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EDITORIAL
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EDITORIALd
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This magazine –Panther Legacy - has been put
together by the Black Panther Commemora-
tion Committee in time for the visit to Lon-
don of Emory Douglas, former Minister of
Culture of the Black Panther Party for Self-
Defence, and Billy X Jennings, head of the
Black Panther Alumni.
It is an honour to welcome these Brothers in
order to spread the legacy of the Panthers
and to raise money for the Black Panther
Alumni projects. It is the very least that the
BPCC can do, indebted as we are to the ex-
ample and sacrifice by the members of the
Black Panthers on behalf of oppressed peo-
ple in the US and across the world.
Whereas many people will know something
of the Panthers due to frequent references in
popular culture, especially in Hip-Hop, many
people do not necessarily have an under-
standing of what the Panthers stood for and
what happened to the organisation. We hope
that this publication will be a tool for learning
as to the legacy of the Black Panthers, their
commitment to ideology and struggle to
better the conditions of their/our peoples.
The Black Panthers in the US made an impor-
tant contribution to developing the world
struggle against oppression and racism in the
late 1960s and 1970s. The post-Second World
War period saw a massive upsurge in the
worldwide struggle with the newly estab-
lished socialist countries in East Europe,
north Korea and China assisting by every
means ‘Third World’ anti-imperialist struggles
such as those in Vietnam, South Africa, Cuba,
Algeria, Egypt, Mozambique, Namibia, Zim-
babwe and many other places. The Black
Panthers were a part of this global struggle.
The Black Panthers in the US were an exam-
ple of a radical grassroots movement for
revolutionary change within the ‘West’ itself.
The Panthers along with many other move-
ments in the Black Liberation Movement and
their allies amongst the movements in the
Native American, Hispanic, Chinese, and
radical White left communities, had achieved
the highest level of mass revolutionary strug-
gle in the US.
The Panthers understood hat they had a
unique internationalist duty, as their struggle
was positioned within the US, the country
which was conducting a world offensive
against Third World peoples and socialist
countries. As the Field Marshall of the Black
Panther Party, George Jackson (murdered by
prison guards in Soledad prison in August
1971) stated in his Prison Diaries in 1970; “The
entire colonial world is watching the blacks
inside the U.S., wondering and waiting for us to
come to our senses. Their problems and strug-
gles with the Amerikan monster are much more
difficult than they would be if we actively aided
them. We are on the inside. We are the only
ones (besides the very small white minority left)
who can get at the monster’s heart without
subjecting the world to nuclear fire. We have a
momentous historical role to act out if we will.”
The students and intellectuals who were
rebelling were tamed in the 1960s and ‘70s.
The white working class were also manipu-
lated by the elites through racism to divide
the masses. In contrast oppressed peoples in
the West, such as those represented by the
Panthers played and continue to play a fun-
damental role in developing the struggle for
a people-centred society: one which treats
working people with dignity and a society
which compensates Third World peoples for
the holocausts committed against them by
the Western elites, and opens up a new era of
respect and friendship with them.
To those of us who are committed to pro-
gressive change, the Panthers remain an
important experience to learn from. There
are also other examples of struggle in the
West. Some of these struggles and move-
ments were crushed while others have stead-
ily developed their socialist and anti-
imperialist strategies such as the people in
Ireland, Ireland being a colony of England’s
for over 800 years. For us in England, Scot-
land and Wales, the struggle of the Irish Re-
publicans remains another primary reference
for our struggles today. They are taking up
the same challenges in their communities
that we face in our communities. The differ-
ence between us and them is that they have
a political movement whereas we don’t. And
this remains a central issue for us in England
where the movement is next to non-existent
for the masses of people in our communities:
to learn the lessons of the Panthers, as part of
the experience of oppressed people through-
out the world, and apply it in our the present
conditions.
We also have important struggles from the
Scottish, Welsh and Black and Asian working
class struggles to learn from. The experiences
in Brixton, Southall, Ladbroke Grove/Notting
Hill, Toxteth, Bristol, Handsworth and many
other communities as well as the Great Min-
ers Strike of 1984-85 remain important recent
histories whose lessons, both positive and
negative, need to be returned to time and
time again.
For people today confronting problems of
Islamophobia, war and racism in all its forms,
homophobia and sexism, poverty and youth-
on-youth crime in our communities, the ex-
periences and initiatives of the Black Pan-
thers in the US deserved to be looked at very
closely. The challenge remains today as it was
in George Jackson’s time, as the former Field
Marshall stated: “The whole world for all time
in the future will love us and remember us as
the righteous people who made it possible for
the world to live on. If we fail through fear and
lack of aggressive imagination, then the slaves
of the future will curse us, as we sometimes
curse those of yesterday. I don’t want to die and
leave a few sad songs and a hump in the
ground as my only monument. I want to leave a
world that is liberated from trash, pollution,
racism, nation-states, nation-state wars and
armies, from pomp, bigotry, parochialism, a
thousand different brands of untruth, and li-
centious usurious economics.”
Indeed we in the BPCC salute those who
struggled and sacrificed in the worldwide
Black Panther movement. We will keep on
keeping on.
Sukant Chandan
London, November 2008
ABOUT US
The Black Panther Commemoration Commit-
tee in England consists of people from differ-
ent political experiences and backgrounds
who came together in the September 2008
united in the belief that the Black Panther
Party for Self Defence was one of the most
important experiences of oppressed people's
social, political and cultural struggle in the
West.
AIMS
The BPCC work towards keeping the experi-
ence and legacy of the Black Panthers alive
for current and future generations.
The BPCC support the excellent work of the
Black Panther Alumni.
The BPCC support and work towards cam-
paigning for justice and liberation of political
prisoners who were associated with the Black
Panthers.
The BPCC understands that the Black Pan-
thers had an international impact, and we
believe in raising consciousness about the
experiences and legacy of the Black Panthers
across the world, and especially here in Eng-
land.
bpcc66@gmail.com
blackpanther1966.blogspot.com

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PANTHER LEGACY
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hgfdhjhgkjkdjfkdmnviorgnfvkdfjkasdjfkljhh
HONOURING THE RANK AND FILE MEMBERS
OF THEtheBLACK
Honouring PANTHER
Rank and File MembersPARTY
of the Black Panther Party
Elbert ‘Big Man’ Howard
Elbert ‘Big Man’ Howard
Why honour the rank and file members
and who were these members?
The answers to these questions are
found by remembering and giving rec-
ognition to those who actually did the
work and who really made the Black
Panther Party Programs happen.
The reality is that the average Party
member was between the ages of 18 to
20 years old. These young Party mem-
bers worked long and very hard hours
both day and night without any pay.
They lived collectively and shared al-
most everything with their fellow Pan-
ther members. They owned nothing and
for the most part their closest relation-
ships were with their comrades.
practiced the art of collective thinking
Elbert "Big Man" Howard, one of the origi-
by casting aside egotism and arrogance.
The nal six members of the Black Panther
Party, served as the Party's deputy minister
“We” became more important than the of information and as a member of the
“I”. International Solidarity Committee. He
was the founding editor of the Party's
These were no easy tasks, but for the
newspaper, the Black Panther Party Com-
rank and file members of the Black Pan-
munity News Service. Howard’s Panther
ther Party to accomplish them on a na-
on the Prowl is available by sending a
tional level, among poor, Black, disen-
money order for 15 US dollars to him and
franchised, and oppressed people, were
the DVD A History of the Black Panther
monumental and astounding revolu-
Party is available for $20
tionary achievements.
He can be emailed at:
ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND ALL
bigman0138@aol.com
POWER TO THE RANK AND FILE MEM-
BERS OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY.

These young Panthers rose at dawn and

worked until their assigned jobs were
done. They functioned for the people
and for their communities. They shoul-
dered the tasks of cooking breakfasts for
school children and working in the com-
munities soliciting donations in order to
keep those programs supplied. They
went door-to-door, gathering signatures
for petitions on issues that affected their
communities and educating those com-
munities on those same issues. They
collected clothes for the free clothing
program.

Very importantly, there was the job of

selling the Black Panther Party Newspa-
pers, which they did every day…door-
to-door, on college campuses, in bars,
restaurants, clubs, bus stations, and on
street corners. This work brought on the
harassment of the police, including
arrests and time in jail. Even imprisoned
they worked to politically educate and
recruit inmates to join the Black Panther
Party.

At the end of the day, these young Pan-

thers were expected to read the Black
Panther Party Newspaper cover-to-
cover. They also had to attend political
education classes as well as rallies and
demonstrations. They were expected to
memorize and understand the Party’s 10
Point Party Program and Platform, the
Three Main Rules of Discipline, and the
Rules of the Black Panther Party.

The rank and file members of the Black

Panther Party forged new revolutionary
ways of thinking and demonstrated new
ways of behaving. They developed and

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PANTHER LEGACY
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hgfdhjhgkdmnvior
WHY THE PANTHERS ARE NOT RACISTS
Taken from Bobby Seale’s Seize The Time
The Black Panther Party is not a black
racist organization, not a racist organiza-
tion at all. We understand where racism
comes from. Our Minister of Defense,
Huey P. Newton, has taught us to under-
stand that we have to oppose all kinds of
racism. The Party understands the imbed-
ded racism in a large part of white Amer-
ica and it understands that the very small
cults that sprout up every now and then
in the black community have a basically
black racist philosophy.
The Black Panther Party would not stoop
to the low, scurvy level of a Ku Klux Klans-
man, a white supremacist, or the so-called
"patriotic" white citizens organizations,
which hate black people because of the
color of their skin. Even though some
white citizens organizations will stand up
and say, "Oh, we don't hate black people.
It's just that we're not gonna let black
people do this, and we're not gonna let
black people do that." This is scurvy
demagoguery, and the basis of it is the
old racism of tabooing everything, and
especially of tabooing the body. The
black man's mind was stripped by the
social environment, by the decadent
social environment he was subjected to
in slavery and in the years after the so-
called Emancipation Proclamation. Black
people, brown people, Chinese people,
and Vietnamese people are called gooks,
spicks, niggers, and other derogatory
names.
What the Black Panther Party has done in
essence is to call for an alliance and coali-
tion with all of the people and organiza-
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PANTHER LEGACY
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tions who want to move against the
power structure. It is the power structure
who are the pigs and hogs, who have
been robbing the people; the avaricious,
demagogic ruling-class elite who move
the pigs upon our heads and who order
them to do so as a means of maintaining
their same old exploitation.
In the days of worldwide capitalistic im-
perialism, with that imperialism also
manifested right here in America against
many different peoples, we find it neces-
sary, as human beings, to oppose miscon-
ceptions of the day, like integration.
If people want to integrate - and I'm as-
suming they will fifty or 100 years from
now - that's their business. But right now
we have the problem of a ruling-class
system that perpetuates racism and uses
racism as a key to maintain its capitalistic
exploitation. They use blacks, especially
the blacks who come out of the colleges
and the elite class system, because these
blacks have a tendency to flock toward a
black racism which is parallel to the ra-
cism the Ku Klux Klan or white citizens
groups practice.
It's obvious that trying to fight fire with
fire means there's going to be a lot of
burning. The best way to fight fire is with
water because water douses the fire. The
water is the solidarity of the people's right
to defend themselves together in opposi-
tion to a vicious monster. Whatever is
good for the man, can't be good for us.
Whatever is good for the capitalistic rul-
ing-class system, can't be good for the
masses of the people.
We, the Black Panther Party, see ourselves
as a nation within a nation, but not for
any racist reasons. We see it as a necessity
for us to progress as human beings and
live on the face of this earth along with
other people. We do not fight racism with
racism. We fight racism with solidarity.
We do not fight exploitative capitalism
with black capitalism. We fight capitalism
with basic socialism. And we do not fight
imperialism with more imperialism. We
fight imperialism with proletarian interna-
tionalism. These principles are very func-
tional for the Party. They're very practical,
humanistic, and necessary. They should
be understood by the masses of the peo-
ple.
We don't use our guns, we have never
used our guns to go into the white com-
munity to shoot up white people. We
only defend ourselves against anybody,
be they black, blue, green, or red, who
attacks us unjustly and tries to murder us
and kill us for implementing our pro-
grams. All in all, I think people can see
from our past practice, that ours is not a
racist organization but a very progressive
revolutionary party.
Those who want to obscure the struggle
with ethnic differences are the ones who
are aiding and maintaining the exploita-
tion of the masses of the people: poor
whites, poor blacks, browns, red Indians,
poor Chinese and Japanese, and the
workers at large.
Racism and ethnic differences allow the
power structure to exploit the masses of
workers in this country, because that's the
key by which they maintain their control.
To divide the people and conquer them is
the objective of the power structure. It's
the ruling class, the very small minority,
the few avaricious, demagogic hogs and
rats who control and infest the govern-
ment. The ruling class and their running
dogs, their lackeys, their bootlickers, their
Toms and their black racists, their cultural
nationalists - they're all the running dogs
of the ruling class. These are the ones
who help to maintain and aid the power
structure by perpetuating their racist
attitudes and using racism as a means to
divide the people. But it's really the small,
minority ruling class that is dominating,
exploiting, and oppressing the working
and laboring people.
All of us are laboring-class people, em-
ployed or unemployed, and our unity has
got to be based on the practical necessi-
ties of life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap-
piness, if that means anything to any-
body. It's got to be based on the practical
things like the survival of people and
people's right to self-determination, to
iron out the problems that exist. So in
essence it is not at all a race struggle.
We're rapidly educating people to this. In
our view it is a class struggle between the
massive proletarian working class and the
small, minority ruling class. Working-class
people of all colors must unite against the
exploitative, oppressive ruling class. So let
me emphasize again - we believe our
fight is a class struggle and not a race
struggle.
hgfdhjhgkjkdjfkdmnisopopokljdsfaklshhkh
A RISEN PEOPLE
The Panthers and the Irish freedom struggle
Barry McColgan

