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July 17, 1968 - Image 4

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Michigan Daily, 1968-07-17

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I

s"4r S r$tan Ott
Seventy-seven years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
under authority of Board in Control of Student Publications

The testament of Huey P. Newton

420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.

News Phone: 764-0552

Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 1~7, 19681

NIGHT EDITOR: JILL CRABTREE

I ____j

The Panther program

MONDAY marked the resumption of the
murder trial of Huey P. Newton, the
26-year-old Black Panther minister of
defense. In jail since Oct. 28, 1967, New-
ton is charged with the murder of one
Oakland policeman and the wounding of
another in a confrontation on an Oak-
land street during which Newton himself
was also wounded. Pleading innocent on
grounds of self-defense, Newton and his
case have become the rallying point of
the Panthers during the months he has
been held without bond. (The first part
of an interview with Newton is published
on this page).
Apart from the fact that Newton was
one of the three founders of the Panthers
(along with Bobby James Hutton, who
was killed by Oakland police this spring,
and Bobby Seale), his case encapsulates
the Panther cause because of his ,self-
defense claim. It is this one idea - self-
defense and, with it, self-government
and self-improvement - that make the
Panthers the most vital, the most rele-
vant, and the most "correct" of the black
groups in America today.
OF COURSE, there are as many black
political organizations in America as
there are black political philosophies --
no inconsiderable number. They run the
spectrum from the white-hating Revolu-
tionary Action Movement to the white-
kissing National Urban League. Theories
of action range from assertively militant
to nauseously obsequious. Constituencies
run from small cadres of fanatics to
broad, nationwide groups of paper mem-
bers.
Of all the groups, the Panthers (com-
monly and vaguely referred to in the
national press as "black power mili-
tants") realize the best - at least the
most logical - method of improving the
status of the black man.
Unlike the NAACP, the Panthers re-
alize the futility of trying to advance
black welfare through court litigation.
Fourteen years ago, Chief Justice Earl

Warren ordered the nation's school in-
tegrated; today the north is almost as
bad as the south, and that is still very,
very bad. The Panthers believe in or-
ganizing their own people to work for
specific goals inside their own commun-
ities, not in the white halls of justice.
T TNLIKE CORE, the Panthers do not see
the virtue of Roy Innis' demands for
tw cars for every black family; rather,
they recognize that before equality comes,
the capitalist state and the capitalist
drive in men must be replaced by a so-
cialist system and a compassionate hu-
manism in men.
Unlike SNCC, the Panthers do not
spurn the aid and concern of sympa-
thetic whites. Rather, they realize that
white- radicals and liberals can indeed
serve the cause of black liberation by
changing the mind of the white com-
munity itself, away from the crippling
racism that has caused the whole grisly
mess.
And unlike most white liberals who
are pushing for generally meaningless
gun control laws, the Panthers astutely
recognize that in America, 1968, the guns
they hold at their hips command the re-
spect of fear, the only kind of respect
white America might ever grant the black
man.
MONDAY afternoon, 2,500 Panthers and
sympathizers demonstrated outside
of the courthouse where Huey Newton's
trial had begun. One demonstrator
ripped down the American flag. The oth-
ers chanted at the police. Inside, New-
ton's lawyer asked for a change of venue.
Across the country, black men and wo-
men rotted in the ghettoes and white
men and women scorned the activities
of the Panthers. They undoubtedly feel
that there is a time and place for every-
thing. The Panthers, among all the black
groups in the country, realize that the
time is now and the place is everywhere.
-DANIEL OKRENT

EDITOR'S NOTE: The fol-
lowing interview with Black
Panther Party Minister of De-
fense Huey P. Newton is re-
printed, through courtesy of
Liberation News Service, from
The Movement, a radical pa-
per in the San Francisco area.
It is the first part of a se-
ries:in which Newton, speaking
from jail, attempts to explain
the theory and the philosophy
of the Black Panthers. (See
editorial at left).
* * *
MOVEMENT: The question
of nationalism is a vital one
in the black movement today.
Some have made a distinction
between cultural nationalism
and revolutionary nationalism.
Would you comment on the
differences and give us your
views?
HUEY: There are two kinds of
nationalism, revolutionary na-
tionalism and reactionary nation-
alism. Revolutionary nationalism,
is first dependent upon a people's
revolution with the end goal be-
ing. the people in power. There-
fore to be a revolutionary nation-
alist you would by necessity have
to be a socialist. If you are a
reactionary nationalist you are
not a socialist and your end goal
is the oppression of the people.
Cultural nationalism, or pork
chop nationalism, as I sometimes
call it, is basically a problem of
having the wrong political per-
spective. It seems to be a reac-
tion instead of response to politi-
cal oppression. The cultural na-
tionalists are concerned with re-
turning to the old African culture

