MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
SNY has been “represented”, we’ve been building and growing for years. I
personally came from the mainline after 15 years of the madness. I’ve
been there with the Black Guerrilla Family, Nuestra Familia, Mexican
Mafia, and Aryan Brotherhood. I was at Calipatria when the “East Coast
Crips” stormed the program office. I’ve also walked the level IV yards
with Elmer Geronimo Pratt, Ruchell Magee, as well as the comrade Askari.
The inmates on SNYs are not your enemies. “We know the enemy.” A lot of
us made a conscious informed choice to step away from the gangbanging
and go home to our families, are we less because we made a choice best
for us? Moreover I stand with you, and look for your next essay so we
can build together. Check Under Lock & Key No. 40,53,55, just
to start, but I’m all over. Revolutionary theory without practice ain’t
shit.
Dear sista, you and I know that the mainline is full of people who have
no honor or respect, and the class of people are not the same as in the
1980s or 1990s, so I’m not missing the line at all. What I do miss is
the respect level. But just like the mainline, SNYs have strong
revolutionary comrades, it’s who you have around you, just as on the
line, we also know there are child molesters as well as rapists there
too. One of the reason I left was because I was a part of the “Damu
Car,” Piru in fact, and when someone known to be a rat, and all the
homies know, but since he has the drugs and he’s paying rent he has a
pass. I was good, not to mention the so-called homie that rob and rape
another homie’s wife and we have to let this unknown dude keep walking
around us left a fucked up taste in my mouth. So there was only one step
I could take in good conscience.
We as Damus we moved in a political motion anyway. So me becoming
revolutionary was just the next step in my evolution as a man. When I
hit the prison in 1992 I was taught about my history: George Jackson,
Frantz Fanon, Huey P Newton, Fred Hampton, The Almighty Black P. Stone
Nation and all the letters because they were all here
FOI-NOI-BGF-KUMI-DAMUs–Kiway’s- all of that, SNYs are the way they are
because when you come to this side all of your old homies consider you a
rat, even if you never said a word to the pigs.
G.P. is a capitalist community; who ever has the drugs can call the
shots, who ever has the phone is the big homie. That’s a very tainted
and corrupt political line they’re pushing, I also agree with the
comrade in Georgia, that the
contagious
disease of backbiting needs to stop. I feel the same way. The real
is that I’ve been in the mix with a lot of the Damus on the mainline and
they know where I stand, and have told that they see the improvements in
me and we’ve had serious political talks about the state of the line vs
the SNY yards.
When I was at Richard J. Donavon (see Under Lock & Key issue
no 40) I created a cadre that consisted of SNY and mainline comrades,
Black, white and Hispanic. And what the Georgia comrade said is right,
everyone on this backbiting shit should take a long and serious look at
themselves and really pay attention to the way Willie Lynch syndrome has
been effective. When he instructed the slave masters to always keep them
divided, separated, and distrustful of one another, and at odds with one
another.
Posting up essays and articles on the wall is a go0d move, and I will
add that to my get down. Anyway, I’m going to end this the same way I
entered it by stating that the loss of my heroes Fred Hampton, Huey P.
Newton, and George Jackson represented a most tragic set back not just
for the Black Panther Party, but also for the liberation movement in
general. These men who were potentially heir apparent to fallen leaders
like Malcolm X, and Che Guevara.
The real shit is “SNY and the mainline,” may never be able to get past
the emotional hatred that comes from mainline prisoners, but will that
stop SNY inmates and political prisoners from being a leading force in
building the bridges that can we can cross to make the revolution? No!
We are just as focused as you if not more because we have a role to play
in this movement, I only live to make the revolution. So I understand my
life may be cut short, but I will live and die for the people.
I’m responding in regards to
ScHoolboy
Q of the Hoover Crips in Los Angeles mentioned in Under Lock
& Key 56. I’m a real 74 St Hoover Crip from the 70-99, with the
real 83 St Hoover Crips, 92 St Hoover Crips and what is now known as 52
St Hoover Crips. This ScHoolboy Q is living off the fame of something he
knows nothing about. He can not tell you about the struggle or how the
Hoover Groover became the Hoover Crips or why the Crip culture of the 2
years are so disrespected by the neighborhoods they claim to be from.
Let’s not put rap and money into the struggle. The quote is
Crips don’t die, they multiply. That is the correct wording of the Crip
saying. The stuff these rappers are saying take away from the true
street life of Crips and the struggle to free the hoods they
live in or the cop culture they had to fight with each day. Please let’s
stay with facts when referencing the struggle. He ain’t kill no one, has
not been shot, or has he shot anyone? He knows nothing about Hoover and
that a fact.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We always welcome our readers assistance
in staying with the facts. The mention of the Crips in that review was
meant to highlight the connection to a positive New Afrikan struggle. In
doing so we reinforced ScHoolboy Q’s self-identity as a Crip, something
we cannot speak to. We can observe that today he’s making news for
calling out United Airlines for putting his little dog on the wrong
connecting flight, while real Crips are doing long bids in cages.
Being a “real Crip” in itself is full of contradictions. A lot of
senseless loss of life has occurred in neighborhoods like the one this
comrade came from. But we do respect the voices of the OGs that lived
that struggle and are allies to the anti-imperialist struggle. It’s no
coincidence that we see many who come from that life pledging their
lives to the people. The worst criminals kill thousands around the globe
and never express any remorse.
In the past we spent a good amount of time trying to work with some
comrades to document that history for a book on the lumpen that was
never completed. But we still welcome the stories from comrades like the
one above, that will allow others to learn from the history and
evolution of lumpen organizations in this country. The Crips are an
interesting phenomenon as they are known internationally, and the name
is repped by many who read our newsletter who do not know the history
and struggle this comrade speaks to. It is a true cultural heritage of
the New Afrikan lumpen in Los Angeles, the good and the bad. We hope
that comrades from that culture can use it for good.
MIM(Prisons) began to draft a book on the lumpen class a few years ago.
We found a gap in the theoretical material on this subject and realized
that our observations about this class are a unique contribution to
Marxist theory. A lot of research was done, particularly on defining the
lumpen class within U.$. borders, but due to competing projects and
limited time, the book was put on hold. We began distributing the
chapter with our research in draft form, but are not yet close to
completing the book, nor do we currently have the funds or resources to
print another book. As a result, we are turning to the pages of Under
Lock & Key to sum up some of our key findings and further
develop and apply our theory of the First World lumpen. This article is
just a summary of the more extensive draft chapter on the lumpen class
which is available from MIM(Prisons) upon request for, $5 or equivalent
work trade.
