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page 3 - In Defense of Self Defense (June 20, 1967) power Jatent in our numbers. In 1967, in the midst of a hostile racist nation wnose hidden racism is rising to the surface at a phon- ominal speed, we are still so blind to our critical fight for our very survival that we are continuing to function in petty, futile ways. Divided, confused, fighting among ourselves, we arc etill in the ele- Mentary stage of throwing roci:s, sticks, empty wine bottles and beer cans at racist cops who lie in wait for a chance to murder unarmed Black people. The racist cops have worked out a system for sup~ pressing these spontancous rebellions that flare up from the anger, frustration, and desperation of the masses of Black people. We can no longer afford the dubious luxury of the terrible casualties wan- tonly inflicted upon us by the cops during these spontaneous rebellions. Fit atop teeie: aees. f . ; Black people must now move, from the grassroots up through the p2r- : fumed circles of the Black bourgeoisie, to scize by any means necessary @ proportionate share of the power vested and collected in the stru- cture of America. We must organize and unite to combat by long re-= sistance the burtal force used against us daily. The power struc~ *, . ture depends upon the use of force within retaliation. This is why they have mite it a felony to teach guerilla warfare. This is why they want the people unarmed. The racist dog oppressor fears the armed people; they fear most of all Black people armed with weapons and the ideology of the Black Pan-~ thereParty for Self Defense. An unarmed people are slaves or are subject to slavery at any given moment. If a government is not afraid of the people it will arm the vecople from foreign aggression. Black people are held captive in the midst of their oppressors. There is a world of difference between thirty million unarmed, submissive Black people and thirty million Black people armed with frecdom and defense guns and the strategic methods of liberation. When a mechanic wants to fix a broken~-down car enginc, he must have thennecessary tools to do the job. When the people mova for liberation, ~ they must have the basic tool of liberation: the qun. Only with the power of the gun can the Black masses halt the terror and brutality perpetuated against them by the armed racist power structure; and in one sense only by the power of the gun can the wnole world be trans- formediinto the earthly paradise dreamed of by the people from time immemorial. One successful practitioner of the art and science of national liberation and self defense, Brother Mao Tse-tung, put it this way: "We are the advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is neéecesSary to take up the gun.” The blood, sweat, tears and sGffering of Black people are the foun- dations of the wealth and power ‘of the “nited States of America. We were forced to build America, and if foxecd to, we will tear it down. The immediate resuit of this destruction wili be suffering and bicod- shed. But the end result will be the perpetual peace for all mankind. Pee ORS 3 Ey PRES re ee os re ~ Pte. Xa :