Editing Marcus Garvey (section)

===Economic views===
{{Quote box
| quote =We must prepare now by organizing ourselves all over the world, by building businesses, stores and factories to sustain our people and free ourselves.
| source=— Marcus Garvey{{sfn|Fierce|1972|p=50}}
| align = right
| width = 25em
}}

Garvey believed in economic independence for the African diaspora and through the UNIA, he attempted to achieve it by forming ventures like the Black Star
Line and the Negro Factories Corporation.{{sfnm|1a1=Fierce|1y=1972|1p=54|2a1=Chapman|2y=2004|2p=425}} In Garvey's opinion, "without commerce and industry, a people perish economically. The Negro is perishing because he has no economic system".{{sfn|Carter|2002|p=2}} In his view, European-American employers would always favor European-American employees, so to gain more security, African Americans needed to form their own businesses.{{sfn|Hart|1967|p=234}} In his words, "the Negro[...] must become independent of white capital and white employers if he wants salvation."{{sfn|Fierce|1972|pp=57–58}} He believed that financial independence for the African-American community would ensure greater protection from discrimination,{{sfn|Carter|2002|p=2}} and provide the foundation for [[social justice]].{{sfn|Grant|2003|pp=496–497}}

Economically, Garvey supported [[capitalism]],{{sfnm|1a1=Moses|1y=1972|1p=46|2a1=Carter|2y=2002|2p=3|3a1=Grant|3y=2003|3p=495}} stating that "capitalism is necessary to the progress of the world, and those who unreasonably and wantonly oppose it or fight against it are enemies of human advancement."{{sfn|Moses|1972|p=46}} In the U.S., Garvey promoted a capitalistic ethos for the economic development of the African-American community,{{sfn|Carter|2002|p=1}} advocating [[black capitalism]].{{sfn|Fierce|1972|pp=58, 59}} His emphasis on capitalist ventures meant, according to Grant, that Garvey "was making a straight pitch to the petit-bourgeois capitalist instinct of the majority of black folk."{{sfn|Grant|2008|p=234}}

He admired [[Booker T. Washington]]'s economic endeavours but criticized his focus on individualism: Garvey believed that African-American interests would best be advanced if businesses included collective decision-making and group profit-sharing.{{sfn|Carter|2002|p=1}} His advocacy of capitalistic wealth distribution was a more equitable view of capitalism than the view of capitalism which was then prevalent in the U.S.;{{sfn|Fierce|1972|p=59}} he believed that some restrictions should be imposed on individuals and businesses in order to prevent them from acquiring too much wealth, in his view, no individual should be allowed to control more than one million dollars and no company should be allowed to control more than five million dollars.{{sfn|Moses|1972|p=46}} While he was living in Harlem, he envisioned the formation of a global network of black people who would trade among themselves, believing that his Black Star Line would contribute to the achievement of this aim.{{sfn|Grant|2008|p=230}}

There is no evidence to support the view that Garvey was ever sympathetic to [[socialism]].{{sfn|Grant|2008|p=141}} While he was living in the U.S., he strongly opposed attempts to recruit African Americans into the [[trade union]] movement by socialist and [[Communism|communist]] groups,{{sfn|Hart|1967|p=226}} and he urged African Americans not to support the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]].{{sfn|Carter|2002|p=4}} This led to heavy scrutiny from communist group leaders and figureheads such as [[Grace Campbell]], among others. He believed that the communist movement did not serve the interests of African Americans because it was a white person's creation.{{sfn|Carter|2002|p=4}} He stated that communism was "a dangerous theory of economic or political reformation because it seeks to put government in the hands of an ignorant white mass who have not been able to destroy their natural prejudices towards Negroes and other non-white people. While it may be a good thing for them, it will be a bad thing for the Negroes who will fall under the government of the most ignorant, prejudiced class of the white race."{{sfn|Carter|2002|p=4}} In response, the [[Communist International]] characterised Garveyism as a reactionary bourgeois philosophy.{{sfn|Hart|1967|p=234}}