Revolution #280, September 16, 2012

Interview with Carl Dix:

Blowing the Whistle on September 13—
And Making Our Message Real

 

Revolution: Why should people go all out on September 13 to Blow the Whistle on Stop-and-Frisk in New York City and answer the Call for Nationwide Resistance to Racial Profiling, Police Brutality and Murder and the Pipeline Leading to Mass Incarceration?

Carl Dix: Two very important reasons. One is the very intense way the criminal “injustice” system as a whole is being unleashed on people: racial profiling, the almost two-and-a-half million people being warehoused across the county, the five million plus people discriminated against even after they’ve served their sentences—denied employment, government loans, public housing, not even allowed to vote. This is a very intense situation for tens of millions of people; their lives are enmeshed in the justice, or the injustice system as I like to refer to it. But at the same time there is a mood of defiance and resistance that’s been building. We saw it in the response to the legal murder of Troy Davis, after the vigilante murder of Trayvon Martin, with the civil disobedience actions to protest stop-and-frisk, the hunger strikes in California prisons that then spread to other states. And there is a need for that resistance to be taken to a higher level. That’s the point of September 13.

Everybody who sees this injustice needs to see September 13 as the day that we blow the whistle on all of this shit and act on it in a number of different ways—people going to prisons, to the courthouses where people get framed up, to the neighborhoods of the oppressed where the racial profiling is intense. In Anaheim people might go to the scene of the recent murders that were carried out by the police or to the police precinct where the pigs who did these murders work. Or blowing the whistle on stop-and-frisk all over New York City like what is going to happen here and delivering a message that we will no longer suffer this abuse in silence and that we have to and can do something about everything that the police and the whole criminal justice system does to us. This is a very, very important message that needs to be delivered all across the country.

We’re trying to unleash a social media campaign. Our tweets are being re-tweeted and picked up by others; others are putting it on their Facebook page. We don’t know how far it’s gonna go, but we’re calling on people—no secrets, send pictures, video, written reports if you wanna go real old school, but send in word of what you did on this day and blow the whistle on all the crap the criminal injustice system and its enforcers are bringing down on the people. People should tweet about blowing the whistle on September 13—on stop-and-frisk, on the torture-like conditions in prison, on police brutality and police murder, on mass incarceration and all of its consequences. And we’ve developed a hash tag—#S13—that people should use on their tweets. People can go to stopmassincarceration.org and get an organizing kit to use and they can post it up on their Facebook; they can also tweet that link. That’s the kind of thing that we’re trying to unleash.

Revolution: What do you hope will be accomplished on September 13?

Dix: When people step out and blow the whistle, there’s going to be a new day, a whole different scene on this. Because up til now, too much what it’s been is people suffering this abuse in silence, people taking it and even blaming themselves, or blaming each other, for what comes down, that this is your own fault, that this comes down on you because of what you do. And we have to break with that. We gotta stand up and resist. But we also have to look out for each other, have each other’s backs. We have to stand together against what they do to us, instead of looking out for number one and stabbing each other in the back. There’s gotta be a new culture and a new day.

It’s gonna begin in some places, it’s gonna be uneven, but the idea is to gather in different parts of the city on September 13, but then to spread the word on it—to go where people have not yet heard about this and tell them why we’re blowing the whistle, bring them whistles for them to join in. And that’s also why we need to get reports of what goes on around the country so people can get a sense that they’re not isolated, but that they’re part of a growing nationwide movement.

This is actually an application of something we in the Revolutionary Communist Party speak to in our strategy for revolution in a country like this—“fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution.” It’s people standing up, resisting what’s being done to them and to other people. And as people resist they get a better sense of what it is they are up against, that these aren’t isolated problems, but that they stem from a system, from the very way this system operates and that when people stand up there are allies that can be drawn to come to their side and stand with them in the fight. But also, people come to see more what kind of a fight is necessary to actually win, that it’s revolution that we need to get rid of all this madness once and for all. And we have the leadership we need for this revolution in Bob Avakian, the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, who has dug into previous revolutionary societies and re-envisioned how to make revolution and how to bring into being a society and a world that people would want to live in, to emancipate all of humanity.

