To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton

by Huey P. Newton, Toni Morrison (Editor)

Was Huey Newton a gifted leader of his people or a dangerous outlaw? Were the Black Panthers heroes or terrorists? Whether Newton and the Panthers are remembered in a positive or a negative light, no one questions Newton's status as one of America's most important revolutionaries. Long an iconic figure for radicals, Huey Newton is now being discovered by those interested in the history of America's social movements. This new release of a classic collection of his writings and speeches traces the development of Newton's personal and political thinking, as well as the radical changes that took place in the formative years of the Black Panther Party.

With a rare and persuasive honesty, To Die for the People records the Party's internal struggles, rivalries and contradictions, and the result is a fascinating look back at a young revolutionary group determined to find ways to deal with the injustice it saw in American society. And, as a new foreword by Elaine Brown makes eminently clear, Newton's prescience and foresight make these documents strikingly pertinent today.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Race, Theory, African American, Philosophy

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Huey Percy Newton was co-founder and leader of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, a civil rights organization that began in October 1966.

Reviews

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Required reading for anyone who claims that an interest in socialism/communism is about listening to a bunch of white guys. Huey's dedication to his Marxist-Leninist principles and also his ability to break down dialectics and the views of the BPP left me in awe after every essay. He knew the true meaning of international solidarity and also maintained humility while admitting his faults. I also learned a lot more about him, like the fact that he didn't learn how to read until the age of 17. Thankful I read this to get out of my reading slump.

[zara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of essays, letters, and speeches is a must-read for organizers. Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party were grounded in meeting the material needs of the community first and foremost, recognizing the survival programs as some of the most important work of the Party, while maintaining an internationalist perspective of solidarity with oppressed communities worldwide against a common enemy: the US empire. Newton’s cautioning against revolutionary cultism would be a good reminder for leftists today. “One of the primary characteristics of a revolutionary cultist is that he despises everyone who has not reached his level of consciousness, or the level of consciousness that he thinks he has reached, instead of acting to bring the people to that level. In that way the revolutionary cultist becomes divided from the people; he defects from the community.” If we want to radicalize community members, we have to be humble and meet people where they’re at. I also really appreciated the reminders that revolution is a process, that people need to see changes “moving from point A to B to C” and not “from A to Z.” Letting twitter people get to my head was starting to make me feel like my organizing work wasn’t radical enough, but this book really re-grounded me in what community building work actually looks like when folks have to prioritize getting basic survival needs met while simultaneously working to transform the conditions that created those circumstances.

In an exchange at the end, at a press conference where Newton is naming the injustice of the judicial system, a reporter asks how situations would be handled differently by the Party, and Newton offers what I think is such a simple but insightful answer: “[y]ou can’t have isolated pockets of human treatment when reaction is pressing all around you. So we don’t claim to have developed any utopia in our commune system in which we live or in the Party itself. We have problems because we exist in a backward society. So we know our chief task at this point is to transform the society. It’s not simply to erect just institutions because it’s impossible to do that either in this country or in the world as a whole, today, until reaction; and that consists of the 76 companies that control the world, is killed once and for all.” This feels like such an important reminder for those of seeking to build strategies for accessing safety, justice, and accountability in the context of oppression and exploitation: our strategies will always be limited, and we have to consistently work to transform the context.

[Reese Gaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

friend recommended this to me. really great analysis of how to build power and make a movement broad and inclusive rather than just a circle of a few committed activists. it seems, according to newton, his time w the panthers went through phases where they were sometimes well connected to the people and sometimes in an activist layer alienating normal working people.

I found his dialectical analysis of radical groups working within more conservative but socially accepted spaces to be really interesting. ig you could say that newtons bpp practiced entryism into local black baptist churches? that wouldn't be completely accurate as he explains that they expect a give and a take between the bpp and the church and will have a synthesis emerge. from what I understand his paper on this relationship was early on in this experiment. I would love to see his analysis after some time working with local churches. anyway, really interesting implementation of meeting people where they're at to build a mass movement while not compromising the theory/ideals for revolution.

newtons analysis of how/if to support Black capitalists was also really interesting and useful. he is incredibly thoughtful and I wouldn't serve his analysis any justice in this short review with my poor understanding of the social circumstances at the time. that said, I think reading his analysis in conjunction with fanons understanding of the local bourgeoisie in post colonial nations would be really interesting. I wouldn't say they are completely contradictory but someone smarter than me who could come up with a synthesis of these two perspectives would be really neat.

also, man newtons writing is ahead of its time from an intersectional perspective. not only did he condemn homophobia and misogyny in the bpp and wider culture, he actively advised the bpp to seek relationships between the bpp and LGBT rights groups. really amazing how focused his writing is in expanding the movement to include all oppressed people no matter race, gender, nationality, or any other tool used to divide working people.

