It Could Happen Here - The Story of Kuwasi Balagoon Part 2 ft. Andrew

Episode Date: August 17, 2022

Andrew finishes off his 2 part series on Kuwasi Balagoon with the formation of the Black Liberation Army, Balagoon's anarchism, and his tragic death in prison.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hey, you've been doing all that talking. It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Welcome to It Could Happen Here. I'm Andrew of the YouTube channel Andrewism, and I'm here with... YouTube channel and Rizzo and I'm here with. Oh, it's me. It's Christopher.

Yeah, we're doing what we're doing. Another episode of me and Andrew. We've seized the pod once again. It is too early in the morning for anyone else to be here. This gives us ultimate power by too early in the morning. By the way, it's it's 11 pacific time but yeah there is no prayer of anyone else being around for this

so we are now in control here mwahaha yes we're doing the maniacal laughs we're doing the podcast we're doing the maniacal laughs. We're doing the podcast. We're doing the podcast. Welcome.

Welcome. We want to finish the story, the soldier's story, that is Kuasi Balagoon's life and legacy, where we last left off as part of the New York City Panther 21 trials. Kuasi was put in jail. At the same time, he was also developing his political identity, in a way,

and recognizing some of the issues he was having with the Black Panther Party, and particularly after the East Coast-West Coast split that occurred. Kwasi, as we covered last time, was born Donald Reams, but took on the identity of Kwasi Balogun due to his recognition of his African-ness, of his self, through his experience in the army, through his experience in London connecting with the Black Diaspora, and through his connections with the Yoruba Temple.

And so Balagoon, alongside that personal recognition and political recognition of his anti-authoritarian politics, also comes to see himself as someone who is at war with the state and as such once in jail he sees himself as a political prisoner as a prisoner of war while in prison the panther 21 were incarcerated in a variety of jails in different boroughs of new york city but balagoon lumumba shakur and another defendant kwando kinshasa they were all incarcerated at the queen's house of detention and they organized an uprising that took seven hostages including a captain five correctional officers and a black cook holding them from october 1st to 5th 1970 the slogan of the multi-ethnic takeover which by the way is pretty unheard of in prisons where black latino and white inmates come together um their slogan was all power to the people

free all oppressed people and so their primary demand was for speedier trials and in this process balgun again developing his anti-authoritarian politics slowly you know crewing towards what he would come to define himself as decided not to play a vanguard role in this decision-making process in this uprising even before he formally declared his commitment to anti-authoritarian politics his primary concern was consensus for all inmates in decision making including access to food being brought from the outside and so that sort of consensus process also helped build you know his identity the prisoners they formed committees to coordinate the uprisings, and they agreed to release two hostages,

the black cook and one of the prison guards, as a sign of good faith. Eventually, they had to release all the hostages, and they also suffered abuse and charges from the uprising. It was sort of a failure. But Quasi didn't see it that way. While he was disappointed by the outcome, he believed that the power the inmates felt by holding the state at bay for that you know limited moment was a valuable experience it was a learning

experience as an organizer he saw the uprising as growing pains to those who believed that oppressed people would rise up and seek justice so as we can see that even with losses, there are lessons to be learned. And this isn't unique to just this one moment in history. In fact, we can apply it to more recent events, such as with the George Floyd uprisings of 2020. It's easy to be nihilistic, no, nihilistic, probably isn't the best. You should seem cynical and say that oh well the uprising was a failure millions of people got up and protested and nothing came out of it really and yet that in combination with the coronavirus pandemic brought people together to establish programs of mutual aid to get involved in organizations in their local situation to

connect with people to radicalize themselves and radicalize others it was not a loss you know yeah i mean i think there's there's an extent to which even if it's extremely hard to tell in the moment there's there's this way in which like participating something like that just sort of permanently changes you and and i think i think also in the sort of context of the prison uprisings right like this is like this is by no means like the last prison uprising that's going to happen in this era and so i think like i don't know i it seems like one of those moments where it's like in in moment it's like, oh, we failed, things look bad. But like when in this sort of like broader historical sweep, it's like, no, this was like an early uprising in a period that is going to be sort of like. An early domino.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's something that can be really hard to like, like, especially especially in the moment it can be really hard to sort of like see that because it's really easy to sort of like look narrowly at what your one struggle is doing and then you know but yeah if you have this sort of like you know if you have the ability to see back through history, you can watch how stuff like this just has this massive effect on consciousness in a way that the people in it even have a hard time seeing.

