By Tom “Big Warrior” Watts
“I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people.” – Huey P. Newton
“The basic difference between spirituality and religion is that religion — any religion — works from the outside in while spirituality works from the inside out.” – Universal Life Church
Spirituality is generally associated with some school of idealism, most often based upon alleged revelations of a supernatural origin, but most would agree that the only true way to judge the validity or measure of someone’s spirituality is by how they interact with others, that what they profess to believe or what ceremonies they participate in are irrelevant. So if social practice is the only true measure, it stands to reason that the highest expression of spirituality must be based upon the most correct analysis of what actions will best serve the highest interests of humanity.
Historical dialectical materialism is the opposite of idealism.
It is based upon concrete analysis of concrete conditions with the recognition that everything exists as a unity of opposites, and that everything is in motion, changing, based upon the struggle between its opposing aspects, of which one must be the dominant or principal aspect at any given moment, which gives a thing its character. When in the course of this struggle the secondary aspect becomes principal, a qualitative change takes place in the thing’s character turning it into something else.
Pantherism is not a religion, it is based upon the application of “revolutionary science,” that is historical dialectical materialism, but it most definitely has a spiritual component. To dedicate one’s life to serving the people, to be willing to die for the people—is a spiritual thing, a spiritual commitment that comes from within. Pantherism does not promise any heavenly rewards or personal success in the material world. It offers a life with a purpose, a life of struggle and sacrifice, for the benefit of the next generation and the generations yet unborn.
Love for the people is the primary motivator for a Panther, but there is also love for social justice and truth. There is belief in the essential goodness of human nature and that under the right conditions the human spirit will flower and bring forth inexhaustible enthusiasm for socialist reconstruction and overcoming race and class prejudices. To be for something you must be against something. There is also the opposite aspect of hatred of social injustice, oppression and lies. Anger can be power, but without tempering, it is a sword that also cuts the one who wields it. We do not fight for revenge but to change the world. No one can change anything about the past, but the future is unwritten.
Spirituality is far older than religion
The first socioeconomic formation was the primitive communal system, which lasted for many hundreds of thousands of years. The development of human society began from this stage. At first, people were in a half-savage state, powerless before the forces of nature, living from hand to mouth. They ate a mainly vegetarian diet consisting of things found ready to eat raw in nature; roots, wild fruits, nuts, etc. This mode of production emerged about two million years ago and existed as the longest period of human history. The era ended only about seven to nine thousand years ago (Ryndina et al: 1980). There were two stages in the development of productive forces under the primitive-communal system. The first stage consisted mainly in the appropriation of natural products while the second stage marked the transition to a reproductive economy. During the first stage, the means of subsistence were secured mainly by gathering fruit, grains and other vegetable goods and eventually by hunting. Man’s first tools were stones and sticks. Over time, people learned to improve on these by chipping or napping the stones and attaching them to sticks or pieces of bone or antlers.
A tribe and its property formed a kind of unit originated from the mode of production, where individuals relate to each other and to nature. These early humans carried their children and meager possessions and tools as they foraged for food. Elders and women with children formed the core of the community and others could range farther about and cover more ground. Food that was found was shared out to the group. The needs to be met by individuals in the community were very limited. Everything that was produced was to be used in the day-to-day struggle for survival. If there was a sense of spiritual reverence, it was probably towards “Mother Earth” as the source of their sustenance. Love for and loyalty to the tribe was the essence of their spirituality.
Over time, the skills and accumulated knowledge of the people raised their standard of living and ability to survive under varied and changing conditions. Hunting was added to to their mode of living which combined with the ability to make fire made them omnivorous and increased their protean intake allowing their primitive brains to develop, which in turn enhanced their cognitive abilities. Literally, “cooking made us human” and distinct from other animals. Learning to domesticate certain other species to maintain a ready supply of meat and milk, and to improve wild grains and develop agriculture enabled our ancestors to create a surplus that would not only sustain them through the seasons but allow for trade between tribes.
It also created conflict, an incentive for tribes to raid other tribes to carry off their surplus and take captives to increase their numbers, and it created the conditions for the conversion of social into private property and the division of society into exploiting and exploited classes (free and slave). This also entailed the overthrow of “mother right” and the creation of patriarchy. It brought to an end the Epoch of Primitive Communialism and the transition to the Epoch of Class Exploitation.
