Comments Elsewhere

Patrick,

Yes, I’d consider the Black Panther Party and SNCC during its Black Power phase to be members of the radical Left. Besides their explicit development of Marxian revolutionary thought (which they both embraced and substantially altered in order to adapt it to the situation as they saw it), it’s also worth noting that a number of other paradigmatic New Left groups at the time (SDS, Weather, the Young Lords, American Indian Movement, etc.), and other groups with roots in the radical Left (New York Radical Women, etc.) considered SNCC in its Black Power phase, and the Black Panther Party, to be leading members of the American Left.

None of this, of course, is the same thing as saying that they were correct; I take “Left” to be a term of ideological analysis, not necessarily a term of praise. As for myself, I think that there are valid criticisms to be made of the Black Power tendency, but they are mostly criticisms that applied to the New Left as a whole at the time (e.g. the pseudo-revolutionary embrace of violent, patriarchal masculinity); as for the debate between integrationist approaches and Black nationalism, I think there are important and valid criticisms on both sides, but I don’t have any strong opinion as to who’s right, all things considered (and since I’m not a member of the Black community I don’t think that any strong opinions that I had about the best way for Black people to organize themselves, or the best things for them to fight for, would be worth much anyway).