What would Malcolm X do?

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20 SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 1990 media, and a public fearful of urban violence to buy his story. The race issue would make good copy, and politicians would have a field day with it, just as George Bush exploited Willie Horton during the 1988 elections.

It all backfired, however, when evidence came to light in early January that it was Stuart who killed his wife in order to collect insurance money to open a restaurant, and who shot himself to avoid suspicion. Stuart committed suicide when he was found out.

For the Black community here, Stuart's hoax turned into a nightmare. The murder became an excuse for intensifying an illegal "stop and search" policy employed by the Boston Police Department. Young Black men are routinely stopped at random, searched for weapons and drugs, and in many instances forced to lower their pants in broad daylight.

A Boston judge ruled last summer that the policy must be discontinued. He wrote that police had issued "a proclamation of martial law ... for a narrow class of people, young Blacks especially." Mayor Flynn and the cops chose to disregard this ruling. And they saw the Stuart murder as an opportunity to step up their attacks against the Black community in Boston.

Gestapo tactics

According to the Reverend Graylan EllisHagler, a leader in Boston's Black community and the pastor at the Church of the United Community in Roxbury, the police wasted no time unleashing their assault right after the murder.

"When police arrived, they moved all the Black police officers from the immediate investigation at the scene. [Black Deputy Superintendent] Willie Saunders arrived and was told to take a hike. So, the racist scenario unfolded right from the beginning."

Ellis-Hagler described the Panama-like occupation of the Mission Hill Housing Projects. "The next days, there were house-to-house searches that took place. ... I don't mean knocking on the door and having conversations with people. I mean house-to-house searches, without warrants."

The police, determined to pin this murder "The political philosophy of Black nationalism means that the Black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community; no more."

— Malcolm X speech: "The Ballot or the Bullet" (1964)

Malcolm X was assassinated 25 years ago on Feb. 21, 1965. If he were alive today, how would Malcolm X have responded to the police onslaught against the Black community in Boston?

In my youth, I helped to organize meetings for Malcolm X in New York City. At the time, I was a member of the Socialist Workers Party and I sold the newspaper, The Militant, at all of his meetings in Harlem.

With the exception of the first organized public meeting after his split from the Nation of Islam, I attended and heard all of Malcolm X's public speeches in New York City, including the meeting at which he was assassinated.

During the last year of his life, Malcolm X was openly partisan to the ideas of socialism. He knew that there was no contradiction between his outlook, which advocated the Black population controlling their own destiny, and the anticapitalist evolution of his thinking.

Malcolm X saw the need for Black unity before there could ever be any genuine Black/white workers' unity. He also developed the concept of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

He saw the Black population as a colony of American imperialism and supported struggles around the world which were opposing U.S. imperialism and fighting to win freedom. He was the first Black leader to oppose the U.S. war in Vietnam.

His uncompromising opposition to U.S. military interventions around the world set him apart from other Black leaders. For these reasons his assassination served the interests of the U.S. government.

Malcolm X spoke frequently on the subject of police brutality and terror in the Black community. He lambasted New York City cops for their assault on the Black community during the "Harlem riots" in the summer of 1964. He correctly characterized this attack as a "police riot." To protect themselves, he explained, Blacks needed to have control of their own community and their own police.

No stranger to drug problem Malcolm X was also no stranger to the drug problem. He described how drugs were introduced into the Black community from the outside and were part of the oppression and subjugation of Black people by the "white power structure." [That is, the capitalist class.—R.S.J From his own experience, Malcolm X knew that drugs were part of organized crime and that organized crime was too large to escape detection. For organized crime to continue to peddle drugs, he would state, they needed the collaboration and assistance of the police. Organized crime and organized police go hand in hand.

His conclusion was that a war against drugs in the Black community required a war against both organized crime and police complicity. The only solution he saw was for Black control of the Black community. For these reasons, his assassination served the interests of the New York City Police Department.

Malcolm X was for Black self-organization. He was opposed to the Black community giving up their votes to Democratic and Republican party politicians. He advocated independent Black political action, which is why he formed the Organization for Afro-American Unity (OAAU).

He also predicted in his last speeches that the ruling powers would make "respectable politicians" out of certain Black leaders who were considered to be safe and reliable.

Malcolm X said these "leaders" would be smoking big cigars while thinking they were helping the Black community. They would look like "cigars walking down the street-fire on one end-fool on the other."

Malcolm X would have advocated Black control of the Black community whether the city was controlled by a Black or a white Democratic Party liberal mayor.

In Boston, and other cities across the nation where the civil rights of Blacks are being blatantly abused by the police, Malcolm X's ideas are as appropriate now as they were 25 years ago.