This sequence introduces, practically and theoretically...
in practice and in theory, what the film is going to be.
To find correct links...
between theory and practice...
we start with two images of Lenin.
in paranthesis, Vladimir.
One picture of him writing, one of him talking.
To each of these pictures, the word "theory" is added.
then the word "practice"...
theory, then practice.
Add two more images:
one of a camera, one of a tape recorder.
We also hear a voice, Karl Rosa's voice...
coordinating this group or sequence of pictures...
in paranthesis: Lenin, the words "theory" and "practice"...
the camera, Nagra; end of parenthesis.
The voice tells us where it's located.
In a film. But which film?
And what was the previous film?
The previous film was on Palestine.
Thus the voice places itself within a given process,
which it perceives and controls only in part,
and only imperfectly.
The voice first asks itself
why it is making this film called "Vladimir and Rosa"...
and answers that it is through economic necessity,
to pay for the film on Palestine.
To pay for the film on Palestine...
But the voice also observes that
the economic necessity of making a film
does not prevent this necessity
from being part of a larger movement.
Part of a larger movement,
a political movement.
A process which
endeavors to be revolutionary.
The voice has arraigned a mode of production,
and to see how the case is going,
it is about to take part in the making of a film
a film aimed at a political analysis
of the meaning behind the charges brought
by bourgeois justice against radicals
arrested for so-called riots and conspiracy.
Riots and conspiracy.
The voice knows it is committed to a
revolutionary movement fighting conservatism.
The real title of the film should be:
The Meaning of the Charges Against...
the meaning of the charges against...
Clearly, then, the film will be both theoretical:
what is the meaning of the trials of radicals
in imperialist countries?
-- and practical:
how can the portrayal of such a trial,
its reflection (in recorded images and sound)
be achieved
as accurately as possible?
That is, how should the film be made
in practice?
How should it be shot and recorded,
so that in theory
(i.e., during screening)
it will be useful to people who see it?
It was decided to start from a real basis:
the Chicago trial
in which US imperialism prosecuted
its own children.
I'm still for non-violence!
It's me! Julian!
But you told me to go with them!
It's me! Julian! You told me to go with them!
The government had a report
of its own investigation:
the riot had been organized by the police.
But the government also had the findings of a poll showing
that 2/3 of the American people
condone police violence.
So they indicted 8 cops on the one hand
and 8 radicals on the other.
The cops' trial was kept quiet.
The radicals' trial got all the publicity.
The defendants were carefully selected.
Yves, a revolutionary student from Berkeley,
Anne, active in the
Women's Liberation Front.
And me, Friedrich Vladimir.
I'm a friend of Danny's...
Danny the Red. We were in the Moscow Circus together...
Back in its hey-day, of course.
No, that's me again, Karl Rosa.
There was David, a peacenik MD...
There was Juliet, a true-blue red...
She'd been with the Weathermen,
and I think she'd been in Japan
with the maoist students.
Jacky, a "maladjusted" worker
from the Paris suburbs.
And Bobby, from the Black Panthers.
One, two...
three, four, five...
No, that's me again, Karl Rosa.
Six, seven...
eight.
No, that's still me, Karl Rosa!
The papers called it the "Conspiracy Trial".
Bobby's case is a bit different.
He just spoke at a rally before the demonstration,
then split. But the government,
was bent on having a nigger on trial.
So he's here.
He's the only one who's not out on bail:
he's already accused of killing a cop.
The government just took him out of jail...
1,800 miles away... and brought him here to jail again.
1,800 miles away!
Why and on what grounds is imperialism...
trying these Eight?
Well, we just told you:
the government's own violence
forced it to arrest 8 cops
and indict them
(eternal justice).
And so, to restore the balance, the government has decided
to indict a representative
of each type of radicalism
(class justice).
It's against the law to cross a State line
with intent to incite a riot.
The law dates from May 3, 1968.
Not to incite to riot, just to have the intent to do it.
Or the intent to have the intent.
Either way,
it's what the law calls "conspiracy".
I told Rosa that to tell this story
(since the government has so clouded the issue),
the best approach is to get a bird's eye view
in the hope of juggling all the balls at once.
It means leaving out a lot,
like the make of the gun
that was shoved against
Bobby's ear so he'd shut his filthy mouth.
But a bird's eye view will at least amount to
talking about the rain before the clouds gather.
Usually, in films it's the opposite.
It's a complicated story; but, as radicals,
our job is to serve others by simplifying it.
Our Chinese comrades call this "serving the people".
Has the prosecution any questions to ask the jury?
No, Your Honor! Looks like a fine, upstanding jury to me!
Any questions, Mr. Kunstler?
Quite a few, Your Honor!
Do you consider young men who resist the draft
because they're against the war in Vietnam
as cowards and traitors?
Ever move out
of a "borderline neighborhood"?
Ever hear of Archie Shepp or Eric Clapton?
Do you admire Servan-Schreiber
and Billy Graham?
Those questions are out of order.
the jury has now been chosen.
And I want to make it clear
that anyone with long hair and weird clothes,
who can't talk politely and properly
in polite, proper places
will join the defendants.
Will the witness define
a subversive organization?
It's any organization that raises problems
for the city or the county.
Objection! Answer unclear and irrelevant.
Objection overruled.
It's a clear, relevant definition.
So if a football team can't find a field
and raises problems for the city
then it's a subversive organization.
Objection!
Objection sustained.
We'd like to ask the witness
why his police force
drew up a so-called security plan;
I say "so-called," for we've just learned
it was drawn up two months before
the announcement of the demonstration.
Objection! That's a leading question!
Objection sustained.
My colleague is right:
in a political trial, all questions lead someplace!
Your honor, I request that you overrule the objection.
Objection sustained.
The witness will not answer the question.
This is not a political trial.
As far as I'm concerned, it's a criminal trial.
That's what the arch-criminal Hitler said
to G. Dimitrov, a political activist.
Political...
I'm fed up with that word!
Just what do you mean by political?
I feel I'm answering, Sir.
Let the record show that the defendant said:
"I feel I'm answering the question."
Well, I feel you're not answering!
