Black Panthers keep people safe

Donald Trump’s fascist militia, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit (ICE), are facing stiff opposition from the Black Panthers. The Black power movement are showing up on the streets of America to face up to thugs from ICE. And, the Panthers are ready to resist against border agents, cops, and any other agents of the state hell-bent on spreading terror.

Just over the past month, ICE have been caught on camera murdering people at will, assaulting, detaining, and hunting down people of colour. They’ve been holding indigenous Americans hostage as their unchecked reign of terror spreads like wildfire.

Now, the Canary has spoken to the Black Panther People’s Core, a group within the broader Black Panthers. Danielle told Nicola Jeffery that the group understand exactly what is at stake:

We are on the brink of that global uprising and we will continue our mission until we’ve achieved dismantling all of the oppressive systems that exist right now and make sure that it is liberation and freedom for all.

Members of the Black Panthers Party have been putting themselves directly in the line of fire in order to protect their communities:

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Black Panthers come together

Whilst some historians – and for that matter, white systems at large – consider the Black Panthers to be US-centric, the truth is quite different. The Black Panthers in the 60s took a necessarily global outlook. And, Danielle tells us that they understand exactly what is required of them now:

We are at end stage imperialism right now and we are in systems and structures that oppress and are inhumane. We as a people globally are rising up – the energy is is the same across the world. The elites are doing everything in their power to stop us rising up and to oppress us even further using violent and inhumane tactics. We are very much in a class war situation right now globally.

Genocides across the global south can only happen with funding from the West. The hostile environment has become a sharp tool for powerful right-wing governments. Predictably, fascists bay for state-sanctioned violence enacted by the likes of ICE.

We are far, far past the point where petitions or marches can halt state violence. Back in 1966, prominent Black power activist Kwame Ture said:

We have repeatedly seen that political alliances based on appeals to conscience and decency are chancy things, simply because institutions and political organizations have no consciences outside their own special interests.

Equally, appealing to the conscience of colonisers and oppressors is a surefire tactic for ensuring that political rhetoric and political violence continue to have its boot on the necks of people of colour. As Ture himself said:

In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.

Ultimately, pleading to the system’s conscience, or fiddling with existing pieces reveals only one thing: the system cannot be reformed. As such, Danielle from the Black Panther People’s Core told us:

Revolution is the only way forward now. You can’t reform the systems that are in place. They are inhumane and oppressive and people have had enough. The only way to move forward and thrive as a human race is to dismantle all of the systems, structures and governments that exist today.

Black Panther People’s Core

Just as the original Black Panther’s focused on building communities up, so too is the current group of organisers and activists. Danielle explains:

The Intercommunal People’s Core was at the heart of the Black Panther movement back in the 60s and it is still the same today. It focuses on community, on mutual aid, on sharing, on trading and co-opping and also cultivating food, water systems, healthcare systems, education systems, basically how a fully functioning self-sustainable community would function and it’s no different today.

But, how have the Black Panther’s changed? Danielle explains that toxic masculinity has been pushed out in favour of inclusivity:

The movement itself has changed. It’s been reshaped. Some people have come and gone.

It’s inclusive. It embraces people from all walks of life, any gender, any background, any race, because the Panther Party themselves is for any ethnicity and any race. In terms of the People’s Core, that will always stay the same in terms of the fundamentals, which is community, mutual aid, and all of the things that comes with building a self-sustainable community.

Danielle knows what it will take to dismantle the system: everyone. She says:

This movement is for everyone. It doesn’t matter your status, your background, your ethnicity, your race, your working situation. This movement is for absolutely everybody.

Finally, Danielle has one message which speaks to the heart of the cause:

All power to the people.

Watch our full YouTube feature below:

Visit UATE.net (Uniting Against the Elites) to see the group’s plans for mobilisation and creating community, and email them to find out how to join the movement.

Featured image via Instagram/revolutionary_by_nature