*Original Post from Rashidmod.com*
We are currently an organizing committee in development to establish an intercommunal organization throughout the world. Once developed fully, we will become the Brown Panther Organization.
The Brown Panther Organizing Committee (BPOC) is a part of the United Panther Movement, a continuation of the struggles pushed forward by the original Black Panther Party extending into Brown and oppressed communities, and an arm of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party. The BPOC applies the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism through the lense of Revolutionary Intercommunalism, transforming the Slave Pens of Oppression (prisons) into Schools of Liberation. We aim to transform our oppressed communities into base areas of cultural, social and political revolution in the context of building a Worldwide United Front Against Capitalist Imperialism, Racism, Sexism, and all Repression.
“Class Struggle is not merely an economic struggle, it is a struggle between the oppressed and the oppressor for control over the main means of production and the political life of society. It includes the struggle in economic, political, social and ideological spheres; and the key aspect of revolutionary class struggle is not economic struggle but political struggle–the struggle for the seizure of political power.”
-Anuradha Ghandy
Our world is divided by two historical currents surviving at each other’s throat: the oppressor and the oppressed. On one hand, we live in a world of exploitation and oppression executed by the exploiter. On the other, we live in a world of resistance to these injustices by the exploited. The oppressors have divided the world mainly according to the pseudoscience understanding of gender and race. The oppressors use these divisions to monopolize from our internal conflicts. Despite the monopolization of power from our suffering, the Brown Panthers strive to unite our communities to struggle against the source of these conflicts, the capitalist-imperialist system.
Although categorizing any human by race is a well-known pseudoscience, the oppressions of racism are very real and fatally serious, causing deep divisions among the lower class (Lower class refers to the working class, proletariat and the lumpenproletariat). In our goal as the organizing committee for the establishment of the Brown Panther Organization, it is important that we put forth a revolutionary analysis of the one fundamental question which sits at the core of our existence: What does it mean to be Brown?
To be Brown means that we have been colonized by a capitalist-imperialist, settler-colonial system that perpetuates white supremacy and patriarchy, which is forced upon us; taking our land and resources, forcing mass migrations of our communities, carrying out genocidal policies upon our people, assaulting colonized women, locking up our family members, and dividing us simply on the color of our skin. Being Brown is to represent our motherland where imperialism has destroyed our roots. We seek to plant new roots and to flourish in a new world free from exploitation, oppression, and subjugation.
To be Brown means that life is not fair nor equal. Being Brown means having less accessibility to the basic standards of life, working twice as hard for half as much pay, never to be accepted as a full human being. We live in fear of being deported back to a land we do not recognize anymore, stripped from our families and community.
To be Brown means being born into a war that has been imposed upon us. The Amerikkkan military, police, and militias invade our homelands and occupy our communities, employing terrorism on our people. These oppressors pit us against one another, frame us for crimes we never committed, torture and beat us down in front of our families, and shoot us dead in the street. Once united and organized, no longer will the capitalist-imperialist state keep our people down!
To be Brown means to be a second-class citizen who is constantly stared down, shouted at, scapegoated, spit on, locked up, thrown in camps and beaten down. Yet, we are fed the false hopes of achieving the American Dream. We are led to believe the myths perpetuated by the oppressor, to follow the American Dream where we can one day live a full life. The American Dream is simply that, a dream that exists outside of reality. This colonial myth contaminates our self-esteem, forcing us to believe we can only be a better human if we become more “white”. We cherish our roots as Brown people and we seek to empower our people to love ourselves for who we are, no change necessary!
To be Brown is to fill a complex and vastly diverse category. Our task in organizing Brown communities is more difficult due to this reality. Not all Brown communities are treated the same. Some are targeted more directly and violently, while others are able to climb up the capitalist ladder with more ease. We recognize these conditions and how it will pose a greater challenge to building Brown solidarity. However, through unification we become an unstoppable force with the aim of creating a just world for Brown and oppressed communities!
Amerika was once a land of Brown Indigenous communities. It was sacked and ravished by the savages of Europe. Brown natives were murdered, robbed, humiliated and betrayed countless times and reduced to living on “reservations” at gunpoint. Modern day Amerika continues to support the same type of genocide on Brown folks at the hands of Zionist settlers in modern day Palestine. Yet, despite our similarities as exploited communities there is no clear unity between us. There is not even a clear sense of what Brown means, only division among us. All that the police know before they pull us over to incarcerate or slaughter us is that we are not White and we are not Black, we are something else entirely. It is through our disunity that the imperialist state has repressed us relentlessly, but when unified as one we can develop a base of power, Brown Power!
