You Should Know; Kwame Toure

The scientific socialism, so I adhere also to socialism, I know the socialist economic system is the only system that will solve the unjustness that's to be found in a capitalist system. Do you think that black Americans can continue? Do you believe that black Americans can continue under the current governmental system that we have here in the United States today? Or do you think that some sort of people will have to take place and changes be made? Well outside of the government structures systematically speaking there must be an opinion of people, the capitalist system is in great crisis and every time the capitalist system finds itself in crisis, its solution is war. It comes out of it by a war. Today that's going to be a little bit difficult. The peoples around the world, their consciousness is risen

therefore they are fighting back and in America those who will be called to go and fight their consciousness is also risen because of Vietnam notwithstanding so that it will become a little bit more difficult and the problems are going to rise and the only way to solve the problems is by taking away from the rich that which they have no right to have and equally distributing it among all the people in the society. Martin Luther King was disturbed somewhat by your movement and he felt that possibly he was afraid that it would cause what was referred to back then as a white backlash. In view of the and now we never really did see a white backlash I don't think in my own opinion during the 60s and 70s but now suddenly in this country we do have a conservative movement and people, democrats are changing to republicans and this sort of thing. Do you think that there's a possibility that there might be a delayed reaction

to some of the things that blacks did during the 60s? I think that there was quite a reaction it continues of course my disagreement with Dr. King on this point though my newt was that there's no such thing as a backlash what there is is that we're under racism and we come to struggle against it certainly as you struggle against any opponent the opponent stiffens his resistance and if the opponent happens to be someone oppressing you they stiffen their oppression if we have a plantation and there are slaves and the slaves never try a slave revolt there's no need to tighten up security but if the slaves try a slave revolt you can be sure that security is going to be tightened so consequently when you struggle against oppression it is to be expected that those who are oppressing you are going to tighten up the screws of oppression Dr. King's his real point was that what was happening was that with a black power slogan it seemed to have isolated whites and he felt that this isolation of whites which could be a

buffer zone would just leave us out there isolated by ourselves what you spoke to black students about the history of blacks and I mean the future of blacks in America what kind of things did you say to them what kind of advice did you give them well the first is that we need to be more conscious of our responsibility as human beings and certainly as Africans and in order to do this it calls for us properly understanding our history our history in this country our history in the world has not been written by us in the first instance even the best meaning those outside of our race cannot properly comprehend the historical forces which were up against therefore one is for us to properly understand our history once we understand our history it will give us a guide and map out the path that we much stake certainly we have to be organized we are not organized people everywhere across the country totally disorganized consequently we must become organized and we must have an organization which we run which we direct which we control which we finance and to which we give

ideological direction which is crucial for us of course as pan-Africanist no African anywhere in the world will ever be free until all of Africa is free therefore our primary occupation is the liberation of Africa and its unification on the socialism this therefore is the future direction of the struggle if if this is achieved if Africa becomes united and it becomes under a total black rule situation what then happens to the more than 13 million blacks in America how did they relate to your pan-African theory the conditions will materially change in the first place now Africans the world over will have to be respected if your home is not in order certainly you cannot expect respect living in somebody else's house so the relationship will change and the relationship Africanism cells will change we say one of the biggest problems that I know press people face is this problem of consciousness and consciousness is

a result of awareness and ability to understand things Africans are all over America think that Africans have never done anything and cannot do anything consequently once Africa is unified in socialist being one of the richest continents on the face of the earth should be one of the most powerful consequently their relationship vis-a-vis Africa will change and vis-a-vis other citizens of the world other nations and races of the world okay what then what then should in your opinion should black Americans do to help to organize in other words how do you advocate they organize should they organize along political lines along form some sort of religion how how do you think it should be done of course as a revolutionary we must say along political lines this is even Greek philosophy Aristotle himself was to say and I quote man by nature is political and all animals are political

of course everything is political whether we know it or not where you go to school what is taught in school even how one goes to the bathroom is a political question consequently for us there must be political organization I've heard people predict that as conditions liberalize throughout the world of course we've gone back to being more conservative so maybe these predictions aren't very correct now but that eventually in the world we will have a single race that the races will eventually work out problems and the interracial marriages will take place and there will be one race in the world do you think that'll ever come true it's it's quite possible of course it's a long long long long long long way off but anyway I don't see any opposition to it before it occurs however each race will have to properly make its contribution to humanity consequently things Africans will have to make their proper contribution and it has to be then of course and

really unequal footing not as it is today where the Africans have nothing to say about it but it's for your good and therefore we've decided it for you okay how do you feel about organizations religious organizations I was watching television the other night that move into Africa and then ask for money to donate for food for the Africans that are along the edge of the Sahara Desert for instance how do you feel about those movements are they are they good are they bad do you like them to do that would you rather they didn't do that how do you feel about that of course any organization doing good must be supported even if one doesn't see the good as a priority for for oneself one cannot not good as certainly religious organizations really need to be in the forefront you know religions came into being to to to fight injustice and to bind men and women to just behavior and to proper behavior and therefore religious organizations much always

being the forefront fighting against injustices this is why I have so much appreciation for King as a Christian as a Christian because as a Christian he really understood Christianity and was on the front lines fighting against injustice unfortunately most of the Christians in America do not understand the responsibility of Christianity and some even use Christianity as a means of making a living and gathering more money but Christian organizations and religious organizations must be in the forefront of doing good for the people that's their responsibility. Quarming thank you very much for talking with me. Thank you. I'm good.