The Rise and Fall of the Black Panther Party

[LSEPCN]

Originally published at: 黑豹党的兴衰 – 曙光

The Rise and Fall of the Black Panther Party

Editorial Board of League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Proletariat

The Black Panther Party was a significant black political organization in the American black liberation movement of the 20th century. Throughout its rise and decline, the Black Panther Party contributed to the black liberation movement but also had negative impacts. It is not an exaggeration to say that for most of its existence, the Black Panther Party represented the overall development direction of the black liberation movement, and it was also a product of the movement reaching its climax. Therefore, an objective and fair evaluation of the Black Panther Party is not only to clear away various rumors and slanders about it but also to make a Marxist-Leninist summary of the 20th-century American black liberation movement, thereby guiding the future black liberation movement in the United States. In today’s context where racism is rampant and the vast majority of black people in the U.S. still remain powerless, such a summary has particularly important practical significance.

1966: The Founding of the Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. At that time, there were two main currents within the black liberation movement: Malcolm X’s petty-bourgeois anarchist line and Martin Luther King’s bourgeois reformist line. Malcolm X’s basic idea was rooted in the anarchist thoughts of the black petty bourgeoisie; he believed the United States, as a nation, was a white nationalist state used to oppress the black nation. He thought the nature of the U.S. was racist, and that blacks should use terrorist tactics to overthrow white oppression, achieve their own liberation, and demand national self-determination for the black nation. Martin Luther King’s basic idea was that of bourgeois reformism, opposing violent struggle by the black masses, believing that blacks could push legislative change through peaceful petitions to achieve equal status with whites. Both of their ideas had a significant influence on Newton and Seale.

Malcolm X (top) with Bobby Seale and Huey Newton (bottom)

The political stance of the Black Panther Party was embodied in the “Ten-Point Program” issued by Newton and Seale at the founding of the party. In this program, Newton and Seale, as leaders of the Black Panther Party, declared that the American black population should have the right to self-determination, residence, education, personal freedom, and exemption from military service, demanding equal rights with whites, reflecting their revolutionary spirit of responding to the needs of the oppressed petty-bourgeoisie and fighting against national oppression. Their advocacy of armed self-defense to fight for black rights and the realization of black national liberation should be fully affirmed.

However, the Black Panther Party’s ideological line and political stance always remained within the scope of capitalism. In the “Ten-Point Program,” the second point’s call for full employment avoided addressing the ownership of the means of production and did not challenge the wage labor system. It essentially demanded that black proletarians have the same rights to exploitation under capitalism as white proletarians! The third point aimed to improve the increasingly bankrupt situation of black small farmers, defending their small landholdings, which essentially called for developing black capitalism, enabling black small farmers to avoid bankruptcy and providing a market for black capitalists to sell goods and raw materials for industrial production. The ninth point’s demand that black defendants be judged by peers or community members only seeks legal independence for the black nation from whites, reflecting the bourgeoisie’s desire to become part of the American ruling class. The “Ten-Point Program”’s final reference to the American bourgeois constitution clearly indicates its class character. In a imperialist country like the U.S., any demand for capitalist development—even from oppressed nations—is not only impossible but reactionary, because the U.S. is not a country with underdeveloped capitalism but one where capitalism has reached an extreme decayed and reactionary stage. As American Marxist Bill Epton said, such demands are only “to replace white capitalists with black capitalists,” using “investment in a social revolution” to “offset a violent armed revolution.”

Newton and Seale’s class position was petty-bourgeois. They were subjectively inclined towards socialism, but their policies were bourgeois. In a country like the U.S., which is an imperialist nation, such a route is reactionary and impossible to realize. This became the root cause of the Black Panther Party’s constant domination by opportunist lines and its eventual demise.

Left-Right Opportunist Lines within the Black Panther Party

Due to its bourgeois nature, the Black Panther Party developed both “left” and “right” opportunist lines on the question of black liberation, which successively became the dominant lines within the party. The former was represented by Eldridge Cleaver, and the latter by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

