A recent article titled, \u201cTo Kill Comrade Rashid is to Kill a Movement in Development,\u201d was penned by Comrade Shaka Sankofa Zulu. Let us hope that what his title suggests isn\u2019t true, in that if indeed I were soon to die, hopefully we have set out enough of an organizational and strategic blueprint, and philosophical foundation, for others to continue this work.<\/p>\n
It is true that since Comrade Shaka and I co-founded the New Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter in 2005 things have developed in ways unforeseen by us. But for me, oppression was expected. In fact, it\u2019s something I\u2019d endured long <\/em>before becoming part of any formal organization. And I knew that this repression would come not<\/em> so much in response to what we called ourselves<\/em> as what we did<\/em>. When we based ourselves upon a line of advancing the course of empowering the oppressed and despised, this put us in diametrical opposition to the ruling class interests of this imperialist empire. If we were serious about practicing what we proclaimed in this regard, then that practice would be at odds with those same powerful class forces. And as Comrade George Jackson once observed, \u201cPower reacts to all threats!\u201d<\/p>\n Everywhere I\u2019ve been imprisoned since the birth of the NABPP, I\u2019ve set to work educating and organizing prisoners, struggling to unite and develop them into revolutionary cadre and proletarian leaders\u2014an advanced guard in the struggle of the oppressed to overthrow their oppressors. Alongside this work, I\u2019ve looked to outside alliances to build bases of support in society, to unite the inside\/outside movement, and to shed the antiseptic light of public exposure into the dark workings of the imperialist Prison Industrial Complex.<\/p>\n And in each instance, officials have reacted by bouncing me from unit to unit, prison to prison, and state to state. From one oppressive extreme to another, with the intent of disrupting and discouraging this work. I\u2019ve been met with their physical violence, medical neglect, withholding and destruction of my belongings, efforts to cut my communication lines, threats of violence and death, attempts to provoke division and violence between me and other prisoners, efforts to bait me to react in ways that will \u201cjustify\u201d lethal violence from them, and so on. All to no avail. This work continues…because the struggle continues.<\/p>\n What they fail to grasp is that we march to the tempo of a different drum than the one they beat. A drum whose rhythm and voice, like those of the Afrikan tribes from which our ancestors were robbed, speaks with the voice of the people. A drum whose sound resonates deep in one\u2019s soul, playing out rhythms of what Comrade Fred Hampton, Sr. called, \u201cThe People\u2019s Beat.\u201d A beat that never stops! Because it is the very rhythm of life, love, community, and in times of struggle reaches a staccato pitch that enlivens the masses to rise up and shatter the forces that bind them.<\/p>\n It is a beat whose highest form has taken on the philosophical line of mass based revolution, embodied in the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.<\/p>\n Comrade Shaka urges me in his article to not be discouraged by this repression or the pigs\u2019 threats of death and acts of violence. When I read his words, I was immediately reminded of the reply of P\u2019eng Te-Huai, one of the great military leaders of China\u2019s revolutionary civil war, to a colleague of capitalist turncoat Nikita Khrushchev (the architect of anti-Stalin lies and slander that have come to since \u201cdefine\u201d Stalin and so-called \u201cStalinism\u201d throughout the west). ((For an important and thoroughly documented counter to Cold War era attacks on Stalin\u2019s political work and leadership, see Grover Furr, Khrushchev Lied: The Evidence that Every \u201cRevelation\u201d of Stalin\u2019s (And Beria\u2019s) \u201cCrimes\u201d in Nikita Khrushchev\u2019s Infamous \u201cSecret Speech\u201d to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956, is Probably False<\/em> (Erythros Press: Kettering, OH, 2011); Grover Furr, \u201cStalin and the Struggle for Democratic Reform, \u201c (two parts) in Cultural Logic<\/em> (2005). At http:\/\/clogic.eserver.org\/2005\/furr.html<\/a> and http:\/\/clogic.eserver.org\/2005\/furr2.html<\/a>. )) The exchange went thusly:<\/p>\n When Soviet leader Anastos Mikoian led the CPSU delegation to China to attend the CCP\u2019s 8th Congress in 1956, P\u2019eng asked him face to face why it was only now [after Stalin\u2019s death] that the Soviet party was criticizing Stalin. Mikoian apparently replied: \u2018We did not dare advance out opinion at that time. To have done so would have meant death.\u2019 To which P\u2019eng retorted: \u2018What kind of a Communist is it who fears death?\u2019 ((Ibid, at p. 23, quoting Roderick Macfarquhar, The Origins of the Cultural Revolution<\/em>, Vol. 2 (New York: Columbia University Press 1983, p. 194.))<\/p>\n But the claim itself has been proven untrue. ((See footnote 1.))<\/p>\n As Comrade Shaka points out, we as New Afrikan Panthers are devoted Communists, which, like Comrade George we put proud emphasis on: \u201cWe are Communists not communalists.\u201d Which makes us servants of the working class and all oppressed peoples even unto death. And we\/I are willing\u2014as exemplified in the words and work of Comrade Hasan Shakur who was assassinated in 2006 by the very state of Texas that now holds my body\u2014\u201cto not only die for the people but to live for them as well, for that is the real challenge!\u201d<\/p>\n The masses of people are our source of life and work. And it is to them that we must look as our greatest line of defense, while educating and organizing them to this end, and ultimately to seize and exercise power in their own interests, and also to defend that power. This as Comrade Shaka points out is the revolution we are struggling to organize. In the process of doing this we must certainly build walls of protection around our leaders.<\/p>\n Dare to Struggle Dare to Win! A recent article titled, \u201cTo Kill Comrade Rashid is to Kill a Movement in Development,\u201d was penned by Comrade Shaka Sankofa Zulu. Let us hope that what his title suggests isn\u2019t true, in that if indeed I were soon to die, hopefully we have set out enough of an organizational …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-party-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1020,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions\/1020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Beat Goes On!<\/h3>\n
What Sort of Panther Fears Death?<\/h3>\n
The People\u2014Our Greatest Line of Defense<\/h3>\n
\nAll Power to the People!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"