UNITY STRUGGLE AND REUNIFICATION: ON THE MERGER OF THE NEW AFRIKAN BLACK PANTHER PARTY AND THE REVOLUTIONARY INTERCOMMUNAL BLACK PANTHER PARTY (2026) By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

The New Afrikan Black Panther Party (NABPP) was cofounded in 2005 by two prisoners, Kevin “Rashid” Johnson and Shaka Zulu aka Zulu Sharod, and transitioned into an outside party in 2019. As with all revolutionary organizations, the NABPP went through various stages of development, both ebbs and high tides in its growth and work, including a split between its cofounders in Dec 2020. The members that joined Rashid in the separation reconstituted as the Revolutionary Intercommunal Black Panther Party (RIBPP), to reflect the Revolutionary Intercommunalist ideological and political line of the organization, which the NABPP had formally embraced in 2015. (1) In fact, in 2018 we expressed intentions to make this name change to reflect this broader orientation and advance from the more limited New Afrikan national identity. (2) Upon our split, Zulu Sharod continued organizing under the name NABPP.

The historical field of anti-imperialist revolutionary movements is littered with parties that have split and dissolved, or that upon separation moved in opposite directions, with some going on to serve the interests of the people and others going on to serve the interests of the enemy ruling class. This usually happens because opposing political lines developed within these groups, one representing the revolutionary aims of the working class (the correct line), the other representing the reactionary aims of the ruling capitalist class the incorrect line).

When the NABPP split into two separate parties, it wasn’t the result of internal two-line struggle. It was the result of antagonistic outside influences and wreckers behind the scenes undermining the group. I spoke to this situation in my articles “The Infiltration of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party” (2024), and “On Accountability Within Revolutionary Organizations” (2025) (3). As I discussed in these articles, there WERE always various two-line struggles occurring within the NABPP before an after our separation, but they were the types that could and should have been resolved without becoming antagonistic, as other revolutionary parties have done. It was under the influences of sinister elements that these struggles were escalated into antagonistic contradictions and ultimately split the organization.

From the moment that we separated, elders in the movement including veterans of the original Black Panther Party, were in the ears of leaders of both groups encouraging us to reunify. Many prisoners also expressed disappointment in an organization that began inside the razor wire plantations and had given them an example of unified struggle in service to oppressed peoples that contradicted the many examples among us of groups that have remained divided and warring among themselves. We even received reports of numerous prisoners reduced to tears at the news of the split.

For several years leaders of both parties have been in principled talks aimed to identify how we might work together in serving the interests of the masses despite our separation, since both groups continued to share the same ideological and political lines and continue to serve the people, while my writings have remained the foundational documents and theoretical guide of both groups.

During Black August 2026, these talks led to this inevitable. During this month both the NABPP and the RIBPP met individually and together to discuss reunifiying.

On September 6, 2026 these meetings ended in the unanimous agreement among present members of both groups to reunify under the name of RIBPP. This decision reduced one attendee and longtime NABPP member to tears of joy.

The reunification of these Panther groups under the RIBPP banner sets a milestone in the history of revolutionary movements, and proves the truth that correct ideological and political lines determine everything, including the all-round unity and inevitable consolidation of groups who share them.

Dare to Struggle Dare to Win!

All Power to the People!

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Endnotes:

1. In 2015 the NABPP issued a special 10th anniversary edition of our newsletters, RIGHT ON!, where we announced our formal adoption and advances of Revolutionary Intercommunalism aka Pantherism illuminated by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as our ideological and political line, based upon analyses set out my 2010 article, “In Search of the Right Theory for Today’s Struggle: Revisiting Huey P. Newton’s Theory of Revolutionary Intercommunalism”. http://rashidmod.com/?p=1282. This article further advanced positions raised in my 2010 article, ” Black Liberation in the 21st Century: A Revolutionary Reassessment of Black Nationalism”. http://rashidmod.com/?p=301. The latter article also appears in my book, PANTHER VISION:ESSENTIAL PARTY WRITINGS AND ART OF KEVIN “RASHID” JOHNSON (Kersplebedeb publishers; Montreal, Canada, 2015), pp. 188-204

2. See, Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, “On Pan Afrikanism: Part One of an Interview With Comrade Rashid By JR Valrey” (2018) http://rashidmod.com/?p=2525

3. The former article is unpublished, the latter article can be read at, http://rashidmod.com/?p=3734