We Can Only Free Ourselves

Juneteenth must be placed into its proper historical context. Furthermore, we caution that it should not be seen as a development of special concern, but only as a part of an ongoing process of freedom that ultimately was not completed by the end of the civil war. 

We define freedom as the ability to produce and reproduce life and the ability to be a self-determined people organized to sustain autonomy from outside forces. Thus, with this definition, what are we celebrating when it comes to Juneteenth? 

Many would argue that we’re celebrating the emancipation of African people. However, Abraham Lincoln did not have jurisdiction in territories that held the majority population of enslaved Africans. Therefore, his Emancipation Proclamation did not instantly free us. Therefore, it is a clear and undeniable truth that we Africans freed ourselves! 

We have been engaged in this struggle for some time now. During this time period the struggle was intensified. This created an opportunity for war and its existential disruption and threat to production within the colonial slave-based plantation system.

This internal contradiction (North vs South) created favorable conditions for us to free ourselves. It is also true that Lincoln suggested to Congress on December 12, 1862, less than a month before the Emancipation Proclamation, that slavery could be extended to 1900 with slaveholders being compensated for the loss of their "property" and that free Africans be colonized outside the U.S (see Vincent Harding, There Is A River). 

Despite this offer from Lincoln, the Republican Party government and the North were not abolitionists and were not in favor of ending slavery. They were only interested in ending the expansion of slavery; particularly west of the Mississippi as slavery posed a continued threat to the development and domination of the Industrial Capitalism of the North as it fought against the Agrarian Capitalism of the South. 

Here, we immediately see the connection and difference between emancipation and freedom. There is no Emancipation without Freedom. It is vitally important for us to see this relationship and not assign too much recognition to this so-called emancipation. 

We have three developments: slavery, emancipation, and freedom. These three developments are the principal contradiction of the colonial mode of production, Capitalism, and Enslavement (see Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery). It is this principal contradiction that brings these three developments into existence. Once in existence they become inextricably connected where one cannot be understood without the other. Between these three developments, the struggle for freedom is the consistent factor in both slavery and the so-called emancipation. It is here we should study and be focused on. 

Indeed, slavery did not end with emancipation either in 1863 or in 1865. Slavery continued but just in a slightly modified form. In this connection, we offer a further examination of some short pieces, The Convict Lease System by Ida B, I Denounce the So-Called Emancipation As A Stupendous Fraud by Frederick Douglass, and the introduction to Slavery By Another Name, by Blackmon. Taken together, they demonstrate the fraud, corruption, and betrayal by the colonial bourgeoisie government on behalf of the capitalist class and the enthroning of Industrial Capitalism as the dominant economy within the U.S. This, after all, is precisely the primary reason for the war.

Again, we can only free ourselves. It is not some jester from the colonial bourgeoisie, nor an African assimilationist whose primary role is to coerce and manipulate the people. We recognize the African working class and other oppressed people gained nothing in this country without the shedding of our blood. This is why we must struggle and we must fight. 

Remember, freedom is the ability to produce and reproduce life. We are engaged in a historical process for self-determination, independence, and freedom over our black lives since we were kidnapped and forced to adapt to hostile conditions in the Western Hemisphere. As a whole people, we are contending with these historical forces that have defined our existence. This reality is what informs our demands and ultimately our struggle for freedom. Forever forward, Unafraid together Amandla Ngawethu!

In Struggle, 

Aramis Malachi-Ture Sundiata

Executive Director, People’s Justice Project