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AUGUST 7TH: SURVIVAL PENDING LIBERATION

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AUGUST 7TH: SURVIVAL PENDING LIBERATION

"MAN-CHILD, BLACK MAN-CHILD WITH A SUBMACHINE GUN
IN HAND, HE WAS FREE FOR A WHILE. I GUESS THAT'S
MORE THAN MOST OF US CAN EXPECT…"

GEORGE JACKSON

In came the gentle man-child, Jonathan, and in minutes his blood spilled throughout the world, notifying everyone that America the Beautiful had slaves and they were revolting: The August 7th Movement.

On August 7th, 1970, a San Quentin inmate, Brother James McClain, was defending himself against the phoney charge of assault on a San Quentin guard. The guard was not dead. Brother Fred Billingslea was, Fred Billingslea had been murdered by guards in his San Quentin cell on February 25, 1970, 2 weeks before the guard stabbing. McClain had been chosen to pay for the guard. On August 7th, in the Marin Courthouse, Brother McClain and successfully been able to get some of his witnesses into the courtroom, after a struggle with the court. Brothers William Christmas and Ruchell Magee were two of them.

When the Man-Child walked into the courtroom that day and dazzled everyone with justice, Magee, McClain, Christmas, McClain's prosecutor Gary Thomas, the judge, Harold Haley (whose niece is married to Thomas) and several jurors left with him. In minutes the van they got into was lit up with the gunfire of San Quentin guards and other assorted pigs. Jonathan Jackson was murdered, then and there, by the State of California; as were William Christmas and James McClain; as was Judge Harold Haley. Ruchell was critically wounded. Gary Thomas became an invalid.

In the recent trial of Angela Davis, who was acquitted of charges of having purchased guns used in the August 7th Movement, the State admitted its guilt in the testimony of a 34 - year veteran San Quentin guard, Sergeant Joseph Murphy, who was one of those who fired into the van:

QUESTION: How long have you worked at San Quentin?

MURPHY: Over thirty-four years, sir.

QUESTION: And during that period, has there been a policy about the taking of hostages during an escape attempt?

MURPHY: Yes sir, we are under orders to prevent escapes at all costs.

QUESTION: Even if it means killing the hostages if that is considered necessary to stop the escape?

MURPHY: Yes sir.

QUESTION: Now let me see if I understand this fully. Are you saying that if a man took twenty women and children hostages, and in your judgement it would be necessary to kill all twenty women and children to prevent that escape, that you would do so?

MURPHY: Yes sir, I would be under orders to.

QUESTION: And you would carry out those orders?

MURPHY: Yes sir, I would.

QUESTION: Is what you are saying, sir, that human life is not as important as the security of the prison?

MURPHY: Yes sir.

On August 4, 1972, Gary Thomas, Marin County prosecutor, who claims it was he who "herocially' murdered Jonathan, McClain and Christmas and wounded Ruchell, was appointed, personally, by Ronald Reagan (California's Governor) as a judge in the San Francisco Municipal Court. On August 21, 1971, Mrs. Georgia Jackson was informed, again, by the State of California that San Quentin guards had also killed, assassinated her only other son, George (Field Marshal of the Black Panther Party). Ruchell Magee still faces life imprisonment for the false charge of murder of Harold Haley.

Jonathan Jackson had walked into a courtroom and initiated a new thrust to the present revolution: The August 7th Movement.

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COURT NOW INTENDS TO GAG RUCHELL'S BRAIN

COMRADE RUCHELL MAGEE TO BE FORCED
TO SUBMIT TO PSYCHIATRIC "EXAMINATION"

On August 3rd, Comrade Ruchell Magee, the only survivor of the heroic August 7th Movement, appeared again in the San Francisco Superior Court of racist judge Morton Colvin. Colvin has seemingly been on a campaign to discredit Comrade Ruchell as a human being, much less a man capable of defending himself in court. Ignoring an earlier (March 20th) court decision to allow Ruchell the right to exercise his constitutional right to be his own attorney, Colvin threw Ruchell out of the courtroom and declared him incompetent to defend himself: "He does not understand the routine elements of the case…". In addition, Colvin tried to support his barbaric action by declaring he wanted the Comrade examined by psychiatrists. Backing Colvin up had been a previous State Supreme Court ruling that trial judges may make a personal decision as to whether a person is capable of defending himself in court. Colvin used all this to carry out his obvious vendetta against Ruchell Magee: how to confront a Black man on Colvin's own terms and possibly be exposed.

