The American Empire celebrates it’s so-called independence day each year on July 4th - the annual commemoration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by wealthy European settlers and slaveholders in 1776. The day is widely celebrated throughout the United Snakes of America with grilled foods, backyard cookouts, fireworks displays, television specials, bald consumerism, overwrought anthems, war mongering speeches, and nationalist propaganda. But who really found freedom on July 4th, 1776?
Certainly not the Native people of this land - at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence they were in the thick of a centuries long struggle against a genocidal settler colonial project which continues to displace and murder them to this day. Forced to fight for their humanity and sovereignty on their own land, the violent expansion of the American empire saw mass murders and rapes of Native peoples, forced assimilation and enslavement, the kidnapping and systemic abuse of Native children, and the wanton theft and destruction of Native territories, food supplies, trade routes, agriculture, traditions, and nations.
How about people of African descent? Many Africans throw down on the grill and in the kitchen for July 4th, hosting epic multigenerational get togethers with music, dancing, games, and food. We go hard as hell for it, so July 4th MUST be our Independence Day, right? Nope. In 1776 our people were still being kidnapped from Africa to be bought, sold, and forced into the barbaric systems of American chattel slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. We were treated as commodities (Africans were the first form of capital in the European colonies that became the USA) and forced to live brief brutal lives - worked to death to build the blood-soaked budding capitalist economy of the American empire. Our people were raped, brutalized, and dehumanized, our families were torn apart, and our children were stolen and sold before our eyes. With blood, sweat, pain, and tears, our ancestors built the foundation of the American economic system - but we wouldn’t see “freedom” in this nation for another 87 years.
(A discussion of what this “freedom” has actually meant for us in practice and of how capitalism has continued to adapt to guarantee our dehumanization and ready access to our unpaid, exploited labor is a subject for another post. This is a good read in the meantime.)
So who was the USA’s Declaration of Independence actually for? Capitalism in it's infancy privileged a greedy and predatory ruling class - European slaveholders, plantation owners, bankers, landlords, and other wealthy settlers - just as it does today. Inequality was built into the fabric of this empire.
A nation can never know freedom so long as it oppresses other nations. The independence of the United States of America is a lie. We must understand that the existence of the American empire has, from it’s birth, depended on the subjugation, exploitation, and destruction of other peoples and nations to sustain itself. The USA would not exist and could not exist without murder and theft on a massive scale. AAPRP Oregon rejects the lie of American Independence Day and calls upon all Africans and all oppressed peoples suffering under the brutality of American colonialism and imperialism to reject this lie as well.
There can be no freedom for Africans or any colonized peoples within the American Empire. If we seek liberation, we must reject American nationalism, reject the American empire, and reject the lie of the so-called American Independence Day, the Fourth of July. This year on July 4th, reject imperialism and colonialism and support the resistance of colonized peoples by joining an organization dedicated to destroying capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism through revolutionary organization.
If you’re an African, join the AAPRP! Africans are oppressed wherever we exist. We must understand that the conditions of our people all over the world are directly tied to the continuing imperialist exploitation of the African continent. Our land and resources are being stolen to power a global capitalist machine which is fouling air, water, and land across the earth and threatening the future of humanity and life on this planet. On the continent, our people are denied access to the natural bounty of the land, the most resource rich landmass on earth. Africans are left to starve, to live in poverty, to be forced into slave labor, and to suffer and die through coups, terrorism, and proxy wars instigated by foreign nations angling for more control of our land and resources. Africans should have control of our own destinies, control of our resources, a connection to our land, and free access to healthcare, food, education, and safe and stable housing wherever in the world we live. Our people will never know that kind of freedom until the sun rises on a unified Africa that has been liberated from imperialism and colonialism and united under scientific socialism.
Revolutionary pan-Africanism is the only solution.
In the Portland area and interested in learning more?
Join AAPRP Oregon at Peninsula Park on Monday July 4th from 12 PM to 5PM as we celebrate the Fourth of the Lie: an afternoon of revolutionary speakers, music, delicious shared food (with vegan options), flag burning, and international solidarity against oppression. Join us as we expose the lie of American Independence Day and continue to build an international movement against imperialism, capitalism, and colonialism - all while having a great time in the park on a beautiful day. This event is free and open to all: families, children, and pets welcome!
Join us! Bring your family and human and animal friends! Bring camping chairs if you have them (we'll bring a few!) or a blanket to spread out on the grass. If you have the capacity, feel free to bring a dish to share as well.
And if you're a member of an organization who'd like to share a message of solidarity on Monday afternoon, please message us on the All African People's Revolutionary Party - Oregon Facebook page.
See you at Peninsula Park!
