\documentclass[DIV=12,%
               BCOR=10mm,%
               headinclude=false,%
               footinclude=false,%
               fontsize=11pt,%
               twoside,%
               paper=210mm:11in]%
               {scrartcl}






\usepackage[noautomatic]{imakeidx}



\usepackage{microtype}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{alltt}
\usepackage{verbatim}
\usepackage[shortlabels]{enumitem}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage[normalem]{ulem}
\def\hsout{\bgroup \ULdepth=-.55ex \ULset}
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/22410/strikethrough-in-section-title
% Unclear if \protect \hsout is needed. Doesn't looks so
\DeclareRobustCommand{\sout}[1]{\texorpdfstring{\hsout{#1}}{#1}}
\usepackage{wrapfig}

% avoid breakage on multiple <br><br> and avoid the next [] to be eaten
\newcommand*{\forcelinebreak}{\strut\\*{}}

\newcommand*{\hairline}{%
  \bigskip%
  \noindent \hrulefill%
  \bigskip%
}

% reverse indentation for biblio and play

\newenvironment*{amusebiblio}{
  \leftskip=\parindent
  \parindent=-\parindent
  \smallskip
  \indent
}{\smallskip}

\newenvironment*{amuseplay}{
  \leftskip=\parindent
  \parindent=-\parindent
  \smallskip
  \indent
}{\smallskip}

\newcommand*{\Slash}{\slash\hspace{0pt}}


% http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/3033/forcing-linebreaks-in-url
\PassOptionsToPackage{hyphens}{url}\usepackage[hyperfootnotes=false,hidelinks,breaklinks=true]{hyperref}
\usepackage{bookmark}

\usepackage[english,shorthands=off]{babel}
\babelfont{rm}[Path=/usr/share/fonts/opentype/linux-libertine/,%
 BoldFont=LinLibertine_RB.otf,%
 BoldItalicFont=LinLibertine_RBI.otf,%
 ItalicFont=LinLibertine_RI.otf]{LinLibertine_R.otf}
\babelfont{tt}[Scale=MatchLowercase,%
 Path=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/cmu/,%
 BoldFont=cmuntb.ttf,%
 BoldItalicFont=cmuntx.ttf,%
 ItalicFont=cmunit.ttf]{cmuntt.ttf}
\babelfont{sf}[Scale=MatchLowercase,%
 Path=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/cmu/,%
 BoldFont=cmunsx.ttf,%
 BoldItalicFont=cmunso.ttf,%
 ItalicFont=cmunsi.ttf]{cmunss.ttf}



\let\chapter\section


% global style

\pagestyle{plain}




\usepackage{indentfirst}

% remove the numbering
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{-2}

% remove labels from the captions
\renewcommand*{\captionformat}{}
\renewcommand*{\figureformat}{}
\renewcommand*{\tableformat}{}
\KOMAoption{captions}{belowfigure,nooneline}
\addtokomafont{caption}{\centering}







\deffootnote[3em]{0em}{4em}{\textsuperscript{\thefootnotemark}~}


\addtokomafont{disposition}{\rmfamily}
\addtokomafont{descriptionlabel}{\rmfamily}


\frenchspacing
% avoid vertical glue
\raggedbottom

% this will generate overfull boxes, so we need to set a tolerance
% \pretolerance=1000
% pretolerance is what is accepted for a paragraph without
% hyphenation, so it makes sense to be strict here and let the user
% accept tweak the tolerance instead.
\tolerance=200
% Additional tolerance for bad paragraphs only
\setlength{\emergencystretch}{30pt}

% (try to) forbid widows/orphans
\clubpenalty=10000
\widowpenalty=10000





% given that we said footinclude=false, this should be safe
\setlength{\footskip}{2\baselineskip}
\setlength{\parindent}{15pt}

