August 17, 2022 • 33 mins
Andrew finishes off his 2 part series on Kuwasi Balagoon with the formation of the Black Liberation Army, Balagoon's anarchism, and his tragic death in prison.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome, so it could happen here. I'm Andrew of the
YouTube channel andrews Um and I'm here with Oh it's me,
it's Christopher. Yeah, we're doing what we're doing another episode
of Bead and Andrew. We've seized the pod once again.
(00:26):
It is too early in the morning for anyone else
to be here, which gives us ultimate power. Part too
early in the morning, by the way, it's it's eleven
specific time. But yeah, there's there. There is no prayer
of anyone else being around for this, So we are
now in control here. Ha ha ha ha. Yes, we're go.
(00:48):
We're We're doing We're We're doing the maniacal laughs, We're
doing the podcast. We're doing the podcast. Welcome, Welcome. We
want to finish the story, the soldiers story that is
Quasi Bo Lagoon's life and legacy UM. When we last
left off as part of the New York's City Panther
(01:12):
twenty one trials, Kuasi was put in jail UM. At
the same time, he was also developing his political um
identity in a way and recognizing some of the issues
he was having with the Black Panther Party and particularly
after the East Coast West coast split that it could
(01:35):
Quasi as We, as we covered last time, was born
Donald Reems but took on the identity of Quasi Blagoon
due to his recognition of his African nous of himself
um through his experience in the army, through his experience
in London connecting with the Black aspora, and through his
(01:56):
connections with the Ruba Temple and so Balagoon. There alongside
that that personal recognition and political recognition of his antitheater
in politics, also comes to see himself as someone who
is at war with the state, and as such, once
in jail, he sees himself as a political prisoner, as
(02:19):
a prisoner of war. While in prison, the Panther twenty
one were incarcerated in a variety of jails in different
boroughs of New York City, but b Lagoon, Blue member
Shaker and another defendant quand Looking at Kinshasa. They were
all incarcerated the Queen's Housed attention and they organize an
(02:40):
uprising that took seven hostages, including a captain, five correctional officers,
and a black cook, pulling them from October one fifth.
The slogan of the multi ethnic takeover, which by the way.
It's pretty unhood of in prisons where black, Latino and
white inmates come together. Um, their slogan was all power
(03:05):
to the people, free all oppressed people, and so their
primary demand was for speedier trials. And in this process, Balgoon,
again developing his antithritarian politics solely you know, crewing towards
what he would come to define himself as, decided not
to play a vanguard rule in this decision making process.
(03:29):
In this uprising, even before he formally declared his commitment
to anti authoritarian politics, his primary concern was consensus for
all inmates and decision making, including access to food being
brought from the outside, and so that sort of consensus
process also helped build his identity the prisoners. They formed
(03:51):
committees to coordinate their uprisings and they agreed to release
two hostages, the black cook and one of the prison
guards as a sign of good faith. Eventually they had
to release all the hostages and they also suffered abuse
and charges from the uprising. It was sort of a failure,
but of course he didn't see that way. While he
(04:12):
was disappointed by the outcome, he believed that the power
the inmates felt by holding the state to be for that,
you know, limited moment was a valuable experience. It was
a learning experience as an organizing sow the uprising as
growing pains to those who believe that oppressed people would
rise up and seek justice, because we can see that
(04:32):
even with losses, their lessons to be learned. And this
isn't unique to just this one moment in history. In fact,
we can apply it to more recent events, such as
with the George Floyd Uprising. It's easy to be nihilistic.
Nihilistic probably isn't best used to say cynical and say that, oh, well,
(04:55):
the uprising was a failure. Millions of people got up
and protested and nothing came out of it, really, And
yet that, in combination with the coronavirus pandemic, brought people
together two establish programs of mutual aid, to get involved
in organizations in their local situation, to connect with people,
(05:19):
to radicalize themselves and radicalize others. It was not a loss,
you know. Yeah, I mean, I think there's there's an
extent to which, even if it's extremely hard to tell
in the moment, there's there's this way in which like
participating something like that just sort of permanently changes you.
And and I mean thing I think also in the
(05:40):
sort of context of the prison uprisings, right, like this
is like this is by no means like the last
prison uprising that's going to happen in this era. And
so I think, like, I don't know, it seems like
one of those moments where it's like in the moment,
it's like, oh, we failed, things look bad, but like
when in this sort of like broader historical sweep, it's like, no,
(06:02):
this was like an early uprising in a period that
is going to be sort of like an early dominou Yeah. Yeah,
And I think that's something that can be really hard
to like, like, especially in the moment, it can be
really hard to sort of like see that because it's
really easy to sort of like looking narrowly at what
(06:26):
you're one struggle is doing and then you know, but yeah,
if you have this sort of like you know, if
if you have the ability to sort of like see
back through history, you can watch how stuff like this
just sort of like has this massive effect on consciousness
in a way that the people in it even have
a lot of a hard time seeing. Yeah. So that's why,
(06:49):
like I'm emphasizing the foostpot. It's really important to developed
this perspective and to study our history, you know, a
radical history, so we could loose um could both you know,
put things into focus, into the perspective and also look
at the specifics of how things played out. So after
(07:10):
Bagoon's experience in the Panther Party and the oppression of
the New York Chapter, he realized that the party was
being turned away from its grassroots organizing of the black
masses and the issues that affects the most, the daily
survival the house and the education police abuse. You realized
the state was using it's in costural system as a
(07:34):
tactic by rounding up these organizers, by infiltrating the party,
by charging people these high bails and such. It turned
the party focus away from liberation to fundraise and for
legal defense. And so he realized he could not continue
the fight, could not continue on this front, that he
needed to survive and contribute underground to build a Black
(07:58):
liberation army as a clandestine freedom fighter. As a miracle
from the previous episode, Balgoon was severed from the case
of thirteen of those who have been arrested originally to
face charges in New Jersey, and after the acquittal of
most of his comrades, Balagon Queen pleaded guilty to the
charge that he, an unidentified person, did attempt to shoot
(08:21):
police officers, making him the only one of the twenty
one original defendants to be convicted. However, in September twelfth,
ninete three, Balagoon would escape from the New Jersey's Railway prison,
shortly after his conviction for arm robbery in New Jersey,
and then eight months after his escape, on May fifth,
(08:42):
he was again captured trying to assist a fellow Panther
Party member and defendant, Richard Harris, from escaping custody. They
were both apprehended after being wounded in a gun battle
with correctional and police officers. And so what I find
interesting about that he risked being recaptured so he could
free Harris. And that's solidarity right there. He was so
(09:05):
willing to sacrifice himself to help his comrades. That's admirable
levels of commitment. And even though he was imprisoned and
was disillusion with the Panther Party, it never discourages involvement
or commitment to revolution. While Incostrator began to explore anarchist politics.
