The Story of Kuwasi Balagoon Part 1 ft. Andrew

Andrew walks us through the early years and political development of Black anarchist Kuwasi Balagoon

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to it could happen here a podcast that I've
could and yeah, well welcome. We'll welcome to the inaugural
podcast where it's just Christopher and Andrew. I'm your host,
Christopher Wong and I got I got Andrew with with
me today to cast the pod. Okay, yes, I have

(00:26):
done an age. Thank you for that. UM. I had
to sacrifice you for that one, because I was not
gonna gonna do it myself. UM. Welcome to the first
in a two part exploration of the new African revolutionary
known as Quasi Palacoon. He's one of the most recognizable

(00:49):
black and arch radicles of the whole black and radical tradition. UM.
Recognized for his constant struggle, UM, for his political journey,
and for his insights in the cause of you know,
black freedom in the US. And so I think as
his very layered journey is one I believe that more

(01:12):
people should explore, and I hope that more people would
come away with this episode and the following episode, the
second part, with a recognition of what an inspiring person
is and what we can can learn from his life.

(01:35):
Hell yeah, I'm excited. He's super cool. Yeah, for many reasons.
As I think we will start at the very beginning,
as most humans do. I don't think we know of
anybody who just kind of plopped onto the youth fully formed.
His quassy bout lagoon was not his original name, was
his chosen name. He was born Donald Wims in the

(01:58):
major majority black community of lee Gland in Prince George's County,
Maryland and December twenty second nine, so I'm sure he
got like his Christmas presents and his birthday presidents like combined.
I was a laugh. It's thinking, my one of my

(02:21):
oh I think it's my my uncle or something has
his birthday is yeah, December. Yeah, one of my uncle's
bothday is six I think, and my girlfriend's birthday is
the twenty. Yeah. That's that's some That is some rip
stuff there. Yeah. I mean I try not to like

(02:42):
add to that, so I try and get two separate gifts,
but um, you know, it's a it's a challenge. And
then talk of that like you can't really do much
for your birthday because everybody's always been like last minute stuff. Yeah. Yeah,
thankfully I was born in the best month. So anyway, well,
the experiences prepared the young Donald Ellams to become an

(03:06):
activist who would militantly resist white supremacy and unjust authority.
He was particularly inspired by his own parents struggle UM
during the Cambridge Protest of is He. His dad had
worked in the US Printed Office and his mom had

(03:29):
worked at Fort Meade in Maryland, and so they he
and his sister were very much cared for. He and
his two sisters rather very much cared for. He think
he was the youngest of the family and loved and
they really showed UM that sort of drive to provide

(03:54):
and care for for for their children. Um in those
environments they would have seen, he observed, and he watched it.
He observed his parents observing the effort that they put
in and the fact that they surpassed the skill and
experience of a lot of the white folks who came

(04:16):
into their type of work. But then Therese said, white
folks who just go on ahead and climb the ladder,
and you know, get these promotions and get these raisors,
while they themselves had to like slowly and painfully drag
themselves forward and fight to get ahead. Also that their
children could have their food and clothes and everything that

(04:36):
they needed. So the Cambridge Rights. The three were led
by a young woman by the name of Gloria Richardson,
who was a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement UM.
Their struggle had he moved as part of the Civil
Rights Movement UM and the local chapter of the Student

(04:57):
Town Violent Coordinating Committee. There was fight against segregation in
the area, organizing sit ins and so on and so forth.
But after they had organized against a movie theater that
was expanding its discriminatory practices UM the movement started to
push back and they marched, and the demands were unmet,

(05:20):
and the police were called, and Richardson and others were
arrested for disorderly conduct, and there was a whole pattern
of protests and arrests and boycotts and harassed when they
just went on and on and on. After some youths
both afteen years old were charged with disorderly conduct for
being arrested and were arrested but pretting peacefully outside of

(05:44):
a segregated facility. Even more marches were organized, and eventually
the protests escalated and some white owned businesses we set
on fire. Then gunfire was being exchanged with whites and
African Americans, and of course Marcia law has declared and

(06:07):
National Guard was deployed, and eventually a treaty had to
be negotiated between um Glory Richardson and white power structure.
The Gambridge movement is recognized by the Nation of Islam
as one of the by Malcolm X as one of

(06:27):
the examples of a developing black revolution, and so that
militancy in that movement is what inspired and impressed the
young Donald Williams would later become quest about. Another formative
point in his in his life was when he had
joined the U. S Army after graduate in high school

(06:49):
and were stationed in Germany after receiving some basic trina.
Of course, like most black people in the military, he
experienced a lot of racism and physical attacks from white officers,
and eventually he and others formed the association known as
the Legislators basically based on like messing up racists and

(07:12):
making sure that they couldn't like interfare with them any longer. Yeah,
he prided himself in his ability to exact revenge on
racist war suits while in Europe. He was in London
at one point and he connected with Africans and African descendants,
and he saw his experience and learn that it's basically

(07:35):
like a natural tonic like it's something that clicked in
his head, and he realized interconnections between African descendants across
the globe. Um As he grounded himself more in in
black consciousness and culture, he stopped processing his hair while
it is natural hair style and became basically more committed

