On “Black Capitalism”

I would like to take a moment to discuss the question of economics and the Black community. It has become a cliche now among militant nationalists, whether frankly capitalist-oriented or anti-imperialist, that Blacks must create their own economy, support Black enterprise, “keep the money in the family.” You and I have already run down what a fraud “keeping the money in the family” really is. All this sounds militant, sounds nationalist, but is a sheer deception and/or self-deception.

We must always remember how capitalism got its start. It did not begin with little stores growing into huge enterprises, although this did happen in a small number of cases. What is called primitive capitalist accumulation, beautifully discussed in Marx’s Capital, was amassed through genocide, mass murder, mass enslavement, plunder, the stealing of land and resources on a gigantic scale. This provided the means for conducting capitalist operations on the necessary scale. The encouragement of Black entrepreneurship with its laughably tiny capitalization and scope of operations can never generate the capital sufficient to create huge Black-owned banks, utilities, factories, etc. The idea of building a mighty economy from the bare bones base of impoverished Black communities is absurd, especially today when all small business is being crushed by big business or is simply increasingly a mere satellite of and utterly dependent upon big business.

The notion of an independent Black economy is the fantasy of tiny Black entrepreneurs who may benefit to the extent of earning a comfortable, if highly insecure livelihood for themselves, but which has no real significance in terms of the economic power and well-being of the community as a whole.

Further, this vision is just the opposite of being militant, for it does not challenge the tremendous reservoirs and engines of wealth accumulated through the exploitation, plunder and enslavement of the oppressed and working people. These reservoirs and engines of wealth, the banks, mines, factories, etc., belong by right to the people, and especially to the oppressed peoples. Anything short of the takeover of this stolen wealth — much more revolutionary a goal than reparations, which still leaves power and control in the hands of the exploiters and oppressors, is essentially conservative and concedes the fruits of former and present enslavement to the enemy.

Having said this, I nevertheless support every effort to tap and mobilize the resources of the community, support efforts to prevent, where possible, the transfer of money and resources from the Black community to white capitalists, approve the efforts to support Black professionals, artists, shop owners. But this should not be done in the name of establishing an impossible and essentially impoverished self-sufficiency of an impoverished community, but simply as an additional tool in conducting the revolutionary struggle. Attempts to create economic self-sufficiency which lead to ideological and political control of the petit-bourgeosie must be tenaciously fought.

One must fight for the leadership of working class politics and ideology, even while supporting efforts at building economic bases in the community.