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JUSTICE FOR ELDRIDGE CLEAVER

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JUSTICE FOR ELDRIDGE CLEAVER

As long as America remains corrupt there will be divisions among our people created by the false information and subtle schemes of the courts, the legislature, the laws and the agents of the law, the police.

There is no way we can combat these divisions without developing and strengthening unity. The people's enemy from without often develops a greater stronghold and makes greater progress by creating an enemy within -- to divide, they hope to conquer; a tactic that they have always tried with oppressed people, particularly Black people.

During the period of time from January 1969 to the summer of 1971, when the Black Panther Party was under constant harassment from the police, at a time when we were struggling with our ideas, when we became the victims (as any organization does which makes an effort to serve the people) of divisive tactics from within and from without, Eldridge Cleaver criticized us not to help us, but to destroy us. He criticized from afar and the results were that people, servants of the people, were left open to attack from the government. He tried to let the government judge us when only the people can. He spoke of our organization harshly. We cannot forget that.

Now, Eldridge Cleaver may be forced to return to this country. After four years in self-imposed exile, after his defection from the Black Panther Party, Eldridge Cleaver has succeeded in isolating himself from the progressive organizations and countries throughout the world. He negatively criticized Cuba, he criticized China, he criticized the Congo-Brazzaville, he criticized Algeria. But like his criticisms of our organization, these criticisms were not based upon love, were not based upon respect, were not based upon principles of solidarity. Instead, Eldridge Cleaver chose to lash out blindly, acting solely from his own interests.

Acknowledging his fate, the Black Panther Party would like to set the record straight. Despite our differences in strategy, our differences in principles, Eldridge Cleaver is not our enemy, he is not our oppressor. He is not the cause of the conditions which threaten the lives and the survival of the Black and oppressed communities throughout the world; he, himself, is oppressed. He, too, shares the fate of all humankind if the criminal aggression of the American Empire is left unchecked. The Black Panther Party is printing the following statement to clarify our position on the question -- Justice for Eldridge Cleaver. We reaffirm our position in solidarity with all oppressed people throughout the world. Our goal remains the complete liberation of humankind.

Eldridge Cleaver has announced that he intends to return to the United States to demand a trial. The Black Panther Party repeats its demand for justice for all victims of the State, the Power Structure. Neither the so-called Adult Authority, local or federal police or judiciary have so much as an ounce of moral power to judge Eldridge Cleaver or anyone else. The people and only the people have the power or the right to judge.

Among the oppressed people of the American Empire there are many contradictions, but between the people and the tyrannical institutions of the government there is an absolute contradiction. Eldridge Cleaver, any individual, when he stands naked before the armed might of the State is a victim whose only shield is the authentic power of the popular masses. The Black Panther Party is part of that shield between the victim and the executioner in their unequal struggle.

When there is dereliction, the people will weigh and judge. The organized violence of the court, the police, the Adult Authority will be confronted by the Black Panther Party, one with the people.

Let the victim at the bar of injustice be it Eldridge Cleaver or any other disenfranchised man, woman or child -- the Black Panther Party will intercede and intervene in the name of the human group.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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THEY DIDN'T STOP AT JACKSON STATE

TWO BLACK STUDENTS MURDERED AT
SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA

"…Black students cannot perceive their education as a development but only as an omnipresent evil that lends itself to infinite self struggle. The time has come for us to make our education relevant so that our lives can acquire a sense of viable, progressive direction. For anyone to ask that we remain idle in discontent (rather than to initiate changes) with this educational system, delivers the greatest affront to our human dignity. It is not only the Southern University educational system that is under indictment, but the education system as a whole that exists inside this country, maintaining oppression…

"Students in this country are awakening to the fact that this educational system acts to control them insofar as it employs a process that does not teach us how to think but (rather) what to think. In this process, students act out the role of "banks" or depositories… Wherin the student's only function is to be "filled" with knowledge. And instead of communicating, the students receive, memorize and repeat. This redundant process breeds conformity and lends itself to suppression of mental growth and creativity.

"In this concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowldgeable… but, learning should be a process whereby students and teachers draw from each other's collective experiences. Too often the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his own professional authority, which he sets in opposition to the freedom of the students. For students in general, and Black students specifically, our education should be designed so that we can not only act but react to the needs of our communities and thus ourselves. The present educational system serves not to link but to seperate us from our communities. We should no longer ignore this omnipresent contradiction. We must act now."

The above paragraphs are excerpts from a press statement delivered by Black students of Southern University's campus in New Orleans (SUNO), in the State of Louisiana. The statement gives accurate insight into the struggles of Black students on the campuses of Southern University; why they are struggling for the transformation of a backwards educational system. It is a struggle which has led, in recent weeks, to a bond of unity between the students and the oppressed Black community. It has brought about hard-won concessions from the University's authorities, but it has also led to increased state repression and murder.