(07:56):
to black liberation than he had been before. After being
honorably honorably discharge the nineteen sixty seven, after three years
of servant primarily in Germany, he returned home to Lakeland,
UM and then he moved to New York City, where
his sister Diane had lived. And in New York he
got involved in Rench strikes and became parts of a

(08:18):
tenant organizing movement for the Community Council of Hosing. One
of the principal leaders of this of this movement was
a holeumn Rend strike organized soclled Jesse Green, and he
used the rhetoric of like militant Black nationalism to recruit
lieutenants for his activist campaigns. His his militancy when you know,

(08:41):
pull it back, and he connected with the militancy that
Donald was already feeling drawn to. Is what it really
pushed him to get into that cause. And so I
think it makes me think as I'm you know, going
through his journey about like I mean, his commitment to
the struggle began from very early on, from seeing his
parents and the things they had to do with from

(09:03):
seeing the Cambridge riots, from seeing his experience in the army,
from connecting with UM, with black folks in London, rot
with UM, his tenant organizing. And it makes me think
of the political journeys of people today and how all

(09:24):
these little points and larger points in a poerson's life
kind of combined to create the sort of tapestry of
a person that they are, and a tapestry of political
beliefs so they could I think a lot more people
have been drawn to like militant radical politics, left radical

(09:46):
politics than we give them credit for. The more people
have that basis than we necessarily um once to accept.
I think the issues that we just don't have the
outreach and place, do you know, help them get across

(10:10):
the finish line and get to a place where the
actively you know, working for these courses. Yeah, it seems
like there's a lot of i mean, partially burned out
and partially just sort of I don't know. You you
get these you get periods where sort of just like
specific movements ends and a bunch of people just kind
of fall out, and it's like, it's not that they
haven't done this stuff, it's that they just sort of,

(10:33):
I don't know, the movement to the thing they were
in is over and now they're sort of just off
doing something else. And yeah, and that reminds me of
um well, rhymes of a script that I was working
on the other day about demands. And one of the
arguments people have made against making demands, you know, as

(10:54):
a movement is that once demands are met, it's sort
of of concessions even made. It's SAPs the momentum out
of a movement, and it SAPs its potential because if
you you know, accept concessions, if you accept that, you know,

(11:15):
when you whatever you receive and you know you go
back in your Laurelsy, you don't reach the climax of
what you could have achieved as a movement compared to
if you've just kept going. Of course, I have critiques
of the anti demand position, but it's something that they

(11:35):
frequently consider when I look at a lot of these
social movements that have based on specific projects, based on
specific focuses, and what happens when these movements get you know, coopted,
when these movements get compromised, and the way that the

(11:56):
potential and the share manpower of some of these movements
compared to like what they've actually achieved is a massive discrepancy,
you know. Yeah, And I was thinking about um it
was something in the Bestard's episode a long time ago
about um the the name of the treaty was Ampo

(12:18):
WHI is, like there was this huge mobilization in Japan
in the sixties to stop this treaty with the US.
Was a military treaty they're doing there, and they had
a whole bunch of stuff in it, Like I think
there was a closet let the US like invade Japan
if there was like a civil disturbance or something stuff
like that. And then you know, they had this huge
movement like people people stormed the parliament like multiple times,

(12:42):
like you know, I think, I think, I think afterwards
the storians determined that like a third of the total
population of Japan had been involved in this movement, and
then they lost because the whole movement had been about
stopping this treaty, and the treaty gets signed that they
can't do anything about it, and then it just sort
of like fizzles and it kind of becomes the Japanese

(13:03):
New Left. But like you know, you have this like
incredible high water mark of like like you you have
you have so many from them, and even the Japanese
New Left like disappeate. Yeah, yeah, and they they it implodes,
like yeah, you go from like like Nixon, like but
it wasn't Nixon tried to visit and I think that

(13:25):
there's been a couple of US presidents you tried to
You tried to visit Japan and couldn't leave the airport
because the bob was too large outside of it, And
he's like it went from that too. You know, everything
is sort of once once once once they're sort of
like immediate rallying, like here's our demand or is our goal?
Like like disappears. Everything just sort of splinters into these
like weird fragment groups and you get like a bunch

(13:45):
of Japanese Marxists just like shooting each other over nothing
in the mountains, and the whole thing sort of just implodes.
And yeah, I mean even if you look at like
like say Fridays the Futures and an example or like
Extension earlier, no George Floyd protests and you consider, you
just sit and you think about the shant numbers involved

(14:08):
into his movements, the potential of that large mobilization, a
mobilization effort, compared to what comes out of them. You know,
like what other than a few minor policy changes, what
has you know, say extinction rebellion or Fridays the Future achieved?

(14:32):
When you know, these massive cooperations are still actively fights
in every step of the way, and these movements are
not yet willing to do what it takes to you know,
accomplishment needs to be accomplished. Not even talking about violence.
I'm not talking about violence. I am not talking about violence.

