a tape recording of the following - libcom.orglibcom.org/files/sept_4_vol7_no2_1971.pdf · 2012....

10

Upload: others

Post on 02-Jan-2021

3 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: A tape recording of the following - Libcom.orglibcom.org/files/Sept_4_Vol7_No2_1971.pdf · 2012. 12. 29. · A tape recording of the following statement, made by our fallen com-rade,
Page 2: A tape recording of the following - Libcom.orglibcom.org/files/Sept_4_Vol7_No2_1971.pdf · 2012. 12. 29. · A tape recording of the following statement, made by our fallen com-rade,

A tape recording of the followingstatement, made by our fallen com-rade, George Jackson, was played tothe thousands who attended the revolu-tionary memorial services for ourField Marshal. We print it here foryour close study.

the element that's guiding that socialunit. and attempt in some way -andwe'll get possibilities, there are athousand ways of approaching: playingon loyalties; or, let's say, the moneything, the money syndrome, we've hadthat trained into us from infancy; orthey' II attempt to show us the futilityof our actions; and then perhaps, if

America and the establishment notbeing able to deal with Black national-ism. Well they have been. They'vebuilt foundations, you know, the FordFoundation, Rockefeller Foundation,and so forth. They bought them off..How do we stop those things fromhappening. As far as Pm concernedour dialectic, our intentions, our goalsare so mutually exclusive to those ofour opposition, that I can't see any-where we can find anything to agreeon. And, we have to stop it right fromthe beginning. In other words, no ac-ceptance of tokens, none whatsoever ,in the building of the People's world.We do it on our own. We do it withour own facilities. And to say thatwe can't do it, to say that we don'thave the personnel, that we don't havethe financial means is just like sayingthat producers can't produce, thatbreadmakers can't make bread. Wedon't need them. That's the whole point.So we stop them by barring them com-pletely from our program.

We can't limit ourselves to anyoneparticular form of struggle; but Pmsaying that the peoPle who are giventhe responsibility of deciding whichfacilities that we'll take and use forour own, for the building of the infra-structure, for our own, I think thatthese peoPle should use extreme cau-tion and always bear in mind that theunderlying motive is tokenism, and atall times be -cynical. Take, yes; but,take it in the spirit of reparations,and reparations only.

We have a very, very, very touchy,fundamental problem; and, I think itbegins with the ideal -I don't thinkwe fully understand the period or stagethat we're in right now, the stage ofthe struggle that we're in right now.The ideal situation, where each man canbe a man, can be an individual -andI don't mean in the existentialist sense -where each man can be truly free, tomake decisions on his own. Makedecisions on his own, and from hisown mind. We haven't reached that

CONTINUED ON NEXT p AGE

The co-optation thing is a mechanismof the American brand of fascism.We have to understand that first. Inessence, how it works is that eachgroup, each social unit, larger thantwo, the powers-that-be will approach

that doesn't work, they'll exPlain to ushow ac~lly our goals are the sameas theirs and that they're not suchbad guys after all. But it's worked.It's worked in the past. You've heardthe stories, the tales about white

Page 3: A tape recording of the following - Libcom.orglibcom.org/files/Sept_4_Vol7_No2_1971.pdf · 2012. 12. 29. · A tape recording of the following statement, made by our fallen com-rade,

