Hubert H. Harrison
Many in the U.S. "Left" are actually liberal elements that pull socialism toward the Democratic Party. Black organizers must build independent power.
“With all due respect to the Marxists, however, the hard facts remain . Revolutionary nationalism has not waited for Western Marxian thought to catch up with the realities of the "underdeveloped" world. From underdevelopment itself have come the indigenous schools of theory and practice for achieving independence . The liberation of the colonies before the socialist revolution in the West is not orthodox Marxism (although it might be called Maoism or Castroism). As long as American Marxists cannot deal with the implications of revolutionary nationalism, both abroad and at home, they will continue to play the role of revolutionaries by proxy.” - Harold S. Cruse
The state of what is characterized as the “Left” in the U.S. can only be described as shambolic. At a time when there have been key interventions of the Democrats, showcased by recent electoral victories over candidates representing the establishment wing of the party by candidates flying the banner of the so-called Democratic Socialists of America, the U.S. “Left” remains largely unmoored and, in far too many cases, undefined. Worse yet, certain elements of the U.S. “Left” contain and transmit unprincipled politics that uphold aspects of neoliberalism, U.S. imperialism and certainly paternalism and white “supremacy” ideology.
This year’s annual Socialism Conference held in Chicago elucidated many of the contradictions contained in the U.S. “Left,” including numerous panels that served as polemics for governments of global south nations including Cuba and Venezuela, as well as painting nations like the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China as imperial entities that are antithetical to the paradigms of socialism and communism. Many of the speakers who took part in some of these panels only confirmed that the U.S. “Left” has been hijacked and inoculated by reactionary and liberal components who are attempting to render the Overton Window into a horizontal entity with the intent to pull socialism to the right with a larger goal of sheepdogging the masses into the clutches of the Democrat Party under a banner of “socialism.”
Couple this with certain academics, investigative journalists and celebrity “leftists” who are actively inculcating a strata of the masses into believing that capitalism can be tinkered with, reformed, or even lived with like a manageable disease like diabetes, the current material conditions of the U.S. “Left” are perilous and require a requisite intervention to prevent the same social democratic treachery that Lenin spoke to in his writings including State and Revolution and What is to Be Done.
To this end, two questions need to be thoroughly investigated., What is the U.S. left and, equally important, when thinking of its historical context - where it once was in this nation and where it is now - what’s left of it? Members of Black Alliance for Peace and contributors to Black Agenda Report attended the 2016 Socialism Conference not in solidarity with the politics of the conference, nor the organizers of it - but to interrogate these politics and, in many cases, to prosecute them.
There exists a myopic idea that Black folk in the U.S. are adverse to socialism despite the fact that polls have consistently shown that Black folk have the highest affinity for socialism of any racial or ethnic group in the nation. At the same time, we must explore why the false narrative that socialism is a “white people’s thing” has emerged and been sustained - primarily by liberal reactionaries of all races and ethnicities, and principally those who identify as members of the Democrat Party. For instance, in writing a piece entitled, Democrats Making a Big Mistake Forsaking the Black Vote for DSA, for Newsweek, Darius Jones, who is the President of the National Black Empowerment Council, argues, “...the DSA is skeptical, if not outright hostile, to many of the pillars of Black advancement in this country and, as voters, we are sophisticated enough to understand that. The DSA gives nothing and seeks only to use our communities as a launching pad for their political agenda and tries to use our painful struggles to maneuver their way into power.” Two things should be noted about Mr. Jones - first, he was formerly the National African American Constituency Director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and second, to make his case that the DSA is “hostile to many of the pillars of Black advancement, he lists five policy positions they hold which, he suggests, are attractive to Republicans - paid family leave, raising the minimum wage, taxing billionaires, expanding government health coverage and slowing the rapid expansion of AI data centers.
Clearly, principled Black people can’t take the trash panda, i.e. raccoon, politics of Mr. Jones seriously, especially given the fact that he once served alabaster puppet masters at AIPAC, a white supremacist and neocolonial entity. And while we reject the suggestion that socialists, and especially those within the DSA are inherently racist, we cannot deny the fact that there are indeed issues within the white “Left” pertaining to its, too often, truculent relationship with Black folk within formations like the DSA, the larger Black Left, and the larger Black masses. Investigating these issues are necessary to eviscerate narratives like those of Mr. Jones, Black and white liberals as part of rendering them into comedic entities, which is to say they are completely unserious and more in service to upholding a status quo of neoliberalism and racial capitalism that only allow for the edification of a few handpicked kneegroes like Jones in the pursuit of individualistic “Black Excellence” in lieu of collective Black Power.
And if purported socialists like DSA insist on running on the Democrat Party line these issues with Black folk must be addressed, confronted, and deracinated. The Democrat Party with its performative act of making South Carolina the first state to vote in its 2028 Presidential Primary is making a statement to the DSA and other elements of the U.S. “Left” - “you can’t win in South Carolina because of your truculent relationship with the Black people who will play a massive role in deciding who wins that primary.” Elements of the Black Misleadership Class are peddling this narrative including lawmakers like Hakeem “AIPAC Shakur” Jeffries, James Clyburn, and the leading candidate for Trash Panda of the millennium, Van Jones, who has suggested that DSA and other leftists have a “Black Voter Problem.”
