Imani, ladies and gentlemen. I'm sorry for the delay, but the program will start now. Welcome to the first program in the Committee for Black Programs'month-long celebration of Black History Month. Our other programs are listed in the brochure you have before you. And before I introduce our speaker for the night, I'd like to retune.
announcements. The minority students of the Social Work School are sponsoring a disco skating party at the Skate Inn in Athens, February 6th from 9pm to 11. Tickets are $1 admission at 75 cents. at Skater rental. Tickets are available from the students after the lecture. And the National Association of Black Social Workers Athens chapter invites you to attend their contribution to the observance of Black History Month.
It is scheduled for Wednesday, February 7th, 7.30 p.m. at the Central Athens Community Center. The theme is Perspectives of Black History. Participants are Black City Councilmen, two local choirs, and Michael Michael Thurman, author of Black History of Athens.
After the program, there will be questions, and we ask that you limit them to one. Our guest tonight is probably best known for his participation with the Black Panther Movement and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the turbulent 60s. He was also one of the founders of the All African People's Revolutionary Party and has just returned to the U.S. from an extensive visit to Africa.
Without further delay, I'd like to present to you Mr. Stokely Carter. I thank you, good evening, and I apologize for being late. As a revolutionary, we should try never to be late.
But I think it was Mr. Hemingway who said, even the best laid plans of mice and men do oft times go astray. All the need for more serious planning. We want to speak to you this evening about revolution, and we want to speak to you this evening about the necessity of students understanding their crucial role in revolution.
Well, it would be properly understood that when we talk of revolution, of course, we mean bloodshed. Either one is nonviolent and one's blood is shed, or one retaliates and sheds the blood of those who are trying to shed one's blood. That is to say, either you be like Dr. Martin Luther King or Jesus Christ, you're willing to have your blood shed, or you be like Lenin, or you be like Mao, or you be like Fidel, or you be like Kim Il-sung, or you be like Secretary, you shed the blood of those who are trying to kill you. But let it be understood that as all, I'm a reasonable man, even though the American press tries to make it appear that I'm not a reasonable man, I'm a very reasonable man. And as a reasonable man, I don't want bloodshed at all, especially my bloodshed.
But I want my liberation more than I want anything else. I want my people to be free and I want humanity to go forward more than I want my very life. Therefore, I understand the necessity of...
and I understand the necessity to be prepared for it and to work for it even though it means bloodshed. Just want to try and clear out of the way some of the problems that some of the problems that we face and have to deal with because of the American press and its backward way of presenting things. We want to speak of revolution and we want to explain that it's a scientific process. That is to say it is stripped of sentimentality.
It is a process which is a result of historical forces which are at work. We want to say that capitalism, which is the economic system that dominates America, has dominated America since its beginning, is a backward, stupid, vicious, barbaric, and religious system. reactionary system.
And we want to further say that this system is going to fall and that those of us who are conscious are working as hard as we can to bring it down, recognizing the quicker we bring it down, the quicker we will free humanity and allow civilization to go forward. Now, of course, we understand the task that's before us. We come to the University of Chicago.
University of Georgia at Athens, we come to a university that's very old. We come to a university whose purpose it is to inculcate in the students who come here a love of capitalist values and to have these students manifest capitalist values whether they are conscious or unconscious of it. Everything in life has a reason, everything.
Whether we are aware of the reason or not, there is a reason for it. You may ask some of your colleagues on this college campus, why did they come to the university? They may say, I don't know. And probably as honestly as they themselves.
can answer, they may not really know why they're here. But even if they do not know why they're here, you can never assume that there is not a reason which impels them to be here. Everything under the face of the sun, every action has a reason for it.
Even if we are not aware of the reason, we are not aware of the reason. or even if we are unconsciously aware of the reason or wrongly aware of the reason. Each and every act has a reason. My reason for coming before you this evening is to find among the Africans, oh, before we begin again, you see, I have to waste so much time because of this press. Now, I'm concerned about Africans.
I'm concerned about black people. Now, many people say to me when they see me, they say, Mr. Carmichael, incidentally, my name has been changed to Kwame Ture. They can say, Kwame Ture, we are not going to let you do this.
understand that you are just concerned about making black people better. And I say, yes, in a way I am. And he said, well, if that's the case, you are a racist.
And I said, no, you are the racist. You see, Africans are part of humanity. They are an oppressed part of humanity. If I benefit an oppressed part of humanity and free it, obviously I have benefited all of humanity, since humanity is indivisible.
You understand it? So let there be no confusion. All right.
I want to organize Africans. So my purpose is to find among the Africans in the audience the most conscious. By the word conscious, I don't mean to in any way equivocate it with intelligent.
Not at all. Or even with one holder of degrees. A conscious man, a conscious woman is someone who recognizes their responsibility to humanity.
That's all. And fulfills it. Of course.
