Thursday 4 December 2008

REMEMBER FRED HAMPTON - ROLE MODEL FOR THE YOUTH


Fred Hampton: Martyr of the Liberation Struggle

Fred Hampton (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was an
activist and deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the
Black Panther Party (BPP). He was murdered in his apartment
by the the Chicago Police Department and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.

He was drugged and brutally killed at the age of 21 for
being one of the most effective upcoming leaders and
organisers of the Black Panthers. Panther Mark Clark was
also killed in the same attack.

This is how Mutulu Shakur (Tupac's Step-Dad, still in
prison today) recounts that day:

"Fred Hampton and several Party members including William O'Neal
came home to the BPP Headquarters after a political
education class. O'Neal volunteered to make the group
dinner. He slipped a large dose of secobarbital in Fred's
kool-aid and left the apartment around 1:30am, a little
while later, Fred fell asleep. Around 4:30am on December 4,
1969 the heavily armed Chicago Police attacked the
Panthers' apartment. They entered the apartment by kicking
the front door down and then shooting Mark Clark pointblank
in the chest. Clark was sleeping in the living room with a
shotgun in his hand. His reflexes responded by firing one
shot at the police before he died. That bullet was then
discovered to be the only shot fired at the police by the
Panthers. Their automatic gunfire entered through the walls
of Fred and his pregnant girlfriend's room. Fred was shot
in the shoulder. Then two officers entered the bedroom and
shot Fred at pointblank in his head to make sure that he
was dead, and no longer a so-called menace to society. It
has been said that one officer stated, "he's good and dead
now." The officers then dragged Fred's body out of his
bedroom and again open fired on the members in the
apartment. The Panthers were then beaten and dragged across
the street where they were arrested on charges of attempted
murder of the police and aggravated assault. The incident
also wounded four other Panther members."

One of the most important achievements of Brother Fred was
the brokering of a peace pact between Chicago's gangs and
the recruitment of some of them into the Panthers. He also
developed an alliance for struggle with gangs and other
progressive forces in the city which he coined the 'rainbow
coalition', a term and concept Jesse Jackson later
appropriated. He continues to be an inspiration today and
his example and martyrdom will always remain in the hearts
and minds of strugglers.

Sukant Chandan
Sons of Malcolm / Black Panther Commemoration Committee

Fred Hampton doc-film

POWER ANYWHERE WHERE THERES PEOPLE!

Power anywhere where there's people. Power anywhere where there's people. Let me give you an example of teaching people. Basically, the way they learn is observation and participation. You know a lot of us go around and joke ourselves and believe that the masses have PhDs, but that's not true. And even if they did, it wouldn't make any difference. Because with some things, you have to learn by seeing it or either participating in it. And you know yourselves that there are people walking around your community today that have all types of degrees that should be at this meeting but are not here. Right? Because you can have as many degrees as a thermometer. If you don't have any practice, they you can't walk across the street and chew gum at the same time.

Let me tell you how Huey P. Newton, the leader, the organizer, the founder, the main man of the Black Panther Party, went about it.

The community had a problem out there in California. There was an intersection, a four-way intersection; a lot of people were getting killed, cars running over them, and so the people went down and redressed their grievances to the government. You've done it before. I know you people in the community have. And they came back and the pigs said "No! You can't have any." Oh, they dont usually say you can't have it. They've gotten a little hipper than that now. That's what those degrees on the thermometer will get you. They tell you "Okay, we'll deal with it. Why dont you come back next meeting and waste some time?"

And they get you wound up in an excursion of futility, and you be in a cycle of insaneness, and you be goin' back and goin' back, and goin' back, and goin' back so many times that you're already crazy.

So they tell you, they say, "Okay niggers, what you want?" And they you jump up and you say, "Well, it's been so long, we don't know what we want", and then you walk out of the meeting and you're gone and they say, "Well, you niggers had your chance, didnt you?"

Let me tell you what Huey P. Newton did.

Huey Newton went and got Bobby Seale, the chairman of the Black Panther Party on a national level. Bobby Seale got his 9mm, that's a pistol. Huey P. Newton got his shotgun and got some stop signs and got a hammer. Went down to the intersection, gave his shotgun to Bobby, and Bobby had his 9mm. He said, "You hold this shotgun. Anybody mess with us, blow their brains out." He put those stop signs up.