Many people became aware of the student struggle for relevant education at Southern University by way of the news media, which did its best to portray our brothers and sisters on campus in a negative light. Their idea is that we have no right to fight for self-determination. In order to understand fully what occurred at Southern University in the past month, we must go back to events that led to

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the murder of two young Black men.

In the latter part of October of this year, Black students at the Southern University Campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, presented a list of grievances to that portion of Southern University's administrative complex (there are a number of campuses throughout Louisiana, that make up Southern University). The demands of the Black students on the Baton Rouge campus included: more control of student affairs, better medical facilities and the resignation of Dr. Emmet W. Bashful, a Vice-President of Southern University and Dr. G. Leon Netterville, Southern University's President. The students said that both men, who are Black, had grown comfortable in their positions and were unresponsive to the needs of Black students.

The intensity of the Black student's struggle on Southern's Baton Rouge campus soon spread to the New Orleans, Louisiana campus. Black students there voiced the demands of the students on the Baton Rouge campus (with other demands) on October 30, 1972, to Emmett Bashful. After the New Orleans Black students demands were made known, Dr. Bashful was given until 12:00 noon that same day to respond. At the appointed time, the protesting students gathered at the University's science lecture hall and waited for Dr. Bashful to appear - he did not. Some of the students found the Vice-President and escorted him to the lecture hall, where he stated that he had nothing to say. He than asked for a 48-hour period in which to make a decision concerning the students' demands.

On November 1st, the day of the meeting, Dr. Bashful again refused to meet with the students, and conducted a press conference instead. In reply to Dr. Bashful's disrespect, the New Orleans students immediately took over the campus' administration building and vowed not to leave until their demands were met. Virtually all of the students on campus refused to attend classes, pending a decision from Dr. Bashful. The students' actions were received warmly by the community. Telegrams and calls supporting the students came from students, community groups and individuals across the country.

Also, at this time, the students at Grambling University, a predominately Black school in Grambling, Louisiana, presented a list of demands similar to the demands of the New Orleans and Baton Rouge Black students. Racist Louisiana Governor, Edwin Edwards, ordered the National Guard and Louisiana state and sheriff's police to enter the three protesting campuses. Only community support prevented the Governor, at that time, from attacking the students on these campuses.

The Black Panther Party had been working closely with the students and Governor Edwards tried to use this fact against the students. He stated that he had "proof" that "outsiders", such as the Black Panther Party, were arming the protesting students. He never produced such "proof" and the community laughed at his lies. It was known by everyone that the only weapons on the campuses were in the hands of the police and National Guardsmen.

On November 9th, Dr. Emmett Bashful conceded to the students' demand for his resignation; the New Orleans Southern University Black students decided to leave the confiscated administration building, but are continuing the boycott of classes until all of their demands are met. At Grambling's campus, however, the students' demands have yet to be considered and the police are patrolling in full force.

On November 16th, Black students at the Baton Rouge, Louisiana campus took over the administration building there and the National Guard and police opened fire on the students, using tear gas and shotgun buckshot. When the smoke cleared, two Black demonstrators had been killed from buckshot wounds and another was slightly wounded. Governor Edwards told the Louisiana news media that "it was possible" that the students had made "buckshot bombs" which exploded prematurely, thereby killing the two Black protestors. He further stated that even if the police did kill the two Black brothers, he could not fault them. He stated further that the students began the violence themselves; they started it. The murders at Baton Rouge take their place alongside those of Kent State University in Ohio and Jackson State University in Mississippi. They will soon be dismissed by the government as the result of a "silly" student revolt. The people of Baton Rouge and New Orleans know different.

The Black student struggle at Southern University in Louisiana can not be ended by the squeeze of a policeman's trigger. It will not be abandoned when racist politicians and school officials come to the people mouthing empty promises. The struggle of our brothers and sisters attending the so-called "Black Universities" developed as the result of the frustration of being subjected to the stagnant information they pass onto us as education. It will be many years before we can be sure that no more Black people will be murdered for trying to regain what is ours by birth - the right to live free of denial, abuse and repression. Two young Black men lay dead. The police have proven to us again our struggle cannot and never will be forgotten.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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THE U.S. MILITARY IS GUILTY

BILLY DEAN SMITH FOUND INNOCENT OF "FRAGGING" CHARGES

Billy Smith was born tenth to a family of twelve children, in Bakersfield, California in 1948. His family spent approximately ten years in Texas, moving back to Watts (California) in 1957. He lived there, in Los Angeles, until 1969, when, against his wishes, he was drafted into the Army. He didn't want to go, but he faced the alternatives of imprisonment or exile if he resisted the draft. After military training and attempts at brainwashing failed at Fort Ord (California) and Fort Sill (Oklahoma), he was shipped to Vietnam in October of 1970, where he was assigned to the command of a typical military racist, Captain Rigby.

