Black Panther's Founding Father is Asian!

[RedStarOverChina]

http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Our_Stories/Chapter3/images/Richard/2_richard_2.gif

Another shade of Black Panther...
By Richard Aoki (Field Marshall)

Growing up was know easy job for Richard at the early stages in his life he and his family were placed in an Internment camp during World War II, a childhood prisoner held at Topaz Concenation camp in Utah from 1942-1945. He joined the military at a young age, Having left the Army after two years of service, Richard was intimately aware of the vicious treatment and punishment that the U.S. government could meter out.



Being Japanese-American and growing up in Black West Oakland, he was tight with Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, as well as David Hilliard years before the party started. He also attended Merritt College for two years before transferring to U.C. Berkeley in 1966. Richard remembers" we had discussed pressing political, social issues of the day, that we wanted to do something about it, so we got together one night and hammed out the 10 point program of the Black Panther Party.



Richard said, there were several Asian American members of the BPP, he was the only one attain a formal leadership role. Richard attended the first meeting of the BPP his connection to the community along with revolutionary politics and his action made it easy for other Panthers to accept him as a equal, he was made branch captain they accepted his rank, and later in the Party Huey promoted him to Field Marshall. Richard said, "one of the first things the Party did was patrol the police of Oakland, they were killing a dude a week, and set up Political Education classes for members and the community."



Richard says" I've seen where unity amongst the races yielded positives results. I don't see any other way for people to gain freedom, justice, equality here except by being inclusionst"



Enrolling at U.C. Berkeley soon after the founding of the BPP, Richard became a leading member of the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA). A student based organization whom platform closely resembled the Party's 10 point program. Richard would recruit blacks on the campus by passing out information and telling students about the Party and when Elrage Clever started teaching classes on campus in 1968(Experienmental class 139X) he was there organizing for the BPP.



From 1968, onward Richard was involved in networking with various groups cutting across communities, and nationalities. Richard says" One of the least understood aspects of the liberation movement era is the impact that many Black, Brown, Yellow, Red radicals had on one another. Ideological and organizational influences spilled across vast distances, while Panthers absorbed Maoism, Asian Americans took to the lectures and speeches of Huey Newton, Chicanos and Puerto Rican radicals replicated some of the BPP' Serve the People programs" as well as Native Americans like groups like AIM".



Richard was a founding member of the Third World Liberation Front on the campus of UO Berkeley in 1969 which was a formation of African Americans, Native Americans, Africans, Mexican Americans, Asian students, striking to win demands for a Third World College on campus.



The college would include departments for Chicano studies, and Native American Asian, and Africans studies, with the aim of the program being to help oppressed minority communities in American. TWLF is were striking for the same basic demands that the students at San Francisco State were. The formation of radical students successfully challenged, the most conservative intuitions in the nation the University system and won vital space in the form of Ethnic Studies Depts. On both UC Berkeley as well as San Francisco State campuses With these new departments has made higher education transformed the cultural imagation of many people and communities of color, thanks to people like Richard Aoki who paved the way for many others to fellow. Richard said, "That if it not for the BPP the many student and political groups for students rights would not have emerge."



Note: Richard donated some of the first defend weapons for police patrols to the BPP. Richard has always been active in the communities, and today after he has retired from his job, he still doing workshops and speaking about the past as well as present conditions like the War, Economy, and Police Abuse.

[RedStarOverChina]

Source:

http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Our_Stories...chard_Aoki.html (http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Our_Stories/Chapter3/Richard_Aoki.html)

[Hampton]

Interview with another Asian guy who was in the Panthers:

Mike Tagawa (http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/tagawa.htm)

[flyby]

Also, Bob Avakian (today chairman of the RCP,USA http://bobavakian.net) played an important role in and with the panthers -- and was even asked to join (though he is white).

This is discussed in his recent memoirs "from ike to mao" http://rwor.org/chair_e.htm#iketomao

and also in other essays I loved, like this one: http://rwor.org/a/1213/bahuey.htm

[rebelworker]

Also, Bob Avakian (today chairman of the RCP,USA http://bobavakian.net) played an important role in and with the panthers -- and was even asked to join (though he is white).
[QUOTE]

:blink:
In his dreams....

