For Immediate Release
Contact: Steve (NYC) 917-868-6007 or Brian (D.C.) 832-922-2754
yipzzz@gmail.com or peac.howard@gmail.com
From Buffalo Soldier to Revolutionary Communist
VIETNAM-ERA VETERAN BRINGS REVOLUTIONARY MESSAGE TO HOWARD UNIVERSITY
Date and Time: March 4th, Thursday, 7:30 PM
Location: Locke Hall Room 105, Howard University
In a time of war abroad, economic dislocation and continuing oppression in the US, Carl Dix is coming to Washington, D.C., and he's on a mission. On March 4th, Carl will speak at Howard University on the theme of "From Buffalo Soldier to Revolutionary Communist." Carl will deliver 2 challenges and talk about the real way out of the madness the country and the world is confronted with today.
Carl challenges anyone in the ROTC, the American Legion, the VFW and anyone else who believes the war in Afghanistan is, as President Obama has called it, "a good war," to come out and make that case. He also warns any takers that they better come armed with facts and analysis because he's going to tell the truth about the murderous war the U.S. is waging there.
• Carl challenges anyone who believes the election of Barack Obama means America has turned the corner on its legacy of inflicting brutal oppression on Black people to come out and make that case, too. Again, any takers need to be ready to talk about what's really going on because it's too late and too much is at stake to be talking falsely.
• Carl Dix has the experience to speak to these questions. In the 1960's he was drafted into the US military and given orders to go to Vietnam, but he refused those orders and was sentenced to 2 years in Leavenworth military penitentiary. This stand put him on the path to becoming a revolutionary and a communist, a path he remains on today. And it has great relevance for today's youth who face a similar question -- should they go kill people for this system, and maybe be killed themselves. In coming at all this, Carl bases himself on and is inspired by the work of Bob Avakian, the leader of the RCP, who has re-envisioned what revolution and communism are all about and how to realize them.
Last year, Carl participated in a historic dialogue with Cornel West of Princeton University on "The Ascendancy of Obama ... and the Continued Need for Resistance and Liberation." Before a packed house in Harlem, Carl and Cornel exchanged perspectives on the meaning and significance of America electing its 1st Black president and what needed to be done to continue to advance the fight against injustice in this country and around the world. And now Carl is on this tour. At Howard University, Carl will deliver a revolutionary message--that the world doesn't have to be this way, and that thru making revolution it would be possible to end the wars, the torture and government spying, the starvation and disease humanity is forced to endure today.
Carl says, "If you like what's going down in the US and around the world, you should come out and explain why any rational human being would feel that way. And if you hate all the misery, brutality and indignity the capitalist system is enforcing on the planet, you should come out and engage in the conversation about why all this continues to happen and what must be done to end it once and for all."
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WHO IS CARL DIX -- Carl Dix is a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Paarty, USA. in 1970, Carl was one of the Fort Lewis 6, six GI's who refused orders to go to Vietnam. He served 2 years in Leavenworth Military Penitentiary for this stand. In 1985 Carl initiated the Draw The Line Statement, a powerful condemnation of the bombing of the MOVE house in Philadelphia. In 1996, Dix was a co-founder of the October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality. He was in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In 2006 he coordinated the Katrina hearings of the Bush Crimes Commission. He recently participated in a dialogue with Cornel West at Aaron Davis Hall, "The Ascendancy of Obama and the Continued Need for Resistance and Liberation" and was interviewed with Dr. West on Democracy Now by Amy Goodman.
Check out Carl on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ03EIBgTwI, and check out the DVD of the Dialogue Between Cornel West and Carl Dix at www.revolutionbooksnyc.org/West-Dix.htm
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About Carl Dix
- Carl Dix
- Carl Dix is one of the most courageous freedom fighters of the 1960s. As a young man, Dix spent two years in military prison for refusing to fight in the unjust Vietnam War. He emerged to become a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), dedicating his life to the emancipation of all humanity. Grounded in the path breaking and visionary new synthesis of communism developed by the RCP’s Chairman Bob Avakian, Dix has repeatedly gone against the tide in leading the masses to fight for liberation. Twenty years ago, long before media and movements erupted against the daily horrors of police terror and mass incarceration, Carl initiated the October 22 Coalition to STOP Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. With Cornel West he initiated the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, the campaign to Stop ‘Stop-and-Frisk,’ and the #RiseUpOctober movement bringing nearly 100 families of police murder victims into the streets of NYC together with thousands of others. Carl has not only put his body on the line and to lead others to do the same, he has fought tirelessly to lift people’s sights to revolution and for the emancipation of all humanity.