Cleaver Pronounces Panther Party Dead

"The Black Panther Party is dead as any type of revolutionary organization, but the people who were Black Panthers are still alive and fighting," Kathleen Cleaver told a group of about 100 persons at MIT's Kresge Auditorium last night.

The speech was sponsored by the Harvard-Radcliffe Association of African and Afro-American Students (Afro).

Cleaver, former Communications Secretary of the Black Panther Party, said last night that "the Black Panther Party was a product of the struggle for liberation by the lumpenproletariat class--the lowest and most militant class in society."

Cleaver said that the Party was "infiltrated and destroyed by the enemy" and that it no longer "serves the interest of the lumpenproletariat."

"The vast majority of Panthers have left the Party and are forming small groups all over the country to raise the struggle to a higher level," she said. "These groups are causing revolutionary explosions in the communities, in the prisons, and in the army."

Communications

Cleaver said that the greatest problem facing these groups is the "lack of an effective communications apparatus that would enable them to better coordinate their activities."

She discussed the formation of a new structure, the Revolutionary People's Communications Network (RPCN), to bridge this communications gap.

The RPCN is "not an organization but a network of communication and coordination link-ups between various worldwide organizations of struggle," she said. Cleaver serves as Communications Secretary of the RCPN.

Cleaver also called for "a united front around the issue of prisons and political prisoners." She stressed the importance of developing communications links between isolated prisoners and their local communities.