Comrade Ruchell recently filed impeachment proceedings against Colvin. In the face of the above, the Black Panther Party urges everyone to support this move to get rid of at least one racist judge, in one city. The following is Ruchell's motion, clearly exposing why this particular fascist must be moved off of the bench:

That Morton Colvin, Judge, is hereby noticed this 12th day of July, 1972, that impeachment proceedings are being filed against him individually for joining the Racist Slave Conspiracy of Assistant Attorney General Albert Harris; Eric Collins; Stanley Moss, Justice of California Supreme Court; Herbert V. Walker, ex-judge of Los Angeles county superior court; E. Warren McGuire, judge of Marin county superior court, California and other known and unknown white racists, the object of which is to murder Ruchell Magee by suppressing evidence in favor of Ruchell Magee and using lawyer Robert Carrow in said conspiracy which commenced on or about March 23, 1963, in Los Angeles county, California.

The acts and dates prove conspiracy between Morton Colvin and others, particularly Judge Herbert V. Walker, using white racist lawyers to suppress evidence and thwart Ruchell Magee's defense in this case of slavery; forcing white racist lawyer's false representation upon Ruchell Magee under the false pretense of forced justice under the law.

That Judge Morton Colvin (sick and foolish liar) has wilfully committed a felony by introducing known illegal documents in court records and denying same in Ruchell Magee's name and over his objections.

Said documents were illegally submitted by one white racist lawyer Ernest Graves in the year of 1971 (but not filed until Colvin, acting in clear absence of jurisdiction, on his own, filed the documents on June 8, 1972, by altering and changing the heading from Marin County Superior Court to San Francisco Superior Court) in the case.

Said documents are absolutely contrary to the defense of Ruchell Magee, and are designed to falsely show the killing of Harold Haley with a gun with which he was never shot.

That Colvin is fully aware of the state agents' murder of Haley in the August 7, 1970, slave rebellion for which reason Colvin illegally extended McGuire's gag rule, denying Ruchell access to the press and the press access to Ruchell Magee.

That Colvin acted as judge and lawyer of his own case in wrongfully changing the heading on the documents, then filing them and denying same in Ruchell Magee's name for the records to prejudice Ruchell Magee's right to a fair trial.

To avoid this and other facts being publicly exposed in an affidavit for Colvin's disqualification, on June 29, 1972, Colvin conspired through Robert Carrow to file other (watered down) issues to show Colvin as being Haley's friend, using this as a decoy; whereas Colvin is a white racist conspirator in the case of a state wide conspiracy that stems from Judge Walker, in which each of them are suppressing and using falsified transcripts.

It is Walker who conspired, in

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May 1963, to have his lawyer J. Stanley Brill personally plead guilty to a jury, at which time Walker used a white racist district attorney to demand that said jury convict Magee on Brill's guilty plea, all over Ruchell's objections and given testimony relating to his innocence in a case (People vs. Magee and Stewart, nos. 272227 - 272228) which shows that Colvin's said acts are similar.

In May, 1965, Walker held a second trial (following the attorney general Moss - now Justice -- and their attorney having filed illegal documents in Ruchell's name through the use of known false transcripts and having an odd reversal issued December, 1964) and caused Ruchell to be illegally convicted on one lawyer Clay H. Jacke's false plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Today, at this moment, Colvin, in an effort to renew and repeat these barbarian acts, has conspired through Albert Harris to file documents calling for an illegal sanity hearing, in which Colvin and Harris are conspiring to bring in and use their court assigned lawyer, all contrary to Ruchell Magee's defense.

That Colvin is a white racist and an incompetent judge conspiring to commit murder, and bring about and maintain a false charge against Ruchell Magee, in violation of section 182, 2. California Penal Code.

That Colvin, Harris and Carrow are conspiring to keep Ruchell Magee held incommunicado and denied the right to see witnesses in this case.

That Colvin and Harris are using the attorney Carrow's filed documents in the present disqualification proceedings as a news media decoy.

That Colvin is accused and is guilty of acting as an accomplice to Judge Herbert V. Walker; Albert Harris; Eric Collins; Stanley Moss; E. Warren McGuire and other known and unknoun white racist cowards, in committing crimes and unlawful acts in violation of 1111 of the California Penal Code and perjuring their oath of office.

