>From 'ancient' political activity in the U.S. (going back to the '30s
and before) come down to us such slogans as "Black & White, Unite and
Fight," "Black and white together / We shall overcome." Two points about
these slogans: (1) they were miserable failures, and would be miserable
failures if used now; (2) there is some _ultimate_ sense in which they
are completely correct and point the way to the future: that is, it is
clear that major changes in the U.S., let alone revolution, will only be
brought about by a mobilized working class uniting in some way all the
national minorities and ethnic groups that make up the U.S. It is also
clear that as things stands this is an utterly empty notion.
Now a preliminary note about "learnng from history." It is nearly a point of dogma that we study t he mistakes of the past so as not to repeat them. This is utter horseshit, for when those mistakes reappear they will be so transformed in appearance and style that we will never, simply by looking at history, recognize them. The mistakes or crimes of a period simply have to be met in the terms of that period.
But if we are careful; if we know how to abstract rather than merely generalize and mouth banalities, we _may_ learn something from shoving aside the errors and crimes and stupidities and failures of past movement activity to grasp what was RIGHT and REMAINS RIGHT TODAY.
The Panthers. I probably know more about them and their weaknesses than most of the nimrods over on the marxism list who a week or so ago were squeaking about their "ultra-leftism." They had major major weaknesses (though ultra-leftism was definitely NOT one of them.) But they had a vision, which in a clumsy way they in part put into practice, which I think Something of this is reflected in the way Fred Hampton spent the last months of his life, speaking to white groups and going around to Black high schools in Chicago and gving a speech which centered on criticism of the Weatheman faction of SDS. (Incidentally, both Malcolm and King were moving towars this in the last months of THEIR lives.) Also perhaps it is worth mentioning that the Panthers were a driving force in the creationof the Peace&Freedom Party in 1958, Seale and Cleaver coming to Ann Arbor to participate in the National Convention. That effort failed miserably and never quite got off the ground, but that failure (like the ultimate failure of the Panthers) is irrelevant.
The Panthers grasped, in practice more than in rhetoric, the _ultimate_ necessity of Black and White together. (Unfortunately they far too late also recognzied the necessity of Male & Female togethr - but that too is irrelevant for us.) But they also recognized that Blacks could be brught into the 'larger movement' (what Eric and shag nicely name 'real politics') only through the agency of a Black Revolutionary Party with a strong base in the Black Community, representing Black interests and capable if necessary of acting on its own. Were such a Party in existence now the conference in Amherst a couple weeks ago would have shown more than the one Black face I saw there.
That is the gate to the future.
The FBI had a better understanding of the potential in the Panthers than did most of the 'white' movement of the '60s. Hence one of the most savage repressions in U.S. history. Jan and I virtually pleaded with two different local groups merely to pass a resolution condemning repression of the Pantthers. No dice - that was irrelevant, was the reply, to the anti-war movement; it would "turn off" whites who might become anti-war. When SDS (RdYM2) brought Hampton here to speak a couple weeks before his death, there was outrage on campus that, as the Panthers insisted) that all who attended be searched for weapons at the door. One faculty member who was so outraged did have the decency, just after Hampton's murder, of dropping by my office and saying, "I apologize. You were right.)
Carrol