“The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.” “The masses are the real heroes, while we ourselves are often childish and ignorant, and without this understanding, it is impossible to acquire even the most rudimentary knowledge.” “If we tried to go on the offensive when the masses are not yet awakened, that would be adventurism. If we insisted on leading the masses to do anything against their will, we would certainly fail. If we did not advance when the masses demand advance, that would be Right opportunism.”

Mao Zedong’s teachings on the masses are eternal and scientific. The masses of revolutionary people are the only motive force capable of transitioning society into the higher stage of organization of producing our material needs, which is socialism. The masses are the only force capable of eradicating racism, misogyny, trans-phobic violence and abuse, and, ultimately, capitalism-imperialism. The job of the revolutionary is not to sit with other so-called revolutionaries and try to “hash out” solutions for the masses, to be imposed upon them without their consent. Nor is it the job of the revolutionary to not advance when the masses are ready for struggle. In Saint Louis, we have seen much of the elitist, petit-bourgeois style, imposing lines and tactics which serve to pull the masses backwards, instead of moving them forwards. A revolutionary knows that the masses are everything, the masses are the only people that have the capability to move society forward, and all power comes from the masses. Any struggle led without this first and foremost in one’s mind will lead to disaster. Any struggle that does not thoroughly involve the broad masses of people will lead to all kinds of dead ends and problems. Any revolutionary that does not recognize that correct ideas don’t come out of the heads of a few well-educated petit-bourgeois “activists” is not a revolutionary. We are at war. We can’t struggle simply by putting our hands up. They’ll shoot. Black Lives Matter? Not under capitalism, and not while we’re begging.

What is a comprador? A comprador is defined, simply, as a colonial subject who derives their power, prestige, and wealth from association/business ties with imperialists and who helps them exploit and take advantage of the colonized masses. Without the imperialists, the comprador class has nothing, and thus will fight tooth and nail to defend the interests of the imperialists, and work actively against struggle led by the masses that hurt the interests of their imperialist masters. In the modern-day liberation struggle, the comprador serves a role that was discussed previously, working actively to impose forms of so-called struggle on the masses that pull us backwards, instead of moving us forwards to liberation. An example would be the meeting of several “high-profile” protesters and activists with Democratic presidential candidates in the fall of 2015. This was a comprador move for many reasons. First, these meetings were arranged between the Democratic candidates and the protesters/activists. The masses played no role in the process. No representative of the working class/unemployed masses of Saint Louis City or County was allowed to come to these meetings. The Campaign Zero program that was discussed was developed with little to no input from the masses. The leaders/developers are representatives of the well-educated, petit-bourgeois segments of the black nation, and thus, their program has a petit-bourgeois, comprador character and nature. Their program is designed to recuperate the revolutionary black and brown masses into capitalism-imperialism and the Democratic Party, which is majorly responsible for the mass incarceration of black and brown people, water down or snatch the teeth from struggle, and generally usurp and impose things from on high to the masses. Why weren’t Michael Brown’s mother and stepfather at these meetings? Where was Vonderrit Myers’ family? Where were the homeless? Where were the residents of Canfield Drive, or North Saint Louis? Where were the hounded, hungry, and hunted youth who dared to think and act, struggling physically against the police and the entire system two years ago? Nowhere to be seen, because their demands would be in fundamental contradiction with the demands of these comprador elitists who claim to lead the liberation movement. See the list of demands from Campaign Zero, where they claim:

“We can live in an America where the police do not kill people. Police in England, Germany, Australia, Japan, and even cities like Newark, NJ, and Richmond, CA, demonstrate that public safety can be ensured without killing civilians. By implementing the right policy changes, we can end police killings and other forms of police violence in the United States.”

What is the role of the police? The police in a state run by and to manage the interests of multi-billionaire imperialist shareholders, investment bankers, and dealers of death and destruction of all kinds are agents of oppression, designed to protect the domestic interests of the ruling bourgeois class that holds dictatorship over the working class. A proletarian program to combat police brutality and mass incarceration approaches this problem from a proletarian perspective. There is no “right policy change” or “secret ingredient” that will resolve the fundamental contradiction between the police and the people. The police can never be made to serve the people as long as the current organization and way of doing things remains intact. The revolutionary ultimately struggles for system change, to a system where the people are truly in control. The revolutionary struggles to destroy capitalism. The comprador struggles for crumbs to fool and placate the people, and preserve their lucrative position as colonial intermediaries between the colonized and the exploiter. The comprador struggles for capitalism and imperialism. By working with and meeting with Democratic candidates who will uphold a system that exploits, incarcerates, enslaves and kills the black and brown masses daily, in several different ways, McKesson and clique are directly in contradiction to the interests of the people.

A further example of the anti-people and counterrevolutionary nature of the comprador class is the fact that they receive material benefits from their activities. DeeRay McKesson gets to teach at Yale, while the people who really struggled in Ferguson and continue to do so get nothing. They get to meet imperialists and bootlickers at the White House, people responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands around the world, calling them “honest and action oriented”, while children burn to death in North Saint Louis City because the capitalists have disconnected their gas service, causing them to use space heaters. Where was McKesson and Co. then? Capitalism is killing the working, poor people of Flint, Michigan, and the black celebrities and activists complain about the Oscars, gladhand with imperialists, and engage in meaningless Twitter polemics with each other. They don’t see the masses, they don’t talk to them, they don’t visit their homes, they don’t listen to their scattered concerns, analyze and unite them, and build struggle on the basis of the masses’ demands. We obviously don’t expect them to do so. They aren’t revolutionaries, their work is to control and impose imperialist solutions on the people. When they do mention the masses’ struggles, it’s always light criticism and glossing over the primary problem, acting as if this is an issue that can be resolved through capitalist methods and capitalist politicians and capitalist systems, and it’s never sincere, it’s only to build their own prestige and get money/jobs/recognition from the imperial capitalists. The role of the comprador in the Black Liberation Struggle is to recuperate that struggle, take the revolutionary teeth from it, and mislead the masses into the arms of the imperialist Democratic Party. To win our struggles and liberate ourselves and advance to a socialist order of things, where people don’t burn to death for lack of gas, don’t freeze to death for lack of electricity, get to attend universities that are free, open to all, and teach liberation instead of destruction, and don’t drink water poisoned with lead and other noxious chemicals, the role of the comprador must be made clear, and the comprador organizations and individuals themselves must be struggled against. We must recognize that not everyone with a black face talking liberation is a friend and comrade, that we must unite on a class basis, think and analyze from that class and radical liberatory basis, and thoroughly and heartily reject any attempts to drag our struggles backwards, to recuperate us with the bourgeois political parties, to go against our class interests, to disrupt attempts to unify with progressive elements of different nationalities, and to generally stymie the process of true liberation for the class of Mike Brown, Vonderrit Myers, and so many other working class members of the New Afrikan people victimized by imperialism and class oppression. Let’s build our base areas and build our power!