There were no more accidents, no more problem.

Now they had another situation. That's not that good, you see, because its two people dealing with a problem. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, no matter how bad they may be, cannot deal with the problem. But let me explain to you who the real heroes are.

Next time, there was a similar situation, another four-way corner. Huey went and got Bobby, went and got his 9mm, got his shotgun, got his hammer and got more stop signs. Placed those stop signs up, gave the shotgun to Bobby, told Bobby "If anybody mess with us while were putting these stop signs up, protect the people and blow their brains out." What did the people do? They observed it again. They participated in it. Next time they had another four-way intersection. Problems there; they had accidents and death. This time, the people in the community went and got their shotguns, got their hammers, got their stop signs.

Now, let me show you how were gonna try to do it in the Black Panther Party here. We just got back from the south side. We went out there. We went out there and we got to arguing with the pigs or the pigs got to arguing-he said, "Well, Chairman Fred, you supposed to be so bad, why dont you go and shoot some of those policemen? You always talking about you got your guns and got this, why dont you go shoot some of them?"

And I've said, "you've just broken a rule. As a matter of fact, even though you have on a uniform it doesn't make me any difference. Because I dont care if you got on nine uniforms, and 100 badges. When you step outside the realm of legality and into the realm of illegality, then I feel that you should be arrested." And I told him, "You being what they call the law of entrapment, you tried to make me do something that was wrong, you encouraged me, you tried to incite me to shoot a pig. And that ain't cool, Brother, you know the law, dont you?"

I told that pig that, I told him "You got a gun, pig?" I told him, "You gotta get your hands up against the wall. We're gonna do what they call a citizens arrest." This fool dont know what this is. I said, "Now you be just as calm as you can and don't make too many quick moves, cause we don't wanna have to hit you."

And I told him like he always told us, I told him, "Well, I'm here to protect you. Don't worry about a thing, 'm here for your benefit." So I sent another Brother to call the pigs. You gotta do that in a citizen's arrest. He called the pigs. Here come the pigs with carbines and shotguns, walkin' out there. They came out there talking about how they're gonna arrest Chairman Fred. And I said, "No fool. This is the man you got to arrest. He's the one that broke the law." And what did they do? They bugged their eyes, and they couldn't stand it. You know what they did? They were so mad, they were so angry that they told me to leave.

And what happened? All those people were out there on 63rd Street. What did they do? They were around there laughing and talking with me while I was making the arrest. They looked at me while I was rapping and heard me while I was rapping. So the next time that the pig comes on 63rd Street, because of the thing that our Minister of Defense calls observation and participation, that pig might be arrested by anybody!

So what did we do? We were out there educating the people. How did we educate them? Basically, the way people learn, by observation and participation. And that's what were trying to do. That's what we got to do here in this community. And a lot of people don't understand, but there's three basic things that you got to do anytime you intend to have yourself a successful revolution.

A lot of people get the word revolution mixed up and they think revolutions a bad word. Revolution is nothing but like having a sore on your body and then you put something on that sore to cure that infection. And Im telling you that were living in an infectious society right now. Im telling you that were living in a sick society. And anybody that endorses integrating into this sick society before its cleaned up is a man whos committing a crime against the people.

If you walk past a hospital room and see a sign that says "Contaminated" and then you try to lead people into that room, either those people are mighty dumb, you understand me, cause if they weren't, they'd tell you that you are an unfair, unjust leader that does not have your followers' interests in mind. And what were saying is simply that leaders have got to become, we've got to start making them accountable for what they do. They're goin' around talking about so-and-so's an Uncle Tom so we're gonna open up a cultural center and teach him what blackness is. And this n****r is more aware than you and me and Malcolm and Martin Luther King and everybody else put together. That's right. They're the ones that are most aware. They're most aware, cause they're the ones that are gonna open up the center. They're gonna tell you where bones come from in Africa that you can't even pronounce the names. Thats right. They'll be telling you about Chaka, the leader of the Bantu freedom fighters, and Jomo Kenyatta, those dingo-dingas. They'll be running all of that down to you. They know about it all. But the point is they do what they're doing because it is beneficial and it is profitable for them.

