Thursday, December 02, 2004

Ron Artest Ain't the Problem! A Revolutionary Take on "Fight Night in the NBA"

Editor's Note: The below opinion piece has been published in The Black Sports Network, ChickenBones: A Journal , Davy D's Hip Hop Corner, Free Voices: eZine of the People, The Weekly Challenger (Tampa Bay) and the New York Beacon.

November 26, 2004

The replays have been run so many times the scene has become etched in my brain. The Indiana Pacers' Ron Artest laying a hard foul on Ben Wallace of the Detroit Pistons near the end of the game. Wallace coming back at him with two hands to the throat, and Artest walking away from this potentially explosive situation and laying down on the scorers' table. (I'm told this is an anger management tactic.) Then a cup full of some liquid comes flying out of the stands onto Artest and the brawl is on. Players going into the stands, fans running onto the court. Beer, chairs and punches being thrown. Endless video replays accompanied by seemingly endless articles and panels of talking heads supporting the suspensions NBA Commissioner David Stern hit Artest and several other Pacers with and talking about Artest as a troubled young man who needs to do to deal with his problems.

And I'm thinking what problems are they referring to--fans who douse you with beer? NBA big wigs who, with their eyes focused on their bottom line, make an example out of you? The talk about Artest's problems or his previous run-ins with basketball's authorities is a lot of crap. Bush took the US to war in Iraq based on lies about weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's ties to Al Queda. Before that as Texas governor he presided over a record number of executions, including some where the person put to death was innocent. But news reporters don't link this to his past problems with alcohol or to his current addiction to Pat Robertson-style Christian Fascism.

In announcing Artest's suspension for the rest of the season (and Pacer players Jermaine O'Neal for 25 games and Stephen Jackson for 30 games) NBA commissioner David Stern said that Artest had broken the social contract between players and fans. What is this social contract he's talking about here? It's doesn't include a clause saying fans shouldn't abuse players. Some NBA teams institutionalize such practices. The Washington Wizards (formerly the Bullets) had a designated heckler who was seated behind the visiting team's bench. This guy would do research to determine the best way to get inside the heads of visiting players and coaches. He'd recite rewritten versions of Shaq's rap lyrics, read sections of Phil Jackson's autobiography and run down any run-ins players had with the law among other things. In places like Boston, instead of having a designated heckler, the whole crowd is encouraged to get into the act.

This social contract rests on the way the NBA has approached dealing with a problem central to its marketing strategy. The NBA is serving up a sport dominated by Black athletes and featuring the edge and attitude that Black youth bring to the game, and to life. But they are marketing that sport to a fan base that is largely white.
The league knows the game minus the power, speed, aggression and agility these players bring to it would be a pale imitation of what draws the fans out to the arenas and into the stores to buy jerseys and other paraphernalia with players' names and numbers on it. To deal with this contradiction, players are allowed, even encouraged, to show that spirit in competition, and even somewhat in combat, among each other. (Think of how much less a story this would've been if Artest had responded to Wallace's blow by throwing punches at HIM. Both of them would've gotten suspended for one or a couple of games at most.) But never, ever, should a player even think about responding to anything done to him or his team by a fan. Think of the gladiators in the Roman Coliseum, cheered or jeered for what they did against each other, but never allowed to respond to directly to the crowd for anything it said or did.

The racism embedded in this approach rests on a lot of history. I'm not mainly talking here about how this country's dragged Africans to these shores in chains and stole the land from the native inhabitants. Although I could talk about that because it's still very relevant today. I'm more speaking about basketball history. Blacks were barred from the NBA till the 50's. The best Black ball players in the country were limited to playing for the Harlem Globetrotters if they wanted to play ball for a living. Most NBA teams refused to even play the Globetrotters. (The Minneapolis Lakers, who dominated the NBA in the late 40's and early 50's, did agree to play the Globetrotters. They ended up splitting several games with them.)

Coming closer to today, the NBA publicly agonized in the 1980's over the growing numbers of Black players in the league and wondered whether and how it could sell a Black-dominated game to white fans. Out of this agonizing came two things: (1) A search for and promotion of "white hopes"--white players talented enough to stand out in a game dominated by Black players. [Sometimes this worked, e.g., Larry Bird, and sometimes it flopped, like with Danny Ferry.] And (2) Attempts to moderate the edge and attitude of the Black players.

I'm not exaggerating when I speak of them trying to moderate players' attitude. During the 1984 NBA Finals, the LA Lakers began one game by giving each other low fives instead of high fives. League officials were horrified and quickly told them not to do that again. Laker Michael Cooper said the word to not do another low five came from someone "higher than the team and lower than God." All this forms the backdrop for the widespread condemnation of Ron Artest for his role in his incident.
Let me be real clear. This incident didn't happen because of Artest's problems. Nor did it become a major story for that reason. Brawls at hockey games involving one or several of it's mostly white players fighting with some of its mostly white fans occur so often they're treated as normal occurrences. Something for some sportscaster's plays-of-the-week list. There have even been incidents where fans who ran onto baseball or football fields, interrupting games, were beaten by players, and it didn't get treated as major stories like this did. But this was basketball, with it's mostly Black players fighting with it's largely white fans.

Artest walked away from a punch to his face and ignored a towel thrown at him. But this largely gets left out of the talk about this incident. Instead the discussion begins with Artest's "hard" foul on Wallace even tho' the game was all but over and skips to him going into the stands after the fan who hit him with the cup. As for the foul, the game was all but over, but Indiana's coach still had his starting line up on the floor. So he seemed to want his players to keep playing intensely. And in going into the stands after whoever threw beer on him and punching a fan who ran onto the court and got in his face, Artest was responding to what people did to him. This is what gets talked about and analyzed, or mis-analyzed, in commentary on this incident. He was defending himself, and for that he becomes the NBA's public enemy Number #1.

When David Stern and others say that no matter what was done to him, Artest never, ever should have gone into the stands, they are applying to him a standard that doesn't get applied much in US society--turn the other cheek. Artest grew up in the Queensbridge projects in New York City. You don't turn the other cheek there unless you want to get hit again. Artest's shot to get out of the projects was through basketball, and he succeeded at it by turning himself into one of the best players in pro-ball at his position. The heart of his game is giving his all every minute he's on the floor, on offense and defense. His competitive style has led to clashes with the NBA's hierarchy and to a number of suspensions. This itself got turned into more reason to punish him harshly. David Stern noted that his previous suspensions by the NBA were taken into account in determining what punishment to give him in this case. This comes down to a retroactive repeat offender policy that has only been applied to Ron Artest.

In commenting on all this, Charles Barkley said, "These guys (referring to NBA players) have to understand the racial undercurrent in the NBA. The fans look at this stuff as Black millionaires acting stupid." This was a theme that came up often in discussion of the brawl--fan resentment of wealthy Black athletes who lack the proper gratitude or humility for their situation. A number of newspaper articles even noted the growing number of NBA stars wear their hair in cornrows as something that contributes to this resentment! (The authors of the articles bringing up cornrows could add that they are adding to and whipping up such resentment.) There is a large gap in income between the fans and NBA players. But there's an even larger gap between the economic status of the fans and that of the almost all white NBA owners. Yet the media, sports or otherwise, doesn't work to whip up the kind of resentment against them that's its pumping up in relation to Black players.

This theme of resentment and hostility to Black people who don't know their place fits right in what's being brought forward in society overall. Black youth are treated like criminals in US society, guilty until proven innocent. This has gone so far that recent studies report that 1 in 10 Black men in the US are in jail! Widespread resentment among whites towards uppity Black people helps justify outrages like this.

And we've just been through a presidential election where the party in power tried to keep as many Black people from voting as they could. I know the Republicans are denying this, but the stuff is pretty much out in the open. Florida's Attorney General drew up a list of "felons" who would be denied the right to vote. This list consisted overwhelmingly of Black people, and it was full of people who had never even been charged with a crime. Again in Florida, Black people were visited by armed police investigating their involvement in registering people to vote. Flyers were circulated in Black communities in Maryland and Michigan telling people they should vote the day after election day. And I could go on and on.

The NBA suspended Ron Artest for the rest of the season with an eye toward shoring up the league's bottom line through reinforcing a "social contract" that rests on keeping the Black athletes that give their sport its heart and soul in their places. The intense debate this incident has generated throughout society is having the effect of giving added weight to the justifications used for all the ways this society acts to keep Black people in their place overall. Some reality needs to be injected into the discussion around this, and the terms of the debate around it need to be changed.

Another Stolen Election? Time for Serious Resistance!

Editor's Note: The following article was issued by Carl just before the 2004 elections; it has been published on ChickenBones: A Journal, the Mobile (AL) Beacon, the New York Beacon among others.
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Black people have had to fight fiercely for every gain. From slave revolts down through people being killed just for trying to register to vote, every step of the way has been marked by struggle to force the authorities to grant basic rights. Now today the right to vote is being snatched back from many Black and Latino people.

