Revolution #211, September 12, 2010
Statement from the Revolutionary Communist Party, Los Angeles Branch
JUSTICE FOR MANUEL JAMINES!
PROTESTS AGAINST POLICE MURDER ARE JUSTIFIED AND MUST BE SUPPORTED!
THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY
For several days and nights, the people of Pico Union have been in the streets demanding justice for Manuel Jamines. The outpouring of righteous anger over his murder by LAPD is telling the world Basta Ya! No More! This determined resistance has inspired people everywhere.
Manuel Jamines was 37 years old, an immigrant from Guatemala known by many people in the neighborhood. Like so many others, he left his two young children and wife to come to El Norte in search of the American dream, only to find the reality of the American nightmare.
The cold-blooded murder of Manuel Jamines by the LAPD on Sunday, the complete disregard for his life by cops who shot him in the head only 40 seconds after they confronted him, is a screaming injustice. Adding further insult, they left his body in a pool of his blood on the sidewalk for 4 hours. Like a dog.
It was such a total outrage that - this time - people would not allow it to go down quietly and unanswered. Immediately, crowds surrounded the killer cops and chanted “Asesinos!”
There is a sense broadly that the police murder of Manuel Jamines is part of the epidemic of police brutality, especially aimed at Black and Latino people all across this country - from Harlem to Pico Union to Oakland. There is a sense that this is part of the fascist atmosphere and attacks against immigrants unleashed by laws like Arizona’s SB1070.
In a climate where immigrants are demonized, denied basic human rights, dragged away and deported at any moment, brutalized by sadistic border patrol agents, attacked by a fascist anti-immigrant movement, viciously exploited at every turn – the protests in the streets demanding justice speaks for millions and is a breath of fresh air.
In the past few days, the people have repeatedly and bravely gone into the streets demanding justice and to say that the police do not have the right and legitimacy to come into the neighborhood and assassinate someone like Manuel. People have refused to be silenced in the face of lies and threats from the authorities, from the police chief to the mayor to their riot cops. People are refusing to accept this crime committed by the LAPD. The lies and threats cannot cover up the truth that they all knew their killer cop, Frank Hernandez, had a long and ugly history of brutalizing people, shooting two other people before this.
This complete disregard for Manuel’s life is not an isolated incident. This whole system acts as if the life of ordinary people such as Manuel is not even worth the bullet that killed him. Their whole damn system is guilty. As it says in the Message and Call from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA “The Revolution We Need… The Leadership We Have”:
It is a system of capitalism-imperialism…a system in which U.S. imperialism is the most monstrous, most oppressive superpower…a system driven by a relentless chase after profit, which brings horror upon horror, a nightmare seemingly without end, for the vast majority of humanity: poverty and squalor…torture and rape…while here in the USA itself the police harass, brutalize and murder youth in the streets of the inner cities—over and over again—and then they spit out their maddening insults, insisting that this is "justified," as if these youth are not human beings, have no right to live, deserve no respect and no future.
The continued upsurge of resistance in Pico Union to demand justice for Manuel Jamines - to demand a stop to police brutality and murder, to demand to be treated as human beings - has brought hope to millions. It is a hope that the world can be different, that the people do not have to accept being constantly abused and degraded by this whole system and their enforcers like the LAPD and ICE. It is a hope that a better world is possible. From the RCP’s Message and Call “The Revolution We Need… The Leadership We Have”:
The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world…when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness…those days must be GONE. And they CAN be.
The recent protests in the streets of Pico-Union have answered, YES!
Justice for Manuel Jamines!
Indict and Jail the killer cops!
Drop the charges on all protesters!
No raids or deportations!
Send us your comments.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
"Put Revolution On The Map" National Fundraising Web-a-thon, Aug. 8th
profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/hs331.snc4/41782_143247765694388_5986_n.jpg
Save the DATE... DONATE... MOBILIZE your FRIENDS...
