Riad Azar
Template:TOCnestleft Riad Azar
Open Letter to Obama on Iran
In 2008 Riad Azar of NJ signed an online petition “A Open Letter to Barack Obama on Iran”.[1]
New Politics interview
Kali Akuno was interviewed by email by Riad Azar and Saulo Colon, both members of the New Politics editorial board. Saulo Colon is also a member of LeftRoots.
New Politics: Kali, part of your work and that of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) has been strategically and organizationally focused on the South. Can you explain the thinking behind this and also how it connects to your understanding of the specificity of the South (especially due to its changing demographics because of the recent migrations of Latino workers) in terms of capitalist power and racism?
Kali Akuno: First and foremost, it is critical to understand that the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is a revolutionary nationalist organization that is part of the New Afrikan Independence Movement. Revolutionary nationalism is a left-wing variant of nationalism, practiced by colonized and oppressed peoples, that seeks to liberate them from the yoke of their colonizers and oppressors and replace the capitalist-imperialist social order imposed upon them with a socialist social system. The New Afrikan Independence Movement is a multi-tendency movement struggling to liberate the southeastern portion of the so-called mainland territories now colonized by the United States government. The New Afrikan Independence Movement recognizes that territories it is claiming for its national territory rightfully belong to the indigenous nations of Turtle Island, and makes no claims that supersede their just claims. However, our aim is to unite with indigenous peoples and with other oppressed peoples throughout the United States empire and break the back of white supremacy and the settler-colonial project through a unified anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist struggle. So, it is critical to understand MXGM, and its parent organization, the New Afrikan People’s Organization, and their commitment to the South in this context.[2]
References
- ↑ Open Letter to Obama on Iran
- ↑ [REVOLUTIONARY BLACK NATIONALISM FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: INTERVIEW WITH KALI AKUNO by Riad Azar and Saulo Colón originally published in New Politics, summer of 2015.