Real leftists, people who long ago abandoned the Democratic party, are used to sparse turnouts at their various gatherings.  Other than a few of the better attended anti Iraq War protests a few years ago, most demonstrations, marches, and other events have not reached beyond the core faithful; somewhat surprising given the widespread dissatisfaction with almost every aspect of the George W. Bush regime.  Some blame it on America’s hyper-materialistic culture, other’s on the lack of media coverage outside of the two mainstream parties.  The real reason, and the hardest for many of us to come to terms with, is the strident Balkanization of countless special interest groups who are fixated on their own self interests without concern for the greater movement.  (It might even be  argued that no larger movement exists; the Left has been effectively reduced to a large number of non-allied individual interest groups)

This situation only makes the events of this past weekend all the more surprising, and hopeful.  Down in the basement of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, over in a corner of the parking garage, Cal-Arts operates a theatre and gallery space.  As small, “alternate” arts spaces go, the REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney, Cal Arts Theatre) space is unusually well done.  The entire theatre is floated on rubber isolating pads, to isolate any noise from the adjacent parking garage.  The 300 seat theatre, and large gallery space are joined by a combination bar, internet café and bookstore, and the restaurants, stores and other facilities of the Concert hall are easily reached via the central escalator lobby.  And, unlike most downtown ‘indie’ arts spaces, REDCAT patrons do not have to wander the dark, deserted streets of the city after the show to find their cars: due to the theatre’s location inside a parking garage.

Cal-Arts presented a three day film festival last week, titled “All Power to the People: the history and legacy of the Black Panther Party”.  Each night consisted of one or more films, followed by a panel of speakers.  I attended by the Thursday and Friday night presentations.  Thursday began as an overview of the Party, with two short documentaries that provided viewers with an introduction to the Party and their Ten Point Platform.  These short films also documented the extreme tactics used by local police and the FBI to repress and harass the Party.  But the full force of the government’s atrocities became clear in the third film shown that night, “The Murder of Fred Hampton.”   Hampton, the twenty-one year old Chairman of the Chicago branch of the Party was assassinated in his bed by a hit squad led by Chicago Police.  Remarkably, the Chicago Police initially tried to spin the attack as an assault by the Panthers on the police.  By tireless work by the Party’s legal team, and community pressure eventually led to a large civil judgment against the City and the dropping of all charges against the residents of the apartment.  The evidence against the police was staggering: ballistic experts testified that over ninety shots were fired into the apartment (by the cops) while only ONE round was fire out from inside, by the fatally wounded Mark Clark; and it was determined that he fired that shot after he was mortally wounded and falling to the floor!

Freedom of Information releases later proved that Hampton was assassinated as part of the larger effort to bring down the Party under the COINTELPRO program.   After the three films, a panel consisting of three speakers took the stage: Emory Douglas, the BPP Minister of Culture, Fred Hampton Jr., born two weeks after his father’s murder, and Dr. Akinyele Umoja (Professor, Georgia State University).   Mr. Douglas, best known as the artist responsible for the artwork in hundreds of issues of the Party’s newspaper, and numerous posters and other graphics, has the very controversial legacy as the artist responsible for coining the term “Pigs” in reference to the Oakland Police Department, and the even more contentious phrase “Off the Pigs” in many of his illustrations.  A related exhibit of Mr. Douglas’ artwork is currently being shown at the MOCA satellite gallery in the Pacific Design Center; the exhibit runs through February 24, 2008. 

Fred Hampton Jr., having barely survived the shootout that killed his father (his mother was nine months pregnant and in the same bed where Fred senior was murdered) has been targeted by authorities his entire life.  While serving nine years as a political prisoner, he became a leading prisoner rights advocate and chairman of Prisoners of Conscience Committee.  Both Hampton and   Dr. Akinyele Umoja stressed that government repression of activists did not die with COINTELPRO and that the USA leads the world in confining its own citizens, often under brutal circumstances designed to torture the prisoner and permanently remove them from the struggle.