If Your Honor will
hear my client out
and ask questions afterwards,
it will help him to present his defense.
I'm sure Your Honor is anxious to see that
Yves Alfonso has a fair trial.
You know me, Mr. Kunstler, and therefore you know
that this trial will be conducted...
democratically!
All right, I'll agree...
But I'd like you to discuss
the rights guaranteed by the Constitution,
labor union rights,
and also that future society of yours.
I'm on trial here as an alleged specialist
in the art of instigating
various acts
regarded by some as criminal.
"Regarded by some!" There's the crux!
For the masses disagree, they applaud the actions
which foreshadow their coming liberation.
This difference of interpretation
is inherent in
the class struggle.
Remember the posters
that the Nazis put up in Europe in '44
"exposing" revolutionary activists
as terrorists and criminals.
Brecht's 3-Penny Opera
depicts bourgeois morality
in underworld terms; it's as valid today as ever,
for among us is a handful of hoodlums
who own the power structure:
police, army,
television,
newspapers,
and the law.
These rich gangsters
openly despoil the masses, and commit willful murder;
so it's logical for them to pass off rebels
as criminals.
I'm accused of preaching violence,
but capitalism has made violence a daily thing.
For capitalism means exploitation, humiliation,
and repression of a vast majority.
Am I in charge of the National Guard?
Do I use the third degree?
No!
Nor is it I who invented guerrilla actions;
I didn't invent rebellion
or mass uprising.
The people did that,
when they ransacked the Bank of America,
cut down the apples trees of rich landowners
or stormed the metro without paying.
You speak of democracy!
The ruling class always has the system it needs,
and the system makes a farce of democracy.
Courts aren't for the masses:
justice is too expensive for the people.
Lawyers cost a fortune!
And legal-aid lawyers always try to make deals:
a plea of guilty to a minor charge in return for
an acquittal on a major one.
The poor can't afford bail.
Appeals are costly. The transcript required
for an appeal is too expensive for the poor.
Also: no poor person, Black, or radical,
can expect a fair trial from a jury.
Its members are picked from the phonebook,
from the list of local property owners
and the electoral rolls, i.e., from classes which
have a vested interest in society's remaining unchanged.
...contradictory...
...so let's take...
something...
which makes it possible...
to bring out the contradictions...
show how we're trying...
to clear up the situation....
that oppresses us...
What did we say?
What are we in?...
We're in a situation...
of constant repression...
and we're going to show you...
some victims of that repression...
who are nonetheless trying to break up...
a trial...
a legal proceeding...
that would be...
that would be pretty good...
I know now why we chose...
a proceeding:
it's because we're involved in a process.
a revolutionary process...
...and in the movies
you come up against balls...
sugar-coated bullets, but deadly all the same...
which explains
all our difficulties...
it's the reason why we can't even talk...
contradiction...
between theory and practice.
Take Jacky's case, for example,
I'm drawn to him most particularly...
His actions may be individualistic,
they're also quite spontaneous.
At times, he Breaks with the System...
telling them all to go to hell
or refusing to pay in the subway because
he's sick of getting up at 6
in order to be at work by 8
It's purely spontaneous, and remains individualistic
but he's the one who beats up the boss.
It's a revolt that goes beyond him,
it's an example for others.
Then he finds more guys with him.
But he's still fighting alone, as best he can.
That's why he talks so little
in life and in the film.
Something's taking shape there,
but it's not clear yet.
For Dave Dellinger, the Break is something else:
He's different...
He's a graduate of Washington University.
He's 53 years old.
A pacifist.
A CO who first served time during WW2.
He was at a seminary for Theological Union.
He was going to be drafted as a chaplain.
He refused to go, he didn't want anything to do
with any army.
He got a year and a day in jail.
He got out, refused to go again, went back to jail.
He's a guy like Gandhi or Martin Luther King.
He marched, he sat in.
He's been arrested at 100s of demonstrations.
And he's still at it.
To see him at a demo,
you can't tell if he's scared.
He's as dead-pan as a lumberjack
except for
that stubborn look he has
when he lets the cops drag him away...
or when he intervenes personally
if there's real trouble.
Not that it doesn't
take courage to step in front of a cop's stick.
But writing petitions all the time...
what's the use?
It didn't help the Rosenbergs much, did it?
And the Stockholm Appeal didn't do much, either.
So he ought to Make the Break differently, too.
What a waste!
And in Sequence 3,
when Yves answers...
Yes, but he does answer...
right in the judge's face...
the speech he makes is really violent!
But do the people
in the audience realize
that this violent speech
loses its violence?
I say they don't, Rosa... Because
that scene was directed by Judge Himmler.
Don't you think so, Rosa?
Yes, it's true.
I think we ought to start over again
and show how these activists on trial
have been conditioned
by everything,
by their previous lives...
Show them away from the courtroom
Yes, that's right,
broaden the picture...
It's not so easy to Make the Break
inside the judicial system.
And the main problem, after all
is Making the Break.
But how can you show the Break in pictures?
I really don't know.
First, we have to get to know
the images that oppress us
in order to learn how to destroy them. which are often right. OK...But... let's look at the practical side: how does she live? Here she's in a kind of collective This group got together and formed a collective
and later...
Take Juliet, she fights, she fights with courage
she's already been beaten up by the police.
And then she uses
a type of discourse
which is often right.
OK, but, let's look at the practical side:
How does she live?
Here she's in a kind of collective
This group got together
and formed a collective. But they haven't really tried
to think through the reasons for it.
And anyway, how is this collective any different
from the way they lived before?
It's still pretty obscure.
There's an awfully big difference between this shot
and the shot that's meant to be political,
the one where she's got her helmet and club.
They just don't seem to go together.
And then there's John Kunstler, the lawyer
Sure, he's a nice guy
But he's got a fancy apartment
and a big car
and he rehearses his speeches
like a ham actor.
Sure, he defends revolutionaries.
He quotes the Bill of Rights
but he doesn't realize that this is a bourgeois travesty
of justice.
He waves his arms like Castro at Moncada,
but Castro was in a concrete situation,
and so was Dimitrov.
And so were the Algerian NLF prisoners.