Eldridge Cleaver

Cleaver was a fervent supporter of Malcolm X, advocating that blacks should overthrow oppression through violence and directly fight the U.S. government with armed struggle. However, Cleaver’s line was not Marxist revolutionary violence but petty-bourgeois anarchism; he conflated individual terrorism with mass armed struggle, and saw armed struggle during revolutionary peaks as well as the temporary retreat during revolutionary lows as the same. Under current conditions, the Black Panther Party only possessed rifles, while U.S. imperialism had airplanes, cannons, tanks, and armored vehicles. Relying on a few Black Panthers to directly engage in armed struggle with U.S. imperialism on its own territory was not only foolish but suicidal. Without deep mass mobilization and uniting the masses—including whites—against U.S. imperialist repression, any armed uprising would be crushed by more organized and mature U.S. imperialist violence. If the masses are not politically organized and prepared to overthrow U.S. imperialism, any individual armed action is doomed to failure. Therefore, Cleaver’s line objectively damaged the black liberation movement. After Martin Luther King’s assassination in April 1968, nationwide riots erupted protesting racial violence. Cleaver took the opportunity to gather 14 Black Panther members to attack the Oakland police station, but they were quickly suppressed by U.S. police, with one member killed and Cleaver himself arrested. This failure proved that Cleaver’s “left” opportunist line was unfeasible, only exhausting the movement’s strength without gains. Later, Cleaver fled overseas after this terrorist attack, published radical statements advocating immediate armed uprising to overthrow U.S. imperialism, and provided the FBI with an excuse to crack down on the Black Panther Party. As a result, the Black Panther branches across the U.S., which lacked diligent mass work and were unprepared for U.S. counterattack, were immediately suppressed in 1969, and Cleaver’s “left” opportunist line was thoroughly discredited.

Black Panther members distributing community breakfast to black children

Although Huey Newton and Bobby Seale were influenced by Malcolm X, they fundamentally did not abandon Martin Luther King’s non-violent approach. They still insisted on reformist positions regarding power. They advocated armed self-defense but aimed to realize national self-determination peacefully, and even envisioned a “New African Republic” for blacks within the U.S., establishing a “government” within the Black Panther Party with “ministers” of various “departments,” with Seale as “Chairman” and Newton as “Defense Minister.” They did not understand that the core issue of power is the “fundamental question of revolution”^[1]. They lacked a clear understanding of U.S. imperialist strength and failed to politically mobilize and organize the masses to overthrow U.S. imperialism. Instead, they focused on community breakfast programs, schools, ambulances, and other mutual aid activities, viewing these as the fundamental solution to black inequality. While these mutual aid projects improved some aspects of black lives, they did not fundamentally change their poverty and exploitation under capitalism. As a result, although the Black Panther Party initially attracted many black members with its advocacy of armed self-defense, it lacked close ties with the masses and could not guide the movement in the right direction. It led the black liberation movement down a reformist, revisionist path, a shortsighted act of “selling the birthright for a bowl of porridge,” turning the Black Panther Party into a vassal of revisionist and reformist organizations like the US Communist Party.

Although Newton and Seale were familiar with Mao Zedong’s famous saying “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun,” they did not understand that revolutionary armed strength is not individual bravery but the armed masses. The success or failure of armed struggle depends not merely on how many guns there are but on how many masses are organized and armed. Ultimately, guns obey the political line. If the line is correct, one can have guns even without them; if the line is incorrect, even with guns, they can be discarded^[2]. The guns of the Black Panther Party were gradually lost under this rightist opportunist political line. The counter-revolutionary experience of U.S. imperialism exploited the Black Panther Party’s open carrying of guns to slander it as the main culprit of shootings, blaming the deaths of police officers in conflicts with the Black Panthers on their gunfire, and used this as an excuse to crack down on the Party, disarm it in various ways. In 1967, Newton was unlawfully stopped by U.S. police while driving, and after a fierce firefight, he was accused of killing police officers and arrested. In 1968, the California state government passed the Malford Act targeting the Black Panther Party’s armed self-defense activities, prohibiting the open carrying of unlicensed loaded guns in California, depriving the Party of its legal right to armed self-defense. Facing violent suppression by U.S. imperialism and reactionary public opinion, the Black Panther Party had no means to resist. Newton and Seale ultimately had to compromise further, gradually abandoning armed struggle and developing into a purely reformist organization, dreaming of achieving black national liberation through “community autonomy.” The Party’s armed self-defense thus turned into its own negation, gradually becoming defunct.

1969: Fred Hampton’s Revolutionary Democratic Line

Within the Black Panther Party, the third line, represented by Fred Hampton, was never dominant but was far more progressive than the other two lines.

Hampton proposing the united front slogan—“All power to all people” during a speech

Fred Hampton (1948-1969) was born in 1948 in a black bourgeois family in Illinois. He studied at a bourgeois university in the U.S. and was initially a petty-bourgeois intellectual. However, long-term revolutionary practice among the oppressed black masses led him to turn towards the black liberation movement. In 1967, at age 19, Hampton joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded by the old friends of the Chinese people Du Bois and his wife, which was a democratic progressive organization fighting for racial equality in the U.S. In 1968, he joined the Black Panther Party and quickly became a leader of the Chicago branch due to his support from the masses and his excellent speech and organizational skills. In 1969, Hampton, together with other democratic progressive forces in Illinois, established the Rainbow Coalition—a united front against imperialism and racism, regardless of race or gender. At the same time, Hampton also worked to address the gang problem prevalent in U.S. impoverished neighborhoods. He explained right and wrong to local gangs, telling them that conflicts caused by racial and ethnic contradictions would only weaken their own strength. He persuaded local gangs to sign non-aggression pacts and join the Rainbow Coalition.

