In his debut poem for Grassroots Thinking, Donnie Moreland wrote a poem for the League of Revolutionary Workers titled “Union, Jack.” Visit GrassrootsThinking.com for the entire text of the poem, Donnie’s brilliant audio performance, and additional additional resources on the League of Revolutionary Workers including books, study guides, articles, and documentaries.
About the League of Revolutionary Black Workers In an interview in The Fifth Estate publication, organizer John Watson describes the nature and purpose of LRBW:
“The League of Revolutionary Black Workers is a federation of several revolutionary movements which exist in Detroit. It was originally formed to provide a broader base for organization of black workers into revolutionary organizations than was previously provided for when we were organizing on a plant to plant basis. The beginning of the League goes back to the beginning of DRUM, which was its first organization. The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement was formed at the Hamtramck assembly plant of the Chrysler Corporation in the fall of 1967. It developed out of the caucuses of black workers which had formed in the automobile plants to fight increases in productivity and racism in the plant ... With the development of DRUM and the successes we had in terms of organizing and mobilizing the workers at the Hamtramck plant many other black workers throughout the city began to come to us and ask for aid in organizing some sort of group in their plants. As a result, shortly after the formation of DRUM, the Eldon Axle Revolutionary Movement (ELRUM) was born at the Eldon gear and axle plant of the Chrysler Corporation. Also, the Ford Revolutionary Union Movement (FRUM) was formed at the Ford Rouge complex, and we now have two plants within that complex organized.“
In her first for Grassroots Thinking, Bree Hemphill (@breemhill ) explains why, instead of debating Shaboozey’s Grammys speech in which he claimed immigrants “built” America, we should refuse to take credit for the death and destruction caused by American imperialism.
The borders of the United States are violently maintained–and not only via walls, forced deportations, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement kidnapping squads. They are maintained and legitimized within the cultural output of Americana aesthetics by billionaire Black celebrities wearing the stars and stripes, by the romanticization of America as a metaphor (an overused and boring metaphor), its symbolism, and iconography.
The unification of colonized people worldwide is an assertion of our humanity against the dehumanization embedded in American patriotism. It is the political clarity that comes with understanding ourselves as Africans that opens us up to deeper political, cultural, and revolutionary legacies. It is strengthening our tie to the continent and asserting not only solidarity but a shared future built on a shared past.
Rejection of Americanism is necessary for our survival. We do not need to take credit for building this place. We need to unite with the colonized of the world who are fighting to tear it down, reclaim their dignity, and destroy the forces of Western colonial violence that enchained and dragged us here in the first place.
Read more on GrassrootsThinking.com (link in bio).
/who-built-this-place-rejecting-americanism-explained/
Grassroots Thinking columnist and organizer Kali Akuno explains why a general strike is necessary, but should only be seen as a means to the end of the corporate, two-party system.
The general strike being called for must not repeat the mistakes of the No Kings Movement in having no demands. Neither should it be pigeon-holed into being an effort to win the 2026 midterm elections for the Democrats nor an effort to preserve the constitutional order or the false agreements of bourgeois society. It must aim to deal with the challenges of our times head-on. To that end, it must push back against the threats of AI and automation, the acceleration of climate change, the concentration of capital and the extreme inequality it is breeding, and, ultimately, the capitalist system itself.
Now, to be clear, a general strike is a means to an end. The question is What is, or should be, the end, in this case? Getting rid of Trump and the Trump regime would be the most popular answer. I would argue that while that objective is a necessary starting point, without a broader and deeper set of objectives, that singular objective in and of itself would just lead to another turn of the wheel to a dead end–returning the Democrats and their neoliberal politics and imperatives to power.
In order to dislodge the Trump regime, the strike movement must focus a critical portion of its energy on fracturing the Trump coalition, and fracturing it decisively. It is going to be extremely difficult to separate the regime from its true believers. The movement has to start by reaching the forces who are aligned primarily on economic lines with the Trump coalition.
This is not a short-order task, to be clear. But, if we are going to pull off a general strike, it shouldn’t be half-assed, particularly if it might ignite massive repression from the Trump regime and a civil war.
We must take aim at it all. But, we have to do the necessary organizing work to build our capacity to win, not just put up a valiant fight.
Read the essay on GrassrootsThinking.com (link in bio).
/necessary-but-not-sufficient-the-general-strike-and-the-need-for-more/
BAP Nashville (@bap_nashville ) releases an official statement denouncing the lack of transparency and community involvement and rejects Mayor O’Connell’s task force’s legitimacy.
In Nashville, community-led and community-accountable efforts are repeatedly welcomed in name, then overridden once they threaten executive authority or predetermined outcomes. We have seen this with the nullification of community oversight initiatives, the expansion of surveillance under the banner of public safety, and the reduction of investment in youth safety and prevention infrastructure, even as enforcement budgets grow. This task force fits squarely within that governing logic.
The issue is not the integrity or commitment of individual appointees, many of whom are respected community members. The issue is structural. A process cannot be meaningfully “community-based” when participation is politically gated, leadership is vetoed, and authority remains centralized in the Mayor’s Office. Under these conditions, task forces function to absorb public concern and validate existing priorities rather than to transfer power or reshape outcomes.
Black Alliance for Peace – Nashville formally objects to the structure and legitimacy of this task force and will not endorse or legitimize a process that substitutes managed participation for shared power. We remain committed to public safety approaches rooted in prevention, public health, youth investment, and genuine community authority.
Community safety cannot be achieved through managed participation. It requires shared power, real accountability, and durable community control.
Read the full statement on GrassrootsThinking.com (link in bio).
