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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: BLACK EX-AGENT'S MISSION IMPOSSIBLE -- TO DESTROY THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY

Following, THE BLACK PANTHER presents Part 1 of an exclusive interview with Black former agent provocateur Louis Tackwood. Tackwood testified last week at the San Quentin 6 trial that he was part of a conspiracy by California law enforcement agencies to murder the top leadership of the Black Panther Party, including founder and leader Huey P. Newton and Black Panther Party Field Marshal George Jackson. (See article, page 3.)

Q: When did you become active in any way working with law enforcement agencies to disrupt and destroy the Black Panther Party?

TACKWOOD: That must have been around 1968. I'm not quite sure of the date. When was Bunchy Carter killed (referring to Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, the founder/coordinator of the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party)?

Q: Bunchy Carter was killed on January 17, 1969.

TACKWOOD: Yeah, then it was late '68.

Q: Who were you working for at the time and what kind of activities were you involved in?

TACKWOOD: I was working for SII, that's Special Identification and Investigation. SII works out of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) office. At the time CCS (the LAPD's Criminal Conspiracy Section) was still working on the Robert Kennedy killing. So all the direct activities against the Panthers were handled by SII.

Q: What were your activities with SII at the time? What was your assignment?

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TACKWOOD: Well, my assignment began when we thought we had put the Muslims to rest as a militant organization. Right around this time I think the Panthers were just starting to grow in Los Angeles and were coming in conflict with the US organization. The US organization had already been infiltrated and was being helped in every way possible by the LAPD. It was a "snitch" organization at the top. When I say a snitch organization, I mean that a lot of youngsters that were coming into the US organization were being snitched off. I think Karenga (Ron Karenga, the head of the US organization) had various meetings with (former Los Angeles Mayor) Yorty and (former Los Angeles chief of police) Parker. He (Karenga) was a "good guy!!"

Q: In other words, Karenga was informing on the people in his own organization?

TACKWOOD: Yeah, right. Like who's got guns here and who's arm robbing there. But he was supposed to be "good" for the community. So it was very easy to get him to take his organization and start a war against the Panthers. They needed somebody familiar with all the elements in the community, and the US organization had a lot of ex-Muslims and ex-teenage gang members. I know most of them. During this period the police were shooting Panthers left and right, in cars or wherever they could catch them. They were shooting them down as fast as they could find them, and the verdict would always be "justifiable homicide." The US organization was ambushing Panthers, too, in this and that place. So it was a nice war.

Into this came a few good Panther leaders like Bunchy Carter, cats who would go to college and speak there instead of only just dealing with the ghetto and the ghetto-type people whom, you know, the police weren't scared of because most had records or they could get them anyway. Bunchy was getting the colleges together, like organizing BSAs (Black Student Alliances) on different college campuses and actually starting to build a nucleus. Now that was total danger to the LAPD -- or whoever was giving them their orders -- so the order went out to kill.

MONEY AND GUNS

This was back in '68, late '68. I had been delivering money and guns to the Karenga people, so I just delivered that particular order down to Karenga and the next thing I know some Karenga men shot them (Panthers) up. There was all out war. The Panthers didn't understand: "Hey, we're all brothers," they would say. They couldn't understand their (the US organization's) reasons. But this was the reason though, that the head man (Karenga) was telling them, "Hey, go out and get them suckers." He was getting paid for it.

Q: So Karenga was being paid by the Los Angeles Police Department. Do you know if the LAPD was getting its directions from somewhere else?

TACKWOOD: Well, I believe they were because one of the things that came up from some investigation that some reporter did on Karenga's organization was that they got a large grant from the Ford Foundation that totally disappeared; I mean a large sum of money. Everyone knows about organizations that get money from the Ford Foundation.

Q: Did you know specifically that Bunchy Carter and John Huggins would be killed by the US organization on January 17, 1969?

TACKWOOD: I didn't know the date. You see, there were so many Panthers getting shot down and killed that there was no way of keeping up on who was getting killed when.

Q: So you worked as a liaison between LAPD and the US organization? How long did it last?

TACKWOOD: Oh, that didn't last long. I had gotten into little hassles here and there, you know, and I had to leave, come back, leave and come back. So by the time I got back, the US organization had almost ceased to exist as a functional organization. I soon heard an order come down for the police to break them up. See what I'm saying? In other words, "Karenga, you're no longer needed so let's get rid of you." And they did.

ACTIVITIES

Q: Where did your activities against the Black Panther Party go from there?

TACKWOOD: Well, this is like around 1969. It ceased for awhile and then it reactivated around 1970.

Q: During that period of time, 1969-70, you weren't involved directly in activities against the Black Panther Party?

TACKWOOD: Well, indirectly and directly. It was a thing where it wasn't a direct involvement. It was like a shadowing involvement. In other words, it was on the fringes.

Q: Could you describe it?

TACKWOOD: During this period of time, I had gone back to jail for a little while and then I came back out and started passing myself off as an arms expert, a gun runner or whatever you want to call it. Like, if you knew Tackwood, you could get any kind of guns in the world. If you had the money, he'd get you one. This was the cover I was building. This is how I got back into it.

Then one day I was called up by Brown (Sgt. Larry Brown from SII) and Brown said, "Hey, Watkins wants to see you." I said, "Where?" "Well, he's up at the academy now, he's not up at SII anymore." So I went to the academy and he said, "Hey, man, Intelligence (section of the LAPD) needs some people. They already got some people but they need some more people with your knowledge and your ability to infiltrate the Panthers." He said, "Why I nominate you is because you can report back to Brown what Intelligence knows because Intelligence won't give us any information."

Q: Just going back to late '68, early '69, around the second time, were you working with any informants within the Black Panther Party?

TACKWOOD: Early '69, no. You can say around February maybe I became aware of the Panther Party becoming infiltrated at a higher level.

Q: Do you know who was involved in the infiltration?

TACKWOOD: Melvin "Cotton" Smith was the agent.

Q: Were there any others?

TACKWOOD: That would cause me to give off a shady sort of answer. I mean there were, but it was nobody high-ranking.

Q: So you had finished working with US?

TACKWOOD: There's an interesting interim in that I went to work in New Orleans for the LAPD, dealing with a chieftain in organized crime. It was kind of tickling at the time because there was no big Panther activity in New Orleans, but "two Black Panthers" (this is what the police report described them to be, two "Black militants") walked up on him one morning and shot him six times in his chest. The description that was given said "possible Panthers" and there were no Panther activists in New Orleans and why would they be shooting a gangland chieftain?

But to show you what transpired in the time I was away. It tickled me. I said, "Wow, they sure use the Panthers in a hell of a way." The man was connected to high crime and if high level people even thought it was Panthers, they had facilities open (available) to them to have wiped out the Panther Party as a whole. You know that if the Mafia had any idea that their high-ranking chieftain was knocked off by Black Panthers, you know what they could have done? They could have turned out soldier

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after soldier, hit man after hit man.

This was established to use the Mafia to kil the Panthers. The high-ranking chieftain would say, "Wow, Black Panthers. Hey, boys, go get 'em." You see what I'm saying? He could have called a national conclave and said, "Guess what? Every Panther known in the U.S., let's kill them." But they didn't do that because they didn't believe it themselves.

Q: And this is in mid '69?

TACKWOOD: Yeah, and this is in Louisiana. The LAPD's mind was so narrowed you could blame the Panthers with anything, including the Chicago fire. Another thing the LAPD was doing at that time -- everytime they arrested somebody with any type of Panther literature, even if it was a Panther paper, they would name them as Panthers. "We arrested four armed robbers robbing banks and found Panther literature." If we were to believe all the police reports, all the L.A. Times reports, there must have been 5,000 Panthers in Los Angeles at one time, committing crimes. This was the start of the propaganda to turn people -- not White people -- but the Blacks, against their own kind.

Q: Were you aware of an organized effort to do that?

TACKWOOD: Yeah, there was a nationally organized effort to do that. One of the three prerequisites was to harass. Number one, total harassment. To conquer or defeat any organization you must harass them, number one; defeat them financially, number two; and after all else fails, place defeat in their minds.

So, first of all there was constant harassment of the Panther Party, I mean the different Branches. The second thing was to constantly arrest Panthers, creating situations where they have to be bailed out, and the third thing to kill the leaders off, to show, "Hey, man, if we can get the leaders, we can get the little man." The fear element. This was the constant and nationwide type for all the Black Panther Parties all over America. They were wiping them out one at a time. They were making more Panthers go underground. They were charging Panthers with everything under the sun, and the young cats would say, "Wow, man, I'm facing 50 years, and they got the leader in jail, too. Wow."

"PICKING AT THE BLOCK"

So it was an harassment type thing. It was a thing where there was constant, "Let's keep picking at the block, picking at the block, to build paranoia and fear." This was achieved too. It made the Panthers say, "Wow, they are killing us all off like we're dogs and animals. Let's get some guns." This would cause the shootouts, little or big, because of the fear element they had placed inside the Panther Party from total harassment.

Q: You're talking about the December 8 (1969) shootout in Los Angeles?

TACKWOOD: Not only that one. There were others. I'm saying it made the Panthers get guns. It changed their whole ideology. At first, it was a self-protection type thing, not just against so-called "Pigs" but against overall White racism. Anyway, it became the national cry in '69 and '70. "Kill the Pigs!" because police across America had killed Panther after Panther in "justifiable homicide." This was part of the program, the overall program. This is what they wanted to happen. So the easy thing to do was to step in and say, "Look, they got thousands of guns…"

To give you an example, I think it was in '70 or '71 that a report came out that in all the Panther raids across America, they took away something like 500 guns. And they weren't sophisticated weaponry. I don't know how many guys got killed or went to jail behind taking these guns. Now, from one raid in New York, I think, they took 5,000 guns from seven White right-wing organizers. This case was kicked out of court for illegal search and seizure.

So, at this particular time, the emphasis was on "Destroy the Panthers by any means possible."

Q: So what happened when you got back to L.A.?

TACKWOOD: Oh, this was when I was contacted by Brown, who had contacted Watkins, and in turn had contacted R.G. Farwell, good old R.G. Farwell. Farwell had infiltrated the Panthers in various ways. I couldn't name all the ways because I don't know. I don't think you'll ever know unless you talk to R.G. Farwell. But I knew Cotton Smith worked for him and DeFreeze (later known as Cinque of the SLA) worked for him. Now, I don't know if DeFreeze had any dealings at this particular time with the Panthers, but he was heavily a gun salesman and eventually turned a friend of his in who had 200 guns.

But to show you the overall scope of what was going on, it was a thing where it was to infiltrate but not arrest because Farwell had so successfully done his job. There was a little jealousy because Intelligence did not arrest anybody. They just gathered information and turned it over to the FBI who did a number on you later in the game. So, I was told that some people wanted to meet me and that there was some money in it just for the meeting, you know, just to listen. So I went to SII and that was when I was first introduced to CCS.

They laid some bread on me and said, "Hey, man, guess what? You're kicking your ass out there for a little bit of money from Intelligence. We pay top dollar, top drawer travel expenses you wouldn't believe. We got the whole thing. And we arrest those motherfuckers or kill 'em. You don't have to worry a thing about getting back."

They convinced me. I asked Brown, "Is that all right?" He said, "Yeah, man, go with them." And they said," Yeah, come with us," and this was when the whole shit started.