I will say some of the writings in the last bit are more interesting from a historical perspective rather than theoretical. lots of eulogies for martyrs and speeches for political prisoners. still well worth reading.

all in all a great read and a good way for someone like me who still struggles to understand dialectical materialism to have it broken down simply by a great activist and theorist.

[Cwn_annwn_13 · Rating 2 out of 5]

To Die for the People is a collection of essays and speeches by Huey Newton. On the street level the Black Panthers did some brave and admirable things but as far as their rhetoric they are more or less hardline Marxists more so than black nationalists. Newton is actually pretty hard on African/Cultural Nationalists calling them cultists with no solutions to black peoples problems.

Newton also shows himself to be a huge sucker putting pics of himself on a guided tour in Communist China during the 1970s. As if the chauffered picture of life in China he was shown has any correlation with what life was like for the peasant population of China. Reality is if the Chinese communists had a problematic segment of the population like blacks in America they would be in serious trouble. Just look at how they have treated the Hui or the Tibetans.

Besides being Marxist most of these essays are dated so little if any are applicable today. Probably the most interesting thing in this book is Newtons analysis of the film Sweet Sweetbacks Revenge. Like I said the Black Panthers were admirable for some of their street level action but their rhetoric rarely went beyond dogmatic Marxism.

[JRT · Rating 5 out of 5]

To Die for the People is essential reading for the would-be Black revolutionary. It is a collection of Huey P. Newton’s Party declarations, letters, responses, speeches, and interviews, laying out his vision of Black liberation and defining the Black Panther Party’s platform and agenda. Huey makes clear throughout the book that the Black Panther Party’s essential purpose was to awaken the consciousness of the Black masses by (1) providing for folks' most essential material needs, and (2) providing them with the tools for their collective liberation (i.e. political education, revolutionary ideology, radical collective self-defense).

Huey’s thoughts on what makes a revolutionary, the role of armed struggle, how Marxist-Leninism fits in the Black liberation struggle, and how best to confront and defeat Euro-American imperialism, is on full display throughout the book. So too is his philosophical mind. Huey eloquently broke down his adherence to Marxian dialectical materialism, and articulated in great detail the philosophical and ideological evolution of the Black Panther Party. On the latter point, Huey explained how and why the Panthers went from a traditional Black Nationalist organization, to a Revolutionary Nationalist organization, to an Internationalist organization, and finally, to a Revolutionary “Intercommunalist” organization. While not everyone in the Party understood or embraced Huey’s philosophical musings (as evidenced by Assata Shakur’s criticisms of him in her autobiography), Huey’s conception of Intercommunalism is an original contribution to anti-imperialist political philosophy that every revolutionary should examine in good faith.

Also on full display throughout the book is Huey’s commitment to radical cross-racial and international unity. To quote Huey, “Our freedom and dignity is necessarily tied to the freedom and dignity of the oppressed masses of the world.” Huey put these words into practice by not only encouraging radical cross-racial coalitions in the United States, but by offering up Black Panther volunteers for the freedom fighters in Vietnam against American aggression. However, while some might characterize Huey’s emphasis on solidarity as misguided insofar as it encourages Black people to work with people complicit in their oppression, Huey was a realist and did understand that solidarity was not possible unless organizations took on a radical character and examined the anti-Blackness inherent in their formations (this view is especially visible in Huey’s response to Communist Party leader William Patterson).

Perhaps the biggest criticism of Huey’s ideological development is his views on Pan Africanism. Huey, in practice, supported the unifying of continental Africans with members of the African diaspora. He spoke eloquently about the armed struggle waged by Africans in Mozambique and South Africa, and he consistently expressed great ambition for a liberated Africa. However, he also derided Pan Africanism as “cultural nationalism,” and seems to have assumed that Pan Africanist conceptions were inherently capitalist in form. This is simply incorrect. However, despite Huey’s apparent misunderstanding of Pan Africanism and his general dismissiveness of Black cultural revolution, Huey understood that there was no Black liberation in America without the liberation of the Third World first.