(14:54):
What I'm talking about is the effort involved, the work
that goes into social revolution, that goes beyond the sort
of flashy, easily recognizable march and the street kind of activities,

(15:15):
because there's a lot of stuff that goes behind the scenes.
A lot of institutions need to be built from the
bottom up, a lot of institutions need to be transformed
from the inside out. And you know, without that basis
in place, which is spinning on top in mud, but

(15:39):
back to weeds. Like me in his generation, he was
righty to join an uncompromised movement for black freedom and
human rights. He joined Jesse Gray and protesting the conditions
and New York housing, particularly infestation of rats and public housing.
In fact, and this is probably one of my favorite

(16:00):
stories of his entire you know, like lifetime as an
activist that's now organizing. So in seven, Jesse Gray, Donald Williams,
his sister Diane, and two other Turnant activists were arrested
for disorderly conduct in Washington, d C. When they unannounced

(16:24):
an uninvited attended a session of Congress and draw at
the cage of rats to the assembly to highlight the
urvan hoising condition. Hell yeah, I wish I could have
been a fly on the wall or something to have
witnessed that. Yeah, Like I mean, it's it's such an

(16:47):
impressive than even just on a sort of like just
like a logistical level of where did they get this
cage of rats from? Like I mean, clearly they got
the rats from the house and the housing was so
bad they had the rats run around everywhere, imagining like
they we're we're not going to use kill trap. We're
gonna use like capture traps. Specifically, sweet drop these rats

(17:07):
on Congress like these rules. It's perfect. It's perfect. Is
that sort of energy that you know helped him to
create that group the legislators while he was in the army,
you know. But what I mean because they you know,
dropped some rats in Congress and they got arrested. The

(17:28):
c h UM lost its fund, the Community Council learn
Housing lost its funding, and Jesse Gray lost his ability
to pay his organized US and just that land loan
just kind of stood out to me. Um that movement.
That is because these movements, you know, back in the day,

(17:48):
they were serious would getting changed done and they recognize
that it yet changed done. You need to have people
who are full time involving getting that changed done. It
can be a part time thing. And so you know,
these movements had these groups. They had like staff that
you know, appaid to like put in the work, who
could focus all their efforts and energy in it. And
of course that took fundraise and that took donations, that

(18:10):
took support from their local communities to get that sort
of support that they needed to get things done. Um,
I think right now we have is a lot of
groups that often fizzle out to burn out before they
could even get started because they don't have the resources

(18:30):
to support their kind of effort that they will need
to get things done. When everybody is working one to
three jobs, everybody's boomed out and re stressed out. And
this was my organizing experience at least. Um, it's very
hard to get stuff done when everybody's tired all the time.

(18:51):
It's very hard to get things off the ground when
everybody is busy all the time. I think there's another
kind of interesting thing here too, which is like it's like, well,
because like now we do have organizations where you can
get paid to be full time staff. But it's it's yeah,
it's NGO stuff. And and the thing I think is
it's it's it became this question of sort of I

(19:14):
mean a partially it's about legal structures of how you
could have like part part of I think, yeah, it's
it's about the sort of legal requirements about who can
actually have and what kinds of organizations and what you
have to do to like have an organization that has
a bank account for example. And then also I think
there's this there's just kind of traffic traft people fill

(19:36):
into where. Okay, so you need funding, right, and you know,
the places you can get funding from usually tend to
be either you're spending your entire time doing donation drives
or you're doing these grant stuff. And it's like, well, okay,
the problem with like both of these basically a giant
strings attached to them, and so like it sort of
falls away from the like, hey, we're you know, sort

(19:58):
of like paid revolutionary organizers and just degrades and subpar
entity and stuff exactly exactly, and the incentive structure completely changes.
And of course they also power dynamics involved, and you know,
paid verses and paid organizers and that sort of thing.
But I mean, if if, if you know, these these

(20:19):
liberal organizations and getting all this fund and getting all
these support, they able to sustain themselves and keep pushing
their cause, and all radical movements and militant movements are floundering. Again,
where are we going with this? You know? Yeah? But afterwards,
with the loss of funding, Weems left CCIEGE and then

(20:42):
he joined the Central hallm Committee for Self Defense in
Solidarity the student protests and Columbia University. That committee would
bring food and water to the students who occupy the
buildings in the Columbia campus. And that's another important things
to pointing to. And I still kind about the less
flashy work that goes into it because people are talking

(21:04):
about general strike because they have this vision of this
general strike that everybody is, you know, standing out in
the streets and this big crowds out in the streets
and we all refuse to work, and it's rude and
it's wonderful. But a general strike can only be pulled
off if there's a strike funding place, if there's a
strike banking place where resources are available for people to

(21:27):
draw from. Doesn't a strike, contrary to some perspectives, so
I guess some mislet approaches. It's not when you tell
your boss, hey, let me get a day off. It's
like a grunge strike real quick. A strike you refusal
to work, it is unpaid, It is a risky endeavor.