ter would protect himself. Mal-
colm makes the point that if the
master's house happened to catch
on fire the house Negro will work
harder than the master to put the
fire out and save the master's
house. While the field Negro, the
field black was praying that the
house burned down. The house
black identified with the master
so much that when the master
would get sick the house Negro
would say, "Master, we's sick!"
The Black Panther Party are
the field blacks, we're hoping the
master dies if he gets sick. The
Black bourgeoisie seem to be act-
ing in the role of the house Ne-
gro. They are pro-administration.
They would like a few conces-
sions made, but as far as the over-
all setup, they have a little more
material goods, a little more ad-
vantage, a few more privileges
than the black have-nots, the
lower class. And so they identify
with the power structure and they
see their interests as the power
structure's interest. In fact, it's=
against their interest. "
The Black Panther Party was
forced to draw a line of demarca-
tion. We are for all of those who
are for the promotion of the in-
terests of the black have-nots,
which represents about 98 per
cent of blacks here in America.
We're not controlled by the white
mother country radicals nor are
we controlled by the black bour-
geoisie. We have a mind of our
own and if the black bourgeoisie
cannot align itself with our com-
plete program, then the black
bourgeoisie sets itself up as our
enemy. And they will be attacked
and treated as such.

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"We don't hate the
white people, we hate
the oppressor: If the
oppressor happens to
be white, then we hate
- him."

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The real arms race

AS THE nuclear anti-proliferation treaty
has grabbed the news spotlight re-
cently, a much more relevant arms-
spread question has been lost and ig-
nored. The profit-motivated urge of
major powers and other nations to buoy
their treasuries by selling weapons to
warring nations results in loss of life
just as tragic as might be caused by
nuclear war.
At one time or another, all the Middle
East nations have been supplied-by other
countries, notably the U.S., Russia,
France and Britain. The Indians and the
Pakistanis have been using American
and Russian weapons for 21 years.
Czechoslovakia and Germany do their
own fair share of arms business.
And the latest situation - particularly
unnecessary - to which arms manufac-
turers have been lured is the Nigerian-
Biafran struggle for independence.
Last year, on May 30, the former East-
ern Region of Nigeria proclaimed its in-
dependence. The people (called Ibos by
anthropologists), named their country
Biafra. The incident which prompted
this move was the federal government
of Nigeria's slaughter of 30,000 Ibos in
September, 1966.
ACCORDING to the London Daily Spec-
tator's account:
"The people of Biafra desired
nothing but to live in peace and se-
curity. This wish was denied them.
One month after independence the
federal government unleashed a war
of unbelievable savagery against
Biafra; it has continued with mount-,
ing fury to this day.
"It is a war of extermination: a
vast volume of evidence from unim-
peachable witnesses (the Interna-
tional Red Cross, the churches, indi-
vidual missionaries, doctors and
teachers) proves conclusively that
blood-crazed federal forces are sys-
tematically massacreing the civilian
population, Ibo and non-Ibo alike."
Where does the federal government of
Nigeria receive its arms for this war?
An odd coalition in the cold war has
materialized with Britain supplying the
e1mn a,.ms and avmArn " "V+a+la 4.