40 years on
and the Black
Panthers still
provide inspira-
tion and les-
sons for young
progressive
political activ-
ists.
The 1960’s was
a time of great
social change
and upheaval,
with the Cuban
Revolution in
its infancy, the
Cold War at it’s
height, the daily massacres in Vietnam
being flashed across television screens,
and the black civil rights movement in
the US steamrolling forward.
In the north of Ireland, young people,
students, workers and those who could-
n’t get a job, joined together to demand
civil rights, they where inspired by the
positive and defiant actions of the black
community in the USA.
The fraternal links between the Irish and
black American’s have historic links, with
an escaped black slave Frederick Douglas
arriving in Ireland in 1845, to campaign
in support for the anti slavery movement
in the US, receiving backing from Daniel
O’Connell.
The 1960’s was a time to take action,
struggles across the globe showed that
they could only be won by confronting
the oppressor and making the demands
felt loud and clear.
Against this backdrop, an organisation in
Oakland, California, the Black Panther’s
arose in defence of the Black community
and to ensure that civil rights be
achieved and the racism that oppressed,
and marginalised their people be con-
fronted and ended.
Throughout the civil rights movement in
the USA, the white supremacists under
state orders, and in state uniforms, baton
charged, brutalised, jailed and even mur-
dered those who marched in support of
equal rights for the black community, a
similar trait that would later manifest on
the streets of Belfast, Tyrone and Derry.
Defence for the black community was
needed in such times, and the Black
Panthers stood up and where counted
when their people needed them. This
was a major factor in a huge upsurge in
support for the fledgling organisation
national liberation, with Kathleen
Cleaver of the Black Panther’s saying at
the time, “All our sympathies were with
the IRA -- even with the Provisionals --
which soon spread, empowering black because they took such a clear-cut posi-
people and communities across the USA. tion on armed struggle,"
The Black Panthers, where not simply a The Black Panther’s received massive and
defence movement, yet placed commu- sustained harassment and repression
nity led socialism at the very heart of from the US authorities, and coupled
their struggle, they believed in organised with that it has been widely suggested
empowered communities, where citizens that the State allowed and even directed
where cared for and accommodated on a a huge influx of narcotics into black com-
need’s basis. They soon began to organ- munities in order to destroy any attempt
ise many community projects, which at an organised and empowered com-
enhanced and built a community spirit, munity, the same has been said of British
and while providing training, and educa- Intelligence in Ireland, with drug dealer’s
tion, they also provided food kitchens, receiving immunity in return for their
and refuge for the most needy in their attempts at disempowering communi-
communities. ties and passing on information.
While many in the Black Panthers where While the Black Panther’s no longer exist
Marxist-Leninist, they did not stick rigidly as an organisation, their ideology and
or dogmatically to Marx’s teachings, and legacy prevails, they stand as a monu-
very much applied their ideology in a ment to Black Power, and a risen people
modern pragmatic context. who confronted the state head on, ex-
posing their institutionalised racism and
Irish Republican’s similarly organised
ensuring that it could never happen
their struggle through the oppressed
again.
nationalist ghettos in the north, and
while our ultimate objective is a 32 The Black Panther’s played a huge role in
County Socialist Republic, when the building confidence and empowering of
Provisional IRA arose in 1969, their pri- the black and working class communities
mary role was in defence of the national- not only in America, but across the
ist community who where being sub- globe.
jected to genocide, with whole national-
Barry McColgan is national organiser of Sinn
ist streets being burned out and many Fein Youth / Ogra Shinn Fein.
being brutalised and murdered by un- He can be contacted at:
ionist death squads aided by the unionist osfnational@yahoo.ie
state.
The simi-
larities in
the re-
sponse by
both the
Unionist
State and
US au-
thorities
are shock-
ing.
Indeed the
Black Pan-
ther’s kept
a close eye
to Ireland,
the
emerging
civil rights
and war of Fredrick Douglas mural in West Belfast, northern Ireland

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PANTHER LEGACY
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OLIVE MORRIS: A PANTHER IN BRIXTON
Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre

Olive Morris
was an active
member of
the Brixton
Black Panther
Movement
until the
group dis-
solved and
reformed
into a num-
ber of organi-
sations working on specific aspects
within the Black struggle.
The Black Panther and the Black Power
Movements in Britain developed from
the work of the Universal Coloured Peo-
ples Association. Several American Black
Panthers and radical activists visited the
UK and gave lectures in London, includ-
ing Malcom X (1965), Stokely Carmicheal
and Angela Davis (both in 1967). Their
message struck a chord in second gen-
eration Black youth, and gave impulse to
the formation of a local Movement.
The British Black Panther Movement,
although inspired by the ideology of the
US Black Panther Party, was a different
type of organisation that responded to
the specific reality of Black people in the
Britain. As an organised movement it
was short lived, and its main period of
activity was from 1970-1973. Don Lett, a
member of the Movement explains the
difference in an interview by Greg Whit-
field, published by http://
www.punk77.co.uk
“It all seems so easy now, the very word
just rolls off your tongue, “Black British”,
but for awhile back there, it wasn’t so
simple you know? Fundamentally the
Black British and the Black American
experience was different, right from
source. Black Americans were dragged,
screaming and kicking, from the shores
of Africa to an utterly hostile America,
whilst my parents, they bought a ticket
on the ‘The Windrush’ bound for Lon-
don! So, right off, you have it there, a
major fundamental difference. So even
though I attended the Black Panther
meetings, proudly wearing my Angela
Davis badge, read “Soul on Ice”, there
was still so much more that we needed
to do. It’s true that we became aware,
became conscious in many respects and
that was partly due to those Panther
ideologies, but the total relevance of
that movement just didn’t translate into
the Black British experience.”
The Black Panther Movement organised
itself in groups based around a particu-
lar location or area, and each group
organised and run their work and activi-
ties independently but overseen by a
common centre core. This central core -
the intellectual leadership of the move-
ment made up of university students -
organised the setting up of local groups
in areas with a large Black population,
and recruited local working class youth
that constituted the local core.
Many members of the Brixton group
went on to become inspiring commu-
nity leaders and became notorious fig-
ures in their field of work. The Brixton
Panthers had their headquarters at
Shakespeare Road in a house that was
bought with money donated by John
Berger when he won the Bookers Prize.
Here are some of the members of the
Brixton Black Panthers:
Althea Jones - medical doctor
Farukh Dhondi - broadcaster and writer
David Udah - church minister
Darcus Howe - broadcaster
Keith Spencer - community activist
Leila Hussain - community activist
Olive Morris - community activist
Liz Turnbull - community activist
Mala Sen - author
Beverly Bryan - academic and writer
Linton Kwesi Johnson - writer and musi-
cian
Neil Kenlock - photographer and foun-
der of Choice FM London
This quote from an interview with Linton
Kwesi Johnson published in 1998 by
Classical Reggae Interviews, describes
the work and ethos of the Brixton Black
Panthers:
“It was an organization that came in to
combat racial oppression, to combat
police brutality, to combat injustices in
the courts against black people, to com-
bat discrimination at the place of work,
to combat the mis-education of black
youths and black young people.
“The Black Panther movement was not a
separatist organization like Louis Farra-
khan’s ‘Nation Of Islam’. We didn’t be-
lieve in anything like that. Our slogan
was ‘Black Power - People’s Power’…
“…and we also realized that we had to
live in the same world as white people
and that if we wanted to make some
changes we had to win some support
from the progressive section of the
white population.
“We published a newspaper which we
would sell on the streets. I used to do
that myself. Every Saturday morning I
had to go to Brixton Market, Croydon
Market, Ballem Market, wherever…(…).
“…We would organize campaigns
around specific incidents where there
was some racial injustice involving the
police and so on. We had educational
classes for the Youth Section (I was
member of the Youth Section) where we
studied Black History, Politics and Cul-
ture.”
And as a matter of fact it was through
my involvement with the Black Panther
movement I discovered Black Literature
read a book called ‘The Souls Of Black
Folk’ by W.E.B. Dubois and got inspired
to write poetry.
When in time the Black Workers Move-
ment dissolved, its members used the
experience they have gained to set up
new organisations, such as Black Work-
ers Movement, the Race Today Collec-
tive and the Brixton Black Women’s
Group. Olive Morris was a founding
member of the BWG and OWAAD, and
maintained close ties to both organisa-
tions throughout her life, even while she
was based in Manchester.
If you or someone you know was in-
volved with the Brixton Black Panthers
and have stories or pictures of that time
that you are willing to share please get
in touch, in particular if you have any
memories of Olive Morris work in the
Movement.
Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre is an artist from
Uruguay, based in London since 1996. Ana
Laura is currently working on two public art
projects in South London, where she lives. Ana
Laura de la Torre is part of the Remember Olive
Collective -
http://rememberolivemorris.wordpress.com -
and can be contacted at:
lop ez.analaura@gmail.com

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PANTHER LEGACY
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Olive Morris speaking at a rally against police brutality outside Brixton Library (ca. 1972)
hgfdhjhgkjkdjfkdmnrgnfvkdfjkasdjfkljdsfakluhn
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BLACK AND BRITISH?
What does it mean to be black and British?
VanessaWalters
Vanessa Walters

after Malcolm, they were looking mind that Garvey died in Kensington.
across Atlantic too - to find a point of Most of us don’t even know who Mi-
reference Brits could understand. chael X, Claudia Jones or Anthony
Lester.
It is interesting and it is very sad that
we do this. Interesting because this is Positive identity is the starting point
where Michael De Freitas found the for self-improvement and you can’t
inspiration to say some very important truly know yourself, unless you under-
things about what it means to be a stand where and what you have come
black man in Britain. He understood from.
that it was a different experience to
America, hence his thought provoking Vanessa Walters is a UK writer. She has
comment above, despite the fact that written two novels, Rude Girls and Best
at that time he made it black Ameri- Things in Life. She has had several plays
can’s were sitting at the backs of staged around the UK. She has recently
buses. published 'Smoke! Othello!' a poetry
collection about Afro-Caribbean experi-
I
‘ n all the places that I’ve been I think
However, it is sad because our experi- ence in West London. Her latest play
that West Indian people are probably ence is not defined by what happens 'Michael X' is on at The Tabernacle, Not-
the most abandoned people in the in America. ting Hill Gate, London from 6th Novem-
world. Abandoned by their host coun- ber.
try and abandoned by their own coun- Black British people have very differ- www.carnivalvillage.org.uk for bookings
try too.’ ent histories, cultures and even lan- or call box office on 0871 271 51 51
Michael X - 1967 guages compared to African Ameri-
cans. We also live
We have always taken our idea of what in very different
it means to be black from the Ameri- societies. We need
cans. to look to our-
selves for the
Right now we are all black and white answers.
waiting for Obama to define the
meaning of Race in the world today. If In America black
he becomes president what will that history is well
mean – that being black is no longer a known and even
problem? If he doesn’t does that celebrated
mean the West is still a racist place, through legen-
that perhaps America - or any country dary works such as
is ready – will ever be ready for a black Amistad and Be-
head of state. loved and Colour
Purple.
We’ve always looked across the Atlan-
tic for understanding of identity and Where are ours?
for solutions. We too had a rich
and complex his-
In the 50’s and 60’s around the time of tory. We too had
'want a nigger for your neighbour vote our legends and
labour ' and ‘No Irish, no dogs, no our heroes. We
blacks’ black people took their cue also had a civil
from Publicised riots, lynchings and rights movement
segregation in America in terms of and important
their options. After meeting Malcolm leaders. Unfortu-
X. A young Michael de Freitas, a pimp, nately we don’t
Rachman [Ladbroke Grove landlord- know it enough –
editor] hardman and gambler, don’t celebrate it
changed his name to Michael Abdul enough. We know
Malik and decided he was going to more about Mar-
bring about social change in Britain. tin Luther King
This was echoed by the media who
than Marcus Michael X
Garvey – never
immediately baptised him Michael X

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POLYNESIAN BLACK PANTHERS
Sina Brown-Davis

While Nga Tamatoa was

the radical group for
young Maori in the '70s,
the Polynesian Panthers
was the outlet for young
Pacific Island agitators.
Director of Pacific Island Studies at Auckland University, Dr
Melanie Anae, quoted this passage from Panther material, in
a 2004 "Anew" article to highlight the group's outlook.

“The revolution we openly rap about is one of total change.

The revolution is one to liberate us from racism, oppression
and capitalism. We see many of our problems of oppression
and racism are tools of this society's outlook based on capi-
Originally formed in talism; hence for total change one must change society alto-
Auckland in June 1971 as gether.”
the Polynesian Panther
Movement, the organisa- Their Marxism was like that of their US based Black Panther
tion was a fusion of heroes: Maoist oriented. The Panthers also reached out to
young Pacific Island stu- variety of radical allies.
dent radicals and their gang member cousins.
The PPM (known the Polynesian Panther Party, after Novem-
ber 1972) allied with the Maori radicals

of Nga Tamatoa and the Maoists of Roger Fowler's Peoples

Union and the NZ Race Relation's Council, HART and the
Communist Party.

They also mixed with the Trotskyists from the Socialist Action
League and with members of the Pro-Soviet, Socialist Unity
Party.