(21:51):
You don't just walk out without organized support from your
fellow co workers. The very east and part of what
makes a strike successful, part of what makes a protest
or a sitting or any kind of movement successful is

(22:11):
having a network of care work instituted so you see
that the Central Hall and Community for Self Defense, in
solidarity with another movement, brought food and water to the
students who are occupying the buildings, and because they brought
food and water, those students are able to continue occupy

(22:34):
occupying those buildings and continue struggling for the causes they
were struggling for. I don't think they're enough people, and
not to just count people that are. If it doesn't
fall in your garden, you don't after water it. I
think there needs to be more people who are going
into that care work, which is marginalized because it's just

(22:56):
associated with women and non men really, but it's it's
something that we need to account full something. It needs
to be one of the principle arms of all its strategy.
Like like when I was doing tenant organizing, is like
I did, so it was like what did I do
the tenant organized? Just like well, okay, so I went

(23:17):
around and put signs up on, moved chairs around, I
took care of people's kids. Like that was like feeling
most of it. There's just a lot of like I
don't know, I mean stuff like childcare like that that
kind of stuff, Like he is a vital part of
any if if is a vital part of any political
movement that's actually going to succeed that you're trying to run,

(23:37):
and nobody wants to talk about or do it because
it's not the like exciting like we're throwing a brick
at a cop or whatever. Stuff. Yeah, exactly, So I
don't know wal postal notes And this is the part
where he changes his name. Not all Beams would associate

(23:57):
himself with the Uruba Temple in Hall Them was organized
by Nana or Sir Giman Adrifumi, the Detroit bo and
Adifumi was initiated in Cuba in the Lukumi right of
the Ruba origin, and he saw the West African religious
and cultural heritage as a means of cultural self determination
and peoplehood for African and science the United States. Recently,

(24:20):
there was a Netflix documentary about the ways that Uruba
traditions have been kept alive across the quote and quote
New World. And so you will see um in Cuba
and in Brazil and in trying to be a google
in the US. The Ruba practices and cultural components have

(24:41):
just and sustained. And so when Adrifumi established the Ruba
Temple in New York. Storry in Detroit was the Detroit
in New York. In Detroit, um, I would say Detroit.
He so it has an institution two, a nationalistic institution

(25:07):
meant to advance the cause of the civil rights movement
and liberation Black liberation movement. He sort of Africans everything,
you know, names and hats and clues and clubs and
churches and so a lot of people in Beam generation,
and so you see people like like Malcolm X adopting
a new Monica. They rejected, you know, these European names

(25:30):
and adopted African or Arabic names. So when we're gonna
to the Urban Temple, he would no longer be Donald Beams.
He took an away day name Kuasi, meaning mail born
on a Sunday, and the urban name Blagoon meaning Wallord.
And so that again ties into his whole passion for militancy,

(25:54):
because he is basically a Wallord born one on a Sunday.
I don't know what you would as a kind of
a metal Yeah, it's like now great to fight, fresh
out the room, all kind of thing, but it's pretty

(26:14):
sick exactly exactly. But you know, along with finding his
cultural beer in the Uruba Temple. He got his Black
Pole politics of revolution black nationalism from the Black Pole Movement,
the nineteen sixties Black Pole Movement. They realized that, you know,

(26:38):
black liberation is not possible without the overthrow of the
US constitutional order and capitalist economic system. And they also recognized,
and a significant number of Black Milton's sixties Black Paper
Movement recognized that the classical Marxism Latinism was not a
free work that they identified with. It is something that
all of them did adopt to adapts, but it's not

(27:00):
something that they just consumed whole sale. And I think
that's honestly some nuance that is often obscured when people
take this sort of blindly nostalgic approach to pass you know, movements,
Because even even back then, even in the early stages

(27:22):
Black Power movement, there was you know, political diversity in
terms of the aims and intentions and beliefs um different perspectives,
even within the same political philosophy, um different approaches. The
the West Coast Black Panthers and the East Coast Black
Panthers so different approaches. The West Coast Black Panthers were

(27:44):
more class focused, whereas the East Coast PA Panthers were
more Pan Africa and the approach, and that honestly caused
a lot of tension between the two of them. May
them were inspired you across the board, but the influence
of Marxism, the Chinese and Cuban revolutions, but other national
liberation movements in Africa, Asia and the America's because this

(28:04):
was a time of course where a lot of movements,
a lot of countries were getting independence from Britain and
France and all together colonizers. This is also a time
where more and more people were, you know, building their
criticisms and the racism present in the old left, and

(28:24):
so they wanted a theoretical vehicle that that gave them
the self determination, the ideological self determination that they needed.
Like they were with the whole civilrights movement, they were
fighting within it, but they wanted more than what the
civil rights movement was offering. They wanted more than just
civil rights between within a settler colonial state. And they

(28:46):
would not going to sit back and just be satisfied
with non violence as a way of life. All of
them sold civil rights movement as well as as something
integrationist or something pro assimilationist. Whereas they wanted something more insurgent,
more revolutionary, and so you know, they brought together all
these different things, um, Black nationalism and sub domination, Marxian

