Night editor; Rob Bier Saturday, February ,21, 1970 Night Editor: Rob Bier Saturday. February 21, 1970 96 4 understand his ideas By CAMILLE DALEY Daily Guest Writer IT IS HARD to believe that five years ago our revolutionary son and brother, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, better known as Mal- colm X, was assassinated while we stood and watched numbly - doing nothing - some of us even cheered. It is hard to imagine that Brother Malcolm, one of the most dynamic forces the black community has produced in this century, is really dead and buried, for his spirit, his revolutionary spirit, is still with us. At a time when most of our "leaders" still placed faith in the American political, economic and social systems, Brother Malcolm saw the dangers of integrating into a power structure which is built on racism. He felt that the corrupt institutions of the United States would lead this country to its own downfall, in the same way that other self-proclaimed great Syphilisations hai fallen. The demise of the American economy and government would not come about through any foreign aggression; rather, America would fall from within unless the cancer of racism could be rooted out. If this coutry can not grant freedom, justice, and equality to all its citizens, then the oppressed people of this country will de- stroy it. The hope of the future lies in the Afro-American struggle. We must obtain our peace and security in this country. BROTHER MALCOLM also realized the international character of the liberation of his'people. He said: "Colonialism or imperialism, as the slave system of the West is called, is not something that is just confined to England or France or the United States. The interests in this country are in cahoots with the interests in France and the interests in Britain. It's one huge complex or combine, and it creates what's known not as the American power structure or the French power structure, but an international power structure. This international power structure is used to suppress the masses of dark-skinned people all over the world and exploit them of their natural resources." After his first trip to Africa, he became convinced that all people of African descent, must unite and identify with their com- mon struggle. We must work together to overcome the forces which are working on us. Our primary tool was Brother Malcolm, who helped brother in the United States, Africa, and the West Indies cooperate and understand each other to -the point that a true brotherhood is developing among all people of African descent. REALIZING that organizations with too many differences among them were only working against reaching the ultimate goal, Brother Malcolm helped found the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), whose goal was freedom and equality for all black brothers and sisters, by any means necessary. The OAAU is non-functional now, but its goals were copied and expanded by many new black leaders. Brother Huey may not have been inspired directly by them, but the ten-point platform of the Black Panther Party is essentially the same as the basic aims and objectives of the OAAU. The new revolutionary organiza- tions have filled in where the U.S. government has failed in the past: they are mobilizing the people for their own self-defense. At a time when most people were still debating non-violence and civil disobedience, Brother Malcolm repudiated them both: "Tactics based solely on morality can only succeed when you are dealing with basically moral people or a moral system. A man or system which oppresses a man because of his color is not moral. It is the duty of every Afro-American and every Afro-American community throughout this country to protect its people against mass murderers, bombers, lynchers, floggers, brutalizers and ex- ploiters." Brother Malcolm who was himself deemed unfit to compete in the white educational system firmly believed that before we could begin to move in any positive direction, we would have to know about ourselves !in relation to our unique environment. He sought a re-education, a debrainwashing of all brothers and sisters. He challenged education. "What is actually meant by theoretical or academic education? The unity of theoretical education and the application of this wealth of knowledge to the practical requirements and demands of our liberation is a difficult challenge. A scholar in my opinion con- stitutes a guiding light in a revolutionary period and is the bond that unites the abstract and the concrete. At a time when other "leaders" wanted integration into the white schools because they were supposedly better, Brother Mal- colm saw the solution in the development and improvement of black education. He saw the existing black schools as the foundation for a new educational system, community control of schools. Now we have followed through this ideology with the establishment of Black Studies programs, liberation universities, Black Tutorial programs, and schools run by the people of the community, in conjunction with all-black faculty and administrastors. BROTHER MALCOLM also saw the cultural phase of the Black Revolution. An awareness of self would be the first step in breaking the bonds of white supremacy hesaid. The black music- ians, artists, poets and writers of today are trying to do this by calling for both brotherhood and revolution. No, Brother Malcolm is not dead, or even dying: in the im- morality of his people he is reaching the potential he could have never hoped to achieve during his lifetime. The universe has yet to feel the full impact of his ideas. "I '4 Is A man By JOANN NICHOLS Daily Guest Writer CAPITALISM not only breeds racism, but it also creates people who revolt against that racism. One such man was born in 1925 and slaughtered in 1964 when he was on the brink of' fulfilling his revolutionary ideas. Malcolm X