Warming of members of the party - legal in America at that time - to be used in defence against police attacks. Panther, directed Members also sold books and written by of Mao's writings to raise Mario and Melvin money and organised free give-aways of shoes and Van Peebles sickle cell anacmia testing. The Panthers quickly came to an advanced underSOMETIMES when standing of Marxist politics you least expect it - including about building a comes a brilliant re- revolutionary organisation. minder of why. Why it There was a ten point is worth the struggle, programme that members had to agree with before the drudgery, the wait.
joining. and people were inJust what we're fightterviewed before being al. ing against but also lowed to join. Although what we are fighting initially dominated by men. for ine patty soon invoice A young boy looking for. ward is hit from the side by a car and is killed at a cross- J. Tarika Lewis, an exing where there is no stop Panther worked as a consultlight. ant on the film and states of The demand for a light - her time in the party that to protect the people from women "were the backbone death or injury - this be- of the party, who did just as comes a rallying cry for contro. by the people of thei more in some cases". own lives. The party was also From these beginnings. clearly against black sufrom the mundane pain of premacy and worked in alliroad accidents and continthe call for power to the people - it is up to us to de- Central leaders of the fend ourselves from the rac- party, such as Huey Newton and Bobby Searle, were Isis ano We capitalsis both jailed as Hoover's FBI Working class Panthers. This victimisation So it was that the Black eventually led to a governPanther Party for Self-dement plan to eradicate the party - and the black comamong the working class munity, through flooding it with drugs, a plan which ica in the late 1960s. The was initially defeated. story of this Party is viysoly portrayed in the flim Pan. The anti-drugs message of the film is summed up by ther, wantee and direcica by Mario Van Peebles who has father and son team Melvin commented. and Mano yan Pocbies. previously responsible for the "What happens when you take drugs? You don't story of the transformation of a hustler into a revolu- vote. You don't think.
You're not political. And tionary in Sweet Sweet. back's Baadassss Song. you don't join the Panthers.
Revolutionary transforNeutralised". mation is also the key This neutralisation is still theme in Panther, where demands for an end to police occuring and the film ended by showing the enormous tice by collective action which led to an increased since the FBI plan was level of understanding of we racism and innumanit capitalism. The film clearly shows This process starts. un. that democratic demands successfully, through atfor community control tempting to take down the grow over through struggle badge numbers of the cops.
into the demand of 'power More serious defence of the to the people' rather than community involves the power with the capitalists.
Despite the eventual destruction of the Panther the message "the struggle continues". The message of this film - which is as perfect as can be expected from a major motion picture Mario Van Peebles himself.
"A story about a couple of young men and women formed an organisation and showed us a way out. Not the only way, not even the necessarily the best way. out our one ess "To do the movement justice, I can only hope that trancends colour lines and sends a little power to the people".
Put simply Panther is a celluloid expression of the revolutionary power of the vivid reminder of the future as well as the past.