The Panthers worked closely with the Marxist controlled

Citizen's Association for Racial Equality and the Auckland
Committee on Racial discrimination (ACORD).

In July 1973, PPP "Minister of Culture" Ama Rauhihi attended

a Maoist "People's Forum" in Singapore and was selected to
tour China with several Maori members of the Communist
Party of NZ.

In July/August 1974, PPP member Norman Tuiasau attended

the 10th International Youth Festival in East Berlin. The con-
ference was convened by the Soviet front, World Federation
of Democratic Youth and the trip was organised by the So-
cialist Unity Party.

Tuiasau heard US Communist Party leader, Angela Davis,

speak in East Berlin and traveled on to Moscow where he saw
Lenin's tomb.

The Panthers delegated a young Melanie Anae to make con-

tact with the real Black Panthers, during a trip to Los Angeles
to stay with relatives. In September 1974 an article on the
PPP was published in "Black Panther" magazine in the USA.

In mid 1972, PPP leader Will 'Ilolahia toured Australia where

he met Aboriginal Black Power groups. On his return he an-
nounced plans for "solidarity and co-operation" between the
PPP, Aboriginal groups and black power supporters in
Papua-New Guinea.

At their peak, the Panthers had a busy HQ in Ponsonby,

Auckland, several branches across the city, a shortlived
branch in Dunedin and supporters in other centres.

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 The PPP was very active for
several years. They ran
dances for youth, agitated
for traffic lights at unsafe
pedestrian crossings, ran
food banks, organised
prison visits and ran candi-
dates for local high school
boards.

More politically, in 1972,

the PPP worked with Nga
Tamatoa, the Stormtrooper
and Headhunter gangs to
form a "loose Polynesian
Front"

In January 1974 the PPP

participated in a meeting
"amongst all Maori and Polynesian Panthers Ponsonby Auckland 1970
Polynesian progressive organisations to form a
united front".

Understandably the PPP focussed on exposing

racism, particularly by the police. In 1974, the
PPP, jointly with Nga Tamatoa, CARE, ACORD
and the Peoples Union organised the Police
Investigation Group, which mounted "P.I.G.
patrols" to monitor police dealings with Poly-
nesian youth.

The PPP's military wing also assisted in the

Party's several campaigns against rack renters
who allegedly preyed on the Polynesian com-
munities at the time.

The PPP was active until the late '70s and never
officially disbanded. Several cadres were ar-
rested at Bastion Point in 1978 and some even
played a role in the "Patu" squad during the
1981 Springbok Tour.
Patu squad from the 1981 Springbok tour
The legacy of the Panthers lives on in Aotearoa today.
Younger generations have benefited from the struggle that
our elders engaged in during the 60’s 70’s & 80’s. Still how-
ever there is much to do and still much oppression felt by
our brothers and sisters in the Pacific and world-wide. Status
in white society and the material comfort of some of us does
not negate the fact that the majority of Pacific peoples live
lives of racism & poverty. The best legacy we can leave for
the Polynesian Panthers is to rekindle the struggle and fight
against oppression in our communities & our islands.

Sina Brown-Davis is a descendant of Te Roroa, Te Uri o Hau,

Ngapuhi, Fale Ula & Vava'u tribes. She is an indigenous Activist,
Mother & Blogger, and can be contacted at uriohau@gmail.com

Emory Douglas & Gary Foley ( long time Aboriginal Activist)

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PANTHER LEGACY
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‘THE HAMAS AND HIZBULLAH OF THEIR TIME’

Aki Nawaz of Fun-Da-Mental

the end of ‘White Supremacy’, In the corridors of that despicable world

For some the Black Panthers represent
a romantic revolutionary brand - some-
thing to put on a t-shirt. However just
like Brother Malcolm/Udham Singh/Tipu
Sultan etc and many others, their ap-
pearance on the political scene caused a
seismic change: it was the beginning of
although we continue to fight
for its end.
We can and should have a dis-
course about whether Martin
Luther King or Ghandi for that
matter were really non-violent
pacifists. This depends if you see
words as ammunition or the
projection of these ‘giants of the
civil rights movement’ as manu-
factured by those who have an
interest in letting ‘people of
colour’ know that they cannot be
violent, that violence is a mo-
nopolised by "white folks".
The notion that those oppressed,
slaughtered and enslaved should
somehow limit themselves to
peaceful struggle whilst the
oppressor has no boundaries to
their violence is comical if not a
repulsive. The price for dogmatic
and rigid non-violence is always
too high for the oppressed.
When the arrival of something far more
radical starts to emerge that's when an
unjust system begins to shake and the
emergence of the Black Panther Party
was a turning point that did indeed
shake the system.
power, the US government, the wind
was really blowing them into a panic. It
was inconceivable or incomprehensible
that those they had murdered for years
without any remorse might be able to
defend themselves from their murder-
ers, these murderers being usually the
police.
Turning the other cheek came at a high
price for the African-Americans. White
supremacy works on many levels and
the US government were the masters of
it along with the Brits, essentially per-
petuating a cowardly system which
works on continuing and increasing
injustice. When it is faced with confron-
tation from the oppressed it runs behind
a mask of compromise and negotiation,
maintaining its privilege and position
but giving the impression that it some-
how has ‘seen the light’. In history you
will not find any white holocausts but
many black ones.
All the apparatus of the State went to
work against the Panthers, yet the Pan-
thers grew with great speed and that
can only happen when there is a mass
appetite for justice and also the mass
feeling that there are scores to settle.
“Enough is enough" and an "eye for an
eye" really got those turkies in Washing-
ton working overtime. Cointelpro was
put into action. The pro-
gramme says it all, the deceit
of the power structure and the
paranoia.

The Black Panther Party history

is written but look in between
the lines and you see an or-
ganisation and a movement
that shook the established
order far more than what was
probably intended when Huey
Newton and Bobby Seale set
up the Party. The Panthers
showed that just a little
‘playing outside of the box’
can move the biggest devils
into panic. They were perhaps
the Hizbullah or Hamas of their
time!

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hgfdhjhgkjkdjfkdmnrgnfvkdfjkasdjfkljodsfakh
HUEY NEWTON:
“WE SUPPORT THE PALESTINIANS 100%”

"We realize that some people who happen to be Jewish and who
support Israel will use the Black Panther Party’s position that is
against imperialism and against the agents of the imperialist as
an attack of anti-Semitism. We think that is a backbiting racist
underhanded tactic and we will treat it as such. We have respect
for all people, and we have respect for the right of any people to
exist. So we want the Palestinian people and the Jewish people
to live in harmony together. We support the Palestinian’s just
struggle for liberation one hundred percent. We will go on doing
this, and we would like for all of the progressive people of the
world to join our ranks in order to make a world in which all peo-
ple can live."
(On the Middle East, Huey Newton)

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PANTHER LEGACY
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ANGOLA PRISON, LOUISIANA:
MODERN-DAY SLAVE PLANTATION
Helen Kinsella

Thirty-six years ago in rural Louisi-
ana, a white guard was murdered in
the State Penitentiary; then re-
garded as the bloodiest and most
brutal prison in the United States.
The violence wasn’t unusual in this
deep pocket of Louisiana. Back in
the 1800s, slaves worked on the
plantation; now a predominantly
African-American inmate popula-
tion cultivates the crops grown on
the sprawling expanse of the prison,
also known as ‘Angola’, after the country that provided the
Americas with most of its slaves.
Black Panthers Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox were at
the prison – convicted on unrelated charges of armed rob-
bery – on that April morning in 1972 when Brent Miller was
stabbed to death.
Born activists, Wallace and Woodfox founded the only recog-
nised Black Panther chapter inside a prison to combat their
degrading environment. Shortly after their arrival in Angola,
they spoke out against inhumane treatment such as system-
atic rape; united inmates in solidarity; and attempted to put
an end to racial segregation. They also organised a well-
publicised non-violent hunger strike with the aim of securing
better conditions.
‘Our greatest campaign, I would say, was when we formed
anti-rape squads, trying to protect the young men that was
coming into the prison system…We just said ‘no more’,’
Woodfox told POCC Block Report Radio this year. ‘As danger-
ous as it was, we thought the risk of injury or death was worth
it, and so we decided to take action. We fought against the
open racism, the horrible conditions, lack of adequate cloth-
ing, lack of adequate food, the brutality, just about every form
of corruption in this prison that was going on.’
As Woodfox and Wallace waged their campaign, they began
to capture attention from the outside. The two men were
subsequently convicted, in 1973 and 1974 respectively, of
Miller’s murder, though no physical evidence has ever linked
them to the crime.

The men were charged on the basis of bribed testimony.

Bloody fingerprints at the scene of the murder did not match
theirs, and officials have refused to check them against the
prisoner fingerprint database to find the real killer. Numerous
alibi witnesses came forward in their defence, while prisoners
who testified against them have recanted their testimony and
admitted they were coerced by officials to lie under oath.

The men, known collectively with the now freed Robert King
as the ‘Angola 3’, have languished in Angola prison ever since.

The three have, however, succeeded in steering an interna-

tional coalition to raise awareness of their cases and those of
others in Angola and to secure their freedom. King, released
in 2001 after his conviction for another murder at the prison
was overturned, speaks around the world on their behalf. He
has just released his autobiography, Cry from the Bottom of
the Heap, about his time at Angola.

Recent momentum in the campaign has been undeniable.

Until March this year, Wallace and Woodfox were held in
some of the most punitive conditions of the notorious 18,000-
acre complex by the Mississippi River, spending up to 24
hours a day in spartan cells, with little human contact or other
distractions.

However, after an upsurge in media attention and an un-

precedented visit to Angola by John Conyers, chair of the US
house judiciary committee, which oversees the justice depart-
ment (including the FBI) and the federal courts, prison officials
swiftly moved the men out of solitary, after almost 36 years,
into a maximum-security dormitory.

One month later, Conyers wrote to FBI director Robert Mueller

requesting FBI documents relating to the case. In his letter, he

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 stated that he was ‘deeply troubled by what evidence
suggests was a tragic miscarriage of justice with re-
gard to these men’.
Amnesty International has also weighed in on the
Angola 3. Last year, they described the men’s treat-
ment as cruel, inhuman and degrading, and said that
their prolonged isolation breached the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Con-
vention against Torture.
This autumn, the campaign has had what may be its
biggest success yet. Last month, a federal judge
made the spectacular decision to overturn Woodfox’s
conviction, despite State appeals, on the basis of
evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, inadequate
representation, and racial discrimination, in his 1973
trial. The ruling acknowledged that Woodfox had
been wrongfully imprisoned.
Though that means that he is no longer convicted of
the murder of Brent Miller, due to legal complexities,
that decision does not automatically set Woodfox
free. The State has appealed the judgement, and at
time of going to print, Woodfox is waiting to hear if

Albert, Poppy and Herman

he will be released on bail.
‘Woodfox has demonstrated the deep flaws in the
state's investigation and prosecution of the case
against him, and has presented evidence of his inno-
cence,’ Chris Aberle, one of Woodfox's lawyers, said
on hearing the ruling. ‘If the State of Louisiana ap-
peals, it will bear the burden of showing the court of
appeals that both of the judges [a magistrate judge
previously ruled in his favour] were incorrect. As the
facts and the law are so clearly on the side of Mr.
Woodfox, we are confident that the State cannot
carry that burden. No further legal delay should de-
prive Albert of even one more day of his life.’
If Woodfox is released, campaigners hope that Wal-
lace will also walk into freedom, given that the case
against him rests on the same evidence.
The International Coalition to Free the Angola 3 draws much The colourful public artwork, which took four months to cre-
of its support from Europe, where grassroots campaigners ate, is the latest in a series of mosaics adorning The Treatment
have been raising awareness of the men’s plight as well as Rooms.
that of another inmate at Angola, Kenny ‘Zulu’ Whitmore, a
54-year-old who has spent more than 31 years in solitary She is also keen to expose her 11-year-old daughter to politi-
confinement. cal activism. In August this year, Poppy stepped inside the
gates of Angola to visit Woodfox and Wallace, eating fried
Zulu, also affiliated with the BPP, was convicted of murder
chicken and ice-cream with men the State wishes would re-
and armed robbery in 1977 and immediately placed in soli-
main hidden forever.
tary at Angola. He believes he was framed for speaking out
against police abuse in his community. On arriving at Angola,
‘Herman and Albert have been waiting for justice for nearly
he was immediately placed in solitary, and has remained
four decades,’ Reichardt said. ‘We won’t stop fighting until
there ever since, barring interludes of months at a time in the
they are out. But there are many more men like them in An-
crushing prison ‘dungeon’.
gola and across the US. Zulu has spent all of his twenties,
Artist and activist Carrie Reichardt, aka The Baroness, serves as thirties, forties and now into his fifties locked in a 6x9 foot cell.
a spokesperson and tireless campaigner for the London chap- As far as I’m concerned, the laws that keep him there do not
ter of the A3 Coalition and the Free Zulu campaign. equal justice.’

