By Melannee E. Muhammad

On June 26, 2010, Minister Louis Farrakhan taught the world that the black
man and woman are the true “children of Israel”! He also told us that while
the Jews are not the people that fulfill this prophecy we must acknowledge that
as a people they excel in every form of human endeavor. Consequently, The
Minister instructed us to study them so that we may learn how they have become
so successful.

Our forced labor and their efforts to thwart the utilization of our labor
and/or talents for our benefit and/or advancement can be divided into four time
periods characterized by the method and/or system utilized to extract our labor.
These periods were:

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that “history is the best reward
for all research”. Therefore, let us look at the methods utilized during each
period so we know what was done and conversely identifying what not to do when
we come into our own.

In the first period (1555-1865) we were chattel slaves. Bought and sold like
any other livestock. We worked from sun up to sun down without any benefit from
or control over our labor. During the first part of the second period
(1865-1877), we were able to exercise a modicum of independence and demonstrate
our brilliance and potential greatness despite efforts to keep us in a
subjugated position. However, after the Compromise of 1877 a set of laws (Jim
Crow) were legislated that fraudulently gained access to our labor through
peonage. The “Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Volume 2”
documented 10 Jim Crow laws. Of the ten laws, three dealt directly with our
labor in the following way:

The third period (1886-1950’s) is characterized by the development of the
unions to block the black man’s ability to utilize their skills, talents and
expertise as a craftsman and/or skilled laborers to benefit themselves. This was
done to thwart any economic advancement and to disrupt the natural hierarchy of
the family thereby destroying the family unit. If blacks possessed other talents
they were exploited by agents who were more than willing to facilitate the
expression of their musical genesis while robbing them of the royalties. Just
consider the history of music giants Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Little Richard
and Chuck Berry to name a few.

The last period (1950’s through present day) is characterized by a system
of 21st century slavery where black musicians, athletes and entertainers are
allowed to express their talents via entertaining white people but are still
being robbed of the fruits of their labor by (primarily Jewish) unscrupulous
agents. In this period blacks have made progress in that they are allowed to own
the “masters” of their music and/or benefit from their athletic abilities.
However, the “brothers” of the entertainment agents control the distribution
channels through which their music is marketed and sold as well as the lucrative
athletic endorsement contracts the athletics enjoy.

This strategy is just a variation of the sharecropping system that evolved
after our so-called emancipation with a 21^st century twist.
Controlling the distribution of our “product”, in this case our musical
talent is another example of one of the ten Jim Crow laws documented in the “Secret
Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Volume 2”. This law stated that blacks
were forbidden to sell farm products like flour, cotton, hay, rice, peas, wheat,
etc. without the written permission from a white man. Instead of ex-slaves being
required to bring the product, most often cotton, to a specific merchant the
artist is tied to a distribution system that the agents and their “brothers”
control. Any similarities between this law and present day practices are not a
coincidence! This law has other implications for black agri-business and black
economy in general but more of that another time.

Other methods utilized to rob black entertainers and athletics have been to
guide them either to marry whites (so the wealth does not stay in our community)
i.e. Tiger Woods whose estranged wife (a former nanny) is reported to have
received 100 million dollars in their divorce settlement and Michael Jackson
whose children will inherit the bulk of his vast estate. Another way wealth is
stolen from blacks is through fraudulent investments and/or business deals like
the airplane in need of extensive expensive repairs that Scottie Pippen was
doped into purchasing to name a few. (See Final Call: Volume 29 Number 40).

The time has come that we must take control of our labor so that it benefits
us. Therefore, the issue today is what were the mistakes the usurpers of our
birth right made to build this world and how do we avoid them? They were “the
chosen” but because they broke their convent with Allah they forfeited their
position. What caused them to forfeit their chosen status? In my opinion, they
used the knowledge given them to enslave instead of benefiting humanity and the
“usury” of the labor of a whole race of people for over 300 years for their
benefit.

Well then, how do we share the knowledge we’ve received and what system
and/or model should we use to incorporate the principals of freedom, justice and
equality into our system? I humbly submit that the answer lies in the
utilization of the co-operative corporation. Under this model all benefit
equally from their labor.

The concept of corporations evolved after the Civil War as the option for
land ownership diminished for whites and became almost impossible for blacks.
The future industrial barons were gobbling up land faster than it became
available. By 1870 the need for an industrial labor force was almost as great as
the agricultural labor force. As a result, landless workers found themselves in
industrialized cities in what can be called “virtually wage-slavery”. Driven
by the desire to free themselves from this pseudo slavery, American workers
began to organize.

The cooperative corporation was one of the models developed in the mid 1800’s
in an attempt to transition wage-earners into becoming self-employed. The
Knights of Labor were at the forefront of the struggle. Not only did it advocate
better wages and working conditions it also sought to eradicate the entire
wage-slavery system for all workers by structuring the corporations so
that it was actually owned by the workers.

Obviously, this did not go over well with the factory employers. Ultimately,
the Knights of Labor and other organizations failed in their attempt to
eradicate the wage system. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions
(which later became the American Federation of Labor -AFL) was the only
organized labor movement that survived – partly because they accepted the wage
system that benefited the employers and were opposed to the co-operative
corporations vision of a fair and equal division of the profits from the worker’s
labor.

The other reason the AFL reigned supreme was because the organization was a
champion of the racist views held by the general population who were intent on
keeping the black man in a subjugated position.. The “Secret Relationship
Between Blacks and Jews, Volume 2” gives a detailed description of how the AFL
accomplished this by forcing the black man out of the skilled trades and
relegating them to the lowest wage rates through their anti-Black union policies
under the leadership of Samuel Gompers.

That is why the fundamental premise of the co-operative corporation lends
itself to an economy based on freedom, justice and equality for all. The concept
and/or model is also very versatile. It can be applied to virtually any business
situation from banking to food production and distribution.