There is an African approach to socialism that is informed by the internationalism contained within the Black Radical Tradition that has always understood the limitations and contradictions of capitalism and imperialism. We are not settlers and we oppose settlerism and understand the true character of the U.S. settler colonial project that has transformed into a global white supremacist empire most exemplified by the zionist ethnostate and the recent incursions of the U.S. in Cuba, Venezuela, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Black left is and has been building power with the understanding that if there is going to be a successful socialist movement it must be connected to the structures we are building independently as part of building a larger socialist alternative to the dictatorship of racial capitalism. It’s clear that the likes of Darius Jones, Jeffries, Clyburn, and Van Jones don’t even have a semblance of this analysis and have chosen to be willing agents of U.S./zionist empire at the expense of oppressed and colonized Black and other non white folk. The white “Left” must understand and demonstrate it understands that dealing with impediment of white "supremacy" ideology in their spaces will make the work of fostering a socialist alternative much easier for all of us…and that task is completely on the folk that make and hold up the white “Left.”
We must not allow for socialist organizing and power building to suffer the same failures and ineffectiveness of the U.S. climate “movement,” largely due to the fact that it’s a whitewashed, liberal, elite captured and intransigent entity that consistently refuses to check and ostracize its own elements of white “supremacy” ideology. This understanding formed the basis of a panel I moderated at the 2016 Socialism Conference, The Path Black to Socialism. I was joined by Professor Brian Kwoba, author of the excellent and informative book, Hubert Harrison: Forbidden Genius of Black Radicalism, and BAP members, Nick Rashad-Thompson (who leads BAP Midwest Chapter), Jak Grach, and Denzel Caldwell. The main goals of the panel were to first dismantle the myopia that socialism in “America” is a white people’s thing by discussing the myriad ways that the Black Radical Tradition not only informed socialism in America, but formed its foundation, and then hold a deep, principled, and direct discussion about the existing issues between white leftists and Black folk as part of commencing a requisite journey to building and sustaining multi racial/ethnic poor and working class solidarity and independent social and political power.
I directed my first question to Professor Kwoba, which asked him to discuss why titans like Hubert Harrison are rarely discussed in the U.S. socialist lexicon compared to people like Eugen Debs. Kwoba explained that part of the problem is that too many people have consistently attempted to write our history for us and, in the process, select our heroes and sheroes. He then evoked Amilcar Cabral who once noted, “It so happens that the history of the people of Guinea-Bissau hasn’t been recorded. I want to record that history. We will use the Marxian method. We will not be tied by the concept which arose historically in Western Europe when Marx was studying that society.” Rashad-Thompson added that he believes that the contributions of Black radical thought to the socialist discourse has not been taken seriously to the detriment of our collective struggle to build and sustain a socialist alternative to the status quo, and proclaimed that the most oppressed people need to be the most centered, which requires critiquing both historical and contemporary missteps of the U.S. “Left.” Grach discussed the compromises the ruling class brings to the white working class that gets them to abandon solidarity with workers of the global south. She then pointed to the New Deal as an example of the expansion of whiteness and rendering it into a “breathing, living thing”…at the expense of Black workers in the U.S. and globally.
Later, the panelists discussed the contributions of Black feminists to socialism/communism in the U.S. Grach decried the fact that far too many Black women like Claudia Jones, are misquoted by the white “Left” and often utilized by them to attempt to discredit the very Black folk these figures were primarily accountable and in service to. She added that it was inconsistent that white feminists like Gloria Steinem are frequently heralded as trend setters for Black feminism and called into question why formations like the DSA would allow for people like Steinem to sit on their honorary board of directors. Kwoba then admonished the audience to be careful with referring to Black women of the Black Radical Tradition including figures like Grace Campbell and Claudia Jones as “Black Left Feminists” rather than Black women communists because it grounds their political homes in “feminism” rather than the communist party. This, he concluded, occurs too often in “Leftist” discourse, which is further reductive of the larger Black Radical Tradition’s salient contributions to the foundation of U.S. radicalism. Caldwell added the need to center Black feminists' contributions to socialism and communism to avoid being a “compatible left” rather than an actual material threat to empire.
One of the final topics that we discussed was the role of Black socialists and communists as it pertains to discrediting and disarming the influence of the Black Misleadership Class. Grach was unapologetic in her suggestion that our job as Black socialists and communists is to directly combat the seductive nature of “Black Excellence” and remind the Black masses that there is no automatic trickle down effect that reaches poor and working class Black folk from the handpicked and elite captured variables of the Black Misleadership Class. Caldwell centered the particular and nuances machinations of the Black Misleadership Class in the South. He explained that it comes down to relationships and that the reason why characters like Jim Clyburn are so entrenched is because they know how to play off of the massive repression and plantation mentality of scarcity culture to their advantage at the expense of poor and working class people - he added that it will take deep and principled organizing efforts to overcome this trend.
The discussion concluded with each panelist agreeing that Black socialists and communists are certainly not appealing to or asking the white “Left” to do and be better. Regardless of their decision to confront the white paternalism and white “supremacy” ideology in their spaces, Black communists and socialists will continue the principled struggle of building independent social and political power. And they all also agreed that a good place for the white “Left” to commence the process of being better accomplices to the Black Left would be the Socialism Conference itself by addressing many of the contradictory, flawed, and problematic politics contained therein.
You can watch the full discussion by clicking here.
*With deep dedication to the life and life work of my brother, comrade, and teacher, David Keith Cobb. His memory shall be a blessing.
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