First Issue of Getting Together

Seize the Time

On December 4th, 30 Chicago cops laid a night-time ambush, and murdered two Panther leaders. One of the murdered Panthers was Fred Hampton, the 28-year old chariman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. A few days later, 300 cops launched a massive attack on the Los Angeles office of the Panthers, using such weapons as dynamite, machine guns, and tear gas grenades. The 11 Panthers inside the office heroically kept up their resistance for five long hours!

These two are the latest in the series of vicious police raids against this black people's organization. In the last year and a half, more than 30 Panther leaders and members have been murdered, and hundreds have been jailed, mostly on trumped-up (fake) charges. Why is it that the cops and rich white politicians are so afraid of the Panthers that they are trying to eliminate them by murders, ambushes, and a whole lot of jailings?

The Black Panther Party was born in 1966, after the black people struggled for their freedom and equality for ten long years peacefully. During that time, they followed the leadership of "non-violent" persons such as Dr. Martin Luther King who believed in- the Christian- philosophy of turning the other cheek when some prejudiced (racist) whites beat you up. The black people tried to attain freedom and equal rights by praying, sit-ins, peaceful marches, and voting campaigns. They were ignored, insulted, beaten, jailed, burned, attacked with water hoses and electric cattle prods and police dogs, and often killed. (Many leaders were killed including Malcom X, Medgar Evers, and Dr. King himself, as you will remember.) There were little reforms here and there (like the low-paying summer jobs for the kids), but poverty, discrimination, racial insults, and police brutality still continued. So the Panthers who followed the ideas of Malcolm X said to the black people: "This is all wrong. When the white racists or the cops attack us, we should defend ourselves, by whatever means necessary. We should be proud as black people, be proud of our blackness and of our struggle as slaves. What a proud people should do when attacked without a good reason, is to fight back and teach the aggressor a lesson so that he won't bother you."

< Serve the People                                            Seize the Time - Part 2 >

We take a look back at the I Wor Kuen and their newspaper Getting Together. The first issue was dated February 1970 and sold for 25 cents. The issue included articles about problems in New York Chinatown, about Serve the People and Seize the Time.