Rev Left Radio - Huey P. Newton Gun Club - Alpha Company: Self-Defense and Community Organizing

Episode Date: November 10, 2019

On today's show, Breht talks with Yafeuh Balogun and Steven from the Huey P Newton Gun Club - Alpha Company about their organizing, armed self-defense, police brutality, the theory of intercommunalism, anti-fascism, survivalism, and much more!  Check out, learn about, and support the Huey P. Newton Gun Club here: https://hueypnewtongunclub.org/ Outro Music: 'Sharp Shooters' by Talib Kweli & Dead Prez Check out Talib's music and podcast here: www.talibkweli.com/ Check out Dead Prez here: www.deadprezblog.wordpress.com/blog/ ------- LEARN MORE ABOUT REV LEFT RADIO: https://www.revolutionaryleftradio.com/ SUPPORT REV LEFT RADIO: www.patreon.com/revleftradio Our logo was made by BARB, a communist graphic design collective: @Barbaradical Intro music by DJ Captain Planet. --------------- This podcast is affiliated with: The Nebraska Left Coalition, Omaha Tenants United, Socialist Rifle Association (SRA), Feed The People - Omaha, and the Marxist Center.

Hello everybody and welcome back to Revolutionary Left Radio. Today we have a special episode for you. We have Yafel Balagoon and Stephen from the Huey P. Newton Gun Club Alpha Company on the show to talk about their organization, some of the programs they run, their influences, intercommunalism as a theory, and fascism, the election in 2020, and much more. really great conversation. It's long overdue. I've wanted to talk to these comrades for a very long time, so I'm happy that we could finally do it. And just at the end, when we really get into strategies from moving forward, they make a point to say, you know, coordination is so important coordination regionally, coordination nationally between armed left groups, but just left groups

broadly even, to have that coordination, those connections are incredibly important. And they also wanted me to mention because I don't think we got to it in the episode itself. They just wanted to clear up any confusion that the Huey P. Newton Gun Club Alpha Company is not just for one race, right? They want to push back on any notions of separatism or more black supremacism, and they want to reiterate this fact that they, you know, are proletarian internationalists, and they're down to work with anybody who is principled and wants to work with them. That is the primary reason that we formed the Alpha Company was to, A, move away from the separatism and the nationalism, and move more towards intercommunalism.

but also we wanted to make sure that people know that this is an open organization as far as membership's concerned. It doesn't matter about race or ethnicity, orientation, identity, or any of those things. If you believe in organizing and revolution, then we welcome you as a member. So with all of that said, let's get into this wonderful conversation with the Hewee P Newton Gun Club Alpha Company on their organization, their theory, and the future. Enjoy. I am Yaffeo Balagoon. I am the co-founder of the Huey P. Newton Gun Club. An organization, there's a coalition of individuals around a country that is organized to make self-defense a priority, make self-defense a conversation, make self-defense active in the communities.

Black, brown, poor community. across America, make self-defense to the point to where we're able to defend ourselves and put forth, I struggle against terrorism. My name is Stephen. I am an original ally of the UEP Newton Gun Club, a community organizer, originally from Dallas, Texas. Awesome. Well, you know, it's really a pleasure to have both of you on.

I've wanted to talk to this organization for a long time. It's an organization that has been around. You know, I'm involved with the SRA. certainly the Huey P. Newton Gun Club is sort of in that area of left-wing organizing, so it's absolute honor to have you both on to talk about this. I guess the initial question would just maybe be talking about what the Huey P. Newton Gun Club is and maybe the reasons for why and also how it was originally founded. Excellent. So again, I'm the co-founder of the Hewupon Gun Club, and here in the city of Dallas, there was a fighting struggle that had been going on prior to that

for a few years. Locally, it was a movement against police brutality, and, of course, around the country, there has been a conversation as well. We initially started on her about 2010, organizing locally. When we began to do that, we began to initially deal with reforms. And then we come to understand that reforms, of course, wasn't the total solution that we needed to make the move in more militant. And so with doing that, myself, Rakim Balagoon, of course, who later became the black identity extremist and other individuals got together and created the formation known as the Huey P. Newton Gun Club.

And, of course, as Stephen has been an ally since its inception, helped, of course, along the way throughout that process. And so we decided prior to the murder of Mike Brown on August 9th, 2014, that we was going to do an armed demonstration in South Dallas. Now, the news, of course, are those reporting and getting incorrect. A lot of people say that we made our first demonstration around the murder of James Harper, which took place in 2012. But that's incorrect. We just decided, hey, we're going to get together, which I ultimately decided the date. the route and how we were ultimately going to do it, to go down Martin Luther King Boulevard and Malcolm X Boulevard, which is predominantly in African-American community, and we were going to make

our stance. But what the HUP Union Gun Club again was formed around was police brutality, and that has been around the organization since its inception, and that's where we started from. Yeah, definitely. I can speak a little bit to that as well. You know, in Dallas, there's a long history of police brutality and a lack of police accountability. And there was an organization that I co-founded called Dallas Communities Organizing for Change. Initially, it was a coalition of other organizations that were focused on racial justice and economic equality in the city. But our primary focus was racial justice and police brutality. We conducted research on 10 years of data, found that there was a bias in the use of excessive force by the Dallas