And so that’s the process going on here and what will come out of this is both a stronger fight against all the ways the criminal injustice system comes down on people, but also people lifting their heads, getting a sense what they’re up against, the kind of struggle needed to break through and win, and people joining the movement for revolution.

Revolution: OK, so what’s next after September 13, building off of what is accomplished?

Dix: Coming off September 13, there has to be a sense that the days of suffering the injustice of mass incarceration and all its consequences in silence are over. That people are going to be lifting their heads and resisting all that. Concretely that will mean taking this spirit of resistance into this year’s October 22, which is the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. On October 22, people need to be out at the prisons saying no to the genocide that mass incarceration is part of. And we’re going to have our whistles with us when we do that. Doing this will infuse some new life into October 22.

And we’re going to fight the legal cases the authorities have thrown at those who have stood up to fight stop-and-frisk and we’re going to do that as part of carrying forward the fight to stop that racist illegitimate policy and to take on mass incarceration overall. Off of the campaign of civil disobedience to STOP “Stop & Frisk” that Cornel West and I initiated last fall, 19 people face two trials. They should be getting medals, not facing two trials and several years in jail for the stand they took. And we are going to build a big fight to force the authorities to back down and drop the charges against these freedom fighters.

Among these people is “Noche” Diaz, a young revolutionary who is somebody who walks on the People’s Neighborhood Patrols, known in the community, to non-violently prevent illegal police abuse under color of authority, police abusive violence. He has been especially targeted for prejudicial prosecution for his defiant stand against police abuse of the people. In addition to being part of the two stop-and-frisk cases, Noche faces two more trials for observing the police brutalizing people in Manhattan and the Bronx. In one of these cases, the man being beaten by the cops told Noche, “You saved my life because I believe they were going to kill me out there.” Noche faces a total of 10 or 11 charges and more than four years in prison for politically calling out police who were beating people down.

In going after Noche like this, the authorities are trying to deliver a message—do not stand up against what we do to people and especially, don’t do that as part of building a movement for revolution, because if you do, you’ll pay a heavy price. We have to stand with Noche, defend him and deliver a different and opposed message—that we will stand with the people who stand up against what this system does to the people, and that we will especially have the backs of our heroes who do this in a consistent and determined way. We’re not going to let you have Noche, and we’re going to call on people to join him and others in standing against police abuse, with all of us calling on people to join him in fighting that as part of building a movement for revolution.

Fighting these legal attacks isn’t a distraction from the fight against mass incarceration and to STOP “Stop & Frisk.” It’s an integral part of that fight because it’s through taking on the ways the system comes at people who resist them that we will be able to build a stronger fight, a fight that can beat back their abuses as part of building a movement for revolution which is the kind of movement we need to end the injustice they inflict on people here and around the world.

So to pull this all together, coming off September 13 we have to be making our message—that the days of suffering this abuse in silence are over—REAL!

It's Whistle Time! Blow the Whistle!

Blow the Whistle on Stop-and-Frisk on September 13th!

Revolution #278, August 19, 2012

September 13th—Blow the Whistle on Stop-and-Frisk:

A Call for Nationwide Resistance to Racial Profiling, Police Brutality and Murder and the Pipeline Leading to Mass Incarceration

by Carl Dix and Clyde Young

We need much more resistance to the way the cops, courts, prisons—the whole criminal justice system—has been unleashed on people locked onto the bottom of this society. Look at what's happened in just the past few weeks:

• A man in Saginaw, Michigan, was surrounded by police in a parking lot who shot him 46 times!
• Chavis Carter, a young Black man in Arkansas, who was searched twice, handcuffed and placed in the back seat of a cop car, ends up killed by a gunshot to the head, and the cops claim he shot himself!
• Two youth were murdered by police in Anaheim, Ca. a couple of days apart.
• The NYPD reported that the numbers of people stopped and frisked declined in recent months, but still for the first six months of this year, New York cops on average stopped nearly 2,000 people each and every day.

