On Ron Karenga Lorenzo Komboa Ervin From a discussion on the Black Radical Congress list. Here is something to think about: If 30 years after WW2, a Nazi came along and tried to convince us that he now works at a Jewish community center with kids, should we now forgive his previous crimes? So now Karenga and US are "champions of the working class with a living wage campaign in Los Angeles?" There are those in the contemporary Black nationalist movements who will do anything to rehabilitate this guy despite his crimes against the people. Farrakhan had him as a speaker at the Million Man March in 1995, and he has been giving talks on college campuses with his Kawaida cultural nationalist mumbo-jumbo. Like neo-Nazi holocaust revinionsists, there are those who claim there is no "proof" that Karenga or US had anything to do with the shootings and killings of 5 members of the Black Panther Party in Los Angeles and San Diego, that he is not/was never a police informer and provocateur, and that he should now be rehabilitated in this period. He himself says now that the Black Panther members in L.A., Jon Huggins and Bunchy Carter, who were murdered by US thugs on the UCLA campus in 1968 "egged the whole thing on and got what they deserve", and other Black nationalists have said some nonsense like "they were fighting over a woman", rather than that the FBI initiated all this and they were willing tools. This points to how corrupt the contemporary movement really is, Karenga and the US helped to destroy the Black revolutionary movement of the 1960's, and no good works in this period will erase that, especially since no one ever paid for these murders and counter-revolutionary acts. We can't be weak on things like this for some perceived short term gain. These are my personal opinions, not those of a group. * * I am out of the country and frankly started not to revisit this issue, but will just say this: The rationale about unity in action may be a good one if this were just a question of competing ideas alone, (say about Living wages, but I/we support those campaigns wherever they are) or honest differences among political forces, but that is not what I/we have been talking about at all. Ron Karenga is an outright traitor and killer, and US was a tool of the FBI/LAPD, simple as that. Five black Panthers were killed, 2 at UCLA, but three others in San Diego, and he worked along with other traitors to defeat the Black revolution of the 1960's. What does that have to do with now? First, principles among revolutinary organizers and also the distinct possibility that he/US will do the same in this period. But let's cut to the chase: I frankly believe that many folks who come down in favor of "rehabilitating" Karenga are people who just disagree with the revolutionary legacy of the Black Panther Party and are down with US as both a past and present political movement, or have some weak ideal about Black/class Unity. This is the kind of *soft Leftism* that exists in this period, so liberal that even counter-revolutionaries are given credence and organizational support without in anyway answering for their crimes. IMHO, such unity is not possible with class or race enemies. I/we will not work with Karenga, Cotton Smith, Butler (the snitch in Geronimo Pratt's case), or any other turncoat Panther/police infiltrator regardless of his current role or campaign he is involved in. In truth, I feel that revolutionary justice should have been served upon him (Karenga) long ago, and then this discussion would be totally moot. That's all I have to say. I appreciate everyone's views, but it does not change my mind at all. Back to Anarchism And The Black Revolution