\title{Anarcho-Pantherista}
\date{1995}
\author{Ashanti Omowali}
\subtitle{}






% https://groups.google.com/d/topic/comp.text.tex/6fYmcVMbSbQ/discussion
\hypersetup{%
pdfencoding=auto,
pdftitle={Anarcho-Pantherista},%
pdfauthor={Ashanti Alston},%
pdfsubject={},%
pdfkeywords={Black Panther Party; black anarchism}%
}


\begin{document}









\thispagestyle{empty}


  \strut\vskip 2em
  \begin{center}

  {\usekomafont{title}{\huge Anarcho-Pantherista\par}}%
  \vskip 1em
  
  \vskip 2em
  
  {\usekomafont{author}{Ashanti Omowali\par}}%
  
  \vskip 1.5em





  
  {\usekomafont{date}{1995\par}}%
  


  \end{center}


  \vskip 3em
  \par







In the Black Panther Party, when someone said, “Power to the People!” the
response would be “ALL Power to the
People!” After many years of political
imprisonment, employing the easy-to-use
Malcolm-Eldridge Educational Supercharger, that call\Slash{}response would take on
more anarchistic meaning. This is about my
experience in the now as an anarchist (a
baby one) within a generally hierarchical
Panther formation.


It was just this year, Jan.~1995, that I
decided to publicly identify myself as anarchist. In playing around I came up with a
term to identify me fully: @narcho-pantherista (thinking about the word Sandinista,
ha!). Though, just in fun, I decided to keep
it. It’s me. Silly, anarchistic, for real.


As a politically active teen in the ‘60s,
making it through that magnificent and
turbulent time, I was ready when me and
my Comrade (Jihad Abdul Mumit, now a
POW in Lewisburg Stalag, Penn.) were first
attracted to that image of Huey and Bobby.
Black-bereted, black-jacketed, black on
down to the boots. And strapped! Panthers.
Yeah, let’s check them out.


Our nationalist and rebel politics began
to evolve into something more revolutionary and focused. We learned ideology, organization, preparation, comradeship, daring.
Once I began to get the picture, I was convinced: Panther revolution, lumpen-proletariat, urban guerrilla warfare, Serve the
People survival programs, \emph{Wretched of the Earth}, “L’il Red Book,” Panther sistas in
leading functions, Victory\dots{}


In short, the Panthers helped me into
“the process of becoming,” as to what a
revolutionary dedicated to freedom, freedom, and more freedom was all about. One
must never stop learning and growing and
working for the People.


My 12+ years on the Malcolm-Eldridge
Supercharger led me, in prison, to further
my learning and understanding of so many
things: Wilhelm Reich and the Frankfurt
School of psychology, various schools of
radical feminist thought and critique, and
Paulo Freire’s methodology of community
education and empowerment. And James
Boggs kept me grounded in the power of
the Black underclass in Babylon. In all, I
was not only learning some heavy shit, but
I was being challenged to give up certain
old ways, beliefs, and mind-sets that were
backwards and anti-revolutionary.


At some point, while in the Marion stalag,
a Panther and a stone-cold Sicilian revolutionary threw some anarchist literature on
me. Got to tell the truth though, my
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist teachings had
already biased me against the shit. So I was
quite reluctant to really check it out. But it
helped that I loved them Brothers. Funny
thing is, when you locked down in segregation for months and done read every muthafuckin’ thing else, you get bored. After a
while, you’ll pick up and read toilet paper!
What happened was that I did read the shit
and regardless of what my Marxist-Leninist-Maoist authorities had said against it, this
anarchism was raising some good points.


As I relaxed my mind-set, I learned more.
Combined with the insights of the more
progressive and radical psychologies and
feminist critiques, things that I had experienced in the past and my understanding of
movement history began to look different.
Structure, sexism, authoritarian peer pressure against individuality, spontaneity, creativity and love. Come to find out that this
guy named Bakunin had some valid criticisms of the god Marx, and Kropotkin was
deep in Lenin’s shit and Marxist revolution
wasn’t the only way to go.


Years before (before my kapture in 74),
another Panther, Frankie Ziths had given
me a mimeographed thing on the anarchist
Makhno and his forces and their foul treatment by the Bolsheviks. Couldn’t handle it
then, but now 15 years later I read it again
and again. Frankie was like that—very, very
critical thinker. No respecter of titles.
Practice counts. My Comrade passed before
I could say thanks.