On top of that, there are tens of thousands of people held in solitary confinement in prisons across the U.S. subjected to conditions that fit the international definition of torture. And there are five million former prisoners who have served their sentences but face discrimination when looking for work, are denied government loans, can't live in public housing, and aren't even allowed to vote.

Add in the families and loved ones of all these people and you get tens of millions of people forced to live their lives caught up in the criminal "injustice" system of this country. This is a horrible injustice. It amounts to a slow genocide targeting Black people that could easily become a fast one. It is unacceptable, and it must be stopped. We will make a big leap in stopping it on Thursday, September 13, when we "Blow the Whistle on Stop-and-Frisk." And you have to be part of making this happen!

Stop-and-frisk concentrates the racial profiling police enforce all across the country, racial profiling that serves as a pipeline to mass incarceration—the 2.4 million people warehoused in prisons throughout the US. Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide. If we don't meet this with determined, mass resistance, the masses will be ground down so far, they'll never be able to do anything about all they do to us. From the other end, through standing up and coming back at this injustice in a powerful way, we can build our strength and organized capacity to resist and inspire others to join in the resistance. It's time to break the silence! And you must be a part of doing that.

On September 13, we will shatter that silence. Tens of thousands of people in New York City will politically confront police violating people's rights with whistles and cameras—blowing the whistle on all the crap these pigs inflict on the people. The actions in NYC will be the centerpiece of resistance on the 13th, and there must be diverse expressions of resistance to the many ways people are being beaten down—mass incarceration, racial profiling, police brutality and murder in cities across the country. These actions must involve the active participation of thousands and thousands of people.

The word needs to get out everywhere through Facebook and Twitter. Public Service Announcements and videos of people saying why they're going to "Blow the Whistle on Stop-and-Frisk" need to be recorded and played on the media and posted online. Some of these can feature artists and other well-known people. Students need to take whistles into their schools and organize others to come out on the 13th. Organizing has to be going on in neighborhoods, through church groups, unions, etc. People who hear about this have to organize their own actions on September 13! Organizing kits and other materials to use in doing this will be available on the Stop Mass Incarceration website—www.stopmassincarceration.org.

Through all these actions a powerful message will be delivered: WE WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT ALL THIS INJUSTICE IN SILENCE!

From Anaheim to Chicago, from Saginaw, Michigan to Jonesboro, Arkansas, people will be blowing the whistle on brutal murdering pigs. People will be blowing the whistle against torture behind prison walls from California to Red Onion Prison in W. Va. In different cities, people will express in many different ways their determination to end mass incarceration, racial profiling, police brutality and murder. People will mobilize people to go to the prisons, courthouses, police stations or into oppressed neighborhoods with signs, stickers and whistles, declaring their determination to "blow the whistle" on the slow genocide this system is inflicting on the people. At 6 pm EST, everybody, wherever they are, will blow their whistle in solidarity with the developing nationwide movement of resistance to mass incarceration and its consequences.

We will have to raise a lot of money to do all this. Funds are urgently needed in order to realize the vision concentrated in this call for nationwide resistance—money to get tens of thousands of whistles to put into people's hands and cards to spread the word on September 13. Money has to be raised from all sections of the people. Tax-exempt contributions can be made at stopmassincarceration.org. Donations for whistles, buttons and stickers need to be collected every time people are out in the streets organizing people to be ready to Blow the Whistle on Stop-and-Frisk.