Police Department. Based on that report, we drafted a Department of Justice Civil Rights complaint that we issued to the DOJ asking or demanding that the Dallas Police Department be placed under a consent decree. And part of the process with the founding and the creation of the TEP Newton Gun Club was that it worked in collaboration with the research and the other community organizing that we were doing more on like a reformist level. That collaboration I think really showed itself on, I can't remember the exact day, but it was in like 2013, 2014, when the UEP Newton Gun Club delivered the Department of Justice Civil Rights Complaint to the oral cable federal building in downtown Dallas. That was an armed demonstration. We basically delivered the

report to them at gunpoint, so to speak. And we wanted to do. to make sure that the new our concerns. Of course, that didn't change the way that the Dallas Police Department worked at all. But I thought that's important. Yeah, well, I remember seeing those images of that first really mobilization. And, you know, we were definitely very supportive of it and happy to see it. So I'm happy we'll finally be talking about the details that went on behind it. I did mention the fact that I'm in the SRA.

And I was just sort of curious, like, what's the difference between, you know, your organization and groups? like the SRA or even the National African-American Gun Association and other similar gun-focused or firearms education-focused organizations? How are you fundamentally different from those other ones? There are several differences. You know, we've been in communication with the SRA on a couple different proposed efforts. Not so much with the National African-American Gun Association, but we are in contact with many of the other armed left groups. But I think the main difference between, well, there's probably a couple of main differences, but the primary difference between the Huey P. Newton Gun Club Alpha Company and the Socialist Rifle Association is that

the SRA focuses specifically on gun education and training, going to the range, you know, safety procedures, types of weapons, things of that nature. We have been told by their leadership that they do not engage in armed protest. They do not conduct armed community patrols. They do not participate in any type of demonstrations or protests under the name Socialist Rifle Association. And so that's a primary difference. I think largely, at least from my experiences, is that we have taken our theory and more or less put into practice. Now, this is not to say, there's a difference between any of the other organization. But one thing I would say is that we have been willing to use our weapons as political tools,

weapons as political tools to organize massive people. So in saying that, of course, the weapon is a self-defense mechanism. We understand and we know that. But surprisingly, when you walk down South Dallas, as we did our first demonstration on August 20 of 2014, people are not afraid. People, it starts conversations. People begin to want to talk and have dialogue about these weapons. And then from the weapons, it goes to other things.

Then they start talking about social issues and things of nature. You can only imagine the type of conversations you can have just based upon having a weapon in your hand and the community is in support. And so I would say that we have taken a very much so grassroots approach to the whole conversation around self-defense, to the whole conversation around revolution, to the whole conversation around revolution, to the whole conversation around bringing forth the ideas to a community that historically don't have those types of conversations that don't have the platform. And the one way that we have been able to do that, of course, is with the weapon. And that's the power of the weapon. It's the power of the gun.

And so that's what makes the Huey P. Newton Gun Club powerful. However, that's what makes the Huey P. Newton Gun Club alpha, even more powerful, more so because of the political ideology, which is very much so relatable to the people. Yeah. And that level of mass support, even when I see pictures of like your marches, armed marches, the people broader in the community just walking by seem to constantly have this sense of support for your organization. And that's really foundational for any left movement, but it also harkens back to the original Black Panther Party who really started their organization doing similar things where they would, you know, follow police in their communities, making sure they didn't brutalize the members of that community. And by so doing earned the respect. of the community overall, and that was one of the big strengths of the Black Panther Party. So obviously the organization is called the Hewee P. Newton Gun Club, so that is obviously an inspiration. But what other historical Black liberation and left-wing movements are you guys particularly influenced by, and how does that shape your organization?

So let me ask something there. So of course, you know, the Hewip Newton Gun Club, of course, I'm a co-founder of that organization, which is really a co-founder. of a number of different organizations and groups, such as guerrilla mainframe, which really led to the overall formation of the group. Now, of course, we have created a more politically acute organization, a political acute aspect to the group, which is through the Alpha Company. And, of course, the one thing that I think is an inspiration to us, as you've mentioned it, two times already, of course, is the Black Panther Party, which is the Black Panther Party, which really founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seill.

And Huey P. Newton is important. The reason why I chose the name Huey P. Newton, because I realized that Huey P. Newton had a very much so a worldly view, if you will, of what was going on with oppression, what was going on with the enslavement of people around the world. So that's why the name Huey P. Newton was chosen. But aside from that, of course, you know, the Black Liberation Army, of course, is definitely an influence. the weather underground is an influence. May 19th movement, of course, is an influence.

And, of course, a number of international struggles that's going on around the world, went around the world in various particular times, of course, influenced the politics. It's very important, I think, that we use the type of politics that people can relate to. And so that's been our biggest thing in terms of developing alpha company. That's the been our biggest thing in terms of organizing, is that we always want to relate to the people and have the conversation. Even if this comes to the point of whereas we have to try to bring forth some contradictions and contradictions are brought out, that's our whole point. Even if there's a disagreement, we'll disagree and keep moving forward because we can relate to people on common ground.