They played the French game
since they were prisoners of war
--an undeclared war--
but they were real revolutionaries.
Here, John talks and waves his arms,
he's full of altruism
but he too must realize that
he must change his life.
It's fine to want to change other people's lives,
but you've got to start by changing your own.
Radicals stay...
they've been jailed
by bourgeois justice
for their radicalism
they must also turn their trial
into an act
of resistance
a continuation of what's happening
in colleges...
high schools...
and factories...
against the cops...
and it's not so simple...
At first sight...
our position,
in this trial, may appear
ridiculous, grotesque.
A puppet show, yes.
Yes, but in Chicago they woke America up...
Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin...
Yes, because next,
we're going to try to explain...
It is the defense's turn.
What is your name?
That's hard to say.
There are so many finks and police spies in this court,
paid by the government to infiltrate us,
that I can't even believe what I say any more!
I end up wondering if I'm not one of them!
That's right, he's a Finkerton man!
- Quiet! - That's right, and now
I may just be a finking machine.
Miss Country Joe MacDonald...
sing us the song you sang
at the meeting of the 12th.
- Objection, Your Honor! - Objection sustained.
- He's trying to influence the jury! - The witness will speak the words...
or hum the tune, but not both together.
When you've deducted the hours spent asleep
in your dormitory suburb, or half-suffocating in the subway-bus
Same rat-race, morning and evening, rain or shine
- ...time marches on. - Yesterday, today, tomorrow
- Every day, alarm rings at 5. - Catch the train at 6...
Clock in or out.
The starting gates open and 1000s of robots
rush off to 10 hours in a nightmare factory
reeking with tons of steel
- ...and sticky with grease... - While the rich still dream...
their privileged dreams
Beyond those hellish hours, is any life left?
The swimming pool on Sunday mornings
Management-organized leisures
in cat house clubs for suckers
- But there's a struggle. - That's only just begun:
none but you can find the meaning of justice
Comrade, the fruit of your sweat is yours.
Comrade, what you paid for in blood is yours.
Quake with fear, privileged scum!
Your dream has soured, and your nightmare will be our feast!
Can you explain to me, Mr. Rosa,
the reason for this strike
when the workers have just enjoyed
a 5-cent raise?
What do you mean by "enjoyed"
a 5-cent raise?
I mean they have more money
and hence greater enjoyment.
So if the government gives you 5 cents an hour
you get a hard-on?
Absolutely!
Contempt of court!
Extreme contempt of court.
Quiet!
Objection, Your Honor!
The defendant is evading the issue.
Objection sustained.
The defendant must answer questions directly.
I play my lines so that their implications will be evident,
in other words,
delivering them may satisfy the speaker
or anger him. And we, too,
may be angered or satisfied with such words.
This makes it harder to look at films
the 1st effect often doesn't appear
till a 2nd viewing.
Quiet!
- Who are you? - A dirty nigger by choice.
What's your name?
Uptheass! My Mom laid the Unknown Soldier.
- Address? - Dope-City.
- What state? - A state of mind.
My nation is alienated youth.
We carry it in our minds
like the Sioux did theirs.
Quiet!
That's enough.
We won't stand for any references to Indian philosophy.
Quiet!
Is it true that you told the press,
that your organization threatened
to put LSD in the reservoir?
Is it true that you told a reporter from Japanese television,
that you were going to perform the just act of liberation for the lions
in order to necessitate the deployment of the forces of order
to the zoo, when they were needed elsewhere?
Objection, Your Honor. Objection.
The defendant keeps repeating my questions.
Objection!
The prosecutor is using my answers as questions!
A defendant is not to echo the prosecutor!
Anyway, I say my lines before
the audience hears them.
What it hears will be in the past.
Each word coming out of my mouth follows a given path
and falls into the listener's ear.
I wait and listen to it fall:
I know our experiences are not the same
and take place at different...
- ...times - Quiet!
Quiet!
America.
Sieg Heil.
France.
Sieg Heil.
Soviet Union.
Sieg Heil.
Israel.
Sieg Heil.
And now...
we'll give you
a formal demonstration
of the use of a nightstick.
One, two, three.
I object! This film...
I object! This film is the best way to show the court
Vladimir's and Rosa's state of mind
Conclusions based on experience...
do not generally connect up...
in the same way...
as the facts behind the experience.
Simply putting conclusions together...
does not give a true image...
of the facts on which they rest.
When too many conclusions are connected up
end to end...
it is often very difficult
to refer back to the facts.
It's the whole world that produces the image
but the image
does not embrace the whole world.
It's more important to link conclusions
to experience...
than to other conclusions...
when these conclusions
are aimed at
mastering real things.
Lenin was against the idea...
of constructing...
world-images that were too complete.
Remember, Your Honor, a state of mind is what the law means
by "intent". The defendants are accused,
not of conspiracy against the security of the State...
but of intent to conspire,
or rather the intention to have the intention.
Article 23, paragraph 5...
of the decree voted on by the Senate on the 3rd of June, 1968.
Very interesting, Mr. Chrysler.
Kunstler!
Very interesting, Mr. Tobler...
Objection overruled.
Mr. Vladimir's,
and Mr. Rosa's film will not be screened.
Mr. Vladimir, can you explain to me
the meaning of the word "racist"
which Mr. Bobby X keeps throwing at me?
I'll explain to you with an image.
Imagine a worker who is so poor
he has to eat shit.
Now ask him this:
if he has to eat shit
would he rather eat shit from a white man's ass
or a black man's?
Now if he prefers white man's shit,
well then that worker is a damned racist.
Dialectical materialism is a scandal and an abomination
for the class leaders and their ideologies
because along with a clear conception of things as they are
it maintains at the same time
the knowledge of their fatal negation, their necessary destruction;
Because knowing movement itself
in which all forms are a transitory configuration,
nothing can oppose it;
Because it is essentially critical and revolutionary.
This sequence, like all those away from court
(in other words, one out of two)
is narrated by Vladimir and Rosa
who point out the general theme.
Here the theme is "Sexuality and the Break."
Anne says it is almost impossible,
as things now stand, to show in a convincing way
--that's neither fascist or anarchist--
a shot of Yves and herself...
really breaking with...
bourgeois sexual ideology.
