Organization and Spontaneity
By Kimathi Mohammed
Published by On Our Own Authority! Publishing, 2013
134 pages, paperback
"It is somewhat disgusting to hear self-styled Black leaders talk about leading the 'unorganized' masses," writes Kimathi Mohammed. "It was the 'unorganized' masses who congregated in the streets, defied curfews, engaged in direct confrontation with the police and military... ad unleashed a burning assault upon the property of their oppressors.If the Black masses were unorganized, it definitely didn't appear that they were... All the major rebellions erupted spontaneously and violently--Harlem in 1964, Watts in 1965, Newark and Cleveland in 1967... No one had to tell them what to do; they mobilized and organized themselves and did what had to be done."
Kimathi Mohammed, a Michigan based activist who was a native of Savannah, Georgia deserves to be recognized as among the most original political theorists of the Black Power movement in the United States. Organization & Spontaneity, originally published in 1974, was a response to key contradictions of the late 1960s and early 1970s Black freedom movement, manifested in the Black Panther Party and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. In contrast to many political thinkers of the Civil Rights and Black Power era, Mohammed’s work emphasized the self-organization of ordinary African Americans and their liberating, self-directed activism. This updated edition includes a new introductory essay by Modibo Kadalie, an afterward by Matthew Quest, and Kimathi Mohammed's previously unpublished essay, "Beyond Measure," which explores the influence of C.L.R. James on the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.
Praise for Organization and Spontaneity
"Kimathi Mohamed's essays represent a creative and brilliant attempt to forge an organizational path for black radical politics, away from the well known limitations of elite vanguardism. His engagements with the work of C.L.R. James, the Black Panther Part and the League of Revolutionary Workers make his contribution a neglected and important part of the history of black radicalism, and of considerable relevance today." -Aaron Kamugisha, Lecturer in Cultural Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus
