HUEY P. NEWTON

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INTRODUCTION BY ELDRIDGE CLEAVER

THEGENIUS OF

I UEY PNEWTON

CONTENTSINTRODUCTION .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .... ... .. .... .. .. .... .. . ... . .. .HUEY P. NEW'T'ON TO THE REPUBLIC OF NEW AFRICA. . . ... . .. .. .. . 8

MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER OF DEFENSE, HUEY P . NEWTONON THE PEACE MOVEMENT .. ..

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PRISON, WHERE IS THY VICTORY? .. . . .. . . .. . . . .. .. .. .. . . .. . . .. .. .. .. .... .. .18

HUEY (NEWTON TALKS TO THE MOVEMENT.. .. . . . .. .. .. .. .. . . .. . . .. . ..022

FUNCTIONAL DEFINITION OF POLITICS.,. .. .. .. .. . . ... . . .. . . ..w . .. . .. . . .26

THE GENIUS OF HUEY P. NEWTON .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... . . .. .. .. .... . . .. . .. . . ..30

TEN POINT PLATFORM and PROGRAM. .. . .. .. . . .. . . . . . .. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

This Is The Introduction To The New VolumeOf Essays Of The Minister Of Defense

Huey P, Newton's thoughts, like his action is clearand precise . cutting always to the very heart of thematter. Huey's genius is that he took up where brotherMalcolm left off when he was assassinated . Huey wassuccessful in creating an organization unique in thehistory of Afro-Americans . A revolutionary politicalparty with self perpetuating machinery. This is anhistoric achievement. And it is the thought ofHuey P.Newton that holds the Black Panther Party togetherand constitutes its foundation .Huey was always conscious of the fact that he was

creating a vanguard organization, and that he was mov-ing at a speed so far beyond where the rest of AfroAmerica was at, that his primary concern was tofind ways of rapidly communicating what he sawand knew to the rest of the people. This was alwaysHuey"s major concern to insure that the people receivedcorrect information . He had an unshakable faith in theability of the people to make the correct decisionsonce they received accurate information. It was thisconcern for getting information to the people, thatdrove Huey practically at the point of a gun, to roundus all up and stay on our backs until we would get outanother issue of the Black Panther Newspaper. Whenhe first decided that we had to start a newspaper of ourown we all tried to wiggle out of sitting down and doingwhat seemed to us to be such boring work, but Hueywould always make us feel ashamed for not workinghard enough. He would say, "a newspaper is the voiceof a party,

the voice of the Panther must be heardthroughout the land," bight on brother Huey !Huey always knew exactly what he was doing. He

knew that the life of a revolutionary vanguard organi-zation was in its practice, in its action; but he never

belittled the functional nature of words when properlybrought to bear on the revolutionary process . One daywhile we were both in the Alameda county jail, atrustee brought me a little note from Huey, (the pigsalways kept us isolated from each other, and this wasthe only means we had of communicating). At the endof the note Huey placed a quote from Regis Debray,"poor the gun without the pen, poor the pen withoutthe gun."Huey delivered his message to the people throughhis

actions,. down on the street with a gun in his hands; andwhen he sat down to write, he was always dealingwith concrete problems based on the experiences hewas having in organizing the Black Panther Party.Each time he wrote an article for our Newspaper, itwas always to deal with the problems with which hewas directly struggling. He never did like to wastewords or time, and he always meant exactly whathe said and he never backed away from a principle.When he thought that some important point was beingmisunderstood or that it was likely to get confused,he would take the time to analyze the problem andformulate it in language that he knew the people couldunderstand . If he could not find the right word to ex-press precisely what he was trying to get at, he wouldnot budge beyond that point until he had found thecorrect expression. Once Huey was dictating an article

and I was typing out what he was saying. He was

describing an encounter he had had earlier that day

with a cop in Oakland. Huey was angry and he was

trying to find a term of contempt to describe theviciousness with which this cop had acted and the con-tempt that he felt for the cop. Huey grabbed his ownhead with both hands and walked rapidly in a little

circle around the room. We were all trying to suggesta term for him to use, and we came up with somejuicy ones, but they did not satisfy Huey. FinallyHuey burst out laughing and said,"Pig! That's what

he acted like, a racist pig."Huey made a thorough study of Afro-American

history and an equally as thorough study of the history

and theory of revolution and struggles for nationalliberation . He preferred one to interpet the historyof our people to the light of revolutionary

experienceand principles . The result

is a hard core of analysison how to move to liberate our people.This volume of essays by the Minister of Defense

is the heart and blood of the Black Panther Party.When reading them, one can picture Huey as he waswhen he wrote them: hard pressed by pigs who heknew were ploting to kill him. With pigs breathingdown his neck, Huey was racing against time that hadalmost run out to get the information down on paperso that no matter what happened to him the roar ofthe Panther would still exist as a legacy to our peopleand our struggle. Huey understood the vital importanceof our people developing their own revolutionaryanalysis for themselves, and for their own struggleand salvation.Looking back at it all, I am amazed by the miracles

which Huey performedfor his people. I know that Hueywould not consider it a miracle, it is all just commonsense to him, but it is the common sense of an un-common man; the common sense of agenius. As longas our people are oppressed and struggling for theirliberation, we will have a vital need for the essaysof the Minister of Defense. It should always be re-membered that Huey made no distinctions betweentheory and practice, because he practiced what hepreached. What Huey has written was not meant forentertainment but as a guide to action. What Hueyhas written only has relevancy if it is put into pratice.At this time in history, in ,particular, when the fascistpigs of the power structrue have set out to stampout the Black Panther Party, we must never forgetthat what they essentially are trying to do is tostamp out Huey P. Newton, because there is nodistinction between Huey P. Newton and the BlackPanther Party . The pigs know this and we had betterknow it. And finally let no one think that the BlackPanther Party has relinquished its demand that Hueybe set free. By studying the essays of our Minister

of Defense, by spreading the word and by practicingthis theory we can create the condition for settingour leader free. So let us get on with the job, timeis precious .

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLEEldridge CleaverMinister of InformationBlack Panther PartyJanuary 2, 1970

FREE HUEY .

