Pages from a Black Radical’s Notebook: A James Boggs Reader

Manifesto for a Black Revolutionary Party (1969)

195 Manifesto for a Black Revolutionary Party was published in 1969 and went through several printings. The fifth printing of this self-published pamphlet, issued in 1976, carried a new introduction, which is included here. Manifesto for a Black Revolutionary Party We do not at all regard the theory of Marx as something complete and inviolable; we are convinced to the contrary that it has laid the cornerstone of that science which socialists must further advance in all directions if they do not wish to lag behind life.We think it is particularly necessary for socialists independently to analyze the theory of Marx, for this theory provides only general guiding projections which must be applied differently in England from France, in France from Germany, in Germany from Russia according to the particular circumstances. —V. Lenin Contents Introduction to the Fifth Printing 196 Preamble 200 1. Racism and Revolution 202 2. Who Will Make the Revolution? 204 3. How Black Power Will Revolutionize America 212 4. The Black Revolutionary Party 220 Conclusion 228 Ward.indb 195 12/21/10 9:28 AM 196 Introduction to the Fifth Printing As we go to press with this fifth printing of the Manifesto for a Black Revolutionary Party, we are more than ever convinced that the most important task before the movement in the United States remains the building of a vanguard party to lead not only blacks but all progressive Americans in creating a new nation wherein no one will be alienated from anyone else because of race, class, sex, age, creed, or national origin. This fifth printing provides us with the opportunity to explain why the manifesto was originally issued in 1969 and to indicate some of the advances in our own thinking as a result of developments in the movement and our own unceasing theoretical and practical struggles to build a vanguard organization along the lines set forth in the manifesto. To understand the historic significance of the manifesto, it is necessary to recall the fervor and ferment of the late 1960s. In 1966 Stokely Carmichael, on the march through Mississippi, had raised the slogan of “Black Power.” The slogan caught on almost immediately with black youth in the northern cities who had become frustrated by the failure of the civil rights movement to grapple with the real problems of their daily lives and were striking out aimlessly and erratically in rebellions all across the country. Now, inspired and united by the slogan “Black Power,” black youth exploded in mass uprisings in Newark and Detroit in the summer of 1967 and in more than a hundred cities following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the spring of 1968. The idea of “Black Power” was also greeted enthusiastically by militant white middle-class youth who had committed themselves to the struggle against racism and the Vietnam War but had never raised the question of power for themselves. It was at this point that a few people—who were active in the black movement and who had behind them the experience of the labor movement of the 1930s (which never raised the question of power)—assumed responsibility for issuing the Manifesto for a Black Revolutionary Party. Proceeding from the recognition that this country had entered a revolutionary period with the raising of the question of power by those who had been most oppressed, the manifesto stated that this nation now faced three alternatives: “(1) continue rotting away as it is today; (2) naked counterrevolution; or (3) black revolutionary power.” It was necessary for blacks to build a vanguard party that would give revolutionary direction and keep before the movement an enlarged vision of the goals of revolutionary struggle. Without such a party and such a vision, a movement based upon spontaneous rebellions could only end up in opportunism or sectarianism. Black Power would turn into its opposite: black powerlessness. The soundness of this analysis has been abundantly demonstrated by the collapse of both the black and white movements over the last seven years. Today most of the Ward.indb 196 12/21/10 9:28 AM Manifesto for a Black Revolutionary Party 197 militant and charismatic black leaders, who thought revolutionary leadership consisted of articulating the grievances of the masses, have become incorporated into the system through the many pacification programs hurriedly set up by educational, church, and governmental agencies to stave off further rebellions. Some are trying...