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FREEDOMWAYS         FOURTH QUARTER 1968

The central thing challenged by that war was the right hereditary political power-whether it was right for political power to be passed along hereditary lines. The question was raised by British-American subjects in relationship to Britain. It was raised by political means-war. It was a key political question at the time-how should poli-tical power be passed? The base of that power as far as the colonies were concerned was land, trade and military presence. There were other factors involved in 1776 but this was a key factor. Our clarity on this would go a long way towards our understanding the growth and development of America as a state organization. It would aid us in seeing our evolving relationship to this state. It would also help us to see the type of state to which we are related. At that time the political force which raised that question was very progressive and was considered radical by the crown. They were. . . subversives! Their answer to hereditary political power was a resounding and revolutionary no! The American Revolution can be fought only in relationship to the struggle of people of African ancestry. We are, potentially, the most strategic people in the world. If we accept the idea that we are U.S, colonials, then our struggle must be one against all forms of colonialism. We will have anti-colonial struggle. We will organize and move on the political basis of anti-colonialism.

If we accept the idea that we are the colonials, then it follows that the state organization is a colonial power and we must wage our struggle in relationship to it as a state, a colonial power. It is a state which practices domestic colonialism. It is a state which denies basic citizenship to a large part of the national population. It is a state which oppressive and exploitative and which uses all forms of racism to sustain its oppression and exploitation. It is the state with which we have been struggling for 350 years. It is in the context of that struggle that the American Revolution will be fought-its issues: redistribution of the land, citizenship rights and opportunities for all and the elimination of hereditary economic power. These have been the basic questions of our struggle historically and they have to be resolved. We have to resolve them in relationship to this state organization. That is the American Revolution yet to come.

understanding our labor and its relationship to land

Those of us who have the ability to read and infer meaning must interpret where those 244 years of slave labor went. What did it become and where can we see it today? If slavery is a political

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-14 12:10:14