The New Afrikan Black Panther Party developed first from within the prisons of Amerika and is now building programs and organizations in communities across the country. Their concept of a United Panther Movement embraces all peoples and seeks to build a movement that can thoroughly transform society. We seek to open a discussion about the ongoing possibilities and challenges of the continuing quest for liberation and justice.

Shaka Zulu, chair of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party, was recently released from prison and is on a national tour from his base in Newark, New Jersey. Since Shaka Zulu’s release, the NABPP has been organizing “No Prison Fridays” protests in Newark. These mass rallies, which quickly grew from a few dozen to several hundred protesters from local communities, began in opposition to official plans to build a youth prison in Newark on South Orange Avenue, a couple of blocks from Westside High School. The NABPP is building Serve the People programs to assist communities in developing their own resources and labor power toward restoring them as base areas of cultural, political and economic revolution.

George Katsiaficas graduated from MIT in 1970 while in solitary confinement after being convicted of “disturbing a school” for organizing anti-war protests. He moved to California, where he was part of a deep network of counter-cultural counter-institutions during the 1970s. He was long active against the CIA and for Palestinian self-determination. Together with Kathleen Cleaver, he edited Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party.

Sponsored by Critical Resistance Oakland Chapter and the Freedom Archives – for more information 415 863-9977 – croakland@criticalresistance.org