Am I exaggerating? Not one bit. Earlier this year, Florida's Secretary of State issued a list of 47,000 "felons" who would be ineligible to vote. Most of them were Black. Florida was forced to make the list public, and it was found to contain thousands of errors, including having hundreds of people who were listed as being convicted in the future. This is on top of the 94,000 people, again mostly Black, who were stricken from the voting rolls by a similarly error filled list in 2000, most of whom have not still not been put back on the voting lists!

Ohio is using an old state law about the kind of paper voter registrations must be on to invalidate newly registered Black voters. The Republican Party has lined up thousands of "poll watchers," who are really political thugs, to challenge Latinos and Blacks to present proof that they are citizens or that they live in the precinct they're voting in on election day. This is another rerun of 2000 when some "poll watchers" wore shirts that falsely implied they were federal police to intimidate people from even trying to vote. Additionally, corporations tied to the Republicans have made electronic voting machines that leave no way to check the accuracy of their count that will be used in states across the country.

All this is on top of the way the criminal injustice system works to criminalize Black and Latino people. Youth of color are routinely jacked up by the cops, beaten down and arrested for nothing more than being the wrong color or having been in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is part of the reason why half of the 2 million people in jail in the US are Black.

Bush and company are out to disenfranchise millions of Black and other minority voters. THIS POINTS TO THE PROSPECT OF A STOLEN ELECTION IN 2004.

This is what the Republicans did in 2000, and the Democrats let them get away with it. They didn't build a fight to stop it and stood in the way of others who wanted to fight it. Things must be different this time. There must be massive resistance to any and all attempts by Bush and company to steal the presidency again!

Much is at stake. Bush and company have set the country on a dangerous course--a "War On Terror" (WOT), which is really a power move aimed at keeping the US the dominant imperialist power in the world. It includes the illegitimate, immoral and illegal occupation of Iraq, an intensifying repressive clamp down in the US and the promise of more wars and more repression for generations to come. The attempts to steal the election through thuggery and manipulating the vote count are an extension of the fascist direction they have the country on. Many, many people are agonizing over what can and must be done to stop all this.

As a revolutionary communist, I have to say that voting Bush out isn't going to reverse this direction. Kerry and the Democrats provide no answer to this. The terms on which this election is being fought out don't include should the US occupy Iraq or not, or should the repressive laws and policies be reversed. Instead the terms for this election come down to who would be the better commander in chief for the WOT! People who want to vote against the occupation, can't do that. People who want to vote against the USA PATRIOT Act in this election can't do that either. That's why I say the will of the people cannot and will not be exercised in this election.

We can't rely on the Democrats to lead the fight to stop Bush and his crew from stealing this election. We have to take the initiative into our hands and rely on ourselves to win this fight. The Republican Party will have its thousands of poll watching thugs at voting sites nationwide. They must be met by thousands of determined people in the streets declaring that they will not sit by while Bush steals another election. There must be massive resistance to this and to the whole agenda Bush and company have set in motion.

And we need to go beyond resistance. It's going to take revolution, millions of people rising up to overthrow this imperialist ruling class and going on to build a whole new societies in place of this one to solve all the problems this system forces countless millions in the US and millions more worldwide to endure once and for all. There is leadership that exists to lead the masses in doing just that. Bob Avakian, the chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, has analyzed the accomplishments and shortcomings of previous revolutionary societies and developed a vision of how to make revolution and how to involve the masses of people in building a new society after seizing power.

A society that is no longer dominated by a rich capitalist class, where whites no longer lord it over people of color and men no longer dominate women. Avakian is addressing all the questions that would confront us in preparing for and making revolution here in the belly of the beast, as we used to put it in the 1960'S. (Interested readers can find writings by Avakian at www.bobavakian.net.)

The ballot box has never been where the direction of the country has been decided. Nor has it been where issues of major concern for the people have been decided. But it is intolerable that Bush and company are trying to steal this election. It is a reflection of how serious things are in the US that they can't even allow the election to go down without the group in power trying to rig the result. This can't be allowed to happen. It must be met with determined resistance.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

On the Importance of the 2004 National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality

Editor's Note: The following was a message from Carl Dix to a October 22 National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality (NDP)Kickoff Meeting held in New York City on September 4, 2004. The October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, and the Stolen Lives Project, can be reached at office@october22.org.

Friends,

I would like to contribute a few thoughts about how important it is that we mobilize a powerful national outpouring for Oct 22, 2004. This is important because:

*As our research for the Stolen Lives Project makes clear, the authorities continue to give a green light to brutal, murdering cops.

*They've continued racial profiling targeting Blacks and Latinos even as they expanded this heinous practice to target Arabs, Muslims and South Asians.

*They've continued and expanded the police state clamp down they've been putting in place since Sept 11th. The severe limits on the right to protest that was put in place around the RNC were only the most recent examples of this.

The mayor has said the right to protest was a privilege that people should be glad they are allowed to exercise. Be clear that something considered a privilege is something that can be taken from you. He also said that the police did nothing wrong in making mass arrests that swept up protesters who were violating no laws and people who just happened to be walking by or riding their bikes in the vicinity. What kind of society do statements like these put us on course to be dragged into? One where cops are in people's faces everywhere all the damn time. And when challenged on all this, they come back with their bottom line justification--that what happened on Sept 11th means that people should accept, even welcome, the repressive moves by the government as what's needed to keep us safe.

It is crucial that people reject all this, and our efforts leading up to Oct 22nd and on Oct 22nd itself can play an important role in helping this to happen. NDP's approach of providing a platform for those under the gun of this official brutality and murder to expose the injustice being inflicted on them and their loved ones can bring out the truth of what's going on in a powerful way. And it's tradition of bringing into this fight allies from many different backgrounds, people of different races and from all walks of life, helps to make this fight against injustice stronger.

As a revolutionary communist, I see added importance to mounting powerful resistance on Oct 22nd. The brutality and repression the US rulers are intensifying on the home front is a necessary complement to their "war on terror" which is really a war for empire. Never is an imperialist ruling class so in need of acquiescence from the people as when it goes to war. So rejecting their lies that this police state clamp down being for our safety and taking to the streets in protest is especially important in this situation.

Also presidential elections are fast approaching, and this will be another election in which the will of the people will not be expressed at the ballot box. In my opinion, the differences between Bush and Kerry on Iraq, the "war on terror," the domestic repression and many other important issues range from narrow to nonexistent. As Bob Avakian, the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party put it, the worst thing that could happen coming out of this election is that the people's resistance becomes paralyzed and demobilized. Our efforts on Oct 22nd will help keep issues like police brutality and repression front and center for people and encourage others to also continue to build resistance to the injustice being rained down on the people.

Also in this time when Bush and Kerry are saying that people need to fight and die to keep this system and its global position in effect, exposing the way in which their cops continue to brutalize and even murder people, as well as the repression they're bringing down, can sharply pose to people whether this set up is worth fighting and dying to keep in effect. My answer to this question is clear. It isn't--in fact people need to be aiming to get rid of it thru rev and going on to bring a new society into being. A society where youth aren't treated like criminals because of the color of their skin. Where immigrants aren't rounded up and detained because of what part of the world they're from. A society where more and more of the people are being involved in grappling with how to do away with all the misery and degradation characteristic of this system.

In commenting on the police murder of Tyisha Miller, Bob Avakian spoke to what this says about the nature of this society. He pointed out that here you had all these "trained law enforcement professionals" trying to deal with an unconscious Black woman. Their way of dealing with that was to blow her away and then joke about it afterward. And the authorities then proceeded to exonerate the killer cops. We need to live in a society where law enforcement professionals are willing to risk their lives to ensure peoples' safety not murder innocent people and then claim their lives were at risk. Here Avakian was talking about Tyisha Miller, but he just as easily could've been talking about Nicholas Heyward Jr or Timothy Stansbury or Alberta Spruill or Malcolm Ferguson.

Getting rid of all the brutality and misery that this system brings down on people is going to take a revolution, and going on after the revolution to totally transform society till there's no more rich people riding the backs of everybody else to get richer, no more whites lording it over people of color, no more men dominating women. A necessary part of this kind of revolution is the people taking the reins of power in society into their own hands and dealing with all the questions that running society and totally transforming it will throw up.

From my perspective as a revolutionary communist, I see building the fight to stop police brutality and doing it in the way that this coalition has historically approached it--thru putting the responsibility to develop that fight into the hands of the people victimized by the police and those who step forward to join them in this fight--as part of getting ready and in position to do what I think is really needed--make revolution and wipe this rotten system off the face of the earth. That's why I helped form the Oct 22nd Coalition back in 1996 and why I'll be with you in mobilizing for NDP 2004.

U.S. Puts World in Crosshairs

Editor's Note: This article was web-posted on The Final Call on 10-08-2002 as a guest column.
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Sisters and brothers, the U.S. government is feeding us a pack of lies about what it’s doing to the people of the world. We’re told these people are our enemies and we should fear them. We’re told that we should back any moves the U.S. makes to gun them down and seize their countries.

