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Season's Greetings from the Black Panther Party

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FOR OUR PEOPLE

Every year at this time the spirit of love and harmony is supposed to envelop the hearts and minds of people everywhere. Though we can not be completely happy because of the conditions we face in this country, we can cling to the ideas that we have developed; we can have faith that the progress we have made as a people can never stop. We can only go forward -- toward peace on earth for all humankind.

Our efforts in the recent past have produced many beneficial changes. We are no longer resigned to be slaves in submission to a cruel oppression. In the process of breaking away from slavery we are becoming free.

This year, when the gifts are given and received, we can be thankful that we have regained our dignity, one of the greatest gifts humankind could possess. No amount of material wealth could be compared to it.

Every year after this one, when we become confused or saddened because we cannot give material things to our loved ones, we must remember that we did not ask to be poor. The same country which speaks to us of equality and brotherhood during the holiday season denies us the right to live as human beings every day of the year. Let our gifts to each other be the knowledge that we gain from the American experience, the unity that we are developing among ourselves and the faith we know will carry us on the long road to freedom and the power to determine our own destinies.

With Love,
The Black Panther Party

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THE FIRST STEP TOWARD THE NEW CITY: BOBBY SEALE AND ELAINE BROWN ADDRESS CAMPAIGN ORGANIZING MEETING

On December 10, 1972, a community meeting was held at Laney College, in Oakland, California. This meeting was attended by over 500 community people, who came to hear Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown map out the campaign strategy for the upcoming April 17, 1973, Oakland Municipal elections. (Bobby Seale is running for Mayor of Oakland, Elaine Brown for Oakland City Councilwoman.) A high point of the meeting was the appearance and introduction of David DuBois, son of the late and beloved Black lender and writer, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois.

The people who attended the meeting enjoyed a free soul food dinner and jazz music. Bobby and Elaine explained to the people exactly what had to be done in order to create a base of operation in Oakland, with the people using them (Bobby and Elaine) as a vehicle for progressive change in the future city elections. The following are excerpts of the speeches given at the gathering, which was the first step toward the new city of Oakland. We begin with Ericka Huggins introducing Elaine Brown:

"Elaine Brown is a woman who has been struggling for human rights all of her life. She is a strong example of the new Black woman, unafraid of the obstacles she might face from the backward elements of this society. Her politics are not guided by the traditional ideas of others; she is directed by the necessity for change and the desires of the people.

"Her life has been like all of our lives, full of the same suffering and oppression that all of our people face. Therefore, she can best represent us. Without anything further, I would like to introduce our next city councilwoman, Elaine Brown":

"I think that the people here are familiar with the concept of the words `power to the people' and what we mean when we talk about the liberation of our people. We have a general idea about it, but we have to establish concrete ways to implement that power.

So I'll talk about some of the key things we'll be struggling to implement in the city of Oakland: better education for our children; housing in Oakland and how we can change that. To change these things will require our unified work. I think that is the importance of this meeting today. By being here today you've made a decision; you've made one step toward gaining control of your lives and the institutions that affect your lives. We're starting here in the city of Oakland to do that, Oakland can give hope to this country and, in fact, the people of the world. We have a very important task.

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"The housing here in the city of Oakland, as everyone is aware, is inadequate. If the housing isn't inadequate in appearance, it is inadequate in fact. We can't buy a house, rent an apartment, or even live in public housing unless we go through the people from the big real estate companies, like Grubb and Ellis.

"Where will the money come from to build decent housing in the city of Oakland? We have been studying the Oakland city budget and income. Twice the income that is in the budget of the city comes into the Port of Oakland. Large sums of money come into this city from other countries of the world and from resources gained through the Port of Oakland. This money is not being put to proper use. We can, together, use the money that is right here in the city of Oakland to implement a decent housing program. Imagine having a house with decent heating and plumbing. These things are not luxuries; these are the things that we need and deserve as human beings.

"Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown will not be able to implement these programs alone. We will not be able to win alone. We want to go to the 354,000 people in the city of Oakland and unify the vote, get people to vote in April, and implement decent housing in this city.

"We have to change health care in this city. If you are on welfare, you have to beg, borrow, or steal to stay in good health. Imagine being able to go to a doctor's office or to a clinic; being able to get the kind of health service we need without having to tell how many children we have, how many people we have living in our homes or how much money we make. All of us can receive decent health care. We want to organize doctors and professional health technicians so that we can send people into the community -- if we can't get to a doctor, the doctor will come to us. We want to implement preventative medical health care.

