The Black Panthers and Maoism

[Bilan]

It's been mentioned by a few people on here that the BPP considered themselves a Maoist organization, however, I thought that one of the fundamental principles of Maoism was that, instead of placing emphasis on the proletariat for revolutionary potential, it placed it on the peasantry.
How did, or does, this relate to the BPP?

[black magick hustla]

Originally posted by Proper Tea is Theft@October 22, 2007 12:57 pm
It's been mentioned by a few people on here that the BPP considered themselves a Maoist organization, however, I thought that one of the fundamental principles of Maoism was that, instead of placing emphasis on the proletariat for revolutionary potential, it placed it on the peasantry.
How did, or does, this relate to the BPP?

It places emphasis in the peasantry in as much as it can be revolutionary.

[Devrim]

Originally posted by Proper Tea is Theft@October 22, 2007 12:57 pm
It's been mentioned by a few people on here that the BPP considered themselves a Maoist organization,

I think that this has been massively exaggerated on here. There was a Maoist influence, but the BPP had lots of tendencies in it. If one were an anarchist, like yourself, one could talk about the anarchist influence in the BBP for example, Kuwasi Balagoon, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, or Ashanti Alston.

Devrim

[shawney]

in referring to the black panther party, most certaintly we cannot leave george l. jackson outta the equation, and most certaintly angela davis, probaly the most strongest nucleus within the ranks of the panther party, in retrospect...
shawney...

[bolshevik butcher]

I think that it is fair to say that the Black Panthers Party leadership were maoists or at least heavily influenced by Maoism but as for the bulk of the party itself I could not answer that. As has already been mentioned there was a wide range of tendencies that emerged from the Black Panthers Party, and beyond that I am not aware of what the theoreticl level of the rank and file was. Was it even high enough for the party to be described as a maoist party? Genuine question there, I'm not being judgemental.

[Rawthentic]

In underdeveloped countries, like China, the peasantry is the main force, while the proletariat is the leading force. This was necessary in China because if the CCP only organized in the cities, the bourgeoisie could easily regroup in the countryside and attack. The "proletarianization" advocated by Li Li-san in the CCP was an orthodox Comintern strategy, but lead to massive loss of life and ignored the peasantry, for the most part. The peasantry was the vast majority of the masses, and in Mao's strategy there was forged proletarian-peasant unity, under the leadership of the proletariat.

Mao Tse-tung was upheld by the top leaders such as Huey P.Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and Fred Hampton. What the Black Panther Party did to create their 10-Point Program was apply the Mass Line, which we know is a Maoist tactic.

[rebelworker]

The BPP formaed as a non ideological group to deal with problems like poverty and police brutality in Oakland California.

At the time the little red book was becoming very popular with white intelectuals, so the groups leaders decided to pick up copies cheap in chinatown, then double the price and sell them on UC berkeley campus. The money they made was used to buy guns for their copwatch program.

It was several months later the group decided to actually open the thing up ad read it....

The panthers leadership were influenced by the book, but took many other influences aswell. They could can be characterised as maoists in so far as they beleived in the tight hierarchical and centralised leadership espoused by Maoism (Newton was the Chairman of the party). Also in the later days they had limited contact with the chineese govt. Leading party militants would most certainly have read some Mao, and the language used in their party paper is clearly influenced by Maoists thought.

All the Panthers that became anarchists did so later, mostly when coming in contact wth anarchist in prison(both other prisoners and through prisoner support networkslike the Anarchist Black cross and books to prisoners programs). Their onversion usually came after their critiques of the failing of the parties rigid leadership structure(and the leadership battles that helped lead to its downfall), as well as the general decline of Maoism in the US and elsewhere.

Some, like Ashanti Allston, credit the anarchist leanings of Mao (who was an anarchist for many years) for helping the process of transition.

Il post more on this later.