As a Black GI, I heard the same lies during the Vietnam War. I refused to murder Vietnamese for them, and they sent me to Leavenworth military prison for 2 years. We can’t be intimidated or pressured to line up behind their war moves and wave their flag. It’s time to say "hell no, we won’t support your war without end!" Recently, President Bush told the cadets of West Point that he believed his government has the right to attack anywhere in the world without warning or provocation. Bush says that 60 countries were being investigated for possible attack. His Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, added that the Pentagon would be deploying its troops and commandos anywhere the U.S. wants. It will capture or assassinate anyone it considers an enemy. This would be done without announcing anything in public or telling the governments involved. These colonial actions make a joke of ideas like "national sovereignty" and "rule by the people."

For the U.S., the risk is tempting because the prize is big. They’re aiming for nothing less than unchallenged control of the world.

In the year since Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. government has bombed Afghanistan, occupied its cities and imposed a pro-U.S. government. They back Israel’s dismantling of the Palestinian Authority and occupation of the West Bank. The U.S., which wanted more influence over oil in Central Asia and cheap labor in Southeast Asia, now has new military bases from the Black Sea to Uzbekistan to the Philippines. Recently, the U.S. State Department began targeting the Maoists parties of the Philippines and Nepal.

The shock and grief of Sept. 11 is being exploited to justify the next phase of war with Iraq. The official talk of "weapons of mass destruction" is a smokescreen——a mix of lies, exaggerations and half-truths. It’s designed to hide the tightening U.S. grip on Persian Gulf oil. The Iraqi people are now placed in the crosshairs of a U.S. invasion. The people, who have endured so much, are at ground zero of a heartless assault. Many will die. Their rebuilt cities will be targeted again, and their country will be seized at gunpoint.

On the home front, we see sweeping police powers put in place——wiretapping, suspension of constitutional rights, mass jailing of Arab and Muslim immigrants without charges. Federal snitch networks seek to recruit a million participants, while discussion of torture is debated on prime time TV. The language of Big Brother has become the everyday language of government——homeland security, military tribunals and permanent war without borders.

All this is being done in our name. In the name of security and defense. This is the devil’s bargain the U.S. government wants us to make. They want us to shut up and keep quite while they run riot over the people of the world.

We can’t let this go down! They must be stopped! And it needs to begin now! On Sunday, October 6th, the day before the anniversary of the bombing of Afghanistan, mass actions will be held in major cities, NY, SF, LA and Chicago, bringing together thousands of people who will take the "Not in Our Name" Pledge of Resistance. They will declare their opposition to the government’s course and pledge to resist and stop this war on the world and escalating police state restrictions in this country.
These events will send a message to the people of the world that this government does not speak or act for all the American people. The people of the world are our sisters and brothers.

As we build our resistance, we need to be crystal clear on the nature of those who are racing towards a new war. As long as U.S. imperialism stays in power the horrors that come from their system will continue. Another world is possible.

Talkin' about a coast-to-coast revolutionary conversation: Get With the Plan to Change the World! (2001)

Editor's Note: On May 1, 2001 the release of the new Draft Programme of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA was celebrated. The following is an edited text of the keynote address by Carl Dix, RCP national spokesperson at an New York City event celebrating the release on May 5, 2001.

* * *

Revolutionary greetings from our Party to all the courageous rebels from Palestine to Seattle, from Cincinnati to Quebec, and to countless others fighting in the cities and countryside, in factories and fields, in communities and prisons all over the world. We send a red embrace to those in the trenches of Maoist people's wars. And we send our revolutionary May Day salute to the parties and organizations of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement.

It's a real honor to be here and to take part in this celebration. This is a very special May Day for all those who are impatient for change and revolution. It is with great pride in our class, in our Party, and in our communist cause that we greet and celebrate the release of the Draft Programme of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

This is a powerful document that breathes the science of revolution: Marxism- Leninism-Maoism. It is no exaggeration to say that the appearance of this Draft brings our hopes and dreams for a better world a big step closer to realization. We extend special thanks to the comrades and translators who made it possible for the Draft to come out in English and Spanish at the same time.

We want to get into two things here: first, why this Draft Programme is so important; and, second, how we see people like yourself taking it up and taking it out to others.

First, what is a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Programme and why is it so important to making revolution? To put it simply, people need to know what the revolution is all about--what proletarian revolution stands for and how it'll come about.

As Marx and Engels proclaimed in the Communist Manifesto--we communists refuse to hide our views. Our Draft Programme boldly says that the world capitalist system of exploitation and oppression is totally obsolete and unnecessary...that a radically different world is possible...and that there is a path to overthrowing the U.S. ruling class.

If you're looking for a plan to change the world...it's here. This Draft Programme is a battle plan for destroying the old order and creating the new. It answers the key questions about the basic goals of the proletarian revolution and the strategy and methods for overthrowing this system. And it lays out what it means for the masses of people to do this through their own struggle, with the leadership of their proletarian vanguard.

This new Draft Programme presents the fundamental changes that the proletariat will make upon seizing power, and the policies that will guide these changes. This Programme builds on the experiences of revolutionary struggles throughout the world. And most especially, it builds on the achievements and lessons of our class when it held state power--in the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1956 and in China from 1949 to 1976. Our Party has developed and applied this understanding to the specific conditions of making revolution in the U.S.

The Draft Programme is firmly rooted in the final goal of the world revolution -- communism. Our goal is the complete liberation of humanity, not to replace one group of exploiters with another. The liberating vision of communist society lets us dream and think "outside the box" of capitalism and its dog-eat-dog economics, politics, values, and ideology.

The communist future will be a time when there's no domination of one group of people over another. It'll be the end of human society being divided into classes, of men having power over women, of some people doing only manual labor and others doing only intellectual work, of white supremacy, and of one nation oppressing another. This will be a time when a view of the planet from outer space will be a reflection of the actual organization of human society--where there are no borders.

How are we going to achieve this goal? Go to the Draft Programme! Our Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Programme is a kind of road map for how to move towards communism concretely once we take the first giant step of overthrowing the bourgeoisie. The masses in their millions will be mobilized to build a new socialist economy where their basic needs will be met; they will be able to forge a new and liberating culture and morality; they will remake the world from bottom to top.

*****

We invite you to study and comment on the Draft Programme: its indictment of the capitalist world; its plan for building a completely new society; and its strategy to organize the masses to make revolution in the belly of the beast.

Everybody and anybody who thinks this world is intolerable and cries out for justice needs to get with the Draft Programme. If you can't accept the fact that half the population of this planet struggles to survive on less than $2 a day; if you can't accept the fact that one out of three young Black men is either in jail, on probation or parole; if you can't accept the fact that every two minutes, there's a rape or attempted rape of a woman in the U.S.--you've got to check out this Programme. If you're inspired to hear about the armed men and women of Maoist people's war in Nepal, Peru and the Philippines; if you're fighting injustice and you hunger for unity among the people; if you're simply sick of the way things are and will seriously consider a radical alternative--you'll definitely want to get with this Draft
Programme.


Now most people would agree that a fool like George W. isn't fit to rule. But we're saying their entire class is unfit to rule. The capitalists are dinosaurs and they have shown themselves to be incapable of being caretakers of the earth. But there is a class in today's world that is fit to rule and which can organize society rationally. That class is the proletariat.

The capitalists say it's unrealistic and even unthinkable to have society run any other way than by them. The Draft Programme tells us just the opposite.

Let's look at some problems in this society that the bourgeoisie has not solved. In fact, they can never solve these things because their profit-above-all system is the root cause and perpetuator. Our Maoist Programme points to how the masses of people, with state power in their hands, can and will solve these things.

Take the question of ecology. The capitalist system has not only inflicted a world of hurt on many generations but, every single day, their system brings untold damage to the planet and its resources. The Draft Programme's revolutionary solution?

"The proletariat will step by step repair the destruction of the forests, soil, water, and air. It will develop industrial and agricultural systems that are economically productive, ecologically rational, and socially just. The new society aims to interact with nature in a planned way that preserves ecological systems and fosters a deeper understanding and appreciation among the people for the richness of the natural world. (page 17)"

How about the whole set-up of white supremacy, discrimination, segregation and police brutality that is so much part of life in this country? Our Draft Programme has a lot to say about all this. For example:

"The proletarian dictatorship will destroy the army of police which enforces systematic terror in the ghettos and barrios and will punish these hired thugs.... Segregation in neighborhoods, schools, and the like will be banned and integration promoted. The proletariat will also take aim at all the national chauvinism and racist thinking, which the bourgeoisie insists is "just part of human nature. (page 19)"

And what about the youth? Our Programme says:
"The proletarian revolution will provide the youth something the bourgeoisie can never deliver: a future in which their creative energies, irreverence toward tradition, and audacity are valued. Young people's lives under socialism will be an exciting mix of stimulating education and productive labor; a wide variety of cultural and recreational activities; and, most of all, front-line participation in the most crucial political struggles of the day. (page 22)"

Those who rule over us say there's no way to defeat them because they're just too strong. Well, how could we go up against them with their organized military and high-tech weapons? Go to the Draft Programme.

