Discussion Notes from the December 9, 2015 meeting
The Black Panthers and Utopian Practice
Readings:
Introduction by Mark Steinberg
Defining utopia has been a question not a foundation or premise. Among some key ideas in diverse discussions over past year and a half of what utopia can mean (perhaps relevant to question of utopia and the BPP)
- Utopia as less another (or no) place or time to imagine or escape to, than a vision (or a practice) that questions the world as it is (the present): Utopia as a conscious negation of “that which merely is” in order to point “to what should be.” Not a map of better future but a “source of disruption” to the present (esp. the “darkness of the present”)
- Utopia as self-critical knowledge: a challenge to the horizons of our own imaginations as to what is possible (and the horizons of what the world as it is tells us is normal and unavoidable).
- Utopia as a critical way of thinking about time, especially the conventional view of History as orderly linear movement forward (as merely “progress”). Rather: utopia as a time of rupture, refusal, and leaps
In this light, two famous quotes that may speak to our past discussions and the history of the BPP:
- “Marx says that revolutions are the locomotive of world history. But perhaps it is quite otherwise. Perhaps revolutions are an attempt by the passengers on this train—namely the human race—to activate the emergency brake.” (Walter Benjamin)
- Revolution as a “leap from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom.” (Marx and Engels)
Introduction of BPP by Sundiata Cha-Jua
General discussion
The Black Panthers and Utopian Practice
Readings:
- Ward Churchill, "'To Disrupt, Discredit, Destroy': The FBI's Secret War Against the Black Panther Party"
- JoNina M. Abron, "The Legacy of the Black Panther Party." The Black Scholar 17, no. 6 (1986).
- David Hilliard (ed.), The Black Panther Party: Service to the People Programs (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008)
- Huey P. Newton, "Let Us Hold High the Banner of Intercommunalism and the Invincible Thoughts of Huey P. Newton, Minister of Defense and Supreme Commander of the Black Panther Party." (18 Nov 1970)
- Robyn Ceanne Spencer, "Engendering the Black Freedom Struggle: Revolutionary Black Womenhood and the Black Panther Party in the Bay Area, California." Journal of Woman's History 20, no. 1 (2008).
Introduction by Mark Steinberg
Defining utopia has been a question not a foundation or premise. Among some key ideas in diverse discussions over past year and a half of what utopia can mean (perhaps relevant to question of utopia and the BPP)
- Utopia as less another (or no) place or time to imagine or escape to, than a vision (or a practice) that questions the world as it is (the present): Utopia as a conscious negation of “that which merely is” in order to point “to what should be.” Not a map of better future but a “source of disruption” to the present (esp. the “darkness of the present”)
- Utopia as self-critical knowledge: a challenge to the horizons of our own imaginations as to what is possible (and the horizons of what the world as it is tells us is normal and unavoidable).
- Utopia as a critical way of thinking about time, especially the conventional view of History as orderly linear movement forward (as merely “progress”). Rather: utopia as a time of rupture, refusal, and leaps
In this light, two famous quotes that may speak to our past discussions and the history of the BPP:
- “Marx says that revolutions are the locomotive of world history. But perhaps it is quite otherwise. Perhaps revolutions are an attempt by the passengers on this train—namely the human race—to activate the emergency brake.” (Walter Benjamin)
- Revolution as a “leap from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom.” (Marx and Engels)
Introduction of BPP by Sundiata Cha-Jua
- Officially the BPP existed from 1966-1982, but by 1977, it had changed into a different organization
- The only iconic images of black women post-Civil Rights era are Panther women
- George Jackson articulated the idea that the US was moving towards fascism
- CLR James’ argued that leaders are important not because of who they are, but what they represent; in this case, what did the Panthers represent? They wanted to galvanize the lumpenproletariat (which they defined using Fanon’s work more than Marx’s), and as a result, the Panthers can be seen as representatives of the black working class.
- Would not describe them as black nationalists (although black nationalism is intentionally not narrow); started as leftists, moved to internationalism, then revolutionary inter-communialism as a method of fighting against US imperialism.
- BPP’s strategy was linked to questions of armed defense
- After Newton is arrested in Oct 1967, a cult of personality forms around him; Eldridge Cleaver, a recent recruit, rises quickly in the ranks
- Legacy
- Self-defense
- Discipline
- Political Education
- Gender equality
General discussion
- How has gentrification affect the goal of the BPP and other movements designed to create a safe space for POC? How has politicized housing policy factored into this? Securing space has to be a goal of the movement. Destroying housing can destroy community, as we saw in the "Book in Common" discussion on public housing in Chicago.
- How has the conception of California as a space of utopian potential affected the development of the BPP in Oakland? How do economic concerns, like strike breaking and development, also come in to play? The lack of industrial jobs in the Bay Area in the 1960s meant that the group had particular pull with people who were out of work.
- One of the important innovations of the BPP was a critique of the police. How is this critique still relevant, and how have changes in the police force (greater militarization, slightly increased numbers of black police officers) changed the situation?
- When the theoretical basis of the BPP shifted, how did members adjust? How did they rely on political education for this goal?
- How did the different programs attract different types of members for the BPP? In 1970, for example, the majority of members were women. The community programs were designed to attract families and youths. Music and the BPP band were a particularly creative outlet.
- The BPP was founded in the same year as the Cultural Revolution in China. What connections to other movements, such as Maoism, can be made? When looking at wider transnational connections, the BPP is most closely linked to the Nation of Islam, when they took the Islamic idea of the pig as dirty and applied it to the police.
- How does Newton’s claim about the group being about survival rather than revolution connect to ideas about utopian practices ? How does Davina Cooper’s idea of “everyday utopias” fit in?
- Key idea in Newton: "survival pending revolution" -- with pending a key concept to examine (comparable to Bloch's utopian "not yet"? What will that revolution look like? Newton’s program was predicated on “showing” and the survival programs were aimed as showing a vision of the future in the present. On raising consciousness and organization. Relation to C.L.R. James's idea of "the future in the present."
- How utopian is the BPP? Can we look at the convention in Philadelphia as revolutionary (as it proposed an alternative to the US government) or non-revolutionary (as it took the form of a standard constitutional convention)?
- How does sexuality factor into the BPP? Newton gave a speech vouching for the revolutionary potential of gay men and many members were supportive, but there were others (most notably Cleaver) who were homophobic.
- What forms does black liberation take now? How does it connect to the local and the everyday?
- The BPP struggled with the Leninist dialectic of trying to build larger coalitions while also keeping a mind on the larger goal of revolution.
- What role does state co-opting play in dismantling the BPP’s goals? (For example, how does the BPP react when the public school system creates a public lunch system to co-opt their program?) To what extent are these attempts at co-optation by liberal moderates damaging, and how can they be used by the community?
- Why did the repression of the BPP work? What are the legacies of that history?