There's A Worldwide Revolution Going On

“We have come from far away, from very far away-in some cases thousands of miles away. What, may you ask, unites us with Nicaraguans, whose skin color is so different from ours? What, may you ask, unites us with Nicaraguans, who are geographically so far away from us? We are united by the struggle for the people’s freedom and well-being. We are united by the desire to seek justice for our people. We are united because we stand together against imperialism and the enemies of the people. All the delegations present here understand the importance of the Nicaraguan people’s struggle. Throughout the world we salute your struggle. Throughout the world we support your struggle. Your struggle is a just one. It is a just one because it is anti-imperialist. It is a just one because it is against the oppressors and the enemies of the people. Your struggle is just because it is against the bandits. Your struggle is just because it joins with the struggles of all the peoples of the world. The Palestinian people fight for their freedom and well-being. The Namibian people fight for their independence. Many other peoples around the world are fighting for their freedom. In Africa we are directly confronting colonialism, neocolonialism, and imperialism. The fascists, the Nazis who exist in South Africa, created apartheid against Blacks. The struggle against apartheid is not only the struggle of Blacks. Rather, it is the struggle for all peoples who want to live free and united. This struggle belongs to all the peoples of the world, and we Africans call on everyone to participate. The peoples of the world and the leaders who do not participate in the struggle against apartheid are ungrateful, traitorous leaders. They are traitorous leaders and ungrateful because they forget that yesterday Africans shed their blood fighting Nazism for the peoples of Europe and elsewhere. Today, blood must be shed against apartheid and for the well-being of other peoples. Comrades, I would like to as you to observe a minute of silence in remembrance of Samora Machel, that great fighter for African Freedom. Thank you.”

“You don’t know whether people relate to the breakfast program, because you’ve never fed anybody. You don’t know anything about the free health clinic because you never asked anybody. You don’t know anything about the good that a gun does you, because you never tried one. And we say that if you was born and if you said you didn’t like pears and you never tasted pears, you’d have to be a liar. You don’t know whether you like pears, but you can’t claim that you don’t like pears. The only way that anybody can tell you the taste of a pear is if he himself has tasted it. That’s the only way. That’s the objective reality. That’s what the Black Panther Party deals with. We’re not metaphysicians, we’re not idealists, we’re dialectical materialists. And we deal with what reality is, whether we like it or not.”

“I’m not for anybody who tells me to turn the other cheek when a cracker is busting up my jaw. I’m not for anybody who tells black people to be nonviolent while nobody is telling white people to be nonviolent. I know I’m in the church, I probably shouldn’t be talking like this—but Jesus himself was ready to turn the synagogue inside out and upside down when things weren’t going right. In fact, in the Book of Revelations, they’ve got Jesus sitting on a horse with a sword in his hand, getting ready to go into action. But they don’t tell you or me about that Jesus. They only tell you and me about that peaceful Jesus”

“There are many whites who are trying to solve the problem. But you never see them going under the label of liberals. That white person that you see calling himself a liberal is the most dangerous thing in the entire western hemisphere. He’s the most deceitful. He’s like a fox. And a fox is always more dangerous in the forest than the wolf. You can see the wolf coming, you know what he’s up to. But the fox will fool you. He comes at you with his mouth shaped in such a way that even though you see his teeth you think he’s smiling and take him for a friend.”

Malcolm X Interview February 4, 1965

“We are not going to use this platform to rail against imperialism. An African saying very common in our country says: “When your house is burning, it’s no use beating the tom-toms.” On a Tricontinental level, this means that we are not going to eliminate imperialism by shouting insults against it. For us, the best or worst shout against imperialism, whatever its form, is to take up arms and fight. This is what we are doing, and this is what we will go on doing until all foreign domination of our African homelands has been totally eliminated.”

“The struggle is an eternal struggle. The capitalist system will confuse you. [Someone said], “our people are just a now people. They want everything now. If you tell them something for later ‘I ain’t got no time for later. I want it now!’” Capitalism makes you think that everything must come now. But the struggle that you’re involved in is a struggle in which you will not reap that which you have sown. You have already reaped that which has been sown by past generations. You must sow for future generations to reap. I’m so tired of brothers and sisters coming in saying, “when am I going to enjoy the good life?” It ain’t for you, it’s for the next generation. Do your work now for the next generation. When you work for your people, it’s not what you receive, it’s what you give. And the best thing about working for the people is that what you really get for the people sometimes nobody else knows except you. This is real struggle for the people. Thus, we must wipe out from our minds that the struggle in which we’re involved in is going to give us any victories. The struggle in which we’re involved in is an eternal struggle. We are not working for ourselves, we are working for generations to come. Therefore, what I’ve done you ain’t even begin to see. Generations later will come to thank us for the work we’ve done now.”