Of course. That is to say, a conscious man. a conscious student here, recognizing that there's poverty in the world, coming to the university to acquire knowledge. A conscious student would seek to acquire the knowledge that would help solve the problems of poverty in the world.
That's a conscious student. Of course, the intelligent student might try to make as much money as he or she can. That's a stupid student, of course. Of course, of course. So my job is to try and get the most conscious, to let them see that they must begin now to take the first step to begin to help organize the masses of our people as we move forward from...
our liberation on a lower level, those who are not conscious, and it's possible to understand why we're not conscious in this backward capitalist system, those of us who are not conscious, I come with the best of intentions to make them more conscious so they can know what really is their responsibility to life. And then on the lowest level, that is on the level of the most common denominator, I come to make everybody think. Now to make people think in America is an extremely difficult job.
It is. The difficulty arises from the fact that since we live in a capitalist system, which seeks to exploit the people and therefore keep the people confused, the capitalist system makes the people think they're thinking when in fact they are not thinking. And it is extremely difficult to convince someone who thinks he's thinking that he's not thinking. Is it? But we must do it.
It's our responsibility. Let me give you an example of how the American people think they think but don't think. If we took a poll of the American people and asked them what they thought about communism, Would you agree with me that at least 90% of the people we ask in America would be against communism? 90%? And if we ask this 90% what is communism, would you agree with me that less than 0.2% can probably give us an intelligent, though not necessarily correct answer?
Would you agree with me on this? Now let me ask you a question just between you and I. If you have an enemy, does it behoove you to know the enemy or not to know the enemy? That is just a question. say for example, if snakes are your enemy, does it behoove you to know at least what they look like or not to know what they look like?
You understand the proposition carefully. So we want to prove that they think they're thinking, but they're not thinking. Listen to this.
The man or woman who hates communism the most is the man or woman who knows the least about communism. And what is even tragic is that the man or woman who hates communism the most, that is to say, the man or woman who knows the least about communism is the least about communism is the man or woman who wants to know the least about communism. That is to say, snakes are my enemies.
They come to bite me, and I don't even want to know what they look like. It's a stupid system. Because the system is based on exploitation, it confuses the people so that it uses the people for its further exploitation. Thus the pigs who run the capitalist system come and yell, the communists are coming!
The people grab the guns! Where? Panama!
They go shoot! The communists are coming! Where?
Santa Domingo! They grab guns! They go shoot! The communists are coming! Where?
Vietnam! They grab guns! They go shoot! They don't know what the hell they're fighting and are not even concerned with finding out! That's a stupid system!
Stupid system. Stupid. Stupid system.
Stupid and backward. Stupid system. We say the capitalist system is a stupid system. It must be.
It has to be. It's based on exploitation. It's motivating forces profit.
But a backward system, a system that motivates people just to do things for profit. One cannot have individual incentive unless one is given some material stimulation. It's a stupid and backward system. It's a system that has to be destroyed. If one looks at the material makeup of the society, one can see clearly how unjust the system is.
Under the system, a few people own and control everything. The rest of the masses of the people own nothing. And they are forced to work for these who own.
And the more you work, the poorer you get. Of course, because the essence of it is exploitation. It must be based on exploitation.
I said, look at the stupidity. A quick glance at the system will show you how unjust... it is, but the American capitalist system will have the people so confused, think they're thinking, they're thinking, they don't even look properly at the capitalist system. Do you know that in this country, some people own all the coal that's to be found in the country?
Now that's unjust, there's no question. about it. In the first place, their labor didn't even put the coal there. You know, so they can't say that it was through hard work.
No, it wasn't through hard work. You got it. And your grandmama didn't give it to you because she can't because she didn't bring none with her when she came here. Yes, I'm talking about. As a matter of fact, she found it here.
You understand? So I don't care who you bought it from, who you didn't buy it from. No one man, no true group of men could own the coal in the country.
The coal must belong to the people and be used for the benefit of the people. people, clearly. It's a stupid system.
It is a backward system. It affects you as students. Of course it will affect you.
It affects your brothers. They send them to war to die. They don't even know what they're dying for.
Because this system is concerned with confusing the people, not letting the people think, because once the people begin to think, they will use their creative energies for humanity and not against humanity. And this indeed is to see the true tragedy of the capitalist system. The tragedy of the capitalist system.
of the capitalist system is to be found in the fact that it takes human beings who think in fact they're working for just ends when in fact they're working for unjust ends. But here by doing this, the system clearly demonstrates to us that human nature itself is for humanity. Clearly. Even when they come to take the youth and send them to Vietnam, they don't come before the youth and tell them the truth, we're going to rape the country. On the contrary, they lie to them.