TO BE CONTINUED

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EDITORIAL: “ETHNIC PURITY”

Black people in this country have clearly demonstrated during the past two weeks that they are sick and tired of double-talking White politicians like Jimmy Carter who would stop at nothing to be President of the United States, who have no shame when it comes to wooing the Black vote.

We are hip to the political trickery of those who, like Carter, have the audacity to go to a Black church in Chicago and sing "Negro" spirituals attempting to win that city's large Black vote but once safely across the Indiana (the birthplace of "ethnic purity") border, adopt the racist stance of the Ku Klux Klan in order to secure the largely White conservative vote of that state. We are hip to this "sophisticated racism" and we are not impressed.

Carter's racism is bad enough, but he has made matters worse by further insulting the Black community with his sterile, half-hearted attempts to apologize for the "ethnic purity" blunder.

Black people have no reason whatsoever to "forgive" Jimmy Carter. He meant exactly what he said. As Georgia state representative Hosea Williams, a longtime Carter foe, noted, "The truth slipped out of Jimmy Carter, and a man can't apologize for telling the truth."

As for our so-called Black "leaders" -- Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr., Congressman Andrew Young, SCLC's Ralph Abernathy and Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, to name a few -- have they lost their minds in endorsing Carter for President? What grand promises (which he will never carry out even if he is elected) has Carter made to these men in order to buy their support?

Have Rev. King, Abernathy and Young, in particular, forgotten that just eight years ago Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his very life struggling against the Jimmy Carters of America who seek not only to make this country's neighborhoods ethnically pure but its total life?

In this, the end of the second century of our enslavement and oppression in America, let us make this a truly meaningful Bicentennial. Let us -- Black, poor and oppressed people -- dedicate ourselves to unifying so that we can take the power that so rightfully belongs to us. Let's make 1976 the end of Jimmy Carter-style politics.

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George Jackson On Eldridge Cleaver “…Tell Him The Dragon Is Coming…”

In response to the overwhelming community interest in the April 14, 1976, Black Panther Party statement denouncing Eldridge Cleaver as an "active and willing agent in the FBI's COINTELPRO plan to destroy Black organizations by creating internal dissension," and charging him with the murders of dedicated Fallen Comrades Bobby Hutton and Sam Napier, following THE BLACK PANTHER reprints a biting comment on Cleaver's prison betrayals written by author/revolutionary and Black Panther Party Field Marshal George Jackson. The comment is an excerpt from an early 1971 letter to noted author John Gerassi found in Jackson's last work, Blood In My Eye.

"Those who have more regard for their own egos or self-interest than they have for building a united progressive left, and those who abandon community altogether in favor of petty interests, are in direct opposition to our real interests. They are attempting another form of escapism. They're fleeing the objective conditions of their real life and will eventually reach the ultimate contradiction of facing their father or brother, or old classmate, comrade, or wife, over the barrel of a gun. Or they will find themselves in no man's land, cast out by the people, suspected by their crime partners.

"But, regarding the crisis (just past) in the Party, as Huey Newton reminds us, there is always a positive side to each negative. The confused resentment and reverse racism of the Black partisan will eventually lead to a new, more productive and creative contribution.

"Already we realize that there was no split in the Party, only a defection. The Party has come out of it stronger…

"Just a glance at the present level of consciousness and the status of the survival infrastructure will reveal the error of Cleaver's analysis that no separation should exist even now between the military and political cadre, between military and political action.

"You know I sent him a message suggesting that unitarian conduct depends on a principled discipline and submission to democratic centralism instead of the egoism that sent him first against his Muslims (through the Sacramento Bee Pig press that time), then against the Peace and Freedom Party, even against the progressive elements of the C.P. through his unreasoned attack on the magnificent Angela Davis. Recently he has even attacked the dedicated, overworked and brilliant Charles Garry. It seems to be a pattern with the man. You recall the attack he launched against Fidel and Cuba, and those accounts that seemed disparaging of his hosts which have reached the pig press here from time to time.

"My personal message to him was mild, considering that he was in fact leaving his old comrades open to attack again. I sent a letter reminding him that his behavior while in prison was far from exemplary and had that section of it signed by Ulysses McDaniel and Clifford Jefferson, two of the oldest (time in) and most respected Black partisans in the California concentration camp system.

"I then listed some of his behavioral patterns since his release -- a more complete list than the one just given -- that did not indicate that he had changed much. I finally asked him simply to show proof that he was not a compulsive disruptor or agent provocateur. A very mild request, I feel. He returned with a very scurrilous and profane set of invectives -- in short, a piece of vendetta.

"Tell him that seven thousand miles, the walls of prison, steel and barbed wire do not make him safe from my special brand of discipline, tell him that the dragon is coming…"

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COMMENT: Nixon's Trip To China

By David G. Du Bois

The visit this past February of former President Nixon to the People's Republic of China is the subject of the following article, the conclusion of a colorful commentary by BLACK PANTHER Intercommunal News Service Editor-in-Chief David G. Du Bois, who draws upon his widespread knowledge of worldwide affairs and superb journalistic skills to reconstruct Nixon's stay in China.

CONCLUSION

As Mr. Nixon's limousine moved out of the Forbidden City compound containing the residence of Chariman Mao Tse-tung on Monday after Nixon's midday meeting with the leader of China, his glance could not avoid falling on gigantic, colored portraits of V.I. Lenin and Joseph Stalin. These stand to the west of Tien An-men Square, opposite the gate to the Chairman's compound. As he moved slowly through the great Square he may have noticed to the east of the great expanse two more equally huge portraits, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, that he may not have immediately recognized.

But his visit to Tsinghua University, current center of the rapidly intensifying movement to criticize "capitalist roaders" in China on Wednesday morning could have left no doubt in his mind that China is taking over the mantel of revolutionary Marxism-Leninism, of which Marx and Engels were the forerunners, Stalin and Lenin the first standard bearers; adding to and developing that ideology with the thought and practice of Mao Tse-tung and the experience of the Chinese people.

Nixon saw the unique process of "Chinese revolutionary democracy" in action and seemed to sense he was on hallowed ground. "…the purpose of my questions," he is reported to

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have told UPI's Charles R. Smith, "is simply to get a better understanding of it, what the debate is about, because (there) is a lot of superficial treatment… due to the lack of an adequate chance to study it." There is no report of his questions or of the answers he received to them. But Western journalists and "China watchers" were very envious of Nixon's opportunity to confront students and faculty members at Tsinghua University on the subject. Some of them sense that the role and extent of advanced U.S. technology's utilization in China's development will be determined by the outcome of China's continuing campaign against its "capitalist roaders."

Peking Airport is like no international airport in the world. Nixon's arrival and departure from this airport must be firmly planted in his memory. The perfect order and thoughtful organization of Peking Airport leaves one with the impression that the plane on which you have arrived or on which you are departing is the only plane being serviced at the time. There are none of the usual peculiar structures visible to the passengers, nor is there the usual hussle and bussle on the tarmac. Those who have come to receive you (for every foreign visitor to China is received) know precisely where the foot of the plane's stairway will be placed and are waiting a few steps away with only a suggestion of anxiety.

Nixon's reception committee, though top-level, was no different. Distant from the plane, behind barriers, some 350 "personages of various circles," including about 50 Chinese citizens who had visited the U.S. since the signing of the Shanghai Communique, clapped, waved bundles of colorful paper flowers and smiled broadly. So pleased was Mr. Nixon at this evidence, however restrained, of popular welcome -- contrasting sharply with his austere, officially correct 1972 governmental welcome -- he and Pat were moved to hurry over to the barrier, shake hands with and personally greet many from the excited "crowd." When Nixon and his wife left here for the south China city of Kweilin on Thursday, the same "crowd" was on hand to bid them farewell, and Mr. and Mrs. Nixon repeated their show of gratitude.

Nixon's final parting thrust at those in the U.S. who had thrown him to the wolves and were prepared to leave him there, was a devastating stab at the Ford administration's most vulnerable link in a long chain of vulnerabilities. When, in response to his enthusiastic repetition in Chinese of the phrase meaning "Long live friendship between China and America" (Chung, mei yo yei wansui), a newsman at Canton Airport said to him: "You speak Chinese better than Henry Kissinger," Nixon replied without hesitation, "Well, I speak with an American accent and he speaks with a German accent."

China has consistently in all of its declarations made a clear distinction between the government of the USA, which it feels essentially represents the interests of monopoly capitalism and reaction, and the people of the USA whose desire for peace and friendship with the people of China is eternal, and not generally represented in U.S. government policy toward China. China's invitation to Nixon, private citizen, and his reception here is an expression by China of the hope that Nixon's act of friendship with China in 1972, as U.S. President, becomes the mainspring of Chinese-American relations in the period ahead.

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S.Q.6 TRIAL: Tackwood Testimony On Police Conspiracy Withstands Grueling Cross-Examination

(San Rafael, Calif.) - Despite frantic prosecution attempts to discredit his case-shattering testimony, and a warning from the trial judge that further statments might lead to his own indictment, Black former agent provocateur Louis Tackwood held fast last week to his assertion that for over two years he participated in a state law enforcement conspiracy to murder leading members of the Black Panther Party, including founder and leader Huey P. Newton and Black Panther Party Field Marshal George Jackson.

Beginning with his electrifying statement on Thursday, April 8, that his "last completed assignment" for the Criminal Conspiracy Section (CCS) of the Los Angeles Police Department was "to assassinate George Jackson," Tackwood's seven days on the stand has totally turned around the San Quentin 6 case here.

Last week, with his appointed attorney Martin Nakahara seated beside him to avoid possible self-incrimination, Tackwood continued to unfold his terrifying scenario of police set-ups, prison gun smuggling, and conspiracy counter plots in connection with Jackson's murder.

Outside the often heated courtroom scene, at a media press conference, Tackwood maintained that he welcomed a possible Marin County Grand Jury indictment, "as long as my co-conspirators are indicted too."

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These, he said, included state Attorney General Evelle Younger, L.A. Police Chief Ed Davis and a host of police types down to CCS's undercover training agent.

During his testimony, Tackwood at various times implicated CCS, CII (Criminal Identification and Investigation) of the LAPD, the FBI and Army intelligence as involved in the conspiracy. Although Judge Broderick limited the scope of his remarks to events related to August 21, 1971 -- thus eliminating, for example, evidence that CCS knew the details of Jonathan Jackson's gallant bid to "Free the Soledad Brothers" on August 7, 1970 -- still Tackwood's testimony was stunning.

On August 1, 1971, the exagent said, he accompanied CCS officials Robert Sharrett and Dan Mahoney as they smuggled an inoperative .38 revolver into San Quentin Prison. The gun, placed in a brown paper bag along with some shells, was passed to a prison guard described as "White, 5' 8" tall, in his 30s and bearing large scars" on his face.

The next week, at a meeting at the CCS office in Los Angeles, attended by FBI agent Ed Burch and CII agent Barrens, among others, the CCS plan was laid bare:

- That author/revolutionary Jackson was to be set-up while being transported to court on August 23, 1971;

- That someone working with the conspiracy on the inside (an Adjustment Center prisoner) would convince Jackson that he would be supplied with a gun (the inoperative .38) for his escape try; and

- That Jackson, along with certain others who thought they were aiding his breakout attempt, would all be gunned down in the resulting police ambush.