IlIE IJL,\CK P.\N'nIER, S,\TURD,\y, SEPTEMBER 4,1971 P.\GE .1

FIELD MARSHAL GEORGE JACKSON

history. And they each took a differentform. In Spain, Francoism and theSpanish new state, that was one form;Italian fascism, that was one form; theRumanian armed guard, that was oneform; then, of course, the nationalsocialism ofGermany, that was anotherform altogether; Peronism, that wasanother form -that has to be examinedvery carefully, because there wereseveral asides that altered it from thLother forms that swept EuroPe. TheprinciPal difference betweenPeronisniand the thing that Vargas pulled offin Brazil is that thaugh both thosecountries were under the influence,the sphere of influence of the Unite(£States, and, in effect, they were reall:ineo-colonies and had been ever sinc.Jthe Monroe Doctrine -actually their(Argentina's Peronism) particularbrand of fascis~ W1S in a W1y (thi,-is a very abstract and com;licate;lquestion) -this particular form tende,lto mirror the samt' thing that wen'dow:'L here in this co'antry. Peron dis-guised his palticular fascism almos,as a ba'Mfit to the workers. I mealand disguised it mnre So than the thingin Germany. The thing in German:\'W(;;s outright slavery. It was like, a'far as I'm co:'tcerned, my reading 0.1history, it looked like almost a reversion to the slave state. Wherea."Peron was shrewd Jnough to try to.~eep a balance -a real balance, no:real, but, let's say, a superficialbalance -betwi.'en the w:Jrking classand th,~ 'i"uling class -which is justaboat what happened here in thisCo'.l;~try -and paralleled a brand, theparticular brand of corporative fas-cism here in this country.

ImPortant in the understanding offascism, I believe, is not to confusethe different dimensions of the move-ment. And, we firstly concede that i,!is a movement, a thing, like I said,at the oPening of monopoly capital.First it's obvioUS that once monopolycapital started forming,old bour-geoisie dem,')cracy began to die, inprocess. As monopoly caPital tookover political rule, the political ~Ieof, lee's term it, bourgeoisie demo-cracy started diminishing. And at theend of that process, like I said, theculmination of that process, wasalmostotal centralization. So it's not (question of coup, it's not a question 0.a certain uprising of a small politi-

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

'1

CONTINUED FROM LAST p AGE

point yeti and it might be 2,000 yearsbefore we reach that point. Right now,at the present, to think that that thingis possible is verging on anarchy. AndI seriously feel that the problem liesin the fact that we don't understandwhat Democratic Centralism means,and its function and its power, and itspower to all of our movement. I really,seriously don't believe that anythingcan be accomplished without Dem,)-cratic Centralism at this stage, be-cause we've inherited things fromthousands and thousands of years agointo our character, into our beings.In particular, we've inherited thingsover the last 300 years of capitalismand over the last few decades of fas-cism, corporativism. We've inheritedthings that disallow us from, let'ssay,egalitarian conduct. I think we have torecognize that, and understand that ourmovement has to be carried by, guidedby disciplined and sincere; but or-ganized, Democratic Centralism.

Power, in its essence, has a growthprocess, just like everythinf( else. If

we snatch that thing up out of itsprocess and look at it as it WAS, we'relooking at a thing that's dead. It's athing in process, just like everythingelse. It goes through a state of in-fancy, maturity and then, of course,decline. The prestige of power at itsmaturity is a thing that will preventpeoPle from acting against that power.This pig is a psychological thing, astate of being wherein the bourgeoisiereign of terror need not rely on vio-lence to sustain itself. It's relyingon something that happened in thepast, or some accom,'>lishm.int, orsom~, let's say, coup, that went doumin the past, where it secured itself.And it's drifting at this point, theprestige of power means that it'sdrifting at this paint and living off itslaurels. At this stage, peoPle just arenot inclined to attack that power. So,consequently, our first attack is onthe prestige of pow2r. That was Jona-than's job, to destroy the prestige ofpower, the iconoclastic act of crushingsymb).!s. Once these symbols arecrU$,lzed, and peoPle see that they arevu~erable, then we can move on toth\3 aciual destruction of the ba;gs ofpower. Because powllr, after, afterthe destruction of the pre.itige of power ,POWfJY will be ,fo',ced to revert backto its o',iginal force, raw brute force-violence.