of Biafra are dying of starvation at the
rate of 1,200 per day.
TN A BRUTAL and cruel program of
planned genocide, the Nigerians have
blockaded land and sea routes to Biafra.
While a few European countries have
made token donations of relief supplies,
only one man, an American (Harry Whar-
ton of Miami) has taken the risk of fly-
ing supplies to the beleagured people (via
Portugal).
The Nigerian government in Lagos has
threatened to shoot down planes flying
into Biafra without authorization. It
wants relief shipments sent through fed-
eral territory so it can inspect them. Bi-
afra has rejected the idea, claiming the
federal men would poison the food,.
One can only speculate as to why the
Soviets are supplying bombers to Ni-
geria, but the British government has
said that it was selling weapons because
the unity and territorial integrity of Ni-
geria - a Commonwealth nation - must
be preserved.
IN RESPONSE to this argument, the
Spectator writes:
"Why? Why should entirely arti-
ficial, casually drawn boundaries re-
main sacrosanct for evermore, what-
ever the price? And what is Nigeria
itself but an accidental product of
colonization, a conglomeration of
completely different tribes, whose
very name was invented by the wife
of its first colonial governor?
"The right course is clear. Arms
shipments to the federal side must
be stopped forthwith. The British
government must abandon its policy
of upholding the integrity of a fed-
eration which has long become a
moral and political bankrupt - and
its lunatic notion of inventing 'guar-
antees' for Ibos within a united Ni-
geria."
THE COURSE for the United States is
also clear. We must recognize Biafra,
and although we are not currently in-
volved in shipping arms to Nigeria, we
should immediately review our policy of
supporting Latin American oligarchies

and thereby regaining their iden-
tity and freedom. In other words,
they feel that the African culture
will automatically bring political
freedom. Many times cultural na-
tionalists fall into line as reac-
tionary nationalists.
Papa Doc in Haiti is an excel-
lent examplenof reactionary na-
tionalism. He oppresses the peo-
ple but he does promote the Afri-
can culture. He's against any-
thing other than black, which on
the surface seems very good, but
for him it is only to mislead the
people. He merely kicked out the
racists and replaced them with
himself as the oppressor. Many of
the nationalists in this country
seem to desire the same ends.
THE BLACK PANTHER Party,
which is a revolutionary group of
black people, realizes that we
have to have an identity. We
have to realize our black heritage
in order to give us strength to
move on and progress. But as far
as returning to the old African
culture, it's unneccessary and it's
not advantageous in many re-
spects. We believe that culture it-
self will not liberate us. We're
going to need some stronger
stuff.
A good example of revolution-
ary nationalism was the 'revolu-
tion in Algeria when Ben Bella
took over. The French were
kicked out but it was a people's
revolution because the people
ended up in power. The leaders
that took over were not inter-
ested in the profit motive where
they could exploit the people and
keep them in a state of slavery.
They nationalized the industry
and plowed the would-be profits
into the community. That's what
socialism is all about in a nut-
shell. The people's representatives
are in office strictly on the leave
of the people. The wealth of the
country is controlled by the peo-
ple and they are considered when-
ever modifications in the indus-
tries are made.
The Black Panther Party is a
revolutionary nationalist group
and we see a major contradiction
between capitalism in this coun-
try and our interests. We realize
that this country became very rich
upon slavery and that slavery is
capitalism in the extreme. We
have two evils to fight, capitalism
and racism. We must destroy both.
MOVEMENT: Directly re-
lated to the question of nation-
alism is the question of unity
within the black community.
There has been some question
about this since the Black Pan-
ther Party has run candidates
against other black candidates
in recent California elections.
What is your position on this
matter?
HUEY: Well, a very peculiar
thing has happened. Historically
you got what Malcolm X calls the
field nigger and the house nigger.
The house nigger had some priv-
ileges.alittle more. Fe got the

MOVEMENT: The Bla c k
Panther Party has had consid-
erable contact with white radi-
cals since its earliest days.
What do you see at the role of
these white radicals?
HUEY: The white mother
country radical is the off-spring
of the children of the beast that
has plundered the world, ex-
ploiting all people, concentrating
on the people of color. These
are children of the beast that seek
now to be redeemed because they
realize that their former heroes,
whowere slave masters and mur-
derers, put forth ideas that were
only facades to hide the treach-
ery they inflicted upon the world.
They are turning their backs on
their fathers.
The white mother country radi-
cal, in resisting the system, be-
comes somewhat of an abstract
thing because he's not oppressed
as much as black people are. As
a matter of fact, his oppression is
somewhat abstract simply because
he doesn't have to live in a real-
ity of oppression.
Black people in America and
colored people throughout the
world suffer not only from exploi-
tation, but they suffer from
racism. Black people here in
America, in the black colony, are
oppressed because we're black
and we're exploited. The whites
are rebels, many of them from the
middle class and as far as any
overt oppression, this is not the
case. So therefore Ihcall their re-
jection of the system somewhat of
an abstract thing. They're looking
8for new heroes. They're looking
to wash away the hypocrisy that
their fathers have presented to
the world. In doingrthis they see
the people who are really fighting
for freedom. They see the people
who are really standing for jus-
tice and equality and peace
throughout the world. They are
the people of Vietnam, the people
of Latin America, the people of
Asia, the people of Africa, and
the black people in the black col-
only here in America.
THIS PRESENTS somewhat of
a problem in many ways to the
black revolutionary, especially to
the cultural nationalist. The cul-
tural nationalist doesn't under-
stand the white revolutionaries
because he can't see why anyone
white would turn on the system.
So they think that maybe this is
some more hypocrisy being plant-
ed by white people.
I personally think that there
are many young white revolution-
aries who are sincere in attempt-
ing to realign themselves with
mankind, and to make a reality
out of the high moral standards
that their fathers and forefathers
only expressed. In pressing for
new heroes the young white revo-
lutionaries found the heroes in
the black colony at home and in
the colonies throughout t h e
world.
The young white revolution-
nrnc wnin -F -nr f h rnr

