What the Million Man March Means In 2015

Twenty years ago on October 16, 1995, over two million Africans assembled in the U.S. city of Washington D.C. to stage a demonstration against 500 years of capitalism and white supremacy.  The demonstration was entitled the Million Man March.  On October 10, 2015, Africans will again assemble in that same city to commemorate twenty years since the original march with a theme of “Justice, Or Else.”  The All African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) sees all efforts to organize African people against injustice as a positive step towards our liberation.  We wish to remind everyone of one of our contributions to the 1995 march.  During his keynote speech at the end of the 95 march, Minister Farrakhan extolled all listening to “join some organization working for our people.”  This has always been the A-APRP’s mantra and we know from research that hundreds of thousands of Africans heeded Minister Farrakhan’s call to join organizations, but our work is not done.  In fact, we continue to make that same call for organization in 2015 that we contributed to the march in 1995.  We do this because we know that Kwame Nkrumah was correct when he said “organization decides everything!”  So, we recall Minister Farrakhan’s final promise to Kwame Ture that he will continue the work to build the African United Front.  We ask all African people active in organizations like the Nation of Islam, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Black Lives Matter formations, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, etc., to use the Million Man March as a renewed call to strengthen the resolve and capabilities of our existing organizations to carry out each of our missions.  And, we call upon all those organizations to dedicate themselves to working with the A-APRP to build that African United Front that Kwame Ture lobbied for until his final breath.

Only the masses make history

For those of our people outside of organizations, we remind you that individuals cannot liberate the people because only the masses of people make history.  If you do not believe enough in your own ideas to find at least one other person to work with to make your ideas material reality, then you are demonstrating that you do not even believe enough in what you are saying to do more than talk about it.  All of our people must be in organizations.  If you don’t wish to join any of our existing organizations, then history demands that you immediately start the “I Refuse to Join any of Our Organizations” Organization, to work with our people.  We make this call because we know that once we have the majority of our people involved in organizations, we will then have the capacity to seriously attack the forces that keep us exploited because we will have seasoned organizers from all organizations who know how to effectively help our people work through the difficulties that keep us from moving forward.  For example, if you are active in any form of African organization then you know that we are very skilled at talking about the problems that plague our people, but when it comes to the point of deciding what action will take place to address solving problems, which requires people taking assignments and following through, this is where we struggle to have any continuity.  Plus, you will also acknowledge that we are correct when we say that far too many of our people are unwilling to work with one another to resolve the multitude of personality problems, egos, and disagreements that are generated whenever varied people work together on any level from organizations to personal relationships.  This is the case because we are not accustomed to working together.  And since we lack experience and patience with our people, it is difficult for us to resolve the slightest problem collectively.  Since we are not skilled at solving problems together it is very difficult for us to sustain forward movement.  In our humble view, all of this stems from the fact that the majority of our people have no experience working in organizations to organize our people.  This essential organizational experience helps us learn how to subvert our egos, work collectively, and not see the slightest problem as a signal to run for the hills.

Join an organization

So, we say again, join an organization working for our people.  Then, have your organization work to help build the African United Front.  Once we can do this, we will find that many of the problems we have that seem insurmountable can be overcome overnight.  We will then be placing the necessary building blocks in place for us to develop a worldwide African organizational capacity which will make us indestructible.  The worldwide focus is key to the program of the A-APRP because we see the problem and solution as an international one.  Our problem didn’t start in the U.S. and it cannot be solved in the U.S.  We are convinced that the complete solution to our problem as African people is Pan-Africanism, which we define as one unified, socialist, Africa.  We believe that African unity as defined by Kwame Nkrumah “will bring about the fulfillment of the aspirations of Africans and people of African descent everywhere!”  So, we advocate organization from the local level to the worldwide level.  Our people are all over the planet and we must unite all of our people through organization to achieve our true freedom and liberation.  Will it be easy?  Of course not.  In fact, Frederick Douglass was correct when he said “there is no progress without struggle.”  We in the A-APRP are revolutionaries so we view our struggle from a scientific perspective.  We don’t look for the easy way because we know that won’t solve the problem.  So, we ask you to participate fully in the Million Man March commemoration of 2015.  We ask you to take the theme of the march – “Justice, Or Else” seriously.  And, we strongly encourage you to leave the march with a strong commitment to build organizational capacity in whatever area you live in.

Heed the spirit of the Million Man March

Finally, we ask you to connect your organization with other African organizations to do the important work of hammering out common agendas.  We suggest part of that work is agreeing not to attack other organizations while encouraging our people to support all our efforts.  Everyone knows that our enemies will run quickly to the older established organizations to get them to criticize the Black Lives Matter movement because capitalism knows this weakens our community.  Imagine a reality where they are unable to find anyone within our community that will help them tear us down?  This is just one example of what organization accomplishes and this victory is within sight if we are just willing to work for it.  For the A-APRP, we know we cannot expect any justice from the capitalist system, but we have faith in the masses of our people.  Let’s heed the spirit of the Million Man March. Let’s get organized!