Angela Davis and Bobby Seale At The Activist Assembly

Angela Davis and Bobby Seale At The Activist Assembly

Entering to thundering applause and a standing ovation entered Bobby Seale and Angela Davis.

 This is an expaned version of my article in Excalibur from a few months back.

Speaking first was Seale with a standing ovation. Seale spoke of his early childhood, his work in the Air Force, and the Hi Tek industry and his studies. In the midst of all this he read a book by an anthropologist that connected him with his roots. Bobby learned about slave revolts and all the wars that African American had fought in for America all of this influenced him. 

Seale would be influenced by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. He would go on to create a grassroots jobs based tutorial program for youth in the community. 

After founding the Black Panther Party (BPP) with Huey Newton and others, Seale still focused on programs like BPP’s 10 point plan and Breakfast Program for youth. Seale said that communist and capitalist imperialism were two opposite extremes for him.  Seale spoke about how the goals for his programs was about putting the money back in the community while at the same time educating youth and giving them skills.

 Seale spoke about wanting all power to all the people and changing how black people were underrepresented in the system, by doing things like voter registration and getting more black politicians, jurors and community leaders. He spoke of empowering women in the BPP teaching them self-defense. BPP’s guns were for self-defense according to Seale. BPP wanted to empower black and brown people to be in politics, and be judged by more black and brown jurors, and have a say in their communities. An example was endorsing Shirley Chisholm an African American woman who ran for president. BPP also did voter registration. But the police and the FBI did not look at it that way they would see the BPP as a threat. An FBI program called COINTELPRO would be directed against the BPP and among many African American leaders. Seale spoke of a time when the local police would collaborate with the KKK. Even the BPP’s children’s breakfast program would be seen as a threat by the Director of the FBI J Edgar Hoover.

When asked about holding politicians accountable, Seale said you vote them out if they don’t do their job, and protest to try to unseat them. Seale said that even if most of them don’t keep their promises having a few good politicians who do keep their promises is better than none. Seale stated it was important to work with politicians, and that it was more important that they fight for their promises not weather they succeed. 

When asked about his advice to young activists: Seale said try understand your ideas beliefs as much as possible and that they correspond to reality, he or she who assume without investigation 9/10 is wrong so learn to investigate.

 

Next up was Angela Davis . Davis approached the podium with a standing ovation, Davis started by speaking about education stating “Public universities weather in Canada or the US are no longer public Education has become a commodity”  going to say “People strove for education because it had a connection to freedom and liberation”. Davis began talking about when she grew up it was not possible for majority of Black people to vote including her parents who were teachers

Davis went on to state “just as the black struggle in the US was a struggle acknowledged by people all over the world, the 1980’s  especially the eyes of the world were focused on South Africa” she said now “the eyes of the world should be focused Palestine”.

But she cautioned about the environment and the dangers of fossil fuels saying “No struggle can be successful if we cannot manage to guarantee that there will be a habitable environment “

Davis spoke of the need to globalize struggles against racism. How she came to see prison as it functions as tool for racism. Davis then spoke of the soaring prison population in Canada, especially among Aboriginals and a sharp increase in Aboriginal women according to Howard Sapers report. Davis went on to highlight that one of the fastest growing sections of the prison population globally is women. 

When discussing the Michel Brown another case in long line of police killings, she stated that we rarely hear about African American women who are killed or a are victims violence. 

Davis discussed police and security militarization and its intersections with anti–Muslims racism and Islamophobia. She highlighted the Islamophobia directed against Muslim women referencing the headscarf bans and veil bans.  

Davis went on speak of the militarization of the police in America with aid of the Israeli government, and spoke of the continuous assault on Occupied Palestine. 

Davis also said there is a need for a 50^th anniversary commemorating the founding of the Black Panther Party. And She went on to state how the Black Panther Party's 10 Point Plan was still relevant.

  

Davis when talking about South Africa said that although wonderful things are happening in South Africa there are also things like the prison system. Davis then went on to talk about the influence private security corporations and that also own private prisons around the globe. Davis stated that women were the most consistent target of violence in the world. 

When asked about holding politicians accountable, Davis emphasized the importance of protesting saying that even with progressive politicians you shouldn’t stop protesting so that you push them to go further and keep more of their promises than they normally would have. Saying “so a lot of these responsibilities are our responsibilities”

Davis ended with discussing alternatives to prison system for justice.