The following is a translation of an article from Reedus, a Russian news site.
Edited by Comrade Cheem
Original title: “Paradise Is Not For Everyone: BLM Activists Are Going To Build A Utopia City in Florida”
Dmitry Stroganov, Special Correspondent of “Reedus”
The Reedus correspondent managed to talk to the head of one of the organizations participating in the BLM movement. The leader, or, as he calls himself, the commander-in-chief of the Black Hammer, Gazi Kodzo likes to capitalize individual words. The editors decided to keep this author’s feature.
Reedus: Tell us about yourself and your organization.
GK: My name is Gazi Kodzo. I am the Commander-in-Chief of Black Hammer. Black Hammer is an anti-colonial mass organization. In our organization there are only Colonized people, non-whites: they are all either Poor or Proletarian.
“We allow whites to Pay Reparations to our organization and volunteer, but they cannot attend our meetings, hold any positions, have a say or decision.”
The Black Hammer’s credo is that the organization is focused on building Black Power. Our mission is, under the leadership of the Colonized Proletariat, to use our collective power to strengthen all sectors of the Colonized Nation.
Currently, our physical and intellectual labor is being used to build a white capitalist state, but this trend can be changed for a noble purpose. We will make sure that our work serves us. Our symbol – “Black Hammer” – symbolizes breaking the chains of Imperialism and building a sustainable and suitable future for the Colonized peoples of the whole world
Reedus: “Why did you decide to create this organization?
GK: We are fighting injustice. Colonized people are fired much more often than everyone else. We are evicted from our homes more often than others. Africans and Colonized People are killed by the police more often than anyone else.
Our lands, labor, and lives have been used to build the Western World and Capitalism. And now, during the coronavirus pandemic, America is using the cheap labor of Africans and Colonized peoples from the poor and working-class to support the economy. They make us work in terrible conditions that kill us every day.
Colonized people are much more likely to not only contract the coronavirus but also die from it. This is because American hospitals are death traps for Black and Brown people. They do not give us the necessary procedures and treat us incorrectly.
The Poor and Workers of the Colonized People are forced to choose between death from COVID-19 or poverty. I know one brother, he works at the post office. His boss refused to give the workers masks and sanitizers, there was no sanitary distancing. At home, this brother has an elderly mother and baby.
When he turned to his boss with a request to improve working conditions, he was refused and offered to quit, since he was so worried about his health. Nothing changed when several of his colleagues contracted the coronavirus. He quit his job and is now sitting at home waiting for the landlord who will evict him, along with his family, for non-payment. There are much too many stories like this to count.
If a Black person does manage to get into a hospital, he will be lucky if he receives the necessary help. I know one family where the mother was considered an “irreplaceable worker” in one office. She contracted COVID-19 and went to the hospital. She was denied service twice. She returned home, infected her husband, and they both died, leaving their son an orphan.
Hospitals in Chicago have wards where only Blacks are placed. They are not treated in any way; they just wait until all patients die. At Emery Hospital in Atlanta, there was a huge scandal recently that was silenced by the corporate media. Colonized people had to write open letters about how racist the institution was and how poorly non-whites were treated there. This is happening all over the country. White colonialists are killing us.
Reedus: How does your organization deal with all this?
GK: Oh, Black Hammer has figured out how to solve these problems. We will build a microstate, which we will call Hammer City. There will be no Rent, COVID cases, Cops nor Whites. There we will build a new life while Western White Power Imperialism dies. Our goal is to give Power to our poor working class to control their own lives and the fruits of their labor. Our first Hammer City will be built in Florida. In the future, we will build such cities wherever there are chapters of Black Hammer, which exist on almost every continent.
We announced the construction of Hammer City about a month ago and started raising money for the project. Despite the economic downturn, the poor working-class Colonized peoples donated to us! We have already raised more than 30 thousand dollars! It took just over 400 donations! Poor people and Proletarians in America have willingly united under the banner of our project! They see it as the only option for the future because they know what the old capitalism of the white oppressors was created for. They know that it doesn’t matter who you vote for in the presidential elections, they will continue to kill us.
In the midwestern United States, we have a cell – Hammer City, Turtle Island. It includes representatives of the Indigenous Peoples, who we refer to them as the Land Liberators. On their own land, they can finally take up self-determination. We have many different teams: permaculture, electrical, legal, architectural, water, and a range of urban planning experts. They do secret work all year round. Hammer City will be the most significant achievement in anti-colonial history.
Reedus: Will you buy land for the construction of Hammer City? How much should you collect?
GK: Yes, in order to obtain land we will have to follow the Colonial Laws of the white ruling class. However, the law will not provide us with protection from attacks; they will definitely try to “throw” us somehow. Americans have violated thousands of treaties with Indigenous peoples.
We have our own real estate agents and lawyers who are now meeting with the landowners. Luckily for us, the pandemic is a great time to buy real estate. Today, the initiative in the market is in the hands of buyers, my team will find a good deal.
I cannot say how much land we need, as this will deprive our fundraisers of certain trump cards. I can, however, tell you about the land we need.
We need a Promised Land of such an area that its end and edge cannot be seen. Fertile, so that we may grow gardens and forests. Earthquake resistant, so that we may build schools there where we will teach children their true history and story. With a good climate for parties outside. With a lot of wild animals. We need such land and we will get it.