Based on the description of the program for the three night’s; I was not surprised to see a full house on the first night, with maybe a small handful of open seats.  The three films on Thursday offered the best introduction to the history of the Party for those not familiar with their story.  But when I arrived at the box office to pick up our tickets for the second night, I was shocked to learn that the show was sold out and that there was a line stretching around the corner of people hoping to get in.  Friday night had a more specific theme: it concerned our government’s ongoing efforts to shut down any hint of opposition and the incredible lengths they will use to go after anyone they see as a threat. 

The show focused on the plight of the “San Francisco Eight” – former Panthers who were investigated and cleared in the murder of a cop in 1971.  If anyone has ever wondered what all of those billions of dollars in Homeland Security funding are spent on, Friday’s presentation provided a frightening answer.  As Al-Qaeda has not cooperated by sending over any more suicide bombers recently, Homeland Security execs have unleashed the dogs on any old, unsolved cases that can in any way be tied to “terrorism”, even the home grown variety.  Not surprisingly, they have not been targeting today’s white power militias in Idaho, but rather a bunch of seventy year old former black activists from the Bay Area.  The specifics demand more space that I can provide here, so please visit http://www.freethesf8.org/  for the full story. 

What was most surprising and hopeful, was the strong turnout and the remarkable diversity of the crowd.  The theatre was filled with people from 18 to 80, male and female, every imaginable race, all there in support of aging activists who were being unjustly persecuted by our government.  I can think of no better way for the left to kick off 2008 than to put aside our self-interests and to unite against the current administration and their assault on opposition groups of all kinds.

A brief comment concerning the (Republican) debates over the weekend.  How can a panel of god-fearing Christians so easily accept the idea that delivering babies or battling cancer is best served by free market capitalism?  By any rational thought, you would need to follow through to ‘pay as you go’ police protection and the fire department asking for your Visa card prior to dispatching the trucks. 

Now, I have no doubt that the men on that dais would actually applaud those concepts, but I dare any of them to propose free market police or fire protection – because then the voters might finally see them for who they are; callous, greedy and so very un-Christian.  Protection from crime, disaster and disease – none of those should be supplied by institutions (corporations) whose ONLY real concern is to maximize shareholder value.

Of all the year end wrap-up shows thrown together by television producers without any better ideas, the “Miller Time” compendium of Dennis Miller’s appearances on ‘The Factor’ takes the award for most pathetic display of lonely men commiserating at the holidays.  Both Miller and O’Reilly probably support teams of psychoanalysts; sadly, they have surely driven countless therapists into chronic depression from having to listen to their self-important overcompensating rants.

Though otherwise completely lacking in almost any redeeming values, this show did remind me of a reactionary right wing talking point that needs to be refuted: that conservatives are “brave optimists” while liberals are cowardly pessimists.

Which side can’t go a single day without declaring “Islamo-fascism” to be the greatest threat mankind has ever faced?  Even though they have only successfully attacked us inside our borders on a single occasion, and that the less than 3, 000 deaths, while tragic, barely equal a typical weekend of drunk driving deaths in any small Texas town.  (yes, I’m exaggerating to make a point…)  For some reason, the hundreds of thousands of needless deaths we bring upon ourselves EVERY year (no exaggeration) are not worth worrying about; but the far, far smaller number that were caused by swarthy non-Christians, well, those deaths were much more important, and far scarier.  In fact, those 3,000 deaths were so scary, that we are prepared to throw away the Bill of Rights just to show how very afraid we remain of those scary, swarthy men.

Which side is so afraid of those other damn foreigners invading our Southern border that they are prepared to split the party arguing over ‘law and order’ versus ‘unfettered capitalism’.  Must suck when two of your strongest ideals are in direct conflict with each other, huh?  Personally, I do not fear Mexicans, regardless of their status in this country.  Why are conservatives so concerned about their impact on our country that they are ready to go against Reagan’s only sensible quote: “Tear down that wall…”

Last time I checked, I had no serious fears that my manhood, my relationship, my marriage, my sense of well being, my children’s future, the future of mankind, or anything else was in any danger due to the civil union and impending marriage of my two female neighbors.   But conservatives find this couple’s future wedding to be horrifying, frightful and just downright threatening.