Regarding the inoperative .38 and the "escape" plan, Tackwood testified that Barrens commented, "I hope you get the bastard."

"We want him dead. Why give a sucker a break," was Keel's chilling response.

The piercing, icy arrogance of assistant D.A. Jerry Herman's attempts to brand Tackwood as an unmitigated liar failed in the end to sway the obviously interested jury of 11 Whites and one Black.

While Tackwood admittedly stumbled on certain past dates and all the names/locations of the ongoing conspiracies, he held rock firm on the basic elements of the police plot.

Over and over Tackwood reiterated that Melvin "Cotton" Smith was a police agent who had infiltrated the BPP and duped several members of the Southern California Chapter of the Party into believing that they were going to participate in a Jackson breakout attempt. Actually Tackwood testified, all would be killed.

Similarly, Tackwood's testimony regarding his work with a mysterious Coalition of Seven, based in the Santa Cruz area, proved unshakable. In this regard, Tackwood began to mention an assassination attempt upon the life of Black Panther Party leader and chief theoretician Huey P. Newton but was abruptly cut off by Judge Broderick.

On August 22, 1971, Tackwood testified that he attended a meeting at CCS where Jackson's murder was discussed and analyzed.

"CII fucked up," Lt. Keel began. "The dumb shits brought in a .9mm and we had a .38. We're going to go and get the .38 and our man out."

"What the fuck, the nigger's dead," Sgt. Callahan responded.

The next week, Tackwood said, when he returned to the CCS office, the retrieved .38 was given to him as a "surprise."

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BLACK PANTHER PARTY STATEMENT: CLEAVER TREACHERY EXPOSED

The following statement was issued by Black Panther Party chairperson and leading member Elaine Brown on Wednesday, April 21, 1976.

(Oakland, Calif.) - "As a service to the community the Black Panther Party would like to expose further information we have discovered concerning the past and present activities of Eldridge Cleaver. We present these findings today as our obligation and duty since Cleaver was once a member of our Party.

"First, the Black Panther Party has a witness, whose name will be revealed in an upcoming lawsuit to be filed against the FBI, who was present when Eldridge Cleaver received a call on April 17, 1971, in Algeria telling him of the murder of Black Panther Party member Samuel Napier in New York City. At the time of his death, Sam Napier was the Circulation and Distribution Manager of THE BLACK PANTHER newspaper.

"Detailing the scene, our witness reports that Cleaver gleefully jumped up and down when he heard the news, saying, `We got him, we got him. My people in New York got Sam Napier.' Asked why he ordered Sam Napier to be murdered, Cleaver is said to have answered: `Because of the newspaper, man. That's the way they make all their money. That Panther paper has got to be crushed.'

"Second, the Black Panther Party has learned through a number of reliable sources, including attorney Howard Moore, that in early February of this year, Eldridge Cleaver secretly provided some testimony to an executive session of Eastland's Senate Judiciary Internal Security Subcommittee and intends to provide more later. Despite senior investigator Duke Short's refusal to comment on this, the Black Panther Party again questions Cleaver's complicity with the Easland subcommittee.

"Third, Arthur Jefferson, one of the chief counsels for the Senate Select Committee Investigating Intelligence Community Activities has admitted that Cleaver's wife was recently flown to Washington, D.C., at their expense and allowed access to unpublished COINTELPRO documents. She was also allowed to give news interviews on their contents. This is highly unusual, Jefferson confirmed, since a wide variety of organizations, most unsuccessfully, have attempted through the courts to gain access to the unpublished COINTELPRO files. In the few times when access was allowed, a strict gag rule has been typically enforced. When asked if any Black Panther Party member could see the files, Jefferson responded with a flat `No!'

"As the evidence accumulates, it is apparent to the Black Panther Party that Eldridge Cleaver is the Black community's Patty Hearst.

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Withheld F.B.I. Files Reveal Hampton Police Raiders Came To Kill

(Chicago, Ill.) - COINTELPRO documents introduced into evidence in federal court here last week reveal that the FBI knew in advance that the Chicago Chapter of the Black Panther Party would hold a political education class on December 3, 1969, and that therefore Fred Hampton's West Monroe Avenue apartment would have been vacant earlier in the evening if a "peaceful" raid had been the FBI's intent.

Information such as this, crucial to the plaintiff's assertions that Illinois state Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were victims of a COINTELPRO assassination conspiracy, seems to be the tip of the iceberg in regards to the withheld FBI files recently uncovered.

Denying another plaintiffs' motion to adjourn the proceeding again last week, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Sam Perry instead opted for an unusual arrangement of half-day trial proceedings before the jury, with the rest of the day spent reviewing the voluminous COINTELPRO documents.

"We are in the ring with our hands handcuffed behind us and the referee says, `The fight is on'" James Montgomery, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said in response.

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The FBI report revealing prior knowledge that the apartment would be vacant for several hours on December 3, 1969, as well as information confirming that weapons in the flat were legally registered, are contained in several reports filed by special agent Roy Martin Mitchell following conversations with a Black informant named Maria Fisher.

Fisher, said by many to be a heroin addict presently living in Chicago's Uptown community, infiltrated the Chicago Chapter and then sold information back to the FBI for, according to one receipt, as little as $64 -- $45 for services and $19 for unlisted expenses.

Mitchell, a member of the Chicago FBI's Racial Matters Squad with admittedly extensive knowledge of the COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) objective to disrupt and destroy the Black Panther Party, recruited between six to eight informants to infiltrate the Chicago BPP Chapter and report what they found out back to him. The key agent provocateur on Mitchell's payroll was William O'Neal, the Judas agent who eventually supplied the FBI with a sketch of Hampton's apartment, including an "X" marking his bed.

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B.P.P. CHAIRPERSON SPEAKS OUT ON “THE POLITICS OF OAKLAND'S FISCAL CRISIS”: ELAINE BROWN: “TOWARD MAJORITY CONTROL IN OAKLAND”

Invited to participate as an expert panelist discussing the issue of "The Politics of Oakland's Fiscal Crisis," Ms. Elaine Brown, chairperson and leading member of the Black Panther Party, delivered a strong and captivating dialogue focusing, as always, on the ways to mobilize and unify collective community control over the institutions that affect their lives.

Following THE BLACK PANTHER presents Part I of Elaine's insightful commentary on implementing real people's power in the city of Oakland.

PART 1

"I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today on `The Politics of Oakland's Fiscal Crisis.'

"Let me begin by saying that I do believe that the emphasis should be on the word `politics' as opposed to `fiscal crisis.'

"I think that what we're talking about is: not objectively discussing whether or not this dollar is here or there, but what, in fact, are the subjective things that those in power have done to the disinterest of those of us who are the powerless majority; what are the subjective desires of the powerless majority so that our interests can be served; and how do we achieve that. That I think is the bottom line.

ONE QUESTION

"I think that one question we have to address ourselves to is the relationship of the people -- Blacks, Chicanos, Native Americans, other Latino groups, poor Whites, who represent the majority -- to the city, in terms of control.

"As you well know, I ran for a seat on the Oakland City Council. But do I think that being on the City Council is going to resolve the problem?

"I will have to tell you that after running two times, and putting out everything I had, no, I do not think that running for the Oakland City Council or being seated on the City Council is going to have any serious effect on the economic relationships in this city.

"One thing we can look at right away is that it's very difficult to get a copy of the Oakland City Budget, and it's even more difficult to get a copy of the Oakland Financial Report. There are some people right here in this room who have worked on this issue with me and know that you have to go through hell and high water to get a copy of it. Then you almost have to be an accountant to go through it, and when you do figure out what it says, you will find out that it doesn't say very much of anything -- it lies.

"So there is a problem in just trying to define where the money should be.

"I think Bill (Northwood, a veteran city hall reporter), brought up some very good points in relationship to the fact, for example, that the city of Oakland kicked in $200,000 to build a Clorex teen center only five blocks away from our very own teen center, (referring to the popular Oakland Community Learning Center, which sponsors a wide variety of educational, vocational and social programs for people of all ages, particularly focusing upon the needs and interests of the youth).

"This is interesting because the Oakland Police Department recently got together with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Department and the Probation Department to put a $600,000 proposal before CCCJ (California

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Criminal Council of Justice) to have six more teen centers in East Oakland.

"Now they can figure out how to do this sort of thing, but they can't figure out how to fix up 98th Avenue; develop better housing; stop redlining in East Oakland; all the problems facing the Black and poorer communities of this city.

"I think that it's ridiculous for us to imagine that there seriously is a `fiscal crisis' as it's defined by those in power. If you can recall last year, allegedly at one time there was a budget deficit, which then became a surplus, and then the surplus continued to grow. (For three years, by the way, no financial report ever came out. So even if you wanted to know how the money was spent, or if there was any money to spend, you couldn't.)

"A majority of the people of this city don't really have a picture of the overall financial make-up of Oakland, with pieces of money here and there, so it's hard to get this majority together to talk about what we can do about a so-called `fiscal crisis.' We can't identify exactly where the `crisis' lies or how it directly affects our day-to-day lives. That's the problem a lot of people have.

"What will happen next year, when we face elections again? If progressive people are elected to the City Council and the mayor's seat, what kind of a budget will they have? Will they -- and the rest of us -- be able to figure out how we're going to get out from underneath the problems that we face?

"The other thing that might happen to us is what happened, for example, in Newark, New Jersey, where a Black man is elected mayor and he is delivered a bankrupt city. Then they say, `You see what happens when they get in office.' This kind of thing garners all kinds of rightwing reaction, and then everybody says, `We really need the John Readings of the world (the White conservative mayor of Oakland) again. Under them we didn't have these kinds of problems.'

"Reverend Dunn and I were talking before and it came to mind that we're going to `Inherit the Wind' from them. In other words, they'll just blow a whole bunch of smoke with the hope that by the time we get to it, the budget will be so mixed up and so messed up it will be an indication that progressive people cannot run the city."

TO BE CONTINUED

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2nd Donation Drawing At Sunday Forum

(Oakland, Calif.) - Last Sunday's Oakland Community Learning Center Community Forum featured the announcement of the April winners of the Oakland Community School's Donation Drawing. In the drawing conducted by emcee JAMES MOTT and DIANE BEAMON, CHARLES MATHEWS (inset) of Oakland was the lucky winner of the $100 first prize. Second and third prize winners received a portable TV and an AM-FM radio, respectively. (displayed on the table above). J.J. Malone, Sonny Rhodes and the Over The Hill Blues Band provided the entertainment for the afternoon.

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THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

April 18, 1818

In the state of Florida, Black slaves often ran away from their masters and joined the Seminole Indian tribe. On April 18, 1818, Andrew Jackson defeated a force of Indians and Blacks at the Battle of Suwanee, ending the First Seminole War which Jackson racistly called "this savage and Negro war."

April 18, 1864

Surrounded by a superior rebel force, the First Kansas Colored Volunteers valiantly smashed through enemy lines and sustained heavy casualties at Poison Spring, Arkansas, on April 18, 1864. The wounded Black prisoners were subsequently murdered by Confederate troops.

April 18, 1941

Even before the famous Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56, Black people in America were struggling against racism in the public transportation system. On April 18, 1941, the bus companies of New York City agreed to hire Black drivers and mechanics. The agreement ended a four-week boycott by the city's Black population.

