HAVE YOUR SAY: 02071930174
In his day the Eminent Prophet and King Omowale Malcolm X was known as “the angriest Black man in America.” (1) He was regarded as violent, hate-filled and extremist. As Baba Omowale’s widow, Mama Betty Shabazz reminded viewers on the Oprah Winfrey Show back in 1992, Malcolm X was only involved in one violent incident (his assassination) and he didn’t cause that. The hate element was pure projection on the part of white USA, as he masterfully explained:
“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
The extremist aspect is clearly relative, as highlighted in Malcolm X’s consideration of the characterisation of Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr:
“I’ll say nothing against him. At one time the whites in the United States called him a racialist, and extremist, and a Communist. Then the Black Muslims came along and the whites thanked the Lord for Martin Luther King.” (2)
In fact, the strategy of demonising those that advocate for liberation (or even equality for that matter) has been deployed from then until the present. This effort was taken to its limits in the 1960s by the FBI with COINTELPRO, the US government’s Counter Intelligence Programme. COINTELPRO was levied against the 1960s Black liberation movement, largely inspired by Omowale Malcolm X, that the government determined was “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.” (3) The 1967 words of the FBI Director J Edgar Hoover are worth quoting at some length:
“the purpose of this new counterintelligence endeavor is to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize [emphasis added] the activities of black nationalist hate-type organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership, and supporters… No opportunity should be missed to exploit through counterintelligence techniques the organizational and personal conflicts of the leaderships of the groups and where possible an effort should be made to capitalize upon existing conflicts between competing black nationalist organizations.” (4)
The stated goals of the programme were listed as:
“1. Prevent the COALITION of militant black nationalist groups. In unity there is strength… An effective coalition of black nationalist groups might be the first step toward a real “Mau Mau” [Black revolutionary army] in America, the beginning of a true black revolution.
2. Prevent the RISE OF A “MESSIAH” who could unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement…
3. Prevent VIOLENCE on the part of black nationalist groups..
4. Prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining RESPECTABILITY, by discrediting them to […separate] segments of the community. ” (5)
The resultant murders, instigated conflicts, incarcerations and “bad-jacketing” (spreading false rumours about specific individuals) routed the movement. Indeed, in addition to Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), the person tipped as most likely to become the “Black Messiah,” having to flee the USA due to being bad-jacketed as a CIA informer, the likes of Bunchy Carter, John Huggins, Mark Clark and Fred Hampton were murdered and Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt) and Assata Shakur locked up. (6) Although Assata managed to escape and Ji Jaga was eventually released (after 27 years), there are still plenty of activists still locked up including Ruchell “Cinque” Magee who has been behind bars for 54 years and counting. (7)
COINTELPRO ensured that no effective coalition of Black Nationalist organisations occurred then or since, nor did a “Black Messiah” ascend in the essence of Omowale Malcolm X.
The Black Movement began to be regarded as an historical curio, referenced in reflected documentaries like Eyes On The Prize and feature films like Panther (and even spoofed in movies like I’m Gonna Git You Sucka). That is until the early to mid-teens of this decade following the high profile state performed (and/or sanctioned) murders of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddy Gray, etc. when the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement rose up as a hashtag and a semblance of a movement, capturing the imagination of many.
However, it is clear from their own testimony that Black Lives Matter arguably seeks to neutralise the traditional (“narrow”) Black Nationalist movement of “love Black, live Black and buy Black…” and supplant it with their own agenda which is arguable rather less revolutionary. (8) Nevertheless BLM has been bad-jacketed by the USA authorities and supportive media as a terrorist organisation, which it certainly isn’t. (9)
But Black Lives Matters’ ability to shine a light on state sanctioned brutality and murder with impunity of Afrikan people did appear to have the capacity to galvanise young people, something of an antitheses to the body-politic of the USA establishment. Hence in Mosiah (Aug) 2017 the FBI produced a report proclaiming the existence of ‘Black Identity Extremists’ (BIE) and the likelihood that they will “target law enforcement officers.” The report uses a handful of disparate cases that it tries to stitch together in an effort to create an extremist black movement. (10)
The first high profile case of the FBI’s offensive against so-called BIE was the December 2017 arrest and detention of Rakem Balogun (Christopher Daniels) after two years of surveillance (community activism, protests, social media posts, etc.) Balogun himself asserts that the case “is a continuation of COINTELPRO in a modern-day form.” (11)
Many question the veracity of the FBI’s basis for this designation. A former senior counterterrorism and intelligence official from the Department of Homeland Security who reviewed the FBI document the request of foreignpolicy.com responded “This is a new umbrella designation that has no basis. There are civil rights and privacy issues all over this.” (12)
Some commentators affirm that no such movement exists, and expressed concern that the term is part of a politically motivated effort to find an equivalent threat to white supremacists who are responsible for more attacks in the United States than any other extremist group, including Islamic extremists. (13) But nothing remotely approaching an equivalence exists. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (even though some of its categorising is reminiscent of the FBI at its COINTELPRO worst), neo-nazi groups in the USA grew by over 200% between 2016 and 2017. (14)