was bitterly aware of the noose around the neck of the black man in America. He had journeyed nearly every path in America accessible to black men. At the age of four, 'Mal- colm's home was burned down by Klanners. Shortly afterwards, his father met a violent death as a result of a lynching party. In many ways, Malcolm's life was like a chronicle of black sur- vival in America. Living in poverty and a victim of educa- tion and social deprivation, he saw at an early age that he would have to fight to survive. FROM THIS BEGINNING the pervasive racism in America continued to mold Malcolm into a bitter social reactionary. His survival depended entirely on his ability and willingness to strike back at the society which deprived him. His stealing at the age of twelve was a result of want and the absence of an honest avenue to satisfy his de- sires. At 15, he dropped out of school and worked at the j o b s available to Negro youth - and his ideas shoeshine boy, soda jerk, hotel bus boy, porter, waiter and even a job as a cook. Befora long, however, his ca- reer as a hustling "boy" drift- ed into the more exciting life of the underworld - gambling, drugs, and burglary, until a burglary conviction for ten years in prison in 1946; he was 21. - IN PRISON, Malcolm was in- troduced to the teachings of Eli- jah Muhammad. He experienc- ed a genuine religious conver- sion, believing that theNation of Islam 'provided, a path of salvation not only for him but for his people. In March, 1963, an incident occurred in New York which dis- played the growing strength of the Muslims and the re-emer- gence of Malcolm X as a leader. A cruising New York police car stopped an automobile with a black driver, and rather than follow the usual procedures of requesting a license, they pull- ed the driver out and with no provocation, began beating him. until the victim slumped out on the street. One ,of the men in the gathering crowd was a Mus- lim, and he questioned the ac- tions of the police. Immediate- ly, they pounced on him, took him to jail, and didn't even bother stating the nature of the "crime" that had been commit- ted. However, in 15 minutes, 300 angry, unrelenting Black Mus- lims had converged on the police station. Suddenly Malcolm emer- gad from the throng and in- formed the police that unless they were willing to have harm inflicted on their property and their person, he would advise that his Brother was set free. The Muslim was freed, Malcolm stepped outside, raised his hands, and in an instant the crowd dis- persed. ALTHOUGH JOINING t h e Black Muslim religion was t h e turning point in Malcolm's life, the most essential change was his split with it. The occassion for the split was a remark nmade by Mal- colm after Pres. John F. Ken- nedy's death in November 1963; followedby, Muhammad'srsilenc- ing of Malcolm with a virtual suspension that was intention- ally humiliating. But that was only the excuse, not the cause. The cause was that Malcolm felt that the black man should be helped immediately by the ap- plicatioh of realistic ideas; whereas Muhammad believed in spiritual changes through theo- retical concepts. When Malcolm was awaken- ing Black masses in the country to the realization that black un- ity and self-defense should be the strongholds, he was lashed at by blatant, racist, newspapers; with the most deplorable slander coming on the day of his death from none less than The New York Times: "He was a case history, as well as an extraordinary and twisted man, turning many true gifts to evil purpose... his ruth- less and fanatical be~ef in vio- lence . . . marked him for fame, and for a violent end . . . he did not fit into society or into the life of his own people. yesterday someone came out of the darkness that he spawned and killed him." Malcolm X lives today; in a spirit too turbulent to quiet, too fiery to quench; and his abiding beliefs are more relevant today than they where when he proposed them: -Negroes can get their free- dom only by fighting for it; -The government is a racist government and is not going to grant freedom; lI A 4 -Malcoin ALAN DOUGLAS. Daily Guest Writer FOR ABOUT 350 years, black people have been living on this continent among white people. Nearly every detail of their lives has been dominated by the white society. In order to obtain some degree of security for themselves and their families, it was necssary for'these blacks to accept the white dictates-no matter how oppres- sive and dehumanizing. But there have always been a few blacks who were unwilling to accept life on the terms dictated to them by this racist so- ciety. These people found it necessary to sacrifice a secure life in order to obtain self-dignity and a sense of nrnnse N A least 19 Panthers, including Mi Defense Huey P. Newton, have be According to Chairman Bobby S4 is himself incarcerated, over 1001 are now in jail. THE LENGTHS to which An willing to go in order to suppre who defy her were clearly displ cently in the "trial" of Bobby S was charged with violation of Pu 901284, chapter 102, the "Anti-R This law which imposes, five y prisonment and/or a $10,000 fine one who travels from one state to writes a letter, sends a telegram beginning nister of this travesty of justice and continued to en killed. demand his rights, Judge Hoffman even- eale who, tually attempted to silence him and keep Panthers him seated by having him gagged ard chained to his chair. But it was not enough. erica is Judge Hoffman, in declaring a mistrial ass those and sentencing Seale to an unprecedented eale who four-years imprisonment for contempt of blie Law court, said: ibli" Lawt"I find that the acts; statements and iot" Act. conduct of the defendant Bobby Seale ears im- constituted a deliberate and wilful attack on any- upon the administration of justice, an at- another, tempt to sabotage the functioning of the n, makes Federal Judical System."