Ultimately, this book provides tremendous insight into one of the most consequential organizations of the latter half of the 20th Century, and its founder and leader. RIP Huey P. Newton!

[Gabriel Avocado · Rating 5 out of 5]

huey p. newton was probably the most brilliant marxist leninst to ever grace north american soil. read this.

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tout ce que j'aime dans les non fictions est la dedans.

[Wendy Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essays, correspondence, Party leaflets and interviews. Lots of overlap with Reactionary Suicide (Newton’s memoir) but I enjoyed reading this anyway, with one notable exception: the laborious analysis of the film Sweet Sweetback, which was too heavy-handed for my liking. Worth reading if you’re interested in learning more about the Black Panthers.

[Candace]

if only I could find this book for under a hundred bucks!

[Davu Zulu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very great and educational book regarding The Black Panther Party and their ideology. A must read!

[지훈 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel the need to preface this review with a couple disclaimers, the first of which is that Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party set models for what a movement steeped in truly radical care could look like and it is an unsurprising tragedy of modern American historical liturgy that a vast majority of Americans are unwittingly divaricated from learning in earnest about the community work that the Black Panther Party engaged in. From free lunch programs to free shoes and clothes for children and beyond, the Black Panthers preached and practiced the beliefs that power originates from the community and that those most disadvantaged pave the way for the liberation of us all.
The second is that in many ways, Newton and I align on our visions for how power ought to be built, as well as the pitfalls of political organizing that doom even the best movements. The twisted ironies of reading this book in 2024/2025 include the fact that Newton's project failed in many ways despite his clarity of purpose and strategic vision of a movement adaptable to any context and space, as well as the unfortunate reality that many of the fears Newton had about White radicals "looking for new heroes" (93) and the inclination of many in movement to demand an A-to-Z approach (47) have only been exacerbated by the modern technological era. The ways in which past leaders and writers like Newton foresaw many of the tendencies that have led us to the dark years we are about to yet again enter remain unshakeable.

Now, on to the criticism first. As an Asian American, not well-steeped in the historical intricacies of Asian-Pacific national and international affairs over the last century but comfortable enough in historical context to view the moralities of various authoritarian regimes, it was moderately shocking to me to comprehend the pedestal upon which Newton and, it seems from the introductory text and other mentioned authors, the Black Panther Party writ large lionized some of the most dangerous and brutal authoritarian regimes of post-World War II Asia. Newton refers to Mao Zedong and Kim Il-Sung favorably on multiple occasions, and goes so far as to write to the Vietnamese National Liberation Front (eg. Vietcong) offering reinforcements at a time when those three countries had endured or were enduring destructive civil wars.
Without condoning the destructive Western (mostly American) interventionistic tendencies of this era, Newton's vocal support felt almost like a contradiction of his equally vocal opposition to American imperialism in that he, an American by birth benefitting from the status and international legitimacy bequeathed to all Americans whether we like it or not, chose to endorse regimes that actively or historically murdered millions of their own people for the sole purpose of power. It is undeniable, especially in retrospect, that anti-imperial authoritarian regimes around the world engaged in horrifically genocidal tactics aimed at their own populations and spawned some of the most dangerous modern day dictators. It also leads me to a question I desperately would love to have answered because there are no alternatives -- did Newton and the BPP know about the way these regimes acted and did not care, or were they not informed enough on the histories and contextual frameworks of Asian geopolitics to understand their implications? Were they willing propagandized pawns in international geopolitics (speaking only of Asian here, because I don't know enough about African or Middle Eastern political history in the late-1900s) who sought puritanical denunciations of American imperialism irrespective of its full form, or were they blinded by a fetishization of foreign, "Far Eastern" culture and strife that, if I'm being so for real, still exists today? It cannot be both, but it was uncomfortable to sit with that question while reading this collection because it must be one or the other, and either way Newton and the BPP were vocally backing authoritarians who actively operated in opposition to the very programs the BPP stood for at home.