It makes clear that the power of the people is still greater than the man's technology. This was the spirit of the 1960s. The struggle of the Vietnamese people who went on to defeat the U.S. imperialists was an inspiring example. Our Programme explains that the key to victory is to combine the revolutionary energy of the masses with the scientific doctrine and strategy of Maoist people's war. And it explains that with this combination, once the necessary conditions emerge, a people's war could have a real chance of winning--even in a country like the U.S.

The Draft Programme is a concrete plan for how to get from where things are today to where mass armed revolution could be launched.

We have a strategy for how to win--a strategy called the United Front Under the Leadership of the Proletariat. This strategy comes from the fact that U.S. society is made up of different classes. It lays out how and why the proletariat must work at this strategy to tell potential friends from enemies, and unite all potential friends, including many in the middle class, against the bourgeoisie. If you want to know why the fight for equality and liberation of Black, Chicano, Puerto Rican, and other oppressed peoples is bound by a thousand links with the struggle for proletarian revolution, go to the Draft Programme.

The Programme takes a kind of x-ray of U.S. society. It gives a clear picture of a society where a handful of haves exploit and abuse the many have-nots. It shows that while there is a big middle class in the United States, the great majority of them have more to gain than to lose through proletarian revolution. It reveals that there is a sizable proletariat made up of different races and nationalities in the U.S.

If you want to know who is the proletariat, and why this class can in fact lead the revolution, go to the Draft Programme. It reveals that the proletariat is strategically and powerfully placed at the foundation of this society, that it makes everything run, and is a potential army of gravediggers of capitalism. A huge infusion of women and immigrants into the ranks of the U.S. working class these past 20 years adds to its revolutionary potential.

*****

This Draft Programme, and what it has to say about creating a new society, connects with the concerns of millions of people. The work on this Draft began as the battle of Seattle erupted in late 1999, and now it is hitting the streets on the heels of a powerful rebellion of Black people in Cincinnati and militant protests against globalization in Quebec.

A new generation is more and more fighting the powers in the streets and grappling with strategy, tactics, and the way forward for humanity. This Programme must be part of that mix and find its way into many rebel hands in this next period, and among all the diverse forces committed to real change that are out there today.

During this past year, sections of revolutionary youth have contributed in many ways to producing the Draft. Investigation teams took up the Marxist method of class analysis, conducting interviews with proletarians in the sweatshops of Los Angeles, the fields of the Rio Grande Valley, and the housing projects of Chicago. Many proletarians will recognize their voice and experience in this Draft. The youthful enthusiasm for going out among the proletarians and oppressed, armed with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, needs to happen on an even higher level now that this Draft is out.

The Draft Programme concentrates a revolutionary line. It's a tool for engaging, debating with, and uniting lots of people--because it's a serious plan for making revolution. This is a scientific Programme, but it is a draft. So we want coast-to-coast and border-to-border discussions and exchanges to deepen understanding to produce the final Programme. This Draft was written with and among the masses, and this is also the way we're going to finalize it.

What's our concrete vision of this? We know a lot of good ideas will come from the youth and other masses themselves, but here are some examples:

We want to see forums on campuses where youth and veteran activists grapple with discussion in the Draft Programme on the national oppression of Chicano people and how it can be uprooted. Different groups of people could have discussions and debates, comparing and contrasting perspectives about the problem and the solution to the Chicano National Question.
We want to bring a wide range of issues in the Programme into the anti-globalization movement.

We want to see activists from housing struggles talk with socially conscious architects and urban planners about the Draft's vision of restructuring the cities. This kind of mixing it up and breaking down barriers took place during China's Cultural Revolution. Peasants and workers exchanged ideas with students and scholars over major political, cultural and educational policies.
There could be organized get-togethers between immigrant workers and native-born proletarians, and a rich mixing of languages and cultures among different groups of immigrants, such as between Arab and Mexican masses, to discuss what would a new society be like.

There can be a flowering of organized study groups in workplaces, in schools and housing projects, and behind the prison walls. Ways can be found where masses can speak bitterness about the current state of things and discuss how those at the bottom of society can change things. Unleashing the masses to take this Draft Programme up as their own is part of raising their consciousness and increasing their ability to change the world.

*****

One of the main things the Party will be doing is to send squads of people to fan out across cities and to different parts of the country--including places where the Party is not yet established organizationally or politically. These squads will be made up of youth and veteran fighters.

The Party and these squads will knock on lots of doors of people from all walks of life. We'll seek meetings with Native Americans engaged in struggles over land and resource rights. We'll talk to farmers about the problems they're facing and discuss what the Programme says about creating an agricultural system that puts the people's needs first. We'll work to dialogue with progressive artists, scientists, and intellectuals about the Draft Programme's vision of art and science serving the people. We'll talk to social justice forces in cities, suburbs, and rural areas. We want to exchange views with representatives of organizations committed to justice, change, and revolution.

In all these discussions, the Party and these squads want to dig deeply into people's views of the sweeping vision of the Draft Programme, as well as their specific issues and struggles. Through this whole process of taking this Programme out, we want to connect with people's concerns and at the same time raise their sights. We hope to advance the level of debate, understanding, and unity over key political questions focused up in the new Draft. Questions about the revolutionary potential of the proletariat in this country. Questions about how the needs of different sections of people will be met through revolution. And about the path to power in this country. We want to learn from people's responses to what's in this Draft.

During the period of broad distribution and discussions of the Draft Progamme, the Revolutionary Worker newspaper will be publicizing experiences. It will clarify questions and debates, feature correspondence and commentary. Through the Revolutionary Worker and other organized ways, the comments, criticisms, and suggestions of people will be systematically centralized by the Party and seriously considered towards finalizing the Programme.

*****

We want to conclude by saying that the Draft Programme shows what a tremendous thing it is for the oppressed of the world that inside the U.S., we have a vanguard like the RCP.

Our Draft Programme is infused with the collective wisdom of the whole Party, the understanding we've gained in carrying out revolutionary work over the past 25 years, things we've learned from continually linking our Party's revolutionary line with the struggles and insights of the masses. This Programme is internationalist to the bone. As it makes clear, we are determined and dedicated to lead the masses to make revolution here as part of the world proletarian revolution.

All this reflects the leadership of our Party Chairman Bob Avakian, and his method of combining the most far-sighted vision with the most down-to-earth practicality--of connecting our science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism with a deep understanding of the problems and challenges of the revolutionary movement.

Sisters and brothers, if you're looking for a plan to change the world...it's here. Think about what it will mean for the newly arising generation to have this powerful vision of a revolutionary future. Think about what it will mean to have this kind of overall guide to action and basic guidelines to carry out all the different aspects of revolutionary work and struggle. Think about what it will mean to have such a battle plan to unify all our efforts to serve the goal of bringing a new society and world into being through revolution.

To all those who refuse to accept this madness as the "best of all possible worlds"...to those who are struggling against injustices...to those who are looking for a way to turn the world upside down and right-side up--we invite you to join in study, discussion, and wrangling over the new Draft Programme.

If there is a revolution in the U.S., people all over the world would dance with joy in the streets. Our Party has accepted this responsibility to lead the masses to make revolution, at the earliest possible time, in the "belly of the beast." That's what this Programme is all about.

ADELANTE!
GET WITH THE DRAFT PROGRAMME!
ORGANIZE TO CHANGE THE WORLD!

Justice for Malik Jones--No More Stolen Lives! (2001)

Editor's Note: Statement by Carl Dix read by his representative in New Haven, CT commemoration for Malik Jones on April 14, 2001
* * *

Today we mark the 4th year since Malik Jones was taken from us at theage of 21 by a white East Haven cop. 21 years old! Malik was in the prime of life. He should be here with us today looking forward to decades more of life, but he was snatched from us by a killer cop.

On that day 4 years ago Malik was unarmed, riding with his friend and doing nothing wrong. Yet the cop who killed him remains unpunished to this day! The local authorities refused to put him on trial. And the feds, after dropping hints that they were going to bring charges, also found that this cop had committed no crime. What are they telling us when they rule that those who are sworn to protect and serve can murder a young man like Malik Jones and walk away without even having to face a trial?

It is bad enough that the system turned a deaf ear to the cries for Justice for Malik. What makes it even worse is that Malik is only one of many. Here in this book, Stolen Lives, the Oct 22nd Coalition has documented 2000 cases of loss of life at the hands of police and other law enforcement agents in the US in the 1990's! That's 2000 people in the space of less than 10 years. And these were just the ones we were able to find out about. Most of these victims were young, and most were Black or Latino. Most of them were unarmed and not involved in any criminal activity when they were killed by police. And in the overwhelming majority of cases, the cops who did the killing walked away scot free, just like the cop who blew away Malik.

So the murder of Malik Jones was no isolated incident or just a tragic accident. It was standard operating procedure for law enforcement in this country. Cops see 2 young Black men riding in a car and decide that they are suspicious. What was suspicious about Malik and his friend? Nothing but their Black skins! And because the rulers of this country have empowered cops to treat people who are young and Black as criminals, Malik Jones, and so many other young brothers (and some sisters too) are dead. What is the system telling you when those who are sworn to protect and serve can act like they got a license to kill our youth? They're telling you that the system isn't set up to work in your interests. That it's set up to work against you. It's no accident that cops who brutalize and kill seldom if ever get more than a slap on the wrist, if they get that much, while the jails are filled to the bursting point with our people.

