INSIGHTS
By Evelyn Sell
TII.
After Malcolm Xts murder a member of the Chicago Temple of Elijah Muhammad's Black Muslim movement remarked, "You might say the chickens have come home to roost." This Muslim was referring to the famous remark made by Malcolm about the assassination of President Kennedy. Although forbidden by Muhammad to speak about the president's murder, Malcolm made the comment , phat the assassination was a case "of chickens coming home to roost.
Malcolm's explanation of what he meant by this was, ". .. the death of Kennedy was the result of a long line of violent acts, the culmination of hate and suspicion and doubt in this country. .. this. country has allowed white people to kill and brutalize those they dontt like. . . America -- at the death of the President -- just | reaped what it had been sowing." (Exactly what newspaper editorials are saying about Malcolm's assassination now.)
Muhammad placed Malcolm under suspension for the remarks about Kennedy and for several months Malcolm remained minister of the Harlem mosque but was not permitted to: speak in public. On March 9, 1964, Malcolm announced that he had split with the Black Muslims and was opening his own mosque in Harlem. Many Muslims left with him and later even one of Muhammad's sons joined Malcolm.
A formal statement was issued at a press conference held March 12, It is of value to trace the changes in program and outlook from the time this statement was issued until the day of Malcolm's death, The statement reiterated his religious affiliation with Islam and his belief that "the best solution is complete separation with our people going back home, to our own African homeland."
However, some new notes were struck: ". . . separation back to Africa is still a long-range program, and while it is yet to materialize, 22 million of our people who are still here in America need better food, clothing, housing, education and jobs ight now. His new independence from Muhammad's control made it possible for Malcoim to now join other civil~-rights groups and leaders in common actions, "Whites can help us, but they can't join us. There can be no blackwhite unity until there is first some black unity."
His previous remarks about self-defense took on a more specific character. 'In areas where our people are the constant victims of brutality, and the government seems unable or unwilling to protect them, we should form rifle clubs that can be used to defend our lives and our property in times of emergency. . ."™ This was the only part of the statement publicized by the mass media; and Negro leaders
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rushed to denounce Malcolm and the proposed rifle clubs.*
On the crucial question of independent political action there was no definitive stand but only a promise of plans at "a later date." About two weeks later, on March 29, Malcolm announced that the first campaign of his new black nationalist movement would be a massive voter-registration drive. "We've got to get everyone in Harlem registered, not as Democrats or Republicans but as independents." Negroes must use the ballot as their bullet. In subsequent public speeches he attacked both the Democrats and Republicans with equal fervor: "any Negro who registers as a Democrat or a Republican is a traitor to his own people."
A growing emphasis was placed on the international implications of the Freedom Now movement. In April 1964 Malcolm pointed out in a speech, ". . . any kind of racial explosion that takes place in this country today, in 1964, is not a racial explosion that can be confined to the shores of America. It is a racial explosion that can ignite the racial powder keg that exists all over the planet that we call earth. Now I think that nobody would disagree that the dark masses of Africa and Asia and Latin America are already seething with bitterness, animosity, hostility, unrest, and impatience with the racial intolerance that they themselves have experienced at the hands of the white West. . , It should also be understood that the racial sparks that are ignited here in America today could easily turn into a flaming fire abroad which only means it could engulf all the people of this earth into a giant race war."
This was a secular version of Muhammad's preachings of an Armageddon for the white devils. A week before his assassination I heard Malcolm talk of American, French and British "imperialism" rather than of the “white West" and instead of a "giant race war" he explained the necessity of uniting the internal struggle against American imperialism with the external struggle. against American imperialism being waged by peoples throughout the world.
In this April 1964 speech Malcolm proposed a campaign which occupied much of his time and energy during his last year, "The civil rights struggle involves the black man taking his case to the white man's court. But when he fights it at the human rights level, it is a different situation. It opens the door to take Uncle Sam to the world court. The black man doesn't have to go to court to be free. Uncle Sam should be taken to court and made to tell why the black man is not free in a so-called free society. Uncle Sam should be taken
*Rifle clubs are quite common throughout the United States. Today they generally include sports and gun enthusiasts of all kinds who regularly.engage in target practice and hunting, but they go back to the time of locally organized militia and to the provision included in the Constitution that "the right of the people to. keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." -- Editor.
into the United Nations and charged with violating the UN charter on human rights."
Shortly after making this speech Malcolm went to Africa to | organize support among the independent nations for his proposal to | carry the American Negro struggle into the United Nations. His followers in the United States began to receive letters from him that indicated further deep-going changes in his outlook toward whites and the establishment of a separate state. In an April 25 letter he described how he had witnessed in Mecca "a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe could never exist between the white and non-white." Upon his return to America at the end of May he stated that he thought Negroes should stay and fight in the United States for what was rightfully theirs.