On September 13, we will be building on the resistance that has developed over the past year, resistance which must be built as part of building a movement for revolution—the prisoners who went on hunger strike in California, in Georgia, in West Virginia, the neighborhoods that exploded in protest and rebellion in response to police murders in Anaheim, the thousands of people who have taken to the streets calling for an end to stop-and-frisk. And the advances made on September 13 will be the launching pad for leaping further forward in making this battle against mass incarceration a major societal issue, changing the political terrain and contributing to the building of a movement for revolution.

For more information, or to get involved go to www.stopmassincarceration.org.

Send us your comments.

An Open Letter to the NY Post and Shamar Smith

On August 15, the New York Post ran a story quoting Shamar Smith, a recent shooting victim in Brooklyn, calling on the police to keep applying their  Stop-and-Frisk  policy.  “Stop-and-frisk should be continued, after what I went through, being shot for no reason,” the Post quoted Smith.  The quote goes on to say, “[Cops] should do it (Stop-and-Frisk), get guns off the street.”

Let’s get to the point — Stop-and-Frisk doesn’t get guns off the street, and it doesn’t combat either gun violence or crime.  Last year, the NYPD stopped and frisked more than 684,000 people and got less than 800 guns off the street.  That means that in more than 99.8% of the stops and frisks the cops carry out, those they stop aren’t ‘gun toting criminals.’  Even worse, in more than 90% of the stops the police can’t even find a reason to arrest the person stopped, or even write them up for a violation.  And in the less than 10% of cases that people get arrested or written up, often they have done nothing wrong.

When I was arrested protesting  Stop-and-Frisk and held in jail overnight in Queens, I was in there with people arrested because they didn’t have an ID on them when the cops stopped them.  Apartheid South Africa had laws that said Black people went to jail if they didn’t have their pass.  The cops are enforcing that kind of law in NYC.  Also I’ve talked to people who got brutalized and arrested for asking the cops who stopped them why they were being messed with.

So what is Stop & Frisk really about?  It’s about subjecting people the powers that be hate and fear – young Black and Latino people - to harassment, brutality and all too often even worse.  We must remember the cop who killed Ramarley Graham in the Bronx claimed he saw a suspicious bulge in his waistband.  That was a stop & frisk that took the life of an unarmed young man.

My heart goes out to Shamar Smith, a young Black man just going about life who got shot and could’ve been killed.  As a revolutionary, I have worked all my life to give people like him a chance for a future of hope and opportunity, a chance this society denies to most young Black and Latino people, by building resistance to the ways this system comes down on the people.  The reality is that this system and the exploitation and oppression it subjects oppressed people to is why so many of our youth get caught up in crime and violence.  The NY Post is using Smith’s words to justify a policy that criminalizes people because of the color of their skin.  Stop-and-Frisk is more likely to victimize an innocent young man like Shamar Smith than it is to save anyone’s life by getting guns off the street.

---- 

Carl Dix is a coordinator for the Stop Mass Incarceration Network

Carl Dix in Brownsville

Carl Dix in Brownsville

Dear Friends!

I just got back from Sanford, Florida, where I spent the weekend standing together with people there, speaking bitterness about Trayvon’s murder, and about all the other Trayvon’s; and taking to them a message of No More — “No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over… who have been condemned to a life of oppression and oblivion, even before they are born.” [BAsics 1:13]

I’ll write more about that trip soon.  Right now I’m writing you about June 5th, which is 100 days since the vigilante murder of Trayvon, and the call to make that day a day of Justice for Trayvon; a day to wear hoodies and say defiantly “We Are All Trayvon.”

Whether or not people act on June 5th matters.  Right now the mouthpieces of the system are telling us that protest has done its part now that Zimmerman has been indicted and that it’s time to get out of the streets and let the courts work.  The truth is that the system was working when it let Zimmerman walk free the night he murdered Trayvon and when it drug tested Trayvon’s dead body but didn’t drug test his killer.  And it’s still working as story after story turns up in the media portraying Zimmerman as the victim and dragging Trayvon’s reputation thru the mud.