Yeah. And that's why I'm emphasizing the first part. It's really important to develop this perspective and to study our history, you know, our radical history. So we could learn, we could both, you know, put things into focus, into perspective and also look at the specifics of how things played out.

So after Balgwin's experience in the Panther Party and the repression of the New York chapter, he realized that the party was being turned away from its grassroots organizing of the black masses and the issues that affected them most, the daily survival, the housing, the education, police abuse. He realized the state was using its incarceration system as a tactic by rounding up these organizers by infiltrating the party by charging people these high bills and such it turned the party focus away from liberation to fundraising for legal defense and so he realized he could not continue the fight could not continue on this front that he needed to survive and contribute underground to build a black liberation army as a clandestine freedom fighter.

As you may recall from the previous episode, Balgun was severed from the case of 13 of those who had been arrested originally to face charges in New Jersey, and after the acquittal of most of his comrades, Balogun pleaded guilty to the charge that he and an unidentified person did attempt to shoot police officers, making him the only one of the 21 original defendants to be convicted. However, on September 12, 1973, Balogun would escape from New Jersey's Rauway Prison shortly after his conviction for armed robbery in New Jersey. And then eight months after his escape on May 5th, 1974, he was again captured, trying to assist a fellow Panther Party member and defendant, Richard Harris, from escaping custody. They were both apprehended after being wounded in a gun battle with correctional and police officers and so what i find interesting about that he risked being recaptured so he could free harris

and that's solidarity right there he was so willing to sacrifice himself to help his comrades yeah that's admirable level of commitment. And even though he was imprisoned and was disillusioned with the Panther Party, it never discouraged his involvement or commitment to revolution. While incarcerated, he began to explore anarchist politics. He received and studied literature from solidarity groups like the Anarchist Black Cross, which is an anti-authoritarian organization that provides material and legal support to political prisoners. And I remember when I was reading this. I recognized that name.

Anarchist Black Cross. The ABC. I know that because they also helped Lorenzo Kimball Irvin to be released from jail. They also provided him materials when he was incarcerated. And so, kudos to them for that, you know, helping to connect these people and connect these ideas. Yeah, and the Anarchist Black Cross, if I'm remembering my history right,

like has a really, really long history of doing this, going back to like, I mean, I know they were negotiating like the releases of like political prisoners of the Bolsheviks well damn I didn't know they went that far I'm pretty sure

yeah if I'm remembering and that just goes to show you might not see yourself as doing anything that meaningful or just sending books to prisoners. In reality, you're building foundations. And the people who you influence can go on to influence so many more.

So many others. So anarchism ended up providing Balagoon with a great analytical lens to sum up his critique of his experiences in the Panther Party. When he looked at the works of Emma Goldman and others and applied them to the Black Liberation struggle, he began to ask questions about how his comrades were going about revolution, how by allowing these hierarchies to develop in their organizations they weakened their resolve in their fighting capacity

it's like as he says um the cadre accepted their command regardless of what their intellect had or had not made clear to them. The true democratic process, which they were willing to die for, for the sake of their children, they would not claim for themselves. And so what Balagood wanted was a democratic process that would be established from today. Not that you would have a certain system now

and then you would wait until after the revolution to set up a different system. It's like that whole connection of means and ends that, you know, anarchists keep going on about. Yeah. You realize that they needed this democratic process to unleash their revolutionary potential in the masses and not make them prey to new oppressors.

The only way to make a dictatorship of the proletariat is to elevate everyone, to deflate all the advantages of power. And only an anarchist revolution has that on its agenda. One of his inspirations was a fellow clandestine freedom fighter, that being Italian anarchist, Enrico Malatesta, who exhorted that revolutionary struggle consists more of deeds than words.

