Eldridge Cleaver on the drug culture

Today is January 12th 1971. Since September of nineteen seventy Dr Timothy Leary and his wife Rosemary have been with us here in their communal section of the Black Panther party analogy or jury and during that time much confusion has been generated partly because of our own silence on the subject. As to the relationship between the Black Panther Party and Dr. Leary and his wife I want to take this opportunity to set forth our position on that and also to make a few observations on the drug culture as a whole instead of the United States specifically as it relates

to the process and how to struggle against the fascist imperialist. The Empire of the United States of America. A couple of months ago. I was talking to Dr. Leary about how we would deal with his case how we would. Integrate him into our operation here what role he could play and how he could function and specifically how all he should be projected to the press in terms of his public image. This suggestion were there. Because of the difference. In the psychology of this part of the world.

Particularly was referring to Europe. That we had to use terms concepts and images that they could relate to. And so he's stated that he thought that he should be projected as. The Aristotle. Of the Socrates. Or the Sartre. Of the American Revolution. And I think that kind of. Symbolizes typifies. How Dr. Leary has constantly tried to relate to us that he seems to take himself seriously as. The high priest. Of the revolution. And that he has some sense. Sees him self as sort of a very. Secular guy.

Around which the universe is constructed. Around which. The revolutionary movement inside of United States. Revolves. And also. After many discussions with him on the subject of drugs the relevancy of drugs specifically LSD acid. As a weapon in the revolutionary struggle. I've come to conclusion that doctor your ears irrevocably weird to the idea of the been official aspects of LSD in the context of a revolutionary movement. That he is willing to. That he would rather die than give up the idea of changing

American society by dosing everyone with LSD. This is not a. Principle or suggestion that we in the Blackberry get anyway indoors because we think it is absurd and unrealistic as an approach to carry out our struggle. Leary seems. Content to continue advising people to. Turn on tune in and drop out. And that he really means it when he says that. Freedom means getting high. While this. Is in direct conflict with the needs of the American Revolution. We feel that we need people with clear heres sober people. Who. Have their wits about them. Because we are confronted with murderous fascist peers

who will stop at nothing and who. Have so much manpower at their disposal that they are able to change shifts on us. Each crew put in eight hours a day vior while we ourselves are not able to do that. So this is not realistic or serious to suggest to people. Try to deal with the situation in the United States. By taking acid trips or other drugs or being hired all in any way shape form or fashion. People who have taken a close look at what the Black Panther Party has stated in the past will notice that when we condemn the use of harmful drugs. And that we do not include marijuana in that category because. There are

many of us. Who like. To get high on marijuana once in a while. But this does not mean that we advocate a constant state of being high or intoxication that we want to make it absolutely clear. We do not advocate people indulging in revolutionary activity while under the influence of drugs of any type. That is harmful to our cause and the use of drugs under the present circumstances should be viewed as a kind of revolutionary activity. This does not mean we do not recognize the progressive role played in the past by the whole youth drug culture in the United States. That it was very

useful some years ago when people rebelled against the stream jacket rules and regulations of Babylonian society by turning away from the standards and the values of that society and by shattering it to smithereens. Those values by getting in high freaking out freaking out whatever you want to say whatever terminology you want to use that at a certain point in our struggle this was a progressive step to take. But things have changed since then. It is no longer useful to our struggle and it has to be stopped and has to be dealt with. And we take a dim view of it and we want nothing to do with it. We want to see if you didn't want people to gather their wits to Sauber up and to get down

to the serious business of destroying the Babylonian Empire. And this is what we must do and this is our duty. On January the 9th of 1971. I issued an order. To Phil Marshall D.S. who works in our intercommunal section here in Nigeria to go to Leary's apartment and to take Leary and his wife Rosemary. To another location. And to confine them there till further notice. And since that time. Dr. Leary and Rosemary Leary have been placed in. I don't know I don't really know the terms of use but. We just say do it

on Jane with a knife. We busted Miriam Leary is busted and you can see him. Busted. Here Rosemary. At one point he was talking to Rosemary about the situation and he said. They're just niggers flexing their muscles. The point is that in using drugs as an escape. Train to use drugs as a way of dealing with the reality the horrible reality of oppression and Babylon. It serves the function of escaping from their reality. But it has the harmful side effect of leaving many contradictions undesirable. And in the case. Of. Larry I think he symbolizes this

for us and we've had time we've had time to very carefully. Observe Leary's reactions his behavior through this very close association we've had with him over these months. And we find that although he's able to make political gestures or political statements that essentially the man is. A political an opportunist and he has a very deep. Strain of racism white racism in him which comes out and very surprising forms which he thinks goes undetected and. Although I have no intentions of. Being a psychologist or a psychologist. It has become very clear to me that there's something seriously.

Wrong with the book. Dr. Leary and his wife's brain. And I attribute this to. The multiple. The Honorable number. Of. Acid ships that they have taken. And it makes me very sad looking at this situation because. While on the one hand I like. Leary. I like Rosemary. But objectively I find them both to be nonfunctional. You know political context. Not helpful. Really. We have grown to look upon them sort of as patients. Sort of as. Responsibilities that we have to take care of.