"Our children are learning less than they should in Oakland schools. Many Black students graduate from 'he 12th grade and can barely read or write. We want to take our destinies into our control, yet many of us can't read or write. We know that this is a requirement for doing anything in this super-technological society. We want to create a completely different kind of educational system in this city. One that is capable of developing our children to exist in a highly developed society.

"There is tremendous unemployment in our communities. We have to open up avenues of employment for ourselves. We want to see the chronic unemployed hired. The unemployed can be trained for these jobs; let the unemployed build the houses in our communities. We aren't going to be negligent in our communities. We're going to build houses for ourselves that are comfortable and practical, not pre-fabricated and thrown together only to collapse tomorrow (like the Acorn projects in West Oakland). We have all kinds of problems in our communities, but one of the fundamental problems is that we are not employed. We have no guaranteed income, therefore we cannot actually obtain the basic necessities of life.

We can implement these things. I think that the main point to stress today is that we can do it. It is not a dream. The key to this is that we must all work toward these goals together. If we don't, we will remain as we are. We will continue to let those people in power remain in control of us.

"There is hope in Oakland. I don't know about anywhere else in the world, but there certainly is some hope in Oakland. I think that all of you realize that because you came here today. That hope is connected directly to the work we will do together. We want to take a new view of our lives and our futures. We have begun to do that today."

Bobby Seale then spoke to the people about the particulars of winning in Oakland, about transforming a corrupt city government into a progressive one:

"I'm going to talk to you today about exactly how we can win in Oakland; exactly how the people in the community, can pull together a people's machine; something that has never been done before in the history of this country, in any Black and poor community.

"It is the system that oppresses

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us…that keeps people hungry, that keeps us stifled. The only thing to do when we realize the essence of the system is to start organizing the people to take back the people's seats, the people's offices, and kick out the corrupt politicians. You don't change the system by running away from it. You change it through action, this is what our job is all about. The institutions in our communities that affect our very lives need to be changed. I'm saying that in the city of Oakland, we have to bring the masses of the people into contest with the system. We've got a plan here. When we organize a political machine in our community, it's not going to end after the city elections -- we're going to continue it. If it becomes necessary to put some initiatives on the ballot, to change city ordinances, then that's what we'll do.

We are going to escalate the number of registered voters in the community. We did some research and found that the Black community's population is over 50% in Oakland. The city structure doesn't want the Black community to know this…I'm saying that there is great potential here for organizing and unifying people.

"We are going to have eight campaign offices in the city. Never before in the history of the city, in any election, have there been that many campaign offices to operate from. There are about 450 precincts in the city of Oakland, and we're talking about organizing in at least 400 of them. Precincts are boundaried areas of the city where the polling place is located, where people can go to vote. At lest 250 precincts in the city are primarily Black and Mexican in population. We'll have ten precinct workers per precinct. That will be 2,500 precinct workers to do campaign work on a block basis. We want you to work with the registered voters who live in your precinct. Each precinct has an average of 10 to 12 square blocks. We want to put precinct workers in their neighborhoods with leaflets, literature and other materials. We're going to build face to face relationships with people. There are about 35 to 55,000 people in the Black community who are still not registered to vote. It will take work, but if we've got enough people, it can be done efficiently.

"Mayor Reading is going to try to base his campaign on the assumption that we are "radicals" and "militants". If being radical means feeding people; if being radical means seeing to it that people have decent housing; if being radical means seeing to it that we have decent education; if being radical means seeing to it that senior citizens are not mugged; if being radical means implementing free medical health care and attention to keep people out of the hospital; if being radical means being all of this, then I am radical and I want to continue to be radical."

Bobby Seale went on to introduce Brother David DuBois:

"Dr W.E.B. DuBois was one of the greatest inspirations for me in grasping insight into the history of Black America and the history of oppressed people in the world. I want to introduce you to the son of W.E.B. DuBois, David DuBois:

"Just a few words -- I consider it an honor and a privilege to be here before you on a platform with Bobby Seale.

