What’s at Stake in the Fight for Justice for Trayvon Martin
February 24, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The following is from an interview Revolution did with Carl Dix:
Some people say, we protested the murder of Trayvon Martin a year ago, but now we should wait and see what happens in the courts; or that protests will “get in the way of the courts working” and could actually work against Zimmerman getting convicted. There are also some who say the fix is already in, so there’s nothing you can do about it. Could you speak to this?
Carl Dix: It’s actually very important for people to get that it was their standing up and saying “not this time”—that this is the only reason Zimmerman even faces charges. And now, whether or not the case goes forward could really well be determined by whether the authorities still feel like that rage is there—that this rage could be coming at them and could further expose the system for the rotten, no good thing that it is, if Zimmerman goes free. And then a big question is posed for various figures in the the ruling class. Is it worse for the system to convict this racist, or is it worse to let him go? What will actually undermine the system the most? Because when you talk about the courts in this country, you’re not talking about some neutral institution that operates according to the laws of what’s right and wrong. You’re talking about an institution that is part and parcel of maintaining the exploitative and oppressive setup. And in this country the role that the courts have played as part of that, a lot of it is targeting of Blacks and Latinos and especially the youth because that is the section of society that the powers-that-be hate and fear. The ruling class remembers the 1960s and the way in which Black youth were at the forefront of standing up against the mistreatement of Black people. And the powers-that-be remember the powerful dynamic between the struggle of Black people and other struggles, like the struggle to end the Vietnam War and the fight against women’s oppression, and a broad revolutionary movement that encompassed not only Black people, but people of various nationalities, many different backgrounds, that rocked this system back on its heels. And the powers-that-be understand that the conditions this system is enforcing on tens of millions of people in the inner cities across this country, and even beyond the inner cities, are as bad, if not worse than the conditions that were forced on people in the 1960s. And the powers-that-be are moving to head off any kind of uprisings in relation to that through a program of criminalization of Black and Latino youth in large numbers—the warehousing in prisons, the disproportionate ways that the police harass, jack up, brutalize and even murder Black and Latino people, especially the youth. All of this is all part of conscious policies adopted that I like to refer to as a counter-insurgency being unleashed before the insurgency can break out and in order to prevent anything along the lines of an insurgency from breaking out. That’s how the authorities are looking at that.
So it’s important that people understand their role in relation to all that and whether they are going to stand up and say no more to that and not just in relation to a particular outrage but seeing that this is part and parcel of the way that the system comes at whole groupings of people, whole generations of people. And a lot of that comes down to what role do the revolutionaries play, what role do the people who see the need for revolution play? And that underscores the importance of taking the approach of “Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution”; helping people to see the source of not only this problem they’re up against, but that it is the same as the problems that are being enforced on humanity, not only in this country, but throughout the world and that the solution to that is making revolution and getting rid of the capitalist-imperialist system once and for all. And particularly right now, focusing that up a lot around the premiere of this film, BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! because it is a way to introduce people to the leadership that we have for this revolution. So that’s kind of how I see that question of the role that people’s activities play and need to continue to play and that people need to themselves understand. But that also needs to be done in the context of where this comes from and what’s needed to be done to get rid of it.