First of all, I'd like to clear up acouPle of points in that area that havecome up, criticisms of my particularanalysis of fascism. First, I wouldlike to state unequivocally that com-plete totalitarianism, the perfect to-talitarian state is impossible. We'vehad 6,000 years of hierarchy; we'vehad 6,000 years of attempts, of menmaking attempts to Place themselvesabove society. It's never worked; it'snever worked. So, in essence, purefascism, pure totalitarianism is im-possible, first of all. Then I'd like toemphasize tlwt fascism right from thebeginning::,. pnd when I say beginning,I'm going altthe troy back to the pointwhere monopoly caPitalfirst started itsformation -the culmination ofmonopoly capital was the fascist cor-porative. And it took different formsin different countries; and those dif-ferent forms were principally account-able to the differing national situations,the differing crises that the particularnations were facing; and, of course,the difference in time and Place in

Page 4: A tape recording of the following - Libcom.orglibcom.org/files/Sept_4_Vol7_No2_1971.pdf · 2012. 12. 29. · A tape recording of the following statement, made by our fallen com-rade,

DIE BLACK PANUiER, SA'nJRDAY, SEPI'EMBER 4, 1971 PAGE 4

FIELD MARSHAL GEORGE JACKSON

ANALYZES THE CORRECT

METHOD IN COMBATING

AMERICAN FASCISM

Western nations, or advanced indus-trial states, had expanded to the pointwhere expansion was no longerpossible, So they closed their economyand started such projects as theelectrificatton of a railroad in Italy,remember; and the draining ofmarshes, remember, A,;d then (ofcourse, you don't remember, but you'veread about it), in Germany, rearma-ment was the thing. In the United States,we had T. V.A. (Tennessee Valley Au-thority), remember -you know, theybuilt the big dam over the TennesseeRiver and put peoPle to work, make-work. They were re-allocating invest-ments, turning them inward, the closedeconomy idea. And then, the CCCcamps, so forth like that, the sametype of projects, the same type ofeconomics, stiff regulations on the im-port-export thing. To be certain thatthe balance that existed in a particularnation's favor, the politics and the ec-onomics were the same, the :1Xactsame, with just slight variations, ac-cording to the particular national stateof capitalist dilapidation.

this, II Anyone who advocates the violent

overthrow of the United States issubject to expulsion from the Party."That's the second, spectacular stage.But the third stage is the stage whereinfascism is a secured thing, cor-porativism. Can anyone look around theUnited States and say that this is nota corporative state ? With the old guard,the point they attempt to use to per-suade us that fascism is not a maturefascism in this country yet is a verysimplistic idea, that FDR (Franklin D.Roosevelt) and the New Deal and thething during the war were actually nnattempt to create a welfare state.N othing could be more ridiculous. Canyou believe the United States wouldtoday encompass a welfare state. No-thing could be more ridiculous. FDRwas a fascist. Roosevelt was a fas-cist. And the thing that went downduring the' 30' s and '40' s was not just

.similar, but it was exactly the same.~i,Jfg with national differences, nat,onal

differences, it was the same thing thatwent down in Italy, Rumania, Spain,Germany, or Argentina, Brazil. It'sthe same thing .They first attempted toclose the economy and use the surpluscapital of accumulation to work outproblems that should have been workedout long ago right here in the UnitedStates: And that's the essence of thewhole closed economy idea. Expansion,at that point, wasn't working any more;it wasn't possible because the various

Once secure and in power -in theUnited States that point was reacheDduring the McCarthy era -once secureand in power, it was possible for themthen to allow some dissent. It waspossible then for them to have a C.P .(Communist Party). just so long as"that C.P. didn't have any teeth; itwas possible, then, for them to allouus to form what appeared to be an op-position party. But, now. to make mJpoint very clear, a real oppositiorparty did come into existence. ThfBPP, Black Panther Party. What hap-pened. What happened -they reverte(back to the second stage. back to thfsecond dimension. They were kicki~doors in (,':ruJ killing beople. It's prlittJobvious. It'S pretty obvious that (mature fascism exists in thi:) countryand it eXIsts in .1isg'Uise, and the .:1is-guise takes theform .Jfall those idioticrirliculoltS statements aboll1 a IIJelfarE"~ta:!]. [I any'lody with any IntelligencEat all can look at the United States a1J(come up with a conclusion that this ila welfare state or any semblance of (welfare state, it's pure chicanery, atevasion of fact. dereliction of dutyand in most cases what they're doin,is really cleaning up the fact that the~