For a party that is so strongly in favor or low taxes and small government, they are not willing to make cuts where the most money is ready to be saved – the military.  Why? Because they are AFRAID the bad guys are gonna get us!  They are pessimists who live their entire lives believing that the big kid is going to steal their lunch money unless they continually display overwhelming military force.  Whatever happened to winning through intelligence?

English immersion may just be the best way to educate the children of immigrants, but “English only” in real life is a sign of an inferiority complex.  As a country of immigrants, if millions of adults are not functionally literate in English, how are we better off by denying these citizens (or legal residents) the forms (signs, etc.) they need for daily life in a language they understand?  But one side seems terrified that they will find themselves lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood and all of the street signs will be in a language only understood by more of them swarthy, dark skinned types.  Oh, the horror…

Why is the possibility that there is no all-powerful God (who looks just like us!), so terribly frightening to the right?  Is it because they might have to be responsible for their own lives, their own morals, their own way in the world?  Or do they just hate the thought that the entire universe wasn’t created just for their own benefit / pleasure / profit?  Or is it the terrible realization that most of the wars in the history of mankind have been fought over fairy tales?  Talk about scary….

I was going to continue with a few words about drug laws, but I realized that almost every position that the reactionary right takes is due to fear or pessimism; usually both.  It would take me years to itemize every example of right wing fear and their negative outlook on just about everything.  It is the left that has a positive, fearless outlook for themselves and the future.

Black Panther - The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas

MOCA – Pacific Design Center;  21OCT-07 through 24 FEB-08

Like countless other east coast transplants to Los Angeles, the Christmas holidays used to mean ten days split between NYC and Boston, visiting family and friends.  As fate would have it, the last of our parent’s generation passed away around the same time that air travel went from tedious to unbearable.  So after many years of dutiful (and frequently enjoyable) trips home, we stopped these annual journeys six years ago.  In their place, we began the unusual family tradition of packing up the dogs, the gifts and ourselves and checking in to a Los Angeles westside hotel as an alternative to an authentic New England winter holiday.  There’s something about a busy urban hotel lobby, a great bar scene, and twenty four hour room service that almost passes for Christmas in Manhattan.   The hotel we have favored for these winter holidays happens to be located on the West Hollywood / Beverly Hills border, just a few blocks from the gargantuan Pacific Design Center.

One thing that doesn’t usually spring to mind when I remember Christmas past is the Black Panther Party.  By coincidence, I was halfway through “Will You Die with Me?” an easy read back through the history of the BPP as remembered by Flores Forbes, a San Diego youth who first joined the Party at only sixteen, and remained with them to their end more than a dozen years later.  Although I was already familiar with the more well known figures of the major radical movements from that period, Mr. Forbes’ book provided me with a much stronger background in the history of the Party and the players who shaped its destiny.  This proved particularly advantageous when viewing the current exhibit on display at the Pacific Design Center’s small outpost of the Museum of Contemporary Art.

‘Black Panther – the Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas’ is based around the format that Mr. Douglas is most famous for; the strikingly graphic illustrations that shouted out from the cover of the weekly BPP newspaper.  The exhibit also includes many prints of his celebrated posters from that period and numerous examples of what would best be characterized as editorial cartoons, smaller scale illustrations that ran inside almost every issue of the Party newspaper.

I’m no art critic and I won’t attempt to critique Mr. Douglas work from that point of view.  But as a media for communicating ideas, his powerful illustrations grab the viewer and almost force him to consider the issue at hand.  This is not art that can be analyzed from a technical perspective while disregarding the message; it’s impossible to consider matters of light and perspective when the focal point is aiming an AR-15 rifle.  While I enjoy and appreciate his artwork on a purely visual basis, this is art with a message that can not be ignored.

The exhibit space was set up in support of two types of displays; along the perimeter walls were hung prints of posters and large format reproductions of the newspaper cover illustrations.  The interior of the exhibit consisted of a half dozen large tables each holding several original copies of the Black Panther Party newspaper either displaying the cover illustrations or opened to reveal the editorial cartoons that accompanied many articles.