Captain Rigby had been harassing Billy in particular since his (Billy's) arrival in Vietnam. Billy had made it known that he, unlike Lt. Calley, who ordered and participated in the slaughter of 102 people at My Lai, was not going to be a "good American soldier". He was uninterested and unwilling to participate in the wanton murder of a people who had done nothing to him.

On March 15, 1972, when a fragmentation grenade exploded in the officers' barracks at Bien Hoa, Vietnam, killing two lieutenants and wounding a third, the first person that came to Captain Rigby's mind was Billy Dean Smith, the incorrigible, unwilling member of his company. Here was "Charley" company's opportunity, the military's and the State's opportunity, to be rid of one more dissident, one more Black man who was refusing to play the dual role of victim and oppressor. Billy Smith was neither the Army's "boy" nor the Vietnamese's enemy.

So without a shred of evidence, without a single accusation or witness, Billy Smith was singled out to be persecuted for the "crime" - his political beliefs. The military court charged Billy Smith with murder, attempted murder and assault. The term "fragging" pertains to the use of a fragmentation grenade, which upon breaking, hurls shrapnel and other bits of metal into the air. He is charged with murder by "fragging" two lieutenants; attempted murder of his commanding officer (a captain) and a first sergeant; and two counts of assault on two M.P.'s. The so-called evidence to prove that he threw the grenade is one grenade pin, supposedly found in his jacket pocket.

Billy Smith was then brought to military trial, a court martial. He was judged by 7 career officers, two are Black, five are former enlisted men. They are life-time military men; they could not judge Billy Dean Smith, who was accused of killing officers whom they considered to be like themselves, dedicated to the American way. They knew Billy Smith had no desire to go to Vietnam to kill anyone.

Since March of 1971, Brother Smith was kept in a 6'3" by 9 foot cell. He was treated with the usual disrespect and abuse offered any prisoner. Though there was no evidence against him he was still prosecuted. The jury still tried to convict him for crimes he did not commit. Such is the fate of Black men and women in any court in this country. The government must always play down the atrocities committed by its warring military services. These crimes against humanity are committed by the same men who condone the massacre of millions of Vietnamese people and millions of oppressed people all over the world. The support that many people gave to him helped to expose what had been done to this innocent man, a Black soldier in Vietnam. He pled innocent when he was charged. He walked away from the biased military court on November 14, 1972, 19 months later, still an innocent man. They could not proved their charges. He was released.

It has been said that the people freed Billy Smith; we know that many people helped to free Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins. However, we cannot speak of freedom until all prisoners, all of the Black and poor people of this country, are free from oppression. Attaining our freedom will take the efforts of us all. This great task will take the efforts of all the people who are concerned and willing to struggle, to work, so that we can regain the power to establish our own courts, a people's government and the power to determine our destinies.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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OUR PRIORITY IS SURVIVAL

NUMEROUS
ORGANIZATIONS
COMBAT REPRESSIVE
WELFARE BILLS

Under the guise of implementing welfare reforms, the government is instituting a new wave of repression against the poor who must attempt to survive on welfare aid. Politicians who are interested in punishing people on the welfare rolls for being poor, unemployed and unable to work introduce and pass legislation that cuts thousands of needy persons, primarily women and children, from the welfare rolls. They have created legislation that forces them to submit to degrading application proceedings and forced-labor jobs. By giving the public false ideas about people on welfare, that they are lazy, dishonest and have plenty of money, the government gains the approval of the white racist middle-class segment of the country.

During his first term in office, Richard Nixon sponsored the most repressive welfare legislation ever formulated: the Family Assistance Plan (FAP), which he called his "number I domestic priority." However, due to the work which was done by the National Welfare Rights Organization and other progressive organizations, Nixon's FAP was defeated in Congress last month. This plan was part of HRI, the Social Security Bill which was passed after pressure from the people forced Congress to drop the sections that contained FAP (Title IV and Title V) from the bill.

FAP would have authorized all states to require recipients in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children category (AFDC) to work in public service jobs without any pay other than their welfare grants. Therefore, people on welfare could be forced to take any menial job deemed suitable by the Welfare Department. Any recipient who refused to work in one of the degrading positions would be denied assistance. This forced work provision was undoubtedly an attempt to purge recipients from public assistance and drive them into a state of complete destitution.