CONTlNUED FROM LAST p AGEcal economic ascendancy destroyingthe old bourgeoisie, democrahc rnte -(hat rule 'UXlS being destroyed iniJrocess right from the inception ofttonopoly capital. From there I thinkt's important to u1llf.~rstand that thenen who assimilatea themselves arefascists, the fascist man, who as-;imilated himself upon the society,'he character who pictured himself or)rojected himself as being eventuallyihat cat mechanating at the center andabove society, he knew all along whathe 'UXlS doing. In the first stage, thefirst dimension, he emphasized thedecadence of laissez-faire capitalism;he emphasized the decadence, I sup-pose, the death of bourgeoisie demo-cracy. He emphasized that. And someof those statements that were madeprior to fascist takeover, prior to thefascist sweep In Europe, some of thosestatements can almost be consIdered1nti -capitalist statements.

Now, that's the first face, the firstjimension right there. The second di-mension would come after they'veseized power, but were yet insecure.That's the spectacular stage that we~ee on T. V., that we see in the movies,where doors are kicked down and peoPleare being machine-g'!tnned, herded off(0 camps -like here in this country,!)ut in jails -the Communist Partybanned, and forced to write into their!:onstittttion a statement that went like CONTINUED ON p AGE 5

Page 5: A tape recording of the following - Libcom.orglibcom.org/files/Sept_4_Vol7_No2_1971.pdf · 2012. 12. 29. · A tape recording of the following statement, made by our fallen com-rade,

BLACK P ANTHER iNTERCOMMUNAL NEWS SERVICE, SEPTEMBER 4, 1971 A

BY

Aug. 26, 1971 Aug. 25, 1971

Oakland, Calif. Madison, Wis.Care of Brother Huey NewtonMrs. Georgia Jackson, -

Mrs. Georgia Jackson, George Jackson Family,Let George's fiery writings and iron George Jackson's iieath is merely

George Jackson was shot down in deeds serve a path to lead all of our physical.the San Quentin Prison Saturday im".'.soned cadres to final victory. His spirit will crush prison makersnight. There has been an appalling Let us mourn him. Let us love him. and prison keepers alike. Be proudlack of explanation of why and how Let us miss him. Let us do as he did that two beautiful Jackson Brothersthis shooting took place. We demand in the name of freedom. In our last boldly attempted to deliver others froman immediate and impartial investi- hours, let us die as men and not as gross injustice.gation of this act. slaves. Long Live George Jackson.

Aug. 25, 1971

Atlanta, Georgia

L loyd A. BarbeeState RepresentativeWisconsin Legislatureand Daphne E. Barbee

Southern Legal Action MovementAtlanta, Georgia

LoveDr. Bert Small

Page 6: A tape recording of the following - Libcom.orglibcom.org/files/Sept_4_Vol7_No2_1971.pdf · 2012. 12. 29. · A tape recording of the following statement, made by our fallen com-rade,

BLACK P ANTHER INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS SERVICE, SEPTEMBER 4, 1971I

To: The Jackson Family

Words could never express the painand heartbreak that is felt by the threeof us over the slaying of THE DRAGON...Our heart goes out to your fa-mily, although Comrade Brother Geo-rge is no longer physically with us,his flames shall engulf the world for-ever. He shall live in the hearts andminds of many peoPle for as long asthis world exists.

An empty bed,Tears are shed.No more sun,After I'm gone.My family cries,Their love has died.My .friends are there,Death's in the air.My chains unbound,Pm put in the ground.Everyone's sad,But I am glad.It's lucky for me,Because now Pm free

Long live the spiritofGeorge Jackson

John ClutchetteFleeta DrumgoDerrick Maxwell

George Lester Jackson, whose life

as a revolutionary UKJS exemplary, is

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGES WERE a giant in every UKJy. For eleven yea~s

he UKJS compelled by the nature of hfs

surroundings to fight a constant bat-

READ BY BOBBY SEALE CHAIRMAN tie. Battle UKJS his life. Unafraid, he

, , fell in a fighting stance. Thoogh he

BlACK PANTHER PARTY AT THE fell, th?se ~harged with the task of

destroyfng hfm could not and cannot

destroy his essence. They could not

REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL SERVICE :;:o:a;:t :~ni~~~:~;~er:i~~;P~~:t~:

FOR FIELD MARSHAL GEORGE JACKSON th;:°'f:na~~~ '~V:~ an:il~~::Sh~i ~:~=

pie, the downtrodden and the oppressed,

-lugust 25 1971 A1/6'USt 24, 1971 will love them, breathe in their spirits~ , Dear Mrs. Jackson: and continue, ~th their inspiration, to

ro the family of Comrade Field fight for the vfctory toUKJrds whose at-

r fo.'.shal George Jackson -tainment they had to make the sup.'.eme, I UKJS personally revolted by news of sacrifice.

the death of your son.

It is with much sorrow, yet defiant. .Let us not weep. George did not UKJnt

esolve, that we, the Black convicts I am angrte~ ~nd .saddened by thfs tears. So he had said: "We gather up

f the Illinois State Penitentiary, do one furthe~ tndtcatton 0! the horror our dead, clean them, kiss them and

bserve the brutal slaying of our ,and brutaltty .of the prtson s~stem- smile; the tears we save for the vic-

'omrade your son Field Marshal 'a )~s.vstem whtch now has dented us tory If we see the spring after this

-;eorge jackson, Bza'ck Panther Party. the wisdom and leadership of G~~r~e prot~acted war, then we can cry for

(is determined, implacable quest for ~ac~son. .1 know what .my responstbtlt~y Jonathan and all the rest. We'll know

ignity and freedom of Black People ~s tn thts, and I wtll move to fulfill what they missed."

~Iuminates the path that we, who are tt.

~ the deepest of the dark bowels of If I can be of assistance to you in any We must fight for that Victory a~

merican fascism, ml/,st travel. Let way please call' area code 202 225- usher in the spring, for only then wtlls move on to the next order of 266i. ' we have earned the right to shed our

~iness. tears for George, Jonathan and all our

Yours in love and sorrow, fallen soldiers.

Ronald V. Dellums

Member of Congress ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

7th California Congressional District Angela Davis

far to the Knife";lack Convictsj'linois State Penitentiary

Page 7: A tape recording of the following - Libcom.orglibcom.org/files/Sept_4_Vol7_No2_1971.pdf · 2012. 12. 29. · A tape recording of the following statement, made by our fallen com-rade,

BLACK p ANTHER tNTERCOMMUNAJ~ NEWS SERVICE, SEPTEMBER 4, 1971 C

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGES WERE READ BY

BOBBY SEALE, CHAIRMAN, BLACK PANTHER PARTY

AT THE REVOLUTIONARY MEMORIAL SERVICE

FOR FIELD MARSHAL GEORGE JACKSON

L ove ...for the principles of BlackManhood and Liberation ...Lovefor the revolutionary necessity to tearfreedom from the locked jaws of thediabolical beast of oppression and in-justice. ..Love. ..for the People...is the Love that is often paid forwith Life itself. Every Soldier forthe People knows this is what Revolu-tion is all about.

George Jackson, Revolutionary Su-preme, Field Marshal for the BlackPanther Party, and Commander-in-Chief of the Black Militant Front, spent

~

Ulysses McDanielsJames Cross

Harold Madlock J.P. Trotter

HOUXJrd Loald

Otis Standforl

Ray Sparks

Charles Hardley

Harold Landry John Green

Zamb Whiteside Gary Scott

and Soldiers of the People's Libera-tion Army:

Maurice Nichols

Herman Brown

Li'l John Willis

Homer Griffen

Larry Williams Jr.

Booker T. Moore

Charles E. Hamilton

Comrade Osagyefo

Paul Johnson Jr.

an of his adult life expressing thisLove and gave his life, Saturday -Aug-ust 21! 1971, protecting this Love.

Speaking out in the name of this Loveto his Brothers in concentrated bondagemade his assassination desirable tohis enemies. ..Manifesting thestrength of this Love in his BlackManhood matte his assassination bedemanded by his enemies. ..Givingbirth to an unyielding RevolutionarySpirit from the womb of this Love'nade his assassination be ordered byhis enemies. ..Not having theprotection of this Love in an of thePeople he loved made his assassinationby his enemies possible.