April 18, 1955

On April 18, 1955, the historic Bandung Conference of leaders of African and Asian nations opened in Indonesia. The conference served to awaken non-White people to the strength to be gained through unity.

April 19, 1960

The home of Z. Alexander Looby, legal counselor for 153 students arrested in sit-in demonstrations, was destroyed by a dynamite bomb on April 19, 1960, in Nashville, Tennessee. More than 2,000 students marched on city hall in protest demonstrations.

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Seattle B.P.P. Wins Martin L. King, Jr. Humanitarian Award

(Seattle Wash.) - The Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party has received the prestigious Martin Luther King, Jr., tarian Award "for rendering free services to the Black community and continuing to struggle for an end to police brutality and other acts of discrimination."

Also honored during the program, televised live on NBC-TV (Channel 5) and held at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church here, was Central Area Motivational Program Director Louis Rye, Jr., who received the Mahalia Jackson Spiritual Award for "going beyond the call of duty in fighting the controversial redlining practices by banks and other lending institutions in the Black communities (of Tacoma and Seattle)."

During the program, the Fourth Annual Black Communities Unsung Heroes Merit Awards, Tacoma True Citizen publisher Larry Williams commented that, "The significance of the Unsung Heroes awards is one of past and present generations because Black people are a nation of unsung heroes."

The keynote speaker for the evening was Tony Brown, host and executive producer of Educational Television's Black Journal program. Brown gave a very informative talk on the Black struggle and Black survival, stating that every unemployed American, Black or otherwise, should be given $20,000 annually for survival.

Special thanks were given to two other organizations, the Bon March and KING-TV, for sponsoring and airing the program on prime time television without interruptions. Sponsors of the awards were Seattle's The Medium and the Tacoma Time Citizen, to local, community-based Black publications.

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JERRY BROWN'S APPEARANCE HIGHLIGHTS SUCCESSFUL DELLUMS' FUNDRAISER

(Oakland, Calif.) - Over 300 supporters of popular Bay Area Congressman Ronald V. Dellums gathered here last Saturday at the Oakland Hilton for a highly successful $100-a-plate fundraiser sponsored by the Committee For Dellums Congressional Fund.

California Governor Jerry Brown -- who drew thunderous applause from the predominantly Black crowd at the Hilton when he said that, "The first principle of this country must be that whoever wants to work is able to work --" headed an impressive array of state and local politicians and community leaders. Among them were Black Panther Party chairperson Elaine Brown; Percy Pinkney, Brown's Black administrative aide; Congressman Pete Starke; state assemblymen John Miller and Bill Lockyer; Alameda County Supervisor Tom Bates; Emeryville City Councilwoman Rena Rickles, and prominent Oakland attorney John George, Alameda County supervisorial candidate, 5th district.

Prior to dinner, there was a cocktail hour at which the guests mingled and enjoyed friendly conversation. Dellums, who is seeking a fourth term in the House of Representatives, has built a broad-based coalition of dedicated supporters, many of whom attended last week's fundraiser to ensure that the progressive Berkeley Democrat returns to Capitol Hill next year.

Certainly one of the highlights of the evening was the appearance of Governor Brown, whose recently announced candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination has been endorsed by the California Black Legislative Caucus. As soon as Governor Brown entered the Hilton's banquet dining room, he was immediately surrounded by admirers and well wishers. Requests for his autograph were numerous.

Addressing the guests, the governor, commenting on his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, noted, "Things are materializing in the West, If it's the will of the people, they'll move East."

Praising the important contribution that Ron Dellums has made in forging people's politics in Congress, Governor Brown said, "I've never stopped being impressed with what Ron represents. He knows that political power comes from the bottom up -- from the people."

The governor eloquently spoke of the need for the destruction of societal restrictions "that keep people from rising to the level of their talents." Emphasizing the need for jobs for poor and oppressed people, Governor Brown declared, "We must forge a new coalition of the future whose first principle must be equality, dignity and employment." The guests rose in a sustained standing ovation following the governor's brief remarks.

A delicious dinner of roast prime rib, salad, baked stuffed potato, green beans, rolls, cheesecake with strawberry sauce, wine, coffee and tea was then served.

Next, popular Black actress, Denise Nicholas, mistress of ceremonies for the evening, introduced the special guests. In addition to those notables already mentioned, other well-known Dellums' supporters on hand

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were Black Panther Party attorney Charles Garry; Oakland Municipal Court Judge Benjamin Travis; Donald McCullum, former Berkeley city attorney and chairman of the prestigious NAACP Political Education Committee; John Newton, director of the Berkeley Experimental Schools Project; noted attorney Peter Coppelman and political activist Beth Meador, both of whom were nominated as delegates to the Democratic National Convention at the April 11 Jerry Brown for President Caucus, 8th District; businessman/community leader Nelson "Jo-Nel" Fields; Anita Bryant, hostess of KTVU-TV's (Channel 2) Changes; actress Diahann Carroll, and former Jet magazine managing editor Robert Deleon, who is married to Ms. Carroll.

Roscoe Dellums, the attractive and charming wife of the congressman, then rose to greet the guests and thank them for their support of her husband. Roscoe announced that Stevie Wonder, who was to have entertained at the benefit, had been unable to attend due to a bout with the flu. Roscoe presented Stevie's administrative assistant, Chris Jones, with a plaque for Stevie from Dellums and the citizens of the 8th Congressional District honoring the Motown recording star for "improving the human condition through music."

Following brief entertainment by a local band, Congressman Dellums concluded the evening by briefly thanking those present for their support and pledging to continue to provide quality service to the people of the 8th District if he is re-elected.

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Flashy Fashions Modeled At John George Benefit

(Oakland, Calif.) - Flashy fashion modeled by supporters of prominent Oakland attorney and frontrunning candidate for Alameda County supervisor, 5th District, JOHN GEORGE (top row, center), were featured at a special fundraising benefit held here on Sunday, April 11, at the Snow Building in Knowland Park. Not to be outdone, candidate George stole the show with the campaign sweatshirt he wore bearing the catchy slogan, "A New John In Alameda."

The lively fashion show topped off a thrilling day for attorney George who a few hours earlier was nominated as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention by the 8th Congressional District Jerry Brown For President Caucus.

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Black P.D. Suspended For Protesting Police Racism

(Racine, Wis.) - Jimmy Davisson, a Black Racine County assistant public defender, was recently suspended from his job after accusing the Racine Police Department and the district attorney's office here of racial prejudice.

His suspension followed a local newspaper story in the Racine Journal Times in which he charged that a woman who had complained to the police that she had been assaulted was not receiving proper attention because she was Black. Davison had become very upset by the district attorney's refusal to issue a warrant in the case.

"If she were White the perpetrator would be in jail," he said. "I think it's blatant racism that we've got in this title town and I think it's pathetic."

Davison, a former-prison inmate, has been plagued with similar problems since his release from prison. Upon his release he was elected as a Milwaukee alderman but served only briefly before he was removed from office by the city council for being an unpardoned convict.

Davison was later pardoned and earned a law degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, but experienced various difficulties before being admitted to the Wisconsin State Bar.

Finally, in January of this year, he was hired to his present $14,000 a year job in the Racine public defender's office. Now he has been suspended for two weeks without pay for his defense of a victimized Black woman.

Racine County public defender William D. Whitnall claimed that Davison was using a "political blackmail" because of his statement and that he had violated an office policy. But the Black attorney explains that he had got involved in the case "not as a public defender but as plain old Jimmie Davison."

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OAKLAND SUIT FILED TO LIFT PAROLEE VOTING BAN

(Oakland, Calif.) - The Legal Aid Society of Alameda County and the American Civil Liberties Foundation of Northern California has filed suit in the Alameda County Superior Court on behalf of an ex-inmate against the Alameda County registrar of voters alleging that the county's total ban on parolee voting conflicted with the California Elections Codes and violated the freedom of association and equal protection provisions of the California and federal constitutions.

The right of parolees to vote recently became an issue when the secretary of state rejected a legal opinion issued by the former chief attorney which had advised local election officials to register parolees to vote.

The suit charges that the Alameda County registrar of voters has adopted a policy pursuant to which all paroled ex-felons -- regardless of the crime of which they had been convicted or degree of rehabilitation they demonstrated -- are automatically not allowed to register to vote. Peter Sheehan, Legal Aid attorney for the plaintiff, Carl Flood, argues that recent changes in the California Penal and Elections Codes, including changes removing civil disabilities for the conviction of a felony and specifically allowing registrars to register some parolees, demonstrates that the legislature did not intend to disfranchise all parolees.

The suit maintains that it is irrational to deny the vote to all parolees when many of them do not present any threat to the integrity of the electoral process.

The suit asks that all registrar of voters throughout the state be required to allow all paroled ex-felons to register to vote. The court has ordered the Alameda County registrar to register all such parolees or show cause why he has not done so at a hearing scheduled for April 27.

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Seattle Community Rallies In Support Of Black Music Professor

(Seattle, Wash.) - A recent gospel and jazz benefit recently organized by the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party and the Friends of Joe Brazil, a Black music professor who was recently denied tenure at the University of Washington, was very successful as a packed audience came out to support the popular Black teacher.

Brazil, a nationally known jazz musician, was recently denied tenure at the University of Washington amid false claims by White faculty members that his teaching standards were deficient. In response, numerous Black organizations have rallied to his support. The lively affair at the First AME Church reflected the organizations' strong determination to fight this racist move by University of Washington officials.

At the benefit, it was pointed out that Professor Brazil's classes are the most crowded classes quarter after quarter. His history of jazz course, which is taught from a Black perspective, is thoroughly enjoyed by Black and White students alike.

The First AME Church Choir, the Total Experience Choir, the Electrifying Mighty Warriors and the Joe Brazil Jazz Ensemble performed rocking spirituals as well as contemporary music. Ron Johnson of the Seattle BPP recited revolutionary poetry. A local community church activist, Ms. Pat Wright, was the emcee for the evening as numerous people spoke on behalf of Joe Brazil and pledged their firm support for his battle to remain at the university.

Elmer Dixon, coordinator of the Seattle BPP chapter, reminded the audience that, "Whenever anyone ever tells you that you can't do something, whenever someone tells you that you are not capable of something, we have to remember that these are people that would have us believe that we can't govern ourselves…"

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OUR HEALTH

Female Hormone
Estrogen Increases
Cancer Risk

(Sacramento, Calif.) - The state Department of Health here recently reported that women who use the female hormone estrogen increase their risk of getting cancer of the uterus lining from 400 to 800 per cent.

These findings echoed a recent publication by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning that estrogen, taken to reduce discomfort after menopause, can increase the incidence of uterine cancer.

Some of the testimony that helped prompt the FDA warning came from Dr. Donald Austin, chief of the California Tumor Registry and supervisor of a cancer monitoring program in in the San Francisco area since 1969, cancer of the endometrium (uterus lining) is more prevalent in older women, and Dr. Austin reported a 50 percent increase in the incidence of such cancer in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1969 to 1973. Among White, affluent women over the age of 50, who most often use the drug, the increase was over 80 per cent.

The cancer rate would be "dramatically higher" than present estimates if statistics reflected that about one-third of the women over 50 have had their uterus removed, so that they are not susceptible to this type of cancer, Dr. Austin said.

