-----Original Message----- From: Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Monday, January 04, 1999 12:30 PM Subject: Re: Malcolm X and SNCC
>So, where does this strategy differ from the one Major Owens, Harold
>Washington, Ron Dellums and a host of other black activists created in
the
>1970s and 1980s?
>
>--Nathan Newman
-I have no interest in arguing about the Democratic Party with Nathan, which -is not just beating a dead horse but taking all the parts of the dead -horse's body and dumping them into a wood-chipper.
Louis, you never debate the issue- you just insult anyone you disagree with and move on as you have here.
Malcolm X said his goal was to create a black Tammany Hall. That is the strategy of folks like Major Owens and Ron Dellums who you criticize.
So rather than answer the question, which would undermine your blind refusal to ever really debate concrete political action or undermine your wish fulfillment version of Malcolm, you just move on.
If you want me to have the last word, then let's be clear. The domestic political program of Malcolm in his last year was an articulation of the electoral strategy pursued by the folks who would eventually create the Congressional Black Caucus. One of the reasons I like Malcolm in this last year is the broad pragmatic approach he had to building power, whether economic or political, which differed markedly from the ideological hairshirts of so many other activists in the 60s.
By Any Means Necessary might mean using the bullet in self-defense but it also meant for Malcolm full pragmatic engagement in the political process, without all the purity nonsense Louis promotes in what passes for his political strategy.
--Nathan Newman