What "Black Nationalism Debates" Do to Us

Michael Hoover hoov at freenet.tlh.fl.us
Tue Jan 26 02:44:37 PST 1999



> DRUM was hardly typical of black
> nationalist organization
> It
> cannot be proposed as a model of action unless we know why it failed.
> Today black nationalism is monopolized by new organizations and
> faces--jackson, farakhan, chavis, woodson, etc.
> yours, rakesh

didn't suggest it was typical, my post related Ernest Allen's view that nationalist sentiment 'in one form or another' pervaded the organization from top to bottom...suggests, to me anyway, nationalism(s) rather than a reified nationalism (although a particular variant may have been/be dominant)...point is made above if names listed are all nationalist (which says nothing about the attractiveness - or not - of their particular politics nor exhausts list)...

as for DRUM's/LRBW's demise, Allen suggests conflict between expansion and consolidation and claims that former (wider commnunity and national involvement) was pursued by leadership at expense of latter (plant organizing)...result, according to A, is that worker committees declined...irony: LRBW became increasingly well-known among radical black workers and US/international left but it lost its working-class base...Michael Hoover



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