We are publishing a transcript of Dr. Anthony Monteiro’s opening remarks from the Saturday Free School’s December 30, 2023 session on 2024: A year of war, economic uncertainty, presidential election, and 100th anniv. of James Baldwin. The Free School meets every Saturday at 10:30 AM, and is streamed live on Facebook and YouTube.
Good morning everybody, it’s good to see everybody. You know, this is our last Free School for 2023, which was a year of tremendous activity, and I would say accomplishments of the Saturday Free School. I think Sambarta has really kept the figures on the things that we did. Six events, and I think 2024 is going to be even a more active year for us. And actually it must be, given what we and the people of the world face. We enter the new year as witnesses to one of the greatest genocides ever inflicted upon a people in human history.
This genocide, in its moral degeneracy and actual magnitude of numbers of people murdered, is equal to the Nazi Holocaust of the 1930s and 40s. In fact, the people carrying this out are themselves Nazis; they are committing crimes against humanity which in effect are crimes against civilization.
In the end, they—and those who are making it possible—have to be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. And as was the case with the major actors of the Nazi regime, many of them must face the ultimate punishment, which is execution for their crimes. But there’s also another dimension of this—and I think this conclusion is being arrived at by millions and probably billions of people throughout the world—[concerning] the raison d’être for the establishment of the state of Israel; in other words, the Holocaust against them by the Nazis, and the belief by peace-loving and democratic forces throughout the world, that the Jews of Europe could no longer live in Europe.
And so the state of Israel was established in the Middle East, in land already occupied by Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims and Christians, with the assumption by many, many people, especially the progressive forces, that this would be a state based upon peace, humanity, and socialism. However, before the state could even be formed, the whole movement was taken over by Zionists whose objectives, as it turned out, were the opposite of what most people believed would be the outcome of the formation of the state of Israel.
And of course for us to really understand how decisions and choices were made, you would have to go back to that period after 1945 when the death camps and concentration camps were opened up, and people of goodwill saw what had happened to a people—although they were not the only ones—but to the Jewish people. And the attempt to exterminate them as a people, the horror of viewing that, led peace-loving and progressive forces of all political positions, including communists, socialists, centrists, liberals [to say] that humanity must act morally on behalf of these people.
However, the raison d’être for the formation of the state of Israel is now the reason for its destruction, for its undoing. Let me put that again. The reason for the formation of the state of Israel was a genocide against the Jews. The moral authority of that state, the legal authority of that state was given and bestowed upon it because of the Holocaust, of a genocide. International law in many respects was rewritten because of that. The legal superstructure having to do with human rights, with genocide, with crimes against humanity, come out of the Second World War. There were trials held in Nuremberg. Nuremberg was the city that was in effect the moral capital of Nazi Germany. Trials were held of Nazis, of leaders of that regime, of those who were implicated as directly involved in the genocide.
Many of them were executed for their crimes against humanity. If genocide was the reason, as we say the raison d’être—the reason for being—of the state of Israel, then it is genocide [today] of the same moral and physical magnitude as the genocide against them carried out by the Nazis; the state of Israel cannot morally or legally be justified, and must be dismantled. And the criminals that have carried out this genocide, and those who make it possible by shipping weapons and money, and giving diplomatic cover to this regime—all must be tried as criminals under international law, in particular for carrying out this genocide.
So we enter this year, facing what humanity has not faced in 80 years. That is, a genocide against a people, carried out in the most barbaric way. You know, when you drop a 2,000 pound bomb on a neighborhood, you can’t justify that as a military objective against Hamas and al-Qassam regiments. You intend to kill human beings. And let us be real, this Zionist regime composed of men and women, who are nothing less than mad dogs, have done this intentionally. And they’ve said it. As far as Joe Biden is concerned, the American people have to handle our business this year. He must be driven from office. His defeat must be ignominious and complete; he is the lowest of human beings. At least Netanyahu and his clique openly say they’re carrying out genocide. Biden and his clique of Zionists and war-makers and neocons try to act like they’re trying to hold Israel back.
Biden, the hypocrite, who lives in a moral sewer, must be defeated. To all of these congressmen and senators who have rushed—and I should say mayors, and people who don’t have anything to do with this, like state legislators and city council people, like here in Philadelphia—who have rushed, as they put it, to stand with Israel; they must be dragged out and exposed.
