Anti-colonial struggle in the United States: theory and practice of the Black Panther Party

théorie et pratique du Black Panther Party

Abstract

This article investigates the connection between the Black Panther Party and the field of anti-colonial struggles, based on the idea that its reflections were capable of proposing new theoretical foundations for thinking about racial domination in the United States and allowing them to build new political ties. In this sense, we conducted historical research on the autobiographies of the founders (Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale) and on editions of the party's official newspaper (The Black Panther), in addition to a content analysis focused on the texts of the section of the newspaper dedicated specifically to international affairs (International News), with the aim of visualising public positions, theoretical reflections, and practical activities that brought the Panthers closer to anti-colonialism. We found that the Black Panthers developed an analytical framework that views racial domination in the United States as a type of internal colonialism, a perspective that guided their own concrete political life – leading them to be inspired by and show solidarity with anti-colonial struggles around the world and to establish different international ties (at least during their period of greatest social impact, until 1971).