Interview With Bobby Seale (1969, sound)

on down and I told him that I was going to keep my legal papers that all other property the cigarettes and uh pencils that I had that they can have it but I have a right to keep stuff in my own possession and they told me I wasn't allowed to and I said I was allowed to because it's part of my constitutional rights and uh 10 of them surrounded me and I said I'm not scared of you ho you can't break my spirit and proceeded to walk towards the hole and said let's go the hole and uh one of them threw snatch my neck grabb my neck and then simultaneously practically they uh grab my arms and neck and another one begin to hit me down in my privates my growing area my testes and at the same time I was being choked viciously choked and I passed out and then I was in the hole in the Hole uh the there's nothing in there it's just a Box about 4 by seven it's very high ceilings and there's a hole in the floor for one to defecate uh Urinator what have you and uh this hole in the floor is not it's flush it's a flushing mechanism that's used from outside well every hour and a half or two hours or so they would flush it it was stopped up and the defecation come back up out of the hole water urin and crap all over the floor and everything and this went on for 14 hours until another shift came on well on one of the other shifts that came on an officer decided to open the door and uh all this defecation in water and crap a inch high and everything he had few in here that have some kind of Humane sense but he uh had it cleaned out and you know use some ster stuff in the mops and stuff in the floor uh my tonsils was swollen had a swollen throat uh my temperature was Rising behind this tonsilitis problem and uh I had to sleep on the floor for 52 hours this all in all is part of the persecution the black p party this is just one incident whereas recently as you know brother Fred Hampton uh has been murdered by the uh ases Pig police departments the daily machine in connection with the Federal Government Federal government's operation to commit genocide against the Black Panther Party and also imprison Black Panther Party members not because we've broken any law but because our 10-point platform and program and the community action programs that we've put together that are very concrete things that serve the people are being implemented daily and black people in Black America are accepting these basic programs while at the same time uh the fascist mass media is consistently attempting to to maintain the status quo of the fascist operation of the nixo agnu uh fascist machine in jail you know well in prisons in America uh especially where black people live uh populated it's it's rapidly Rising way over 50% black people in prisons and I are not the only political Prisoners the Black Panther Party alone we have over 50 political prisoners along with the recent four brothers who were wounded in Chicago um inside the jails there are always attempts to try to break the spirit of political prisoners but we know that you can jail a revolutionary but you can't jail the revolution tell me that the sun belongs to you and should surround you when I turn to look I see they have snatched the Sun from all around you why you hardly seem to want what's yours you hardly seem to care if you love the son it's where you come from then you had better dare to see the time your time is now hold sees this time and you know uh huie started out very correct when uh he cited and stated that every human being on the face of this Earth has a right to live therefore every human being on the faces of this Earth has a right to work because he must be able to work to live uh this is the Crux of the problem in this country uh we have numerous idealistic dreams but I think many of them have to be made a reality uh we understand that some of the middle class workers have uh some degree of land Bread House housing education clothing and I'm not going to say too much about peace but uh workers who are attacked by cops workers who have are numerously exploded with gross amounts of taxes to wage war against peoples of color this is completely out of proportion in terms of what a government should do when serving the people and when we look around and see in America that uh in every major Metropolis where black Mexican-American people and protesting people live and reside that police forces have been double tripled in quadruple in the last four or five years and we start tallying up the amount of money that's used for the new technical equipment and tanks and things like this to be used against the people uh when we see increases of national Guardsman not used for against some attacking enemy that that the uh US Government always alludes to but used against the the people of America uh the workers of America have to understand that it's the fascist ruling class that are infested in the government that is destroying America that's uh creating the fascist police state that's uh that has to be stopped by the masses of the people in America and uh the Black Panther Party understood understands this and we always have understood it uh it's a it's a the right to equality the right to human existence the right to land water and air is the basic thing that no one gives anyone it's here for mankind on the face of this Earth but when private property and ownership of land uh gets to an extent that uh it's a grossly uh National and international exploiting operation and a tan amount of uh bombs and oppression and killing and murdering people is the means by which the lowlife Discovery ruling class circles try to maintain what they've taken and robbed from the people's labor well then it's time that the people see