WE REMEMBER ... MICHAEL CETEWAYO TABOR

MICHAEL CETEWAYO TABOR ...
ex-political prisoners/Panther21,NYC.
Born 12/13/46 Harlem, usa
Died 10/17/10 Zambia, Africa

Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide
By Michael Cetewayo Tabor, 1970
Black Panther Party, amerikkka 

I. The Problem.

Recently in the Black colony of Harlem a 12 year old Black boy was
murdered by an overdose of
heroin. Less than two weeks later a 15 year old Black girl met the
same tragic fate. During the year
1969 in New York City alone there were over 900 deaths resulting from
drug addiction. Of these
210 were youths ranging in age from 12 to 19. Of the over 900 dead,
the overwhelming majority
were Black and Puerto Rican. It is estimated that there are at least
25,000 youths addicted to
narcotics in New York City - and that is a conservative estimate.

Drug addiction in the colonized ghettos of America has constituted a
major problem for over 15
years. Its use is so widespread that it can - without fear of
exaggeration - be termed a "plague". It
has reached epidemic proportions, and it is still growing. But it has
only been within the last few
years that the racist US government has considered drug addiction "a
matter of grave concern". It is
interesting to note that this growing concern on the part of the
government is proportionate to the
spread of the plague into the inner sanctums of the White middle and
upper-class communities. As
long as the plague was confined to the ghetto, the government did not
see fit to deem it a problem.
But as soon as college professors, demagogic politicians,
money-crazed finance capitalists and
industrialists discovered that their own sons and daughters had
fallen victim to the plague, a virtual
"state of national emergency" was declared. This is significant, for
it provides us with a clue to the
understanding of the plague as it relates to Black people.

From the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, to the clergy, to members of
the medical profession, so-
called educators, psychologists, right on down tot the chemically
enslaved addicts on the street
corner, the hopes for effectively curbing the spread of the plague
are dishearteningly dim. Despite
the stiffer jail sentences being meted out to those whom the law
defines as 'drug profiteers' - a
euphemism for illegal capitalists - there are more dope dealers now
that ever before. Despite the
ever increasing number of preventive and rehabilitative programs the
plague proliferates; it
threatens to devour and entire generation of youth.

The basic reason why the plague cannot be stopped by the, drug
prevention and rehabilitation
programs is that these programs, with their archaic, bourgeois
Freudian approach and their
unrealistic therapeutic communities, do not deal with the causes of
the problem. These programs
deliberately negate or at best deal flippantly with the
socio-economic origin of drug addiction.
These programs sanctimoniously deny the fact that capitalist
exploitation and racial oppression are
the main contributing factors to drug addiction in regard to Black
people. These programs were
never intended to cure Black addicts. They can't even cure the White
addicts they were designed for.

This fascist government defines the cause of addiction as the
importation of the plague into the
country by smugglers. They themselves even admit that stopping the
entry of the plague is
impossible. For every kilo (2.2 lbs.) of heroin they confiscate, at
least 25 kilos get past customs
agents. The government is well aware of the fact that even if they
were able to stop the importation
of heroin, dope dealers and addicts would simply find another drug to
take its place. The
government is totally incapable of addressing itself to the true
causes of drug addiction, for to do so
would necessitate effecting a radical transformation of this society.
The social consciousness of this
society, the values, mores and traditions would have to be altered.
And this would be impossible
without totally changing the way in which the means of producing
social wealth is owned and
distributed. Only a revolution can eliminate the plague.

Drug addiction is a monstrous symptom of the malignancy which is
ravaging the social fabric of this capitalist system. Drug addiction
is a social phenomena that grows organically from the social system.
Every social phenomenon that emanates from a social system that is
predicated upon and driven by bitter class antagonisms that result
from class exploitation must 'be been from a class point ,of view.

II. Escapism and Self-Destruction

In regard to Black people, our problems are compounded and take on
appalling dimensions as a
result of the racist dehumanization that we are subjected to. To
understand the plague as it relates to
Black people, we must analyze the effects of capitalist economic
exploitation and racist
dehumanization.