You've got a lot of different political figures and radical anarchists, but especially those involved in insurrection, especially those like Errico Malatesta, who is also one of my personal favorites. So when reading that, I found that to be a fun connection. Yeah, he's so cool. so cool yeah yeah he really is i see why um why zoe baker likes him so much yeah

another influence of his was the spanish revolutionary jose buenaventura dorotee dumas who organized the anarchist guerrilla movement Los Justeros, the Avenging Ones. Like their name, Los Justiceros, were thought to be involved in political assassinations against repression and guerrilla raids on the military forces of the Spanish dictatorship. So people like Italian exiles Severino di Giovanni and other anarchists like Sacco and Vanzetti. So Giovanni was known for his campaign of bombing as armed propaganda in solidarity with executed anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. Durruti and Giovanni both engage in expropriation of capitalist institutions as a means of supporting the revolutionary movement. And keep that point in mind, expropriation of capitalist institutions.

To quote Mickey Mouse, it's a surprise tool that'll help us later. All right? Another influence was, of course, Emma Goldman, who was another advocate of revolutionary armed struggle, who supported her comrade Alexander Berkman to assassinate a wealthy industrialist who believed in free love

which really resonated with balagoon because i'm not sure if i've mentioned it in the previous part or not but balagoon was an openly bisexual man in the 1970s, 1960s, 1970s. And so that commitment to free love that Emma Goldman had really resonates with him. Balgun also recognized and continues to recognize that black people in the United States were an internal colony of the U.S. And so the black liberation struggle as a national liberation movement. So he began to identify with the New African independence movement. The provisional government of the Republic of New Africa, the PGRNA, was founded in 1968, March 1968, at a conference of 500 black nationalists who declared their

independence from the U.S. and demanded five states in the Deep South, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, as reparations for the enslavement and racial oppression of black people. New Africa was designated the name of this new free nation. And at this time, Balogun began to ideologically unite the political objective of the PGRNA for independence and took on new African as his national identity as he says the US has no right to confine new African people to redlined reservations and that we have a right to live on our own terms on a common land, and to govern ourselves free of occupational forces such as the

police, National Guard, or GIs that have invaded our colonies from time to time. We have a right to control our own economy, print our own money, trade with other nations. We have a right to control our educational institutions and systems where children will not be indoctrinated by aliens to suffer the destructive designs of the US government. His position for black self-determination was also combined with an anti-capitalist perspective. The new Africans would enter a workforce where they're not excluded by design and where the wages are not controlled by the ruling class and Sonorum,

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Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So I think this distinct self-expression is very important because it was a key aspect of his political journey and how he saw himself um the afrofuturist abolitionists of the americas which is a black anarchic radical collective based in the u.s um they coined the term, I believe, black anarchic radical in order to group and account for the different anarchic identities that black people have identified as. So you have Anakatas, you have black anarchists, you have new African anarchistsists and then people who just go by bars and so at this time i think um as a new african anarchist palgun was definitely ideologically set apart from the black marxist leninists and revolutionary nationalists at the

time who wanted to seize state power for the from the white power structure the u.s and he still desired you know a land for black people to achieve self-determination even who wanted to seize state power from the white power structure of the US. And he still desired a land for black people to achieve self-determination, even as an anarchist. He wanted a space for black people to build a society based on anti-authoritarianism and freedom. I believe he was really unique at that time in that regard. Like other bars, he also recognized the importance of national liberation, like Ashanti Alston.

He began to recruit soldiers for the Black Liberation Army and converts of anti-authoritarian and New African politics. While in Trenton State Prison in New Jersey, he formed a political study group with Black Liberation Army members and Black Panther Party members and started to shift their perspectives on anti-authoritarian politics. And so that political education behind bars became the main vehicle of recruitment into the BLA.

behind bars became the main vehicle of recruitment into the BLA. Another member of the BLA was Ojorie Mutalo, another fairly, I would say, somewhat obscure, but still iconic, Black anarchist. And when he was providing his testimony concerning Balagoon's influence on his transition from Marxist-Leninism to anti-authoritarian thinking, he said, In 1975, I became disillusioned with Marxism and became an anarchist, thanks to Kwasi Balagoon, due to the inactiveness and ineffectiveness of Marxist-Leninism in our communities, along with the repressive bureaucracy that came with it. People are not going to commit themselves to a life and death struggle just because of grand ideas someone might have floating around their heads. I feel people will commit themselves to

a struggle if they can see progress being made similar to the progress of anarchist collectors in Spain during the era of the fascists. Like his teacher and comrade, Udoro Lutalo identified himself as a new African anarchist prisoner of war. Falgun would escape again from Rahway State Prison in New Jersey on May 27, 1978 and rejoin a clandestine network of BLA soldiers in alliance with white radicals in solidarity with the Black Liberation Movement. This ideologically diverse network of insurgent militants were known as the Revolutionary Armed Task Force, or RATF.