FAP also would have authorized a complex federal - state system of hunting down absent fathers, establishing their paternity through blood tests, then subjecting them to the criminal and civil penalties for their "non-support". This would have been done regardless of the wishes of the mother, disregarding whether or not the father was able to support a child. The Family Assistance Plan would have also prevented welfare recipients from having court suits or challenges filed by federal legal service programs. These programs are usually the only legal aid available to many Black and poor applicants. Legal services attorneys would have been forced to assist the Attorney General in prosecuting absent fathers.

Other parts of FAP called for each state to require that an applicant be a resident for 90 days before receiving aid. In addition to all the other repressive measures, the bill would have eliminated aid to pregnant women on behalf of their unborn babies, a form of aid which is currently provided in 19 states.

These measures would have been implemented if there had not been a mass organizational effort which made many people aware of the repressive nature of the bill. This mass awareness was illustrated when over 50,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. on March 25, 1972 for the Children's March for Survival. The National Welfare Rights Ortanization (NWRO) worked tirelessly for three years in an effort to defeat this bill. It is very clear that mass organization and information that was channeled into the community, about FAP, brought about its defeat. While the bill was in the Senate, NWRO called on many of their allies to help fight it, The Congressional Black Caucus took a firm stand against FAP, and told Congress that if the provision passed in the Senate that they would stop the bill when it reached the House of Representatives. At the same time, the NWRO led marches several times during the past year in order to inform the community about FAP. Perhaps one of the most important demonstrations was the protest held at the Democratic Convention in Miami, by the Poor People's Coalition, in which over 7,000 Black people gathered to demand, among other things, that the Democrats oppose FAP. After pressure was exerted upon Senator George McGovern, he also took a position in opposition to the proposed legislation.

Thus, the defeat of Nixon's Family Assistance Plan was the culmination of efforts by dedicated welfare rights workers all over the country and other progressive people who aided in that struggle. However, since Nixon has been re-elected, it is certain that he will propose even more restrictive legislation. Many repressive measures, such as the Talmadge Amendment, are now being implemented. The Talmadge Amendment is similar to the forced-work provision in FAP, but

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it is not quite as repressive. It forces all AFDC recipients to register with state employment agencies and accept any job that is available to them. The applicants will be denied aid if they do not register for work or if they fail to report every two weeks to the employment office. If a mother is assigned a job, she must place her child in a day care center, regardless of the conditions existing at the center.

Although FAP failed, the state of California still intends to force recipient to accept any available job. Governor Ronald Reagan received a waiver from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare(HEW), allowing him to implement his own direct form of forced labor called the Community Work Experience Program (CWEP). Government officials claim the purpose of this program is to "assist registrants to become job-ready by giving them the opportunity to learn new skills, gain valuable work experience and develop a work history." In reality, CWEP forces recipients to work at menial jobs for no wage at all. A public agency or organization signs a contract with the state for use of CWEP participants who are required to do any job the contracting agency or organization tells them to do. This gives the state a work force it does not have to pay and can hire out to make money. The state is trying to get all counties to sign contracts and use these workers as a cheap labor force for the government.

All over California, welfare rights organizations are organizing in an effort to stop the counties from signing contracts for CWEP and to slow down the implementation of the Talmadge Amendment. Welfare rights organizations in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area are moving progressively to educate the people about these vicious programs. The Richmond Welfare Rights Organization, lead by Sister Ethel Dotson, has already pressured the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to reject the CWEP contract. On Wednesday, November 15th, welfare recipients from Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond, and members of the Black Panther Party, went to a public hearing held by the State Welfare Department in Sacramento, the state capitol, to protest the implementation of the Talmadge Amendment and CWEP.

However, no one from the Welfare Department Administration appeared to answer the people's questions, clearly showing the blatant disregard for recipients. On Tuesday, November 21. a protest is planned by Bay Area welfare rights organizations at the Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting, in an effort to stop them from signing a CWEP contract. Actions such as these are needed all over this state and the country to help people understand the evils of a corrupt welfare system, and to defeat such degrading legislation as CWEP and FAP in the future.

Due to the level of technology in this country, there are few meaningful jobs available and the unemployment rate is high. There is no reason why mothers, children, poor people in general should have to continue to suffer abuse and degradation in this country. Advancements in technology have made America the richest country in the world. The struggle of NWRO is part of the overall struggle to create a new order through which everyone can benefit from America's wealth, which belongs to all of humankind.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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NIXON HAS FOUR MORE YEARS OF US

BOBBY SEALE'S ELECTION DAY SPEECH
AT HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY

Brother Bobby Seale has inspired Black and poor people throughout the country, in his speeches. He is a man -- a revolutionary -- who has continuously served the interests of the Black community and exposed the contradictions that exist in this, "the land of plenty".

