Nation of Islam

By Drew Frayne, Socialist Party Ireland, 21 February 2025 Sixty years ago el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, known to the world as Malcolm X, was murdered. His life is a map of 20th Century racism, and resistance to white supremacy, in the US and across the world. The personal and political life of el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, known to the world as Malcolm X, is a map of 20th Century racism, and resistance to white supremacy, in the US. His powerful life holds many lessons for revolutionaries today – particularly “the white man” (which includes the author of this article).  From his childhood experiences with white supremacist violence and state oppression and evictions, to his rejection of soft-left reformism of JFK, he understood that the existence of Black oppressed class in the U.S. was not an accident—it was a necessary foundation for the U.S. empire.  Unlike liberals and even many on the left, he refused to argue for what was merely “possible” under the system; he fought for what was necessary. His evolving politics later in his life – embracing a more internationalist, multi-racial, anti-imperialist, and pro-women perspective – demonstrated a radical clarity that remains essential for revolutionaries today. Malcolm’s deep distrust of white liberals and the left was well-earned. Marxist organisations struggled to recruit Black members – Stalinist and Trotskyist alike – largely due to internal racism.  Unions historically sidelined Black struggles, treating them as secondary to economic issues, and failing to confront racism within their own ranks. During his lifetime, major unions locked Black workers out of economic power, helping to create divisions within the working class. Today, Marxists tend to focus on correcting his ideas, speculating on whether he would have become a socialist, rather than grappling with why he never did. The consequences of the left’s failure to integrate race and class have only deepened in the 21st century.  The subprime mortgage crisis disproportionately targeted Black communities, widening racial and economic inequality. The Great Recession fractured the working class further. The absence of an organised and militant left in the U.S. has allowed reactionaries like Trump to exploit resentment while billionaires like Elon Musk posture as anti-establishment figures.  The left’s failure to prioritise Black struggles isn’t just a moral failure—it’s a strategic one. Without rebuilding trust and making antiracism central to working-class politics, the left will remain irrelevant, ceding ground to reactionary forces. The state’s repression of Black anti-capitalist movements, from the Black Panthers to MOVE (the Philadelphia based Black anarcho-primitivist group bombed from a helicopter by Philadelphia PD in 1985), should make it clear—antiracism combined with anticapitalism are the ruling class’s greatest fear. Yet there is hope. Young white people today, particularly young women, are more anti-racist than ever, and their understanding of intersectional oppression gives them a powerful foundation for solidarity. The Black Lives Matter movement showed that meaningful unity is possible, with young white activists taking real risks alongside Black organisers.  Now, the global movement against the genocide in Gaza is radicalising another generation, exposing the hypocrisy of liberals and the deep ties between imperialism, white supremacy, and capitalism. We are not in a revolutionary moment like the 1960s—we are in a period of far right, racist and misogynist authoritarianism ascendancy. But that only makes the stakes clearer. Malcolm X’s greatest lesson was that the struggle for liberation demands organisation, clarity, and action. The power to smash racism and capitalism lies in our hands. We must seize it and organise. Malcolm’s Early life up until Prison Sentence Starting before he was even born, Malcolm X’s family was on the receiving end of white supremacist terror. His father, Earl Little, was a Garveyite, a believer in Black self-separatism, and African repatriation. The simple Garveyite creed, of advocating that Black people build an independent life for themselves, made him a target.  The Ku Klux Klan harassed the family in Omaha, Nebraska, circling their home on horseback, smashing windows, and threatening violence. They were forced to flee to Lansing, Michigan, but safety never came – not even in one of the most Northerly states in the US.  Their new, predominately white, neighbours objected to having a black family living nearby and after they took a court case against the Little Family, a county Judge ruled to evict them. The land was for whites only. Earl Little of course refused to move and the situation escalated.  In  1929, their home was burned to the ground, likely by the Black Legion, a white supremacist group active in the area. Earl Little was accused by police of setting the fire himself, in another act of intimidation, although the charges were later dropped. Two years later, Earl Little was found dead, his body mutilated on train tracks. The police called it a suicide, and the insurance company refused to pay out.  Left with nothing, Malcolm’s mother, Louise, struggled to keep the family together for several years, but the state stepped in—not to help, but to tear them apart. She was declared “unfit” and institutionalised, while Malcolm X and his siblings were scattered into foster care.  The young Malcolm X excelled in school, often the only Black person in his class, but racist teachers imposed limits on his future. When he said he wanted to be a lawyer his teacher called him racist slurs and told him to be a carpenter.  The message was clear: America had no place for Black ambition or intellect. Disillusioned, he dropped out of highschool, pushed toward the only paths society left open — cheap labour or crime. At 20, Malcolm X was arrested for burglary and sentenced to ten years at Charlestown State Prison, Boston, Massachusetts. The sentence was far harsher than the white women who were caught with him. He wasn’t just sentenced harshly, he was made an example. He was given a decade behind bars, not just for burglary but for daring to cross racial lines.  The police pressured the white women he was arrested with to accuse him of rape, but they refused. It