Category: Black History

TRIBUTE TO THE LEGACY OF PAUL ROBESON

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“Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.” – Paul Robeson

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Paul Robeson was an African American revolutionary historic figure who lived an outstanding and remarkable life from April 9, 1898, to January 23, 1976. He was a singer, actor, athlete, a professional football player for the NFL, lawyer, scholar, civil rights activist, and an unapologetic defender of Marxist–Leninist doctrine.

No one can ever doubt that Paul Robeson’s fury of character was produced by the influences of his father, the Reverend William Drew Robeson, who once lived as a chattel slave. He escaped from a North Carolina plantation and fought as a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War. Later in life he became a Presbyterian minister. Paul Robeson’s mother, Maria Louisa Bustill, was a schoolteacher from a prominent Philadelphia free Black family.

Robeson’s mesmerizing artistic renditions reflects Black people’s traditions of courage, resilience and defiance to oppression. His passion for creativity revealed the humanity and dignity that he was filled with. Robeson’s legacy shall always symbolize the very best qualities of the African American masses.

Paul Robeson played college football for Rutgers University (then Rutgers College) from 1915 to 1918. He was the
first Black athlete to play for Rutgers, challenging racism by proving to be the best.

Robeson became a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He rose to fame when he starred in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones and All God’s Chillun Got Wings, while popularizing Negro spirituals with pianist Lawrence Brown.

The Harlem Renaissance came about from Marcus Garvey‘s call for Black people to be profound with their identity in all areas of dignified expression. It was a cultural movement that highlighted Black talent in the performing, literary and visual arts. While unveiling the beauty of African American culture the Harlem Renaissance served to politically discredit white supremacy’s assertions about “inferior” Black intellectuality and other racist myths.

Civil Rights icon Paul Robeson being received in the Soviet Union in 1934. “Here, I am not a Negro but a human being for the first time in my life … I walk in full human dignity.”

Although Robeson was anti-militarism, he supported the U.S. involvement in World War II due to him being anti–fascist and Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. During the war Robeson sang to entertain Allied troops on radio broadcasts and live USO performances in Europe.

During the anti-Communist McCarthy Era witch hunt (1947-1959), Paul Robeson was harshly scrutinized for advocating civil rights for African Americans and other people of color as well as for his support of the Soviet Union. The Kremlin officially invited Robeson to the U.S.S.R. where he was warmly greeted by enthusiastic Russian audiences who adored him.

Soviet Premier Nikita khrushchev with Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda “Essie” Cardozo Goode Robeson.

Robeson’s affinities with the Soviet Union were due to what he witnessed there, the potential for a more equitable society. Robeson was also appreciative of Russia’s consistent condemnation since 1917, of racist Jim Crow laws in the United States. Paul Robeson believed that socialism could provide the material basis for eradicating racism and other forms of oppression from human society.

Despite its many political flaws, no one in their right mind can ever compare the social and economic progress existing then in the Soviet Union with the wholesale misery prevailing under capitalism today!

Washington officials intensified their scrutiny on Robeson, especially when he became an outspoken critic of the U.S. role in the Korean War (1950–1953). He never hesitated to condemn the U.S. intervention as imperialist at “Hands Off Korea” rallies and wherever he spoke publicly. Robeson argued that China’s involvement on the side of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was justified to counter U.S. aggression.

Robeson was empathetic towards the liberation struggles of other oppressed people, specifically the Irish Republican cause against British imperialism, and Puerto Rico’s historic fight for independence from U.S. colonialism.

My portrait of Paul Robeson. 20″ X 24,” acrylic paint on canvas.

As a show of solidarity, at many of his public performances, Robeson requested from his audience a moment of silence for the incarcerated Puerto Rican Nationalist leader, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos.

Despite many attempts by the U.S. government to shatter his spirit and silence him, Robeson was a giant amongst giants. He became friends and political collaborator with prominent Black Communist figures, like Lorraine Hansberry, W.E.B. Debois, Claudia Jones, Harry Heywood, William L. Patterson, Benjamin Davis Jr., Ferdinand Smith and others in New York City’s Harlem community.

Paul Robeson’s outspokenness and rise to prominence came at a time when U.S. imperialism was most vulnerable. The defeat of the Axis Powers ushered in new Socialist states in Europe, the triumphant Chinese Revolution in 1949, the Algerian Revolution in 1954, the Cuban Revolution in 1959, were challenging eruptions of anti-colonial struggles in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The new world circumstances posed a direct threat to the capitalist order itself, as Robeson waited anxiously for a favorable outcome.

Paul Robeson performing via radio, which was then the means to reach a massive audience.

The new political environment caused Washington officials to have grave concerns. They feared the global revolutionary ferment would impact the hearts and minds of people in the United States.

The House Un-American Activities Committee, scrutinized Robeson and pressured him to renounce the freedom struggle, Socialism, and the Soviet Union, which he adamantly refused. In April 1948, Robeson traveled to Paris to attend a Soviet-sponsored peace conference, where he made controversial, anti-imperialist comments. Upon returning to the U.S. his passport was revoked by the U.S. State Department, as part of the persecution.

His most admirable trait was that he stood firmly consistent with his beliefs, even when his career was under the constant threat of being completely ruined by the powers-that-be. Paul Robeson will surely be remembered for being courageous and a man of moral strength and firm convictions.

LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTIONARY LEGACY OF PAUL ROBESON

Tribute to Maurice Bishop Freedom Fighter of Grenada

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“Our Revolution in Grenada is a people’s Revolution and as such one of the fundamental principles of our Revolution is the establishment of the people’s rights. Among these rights, we include the right to equal pay for men and women, the right to social and economic justice, the right to work and the right to democratic participation in the affairs of our nation.” – Maurice Bishop

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Born on May 29, 1944, on the Caribbean island of Grenada, Maurice Bishop became an inspiring revolutionary figure who sought to make Black liberation a reality in his homeland. He envisioned transforming the social and economic life of Grenada on a socialist basis. Bishop founded and led the New Jewel Movement (Joint Endeavour for Welfare, Education and Liberation, a revolutionary political party with a Marxist-Leninist premise.

Bishop studied at the University of London where he graduated in 1969 with a degree in law. It was during those years when he began reading Marxist–Leninist literature and became interested in learning about the histories of socialist movements, especially the Cuban Revolution.

He returned to Grenada in 1970 where he practiced law defending the grievances of poor workers. On that year Bishop provided legal counsel for militant striking nurses at St. George’s General Hospital seeking better working conditions for medical staff and adequate healthcare for patients.

On March 13, 1979, Maurice Bishop led an uprising in which the government of Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy was overthrown. This was the outcome of deteriorating social and economic conditions that impacted the general population of the island nation.  Gairy was accused of leading a corrupt and oppressive regime that was supported by lumpen elements of the “Mongoose Gang”.

Grenada’s Prime Minister Marice Bishop and Cuban President Fidel Castro Ruz, in Cuba, 1980

Between 1979–1983 Maurice Bishop’s government introduced sweeping reforms, including free healthcare, secondary education, construction of homes, paid maternity leave, equal pay for women, and the Center for Popular Education (CPE) for literacy, and land reforms.

As soon as the new government was established it forged close diplomatic relations with Cuba. Havana officials agreed to help Grenada construct the Point Salines International Airport on the southern tip of the island. It was later re-named to Maurice Bishop International Airport, after the Grenadian national hero.

Bishop visited Cuba in 1977 prior to becoming Grenada’s Prime Minister. He returned for the Non-Aligned Countries Summit in Havana on September 2, 1979, and again for the May Day celebration in 1980.