IT IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT THAT WE ACT WITH DETERMINATION TO DECLARE THAT WE WILL NOT SIT BACK IN SILENCE WHILE THE SKIDS ARE GREASED TO EXONERATE TRAYVON’S KILLER AGAIN!

June 5th, 2012 — Wear your hoodies, and encourage others to wear theirs too.  Organize others to get involved thru Face book and on Twitter.  Create posters that say, “We Are All Trayvon!” and spread them to others.  Take this message into your schools; bring it out at rallies after school, in your communities and in every way possible.  

And take pictures of whatever you do and send them in to the Stop Mass Incarceration Network at stopmassincarceration@gmail.com so people everywhere know that this is happening all across the country.  Make sure there are no secret actions on June 5th.

People in Sanford were very heartened to hear that people around the country haven’t given up on fighting for justice for Trayvon.  Some of them are talking about what they could do there to be a part of this nationwide action.  Join with them and others all across the country.
 

June 5: WE ARE ALL TRAYVON; THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY!

Carl Dix
May 29, 2012

Rollin' Into Sanford FL with the BAsics Bus Tour!

This is what was delivered to people throughout Sanford. These photos are representative of hundreds of people across the country coming together to send a message to the people of Sanford: “No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.” - Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:13 Help spread this message…. repost this photo, get it out on twitter and other social networks… let us know your thoughts, email the BAsic Bus Tour at baeverywhere [AT] gmail.com. Check the BAsic Bus Tour's blog for daily reports and updates at http://basicsbustour.tumblr.com/

Carl Dix at a speak out in front of the Sanford, FL police headquarters outside the historic Goldsboro community on May 25, 2012. Sanford is where 17 year old Trayvon Martin was murdered in a modern American lynching.

Why I Am Going to Sanford, Florida

Blog Editor's Note: A lot has transpired since our mobilization for April 19th National Day of Resistance Against Mass Incarceration, and we've been tardy with our reports and updates. April 19th was successful in launching a nation wide movement against Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide.  On May 7th Carl then joined with Cornel West for another round of their traveling campus dialogue, "In the Age of Obama: What Future For Our Youth?" before a crowd of 1,200 people at the University of Chicago.

On Memorial Day weekend, Carl traveled to Sanford, Florida, the site of the murder of Trayvon Martin, to join up with the BAsics Bus Tour. Below is Carl's op-ed piece reprinted from The Black Star News explaining about this:

Reprinted from The Black Star News, May 27, 2012 http://blackstarnews.com

I’m traveling to Sanford, Florida, the scene of the crime where Trayvon Martin was gunned down by a wanna-be-cop; where police refused to arrest Trayvon’s killer, George Zimmerman, for six weeks.
The place where thousands and thousands of people stood up and fought until the arrest was made. And the place where – despite all of this – public opinion is being created, and the legal basis is being laid, for Zimmerman's acquittal.

I’ll be meeting up with the BAsics Bus Tour to deliver a message to the people of Sanford, to people across the country and to the people of the world: Not this time! Not this time! As Bob Avakian, leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, says: “No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.” This quote from Avakian is on a banner that the BAsics Bus Tour has been taking out to oppressed communities as it rolled through Atlanta and headed south. Hundreds of people from housing projects, in immigrant neighborhoods, and at high schools have added their names to this banner. To those who are working to contain the righteous anger that has burst forth against the murder of Trayvon by saying, “It’s time to get out of the streets and let the legal system work!” I say this: The system was working when the Sanford Police let Trayvon’s killer walk the night of his murder. The system was working when the Sanford Police ran a drug test on Trayvon’s dead body but not on the still-living man who pulled the trigger. The system is working now as stories turn up in the news portraying Zimmerman as the victim. The only way justice will be won is if people stay in the streets.

On Friday at 4:00 pm, we will take this banner in protest to the front of the Sanford Police Department.