Bobby Seale is a candidate for Mayor of Oakland, Calif., in the April '73 city election. On a recent speaking tour on the East Coast of the United States, Bobby Seale addressed an audience of predominately Black students at Hofstra University in New York. He explained how we, oppressed people, can begin to make electoral politics relevant to our collective survival. He also spoke of the necessity for true, people's candidates to campaign for public office. The following is Brother Bobby Seale's message to the people:

From the latest results, I heard, as expected, Richard Nixon is about to be re-elected. It looks like we've got four more years of problems. A lot of people were wondering why the Black Panther Party didn't endorse McGovern. Well, we have to make an analysis about this system and the way people think; not only the way the people in the government of this country think, but also the way some of our close friends think. If the Black Panther Party had endorsed McGovern, the press would have splashed it across the front pages of all the papers in this country. Many people would have said, after McGovern lost, that if the Black Panther Party hadn't endorsed him, maybe he would have won. Well, we have better sense than that. The real reason we wouldn't endorse McGovern was because we wouldn't allow Black people to follow a lot of promises. Black people and many other poor and oppressed people in this country have been following promises for too long. We've been promised everything from kitchen sinks to decent housing; from red dresses for Black women to a chicken in every pot if the people would vote for them. We still haven't gotten the chicken, we haven't even gotten the pot to cook it in.

You may have heard a lot about the Black Panther Party's survival programs. You may have heard a lot about our Free Food Program. We have given away ten thousand bags of groceries at a time to people in different oppressed Black communities where the chapters and branches of our Party are located across the country. You may have heard about some other survival programs, such as the People's Free Medical Research Health Clinics, the Black Panther Party's Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation, the Free Shoe Program, the Free Clothing Program, the Free Busing to Prisons Program and the Prisoner's Free Commissary Program. You might have heard about some of the other programs we are about to implement: the Free Optometry and Free Dental Care Programs. You may have heard about our Intercommunal Youth Institutes and some of the other programs we're implementing in various communities; in Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Seattle. Some people have tried to label these programs reformist. Our programs are neither reformist nor revolutionary, they are a means of

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serving the immediate needs of the people in poor and oppressed communities. Survival programs, are a means -- a tool -- by which we can organize and unify the people for future liberation.

Let's go over a little bit of history, so that we can see where we're going and where we've been in the past. It took that period of time from the days of Brother Martin Luther King and Brother Malcolm X up to the present for Black people to accept themselves as human beings. I remember the times when we called ourselves Negroes, niggers and colored people. Later, we began to accept ourselves as human beings, when we said we were Black and beautiful. We accepted ourselves as human beings when we saturated this country with a new kind of thinking about ourselves. This did not mean we were racist, it meant we accepted ourselves. It meant we weren't going to accept the idea that we are supposedly backwards, innately stupid and lazy. The norms of this society tried to miseducate and misguide us; they tried to stop us from having a greater consciousness about ourselves as human beings. In analyzing history, we found out some things about Africa; we began to find out a lot of things about other revolutionary struggles in the world, not only in Africa, but also in Latin America and Asia. We began to realize a lot of things over that fifteen year period, we went through a lot of phases in our development and we developed through many different kinds of struggles. The Black Panther Party wasn't the only organization to unite people in a positive manner. It took many organizations to bring us to this point. Before Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers; before Huey P. Newton, myself and many other men and women, there were men like Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey and W.E.B. DuBois. If it had not been for them, we would not have the foundation we have now, we would not have the understanding of our goal and what we must do to achieve it. If we're confused about goal, it's time for us to get unconfused, it's time for us to realize what's going on, what's really happening. When Richard Nixon appears on T.V. and says, `I just want to make this one point perfectly clear', he's telling us one basic thing; he's making it clear that he's in fact a racist and a fascist.

When we saturated this country with Blackness, saturated this country with the phrases All Power to the People and Right On Time, we began to build a new consciousness in the minds of the people in this country. Just the fact that we redefined the police as pigs -- that's what they are -- brought about a new awareness in our people. Before this we were brainwashed into thinking that the police were our friends. This was a significant rise in consciousness for Black people. We also began to realize the fact that the government could no longer get away with calling us Black with derogatory connotations attached to the word. The government was forced to accept our new found self-respect. We began to rebel, all of us, against racism and oppression in this country. All kinds of rebellions occurred, not only in the Black community, but on the Indian-American reservations, in the Chicano communities and the Puerto-Rican communities. I'm just going over the history of how our consciousness has been raised, how we focused in on some particulars of our struggle, from the time of our first cultural awareness up to now.