Now for the positives:
People, especially people who consider themselves leftists and progressives, would be wise to read and absorb Newton's approach to political organizing and power-building, beginning with the concept that "any action which does not mobilize the community towards the goal is not a revolutionary action" (47). We live in an era where people call anything revolutionary and are willing to hang their participation trophies for reposting a tweet on the mantle of fomenting a revolution of which they themselves barely have a conception. It's how we ended up with Trump. Twice. It's how progressives continue to lose important races in important places, and how we continue to regress in spite of an agenda many Americans want when stripped of its partisanship. Because reposting a tweet and putting boot to pavement and knock to door cannot be equivocated. One demands a perfect solution, A to Z, and the other remains an imperfect sample of Newton's vision for guiding an unprepared community from A to B to C, so that we can, one day, get to Z.
Newton understood incredibly well that those suffering the most may not be ready for solutions that will free them, an insight that undergirded the entirety of the BPP's community programs feeding and clothing everyone through mutual aid and community pressure on large or monopolistic corporations to demonstrate tangibly what is possible. His alternative, the revolutionary cultist, pines about high-minded, ivory tower revolution while the BPP actually redistributed wealth in ways that radicalized communities to understand that better was possible in a systemic way. And yet revolutionary cultists run rampant today, when virality and the attention economy prioritize quick solutions and immediate outrage over the necessary, countless years of revolutionary action and political organizing that, as Newton envisaged, would foment the circumstances for a sustainable radicalization of masses towards demanding their due.

I would especially encourage high-minded liberals, progressives, leftists, etc to consider this from Newton:
"One of the primary characteristics of a revolutionary cultist is that he despises everyone who has not reached his level of consciousness, or the level of consciousness he thinks he has reached, instead of acting to bring the people to that level... as revolutionaries we must recognize the difference between what the people can do and what they will do. They can do anything they desire to do, but they will only take those actions which are consistent with their level of consciousness and their understanding of the situation." (100-101) Sound familiar? You should probably go pick up a clipboard and get knocking because we have a whole lot of work to do.

In the end, this was an enlightening collection (thank you Toni Morrison). I stand by the fact that the BPP and Newton changed many trajectories in this country, and the greatest tragedy is that they did not succeed more. And yet, it still left me with many uncomfortable questions about what even the radically empathetic among us are willing to tolerate in service of our greater ambitions and goals. Is there such thing as acceptable deaths and sacrifices? Whose, and by whose decision? This is a book filled with visions unfulfilled, warnings unheeded, histories yet to be fully lived. It is both a mile marker in our rearview and somehow a path we have yet to reach, and in that way Newton succeeds in his ambition for a platform sustained through generations.

[Susanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huey Newton was SMART smart....like damn the hell.

There are so many gems in this book but what stood out to me above all else is how meticulous Huey's application of dialectical materialism was in any and all aspects of constucting the Black Panther Party. Reading this book wholly debunks any conceptions that people may have around the BPP as a group of excitement seeking young people who waved around guns. They were a *serious* party who held an unbending conviction that they would be the vanguard for an American revolution. Developing the political line for the BPP was a highly scientific process. As Huey says, we must first collect evidence objectively, apply a dialectival materialist analysis, and achieve a synthesis of the equal and opposite outcomes to understand what our next steps should be in building the Party or how to manuver in a mass campaign.

However, this does not mean that there can be incorrect analyses. Huey admits a leftist error in his dismissal of engaging with churches as serious mass organizations with potential for struggle. In order to wage revolution, the question that must guide all of our thinking is "How do we gain the support of the people?". The revolution must never be a fight between the party and the capitalists but rather between the *people* and the capitalists.

This aligns exactly with what hass been proven time and time again in every mass movement in the fifty years since the book was published. Without the masses of people, we will never win. We must always be winning people over and we must remain steadfast and open about our commitments.

There's much more to say about this book but I would say the serious and scientific manner with which Huey goes about analyzing the balance of forces and the present task of the party is what stood out the most.

[chaeklore · Rating 5 out of 5]

must read for everyone

[Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reread, no notes. Great to read this alongside malcolms speeches.

[WadeofEarth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating book to read, in part I think, because Newton grasped something that we can can all too easily loose hold of: that when America was founded, it was intended to evolve; the constitution was never meant to be an unchanging monolith, and this country was not birthed fully formed, but in an only partially developed state. In many ways, when this country began, it was grasping for something that would long remain out of its reach, and in many ways, it was grasping for something that, at that time, had only been imagined: a land where all men would be treated equally (one of the necessary evolutions, in addition to striving for this ideal, was to add women to it).