(29:12):
critiques of capitalism, and a direct action approached that was
you know, in the civilrights movement from the beginning. And
so by Lagoon became a revolutionary. He began to read
literature like the autobiography of Malcolm X and Robert Williams,
both negroes with guns. And he also learned from the

(29:38):
leaders that surrounded him, like the leader of the essencc
UM and the leaders of of of you know, the
Black Panthers. What do you recognized someone long inspired by
militancy is that Black liberation only come about through protracted

(29:59):
gorilla fair. I don't think you have to go over
like the origins of Black Panthers in detail, UM, but
just to summarize, the Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California,
in response to the abuses of the police UM upon

(30:23):
the residents of Oakland, and so after Hughey Newton when
the founders of Black Panther Party and one of his
comrades got in a shoot up with the Oakland Police
Department and survived. UM and one of the officers actually
got fatally wounded. Newton basically became a national hero to

(30:44):
the only England black youth who you know, like you
can't even conceive that this guy fought the state and won.
He had like a small win, but he won. So
that's when you see like the whole free e Que
movement kick off, because you know, he was charged with

(31:06):
Frese murder for his name the cop he shot, and
free Hue was the rally and cry, black poll and
lap circles. Eventually, BPP came to New York in some
of the nineteen and I mean people try to kick
off Black Panther Party New York beforehand in sixty six,

(31:30):
but it didn't work out. So this new Black Panther
Party in New York kicked off and began to build
support in the hundreds. The same month that Dr King
was assassinated, he had a lot of members of the
b PP coming together two sort of figure out a

(31:54):
direction because although they may have been critical of the
Souf rights movement, the lost Dr King was imajor blue
to everyone because even if they disagree with him, he
was still an inspiration. So Bobby Ceiling, Captain Cleeveld came
to New York and they appointed eighteen year old, eighteen
year old essence CEA member Judon Ford, as acting Captain

(32:19):
of Defense of the BPP. And that's another thing a
lot of people forget, like these people are young, really young.
Fred Hamilton died when he was twenty one, assassinated, of course,
and so it's like an inspiration honestly, and also like
a rallying cry for all young people who feel disimportant, disenchanted,

(32:44):
disheartened by all the different aspects of collapse that ares
surrounded us, you know, like we can stand up and
fight back. But anyway, so Judon Ford became the acting
Captain defense of the BPP of the East Coast and
he was soon joined I David Brothers and they found
the the BPP in Brooklyn in n National leadership of

(33:08):
the BPP also sent Ron penny Well to get directions
to New York Chapter. And so penny Well was there
and he was involved, and he became a captain in
the ranks, and he was very grassroots in his approach.
The Harlem branch of the New York Chapter will be
founded by Blumomber Shakur, who was the son of Malcolm

(33:29):
x associates, Saladin Shaku, and that same Saladin Shako was
He served as a mentor and a servid father for
many of the members of the New York of New
York's Back Panther Party. And you know, all these different
people and all these different groups and stuff for mixing
and molding and melding and getting together. And eventually the

(33:52):
New York chapter the BPP would grow to become among
the largest, if not the largest, in the entire organization,
but approximately five hundred members. So went about the good
found out the BPP was organized in New York, he
went and he joined. He felt, you know, like empowered
by the Black Panther Party's ten point program. And for

(34:15):
those who don't know, the ten point program was pretty straightforward.
One we want freedom. Two we want full employment. Three
you want an end to the robbery by the white
man of our black community. Four we want decent housing.
Five want education that exposes the true nature of this

(34:35):
decadent American society, teaches us a true history our rule
in present day society. Six we want black men to
be exempt from military service. Seven we want an immediate
end to police brutality and mood of black people. Eight,
you want freedom for all black men helen federal, state, county,
and city prisons and jails. Nine you want all black

(34:56):
people to be brought to child. We tried the court
by a jury of their peers from black communities because
at the time, and I mean it still exists today,
um and even affected um the rent urban being tried
for these things and some a single black face, and
the entire jury it's entirely white, middle class upper class

(35:19):
three members. And lastly ten, we want land, bread, housing, education, clothing,
justice and peace and so Probagoon was drawn to this.
He's identified with the organization's maoist axiom that political power

(35:41):
comes from the barrel of the gun um and was
inspired by, you know, the ways that the Chinese Revolution
inspired the Black Panther Party. However, the structure from the beginning,
the structure of the Black Panther Party did pose some
challenges for Balagoon, and it really only got worse from

(36:03):
there to The Black Panther Party was structured with the
National Center Community the NTC as the highest decision making
body and the entire organization across the entire country. Even
though the New York chapter was the largest in the
entire UM party. The NTC was concentrated in Auckland, which

(36:27):
is where you know the party was founded, and so
most of the body was associated with people who knew
Hugh Newton. There was a whole chain of command and
like I said, that whole style and structure of governor.
Speaking of factor and Baldagoon's attraction to anti authority in politics,

(36:50):
and of course he was not alone in being critical
of the structure of the party. John Cox, Shanty Alston
learned to comb with it, and many others would also
develop similar critiques, joining them from a similar direction. Because
Boblagoon had this experience organized and beforehand, and he recognized

(37:12):
the good that you know, the party was doing, but
he also had taken asue with how the party was structured.
So when he got involved, you know, he was ready
to participate and work with oppressed black communities and these
basic issues UM. For example, in September nine, the Black
Panther Party members participating in a community take over of

(37:34):
Lincoln Hospital, which at the time was dilapidated and disinvested
and was not able to sue the predominantly black and
Latino residents. Assault Bronx, and so the BPP in New
York would work with the Puerto Rican Young Lords and
the provisional government of the Republic of New Africa to
take over and reform the detox program at Lincoln Hospital.