"As some of you know, I've been out of the country for some 13 years, in Africa. I'm back now, looking for a way that I can do my part in carrying forward the traditions of my father. I need your help. Therefore I have come to the Black Panther Party. Huey, Bobby and Elaine have all done a beautiful job of opening up their hearts and their wisdom to me and for all of you. I want to tell Bobby and Elaine that I'm prepared to do whatever I can, to guarantee the objectives of the Party, and the objectives of Black and Third World liberation…"

The campaign of Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown is swinging into full gear. Many endorsements have already come from prominent community organizations and individuals. Many people made it quite clear at the December 10th meeting that Bobby and Elaine were their choice for public office. In the weeks to come the people's political machine will be organizing at a much quicker pace. The days of Oakland's corrupt city government are definitely numbered. The people will win in 1973.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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45 YEAR YEARS IN PRISON: THE STORY OF WESLEY ROBERT WELLS

"… If I believed at the time of my trial that I would be in prison today, I'm afraid that I would have insisted on being dead long ago. I would have stopped my attorneys from fighting to save me if I had known I would have to serve 45 years. I was sure that I would be out in at least two years, at the most, after the stay of execution. If I had to go through it again, I'm afraid I would have insisted on them executing me."

These words are those of a 63 year-old Black man, a man who has been caged for 45 years by the state of California; a man whom the state has tried to murder in the gas chamber. They would have murdered him if it had not been for the mass people's support his case has received. The man speaking is (Wesley) Robert Wells now in San Quentin Prison. He was first imprisoned by the state of California when he was 19 years old. Robert Wells has been in the California prison system longer than any man and has had more basic rights denied him than in any case in California history. The physical mental and legal torture of this man symbolizes the most blatant acts of injustice ever directed against a Black man. While serving a life term for the "crime" of possessing a knife in prison, he was sentenced to death in the gas chamber in 1947 for throwing a spittoon at a guard. Because Robert Wells has always refused to submit to the harassment and attacks from racist guards (and inmates), it was decided by a white judge that he was "incorrigible" and would be a menace to society if he was allowed to live. However, Robert Wells did live. After remaining on death row for 7 years, after over 160,000 people all over the world petitioned the Governor demanding that Brother Wells not be executed, Governor Goodwin Knight commuted his sentence to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

The 45 years Robert Wells has spent in prison represent a gross waste of potentially productive life. He was originally convicted in 1928 of allegedly receiving stolen goods, two suits of clothing. Brother Wells described the prison situation, when he fist arrived there, in a letter appealing to Governor Knight for a stay of execution in 1954:

"I first entered prison a young man of high ideals and principles, during my formative years. This was the period which might be appropriately termed the "dark age" of prisons and prison administration. Men were sent to prison in those days solely for the purpose of punishment -- they got just that. Little, if anything, was done to help the prisoner or to "rehabilitate" him. The only rule the prison officials knew or practiced in the handling of the prisoner was the rule of the club, the "lime cure", the "water treatment", and the "hole"…

"During the many years I've spent in prison, I've been conditioned to be tough, to be hard, and at times, even to be mean. I've been forced to fight for my very existence, to employ every means at my disposal for survival. I speak the plain, untarnished truth. I've been cynically pitted against ignorant, prejudiced and brutal guards who resented and were antagonized by my independent spirit, my sense of dignity, and justice. They tried to break my spirit; to "teach me my place". To accomplish this, I was often unjustly punished and often subjected to degrading, cruel, and inhuman treatment."

In 1944, while serving a 1 to 5 year sentence for driving a car without the owner's consent, Robert Wells was attacked by a white prisoner with a butcher knife. When he defended himself with a knife, he was charged and sentenced to serve from 5 years to life for the charge of possessing a knife. Yet, the white prisoner who was involved was not charged and was parolled soon after the incident. This is indicative of the constant persecution of Robert Wells by prison authorities. He was sentenced to die for hitting a guard with a spittoon,

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for reacting to years of abnormal, brutal and inhuman treatment at the hands of his keepers after they, on many occasions, had caused his blood to flow like water. No other prisoner has ever been sentenced to death for mere assault in a case of this sort.

When he was condemned to die in the gas chamber, thousands of people all across the country immediately supported him. Of the 160,000 people from all over the world petitioned for clemency in Brother Wells' behalf, five hundred of them were doctors and over 1,000 were lawyers.

A campaign to have him granted a special parole is currently being conducted. Last year, 11,050 San Quentin prisoners petitioned the Governor for his release. Brother Wells went before the parole board two weeks ago, but the Adult Authority has not made public the results of the hearing. If he is released it will not be due to the "sympathy" and justice of the parole board, it will be due to public support. Were it not for public support, Robert Wells would have died in San Quentin's gas chamber long ago. Thousands of Black men suffer these injustices and are constantly railroaded in America's courts. Their cases are covered up, kept hidden from the people by the prison walls and prison authorities. Many are persecuted for their political beliefs, many for defending themselves from attack, and countless others simply because they are Black. Robert Wells explained in his letter of appeal why he was singled out for condemnation:

"I sincerely believe that I was singled out because I've refused to passively submit to degrading and inhuman treatment. I've fought for that which I believe in, for the human rights and dignity due all men."

