NABPP-PC Rules of Discipline (2005)

Unity, discipline, coordination and commitment are essential requirements of Party membership. And they are essential for accomplishing the Party’s objective of uniting the New Afrikan Nation here in Amerika and all Afrikans in an organized and determined struggle for liberation from imperialist and neo-colonial domination. In pursuit of achieving these aims, Party members must adhere to basic Party discipline, namely:

Principles of Subordination

1. Individuals are subordinated to the collective.
2. The minority is subordinated to the majority.
3. The lower level is subordinated to the higher level.
4. The entire membership is subordinated to the Central Committee.

Points of Discipline

1. We shall not steal from the people, bully them, take liberties with them, nor disrespect them, nor use Party membership or rank to gain personal advantages or benefits from Party members or the people.
2. We will practice and promote respect for the rights of individuals, oppressed nations and peoples, including the disabled, wimyn, children, elderly, gay/lesbian, all ethnic and racial groups, and especially the working classes of all nations and nationalities.
3. We will practice and defend the “Right of Free Speech,” and to assemble and protest.
4. We will fearlessly speak the truth and expose lies and corruption.
5. We will treat the false beliefs and prejudices of others as “loads upon their backs” and endeavor to enlighten and uplift them.
6. We will strive to set the best example for the people through upright conduct and honesty, leading and educating by example.
7. We will not be used to spy upon the people nor reveal their secrets to their enemies.
8. We will serve the people “heart and soul” to the best of our abilities.
9. We will conduct ourselves with honor and strive to be the people’s pride.
10. We will not practice discrimination within the Party’s ranks based upon gender or sexual orientation. All ranks and leadership positions within the Party will be equally available to men and wimyn, with their qualifications being determined by their proven abilities and commitment, and they will be equally respected and obeyed by lower ranks.
11. We will practice criticism and self-criticism.

Violations of party rules and discipline are disruptive of party unity. Of primary importance in preserving party unity is to educate all rank and file members of the party in its rules of discipline and the general directives of the party. It is also important that they hold the party’s leadership to account, whether deliberately or by error, for deviations from these principles.

THE GENERAL DIRECTIVES

At this early stage of organizing our party, our energy must be focused upon forging our cadre into a tightly knit organization capable of building and rebuilding itself and ultimately leading the Afrikan and New Afrikan masses on many fronts in a successful struggle to achieve liberation from imperialism and neo-colonialism, to reclaim our independent history and identity as a people, and to ally our forces with other revolutionary peoples to deal monopoly capitalism the coup de grace.

The party’s main developmental goal is to perfect its line by promoting and adhering to the most scientific method to find correct solutions to the problems of Afrikan and New Afrikan people suffering under imperialist oppression and exploitation. The spirit of our ideology is making concrete analysis of objective conditions. We are not an idealist, adventurist, or opportunist organization. Our Party must be fresh and on time, knowing the actual problems of our people and finding the correct solutions. We must honor and pay tribute to our leaders and fighters of yesterday, while advancing, developing and correcting their analysis and praxis in solving the problems of today.

In building a tightly knit organization of cadre, we must commit ourselves to relentless study, of our history, of various revolutionary theorists and practice, and also, we must advance that history, and the methods we adopt, in the process of developing our own revolutionary practice. And we must continually educate and uplift the Party members and the masses.

The New Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter is open to all loyal and sincere members of the Afrikan and New Afrikan working class and radical students, intellectuals, peasants and lumpen who have developed clear working-class consciousness and discipline, while we must remain unceasingly vigilant in preventing infiltration by enemy agents, whose aim will be to disrupt the Party and undermine our struggle. Our goal is to expand the Party, drawing in the best fighters from the masses, while maintaining its integrity.

The Party is the key to our liberation struggle, and all external influences must be subordinated to our loyalty to the Party as our unifying political force. Therefore, we must not allow ourselves to become provoked, baited or taunted by opportunist, ultra-leftist or enemy forces into premature, adventuristic actions and practices. As the leading element in organizing the Afrikan and New Afrikan masses, the Party must remain clear-headed, well-informed, and honest with the people in its analysis, decisions and actions.

