A dangerous idea
Broke out among the harassed.
An establishment recoiled in fear,
At a children’s breakfast.
To nurture and feed
Children for an hour.
Met the next generation’s need,
Shook the corridors of power.
A small political act,
To band together and resist,
Forged a pact,
“Power to the people”, raised fist.
Yet, it was grounded care,
That strove to be practical.
Knew to be fed was to prepare -
This was scary and radical.
So the Man attacked breakfast,
With the power of the state.
Uncaring, they smashed,
In their fear and hate.
They locked up the people,
Framed and maligned.
Said they were evil,
Claimed it was a crime.
But there was breakfast,
And seeds were sown.
The ideas last,
Together we’re feared: never fight alone.
So I’ve been reading this on and off: Black Panthers Speak. It’s the party’s own words, press, poems and speeches collected. They’re mostly short writings so it’s great to dip in and out of and I recommend you seek the book out. The energy and intelligence of the Panthers leaps off the page at you even as they struggle against incredible adversity (as we all know now, under direct attack from the state - COINTELPRO)
Unlike the big parties of today the Black Panther’s politics was a politics with depth, which focused on movement building and organising in their community. I wanted to try capture some of that as part of this month’s ALE theme on cooperation. The Panthers built a support network that addressed immediate need: breakfast for children, healthcare and legal aid; it was fundamentally cooperative in its politics. It was also, fundamentally a threat to the existing order of things and was crushed because of that. Indeed, you can still see the shadow of state demonization in films and conventional media today… but the Panthers sowed the seeds and left a rich history that can’t be stamped out.