To further insult our dignity, the enemy has imprisoned our Latin American, Carribean, and Chicano sisters and brothers within concentration camps. The reason for this: stealing jobs of US citizens. This scapegoat refuses to acknowledge the truth: the failures of neoliberalism. The enemy is scared of us uniting and realizing our own power to build a revolution to overthrow the capitalist-imperialist system.
We stand for the liberation of Brown working & poor women. We are not feminists; we advocate for Revolutionary Women’s Liberation. Feminist movements throughout history have often forgotten about working and poor women, espeically colonized women, allowing only the voices of white-privileged women to be heard. As revolutionaries, we stand with the most oppressed & exploited. It is the most oppressed people in society, particularly colonized women, who should take part in leading the revolution towards a socialist society. Brown women will be essential to building the united front against the imperialist enemies to achieve our liberation as a whole.
The LGBTQ+ community in various Brown communities is in many cases frowned upon. Many of the more conservative elements among our communities tend to hold homosexuality as taboo, Concepts such as being transgender are completely foreign and misunderstood by many. The Brown Panther Organizing Committee stands for the liberation of all LGBTQ+ people and looks to develop a program of LGBTQ+ liberation according to the specific conditions of various Brown communities. We welcome these comrades into our organization and hope to see them develop a program of Brown LGBTQ+ Liberation which can be studied and applied by our various mass organizations in their corresponding communities. We will fight for the equality and just treatment of our comrades at all costs. Every Brown LGBTQ+ person attacked is another Brown person attacked. We will not stand idly by as our people are assaulted.
“No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”
Marsha P. Johnson
There is a very disturbing tendency in Brown communities to look down upon darker skin and even be ashamed of our own heritage and our own skin color. We must combat this tendency and direct it towards unity with those darker people. We are the children of the sun and we are taught to hate ourselves by our true enemies, the capitalist oppressor who pushes skin whitening products, European standards of beauty, fake eyelids, fake hair products and, with it, lowered self-esteem within our communities.
We oppose the anti-blackness tendencies within Brown communities. This tendency can manifest into an antagonistic relationship with people who we wish to build genuine solidarity with, our African comrades. How does it look on us talking about destroying racism when we ourselves are using the same tools of our oppressors to add more fire. We fight racism & hate with solidarity & panther love. We must figure out creative ways in combating anti-Blackness within our organization & within our own People, if not, we are doing a disservice to the long term struggle for a socialist & humane society.
Brown Panthers must be armed with an ideology for the liberation of the oppressed. Theory is our weapon against the imperialists. Brown philosophy, theory, history, science, and ideology enhance our practice and organizational skills towards a more successful strategy of liberation. We will maintain a disciplined attitude of political and cultural education to empower our people. Practice in nothing without theory, and theory is nothing without practice. Implementing both is the key to our liberation.
In a society with a highly intense division among Brown and white communities, many may wonder why Brown Panthers might ever suggest working with White Panthers or anyone from a white, Eurocentric community. Brown Panthers are willing to work with white people only if they are to commit class suicide and give up all of their privileges of white supremacy and all of the baggage that comes with being white in this society. White Panthers have proven themselves loyal to the Panther Revolution. In doing so, we can truly rebuild the Rainbow Coalition started by Fred Hampton and the Chicago Chapter of the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s.
We believe the revolution will be led by the most oppressed, exploited and subjugated, therefore it is necessary for white communities to take leadership from Black and Brown comrades. We encourage White comrades to organize within White communities to win them over to the Panther Revolution.
In sum, the Brown Panther Organizing Committee finds itself with a colossal task on its shoulders but one that remains within the realm of possibility as well as necessity. We must develop concrete analysis of the various nuances within our Brown communities and organize mass organizations which correspond to each one. Above all, it is the duty of the Brown Panther to answer to the people. It is the masses who make revolution, and it is the masses who are needed by the Brown Panther Organizing Committee to carry out the task of liberation of all who are oppressed both inside and outside the US empire.
Just as the US is the heart of global Imperialism today, the Brown Panther Organization and the United Panther Movement must serve as the heart of the global united front against capitalism, racism, and global police repression. We are the diaspora of Latin America, Asia, North Afrika, the Middle East, Polynesia, and the repressed American Indian communities of North Amerika. We are Brown and we carry the task of making socialist revolution in our lifetimes. The Earth cannot sustain the wasteful and careless nature of the capitalist “Free Markets” for much longer. As the inheritors of a burning planet, we say “Socialism or Annihilation!”
Dare to Struggle!
Dare to Win!
All Power To The People!
Brown Panther Organizing Committee