Angela Davis Speaks at Black Panther Rally (1969)

Davis. [applause] Yeah I just like to say that I like being called Sister much more than professor and I have continually said that if my job of keeping my job means that I have to make any compromises in the liberation struggle in this country then I'll gladly leave my job. This is my position. There's been a lot of debate. In the love sector of the anti-war movement as to what the orientation of that movement should be. I think there are two main issues at hand. One group of people feels that the movement the anti-war movement ought to be a single issue movement the cessation of the war in Vietnam. They do not want to relate it to the other kinds and forms of repression that are taking place here in this country. There is another group of people who say that we have to make those

connections. We have to talk about what's happening in Vietnam as being a symptom of something that's happening all over the world of something that's happening in this country. And in order for the anti-war movement to be effective it has to link up with the struggle for black and brown liberation in this country with the struggle of exploited white workers. Now I think we should ask ourselves why that first group of people want the anti-war movement to be a single issue movement. Somehow they feel that it's necessary to tone down the political content of that movement in order to attract as many people as possible. They think that mere numbers will be enough in order to effect this government's policy. But I think we have to talk about the political content we have to talk about the necessity to raise the level of consciousness

of the people who are involved in that movement. And if you analyze the war in Vietnam. First of all it ought to become obvious. That. If. The United States government pulled its troops out of Vietnam but that repression would have to crop up somewhere else. And in fact we're saying that as, as this country is being defeated in Vietnam. More and more acts of oppression are occurring here on the domestic scene. And I just like to point to the most dramatic one in the last couple of weeks which is the chaining and gagging of Chairman Bobby Seale and is sentenced to four years for contempt of court. I think that demonstrates that if the linkup is not made between what's happening in Vietnam and what's happening here we may very well face a period of full

blown fascism very soon. Now I think there's something perhaps more profound that we are to point to. This whole economy in this country is a war economy. It's based on the fact that more and more and more weapons are being produced. What happens if the war in Vietnam ceases how is the economy going to stand unless another Vietnam is created. And who is to determine where that Vietnam is going to be. It can be abroad it can be right here at home. And I think it's becoming evident that that Vietnam is entering the streets of this country it's becoming evident in all the brutal forms of repression which we can see every day of our lives here. And this reminds me. Because I think this is very relevant to what's happening in Vietnam that is the military situation in this country. I saw on television last week

that the head of the National Guard in California decided that from now on their military activities are going to be concentrated in three main areas. Now what are these areas? First of all he says disruption in minority communities. Then he says disruption on the campus. Then he says disruption in industrial areas. I think it points to the fact that there are going to begin to use that whole military apparatus in order to put down the resistance in the black and brown community, on the campuses, in the working class communities. I think that they are really preparing for this now. It's evident that the terror is becoming not just isolated instances of police brutality here and

there but the terror is becoming an everyday instrument of the institutions of this country. Chief of the National Guard said that out right.