You see, people get involved in a lot of things that's profitable to them, and we've got to make it less profitable. We've got to make it less beneficial. I'm saying that any program that's brought into our community should be analyzed by the people of that community. It should be analyzed to see that it meets the relevant needs of that community. We don't need no n*****s coming into our community to be having no company to open business for the n*****s. There's too many n*****s in our community that can't get crackers out of the business that they're gonna open.

We got to face some facts. That the masses are poor, that the masses belong to what you call the lower class, and when I talk about the masses, I'm talking about the white masses, I'm talking about the black masses, and the brown masses, and the yellow masses, too. We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you do'nt fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity. We say you don't fight capitalism with no black capitalism; you fight capitalism with socialism.

We ain't gonna fight no reactionary pigs who run up and down the street being reactionary; we're gonna organize and dedicate ourselves to revolutionary political power and teach ourselves the specific needs of resisting the power structure, arm ourselves, and we're gonna fight reactionary pigs with INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION. That's what it has to be. The people have to have the power: it belongs to the people.

We have to understand very clearly that there's a man in our community called a capitalist. Sometimes he's black and sometimes he's white. But that man has to be driven out of our community, because anybody who comes into the community to make profit off the people by exploiting them can be defined as a capitalist. And we don't care how many programs they have, how long a dashiki they have. Because political power does not flow from the sleeve of a dashiki; political power flows from the barrel of a gun. It flows from the barrel of a gun!

A lot of us running around talking about politics don't even know what politics is. Did you ever see something and pull it and you take it as far as you can and it almost outstretches itself and it goes into something else? If you take it so far that it is two things? As a matter of fact, some things if you stretch it so far, it'll be another thing. Did you ever cook something so long that it turns into something else? Ain't that right?

That's what were talking about with politics.

That politics ain't nothing, but if you stretch it so long that it can't go no further, then you know what you got on your hands? You got an antagonistic contradiction. And when you take that contradiction to the highest level and stretch it as far as you can stretch it, you got what you call war. Politics is war without bloodshed, and war is politics with bloodshed. If you don't understand that, you can be a Democrat, Republican, you can be Independent, you can be anything you want to, you ain't nothing.

We don't want any of those n*****s and any of these hunkies and nobody else, radicals or nobody talking about, "I'm on the Independence ticket." That means you sell out the republicans; Independent means you're out for graft and you'll sell out to the highest bidder. You understand?

We want people who want to run on the People's Party, because the people are gonna run it whether they like it or not. The people have proved that they can run it. They run it in China, they're gonna run it right here. They can call it what they want to, they can talk about it. They can call it communism, and think that that's gonna scare somebody, but it ain't gonna scare nobody.

We had the same thing happen out on 37th Road. They came out to 37th road where our Breakfast for children program is, and started getting those women who were kind of older, around 58---that's, you know, I call that older cause Im young. I aint 20, right, right! But you see, they're gonna get them and brainwash them. And you ain't seen nothin till you see one of them beautiful Sisters with their hair kinda startin getting grey, and they ain't got many teeth, and they were tearin' them policemen up! They were tearing em up! The pigs would come up to them and say "You like communism?"

The pigs would come up to them and say, "You scared of communism?" And the Sisters would say, "No scared of it, I ain't never heard of it."

"You like socialism?"

"No scared of it. I ain't never heard of it."

The pigs, they be crackin' up, because they enjoyed seeing these people frightened of these words.

"You like capitalism?"

Yeah, well, that's what I live with. I like it.

"You like the Breakfast For Children program, n****r?"

"Yeah, I like it."

And the pigs say, "Oh-oh." The pigs say, "Well, the Breakfast For Children program is a socialistic program. Its a communistic program."

And the women said, "Well, I tell you what, boy. I've been knowing you since you were knee-high to a grasshopper, n****r. And I don't know if I like communism and I don't know if I like socialism. But I know that that Breakfast For Children program feeds my kids, n****r. And if you put your hands on that Breakfast For Children program, I'm gonna come off this can and I'm gonna beat your ass like a ...."