They tell them we're fighting for democracy. They tell them we're fighting for justice. They send them in front of the police.
fighting against communism, which is bad, and the dictatorship, and we're fighting to bring freedom, and this is why the people are mobilized, because the people will be mobilized to fight for justice, and look at the vicious system, lying to the people, sending the youth to believe he's really fighting for democracy, when in fact this youth is fighting against democracy. It's a backward and stupid system. It has to be overthrown. You may think it doesn't touch you.
You may think it doesn't affect you. That's the job of the university here. It supports the values of capitalism. Its job is to put you to sleep.
That's what it's to do. That's exactly what it's to do. Exactly what it's to do. Let me give you a demonstration. This is my first time I've been to this university.
I don't know any of you personally. Maybe some of you I've seen somewhere. But knowing the capitalist system, knowing you as students, knowing the role occupied by students of the capitalist system, I can make a statement about you sitting here before me and be absolutely correct.
I can say that at least 90% of the students at this university cheat. All right, give me 85. You want to go for 80? The overwhelming majority? Of course. I understand your nervous laughter.
But you think about it. You think about it. Especially the African students.
You think about it. Your people suffer. Your people suffer in South Africa, in Zimbabwe. in Egypt, in Algeria, in Trinidad, in Jamaica, in Guyana, in Mississippi, in Alabama, in New York, in California, in Georgia, in Atlanta, in Athens, you have the chance to come and help them.
You have the chance to come and help them. by acquiring knowledge which can be used for the benefit of the people to help serve humanity. What other great and most noble cause can there be?
What other greater motivation? And rather than you acquire this knowledge, which has been paid for with the blood of your people, you come here and you cheat. It's a vicious system. It's a stupid and backward system and you cheat because you're motivated by the values of the system unconsciously.
The system tells you that the smartest man is the man who does the least work and reaps the highest benefits. Does the students? Yes. You seek to do the least work and get the highest grades, obviously.
The system, through its ideological arena, one which you are not even aware of and one which the university doesn't even try to make you conscious of, Having complete control of the ideological arena, the system decides how you move, when you move, where you move, and all the time you think you're doing it by yourself. Yes. If you were 10 years old in 1952, while you were 10 years old in 1952, some men had already planned that in 1963, when you were 18 years old, you would be with a gun in your hands on the battlefield of the United States.
Vietnam. It's been planned, of course. The Vietnam War was planned in 1952. Of course it was. It wasn't planned overnight. Even before then.
But those who had to do the fighting didn't even know about the Vietnam, didn't know there was a place called Vietnam. It's a stupid system. It's a backward system. You're students. You have a responsibility to humanity.
You cannot come here and walk into a place that says it gives knowledge, knowledge which you know can neither be bought nor sold, even though... they try to confuse you because when you enter the school you got to pay. Well you may get confused but you know that knowledge can neither be bought nor sold. As students you must know it. No one can own knowledge.
How can anyone own the truth? The truth belongs to all and to each and every one. And each and every one is capable of seeing the truth.
So powerful is the truth then it can never be hid. It can never be crushed. And the truth will be found as the people rise up over and over again against all unjust systems. that seeks to suppress the truth.
The truth can never be crushed. Never. Never. Now since the truth cannot be crushed, knowledge cannot be crushed. We say knowledge can neither be bought nor sold.
The capitalist system will confuse you. You see, coming to the university, let me even show you how they waste you. Watch.
Take a student getting ready to come to college. You know what a student asks? Which subject should I take?
Should I take a subject which will be of service to humanity, or should I take a subject which will make me have a... for a better living, which will make more money. And do you know most of the students decide on more money? Well, if I get more money, I'll be able to help the people. I can't do anything for anybody if I can't do anything for myself.
Oh, they will give you every rationalization in the world. You must be conscious. Knowledge could neither be bought nor sold. It belongs to everyone.
President Sekou Toure. leader of the African Revolution, President of the Republic of Guinea. He says, you can give a man a car. You can give a man a house. You can give a man a job.
When you get mad at the man, when you get angry at the man, when you're no longer friends with the man, you can go back and take your house and put the man out your house. You can go and take your car. You can go and take the job that you gave the man. But if you taught the man something, you can never take it from him.
Knowledge can neither be bought nor sold. Not only that, Sigmund Freud scientifically proved that anything that enters the mind can never leave it. You can never forget it, even if you think you have forgotten it.
Of course, you can think you forget it, but you can't forget it. For example, you go to the door to leave the room. When you go to leave the room, instead of pulling the door, you push the door. But the door must be pulled. So you spend some time, and then you notice, ah, it's got to be pulled.
You go out. You come back. You spend some time. some time. After a while, you get up to go again.
You go to the door. You do the same thing you did the first time. But now when you make the mistake you made the first time, you remember that you also made the mistake the first time again.
So you can't forget. You can't forget. You can't forget.
You can't forget. The capitalist system is a vicious system. The viciousness of the system is to be found in the fact that those who labor do not enjoy the fruits of their labor. Africans. Africans all over the world, Africans living in America, they know the vicious instinctive nature of the capitalist system.
