The Birth Of The Black Brigade

In those fleeting days since the last issue of Bragg Briefs, The Black Brigade has formed it's hard core center and is steadily attracting those concerned individuals who make up the backbone of the military establishment. Black people in the military have been so complacent and passively non-thinking for so long that the mere whisper rebellion, of any sort, becomes a booming challenge to their manhood. So far, the challenge has been met from every unit on post, and as the sun rises each morning it shines upon a new face in the Brigade. The Brigade was very late in coming, in fact, terribly so, but as the old saying goes' better late than never.

Before the advent of The Black Brigade the only real outlet for grievances against the oppressive-racist nature of the military was "barracks talk", "latrine bitching" and letters to congressmen that would usually end up in file 13. However, private and public interreat [sic] has increased and the channels of communication are more direct. Now is the time for all black G.I.'s to add their voices collectively to the demand for immediate and constructive changes within the current military system. NOW! Now and not tommorow for to wait for tommorow is to wait for a rerun of yesterday. And this is exactly what a lot of brothers intend to do, to wait for tommorow(ETS) and 'tom' in between. This is exactly what the Army wants of all it's draftees and enlistees! Complete and total submission to the system! Anything less would be considered a defect in moral character. And whenever some individual generates enough gall to stand up and raise his fist at the monster he is then said to be in need of discipline to correct the deficiency in his moral character. Thus one to the principle of the Brigade is to serve as a permanent reminder to the Westmorelands Throckmortons, and Tolsons that as Black men in a racist society our moral commitments in life are not ended where our indentur-ed lives begin.

They must also be made to realize that because our bodies are controlled that this is no reason to think that our minds' are also.

Freedom of thought is considered to be a communist plot by some of the babbling mentalities of our brass. The chains of oppression are being loosened and many of our brothers are walking out on the entire scene of being a military minded brainwashed uncle tom. These people have no desire to suffer those thousand unnatural shocks which their minds are not heir to. They have seen how a training program (Airborne, Ranger Green Berets, etc.) laced with nationalistic propoganda can instill a mechanical like obediance to the point of actually substituting his normal behavior.But other Black Soldiers are still being sent to Nam to protect America's myths. Black Brothers are still dying over seas as a result of obeying the prime directive established for a finished and brainwashed product of the system. There is no need for such systematic genocide to continue! Ideas have been put forward, letters have been written, telephone calls have been made, but still the same racist rhetoric abounds. Now is the time for action, the chains are loosening and the coming changes will bury those vho refuse to find out where it's at. The Black Brigade is offering directions, plans are being made for the publishing of a newpaper for the Black G.I., Do It Loud!; the first issue should appear in January. The Black Brigade is offering every Brother a chance to do something for his people! The Black Brigade is here to stay until every vestige of racism has been destroyed! “A slave who dies of natural causes cannot balance the weight of two dead flies on the scales of eternity!” Eldridge Cleaver.

JOIN US POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Bragg Briefs, vol. 2, no. 5

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The Birth Of The Black Brigade