In Seize the Time, Bobby Seale talks about reading Mao and Frantz Fanon. He frequently refers to the Party and its programs as revolutionary, socialist, and communist, and denies that the programs are reformist. However, when he sets out the programs, they don't sound very "revolutionary" in the usual Marxist sense of seizing the state and establishing a dictator of the proletariat. How much did the Panthers really subscribe to a revolutionary socialist ideology? Were they adapting Marxist thought to the social conditions of black Americans, or pursuing a social-democratic reform program which they called Marxist? I know they got into fights with the police, but did they attempt any organized violent revolutionary action?

Bonus question: is there a consensus on whether Bobby Seale was involved in the killing of Alex Rackley?