Later, Hampton became the leader of the Illinois branch of the Black Panther Party, pushing the local black liberation movement to its peak. As his influence grew, the bourgeois U.S. government became increasingly wary of his activities and secretly plotted counterrevolutionary conspiracies against him. U.S. imperialist secret agents, embedded within the FBI, infiltrated the Black Panther Party and stole important positions related to Hampton’s personal safety. On December 4, 1969, due to betrayal by these agents, Hampton was shot and killed in his home by police under FBI orders, at the age of only 21.

U.S. people’s rally condemning the bourgeois government’s atrocities against Hampton
“I don’t believe I will die from a weak heart, I don’t believe I will die from cancer, I believe I will die for the cause I was born for.” (Fred Hampton: “I Am a Revolutionary”)Although the route of Hampton still belongs to the bourgeois category, he is more deeply connected with the masses compared to Newton, Silver, and Craver, and has a better understanding of the demands of Black people. He also pays attention to politically educating the masses, and can link the racial oppression suffered by Black people to the capitalist system to a certain extent. He is a petty-bourgeois leftist within the Black Panther Party. He has explicitly stated, “We will not fight racism with racism, we will fight racism with unity,” “We are not a racist organization because we know racism is an excuse used by capitalism,” and “We will not oppose capitalism with Black capitalism; we must use socialism to oppose capitalism.”^[4] He also insists on the principle of armed self-defense for the Black Panther Party, criticizes the narrow Black nationalist program “Ten-Point Program,” and states that he does not agree with “the dictatorship of the Black Panther Party” nor supports “the dictatorship of Black people,” calling for “people’s dictatorship,” which essentially means establishing a revolutionary party of the oppressed class regardless of race and ethnicity. Furthermore, his attitude towards the American Progressive Labor Party^[5] is relatively objective; he refutes some slanders from revisionist elements within the party but also believes “some things said by the Progressive Labor Party are useful,” without completely negating it, and admits that the Black Panther Party still has mistakes and welcomes outside criticism. These positions show that he is not a narrow sectarian, and distinguish him from the rightist reformists who emphasize community autonomy and abandon revolutionary struggle in favor of reformism, as well as from the leftist radicals advocating urban guerrilla warfare and reckless urban insurrections.

Hampton also harbors some backward ideas, which prevent him from completely freeing himself from bourgeois ideology, making him a petty-bourgeois democrat and an extreme leftist aligned with bourgeois路线. For example, although he opposes non-violent reformism, he mistakenly equates capitalist mutual aid movements like free school breakfasts with socialism; although he opposes abandoning armed self-defense and has some demands that break through Black nationalism, he still fails to clearly distinguish himself from leaders like Silver, Newton, and Craver who implement bourgeois路线, and does not draw a clear line with them. Although he pointed out the narrow Black nationalism in the “Ten-Point Program” and proposed amendments, he did not explicitly put forward a new proletarian program. These backward aspects led to his misunderstanding of class struggle within the Black Panther Party, indirectly causing his tragic death betrayed by agents, and his political路线 quickly disintegrated after his death.

1971: The Great Split, a Turning Point

Bobby Silver angrily rebuking the judge in court, being barbarically bound by court police, with his mouth covered by gauze.

As the Black Panther Party’s influence grew across the country, and as a series of revolutionary movements, such as the 1967 Detroit Black Riots, dealt a heavy blow to the American capitalist order, U.S. imperialism intensified its repression of the Black Panther Party, attempting to leave the Black liberation movement leaderless and disintegrate it. As early as 1967, the FBI began investigating the Black Panther Party in every possible way, trying to find evidence that the party “endangered national security.” Under Nixon’s “law and order” administration, the FBI intensified its brutal suppression of domestic revolutionary movements such as communist and Black liberation movements, and many Black Panther members were arrested and imprisoned. Party leader Silver was falsely accused and imprisoned for four years during the “Chicago Eight”^[6] incident in 1968. The party branches across the country suffered severe blows, and many members, including Fred Hampton, were murdered.