The heinous and sadistic program of annihilating the humanity of
Black people that was initiated
over 400 years ago by money-mad slave masters and that has continued
unabated until this very day
is deliberate and systematic. It is done for the purpose of
justifying and facilitating our exploitation.
Since the reality of our objective existence seemed to confirm the
racist doctrines of White
superiority and its antithesis, Black inferiority, and since we
lacked an understanding of our
condition, we internalized the racist propaganda of our oppressors.
We began to believe that we
were inherently inferior to Whites. These feelings of inferiority
gave birth to a sense of self-hatred
which finds expression in self-destructive behavior patterns. The
wretchedness of our plight, our
sense of powerlessness and despair created within our minds a
predisposition toward the use of any
substance which produces euphoric illusions. We are inclined to use
anything that enables us to
suffer peacefully. We have developed an escapist complex. This
escapist complex is self-
destructive.

The depraved capitalist-racist oppressor exploits these psychological
and emotional deficiencies for all they are worth. The oppressor
encourages our participation in any activity that is
self-destructive. Our self-destructive behavior patterns and our
escapist tendencies constitute a source of profits for the
capitalists. They also, by weakening, dividing and destroying us,
reinforce the strength of the oppressor enabling him to: Perpetuate
his domination over us.

Fratricidal street-gang fighting is a direct manifestation of a
self-destructive behavior pattern. It is
also a form of escapism by which Black youths vent their rage,
frustrations and despair on each
other rather than dealing with the true enemy. Pathological
religionism or the fanatical indulgence
in religion is essentially escapist because it encourages the victim
to concentrate his attention,
energy and hope for salvation and freedom upon a dubious, mystical
force. It discourages
confronting the actual causes of our misery and deprivation. It
encourages the focusing of attention
upon pie in the sky, rather than the securing of more lamb chops
right here on planet earth. It also
serves as a source of profits for those religious charlatans,
preachers and ministers who exploit it.

Alcoholism is both self-destructive and escapist. It is also a source
of tremendous profits for the
capitalists. The amazingly high number of bars and liquor stores in
the Black communities testify to
this tragic fact. The capitalist liquor industry could prosper just
on the business it does in the Black
ghetto alone.

III. The Heroin Addict

The most escapist and self-destructive activity for us and one of the
most profitable for the capitalist, and therefore the most encouraged
by him, is drug addiction, specifically heroin addiction.

About 1898 a German chemist discovered diacetylmorphine, heroin. It
was hailed as the perfect drug for curing morphine addicts. But soon
it became apparent that it was more addictive than morphine. By the
1920's there were addicts who were injecting heroin directly into their veins.
Heroin production in the United States was discontinued 'and the drug
was no longer used as an
antidote for morphine addiction and as a pain killer.

Heroin addiction, the plague, the scourge of the Black colonies of
Babylon. The plague, whose
spiritual, moral, psychological, physical and social destructive
powers greatly exceed that of any
disease hitherto known to humanity. The plague, opium from Turkey,
shipped to Marseilles,
converted into morphine base, then processed into heroin, smuggled
into America, cut, diluted, then
placed into the Black ghetto. The plague, poisonous, lethal, white
powdery substance, sold by
depraved, money-crazed beasts to Black youths who are desperately
seeking a kick, a high, a
means, anything that will help to make them oblivious to the squalor,
to the abject poverty, disease
and degradation that engulfs them in their daily existence.

Initially the plague does just that. Under its sinister influence,
the oppressive, nauseous, ghetto
prison is transformed into a virtual Black Valhalla. One becomes
impervious to the rancid stench of
urine-soaked tenement dungeons, unaffected by the piercing cries of
anguish of Black folks driven
to the brink of insanity by a sadistic, social system. Unaffected by
the deafening wail of pig-police
car sirens as they tear through the streets of the Black Hell en
route to answer a 1013 call from some
other pig-police who is in a state of well-deserved distress.
Unaffected by the trash cans whose
decayed, disease carrying, garbage has overflowed to fill the ghetto streets.

