White Panthers / Young Patriots

[TooManyQuestions]

Anyone have a good source of information on non-black groups that allied themselves with the BPP for Self Defense?

Thanks

[Sasha]

Not with the BPP (though I know the rockband MC5 was active in the white panters), the book "no surrender" by David Gilbert has a lot of useful stuff about his choice to join the Black Liberation Army and the distinct difference in treatment he and his comrades recived from the state in contrast to his fellow white Weathermen who didn't join the BLA.

[TooManyQuestions]

thanks

[Sasha]

Not about the US but still usefull and related might be the founding statement of the white anti-apartheid organisation Okhela in which they explain why they chose not to join the ANC because blacks needed to liberate themselves and whites should take a supportive role in that.
I'll look for it online but I know it can be found in the really impressive memoirs of founding member Breyten Breytenbach "the true confessions of an albino terrorist" which I recommend reading anyways, its easily one of the best books I ever read.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Only thing I know about the "White Panthers" is that John Sinclair (manager of the MC5) started it/led it.

My favorite story about him was that he supposedly put up a giant billboard above his house during the 1967 Detroit riot that said "BURN BABY BURN" (which was later sprayed liberally with gunfire by Detroit police)

[Popular Front of Judea]

This book has long been on my wish list. I would happily write a review of it if any comrades donated a copy :grin: :

The historians of the late 1960s have emphasized the work of a group of white college activists who courageously took to the streets to protest the war in Vietnam and continuing racial inequality. Poor and working-class whites have tended to be painted as spectators, reactionaries, and, even, racists. Most Americans, the story goes, just watched the political movements of the sixties go by.

James Tracy and Amy Sonnie, who have been interviewing activists from the era for nearly ten years, reject this old narrative. They show that poor and working-class radicals, inspired by the Civil Rights movement, the Black Panthers, and progressive populism, started to organize significant political struggles against racism and inequality during the 1960s and 1970s. Among these groups:

+ JOIN Community Union brought together southern migrants, student radicals, and welfare recipients in Chicago to fight for housing, health, and welfare . . .

+ The Young Patriots Organization and Rising Up Angry organized self-identified hillbillies, Chicago greasers, Vietnam vets, and young feminists into a legendary “Rainbow Coalition” with Black and Puerto Rican activists . . .

+ In Philadelphia, the October 4th Organization united residents of industrial Kensington against big business, war, and a repressive police force . . .

+ In the Bronx, White Lightning occupied hospitals and built coalitions with doctors to fight for the rights of drug addicts and the poor.

Exploring an untold history of the New Left, the book shows how these groups helped to redefine community organizing—and transforms the way we think about a pivotal moment in U.S. history.

HILLBILLY NATIONALISTS, URBAN RACE REBELS, AND BLACK POWER (http://www.mhpbooks.com/books/hillbilly-nationalists-urban-race-rebels-and-black-power/)

[Anti-White]

The White Panthers?

Some kind of white attempt to appropriate Black Revolution for their own purpose or a hipster pose to seem edgy and "real?'

The latter.

[Consistent.Surprise]

Only thing I know about the "White Panthers" is that John Sinclair (manager of the MC5) started it/led it.

My favorite story about him was that he supposedly put up a giant billboard above his house during the 1967 Detroit riot that said "BURN BABY BURN" (which was later sprayed liberally with gunfire by Detroit police)

Yes he did. Detroit based action.

BTW I gained a short look at his personal archives. I nearly fainted.

[Consistent.Surprise]

The White Panthers?

Some kind of white attempt to appropriate Black Revolution for their own purpose or a hipster pose to seem edgy and "real?'

The latter.

Actually, it was in response from the Black Panther party when asked what white people could do. The answer was to start their own party, so they did. Sinclair was very much in communication with the Black Panthers. He even travelled with Cleaver when he was in exile.

[blake 3:17]

John Sinclair is a hero. Later on he did other very funky cultural work.


I'm not sure that the WPs or similar groups, like Black Mask, amounted to much.
There's some good stuff in Stewart Home's Assault on Culture.
Sinclair contributed to Exquisite Corpse in the 80s and 90s. Saw some good stuff there.

I had some correspondence with Franklin Rosemont of the Chicago Surrealists in the 90s.
They were pretty orthodox Bretonian Surrealists. I've a collection of their manifestos and there's an attack on Black Mask but not WP. The Chicago Surrealists were older and more organically oriented to working class struggle, as well as celebrants of Black liberation.


There's a good memoir by Bommi Baumann 'How It All Began' who was part of a similar milieu in Germany.

[Sasha]

On black mask/up the wall motherfuckers they recently published an anthology of their comuniques etc, I got it but haven't read it yet.

http://libcom.org/library/black-mask-against-wall-motherfucker-incomplete-works-ron-hahne-ben-morea-black-mask-gro

[Os Cangaceiros]

^I've read it. It ain't that good.