Huey P. Newton To The

Republic Of New Africa

This is Huey P. Newton, at Los Padres, California1969, September 13 . Greetings to the Republic of NewAfrica and President Robert Williams . I'm very happy tobe able to welcome you back home. I might add that thisis perfect timing . And we need you very much, the peopleneed you very much. And now that the consciousness ofthe people is at such a high level, perhaps they will be ableto appreciate your leadership, and also be ready to movein a very revollutionary fashion . Some time ago I receiveda message from the Republic of New Africa with a seriesof questions concerning the philosophy of the Black Pan-ther Party; and very detailed questions on certain stands,and our thinking on these positions . At that time I wasn'tprepared to send a message out . I've had to think aboutmany questions, and due to the situation here it's verydifficult for me to communicate, so that explains this lapsein time between question and answer . I won't be able toexpound on all the questions but I would like to give somegeneral explanations to the Black Panther Party's posi-tion, as related to the Republic of New Africa . The BlackPanther Party's position is that the Black people in thecountry are definitely colonized, and suffer from thecolonial plight more than any ethnic group in the coun-try . Perhaps with the exception of the Indian, but surelyas much even as the Indian population . We too, realizethat the American people in general are colonized. Andthey're colonized simply because they're under a capitalistsociety, with a small clique of rulers who are the ownersof the means of production in control of decision making,they're the decision making body. Therefore, that takesthe freedom from the American people in general . Andthey simply work for the enrichment of this ruling class .As far as Blacks are concerned, of course, we're at thevery bottom of this ladder, we're exploited by not only bythe small group of ruling class, we're oppressed, and re-pressed by even the working class whites in the country .And this is simple because the ruling class, the White rul-

ing class uses the old Roman policy of divide and conquer.In other words the White working class is used as pawnsor tools of the ruling class, but they too are enslaved . Soit's with that historical thing of dividing and ruling, thatthe ruling class can effectively and successfully keep themajority of the people in an oppressed position ; becausethey're divided in certain interest groups, even throughthese interests that the lower class groups carry doesn'tnecessarily serve as beneficial to them. As far as our standon separation, we've demanded, as you very well know, aplebisciteof the U .N . to supervise, so that Blacks can de-cide whether they want to (secede) the union, or what posi-tion they'll take on it . As far as the Black Panther Party isconcerned we're subject to the will of the majority of thepeople, but we feel that the people should have this choice,and we feel that the Republic of New Africa is perfectlyjustified in demanding and declaring the right to secedethe union. So we don't have any, there's no contradictionbetween the Black Panther Party's position and the Re-public of New Africa's position that I know, it's simply amatter of timing. We feel that certain conditions will haveto exist before we're even given the right to make thatchoice. We also take into consideration the fact that ifBlacks at this very minute were able to secede the union,and say have five states, or six states . It would be almostimpossible to function in freedom side by side with a capi-talist imperialistic country . We all know that motherAfrica is not free simply because of imperialism, becauseof Western domination. And there's no indication that itwould be any different if we were to have a separate coun-try, here in North America. As a matter of fact, by alllogics we would suffer imperialism and colonialism evenmore so than the Third World is suffering it now. Theyaregeographically better located, thousands of miles away,but yet they are not able to be free simply because ofhighly technologicaly developments the highest tech-nological developments that the West has that makes theworld so much smaller, one small neighborhood . So tak-ing all these things into consideration, we conclude thatthe only way that we're going to be free is to (wipe) outonce and for all the oppressive structure of America. Werealize we can't do this without a popuiar struggle, with

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out many alliances and coalitions, and this is the reasonthat we're moving in the direction that we are to get asmany alliances as possible of people that are equally dis-satisfied with the system . And also we're carrying on, orattempting to carry on a political education campaign,so that the people will be aware of the conditions andtherefore perhaps they will be able to take steps to con-trolling these conditions . We think this is the most impor-tant thing at this time, is to be able to organize in somefashion so that we'll have a formidable force to challengethe structure of the American empire . So we invite theRepublic of New Africa to struggle with us, because weknow from people whom I've talked to I've talked to MayMalory, and other people are familiar with the philosophyof the Republic of New Africa, they seem to be very awarethat the whole structure of America will have to be chang-ed, in order for the people of America to be free . And thisis again with the full knowledge and the full view of theend goal of the Republic of New Africa again is to secede .In other words we're not really handling this question atthis time because we feel that for us that it is somewhatpremature, that I realize the physiological value of fight-ing for a territory . But at this time the Black PantherParty feels that we don't want to be in an enclave typesituation where we would be more isolated than we al-ready are now. We're isolated in the ghetto area, concen-trated in the north, in the metropolitan areas, in the in-dustrial areas, and we think that this is a very good loca-tion as far as strategy is concerned, as far as waging astrong battle against the established order . And again Ithink that it would be perfectly justified if the Blacks de-cided that they wanted to secede the union, but I think thequestion should be left up to the popular masses, the popu-lar majority . So this is it in a nutshell . As I said before, Idon't have the facilities here to carry on long discussionsI look forward to talking with Milton Henry in the nearfuture, if it's possible, I know that he has his hands fullnow, or representatives of the Republic of New Africa.So we can talk these things over . There are many thingsI heard, things I read, I'm in total agreement with . I wouldlike for the Republic of New Africa to know that we sup-port Robert Williams, and his plight at this time, that we

support him one hundred per cent, and we're willing togive all services asked of us, and we would like to find outexactly what we can do that would be most helpful in thecourt proceedings coming up, what moral support wecould give . Perhaps we could send some representatives,and we will publish in our paper, The Black Panther,articles educating people to Robert William's position orthe criminal activities that he's been victim of for someeight or nine years . I would also like to request of the Re-public of New Africa to give us some support in BobbySeale our Chairman of the Black Panther Party . BobbySeale is now in prison as you know in San Francisco, hehas a case coming up in Chicago, and one in Conn., andwe invite the Republic of New Africa to come in support .We would like this very much, and whatever moral sup-port they could possibly give we would welcome it . Weshould be working closer together than we are and per-haps this would be an issue that we could work togetheron. The issue is the political prisoners of America, andpeople as one to stand up against, to stand for the releaseof all political prisoners and this might be a rallying pointwhere all the Black revolutionary organizations and par-ties could rally around . Because I truly believe that somegood comes out of every attack that the oppressor makes.,It educates, it enlightens many people to his viciousness .So perhaps this will be a turning point in both our organi-zations and parties . So I would like to say, "ALL POWERTO THE PEOPLE, AND MORE POWER TO THEPRESIDENT OF REPUBLIC OF NEW AFRICA,ROBERT WILLIAMS."