So while the state is content to create imaginary radical Black movements, it allows radicalised toxic white masculinity found in the likes of Dylan Roof and more recently Nikolas Cruz, to run amok. (15)19 year-old Cruz shot to death 17 people and wounded dozens more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on February 14th with the authorities failing to act on dozens of calls signs going back a decade to as recently as January 5th. (16)
Contrast this with Balogun, whom activist and attorney Kamau Franklin asserts “are easy targets because of their nonmainstream politics. This is obviously the first of what will be several attempts to begin to criminalize black organizing, militant black organizing in particular, and work their way down to other types of organizing.” (17). Whilst Daniels remains in federal custody reports have emerged of the murder of Black Lives Matter activist Muhiydin Moye who was shot riding his bike in New Orleans. (18)
Activists elsewhere, such as the UK cannot console themselves with glib phrases like ‘only in America’ given that the National Domestic Extremism Unit is currently monitoring almost 9,000 people it has deemed “domestic extremists,” even though many campaigners on it have no criminal record. (19) For that are interested, The Guardian newspaper offered a guide for those interested in finding out if they are included on the database (although the act of doing this will more than likely guarantee an entry if there wasn’t one previously). (20)
Participants in the Emancipation Day Reparations March last Mosiah, will undoubtedly have sighted the police drones surveilling the marchers. Although the liberation movement in the UK never experienced the comprehensive assault of an FBI type COINTELPRO, its goals of preventing: effective coalitions; the rise of a “Black Messiah”; and the general respectability of the organisations and its leaders, have been ostensibly accomplished. The concern now is that if the FBI is now labelling retaliatory non-violent protests to state murder as extremist, its eminently possible that the ongoing (and inevitably future) campaigns against state violence will be similarly categorised to further extent than those previously seen with the Lawrence and Alder cases. (21)
(1) Reg Little (11/12/14) How the angriest black man in America inspired a generation of Oxford students. http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/11657877.How_the_angriest_black_man_in_America_inspired_a_generation_of_Oxford_students/
(2) Malcolm-X.org (26/10/05) quotations. https://www.malcolm-x.org/quotes.htm
(3) Jonathan David Farley (04/04/08) Preventing the rise of a ‘messiah’. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/apr/04/preventingtheriseofamessi. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/message-to-grassroots/#doc-tabs-full
(4) J Edgar Hoover (25/08/67) COUNTERINTELLIGENCE Program Black Nationalist – Hate Groups Internal Security. http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/COINTELPRO/COINTELPRO-FBI.docs.html
(5) Ibid.
(6) Baba Zak Kondo (1993) Conspiracys: Unravelling the Assassination of Malcolm X. Nubia Press. p. 28-29
(7) Bakari Kitwana (31/12/16) The 16 Black Panthers Still Behind Bars. https://www.colorlines.com/articles/16-black-panthers-still-behind-bars
(8) Black Lives Matter (09/2016) About the Black Lives Matter Network. http://blacklivesmatter.com/about
(9) Walaa Chahine (16/07/17) Labeling Black Lives Matter As A Terrorist Organization Is Not Only Unjust, It’s Dangerous. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/walaa-chahine/labeling-blm-as-a-terrori_b_10931812.html
(10) FBI Conterterrorism Divison (03/08/17) (U//FOUO) Black Identity Extremists ’Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Officers. https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015f-11c2-d01e-a35f-f7c641380000
(11) Martin De Bourmont (30/01/18) Is a Court Case in Texas the First Prosecution of a ‘Black Identity Extremist’? The FBI is looking for terrorists. Civil rights advocates say it is targeting people engaged in free speech. http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/30/is-a-court-case-in-texas-the-first-prosecution-of-a-black-identity-extremist/
(12) Jana Winter and Sharon Weinberger (06/10/17) The FBI’s New U.S. Terrorist Threat: ‘Black Identity Extremists. https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/06/the-fbi-has-identified-a-new-domestic-terrorist-threat-and-its-black-identity-extremists/
(13) Ibid.
(14) Nicole Karlis (22/02/18) Number of American hate groups increased in 2017: Watchdog. https://www.salon.com/2018/02/22/number-of-american-hate-groups-increased-in-2017-watchdog/
(15) Chauncey Devega (27/02/18) Did white privilege protect Nikolas Cruz? https://www.salon.com/2018/02/27/did-white-privilege-protect-nikolas-cruz/
(16) Shaun King (16/02/18) Another Mass Shooting. Another Case in Which Signs of White Violence Didn’t Raise Alarm. https://theintercept.com/2018/02/16/florida-shooting-nikolas-cruz/
(17) Winter and Weinberger Op. Cit
(18) De Bourmont. Op Cit.
(19) Paul Lewis, Rob Evans and Vikram Dodd (26/06/13) National police unit monitors 9,000 ‘domestic extremists’. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/25/undercover-police-domestic-extremism-unit
(20) Rob Evans and Paul Lewis (03/05/11) Are you a ‘domestic extremist’? How to ask if you are on police databases. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/apr/11/domestic-extremist-police-databases
(21) Rob Evans (26/11/16) Surveillance operation targeting sister of former paratrooper ‘not properly authorised’. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/nov/26/janet-alder-surveillance-sister-of-former-paratrooper-cps
we ask the question:
ARE BLACK FREEDOM FIGHTERS EXTREMISTS?
1) What is an extremist?
2) Is it extreme to protest state killings and brutality?
3) Are “Black Identity Extremists” a real thing?
4) Or is it part of the new COINTELPRO?
5) Was there a COINTELPRO type programme in the UK?
6) Can the liberation movement in the UK build an effective coalition and gain respectability?
Our very special guests:
Brother Minister Malak: African World Federation
Student Minister Abdul Hakeem Muhammad: Nation of Islam