In 1968, Huey P. Newton told an interviewer that whites who wanted to support the Black Panthers should create the White Panther Party. Later that year, a trio of Michigan radical artists (John Sinclair, Leni Sinclair, and Pum Plamondon) did just that. Gaining notoriety from their campaigns to legalize marijuana, support political prisoners, and the popularity of revolutionary rockers the MC5, the White Panthers formed chapters around the country, and continued their activity through the seventies, long after other New Left formations dissolved.
Among them was our guest today, Larry Weissman, aka DJ PreSkool. He joined the party in 1971 until he was jailed during a public dispute over gun rights against mayor Dianne Feinstein. We talk about the history of WPP, their political line, their alliances and disagreements with other New Left groups, the importance of weed and rock n' roll to their program, and how he continues that spirit today as house DJ in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Check out PreSkool's Underground Syllabus Friday at Casette in Ridgewood, Queens: https://dice.fm/event/eoanp6-dj-preskools-underground-syllabus-14th-nov-cassette-new-york-city-tickets
Read Guitar Army by John Sinclair
More on WPP food program: https://www.foundsf.org/Hard-Left_Politics_Enters_the_People%E2%80%99s_Food_System
More on WPP wiretaps and entrapment: https://www.necessarystorms.com/home/watergate-wiretaps-and-the-white-panther-party
Check out the rest of the Armed Love Series: https://www.patreon.com/collection/87680?view=expanded
Song: Henry Rollins & Bad Brains - Kick Out the Jams
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