Under such circumstances, the factional struggle within the Black Panther Party further intensified, and the division between opportunist路线 became more apparent. Before Newton’s release in 1970, Craver, with his enormous influence within the party, gained actual leadership of the Black Panther Party. Facing the bloody suppression by U.S. imperialism, he advocated immediate armed insurrection and reckless “urban guerrilla warfare,” but after the failed raid on the Oakland police station, his reactionary nature in wasting revolutionary strength was exposed and opposed by many party members. Subsequently, he fled to Cuba and then to Algeria, establishing the party’s only branch there—the Algeria branch—and developing close ties with revisionist regimes like Cuba and North Korea, being objectively exploited by the Soviet revisionist social-imperialists. His思想 became increasingly reactionary, and he lost support from the American and global people, eventually losing influence within the party.

Meanwhile, although influenced by Craver, the Black Panther Party fundamentally did not abandon the rightist opportunist路线 of Newton and Silver. In 1968, the party adopted a “Serve the People” program, which included community breakfast plans and other reformist initiatives aimed at addressing poverty in Black communities through mutual aid. They claimed that their reformist approach was derived from Mao’s idea of “serving the people,” which is entirely mistaken. Mao repeatedly emphasized, “Politics is the commander, the soul,” and “Political work is the lifeline of all economic work.”^[7] For any Marxist party, the fundamental purpose of serving the people is not community mutual aid but深入群众, educate and organize the people to ultimately overthrow the capitalist system. Reversing economic and political priorities, mixing mutual aid with political work, inevitably leads to the revisionist formula “the movement is everything, the ultimate goal doesn’t matter.” As Epton criticized at the time, this路线 reflects the influence of American revisionist and opportunist思想, and the Black Panther Party had actually abandoned its claim to armed self-defense.

“Politics is the concentrated expression of the economy”^[8], Newton and Silver’s shortsighted economic reform reflected political weakness and cowardice in the face of temporary difficulties. Confronted with repression by U.S. imperialism, Newton and Silver panicked, showing their true bourgeois reformist nature. They not only failed to support armed self-defense but also suppressed it, expelling daring基层 members to cater to the counterrevolutionary public opinion of U.S. imperialism, seeking to be a “moderate” reformist organization under the heavy pressure of American capitalism. But U.S. imperialism did not let the Black Panther Party off because of its surrender. Hoover, the head of the FBI, was deeply dissatisfied with the influence of the party’s组织性 and its impact among Black masses formed through community mutual aid activities, and secretly directed agents to gather “evidence.” In 1969, using Craver’s remarks, the FBI designated the Black Panther Party as the “greatest threat to national security” and launched brutal repression. A large number of members were arrested or killed, and the organization was severely damaged. This is the fate of surrenderism!

However, Newton, who was released in 1970, did not learn from this painful lesson. Instead, he continued to stubbornly abandon armed self-defense and pursue reformist parliamentary路线. His policies were first opposed by Craver from the “left.” Even in Algeria, Craver, unable to directly influence the party, still attempted to fiercely oppose Newton’s rightist opportunist路线 by remote control, claiming that Newton had fallen into “reformism” and advocating his “left” opportunist路线, inciting his followers against Newton, leading to increasing公开的矛盾, from mutual insults to assassination, causing a serious split in the Black Panther Party. The struggle ended with Newton’s victory, and Craver and the entire Algeria branch were expelled. This was the largest split in the Black Panther Party, marking the complete victory of the rightist opportunist路线 over the “left” opportunist路线, and the party’s irreversible path towards reformism.

Huei Newton leading the Black Panther delegation to visit China

In 1971, Newton visited China, touring various achievements of socialist construction. However, Newton’s visit was not motivated by a desire to learn from China’s socialist revolutionary experience, but rather to distort China’s socialist成果 extensively as a basis for his rightist opportunist路线. In subsequent interviews, he claimed that China was a “classless” society and that the achievements of socialist China were the result of mutual aid. After returning from China, Newton began to fully implement the rightist opportunist路线 within the party.

In 1972, Silver was released from prison, and the Black Panther Party also disbanded its nationwide branches, consolidating all members in Oakland, entering a phase of decline. Afterwards, Newton and Silver promoted parliamentary路线, planning to nominate Silver for Oakland mayor and, after winning the election, implement the Oakland parliamentary路线 nationwide, aiming to win elections through Black votes in cities with large Black populations, achieve “Black autonomy,” and realize Black national liberation through peaceful means. Of course, such fantasies were ruthlessly crushed by U.S. imperialism. In 1973, Silver lost the Oakland mayoral election, and the Black Panther Party became a regional party in Oakland.

“Bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new” — News of Bobby Silver’s candidacy published in the Black Panther Party publication

In 1974, after losing the election, Newton expelled Silver, making him the scapegoat for the failure of the Black Panther Party’s rightist opportunist路线. After 1976, with the influence of China’s capitalist restoration and the counterattack of the American bourgeoisie, the Black Panther Party began to decline further. Since 1972, the party had started replacing revolutionary struggle with reformist activities such as community自治 and free breakfast programs, opposing American imperialism and racialism, revealing its increasingly compromised nature of capitulation to American monopoly capital. Between 1974 and 1977, Newton went into exile abroad, and the work of the Black Panther Party was led by Elaine Brown, but still followed Newton’s rightist reformist路线.

The class composition within the Black Panther Party also began to change under this erroneous路线. Originally, the members of the Black Panther Party were mostly impoverished Black proletarians and other oppressed classes, but as the party abandoned revolutionary struggle and turned to reformism, more opportunists infiltrated, transforming the entire party into a reactionary clique used by the upper echelons for personal gain. The most direct example is Newton himself, who fell into drug addiction and turned the party into his personal tool for drug trafficking and wealth accumulation. Under this wrong路线, more and more members became disappointed and left the party, leading to its demise. In 1980, the party’s official publication “Black Panther” ceased publication, and in 1982, the Oakland Community School funded by the party closed, marking the official dissolution of the Black Panther Party.

The Historical Significance of the Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party has become a thing of the past, but evaluations of it have not ended. All Marxists have critically affirmed the progressive role of the Black Panther Party in advocating armed self-defense and leading the American Black liberation movement, and have also harshly criticized its various backward aspects. The Black Panther Party was a spontaneous product of the Black liberation movement in the United States. Regarding its historical position, it can be said that although it had many flaws, its achievements are primary, its mistakes are secondary, and overall, it is still worth肯定. Its history has brought many lessons.

First, the history of the Black Panther Party’s彻底蜕变 into a reformist party shows that spontaneous路线 is the capitalist路线. The class background of the leaders of the Black Panther Party—Newton, Silver, and Craver—was petty-bourgeois, but because they lacked a Marxist路线 guidance and did not focus on transforming their思想 and the Black Panther Party itself, they continued to follow an unabashed bourgeois路线. In the “Ten-Point Program,” they opposed the brutal oppression of Black people by U.S. imperialism while simultaneously using the provisions of the U.S. bourgeois constitution as weapons, demanding “freedom” and “equality” recognized by the constitution, which fully reveals their contradictions. In class society,超阶级的自由和平等 do not exist; only certain阶级的自由和平等 do. Therefore, in practice, their demands for freedom and equality were all bourgeois reform, seeking to allow people in capitalist society to enjoy the自由 and equality of capitalists while maintaining their oppressed class status. Of course, this is purely utopian and ultimately leads the Black liberation movement down the wrong path of bourgeois reformism.

Second, the disintegration of the Black Panther Party once again proves the bankruptcy of the reformist路线. The Black Panther Party’s armed self-defense could provide temporary security for Black masses but could not eliminate the police that caused danger to Black people; its community mutual aid reform could slightly improve the impoverished conditions of Black masses but could not fundamentally eliminate capitalist exploitation that caused Black poverty. The party’s attempt to achieve a peaceful transition through parliamentary路线 was crushed in Oakland’s first mayoral election, showing that in capitalist society, any minor reform that does not touch the capitalist wage labor system cannot fundamentally solve the problems of poverty and民族压迫. The only way out is through violent revolution to overthrow capitalism.

Third, the struggle history of the Black Panther Party demonstrates that “民族斗争，说到底，是一个阶级斗争问题”.^[9] The narrow nationalist nature of the Black Panther Party prevented it from becoming a party representing the interests of all Americans, and it could not gain the broadest support of the masses. Although it allied with some non-Black parties and organizations to oppose U.S. imperialism, it always regarded itself as a party solely for Black民族, and was indifferent to other groups outside Black communities. It did not understand that the民族压迫 of Black people is fundamentally class oppression under capitalism, inflicted by a small white bourgeoisie on the broad Black masses in the U.S., and that other oppressed民族 and阶层 in the U.S. are powerful allies. Therefore, it failed to effectively宣传 among other民族 and unite other民族群众 in the struggle for Black民族解放. This often led to isolation in public opinion, demonized as “terrorism” and “Black racism” by U.S. imperialism, and ultimately failed. As Epton pointed out, to “destroy U.S. imperialism, liberate Black Americans and the entire working class, establish socialist制度, and end the exploitation of man by man,” a Marxist-Leninist party must lead. This party must not represent only one民族’s interests but must无差别地代表整个无产阶级的利益.

