Eric Basir: Communist Union Steward?

When some coworkers get angry or frustrated with me, they call me a "communist." If standing up for the weak, teaching others how to fight back, defending the poor and refusing to submit to tyrants is communism, then so be it!

I know the history of unions in this country and that communists made—and continue to make—trade unionism powerful and truly democratic.

So it's no insult to me. It is actually flattering!

In Truth, most communists will NEVER accept me as one of them (I do not seek to be accepted by anyone but my God). And I refuse to accept their various labels. They tolerate me and I will never hesitate to stand with them when they stand up for the poor and my coworkers. I support any—and all—efforts to take power from the bloodsuckers of the poor. 

However, they—like many other revolutionary groups—want me to conform to their "Line," talk like them, think like them and be like them.

As the ATU business unionists have proven in our open war against each other, I am uncontrollable. I don't fit in anyone's box. With my knowledge of various languages and strange appearance, many cannot even figure out if I am Black, white, Latino or whatever. I am a strange bird. A misfit. And when anyone tries to silence me, my defiance is amplified.

My "Line" is Truth. My Path is Islam. My label is Muslim. So wherever the God reveals his Hand, I take it.  That is why I can reach people that others reject. That is why many of my coworkers trust me more than the union official who they elected.

My "Line" is based in the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I am a proud minority—in the Five Percent of the population as described by Master Fard Muhammad in the Supreme Wisdom. My Book is the Holy Quran. It is mathematical. It is indisputable. It is Actual Facts.

The model Revolutionary I follow is not Karl Marx. My source is greater than him. It is Prophet Muhammad: A man who the God used to destroy a cruel and greedy system that enslaved minds to materialism and punishment of the poor. Peace Be Upon Him.

I was raised from the dead by Minister Louis Farrakhan and turned from a path toward total self-destruction and early death. As he did for me, I am doing for others through a method of organizing called Revolutionary Unionism. I preach it. I live it.

Keep calling me a communist. I encourage it. Red-bait to your heart's delight. Call me a nationalist. Call me a terrorist. An anarchist. A racist. An active shooter. Anything you can imagine. Dig holes for me to fall in. Keep throwing the trash in. But I will just climb out and keep doing what I do. 

You can ban me, block me or attempt to silence me. But you cannot stop me. You cannot stop the Truth no matter who speaks it.

Just beware: The holes you dig for me may be a hole for you too.