Marxist-Leninist Perspectives on Black Liberation and Socialism

by Frank Chapman

This book is about the historic relationship between two great revolutionary struggles: the struggle for Black Liberation and the struggle for socialism in the United States. Published by Freedom Road Socialist Organization - frso.org. About the Author: Frank Chapman is a community organizer, Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Field Organizer of the Chicago Alliance Against Political Repression, and part of the Central Committee of Freedom Road Socialist Organization. He is also a published writer, with articles on Truthout and Freedomways. In 2019, Frank published his first book, a memoir entitled The Damned Don't Cry: Pages from the Life of a Black Prisoner and Organizer.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Race, Theory, American History, Economics

244 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 5, 2021

Reviews

[Zach Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an *incredible* chronology of Black Liberation and Marxism-Leninism that spans the Civil War to the May 2020 Rebellion. Chapman introduces the reader to the foundations of the Black Liberation movement and the relationship it has with the development of Marxism, Leninism, the Communist Party of the USA, and the Comintern. Rich with individual characters as well as general analysis and historical text, this is really essential to anyone wanting to understand the history of Black people in the United States through a Marxist lens, from the Civil War to Black Reconstruction, the counter-revolution, Jim Crow, WWI, the rise of imperialism, the Bolshevik Revolution, the rise of fascism (at home and abroad), WWII, the post-WWII period, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2020 Rebellion in the aftermath of the state murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Read this book.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Definitely gonna be rereading sections of this for a long time to come!

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone who wants to be part of moving the Black liberation struggle forward. Frank Chapman's clarity and concision are a wonder and there is so much in this book in under 200 pages. Hoping for a part 2 about the 50s through today.

[JRT · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Black Liberation and Socialism, Frank Chapman explores the relationship between the Communist Party and the struggle for Black liberation in the United States. He touches upon what Marx and Marxism has to say about racial oppression and the role of the Black liberation struggle in the global socialist movement (and vice versa). Chapman seeks to drive home two main points: (1) the Black liberation struggle is a revolutionary movement in and of itself; and (2) its natural ally is the revolutionary (as opposed to the reactionary social democratic) socialist movement. To this end, Chapman’s thesis is that Black liberation is and has always been central to the socialist movement, and as such, anti-Black racism must be deliberately eradicated in order for true global working-class consciousness to exist and succeed.

Chapman begins by challenging the notion that Marxism is “Eurocentric,” noting that Marx (and older European socialist philosophers) was heavily influenced by African and Asian ideas of sociopolitical development. Further, Chapman contends that even where Marxism provides an analysis of the specific inadequacies of Euro-America political economies, it simultaneously provides valuable tools for the struggle against race, class, and gender-based capitalist oppression. But above all, Chapman continuously frames Marxist-Leninism as having a fundamental understanding that there is no socialist revolution without the liberation of the Black and colonized working masses.

Chapman spends much time charting the evolution of the Communist Internationals, and describing how the Communist Party ultimately supported the pre-existing idea of Black national consciousness, which Chapman recognized as fundamental to the Black Radical Tradition. He ultimately concludes that Black national consciousness is a necessary condition for both the liberation of the Black masses in the United States, as well as any global socialist revolution. This is a good book for anyone who wants a broad overview of the relationship between the socialist movement and the Black Liberation struggle. However, I think more could have been said about the struggles the Communist Party had with organizing white people and ridding itself (and the white working class more broadly) of anti-Blackness. While Chapman focused on the history of the Communist Party organizing in the "Black Belt" South, he did not mention whether the Communist Party ever tried to look inward and organize white working class communities on anti-racist, pro-Black Liberation grounds. Perhaps this is an analysis for another time.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it. And read it with a highlighter in your hand.

[Ivanna Berrios · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read, covers a lot of history, and polemical (a good thing). A sophisticated primer, even if on the surface that sounds like a contradiction. A little too dogmatic but that is a breath of fresh air in an academy obsessed w ~nuance.~ hes an organizer, not an academic!

[Liz Rathburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely one of the most well written and concise pieces of Marxist history I’ve ever read,, if you’re looking to get a Marxist Leninist history of the movement against national oppression and capitalism in America you can’t do much better than this. With almost every major point that’s made being backed up or clarified with a reference or quotation of a different text the book also serves as a great opener to other works that focus on either the specific national oppression of Black people in the United States or of the national question and marxism more broadly. This constant use of well chosen quotations made the text more compelling, as it feels more like a collaborative effort between Chapman and other radicals and historians than the work of a single man.
To end with a cliche, Mao said “no investigation no right to speak”, Chapman has undeniably done the work of investigation, and I only hope he gets more opportunities to speak like this.

[Owen Frassetto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Chapman's book gives a great argument for the national character of the Black Belt in the Southern USA. Relatively low intensity in terms of political theory, but dense in its historical information, this book connects the international communist movement to the struggle for black liberation in America. All aspiring communists and comrades should read this book, and consider that the FRSO derives much of its theory from the same line of national liberation.

[Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

essential - give a copy to everyone you know

[maoppw · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good introduction to black liberation and socialism in the united states. goes into just the right amount of depth in every section. couldn't put it down -- read it now!

[kath j · Rating 5 out of 5]

still thinking about this book months later