Countering U.S. Imperialist Smears Against the Black Panther Party

Contrary to the evaluations of Marxists, U.S. imperialism, standing on the reactionary imperialist position, hostilely and fearfully opposes the Black Panther Party, even after its dissolution. On one hand, it slanders the Black Panther Party as “racist” and “thugs,” and on the other hand, it uses various means to distort the revolutionary spirit of the Black Panther Party, attempting to turn it into a harmless idol. Under this policy, many “praising” articles about the Black Panther Party have appeared, filled with distortion and fabrication. In Judas and the Black Messiah, U.S. imperialism extols traitor philosophy and survival philosophy, glorifies the traitor O’Neill who betrayed Hampton, and beautifies his crimes, portraying Hampton as a “Messiah” who lost revolutionary spirit; in Forrest Gump, the Black Panther Party is vilified as endless preachers, reduced to a foil for the fascist Gump’s jealousy.

Among the many reactionary arts vilifying the Black Panther Party, the most insidious, cunning, and shameless is Marvel’s “Black Panther” series. Marvel, which created the “X-Men” series depicting the demonization of the Black liberation movement, also shows its extreme racist hostility in the “Black Panther” series. Although Marvel’s reactionary head Stan Lee repeatedly claimed that the stories in the “Black Panther” series were not based on the Black Panther Party, various plots in the series reveal this villain’s true nature.

Reactionary cultural gang Marvel shamelessly demonizes the Black Panther Party

In the "Black Panther" series, Marvel deliberately sets the important plot location at the headquarters of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, which undoubtedly indicates that the plot of the "Black Panther" series is closely related to the existence of the Black Panther Party. Based on this, the "Black Panther" series also extremely maliciously depicts Wakanda, a setting that alludes to the Black Panther Party, as a technologically advanced yet culturally backward African country, moving the American Black Panther Party and the broad Black masses onto the stage of "Wakanda." The reason for this is that Marvel wants to use the "fictional" plot of the "Black Panther" series to疯狂ly insult the image of American Black people, vilifying Americans born and raised in the U.S., who have created wealth in American capitalist society through their hard work, as "barbarians" allied with tribal culture, even to the point of claiming they are not even Americans, but only "Wakanda" people—neither human nor ghost!

In the "Black Panther" series, Marvel also uses King T'Challa of Wakanda and his son T'Challa to metaphorically represent Black Panther Party right-leaning reformists like Newton and Sill, and uses T'Challa's brother N'Jadaka and his son Erik to symbolize the "left" radical factions like Cluver, exaggerating their struggles. Marvel’s storytelling is not aimed at exposing the essence of the opportunist routes within the Black Panther Party; quite the opposite, it seeks to exploit the weaknesses of opportunism within the party to instill reactionary ideas among American Black masses. The "Black Panther" series sets T'Challa as the protagonist "Black Panther" and leads the plot toward Wakanda's eventual "opening" and integration into the "world." The purpose is to endlessly glorify the right-leaning opportunist route of the Black Panther Party, and to brainwash American Black masses into believing that only by abandoning resistance, "integrating" into U.S. imperialism, and becoming loyal servants of U.S. imperialism can they find the "only way out." Clearly, the core ideology of the "Black Panther" series, called "African Futureism," is nothing but a disguised form of racism and slavery, fully reflecting the notorious reactionary cultural gang Marvel's hatred of the Black Panther Party and Black liberation movement.

Lenin once said, "The superiority of privileged status is not always guaranteed to succeed in defamation." [10] U.S. imperialism can use its privilege to violently suppress the Black Panther Party and fabricate all kinds of slander, but trying to erase the Black Panther Party from the hearts of the Black masses in the U.S. is impossible! To this day, the broad Black population in the U.S. still remembers the heroic history of the Black Panther Party’s struggle, and they will inherit the revolutionary spirit of the Black Panther Party, continuing the fight for national and class liberation in the U.S.!

Appendix: Black Marxists—Brief Biography of Bill Epton

In the Black liberation movement, the Marxist route of Black liberation opposed to the "left" and "right" opportunist routes of the Black Panther Party is represented by Bill Epton. Bill Epton (1932-2002), also known as William Epton, was a prominent Marxist among African Americans in the U.S., born in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City—a well-known Black community. According to his obituary in the New York Times, Epton participated in civil rights demonstrations and helped organize unions in high school, was drafted into the Korean War, later became an electrician, and was attracted to the progressive labor movement (the predecessor of the American Progressive Labor Party). During his revolutionary practice, he gradually became a Marxist and, amid the Sino-Soviet ideological debates, sided with socialist China, criticizing the Soviet revisionist clique for usurping Soviet power and turning socialist countries into social-imperialist states, enthusiastically supporting Mao Zedong’s leadership and the proletarian Cultural Revolution, and accepting Mao Zedong Thought—also called Maoism—becoming one of the earliest Maoist Marxists in the U.S.