In June this year, she unveiled a spectacular mosaic on the
outside wall of her house and studio (called The Treatment
Rooms) in the west London suburb of Chiswick to raise aware-
ness of, and give honour to, the men, to whom she frequently
writes.
Helen Kinsella is a freelance writer in London, working in media
and for non-profit organisations. She campaigns with grassroots
movements, including the Angola 3, whom she has represented
at the United Nations. She can be contacted at :
helen.kinsella@gmail.com

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TUPAC SHAKUR: "THE SON OF A PANTHER"
Extraxct from ‘Holler If You Hear: Me Searching for Tupac Shakur’
Michael Eric Dyson
T he scene irresistibly evokes Tupac's
revolutionary roots: When he was a few
days old, Tupac was taken to his first
political speech, given by "Minister Louis
Farrakhan at the 168th Street Armory in
New York." That was the first time I saw
him says Karen Lee, then a black militant
who, in another twist of fate, served as
Tupac's publicist nearly twenty years
later. "He was a little baby with big eyes.
They were the first things you could
see." Those big eyes and the world they
envisioned made Tupac the hip-hop
James Baldwin: an excruciatingly consci-
entious scribe whose narratives flamed
with moral outrage at black suffering.
Tupac imbibed his disdain for racial
oppression from his mother's revolu-
tionary womb. As Tupac's godfather,
Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt
remarks, the artist "was born into the
movement
That birthright of black nationalism
hung over Tupac's head as both promise
and judgment. Some saw him as the
benighted successor to Huey, Eldridge,
Bobby, and other bright stars of black
subversion. In this light Tupac's career
was best imagined in strictly political
terms: Rapping was race-war by other
means. Others see the Black Panthers as
a strident symbol of political destruction
turned inward. This would mean that
Tupac's violent lyrics and wild behavior
suggest the ethical poverty of romantic
nationalism. Tupac initially embraced
the former view, though he quickly wea-
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ried of the aesthetic and economic im-
peratives it imposed. As he won fame
and money, he brooked no ideological
limits on what he could say and how he
could live. But even as he exchanged
revolutionary self-seriousness for the
thug life, he never embraced the notion
that the Panthers were emblematic of
political self-destruction. To be sure,
Tupac saw thug life extending Panther
beliefs in self-defense and class rebel-
lion. But he never balked at Panther
ideals. The practices, as we shall see
shortly, were another matter.'
The boosters and critics of the Panthers
alike agree that Tupac was problematic.
It is an agreement, however, stamped in
irony. Each side finds Tupac unaccept-
able for the same reasons they find each
other's views intolerable, even repre-
hensible. Panther purists claim that-
Tupac's extravagant materialism and
defiant hedonism are the death knell of
political conscience, the ultimate sellout
of revolutionary ideals. Critics of the
movement contend that Tupac's thug
fantasies fulfilled the submerged logic of
Panther gangsterism, what with its sex-
ual abuse of women financial malfea-
sance, and brutal factionalism. In either
case Tupac is the conflicted metaphor of
black revolution's large aspirations and
failed agendas. Early in his short life he
sought to conform practical survival to
revolutionary idealism. Later he reversed
the trend.
To borrow W. E. B. DuBois's notion of
dual consciousness, in Tupac two war-
ring ideals were (w)rapped in one dark
body. The question to ask now is: Could
Tupac's dogged strength alone have
kept him from being torn asunder? In
hindsight a negative answer seems cer-
tain, though perhaps disingenuous. It
was perilous enough for old heads to try
to reconcile competing views of black
insurgence, as proved by figures as dif-
ferent as Malcolm X and Huey Newton.
How much wisdom could one expect
from an artist who barely lived beyond
his twenty-fifth birthday, even though
he was hugely talented and precocious
to a fault? It is a testament to his gargan-
tuan gifts-and to our desperate need,
which after all, screams so loudly be-
cause of our failure to find suitable an-
swers-that the expectation existed at all.
Our best chance of understanding Tu-
pac's dilemmas, and his failures and
triumphs, too, rests in probing the ideals
with which he was reared and that
shaped his life for better and for worse.
What did it mean to be a child of the
Black Panthers, to have a post-
revolutionary childhood?'
In explaining his ministerial vocation,
Martin Luther K ing Jr. remarked that his
father, grandfather, and great-
grandfather were preachers. "I didn't
have much choice, I guess," he humor-
ously concluded. Although Tupac's revo-
lutionary lineage is not as long, it is
equally populous and perhaps more
storied. He was surrounded by figures
that lived and died the struggle for black
freedom. Afeni and her lovers Lumumba
and Billy Garland were Black Panthers.
Tupac's stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, an
acupuncturist and black revolutionary,
was sentenced in 1988 to sixty years in
prison for conspiracy to commit armed
robbery and murder. He was also found
guilty of attempting to break Tupac's
"aunt" Joanne Chesimard, later known
as Assata Shakur, out of prison, where
she was sent in 1977 after being con-
victed of murdering a New jersey state
trooper. And Tupac's godfather,
Geronimo Pratt, loomed large as a he-
roic figure. From the very beginning,
Tupac was, as Pratt says, "fascinated
with the history of that which he was
born into.' "
In the haunting footage of Tupac at
school at age seventeen, he confirms
Pratt's impression. "My mother was a
Black Panther, and she was really in-
volved in the movement," Tupac says.
"Just black people bettering themselves
and things like that." And from the start,
Afeni's role in the movement was costly,
limiting, in Tupac's mind, the time she
spent with him. "At first I rebelled
against her because she was in a move-
ment and we never spent time together
because she was always speaking and
going to colleges and everything," Tu-
pac says. But after a period of intense
movement activity, Tupac and his
mother bonded. "And then after that
 was over, it was more time spent with
me and R was] just like, 'You're my
mother,' and she was like, 'You're my
son.' So then she was really close with
me and really strict on me."
Even as a youth, Tupac discerned the
price paid for revolutionary principles,
especially when one had little money.
"Being poor and having this philosophy
is worse," Tupac says. But he brilliantly
analyzes the difference between finan-
cial and moral wealth. "Because you
know if money was nothing, if there was
no money and everything depended on
your moral standards and the way that
you behaved and the way you treated
people, we'd be millionaires. We'd be
rich." Ever the realist, Tupac presciently
sizes up his family's situation, especially
the cost of critical thinking spurred by
revolutionary beliefs. "But since it's not
like that, then we're stone broke. We're
just poor because our ideals always get
in the way, 'cause we're not 'yup-yup'
people." Tupac knows that taking critical
inventory of one's surroundings does
not make for job security, though he
admits that he's bitter about being poor
for his principles, since he missed "out
on a lot of things" and because "I can't
always have what I want or even things
that I think I need." That does not keep
him from dissecting the futility of many
wealthy people's lives. "But I know rich
people, or people just well-off, who are
lost, who are lost." For that reason, his
mother's sacrificial choices really have
paid off. "She could have [chosen] to go
to college and get a degree in some-
thing and right now [could have] been
well-off. But she chose to analyze society
and fight and do things better. So this is
the payoff. And she always tells me that
the payoff to her is that me and my sis-
ter grew up good and we have good
minds and ... we're ready for society."
… gious, you know. And if there
Tupac admits that his mother, by having
gone " through the sixties," is cool-
headed and more inclined to say, "Let
me think about this first and then do it,
because I know how that happens." But
he also recognizes that her noble efforts
are often harshly repaid. Tupac claims
his family moved from New York
"because of my mother's [political]
choices. And she couldn't keep her job
because of her choices, because it was
too much.... They figured out who she
was and she couldn't keep a job. That
should be illegal." It is almost impossible
for those who have never been under
surveillance by the government or had
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their families shattered by political har-
assment to comprehend the veil of sus- Contrary to the caustic criticism he later
picion, skepticism, and of course para- received, Tupac was not drawn to the
noia that hangs between hounded po- Panthers because of their stylized vio-
litical activists and the rest of the world. lence, their hyper-masculinized images,
We now know that many government or their alluring social mystique. His
agencies covertly and corruptly tried to attraction to the Black Panthers was a
destroy the black freedom movement, practical attempt to answer racial op-
from the Southern Christian Leadership pression. The embrace of black pride
Conference to the Black Panthers.' was not for compensatory or therapeu-
tic ends. Rather, its purpose was, first,
The Panthers' example inspired Tupac to self-respect and, then, respect of others.
address racial conflict. Discussing a fight It was self-regarding morality linked to
between skinheads and black youth at a other-regarding social concern.
party in Marin City, seventeen-year-old
Tupac says he and his friends tried to …
"figure out what to do." Concluding that
"this couldn't happen in the sixties" For all of his reveling in Panther racial
without a response from black activists, theories, Tupac was far less enthusiastic
Tupac and his friends decided that "we'll about their contradictory practices.
start the Black Panthers again." Tupac Tupac was especially wounded because
says that unlike the Panthers of the he felt the party unjustly abandoned his
1960s, "we're doing it more to fit our mother at her most needy moments. If
views: less violent and more silent." Tupac grew bitter about the poverty
There would be "more knowledge to Afeni's ideals brought about, he was
help" with the restoration of black pride. equally bitter about the failure of the
"I feel like if you can't respect yourself, Panthers, for whom she sacrificed family
then you can't respect your race, then and career, to offer help. As they touted
you can't respect another's race. . . . It anti-capitalist beliefs, some of the party's
just has to do with respect, like my chief icons lived luxuriously, even disso-
mother taught me." By starring the Black lutely, at the expense of the proletarian
Panthers again, Tupac ,in(] his comrades rank and file. If such practices appeared
would not only teach black pride but distasteful from a distance, up close they
instil the value of education as a means were downright ugly. Afeni remembers
of self-defense and as a safeguard that her children inherited her sacrificial
against bigotry. By doing this, they spirit. "If they had too many [toys], they
would harken back to a turn-of-the- gave them away," Afeni recalls, "and I
century strategy adopted by DuBois The was not rich." Their practice reflected
revived Black Panthers would function her belief that "everything should go to
"as a defense mechanism [against] the the community." She says that receiving
skinheads, because that's
wrong, and I hate to feel help-
less," Tupac explains. "And so
skinheads hate black people
and ... I have this vision of us
just growing, and them de-
creasing, because that's how
knowledge works. It's conta-
[are] war and peace, peace
wins out." Tupac says he will
"learn from our mistakes. And
I'm talking to a lot of the ex-
members of the Panthers from
the sixties now, because they're
less violent. You know, they've
learned." Tupac is quick, how-
ever, to underscore their vir-
tues. "They did a lot of good
things in the past, and we can
do a lot of good things. . .. My
mother was an ex-Panther, and
[we'll be] talking to Geronimo
Pratt, and a lot of ex-ministers
of defense. So we're going to
do a lot of good."
 her "training from the movement"
made her believe that ... capitalism' was
a dirty word." Tupac, however, had
different ideas. He "had a logical mind,"
Afeni says, and thus examined her situa-
tion without the ideological trappings
that bound her. But according to Afeni,
Tupac "really resented the fact" of her
betrayal by the party. Afeni remembers
that Tupac wanted desperately to argue
with godfather Geronimo Pratt, but out
of respect he held his tongue. Tupac felt
less favorable about other members.
"Other people who were in the party, he
really didn't have a lot of respect for,"
Afeni says. "Because he was a child who
was there. He knew what they did and
what they didn't do. And I never fled to
my kids ... for better or for worse. That is
basically the way we lived our lives, so
they knew exactly what was going on in
our lives as it was happening. And they
knew who wasn't there and who left us
and who never bothered to help." Afeni
believes that Tupac saw the contradic-
tions, and "he did stand in judgment." causing a great deal of disaster for me."
But she quickly adds, "He loved the Tupac therefore taught Afeni to make
principles. It wasn't the principles that peace with money. "I think I am learning
he was mad at." Instead, it "was the lack how to live in a capitalist society, which
of courage in the face of " suffering that I did not know how to do," she says.
riled him, especially the hurt it caused "But I learned that from Tupac. I didn't
the movement's female soldiers. know how to do that. I just knew how to
be mad with capitalism Tupac, accord-
Many male Panthers chose, or were ing to Afeni, learned to rebel and make
forced, to leave behind children and cash, a lesson she slowly absorbed. "It
women. The government's repressive never occurred to me," she says. "I never
techniques destroyed many activist gave myself permission to do that. . . .
black families, often dividing fathers He released me from so much. . . . Tupac
and mothers from their kin. In fact, Tu- would challenge the [things] that I held
pac was constantly approached at sacred. He would make me think about
school by FBI agents seeking the where- them."
abouts of his stepfather, Mutulu Shakur.
Tupac was grieved by the gruesome If Tupac demanded that his revolution-
pattern of family abandonment he wit- ary forebears consider the conse-
nessed, perhaps reminding him of his quences of their failed practices, he also
own desperate plight. Afeni says that challenged artistic communities and
from the perspective of a child such the entertainment industry to face up
events were surely painful. "When you to their equally heinous contradictions.
talk about the pain that the child felt, Free from the bruising environment
especially when you realize that you that trumped revolutionary ideology,
can't change Tupac appeared free to embrace its
it, it is hard," worthier elements. It was evident from
she says. "It is the start of his fledgling career that
such a deep Tupac wasn't simply play-acting the
place." A place part of a revolutionary, even if his ex-
so deep that it cesses sometimes made him appear
obviously left extreme, even self-destructive. "He
a permanent made me think," says Danyel Smith,
scar on his former editor of Vibe Magazine who
conscience, was a twenty-four-year-old struggling
leaving Tupac writer when she met eighteen-year-old
with the belief Tupac in Oakland. "Even before he was
that one famous, and even more so after he was
could be-in famous, and began to really write the
fact, should kind of songs that were in his heart,"
be-a rich revo- Tupac made "you question whatever
lutionary. If line you were riding on." Smith says that
revolution she would have been happy simply to
can't pay the have a job whether at Kinko's or the
bills-or, more department store, and "Tupac would
precisely, if say, 'Why are you working for the white
those revolu- people?' Now you know, people have
tionaries who said that throughout history to black
are the move- people: 'We were slaves to the white
ment's bread people; we need to start our businesses;
and butter why are you working for the white
can't keep man?"' But the way Tupac would say it
their heads made it appear to Smith Eke a new,
above water- urgent, even inescapable quest don.
then the revo- 'And then I would be sitting there really
lution has saying to my~ self, 'Should I really be
already failed. working for white people?... Smith says
Afeni says that that Tupac had "an absolute truth for
in Tupac's himself, which is appealing in anybody
eyes,--- because it's so rare."
notonly was
[the] revolu-
tion not pay-
ing the bills,
but it was