(09:30):
He received and studied literature from solidarity groups like the
Anarchist Black Cross, which is an anti authority and organization
that provides material and legal support to political prisoners. And
and I was reading this, I recognized that name Anarchist
Black Cross, the a VC. I know that because they
also helped Loren Too Humble Urban to be released from jail.
(09:52):
They also provided him materials when he was incarcerated, and
so incrudous to them for that, you know, helping too
connect these people and connect these ideas. Yeah, and the
and the Anarchist Black Cross. If I'm remembering my history right,
like has a really really long history of doing this,
(10:12):
going back to like I mean, I know, I know
they were negotiating like the releases of like political prisoners
in the Bolsheviks went down. I didn't know they went
that about that found Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, if
I'm if I'm remembering, And that just goes to show
(10:33):
you might not see yourself as doing anything that meaningful. Well,
I'm just sending books to prisoners. In reality, you building
foundations you and you know the people who you influence
can go on to influence so many more so many others.
(10:54):
So anarchism ended up providing Balagon with a great analytical
lens to start up his critique of his experiences in
the Panther Party. When he looked at, you know, the
works of like Emma Goldman and others and apply them
to the Black Liberations struggle, he began to ask questions
about how his comrades are going about revolution. How by
(11:15):
allowing these hierarchies to develop in their organizations, they weakened
their resolve in their fights and capacity. It's like, as
he says, um the cauldrire accepted their command regardless of
what their intellects had or had not made clear to them.
The true democratic process which they were willing to die
(11:37):
for for the sake of their children, they would not
claim for themselves. And so what about good wanted was
a democratic process that would be established from today, not
that you would have a certain system now and then
you would wait until after the revolution to set up
a different system. It's like that whole connection of means
and ends that you know anarchists keep going on about.
(12:00):
He realized that the neededest democratic process to unleash the
revolutionary potentially masses and not make them pray to new oppressors.
The only way to make a dictatorship of the proletariat
is to elevate everyone to defleet all the advantages of power.
An ardent anarchist revolution has that on this agenda. One
(12:25):
of his inspirations was a fellow clandestine freedom fighter, that
being Italian anarchists Erico Mala Tester, who exhorted that revolutionary
struggle consists more of deeds than woods. You had a
lot of different political figures and radical anarchists, but especially
(12:46):
those involved in insurrection, especially those like Erical Artester, who's
also one of my personal favorites. When reading that, I
found that to be a fun connection. Yeah he's so cool. Yeah, yeah,
he really is. I see why why Zoe Baker likes
him so much. Yeah. Another influence of his first Spanish revolutionary,
(13:07):
Joseventa Domage, who organized the anarchist grilling movement. Los g
Sterros the Avengering once like their name, Sirius were thought
to be involved in political assassinations against you know, repression
and driller raids on the military forces of the Spanish dictatorship.
(13:28):
So people like Italian exiles Severan Severino di Giovanni and
other anarchists like Sacco and Vincenti so Di. Giovanni was
known for his campaign of bombing as armed propaganda and
soldarity with executed anarchists. Sacco and Vanti and Giovanni both
(13:48):
engaged in exppropriation of capitalist institutions as a means of
support in the revolutionary movement. And keep that point point
in mind, expropriation of capitalist institutions. To quote Mickey Mouse,
it's surprise, too little help us later, all right. Another
influence was, of course, I'm a Goldman, who was another
(14:08):
advocate of revolutionary arm struggle who supported her comrade Alexander
Bookman's assassinated wealthy industrialist who believed in free love, which
really resonated with Ballagoon because I'm not sure if I
mentioned it in the previous part or not, but Ballagoon
was an openly bisexual man in the nineteen seventies, nineteen sixties,
(14:33):
and nineteen seventies, and so that equipment of free love
that m A Gooldman had really resonates with him. Balagun
also recognized and continues to recognize that black people in
the United States were an internal colony of the US
and so the Black Liberations struggle as a national liberation
movement so began to identify with the New African independence movement.
(14:57):
The Provisional Government of the Republic of New Africa they PGRNA,
was founded in nineteen sixty eight March nineteen sixty eight
at a conference of five hundred black nationalists who declared
that independence from the US and demanded five states in
the deep South South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana
as reparations for the enslavement and racial oppression of black people.