That Walker held closed door court, in May 1963, to hide their klan acts, and Colvin hides behind a gagged order to defraud and deceive the public in knowing the truth about Judge Haley, Garry Thomas, and prison officials' klan acts against James McClain's trial.

That Judge Colvin is a coward lying criminal who hides behind a black rag committing crimes in the name of the people, and Colvin becomes impeachable.

I declare under penalty of perjury the foregoing to be true and correct.

Signed: Ruchell Magee

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PRISONER MANIFESTO: NO MORE TRIALS!

INMATES OF BROOKLYN HOUSE OF DETENTION BOYCOTT
RACIST NEW YORK JUDICIAL SYSTEM

Much has been said, in progressive quarters, about the fascist nature of the United States prison system. It certainly is no secret that the majority of individuals that comprise the bulk of America's prison population "just happen" to be the most oppressed and repressed segment of the United States people - the Black and poor, the victims of American "democracy".

The negative conditions under which we are forced to live outside of the jails are virtually the same type of conditions to which we are subjected when we are imprisoned by the mad racist dogs of the United States ruling class.

The prisons of America are meant to contain the oppressed, to serve as a vehicle to destroy the will to oppose the attempts of the power structure to bow people's heads in submission to it. However, ways and means are constantly being put into practice by America's concentration camp victims to resist the fascist efforts of those who would keep us all slaves.

On Monday, July 24, 1972, over 75% of the mostly Black prison population of the Brooklyn (New York) House of Detention for Men banded together in a boycott of all court proceedings in Kings County (Brooklyn) in protest of the wretched prison conditions under which they are forced to exist. In other words, most House of Detention inmates will not go to court just to face trials on trumped-up "criminal" charges. The conditions which prompted the inmates to take such action are familiar to all of us: The lack of adequate medical care; the exploitation of labor; torture; brutality and murder.

In effect, the Brothers at the Brooklyn House of Detention served notice on the prison authorities that as long as the pigs choose to condone and perpetuate the miserable conditions at the prison, they, the inmates, will have no choice but to refuse to pretend along with the State that going to court will bring them justice.

The Brothers have vowed to continue the boycott until the necessary steps are taken by the Brooklyn House of Detention authorities that will end the oppressive conditions there. The victims in at least two other prisons in New York, Queens House of Detention and Bronx House of Detention, have voiced their approval of the Brooklyn boycott, and are expected to take similar actions.

In order to document their just grievances against the prison, the

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inmates of the Brooklyn House of Detention drew up a civil action against six racist Kings County Supreme Court judges. These six judges are the ones who would convict, or condone the conviction of the inmates of the prison, while passively allowing the Brothers to suffer while awaiting railroading. The Brothers demanded in their suit that these judicial pigs be issued a temporary restraining order, preventing them from judging criminal cases in the New York Supreme Court. In addition to the civil action, the Brothers at Brooklyn House of Detention also issued a Manifesto, fully outlining the just reasons for their collective boycott of the Kings County judicial system, in which manifesto they stated: "We, the detained men of the Brooklyn House of Detention, feel that we are being tried unjustly in that, we are not receiving due process of law. We feel that the courts disregard and disrespect our civil and human rights. The supreme Court, County of Kings, is at fault. Our action is directed, directly to them. Our many attempts, to get some responses pertaining to our rights have all been in vain. The Legal Aid Society of the Supreme Court, has irresponsible personnel. They are neither sincere nor honest, in relating to our cases and the protection of our rights. We are not the 'recipients" of justice but rather the "Victims" of justice. This judicial "System" was devised as a good governing format. All it has done is produced victims and slaves under the guise of justice."

The Manifesto also listed 15 demands, among which were included the right of prisoners to have honest and sincere legal representation, the abolishment of excessive bail, the right to a jury of peers, and the right to express their opinions in court to the fullest, without being told to "shut up or keep quiet", or be gagged:

"We demand that our past records stop being constantly brought out in the courtrooms. What the people or the courts have failed to realize or recognize is the fact that every man with a previous record has paid for those offenses, why then must we keep paying for them. Also, we demand that all law enforcement agencies have clear knowledge and understanding given to them about the legal guidelines that they must follow, about tinted identifications the complainants, the witnesses, the evidence.

