BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Chuck Turner is writing this column from the U.S. Federal Prison in Hazelton, West Virginia where he is serving a three year term for a bribery conviction.  BC is in contact with Mr. Turner by email and telephone.  Click here to send an email message that BC can pass on to Chuck.

As we enter the 2nd decade of the 21st century, we are at the crossroads of our journey to be free in the land of our enslavement. Forty five years ago, the tremendous victories of the Civil Rights Movement seemed to be opening the door to a new future for us as a people.

Forty years later, some of us are participating in the system at levels formerly unimaginable. Some of us have wealth beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors. However, I was raised to believe that an assessment of our progress has to focus on our position as a people not on the success of our "stars".

An assessment of our position as African-Americans is bleak at best.  The majority of us are either mired in poverty or clinging to whatever economic base we have been able to put together. More young men are in jail than college. The gap between our children's school performance and whites raises serous questions about their future and our future as a people. Estimates of unemployment among our youth hovering at 40% to 50%, attracting many to the "easy money" of the drug trade, glittering like Fools' Gold glittered in hills of California during the gold rush. Over a million of us in jail with little prospect of getting out.

Yes, we have a President of African-American descent, but he has made it clear that his political reality is that we are going to have to do for self at least for the moment. He can't even talk in a sustained fashion about the direness of the straits in which we find ourselves. The politics of the Presidency forces him to make cuts in programs that are essential to many of us. In my political district 45% of the families have their rent subsidized by the government. Twice Bush tried to cut section 8 during my time in office. What happens to the people of the district if section 8 is cut?

Yes, we are at the crossroads and our elected officials and national leaders are amazingly silent about our next steps. Their silence seems to indicate that we must again wait our turn. Having been an elected official, I understand the pressure to put all your energy into trying to get as much as possible out of a failing system. But is our only alternative to make the best out of a bad situation and hope that eventually prosperity will trickle down when the majority is once more comfortable.

Our situation reminds me of Malcolm X's parable of the different reactions of the house slaves and the field slaves when the plantation caught fire.  The house slaves would go the Master and say, "Master, Master what do we do." While the field slaves would say "Thank God the plantation is on fire. The Master will be so busy that he won't even realize we're gone".  Yes, the American plantation is on fire and those of us inside the house feel trapped and isolated but can't conceive of being outside the house.

Will we continue to see ourselves as the descent of slaves determined not only to be inside the house but also to have a seat at the table. Or is it time to transform our conception of ourselves and see ourselves as the descents of slaves who understand that we can be as free as our minds allow us to be. I remember the lyric of a song whose name I can no longer remember, but the lyric "The will can achieve what the mind can conceive" has been indelibly inscribed in my heart since i heard it. Marcus Garvey had the same thought when he said, "Up you mighty race, you can achieve what you will."  With that in mind, let me share with you my thoughts on a possible Path to Freedom.

Without Land a People Perish:

Anyone serious about being free understands that land is essential.  That is, you can not conceive of yourself as free if you are dependent on others who do not have your interests at heart. If you have to depend on others for food, clothing, and shelter, they determine your reality. If you choose to be free and break a destructive dependence, you have to have land--to grow foods; to supply lumber for your shelter; to raise those crops that can transformed into clothing; to produce the raw materials that can be made into products to build your economy. Without land a people perish.

What I am proposing is that we consider returning to the 21st century version of the vision advanced by the Honorable Elijah Muhammed. That is, the first step in making the concept of freedom a material reality is to develop a land base. Given the fragility of our people young and old, and our vulnerability given the present political and economic situation, we need land bases in every state where we can begin to provide our youth and elders shelter from the coming storm.

We need land bases where our young men and women can learn what it means to be a productive human being. We need land bases from which we can create the technology of the 22nd century. Our creativity has always been of more value to others than ourselves. It is time for us to show ourselves who we are and give to ourselves what we have given to others for the last 400 years.

Obviously, in order to make the above real, there needs to be a plan and pioneers ready to carry it out. To make the vision a reality, we have to do research on the building of new communities. We need to explore the latest technology relating to food production. We need to understand how to design attractive efficient shelters. The list of issues to research and explore seems endless, but essential if we are serious about being free.

However, a plan is not enough.  We need pioneers with the courage and imagination, love of self and kind, and the will to implement such a plan.  Once we have developed a plan, we need to give people an opportunity to hear the plan and decide whether they're willing to make the sacrifices to be a pioneer. If they are, then they will have to go through a rigorous physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual process in order to ready them for the task of laying the foundation for a new reality for us as a people. In the cities of every state where a plan is being developed, there need to be information and training sites where those who seek to be free can have an opportunity to explore what that would mean in reality.

Perhaps, most of all, we need raw materials that can be the base of our economy. George Washington Carver demonstrated what that the simple peanut could produce endless products to enrich the lives of the people. Unfortunately, the Duponts seem to be the one who became enriched financially by Professor Carver's genius. I believe there is a raw material that could fuel the development of our economy - industrial hemp.

