Author
~Bradley
Santa Cruz, CA. - On April 28, e-squared and the
href="http://soar.ucsc.edu/esoc/index.html">Ethnic Student Organization
Council (ESOC) at UCSC presented the 4th Annual Speaker Blowout: An evening
with Bobby Seale, cofounder of
the Black Panthers.
(1
hour and 55 minutes / 39.4 MB -- this includes 10 minutes of introduction and 25 minutes of Q&A)
The Ten Point Plan of the Black Panther Party For Self Defense
1. WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK
AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be free until we are
able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves, by fully
controlling all the institutions which exist in our communities.
2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.
We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to
give every person employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if
the American businessmen will not give full employment, then the
technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen
and placed in the community so that the people of the community can
organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.
3. WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALISTS OF OUR BLACK AND
OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are
demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and
two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and
mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency which
will be distributed to our many communities. The American racist has taken
part in the slaughter of our fifty million Black people. Therefore, we
feel this is a modest demand that we make.
4. WE WANT DECENT HOUSING, FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS.
We believe that if the landlords will not give decent housing to our Black
and oppressed communities, then housing and the land should be made into
cooperatives so that the people in our communities, with government aid,
can build and make decent housing for the people.
5. WE WANT DECENT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE OF
THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT EDUCATION THAT TEACHES US OUR TRUE
HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY.
We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a
knowledge of the self. If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your
position in the society and in the world, then you will have little chance
to know anything else.
6. WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR All BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE.
We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the
people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of
which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will also
develop preventive medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We
believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed
to give all Black and oppressed people access to advanced scientific and
medical information, so we may provide our selves with proper medical
attention and care.
7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK
PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, All OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED
STATES.
We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States
uses its domestic enforcement agencies to carry out its program of
oppression against black people, other people of color and poor people
inside the united States. We believe it is our right, therefore, to defend
ourselves against such armed forces and that all Black and oppressed
people should be armed for self defense of our homes and communities
against these fascist police forces.
8. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.
We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem
directly from the aggressive desire of the United States ruling circle and
government to force its domination upon the oppressed people of the world.
We believe that if the United States government or its lackeys do not
cease these aggressive wars it is the right of the people to defend
themselves by any means necessary against their aggressors.
9. WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U. S.
FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT
TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR All PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES
UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.
We believe that the many Black and poor oppressed people now held in
United States prisons and jails have not received fair and impartial
trials under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free from
incarceration. We believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched,
inhuman penal institutions, because the masses of men and women imprisoned
inside the United States or by the United States military are the victims
of oppressive conditions which are the real cause of their imprisonment.
We believe that when persons are brought to trial they must be guaranteed,
by the United States, juries of their peers, attorneys of their choice and
freedom from imprisonment while awaiting trial.
10. WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND
PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another,
and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to
secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of
government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the
people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government,
laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in
such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and
happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and,
accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are most disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing
the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses
and usurpation, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to
reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future
security.
href="http://www.blackpanther.org/TenPoint.htm">http://www.blackpanther.org/TenPoint.htm