(15:22):
New Africa was designated the name of this new free nation,
and at this time Balagun began to ideologically unite the
political objective of the PGRNA for independence um and and
took on New African as his national identity. As he says,
(15:48):
the US has no right to confine in New African
people to read line reservations, and we have a right
to live on our own terms, on our common land
and to govern ourselves free of occupational forces such as
the police, National Guard or GIS that have invaded our
colonies from time to time. We have a right to
control our own economy, print our own money, trade and
(16:11):
other nations trade with other nations. We have a right
to control our education institutions and systems where children will
not be indoctrinated by aliens to suffer the destructive designs
of the US government. His position for black self determination
was also combined with an anti capitalist perspective. The New
Africans would enter workforce within our excluded by design, and
(16:34):
we have the wages are not controlled by the ruling
class and their wealth. So I think this distinct self
expression is very important because there was a key aspect
of his political journey and how he saw myself. UM
(16:58):
the Afro futurest abolitionists to the amer because which is
a black an archaic radical collective based in the US.
UM they coined the term I believe black an archaic
radical in order to group and account for the different
an archaic identity is that that black people have have
(17:20):
identified us. So you have Anakata's, you have Black anarchists,
you have New African anarchists, and then people who just
go by bars and so at this time I think
UM as a New African anarchist. Calaguna was definitely ideologically
(17:41):
set apart from the Black Marxist leninists and revolutionary nationalists
of the time who wanted to see state power for
the from the white power structure of the US. And
he still desired, you know, a land for black people
to achieve self to termination. Even as an anarchist, you
wanted the space for Black people to build a society
based on anti fthoritarianism and freedom. I believe he was
(18:05):
really unique at that time and not for God. Like
other bars, he also recognized the importance of national liberation.
Like Ashanti Alliston, he began to recruit soldiers for the
Black Liberation Army and converts of anti authoritarian a New
African politics. While in Trenton State Prison and New Jersey,
(18:29):
he formed the Political Study Group with Black Liberation Army
members and Black Panther Party members and started to shift
their perspectives on antibibitarian politics and so that political education
behind bars became the main vehicle of recruitment into the
b l A. Another member of the b l A
(18:55):
was a Jewelry Utalu another fairly, I would say, somewhat obscure,
we're still iconic black anarchists. And when he was providing
his testimony concerning Blagoon's influence on his transition from Marxist
Leninism to anti authoritarian thinking. He said, I became disillusioned
(19:18):
with Marxism and became an anarchist thanks to Quasi Blagoon.
Due to the inactiveness and ineffectiveness is Marxist Leninism in community.
In our communities, along with the repressive bureaucracy that came
with it. People are not going to commit themselves to
a life and death struggle just because of grand ideas.
Someone might have flutes around their heads. A few people
(19:39):
commit themselves to a struggle if they can see progress
being made, similar to the progress of anarchist collectors in
Spain during the era of the Fascists. Like his teacher
and comrade, Jorg, Lutalo identified himself as a New African
anarchist prison of war balgon with a ski again from
(20:01):
Railway State Prison in New Jersey on and rejoined a
clandestine network of b l A soldiers in alliance with
white radicals in Soularities of Black Liberation Movement. This ideologically
diverse network of insurgent militants were known as the Revolution
Armed Task Force or our A t F, and so
(20:23):
it's a strategic alliance under leadership of the Black Liberation
Army that consisted of people of all sorts of different identities.
You had Muslims and revolutionary nationalists and anti imperialists and communists.
And Polagon was one of the few, if not the only,
anarchists in this whole organization. And so even though he
(20:43):
was critical of Marxism and nationalism, he decided to join
the comrades he loved and trusted in a common front
against white supremacy, capitalism, and imperialism. Me personally, um, and
I have a video of my YouTube channel about it.
I am not a left unity advocate, never have been. However,
(21:06):
like I said the video, um, you know there's still
solidarity to be had on certain topics and sidness use
and an important aspect, an important component of solidarity his
trust and to Bilagon clearly had trust in these comrades
in order to work with them. You know, it can't
just be this broad sweeping thing and say, oh, well's
(21:27):
unity soldarity, unity solidarity, and there's nothing to back it up.
There's no sort of connections or bonds to show for it.
And of course he did have, you know, political friction
while in the rt R, A t F his comrades,
He saw his comrades is a bit rigid, a bit
too rigid in their views, while he considered himself a
(21:48):
free spirit, and his comrades, despite the ideological differences and
his sexual orientation, still respected him because of his commitment
revolutionary struggle, because of his history of sacrif vices. And
so the Black Liberation Army and the r A t
F continue to carry out the condis signed work of
armed propaganda, of exportriations of resources for capitalists, financial institutions
(22:14):
for assisting comrades and escape and from incosceration. At this time,
there was an increase in white supremacist param military activity,
including the clots Lan, including the KKK, and so the
(22:39):
r A t F as an alliance helped to the
whites in that organization helped to gather intelligence on these
right wing white terms its activities and their connections with
the U. S. Military. While they also engaged in exporpriations
to obtain resources, they could build a capacity to resist
the white spremacist group. Because these violent acts that the
(23:03):
k K and these other riping groups are doing in
the late ninety seventies and early nineties, they were murdering
black children, black youth in Atlanta, black women in Boston,
and an Alabama, and so they were committed and organized
and doing something about it. Militant commit month to doing
something about it. The r t F also um we're
(23:28):
involved with the escape of a Stata Shaker, one of
the most iconic of the Panthers, and also the attempted
Brings expropriation in Nyack, New York. Shaker was wounded and
paralyzed from a shootout that they had with the New
Jersey State Troopers and had to escape the scene. And
(23:50):
as a someone considered the soul of the b l
A by the FBI, her capture was seen as a
very significant even and even though she never fired a gun,
even though she was paralyzed, she was convicted for the
murder of two state troopers who were killed in the shootout,
(24:13):
and so she was sentenced to life plus sixty five years. However,
odinga Blagoon and two white allies as a armed group
facility the escape of Sakura from Clinton Correctional Institution Wooman
in New Jersey on November n and I believe she's
(24:36):
still in Cuba to this day. At the same time,
the Vactorbrition Army was also trying to expropriate one point
six million dollars from a Brinx armed truck in New
York City on October and in the exchange of fire
that resulted from that attempt, one brings security gun to
(25:00):
The officers were killed and three white radicals and one
black man were also captured. Eventually, although he was laying
loo in New York City in the Manhattan Apartment, the
Joint Terrorist Task Force did eventually apprehend Baldagoon and so
(25:21):
once again he found himself in prison. But they did
managed to successfully expropriate some fronts from financial institutions going
back to the nine and those funds that they were
able to take were usually as to support the development
of an underground infrastructure, to support families to political prisoners,
(25:44):
to support political activities institutions with the Black Liberation movement
and general freedom struggles on the African continent, that is solidarity.
