Frantz Fanon
NewBlackNationalism.com
The Disappearance of the Not Fucking Around Coalition
What has become of the Not Fucking Around Coalition [NFACC] black militia? And where is its Supreme Commander, Grand Master Jay, A.K.A. John Fitzgerald Johnson?
Since GMJ’s arrest in West Chester, Ohio on December 3, 2020, on five federal and State of Kentucky charges, the NFAC has virtually disappeared. Has the NFAC demobilized? Did Supreme Commander GMJ confine them to barracks? Have they gone underground? Or is the NFAC awaiting further instructions?
What we know according to Johnson’s friend Eleanor Harvey, an Oakland native organizing fund raising for his defense, is that GMJ was released from jail. However, Harvey says, “as a condition of his pre-trials release," Grand Master Jay's "1st Amendment and 2nd Amendment Rights were removed.” Presumably, that means there are restrictions on what Grand Master Jay can talk about. Second, his right to bear arms has been temporarily suspended pending the outcome of the trials.
The muzzle order may explain why the mercurial Grand Master Jay, who is never at a loss for words, has gone silent since his release. However, it doesn’t explain the NFAC’s vanishing act from the streets.
Please don’t tell us the 1000 women and men whose electrifying July 4th march on Stone Mountain, Georgia, “kitted out” in Black regalia, AK-47s, bullet proof vests, sidearms, and magazine belts, can only act at the behest of one man: the Supreme Commander.
Has the GMJ and the NFAC militia failed to grasp an essential lesson from the 1960s Black Liberation movement: namely that you can’t sustain an organization built around one animating figure?
Please disabuse us of the notion that the NFAC doesn't have a chain of command with a sub-commander in place. From where we stand that doesn’t appear to be the case.
While we're on the subject of the 1960s, one of finest legacies Black Power activists left us is how to turn an attack by the enemy into an advance for the movement. When Huey Newton was convicted of the fatal shooting of an Oakland cop in 1967, he and the Black Panthers were not nationally known.
The Free Huey movement made the Black Panthers a household name, and not just among Black folks. White Hollywood stars made high-profile public appearances and contributed thousands of dollars to Huey's defense campaign. Black Panther chapters literally sprung up overnight in dozens of cites. Cuba, Algeria and China opened their doors for Black Panthers to going into exile.
That same principle applied to Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, the Chicago Seven, and the New York 21. Thousands of people who weren’t necessarily Black Panther supporters, gave money and protested because they hated the blatant miscarriage of justice set in train to railroad these revolutionaries into prison.
In urban centers and college campuses, Free Angela and Free Huey slogans were spray painted on walls and bill boards. Their posters were plastered on open spaces and kiosks across the U.S and even in Europe. Protest rallies to free them were ubiquitous.
Two weeks ago, we made a similar point that Derek Chauvin’s conviction was the result of cell phone and street justice. Notwithstanding the irrefutable nine-minute video of George Floyd’s execution, it was the twenty million protesters around the world who already registered their guilty verdict in the streets that convicted Chauvin before a single juror was selected.
New Black Nationalists support and applaud the efforts of Sister Harvey’s efforts on GO FUNDME to raise money for Grand Master Jay’s defense. What is needed is a larger campaign that brings more light and heat on the federal government’s attempts to decapitate the 57 year-old Johnson. The most recent statement released by Harvey states the following.
“MAJOR VICTORY FOR OUR BELOVED #GRANDMASTERJAY@theonlygrandmasterjay Though most charges were dismissed, one still remains thus your contributions to his GoFundMe Link in my Bio is still a major focal point in the continuing battle for our leaders FULL & COMPLETE LIBERATION!
“Your support is needed to help us defeat this blatant racist attack on Americans exercising their 1st and 2nd Amendment rights. John Fitzgerald Johnson aka The Grand Master Jay has been targeted by the US Government. As the founder and commander of America’s largest all Black militia, his organization has stood up to the powers that be in the face of such atrocities as the and Breonna Taylor killings. His teachings have ignited a renewed unification of people around the world.”
When Grand Master Jay was arrested on December 3, 2020, documents, six assault-style rifles, ammunition, rifle magazines and body armor were all seized. Investigators said they were looking for the rifle Johnson allegedly used in the Louisville incident.
The blatant political nature of the Johnson's arrest was underscored on the application for the FBI search warrant that read "The NFAC eventually wants to form a new country “owned and created by Black people.”
The frame-up of Johnson is proceeding under a virtual press blackout, including the mainstream Black press. This will not be a feature story on The Reidout , Jonathon Capehart's The Sunday Show, The Griot or the The Root.
New Black Nationalists believe the NFAC and Grand Master Jay should be receiving more support from Black progressives, radicals, and revolutionaries opposing this government attack. The NFAC's strident manner, brash name, sectarian tactics, and potential to derail peaceful protests by projecting armed self-defense rubs many the wrong way. We get that.
We are not naïve to sentiments that the NFAC are grandstanders. Some question their motives altogether. Others accuse Grand Master Jay of being a government agent provocateur—an easy charge to make but difficult to prove. We say "do the work, give us the proof."
People have their reservations, but at the end of the day the NFAC must certify their credentials on the Black street as legitimate liberation activists.
To the NFAC's critics and cynics, we simply remind you Malcolm X was a pimp and dope addict. This is not to suggest Grand Master Jay has the timber or gravitas of a Malcolm X: he does not. Rather, it is to suggest that extending the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise may be a more a appropriate and fair standard to use in assessment of Grand Master Jay and the NFAC.
Since the NFAC's dramatic entrance on the political stage following Ahmaud Arbery execution in Georgia, New Black Nationalists have supported the upstart militia, their Second Amendment right to bear arms, and their nationalist political inclinations.
We continue to condemn the U.S. government's deliberate attempt to liquidate the "Not Fucking Around Coalition," by neutralizing its leadership. These trumped-up charges were brought against Johnson for allegedly pointed his rifle at Louisville policemen and Secret Service agents on a rooftop on September 4, 2020. The incident purportedly took place following a Justice for Breonna Taylor rally.
The remaining charge against GMJ carries up to 20 years in prison according to federal statutes. Furthermore, Johnson's arrest constitutes a direct attack on Black people, their right to armed self-defense, and to bear arms.
Anyone that believes the attack on Grand Master Jay and the NFAC is somehow unconnected to the unprecedented efforts to strip Black people of our voting rights nationwide or the ramping-up of police terror in Black communities, should think again. It’s all part of the pre-revolutionary period in which American Empire’s faltering matrix is preparing for white authoritarian rule and civil war to maintain power.
That being said, whether Grand Master Jay can escape dungeons of the carceral state or not, we need the NFAC back on the streets. It’s not a good look for an entire militia to go AWOL or abandon their posts. The NFAC’s presence in Louisiana, Georgia, Louisville, and Ohio fired the imagination of millions of Black people, and scared the shit out of a lot of people who are committed to doing harm to our communities. That was a good thing.
NewBlackNationalism.com