How long is this kind of stuff going to go on? It's going to keep on going on till we do something about it! The cops aren't going to clean up their act. When they get caught carrying out brutality on our people, they almost never get punished, so why would they change how they operate? The courts aren't going to change any of this. The DA's and judges are part of the criminal justice system that criminalizes our people and lets killer cops walk. The politicians sure aren't going to change any of this. Many of them are out there cheerleading for brutal, murdering cops. It's up to us to do something about police brutality and police murder.

What do we have to do? I have to answer that question on 2 levels. On one level we have to organize mass resistance. An excellent example of what I mean is what Emma Jones is doing. Since the murder of her son, she has ceaselessly hounded the authorities. She's exposed what they did to her son, and she has mobilized people to join with her in fighting for justice, not just for her son, but for all the victims. Parents like her are the real heroes of this fight, and as a national organizer for the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, I've had the honor of working with dozens of parents like her in cities across the country. It hurts me to my heart to think about the agony these parents have to go thru, and it inspires me to see them stand up and fight back in the face of that intense agony. If you're somebody who's for justice, you have to support them in the fight to stop police brutality and you have to join this fight. It's going to take people like us taking to the streets and resisting in other ways. We're going to have to involve people of different races and nationalities in this fight, and people from
different backgrounds. It's going to take a massive and determined movement of resistance to put police brutality in check.

But we need to go beyond putting police brutality in check. We need to get to a point where cops can no longer murder young people and get away with it. We need to end police brutality once and for all. We need to end a situation where one country can send its military thousands of miles around the world to spy on other countries and bully them and then claim that it's the injured party when something happens to one of its spy planes. We need to end everything foul that this system brings down on the people, here and around the world.

Doing that is going to take a revolution. People on the bottom of society getting others from different backgrounds who also got problems with this set up to join with them in rising up to get rid of this system thru armed struggle. And then going on to build a whole new world on the ashes of this messed up one. A world where there's no longer a handful of rich bloodsuckers running things, getting richer by squeezing the majority of the people. A world where whites no longer lord it over people of color. A world where men no longer dominate and suppress women and where one country doesn't run the whole damned world.

This kind of world is possible sisters and brothers. The Revolutionary Communist Party has a draft programme coming out on May 1st. This programme will be a battle plan for fighting and winning revolutionary war in a country like this. If you've had it with the way the capitalists who run this country exploit and oppress people, you need to get down with the Revolutionary Communist Party and join the fight to bring this kind of world into being.

If you're someone who hates seeing a mother having to bury her child because some killer cop has blown him away and gotten off scot free, then you need to join the fight to stop police brutality. If you live here in Connecticut, you can work with Emma to build resistance to police brutality, and wherever you live, you can work with the October 22nd to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation because it's fighting to achieve the same goal. Making it so no more parents have to bury children they've lost at the hands of killer cops.

Let me leave you with this one thought. We may not win justice every time we fight for it, but we can surely say that if we don't fight for justice, we won't get any.

STOP POLICE BRUTALITY, REPRESSION AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF A GENERATION!
JUSTICE FOR MALIK JONES! NO MORE STOLEN LIVES!
THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM IS THE PROBLEM--REVOLUTION IS THE SOLUTION!

On the Verdict in the Abner Louima Case: What Will It Take to Win Justice In the Fight Against Police Brutality? (1999)

Editor's Note: This statement was issued as a flyer and published in the Revolutionary Worker in June 1999 after the convictions of NYPD officers Justin Volpe and Charles Schwarz in their role in the brutal, perverted assault on Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima.
* * *

Justin Volpe and Charles Schwarz face life in prison for raping Abner Louima with a broom stick. Good, but what about the other cops who helped abuse Louima that night back in August of '97? And not just Wiese, Bruder and Bellomo who were found not guilty in this case. What about the cops who joined in beating and disrespecting Haitian people outside the Club Rendezvous, the cops who did nothing while Louima was paraded around the station house with his pants around his ankles, the cops who heard his screams or saw him lying bleeding in his cell and the cops who helped cover up these foul deeds after the fact? The authorities routinely round up our
youth indiscriminately, sweat them till they get confessions or convict them for just being in the vicinity of illegal activity. Yet when the criminals and co-conspirators are their pigs, they are given the benefit of the doubt and more.

The convictions of the two pigs who inflicted the most vicious abuse on Abner Louima is a partial victory. These convictions only happened because Abner Louima survived their murderous attack and had the courage to speak out. AND because of the massive outpouring of resistance around this case and other cases of police brutality. Without that, these cops would never have even faced trial. This victory belongs to us, not to the justice system. But only two cops going down for the crimes that were committed that night don't add to complete justice. And it certainly ain't something that we should settle for.

With this verdict the authorities are trying to draw up their wagons around the normal brutality the New York Police Department (NYPD) dishes outbeating people, killing people, and covering up for this brutality and murder--and pronounce it as acceptable professional practice. Bruder and Wiese helped to beat Louima in the car on the way to the stationthey were only doing their job. Bellomo filed a false report backing up the lies Volpe and the other pigs told about why they arrested Abner Louima and what they did to him that nighthe was acting in a professional manner. NY Mayor Giuliani delivered this message himself when he said after the verdict that only a very few cops committed this despicable act and when they did the
police department acted swiftly and surely to deal with it.

What the NYPD actually did in the wake of the assault on Louima was to replace the head of the precinct where Abner Louima was tortured with Inspector Raymond Diaz. He had headed up the NYPD's 90th precinct. On Jan 12, 1996, cops from this precinct shot Frankie Arzuaga from behind as he sat in the back seat of a car. On Mothers' day pigs from that precinct called his mother and asked her if she liked their "Mothers' day gift" to her! Later cops from that same precinct called her house and said the mural done for Frankie in his neighborhood didn't look like him because "it didn't have a bullet hole in his head!" Both these calls were made from right in the 90th precinct station house, and Diaz was supervising the pigs who did all this!

Giuliani and company have talked a lot about how this case shows they've broken the blue wall of silence or that it was a myth to begin with. This is BS! The cops who testified against Volpe came forward days, weeks or even months after the assault on Louima. Most of them only agreed to testify to keep themselves from becoming targets of the federal prosecutors.

The culture of keeping silent when fellow cops brutalize or murder someone is still alive and well in the NYPD, mostly because the authorities refuse to do anything to root it out.

It's important that these convictions don't lull us to sleep. This is a time to step up the fight. Volpe and Schwarz still face sentencing, and just like it was our struggle that got them sent to jail, it's up to us to make sure they get long time. The case of the cops who murdered Amadou Diallo is coming up, and it will take massive outpourings in the street to see to it that justice is done in that case. There are also many other victims of police brutality and police murder. Patrick Bailey, Anibal Carrasquillo, Anthony Rosario to name a few. We need to fight for justice for them all.

On top of that, dealing out police brutality and murder isn't the work of a few rogue cops. It's part of the job description of cops in this country, and for the masses, it's part and parcel of life under system. When cops beat us down and murder us, they are serving the interests of the rich capitalists who rule over us. We can't reform this brutality away. We can't rely on the politicians to do anything to stop it either.

It's gonna take mass armed revolution to get rid of this brutality, and everything else foul about this rotten set up, once and for all. A revolution that does away with the capitalists' power structure and builds a whole new society in its place. One where there's no more rich class squeezing the rest of us to get richer, where whites don't lord it over people of color, where men don't suppress women, where one nation don't run the whole damned world. It ain't time yet to launch the all out
revolutionary assault. The system ain't deep enough in trouble, and the people aren't yet ready to put it all on the line for revolutionary change. But now is the time to escalate our resistance to police brutality. By taking to the streets in huge numbers, we forced them to try some of the pigs who tortured and brutalize Abner Louima and to convict two of them. By doing the same, we forced them to indict the pigs who murdered Amadou Diallo. We need to build on all that resistance and take it to a higher level.

What's it gonna take to win justice against brutal, murdering cops? It's gonna take us waging massive resistance, us letting the authorities know that we ain't gonna sit back and let them get away with continuing to give a green light to cops who kill and brutalize. And that we ain't gonna settle for part way justice either! This is the way we can put brutal murdering cops in check. And it's part of how we can get ready for revolution.

Taking to the Streets to Face Off with the Republican and Democractic Conventions (2000)

Editor's Note: This statement was posted on Black Radical Congress News, July 21, 2000.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Both the Republican and Democratic parties' presidential nominating conventions are coming up, and many people are trying to figure out which candidate they should back. A lot of other people are taking a different approach to the major parties' political campaigns. Rather than deciding whether they should pull the lever for the elephant or the jackass, they're coming to Philadelphia during the Republican convention and LA during the Democratic convention to protest. People are going to be in the streets opposing global corporate greed, calling for freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal and an end to the death penalty, calling out how the authorities are putting the squeeze on the poor and more. This is what people need to be doing right now -- taking to the streets forging a movement that can take on the attacks coming down on the people and the global capitalist system that's responsible for those attacks. Not supporting one or the other political party that fronts for that system.

