Africa World Now Project

Pt. III - Poetics of Revolution: Autonomy, Land, Visions of Freedom & the Kurdish Freedom struggle [a discussion of 1979 struggle] Thank you for listening to Terrains of Struggle: continuities in freedom dreams [a mini radio documentary] that was designed to explore possibilities; radical possibilities and how they become material. How they become alive [brought to life] through resistance – rooted in the assertion of a people’s collective humanity. And how this process is transmitted in time [history] and across space [geographies]. More importantly, we were interested in what can they tell us about ourselves, each other and our relationship with land as a fundamental component of freedom; what are the continuities in conceptualizations of autonomy; and the role of culture in struggle. We hope something was shared that will inspire you to think critically. And act accordingly. To build a global commons of struggle, where we move beyond symbolic solidarity, to material exchange! Until we meet again … In struggle!

Pt. II - A luta continua, vitória é certa: Conceptions of Autonomy, the Black Panthers & Zapatista Check out Pt. III. Thank you for listening to Terrains of Struggle: continuities in freedom dreams [a mini radio documentary] that was designed to explore possibilities; radical possibilities and how they become material. How they become alive [brought to life] through resistance – rooted in the assertion of a people’s collective humanity. And how this process is transmitted in time [history] and across space [geographies]. More importantly, we were interested in what can they tell us about ourselves, each other and our relationship with land as a fundamental component of freedom; what are the continuities in conceptualizations of autonomy; and the role of culture in struggle. We hope something was shared that will inspire you to think critically. And act accordingly. To build a global commons of struggle, where we move beyond symbolic solidarity, to material exchange! Until we meet again … In struggle!

Part I - Radical Considerations & Revolutionary Possibilities: Towards a Black University in the 21st century Check out Pt. II. Thank you for listening to Terrains of Struggle: continuities in freedom dreams [a mini radio documentary] that was designed to explore possibilities; radical possibilities and how they become material. How they become alive [brought to life] through resistance – rooted in the assertion of a people’s collective humanity. And how this process is transmitted in time [history] and across space [geographies]. More importantly, we were interested in what can they tell us about ourselves, each other and our relationship with land as a fundamental component of freedom; what are the continuities in conceptualizations of autonomy; and the role of culture in struggle. We hope something was shared that will inspire you to think critically. And act accordingly. To build a global commons of struggle, where we move beyond symbolic solidarity, to material exchange! Until we meet again … In struggle!

Kamau Rashid writing in Jacob H. Carruthers and the African-Centered Discourse on Knowledge, Worldview, and Power posits that “whether we are interrogating the conceptual imperatives of the state or capital, the mandates of school curriculum, or even the policy directives of white supremacy and the worldview orientations that it seeks to impose, we are still speaking of knowledge, its social construction, and the broader social milieu in which it occurs.” Accordingly, “when considered from the state's perspective education must inevitably entail notions of legitimate knowledge. However, what is hidden within the language of legitimacy is the political-economy of hegemony. The notion of "legitimate knowledge" is merely a ruse. It is a means of controlling the conversation about the process of formal socialization-which is schooling. Schooling in the United States is a process that does not typically privilege critical thought and action, but instead encourages conformity to hegemony, rewards apathy to the status quo, and punishes agency with regards to radical social change.” “When the state concerns itself with "legitimate knowledge" it is not a departure from the historical processes that have established the supremacy of the West or the dominance of capital. This knowledge is of necessity a discourse interested in maintenance of the existing power relations. It seeks, as Blyden has asserted, to establish a most pernicious system of domination. It is the “slavery of the mind” which “is far more destructive than that of the body” (Carruthers 1999, 253).” The structures of knowledge, that is dominant notions of knowledge birthed in the catacombs of imperial logic, are the foundational networks that weave together categories of thought that are derived from narrow expressions of power. Narrow in that most of the dominant frames that are forced upon those intent to understand the realities that make up their material conditions are consistently trapped within contradictions. Next, we listen to Josh Myers in conversation with a study collective at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he expands and explores a few of the ideas offered in his recent work: Of Black Study. Also, in the discussion are: Rémy-Paulin Twahirwa, Research Student, Department of Sociology, convenor of the Of Black Study Reading Group, London School of Economics and Political Science; and Dr. Mahvish Ahmad, Assistant Professor in Human Rights and Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science who is the moderator/chair of the discussion. In addition to being a member of the Africa World Now Project collective, Josh Myers is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies in the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. He is the author of Black Study [2022]; We Are Worth Fighting For: A History of the Howard University Student Protest of 1989 (NYU Press, 2019); Cedric Robinson: The Time of the Black Radical Tradition (Polity, 2021) and the soon to be released Holy Ghost Key (Broadside Lotus Press, due February 2024, as well as the editor of A Gathering Together Literary Journal. His research interests include Africana intellectual histories and traditions, Africana philosophy, musics, and foodways as well as critical university studies, and disciplinarity. As always, our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana, Ayiti, and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples! Image: LSE Of Black Study Reading Group Music: Sango & Lakim Edit) - Lady The Supplicants - Peace & Strength J Dilla - Spacey