Anarchism came to mean the same long-range objective held by my revolutionary
nationalist movement and the general radical movement as far as evolving or creating a communist society. The anarchist differed in terms of \emph{how} to do it. Anarchism
said, “Let’s promote the People’s self-directing and self-governing capacities now.”
Don’t need no authoritarian political parties
acting like parental control-freaks. People
got brains. Remember, that’s where we
come from. “Have Faith in the People, Have
Faith in the Party,” say the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists. No! “Have Faith in the
People” and let it stand. If any individual
or group got something to offer from their
experiences, expertise or “higher” learnings, then let the relationship to the People
in struggle be one of facilitation, and not
this arrogant leadership.


Mind-set from the old school is a muthafucka. There are times when new knowledge can be so powerful that the learner
experiences a sense of being overwhelmed.
How do I convey all this so that it can be
of help to others individually and organizationally. My concern? We gotta win. But
only the People’s full participation can
bring true victory. And the People are real
individual human beings, like me—with
brains, desires, fears, angers, dreams, etc.
Before coming out of prison in ’85 I made a
personal vow to never ignore this. I was
coming out bringing my learnings in psychology, feminism, and anarchism. They
were now a part of me.


The Black Panther Collective was formed
about a year ago as a result of people in
the slave quarters seeing the Black Panther
newspaper. Many expressed an interest in
the activities of the Black Panther
Newspaper Committee, a formation of former members of the BPP. These mainly
young brothas and sistas expressed a desire
to wanna work Revolution in their respective slave quarters and do it in the spirit of
the Panther as they understood it. So,
BPNC\Slash{}NY decided to call up them numbers
and set the process going. I am proud to
say that most of the ones who first stepped
forward are still with the process. They’re
baaad and are revolutionaries after our
own hearts, as indicated by the fact that we
fight all the time (because they got minds
of their own!). They wanted two things
from us: (1) to be involved in community
work, including political prisoner work,
and (2) P.E., political education, including
BP history and style of practice. We were
more than happy to provide both. But this
was, and still is, no easy process, because
they demanded Leadership! Anarchism has
taught me to pay particular attention to
this concept and its political dangers to
individuality, spontaneity, creativity, and
the overall health and welfare of the
Revolution for a truly free society.


Revolution is learning how to bring a
large variety of personalities together into a
powerful harmony. This harmony must lay
down some general direction and get work
done. It’s never easy. It’s struggle. It takes a
lot of skill. The BP Collective was gonna
learn this. We started off without a formal
structure. We just called it and got it
together. The Old Guard of BPNC too
already had responsibilities to put out the
newspaper and work to raise consciousness
of our comrades who are STILL political
prisoners. An informal structure, more or
less leaderless, developed around this work
with the BPNC encouraging others to join
in. And they did!


The initial crew was baaad! Yeah. Sold
the Black Panther like they owned it, and
with spirit. Wasn’t afraid to talk with peo-
ple and engage them. Or challenge them for
that matter. “Well, why don’t you wanna
buy the paper? It’s for you, Sista. Don’t be
afraid, Brotha. Don’t wait for them to kick
down your door\dots{}” Mm-m. Panther spirit.


So much work to be done. “There’s a
Political Prisoner meeting on blah-blah, at
7:00 PM. Those of you who are interested
in working\dots{}” That’s all. They were there.
You should see them now with the FREE
MUMIA work! We worked so much that we
never got around to structure or structuring
our activities and decision and direction-making processes. It was gonna cost us,
and it did. But it had to happen.


Revolution, after defeat and years gone
by, is as much psychological as it is formally political. Panthers, automatic members of
the BPNC, came together after years in the
absence of the intense, disciplined struggle
that we once knew. We been through
changes. We were still trying to gel our different personalities. But now it’s structure
time. The Collective is calling for leadership.
It is time for the essential struggle to begin:
one for clarity, uniformity of will, formal
organization of BPC with ideology, a chain
of command and rules. Oh god!