My portrait of Maurice Bishop. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

Washington officials were enraged by the developing relationship between Grenada, Cuba and the Soviet Union. U.S. officials felt threaten by the revolutionary enthusiasm of that period, in which Grenada added to the anxiety.

Under the Democratic Party presidency of Jimmy Carter and Republican Party Ronald Reagan, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was given approval to conspire and aggravate internal differences within the Grenadian leadership. The country’s second head of state, Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard was at odds with Bishop over his relationship with Cuba and other socialist countries. Coard became increasingly anti-communist.

On October 13, 1983, Coard led a coup in which Bishop was arrested. A few days later hundreds of Bishop’s supporters freed him by storming the Fort George prison where he was held, located in the capitol city of Saint George. Soon after, the revolutionary leader was re-captured and on October 19, 1983, Coard ordered Bishop be executed by firing squad.

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) President Kim Il Sung with
Grenada’s Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.

Taking advantage of the internal strife in the country, on October 25, 1983, U.S. military forces invaded Grenada. Washington officials used “restoring order” and the safety of U.S. students attending school in Grenada as a pretense for the invasion. The real motive for the assault was to eliminate Cuban and Soviet influence in Grenada and the Caribbean islands.

Being that Bernard Coard appeared to work on behalf of U.S. imperialism it’s ironic that he was also arrested by U.S. forces and charged with the assassination of Maurice Bishop. Washington officials, however, were politically cautious and wanted to project the military invasion as an act to uphold justice. U.S.-trained Law enforcement officers from neighboring Caribbean islands were brought to Grenada on a C-5A military transport plane to give the false appearance of their inclusion in the U.S. operation.

It was the first U.S. military incursion in a foreign country since its defeat in the Vietnam War. Washington officials wanted to assert their military might in order to make a political statement to the world. To accomplish this endeavor, elite units were used from Army Special Forces, Navy Seals and Marines.

Despite the tightening grip of U.S. imperialism on the Caribbean island nations and all Latin America, the masses of this region continue to demonstrate their resistance to oppression. What Maurice Bishop aimed to achieve in his beloved Grenada will inevitably become a reality with the defeat of imperialism.

LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTIONARY LEGACY OF MAURICE BISHOP!

Tribute to Civil Rights iconic figure FANNIE LOU HAMER

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“And we can no longer ignore the fact that we can’t sit down and wait for things to change. Because as long as they can keep their feet on our neck, they will always do it. But it’s time for us to stand up and be women and men.” –Fannie Lou Hamer

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

The legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer is one of the most inspiring to come out of the 1960s-70s Civil Rights movement. She was an outspoken activist that never yield to white supremacist terror and fought vigorously for the human rights of Black people.

Born in Montgomery County, Mississippi on October 6, 1917, during the height of Jim Crow laws and lynchings, Fannie Lou Hamer knew first-hand the viciousness of Black oppression. She was the youngest of 20 children in an extremely poor sharecropping family.

At just 6 years old, Fannie Lou began working in the field picking cotton. She was compelled to drop out of school at 12 years old to work full-time in the cotton fields in order to help support her family survive. However, because Fannie Lou loved reading the Bible and other books, she was fully literate by the time adulthood arrived.

Big landowners attempted to use the sharecropping system to re-enslave Black people.

One of the most outrageous acts committed against Hamer was in 1961 at a hospital in Mississippi. She went to undergo a routine surgery for the removal of a uterine tumor. Without her knowledge or consent, a white doctor also performed a hysterectomy.

Years later, Hamer discovered that what was done to her without permission was part of a broader and secret eugenics campaign to reduce the Black population. This heinous genocidal program involved medical institutions as well as agencies of the U.S. government. Indigenous, Chicana/Mexican and Puerto Rican women were also secretly targeted for sterilization. Similarly, in Puerto Rico, one/third of the child-baring female population was sterilized between the 1930s to the 1980s.

My portrait of Fannie Lou Hamer made in 2023. 24″ X 30″, acrylic paint on canvas.

Despite many ordeals that affected her personally, Hamer’s resilience and leadership was strengthened. In 1963, this heroine earned the title Field Secretary for the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC) for its voter registration drives. This was an exemplary entity initially founded and led by another Civil Rights icon, Ella Baker.

Hamer’s outspokenness was admired by many Civil Rights leaders, including, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr with whom she collaborated. Although Hamer differed with the more radical politics and tactics of the Black Panther Party, they maintained a mutual respect for one another based on their common interest in Black emancipation. In fact, Hamer was quite vocal condemning the media’s slanders and the government’s COINTELPRO attacks on individual Panther leaders and their offices throughout the country.

Fannie Lou Hamer (L) and Ella Baker (R).

The Ku Klux Klan and other racists among the white populace of the deep South did not take well knowing that Black people were emboldened and politically active. The consequential backlash that African Americans encountered for organizing themselves to demand their rights was violence.

In many municipalities throughout the South police and KKK activities were synonymous. For anyone, especially African Americans, who challenged existing racist laws designed to deny Black people the right to vote meant risking your life. Fannie Lou Hamer proved to be a courageous woman; she dismissed the potential physical danger to herself and proceeded in her quest for racial equality.

The police state was never hesitant to use violence against the Civil Rights movement.

On June 9, 1963, Fannie Lou Hamer was severely beaten by police while in custody. She was traveling on a bus with co-activists of Freedom Summer, returning home from a voter registration workshop. When they arrived at a rest stop to get a meal at a diner the group was refused service. The police were then called and immediately all the Black activists were brutally beaten.

Once in the jailhouse, Fannie Lou had her clothing ripped off. As she was viciously held down on the floor naked the police struck her with a baton repeatedly. The cops sexually abused and tortured her. The horror she helplessly experienced on that day is reminiscent of what enslaved Black women suffered by the hands of overseers and slaveowners.

The beating caused permanent kidney damage, which resulted in a medical condition that lasted until her death on March 14, 1977. Despite her poor health and being emotionally traumatized, Hamer continued her activist work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Fannie Lou Hamer traveled throughout the United States to enlighten people of the noble endeavor. She was invited to speak at universities, churches, political gatherings and rallies. Her influence was indisputably powerful as she promoted the general vision of the Civil Rights movement.

Women played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights movement.

On December 20, 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer visited the Williams Institutional Church in the Mecca of Black politics and culture, Harlem, New York City, where she met and appeared alongside of Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. Hamer was running for office in Mississippi, in a campaign to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representative. It was at the gathering in Harlem when she presented her most famous speech titled, “Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired.”

Hamer was well received by a mostly Black audience who sympathized and admired her defiance and ability to survive many life-threatening ordeals. Her speech included a chronology of racist violence she personally experienced as well as shedding light on the suffering Black people have endured throughout the country.

Fannie Lou Hamer was an outspoken Queen of the Civil Rights movement.

Among the many challenges Fannie Lou Hamer had to confront was the shameful patronizing racism of the overwhelmingly white Democratic Party, or “Dixiecrats,” as Malcolm X frequently described them. Their not-so-hidden social arrogance was transparent to most Black people, especially Fannie Lou Hamer who sensed their insidious prejudices towards her for speaking with a strong rural Southern Black accent and having a sharecropper family background.

White Democratic Party officials postered about “favoring” Black freedom, but only to the extent of securing for themselves the Black vote. It would have been naive to expect anything else. The customs, habits and traditions of the Democratic Party, along with its insidious behavior towards African Americans is all rooted in the history of chattel slavery. The Democratic Party was once the political party of slave owners.

Being aware of the history and insulting behavior by white privileged officials, compelled Black activists affiliated with the Democratic Party to create the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) in 1964, of which Fannie Lou Hamer was a co-founder. The Civil Rights activists had hoped to push for a better position within the Democratic Party while preserving an independent existence beneficial to the political struggles of Black people.