That's what they be saying. That's what they be saying, and it is a beautiful thing. And that's what the Breakfast For Children program is. A lot of people think it is charity, but what does it do? It takes the people from a stage to another stage. Any program that's revolutionary is an advancing program. Revolution is change. Honey, if you just keep on changing, before you know it, in fact, not even knowing what socialism is, you dont have to know what it is, they're endorsing it, they're participating in it, and they're supporting socialism.

And a lot of people will tell you, way, Well, the people dont have any theory, they need some theory. They need some theory even if they don't have any practice. And the Black Panther Party tells you that if a man tells you that he's the type of man who has you buying candy bars and eating the wrapping and throwing the candy away, he'd have you walking East when you're supposed to be walking West. Its true. If you listen to what the pig says, you be walkin' outside when the sun is shining with your umbrella over your head. And when it's raining youll be goin' outside leaving your umbrella inside. That's right. You gotta get it together. Im saying that's what they have you doing.

Now, what do WE do? We say that the Breakfast For Children program is a socialistic program. It teaches the people basically that by practice, we thought up and let them practice that theory and inspect that theory. What's more important? You learn something just like everybody else.

Let me try to break it down to you.

You say this Brother here goes to school 8 years to be an auto mechanic. And that teacher who used to be an auto mechanic, he tells him, "Well, n****r, you gotta go on what we call on-the-job-training." And he says, "Damn, with all this theory I got, I gotta go to on-the-job-training? What for?"

He said, "On on-the-job-training he works with me. Ive been here for 20 years. When I started work, they didn't even have auto mechanics. I ain't got no theory, I just got a whole bunch of practice."

What happened? A car came in making a whole lot of funny noise. This Brother here go get his book. He on page one, he ain't got to page 200. I'm sitting here listening to the car. He says, "What do you think it is?"

I say, "I think its the carburetor."

He says, "No I don't see anywhere in here where it says a carburetor make no noise like that." And he says, "How do you know its the carburetor?"

I said, "Well, n****r, with all them degrees as many as a thermometer, around 20 years ago, 19 to be exact, I was listening to the same kind of noise. And what I did was I took apart the voltage regulator and it wasn't that. Then I took apart the alternator and it wasn't that. I took apart the generator brushes and it wasn't that. I took apart the generator and it wasn't that. I took apart the generator and it wasn't even that. After I took apart all that I finally got to the carburetor and when I got to the carburetor I found that that's what it was. And I told myself that 'fool, next time you hear this sound you better take apart the carburetor first.'"

How did he learn? He learned through practice.

I dont care how much theory you got, if it don't have any practice applied to it, then that theory happens to be irrelevant. Right? Any theory you get, practice it. And when you practice it you make some mistakes. When you make a mistake, you correct that theory, and then it will be corrected theory that will be able to be applied and used in any situation. Thats what we've got to be able to do.

Every time I speak in a church I always try to say something, you know, about Martin Luther King. I have a lot of respect for Martin Luther King. I think he was one of the greatest orators that the country ever produced. And I listened to anyone who speaks well, because I like to listen to that. Martin Luther King said that it might look dark sometime, and it might look dark over here on the North Side. Maybe you thought the room was going to be packed with people and maybe you thought you might have to turn some people away and you might not have enough people here. Maybe some of the people you think should be here are not here and you think that, well if they're not here then it won't be as good as we thought it could have been. And maybe you thought that you need more people here than you have here. Maybe you think that the pigs are going to be able to pressure you and put enough pressure to squash your movement even before it starts. But Martin Luther King said that he heard somewhere that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And we're not worried about it being dark. He said that the arm of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward heaven.

We got Huey P. Newton in jail, and Eldridge Cleaver underground. And Alprentice Bunchy Carter has been murdered; Bobby Hutton and John Huggins been murdered. And a lot of people think that the Black Panther Party in a sense is giving up. But let us say this: That we've made the kind of commitment to the people that hardly anyone else has ever made.

We have decided that although some of us come from what some of you would call petty-bourgeois families, though some of us could be in a sense on what you call the mountaintop. We could be integrated into the society working with people that we may never have a chance to work with. Maybe we could be on the mountaintop and maybe we wouldn't have to be hidin' when we go to speak places like this. Maybe we wouldn't have to worry about court cases and going to jail and being sick. We say that even though all of those luxuries exist on the mountaintop, we understand that you people and your problems are right here in the valley.

