REVOLUTIONARY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, WHITE RADICALS WHO ARE BECOMING BROTHERS AND SISTERS:
I'm very happy that we are all here together today, not because it's my birthday, but because we should be together on any and every occasion that we possibly can in the name of solidarity.
February 17th, fortunately, is also the Tet of the lunar new year. So we're celebrating the lunar new year with our brothers in Viet Nam. We're daily making the people more and more aware of the need for unity among all revolutionary people and also that it's impossible for us to overcome the treacherous bureaucratic class without an organized force.
The students at the many universities across the nation are challenging the reactionary authority of the schools and are also pointing out very vividly that it's impossible to have a free university, free schools, or a free society in a society that's ruled by a fascist military-industrial complex. The community is now seeing that our fight on the campuses is more than just a fight for "freedom of speech" on the campus, or Blacks gaining a knowledge of our heritage; it's also showing the direct relationship between the reactionary government and the agencies and institutions that are only an arm of these reactionaries. Until we penetrate the community and make them aware and plant the seed of revolution, we will never have freedom at our schools. The community now is being mobilized by the Black revolutionary forces and along with them are our white revolutionary comrades.
It seems that the time has come for an escalation of our offensive. Just as our brothers in Viet Nam had the Tet offensive last year, this celebration today will only be a prelude or celebration to the offensive that we are going to wage in the not-too-far future. "In the near future a colossal event will occur where the masses of the people will rise up like a mighty storm and a hurricane, sweeping all evil gentry and corrupt officials into their graves." Brother Mao put that quite well, and we will follow the pattern and follow the thoughts of Chairman Mao.
Today it should mark a new time for the TWO-REVOLUTIONARY force in the country (the TWO-REVOLUTIONARY force I'm speaking of is the alienated white group and the masses of Blacks in the ghettos, who for years sought freedom and liberation from a racist, reaction system). After approximately three years now that the Panthers have been organized, we have gained an even closer relationship with our Latin American brothers, our Chicano brothers in the United States, the Cuban people, and every other people who are striving for freedom.
I would like to thank everyone very much for coming and we must remember that we must never make excuses for such gatherings as this. Today we'll use the excuse of my birthday; but the real issue is the need to come together in unity and brotherhood.
Our Minister of Information, Eldridge Cleaver, is with us in spirit and I'm very sure that this decadent fascist society wasn't worthy of him and couldn't tolerate his presence because he acted as a guide flag for the people. So we must make a society that will welcome people like our Minister of Information.
The Oakland Seven are now standing trial for resisting the fascist system, and we would like to let them know and would like to rally the community for support. They have a very able representative in court with them, Charles Garry, who is very capable and truly a revolutionary. Brother Eldridge Cleaver has said on more than one occasion that he would go into any court in the world with an attorney like Charles Garry. I would like to bear witness to that from a personal experience. With a representative like Charles Garry we're sure that we would have victory as long as the community supports us. We have, with the support of the community and with the fine attorney such as Charles Garry, we have nothing to fear.
A short time ago we suffered a very tragic experience in that two of our very talented and gifted and dedicated brothers were assassinated in Los Angeles: Brother "Bunchy" and Brother Huggins. This was only an escalation of the oppression against us. The assassins were agents of the establishment and they took the occasion to eliminate the people's fighters, or fighters for the people. Knowing that the people have no recourse, the institutions and the court institutions give us no recourse because they're only representatives of the reactionary system. The community will have to erect revolutionary courts and also a community militia to protect the community and see that the community gets justice.
Brother Ruben has suffered many investigations, and now he's under investigation. He's going to trial on or about four or five different alleged crimes, and the crimes are SEEKING JUSTICE. The society views any person who's striving after justice and freedom and to end exploitation as a "criminal." We know that if we are criminals, the criminals have received their ultimate revenge when Karl Marx indicted the bourgeoisie of grand theft. We realize that it's they who are criminals and it's they who will have to be brought to justice. We will have to go on fighting in spite of the losses and in spite of the hardships that we're bound to suffer, until the final downfall of the reactionary power structure.
So, POWER TO THE PEOPLE, BLACK POWER TO BLACK PEOPLE, and PANTHER POWER TO THE VANGUARD!