Black Revolutionary Thought

Throughout modern history, struggles against Black oppression have generated some of our most powerful and persuasive radical voices, often resonating across lines of race and nation. How do black revolutionary thinkers of the past–from black Marxists like Richard Wright to Black Panther participants like Fred Hampton and Assata Shakur–to contemporary voices like Mumia Abu Jamal, help us to grasp our present and shape our collective future? How do recent accounts of the ‘Black radical tradition’ illuminate our current situation and paths for transforming it? What in this tradition can still be applied today and what needs updating? In what ways do black revolutionary voices from the past still challenge or inform modes of theory and practice in 2021? What are the implications of this influence? How do contemporary film representations (such as the new Fred Hampton film Judas & the Black Messiah and influential books like Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism create new openings (or obstacles) for mass radical engagement?

Join Shelter & Solidarity on Thursday, March 25 (7:00 – 8:30 p.m. EST) for a panel and community discussion, featuring guests:

* Kazembe Balagun, Bronx-based author, artist and organizer, formerly long-time staffer at the Brecht Forum, now with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.

* Johanna Fernandez, professor at Baruch College (CUNY), WBAI radio host of the program, “A New Day,” and author of the recent book, The Young Lords, a Radical History (https://uncpress.org/book/9781469653440/the-young-lords/) as well as the editor of Writing on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal (https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9780872866751/writing-on-the-wall-selected-prison-writings-of-mumia-abujamal.aspx) .

* Eric Mann is an author and civil rights, anti-war, labor, and environmental organizer whose career spans 50 years. He has worked with the Congress of Racial Equality, Newark Community Union Project, Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panther Party, the United Automobile Workers, and the New Directions Movement. He is the director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles and author of Playbook for Progressives: The 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/209098/playbook-for-progressives-by-eric-mann/) .

* Joseph G. Ramsey, UMass Boston-based scholar-activist and organizer, author of recent articles engaging Cedric Robinson and Richard Wright (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08854300.2020.1862559) as well as Judas and the Black Messiah (https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/02/26/beyond-missed-opportunities-how-should-revolutionaries-respond-to-judas-and-the-black-messiah/) .

Linda Liu (Shelter & Solidarity) and Socialism and Democracy‘s Editor-at-Large, Victor Wallis (http://victorwallis.com/) will join us as this week’s co-host.