They know it almost instinctively. Under this system, they were put in its most vicious form, slavery. They can see its vicious value, its vicious nature before anyone else. The slave who had to weed the cotton, the slave who had to pick the cotton, the slave who had to chop the cotton, the slave who had to bail the cotton, the slave who had to take the cotton. cotton to the port and shipped the cotton was the same slave who saw the master reap all the profits and all this slave got was a whoop on top his back.
The viciousness of the nature is too blatant. Sometimes one wonders how is it that the American society being as technologically capable as it is, able to do so much good can keep its people so confused. The people all over the world hate the American people. They hate you.
And what is pathetic about it is that you don't even know why they hate you and you think they shouldn't be hating you. But if you examine it, they have every reason to be hating you because you are irresponsible to humanity. Look at the people in Iran.
The guns that are used against those people are paid for with your tax dollars. The guns that are used to oppress these people in Paul's ashram is paid for with your tax dollars. Your tax dollars is helping to crush humanity.
I say you must take some. some responsibility everything in the world relates to everything else everything is interconnected to everything else your students you have a responsibility your students and you have a responsibility to see the truth and advocate the truth and not be afraid of it that's least we can ask you to do. After all, you come to seek knowledge. Oh, for what purposes do you come to seek knowledge? So you too can learn how to better exploit the poor?
You don't have to come to college for that. You can be ruthless easily. Of course. Of course.
Of course they might just teach you in college how to make it appear as if you're not ruthless. Oh, they can do it. Some people are talking about Mr. Rockefeller.
They say he's a philanthropist. I know him to be a pig, a thief, a plunderer, and a rapist. Thank you. They can't confuse you if you're not careful. As a young man brought up in the West Indies, in the Caribbean where I was born, I was told that Cecil Rhodes was a philanthropist.
Yes, he even gives Rhodes a scholarship. Yes, they even talk about it. Show me.
If you're good, you too can get one. I say, if you're not careful, they will confuse you. We have to struggle. The struggle which we have to wage is a struggle as old as man himself. The struggle is...
is for man to come and to be in complete control of all the forces that affect his life and to use these forces and the knowledge he has to be able to control these forces for the good of humanity. We have a struggle to wage. Let it be crystal clear the grounds upon which we wage this struggle, the causes for which we wage this struggle, the objectives for which we fight, the principles by which we adhere to. We say we want to come, get man and woman, come together, use your creative energies. Understand the forces that control life.
Come to use these forces. Master these forces. Continually, continually try to master these forces.
Master them always for the good of humanity against injustice at all times, under all conditions, uncompromisingly so. This is what we mean by a conscious man and a conscious woman. America needs conscious men and conscious women. Capitalist system does everything possible to confuse the people. It will take history.
and oh look at what it does with history, it will confuse you. You see the job of the system is to demobilize you. That is its job. Its job is to undermine your will.
The job, its job is to make you think that even though you see bad everywhere, even though you see corruption everywhere, there's nothing you can do about it. After all, you're only one person and you ain't no great man and the best thing you can do is hope that they'll leave you alone. Maybe you can go get a farm, a big farm in West Vermont somewhere snowed in where nobody will touch you. No. You must struggle.
If you're struggling for justice, you can never lose, even if they kill you. Wake up. Wake up.
Once you're struggling for justice, you can never be defeated. The only way you can be defeated is if you surrender. End of discussion.
There can be no surrender when one struggles for justice. The capitalist system seeks to demobilize you using every possible thing in its hand to twist and confuse and demobilize you. It will use history. It will take religion and use religion to demobilize you. you.
Look at what it does with history. Take a look at the way the American capitalist system presents history. The way history is presented is presented as if you yourself are some passive object.
It's presented as great dates that happen and led forward always by great men. And if you're not a great man, then you can't do nothing anyway. Stupidity. History is not made by any one man or any one woman.
History is only made by the masses of the people. We say we don't understand the confusion. A quick glance will show the stupidity of the concept.
George Washington, be the greatest man on the face of the earth. Be Superman. Take George Washington, put him by himself in the middle of the Delaware River. Surround him with the British troops. He can't do nothing.
Take George Washington out of the Delaware. Put the people in the Delaware. Determined, enthusiastic about their cause. No force on earth will stop them. It is the people and the people alone who make history.
Not any one great individual. Once you begin clearly to see this concept and to understand this concept, then you will not only know that you can make history, you will know that you have a responsibility to make history. The system makes you irresponsible without...
you even being aware of it. What it does to people in general and history is so terrible. But what it does in particular relationship to the African is tragic. The African living in America is ashamed of Africa. Why?
Because his history is presented to him by the enemy, bourgeois theoreticians in the pay of capitalist services. His history is written for him by those who seek to uphold and defend the country. ...defend the backward capitalist system.