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PANTHER LEGACY
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hgfdhjhgkjkdjfkdmnvior
BLACK PANTHER SOLIDARITY
Elbert “Big Man” Howard
Unity in the Community!
Black Power to Black People!
White Power to White People!
Brown Power to Brown People!
Yellow Power to Yellow People!
Red Power to Red People!
These phrases were the cries that emanated
from Black communities throughout this
nation – they were initiated by the Black
Panther Party in 1968. Many organizations
were formed after hearing and rallying
around those calls, including the Patriot
Party, the Young Lords, the Brown Berets,
the Red Guard, and the American Indian
Movement.
Who were these groups and how did they
come into existence?
The Patriots were a group of white working-
class and poor young people which origi-
nally formed in Chicago and many of them
originated from street-turf gangs. Their
chapters and Ten Point Program were mod-
eled after the Black Panther Party’s and they
were strong supporters of the Black Panther
Party. They closely followed the Black Pan-
ther Party’s example and dedicated them-
selves to serving the basic needs of their
communities, such as feeding hungry chil-
dren with free breakfast programs. Many
worked to establish free health clinics and
other services in their communities. The
Patriot Party, like the Panthers, published a
newspaper.
The Young Lords also followed, in purpose
and actions, many of the examples set by
the Black Panther Party. These young Puerto
Ricans formed chapters in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey,
Boston Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico.
Their female leadership strongly pursued
the fight for women’s rights and formed and
worked with prison solidarity groups for
incarcerated Puerto Ricans. By 1976, the
Young Lords had been all but destroyed by
the FBI. However, their impact remained –
other groups formed and continued to pur-
sue their goals.
San Francisco’s Red Guard was patterned
closely after the Black Panther Party. In 1969,
the federal government wanted to shut
down a Tuberculosis testing center located
in San Francisco’s Chinese community. At
the time, Chinatown had the highest TB rate
in the country. The young Asians in the Red
Guard organized the community and staged
successful protest demonstrations to keep
that TB testing center open. Through these
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protests and the programs that the Red
Guard initiated, Chinatown’s citizens were
similar social and economic conditions. We
were being oppressed and exploited by the
enlightened and became open to more same perpetrators. These groups met with
progressive politics. the Black Panther Party and discussed and
set forth plans to resolve some of these
In 1970, members of the Red Guard were issues. The Black Panther Party’s 10 Point
part of a delegation that was invited to join Platform and Program was a basic plan of
Eldridge Cleaver and they accompanied him action that spelled out clearly what we
in a visit to China, North Korea, and North wanted and what we believed. This program
Vietnam. After about two and a half years, and platform was so powerful and so on-
due to political and police repression, such target that many of those solidarity groups
as office raids, arrests without warrants, false drew up similar programs and tailored them
arrest, and armed stand-offs with police, the to their communities’ needs.
organization collapsed.
Because of strong solidarity with these many
Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers different groups, the Black Panther Party
brought attention to the plight of Hispanic was able to amass great numbers of people
farm workers in this country. Because of his to participate in demonstrations such as
influence, and that of the Black Panther Free Huey, Stop the Draft, and End the Viet-
Party’s, young Chicanos from the barrios nam War rallies, which occurred all over the
came to realize that struggle against oppres- country.
sive conditions was necessary for change,
and the Brown Berets organization was Included among these supportive organiza-
formed in 1967. The Brown Berets had a 13 tions were many splinter groups such as the
Point Party Platform similar to that of the Gay Liberation Front, the Peace and Free-
BPP. In the summer of 1968, the Brown Be- dom Party, the Woman’s Liberation Move-
rets marched with the Rainbow Coalition in ment, the Yippies, the Grey Panthers and
the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, groups that formed for the rights of disabled
DC. Among their many contributions, they people. These solidarity groups did not go
organized Vietnam War protests, exposed unnoticed by the FBI and were also sub-
police brutality, and started the Chicano jected to the FBI’s dirty tricks and Cointelpro
movement for self-determination. Unfortu- program. Their offices and residences were
nately, this organization also met with a bugged, they were infiltrated by govern-
similar fate to that of the Black Panther ment spies, and set-up for frame-ups and
Party. false arrests. Although they were harassed
and brutalized, no other party, except for
AIM was organized in the summer of 1968 the Black Panther Party, was singled out for
when approximately 200 members of the complete extermination.
Native American community met to discuss
various critical issues and developments in Many members of the Black Panther Party
their communities. These included police were tortured, murdered, and/or locked
brutality, slum housing, an 80% unemploy- away in dungeons, where many still remain,
ment rate, and racist and discriminatory however, they did not get us all. We, the
government policies. Today, after many survivors, have a duty and a responsibility to
legal battles and repressive actions on the continue to fight for those same 10 Points,
government’s part, including the imprison- for What We Want and What We Believe.
ment of leaders such as Leonard Pelletier,
AIM has grown and today still continues to So, on the occasion of this Black Panther
serve their communities from a base of Party 40th Year Reunion and Celebration on
Native American culture. In Minnesota, AIM’s October 13-15, 2006, we recognize and
birthplace, organizations have developed to invite former members of solidarity groups,
institute schools, housing and employment especially all those rank and file members,
services. our friends, and all those community work-
ers who continue to struggle for freedom
In November of 1969, the world took notice and justice to join us. We will talk about the
when young Bay Area Native American past, but most importantly, we will look at
students and urban Indians occupied Alca- what we are doing today and explore the
traz Island for 19 months, claiming it as possibilities of what we can accomplish in
federal land in the name of Native Nations. the future. I believe we have much to do, for
the struggle does not end with us and, per-
In the 1960’s and 1970’s all of these diverse haps, by coming together in solidarity again,
groups formed strong bonds with the Black we can set into motion the birth of a new
Panther Party. They came to understand beginning.
that we all had common problems; our
communities were suffering from many
 hgfdhjhgkjkdjfkdmnviorgnfvkdfjkasdjfkljdsfaklsdfj
HUEY NEWTON:
‘CHINA IS A LIBERATED TERRITORY’
Huey Newton’s auto-biography ‘Revolutionary Suicide’
The people who have triumphed in their
own revolution should help those still
struggling for liberation. This is our inter-
nationalist duty.
(Mao tse tung, Little Red Book)
Today, when I think of my experiences in
the People's Republic of China - a coun-
try that overwhelmed me while I was
there - they seem somehow distant and
remote. Time erodes the immediacy of
the trip; the memory begins to recede.
But that is a common aftermath of
travel, and not too alarming. What is
important is the effect that China and its
society had on me, and that impression
is unforgettable. While there, I achieved
a psychological liberation I had never
experienced before. It was not simply
that I felt at home in China; the reaction
was deeper than that. What I experi-
enced was the sensation of freedom as if
a great weight had been lifted from my
soul and I was able to be myself, without
defense or pretense or the need for
explanation. I felt absolutely free for the
first time in my life completely free
among my fellow men. This experience
of freedom had a profound effect on
me, because it confirmed my belief that
an oppressed people can be liberated if
their leaders persevere in raising their
consciousness and in struggling relent-
lessly against the oppressor.
Because my trip was so brief and made
under great pressure, there were many
places I was unable to visit and many
experiences I had to forgo. Yet there
were lessons to be learned from even
the most ordinary and commonplace
encounters: a question asked by a
worker, the response of a schoolchild,
the attitude of a government official.
These slight and seemingly unimportant
moments were enlightening, and they
taught me much. For instance, the be-
haviour of the police in China was a
revelation to me. They are there to pro-
tect and help the people, not to oppress
them. Their courtesy was genuine; no
division or suspicion exists between
them and the citizens. This impressed
me so much that when I returned to the
United States and was met by the Tacti-
cal Squad at the San Francisco airport
(they had been called out because
nearly a thousand people came to the
airport to welcome us back), it was
brought home to me all over again that
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PANTHER LEGACY
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the police in our country are an occupy-
ing, repressive force. I pointed this out
to a customs officer in San Francisco, a
Black man who was armed, explaining
to him that I felt intimidated seeing all
the guns around. I had just left a coun-
try, I told him, where the army and the
police are not in opposition to the peo-
ple but are their servants.
I received the invitation to visit China
shortly after my release from the Penal
Colony, in August, 1970. The Chinese
were interested in the Party’s Marxist
analysis and wanted to discuss it with us
as well as show us the concrete applica-
tion of theory in their society. I was ea-
ger to go and applied for a passport in
late 1970, which was finally approved a
few months later. However, 1 did not
make the trip at that time because of
Bobby's and Ericka's trial in New Haven.
Nonetheless, I wanted to see China very
much, and when I learned that President
Nixon was going to visit the People's
Republic in February, 1972, I decided to
beat him to it. My wish was to deliver a
message to the government of the Peo-
ple's Republic and the Communist Party,
which would be delivered to Nixon
when he made his visit.
I made the trip in late September, 1971,
between my second and third trials,
going without announcement or public-
ity because I was under an indictment. I
had only ten days to spend in China.
Even though I had no travel restrictions
and had been given a passport, the
California courts could have tied me
down at any time because I was under
court bail, so 1 avoided the states juris-
diction by going to New York instead of
directly to Canada from California. Be-
cause of my uncertainty about what the
power structure might do. I continued
to avoid publicity after reaching New
York, since it was not implausible that
the authorities might place a federal
hold on me, claiming illegal flight. By
flying from New York to Canada I was
able to avoid federal jurisdiction, and
once in Canada I caught a plane to To-
kyo. Police agents knew of my inten-
tions, and they followed me all the way
right to the Chinese border. Two com-
rades, Elaine Brown and Robert Bay,
went with me. I have no doubt that we
were allowed to go only because the
police believed we were not coming
back. If they had known I intended to
return, they probably would have done
everything possible to prevent the trip.
The Chinese government understood
this, and while I was in China, they of-
fered me political asylum, but I told
them I had to return, that my struggle is
in the United States of America. .
Going through the immigration and
customs services of the imperialist na-
tions was the same dehumanizing ex-
perience we had come to expect as part
of our daily life in the United States. In
Canada, Tokyo, and Hong Kong they
took everything out of our bags and
searched them completely. In Tokyo and
Hong Kong we were even subjected to a
skin search. I thought I had left that
routine behind in the California Penal
Colony, but I know that the penitentiary
is only one kind of captivity within the
larger prison of a racist society. When we
arrived at the free territory, where secu-
rity is supposed to be so tight and every-
one suspect, the comrades with the red
stars on their hats asked us for our pass-
ports. Seeing they were in order, they
simply bowed and asked us if the lug-
gage was ours. When we said yes, they
replied, "You have just passed customs."
They did not open our bags when we
arrived or when we left.
As we crossed into China the border
guards held their automatic rifles in the
air as a signal of welcome and well-
wishing. The Chinese truly live by the
slogan "Political power grows out of the
barrel of a gun," and their behavior con-
stantly reminds you of that. For the first
time I did not feel threatened by a uni-
formed person with a weapon; the sol-
diers were there to protect the citizenry.
The Chinese were disappointed that we
had only ten days to spend with them
and wanted us to stay longer, but I had
to be back for the start of my third trial.
Still, much was accomplished in that
short time, traveling to various parts of
the country, visiting factories, schools,
and communes. Everywhere we went,
large groups of people greeted us with
applause, and we applauded them in
return. It was beautiful. At every airport
thousands of people. welcomed us,
applauding, waving their Little Red
Books, and carrying signs that read WE
SUPPORT THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY,
DOWN WITH U.S. IMPERIALISM, OR WE
SUPPORT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BUT
 THE NIXON IMPERIALIST REGIME MUST
BE OVER-THROWN.
We also visited as many embassies as
possible. Sightseeing took second place
to Black Panther business and our desire
to talk with revolutionary brothers, so
the Chinese arranged for us to meet the
ambassadors of various countries. The
North Korean Ambassador gave us a
sumptuous dinner and showed films of
his country. We also met the Ambassa-
dor from Tanzania, a fine comrade, as
well as delegations from North Vietnam
and the Provisional Revolutionary Gov-
ernment of South Vietnam. We missed
the Cuban and Albanian embassies be-
cause we were short of time.
When news of our trip reached the rest
of the world, widespread attention fo-
cused on it, and the press was con-
stantly after us to find out why we had
come. They were wondering if we
sought to spoil Nixon's visit since we
were so strongly opposed to his reac-
tionary regime. Much of the time we
were harassed by reporters. One eve-
ning a Canadian reporter would not
leave my table despite my asking him
several times. He insisted on hanging
around, questioning us, even though we
had made it plain we had nothing to say
to him. I finally became disgusted with
his persistence and ordered him to
leave. Seconds later, the Chinese com-
rades arrived with the police and asked
if I wanted him arrested. I said no, I only
wanted him to leave my table. After that
we stayed in a protected villa with a Red
Army honor guard outside. This was
another strange sensation-to have the
police on our side.
We had been promised an opportunity
Huey Newton and Chinese Premier Chou en-lai
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to meet Chairman Mao, but the Central
Committee of the Chinese Communist
Party felt this would not be appropriate
since I was not a head of state. But we
did have two meetings with Premier
Chou En-lai. One of them lasted two
hours and included a number of other
foreign visitors; the other was a six-hour
private meeting with Premier Chou and
Comrade Chiang ChIng, the wife of
Chairman Mao. We discussed world
affairs, oppressed people in general, and
Black people in particular.
On National Day, October 1, we at-
tended a large reception in the Great
Hall of the People with Premier Chou En-
lai and comrades from Mozambique,
North Korea, North Vietnam, and the
Provisional Government of South Viet-
nam. Normally, Chairman Mao's appear-
ance is the crowning event of the most
important Chinese celebration, but this
year the Chairman did not put in an
appearance. When we entered the hall,
a band was playing the Internationale,
and we shared tables with the head of
Peking University, the head of the North
Korean Army, and Comrade Chiang
Ching, Mao's wife. We felt it was a great
privilege.
Everything I saw in China demonstrated
that the People's Republic is a free and
liberated territory with a socialist gov-
ernment. The way is open for people to
gain their freedom and determine their
own destiny. It was an amazing experi-
ence to see in practice a revolution that
is going forward at such a rapid rate. To
see a classless society in operation is
unforgettable. Here, Marx's dictum-from
each according to his abilities, to each
according to his needs-is in operation.
But I did not go to
China just to ad-
mire. I went to
learn and also to
criticize, since no
society is perfect.
There was little,
however, to find
fault with. The
Chinese insist that
you find some-
thing to criticize.
They believe
strongly in the
most searching
self-examination,
in criticism of
others and, in
turn, of self. As
they say, without
criticism the
hinges on the door begin to squeak. It is
very difficult to pay them compliments.
Criticize us, they would say, because we
are a backward country, and I always
replied, "No, you are an underdeveloped
country." I did have one criticism to
make during a visit to a steel factory.
This factory had thick black smoke pour-
ing into the air. I told the Chinese that in
the United States there is pollution be-
cause factories are spoiling the air; in
some places the people can hardly
breathe. If the Chinese continue to de-
velop their industry rapidly, I said, and
without awareness of the consequences,
they will also make the air unfit to
breathe. I talked with the factory work-
ers, saying that man is nature but also in
contradiction to nature, because contra-
dictions are the ruling principle of the
universe. Therefore, although they were
trying to raise their levels of living, they
might also negate the progress if they
failed to handle that contradiction in a
rational way. I explained that man op-
poses nature, but man is also the inter-
nal contradiction in nature. Therefore,
while he is trying to reverse the struggle
of opposites based upon unity, he might
also eliminate himself. They understood
this and said they are seeking ways to
remedy this problem.
My experiences in China reinforced my
understanding of the revolutionary
process and my belief in the necessity of
making a concrete analysis of concrete
conditions. The Chinese speak with
great pride about their history and their
revolution and mention often the invin-
cible thoughts of Chairman Mao Tse-
tung. But they also tell you, "This was
our revolution based upon a concrete
analysis of concrete conditions, and we
cannot direct you, only give you the
principles. It is up to you to make the
correct creative application." It was a
strange yet exhilarating experience to
have travelled thousands of miles,
across continents, to hear their words.
For this is what Bobby Seale and I had
concluded in our own discussions five
years earlier in Oakland, as we explored
ways to survive the abuses of the capi-
talist system in the Black communities of
America. Theory was not enough, we
had said. We knew we had to act to
bring about change. Without fully realiz-
ing it then, we were following Mao's
belief that "if you want to know the
theory and methods of revolution, you
must take part in revolution. All genuine
knowledge originates in direct experi-
ence."
hgfdhjhgkjkdjfkdhhhgnfvkdfjkasdjfkljdsfaklsdfj
REVIEW OF `WE WANT FREEDOM:
A LIFE IN THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY'
BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
Sukant Chandan