U Can’t Sell Dope Forever
“Power is the ability to define a phenomenon and make it act in a
desired manner.” - Huey P. Newton
Marxist socialism is based in the idea that humyns, as a group, can take
charge of the natural and economic laws that determine their ability to
meet their material needs. Taking charge does not mean that they can
decide these laws, but that they can utilize them. In doing so they
develop a scientific understanding of the world around them.
Under capitalism, the anarchy of production is the general rule. This is
because capitalists only concern themselves with profit, while
production and consumption of humyn needs is at the whim of the economic
laws of capitalism. As a result people starve, wars are fought and the
environment is degraded in ways that make humyn life more difficult or
even impossible. Another result is that whole groups of people are
excluded from the production system. Whereas in pre-class societies, a
group of humyns could produce the basic food and shelter that they
needed to survive, capitalism is unique in keeping large groups of
people from doing so.
In the industrialized countries like the United $tates, the culture and
structure of society has eliminated opportunities and knowledge to be
self-sufficient. Production is done socially instead. Simplistically
this might look like: one company produces bread, another produces
shoes, and everyone working for each company gets paid and uses their
pay to buy things from the other companies. Everyone gets what they need
by being a productive member of the larger society.
The problem is that there are not enough jobs. At first this might seem
like a good thing. We are so advanced that we can get all the work done
for the whole group with only a portion of those people having to work.
But under capitalism, if you’re not in an exploiter class, not working
means you do not get a share of the collective product. So when whole
groups are not able to get jobs, they must find other ways of getting
the goods that they need to survive. And we all know various ways that
people do this.
So first capitalism has separated people from their need to provide
everything for themselves. In doing so the capitalists alienate the
worker from eir product, because it becomes the property of the
capitalist. But those without jobs are also alienated from the whole
production process. People often turn to the illegal service economy of
selling drugs or sexual favors, or robbing and fencing stolen goods.
Many also turn to the state for social services to get a distribution of
the social product, without participating in production.
All of these solutions are even more alienating than working for the
capitalists. Being a shoemaker or a baker are productive tasks that
people can find pleasure in, even if they do not have a say in how the
product of their labor is then distributed. Given the option, people
generally don’t want to poison their community, deal with the threat of
violence every day, sell their body, steal from people or even take
handouts without being able to participate in producing. All of these
endeavors require the individual to justify actions that they know are
wrong, to dehumanize other people and themselves, and to just live under
a lot of stress.
These activities, and the justifications that come with them, contribute
to what then becomes the consciousness of this group of people excluded
from the economy. Marx wrote about the alienation of the proletariat
resulting from them not having a say in how the product of their labor
is utilized. But there is a deeper level of alienation among the lumpen
in that they must alienate themselves from other humyn beings, even
those who are in similar situations to themselves. Capitalism promotes a
dog-eat-dog mentality that is alienating for all people because we are
encouraged to look out for ourselves and not trust others. But this is
most pronounced for the lumpen, who are in turn demonized for their
disregard for other people.
The demonization that the lumpen faces by the rest of society is one
reason that none of these endeavors have futures. You can’t sell dope
forever. You certainly can’t be a prostitute forever. Robbing and
scamming is dangerous to say the least. And there are strong policies
today to keep people from being on public assistance for too long. So
there is a strong interest among the lumpen class to choose another
path, one that addresses the alienation and lack of control they have
over their own lives, including a limited ability to meet their own
needs.
While we recognize that the leading force for revolution is the
proletariat, our analysis clearly shows that the proletariat is
virtually non-existent within U.$. borders, limited primarily to the
small migrant worker population. The predominance of the labor
aristocracy within imperialist countries today makes the lumpen a more
important element than in times and places where the proletariat is the
overwhelming majority. Just as Mao had to apply Marx’s analysis to
Chinese conditions and understand the key role the peasantry plays in
revolution in countries where that group is large, we must apply
dialectical materialist analysis to the world today to understand the
role that will be played by each significant class in Amerikan society.
The lumpen are a more important class in imperialist society today than
in the past, and as a result we must identify those who fall in this
group and analyze whether they are friends or enemies of the revolution.
This essay attempts to identify the lumpen in the United $tates by
looking at several potential indicators of economic and social position
in society.
First World vs. Third World lumpen
The lumpen is defined as being excluded from the capitalist system;
excluded from production and consumption. Of course, everyone must
consume to survive, and the lumpen lives on as a class. But their
consumption is outside the realm of capitalist relations. The lumpen
must take from others what it needs to survive. And in an exploited
country the lumpen takes from working people, the petty bourgeoisie and
other lumpen who surround them. It is much harder and therefore more
rare to take from the bourgeoisie, so the bourgeoisie doesn’t much care
that the lumpen exist. The lumpen in the Third World is a parasite
class, but primarily a parasite on the masses of the oppressed nations.
In the United $tates, we have no significant proletariat, so the lumpen
class must be a parasite on the petty bourgeoisie. Historically that
petty bourgeoisie has been white, while the lumpen have been
concentrated in the New Afrikan ghettos, the reservations of First
Nations, and the inner city oppressed communities in general. The
national contradiction meant that the lumpen posed a threat to the
stability of the country.
The history of social services in the United $tates comes from the Great
Depression of the 1930s. As socialism and fascism were expanding to
address the problems created by the anarchy of production, U.$.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had to take drastic measures to
preserve bourgeois democracy. The New Deal recovery program was that
measure. It brought a system of social safety nets that live on to this
day, though they were reformed and reduced starting in the 1980s with
the Reagan administration.
This system allowed the emerging lumpen class to participate in the
system of distribution and consumption without participating in
production. They could do so in a way that was less precarious, less
dangerous and better paying than their counterparts in the Third World.
In addition to the federal government’s services, there is
infrastructure in the First World to provide clean water and sanitation
to people of all classes. There is rampant overconsumption and waste
that makes acquiring basic needs like food and clothing a snap, and
there is enough wealth in the country that many non-governmental
organizations can fund their own programs to provide food and other
materials and services to those in need. For all these reasons, the
First World lumpen are a qualitatively different class than the Third
World lumpen proletariat in that they do benefit from living in an
imperialist country.
Some claiming Marxism tell us that those we call lumpen are really part
of the proletariat; they are just part of the reserve army of labor that
Marx talked about being necessary to keep wages down among the workers
that were employed via competition. But as has been demonstrated, there
is no significant proletariat in the United $tates (request our Labor
Aristocracy study pack for more on this topic). And while there is a
contradiction between employers and employees over wages, this has not
been an antagonistic contradiction in post-WWII U.$.A.
To the extent that there is a proletariat in this country, they are
migrant workers. And therefore the reserve army of labor is found south
of the Rio Grande and elsewhere in the Third World.
