First, before we erect or construct anything we must have a strong
foundation, a base – so to speak. Otherwise the whole structure will
eventually collapse. That said, we must focus most of our energy and
efforts on building a base inside prison, then work our way outwards.
Once we are well-rooted, it will be easy to branch out by sending our
ideology to the streets with serious minded brothas/sistas who will push
the movement out there. However, that is not to say that we shouldn’t be
trying to build out there right now.
Thus, we must advocate for the development of a movement rooted in the
revolutionary tradition that looks out for the interests of all
oppressed people as a whole, opposes fratricidal violence
(black-on-black, brown-on-brown) and work to develop an alliance with
other social movements outside prison.
Secondly, we must understand that even small movements, because they
include people with different ideas, reveal political debates over next
steps, practical objectives, potential allies, and movement tactics. The
idea and politics that guide a specific movement have a profound effect
on its ultimate direction as well as on the activists involved. But, the
guiding politics of social movement don’t simply appear out of thin air.
Rank-and-file BPP members themselves invented the armed self-defense
tactics just as rank-and-file civil rights leaders developed the civil
disobedience and non-violent protest strategy, and these members had to
win others to these new tactics through a process of political debate
and experience. They were leading with their ideas and testing them in
practice.
Political leadership is just this: individuals, with the experience of
struggle, can advance ideas and tactics that will strengthen the
movement and develop to help prepare it for the next stages in struggle
– whether economic, political, or ideological.
Huey P. Newton and others recognized the importance of uniting oppressed
people into a political party that could act as a unit, providing
leadership and an important counter-weight to the overbearing power of
the capitalist state.
I’m going to finish with a quote from one of the leaders of the Black
Power movement, who said “when a people arises, when it develops
awareness, when it is convinced of the righteousness of its actions,
there is nothing that can stop it. The people sweep aside all obstacles
placed in their path like a whirlwind cleaning out all the dirt in a
country.”
Now, we have a lot of work to do before we can go around making claims
like that. But this idea that we need to be building inside right now
is, I think, the only perspective that fits when you understand that
we’re looking at a war against the system that is being launched from
within, and when you understand the scale of resistance that is
necessary.
People are receptive to the “idea” of resisting, but they’re doing so in
a context in which their revolutionary spirit is very weak and needs to
be ignited. But, this is the task of our generation, and I think these
kinds of ideas we are building on now are all about the process of
trying to rebuild that Black revolutionary fighting anti-capitalist
regime.
MIM(Prisons) adds: “Unity from the inside out” is a slogan that
United Struggle from Within has used in promoting the development of
unity among and between lumpen organizations (LOs) in prison. This
slogan echoes the strategy promoted above of building a strong prison
movement to affect the rest of society. Sloganeering is one of the
tactical tasks necessary to build an effective anti-imperialist
movement. Good slogans are based in mass line. This means taking correct
ideas from the masses and reinforcing them through propaganda. Finding
effective slogans and language that connects the mass consciousness to
the revolutionary struggle should be a focus of USW. This is part of
what it means to provide leadership as the comrade describes above.