And so it was a strategic alliance under the leadership of the Black Liberation Army that consisted of people of all sorts of different identities. You had Muslims and revolutionary nationalists and anti-imperialists and communists. And Paolo Agun was one of the few, if not the only anarchist in this whole organization. And so even though he was critical of Marxism and nationalism, he decided to join the comrades he loved and trusted in a common front against white supremacy, capitalism, and imperialism. Me personally, and I have a video on my YouTube channel about it, I am not a left unity advocate, never have been.

However, like I say in the video, there's still solidarity to be had on certain topics and certain issues. And an important aspect, an important component of solidarity is trust. And Tobalcoon clearly had trust in these comrades in order to work with them. You know, it can't just be this broad sweeping thing. You see, oh, well, unity, solidarity, unity, unity solidarity and there's nothing to back it up there's no sort of connections or bonds to show for it and of course he did have you know political friction while in the rt ratf his comrades he saw his comrades as a bit rigid a

bit too rigid in their views while he considered himself a free spirit and his comrades despite the ideological differences and his sexual orientation still respected him because of his commitment to revolutionary struggle because of his history of sacrifices and so the black liberation army and the ratf continue to carry out the clandestine work of arms propaganda of expropriations of resources for capitalist financial institutions, of resisting comrades and escaping from incarceration.

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Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

New episodes every Thursday. Hola mi gente, it's Honey German and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing

their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week we'll explore everything, from music and pop culture, to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, El Te Caliente, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries.

Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. At this time, there was an increase in white supremacist paramilitary activity,

including the Ku Klux Klan, including the KKK. And so the RATF as an alliance helped the whites in that organization help to gather intelligence on these right-wing white supremacist activities and their connections with the U.S. military, while they also engaged in expropriations to obtain resources so they could build the capacity to resist the white supremacist groups

because these violent acts that the KKK and these other right-wing groups were doing in the late 1970s and early 1980s they were murdering black children, black youth in Atlanta black women in Boston and in Alabama. And so they were committed and organized in doing something about it. Militant commitment to doing something about it.

The RATF also were involved with the escape of Assata Shakur, one of the most iconic of the Panthers, and also the attempted Brinks expropriation in Nyack, New York. Shakur was wounded and paralyzed from a shootout that they had with the New Jersey State Troopers and had to escape the scene. And as someone considered. The soul of the BLA. By the FBI. Her capture was seen as. A very significant event. And.

Even though she never fired a gun. Even though she was paralyzed. She was convicted for the murder. Of two state troopers. Who were killed in the shootout. And so she was sentenced to life plus 65 years. However, Odinga, Balagoon, and two white allies as a armed group facilitated the escape of Shakur

from Clinton Correctional Institution for Women in New Jersey on November 2nd, 1979. And I believe she's still in Cuba to this day. At the same time, the Black Liberation Army was also trying to expropriate $1.6 million from a Brinks-armed truck in New York City on October 20th, 1981. And in the exchange of fire that resulted from that attempt, one Brink security guard and two police officers were killed, and three white radicals and one black man were also captured. Eventually, although he was laying low in New York City in a Manhattan apartmentattan apartment the joint terrorist task force did eventually apprehend balagoon and so once again he found

himself in prison but they did manage to successfully expropriate some funds from financial institutions going back to 1976. And those funds that they were able to take were utilized to support the development of an underground infrastructure, to support families of political prisoners, to support political activities and institutions for the Black Liberation Movement, and general freedom struggles on the African continent. That is solidarity. After his capture as a new African anarchist prisoner of war for the third time, Gwasi spoke out to the movement for the first time, again identifying himself as a new African anarchist.

