Reintroducing the Crusader

by the Crusader Editorial Board

“… you’re living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution, a time when there’s got to be a change. People in power have misused it, and now there has to be a change and a better world has to be built, and the only way it’s going to be built is with extreme methods. And I, for one, will join in with anyone — I don’t care what color you are — as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this Earth” – Malcolm X, 1964

The Crusader was founded on February 21st, 2024. February 21st is a day of special significance to our movement: it is both the birth date of the Black Communist Claudia Jones and the date of the assassination of Malcolm X. We proudly stand as a part of a glorious tradition laid down by them and many, many more, those who gave their lives and effort for a simple cause: freedom.

Our nation’s history was a history of oppression: from the slave ships where our ancestors were taken from our native Africa, to the cotton plantation fields watered with blood and tears, to the inner city plagued by suffocating poverty, violence, and incarceration, the continued genocide that has been ongoing for 400 years. Our nation’s history was a history of struggle: from the war cry in the first European colony of what would become of the United States, to the prophetic visions of Nat Turner, to the millions of Black workers and peasants organized by Communists and revolutionary nationalists, often with guns in hand. Our history is the history of this country that we built up, our people, who deserve so much more, and who have always failed in their pursuit for freedom and justice, have never bent down their knees for even a second.

Today, with the sharpening of all contradictions of US imperialism, and as it unleashes yet a new way of offensive against the proletariat and oppressed nations, we again find ourselves in a critical juncture; in the midst of a powder keg of exploitation, police brutality, and a torrent of revolutionary anger against this bloodthirsty system and all its manifestations that is growing daily. With every wave of mass uprising, our masses’ rebellious energy continues to grow and multiply.

Despite the guidance of past revolutionaries and the continuous struggle rooted in the determined spirit of the Black nation, we lack a strong class conscious and combative mass movement that can mobilize, organize and politicize our people to break from the “American nightmare” and fight for liberation. It is up to us, the revolutionaries-in-formation, to answer the pressing demand of our nation by channeling our wrath into a militant mass movement. This movement can only be one that mobilizes millions of Black workers to answer our daily demands and connect them to the seizure of power; a movement that gathers and reorganizes the current efforts, separated from the mainstream of our nation, which is dispersed and in disarray under State attack and lacking a proletarian ideology. With Marxism-Leninism-Maoism at its helm, the movement must carefully analyzes the both successes and failures of the past, stands in the present of our daily struggle, and raises its gaze onto the future of liberation.

The Crusader has founded itself on two historical processes and perspectives: 1) socialist revolution, 2) Black national liberation. Most publications view things from one or the other, often relegating one to an afterthought. We, however, understand those two historical processes and perspectives to be two parts of one whole. We firmly stand by the line that the national questions, and in particular the Black national question, is essential and indispensable to the socialist revolution. At the same time, it is the socialist revolution led by a multinational proletariat that is the main goal of our movement and our publication.

It is with this perspective that we seek to relaunch the Crusader as a tool for the propagation, dissemination, and debate of revolutionary thought and practice in the service of the Black nation and especially the Black proletariat. It has been one year since our publication first launched. We have made some baby steps in our effort, publishing some articles on the national and international situation, and gathering a small crowd of readers and contributors. However, we have by no means been a “tribune of the people,” nor a worthy successor of the work started by the African Blood Brotherhood or the great Robert F. Williams. Our work was plagued by amateurishness, liberalism, and subjectivism. We have been isolated from the rest of the revolutionary movement and have by no means reached the broadest and most profound masses of our nation.

Today, after months of patient work, we sincerely hope this relaunch will be the first step towards our genuine transformation, just like how Brother Malcolm transformed his life as an individual. Let us raise the question we originally asked in our Founding Statement last year: “Why the Crusader? Why now?” We answer: with this, we hope that with our meager effort, our firm faith can blossom into an actual revolutionary news service; one that is grounded in class struggle, plays a moderate role in the regrouping, unity, and development of the Black revolutionary movement; and, last but not least, as a worthy servant for the Black nation, the multinational proletariat, and all oppressed people of the world.

This double issue of The Crusader is the first step of this reorientation. In this issue you will read:

• Reintroducing The Crusader
• The Comintern Resolutions on Black Nationhood: A Century On
• The 1928 And 1930 Comintern Resolutions on The Black National Question in the United States
• Revolution in Brazil, Revolution Here
• A History of Juneteenth
• June 19th 2025: On the Day of Heroism
• On the Passing of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
• Black Bandits by Castro Alves
• Interview with Ghais Guevara
• An Artist of the People from A Nova Democracia
• I am Black by Solano Trindade, and
• A reader submission: Identity and Black Nation