The historical program of the NBIPP

This pamphlet was published by the U.S. Socialist Workers Party in 1981. It deals with the National Black Independent Political Party (NBIPP), a short-lived attempt to create an African-American political party independent of the Democrats and Republicans. Indeed, it's extremely difficult to find information about NBIPP even on the web. The NBIPP grew out of the National Black Political Assembly, established in 1972 by the well-known National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana. A similar (but presumably less well-known) convention in Philadelphia in 1980 decided to launch the NBIPP. Central leaders included Ron Daniels, Ben Chavis and Manning Marable. My guess is that the NBIPP was a trial balloon, and that most of its activists subsequently joined Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition when that movement proved more viable. Both Daniels and Marable definitely supported Jackson. The SWP, by contrast, rejected Jackson's strategy of working inside the Democratic Party. Although the NBIPP was a failure, the SWP still distributes this material as an example of "independent Black political action".

The pamphlet contains articles from SWP's newspaper "The Militant", an article by Marable (who wasn't a SWP member), and the complete bylaws and program of the NBIPP itself. The program of the Black party turns out to be very radical and nationalist. It calls the politics of the American establishment towards Blacks "genocide", calls Africa "our motherland across the Atlantic" and demands an internationally inspected referendum among African-Americans for secession from the United States (a similar demand was put forward by the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense). The Black nationalist flag (red-black-green) is said to be the symbol of the new party. Otherwise, NBIPP's platform strikes me as contradictory. On the one hand, the party says that it will organize cooperative businesses, schools or health care facilities to promote the interests of Blacks. It also calls for the creation of a special fund for investments in "progressive African and Caribbean nations". On the other hand, it demands billions from the U.S. government to various public work projects, single payer health care, and so on. The program seems to be a compromise between Black nationalism and more traditional leftism.

The program takes a strong stand in favour of women's rights, but doesn't explicitly call for abortion. Too controversial? Interestingly, the NBIPP wants to end nuclear power, nationalize the energy industry and promote alternative technologies to make the Black community more self-sufficient! Less surprisingly, the program explicitly supports the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and Namibia. Somewhat optimistically, the NBIPP also wants to become an NGO with observer status in the UN, the OAU, the Non-Aligned Movement and the OAS.

I don't think "The National Black Independent Political Party: An important step forward for Blacks and other American workers" can stand on its own. The SWP itself regards it as a sequel to another bulletin, "Independent Black Political Action 1954-78", which includes material on the Freedom Now Party, the Lowndes County Freedom Organization and the Black Panther Party. Despite the SWP-centred perspective, the bulletin is a relatively interesting read. I suppose "The National Black Independent Political Party" could also be combined with scholarly books on Black political action during the 1970's and 1980's, as a kind of primary source material.