Introduction to Mobilization vs. Organization
Kwame Ture's evergreen speech on what it means to mobilize vs. organize.
This speech by Kwame Ture, given sometime in the 1990s, was life-changing for me. That's not even an exaggeration. It changed the whole way I thought about political action and how to do it effectively. I was surprised to see that there weren't any transcripts of the speech easily available online. So I found the longest clip of it I could (~21 minutes) and transcribed it myself. I'll include links to the audio as well as a shorter video excerpt. I highly, highly, highly recommend going through the entire piece.
I'll also include my thoughts at the bottom, though of course they won't be nearly as eloquent or incisive as the speech itself.
Key Takeaways
- Mobilizing is easy. You can get tons of people to show up for marches. Organizing is hard - it's the long, slow, steady work of movement-building. Many orgs are great at mobilizing people but terrible at organizing them.
- You need to be able to organize people effectively to create any lasting political change. Organizing is easier when people have a common identity to rally around.
- Most people are unconscious - meaning that they don't have a clear, systematic, scientific strategy to countering US hegemony. But they can tell something is deeply wrong. The job of the conscious is not to tell the unconscious what to do and how to think, but to show them the context behind their own experience.
- Capitalist America does everything it possibly can to fragment the working class. Divide-and-conquer is an age old strategy.
- It also tries to muddy the definition of truth - precisely to make it harder to organize around the truth. Don't fall for it.
- The Black Panthers organized around the Afrikan identity as a deliberate choice. It gave people the chance to deidentify as American, which finally gave them the opportunity to evaluate the transgressions of the US more fully.
Table of Contents
Proton Drive Link to Audio
Patreon Link to Audio and Commentary
(not my Patreon)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/kwame-ture-on-vs-68602554
Youtube Video Excerpt (~7 minutes)
Full Transcript
The world is divided into many, many different categories. But one of the categories which interests those of us who are concerned with advancing humanity the most is that between the conscious and the unconscious. [audience: "Right."] This, uh, division between the conscious and the unconscious must be properly understood. The people instinctively love freedom. And they will instinctively fight for freedom. But you cannot win freedom on instinct. You can only win freedom on reason. Therefore, the unconscious are those who react on instinct. The conscious are those who react on reason. The job of the conscious is to make the unconscious conscious. Let us make a simple example.
I think it was in 1992 after one more brutal beatings too many, the African population in Los Angeles, California, revolted. Rose up in righteous rebellion. This was, instinctively, revolutionary. Instinctively in the sense that it wasn't planned. Instinctive in the sense that it was a reaction to brutality. This instinctive revolutionary act was very costly to American capitalism. It even had to bring in the American army. Very costly. But since it was on instinct, it had no reason, nothing to direct it, it would spin itself out. Those who participated were largely unconscious. We must come to understand that the overwhelming majority of our people are unconscious. [audience: "Yeah, that's right."] But just because they're unconscious, you shouldn't think they don't want freedom, right? As a matter of fact sometimes the unconscious is quicker willing to give their lives in struggle than the conscious. These are simple facts.
Would you imagine what it would be like when we are conscious, rebellious? When we consciously organize to rebel in Los Angeles, with reason? I mean, making supply lines, making sure armaments are there, having hospital aides, having fire brigades, just like they do even in Ireland. Nothing big, just a little planning. Just a little planning. This is what we want to speak to you about this evening: making the unconscious conscious.
[applause]
Now we must say from the very beginning, the only - underline the word only - the only route to consciousness is through struggle. Now, for example, we've shown you the unconscious struggle: those who rose up in righteous rebellion against the state police in Los Angeles. They were - they were unconsciously involved in struggle. They were involved in struggle. Unconscious, but involved in struggle. The conscious must understand precisely what their task is, and we've said this two years ago - here we repeat it. Ours is not to teach the people to be conscious, but to make them conscious of their unconscious behavior. Our task is not to teach the conscious to be -- to teach the unconscious to be conscious, but to make them conscious of their unconscious behavior. Because unconsciously, instinctively, they seek freedom. [audience: "Right."] What we must do is make them conscious - look, you want freedom anyway, let's be serious. Let's sit down, let's plan it, let's wage protracted war, and let's tear down the system, and walk on to liberation. It's as simple as that.
[applause]
This aspect of the unconscious becoming conscious is linked to mobilization and organization, something we mentioned last year. We must make clear distinctions between mobilizers and organizers. To be an organizer you must be a mobilizer, but being a mobilizer doesn't make you an organizer. Much confusion is to be found here. Malcolm X was a great mobilizer. He was a great organizer. Martin Luther King was a great mobilizer. He was not a great organizer.