Epton was once the vice-chairman of the short-lived American Progressive Labor Party. Under his leadership, the party flourished as a proletarian party and actively participated in the vigorous Black liberation movement of the time. Shortly after its founding, he led protests against the brutal police killings of Black Americans.

On July 16, 1964, the arrogant New York police officer Thomas Gilligan shot and killed 15-year-old Black high school student James Powell without cause. In response, Black residents of Harlem held large-scale demonstrations, clashing violently with reactionary police forces.

Under Epton's leadership, the American Progressive Labor Party actively participated in this movement. They posted posters exposing Gilligan’s crimes, encouraged people to continue fighting, and played a strong role in promoting the movement. Facing the wave of struggle, the Harlem authorities panicked, declared a state of emergency, banned public demonstrations, and after Epton and others continued to protest despite the ban, arrested Epton and sentenced him to one year in prison.

Epton’s arrest sparked strong indignation among international people and many democratic progressives worldwide, who came to his defense. According to the official publication of the American Progressive Labor Party, Challenge Weekly, some public figures in the U.S. recently held a rally in support of Epton [11], and many spoke out condemning the U.S. reactionary regime’s persecution and trial of Epton [12].

After his arrest, Epton continued to fight. At the 1966 hearing, faced with an unjust verdict of guilt, he delivered a passionate speech of 48,000 words, strongly refuting the reactionary court’s accusations, listing the crimes of U.S. imperialism, and exposing its hypocritical and reactionary nature.

Due to the massive struggle by the American people, the U.S. ruling class was forced to agree to Epton’s bail.

In 1969, Epton left the reformist American Progressive Labor Party due to its slander against the revolutionary struggle of the Vietnamese people and other national liberation movements, and in the early 1970s, he formed a new party, continuing to uphold revolution. He participated in the American New Communist movement of the 1970s. Since then, little is known about Epton. Some unverified sources suggest he was one of the founders of the Randolph Labor Committee, and there are unconfirmed reports that he served as a press officer and printer for the New York City Education Committee after serving time. Regardless, he died in 2002 at age 70. The New York Times published an obituary revealing some of his early experiences.

Epton’s main achievement was his profound analysis of the nature and prospects of the Black liberation movement, criticizing opportunist trends within the movement and emphasizing the inseparability of Black liberation from proletarian revolution. According to the "Chronicle of Major Events in the American Black Movement" compiled by the Department of American History at Nankai University in 1974, Bill Epton criticized the American Black bourgeois rightist promoted "Black capitalism," pointing out that there is no such thing as "Black capitalism," only capitalism that serves the interests of the ruling class. Concerning the then-illusion of establishing "non-white enterprises" employing Black workers to eliminate unemployment, Epton ruthlessly criticized it, pointing out that these enterprises were mostly "retailers operated by individuals, who are actually agents of bankers and wholesalers plundering Black neighborhoods" [13]. Therefore, the so-called "Black capitalism" is merely an attempt to "replace white capitalists with Black capitalists" and "use the investment of a 'social revolution' to 'counter a violent armed revolution'." [14] So what is the way out for the broad Black masses today? According to a report in the People's Daily on March 27, 1969, Epton once published an article titled "Revolutionary Parties Serve the People," clearly stating that the goal is to "destroy U.S. imperialism, liberate Black Americans and the entire working class, establish a socialist system, and end the exploitation of man by man." He emphasized that achieving this requires a Marxist-Leninist party to lead. In this article, he said the Progressive Labor Party "is striving to become a party of the working class," "not only must it be a party that unites Black workers and the entire working class, but it must also absorb members from this revolutionary working class. It must become a training ground for revolutionary leaders and a tool for workers to overthrow U.S. imperialism and establish socialism," and regarding the relationship between the Black liberation movement and proletarian revolution, he pointed out that because U.S. imperialism exploits Black workers more than White workers, Black workers have become the vanguard of the working class, and thus "the vanguard party leading the working class must also be the vanguard party of the Black liberation struggle."

Furthermore, regarding the then-massive Black Panther Party, although Epton acknowledged their achievements, he also criticized their "serve the people" plan, pointing out that the Black Panther Party (i.e., the right-leaning moderates like Newton and Sill who controlled the leadership) was influenced by the revisionist trends of the U.S. Communist Party and attempted to implement nationalist self-determination within the capitalist system, which would lead the movement astray. He firmly believed that the broad members of the Black Panther Party would turn left and be revolutionary, only a small clique of leaders and revisionists would turn right, and the former would inevitably defeat the latter.

