MARXISM AND NATIONALISM IN AFROAMERICA: INTRODUCTION: A NOTE ON BLACK INTELLECTUALS

• Published in: Social theory and practice 1971-10, Vol.1 (4), p.1-39
• Main Author: Reed, Adolph L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African American culture; African Americans; Black nationalism; Black people; Black power; Black/Blacks; Bourgeois; Economic theory; Marxian economics; Nationalism; Politics; Relations, race/Relations, racial (see also Race); Socialism; United States/US
• ISSN: 0037-802X; 2154-123X

An extensive critical treatment of the position of blacks in the US as a colonized nationality, from a black nat'list as well as Marxist point of view. A synthesis of Marxist & nat'list theory is considered necessary as it pertains to an overall methodology of the Afro-Amer radical movement. The responsibility of black intellectuals & academics to work toward such a synthesis is pointed out. Among the aspects dealt with are: Garveyite nat'lism; the ideology of the white Left; contemporary black radicalism & nat'lism in the US; black Power; the Nation of Islam as the oldest of the present black nat'list factions; the Republic of New Africa, an org based in Detroit & led by Milton Henry & Robert Williams; Neo-Pan-Africanism; African Socialism; & generalized black Power. It is found that, on the whole, the black Power nat'list movement is a nonrevolutionary movement whose ultimate goal is an Afro-Amer type of domestic neo-colonialism by which black people would be allowed pol'al control over their community instit's & would have somewhat augmented econ interests of both a group & an individual nature. It is a movement that is nat'list within a broader framework of coexistence in the Anglo-Amer state. However, the programs of all major Afro-Amer nat'list movements are largely unsystematic & show a general lack of serious theoretical construction. Marxist revolutionary theory is then applied to black nat'lism in an effort to delineate an Afro-Amer model. Among the aspects dealt with are: the creation of black econ power, the creation of a black industr society, acquisition of a sovereign Afro-Amer territory (by seizure if necessary), US cultural imperialism, the need for Afro-Amer separatism & ultimately for revolution, orientation toward cooperativist & collectivist activity, & the development of a comprehensive, revolutionary pol'al econ & cultural ideology & praxis. M. Maxfield.