And so that's what made revolutionary organizations prior to us historically successful is that they were able to do that. And, of course, the Black Panther Party is an inspiration. The Deacons for Defense is an inspiration. A number of different organizations has been an inspiration. and we're just moving in their vein, I believe. Wonderful. Just to be clear then, just so I understand this, the Alpha Company is part of the Huey P. Newton Gun Club, but it's a specific sort of sub-branch.

Is that how you think about it? The Alpha Company is its own independent branch within itself that is developing around the ideas of Huey P. Newton, around the ideas intercommunalism, around the ideas of self-defense, around the ideas of bringing the politics to the people, bringing it to the world. bringing it to where the people can relate. And so oftentimes we, as revolutionaries, as organizers, oftentimes we can kind of lose our focus. And I think personally, the ideas of U.A.P. Newton is very much so relatable. The ideas that he put forth and others as well is very much so relatable to the people so much so

is that we have to really focus on those points, on the points of intercommunism, on the points that if someone doesn't have food, well, how do we get them food? If people don't have food, then how can they focus on revolution? How can they focus on the other things that we believe is important? So we try to keep it so much so relatable, but the alpha company within itself is its own independent formation to the degree that we are moving forward and we're pushing forth the ideas of HUPP Noon as a focal point. Interesting.

And then that leads perfect into this next question. which is to talk a little bit about Huey's theory of intercommunalism. So can you just talk about the fundamental concepts of that theory and maybe even if you want to, what makes it different from, say, like, more orthodox strains of Marxism or anarchism? Yeah, we can talk about that. So, you know, the Black Panther Party had a development

in the way that it thought in its ideology. And in 1970, Hugh P. Newton gave gave his speech in Boston and then a few others after that and in it he defined what intercommunalism meant to himself and it's it's been a development

but the basic idea is to him because of the nature of imperialism that the nation had ceased to exist you know you think back to 1970 and all the things that were going on then you know if he was thinking that the nation was not a thing then that it's it's definitely would not be a thing now but the idea of intercommunalism

is based in socialism it's based on the idea of the community as a unit the community as as a form of organization and during that time period in the 1960s and 70s there was like a obviously a large internationalist uh revolutionary globalist thought process that was going on and there was an effort by the party to be a part of that. Over time, UEP Duden kind of developed away from that. And he was trying to understand how do you build power in the United States or in other, you know, developed countries or undeveloped countries in the face of like this overwhelming imperialist capitalist power. And if you want to develop your own nation, which is where the Black Panther Party initially started out, and you have to be able to develop power, you have to be

able to have a force and all of these different things. But what he found was like it was difficult to do that. It was difficult to try to develop a nation within another existing nation. And so we reverted to this idea of communities as as the unit. And in the community, you know, there, there's power there. You can organize. You can actually build a foundation. That's kind of like the idea of like intercruinalism as like it's very basic notion.

Yeah, that's fascinating. That's just really interesting. I've never really dove deep into the theory of intercommunalism, but I can sort of get an outline of what that entails and how the community becomes the primary metric unit by which the movement can grow and expand. I definitely appreciate that. So during the 1960s and 70s, when Huey P. Newton introduced his idea of intercommunalism, it was during the internationalist, like Marxist, Leninist, movement. And he did introduce this idea of intercommunalism to move the Black Panther Party away and himself away from that movement. And the idea when you have like state socialism or you have internationalism or international socialism, it is a requirement that you think about it in terms of the state. And so when you take the state out of the equation, when you're thinking about socialism, then you end up with one of the three tenets, right? You end up with anarchism. And my personal belief is that in 1970, when Huey P. Newton introduced the idea of

intercommunalism that he had developed his theory and his analysis to the point to where he was basically making an announcement, even though it was understated at the time, that he no longer believe that state socialism or international socialism based on the idea of revolution by a state itself was the necessary form of revolution and that instead the requirement of what was needed is that you focused on the community on smaller geographic areas. Yeah, interesting, interesting. I can certainly, I can certainly see that. It's not, it's neither like anarchism nor Marxism, but some sort of like, yeah, more communal

focused libertarian communism or something. Yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah, I think it'd be closer to like a mutual aid or collectivist notion. but it still fits within obviously what the definition of what socialism is and it would follow kind of like that historical proposed timeline where you would get to communism and ultimately to anarchism as the human goal. Yeah, fascinating. So, okay, let's move in and talk about some big cases specifically from Dallas where the organization is sort of founded. And recently there have been two big cases of police murdering unarmament. black people. The first is the Amber Geiger murder trial in Dallas, and the second is the murder

of Atatiana Jefferson in Fort Worth, in which the pigs were called for a wellness check by a neighbor, as far as I understand, and upon a rival shot and killed a Tatiana through a window with no warning or reason. So can either of you talk about your organizing around these two recent cases specifically? Well, specifically around Atiana Jefferson, we've been on the ground since it's just the very beginning, since the day it happened. Personally, I know the father of Artiana Jefferson, Marquis Jefferson. I know him personally. He's a student aide, a teacher at a college here locally, and he's been a very much so an advocate for education. So I've been knowing him for years and years and years. But when the shooting first happened about Tiana

Jefferson in Fort Worth, we was there on the ground. We were there. with the community. We was, again, talking with the family of Atiana Jefferson and kind of getting the feeling of the hurt, the pain that one would feel when their loved one, their family member, is murdered unjustly. And of course, we began to organize. And with that being stated, because of our organizing, respect, or experiences, et cetera, there was a large demonstration that did take place, public demonstration that took place. And, of course, we were honored to provide armed security for the march that ultimately shut down Interstate 20 here in Fort Worth, which is a major highway.