The First World lumpen are the remnants of a long history of national
oppression. The question that they face is whether the oppressor nation
is willing and able to continue to integrate them into the Amerikan
petty bourgeoisie, or if racism and economic crisis will lead to an
increased lumpenization of the internal semi-colonies as Amerika pushes
its problems off on them.
The white nation in North America has always been a predominately petty
bourgeois nation. Therefore petty bourgeois class consciousness is
overwhelmingly dominant among white people of all classes. Where there
is potential for revolutionary white lumpen, it will be more common when
in close proximity or integrated with oppressed nation lumpen. And these
will be the exception to the rule. It is for this reason that we say the
principal contradiction is nation in the United $tates, while spending
much time discussing and addressing the lumpen class.
Therefore, in the analysis that follows, we will be defining the First
World lumpen as a distinct class that is only evident in the United
$tates within the oppressed nations.
Contemporary Class Analysis
In the last few decades we can already point to an expanding prison
population, and the cutting of welfare roles, without an increase in
employment, as some evidence to support lumpenization at the margins. As
expected, this lumpenization has been disproportionately suffered by the
oppressed nations. To the extent that whites have lost (or will lose)
their class status, this concerns us as a likely trigger for growing
fascist currents in Amerikkka, due to their historical consciousness as
a settler nation and more recently as the most powerful nation on the
planet. As we get into the numbers below, we’ll see that the white
“lumpen” population could arguably outnumber that in the internal
semi-colonies. But percentage-wise they are a smaller minority within
their nation, and their national identity pulls them much more strongly
towards fascism. For this reason, we will disregard poor whites in most
of the analysis below. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. And
in particular, among youth and where poor whites are more influenced by
oppressed nation culture there could certainly be some splits in the
white nation.
While we have not seen a massive de-linking of the exploited
populations, the internal contradictions of imperialism have brought
significant economic downturns in recent years. In 2009 there was a
steep rise in the percent of long-term unemployed (greater than 26
weeks), which has not yet declined significantly. It has hovered around
40 and 45% of all unemployed people; this is about double other high
points dating back to 1960. [As of June 2016, over the 3 years since the
original writing, this figure has declined to around 25%, which is still
higher than the 17-18% rates that were normal before 2008.] While this
could be a sign of a growing de-classed population, the U.$. economy is
so rich that this unemployment has only resulted in modest increases in
poverty rates.
Yet, even in the recent recession, government-defined poverty rates have
not yet reached the levels they were at prior to 1965 when they were
around 20%, give or take. In 2011 the poverty rate was recorded as 15%.
Even this rate is inflated since assistance in the form of tax credits
and food stamps is not counted as taxable income. If this income was
included in their calculations it would pull 9.6 million people above
the poverty line and bring the percent below the poverty rate to less
than 12%.(1) So it is only a small group at the margins that may be
seeing a shift in their material conditions such that they could
arguably be seen as not largely benefiting from imperialism.
In order to paint a clearer picture of who is in the First World lumpen
class, the following sections look at the empirical evidence both
historically and today to figure out where to draw the line between
lumpen and petty bourgeoisie within the United $tates. Above we defined
the lumpen class as those who are excluded from the production and
distribution of goods under capitalism. If you translate this into U.$.
census statistics, this group would fall into those who are not
participants in the civilian labor force.
Lumpen Defined by Employment Status
Employment is counted as working at least 1 hour of paid time, 15 hours
of unpaid time in a family business, or being off of work (such as
vacation or maternity leave) during the week referenced. The civilian
labor force includes everyone defined as employed or unemployed (looking
for work). Therefore the lumpen would be found in the group that is
outside the civilian labor force. In the following graph we can see that
this excluded group has grown in size only slightly since 1960, whereas
the labor force has grown much more.
Not everyone in the middle group in this figure is part of what we would
consider the lumpen. We have subtracted out housewives, students, and
the elderly (detailed calculations for this subtraction are included in
the full draft lumpen book).
In this graph we see the biggest changes being the increase in the
lumpen (from 1.5% in 1960 to 10.6% in 2010) and the decrease in the
housewives category. While this is completely feasible, the direct
relationship between these two groups in the way we did the calculation
leaves us cautious in making any conclusions from this method alone. In
order to confirm that our big picture estimate of the lumpen here is in
the ball park we will look at this a couple of other ways, including
trying to break down the lumpen via its constituent parts to see how
they add up.
Also, keep in mind that we are concerned with the oppressed nation
lumpen as a progressive force for national liberation struggles. The
above method does not differentiate between nations, and we can assume
that somewhere around half of that 10.6% is white Amerikans.
Gaps in employment rates between New Afrikan males and white males are
quite large, and they have increased over the period of 1970-2010.
Further, the unemployment rate does not include those in prison or those
on public assistance programs. So when “unemployment” rates are reported
as being twice as big as for New Afrikans compared to whites, this is an
understatement because those rates are only calculated on the civilian
labor force who is looking for work. Austan Goolsbee, former economic
advisor to U.$. President Barack Obama has stated that since the
mid-1980s “the government has cooked the books” on unemployment rates
“because government programs, especially Social Security disability,
have effectively been buying people off the unemployment rolls and
reclassifying them as not ‘in the labor force.’”(3) This is a prime
example of what we call the First World lumpen.
From this analysis of employment status we conclude that the 10.6% of
the population that is unemployed and not housewives, students or
elderly is principally lumpen. Conservatively we can assume that whites
as 65% of the population are that same portion of the lumpen. This means
that the oppressed nation lumpen defined by employment status
constitutes about 10% of the oppressed nation population.
Lumpen Defined by Income
One thing that jumps out when looking at income data is the difference
between individual income levels and household incomes. Some 39% of
households had two or more income earners in 2010, so that over 20% of
households made six figure incomes, while only 6.61% of individuals did.
Because individuals do tend to live in small group households, we will
mostly look at that data below. Another thing that such an approach
captures is the difficulties faced by many single-parent households.
Single-parent households are the exception in that they do not benefit
financially from having many members in their house because one earner
must provide for many people. While this is very doable on a labor
aristocracy wage, the demands of child-care and also keeping a job make
it difficult for many single mothers who end up on public assistance. As
a result there is a strong gendered component of the poor and lumpen
that we will look at more below.
Before jumping into the numbers, let’s look at the definition of
employed. While some in the unemployed group (defined as those who have
been looking for work) may fall into the lumpen class, probably even
more in the employed group do, seeing that you only have to get paid for
one hour of labor per week to be considered employed. Those who are
marginally employed, but are dependent on public assistance or the
criminal underground to meet their needs, might reasonably be considered
part of the First World lumpen class, especially in the context of the
oppressed nation ghettos, barrios and reservations.
