revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

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enslaved . The fact that the U .S . government promised every emancipated
slave forty acres, but never gave it to black people, does not deny their
right to it .
RAM's position was that 22 million African-Americans should
receive forty acres plus one hundred years of back interest in
reparations
. 41 The demand for reparations was stated again in an article in
which RAM charged the U .S . with a policy of genocide against black people
. 42 In 1968, the emphasis of RAM's program, if one is to judge only from
the documents, was on the formation of a political party . A press release
from that year stated that the forces opposing Robert F . Williams had con
trolled the movement from 1962-1968 .
The Black Guards were formed because
of strong conservative forces and the internal struggle within the movement
. RAM had spent a year reeducating the Black Guards and was now prepared
to transform itself into a political party for the liberation of the
colonized African nation in the U .S . The name of this new formation was
the African-American Party of National
Liberation or the Black Liberation
Party, or the RAM Party . It had three objectives : the community organization
of black people, the political
re-education of the black masses and
the creation of a cultural revolution, and survival training .-43
In December, 1968, the call for a party was developed further . RAM,
at this time, called for people's party made up of workers, students, youth
and revolutionary intellectuals who could present and carry out a political
program ; and who would, with a people's army', defend black America .
41 Max Stanford . U . S . Owes Negroes 880 Million Acres of Land , 1967, p . 1 .
42 Government Must Pay for Racial Crimes Committed Against African-Ameri -
cans, July, 1967, p . 1 .
43 RAM Forms a Black Political Party, Press Release, August, 1968, p . 1 .