The Revolutionary's Guide To Understanding The Importance Of Ideology

A revolutionary’s political ideology controls their use of the gun. The gun never controls the revolutionary. A true revolutionary is a student of politics. They understand their political ideology. If you give a revolutionary a gun but do not give them a political ideology, they will end up shooting themselves or shooting you. You never give a revolutionary a gun without first giving them a political ideology.

If you give everybody in your organization the same political ideology, they will be doing the right thing at the right time because they are on the same page. No organization can walk before it crawls and no organization can run before it walks. However, without a clear and unambiguous political ideology, an organization cannot crawl, walk, or run effectively. The mistake made by many leaders in organizations is that they try to address the problems confronting our people by organizing their people around possible solutions they have pre-determined before taking the necessary time to politically educate their membership concerning the political ideology that guides the organization in its efforts to address the problems of an oppressed people. Grown and intelligent people do not want to be treated like children and told what to do. Instead, they want to be: 1) educated regarding what the problems are confronting their people and 2) empowered by an ideological framework that enables them to analyze the problems and determine the solutions themselves. This is accomplished by making people truly conscious of the problems confronting our people by providing them an accurate analysis and empowering them to collectively determine solutions that address the problems utilizing the political ideology of the organization. Malcom X stated, “The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you'll get action." You wake the people up by providing them a Political Education Program.

If you’re in an organization that has low morale or that is characterized by chaos and confusion, the root cause may be due to the dearth of a robust and relevant Political Education Program or an undefined, vague, or unclear political ideology.

Regardless of how charismatic a leader may be, or how altruistic a leader’s intentions may be, or how righteous a leader's heart may be, it is the political ideology, of a revolutionary organization, that binds people together; not the leader. Dr. John Henrik Clarke, a pedagogical giant, taught us that an effective leader should be guided by a well-defined plan for liberation. He believed that if a leader dies, the plan should continue, with any literate person able to step in and lead based on the established framework. An organization’s political ideology is its established framework. It is taught and reinforced by its Political Education Program. Ella Baker, who worked alongside some of the most noted civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr. and who also mentored many emerging activists, such as Diane Nash, Kwame Ture (aka Stokely Carmichael), and Bob Moses of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), cogently and correctly communicated that "Strong people don't need strong leaders." She valued the process of collective decision-making and the development of leadership skills within the community over the prominence of individual leaders.

Every African (Black) person of the African Diaspora, wherever we find ourselves today are the victims of three evils: 1) landlessness; 2) white supremacy; and 3) capitalism.

Any ideology that seeks to deal with the problems of Black people today must speak to these three major evils. And the ideology must be based on the philosophy of dialectics which is the philosophy of opposites. Malcom X profoundly postulated in his 'Message To The Grassroots' that “Revolution knows no compromise.” Malcom was correct because he understood that revolution is based on the philosophy of dialectics. Let me make it plain. There are opposites that are always struggling against a very practical scientific law. The law simply says that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Thus if you understand this correctly that these opposites are diametrically opposed, you will understand that there can be no compromise in revolution: one system will survive and one system must be destroyed. It’s as simple as that. So if you’re talking about revolution, know what you speak of.

The Black Panther Party, under the leadership of Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, was revolutionary. They said we will win or we will die. The 26th Of July Movement, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, was revolutionary. They said we will win or we will die.The National Liberation Front (NLF), under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, was revolutionary. They said we will win or we will die. The Communist Party, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, was revolutionary. They said we will win or we will die. If you say you are revolutionary, understand we are not talking about losing. There can be no losing. Either we win or we die. It’s very simple.

Let me break down the philosophy of dialectics or opposites for you as it relates to revolution. We live in a system that oppresses us on a worldwide basis; the system of Western Imperialism. As revolutionaries, we must propose a new system that is diametrically opposed to this system. Remember the aforementioned law that I mentioned earlier (i.e. “two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time.”) Our new system must occupy the space of the current system. Our new system must be so diametrically opposed to the system under which we currently live that none of the characteristics of this system will be able to come into our new system. Revolution is the process through which we replace the current system that oppresses our people with a new system that sets our people free and that is based on truth, justice, and holistic equality.

According to Kwame Ture, in order for an ideology to be valid, it must have four major characteristics: 1) It must be consistent; 2) It must be scientific; 3) It must be based on the correct interpretation of history; and 4) For it to be a revolutionary ideology, it must be based on the philosophy of dialectics.

Marinate on that!

Ready For Revolution

All Power To The People!!!