Since the tragic death of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter (BLM) has been portrayed as a group dedicated to fighting systemic racism. Actually, BLM could be more accurately described as a Marxist organization that seeks to radically transform America into a socialist country.

According to BLM’s political arm, the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), “We believe in transformation and a radical realignment of power … We are anti-capitalist.” That leaves little to the imagination.

M4BL’s wide-ranging policy platforms include defunding the police to demanding reparations. It also focuses extensively on age-old socialist doctrine.

Under its “Economic Justice” platform, M4BL demands “economic justice for all and a reconstruction of the economy to ensure Black communities have collective ownership, not merely access.”

This includes a laundry list of specific policies:

• “A progressive restructuring of tax codes at the local, state, and federal levels to ensure a radical and sustainable redistribution of wealth.”
• “Federal and state job programs that specifically target the most economically marginalized Black people, and compensation for those involved in the care economy.”
• “A right to restored land, clean air, clean water and housing and an end to the exploitative privatization of natural resources—including land and water.”
• “Restore the Glass-Steagall Act to break up the large banks.”
• “Through tax incentives, loans and other government directed resources, support the development of cooperative or social economy networks to help facilitate trade across and in Black communities globally.”
• “Financial support of Black alternative institutions including policy that subsidizes and offers low-interest, interest-free or federally guaranteed low-interest loans to promote the development of cooperatives (food, residential, etc.), land trusts and culturally responsive health infrastructures that serve the collective needs of our communities.”
• “Protections for workers in industries that are not appropriately regulated including domestic workers, farm workers, and tipped workers, and for workers—many of whom are Black women and incarcerated people—who have been exploited and remain unprotected.”

Alongside these policies, M4BL also demands “free” health care, “free” college, “free” daycare, “free” housing, “free” internet access, and a “cut in military expenditures and a reallocation of those funds to invest in domestic infrastructure and community well-being.” Needless to say, Marx and Engels would endorse this platform word for word.

Putting policy platforms aside, BLM was co-founded by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi. All three are self-avowed Marxists who seek to use BLM as a Trojan Horse for implementing socialism in the United States.

When asked in 2018, “What skillsets are required to build a movement?” Khan-Cullors responded, “I went through a year-long organizing program at the National School for Strategic Organizing (NSSO), and it was led by the Labor Community Strategy Center. We spent the year reading, anything from Marx, to Lenin, to Mao, learning all types of global critical theory and about different campaigns across the world, and most importantly every day, five days a week we were out on the ground actively recruiting people into the organization we were in, as a way to learn how to bring people in, how to keep them in an organization. There’s an entire skillset to this.”

A few years prior, in 2015, Khan-Cullors said, “The first thing, I think, is that we actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia [Garza] in particular are trained organizers … We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories.”

In December, 2015, Tometi traveled to Venezuela, where she praised socialist dictator Nicholas Maduro’s regime. Tometi wrote, “In these last 17 years, we have witnessed the Bolivarian Revolution champion participatory democracy and construct a fair, transparent election system recognized as among the best in the world – a democratic process that has advocated the rights of Afrodescendants and other oppressed people within Venezuela and across the globe. We have seen the most marginalized sectors of Venezuela transform into active citizens in collaboration with a government that has responded to their needs and aspirations. Thousands of people who once worked cacao plantations as enslaved Africans, then sharecroppers, now run those fields as cooperatives. The profits from Venezuela’s vast oil reserves that once went directly to U.S. oil now are invested in social programs … We demand U.S. Hands off Venezuela!”

In 2016, BLM wrote an editorial titled, “Lessons from Fidel: Black Lives Matter and the Transition of El Comandante.” The piece begins with, “We are feeling many things as we awaken to a world without Fidel Castro. There is an overwhelming sense of loss, complicated by fear and anxiety. Although no leader is without their flaws, we must push back against the rhetoric of the right and come to the defense of El Comandante.”

The authors argue, “Revolution is rooted in the recognition that there are certain fundamentals to which every being has a right, just by virtue of one’s birth: healthy food, clean water, decent housing, safe communities, quality healthcare, mental health services, free and quality education, community spaces, art, democratic engagement, regular vacations, sports, and places for spiritual expression are not questions of resources, but questions of political will and they are requirements of any humane society.”

And, they end their piece with, “With Fidel’s passing there is one more lesson that stands paramount: when we are rooted in collective vision when we bind ourselves together around quests for infinite freedom of the body and the soul, we will be victorious. As Fidel ascends to the realm of the ancestors, we summon his guidance, strength, and power as we recommit ourselves to the struggle for universal freedom. Fidel Vive!”

Black Lives Matter is not solely dedicated to combatting racism and uplifting poverty-ridden black communities. BLM rejects many policies that would actually accomplish these goals, such as education choice, which is overwhelmingly supported by the black community.

Even worse, BLM’s agenda would do irreparable harm to African Americans, and all Americans for that matter. Defunding the police, limiting individual freedom, eviscerating property rights, undermining the rule of law, and enacting failed socialist policies are the primary motivations of Black Lives Matter.

The proof is in the pudding, BLM is a Marxist organization pushing a radical policy platform that would destroy America.

Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is an editor at The Heartland Institute.