These facts can be easily seen from King and Malcolm. When Malcolm went to a place, he left a mosque. When King went to demonstrations, he broke down desegregation, and he moved on. As a matter of fact, King was not concerned with organization to the point that, even though he was the most popular Baptist preacher in America, without the shadow of a doubt, and probably beyond the shadow of a doubt the most loved, he could not become president of the Baptist - National Baptist Associ- Convention. (Yeah, so many of them.) The National Baptist Convention. [laughter] As a matter of fact, if my memory serves me correctly now and I remember, it was Muhammad Speaks that, uh, carried the article on the front page in 1964, when King tried to become president of the National Baptist convention, there was so much confusion there, that a minister was actually put pushed off the stage and died in the struggle. Yeah. And of course, King lost. The man who won was a reactionary man by the name of Jackson. He never did nothing for the people. Never cared about the people, just was a pork chop minister who used their money to put gas in his big Cadillac. But he was organized. But he was organized.
We say that we must come to know the difference between mobilization and organization because the enemy will use mobilization to demobilize us. Mobilization is very easy. Very, very easy. Because since we're people who are instinctively ready to respond against acts of Injustice, anytime there's one little act of injustice, we can blow it up and we'll find people who come and make some mass demonstration around it. Miss Sally lost her job, let's rally - she will get her job back. People will come and rally. So-and-so got kicked out of school because the teacher's injust - unjust - the people will come and rally. They will come to rally at issues. And this is what mobilization does: it mobilizes people around issues. Those of us who are revolutionary not concerned with issues. We're concerned with the system. The difference must be properly understood. The difference must be properly understood. Mobilization usually leads for reform action, not to revolutionary action. If we would look scientifically at the October 16th Million and More March, we would see clearly that this was a mobilized event, not an organized event.
We must know clearly the difference between mobilization and organization. One of the characteristics of mobilization is that it is temporary. Organization is permanent and eternal. Clear differences must be made, because the unconscious can usually be captured easily around one-issue items - around mobilization items. But it's hard to catch them around organization. But these unconscious must be brought to organization. We must transform mobilization to organization. We say the enemy will come and use mobilization to demobilize us. Many brothers and sisters who've been to the Million and More March will say to you, "I was there." Well what are you doing today, my sister? "I was there. There weren't too many sisters out there, but you know with a million brothers together, you know where I had to be. I was there." And then, of course, you find brothers: "Yeah, I was there, I was there, I'll help you-" What are you doing today, brother? If we're not careful, we allow mobilization to become events. The struggle is never an event, it's a process. A continual, eternal process.
[applause]
We say it is our job to use mobilization to drive us to organization. You know our theme is organization. We want power. We don't want money. We don't want fame. We don't want fortune. We don't want popularity. We want power. Power. [applause] And power comes only from the organized masses. Power comes only from the organized masses. Therefore, since this is what we're concerned with - power - and as we're Pan-Africanists, we have every right to be concerned with it. Africa after all is the richest continent on the face of the Earth. Properly organized, she'll be the most powerful continent on the face of the Earth. Therefore, our drive towards power is clear. We want power and we can only have power through the organized masses. Of course, capitalism, a system which in deforming our thinking, always seeks to make it appear as if the organized masses are some unattainable goal. Even the other day, I was speaking to a sister who, ah, sister's been involved in, ah, activities over a period of years. She said, "Kwame Ture, uh, so you - when you say a mass party, what do you mean?" I said, "I mean a mass party." She says, "But the APRP goes everywhere, in England, they go in the Caribbean, in, uh, the United States, in Africa, and they're always saying about a mass party. What do you mean?" I said, "Every African in the world, inside our party." She said, "You're gonna get that?" I said, "That's what I'm working for. If I don't get it, my granddaughter'll get it. But I'm working for it."
Her disbelief comes from the fact that capitalism tells us that, well, you could be scientific about everything except human nature. That people are so different, that they have such different tastes, they've got such different-- lalala, that you can't bring them together under the same roof. This is a lie. We will never tire of saying it: capitalism doesn't lie some of the time. It lies all of the time. When it tells the truth, it's the result of a double lie. [laughter] It's a logical fact. It's a logical fact.
So capitalism has this belief that you can't organize all the people around the same thing. That's not true. You can organize all the people around one thing. Truth.
[applause]
Now what capitalism will try to make it appear, is that the truth is not one truth, but anybody can have the truth. This is stupidity. Nobody's born with the truth inside of them. If they were, they wouldn't need to live. We come to know the truth from outside of us. Some people think that they know the truth because they were born to know the truth. That's a lie. You know the truth from constant struggle against lies. That's how you know the truth: constant struggle against lies.
