All-African People's Revolutionary Party

All-African People's Revolutionary Party
Abbreviation	A-APRP
Founders	Kwame Nkrumah, Amílcar Cabral, Kwame Ture
Founded	1968
Youth wing	Young Pioneers Institute
Women's wing	All-African Women's Revolutionary Union
Political orientation	Communism Nkrumahism-Tureism-Cabralism Scientific socialism Pan-Africanism Black Nationalism Anti-Imperialism Anti-Zionism
Slogan	"One Unified Socialist Africa"
Website
https://aaprp-intl.org/
Twitter	@https://twitter.com/AAPRP
Facebook	https://www.facebook.com/AAPRP/

The All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) is an international Pan-African communist party founded in 1968 in Conakry, People's Revolutionary Guinea; by former Ghanaian President and Guinean Co-President Kwame Nkrumah, Guinean and Cabe Verdean revolutionary Amílcar Cabral, as well as former Black Panther Party Prime Minister Kwame Ture (formerly Stokley Carmichael). With the help of then Co-President of Guinea Ahmed Séku Ture, the A-APRP was able to establish its self in the region and was headquartered in Conakry, where its first work-study circle was created.

Since its founding, the A-APRP has remained active and chapters have been established in over 33 countries across Africa, the Americas and Europe. The party's platform maintains its primary focus of building a vanguard for the All-African People's Revolution; as a result party resources have been utilized to organize and build party branches, as well as engage with other revolutionary parties to facilitate the creation of the All-African Committee for Political Co-ordination (A-ACPC). As a result of it's efforts, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabe Verde (PAIGC) declared a commitment to building the A-ACPC by becoming one with the A-APRP. Many members of PAIGC, including the youth leader of the party, are also affiliated with the A-APRP.

History

Founding

Central Committee notes on the AAPRP/AACPC

In the aftermath of the reactionary coup that had overthrown Ɔsagyego Kwame Nkrumah while he was attending a state visit in China, his original essays titled Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare were destroyed by military forces. With the help of his ally, President Sekou Ture of Guinea, Nkrumah lived in exile as Co-President of Guinea alongside Sekou Ture, allowing him to revise and reproduce the handbook.

The book serves as the ideological basis for the creation of an A-APRP, A-ACPC, and All-African People's Revolutionary Army (A-APRA), with their roles and purposes outlined as the following:

"The formation of a political party linking all liberated 56 territories and struggling parties under a common ideology will smooth the way for eventual continental unity, and will at the same time greatly assist the prosecution of the All-African people's war. To assist the process of its formation, an All-African Committee for Political Co-ordination (A-ACPC) should be established to act as a liaison between all parties which recognize the urgent necessity of conducting an organized and unified struggle against colonialism and neo-colonialism. This Committee would be created at the level of the central committees of the ruling parties and struggling parties, and would constitute their integrated political consciousness. [...] Members of A-APRA will be the armed representatives of the African people's socialist parties struggling against colonialism and neo-colonialism. They will be the direct product of the African revolutionary, liberation movement, and will be organized as in Chart 5 (Page 64). These revolutionary armed forces will be under the direction of a high command made up of the military leaders (A-APRA) of the various revolutionary movements in Africa. This in its turn will come under the All-African Committee for Political Co-ordination (A-ACPC) which represents the political leadership of the entire revolutionary movement. Thus the military, i.e. the armed forces, will always be subordinate to, and under the control of, the political leadership." — Kwame Nkrumah, https://libyadiary.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/handbook-of-revolutionary-warfare-a-guide-to-the-armed-phase-of-the-african-revolution.pdf, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare

After a conversation with Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, who advise the then Stokely Carmichael to travel to Africa, he decided to embark on a trip to Guinea-Conakry in an effort to meet Ahmed Sekou Ture and Kwame Nkrumah, two of the most prominent Pan-African revolutionaries of the time. With the support of Shirley Graham Du Bois, he was able to meet and engage with Nkrumah, after which Nkrumah offered Carmichael to become his personal secretary and help build Pan-Africanism as he did Malcolm X prior. After Nkrumah shared with him a completed yet unpublished manuscript of the Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, Stokely Carmichael would go on to accept Nkrumah's offer; becoming a student in Nkrumahism and completing tasks for the Co-President.

Another prominent student of Nkrumah is Amilcar Cabral, who was tasked with a number of assignments by the Ɔsagyego while leading the Guinea-Bissau revolution in Conakry in an attempt to build-up the PAIGC to become a member of the A-ACPC and A-APRP.

Collectively, Kwame Nkrumah, Stokely Carmichael, Amilcar Cabral and several others would form the first work study circle in 1968 in Conakry, marking the start of the A-APRP's official activities.

First All-African Party Congress

A-APRP delegates of the first All-African Party Congress meeting in the PAIGC Headquarters in Bissau.

After over 54 years of organization and party building, A-APRP leading organizers decided not to host a party congress as they felt it was first necessary to consolidate the organization's growth and cooperation with other African revolutionary groups, partly to ensure that the A-APRP would be effective in achieving its goals. In 2020, party leadership decided that they were able to fulfill the organization's vision and begin laying the foundations for an All-African People's War. After two and a half years of evaluation and self critique of all aspects of the A-APRP, as well as the writing of proposals by work-study groups to be mentioned during the meeting, the party held it's first congress on January 15th to 20th, 2023; which took place in the PAIGC national headquarters in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.

