The Stars and Stripes, symbol of the world's mightiest imperialist power, unfurl and flutter out over the Olympic stadium, suddenly there is a swelling roar from the crowd, a babel of anger and approval, as two black gloved fists are raised in a salute of pride and defiance,
This incident, blazing from the front pages of the newspapers, brought home to millions of people in every continent the extent of the hatred of black Americans for the racialist society which has oppressed them for so many bloody and weary decades. But more than that, it showed also the growing influence of an organisation which has been the recipient of more violent hatred, and more judicial victimisation than any other radical movement in the post Second World War history of the United States, the Black Panther Party. The clenched fist in a black glove is their salute. More and more it can be seen in the ghettoes of the big cities, along with the uniform of a black beret, black leather jacket, and a bullet on a chain worn round the neck.
An analysis of the Black Panthers is useful for marxists in this country since the Black Power movement here is in its infancy, and, by examining the experiences of the U.S. black struggle, we can draw some conclusions which will help us to have a correct attitude and give assistance to the struggle of black people here. In particular, such an examination is a good answer to those on the left who see nothing positive in the Black Power movement.
When contrasted to the first attempts to organise black people in the U.S. the Panthers are a very positive development. Less than a decade ago Afro-Americans mobilised on two levels, one political, which strove for a better deal inside American society (the N.A.A.C.P. and similar movements), the other, a religious one, which was for the rejection of U.S. society by black people (the Nation of Islam). Neither was a completely satisfactory instrument for the black struggle. By peaceful moral campaigning the N.A.A.C.P. was able to achieve the integration of small sections of middle-class blacks into the system, while conditions for the masses of ghetto poor got worse and worse. On the other hand, the Muslims achieved genuine results in overcoming the effects of demoralisation among black people by teaching them that they should be proud of being black, and that it was possible for black people to organise themselves without relying on white do-gooders. Neither tactic could solve the long term needs of black people since neither had an analysis of the basic causes of the black people's oppression. The answer to this came from a leader of the Muslims, one of Elija Mohammed's most trusted aides, who left after a disagreement over the assassination of J.F. Kennedy.
During the short fifty weeks between his break from the Muslims and his death by an assassin's bullet, Malcolm X did more than any man before or since to explain the reason for the black man's subject role in the nation he had helped to build. He had found the answer in Africa. Travelling there to find out about the black man's past, he discovered that his present in Africa was subjection by imperialism. Applying this lesson to America, he taught the black people the necessity of linking themselves with the world-wide fight against imperialism. His untimely death prevented him from building an organisation capable of doing this.
Drawing on Malcolm X's ideas, the experience of S.N.C.C. and the other black power organisations, the Panthers have come out as a clear cut political organisation with a programme of demands which deal with the immediate problems of the black community: demands for decent housing, for an end to the exploitation of the ghetto by profiteering white businessmen, for control by black people of their community, for control of education so that black children are taught the truth about their history and are not conditioned to accept an inferior status in society, and for an end to police brutality against black people. [illegible] militants who can step in and deal with the racist cops any time they start to victimise black people, and it is this challenge to the power of the state more than anything else that has earned them the hatred of white establishment.
But above all the Panthers have come out for a socialist struggle against imperialism and capitalism, and for building alliances with other oppressed peoples within and without the U.S. Representatives of the Panthers have been warmly welcomed in Havana, and the Panthers are enthusiastic about the achievements of the Cuban revolution.
In a cool, disciplined, determined way the Black Panthers are setting about transforming the black communities into centres of struggle against all that is rotten in American society. It is their discipline above all which frightens the U.S. ruling class. The fact that the Panthers persuaded the black communities of Oakland not to riot on the night of Martin Luther King's murder is much more menacing than a dozen cities going up in flames, because it implies a discipline which could overturn them if it spreads widely enough.
The Black Power movement in Britain has far to go, but has learned a great deal already from the experience of the Afro-Americans. It would be a strengthening factor if the ideas of the Black Panther Party took a firm root here.
There are some political criticisms which supporters of INTERNATIONAL would make of the Panthers: their support for Fidel's mistaken line on the invasion of Czechoslovakia, their call for a United Nations sponsored plebiscite to determine the fate of the Afro-American people, and their election coalition with the middle-class, liberal Peace and Freedom Party. We have no difficulty, however, in supporting their courageous fight for the advancement of their black communities, and their placing of this struggle in the context of the fight of the colonial world against imperialism. An examination of the development of the black struggle in the U.S. can leave us with no doubt that the Black Panther Party represents a tremendous step forward for black Americans and for the world revolution.