We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Black American Politics in the 21st Century: Is It Time For A New Plan?

by Bruce A. Dixon from Black Agenda. 

The author makes a number of good points from an African-American perspective. The most important one, based on his review of American history, is that Black people (of course, this applies to all working people) must not be blinded by allegiances to one of the two capitalist parties, which in the end always betrays them. But then he ends up advocating the takeover of the various state Green parties, and that is where I part company with him. 

In my opinion, Dixon has too much of a Black perspective. It appears that he would be perfectly happy with the existing system if Black Americans were not discriminated against. One of the most useful strategies of the ruling class continues to be the old "divide and conquer" strategy which pits various groups against each other--Blacks, whites, immigrant workers, gays, women, Muslims, people of various national origins, etc.

The only true progressive agenda is to organize people power from the neighborhoods on up according to bottom-up authority principles. (See alternatives at top right on this blog.)