Message From The Minister Of Defense,

Huey P. Newton On The Peace Movement

The Peace Movement is extremely important,more important than I thought it was, say,two years ago, Matter of fact, it's one of themost important movements that's going on atthis time. Because a person is in the PeaceMovement and he works with the Peace Move-ment, the Peace Movement in not necessarilya pacifist movement . I think that the reasonI place so much emphasis now upon the PeaceMovement I see that if peace were to comeabout this would force a re-evaluation anda revolution in the basic economic compositionof the country.

I'll explain that further, for instance, we allknow now this is a garrison state, the warfarestate. And this is not by accident. After cap-italism reaches a point where it can no longerexpand, it looks for other avenues, other de-posits, other places to expand the capitalistsinterest . And at this time super-capitalists(we know people like General Motors, Chrys-tler, General Dynamics, and all the SUPERCOMPANIES--I understand there's about 76that control the whole economy of this country)and these companies, including the automobilecompanies that I just named are the primepeople, or they are the military contractors.They run the defense plants as far as gettingthe contracts from the Pentagon. Chrystlermade that batch of tanks that wouldn't fire,(you probably saw in the paper) through acontract with the government and with thePentagon. In other words, super-capitalists arenow putting their over-expanded capitalisticsurplus into military equipment. And this mili-

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tary equipment is then placed in foreign coun-tries, which is the final depository for ex-pendable goods, such as Vietnam, such as whathappened in the Dominican Republic someyearsago. In other words, with the wedding of theindustry with the Pentagon, they have a newavenue to invest. And they invest in militaryequipment. And this equipment is expendable,because this is the purpose of it : To explodeit and then build new ones, you see. So it'sa perpetual type process.We know now that the U.S . has a secret

pact with Thailand. These things are not byaccident, are not by chance; but it's all partof a super-plan in order to keep the economygoing . What would happen then, if peace wereto come about? If peace were to come aboutthen you wouldn't have that final depositoryfor expendable goods and the surplus wouldthen be turned back into the country. The mili-tary plants and the related defense plants,industrial plants would be brought to a grind-ing halt.And this is why you have some of the union

representatives supporting the war effort. Thisis why the AFL-CIO supported the invasionof the Dominican Republic. It forced out JaunBosch for the simple reason, they know that aslong as the war goes on, then they can exploitthe people through taxation and also exploitthe people through human lives, because wesent soldiers, you see brothers, because they'reexpendable too ; people are expendable. So, thisis to keep it going, to keep getting the contracts.

So what happens is that one of the favoredarguments of the capitalists is that Americais not an imperialistic country because thetraditional ways and means of imperialistsis to go into a developing country and rapethe country of its raw materials and refinethem in the colony, in the developing country

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or send them to the mother country to berefined or refine them and sell them back ata high price to the colonized people . And theargument is that "America is not doing that .We don't need any equipment, and the rawmaterials out of Vietnam ." And this is verytrue. This sort of puzzled me for a while ;and I couldn't really answer it, and so I justtalked around it . But now I understand that something new has happened; that with the weddingof science with industry, with the industrialplants, that America has solved the basic pro-blem of raw materials through synthetics andthrough knowing how to use raw materials thatare already here and using them in a varietyof ways, therefore keeping the plants going. So,therefore this is the favored argument of thecapitalist : "So, we must be there to stop com-munism or wars of subversion, you see, sub-versive wars."But what's overlooked is the factthat the super-capitalists know we don't need.to rape the country. I think Cuba was the turningpoint where it was sort of the traditional colon-ized country . And I'll inject this and that isthat .

Another argument is that we need the positions,their strategic military positions, which weknow that the U.S. does not need any strategicmilitary positions because they already haveenough equipment to defend this country, fromany point in the world if we were attacked.So they could only be there to use this develop-ing country as depository for expendable goods.And in traditional imperialism, people from themother country usually go to the colony, setup government and there the government headsand also the leaders of the military .

And this is not so at this point, see. In Viet-nam, people from the mother country have notgone to the colonized country and jockeyed forposition, but it's all been turned back into A-

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merica . The defense contractorsjockeyfor posi-tion now in the mother country, you see, forthe defense contracts . And then they set upa puppet government or a military regime sothat they can supply these developing countrieswith military equipment. And they really don'twant to be in Vietnam or any of the developinggountries, because they feel (and they have donethis) they've bought off the militaries in thesevarious developing countries so that they willonly be an arm of the Pentagon, for instance,the military regime in Greece. So therefore,they have full control of the military officers,through buying them off, paying them high salariesand so forth so they feel that they won't haveto send American troops, and therefore, they won'tdisturb or cause chaos in America and the mothercountry .

But what happens when one battalion of yourmilitary is defeated? Then you send in rein-forcements to a defeated puppet army in thatdeveloping country . The whole government be-comes subject to the army . And the army be-comes suspicious of the civil government inthese developing countries, because they are toldby the Pentagon through indoctrination and moneythat the civil government is communist or athreat to the nation. So then you have militarycoups, and this is what happens over and overwith the support of the U .S .

So what we have, we have really an imperi-alistic variation of imperialism . And i saidbefore, the jockeying for position of power isinside of the mother country now. So, in fact,the American people have become colonized.

At one time t thought that only Blacks werecolonized . But i think we have to change ourrhetoric to an extent because the whole Americanpeople have been colonized, if you view ex-politation as a colonized effect, now they'reexploited. They support the super-capitalist

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through taxation . And (through taxation) with taxto support the super-capitalist, or these 76 com-panies.

So, therefore, the whole American people arecolonized people and even more so than the peoplein these developing countries where the mili-taries operate . And these are the points that wehave to get across to the people to show themthat we are a colonized people and lift `theirconsciousness to a point to have a successfulrevolution .

Well, anyway, I won't go on with that. ButI hope you get the point, and I hope I'm clearenough. But, this is why the Peace Movementis so important. If the Peace Movement is success-ful, then the revolution will be successful . Ifthe Peace Movement fails, then the revolutionin the mother country fails. In other wordsthe people will be pushed so up-tight once theyfound war were to stop, but then the wholeeconomy would go down the drain because youwould have to have a planned economy to combatthe chaos that would be caused by the absence ofincentive for the factories to go. Now war isthe incentive for the military contractors .

So this is why it is very important that wehave communications with, not only communica-tions with, we should engage in writing in ourpaper that we support the Peace Movement,actually get out and support it in various waysthrough literature and demonstrations in all theways that the people struggle against the antag-onistic ruling capitalist class in order to bringabout change, because we realize that wagingthe struggles of antagonistic forces are theelements and the essence of all change. So atthis point we're just involved in a struggle byantagonistic forces, and that is the people who-work for a living and the people who own andexploit for their well-being.