Wesley Robert Wells would like to live his remaining years outside of prison, out of the cage he has been locked in for over two-thirds of his life.

Excerpts from a recent television interview with Brother Wells express some of his present hopes:

QUESTION: What kind of things do you think about doing if you are released?

BROTHER WELLS: I would love to be able to raise a family, but I'm afraid it is too late for that. Therefore, because I love children, I would like to work with the youth, to perhaps be able to prevent them from coming to a place like San Quentin.

QUESTION: Do you have faith now that things are going to work out for you, after 45 years?

BROTHER WELLS:…I can't give up. I hope I won't have to keep fighting any further. I don't see any reason why I should. I can't see what they can expect from me, other than my life. If they wanted that they should have taken it."

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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A NEW TOWN IN TOWN: PEOPLE MOVE TO CONTROL THEIR LIVES IN EAST HARLEM

"New York, New York, the rotten apple",

"New York, New York, the rotten apple."

Over and over again these same lines are sung by thousands of children throughout the city of New York. While the words themselves are a take-off on a song which, at one time, enjoyed great popularity in the city ("New York, New York, the Big Apple"), they reflect oppressed people's awareness of life in the midst of corruption. Perhaps more than any other city in the U.S., New York is the most dehumanizing. It is a city of great contrasts, bursting at the seams with nearly 11,000,000 people.

There are those who stand to make tremendous profits by maintaining and furthering the conditions of alienation and oppression. Corrupt city officials and the even more degenerate N.Y.C. police have played upon this situation for years. More notorious, however, in New York and throughout the world are the slumlords.

One such New York City slumlord is Charles Sigety. Among the properties he owns is the Florence Nightingale Nursing Home, located on 96th Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues. The Florence Nightingale Nursing Home contains 406 beds, all full. Patients, abused senior citizens, pay between $13,000 and $17,000 a year. You would think that for that amount of money the Florence Nightingale Nursing Home would be a fabulous, expansive structure; this is not the case. The Home has had charges filed against it numerous times at the City Board of Health and other social service agencies.

Charles Sigety knew, however, that he had a good thing going. The old are weak, the poor are meek, and he was making a fortune. Over the years, with the profits he made from exploiting the elderly, Sigety bought all the homes between 96th and 98th Streets and between Park and Third Avenues. This area is the beginning of East Harlem, sometimes called Lower East Harlem. The people are poor, and though Black people are in the majority, there is a sizeable number of Puerto Rican and poor white people in the area.

In September 1971, about 1800 tenants, living in some 40 buildings owned by Sigety (a four-square block area), learned that they were to be relocated. Word spread that the reason their apartments were being neglected, that they weren't receiving necessary home services and repairs, was because the landlord had plans to expand the nursing home operation. The rumors were substantiated when it was learned that Sigety had received an $11 million loan from HUD (the federal government's Housing and Urban Development Agency) to build a new, 536 bed extension of the Florence Nightingale Nursing Home.

Slumlord Sigety, of course, did not just "happen" to receive this loan. He had good background experience and a lot of help from his friends. At one time Sigety had been an Assistant State Attorney General and a Deputy Commissioner of the FHA (Federal Housing Authority). At present, he holds the position of consultant to the city for institutional loans. His brother, Ernest Sigety, is a Nixon-appointed Deputy Commissioner in the HUD Office of Unsubsidized Insured Housing Projects. (The triangle is complete when we learn that the $11 million loan from HUD falls under the FHA).

Recovering from this shock, the people in the Lower East Harlem community decided that they weren't going to leave. They began to organize to force the repair of their homes. The people informed Sigety that they wanted "repair -ation" not relocation. By reviewing city ordinances, the community learned that it could not be evicted for the purposes of institutional expansion. When the community organized a "Save Our Homes" Committee the battle began.

Sigety used every dirty and inhumane trick imaginable to force the tenants out. Hopes for repairs vanished when children became victims of lead poisoning. Heat and hot water were cut off. (An elderly woman was found frozen to death in her apartment and a 13 year-old child died of pneumonia.) Vacant apartments and buildings were unlocked and became "shooting galleries" for drug victims. Tenants were warned to move

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because the boilers were about to "blow up". Small fires were set in buildings which were already fire hazards.

The tenants didn't move. They first tried every legal channel they could use. Six separate harassment cases were filed against Sigety; all were ignored by the courts. When the indignities continued, the people decided to escalate their struggle. They creatively devised a strategy to fit their conditions and needs.

