Colby Byrd: What Malcolm X means to me

We share this piece to commemorate the revolutionary leader Malcolm X, who was assassinated 60 years ago on Feb. 21, 1965. 

Malcolm X means an unshakable Brotherhood made in Blood. He means Uncompromising Resistance. He means Revolution … violent and untameable. Finally, Malcolm X means Liberation by any means Necessary. 

All these principles build on each other. As one discovers their fellow Blood Brothers, they begin to help them and fight for them. As the fighting continues, it reaches a point of no return where there is no longer just a fight to stay afloat, to stay alive, but now an uncontrollable brawl. A complete and total struggle to rid your Blood Brothers of whatever is afflicting them. And this struggle is fought until total victory.

Malcolm X reminds us that our fight is one for human rights, not civil rights. We are fighting for our equality as human beings, not as citizens of the U.S. We are fighting to end the exploitation of us all worldwide. We are fighting to destroy this hypocritical “democracy” for the rich and kill the bloodsucker known as Capitalism. 

He respected the fight. He analyzed what the revolution would look like and never once shied away from explaining how a mutually bloody fight was coming. He openly endorsed armed resistance to occupation and oppression. Whether it be Police in Harlem or Paratroopers in Vietnam, he understood that occupation is a tool of war used by the ruling class on all those below. 

His words from 1964 and ‘65 hold the same weight and relay the same relevant warnings here in 2025. The casbahs of Algiers back then are the refugee camps of Palestine today. The tactics used by French Paratroopers and Harlem police are now the tactics of the Zionist state of Israel and any city Police department. The game played on Black people of this nation back in 1964 continues to be played on us now. Forced to vote to “save” the nation, while no matter the outcome, getting left behind. His warnings against following the leadership that, although may be preaching for change and progress, they are ultimately tools of compromise that are backed by and rooted within the systems of oppression. His times’ Mau-Mau are our Al-Qassam.

In 2025, who are my blood brothers? Who are the people that have struggled as I have struggled? The list is almost never-ending, and that is the point. My Blood Brothers are the victims of racism, of homophobia, of misogyny. They are those fighting against Western Imperialism in defense of their homes and ways of life. My blood Brothers are the victims of natural disasters here, left abandoned by their government, the many people snatched up by today’s slave catchers, Queer people fighting to not be erased from society, and women fighting for bodily autonomy. My blood brothers are the Palestinian Resistance overseas and everyone of the Global South.

This family must learn how to support one another and how to fight off each other’s enemies. This family must always step together, where one blood brother goes we all go. When one is humiliated, we all are, and when one fights back, we all fight back. 

Colby Byrd is a young union member and organizer with the People’s Power Assembly and Struggle for Socialism. Byrd organized support for Baltimore Sanitation workers.