He added that only about one woman in three experiences really disabling symptoms during the menopause and these can usually be relieved in a short course of low-dosage estrogen therapy.

The FDA order, based on California trends and three controlled studies, advised doctors to prescribe estrogen only "in situations where a severe condition would result without these hormones, and then the patient must be monitored for cancer."

Estrogen is also a major ingredient of some birth control pills, but the uterine cancer study only concerned postmenopause drugs.

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Major U.S. Realtors Charged With Housing Racism

(Washington, D.C.) - Four major national appraisal and lending associations were charged with practicing racism in appraising homes in integrated neighborhoods and in making loans to the owners of those homes by the U.S. Department of Justice last week.

A civil suit filed in the U.S. District Court in Chicago on April 16 against the defendants -- Mortgage Bankers Association of America, the United States League of Savings Associations, the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers and the Society of Real Estate Appraisers, all Chicago-based -- maintained that the standards and guidelines issued and practiced by the four trade associations exerted "authority and influence" on nearly all appraisers and lenders throughout the country making this discriminatory practice general and widespread.

It is these groups whose manipulation of housing markets and appraisals gave rise to the racist expression that, "When Blacks move in, property values go down." They did go down, but only because the associations made it that way.

The alleged practices of these trade groups, outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, included instructing members that dwellings in racially integrated areas were to be valued substantially lower than similar houses in nonintegrated areas. J. Stanley Pottinger, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said that two appraisers' associations, which accredit more than 90 percent of the nation's real estate appraisers, compel their members

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to assign lower values to houses in neighborhoods where a Black family has moved.

An example of this type of racism is given in an unidentified, April, 1975, publication of one of the defendants: "Professional appraisers are obliged to report all factors that make, shape and affect value in each and every case. When the ethnicity of the people that make up the given market place is unstable and in a state of rapid change, the value base is likewise unstable." Based on this type of biased consideration, many home owners are refused loans and many homes are not given fair appraisals.

Consequently, these lending groups which are known to deny loans to homeowners in Black communities, encourage the formation of ghettos as Whites abandon neighborhoods as Black families move in.

These racist actions are tantamount to redlining, a practice which has been under attack by many homeowners' groups in urban areas, particularly Chicago. It constitutes the refusal by lending institutions to make mortgages or home improvement loans in areas deemed risky. Its name is derived from assertions that these "risky" areas are marked off with red lines on maps used by lenders.

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BLACK LEADERS MOUNT CAMPAIGN AGAINST CARTER'S “ETHNIC PURITY” REMARKS

(Atlanta, Ga.) - Black leaders across the country last week stepped up their campaign against Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter -- who commented during an April 6 campaign speech that the "ethnic purity" of neighborhoods should be preserved -- while a small group of Black sell-outs here, led by Rev. Martin L. King, Sr., shamefully endorsed the former Georgia governor.

Prior to the racist "ethnic purity" slur (Carter also said that he opposes "artificial" or "deliberate" efforts by the federal government to inject "alien groups" into communities with a different racial or economic makeup), Carter had enjoyed considerable support from the Black community as a "liberal" on the civil rights issues.

However, the infamous "ethnic purity" remark brought the expeanut farmer immediate denunciation from Blacks including that of 16 or 17 members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

"SOPHISTICATED RACIST"

In Georgia, Black state representative Hosea Williams accused Carter of being a "sophisticated racist" and said that he (Williams) was not at all satisfied with the Democratic candidate's feeble attempts to apologize for what Williams said are his (Carter's) true feelings.

"You can't be for ethnic purity and open housing," declared Williams, who is head of the Atlanta chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). "That's like being for Jesus Christ and the devil at the same time."

Williams led an angry demonstration against Carter at the same time that Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr., and other local Black "leaders" pledged their devotion to Carter at a rally held in Atlanta's Central City Park. The occasion was Carter's kick-off of his campaign for the May 4 Democratic Georgia primary.

Rev. King, describing Carter as a man "I love and believe," claimed that the "ethnic purity" comment was a "slip of the tongue" and that Carter should be forgiven. "I have a forgiving heart and I'm with you all the way," the 76-year-old father of the slain civil rights leader said, turning to embrace Carter and grabbing his hand in a "soul brother" handclasp.

"Understand," Williams later told a reporter, "this ain't the first time that Daddy King (as Rev. King is known in Atlanta) has sold Black folks out!"

Bay Area Congressman Ron Dellums commented, "That statement is going to haunt him (Carter) for a long time. He's now vulnerable. He's on the defensive."

A telegram denouncing Carter's statement was immediately filed by the 17 members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), including Black Georgia Congressman Andrew Young, who since them, in a ridiculously wishy-washy stance, has endorsed Carter.

The president of the Southern Conference of Black Mayors -- which was holding its annual meeting in Atlanta at the time of the "ethnic purity" remark -- A.J. Cooper of Prichard, Alabama, blasted Carter for showing "either an ignorance of the history of civil rights or an insensitivity to the root causes of discrimination and segregation in this country."

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K.K.K. Parades In Bogalusa, La.

(Bogalusa, La.) - The mayor of this small Louisiana town personally cut the ribbon to open a new Ku Klux Klan office as Klan officials last week announced intentions of running a candidate in next year's congressional elections.

In the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which followed a KKK parade through the town -- in which local Blacks loudly jeered the white-sheeted bigots all along the route (above) -- Bogalusa mayor Louis Rawls proclaimed, "They are citizens just like anyone else." Local police and fire department officials have publicly stated that they have no objections to KKK members being employed by the city.

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SUPPORT MOUNTS FOR FLORIDA WOMAN BEATEN BY GROCERY STORE RACIST

(Gainesville, Fla.) - The Stop Violence Against Black Women Committee continues to press forward the struggle to support a Black Gainesville woman, Barbara Stokes, the victim of an unjustified attack by a White male employee of the Gainesville A&P Store on February 1.

The A&P butcher, Bob Pickle, followed Barbara through the store, then accused her of shoplifting. When Barbara attempted to explain that she was doing nothing wrong, she was viciously attacked. Eyewitnesses told police of the attack on Barbara Stokes, but so far nothing has been done by the authorities except to arrest and accuse the victim of shoplifting.

Since Friday, February 20, the Stop Violence Against Black Women Committee has organized an ongoing boycott and daily picket line of the A&P in Gainesville. The continued refusal of the A&P to insure justice in the Barbara Stokes case, as well as refusing to deal with a number of grievances brought forth by other citizens has fueled the determination of the Committee to continue the boycott and picket as long as it is necessary.

MAJOR DEMANDS

Some of the major demands reflecting people's grievances regarding the A&P are:

1) Drop the charges against Barbara Stokes;

2) A public apology to Barbara Stokes from the A&P and the A&P butcher, Bob Pickle;

3) Bring an immediate end to the harassment, following, and brutalizing of Black and poor White customers inside the A&P;

4) Bring whatever appropriate disciplinary action against the butcher necessary to bring justice in this case as well as setting an example for other A&P employees;

5) Immediate hiring by A&P of a Black person in a management position;

6) Stop selling non-union scab lettuce, grapes, Gallo wine, Sun-sweet Products and Sun Maid raisins in support of the United Farmworkers Union, AFL-CIO, efforts to gain contracts guaranteeing decent working and living conditions for farmworkers;

7) Stop raising food prices on days when welfare and Social Security recipients receive monthly checks;

8) Free food distribution to poor people.

The Stop Violence Against Black Women Committee is a broad based community group that was organized by members of the Bob Canney Support Committee, the African People's Socialist Party, and the Burning Spear Support Committee. It is made up of working people, poor people, students, ex-convicts and other progressive people.

Organized during the month of February, the Committee does not see the physical and legal assault upon Barbara Stokes as an isolated act of criminal individuals.

It is this anti-Black attitude "that has resulted in the murder attempt made by the state of North Carolina against JoAnne Little as well as the recent legal frameup of Dessie X. Woods and Cheryl S. Todd for successfully resisting rape and sexual assault by a white salesman in the State of Georgia.

ANTI-BLACK

"It is this anti-Black ideology in 1975 that permitted Milo Thomas, head of the Public Defender's Office in Lake City, Florida, to call an 18-years-old Black woman a `nigger slut' before going out in broad daylight on the courthouse steps, sticking a gun in the face of Louise Perry and threatening: `I'm going to kill me a nigger today,' the Committee writes.

For further information, write to the Stop Violence Against Black Women Committee, 405 S.W. 8th Avenue, Gainesville, Florida 32601.

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PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

Death Row
Strike Ends

(Tamal, Calif.) - Inmates here on San Quentin's notorious Death Row ended a 12-day hunger strike last week after some of their demands were partially granted. The 42 inmates had submitted 11 demands to the San Quentin Prison administration, among them better food and medical care, access to the prison's legal library, and increased TV time. After $1,000 worth of lawbooks were purchased for inmates along with 15 new televisions, the prisoners ended the strike.

K.K.K. Murder
Charges Dismissed

(Montgomery, Ala.) - First degree murder charges were dismissed last week against three White men accused in the Klu Klux Klan killing of a Black truck driver 19 years ago. Circuit Court Judge Frank Embry dismissed the charges after ruling that the grand jury indictment against the men was void because it failed to state the specific means and method of the killing. The original indictment charged the KKK members with forcing Willie Edwards, Jr., at gunpoint to jump into the Alabama River on the night of January 23, 1957.

Woman Sterilized

(Toronto, Canada) - A mother of four here says she had herself sterilized to keep her job in the battery plant of General Motors of Canada Ltd. The company fears lead-oxide emissions in the plant could harm unborn children. Norma James, 34, was one of six women told they must prove they cannot bear children or they will be transferred to a lower-salaried position in another department. "I need that job more than anything else," Ms. James said.

"Chemical Zombies"

(Los Angeles, Calif.) - Patients in California's private and state mental hospitals are being turned into "chemical zombies" by drugs used to keep them subdued, the Network Against Psychiatric Assault (NAPA) charged at a recent press conference. NAPA is urging that the consent of patients be obtained before any medication is administered, especially so-called "tranquilizing" drugs which render patients docile.

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JUNE 8 BALLOT ISSUE: Prop. 15: “Yes” For Nuclear Safeguards

(San Francisco, Calif.) - An intensive statewide campaign is underway to curb the dangerous and unchecked expansion of nuclear power plants in California through the passage of Proposition 15 which voters will decide on in the upcoming June 8 primary.

Contrary to rampant government propaganda and reports, Proposition 15 does not call for the elimination of nuclear power plants and programs but merely a sane and safe approach to their growth and development. Briefly, Proposition 15 calls for:

1) Current safety systems to be proven safe within five years;

2) The institution of permanant, safe storage plants within five years;

3) Full compensation for victims of nuclear power accidents; and

4) Publication of and updated evacuation plans for communities in which nuclear power facilities are located.

Government subsidies and propaganda supporting nuclear power centers and programs have mushroomed over the last year. By their own admission, federal agencies show an increase of 30 per cent in government expenditures for nuclear energy programs, while other much needed social services for Black and poor people are suffering massive slashes and cuts.

The most frightening aspect of the nuclear plants -- both those existing and those planned for construction -- is the blatant lack of concern by government officials for the safety of the employees and residents in the areas of this newly created industry. After 30 years and billions of dollars in nuclear research, there is still no proven way to store radioactive wastes safely. Military storage tanks, only 30 years old, have already leaked more than 500,000 gallons of wastes into the ground. Used but still highly radioactive fuel rods are piling up at reactor sites because there are no commercial reprocessing plants in operation.