And, of course, the people were basically just kind of letting their frustrations be known as far as the city government, as far as the community in general. And we was there, like I said, in this beginning. Since then, of course, I've still dialogue with Mr. Jeff. And, of course, you know, dealing with the families, of course, are not things that I typically like to do. But because I knew him personally and know him and respect him as an individual, I do want to say that I hate sort of the spillout that they came out of that, you know, around the murder. As far as the, you know, families kind of, you know, being in battled with each other, so to speak. But he's a strong man. He's a strong individual.

I want to support him. I want people around the country and around the world to know that Marquis Jefferson was a good father to Atiana Jefferson. And I want the world to know that he's a good man and need support. And we'll continue to organize as much as we can in Fort Worth wherever we needed to be. We would definitely do it. And so as a state that we was on the ground, provided an armed security, you know, basically letting the police know, hey, y'all move out the way we got this. We're practicing self-determination. And that's the thing about our processes, whether we're doing security or whether we're a public demonstration, is that we do not let the police control what we're doing.

We tell them, move out the way, and we'd rather not even talk to them and I are truthfully, be honest with me. We try to keep that to a minimum. But we were there, and we'll continue to organize and rat now as we speak. That's amazing. Awesome. So you were asking about the type of organizing that we did around the Amber Geiger case. In Dallas, there's been these high-profile shootings, like almost year after year or like every two years. And when Botham John was murdered by Anger Geiger, we had developed a system, like a response system on how to organize. And one of the things that it came out of that process is that we were trying to strengthen a police review board in the city of Dallas.

It's something that's got a lot of history in Dallas going back to the 70s and 80s, around 2010 and into 2014. We proposed strengthening that police review board through the passage of an ordinance that was also spoke about in the report. So whenever Botham John was shot, it was right in the middle of the community organizing and the political process in a city of Dallas where we were demanding that the police be held accountable, that we be able to conduct independent investigations by the community into murderous cops. And so when he was shot, it basically was a nail in the coffin to the white power structure in the city of Dallas. They really had no further arguments that could be made. It turned a public sentiment against the power structure in the city of Dallas. And it allowed us to pass the ordinance, which created the Office of Police Oversight,

which is going to be a city, you know, department with funding, with staff. It strengthened the police review board itself, various different ways. And so just to talk about that, we understand that, you know, as revolutionaries, that we would see things of this nature more as reformists or more as like incrementalists. But as part of the gun club, we do believe that you must meet people where they're at. And we feel like police oversight, police review boards are, ways that people can engage with the government structure initially as we help build the revolutionary consciousness. But after after that all happened, you know, Amber Geiger was found

guilty. We organized this thing. It was called a public performance review. And what we did is we invited members of the community to come to a meeting. And we basically had a list of questions. We issued them a survey. And it was all about police chief Renee Hall's performance. during the investigation of Amber Geiger. And what we found out was that basically everybody supported her resigning or us calling for her resignation. And so we did call for the police chief's resignation directly after the shooting. After the board was passed and the office of the police oversight was created, they held the very first meeting on October 8th of this year. During that meeting, the police chief commandeered the meeting.

They called in an extraction team to try to clear individual. including Youfeo and others who had worked to pass this ordinance. They called it an extraction team of police officers to a police review board meeting. The whole thing was caught on video. And it's ironic that at the very first meeting of the police review board, that the public would be subjected to unnecessary physical violence by the Dallas police chief, Renee Hall. And so because of that, we filed a complaint with the Office of Police Oversight,

which is the first complaint filed with their office against the police chief. Later that day, we held a press conference and demanded her resignation. All of it kind of stems out of the murder of Both the John by Amber Geiger. It's been a years-long process to get to this point. But it's a good example of what happens when you have dedicated community organizing with powerful consciousness and dedication. You can get structural changes, even though it's incremental and reform, it's not going to end up in a revolutionary act, but we think that it meets people where they're at, and it's a

good engagement point. Yeah. As I always say, anything that makes people safer, anything that increases the material well-being of working and poor and marginalized people is worth revolutionaries putting energy toward. These steps are not the ultimate, you know, endgame, but they're an essential path on that direction. So, you know, my hats are off to both of, both of you and your organization for really spearheading the communities fight against. against this unjust white supremacist Dallas Police Department and the white supremacist structures that it's embedded in. Beyond the ever-present issue of police brutality and just total unaccountability most times, can you talk about some of your other community organizing efforts

as well as maybe some of the programs that you've developed? Yes, most definitely. We created a group here in the Highland Hills community that was part and part of directing the community towards a more positive action, more positive interaction, if you will. more or less to defend against Fractorside. And so, of course, we've talked about police brutality, which we say really is a euphemism for police terrorism. But in addition to that, we deal with Fractricides. So we created a program called the Community Engagement Specialist.

