THE EIGHT STRATEGIC ELEMENTS FOR SUCCESS OF A BLACK NATION IN AMERICA
Synopsis of A Speech to the Third Annual Black Power Convention Philadelphia September 1968
There are eight strategic elements which are required for the successful establishment of An independent black state on the American mainland. They are these:
- Brains
- Labor
- Natural Resources
- Internal Domestic Support
- International Support
- A Limited Objective
- Inherent Military Viability
- A Second-Strike Capability
The combination of brains, labor, and national resources is what produces wealth, without which no country can contemplate true independence. Brains, of course, presupposes trained people. Black people in America not only possess widespread literacy, which is A substantial launching pad for crash technical training programs but we have within the Republic and close to it persons who have received some of the best training and practical experience in the world of mathematics, law, medicine, and electronics. There are areas, particularly some of the more exotic scientific fields, where our possession of skills as a people is slim to non-existent. Here it is our responsibility as a government to entice to New Africa those blacks in America who do possess the rare skills, and, where the skills are non-existent for us as a people,it is our responsibility as a government to hire these skills, shopping for them in Japan and Africa, if possible, but hiring them out of Sweden and Germany and even the U.S. if necessary for our success and our progress.
Brains necessarily means imagination, the ability to think free of tradition and the obvious, to create new ways of meeting old needs (new power sources, new foods) and new productive uses for familiar unproductive articles. Brains demands the imagination to know what skills to seek, what ends to organize them for, and how to organize them. Brains demands the imagination to take the basic mass literary of our people and rapidly lift the masses free of the slothful brain-washing, self-doubt and self-abasement which living in America has brought us.
Labor, which black people have in some abundance, must include acquisition of the machine (including computers), from which the white man has barred the hand of the African not only in Africa, but in America, No less than the Africa in Africa, we Africans in America must acquire the machine to complete the magic equation; land+labor + the-machine = wealth.
The natural resources wealth (the land) of the five states we seek (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina) is with out question. They are at least richer than the stretches of sand which bloom for the Arabs and Israelis, But our desire to take the five states intact, with minimal destruction of college and industrial plant, reflects our recognition of the value of this plant to the Domestic Support, meaning support from those blacks in America outside of New Africa, for as long as they are able to remain in America, ties in directly to our successfully mastering the land+labor + the-machine = wealth equation.
Non-New African blacks in America must support us in a variety of ways. Support of the campaign for reparations is essential. Black Congressmen must take the lead in campaigning through Congress for a reparations settlement which includes substantial payment to the black nation, to the Republic of New Africa, even if it includes direct payment to individuals. But we are completely against reparations payments which go to whites or to U.S. government agencies to use for us - this is no reparations at all. we are also against using funds from our reparations settlement to pay capitalists for the plants and mines which we take over in the South. If at all, payment for these should be arranged in negotiation with our government. But the cold cash of our reparations settlement, and the trading credits, must largely be used to acquire the machine, to improve and expand industrial plant.
The support of non-New African blacks in America must, obviously, include sending dollars and gold, silver and diamonds, which we have in some abundance in our jewelry - to New Africa so that however long it takes to achieve a meaningful reparations settlement with the U.S. or however destructive our warfare in the South, we will not be without acceptable media for acquiring the machine through international trade. Blacks remaining within the U:S. must also - and importantly - use their influence, so long as it exists, to restrain the hand of the United States in using its court and military establishments against us. Indeed, to put this positively, blacks remaining in the U.S, must exert every influence to help us force the United States to settle with us justly - on the basis of plebiscites and international law - our claims to sovereignty and reparations.