(37:58):
And that boldness again inspiration now, because how many of
us are willing today two just like so boldly just
walking and take over these broken institutions, to put them
in the hands of the community, to make them whole,
hopeful institutions for the people. I think we need more
of that boldness. So New York Panthers were pretty much

(38:21):
involved in tenant organizing as well, which is right up
Ballagoon's alley. Um oh, I guess we could call him
rat catcher um. And they were also involved in fights
for community control over the school system and the police. Eventually,

(38:47):
Aldagoon and another Panther, Richard Harris, would be arrested in
February and bank robbery charges in New York, New Jersey
on it for a second nineteen sixty nine, less than
one year after the founding of the New York chapter
of the b PP, one Panther leaders and organizers, including
Balagoon and Harris whore united twelve arrest and conspiracy charges

(39:11):
and thiirty counter indictment, and of course this case became
known as New York Panther one. The charges included conspiracy
to bomb the New York Botanical gardens and police stations
in two assassin police officers. And after the arrest, mostly
defendants were released on a hundred thou dollars bild, but
Balagoon was held without bail. So they were being charged

(39:35):
for this like claim that they were going to ambush
New York police. Um based on the testimony of one
nineteen year old Panther member, Juan Byrd, who had been
beaten by the police in order to you know, make
a statement that was favorable to the prosecution, like beaten

(39:58):
as an her mom puller to the police station to
hear her daughter screaming visibly, beaten with a black eyes,
swollen lip, bruises on her face, everything, and so um
Blagoon and the other person who was being charged with
this attempt to ambush the police, who was a guy

(40:18):
named Odinga, and he had escaped and went under ground,
but Laguna dot but then ended up going free in
the United States, settling down in Algeria, and all that jazz.
But Blagoon not only was he charged with all the

(40:40):
others were charged with, but he was separated from the
others and face charges in New Jersey. All the others
where in New York as and he was split in
behind bars for two years. The other defendants who acquitted.
And as a result of you know, all this legal

(41:01):
battling and maneuvering, since a lot of the key organizers
and leaders as New York Panther Party were incarcerated, the
organization was pretty badly crippled, and as with its you know,
activities and general momentum, I think that's that's that's something

(41:24):
that the Planter Party had to struggle with very often,
having it's it's key members, it's it's leaders and and
and members incarcerated and charged and facing trial. And so
as a result, Panther Party was almost for almost its
entire existence, was basically fighting charges and trying to get

(41:47):
its members out of jail and this, that and the other.
It's a lot of its efforts ended up training towards that.
So I think seeing now the New York plant Party
was crippled, I think it highlights the importance of of
distribution and decentralization when it comes to organize it, and
how I see importance of as the future stabolitionist of

(42:08):
the Americans say, moving like my core is a my
core is a basically a mutual relationship between fungi and
plant roots. So they move nutrients seen plants they're connected to,
and they basically create this kind of fungal network that
that spreads across an ecosystem, and it prevents researchers from

(42:29):
basically able to see where they begin where they end.
They you know, they grow slowly. Sometimes they pop up
above ground there's like mushrooms and stuff, but primarily they
exist underground. And so what the our future establishers are
talking about is basically creating a movement that is primarily underground,
that spreads and is interconnected and cannot be pinned down

(42:53):
with such a clear pinned down or easily infiltrated like
how the Party was able to with such a clear
you know, structure and the chain of command. So basically,
move like mccorzy, work from the ground or underground, and

(43:14):
work for the roots, work from the roots MHM. Eventually,
after most of his comrades were acquitted, Balag impleaded guilty
to the charges that he and somebody else did attempt
to shoot the police officers. So then he became the
only one of twenty one original defendants who was actually convicted.

(43:41):
So while that was going on, um, you know, while
the New York Panther on case was being played out,
Balagoon's politics are starting to shift revolutionary nationalism and democratic
and the democratic centralism of the party were beginning too.
If you healthy critique, I would say, and Balagoon is

(44:06):
starting to shift more towards anti authoritarian politics. At the
same time, about's going through that political journey. More generally speaking,
the New York Black Panther Party, I was getting to
feel disenchanted with how the national leadership was handling things.
Like the tension had already existed because of the differences

(44:27):
in focus, you know what, the New York Panthers being
more Pan African and the Boakland Panthers being more class focused.
But one of the after one of the leaders of
the Panther Party, Geronimo Pratt, had been purged from leadership