We in the Black Panther Party, because of our dedication and understanding, went into the valley knowing that the people are in the valley, knowing that our plight is the same plight as the people in the valley, knowing that our enemies are on the mountain, to our friends are in the valley, and even though its nice to be on the mountaintop, we're going back to the valley. Because we understand that there's work to be done in the valley, and when we get through with this work in the valley, then we got to go to the mountaintop. We're going to the mountaintop because there's a motherfucker on the mountaintop that's playing King, and he's been bullshitting us. And weve got to go up on the mountain top not for the purpose of living his life style and living like he lives. We've got to go up on the mountain top to make this motherfucker understand, goddamnit, that we are coming from the valley!

(SPEECH DELIVERED AT OLIVET CHURCH, 1969)

Thursday 13 November 2008

LIMITED EDITION BLACK PANTHER MAGZINE NOW AVAILABLE

BLACK PANTHER magazine now available


Dear Friends,


The ‘Panther Legacy’ magazine is now for sale.

[front cover pictured left]


This stylish-looking publication is exclusively designed by urban-artist Jaykoe. Just on aesthetics alone this is must have collector’s item.


You will not find magazine like this anywhere else!


This 36 page publication is jammed packed with extracts from the auto-biographies of Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Assata Shakur, Stanley Tookie Williams (founder of the LA street-gang Crips) and extracts from Tupac/2Pac Shakur’s biography amongst many other articles.


Panther Legacy includes Black Panther newspaper covers and other Black Liberation Movement artwork.

Price per one copy: £3 GBP / $5 USD / 3.60 EUR

+ p&p:

£0.50p to Britain / 1.30 EUR to Europe / $ 2.20 to USA and the rest of the world.


This limited edition publication can be bought by bank transfer to the following bank details:


Mr Sukant Chandan

Barclays Bank

Sort code: 20 49 76

Account No: 60480207


Please email/text/phone me to let me know the payment has been made and the magazine will be sent off to you straight away once payment is confirmed.

For multiple orders please contact me to work out p+p according to how many copies you would like.


Thanks,

Sukant Chandan

Editor of Panther Legacy magazine

sukant.chandan@gmail.com

0044 7709 112 126


[pic: Billy X head of the Black Panther Alumni holding the Panther Legacy magazine up at Sandino's Bar, Derry northern Ireland alongside Eamon McCann and Emory Douglas]

Sunday 9 November 2008

PANTHER LEGACY IN LADBROKE GROVE


[platform from the Tabernacle event, left-right: Emory Douglas, Massoud Shadrajeh from the Islamic Human Rights Commission, Sukant Chandan (chair) and Billy X]

Dear Friends,

The final event of the Panther Legacy tour organised by the
Black Panther Commemoration Committee and many other
friends, was concluded last night at the Tabernacle in
Ladbroke Grove with well over 100 people in attendance.

The BPCC would like to thank all the new friends we have
made in the organising of this week, all our volunteers and
especially Brother Emory Douglas and Brother Billy X from
the Black Panther Alumni.

This is a start of a new relationship with so many people
and organisations and we are stepping up to even bigger and
better things.

A more complete report will follow shortly.

All power to the people.

Black Panther Commemoration Committee

London, 10/11/08

PANTHER LEGACY IN PARLIAMENT: 5th Nov 08

BRIEF REPORT FROM PANTHERS IN PARLIAMENT, LONDON



[pictured left-right: Sukant Chandan (chair), Emory Douglas, George Galloway MP and Billy X]


Dear Friends,

Another great meeting held last night [05/11/08] in the Grand Committee Room in the Houses of Parliament.

Again, time does not allow me to give full credit to the content of the contributions by George, Emory and Billy X.

The meeting was jointly organised by the Respect political party and the Black Panther Commemoration Committee (BPCC). George Galloway Member of Parliament is the Respect party's leader, and also spoke last night.

On a day when the USA elected its first African-American President, we too made a little bit of history on this day by having Black Panthers speaking for the first time (to the best of our knowledge) in the Houses of Parliament.

The meeting was packed with around 80 people in attendance.