But International Support is equally important in staying the hand of the U.S, government against us. International Support is a crucial factor in assuring that our war for independence will neither be interminable nor unsuccessful. It is not only a matter of direct material or arms aid; just as the deployment of United States forces on alert status in such places as the Sea of Japan and Korea has been of some value to the Vietnamese, so the same or similar deployments would be of value to us. Too, on the military side, the possibility -- however remote, however logistically difficult -- that Chinese troops might,if asked by us, make an appearance in the battle area with us, or on some extremity of the United States such as Alaska or Hawaii, or at some overseas point where the United States has military commitments; the possibility that African nations in retaliation for U.S, military action against us might take action against the U.S, within - their countries, which could include breaking off relations, seizures of property and concerted military action against the Portuguese, the Rhodesians, and the white South Africans, all of whom are, in fact, allies of the U.S. and supported by and relied upon by the U.S. - these two possibilities count as major elements in our calculated use of foreign support to stay the hand of the U.S. against us and move that government toward a peaceful settlement with us. Thus, in New Africa we have upon us the obligation to cultivate unilaterally and through regional associations the support of foreign powers. Ultimately we look to the United Nations as the power where world opinion -- supported by the pressures generated by the operation of these eight strategic elements which we are discussing will ‘validate: our independence and our claim against the United States for reparations. But it seems clear that the enforcement of our claim ms, whatever validation we receive beyond these shores, will depend on our own success at arms, We follow a classic principle of political science; that for a small nation (us) to maintain itself against a big nation (the United States), it is necessary for the small nation to have an alliance with another big nation (China) or groups of nations (the anti-imperialist nations of Africa and Asia).
This success is made not alone on the battlefield, or even in the very important indeed, vital -- preparations behind the battlefield. It is made, also, through the terms of the war, through the objectives being sought or defended. The sixth strategic element -- the Limited Objective - has a clear and undeniable importance.
What we are talking about here is that instead of seeking the overthrow of the U.S. government of the control of 50 states or even 25 states, we seek merely five states. This is only. one forth of the states, and we are one-tenth of the population. Together they are five of the poorest states in the Union. They have great numbers of black people, suffering both a relative and absolute educational poverty, severe health and nutritional problems and, in many areas, an endemic culture of poverty. They are underdeveloped. In short, the land we seek is an area which white Americans may feel is well worth, giving up -- once they have reached the point where giving up something seems inevitable or, at least, a better course than destruction and death. Now, how do we get white people to this point? We would hope that polemics and reason would do it. We would hope that things like this book and diplomatic and political pressures would do it. Unfortunately history seems to teach us otherwise, We would love to be wrong. Yet what we learn from history is the unmistakable promise that the white man will fight us. And so, we must be prepared to fight him - and win - for our limited objective. We must have, therefore, An inherent Military Viability. Our army and our people must be able to survive destruction, and survive not just for a day or a few days but for many weeks and months, for years, if necessary, to establish our independence. And we must at the same time be able to inflict severe damage upon the enemy
Sometimes the will of our people to suffer through war and persevere for years for our freedom – as Vietnamese have done, as the black Angolians are doing, as the white American colonists did in the past – is doubted. So many of us are such comfortable slaves. Only time will tell. But if we do not have the will, if we do not preserve we will not win our freedom. It is that simple. Foreign aid and foreign alliances will not win it for us. Only through our own will. Only through our own perseverance in war, in the midst of suffering, deprivation, and death. Only out of this.
And the role of the people is crucial. In the South, where we must ultimately deploy Black Legion as our main-force army, our strategy has to include the people on the land and in the cities as a vital element. The Army must be able to move in secret and conceal itself. It must be able to live off the land, in order to minimize supply and logistical problems. It must be able to depend on the people for reconnaissance and intelligence information, against the enemy. And it must be able to depend on the people to deny to the enemy food, general supplies, transport and sanctuary in order to maximize for the enemy his supply, concealment, and logistical problems.
Finally, beyond the South, the black man’s SECOND-STRIKE CAPABILITY must be believable. The second-strike capability is the Underground Army, the black guerrillas in the cities. So long as black people are able to remain in the cities and there are over 120 major cities where the brothers have used the torch - and retain relative freedom of movement, the black man has, or can develop, the means for destroying white industrial capacity and - if need be - white America in general as mercilessly as a missile attack.
Although the Republic of New Africa neither directs nor controls these guerrillas - nor is in anyway more positive than the rest of you that they even exist - to the extent that they do exist and support the national policy and objectives of the Republic of New Africa, and to the extent that their power is believable, to these extents is the war foreshortened and more quickly will come the success of our independent black state on the American mainland.
