Talk:Power to the people (slogan)

"Power to the People" is a traditionally socialist political slogan that has been used in a wide variety of contexts.

Please explain in the article how the slogan is:

• socialist
• traditional
• traditionally socialist

And then put the words traditionally socialist back into the first sentence. --Uncle Ed

"Traditional" modifies "socialist", not "slogan". It's not a "traditional slogan". The only real question is whether the slogan was originally a socialist slogan. So far as I can tell, it was. But more direct evidence would be good. --The Cunctator

Power to the people is populism at its best.

What is the current policy on naming of slogan articles? Should this be at Slogan:Power to the people? RickK 23:07, 23 May 2004 (UTC)

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1) Re socialism: the Black Panther Party article discusses briefly how Newton's use of this phrase was rejected by some as too Marxist/Internationalist.
2) I was unable to quickly locate any earlier source for this phrase. Did it originate with the Panthers? Twang 21:54, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

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Atari slogan?

IIRC "Power to the people" was a marketing slogan that was written on the cardbox containing Atari 65 XE computer.

Since I no longer have this machine, anyone can confirm whether I am right or not?

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I've found the origin of the phrase, Huey P. Newton and the BPP coined it. Here's the relevant section of his autobiography, revoutionary suicide:

″Another expression that helped to raise Black people’s consciousness is “All Power to the People.” An expression that has meaning on several levels—political, economic, and metaphysical—it was coined by the Black Panther Party around the same time as “pig,” and has also gained wide acceptance. When we created it, I had in mind some distinct philosophical goals for the community that many people did not understand. The police and the press wanted everyone to believe that we were nothing more than a bunch of “young toughs” strutting around with guns in order to shock people. But Bobby and I always had a clear understanding of what we wanted to do. We wanted to give the community a wide variety of needed programs, and so we began in a way that would gain the community’s support. At the same time we saw the necessity of going beyond these first steps. In developing our newspaper, we were working toward our long-range goals of organizing the community around programs that the people would come to believe in strongly. We hoped these programs would come to mean so much that the people would take up guns for defense against any maneuvers by the oppressor. All these programs were aimed at one goal: complete control of the institutions in the community. Every ethnic group has particular needs that they know and understand better than anybody else; each group is the best judge of how its institutions ought to affect the lives of its members. Throughout American history ethnic groups like the Irish and Italians have established organizations and institutions within their own communities. When they achieved this political control, they had the power to deal with their problems. Yet there is still another necessary step. In the Black community, mere control of our own institutions will not automatically solve problems. For one thing, it is difficult to get enough places of work in the community to produce full employment for Blacks. The most important element in controlling our own institutions would be to organize them into co-operatives, which would end all forms of exploitation. Then the profits, or surplus, from the co-operatives would be returned to the community, expanding opportunities on all levels, and enriching life. Beyond this, our ultimate aim is to have various ethnic communities co-operating in a spirit of mutual aid, rather than competing. In this way, all communities would be allied in a common purpose through the major social, economic, and political institutions in the country. This is our long-range objective. Although we are far from realizing it, it is important that the people understand what we want for them and what are, indeed, their natural rights. Therefore, the slogan “All Power to the People” sums up our goals for Black people, as well as our deep love and commitment to them. All power comes from the people, and all power must ultimately be vested in them. Anything else is theft. Our complete faith in the people is based on our assumptions about what they require and deserve. The first of these is honesty. When it became apparent in the early days that the Black Panthers were a growing force, some people urged us to take either accommodating positions for small gains or a “Black line” based solely on race rather than economic or social strategy. These people were talking a Black game they did not really believe in. But they saw that the people believed and that the Black line could be used to mobilize them. We resisted. To us, it was both wrong and futile to deceive the people; eventually we would have to answer to them. In the metaphysical sense we based the expression “All Power to the People” on the idea of man as God. I have no other God but man, and I firmly believe that man is the highest or chief good. If you are obligated to be true and honest to anyone, it is to your God, and if each man is God, then you must be true to him. If you believe that man is the ultimate being, then you will act according to your belief. Your attitude and behavior toward man is a kind of religion in itself, with high standards of responsibility. It was especially important to me that I explore the Judaeo-Christian concept of God, because historically that concept has had an enormous impact on the lives of Black people in America. Their acceptance of the Judaeo-Christian God and religion has always meant submission and an emphasis