revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

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This ideology was placed in a historical perspective in an article,
"New Philosophy for a New Age," which appeared in Black America , Summer/
Fall, 1965 . Revolutionary Black Nationalism was; to an extent a response
to two ideological trends, bourgeois reformism and bourgeois nationalism,
within the black movement . Bourgeois reformism which was rooted in W .E .B .
DuBois' philosophy had its greatest influence in the civil rights movement,
awakened certain segments of the black community .
But it had four outstanding
weaknesses : first, with the exception of the black churches and
students, it had no mass base because it goals, integration, was rejected
by the majority of black people ; 9 second, its appeal
to the conscience of
white people would fail
b
ause it ignored the basis of the relationship
of black people to the racist state, that is, whites benefited from the
exploitation of blacks ; third, the leaders of the civil rights movement had
failed to recognize the real power relations within American society and
attempted to attain their goals with attacks on
the structures of petty
apartheid, e .g .,
movie houses, lunch counters, and public drinking fountains
; and fourth, by depending on white liberal financial support, they
had subjected the black reform movement to the whims of their supporters
and had implied that black people could not support their own movement .
Additionally, the black reformist organizations
had been infiltrated by
white radical elements, who generally played a reactionary role by neutralizing
or sabotaging the more militant thrusts of black revolutionaries .
Bourgeois nationalism, whose roots were with Marcus Garvey and
Booker
T . Washington, was split into two groups . The radical wing called for a
separate land base for black people ;
the moderates called for a political
9Black America , Summer/Fall, 1965, pp . 5-7 .