Click here to go to the Home Page
Click to send us your comments and suggestions.
Click to learn about the publishers of BlackCommentator.com and our mission.
Click to search for any word or phrase on our Website.
Click to sign up for an e-Mail notification only whenever we publish something new.
Click to remove your e-Mail address from our list immediately and permanently.
Click to read our pledge to never give or sell your e-Mail address to anyone.
Click to read our policy on re-prints and permissions.
Click for the demographics of the BlackCommentator.com audience and our rates.
Click to view the patrons list and learn now to become a patron and support BlackCommentator.com.
Click to see job postings or post a job.
Click for links to Websites we recommend.
Click to see every cartoon we have published.
Click to read any past issue.
Click to read any think piece we have published.
Click to read any guest commentary we have published.
Click to view any of the art forms we have published.
Comment and read the comments of others at Readers' Corner
Road Scholar - the world leader in educational travel for adults. Top ten travel destinations for African-Americans. Fascinating history, welcoming locals, astounding sights, hidden gems, mouth-watering food or all of the above - our list of the world’s top ten "must-see" learning destinations for African-Americans has a little something for everyone.

Time to ACTUALIZE A People’s Vision of the Future - Keeping it Real By Larry Pinkney, BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board

 
 
 

Real change that serves everyday Black, Brown, Red, White, and Yellow peoples does not come about by osmosis nor by magic. Change, that serves the people (and not the Wall Street corporate vultures and military elite), is brought about through serious, protracted, collective political struggle. In other words, the actualization of a collective people�s vision.���

The time has come to turn the economic and political hopelessness and despair that so many legitimately feel--into an organized people�s movement on both the local and national level simultaneously. An increasing number of people are realizing that they have been politically pimped once again; but what is just as important is the realization that only we the people can and will stop being the dupes of these political, economic, and military hustlers and pimps of everyday people.

This means quickly, thoughtfully, and precisely formalizing a people�s vision of and for political and economic justice and systemic change. This vision must be kept simple and be inclusive. It must be purposely and consistently developed and implemented from the bottom up, not the top down.

Such a people�s vision must be codified into a clear, precise, and simple political platform which means we must practice the following:

1. Constantly exposing, with a view towards reversing, the daily barrage of corporate-government double-speak and disinformation. (Remember, we the people, are the constant targets of this double-speak and disinformation).

2. Being painfully honest with ourselves and one another, about our strengths and weaknesses, and stalwart in our determination to breach our own psychological and political comfort zones with a view towards fostering the collective betterment of everyday people. (This is not easy, but it is definitely necessary and possible).

3. Listening to (not simply hearing), the ideas, experiences, and suggestions of those women and men within our political people�s movement. (There can be no collective people�s vision without the shared vision of others of like minds).

4. Let us remember that we will not always agree, for if we do�then somebody�s lying.

(Our movement does not need yes-people; it needs creative and honest people.)

5. Concentrate on what we must yet do, not merely upon what others may have already done. (There is more than enough important political work for all people of good will).

The above are simply some suggestions, as we uncompromisingly actualize bringing about real systemic change in building a clear, precise, and simple political platform that serves the people�s interests and a people�s vision.

To be sure, the corporate government and its media cronies, etc., will engage in every conceivable effort to �neutralize and discredit� our efforts. This is a given. Nonetheless, this struggle is not about grooming political �messiahs;� it is about actualizing the power of everyday people! So expect neutralization, discreditation, and demoralization tactics and activities against our people�s movement�but do not, even for an instant�be thwarted by them. Subterfuge is a tool of the mighty, but undaunted consistency is the tool of the strong�everyday people. We are not powerless.

If we want self sufficient and sustainable food and housing, then we must bring this about. If we want energy that does not suck from and destroy our mother earth dry�then it is we�the everyday people who must creatively and stalwartly make this a reality! There are no single issues�for they are all interlinked, and we must act accordingly!

The growing joblessness, home foreclosures, burgeoning prison population, bloody wars abroad, environmental degradation, and a de facto national police state in this nation deeply affects everyday people everywhere, and it did not simply happen---, it was brought into being by the avaricious corporate / military elite who are the scourge upon this nation and planet. We must always remember that capitalism is by its very nature,�systemic terrorism against the poor and everyday people.

We / you, hold the key to real systemic change, and it is we who must bring it about!

Each one teach one! Onward then my sisters and brothers! Onward!....��

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/LehrerNewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.

 
 

If you would like to comment on this article, please do so below. There is a 400 character limit. You do not need a FaceBook account. Your comment will be posted here on BC instantly. Thanks.

Entering your email address is not mandatory. You may also choose to enter only your first name and your location.

 

e-Mail re-print notice
If you send us an e-Mail message we may publish all or part of it, unless you tell us it is not for publication. You may also request that we withhold your name.

Thank you very much for your readership.

Any BlackCommentator.com article may be re-printed so long as it is re-printed in its entirety and full credit given to the author and www.BlackCommentator.com. If the re-print is on the Internet we additionally request a link back to the original piece on our Website.

 

March 4, 2010
Issue 365

is published every Thursday
Executive Editor:
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Managing Editor:
Nancy Littlefield
Publisher:
Peter Gamble
Est. April 5, 2002
Printer Friendly Version in resizeable plain text format
Comment and read the comments of others at Readers' Corner
click here to buy & benefit BC