And here I want to say first, the Black politicians and elected officials. You know, in the moral equation, we don’t give, or nobody gives as much moral authority to white people as they do to Black people. In other words, more is expected of us because we have shaped the moral framework of this country, and in a lot of ways a good part of humanity. Our sacrifice, our suffering has been used to elevate humanity. And for these politicians—all of whom, because they are Black, are given the moral benefit of the doubt—they must be exposed for what they are.
And in this regard I start with the current mayor of Philadelphia Cherelle Parker. You descended into a moral sewer, and we cannot forget that. You can’t come among those of us who think and say, well, you stand with all religions; no you, stood with genocide. To the Philadelphia City Council, I say the same thing. To the mayor Eric Adams of New York, your stand with this genocide has made you an enemy, not only of the Palestinian people, but of Black folk. Because if you let that happen to those children, you don’t think very much of Black kids. We can’t forget this. As far as the Black church is concerned—I’m gonna return to that but I want to talk about them in this context—pretty much a bunch of hustlers, people whose only or main concern is money, and controlling people who are seeking something that they will never discover or find in these churches.
To the Black clergy who have passed resolutions supporting Israel. To those who have remained silent. To those who I know personally, and we know. Who gave some weak, irresponsible, morally degenerate justification for what’s going on: shame on you. And you expose yourself not as a person of the gospel, but as a hustler. And frankly I’ll be real about it, I don’t know that there’s anything I have to discuss, or can discuss with any of them.
There has to be a reckoning. There has to be a reckoning. If you think this is a joke, you know where I’m at. If you think I’m playing, you know how I am.
All of this is important also in light of what we talked about last week: the fragmenting of major denominations among Protestants. This is huge in the lifeworld of the United States. I had a very interesting discussion with a good friend, Andrew Stewart from Rhode Island. He’s very well-informed, turns out his father was a Lutheran pastor. The only equivalent to this crisis in Protestantism in a major capitalist country was in the 1930s and 40s in Germany, where most of the mainline Protestant and the Catholic church either went with Hitler or remained silent in the face of his wars and genocide.
The anti-Nazi forces within the church were driven out of the churches, out of the pulpit, were silenced as it were. Not unlike what we’ve seen in this country over the past 60 years. The crisis of American Protestantism is not because of one or the other position on gay marriage or trans rights. No, the crisis emerges from an over 60-year period of silence in the face of war, poverty, and the attack upon the poor. Most Protestant denominations have remained silent, they have become transactional. Pay them, and you got their voice; they’re for sale. And so it is inevitable that first people will leave, but then a crisis will develop internally. So LGBTQ, trans rights, even Black Lives Matter is merely a signifier of something deeper and more profound within Christianity in the United States.
In Germany those who refused to remain silent broke with the Protestant denominations and went underground and formed what was known as the anti-Nazi church of Germany. One of the great figures in this anti-Nazi church—and I’m convinced a deep influence upon Martin Luther King—was a man by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Not only did Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his colleagues form an underground church, but some of them hatched plans to attempt to assassinate Hitler. Since they were not professional assassins, or for that matter knew anything about killing, their plans were easily exposed, and Bonhoeffer in the 1940s, I think around 1944, was arrested, tried, and his punishment was death. And only a few weeks before World War II ended in 1945, he was executed.
But the interesting thing about Bonhoeffer is that in the early 1930s, he visited and lived in the United States in New York. I think he went to Union Theological Seminary. But I think the significant thing is that Union Theological Seminary was very close to Harlem, New York. And the great churches and the great movements of Black people, the poetry of Black people. So when he returns to Germany, he is a different kind of Protestant. Not so much the rational Lutheran as it were; but now he began to understand the soul-world of people, that people like Howard Thurman and others had talked about when they talked about Black Christianity.
Most genuine Christians in the United States have either been driven underground or become silent in the face of harassment, attacks, lies, attempts to humiliate and discredit people for reasons having to do with their moral stance, with their refusal to remain silent in the face of injustice.
