by Danny Haiphong
The Baltimore rebellion is significant, not just because it is the first post-Ferguson uprising in a major Black American city, but because it points up “the weakened political position of the police and its protectors in the Black misleadership class.” The political bankruptcy of that class is personified by Michael Eric Dyson, whose “ultimate loyalty is to Power and not to Mumia Abu-Jamal, Freddie Gray, or oppressed and working class people in the US and elsewhere.”
Mumia Abu-Jamal, Freddie Gray, and the Lessons of the Dyson Attack on Cornel West
by Danny Haiphong
“The attempted murder of Mumia Abu-Jamal by the state, the rebellion in Baltimore, and Dyson's attack on Cornel West are interrelated phenomena within the contradictions of 21st century left politics under US fascism.”
Baltimore's Black community has ignited another spark in the movement for Black lives following the late April murder of twenty-five year-old Freddie Gray. The police murdered Gray after he was chased like a dog in his own neighborhood in Black Baltimore. Ever since, Black Baltimore has been in the streets to demand justice for Gray's family and the community at large. This follows what appeared to be a low moment for the Black Lives Matter movement that same week when the murder of Chicagoan Rekia Boyd garnered little attention from activists and the corporate media alike. Still, the murder of Black Americans at the blood soaked hands of US law enforcement is indicative of the US imperial state's racist character, one that has been given a facelift of protection from the likes of Michael Eric Dyson and the crab class of imperial agents he represents.
No person signifies the connection between imperialist domination and white supremacy more than Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mumia has been fulfilling a sentence of social death in the Mass Black Incarceration State for telling the truth and fighting for Black freedom. His imprisonment is a product of more than two centuries of counter insurgency warfare on the Black proletariat, beginning with the first Black rebellions against chattel slavery. Mumia, Leonard Peltier, among others have been trapped behind the walls for their political activity over a period where the prison state has become imperialism's weapon of choice for containing Black America. The FBI's COINTELPRO state machinery exploded in the post-Vietnam era as a reaction to imperialism's last stage of retraction. As more and more Black Americans joined the ranks of the nation's displaced and impoverished, the system responded by erecting the Mass Black Incarceration State to prevent the emergence of a revolutionary situation in the mainland of Empire.
“The state sanctioned murder of US imperialism's ‘wretched of the earth’ is upheld in large part by the decades-long imprisonment of revolutionary individuals and organizations of the Black and Third World Liberation movements.”
The Mass Black Incarceration State's occupation forces that killed Freddie Gray work for the same institution keeping Mumia from receiving proper medical treatment. Mumia Abu-Jamal’s life sentence behind the walls is not only an attack on his body, but also the idea of liberation he represents. For US imperialism to murder, imprison, and exploit Black people as part of its white supremacist design, Mumia Abu-Jamal's revolutionary challenge to the power structure must be eliminated. The state sanctioned murder of US imperialism's "wretched of the earth" is upheld in large part by the decades-long imprisonment of revolutionary individuals and organizations of the Black and Third World Liberation movements. This is why Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the Black Panther Party legacy from which he came, has been suppressed by the prison state both ideologically and physically.
While Mumia Abu-Jamal languishes toward his last breath, talking heads like Michael Eric Dyson have been rewarded handsomely for their defense of the state. Dyson's attack on Cornel West is a direct manifestation of how the explosion of US imperialism's prison and warfare state necessitated the rise of the Black misleadership class. Dyson's 10,000 word dogma closely mirrored his pitiful performance in a debate with BAR's own Glen Ford in 2012. Dyson uses personal hyperbole and anecdote to absolve the Obama Administration of its many crimes. But this time, Dyson wasn't persuading Cornel West to "play the game" as he did on Democracy Now. Rather, his rant made clear that he is ready to work for the next line of Democratic Party operatives in 2016. Thus, it is only fitting that Dyson neglected to address Cornel West's legitimate critiques of the Administration's abhorrent drone policy its support for the police state that murders Black Americans daily, or the mass robbery of Black people by Wall Street over the last thirty years. His decision to opt for a jealousy narrative to explain West's critiques of Obama shows that his ultimate loyalty is to Power and not to Mumia Abu-Jamal, Freddie Gray, or oppressed and working class people in the US and elsewhere.
One might make the conclusion that the careers of Dyson and his friends in the Black misleadership class are not as secure as they once were since the Black Lives Matter Movement took off. Washington's top operative, King Rat Al Sharpton, has seen his support rejected by Black communities who rightly see him as an opportunist looking to make a career off the backs of dead Black bodies. The murder of Freddie Gray has sparked the most militant rebellion of the movement yet. Police vehicles, corporate businesses, and the occupation forces themselves have been targets of a people sick and tired of living life under white supremacy. Baltimore's Black community has come under siege for its refusal to take Freddie Gray's murder sitting down. The rebellion's early stages have already compelled Baltimore's Black corporate mayor to send in thousands of state troopers and National Guard mercenaries to contain the resistance. CNN and the corporate media are working around the clock to inscribe in the minds of America that the rebellion is mere "chaos" caused by "thugs" in the streets of imperialist USA.
“The murder of Freddie Gray has sparked the most militant rebellion of the movement yet. Police vehicles, corporate businesses, and the occupation forces themselves have been targets of a people sick and tired of living life under white supremacy.”
What is new about the coverage, however, is not the racist depiction of Black resistance in Baltimore. This is has been done countless times by the corporate media. What is new is the weakened political position of the police and its protectors in the Black misleadership class. War hawk Wolf Blitzer has been working overtime to demand the police to "do something" and for faith leaders and community leaders to galvanize the youth. Blitzer is calling upon Dyson and those like him to intervene and steer the rebellion of the oppressed masses toward acceptable channels. Dyson's 10,000-word defense of Empire and the Obama Administration window-dressed as "personal beef" with Cornel West proves that he is more than up for the task. But in delicate times like these, cowardice may win out. Excluding the attacks on Black people by Baltimore's Black mayor, the Black misleadership class has yet to respond collectively. King Rat is on his way to Baltimore for a march to DC, but the initial effort on the part of Black misleadership class to stifle the rebellion bears no indication of future success.
The attempted murder of Mumia Abu-Jamal by the state, the rebellion in Baltimore, and Dyson's attack on Cornel West are interrelated phenomena within the contradictions of 21st century left politics under US fascism. Mumia's life is in grave danger, but the movement to free him has cooled considerably over the last few years. At the same time, the murder of Freddie Gray has ignited the righteous anger of Black Baltimore to rebel against the terrorism of police occupation. The work of those like Dyson to confuse and pollute the political landscape is very much to blame for this contradiction. As we move into the next stages of the Black Lives Matter mobilization, it is our duty to carry forward the understanding that the same occupation forces that murdered Freddie Gray are behind the medical neglect of Mumia Abu-Jamal. And further, the imperialist system, controlled by corporate capitalists and their state machinery, is on an all out war on both the people and politics of resistance. This critical moment in history will undoubtedly shape whether oppressed people move toward the dead-end road of Dyson or the revolutionary path of Mumia Abu-Jamal. The question for readers is what will we help build?
Danny Haiphong is an organizer for Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST) in Boston. He is also a regular contributor to Black Agenda Report. Danny can be reached at [email protected] and FIST can be reached at [email protected].