Friday, December 31, 2010

2011 New Year’s Message From Carl Dix


December 31, 2010

Dear Friends,

Heading into the new year, there is much to reflect on and great challenges ahead.  Last year we saw wars for empire; drone attacks destroying villages in Afghanistan , Pakistan and Yemen ; government spying -- all things people hated Bush for -- continuing under Obama.  A year of continued economic dislocation that has left millions out of work and millions more losing their homes.  A year of subjugation of Black people and other oppressed nationalities.  And there's the Tea Party phenomena -- a rising fascist movement aiming to enforce a nightmarish vision of the country's past.

The challenge we face isn't just maintaining the status quo or making minor changes around the edges of this horrific set up.  We can't leave this imperialist system intact, crushing spirits and grinding up bodies of the people.  Instead we must radically transform this society and the world.  To meet this challenge, we in the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) are building a movement for revolution -- a movement spreading the message that things don't have to be this way, that through revolution, Communist revolution, we could bring a totally different, and far better, world into being.  A movement that builds resistance to the ways the system comes down on people -- that "Fights the Power, and Transforms the People, for Revolution."

I've been pouring all my energy into this.  I continued my campus tour -- "From Buffalo Soldier to Revolutionary Communist" -- bringing it to Howard University in the spring.  On the heels of that I was in Chicago for Tavis Smiley's "The Black Agenda is the American Agenda," spreading the message that revolution is the real way to end the brutality and misery imperialism inflicts on Black people and everyone else on this planet.

I spent several weeks this summer in Detroit, building resistance to the police murder of 7 year old Aiyana Stanley-Jones and taking the message of revolution to people on the mean streets of that city's east side.  I was also part of a crew of revolutionaries that went among the thousands of activists who gathered in Detroit for the US Social Forum.  To their slogan of "Another World is Possible," we added the truth that revolution is the only real way out from under the rule of this bloodsucking system.

On October 29th, I had a second conversation with Cornel West on the campus of the City College of New York .  Before a standing room only crowd, we dialogued over, "In the Age of Obama Part 2:  Police Terror, Incarceration, No Jobs, Mis-Education; WHAT FUTURE FOR OUR YOUTH?"  Cornel urged the youth not to become "titillated by commodities" or "adapted to indifference."  I spoke to how the problems youth and others face are built into the very fabric of the system and that revolution is the only way to end them, once and for all.  These two deep and radical thinkers engaging over this crucial question, expressing a lot of unity and taking up differences over religion and Obama, electrified this packed theater.

And this fall, the RCP issued a "CONSTITUTION For The New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)".  This is a huge deal!  This Constitution breaks down what a revolutionary society would look like, how the government would be organized, how the economy would work, the media, education, health care, the arts -- everything.  Anybody who wants to know 'what the revolutionaries' are for needs to read this.  I've been promoting the Constitution in the media and in other ways and getting it to everybody I can. (If you want to read this Constitution, go to the web site: www.revcom.us/socialistconstitution/index.html.)

Looking to the year ahead, I plan to continue working to put revolution on the map, introduce people to the leadership we have for this revolution in Bob Avakian and rally a core of people out to make this revolution real.  I'll be 1) Continuing to promote the Constitution.  2) Preparing for the release of BAsics, a book of quotations from the writings of Bob Avakian, by the spring. And 3) Taking my dialogue with Cornel West on the road, hitting college campuses, bringing this electrifying engagement to young people, and others, all across the country.

What I'm writing you about here isn't just a spectator sport -- There's a role for you in all this.  For starters, get a subscription to Revolution newspaper (www.revcom.us).  It'll bring you developments around the world from a revolutionary perspective, and it'll connect you to this movement for revolution.  And I need you to support my efforts to spread the message of revolution so that I can continue to do things like going to conferences in different parts of the country or rolling up to Detroit, or wherever determined resistance to the system's attacks is going on, with a crew of revolutionaries:  Make a contribution – do it online at my blog:  www.comradecarl.blogspot.com; and/or help to set up campus speaking engagements.

Revolutionary Greetings,
            Carl  Dix


Follow Carl Dix at:
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FaceBook Page: "From Buffalo Soldier to Revolutionary Communist"

Office of Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party , USA
P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station, New York NY 10002-0900 , (866) 841-9139 x2670

More on Who Murdered Aiyana Stanley-Jones

A Response to Charlie Leduff's "What Killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones?"


The article by Charlie Leduff ("What Killed Aiyana Stanley-Jones?" from Mother Jones magazine - Nov/Dec 2010) plays a good and important role.  It keeps the story of this foul crime alive and in the public eye.  Part of how the authorities are trying to cover up this murder is by ‘investigating” it till people forget or become fuzzy about some of the more gruesome details.  This article is also a comprehensive attempt to weigh the various things that factored into this murder.