Fannie Lou Hamer was a skillful orator that addressed the plight of the oppressed.

Hamer continued to push forward by creating the Freedom Farm Cooperative in Sunflower County, Mississippi. 640 acres were purchased to provide employment for many Black residents. They collectively cultivated and farmed the land. Hamer was also a co-founder National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC), an entity that included Black and other women of color. The NWPC played a pivotal role during the rise of the Feminist movement. It made efforts to combine and highlight the relevance of the anti-racist struggle to the demands of women’s emancipation.

Fannie Lou Hamer was inspiring and an indisputably unique representation of an oppressed people. But she was also the product of centuries-long militant traditions which made possible the survival of Black people from the most challenging and unimaginable circumstances throughout their history.

Despite living with chronic pain from injuries sustained during the 1963 savage beating by police, the spirited energy to fight for the freedom of her people never deterred. The selflessness and humanity that Fannie Lou Hamer passionately possessed throughout her life, once it is emulated by millions of people it shall guarantee a victorious fight to end racist oppression and usher in a new society.

LONG LIVE THE LEGACY OF FANNIE LOU HAMER!

Long live the fighting spirit of the Aug 21,1831, Nat Turner Rebellion

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“I had a vision – and I saw white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkened – the thunder rolled in the Heavens, and blood flowed in streams – and I heard a voice saying, ‘Such is your luck, such are you called to see, and let it come rough or smooth, you must surely bear it.” – Nat Turner

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Of the events in African American history that bourgeois historians and apologists of slavery tend to dread the most is the Nat Turner Rebellion. This monumental chapter in Black history occurred on August 21, 1831, at the Belmont Plantation in Southampton County, Virginia. Since then, Nat Turner’s name symbolizes defiance for Black people but for white privilege it continues to be a moment in history that torments the imagination.

White supremacy’s preferred narrative of that rebellion is to overemphasize the violence inflicted on the slave owning families. False interpretations of history aimed to project slavers as victims and insidiously criminalize the justified rage of Black people, both in the past and present.

The horrific acts of violence inflicted on white slave owning families by the rebellious enslaved people can best be characterized as the “chickens coming home to roost”. To understand why this slave revolt was one of the bloodiest in U.S. history it requires critical thinking to grasp the experiences African Americans endured under that system.

Great Britain perceived the Thirteen Colonies as their goose that laid golden eggs and valued them more than all its conquered territories throughout the globe. it was in the United States where the system of chattel slavery became most lucrative and why it was extremely brutal.

The rapid economic accumulation of wealth created from enslaved labor allowed the United States to develop into the giant capitalist bastion it is today. The enormous financial power that derived from the harshest circumstances of human suffering compelled the rulers to develop a set of ideas that served as their ideological justification for Black oppression — White supremacy.

African chattel slavery was most lucrative and brutal in the United States.

Despite the glorification of the “old South” by the mainstream Black people were subjected to extreme forms of degradation, beatings, castration, torture, murder, and the rape of women, men and children alike. Black families lived under constant fear of being separated. Without warning children, mothers and fathers were sold to other slave plantations. In addition, among the most shocking and heinous acts committed by slave owners as a sport and for punishing insubordinate slaves was having their children tossed into rivers to be killed by crocodiles.

The gall of bourgeois historians who dare to make false judgement while minimizing the crimes inflicted on Black people. The blame for the not-so-pleasant details of slave uprisings falls strictly on those who firmly preserved the cruelty that came with this system. Black people have historically been driven to use force as a means to end their suffering.

Sketch drawing of Nat Turner.

No uprising in history has ever been pretty. When a subjugated people realizes that struggle is the only path to freedom there are no guarantees that bloodshed will be absent from the equation. In addition, tyrants have always reserved the right to use violence, as a way to preserve their power. For oppressed people breaking away from the yoke of their plight has always been achieved by whatever means necessary.

Although Nat Turner was traumatized from abuses since childhood, he managed to develop strong leadership qualities which allowed him to serve as preacher among the enslaved. According to the supposed “confession” made after his capture, to a Southampton attorney Thomas Ruffin Gray, Turner stated that he had received a message from “God” commanding him to lead the slaves in an uprising.

Nat Turner and fellow enslaved prepare for rebellion.

On the evening of August 21, 1831, Turner led numerous slaves in an action which abruptly began the rebellion. They ran to the supply sheds to arm themselves with tools used for toiling the land. With weapons in hand the enslaved laborers proceeded throughout the plantation to bludgeon and stab to death the well-armed overseers.

The intensity of the revolt continued with Turner and his followers entering the hated resident mansion which symbolized the depth of their oppression. It was there where all members of the privileged White slave owning family were killed.

An artist’s depiction of Nat Turner’s Rebellion.

Days later, a state of panic widely consumed the White populace of Virginia and neighboring states, as the Black insurgents were hunted down like animals by bands of racist vigilantes. Unfortunately, by October 30th all the insurrectionists were captured and put on a showcase trial.

On November 11, 1831 Nat Turner and 56 of his followers were executed and about 200 non-participants of the revolt from neighboring plantations were beaten and tortured. The repressive decrees implemented throughout the South were intense and lasted until the end of the Civil War.

As if killing Nat Turner and his followers were not enough to satisfy the frenzied vindictiveness of slavers, the bodies of the martyrs were gruesomely chopped to pieces, burned and used to make oil and glue.

In the aftermath the white populace proved to be psychologically impacted. They became increasingly fearful of Black people. New repressive measures were instituted throughout the South with harsher laws that restricted the movement of the enslaved and free Blacks alike.

Artist depiction of Nat Turner being led to his execution.

Nat Turner contributed to the rising momentum of that period which popularized the use of armed force against the vile institution of slavery. By all accounts this rebellion inspired John Brown‘s attack on Harper’s Ferry in 1859, which triggered the momentous political storm that resulted in the Civil War of 1861-1865 and the overthrow of the slave-owning system.

The Attempt to destroy slavery by the slaves themselves is of the utmost significance. This event will continue to inspire today’s anti-racist struggles as we continue to grapple with the historical consequences of African chattel slavery in the modern era.

A plaque stands on the site of the rebellion in Belmont Plantation, Southhampton, Virginia.

Although the rebellion was suppressed, with the martyrs tortured and executed, this history continues to inspire struggle in the present period. The legacy of this slave revolt added to Black traditions that gave us Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, Ida B. Wells, Marcus Garvey, the African Blood Brotherhood, Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, and more recently, what transpired with the Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

History has given Nat Turner the noble title of revolutionary. A future revolutionary struggle in the United States will surely bring about a broad desire for erecting statues and monuments dedicated to the memory of Black freedom fighters like Nat Turner. Giving the highest tribute to men and women who fought for Black liberation will be part and parcel of realizing the demand for Reparations.

LONG LIVE THE MEMORY OF NAT TURNER, OCTOBER 2, 1800 – NOVEMBER 11, 1831

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a fighter for Black emancipation during the struggle for Civil Rights

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“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was among a number of significant Black religious figures whose actions and leadership in the 1950s-1960s propelled the fury of the Civil Rights movement. The Southern Baptist Church for the most part served as a vehicle for expressing the wishes of Black people. But with the advent of the 1960s mass upsurge nothing was exempt from the political storm that created a potential for revolution in the United States, including the Black Church.

The momentum consumed most of society, as the outcry for Black emancipation gained support even outside the African American community. This phenomenon provided favorable conditions for the Black struggle to play an exemplary and leadership role in the intensifying political climate.

Other oppressed sectors of the population yearning for freedom as well began to follow suit. The Civil Rights movement which started as an expression for Black freedom was now a factor in a mass upsurge which had a profound impact on the spectrum of politics in this country.