"We demand an end to this racist, political judicial repression, that affects us economically and socially, by the Supreme court, of Kings County. We have no other recourse but to combat this racial, political, economical, and social judicial repression but through this manifesto to have our basic human and legal rights redressed. Since the judicial system is the interpreter and representative of the Constitution of the United States of America, and we as citizens of the United States of America are supposed to be the recipients of the United States Constitutional Rights, that which is being denied to us in its entirety."

The Manifesto ended with: "Until this Manifesto is acknowledged, we, the caged men on these premises, will not adhere, under any circumstances, to any court calls."

This courageous stand of the inmates, of course, met with brutal prison repression. Many Brothers participating in the boycott have been transferred to other jails; prison guards have threatened others with being physically forced to go to trial; and, other boycotting prisoners have been tried in absentia, receiving prison sentences without ever having appeared in court. The Brooklyn House of Detention authorities have "clamped down" on the right of prisoners' lawyers, friends, and families to visit them.

At present, the boycott of the inmates is still in effect, and they are determined to continue it until their demands are respected. They must have the support of a unified Black community to insure a victory.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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EVERYWHERE IT'S RAINING BAGS OF GROCERIES

BLACK PANTHER PARTY SURVIVAL PROGRAMS BUILDING ALL OVER THE COUNTRY

There are a few people running around who would like to believe that the Black Panther Party is "dead". Some of the "critics" call the Party's programs "reformist" and state that the Black Panther Party has ceased to be effective in the community.

The Survival Programs of the Black Panther Party were never meant to be revolutionary, nor are they reformist. They exist and are implemented as a means to an end, something to tide us over until complete liberation. If these programs were the final goal, they could be called reformist; if they will bring us all closer and raise that united consciousness to struggle to the point of liberation they will be revolutionary.

Whatever "critics" may state, literally thousands upon thousands of Black and poor people in this country are participating in the programs and have begun to understand that food, clothing, shelter, life's basic necessities, are the right of a human being; and if that right cannot be exercised by a person, then he has the duty to get what he wants and needs by any means necessary. In every section of the country, through the Black Panther Party's mass survival programs, people are beginning to understand what Huey P. Newton meant when he said: "What the revolutionary movement and the Black community needs is a very strong structure. This structure can only exist with the support of the people and it can only get its support through serving them. This is why we have the service to the people program - the most important thing in the Party. We will serve their needs, so that they can survive through this oppression. Then when they are ready

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to pick up the gun, serious business will happen."

COMMUNITY DAY FOR
JUSTICE AND SURVIVAL IN
TOLEDO, OHIO

On July 2, 1972, 6,000 people, mostly Black, attended Community Day for Justice to show support for Comrade John McClellan. Comrade John, a member of the Black Panther Party, has been incarcerated for the past 22 months, falsely accused of the murder of a Toledo pig, in 1970. Over 1,000 free full bags of groceries (with a chicken in every bag), from the John McClellan Free Food Program, were distributed to the people. Over 1,000 Sickle Cell Anemia tests were given and massive numbers of people registered to vote. Since many people didn't actually believe all that food would be given away free, when 1,000 bags of food and the chickens arrived, everyone felt as one beautiful, Black sister did: "Lord knows, those Panthers are really going to do it."

PHILADELPHIANS GATHER
FOR SURVIVAL

The Pennsylvania Chapter of the

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Black Panther Party sponsored a FREE FOOD FOR SURVIVAL RALLY on July 22, 1972. In a short time, the more than 600 people gathered at the Intercommunal Survival Center received 200 free, full bags of groceries and 300 brand new pairs of shoes.

HOUSTON'S SURVIVAL RALLY
COMMEMORATES CARL HAMPTON

The July 26, 1972, Black Panther Party Survival Rally in Houston, Texas was held in commemoration of Comrade Carl Hampton. Carl Hampton, who was, at the time of his assassination by Houston Police, the Chairman of Peoples Party II (which became the Houston Branch of the Black Panther Party), was brutally murdered by Houston Police on the night of July 26, 1970. Four thousand people came to commemorate Carl Hampton and receive 2,000 free, full bags of groceries and 4,000 Sickle Cell Anemia tests. Along with Comrade Brother James Aaron, of the Houston Branch of the Black Panther Party, Brother Lee Otis Johnson, addressed the people there. (Lee Otis Johnson is a former S.N. C.C. official who was railroaded to prison in 1968 and is currently out on appeal bond.) In addition to all of this, thousands of people were registered to vote.