Many Black organizations have tried to do some constructive work. However, many times we have become confused. I think SNCC (the former Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) should have completed its job in the South registering people to vote. They didn't; they got confused. They went different ways and created different kinds of organizations. The best thing to do is to work in our communities. You probably have heard about the Black Panther Party working in the churches. We are working in the churches. Too many times we fool ourselves about what's happening in the church. One main thing we have to remember, brothers and sisters, is that every Sunday morning 40% of the Black community is sitting in church. The people in the churches are from all segments of the Black community. They are the oppressed people. Many of them are our mothers and fathers. We cannot ignore them, just as we cannot ignore our oppression.

Sometimes we argue with our mothers and fathers. We say we're going to leave home for a period of time. That's good experience for us, to find out what is going on in the world - it's necessary. However, there are people who believe they can drop out of the universe. They want to drop out of the system. Try to drop out of the universe then; commandeer a space capsule and go to the moon. Nixon will send his troops up there to get you. The best thing to do is infiltrate the system, transform it, get Richard Nixon and all of his tools, the fascists and racists out of the system. Then we can make the system serve the basic needs of the people as a whole. We can't drop out because there is no dropping out.

There was a time when we were kneeling in, sitting in, rolling in, sliding in and jumping in. It's hard even trying to get voted in. The reason it is hard trying to get voted in is because it's

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hard trying to vote out the corrupt politicians. In order to vote them out we will have to make a committment to humanity - to ourselves. We only get human freedom by struggling for it. People want to survive; people want to live.

We held a Black Community Survival Conference on March 29th, 30th and 31st of this year. We gave away ten thousand free full bags of groceries and registered thousands of people to vote. We told them that the reason we wanted them to register to vote was because true representatives of the people would be running for office. We want to vote the racists out of the government of the city of Oakland; change every institution within that government and make sure the institutions serve the people. That is why we are involving ourselves in electoral politics. If we can kick the racist mayor out of Oakland, if we can replace him with a progressive candidate, the people's candidate, then we will have begun to establish a base for creating People's Power. We are involved in electoral politics to unify the people. We want to utilize our votes in a positive manner so that our people's interests will be served. Oakland will be one step, one city. We have to take over as many governmental positions as we can. Too many times we have said we're going to create a people's party. A people's party has to be based on the immediate needs of the people. Therefore, our politics will have to be that of organizing and unifying the people around survival, around concrete programs that we can identify with. When we start organizing and unifying the people around their basic necessities, when we start unifying our votes in a bloc, when we tell the backwards politicians that they can't trick Black people out of votes anymore, that is when they will begin to put pressure on us. The spokesmen for the government have said that the Black Panther Party is working within the system. They do not include the fact that we are working within the system to fight the corruption. They did not add that last part because they want to discourage the people. They want everyone to think we sold out. We cannot expect them to reveal the truth because they can't afford to.

Lyndon Baines Johnson attempted to dupe us when he declared a war on poverty. Ten billion dollars was allegedly sent into poor communities during the four years he was in office. He never implemented one People's Free Medical Research Health Clinic or Free Breakfast for Children Program. Not one of these people's programs were implemented by him (or any other president) in the country. Since the government has never been concerned about our survival, we must be. We have to create programs which serve the people. Now what do we do? We have to feed the people, we have to clothe the people, we have to offer ideas about the real goals of the revolution: freedom. Then we can all understand the need to unify our votes to take control in the cities and counties across this country where Black people are in the majority.

We have a job on our hands… The only solution to war and oppression is people's humane revolution.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

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SOUTHERN RACISTS ATTACK BLACK PANTHER PARTY

The recent re-election of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew signify four more years of slaughter and repression of the Black community. During Nixon's first term, we experienced Black students murdered at Jackson State College in Mississippi; the massacre of both prisoners and guards at Attica Prison; the assassination of Brother George Jackson, at San Quentin Prison.

The volume of bombs dropped on the Vietnamese people increases daily while the Black community feels the continued effects of tyrannic law and fascist order. While Nixon's more overt attacks against the Black Panther Party slowed for awhile, recent events forecast the beginning of a new era of repression.

On November 9, 1972, Atlanta police and federal agents attacked the Atlanta Chapter of the Black Panther Party. The alleged pretense for the attack was to search for a .45 caliber pistol which supposedly had been used in the shooting of a policeman on October 26th. Similar excuses were used in the 1969 - '71 wave of repression to justify police attacks on Black Panther Party offices throughout the country. The Atlanta attack was carried out by members of the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) Squad and detectives from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Eight Black Panther Party members were arrested on the created charges of possession of explosives, although the weapon the police claimed to be looking for was never found. The eight Panthers jailed were: Ronald Carter, Alton Deville, Thomas Freeman, George Gordon, Jennifer Termon, Philip Lester, Frank Scruggs and Patrica Scruggs (Patricia is eight months pregnant). The racist Atlanta news media immediately began its phase of the attack with banner headlines and stories to make the Black Panther Party appear as mad bombers and criminals. Several of the eight Party members have been released on bail pending a trial, even though a trial is already being conducted by the government controlled Atlanta press.