In the Collective, everyone is encouraged
to speak one’s mind. In the BPP, we practiced
Mao’s Combat Liberalism as best we could. It
is still a good thing and not a bad thing. As
an anarchist now, with other groundings in
psychology and Feminism, I offer, when
appropriate, my 2 cents on matters of structure, taking initiative to do things on one’s
own, and against sexism. A big part of the
difficulty I have working my 2 cents is that
People raised on hierarchy, authoritarian
beliefs truly see such as natural. There’s
always gotta be leadership. I say why? Who
says? What kind? Why assume that there’s
only one form of organizational structure?
And what does it mean when our structure
resembles the enemy’s? As a member of this
Collective body, I accept its general direction
even if I am the minority member in my
views. Because it is democratic enough to
allow input, I can still raise my views, as can
anyone. Oh yeah, I get frustrated and angry.
But that’s normal stuff in any grouping. I
think that the BPC who are young-in-experience understand at this point that frustration
and anger are part of the process. As we’d
say in the Party, “It’s a good thing not a bad
thing.” It’s the only way we can pull a
diverse group of people together. As one
BPNC member said in referring to the
Collective, “They are a bunch of crazy-ass
muthafuckas,” the kind of good human
beings who make Revolution.


It’s hard to feel comfortable if you truly
believe that you see internal dangers in your
group. I am one person. I guess I believe like
anybody else that my critique is on-point,
that my warning-signs should be heeded. But
this is a body of people and though it may
not be anarchist, it’s democratic enough for
me to feel that my 2 cents is valued.


My collective knows that I raise my
voice against sexism. I talk revolutionary
sexuality and lay out condoms on meeting
tables. I’m always bringing reading material because I believe we must be encouraged
to read, read, read. But I don’t want to just
get stuck off into Marxist stuff—“Lil’ Red
Book,” etc. No matter how valuable they
are. I’ve shared Lorenzo Komboa Ervin’s
(Black anarchist, former Black Panther, and
now member of the Federation of Black
Community Partisans) writings with them.
Exposure to diverse views and critiques is
what is needed. I am one of these diverse
“elders,” as they call us of BPNC. As the
@narcho-pantherista I can only be me and
give my best and hope that others see that
my main concern is Revolution, ALL Power
to the People, and victory over all our enemies, from people who oppose freedom to
mind-sets that continue to hold on to anti-freedom, anti-revolutionary ideas.


The BPC is a spirited group of hard-ass
revolutionaries. Already, on their own, tired
of waiting for us (the leadership), they put a
food program into motion on 116\textsuperscript{th} St, and
Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. in Harlem, the
capital of this “captive nation” (I’m a revolutionary intercommunalist, personally, to add
fuel to the fire). I say Right On! It’s about
initiative and I like theirs. The People are
their own leaders, their own Liberators. I see
myself as participant-facilitator. @narcho-pantherista, the highest stage of pantherism.


ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!



\begin{flushright}

Ashanti Omowali


\end{flushright}









% begin final page

\clearpage


% if we are on an odd page, add another one, otherwise when imposing
% the page would be odd on an even one.
\ifthispageodd{\strut\thispagestyle{empty}\clearpage}{}


% new page for the colophon

\thispagestyle{empty}

\begin{center}

The Anarchist Library



\smallskip
Anti-Copyright



\bigskip
\includegraphics[width=0.25\textwidth]{logo-en}
\bigskip

\end{center}

\strut

\vfill

\begin{center}


Ashanti Omowali

Anarcho-Pantherista



1995


\bigskip


1995 Aug\Slash{}Sep issue of L\&R. Retrieved on 2020–05 28-from \href{https://bibdig.biblioteca.unesp.br/handle/10/26436}{bibdig.biblioteca.unesp.br}
   

       

       

       

       

       

       

   



\bigskip
\textbf{theanarchistlibrary.org}


\end{center}

% end final page with colophon


% end closing pages



\end{document}


% No format ID passed.



