(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #230 - Folder Black Revolution: Revolutionary Structure: The Black Panthers ... beyond the myth (fr)

The evocation of the Black Panther Party often arouses mixed feelings among the 
revolutionary activists, between fascination and caution. It is therefore essential to 
have a spare to understand the dramatic history of the party and make the results of these 
experiments to the current struggles approach. ---- Since its creation, the Black Panther 
Party (BPP) attracts the attention of U.S. authorities and particularly the FBI, which 
will in the years 1960-1970 to be very active against revolutionary movements. With BPP, 
the FBI will be ruthless, all means are good to eradicate the political organization. 
Somehow, the BPP has condensed all the fears of white America, racist and puritanical. 
---- The emergence of the Black Power ---- The BPP was born in Oakland (California) in 
October 1966.

Ten years ago, the movement for civil rights broke the segregationist Southern United 
States. The peace movement for equal rights has shaken the United States for ten good 
years. But the violence, poverty and racism remain and in 1965 broke the Watts riots. 
Political violence is not to be outdone, the Vietnam War raged and protests are violently 
repressed. The students will engage in an armed struggle with the creation of the Weather 
Underground . Between 1965 and 1968 two major figures of the cause of black-es are 
murdered, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

It is in this context emerges the Black Power, with a new generation of activists who the 
actors and actresses of the civil rights movement are "Uncle Toms", black with white 
subject. These young black-es will be defined as "African-American" and consider the 
black-es must emancipate imposed by white cultural values. This requires a new education 
which black-es must learn not to feel inferior es and a return to African roots.

Ideological roots of the BPP

The BPP will be greatly influenced by two figureheads, the black nationalist leader 
Malcolm X and the famous psychiatrist and Marxist theorist Frantz Fanon of Martinique. The 
influence of the author of The Wretched of the Earth will be considerable, it is indeed 
the first to be interested in the cause of black-and are widely colonized peoples in the 
world in terms of class. Panthers will transpose reflections Fanon in case of 
black-American art. Little Red Book of Mao's writings and speeches of Ernesto Guevara and 
Fidel Castro are also ideological influences the organization.

Moreover, each new recruit must read collection of quotations from Mao. The BPP is clearly 
Marxist-Leninist, tinted black American nationalism. The fascination for the lumpen 
proletariat and the revolutionary violence borrowed from both Fanon and Malcolm X and 
applied more or less awkwardly American case will also be something to do with the fall of 
the BPP, the FBI is indeed managed to turn against them.

The birth of the BPP

The BPP is created by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in 1966. The two men first met in 
1962, the first supports the movement for civil rights and the second feels closer to 
Malcolm X. They are found in 1965, and reflect a revolutionary organization for American 
black-es. They do not identify with existing ones, because they are not black supremacist 
and make the difference between racist and non-racist whites. The class struggle is also 
essential as a reading society. They join a black association of academics who advocate 
the Merritt College in Oakland. But this is not satisfactory, their proposals are 
considered too radical by academics and students, and the two men did not want to be " ? 
revolutionary salon ? . " They decided to return to the streets of Oakland and is in 
October 1966 in the premises of the Federal Agency against poverty will be written the 
famous political ten-point program of the BPP.

A ten-point program

Huey P. Newton wants the program organized dialectically concrete and ideological 
proposals. The black-American art should be able to find workable answers to their 
everyday problems while being aware of their condition are oppressed. The long-term goal 
is to enable the revolution empowering black-es and the peoples of the Third World.

" ? 1.We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black community 
[...]. 2. full employment [...]. 3. that stops the looting of the black community by 
whites. [...]. 4. decent housing [...]. 5. the education of our people [...] teaching that 
we learn our true history and our role in today's society [...]. 6. all blacks are exempt 
from military service [...]. 7. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of 
black [...]. 8. freedom for all black men held in federal prisons [...] 9. all blacks, 
when they appear before a court, be tried by a jury of their peers, or people from the 
black community [...] 10. We want land, bread, housing, education, enough to clothe us, 
justice and peace (and as the main political objective: a plebiscite supervised by the 
United Nations, taking place in the black colony which may participate only black colonial 
subjects to determine the will of black people as to their national destiny). "

First actions and success

This program will remain in effect until 1972, it attracted many activists and black-are 
activists like Eldridge Cleaver who made him famous for his rhetoric. The first practical 
application of this program was the creation of self-defense militias to protect the Black 
community against verbal and physical abuse by the police.

It should not be forgotten that the full name of the organization was The Black Panther 
Party for Self-Defense . The goal is to enable residents and inhabitants of the ghetto no 
longer living in fear almost daily police brutality. But also to restore some pride in the 
black community. Daniel Guerin reports that militias composed of four or five men 
patrolled neighborhoods in uniform. They had with them weapons, tape recorders and law 
books. Their main mission was to provide legal advice and monitor the police every inquiry 
to prevent any abuse of law. Very quickly the organization met some notoriety especially 
among younger people. Including the use of a particularly nasty vocabulary to police and 
politicians. In their speeches they often had recourse to talk of the street, combining 
Marxist rhetoric and ghetto slang.

