Seize the Time - Bobby Seale (1970)
I devoured this book, I read it in about two days. As someone who, I'm ashamed to say, knew only the barest of bones about the Black Panther Party, this was incredibly compelling. Thank you to @plutospromise17 for recommending it to me to read, as well as Elaine Brown's A Taste of Power, which I'm reading currently. I'm already appreciating how reading the two of them in succession highlights the poignancy and relevance of both. In a conversational style, Bobby Seale goes into detail about the founding of the Black Panther Party in Oakland in 1966, leading into the experiences and current goals, as well as the trials and tribulations, of the party.
Brief note, I am a sucker for a guy who is nice to kids. I really enjoyed reading Bobby's account of his time as a foreman in the anti-poverty program in Oakland in the summer of 1966.
As someone who knew next to nothing about the Black Panther Party, I appreciated Bobby's inclusion of the 10 point program, which I was really impressed by. I really had no idea how socialist the BPP was, so that was pleasantly surprising. Seale presents the party from a very appealing, very reasonable position, maybe even a bit too much. But I got a kick out of him calling Charles Garry the Lenin of the courtroom. Something that struck me was how completely centered this book was around Huey P. Newton. I don't know if that's because of the Free Huey campaign at the time of writing, or if that was Seale's true feeling at the time, and it could very well be a mix of both.
Reading the latter half of this book, the part composed in Cook County Jail, is very interesting compared to Jerry Rubin's diary of the same time, composed in the same place, during the three-week imprisonment that Rubin experienced. It's sad, thinking about Bobby saying Jerry is the most politically conscious of the White radicals he's met at the trial, because a few years later Jerry would be leading the yuppie trend. Compelling, really, when you realize that Rubin would loop Seale into an mlm shortly before the former's death in 1994. I personally think that Abbie Hoffman was more radical and committed to leftist ideals at the end of the day, though I will concede that he did not really convey that very well at the time.
I was a bit of a fan of Bobby Seale harping on the cultural nationalists, particularly from the perspective of them being armchair revolutionaries who just sit around and discuss things and never do anything. I know that this got quite serious later on, with the deaths of Bunchy Carter and John Huggins, but it was fun and funny and relatable. It was in these parts of the book that I could see the comedian come out.
As a call to action, I think this book takes a while to get going and really only lands in the latter half. As a memoir and one of the first histories of the Black Panther Party, I think this is a piece of writing that at least appears vulnerable and honest, and was undeniably written in a very difficult time for Seale.
One criticism I have is how the first part of the book (and lesser parts throughout) seems to glorify Huey Newton's physical violence. I thought at first that I might just be being too sensitive, and insensitive to Newton's experiences in Oakland, but having started A Taste of Power, I can pretty confidently say that I don't Love how often Seale returns to this image of Newton as supreme being of violence and reason, for all he decries the Superman figure.
Quotes that I want to muse on and not spend too much time organizing and rewording:
"Late in November 1966, we went to a Third World brother we knew, a Japanese radical cat." - honestly I am really itching to know more about radical Japanese activists (be they socialist, anarchist, etc) and I haven't found any books about them yet. A few mentions in Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris, and I think a featured Wikipedia article recently that I forgot to save. So if anyone has any recommendations or knows any place to look, I would greatly appreciate some guidance.
Apparently "Japanese radical cat" is Richard Aoki and according to Seth Rosenfeld in the San Francisco Chronicle from a FOIA request, it was revealed posthumously that he was an FBI informant against the BPP as well as other organizations he had previously been a part of, namely the CP and SWP. Rosenfeld interviewed Aoki's handler, and most of his information comes from that interview and the FOIA documents from the FBI. It seems no one in the BPP or otherwise knew he was an informant, and the information only came out after his death, so take that as you will.
"It's obvious that trying to fight fire with fire means there's going to be a lot of burning. The best way to fight fire is with water because water douses the fire. The water is the solidarity of the people's right to defend themselves together in opposition to a vicious monster. Whatever is good for the man, can't be good for us. Whatever is good for the capitalistic ruling-class system, can't be good for the masses of the people." - what can I say, this is just a good quote. Go off Bobby Seale. Right on, etc
I mentioned before I wasn't very familiar with the 10 point program, but throughout the course of this book I became a big fan of the phrase "decadent American society" and all of the alternatives Seale uses. It's just a very nice turn of phrase, and accurate!
"He would explain many times that if a black businessman is charging you the same prices or higher, even higher prices than exploiting white businessmen, then he himself ain't nothing but an exploiter." - I have absolutely no qualms with the statement of course, and I like that Seale was thinking this in 1968-1970 because so much of representation now in business is supposed to be the pinnacle of equality, and of course it's not, and I've met a lot of people who think that just because they're a member of an oppressed group and own a business, it is some grand resistance. It's not. Also, I want to like Huey P. Newton so much, and I was pretty convinced by the end of this book, violent posturing aside, but having started A Taste of Power, I will be reserving my judgement for later.
Would I want a physical copy of this book? Yes! I don't know if I would read it again in full, but there's some good points and quotes in here, and I'm always looking to expand my bookshelf. Note: I was using a shitty pdf for the first section of this book, which made me think there's only 200-odd pages in this book. Imagine my surprise when I looked to see if it was on Internet Archive and found out it has 450 pages! Anyway, it's on Internet Archive to borrow if your library or local bookstore doesn't have it.
