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Counter Attack

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Counter Attack. Fort Carson, Colorado: New Haven Panther Defense Committee, August 1970.

Insert abstract here....




EXCERPTS


WHY?


About two weeks ago a Black man was killed in Colo. Springs. The reason this killing stands out so is because it is a clear case of the type of thing that goes on in this country. He was murder in a old type white master to slave killing. Things like this was suppose to stop a long time ago, so says the power structure of this country. Well they will just have to learn that shit like this will not be permitted any longer. It's up to them how the lesson will be learned because the Black community will soon start teaching lessons to them. The first lesson must be learned by the Black community;, that there is no justice in this country for us. This is the most important lesson, because after this the rest will be easy to deal with.

Some may ask why a soldier in the U.S. army is worried over the killing of a Black man so far away from his own hometown. The reason being is that any Black man killed is on my mind. For that matter any death of a third world person is a concern for me. The army tries to separate us from our people by telling us that fort carson is our home. That we have no connection with the people in the springs. But Black people are the same no matter where we live. Black people must learn to dig other Black people wherever we live at. That's the reason they (meaning the lifers) would never send a Brother to his own home town to put down a people's rebellion. When some shit comes down in the Springs we, the Black G.I., must let the man know that this shit must cease.

If we can go ten thousand miles to fight for someone we don't even look like, then we can damn well fight in the Springs for peoples freedom who look like us. Working with is a two-way street, so the people in the Springs must also help us. They must support G.I. action for a better Army and fight to support us in the whole community. The need is clear for G.I.'s and civilians to support each other for the common goal of peace and freedom for all.

Pvt. Lawrence Elliot
HHC 3rd Bn. / 11th Inf.
Ft. Carson




YOU'RE NEXT BROTHERS


The brass didn't like the fact that Larry Elliott presented the MDM demands at an EM council meeting, or that he openly gave his political views at Inscape. So, two weeks later, Elliott is at another post. He was processed out of Ft. Carson in four hours.

The First Amendment to the US Constitution says that all US citizens have the right to say whatever they want (Freedom of Speech).

We know that this is not the way it is, that any time you say anything, the army doesn't like, you get court martialed, sent to Nam or transferred to another base. Like Elliott was.

The only way you can stop the brass is by getting together, squad by squad, company by company, against the pigs.

If you don't, YOU'RE NEXT BROTHER!

One of the demands of MDM (Movement for a Democratic Military) is to extend Constitutional rights to GIs.

Join MDM!

MDM meets every Tuesday night at 7:30 P.M. at Homefront, 318 E. Pike's Peak, 634-9225.

You can ship out a revolutionary, but you can't ship out the revolution.




A WARNING


Up to now the failure of the movement, both black and white, has been the inability to create a concrete program that both can follow when dealing with the Establishment. I will try here - in this article to get to what the main problem is and what would be the best way to conduct the struggle.

First of all if one is to be successful in a revolution one must know all there is to know about the enemy; his habits, the extent of his powers, and his weaknesses as well as his strength.

In a complex organization such as America, it will take a careful study. However, I am sure it can be done learning our faults and using wise judgement. To begin with too many radicals relate too much to the tactics as put down by Mao, Castro, and Che to mention a few. There is no doubt that the works by these revolutionaries are of great value. However, they deal mainly with their own countries. Frantz Fanon in his book points out the facts that the Blackman's struggle in America is different compared with the Black African struggle. Another fact that should be known is that many of Mao's, Che's, and Fanon's works are published widely in the United States which means that the enemy is studying these materials also. We must think seriously about a strategy which deals with the United States. The works of others outside this country should be recognized for their wisdom. In other words we should not run around and shout passages from the little Red Book or say words or phrases that sound Jazzy. A person who does this is merely compromising himself and completely misses the meaning of that phrase or those words. It was not the intentions of Mao, Fanon, or Che, to entertain anyone but to enlighten people. It was their intention to awaken people as to what was being done to them and how they should go about doing something about it. Those that go around shouting this and that do a great dishonor to those people who dedicated their entire lives so that their people could be free, truly free.

From what happened in New York concerning construction workers a while back, we cannot agree about Marx's principle about the working class, for those here in America strongly believe that we are part of the "glorious American Dream."

In the case of violence it should be stressed that it must be used only when needed and does not go overboard causing needless loss of life. When one plans an assault, the target must have some vital importance to the enemy so he will feel it in his pocket and most important, his morale.

We must also remember that we must put together something useful and meaningful as we destroy. As we destroy we must not adopt the habits or mentality of the oppressor, because we than merely become just another monster taking the place of the former one, thus destroying all the good we set out to accomplish in the beginning.

We must remember that violence is an emotion that can rule us so very easily, thus making that emotion our master instead of us mastering it.

This is the most important thing we must remember if we are to have a meaningful revolution. We also must be careful of compromises because if we show any signs of giving up an inch the enemy will do his damnest to take a yard.

Up until now we have fought the enemy on his terms. We must now make him fight on ours.

We must learn the difference between bigotry and racism. The basic difference between the two is that the latter is deeply rooted thing.

If anyone wishes to look into this subject on his or her own, he should read Frantz Fanon's "Black Skins, White Mask". It is about the White problem in Amerika.