Political work must lead over all other Party endeavors. Towards this end, frequent meetings must be held, political education must be stressed, and serious political commitment must be demanded of all members. Party members and leading cadre must dedicate themselves to serious study of all root problems and issues that affect the lives and welfare of our Afrikan and New Afrikan people.

We must be good at learning and never cease learning—from our people and their experiences, from books and from our own life experiences and those of our Party. We must continually educate ourselves and the people, going into questions deeply and using dialectical and historical materialism, which does not teach us what to think, per se, but how to think. We must observe the dictum: “KNOW THE ENEMY AND KNOW THYSELF.”

We must struggle against all forms of negative thinking which undermines the Party’s and the people’s morale and confidence, spreading fear, confusion, mistrust and defeatism. We must resist tendencies towards individualism, commandism, gossip, slander, bullying and towards either overestimating or underestimating ourselves or the enemy.

The comrades and the people must understand that the enemy will employ dual tactics, offering reforms with one hand and coming down with repression with the other, employing both deception and force. The people must be made to understand that no oppressor can indefinitely continue to oppress the people when faced with their determined and organized resistance.

The people must cease to view the enemy with awe and believe in their invulnerability or god-like omnipotence. Ultimately, it is the people who are really powerful and who, when united, cannot be defeated. Inspiring fear, self-doubt, disunity, and slavish passivity are the oppressors’ tactics. They rely upon ignorance, alienation, apathy, cynicism and lack of leadership to maintain control.

Our political education work must penetrate everywhere, including within the enemy’s ranks. We must write leaflets, letters, essays, pamphlets, books, plays and poetry, draw graphics and cartoons, compose posters, songs and slogans, and spread them far and wide. We must struggle to win over all whom we can to join the struggle.

In every respect and every aspect of our work, we must practice revolutionary responsibility, carry out tasks to completion and to the best of our abilities. We must respect the opinions and work of others and strive to be open-minded and fair. We must not pick fights or hold grudges. The solution to almost every problem is to rely on our comrades and to rely on the people.

We must hide nothing from our Party comrades and from the masses of our people, tell no lies, expose lies whenever they are told and conceal nothing. We must not factionalize nor let others factionalize with us. All should be open and aboveboard, and we should follow the principle of: UNITE DON’T SPLIT!

CRITICISM AND SELF-CRITICISM

Criticism, in the positive usage, is the examination, analysis and evaluation of the comparative worth of the ideas, actions, policies, prejudices and practices of others. Self-criticism is, of course, this same principle applied to oneself. But it also applies as the method of critically examining our line and practice and openly admitting when we have made mistakes, including to the people, whose criticism we must welcome.

Criticism and self-criticism are wholly necessary to human progress and to the building of a genuinely revolutionary movement. Revolutionary nationalism elevates criticism and self-criticism to a conscious principle and incorporates it into the day-to-day functioning of the Party. In its positive usage, it helps us to correct what is wrong, make adjustments and resolve differences between individuals and groups. In the words of Frantz Fanon, “Self-criticism has been much talked about of late, but few people realize that it is an AFRIKAN INSTITUTION.”

DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM (Operating with a Central Committee)

Too often the comrades have an incomplete or incorrect idea about what democratic centralism is all about. It is exceedingly important that this aspect of our organizational structure be understood by all the members. Democratic centralism, and its key feature—the Central Committee—are scientific organizational concepts formulated by V.I. Lenin, which enable a vanguard party (and the mass organizations it provides leadership to or influences) to function with the unity and impact of a clenched fist, as well as be able to perform many separate tasks independently with the desired coordinated effect.

Democratic centralism combines aspects of inner-party democracy with a centralized command structure in conformity with the objective and subjective conditions the Party must face, balancing the objective needs of the actual concrete conditions and the need for a unified and coordinated Party with the subjective need of the individual members to participate fully in the decision-making process and have their opinions respected. We recognize the need and primacy of having centralized authority; to steer the Party and hold the members to binding discipline—on penalty of punishment or expulsion. But we also recognize the need for drawing on the collective wisdom of the whole party and the importance of inner-party discussion and struggle to sum up practice and arrive at correct decisions regarding political line and practice.