That's when he comes even to talk about Africa, he's ashamed of Africa. Why? Like the man who hates communism, he knows nothing about it.
It's the same process, you see. For us it's a little bit tighter, it has to be. It has to be.
But it's the same thing. You'll find a man the other day I said to him, my brother, you African? I ain't no African. Blacker than me. I wasn't born in Africa!
Alright. If you were born on a ship, what would you be? I don't know nothing about Africa, of course. When you're born, you don't know nothing about nothing. It's only when you learn something about something that you learn something.
You know about America. You didn't born learning about America. You don't know Africa because they don't teach you anything about Africa. Yes, of course not. But it's your responsibility to learn about Africa.
We do not just want to clap when we show clearly and expose the nature of the problem. We want more enthusiastic clap for the solution because that's how the problem will be solved. So if the university doesn't teach you anything about Africa and you don't know anything about Africa, it's your fault. Double time it's your fault. You're stupid in the first place for thinking they're going to teach you about it, and double foolish in the second place for not doing something about it.
This confusion has the African in America so confused that they don't even know where they are, who they are, or where their home is. Tragedy indeed. If one has no history, if one has no history, one can have no understanding, no tools on which to analyze the present.
let alone map out the future. This is clear, crystal clear. In order for a man, a woman, to know precisely where they're going, they must have some understanding of that which came before them. If you don't know where you come from, you don't know where you're going. For example, what is the name of the main street in Athens?
What is the name of the main street here? Broad Street. Let's say I live at 485 Broad Street. It's very simple, you know.
I get up in the morning about 8 o'clock. I go to my job. By 12 o'clock, I forgot where I came from.
When job is over, I don't know what to do. You see, it's very simple. You must know where you come from in order to know where you're going.
You understand it, yes. And if we don't know we came from Africa, we really don't know where we're going. It's really very simple. Before we can speak, before we can come to look inside. solve the problems of our people, we must number one, understand history.
We say it. It's the truth. The beautiful thing about the truth is that even if you're against the truth, you got to get up publicly and admit the truth.
For example, any one of you who cheat, raise your hands, then get up and defend cheating. You see the truth? The truth, the almighty truth.
The truth, yes. You must learn your history. Your history will not be given to you by the university professor.
Can you not, as a group of students? Organize yourself, sit down, discipline yourself, and study your history? Why not? Why not?
Simply because the capitalist system makes you irresponsible? Why not? Simply because the capitalist system has rendered you useless to your people. And if it has rendered you useless to your people, and your people are engaged in struggle, you are against your people.
At best, you're making the people carry dead weight, and they've got enough weight to carry. You must study your history. You must be responsible. You are students and you don't even read. How stupid.
I tell you, anything you get your hands on, read. I tell you, read, read, read, read, read. Instead of boogalooing so much, read.
Instead of playing biz whiz so much, read! You might learn something. And the more you know, the better able you are to serve humanity. You must read.
We say we must organize the people. We come to get those Africans who are conscious. But we have a responsibility. Responsibility to all people.
Revolution based on truth is universal. If it benefits one sector of humanity, it benefits all sectors of humanity. Thus, we say the Africans must organize. But we say that the white poor must organize even more than the Africans because the white poor is exploited and is not even conscious of their exploitation. It's a vicious system.
It is a vicious system. Thus, the white student sitting here has really a responsibility upon his or her back if in fact they are conscious human beings. The challenge, of course, is a great challenge, but life without a challenge wouldn't be life.
My father used to tell me, son, the heart of a battle, the sweet of the victory. I don't want any easy task in life. That doesn't benefit anything. I want to be tested to the limit of my capacities and if it's for the benefit of humanity test me. We must fight for socialism we must fight for socialism oh I know Now, you don't know anything about it, let me tell you, just between you and I.
See, one thing we have in common is, me too, I was educated formally in the United States of America. I want to... They're so great that when they destroy something for you, they make you think that you don't have to worry about destroying it.
They tell you communism... is bad and they are so powerful and influential that you automatically think, yes, it's bad and that's it. I mean, you don't even try to find out for yourself.
Now, I know socialism. I know, oh, they will confuse you. I know. I understand. Yes, yes.
Is it possible? Oh, they will confuse you. You know what they will do? Look how tricky they are.
I will tell you that socialism is the best economic system on the earth. I'll tell you that socialism is an economic system where there is no exploitation of one by the other. I will tell you that under socialism, the people own and control the means of production. Therefore, materially, once the people own and control the means of production, the profit motive is taken out of the system. Therefore, the only motive one can have now is service to humanity.
I can also tell you that under socialism, you have a plan system. I can tell you that under socialism, you have a plan system. that under socialism you will get justice.
Tomorrow you can go to your professor. You can say last night we heard Kwame Ture. And Kwame Ture told us that socialism is the best system in the world. He told us that under socialism there is no injustice. He told us that under socialism there is no exploitation of man by man.