In February, 1972, the community held a "slum sleep-in" to expose among themselves their common oppression. They held a "walking tour" of the buildings under attack, inviting both local politicians and other community leaders.

Slumlord Sigety's reaction to the growing consciousness among the people came in the form of even more insane and barbaric attacks. Rocks were thrown through windows. Water pipes were broken so that buildings became flooded. Sigety went so low as

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to send in thugs and hoodlums who ripped out plumbing fixtures and radiators. Still these terror tactics failed.

The "Save Our Homes" Committee began to send out a call for professional tradesmen to train people in plumbing, electrical work and construction. People's work shops were arranged so that the community could learn to repair their own buildings. To raise money, street fairs were organized. A mimeographed newspaper was started to maintain good community communications. From all this came the Lower East Harlem School for Social Change (LEHSSC). Organized and run by the community, the LEHSSC has workshops on housing repairs, job clinics, housing clinics, remedial reading clinics, and provides baby-sitting service. The school curriculum is based on what the people in the community need.

In July, 1972, slumlord Sigety was denied a second loan guarantee for the second phase of his planned oppression program. This gave the people in the community some breathing room. By September, 1972, changes began to take place. The Lexington Avenue Neighborhood Association was born out of the "save Our Homes" Committee and reflects a change in the direction of the people's struggle. The people of the community decided to begin to make plans to build a "new town, in town." No longer were they going to beg others to save their homes. Now their plans call for the construction of "Lexington Village." The community plans to rehabilitate the structurally sound buildings and demolish those that are unsafe; in their place they want to build a six-story, low-income apartment house. Lexington Village will become a total living area for the residents, complete with parks, day care centers, community centers, and a non-profit nursing home.

There are no real heroes in the story of this Lower East Harlem community. While certain individuals provided very concrete guidance and leadership, it is the people, united together, who have achieved these accomplishments. Rather than stagnate in dreams or withdraw from the difficulties ahead, the people are still actively moving forward. This fall, a people's lead poisoning program was established. A people's rotating guard service (of 30 men) protects the community at night.

The people share a common enemy, and from this a unity of purpose will provide the basis for our struggle. The Sigetys, the Nixons, the big business interests that control and rule seek to isolate us, individually sealed in our oppression, from each other. We can all learn a lesson from this community. As one person remarked, "He (Sigety) treated us as if we were garbage. But we knew otherwise. We knew that he was garbage. We have sensitivity for ourselves and other people which this landlord hasn't."

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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BLOOD'S THICKER THAN MUD…

It has now been over a month since the news media reported that Brother Fritz Pointer, a sociology instructor at Grove St. College in Oakland, California, was attacked in his classroom by members of the Black Panther Party. On December 1st, Brother Huey P. Newton of the Black Panther Party and Brother Pointer came together to explain to the people that the information that the media had disseminated was lies. In a press conference they held in front of a building on the campus, Fritz Pointer explained that he had never accused Black Panther Party members of being responsible for the incident in his classroom. He explained that the situation which occurred during his course on the "Sociology of Afro-Americans" involved a "personal thing" between himself and individuals in his class who disagreed with him during a discussion. Brother Pointer made clear that he had never told anyone that Black Panther Party members had attacked him.

Reports by the news media labeling the incident an act to intimidate Brother Fritz seem to be a way to hurt the campaign to elect Bobby Seale and Elaine Brown to city offices. As Brother Huey stated, "The Party recognizes Fritz as a struggler in the Black liberation struggle. We would not attack any instructor, especially Mr. Pointer; we've known one another for a long time." Fritz stated that he would not press charges against the brothers involved; he stated that they had already resolved their differences. "This is a family thing", he said. "I wouldn't press charges against my sister or brother or mother, and the same applies here." However, contrary to his wishes, police later arrested three students in connection with the incident.

The police and the judicial system cannot handle the kinds of problems and tensions in the Black community which arise in situations like this one; the government's news media will never report the truth to us. Our community must begin to build institutions which will work in the people's interests; then we can handle conflicts among ourselves and achieve greater unity among our people.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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RADICAL STUDENTS UNION: of the University of California, Berkeley Presents:

BOBBY SEALE
(CANDIDATE FOR
MAYOR OF OAKLAND)

ELAINE BROWN
(CANDIDATE FOR
COUNCILWOMAN OF OAKLAND)

Speaking In Support of Rent Control Candidates
of the Berkeley Tenant's Organizing Committee

There will also be two films:

JANUARY 12, 1973 7PM
PAULEY BALLROOM
STUDENT UNION BUILDING
(Bancroft Way and Telegraph Ave.)
$2.00

"EASY RIDER"
"LIMELIGHTER"
(Starring Charlie Chaplin)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Adam Greene, Radical Students Union
843-1273

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PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

BABIES "RECALLED"

Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx bourogh of New York is "recalling" all of the babies that have been born there this year. Three members of the hospital's delivery room staff were discovered to have infectious tuberculosis. Nearly 1,500 babies born at Lincoln this year could possibly have the disease.

