are Arab rulers equivalent to the category of “house Negro” presented by Malcolm, or are they something different? do they get a moral reprimand, or should they be opposed at all costs?
maybe i was thinking about this harder than i should have been… didn’t mean to make this more intellectual than it needs to be, but it raises an important question strategic question.
from what i understand Malcolm was referring to the more liberal organizations in the Civil Rights Movement; i.e. MLK, the SCLC and others who saw their ability to struggle tied to white liberal funding and what the Democratic Party saw as acceptable.
the way Malcolm put it, the House Negro was still a slave, which to me means they were still from that oppressed layer. the same was true of those liberal organizations.
they represented the right wing of the movement, no doubt, but they were still a part of the movement. they themselves did not hold state power. the turn towards bourgeois parliamentarianism at the expense of independent working class activity and organization developed unevenly, and began to really gain momentum in 1972 at the National Black Political Convention, and with the Congress of African Peoples in Newark.
while the leadership and official policies of these organizations were conservative, the masses of people in and around these organizations held different and contradictory positions in regards to the need for independent Black and working class organization and power.
to me, when those Black leaders began to capture positions within the ruling bureaucracy they were no longer a layer of the oppressed, and instead were a layer of the ruling class.
i’d hold that the same is true for Arab rulers.
maybe the question is better posed as, “on what terms can a section of the Left be in a united front with a layer of the ruling class?” to me this implies that there are cracks and fissures between the rulers. it’s a question of engaging in either the war of position or the war of maneuver. what should be the strategic moves along these cracks to advance working class organization and power? maintaining that independence is vital, though, in addition to not falling into any popular front with these forces.
anyway… when i asked whether Arab rulers are equivalent to the category of House Negro, i wasn’t trying to defend them. instead i was asking whether we are being too generous towards them.
Khalil
June 11, 2010 - 11:26 PMvery thought provoking…
are Arab rulers equivalent to the category of “house Negro” presented by Malcolm, or are they something different? do they get a moral reprimand, or should they be opposed at all costs?
3arabawy
June 12, 2010 - 7:02 AM“are Arab rulers equivalent to the category of “house Negro” presented by Malcolm”
Yes.
Khalil
June 13, 2010 - 1:41 AMmaybe i was thinking about this harder than i should have been… didn’t mean to make this more intellectual than it needs to be, but it raises an important question strategic question.
from what i understand Malcolm was referring to the more liberal organizations in the Civil Rights Movement; i.e. MLK, the SCLC and others who saw their ability to struggle tied to white liberal funding and what the Democratic Party saw as acceptable.
the way Malcolm put it, the House Negro was still a slave, which to me means they were still from that oppressed layer. the same was true of those liberal organizations.
they represented the right wing of the movement, no doubt, but they were still a part of the movement. they themselves did not hold state power. the turn towards bourgeois parliamentarianism at the expense of independent working class activity and organization developed unevenly, and began to really gain momentum in 1972 at the National Black Political Convention, and with the Congress of African Peoples in Newark.
while the leadership and official policies of these organizations were conservative, the masses of people in and around these organizations held different and contradictory positions in regards to the need for independent Black and working class organization and power.
to me, when those Black leaders began to capture positions within the ruling bureaucracy they were no longer a layer of the oppressed, and instead were a layer of the ruling class.
i’d hold that the same is true for Arab rulers.
maybe the question is better posed as, “on what terms can a section of the Left be in a united front with a layer of the ruling class?” to me this implies that there are cracks and fissures between the rulers. it’s a question of engaging in either the war of position or the war of maneuver. what should be the strategic moves along these cracks to advance working class organization and power? maintaining that independence is vital, though, in addition to not falling into any popular front with these forces.
anyway… when i asked whether Arab rulers are equivalent to the category of House Negro, i wasn’t trying to defend them. instead i was asking whether we are being too generous towards them.