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- Abu-Jamal, Mumia -.
- Accountability - Organization.
- Accumulation of Wealth - This phrase refers to the ongoing effort of people to "get rich" by any means necessary. Usually this is what people dedicate their lives to in a capitalist society.
- Activism - Community level struggle. Sometimes it is organized, but not always. Regardless of how radical it may be, activism by itself is never the same as revolutionary struggle, but by definition is short-term.
- Acuña, Rodolfo - Author of Occupied America - an important book on Chicano history, although it still does not include the history of UdB.
- Adam Smith - See "Smith, Adam".
- Adelita - A nickname given to women soldier-revolutionaries that fought in General Francisco Villa's army of the North during the Mexican Revolution. Las Adelitas Mexicanas were one of the first examples of mujeres liberating themselves through revolutionary struggle. Valentina Ramirez was one very important Adelita. Also known a "soldaderas".
- Adolf Hitler - See "Hitler, Adolf".
- Adventurism - A reckless and irresponsible approach to struggle. Adventurist actions usually place the work and lives of others in danger. Adventurist individuals refuse to work collectively or be accountable for their actions, and place their own ideas about struggle before the collective, and see collective discussion as a waste of time.
- Africa - A continent of Europe and between the Atlantic and Indian oceans. 600,000,000; a. 11,700,000 so. miles. Africa has tremendous natural wealth - gold, silver, oil, wood, minerals, diamonds... Vast jungles, forests, mountains, rivers (including the Nile river), lakes, deserts, volcanoes, culture, pyramids, history... At the same time tremendous poverty exists there and some of the poorest people in the world are in Africa. Conscious people must ask ourselves "why is that?" See "African Independence".
- African (Black) - Used by the APSP, we say African or Black, but understand African (from Africa.
- African Independence - The fight of African countries to win independence from European colonial powers. This struggle was very important for African people because for hundreds of years European countries had been stealing from Africa, and imposing terrible violence and poverty on the people. Two of the greatest leaders of African Independence were Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo.
- African People's Socialist Party (APSP) - Also known within UdB as the "Uhuru Movement", we have maintained a fraternal relationship with the APSP since 1986, and the leadership of Chairman Omali Yeshitela has had a significant influence within the world-view and ideological development of UdB.
- Agnosticism - The belief that there can never be proof that either gods exists or do not exist - that there is no way of knowing either way.
- Alaska - Now a state of the U.S., it is the territory originally belonging to the "Inupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Inuit, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Eyak, and a number of Northern Athabaskan" peoples.
- Albizu Campos, Pedro - Leader of Puerto Rican liberation struggle.
- Alianza Federal de Mercedes - This was the organization founded by Reies Lopez Tijerina in New Mexico during the early 1960's. The organization was created to fight for the rights of la raza in New Mexico. The people leading this struggle still had Spanish Land Grants, but had had their land taken from them by white ranchers and the U.S. federal government in the years after the U.S. war against Mexico.
- Allende Gossens, Salvador - Compañero Presidente - Allende was the presidential candidate of Unidad Popular in Chile, and was elected in 1970 leading the first elected socialist government in Latin America. His government was overthrown in 1973 by a coup led by the CIA and A. Pinochet. Allende was assassinated during the coup.
- Allied Powers - The Allied Powers in WWI and WWII revolved primarily around the political and military alliance between England, France, Russia, and the United States.
- Algeria - A republic in Northwest Africa. Gained independence from France 1962. 23,850,000; 919,352 sq. miles. Capital: Algiers.
- Alurista - .
- Alvaro Obregon - See "Obregon, Alvaro".
Amaru, Túpac - Was the last indigenous leader of the Inca state in Peru.
- American Indian Movement (AIM) - A Native American organization in the United States and Canada that fought for the rights of indigenous people of North America. Founded in Minneapolis, Minn., in 1968 by Dennis Banks and Clyde Betancourt, AIM was a very important group and should be studied.
- American Revolution - 1775 - 1783. The war between Great Britain and it's American colonies, by which the colonies won independence and declared the foundation of the United States of America.
- Anarchist - The concept that all forms of government (the state) should be overturned for there to be freedom. There are too many different forms of anarchist ideologies to cover here, but the most significant idea they uphold is that they tend to be very anti-organization. Some people hide behind the banner of anarchism and take on a hippie, liberal-radical, "do your own thing" approach to struggle. In reality, this is a bourgeois approach, posing as radical ideas.
- Ancien Régime - .
- Angola - A republic in Southwest Africa: formerly an overseas province of Portugal; gained independence on November 11, 1975. 9,390,000; 481,226 sq. miles. Capital: Luanda.
