politics: a functional definition

Lately, I have been engaging in a lot of conversations that have revolved around the 2008 Presidential elections. A couple of days ago, I had one of those conversations and it went something like this:

T: so J, who are you voting for this upcoming election?

J: well, ummm. I don’t know. (so I give the ‘politically’ correct answer) Obama. (Duh.)

T: yeah?

J: yeah, but I don’t know. I do not think that the national elections will affect the masses. You know, the people have to organize themselves around issues that are directly affecting them at this instant, such as gentrification, police brutality, lack of educational funding,etc. People need to petition their local elected officials and hold them accountable, otherwise they need to develop a political consequence when their desires are not met-By any means necessary. But first, the people have to believe in themselves-

T: But wait, isn’t that what Obama is doing? He’s trying to tell the people to organize for change?

J: sure, but he has not stated what they need to organize for. It takes more than encouragement in this day and age. People have been brainwashed into apathy, believing that they cannot make a difference in society and that politics is not made for them. People need to be aware of their enemy. It’s going to take more than an election and a few words of encouragement. People are going to need to be enlightened ……

The conversation goes back and forth like this until we agree to disagree, but I always feel like something is missing from my argument. I not satisfied with disagreeing. I want to strengthen my argument so that when I do go out into the masses, my point that we need to organize for the betterment of ourselves, will be understood.

So a couple of days after that conversation, I picked up the Huey P. Newton Reader, a collection of his writings, and began the road to enlightenment. Many of his essays have retained their relevance to today’s issues in this society, but two essays in particular stand out to me, “In Defense of Self-Defense II: July 3. 1967″ and “a functional definition of politics: January 17, 1969″, which both address the state of politics in the black community. In the first essay, he defines the true nature of politics: ‘Politics is merely the desire of individuals and groups to satisfy their basic needs first: food, shelter and clothing, and security for themselves and their loved ones.’ while arguing that the power structure has brainwashed black people into thinking that politics is simply ‘holding a political office or being able to move into a $40,000 home.’ Which is why black people and people of color argue that politics is not for them because they lack representation in political office. But this then begs the question: if people of color did have political representation in office, would their basic political needs be satisfied in this society?

In the second essay he attempts to solve this question. He states that there are essentially three representational forms of political power in the political arena: economic, land(feudal), and military. He then uses that statement to argue that ‘black people are not free because they lack political power’, due to the fact that after reconstruction blacks did not receive 40 acres and 2 mules, which would have provided them with the political power to be able to choose a representative to represent their issues, nor did they have economic power because they did not own the means of production. All that is left in the political arena then is military power. Unfortunately, the power structure has made it so that we cannot organize military power, so that then leaves us with the task of figuring out how to build a political base. I do believe that once we have gained an equal amount of political representation in office our needs will be met, but we will have to be able to choose our representatives and make sure that when our needs our not met, the power structure receives a political consequence by making it economically non-profitable for those in power to go on with their oppressive ways

so sure, I’ll vote for Obama, but I will continue to make these valid points until someone really hears me and takes me seriously by helping me to incorporate theory with practice.