Seize the Time:
Or the manifesto on how to oppose this racist, capitalist oppression (black) people and other peoples are subjected to.
The 1970 book telling it like it is
If I had to choose ten books which had undue influence on Belgo Geordie, the bairn, this would be one*. I cut my political teeth on this book and went bollocks to "Cider with Rosie" (good book but!) and used Seize the Time for my 1971 English O level paper (were meant to be novel and so what!), it was still a story and a powerful narrative of what can happen when good men and women take a stand. Not sure why a weedy, white Geordie found this book so profound. But reading back on it, it remains relevant and a call to political action at the most fundamental of levels.
Recently watching the animated version of the Chicago trial (Hoffman et al) I was reminded how much black America paid a huge price compared to most of the white revolutionaries of that era. Huey Newton stating " I'm standing on my constitutional rights. I'm going to stop you from brutalizing my people". But Huey and Bobby and others were targeted and brutalised. Why did the other defendants not take a stand when Bobby Seale was shackled and gagged during the Chicago trial? These were watershed moments where key white political activists did not stand up to be counted. Bobby Seale was jailed for four years at the end of this trail for contempt of court when all he was doing was asking his right to represent himself. And this schism of injustice still resonates through America and the world today.
Polemics aside, look at what Bobby Seale was expressing in this book through his writing; Breakfasts for children, soup kitchens for the poor and needy and free education as a means of gaining literacy and freedom. Does that still not resonate? And the Black Panthers were better in the equality of women domain than the Hippy/Yuppies who treated women like shag machines under the guise of free love.
It was easy to be sucked into the leather jackets, the black gloved raised fist, sunglasses and guns-then later the drug appetites and miss what this was about. Newton's principal to stand up for basic human rights. The right not to be harassed, the right to challenge being treated as unequal because of the colour of your skin, to stand against the principal be condemned by birth to have to struggle to access good education, a healthy diet, meaningful work and a life based on autonomy and respect. The pressure put on the Black Panthers would have crushed most of us as flat as a milk bottle top but most of these people stood up and although some cracked, don’t let it take away from the message. We all have a right to basic things in life. Reflect on that with our current love of consumerism produced by sweat labour, our shallow media of ten second sound bites, imagery out of context. We the majority in the developed world still get by on the dispossession of the many. This book written during 1960- 1970 is still relevant today. Seize the time Bobby Seale-you were a courageous and forthright man and I for one, honour you to this day.
*Bugger! Allreet, Me Family an' Other Animals was another
No comments:
Post a Comment