After his capture as a New African anarchist prisoner of
war for the the Good Time, who as he spoke
out to the movement for the first time again identify
(26:07):
himself as a New African anarchist, he spoke to the
public about his politics, and I wanted to make his
attentions clear. He acted as his own attorney in the
Rockland County trial where he was charged with the armed
robbery and the murders of the brins Garden police officers.
And so you want to make an opening statement, and
so it went as follows, I am a prisoner of war.
(26:32):
I attracted the crap about me being a defendant, and
I don't recognize legitimacy of this court. The term defendant
applies to someone involved in a criminal matter. It is
clear that I've been a part of the black liberation
movement all of my adult life, and I've been involved
in a war against the American imperialist You know, it's
a free New African people from its yoke. He wanted
(26:52):
it acknowledged that his armed action to a politically motivated
to win national liberation to eliminate capitalis some impualism and
ultimately authority and forms of government. And of course he
was sentenced to life imprisonment. Yeah. He continued to speak
to New African and Black liberation forces and two anarchists
(27:13):
gathering through public skate statements. He advocated continuously for the
building of an ensurgent movement, of building over tournaments, communities
at a hall and rally for imprison New African freedom writers,
the statement was read that we must build a revolutionary
political platform and a universal network of survival programs. In
(27:35):
another statement, he said, where we live and work, we
must organize on the ground level the landlords once we
contested through und strikes, and rather than develop strategies to
pay rent, we should develop strategies to take the buildings,
set up communes and abandoned buildings to vacant lots into gardens.
When our children grow out of clothes, we should have
places we can take them, clearly marked anarchists clothing exchanges.
(27:57):
We must learn construction and we take back our lives. Yeas,
he wanted to challenge people to move from a theory
into practice, to define anarchy in the real will, to
show the masses models of delivering water oppressors and of
building a better way of life. Unfortunately, although he struggled
(28:20):
long in prison and continuously advocated for the Black liberation
movement for the anarchist movement, he died in prison on
December two due to complications related to AIDS. So although
he's not a main extreme discourse. He's still recognized and
respected in some blaque New African anarchists and queer anarchist
(28:44):
spaces um because of his efforts in that time, because
of his self identity in that time. I spoke about
him briefly in my video and Black Anarchism, the research
for videos how it is of him in the first place,
and I was surprised that he wasn't spoken about so much,
considering his influence and his efforts and his She was
(29:11):
almost like, and I hate to do this to history,
to do this kind of great man things history. But
the fan was like a main character. Yeah, Like he
was there for the New York Plant, the twenty one Trials,
he was like dropping rats and congress. He was facility
in the escape of a Sacha Shakur for crying out loud.
(29:34):
He did so much in his short boost of freedom, UM.
And I can't help but respect that he stood out
most places he went, and I can't help but admire that.
In two thousand five, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, which
(29:56):
is a New African activist organization, declared its annual Orcas
celebration dedicated to Quasi b Lagoon and they in that celebration,
they also highlighted the needful awareness of the AIDS virus
and Africa and among the African aspiral. A couple of
radical hip hop artists such as Dead Press Inside Malik
(30:17):
have also mentioned Bo Lagoon's name, but his name is
still not commonly used enough, not as much as other
Black revolutionaries like Hue and Shaker and Muttulu Shaker. Anarchist
collectives have also recognized him, have republished his works. Um
(30:39):
have you know, put his his his writings and newsletters
and his trial statements and tributes, and yet he's still
that well recognized. The Quebec collective solarity is you have
collected works of Balagoon's trial statements as his poetry and
(31:00):
acknowledgements from comrades titled a Soldier's Story, which you can
find on the Anarchists Library. And in fact that soldiers
story is where I drew from for uh the script
for this two part podcast episode. I think that his
(31:27):
efforts well and not even to mention his actual identity
being a vehicle to challenge homophobia within the broader black
liberation movement, because he showed himself to be committed to
the cause, and he exposed people who may not have
otherwise been exposed to it. You know, the validity and
the humanity in Aquare comrades. He will forever remain remembered
(31:53):
and saluted by certain revolutionary nationalists around clanarchists and qualiberation forces.
He will forever be seen to me as an iconic
roon and I only hope that this podcast helps his
legacy to live on and encourages and motivates and strengthens
(32:15):
the resolve of people too. Wogan. I suppressed people to
build a revolutionary program, to challenge capitalism, to challenge racism,
wherever they find themselves the master their circumstances. And that's
about it. This has been a soldier's story, the life
and legacy of Quasi b Lagoon. I'm your guest toes
(32:39):
for this episode of it could happen here, Andrew of
the YouTube channel Andreism. You can find your on YouTube
dot com slash Aurism, on fature dot com slash Same True,
and on Twitter com slash underscore Same True. Yeah, this
this has been It can happen here. You can find
us that happened here on Twitter, Instagram. There's other cool
(33:01):
Zone stuff. You can find that too, and yeah, I
dedicate your life to overthrowing capitalism and imperialism. Well power
to all the people. It could Happen here as a
production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool
Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com
(33:22):
or check us out on the I Heart Radio app,
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find sources for It could Happen Here, updated monthly at
cool zone media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.