And what the Community Engagement Specialist is, is that we go door-to-door in Highland Hills. Now, to understand Highland Hills, it's an organizing area here in the city of Dallas that we have been a part of for the last five years. And so organizations like guerrilla mainframe, organizations like Dallas communities organized for change, these groups have been proactive in organizing the Highland Hills.

And so with that being stated, we wanted to deal with Fratricide. So we've gone door to door. We've talked to the community about certain issues. We even initiated a armed patrol. And these armed patrols are not to intimidate people. In fact, I don't think nobody's intimidated, there are more weapons, if you will, in Highland Hills than what we have on our person. So with these patrols have created a kind of a feeling of comfort, if you will.

And I'm talking about a community that oftentimes you will hear gunshots throughout the night. And so when we heard gunshots throughout the night, we would go out and see exactly what's going on. So what I'm telling you is a program that's a day-to-day program. And so we are actually entrenched with the community. And so that's one primary program that I think that should be known is that, you know, which is potentially dangerous. And there have been times that we've actually been shot at, you know. And so we had to address their situation appropriately, if you will, and to make sure that the community, number one, has been safe. I can tell you that there have been people during the time that I've seen shots being fired in our direction.

And I had to protect other people that was around me and make sure that they didn't get shot and kind of telling, you know, which way. I felt that they should go at the time or take cover. And so these are the type of experiences that we've had in Highland Hills through the program known as the community engagement specialist. We've talked about it publicly, here locally, here in the media about some of our ideas around it. And the engagement, part of it is that we try to deter the practice side, but more importantly, we try to not get involved in the police department. We don't want the Dallas Police Department to be involved.

And some of the success that we have seen is when we looked at the stats, because we did our own records request, that at one particular time, this time last year, there were eight pages of criminal incidents that took place around this time last year. And here currently, we pulled those same records, and we've only had one page. And that's the number of police calls, that's armed robberies, that's aggravated assault with deadly weapons, that's murder, that's hourly above this, which you can think of before our so-called criminal activity, so to speak. So we've been successful, and we're in the process now of really helping the community more or less create this type of program, this type of engagement themselves, so that they can be successful. But I think that that's one of our primary focuses, like I said, has tried deter. And again, the weapon is using this process. And so, again, the weapon is a political tool to organize a mass of people in addition to a self-defense mechanism. Yeah, that's truly amazing.

really is the building up of community dual power. Like, you know, to rely on the police less and less and to have community forces come to the floor and try to deal with these situations instead of calling the trigger-happy cowardly pigs to come into a neighborhood and, you know, terrorize the people. You're taking it upon yourselves to go out and make sure your community's safe. And that is really, really advanced for the North American left. I think there's very few places in North America where that level of organizing is happening. So that's really deeply. impressive. I want to move on and talk about something on your page that, you know, I relate to and I think is important because on your website you have a page dedicated to survivalism and skill building.

And many on the left, even an organization centered around firearms education, they don't necessarily tend to take survivalism as seriously as perhaps they should. So can you talk about why that's an important part of your organizing and sort of what are some of the training that you do to be prepared in that way? Yeah, we think survivalism is very important. It's very important because we don't know what particularly is going to happen in this country. We know that capitalism, of course, is a decaying around the world. And we know eventually that, you know, the United States for America as an empire itself is no longer going to be in existence. So we have to more or less be prepared for that. And so we believe we have to preserve food. We believe that we have to have

ammunition stock. We believe that we have to maintain weapons. We believe that we have to create the tools that can survive at least a couple weeks, if not more, without having some being involved with some interaction with some sort of government agency, so to speak. We have to be able to do that. That has to be a part of the revolutionary process. And we can't really say that we're revolutionaries if we are so dependent upon the state apparatus. And so, So, you know, that's one of the things I think is primary with the Huey P. Newton Gun Club Alpha formation. We have done a number of trainings, which is akin to some of our experiences in the U.S. military

as far as surviving on the land, learning how to start fires, learning how to fish with primitive tools, learning how to hunt, if you will, or how to set traps. All of this is very important to the revolutionary process because there will be a day where we won't have grocery stores. We won't have Walmart. We won't have all the comforts of society that we've been more accustomed to. And so we have to begin as a movement, as a revolutionary left movement, we have to begin to put this in our mind to understand this. I implore those out there that may listen to read a few books, if you will, and then connect with some individuals that may have these talents. Because we have to, first of all, put the survivalism within our organizations

And secondly, when you have this type of information, then you are responsible to break it forth to the community. The community may not have this information. So it's very important. But what we've done is we've provided a number of different trainings for the last five years that have sitting around a lot of different things, a lot of things that I was in the world that I was taught, you know, how to properly skin an animal, if you catch them, how to grow food, these sort of things. and what type of plants can you eat versus what type of plants don't you eat? What does that type of plant look like? These things we have to know because I have to stress the fact that Walmart is not going to be there forever, okay? And so we hope Walmart don't be there forever.