can they aid the colony? How can
they aid the Black Panther Party
or any other black revolutionary
group? They can aid the black
revolutionaries first by simply
turning away from the establish-
ment, and secondly by choosing
their friends. For example, they
' have a choice betweqn whether
they will be a friend of Lyndon
Baines Johnson or a friend of
Fidel Castro. A friend of Robert
Kennedy or a friend of Ho Chi
Minh. And these are direct oppo-
sites. A friend of mine or a friend
of Johnson's, After they make
this choice the white revolution-
aries have a duty and a responsi-
bility to act.
The imperialistic or capitalistic
system occupies areas. It occupies
Vietnam now. They occupy by
sending soldiers there, by send-
ing 'policemen there. The police-
men or soldiers are only a gun in
the establishment's hand. They
make the racist secure in his
racism. The gun in the establish-
ment's hand makes the establish-
ment secure in its exploitation.
The first problem, it seems, is to
remove the gun from the estab-
lishment's hand. Until lately the
white radical has seen no reason
to come into conflict with the po-
licemen in his own community.
BLACK PEOPLE are being op-
pressed in the colony by white po-
licemen, by white racists. We are
saying .,they must withdraw. We
realize that it is not only the
Oakland police department but
rather the security forces in gen-
eral. On April 6 it wasn't just the
Oakland police department who
ambushed the Panthers. It was
the Oakland police department,
the Emeryville police department
and I wouldn't be surprised if
there were others. When the white
revolutionaries went down to close
up the Army terminal in October
1965, it wasn't the Oakland police
by themselves who tried to stop
them. It was thehOakland police,
the Berkeley police, the Highway
Patrol, and the Sheriff's Depart-
ment; and the national guard was
standing by. So we see that they're
all part of one organization.
They're all part of the security
force to protect the status quo; to
make sure that the institutions
carry out their goals. They're here
to protect the system.
As far as I'm concerned the
only reasonable conclusion would
be to first realize the enemy, real-
ize the plan, and then when some-
thing happens in the black colony
-when we're attacked and am-
bushed in the black colony-then
the white revolutionary students
and intellectuals and all the
other whites who support the
colony should respondbypdefend-
ing us, by attacking the enemy
in their community. Every time
that we're attacked in our com-
munity there should be a reac-
tion by therwhite revolutionaries;
they should respond by defending
us, by attacking part of the se-
curity force. Part of that security
force that is determined to carry
out the racist ends of the Ameri-
can institutions.
AS FAR AS our party is con-
cerned, the Black Panther Party
is an all-black party, because we
feel as Malcolm X felt that there
can be no black-white unity until
there first is black unity. We
have a problem in the black col-
.ony that is particular to the
colony, but we're willing to ac-
cept aid from the mother coun-
try as long as the mother coun-
try radicals realize that we have,
as Eldridge Cleaver says in Souls
on Ice, a mind of our own. We've
regained our mind that was taken
away from us and we will decide
the political as well as the prac-
tical stand that we'll take. We'll
make the theory and we'll carry
out the practice. It's the duty of
the white revolutionary to aid us
in this.
So the role of the mother coun-