A t-shirt being sold in Philadelphia concentrates an important part of the program of both the democratic and republican parties. It features a picture of the televised beat down of a Black man by Philly police under the words, "Republic National Convention Welcoming Committee." If you want another picture try the one of a grinning Governor Whitman of New Jersey (NJ) patting down an innocent Black
man who was a victim of double racial profiling -- first by the NJ state police and then by a governor in search of a photo-op. If you can stomach one more such image, try the police scandal in L.A., with cops snitching on each other about how they brutalize and kill people and railroad innocent people to jail. A key part of the programs of both major political parties can be summed up in three words --
pigs, prisons and punishment.

The video tape of Philly cops beating a Black man is completely in line with the history of the pig department in that city. After all this is the police department of Frank Rizzo who sicc'ed dogs on Black school children as they peacefully protested and forced Black Panthers to strip naked in the streets. And it was Philly cops who beat Delbert Africa again in front of TV cameras in 1978 as he surrendered after the first assault on the MOVE organization. In 1985, Philly cops, under orders from then Mayor Wilson Goode and with help from the FBI, dropped a bomb on an occupied house in the Black community, murdering 11 MOVE members, five of them children. Philly police were involved in railroading Mumia Abu-Jamal to Pennsylvania's death row thru bribing and intimidating witnesses to falsely accuse him of the murder of a cop and hiding evidence favorable to his defense. This same police department was caught framing up hundreds of innocent people and sending
them to jail in the 1980's and '90's. Philly cops stole the lives of Moises DeJesus, Dontae Dawson, Anthony DiDonato, and countless other victims of police murder in the 1990's. This is the real Philadelphia story, and the televised beat down is only the latest chapter.

A quick look at the candidates will show that this beat down is a fitting image for this election. On one side you have George W. "Baby Doc" Bush who has campaigned for
president like he was running for chief executioner. This "compassionate conservative" has declared that all of the 135+ people executed in Texas since he became governor were guilty and deserved to be killed by the state. This included
Shaka Sankofa (Gary Graham) whose court appointed lawyer refused to put on the witness stand two eyewitnesses who swore that Sankofa wasn't the man who shot Bobby Lambert that night. He also didn't introduce evidence that proved that the gun Sankofa had when he was arrested wasn't the murder weapon. Sankofa's case isn't the exception. It's the norm. Most of the 3,000 plus people on death row are Black
or Latino. Almost all of them are poor and couldn't afford adequate defense lawyers. with Bush as the nominee and Governor Ridge of Pennsylvania, who has signed one death
warrant for Mumia and is itching to sign another one, hosting the Republican convention, you could call it an executioners' ball.

As for Al Gore, he's declared that he wants to be the law and order president. He brags that he was part of the administration that put 100,000 more cops out on the
streets. He could also brag about the repressive legislation that was passed on his watch. Now he's pledging to hire thousands more prosecutors nationwide to use that repressive legislation to put more people in jail for longer sentences. When asked about the execution of Sankofa, this candidate of the party we're told is the lesser of two evils would only say, "I'm a strong supporter of the death penalty."

This should come as no surprise. A lot of people say that both the democrats and republicans are in the pockets of the rich. But it's even worse than that. These elections are a sham and a trap. They tell us that the elections are where the direction of the country for the next four years is going to be decided. Nothing could be further from the truth. The capitalist class that rules over us uses their
elections to set the limits of allowable debate. And they use elections to suck people into endorsing the policies they're going to bring down on us and choosing which representative of the capitalists' interests is going to preside over the carrying out of those policies.

That's why I've said for quite some time that their elections are a no win road. And that if you're serious about fundamentally changing things in this country and the
world, it's going to come down to revolutionary war. I know there are those who say that talk of revolution isn't realistic. I say what's really unrealistic is thinking we can do anything good for the people by getting sucked into
the capitalists' election shell game.

Look at what's going down in the country and the world today. The cops are being given a green light to brutalize and kill, repressive legislation is being enacted,
poor people are being warehoused in prison and on death rows across the country, a woman's right to have an abortion is under assault, the government is moving to suppress dissent.

Capitalism's global chase after profits is forcing millions world wide to slave for pennies a day to make some rich man even richer and forcing millions more to starve. If you hate all this and more, then you need to be one of the people in the streets in Philly and LA during the conventions expressing your rage. And you need to stay in the streets beyond that, building resistance to these and other outrages this system brings down and forging the kind of movement we need to take all this on, a revolutionary movement.

The Real Deal on Clinton's Impeachment and Trial (1999)

Editor's Note: This article is dated January 26, 1999.

For only the second time in American history, a president is on trial in the U.S. Senate. Many people are shocked that the impeachment steamroller has gone this far, and sense that something bigger is at stake than a garden-variety bickering and jockeying between Republicans and Democrats. The proceedings against Clinton have resembled a 20th century version of the Salem witch trials -- a full blown inquisition. So what is at the bottom of this inquisition, and what is in the interest of Black, other oppressed, and progressive people in all of this? There is in fact a "vast right-wing conspiracy".

This may not surprise those who have followed the careers of some of the key players in the impeachment and trialBoth Senator Trent Lott and Congressman Bob Barr have connections to the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens. Henry Hyde has an amendment named after him which wiped out abortion funding for poor women. Supreme Court judge Rehnquist backed the Jim Crow "separate but equal" doctrine, laws supporting wiretapping, surveillance without a court order, and preventive detention.

But most people are unaware of the real extent, strength and full agenda of the right wing network within the U.S. power structure. The impeachment inquisition was never simply about Bill Clinton. The extreme Right wants to force Clinton from office and push ahead with an aggressively repressive social and political agenda. It is a full scale campaign to reshape and unify U.S. society more solidly around the politics of cruelty -- poverty and punishment.

They want a society of "America right or wrong" jingoism, white supremacy, and women firmly under men's thumbs. The Christian Right who have risen to the top of the Republican Party, are leading a "culture war" to outlaw the anti- establishment culture and morality of the 1960s -- when millions felt righteous about fighting against the system, for justice and equality.

They want to get Clinton because they view him (though mistakenly) as a symbol of the rebellious '60s, and of "diversity" and "multiculturalism".

But why has this intense power struggle broken out at this time? There are in fact big changes since the '60s that pose real and potentially destablizing challenges to the cohesion of U.S. capitalist society todaygrowing minority population, cultural diversity, the changing role of women, and the erosion of traditional male-headed family. At the same time, global economic and social changes of the last decade demand a fiercer competitive system -- fewer constraints on big business, more cost cutting, downsizing, decline of unions -- generally more flexible and disposable labor force.

To stay on top of today's global market requires a more "lean and mean" and mobile capitalist machine. These and other changes have cut the ground from the New Deal/Great Society "glue" that held America together for the past 50 years. Social welfare programs are now considered major cost burdens. These factors are the backdrop for sharp debates in the power structure over how to maintain social control. The far Right believes traditional Christian morality must now be the cement binding U.S. society and maintaining its dominant position in the world.

From the moment Clinton took office, he has been a target of the Right whose answer to the new situation facing the system is a horrific program of poverty and punishment. But Clinton's own program has never strayed far from these politics. In fact, Clinton's specialty has been to combine the Right's politics of cruelty with the democratic rhetoric of inclusion. There is absolutely no question that the program and action of the Right must be decisively opposed, and urgently.

This inquisition has legitimized wide ranging precedents that mean very bad things for the peoplespying and prying into people's personal lives; imposing religious morality on political and legal matters; using the rule of law to entrap defendants; and dangerously expanding Grand Jury powers. The Christian fascist thrust of the inquisition has deliberately confused and combined (their versions of) "sin" with "crime" in this holy crusade where consensual sex outside marriage, or lying, will be a "sin" as well as "crime".

It has been said that Black people have a special stake in saving the Clinton presidency, that he at least shows "respect for Black people and Black culture". A lot of Black people voted last November as a means to oppose the inquisition, but it continues to bulldoze ahead, against the "will of the people". It shows that rallying behind Clinton and the Democrats is not the way to stop the right wing power move. Clinton is the most conservative Democratic President since Truman. He is the commander-in-chief who ordered repeated bombings of Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

He presided over the escalation of the war on immigrants with the stepped up militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. He has slashed welfare, and moved to dismantle public housing with the "one strike you're out" policy where people can be evicted from public housing if anyone in their household (or a guest) is accused (not even convicted) of "violent or drug related" crime. In the area of gutting civil liberties, Clinton has refused to be outdone by his conservative opponents.

He has signed laws expanding the use of wiretaps; endorsed and enforced racist policies such as increasing the use of the death penalty, the criminalization and incarceration of a generation of Black and Latino youth, and the crack sentencing (and mandatory minimum) laws. With a friend like that, who needs enemies? So how DO we get out of this bad situation? We should find ways to speak out and protest this ugly inquisition. All who are repulsed by the right wing agenda should join together and oppose it in all its aspects. We need to mobilize the broadest ranks of the people, and build up determined and mass resistance.