DISAPPEARING DOPE

The cache of heroin made popular in the film the "French Connection" has been stolen from the New York Police Department. The 57 pounds of heroin, estimated to be worth $12 million, was taken from a secret vault in Manhattan's Central Police Station. Whoever took the heroin replaced it with plain white powder. The storing location of seized narcotics is not known to the general public. This indicates that someone inside the police department stole the heroin.

TEAMSTERS vs. CESAR CHAVEZ

The Teamsters Union has renewed its attacks on Cesar Chavez and the United Farm-Workers Union. Chavez and the farm-workers union have organized successful boycotts (grape and lettuce) in the struggle to attain a decent standard of living for farm-workers. The Teamsters have signed illegal contracts with the growers while claiming to represent the farm-workers. Cesar Chavez has denounced these contracts as "sweetheart agreements."

CHILD CARE CENTER CLOSED

On Friday, October 1972, without previous notice, 52 employees of Hunters Point Child Care Centers were suspended from their jobs. Among the employees suspended there are a large number of people who were previously welfare recipients. Without the program they will be forced to return to the welfare rolls. 70 children who were enrolled in child care centers were directly affected when the centers closed. When the state of California withheld funds this fall, 280 children were denied enrollment to the day care centers.

ATTICA INDICTMENTS

The special state grand jury investigating the Attica prison rebellion issued 37 secret indictments. In the Attica rebellion 31 prisoners and 12 guards were murdered by state police and armed prison guards. The state of New York will attempt to make the 37 victims appear as criminals, while the actual butchers of Attica, Nixon, Rockefeller and Oswald, continue to be unblamed.

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MURDER IN SACRAMENTO: 15 YEAR OLD BLACK FOOTBALL STAR “ACCIDENTALLY” KILLED BY POLICE

Raymond E. Brewer, a Black 15 year old man-child, was an outstanding athlete. All of his friends forecasted a very promising future for him in the field of professional football. In fact, young Raymond had just recently been voted the most valuable player on this year's junior varsity football team at Norte Del Rio High School in Sacramento, California. Now, however, Raymond's friends no longer speak of what a great football player he will become; there will be no more young fans cheering Raymond on as he runs for a touchdown. Raymond E. Brewer is dead, murdered in cold-blood by Sacramento police for no other reason than that he was Black and available for slaughter.

On December 3, 1972, Brother Raymond Brewer and two of his companions went for a walk. The brothers were carrying broom handles with them for a very good reason; vicious dogs had been roaming the neighborhoods of Sacramento. They had been attacking people, and many individuals began carrying sticks and other forms of protection to ward the dogs off. As it turned out, four legged dogs were not what Raymond and his friends had to worry about. Plain-clothes Sacramento police spotted Raymond and his friends carrying broomsticks and, in their usual arrogant manner, shouted at the brothers, telling them to halt. The brothers immediately began to run. Other units of police converged in the area and began chasing the three Black youths. Perhaps the brothers did not know that the strange men screaming at them were police; this may have caused them to run. They felt that their lives were endangered. When the chase ended, Raymond Brewer was dead, murdered by police shotgun and handgun fire.

Naturally, the Sacramento police and news media immediately began telling a train of lies: "a case of mistaken identity," "the officers thought that the three men were part of a gang of robbers," and the lie supreme, "the broomsticks looked like sawed-off shotguns."

Raymond's murder evidently was not enough for the police. The two youth who had been with Raymond (they were taken into custody and later released) are now under threat of having warrants issued to them for "resisting arrest."

The outraged Sacramento Black community has organized an investigation to call for the firing and trial (for murder) of the police officers responsible for Raymond Brewer's death. They want the cessation of police brutality and murder in all of Sacramento. So far all that the city has done is volunteer to pay for Raymond's funeral.