Mr. Douglas’ art did not develop its radical outlook over time; he burst on the scene with a clear message - “by whatever means necessary”.  (The Party’s Ten Point Platform provided plenty of material for him to work with.)  While the BPP newspaper was not widely read outside of the black community, his more provocative works did not go unnoticed.  Much to their dismay, artists of all types tend to get forever tied to their single most famous or infamous work, and Mr. Douglas is no exception.  No matter how celebrated his overall body of work, detractors will always point to the series of images of an ugly pink pig wearing a police uniform (typically the Oakland Police Department).  The depiction of a law enforcement officer as a pig was bad enough, but declaring “Off the Pig” (and several variations) was enough to draw the attention of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.

The illustrations from 1968 through 1971 are especially controversial for the ubiquitous presence of firearms; almost always aimed at police represented by the ugly pink pig.  Mr. Douglas was not just representing the frequent battles between BPP armed security cadres and local cops; his images included men, women, children, even toddlers and old women, all armed and ready to get down against the racist pigs.  The illustrations stressed the involvement of the entire black community in the struggle against police brutality.  These images of mothers with children, fat old grandmas and sweet little girls, all armed and ready to repel the pigs from their community are probably the most surprising and misunderstood by new generations unfamiliar with the divide running through urban America at that time.

Comparing the different reactions to Mr. Douglas’ strongest statements would make an interesting research topic. Lefties of a certain age remember such statements from one perspective while aging law and order conservatives remember them quite differently.  But most interesting is how people who were not yet alive during that time view these works.  Disbelief is often their strongest reaction; no one whose world view was formed in the post- 911 world can imagine that freedom of speech ever included calls to fight back against police abuse, up to and including “Off the Pigs!”

As many of the messages Mr. Douglas offers up are beyond confrontational, it would be easy to demand that the messages be viewed only in the context of that specific, difficult period in our history.   But for any of us old enough to have experienced that time, there is a more pressing issue that requires that we view his art in today’s setting of a uniquely divided nation.  Where one can easily ‘dismiss’  “Off the Pigs” as a curio of a nation in turmoil, the ultimately important question concerns whether the situations that motivated Douglas’ work have truly been resolved?   And if not, why aren’t today’s youth taking similarly radical stands?  Are black men no longer subject to abuse at the hands of racial, militaristic hoodlums wearing police uniforms?  If this type of abuse is no longer occurring, great!  But if it is, where is the level of outrage so readily apparent in the artwork of Mr. Douglas?  Where is an organization willing to stand up to the police, the FBI and the rest of government and shout out “No More”  (while holding rifles in case anyone wasn’t sure of their resolve)?

Even the most apolitical, self absorbed American should realize the dramatic shift that has occurred in this country.  The two party system no longer represents ‘left’ and ‘right’ as both are now well to the right of what was once considered moderate in our national debate.  While most of the 2008 Democratic candidates can claim at least one position that qualifies as progressive, (Edwards' populism, Obama’s cultural heritage, Kucinich’s hottie Brit wife, etc.) when viewed as a whole, their party’s platform is closer to the ‘enlightened conservatism’ of northeastern Republicans of the 1950s – 1970s than to the stated goals of Johnson’s ‘Great Society’.

At the same time, the Republicans have skewed so far to the right as to be almost unrecognizable to anyone old enough to remember life prior to the “Reagan revolution.”  Their advocacy of rendition, torture, spying on American citizens, and a litany of other abuses of the Bill of Rights, all in the name of ‘protecting us,’ is both obscene and criminal.  (What part of Franklin’s famously prescient quote concerning liberty and security don’t they understand?)  A generation ago, many of the more radical members of the left were ready to declare war against a government that while guilty of numerous specific atrocities, was significantly less reactionary and less generally hostile to our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Against this backdrop, the inability of today’s left to mount an effective campaign against any of the Bush administration’s most egregious offenses is both frustrating and confusing.   Exploring the reasons for this failure helps me keep me sane and out of trouble.  My goal will be to produce a monthly article along with frequent, but brief commentaries on current news items.