Welcome, so it could happen here. I'm Andrew of the
YouTube channel andrews Um and I'm here with Oh it's me,
it's Christopher. Yeah, we're doing what we're doing another episode
of Bead and Andrew. We've seized the pod once again.
(00:26):
It is too early in the morning for anyone else
to be here, which gives us ultimate power. Part too
early in the morning, by the way, it's it's eleven
specific time. But yeah, there's there. There is no prayer
of anyone else being around for this, So we are
now in control here. Ha ha ha ha. Yes, we're go.
(00:48):
We're We're doing We're We're doing the maniacal laughs, We're
doing the podcast. We're doing the podcast. Welcome, Welcome. We
want to finish the story, the soldiers story that is
Quasi Bo Lagoon's life and legacy UM. When we last
left off as part of the New York's City Panther
(01:12):
twenty one trials, Kuasi was put in jail UM. At
the same time, he was also developing his political um
identity in a way and recognizing some of the issues
he was having with the Black Panther Party and particularly
after the East Coast West coast split that it could
(01:35):
Quasi as We, as we covered last time, was born
Donald Reems but took on the identity of Quasi Blagoon
due to his recognition of his African nous of himself
um through his experience in the army, through his experience
in London connecting with the Black aspora, and through his
(01:56):
connections with the Ruba Temple and so Balagoon. There alongside
that that personal recognition and political recognition of his antitheater
in politics, also comes to see himself as someone who
is at war with the state, and as such, once
in jail, he sees himself as a political prisoner, as
(02:19):
a prisoner of war. While in prison, the Panther twenty
one were incarcerated in a variety of jails in different
boroughs of New York City, but b Lagoon, Blue member
Shaker and another defendant quand Looking at Kinshasa. They were
all incarcerated the Queen's Housed attention and they organize an
(02:40):
uprising that took seven hostages, including a captain, five correctional officers,
and a black cook, pulling them from October one fifth.
The slogan of the multi ethnic takeover, which by the way.
It's pretty unhood of in prisons where black, Latino and
white inmates come together. Um, their slogan was all power
(03:05):
to the people, free all oppressed people, and so their
primary demand was for speedier trials. And in this process, Balgoon,
again developing his antithritarian politics solely you know, crewing towards
what he would come to define himself as, decided not
to play a vanguard rule in this decision making process.
(03:29):
In this uprising, even before he formally declared his commitment
to anti authoritarian politics, his primary concern was consensus for
all inmates and decision making, including access to food being
brought from the outside, and so that sort of consensus
process also helped build his identity the prisoners. They formed
(03:51):
committees to coordinate their uprisings and they agreed to release
two hostages, the black cook and one of the prison
guards as a sign of good faith. Eventually they had
to release all the hostages and they also suffered abuse
and charges from the uprising. It was sort of a failure,
but of course he didn't see that way. While he
(04:12):
was disappointed by the outcome, he believed that the power
the inmates felt by holding the state to be for that,
you know, limited moment was a valuable experience. It was
a learning experience as an organizing sow the uprising as
growing pains to those who believe that oppressed people would
rise up and seek justice, because we can see that
(04:32):
even with losses, their lessons to be learned. And this
isn't unique to just this one moment in history. In fact,
we can apply it to more recent events, such as
with the George Floyd Uprising. It's easy to be nihilistic.
Nihilistic probably isn't best used to say cynical and say that, oh, well,
(04:55):
the uprising was a failure. Millions of people got up
and protested and nothing came out of it, really, And
yet that, in combination with the coronavirus pandemic, brought people
together two establish programs of mutual aid, to get involved
in organizations in their local situation, to connect with people,
(05:19):
to radicalize themselves and radicalize others. It was not a loss,
you know. Yeah, I mean, I think there's there's an
extent to which, even if it's extremely hard to tell
in the moment, there's there's this way in which like
participating something like that just sort of permanently changes you.
And and I mean thing I think also in the
(05:40):
sort of context of the prison uprisings, right, like this
is like this is by no means like the last
prison uprising that's going to happen in this era. And
so I think, like, I don't know, it seems like
one of those moments where it's like in the moment,
it's like, oh, we failed, things look bad, but like
when in this sort of like broader historical sweep, it's like, no,
(06:02):
this was like an early uprising in a period that
is going to be sort of like an early dominou Yeah. Yeah,
And I think that's something that can be really hard
to like, like, especially in the moment, it can be
really hard to sort of like see that because it's
really easy to sort of like looking narrowly at what
(06:26):
you're one struggle is doing and then you know, but yeah,
if you have this sort of like you know, if
if you have the ability to sort of like see
back through history, you can watch how stuff like this
just sort of like has this massive effect on consciousness
in a way that the people in it even have
a lot of a hard time seeing. Yeah. So that's why,
(06:49):
like I'm emphasizing the foostpot. It's really important to developed
this perspective and to study our history, you know, a
radical history, so we could loose um could both you know,
put things into focus, into the perspective and also look
at the specifics of how things played out. So after
(07:10):
Bagoon's experience in the Panther Party and the oppression of
the New York Chapter, he realized that the party was
being turned away from its grassroots organizing of the black
masses and the issues that affects the most, the daily
survival the house and the education police abuse. You realized
the state was using it's in costural system as a
(07:34):
tactic by rounding up these organizers, by infiltrating the party,
by charging people these high bails and such. It turned
the party focus away from liberation to fundraise and for
legal defense. And so he realized he could not continue
the fight, could not continue on this front, that he
needed to survive and contribute underground to build a Black
(07:58):
liberation army as a clandestine freedom fighter. As a miracle
from the previous episode, Balgoon was severed from the case
of thirteen of those who have been arrested originally to
face charges in New Jersey, and after the acquittal of
most of his comrades, Balagon Queen pleaded guilty to the
charge that he, an unidentified person, did attempt to shoot
(08:21):
police officers, making him the only one of the twenty
one original defendants to be convicted. However, in September twelfth,
ninete three, Balagoon would escape from the New Jersey's Railway prison,
shortly after his conviction for arm robbery in New Jersey,
and then eight months after his escape, on May fifth,
(08:42):
he was again captured trying to assist a fellow Panther
Party member and defendant, Richard Harris, from escaping custody. They
were both apprehended after being wounded in a gun battle
with correctional and police officers. And so what I find
interesting about that he risked being recaptured so he could
free Harris. And that's solidarity right there. He was so
(09:05):
willing to sacrifice himself to help his comrades. That's admirable
levels of commitment. And even though he was imprisoned and
was disillusion with the Panther Party, it never discourages involvement
or commitment to revolution. While Incostrator began to explore anarchist politics.