Or even an image of herself...
this too is difficult...
even though she's fighting for women's liberation...
And tying her struggle in with the NLF's and the workers'.
- Anne? - Yes?
So we're going to show how...
Anne shows Yves that a woman's text...
(in this case, a text written by a South African woman)
becomes a completely different text
when read by a man.
ABORTION FREE, LEGAL, NO CHARGE
FOR THE RICH, THE CLINIC
FOR THE POOR, THE KNITTING NEEDLE
ABORTION IS A QUESTION OF CLASS
"Today, women from every walk of life
know they are oppressed
and want to join forces
to take the reins of our liberation.
We must revolt at home,
at work and in the streets
against the capitalist system that oppresses us
and the ideologies that enslave us.
Dare to fight. Unite.
Women's liberation, year zero."
Not bad.
We discussed this with Juliet.
She can't relate it to the trial.
When she's in a women's prison...
she'll see the relationship.
She's different.
Agitation is necessary, of course...
but if the women jurors...
heard anything like this...
they just wouldn't get it.
It would be a start, wouldn't it?
Yes, but maybe a false start.
We should talk to the others first.
Don't you think so?
The others are like you.
They say they understand, but they don't.
"We women fight for the time when we no longer
will get less pay than a man for the same work...
no longer live off our men,
do unpaid yet socially essential housework."
I understand that.
"Our bodies are exploited...
because we are not allowed to choose whether to have a child...
because of the ban on abortion...
and the moral pressures on our sex life.
We must bow to feminine norms...
imposed by advertising...
to earn recognition."
That should be clear to anyone.
When we've all gotten 2 years...
none of us will fuck any more, that's for sure.
It's safe to say that when you're locked up for 2 years
there won't be any more fucking.
But what's complicated about any of that?
Yes, Yves. But fucking is one subject
I'm sure I'll talk about differently
than you or your cellmates.
And even Juliet will see that women's minds
are shaped by their situation in society.
Even Juliet will realize
that the social existence of women determines their thought.
Of course: we're men,
And you're girls.
Oh, shit!
OK, I guess I don't get it.
Shit.
OK, I don't get it, I'll listen...
I'll just listen.
OK, I don't get it.
I'll listen.
What you don't get is that you don't get it!
What is this?
That was written by a black woman, an African...
it was published in the Black Panther paper...
July 2nd, 1970.
"Triple oppression:
Women's Liberation Front declares:
our struggle is linked
to that of the working class, in all aspects.
Both anti-slavery...
and women's rights movements...
are still a threat to the establishment for the same reasons.
Both blacks and women
can be paid less.
Until both are organized on an equal basis...
and are no longer discriminated against...
they'll be the weak spot in the working class front.
Of course, blacks are exploited more.
And at every class level.
Most black women are triply exploited:
as blacks, as women and as workers.
Women are underpaid,
except, to some extent,
in the professions.
In periods of unemployment,
they often have no chance of finding work
except as servants.
In South Africa, a black woman can work as a maid,
a farm hand
or in a factory: she's the cheapest labor available.
Most working women...
in South Africa and England too...
are non-specialized workers or maids.
Women workers are exploited twice:
by their husbands and by Capitalism.
A worker, though exploited by the system...
collaborates with it
in his relations with his wife.
Whether they get along or not,
he still exploits her.
With the rise of property, women became
an object of exploitation.
Slave, serf or wage earner,
women have always been...
vassals par excellence.
Middle class women are also exploited
even middle class professional women.
For they are so bent on proving
their efficiency in work controlled by men
that they work much harder for less pay
and they do it just to keep their jobs
in a competitive field.
They are told that aggressiveness and force of character
are not attractive in a woman.
That's why they can't get rid
of old prejudices, like:
"a woman's place is in the home."
Not to attract a man, no matter who,
is felt to be a lost "business opportunity."
Which is why aggressiveness in her profession
is always regarded as a loss of femininity.
And for example, radical feminists
are often told by male radicals that they want to castrate them,
make them impotent.
We have to listen to nonsense like:
Let me speak.
Let me finish... Like:
"When she tells men off,
she's getting back at her father."
"Messages came from women in North Vietnam
and in the NLF, from Oxford co-eds
occupying the Clarendon Building."
Make an effort, don't read like that.
Work, I'm listening, shit...
...the Clarendon Building...
and from women workers on strike in Leeds.
But most tangible
were the women's meetings held all over England...
and the exchanges of information
lists of names and organizations.
In Vietnam, women fight beside men
to free their country for socialism.
In the US, they occupied
the offices of Vogue and Newsweek,
furious at the paternalism of the men
in the Movement who put them up front at demonstrations
"just to be nice."
Darling, we want to work together.
For that we've got to think together.
Try, for once, to think with my voice.
We'll see how unlike we are, even if
our views are alike.
Stand up straight.
Face front...
The...
Women's...
Liberation...Front...
calls for...
not only...
a struggle...
for our immediate demands...
to be waged...
but also to fight...
shoulder to shoulder with the workers...
shoulder to shoulder...
with the workers...
to put an end to this system of exploitation...
of men and women by man.
CLASS WARFARE
to put an end to man's exploitation...
of men and women.
PATRIARCHAL ORDER
This sequence is composed of two shots separated by a black.
First is a first shot of Bobby.
In the commentary...
(sequence 4 explained that you...
can't just eliminate narration)
Rosa explains that the decision here to show not a black picture...
but a picture of a black, was prompted by...
the fact that for a Black Panther...
the Break has a different meaning.
Racist oppression
and the struggle to which they are committed
has already caused the Panthers to Break
with bourgeois imperialist society.
And having broken with society,
their way of maintaining the Break
when society tries them
is to demand the strict application
of the rules of the game of bourgeois justice.
By this simple demand...
Black radicals deepen the system's contradictions...
exposing its so-called democracy...
and good old liberal objectivity.
Witness the method of defense used by Bobby Seale...
in Chicago:
he asked to be defended by a separate lawyer
which the judge refused to let him have.
Then he asked to represent himself,
to be his own lawyer,
and this the judge refused, too.
I have no more questions.
