George Jackson

Originally published: New York: Random House, 1972.

Blood in My Eye

soochie

"In other words, the old guard must not fail to understand that circumstances change in time and space, that there can be nothing dogmatic about revolutionary theory. It is to be born out of each popular struggle."

nhu ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

In the name of love and in the name of freedom, with love as our guide, we’ll slit every throat of anyone who threatens the people and our children. We’ll do it in the name of peace, if this is what we are forced to do; because as soon as it’s over, then we can have the kind of world where violence will no longer exist.

Those who have more regard for their own egos or self-interest than they have for building a united progressive left, and those who abandon community altogether in favor of petty interests, are in direct opposition to our real interests. They are attempting another form of escapism. They’re fleeing the objective conditions of their real life and will eventually reach the ultimate contradiction of facing their father or brother, or old classmate, comrade, or wife, over the barrel of a gun. 

The establishment does everything in its power to ensure that revolutionary rage is redirected into empty outlets which provide pressure releases for desires that could become dangerous if allowed to progress. 

Racism is a fundamental characteristic of monopoly capital. When the white self-congratulatory racist complains that the blacks are uncouth, unlettered; that our areas are run-down, not maintained; that we dress with loud tastelessness (a thing they now also say about their own children), he forgets that he governs. He forgets that he built the schools that are inadequate, that he has abused his responsibility to use taxes paid by blacks to improve their living conditions, that he manufactured the loud pants and pointed shoes that destroy and deform the feet. If we are not enough like him to suit his tastes, it’s because he planned it that way. We were never intended to be part of his world. It’s a silly contradiction for him or us to dwell on the subject of comparisons between the enemy culture and its creation, the subculture. The only way the exploiter can maintain his position is to create differences and maintain deformities.

The huge mass of blue-collar workers seem to be working totally against themselves in their support of a system owned and controlled by a tiny minority. Actually, their contradictory behavior is explained by feelings of loyalty to race, by their identification with the white hierarchy and by their economic advantage over the oppressed races. They may be oppressed themselves, but in return they are allowed to oppress millions of others.

Freedom means warmth and protection against harsh exposure to the elements. It means food, not garbage. It means truth, harmony, and the social relations that spring from these. It means the best medical attention whenever it’s needed. It means employment that is reasonable, that coincides with the individual necessities and feelings. We will have this freedom even at the cost of total war.

With each development in the fascist arrangement, the marriage between the political elite and economic elite becomes more apparent. 

It is significant to note that no fascist regime “in power” has advocated the abolition of any form of private ownership. The fascist regime and private ownership work hand in hand. No modern political regime can exist for long without the cooperation of those who control the means of production.

But examine that definition of totalitarianism, comrade. No opposition parties are allowed in China, Cuba, North Korea or North Vietnam. Such a narrow definition condemns the model revolutionary societies to totalitarianism. Despite the presence of political parties, there is only one legal politics in the U.S.—the politics of corporativism. The hierarchy commands all state power. There are thousands of ways, however, to attack it and place that power in the hands of the people.

It is not defeatist to acknowledge that we have lost a battle. How else can we “regroup” and even think of carrying on the fight. At the center of revolution is realism. To call one or two or a dozen setbacks defeat is to overlook the ebbing and flowing process of revolution, coming closer to our calculations and then receding, but never standing still. If a thing isn’t building, it must be decaying. As one force emerges, the opposite force must yield; as one advances, the other must retreat. There is a very significant difference between retreat and defeat.

An understanding of the reality of our situation is essential to the success of future revolutionizing activity. To contend that corporativism has emerged and advanced is not to say that it has triumphed. We are not defeated. Pure fascism, absolute totalitarianism, is not possible.

We cannot withdraw from the cities. In order to complete the revolutionary syllogism, the fascists must be forced to withdraw. And under cover of the guns which force their withdrawal, we will build the new black communes. A BLADE IN THE THROAT OF FASCISM.

[…] racism has always been employed as a pressure release for the psychopathic destructiveness evinced by a people historically processed to fear, to feel the need for a decisionmaker, to hate freedom.

Fascism has temporarily succeeded under the guise of reform. The only way we can destroy it is to refuse to compromise with the enemy state and its ruling class.

Monopoly capital is the enemy. It crushes the life force of all of the people. It must be completely destroyed, as quickly as possible, utterly, totally, ruthlessly, relentlessly destroyed.

All crime can be traced to objective socio-economic conditions—socially productive or counterproductive activity. In all cases, it is determined by the economic system, the method of economic organization.

Bourgeois law protects property relations and not social relationships. The cultural traits of capitalist society that also tend to check activity—(individualism, artificial politeness juxtaposed to an aloof rudeness, the rush to learn “how to” instead of “what is”)—are secondary really, and intended for those mild cases (and groups) that require preventive measures only. The law and everything that interlocks with it was constructed for poor, desperate people like me.

The ultimate expression of law is not order— it’s prison.

I’ve been arrested, interrogated or investigated more times than I care to count. I’ve learned ten times more about the process than the most expert single groups of inquisitors. From the first moment I’m brought into this scenario, I attempt to establish control over the exchanges that will take place between myself and my captors. Depending on the situation, one learns to feign either indignation, surprise, idiocy or fear. 

We can only be repressed if we stop thinking and stop fighting. People who refuse to stop fighting can never be repressed—they either win or they die—which is more attractive than losing and dying. The primacy of politics remains but we must now prepare for armed confrontation. By no stretch of the imagination can we hope to overthrow so determined an enemy without force.

To postpone our liberation with the excuse that the “people aren’t ready” is to underestimate them; in effect it’s like saying they don’t have the mentality to act in their defense. 

How can the super-technological state operate without electricity or power, without water, transport, communications, sewage systems, utilities? None of these can be protected; their sheer size alone makes it impossible. How can the establishment protect an electrical supply line and the thousands of transformers, etc? Effective positioning of the guards is militarily impossible. A man every twenty-five feet up and down the million miles of line can’t protect it (it would also break the class that paid for the protection), since a break at any one point renders powerless huge sections of the area served. The cost of supporting the guards would bankrupt any nation. The guerrillas would simply overwhelm the guardians point by point. I think this is the essence of the poor man’s war, the essence of the guerrilla strategy, the protracted war of the worker bees.

An oppressed class which does not strive to learn to use arms, to acquire arms, only deserves to be treated like slaves. We cannot forget, unless we become bourgeois pacifists or opportunists, that we are living in a class society, that there is no way out of this society, and there can be none, except by means of the class struggle. In every class society, whether it is based on slavery, serfdom, or as at present, on wage labour, the oppressing class is armed.

It's a miracle that we have these words written and recorded from inside San Quentin prison, mostly in solitary confinement. It feels like one of the most important books I've read and one that I will revisit often. These words are clear-eyed and convincing on both the illegitimacy of the Amerikan project/capitalism as well as what it will take to destroy them.

Blood in My Eye

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