A STEP TOWARD UNITY IN
NORTH CAROLINA

July 30th, 1972, was Survival Day in the Black community of Winston Salem, North Carolina. Over 4,000 people gathered there to express a desire for a total transformation in the American empire, receiving 1,200 bags of groceries (with a chicken in every bag) from the Joseph Waddell Free Food Program, Comrade Joseph Waddell, a member of the North Carolina Chapter of the Black Panther Party, was murdered on June 13, 1972, by fascist authorities in Central Prison in Raleigh. Hundreds of pairs of tennis shoes were given away to the youth, and hundreds were tested for Sickle Cell Anemia.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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A PROGRAM FOR SURVIVAL

THE INTERCOMMUNAL YOUTH INSTITUTE

Provides Black and other oppressed children with a scientific method of thinking and analyzing things, basic skills for living in the society and a concrete alternative to established learning institutions.

FREE BREAKFAST PROGRAM

Provides children a free, hot breakfast every school morning.

FREE BUSSING TO PRISONS PROGRAM

Provides free transportation to prisons for families and friends of incarcerated men and women.

FREE COMMISSARY FOR PRISONERS PROGRAM

Provides imprisoned men and women with the funds to purchase necessary commissary items inside the prison.

LEGAL AID EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

Provides full legal assistance to those involved in legal problems, as well as legal aid classes.

PEOPLE'S FREE CLOTHING PROGRAM

Provides new, stylish and quality clothing free to the people.

THE DAVID HILLIARD PEOPLE'S
FREE SHOE PROGRAM

Provides free shoes to the people made at the David Hilliard Free Shoe factory and elsewhere.

THE ANGELA DAVIS PEOPLE'S
FREE FOOD PROGRAM

Provides free food to Black and other oppressed people.

THE PEOPLE'S FREE MEDICAL
RESEARCH HEALTH CLINICS

Provides free medical treatment and preventative medical care for the people.

LIBERATION SCHOOLS

Provides free educational facilities and materials to Black and other oppressed children to promote a correct view of their role in the society.

INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS SERVICE

Provides news and information about the Black and other oppressed communities throughout the U.S. and the world.

THE SICKLE CELL ANEMIA
RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Instituted to test and establish a cure for Sickle Cell Anemia, to create better educational programs around Sickle Cell Anemia and maintain an advisory committee of doctors already researching Sickle Cell Anemia.

PEOPLE'S FREE AMBULANCE SERVICE

(Being Implemented)

Provides free, 24-hour speedy transportation to people in need of emergency medical care.

FREE PLUMBING AND MAINTENANCE PROGRAM

(Being Implemented)

Provides free plumbing and repair services to improve people's housing conditions.

PEOPLE'S FREE DENTAL PROGRAM:

(Being Implemented)

Provides free dental check-ups and treatment for the people, as well as an educational program for dental hygiene and preventative dental care.

PEOPLE'S FREE OPTOMETRY PROGRAM:

(Being Implemented)

Provides free eye examinations, treatment and eye correctional equipment (glasses, etc.) for the people.

PEOPLE'S FREE COMMUNITY EMPLOYMENT
PROGRAM:

(Being Implemented)

Provides free job-finding services to poor and oppressed people, who cannot find work.

COMMUNITY COOPERATIVE HOUSING
PROGRAM

(Being Implemented)

Provides decent housing, cooperatively owned and managed by the resident families.

PEOPLE'S FREE FURNITURE PROGRAM:

(Being Implemented)

Provides free, decent furniture to improve our living standards.

PEOPLE'S FREE LINEN PROGRAM:

(Being Implemented)

Provides new sheets, towels, blankets, etc. free to the people, to make daily living more healthy and comfortable.

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AN IMPORTANT AND COMPELLING CRITIQUE OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY BY ITS CHIEF THEORETICIAN

With an honesty as rare as it is persuasive, Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party, records the internal struggles, rivalries, and contradictions within the Party-certain that only by recognizing these contradictions and building from them can the Party "clarify and advance the struggle"

TO DIE FOR THE PEOPLE
The Writings of
Huey P. Newton

Clothbound $7.95; Vintage paperbound $1.95. Now at your bookstore RANDOM HOUSE

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INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS: WHY THE VIETNAMESE ARE WINNING

PART II

VIETNAMESE GUERRILLAS CUT SAIGON PUPPET STRINGS

Although Richard Nixon would like to present the illusion that the U.S. aggressive war in Vietnam is coming to a close because American and allied strength are defeating the "communists", nothing is further from reality. If the war is coming to an end, it is because the recent Vietnamese Spring Offensive is setting plenty of fire to American troops and running them out with full speed. With computerized bombs, lasar beams, and super-electronic equipment, Nixon still cannot defeat either the fighting spirit or the fighting ability of the Vietnamese people.

