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Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power
The foundations for the explosive rise of the Black liberation struggle in the U.S. beginning in the mid-1950s were laid by the massive migration of Blacks from the rural South to cities and factories across the continent, drawn by capital’s insatiable need for labor power—and cannon fodder for its wars. Malcolm X emerged from this rising struggle as its outstanding single leader. He insisted that colossal movement was part of a worldwide revolutionary battle for human rights. A clash “between those who want freedom, justice, and equality and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation.” Drawing lessons from a century and half of struggle, this books helps us understand why it is the revolutionary conquest of power by the working class that will make possible the final battle for Black freedom—and open the way to a world based not on exploitation, violence, and racism, but human solidarity. A socialist world. Includes four photo sections and over 130 photographs and drawings, author’s introduction, index, glossary.
434 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 16, 2022
Essential reading for the fight-minded person who is open to a marxist understanding of class society and an end to racism, oppression and exploitation. It explains the potential revolutionary character of the Black struggle and how this fight will create other exemplary revolutionary leaders like Malcolm X in today's world.
The book documents the SWP's record in the fight for Black emancipation, understanding it as part of the fight against national oppression from the Russian Revolution to today. It delves deeply into the importance of understanding the political evolution of Malcolm X's leadership and actions in the last year of his life and making a case for his converging politically with other revolutionaries in his time from Algeria to Cuba to the SWP in the US.
The book explains the history of the Second American Revolution which included the Civil War and the rise and defeat of Radical Reconstruction governments. This true history of Radical Reconstruction has been suppressed in history books. It also explains the mass proletarian movement led by Blacks in the 60s.
There is the "mind-boggling historical record" of the vanguard place and weight of workers who are Black, pg 328, and how they are positioned to push forward the rights of all workers as we fight against racism and exploitation by the capitalist system. It also exposes the class interests of the "meritocracy" pgs 199-201 and how the Obamas of the world do not act in the interests of working people. They project a public persona of caring and progressive thought when they actually hold working people in contempt.
Finally, the book presents a positive prognosis for a socialist American Revolution, pgs 350-351.
The book documents the SWP's record in the fight for Black emancipation, understanding it as part of the fight against national oppression from the Russian Revolution to today. It delves deeply into the importance of understanding the political evolution of Malcolm X's leadership and actions in the last year of his life and making a case for his converging politically with other revolutionaries in his time from Algeria to Cuba to the SWP in the US.
The book explains the history of the Second American Revolution which included the Civil War and the rise and defeat of Radical Reconstruction governments. This true history of Radical Reconstruction has been suppressed in history books. It also explains the mass proletarian movement led by Blacks in the 60s.
There is the "mind-boggling historical record" of the vanguard place and weight of workers who are Black, pg 328, and how they are positioned to push forward the rights of all workers as we fight against racism and exploitation by the capitalist system. It also exposes the class interests of the "meritocracy" pgs 199-201 and how the Obamas of the world do not act in the interests of working people. They project a public persona of caring and progressive thought when they actually hold working people in contempt.
Finally, the book presents a positive prognosis for a socialist American Revolution, pgs 350-351.
May 15, 2010
"...A powerful and persuasive political testimony..."
From the Black Studies Shelf at Internet Bookwatch
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/lbw/mar...
Internet Bookwatch from Midwest Book Review:
Malcolm X Black Liberation & the Road to Workers Power
Jack Barnes
Pathfinder Press
PO Box 162767, Atlanta, GA 30321-2767
9781604880212 $20.00 www.pathfinderpress.com
Written by Jack Barnes, the national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, Malcolm X Black Liberation & the Road to Workers Power is an unabashedly pro-socialist treatise, discussing the past one hundred and fifty years of exploitation of workers - especially black workers - particularly from the mid-1950s onward, when black people were disproportionately claimed as an under compensated industrial work force and as cannon fodder for the America's wars.
During this tumultuous time, Malcolm X emerged as a leader who called for human rights, justice, and equality. Malcolm X Black Liberation & the Road to Workers Power searches for lessons from the past, and seeks to apply those lessons to promote a future where socialism provides a framework for reducing or eliminating exploitation, violence, and racism. A powerful and persuasive political testimony, enhanced with black-and-white photographs, a glossary, and an index.
"Everything new and progressive on the Negro question came from Moscow, after the revolution of 1917, and as a result of the revolution... Everybody knew that the Negro was getting the worst of it at every turn, but hardly anybody cared about it or wanted to do anything to try to moderate or change it. The 90 percent white majority of American society, including its working-class sector, North as well as South, was saturated with prejudice against the Negro; and the socialist movement reflected this prejudice to a considerable extent... The old theory of American radicalism turned out in practice to be a formula for inaction on the Negro front... The Russian intervention changed all that, and changed it dramatically, and for the better."