We are in conversation with Frank Chapman, organizer & movement architect. The anchoring poles in this conversation revolve around the formation of National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, movement intellectuals and their development and the importance of struggle. What you will hear over the next hour are the words, ideas, reflections, and meditations by one of our important freedom fighters! Frank Chapman is a former political prisoner, long-time organizer, radical movement architect and former member of the Communist Party. He is the educational director and field secretary at the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) and a leader in the campaign for an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) and member of the Freedom Road Socialist Party. The range and scope, the breadth and depth of this conversation provides enough context that my normal introduction is not needed [at least at the moment]. Be sure to tap into the work of the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression and their upcoming conference details available at: https://conference.naarpr.org/ **Note the upcoming conference: https://conference.naarpr.org/** Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana, Ayiti, and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples! Listen intently. Think critically. Act accordingly …! Music: Skipp Coon - Miles Garvey - 02 blacker Jay Electronica - Exhibit B [Ft. Yasiin Bey] Dilla - Spacey Image: Brad Sigal

Clip from recent conversation .... full conversation coming soon!

In, The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the U.S., James posit that it is Black workers and the Black working-class that was central and unique in the fight against capitalism. Specifically, James outlined the following: We say, number 1, that the Negro struggle, the independent Negro struggle, has a vitality and a validity of its own; that it has deep historic roots in the past of America and in present struggles; it has an organic political perspective, along which it is traveling, to one degree or another, and everything shows that at the present time it is traveling with great speed and vigor. We say, number 2, that this independent Negro movement is able to intervene with terrific force upon the general social and political life of the nation, despite the fact that it is waged under the banner of democratic rights. We say, number 3, and this is the most important, that it is able to exercise a powerful influence upon the revolutionary proletariat, that it has got a great contribution to make to the development of the proletariat in the United States. James also argued for independent Black movements against capitalism because Black workers would be subject to special prejudices generated by the bourgeoisie against them. Here, James tackled in depth one of the most important challenges for building an interracial working-class movement, namely the role of white workers. In his 1945 essay “White Workers’ Prejudices,” written three years before “Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem,” James explained that white workers would always be vulnerable to absorbing racial prejudices against Black workers because capitalism was built out of slavery, segregation of the races and racial hierarchy which shaped the society as a whole, especially the workplace. W.E.B. Du Bois in Black Reconstruction, offers a supporting contribution as he presents the racial “bribe” of white privilege as the “wages of whiteness.” He argued that after the Civil War, southern plantation owners sought to implant racism in the minds of white workers to prevent them from unifying. What we will hear next, in contribution to the tradition partially laid out above, is a critical intervention in the dominant conversation on the current strike. Organized by Communiversity South, this intervention is focusing on Black Workers and the UAW strike: centering the long genealogy of the work of Black worker organizing in auto industry. The conversation included: Nsea Brenda Stokely, longtime activist, Former President, AFSCME DC 1707; N.E. Regional Coordinator, Million Worker March Movement. Clarence Thomas (a.k.a. The Real Clarence Thomas) is a 3rd generation retired member of International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 in San Francisco and a leading radical African American trade unionist. Past-secretary-treasurer and executive board member of his local. He is author of, Mobilizing in Our Own Name: Million Worker March. Willie Brown, City of Durham public works; worker and member of UE150. Robin DG Kelley, Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA, active-intellectual; and Board member, Communiversity South. The conversation was moderated by Menelik Van Der Meer, longtime activist, Chair of the Board of Communiversity South, Senior Lecturer in Africana Studies at UMass- Boston. Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana, Ayiti, and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples! Listen intently. Think critically. Act accordingly …!