Black people in the United States can look with hope to this situation. There are only, approximately, 40 million Vietnamese people; there are nearly that many Blacks in this country. The Vietnamese people, like Black people here, are a poor people; have little access to modern defensive equipment; and are faced with a giant, over-equipped war organization bent on either enslaving the people or committing complete genocide of the entire people. We, too, are faced with a similar predicament, while able to watch the mighty United States unable to achieve its military victory or its "Vietnamization" program inside a small and poor community.

The following is Part II in a series, outlining the concrete ways in which our Vietnamese Brothers and Sisters are warding off genocide, while struggling for self-determination of their homeland. This very complete report was gathered by Tom Hayden, anti-war activist, writer and one-time co-defendant of Chairman Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party during the "Chicago Trials". We would like to thank both Tom Hayden and Ramparts Magazine (from which the article was extracted) for allowing us permission to print this valuable information.

What does the destruction of Vietnamization mean concretely? It means, in military terms, that the entire strategic reserve of the Saigon army has been committed to a battlefront in which its forces have been over-extended, nailed down, and have begun to suffer devastating losses. Of the thirteen divisions of the Saigon army, two were completely wiped out in the first two months of the offensive - the 3rd division, which retreated from Quang Tri, and the 22nd division, which collapsed in the Central Highlands. Of the remaining eleven divisions, all had lost between several battalions and several brigades in the same two month period. They were pinned down at three fixed points: below the DMZ in the Quang Tri-Hue area, in the center of South Vietnam in the Kontum area, and in the third military region northwest of Saigon around the provincial capital of An Loc. These were battlefronts chosen at the initiative of the liberation forces in which the conventional ARVN troops were held under devastating siege. The result was not only crippling casualties for these divisions but to tie up ARVN forces at three points, thereby permitting an enormous front of smaller scale uprisings to sweep through the more populated areas of the country, notably the coastal plains from Hue south to Binh Dinh province (the second most populated province in Vietnam) and through the Mekong Delta where more than one-third of the people of South Vietnam reside. In two months the Thieu Administration had irreversibly lost huge areas of South Vietnam in which millions of people live. The liberation army was taking territory with no apparent intention of allowing it to be reoccupied by Saigon. As a guerrilla army, the NLF has never emphasized fixed territory, ("the real boundaries of the liberated zone are kept inside each Vietnamese"), but it seems apparent that the weakened ARVN would find it largely impossible to reoccupy

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and control the enlarged and strengthened areas of the PRG.

In the Mekong Delta (Military Zone 4 on American military maps) 7 million South Vietnamese peasants live. For years they have supported first the Viet Minh and then the National Liberation Front, and they control among other things much of the rice supply to the rest of South Vietnam. In the eyes of the New York Times of April 22, a "very dark situation" was emerging in the Mekong Delta as early as the third week of the offensive, a development which the Times admitted had been "overshadowed" by the sensational publicity given to other battles. This very dark situation consisted of more than 500 guerrilla attacks in two weeks, some of them involving NLF battalions of 200 to 300 men, with fighting taking place within 40 miles of Saigon (closer than An Loc). Choung Thien Province, called by the Times "the hub of the lower Delta", was virtually in NLF hands. One month later, on May 28, the Times acknowledged that 77 government outposts had been taken over in Choung Thien alone and the pacification program was destroyed. One American advisor described the province as a "cavity", and another said, "We're just gradually disappearing from sight down here."

What had made this popular uprising against the government outposts and pacification programs possible was the offensive as a whole. On April 6, the offensive had opened up north of the Delta in Binh Long Province (Military Zone 3), sweeping everything away in the northern half of the province, finally engaging the ARVN at the provincial capital of An Loc. The 11,000 men of the ARVN 21st division were then pulled out of the Delta and rushed north as part of a relief force for An Loc. As soon as the main ARVN conventional troops who had been occupying the Delta were pinned down in that battle, the local guerrilla units throughout the Mekong Delta were able to unleash their wave of attacks against government outposts throughout the region.

Meanwhile the 21st division, which had been rushed from the Delta promptly, was bogged down and placed under siege on Highway 13. On April 23 the Times reported that they had virtually "abandoned their effort," given up and "moved into the rubber plantations and forests nearby."

