Third Position & Black Nationalism

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As Adolph Reed points out, the idea of racial or ethnic organicism, that leaders emerged from homogeneous social groupings and metaphysically expressed the collective will of the people, was a basic tenet of fascism, especially the form of fascism called national socialism. In the 1988 report of the small American Nazi Party in Chicago, the term national socialism was defined as "the organized will of the race, in its quest for racial survival, and physical, mental, and spiritual self betterment." One modern offshoot of national socialism, called the "Third Position," has adherents in both Europe and the United States, and is known for its attempts to build bridges to the left, especially around the issues of protecting the environment and support for the working class.

It is of interest that the Afrikan Anti-Zionist Front was first announced in Tripoli, Libya and that the Front praised Libyan president Muammar Qaddafi as a "premier fighter for justice." Qaddafi has sponsored several international conferences promoting his special variation of racial nationalism and cultivating ideas congruent with Third Position ideology. Qaddafi announced a $5 million loan/gift to the Nation of Islam during a live TV hookup at the same 1985 Chicago NOI rally where Revisionist Arthur Butz was a panelist. Qaddafi has also funded other racial nationalist groups active in the U.S. and Canada.

There are elements of Third Position themes in the rhetoric of the Afrikan Anti-Zionist Front, Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, and the New Alliance Party led by Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani. In the U.S. the Third Position has been promoted in Tom Metzger's White Aryan Resistance newspaper W.A.R.. Journalist Howard Goldenthal of Toronto has explored this situation, but much more research is needed to understand this complex turn of events.

This discussion is not an attempt to imply that all Black nationalist groups resort to anti-Jewish scapegoating or promote a fascist form of racial nationalism. Nor does it seek to exaggerate the relative role of the Nation of Islam in promoting bigotry. The overwhelming form of prejudice and racism in the U.S, is white supremacy, and American Jews have far more to fear from David Duke or Patrick Buchanan than Louis Farrakhan.

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