He spoke to the public about his politics and wanted to make his attentions clear he acted as his own attorney in the rockland county trial where he was charged with the armed robbery and the murders of the brinks guard and police officers and so he wanted to make an opening statement and so it went as follows i am a prisoner of war I reject the crap about me being a defendant and I do not recognize the legitimacy of this court. The term defendant applies to someone involved in a criminal matter. It is clear that I've been a part of the Black Liberation Movement all of my adult life and I've been involved in a war against the American imperialist in order to free new African people from its yoke. He wanted it acknowledged that his armed actions were

politically motivated to win national liberation to eliminate capitalism imperialism and ultimately authoritarian forms of government and of course he was sentenced to life imprisonment yet he continued to speak to new african and Liberation Forces and to anarchist gatherings through public statements. He advocated continuously for the building of an insurgent movement, a building of autonomous communities. At a Harlem rally for the imprisoned New African freedom fighters, his statement was read, that we must build a revolutionary political platform

and a universal network of survivor programs. In another statement, he said, where we live and work, we must organize on the ground level. The landlords must be contested through rent strikes. And rather than develop strategies to pay rent, we should develop strategies to take the buildings, set up communes in abandoned buildings, turn vacant lots into gardens. When our children grow out of clothes, we should have places we can take them. Clearly marked anarchist clothing exchanges. We must learn construction

and ways to take back our lives. He wanted to challenge people to move from a theory into practice, to define anarchy in the real world, to show the masses models of delivering war to the oppressors and of building a better way of life unfortunately although he struggled long in prison and continuously advocated for the black liberation movement for the anarchist movement he died in prison on december 13 1986 due to

complications related to AIDS. So although he's not in mainstream discourse, he's still recognized and respected in some Black, New African anarchist and queer anarchist spaces because of his efforts in that time, because of his self-identity in that time. I spoke about him briefly in my video on black anarchism and the research for that video is how i discovered him in the first place and i was surprised that he wasn't spoken about so much considering his influence and his efforts

and his she was almost like and I hate to do this to history to do this kind of great man things history but Devon was like a main character you know like

he was there for the New York Panther 21 trials he was like dropping rats in Congress he was facilitating the escape of Assata Shakur

for crying out loud he did so much in his short burst of freedom. And I can't help but respect that. He stood out most places he went. And I can't help but admire that. In 2005, the Malcolm X grassroots movement, which is a new African activist organization, declared its annual Black Orca celebration dedicated to Kwasi Palakun. And in that celebration, they also highlighted the need for awareness of the AIDS virus in Africa and among the African diaspora. A couple of radical hip-hop artists such as

Dead Prez and Said Malik have also mentioned Balogun's name but his name is still not commonly used enough. Not as much as other black revolutionaries like Huey and Shakur and Mutulu Shakur.

Anarchist collectives have also recognized him, have republished his works, have put his writings in newsletters and his trial statements and tributes. And yet, he's still not well recognized. The Quebec collectiveective Solidarity issued a collected works of Falgun's trial statements, essays, poetry, and acknowledgements from comrades titled A Soldier's Story, which you can find in the Anarchist Library. And in fact, that soldier's story is where I drew from for the script for this two-part podcast episode. not even to mention his sexual identity being a vehicle to challenge homophobia within the broader Black Liberation Movement because he showed himself to be committed to the cause and he exposed people who may not have otherwise been exposed to it.

You know, the validity and the humanity in our queer comrades. He will forever remain remembered and saluted by certain revolutionary nationalists radical anarchists and queer liberation forces he'll forever be seen to me as an iconic maroon and i can only hope that this podcast helps his legacy to live on and encourages and motivates and strengthens the resolve of people to organize oppressed people to build a revolutionary program to challenge capitalism to challenge racism wherever they find themselves no matter their circumstances and that's about it this has This has been a soldier's story, the life and legacy of Kwasi Balogun. I'm your guest host for this episode of It Could Happen Here, Andrew of the YouTube channel Andrewism. You can find me on youtube.com slash Andrewism, on patreon.com slash stdrew, and on twitter.com slash underscore stdrew.

Yeah, this has been It Can Happen Here. You can find us at HappenHerePod on Twitter and Instagram. There's other Cool Zone stuff. You can find that too. And yeah, dedicate your life to overthrowing capitalism and imperialism. All power to all the people. Peace.

It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com

slash sources. Thanks for listening. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow Broth. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of rife. An anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast,

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