BPP member Charles Bursey, serving in the free lunch program.
Mutual aid was a major component for their organization.
We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be free
until we are able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves...
by fully controlling all the institutions which exist in our
communities.
We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated
to give every person employment or a guaranteed income.
We believe that if the American businessmen will not give full employment, then
the technology and means of production should be taken from
the businessmen and placed in the community.
We will accept the payment in currency which will be
distributed to our many communities.
The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of our fifty million Black people.
Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make.
Housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people in our
communities, with government
aid, can build and make decent housing for the people.
We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of the self.
If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society
and in the world, then you will have little chance to know anything else.
We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people,
health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses,
most of which have
come about as a result of our oppression.
Protest against the House Committee on Un-American
Activities, San Francisco in 1960.
We believe it is our right, therefore, to defend ourselves against such armed forces
and that all Black and oppressed people should be armed
for self-defense of our homes and communities against these forces.
We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world
stem directly from the aggressive desire of the United States
ruling circle and government to force its domination
upon the oppressed people
of the world.
We believe that if the United States government or its lackeys
do not cease these aggressive wars, it is the right of the people
to defend themselves
by any
means necessary against their aggressors.
The masses of men and women imprisoned inside the United States or by
the United States military are the victims of oppressive conditions
which are the real cause of their imprisonment.
...When persons are brought to trial they must be guaranteed, by the
United States, juries of their peers, attorneys of their choice
and
freedom from imprisonment
while awaiting trial.
Source: Collective Liberation