By absorbing the democratic discussion and input of the whole Party, (both majority and minority opinions), the Central Committee can best arrive at decisions and programs to be implemented by the whole Party. The principle of: CRITICIZE UP AND IMPLEMENT DOWN, best describes this process. Once a decision is reached, the minority has the right to reserve their opinions (until the next discussion), but the whole Party must unite to carry out the decisions of the Central Committee. Party members must not publicly criticize the Party or its leadership outside the channels of inner-party discussion nor reveal inner-party business to anyone outside the Party. This is factionalization, as is attempting to form rival headquarters to the CC within the Party.

The Central Committee is the highest body of the Party, except for a Party Congress composed of elected representatives of the whole Party. The Chairman is the spokesperson of the CC and the Party and its highest-ranking member. The CC will also have a General Secretary and a standing Political Bureau (Politburo) composed of the heads of the various “Ministries” (such as the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Information, and so on) and other key members of the CC.

As the Party expands, so will its organizational structure, but the principles of democratic centralism will remain the same. Lower bodies will be subordinated to higher ones and the minority will be subordinated to the majority. The “Basic Unit” of the Party will be the “Collective” or local cell composed of comrades living and/or working together. Chapters will be composed of various collectives and be headed by a “Captain.”

The basic guiding principle is to keep it simple and practical and to afford the comrades engaged in particular work the greatest latitude to be creative in the application of the Party’s line and directives. All work and meetings should be summed up and reports made to the next highest body on up to the CC. Comrades have the right to appeal up to the CC if they believe they have been wrongly treated by their superiors in a serious matter.

AN OBJECT LESSON FROM THE PAST

One of the successful tactics used in the FBI’s COINTELPRO program of disruption of the old Black Panther Party was its use of “Brown Mail,” private correspondence purported to be from leading or rank and file Party members or supporters authored by FBI agents imitating the handwriting of those people and mailed form the appropriate city. In particular, the feds set out to drive a wedge between two of the Party’s leading members, the Minister of Defense, Huey P. Newton, and the Minister of Information, Eldridge Cleaver, (who was then in exile in Algeria).

Instead of turning this mail over to the Party’s chairman, Bobby Seale, for internal investigation of apparent attempts at factionalization, and to check out the allegations they contained, these leaders kept the “Brown Mail” secret, believing the lies contained, and began conspiring against one another. The Party was eventually split apart as each carried their line differences to extremes instead of struggling for reconciliation through inner-party democracy.

Other members were summarily expelled and declared “Enemies of the People,” based upon “Brown Mail” they knew nothing about, as “Commandism” replaced democratic centralism. Alliances were sabotaged, and masses of Party members and supporters quit in confusion and disgust at the bitter infighting and paranoia generated.

We must not underestimate the skill, (born from long experience), that the political police have acquired at sowing disruption and division. Nor should we ignore the summed up experience of the people’s revolutionary forces at combating this by developing protocols designed to combat it, such as democratic centralism.

Another important protocol is to refuse to talk to the police or FBI beyond stating your name and address (or prison number). Fools who ignore this rule are often suckered in and turned to become informers or agent provocateurs. Some brag and show off to people (particularly of the opposite sex) about things that should not be talked about, when they don’t even really know who they are talking to, or if their phone is tapped, or whatever.

Another thing we must avoid is falling into the trap of “Legalism,” and believing that just because our actions are legal that the enemy won’t break the law to set us up on bogus charges, violate our rights, or commit illegal acts, including murder, to silence us. This is a fascist dictatorship! The window dressing of “Legality” and “Democracy” cannot be taken for reality.

The necessity of doing legal, aboveground work makes us vulnerable, and retaliation only plays into the state’s hands and allows them to brand us as “terrorists” and escalate their attacks. There is no safety in being a revolutionary, even in a non-revolutionary situation, and we have to accept that. We also have to minimize the danger by relying on the masses to defend us, by exposing the true nature of the beast, and by making the enemy pay a high price in exposure when they commit crimes to attack us.

