Where the #BlackLivesMatterMovement, Cuba, and the DPRK collide: Self-Determination and the Liberation Agenda
By Danny Haiphong
What is Self-Determination? What Conditions Create the Need For It?
Self-determination is crucial to any serious agenda that seeks to replace the centuries old imperialist system with a new way of life. Self-determination is defined as the power of a people to determine its collective destiny. Historically, Black and Indigenous peoples have been denied self-determination through the super-exploitation and theft of their labor, history, and culture. Today, undocumented peoples in the US, as well as those faithful to Islam, have also become targets of US imperialism in its quest to remain the dominant world system.
The capitalist system maintains a disproportionate influence on the destinies of the world’s people. Capitalism distributes wealth upward to a tiny capitalist class (the ‘1 percent’). The capitalist class owns the majority of property in the world. It amasses trillions of dollars in wealth on the blood and labor of its former and current colonies. In Africa, the majority of nations remain subservient to world financial institutions controlled by foreign capitalists in Europe and the US. Africa is the richest continent on the planet yet struggles to maintain sovereignty under the thumb of the IMF, World Bank, and the US military command, AFRICOM
Imperialism continues to set the Eurasian continent ablaze in a desperate bid to maintain hegemony in the region. Palestine’s struggle against Israeli colonialism was set back when the UN, thanks to a US veto, rejected its bid for statehood at the turn of the New Year. US imperialist wars of aggression in the Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan have murdered millions and cost the oppressed in the US trillions in wasted resources. However, imperialism’s disproportionate influence on world affairs is waning. The escalating violence of Empire should spell out clearly that repression is a large part of the glue holding imperialism together.
Steps Forward for Self-Determination in 2014
In the midst of imperialism’s devastation, the creation of a solid liberation agenda requires a balanced analysis of the current historical period. In 2014, the Cuban 5 were released and diplomatic relations opened between Cuba and the US with no indication that the socialist nation would bow down to US imperial terms. Furthermore, 2014 saw more unity within the anti-imperialist camp. Russia’s support for Syria throughout 2013-14 helped the embattled nation regain strength in the struggle against US-backed terrorists. China and Russia engaged in numerous trade talks and development plans in response to the volatile conditions of US dominated global capitalism. Latin America continued to move toward self-determination through institutions of integration like ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) and the continued inspiration of the socialist currents in Cuba and Venezuela. Indeed, the exploitative and murderous conditions of imperialism are moving the world’s people to create a more just global order.
In the US, the #BlackLivesMatter movement was brought to life by a revived struggle for self-determination from the Black Mass Incarceration State. The Black Mass Incarceration State is specially made for Black Americans and anyone deemed dispensable to imperialism. One of eight prisoners worldwide is a Black American. Black America comprises of half the US prison population, which stands as the largest prison population in the world. Furthermore, US law enforcement murders a Black American every 28 hours. The murders of Mike Brown and Eric Garner by US law enforcement unleashed the first signs of people’s resistance to the Black Mass Incarceration State in the Obama era of Black mis-leadership. Black America has been pushed around misled by President Obama, his minion Al Sharpton, and the rest of the Black mis-leadership class for the last six plus years. The #BlackLivesMatter movement is a spark that, with continued organization, has the potential to revive revolutionary political thought and action in the US for the first time in decades.
Cuba and the DPRK Provide Lessons to Strengthen Self-Determination in Practice
Because the nascent movement against police brutality sprang from the reactionary conditions of last stage imperialism, there remains much work to be done in the area of political development. It is encouraging that Black men, women, and non-conforming youth are at the forefront of this struggle. However, for the struggle for self-determination in the US to become revolutionary, it must include an analysis that links the liberation of oppressed people all over the globe to the struggle for liberation in the US imperialist mainland. Political education must make history and theory concrete to counter US imperialism’s dominant racist narratives.
