The Pdg Speak: On Science and Religion Revolution and Religion (A Subtopics from the 1978 Ideological Conference Held in Conakry Guinea, Convened by the Pdg.) Women in Society

Copyright © 2014 by Julius G. Mcallister.

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter I Revolution And Religion

Objectives Of Revolution And Religion

Analysis

Applying Marxist Thesis To Our Era

Description Of Dialectics

Role Of Idealism As Conscience

Materialist Philosophy Versus Religious Philosophy

The Believer And The Class Struggle

Chapter II Science And Religion

Spirit And Body Materialize Human Life

Freedom Of Religion: An Exigency Of

Social Cohesion And Popular Democracy

What Is To Be Done ?

Conclusion

Chapter III Women In Society

Introduction

This Makes Us Believe That The Human Condition Of The Woman, Under Colonial Domination, Was One Of The Slave’s Slave.

The Woman’s Role In The Anti-Colonialist Struggle

What Is It About ?

Emancipation Of Woman, A Condition And Reality Of The Emancipation

Of Man And Society

The Woman, As We Have Said,

Constitutes Base Of Society.

A Society Is Not Truly Happy Unless All The Members Live In Solidarity.

Women Are Victims Of Outmoded Egoisms That Are Still Harbored By Men, Their Brothers.

In No Chapter Of The Holy Koran Is Polygamy Explicitly Recommended.

The Woman Must Be Equally Responsible, Free And Dignified As The Man.

And Should It Said In Society That Man Is Superior To Woman ?

Woman’s Emancipation A Factor For The Development Of Productive Forces

The Required Level Of Sociopolitical Development

It Is Obviously Work Which Creates And Ennobles Man And Woman.

But The Revolution Is Never Satisfied Entirely With Itself. The Revolution Is An Act Of Self-Introspection.

Chapter IV Ethics Of Revolution

On Ethics

On The Correct Assessment Of Social Relations

The Quality Of Organization

Attributes And Essence Of Power

Ideological Class Distinctions

The Revolution Is Self-Liberation, Self-Contestation

ADDENDUM

PREFACE

The intent of the PDG of 1947 Speak, publication is to honor and spread the ideas flowing with integrity and purpose developed and promoted by the People of Guinea; reflected by their spokesman and leader Ahmed Sekou Toure. The PDG adhered to a line of reason that was anti Imperialist while evoking an African centered worldview that touched all People of African descent. This worldview sees the People, all People as multidimensional. The individual, Man is limited by time, but the People are constantly renewed and remain a living totality in action. The People live on forever. So the decisions made by the PDG were for the benefit of all The People.

This line, while philosophical in outlook has a theoretical aspect that directs the actions of its adherents. The PDG stated, that we are not at all revolutionary unless we adhere fundamentally and unreservedly, to the pre-dominance and pre-eminence of the People, their role, their interest. Unless one recognizes the fundamental principles of the absolute equality of all the People, regardless of family, color or sex and adheres to the exigency of social and political democracy, One supports imperial aggression.

The Philosophical and ideological work done by the People of Guinea under the PDG is leadership for Africans scattered all over the world, seeking liberation from imperial domination. It is the core belief in superiority of one over another that sets Imperial relations into action: in the bedroom, the workplace and the streets of the world. The oppression of women, elderly, the disabled, the youth are manifestations of Imperialism in our everyday lives.

Nothing different has happen to African People in Asia than in The Caribbean or North and South America than on the African homeland. The news of the events is different and the people involved are different but the means and ways are the same, racism used as a means to class domination, the subversion of a Peoples autonomy for personal gain. These truths are self evident and timeless. From the Roman attacks on Carthage, to the partition of Africa and the mineral based wars all over Africa today. The behavior enacted by some people on others enforcing their superiority over others, privatizing land, thereby privatizing food shelter and clothing that generates the class divisions that animate and enliven imperial domination and colonial expansion.

It is the historical commitment to sets of ideals and values grounded in the values of human life as a collective process projected by the PDG of 1947, their ideology, that has made the PDG leadership in the African Revolution. Their projection supports creation and understands evolution as part of the creation process, they see the development of classes of people based on how they live while clearly knowing that it is the values, the cultural values people adhere to that determines the quality of their lives.

Christians, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Marxist- Leninist followers have made idols out of their founders and prophets while these actions were not aspects of the philosophy or theoretic terms of these ideologies. These republications are not being produced to idolize the PDG or Sekou Toure, but to present a liberating set of ideas, to inspire a soundness of action that can bring comfort and security to over a billion Africans living scattered and suffering all over the world. The People in each area of the world, will suit the ideas to their conditions. Hopefully the reading and studying of these ideas will spark others to research and build new organizations dedicated to the Advancement of humanity in general and Africans in Particular.