(09:30):
He received and studied literature from solidarity groups like the
Anarchist Black Cross, which is an anti authority and organization
that provides material and legal support to political prisoners. And
and I was reading this, I recognized that name Anarchist
Black Cross, the a VC. I know that because they
also helped Loren Too Humble Urban to be released from jail.
(09:52):
They also provided him materials when he was incarcerated, and
so incrudous to them for that, you know, helping too
connect these people and connect these ideas. Yeah, and the
and the Anarchist Black Cross. If I'm remembering my history right,
like has a really really long history of doing this,
(10:12):
going back to like I mean, I know, I know
they were negotiating like the releases of like political prisoners
in the Bolsheviks went down. I didn't know they went
that about that found Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, if
I'm if I'm remembering, And that just goes to show
(10:33):
you might not see yourself as doing anything that meaningful. Well,
I'm just sending books to prisoners. In reality, you building
foundations you and you know the people who you influence
can go on to influence so many more so many others.
(10:54):
So anarchism ended up providing Balagon with a great analytical
lens to start up his critique of his experiences in
the Panther Party. When he looked at, you know, the
works of like Emma Goldman and others and apply them
to the Black Liberations struggle, he began to ask questions
about how his comrades are going about revolution. How by
(11:15):
allowing these hierarchies to develop in their organizations, they weakened
their resolve in their fights and capacity. It's like, as
he says, um the cauldrire accepted their command regardless of
what their intellects had or had not made clear to them.
The true democratic process which they were willing to die
(11:37):
for for the sake of their children, they would not
claim for themselves. And so what about good wanted was
a democratic process that would be established from today, not
that you would have a certain system now and then
you would wait until after the revolution to set up
a different system. It's like that whole connection of means
and ends that you know anarchists keep going on about.
(12:00):
He realized that the neededest democratic process to unleash the
revolutionary potentially masses and not make them pray to new oppressors.
The only way to make a dictatorship of the proletariat
is to elevate everyone to defleet all the advantages of power.
An ardent anarchist revolution has that on this agenda. One
(12:25):
of his inspirations was a fellow clandestine freedom fighter, that
being Italian anarchists Erico Mala Tester, who exhorted that revolutionary
struggle consists more of deeds than woods. You had a
lot of different political figures and radical anarchists, but especially
(12:46):
those involved in insurrection, especially those like Erical Artester, who's
also one of my personal favorites. When reading that, I
found that to be a fun connection. Yeah he's so cool. Yeah, yeah,
he really is. I see why why Zoe Baker likes
him so much. Yeah. Another influence of his first Spanish revolutionary,
(13:07):
Joseventa Domage, who organized the anarchist grilling movement. Los g
Sterros the Avengering once like their name, Sirius were thought
to be involved in political assassinations against you know, repression
and driller raids on the military forces of the Spanish dictatorship.
(13:28):
So people like Italian exiles Severan Severino di Giovanni and
other anarchists like Sacco and Vincenti so Di. Giovanni was
known for his campaign of bombing as armed propaganda and
soldarity with executed anarchists. Sacco and Vanti and Giovanni both
(13:48):
engaged in exppropriation of capitalist institutions as a means of
support in the revolutionary movement. And keep that point point
in mind, expropriation of capitalist institutions. To quote Mickey Mouse,
it's surprise, too little help us later, all right. Another
influence was, of course, I'm a Goldman, who was another
(14:08):
advocate of revolutionary arm struggle who supported her comrade Alexander
Bookman's assassinated wealthy industrialist who believed in free love, which
really resonated with Ballagoon because I'm not sure if I
mentioned it in the previous part or not, but Ballagoon
was an openly bisexual man in the nineteen seventies, nineteen sixties,
(14:33):
and nineteen seventies, and so that equipment of free love
that m A Gooldman had really resonates with him. Balagun
also recognized and continues to recognize that black people in
the United States were an internal colony of the US
and so the Black Liberations struggle as a national liberation
movement so began to identify with the New African independence movement.
(14:57):
The Provisional Government of the Republic of New Africa they PGRNA,
was founded in nineteen sixty eight March nineteen sixty eight
at a conference of five hundred black nationalists who declared
that independence from the US and demanded five states in
the deep South South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana
as reparations for the enslavement and racial oppression of black people.
