Fred Hampton on the importance of revolutionary education
Interview · Black Liberation · 03:54
Fred Hampton
Summary
In this recording, Fred Hampton emphasizes the critical importance of political education within revolutionary movements. He argues that without a strong educational foundation, movements risk replacing one oppressor with another, citing Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya and Papa Doc in Haiti as examples of revolutions that failed due to a lack of ideological grounding. Hampton explains that the Black Panther Party requires six weeks of political education before membership to ensure members understand the goals and avoid replicating capitalist or imperialist systems. He connects education to programs like credit unions and community health clinics, stressing that educated participants can sustain true liberation rather than falling into neocolonialism.
Transcript (diarized)
Fred Hampton: You basically knowing my dollars, and basically you knowing, and we knowing yours, you can, uh, support some of our programs, is that what you're saying? Why not? And you believe in programs like the Breaks for Children program, and pre-health clinics?
Speaker 2: Roundup? We believe they're good things. Uh-huh. As a focal point to organize their mothers and fathers.
Fred Hampton: Uh-huh.
Speaker 2: Peace.
Fred Hampton: Uh-huh.
Speaker 2: There's no education in the program here? That's how much social action, you know, you set that up, brother. I mean, we can't put everything on one piece of paper. What about this bank? Credit union? Credit union. Credit union, my brother. It is a bank. Are you hip to credit unions? It is a bank. Do you go and buy money? Yeah. It's a bank.
Fred Hampton: It's a bank.
Speaker 2: Owned by the people. Run for the people. And by the people.
Fred Hampton: What would money be given out to people for? Well, the people would decide that. You want to buy, you know, whatever, you know, the people in the community would decide. You need some living room furniture, maybe? You need a car, maybe? See, I got it. The thing is with me, you dig, I need to know some more about it. I wish you had some more literature about the educational thing here. Because, you dig, as far as we're concerned and the struggle, the way we look at struggle is that this depends on the educational thing, you dig. Because this depends on the education.
Speaker 2: Well, the whole thing.
Fred Hampton: No, but in the end, this does. You can farm this with no education. You can farm this.
Speaker 2: No, not the way we're talking about farming it. You know, right. We're talking about farming it right. You know, it's not on the paper. We didn't write it on the paper. No, you farm it right with no education.
Fred Hampton: No. Let me give you an example. Yomo Kenyatta farmed the excellent revolution with no education. And on the day of the end thing, Yomo told the motherfucker, he said, well, uh, You know, you've been educated to hate the enemy, but I'm your brother. I helped you lead the revolution. Now I'm more oppressive. Another example, Papa Doc in Haiti. Papa Doc in Haiti hated everything white. Man, you couldn't put this white paper in front of Papa Doc's face. But he moved all the white people out, and he took over to be oppressed when he did, because of no education. And the people that have been educated, they just said that we don't hate the motherfuckers. White people, we hate the oppressor, whether he be white, black, brown, or yellow. So we got to know the educational program to find out what is going to be in the finale. A lot of people work. Yomo Kenyatta is called not a never revolutionary, but an ex-revolutionary. So is Papa Doc. They brought on a successful revolution. That thing in under Miles Miles was a bitch. Baton to Freedom Fighters, all that kind of action. What we're saying is that it's the end. But you don't judge Castro now. You can't do it. Nobody in this room could judge whether Castro's going to be a revolutionary or not. You know what I mean? We're talking about things, you know what I mean, with China, the People's Republic, and even at the stage they're in now, talking about even going on further into a communistic state. That's what we're talking about. Those are revolutionary. So we've got to understand here the educational program that you have to be able to figure out whether it will go on the right lines, whether people will end up in a situation where they can be able to really control themselves. You understand what I'm saying? With no education, the people who take this local foundation start stealing money because they won't be really educated to watch the people's thing anyway. You understand what I'm saying? With no education, you have neocolonialism instead of colonialism like you got in Africa now, like you got in Haiti. So what we're talking about is there has to be education in the program. That's very important. As a matter of fact, it's so important for us that a person has to go through six weeks of our political education before he can consider himself a member of the party, able to even run down ideology for the party. Why? Because if they don't have an education, then they're nowhere. You dig what I'm saying? They're nowhere because they don't even know why they're doing what they're doing. You might get people caught up in the emotionless movement. You understand me? You might get them caught up in because they're poor and they want something. And then if they're not educated, they want more, and before you know it, they'll be capitalists, and before you know it, we'll have Negro imperialists.