The PDG Of 1947 Speak, is part of a series of short books covering topics discussed and published in Guinea by the PDG, as the ruling State Party. They are sections taken from three major works that have not been published in the western World, but were copyrighted in Guinea under the PDG of 1947. These works received little international distribution. Most works were copied in French and a few selected copies translated in English by the government press.

This particular copy reflects sections from four major publications published from 1969 to 1978.

Dialectical Approach to Culture, reprinted in Black Scholar, USA 1969

Strategy and Tactics of the Revolution, published in Guinea, 1977

Towards a Revolutionary Economy For the People, published in Guinea, 1976

1978 Ideological Seminar, Africa on the Move, published in Guinea, 1978

(Not to be confused with a book called Africa on the Move published by Panaf Press)

Over that span of years the line of development is consistent and reflects the Revolutionary ethos of the Guinean people, as leadership and a haven for all Africans fighting against injustice while constantly building Pan-Africanism.

To be understood when reading these articles or any work produced by the people of the PDG of 1947 Guinea, West Africa. Here I quote directly from the sources:

Point 1:

It is our privilege to have Ahmed Sekou Toure mentioned on some books, although the content of these publications was inspired by the ideas expressed by a political organization, trade union, social collectivity, or person. A scientific thesis, whether of an economic, social, or cultural nature, is not a personal invention. Its origin is always collective. And the dates are necessarily borrowed from history and the observation of society. (1978 Ideological Conference, PDG of 1947, Chapter 6; Revolution and Religion; para. 76-77)

Point 2:

When we say man, this concept means a being with intelligence and refers to both man and woman. (Women in Society, Ahmed Sekou Toure)

Ready for the Revolution, it is time to Build.

INTRODUCTION

PDG of 1947 Short history

The Parti Democratique de Guinea, The PDG; reflects the evolution of a People affirmed and committed to sovereignty, to not accept borders established by invaders. The struggle for independence waged by Samory Toure in the 1800’s to defend the rights of God as taught by Islam broke down tribal barriers and divisions which were reestablished by the French and Portuguese. Their power of the gun and the ideal of African servitude reconstructed tribal groupings so that one tribe could be used against the other in the service of France and meet other European demands. Since the final capture and exile of Almany Samory Toure, extreme racialism has been imposed by the French in Guinea as well as other west African states, white against black, separate public facilities, lower wages for the same jobs, and the deplorable living conditions of the people set the conditions for a new leadership among the People of West Africa, the PDG. French Domination meant forced labor for Africans. Therefore a system on how to maintain the exploitation of the people and the land had to be accepted by the French. Unions formed by workers became a necessary lever to guarantee a level of quality production as well as control.

These Unions became the base from which the PDG was able to organize the People. In Bamako Mali, October 1946, these unions met, 800 strong to form a congress called the Rassemblement Democratique Africaine, to be known as the RDA. By 1950 it had over 700,000 members in West Africa and was the largest political organization in Africa. 1946 these new unions met in Dakar and later in Kankan in order to secure wages and equal pay with Europeans and better working conditions. The Parti Democratique de Guinea, the PDG formed in 1947 was the Guinea national section of the RDA under the leadership of Sekou Toure. Sekou Toure was known to sayWe do not fight for salary demand, WE fight for Power. Strikes called by the the PDG -RDA closed railways, mail and other services and members of the parties were jailed.

These strikes were supported by the people, landlords did not charge rent during these strikes, families supplied meals for workers and farmers brought food, women sold there jewelry and cloths to support the workers on strike. As a result there was a 20 percent wage increase, new labor codes and a new 40 hour work week . The PDG-RDA proved their value to the people.

Conakry, 1955 at the coordinating meeting for the RDA, the PDG section moved to Africanize the labor movement by calling for separation of African labor groups from French organizations. As a result of the Africanization of the labor movement, In 1957 the first African labor movement was created, the Union Generale Travailleurs D’Afrique Noire, UGTAN.

Sekou Toure as leadership of the RDA-PDG and the UGTAN was known to say,ALL people are capable at any time of administrating themselves and developing their personality. There are no minor Peoples, except under slavery and oppression. It was Guinean people who voted, NO, out of all the French territories to the 1958 referendum for membership in the Franco- African Community. Guinea afterwards became the first so called Franco African state to become independent.

Introduction to Chapter I(extracted from the 1978 Ideological Conference)

The 1978 conference was the historical continuance of the, 5th Pan African Congress held in 1945, the All African Peoples’ Conference 1958, and the Organization for African Unity held in 1963 as well as the Bandung conference uniting Asian and African leadership. These meetings were organized to objectively improve the living conditions of the African-Asian people, to do away with inferiority complexes, assimilation by coercion, and dependency in all its forms.

Major topic speeches were made by President of Guinea, Ahmed Sekou Toure, reflecting the views and beliefs of the PDG. These speeches were used to generate the discussions that followed. Today, we do not have access to all the discussions.

