Overland literary journal

The Black Panthers on Palestine

Written by Maxine Clarke on 23-01-2009

At the moment I'm re-working two chapters of a novel which is partly set in Panthers-era Black London. It's funny, I've been thinking for several years of the ground-breaking and revolutionary work of Panthers the world over, and of their solidarity and identification with the world's indigenous and oppressed peoples.

The word 'terrorist' carries such different connotations today, and how easily we forget how much a mobilised, and yes, when necessary, forceful mass of likeminded revolutionaries accomplished against such goliath-like odds...and in their time, as supposed 'terrorists.'

Here's Panther's Founder Huey Newton on Palestine:

"We have respect for all people, and we have respect for the right of any people to exist. So we want the Palestinian people and the Jewish people to live in harmony together. We support the Palestinian’s just struggle for liberation one hundred percent. We will go on doing this, and we would like for all of the progressive people of the world to join our ranks in order to make a world in which all people can live."

In the midst of trying to craft these 'Black Panther' chapters for my book, I discovered a new blogsite dedicated to reviving the memory of the London Panthers. Inspiring to see some fists are still in the fight.