I'd like to cross-examine the witness.
Your lawyer has done that.
Bobby X is not my client and never was.
My lawyer's not here. I'll defend myself!
Again it's apparent to this court that defendant Bobby X
is deliberately obstructing
and sabotaging the federal system of justice.
That's a lie!
I want to defend myself...
on behalf of the Bill of Rights.
Let the record show...
that the defendant refuses to behave,
despite the admonishments of the Court.
Let the record show...
Bobby X is upholding his rights!
I am bound by law to declare...
that if the defendant...
fails to heed our warnings...
he will be guilty of contempt of Court!
I've a right to speak
on behalf of my constitutional rights!
I hope that's clear. It's all I've got to say.
I'll go on saying what's necessary for my defense.
May I cross-examine?
Let the record show the tone of Bobby X's voice
was one of shrieking and pounding on the table.
That will be dealt with in the future.
But Bobby wasn't shouting or pounding that day.
Later, when he did cross-examine a witness
and the judge stopped him,
he cooly quoted the penal code.
Section 1892, paragraph 42 of the penal code of the US...
in an ironic tone of voice.
While the judge was obviously furious
X remained very calm...
throughout.
I still argue that...
the court has no right to deny...
my right to conduct my own defense.
Mr. Kunstler is your lawyer.
Bobby X is not my client.
I have not asked Mr. Kunstler to defend me.
Quiet!
Mr. X, are you going to stop obstructing justice
or must I ask the marshals to...
I want to discuss my right to defend myself!
Court is adjourned!
Marshal, take that defendant out and deal with him as he shall be dealt with
"It's the final struggle"
The prosecution may examine the witness.
Was the girl wearing a black power symbol fist or wasn't she?
Not the black power sign.
The power to the people sign!
And you just made another racist statement.
Objection! He keeps calling me a racist!
Objection sustained.
Imperialism is a whore!
Being black here is like playing Russian Roulette...
with 6 slugs in the gun!
No matter what, you get fucked over.
Quiet!
- X was the exception... - Quiet!
- Sticking to his claim... - Quiet!
Maintaining carefully his point of view
that he was being denied his right to legal assistance.
He'd wait until Kunstler had cross-examined a witness...
and then he'd stand up and ask his questions.
The judge would stop him.
His outbursts would be recorded again
in the transcript of the trial.
At times, they'd force him to sit.
He never interrupted
the trial at any other time.
At times, Kunstler would interrupt
to remind the judge that he was not
X's lawyer.
Sometimes, as on Bobby's birthday...
it was the prosecutor who started it all.
As Bobby was in jail between sessions...
(that murder charge)...
the others saw him only in court.
So Kunstler asked the judge's permission
for the other defendants...
to bring X a birthday cake in court.
Himmler said he'd let no one bring anyone a birthday cake.
The other defendants were just outside the door
Vladimir carried the cake...
as they filed in.
You can jail a cake, but not a revolution.
Silence!
OK, brothers, cool it for now.
I give the orders here!
They won't obey a racist judge.
Marshal, deal with him as he should be dealt with.
Now, some black leader, during which Vladimir and Rosa...
explain that
Bobby's "legalistic" defense
is a consequence of his having Broken with society.
His co-defendants...
must adopt, each in his or her own way...
an "anti-legalistic" defense...
in order to join Bobby in his rebellion.
So we decided to show you an image of a pacifist...
breaking with his non-violent ideology...
and actually struggling, instead of staying cool
while getting slugged
after he calmly insulted the judge
to protest against the treatment given Bobby.
This sequence will last a good 10 seconds.
Flouting an enemy flag...
is the craziest thing I've ever seen
anybody do in a courtroom.
Marshal, destroy that flag.
A minute of silence for the war-dead
of the battlefieds of South-East Asia!
I forbid you to speak! It will be recorded...
- that this man... - David Dellinger.
I forbid you to finish my sentences!
The prosecution may proceed.
Simply tell the court what you saw.
After the order to disperse was given...
I saw this man and others...
run and shout:
- Bullshit. - ..."Everybody to the Hilton!"
Your Honor, in all my career I have never heard such...
- ...obscenity in court! - You've never been on...
trial here and had to listen to liars,
paid by the government, talking crap.
How dare you, counselor! How dare you, counselor!
Take him out and deal with him as he should be dealt with.
Every evening...
after the trial...
we gave...
a press conference.
Since we were all...
out on bail...
except for Bobby...
on account of...
his murder charge...
in Connecticut.
Our problem...
during each press conference...
was this:
while John...
was telling the reporters...
about our daily struggle...
against imperialist justice...
Vladimir and Rosa forced...
the imperialist...
TV cameras...
to shoot Bobby's absence...
instead of our presence.
In others words, forced...
the cameras...
- ...the enemy... - ...the enemy...
to shoot politically...
a political fact...
- ...that was more important... - ...that was more important...
than the faces of us radicals.
If we fight...
all day long...
with the police...
we must also fight...
the police state's press.
It's logical.
Open the sequence.
Before Your Honor came in...
Bobby X stood up...
and spoke to the blacks in this room.
- You're right. - And said if he is...
I spoke on behalf of my constitutional rights.
I have a right to do that,
and to do what I can for myself!
And he told those people out there...
I want this on the record...
- Objection, Your Honor. - Objection overruled!
he was talking about an attack by them...
and he said...
You dirty liar!
An attack on them, not by them...
An attack from the pigs!
I said: fight back!
You're a rotten racist pig.
A fascist liar!
You're a bullshit liar,
A lying fascist pig.
I said they had the right to fight back
if they're attacked!
You're lying!
An attack on them,
not by them!
From the pigs!
I told them to defend themselves.
Racist!
You're just a...
fascist liar.
A liar,
a dirty lying fascist pig.
We've a right to fight back!
And I hope it was recorded and
exposes Nixon's prosecutor
for the liar he is!
We've a right to fight back!
If you attack me, I'll fight back!
That is what he said,
as he related it.
How so?
In terms of a physical attack...
An attack by those damned Marshals, I said!
People have a right...
to fight if they're attacked!
SMALL FIGHTS FORM... LARGE REVOLTS
My bike's broken.