Here are some numbers to keep in mind as we look at income levels. A
persyn working full-time for minimum wage will make at least $14,000 per
year, depending on the state they work in. An estimate of average value
produced per hour is between $3 and $5 based on global GDP and global
workforce.(4) At that rate, working 40 hours a week year-round, one
would produce almost $10,000 per year, which may be a good cut off point
for saying whether a full-time worker is making more or less than the
value of their labor.
From this we can assume that a person earning $14k or more is
participating full time or nearly full time in the labor force. They
are, therefore, not a candidate for the lumpen. Since wages for Amerikan
citizens are all above the global average wage, any legally employed
worker will be making more than the value of their labor. Those making
less than $14,000 per year will be in 3 main categories: part-time
employed youth, migrants making proletarian or semi-proletarian wages,
or marginally employed people who depend on public assistance and other
sources of income.
Around 30% of those with an income, and over age 15, were under the
$15,000 per year mark in 2010, while 15% were under $10,000 per year.(5)
This excludes people with no income, especially youth under working age
who are a special case. But it includes people who are part of
households with others who also have incomes. For example, a housewife
who works one day a week for extra income and has a husband who makes
$50,000 a year could be in this group. But this 15% gives us one more
reference point to think about when estimating the First World lumpen.
Almost 50% of those earning at or below minimum wage are 16 to 24 years
old, and 23% are just 16 to 19 years old.(6) This is a case where we
would not necessarily see income defining class status. Most of these
youth know that they are likely to make more money when they get older
by looking at the adults around them. To eliminate the effect of these
temporarily low-paid youth, who are still making more than the value of
their labor, we will now look at household income and break it down by
nationality.
Quintiles break up a population into five different equal-sized groups
defined by a range, such as income level. Looking at the lowest
quintiles of the population in terms of income is one way to tease out
the size and composition of the lumpen. The average income of the lowest
quintile is dramatically different between whites and New
Afrikans/Latin@s with the poorest whites earning more than double the
poorest New Afrikans/Latin@s.
Income for lowest quintile of earners in the U.$, 2011
Race
Upper limit of lowest quintile
Avg income, lowest quintile
New Afrikan
$15,996
$7,816
white
$33,514
$19,887
“Hispanic”
$18,944
$9,821
The upper limit of income for the lowest quintile shows further these
differences by nation, but also suggests that quintiles alone are not
sufficient to define the lumpen as the upper limit of the lowest 20% of
New Afrikans (the lowest earning of the nations) is still $16k per year,
a solid labor aristocracy income at an $8/hr full time job.
One problem with just looking at income in defining lumpen is that it
may be a temporary state of someone being in a low income group. Youth
definitely fall in this category. Some older folks who are retired, who
are clearly not lumpen, also fall in this category. Among the 20-55 age
group there are good reasons why some people have temporarily lower
income but still are part of the labor aristocracy, such as short-term
unemployment.
Family Income by Race
Numbers in 1000s
Percent
Income
white
New Afrikan
“Hispanic”
white
New Afrikan
“Hispanic”
Under $2,500
680
409
308
1.2
4.4
3.0
$2,500 to $4,999
273
152
146
0.5
1.6
1.4
$5,000 to $7,499
382
180
197
0.7
1.9
1.9
$7,500 to $9,999
525
321
264
1.0
3.4
2.5
$10,000 to $12,499
664
319
362
1.2
3.4
3.5
$12,500 to $14,999
658
301
311
1.2
3.2
3.0
This table shows that a relatively small percent of families are earning
less than $10k annually: 3.4% of whites, 11.3% of New Afrikans and 8.8%
of Latin@s. This table includes those not participating in the workforce
since it is at the family level and so should be counting non-working
spouses and children among others.
Clearly there are significant differences between single individuals
earning $10,000 per year and a head of household with 4 children earning
that same income. Looking at income by size of household gives us more
detail on the total economic situation of a family. And we can use this
data to calculate the maximum possible income per persyn for each group.
This underscores the dramatic difference in financial situations faced
by families based on the number of kids they have. We might use this
data to create cut-offs for families whose kids are falling in the
lumpen. While parents earning minimum wage and working close to full
time are not part of the lumpen by definition, their income puts their
kids basically outside of traditional economic financial participation
and likely on the streets hustling for extra cash.
Again, the First World lumpen are not dying of starvation or water-born
diseases that the Third World masses face. But they do suffer
malnutrition, temporary states of lacking housing, water or electrical
service, and exposure to environmental pollutants that most Amerikans do
not have to deal with. And youth growing up in a family with a total
income of less than $20,000 provides a standard of living relatively
outside of the economic participation of the majority of Amerikans. An
average of $5k per persyn per year in a family of 4 may provide for
survival needs but nothing beyond that. In this country, youth who can
not find a job to supplement their family’s income are likely to end up
on the streets working outside of the traditional labor force, as a part
of the lumpen. This data suggests that children of the lowest 15-20% of
oppressed nation workers are good candidates for lumpen who may work
their way out into the labor aristocracy as they get older.
Included in the calculations above are individuals making minimum wage
or above at a full-time job, so we discard the two highest income
categories for single people and, just to be conservative, the highest
income level for 2 people. Using the rest of the categories to define
either lumpen or migrant proletarian households, we get the following
summary table.
Lumpen or Migrant Proletarian Families Defined by Income Categories
New Afrikan
white
Latin@
# of families
3489
11,220
2596
% of nation
22%
13%
17%
% of nation <$10/family
16%
5%
10%
(9)
We do an additional calculation for only families making less than $10k
per year, since one full-time worker making $10k would be making above
our value of labor estimate. While at both levels, there are more white
families than other nations, the rates are obviously higher for New
Afrikans and Latin@s. The migrant proletariat population is of course
much larger in the Latin@ category. So we could say that the New Afrikan
lumpen defined by income is around 20% of the population, even though
the maximum for the lowest quintile was given as $16,000/ year above.
One report puts the migrant workers earning less than minimum wage in
2002 at 2 million people.(10) With some 80% of immigrants in the U.$.
coming from Latin America and just 2.5 million Latin@ families in these
low-wage categories above, it would seem that the Latin@ poor were
dominated by working immigrant families and not lumpen. If true, this is
one reason nation-specific parties are needed to lead the revolutionary
movements in the different oppressed nations. The class content and
interests of the lowest quintile of Latin@s and New Afrikans may look
similar based on income level, but have very different relations to the
means of production and to other nations.
Summing up the income data for defining the lumpen population, we can
conservatively use the cut off of $10k/year for family income to say
that 16% of New Afrikan families are lumpen and 10% of Latin@ families
are lumpen or migrant proletarian. Further, youth in families earning
less than $5k per persyn fall in the lumpen even though their parents
are still working full time and are not part of the lumpen. That is the
children of the lowest 10-15% of oppressed nation workers. So
conservatively we can say between 15-20% of New Afrikan families are
lumpen and between 10-15% of Raza are lumpen or migrant proletarian.