(15:22):
New Africa was designated the name of this new free nation,
and at this time Balagun began to ideologically unite the
political objective of the PGRNA for independence um and and
took on New African as his national identity. As he says,
(15:48):
the US has no right to confine in New African
people to read line reservations, and we have a right
to live on our own terms, on our common land
and to govern ourselves free of occupational forces such as
the police, National Guard or GIS that have invaded our
colonies from time to time. We have a right to
control our own economy, print our own money, trade and
(16:11):
other nations trade with other nations. We have a right
to control our education institutions and systems where children will
not be indoctrinated by aliens to suffer the destructive designs
of the US government. His position for black self determination
was also combined with an anti capitalist perspective. The New
Africans would enter workforce within our excluded by design, and
(16:34):
we have the wages are not controlled by the ruling
class and their wealth. So I think this distinct self
expression is very important because there was a key aspect
of his political journey and how he saw myself. UM
(16:58):
the Afro futurest abolitionists to the amer because which is
a black an archaic radical collective based in the US.
UM they coined the term I believe black an archaic
radical in order to group and account for the different
an archaic identity is that that black people have have
(17:20):
identified us. So you have Anakata's, you have Black anarchists,
you have New African anarchists, and then people who just
go by bars and so at this time I think
UM as a New African anarchist. Calaguna was definitely ideologically
(17:41):
set apart from the Black Marxist leninists and revolutionary nationalists
of the time who wanted to see state power for
the from the white power structure of the US. And
he still desired, you know, a land for black people
to achieve self to termination. Even as an anarchist, you
wanted the space for Black people to build a society
based on anti fthoritarianism and freedom. I believe he was
(18:05):
really unique at that time and not for God. Like
other bars, he also recognized the importance of national liberation.
Like Ashanti Alliston, he began to recruit soldiers for the
Black Liberation Army and converts of anti authoritarian a New
African politics. While in Trenton State Prison and New Jersey,
(18:29):
he formed the Political Study Group with Black Liberation Army
members and Black Panther Party members and started to shift
their perspectives on antibibitarian politics and so that political education
behind bars became the main vehicle of recruitment into the
b l A. Another member of the b l A
(18:55):
was a Jewelry Utalu another fairly, I would say, somewhat obscure,
we're still iconic black anarchists. And when he was providing
his testimony concerning Blagoon's influence on his transition from Marxist
Leninism to anti authoritarian thinking. He said, I became disillusioned
(19:18):
with Marxism and became an anarchist thanks to Quasi Blagoon.
Due to the inactiveness and ineffectiveness is Marxist Leninism in community.
In our communities, along with the repressive bureaucracy that came
with it. People are not going to commit themselves to
a life and death struggle just because of grand ideas.
Someone might have flutes around their heads. A few people
(19:39):
commit themselves to a struggle if they can see progress
being made, similar to the progress of anarchist collectors in
Spain during the era of the Fascists. Like his teacher
and comrade, Jorg, Lutalo identified himself as a New African
anarchist prison of war balgon with a ski again from
(20:01):
Railway State Prison in New Jersey on and rejoined a
clandestine network of b l A soldiers in alliance with
white radicals in Soularities of Black Liberation Movement. This ideologically
diverse network of insurgent militants were known as the Revolution
Armed Task Force or our A t F, and so
(20:23):
it's a strategic alliance under leadership of the Black Liberation
Army that consisted of people of all sorts of different identities.
You had Muslims and revolutionary nationalists and anti imperialists and communists.
And Polagon was one of the few, if not the only,
anarchists in this whole organization. And so even though he
(20:43):
was critical of Marxism and nationalism, he decided to join
the comrades he loved and trusted in a common front
against white supremacy, capitalism, and imperialism. Me personally, um, and
I have a video of my YouTube channel about it.
I am not a left unity advocate, never have been. However,
(21:06):
like I said the video, um, you know there's still
solidarity to be had on certain topics and sidness use
and an important aspect, an important component of solidarity his
trust and to Bilagon clearly had trust in these comrades
in order to work with them. You know, it can't
just be this broad sweeping thing and say, oh, well's
(21:27):
unity soldarity, unity solidarity, and there's nothing to back it up.
There's no sort of connections or bonds to show for it.
And of course he did have, you know, political friction
while in the rt R, A t F his comrades,
He saw his comrades is a bit rigid, a bit
too rigid in their views, while he considered himself a
(21:48):
free spirit, and his comrades, despite the ideological differences and
his sexual orientation, still respected him because of his commitment
revolutionary struggle, because of his history of sacrif vices. And
so the Black Liberation Army and the r A t
F continue to carry out the condis signed work of
armed propaganda, of exportriations of resources for capitalists, financial institutions
(22:14):
for assisting comrades and escape and from incosceration. At this time,
there was an increase in white supremacist param military activity,
including the clots Lan, including the KKK, and so the
(22:39):
r A t F as an alliance helped to the
whites in that organization helped to gather intelligence on these
right wing white terms its activities and their connections with
the U. S. Military. While they also engaged in exporpriations
to obtain resources, they could build a capacity to resist
the white spremacist group. Because these violent acts that the
(23:03):
k K and these other riping groups are doing in
the late ninety seventies and early nineties, they were murdering
black children, black youth in Atlanta, black women in Boston,
and an Alabama, and so they were committed and organized
and doing something about it. Militant commit month to doing
something about it. The r t F also um we're
(23:28):
involved with the escape of a Stata Shaker, one of
the most iconic of the Panthers, and also the attempted
Brings expropriation in Nyack, New York. Shaker was wounded and
paralyzed from a shootout that they had with the New
Jersey State Troopers and had to escape the scene. And
(23:50):
as a someone considered the soul of the b l
A by the FBI, her capture was seen as a
very significant even and even though she never fired a gun,
even though she was paralyzed, she was convicted for the
murder of two state troopers who were killed in the shootout,
(24:13):
and so she was sentenced to life plus sixty five years. However,
odinga Blagoon and two white allies as a armed group
facility the escape of Sakura from Clinton Correctional Institution Wooman
in New Jersey on November n and I believe she's
(24:36):
still in Cuba to this day. At the same time,
the Vactorbrition Army was also trying to expropriate one point
six million dollars from a Brinx armed truck in New
York City on October and in the exchange of fire
that resulted from that attempt, one brings security gun to
(25:00):
The officers were killed and three white radicals and one
black man were also captured. Eventually, although he was laying
loo in New York City in the Manhattan Apartment, the
Joint Terrorist Task Force did eventually apprehend Baldagoon and so
(25:21):
once again he found himself in prison. But they did
managed to successfully expropriate some fronts from financial institutions going
back to the nine and those funds that they were
able to take were usually as to support the development
of an underground infrastructure, to support families to political prisoners,
(25:44):
to support political activities institutions with the Black Liberation movement
and general freedom struggles on the African continent, that is solidarity.
