Revolutionary Struggle

Revolutionary Struggle is a small account of Assata Shakur’s experiences while she was apart of the Black Liberation Army. The overall goal of the Black Liberation Army was to fight against and eventually diminish capitalism and imperialism in the country. When Shakur initially joint the Black Liberation Army, she was surprised to find that there was no centralized organization or chain of command within the organization. There was no main leadership. Instead of a common leader, there were various organizations spread throughout the country. The lack of organization proved to be problem as organization for a common goal came to be a difficult task. Many people that were apart of the revolution and apart of the organization were hiding because of extreme police oppression. Everyone wanted the same goal, but since there were so many branches of the revolutionary army, in so many places, with so many different people and no common leadership, no one knew how to go about achieving their goal. Different groups had different ideologies, different levels of political consciousness, and different ideas about how armed struggle in America should be waged. The lack of leadership and direction made the Black Liberation Army weak. What the Black Liberation Army did have was dedicated and courageous soldiers that were ready to lay their lives on the line and fight their oppressors to the death. This was not enough. Strategy had to be developed. Armed struggle was never successful by itself; it has to be supported by the masses of the people. This was also a difficult task because the Black Liberation Army had no control to any media outlets; therefore they were often portrayed as terrorist or monsters. The scale was always tilted in the oppositions favor. What Shakur soon learned was that Revolutionary war was a war that has to be won overtime. Overnight victory doesn’t exist in Revolution. Revolution is a war that is won little by little. Much thought a planning has to be invested in it in order to successfully achieve a common goal. Even though many of those in the Black Liberation Army has the impulse to want to fight back violently and without planning, they realized that that would be an ill-advised plan of attack and would probably only hurt the cause. Shakur said that “Revolutionary struggle is scientific rather than emotional.” Decisions should not be based on love or anger.