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Show September 1969 Page 5 UTAH FARM BUREAU Formans Black Manifesto Calls For Overthrow Of U.S. Editor's Note: Reprinted from the Tennessee Farm Bureau News Much has been said and written about the demands made to white churches by James Forman in his "Black Manifesto." His demands have been condemned in most quarters by both white and black church leaders. Little has been said about the introduction to Forman's "Black Manifesto" as presented at the National Black Economic Development Conference in Detroit back in April. For the benefit of Farm Bureau members, who are, for the most part, active church members, we are printing this introduction as presented by Forman. It is felt that you should know that this man not only demands millions of dollars from the nation's churches, but, it is obvious from this, he also calls for the complete overthrow of America. Read it carefully, and pray that your church leaders will never bow to the demands of this man. Wejiave come from all over the country, burning with anger and despaiF not only with the miserable economic plight of our people, 'but fully aware that the racism on which the Western World was built dominates our lives. There can be no separation of the problems of racism from the problems of our econmic, political and cultural degradation. To any black man, this is clear. But there are still some of our people who are clinging to the rhetoric of the Negro and we must separate ourselves from those Negroes who go around the country promoting all types of schemes for black capitalism. Ironically some of the most militant "black nationalists," as they call themselves, have been the first to jumpun the bandwagon of black capitalism. They are pimps; black power pimps and fraudulent leaders and the people must be educated to understand that any black man or Negro who is advocating a perpetuation of capitalism inside the United States is in fact seeking not only his ultimate destruction and death, but is contributing 1o the continuous exploitation of black people all around the world. For it is the power of the United States government, this racist, imperialist government, that is choking the life of all people around the world. We are an African people. We sit back and watch the Jews in this country make Israel a powerful conservative state in the Middle East, but we are not concerned actively about the plight of our brothers in Africa. We are the most advanced technological group of black people in the world, and there are many skills that could be offered to Africa. At the same time, it must be publicily stated that many African leaders are in disarray themselves, having been duped into following the lines as laid out by the Western imperialist governments. today there is a great suspicion of black people in this country. This is a correct suspicion, since most of the Negroes who have left the States for work in Africa usually work for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the State Department. But the respect for us as a people continues to mount and the day will come when we can return to our homelands as brothers and sisters. But we should not think of going back to Africa today, for we are located in a strategic position. We live inside the U.S., which is the most barbaric country in the world and we havea chance to help bring this government down. Time is short and we do not have much time and it is time we stop mincing words. Caution is fine, but no oppressed people ever gained their liberation until they were ready to fight, to use whatever means necessary, including the use of force and power of the gun to bring down the colonizer. We have heard the rhetoric but we have not heard the rhetoric which says that black people in this country must understand that we are the vanguard force. We shall liberate all the people in the U.S. and we will be instrumental in the liberation of colored people the world around. We must understand this point very clearly so that we are not trapped into diversionary and reactionary movements. Any classanalysis of the U.S. shows very clearly that black people are the most oppressed' group of people inside the Unitec States. We have suffered the most from racism and exploitation cultural degradation and lack of political power. It follows from the laws of revolution, but we are not talking about just making the revolution. All tne parties on the left who consider themselves revolutionary will say that blacks are the vanguard but we must assume leadership, total control, and we must exercise the humanity which is inherent in us. We are the most humane people within the U.S. We have suffered and we understand suffering. Our hearts go out to the Vietnamese, for we know what it is to suffer under the domination of racist America. Our hearts, our soul and all the compassion we can mount goes out to our brothers in Africa, Santo Domingo, Latin America and Asia, who are being tricked by the power structure of the U.S. which is dominating the world today. These ruthless, barbaric men have systematically tried to kill all people and organizations opposed to its imperialism. We no longer can just get by with the use of the word "capitalism" to describe the U.S., for it is an imperial power, sending money, missionaries and the army throughout the world to protect this government and the few rich whites who control it. General Motors and all the major auto industries are operating in South Africa, yet the leadership of the United Auto Workers sees no relationship to the exploitation of black people in the U.S. If they understand it, they certainly do not put it into practice, which is the actual test. We as black people must be concerned with the total conditions In Africa white-dominate- d of all black people in the. world. But while we talk of revolution which will be an armed confrontation and long years of sustained guerrilla warfare inside this country, we must also talk of the