By Any Means Necessary: On the Centenary of Malcolm X and The Significance of May 19th
May 19th is a revolutionary holiday and day of commemoration. On May 19th, 2025, we commemorate the 100th birthday of revolutionary organizer and Pan-Africanist, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, known more commonly as Malcolm X. We also celebrate the 135th birthday of Ho Chi Minh, revolutionary and guide of the Vietnamese people in their victorious struggle for liberation from French, Japanese, and, ultimately, American imperialism. Also born on this day 104 years ago was Yuri Kochiyama, revolutionary nisei Japanese organizer and comrade in arms of Malcolm X, the Revolutionary Action Movement and the Republic of New Afrika. It was Comrade Yuri who cradled Malcolm’s head in her lap as he lay dying, and comforted his wife and comrade organizer, Betty Shabazz. May 19th also gave its name to the May 19th Communist Organization, which remains one of the most principled, militant, and thorough anti-imperialist organizations in American history.
On this day, we are reminded even more of the need for revolutionaries to adhere to the maxim: “By Any Means Necessary”. What does this mean in the concrete? An analysis of the global and national situation reveals that fascism is on the march in various forms, and the United States remains the number one enemy of the global majority. It is the United States which continues to prop up the fascist settler colony of Israel, enabling it to murder our class siblings in Palestine. It is the United States which continues to play hell with the colonized working class at home, denying us medical treatment, food, housing, and all the other necessaries of life. It is the United States which continues to ruin and exploit the Global South, from Bolivia to Burkina Faso. We, as revolutionaries in the belly of the beast, have a bounden duty to defeat this empire from the inside, by any means necessary. Defeat of the American imperial machine can not come solely through reforms and wishes for a more “progressive” managerial class of empire. This is a pipe dream which becomes more and more dangerous by the day.
As our national convention approaches, we call on all comrades to seriously study and debate resolutions which have been proposed by various wings and strata of DSA through the lens of what is best for the workers and oppressed peoples of the entire world. American imperialism has stretched its tentacles through the entire world, and we must have a global perspective if we are ever to defeat it. “Organizing” centered around more free stuff for the Global North at the expense of the global proletariat and union tailism, history has shown, is a blind alley, and produces nothing but the ire and wrath of the majority of the world. We must do better. We encourage comrades who hold our point of view as expressed in our points of unity to run for delegate and join us in raising the red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and principled, militant anti-imperialism in Chicago this August. Liberation Caucus is a firm supporter of the Springs of Revolution platform, which is organized politically around: R22 (For A Fighting, Anti-Zionist DSA), R26 (Fight Fascist State Repression and ICE) and R37 (Building A United Front Toward 2028), and also proposes revolutionary changes to the working of our organization through R41 (Toward a Unified Endorsement Process) and R43 (Locals First DSA). These are important steps, and are consistent with our analysis and line.
In sum, we must take the revolutionary spirit of comrades Malcolm X, Ho Chi Minh, and Yuri Kochiyama, and the M19CO, and continue to struggle for real revolution in our lifetime, because time is running out, and games are increasingly dangerous. Study, train, cast away illusions, and prepare for struggle.
Dare To Struggle, Dare To Win!
Crack The Sky, Shake The Earth!
Victory By Any Means Necessary!