.....................................................
"...Barnes's perspective is eye-opening: over the past 30 years, the economic position of the working class in America has been steadily eroding...Barnes argues that Malcolm X was, at the
time of his assassination, on the threshold of becoming a
socialist...Obama,...[is part of:]...an "enlightened meritocracy" comprised "of all colors and hues" that, while "cadging" the wealth created by capitalists exploiting producers, "fear at some point being pushed back to the working classes," making a divide-and-conquer strategy all the more important."
Here is the full review from Publishers Weekly:
The latest historical analysis from Socialist Worker's Party
national secretary Barnes (Capitalism's World Disorder) boldly,
if dubiously, asserts that the masses are about to seize power and
not (as conservative forces would posit) in accordance with
progressives like President Obama, but in opposition. In
Barnes's view, the current American overclass continues to
exploit the working class (especially the working poor), having
changed only its face: the new bourgeoisie, including Obama,
is an "enlightened meritocracy" comprised "of all colors and
hues" that, while "cadging" the wealth created by capitalists
exploiting producers, "fear at some point being pushed back to
the working classes," making a divide-and-conquer strategy all
the more important. Barnes argues that Malcolm X was, at the
time of his assassination, on the threshold of becoming a
socialist, a stretch even considering Barnes's evidence (such
as a particular 1965 interview). Still, Barnes's perspective is
eye-opening: over the past 30 years, the economic position of
the working class in America has been steadily eroding, and
the usual suspects-NAFTA, China, and other forces of global
trade-cannot be fought with strikes or picket lines.
Unfortunately, Barnes's humorless, doctrinaire approach won't
do much to inspire American workers; perhaps that's why he
needs Malcolm X. (Mar.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business
Information.
This book is at www.pathfinderpress.com
Read
March 16, 2010"...A powerful and persuasive political testimony..."
From the Black Studies Shelf at Internet Bookwatch
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/lbw/...
Internet Bookwatch from Midwest Book Review:
Malcolm X Black Liberation & the Road to Workers Power
Jack Barnes
Pathfinder Press
PO Box 162767, Atlanta, GA 30321-2767
9781604880212 $20.00 www.pathfinderpress.com
Written by Jack Barnes, the national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, Malcolm X Black Liberation & the Road to Workers Power is an unabashedly pro-socialist treatise, discussing the past one hundred and fifty years of exploitation of workers - especially black workers - particularly from the mid-1950s onward, when black people were disproportionately claimed as an under compensated industrial work force and as cannon fodder for the America's wars.
During this tumultuous time, Malcolm X emerged as a leader who called for human rights, justice, and equality. Malcolm X Black Liberation & the Road to Workers Power searches for lessons from the past, and seeks to apply those lessons to promote a future where socialism provides a framework for reducing or eliminating exploitation, violence, and racism. A powerful and persuasive political testimony, enhanced with black-and-white photographs, a glossary, and an index.
"Everything new and progressive on the Negro question came from Moscow, after the revolution of 1917, and as a result of the revolution... Everybody knew that the Negro was getting the worst of it at every turn, but hardly anybody cared about it or wanted to do anything to try to moderate or change it. The 90 percent white majority of American society, including its working-class sector, North as well as South, was saturated with prejudice against the Negro; and the socialist movement reflected this prejudice to a considerable extent... The old theory of American radicalism turned out in practice to be a formula for inaction on the Negro front... The Russian intervention changed all that, and changed it dramatically, and for the better."
From the Black Studies Shelf at Internet Bookwatch
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/lbw/...
Internet Bookwatch from Midwest Book Review:
Malcolm X Black Liberation & the Road to Workers Power
Jack Barnes
Pathfinder Press
PO Box 162767, Atlanta, GA 30321-2767
9781604880212 $20.00 www.pathfinderpress.com
Written by Jack Barnes, the national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, Malcolm X Black Liberation & the Road to Workers Power is an unabashedly pro-socialist treatise, discussing the past one hundred and fifty years of exploitation of workers - especially black workers - particularly from the mid-1950s onward, when black people were disproportionately claimed as an under compensated industrial work force and as cannon fodder for the America's wars.
During this tumultuous time, Malcolm X emerged as a leader who called for human rights, justice, and equality. Malcolm X Black Liberation & the Road to Workers Power searches for lessons from the past, and seeks to apply those lessons to promote a future where socialism provides a framework for reducing or eliminating exploitation, violence, and racism. A powerful and persuasive political testimony, enhanced with black-and-white photographs, a glossary, and an index.
"Everything new and progressive on the Negro question came from Moscow, after the revolution of 1917, and as a result of the revolution... Everybody knew that the Negro was getting the worst of it at every turn, but hardly anybody cared about it or wanted to do anything to try to moderate or change it. The 90 percent white majority of American society, including its working-class sector, North as well as South, was saturated with prejudice against the Negro; and the socialist movement reflected this prejudice to a considerable extent... The old theory of American radicalism turned out in practice to be a formula for inaction on the Negro front... The Russian intervention changed all that, and changed it dramatically, and for the better."
