Kersplebedeb.com-Sanyika Shakur on Meditations a Weapon for Struggle

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Sanyika Shakur

Sanyika Shakur On Meditations: A Weapon for Struggle

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We have here ideo-t heoret ical gold. A presentat ion of New Afrikan Communism so pro f ound, clear & precisethat if utilized correctly & with cons istency, will raise consciousness & sharpen practice. The material here in

Yakis Meditat ions On Frantz Fanons Wretched o f the Earth, runs comprehensively thru a coherent theme: a

brief preface by Comrad Hondo; an edito rial introduction allowing the reader to meet Our late comrad Yaki

which does a great job at highlighting some of the political & social circumstances & conditions that ultimately

shaped this illustrious Brotha into the dynamic New Af rikan Communist he became.

We see his involvement with t he student o rgs & demos ; his community service & his military actions, leading to

his capture & imprisonment. In the kamps tho the comrad poured in on & evolved into the ideo- theoretical gian

that touched Us all. Rightf ully, the editors began at the beginning. Then they expertly connect the dots that w

ultimately raise the consciousness & heighten the s truggle.

* First, with the War f or t he Cities which is a lesson he always taught Us which is to f unction with the

People in the area in which you live. Deal with t he People who are of f the block. The old t ired & true From Th

Masses to The Masses. The rad was f rom Chicago, so it st ands t o reason that this would be where hed

concentrate his initial ef f ort s. Its where he knew best . And yet as We see he doesnt just say Oh Chicago is

such a bad place as if We can only clean-up Chicago Wed be alright. No, Yaki ties War f or the Cities into

the whole colonial matrix of u.s. imperialism. The language is precise, clear & conscious. is any ghetto it is b

one o f the urban reservations t hat We f ind Ourselves s tranded on.

* Second, af ter establishing the f act of a war of national oppression & genocidal violence We fall into the

Free the RNA 11: Prisoner of War chapter brilliant! Both Yakis piece & the edito rial placement. Cause We ar

reading, studying & meditating the things that are engaging Our social consciousness: Him (Yaki); How

(National Oppression); What (War); Where (New Afrika inside amerika, a prisonhouse o f nations); Why

(capitalist-imperialist exploitation for wealth & profit) but let me not get ahead of myself here.

In explaining who the RNA 11 are, Comrad Yaki diligently explicated how, why, where & when the Provisional

Government was f ormed. Crucial this is because most New Afrikans, while natural citizens, remain woef ully

oblivious to these f acts. And as such, they go unknowingly along with t he current colonial-settler government

of amerika because they see or know of no o ther alternative. Truthf ully, the masses arent necessarily down

with the U.S. government, but without an alternative they cling to what is available. So, presenting this piece

af ter War f or t he Cities highlights the realization o f Our alternat ive to U.S. set tler government. Simultaneous

it points up the lengths to which the oppressive arrangement will go to keep its position firm & crush anyopposition. Over 500 New Afrikan Nationalists signed the New Afrikan Declaration of Independence. No more

than seventy f ive euro- amerikans s igned the U.S. declaration of independence. Imagine that. The dif f erence?

Class. Cats will get caught up on t hat nat ionality thing, or as the cultural nationalists st ress, black race, &

miss the boat altogether on the class significance that is the concrete under any struggle. But as always,

Comrad Yaki blows away all that f oo lishness here. Yes, its a goo d thing to be around New Afrikans but id

rather be around Communists.

* Third, lest We forget , the Comrad (& again the editorial geniuses) goes right into On Transf orming the

Colonial & Criminal Mentality. i remember when i f irst read & studied this piece back in the mid-1980s it was

shocking to me. No, seriously, because up until that time i was thinking like the old Eldridge Cleaver, that the
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criminal or out law was just like a revolutionary. That as long as he or she was breaking the law or shoot ing pig

they were somehow on Our side. That when the revolution matured & We hit the streets, in conf rontation with

the state, theyd be with Us against the law. But On Transf orming shat tered that line of thinking & brought

the truth right down f ront ! And, in so doing, taught a f antastic lesson in dialectics.

The criminal has no qualm with capitalism, colonialism or imperialism. In f act, t he criminal is in league with these

evils. Why, the capitalist is who the criminal wants to be. The criminal can only f lourish under capitalism with

some degree of impunity. The criminal is an individualist , a greed driven parasite, just like the capitalists . The

criminal has more in common as f ar as class aspirations with the oppresso r than he or she has with theworking class &/or revolutionaries. Again We are conf ronted with class & class interests . How practical it is to

run this chapter right af ter the RNA-11: POW piece; lest people get the not ion that packing heat & correcting

pigs is the be all & end all to revolution. To transf orm ones mentality is, in essence, to commit class suicide. T

alter ones class allegiance. Of course its dialectical, far f rom static, so it can go either way, i.e. a rev can

commit class suicide by becoming a capitalist or criminal. Conversely, a backward, or lumpen, individual can

transf orm into a rev.