Photos taken of Dr. King while in custody by Birmingham, Alabama police.

Dr. Martin Luther King’s empathy for the historic suffering of Black people, heightened his contempt for the legacy of slavery, racist Jim Crow laws. It instilled in his character a defiance and resilience that would inspire millions of people from all nationalities and races to take part in his quest.  

Figures like Evelina Antonetty and Gerena Valentin from the Puerto Rican community as well as Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, representing Mexican/Chicano migrant workers, aligned with Dr. King, thus adding to the strength of the Civil Rights movement.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, March 26, 1964, in Washington, DC.

Despite differences among Black leaders, the February 21, 1965, assassination of Malcolm X impacted Dr. King. There is indisputable evidence in his speeches that he was becoming radicalized, a reflection of the political militancy that was evolving among Black and Brown people in this country. Malcolm X’s assassination naturally brought to the open what was already being felt in the hearts and minds of millions of people, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., himself.

Contrary to assertions made by bourgeois historians, which depict MLK as nonaggressive and passive, he supported and boldly encouraged civil disobedience. He was also an outspoken critic of the U.S. political and economic system.

Civil Rights activists demonstrated dignity and were not afraid of white supremacist attacks.

Although MLK never identified himself as revolutionary, by traditional definition, objective circumstances compelled him to side with radical views. Towards the end of his life, Dr. King showed signs of gravitating towards an anti-capitalist analytical conclusion to the human suffering he witnessed.

During a speech he gave on August 16, 1967, at a Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. King boldly stated: “The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.”

And when Dr. King gave his April 4, 1967, speech at Riverside Church in Harlem, New York City, titled: “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” the rulers of this country became infuriated. Considering the history of political reaction and racist hatred in the United States, it cannot be ruled out that delivering this speech sealed Dr. King’s death.

Washington officials were defensive due to the Vietnamese anti-colonial struggle gaining momentum while receiving massive support throughout the world, as the U.S. anti-war movement added to the pressure.

When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. articulated the relevance of Civil Rights with the fight to end the war in Vietnam U.S. officials experienced political embarrassment on a global scale. It was no coincidence or surprise that the notorious J. Edgar Hoover had ordered intensifying COINTELPRO activities against Dr. King to seek ways to ruin his reputation and discredit the politics of the movement.

My portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 20″ X 24″, acrylic paint on canvas.

Exactly a year after the Riverside Church speech, Dr. King was assassinated. He was shot while speaking to an audience from a hotel balcony in Menphis, Tennessee. The assailant was a white supremacist named James Earl Ray, who used a high-power rifle from a distance away to kill the renown Black leader.

African Americans reacted justifiably with indignation and rebelled on the streets of major cities throughout the country. The killing of Dr. King was reminiscent of the terror Black people experienced throughout the history of this country since chattel slavery.

Moments before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was fatally shot by sniper.

There are many apologists in the mainstream who will distort the critical role Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. played in the Civil Rights movement. They will also present sanitized narratives that focus solely on his “peaceful, non-violent” tactics while avoiding mention of the vicious police terror unleashed on Dr. King and that entire movement.

What we today must always raise is the tenacious resistance Black and Brown people demonstrated then and will continue until freedom prevails, as Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement had envisioned.

LONG LIVE THE LEGACY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott-King and their children.

Long Live the legacy of the January 1, 1804, HAITIAN REVOLUTION!

Long live the legacy of the Haitian Revolution

August 22, 1791 – January 1, 1804

By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

The Haitian Revolution is among the most spectacular events in Western Hemispheric history. It was a revolt executed by enslaved Africans on the island of Española. This rebellious storm which began on August 21, 1791, and lasted to January 1, 1804, marked the beginning of the end for the vile system of chattel slavery in the Americas.

Bourgeois historians tend to automatically distort facts and formulate narratives that overshadow the Haitian Revolution by overly glorifying the French and so-called American “revolution”, two monumental events in capitalism’s development.

Moreover, these mainstream scholars will falsely assert that what sparked anti-colonial struggles in the Western Hemisphere was the “War for Independence” of 1776. However, a close examination of the history of race relations in the United States will contradict such claims.

An artist depiction of the Haitian Revolution’s fury.

For its own reasons of interest, England was leaning towards prohibiting the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It also disapproved its Thirteen settler colonies expanding further westward.

The British Empire was apprehensive of overextending itself in unfamiliar regions of the Americas. It feared becoming vulnerable to the organized resistance of Indigenous tribal people and competitive aggressiveness of its Spanish and French rivals.

It was England’s colonial policy and line of march in foreign affairs that placed its interest in direct conflict with that of the rising capitalist class in the Thirteen Colonies. The contradictions between English rulers and their “American” birth child became antagonistic and irreconcilable.

Expanding African slavery and pushing further west to engage in the theft of Indigenous lands was the sole motive for “Independence” from England. Whereas the Haitian Revolution was motivated by enslaved people desperately seeking an end to their plight.

Haiti was the most lucrative colony France possessed in its empire due to the untold horrors the Black population experienced under extreme circumstances of exploitation. The amount of wealth generated from commodity goods shipped to France, mainly sugar, coffee, cacao, cotton, and indigo, amazingly surpassed commodities exported to England from the Thirteen Colonies combined.

The Legendary Dutty Boukman

Dutty Boukman, a priest of African religions was captured by slave traders in the region known today as Senegal and Gambia. He was brought to Jamaica and then to Haiti. Boukman was boldly rebellious and frequently defied slavers by escaping. He acquired his name (Boukman for book man) because he always traveled with a Koran, which he used to teach fellow slaves how to read.

Artist’s depiction of Dutty Boukman.

According to many contemporary accounts, Boukman was selfless and a compassionate human being, but he was also known to be extremely ruthless with slave owners as well as Blacks who betrayed their own people.

Boukman was a respected and feared maroon leader, with a large following that frequently ambushed individual French officials. They attacked settlements and homes of wealthy elite figures to avenge what was done to Black people.

But on November 7, 1791, Boukman was killed while leading a slave uprising in the township of Le Cap-Francais. Today, Boukman is remembered as the Catalyst of the Haitian Revolution.

Women in the Haitian Revolution

The success of the Haitian Revolution would not have been possible without the participation of free and enslaved Black women, most of whom picked up arms willingly against the French. Their desire to serve as combatants and spies was in response to the degradation they experienced through beatings and rapes at the hands of their slave masters.

An artist’s depiction of triumphant Haitian women in battle.

A famous example is Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière, who served as a Lieutenant in Toussaint Louverture’s army. She courageously gave leadership to combatants that shocked French soldiers at the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot. 

Artist’s depiction of Marie-Jeanne Lamartinière.

There were no limits to what these women did in the interest of the revolution. In many cases, these heroines weaponized sexuality to disorient and fool enemy troops in order to obtain intelligence vital to the operations of insurgents.

The heroic acts of these women highlight their commitment to a noble cause. Their sacrifices are usually downplayed or dismissed by the dominant male perspective of bourgeois historians.

Haitian Defeat of the French

Although most combatants were formerly enslaved Black men and women, the liberation army included free Blacks, Tainos, Mulatos, as well as Polacks and Germans, whites serving in the French Army who defected to the revolution. French tyranny was despised by various sectors of Haitian society.

After the revolutionary triumph, non-French Europeans who supported the abolitionist cause were allowed to remain in Haiti and granted citizenship. However, French citizens who upheld the slave system and refused to leave Haiti were immediately killed.

The savage treatment enslaved Black Haitians received from their French captors fully justify the rage and ruthlessness of this revolt.