This car isn't bad...
- Where'd you steal it? - From the street behind my house.
Did stealing it change you any?
Sure, now I go farther...
and come back faster.
I worked in that factory. For 3 years.
When I play my music...
I feel I'm still working there.
Because, after all...
it's the only music made for the people in there.
It's because I worked in there that I play it.
I thought they only liked Tom Jones.
They don't give a damn about rock.
Yes...
Right now they don't.
Because every day, when they listen...
to the radio, they're brainwashed.
Throughout the day...
all they hear...
is the latest bourgeois crap.
That music isn't their struggle.
It's dream-music, it makes them forget..
that they sit all day at their machines
like jerks.
It talks to them about Mustangs,
about Suburbia
and Blighted Love.
My music doesn't.
Mine talks about their daily lives:
about getting on the metro without paying,
about cops slugging them.
The way they slug me.
And the cops slug me because I play that music.
And the cops know that.
The contradictions of rotting capitalism
hit youth most particularly in four areas:
education; work; draft and the army;
cops and justice.
First: in school-prisons...
the young are crammed with racist, chauvinist,
jingoist, anti-communist...
and anti-working class lies.
What I'd like to do with my guitar...
is one shrill shout, one big, shrill shout...
a shout, a scream...
"Shout" is feeble, really.
It's a scream I want,
a howl, for all the people...
locked up in that factory-prison all day long...
locked up in that military prison.
Well, they're people.
What's stopping you? You've got all those...
electronic instruments!
Why don't you do it?
It's because right now nobody want to hear a scream...
and because the people...
on top want to keep the others from hearing it,
for fear that they'd all...
start screaming together!
Second: unemployment among the young
is 3 times the national average.
Insofar as more and more jobs...
are threatened by automation...
and the fall of specialized industries...
the unions act to ensure employment for those who already have jobs.
The newcomers on the labor market...
can't find work...
so that unemployment is increasing.
(stepped-up production norms...
and lowered safety standards have...
a like effect).
When my guitar screams, I want the people...
to hear it first thing in the morning...
I want it to burn their ears, be with them all day.
Why? So they'll have to wake up!
You can't sleep well...
with a scream in your ears.
I want them to hear it,
all day, every day.
- Why? - So they'll start the revolution.
Sunday night, he screamed: "The street belongs to the people"...
"Let's throw out...
- ...the pigs!" - How did the crowd react?
- They cheered. - Was much use made of vulgar language?
Objection, Your Honor.
The defendant's speech habits are immaterial.
Beside the point.
He's not on trial for bad language.
Overruled!
They're very much to the point!
I'm beginning to dig.
- What did you say? - I said: I dig.
The prosecution has the floor, not you!
OK, I'll be quiet.
Let us dig into the past for a moment...
and shed some light on Jacky Martin's morals.
He is already known to the police:
At 17, he had intercourse...
with his sister, aged 15...
and was sentenced to 7 months.
The legal-aid lawyer...
told him to plead guilty to avoid a worse charge.
We only had one blanket, that was why!
And the judge told me I should kill myself.
He said beasts have to be destroyed.
If the defendant continues to ignore the Court's directives
he will be found guilty of contempt of Court.
OK, I dig, I'll shut up.
Will you be quiet?
Do you understand English?
Will you be quiet?
Will you, yes or no?
Yes or no?
YES, you motherfucking fascist capitalist bastard!
During this black passage,
Vladimir and Rosa decided it would be good...
to pan from Jacky to Bobby and back again,
to show the objective ties between...
the wild revolt of young workers...
and the black revolutionary movement.
We will later prove that this man incited...
the crowd to return to the park and fight the police.
- What a farce! - Who said that?
- I want to know. - David Dellinger...
I did, I'm overcome by the prosecutor's dishonesty!
Objection!
- Objection sustained! - Himmler, I want to say...
- "Judge Himmler" to you! - I believe in equality.
I forbid you to make a mockery of this country's laws!
Stop, sir, stop! I'll talk about violence!
The girls got out of the car,
threw him down, stripped him,
jumped him, and left him senseless...
from kicks in the stomach.
It took Angelo two days to recover...
he needed...
Up with Women's Liberation Front, Year Zero!
Stop, sir, stop! I'll talk about violence!
We of the Movement feel...
that there are only 2 choices.
to become soldiers...
in the revolutionary war...
or sink into our bourgeois holes...
and become anti-communist pigs.
Young people have the greatest revolutionary potential.
Because their privileges have not been institutionalized,
and they are the most alienated part of the Western White working class
A single word will not transform lefties...
into revolutionaries.
Only actions and words together can do it.
And this alone is not enough, since a young white person...
can always return to a bourgeois hole of abundance and privilege...
because of his or her white skin.
Always, unless one submerges oneself...
totally in revolution...
not only in one's ideas...
but also in one's way of life.
Hello?
Is this El Al airlines?
Good afternoon...
In your opinion...
what is it that ticks...
weighs 5 lbs...
and is now flying...
from Tel Aviv to Washington?
At this moment...
Armed struggle is becoming generalized,
not just as acts of sabotage...
but as overt attacks on...
all the forces...
of imperialism, whichever...
and wherever they are.
Fine, we're all lumpen proletarians.
Lumpen proletariats.
We've no vested interest in the means of production...
and capitalist institutions.
Nor any security in our relations with the means of production...
and these institutions.
The lumpen form a reserve labor corps...
that is always in reserve.
They've never worked, and never will.
They've no qualifications...
and no aptitudes.
They've been replaced by machines,
automation and cybernetics.
Management has refused to invest in them...
by training them for new techniques.
They live on welfare and social security.
Is agitation complicated? No!
Print clear tracts...
right on target.
Stickers you can stick anywhere.
But in both cases,
the wiles of war are necessary.
Stir up the next workshop
if the boss turns his back.
If he won't turn his back, back him up to the wall,
so you can agitate freely.
It just takes a little daring and solidarity.
In an automated economy...
you cannot ascribe...
the high level of production...
to the working class alone.
Computers are not part...
of the working class,
even if some who claim to speak for the working class,
and especially certain "Marxist-Leninists"
seem to act like machines or computers.