Millions of people get screwed by the system, get railroaded into jail or prison, or murdered by the police, just because they are Black, Mexican, Indian or Puerto Rican. These are not revolutionaries, but this is a class dictatorship! Even poor and working-class whites, who may have voted for Bush, get screwed every day. This class dictatorship is a criminal enterprise through and through, and that is why we need to make a revolution.

We have to steel ourselves for struggle and be strong, have courage, and do what must be done. If we worry too much about what they might do to us, they will automatically win, because we will be distracted from what must be done.

BECOME FAMILIAR WITH THESE TERMS

THE LEFT: The more vehemently a person or party advocates revolution, socialism, etc., the farther to the left he, she or they are said to be. The Left includes Communists, Anarchists, Revolutionary Socialists, Revolutionary Nationalists and others who hold that significant change can only come about through the overthrow of monopoly capitalism. These schools of thought differ on issues, but are firmly anti-imperialist.

THE LEFT OF CENTER: These folks would earnestly like to reform the system, and may advocate socialism (even communism), but they balk at revolution and cling to the capitalist system and the illusions of “Legalism” and “Democracy.” The Left-Center includes civil rights organizations like the NAACP, radical trade unionists, radical feminists, anti-war activists, libertarians, and radicals in general with a reformist agenda. Generally speaking, these forces tend to align together in the left-wing of the Democratic Party in the U.S. and in social-democratic parties elsewhere.

THE CENTER: This shrinking category includes the “Old Guard Liberals” who believe in capitalism but think it can be modified to preserve concessions won by the people and that the worst excesses of imperialism can be curbed by legislation. They look backwards to the “New Deal” era and the Kennedy-Johnson “Cold War Liberalism.” They defend the status quo.

THE RIGHT OF CENTER: These folks espouse concern for the people, but really they are subservient to the monopoly capitalists. The more the Right attacks the Center, the further right they creep. They are the Moderate Democrats and Liberal Republicans.

THE RIGHT: The more vehemently a person or party advocates keeping the people down and giving more power to the monopoly capitalists the farther to the Right he, she or they are said to be. The Neo-Liberals and Neo-Cons differ only on the pace at which they think the move toward the right should be done. On major issues like NAFTA, the WTO, the increase of the prison population and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, they agree completely. They are both fascist in essence. The extreme Christo-Fascists, allied with the Neo-Cons, want to create a Christian theocracy.

THE CENTER IS UNDER ATTACK BY THE RIGHT

What most characterizes this time period politically is the swing toward the Right and that the most reactionary forces, the Neo-Cons and Christo-Fascists, centered in the Bush administration, want to make a radical rupture, not only with “Cold War Liberalism” but with the whole trend of liberal democracy going back to the Enlightenment. Ideologically, they oppose any constraints on monopoly capitalism and envision a theocratic dictatorship where fundamentalist Christianity, the state and U.S.-based multinational corporate interest are merged to suppress all dissent and opposition. The material basis for this is that the interests of monopoly capital are so at odds with the interests of humanity as a whole that only the fundamentalist Christian belief in the “End times” fits their agenda.

The Left presents the only positive alternative, but it has yet to recover from the setbacks at the end of the Cold War, and what is left of the Left is groping for reorientation and fresh leadership. The Center will not hold, and ready or not, the Left will be forced to confront the Right in an all-out struggle that will determine not only which class will rule in the future, but if there will be a future for the human race.

It is this all-out struggle that we must prepare for. We who are inside the “belly of the Beast,” may perish inside these razor-wire fences and stone walls, but not without first illuminating the path forward for our sisters and brothers, our sons and our daughters. If we can offer nothing but our dying breath, it will be to say: “DARE TO STRUGGLE AND DARE TO WIN!”

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

CLASS AND THE INDIVIDUAL

“The function of a class analysis is to enable a revolutionary to examine large segments of society and draw generalizations about those segments’ reaction to historical, economic, and social trends, and those segments’ role in social struggle. Another function of class analysis is to provide a tool for analyzing ideology from the standpoint of what class of society that ideology represents and serves.”
Judah Hill