In the same week, the office of the Tennessee Chapter of the Black Panther Party, located in Memphis, was bombed by obvious reactionary elements. A huge corner of the building and valuable office equipment were destroyed. A Black Panther Party member, inside with two infants, luckily escaped to safety, carrying the infants with her. Memphis firemen ransacked the building. Later, racists stated that the explosion was caused by an overheated boiler. This obvious lie exemplifies the contempt which government and city officials have for Black people's intelligence and lives.

These recent attacks on Black Panther Party offices reflect the Nixon administration's intentions toward poor and oppressed people, or anyone who dissents against the status quo. However, we are not discouraged. We understand that these attacks on the Black community are the last gasping breaths of the falling American Empire.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

-- 7 --

PEOPLE'S PERSPECTIVE

The Navy began to retaliate this week against the Black and white sailors who refused to board the aircraft carrier Constellation. The 130 seamen, who took a stand against the racist practices of the ship's captain, J.V. Ward, were required to appear before Navy-style court martials called `Captain's Mast'. For their courageous stand the sailors received fines, reductions in pay and demotions in rank. Six of the sailors involved in the protest were discharged on November 17, 1972.

A report aired in the California legislature described the multi-million dollar Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART, which runs over the Black community) as unsafe and unreliable. The report sparked a bitter controversy between the BART Board of Directors and critics of the transit system in the legislature. It will cost many millions of dollars to make BART "safe".

The People's Government of Cuba has found it necessary to establish negotiations with the U.S. in order to protect the sovereignty of Cuban territory, which has been increasingly violated by hijacked American planes. The negotiations are to be conducted through the Swiss government, although U.S. government officials desire direct talks. The Cuban people see this as unnecessary.

The Soviet Union has given Pepsico Corporation a contract to supply the Soviet Union with Pepsi Cola. Pepsi will become the only American consumer product sold in Russia. For America, money comes before political views.

Ex-dictator Juan Peron returned to Argentina this week, after 17 years in exile. The Argentine government banned any demonstrations of support for Peron. Peron, who was overthrown in 1955 is expected to remain in Argentina for only a few days.

The Supreme Court ruled that the government does not have to reveal illegal wiretap information in the Pentagon Papers case. The espionage trial of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo (who exposed the Pentagon Papers which describe the history of the U.S.'s involvement in Vietnam and the lies told to cover up for atrocity after atrocity) was stopped in July. The case is expected to resume in Los Angeles in the near future.

-- 8 --

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.

-- 8 --

ONLY THE PEOPLE CAN JUDGE

On December 12, 1972, Brother David Hilliard, of the Black Panther Party, is scheduled to appear before the California Adult Authority Board for a parole hearing. The hearing will determine whether he will be allowed to return to the Black community and his people -- or to a prison cell. On that same day an appeal hearing is expected to be held in Sacramento to review the fabricated case that holds him at Vacaville Prison.

Most of the seven men who comprise the board of the California Adult Authority, have, for all of their working lives, held positions that directly contribute to the pain, the oppression, the enslavement of poor people, Black people in particular.

We have prepared, for the people who read our paper, some background information on these men and the important factors concerning the work they have made their way of life. Two of these men, in all probability, it has been determined, will pass judgement on Brother David Hilliard at his parole hearing. Two men, James H. Hoover and Manley J. Bowler will have control over his life. All of these men serve those who control this country.

They are as follows:

Henry W. Kerr, who is the Chairman of the board, was appointed as a member in October, 1967. He was made Chairman on February 1, 1968. He is a Republican who joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1937. He reached the rank of inspector by 1953. He retired as an Assistant Commander of the Los Angeles Police Department's Detective Bureau.

Curtis O. Lynum, was appointed as a member of the board in December, 1967, and in February of 1968 he was made Vice-Chairman. He is a Republican who has done work for the FBI since 1941 as a special agent. From 1963 until his retirement in July, 1968, he was in charge of the FBI office in San Francisco.

Daniel Lopez, the only non-white member of the board (a Mexican-American) was appointed to the board in 1970. Of all the officers on the board, he tries to be the most sensitive to the lives of the men who must come before the Adult Authority.

Manley J. Bowler was appointed as a member of board in April of 1967. He became a lawyer in 1940. He was Deputy Attorney for the city of Los Angeles for two years and was Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney to the Southern District of California for six years. He was Chief Deputy Attorney from 1957 to 1964. He is a Republican.

