The Black Panther Party And Latino Solidarity

The Black Panther Party and Latino Solidarity
The Black Panther Party (BPP) originally formed in Oakland in the year 1966, was funded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. It was a so-called self-defense organization. They were a group fighting racial oppression which had a unique way of fighting for equality and the end of discrimination within the systems. The BPP played an essential role in inspiring other racially oppressed groups to create similar organizations to fight against white racism. The BPP ideology quickly spread throughout the country in places such as Chicago, New York, and dispersed in surrounding cities. Readings such as Maeda’s, which talked about how the BPP inspired the Red Guard Party and formed a solidarity with Asian-Americans,

The relationship between these two groups started during the early 1960’s, it formed due to the fact that they were communities that were victims of oppression from the white dominant class. The BPP supported the UFW through their newspaper, The Black Panther. In it, the BPP would add articles which addressed the desire of the UFW protest. They would encourage their readers to support the movements and protest such as the boycotts of crops. One particular example is when the UFW was boycotting California table grapes, the UFW goal was to get Safeway stores to only sell grapes the farmers picked on their own. Soon enough the Panthers and UFW began protesting in other Safeway stores in the area, the boycotts went national on October 1968 (Araiza, 200). During this time, the BPP issued the first article of the boycotting. Actions like these, led to the strengthening of their alliance, solidarity was present, the BPP was continuously helping the UFW take action. The UFW helped in return. The UFW participated in a rally defense at Seattle Washington in the year 1970 (Araiza, 201). They participated “in defense of the Panthers after it was revealed that the alcohol, tobacco, and firearms division of the U.S. Treasury Department asked Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman for permission to raid the

They were willing to share whatever they could , even their attorney! “In addition, the Panthers offered the services of their attorney Charles Garry.” (Ferreira, 35) The sharing between communities always brings people together and strengthens which we see happening here, the sharing of the Newspaper section and their lawyer.. Furthermore, the relationship between these two groups was in their words a “bond” (Ferreira, 37). To illustrate, “There was just a lot of crossover and mutual support...It was intimate on an organizational, social, and ideological level.” (Ferreira, 37) This demonstrates that the bond was brought through the sharing of resources which were often limited to all colored people. Not only that, it showed that although a lot of relationships between latino groups were interpreted as just “business”, they were more than that. They challenged the white race through bonds they created in their struggle. They were slowly deteriorating the capitalisms methods and ideology of preventing communities and people of color to organize and unite to bring their oppression to an