MXGM Self-Defence Manual

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Malcolm X Grassroots Movement March 2013
cooperative workers’ initiatives and unions. If we don’t work to provide these
alternatives, we leave our people with the reality of the streets and its economic cycles
that are highly dependent on interpersonal violence and super-exploitative means of
exchange and production. In addition to the social aspects of cooperatives and other
economic programs, prison reentry programs also must, on a cultural level, deliberately
facilitate peoples’ creativity and solidarity. For example, popular education and creative
writing workshops are essential.
• Conflict and Community Mediation – These processes entail identifying and addressing
interpersonal and intra-communal conflicts and contradictions, and devising mutually
agreed upon methods to rectify and overcome these problems. These processes must be
widely promoted and integrated into the core practices of our Block Committees,
Neighborhood Councils, Community Councils, Elder’s Councils. The committee’s
must stay attuned to the social activities and developments within their respective fields
of operation and proactively seek out means to engage and resolve them.
I met Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engles, and Mao when I entered prison and they redeemed me. For the first four
years I studied nothing but economics and military ideas. I met Black Guerillas: George “Big Jake” Lewis,
and James Carr, W. L. Nolan, Bill Christmas, Torry Gibson, and many, many others. We attempted to
transform the Black criminal mentality into a Black revolutionary mentality.
George Jackson
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