Support Now ...: ****https://www.historymatters.online/save-mres-campaign**** Walter Rodney once wrote in African History in the Service of the Black Liberation, that “African history must be seen as very intimately linked to the contemporary struggle of black people. One must not set up any false distinctions between reflection and action. We are just another facet of the ongoing revolution. This is not theory. It is a fact that black people everywhere, in Africa and in the Western world, are already on the march. So nobody who wants to be relevant to that situation can afford to withdraw and decide that he is engaging in what is essentially an intellectual exercise. The African historian, to me, is essentially involved in a process of mobilization, just like any other individual within the society who says, "I'm for black power. I'm going to talk about the way the blacks live down in the South," etc. That's a facet of mobilization. The African historian is also involved in that mobilization …” It is in this tradition that Professor Hakim Adi has dedicated his praxis. It is also because of this principled position to dedicate his efforts to this tradition that he, along with his students, the Masters by Research (MRes), History of Africa and the African Diaspora has been suspended as well as he has been sacked by the University of Chichester. Of the various claims by the university, one standard, even in the U.S. is a claim of redundancy. Nevertheless, it must be noted that no comparable course is offered by this or any other university in the UK. Let’s be clear. These tactics are transnational. The conditions on the ground differ, but the objective is the same … to intentionally stop any opportunity to help develop another cadre of radical intellectual-workers, to stop the development of Amilcar Cabrals, Anna Julia Cooper, Steve Bikos, Claudia Jones … the various attempts at intellectual colonialism we are witnessing are neither new, nor are they relegated or confined to borders. Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro-Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana, Ayiti, and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples! Listen intently. Think critically. Act accordingly. Enjoy the program!

Dr. Hendricks writes in The Life of Madie Hall Xuma: Black Women’s Global Activism During Jim Crow & Apartheid that “when the Society for the Study of Afro-American History in Winston Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina, issued a call in June 1994 for community assistance with research and memorabilia for a 1995 historical calendar on Black women “who made distinctive contributions to the community between the early 1900s through 1959.” Madie Beatrice Hall Xuma made the list of an impressive group of women. Nearly a decade later, her name also appeared in the Wilson (NC) Daily Times as an educational tool for kindergarten through eighth grade students in a section called “Mind Designs.” Professor Hendricks goes on to contextualize Mrs. Madie, writing that “Hall Xuma had been propelled onto a global stage in South Africa in 1940 and by 1954 had made such an impact in the country that a representative of the Department of Bantu Education referred to her as “the mother of Africa.” Her presence in South Africa, “he insisted, “has meant a new day for our dark-skinned fellow-men of Africa,” and he declared, “Her name will not be forgotten in the annals of our day.” Indeed, more than sixty years later, South Africans still revered her. The Cape Town, South Africa, Weekend Argus contended in 2017, “If South Africa owes its constitutional democracy to the [African National Congress] and its heroic struggles, then the ANC owes its progressive outlook and gender sensibilities to a legion of its women cadres who, over the years, have weaved formidable foundational threads upon whose pivot this progressive culture is hinged.” These women were amongst the best minds that the country has ever nestled,” and “none of them suffered fools as they formidably held their own in a patriarchal and racist society.” Ultimately, they “could put any man to intellectual shame and in fact stand head and shoulders above most men.” Hall Xuma was the only Black American on the list that included an impressive array of South African women like Charlotte Maxeke, Sophie Mpama, Ruth First, Ruth Mompati, Bertha Gxowa, Ellen Kuzwayo, Lucy Mvubelo, Gertrude Shope, and Winnie Mandela. Hall Xuma, however, is virtually unknown to the general public, in part because she has been ignored in much of the historical literature, particularly by American scholars. South African scholars fare far better, but they have compartmentalized nearly every aspect of her life to such a degree that they have not been able to craft a broad conceptual framework that adequately demonstrates how centered she was in the historic issues facing the world during and after World War II and the pivotal role she played in the dynamic interplay between women’s groups globally after the war. Today, we present Professor Hendricks very important contribution to expanding our historical consciousness as we explore the Life of Madie Hall Xuma. Wanda A. Hendricks is a distinguished professor emerita of history at the University of South Carolina. Professor Hendricks has served as the National Director of the Association of Black Women Historians, and senior editor of the three-volume Black Women In America: Second Edition, published by Oxford University Press. She currently is an editor for the UIP’s Women, Gender, and Sexuality in American History series, and her other books include Gender, Race, and Politics in the Midwest: Black Club Women in Illinois and the first biography of Black activist and intellectual Fannie Barrier Williams titled, Fannie Barrier Williams: Crossing the Borders of Region and Race. Image: Part of the temporary exhibition, AMERICA’S VOICES AGAINST APARTHEID: Confronting Injustice at Home and Abroad via Apartheid Museum

