Huey P. Newton of the Black Panther Party discusses the importance of an economic base for any social movement. Excerpt from Huey P. Newton’s dissertation, “War Against The Panthers: A Study Of Repression In America” “This willingness by the Party to use democratic means of reform and to support Black capitalism was criticized by some as inconsistent with the Panther ideology of revolutionary intercommunalism. This is partly because progressive people quite correctly observe that “It is very clear, upon reflection, what function law serves within any culture. It protects the culture’s ideology. Under capitalism it protects property, the men who own it and guard it.” From this observation, it is only a brief inferential step to the conclusion that, because law is a product and perpetuator of corporate interests in this country, it cannot be a force for significant socioeconomic change. But while this conclusion is logical in a mechanistic-sense, it is illogical, and therefore wrong, in a dialectical sense: According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life… [I]f somebody twists this into saying that the economic element is the only determining one, he transforms that propositionRead More →