So we have to realize our position and we

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have to know ourselves and know our enemies.A thousand wars and a thousand victories . Anduntil we know who the enemy is and what thesituation is "we will only be marking time .Even the Peace Movement doesn't compromiseour defense principles . We still will defendourselves against attack and against agression .But overall, we're advocating the end to allwars . But, yet, we support the self-defense ofthe Vietnamese people and X11 the people whoare struggling .

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLEHuey P. NewtonMinister of Defense,Black Panther Party

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Prison, Where Is Thy Victory?When a person studies mathematics, he learns

that there are many mathematical laws whichdetermine the approach he must take to solvingthe problems presented to him . In the study ofgeometry, one of the first laws a person learnsis that "the whole is not greater than the sum ofits parts." This means simply that one cannothave a geometrical figure such as a circle ora square which in its totality, contains morethan it does when broken down into smallerparts . Therefore, if all the smaller parts add upto a certain amount, the entire figure cannotadd up to a larger amount . The prison cannothave a victory over the prisoner, because thosein charge take the same kind of approach andassume if they have the whole body in a cellthat they have there all that makes up the per-son . But a prisoner is not a geometrical figure,and an approach which is successful in mathe-matics, is wholly unsuccessful when dealingwith human beings.

In the case of the human, we are not dealingonly with the single individual, we are alsodealing with the ideas and beliefs which havemotivated him and which sustain him, evenwhen his body is confined . In the case of hu-manity the whole is much greater than its parts,because the whole includes the body which ismeasurable and confineable, and also the ideaswhich cannot be measured and which cannotbe confined . The ideas are not only within themind of the prisoner where they cannot beseen nor controlled, the ideas are also withinthe people . The ideas winch can and will sus-tain our movement for total freedom and dig-nity of the people, cannot be imprisoned, forthey are to be found in the people, all the peo-ple, wherever they are . As long as the peoplelive by the ideas of freedom and dignity there

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will be no prison which can hold our move-ment down. Ideas move from one person to an-other in the association of brothers and sisterswho recognize that a most evil system of capi-talism has set us against each other, when ourreal enemy is the exploiter who profits from ourpoverty . When we realize such an idea then wecome to :ove and appreciate our brothers andsisters who we may have seen as enemies, andthose exploiters who we may have seen asfriends are revealed for what they truly are toall oppressed people . The people are the idea,the respect and dignity of the people, as theymove toward their freedom is the sustainingforce which reaches into and out of the prison.The walls, the bars, the guns and the guards cannever encircle or hold down the idea of thepeople . And the people must always carry for-ward the idea which is their dignity and theirbeauty .

The prison operates with the idea that whenit has a person's body it has his entire being -since the whole cannot be greater than the sumof its parts . They put the body in a cell, andseem to get some sense of relief and securityfrom that fact . The idea of prison victory then,is that when the person in jail begins to act,think, and believe the way they want him to,then they have won the battle and the person isthen "rehabilitated ." But this cannot be the case,because those who operate the prisons, havefailed to examine their own beliefs thoroughly,and they fail to understand the types of peoplethey attempt to control . Therefore, even whenthe prison thinks it has won the victory, thereis no victory .

There are two types of prisoners . The largestnumber are those who accept the legitimacy ofthe assumptions upon which the society is based.They wish to acquire the same goals as every-body else, money, power, greed, and conspic-uous consumption . In order to do so, however,

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they adopt techniques and methods which thesociety has defined as illegitimate . When thisis discovered such people are put in jail . Theymay be called "illegitimate capitalists" sincetheir aim is to acquire everything this capital-istic society defines as legitimate . The secondtype of prisoner, is the one who rejects the legi-timacy of the assumptions upon which the so-ciety is based . He argues that the people at thebottom of the society are exploited for the profitand advantage of those at the top . Thus, theoppressed exist, and will always be used tomaintain the privileged status of the exploiters.There is no sacredness, there is no dignity ineither exploiting or being exploited . Althoughthis system may make the society function at ahigh level of technological efficiency, it is anillegitimate system, since it rests upon the suffer-ing of humans who are as worthy and as dig-nified as those who do not suffer . Thus, thesecond type of prisoner says that the society iscorrupt and illegitimate and must be over-thrown . This second type of prisoner is thepolitical prisoner . They do not accept the legiti-macy of the society and cannot participate inits corrupting exploitation, whether they arein the prison or on the block .

The prison cannot gain a victory over eithertype of prisoner no matter how hard it tries .The "Illegitimate capitalist" recognizes that ifhe plays the game the prison wants him to play,he will have his time reduced and be released tocontinue his activities . Therefore, he is willingto go through the prison programs and do thethings he is told . He is willing to say the thingsthe prison authorities want to hear . The prisonassumes he is "rehabilitated" and ready for thesociety . The prisoner has really played the pri-son's game so that he can be released to resumepursuit of his capitalistic goals . There is no vic-tory, for the prisoner from the git-go acceptedthe idea of the society . He pretends to accept the

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idea of the prison as a part of the game he hasalways played .

The prison cannot gain a victory over thepolitical prisoner because he has nothing to berehabilitated from or to . He refuses to acceptthe legitimacy of the system and refuses to par-ticipate . To patticipate is to admit that thesociety is legitimate because of its exploitationof the oppressed . This is the idea which the poli-tical prisoner does not accept, this is the ideafor which he has been imprisoned, and this isthe reason why he cannot cooperate with thesystem . The political prisoner will, in fact,serve his time just as will the "illegitimate capi-talist ." Yet the idea which motivated and sus-tained the political prisoner rests in the people,all the prison has, is a body.

The dignity and beauty of man rests in thehuman spirit which makes him more than simp-ly a physical being . This spirit must never besuppressed for exploitation by others . As long asthe people recognize the beauty of their humanspirits and move against suppression and ex-ploitation, they will be carrying out one of themost beautiful ideas of all time . Because thehuman whole is much greater than the sum ofits parts, the ideas will always be among thepeople . The prison cannot be victorious becausewalls, bars and guards cannot conquer or holddown an idea .POWER TO THE PEOPLE:BLACK POWER TO BLACK PEOPLE,AND PANTHER POWER TO THE VAN-GUARD.

Huey P . NewtonMinister of DefenseBlack Panther Party

Huey Newton Talks To The Movement

THE MOVEMENT: The question of nationalism is avital one in the Black movement today. Some have madea distinction between cultural nationalism and revolution-ary nationalism . Would you comment on the differencesand give us your views?

