by EDDIE CONWAY
Freedom fighters today are carrying on Malcolm X’s legacy by continuing the struggle to liberate political prisoners and organizing to protect Black communities against state violence.
Malcolm X was assassinated over 50 years ago, but organizations like the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) are carrying on the fight for Black liberation today, winning important victories and developing crucial organizing strategies that social justice movements everywhere can learn from. In this episode of Rattling the Bars, TRNN Executive Producer Eddie Conway and cohost-in-training Charles Hopkins, better known as Mansa Musa, speak with Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele about the crucial lessons MXGM organizers have learned over the years through their efforts to liberate political prisoners, organize and empower Black communities, and combat the apparatuses of state violence. Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele is a community organizer, educator, and member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. He is also the former National Strategies and Partnerships Director at Movement for Black Lives and cofounder of the world-renowned Black August Hip Hop Project.
Pre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
Transcript
Eddie Conway:Welcome to this episode of Rattling the Bars. Today, we are honored to be joined by Lumumba Bandele, who is one of the leading members of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, to share with us some insights into that movement. Lumumba, thanks for joining me.
Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele: It’s a pleasure and honor to be here with you and always an honor to be in discussion with you. Thank you.
Eddie Conway: Okay. I want to just start off so that the audience will know, give us a little brief overview of what the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is.
Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele: So the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement – We say MXGM for short – Is a national grassroots mass-based organization that was created in the early 1990s by the New African People’s Organization. And we are organized around six basic principles to help really try to defend the human rights of African people in the United States and globally. And we have chapters in New York City and Atlanta, in Mississippi, in Philadelphia, in DC, parts of Illinois, on the West coast, a few there. So we are growing and our chapters are ebbing and flowing in their health and activity, but we’ve been around for some time and we’ve had some significant wins, some significant lessons, and we are very fortunate to really have been able to come under some very seasoned organizers coming out of NAPO and some other formations that have been really influential in our path in this work.
Charles Hopkins: And let me ask you, I was doing some research and I see where y’all got the six principles that y’all operate under. Can you briefly, if possible, elaborate on what they are?
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