We need to unite people of different nationalities, from many different walks of life, to fight the entire reactionary and repressive agenda -- whether in opposing police brutality or the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal. We need to take matters in our own hands, rely on ourselves to take truly independent political action, breaking out of the bounds and terms set by the very establishment forces we oppose.

This might be harder than hoping that Clinton and the Democrats will save us from the rampage of the Christian Right, but it is far more realistic.

Crucial Hour In the Battle For Mumia Abu-Jamal's Life (1999)

Editor's Note: This statement posted on BRC-News.

September 16, 1999

Imagine a case in which a person isn't allowed to represent himself...witnesses are threatened or even arrested on the stand...a man charged with killing a cop is tried by a judge who is a lifetime member of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)...[the] appeal is heard and denied by a court where five out of [the] seven judges have either received campaign contributions or campaign endorsements from the FOP...[and] a "confession" was manufactured. I don't have to imagine such a case. It's mine." (Mumia Abu-Jamal in Source magazine, February 1999)

1999 is a crucial year of decision in the fight to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal. And Mumia Awareness Week, September 19-25, is a pivotal hour of outreach and activity, to culminate in marches and rallies in dozens of cities on September 25.
Last year, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously rejected Mumia's appeal of an unjust conviction. Before the end of October, his lawyers will file his appeal in Federal Courts. This filing will initiate the crucial and FINAL rounds of the legal battle.

To be blunt, unless there is tremendous POLITICAL pressure brought on the power structure, Mumia will be killed within the next few years. It is urgent that we send up a roar that will rattle the cowardly hearts of the powers-that-be with our message: WE WILL NOT LET YOU KILL MUMIA. We weren't able to stop the assassination of Malcolm X or Fred Hampton. But we can and must do everything to stop the government from its legal assassination of Mumia.

Mumia is the only political prisoner on death row.* He's been there since 1982. His railroad typifies how the U.S. government deals with political opponents--especially revolutionaries who connect with those on the bottom of society.

On December 9, 1981, Mumia was driving his cab on a downtown Philadelphia street. He saw a cop beating his brother, and he rushed to the scene. When the smoke cleared, Mumia was shot in the chest. Nearby, Philadelphia cop Daniel Faulkner lay dying from bullet wounds. Mumia was charged with Faulkner's death. The prosecution suppressed evidence, removed 11 qualified African-Americans from the jury, threatened and
bribed witnesses, and used Mumia's history in the Black Panthers to argue for the death sentence.

As a teenager in Philadelphia, Mumia was the Minister of Information of the Black Panther Party. Later, as a radio journalist he was known as the "voice of the voiceless." He supported the MOVE organization and exposed the racism and police brutality against these Black revolutionaries, and others. At age 26, he was elected chair of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists.
But for the past 18 years Mumia has been on death row--locked in a cell 23 hours a day. His mail, including confidential correspondence with his lawyer, has been opened and copied by prison authorities. He was put into punitive detention for writing his book, Live from Death Row. His commentaries have been censored on the radio. As Mumia put it, "They don't just want my death, they want my silence."

In 1995, a worldwide campaign stopped Mumia's execution just 10 days before the government tried to put this brother to death. But the authorities have continued to escalate threats on Mumia's life, intensifying in recent months. To stop his execution now will take a diverse and determined struggle many times more powerful.
The battle for Mumia's life has grown by leaps and bounds, which is very positive and heartening. Our struggle has held up the executioner's hand, but it's not yet strong enough to stop it from coming back down. Recent attacks on Mumia and his supporters make it clear that the death threat still hangs over him. Our ability to stop his execution is based on the solid foundation we have laid in this battle so far, especially the past year. Tens of thousands of people, of all nationalities, from all walks have life, have cried out for justice for Mumia. In particular, the youth have been in the house in a big way. There's been school teach-ins and rock concerts.

35,000 people total marched in the streets of San Francisco and Philly in support of Mumia on April 24th. Ads have been taken out in newspapers, including a full page ad New York Times. Last week as part of an effort called Mumia 911, more than 1,000 artists participated in over 100 events in cities across the US and some in Europe and Africa too. This is very good, and we need a lot more of it, very quickly.

The powers-that-be have responded with an intensive and multi-faceted campaign of lies and threats in order to proceed with his execution. On April 25, the city of Philadelphia launched its attack on the Black United Fund of Pennsylvania (BUF/PA)--by not allowing city workers to donate to this charitable organization. This not only
threatens the very survival of the BUF/PA but also many charities that serve the Black community. The BUF/PA has not even taken a position on Mumia but simply provide a service to the International Friends and Family so people can donate funds to Mumia's defense through the BUF/PA. This is a vicious assault on Mumia by assaulting the entire Black community.

Like the Israeli Zionists who blow up whole Palestine villages to punish the rock throwing youth, the BUF/PA attack is this government's way of collective punishment on the Black community. It is their demand for the Black community to renounce and distance itself from this unrepentant rebel-slave Mumia. In keeping with the all American white supremacist tradition, their message is clear: there's a price to pay for anyone who stands up for (or even just sides with) Mumia, and a higher price still from Black organizations and people. And acting like a lynch mob in blue, the Fraternal Order of Police--this country's largest cops' organization (over 283,000
>members)--have been leading the demand for Mumia's execution. Their August press release launched a nationwide boycott against those businesses and individuals who support Mumia. It ends with the words"[a]nd we will not rest until Abu-Jamal burns in hell." They have harassed artists who stood up for Mumia and posted their target list of artists on the FOP website.

I'm a founder and national organizer of the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. This Coalition has endorsed and taken up the fight for Mumia because he's a victim of police brutality and a fighter against police brutality. His is a CLASSIC case of police brutality against a BLACK, ANY Black man. The frame-up of Mumia concentrates the way Black people are routinely abused by the police, the courts, the prisons, and the media.
>There are high stakes for every person who wants to see justice in the world, and for every person who wants to see an end to the brutal oppression of Black people.
> A sign of the power's murderous intent is the flood of scandalous lies pumped out through the media--rabid calls for Mumia's death were aired on ABC: the first on KGO TV in San Francisco, an ABC affiliate; and then TWO on ABC's 20/20, hosted by Sam Donaldson.

The most recent attack on Mumia was spearheaded by the magazine "Vanity Fair" in a hit piece fabricating yet another "confession." Scores of TV and print media ran this story but none bothered to check the facts check with Mumia, his lawyers, or court documents. Every lie that stokes the execution engine has been blown up into headlines when it comes to their attempt to rush Mumia to the gas chamber. The government's case is so weak that they have to come up with one "Mumia confession" hoax after another over these 18 years. It's a desperate move of conducting a trial by media because they have no legal case that can stand careful scrutiny! Mumia has ALWAYS maintained his innocence, and he has always refused to be tried in the media but demanded he get a new trial. As Tom Morello of the rock band Rage Against the
Machine has said "...if these people are so sure of Mumia's guilt, then why not have a new trial?"

While we step up the most broad, diverse and determined struggle to date, especially during this Mumia Awareness Week, we need a real YOUTHQUAKE in the center. Mumia has given love and inspiration to the new generation to step out to fight the power, to fight for a different future, to fight for a far better world than this dog-eat-dog nightmare. Rebel youth of all nationalities can and must put an exclamation point of
"no justice, no peace" on the end of this millennium by going all out for Mumia, and help to shape the direction of things to come.

What kind of a sick system would brutalize and try to kill a caring and courageous brother like Mumia? It's a system that has shown through their treatment of Mumia, and millions like him, that it cares nothing for truth or justice, or even abiding by their own rules. It's a heartless system that has always used and abused millions here and worldwide, and doesn't deserve to exist another minute. It's my view that
>a hateful system like this will never change and must be overthrown by mass armed revolution when the time is ripe.

Today, the system is building prisons fast and furious. They're criminalizing our youth, sending thousands of them to a lifetime behind bars. Police brutality and murder is epidemic with cops acting like judge, jury and executioner on the streets. The politicians answer to every social problem is more prisons, cops, more repression and executions. The struggle for Mumia is a key battlefront to get involved with if you want to defeat this wholesale assault on the people. It is a
key battle for all who stand for justice and emancipation.

Statement to the NPDUM Emergency Conference to Stop Police Brutality (1997)

Editor's Note: The following STATEMENT TO THE EMERGENCY CONFERENCE TO STOP POLICE BRUTALITY was read on behalf of Carl Dix to the plenary session, July 4, 1997.