Formerly enslaved Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who was second-in-command and one of Toussaint L’Ouverture’s generals, brilliantly led the revolutionary army at the decisive Battle of Vertieres on November 18, 1803, where the French Army suffered many casualties causing humiliation with defeat.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806)

The French were exhausted and demoralized by the prolongation of the conflict. They were shocked by the tenacity of Black people determined to win their freedom. After thirteen years of fighting, on January 1, 1804, the Haitian people jubilantly rejoiced when Dessalines declared Haiti’s independence from foreign domination.

Artist depiction of the Battle of Vertieres, November 18, 1803.

After the military struggle ceased, the newly formed Haitian government focused on seeking allies by establishing relations with revolutionary movements of neighboring countries. Haitian leaders understood quite well the necessity and benefits for oppressed people of different lands to forge unity, if they were to survive the onslaught of colonizing powers.

This was a feature of the Haitian perspective that impacted Puerto Rico’s iconic revolutionary leader, Dr. Ramon Emeterio Betances. Following in the footsteps of his father, a Dominican businessman who supported the Haitian Revolution, Betances travelled to Haiti with his most trusted comrade, Jose A. Basora, to have collaborative discussions with Haitian leaders on the ideas of a trans-Caribbean federation.

My portrait of Dr. Ramon Emeterio Betances. 24″ X 30, acrylic paint on canvas.

Many weapons seized from the defeated French Army were then given as gestures of solidarity to revolutionaries in Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Simón Bolivar’s liberation army in South America. Haiti also provided combatant volunteers to assist in some of these liberation struggles.

An artist oil depiction of the legendary revolutionary Simón Bolivar.

Haiti became a beacon of hope and inspiration for enslaved and colonized people throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, and the United States, similarly to how the Soviet Union was viewed with awe in the early part of the Twentieth Century.

Imperialism punishes Haiti for 1804

Soon after the victory, Haiti sought to normalize relations with France and the United States on equal terms through diplomacy, but to no avail. Instead, Toussaint L’Ouverture was brutally murdered while supposedly travelling to Paris on a French warship to make peace.

The U.S. refused to recognize Haiti’s independence until 1862. And due to pressure, Haiti was forced to cede to France’s demand for reparation – 150 francs for the “loss of property”, (meaning slaves) in exchange for recognizing the newly formed Haitian state.

The legendary Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint L’Ouverture.

Haitian leaders always struggled to retain political power under the pressure of mounting hostilities by countries eager to re-colonize Haiti.

Between 1915 to 1934, The United States militarily invaded and occupied Haiti. The excuse Washington officials used was to “restore order and stability” after the assassination of Haitian President Jean Vilbrun Guillaume Sam. A puppet government was then installed which agreed to have the U.S. take control of Haiti’s treasury.

The U.S. also invaded Haiti in 1993 under the guise of United Nations “Peacekeepers” and intervened again in 1994.

U.S. and French racist arrogance never respected the sovereignty of the first Black republic that dared to challenge white supremacy. This is why Haiti is punished to this day by being held in a continual colonial existence.

Despite how imperialism has suppressed the Haitian people in modern times, the revolutionary ferment of demonstrated by the Haitian people cannot be removed from hearts and minds. Tyrants and colonial oppressors of every kind continue to dread the Haitian people for the fury they unleashed that triggered the downfall of African chattel slavery.

It is for this reason why the Revolution of 1804 shall forever inspire and have a special place in the archives of the class struggle, alongside the 1917 Russian Socialist Revolution, Mexican Agrarian Revolution, 1949 Chinese Revolution, Cuban Revolution, Vietnamese Revolution, Congolese Revolution, Angolan Revolution, South Africa, and others yet to come.

LONG LIVE THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION!

Homenaje al legado de un revolucionario: Amílcar Cabral

English version: https://carlitoboricua.blog/2024/08/29/salute-to-the-legacy-of-a-revolutionary-amilcar-cabral/


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“Uno de los errores más graves, si no el más grave, cometido por las potencias coloniales en África puede haber sido ignorar o subestimar la fuerza cultural de los pueblos africanos”. -Amilcar Cabral

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Por Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

En el centenario del natalicio de Amílcar Cabral, saludamos a esta figura revolucionaria ejemplar. Nacido el 12 de septiembre de 1924 en Bafata, Guinea (colonia portuguesa), Cabral creció teniendo en el corazón la libertad de África. Fue un devoto panafricanista, poeta, ingeniero agrónomo, organizador, intelectual y teórico socialista.

Cabral jugó un papel decisivo en la organización del movimiento guerrillero PAIGC: el Partido Africano para la Independencia de Guinea-Bissau y Cabo Verde, (en portugués) Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde. Esta entidad tenía como objetivo derrocar el colonialismo portugués por cualquier medio necesario.

EL COLONIALISMO ES UN CRIMEN CONTRA LA HUMANIDAD

Los gobernantes blancos europeos se acostumbraron a enriquecerse robando los minerales y recursos naturales de África, como oro, plata, cobre, diamantes, petróleo, productos agrícolas y más. Se dividieron el continente entre ellos sin el consentimiento ni la consideración de los deseos de los africanos que fueron abusados ​​durante siglos mediante la esclavitud, la tortura, la violación y la muerte.

Amílcar Cabral (centro) con sus compañeros del movimiento guerrillero PAIGC.

El estado permanente de agitación que continúa experimentando África se atribuye a la naturaleza subversiva de los Estados imperialistas, que operan como instigadores para dividir y conquistar. Los abundantes recursos naturales de África la convierten en la región territorial más rica de la Tierra. Sin embargo, la población nativa es la más pobre del mundo, con la constante amenaza de hambruna.

No es de extrañar que las agencias de inteligencia del imperialismo como la CIA estén rutinariamente en guardia y listas para desatar sus fuerzas militares del USAFRICOM y la OTAN contra los movimientos de liberación de África.

Mientras estudiaba en el Instituto Superior de Agricultura (en portugués: Instituto Superior de Agronomia), en Lisboa, Portugal, Amílcar Cabral conoció a compañeros de estudios afiliados a movimientos nacionalistas en Argelia, Benin, Gabón, Ghana, Costa de Marfil, Kenia, Mozambique, Namibia, Congo. , Angola y Sudáfrica.

La visión de Cabral de un África emancipada lo motivó a establecer relaciones con movimientos nacionalistas en todo el continente. Fue la visión revolucionaria del mundo de Cabral lo que lo motivó a unirse a los camaradas panafricanistas angoleños para crear el MPLA (Movimiento Popular para la Liberación de Angola).

Nadie podrá jamás cuestionar la solidaridad internacionalista practicada entre los diversos movimientos nacionalistas africanos. A riesgo de sufrir represalias por parte de Portugal y otras potencias europeas, Kwame Nkrumah, que fue Primer Ministro de la Costa Dorada de 1952 a 1957, y luego Primer Ministro y Presidente de Ghana de 1957 a 1966, permitió que las guerrillas del PAIGC establecieran una base de operaciones dentro del territorio de ese país.

Guerrilleros del PAIGC realizando patrullas.

EL SOCIALISMO APOYA LA LIBERACIÓN NACIONAL

Como resultado de la relación de Amílcar Cabral con la Unión Soviética, la República Popular China, la República Popular Democrática de Corea, la República de Cuba y otros países del Bloque Socialista, el movimiento PAIGC se benefició política y militarmente.

Cabral vivió durante un período de la historia en el que los movimientos nacionalistas africanos surgieron como una erupción volcánica en todo el mundo. El colonialismo europeo encontró su rival con el ascenso del panafricanismo ansioso por empuñar las armas y de Estados socialistas dispuestos a proporcionárselas.