This plant has been part of the American economy since the beginning of the colonies. I have been told that the Constitution was written on paper made from hemp and that "Old Glory" was printed on cloth made from hemp. The sails of the ships that brought our ancestors to this country were made out of hemp. At one time hemp was the major agricultural product of Massachusetts. Henry Ford made the bodies of his model T Fords out of the materials produced from the stalk of the hemp plant. He also used hemp as the major ingredient in the ethanol that powered his car.

Why don't we know more about this wonder plant, you ask? In the 1920s, as the story goes some of the industrialists were worried about the competition that hemp could give their products. Rather than risking competition, they used their political power and had industrial hemp put on the list of drugs whose use in this country was restricted.  They based the restriction on the fact that it is in the marijuana family even though it is not a narcotic.

Ironically, hemp can now be imported for use in product development but can not be grown in this country.  A number of states have passed laws allowing for the growing of hemp but because the drug is on the restricted list, they need a license from the Division  of Drug Administration and Enforcement which refuses to issue any licenses.  They say they are afraid that industrial hemp will be used to hide the growing of marijuana, which is ridiculous since the industrial hemp bud will destroy the quality of the marijuana plant. With President Obama now in the White House, this is the time to demand not money, not land, but that hemp be freed so that we can build our future together.

And where will we get the money to build these Freedom Villages, you ask. Its obvious that government involvement would be a kiss of death. They talk about our doing something for ourselves, but the idea of our taking that seriously will scarce them to death and certainly make it impossible to get government financing in this era of economic fear.  This has to be a do it yourself development. That is, there are those of African descent who have made "relatively obscene" levels of resources during this period. They deserve an opportunity to free themselves by investing in those who have the courage and will to lead us to freedom.

"No People Can Be An Island Unto Themselves"

It is essential that we create Freedom Villages through which we recreate ourselves and our future as well as provide a safe haven for our elderly and young as we go through the fire storm that is on our horizon. In addition, it is unrealistic to think that these villages to continue to exist over time if there is not a movement of people of all races in this country focused on freeing the country from the death grip  of the oligarchy (those who through wealth and power seek to control the country if not the world).Therefore at the same time that we are focusing on developing a plan for the development of land bases for our future, we also need to be working with those in other racial communities who are as concerned about the freedom of their future generations as we should be. We should bring to the potential coalitions three ideas for exploration, planning, and implementation: regionalism, economic cooperation, and economic democracy.

a) Regionalism:

The capitalists driven by the logic of capitalist accumulation have focused their energies on moving their plants and operations to what ever locations can give them the cheapest labor and raw materials. This search for profit has for them a benefit--wealth. For us, the people of the country, it is a destructive force cutting through the natural interrelationships that create the preconditions for an economy in the region. That is, different areas of the country have a different mix of resources that can promote economic relationships between various sectors in the region as well as trading opportunities between the regions. Those relationships and opportunities need to be explored and developed by the ingenuity of people seeking to develop an economy that works for them which grows out of the resources provided to us by nature. I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio where in my youth there existed a creative interdependence between those in the countryside and those in the cities. The major restaurant chain advertised proudly that the beef they served was raised by our neighbors on the farms. We need to encourage our neighbors, civic leaders, and elected leaders to think local and appreciate our ability to help each other through cooperation. 

b) Economic Cooperation:

As we rethink our economic relationships, we need to rethink the forms of those relationships.  For the last 150 years the western world has watched the struggle between the capitalists and the socialists. Both have proclaimed their benefits to the people. However, both I believe have had a fatal flaw in their models--the people become pawns in their systems. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely is an expression that can be applied to the corporate sector on the right as well as the governmental sector on the left. Capital always asserts its entitlement whether assembled and controlled by the corporation or the state.

It is time to take the next evolutionary step and create a cooperative economic process appropriate for a planetary population advancing in consciousness.  The process must reflect the cooperative interrelationships we see in nature. It must build on the thought that it is cooperation among human beings in all aspects of life that will bring harmony to the planet.  We must build the middle way, an economy based on human cooperation--not the left built on state power; not the right built on capital power; but the middle way, based on the principle of human cooperation. We must build an economy that affirms our interconnectedness rather than our differences.

The development of a new economic paradigm will require a transformation of perspective. We will have to move beyond the capitalist and socialist denial of the role of self focused/indulgent ego and greed play in both of their systems and inevitably destroy the "good intentions" that might have existed. We need to draw the covers off the hypocrisy of today's business, political, religious, academic, and particularly the judicial/prosecutorial leaders as we challenge ourselves to eliminate in ourselves the character defects we see in others.