But then there’s a deeper significance to this. You see, Martin Luther King and the Black Freedom Movement. And people like James Lawson, who we’ve had the great honor and privilege to know, to host and to celebrate his life, saw a different kind of Christianity for this country. You know, Martin Luther King kept by his side, always, the book by Howard Thurman Jesus and the Disinherited where he redefines the Gospels. And literally said that Jesus was not what the bourgeoisie and the sellouts had invented him to be; that Jesus was not the God of the rich, or the Messiah or Prophet to the rich, but [the Messiah] to the poor, and to Black people.
To follow Martin Luther King and Howard Thurman—and so many others, by the way— in their activism, in their moral witness, would mean that American Protestantism and American churches would have to cease being racist. They would have to renounce their historical connections to slavery, racism and colonialism.
And they would not. They, after the death of Martin Luther King and up ‘til today are as segregated today as they were during the time of Jim Crow. They said, “Well look, but we have a Black man or Black woman who is the head of our church, nationally.” As is the case with the Episcopals; the Episcopalians are really the Church of England. “Look, we have women priests.” Well even that, you accepted reluctantly. And were it not for the protests and heroic actions of people like Father Paul Washington and others, you wouldn’t even have that.
If you call that progress, the people have voted with their feet. You have the buildings, but not the people. And to be real about it, you really don’t want the people in there, and you do not have a ministry that is worth a dime. So you can put on a lot of robes, and burn incense, and do rituals for yourselves and those who you ultimately serve—the rich.
The same goes for Methodism. Methodism has something of an honorable past in the struggle against slavery and the slave trade. But then, it was always not fully in, or committed to the fight to abolish slavery—they were against the slave trade, but not against slavery itself. So it was like riding two horses going in opposite directions.
The Episcopal church never opposed slavery or colonialism, and in fact participated in them. They have nothing to be proud of. They should be ashamed of themselves. But they’re not, and that’s part of the problem. There is no shame in their game, as they say.
The Unitarian Universalists are very different. A proud history in the struggle against slavery, a proud history of martyrdom, of commitment in the struggle for civil rights. We should mention, and never forget the name of mother Viola Liuzzo, of James Reeb, who gave their lives in the fight for Black people’s civil rights and the right to vote.
But then, it got morally and intellectually lazy. It became silent. It became more bourgeois and capitalist. It became a church that comforted the rich and silenced the poor. And so when the LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter and identity politics came down, they immediately jumped on it; an empty moral gesture in the face of the profound crisis of the nation. The example of Martin Luther King, and of James Lawson, and Diane Nash and Ella Baker, and all of those heroes of humanity, became a dim memory. And like the other denominations, everything turns out to be transactional. In other words, like they say in politics, you had to pay to play. If you had money, you had a voice. You were heard. And that’s across the board. Empty gestures.
For example, look at American politics. It’s an easy thing, especially now, to get behind and give your money to a Black person. Especially a Black woman running for mayor of Philadelphia, L.A., or wherever. It was easy to get behind the war-maker and neocon Hillary Clinton. Because Trump was a “Nazi and a fascist.” It was easy for them to support Bernie Sanders, because he spoke out of both sides of his mouth, and you didn’t know what side he was speaking out of on what day, and you couldn’t trust anything he said anyway. That was easy.
But when it came to the real questions, where moral integrity and courage was required, they all failed. And so, they have all gone into what is an internal struggle. And all of the compromises that were made in the past could no longer be made going forward. It’s like with anything else. When your whole being is predicated upon compromising what are fundamental moral values, there’s nothing left.
And so it is with the United Methodists, who are splitting [along] with the Unitarian Universalists. Certainly on a world scale the Episcopalians, or Church of England, has already split. Where what they call the global South, especially Africa, is saying, “We don’t want your identity politics. We don’t want your Western ‘moral values.’ We have our own civilizations.” And where the U.S. ruling class had seen Christianity and missionaries as a part of its—what they call soft power—its ideological power over developing nations who are just coming into modernity—and this is something people have to understand—Protestantism is identified with modernity. So most African nations even up to this day in many respects, are peasant countries. Most people are peasants, and are poor.
So they look at the West through Hollywood movies, through slick-speaking politicians and preachers, and say, “That is our future.” And so sending missionaries, often young white people, some Black people to the global South, was a way of propagating and selling the West and its civilization and values. And in the end propping up neo-colonialism. All of the main denominations participate in this, including Black ones. It’s money to be made. The State Department, the government finances and funds a lot of that. And they go expressing concern for the poor, and so on.