Walter A. Gordon, Jr. was appointed as a member of the board in April, 1967. He has had a career in the California Department of Corrections and has been a parole agent since 1953. He is a Lt. Colonel in the National Guard. He is a Republican.

Charles E. Brown was appointed as a member of the board in April, 1970. He had been on the Richmond Police force for 24 years until he retired as the Chief of Police of Richmond, California. He has also served as a member of the Women's Board of Terms and Paroles. He completed a study ordered by the Board of Corrections on the Inspection of Local Detention Facilities.

These men have no desire to release David Hilliard. We must continue our support through our letters to the Adult Authority demanding David Hilliard's freedom.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

-- 9 --

INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS: WHY THE VIETNAMESE ARE WINNING

THE VIETNAMESE PEOPLE CANNOT
DEPEND ON NIXON TO END THE WAR

The following is Part XI 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 Brother Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party during the "Chicago Trials".

While remaining on guard against potential military escalation, the Vietnamese in Paris also expect a fast diplomatic escalation by the Americans before the November elections - what they call a carefully disguised "peace maneuver" on the part of Nixon designed to win re-election and guarantee an opportunity for four more years of war with Vietnam. One Vietnamese sarcastically referred to Kissinger's dream of a potential "two segment government" in Saigon, one which would be composed of elements of the Thieu administration plus some fresh faces from either Paris or Saigon as part of an effort to diplomatically isolate the PRG. The creation of this "two segment" administration in Saigon would be coupled, perhaps, with a new offer for a battlefield cease fire where the U.S. forces are being defeated and at a disadvantage, and the proposal would offer to "set a date" similar to the May 8 proposal for a four-month period of U.S. troop withdrawal. The Vietnamese see this as an electoral strategy aimed at the U.S. voting population designed to appear to be the "most reasonable" offer that an American President could make in the midst of a war, and which would be an attempt to obtain a ceasefire and to obtain the release of American prisoners before the election without resolving the question of the structure of the coalition in Saigon. Then, after re-election, the South Vietnam situation could break down and could allow Nixon to resume aerial war for another extended period. This Vietnamese view of Nixon's plan is not mere speculation, because the transcripts of the secret talks between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, released by the Vietnamese in Paris after Nixon's unilateral revelation of these talks in February, contain passages in which it is clear that Kissinger is already shopping in Paris and other cities of the world for Vietnamese who could be added to a future cabinet.

The Vietnamese also are firm in stressing that Nixon's summit trips to Peking and Moscow have been a complete failure from the point of view of solving the Vietnam problem. They maintain that their aid agreements with China and the Soviet Union remain intact and that they already have sufficient supplies to continue their push on the battlefield indefinitely. They portray the summit trips as a kind of vastly sophisticated but defensive strategy on the part of a Nixon administration which no longer has the power to continue to ignore or "contain" communist revolutions and national independence movements. In this view, the Nixon administration has shifted from containment to attempts to stir up conflicts and division within the Socialist camp, creating weakness among its adversaries as a counterweight for the decline of America's own strength. At one point, I volunteered the view that, from an American standpoint, the summit trips had shored up Nixon's credibility in some respects; that the summit trips had at least temporarily given the American people the feeling that the U.S. government is no isolated and condemned as a result of the Vietnam war; that the dangers of Vietnam escalating into World War III could not be so great if our President was received in Peking and Moscow with handshakes; and that it was noticeable that the numerous growing and militant demonstrations occurring in April and May in the United States tapered off in the spirit of relief which accompanied the holding of the Moscow summit in spite of the mining of Haiphong Harbor. A Vietnamese official with whom we spoke granted the fact that a "certain confusion" could have been created by the summits not only in America but "in other quarters of the world", and that this confusion was deliberately inspired by Kissinger's remarks in Moscow and Nixon's remarks in Washington to the effect that new secret discussions on Vietnam had taken place. But the Vietnamese pointed out that this confusion would dissipate in the wake of the summits when it became clear that a peace settlement has not been realized in Vietnam and that the only road to a settlement lies through Paris. In a fundamental rebuke to Kissinger's great power politics, a PRG spokesman told us: "We are saying that big powers cannot force or impose their desires upon the small nations, because this is the era when small nations are becoming able to solve their own problems, able to rely on their own strength."

TO BE CONTINUED

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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, in October the Black Panther Party began 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 happen 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 imformed 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

-- 12 --

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 Party at 8501 East 14th Street, Oakland, California; or phone 562-2086. The children, our youth, are our future. Without their growth we, as a people, can not survive.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

-- 15 --

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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