We Are Our Own Liberators!,

The following is an excerpt from the compiled writings of freedom fighter Jalil A. Muntaqim, called We Are Our Own Liberators!,

Submitted by Field Agent: Erica Allah

INTRODUCTION

This article offers insights into the history and lessons of the Black Liberation Movement waged in North America. Since the original writing, the struggle has declined due to U.S. political repression and political infantilism on the part of U.S. revolutionaries. What is extremely important to understand about the former Black Panther Party (BPP) is that it was basically a militant youth movement. Because the BPP was a powerful youth movement, J. Edgar Hoover, former Director of the FBI, declared the BPP to be the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States. The FBI launched a political and military counter-intelligence program (COINTElPRO) to destroy not only the BPP, but to also crush any possibility of a new youth movement of similar magnitude and militancy.

Today, our youth are being crushed by increasing draconian laws, and the saturation of poor communities with CIA procured drugs. The music industry continues to produce and distribute nihilistic gangsta rap that glorifies drive-by shootings and gang bang' in. The U.S. government is lowering the age a teenager can be tried and sentenced as an adult from 16 to 14 years old. The U.S. government has consistently withdrawn money from social and educational programs, while at the same time increased spending for prison building. These are direct attacks on our youth to prohibit the rebuilding of a movement that in any way resembles the militant determination of the former Black Panther Party or the Black Liberation Army (BLA).

ON THE BLACK LIBERATION ARMY

Based upon the split and factionalism in the BPP, and heightened repression by the State, the Black underground was ordered to begin establishing the capacity to take the "defensive-offensive" in developing urban guerrilla warfare. Hence, in 1971, the name Black Liberation Army (or Afro-American Liberation Army) surfaced as the nucleus of Black guerrilla fighters across the United States. This is not to say that the name Black Liberation Army was first used in 1971, for in late 1968, during a student strike and demonstration in Mexico City, students and demonstrators were killed by Mexican police. One of those students was reported to have had a piece of paper in his pocket upon which was written the name Black Liberation Army. Whether or not there was a connection to the fielding of the Black underground with the uprising in Mexico in 1968 is unknown.

This article comprises a chapter from a published compilation of my prison writings. The book, We Are Our Own Liberators!, presents specific ideas, theoretical determinations, and political positions on how we should work to rebuild and continue the struggle. Rest assured, our youth and the struggle for class and national liberation, having learned the lessons of the past will recover and triumph. Remember -"Truth crushed to the earth will rise again.

End