Parties stances

[Manifesto]

I have heard many things about them with people saying they are Communist but I am not sure. Are hippies and the Black Panther Party Communist? And I know that they should not be grouped together.

[More Fire for the People]

The Black Panthers, yes. They drew from the works of Karl Marx and Mao Zedong as well as African Marxists such as Frantz Fanon and Walter Rodney.

The hippies, no. Hippie is a lifestyle. You could be a hippie communist but just because you're a hippie doesn't mean you're a communist.

[teenagebricks]

The Panthers' official line was one of Marxism-Leninism, to what extent the rank and file Panthers actually adhered to the communist idea, I do not know.

Hippies tend to support things like worker co-ops, and oppose the capitalist machine, but I don't think they could really be called communists, not collectively at least, I'm sure there are plenty of people who are both communist and hippies.

[Manifesto]

Thanks for answering. I figured the Black Panther Party was but as for hippies I figured that it was more of a stereotype of sorts.

[Black Sheep]

You could be a hippie communist but just because you're a hippie doesn't mean you're a communist.

How can a guy who preaches world peace and pacifism be a communist, since they're incompatible with class struggle?

[Stranger Than Paradise]

How can a guy who preaches world peace and pacifism be a communist, since they're incompatible with class struggle?

Yes you are right, Hippies generally adhere to a liberal ideology in my experience. I am sure there were some misguided Pacifist Commie hippies though.

[Raúl Duke]

I think I meet some hippies (or hippy like) who supported Ron Paul and/or (although less) call themselves libertarians in my college

[More Fire for the People]

Obviously, they would be a non-pacifist hippie.

[leveller]

Theres a saying i like to use

'Scratch a hippy, theres a fascist underneath'

[Q]

The Black Panther Party was very much a confused party as it defended (or at least some of the influential layers) black nationalism. I wouldn't say it was communist as it was organised along racial lines, not class lines. White symphathisers were excluded from membership.

[More Fire for the People]

Q is showing his ignorance. Panthers had white, Black, and Asian members and affiliates.

[Q]

Q is showing his ignorance. Panthers had white, Black, and Asian members and affiliates.
I'm not sure about asian or latino's, but I am pretty sure about whites being excluded. Could you provide a source that white sympathisers were allowed?

Also, even if white members were allowed, this doesn't undermine my other points, that they had a substantial black nationalist layer. This is not to say there were no communists in the party of course, but the party was far from homogeneous.

[More Fire for the People]

The cofounder of the BPP, Richard Aoki, was Japanese. The BPP was allied with the White Panthers, the Yippies, I Wor Kuen, Young Lords, Brown Berets, AIM, Young Patriots Organization, SDS, and the W.U. And the BPP had at least one white members, Robert Trivers.

[scarletghoul]

The Panthers were an organisation of the black community, so obviously the vast majority of their members were black. However they still had non-black members and associates.
Anyway they weren't really black nationalist. They were about bringing the black liberation movement to an anticapitalist socialist path, becuase they (or at least the leadership) realised that the problem was capitalism.
As a part of the black liberation movement of course there were some members more concerned with black nationalism than class struggle, however the leadership (Huey P Newton and Bobby Seale) emphasised marxist revolutionary ideas and the party's actions were based on marxism and some leninism and maoism

[Il Medico]

How can a guy who preaches world peace and pacifism be a communist, since they're incompatible with class struggle?
They are incompatible with means of obtaining communism, which will require violence. However, world peace is ultimately a goal of communism, is it not sheepy? ;)

[RedCommieBear]

I'm not sure about asian or latino's, but I am pretty sure about whites being excluded. Could you provide a source that white sympathisers were allowed?

Well, there was the White Panther Party (http://www.luminist.org/archives/wpp.htm) that was organized for white supporters of the BPP.

[SoupIsGoodFood]

Well, there was the White Panther Party (http://www.luminist.org/archives/wpp.htm) that was organized for white supporters of the BPP.

Separate but equal?

[More Fire for the People]

Separate but equal?
If you took the time to read, you'd know that the Black Panthers had white party members and the White Panthers were started by white radicals who sympathized with the Black Panthers.

[SoupIsGoodFood]

Oh, ok. Why didn't the white panthers just join the black panthers then?