The non-existent resistance in the US to imperialism’s recent maneuvers in relation to Cuba and the DPRK (‘North Korea’) informs the need to develop the concept of self-determination in the political consciousness of the movement. While the Obama Administration boasted on how the easing of relations represented a step forward in overthrowing Cuban socialism, many leftists in the US expressed justifiable concern about the safety of Black liberation heroine Assata Shakur. The FBI (under the dictates of the Obama Administration) increased the bounty for exiled Assata to 2 million dollars in 2013. New Jersey’s state police felt emboldened by US-Cuba talks to request President Obama to demand Assata’s extradition. While justifiable concern for Assata is warranted, too few in the movement in the US spoke up about Cuba’s track record of solidarity with the global Black liberation movement.
It was Cuba that sent thousands of troops to Angola to fight the South African Apartheid government, pushing the racist regime to the end of its colonial life. Cuba protected (and continues to protect) Assata Shakur from political persecution. The socialist system in Cuba has sent thousands of doctors worldwide to provide free and quality healthcare to oppressed nations. This is made possible by Cuba’s socialist revolution. Cuban socialism has eradicated the material conditions that allowed US-sponsored white supremacy to plague the nation for over a century prior to 1959. The Cuban government not only as outlawed white supremacy, but also provided the Cuban people with the power to ensure that housing, healthcare, education, and employment are rights enjoyed by all. Cuba’s socialist revolution is an ongoing example of how it takes the power of an oppressed people to truly undo exploitation of all forms.
Similarly, the people of Korea continue to fight for self-determination and socialism. However, few know anything about the country and many hold a racist, imperialist perception of the nation’s political system. The corporate media acts as a mouthpiece for Washington and controls most of the media space in the US. Thus, many are unable to study the fact that it was US imperialism that provoked an anti-socialist war against Korea. In 1950-1953, US imperialism bombed Korea more times than any other country was bombed in World War II combined. Millions died and almost half the population was left homeless. Socialist forces were isolated to the North of the country by a dividing line drawn by the US-controlled UN. Despite these challenges, the DPRK never bowed down to US imperialism. The DPRK embarked on building an internationalist socialist society, aiding the Black liberation movement through its support of African independence movements and the Black Panther Party.
For taking independent path, the DPRK has endured over a half-century of war. Washington only agreed to an armistice in 1953. US imperialism continued to wage war against the DPRK by other means. Tens of thousands of US troops were kept in South Korea after the armistice, a number that has only lowered to 10,000 (2014 estimates). After the Soviet Union fell, the US saw the dissolution of the socialist bloc as an opportunity to starve the DPRK into regime change. The US slapped sanctions on the DPRK in the closing decade of the 20th century. These sanctions have cost the nation billions in revenue and cause immeasurable suffering.
In the US, the struggle for self-determination is still too inconsistent to come to the defense of sovereign nations like Cuba and the DPRK. While concern for Assata Shakur made some headlines, the freedom of the Cuban 5 and the significance of this development to the broader struggle to free US political prisoners was largely ignored. Many leftists in the US speculated whether Cuba was on a path to restore capitalism. Most failed to acknowledge the progress Cuba has made since the revolution and the importance of ending the US embargo for Cuba to remain a sovereign nation.
Furthermore, few came to the defense of the DPRK when the Sony film “the Interview” blatantly violated international law by concretely portraying the assassination of DPRK leader Kim Jong-un. This allowed US imperialism to use the movie as a means to escalate the sanctions against the DPRK. A primary focus for the movement going forward must be to attack US imperialism’s racist narratives. Washington’s call for peace on the #BlackLivesMatter movement while waging war on the Black community is related to Washington’s demand that Cuba and the DPRK submit to its rule or face permanent war. These important connections will inform a concrete understanding of self-determination in the coming years.
Conclusion
Self-determination is an idea whose time has arrived and yet remains an incomplete project in the worldwide struggle for liberation. No longer should it be possible for US imperialism to give billions in direct aid for Israel’s colonial subjugation of Palestine. Cuba, the DPRK, Venezuela, and Iran should not have to endure murderous sanctions while millions of Black Americans are murdered, imprisoned, and impoverished by the dual forces of white supremacy and capitalism in the US. The trillions Washington spends to wage war all over the world is also used to militarize the police in the US that murder a Black person every 28 hours and people of all races every 8 hours. Self-determination must be brought into the movement so that the lives of Black people and all oppressed people can really matter, on their own terms. People need the power to determine their collective destinies. This, and only this, is the first step to complete emancipation and social revolution.