I bet he was chairman mao's real father too :lol: :lol:

No wonder this guy thought he was the leader of the proletariate :blush:
He is totaly delusional :lol: :lol:



Intersting post thought.

[Janus]

Hmm...very interesting. Barely any mention is ever made of Richard Aoki and I doubt many would believe it without compelling evidence.

自由-freedom
Huelga-It idles? What's that supposed to mean?

[Red Powers]

Huelga is spanish for strike as in idle workers I guess.

[The Grey Blur]

What was that Chinese organization? The Yellow Power or something? Or maybe that was just their slogan...

[Scars]

What were the exact membership requirements of the Black Panthers?

[Hiero]

Originally posted by Rage Against The [email protected] 30 2006, 06:08 AM
What was that Chinese organization? The Yellow Power or something? Or maybe that was just their slogan...
I think it was called Yellow Peril. I have seen a picture of a Chinese man holding a sing saying "Yellow Peril supports Black Power, Free Huey!"

[CombatLiberalism]

You can read original documents from the BPP at the Maoist Internationalist Movement's Black Panther Newspaper Collection: http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bpp/index.html

[Hampton]

Or go to http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com

[UltraLeftGerry]

Flyby said:
Also, Bob Avakian (today chairman of the RCP,USA http://bobavakian.net) played an important role in and with the panthers -- and was even asked to join (though he is white).

Is there any evidence of this apart from what Avakian says? Can you point me in the direction of former BPP members that have things to say about Avakian?

[bcbm]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 09:56 PM
Is there any evidence of this apart from what Avakian says? Can you point me in the direction of former BPP members that have things to say about Avakian?
I dug around a bit on Google and it seems that Avakian did work closely within that scene as part of other groups, but I couldn't find anything backing up his claims about them wanting him as a "secret member." I did find this gem though:

http://www.illegalvoices.org/knowledge/gen...d_vanguard.html (http://www.illegalvoices.org/knowledge/general_articles/mythology_of_the_white-led_vanguard.html)

[Nicky Scarfo]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29 2006, 10:02 PM
What were the exact membership requirements of the Black Panthers?
Well, they didn't include being Black if that's what you mean. If you look at some of the photos of uniformed BPP cadre in formation back then, you can usually pick out one or two White faces in the ranks.

Crazy multicultural Californians-- one of the two founders of the Mexian Mafia was a White Irish-American guy named Joe Morgan who grew up in East LA w/ the cholos.

[Black Dagger]

I dug around a bit on Google and it seems that Avakian did work closely within that scene as part of other groups, but I couldn't find anything backing up his claims about them wanting him as a "secret member." I did find this gem though:

http://www.illegalvoices.org/knowledge/gen...d_vanguard.html

Haha, that was a great read, thanks!


well, they didn't include being Black if that's what you mean.

Shhhh, don't say that! You'll spoil Scar's fun! The BPP were 'black nationalist separatists don't ya know? :rolleyes:

[bcbm]

Well, they didn't include being Black if that's what you mean.

“As far as our party is concerned, the Black Panther Party is an all black party, because we feel as Malcolm X felt that there can be no black-white unity until there first is black unity. We have a problem in the black colony that is particular to the colony, but we’re willing to accept aid from the mother country as long as the mother country [white] radicals realize that we have, as Eldridge Cleaver says in “Soul on Ice”, a mind of our own. We’ve regained our mind that was taken away from us and we will decide the political as well as the practical stand that we’ll take. We’ll make the theory and we’ll carry out the practice. It’s the duty of the white revolutionary to aid us in this.” [“Huey Newton talks to the Movement about the Black Panther Party, Cultural Nationalism, SNCC, Liberals and white revolutionaries.”; taken from “The Black Panthers Speak”, edited by Philip S. Foner.]

[Hampton]

You did have to be black to be in the Black Panthers. I would venture to say that just because they had a few asian guys included when the party was in its infancy and now who really don't get mentioned when talking about the Panthers says something, despite the fact that they had titles within the group or not. Chairman Bob eagerly recalls his days "with the Panthers" when he was spokesman for the Peace and Freedom Party, which the Panthers worked with on many occasions, but that does not mean he was in the party.