Also, while skilfully explaining this process, the dif f erence between the two (rev vs . criminal) & how to go abou

actually doing it (thru study, st ruggle & practice) t he rad lays down some very important def initions: Captive

Colonials (those New Afrikans captured who are not revs, but natural citizens of the Nation); Political

Prisoners (New Afrikans captured f or non-military anti-imperialist activity) & Prisoners of War (those NewAf rikans who are captured f or carrying out military strikes agains t the state). Also included within these

def initions is the category of PP or POW where one who is already in a kamp, who has transf ormed his o r he

colonial/criminal mentality, makes political/military assert ions & is consequently locked in a SHU/Contro l Unit f o

it, is recognized by Our Movement.

These def initions, along with the whole Transf orming piece on the criminal/colonial mentality, is of the

utmost importance to have in Our ideo- theoretical arsenal because they give Us concrete lines to f ollow, to

adhere to & to apply in Our overstanding of st ruggle in the belly of the beast.

* Fourth, Scenes f rom the Batt le of Algiers. Now, ive read, studied & meditated on the Transf orming

piece, i have read the paraphrased version o f Ali Apontes scene in quest ion but i never saw the movie.Thought the Comrads paraphrased version was suf f icient. That is until i read the actual scenes f rom the f ilm

A master stroke by the edito rs to bring t he actual scenes in. It totally brings to life what the Comrad wrote in

the Transf ormation piece. Its like seeing it as it happens & if youre a real studier (like me) you wont be able

to help yourself f rom going back to the Transf ormation piece af ter youve read the actual Scenes. The f ac

is the transf ormation must be genuine & thorough no t an emot ional commitment based on race, or an

imagined slight, but a genuine & authentic transf ormation o f class allegiance & interest . And this must be tied

into the s truggle f or National independence & Socialism. i f eel this piece is pivotal in the work as a whole.

* Fif th, the Raids on Chicago Public Hous ing Fact Sheet here We see the rad going back to the block or

the hoo d in an eff ort to point up the cont inuing genocidal violence perpetrated under the guise of bourgeois

law & order. And while this was writt en f or Crossroad in 1989, it is just as relevant to day as it was t hen. Butwhat can We learn f rom this? We can see that We need to be more conscious & active in Our particular areas

of operation to document, study & struggle with the people who are in these conditions. Again, from the

masses to the masses. And, again, like everything else, the Comrad keeps politics in command by tying the

Chicago Hous ing Raids into the o verall genocidal violence of U.S. capitalism against internal nations. Get out,

get active, get involved in whats going on where you live. Learn f rom the masses, keep your po litics in

command, transf orm the conditions under which you live.

* Sixth, We have the From One Generation to the Next piece. Again, right o ut o f the New Af rikan P.O.W.

Journals, Books 1- 7. Also in abbreviated f orm in False Nationalism False Internationalism: Class Contradiction

in the Armed Struggle. This, to o, was/is beautif ully placed because it clearly puts into perspective the cont inuit


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piece, perfect placement. i know i keep saying this, but building a boo k of this magnitude, of this depth &

seriousness, is like arranging an album of classic jazz some Bird, or Coltrane. The layout has to be coheren

& consistent in order to maximize the effect. In order to realize the intent which of course, is to heighten

awareness so as to see things both as they really are as well as they can be.

So, the Model of Personal Transf ormation o f Malcolm is f ollowed by What Everyone Should Know About

(State) Repression can you dig that? They were able to repress & eliminate Malcolm, the Muslim Mosque In

& the Organization o r Afro -American Unity (both of his young orgs) because their security wasnt t ight.

Because there was no real culture of security.

i remember when this piece f irst was sent to me in 1988, the actual pamphlet the Comrads printed it in was

called: Study Notes On Secure Communications: So That We Dont Fool Ourselves Again. It was an eye-

opening piece then & its s till more so an eye popper now! Especially in the day & age of Patriot Acts &

Homeland Security! Its timely & precise. It reminds Us that any anti-imperialist activity is against the law &

expect to be surveilled. Theref ore work overtime to create a culture of security & need to know. The stress

throughout this piece is consciousness. Overstand your situat ion, believe that t he enemy is always alert, act

always as if your phone is t apped, your mail is being opened & that anyone can be turned. Its no t about being

paranoid its about being secure. But again, all this s tems f rom being conscious, overstanding your politics,

keeping them in command & maintaining a working-class stand. Never say anything over the phone that you

wouldnt say to a police of f icer. Why? Because the police are your class enemy they represent t he sett lerstate as a f irst line of def ense & of f ense.

We have to overstand, dialectically, that weaknesses of every kind begin within as a qualitat ive degeneration

That the primary cause o f change is within a thing anything. And that t he secondary, or quantitat ive

development is what alters the t ime & the space of the thing. So We know that Our old Movement was

destroyed by its primary weaknesses by the internal, or qualitative, def iciencies & only secondarily by the

outer or quantitative make up of the contradiction.

