We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Power to the Community: The Black Panthers’ Living Legacy of Grassroots Organization

Click here to access article by John Clark from Academia. 

This very readable paper of moderate length recovers the contributions of the Black Panther Party to radical thought and practice that is supported by excellent documentation. Because American radicals have been unable to establish permanent institutions to preserve radical history, each generation to a large extent faces the task of re-learning what previous generations created and understood about capitalist and racist society.
One must wonder what would have happened if millions had followed the strategies they proposed rather than the path of slogans of street  protests and the lobbying of politicians that has prevailed! 
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