A sharp and insightful analysis of historic movements against racism in the United States--from the separatism of Marcus Garvey, to the militancy of Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party, to the eloquence of Martin Luther King, Jr., and much more--with essential lessons for today's struggles. In the forty years since the civil rights movement, many gains have been made--but there is still far to go to win genuine change. Here is a badly needed primer on the history and future of struggle against racism.
"Black Liberation and Socialism is a brilliant examination of the intersection of race and class in the United States. Shawki's rich historical analyses come with powerful theoretical insights into the relationship between anti-racist struggles and the fight for a liberated future for all. This book is essential reading for students of African American history and for activists involved in the struggle against racism today."
--Nagesh Rao, assistant professor, Post-colonial Studies, College of New Jersey
"The civil rights and black power movements of the late 1950s and 1960s had a profound effect on American society. The mass mobilizations to end segregation in the South helped break the stranglehold of McCarthyism and conservatism that dominated U.S. politics. The black power movement of the late 1960s represented a further radicalization of the movement involving thousands of activists, black and white, in political activity. Decades later the situation is completely different. There has been a steady erosion of the gains blacks won in the 1960s. The vast majority of African Americans are poverty stricken and many are the victims of brutal racist violence."
--From Black Liberation and Socialism
Black Liberation and Socialism by Ahmed Shawki
Being part of the historic Los Angeles "Marcha" against the racist, ultra-reactionary HR4437 Sensenbrenner bill and the "me too" alternatives was an exhilarating experience to say the least. It will take more than a single march with anywhere from a half to a million and a half protesters, but the fight against racism and a new civil rights movement is beginning to awake. Where were the cowardly minutemen, S.O.S., and their white supremacist buddies to counter-protest all us "brown people lovers" and "race traitors" that marched along with our sisters and brothers from Central and South America? The working class is beginning to awake, we see no color, no sex, no religious differences. All we see is that we do all the work that creates the wealth and the exploiters that leech the wealth away. You are afraid that we are beginning to become class conscience. You are afraid that we will see that racism is a construction you created to keep us from forming a united front. You are afraid we might take back what you have stolen from us all our lives. You should be afraid.