Why discuss for hours a workshop's aims,
and its immediate objectives.
Do not focus on the future.
Only discussion based on practice is useful.
Or unity around ways of fighting the bosses.
That's how you start to organize. It's easy.
The lumpen must create their own rebel forces...
in terms of their own life...
their special relations...
to the means of production and to social institutions.
They must attack all the structures around them...
including the right wing of their own class...
when it tries to bar the road to revolution.
Mr. Kunstler, you may cross-examine the witness.
This witness' testimony concerns only Bobby X...
and I am not his lawyer.
I'd like to cross-examine the witness.
No! That's settled! Sit down!
Why did you follow me? Sit down, nigger!
Have you ever tried to infiltrate the Black Panthers?
Have you ever killed a Black Panther?
This Court adjudges Bobby X guilty...
of contempt of Court...
in sequences...
7, 9 and 13...
and commits him to imprisonment for a term...
of 16 months on each and every specification...
the sentences to run consecutively.
Moreover, Bobby X's trial...
for conspiracy will be...
separated from that of his co-defendants.
Objection, Your Honor.
It was an insult to defense and counsel...
to read that sentence so theatrically.
I speak with the voice God gave me.
Palestinians hijack planes God didn't give them!
What's this black section mean?
We just had a shot of Kunstler refusing to represent Bobby...
then one of the judge banishing Bobby...
for alleged contempt of Court.
This black section means the disappearance...
of Bobby, a black radical.
So for once, this black screen really means something:
Bobby's absence.
For us, Vladimir and Rosa...
it's a great victory in filmmaking.
We've been toting those black frames around...
for ever so long.
Since May, 1968...
to hide a bladeless knife without a handle.
At first, these black frames...
were shots we couldn't shoot, we'd say...
they belonged to CBS...
and we couldn't afford them...
so we'd put black leader instead.
Then we realized those black frames were...
shots we didn't know how to shoot:
shots of bourgeois ideology and imperialism...
and they weren't even black,
they were colored...
like in any James Bond movie.
So we started looking for black images...
production relationships...
images that define...
relationships.
Our problem...
is to begin with black...
in order to show colors different from those in...
bourgeois and imperialist films.
And so now, after shots of Yves...
of the jury, Vladimir, Rosa...
or Juliet, a black shot...
indicating that Bobby is gone...
has meaning at last, it's a victory.
A real victory, not like Proust's maid...
a victory in the sense of "Hasta la victoria"...
a contribution to the Palestinian struggle.
Your Honor, this is a government fake.
I won't tolerate insults to the government in this Court!
Be careful, Mr. Kunstler.
Let a committee of 2 look into the matter.
One chosen by the government, the other by the defense.
I'm in charge here and I'm old enough...
to make my own investigations.
Miss Russel.
What's in this letter?
"Look out, we're watching you." Signed: the Black Panthers.
Have you ever seen this letter before?
No, never.
Now that you have, tell me, child:
can you still keep an open mind...
- ...as a member of this jury? - No, sir.
Objection!
The juror had never seen the letter.
Your Honor showed it to her...
and led her to say she's no longer impartial.
Objection overruled.
As usual, Your Dishonor.
What?
What was that?
What? What?
What?
I said: the defense is overruled as usual...
Your Dishonor.
This is becoming intolerable, Mr. Kunstler...
Let the jury be tested...
to see if it's been affected by recent events...
or by the Court's crazy antics.
This is the last time!
Objection, Your Honor. The vulgarity of the defense
is unprecedented.
My methods are those of the prosecution!
You fag leftist lawyer! You commie!
Silence!
Defense's request is rejected...
because it was not properly stated.
May I repeat it...properly?
No, a thousand times no!
Don't try to outsmart me, Mr. Kunstler.
Let's get back to it.
What is a riot?
According to the law of May 1st, 1968...
it's a public disorder involving violence...
perpetrated by 3 or more persons.
It doesn't matter which of the 3 persons commits the violent act,
so long as they're together.
Take 3 people lying in bed,
and a 4th drops an ashtray out a window.
Legally, it's a riot.
There's also a definition of violence here.
It can be aimed at property...
not just a person.
3 kids slashing a tire... that's a riot!
To put it another way...
officers have testifed...
that Yves Alfonso's...
tires were slashed...
and testimony has shown by whom!
We may therefore reverse the accusation:
the city police are guilty of rioting!
There are more than 3 of us in this room...
so this session is a riot too...
and as you say, you're in charge of it!
Do you wish to call any more witnesses?
Yes, Your Honor.
Then be quick about it. Let's not waste time...
vacation is coming.
You deserve a vacation.
My last witness is Judge Ernest Adolf Himmler...
Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Courts...
appointed by the government...
to stage the proceeding known as...
"the trial of the eight"...
and now...
eight minus one.
Why did the witness, in sequence 3...
find a statement "clear" when it was not?
Objection, Your Honor.
Sustained.
Now, Your Honor, should I answer?
The witness need not answer.
In sequence 7, a motion by the defense was rejected
because counsel had not given...
4-hour notice.
2 minutes later...
you granted a prosecution motion.
Why? Why?
Objection!
Sustained!
Must I answer?
No, honorable witness. You needn't respond to the question.
I've been here 4 1/2 months...
watching Your Dishonor juggle objections...
like an old monkey with peanuts.
I know now that this is a fascist trial.
I say this from the bottom of my heart...
even if I'm to be disbarred and jailed...
for I know of no better reason...
to be disbarred and jailed.
Right on.
The country's future must no longer be...
allowed to depend upon the interests...
of a handful of millionaires...
or their coldly calculated profits.
THE BOSS CAN PAY!
Right on.
There is no justice in this courtroom.
This trial is meaningless.
Jailing these people is legal lynching.
The Declaration of Human Rights:
says that if a government violates a people's rights...
insurrection is a sacred right...
indeed an obligation.
When an individual seizes absolute power...
he must be put to death by free men.
who've nothing to lose but the chains...
you've laden us with.
As free men, we sentence you to die.