type of world we want to live in. must commit ourselves to a society taken from the rich and placed into the hands of the state for the welfare of all the people. We This is what we mean when we say total control. And we mean that black people who have suffered the most from exploitation and racism must move to protect their black interest by assuming leadership inside of the United States of everything that exists. The time has passed when we are second in command and the white boy stands on top. This is especially true of the welfare agencies in this country, but it is not enough to say that a black man is on top. He must be committed to building the new society, to taking the wealth away from the rich people such as General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, the DuPonts, the Rockefellers, the Mellons, and all the other rich white exploiters and racists who run this world. Where do we begin? We have already started. We started the moment when we were brought to this country. In fact, we started on the shores of Africa, for we have always resisted attempts to make us slaves and now we must resist the attempts to make us capitalists. the financial interest of the U.S. to make us capitalists, for this will be the same line as that of integration into the mainstream of American life. Therefore, brothers and sisters, there is no need to fall into the trap that we have to get an ideology. We have an ideology. Our fight is against racism, capitalism and imperialism and we are dedicated to building a socialist society inside the United States where the total means of production and distribution are in the hands of the state and must be led by black people, by revolutionary blacks who are concerned about the total humanity of this world. And, therefore, we obviously are different from some of those who seek a black nation in the United States, for there is no way for that nation to be viable if in fact the United States remains in the hands of white racists. Then, too, let us deal with some arguments that we should share power with whites. We say that there must be a revolutionary black vanguard and that white people in this country must be willing to accept black leadership, for that is the only protection that black people have to protect ourselves from racism rising again in this It is in country. Racism in the U.S. is so pervasive in the mentality of whites thal government can only an armed, insure the stamping out of racism in this country. And that is why we plead with black people not to be talking about a few crumbs, a few thousand dollars for this cooperative, or a thousand dollars, which ' splits black people into fighting over the dollar. That is the intention of the government. We say think in terms of total control of the U.S. Prepare ourselves to seize state power. Do not hedge, for time is short and all around the world, the forces of liberation are directing their attacks well-disciplin- ed black-controlle- d against the U.S. a powerful country, but that power is not greater than that of black people. We work the chief industries in this country and we could cripple the economy while the brothers fought guerrilla warfare in the streets. This will take some planning, but whether it happens in 1,000 years is of no consequence. It cannot happen unless we start. How then is all of this related to this conference? First of all, this conference is called by a set of religious people, Christians, who have been involved in the exploitation and rape of black people since the country was founded. The missionary goes hand in hand with the power of the states. We must begin seizing power wherever we are and we must say to the planners of this conference that you are no longer in charge. We the people who have assembled here thank you for getting us here, but we are going to assume power over the conference and determine from this moment on the direction in which we want it to go. We are not saying that the conference was planned badly. The staff of the conference has worked hard and has done a magnificent job in bringing all of us together and we must include them in the new membership which must surface from this point on. The conference is now the property of the people who are assembled here. This we proclaim as fact and not rhetoric and there are demands that we are going to make and we insist that the planners of this conference help us implement them. We maintain we have the revolutionary right to do this. We have same the rights, if you will, as the Christians had in going to Africa and raping our motherland and bringing us away from our continent of peace and into this hostile and alien environment where we have been living in perpetual warfare since 1619. It is long-rang- Check-o- ff e (Continued from page 3) Two of the very popular promotion agencies that farmers and Farm Bureau have long supported are the American Dairy Association and the National Live Stock and Meat Board. These agencies receive farmer support because they are filling a need and are doing a good job. They are producer-oriente- d and not politically controlled. They are disciplined to do a good job, otherwise farmers, because they have a choice of not contributing, would discontinue financial support. This Is a discipline that would be somewhat missing if the check-o- ff were government-manadatand the farmer's only recourse to recover his money was to fill out forms and file for refund. The issue at stake In Congress now Is not Just the potato checkoff bill. The real Issue Is how far down this road we are going with such programs for other commodities. Are we going to be forced to finance a commotldy promotion agency for each commodity which we produce? Will we be creating commodity boards that have vast sums of money to spend which may divide agriculture into competing commodity groups? Can these spending authorities be prevented from legislative lobbying? These are just some of the questions that need to be raised. ed |