In principle, the amount is certainly no secret. We just haven’t decided on it yet. In fact, the more money we collect, the better the plot we can afford. The support provided to us has been good, so our expectations are growing every day. All Colonized people will be able to live in our cities if they follow our rules and constitution.
Reedus: Who can become a member of the Black Hammer?
GK: Not only Africans can become members of the Black Hammer, but also representatives of any Colonized people. The governing body of our organization is represented by Africans, Indigenous peoples, Asians, Arabs, Hindus, and so on.
We believe that we have a common struggle. Black Hammer is for all Colonized people. We are all-natural allies, joined only by an unnatural relationship with the Power of White Colonialism, which pits us against each other through the ancient principle of “divide and conquer”.
Even though I am African, I am fighting for the liberation of All Colonized Peoples. I am the obedient servant of the colonized poor working class from all over the Earth. I am sure that until we are all free, none of us will be free. As long as white power exists somewhere, none of us can become free.
The Second Principle of Unity of the Black Hammer Organization states: we believe that all members of the Colonized Proletariat are equal regardless of gender, sexual orientation, age, physique, place of residence, religion, language, physical and mental disabilities, and multiracial identity.
The system of Colonialism is widely known for its ability to create and put up dividing, improper labels that force the Colonized people to fight each other. It is clear that white people directly benefit from this. “Black Hammer” recognizes the entire proletariat and believes that we are equal. Any action or statement contrary to this rule will be considered an attack on our organization and the very possibility of becoming liberated people.
Reedus: Can proletarians from post-Soviet countries become members of “Black Hammer”?
GK: No. Balts, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and others are not Colonized, people. They are citizens of puppet states ruled by America, which uses them as a tool to fight the proletariat. Likewise, for example, the United States uses South Korea in the fight against the DPRK.
They are simply human tools that Western Imperialism used to use to divide the Soviet Union and today against Russia. The United Snakes of America sees these countries as military bases to encircle Russia and conduct anti-Russian propaganda. These states were not Colonized by the USSR, but, on the contrary, were liberated by the Soviet Union. Now they have become puppets in the hands of the American puppeteer.
Reedus: When people in Russia talk about BLM, many fear that activists may prohibit the use of the word “negro”, which does not have a negative connotation in our language. Does that sound like the truth?
GK: No, Blacks know that in many languages we are called that way, taking for example Spanish. We don’t care about this.
Reedus: In the Western press, Russia and the USSR are often called the Evil Empire. What do the Black Hammer members think of this?
GK: America is the most important Evil Empire in all of human history. No state has shed so much blood, no country has caused such massive destruction.
After the end of World War II, America declared its position – the position of the Leader of Imperialism of the White Oppressors. America voiced this position by dropping two atomic bombs on Japan. Taking advantage of the weakness of post-war Europe, the Americans took control of those territories that were previously ruled by France and England. Then the u.s. started the Cold War with the Soviet Union, because it saw the USSR as a threat to its hegemony.
The only claim the Colonized peoples have against the Soviet Union is that the USSR never made the colonial question central in its struggle against Imperialism and Capitalism. The real socialist movement must be led by a representative of the Colonized peoples who will lead them to fight across the globe to destroy Capitalism’s roots everywhere.
Reedus: In Soviet times, many American fighters against racial discrimination were very famous in our country. The records of Paul Robson, Joan Baez, and Barbara Dane were widely circulated. Demonstrations were held in support of Angela Davis and Igor Sukachev (A Russian Musician) even has a song with that name.
GK: Nice song, sorry the chorus is about Davis. She is well known for selling the idea of liberating Africans. She is now using her platform to get Blacks to vote for Democrats. She does this every four years.
Angela Davis is an obedient servant of the Democratic Party. She uses revolutionary terms, slogans, aesthetics, and so on, but in fact, she is a neo-colonial traitor, whose actions are always associated with American Imperialism, Colonialism, and capitalism.
She rants about Black Women’s Rights but supports Biden and Harris, who have spent their entire careers imprisoning, terrorizing, and killing Black Women. She once called Obama a radical … Obama, who killed more Colonized people with his drones and bombs than Trump. Angela Davis is our enemy. It would be better if your singer sang about Assata Shakur, a real Black Revolutionary.
Traitors are sometimes hard to pin down, which is why Neo-Colonialism is so dangerous. It uses the Colonized people in such a way that it is difficult to criticize the white power afterward, although it continues to do all the same terrible things. So Black Proletarians love Obama even though he made their lives hell and laughed when the cops killed us. Now, we have a good song about Obama for those Blacks who are poorly informed about his activities.
Reedus: Gazi, you constantly use terms like “proletariat”, “colonialism”, etc. How do you define your political affiliation?
GK: I’m not a Marxist, Leninist, or Maoist, I don’t even really know what these words mean. Realizing that capitalism is a product of Colonialism that is maintained at the expense of the Colonized people of the world through genocide, theft, rape, and devastation, I believe that the Colonized Poor and Workers must have complete control over their lives, labor, land, and resources to engage in production for ourselves. This is the only possible way to ensure that no one lives at the expense of another. To this, I have nothing to add.