With this in mind, Newton is scathing in his criticisms of America, which he describes, with good reason, as having evolved into an empire, that continues to extract value from underdeveloped corners of this earth and hoard them in the coffers of the super rich, rather than evolving into the imagined, egalitarian society. I think it is too easy to write Newton off as "un-American" and fail to listento his criticisms, when what is needed is for us to consider why he might have been un-American, consider where America has gone wrong, and consider what it might take to get us back on the path towards freedom and justice for ALL.


While Newton had many worthwhile ideas, beyond his criticisms of the American empire, there were a few that stuck to me more than others, and I'll try to pass them along here:


Working with institutions that you don't fully agree with, or long term agree with, because your ideals line up right now, can be prudent. It may be that the institutions will change with time into something better, or it may be that they will need to be abolished later, but finding common cause should not be discarded lightly, and doing so can be a way to alienate would be allies.



World wide peace would end the imperialistic capitalist economy; it requires perpetual war and without war, it would emaciate, with war it perpetuates, perhaps with too much momentum to be touched.



"Oppressed people never are the aggressors; all of their action is in self defense."

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is fascinating as an historical and political document. I learned a lot about the Black Panthers and about Huey P. Newton, and I still have much to learn. This book spans Newton's writings between 1969-71 and is edited by Toni Morrison. It includes speeches and letters. It gives insight into material that originated then as radical and is now accepted in the mainstream; it also gives insight into the hopes for Communism that did not materialize. Here is one quote from the book that I liked:

"There are two types of prisoners. The largest number are those who accept the legitimacy of the assumptions upon which the society is based. They wish to acquire the same goals as everybody else: money, power, and conspicuous consumption. In order to do so, however, they adopt techniques and methods which the society has defined as illegitimate. When this is discovered such people are put in jail. They may be called "illegitimate capitalists" since their aim is to acquire everything this capitalistic society defines as legitimate. The second type of prisoner is the one who rejects the legitimacy of the assumptions upon which the society is based. He argues that people at the bottom of the society are exploited for the profit and advantage of those at the top. Thus, the oppressed exist and will always be used to maintain the privileged status of the exploiters. There is no sacredness, there is no dignity in either exploiting or being exploited. Although this system may make the society function at a high level of technological efficiency, it is an illegitimate system, since it rests upon the suffering of humans who are as worthy and as dignified as those who do not suffer...."

[Noel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the book to be very articulate and provocative. In this book, Huey Newton defended his party's philosophies, past mistakes, and political positions against criticisms and attacks. He was very Marxist-Leninist in terms of how he saw the world and how he believed his people would rise from their oppression. He believed his people's struggle was not an isolated struggle that in fact, his people's struggle needed to ally themselves with other struggles at the time against the same enemy: Capitalism, mainly the United states of America. He saw the United states of America not as a country in the traditional sense but a super capitalist system which had their interest in all countries of the world. the land of and the people of the United States of America were only its land base for the super capitalist. He stated that the world and the United states is controlled by only 70 or so companies who would go to any length necessary to defend their interest in accumulating capital and wealth all over the world.

[Jessica M Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cherished Newton's thoughts, and I also recognized the love and dedication he exhibited for the people. Newton provided his audience with clear facts about the organization and their intentions. I thought about J. Edgar Hoover a few times as my eyes scanned the pages. Hoover considered the Black Panther Party the biggest threat to America's safety but made it his job to target all Black Political leaders (e.g., NAACP leaders, Malcolm X, and Huey Newton.) I genuinely wish the Black Panther Organization was still active now. We need a voice for the Black community. We need an active group to end the police brutality. In all honesty, white supremacists feared that the Party would overthrow their government. Losing the power to name and define the Universe is not in an Anglo's best interest.

All in all, I would recommend this book to the reader who is conscious and curious about the nature of the Black Panther Party. Let's start a revolution! Read! Absorb, and digest knowledge!

