Publisher's Synopsis
From the introduction: A cursory review of modern history will show that very rarely will a group/community/country achieve sustainable political and social power without economic power. While economic power alone will not solve the Black community's problems, any plan or strategy that does not have a strong economic component will most certainly be a nonstarter. Token political appointments without economic clout behind them are symbolic at best; not very useful for affecting the social or political landscape of a market-driven society. As stated by Dr. Claud Anderson, "Groups with their own economies make wealth-producing decisions in their own best interests. The world is a competitive place and there are few, if any, incentives for other groups to intentionally make decisions in the best interests of Black Americans." And Chancellor Williams states: The economic basis of African life was originally cooperative. Mutual aid was, perhaps, the most significant aspect of the culture. Cooperative undertakings did not stem from any ideology other than commonsense, for them cooperation was one of nature's more important schemes for survival.It seems that this common sense is no longer common.Furthermore, the severe lack or mismanagement of resources can cripple institutional capacity, and both directly and indirectly cause a ripple effect of problems in many other areas of a society (health, education, religion/spirituality, politics/law, etc.). Assuming this basic understanding is correct, Africans and their descendants around the globe must adopt a strategy of cooperative economic self-determination as a prerequisite for the sustainable improvement and continual, positive progression of their existence. Oppressed and under-developed societies throughout history have used various forms of cooperative self-help to improve their standing among other nations. At its core, an economy is simply a set of relationships between people. For the purposes of this work we are defining economic development as the development of economic systems, which work in concert with social, cultural, and political systems, to fund the advancement of a culture and/or society. The scholarship around Black economic development already exists in significant volume. However, it seems that the Black institutions, and the leaders within them, with the most potential to make use of these insights lack the knowledge, vision and/or strategic direction to capitalise upon them. They rely on 20th century strategies and tactics that are left over from the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. Hopefully this work can help at least one large organization take a step in the right direction.
