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barschuft 's review for:
Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party
by Waldo E. Martin, Joshua Bloom
A complete history covering the the party, it's members, it's accomplishments and the circumstances swirling around of those. The analysis of the circumstances surrounding the party is particularly helpful. This analysis helps to both dispel myths around the party and explain the swift rise and swift fall of the party.
Random thoughts: I really appreciate how grounded, multi-disciplinary and comprehensive the Black Panther philosophy and politics are. This trait extends to their direct action as well, often having achievable short-term goals that both make a difference in people's lives today and advance their long-term goals.
They make a note that after being called "reformist", the Black Panther Party defined reform as changes that do not aim to change the power structure and revolutionary as changes that do aim to change the power structure. Despite the enormous amount of wiggle room in that definition, I think this is an important distinction to keep in my mind. Partially because it seems to imply that the efficacy of what you're doing does matter and small steps can be revolutionary. Turns out semantics matter a lot
Learning about and thinking about the Black Panthers pulls at a philosophical tension within me that I want to explore further. That tension is between: 1) the belief that state power comes primarily from violence and that violence is an effective challenge to state power, and 2) I don't believe in using violence against persons, in particular capital punishment. The Panthers appear to walk this line by credibly threatening violence as self-defense while not actively pursuing violence. It is something that I will be chewing on for awhile
Random thoughts: I really appreciate how grounded, multi-disciplinary and comprehensive the Black Panther philosophy and politics are. This trait extends to their direct action as well, often having achievable short-term goals that both make a difference in people's lives today and advance their long-term goals.
They make a note that after being called "reformist", the Black Panther Party defined reform as changes that do not aim to change the power structure and revolutionary as changes that do aim to change the power structure. Despite the enormous amount of wiggle room in that definition, I think this is an important distinction to keep in my mind. Partially because it seems to imply that the efficacy of what you're doing does matter and small steps can be revolutionary. Turns out semantics matter a lot
Learning about and thinking about the Black Panthers pulls at a philosophical tension within me that I want to explore further. That tension is between: 1) the belief that state power comes primarily from violence and that violence is an effective challenge to state power, and 2) I don't believe in using violence against persons, in particular capital punishment. The Panthers appear to walk this line by credibly threatening violence as self-defense while not actively pursuing violence. It is something that I will be chewing on for awhile