We really lean it towards a more revolutionary position, I hope. And so we have to be able to define the situation and realize what it is. And right now, we're in the prepping stage. And we have to prep. We have to prep for the eventuality that the United States will. America and much of the capitalist entities around the world are no longer be in existence. And we have to keep going. We have to make our people more confident about, you know, the situation.

The best way we can do that is through survivalist training as much as we can. Yeah, no, that's something that I personally am very, like, on board with. It's something that in our little local chapters, we try to do. I started growing my own food. And then this year I'm going out on like a hunting trip and teaching myself how to fish precisely for those exact reasons. you never know what's coming. And I totally agree like this system cannot last forever and it will not exit quietly off the stage.

If it, if and when it does collapse, it will be momentous and it will be disastrous for people. And to have the ability just to procure food for your family and your community and to have those organizational capacities already up and ready to go is so essential. You know, maybe it doesn't happen. Maybe things go better than we predict. And in that case, you have a bunch of skills that you can still, you know, find value in. But, yeah, I mean, all the cards, in my opinion, are pointing towards less stability over the next several decades. And that's an important way to combat that and to make sure that, you know, you and yours are taking care of your community, et cetera. Really quickly, just sort of off script a little bit.

I'm just wondering, you're in Dallas, you're in the South, Texas. Have you had, as your organization, had any confrontations or conflict with local, fascist, neo-Nazi, white supremacist formations? Most definitely. Most definitely. There was an organization, Kyle Baer, that was organizing in the Dallas-Fulworth area and was doing so in 2016 and, of course, was threatening a number of different religious groups in the area. And at one particular point, they thought it was smart of them to decide to come to South Dallas. Now, South Dallas is a largely predominantly African-American community, and they decided that they was going to bring guns and weapons. chest rigs, and Kevlar helmets, the South Dallas. And, of course, we organized then. Firstly, on March 20th, 2016, we organized and they said they was going to show up, but they didn't show up. We organized 70 armed individuals to push Bear out. And, of course, the most infamous known demonstration was later on April 2nd, 2016, where Bear did show up. But instead,

like we did on March 20th, where we just showed up, we decided to organize the community, And hundreds within the South Dallas community and the surrounding area showed up to our demonstration. And when Bear pulled up, the Dallas Police Department told them they got to leave. They decided to leave. Now, keep in mind, the Dallas Police Department had helicopters everywhere. There was armored car vehicles everywhere. There was FBI everywhere. There was every alphabet agency that you can think of in your mind was out there.

And when Bear pulled up, they saw those people out there. And I would say, really, it was truly the black women, the poor people. people in South Dallas that pushed Bear out. Hell, yeah. They wasn't able to step outside their vehicles without, you know, having to answer to the community. And, of course, they wasn't able to do that demonstration. The police felt it was very unsafe for them.

The police felt that it wasn't the best situation for them to be in. And, of course, you know, we organized, I was the principal organizer of the bear demonstration, and I felt it was absolutely our responsibility to push. bear out and the show bear that it was a major contradiction for them to try to bring weapons and shotguns and automatic whatever is they want to bring. If you want to come to South Dallas, I said they should definitely bring a pen and a notepad. You can come to South Dallas with a pen and notepad. But you're not coming to South Dallas with no gun. You're not coming to South Dallas with no mask. You're not coming to South Dallas with any of that that could potentially intimidate

largely women and children. Keep in mind, this is largely African-American and these bearers. organization was a right-wing extremist type of organization that, of course, supported this president known as Donald Trump. That's the type of ideology that Bear represented. And of course, we represent the ideas of the community, H.P. Newton Gun Club, a guerrilla mainframe, of course. We was out there and we pushed Bear out and Bear hasn't been back since. Beautiful. I love hearing it. I love hearing it. Yeah, we have to have these spots that these fascists, these neo-Nazis, these white supremacists that they're scared to go into and that they have immediate consequences if and when they do decide to try to go into these areas and hopefully one day we can expand

that to even include agents of the capitalist imperialist state as well but yeah it makes my it makes me smile and my heart swell with pride to know that the community came out and pushed those pieces of shit back so yeah solidarity for that it was truly a people's victory it was a people's a victory against bear you know and they essentially they walked into what I defined then and I defined now is a hornet's nest. They didn't realize that South Dallas was a hornet's nest. And they came and the energy,

I'm telling me, people were getting out of their vehicle saying, who's showing up? They was asking who's showing up, and they started pulling out their guns. And it was just more than us with our weapons. Our weapons, in a sense, were puny in a sense. And I always say this. Guns are important, and they're very important to the process,

self-defense, things in nature. But what we've seen in that particular case, what we were able to show was people power. That's what ran bare out. It wasn't weapons per se. It was people's power. It ran back. Bear saw that there was our number, our man, and our gun. And that's why we were successful.

Oh, love it. Great work. Absolutely. So last question before we get into the conclusion, and this sort of is connected to what we were just talking about. You know, the 2020 election is exactly a year away, I think, tomorrow. and with an increasingly conspiratorial and fascist far right, coupled with a racist clown president who doesn't seem very willing to walk gracefully away from an electoral loss, how should the armed left think about and prepare for 2020 and beyond, in your opinions? Yeah, I mean, 2020, and we've been thinking about this for over a year now. What you've seen is just an increase in physical violence.

