Revolutionary Action Movement i genealogia radykalnego czarnego nacjonalizmu: od ruchu praw obywatelskich do internacjonalizmu trzecioświatowego

Sebastian Urbaniak

doi:10.25167/sk.6100

Published: 2025-12-31

No. 14 (2025)

The Revolutionary Action Movement and the genealogy of radical Black nationalism: From civil rights movement to Third-World Internationalism

Sebastian Urbaniak

Studia Krytyczne/Critical Studies

Section: Temat numeru

https://doi.org/10.25167/sk.6100

Abstract

The article analyzes the origins, activities, and ideological evolution of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM)—one of the key, though often overlooked, organizations of the radical Black liberation movement in the United States. The author presents RAM as a link between the liberal civil rights movement and the radical current of Black Power, within which a synthesis of Marxism, Black nationalism, and Third World internationalism emerged. Founded in 1962 within the student milieu of Ohio’s Central State College, RAM grew out of disillusionment with the reformism of the NAACP and the SCLC, as well as inspiration drawn from the thought of Malcolm X and Robert F. Williams. The organization rejected the strategy of nonviolence, advocating instead a vision of revolutionary nationalism and solidarity with anti-imperialist movements of the Third World. Its activities—from educational campaigns and protests in Philadelphia to publications such as Black America and Soulbook—constituted an intellectual foundation for future formations, including the Black Panther Party. At the core of RAM’s ideology was the conviction that African Americans constituted a “nation within a nation,” colonized within American capitalism. Their liberation required a social and cultural revolution that combined class struggle with the struggle for self-determination. Drawing on Marxism and the ideas of Harold Cruse, Frantz Fanon, and Harry Haywood, RAM developed an original model of “Black internationalism.” The author argues that despite its brief existence, RAM played a crucial role in shaping modern Black radicalism by linking anti-racism with anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism, and that its legacy remains significant for contemporary studies of decoloniality and theories of resistance.

Keywords:

Revolutionary Action Movement, czarny nacjonalizm, ruch praw obywatelskich, rewolucyjny nacjonalizm, Black Power

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Urbaniak, S. (2025). The Revolutionary Action Movement and the genealogy of radical Black nationalism: From civil rights movement to Third-World Internationalism. Studia Krytyczne/Critical Studies, (14), 29–50. https://doi.org/10.25167/sk.6100

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