L. Yuseff Scranton

MUKJnza, R.N.A.

Johnnie {loco) Thymiakos

Charles Bursey, Black Panther Party

Melvin HollowayBlack Panther Party

Melvin Malcolm

P. Anderson

To mourn the tragic death of thisRevolutionary Soldier in any way otherthan combat is absolute disrespect ...To disregard the pattern of assassina; f.4tion today, genocide tomorrow, in thehistory of his and our enemies is un-forgivable hypocrisy. ..To leavethe forces intact that commit theseabominable atrocities against the Peo-"pIe is inevitable suicide.

They have killed the body of a Rev-olutionary Leader but his Revolu-tionary Spirit lives and grows in theArmy that he has left as a legacy of

James Penland

Mickey yOtmg

Carl Hogan

Billy Rogers

and many, many others.

Jimmy LacyChairmanBlack Militant Front

Jake LewisGeneralBlack Militant Front

his Love to the People.

We can no longer be stopped by theenemies' tactic of "cut off the headand the body un"1 die", for in aRevolutionary Army the head is anof the People who actively seek to gainliberation.

Our battle must continue to be foughtunder the banner of Love for theprinciples of Liberation and thePeople. ..We must fight un"th un-relenting determination to pay tributeto George and Jonathan Jackson (anaan of the Soldiers that have died in

John PrestonMinister FinanceBlack Militant Front

James JohnsonGeneralBlack Militant Front

Baker Gamble, Colonel Black Militant'Front and other members of the BlackMilitant Front:

Steve Browning Steve Simmons

Ray Hamilton Hugo (Yogi} PinneU

Burford Bird Li'l John Gordon

revolt) ...And we must show ourrespect for their life-blood by makingcertain that it was well spent and notunnecessarily wasted. ..and in thewords of our Commander-in-Chief"WE WILL WIN'.'

Clifford (Death Row) JeffersonDeputy Commander-in-ChiefBlack Militant Front

Stan BryantChief of StaffBlack Militant Front

David BilliardChief of StaffBlack Panther Party

Louis Randy WilliamsBlack Panther Party

Page 8: A tape recording of the following - Libcom.orglibcom.org/files/Sept_4_Vol7_No2_1971.pdf · 2012. 12. 29. · A tape recording of the following statement, made by our fallen com-rade,

D BLACK P ANTHER INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS SERVICE. SEPTEMBER 4. 1971

Aug. 23 71London

To the Jackson Family, All Power tothe People

Jackson Family

We pay our deepest respects to a lifethat was totally dedicated to the libera-tion of our people; to a brother we haveloved, Brother George.Power To The People.Black Liberation Front

said he was trying to get away. Bulwe know this is not true and we kno\\that the pigs are lying. They justwanted tokUl comrade George Jackson.Jonathan and George will not be for-gotten, because we love them. 1 amvery sad that now George and Jona-than have been killed by the pigs. Andhere is where 1 am going to end myletter, by saying, Long Live the SpIritof George Jackson.All Power to the People

Your Comrade-in-armsTeddySamuel Napier Intercommunal YouthInstitute

August 24, 1971

All Power to the People to the Jackson

Family

Comrades, I know that you are sadabout Brother George Jackson. He wasa revolutionary brother. He wasaser-vant of the people. He was a right oncomrade brother. I know you aremissing G90rge and Jonathan and I am

To the Jackson Family,

I hope you stay in high spirits and

be strong. Don't leave the struggle,

because we have to keep on struggling

until we get our freedom. The brother

was very strong. So was Jonathan.

I'm crying inside, I hurt very badly

because he was a right-on brother.