George Galloway made a great speech as per-usual, focusing on the mis-representation of the Black Panthers as offensively militaristic. Galloway stressed that rather their strategy was always one of self-defence. Galloway also spoke at some length about Obama's victory, and the controversies around his presidential campaign in relation to Bill Ayers and Obama's Muslim background. George mentioned that there must be something good in Obama's victory if only judging from the hysteria around his middle name 'Hussein', and the general right-wing and Zionist frenzied campaign against Obama.

Emory and Billy X both made great speeches recounting their experiences that led them to join the Panthers and their experiences thereof.

Emory talked of how the underlying injustices continue for working class and oppressed people of colour in the USA despite the Obama's achievement of reaching the presidency. Emory stressed that the causes of indecent housing, unemployment and racism still needs to be addressed. Emory also stated that McCain and those like him have not gone away and will keep putting pressure on Obama to disable him from making any progress.

It was particularly great to see so many young people attending this meeting. It is not often in political meetings that young working class people from both black and white backgrounds come together to and engage in discussion regarding the issues of race and class oppression and what to do about these issues.

After the the session of speeches and debate people in the room continued to discuss with each other in a general positive atmosphere of friendship and solidarity with the Panthers.

On behalf of the Black Panther Commemoration Committee I would like to thank Caroline, Kevin Ovenden and George Galloway, Alexandra, Fahim, Carrie and the Treatment Room crew, Black 9 Films who filmed the event, Steve and Henna who photographed the event, all those who attended, and all the BPCC volunteers and organisers.

Sukant Chandan
Black Panther Commemoration Committee
London, 6/11/08

BLACK PANTHER LEGACY IN BRIXTON: 3rd Nov 08


BLACK PANTHERS IN BRIXTON

[pictured: people at the meeting. On the left, Linton Kwesi Johnson making a contribution from the floor, Billy X at the back with the baseball hat and blue t-shirt]

Just a quick note to report on last night's event. Due to time
constraints, I cannot do justice to everyone's contributions on the
evening. However I thought it might interest people to read a little
something.

For those who don't know, Brixton is perhaps the beating heart of the
Black/West Indian community in Britain. It is a place of great
struggle, confidence and cultural vibrancy.

Here you can see a doc-film about the Brixton uprising
against police brutality.

Like any community of the oppressed, it is also a cultural
centre of the peoples, and has produced many great artists
and music.

Congratulations to all the sisters in the Remember Olive
Collective, a group of sisters in Brixton who have recently
set-up this collective to keep the legacy of Olive Morris alive.

Olive Morris was a young Black Panther in Brixton. They
organised a great meeting, the food was delicious courtesy
of Elaine Holness - Director of the Karibu Centre.

The event was packed out, around 150 people, standing room
only. There were the 'elders' of the movement there, many
former members from the Black Panther Movement from the
1970s, and many other younger members of the community.

Clarence Thompson eloquently recited his amazing poem in
dedication to the ANC struggle in 1985, a poem which is
displayed at the UN building in NY.

The great dub-poet and struggler Linton Kwesi-Johnson said
a few words of wisdom. He talked of the importance of the
Black Panther Movement (BPM) in opening peoples eyes to the
great contribution to literature of Black people, which
hitherto has been buried.

Neil Kenlock, founder of Choice FM (although he no longer
runs it) spoke of his involvement in the BPM, over a slide
show of pictures of struggle from the 1970s. Neil Kenlock
was photographer for the BPM.

Ana Laura, Liz, Linton and Neil all spoke endearingly of
Olive Morris and her commitment to liberation of all oppressed

and working class people. It was fitting that Yana Morris,

Olive’s sister, said a few words about her late Sister on behalf
of the Morris family.

Billy X of the Black Panther Party Alumni in the USA
explained how the Black Panthers comprised many young
people. He himself joined when he was only 17, and the
Party was comprised mainly of very young people. Billy X
talked about the importance that the BPP put on ideological
education, especially of Mao tse-tung's teachings.

Emory Douglas talked through a slide show of his incredible
art, giving insight and historical context to his work.

It was a touching movement of solidarity when around a
dozen people took a picture together, the people being
Billy X and Emory, with many former Black Panthers in
Brixton.