The IWW was born in 1905. On January 2, 1905, several dozen people identifying as “industrial unionists” met in Chicago and issued a call to form a new labor union. That June several hundred people belonging to more than 40 unions and radical organizations returned to Chicago, where they founded the Industrial Workers of the World [Wobblies of the World: A Global History, 3]. On July 8, attendees adopted the now-legendary Preamble to the IWW’s Constitution, which boldly and famously declared: The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. Clearly, the IWW believed in class struggle and the need for a proletarian revolution to bring socialism to the world. However, unlike most socialists, the IWW did not privilege political means for achieving socialist ends. Rather, the IWW and other syndicalist organizations saw industrial unions, direct action on the job, and the climactic general strike as the logical and best ways to enact revolutionary change. Already in 1905, and even more so after 1908, this ideological distinction mattered a great deal [Wobblies of the World: A Global History, 3-4]. The question that comes to the fore today begs us to ask: is it time for this ideological difference to be reassessed for its efficacy? What are the categories of thought, assessed through practice over time and space, up until this point relevant to be included in our analysis that is necessary to redirect/realign current labor efforts to emancipate our labor power? The IWW, from its inception, committed itself to organizing all workers regardless of their ethnic, national, racial, or gender identities. The other major IWW effort to organize African Americans occurred on the Philadelphia waterfront where, for almost a decade, the IWW’s Marine Transport Workers Local 8 dominated one of the nation’s largest ports. Born out of a successful strike in 1913, Local 8 represented upwards of 5,000 dockworkers, among them the Wobblies’ most well-known African American, Ben Fletcher. A brilliant speaker and organizer, Fletcher, together with other Wobbly organizers—black and white, native-born and immigrant—forced employers to hire Local 8 members exclusively for nearly a decade. [Wobblies of the World: A Global History, 6-7]. Today, I speak with Peter Cole, where we contextualize and expand on the work of the IWW and the influence of Ben Fletcher. We weave together a tapestry of places, experiences, and movements that culminate into a lens through which we use to understand the life and influences of Ben Fletcher and the IWW. Peter Cole is a Professor of History at Western Illinois University and Research Associate in the Society, Work and Development Program at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the author of Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive Era Philadelphia; the award-winning Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area; [an editor of] Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW; and the recently re-released: Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly. Peter Cole is also the founder and co-director of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project (CRR19). And publishes widely on internationalism, labor, and race. Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana, Ayiti, and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples! Listen intently. Think critically. Act accordingly … Enjoy the program! Here is a collection of some of his writing: https://africasacountry.com/author/peter-cole https://www.newframe.com/writer/peter-cole/ https://inthesetimes.com/authors/peter-cole https://jacobin.com/author/peter-cole @ProfPeterCole