(44:51):
for his quote and quote counter revolutionary behavior, UM tensions
started to build because Pratt was seen as a hero
to a lot of members in New York UM party
because he had been very much parliamentary, he had been
very much paramilitarily organized, and he had taken it up

(45:14):
upon himself the train Panther members in paramilitary tactics. And
so after he was you know, push from the leadership
UM and a few other leaders were also purged, the
New York Panthers began to feel disconnected from the from

(45:40):
the national because the whole reason they were attracted to
the Panther parties because of this this image of armed
Panthers patrolling against the police of you know, underground guerrilla
warfare UM. And so you know, the New York Panther
movement was very much associated with that. But once they

(46:04):
saw the sort of pudges they were taken place, um,
some of which they looked up to. When they saw
that the national leadership sent these other guys Robert Bay
and told On Strawley into New York to assume leadership
of the chapter to basically important leaders from outside movement,
rather than sort of bring up new ones, you know,

(46:26):
from within the local community. It basically work to destabilize
what the New York Panthers were working for. Because when
these guys rolled up. They had a very autocratic, hierarchical
style of leadership, unlike you know, the Pennywell guy, who
was very much grass roots in his approach. And I

(46:50):
mean even as Sata Shakur had like basically critiqued the
quality of the West Coast leaders sent to New York
when she spoke about how Robert Bay and Charley, who
are from the Rest Coast, had a very aggressive, and
she said, belligerent way of talking and dealing with people.

(47:13):
And so that really is what built up towards UM
from simple initial differences of opinions and misunderstanding leading towards
the dissolusion of the connection between the national leadership and
the New York Chapter. The New York Chapter wanted to

(47:39):
focus on things of a more national orientation. UM. They
wanted to work on the tenant issues that they had
started with in the first place. But the nationally appointed
leadership was not interested in tenant issues and they don't

(47:59):
want to play so much focus on on on you know,
nationalists oriented. It's US Pan Africa and its use. And
so when you know, these groups were reassigned from their
tenant organizing. So the other people programs that were working
in the West Coast. That was also presented by the

(48:21):
New York Panthers because New York Panthers they were, you know,
working on certain things. They had like tenant organizing behind
their belt and they had like these different Mutu league
projects and stuff going on, these you know, sort of
support and solidarity things going on, and to be tooled
from the outside, Hey, stop doing this tenant organizing and stuff.
Do these things as working where we are coming from.

(48:43):
It didn't play out well yeah, I mean the last
time in Or told me to do that, I left.
I literally had this happen to me, which just like no, yeah, yeah,
it doesn't work O. Not to mention, and I mean
this was a criticials I mentioned earlier about a lot

(49:05):
of the focus ended up being towards um getting people
out of jail and you know, dealing with legal defense.
One thing about we criticize was the fact that the
national leadership selective leader term and who would be released
from bail, Like it it didn't matter you know what
the rund and file or fellow prisoners of war or
who had the Lewis Bill or whatever. What about it

(49:28):
is what the leadership, who the leadership wanted to be
chosen to be all out. And of course it should
also be noted that parts of what was building these
tensions and building these divisions quite until prove and you know,
the FBI working at every separate the way to foment
divisions and fire up divisions within the national leadership, within

(49:49):
the New York Chapter, even within the New York Plants,
the twenty one defendants. So you can't you can't reach
that aspect of it. Yes we can. We can criticize
these organizations and these movements for of missteps, we also
have to keep in mind the context that they were in,
the tensions they were facing, and the fact that they
would be an openly assaulted and clandestinely assaulted by the

(50:09):
US government on all angles at all corners. I think
sometimes it's like they both kind of fit together in that,
like if you look at what the U. S. Intelligence
Services were good at, right the very the very specific
thing they'd become incredibly good at because they've been doing

(50:30):
it for you know, like basically since the end of
World War Two, is that they were really really good
at hammering down these like these sort of like centralized
party apparatus. Is like as how they basically turned cp
U S A from like genuinely really powerful political movement
the thirties to like by the fifties, it's entirely run
by like the FBI, and so yeah, it's like this

(50:51):
is this is kind of mismatch here because it's like,
on the one hand, you're suffering incredibly heavy repression, but
then also it's like the political form that you're taking
is a form that the U. S. State has gotten
really really good at fighting. So tis sort of like
compound each other exactly exactly. And so of course like

(51:12):
it's not like the rank and file with necessarily just
going to roll over and that these things happened, right,
So they were trying their best to like submit these
criticisms to the national leadership through the like Black Panther newspaper,
but eventually the New York Panther twenty one defendants took

(51:33):
a public position they were seen as critical of the
national leadership when they send an open letter to the
Weather Underground, which they published on the nineteenth of January.
Those who don't know, the Weather under Ground was basically
a bunch of um white radicals who basically we're trying

(51:56):
to fight the U S Government by doing a bunch
of bollins and fighting soul arity with national liberation movements
like in Vietnam. Yeah, the stuff ranges from like pretty funny,
like they kept blowing up the statue for the Haymarket
cops to like what are you guys doing? It's it was.
It was a very weird organization. Yeah, yeah, quite quite