Having read many if not most of Mumia explains in some detail that the militant example of
people like Malcolm X / Malik El-Hajj Shabazz and the Panthers
the books that have come out by is closer to the experiences of Black people than the pacifist
or about former members of the and class comprising stand of people like Roy Wilkins and
Black Panther Party for Self- other more reformist and milder leaders of the Black Liberation
Defence, We Want Freedom is Movement.
one of the best. This review can-
not cover the many angles from Mumia gives many examples of popular Black armed struggle
which Mumia approaches his (at times supported by working class Native Americans and
experience in, the ideology, prac- whites), like the nineteenth century struggle of the liberated
tice and legacy of the Panthers. Fort Christiana. He explains in his book how the Panthers were
There are a few things that stand a direct continuation of the militant struggle of Black people
out are worth highlighting in this in the Southern states, something which Williams explains so
book, more so than perhaps graphically in ‘Negroes with Guns’.
other books on the same subject.
"A Women's Party"
Panthers: "The history it sprang from"
There is a whole chapter on the exemplary role of the women
This book puts the Panthers in wider historical context. This cadres of the Panthers who occupied positions from the rank
context is one in which the one can track the continuing strug- and file to the local and national leadership. He explains that
gle of Black people today back to the time when Africans were possibly against popular preconceptions most of the activities
infamously kidnapped en-masse and forcibly transported like of the Panthers in serving and struggling with the people were
animals into slavery in the Americas. undertaken and organised by women members. At the end of
the first year of the Panthers women comprised nearly 60% of
Other books that have put Black revolutionary movements in the membership.
historical context are Robert Williams's highly influential classic
`Negroes With Guns' (Williams and his book being one of the The Panthers were the FIRST social organisation, let alone radi-
main inspirations domestically for the Panthers), and also the cal organisation, in the USA that had women in all levels of
generally excellent biography of Williams called `Radio Free leadership.
Dixie' by Timothy B Tyson.
Mumia explains that there were inevitably problems of sexism
in the party reflecting that which existed in society at large.
Any organisation which recruits from the oppressed and ex-
ploited will have some of the problems that exist in the com-
munities and homes of the people. Mumia quotes Buhkari:
"there were three evils that had to be struggled with, male
chauvinism, female passivity and ultra-femininity (the `I'm only
a female' syndrome)." (p174)
Figures such as Afeni Shakur (more famously known as the
mother of rapper Tupac Shakur), Assata Shakur, Kathleen
Cleaver, Angela Davis and Elaine Brown were leaders in the
party, and inspired revolutionary movements across the world,
and were themselves respected immensely in the Party

"The Empire Strikes Back - COINTELPRO"

A group of radical activists broke into a FBI building and took a
load of secret documents which revealed the level of black
operations the US state was involved in against radical move-
ments, the Panthers in particular as they were the cutting edge
of working class revolutionary struggle in the country. This
program of black-operations was and is known as the Counter
Intelligence Program, or `COINTELPRO'. Snitches, frame-ups,
the dirty and slavish role of the media were some of the roles
employed against the Panthers and their supporters. Mumia
explains how the increasingly successful efforts of the Party in
organising people from the community and work therein was
the main reason why the US elites wanted the Panthers shut-
down by all the dirty and brutal tricks at their disposal. For
example, the Panthers were having some success in bringing
anti-social gangs into popular community work, but the US

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PANTHER LEGACY
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 state sowed distrust and paranoia between the Party and the
gangs. Fred Hampton was a promising, highly intelligent and
charismatic leader of the Chicago chapter of the Panthers who
was making headway in recruiting gang-members into Pan-
ther work, but probably because of his progress in this field he
was drugged and shot dead in his sleep by the authorities.
Other US State tactics included writing fake letters to the lead-
ers of the Party from other leaders, such as that what hap-
pened between Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton which led
to the biggest and most debilitating split in the party. These
letters stirred up ideological differences into highly destructive
splits and then many more splits thereof in the Party. Unfortu-
nately the State succeeded in creating a situation between the
Afrocentric Pan-Africanist organisation 'Us' and the Panthers in
California, the two organisations had killed one member of the
other. Many former Panthers now say that instead of this tragic
dynamic that the two organisations should have been allies in
struggle.
COINTELPRO type state activities still goes on in the West both
at home and abroad, as anyone involved in anti-imperialist or
principled working class struggle can attest to. One has to
study a little into the Irish and Basque independence struggles
to know this is true, and in terms of foreign policy there is a
mountain load of evidence in Western interference in Vene-
zuela, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Soma-
lia, Zimbabwe, Bolivia and Muslim communities throughout
the West.

"A Panthers Life" Community dedication - serving the peo-

ple
As always, reading about the dedication to the people of the
Panthers is an inspiration to any decent person, and eve more
so to those struggling with working class and oppressed com-
munities, Mumia writes:
"The [Panther] offices were like buzzing beehives of Black resis-
tance … People came with every problem imaginable, and
because our sworn duty was to serve the people, we took our
commitment seriously … In short, whatever our peoples
problems were, they became our problems. We didn't preach
to the people; we worked with them" (p197)
Mumia's open attitude towards the factions
There are a number of reasons as to why the Panthers col-
lapsed in the mid-1970s from being a growing dynamic revolu-
tionary force established less than ten years earlier in 1966 by a
few friends: Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and David Hilliard, in
Oakland, California. How did an organisation grow from a few
friends to 10,000 within a few years, and then more or less was
crushed in less than ten years? These reasons are too complex
to go into here. A lot of the reasons may still not be adequately
understood, but as increasing numbers of former Panthers
publish their experiences one is able to gain an increasing
understanding as to the reasons for the descent of the Pan-
thers.
Mumia entitles one chapter "One, Two, Too Many Parties" a
play on Che Guevara's famous speech 'One, Two, Three, Many
Vietnams' at his speech at the Tricontinental in 1967. The splits
that occurred had bitter, sometimes very violent incidents that
went along with them. This inevitably has created deep run-
ning resentments between former Panthers that comes sur-
faces in some accounts of Panthers about their experiences in
those intense years of struggle. Mumia avoids emotive denun-
ciations of former comrades and explains in relatively even-
handedly terms the pros and cons of different tendencies in
the Party.
In terms of an ideological definition of the Panthers Mumia
clearly points out the class and political nature of the party as
one that was uncompromisingly working class, inspired by the
teachings of many revolutionaries. Mumia explains that the
Party's ideology was, in his opinion, closest to being
`Malcolmist' (as in Malcolm X), as well as been known as a Mao-
ist party inspired by people such as Fanon, Che, Nkrumah,
Castro, Kim Il Sung, Mao, Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, Giap, Williams,
and many other Latin American, Asian and of course African
revolutionaries.
Mumia; "the voice of the voiceless"
Mumia is still incarcerated in a frame up by the state. He has
always been true to the revolution of oppressed, voicing their
struggle in the US and across the world in his unique eloquent
manner.
If anyone can, please pass on thanks to Brother Mumia for his
book and struggle from those still struggling with the people
against oppression.
Sukant Chandan can be contacted at
sukant.chandan@gmail.com