To achieve this new perspective we need to draw on the wisdom of those who are steadily but quietly laying the foundation for a millennium of peace and cooperation. We need to meet with the Canadians to learn from them the techniques of building a cooperative sector as a way of life. We need to talk to the Basques in Mondragon, Spain who while fighting Spanish oppression were able to build a system of cooperative institutions as a foundation for their future and to build an international corporation that is controlled by its workers. We need to talk to the Italians who have built a network of worker owned cooperatives. We need to learn from all both at home and abroad who understand that economic cooperation is the next evolutionary step in our developing a planetary consciousness based on mutual respect and cooperation. 

Yes, it is time to free ourselves systematically, cooperatively, and humbly from the old hierarchical structures. We must realize that the creativity of our Creator lives within every heart on this planet. It is our responsibility to do our part in bringing harmony to the earth by bringing that creativity into the light.

c) Economic Democracy:

It is essential that people of all races in this country unite to build an economy that works for all of us.  As we see the students and people of the Middle East rising up, they are not risking their lives to build the type of sham democracy that we have in this country.  They want what any thinking individual wants an economy that works in their interests as well as the interests of their neighbors. As thinking individuals, they also must realize that they can not sit back and allow others to speak and act for them.  They must be ready to be an active part of building and maintaining an economy that operates in the interests of all the people.

The question not only for us but also for the people of this country is what are we going to do to build an economy here that works in the interests of us all. If it wasn't clear before, it should be crystal clear now that our democracy does not live up to the meaning of the word. Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines democracy as , "....a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly....or indirectly through a system of representation and delegated authority.....".

Who could look honestly at what represents itself as government in the name of the people on the federal, state, and local level and say that the elected leaders are operating in the interests of all the people of this country.  As part of the people who are defined as holding the supreme power, do you feel powerful? Our experience clearly shows us that a democracy that enables its citizens to elect it leaders but gives the people no real voice or role in the shaping of the economy or even a Bill of Economic Rights is in fact a tyranny of the rich.  This is why the people of this country of all races are becoming poorer and poor while the rich become richer and richer. Of course, given our relative economic position as African-Americans, we continue to be hovering around the bottom of the economic pyramid as a people despite the wealth of some.

Once again, we come to the question--what do we do given our analysis.  Being an advocate of nonviolence, I certainly am not advocating that we take up arms. However, I am advocating that we take action to reform a democracy that has no framework of economic rights for its people. The concept of economic rights for the people was not even considered by the land owners who wrote and ratified the Constitution.  Only they, the landowners, could vote. They didn't need economic rights, they needed an army and navy to protect their wealth and a framework of law to balance the power between their state which they collectively controlled and the central government. While they were pressured into attaching a Bill of Rights to protect people against governmental oppression, there was not even a discussion of a Bill of Economic Rights to protect the people against the economic oppression of government and the wealthy who controlled the government. 

While voting rights have been extended over the last 150 years, with a relatively token consideration of the economic rights. Look at what has happened in Wisconsin. The results of sixty years of labor rights struggles were wiped out in a couple of months despite the rising up of the people of Wisconsin. Yes, there is a struggle going on to regain what was taken away but the reality of the fragility of the gains of labor can not be denied. It is also true that our laws relating to the protecting of the rights of labor are the weakest in the world. As my friend used to say, "Yes, they supposed abolished slavery but the reality is that we are all either wage slaves, unemployed, or in jail. 

I believe that part of the development plan for freedom for those of African-American descent, must include playing a leadership role in focusing the attention of the thinking people of this country on building an economy that works for the people not the rich. We need to spearhead the formation of local and state conventions focused on the development of a Bill of Rights for that particular state. Such a process would enable people from a variety of sectors, races, ages, and sexes to begin to work toward a common framework of thought regarding the economic rights that we should have as the holders of the supreme power in a democracy. We must recognize that this will be a long, slow, hard process. It will not be easy. But if we are to rebuild our economy, it has to come from the thinking and actions of people at the grassroots, state by state.

As more states become involved in the process, there will be the opportunity to build a consensus on an Economic Bill of Rights that could develop into a national political force.  As it becomes clearer and clearer that our government does not have the capacity to focus and think clearly on the needs of the people of this country, that growing political consensus will have increasing effect not only on who is being elected but also on the decisions that are being made about the rights of the people, particularly economic. We must continue to build for that day when we have an Economic Bill of Rights and an economy that is democratic in character. 

In conclusion for those of you who question our ability to be "free" in this country, I remind you of the challenge that Marcus Garvey gave us almost a century ago---"Up you mighty race, you can achieve what you will".

A Luta Continua/The Struggle Continues,

Chuck

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board  Member Chuck Turner - Served as a member of the Boston City Council for ten years and eleven months. He was a member and founder of the Fund the Dream campaign and was the Chair of the Council’s Human Rights Committee, and Vice Chair of the Hunger and Homelessness Committee. Click here to contact Mr. Turner. Your email messages will be passed on to Mr. Turner by BC. You may also visit SupportChuckTurner.com.

You may also write to Mr. Turner.  The address is:

Charles Turner #80641038
Hazelwood Penitentiary, P.O. Box 2000,
Bruceton Mills, West Virginia 26525