Big business and government interests argue that the testing for safety measures as called for in Proposition 15 would require the destruction of one existent plant and cost taxpayers millions of dollars in utility bill increases. The alleged savings have yet to be seen by the average family, although nuclear plants have been in existence for several years. Further, current atomic energy production exceeds the present need. During the past 18 months, U.S. utilities have cancelled or deferred three times the amount of power currently in use.

NUCLEAR ENERGY

Finally, the nuclear energy interests attempt to frighten us with the threat that a "slow-down" of nuclear power development would create massive unemployment, leaving thousands of workers jobless. The proposed power plants are fortunately primarily automated, thus causing less danger to human personnel.

The passage of Proposition 15 could be the beginning of a better, more safety and people-oriented policy in America's use and development of atomic energy. Vote "Yes" on Proposition 15 in the June 8 primary.

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AMENDMENTS NO CURE FOR S.B. #1 FASCISM

(Washington, D.C.) - Proposed amendments to Senate Bill No. 1 that would weaken the widespread opposition to the fascist bill by offering superficial changes' -- even changing the name of the legislation -- are now before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Described by the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation (NCARL) as "the most dangerous, anti-democratic, repressive piece of `law and order' and press censorship legislation since the days of the `Alien and Sedition laws,'" Senate Bill No. 1 (S.1) is a 799-page reform of the U.S. Criminal Code drafted by the Nixon administration that was introduced in the Senate on January 15, 1975. (See THE BLACK PANTHER, February 22 and March 1, 1975.)

Among the dangerously repressive features of S. 1 are:

- The reintroduction of the death penalty for certain crimes, including treason and espionage.

- The redefinition of the 1968 riot law so that the mere threat of damage to property could send violators to prison for three years.

- The upholding of the 1968 law permitting the President to wiretap domestic activities which he thinks are a "danger to the structure" of the government.

- Virtual outlawing of every kind of civil rights, peace and other protest demonstration.

- Elimination of insanity or mental defect as a defense except in limited cases.

"S. 1 is a complex bill of frights which, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is in need of 3,500 amendments," states an article in the April issue of Dollars and Sense. Growing nationwide protest against the bill is causing some of its "liberal" sponsors in the Senate to defend their support. Five members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Birch Bayh who was one of the bill's original sponsors, have reportedly committed themselves to defeating S. 1.

The devious strategy to modify S. 1 would water down the more objectionable portions of the bill to the point of essentially eliminating the opposition. An example of how this strategy would be implemented is described in a recent issue of CounterSpy magazine. Under this strategy the death penalty section of S. 1 is to be deleted and introduced as a separate piece of legislation. Not

-- 10 --
only would a significant part of the opposition to S. 1 be eliminated but passing the death penalty would be easier.

Beyond its extensive threats to the basic Constitutional rights of the American people, S. 1 will also seriously undermine the labor movement of this country if it is passed. Commenting on this aspect, Abe Feinglass, vice-president of the Amalgamated Meatcutters, explained:

"What the Ford crowd fears more than anything else is a broad movement of Blacks and Whites building up against the economic crisis as you had during the Vietnam War…the S-1 bill could cut the ground out from organizing such a movement."

Under S. 1 union officials engaged in a strike would be subject to prosecution if violence were so much as threatened or if the employer merely "felt" economic loss. Picket lines could be branded "rioting," defined by S. 1 as 10 or more persons creating "a grave danger of imminently causing damage to property." No actual violence need occur.

As S. 1 nears debate before the full Senate, the only hope of ensuring its defeat lies with a watchful and concerned citizenry. People are urged to begin a massive letter writing campaign aimed at their senators and representatives demanding their defeat of S. 1. For more information about S. 1, contact the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation, 510 C Street, Washington, D.C. 20002, or at 1250 Wilshire Blvd., #501, Los Angeles, CA 90017.

-- 9 --

Supreme Court Reverses Decisions Affecting Servicepeople

(New York, N.Y.) - Two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have reversed earlier decisions which had guaranteed certain rights of servicemen and women, Liberation News Service reports.

The first of the two separate high court decisions gives military base commanders the right to prohibit civilians from military bases if it is thought that the civilians may "incite disloyalty" among troops. The other takes away the right of military personnel facing summary court martials to an appointed counsel.

The decision of civilian access to military bases stems from a 1972 incident when People's Party presidential candidate Dr. Benjamin Spock was thrown off Fort Dix Army Base despite an earlier court decision which apparently gave civilians the right to be on the base.

The most immediate effect of this decision will be the curtailment of a service-wide organizing campaign by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFL-CIO) which had been planning to start the effort this fall. The union, which represents 675,000 federal employees working for the military, has distributed hundreds of thousands of leaflets on military bases recently, urging service people to fight for cost of living increases.

-- 10 --

N.A.A.C.P. PRISON BRANCH FIGHTS K.K.K. GUARD BRUTALITY

(Napanoch, N.Y.) - A New York State Prison Branch of the NAACP recently claimed undue harassment and physical abuse of its members by guards at the Eastern New York Correctional Facility here charging that "the KKK is responsible."

Eastern prison has been the scene of alleged Klan activity since the exposure, over a year ago, of "State KKK Grand Dragon," Earl F. Schoonmaker, Jr., a teacher at the prison who has since been suspended. At that time it was disclosed, by a female employee of the prison, that at least "20-35 Klan operatives" were employed at the prison as correction officers.

The Eastern Inmate NAACP Branch received much publicity in March of 1975 when its president, Frank K. Abney, and three other members, filed federal class action suits on behalf of the Branch "and all those similarly situated," against a Pine Bush chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and a number of high echelon, Eastern prison administrators.

Since the filing of the two suits, charging harassment of NAACP members because of their "race and political beliefs," the Branch has complained of continued harassment stemming from the suits and its outspoken policies on racism.

Citing several recent incidents of alleged brutality and harassment, executive board members say "these are typical examples of administrative/Klan policy in relation to minority prisoners and prison leaders."

German Quinones, a member of the Branch's Executive Committee, was called to Albany on February 17, 1976, to testify at Corrections Department-Klan hearings. Branch leaders allege that three officers assigned to frisk Quinones threatened him with physical harm and subjected him to two unnecessary rectal searches in a small bathroom near the front of the prison.

Quinones contends that one guard grabbed him by the hair, shaking him, then bent him over while he and other guards made sexual and racially derogatory remarks to him. He and other Branch members believe that two of the guards are active Klan members.

Quinones was already in "keeplock" at the time, stemming from an incident on February 14, 1976, when he and Branch vice-president Freddie DeJesus received a joint legal visit. They said that after the attorneys had left, they were threatened and verbally abused, and had legal documents and periodicals "confiscated" which were given to them by the visiting lawyers. Both were keeplocked for "possession of contraband" and Quinones was taken off the College Release program.

Branch members also charge that, on February 28, 1976, inmate Joseph Kershaw, executive board member and sargeant-at-arms, was "handcuffed and physically brutalized" in his cell by six prison guards. They allege that he was taken to segregation where he was subjected to another "beating" and capriciously charged with "being drunk." Ironically, while this was taking place, the Executive Committee was holding a meeting with local Kingston NAACP officials on the other side of the prison.

On March 4, 1976, Bobby Bennett, Branch director, found out that his family had received an "anonymous phone call" informing them that he was "dead." Said Bobby, after making an emergency phone call home number," stated one inmate bad, my mother didn't even believe it was me she was talking to." Branch members feel certain that the KKK was responsible. "No one else here has Bobby's home number," stated one inmate member, "and we don't have access to direct outside lines anyway."

On March 17, 1976, Branch vice president Freddie DeJesus, along with several other inmates, saw an officer parading around in full KKK attire (hood and cape) in the lobby of a prison block used to conduct the inmate phone call program. DeJesus and other witnessing inmates say C.O. Dennis Laurie ignited a piece of paper "with a cross drawn on it" and threw it on another inmate in a mock, Klan cross-burning ceremony. Several other officers were present.

"This type of racist, Klan horseplay is geared to intimidate the men (inmates), and humiliate our attempts to neutralize racism and mass prisoner reaction," said one inmate executive board member. "It's also a form of rebellion against the new administration …to let them know who still runs the prison."

-- 10 --

Support Urged For Chicano Activist Detained In Mexico

(Seattle, Wash.) - Nationwide support for a Chicano activist illegally detained in Mexico has been launched here by a traveling caravan which has been organizing to gain his release.

Ramon Chacon is being held in Mexico's Topo Chico prison after being arrested on false charges of gun smuggling. Chacon was known for his active involvement in the struggle for the rights of the Mexican people of Texas' Rio Grande Valley and his detainment is viewed as a plot by American and Mexican authorities to entrap him.

Chacon has been denied visits by his wife and children and has been desperately trying to find a Mexican lawyer who will represent him in his frame-up case.

If you wish to make a financial contribution or desire more information on this case, please contact the Ramon Raul Chacon Defense Committee, 688 W. Robertson Street, San Benito, Texas 78586 (512) 399-6761.

-- 11 --

N.J. Puerto Ricans Rally To Fight Cutbacks

(Trenton, N.J.) - Over 2,000 people rallied at the state capitol here in early April, successfully challenging New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne to re-examine the state's decision to cut back basic services to the Puerto Rican community and calling for better and more comprehensive services to the state's 500,000-member Hispanic peoples.

Sponsored by the North New Jersey Zone of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP), the theme for the spirited rally was "A Bicentennial Without Poverty."

Currently all services to the state's Puerto Rican residents are coordinated by the "Congresio Boricuda," formed in 1971 and based here in Trenton. When the cutbacks were announced in February of this year, the PSP sent a letter to the Congresio, pointing out the disastrous effects of the cutbacks and promising a massive community response if the cutbacks weren't reconsidered.

The Puerto Rican community delivered their promised "united and organized" protest at the April 4 demonstration, forcing Governor Byrne to commit himself to set up a joint committee to study the possibility of restoring many of the basic services which have been cut.

Representatives who met with the governor reported that the proposed committee should include members of the governor's staff, members of the legislature's appropriations committee and representatives from Puerto Rican and other groups affected by the cutbacks.

-- 11 --

STUDENTS ESTABLISH “CENTER FOR STRUGGLE” AT HOSTOS COLLEGE

(New York, N.Y.) - In the face of racist cutbacks by this city's Board of Higher Education, the predominantly Black and Latin Hostos Community College has been taken over by its students who plan to use the school as a "center for struggle."

Last week, the NYC Board of Higher Education announced that Hostos and Medgar Evers Community Colleges (both with over 90 per cent minority enrollment) would be reduced from four-year institutions to two year college and merged with other schools.

At Hostos, the only bilingual college on the East Coast, a coalition of students, workers and community residents seized the school on March 25 and are determined to keep it open and preserve its Third World atmosphere.

"We are trying to build a whole new type of institution now. It's a pretty historical takeover in the sense that classes are being run," stated Hostos professor Ramon Jimenez.

ON SCHEDULE

Not only are classes still going on schedule, but participants in the takeover have also maintained security, set up daycare, organized new classes and carried out the administration of the college.