Raymond Brewer did not become a great football star, but he will always be great in the eyes of his people.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS: WHY THE VIETNAMESE ARE WINNING: AMERICA'S RACISM WILL BRING ABOUT ITS OWN DEFEAT

(CONCLUSION)

In recent weeks there has been increasing speculation about the Vietnam War coming to an end. We have witnessed Nixon's cruel "peace is at hand" campaign trick. We note U.S. negotiator Henry Kissinger's trans-Atlantic activities with indifference. We listened with disgust to the government's statements about an honorable solution. Behind Kissinger's globe-trotting and the prediction of a possible cease-fire is the fact that America has lost the Vietnam War and is attempting to salvage its pride at the Paris peace talks.

The Vietnamese people have perservered and overcome odds which seem impossible by "normal" standards. They have survived the massacres, the napalm, the smart bombs, all of America's most advanced weapons of war. The saturation bombing has not caused the Vietnamese people to submit; it has strengthened their will to fight.

On December 20, 1972, the Vietnamese will celebrate an event which marks a milestone in their struggle to live in peace and tranquility. In 1960, on this date, the National Liberation Front (N L F) of South Vietnam was officially formed. It is the N L F which coordinates and directs the activities which the Vietnamese people have undertaken to reunite their country.

The settlement of the war will not be on the battle field but on the peace table in Paris. There the Vietnamese have again demonstrated their superiority by forcing the U.S. to agree to most of their basic demands. Now, while America hedges and attempts to backdown on the agreement, the Vietnamese are clearly exposing the true relationship between Nixon and his puppet dictator, Theiu, in Saigon. The following article is Part XIII of the series, "Why the Vietnamese Are Winning." In concluding this series we want to reaffirm our solidarity with the courageous Vietnamese people and hope that we have provided our readers with some insight as to why the Vietnamese have won.

It is no secret in Paris that U.S. negotiators have a paranoid reaction to the PRG representatives. The PRG actually represents the "faceless Vietcong" who are tearing to pieces everything constructed by the Americans for a decade in South Vietnam. How can these Vietnamese, who in Kissinger's world view are on the "periphery" of great power affairs, be at the same time so impossible to defeat? The answer often involves pure racial trivilizations about the "inscrutable Oriental," the willingness of Asians to sacrifice human life, and so on. These attitudes go back a generation: to Lyndon Johnson's warning in 1948 against being blackmailed by "any yellow dwarf with a pocket knife"; to Cardinal Spellman's raving in 1954 about the "godless goons" of atheistic communism; to Time magazine in 1950 describing Ho Chi Minh as a "mongoloid Trotskyite," all the way down to the present period of the offensive. David Brinkley in May called the other side "crazy", and claimed they want South Vietnam delivered to Hanoi "like an egg roll on a plate." Eric Sevareid called Vietnam a little "scallop" on the Asian subcontinent. Even observers sympathetic to the Vietnamese, like the Times' Anthony Lewis who journeyed to Hanoi during the offensive, explain the Vietnamese spirit as "fanaticism." From racial views such as these grow grand strategic designs like Kissinger's in which the Vietnamese are pictured as "clients" of great powers - the NLF the creature of Hanoi, Hanoi the creature of Peking (and more recently, Moscow).

But added to this is a profound Western puzzlement, a nagging confusion about the possibilities of human life. In 1964, Maxwell Taylor wrote that "the ability of the Viet Cong continuously to rebuild their units and make good their losses is one of the mysteries of this guerrilla war." During this offensive the Wall Street Journal (May 15) asked:

"What combination of discipline, idealism and disregard for life keeps North Vietnamese units assaulting in the face of B-52 bombing raids? No analyst here has ever come up with a full explanation."

The answer will not be found in a computer, nor by cost-accounting techniques. The beginnings of the answer will be found when Americans of all kinds have enough solidarity with Vietnam to learn from the Vietnamese and listen to what they say. The struggle against imperialism is partly a struggle to see the Vietnamese as human beings. When that is done, we will conclude with the Cuban government that they are "legendary." Legendary yes, immortal or mysterious, no. The Vietnamese mean it when they say, "if you were in our position you would have to do the same as we."

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EDUCATE TO LIBERATE

The Samuel Napier Intercommunal Youth Institute is a school designed to help our children think. It is located in the Oakland Bay Area and it points out through example that other schools have provided only the most basic courses; courses that have little relevance to the survival of poor people. We are trying to expand the concept that the whole world is the children's classroom.

The youth at Samuel Napier receive instruction in language arts, mathematics, science, health, physical education, political education and people's art. All of these courses are geared to the development of a well-rounded human being.

We need the help of all interested people in making our school run smoothly. Since its inception in 1970, its enrollment has rapidly increased. We need more instructors; instructors with everchanging ideas to cope with the everchanging ideas of the children.

