Black Panther Party of Northern California - Freedom Archives
Black Panther Party of Northern California - Freedom Archives
Black Panther Party of Northern California - Freedom Archives
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!~F'UM :<br />
TH F<br />
c3LACKEST<br />
PANTHER<br />
"It can. the~ :~tlse be said that pal3tics<br />
is war without bloodshed while war is<br />
politics with bloodshed."<br />
__~~~f ~~ ~~~~~<br />
--MaA Tse~tung<br />
Selected. g Militax~<br />
Writ Page 227)<br />
'fod~+, y , self-defense as a system and as a ~°~;ality has been liquidated by the march <strong>of</strong> events<br />
.<br />
Calambia with its zones <strong>of</strong> peasant self -defense, and Bolivia with its zones <strong>of</strong> worker<br />
self-ciefens©, constituted the --two countries in which this conception acquired the strength<br />
<strong>of</strong> a line " These two "nuclei <strong>of</strong> subversion" woe©, within a few months <strong>of</strong> each other, li-<br />
:p , id "ated by the army : Marquetalia, in southern Colombia, occupied in May <strong>of</strong> 1964, and the:<br />
:~o1iv~.a,n mines invaded in May and September <strong>of</strong> 1965, after tragic battles . This double<br />
dc:fr;ati signifies the end <strong>of</strong> an epoch and attests to tho death <strong>of</strong> a certain ideology . It<br />
i,~ necossary that the revolutionary movement should once and for all accept this demis© .<br />
'fht end <strong>of</strong> an epoch, the epoch <strong>of</strong> relative class equilibrium . The beginning <strong>of</strong> another,<br />
thrt <strong>of</strong> total class warfare, excluding ca~.npromis©s solutions and shared power .<br />
In view <strong>of</strong> the present polarizatian <strong>of</strong> exploited and exploiters in a necolonial country,<br />
the fact that a por'fion <strong>of</strong> territory can exist in which the army and the state cannot<br />
proceed "to the normal oxc©rcis© <strong>of</strong> their functions," is more than tho new imperialist le<br />
gality can tolerate but at the same time not onough to endanger it . The failure <strong>of</strong> n~.~frd<br />
,~e :~ .f "~defense <strong>of</strong> the masses corresponds on the :n= litary lavr:~l to tho ~fai7,uro <strong>of</strong>_ r<strong>of</strong>orrii :,m<br />
o~~ the political level . In the new context <strong>of</strong> struggle to the death, there is no plat©<br />
for spurious solutions, no plat© for the pursuit <strong>of</strong> an equilibrium betweon oligarchic and<br />
popular f orcos through tacit non-aggrossian pacts . Oligarchical dictatorships pose the<br />
alternative <strong>of</strong> beginning to dsstroy them on bloc or <strong>of</strong> aceopting them en bloc : there is no<br />
middle wcay . Besides, self-defense is discredited today ; its owrr former supporters hAVb<br />
made <strong>of</strong> it the beginning <strong>of</strong> higher f orms <strong>of</strong> struggle . But bewareI It tends to appear a~air.<br />
in more seductive forms, though naturally without revealing its name . It tends to ro<br />
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