November 11, 2019
Loved reading this book although I have to be honest, I only read the first part of it so far of about 200 pages, which was mostly on Malcolm X’s thoughts and ideas. I never thought I’d be so inspired by them, but for now I postponed reading the rest of the book while delving more into his life. Reading detailed information on black liberation and the many movements without having prior knowledge and not having lived in America, could be quite confusing and I did feel that at times while reading this book. Nevertheless, I thought it was a great introduction to Malcolm X and the start for the call of freedom.
October 9, 2025
Today we have the absurd spectacle of privileged middle class Caucasians telling working class Caucasians who barely get by how “racist” they are because of the “privilege” their skin color gives them! To me, what they’re really saying is “I’m better than you,” and how similar that anti-working-class prejudice sounds to other forms of bias prevalent in capitalist society. Can it really be true that people who have only personal property have as much to do with continuing institutional racism as the millionaires and billionaires who own and control TV stations, newspapers, land, mines, mills, factories, and colleges and universities (which are run just like any other corporations, and for the same reasons)? It’s false by definition. Working people have no representatives in Congress and the rich have all of them, Democrats and Republicans. In my lifetime, the Democrats were still the party of Jim Crow. Joe Biden was a prominent opponent of school desegregation.
What smashed Jim Crow (and it was smashed!) wasn’t people who thought the “right way.” It was the actions of millions of Blacks along with white allies to stand up to cops and vigilantes who had billy clubs, vicious dogs, and sometimes guns and bombs. The fighters against racism weren’t always non-violent, but still, it was their huge numbers here and the rise of the colonial revolution abroad that determined the outcome. And yet many liberals tell you that racism is on the rise today. It isn’t, not by a long shot. These same liberals will tell you that class struggle is a “diversion from fighting racism,” but the fight against racism is a form of the class struggle.
Despite the failure of the labor bureaucracy, with its ties to the Democratic Party, to organize the South, and conduct a serious campaign against racism throughout the country, the huge labor battles of the 1930s brought hundreds of thousands of Blacks into activity as part of it, and it gave the entire working class more self-respect. This was part of what paved the way for the rise of the Civil Rights/Black Power movements. (See in particular, Labor's Giant Step: The First Twenty Years of the CIO: 1936-55 and Fighting Racism in World War II: From the pages of the Militant.
Where does Malcolm X fit into this? He lifted himself out of total degradation, turned his prison cell into a university, and became the most uncompromising spokesperson (and the most internationally minded spokesperson) for the struggle of his people. And. (His ‘Autobiography’ is essential reading, despite the faulty editing that often fails to clearly distinguish his views as a member of the Nation of Islam from his rapidly-changing views once he split from it). Even as a member of the “Black Muslims” as they were popularly known, he met with Fidel Castro and spoke at a solidarity rally for string hospital workers. Once he got out of their framework, he was able to become a virtual ambassador of an oppressed nationality to the peoples of Africa and the Arab world.
In part, this book is a correction about some wrong ideas the SWP had had about Black nationalism in the past, and when it came out, I thought it represented the political line we had been carrying out for some years, but without much in print about the change. Some of that change took place with the publication of 'The Changing Face of US Politics,' in 1981, so nothing in it surprised me. It supports Lenin and Trotsky's view on the national question, and the fact that the right of self-determination doesn't mean promoting nationalism or separation. George Breitman, in particular, had muddied up this question, although he had made many important contributions.
Jack Barnes is the national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. He interviewed Malcolm X for the ‘Young Socialist’ magazine in 1965. Malcolm read and promoted the ‘Militant,’ the newspaper of the SWP, and spoke three times at the Militant Labor Forum.
What smashed Jim Crow (and it was smashed!) wasn’t people who thought the “right way.” It was the actions of millions of Blacks along with white allies to stand up to cops and vigilantes who had billy clubs, vicious dogs, and sometimes guns and bombs. The fighters against racism weren’t always non-violent, but still, it was their huge numbers here and the rise of the colonial revolution abroad that determined the outcome. And yet many liberals tell you that racism is on the rise today. It isn’t, not by a long shot. These same liberals will tell you that class struggle is a “diversion from fighting racism,” but the fight against racism is a form of the class struggle.
Despite the failure of the labor bureaucracy, with its ties to the Democratic Party, to organize the South, and conduct a serious campaign against racism throughout the country, the huge labor battles of the 1930s brought hundreds of thousands of Blacks into activity as part of it, and it gave the entire working class more self-respect. This was part of what paved the way for the rise of the Civil Rights/Black Power movements. (See in particular, Labor's Giant Step: The First Twenty Years of the CIO: 1936-55 and Fighting Racism in World War II: From the pages of the Militant.