HUEY P. NEWTON : There are two kinds of nationalism,revolutionary nationalism and reactionary nationalism .Revolutionary nationalism is first dependent upon a peo-ple's revolution with the end goal being the people in pow-er . Therefore to be a revolutionary nationalist you wouldby necessity have to be a socialist . If you are a reaction-ary nationalist you are not a socialist and your end goal isthe oppression of the people .

Cultural nationalism, or pork chop nationalism, as Isometimes call it, is basically a problem of having thewrong political perspective . It seems to be a reaction in-stead of responding to political oppression. The culturalnationalists are concerned with returning to the old Afri-can culture and thereby regaining their identity and free-dom. In other words, they feel that the African culturewill automatically bring political freedom . Many timescultural nationalists fall into line as reactionary national-ists .

Papa Doe in Haiti is an excellent example of reaction-ary nationalism . He oppresses the people but he does pro-mote the African culture . He's against anything other thanBlack, which on the surface seems very good, but for himit is only to mislead the people . He merely kicked out theracists and replaced them with himself as the oppressor .Many of the nationalists in this country seem to desire thesame ends .

The Black Panther Party, which is a revolutionarygroup of Black people, realizes that we have to have anidentity . We have to realize ourBlack heritage in order togive us strength to move on and progress . But as far as re-turning to the old African culture, it's unnecessary andit's not advantageous in many repsects . We believe thatculture itself will not liberate us . We're going to need somestronger stuff.

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REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM

A good example of revolutionary nationalism was therevolution in Algeria when Ben Bella took over . TheFrench were kicked out but it was a people's revolutionbecause the people ended up in power . The leaders thattook over were not interested in the profit motive wherethey could exploit the people and keep them in a state ofslavery . They nationalized the industry and plowed thewould be profits into the community . That's what social-ism is all about in a nutshell . The people's representativesare in office strictly on the leave of the people . The wealthof the country is controlled by the people and they areconsidered whenever modifications in the industries aremade.

The Black Panther Party is a revolutionary Nationalistgroup and we see a major contradiction between capital-ism in this country and our interests . We realize that thiscountry became very rich upon slavery and that slaveryis capitalism in the extreme . We have two evils to fight,capitalism and racism . We must destroy both racism andcapitalism .

MOVEMENT: Directly related to the question of na-tionalism is the question of unity within the Black com-munity . There has been some question about this since theBlack Panther Party has run candidates against otherBlack candidates in recent California elections . What isyour position on this matter?

HUEY : Well a very peculiar thing has happened. His-torically you got what Malcolm X calls the field niggerand the house nigger . The house nigger had some pri-vileges, a little more. He got the worn-out clothes of themaster and he didn't have to work as hard as the fieldBlack . He came to respect the master to such an extentuntil he identified with the master because he got a fewof the leftovers that the field Blacks did not get. Andthrough this identity with him, he saw the slavemaster'sinterest as being his interest . Sometimes he would evenprotect the slavemaster more than the slavemaster wouldprotect himself. Malcolm makes the point that if the mas-ter's house happened to catch on fire the house Negro willwork harder than the master to put the fire out and savethe master's house. While the field Negro, the fieldBlacks

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was praying that the house burned down. The house Blackidentified with the master so much that when the masterwould get sick the house Negro would say, "Master we'ssick!"

BLACK BOURGEOISIE

The Black Panther Party are the field blacks we're hop-ing the master dies if he gets sick . The Black bourgeoisieseem to be acting in the role of the house Negro . Theyare pro-administration . They would like a few conces-sions made, but as far as the overall setup, they have alittle more material goods, a little more advantage, a fewmore privileges than theBlack have-nots; the lower class.And so they identify with the power structure and theysee their interests as the power structure's interest. Infact, it's against their interest .The Black Panther Party was forced to draw a line of

demarcation . We are for all of those who are for the pro-motion of the interests of theBlack have nots,which repre-sents about 98% of blacks here in America . We're notcontrolled by the White mother country radicals nor arewe controled by the Black bourgeoisie . We have a mindof our own and if the Black bourgeoisie cannot alignitself with our complete program, then the Black bour -geoisie sets itself up as our enemy. And they will be at-tacked and treated as such .

MOVEMENT : The Black Panther Party has had con -siderable contact with white radicals since its earliestdays . What do you see as the role of these white radicals?

HUEY: The white mother country radical is the off-spring of the children of the best that has plundered theworld exploiting all people, concentrating on the peopleof color . These are children of the beast that seek now tobe redeemed because they realize that their forme: heroes,who were slave masters and murderers, put forth ideasthat were only facades to hide the treachery they inflictedupon the world . They are turning their backs on theirfathers .The White mother country radical, in resisting the sys-

tem, becomes somewhat of an abstract thing because he'snot oppressed as much asBlack people are . As a matter offact his oppression is somewhat abstract simply becausehe doesn't have to live in a reality of oppression .

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Black people in America and colored people through-out the world suffer not only from exploitation, but theysuffer from racism . Black people here in America, in theblack colony, are oppressed because we'reBlack and we'reexploited . The Whites are rebels, many of them from themiddle class and as far as any overt oppression this is notthe case . So therefore 1 call their rejection of the systemsomewhat of an abstract thing . They're looking for newheroes . They're looking to wash away the hypocrisy thattheir fathers have presented to the world. In doing thisthey see the people who are really fighting for freedom .They see the people who are really standing for justiceand quality and peace throughout the world.Theyare thepeople of Vietnam, the people of Latin America,the people of Asia, the people-of Africa, andthe Black people in the Black colony here inAmerica,ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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Functional Definition Of Politics

By Huey P . Newton

Politics is war without bloodshed . War is politics withbloodshed . Politics has its particular characteristics whichdifferentiate it from war . When the peaceful means ofpolitics are exhausted and the people do not get what theywant, politics are continued . Usually it ends up in physicalconflict which is called war, which is also political .

