We must provide our predictions of the future with action

"There is so much that could be done, right now... But I won't talk about those things right here. I will say that it should never be easy for them to destroy us. If you start with Malcolm X and count all of the brothers who have died or been captured since, you will find that not even one of them was really prepared for a fight. No imagination or fighting style was evident in any one of the incidents. But each one that died professed to know the nature of our enemies. It should never be so easy for them. Do you understand what I'm saying? Edward V. Hanrahan, Illinois State Attorney General, sent fifteen pigs to raid the Panther headquarters and murder Hampton and Clark. Do you have any idea what would have happened to those fifteen pigs if they had run into as many Viet Cong as there were Panthers in that building. The VC are all little people with less general education than we have. The argument that they have been doing it longer has no validity at all, because they were doing it just as well when they started as they are now. It's very contradictory for a man to teach about the murder in corporate capitalism, to isolate and expose the murderers behind it, to instruct that these madmen are completely without stops, are licentious, totally depraved - and then not make adequate preparations to defend himself from the madman's attack. Either they don't really believe their own spiel or they harbor some sort of subconscious death wish." - George Jackson, Soledad Brothers

Recognizing the racist, sexist, homophobic, imperialist, capitalist nature of this system that we live in is only the first step. After we reach this realization, we must understand that the system, because of its nature, will never give us liberation and will never stop oppressing us.

It is absurd and otherwise foolish to even begin to think that the system would be interested in amending or stopping oppression. So why do we continue to act surprised when pigs brutalize someone in the community and get let off clean, when universities (cough, UC San Diego, cough) fail to take action against racist fraternities but threaten to expel protesters, when the nation's first black president decides to escalate warfare and armed occupation in Afghanistan and poor communities of color in America, when banks get bailed out while welfare gets cut, or when prison systems get more funding than public education? Why wouldn't the system continue want to continue its oppressive policies?

We have to question and understand each and every apparatus of the system. Let's take the legal system for example. Who makes laws? Who gets to participate in the legal process? Who does the law benefit? Who is the law? Who gets to enforce the law? Who is immune from the law?

When we begin to question the system's apparatus in this nature, we begin to see that it is all a farce. Who makes the laws? Politicians - not the people. And for who? Themselves and the corporations/capitalists they serve. Who gets to enforce the law? The racist, facist pigs. Who is immune from the law? The same people who get to make and enforce the law - the pig capitalists,politicians, and police.

The legal is system is not flawed - it operates very efficiently in the manner in which it was designed to operate - to delude the masses with the sorcery of 'justice' while legitimizing means of oppression through enlightenment rationale.

What do I mean by this? It took over a year of strenuous legal battles to legally free Angela Davis from captivity in the 1970s, but since then, California has almost tripled its prisons, sent more black men to prisons than schools, and deported countless people of color (and I ain't just talking about Mexicans - I'm talking about Vietnamese and Cambodian as well). While it's great that Angela Davis is free, we must understand that the nature of such a decadent system, is to give the people an inch, only to take back ten inches.

Understanding this and coming to terms with the absurdity of a politics of liberalism or reformism, we must, as George Jackson says, "make revolution", "we must find out exactly what the people need and organize them around these needs." We must mobilize and create a condition where a politics of rupture and revolution is possible. At the same time, we must recognize that the terrain is different now than in the 60s and 70s. While oppressive systems such as racism or sexism are still stronger than ever, they take different forms. The system is not dogmatic in its oppression of people, but rather, it is very dynamic and constantly changing and we, as revolutionaries, but recognize this and also change tactics with the times. We cannot confine ourselves to strict dogmatism. We must recognize that the people lost the war against the system - the Black Panthers, Brown Beret, Red Guard, American Indian Movement - they no longer exist, not because of peaceful disbanding, but forceful and violent repression. So while it is important to learn and adopt principles and tactics from past revolutionary groups, we must recognize that they ultimately failed and we must adapt their tactics to our situation. Take and adopt principles in order to forge material praxis.

What do I mean? Take the Việt Cộng for example. They were notorious for creating elaborate tunnel systems to fight against American, French, Japanese, Cambodian, and Chinese imperialism. It is absurd to begin to argue that such tunnel systems would be fitting in urban sprawl such as Los Angeles, but instead, principles such as learning and becoming attuned to your environment and using your understanding of the environment that against the oppressor is something that is practical and useful today and applies to any environment. Instead of imagining jungle guerrilla warfare and resistance, we must begin to imagine urban guerrilla warfare and resistance. The Việt Cộng, understanding that the people of South Việt Nam lived in poverty, went into villages and distributed food to the people at no cost - understand the needs of the people and work to meet the needs of the people.

Apply concepts and principles, not word-for-word examples.

So the question is, how do we learn from the successes and failures of the past, while imagining new revolutionary possibilities?