Throughout the school there are signs stating, "We say Hostos stays," "Hell no, we won't close" and "Kibbee asesino." Clusters of students and community members can be seen discussing ways to keep the school open.

"We are mobilized to save the school," says Jimenez.

A statement issued by the Community Coalition to Save Hostos has declared that:

"This new institution will be one which will be utilized by the community for its struggle. The struggle of the community is our struggle, our struggle is their struggle. For this reason we must work together and use Hostos as a center for organizing our response to the crisis that threatens to wipe us out."

The new institution has designated one day each week to be a "Day of Struggle" and last week protests were held at the banks who are profiting off City University of New York (CUNY) cutbacks.

CUNY, with an enrollment of 270,000 students, is the third largest university in the country. Before 1970, when an "open admission" policy went into effect, the school was 91 per cent White although New York's high schools are 52 per cent Black and Puerto Rican. The new policy came about only after intense community pressure and since 1970 Black and Hispanic enrollment at the school has tripled.

This is all endangered by a plan proposed by Board of Education president Robert Kibbee will wipe out the "open admissions" policy and force as many as 30,000 students out of the school and cut some $60 million from the school's budget. Instead of being eligible to attend the university upon completion of high school, students would have to score high on admissions tests.

-- 11 --

Bay Area July 4th Coalition Forms

(San Francisco, Calif.) - The formation of the Bay Area July 4th Coalition, a broad-based community group which is spearheading a massive West Coast demonstration scheduled for July 4 to counter the Bicentennial, was announced at a press conference here last week at the offices of El Tecolote, 3240 21st Street. ALFREDO LOPEZ (center), national coordinator of the July 4th Coalition -- of which the Black Panther Party is a member -- and a member of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party Central Committee, was joined by ROBERTO VARGAS (left), a representative of Non-Intervention in Nicaragua, and Ms. LAURA RODRIGUEZ (right), a representative of the Coalition.

-- 12 --

…And Bid Him Sing

By David G. Du Bois

Exciting Novel Examines Lives Of
Black Americans In Egypt

As the following portion of… And Bid Him Sing opens, the Black American poet Suliman Ibn Rashid -- one of the novel's main characters -- prepares to read his poetry in a special performance at a nightclub in downtown Cairo, Egypt. People of various nationalities attend the performance, including White Americans, against whom much of Suliman's bitter poetry is directed.

PART 27

A string of light bulbs adorned the front of the Beaux Arts Club announcing a poetry reading. It was not customary, but Suliman had insisted. Wedding and engagement parties were announced this way, but not poetry readings; and certainly not at this long established writers' and artists' center in midtown Cairo.

Abdel Moneim, a much loved but maverick member of the club, had made it possible. Suliman and Mohammed had planned and arranged it. Abdel Moneim had had no idea what energies he was unleashing when he'd first made the suggestion, and very soon the initiative was taken out of his hands. There had been an element of a joke in it for him at the beginning. When it was over, no one was laughing.

For two weeks prior, handmade posters, to everyone's surprise executed almost professionally by the cool and industrious Ibrahim, had stood in shop windows, restaurants and bars around central Cairo. One had been placed on the U.N. Embassy bulletin board and several had been scattered around the American University campus. They announced a poetry reading to the accompaniment of the Cairo Jazz Combo, featuring the Afro-American poet Suliman Ibn Rashid and the Afro-American jazz artist Mohammed X-3 of the Nation of Islam.

Special invitations, individually typed by Suliman, had been sent to African and Arab missions in Cairo and to the offices of the several liberation organizations. Word of the event spread throughout the large African and Asian Student City community of Al Azhar University. Bits had appeared in several Arabic dailies and in one widely circulated weekly magazine. The day before, the English-language Egyptian Gazette and the French-language `Progres Egyptien' carried a short notice in their daily column of events in Cairo of special interest to the foreign community.

Several people were standing around outside the entrance when I arrived. To the right of the large, ornately carved door I saw Mohammed. He was alone. He wore a plain black suit, white shirt and black tie. His slim, six-foot-three frame slumped slightly at the shoulders. He was smoking a joint, apparently in quiet peace with himself.

"Hey, brother!" I said as I approached him. It took a moment for him to return my greeting.

SLOW SMILE

"Yeah," a slow smile spreading over his light brown face. "Man, the joint is alive with bodies. We been playin', just to warm up and to entertain the people before the brother goes on. The cat's uptight. Lots of whiteys from the embassy of Babylon right down front, sittin' up there staring into my face, smilin' and clappin' their hands. I don't even see the mother-fuckers. We took a break to have a smoke. The cat's about ready to go on. Man, them whiteys is sure about to be shook up!"

"Have you seen Abdel Moneim around?" I asked.

"Man, that cat's as uptight as the brother. Actin' like this place ain't never seen nothing like this before. My cats in the combo said some musicians from Alexandria drove down for the show. People here from all over town. Nodding toward the entrance, "He's in there somewhere." He offered me the stub of the joint he was smoking. "Have a drag?"

"Thanks man, you finish it," I said. "You need it more than me right now. I'll see you later…"

"Yeah!"

The small vestibule I entered led into a large, low-ceilinged lounge. People were everywhere: moving about, standing in groups, sitting on sofas and chair arms, leaning against the walls. To my left, double doors opened off the lounge into a long, narrow auditorium. Rows of folding chairs were half occupied with people in conversation, others sipping at glasses of tea, cups of Turkish coffee, bottles of cold drinks and beer.

A single waiter, in white flowing galabiya, was pushing his way through the crowd. He held aloft a small tray containing a single cup and saucer, a kanaka of steaming Turkish coffee and a glass of water. He nodded to several appeals made to him as he made his way, not stopping. At the back of the lounge, french doors stood open onto a garden, providing the only ventilation. An atmosphere of excitement engulfed the place.

I was still standing just inside the entrance to the lounge when I saw Mika making her way through the crowd toward me, smiling broadly, arms outstretched, crouching a bit as she came.

SCREAMED

"Oh, there you are!" she almost screamed. "We've been looking all over for you! Where've you been?" She grasped my arms, pursed her lips and offered me each of her lightly powdered cheeks to kiss. "Suliman is frightened to death! He's been asking for you! He's been pretending to be cool. But I can tell. You must go to him immediately. He's in the kitchen."

She took my arm and, pulling me behind her through the crowd, led me toward the kitchen door. "Isn't this wonderful," she continued. "You should have heard the combo! Mohammed is really good! And his little Egyptians are cute as they can be, playing their little hearts out. I've got a seat in the front row with some folks I brought from the mission. We got here early because I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help. But everything was done." She sounded surprised and disappointed. "Here -- here's the kitchen. You go to him. I don't want to lose our seats. I've saved a seat for you. I hope it's still there. Try to calm him down. I know he"ll be really great!" Turning abruptly, she was gone, mincing her way through the crowd as it drifted back into the auditorium.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 13 --

REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE

By Huey P. Newton

"Patrolling"

Concluding the chapter "Patrolling" from Revolutionary Suicide, Black Panther Party leader and chief theoretician Huey P. Newton describes the incident which sparked the creation of THE BLACK PANTHER Intercommunal News Service -- the death of a young Black man, 22-year-old Denzil Dowell, who was murdered by White policemen in Richmond, California, on April 1, 1967.

PART 47

They sought to frighten us and turn the community against us, but what they did had the opposite effect. For instance, after this encounter, we gained a number of new members from City College students who had watched the incident and had seen how things really were. They had been skeptical about us earlier because of the bad treatment we had received in the press, but seeing is believing.

The policeman who started this particular incident testified against me in 1968 in my trial for killing a policeman. When my attorney, Charles Garry, questioned him under cross-examination, he admitted his fear of the Black Panthers. He is six feet tall and weighs 250 pound. I am five feet, ten and a half inches, and weigh 150 pounds; yet he said that I "surrounded" him.

Straying further from the facts, he testified that he had not said anything to me, that, on the contrary, he was too frightened to open his mouth. The Black Panthers allegedly frightened him by shaking high-powered rifles in his face, calling him a pig, and threatening to kill him.

"FEARFUL"

He was fearful, he said, that I would kill him with the dagger, though it was sheathed. He stated that I had come right up to him, that I was "in his face," and as he put it, "He was all around me." So much for the police testimony.

In addition to our patrols and confrontations with the police, I did a lot of recruiting in pool halls and bars, sometimes working twelve to sixteen hours a day. I passed out leaflets with our ten-point program, explaining each point to all who would listen.

Going deep into the community like this, I invariably became an important part of our organizing effort. There is a bar-restaurant in North Oakland known as the "Bosn's Locker"; I used to call it my office because I would sometimes sit there for twenty hours straight talking with the people who came in. Most of the time, I had my shotgun with me, if the owners of the establishment did not object. If they did, I left it in my car.

At other times I would go to City College or to the Oakland Skills Center -- anywhere people gathered. It was hard work, but not in the sense of working at an ordinary job, with its deadly routine and sense of futility in performing empty labor. It was work that had profound significance for me; the very meaning of my life was in it, and it brought me closer to the people.

RECRUITING

This recruiting had an interesting ramification in that I tried to transform many of the so-called criminal activities going on in the street into something political, although this had to be done gradually. Instead of trying to eliminate these activities -- numbers, hot goods, drugs -- I attempted to channel them into significant community actions. Black consciousness had generally reached a point where a man felt guilty about exploiting the Black community. However, if his daily activities for survival could be integrated with actions that undermined the established order, he felt good about it. It gave him a feeling of justification and strengthened his own sense of personal worth.

Many of the brothers who were burglarizing and participating in similar pursuits began to contribute weapons and material to community defense. In order to survive they still had to sell their hot goods, but at the same time they would pass some of the cash on to us. That way, ripping off became more than just an individual thing.

Gradually the Black Panthers came to be accepted in the Bay Area community. We had provided a needed example of strength and dignity by showing people how to defend themselves. More important, we lived among them. They could see every day that with us the people came first.

"Denzil Dowell"

It is not often that one encounters in any Black ghetto in this country a family that has not experienced some immediate contact with the corrupt judicial system and a repressive prison apparatus. It is not only impossible for a Black revolutionary to get justice in the courts, but Black people in general have been the victims rather than the recipients of bourgeois justice."

Angela Davis
If They Come in the Morning

North Richmond is an all-Black community of about 9,000 inhabitants on the northwest side of the city of Richmond. It came into being during World War II when this area was used to provide limited and temporary housing for Blacks, like my father, who came from the South to work in the shipyards. Kaiser Industries, the main employers at the time, were responsible for the establishment of the community.

They expected the people to go back South after they were no longer needed. But the South had little to offer, and the people had other ideas. When they stayed, the Establishment found ways to punish them.

TO BE CONTINUED

-- 16 --

THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY PROGRAM: MARCH 29, 1972 PLATFORM

WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE

1. WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.

We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be free until we are able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves, by fully controlling all the institutions which exist in our communities.

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.

We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every person employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the American businessmen will not give full employment, then the technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

3. WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALIST OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.

We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million Black people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make.

4. WE WANT DECENT HOUSING, FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS.

We believe that if the landlords will not give decent housing to our Black and oppressed communities, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people in our communities, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for the people.

5. WE WANT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT EDUCATION THAT TEACHES US OUR TRUE HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY.