Los países miembros del Bloque Socialista proporcionaron entrenamiento con armas sofisticadas, como lanzadores de cohetes antiaéreos que disminuyeron la capacidad de la Fuerza Aérea portuguesa para dominar los cielos de Guinea-Bissau y Cabo Verde.

Sólo en la Unión Soviética había campamentos secretos donde miles de guerrilleros del PAIGC recibían entrenamiento de las Fuerzas Especiales del Ejército Soviético. Gracias a la solidaridad recibida de Cuba y la Unión Soviética, las guerrillas del PAIGC pudieron infligir muchas bajas al ejército colonizador portugués.

AMICAR CABRAL Y LA REVOLUCIÓN CUBANA

Amílcar Cabral desarrolló un respeto especial por la Revolución Cubana, especialmente después de reunirse con Fidel Castro Ruz y Ernesto Che Guevara en dos visitas distintas que hicieron a África. Desde el punto de vista de Cabral, Cuba se convirtió en el modelo de la lucha de liberación nacional en Cabo Verde y Guinea-Bissau.

Amílcar Cabral y Fidel Castro Ruz disfrutando de un momento en un campamento guerrillero.

Esa admiración fue más allá cuando Amílcar Cabral visitó La Habana, Cuba, para asistir a la Conferencia Tricontinental de 1966. Estuvieron presentes delegados de 82 países donde se produjo el levantamiento revolucionario. Estas naciones incluían Vietnam, Palestina, Sudáfrica, Haití, Irlanda, Chile y Puerto Rico.

Cuba expresó su solidaridad proporcionando al ejército guerrillero de Guinea-Bissau medicinas, armas, municiones y asesores técnicos. Después de 1965, Cuba también se comprometió a proporcionar miles de tropas de combate.

Fue la relación de Cabral con Cuba la que le ayudó a comprender por qué era necesaria una ruptura total con el modo económico capitalista del imperialismo si se quería lograr la independencia en Cabo Verde y Guinea. Estos sentimientos alimentaron su determinación de luchar por el socialismo en ambos países.

Amílcar Cabral preparando sus armas.

Y como resultado de los avances militares logrados por las guerrillas del PAIGC, el despreciado gobierno fascista de Portugal fue debilitado y finalmente derrocado durante la Revolución de los Claveles del 25 de abril de 1974. Ese evento demostró cómo las luchas en las colonias pueden impactar las situaciones políticas internas de los países colonizadores, especialmente si están plagados de abrumadoras contradicciones internas.

El sueño de Cabral de una Guinea-Bassau y un Cabo Verde independientes parecía eminentemente cierto. Pero el 20 de enero de 1973, un antiguo rival del PAIGC llamado Inocêncio Kani, considerado un agente pagado por la inteligencia portuguesa, disparó y mató al amado líder. El asesinato fue efectivamente una pérdida para el movimiento, pero la tragedia no impidió la derrota de Portugal en esta región del noroeste de África.

Inocêncio Kani y sus cómplices intentaron huir en un barco después de asesinar a Cabral. Sin embargo, los guerrilleros leales al líder caído los persiguieron y, con la ayuda de un destructor de la Armada soviética, Inocêncio Kani y sus compañeros traidores fueron capturados y llevados ante la justicia.

Mi homenaje artístico a Amilcar Cabral. 24″ X 30″, pintura acrílica sobre lienzo. Pintado en 2019.

Gracias al movimiento popular construido con el liderazgo de Amílcar Cabral, Cabo Verde y Guinea-Bissau obtuvieron su independencia a pesar de su asesinato. Será recordado como uno de los líderes revolucionarios legendarios de África en la clase icónica de Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, Steve Biko, Chris Hani, Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah y muchos otros.

Amílcar Cabral fue un nacionalista revolucionario porque amaba a su pueblo. También era un socialista devoto porque quería lo que consideraba indiscutiblemente lo mejor para África y todos los pueblos oprimidos.


¡VIVA EL LEGADO DE AMILCAR CABRAL!

Tribute to the Legacy of a Revolutionary: Amilcar Cabral

En español: https://carlitoboricua.blog/?p=10847&preview=true

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“One of the most serious errors, if not the most serious error, committed by colonial powers in Africa, may have been to ignore or underestimate the cultural strength of African peoples.” -Amilcar Cabral

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By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

On the 100th anniversary of Amilcar Cabral’s birth, we salute this most exemplary revolutionary figure. Born on September 12, 1924, in Bafata, Guinea (Portuguese colony), Cabral grew up possessing the freedom of Africa at heart. He was a devoted Pan-Africanist, poet, agricultural engineer, organizer, intellectual, and Socialist theoretician.

Cabral was instrumental in organizing the PAIGC guerilla movement – the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, (in Portuguese) Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde. This entity aimed to overthrow Portuguese colonialism by any means necessary.

COLONIALISM IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

For more than five centuries white European rulers became accustomed to enriching themselves by robbing Africa’s natural resources such as gold, silver, copper, diamonds, oil, agricultural products and more. They divided the continent among themselves without the consent or regard for the wishes of African people who were abused by enslavement, torture, rape, and death.

Amilcar Cabral (center) with his comrades from the PAIGC guerilla movement.

The permanent state of turmoil that Africa continues to experience is attributed to the subversive nature of imperialist states, operating as instigators in order to divide and conquer. Africa’s abundant natural resources make it the riches territorial region on Earth. Yet, the native population is the poorest in the world, with the constant threat of famine.

It is no wonder why the intelligence agencies of imperialism like the CIA are routinely on guard and ready to unleash its military forces of USAFRICOM and NATO against Africa’s liberation movements.

While studying at the Superior Institute of Agriculture (In Portuguese: Instituto Superior de Agronomia), in Lisbon, Portugal Amilcar Cabral met fellow students affiliated with nationalist movements in Algeria, Benin, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Congo, Angola, and South Africa.

Cabral’s vision of an emancipated Africa motivated him to establish relations with nationalist movements everywhere on the continent. It was Cabral’s revolutionary world outlook that motivated him to join Angolese Pan-Africanist comrades to create the MPLA (People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola).

No one can ever question the internationalist solidarity practiced among various African nationalist movements themselves. At the risk of reprisals from Portugal and other imperialist powers, Kwame Nkrumah who served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast from 1952 to 1957, and then as Prime Minister and President of Ghana from 1957 until 1966, allowed PAIGC guerillas to establish a base of operations within that country’s territory.

The legendary Kwame Nkrumah
PAIGC guerillas conducting patrols.

SOCIALISM STANDS WITH NATIONAL LIBERATION

As a result of Amilcar Cabral’s relationship with the Soviet Union, People’s Republic of China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Republic of Cuba and other countries in the Socialist Bloc the PAIGC movement benefitted politically and militarily.

Cabral lived during a period in history when African nationalist movements rose up like a volcanic eruption everywhere in the globe. European colonialism met its match with the rise of Pan-Africanism anxious to pick up arms and Socialist states willing to provide them. 

Member countries of the Socialist Bloc provided training with sophisticated weapons, such as anti-aircraft rocket launchers which diminished the Portuguese Airforce ability to dominate the skies over Guinea-Bissau & Cape Verde. 

In the Soviet Union alone there were secret encampments where thousands of PAIGC guerillas received training from Soviet Army Special Forces. Thanks to the solidarity received from Cuba and the Soviet Union PAIGC guerillas were able to inflict many casualties on the colonizing Portugues Army.

AMICAR CABRAL & THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

Amilcar Cabral developed a special respect for the Cuban Revolution, especially after meeting with Fidel Castro Ruz and Ernesto Che Guevara on two separate visits they made to Africa. From Cabral’s standpoint, Cuba became the blueprint for the national liberation struggle in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau.