Now the chickens have come home to roost. The Afro-Asiatic world, which includes South America and the Caribbean, has as they say “peeped your whole card.” They know that even when you come in the name of religion, you’re lying, and they don’t want any parts of you. And so when you come saying, “Well we’re going to uphold trans rights in your country.” And the people will say, “But, however we deal with transgenderism—we don’t need you to come in here to uphold anything.” Now think about it, U.S. imperialism supporting Israeli Zionism in a genocidal war—what do you have to teach the people of the world? You have exposed your hand.
Now just one last thing about the Episcopal church. One of the last hopes was Bishop Tutu Desmond to two of South Africa, who arose on the shoulders of the Episcopal Church in the last moments of the struggle against apartheid. To my knowledge—and I was involved—no one ever heard of Bishop Tutu, and suddenly when they needed an alternative to the African National Congress, uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing and the Communist Party of South Africa, and all of these mass movements—suddenly we hear about Bishop Tutu, and Episcopal priests connected more to the Protestant churches of England than the poor in Soweto and other townships in South Africa.
And the people who had to live in exile, like the Oliver Tambos, the Alfred Nzos, the Chris Hanis; or were persecuted like Winnie Mandela and others—suddenly, the narrative centers upon [Tutu] as a reasonable fighter for freedom and democracy in South Africa, and not the leaders of the African National Congress who had been fighting for many decades against the apartheid regime. And this was very important, you know, we call it soft power but we see it all around us: the struggle for narrative hegemony—who can control the narrative, the story that’s being told. Whose assumptions will define the narrative space.
Israel has successfully, up until now, had narrative hegemony. Not because of Israel but because of the U.S. propaganda mechanisms and so on. Part of the crisis is that Israel and the Zionists and the genocidists have lost narrative hegemony.
This is a great credit to the American people. As they say, “Put some respect on they name.” I’ll come back to that. So we’re in a new moment. Protestantism, which in a lot of ways shapes the moral space, the religious space; in other words you can be a Catholic and still look very much like a Protestant. You know, you might have different rituals when you go to church. But the way the Catholics operate in the United States in many ways, is not unlike Protestantism. The value of hard work, individualism—I could quote “hard work”—individualism and such, pervade every aspect of religious life in the United States.
You can be a Jew and be more like a Protestant, because the values and assumptions are pretty much the same. The major Protestant denominations, and for the most part followed by most Black denominations, follow the lead of U.S. imperialism and war, and are quiet about it all—up ‘til today. In many ways, in many respects I should say, as religious—and I put quotes around this—denominations, they have no reason to exist. They do not address the material or spiritual lives of most Americans. Certainly not of the youth.
Look at the young people: mental illness, drug addiction, depression. And the preacher’s driving a new SUV. His wife is wearing all the finest clothes. His children go to private schools, not to the public schools. That disconnect is a moral and spiritual disconnect. And when you can’t believe your religious leader—you know, people find it easy not to believe politicians because we know the profession they’re in requires that they do nothing but lie all the time. So people would look to their ministers to tell the truth. But now they lie; they’re perpetrators of a fraud.
So people are trying to find a way. And it’s very disturbing to see, actually, very disturbing; it’s very difficult. But hopefully the people will find their way. And like in the case of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Protestant revolutionaries in Germany, people will find alternative churches. They don’t need elaborate and big buildings. They don’t need fine clothing and robes. They’ll find a way. They’ll do it in their homes, they’ll do it in community centers, they’ll rent storefronts. But they’ll find a way. In other words, I’ll just end, the Protestant and Christian denominations in the United States are guilty of moral duplicity. And that’s all it is.
This has a lot to do with the election that’s coming up. This is the most important election, maybe, in the history of the United States. And you know, of course time will tell.
The ruling class have made it clear that they’re prepared to go to the brink of Civil War to prevent a transfer of power from those who currently hold it, to other forces, however ill-defined the alternative forces are—and they are ill-defined.
