Seize the Time
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SEIZE THE TIME Vol.1 No.1 April 10,1974 25c Malcolm X "WHEN A PERSON PLACES A PROPER VALUE ON FREEDOM, THERE IS NOTHING UNDER THE SUN THAT HE WILL NOT DO TO ACQUIRE THAT FREEDOM. WHEN• EVER YOU HEAR A MAN SAYING HE WANTS FREEDOM, BUT IN THE NEXT BREATH HE IS GOING TO TELL YOU WHAT HE WON'T DO TO GET IT, OR WHAT HE DOES NOT BELIEVE IN DOING IN ORDER TO GET IT, HE DOESN"T BELIEVE IN FREE• DOM. A MAN WHO BELIEVES IN FREEDOM WILL DO ANYTHING UNDER THE SUN TO ACQUIRE OR ACHIEVE HIS FREEDOM, AND HE WILL DO ANYTHING UNDER THE SUN TO PRESERVE HIS FREEDOM. AND THE ONLY REASON YOU AND I HERE IN AMERICA DON'T YET HAVE FREEDOM IS WE HAVEN'T YET MATURED TO THAT STAGE WHERE WE CAN SEE THIS IS THE REAL PRICE, OR THE REAL ATTITUDE OR THE REAL APPROACH THAT ONE MUST MAKE." Page 2 . SEIZE THE TIME> "JUCHE MEANS HOLDING FAST TO THE PRINCIPLE OF SOLVING FOR ONESELF ALL THE PROBLEMS OP THE REVOLUTION AND CONSTRUCTION IN CON• FORMITY WITH THE ACTUAL CONDITIONS AT HOME." KIM IL SUNG(DRK) JUCHE SECTION The North Korean Communist Party has treated the same way. firmly established the principle of "Ju- These and other acts caused the BPP che" as the basic principle of national JUCHE to split betweem those vjho laid down their guns to work alongside the pigs' self-reliance in building revolutionary masses beyond their spontaneous uprising Struggle, This section of the paper con• to a higher level of political and mili• system and those who continued the work tains articles concerning the National tary organization, preparing them ulti• of the freedom fighters before us. The Liberation struggles of oppressed people mately for pretracted urban guerrilla East Coast BPP is representative of these within the United states, Kim II Sung ex• warfare and liberation. heirs oi Malcolm X and Denmark Vesey(an plains Juche more fully: "The establish• The basis for such widespread imme• ex-slave who planned and organized an up• ment of Juche means holding fast to the diate support from almost every part of rising of all the slaves in Charleston, principle of solving for oneself all the the Black Nation was the BPP primary unfortunately betrayed by a house slave problems of the revolution and construc• slogan of "An unarmed people are subject and executed by the slaveownlng state). tion in conformity to the actual condi• to slavery at anytime," and "When the They state, "The prlma.ry obiective of the tions at home and mainly by one'a own ef• people move towards liberation, they must BPP Is to establish revolutionary poli• fort. Thia is an independent Stand, dis• have the basic tool of liberation: the tical power for Black peoplt. Our Party carding dependence on others, displaying gunI" Support for the BPP grew into the is an armed body for carrying out the the spirit of SQlf-rellance and solving largest mass base for a revolutionary or• pftlitleal tasks of the revolution,,.Be• one'a own affairs on one's own responsi• ganisation in the history of the USA. It sides fighting to destroy the enemy's bility under all eireumstances"...V(WQ) Included families, old people, little oppressive forces and military strength, have made every effort to establish Juche children, workers, lumpen youth, students, our party should also shoulder such Im• in opposition to dogmatism and flunkyism, professionals, other Third World people portant tasks as doing propaganda amon? Juche in ideology, independence In poll- and oppressed whites. the masses, organizing the masses, aw• tics, self-reliance in the economy and The BPP laid down correct political ing Black people, helping them to estab• self-defense in national defense — this practice and lines on united front, com• lish revolutionary political power and is our stand." munity organizing, internationalism, and setting up party organizations." African Resistance The New Urban Guerrilla So today we are witnessing the birth Since 1619 when Africans were brought of the New Urban Guerrilla. Enriched with here as htman cargo to toil the soil of a history of our past struggles and ex*- the new world, we resisted by every me• perlences, we have learned it has been thod available to us. Everywhere and in the guns and force manifested in the mi• every way Black people resisted the en• litary that occupies our communities that croachment of the enemy. We used spears, directly oppress and brutalize us. To be rocks and captured weapons. Trudging, an assailant today is a quality thali* en• chained and barefoot, to waiting coastal nobles any honorable man engaged in armed ships, we broke our chains and used them struggle against this military dictator• as