Lumpen defined by education level
There is a strong connection between educational background and what
people end up earning financially later in life. There is a clear linear
association between higher degrees attained and higher earnings. We do
not care so much about the distinction between college graduates and
those with advanced degrees, as this is the difference between levels of
labor aristocracy, petty bourgeois and bourgeois income (all enemy
classes). What is potentially interesting to a study of the lumpen in
the United $tates is the population not even graduating from high
school. Those without a high school degree earn significantly less than
people who complete high school or college, and this group includes a
much higher proportion of people who earn little to no money from legal
employment. Therefore we look to educational attainment as a good
candidate for a proxy to measure socioeconomic status in the United
$tates.
Looking at educational achievement by nationality, we see that youth not
getting a high school degree are disproportionately New Afrikan and
Raza. Further, looking at unemployment rates for those without a high
school diploma by nationality reveals interesting differences. New
Afrikans who did not complete high school had a 22.5% unemployment rate
compared with whites at 13.9% and Raza at 13.2%. The rate of employment
among Raza probably reflects the large migrant population working low
paying jobs such as farm workers, who are fully employed but earning
very little.
As discussed above, while the unemployed may be part of the lumpen, this
population includes some who are temporarily out of work but are
actually participating in the workforce overall as part of the petty
bourgeoisie. In addition, these statistics are only collected on people
who are considered to be part of the labor force.
Combining income with education level reveals significant differences
between whites and oppressed nations. However, the mean earnings for
those without a high school diploma are not so low that we can lump
everyone without a high school degree into the lumpen, even among
oppressed nations.
Mean income for people without a High School degree
Gender
Race
Mean Income
Male
white
$22,353
Female
white
$15,187
Male
New Afrikan
$18,936
Female
New Afrikan
$15,644
Male
“Hispanic”
$21,588
Female
“Hispanic”
$16,170
(11)
These numbers reinforce the theory that lack of a high school diploma in
and of itself does not define the lumpen. There are plenty of people
entering the ranks of the labor aristocracy without much education,
pulling the average income for this group up into the labor aristocracy
range. It appears that there is a split among high school dropouts where
some are able to join the labor aristocracy and others are pulled down
into the lumpen.
MIM has argued that youth are the most revolutionary group among the
white nation because of their special status outside of the class to
which they were born and because of the way that capitalist society puts
youth in a position of disempowerment. A key to the labor aristocracy’s
attitude as a class is the fact that individuals who may not be making
much money at the moment can look around at their peers and see that
they should anticipate improving their position. This is especially true
for whites. Oppressed nation youth without a high school diploma, on the
other hand, receive a mixed message. They look at their peers of their
age group and see that they truly can not expect to get a job any time
soon. On the other hand they can look at older folks around them and see
a large percent having joined the labor aristocracy. This may result in
a split in the oppressed nations by age where youth are part of the
lumpen class for a period of time but eventually are pulled into the
labor aristocracy by the wealth and decadence of imperialist society,
even if they exist at the low end of the labor aristocracy. [See “Age as
Gender: The Third Strand Shaping the Oppressed Nation Lumpen” in the
draft lumpen book for more on this.]
The education analysis doesn’t give us a definitive calculation of the
lumpen but we can conclude that a sizable portion of the group with no
GED or high school degree is part of the lumpen, and this group is 15%
of New Afrikans and 35.7% of Raza. These numbers will overlap with
unemployment and family income numbers as many people will fall into all
three groups.
What About First Nations?
The First Nation populations within the United $tates remain decimated
from the history of settler genocide and continued oppression. As a
result, the native people of this land, not including Chican@s, is less
than 1% of the total population. An estimated one third of them live on
reservations, totaling about 700,000 people.
Despite their decimation, First Nations tend to have a greater
consciousness as nations separate from Amerika with rights to their own
land, compared to the oppressed nations in the United $tates as a whole.
And there remain concentrations of the indigenous population in certain
regions that provide a base for significant resistance. On a number of
these larger reservations, the percentage of families with incomes less
than $3000 per persyn ranges between 15 and 25%. For New Afrikans as a
whole that figure was 10%, though in regions such as south central Los
Angeles it may be similar to First Nations.
Similarly, labor force participation rates on many of the larger
reservations are lower than the average for other nations in the United
$tates by as much as 23%. In San Carlos Indian Reservation 31% of people
were receiving cash assistance in 2000, about 15 times the average for
the country. About 34% received food stamps. Five of the ten largest
reservations had almost a third of the population on food stamps and six
had at least 15% receiving cash assistance.
One disadvantage that First Nations face on reservations is the lack of
infrastructure benefits that virtually everyone else in the United
$tates enjoys, which factors into our class position and perspective in
this country. On reservations 14% of homes lack electricity, 18% lack
adequate sewage, 18% lack complete kitchen facilities, and 20% lack
indoor plumbing. These are unique conditions that First Nation vanguards
must address that will not be of concern for the general U.$.
population.
We present these numbers separately because the First Nation population
is so much smaller than the other nations we focus on here, and because
data on people living on reservations overall is not very complete.(12)
Groups within the Lumpen
Above we looked at employment status, education level and income to
estimate the size of the lumpen class in the United $tates. A third
approach is to look at the individual groups that make up the lumpen
class as a whole. The main categories of people we will discuss below
are the population that is imprisoned and under correctional
supervision, the homeless, those dependent on public assistance and
those involved in the underground economy.
1) Lumpen in prison and under correctional supervision
The imprisoned population is one segment of the lumpen that is excluded
from the methods previously discussed since they are part of the
“institutionalized population” in the U.S. Census data. For that reason,
we might think that the above calculation underestimates the size, as
well as the growth, of the lumpen class in the United $tates.
In 2011, there were 6.98 million adults under the supervision of the
state via imprisonment, probation or parole, in the United $tates. This
was 2.9% of the overall population, with just those in prison being
slightly less than 1%. The overall percentage increased at a decreasing
rate between 1980 and 2008.(13).