The Black Panther Commemoration Committee's new magazine,
'Panther Legacy' was very well received by people at the
meeting. This magazine can be acquired by getting in touch
with me.

Billy and Emory are today in another heart of resistance to
imperialism and racism - northern Ireland in Derry where
they are speaking with veteran civil-rights activist Eamonn
McCann, and also meeting a high-level delegation from the
Irish national-liberation and socialist movement Sinn Fein
and Sinn Fein Youth.

[Pictures to follow soon.]

Billy X and Emory are speaking with George Galloway MP
tomorrow in Parliament, see details HERE:

And we hope people will join us especially on this Saturday
at another centre of struggle and culture - Notting Hill /
Ladbroke Grove / Portobello, which will be a great night of
resistance and culture in a great venue - The Tabernacle -
and the last engagement of Billy X and Emory before they
leave - see HERE, or the facebook event page HERE:

Sukant Chandan
Black Panther Commemoration Committee

sukant.chandan@gmail.com

bpcc66@gmail.com

http://rememberolivemorris.wordpress.com/

Tuesday 7 October 2008

PANTHER LEGACY - 5pm Sat Nov 8th, Tabernacle, Notting Hill




Special guests:

EMORY DOUGLAS & BILLY X

Plus:
Darcus Howe, Bashy, Vanessa Walters & Zena Edwards

Saturday, November 8, 2008
5:00pm - 9:00pm
Tabernacle,
Powis Sq, W11
London

special guest speakers:

EMORY DOUGLAS - Former Minister of Culture of the Black Panthers; Black Panther/Black Liberation artist and designer of the Black Panther newspaper

BILLY X JENNINGS - Head of the Black Panther Alumni

DARCUS HOWE - Former Panther in Brixton, South London, and broadcaster and journalist

MC BASHY - London's rising star of grime

VANESSA WALTERS - One of Black Britain's best writers and playwrights

ZENA EDWARDS - Mesmerizing poetry, music and singing

The Black Panther Commemoration Committee in England consists of people from different political experiences and backgrounds who came together in the September 2008 united in the belief that the Black Panther Party for Self Defence was one of the most important experiences of oppressed people's social, political and cultural struggle in the West.

As such we have organised the "Panther Legacy" event to recognise the importance of art in revolution and representation.

Emory Douglas, former Minister of Culture in the Black Panther Party, is perhaps the person most responsible for conveying the politics of the Panthers into the mass consciousness of Black people in the USA and the oppressed across the world. Emory Douglas' beautiful and striking art-work in the Panther's newspaper conveyed the politics of the movement which embodied the humanity, defiance and revolutionary continuities of oppressed Black people in the US and their support for struggles across the world.

Please join us for a small exhibition of Panther artwork and activities, along with a Q&A with Emory and the head of the Black Panther Alumni and ex-Panther himself Billy X Jennings.


Chair: Sukant Chandan (Sons of Malcolm)

There will be some original panther artwork available on the night to purchase.

This event is a fundraiser for the Panther Alumni projects in the U.S. and the entry fee for the exhibition, Q&A and performance is just £10.

BOOK TICKETS **HERE**

*N.B The seating at this event is limited and tickets will almost certainly sell out. Please book in advance to avoid disappointment.

For more information check out our website or email us on the address listed.

http://blackpanther1966.blogspot.com/
07709 112 126

Thursday 2 October 2008

ABOUT US / AIMS / CONTACT

ABOUT US

The Black Panther Commemoration Committee in England
consists of people from different political experiences and
backgrounds who came together in the September 2008 united
in the belief that the Black Panther Party for Self Defence
was one of the most important experiences of oppressed
people's social, political and cultural struggle in the
West.


AIMS

The BPCC work towards keeping the experience and legacy of
the Black Panthers alive for current and future generations.

The BPCC support the excellent work of the Black Panther
Alumni.

The BPCC support and work towards campaigning for justice
and liberation of political prisoners who were associated
with the Black Panthers.

The BPCC understands that the Black Panthers had an
international impact, and we believe in raising
consciousness about the experiences and legacy of the Black
Panthers across the world, and especially here in England.

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CONTACT: bpcc66@gmail.com