Intercommunalism is an ideology which was adopted by the Oakland chapter of the Black Panther Party after its turn away from revolutionary nationalism in 1970. According to Huey P. Newton the development of intercommunalism was necessary "because nations have been transformed into communities of the world." Intercommunalists believe that most forms of nationalism are obsolescent, because international corporations and technologically advanced imperialist states have reduced most nations down to a series of discrete communities which exist to supply an imperial center, a situation called reactionary intercommunalism. They also believe this situation can be transformed into revolutionary intercommunalism and eventually communism if communities are able to link "liberated zones" together into a united front against imperialism. Intercommunalism is a lesser-known aspect of the Panthers' legacy as much of its development occurred at the height of the party's suppression and reorientation towards survival programs.
Development
At the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966, the party's stated ideology was Black nationalism influenced by the work of Malcolm X. According to Newton, the Panthers saw that other peoples had seen material gains through forming nations and therefore "argued that it was rational and logical for them to believe that their sufferings as a people would end when they established a nation of their own, composed of their own people."
However, confrontations with the US state led to the belief that separatist nationalism within the United States would be impossible without an attack on multiple fronts against the US police and military. The party adopted a revolutionary nationalist ideology and sought to join "with all the other people in the world struggling for decolonization and nationhood, and called [themselves] a "dispersed colony" because [they] did not have the geographical concentration that other so-called colonies had."
According to Newton, the basic ideas on Intercommunalism came to him while working on a letter to the Communist Party of Vietnam. He felt that there was a contradiction inherent in supporting the revolutionary nationalism of the Vietnamese people, while also disclaiming the nationalism of other Black Power groups. Newton felt that to call himself an internationalist and critic of American nationalism while supporting Vietnamese nationalism was both contradictory and condescending towards the Vietnamese. While Newton ultimately sent the letter (and harmed the Party's relationship with Black nationalist groups in the process), he was unhappy with it for months, and developed the theory of intercommunalism in response to the problems the letter raised. From this point on Newton argued that both nationalism and internationalism were obsolete due to US hegemony. This shift in perspective was made public in a speech at Boston College on November 18, 1970.
The theory of Intercommunalism also reflected Newton's need to reassert himself within the party after years in prison. It has been suggested that much of the Oakland chapter's shift in direction had to do with a perceived need to distance the party from Eldridge Cleaver and his strategy of Cold War alliance-building in Asia to prepare for a guerrilla war across North America.
Theory
Dialectical materialism
Intercommunalism is a dialectical materialist ideology. Newton attempted to stretch and redefine the term for a new colonial context in a manner similar to Frantz Fanon. He was also opposed to historical materialism, which Newton saw as dogmatic, or mechanical in its application of dialectics. Newton particularly disagreed with the view that the proletariat would be the sole revolutionary agent, as he continued to believe in the revolutionary potential of the lumpenproletariat.
Newton saw intercommunalism as situated within the tradition of Karl Marx's materialism, but not as a necessarily Marxist ideology. Newton believed that many Marxists "cherish the conclusions which Marx arrived at through his method, but they throw away the method itself – leaving themselves in a totally static posture. That is why most Marxists really are historical materialists: they look to the past to get answers for the future, and that does not work."
Reactionary intercommunalism
Newton believed that imperialism had developed into a stage of reactionary intercommunalism. Reactionary intercommunalism is typified by the development of a tiny community of elites with a monopoly on technology and state power within a single hegemonic empire (currently the United States).