Rebellion, Crisis and Transformation:
A View on the Political Economy of Domestic Neo-Colonialism
By Abayomi Azikiwe

Pan-African News Wire

The purpose of this work is to chronicle the origins of the current political crises which exists in the African community in the United States. The word crisis as it is to be used in this context, refers to the current social conditions existing among the African people of America and the political response and course of action being proposed and executed by the African-American leadership aimed at addressing immense social problems faced by the African-American people. It is the contention of this study that the currently existing leadership of the African people of America are ill-prepared politically and ideologically to deal with the dire circumstances facing the majority of African people in this country. The aim of this article is to propose alternative approaches to historical problems which are increasing in momentum and magnitude.

The inspiration for the development of such a historical review arose from the fortieth anniversary of the African national uprising of 1967. In over 160 cities that year, particularly during the summer months, African poor and working people arose spontaneously in revolt against their national oppression. The City of Detroit, which at that time was the heartland of American industrialism, experienced that largest and most militant of all the rebellions taking place throughout the United States.

The Detroit rebellion of July 1967 and the political events occuring afterwards, between 1967-1973, were instrumental in charting a new course in the containment policy of the US ruling class vis-a-vis its relationship to the African masses in America. The shift from domestic colonialism to domestic neo-colonialism served as a mechanism for the American ruling class to postpone the necessity of addressing the problems created by the large-scale displacement of African people from the rural south to the urban north and west; a population shift which was caused by the industrial expansion in the northern urban areas and the unwillingnesss of the federal government to eradicate de jure segregation in the south.

The increased automation and reliance on high-technology during the 1960s created huge pockets of unemployment and institutionalized poverty in many northern urban areas. These factors coupled with the recalcitrance of the federal government to enforce the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of 1964-65 in a meaningful fashion, lead to mounting frustration among urban African-Americans which erupted in to full-scale civil unrest in the leading commercial and industrial centers of the United States.
To Read All, Click Here