. He told you this in his book Fall of Amerca. But you intellectual Negroes are so smart you have outsmarted yourselves, thus your crisis. You can't figure your asses from a hole in the ground. You see American falling before your very eyes, yet you are dumbfounded on the reality before your eyes. The Great Beast cannot fall, not yet, he must recover, it is only a matter of time. No, brother, this is the fall of the Great Whore, Babylon the Great.
And you may fall with him unless you pull your nuts out of the sand and get a grip on your Divinity. Keep thinking Sunni Islam can save you, or any other religiosity full of reaction rather than a radical destruction of the status quo. All your prayers are for naught, your meaningless praying and fasting can go to the winds that you see in the hurricanes blowing your asses into the skies from city to city, state to state. Pray and see if God will help you in your pitiful hour of need. This is the end for you and your master, whether white, Arab, Asian, European, African or whatever. They shall go down with you in your iniquity. You persist in hanging around the rich man's gate while he is suffering in misery because of his greed and desire for domination.
--Marvin X
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