(52:20):
quite the characters and so um. The open Letter applauded
the insludent actions because Cubman New York Party was very
much intact militant and sort of stuff. So the Open
Letter applauded the insludent actions of the Weather Underground and
acknowledged them as a part of the Van God of
the revolutionary movements United States. They never mentioned the national

(52:42):
leadership of the bp P, but they also critiqued like
kind of like a a subtle, sort of unspoken kind
of thing shady, They kind of through shade. Basically, they
were like critical of self proclaimed Van God parties that
abandoned the action to the radical and the ground struggle

(53:03):
and the political prisoners. I mean that's as open as
you could be with actually saying but yeah, so of course,
and Babdagoon was you know, he agreed with this criticism.
And so because the national leadership had you know, wasn't
you know, actually attacking the occupational forces of the center

(53:23):
plumial state anymore. Um, And because you know, a lot
of money being collected was going towards bail, and a
lot of people were sycriticizing the fact that some of
the leaders who were beginning to live pretty comfortably while
a lot of the rank and file was based we
were sitting out in jail. Once the letter went out,

(53:46):
new Turn basically expelled the Plant and basically declared the
Plant one enemies of the people. Jesus. Yeah, a lot
of them, and not just Plant the twenty one, but
also the New York PPP leaders in general, just all
of them branded enemies of the people. Um. Some of

(54:08):
the defendants like Richard to Ruben Moore and set Away
Tabor and a few others also ended up going to Algeria.
Late in the month, members of the New York Black
Panther Party hold a press conference and basically called for
the purge of human Newton and the Plant Party chief

(54:29):
of staff David Hilliard and the formation of a new
national Central Committee and basically like I said officially split
from the National Organization. I want to find interesting able
with that approach to it is they basically fought fire
with fire, for one, so you're like, oh, you want
to call us enemy of the people, we were going
to call you enemies of the people. And then on

(54:51):
top of that, you also have to deal with the
fact that their solution to the problem of the National
Central Committee be into the for their bridges and interfere
and with their grassroots politics was like, you know, if
we needed a new National cent Show Committee. Well, you
know what this reminds me of a lot. It reminds

(55:14):
me of a lot of the stuff that happens and
the sort of early culture revolution where it's like you
have a bunch of people well, I mean, okay. The
big difference of the early culture revolutions, like every single
group is like claiming at their loyal demount. But like
you get a lot of these things where you know,
people people will be like, hey, the party has been
becoming incredibly overbearing, and then you get like most of
them are just like okay, like our solution to this

(55:36):
is we are now the party. But then you you
get these sort of like ultra left groups who are
making sort of like not exactly anarchist but are making
sort of structural critiques of it, and those guys just
get like purged and killed. I don't know, the dynamics

(55:57):
and the critiques remind me of it. Yeah, I think
it's something we see just in general and politics. Honestly,
it's a sort of limitation of the imagination. Wait, people
aren't conceiving of things like outside of what has already
been done. I mean, I myself and guilty of this

(56:18):
because a lot of my inspirations are like pre colonial
cultures and you know, societies and stuff. But still I
try to like bring those into a new context and
think of ways it can be applied differently. I just
when you think about this approach it where you have
the issues of the National Central Committee, the solution is

(56:39):
to create a new cential committee rather than consider an
approach that's not involved a national central Committee. Um. I
think that's something we see all too all too often,
or even like just nostalgia politics in general, people's whole
approach to politics is trying to replicate past movement. But anyway,

(57:03):
so as you see in balagoons involvements, you know, well
as a child, I'm gonna with his parents, you know,
with the Cambridge protests, with the army and his involvement
in that, with the New York Talant organizing UM, with
the Plant, the Party, with the Euroba Temple, all these

(57:24):
things how to inform his political development. It inspired him
to be part of dynamic revolutionary movements that he respected
and he loved and he trusted, but then also helped
him to question the decision making and the nature of

(57:46):
organizations and how the structure of organizations um relates to
state repression. So my name jail. You tend to have
a lot of a lot of time to think and consider,
and so Bablagoon wanted to sit and and think and
basically correct all these ideological weaknesses that are stirring in

(58:09):
his head that basically compromised the militant liberation movements that
he wanted to see liberate his people. So I conclude
by saying that who must learn from the past. In this,
you know, short for regent to Bolagoon's life, We've ended

(58:34):
up coming to a lot of different conversations about the
nature movements today. And I think that sort of critical
approach to you know, people's history something we should be
doing more often in our modern discussions of the past,
the good, the bad, and the ugly. Anyway, join us
for part two of Lagoon's journey as we explore his

(59:00):
path toward New African Anarchison. You can find me Andrew
on YouTube dot com slash andreids m and on Twitter
at underscore Scene. True. This has been It could Happen Here? Yeah,
Chris was here too. Yeah. You can find us at

(59:24):
Happened Here Pod on Twitter and Instagram. Follow us at
the cool Zone Yeah, I'll see you next time. It
Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media.
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool zone Media dot com or check us out on
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

(59:46):
listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It could
Happen Here, updated monthly at cool Zone Media dot com
slash sources. Thanks for listening.