Malcolm X Talks to Young People (Book)

I brought this book because of the title and the cost, plus it's Malcolm, but when I began to read it, it was more than what I expected to be. Best 80 cents I ever spent

I think the best way to describe this wonderful book is a few excerpts (from the 2002 expanded edition). "The young generation of whites, Blacks, browns, whatever else there is -- you're living at ... a time of revolution, a time when there's got to be a change.... And I for one will join in with anyone, I don't care what color you are, as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth." "It is the teenagers ... all over the world, who are actually involving themselves in the struggle to eliminate oppression and exploitation.... The young people are the ones who most quickly identify with the struggle and the necessity to eliminate the evil conditions that exist." "In America the Black community in which we live is not owned by us. The landlord is white. The merchant is white. . . . And these are the people who suck the economic blood of our community." "We are not for violence in any shape or form, but believe that the people who have violence committed against them should be able to defend themselves.... I have never said that the Negroes should initiate acts of aggression against whites, but where the government fails to protect the Negro he is entitled to do it himself." [In Africa] "I'm from America but I'm not an American. I didn't go there of my own free choice.... [I am] one of the victims of Americanism, ... one of the victims of a very hypocritical system that is going all over this earth today representing itself as being qualified to tell other people how to run their country when they can't get the dirty things that are going on in their own country straightened out." [In Africa] "When we find a Black man who's always receiving the praise of the Americans, we become suspicious of him.... Because it has been our experience that the Americans don't praise any Black man who is really working for the benefit of the Black man." "It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it's more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody's blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless." I recommend the ads in the back of the book. Pathfinder Press is defined by a political goal, not commercial success. It aims to provide a platform for revolutionary leaders speaking in their own words. If you like one book, you will probably like others.

Malcolm X Talks to Young People is an immensely relevant and instructive book for the young and the young at heart. His words, spoken to university students in Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States in 1964-65, ring as true today as they did then."I just try to face the fact as it actually is and come to this meeting as one of the victims of America, one of the victims of Americanism, one of the victims of democracy, one of the victims of a very hypocritical system that is going all over this earth today representing itself as being qualified to tell other people how to run their country when they can't get the dirty things that are going on in their own country straightened out," he told students at the University of Ghana, May 13, 1964.

Originally issued as the first Gulf War began,in these pages Malcolm explains how in the Congo the US govt bombed women,men,children, and babies and called THEM terrorists,as he points out,the same as in Vietnam.He shows how it was the U.S. and U.S.-flunky ( "anti-Castro Cubans pilots" ) who were the terrorists in the Congo in the early to mid 1960s. At a time when the word "hero" is twisted so obscenely, it is a breath of fresh clean air to read Malcom's descriptions of the herois Simba fighters of the Congo who tried, and failed to liberate their country from U.S. neocolonial domination after kicking out the Belgian colonizers, and to hear him describe the equally heroic fighters who defeated the Empire in China and Cuba and Vietnam in the same terms.He exposes the use of UN cover for the Yanqui Empire's wars and drive for profits.He explains that these crimes are the doings of a system, the imperialist system ,as he calls it himself.He points out they use the cops to do the same at home :brutalize working people. Malcolm further points out that both the Republican AND the Democratic parties are the twin parties of racism and imperial exploitation. Oh yes, both parties ! He explains how he came to the conclusion that " capitalism is like a vulture...it used to be able to suck anybody's blood...but now it can only suck the blood of the helpless. It's only a matter of time , in my opinion, before it will collapse completely " and how he became prosocialist. He points to the Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cuban revolutions as examples for Blacks - today he would add and we can add, all working people -- to emulate in this country, in our time.And, he makes his stand to fight alongside anyone, any color, who fights to better condtiions for humans on this earth. As the 2nd Gulf War begins, again under UN cover and "inspections" just as the liberals pleaded, as more working people's blood, Iraq and American, for the sake of the oil profits of a tiny few, it is good to be reminded that as, Malcolm says in these pages, " The young generation of whites, Blacks, browns-you're living at a time of revolution." He was right then and he is still right.If you seek serious fundamental social change, you owe it to yourself to buy and STUDY this book.