/black-alliance-for-peace-nashville-citywide-alliance-issues-a-statement-on-mayor-oconnells-community-safety-task-force/
The Community Movement Builders Newark chapter and the Black Alliance for Peace New York City/New Jersey Citywide Alliance issue a statement demanding answers and accountability for the death of Jean Wilson Brutus.
On December 12th, 2025, Jean Wilson Brutus, originally from Haiti, died from what U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials reported as “suspected natural causes.” This comes just one day after Brutus was captured and held captive at Delaney Hall in Newark, NJ. Weeks later, we are left with no clear answer from GEO Group, the Florida-based company that owns Delaney Hall, or ICE, about what happened to Brutus, and his family demands answers.
Beyond condolences, we reinforce the demand for a thorough investigation into Brutus’ death by an independent party, and that all parties responsible for his untimely demise be held to account. In strong condemnation of Delaney Hall, we view its collapse as central to the defense of people(s)-centered human rights.
Through the state’s hyperfixation on alleged individual acts of criminal trespassing, the central role of the U.S. in invading, destabilizing, and occupying Jean Wilson Brutus’ homeland of Haiti is conveniently ignored. The presence and targeting of migrants in the U.S. is a direct result of the incessant imperialist trespassing of sovereign nations throughout Our Americas.
VISIT GRASSROOTSTHINKING.COM FOR FULL STATEMENT (link in bio)
/jean-wilson-brutus-died-in-ice-detention-center-we-demand-answers/
*Is “nonviolence” actually nonviolent?*
In his latest for @grassrootsthinking , organizer, author, and poet Too Black (@too_black ) briefly surveys the histories and philosophies of nonviolent action to reveal why nonviolent struggle is not actually nonviolent.
As Too Black illustrates in the essay, “…there is no Voting Rights Act without Bloody Sunday. There is no Indian independence without the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. There is no Republic of Ghana without the British crackdown on the Convention People’s Party. Without the shock and awe of violence, so-called nonviolence would be unsuccessful. Conscience or not.”
On many occasions, Dr. King proposed to use nonviolent tactics to turn violence on itself. “Bomb our homes and threaten our children; send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities and drag us out on some wayside road, beating us and leaving us half dead, and we will still love you. But we will soon wear you down by our capacity to suffer.“ Dr. King even suggested that suffering could be “redemptive” and could free “his white brethren from the death of the spirit…”
To this, Too Black asks, How do we make sense of nonviolence when violence itself is the common denominator? How can we call it nonviolence when violence is the activating ingredient, the yeast that helps bring peace to the top?
To read more, check out the link in bio.
/nonviolence-is-violence-too-somebodys-gotta-die/
The first full interview in our oral history collection _notes from the black underground_ is out now! Visit /oral-history-jalil-muntaqim-they-changed-the-environment-but-the-war-continued/
Oral historian Dartricia Rollins (@dartricia_ ) recorded Jalil Muntaqim’s 3-hour oral history on June 12, 2025 at an office in Rochester, NY as part of an oral history collection with veteran members of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. The unabridged interview is presented below.
Born and raised in Oakland, CA, Jalil Muntaqim (@muntaqimjalil ) is a Black Panther Party (BPP) and Black Liberation Army (BLA) veteran. In his oral history, he talks about his activist influences, his evolution to revolutionary nationalism, and 49 year-long incarceration as a political prisoner. Released in 2020, his message centers around decolonizing one’s thinking, embracing New Afrikan heritage and identity, and building the “People’s Senate” and alternative forms of governance. Muntaqim is the last living co-founder of the National Jericho Movement.
Jalil Muntaqim’s oral history was conducted as part of an ongoing project of Community Movement Builders (@communitymovementbuilders ). The purpose of this oral history collection is to document and preserve the life histories of veteran members of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army.
Sharing stories about their lives and experiences in political organizing, narrators contribute to a collective memory, highlighting the similarities and differences in the landscape today and how they have remained committed to movement work over decades.
MacKenzie Scott made another big splash in the headlines with her $45 million donation to The Trevor Project, an organization focused on suicide prevention for young LGBTQ+ people. The organization noted that it’s their largest donation on record, and that the donation makes up for the major loss of funding due to recent federal budget cuts.
Scott’s generous donation is one of many unprecedented gifts she’s presented to many organizations and colleges, including several HBCU’s. In 2025 alone, she gave seventy million dollars to the United Negro College Fund, $63 million to Prairie View A&M University, $50 million to Bowie State University, $19 million to Philander Smith University, and another $19 million to Dillard University.
These headlines add to her brief, but significant history as a philanthropic leader and champion. But have her donations to HBCUs and other colleges and organizations actually made a difference?
In her first for Grassroots Thinking, Ekemini Ekpo (@e.u.ekpo ) weighs the benefits and drawbacks of philanthropy and wonders what’s good?
Read more at: /what-to-make-of-mackenzie-scotts-unprecedented-donations/
Link - /watch?v=CosYlgGZC8A
Jan 14, 2026
In a moment of heightened state violence and systemic failure, the old definitions of "security" have failed us. Police don't create safety. Politicians don't deliver it. So, what does real community security look like?
Join us for this National Black Radical Organizing Conference (NBROC) special event. We tackle the urgent, practical question: "What are we currently doing, and what must we build next?" We will provide direct reports from organizers on projects already creating security—from mutual aid networks and community land trusts to copwatch patrols and tenant unions.
Come to listen to our organizer panelists, Kamau Franklin (Community Movement Builders), Erica Caines (Black Alliance For Peace), and Laurick Ingram (Black Men Build) to share your community's work, and to help chart a coordinated path forward. Our security will not be given; it must be organized and won.
