Prashad/Hampton on Solidarity and Struggle

I'd prefer to quote others than to stretch my usually quite prosaic thoughts to blog-worthiness. So I initiate the excerpt series with Vijay Prashad from The Karma of Brown Folk, quoting Black Panther Fred Hampton:

"Solidarity must be crafted on the basis of both commonalities and differences, on the basis of a theoretically aware translation of our mutual contradictions into political practice. Political struggle is the crucible of the future, and our political categories simply enable us to enter the crucible rather than tell us much about what will be produced in the process of the struggle. 'Some things if you stretch it so far, it'll be another thing,' Fred Hampton explained. 'Did you ever cook something so long that it turns into something else? Ain't that right? That's what we're talking about with politics.'"