On April 1, 1967 a young black hit by the bullets of the police, the BPP organizes 
demonstrations to support the family and ask that justice be done. It is at this point 
that out first issue of the journal of the organization The Black Panther Black Community 
News Service . While their success is growing a particular event will go to the Panthers 
on the front of the political scene and a profound imagination of the United States. The 
BPP enjoys playing the card of provocation. It was at this time that will make the 
headlines. At the beginning of 1967 Mulford Senator who wishes to fight against armed 
left-wing proposes a bill to ban gun ownership groups. It is supported by the governor of 
California, Ronald Reagan though it goes against the dominant American ideology. The BPP 
organized in April 1967 and a demonstration outside the Capitol in Sacramento. They are in 
uniform and armed.

Bobby Seale delivers a revolutionary speech to the African-American community and more 
broadly for all and all the oppressed. Their aura is growing, but at the same time they 
forge an image of internal enemies for many viewers. The U.S. government will never 
forgive them this stunt succeeded and war is declared.

Bobby Seale was sentenced to six months in prison for disturbing public order. A few 
months later, in October 1967 Huey P. Newton was arrested by police while riding in the 
car, a shootout ensues. The police officer died instantly, Newton was seriously injured. 
It will be charged with murder when he is still hospitalized.

It is at this point that begins many advocacy campaigns for their release. They find broad 
support even in liberal circles (left) white. The party is growing nationally.

The social program of BPP: Serving the community
The BPP may become more important then organize and implement its social program. The 
majority of Americans are black, live in poverty. The organization wants to actually help 
the community. Are then organized free breakfasts for children, distribution of clothing, 
free health clinics, housing co-operatives, aid for the elderly. Prisoners are not 
forgotten as free bus to prisons are organized for families. The BPP also organizes 
screening campaigns. And of course the education of young people is a priority. The FBI 
look at these actions of a very evil eye. J. Edgar Hoover is aware that their influence 
will grow and it also improves the image of the Panthers are no longer seen as criminals 
armed blacks.

An extremely violent repression

It is from this point that the FBI will be ruthless. All methods are good to destroy the 
BPP. The activists are harassed by the police-are but also their support. Everything will 
be done to the newspaper is no longer distributed. The police arrived violently during 
food distributions, frightening everyone. The organization is wiretapping, infiltrated all 
levels. The FBI hires thugs to gangrene organization. Rumors are initiated by the 
authorities through false news to divide the members of the organization. One of the most 
effective strategies is indeed a climate of paranoia. The trial took place against some 
members are rigged. Nothing is left to chance. This goes misinformation to political 
murder. The most famous are the assassinations of Bunchy Carter, John Huggins or that of 
Fred Hampton. In the early 1970s, 28 militants were killed by the FBI and many others were 
imprisoned. According to Ward Churchill, specialist methods of the FBI, at the end of 
1971, the organization is working as it literally destroyed.

1973-1982: long agony of BPP

After 1973, the party no longer exists at the national level. For many members this is a 
long downward spiral marked by exile in Algeria as Eldridge Cleaver, entry into hiding as 
fugitives, prison, forfeiture see as Huey P. Newton sinking into drugs and flirting with 
pimping. In 1971, the clandestine armed wing of the organization, the Black Liberation 
Army had split. It will remain active until 1981, after numerous arrests and killings of 
its members. His latest stunt is an attack on an armored car with the Weather Underground 
. Another part of the militants continues to be active at the local level, but their 
action has significantly associative and reformist orientation. The revolutionary slogans 
were evacuated from their speech. Some members like Bobby Seale try their luck to be 
elected to the Oakland City Council. From 1977 to 1982, only the school and the newspaper 
founded by the organization will still work. The official closing of the school in 1982 
marked the definitive end of the BPP.

Conclusion: between admiration and skepticism

One can only agree with Daniel Guerin early 70s blamed the Panthers their 
authoritarianism, their amateurism, their fascination with guns and violence, their 
idealization of the lumpenproletariat as a revolutionary subject. But their quasi-military 
discipline, virility and sexism despite the important roles sometimes granted to certain 
activists. Guerin also pointed permanent oscillation of some of its members between 
reformism and revolution. Nevertheless, it is also because they and they wanted to change 
the order of things that the BPP has drawn the ire of U.S. authorities. The Panthers 
wanted to restore pride to the black community and the people relearn to take control by 
becoming a leading political actor. The authorities did returned the favor and still 
dozens of members are imprisoned despite countless campaigns to support worldwide.

Florian (AL Paris Sud)

Two references on the subject:

the Tom Van Eersel, Black Panther History of the Black Panther Party , 2006 The early break.

the Daniel Guerin From Uncle Tom to the Black Panthers , the good characters, 2010 (1973).

Case summary:
The roots of racism: From slavery to the ghetto
labor movement: black or white, always proletarians
Malcolm X: a life in black and white
Malcolm X: Building a Black Power
The Black Panthers beyond the myth
The Black Feminism: at the intersection of oppressions
DRUM: The struggle of blacks in the workplace
black reformist movements: The pitfalls of bourgeois strategies
Harana Par? (historian): "This is the revolt that brought into existence the American Black"
A Black Revolution remains to be done