Amilcar Cabral and Fidel Castro Ruz enjoying a moment at a guerilla encampment.

That admiration went further when Amilcar Cabral visited Havana, Cuba to attend the 1966 Tri-Continental Conference. Delegates from 82 countries where revolutionary upheaval occurred were present. These nations included Vietnam, Palestine, South Africa, Haiti, Ireland, Chile and Puerto Rico. 

Cuba expressed its solidarity by providing Guinea-Bissau’s guerilla army medicine, weapons, ammunition, and technical advisors. After 1965, Cuba also committed to provide thousands of combat troops.

It was Cabral’s relationship with Cuba that helped him understand why a complete break with imperialism’s capitalist economic mode was necessary if independence in Cape Verde and Guinea were to be attained. These sentiments fueled his determination to strive for Socialism in both countries.

Amilcar Cabral preparing his weapons.

And as a result of military gains made by the PAIGC guerillas, Portugal’s despised fascist government was weakened and ultimately overthrown during the Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974. That event proved how the struggles in the colonies can impact the internal political situations of colonizing countries especially if they are plagued with overwhelming internal contradictions.

Cabral’s dream of an independent Guinea-Bassau and Cape Verde appeared eminently certain. But on January 20, 1973, a former PAIGC rival named Inocêncio Kani believed to be a paid operative for Portuguese intelligence, shot and killed the beloved leader. The assassination was indeed a loss for the movement, but the tragedy did not prevent Portugal’s defeat in this Northwestern region of Africa.

Inocêncio Kani and his accomplices attempted to flee on a sea vessel after assassinating Cabral. However, guerilla fighters loyal to the fallen leader gave chase, and with the help of a Soviet Navy destroyer Inocêncio Kani and his fellow traitors were captured and brought to justice.

My artist tribute to Amilcar Cabral. 24″ X 30″, acrylic paint on canvas. Painted in 2019.

Thanks to the people’s movement built with Amilcar Cabral’s leadership, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau won their independence despite his assassination. He will be remembered as one of Africa’s legendary revolutionary leaders in the iconic class of Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, Steve Biko, Chris Hani, Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, and many others.

Amilcar Cabral was a revolutionary nationalist because he loved his people. He was also a devoted Socialist because he wanted what he viewed as indisputably the best for Africa and all oppressed people.

LONG LIVE THE LEGACY OF AMILCAR CABRAL!

National flags of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau.

TRIBUTE TO MARCUS GARVEY August 17, 1887 – June 10, 1940

Para la versión en español: https://carlitoboricua.blog/homenaje-a-marcus-garvey-17-de-agosto-de-1887-10-de-junio-de-1940/

By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

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“We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, (it is) sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind” – Marcus Mosiah Garvey 

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From a young age, Marcus Garvey became inquisitive about the causes of Black oppression. Coming into a world filled with anti-Black racist hatred, Garvey sought ways to achieve justice and equality for people of African origin. 

Garvey became the central figure of a social movement that developed at the early part of the 20th century in the United States. He was the founder and leader of the famous Universal Negro Improvement and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) known as UNIA. 

August 1, 1920, thousands of Black people gathered at a parade in Harlem, NYC, called by Marcus Garvey.

Garvey’s life journey involved becoming the catalyst of Pan-Africanism, a movement of profound significance that came at the heels of slavery. This critical movement defined the aspirations and nationalist sentiments of Black people across the globe in the modern era. 

In many of his public speeches, Marcus Garvey prioritized expounding on Black pride to counter white supremacy’s historic psychological weapon against Blacks and other people of color – internalized racism.

The famous Harlem Renaissance, which unveiled the beauty of African American culture while also shattering many racist myths, resulted from Marcus Garvey’s call for Black people to be profound with their identity in all areas of dignified expression. 

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural explosion in the realm of the performing, literary and visual arts which served to discredit white supremacy’s assertions about “inferior” Black intellectuality. This was a movement that turned Harlem into the political and cultural center of the African American people.

Years later, on Aug 12, 1958, Harlem Renaissance artists posed together at 17 East 126th Street.

UNIA’s fundamental premise called for 1) the right of Black people to self-determination 2) the right to economic power 3) the right to have Black educational institutions 4) the right to be free from racist violence, and so on. For millions of Black people, UNIA’s vision was an attractive proposition considering the centuries of degradation, violence, disregard and legalized enslavement.  

UNIA’s ranks grew to enormous proportions by 1920 with 30 chapters in the United States and millions of members worldwide. The expansion of this movement deeply threatened the white supremacist ruling class who never saw such powerful organizing among Black people. Hundreds of thousands African Americans exerted their strength by uniting into a sophisticated and mighty force. 

Marcus Garvey believed that wearing uniforms projected power, discipline, and strength.

U.S. rulers had ample reason to feel apprehensive about the rising Garveyite movement. The colossal wealth in the hands of the capitalist class accumulated over the course of centuries from the suffering of enslaved Black labor. 

No one can deny how that apprehension resulted in violence Black people endured everywhere in the United States. Take for example, the horrors that occurred during the destruction of Black Wall Street on May 31 – June 1, 1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Racist white citizens feverishly murdered Black people while burning to the ground their community of prosperous businesses.  

Garveyism Inherently Internationalist 

To the dislike of Washington officials, soon after the victorious 1917 Russian Socialist Revolution, Marcus Garvey dispatched a letter to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin expressing praises and congratulations. And following Lenin’s death on January 21, 1924, Garvey continued to express admiration for the achievements of the Communist leader.

In a speech presented in Harlem, NYC on January 27, 1924, Marcus Garvey stated: “One of Russia’s greatest men, one of the world’s greatest characters, and probably the greatest man in the world between 1917 and 1924, when he breathed his last and took his flight from this world. We as Negroes mourn for Lenin because Russia promised great hope not only for Negroes but to the weaker people of the world.”

Lenin speaking to working-class combatants of the Russian Revolution.

On July 27, 1919, Marcus Garvey expressed condemnation for the greatest U.S. ally – British imperialism. At a massive gathering in Harlem’s Liberty Hall Garvey defiantly voiced solidarity for the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) who battled the British Army during the Easter Rising, in a courageous attempt to free Ireland from English colonial rule. 

Marcus Garvey boldly condemned England and compared the plight of the Irish people with Africans. Garvey also called the execution of James Connolly and his comrades by a British firing squad an appalling act of tyranny.  

In 1925, Garvey visited Puerto Rico to meet with the renowned Puerto Rican Nationalist leader, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos. Campos’ outspoken oratory against the “racist practices in the house of the empire” caught Garvey’s attention. Despite their differences in goals and tactics, the meeting was highly symbolic. The two leaders proceeded in their separate line of march but with the highest respect for each other’s liberation struggle. 

Puerto Rico’s Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos and Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh.

Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh lived in Harlem during his youth and attended UNIA’s public meetings at Liberty Hall where he was impacted by Marcus Garvey’s speeches. Years later, Ho Chi Minh repeatedly spoke of the plight of Black people to shed light on the genesis of U.S. imperialism’s inhumanity. Thanks to being impressed by the Garveyite movement, in 1925 Ho Chi Minh authored his famous published essay titled “On Lynching and the Ku Klux Klan.” 

Marcus Garvey’s influence was widespread. He was undisputably an outspoken internationalist who identified with the suffering and struggles of other oppressed people. Black Puerto Rican Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, who originated from the struggle for independence of his homeland, understood quite well this empathetic quality of Marcus Garvey’s thinking.  Schomburg was one of Garvey’s loyal comrades.

