Diary of a Walking Butterfly

     In January of 1969 the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) initiated the Free Breakfast for Children program in Oakland, California. Providing free meals to children before school, the Black Panther Party operated in the rift between the state and the masses and introduced communities to an alternate way of organizing their lives. By 1970 the program was operating across the country, serving breakfast to thousands of children each and every day.

     The Free Breakfast for Children Program was only one of many “survival programs” operated by the Black Panther Party. Others included busing to prisons to see loved ones, a free ambulance service, and testing for sickle-cell anemia. While most Americans think of the BPP as gun-toting extremists bent on killing white folks, few know the truth, nor recognize the tremendous impact the BPP had on the lives of black Americans. Fewer still acknowledge the influence that the BPP had on radical organizing in general.

     What’s radical about handing out breakfast or driving people to hospitals? How is this any different than charity? The difference is pretty profound. First of all – survival programs are operated by explicitly radical organizations with the intent of providing services “pending revolution”. This is key. Unlike charity – which seeks to ameliorate social ailments without curing the disease – survival programs are directed by community members, for community members. Additionally, these programs seek to involve previously uninformed or inactive community members – cultivating community leadership and fostering a sense of community control that comes from below and isn’t handed down from above.

     Surivival programs present communities with a living example of a different world. A world in which communitites solve their own problems in their own way – without direction or permission from government, corporations or non-profit organizations. It allows people to see a more humane and democratic model for organizing our lives and helps put the contradictions and cruelty of capitalism in relief. Furthermore, unlike holding a sign or sleeping in a tent (which are perfectly valid and effective means of struggle), community programs foster a positive image of radicals and show that people have the capacity of not just demanding change, but affecting change.

     To some extent, the “next step” in the occupy movement has become survival programs. We see communities occupying the homes of the evicted. At occupations we see the free distribution of food and clothing to the homeless. These are excellent steps and, in my opinion, work toward a strengthening of the movement and a broadening of a radical base. We need to identify, in our own communities, needs that aren’t being met or are not being met adequately and inject ourselves. We need to be creative and bold – providing services openly and freely while doing mass education about the distinct causes of these ailments. We must also be actively cultivating leadership in the community. This cannot be 4 radicals behind a table handing out food for months on end. Community members should be encouraged to be actively involved in not only the work, but also the decision-making.

     With the economy in the state that it’s in, human needs are overflowing. There are more problems than we could hope to address. We need to evaluate what the most pressing needs are – as well as what we can feasibly address and what is strategic – and develop programs to handle them that prefigure the kind of society we want to live in. During times of extreme economic distress, the contradictions of capitalism become apparent for all to see. It’s up to us to not only serve our communities, but also to highlight the fact that the very ailments we’re treating are symptoms of systemic oppression.