A Letter From Eritrea to #BlackLivesMatter

A Letter From Eritrea to #BlackLivesMatter 

By Thomas C. Mountain

When you say Black Lives Matter do you mean just Black American lives? What about the tens of thousands of black lives in Cuba that have been lost due to the covert war and the economic embargo still being waged against Cuba by the US government?

Or what about the black lives that were lost when the UN over saw the starvation deaths of 250,000 “black” Somalis during the worst drought and famine in 60 years from 2010-2012, deaths that were predicted when UNICEF, headed by former senior foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama, Anthony Lake, budgeted less than 10 cents a day to feed the Somali refugees under their care?

Do Black Lives Matter when the CIA and their capos in the human trafficking mafia in East Africa sends hundreds of Eritrean migrants to their deaths in rickety boats on the Mediterranean Sea (the Eritrean government continues to demand that the UN convene hearings so the reams of evidence they have on the CIA’s role in these crimes can be exposed to international scrutiny)?

Do these Black lives matter just as much as Black American lives?

I have to wonder because one of your most famous activists spent the 1970’s and 80’s attacking the Cuban people and their leaders in a series of nasty declarations calling on people of good will to NOT support Cuba during the height of the CIA’s covert war on the Cuban people.

This same “black activist” is complicit in his party’s recently published nasty pack of lies about the Eritrean people and our leaders (6 july, World To Win News Service), something that reads like it was written by the CIA.

His name is Carl Dix, “Comrade Carl” to some, and he is a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party USA (RCP USA). As a spokesperson for the RCP USA “Comrade Carl” is subject to very strict party discipline and must follow the dictates of his otherwise all white Central Committee.

To put it bluntly, “Comrade Carl” is NOT an independent, radical black activist but a party member following orders from the white folks that make up his party’s leadership.

The RCP USA began attacking Cuba over 40 years ago and still holds the same position, though they do not and will not talk about this today for they know full well that to do so would cause such outrage amongst the very black folk they are claiming to be the vanguard leadership of in the USA that they would suffer major damage to their credibility.

#BlackLivesMatter is part of the resistance by the masses of black people (and supporters) in the USA against the increasing implementation of fascism in the country. Your movement is at an early stage and thanks to courageous leaders like Glen Ford, Cornell West, Marsha Coleman-Abedayo and many other similarly minded comrades the movement is beginning to move towards a genuine black liberation struggle ie community control of the police.

In the course of building your struggle it is critical to learn from the lessons paid for in blood by your ancestors, that leadership is critical and that you must struggle to make sure your leadership remains accountable to you, the rank and file of the movement.

The late Kwame Ture (stokely carmichael) explained to me over 20 years ago just how critical the struggle within the leadership of a movement is when he said “My major problem is not with the imperialists but with my own Central Committee”. The brother may be gone but his words of wisdom must still be taken seriously today, for without accountability from your leaders your struggle to build a genuine black liberation movement will end up eating itself.

Its time the likes of “Comrade Carl” and the otherwise all white RCP Central Committed be held accountable for their history of attacks on other Liberation struggles, whether against the Cuban people’s struggle 40 years ago or against the Eritrean people today. If not, then one day you will find your movement torn apart by opportunism and an historic opportunity will be lost, once again.

Thomas C. Mountain is a long time revolutionary activist, historian and educator and has been living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain at g mail dot com 

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