This copy of the conference has been scanned and corrected for typographical errors and misspellings from the original translation. Some words did not translate into grammatical English and have been left to maintain the character of the original work. (Open Addendum on the introduction and participants to 1978 Conference)

CHAPTER I

Revolution and Religion

(Theme 6, 1978 Ideological conference, Sekou Toure. Conakry; 1978)

Objectives of Revolution and Religion

(1) In the course of history, no consistent Revolutionary movement has gone unconcerned about the relationship between Revolution and Religion. And up to now, no one has been able to study it exhaustively or adequately. To neglect this problem leads either to inquisition, sectarianism, or recuperation of the subjective factor of reactionary elements.

(2) Thus, we do not intend, in dealing with this complex topic of secular controversies (that is the relationship between—Revolution and Religion) to give it a general solution acceptable to all, and least of all, to put an end to the debates provoked by a mere mention or rapprochement of the two concepts. We wish rather to relate what the positive fight of the PDG within the Guinean People for more than thirty years has enabled us to acquire and accumulate as experiences and enabled us to draw lessons from the process of our revolutionary struggle which kept close to the realities of the people to understand and analyze them in order to make them as bases of operations in view of a true and progressive transformation of society.

(3) First of all, we shall attempt a few definitions and then enumerate some characteristics and features of the two concepts.

(4) By Democratic Popular Revolution, we mean the collective movement launched by a group of men or People as a whole and supported by their conscious will mobilized with the effect to turn an old backward order into a new progressive order, with a view to ensuring the safeguard and development of individual and collective interests, without any distinction whatsoever. The People’s Democratic Revolution thus remains, according to us, a collective conscience in motion and a collective movement led by conscience whose finality is the endless progress of man and the people.

(5) The religious phenomenon emerged with and from within human conscience. It proposes answers to questions raised by man in the anguish of existence. It sustains, in some cases motivates, social behavior. But today, we understand religion as any coherent system of belief that conveys noble ideals and cardinal values characteristic of collective progress, of the respect for human dignity and of human virtues.

(6) The People’s Democratic Revolution assigns as a goal to the action of men and the people objectives for their welfare here on earth, while Religion extends the existence of men to the hereafter and sometimes defers to a future world the positive or negative reward to their existence here on earth.

(7) Revolution makes no attempt to negate such future world. It merely wishes the struggle against evil, for People’s progress and welfare, not to be delayed or postponed, and this is after all what is required by all devout believers and all the dispossessed without distinction of sex, race, and nationality.

(8) Therefore, Revolution and Religion stand characterized by the impersonal essence, the universality, and the ideology that sets them in the socio-human thought, as well as within the discipline and order which they impose upon men’s behavior and action.

(9) Revolution and Religion have common characteristics. Both are means of educating the individual in order to enable him consciously acquire the behavior of a free man responsible for his own choices and actions. In other words, no one is a revolutionary against his own will, just as no one could, against his own will, be the embodiment and faithful interpreter of a Religion.

(10) Revolution and Religion also have common postulates and promote values which they want men to bear or better still to defend devoutly uncompromisingly. The attainment of such an objective bestows on those values a deep sociological and historical significance. Both set a finality to human life, to each individual’s existence, a finality from which a positive or negative reward sets the value to be assigned to such individual existence.

(11) On close examination, both Revolution and Religion proclaim the preeminence of society, the obligation to organize society, the necessity for each individual to respect its primacy in assessing the contradictions between collective interest and individual interest, as well as the principal rules and requirements of daily life.

(12) Both implicitly, if not explicitly and deeply, consider society as the supreme reference which the degree of usefulness of the individual is assessed and rewarded accordingly.

(13) Both express themselves within man through the faith which, as an energy of inexhaustible power, supports and galvanizes the manifestation of human life.

(14) Both stress the absolute necessity for each society to achieve, defend, and develop its own independence, sovereignty, unity, and ethics, which must determine the behavior of individuals.

(15) Both defend common values which are and remain the universal aspirations for all men and all people: peace, freedom, justice, equality, progress, happiness, social harmony, the true, and the beautiful.

(16) Both considers some assets as impersonal. These are assets belonging to the heritage of mankind, which each adept or militant must respect. These assets are material and immaterial: life, dignity, unity, if not cohesion of the family, of social groups, of the nation, and of humanity, air, water, light, soil, subsoil, fauna, flora, etc.

(17) Revolution and Religion proclaim, organize, and lead a permanent struggle, a universal struggle, which for the former is a class struggle or a class between antagonistic interests represented by opposite classes in the process of production, distribution, and enjoyment of wealth created by men. For the latter, it is the conflict between good and evil, with good embodying truth, justice, and the beautiful, whilst evil embodies exploitation, alienation, foreign domination, lies, theft, and arbitrary practices and ensure that all is opposed to the good.

(18) The fact that the expression of class struggle and struggle between good and evil may not be formulated in the same terms, the same concepts, does not change anything in their fundamental meaning, in the