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PANTHER LEGACY
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hgfdhjhgkjkdjfkdjkjhorgnfvkdfjkasdjfkljdsfaklsdfjh
Extract from Assata Olugbala Shakur’s auto-biography
'She who struggles', 'Love for the people', 'the thankful'
[Assata is a former Panther now living in
political exile in Cuba. The tape of 'To My
People' was made by Assata on July 4
1973, while she was being held in the
Middlesex County workhouse under false
charges of murdering a state trooper on a
New Jersey turnpike. It went on to be
broadcast by many radio stations. She felt
compelled to make it to counteract the
misinformation being spread by the
mainstream media - Editor]
Black brothers, Black sisters, i want you
to know that i love you and i hope that
somewhere in your hearts you have
love for me. My name is Assata Shakur
(slave name joanne chesimard), and i
am a revolutionary. A Black revolution-
ary. By that i mean that i have declared
war on all forces that have raped our
women, castrated our men, and kept
our babies empty-bellied.
I have declared war on the rich who
prosper on our poverty, the politicians
who lie to us with smiling faces, and all
the mindless, heartless robots who
protect them and their property.
I am a Black revolutionary, and, as such,
i am a victim of all the wrath, hatred,
and slander that amerika is capable of.
Like all other Black revolutionaries,
amerika is trying to lynch me.
I am a Black revolutionary woman, and
because of this i have been charged
with and accused of every alleged crime
in which a woman was believed to have
participated. The alleged crimes in
which only men were supposedly in-
volved, i have been accused of plan-
ning. They have plastered pictures
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alleged to be me in post of-
fices, airports, hotels, police
cars, subways, banks, televi-
sion, and newspapers. They
have offered over fifty thou-
sand dollars in rewards for my
capture and they have issued
orders to shoot on sight and
shoot to kill.
I am a Black revolutionary, and,
by definition, that makes me a
part of the Black Liberation
Army. The pigs have used
their newspapers and TVs to
paint the Black Liberation
Army as vicious, brutal, mad-
dog criminals. They have
called us gangsters and gun molls and
have compared us to such characters as
john dillinger and ma barker. It should
be clear, it must be clear to anyone who
can think, see, or hear, that we are the
victims. The victims and not the crimi-
nals.
It should also be clear to us by now who
the real criminals are. Nixon and his
crime partners have murdered hun-
dreds of third World brothers and sis-
ters in Vietnam, Cambodia, Mozam-
bique, Angola, and South Africa. As was
proved by Watergate, the top law en-
forcement officials in this country are a
lying bunch of criminals. The president,
two attorney generals, the head of the
fbi, the head of the cia, and half the
white house staff have been implicated
in the Watergate crimes.
They call us murderers, but we did not
murder over two hundred fifty unarmed
Black men, women, and children, or
wound thousands of others in the riots
they provoked during the sixties. The
rulers of this country have always con-
sidered their property more important
than our lives. They call us murderers,
but we were not responsible for the
twenty-eight brother inmates and nine
hostages murdered at attica. They call
us murderers, but we did not murder
and wound over thirty unarmed Black
students at Jackson State - or Southern
State, either.
They call us murderers, but we did not
murder Martin Luther King, Jr., Emmett
Till, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, George
Jackson, Nat Turner, James Chaney, and
countless others. We did not murder,
by shooting in the back,
sixteen-year-old Clifford Glover. They
call us murderers, but we do not control
or enforce a system of racism and op-
pression that systematically murders
Black and Third World people. Al-
though Black people supposedly com-
prise about fifteen percent of the total
amerikkkan population, at least sixty
percent of murder victims are Black. For
every pig that is killed in the so-called
line of duty, there are at least fifty Black
people murdered by the police.
Black life expectancy is much lower
than white and they do their best to kill
us before we are even born. We are
burned alive in fire-trap tenements. Our
brothers and sisters OD daily from her-
oin and methadone. Our babies die
from lead poisoning. Millions of Black
people have died as a result of indecent
medical care. This is murder. But they
have got the gall to call us murderers.
They call us kidnappers, yet Brother
Clark Squire (who is accused, along with
me, of murdering a new jersey state
trooper) was kidnapped on April 2,
1969, from our Black community and
held on one million dollars' ransom in
the New York Panther 21 conspiracy
case. He was acquitted on May 13,
1971, along with all the others, of 156
counts of conspiracy by a jury that took
less than two hours to deliberate.
Brother Squire was innocent. Yet he
was kidnapped from his community
and family. Over two years of his life
was stolen, but they call us kidnappers.
We did not kidnap the thousands of
Brothers and Sisters held captive in
amerika's concentration camps. Ninety
percent of the prison population in this
country are Black and Third World peo-
ple who can afford neither bail nor law-
yers.
They call us thieves and bandits. They
say we steal. But it was not we who
stole millions of Black people from the
continent of africa. We were robbed of
our language, of our Gods, of our cul-
ture, of our human dignity, of our labor,
and of our lives. They call us thieves, yet
it is not we who rip off billions of dollars
every year through tax evasions, illegal
price fixing, embezzlement, consumer
fraud, bribes, kickbacks, and swindles.
They call us bandits, yet every time
most black people pick up our pay-
checks we are being robbed. Every leavenworth, and sing sing. They are prepare for the future. We must de-
time we walk into a store in our turning out thousands of us. Many fend ourselves and let no one disre-
neighborhood we are being held up. jobless Black veterans and welfare spect us. We must gain our liberation
And every time we pay our rent the mothers are joining our ranks. Broth- by any means necessary.
landlord sticks a gun into our ribs. ers and sisters from all walks of life,
It is our duty to fight for freedom.
who are tired of suffering passively,
They call us thieves, but we did not make up the BLA. It is our duty to win.
rob and murder millions of Indians by We must love each other and support
ripping off their homeland, then call There is, and always will be, until every each other.
ourselves pioneers. They call us ban- black man, woman, and child is free, a
dits, but it is not we who are robbing Black Liberation Army. The main func- We have nothing to lose but out
Africa, Asia and Latin America of their tion of the Black Liberation Army at chains.
natural resources and freedom while this time is to create good examples, ...
the people who live there are sick and to struggle for Black freedom, and to We must fight on.
starving. The rulers of this country
and their flunkies have committed
some of the most brutal, vicious
crimes in history. They are the
bandits. They are the murderers.
And they should be treated as
such. These maniacs are not fit to
judge me, Clark, or any other Black
person on trial in amerika. Black
people should and, inevitably,
must determine our destinies.
Every revolution in history has
been accomplished by actions,
though words are necessary. We
must create shields that protect us
and spears that penetrate our
enemies. Black people must learn
how to struggle by struggling. We
must learn by our mistakes.
I want to apologize to you, my
Black brothers and sisters, for
being on the New Jersey turnpike.
I should have known better. The
turnpike is a checkpoint where
Black people are stopped,
searched, harassed, and assaulted.
Revolutionaries must never be in
too much of a hurry or make care-
less decisions. He who runs when
the sun is sleeping will stumble
many times.
Every time a Black Freedom
Fighter is murdered or captured,
the pigs try to create the impres-
sion that they have quashed the
movement, destroyed our forces,
and put down the Black Revolu-
tion. The pigs also try to give the
impression that five or ten guerril-
las are responsible for every revo-
lutionary action carried out in
amerika. That is nonsense. That is
absurd. Black revolutionaries do
not drop from the moon. We are
created by our conditions.
Shaped by our oppression. We
are being manufactured in droves
in the ghetto streets, places like
attica, san quentin, bedford hills,

