The Hampton Institute (HI) is a proletarian (working-class) think tank founded in 2013. In contrast to traditional think tanks, we are a virtual organization that does not have a physical location and does not seek to provide specific policy analysis for political parties. For organizational purposes, our official location is in Albany, New York with a mailing address in Clifton Park, New York. Our chairpersons, contributing editors, and authors are located throughout the Americas, in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
The HI was founded by Colin Jenkins, a socialist, with the purpose of giving a platform to everyday, working-class people to theorize, comment, analyze, and discuss matters that exist outside the confines of our daily lives, yet greatly impact us on a daily basis. We are named as a tribute to former Black Panther Party member and revolutionary martyr, Fred Hampton, and also take inspiration from Italian Marxist theorist, Antonio Gramsci, and popular educators and philosophers, like Paulo Freire and Argelia Laya.
We exist to fill the historical void that Gramsci once termed, “Organic Intellectualism” – the collective politicization and critical analysis of and from the working class itself. We are indifferent to traditional structures dominated by the pedigreed and privileged intelligentsia. Our members are passionate and probing members of the commons who believe that intelligent analysis exists throughout the socioeconomic spectrum, and the only thing that separates those who own a public voice and those who do not is varying degrees of privilege. Thus, credentials earned and given through dominant society are often nothing more than products of privilege; and for that reason alone, perspectives and analyses coming from these credentials/privilege are often presented in a way that opposes the public-at-large (the working class). We seek to challenge this embedded, highly controlled, and top-down mode of inquiry by offering an alternative, organic, and bottom-up viewpoint.
We seek to build class consciousness. We seek to end oppressive systems like capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. We seek the liberation of all through the construction of a society organized around the needs of the community, earth, and society.
All power to the people!