We are not going to the Sanford Police Department because this is the only police station filled with racist and brutal cops. People across the country took up the slogan, “We are all Trayvon” because police and vigilante violence against oppressed youth is so common it is pretty much a “right of passage” for Blacks and Latinos. As such, we are going to Sanford to draw a line. No more!

This is not an issue for Black people alone. If you care about justice, you need to be there with us. Come down and stand with us physically or send a message of support to be delivered with us, you can write to baeverywhere@gmail.com

On Saturday, I will be joining with the BAsics Bus Tour to formally deliver this banner to the people of Sanford.

This message from Avakian, which has been signed by hundreds of others, is directly relevant to the case of Trayvon Martin – but it is also much bigger than that.  The USA’s terror against Black people didn’t begin with Trayvon Martin – or even with the nation-wide epidemic of police brutality and murder.

It began with kidnappings from Africa, continued on the auction blocks, includes those experimented on by medical science after slavery was formally abolished, includes those chained to the land as share-croppers and terrorized and lynched by night-riding KKK after that, and is going on today through the slow genocide of mass incarceration.

We are not only talking about Black people. We are talking about the women and young girls throughout the world sold into sexual slavery in the millions, about the children toiling in the fields and the sweatshops around the world to make our clothes and our iphones, about the children torn from their parents who risk their lives to cross the US/Mexican border in a desperate search for work, about the children whose lives are stolen under US bombs from Afghanistan to Pakistan and beyond.

Avakian is a leader who has dug into the experience of previous revolutionary societies, highlighting their great achievements, fearlessly examining their errors and shortcomings and thru that developing a new approach to revolution and communism that gives us a very real basis to make good on our declaration of no more!

At this moment, when – in broad daylight and before the eyes of millions – the system prepares to sweep the murder of another Black youth under the rug, two things are imperative to all those with eyes and a conscience.

First, will this case be remembered as one more nail in the coffin of a whole generation, a green light to murder and profile and destroy and the demoralization and feeling of defeat for millions who just began to lift their heads and fight for an end to this, or will this represent a win, and an advance in the fight to go even further – the strengthening and the opening up of possibilities both in what can be achieved and in what people dare for and dream of?

A young supporter of the revolution recently put it this way, “You don’t get a second chance to do what is needed--we only get one, people choose to either fight back or stand aside while lives are stolen.”

And second, while we stand in this fight together, confront the implications of this system, its nature and its possible alternative and the leadership and vision that can actually lay the basis for a whole better world thru revolution.

This weekend, the place to be is Sanford with the BAsics Bus Tour. If you can’t make it down to Sanford, then get on the bus in spirit—go to: basicsbustotur.tumblr.com. Follow the Bus Tour on line, spread the word on it to everyone you know, and support it. And follow me on Twitter @carl_dix to get reports on the BAsics Bus Tour rolling thru Sanford.

The full presentation at The Riverside Church, New York City, February 18, 2012 on

Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide

by Carl Dix

Urgent Letter: Raising the Fight to Stop Mass Incarceration to a New Level

Dear Friends,

It is urgently necessary to build powerful resistance to the horrific injustice of mass incarceration.  I gave a talk at Riverside Church in Harlem on Feb 18^th under the theme:  “MASS INCARCERATION + SILENCE = GENOCIDE.  (Go here to view the video: http://vimeo.com/37254933 } This theme struck a deep chord with the audience of 250 people.  In that talk I said:

“The exposure that has been done on mass incarceration by Michelle Alexander and others together with the resistance built so far amounts to a good beginning, and all this has to be taken to a whole other level, now. The presidential elections are heating up, and none of the candidates are saying anything about mass incarceration or the hell this system brings down on people in the inner cities, except to call for increasing the clamp down.  We need to puncture this silence with dramatic resistance.