You've seen an increase in the conflicts between, you know, left and right protesters and activists and organizers. You've seen, you know, religious leaders come out and advocate for physical violence, including, you know, using guns and things like that. You've seen elected officials, either, you know, state openly, explicitly, that if Donald Trump loses, the election that there's going to be a civil war. And I think when you see these messages, when you see these statements made online, on Twitter, through the news media and all the different outlets, at first you're like, well, maybe this is a radical element, right? Maybe this is just an extremist element. But as we get closer to 2020, I think you have to take it more and more seriously. And as that messaging goes higher and higher up the, you know, capitalist and political

food chain, I think the more serious that you have have to take it. And so our prediction is as you near the 2020 election, that you're probably going to see more hate, you're going to see more fascist violence. You will most likely see potential loss of life or murders, depending. And when Donald Trump loses, and I certainly hope that he does, after that, we will see what these right-wing, fascist, white supremacist militias, do. We'll see what the political leaders do. We'll see what the religious leaders who are currently advocating for violence against those that opposed Donald Trump. We'll see what actually happens

and if they, you know, if they back up their words with action. And so as the armed left, we have to plan for that eventuality that this will happen. It's better to be prepared than to be taken by surprise. And so how do you prepare yourself for an impending or proposed or threatened civil war or even just far outlier of violence, right? Well, you increase your training, right? You increase the days that you're out training and do the things that need to be done. You increase your organizing, right, which includes recruitment. You work on your message. You try to build your organization. You try to build your chapter. You try to build coordination within different organizations in your geographic area. So you might have an SRA, you

might have a John Brown, you might have this or that, you know, there's multiple different entities out there on the arm left that are organizing independently. And I think they have maybe slightly different ideals. But when we look at 2020, we must come together as to arm less. We must develop and coordinate a plan of action leading up to that. date, you must have organizing within your geographic area. So all of the organizations in Los Angeles, all of the organizations in Dallas, all of the organizations in Baltimore, all of the organizations, you know, in Portland, in Chicago, in New York City, the first step is for them to unite and coordinate themselves and develop a plan of action for the 2020 election.

As that's happening, the Huey P. Newton Gun Club Alpha Company has proposed a national coordination. And this could look, you know, like a day of action. It could be maybe a national gathering of some sort. We don't really want to go into too much detail. But we understand that once the local entities may contact and coordinate that there must be some national coordination and plan of action and response that's ready and prepared that can be implemented. And it would be like an emergency response planner team. We also believe that as you need, year the 2020 election that the threats against, you know, are socialist democratic elected officials such as Bernie Sanders, Ecosia Cortez, and others, that the threat to violence for those individuals

and many others that are supported, you know, by the DSA and other formations, the probability that they become victims of physical violence, I think, increases as well. And even though there are obviously some differences between ideas of revolution and social democracy, we believe that these elected officials that identify as socialists are important, that they are key in the history of the United States and the development away from capitalism as we see it now. And we would suggest that four armed left entities and individuals that they consider when the rallies begin, when the stump speeches begin, when things get in the full swing. providing some level of security for these socialist elected officials in the United States

and that they do so in a way and a manner that can protect the movement that we see building and that we see growing here. But like you said, fascism is violence, it's developing. As near 2020, it's going to increase. The armed left must coordinate. They must unite locally and we must unite nationally. Yeah, I could not agree more. I think that's absolutely essential. putting aside some of our theoretical differences and saying, yes, we might disagree on this or that point or this organization might be focused on this or that thing, but ultimately we need to have some sort of coordinated popular front against any sort of right wing or even state violence that might ensue in 2020 and beyond. And putting aside some of our differences and coming

together and making sure that all of us are safe is really important because, as I always say, to the fascist, to the weirdos on the far right, I mean, a Bernie. Sanders is just as communist as me or you or anybody else. They don't make these fine-tuned distinctions between those of us on the left. We're all enemies and we're all in their scopes, if you will. So coming together and saying, yes, we have differences, but we need to make sure that we're all safe and that we have each other's backs and having some sort of national or regional coordination efforts, I think is incredibly important.

And I really hope listeners take that to heart and bring it back to their organizing circles. Let's go ahead and move into the conclusion here, and before we wrap up, I just want to ask what are some criticisms and, you know, comradly, friendly, constructive, if you will, criticisms of the left broadly in this country, in your opinion, and specifically maybe even like the white left left, right? Because we live in a white supremacist, settler colonial society, and while many white people may, you know, be really well-intentioned and trying to move leftward and form solidarity, that whiteness is still sort of embedded in this. the mind. The white supremacy is conditioned into into white people in this society. So any critiques of the left or of the white left in this country that you'd like to get out there and make people think about before we wrap up? Yeah, I mean, as far as criticism of the white left movements in the United States, there's many to be said. So one of my major criticisms or one of our

major criticisms of the left right now is that there has not been more coordinated effort or developing these plan of actions that we're just talking about in preparation for 2020. I think that as we near this, it's definitely going to be a pivotal point in the history of this nation. And the left must coordinate at a much, much higher, much more effective level to prepare for whatever may happen. And without getting into too much detail, I think our primary effort should be able to be strong allies and to raise up our comrades, you know, in arms.

