White Supremacy, Yet A Factor Against International Solidarity
The impact of imperialism is international. From North to South, from East to West, every human being is affected in one way or another by the pursuit of profit that drives imperialism. While some people, the top 1%, benefit the most from the exploitation of the resources and people of the world, the remaining majority face displacement, genocides, famines, slavery, and many other calamities resulting from the unplanned nature of capitalism. Multinational corporations and organizations have tentacles everywhere to ensure that the capitalist class outside or inside the metropolis enjoys luxury and happiness. Backed up by the political and military branches of imperialism, all means are taken to keep alive the capitalist system at the expense of nature, human lives, and human dignity.
Logically to defeat imperialism, the oppressed people of the world must take a unified and collective stance. This does not mean the use of the same methods, but the commitment to the same objectives and principles. In that way, anywhere Imperialism has its tentacles, it will be chased and fought against like an animal. In that way, imperialism will have nowhere to hide or retreat.
This internationalist approach, when applied to the African context, can only be materialized through Revolutionary Pan-Africanism. In other words, an understanding that no African can be free as long as imperialism holds any piece of Africa or exploits any African. The logical response is that all Africans must unite, resist, and fight back for their total liberation. They must commit to the principles and objectives of destructing capitalism in all its forms and building a socialist system that meets the needs of all Afro people. At the same time, as the Black Liberation Army phrased it decades ago, “A Pan-Africanism that does not support the struggles of other third-world peoples against reactionary imperialist control is not true revolutionary internationalism, and hence is narrow cultural nationalism on the international level.” Meaning that an internationalist approach is crucial and necessary for the revolutionary nature of true Pan-Africanism.
Surprisingly, the idea of international solidarity may face rejection from the same groups or individuals (the exploited and oppressed ones) who may benefit from it. Of course, it should be understood that such rejection is often the result of imperialist propaganda. For example, some Africans will reject supporting Palestinian Liberation on the basis that they are not impacted by it. They may even point to the Arab slave trade suggesting that Palestinian Liberation will not do well for them, using backward and ahistorical theories like Afro-Pessimism. Let us first clarify that the first confusion in this perception is that there are no African Arabs or that Arabs cannot be African. Indeed, when one looks closer, one can see that this is part of the colonialist propaganda not only to divide Africans (between North and South, Christians and Muslims, indigenous and diaspora, etc.) but also to further isolate the Palestinian People. Hence, part of resisting colonialism and imperialism is to dismantle to seeds of division.
Fortunately, the consciousness of African people is heightening and countering this imperialist propaganda. And anyone with a proper internationalist approach would see the similarity between the Zionist project and any former European Settler colonialist project in Africa (Algeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Azania-South Africa, etc.). Moreover, they would understand that the expansionist and militaristic ambitions of Zionism will directly affect the African people and that fighting Zionism and imperialism by any means necessary is the only solution.
It is important to acknowledge that other factors may prevent the development of such a strong and bold international solidarity front against imperialism.
In the remaining of this essay, we will discuss one of them that hinders any form of alliance or solidarity between white people affected by imperialism and non-white people. That barrier is white supremacy, a poisonous ideology that values whiteness, whatever it is defined by the trends of the moment, above all other ethnic, racial, or cultural groups. Those trends may be motivated by fascism, Americanism, religion, and many other reactionary ideologies. White supremacy is a by-product of capitalism, meaning that it has economic and material origins, and racism is its manifestation or implementation. In the context of the US, it was first a justification for the genocide of the Indigenous people and the dispossession of their land. Then white supremacy was a tool used to prevent the white working people from uniting with the non-white working people and lumpenproletariat (in the broad sense, the unemployed). The oppressed white people were brought to believe that they were better than the oppressed non-white people just because they could get to a “white only” bathroom or be exploited in a “white only” factory. In the context of Europe, white supremacy ensured that even if Europeans did not agree politically at home, they would all be united for colonialism and the exploitation of the African people and other Third-World people. For example, some of the earlier “leftist” and so-called revolutionary movements in Germany did nothing to stop the Berlin Conference, thus siding with imperialism instead of forming an internationalist bloc with the soon-to-be colonized people.
Let us now look at a contemporary example to illustrate another instance where white supremacy inhibited the realization of genuine international solidarity between white and non-whites: The war between Ukraine and Russia.
