Screed 4:
CONSTITUTION AND PROGRAM
The constitutional document of the Symbionese group is also the production of a committee or convention rather than a single intelligence. Though dated August 21, 1973, it was undoubtedly put together earlier, and from documents of other organizations made at a still earlier time. It was among the writings found by the police after the Concord house occupied by Russell Little, David Remiro, Nancy Ling Perry, and others was set afire. The text below is from the typescript released to Radio Station KPFA and the Hearst family after the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst.
When it arrived at KPFA, the document was enjambed with the document called "Goals of the Symbionese Liberation Army", which I give below as Screed 5. But evidence of tone and style, as well as much overlapping and some minor contradictions, show that it was composed at a different time, and at meetings dominated by a different mood. Evidence of grammar shows, moreover, that it was originally prepared as the controlling vehicle of the Symbionese Federation, and that references to the Symbionese Liberation Army were added later. Readers sensitive to English prose style will note jarring inconsistencies of skill and tone among the preparers of the document, and conclude that at least two, and possibly three, documents were drawn into the single pandect. It was in the process of this assembly that the militant and terrorist aspect of Symbionism came to the fore.
Other differences which the document embodies, and perhaps harmonizes, are those between Black and Integrated policies, and American and International policies. The insistence upon "Black and minority leadership" in the first paragraph points to a date after the Berkeley street kids had been joined by the escaped Black prisoners. As elsewhere in the screeds, appeals are made to all social fractions which have recently elected to define themselves as abused and thwarted. The appeal to "Asian, Black, Brown, Indian, White, Women, Grey [old], and Gay [homosexual]" is hopeless as Left practical politics, since the fractions are irreconcilable except within a broadly defined constitutional democracy such as the U.S.A. But the SLA was only following the media.
In this document is the seed of a slightly different but much more important dialectical problem which keeps recurring in later screeds of the Symbionese. In the second paragraph, the writers insist that their Federation is "NOT A GOVERNMENT": in the third paragraph they insist that it is "NOT A PARTY". What then is it? Later attempts to establish a positive identity indicate a philosophical tangle well illustrated by the mystifying assertion that the SLA is "made up of members of all the people". The confusion was perhaps intended: it is important for a Federation which claims to constitute mankind to leave room open for all mankind to claim membership in it.
The forensic result of the confusion is also advantageous. Since the "enemy" is identified mainly by slogans and maxims, and never really defined, and the Federation people are defined mainly as the victims of this enemy, the principle of militancy is reduced to action alone. As Prince Kropotkin liked to point out, it is always impossible for such dilemmas to be settled except through simple medium of revolutionary violence.
THE SYMBIONESE FEDERATION & THE SYMBIONESE
LIBERATION ARMY DECLARATION OF REVOLUTIONARY
WAR & THE SYMBIONESE PROGRAM
August 21, 1973
The Symbionese Federation and The Symbionese Liberation Army is a united and federated grouping of members of different races and people and socialist political parties of the oppressed people of The Fascist United States of America, who have under black and minority leadership formed and joined The Symbionese Federated Republic and have agreed to struggle together in behalf
of all their people and races and political parties interest in the gaining of FREEDOM and SELF DETERMINATION and INDEPENDANCE for all their people and races.
The Symbionese Federation is NOT A GOVERNMENT, but rather it is a united and federated formation of members of different races and people and political parties who have agreed to struggle in a UNITED FRONT for the independance and self determination of each of their races and people and The Liquidation of the Common Enemy. [ sic, for all spellings.]
And who by this federated formation represent their future and independant pre-governments and nations of their people and races. The Symbionese Federation is NOT A PARTY, but rather is a Federation, for its members are made up of members of all political parties and organizations and races of all the most oppressed people of this fascist nation, thereby forming unity and the full representation of the interests of all the people.
The Symbionese Liberation Army is an army of the people, and is made up of members of all the people. The S.L.A. has no political power or political person over it that dictates who will fight and die if needed for the freedom of our people and children, but does not risk their life or fight too for our freedom, but rather the S.L.A. is both political and military in that in the S.L.A. the army officer, whether female or male, is also the political officer and they both are the daughters and sons of the people and they both fight as well as speak for the freedom of our people and children.
The Symbionese Federation and The Symbionese Liberation Army is [sic] made up of the aged, youth and women and men of all races and people. The name Symbionese is taken from the word symbiosis and we define its meaning as a body of dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep and loving harmony and partnership in the best interest of all within the body.
We of the Symbionese Federation and The S.L.A. define ourselves by this name because it states that we are no longer willing to allow the enemy of all our people and children to murder, oppress and exploit us nor define us by color and thereby maintain division among us, but rather have joined together under black and minority leadership in behalf of all our different races and people to build a better and new world for our children and people's future. We are a United Front and Federated Coalition of members from the Asian, Black, Brown, Indian, White, Women, Grey and Gay Liberation Movements. Who have all come to see and understand that only if we unite and build our new world and future, will there really be a future for our children and people. We of the People, and not the ruling capitalist class, will build a new world and system. Where there is really freedom and a true meaning to justice and equality for all women and men of all races and people, and an end to the murder and oppression, exploitation of all people.
We of the Symbionese Federation and The S.L.A. are the children of all oppressed people, who have decided to redefine ourselves as a Symbionese Race and People. Yet, recognizing the rich cultures of each and enforcing our rights to existance [sic] of our many cultures within a united federation of independant and sovereign nations, each of them flourishing and protected by its own laws and codes of self determination.
We are of many colors, but yet of one mind, for we all in history's time on this earth have become part of each other in suffering and in mind, and have agreed that the murder, oppression, and exploitation of our children and people must end now, for we all have seen the murder, oppression and exploitation of our people for too long under the hand of the same enemy and class of people and under the same system.
Knowing this, the Symbionese Federation and The S.L.A. know that our often murderous alienation from each other aids and is one of the fundamental strengths behind the ruling capitalist class's ability to murder and oppress us all. By not allowing them to define us by color, and also recognizing that by refusing ourselves to also internalize this false division definition[sic], knowing that in mind and body we are facing the same enemy and that we are all comrades of one people, the murdered and oppressed, we are now able to become a united people under the Symbionese Federation and make true the words of our codes of unity that TO DIE A RACE, AND BE BORN A NATION, IS TO BECOME FREE.
Therefore, we of the Symbionese Federation and The S.L.A. DO NOT under the rights of human beings submit to the murder, oppression and exploitation of our children and people and do under the rights granted to the people under The Declaration of Independance of The United States, do now by the rights of our children and people and by Force of Arms and with every drop of our blood, Declare Revolutionary War against The Fascist Capitalist Class, and all their agents of murder, oppression and exploitation. We support by Force of Arms the just struggles of all oppressed people for self determination and independance [sic] within the United States and The World. And hereby offer to all liberation movements, revolutionary workers groups, and peoples organizations our total aid and support for the struggle for freedom and justice for all people and races. We call upon all revolutionary black and other oppressed people within the Fascist United States to come together and join The Symbionese Federation and fight in the forces of The Symbionese Liberation Army.
