MXGM Self-Defence Manual

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Malcolm X Grassroots Movement March 2013
• Cultural Work – In order to reach the youth and sustain their attention, we have to
commit ourselves to engaging in a more aggressive and robust struggle over the cultural
products and images that are engaged and consumed by our people, and our youth in
particular. We absolutely must not underestimate the power of popular consumer
products like commercial rap and r & b, or the individualistic and culturally negating
messages being promoted by Hollywood and corporate television that promote various
forms of dysfunctionality to our youth. These influences profoundly affect the
socialization of our youth, and the development of their aspirations, politics, and
worldview. We have to be more deliberate about countering the anti-Afrikan and antihuman
messages—especially of individualism, materialism and misogyny being
perpetrated in popular culture. If we are to promote a culture of solidarity and resistance
to oppression, we need to become more effectively organized in the area of cultural
production and consolidate and focus our limited financial resources to begin to have a
visible cultural impact. One example of revolutionary cultural production is the Every 36
Hours CD project produced by Nu Afrika Entertainment and the Malcolm X Grassroots
Movement to support and promote the “No More Trayvon Martins Campaign: Demanding
a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice and Self-Determination”. This project brings
home the fact that in 2012, “Every 36 Hours” a New Afrikan woman, man or child is
executed at the hands of the police that occupy our nation and communities. This
project memorializes our dead, calls for resistance to the occupation of our
communities, and promotes concrete solutions to end our oppression 29 .
• Health and Healing Work – Next to Indigenous Peoples, New Afrikans suffer from the
afflictions of chronic diseases – hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, cancer,
STI’s, HIV/AIDS, etc. – more than any other people living within the US empire. New
Afrikans also suffer an extremely high rate of mental illness and drug and alcohol
addiction. These afflictions are a direct result of the stresses, strains, and exposures
(from environmental racism primarily) produced by the colonial subjugation and the
institutional dynamics of white supremacy that New Afrikan people are subjected to.
Intra-communal violence is often a means employed by the oppressed to deal with the
stresses of subjugation and the afflictions it produces. To reduce stress induced violence
(as it will not be eliminated until national and social liberation are fully realized) it is
critical that we promote individual self-care, community care, a healthy diet, exercise
and physical training (yoga, martial arts, etc.), and non-toxic environments. It is also
essential that we build our own clinics and health facilities to provide holistic, accessible
and affordable health care for our people. These can be organized like the many free
health clinics organized in our people’s history, or the detox center organized by Dr.
Mutulu Shakur, or the Health Missions organized by the Cuban government as part of
their mutual aid and solidarity in places like Haiti, Venezuela, and throughout the
Afrikan continent 30 .
• Prison Reentry Programs – Developing and operating effective reentry programs are going
to be essential towards ending intra-communal violence in our communities. A key part
of these programs must be providing the men and women reentering society with viable
economic means and substantive social engagement. We must create alternative
economic networks, institutions, and systems that these brothers and sisters can plug
into like urban gardens, farmers markets, cooperatives of various kinds, and
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