The Court instructs the jury...
that when deliberating its verdict...
not to be influenced by any personal hostility...
it may feel...
toward the defandants' long hair...
weird clothes...
wild manners...
political convictions, or inflamed speeches.
May God assist you.
Hitler may have been right:
in our society, wild beasts...
should be destroyed.
Comrades and friends in the audience.
In a few minutes, the verdict will be read.
We know in advance what it will be...
since one of our jobs as radicals...
is to analyze in the present...
what happened in the past...
so as to know what will happen in the future...
and know how to act tomorrow and the day after.
Our comrade Bobby X...
is going to read the sentences.
and then draw his own conclusions from the trial.
Charge of conspiracy, the Chicago 8: not guilty.
On the charge of infringing paragraph 8...
of the law dated June 11, 1969...
paragraph also known as the Lumumba amendment:
having violated this amendment...
against crossing a state line with intent to...
or intent to have the intent to...
incite a riot...
Anne Wiazemsky and Jacky Martin, not guilty.
Friedrich Vladimir, Karl Rosa, David Dellinger...
Juliet Berto, Yves Afonso and myself...
Bobby X, guilty.
The maximum sentence under the law...
is 5 years and $10,000.
Himmler-the-dwarf won't be hard on us:
he'll give us 5 years and maybe $5,000.
In addition, for contempt of Court...
defendants will be sentenced as follows:
Yves Afonso: 1 year...
2 months, 14 days...
on 22 counts.
Anne Wiazemsky:
9 months, 17 days, on 23 counts.
David Dellinger: 2 years, 5 months...
5 days, 14 counts.
Juliet Berto: 2 years, 1 month...
18 days, 32 counts.
Jacky Martin: 1 year, 8 months...
4 days, 17 counts.
Friedrich Vladimir: 2 years, 6 months...
3 days, 57 counts.
Karl Rosa: 2 years, 2 months...
16 days, 62 counts.
John Kunstler: 4 years, 13 days...
47 counts.
I, Bobby X:
4 years, 18 days, 237 counts.
The bourgeoisie would have us believe...
that only hoodlums and gangsters...
use certain methods of liberation.
Only the bourgeoisie has the "right" to use force.
If anyone else uses force...
to preserve his or her dignity...
they are immediately vilified...
by the mass media...
who are under bourgeois control.
The Black Panther Party is going to send a letter...
to the Supreme Court.
the gist of which is that...
the death penalty is applied only to the poor...
and to people of color.
This is easily seen along death row...
that leads to the electric chair.
There, the cells are occupied solely by...
poor whites, blacks, arabs
and other colored people.
The death penalty is a class weapon.
It's time...
someone stepped between the people...
and the bloodthirsty madmen.
We regard the judicial system...
not only as a corrupt institution...
preserving the power of the bourgeoisie...
but also as a gimmick...
in the hands of treacherous murderers.
Since the police are agents of the bourgeoisie...
and the big bosses...
it is now clear that, in order to combat...
the power structure, we must lead a daily combat against...
the ordinary policeman...
for he is the bourgeoisie's foot-solider.
So too, the Vietnamese...
in order to defeat US imperialism in general...
must fight each GI in particular.
Similarly...
students must fight ordinary professors...
who are also soldiers of imperialism.
Ours is a vanguard party.
But its strength rests on the masses' confidence.
We're going to make shoes.
I've noticed that in prison...
many inmates become skilled in shoe-making.
All kinds of shoes.
They are worn by inmates...
and also sold to government agencies.
Inmates are paid 2 cents an hour.
OK.
We're going to make shoes for our people.
Most of our children go barefoot...
in Harlem, in Watts, in Philadelphia.
We want to put an end to the class system...
and to the privileges of the few.
Which does not mean putting an end...
to cultural differences.
We believe that the union of different cultures...
can be like a bouquet of flowers.
This vision...
is essential if the world is going to be better...
than it is now.
Comrades!
We're all in a state of revolt...
against the bourgeoisie.
The distinction between...
ordinary and political prisoners is artificial...
and meant to divide us.
"They" don't want us to communicate with you.
But bars cannot stop...
revolutionary ideas.
Why are you in prison, comrades?
Because you refused to work for the bourgeoisie!
Because you didn't want to be exploited...
for starvation wages...
while the boss fills his pockets...
at the expense of our sweat.
Why kill yourselves...
in places like Ford Mercedes, Renault?
You'd rather steal...
from the bourgeoisie.
You're right, comrades.
You were right.
It's always right to rebel...
against bourgeois power.
You were right, in a way.
But you've got to understand, comrades.
You've got to understand:
trying to make out all by oneself...
doesn't change much in the long run.
One petty theft...
2 hold-ups, 3 burglaries, 4 robberies...
5 murders...
won't stop the bourgeoisie from exploiting us.
Comrades, we must unite!.
THAT DAY BEGAN THE REVOLT IN ARGENTEUIL.
THE NEXT BROUGHT THOSE OF IVRY, BAGNEAUX AND MAXÉ VILLE.
We must unite with the workers and poor farmers,
ordinary soldiers and civil servants,
taxi drivers and students,
and they must unite with you inmates...
and you with them.
We must all unite, now.
Right here in this prison.
We must unite.
Tonight, when you go back to your cells.
You're fed up with this life!
So are we.
So let's unite...
and rebel!
Right here...
in this prison, in our cells, in the yard.
Let's begin.
Let's begin right here and now...
in our cells, in the canteen.
For example, in awhile, when you go back to, I don't know,
back to making light-bulb filaments...
back to fixing bicycle handlebars...
for a dollar a day, demand the union rate!
That'll make that much less for Mazda!
Comrades...
Delinquency leads to revolution...
provided you manage to leave it behind.
Comrades, this prison is yours as much as it is theirs!
Comrades and friends...
this call to resistance mustn't make us forget...
class differences.
Conclusions come at the end of an investigation, not at the start.
The only way to know a situation...
is to investigate it...
through the reality of class.
Leaders should devote themselves...
to a few towns or villages...
carrying out detailed investigations...
from the basic Marxist point of view:
class analysis.
This is the fundamental way to get to know a situation.
COMMUNISTS ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY THE MOTOR AND THE OBJECT
OF THE REVOLUTION