But its very comprehensiveness leads it to end up in muddying the waters on just what and who is responsible for this little girl’s murder.  The answer to who or what killed Aiyana is both pretty simple and somewhat complex.  The simple answer is that a killer cop killed her--a cop who had demonstrated a disregard for the lives and humanity of Black children. A couple years earlier, he shot a dog that was in a room near a young child playing.  To be clear, the cop hadn’t been called to save the child from a dog that was threatening it.

This killer cop was part of the Detroit Police Department (DPD), which has a long, sordid history of inflicting brutality on that city’s Black population. Stolen Lives, a project of the Oct 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, has documented 42 cases of people killed in the 1990's by the DPD.  These are only the ones this grass roots coalition was able to find out about thru its own efforts because the DPD, like police depts. across the US, refuses to release information on people they kill.  Most of these 42 people were unarmed and doing nothing wrong when they were killed by cops.

The DPD’s attempt to cover up Aiyana’s murder is instructive.  They not only blamed her grandmother by saying the cop’s gun went off while she was struggling with him.  They took her into custody and tested her for gunpowder residue and for drugs to try to back up their lie.  Think about this.  They had just shot her grand baby to death before her eyes, and then they arrest her and try to blame her for it.

This cover up is being continued to this day by the Michigan state police and other officials in the area.  How long does it take to figure out that the cops broke into the wrong apartment that night?  (I have been to the house, and there are clearly 2 entrances, one to the upstairs apt where Chauncey Owens--the guy the cops had the warrant for -- lives. And the other to the downstairs apt where Aiyana and her family lived.)  A few days or even a few minutes should be enough to determine that.  Why hasn’t some government agency made this public.  Why hasn’t the video of the raid (Remember the A&E film crew was there recording the whole thing.) been released?  Why haven’t there been banner headlines in the Detroit Free Press (DFP) or lead stories on the local news shows to this effect?  Months after Aiyana’s death, most of the people writing in to the DFP’s online comments page about her killing still believed that Owens was captured in Aiyana’s family’s home that night! And the authorities want people to remain confused about these details so their role in this murder remains unclear.

And finally, the system of capitalism is responsible for this murder.  The DPD, just like police depts. nationwide, patrol the areas where Black people live like they have a green light to brutalize and murder people.  The very operation of this system drew large numbers of Black people into cities across the country to work at the bottom of the work force in the auto, steel and other plants.  These plants are largely closed down and/or moved half way around the world, leaving millions of Black people facing a situation of no jobs and a wrecked educational system.  In effect brutal, murdering cops are the front line enforcers for these miserable conditions.  (All this is gone into in more depth in issue #144 of Revolution newspaper, “The Oppression of Black People, The Crimes of This System and The Revolution We Need.”  This issue is available at www.revcom.us.)

It is against this backdrop that we have to evaluate the report that there were stolen cars in Aiyana’s family’s back yard or questions of why her parents didn=t move away from the mean streets on the east side of Detroit.  Aiyana wasn’t killed because of poor life choices made by her parents.  And the end logic of even partly attributing her murder to what her parents did wrong leads to you joining the system=s blame the victim chorus.

Look at the big picture -- the capitalist/imperialist system is grinding away, crushing the spirits and breaking the bodies of countless numbers of people here in this country and around the world.  As this society wide meat grinder inflicts atrocities on the masses, we are invited to look at the life choices of Aiyana’s family.  Most of those killed by cops are Black or Latino males who are teen aged or older, and the system always spotlights their criminal records or immigration status or whatever else they can use to blame them for what happened to them.  Since Aiyana was only 7, in this case, the blame gets put onto her parents.  This is all a bunch of crap.

The system is responsible for Aiyana=s murder.  In particular, the killer cop should be prosecuted for his murderous deed, and the city and state officials who collaborated in the cover up should also be exposed and prosecuted.  I have traveled to Detroit and spoke and written as part of working to make this happen.

And overall, we in the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) are building a movement for revolution.  We are working to put revolution on the map in this country, let people know about the leader we have for this revolution in Bob Avakian, the head of the RCP and we are working to bring into being a core of people determined to make this revolution real.  And the RCP has released a Constitution for the Future Socialist Republic in North America which shows how a socialist society constructed after this capitalist set up was gotten rid of thru revolution would be organized and how it would work. (Again, you can get info on this or get connected with the movement for revolution by going to:  www.revcom.us.)

So that’s my thoughts on the police murder of Aiyana Stanley-Jones -- the system is responsible, and revolution is the solution.