Postscript to my response to Michael Wright. How can one be aware of
the Cointelpro physical extermination of the Black Panthers'
leadership nationwide until the organization became ineffectual, and
not understand that the government practices discrimination against
African-Americans in the sphere of political repression as in all
others?
Permit an excerpt from my Saying No To Power:
"Nineteen sixty-nine closed with an event in which commitment to
the advancement of Blacks required physical courage. Early in
December, Chicago police conducted a pre-dawn raid, murdering BNlack
Panther leader Fred Hampton in his bed. THIS WAS PART OF A NATIONWIDE
PATTERN IN WHICH THAT ORGANIZATION'S LEADERSHIP WAS PHYSICALLY
DECIMATED. Later that month word came down that a similar raid would
occur upon the founding Black Panther organization, that of Oakland,
although its headquarters was actually a couple of blocks over the
line in Berkeley. Whites were needed to stand guard around the
building, in the hope that police would not shoot randomly into them.
Tanya and I went down, and found about fifty other whites there. Most
were 1960s youth, but there were others in their 50s, chiefly old-time
radicals like ourselves. By the close of the '60s, would-be
world-changers were divided into at least half-a-dozen warring sects:
Maoist, Trotskyist of several varieties, pro-Soviet Communist. After
the fashion of religious sectarians from time immemorial, they would
not even speak to each other, and there had been a couple of violent
incidents. In the aftermath of the People's Park military occupation
and mass shooting, willingness to be at Panther headquarters that
night was a litmus test of sincerity. I felt a surge of warmth to all
present. They were the core who meant what they said."
WilliM Mandel
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