Black Panthers on drugs?

[The Idler]

Were the Black Panthers destroyed by massive drug dumping by the CIA?
I looked this up and came across the following Black Panthers article critical of dope;
Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide (http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/1970/dope.htm)

[blake 3:17]

The Panthers and other Black nationalist groups in the US often raised their voices that drugs were being spread deliberately in the Black community. There hasn't been a whole lot of serious inquiry into this question.

I don't think the BPP were destroyed by drugs per se, but through vicious police repression.

Within North America, there are some very problematic approaches that the White Left has proposed and pushed, which may not work very well for oppressioned nationalities.

[Jose Gracchus]

Within North America, there are some very problematic approaches that the White Left has proposed and pushed, which may not work very well for oppressioned nationalities.

Can you be less cryptic, and more specific?

[chegitz guevara]

According to Elaine Brown, there was a serious problem with drugs in the BPP.

[Hampton]

I would venture to say that COINTELPRO was the biggest killer of the BPP, not drugs. Though from the time he got out of prison to the end of the Panthers, Huey was on a downward spiral with drugs until his death at the hands of a low level drug dealer. It was well known that Panthers would regularly shake down drug dealers for dealing in the community, but it was more for the money than for punishing them.

But the official BPP doctrine was no drugs or drinking while on duty, I believe.

[mosfeld]

I don't think the BPP were destroyed by drugs per se, but through vicious police repression.

You could compare it to the Naxalites of India today -- both had mass support, both were profoundly revolutionary, both were branded by the ruling classes of their respective countries as the "greatest internal security threat" and both underwent extreme repression in attempts to destroy their organization.

The question naturally arises as to why the Naxalites have been unbreakable whereas the BPP broke down after a few years. In my opinion, the reasons were mainly ideological. A few examples:

(1) Failure to apply Marxist-Leninist method (opportunism, eclecticism, pragmatism plagued the organization, absence of democratic centralism, etc)
(2) Viewing the lumpenproletariat as the leading force of revolution (take a look at Eldridge Cleaver's "On the Ideology of the Black Panther Party (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/bpp/bppideology1970.html)")
(3) Left-adventurism (focoist-style armed struggle headed by Eldridge Cleaver without active participation, and, as far as I know, support of the masses and at a time when the U.S. was not ready for armed struggle)
(4) Reformism (Bobby Seale running for Oakland Mayor in an attempt to "improve the community")

Make no mistake though -- brutal repression played its part in breaking the BPP. But I believe communists need to sum up the BPPs mistakes (which played a crucial part) and learn from them. Comrade Rashjid of the NABPP-PC did a fairly good job at that. Take a look at "Interview with Comrade Rashid (http://theworkersdreadnought.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/the-liberator-15.pdf)" (page 2 and onwards). Bob Avakian, in 1979, after working with them for years, made a speech on the Black Panther Party, which was later released as a pamphlet called "Summing Up the Black Panther Party (http://ia700106.us.archive.org/0/items/SummingUpTheBlackPantherParty/BPPAM2.pdf)", which is also a very good subsidiary to the above link based on his first-hand experience.