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Books by Huey P. Newton
Revolutionary
Suicide /
War Against the Panthers /
Huey P. Newton Reader /
To Die for the People /
The Genius of Huey P. Newton
In Search of Common Ground /
Insights and Poems /
Essays from the Minister of Defense
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Books by
Eldridge Cleaver
Soul on Ice /
Post-Prison Writings and
Speeches / Target
Zero; A Life in Writing /
Conversation with Eldridge Cleaver
Being Black /
Education and Revolution /
Eldridge Cleaver /
Eldridge Cleaver Is Free
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Black Panther Party
Platform and Program
Between October 1 and October 15, 1966, in North
Oakland, California, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale prepared the
ten-point platform and program of the Black Panther Party. Seale
made suggestions, but the platform and program were actually
written by Newton, who divided them into "What We Want"
and "What We Believe." The rules of the Party were set
down later and added to as more were required. Today there are
twenty-six rules: some for members of the Party and others for
office and Party functionaries.
WHAT WE
WANT
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Ten-Point Program
1. We wont freedom We want power to determine
the destiny of our Black Community.
We believe that black people will not be free
until we are able to determine our destiny.
2. We want full employment for our people.
We believe that the federal government is
responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a
guaranteed income. We believe that if the white American
businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of
production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the
community so that the people of the community can organize and
empl9y all of its people and give a high standard of living.
3. We want an end to the robbery by the white
man of our Black Community.
We believe that this racist government has robbed
us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and
two mules. Forty acres and two mules was promised 100 years ago as
restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black people. We
will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to
our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in
Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered
six million Jews. The American racist has taken part in the
slaughter of over fifty million black people; therefore, we feel
that this is a modest demand that we make.
4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of
human beings.
We believe that if the white landlords will not
give decent housing to our black community, then the housing and
the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community,
with government aid, can build and make decent housing for its
people.
5. We want education far our people that
exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want
education that teaches us our true history and our role in the
present-day society.
We believe in an educational system that will give
to our people a knowledge of self. If a man does not have
knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world,
then he has little chance to relate to anything 20 else.
6. We want all black men to be exempt from
military service.
We believe that Black people should not be forced
to fight in the military service to defend a racist government
that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people
of color in the world who, like black people, are being victimized
by the white racist government of America. We will protect
ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the
racist military, by whatever means necessary.
7. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY
and MURDER of black people. We believe we can end police
brutality in our black community by organizing black self-defense
groups that are dedicated to defending our black community from
racist police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment to
the Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear arms.
We therefore believe that all black people should arm themselves
for self-defense.
8. We want freedom for all black men held in
federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
We believe that all black people should be
released from the many jails and prisons because they have not
received a fair and impartial trial.
9. We want all black people when brought to
trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people
from their black communities, as defined by the Constitution of
the United States.
We believe that the courts should follow the
United States Constitution so that black people will receive fair
trials. The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a
right to be tried by his peer group.
A peer is a person from a similar economic,
social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical and
racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select a
jury from the black community from which the black defendant came.
We have been, and are being tried by all-white juries that have no
understanding of the "average reasoning man" of the
black community.
10. We want land, bread, housing, education,
clothing, justice and peace. And as our major political objective,
a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to be held throughout the
black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be allowed
to participate, for the purpose of determining the will of black
people as to their national destiny.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes
necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which
have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers
of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of
nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter
or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its
foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers 'n such
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and
happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments
long established should not be changed for light and transient
causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind
are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their
duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for
their future security.
RULES OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY
Every member of the BLACK PANTHER PARTY throughout this country
of racist America must abide by these rules as functional members
of this party. CENTRAL COMMITTEE members, CENTRAL STAFFS, and
LOCAL STAFFS, including all captains subordinate to either
national, state, and local leadership of the BLACK PANTHER PARTY
will enforce these rules. Length of suspension or other
disciplinary action necessary for violation of these rules will
depend on national decisions by national, state or state area, and
local committees and staffs where said rule or rules of the BLACK
PANTHER PARTY WERE VIOLATED.
Every member of the party must know these verbatim by heart.
And apply them daily. Each member must report any violation of
these rules to their leadership or they are counter-revolutionary
and are also subjected to suspension by the BLACK PANTHER PARTY
The Rules are:
1. No party member can have narcotics or weed in his possession
while doing party work.
2. Any party member found shooting narcotics will be expelled
from this party.
3. No party member can be DRUNK while doing daily party work.
4. No party member will violate rules relating to office work,
general meetings of the BLACK PANTHER PARTY, and meetings of the
BLACK PANTHER PARTY ANYWHERE.
5. No party member will USE, POINT, or FIRE a weapon of any
kind unnecessarily or accidentally at anyone.
6. No party member can join any other army force other than the
BLACK LIBERATION ARMY.
7. No party member can have a weapon in his possession while
DRUNK or loaded off narcotics or weed.
8. No party member will commit any crimes against other party
members or BLACK people at all, and cannot steal or take from the
people, not even a needle or a piece of thread.
9. When arrested BLACK PANTHER MEMBERS will give only name,
address, and will sign nothing. Legal first aid must be understood
by all Party members.
10. The Ten-Point Program and platform of the BLACK
PANTHER
PARTY must be known and understood by each Party member.
11. Party Communications must be National and Local.
12. The 10-10-10-program should be known by all members and
also understood by all members.
13. All Finance officers will operate under the jurisdiction of
the Ministry of Finance.
14. Each person will submit a report of daily work.
15. Each Sub-Section Leaders, Section Leaders, and Lieutenants,
Captains must submit Daily reports of work.
16. All Panthers must learn to operate and service weapons
correctly.
17. All Leadership personnel who expel a member must submit
this information to the Editor of the Newspaper, so that it will
be published in the paper and will be known by all chapters and
branches.
18. Political Education Classes are mandatory for general
membership.
19. Only office personnel assigned to respective offices each
day should be there. All others are to sell papers and do
Political work out in the community, including Captains, Section
Leaders, etc.
20 COMMUNICATIONS-all chapters must submit weekly reports in
writing to the National Headquarters.
21. All Branches must implement First Aid
and/or Medical Cadres.
22. All Chapters, Branches, and components of
the BLACK PANTHER PARTY must submit a monthly Financial Report to
the Ministry of Finance, and also the Central Committee.
23. Everyone in a leadership position must read
no less than two hours per day to keep abreast of the changing
political situation.
24. No chapter or branch shall accept grants,
poverty funds, money or any other aid from any government agency
without contacting the National Headquarters.
25. All chapters must adhere to the policy and
the ideology laid down by the CENTRAL COMMITTEE of the BLACK
PANTHER PARTY.
26. All Branches must submit weekly reports in
writing to their respective Chapters.
8 Points of Attention
1) Speak politely.
2) Pay fairly for what you buy.
3) Return everything you borrow.
4) Pay for anything you damage.
5) Do not hit or swear at people.
6) Do not damage property or crops of the poor,
oppressed masses.
7) Do not take liberties with women.
8) If we ever have to take captives do not
ill-treat them.
3 Main Rules of Discipline
1) Obey orders in all your actions.
2) Do not take a single needle or a piece of
thread from the poor and oppressed masses.
3) Turn in everything captured from the attacking enemy.
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* DVDs --
A Huey P. Newton Story 2001 /
What We Want, What We Believe The Black Panther Party Library
The Spook Who Sat By the Door /
Passin' It On; The Black Panthers' Search for Justice /
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update 16 October
2007 / updated 25 February
2008 |