What are today the major “World Religions” are creations of the Epoch of Class Exploitation. Several large-scale belief systems emerged between 1200 BCE and 700 CE which today constitute the major “World Religions.” As people created more efficient systems of communication and more complex governments in early agrarian civilizations, they also developed what we now call religion. These religions in turn “sanctified” the existing political-economic power structure as “God’s will,” or the “will of the gods.” The status quo of inequality was therefore to be accepted as “divine intention.” This was of course backed up by a special class of men with weapons loyal to the ruler.
Throughout the history of human social evolution in the Epoch of Class Exploitation, the armed resistance of the oppressed acts as a “locomotive of change.” As explained by Marx and Engels in The Communist Manifesto: “The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” In Mao’s words: “Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years. To interpret history from this viewpoint is historical materialism; standing in opposition to this viewpoint is historical idealism.”
Often times this class struggle took on the form of a religious contradiction as either a “New” interpretation of the old religion or a return to an older interpretation framed the dispute. Peasant revolts were often led by outcast priests and monks. Protestantism reflected the rise of the bourgeoisie against the old feudal order in Europe. Nevertheless, the overall role of religion has been to support the status quo of class oppression and inequality in class society. Pantherism reflects the rise of the proletariat, and the oppressed generally, against capitalist-imperialism and the overturning of the whole epoch of class exploitation and dictatorship.
It is secular by nature yet at the same time deeply-rooted in the tradition of service to the people that is at the heart of primitive communalism.
As Comrade Kwame Nkrumah explained:
“To be sure, there is a connection between communalism and socialism. Socialism stands to communalism as capitalism stands to slavery. In socialism, the principles underlying communalism are given expression in modern circumstances. Thus, whereas communalism in a non-technical society can be laissez-faire, in a technical society where sophisticated means of production are at hand, the situation is different; for if the underlying principles of communalism are not given correlated expression, class cleavages will arise, which are connected with economic disparities and thereby with political inequalities; Socialism, therefore, can be, and is, the defense of the principles of communalism in a modern setting; it is a form of social organization that, guided by the principles underlying communalism, adopts procedures and measures made necessary by demographic and technological developments. Only under socialism can we reliably accumulate the capital we need for our development and also ensure that the gains of investment are applied for the general welfare.” (“African Socialism Revisited,” 1967)
But socialism is not just a “better deal” for the workers. It is the transitional stage between monopoly-capitalism and classless society—the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat. As Comandante Che Guevara expressed: “For us, there is no valid definition of socialism other than the abolition of the exploitation of one human being by another.” Even George Orwell conceded: “The thing that attracts ordinary men to Socialism and makes them willing to risk their skins for it, the ‘mystique’ of Socialism, is the idea of equality; to the vast majority of people Socialism means a classless society, or it means nothing at all.”
Pantherism embraces becoming “all-the-way revolutionary” and being “DOWN FOR THE WHOLE THING!” It is opposed to liberalism and reformism and in favor of getting to the root of the matter. It sees itself as standing on the global stage speaking to the oppressed of every land. It recognizes that, as Malcolm X expressed: “The only way we’ll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed people in the world. We are blood brothers to the people of Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba — yes Cuba too.”
Revolutionary Intercommunalism rises above nationalism and internationalism to a higher level of class consciousness and is the embryonic form of the worldwide dictatorship of the proletariat over the globalized economy. It is about creating worldwide “People’s Power” that is rooted in the local oppressed communities all around the world. Beyond lifting its proletarian and lumpen proletarian constituency out of poverty, it seeks to eliminate the contradiction between town and country and to develop sustainable “GREEN TECHNOLOGY” that will serve the needs of humanity for many, many generations to come.
It seeks to overcome the profound alienation fostered by capitalist-imperialism and restore the primacy of the community as the center of people’s lives, not just on a local but a worldwide scale. It celebrates ethnic and cultural diversity and the free development of ideas and artistic expression. This is the meaning of “PANTHER LOVE!”
Panther Love is based upon a spiritual orientation of serving and empowering the people and a commitment to equality and social justice for all. This includes equality between men and women, a complete rejection of racism and prejudice against those with differing cultures, sexual orientations or spiritual beliefs. Pantherism celebrates the rainbow of diversity that is the human family.
ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