[Hampton]

I'd say it would be safe to wager that the majority of the Panther membership didn't give dick about Mao or Maoism. Thence the reason why Huey was a popular symbol but a poor speaker, besides his nasally voice he talked about things that they did not understand.

We had the same thing happen out on 37th Road. They came out to 37th road where our Breakfast for children program is, and started getting those women who were kind of older, around 58---that's, you know, I call that older cause Im young. I aint 20, right, right! But you see, they're gonna get them and brainwash them. And you ain't seen nothin till you see one of them beautiful Sisters with their hair kinda startin getting grey, and they ain't got many teeth, and they were tearin' them policemen up! They were tearing em up! The pigs would come up to them and say "You like communism?"

The pigs would come up to them and say, "You scared of communism?" And the Sisters would say, "No scared of it, I ain't never heard of it."

"You like socialism?"

"No scared of it. I ain't never heard of it."

The pigs, they be crackin' up, because they enjoyed seeing these people frightened of these words.

"You like capitalism?"

Yeah, well, that's what I live with. I like it.

"You like the Breakfast For Children program, n****r?"

"Yeah, I like it."

And the pigs say, "Oh-oh." The pigs say, "Well, the Breakfast For Children program is a socialistic program. Its a communistic program."

And the women said, "Well, I tell you what, boy. I've been knowing you since you were knee-high to a grasshopper, n****r. And I don't know if I like communism and I don't know if I like socialism. But I know that that Breakfast For Children program feeds my kids, n****r. And if you put your hands on that Breakfast For Children program, I'm gonna come off this can and I'm gonna beat your ass like a ...."

That's what they be saying. That's what they be saying, and it is a beautiful thing. And that's what the Breakfast For Children program is. A lot of people think it is charity, but what does it do? It takes the people from a stage to another stage. Any program that's revolutionary is an advancing program. Revolution is change. Honey, if you just keep on changing, before you know it, in fact, not even knowing what socialism is, you dont have to know what it is, they're endorsing it, they're participating in it, and they're supporting socialism.

[Marsella]

Wow that's a fantastic depiction, Hampton, of what was really going down.

When and where did that happen?

[blackstone]

Originally posted by Martov@October 24, 2007 02:45 pm
Wow that's a fantastic depiction, Hampton, of what was really going down.

When and where did that happen?

The speech was from Fred Hampton and it took place around 1969 in Chicago.

[RedJacobin]

Originally posted by Proper Tea is Theft@October 22, 2007 12:57 pm
It's been mentioned by a few people on here that the BPP considered themselves a Maoist organization, however, I thought that one of the fundamental principles of Maoism was that, instead of placing emphasis on the proletariat for revolutionary potential, it placed it on the peasantry.
How did, or does, this relate to the BPP?

It's not true that Maoism places emphasis on the peasantry instead of the proletariat as the revolutionary agent. Maoist theory says that, in the colonial and semicolonial countries, the peasantry will be the main fighting force, led by the proletariat and its party. This is the concept of new-democratic revolution through protracted people's war, and forms only one part of Maoist theory.

Some additional points on the BPP and Maoism that others haven't mentioned: 50% of political education classes in the BPP were devoted to the Red Book. That figure comes from an internal memo of the Party. Also, the Panthers' eight points of attention and three rules of discipline were taken word for word from the Chinese revolutionaries. See the book "Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party."

However, I don't think it's accurate to describe the BPP as a Maoist organization. There were different tendencies in the party. Some, like Fred Hampton, were more influenced by revolutionary communism and the Cultural Revolution (see the documentary "The Murder of Fred Hampton"), while others had more nationalist political lines. But, as an organization, they played a very big role in popularizing Mao and influenced the rest of the revolutionary left in the U.S. in that direction. Later on, organizations that were deeply inspired by the Panthers like the Revolutionary Union and others moved to organize explicitly around "Marxism-Leninism Mao Tsetung Thought," which is when the first Maoist organizations in the U.S. were formed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Communist_Movement