- Anguiano, Marco - Compa Marco was a leading member of UdB through the 1990s. After having left UdB for a few years, he decided to come back into the group when he found out that he was very ill. His orientation and re-integration into UdB took place in the hospital room where three days later he passed away. During this orientation he expressed "it was always my wish to die a revolutionary, and for this reason I knew I had to return to be a member of Unión del Barrio." He was a skilled writer, designer, speaker, and political thinker.
- Antarctica - A continent surrounding the north pole; almost entirely covered by an ice sheet. a. 5,000,000 so. miles. Big chunk of ice at the bottom of the world.
- Anti-Communism - All the countries, people, and organizations that dedicated themselves to destroying people and countries who were trying to build communism. This was very strong during the Cold War of 1945 - 1993, and it was most actively led and defined by the United States. Millions of people have died as a result of anti-communist activities all around the world.
- Anti-Organization - Individuals that believe that they can struggle and bring about change by themselves, and refuse to commit to an organized effort. This is a bourgeois individualistic trait, that is usually based more on a refusal to be accountable than any ideal of personal freedom. This trend is very popular among anarchists and intellectuals.
- Anti-War Movement - During the 1960's a very large percentage of the United States population, as well as many people around the world, expressed their opposition to war in general, and against the U.S. war in Vietnam especially. The hippies participated in this movement to avoid having to fight in the Vietnam War, and other people went against the war because they wanted the U.S. government to stop fighting against the Vietnamese communists.
- Apache - An indigenous people whose land ranged over present eastern Arizona, northwestern Mexico, New Mexico, Texas and the southern Great Plains. The Apache tribes were historically very powerful, resisting the Spaniards and Europeans for centuries. In 19th century confrontations, the U.S. army found the Apache to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists.
- Apartheid - In the republic of South Africa, a former policy of legalized racism and segregation of the African population that was dominated by the white settler population. Also can be used to describe a legal system or practice that separates people according to race, caste, etc.
- Apprentice - Under the Domestic System in England the apprentice was the lowest position you could have, and was almost like being a slave.
- Arbenz, Jacobo - Former president of Guatemala who was overthrown by a CIA led coup.
- Archduke Ferdinand - See "Ferdinand, Archduke".
- Argentina - Latin American country in South America.
- Arm Chair Revolutionary - .
- Asia - A continent bounded by Europe and the Arctic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. 3,069,000,000; a. 16,000,000 sq., miles. The most populated continent in the world... The majority people on the earth are Asians.
- Assembly Line - An arrangement of machines, tools, and workers in which a product is assembled in a particular sequence, as it moves along a direct line or route. This is an advanced form of a "division of labor".
- Assimilation - To have something that is outside or foreign to you and internalize it making it a part of yourself.
- Atlantic Ocean - Massive body of water between the east coast of the Americas, and the west coast of Europe & Africa.
- Atomic Bomb - Used by the U.S. against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII, this is a bomb whose potency is derived from nuclear fission (violent forcing together) of atoms of fissionable material with the conversion of part of their mass into energy. A bomb whose explosive force comes from a chain reaction based on nuclear fission in U-235 or plutonium.
- August 29, 1970 - Date of the large Chicano-led marcha against the Vietnam war, and for the rights of la raza. It was violently repressed by the police and sheriffs.
- August 25, 1990 - The 20th Commemoration of the Chicano Moratorium.
- Australia - A continent South East of Asia between the Indian and Pacific oceans. 15,763,000; 2,948,366 so. miles. The only continent that is also island. Colonized by Europeans as prison settlement for convicts from England.
- Auschwitz - A Nazi prison camp during WWII known for its mass murder of Jews and others the Nazis wanted to eliminate from Europe.
- Authoritarian - A word used by liberals to describe any form of government the is a not a liberal-capitalist procedural democracy.
- Authority - The power to tell others what to do and they are compelled to do it. There are different forms of authority and it can be applied in different ways.
- Autonomy (Autonomous) - To control something independently, without outside interference or influence.
- Awareness - This refers to the state of knowing what is going on in the world around you. It is the opposite of ignorance.
- Axis Powers - The name given to the countries united politically and militarily in WWII. The main countries were Germany, Japan and Italy, and these were primarily anti-communist, fascist, and militaristic countries.
- Aztec - See "Mexica".
- Aztlán - The land from which the Mexica (Aztecs) originally came from. The Chicano Movement defined Aztlán as the Southwest part of the U.S. referring to those states stolen from Mexico by the U.S. during the US War against Mexico, 1846 - 1848. The states that were stolen were California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, as well as other territories. This can also be referred to as "Mexico Ocupado".
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