First off, I want to give props to the people of St. Petersburg for heroically rising up in the face of the cowardly murder of TyRon Lewis by one of this city's swinest, and in the face of the green light given to this foul murder by the local authorities. I also want to give props to the African Peoples Socialist Party and the National Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement for standing firmly with the masses against the oppressors and their enforcers, and for their role in calling this important conference. I can't be with you today because I'm in Philadelphia, speaking in the annual rally to Stop the Execution of Mumia Abu Jamal and Free him from prison. But my spirit is in the house with you.
As a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Oct 22nd National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation, I'm very clear that we face a nationwide epidemic of police brutality. To take this on we need mass resistance and broad unity. That's why we welcome this conference. At the same time, as a revolutionary communist, I know that this
capitalist system will never work in the interests of the great majority of people in this country around the world. It can only give us brutality, degradation and misery until we get rid of it in the only way really possible, thru armed revolution.
The battles we wage today in resistance to the enemy's attacks are very crucial in this light. One because peoples' lives are on the line. The capitalists aim to do nothing less than beat us so far down that we could never get ourselves together and rise up and do them any serious damage. Equally important,it is thru waging the battles of today that we get ourselves and the masses ready and in position for revolution when the time comes. This is how we build the understanding, the unity and the organization that we'll need to rise up in revolution to overthrow this blood sucking set up and go on to build a whole
new world on the ashes of this fucked up one.
We know that there are many different ideas on revolution in this room. But we share a common enemy, and we're confident that when the deal goes down, we'll be on the same side of the barricades taking on that common enemy. To get there, we have to get busy now, forging that unity thru the course of taking on the system's attacks together. The fight against police terror is one of the most important
attacks we have take on. In its work, the Oct 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality has worked to bring forward those who are forced to live their lives under the guns and clubs of brutal murdering cops to stand up and resist, while also rallying to their side those from all different backgrounds who share a basic sense
of justice. We think this approach was key to pulling off last year's Oct 22nd National Day of Protest which was marked in 45 cities across the country. I want to give props to all those here who were a part of pulling this important day off--The Florida Indian Alliance, the December 12th Movement, some NPDUM members and chapters, the New Afrikan Peoples Organization and others.
The draft document produced for this conference also contains some very good ideas for building the struggle against police brutality. We look forward to us all working together, on the upcoming 2nd National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, on the proposed National Moratorium Against Police Brutality and in other ways.
Our oppressors have a very clear program--it comes down to escalating misery and brutality for the people, and they are carrying it out with determination. We must be no less determined in uniting and building the kind of resistance that can meet their shit head on and beat it back. And we must do that as part of getting ready and in position for what we really need to end these attacks once and for all--all the way liberating proletarian revolution.

STOP POLICE BRUTALITY, REPRESSION AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF A GENERATION!
IT'S RIGHT TO REBEL!
FORWARD FROM REBELLION TO REVOLUTION!

Affirmative Activist: Interview with Carl Dix by Golden Gater Online (1996)

Editor's Note: This interview with Carl was done by Clint Page Henderson, and published on Golden Gater Online, February 22, 1996.

Carl Dix is a national spokesperson of the Revolutionary Communist Party. He's on a speaking tour as part of Black History Month and was invited to several Bay area schools to speak about affirmative action. He was at SF State last week.

Dix has been an activist since the '50s and '60s and served two years in prison for refusing orders to fight in Vietnam. Dix helped found the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1975. He has published numerous articles including "Thoughts on the Color Purple" in Alice Walker's new book, "The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult."

Dix answered questions in a phone interview last weekend:

Golden Gater: Why a tour? What are you trying to accomplish?

Carl Dix: What we tried to do is to bring out to the students what it was like before the civil rights movement. How what forced the government's hand wasn't realized because they knew it was the right thing to do, but that the masses wanted it. How that relates to the situation today, still today.

Professions are still predominantly white. Discrimination is still in effect today. Students need to resist today like they did in the 1960s - through fierce, determined mass struggle.

GG: Do you think people are involved today? Do they care about affirmative action and its possible demise?

Dix: I was heartened by the response to our tour. We were going into classrooms. We were invited in. After every speech there was active discussion and debate. In every class we got student leaders who wanted to hear more.

The overthrow of this capitalist system is what is needed to solve the problems. I think revolution is the solution. Politicians are part of the problem. Students wanted to get involved in doing something. If you want to get involved with the revolutionary approach, get involved with us. But you have to find the approach that's right for you. There's a need to link the problems together - affirmative action, immigrants, and cuts in social programs. The tour got a very good response, we got the names of 30 or 40 students who wanted to get involved.

GG: You've said that our political system is not working. Why?

Dix: The capitalist system feeds on and reproduces the inequality we deal with - keeping its profit prospective with massive downsizing. Throwing people out of work is enhancing the income of the stockholders. Improving profit by putting people out of work. Divide and conquer. They say the problem is immigrants, people on welfare, or affirmative action. The system uses it to set people against each other. People need to fight against (the system) together. I was around when we got affirmative action. Those gains are being snatched back.

GG: Many say that affirmative action has done its job, that things are equal now, or that it's not fair. How do you respond?

Dix: They're not facing the actual situation. Ninety-seven percent of corporate managers are white men. Two percent are white women with only 0.4 percent Latin and less than 1 percent black. What's behind that? We have continued residential segregation with inner-cities largely poor and black. Remedial education is being cut. For a lot of students it's not the fault of the students, it's the fault of the educational system. Students want to go to college. This society can't say there's no need for affirmative action.

Pete Wilson did not raise the question of qualifications when he went to law school and blacks were not allowed in.

GG: Do you feel that people are making a concerted effort to keep people of color out of schools?

Dix: It's more than an accident. Not everyone is consciously trying to discriminate, but what's required is a conscious effort not to.

GG: What is required to change things? What do you think students should do?

Dix: First off, response has to be now. People have to continue to fight to prevent ending of UC programs, to oppose the Civil Rights Initiative, to prevent the state system from scrapping remedial education, and to engage and involve other students. Take to the streets with mass demonstrations.

People want to see equality. Opponents of affirmative action are spreading misinformation. There needs to be a fight made now to bring greater equality.

May 1, 1992 Statement on the Rodney King Verdict

Editor's Note: The following statement/press release was issued by Carl Dix on May 1st--International Workers Day--from Los Angeles just as the L.A. rebellion was about to break out over the Rodney King verdict.

* * *

This racist system delivered its statement this week.

The system cut loose the cops who brutally beat Rodney King, even when the whole world has seen the tape of their crime. The system is saying straight up that a pig beating the hell out of a Black man--or any oppressed person--is no crime. The whole trial was a set-up to deliver that message from the start. That's why moved it to a lily-white neighborhood. That's why they put two ex-cops and two relatives of cops on the jury. And the prosecution's case agreed with the cops that Rodney King was a "monster" who needed to be beaten. They only disagreed about how many times they should have hit him. But this whole trial and verdict wasn't just about Rodney King, the individual. This was a billy club to the head of the oppressed and exploited people--everywhere.

But the people are delivering their own message. It was delivered at LAPD headquarters--where youth of all nationalities stormed Parker Center and the Hall of Injustice among other places and torched American flags and police buildings. It was delivered outside the courthouse in lily-white Simi Valley where Black, Latino and white youth joined together to go after the four cops as they left the courthouse. Its being delivered throughout South Central L.A. and all over the city. Its a message that the people are not going to stand for this abuse anymore. And that's the stand that they got to take.

The representatives of the system condemn violence and looting. But how can they talk about such things? This system is based on robbery and violence all over the world.

Those the media has dubbed "responsible leaders" are heard everywhere telling the people to chill out. They're saying we should "put the Rodney King beating behind us." They tell the people to "channel your anger into something constructive"--like voting to change the police department or waiting for the new Black police chief, Willie Williams. THIS IS A CLASS SOCIETY. The big capitalists who rule over this system are afraid of those they exploit and oppress. That's why the police--the rulers' first line of defense--are trained to treat whole sections of the population as the enemy.

And a Black police chief won't change any of this. In fact, both Willie Williams and the so-called "reforms" they are promoting are designed to tighten up and increase the brutality and repression of the police department against the Rodney Kings of L.A. Their hyped-up plan for "community-based policing" means more concentration-camp neighborhoods behind barricades and a snitch network to help the cops brutalize the people on the bottom even more.

A lot of people in the streets of L.A. haven't bought their hype and that's better than good. This outrage has to be fought. And more, while we're battling them back, politically like that, we got to make this part of getting ready for The Time--and it could come soon--to wage revolutionary war.

In order to get ready for the time, as the May First Manifesto says, "you have to lead the people to fight back, you have to move masses of people to battle the system in a way that is guided by revolutionary ideology and serves revolutionary aims; and through all this you have to build up the revolutionary consciousness and organization of the masses, with the Maoist vanguard Party at the very core, and prepare the revolutionary people to wage the people's war when the conditions for that are ripe."

That's the message we're uniting with the people to deliver. And it's especially strong on May First, the revolutionary holiday of the proletariat--the class of people of every nationality that can and will free itself by freeing all humanity. People need to get organized to act together with the Party and get its Manifesto up everywhere so that the people can see it and the enemy will fear it.

NO MORE RODNEY KINGS!
NO MORE RACIST POLICE BRUTALITY!
REVOLUTION IS THE HOPE OF THE HOPELESS!
IT'S RIGHT TO REBEL!