[Hiero]

I have been listening to and watching clips at this website.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificapanthers.html

Some clips have the BPP members singing a song. It goes something like "revolution has come (something said that i thinik is "off the pigs"?) time to pick up the gun (off the pigs?) pigs are going to catch hell". Then there are some more verses about revolution and anti pig stuf.

Im not sure about the "off the pigs". I read it on a website but it is not verified by a BPP authority. Does anyone have the lyrics to the song?

[JimFar]

As I recall, the biologist, Robert Triviers, who is white, was permitted to join the Black Panther Party. I do know for sure, that Huey Newton was godfather to one of Triviers' children.

[Hampton]

The pig are gonna catch hell (off the pigs)
No more brothers in jail (off the pigs)
No more pigs in our community (off the pigs)
The revolution is coming (off the pigs)
Time to pick up the gun(off the pigs)

I always thought it was.

[Scars]

<<Shhhh, don&#39;t say that&#33; You&#39;ll spoil Scar&#39;s fun&#33; The BPP were &#39;black nationalist separatists don&#39;t ya know?>>

Black nationalists? Most definately, they were self proclaimed black nationalists. Large sections of the Black Panthers could be classified as separatists, however I don&#39;t think it was offical Black Panther policy.

Much of what the Black Panther&#39;s did was positive, I particularly support the social schemes that they set up (for instance the &#39;free breakfast for children&#39; programme, free education programmes and courses, free rehab clinics and so on), but their approach was flawed due to their insistance on &#39;black nationalism&#39;, a reactionary concept that only serves to divide the working class into warring factions based on bogus concepts of &#39;nationality&#39;, &#39;race&#39;, &#39;ethnicity&#39; and so on.

[Hiero]

Originally posted by [email protected] 8 2006, 06:55 AM
The pig are gonna catch hell (off the pigs)
No more brothers in jail (off the pigs)
No more pigs in our community (off the pigs)
The revolution is coming (off the pigs)
Time to pick up the gun(off the pigs)

I always thought it was.
Does "off the pigs" mean "kill the pigs"?

[Black Dagger]

Yes.

[Hampton]

Black nationalists? Most definately, they were self proclaimed black nationalists. Large sections of the Black Panthers could be classified as separatists, however I don&#39;t think it was offical Black Panther policy.

Black nationalist for only a short period of time. From 1966-1968 I would say that they were nationalists, which Huey&#39;s degination of black nationalism being "black community control free of outside interference, particularly of police." It also stressed race consciousness, intraracial cooperation, and the building controlling, and maintaining of black institutions and all the other things mention in the 10 Point Platform, housins, jobs, and not being in the military.

By 1969-70 they began to focus on capitalism as the enemy and were not focusing on race as much. He went on to say "We have to evils to fight, capitalism and racism."

They were both followed by Internationalism and then Intercommunalism.

Check out Huey P. Newton: The Radical Theorist by Judson L. Jeffries

[CombatLiberalism]

The following might be interesting to readers in this thread. Here are the BPP in their own words:


THE BLACK PANTHER

(Pamphlet, 1970)

On the Ideology of the Black Panther Party

By Eldridge Cleaver – Minister of Information, Black Panther Party

The following article introduces a new series of articles on the ideology of the Black Panther Party by our Minister of Information, Eldridge Cleaver.

"One of the great contributions of Huey P. Newton is that he gave the Black Panther Party a firm ideological foundation that frees us from ideological flunkeyism and open (sic) up the path to the future."

Eldridge Cleaver
Minister of Information
Black Panther Party U.S.A.


We have said: the ideology of the Black Panther Party is the historical experience of Black people and the wisdom gained by Black people in their 400 year long struggle against the system of racist oppression and economic exploitation in Babylon, interpreted through the prism of the Marxist-Leninist analysis by our Minister of Defense, Huey P. Newton.

However, we must place heavy emphasis upon the last part of that definition— &#39;interpreted . . . by our Minister of Defense..&#39;. the world of Marxism-Leninism has become a jungle of opinion in which conflicting interpretations, from Right Revisionism to Left Dogmatism, foist off their reactionary and blind philosophies as revolutionary Marxism-Leninism. Around the world and in every nation people, all who call themselves Marxist-Leninists, are at each other&#39;s throats. Such a situation presents serious problems to a young party, such as ours, that is still in the process of refining its ideology.

