Day 19 of the 28 Days of Black Liberation 2024 series
While the United States commemorates Harriet Tubman today, in her lifetime her struggle for the liberation of enslaved Africans had her in the crosshairs of the state. Tubman was a revolutionary military strategist and guerrilla fighter who was a key link in the Underground Railroad and the Civil War. Before the Civil War, she worked with abolitionists including John Brown to plan raids freeing slaves by any means necessary. In the course of this work, she developed intelligence skills that the Union Army would have to enlist to overcome the stalemate of the first part of the Civil War despite her former fugitive status. As Du Bois explains in Black Reconstruction, it was only when the enslaved decided to rebel against the plantation system and the slave-owning class that slavery was abolished and the Confederacy defeated. After the war Tubman continued organizing among her newly emancipated people during the Reconstruction era and beyond.
Harriet Tubman’s legacy is one that must be defended from cooptation by counterinsurgent and imperialist forces such as the US state. She engaged in organized warfare for the liberation of her people and propelled social revolution. Far from being a “respectable” figure in the eyes of the ruling class, she today would be fighting for Black liberation and against the increasing militarization of police departments in the US and wars of imperialist aggression around the world, most notably at this time against the Palestinian people. Revolutionaries and progressive people must learn from and uphold Harriet Tubman’s example as one of a selfless freedom fighter and revolutionary.
This article was written by our comrades from Student Committee for Defense and Solidarity
In the United States, the Black liberation struggle is the vanguard of the revolutionary class struggle. Black resistance to white supremacy has been the catalyst for nearly all critical social ruptures throughout american history. White workers choosing an alliance with the bosses instead of siding with the rest of the working class is the primary roadblock to revolutionary anti-capitalism in the US.
The GDC celebrates the Black liberation struggle and draws inspiration and lessons from its proud history in our struggle for the new world we are fighting for. In February we celebrate Black revolutionary culture, political prisoners, international figures and struggles, and moments in direct action that guide us in our continued, collective fight for liberation!