After his capture as a New African anarchist prisoner of
war for the the Good Time, who as he spoke
out to the movement for the first time again identify
(26:07):
himself as a New African anarchist, he spoke to the
public about his politics, and I wanted to make his
attentions clear. He acted as his own attorney in the
Rockland County trial where he was charged with the armed
robbery and the murders of the brins Garden police officers.
And so you want to make an opening statement, and
so it went as follows, I am a prisoner of war.
(26:32):
I attracted the crap about me being a defendant, and
I don't recognize legitimacy of this court. The term defendant
applies to someone involved in a criminal matter. It is
clear that I've been a part of the black liberation
movement all of my adult life, and I've been involved
in a war against the American imperialist You know, it's
a free New African people from its yoke. He wanted
(26:52):
it acknowledged that his armed action to a politically motivated
to win national liberation to eliminate capitalis some impualism and
ultimately authority and forms of government. And of course he
was sentenced to life imprisonment. Yeah. He continued to speak
to New African and Black liberation forces and two anarchists
(27:13):
gathering through public skate statements. He advocated continuously for the
building of an ensurgent movement, of building over tournaments, communities
at a hall and rally for imprison New African freedom writers,
the statement was read that we must build a revolutionary
political platform and a universal network of survival programs. In
(27:35):
another statement, he said, where we live and work, we
must organize on the ground level the landlords once we
contested through und strikes, and rather than develop strategies to
pay rent, we should develop strategies to take the buildings,
set up communes and abandoned buildings to vacant lots into gardens.
When our children grow out of clothes, we should have
places we can take them, clearly marked anarchists clothing exchanges.
(27:57):
We must learn construction and we take back our lives. Yeas,
he wanted to challenge people to move from a theory
into practice, to define anarchy in the real will, to
show the masses models of delivering water oppressors and of
building a better way of life. Unfortunately, although he struggled
(28:20):
long in prison and continuously advocated for the Black liberation
movement for the anarchist movement, he died in prison on
December two due to complications related to AIDS. So although
he's not a main extreme discourse. He's still recognized and
respected in some blaque New African anarchists and queer anarchist
(28:44):
spaces um because of his efforts in that time, because
of his self identity in that time. I spoke about
him briefly in my video and Black Anarchism, the research
for videos how it is of him in the first place,
and I was surprised that he wasn't spoken about so much,
considering his influence and his efforts and his She was
(29:11):
almost like, and I hate to do this to history,
to do this kind of great man things history. But
the fan was like a main character. Yeah, Like he
was there for the New York Plant, the twenty one Trials,
he was like dropping rats and congress. He was facility
in the escape of a Sacha Shakur for crying out loud.
(29:34):
He did so much in his short boost of freedom, UM.
And I can't help but respect that he stood out
most places he went, and I can't help but admire that.
In two thousand five, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, which
(29:56):
is a New African activist organization, declared its annual Orcas
celebration dedicated to Quasi b Lagoon and they in that celebration,
they also highlighted the needful awareness of the AIDS virus
and Africa and among the African aspiral. A couple of
radical hip hop artists such as Dead Press Inside Malik
(30:17):
have also mentioned Bo Lagoon's name, but his name is
still not commonly used enough, not as much as other
Black revolutionaries like Hue and Shaker and Muttulu Shaker. Anarchist
collectives have also recognized him, have republished his works. Um
(30:39):
have you know, put his his his writings and newsletters
and his trial statements and tributes, and yet he's still
that well recognized. The Quebec collective solarity is you have
collected works of Balagoon's trial statements as his poetry and
(31:00):
acknowledgements from comrades titled a Soldier's Story, which you can
find on the Anarchists Library. And in fact that soldiers
story is where I drew from for uh the script
for this two part podcast episode. I think that his
(31:27):
efforts well and not even to mention his actual identity
being a vehicle to challenge homophobia within the broader black
liberation movement, because he showed himself to be committed to
the cause, and he exposed people who may not have
otherwise been exposed to it. You know, the validity and
the humanity in Aquare comrades. He will forever remain remembered
(31:53):
and saluted by certain revolutionary nationalists around clanarchists and qualiberation forces.
He will forever be seen to me as an iconic
roon and I only hope that this podcast helps his
legacy to live on and encourages and motivates and strengthens
(32:15):
the resolve of people too. Wogan. I suppressed people to
build a revolutionary program, to challenge capitalism, to challenge racism,
wherever they find themselves the master their circumstances. And that's
about it. This has been a soldier's story, the life
and legacy of Quasi b Lagoon. I'm your guest toes
(32:39):
for this episode of it could happen here, Andrew of
the YouTube channel Andreism. You can find your on YouTube
dot com slash Aurism, on fature dot com slash Same True,
and on Twitter com slash underscore Same True. Yeah, this
this has been It can happen here. You can find
us that happened here on Twitter, Instagram. There's other cool
(33:01):
Zone stuff. You can find that too, and yeah, I
dedicate your life to overthrowing capitalism and imperialism. Well power
to all the people. It could Happen here as a
production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool
Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com
(33:22):
or check us out on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 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.
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James Stout
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