White Panther Party was created in 1968 by Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon and John Sinclair) to support the Black Panther Party. It was started in response to an interview where Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party was asked in an interview what white people could do to support the Black Panthers. Newton replied that they could form a White Panther Party. Sinclair made every effort to ensure that the White Panthers were not mistaken for a white supremacist group, responding to such claims with "quite the contrary."
From a general ideological perspective, Plamondon and Sinclair modelled the White Panthers on the Black Panther Party, "fighting for a clean planet and the freeing of political prisoners. The White Panthers added other elements such as advocating rock 'n roll, dope, sex in the streets and the abolishing of capitalism." However, the White Panthers' advocacy was significantly less refined than that of their Black brethren, with colorful language and vague goals defining much of the group's existence. Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon was indicted in connection with the bombing of the CIA office in Ann Arbor a year after the founding of the group, and was arrested and imprisoned for 32 months after being pulled over by a Michigan state trooper for littering. His arrest signalled the end of the White Panthers as a functional group.
Like the Black Panthers, the White Panthers laid out a ten-point program:
Full endorsement and support of Black Panther Party's 10-Point Program
Total assault on the culture by any means necessary, including rock n' roll, dope and fucking in the streets.
Free exchange of energy and materials - we demand the end of money!
Free food, clothes, housing, dope, music, bodies, medical care - everything free for everybody!
Free access to information media - free the technology from the greed creeps!
Free time and space for all humans - dissolve all unnatural boundaries.
Free all schools and all structures from corporate rule - turn the buildings over to the people at once!
Free all prisoners everywhere - they are our brothers.
Free all soldiers at once - no more conscripted armies.
Free the people from their "leaders" - leaders suck - all power to all the people freedom means free everyone!
another ten-point program from [1] which is nearly the same:
We want freedom. We want the power for all people to determine their own destinies.
We want justice. We want an immediate and total end to all political, cultural and sexist repression of all oppressed people all over the world, particularly the repression of women, of black people and of young people.
We want a free world economy based on the free exchange of energy and materials and the end of money.
We want a clean panet and a healthy people. We want to restore the ecological balance of the planet and secure the future of humanity and it's environs.
We want a free educational system that will teach each man, woman and child on Earth exactly what each needs to know to survive and grow into his or her full human potential.
We want to free all structures from corporate rule and turn all the buildings and land over to the people at once.
We want free access to all information media and to all technology for all the people.
We want the freedom of all people who are being held against their will in the conscripted armies of the oppressor throughout the world.
We want the freedom of all political prisoners of war held in the federal state, county and city jails and prisons. We want them returned to their communities at once!
We want a free planet. We want free land, free food, free shelter, free clothing, free music and culture, free media, free technology, free education, free health care, free bodies, free people, free time and space, everything free for everybody!
References
"'60s radical takes long trip back to his roots," Marsha Low, Detroit Free Press, Oct. 27. 2004, Sec B.