But they’re prepared to go to the brink. They did it in the 1960s when they saw a mass movement for peace, for civil rights, for democracy, rising—centered upon the great moral authority of the Black struggle for civil rights. They went into a policy of assassination. And it was they, the ruling class and the deep state, that were behind every one of the major assassinations that took place in this country. Every single one of them. And every single person that they convicted of the assassinations pretty much had nothing to do with them. Nowhere was this more clear than in the assassination of Malcolm X, where the three people convicted and sent to jail were not even in the place where he was killed, the Audubon Auditorium. And they knew it.
The same thing with the assassination of Martin Luther King. James Earl Ray. King’s family, who met with him over the years, were convinced that he had nothing to do with it. And that it was a government conspiracy that killed Martin Luther King. The Kennedy family knows about it, John F. and Robert Kennedy.
They took the nation to the brink. These assassinations were in effect a coup d’etat: dismantle the peace, democratic, and civil rights forces. Decapitate the movement. Send the people into confusion. Establish a leadership loyal to the ruling class and silent about the crimes of these assassinations. Give with one hand, but take it away with the other. That is what Black people have been experiencing. The ruling class will tell us, “We’re committed to the Civil Rights vision of Martin Luther King. We gave you Barack Obama.” But the next question is, was he committed to the vision of Martin Luther King? Of course not. A dilettante. A narcissist, an empty suit, you know. A ventriloquist; put the voice in him—he didn’t have a voice, he didn’t have an idea. There’s nothing to celebrate in the election of Barack Obama, certainly by Black people.
But now the ruling class is faced with a crisis greater than the crisis of the 1960s, and it’s only deepening. You know, the polls showed, as the Biden Administration and the ruling elite went after Trump in ways that everybody knew had no real legal foundation—it was an attempt to silence him and to end his presidential run—they’re continuing it. These B.S. cases in New York, and trying to take all of his money from him. This thing in Georgia. And then of course the Justice Department. And now taking him off the ballot.
Everybody sees what this is. It’s a political assassination, short of physical assassination. To render him incapable of conducting a credible campaign. The people have not been fooled. And now Biden, the Mr. Nice Guy, the Mr. Normalcy, the Mr. White Man who can do no wrong, as Netanyahu and them began their genocide against the Palestinians, he ran over there hugging this man. Now you just finished hugging Zelenskyy in Ukraine, who was backed up by the neo-fascists there—and just parenthetically, Zelenskyy got to be very, very careful because his life is not guaranteed. Because people he’s dealing with will kill you with the quickness; that’s what they all about, you understand—I mean I don’t want to get into all the details, but that’s what they do.
So this cat is running around trying to get money and trying to secure his future here in the United States down in Florida somewhere, and them fascists of running amok over there, and already they done assassinated a number of people in Ukraine and assassinated some people in Russia—but that’s what they do. And so Zelenskyy tried to play a game with them—“I’m gonna play ball with the Nazis and until, you know, I can’t play no more and then I gotta flee, you know.” I think his wife has already fled, but anyway that’s a whole ‘nother question.
But Biden went over there, you know, hugging Netanyahu. And almost overnight he lost all the young people. Seventy percent of young people 18 to 40 are for a ceasefire. Trump leads Biden by six percentage points among young people.
Now, this takes us to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Very promising beginning, but then you hit the question of genocide carried out by the Zionists, and you apologizing for that while talking about your uncle’s peace speech in 1963. I mean, you’re left speechless. First of all, the guy’s voice is so gravelly and messed up that he can’t even lie good. I mean, it was gonna be a difficult thing for him to run a campaign with that voice. Now how that voice came about, I know he shot a lot of dope back in his days, probably drank a lot of whiskey. You know, he did a lot of things. Well now he’s into self-improvement, lifting weights. You know, he’s like a bodybuilder, you know I’m saying. But still the effects of all that heroin is going to stay with you.
So he gone come out here, and they’ve interviewing him and shit, and he done justified that. Now here is the problem: he just lost his major base, potential base of support; young people disenchanted with both political parties. So obviously the Zionists got something that he don’t want to come out. I mean, you listen to him. I mean, I don’t think he’s, you know, like all that intelligent. But to be this dumb? Okay. That’s him.
Now Marianne Williamson, spiritual teacher, so-called Buddhist, so-called you know, follower of Martin Luther King. Now you’re only at 2% in the Democratic Party, and they’re gonna put you off the ballot, there ain’t gonna be no primaries; I mean, they done dogged you, treat you like you ain’t worth nothing. You’re supporting Israel?