For example, they tried to make it appear as if we Africans will not arrive at uniting ourselves [even around our?] identity. Well you may call some of them Africans, but some call themselves Black, some still call themselves colored, some-- that's fact, they do that. But this is because they've been miseducated by a system which seeks to keep us divided. And this is the truth. [applause] And this is the truth.
Obviously, we cannot be, all of us, so many different things. We must be one thing. Of course, for our party, there's no question for the United Afrikan Movement, we're Afrikans. End of discussion. End of discussion. This struggle is not an easy struggle. The struggle to go from Negro to Black was a difficult struggle. Capitalism did everything to roll it back. Even had us confused - I'm not Black. Look at me, I'm brown-colored. Yes. I'm not Black, I got Indian blood in me. What nonsense they didn't have us say just to run away from the truth. We told them then, it is more difficult to go from Negro to Black than it is to go from Black to Afrikan. Many people criticized us for our efforts. Oh, in 1970s, we had our last press conference, we said: we're going to put Afrikans on the lips of every Afrikan in America, and we're not going to use the capitalist media press. And we have done it. And we have not used the capitalist media press.
[applause]
As a matter of fact, the capitalist media press, in trying to stop us from going to Afrikans in America, tried to throw out "African-Americans." They did it. We saw the whole scene. It's our job - we followed it carefully. Of course, they want to say African-Americans, of course. That keeps us exactly where we are. If you're African-American, you're obviously not the same like an African-Kenyan. And certainly not the same like an African-Brazilian. And certainly not the same like an African-Trinidadian. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But once you're just Afrikan, ain't no question. Ain't no question. [applause] You Afrikan? "Yeah." Where're you born? "Trinidad." You Afrikan? "Yeah." Where were you born? "Uganda." You Afrikan? "Yeah." Where were you born? "Egypt." You Afrikan? "Yeah." All Afrikans want to have proper identity - one of your biggest problems to solve.
Because a people must know their national interest. A people must have a clear understanding of their national interest. The job of American imperialism is the let us think that our national interest is within the confines of American imperialism. That's why Black-American, African-American, anything - but make sure they hold on to America.
When the conscious comes to understand that they're Afrikans, born in America, Afrikans living in America, their whole outlook changes completely. America no longer becomes their world. Of course, this is a difficult task, because America convinced everyone that she is the world. I'm sometimes amazed when I come in this country and hear them say world news, here they come. World news: today President Clinton said. World news: today Newt Gingrich said. World news: Dole's running for President, get outta here. It's like, you know - it's like their World Football Association. Don't nobody play but them. [laughter] Ah, yeah.
So, uh, the first conscious act in organizing our people in to let them know who they are. If you think you're an American, you will fight to protect the interests of capitalist America. If you know you ain't no American, you will fight to destroy every aspect of American capitalism.
[applause]
Our people have been unconsciously moving towards Afrika. You know, I am, uh, very fortunate. I spend a lot of time with our people. You know, I stay with the poor. I stay with the poor. Because the poor, they are pure. I mean, the poor will fight and give their lives for a seditious cause they are incapable of occupying. They shock me sometimes with their naïveté and honesty. No wonder they can so easily be exploited. I remember once sitting in Ghana, at the house of a Akhbar Mohammad, who's the, uh, international representative of the Nation of Islam. And there was not people in the house so I walked outside the gate and I sat down in this little canal there, on the concrete there, I sat down by the canal. The guard came and sat down next to me. We began talking. So we talked, naturally, about Ghana. We talked about Ghana, we talked about Nkrumah. So after a while, he said, "Were you born in Ghana? Are you Ghanian?" I said, no, I wasn't born in Ghana. I just live in Guinea. He said, "But you know a lot of about Ghana!" Well, yeah, I said, a lot of study of the Ghana Revolution. I didn't tell him that I was the political secretary of Kwame Nkrumah when Nkrumah was co-president in Guinea. I didn't even tell him who I was, you know, Kwame Ture meant nothing to him, just another name. After talking with the man for about half an hour, you know what the man said to me? Does he even know me now? He said, "You know what?" He said, "Listen. I only went to third standard." That's, like, about third grade. He said, "I have no education, but people like me, we could fight, and put people like you in power, and you'll help us." Yeah.
I've seen it everywhere. In the South, I used to see people die for a position they couldn't occupy. As a matter of fact, people who couldn't get to the university died so students who had the ability could get to university. People who couldn't vote died for people to become mayors.