[City Lights Booksellers & Publishers · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Huey P. Newton's To Die for the People represents one of the most important analyses of the politics of race, black radicalism, and democracy written during the civil rights-Black Power era. It remains a crucial and indispensible text in our contemporary efforts to understand the continuous legacy of social movements of the 1960s and 1970s."
—Peniel Joseph, author of Waiting Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America

"Newton's ability to see theoretically, beyond most individuals of his time, is part of his genius. The opportunity to recognize that genius and see its applicability to our own times is what is most significant about this new edition."
—Robert Stanley Oden, former Panther, Professor of Government, California State University, Sacramento

[Jared Della Rocca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having recently read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, I found Huey Newton's writings and speeches to be a fitting finish to that trilogy. Newton succinctly captures the theory of revolution, understanding the need for both the big - large marches, shows of force - and the small - busing programs for families of prisoners, breakfast programs for children.

If Martin Luther King's speeches took you to soaring heights, Huey Newton's will show you the path it takes to get there. A philosopher and a revolutionary, Newton's work is part of the canon of the struggle for civil rights.

[Marisa Natale · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only criticism of this book is the way it was edited. It was not organized chronologically, which I think would have really helped me to understand the development of Newton's thought over the years. Instead it was organized in loosely thematic chapters like "white america" which isn't really a discernible category. Still, Fernandez chose writings very well to include and they were certainly inspiring and thought provoking. I only wish it had been organized differently!

[Chad Montabon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the books written contemporaneously with the prominent years of the B.P.P. this is clearest, and most easily read. 'Soul on Ice' by Eldridge Cleaver (and likely a ghost writer) was clunky, 'Sieze the Time' by Bobby Seal was similar and George Jackson's 'Blood in My Eye' was little more than 'radical' talk with the common talking points and chants.

'To Die for the People' flows well and it's short. It spells out the basic ideals of the B.P.P..

[Bijan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to see the development and fine tuning of Newton's ideas. A must read if interested in studying the black panthers beyond the caricature image some movies provide.

[Rarain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read, a real education in revolution.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is pretty powerful stuff. While I will not say I agree with everything Newton says or writes, this gives great insight into the mind of the black man, and the black revolution.

[Huey · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a man.

[Rafael Suleiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling compilation of the writings of one of the founders of the Black Panther Party.

[Briahna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring

[Phantom1058 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual Score: 7/10

Since this is a collection of works, I will judge it based on the overall way comrade Huey communicates his ideas, the ideas that are spoken to throughout all of the works and the overall structure of the book/works

I think Huey does a great job at taking Leninist ideas and both expanding on them too better fit the needs of the black community at the time and to emphasizing them in the overall process of organizing his community. For example, he speaks of the many same ideas of imperialism while making it relevant to the black community. I find myself in a situation where I’m speaking to someone in the community about Palestine and they ask the question “ok great, but what does this have to do with issues facing at this moment?”

Huey answers this question while at the same time providing the needs of the community. He understood the need to use existing institutions that have already gained favor in the community to provide the infrastructure needed for the Black Panther Survival programs. They couldn’t have fed kids free breakfast everyday without the help of the local grocery stores providing the eggs and orange juice to make it happen. But the programs also needed the dedicated revolutionaries to run the day day operations while also education the masses and heightening the contradictions of capitalism

In terms of the structure of the book, as with Lenin, some ideas get repeated more often than others and the quality varied with how that idea is explained. While it was neat that so many eulogies and small little speeches from Huey were included, I wish they were spread out more rather than being jammed at the end. I wanted to end the book on a more interesting speech or peace of theory.

[gideon · Rating 3 out of 5]

My thoughts are basically summed up by this review.

Newton had some really important ideas about activism and organizing; I would have loved to see how that was practically achieved. Unfortunately, this collection of writings did not tell me much about what the panthers actually did and how they aimed to achieve their goals (aside from the community programs which newton repeatedly states are just a survival mechanism on the way to true liberation). It did tell me a lot about the theory they adhered to- going at the pace of the community rather than jumping all the way from A to Z, raising the consciousness of the people, intercommunalism, and SO MUCH repetition about dialectics. Sometimes I thought theory was reiterated rather than presenting the concrete actions they would take to get to the utopia or revolution, which was frustrating. The hardline Marxist-Leninist approach, referring to China and North Korea as liberated territories, was really tough as well. Did he not know how brutal these regimes were, or what? Not something I think I'll ever wrap my head around.