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PANTHER LEGACY
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TOOKIE: FOUNDER OF THE CRIPS
December 29, 1953 – December 13, 2005
Extracts taken from Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams’ auto-biography ‘ Redemption’
[Tookie was refused clemency by Califor-
nian Governor Arnold Schwarznegger,
partly on the basis that Tookie dedicated
his auto-biography to Black Panther
prison leader George Jackson – Editor ]
Foreword
Throughout my youth, I was hood-
winked by South Central's terminal con-
ditions, its broad and deadly template
for failure. From the beginning I was
spoon-fed negative stereotypes that
covertly positioned black people as
genetic criminals - inferior, illiterate,
shiftless, promiscuous and ultimately
"three-fifths" of a human being, as
stated in the Constitution of the United
States. Having bought into this myth, I
was shackled to the lowest socioeco-
nomic rung, where underprivileged
citizens competed ruthlessly for morsels
of the American pie - a pie theoretically
served proportionately to all, based on
their ambition, intelligence and perse-
verance.
Like many others, I became a slave to
the delusion of capitalism's false hope: a
slave to dys-education (see Chapter 3); a
slave to nihilism; a slave to drugs; a slave
to black-on-black violence; and a slave
to self-hate. Paralysed within a social
vacuum, I gravitated toward thughood,
not out of aspiration but out of despera-
tion to survive the monstrous inequities
that show no mercy to young or old.
Aggression, I was to learn, served as a
poor man's merit for manhood. To die as
of street martyr was seen as a noble
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thing.
… that I am incapable of redemption.
The Crips mythology has many romanti-
cized, bogus accounts. I never thought it
would be necessary to address such
issues. But I can set the record straight -
for Raymond Washington, for me and
for others who fought and often died for
this causeless cause.
I assumed that everyone in South Cen-
tral knew that Raymond was the leader
of the East Side Crips, and that I the
leader of the West Side Crips. A few
published chronicles have Raymond
attending Washington High School and
uniting the neighbourhood west side
gangs where he supposedly lived. In
fact, Raymond attended Fremont High
School on the east side, where he lived.
A fundamental inquiry would have re-
vealed that I lived on the west side,
where I attended Washington High and
rallied our homeboys and groups of
local gangs. Even our former rivals have
a better understanding about the Crips'
origins than many social historians.
Most of the public misinformation has
been fostered by academics, journalists
and other parasitical opportunists, stool
pigeons and wannabe Crip founders
who shamelessly seek undue profit and
recognition for a gang genocide.
There is no honour in insinuating your-
self as a player in this legacy of a blood-
letting where your feet have never trod.
Another version incorrectly documents
the Crips as an offshoot of the Black
Panther Party. No Panther Party member
ever mentioned the Crips or Cribs as
being a spinoff of the Panthers. It is also
fiction that the Crips functioned under
the acronym, C.R.I.P., for Community
Resource Inner-city Project or Commu-
nity Revolutionary Inner City Project.
Words such as "revolutionary agenda"
were alien to our thuggish, uninformed
teenage consciousness. We did not
unite to protect the community; our
motive was to protect ourselves and our
families.
There are people who say it was karmic
justice that Raymond and I, who im-
pinged on society in 1971 with our vio-
lent pact, deserved our exit from society
in 1979 Raymond to the grave and my-
self to San Quentin Prison. They cry out
Would God have it that everyone has
the right to transformation and to re-
demption ~ except for Stanley Tookie
Williams? I cannot believe this is so.
To avoid damaging others, certain
names, nicknames and quite a few well-
known incidents have been excluded.
For the same reason I have used pseu-
donyms for some of the people I depict
in this book. Otherwise, the story I tell is
true.
South Central
(Chapter 2)
Though I loved my mother, I wouldn't
listen to her. There were many things I
kept from her to avoid punishment.
There was nothing I had witnessed or
experienced that I wished to reveal to
my mother. Nothing!
She is not responsible for my actions.
Any of them. My mother exhausted
every effort to raise me properly, but she
could not stand guard over me 24/7. She
was in thrall to some handed-down
black version of a Euro-American parent-
ing philosophy in conflict with the envi-
ronment I saw around me and its strin-
gent requirements for survival. Not even
my mother's intentions and religious
guidance could have compelled or
prayed me to conform to society's dou-
ble standards. Her cordial instructions
conflicted with "the colony's" exploita-
tion of the underclass. I was a member
of that class. (What I call the colony -
commonly known as the ghetto - is a
modern urban version of the plantations
on which African slaves lived in America.
Colony is a more accurate term than
ghetto, i.e. a group of people who have
been institutionalized in a distinctly
separate area.)
As a boy, I was incapable of articulating
the contradictions I saw, or of dodging
confrontations with the ominous influ-
ences outside my home. Each time I
stepped out into this society - rife with
poverty, filth, crime, drugs, illiteracy, and
daily, brutal miscarriages of justice - I
inhaled its moral pollutants and so ab-
sorbed a distorted sense of self-
preservation. I was duped into believing
that this toxic environment was normal.
I was unaware of the violence being
 done to my mind. Lacking any knowl-
edge of African culture, there was a
black hole in my existence.
More than 500 years of slavery had left
me with only scattered remnants of a
broken culture. Exposed to a multitude
of ambiguous, mostly negative influ-
ences, I would pass through my young
life with cultural neglect and a profound
identity crisis. Though I knew I was
black, I had no real perspective on being
black. I absorbed common negative
black stereotypes that eventually made
me despise my blackness. Yet despite
my envy of the privileges, wealth and
comforts held by many white people, I
never fantasized about being one of
them. Without the cultural knowledge I
needed to shape my identity, I was un-
able to give my mother the respect she
deserved. Since I respected neither my
mother nor myself, it was inevitable that
I would grow up, as I did, to disrespect
other black people.
I blindly moulded an identity that was a
classic product of corrupt influences and
my own vivid imagination. Though I was
no angel, neither was I a child demon.
Life deprived me of the blood of free-
dom and an equal opportunity to suc-
ceed. I was guilty by reason of colour,
convicted and sentenced at birth.
Like most of my peers, I stumbled
through life "dyseducated," a very differ-
ent quality than being merely unedu-
cated. My options and opportunities
were restricted. For me there were no
Rotary Clubs, Yacht Clubs, Explorer
Clubs, Boy's Academies, or any other
privilege-bound associations. I was af-
forded equal opportunities on society's
underbelly among street thugs, ex-cons,
pimps, gamblers, con men, thieves,
prostitutes and hustlers. Here, the pre-
vailing motifs were violence and the
daily battle to survive. Might was right,
always.
Seen through my adolescent eyes, eve-
ryone was at war: fathers battled their
wives, neighbours were at each other's
throats, criminals fought criminals.
Sometimes at night I would -see birds of
fire soaring through the sky or crashing
into a fence; I learned that gamblers
were setting homing pigeons ablaze
and then releasing them, wagering on
which one would come closest to its
destination. And we kids would imitate
them. This was our culture: casually
brutal, unspeakably cruel.
The Art of Dyseducation
(Chapter 5)
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PANTHER LEGACY
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Back at school my skills were growing, sensed that when I did enter junior high,
thanks to Miss Johnson, my sixth grade it would be a turning point in my life -
teacher. She was a master motivator. I'm with a downward trajectory.
reminded of how she looked each time I
read Ebony magazine. Often it carried a Adolescent Blues
photo of a black woman to whom a (Chapter 8)
literary contest was dedicated, Gertrude In spite of me being the most incon-
Johnson Williams. The resemblance to spicuous youth around, the cop
our Miss Johnson was uncanny. Our swooped down on me because I was a
teacher was a husky black woman who “black youth walking”. Two white cops
seemed always to wear black clothing. jumped out of the car with their hands
She sported black-rimmed eyeglasses poised on their guns and demanded I
and her shoulder-length hair was curled stand still. One asked, “Are you a Pan-
underneath, all the way around. She had ther, boy?” I didn't have a clue what he
an imposing presence with a command- was talking about. I knew nothing at the
ing voice, but exuded a maternal sensi- time about the revolutionary group
tivity that made the entire class feel called the Black Panthers. I thought the
special. Miss Johnson devoted ample fool was trying to call me an animal, so I
time to each student and had no prob- responded, "Of course not." His rough
lem repeating herself until a message pat-down search was a legendary law
was driven home. enforcement procedure known to virtu-
ally all black males in South Central and
Her classroom had no black curriculum, involving undue intimate contact in the
but when we were alone she talked groin area. "I'll be watching you, nigger,"
about black greatness and the need for said the cop, smiling, as he prepared to
me to carry the torch. By then I needed leave. This was his attempt to instil the
more than Miss Johnson’s occasional fear of the law in me. I feared neither the
chats. My cultural awareness was zero. I law nor him - only his gun.
needed a complete black history course
and a thorough deprogramming. I had The Institutional Shuffle
been duped into believing that all black (Chapter I0)
people were inhuman and inferior, that
In 1970 I was largely unconscious of the
we had made no contribution to the
battle being fought on a higher level for
forward thrust of civilization. Negative
black stereotypes were broadcast or black survival by civil rights organiza-
tions: the Black Panthers, United Slaves
implied by the news media, magazines,
institutions, television, newspapers, organization, the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People,
books, and every other medium you can
think of, not to mention the
countless deluded blacks I met
who believed the myth of their
inferiority. Their contempt for
their own blackness was so
ingrained they had subcon-
sciously stepped outside
themselves to assimilate with
any cultural group but their
own. Their dys-education was
complete. The more I was
indoctrinated with lies about
my blackness, the more I grew
to detest myself.
Miss Johnson did try but was
unable to provide enough
information to help me reas-
semble my mutilated outlook
on life. She was restricted to
the school's curriculum and
forbidden any extramural
teachings, in particular black
history. She deserves credit for
recognizing my potential and
for trying to reveal it to me.
Little did I know how much I
would miss Miss Johnson’s
style of teaching. However, I
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, the Nation of Islam, the
African National Congress, and others in
the United States and abroad. I was
brain-dead about the Soledad Brothers,
Huey P. Newton, Angela Davis, Nelson
and Winnie Mandela, Malcolm X, Bobby
Rush, Bunchie Carter, Bobby Seales,
Martin Luther King Jr. and other black
leaders.
… party or other active political groups. A
At Central juvenile Hall, two detectives
showed up to question me about the
names of my two homeboys who'd
eluded capture. One of the white detec-
tives said, "Look, Stan, if you tell us who
was with you in that stolen car, you can
go home today." I could riot snitch un-
der any circumstances, even if I were
being accused of heinous crimes that
others had committed. I was taught not
to tell. I remembered vividly how when I
was a little boy, Big Rock would become
enraged when he talked about snitches
being the lowest form of any animal.
"Better for a mother to cross her legs
during the moment of conception to
choke the life out of that child than to
give birth to a snitch," he declared. So
when the cop asked again was I willing
to give him the names of my homeboys,
I said, "What homeboys? What stolen
car?" Apparently I pissed the cops off,
because they jumped up and stormed
out of the room.
Seeds of a Gang
(Chapter II)
I returned to the South Central colony to
salutations all around from my home-
boys. It was customary to pay homage
to any one of us who had done time
without snitching. Bub was the first to
shake my hand and comment on how
buffed up I had become. Mostly he was
showing gratitude for my knowing how
to keep my mouth shut.
The' streets hadn't changed much. The
gang problem still festered, and racial
ferment was everywhere. The National
Guard was called in to a riot in Wilming-
ton, North Carolina. The Black Panther's
Field Marshal, George Jackson, was shot
and killed during an alleged escape
attempt at San Quentin state prison. The
political activist Angela Davis was still in
Marin County jail, and a rebellion was in
full swing at Attica state prison in upper
New York State. Not to mention usual
problems: poor education, few jobs, lack
of youth programmes, broken families,
all feeding the growing civil rights
movement.
While funding for black economic pro-
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PANTHER LEGACY
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grammes was cut, the gangs and their
levels of violence surged. This was a
growth industry. South Central was full
of both visible and latent street gangs
with parasitical appetites. Contrary to
popular belief, black gangs were not
new. The older ones the notorious Slau-
sons, Gladiators and the Business Men
had become ethnicity-conscious and
were absorbed into the Black Panther
few remaining older black gangs still
hung on: the Chain Gang, Low Riders,
Avenues, Brims, Figueroa Boys and Van
Ness Boys, These gave rise to newer,
more predatory street cliques: the
Sportsman Park Boys, Denker Boys, Man-
chester Park Boys, Hustler Mob, New
House Boys and many others. However,
despite our lack of numbers, I had sev-
eral trump cards over the other gangs.
As I had moved from school to school,
juvenile facility to juvey, and hood to
hood, I had established ties in each area
with certain key youth who held influ-
ence over their circle of homeboys. Their
homeboys became mine, and mine
became theirs.
I was catapulted to the helm of my
group not by force or referendum, but
by opportunity, conditions and self-
promotion. Simply, I stepped into a
vacuum, an uncontested position tailor-
made for me. My homeboys' acquies-
cence allowed me to follow through, to
expand. We were not a gang in the tra-
ditional sense, but as our rivals raised
the bar with their increasing aggression
and strong-arming, we morphed into a
gang without a title. There was no turn-
ing back, not really, because the more
we fought, the more deeply entrenched
our vendettas became. Though we saw -
he black images across the barricades as
our enemy, we had no notion that our
true adversaries were the squalid living
conditions, the vortex of powers confin-
ing us to those conditions, and our own
unwitting perpetuation of those condi-
tions. Like countless other black gang
members and criminals, we were uncon-
scious accomplices in our own, subjuga-
tion - our own worst foes.
Gang battles raged, and we picked up
the pace in drive-by beatings. Often
we'd bail out of a stolen car to beat
down unsuspecting rivals and I'd let
them know it was me, Tookie, Who was
doing it to them. If they didn't remem-
ber anything else, they'd remember my
name. As long as the local gangs were at
each other's throats and didn't unite, we
could stand up against any of them,
even though we were outnumbered.
They came to despise us and the name
they cursed most was mine. I became
the neighbouring gangs' number one
target, something I encouraged. I
needed to be feared and known by all of
them. It became a familiar sight for
gangs to cruise the area and leave mes-
sages:
"Tell Tookie we're looking for him."
"Tell Tookie we're gonna kill him!"
One evening at a dance at the Saint
Andrew's park gym, the Chain Gang
caught a few of us off-guard. The guy
who approached me was Daven, a
twenty-something loudmouth who
wouldn't bust a grape with cleats on.
Surrounded by a mob of other grown
men posing as his back-up, Daven was
bold enough to thrust a finger in my
chest and ask, "Are you Tookie?" It was
dija vu for me, reminding me of the time
when Louis and his cronies stomped me
in the dirt behind Manual Arts. This time
I flipped the script and lunged at Daven,
causing both of us to fall to the ground.
The darkness in the gym allowed me to
crawl out of the scuffle while Daven's
homeboys continued to punch and kick
him, thinking that it was me they were
beating. Meanwhile, Bub, in the gym's
kitchen, held other Chain Gang mem-
bers at bay with a starter pistol, until
they realized it was a fake. Like me, he
managed to escape a serious beat-
down.
We had constant reminders of our mor-
tality, especially when shots were fired
at us. Guns were replacing fists as the
fastest way to earn a reputation for
youths who lacked the ability to fight
and needed an equalizer. It took nerve
to fight with your hands - it's much eas-
ier to pick up a handgun and brandish it.
A child could do it, with deadly effect.
It's true that we had access to a cache of
guns, but we wanted to beat our rival
gangs into submission, not kill them.
The horrors of gunplay disturbed me so
much that for a long time, I refused to
possess one. Guns represented death,
and I feared their potential.
Nevertheless, even while hot lead was
flying in our direction, I didn't give death
a second thought. I had a false sense of
invincibility. I wanted to live a full life
but faced a meaningless future with no
dreams, no tangible hopes. I lived each
day with reckless abandon not fearing
tomorrow. God looks out for babies and
fools. as the expression goes.
The fool in me was running amok: per-
haps that's why death passed me by.
Also, most of my rivals and enemies
didn't even know what I looked like. I
was said to be tall, with a scarred face
and let-black skin, a muscle-bound nut. I
was pegged as a villain who harassed
other gangs, didn't play fair, and needed
to be taught a lesson.
My street rep continued to grow, sur-
passing the leaders of all other local
gangs. Although I wanted the notoriety,
I didn't anticipate the headaches. The
police and school administration were
receiving complaints about a student
named Tookie who was causing trouble
on and off the grounds. Both authorities
wanted to identify this person. Even
some parents of local gang members
were up in arms about this mysterious
troublemaker, but none of them could
finger me. In school, gang members and
everybody else knew me only as Stan,
and I wanted to keep it that way as long
as possible.
Our crew's fashion style was dissimilar to
the other street gangs, but more and
more we began to emulate them. My
homeboys began to adopt gang names:
Erskine became "Mad Dog," Terry was
now "Bimbo," Big Bob chose "The Hawk,"
and Donald called himself "Sweet Back"
after the main character in a Melvin Van
Peebles movie, Sweet Sweetback's
Baadasssss Song. Other homeboys did
likewise. Soon, Terry and I got our left
ears pierced to enhance our thug image.
Again, our homeboys followed suit,
styling the same kind of gold hook and
cross, or a small gold hoop earring. We
had gravitated toward the gang realm
as if we belonged there.
Our persistent attacks along with other
street gangs destroying one another
began to turn the tide in our favour.
Several of the larger gangs showed an
interest in switching sides - extending
an olive branch of compromise while
others reluctantly continued to fight. It
was time to consolidate the friends and
acquaintances I had cultivated for the
past few years, to avoid making the
divide-and conquer mistakes made by
other street gangs. It didn't take a
mathematician to see that when a struc-
ture is divided, each individual part loses
its potency and thus is exposed to possi-
ble annihilation. I didn't want to make
that mistake.
The black community generally was
blind to its defiant youth creating in-
creasingly aggressive street gangs. Mis-
labelled by some as a “lost generation,”
we were instead forgotten prodigies
who disappeared, children buried alive
in a sandbox. We did what was neces-
sary to exhume ourselves. Though we
must share the blame, we were products
of a culture that bastardized us.
Crip Walk
(ChapterI2)
[Tookie talks of the first time that several
crews came together to form what was to
become the ‘Crips’ street gang - Edtior]
It would have been a police photogra-
pher's Kodak moment to have captured
all of us on film that day. Standing and
sitting around on the bleachers was the
largest body of black pariahs ever as-
sembled. I'm convinced that had the
Black Panther party still been recruiting,
uninterrupted by the FBI, Huey Newton
and Bobby Scale would have salivated
over our untapped youthful potential.
We embodied just one small division of
a multitude of reckless, energetic, fear-
less and explosive young black warriors
across the USA. Though often seen as
social dynamite, I believe we were the
perfect entity to be indoctrinated in
cultural awareness and trained as sol-
diers for the black struggle. This oppor-
tunity to mould us into a valuable re-
source was never spotted by society,
schools, churches, community pro-
grammes, civil rights movements, or
other black organizations.
… an apocalyptic moment for countless
The Crips was our vehicle for illusionary
empowerment, payback, camaraderie,
protection, thuggery, and a host of
other benefits. We didn't want to be
disenfranchised, dyseducated, disem-
powered, and destitute, but opportuni-
ties were scarce. We were seventeen-
year-
olds
with
pol-
luted
Tookie and Louis Farrakhan
minds who wanted to be emancipated
from the struggle against conditions
that seemed to seek our extinction or
emasculation. Regardless of hostile op-
position or lack of social privilege, my
vested interest, like everyone else, was
simply to survive. The Crips became
central to my self-destructive resolve.
This forgotten generation created a
quasi-culture with its own mores, style
of dress, hand symbols, vernacular,
socio-economic qualities, martyrs, ritu-
als, colour identification (blue for Crips),
legends, myths and codes of silence.
Words were coined for our madness.
Buddha called it "cripping" or , "crippin'."
Our pride in the alliance gave birth to
mottoes such as Craig's phrase, "Crippin'
night and day is the only way." Melvin's
favourite was, "Can't stop, won't stop."
Buddha's brainchild was, "Crips don't
die, we multiply." Raymond's favourite
was, "Chitty chitty bang bang, ain't
nothin' but a Crip thang."
"Do or die" was a common proverb
among us, on both east side and west
side. Crippin' was our reason for being. it
grounded us In a way that nothing else
had. It permitted us to lash out at gangs
and at a world that despised us. This was
black youth. Merely to survive each day
was a personal victory. Our alliance was
beginning to be noticed, and we were
widely reviled.
Deprived by our colour and class of
access to the American Dream, we be-
gan a Crip-walk toward self-destruction.

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PANTHER LEGACY
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Portrait, layout & front cover artwork by Jaykoe :: www.jaykoe.com ::
hgfdhjhgkjkdjfkdmnviorgnfvkdfjkasdjfkljdsfaklsdfj
jon@jaykoe.com

The BPCC would like to thank: Aki & FunDaMental, Andy Isaac - Notting Hill Film Festival, Ana Laura
Lopez de la Torres and the Remember Olive Collective in Brixton, Anna, Barry McColgan and Sinn
Fein and Sinn Fein Youth / Ogra Shinn Fein, Bashy, Billy X Jennings & The Black Panther Alumni,
Carrie ‘The Baroness’ and everyone at The Treatm ent Rooms & Black Sheep, Clarence Thompson,
Darcus Howe, Eamonn McCann, Elbert ‘Big Man’ Howard, Emory Douglas, George Galloway MP,
Helen, Helen Kinsella, Incyte at Funkatech & Sub Frequency Funk records, Islamic Human Rights
Commission, Jo & Phil, Kalabash, Ken Livingstone, Kensington and Chelsea Council, Kevin Ovenden,
Kofi Deborah - Carnival Village, Lesley, Liz, Louis Buckley - Black Nine Films, Melissa & Tchaik,
Natasha Tsangarides, Navroz, Pollyana & Caroline at Urbis, Respect, Robin at Pluto Press, Screen
Nation, Sina Brown-Davis, The Shrine, Vanessa Walters and Zena Edwards

THE BLACK PANTHER ALUMNI

The central resource about the Black Panthers
www.itsabouttimebpp.com

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© Emory Douglas