On June 28, 1964, Malcolm launched the Organization of Afro- American Unity LoAAU] patterned after the Organization of African Unity which was founded in May 1963 to unite all Africans in the fight to eliminate colonialism. The OAAU program showed a further development of ideas and a much more concrete approach to the daily tasks of the struggle. Specific projects outlined included community action to improve schools and textbooks, support to rent strikes and a housing self-improvement program, a community program to help unwed: mothers, drug addicts, juvenile delinquents and veterans desiring to establish businesses, The major point was that the Negro community would control its own destiny through its own organs of power,
On political action: "The Organization of Afro-American Unity will organize the Afro-American community block by block to make the community aware of its power and potentials; we will start immediately a voter-registration drive to make every unregistered voter in the Afro-American community an Independent voter; we propose to support and/or organize political clubs, to run Independent candidates for office, and to support any Afro-American already in office who answers to and is responsible to the Afro-American community."
' In order to carry out the OAAU program it was necessary to build a substantial organization. Although Malcolm was a gifted orator and had been declared a highly successful organizer for the Black Muslims, the tasks now facing him were unparalleled in his career. How to go about this immense task? Did Malcolm X feel that he was now first beginning his true life's work? Did he feel the need to survey the difficult road he had travelled and to ponder what might lie ahead before plunging on? Did he feel that the next step should be to strengthen the links with Africa in preparation for what was coming in the U.S.? During the summer. and fall of 1964 he was not to be seen in the ghettoes of America; he was abroad in Africa, talking with the leaders of the struggle there against colonialism and imperialism. ". . . I spent five months in the Middle East and Africa,” he said at a January 7, 1965, forum of the New York socialist weekly The Militant, "primarily for the purpose of getting better acquainted with them and making them better acquainted with us, giv-
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ing them a first-hand account of our problems and what our problems actually consist of.'"" Among the things he won was “official recognition and support" of both the Moslem Mosque, Inc., and the OAAU.
In July he addressed a conference of the Organization of African Unity and urged the members: "In the interests of world peace and- security, we beseech the heads of the independent African states to recommend an immediate investigation into our problems by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. . ."™ While in Kenya he was given time on the government radio and met with top-level government officials, The U.S. embassy protested such honors accorded a man held in low repute in the United States; but the Kenya government rejected the protest. The World Muslim League, founded in 1962 as the supreme religious body in the Muslim world, designated Malcolm as their official representative in the United States.
Malcolm visited Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Egypt, Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, Algeria, Sudan and Kenya. He spoke with Nasser, Nyerere, Sékou Touré, Nkrumah, Azikiwe and Kenyatta. American newspapers complained bitterly that Malcolm was responsible for the African opposition to United States policies in the United Nations discussions on the Congo.
While Malcolm was busy overseas the OAAU began holding meetings. African and Afro-American history was taught once a week at a Liberation School. A biweekly newsletter, Blacklash, was published, On November 24, 1964, Malcolm returned to the United States. He spoke at OAAU rallies, flew to Europe for speaking engagements in France and England (the French refused him entry), and spoke at meetings across the United States.
He gave increasing evidence that he was considering the nature of capitalist society as a whole and the possibility of its being replaced by socialism. His close friends were well aware of this; but it was also clear from public remarks he made. In an interview with two editors of the Young Socialist [March-April 1965 issue] he said, "and if you notice, I haven't been using the expression [of black nationalism] for several months." Asked about the “world-wide struggle now going on between capitalism and socialism," he said flatly that it is "impossible for capitalism to survive."
.Hot sparks began to fly between Malcolm and the Black Muslims, They were trying to evict him from a house which they claimed they owned. and Malcolm claimed was given to him by supporters. Malcolm made public statements about Muhammad's personal and religious life, about financial links between the Black Muslims, the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi party. There was a report that Malcolm was planning to testify that the Muslims were not a bona fide religious group and therefore could not qualify for certain tax exemptions. Malcolm repeatedly asserted that he was "a marked man." On February 14 a fire bomb was thrown into his home. On the afternoon of February 21 he was shot to death at a meeting of the OAAU.
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Who was responsible? Malcolm X repeatedly publicized the -fact that a plot’ was underfoot to take his life. He named names, But provocateurs may have been at work. Sinister forces had every~ thing to gain by touching off a blood feud among the black nationale .ists and thus diverting them from the common foe.
James Shabazz, the personal secretary of Malcolm.X was cone pletely correct in stating that the OAAU does not seek revenge, that it is a slander to accuse the followers of Malcolm X of such an aim, that what they seek is the exact opposite -- the unity of all sectors of Afro-Americans, This stand promises well for the movement that -Malcolm X set out to build,
Who will now rise to the challenge and become the new, im= proved Malcolm X?. This will be seen without long delay since the economic and social conditions that produced him exist on a nationwide scale and are growing in intensity. The courageous example of Malcolm X will inspire an entire new generation and he will be remembered as the first of a new galaxy of black leaders who will guide the way in remaking America from top to bottom.
[end of series.]
' WHAT MALCOLM X REALLY STOOD FOR
TWO SPEECHES BY MALCOLM X. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 5 East
Third Street, New York, N.Y. 10003. 1965, 32 pp. $.25.
This well-printed pamphlet was compiled and published after the assassination of Malcolm X. Besides two full speeches by the martyred black leader, it contains the text of his statement upon breaking from Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, remarks made at a forum of The Militant, the New York socialist weekly, a radio interview given some three weeks before his death and extracts from an interview granted the Young Socialist.