A BLAST FROM THE PAST ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ON SEPTEMBER 18, 1979

PART I - "ON THE BLACK LIBERATION ARMY" "... Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories ..." PAIGC-1965

The history of our national liberation struggle is one of the most important factors upon which the political party(s), the oppressed masses, and the liberation armed forces may understand the nature of their oppression and the task before them towards independence and freedom.

In this article, I would like to present to the masses the general history of the evolvement of the Black Liberation Army. This will be a brief historical overview not providing specific historical data in order to protect people who are either functioning in the BLA, or in other areas no longer associated with the BLA. The Black Liberation Army is a politico-military organization, whose primary objective is to fight for the independence and self- determination of Afrikan people in the United States. The political determination of the BLA evolved out of the now defunct Black Panther Party.

It was in October, 1966, with the advent of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, that the question of armed struggle and resistance to racist oppression emerge as a plausible strategical maneuver in the developing liberation movement. It was in late 1968, early 1969, that the forming of a Black underground first began. From Los Angeles, California, to Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, armed units were formed in rural areas, trained and caches were established. In Oakland, San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Ohio, and New York, Black Panther Party offices were established to formulate a political relationship with the oppressed Black masses in these and other communities across the country.

From 1969 to 1972, the BPP came under vicious attack by the State and Federal government. The government employed COINTELPRO (FBI, CIA and local police departments) as the means to destroy the above-ground political apparatus that fielded the Black underground. But it wasn't until 1970 that the BPP began its purge of many of its most trusted and militant members, many of which eventually joined the Black underground.

By 1971, contradictions perpetuated by COINTELPRO forces in the leadership of the BPP caused the split between Newton and Cleaver, which eventually split the entire Black Panther Party into two major factions. It was this BPP split and factionalism that determined the fielding of the Black underground would begin to serve its primary purpose (along with conditions presented by the State armed offensive to liquidate the Party). This is not to say that armed action against the State did not occur by the Black underground prior to the split, on the contrary, by 1971, the Black underground was becoming rich in experience in the tactics of armed expropriations, sabotage, and ambush-assaults. It needs to be said that prior to the split, the Black underground was the official armed-wing of the aboveground political apparatus, and thereby had to maintain restraint in its military activity. This was very well for the Black underground but although in many areas experienced in tactical military guerilla warfare, it was still infantile politically, and although becoming organizationally wielded as a fighting apparatus, it did not establish an infra-structure completely autonomous from the aboveground BPP cadres and Party chapters. This in turn became one of the major detriments of the Black underground after the split of the Black Panther Party.

Based upon the split and factionalism in the BPP, and heightened repression by the State, the Black underground was ordered to begin establishing the capacity to take the "defensive- offensive" in developing urban guerilla warfare. Hence, in 1971, the name BLACK LIBERATION ARMY (of Afro-American Liberation Army) surfaced as the nucleus of Black guerilla fighters across the United States. This is not to say that the name Black Liberation Army was first used in 1971, for in late 1968, during a student strike and demonstration in Mexico City, many students and demonstrators were killed by Mexican police. One of those students was reported to have had a piece of paper in his pocket upon which was written the name Black Liberation Army. Whether or not there was a connection to the fielding of the Black underground with the uprising in Mexico in 1968 is unknown.

Since the split in the BPP and the call of the "defensive- offensive" commenced, the Black underground which in May of 1971 bore the name Black Liberation Army, had committed many armed attacks against the State as part of the BPP (and after the split) many of which are unrecorded. Here I would like to present the Justice Department-LEAA Task Force report on BLA activity (it should be noted these reports were recorded by the State according to when they captured, killed, or in some ways received information concerning BLA activity, and therefore one-sided and by no means indicated all BLA activity in the last ten years).

1970: October 22. San Francisco, Calif. - An antipersonnel time bomb explodes outside a church, showering steel shrapnel on mourners of a patrolman slain in a bank holdup; no one is injured. The BLA is suspected.

1971: January 13. Hunters Point, Calif. - A police officer is shot by BLA member.

January 19. San Francisco, Calif. - Two police officers are wounded by BLA members.

March 30. San Franciso, Calif. - There is a BLA attempt to bomb a police station.

April 19. New York City - Two black men lure patroleman Curry and Binetti by driving the wrong way and ignoring a traffic light; when apprehended the driver drops down and the passenger fires a machine gun at the doors and windows of the patrol car; the Black Liberation Army is supsected.

May 19. Harlem, New York City - Patrolman Piagentini and Waverly Jones are killed in an ambush by alleged members of the BLA.

June 5. New York City - Four men associated with the Black Liberation Army attempted to hold-up a night club called the Triple O. One cab driver is killed.

June 18. New York City - BLA members rob a bank for funds.

August - Twenty BLA members leave New York City and rent a farmhouse in Fayetteville, GA., where they conduct a guerilla warfare school for one month, during which they hold-up a bank and kill an Atlanta policeman.

August 23. Queens, New York - The Bankers Trust Company is robbed; Black Liberation Army members are identified as participants.

August 28. San Francisco, Calif. - Two BLA members attempt to machine gun a San Francisco police department patrol car, after an exchange of gun fire, they are apprehended. The service revolver of a slain New York City patrolman, Waverly Jones, is found in their possession.

August 29. San Francico, Calif. - A police sergeant is killed at his desk when two black men fire repeated blasts into the Ingelside police station; the BLA is suspected.

October 7. Atlanta, GA - The Peters Street branch of Fulton National Bank is robbed, reportedly by the Black Liberation Army.

November 3. Atlanta, GA - Officer James Richard Greene is shot in a paddywagon; the scene of the shooting is 3 miles from a residence used by the Black Liberation Army, this organization believed responsible for the shooting.

December 12. Atlanta, GA - Three reported Black Liberation Army members and two other prisoners escape from the DeKalb County jail.

December 21. Atlanta, GA - New York City - Two police notice suspicious car near Bankers Trust Company in Queens; when they approach the car, it speeds away, after individuals in the car roll a grenade towards the police car; the grenade explodes, causing considerable damage towards the police car, and injuring the policemen; two suspects are identified as Black Liberation Army members.

December 31. Brooklyn, NY - BLA members engage in a shoot- out with a rival group in the offices of Youth in Action.

December 31. Odessa, Fla. - BLA member is killed in a shoot-out with FBI.

PART II: Listing of Justice Department Report on BLA Activity from January, 1972 - January, 1976