Because we lack political power, Black people are notfree . Black reconstruction failed because Black people didnot have political and military power. The masses of Blackpeople at the time were very clear on the definition of

political power . It is evident in the songs of i3lack peopleat that time . In the songs it was stated that on the Day ofJubilee we'd have forty acres and two mules . This waspromised Black people by the Freedman's Bureau. Thiswas freedom as far as the Black masses were concerned .The Talented Tenth at the time viewed freedom as

operative in the political arena . Black people did operatein the political arena during reconstruction . They weremore educated than most of the whites in the south . Theyhad been educated in France, Canada and England, andwere very qualified to serve in the political arena . But yet,Black Reconstruction failed .When one operates in the political arena, it is assumed

that he has power or represents power; he is symbolic of apowerful force . There are approximately three areas ofpower in the political area : economic power, land power(feudal power) and military power. If Black people at thetime had received 40 acres and 2 mules, we would havedeveloped a powerful force . Then we would have chosena representative to represent us in this political arena. Be-cause Black people did not receive the 40 acres and 2mules, it was absurd to have a representative in the poli-tical arena .When White people send a representative into the poli-

27

tical arena, they have a power force or power base thatthey represent . When white people, through their repre-sentatives, do not get what they want, there is always apolitical consequence . This is evident in the fact that whenthe farmers are not given an adequate price for their cropsthe economy will receive a political consequence . Theywill let their crops rot in the field ; they will not cooperatewith other sectors of the economy . To be political, youmust have a political consequence when you do not re-ceive your desires - otherwise you are non-political .When Black people send a representative, he is some-

what absurd because he represents no political power . Hedoes not represent land power because we do not own anyland . He does not represent economic or industrial powerbecause Black people do not own the means ofproduction .The only way he can become political is to represent whatis commonly called a military power - which theBLACK PANTHER PARTY FOR SELF-DEFENSEcalls Self-Defense Power. Black people can develop Self-Defense Power by arming themselves from house to house,block to block, community to community, throughout thenation . Then we will choose a political representativeand he will state to the power structure the desires of theblack masses . If the desires are not met, the power struc-ture will receive a political consequence . We will make iteconomically non-profitable for the power structure to goon with its oppressive ways. We will then negotiate asequals . There will be a balance between the people whoare economically powerful and the people who are poten-tially economically destructive .The white racist oppresses Black people not only for

racist reasons but because it is also ecnoomically profit-able to do so. Black people must develop a power thatwill make it non-profitable for racists to go on oppressingus . If the white racist imperialists in America continue towage war against all people of color throughout the worldand also wage a civil war againstBlacks here in America,it will be economically impossible for him to survive . Wemust develop a strategy that will make his war campaignsnon-profitable . This racist United States operates with themotive of profit . He lifts the gun and escalates the war forprofit reasons . We will make him lower the guns because

28

they will no longer serve his profit motive .Every man is born, therefore he has a right to live, a

right to share in the wealth . If he is denied the right towork then he is denied the right to live . If he can't work,he deserves a high standard of living, regardless of hiseducation or skill . It should be up to the administrators ofthe economic system to design a program for providingwork or livelihood for his people . To deny a man this isto deny him life . The controllers of the economic systemare obligated to furnish each man with a livelihood . If theycannot do this or if they will not do this, they do not deservethe position of administrators . The means of productionshould be taken away from them and placed in the peo-ple's hands, so that the people can organize them in sucha way as to provide themselves with a livelihood . Thepeople will choose capable administrators motivated bytheir sincere interest in the people's welfare and not the in-terest of private property . The people will choose man-agers to control the means of production and the landthat is rightfully theirs . Until the people control the landand the means of production, there will be no peace. Blackpeople must control the destiny of their community .

Because Black people desire to determine their own des-tiny, they are constantly inflicted with brutality from theoccupying army, embodied in the police department . Thereis a great similarity between the occupying army in South-east Asia and the occupation of our communities by theracist police . The armies are there not to protect the peo-ple of South Vietnam, but to brutalize and oppress themfor the interests of the selfish imperial power .The police should be the people of the community in

uniform . There should be no division or conflict of inter-est between the people and the police . Once there is adivision, then the police become the enemy of the people .The police should serve the interest of the people, and beone and the same. When this principle breaks down, thenthe police become an occupying army. When historicallyone race has oppressed another and policemen are recruit-ed from the oppressor race to patrol the communities ofthe oppressed people, an intolerable contradiction exists .

The racist dog policemen must withdraw immediatelyfrom our communities, cease their wanton murder and

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brutality and torture ofBlack people, or face the wrath ofthe armed people .

The Genius Of Huey P . Newton

in order to truly understand the contemporary situa-tion of the Black man in American life it is important tounderstand the history of mankind in general . One basicor primary drive in the history of man is the desire to befree of all external controls, and our basic premise is thatman wants to be free . However, a man living in modernsociety is characterized by his subjection to both external(sociological) and internal (psychological) forces whichcontrol him and thereby thwart his desire to be free. Free-dom will require men to gain control of these foces whichdetermine his existence and behavior .The internal forces which influence and determine be-

havior were recognized by Freud as subconscious forces .He realized that many people become ill because they feeldriven by subconscious forces to do things while at thesame time they feel another subconscious replusion fromdoing these same things . Feeling they have no controlwhatsoever over their behavior they become mentally ill .To free man from these inner forces psychoanalysis at -tempts to make him aware of these unconscious energiesorr the assumption ,that such awareness is the first steptoward controlling them, rather than being controlled bythem. Such a man then experiences a feeling of freedom .This is in keeping with the primary drive of man's history- the desire to be free and have the power to create - orthe power to productive creativity .

Marx realized the same thing : that man has a basicdesire to be free of the external forces which determine hisbehavior and put these forces under his control . Marxanalyzed the situation and concluded that the externalenvironment influences the life man through his relation-ship to production. As he gains freedom from the dictatesof corcive institutions then he is in a position to experiencethe power of productive creativity, and this is the godli-ness and holiness of man to man, and man to the Creator .

Man's drive to reach this plateau of freedom in a classor capitalistic society is a historical fact . Under capitalismthe private owners who interested only in making profitsfor themselves are in control of society . The people whoare subjected to them and have to rely upon them for a

31

living are slaves to the owners. Since the owners are onlyinterested in profits they use the people as tools to in -crease their riches, with little consideration of the effectthis has upon man, i.e., an obstruction of man the creator .This makes it necessary to destroy the private ownershipof the means of production because it has such a greateffect upon all people . Everyone has to live, and in ordderto live he must produce. In a capitalistic society, however,man does not produce for use he produces for profit. Thisis a slave situation.11

It is a historical fact that Blacks were brought to thiscountry as slaves for capitalistic reasons - the profitmotive. The ruling class at that time were the owners ofthe land and they needed laborers to till the land for themand produce profits from it . Not only did the owners havelabor, they had FREE labor and this was the ultimate ofcapitalism - where a group of owners has men enslavedsimply for his own profit motive. We have moved awayfrom this feudalistic land-centered economy in this coun-try to a factory-centered production economy. Yet thesame relationship exists between the private owner andthe worker because the factory is only a replacement ofthe farm. It is now the center of production and the fac-tory owner is not interested in production for use butproduction for profit . Such a relationship negates thewhole freedom of man. Thus it is extremely necessaryfor the people to sieze the means of production in orderto gain the freedom . People everywhere want to eliminatethe slavemaster (private owner) in o r d e r to gain thatsacred freedom .

People must be involved in the decision-making pro-cess so they will be in control of the decision which affectthem. The things that we commonly use and commonlyneed should be commonly owner . We will collectivelydecide exactly what we need and share fully in the wealththat we produce . The wholy administration of the gov-ernment should be subject to the dictates of the people.

This does not exist at this time . At the present time inAmerica the owners of the military and industrial com-plex, for example, have found war very lucrative . Theyare producing more and more war machinery . Further-more they are involved in a "cold war" which keeps thecountry on a war footing so that the people will then be

32

willing to produce equipment which is not for their ownuse, but only so owners of the military-industrial complexcan make a fortune . This has been happening for the morethan two decades since the end of World War II and themilitary-industrial complex now presents such a prob-lem to the national economy that many people now ques-tion the legitimacy of the governmental administrators.Administrators should be for the purpose of administer-ing the people's desires, and the people should have theability to eliminate those who do not serve their interests .In other words, if war is not in the interests of the peoplethen the country should not engage in war, old war orany other kind of war. But at the present time people havenothing to say about the matter. They are constantlybrainwashed and indoctrinated with such fears that theywill work and produce only what they are told to produce .The country is now so involved in a war economy if wewere to change to a peace economy there would be massunemployment . It is thus necessary to have a plannedsocialistic economy to make the switch to a peace eco-nomy. The administrators are very reluctant to even en-gage in discussion or planned economy because theywould then have to take the wishes of the people into con-sideration rather than the wishes of the owners of the mili-tary-industrial complex. Our administrators are not will-ing to take the people into consideration for this is not intheir best interests so far as the profit motive is concern-ed .

The Blacks are in a unique position as a national min-ority in the United States because of our unique heritageof being totally deprived of the freedom to determine ourdestiny . Partially free for a century we now demand tobe totally free and structure our communities so that wemake the decision about what kinds of institutions willbe in our community in order to perpetuate our culture .In the capitalist society the owners are not interested inany national minority because it has no profit value tothem. When the profit motive is eliminated from the soci-ety this will be the first step in Black people coming togrips with self-determination . Self-determination can onlywork in a socialistic context. We realize that not only arewe kept in a slave situation but all persons in the countryare likewise . In order for there to be freedom the countrywill have to be free for all if its citizens .

Until we reach this freedom the country will be in a

33

state of chaos . It will suffer much unrest and surely arevolution will occur. Such a revolution is inevitable whenwe realize that man must free himself from the subcon-scious and external forces which control him . When manis not in control of himself there are automatic problemswhich take many forms. Among these forms are themental stresses which leads to physical action - eithertotal withdrawal or total aggression against the obstaclesto freedom. This would be revolution, and this under -standing helps to explain some of th present uneasiness inthe country . Blacks have suffered from a lack of freedommore than anyone else . Granted no one in the country hasthe freedom deserved by man. The natural dignity of manis not respected in the country because of the capitalisticsociety .III

The Black Panther Party is the people's party and weare primarily interested in freeing man - freeing all peo-ple from slavery - so that man will be his own master.We can only do this by having collective ownership,anc?then the people will decide what they are going to producefor their own use - not for specific classes or for profit .This brings us to the present struggle and the present de-mand for self-determination from both an ethnic and alsoan international level . The Black Panther Party feels thatin order for ethnic minorities to be free in the country wewill have to have administrators who are responsive tothe needs and desires of the people . They will be in officesolely for the purpose of answering these needs, and thepeople will be in a position to make the final decision ofwhat will be done domestically and internationally .

Progress may come from the fact that we are sufferingunder an administration t h a t could be fairly called adoomsday machine because it is forcing the country andpeople in the direction of destruction . TheBlack Pantl),-rParty chooses life instead of death. Because we do chooselife we are searching for ways of (avoiding) destruction inthe country so the people may live . We are absolutelycertain that if this administration is not forced into somenew direction, the people of the world will be destroyed .

At the present time there is talk ofBlack capitalism toparallel White capitalism. A part of the Black bourgeoisieseems to be committed to developing or attempting to de-velop a capitalism with the $lark community - or the

34

Black colony as we call it . This would merely trade onemaster for another and a small group of Blacks wouldcontrol our destiny . This bourgeois middle class grouprepresent a small proportion of Black people but theywould make decisions for the majority of Black people .This is reminiscent of our history when we also had blarkslave masters. A small number of free Blacks owned slavesand they were part of the bourgeois class of that time.They did nothing to alleviate the situation which causedslavery . These Black slave owners gave the Black massesBlackcapitalism because they were interested in theirown profits and well-being . They were not interested inthe well-being of the people.

Black power is a much more relevant solution to thepeople's problems . So far as Black capitalism is concern-ed, most of the Black bourgeoisie cannot be said to ownany means of production. They do have bourgeois middleclass ideas. They have many of the ideas of theWhite capi-talist class and they have illusions that someday they will

be owners . Such is not the case . There is no more free en-terprise in America . There is only monopolistic capitalismwhere a few people have industry under their control andthey will not give up this control . They will not share theirprofits with anyone unless the person proves to be of someaid to them in further exploitation of the people .Many would-be Black capitalists do not unerstand the

relationship of the Buck bourgeoisie to the military -industrial complex controlling this nation's economy.Most of the Black bourgeoisie class is made up of peoplewho are in professions such as education, social serviceand the like. They are also controlled subjects of the mili-tary-industrial complex and have to follow the orders ofthe rulers .

There is still a close relationship and sense of identitybetween the Black masses and this bourgeois class be -cause of the element of racism in this country. Racismgoes hand in hand with capitalism . It is in the interests ofthe Black middle class to enhance their position by elimi-nating racism, but racism cannot be eliminated unless cap-italism is eliminated . Racism is profitable for the promo-tion of capitalism historically and presently . For a shorttime when Europe met Africa there was mutual respectand mutual trade . It was not until the capitalists found iteconomically advantageous to sever the relationship andsubject theBlacks to a slave position that he did so. And

35

he did so because he needed a work force . It was then thathe came to his belief that Blacks were inferior, did nothave souls, and were therefore less than human.The Black Panther Party feels that this government

and the institutions necessary to make the governmentfunction are illegitimate because they are not relating tothe people . Therefore they have no right to exist. In theinterest of the people new institutions should be establish-ed and the old ones fade and crumble. With the techno-logy that exists in America there is no excuse in these mo-dern times for people to be without food or other basicnecessities of life . There is no excuse for the psychologicalconditioning man needs to labor in the paths of day to dayliving, the positive reinforcement of the values and rea-son for existence . In America the ture basis of creativityis suppressed . The value of man, the purpose of man -returning to our basic prernise - is to have freedom andthe power to create, to engage in productive creativity .This is the freedom we are talking about, the freedomwhich we think makes life worth living .

