“If you don’t know history, it is as if you were born yesterday”—Howard Zinn
“Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward all research.”—Malcolm X [el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz]
The intensifying “clash” nationally and globally between what Malcolm X described as “those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation” has, in this 21st century, taken on varying forms. Due to the increasingly vicious and insidious reality of corporate exploitation, everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in the United States, and around the world, are having to come to grips with who their real enemies actually are.
However, in order to fully comprehend and effectively resist the very real economic, political, and social oppression being waged against we everyday ordinary people, it is imperative to have a fundamental historical understanding of the circumstances that have brought the vast majority of humankind to the brink of perpetual economic servitude and ultimate annihilation.
In the United States, for example, the reality of corporate-government plutocracy and the present police state, now embodied by the de facto codification into law of so-called ‘corporate personhood,’ the infamous COINTELPRO (Cointer Intelligence Program), the odious ‘Patriot’ Act, and the draconian indefinite detention law of 2012 (euphemistically known as the National Defense Authorization Act) all represent, repression of and war against, the everyday people of this nation and planet. Nevertheless, none of these present-day horrors came about through mere osmosis.
A study of the actual everyday ‘people’s history,’ prior to and since, the inception of the United States, makes it crystal clear that today’s struggles for economic, political, and social justice did notbegin today. The increased urgency is however, found in the fact that in this 21st century the U.S. and global corporate/military elite are massively destroying Mother Earth and economically enslaving and emaciating everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people on a scale unparalleled in human history. The desire for personal power, unprincipled ambition, and unbridled and insatiable greed on the part of the corporate/military elite (including the U.S. corporate-government politicians of the Democrat and Republican parties—from the White House on down)—is what has brought about the above described present-day corporate legalized police state in this nation. These persons are not servants of the people. They are enemies of the everyday people, and It is they who have brought this entire planet to the precipice of extinction.
The people of the United States, in particular, have been and are now more than ever, fed a constant poisonous debilitating diet of disinformation, misinformation, and deliberate diversion by the U.S. corporate-streammismedia. However, all is not yet lost.
As those in the ‘Occupy Movement,’ nationally and globally, continue to raise their own collective consciousness, and dig deeply into the true (and often hidden) histories of everyday people of all colors and both genders, they/we will invariably evolve from being an important ‘Occupy’ movement to an essential ‘Liberation’ movement. The movement is learning that principles and perseverance are an integral part of what continues to be a long and protracted everyday people’s struggle for economic, political, and social justice through uncompromising systemic change. Notwithstanding ongoing corporate-government repression, repeated co-optation attempts, police subterfuge, and many other inevitable challenges of every conceivable kind, the movement willcontinue to grow and develop—sometimes openly and sometimes not so openly.
What terrifies the political vampires of both the Democrat and Republican parties is that there is a very real possibility that a critical mass of everyday people is developing and beginning to directly communicate with, and learn from one another; and in so doing recognizing what is in their (our) own best political, economic, and social collective interests. What further terrifies these Democrat and Republican party vultures and pimps of the people, is that we the people will collectively see past their obfuscating rhetoric and fake political skirmishes; and actually recognize and expose them as the blood sucking euphemistic ‘man [or woman] behind the curtain’ that they actually are!
Yes, we are in deep peril nationally and globally. Yet, no struggle is without peril and sacrifice. The greater peril is if we do not remove our blinders, study our collective histories, and act accordingly. The everyday ‘people’s history’ is not over, and time is of the essence.
Onward, then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!
Intrepid Report Associate Editor Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, the San Francisco BayView newspaper, the Black Commentator,Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)
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On principles, perseverance, and protracted struggle
Posted on February 17, 2012 by Larry Pinkney
The intensifying “clash” nationally and globally between what Malcolm X described as “those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation” has, in this 21st century, taken on varying forms. Due to the increasingly vicious and insidious reality of corporate exploitation, everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in the United States, and around the world, are having to come to grips with who their real enemies actually are.
However, in order to fully comprehend and effectively resist the very real economic, political, and social oppression being waged against we everyday ordinary people, it is imperative to have a fundamental historical understanding of the circumstances that have brought the vast majority of humankind to the brink of perpetual economic servitude and ultimate annihilation.
In the United States, for example, the reality of corporate-government plutocracy and the present police state, now embodied by the de facto codification into law of so-called ‘corporate personhood,’ the infamous COINTELPRO (Cointer Intelligence Program), the odious ‘Patriot’ Act, and the draconian indefinite detention law of 2012 (euphemistically known as the National Defense Authorization Act) all represent, repression of and war against, the everyday people of this nation and planet. Nevertheless, none of these present-day horrors came about through mere osmosis.
A study of the actual everyday ‘people’s history,’ prior to and since, the inception of the United States, makes it crystal clear that today’s struggles for economic, political, and social justice did not begin today. The increased urgency is however, found in the fact that in this 21st century the U.S. and global corporate/military elite are massively destroying Mother Earth and economically enslaving and emaciating everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people on a scale unparalleled in human history. The desire for personal power, unprincipled ambition, and unbridled and insatiable greed on the part of the corporate/military elite (including the U.S. corporate-government politicians of the Democrat and Republican parties—from the White House on down)—is what has brought about the above described present-day corporate legalized police state in this nation. These persons are not servants of the people. They are enemies of the everyday people, and It is they who have brought this entire planet to the precipice of extinction.
The people of the United States, in particular, have been and are now more than ever, fed a constant poisonous debilitating diet of disinformation, misinformation, and deliberate diversion by the U.S. corporate-stream mismedia. However, all is not yet lost.
As those in the ‘Occupy Movement,’ nationally and globally, continue to raise their own collective consciousness, and dig deeply into the true (and often hidden) histories of everyday people of all colors and both genders, they/we will invariably evolve from being an important ‘Occupy’ movement to an essential ‘Liberation’ movement. The movement is learning that principles and perseverance are an integral part of what continues to be a long and protracted everyday people’s struggle for economic, political, and social justice through uncompromising systemic change. Notwithstanding ongoing corporate-government repression, repeated co-optation attempts, police subterfuge, and many other inevitable challenges of every conceivable kind, the movement will continue to grow and develop—sometimes openly and sometimes not so openly.
What terrifies the political vampires of both the Democrat and Republican parties is that there is a very real possibility that a critical mass of everyday people is developing and beginning to directly communicate with, and learn from one another; and in so doing recognizing what is in their (our) own best political, economic, and social collective interests. What further terrifies these Democrat and Republican party vultures and pimps of the people, is that we the people will collectively see past their obfuscating rhetoric and fake political skirmishes; and actually recognize and expose them as the blood sucking euphemistic ‘man [or woman] behind the curtain’ that they actually are!
Yes, we are in deep peril nationally and globally. Yet, no struggle is without peril and sacrifice. The greater peril is if we do not remove our blinders, study our collective histories, and act accordingly. The everyday ‘people’s history’ is not over, and time is of the essence.
Onward, then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!
Intrepid Report Associate Editor Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, the San Francisco BayView newspaper, the Black Commentator, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)