the necessity of moving against that power structure moving against those the ruling class circles the avaricious businessmen the demagogic politicians with all their running dogs and people have to see that they outnumber them and we have to move against them you worry about libert because you've been denied well I think that you're mistaken or then you must have lied cuz you do not act like those who care you've never even fought for the Liberty that you claim to or have you never fought to see the time time now see time know I hope the black people see ourselves as a nation within a nation in Alliance with other peoples of color and working in Coalition with other peoples in this country to end the real reason you know for us being oppressed this is very important that when we Define ourselves as a nation we don't Define it in terms of only being black we Define it in four basic categories of our general geographical location here in America uh basic economic status under the colonialisation in the community our general psychological makeup and our general idiomatic expressions and uh language of the ghetto in the community as these four areas is the real basis by which you define a nation within a nation thing and these related directly to the suffering of the people thing whereas just only to relate to one's skin color or one's uh General makeup is a very narrow-minded notion and it perpetuates a form of uh racialism and chauvinism amongst the people see I think that uh people going to have to learn how to live together on the face of this earth and the only way they're going to do it is to establish uh Humane revolutionary systems that make some sense you see so when we start talking about new system we have to talk about a new system based on uh from each and every person according to uh their ability both male and female to each and every person according to their needs both male and female we even denounce male chauvinism it's a part of Oppression we believe in equality of male and female you see uh the old uh chauvinistic attitudes that come about even among among cultural nationalist group the woman's places here and all this kind of stuff is directly related to the oppressive system of America itself nations are out to progress not to digress you know what I mean not to go backwards as human beings you see I have dashikis you know I own them I like them you know what I mean but uh the power don't G the sleeve of adhik so uh that's that's uh that's that's that's that's important see Power grows out of organizing around the real Revolution the issues you see what I mean I can eat blackeyed peas and ham hacks and cornbread and uh some raggedy clothes or some new clothes or some my African clothes you see I mean so it's the fact that we have to feed our people uh if I'm unemployed it doesn't make no difference how I'm unemployed and I think that siku R who wrote this recent article in Black scholar of the dialectics of culture that's where it's at I think that that's what a lot of our black brothers and sisters from you know have to read and see what's happening you see we've been misguided to think that uh we have to customize all the leadings of our culture just about everything we got is customized you know because brothers are not going to stop playing them saxophones the way they play them you know what I mean and they're going to practice and they also going to change if you just look at the history from uh Satchmo blowing the trumpet you see what I mean to the way Brothers blow trumpet now which is still related to our idiomatic expression one sees culture is a change you see what I mean whether he puts on a Das Shiki and blows it next mon or not you see what I mean that's part of the change you see the very fact that we change from the the uh old misguided tosen concept of black people to a concept of a beautiful black people is a change in itself but at the same time we can't stagnate the Revolutionary Movement we must go on to higher levels tell me soul and your soul must survive Tak liberties with your souls and don't tell me that you lack concern for all that you must be cuz I know you know you must not be turned and I know that can see who sees the time the time is now Oh Sees the time you [Music] know the uh genocidal murderous tactics that the Black Panther Party are subjected to by the fascist ruling class circles who are infested in the United States government and local local governments by the running dogs and their pigs the jailings of political prisoners what have you cannot be justified just as the atrocities that have been committed against black people over the years of lynchings murders and the oppression the economic political and social oppression that black people have been suggested to subjectify it at all so we're going to move to go to the United Nations along with other organization groups and peoples to ask the United Nations to recognize black people as first class citizens by recognizing black people as a nation of afro-americans a Nation within a nation working and cooperating for the progress of humanity here in America to end the fascist oppression that the United States government is using not only against the black pan party but against black people and other poor press and colored peoples in general so all in all we're going to ask also the United Nations to recognize the proposal of the Vietnamese that political prisons be turned to loose started with you and myself and the Vietnamese say they will send the pilots home the prisons of War there so we say power to the people and we hope the people move to end the oppression and stop the war against poor press colored people in general and black black people in [Music] particular