Where does Malcolm X fit into this? He lifted himself out of total degradation, turned his prison cell into a university, and became the most uncompromising spokesperson (and the most internationally minded spokesperson) for the struggle of his people. And. (His ‘Autobiography’ is essential reading, despite the faulty editing that often fails to clearly distinguish his views as a member of the Nation of Islam from his rapidly-changing views once he split from it). Even as a member of the “Black Muslims” as they were popularly known, he met with Fidel Castro and spoke at a solidarity rally for string hospital workers. Once he got out of their framework, he was able to become a virtual ambassador of an oppressed nationality to the peoples of Africa and the Arab world.
In part, this book is a correction about some wrong ideas the SWP had had about Black nationalism in the past, and when it came out, I thought it represented the political line we had been carrying out for some years, but without much in print about the change. Some of that change took place with the publication of 'The Changing Face of US Politics,' in 1981, so nothing in it surprised me. It supports Lenin and Trotsky's view on the national question, and the fact that the right of self-determination doesn't mean promoting nationalism or separation. George Breitman, in particular, had muddied up this question, although he had made many important contributions.
Jack Barnes is the national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party. He interviewed Malcolm X for the ‘Young Socialist’ magazine in 1965. Malcolm read and promoted the ‘Militant,’ the newspaper of the SWP, and spoke three times at the Militant Labor Forum.
May 27, 2010
"...this book spans
almost 100 years of labor history from the perspective of how the African
American question was viewed by thinkers and leaders like Trotsky and
organizations like the American Communist Party. Barnes paints a picture of African American leaders and their struggles, vision, and impact,..." Criticas
Criticas Review de Malcolm X, la liberación de los negros y el camino al poder obrero.
Edited by Aida Bardales -- Library Journal, 5/13/2010
Malcolm X. La liberación de los negros y el camino al poder obrero.
(Malcolm X: The Liberation of Blacks and the Road to the Power of the Worker)
Barnes, Jack.
U.S.: Pathfinder Pr. 2010. 447p. ISBN 978-1-60488-024-3. pap. $20. HISTORY
Barnes, National Secretary of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party and a member
since 1963, was one of the last people to interview Malcolm X before his 1965
assassination. This hefty tome contains a rich miscellany of photographs,
articles, and reflections. Although the introductory essays, often presentations
Barnes has made at public meetings, deal with Malcolm X, this book spans
almost 100 years of labor history from the perspective of how the African
American question was viewed by thinkers and leaders like Trotsky and
organizations like the American Communist Party. Barnes paints a picture of
African American leaders and their struggles, vision, and impact, and he
includes recent reflections regarding the election of Barack Obama and how
this fits into the overall perceptions of African America from within and without
that community., specifically regarding rights and opportunities. Recommended for all public libraries
and bookstores for its general appeal and historic content.—Catherine Rendón, Savannah, GA
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article...\
............................................................
May Reviews of the Latest Spanish-Language Books for Adults, Fiction, Nonfiction,
Poetry, and Also in Translation
almost 100 years of labor history from the perspective of how the African
American question was viewed by thinkers and leaders like Trotsky and
organizations like the American Communist Party. Barnes paints a picture of African American leaders and their struggles, vision, and impact,..." Criticas
Criticas Review de Malcolm X, la liberación de los negros y el camino al poder obrero.
Edited by Aida Bardales -- Library Journal, 5/13/2010
Malcolm X. La liberación de los negros y el camino al poder obrero.
(Malcolm X: The Liberation of Blacks and the Road to the Power of the Worker)
Barnes, Jack.
U.S.: Pathfinder Pr. 2010. 447p. ISBN 978-1-60488-024-3. pap. $20. HISTORY
Barnes, National Secretary of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party and a member
since 1963, was one of the last people to interview Malcolm X before his 1965
assassination. This hefty tome contains a rich miscellany of photographs,
articles, and reflections. Although the introductory essays, often presentations
Barnes has made at public meetings, deal with Malcolm X, this book spans
almost 100 years of labor history from the perspective of how the African
American question was viewed by thinkers and leaders like Trotsky and
organizations like the American Communist Party. Barnes paints a picture of
African American leaders and their struggles, vision, and impact, and he
includes recent reflections regarding the election of Barack Obama and how
this fits into the overall perceptions of African America from within and without
that community., specifically regarding rights and opportunities. Recommended for all public libraries
and bookstores for its general appeal and historic content.—Catherine Rendón, Savannah, GA
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article...\
............................................................
May Reviews of the Latest Spanish-Language Books for Adults, Fiction, Nonfiction,
Poetry, and Also in Translation
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews