The Power of Grassroots political prowess, part one: Analyzing the genius of the Black panther party for self defense, and learning from past revolution.
I will begin this article by introducing an expanded view of politics.
it is only the perpetuation of ignorance to assume that voting is the extent of politics.
Nor does it only extend to a centralized group of decision makers.
There is an expanded view of politics, and that is political revolution and politics in the hands of the people. It is dramatic social change through unorthodox methods.
Politics in the hands of the people is a fundamentally different situation then politics in the hands of centralized power. It is different because when power is in the hands of a few, it is almost certain that it will eventually become corrupted by covert means.
This is why the first principle of the Black panther party is reinstating ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE.
For when all the power of a society is handled in the hands of all the people, there is virtually no chance that it will become corrupted; the risk of corruption is spread out into the hands of the majority until it becomes almost no risk at all. This is also the same concept as decentralization.
In this series of articles titled the power of grassroots political prowess, we will look at examples from history that can expand our view of political revolution and social change.
In this article I will be focusing on the Black panther party for self defense, and how we can learn from both their successes and failures how to properly initiate a revolution.
Perhaps you are wondering, Who are the Black panthers?
The Black panther party for self defense was a community defense agency and political organization that was started in 1966 in oakland california by Huey P. Newton and Bobby seale.
It was founded as a party for black self defense against racist police officers who were the strong arm of a racist system.
Slavery had been abolished by the thirteenth amendment in 1865, yet racism hadn't, and blacks were being murdered in the streets at large.
The Black panthers made it their duty to patrol their communities and “police the police”.
They sold books on blocks and in parks and developed a news service called “The black panther”- which they also sold - to pay for expenses including guns.
They carried guns for their personal safety and because Huey and Bobby had developed a “Guerrilla mindset”. They realized from the teachings of revolutionaries such as Che Guevara and Malcolm X that the system was at war with black people, it simply had not declared it.
They realized that there was immense power in individual intellect, yet they also realized that a voice not heard is a voice wasted. They decided to make their voices heard by seizing the attention of the world with their audacity.
To take back their freedom, they would have to be very direct.
They were essentially organized intellectuals who carried rifles and demanded that their demands be heard.
The Black panther’s philosophy derived from their implemented Ten point program of “what we want and what we believe”.
This ten point program consists of things like the power to determine the destiny of black communities and other basic / moral needs. The full program can be found here
The Black panther party for self defense was seen as a god-send to most underclass black communities, who were left in the dark by the american system.
They implemented free breakfast programs for the children, free health clinics, clothing programs, Liberation schools for youth and community centres for learning.
In essence, they provided new found hope to black communities in america.
How are they relevant to today's world of political disarray?
They are relevant because they provide a living example of a grassroots revolution.
They successfully infiltrated the political scene from the ground up.
They did this by infiltrating the minds of the masses and changing the status quo.
This work of influencing the minds of the majority and creating a new identity for the african american began with the pressing speeches of Malcolm X and Martin luther king, but was continued and propelled by The Black panther news service.
Essentially, black panther ideology influenced the minds of the masses through this news service, revolutionary art, the spoken word and demonstrations.
They provided america with the wisdom that freedom from the oppressor must be and can only be usurped. It will not be given when the capitalists profit from the exploitation of others.
The Black panthers provided the example that political and social revolution could be further expressed and immediately advanced through the self-defensive act of arming oneself.
They used the existing laws to help their cause and worked within the system to change the system.
In my opinion, one of the most impressive examples of black panther led social change, is the act of patrolling their own communities and providing for their own communities. It is my belief that the current modern world has become separated in every way to the extent that even our lifelong neighbors are often strangers to us.
This act of separation is detrimental to social change. For if we are so separated, we cannot come together regardless of our differences to change the world.
The most important thing to learn about the black panthers is that they granted their own authority.
They provided their communities with black autonomy through defending, arming, informing and providing for their OWN communities, rather than having a centralized authority such as government provide for them.
How do we apply a similar ideological perspective to the synergy of our political methodology?
To sum it up, I believe that the black panthers provide us with three important examples that we should study and incorporate into our world view .
- communal unity
They show us that through the integration of individuals into communities and communities into larger or hyper-communities, we can work together to achieve similar goals that would be impossible for one man to influence. We can also regulate our communities and draw from the support of other communities to fullfill ALL of our needs.
- Sovereignty
They show us that in order for a community to prosper and provide for its inhabitants, it has to have some degree of sovereignty. It simply cannot be dictated by any external force because then this external force has the ability to dictates ITS will, and thus annihilate the will of the community. And if this is the case, why do we need to have our communities regulated by external forces?
- The system is a paper tiger
Through Black panther Guerrilla warfare, we learn that the police, FBI, CIA, State and federal governments, military, secret societies, etc. are simply just gangs.
They are just a giant coalition of gangs. Yet they have succeeded in convincing the average american citizen that they are the official system, that they work for the good of all and their authority should never be challenged.
Yet they are only gangs. And if they are only gangs, then how can they have any power over us? The common people of the world have to come together as one united gang, and this is the only way I foresee to end systemic brutality.
What can we learn from the mistakes of the Black panthers
As is such with any startup or grassroots movement, there isn't always time to draw out an invincible or unpenetrable plan or blueprint.
The black panthers, like many organizations that went up against the system, were compromised.
They were compromised because of organizations such as COINTELPRO , which were literally invented by the FBI and CIA to disrupt and dismantle political organizations.
I think what we can learn from such infiltration is that when starting any revolutionary gang, leaders should NOT be privy to a wealth of information. Rather this information should be decentralized and stored in multiple locations on multiple hard drives, so that in the event that any such "leader" was assassinated, one could immediately take his place.
Last thoughts
Although I have presented much talk about "gangs", I believe the only revolutionary gang that can achieve freedom for people of planet earth from tyrannic rein is the unity of our minds through the acceptance of true logical information, and the shunning of dis-info.
I think if the average human being on planet earth could unplug from the matrix for just a few moments, it could change their entire world view, and we may have a revolution so big that it cannot be contained.
Thank you for reading.
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