When we say that we are Marxist-Leninists, we mean that we have studied and understood the classical principles of scientific socialism and that we have adapted these principles to our own situation for ourselves. However, we do not move with a closed mind to new ideas or information. At the same time, we know that we must rely upon our own brains in solving ideological problems as they relate to us.... (Read the full document here, with commentary by MIM, Source: http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bpp/bppideology1970.html )


The Huey P. Newton Reader
[Link to Amazon books. Don&#39;t click the book links if you don&#39;t want Amazon tracking you/selling you things.]

Seven Stories Press, 2002, p. 172-3
Huey Newton on reparations from the empire

"The United States, in order to correct its robbery of the world, will have to first return much of which it has stolen. I don&#39;t see how we can talk about socialism when the problem is world distribution." (Source: http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bpp/book...parations.html) (http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bpp/books/reparations.html))


THE BLACK PANTHER
April 20, 1969. Page 20.

"WHY WE SUPPORT CHINA"

It seems highly unlikely that the intentional involvement of the United States Airforce plans, in the intrusion into and the exercising of territorial domain over parts of Laos called the Ho Chi Minh trail, is a random move.

This involvement is designed to coincide with the United States undercover Pig the Soviet Union of Russia. Trends in this country to form closer ties to the Soviet Union and the experts of the Soviet Union to reciprocate are further indications of the revisionism, which has led the people of Russia and the people under her control, i.e. Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovokia, Romania, East Germany and Yugoslavia closer into the gaping jaws of colonialism and the searing teeth of capitalism and has produced the aggressive movements of Russian troops and cut out movements of Russian troops and diplomatic barks thrown at our brothers in China.

This move then must be taken as an endorsement of the war in Viet Nam, otherwise how could it be possible for the campaigns to proceed simultaneously. Is it so diametrically unopposed to one another over night. Or could the avaricious fools who dictate foreign policy have for both countries decided that even though they differ somewhat when they are dealing with a "Civilized Country," means anything that has a white or a white thinking puppet when it comes to dealing with a non-oppressive or non-white country, their differences cease to exist.

Marxist-Leninist theory indicates that we must unite with real friends in order to distinguish real enemies, and we all know that capitalism is our real enemy. Marxist-Leninist practice because it is nice to never become divorced from practice, proves out the theory that anything that our enemy attacks must not be all bad for us, and anything that our enemy does not attack cannot be all good for us and in most cases will be more good than bad. We know capitalism is our enemy. Capitalism is the United States government and the U.S. government is capitalism. The U.S. is preparing for directly and is attacking indirectly the People&#39;s Republic of China; it is not yet attacking the Soviet Union. Unite with real friends in order to defeat real enemies.

There is too much co-existing with the oppressor. There is one common denominator that is very glaring in the previous sentence in each case there are two dominant classes, the haves and the have nots, the oppressor and the oppressed.

China stands as a beacon to all revolutionaries around the world: the guiding light showing the path to freedom to all of our brothers in Africa and Asia. For this and only this reason has she been singled out for attack. The imperialists in Russia and the U.S. realize in their cunning that if they can stop the revolutionary and dynamic thrust, of China, them and their lackeys, with no China to face can continue to subjugate and exploit Africa, Asia, Latin America, Harlem, Watts, Oakland and your neighborhood wherever you may happen to be, but what they don&#39;t realize is that you and I will not let them.

FREE HUEY
PANTHER POWER TO THE VANGUARD
BLACK POWER TO BLACK PEOPLE -- FREE HUEY
Raymond Jennings, East Oakland branch, BPP

[MC5 comments: The BPP was right about China then. After Mao died and the revisionists arrested the Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen, China had capitalism restored and it ceased to be a beacon for revolutionaries everywhere. Now there are no socialist countries anymore.] (Source: http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bpp/bpp200469_20.htm )

The Maoists have put up a BPP archive at: http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bpp/bppideology1970.html

People should read it.