And I think that's primary, and to understand and to take responsibility for that white privilege and for those white supremacist institutions that while, you know, as a working poor, as a working person or as a poor person, you may not be a part of that system, but I think that you can criticize it in a way that's effective. I absolutely agree with that. So to wrap up, can you please let listeners know where they can find you in your organization online and maybe a couple ways that other organizations. from around the country might be able to help or bolster your organizing in Dallas? So, of course, they can very much so reach us at the Huey P. Newton Gun Club.org. I'm actually the administrator of that page. They can also reach us on Twitter, the Hueyap Newton Gun Club Alpha. That's our primary page on Twitter, and we would definitely communicate with them on how to connect.

And I think it's just important, just me specifically personally. I am Yaffaio Balagoon. Look me up there on Facebook. I'm locatable. I'm friendly. I will communicate. And I'm willing to share ideas. And the thing that's important about what we're doing is that if we come to a point where we disagree,

we understand that we have common understanding, common ground. We can find some common places where we can actually do good community to work together and ultimately bring about revolution here in this country and around the world. Well, I love that. I respect that. to your website in the show notes of this episode. And specifically people that are in the Dallas area or in the Texas area in the south broadly in that region, reaching out to the Huey P. Newton Gun Club, creating those connections.

You know, that may pay off down the line. So just being able to network and touch base and say, hey, we're over here in Oklahoma, but we have your back. And if you ever need anything, let us know. That sort of stuff is the first step in this sort of coordinated effort that you all are talking about. So I really encourage listeners in those areas to reach out and try to form those connections. Thank you both for coming on. This was wonderful.

I've wanted to talk to you for a long time. I've wanted to talk to this organization for a long time. And I'm really, you know, I admire and respect and love what y'all are doing down in Dallas. And you have friends and comrades here at Rev. Left any time you need it. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. Thank you for having. Came to Africa with rifles and bibles.

Heard the name started changing the titles. Now instead of shock, I call me Nat turning with the burner. Freedom fighting for this revolution. Fuck away, journal. See, I be what John Wilk's booth was the Lincoln. Blan. Sir hand, sir hand, peeping through the curtains with my eyes on a Kennedy. Dead press, politics, know your enemy.

Keep your toes close. Because political power come from the barrel of it. We in a war, nigger, leave it a love it. Since they got us in the scope like a P.E. logo, I watch for the Popo and train at the dojo. Not a gun delivero, but a working class hero Taking a stand Like a panther with an N-1,

Grand screaming, know your gun laws Self-defense is a must When we set it off, I'm gonna be the first the bus Yo, I'm one with my gun I love it like my first son It protects me And make sure the Jake's respect me I'm wrong with my gun

I love it like my first son It protects me And make sure the Jake suspect me What do you do when the police kicking your door like Get on the floor Shoot two in the back Cause who you are and where you at's against the law

You try to protect your home With the illest arson impossible Learn how to heal yourself And stop fucking with the hospitals Get with brothers down for the cores Giving it all they got But every brother ain't a brother Fuck around and get shot

By these black kings And pack gatlings To make a rat sing like Nat King Before they start blasting With no accuracy Handling their beef in the public Now an innocent child Got a back for a stomach

Property value plummet Every time a shot is fire Come on People feel and betrayed So they take the street The riot got fire shots To try to stop the spirit Taking over the entire block

Politicians say it's time to march When people pass that Ready to blast that whatever coming From the master awful office Niggas are sick of running Yeah All my soldiers Raise it up

Come on now Busch your guns Yeah Clod Lee with dead press Come on Blah Blah Blah In the guns We're deep in the gunch

We're all the niggins The black and young type That's packing automatic guns If any static Spiratic shots to ring out You get caught up You get your fucking brains Blown clean out

The killer's reign supreme Survival up the illest brain And scheme For cream you know the game in my bang I feel the pain for all the niggins that pass away Trying to get cast the fastest way We know how The old-fashioned way blast it

We acting like context and tenements My squad flexed finish your pop And put her into it, it's like hell It's planning I'm from Because sister's diligent crack cell Desisting off the back to young black males It's innocent Suspending in pack jails

The benefit white well-being When niggas catch hell just for being You might as well have a life for crime Ain't nothing free in this life I stick a nine and you spine for mine No time for talk Cause I walk what I talk Stalking sidewalks of course

With the highs of a hawk Crack the court To get away from this trife world And thawrubing new paws Cause life's a bitch And it's too short I'm too sport level gold Camouflor Drug a Denim

Dettley is venom Totin buckets with nothing in them But ruckus Some ill motherfuckers for real Straight hustlers With nothing but a taste For a tear I slayed one with my gun

I love it like my first son It protects me And make sure the Jakes respect me I'm one with my gun I love it like my first son It protects me And make sure the Jakes respect me I'm one with my gun

I love it like my furry sign. It protects me and make sure the Jake should track me. I'm wrong with my gun. I love it like my furry sign. It protects me and make sure the Jake should threat me. Let's go out. Yeah. Come on.

All my soldiers. Brooklyn, where you at? Florida. Cincinnati, where you at? Africa, where you at? Yeah. Oh.