“We need a day of bold activity — a day when college and high school students hold rallies and teach ins on their campuses, when religious institutions open their doors and invite their congregants and others to speak bitterness about abusive policing, when youth take to the streets determined to no longer accept being criminalized in silence and others from many different walks of life join them.  A day when people in the prisons find ways to be part of the resistance, when cultural events targeting mass incarceration are held and statements saying no to this genocide signed by a broad array of prominent people are published as ads in newspapers.  All of this involving all kinds of people, from different walks of life and points of view, all saying NO to Mass Incarceration.  And thru this beginning to change the way people in society look at mass incarceration and winning many of them to stand against it.”

A Call for a day of this kind of activity has been issued, and I am writing you to urge you to join the effort to make it happen as powerfully as possible.  (The text of the Call is below.)  This Call has been issued by: Nellie Bailey, Solomon Comissiong, Carl Dix, Cornel West and Clyde Young.  Add your name to the issuers of this Call, circulate it to those you know and become part of the process of working out the ways to bring the vision of this day in the paragraph above to life.  I propose that the date for this day be April 19^th.  


We have to spread this day of resistance to as many cities and as many campuses as we can.

The authorities show no inclination to let up in warehousing people in prison, in enforcing the racial profiling that functions as a pipeline to racially targeted mass incarceration or in subjecting the formerly incarcerated to the worst kind of discrimination after they have already been punished.  It would be deadly if we responded to all this with silence.  Instead we must respond by taking our resistance to a higher and more determined level.

Carl Dix

* * *

RAISING THE FIGHT TO STOP MASS INCARCERATION TO A NEW LEVEL

April 19th National Day of Resistance to Mass Incarceration

P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station, New York, New York 10002 *             866-841-9139 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            866-841-9139      end_of_the_skype_highlighting       x2670 * stopmassincarceration@ymail.com

Friends,

The past months have seen important advances to develop resistance to mass incarceration.  There has been further work done to expose the horrific injustice that mass incarceration inflicts on so many in society.  Organizations fighting this battle have come into existence and some of those that already existed have grown and developed.  It is important to note the activity that has developed among students around mass incarceration.  And there have been important examples of determined mass resistance to this problem.  Especially important have been the several hunger strikes by prisoners in California’s Special Housing Units (and the statements of support for the strikers issued by prominent voices of conscious) and the civil disobedience campaign in New York aimed at stopping “stop & frisk.”

But much more needs to be done.  When it comes to mass incarceration, the reality in US society is remains horrific:

• More than 2.4 million people, most of them Black or Latino, remain warehoused in prisons across the country;       
• Black and Latino youth are treated like criminals by the police and the criminal justice system, guilty until proven innocent, if they can survive their encounters with police to prove their innocence;
• Former prisoners wear badges of shame and dishonor even after they serve their sentences—discriminated against when applying for jobs, denied access to government assistance, not allowed in public housing, denied the right to vote.

On top of this is the plain fact that many people in the country still don’t know about this ugly reality and most of those who do know about it feel it is the result of criminal activity by those in prison and that it helps to keep them safe from crime.

THIS IS NOT TRUE!  MASS INCARCERATION RESULTS FROM THE SYSTEM HAVING CRIMINALIZED GENERATIONS OF YOUTH!  WE HAVE THE FACTS TO MAKE THE CASE ON THIS.  AND WE MUST STEP UP OUR EFFORTS TO DO THAT!

There is great urgency to do this.  As the presidential election approaches and the terms of debate around what issues are to be discussed in determining the future direction of the country get set, mass incarceration isn’t being mentioned as a problem by any of the major candidate—not by Obama and not by any of the Republicans vying to challenge him. On the contrary, we are getting the kind of ugly racism that goes with and reinforces the whole program of mass incarceration... and conciliation with that racism.  This must be transformed.  Mass incarceration, what leads to it and its consequences have to become something that people across the country are aware of and feel compelled to take a stand against.  And many more of them need to join the resistance to it.  Only our efforts can make that happen!