Marcus Garvey, Arthuro Schomburg and other mourners at the grave of John E. Bruce

Persecution of Marcus Garvey 

Garvey’s political success and influence provoked scrutiny by the white supremacist U.S. Government. Garvey and UNIA became the targets of investigation and sabotage, carried out under the direction of the notorious J. Edgar Hoover and the Justice Department. 

Washington officials sought ways to exploit mistakes made to aggravate internal divisions within UNIA. The government’s efforts to stir chaos included using informants from the Harlem community as well as not-so-secret legal procedures, a precursor to COINTELPRO tactics, employed against the Black movement decades later. 

Due to the growing momentum of workers struggle for the eight-hour day in the U.S., and the impact the victorious 1917 Russian Socialist Revolution had on the world, Washington officials sensed a threat and reacted with frenzy. Consequently, the “Red Scare” effected the entire spectrum of the social and economic life in the United States.  

Two of my artwork pieces of Marcus Garvey. Both are acrylic paint on canvas.

Justice Department agents launched raids on public schools, universities, labor union offices, factories, homes, and places of worship. Far-reaching measures, in what became known in history as the “Palmer Raids”, were used to persecute immigrants, socialists, anarchists, and other pro-labor radicals.  

The government was not less vicious with Marcus Garvey and UNIA. In 1925 Garvey was convicted to five years in prison for a trumped-up criminal charge of mail fraud. But in 1927, the government chose commuting Garvey’s sentence to deport him. However, the Black liberation struggle continues to pose a political threat to the capitalist system.

Marcus Garvey unjustly in the custody of U.S. Marshals.

The Legacy of Marcus Garvey 

Years after Garvey’s death his influence never vanished. The militant fury of the Black liberation struggle that ignited in the 1960s-1970s with the demands for justice and reparations at the fore are attributed to the Garveyite movement. 

To accentuate the idea of Black people’s right to nationhood Marcus Garvey created a national symbol, the Red, Black, and Green, also known as the Black Liberation Flag. Today, it represents the aspirations and deepest sentiments connected to history, culture, and heritage of Black people. 

Figures like Carlos A. Cooks, Arturo Alfonso Schomberg, Queen Mother Moore, Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, Republic of New Africa and others, made the meaning of Marcus Garvey relevant to other oppressed people. Latinos, Asians, Arabs, and Indigenous people have also been impacted, directly or indirectly, by the examples of this historic revolutionary giant.  

Marcus Garvey addressing an audience in Harlem.

Despite mistakes made, the Garveyite movement left us many lessons to be drawn in the interest of bringing about fundamental change in this society. Although oppression continues Marcus Garvey’s daring examples are part of what shall serve as a path to a better future world, free of white supremacy and capitalism.  

His love for Black people and willingness to do whatever necessary to achieve their emancipation has earned him a special place in Black history and the archives of the class struggle. 

LONG LIVE THE LEGACY OF MARCUS GARVEY! 

When the mere thought of Black emancipation “Offended” white privilege at the SUPER BOWL

By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

The February 8, 2026, Super bowl halftime performance by Puerto Rican superstar BAD BUNNY (Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio), is being viewed by extreme right-wing MAGA forces with the utmost racist hatred in a campaign openly endorsed by President Donald Trump. Their contemptuous reasoning is to prevent the Boricua singer from showcasing the beauty of Latinx culture through his musical lyrics in the Spanish language.

Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny.

These racists are so blinded by their own self-destructive backward traditions that they cannot bare knowing that a person of color will proudly entertain millions of people viewing this renown annual event throughout the world.

The 2016 Super Bowl

The BAD BUNNY controversy is not the first of its kind. Super Bowl 50 of February 7, 2016, in Levi Stadium, Santa Clara, California, when the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers 24-10, will be remembered for generations to come as the setting for another outburst of anti-Black racist hatred. This event will certainly be monumental in the history of race relations in this country.

For the most part, no one ever expected such a barrage of condemnation against the super-star African American singing artist Beyonce for her performance during halftime. The Super Bowl is an institutionalized extravagant sport event viewed by tens of millions of people annually throughout the United States.

The controversy began immediately after a dance troupe of about 50 Black women, with Beyonce at the helm, took center stage in a beautifully choreographed arrangement and dress attire that made references to the legendary Black Panther Party and Malcolm X.

To many people nothing could have been a better tribute to the annual tradition of Black History Month (February) than to depict figures so symbolic, especially on the 50th anniversary of the Black Panther Party’s founding by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.

Beyonce and performing dancers beautifully simulating Black Panthers’ disciplined formation.

But in order to understand why this performance became such a controversy we must first explore the causes that triggered it. Anyone who closely examines the norms of this violent “sport” will easily see how it tends to present itself as a feverish gladiator ritual. The definition of “sport” has been changed to mean inflicting bodily harm among high priced members of opposing teams and in some cases with permanent damage.

With military music bands playing and jet fighters flying high above the airspace, the Superbowl has become an event that insidiously promotes a peculiar version of militarism. It accentuates sexism, white supremacy, big nation chauvinist arrogance, war – all of the not-so-hidden ideas that prevail in the general thinking of capitalist culture.

With this kind of historically rooted setting, it came as no surprise when arch racists and notorious figures like New York State Representative Peter King and the disgraced former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, launched a barrage of attacks against the prominent Black female performer.

Black Panther Party members in a drill exercise.

Every moronic die-hard white racist consumed by the militarized sports culture most likely had something derogatory to say about Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance and the freedom struggle of Black people.

They were appalled that Beyonce would dare pay homage to heroic African American revolutionaries, even in the most minimized implicit manner. The vindictive outcry by these and other white supremacists has little to do with Beyonce or what they perceived as “offensive” during the halftime performance.

Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party and the mass upsurge that occurred during the 1960’s – 70’s, the height of the Civil Rights movement, continues to haunt the imagination of our oppressors to this day. Their apprehensions are attributed to the militant traditions of the African American masses which brought about the rise of Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party.

The lessons that came as a result of those experiences are indisputably applicable in our reality today – and that is precisely what these villains fear. Blacks, Latinos, Indigenous and other people of color continue to be brutalized and murdered by the police across the United States.

Black Panther Party co-founders Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton.

Unlike the lies asserted by Guilliani and King it was the police who attacked, imprisoned and murdered Black Panthers in a criminal campaign organized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) known as COINTELPRO. However, both Malcolm X and the BPP boldly advocated and practiced the right to use armed self-defense against the racist terror of the police in the Black community.

What the representatives of the ruling class are most upset about at Beyonce is that her Superbowl halftime performance reminded everyone of a period in U.S. history when Black people defiantly posed a threat to this racist system by galvanizing many sectors of the general population. This phenomenon presented the potential for revolution in this country under the impact of the Black liberation struggle.

The role Black people played in the events of that period in history is something the ruling class cannot forget or forgive. They will naturally dread the mere thought of a revolutionary upheaval until their final day of doom.

The Black Panther Party believed in the building a sophisticated revolutionary organization.

This is why former Black Panther and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal has stated: “The tyrants, oppressors and racists who continue to hold political power in this country by using the most ruthless means cannot afford a repeat of the 1960’s.”

The plight of Black people, from the nearly 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow discrimination, mass incarceration and police brutality today, are facts that our oppressors and those who benefit from white privilege and entitlement would like us to ignore and forget.

Regardless, what Beyonce’s motives were, she touched upon a vulnerability of white supremacist America. If Beyonce’s halftime performance were a projection of jingoism, militarism or a glorification of white supremacy she would not have been targeted with condemnation.

Beyonce without a doubt merits our applause and praises for paying tribute through her performance to a historic symbol of African American defiance – the Black Panther Party.

LONG LIVE THE LEGACY OF THE BLACK LIBERATION STRUGGLE!