Black people have been oppressed so long until we haveforgotten how to make a decision . We suffer from whatpsychologists call a fixation. We have done the same thingover and over again, and in a pathological way. Even ifno gratification whatsoever results from the activity we goalong with the old outmoded values, values which are instrict contradition to our very extentence simply becausewe have been programmed, indoctrinated, and totallystripped of our dignity.

But now Blacks are demanding change . Historicallycapitalism was a necessity before technology was develop-ed to the point it is now. There was only a very smallamount of wealth and therefore only a small amount ofpeople could enjoy this wealth . People had to go without.But there is no excuse for oppression and expolitation to-day because no one has to go without. Technology has de-veloped in such a way that every persons should have anabundance of the things he needs . It is no longer needs -sary for him to toil his whole life without even being ableto meet his basic needs . There is no excuse for him not tobe totally free . The only reason all human beings do nothave food, shelter and medical care today is that the ad-ministrators are only intereted in their profit . This is thenature of the military-industrial complex

The Panther community program is attempting to spur

3 6

the community into action - creative action - to makedecisions and regain the dignity of the people . We jointhe struggle of any people, all oppressed people all overthe world and in this country no matter what color theyare to gain these same rights. These are rights of man andnot of any particular group . So the Panthers are in someways like the psychotherapist in that we are trying tomake the people whole again . The people have been madeill by those forces which have controlled them in theirposition of servitude . The first thing we had to do i s ed-ucate the people and make them realize that there areforces controlling them-forces that appear to be beyondtheir reach. The external forces have become translatedinto internal forces through the indoctrination of the rul-ing class . Thus we have internalized certain behavior pat-terns which we feel are institual or a basic part of man,but they are not .

Freud developed psychotherapy because he found manwas -suffering from coercion and control by subconsciousforces . Therapy was basically a way of unveiling theseforces as a first step of regaining control of himself. ThePanther educational program in the community tries tounveil these forces and expose them. On the sociologicallevel we agree with Marx that outside forces controlman's behavior patterns, and he will be frustrated untilhe can seize control of them and can act in his own bestinterest .

So we have a dual program because of the very complexinteractions and many stimuli that oppress our commu-nity . Because of the dual nature of man we have to con-sider the social interactions and man's existence as a uni-que organism . We base our program on our humanisticvalues and on those things needed for man to function .We include the things that man needs to experience hisindividual uniqueness as a person .

The Panthers are being harassed, persecuted and killedall over the country because we know the truth and areattempting to point it out to the people . Once the peoplegrasp the reality of what we are saying, the ruling will notbe able to last in the face of the unity of all oppressed peo-ple . They are no longer ,willing to be slaves . The rulingclass, of course, is fighting every inch of the way to re-main in control of the people's work . And that's a bag.

October 1966Black Panther Party

Platform and Program

What We WantWhat We Believe1 . We want freedom . We want power to determine the destiny of our

Black Community .We believe that black people will not be free until we are able to deter-

mine our destiny .2 . We want full employment for our people .We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to

give every man employment or a guaranteed income . We believe that ifthe white American businessmen will not give full employment . then themeans of' production should be taken from the businessmen and placed inthe community so that the people of the community can organize and em-ploy all of its people and give a high standard elf living .

3 . We want an end to the robbery by the CAPITALIST of our BlackCommunity .We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now Nve are

demanding the overdue debt of. forty acres and two mules . Forty acresand two mules was promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave laborand mass murder of black people . We will accept the payment in currencywhich will be distributed to our many communities . The Germans are nowaiding the Jews in Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people . The Ger-mans murdered six million Jews . 'file American racist has taken part inthe slaughter of over fifty million black people : therefore . we feel that thisis a modest demand that we make.

4 . We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings .We believe that it' the white landlords will not give decent housing to

our black community . then the housing and the land should be made intocooperatives so that our community, with government aid . can build andmake decent housing for its people .

5 . 11'e want education for our people that exposes the true nature of thisdecadent American society . We want education that teaches us our truehistory and our role in the present-day society .We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowl-

edge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his positionill society and the world, then he has little chance to relate to anythingelse .

6 . We want all black men to be exempt from military service .We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the mili-

tary service to defend a racist government that does not protect us . Wewill not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like blackpeople . are being victimized by the white racist government of America .We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist policeand the racist military by whatever means necessary .

38

7 . We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDERof black people .We believe we can end police brutality in our black community by or-

ganizing black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending ourblack community from racist police oppression and brutality . The SecondAmendment to the Constitution of the United States gives a right to beararms . We therefore believe that all black people should arm themselvesfor self-defense .

8 . We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, countyand city prisons and jails .We believe that all black people should be released from the many

jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial .9 . We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by

a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, asdefined by the Constitution of the United States .We believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution

so that black people will receive fair trials . The 14th Amendment of theU .S . Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer group . A peeris a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, en-vironmental, historical and racial background . To do this the court will beforced to select a jury from the black community from which the blackdefendant came . We have been, and are being tried by all-white juriesthat have no understanding of the "average reasoning man" of the blackcommunity .

10 . We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.And as our major political objective, a United Nations-supervised plebis-cite to be held throughout the black colony in which only black colonialsubjects will be allowed to participate, for the purpose of determining thewill of black people as to their national destiny .When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one

people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them withanother, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate andequal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, adecent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declarethe causes which impel them to the separation .We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ;

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ;that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness . That, tosecure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving theirjust powers from the consent of the governed ; that, whenever any form ofgovernment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the peopleto alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying itsfoundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, asto them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness . Pru-dence . indeed . will dictate that governments long established should notbe changed for light and transient causes ; and, accordingly, all experiencehath shown . that mankind are more disposed to suffer . while evils aresufferable . than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which theyare accustomed . But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pur-suing invariable the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under ab-solute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such govern-ment . and to provide new guards for their future security .

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