His death makes me want to work

harder. Because he was a very hard

worker. All Power to the People. Be

strong.Love George

Love me, Mrs. Jackson

p atriceSamuel Napier Intercommunal YouthInstitute CONT[NUED ON p AGE I

I wish to say that I am very sadover the death of George. And wouldlike to say that we should not cry forthe dead, we ahould cry for the livingbecause we are the ones suffering.Mrs. Jackson, I know that you havenot recovered from the death of Jona-than and now I know you will be verysad and will not recover over the deathof both your sons too easy.ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLERevolutionary Love.Long Live the Revolutionary Spirits ofComrades George and Jonathan Jack-sonlRochella8aqtuef Napier Intercommunal YouthinMi:tut'

To the Jackson Family

I am writing to all of you to tellyou that I heard about George. Atfirst when they told me I didn't thinkit was true. When I asked one moretime, they told me he had died, and Iasked why did they kill him. And oneof my comrades told me that the pigs

Page 9: A tape recording of the following - Libcom.orglibcom.org/files/Sept_4_Vol7_No2_1971.pdf · 2012. 12. 29. · A tape recording of the following statement, made by our fallen com-rade,

BLACK PANTHER INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS SERVICE, SEPTEMBER 4,)971 E

. ,

Power to the People. Power to ourfallen comrade, Brother GeorgeJackson, member of the BlackPantherParty. First I would like to explain,because many peoPle are wondering,what is the connection between BrotherGeorge Jackson and the Black PantherParty.

George was a legendary figure allthrough the prison system, w.'zere heSplln(ffl.ost of his life. You know alegendary figure is known to most peo-ple through the idea, or through theconcept, or essentially through thespirit. So I met George through thespirit. Shortly after I met George, Igotword through the prison grapevine thathe 1AXInted to join the Black PantherParty; in fact he did join the BlackPanther Party and he received therank, at his request, of a member ofthe People's Revolutionary Army, andhe was given the rank of General and

Field Marshal. He UHJS in charge ofthe prison recruiting, and also he wouldgo on with his life as a revolutionaryexample, which UHJS the most importantthing that one can ever do, becausethat cannot be killed.

I say that the legendary figure isalso a hero. George Jackson was myhero. He set a standard for prisoners,political prisoners, for people. Heshowed the love, the strength, the re-

When I went to prison in 1967, Imet George. Not physically, I met himthrough his ideas, his thoughts andwords that I would get from him.He was at Soledad Prison at the time;I was at California Penal Colony.

Page 10: A tape recording of the following - Libcom.orglibcom.org/files/Sept_4_Vol7_No2_1971.pdf · 2012. 12. 29. · A tape recording of the following statement, made by our fallen com-rade,

F BLACK P ANTHER INTERCOMMUNAL NEWS SERVICE, SEPTEMBER 4, 1971

States has terrorized the world. Thestate has the audacity to say they havethe right to kill. They say they have adeath penalty and it's legal. But I sayby the laws of nature that no deathpenalty can be legal -it's only cold-blooded murder. It gives spur to allsorts of violence, because every manhas a contract with himself, that hemust keep himself alive at all costs.So the state with legality could only,at best, hold one, confine one for alater period of negotiation about thewrong. And even if the state does wrongsometimes, maybe it could make itselflegal by saying that we will go alongwith these wrong acts against us aslong as we can negotiate them some

CONTINUED FROM LAST p AGEvolutionary fervor that's charac-teristic of any soldier for the peoPle.So we know that spiritual things canonly manifest themselves in somephysical act, thrO1Agh a physical me-chanism. I saw prisoners, who knewabout this legendary figure, act in sucha way, putting his ideas to life; sotherefore the spirit became a life.And I would like to say today George'sbody has fallen, but his spirit goes on,because his ideas live. And we will seethat these ideas stay alive, becausethey'll be manifested in our bodies andin t1!ese young Panthers' bodies, whoare OUT children. So it's a true sayingthat there will be revolution from one

generation to the next.

What kind of standard did GeorgeJackson set. First, that he was astrong man, he was determined, fullof love, strength, dedication to theP99ple's cause, without fear. He livedthe life that we must praise. It was alife, no matter how he was oppressed,no matter how wrongly he was done,he still kept the love for the peoPle.And this is why he felt no pain ingiving up his life for the peoPle's cause.

The state itself sets the stage for thekind of contradiction or violence thatoccurs in the world, that occurs in theprisons. The ruling circle of the United