Focusing on the oppressed nations, over 3% of New Afrikan men are in
prison. That number is about 1.3% for Latin@s, and less than 0.5% for
whites. Rates for First Nations were not given in this report, but tend
to be even higher than those for New Afrikans. If we extrapolate
imprisonment statistics to all adults under supervision, we get about
8.7% of New Afrikan men and 3.8% of Raza men under some form of state
supervision. With recidivism rates as high as they are, we are
comfortable saying that those 1 million Raza men and 1.6 million New
Afrikan men are part of the lumpen class. The same calculations put
around 56,000 Raza wimmin and 73,000 New Afrikan wimmin in this group,
plus a significant, but uncertain number of First Nation and Asian
lumpen under state supervision. As a result, we suggest that 2.5 million
is a safe estimate of those who’d fall in the group of
imprisoned/formerly imprisoned lumpen, excluding whites. This would add
less than one percentage point of the overall U.$. population to our
total, but would include another 4.5% of New Afrikans and another 4% of
Raza. Note that these numbers can’t be added to the totals from the
unemployed or income-based lumpen groups above because those out of
prison will overlap greatly with this group.
White men in this group number about 1.3 million, but are much more
likely to find employment and join the labor aristocracy after release
from prison. While in prison white men do fall into the lumpen class but
lack the oppressed nation outlook and so often join white supremacist
groups rather than supporting revolutionary organizing. This is just one
factor contributing to a national outlook that leads us to exclude
whites overall when discussing the revolutionary potential of the First
World lumpen.
On any given day, nearly 23 percent of all young New Afrikan men ages 16
to 24 who have dropped out of high school are in jail, prison, or a
juvenile justice institution in the United $tates.(14) So there is a
significant overlap between those without a high school diploma and the
prison population. This reinforces the lack of a high school degree as
an indicator of the lumpen, but as we showed above, it’s not sufficient
alone to identify the lumpen as plenty of labor aristocracy people come
from this group as well.
2) Underground Economy
The underground economy parallels the legal economy, and has a parallel
class structure. While the economy is capitalist and therefore dominated
by bourgeois ideology, the majority of the people in this economy could
be considered part of the First World lumpen in that they live at the
margins, often with a parasitic relationship to the greater economy.
While all communities have people who work “off the books,” just as they
all have drug dealers, there is a qualitative difference between
communities where that is the exception and where that is the rule.
We divide the underground economy into the following categories:
illegal national bourgeoisie in drugs
illegal labor aristocracy
parasitic hustlers (thieves, scammers, pimps)
illegal service workers (prostitutes, corner boys)
small-time service workers (food prep, car repair, reselling)
Mao saw the national bourgeoisie as a class that can be an ally in the
anti-imperialist war, but cannot liberate the nation itself. Due to the
parasitic class nature of the internal semi-colonies in the United
$tates today, we do not see the traditional Black and Brown bourgeoisie
playing this role. Instead they are some hybrid of petty bourgeoisie and
comprador bourgeoisie economically benefitting from the empire. Where we
see a parallel to the national bourgeoisie of the exploited nations is
among the marginally employed and illegally employed lumpen who rise
within the illegal economy. Just as Mao’s national bourgeoisie was
disadvantaged by imperialist control of their nation, it is the lumpen
alone that is excluded from participating in the spoils of empire as the
majority of oppressed nationals within U.$. borders do today. And when
they do tap into those spoils through illegal enterprises, they remain
in a precarious position.
The underground economy includes many small-time service workers who
provide food preparation, car repair, vendor and small maintenance
services in oppressed communities. The work performed is no different
than any other service worker in the legal economy, but their work is
usually irregular in such a way that they are part of an underclass that
we consider close to the lumpen as they are excluded from the legal
economy.
The illegal economy can be looked at separately from the service workers
providing legal services off the books. The illegal economy is where we
find those traditionally considered the lumpen. It would include the
obviously-parasitic hustlers who rob, scam, fence and pimp. But the
biggest sector of the illegal economy, and one of the most important
sectors of the global economy, is the drug trade. The drug trade, while
largely in the realm of the lumpen class, is successful enough to
support a well-defined class structure of its own including a full-on
bourgeoisie, a stable group earning what would be the equivalent of
labor aristocracy wages, and a workforce that receives a more marginal
income. The small-time drug dealers in oppressed communities could be
grouped with the, largely female, sex workers as a group of illegal
service workers who make incomes that are marginal in terms of global
wage distribution.
Much of the illegal drug economy in the oppressed communities is carried
out by lumpen organizations (LOs). These organizations historically were
more dependent on extortion, and this still plays a large role in the
economics of LOs. Extortion would be another example of clear parasitic
relations of the lumpen with the rest of the community.
LOs are often formed along national lines, bringing with them a legacy
or ideology of nationalism. Where these organizations are successful
enough to create a bourgeoisie, or even an aspiring bourgeoisie, we see
the basis for a national bourgeoisie in the internal semi-colonies.
3) Public Assistance Dependents
While 8% of the U.$. population receives some form of assistance from
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 1.7% of the
population receives more than half of their income that way. That
translates to about 5.34 million people we could say are dependent on
public assistance. Of those, about 3.25 million (61%) are not white and
2.13 million (40%) are New Afrikan.
Approximately 90% of U.$. citizens receiving cash assistance benefits
are single mothers.(15) Just as the imprisoned lumpen is mostly men, the
population on certain forms of public assistance is largely made up of
wimmin with children, most of whom are actually white.(16)
4) Homeless
Up to 3.5 million people are homeless in the United $tates, about 1% of
the population each year.
First Nations are overrepresented in the homeless population by a factor
of 4, while New Afrikans are by a factor of 3.25. Youth under 18 are
overrepresented by a factor of 1.65. Whites and Asians are
underrepresented in the homeless population.
nation
homeless pop
welfare pop
overall pop
white
39%
39%
64%
New Afrikan
42%
40%
13%
Latin@
13%
16%
15%
First Nation
4%
2%
1%
Asian
2%
3%
6%
We would put the homeless squarely into the lumpen category, although
some of these people are only homeless temporarily and have a support
structure that will enable them to move back into the labor aristocracy
relatively quickly. Further, many of the homeless will also be on some
form of public assistance and are unemployed, therefore groups can not
be summed up without double counting a lot of people.
Conclusions
The table below sums up the conservative estimates we have made with
regard to who constitutes the lumpen within U.$. borders. Our best total
estimate for New Afrikans and Raza comes from the sum of the people
identified based on family income and those actively in prison or jail.
First Nations are calculated separately. All other methods of
calculation are going to double count people we identified by family
income and so can not be added to our totals.
Non-Bourgeois Populations by National Groupings
% Lumpen
# Lumpen
Semi-Proletariat
Non-Bourgeois Classes
New Afrikan
20%
8,160,000
0
8,160,000
Latin@
5%
2,620,000
8,500,000
11,120,000
First Nations
30%
700,000
0
700,000
Total
-
11,480,000
8,500,000
19,980,000
We conclude that conservatively we can count 20-25% of the New Afrikan
nation as part of the lumpen. Among Raza we calculate between 15-20% as
part of the lumpen or migrant proletarian.