We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and the world, then you will have little chance to know anything else.

6. WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE.

We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will also develop preventative medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed to give all Black and oppressed people access to advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide ourselves with proper medical attention and care.

7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED STATES.

We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States uses its domestic enforcement agencies to carry out its program of oppression against Black people, other people of color and poor people inside the United States. We believe it is our right, therefore, to defend ourselves against such armed forces and that all Black and oppressed people should be armed for self-defense of our homes and communities against these fascist police forces.

8. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.

We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly from the aggressive desires of the U.S. ruling circle and government to force its domination upon the oppressed people of the world. We believe that if the U.S. government or its lackeys do not cease these aggressive wars that it is the right of the people to defend themselves by any means necessary against their aggressors.

9. WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND POOR OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U.S. FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR ALL PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.

We believe that the many Black and poor oppressed people now held in U.S. prisons and jails have not received fair and impartial trials under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free from incarceration. We believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched, inhuman penal institutions, because the masses of men and women imprisoned inside the United States or by the U.S. military are the victims of oppressive conditions which are the real cause of their imprisonment. We believe that when persons are brought to trial that they must be guaranteed, by the United States, juries of their peers, attorneys of their choice and freedom from imprisonment while awaiting trials.

10. WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the 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, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

-- 17 --

Intercommunal News: 30 - Member Commission To Try Mercenaries For Angolan War Crimes

(Luanda, People's Republic of Angola) - The issue of the use of mercenaries to suppress national liberation struggles will come before worldwide judgement here shortly when an international commission of 30 begins publicly trying 14 CIA-funded mercenaries for committing atrocious crimes during the recent Angolan war.

The mercenaries -- 11 British, two American and one Argentine -- include the wild "Col. Callan," charged by British survivors as responsible for the brutal execution of 14 mercenaries under his command who refused to fight upon arriving in Angola. The Guardian reports that National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) leader Holden Roberto -- a long time CIA agent -- will be tried in absentia. The FNLA, along with the Union for Independence of Angola (UNITA), received extensive U.S. aid in their unsuccessful efforts to overthrow the legitimate government of Angola, the West African nation, led by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

REVELATIONS

Revelations expected during the trial, as well as those from an investigation to be made by the international commission, will also expose the ruthless dealings of the governments of Zaire and Belgium and others in facilitating the recruiting, departure and travel of the mercenaries. One major effect that the trial could have is that the expected sentences will hopefully be a strong deterrent in the present campaign to recruit Western mercenaries to fight against the Zimbabwean (Rhodesian) liberation struggle and elsewhere in southern Africa.

Roberto desperately asked the CIA for mercenaries when the FNLA suffered defeat after defeat by the MPLA liberation forces. The recruitment of mercenaries intensified after the army of Zaire, an ally of the FNLA, abandoned the Carmona headquarters of the FNLA in northern Angola. The Zairean forces -- who mistakenly believed that the city was being guarded by the

-- 26 --
National Liberation Army (ELNA), the military wing of the FNLA -- found themselves suddenly surrounded by two columns of MPLA forces advancing from the south.

The Zairean troops, suspecting betrayal by their FNLA allies, shot all ELNA troops in sight and withdrew back into Zaire.

The CIA, responding to Roberto's cry for help, offered attractive salaries in its mercenary recruitment campaign, which was aimed largely at Great Britain. The Britishers were told that they were going out to train "anticommunist forces" for use against the "communists" in Angola. Many were duped into believing that they wouldn't have to do any fighting, and upon arriving in Angola, refused to fight and returned home in large numbers.

Angolan and Portuguese eyewitnesses interviewed by the Guardian said that the major activity of British mercenaries was the shooting of unarmed Angolan and Portuguese civilians. One eyewitness from the Maquelo do Zombo area described how Portuguese shopkeepers had been rounded up by the FNLA, forcibly put into uniform, given arms and told to march "down the road" to stop the advance of MPLA liberation forces. When the shopkeepers refused to fight, they were lined up and shot by British mercenaries.

The London Observer of April 4 published an interview with one of the mercenaries present at the slaughter of the Portuguese shopkeepers, who said that "Col. Callan" ordered 160 Angolan men murdered in a single village.

-- 17 --

HISTORIC INTERCOMMUNAL TALKS PLEDGE SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE'S ANGOLA

At the close of an historic meeting held on March 15, 1976, in Conakry, Republic of Guinea, attended by Guinean President Sekou Toure, President Luis Cabral of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, Dr. Agostinho Neto, president of the People's Republic of Angola and Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, the governments of Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Cuba pledged to provide all necessary aid to maintain the total independence of Angola.

The four revolutionary leaders addressed a mass rally at the 28th of September Stadium in Conakry, and following, THE BLACK PANTHER reprints the text of the speech delivered by President Toure, which is reprinted from the Cuban daily Granma. The speeches of Presidents Neto and Cabral and Prime Minister Castro will be included in future issues.

PART 1

We have the great honor of speaking on behalf of the militant people of Guinea to express on their behalf the satisfaction, great joy and pride over the presence on their soil -- soil which is the tomb of imperialism -- of the illustrious fighters for freedom, social progress and democracy from Cuba, Angola and Guinea- Bissau. We have shared the great concern of the peoples which they represent -- their concern when international imperialism, under the cover of apartheid and the regular military forces of the Republic of South Africa, illegally and illegitimately occupied more and more of the territory of the sister people of Angola.

Together, we defeated the cowardly attack by international imperialism; we resolutely condemned South Africa's insults to all Africa and all peace- and freedom-loving nations of the world. Together, we fought alongside the sister people of Angola under the banner of their anti-imperialist party, the party of the Revolution -- the MPLA -- led by our brother, Dr. Neto.

It has been a hard struggle, but the MPLA has emerged victorious. It has demonstrated its intransigence in the struggle for liberation and has undergone every sacrifice so as to honor its commitment, that is, to remain an invincible bastion of the world revolution in that African country. The MPLA has remained loyal, totally loyal to its objectives of liberation; it has prevailed over the coalition of imperialist nations and African puppets, over those who fool their people, placing themselves at the service of imperialism in order to oppress Africa even more. Their flunkyism has been defeated, just as apartheid and imperialism have been defeated, in Angola.

This is clear proof that when a nation is determined to stand on its own feet, to be free and live a life of dignity, no imperialist scheme can defeat it. The brave Angolan people have set an example to consolidate the ideological

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and practical foundations of their struggle for social and democratic well-being.

Honor to Angola! Glory to the Angolan people! Our respectful tribute to the revolutionary activities of all nationalities who gave their lives in order that the Angolan victory be inscribed in the register of progressive forces the world over.

To our brother, Dr. Neto, we say "thank you" for honoring the African revolution; thank you for your valor, staunch loyalty to your people and courageous and intelligent leadership in battle, for having chalked up this victory of which all the peoples of the world are rightly proud.

AT YOUR SIDE

We will remain at your side. At your side will stand the revolutionary people of Cuba, the revolutionary people of Guinea- Bissau, and the militant people of Guinea; and all revolutionary, socialist and democratic peoples of the world will remain united to push the border of apartheid and the exploitation of man by man even further back, until all reactionary forces are eliminated and the whole African homeland is free.

In these days of glorification of the Angolan people and celebrations in democratic nations all over the world, in these days of open pride, allow us to pay sincere, solemn and resounding tribute to the Cuban revolution.

We know that imperialism hates and threatens Cuba, we know that every day Cuba must confront the criminal schemes of the class enemy; but this did not keep Cuba from placing military forces and powerful material at the disposal of fighting Africa in Angola in order to defeat the imperialists and all their instruments of destruction.

We honor the Cuban revolution and its commander, Comrade Fidel Castro. Proletarian internationalism has become common practice for the Cuban peoples and the Cuban revolution. Solidarity with all peoples who suffer and fight for a world of happiness is also policy of the Cuban revolution.

In Asia, Cuba has backed the brave Vietnamese people. Cuba has been present in Algeria, the Middle East, Latin America, Guinea, Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Cuba has been present wherever necessary, practicing its vocation, that of a peace-and freedom-loving people, a people that has remained loyal to the high ideals which have always moved humanity. Cuba respects the dignity and freedom of all peoples, regardless of color, religion, nationality, and it is because of this that we say here, on behalf of the revolutionary people of Guinea, our "thank you" to the Cuban revolution.

We honor all the peoples who have helped us, and we thank all the forces of peace which have supported Africa in Angola. Allow us to point out the fact that the credit for the great victory of which we are so proud should go to the peoples of the former Portuguese colonies, the peoples who suffered Portguese fascism and foreign domination for centuries on end. Their political awareness, political-military organization and valor in the struggle for liberation brought about not only the liberation of part of Africa, but also the downfall of fascism in Portugal itself.

This has been the contribution which those peoples have made to the world revolution. In Angola, the victory was that much greater for the Angolan people reflected the courage of Mozambique and honored the valor of the PAIGC (Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde and the courage of the brave people of Sao Tome and Principe.

Angola has fought as one man and exposed the true nature of the FNLA and UNITA, the puppet movments created by imperialism. Flunkyism has been defeated and the banner of dignity upheld. There is nothing unusual about our meeting here in Conakry. We have discussed the situation and reaffirmed our joint determination to continue our solidarity in order to safeguard the revolution.

To our comrades in struggle, the Cuban revolution, the revolution in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, the revolution in Mozambique and the Angolan revolution, the people of Guinea publicly stress their unconditional solidarity, lasting support and staunch backing. The struggle will continue with courage and determination until total victory has been reached and imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism and apartheid have been crushed the world over.

Long live the Cuban people!

Long live freedom!

Long live the dignity of the peoples!

TO BE CONTINUED

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U.S. INVESTMENTS IN SOUTH AFRICA SOAR TO $1.5 BILLION

According to a report recently released by the New York-based American Committee on Africa (ACOA), American investment in the racist White regime of South Africa "is growing at an alarming rate," have tripled since 1966 from $500 million to its present $1.5 billion. Following are excerpts from the ACOA report detailing two of the most important proposed U.S. investments in South Africa, those by Kennecott Copper Corporation and Caltex Oil Corporation, whose expansion, ACOA declares, has "grave implications for the future United States foreign policy in a period of great change in southern Africa."

Kennecott Copper Corporation, the largest domestic producer of copper, recently announced participation in a new $300 million venture in the development of iron and titanium bearing beaches on the northeast coast of South Africa. Public attention was first drawn to this investment by Kennecott's 1974 Annual Report which explained that Quebec Iron and Titanium Corporation (QIT), a company controlled by Kennecott, was exploring participation on this venture.

PROJECT

The project will have 30 per cent ownership by the South African government's Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and 30 per cent by the Union Corporation, a South African mining company. Kennecott will control 40 per cent. Recent conversations with Kennecott indicate that the company will have operational control only in the smelting operation, while the South African corporations will control the mining operations.

Kennecott has indicated that the venture is intended to provide QIT's European markets with titanium pigment used extensively in the textile, art and paper industries. The South African government, however, may be enthusiastic about developing this source of titantium for other reasons. One of the metal's primary values lies in its use in corrosion and high melting temperature, it has been extensively used in making compresser blades for jet engines, leading edges of the wings, fire walls, and the skin of aircraft designed to travel at or near supersonic speeds. In 1971, the United States used 84 per cent of the titanium