try radical, and he does have a
role, is to first choose his friend
and his enemy and after doing
this, which it seems he's already
done, then to not only articulate
his desires to regain his moral
standard and align himself with
humanity, but also to put this
into practice by attacking the
protectors of the institutions.
MOVEMENT: You have spo-
ken a lot about dealing with
the protectors of the system,
the armed forces. Would you
like toselaborate on why you
place so much emphasis on
this?
HUEY: The reason that I feel
very strongly about dealing with
the protectors of the system is
simply because without this pro-
tection from the army, the police
and the military, the institution
-could not go on in their racism
and exploitation. For instance,as
the Vietnamese are driving' the
American imperialist troops out
of Vietnam, it automatically stops
the racist imperialist institutions
of America from oppressing that
particular country. The country
cannot implement its racist pro-
gram without guns. And the guns
are the military and the police. If
the military were disarmed in
Vietnam, then the Vietnamese
would be victorious.

t

Huey Newton in jail

---URBAN LEHNER -
With friends
like that, who..
THE LOGICAL extension of the old saw, "With friends like that
who needs enemies," is, "You can judge what a man will do to
his enemies by what he does to his friends."
And the lesson to be derived from this juxtaposition of platitudes
is "Don't become an enemy of Robben W. Fleming" For President
Fleming is doing an unthinkably mean thing to a very close friend.
Mrs. Barbara Newell is an intelligent, energetic, and in her own
way, a very likeable woman. A long time friend of Fleming who shares
his professional interest in labor economics, she has since the mid-
'50's assisted the President on a number of committees. She wa.
Fleming's special assistant during his tenure a chancellor of the
Univerity of Wisconsin, and. when he moved to the presidency here
she moved with him to hold down a similar post. When a young and
brilliant professor in the economics department suffered a tragically
fatal heart attack between semesters last January, Mrs. Newell -
who earned her doctorate in economics as Wisconsin and has written
a book on racketeer infiltration of the labor movement in Chicago -
assumed his teaching load. For the past several months, she has served
this double duty as associate professor of economics and assistant
to the president.
NOW, after all these years of faithful service, Fleming has chosen
to burden Mrs. Newell with a job which no man (or woman) should
be asked to undertake: the vice presidency for student affairs.
The post is an administrator's nightmare. The way it is set up,
the Vice President for Student Affairs must stand lamely in the middle
of the field on which the administrators and Regents on one side
and the students on the other are conducting a shooting match, and
catch the crossfire from both sides. The frustration of being sacri-
ficial lamb has already destroyed one good and able man, Richard L.
Cutler, and it was largely in recognition of the psychological torments
Cutler underwent that the Hatcher Commission on the Role of the
Student in Decision-Making determined to move the Vice President
off the field of battle and make his post largely an administrative one.
Unfortunately, the bylaw reorganizing the OSA (which Fleming
will present to the Regents this week) changes little but the name.
It will now be the Office of Student Services instead of the Office of
Student Affairs, and the deadwood language referring to the now-gone
Dean of Men and Dean of Women will be eliminated. But on the
whole, the bylaw extends rather than narrows the field of the vice
president's authority, contrary to the Hatcher Commission's intent.
IT TAKES BACK from Student Government Council and gives do
the OSS the one prerogative which, after the HUAC incident of 1966,
the administration itself fully agreed should be SGC's: the authority
to recognize and register student and student-community organizations.
It reopens the question of regulations on what speakers may
speak on campus and what they may say, a question which on a
liberal campus dedicated to free speech was long ago and rightly
forgotten.
It seems to give back to the faculty complete disciplinary author-
ity, apparently down even to misconduct in the residence halls -
since there is no mention of the authority of house councils and
judiciaries in the dorms to regulate their own affairs.
It seems to give summary disciplinary authority to instructors in
the classroom, with no provisions for procedures of due process.
It legitimizes the present makeup of the Board in Control of Stu-
dent Publications, when the whole issue is one of many under con-
sideration by a special faculty committee on University media.
IT WAS WRITTEN almost wholly by Fleming and Cutler, with
little opportunity for review by students and faculty members.
None of this is calculated to make students especially happy. There
are vague rumblings now, and when students return en masse in the
fall the unhappiness will be intensified. Perhaps the aspect which will
make students most unhappy will be the bitter prospect of fighting
battles they have already won. Rather than sitting down to the long,
hard job of improving education at the University the students will
be forced to play the same old administration games over issues which
are not so important in themselves as they are insetting the proper
atmnhere for ancamic reform

lp

We are in the
here in America.
attack the system1

same situation
Whenever we
the first thing

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