revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

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The captive nation status of black America had
bred a colonial mentality
which must be wiped away through a cultural or social
revolution
which RAM called for in Orientation to a Black Mass Movement (1962) ;
The 12 Point Program of RAM (Revolutionary Action Movement, 1964) ; We Can
Win! (1964) ; Government Must Pay for Racial Crimes Committed Against
African-Americans (1967) ; and America is the Black Man's Battleground!
(1967) . The specifics of this cultural revolution were never adequately
described but generally it would involve the destruction of the slave mentality
and those classes and institutions which supported it . The slave
culture had, according to RAM, created "a generation of freaks" who identified
with a hip life style . The hip society transcended all classes and
acted as a release valve for the sense of powerlessness that black people
experienced . This hip society destroyed the cultural identity of blacks
17
and distorted the roles of men and women . Linked to this culture were
the reactionary roles played by certain forces in the black community .
Among the most reactionary were Negro preachers, professionals, politicans,
newspaper publishers and specifically beauticians and barbers . However,
the entire black middle class was not condemned by RAM .
The organization
saw this class as powerful and skilled . RAM documents consistently stated
the need to carefully analyze this class although this analysis does not
appear in any of the documents reviewed . 18
The class issue was developed further in the! RAM papers . Generally,
the analysis followed along Marxist lines, that is,
the black community was
made up of a colonial bourgeoisie, although a very small one, and an
17 Black Youth : Vanguard of the New World , Speech given at the Second
National Afro-American Student Conference, October 30-November 1, 1964,p . 4 .
1BAmerica is the Black Man's Bat tleground! April, 1967, p . 2 .