Yes, under its ecstatic influence one is made oblivious to ugly
realities. But there is a trick, a cruel
monstrous trick, a deadly flimflam awaiting its naive, youthful
victim, for, as the illusionary beauty
of the heroin-induced high begins to vanish, correspondingly, the
temporary immunity from reality
attained under its chemical trance vanishes. The reality that the
pathetic victim sought so
desperately to escape, once again descends upon and re-engulfs him.
The rancid stench of urine-
soaked tenement dungeons begins to assail his nostrils. Those Black
cries of anguish seem to blend
with the wailing sirens of pig-police cars. He hears them now, very
loud, and very clear--in
stereophonic sound. And that garbage that flows over onto the streets
from uncollected trash cans is
felt underfoot.

The young victim is not long in discovering that only by taking
another dosage will he be able to
attain sanctuary from his hideous reality. Each shot of the plague
that he injects into his blood
system brings him that much closer to the grave. Soon he is
strung-out, hooked. He is
physiologically and psychologically dependent on the plague. Both his
body and mind have become
addicted to heroin. He has now become a full-time, chartered member
of the Cloud 9 Society. His
physical body begins to take on a decimated appearance. A shameless
disregard is displayed toward
his clothes. That his shirt is filthy and his shoes are soleless,
leaving him to walk virtually on his
naked feet, does not matter. That his unwashed body now emits a most
foul odor disturbs him but
little. That his non-addicted friends now shun him and look upon him
with contempt matters not, for
the feelings are mutual. They no longer have anything in common.
Everything ceases to matter.
Everything except heroin, the plague.

As he continues, his body begins to build up an immunity to the drug.
Now, in order to attain his
euphoric high he must increase his dosage. This means that he must
obtain more money. So
enslaved has he now become that he will do anything for a bag, for a
"shot". To lie, to steal, to
cheat, to rob is nothing to him. Whatever he must do for a "shot" he
will do, he must do, for he is a
slave to the plague.

The vicious cycle grinds into motion. He violates what the ruling
class defines as being the law in
order to secure money to feed his sickness. Inevitably he gets
flagged-off, busted. He goes to jail,
and after he has served out his sentence he is released. The first
thing he wants is a shot. The cycle
continues. And he plunges deeper and deeper into the abysmal pit of
degradation. And there, always
there and ever willing, for a price of course, to meet the addict's
demand for dope is the cop-man,
the dealer, purveyor of poison, distributor of death, merciless,
murdering scum, of the planet, vile
capitalists, salesmen of death on the installment plan, the dope
pusher, the plague-man.

IV. Capitalism and Crime

Dope selling is beyond a doubt one of the most profitable capitalist
undertakings. The profits from
it soar into billions. Internationally and domestically the trade and
distribution of heroin is
ultimately controlled by the Cosa Nostra, the Mafia.

Much of the profits amassed from the drug business is used to finance
so-called legitimate
businesses. These legitimate businesses that are controlled by the
Mafia are also used to facilitate
their drug-smuggling activities. Given the fact that organized crime
is a business and an ever-
expanding one at that, it is constantly seeking new areas of
investment to increase profits. Hence,
more and more illegal profits are being channeled into legitimate
businesses. Partnerships between
the Mafia and "reputable businessmen" are the order of the day. There
is a direct relationship
between legitimate and illegitimate capitalists.

Over the years a number of politicians and foreign ambassadors and
wealthy businessmen have
been arrested in this country for drug activities. Others, because of
their wealth and influence, were
able to avoid arrest. In the fall of 1969 it was discovered that a
group of prominent New York
financiers was financing an international drug smuggling operation.
No indictments were handed
down. Shortly after that a group of wealthy South American
businessmen were arrested in a plush
New York City hotel with over $10 million worth of drugs.

Given the predatory and voracious nature of the capitalist, it should
come as no surprise that so-
called legitimate businessmen are deeply involved in the drug trade.
Capitalists are motivated by an
insatiable lust for profits. They will do anything for money. The
activities of organized crime and
the "legitimate capitalists" are so inextricably tied up, so
thoroughly interwoven, that from our
vantage point any distinction made between them is purely academic.

The legitimization of the Mafia, their increased emphasis upon
investing in, and establishing
corporations, has been accelerated by the stiffer prison sentences
that are being meted out to drug
profiteers. In New York this has resulted in the gradual withdrawal
of the Mafia from their position
of actual leadership of the New York drug trade. The New York drug
trade is now dominated by
Cuban exiles, many of whom were military officers and police agents
in the pre-revolutionary,
repressive Batista regime. They equal the Mafia in ruthlessness and greed.