To separate out the lumpen from the migrant proletariat among Raza we
need to look at the number of migrant Raza in the United $tates. A Pew
Hispanic Center 2005 report estimated 11.5 to 12 million total “illegal
immigrants,” 56% from Mexico, and 22% from other Latin American
countries. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2009 estimated
10.7 million “illegal immigrants,” 62% from Mexico, and at least 15%
from other Latin American countries. These numbers give us an estimate
of between 8 and 9 million Latin American migrants in the United $tates.
If the census accurately counts Latin American migrants, 17% of this
population (based on 8,500,000 migrants) is not in the U.$. legally and
most of that group would be migrant proletariat. That leaves a rather
small group of lumpen. We can probably assume, however, that the census
undercounts migrant workers because of both the transitory nature of the
population and the fear around filling out government paperwork. Based
on this reasonable assumption, we can perhaps estimate that the lumpen
population among Raza is between 5-10% of the total population.
Given the volatility of the people who are still young and are excluded
from the system economically and along national lines, the imperialists
have no interest in an expanding lumpen class. And the only internal
contradiction that would force an expanding lumpen class in the
imperialist countries is extreme economic crisis.
As a baseline we can say conservatively that around 2010 the lumpen
class represented about 20% of New Afrika, 5% of Raza and 30% of First
Nations. This population represents about 4% of the overall population
of the United $tates, and there is no strong evidence of the First World
lumpen increasing in a significant way in recent years.
One example MIM had cited in support of the Panther theory of an
expanding lumpen due to mechanization was the skyrocketing prison
population centered around the 1990s, but spanning the time between the
demise of the Panthers and today. While the numbers are staggering, this
is still a tiny proportion of the oppressed nations. And rather than
being the product of shifting economic conditions, we argue that they
are primally a product of the open conflict between the white nation and
oppressed nations in the United $tates via the white power structure of
the state.
The police and prisons were the white nation’s stick and the economic
opportunities and integration were the carrot presented to the oppressed
immediately following the strong liberation movements of the 1960s/70s.
Therefore, if we see oppressed nation prison populations shift into a
downward trend, that would support the idea that the carrot is
increasing in effectiveness in integrating them into Amerika.
The flip side of that is as long as oppressed nation prisoners keep
increasing, we have strong evidence of an antagonistic contradiction
along the lines of nation in the United $tates. Of course we have seen
the trend level off a bit in recent years, ironically, largely in
response to economic crisis. But it is too soon to say what that means.
“We seldom, if ever, think of ourselves as among those petty-bourgeois
forces in need of committing ‘class suicide’ - but We must remember
where We are. Here in the seat of empire, even the ‘slaves’ are
‘petty-bourgeois,’ and our poverty is not what it would be if We didn’t
in a thousand ways also benefit from the spoils of the exploitation of
peoples throughout the world. Our passivity wouldn’t be what it is if
not for our thinking that We have something to lose.” - James Yaki
Sayles,
Meditations
on Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth, p. 188
I believe this quote may be of some interest to you in your development
of the First World Lumpen (FWL). I believe this applies more to the
Euro-Amerikkan than to the nationless New Afrikan who falls into the
class lumpenproletariat (LP) by default of lacking a class society of
its own.
I am aware that the New Afrikan lumpenproletariat (NAL) is more
privileged than the Third World lumpenproletariat (TWL). But not
privileged enough to make it reactionary. The LP of Amerikkka is
majority New Afrikan - or an oppressed nation, which changes the quality
of the question. So it is not just a LP, but LP of an oppressed nation.
This qualitative leap in the discussion pushes us to do a through
theoretical analysis on the LP from all sides of the question.
The contradiction may look like this: First World lumpen and New Afrikan
lumpen.
Then it can be stated as this: Euro Amerikan FWL and New Afrikan FWL
Then Euro-Amerikan FWL must be understood to be reactionary as it is
majority white nationalist (racist). They consist of oppressor nation
background.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We have a lot of unity with this comrade
on assessing the national contradiction between oppressed and oppressor
nation lumpen. As we get into in the Lumpen Class Analysis article in
ULK 51, we make a distinction between the lumpenproletariat and
the First World lumpen that gets at this comparison between the NAL and
TWL the writer points out. We find the lumpenproletariat in countries
where there is a sizable proletariat, while the First World lumpen
exists in First World countries where there is almost no proletariat to
speak of, and this later group benefits from living in an imperialist
country.
Further, we agree that there is an important overlap between class and
nation when it comes to the lumpen. The national privilege of the
oppressor nation makes it unlikely that the lumpen from that nation will
be revolutionary, while national oppression puts the lumpen from
oppressed nations more likely to be on the side of the world’s
oppressed. In fact, we believe that the class privilege enjoyed by the
oppressor nations extends to encompass any potential white nation lumpen
to the extent that they can effectively be considered part of the petty
bourgeois class from the perspective of class consciousness. And so when
we talk about First World lumpen, we are usually looking at oppressed
nation lumpen only.
In response to the May 2013 article
Rats
Undermine United Front Unity, as a brother of the struggle,
originally from Texas, I send mine to all you brothers and sisters back
home.
As leaders, we have to be serious about our roles in the movement,
accepting responsibility for any personal miscalculation made while
representing our units, party, cell, etc.
Period. No cut on it.
Communication is key when organizing the lumpen to unite. And most times
having a safe and secure line of communication can be just as important,
if not more important, than what is actually being said. Because what is
a line of communication if it is always being disturbed, interfered and
disrupted? I don’t know, but it isn’t effective communication I tell you
that.
So often we hear prisoners commenting on how great the power of snitches
and provocateurs are, and it bothers me that we are able to concentrate
so much energy on them instead of on the tactics of countering their
elementary crosses, and their state.
Sometimes we revolutionaries have to accept the consequences of our
miscalculation so that we can learn an experience that allows us to
identify the signs of the problem when it approaches again, instead of
being so quick to place blame or responsibility on another person.
I personally was caught slipping while in the possession of a wire
regarding economical development involving a select few. The flashlight
turtles ran up at an unexpected time to my assigned quarters. With the
choice of catching a narcotics possession/distribution charge or
dropping my line in order to dispose, I took the latter option and
became guilty of losing an important wire. I didn’t agree with the
charge by my peers or the penalty, but I did take responsibility for the
wire being lost. It is very likely that someone very close to me set the
authorities to get with my program, but the point is it was my
responsibility to safe guard the wire. I lost a lot due to one
miscalculation - like a comrade at arms on the battlefield - from great
allies who can never again support my campaigns, to resources of a
collective committee with it’s tentacles reaching into places all across
the seas. But on the other hand I learned that the ability to secure and
stabilize a line of communication with very important factions behind
the wire from state to state is very powerful. But for most it’s a
learned ability.