Okay, now. Cornel West stands up. Great, Cornel. You are beautiful, you’re heroic in the face of this. Only problem is we got to get some money to get you on the ballot. Because you messed up going from party to party. But anyway that’s another question.
Now Trump. Donald Trump, you’re still talking out of both sides of your mouth. Come clean. You have young people—and this is very significant—Black folk, the key strategic force in American politics. Black people, by what they do, can upset the entire ruling class strategy. Biden and the Democrats are indeed concerned with the fact that they’re losing the youth vote. But now when they look out, and see upwards of 40% of Black men—and I contend that Black women ain’t gonna be that far behind—because all that “Black girl magic” and all that bullshit feminism, that ain’t working no more, don’t nobody want to hear that, men or women.
Thirty to forty percent of Black people will either vote for Trump or not vote all. And they’re saying, “Biden and the Democrats, you’ve used us long enough. And in this crisis we refuse to be used again.” But the other thing, and polling data doesn’t fully express this—Black people don’t like what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. It kind of touches us in a certain way that maybe it doesn’t touch most Americans.
For us to see children killed. Children’s legs and arms blown off. Children blinded. And then when they see rich Zionists throwing their money around, we know about that, we know how they have bought Black preachers and Black politicians. We know it; we’ve experienced it. When we see them talking about “We’re going withdraw our money because you had a conference of Palestinian writers at the University of Pennsylvania.” Or “We’re going to withdraw money from Harvard”—you know, all of these threats. Well first of all we’ve experienced these before. All you got to do is read Baldwin on Blacks and anti-semitism. We see it all as racist, as white supremacist, which it is.
And then you add to that this open killing of children. You know, there’s something in our heads, I’m just saying from a Black perspective, of slavery. See, that takes us back to slavery and the slave trade, and children being ripped up from their communities, from their families. You know, all of that memory, even when it cannot be fully articulated, is triggered when we see this.
So the Democrats have lost upwards of 40% of Black people. Take a city like Philadelphia. You don’t have us no more. You can send all of the plantation politicians, all the so-called labor leaders, Black and otherwise, into our community. All of the liberals and so-called social democrats talking all that B.S.; it ain’t gonna work this time. Because we’re seeing with our own eyes.
Then in states like Michigan, and Michigan in particular, the Arabs have said, “Never will we vote for this cat.” By the way there’s going to be a major march, which I hope we can attend on January 13th. And I talked with Garland Nixon yesterday—we had a wonderful conversation by the way. He loves the Free School. It made me feel very good, you know, because we need all the love we can get. Because too often we get too much hate. But he loves us—he was at the one [in November] where they said 300,000. And he said to me at least 300,000. This one, he predicts will be over 500,000. The Arabs and Palestinians are mobilizing. And certainly along with the anti-Zionist Jews, the Hasidim, the Jewish Voice for Peace. This will be one of the great anti-war demonstrations in the history of the United States.
But if that were not enough for Biden and his crew, every day in this country, anywhere in this country that you go, there are demonstrations all over the place. Small demonstrations where people are witnessing and saying to their public, to their friends, to their family: “I condemn genocide.” All over this country.
The civil disobedience actions at Grand Central Station in New York. At 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. On I-76 shutting it down in Philadelphia. In the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. Where people are saying, “We will reclaim our morality. You ain’t gonna take it away from me.”
Families are splitting up. One young woman told me her sister doesn’t speak to her. Her sister’s such a hardcore Zionist, saying that “By you supporting the Palestinians in the ceasefire, you’re endangering the lives of my children.” I said to the young woman, don’t take it no kind of way, there ain’t nothing to talk about now. If there’s not a consensus around right and wrong, and the murder of children, and the dropping of 2,000 pound bombs on kids and mothers, there’s no basis for a relationship. You know, maybe somewhere down the line y’all can get back together. But for the time being you stand for your morality. And if you can’t find love there, there are many people who will love you based upon your standing on principle. And that’s genuine love.
The Year of Baldwin. The Year of Baldwin occurs, as it should.
In a crisis like this, the nation and the people need James Baldwin. Even if they’ve never heard his name.
Christians need James Baldwin. Jews, American Jewry, y’all really need James Baldwin bad. The hole y’all in, to come out of that, you need James Baldwin. Muslims, you need James Baldwin.
