2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Frankly, I'm glad that BLM is confronting Bernie's campaign, and Bernie should be glad as well... [View all]AOR
(692 posts)surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and ALL OF IT boils down to one thing--capitalist social relations (power and who has it and why and what effect that power has on the AA community and how that power is enforced and by whom and against whom). The BLM movement organizing wise is good, the protests are good, the anger and marching against the injustice of police brutality and profiling of POC is certainly warranted. However...the demands leave much to be desired as they are bogged down in mass confusion, opportunism, and cognitive dissonance on the part of many in the movement. The defining discussion at this point in history is not being addressed. It's not being addressed from many in the movement and it's not being addressed in the political arena because the political arena is dominated by Capital and the ruling class. What effect do capitalist social relations have on the AA community and what's happening on the ground ? Is that question being addressed ? Who will it be addressed by ? Al Sharpton ? Barack Obama ? Oprah Winfrey ? Don Lemon ? Black ruling class millionaires ? Black millionaire athletes and musical icons ? Bullshit to anyone who would buy into such fucking nonsense. How many Black millionaires are being shot dead in the streets by the cops Scorpio ?
To call all white liberals/progressives white supremacists is beyond laughable and those of us who are leftists are never easy on liberal/progressive reformers. Some of the leaders of Black Lives Matter are calling out white liberals/progressives. That's fine as many leftists(of all colors) call out liberals/progressives for the failure to get the reforms of Capitalism they claim possible. Black leftists do it all the time. Black Agenda Report for one. That being said...how many in the Black Lives Matter movement are actual leftists calling out the Black professional class and the Black ruling class for their complicity in allowing capitalist social relations to continue to destroy poor and depressed AA communities ? Does the Black ruling class and the Black capitalist political leadership ever address this ? They do not. They view everything through the lens of the capitalist power structure and "what can be done to address institutionalized racism" within that power structure. Good luck with that. As if the disproportional imprisonment of poor and oppressed Blacks has nothing to do with the capitalist power structure and all its insidious tentacles including the "justice system." As if police brutality and the militarization of the police has nothing to do with defending the capitalist power structure.
Some of the leaders and founders of the movement claim to be leftists. Are they ? I think a few are from what I've seen. The rest - who are not - are rank hypocrites in calling out anyone for the failure to reach solutions while the capitalist power structure continues to exploit, oppress, and drive people into poverty and despair. Police brutality is a symptom, social injustice is a symptom, economic injustice is a symptom, incarceration for profit is a symptom ect... All are symptoms of a fatal illness that is the capitalist power structure and capitalist social relations. People can try and treat the symptoms but the illness will remain.
To paraphrase a Malcolm quote -- " You put a fox in the chicken coop and then are surprised when it kills the chickens"...The capitalist power structure is the fox Scorpio and the poor, the exploited, the oppressed, are the chickens. The destruction of the chickens will continue until the fox is gone and there is not a single "set of reformist demands" that will be implemented - with any real lasting effect - while that capitalist fox continues on the prowl. Not the demands of Black Lives Matter, not the demands of Bernie Sanders, not the demands of the working class and the exploited. It's time we face objective material reality. We are all fucking hypocrites until we get rid of that fox.