Another major enemy is the mass media. All too often the problem of most or many radicals is the hangup that if what they did didn't get on the Huntley-Brinkly report, everything went to shit for that day.

We must fully realize, like in the case of the books, that the enemy is watching you as well as the mass audience whether you are addressing a rally or on a TV "talk" show or panel discussion.

It is impossible to say completely away from the media but it is not necessary or wise to tell everything about your program or how you intend to go about it.

That is the main fallout I have with the Black Panthers. A book titled "Understanding the Mass Media", will give a more detailed account than I Just gave.

The last thing I want to cover also concerns communication. That is your own newspapers, pamphlets, ets. It is the writers responsibility to write something clearly and forcefully without using a lot of rhetoric, for you are not trying to entertain but you are writing to express your views. You can write forcefully without romanticizing everything.

These are the faults that I believe are the reason that there is no real force in the movement.

I hope you, the staff at the Home Front will think seriously, considering what I have written.

We must be stronger and wiser in the 70's than we were in the 60's.

I have used the word "radical" throughout this article, most of the time for we are yet to call ourselves revolutionaries. In the 60's we were aware, now, in the 70's we must act!

David Amaker

A Militant - a person who talks "tough"
A Radical - a person who comes ever closer to saying "no more".
A Revolutionary - a person who has finally come out of the oppressed stage of men into being a full man.




Source: Counter Attack. Fort Carson, Colorado: New Haven Panther Defense Committee, August 1970.


WE'RE THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD - RIGHT?


That's what the ruling class has been trying to make us, the people, believe for the last century.

We go into these poor, underdeveloped countries under the pretence of educating them and proceed to start our own system of industry, agriculture and politics and then go ahead and mess over their natural resources, work force and anything else "we" can use. By the time the country has been stripped down to it's B.V.D.'s we're selling them arms to put down someone, whether it be, "dirty reds", or their own people who are fed up with Amerika's capitalistic crap.

In this way they have the people at home believing we're keeping the commies in their place, while we have the country's puppet government protecting our big business.

And, last but not least, we have a new missile base, how nice. They're saving the world while they're going farther and farther up the creek.

Every WEDNESDAY night there will be a Law student or Lawyer at the HOMEFRONT to give free legal advice to G.I.'s who are being harassed by lifers.

It must be emphasized that MDM is a part of the nation wide movement and that it is a part of the nationwide movement and that it is important that we show our solidarity with our sisters and brothers in other parts of the Movement.

It is also very clear that the purpose of the HOMEFRONT will be mainly as a place to hold large meetings of people from different bases and units as a place to hold educational programs (such as movies, speakers, and political discussions) and give legal advice and aid. It will not be a hippie hangout or a place we're still in the military there is no place to "get away from it all." We still have to go back to base and get fucked - even some more.

MDM was founded on the west coast and is presently strongest at Camp Pendleton and Fort Ord. However it is now expanding.




Black Brothers Do Their Thing At Fort Carson.


On July 30 Black G.I.'s were turning M.P.'s out and kicking ass. It was real beautiful and shows things to come in the G.I. movement. An important thing to remember is that this riot was an all Black thing.

Black G.I.'s are the ones who get most of the shit that the army puts down. Black G.I.'s are the last ones to get jobs in the few good fields that the army has to offer. We are all from line connected troops, or real close to it. We have to be twice as good to get the same promotion.

Things that go down at home have a lot to do with the way Black G.I.'s think. Shit like Augusta, Jackson State, and Fred Hampton make Black G.I.'s see where this Government is really at.

When the brass wants to know what causes things like the riot in the third brigade, it goes deeper than just an enlisted men club on post. We should look at what happens around us and dig the power structure actions.




Dear world,

Please don't tell me I'm wrong anymore. You say I'm trying to destroy governments, subverting people, and making a mockery of all that is sacred. For once it is you that is wrong.

If you keep up the way you are going there will be nothing left of you in thirty years. You have only had a small sampling of an atomic holocaust not too long ago and still you insist on trying more of the same. If things go as they have been you will be the first planet to be destroyed by nuclear power in our solar system that we know of.

Could you stand to be a barren waste devoid of even plant life with no chance of getting anything to ever grow again because of terrible nuclear radiation?

World, maybe you should just sit back and let that savage but beautiful race of people destroy themselves. After all, they have polluted your bloodstream, poisoned your breath, and ruined great parts of your body. Maybe if people pollute themselves off the face of your body you might have a chance to regain some of your lost beauty.

Please, World, do something. Either make people see their errors or help wipe them out. After all, you're the only world we've got. Revolution is the only solution to pollution.

A good friend,
Willy C.




TO ALL MY BROTHERS


Now is the time for all good men to change the Army and join M.D.M. ESPECIALLY Black men. Remember Jackson State and just recently Roosevelt Hill Jr. People have been killing Blacks for many years.

Indians: Remember the trail of tears when 4,000 Indians were killed. This is your land. Let's make it fit for everybody.

Mexicans: Remember your strength at the Alamo.

If you're White and have any love left in your heart, stop fucking over 3rd World people. Black people in particular. It's your turn to change. We all live together so let's straighten out this mess.

So remember, let's get the power to all the people.

Zen Motley

Source: Counter Attack. Fort Carson, Colorado: New Haven Panther Defense Committee, August 1970.


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