He told us that under socialism life would be better and everybody would be able to give their full creative potentials to humanity. Do you know what your professor will say? He or she sounding very intelligent will say what Mr. Ture said is correct.
That is to say that socialism is the best system Socialism will give you all of these things, but it's rather utopian. Now when your professor tells you that socialism is utopian, you think your professor is talking about socialism. Not at all. Your professor is talking about the nature of man and woman. Your professor is talking about what he or she believes to be the nature of man or woman.
And what he or she believes to be the nature of man or woman is that man can never live on the earth in justice. So what your professor is telling you, don't fight. Don't fight. You can't get there anyhow. Capitalism is the best of all possible evils.
Let's live with it and do the best we can. It's a backward system. The system has to be overthrown. You must fight for socialism. We say the movement towards history follows an inevitable course.
It is determined by historical events. It is independent of the will of man and woman. The best that man and woman can do is come to understand these historical forces, master them, and use them for the benefit of humanity. But let it be understood. It is independent.
of men and women. If you, for example, in 1966, before there was a rebellion in Atlanta, Georgia, go into the African community and ask them honestly, do you all want to revolt? Do you all think all of you all should get together one night and throw some bakes and start burning down the town? Every one of them will tell you no.
And at the time they tell you no, they are absolutely sincere. They're absolutely honest. There is no hatch of conspiracy in their mind. They really don't want it. But a policeman comes, shoots down a brother.
It's one too many. everybody jumps up at the same time, burn, shoot, kill. You understand?
They had no control. They had to do it. It's the historical forces.
Once it comes, you have only two alternatives. Either you with the people or you against the people. It's very simple.
The historical forces of the world is sweeping the world towards socialism. This is queer. And every time American imperialism goes to struggle against the socialist forces, it's defeated. Yes, it was defeated in Korea.
It was defeat. They didn't call it defeat, but it was defeat. Chase Bersetta, Rose by any name, still smells the same. Yes.
They were defeated in Vietnam. It was a defeat. Nixon lied. He said it was honorable peace.
You know him that well. He was defeated. They've been recently defeated in Angola. They are being defeated in Iran. Everywhere the forces of American imperialism are being defeated and they're being defeated before the onslaught of socialism.
It behooves the American youth to understand what socialism is since it's country. is going to call upon him to fight against it. It's for your benefit.
My responsibility is to know the truth and tell you the truth. Your responsibility is either to live up to the truth or to die by falsehood. Socialism is the system that's coming.
Socialism is a system that's based on no exploitation of one by the other, simply because under that system, the people own and control everything. Ain't no Rockefellers. Don't no one somebody own everything, and a man who really working own nothing.
Finally, for the organization, let it be understood. We say that this organization must come, the Africans must organize, but we emphasize, especially here in Georgia, especially here in Georgia, especially in the South, the white poor must be organized. The white poor must be organized.
Conscious college students must begin to do proper political education amongst the white poor, showing them the roots of their exploitation, not talking to them about racism. Talk to them about the roots of their exploitation. Once they see and understand the capitalist system, they will understand racism. White youth has the responsibility.
You may let the responsibility go. It's your problem, not mine. You have a life to live.
Either you live it or somebody else lives it for you. When they called me to go to Vietnam, I told them they're crazy. Me?
to Vietnam? You must be crazy. We'll put you in jail.
Bring me all the books you can by Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Krumer, Che Guevara. Bring them. No.
No, of course I can't go. Why can't I? Why? When I decide to kill this is the highest law I must make that decision no one can make the decision for me for whom I will kill never not even for how I will die me I can die but to take another man's life this is something different this one is entirely just a conscious act when you give me a gun and put a gun in my hand and tell me to go and kill someone the only reason I will not find out who I'm killing or why I'm killing is if in fact I'm a mercenary whether I know it or I don't know it incidentally And what is really tragic is sometimes some people are mercenaries and don't even know they're mercenaries. It's a tragic system.
Africans. We who have a problem must come to analyze our problem. African students, those who are conscious, seeing that their people are oppressed, understand that there can be no other greater motivating force than to fight for the liberation of the people.
Obviously, an intelligent man, a conscious man, even a stupid man must know that until one is free, one cannot appreciate life. Clearly. Until one is free, one cannot appreciate one's own culture, let alone another's culture. Freedom, then, is the essential prerequisite for living.
We say it again. Freedom is the essential prerequisite for living, for one to be able to contribute fully one's creative contributions to humanity. If one doesn't make contributions to humanity, one has wasted life. I say the system will confuse you. Mr. Rockefeller has made a lot of money, a whole lot of money.
He will pass on. He can't take the money with him. The money must stay, obviously. All his life, he's worked for this money. All his life.
To get this money, he's exploited you. He's exploited me. He's exploited everybody. Of course, he made it look like if he didn't exploit us. At best, it made it look like he was just super intelligent, and we were so stupid, we couldn't make the money he made, and he had more individual initiatives than the rest of us.