[applause]
It is these pure poor that we must be concerned with. These are the ones we must organize. These are the real makers of history. Forget the ones who're always talking and doing nothing. Get the poor, the pure, watch their movements. Their instincts are always correct. Our people have been unconsciously moving more and more towards Afrika. Of that, there isn't the slightest question. I saw it years ago. In the mid-1970s, I was going through Mississippi. I'd spent the 60s there, and visited a sister whom I know was very active in the movement. She'd now been married and had a child. So her husband and her were very excited, she wanted to show me the child, as any, uh, parent would be. And of course, me too, I was excited because I knew it was a little girl, I wanted to see my granddaughter, if you will. So when she came, I held her, I said what's her name? She said, "Aduola." I said, "Aduola." She said, "Yes." I said, "What does it mean?" She said, "I don't know, I made it up. Does it sound Afrikan?" This was in the mid-1970s in Mississippi.
I remember in 1970s, late 1970s, I saw a young man, he was wearing a red, black, and green jacket. I stopped the man, young boy. I said, "Young blood, what's this, uh, red, black, and green? He said, "Those are our colors!" I said, "What you mean, 'our colors?'" He said, "Man, these are our colors! You know our colors?" I said, "No, what you mean, our colors?" He said, "Man, red for blood, green for the land, black for us. You don't know this?" I said, "No, I don't know this." He said, "Man, where you coming from?" and started to walk away. I said, "Brother, have you ever heard of a man called Marcus Garvey?" He said, "Marcus Garvey, who's he?" I said, "He's the one who gave you the colors."
[applause]
The unconscious are moving towards Afrika. It is the job of the conscious to make them conscious of their unconscious actions. Since our people are moving towards Afrika, it behooves us clearly to come seriously and to organize properly this movement and putting Afrika as its primary. This is the job of the conscious. But the conscious gets their sustenance from the unconscious. I am certain that most of the brothers and sisters attending the Million and More march were unconscious. Unconscious in the sense as they do not consciously try to develop themselves in a systematic basis, on a day-to-day basis, to make a contribution to people. But the Million, is that unconscious mass created, now makes it possible for the conscious mass to make this unconscious mass quickly conscious. Quickly conscious. This is our task.
My Reflections
I believe this speech is as relevant today as the day Kwame Ture gave it - maybe even more so, as we've seen misinformation/disinformation evolve throughout the internet age. I believe the same thing about, well, most of the things the Black Panthers said. There's a reason J. Edgar Hoover was so hell-bent on taking them down. They presented an incredibly organized and comprehensive threat to US capitalism.
The Black Panther Party had the most thoughtful and systematic analysis of racial capitalism. Pretty much all of it can still be applied today, since between the 1980s and 2025 we've failed to make any real progress towards racial and class liberation. All that's changed is the technology: the scope of the surveillance, incarceration, and abuse. We have a lot to learn from their activism. And I don't just mean the ones who were assassinated. Many Black Panthers are still alive today, in jail, yet they still work to share their wisdom with the protestors of today.
We also have a lot to learn from their mistakes. Their lack of security culture, their harassment and abuse against women. To build a lasting, effective movement, these are things we have to reckon with. We need ways to deal with security threats without boxing out the public, and we need ways to deal with male chauvinism without either shielding the perpetrator or tearing the org apart.
But that's the point. We have to learn our history to know what worked and what didn't. We have to systematically analyze this moment to understand what will (or might) work and what won't. We have to do the difficult and decidedly unsexy work of actually organizing.
That's not where we're at, though. These last four decades have seen protest movement after protest movement, but where have they gotten us? It didn't stop the Vietnam War. It didn't stop the Iraq War or the occupation of Afghanistan. It still isn't stopping the urban war police are waging on poor Black people. It still isn't stopping the genocide in Gaza, almost 3 years in.
Hundreds of thousands of people show up for marches. And then they go home. And then... nothing. The anger is there, but the action isn't. What will it take to change that?
I know that organizers are trying to do their best (for the most part). I know that a ton of them are burnt out. I know that workers of all kinds are being pushed to the brink, and people don't have the energy left over to read and think and set up mutual aid networks. But at some point we have to reckon with the fact that playing whack-a-mole against whatever the Trump administration throws at us is simply terrible political strategy. Same with letting the Democrats co-opt people's outrage and energy to redirect it towards electoralism for the umpteenth time. We have to acknowledge that this isn't working. We have to do better. We have no choice.
Resources
About Kwame Ture
A-APRP
Black Panther Party
Black Panthers
C-Note
The FBI's War on the BPP
- Final report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate together with additional, supplemental, and separate views v.3 [Section on the Black Panther Party begins on page 193]
Samantha Pleasants
Virgie Hoban