After imperialism decided, through its armed terrorist wing, NATO, to threaten Russia and support anti-Russian and fascist groups in Ukraine, Russia decided to attack. In that process, Russia supported separatists in Ukraine and went on a full-scale invasion and war. Without a boot on the ground, Imperialism retaliated by supporting Ukraine with ammunition, materials, diplomacy, and all the necessary resources to resist Russia. More than half a million people have been killed, especially Ukrainian civilians. Ukrainians people are experiencing displacement, terror, and many other atrocities that Europe thought were only characteristic of Third-World Countries. Of course, any conscious revolutionary could argue that these are just the consequences of any Western imperialist war, whether it is in Congo, Syria, Lebanon, or Palestine. So, naturally, true internationalists have rightfully and precisely condemned NATO’s reckless military endeavors that have led to many Ukrainian people being sacrificed by US and European imperialism, as well as Russian people who may have to bear the US-made missiles launched at them. However, white supremacy hindered that solidarity, or to be precise, confused the whole situation.
First, white supremacy manifested itself in the mobilization of all European groups to open their doors and houses to Ukrainian refugees, while discriminating against non-white Ukrainian or non-European people fleeing the same conflict. In a way, white supremacy removed any morality that could be attached to this unprecedented support, leaving only blatant hypocrisy and racism. Moreover, the countless non-European migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in European countries have been facing, for many years, discrimination, violence, and inequalities while Ukrainian refugees were unconditionally welcomed because they had “blond hair and blue eyes” as some politicians and journalists put it. This contradiction is so striking because all the non-European migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers who found themselves in Europe are simply victims of European imperialism and militarism in their home countries, just like the Ukrainian people. So, this is in no way blaming Ukrainian refugees, who deserve, like anybody else, protection, shelter, aid, and support.
One could however argue that this unprecedented support to Ukrainian people may simply be the way Western imperialist countries have tried to wash away their guilt of using white people in their imperialist proxy war against the Russian Federation. One could even argue that while white supremacy might have prevented any average Third-World people from supporting Ukrainian and Russian people, it certainly has given European people an “internationalist” (of course imperialist and fascist) approach. However, this would be redundant to say since we said earlier that imperialism is international to begin with.
This international nature of imperialism has led, for example, the Ukrainian government and security agencies to support separatist/terrorist groups in the Sahel, causing the death of Malian soldiers, civilians, and their Russian allies. This camouflaged imperialist proxy war tactic was a logical result of the tremendous military aid the US provided Ukraine based on the white supremacy described above. It has certainly put to the cemetery any possible alliance of oppressed non-white people with Ukrainian people, especially revolutionary Afro-people. On a separate note, however, the response of the Sahel States Alliance (Alliance des États du Sahel, AES) was a true internationalist one, properly coordinated and drawing a clear connection between the proxy and terrorist wars at home with the imperialist moves abroad.
While this analysis may wrongly suggest that no alliance can ever form between non-white and white people, no revolutionary should think that way. A true revolutionary must understand the need for allies and coalitions because imperialism can only be defeated when fought on all fronts including the one where white revolutionaries are. However, the issue of white supremacy must be dealt with to prevent any confusion or split in the alliance, which could endanger the revolutionary struggle. Some may argue that given the economic and political basis of white supremacy in the capitalist system, “any” act against the capitalist system is dialectically an act against white supremacy. That is an incomplete analysis that lacks scientific or historical basis because reactionary or unprincipled acts will not do any trouble to white supremacy even if they seem aimed at the capitalist system.
Our understanding is that white supremacy and racism, in general, have reached levels beyond the political and economic lines despite still being grounded in concrete material conditions. So, because of this development and extension of white supremacy, “any act” against the system will not remove it, as a matter of fact, white supremacy may still be there after the revolutionary struggle is won and imperialism is defeated. We understand, however, that it is through the revolutionary struggle that white supremacy will be tackled. The revolution being, as Fanon suggested, the creation of a new man, woman, or person, the white people who still have internalized white supremacy will also be renewed. Nkrumaism or Philosophical Consciencism gives an even better analytical lens, that through the prolonged and intense nature of revolutionary warfare which will increase the positive actions, white supremacy, a negative action, will be crushed and reduced to a negligible and insignificant quantity.
To conclude, white supremacy, just like many other factors, is a barrier against the realization of a common and solid internationalist front against imperialism. At the same time, this should not discourage the formation of any alliance or coalition with white revolutionaries. Nevertheless, paraphrasing Walter Rodney, white people are an enemy of the oppressed people, until proven otherwise (Walter Rodney rightfully applied the same logic to Black or Afro intellectuals/elites). Hence, only on the battlefield, by sharing the blood under the sounds of machine guns, will white supremacy be destroyed. Solidarity will not be taken for granted or forced upon people as the Imperialist US and EU tried to suggest to the people of the world regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine. True solidarity will be built and earned through the revolutionary struggle. Not only between white and non-white, but also among all oppressed people.
The path to victory, to the defeat of the international enemy no.1 Western Imperialism, is long and tortuous. But until the end, until victory, we will keep fighting and resisting.
