Celebrating 40 years of the Black Panther Party
5 Comments Published by LeftyHenry on Sunday at 1:27 AM.
This weekend, the Black Panther Party will be holding a reunion in Oakland where they plan to hold various workshops on current issues like Hurricane Katrina.
The Black Panther Party was formed in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale as a Militant civil rights movement group. The Black Panther Party was perhaps the most revolutionary party in American history to this date. They are famous for monitoring police activity in black neighborhoods while armed. They also are famous for violent shoot-outs with cops.
They also accomplished alot within black communities. They set up free health clinics and were very good at keeping money in the neighborhood thus strengthening the local economy.
One of the lesser known facts about the Black Panther Party is that they were Marxists and Leninists who saw themselves as a vanguard party for a socialist revolution. They also were greatly inspired by Mao Zedong. This was apparent in their 'Ten Point Program'
1.) We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed communities.
2.) We want full employment for our people.
3.) We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black and oppressed communities.
4.) We want decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings.
5.) We want decent education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent american society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.
6.) We want completely free health care for all black and oppressed people.
7.) We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people, other people of color, all oppressed people inside the united states.
8.) We want an immediate end to all wars of aggression.
9.) We want freedom for all black and oppressed people now held in u. S. Federal, state, county, city and military prisons and jails. We want trials by a jury of peers for all persons charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this country.
10.) We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people's community control of modern technology.
In sum, the Black Panthers were more than just a blip on the screen of history. Even though they had only 5000 members at their peak, they inspired thousands if not millions and was the first organization to really pose a threat to the government and institution. The Black Panther Party left a significant mark on the 20th century.
It's been 40 years? I know the Panthers from what my parents told me (LOL).
The uniform thing was stupid. Why not just put a target on your back.
People are romanticizing them now. It is forgotten Eldridge Cleaver became a born-again, Bobby Seale a cookbook writer, Huey a drug dealer and the rest Democrats. That is what happens to Maoists and nationalists.
Regards.
The important thing is the movement not the individuals...
The uniform was important in context because they were saying here we are, out in the open, proud and unashamed. It also helped delinate who was part of the action and who was not - so the police could not just shoot black people in general (well, that's the theory). It also helped reinforce the idea of self discipline for BPP members.
I'm not keen on uniform wearing myself but as part of a decade that helped shape radical black identity and a willingness to self organise I think it was important.
It is not correct to write-off any kind of counter culture movements that came up during the 60s and 70s, coz they infact had a wider influence. Here in India, the opressed or the lower castes- The dalits, formed Dalit Panthers after seeing the struggling afro americans grouping to get a bttere life. So it did influence some movements and did instigate some discussions in the intellectual world. Everyone who is opprssed will fight back and Black Panthers were born out of that feeling.
Cheers to you for carrying such an article!
This blog resembles mine,as it carries itself in the same template i am using!
Cheers to you once more!!
I think it is easy renegade to cast away the perhaps most revolutionary proletarian movement in US history as nothing more than "nostalgia." But begging the question as you do, I guess one should look long and hard at American Trotskyism firstly.
How is it that BBP became successful for their time in raising the consciousness of the masses, where permanent revolution and labor discipline theory is continually showing itself dead end.
Shinethepath,
you're right. American Trotskyism is in a sad state but what of maoism? The crypto-trotskyist RCP and the grammatically challenged MIM? But you're right. The Black Panthers deserve recognition which was the purpose of this post.