These new local dope kingpins have established a broad network of
international smuggling operations. They utilize the traditional
trade routes and create new ones, as indicated by the increased
number of Narcotics Bureau seizures of dope coming from South America.

The concept of Black Power has influenced the thinking of every
segment of the Black community.
It has come to mean Black control of the institutions and activities
that are centered in the Black
community. Black teachers demand Black community control of the
ghetto schools. Black
businessmen and merchants advocate the expulsion of White businessmen
from the ghetto so that
they can maximize their profits. Black numbers-game operators are
demanding total control of the
ghetto numbers operations. And Black dope dealers are demanding
community control of heroin. It
is a tragedy that in New York the greatest gains made in the realm of
Black community control have
been made by Black racketeers, numbers-game bankers and dope dealers,
by the Black illegal
capitalists. Prior to 1967 it was a rarity to find a Black dope
dealer who handled more than 3 kilos
(1 kilo equals 2.2 lbs.) of heroin at any given time. Independent
Black importers were unheard of.
Now, there is an entire class of Blacks who have become importers,
using Mafia supplied lists of
European connections.

The extent and instant rate of profits reaped from the dope industry
could arouse the envy of U.S.
Steel, General Motors and Standard Oil. From the highest level to the
lowest, the profits are
enormous. If the individual is sufficiently ambitious, cunning,
ruthless and vicious, he may graduate
from the status of street peddler to big-time wholesaler and
distributor in a short span of time.
A characteristic feature of class and racial oppression is the ruling
class policy of brainwashing the

oppressed into accepting their oppression. Initially, this program is
carried out by viciously
implanting fear into the minds and sowing the seeds of inferiority in
the souls of the oppressed. But
as the objective conditions and the balance of forces become more
favorable for the oppressed and
more adverse to the oppressor, it becomes necessary for the oppressor
to modify his program and
adopt more subtle and devious methods to maintain his rule. The
oppressor attempts to throw the
oppressed psychologically off-balance by combining a policy of
vicious repression with spectacular
gestures of good-will and service.

Given the fact that Black people have abandoned the non-functional
and ineffective tactics of the
"Civil Rights" era and have now resolved to attain their long overdue
liberation by any means
necessary, it has become necessary for the oppressor to deploy more
occupation forces into the
Black colony. The oppressor, particularly in New York, realizes that
this cannot be done overtly
without intensifying the revolutionary fervor of the Black people in
the colony. Therefore, a pretext
is needed for placing more pigs in the ghetto.

And what is the pretext? It goes like this: Responsible negro
community leaders have informed us,
and their reports concur with police findings, that the negro
community is ravaged by crime,
muggings, burglaries, murders and mayhem. The streets are unsafe,
business establishments are
infested by armed robbers, commerce cannot function. City Hall agrees
with negro residents that the
main cause for this horrible situation is the dope addicts who prey
on innocent people. Yes, the dope
addicts are to blame for the ever-increasing crime rate. And City
Hall will answer the desperate cry
of negro residents for greater protection--send in more police!

That victims of the plague are responsible for most of the crimes in
the Black ghettos is a fact. That
Black drug addicts perpetrate most of their robberies, burglaries and
thefts in the Black community
against Black people cannot be denied. But before, out of
desperation, we jump up and scream for
more police protection, we better remember who put the plague in
Harlem, Bedford Stuyvesant and
the other Black communities. We better remember who ultimately
profits from the drug addiction of
Black people. We better remember that the police are alien hostile
troops sent into the Black
colonies by the ruling class, not to protect the lives of Black
people, but rather to protect the
economic interests and the private property of the capitalists and to
make certain that Black people
don't get out of place. Rockefeller and Lindsay could care less about
the lives of Black people. And
if we don't know by now how the police feel about us, then we are
really in bad shape.

V. Pig Police

The plague could never flourish in the Black colonies if it were not
for the active support of the
occupation forces, the police. That narcotics arrests have increased
in no way mitigates the fact that
the police give dope peddlers immunity from arrest in exchange for
money pay-offs.

