STICK TOGETHER, FIGHT THE COMMON ENEMY!
Sixty years ago, five assassins from the Nation of Islam murdered Malcolm X. The FBI had spent years escalating the serious political differences between Malcolm and NOI leaders—and worsening petty jealousies NOI leaders had for Malcolm as his prominence rose.
The NYPD and FBI almost certainly knew the assassination was coming on February 21, 1965. Did nothing to stop it. Seemingly facilitated it.
The five assassins knew the police presence at Malcolm’s rallies had declined. They knew no one would be checking for weapons at the rally of Malcolm’s Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). At an OAAU rally on February 15, an undercover NYPD officer who infiltrated Malcolm’s security detail witnessed “a dress rehearsal for this man’s assassination,” as he reported to police headquarters afterwards (as he did not report to Malcolm).
“Get your hand outta my pocket!” one person shouted to another.
“Cool it, brothers,” Malcolm said. And they did. But they didn’t cool it a week later on February 21, 1965. That distraction drew Malcolm’s bodyguards away from the stage and left him exposed.
Malcolm X died on this day sixty years ago. His stand against racism did not. His call for Black solidarity, for revolutionary solidarity of all the world’s subjected peoples, did not. His message of human rights did not. As I write in my new biography of Malcolm for young readers, “Death stops a person in the world. But death cannot stop a person’s message to the world.
On this day, we honor Malcolm X, a revolutionary who exposed the brutal realities of oppression and the dangers of collaboration with the enemy. He spoke of the House Negro—who lived close to the master, defended him, and saw his struggles as his own—and the Field Negro—who toiled under the sun, knew only suffering, and longed for freedom. Today, we see the same divide. Some among us side with the oppressors, clinging to the illusion of privilege, while the majority suffer under exploitation, displacement, and state violence. But we must not be divided. We are all in the fields! Our enemy is the same system that denies us land, food, and freedom! We choose the path of struggle, unity, and resistance. Our liberation will not come from working with our oppressors but from organizing, educating, and building power from below with and for the working poor. ✊🏾 Revolution until victory!
#LandFoodandFreedom
#antifascistkenya
