1.WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK
AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be free until we are
able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves, by fully
controlling all the institutions which exist in our
communities.
2.WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.
We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to
give every person employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if
the American businessmen will not give full employment,
then the technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen
and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize
and employ all of its people and give a
high standard of living.
3.WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALISTS OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED
COMMUNITIES.
We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding
the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules
were promised 100 years ago as restitution for
slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment
in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The American
racist has taken part in the slaughter of our fifty million
Black people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make.
4.WE WANT DECENT HOUSING, FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS.
We believe that if the landlords will not give decent housing to our Black
and oppressed communities, then housing and the land should be made into
cooperatives so that the people in our communities, with
government aid, can build and make decent housing for the people.
5.WE WANT DECENT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE
OF THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT
EDUCATION THAT TEACHES US OUR TRUE HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY
SOCIETY.
We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge
of the self. If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your position
in the society and in the world, then you will have little
chance to know anything else.
6.WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR All BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE.
We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people,
health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which
have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will
also develop preventive medical programs to guarantee our future survival.
We believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed
to give all Black and oppressed people access to
advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide our selves
with proper medical attention and care.
7.WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE,
OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, All OPPRESSED PEOPLE
INSIDE THE UNITED STATES.
We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States
uses its domestic enforcement agencies to carry out its program of oppression
against black people, other people of color and poor
people inside the united States. We believe it is our right, therefore,
to defend ourselves against such armed forces and that all Black and oppressed
people should be armed for self defense of our homes and
communities against these fascist police forces.
8.WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.
We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem
directly from the aggressive desire of the United States ruling circle
and government to force its domination upon the oppressed people
of the world. We believe that if the United States government or its lackeys
do not cease these aggressive wars it is the right of the people to defend
themselves by any means necessary against their
aggressors.
9.WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U. S.
FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND
JAILS. WE WANT TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR All PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED
CRIMES UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.
We believe that the many Black and poor oppressed people now held in United
States prisons and jails have not received fair and impartial trials under
a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free
from incarceration. We believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched,
inhuman penal institutions, because the masses of men and women imprisoned
inside the United States or by the United States
military are the victims of oppressive conditions which are the real cause
of their imprisonment. We believe that when persons are brought to trial
they must be guaranteed, by the United States, juries of their
peers, attorneys of their choice and freedom from imprisonment while awaiting
trial.
10.WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND
PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another,
and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that
they should declare the causes which impel them to the
separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal;
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any
form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is
the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new
government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its
powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments
long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;
and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind
are most disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when
a long train of abuses and usurpation, pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism,
it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and
to provide new guards for their future security.