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Title: The Killing Fields Author: Anonymous Date: September 24th, 2013 Language: en Topics: Oakland, Black Panther Party, United States of America, counter-insurgency Source: Retrieved on 1st June 2021 from https://ruinsofcapital.noblogs.org/the-killing-fields/ Notes: Published anonymously on Indybay on September 24th, 2013
Long before Edward Snowden revealed the secrets of the NSA and the
federal government, another man revealed that the CIA was directly
responsible for flooding the US with cocaine in the 1980s. His name was
Gary Webb. In 1996, after publishing his three part article “Dark
Alliance: The Story Behind The Crack Explosion” in the San Jose Mercury
News, Gary was subjected to criticism, censorship, and was forced to
quit his job. His employers at the Mercury News retracted the story and
destroyed the CDROMS that had been created by the paper to spread the
basic information of the CIA’s conspiracy. Despite his thorough and
professional research, the mainstream media ignored his findings and
Gary remained unemployable until his suicide on December 10^(th), 2004.
This article is dedicated to his memory and to all those who died in the
drug wars.
Huey Newton used to climb up from the flats of Oakland and rob houses in
the hills. He carried guns when he was a teenager and wandered the
streets looking for something to get into, much like people do today. In
1966, he happened to meet a man named Bobby Seale. A few conversations
led to them creating the Black Panther Party, a group that instantly
became famous when they stormed the state capitol building in Sacramento
carrying guns. Dressed in cool leather jackets, black hats, and sun
glasses, the Party drew black people across the country towards their 10
Point Program.
BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
The Party quickly grew out of North and West Oakland and spread
throughout the black neighborhoods of the city and the country. At first
the Party only concerned itself with self-defense, monitoring the
police, and distributing its newspaper. But once Huey was charged with
murdering a cop and sent to prison, the effort to free him caused more
Party chapters to form. In the first months of 1969, the Party launched
its Free Breakfast For Children Program, an effort that drew the
attention of the FBI.
Along with the food program came free health clinics, schools, clothing
stores, and self-defense classes. The Party was very strict regarding
drugs in their neighborhoods. One of their most famous pamphlets was
titled “Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide.” They did not allow
pushers to openly deal or operate within their neighborhoods. Young
black men and women were able to put their energy towards a liberatory
project that promised them freedom from the toxic capitalist empire.
OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
The words of the 10 Point Program and the actions that followed from
them terrified FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and then governor of
California Ronald Reagan. These men feared a black uprising above all
else. Reagan famously triggered unrest on the Berkeley campus by
refusing to let Party member Eldridge Cleaver speak. He also had Angela
Davis fired from UCLA for her militant political beliefs. While the
governor did everything to keep black militants from finding an
audience, Hoover and the FBI applied their Counter-Intelligence Program
(COINTELPRO) to the Party, using thousands of methods to spread chaos
and death within the organization.
Before the autonomous black communities in the US could expand even
further, the federal government began an assault on their
infrastructure, sending local police to shoot out various chapter
headquarters, assassinate specific members, and arrest whomever they
could. Only a few of the chapters survived the first attack, an
offensive that came from every direction, even from within. The FBI
created false conflicts within the group by sending phony letters to
prominent Party members and using infiltrators to spread gossip and
create beefs. By 1973, several Panthers had murdered each other, the two
male leaders had split apart, and many chapters had disappeared.
NATURE OF THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT EDUCATION THAT TEACHES
US OUR TRUE HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY.
The Oakland chapter of the Party remained active throughout the mid
70’s, kept alive largely by Elaine Brown. They continued to run school
and food programs,ran Party candidates for city council, and helped
elect Oakland’s first black mayor. The Panther Liberation School was the
culmination of their original efforts, teaching hundreds of black youth
about their history and future. However, during this time period, Huey
Newton’s addiction to cocaine began causing him to act paranoid and
erratic. The Oakland chapter increasingly became involved in petty crime
and soon enough Panthers were killing each other again, Elaine Brown
resigned, and by the 1980ĂŠs the remnants of the Party had all but
disappeared.
PEOPLE.
From 1976 to 1977, George H.W. Bush was the director of the CIA. In this
position, he was able to oversee the flow of drugs from Columbia to
Panama and then to the US, all of it facilitated by his agency. In 1980,
Ronald Reagan won the GOP nomination and selected Bush as his Vice
President. This long time enemy of the black movement became president
in 1981. With his ex-CIA conspirator,Reagan developed a plan to
simultaneously attack communist guerrillas in Central America and
neutralize an area of domestic radicalism: the black community.
PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, All OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED
STATES.
During Reagan’s first year in office, the CIA created the Fuerza
Democratica Nicaraguens, a fascist guerilla army that fought the
Sandanista rebels in Nicaragua.In order to generate funds for the army,
the CIA allowed a known drug smuggler named Juan Norwin Meneses
Cantarero to set up shop in San Francisco and coordinate the largest
cocaine network on the West Coast. Overseen by the CIA,cocaine was flown
from Columbia to Texas and then brought to South-Central LA where the
infamous Rick Ross sold it on the streets. The money generated from
these transactions was used to buy more weapons for the fascist army in
Nicaragua.
Unable to break into the upper class market for cocaine, Ross began
selling his product to crack dealers at low prices, saturating the
streets with cheap product. Up north in Oakland, the heroin market was
majority controlled by a man named Felix Mitchell, the leader of the
East Oakland based 69 Mob. The use of crack did not become common in
Oakland until 1984, and when the CIA product arrived the 69 Mob and a
few other organizations distributed it. Across the Bay, in his expensive
San Francisco home, Juan Cantarero met with CIA agents and conspired
about their continuing operation. In 1985, Felix Mitchel was sent to
federal prison for life where he was later stabbed. His incarceration
and death did not hinder the CIA conspiracy; they simply found other
purchasers for their cheap cocaine. But in East Oakland, his death
triggered a war that continues to this day.
S. FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT
TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR All PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES
UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.
Huey Newton attended the funeral of Felix Mitchell. Under the control of
the 69Mob, the streets of Oakland had seen a minimum of gang violence.
Huey Newton’s own use and sale of drugs had encouraged the younger
generation to strengthen themselves with guns and drug money. Mitchell
had kept the massive area of East Oakland united and limited the strife
on the streets. Once he died and his organization fell apart, smaller
gangs began to war with each other over drug turf, murders increased,
crack use exploded, and East Oakland started to ferociously destroy
itself. The pop-culture glamorization of murder, drugs, and fancy cars
began, and by the time George H.W. Bush was president, gang culture was
firmly established in black neighborhoods across the US.
PEACE AND PEOPLE’S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.
Nearly all of the major industrial jobs in East Oakland vanished by the
1980’s. The white residents fled, the Eastmont Mall was deserted, and
the vast geographical area became the killing fields. Thousands of black
men and women have gone into prison forever, tens of thousands more have
cycled through periods of incarceration, and hundreds have died on the
streets. The control mechanism crafted by Reagan, Bush, and the CIA is
still functioning, although now it autonomously propels itself, fueled
by the desire for fame, money, and capitalist prosperity. The dream of
autonomy for all oppressed peoples is slowly recovering and gathering
strength, but the killing fields of East Oakland persist.
At the center of the Party is a commitment to building what is necessary
to survive and live autonomously. Until we begin to build the material
infrastructure necessary for healthy and autonomous communities, the
nightmare of our enemy will continue to spread. The Party that started
in Oakland has taught us what we should not repeat, how we can build,
and what to look for as we move forward.Memory is a weapon. Let the
Party remember itself.