The internal was Us, Our orgs & t he class make up of them & how they in turn related to each other & the

masses. With no clear class-based criterion f or recruitment, Our qualitative center was weak, unsound & not

ready for prime time with the imperialist state. The secondary make up of this contradiction was the imperialisstate as represented by its various security agencies, f oundat ions, social orgs & loyal citizens. We learned

that the FBI, or Cointelpro didnt destroy Our Movement. Didnt scatt er Our forces. On the cont rary, Our

Movement was weakened f rom within. We, as the rads say, Fooled Ourselves. Like the New Afrikan in this

piece who af ter discussing surveillance & knowing that others cars had been tagged, still ref used to be an

espionage agent t o secure himself . Its almos t as if We have grown biased against Our own safety &

security. And this discussion, as po inted out by Comrad Yaki, took place at the so-called height of

consciousness. And yet & st ill, stunning strikes were able to be made against Us by the oppressive forces.

We are not emphasizing security & safety in order to just be saf e & secure We are emphasizing security &

saf ety in order to carry out Our activity of re-building. In order to raise up cadres who can relate to the masse

in order to replenish ranks, in order to re-build Our Movement, in order to get f ree & build Socialism. If We areto do t hese necessary things We need to survive, to have a sense of saf ety & security. And of course, to

make strikes. Can you see how things are building with this work? We are climbing up a ladder of

consciousness, circling & spiraling towards a heightened state o f revolutionary awareness. You see, the

Comrad has both the practical & the theoret ical experience that he brings to the table here & lays out . This

work is important.

i remember what Comrad Yaki would do was type out position papers, policies & long theoret ical tracts & send

them out to Us wherever We happened to be. That way Wed all have the same things & then hed expect Our

comments, positions & f eedback. So a lot o f these Meditations on Wretched especially Parts One, Two &

Three We (Comrads of the NAC) got in raw letter f orm. i can remember thinking as t hese papers arrived, how


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was he able to see things as he did so vividly, so astoundingly clear? The answer, of course, is s tudy &

meditation. The Brotha was a beast seriously. And trust me, We need beasts more than ever.

We come now upon the actual Meditations on Wretched of the Earth, the primary namesake of the work. If

youve read my f irst book, Monster, youll know then that o n page 345, i wrote about my initial arrival at San

Quentin SHU (the hole) & a fellow prisoner sending me Frantz Fanons Wretched of the Earth. This was 85 o

early 86. Admittedly the book was over my head i couldnt overstand what Fanon was saying. i even admitted

this in the book. i wanted to, t ho, cause id heard that it was considered the Panther Bible. Well, it now

appears that not even they completely overstood Wretched of the Earth. A small consolation to whats left ofmy ego

When We started receiving these Meditations i was so gratef ul that the Comrad had taken the t ime to break

down Wretched f rom a New Afrikan Communist perspective. This work will last a hundred years because it is

the truth. And it is rich with substance & dialectical-materialist reasoning. Its so lid & concrete. It is a t rue

weapon f or Our struggle & should be read, studied, discussed, meditated upon & practiced in order to realize

better world than that in which We now live. This work will take its place next to Settlers: Mythology of the

White Proletariat, by J. Sakai; Night-Vision: Illuminating War & Class on the Neo- Colonial Terrain, by Butch Lee

& Red Rover; False Nationalism False Internationalism: Class Contradictions in the Armed Struggle; Coming of

Black Genocide, by Bottomf ish Blues. i wont go into the Wretched Meditations , by now you should be ready to

go f orth. Trust me, this is ideo- theoretical gold! Lets get f ree!

Re-Build!

Sanyika Shakur

New Af rikan Communist

You can write to Sanyika at:

s/n Kody Scott D#07829

Pelican Bay State PrisonSHU-C-7-112

PO Box 7500

Crescent City, CA

95532

Sanyika ShakurSanyika ShakurSanyika Shakur

Written by

In Sankyika Shakur's own words, "i was born Nov 13, 1963. Raised in South Central Los

Angeles, by a phenomenal single, working-class , mother. Cut my teeth in the host ile gang

culture in South Central f rom the mid-70's t il the late 80's. Was introduced to the New Afrikan

Independence Movement, by way of the Spear & Shield Collective, in 1986, while in the SHU

at San Quentin. It was also in 1986 that i became a Shakur. I am a f ounding cadre of the

August Third Collective and a combatant in the New Af rikan Peoples Liberat ion Army. I have had an

indeterminate SHU term since 1989, f or being a threat t o the saf ety and security of the institution - presumab

CDCR, though i suspect it's the inst itution of capitalism. I am an author that has produced pieces f or various

movement publications over the years as well as a couple of books. Currently working with Kersplebedeb

Publishing & Distr ibution to publish a collection o f writings done here in Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit. i am

scheduled f or release in Black August 2012."


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