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. :};";}""pp:{S:i}:"}a:?t:id:4}1::: .{:i4ii:":{:iv}}:} 1:v.^ry;:.}'.i?'.v: "" r:rrSYr: }: f."}aR:gv"{.".}w.":{{+i '"}b}:f????i'r?'{:{ }"."rr{: r.,v,:, ;.;?r,: r.}}};r .;,~,.." :}:.:.. : ;7:1.11 :;"d "ror "."::r. 1. r,: "We don't hate the white people, we hate the oppressor: If the oppressor happens to be white, then we hate - him." "}i:?":{:{{4}:"Y.4«i::{X{"" ",;rr,.;{,,{{{:{.}ii:{r,{.;.;x"rr: }Y,.:{rr::'P. :: ¢' R"}:"}}':{x,. ;{.;rrr{r{r.}:.};r, s "rY"; ; ";m{{+::?rr'.{. }:.v{"F~:^Y " r: :%:v:%i.":":{":{.:"}:"}k {r .?{"}:"i}«?«?:vi':?% :"::{:vv7r$} i;{{{{"i}i«i;?:{;{ i«:"}'rr.?{{{{"}:fir:{ }:: }r:"i;{{{".r" :{" } ;{{{?%:4:i{%; X{{., r".'". }:i{+ff"}i%{{{{{{}, "::1{{4}:+r}i 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