If you have teaching skills and can donate some of your time, please contact the Black Panther at 8501 East 14th Street, Oakland, California; or phone 638-0195. The children, our youth, are our future. Without their growth, we, as a people, cannot survive.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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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 grievances 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 a member 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.

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PAROLE HEARING ON JANUARY 30th

The expected outcome of David Hilliard's December 17th parole hearing (at which time he was to be given "official consideration") can only be considered unsatisfactory by those of us who respect him and his ideas.

Shortly before David appeared at the parole hearing, other prisoners, who were near the room in which David was to meet two members of the California Adult Authority, were approached by an aged, white man. It was the task of this old man to pass out masks for the prisoners to wear if they had colds or other communicable diseases which the Adult Authority members might catch … This set the tone for what followed.

David's parole hearing began with the California Adult Authority (C.A.A.) asking him if he worked in the laundry. David's reply was "No, why?" The C.A.A. answered, "because you always appear neat with your clothes pressed and your shirts starched." David informed them that he was "neat" because he represented the prisoners, and they make sure that they are represented as well as possible.

The C.A.A. went on to challenge the validity of the 600 names of people who comprise the Community of Concern for David Hilliard. The Community of Concern for David Hilliard is a group of 600 people who voiced their disapproval of David's imprisonment and ill - treatment by writing personal letters to the California Adult Authority. They are people such as Congressman Ronald V. Dellums, Author Jean Genet, Benjamin Spock, M.D., Tolbert J. Small, M.D., J. Herman Blake, Acting Provost at the University of Santa Cruz, California, writer Jessica Mitford and hundreds of other people across the country. The C.A.A. used the "logic" that if David did not know all of the 600 people, the signatures of those who he did not know were invalid. David correctly explained that it was not necessary for him to know each of the 600 person committee personally because they knew him through the Black Panther Party survival programs and through his work. However, the C.A.A. persisted in going through the list of 600 names. They asked, at random, if he know this or that person personally. This to us was useless and irrelevant.

The outcome of the December 12th parole gathering called by the California Adult Authority was only another delay. Again, David Hilliard is made to wait for his return to our people. It was decided, however, that on January 30th David Hilliard's parole will again be heard. At this time David will be judged by all nine members of the Adult Authority.

Another prisoner, Charles Bursey (a member of the Black Panther Party) has also had his parole date tampered with by the C.A.A. members. They have attempted to pressure him into admitting that David Hilliard was his "crime partner" at the time of Bobby Hutton's death on April 6, 1968 (the incident that David is allegedly supposed to have been involved in). After 18 months of David's imprisonment this remains the preoccupation of the men who control and imprison him. Never is a man judged for his character, he is viewed by the weight of the "crime" committed.

On January 30, 1973, the people will look to the actions of these nine men, these "corrections" administrators, for a humane decision. We demand the release of David Hilliard. The people who are concerned about David must continue to let the California Adult Authority know that David Hilliard is being illegally imprisoned, and that his release is expected, soon.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE FREE DAVID HILLIARD

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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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SUBSCRIBE TO SURVIVE

In order to enable members of the Black community to read our newspaper regularly and support the people's survival programs, the Black Panther Party has begun a door-to-door subscription drive for the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service in the Oakland area. Our newspaper will keep you informed of events that happened throughout the Black community and the world.

By subscribing to the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service, you will be helping the Free Food Program, Free Health Clinic. Free Shoe Program, Free Breakfast Program and other survival programs implemented by the Black Panther Party to serve the Black community.

To subscribe for three (3) months is $2.50; $5.00 for six (6) months; $8.75 for 1 year and $100.00 for a lifetime subscription.

When a Black Panther Party member comes to your door, he or she will present an identification card and ask you to fill out a subscription blank. If you are not able to pay immediately, payment can be made later.

Every subscriber will receive a free bumper sticker and a campaign poster of Bobby Seale (who is running for Mayor of Oakland) and Elaine Brown (who is running for Oakland City Council-woman).

To be informed and to participate in the survival of our people, buy the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service. Read about your community and the world.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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BLACK PANTHER INTERCOMMUNAL

TO SUBSCRIBE MEANS THAT EVERY WEEK YOU CAN READ THE NEWS ABOUT THE SURVIVAL PROGRAMS FOR THE PEOPLE AND BECOME A PARTICIPANT IN WORKING OUT THE BEST MEANS AND WAYS OF SOLVING THE PROBLEMS OF OUR PEOPLE, OF BLACK PEOPLE AND POOR PEOPLE.

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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 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.

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