Well, however he tries to, we know he's got the money. But Mr. Rockefeller cannot take the money with him. What contribution has Rockefeller made to humanity?
Isn't it better that Rockefeller had come like a cow so at least we could eat him when he died or before he died? Of what purpose? We say that we must be responsible.
We do not come to the earth to take from the earth We do not come to life to take from life. We come to give it's a give-and-take when you take all the time You are a parasite When you take all the time you're a parasite Parasite. And if you're a parasite, you're living off of others and making no worthwhile contribution to life.
You're not even living because you must live off the blood of others. It is better for you to pump your own blood and even give your blood to others than to have others take your blood. The African student who is conscious.
The African student who will not allow capitalism to make him irresponsible. Who fights all the time to be responsible. To fulfill his responsibility to humanity.
This student is all the time conscious, studying, looking at, discussing the problems that his people faces. The conscious student. The conscious student.
The conscious student. The one who recognizes that he must be free. The one who recognizes that his body is just an instrument for the service of his people.
This student will all the time be looking to see how to solve the problem. This student who has been doing this knows that there's one solution to the problem we face, and that is Pan-Africanism, the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. That is to say, and we must properly understand it. Of course, we have confusion everywhere. There are some who will come to tell you that in order for us to be free, we must first free ourselves here.
And then after we free ourselves here, we can do this stupidity. Claire's stupidity, a historical perspective. The man or the woman who advocates this problem knows nothing of history.
The man or woman who gives the solution knows nothing of dialectics. They don't even know of the interrelationship of all forces on the earth. As a matter of fact, they just see America, nothing but America, and worse than that, they see the world the way America wants them to see the world.
It can be lightly said, it can be lightly said, we don't want to be accused of being called racist, it can be lightly said that the wealth and labor of Africa built America and Europe and keeps it sustained to this day. It can be lightly said. Any intelligent man... not even a conscious one now, an intelligent man can simply see that since this wealth and labor is what keeps this up, until this wealth and labor is used for this, this will never go anywhere.
That is to say, until Africa is free, we can never be free. your home is free, you can never be free. Our problem is we don't know where home is.
Of course, we must understand when we come to struggle what we're struggling. We're struggling against the capitalist system. It's powerful. It's a powerful system.
It operates on scientific laws. It knows no sentimentality. It pursues its objective with a stubbornness that will not shake, only be shaken by the will and the determination of the masses of the people.
Let me show you what capitalism will do to you, how serious it is, because we may take it as a plaything. You are a child, 13 or 14 years old, 11 years old, even 10, 9. Your mother sends you to be entertained, that is to say to enjoy yourself, on a Saturday afternoon to go to the movies. Let it be understood.
When one comes to enjoy oneself, when one comes to be entertained, one is at one's most relaxed position. It is at this relaxed position that propaganda can be easily pumped into the minds of the people. You see, it's all scientific.
You just go and read even some of their books. There are bare laws on psychology. You will see it.
You come to the movies. You're a child. You sit down.
You say your money. You come. You're eating popcorn. And while you're sitting there, they're pushing Tarzan into you, just pushing it.
You walk out of the movies. You love Tarzan. You hate yourself.
And you come back next week paying some more money to be entertained. The system knows what it's doing. The system knows exactly what it is doing.
Just like it takes people's time and wastes their time on television, it shows nonsense just to waste your time. It'll show you sports, keep you talking about the Super Bowl for three months, bunk the Super Bowl, prices rising. You know what I'm saying? They'll make you talk about nonsense for hours, happy days, the hell with happy days, ain't no food on the table. They will do everything to confuse you, you have a responsibility.
Those students who really want to know, especially African students, and solve the problems of the people, those who know that Pan-Africanism is the only solution, must be ready now to come and work for this solution, those who don't know. That is to say that those who don't know, those African students who don't know what the solution is, it just means you're irresponsible. You don't even try to think about your people. Clearly. Of course, since you know your people are oppressed, at least you'll be thinking about the problem.
At least. Or you can be so imbued with capital. this philosophy that you may surrender to unjust forces just because they seem to overwhelm you once you do that you know nothing of the tradition of your people and here you really need some history on the struggles of your people that that will suffice the problem quickly a good shot in arm of the struggles of your people and you will understand it we say you must come now to struggle those who do not know if now they come to recognize their responsibility they must begin to take steps to work for the people if your people are oppressed and you are not fighting to help free the people. By your very act of inactivity, you are against the people.
If your people are oppressed and you are not struggling to help free the people, by your very act of inactivity, you are against the people, totally against them. Therefore, we must come now to give our strengths and our energies to the people. How to do this? There's only one way to do it.
Whether the correct way or the incorrect way, one thing is certain. Unless we are organized, there isn't anything we can do. Therefore, above all, we must be united. organized.