weapons against our enemy. ship. We continued to resist after we land• You do not have to be a member of a ed on alien shores. We formed unions with revplutionairy erganlzation and get orders •acive A»eric«ns such as the Seminole Na• from it in order to participate in revo• tion and resisted. Ve organized, fought lutionary action. You do need to careful• and HDD the Haitian Revolution. We re• ly consider the purpose, the target, and belled with DenMrk Vesey, Nat Turner and the reaction of most Black people if your Sojovner Truth. We organized and con• action is to be truly revolutionary. In ducted escapes with Harriet Tubman. self-defense. It also contributed the any case, self-reliance is key. To be a Back heme on the continent, Tchaka first revolutionary communication system revolutionary is to make revolution. Zulu and the Zulu warriors resisted the that linked revolutionaries and the masses When starting to plan concrete ac• Dntch Invasion of South Africa. The Ashan- all across the country. The Party's paper tions, you must start with the basic con• ti fov^t the British in West Africa. The provided news on international, national cept that you are going all the way, that Ethiopians fou^t the Italians, and the and local struggles, revolutionary ana• is to take a life in order to save life. Nau-Man foo^t the British In East Africa. lysis and regular articles on revolution• Your strategy(main plan) is to stop, slow ary theory. Tbe hiatory of Black Resistance in down or hurt in any way the poxjer stuue- the U.S. reached a turning point in the Naturally, the oppressor could not ture you are fighting T*hlle educating the period 1964-1968. After going through a tolerate the revolutionary example that people about it. The tactics(operation) period of peaceful means of protest(sit- the BPP set for millions of people. The you use to do this is governed by your ins, boycotts, etc.) the Black masses In police state was determined to wipe out ability and resources. The brief notes several major cities rose in spontaneous the Party by arrests, bombings and assa- this article makes about armed struggle rebellion. This was the first of the slnations. Two years of bitter military can not replace technical knowledge and "long, hot suBiners" which climaxed in and "legal" battles began between the Par• the Detroit rebellion of August 1967, In ty and police agents. these four suonera, the broad masses of After many losses, the Party began African people unleashed the rage that to win. In 1969 Geronimo(Elmer Pratt) and had been building up for centuries. Us• the Los Angeles Chapter held off hundreds ing the molotov cocktail as the people's of LA police. People began to defend the bomb, we inflicted billions of dollars Party as their o\m hope for the future. worth of property damage. Then came the The pig backed do\m from the attacks they aseasination of Martin Luther King in planned on San Francisco and Oakland head• the first week of April 1968. Simultane• quarters. Soon after, at the Detroit of• ous rebellions took place in one hundred fice and at the New Orleans NCCF office, and twenty-five cities. In Washington the Black masses put themselves on the D.C. alone, it took 14,000 federal troops line in the defense of the Party and its to put down the uprising. programs for the first time. The attacks on the Party also made The Role of the Black Panther Party clear that "in revolution one either dies or wins." The only other alternative is As a result of these mass uprisings to give it up. That is what Oakland lead• many Black revolutionary organizations ership did. It said that when the BPP were formed. The most important has been was the theoretical and practical lead• the B ership of both the Black Nation and the the Black Panther Party. The party began US revolutionary movement, we were in• in Oakland in 1966 as a consciously re• fantile and cultlst. It denounced Geron• volutionary group that expressed the imo who had led the historic defense of needs and desires of Black people and the LA office as a counterrevolutionary crystallized them into their Ten Point "pig and dog", Tt purged the NY 21 and Program and Platform. From the beginning called them "enemies of the People". the Party attonpted to lead the Black Field Marshal D.C. and many others were Geronimo led successful L.A. defense. SEIZE THE TIME Page 3 1 am a Black revolutionary woman and Medgar Evers, Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, because of this I have been charged with George Jackson, Nat Turner, James Chaney and accused of every alleged crime in and countless other Black Freedom Fight• which a woman was believed to have parti• ers.