They Huey P. Newton Reader

intercommunalism 1193
in a highly developed technological society. You remember my saying
that every society, like every age, contains its opposite: feudalism produced
capitalism, which wiped out feudalism, and capitalism produced
socialism, which will wipe out capitalism. Now the same is true of reactionary
intercommunalism. Technological development creates a large
middle class, and the number of workers increases also. The workers
arc paid a good deal and get many comforts. But the ruling class is still
only interested in itself. They might make certain compromises and give
a litde-as a matter of fact, the ruling circle has even developed something
of a social structure or welfare state to keep the opposition downbut
as technology develops, the need for workers decreases.
It has been estimated that ten years from now only a small percentage
of the present work force will be necessary to run the industries.
Then what will happen to your worker who is now making four dollars
an hour? The working class will be narrowed down, the class of
unemployables will grow because it will take more and more skills to
operate those machines and fewer people. And as these people become
unemployables, they will become more and more alienated; even socialist
compromises will not be enough. You will then find an integration
between, say, the black unemployable and the white racist hard hat who
is not regularly employed and mad at the blacks who he thinks threaten
his job. We hope that he will join forces with those people who are
already unemployable, but whether he does or not, his material existence
will have changed. The proletarian will become the lumpen proletarian.
It is this future change-the increase of the lumpen proletariat
and the decrease of the proletariat-which makes us say that the lumpen
proletariat is the majority and carries the revolutionary banner.
I'd like to ask you a question about the Party. You said that you see
the Black Panther Party as primarily a force to educate people, raise
their consciousness, end their oppression, and so on. Do you see the
Party as educating black people specifically or as educating everybody?
We say that black people arc the vanguard of the revolution in this
country. and, since no one will be free until the people of America
arc free, that black people arc the vanguard of world revolution. We
don't say this in a boasting way. We inherit this legacy primarily