Also we noticed that. The very dangerous people. Because whatever the use of LSD has done to their brains. One thing that is very clearly done is to destroy their ability to make judgments particularly in the area of security so that we are forced to constantly use manpower to me. To watch them. We've had to separate them from various enemies that they've gotten themselves involved with. Dr. Leary seems to wither away without an audience. He needs people around him who have a worshipful attitude towards him. He has a need to be seen as

a hired police as the guy. And in this part of the world. Such guys don't have ready audiences at hand. So they literally scrips around. For any audience that he can assemble. Whether it's an audience of. CIA agents masquerading as hippies and tourists. What have you. So that. We do not regret for one moment. That we took on the case of Timothy Leary. We do not regret having done that. But we are only now beginning to fully realize. The heavy burden that we picked up when we did that. And. This also we see in terms of our duty.

To. The revolutionary movement in the United States of America. That we must deal. With all of the destruction and damage. Of people. That have been generated by a very evil vicious. Social System. That holds sway about. But to all those who look to Dr. Leary for inspiration or your leadership. We want to say. That your god is dead. Because his mind. Had been blown. By acid. And you're saying that.

If you think that by to really be turned on. And dropping out. You're improving the situation that you change in society. It's very clear that you're doing nothing except destroying your own brains. And strengthening the hand of our enemy. Because I think that in this day and time when the enemy no longer needs our legal power. When the enemy has machines to replace men. That they would very much like to have everybody. Walking around with their minds blown away by acid so that they could continue to run their game down. Massive. Robots. I think that the use of LSD as it is manifested in the high priests of SD Dr. Larry. Brady's

1984. With all of this horrible ramifications. So much closer. That's not the future that we are fighting and dying for. That's not what it's all about. That's not what we are into. Cest Leary has been you know Julio. There were many hippies and U.P.S. so for. Tripping over here. Making the pilgrimage. To see their guys. And. With them. They bring sacrificial. Gifts. To the guys. And we want people to know. That it's not

acceptable to us here. And you will not receive. A warm happy welcome if you show up here. Coming out of that bag. What I'm saying here also applies to. The Jerry Rubin's. Stew hours. And the abbe Harkness and the whole silly psychedelic. Drug Culture quayside political movement which they're a part of and of which we have been apart of the past which we aligned ourselves with in the past which we supported in the past because it was our judgment that at that time. This is what we have to work with from white America. But we're through. We're finished.

With relating to this madness. With through tolerating this madness. And we want everybody to know. That the serious we're. Up routine. And Destroy. The entire Babylon with this vicious fascism and imperialism. This has to be dealt with. And we want to deal with it. The only way that it can be dealt with. By just Sauber. Stone called revolutionaries. Motivated by revolutionary love.

Men and women who fear. The description given by comrade Chad were very cool calculating killing machines. We turned against the enemy. People who have a firm. I do the logical foundation know what they're doing and know how to do it who know how to implement their ideology. The purpose of carrying out this revolution. Yes we have to bust Timothy and Rosemary. And we have to take care of Timothy and Rosemary.

We will do that too as long as Timothy and Rosemary remain our Geria. They will have. The protection. Of the intercommunal section of the Black Panther Party. That's the only protection that they have. They don't understand what we do that all of us who are out here. Our very survival is dependent upon a political situation and that's all because. The US imperialist and fascist have. Armies of agents. Scrounging and crawling all over the planet or. Making trouble for progressive forces. And they are finally focused in on us here. And they're trying to move against us to try to destroy us here. Just for that reason that we can no longer tolerate this stupidity from Leary.

And by busting him. We let him know that we're serious about that. He see this as a contradiction. He thinks that. The prisoners in prison. Confinement is confinement. I find it ironic that myself having spent long years in prison myself not related to it not relating to. Imprisonment of the fire. But yet finding myself in a position where I had to make a decision. The bus. Timothy Leary. I say this have jokingly because. He will be released tomorrow he will be allowed to go back. To his apartment while. He be. Liberated tomorrow. But this machinery. That we have in our hands.

Is revolutionary machine. And. Clearly has received a revolutionary bust. He escaped from a reactionary bust in Babylon. Came to a large area. And now he has suffered a revolutionary bust. That's exactly where we were. The man busted you're busted. And it's acceptable to us. What. We see. In Larry's behavior is attitude. A good example of the opportunism. Of.

The White. Section of the American Revolution movement. Something has to be stopped. We hope that the weatherman will have a chance to see and hear this. And want to see it. Right on brothers or sisters. We. We took upon ourselves. Timothy and rosemary at your request. In order to demonstrate our love and solidarity for you and our great undying respect for your beautiful revolutionary work. And we say. Keep it out. But we also want to say that we think it is a mistake. When you suggest or advise people.

To turn to acid as a revolutionary weapon it's not necessary. And we're not speaking out of ignorance because. We know what acid is about. Some of us have taken trips to check it out. And we know what it's about. If we had. More information on the subject. We could take a definitive stand on it. But we don't claim to be authorities on the use of LSD. And at this particular moment we have no interest in becoming authorities. If we did we could certainly do that by tripping out on the acid that we've confiscated from these hippies or you present treaties that have been flocking to Algeria to pay homage to their guy. Timothy Leary. But that's not where we're coming from that's not what it's about. And we think it will be good.

If you could. Define your position the relevancy of this whole drug culture in our struggle against the death culture of Babylon. Because in terms of a protracted struggle and in the long term view the drug culture is part and parcel of the deaf culture. And it's a result of the pressures of the Babylonian social system on people it forces them to see escapes from the awesome confrontation that is upon us.