At a moment of reckoning, of moral and political reckoning, a voice of prophecy and truth like James Baldwin’s is necessary. You know, the Year of Baldwin will exceed the Year of Du Bois here in Philadelphia and beyond. The Year of Du Bois altered the ideological relationships among the people. You can’t talk about science and truth in a lot of circles without mentioning the name W.E.B. Du Bois.
Many people who for all kinds of stupid reasons including “Afrocentricity” and that fraud, had scandalized and smeared Du Bois, and had upheld Marcus Garvey, who was a very small man and quite insignificant; and was reborn as a reaction against the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and 70s, it was a dead issue until then. And in a lot of ways he was shown to be an abject opportunist and a hustler, you know trying to get paid. Well, as an opposition to King and the Civil Rights Movement, the cultural nationalists and Neo-Pan Africanists, as Winston defined them, raised Garvey up—and they still trying to raise him up, you know.
We, I think, contributed to altering these ideological relationships. Which in effect said that the Black struggle in its fullest potentiality is world transformative. That we as Black folk do not operate in a narrow “ghetto of Blackness” and African garb and African drumming. That we are a modern people that have transformed and contributed to the transformation of humanity. That we link our struggle to the Indian Independence Movement, to the Chinese Revolution.
It was we who, when hardly anybody outside of India knew who Gandhi was—we sent emissaries to India to meet with Gandhi in the 1930s. It was we, who in spite of all of the threats and terrorism of the U.S. government found a way to get to China and shake the hand of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai and Zhu De, and all them cats, man. And Madame Sun Yat Sen. We down with all that. It was we who grasped the hand of solidarity with Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba.
So suddenly we’re gonna get off the stage of history in order to cleanse and purify our consciousness? To so-called “recenter ourselves in ourselves”—a people in itself rather than a people for itself; and hence for humanity?
No. We in some small way contributed to the defeat of that narrow nationalism, a suicidal nationalism. And in so doing, elevated King. And you know, like we got our hoodies: “With W.E.B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King, we march to achieve our nation.”
Just being Black, there’s not a Black person of just common sense who would not agree with that. And increasingly America will understand that.
For people—you know, to achieve our country, that’s Baldwin. So in that phrasing, it’s Du Bois, King, and Baldwin.
I just want to end on this. I think we’re beginning to see enthusiasm around the Year of Baldwin that we didn’t see around the Year of Du Bois. The central branch of the Free Library, huge institution. I spoke with the founder and director of the Black Writers Museum yesterday. Such enthusiasm, and you know we hadn’t spoken for a long time. I was even a little hesitant and shy, “How will he receive me,” you know I’m one of them people, I don’t like to have the door slammed in my face. It really takes a toll on me emotionally. So I have to take my time and get myself ready for whatever the circumstances or outcomes are.
Such enthusiasm, “Yes, Tony. We want to be a part of that.” We went to meet with the director and her assistant at the Blockson Collection, one of the most important collections of Black documents and art. It is on the level of what is considered maybe the premier place, and that’s the Schomburg collection in New York. It is that important, its collection is that valuable.
I haven’t gone to the Barnes yet because I’m still feeling that a little bit because, you know it was under Lincoln’s control and they took it—Lincoln is Lincoln University where I graduated from. But, you know, I’m certain that with the proper approach, the Barnes Collection will find a way to partner with us in this Year of Baldwin.
I would say right now our weakness—and I think it is not our weakness, it’s a weakness of the situation—the churches. I think we made a decision that we would avoid the politicians because for example if we invite Cornel West to speak, which I hope we do, we don’t want any blowback from them talking about, “We didn’t know y’all were gonna be political”—[but] what was Baldwin anyway [if not political]?
So, this year’s going to be a year of struggle. I think the Free School has the best outlook, the most complete and thorough analysis. In our writings, Avant-Garde the journal. Viswabandhu. The intercivilizational dialogue between India and China. The fact that the Year of Baldwin will be in Chicago, in New Mexico, and I don’t know where else, I hope other places.
The Year of Baldwin fits this time and the needs of the people more than the Year of Du Bois fit its time, that was 2018.
Avant-Garde: A Journal of Peace, Democracy, and Science 
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