During the meeting, delegates from across Africa and diaspora communities appointed a new Central Committee to lead the party, and voted to change the official ideology of the A-APRP from Nkrumahism-Tureism to Nkrumahism-Tureism-Cabralism; emphasizing the importance of Cabral in relation to the party's ideology and founding.

PAIGC leadership also awarded congress attendees membership into the party as a show of unity between the two organizations and commitment to building Pan-Africanism. Many gifts and forms of entertainment, such as traditional dances, were present during the meeting. Due to the summit ending on the anniversary of Cabral's assassination, A-APRP cadre marched with PAIGC and her affiliate organizations from the national headquarters to the Cabral Mausoleum to pay respects.

Ideology of the A-APRP

See also: Nkrumahism-Touréism-Cabralism

Image representing Kwame Nkrumah, Seku Ture, Amilcar Cabral, and Kwame Ture, the main contributors to Nkrumahism-Tureism-Cabralism

The ideology of the A-APRP is Nkrumahism-Touréism-Cabralism, which is the synthesis of the selected works of Kwame Nkrumah, Sékou Touré, Amílcar Cabral and Kwame Ture. Nkrumahist-Touréist-Cabralist thought also holds a multitude of influences from Marcus Garvey and W.E.B Du Bois, who were key figures in the pan-african movement and led the development of the first world-wide African vanguard parties and Pan-African Congresses. Core aspects of the party ideology include the developments of the A-ACPC and A-APRA by the A-APRP to carry out the final stage of African liberation, emphasis on culture as key to developing ideology, and seeking the industrialization of Africa as a means of ending the colonial mode of production. Nkrumahism-Touréism-Cabralism is a Scientific Socialist ideology and upholds dialectical and historical materialism, but rejects the label of Marxist on the basis of both the limitations of Marxist theory in the African context and the fact that both Marx and Engels were mere observers and not inventors of Scientific Socialist principles. As implied by Kwame Ture, anyone in Africa who studied capital relations would have come to the same conclusions as Marx just as any African who studied gravity would have come to the same conclusion as Newton. The party views the idea of Marx being an inventor of Scientific Socialism or Marxism being synonymous with Scientific Socialism as an extension of the Europeanization of scientific disciplines.

International Relations and Activism

African Liberation Day festival

Inheriting the anti-imperialist stances of the Student-Nonviolent Coordinating Committee under Kwame Ture, the A-APRP became staunch supporters of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and has upheld a strict anti-Zionist position on the Palestinian conflict since the party's inception. The A-APRP also built ties with the American Indian Movement and campaigned for indigenous self-determination in the United States.

Since the party's founding, the organization has forged a strong relationship with the following groups:

American Indian Movement

African National Congress

Azania People’s Organization

Communist Party of Cuba

Democratic Party of Guinea

Front for the Liberation of Mozambique

Irish Republican Socialist Movement

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola

National Front for the Liberation of the Congo

Palestine Liberation Organization

Pan Africanist Congress of Azania

Pan-African Union of Sierra Leone

African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde

Southwest African People’s Organization

Workers' Party of Korea

Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front

Structure

Membership Levels

Affiliates of the A-APRP are divided up into 3 categories; Supporter, Pre-Cadre, and Cadre.

Supporter is the lowest level of affiliation and is made up of volunteers who donate financial resources or work contributions to the party. Often times supporters will transition to Cadre through the A-APRP orientation process.

Pre-Cadre is the second level of affiliation in which an individual is going through the evaluation process for promotion. To become a Cadre one must demonstrate dedication to the party by joining or helping to create a work-study circle and carrying out party tasks.

Cadre is the stage of full-membership that grants access to local and international party summits. Cadre are obligated to pay party dues and complete tasks to maintain membership in the A-APRP.

Organizational Hierarchy

Work-study circles are the life force of the A-APRP, comprised of up to 10 members in an area. Participation in work-study circles are necessary as it helps build a mutual understanding on global affairs, African history and culture, and articulation of party decisions through collective study. These discussions also report collective work to the party

Above the work-study circles are the Party Branches, which are comprised of cities and their surrounding areas. Each branch is governed by an Executive Committee that is elected annually. The primary objectives of the Executive Committees are to report indiscipline to higher party bodies, promote general education among members, keep records for membership and organize local Africans.

Party Chapters are comprised of Branches within a zone. Chapters are administered by an Executive Committee comprised of Secretaries and representatives of mass organizations affiliated with the A-APRP. Each Executive Committee is elected by the meeting of Branch delegations, which culminate into the Chapter Conferences.

The highest expression of democracy within the A-APRP is the All-African Party Congress (A-APC) which is held once every 5 years. One delegate from each chapter and two from every mass organization is sent to participate in the A-APC. The functions of the A-APC include the examination of chapters, adopt and revise the constitution/by-laws of the party, elect party officers and to discuss and approve policies concerning the A-APRP and participation in the A-ACPC.

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