To advance our efforts to do just this, I propose:

1)               A day of national action in April.  On this day, demonstrations, rallies, teach ins, and other actions would be held focusing on bringing out the reality of mass incarceration and calling on people to join the resistance to it would beheld in cities across the US.  These actions need to draw in many different institutions – especially schools and churches – and different sections of people in society.  A special focus of this activity should be college campuses and high schools.

2)                     A national conference drawing together the forces working to build resistance to mass incarceration.  Such a conference could bring together organizations and individuals working on different fronts of this battle; discuss and debate the cause of and solution to this outrage; develop a comprehensive approach to this battle and a plan of action going into the fall. THIS CONFERENCE SHOULD AIM AT NOTHING LESS THAN RADICALLY CHANGING THE NATIONAL TERMS OF DISCUSSION ON THIS.

3)               A statement of conscience that sharply and concisely lays out the harsh and unjust reality that mass incarceration inflicts on millions.  This statement would be circulated for signature among prominent voices of conscience, published in various significant publications and publicized nationwide

4)               A major concert or other cultural event opposing mass incarceration, featuring a broad spectrum of artists.

I urge people to respond to this proposal, including with additional ideas for how to advance this fight in this critical time period.

Signers in formation: 

Gbenga Akinnagbe, Actor

Rafael Angulo, Professor of Social Work, USC

Nellie Bailey, Occupy Harlem

Kendra Castaneda, Prisoner Human Rights Activist with a family member in CA State Prison Segregation Unit

Solomon Comissiong, Executive Director, Your World News Media Collective (www.yourworldnews.org) 

Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist, co-initiator of Campaign to Stop “Stop and Frisk”

Kelley Lytle Hernandez, Professor of History, UCLA

Robin DG Kelley, Distinguished Professor of History, UCLA

Wayne Kramer, Jail Guitar Doors USA, Co-Founder

Sarah Kuntsler, National Lawyers Guild NYC*

Rev. Janet Gollery McKeithen (Unity Methodist Clergy), President, Methodist Federation for Social Action, Cal-Pac

Cornel West, author and educator, co-initiator of Campaign to Stop “Stop and Frisk”

Clyde Young, Revolutionary Communist, and former prisoner

March 9, 2012

*For Identification Purposes Only.

Be There: February 18th at The Riverside Church

A Talk by Carl Dix

Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide! 

Mass Incarceration — Its Source, The Need to Resist Where Things Are Heading and The Revolution We Need!

October 21, 2011 at the NYPD 28th Precinct.

• 2.4 million people, most of them Black and Latino, in prison!
• Racial profiling a pipeline to prison for generations of our youth!
• Former prisoners discriminated against on virtually every front!

Carl Dix says, “All this comes down to a slow genocide which could easily accelerate into fast genocide.”

On February 18, Dix will break all this down and speak to where things are headed if action is not taken. And he will talk about “what kind of revolution is needed to eliminate mass incarceration and all the brutality and misery this capitalist system enforces on humanity once and for all.”  See video here.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 4:00 PM at The Riverside Church, Assembly Hall, 490 Riverside Drive, New York

Enter on the Claremont Avenue side between 120th & 121st Streets • #1 train to 116  or 125 Street

Carl Dix is a longtime revolutionary and a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party. In 1970, he was part of the largest mass refusal of U.S. soldiers to go to Vietnam. In 1996, he co-founded the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality. In 2006, he coordinated the Katrina Hearings of the Bush Crimes Commission. Recently he participated in a series of dialogues with Cornel West under the theme: “In the Age of Obama: Police Terror; Incarceration; No Jobs; Mis-Education... What Future for Our Youth?” In 2011, he co-issued a call for a campaign of civil disobedience to STOP “Stop & Frisk.”

Sponsor: Revolution Books NYC • 146 West 26th Street, New York City •212-691-3345 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            212-691-3345      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            212-691-3345 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            212-691-3345      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      end_of_the_skype_highlighting • revbooksnyc@yahoo.com

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