In February 1976, Epton delivered a speech titled "Black Liberation Struggle in the Current World" at a Black History Month lecture at Old Westbury University in New York. In the speech, he introduced the current international situation, first exposing the nature of U.S. imperialism based on Lenin's theory of imperialism, and further elaborated Mao Zedong's theory of the three worlds, criticizing the Soviet revisionist clique for betraying the international communist movement and degenerating into social-imperialism. He enthusiastically praised China's ongoing proletarian Cultural Revolution, stating that China's "continued struggle under socialism" reached a climax during the "Cultural Revolution." Then he critically analyzed some issues faced by the current Black liberation movement in the U.S., including: "White racism" (external pressure), "internal class division" (the rise of petty-bourgeois ideas among Black service and mental laborers), "reactionary nationalism" among Blacks, "dogmatism" (applying China's diplomatic policies mechanically to the U.S.), and "male chauvinism" (discrimination against Black women). Looking back, his criticisms were quite foresighted, as these problems have become increasingly evident in the U.S. today—and even in China, though in different forms.

Epton’s life demonstrated that among broad Black masses, there are many revolutionary demands under heavy oppression and urgent need for resistance. Black people should and can liberate themselves through their own struggle. He was an outstanding figure among U.S. Black masses and an excellent representative of the U.S. proletariat. In today’s silent America, many of his assertions are increasingly worth deep reflection for every progressive American. One day, the Black masses in the U.S. will inherit Epton’s legacy and, together with other working classes, rebuild their own Communist Party, thoroughly eliminating class and racial divisions in the U.S.

[“The evil colonialism and imperialist system thrived with the enslavement and trafficking of Black people, and it will also end with the complete liberation of the Black race.” (Mao Zedong: "Statement Supporting the Just Struggle of American Blacks Against Racial Discrimination by U.S. Imperialism") |340x470|thumbnail](upload://m2ZhnlWUpJkDICJ8OhfYMwRQCo9.png)

1. Lenin: "On Two Governments," Collected Works of Lenin, Volume 24, People's Publishing House, 1957. ↑
2. Mao Zedong: "Problems of War and Strategy," Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 1, People's Publishing House, 1967. ↑
3. Mao Zedong, quoted from "Notes on Conversations with Responsible Comrades Along the Way During Mao Zedong's Tour of Various Places (Mid-August to September 12, 1971)," "Compilation of Mao Zedong's Important Articles and Talks," General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, 1974. ↑
4. Fried Hampton: "You Can Murder a Liberator, But You Cannot Murder the Liberation Movement." ↑
5. A revolutionary proletarian party once led by Black Marxist Bill Epton, but gradually shifted towards revisionism and racism after Epton's arrest and imprisonment. ↑
6. In 1968, during the U.S. presidential election, the American people coordinated with the Vietnamese people's resistance against U.S. imperialist invasion during the "Spring Offensive." During the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that August, a march was held. Ruthless American monopolistic bourgeoisie sent over 20,000 police and military forces to violently suppress this peaceful demonstration, resulting in hundreds of arrests, over a thousand injuries, and one death. Afterwards, police arrested eight people, including Bobby Seale, on charges of "conspiracy to incite a riot," and brought them to trial. Bobby Seale did not actually participate in organizing the march but gave a speech during the demonstration. However, the U.S. monopolistic bourgeoisie had long regarded the Black Panther Party, which was gaining influence, as a thorn in their side and a threat. They falsely accused Seale of crimes to hinder the further development of the Black Panther Party. In court, Seale denounced the judge as a "Fascist dog," and police immediately chained him, gagged him with gauze, and violently dragged him out of the courtroom, declaring that he would be "handled separately." Ultimately, Bobby Seale was charged with "contempt of court" and sentenced to four years in prison. ↑
7. Mao Zedong: "Serious Lessons," "The Great Socialist Leap Forward in Rural China," Volume 1, General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, 1956. ↑
8. Lenin: "Further Discussion on the Trade Unions, the Current Situation, and the Errors of Trotsky and Bukharin," Selected Works of Lenin, Volume 4, People's Publishing House, 1972. ↑
9. Mao Zedong: "Statement Supporting the American Black Struggle Against Racial Discrimination," August 8, 1963. ↑
10. Lenin: "What Are 'Friends of the People' and How Do They Attack Social Democrats?" Selected Works of Lenin, Volume 1, People's Publishing House, 1955. ↑
11. Refers to the period before and after Epton's trial. ↑
12. "American Progressive Labor Party Vice Chairman Epton Stands Firm in Court, Accuses Johnson Government of Invading Vietnam, Suppressing the American People, Calls on American Blacks to Organize for Self-Determination and Liberation," People's Daily, March 4, 1966. ↑
13. Fried Epton, quoted from the American History Research Office of the Department of History at Nankai University: "Major Events of the American Black Movement," Volume 2. ↑
14. Same as above. ↑