Defining Political Education & Demystifying the Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party was a wonderful organization.  I, like millions of others, have spent my entire life inspired by their courageous example.  Their fearless pursuit of police terrorists in the streets of Oakland, California.  Their blossoming into a national, and then international, organization that developed an outstanding legacy of struggle and resistance.  

Fifty plus years since their inception, people are still reading about the Black Panther Party (BPP).  And, there is plenty of literature about them to read.  There are books on every aspect of Panther life and existence.  There are multiple books by Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton.  There are books by co-founder Bobby Seale and other internationally known Panther leaders like Elaine Brown, David Hilliard, Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt), Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Assata Shakur, and Eldridge Cleaver.  There are books by regional Panther leaders like Aaron Dixon, Wayne Pharr, and Flores Forbes.  There are critical books written by Joshua Bloom, Waldo Martin, Charles Earl Jones, George Ketsiaficas, Huge Pearson, and others.  There are countless videos, children's books, and other material on the Panther party and their impact.  Some of this material is great.  Some of it subpar.  Some of it not good at all, but its out here and people are reading it.  Still, it must be said that just because people are reading everything about the BPP doesn't equate to people getting politically educated about what the Panthers mean to us.  

The fundamental difference between reading books and political education is significant.  Many people believe just reading books is getting politically educated and on a mini level this could be true, but this is not what we mean by political education.  We mean organizing components of study that are designed to take place within a collective and committed structure of analysis where collective reading and discussion is consistently carried out.  For us, creating this type of process is head and shoulders above any individual reading hundreds of books because collective study creates a systemic and comprehensive educational process.  The old saying that "two heads are better than one" applies here.  Having collective study and conversation that takes place regularly ensures that everyone who participates benefits from the perspectives and experiences of everyone else participating in the process.  On the other hand, the individual approach is good, certainly better than nothing, but its difficult to imagine a scenario where any logically thinking person could claim individuality is better than a collective effort.

Although people are reading about the BPP, mostly on an individual level, the fact this is the reality reflects the many problems with this approach.  First, we should add we say most people are engaging this on an individual level because of the results we see coming forth.  Most of the idealistic perceptions of the Panthers are still pretty much dominant.  There is very little critical analysis of their work and there is virtually no clear analysis developing of their core contradictions e.g. how their lack of political maturity nurtured the effectiveness of the government's efforts to destroy their organization.  Serious analysis around these questions isn't dominant as it relates to how the Panthers are perceived today because the majority of people talking about them are not themselves involved in collective struggle to advance our people and humanity.  The individual approach relies mostly on preserving idealism and subjective interpretations of who the Panthers were, what they did, and how we can best learn from their experiences.  Only collective and critical political education will bring out the type of analysis we really need about the Panthers.

The encouragement of more collective disciplined political education struggle around the Panthers will produce more concrete critique around the patriarchy dominant within the party.  Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, probably the most influential leaders within the BPP, and their terrible treatment of multiple women within the party including Kathleen Cleaver.  Surface level analysis around this question chooses to focus exclusively on Newton's speeches and writing on the subject instead of his actual behaviors. Meanwhile, Cleaver's admitted history as a rapist is used to make him the fall guy while ignoring the culture within the BPP that supported his predator behavior.   Also in need of reanalysis is the Panthers subjective glorification of the lumpen proletariat with a serious lack of concrete political education taking place around class.  Equally as problematic is this strange infatuation with some of Newton's ideas in the latter stages of his tenure as a leader in the BPP during a period when he was clearly unraveling at the seams.  His latter year analysis that because of imperialism's international stranglehold on world economics there is no longer such a thing as a nation state is understandable, but dismisses the objective reality that colonized people, in order to achieve our self-determination, must pursue our nationhood.  In fact, imperialism's efforts to destroy the nation concept was and is firmly rooted in its understanding that colonialism and neo-colonialism depend upon denying colonized people our nationhood e.g our self-determination - in order for us to prosper.  So, our solution isn't adopting the position of the European left that nations are ill-relevant.  Instead, African people must circle our wagons around reclaiming our national identity e.g. the total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism as articulated by Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Amilcar Cabral, etc.  Also, the Panthers early focus on the gun, without an equal focus on the political education of the masses of African people (so that the masses become armed, not just a few activists) is an error that too many groups today are still copy catting 50+ years later.

There is much to learn good and bad about the BPP, but the objective here isn't to tear down the Panthers.  As stated, we love the Panthers.  We certainly would not be here were it not for them, but what we need is to learn and grow from their work.  Not to manipulate their existence to justify our individual agenda for what we are or aren't doing today.  If people are sincere about building upon the Panther's legacy, then we must decide today that we all must be in organization's working for justice.  Revolutionary realities will never emerge without organization.  No individual can accomplish this so anyone claiming to want to build on the Panthers legacy while being without organization is someone who either doesn't really know how actual change takes place or they are are just unknowingly wasting their time and all of ours.  Only the masses of people make history so we have to move to a place where anyone talking about what we need, no matter who it is, without an organization, is considered for what they are, a hypocrite and someone not really serious about our liberation.  You can't name one serious African revolutionary and/or activist who wasn't in an organization.  Malcolm left one and started two.  Kwame was in several.  Marcus and Amy/Amy = organization.  Nkrumah was always in organization.  Sekou Ture.  Cabral, etc.  What is happening now where people are acting like they don't need organization needs to become akin to a crime against our people.  After we start getting people in organizations, we have to ensure those organizations have serious political education processes in place.  That means concepts of study e.g. nationalism, Pan-Africanism, Nkrumahism-Tureism, Marxist-Leninism, socialism, communism, organizing, etc., where these concepts are studied as modules.  Reading is assigned regularly and completed.  Facilitation is shared so that all can become effective at leading discussions.  The, the material studied can be used as intended, to be worked on in the field where our people suffer.  And, anyone who struggles with reading, comprehension, etc., is able to benefit from strategies to help them become comfortable.  With all of these essential things in place, we will begin creating political education apparatuses that will start to raise the level of consciousness all around us.  

Anyone reading here who interprets this as an attack against anyone only needs to seriously study the works I described in the beginning to see that most of the serious leaders within the BPP e.g. Kwame Ture, Assata Shakur, etc., said the very things I'm saying here.  In fact, it was directly from those historical giants that I learned how to see things this way.  Assata says quite clearly in "Assata" that the BPP lacked a clear political education program and the lack of this essential vehicle prohibited the party being able to critique the actions of the BPP.  She gives examples of how there was no criticism of the actions of Huey Newton after his release from jail in 1970.  How he actually transformed the BPP into an Oakland gang, exhorting money from African businesses in the mid 70s and carrying on much more egregious actions within the African community.  No criticism about any of this.  Kwame Ture talks about how the Panthers lack of discipline led to easy access into Panthers affairs by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Kwame makes it clear that it was these contradictions, not the often repeated lie that Kwame was against working with European militants that caused him to seek a different path, thankfully, which eventually led him home to Africa.  

The Black Panther will forever live on as a critical contributor to our people's forward progress and that contribution only grows in value the more we dig down deeper to learn how we can benefit more from what they left for us.  The burden now is on us.