An Loc soon became a battle of internationally symbolic misunderstood importance. Like cities throughout Indochina before it, An Loc was completely destroyed under the rain of American bombs which continued for weeks, including one day when 1700 tons of bombs were dropped by B-52's in an effort to "save" it. The American press seemed to want to compare North Vietnam's "shelling" of An Loc as equally destructive as the B-52 raids, although the evidence is that the shelling was directed at ARVN military enclaves inside the city and at the outskirts, while the U.S. bombs were not only heavier but indiscriminate. The thousands of ARVN troops inside the city itself were trapped in a bloody defensive position while thousands of other ARVN troops were equally trapped in the defense of useless positions on Highway 13. The wave of guerrilla attacks, bypassing these fixed positions, approached even the outer defense perimeter of Saigon itself with rocket attacks by early May.

The battle of An Loc, perhaps more than any other in the offensive, focuses on the problem of dealing with people's war from the position of the oppresor, from the standpoint of an army without significant popular roots. The contradiction is described by the guerrillas as that between "concentrating" and dispersing one's forces. The ARVN, like the U.S. army before them relies mainly on artillery and air power, not on political popularity. This "strength" can only be used through the concentration of material power directed against trapped guerrillas. But without popular support these blows force an occupying army to become stretched out like the fingers of a hand, stabbing down violently everywhere. Concentrated force turns into overextended force.

END OF PART II

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Let this be his epitaph

George
Jackson

Blood in my eye.

This angry, passionate, eloquent book -- which takes up where Soledad Brother left off -- was completed only days before George Jackson was shot to death at San Quentin prison during an alleged escape attempt last August.

George Jackson spent the last eleven years of his life behind prison walls, seven of them in solitary confinement. During that time he developed a radical world view, a deep understanding of politics and history in relation to social change, as well as a remarkable voice as a writer. Blood in My Eye speaks out to the poor, the black, the jailed, the disenfranchised throughout the world. Born of a spirit that refused to be crushed, yet filled with a prophetic sense of his own impending doom, this powerful book from prison presents George Jackson's burning vision of the world that could be -- a world reshaped by "total revolutionary war."

George Jackson lived and died for the revolution. Blood in My Eye explains why.

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PEOPLE'S PETITION

FOR IMMEDIATE PAROLE OF BROTHER DAVID
HILLIARD FROM THE CALIFORNIA PRISON
SYSTEM OR AN APPEAL BAIL BOND WITH
A RETRIAL JURY OF HIS PEER-GROUP.

WE THE PEOPLE, RESIDENTS OF THE WORLD COMMUNITY, IN THE SPIRIT OF REVOLUTIONARY INTERCOMMUNALISM, DO HEREBY REDRESS OUR GRIEVANCE AND PETITION THE COURTS OF AMERICA AND THE CALIFORNIA STATE GOVERNMENT AND PAROLE BOARD: THAT DAVID HILLIARD BE RELEASED FROM HIS PRISON INCARCERATION IN THE CALIFORNIA PENAL SYSTEM TO THE PEOPLE OF OUR COMMUNITIES ON PAROLE OR AN APPEAL BAIL BOND.

BROTHER DAVID HILLIARD, POLITICAL PRISONER AND CHIEF OF STAFF OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY, WAS IN FACT WRONGFULLY CONVICTED ON FALSE CHARGES BY A PREDOMINATELY WHITE RACIST JURY, AS ALL MEMBERS OF THE OAKLAND BLACK COMMUNITY WERE SYSTEMATICALLY ELIMINATED FROM THE JURY SELECTION PROCESS IN HIS TRIAL.

IN LIGHT OF THESE FACTS, WE THE UNDERSIGNED, THEREFORE PETITION THAT DAVID HILLIARD BE GRANTED HIS HUMAN AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, THAT IS, PAROLE FROM PRISON OR AN APPEAL BAIL BOND BY THE AMERICAN COURTS PENDING APPEAL OF HIS CASE BEFORE HIGHER COURTS, AND THAT HIS RETRIAL JURY BE OF HIS PEERS, A TRUE REPRESENTATION OF A CROSS SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY. NAME
ADDRESS
CITY/STATE/ZIP CODE
COUNTRY
IF IN THE
U.S.A.
REG. VOTER?

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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 inprisoned 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.

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