on the rewards of the life hereafter as relief for the sufferings of the present. Christianity began as a religion for the outcast and oppressed. While the early Christians succeeded in undermining the authority and confidence of their rulers and rising up out of slavery, the Afro-American experience has been just the opposite. Already a people in slavery, when Christianity was imposed upon them, the Blacks only assumed another burden, the tyranny of the future—the hope of heaven and the fear of hell. Christianity increased their sense of hopelessness. It also projected the idea of salvation and happiness into the afterlife, where God would reward them for all their sufferings on this earth. Justice would come later, in the Promised Land. The phrase “All Power to the People” was meant to turn this around, to convince Black people that their rewards were due in the present, that it was in their power to create a Promised Land here and now. The Black Panthers have never intended to turn Black people away from religion. We want to encourage them to change their consciousness of themselves and to be less accepting of the white man’s version of God—the God of the downtrodden, the weak, and the undeserving. We want them to see themselves as the called, the chosen, and the salt of the earth. Even before we coined the phrase, I had long thought about the idea of God. I could not accept the Biblical version; the Bible is too full of contradictions and irrationality. Either you accept it, and believe, or you do not. I could not believe. I have arrived at my understanding of what is meant by God through other means—through philosophy, logic, and semantics. My opinion is that the term “God” belongs to the realm of concepts, that it is dependent upon man for its existence. If God does not exist unless man exists, then man must be here to produce God. It logically follows, then, that man created God, and if the creator is greater than that which is created, then we must hold that man is the highest good. I can understand why man feels the need to create God, particularly in earlier periods of history when scientific understanding was limited. The phenomena that man observed around him in the universe sometimes overwhelmed him; he could not explain or account for them. Therefore, he created something in his mind that was “greater” than these phenomena, something that was responsible for the mysteries in nature. But I think that when man clings to the idea of a God, whom he has created and placed in the heavens, he actually reduces himself and his own potential. The more he attributes to God, the more inferior he becomes, the less responsible for his own destiny. He says to God, “I am weak but thou art mighty,” and therefore accepts things as they are, content to leave the running of the world to a supernatural force greater than himself. This attitude embodies a kind of fatalism, which is inimical to growth and change. On the other hand, the greater man becomes, the less his God will I can understand why man feels the need to create God, particularly in earlier periods of history when scientific understanding was limited. The phenomena that man observed around him in the universe sometimes overwhelmed him; he could not explain or account for them. Therefore, he created something in his mind that was “greater” than these phenomena, something that was responsible for the mysteries in nature. But I think that when man clings to the idea of a God, whom he has created and placed in the heavens, he actually reduces himself and his own potential. The more he attributes to God, the more inferior he becomes, the less responsible for his own destiny. He says to God, “I am weak but thou art mighty,” and therefore accepts things as they are, content to leave the running of the world to a supernatural force greater than himself. This attitude embodies a kind of fatalism, which is inimical to growth and change. On the other hand, the greater man becomes, the less his God will I can understand why man feels the need to create God, particularly in earlier periods of history when scientific understanding was limited. The phenomena that man observed around him in the universe sometimes overwhelmed him; he could not explain or account for them. Therefore, he created something in his mind that was “greater” than these phenomena, something that was responsible for the mysteries in nature. But I think that when man clings to the idea of a God, whom he has created and placed in the heavens, he actually reduces himself and his own potential. The more he attributes to God, the more inferior he becomes, the less responsible for his own destiny. He says to God, “I am weak but thou art mighty,” and therefore accepts things as they are, content to leave the running of the world to a supernatural force greater than himself. This attitude embodies a kind of fatalism, which is inimical to growth and change. On the other hand, the greater man becomes, the less his God will I can understand why man feels the need to create God, particularly in earlier periods of history when scientific understanding was limited. The phenomena that man observed around him in the universe sometimes overwhelmed him; he could not explain or account for them. Therefore, he created something in his mind that was “greater” than these phenomena, something that was responsible for the mysteries in nature. But I think that when man clings to the idea of a God, whom he has created and placed in the heavens, he actually reduces himself and his own potential. The more he attributes to God, the more inferior he becomes, the less responsible for his own destiny. He says to God, “I am weak but thou art mighty,” and therefore accepts things as they are, content to leave the running of the world to a supernatural force greater than himself. This attitude embodies a kind of fatalism, which is inimical to growth and change. On the other hand, the greater man becomes, the less his God will be. None of t