Above all, we must be organized. Above all, we must be organized. Logic says it clearly. One man, one woman can't free the people. If one man, if one woman could have freed us, we would have been freed.
So many movie stars out here, they just freed us for the ego of it. If they didn't do it, I would have done it. And if I didn't do it, even you would help free us if you could, wouldn't you? Of course, of course, of course.
No one man, no one woman can free the people. Only the people. people properly organized can free the people. Only the people properly organized can free the people.
Look at our state of affairs. In South Africa, we're totally disorganized. In Zimbabwe, disorganization.
In Egypt, disorganization. In Algeria, disorganization. In Senegal, disorganization. In Nigeria, disorganization. In Ghana, disorganization.
In Gambia, disorganization. In Trinidad, disorganization. In Jamaica, disorganization. In Brazil, disorganization.
in Suriname disorganization, in Guyana disorganization, in Mississippi disorganization, in California disorganization, in New York disorganization. This university, with the few that we have, disorganization. And what the capitalist system does is to try to undermine our will and our determination to be organized. The only way it wins is because we're divided.
The only way it wins is because we've been divided. We say it all the time. say it morning, noon, and night. You've got to stop saying it and start doing something to correct it. And the only way to correct it is to move to organize the masses of our people.
It is clear that the capitalist crisis is going to get worse. No one needs to ask about that. Even a fool can see it.
It's gonna get worse, it's gonna get rough out here. And everyone knows, even a blind man knows, even Ray Charles knows, even Stevie Wonder knows, any blind man of any color knows, that when it gets rough in America, he knows who's gonna be the first and the hardest hit. Even if you're blind, you need to organize. Even if you're blind, you need to organize.
I say that the trouble is coming. You can see it. This crisis is getting worse.
It ain't going to get no better. And what's making this worse is the people outside. cutting off the tentacles of imperialism.
The Iranian people, cut. OPEC, rising the prices. Don't get mad at those people.
You want justice. You must support those people. Get mad at the capitalist pigs who run the country in your name and try to steal the people resources. Every time.
Every time the American system finds itself in an economic crisis, there is only one way to get out of it. W.A.R. War. Because, of course, capitalism is war.
That's what it is. This time, when the American capitalist system goes into crisis, ain't nobody going nowhere. The war's going to be right here. The war's gonna be right here.
Oh, they may talk about getting up the draft again, but ain't nobody gonna fight for them. Vietnam will come right back in their face. Ain't nobody going. And for the African community, we tell you, our brother tried to go, we break his leg here before he moves.
The war must be waged here by the masses of the people against the capitalist pigs who seek continuity to exploit the people just to heap profit and put it in their individual backward pockets. How can a country as America, rich as it is, technically powerful as it is be able to say really and seriously, then it cannot feed the people in the country. How can a country, how can a country like America, as rich as it is, come to tell us that it can't have free university for everybody?
medical care for everybody. Take care of the elderly people who have given their labor and their sweat to humanity. The system must be overthrown. It has to be overthrown.
It has to be overthrown. Those African students who are conscious, those of you who want to do something for your people, in the back around you will find some brothers and sisters. They work for the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party.
They are like you students and workers. They may be perhaps unlike you, a little bit more conscious. That is to say, they recognize that they better get up and do something quick, fast, now, in a hurry to help organize the people. You will find them. They will talk to you and explain to you.
Those who have time after this is over with the question and answer periods, we can stay and discuss it. Those of you who do not want to join the All African People's Revolutionary Party, those white youth here who think that, well, this man, Carmichael, talk nonsense. Well, even if you talk nonsense, one thing you can't to rate. One thing you can't disagree with is that this man telling you you better organize and tell you better use your knowledge to serve.
humanity you better use your knowledge to serve humanity I tell you that because I know if you truly use your knowledge to serve humanity you got to fight the socialism that's how sure I am of what I say Africans you must come now and organize your people we know that one man one woman cannot free the people we know that and we know that if the people are oppressed and we're not doing anything to help end the oppression we are objectively against the people whether we know it or not whether we know it or not sometimes we don't know it but if you're not working for the people, you're against them. If you're not now in an organization working for the benefit of your people, you're against your people. As students, those of you who come here to this university, you have a responsibility. Either you come and you take the knowledge here and you use the knowledge to help humanity, or you take the knowledge and use it to become rich. Let it be properly understood.
If being rich is the dominant force, you cannot ride the two together. Even the Bible says you cannot serve two masters at the same time. Either you come and you take the knowledge here Either you must come here motivated by a love for the people or come here motivated by a love of money. If you come here motivated by a love of money, if you come here as a cheating student, if you haven't learned anything tonight, then I want you to learn this. Take your knowledge.
Learn your knowledge by yourself. Don't cheat and do everything you can to help humanity. Thank you. We can go to Christmas.