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So who wants to read Huey P Newton with me? Jk you have no choice I already wrote the thread. 🧵 viewpointmag.com/2018/06/11/intercommunalism-1974/Permalink On twitter.com
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Intercommunalism is a compilation of Newton's speeches and writings in the early 70s, describing the Black Panther Party's shift away from Black nationalism and Black separatism towards a communist ideology that is notably distinct from Marxism, Leninism, or MaoismPermalink On twitter.com
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The text starts by asking why the United States, a country founded on the right for all people to overthrow oppressive governments in acts of self-determination, spends more money than any other country in human history on global counterinsurgency.Permalink On twitter.com
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Newton argues that, because a few corporations control most global industry, and because a small group of investors control most corporations, the US since World War II has been an elaborate project in maintaining the system this small group of people, or class, benefits fromPermalink On twitter.com
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This corporate alliance, while based in the United States, forces every nation on Earth to bend to its will. International progressive and socialist parties, like the Labour Party in the UK, are forced to abandon reformist projects once actually in power.Permalink On twitter.com
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The ruling class has disagreements, but those disagreements are always within certain parameters that are ultimately beneficial to them. They decide what policies are "realistic" or notPermalink On twitter.com
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The ruling class ideology has one simple goal: to expand American hegemony and markets to every corner of the globe by all means, included (especially) military force. The few places that have had revolutions to slow this process are vilified and tampered with.Permalink On twitter.com
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The ruling class argues that expanding American markets is basically charity for poor countries. However, Newton demonstrates that mathematically, America always extracts more in value from poor countries than it givesPermalink On twitter.com
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The Black Panther Party used to be Black nationalists and Black separatists. Their initial project was to build a proletarian state composed of Black people, mirroring post-colonial states in Sub-Saharan AfricaPermalink On twitter.com
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But through the process of dialectical materialism, they came to the conclusion that "nationalism" doesn't make sense in a world where countries don't exist.Permalink On twitter.com
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To Newton, America has become the world's first global empire. The US doesn't have borders, really. Instead, there are communities. "Decolonization" is impossible because it's impossible to exist outside of the global American empireOn twitter.com
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He calls this situation intercommunalism. Rather than the DotP -> socialism -> communism phases proposed by Marxist-Leninists, Newton argues the progression is now empire/reactionary intercommunalism -> revolutionary intercommunalism -> communism/anarchyPermalink On twitter.com
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The BPP in practice no longer had a political line. Instead, it saw its role to support all movements that want to seize and expropriate wealth and the means of production, and to raise class consciousness.Permalink On twitter.com
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Finally, he argued that technology will create a small middle class with access to some wealth and decent jobs, with a larger base of "unemployable" people who don't have the education to make or run the complicated technology.Permalink On twitter.com
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Therefore, in a departure from Lenin, communists should organize with the lumpenproletariat, as they will become a larger class than people with actual long-term sit-down union jobs. In the US, lumpen are mostly Black people, making Blacks the vanguard of the global revolutionPermalink On twitter.com
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Black people are only the vanguard because they radicalize first. They can't actually win without working with and supporting other struggles domestically and abroad.Permalink On twitter.com
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I've always said you don't necessarily need to read to get involved in organizing or just be a socialist. But if you're going to lead an org, or talk about Black separatism to a large audience, you absolutely have to read first.Permalink On twitter.com