It is, also the practice of pig-police, especially narcotics agents,
to seize a quantity of drugs from
one dealer, arrest him, but only turn in a portion of the confiscated
drugs for evidence. The rest is
given to another dealer who sells it and gives a percentage of the
profits to the narcotics agents. The
pig-police also utilize informers who are dealers. In return for
information, they receive immunity
from arrest. The police cannot solve the problem, for they are a part
of the problem.

When you consider that a kilo of heroin purchased by an importer for
$6,000, when cut and bagged and distributed will bring back a profit
of$300,000in a week's time, it becomes easier to understand that even
if the death penalty were imposed on drug profiteers, it would not
deter the trade.

The lying devious puppets of the bourgeois ruling class, the
demagogic politicians of Capitol Hill
have now passed a law which gives narcotics agents the right to crash
into a person's home without
knocking, on the pretext of looking for narcotics and "other
evidence". This law was ostensibly
passed to prevent dope dealers from destroying the dope and "other
evidence." Now, anyone who
thinks that this law will be confined to just suspected drug dealers
is laboring under a tragic and
possibly suicidal delusion. To assume that only suspected drug
dealers will be affected by this law is

to negate the reality of present-day America. To allow yourself to
think for one moment that this
law only applies to suspected drug dealers is to deny that the laws
being passed, the policies being
implemented, and the methods and tactics of the police have become
blatantly and shamelessly
fascist.

It should come as no surprise when the homes of revolutionaries and
other progressive and true
freedom-loving people are invaded by the police on the pretext of
searching for drugs and "other
evidence". A number of revolutionaries have already been imprisoned
on framed-up narcotics
charges. Lee Otis was given 30 years and Martin Sostre was sentenced
to 41 years on trumped-up
narcotics charges. Rest assured this policy will be intensified. It
would do us well to consider what
kicking in .a person's door in search of drugs and "other evidence"
actually means. What is "other
evidence"? The bourgeois, fascist law-makers have not specified what
constitutes "other evidence".
The No-Knock Law !s an integral part of the fascist trip that this
country has embarked upon.

Before, when the home of a Black person was burglarized by a drug
addict, or a sister had her purse
snatched, the police took all night to respond to the call, or didn't
respond at all. The burglar or
purse-matcher was hardly ever caught. In most instances, when someone
was arrested, it was the
wrong person. But when an exploiting capitalist business
establishment in that very same ghetto,
especially a White one, gets ripped-off, there are immediately 15
siren-wailing police cars on the
set, and three dozen pigs are running up and down the street, waving
guns in everybody's face. And
you can lay 5 to 1 odds that somebody is going to jail for it.
Whether or not the arrested person
perpetrated the act is irrelevant from the pigs' standpoint. The
racist pig-police use Blacks as an
outlet for their sadistic impulses, inadequacies and frustrations.
Now that more police have been
sent in, the situation has gone from bad to worse.

VI. Revolution

The racist pig-police, the demagogic politicians .and the avaricious
big businessmen who control
the politicians are delighted that Black youths have fallen victim to
the plague. They are delighted
for two reasons: one, it is economically profitable, and two, they
realize that as long as they can
keep our Black youths standing on the street corners "nodding" from a
"shot" of heroin, they won't
have to worry about us waging an effective struggle for liberation.
As long as our young Black
brothers and sisters are chasing the bag, as long as they are trying
to cop a fix, the rule of our
oppressors is secure and our hopes for freedom are dead. It is the
youth who make the revolution
and it is the youth who carry it out. Without our young, we will
never be able to forge a
revolutionary force.

We are the only ones capable of eradicating the plague from our
communities. It will not be an easy
task. It will require tremendous effort. It will have to be a
revolutionary program, a people's
program.

The Black Panther Party is presently in the process of formulating a
program to combat the plague. It will be controlled totally by the
people. We, the people, must stamp out the plague, and we will. Dope
is a form of genocide in which the victim pays to be killed.

SEIZE THE TIME!
INTENSIFY THE STRUGGLE!
DESTROY THE PLAGUE!
ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
Michael "Cetewayo" Tabor
N. Y. Panther 21, Political Prisoner

Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide by Black Panther Michael Cetewayo Tabor ol 62, Issue 18
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