I suggest to all comrades that we learn to say who did it less, and
practice doing it more. Securing and stabilizing lines of communication
is a great place to start.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We’ve written extensively about the importance
of
secure
communications both behind the bars and on the streets. This is a
critical element of self-defense for the revolutionary movement. As the
state expands it’s tactics of infiltration and information gathering, we
must expand our defenses.
I want to comment on your article
“Soulja
Boy Dissed by Amerikan Rappers,” featured in ULK22. Personally it is
a grave disappointment to witness what hip hop has morphed into. We went
from “Fuck da Police” and “Don’t Believe da Hype” to “A Milli” and “Arab
Money.” Ironically the vast majority of the people that these modern day
braggarts grew up around don’t even have U.S. middle-class money, let
alone “Arab Money.”
Modern day hip hop artists seem unable and/or unwilling to move beyond
this brag-about-my-wealth style of rap. Of course there’s exceptions to
this but in general there’s no longer any social consciousness or depth
to the lyrics of these mainstream hip hop artists. I’m no hater and I
love to see people prosper and enjoy life but an album has to go beyond
an artist detailing his or her good fortunes, to really have merit.
But pertaining specifically to the article, is it any real surprise that
these artists ostracize an associate for something as simple as speaking
his mind? The one main thing that the Black nation has been consistently
good at throughout the years is attacking one another and embracing
division, internal division.
Additionally all, or most of, the major hip hop artists are personally
benefiting from the current system and establishment so naturally they
stay in tune with it. They don’t care that the overwhelming majority of
people who look like them have been systematically discriminated against
and oppressed from the very origin of this racist and corrupt country.
The Hollywood set of the Black nation, which most of these hip hop
artists integrate to, would sell their mothers and sisters for the
crumbs their “massa” throws to them.
In part it goes all the way back to their forefather’s house, which is
Uncle Tom’s cabin. A place where anybody who opposes “massa” is the
enemy. And these descendants of Uncle Tom are the same today, they will
go the extra mile, extra 1,000 miles, to protect their imperialists
masters’ interests; chiefly because they perceive some sort of shared
interests and maybe even camaraderie.
Many people, even some in the underprivileged class, accept and embrace
the glaring inconsistencies and contradictions which permeates U.$.
society. They willfully embrace the lie that the establishment means
good for them and the rest of the world, and when they’re being pacified
with their “Arab-Money” there’s little chance they’ll think any
different.
MIM(Prisons) responds: While we share this comrade’s dismay at
the current state of politics from major hip hop artists, we don’t see
them as quite so isolated in their benefits from the current system.
While the New Afrikan nation certainly faces ongoing national oppression
within U.$. borders, they also enjoy the wealth of an imperialist
country and can see that they are better off than the majority of the
world’s people. The vast majority of U.$. citizens, regardless of
nation, are earning more than the value of their labor and are part of
the labor aristocracy. So in a way, hip hop artists who speak about
their good fortune, do represent something real to their audience, even
if their level of wealth is unattainable for most of their listeners.
And the shared interests with the imperialists are real: the wealth of
the labor aristocracy is won from the exploitation of the Third World.
The newspaper of the bourgeois nationalist Nation of Islam, The
Final Call, recently ran an article titled, “Powerless Majority?
State of the Dream 2012 says non-Whites will still suffer as largest
U.S. group.” (1)
The article was an overview of the annual report written by United for a
Fair Economy, a Boston-based economic think tank, which does a yearly
assessment of progress on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of justice
and equality since Dr. King was assassinated by the imperialists.
The 2012 report, the ninth such report, analyzes 30 years of public
policy on the “racial” [national - BORO] divide and how it impacted
economics, poverty, education, home ownership, healthcare and
incarceration. The conclusion: although oppressed semi-colonies will be
the population majority by 2042, they will also be the poorest, least
educated, most unemployed and most incarcerated, with at least five
million New Afrikans being held kaptive in state and federal prisons.
BORO does not find it strange that such a bleak future is being
predicted for oppressed nations under the current system, especially the
projected incarceration figures considering the fact that in 2012 there
are more New Afrikans in prisyn than were in slavery in 1850.(2)
In the conclusion of the “Dream” article, one of the co-authors of the
Dream report is quoted as saying, “we have a nation that has a history
of ‘racial inequality’ [national oppression - BORO] and white supremacy,
all the things that have been put in place 50 years ago, 100 years ago,
are still together, intact. If you break down all these institutional
structures and start looking at things in a different way, we’ll
continue talking about disparities because we’re not fighting the real
thing.”(1)
The dreamer is correct that it is the “structures” of this system that
are hindering oppressed nations from self-determination and national
development. Yet he/she failed to identify the capitalist-imperialist
system as the “real thing” that is the impediment to national
independence and how we were to fight it. As a result, he/she implies
that we can reform the system and do not need revolution to put an end
to imperialism.
Amerikkkan Nightmare
Malcolm X once said that for New Afrikans (and other oppressed nations),
the Amerikan dream was nothing but an Amerikan nightmare. Not much has
changed to alter the validity of that statement.
If oppressed nations are to defeat imperialism and attain
self-determination and national independence, they must come to
understand, in a more scientific way, that the political structure and
social institutions which make up the superstructure of society have to
be understood in relation to the underlying economic base (substructure)
and to all of the contradictions within the economic base.
Why? Because it is the capitalist-imperialist economic system that gives
rise to the contradictions we call poverty, mass incarceration,
homelessness, unemployment, etc. in this society. The resolution of the
former, will be the beginning of the resolution of the latter. That is
why we stress that we must build institutions of the oppressed to
address these contradictions and prepare for a new society. But as we
say in the hood and barrio, “don’t nothing come to a sleeper, but a
dream!”
Wake Up
What the State of the Dream report did accomplish, was to provide
the poor and oppressed with an outlook of how their future is being
predicted based on concrete analysis of concrete conditions. The other
is that either the imperialists are unwilling or do not have the power
or capability of solving the problems we face. Thus, they are unfit to
be in positions of power and influence over the people.
Conversely,
“… every struggle that we engage in must have the dual purpose of
undermining U.S. power, and of transferring that power to the people. We
must gradually dismantle the oppressive state apparatus, and begin to
build a new people’s state apparatus, creating its embryonic structures
in our communities, as we build people’s organizations and institutions
that end the violence, house the homeless, heal the sick and educate and
train our people for their responsibilities in a new society. Each time
the people themselves create and develop an idea, build an organization,
solve a problem, we show through practice that we can create new
structures, and new ways, that satisfy our needs. Otherwise, our needs
will go unsatisfied.”(3)
Justice and equality in imperialist Amerikkka?? Dream on!!!