Sunday, August 8
4-10 pm EST / 1-7pm PST
Fundraising Web-a-thon to "Put Revolution On The Map" #2
http://revolutiononthemapwebcast.blogspot.com/
Hosted by Annie Day, Will Reese & Sunsara Taylor
Back by popular demand and real necessity, on Sunday, August 8, the campaign around "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have" will hold a second fundraising web-a-thon, from 4pm - 10pm, EST.
Every week the headlines scream out at us that we need a radically different world. Thursday, July 29th, Arizona will begin enforcing an unjust, immoral, and unconstitutional law that threatens the lives of immigrants. Yesterday, 90,000 secret military documents that paint a devastating picture of the brutal invasion and occupation of Afghanistan were leaked from inside the U.S. military. The cop who shot Oscar Grant in the back as he was detained, lying face down on a subway platform, killing him, was convicted only of "involuntary manslaughter" showing the reality behind the "post-racial society."
This is not the best of all possible worlds and we do not have to live this way! We are building a movement for revolution, now, and you should be a part of this.
So, start organizing your friends to watch together on Sunday August 8. Spread this email to your lists, make a donation and challenge your friends to match it and join the movement for revolution.
On June 20, several hundred people watched the first webathon. 160 people donated and we surpassed met the goal. $10,048 has been raised. This was a success and showed the potential of "giving people the means to become part of this revolutionary movement, and organizing into this movement everyone who wants to make a contribution to it, who wants to work and fight, to struggle and sacrifice, not to keep this nightmare of a world going as it is but to bring a better world into being." [From Message and Call]
This time, with your help spreading the word and challenging others to donate we want to triple the number of people who watch online, and double the number of donors. Our goal is to raise $12,000 towards special projects to popularize Bob Avakian's leadership, including:
online advertising of The Revolution Talk; New York City "Revolution in the Park" outdoor film series; initial promotion and publication of BAsics; and more.
Check out the schedule and get your friends organized to watch. Tune in for special topics; design your own appeals based on this schedule:
4-5 EST / 1-2 PST Introduction; We Are Building a Movement for Revolution
5-6 EST / 2-3 PST Make Bob Avakian a Household Name: Hear the Revolution Talk & More on BAsics
6-7 EST / 3-4 PST A Capitalist Oil Spill: A System Not Fit to Be Caretaker of the Planet, And the Revolution We Need! featuring Raymond Lotta
7-8 EST / 4-5 PST Prisoners Connect with the Revolution
Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund programming
8-9 EST / 5-6 PST Arizona Freedom Summer featuring Travis Morales & Why Do People Come here? by Bob Avakian
9-10 EST / 6-7 PST The Revolution We Need; The Leadership We Have
So, hold the date, make your plans, and tune in on Sunday August 8!
Instructions for tuning in at "Put Revolution on the Map" next week.
Some ways in which proceeds from the June 20 webathon spread revolution:
Detroit: A billboard high over inbound I-75, and also right in sight of thousands of commuters leaving Detroit on a major street announced the Revolution Talk by Bob Avakian. As thousands of participants in the US Social Forum poured into the city, they got the Message & Call; they had a chance to hear deep and varied presentations from Revolution newspaper correspondents, learn that the revolution is real, and join Carl Dix and others standing with the people in the wake of the police execution of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones.
Arizona Freedom Summer: "We don't have an immigration problem. We have a capitalist problem!" Their call says, "Come join us in Arizona. This is a summer of resistance and revolution. Come with a spirit of defiance and a determination to stop the ugly white supremacy and repression being put into law and unleashed on immigrants and anyone that "looks illegal!" SB 1070, the fascist anti-immigrant law, goes into effect in Arizona on Thursday July 29. Carloads are going to join the protests now, and to spread Revolution. Reporter's notebook from Arizona Freedom Summer.
Save the DATE... DONATE... MOBILIZE your FRIENDS...
Sunday, August 8
4-10 pm EST / 1-7pm PST
Fundraising Web-a-thon to "Put Revolution On The Map" #2
http://revolutiononthemapwebcast.blogspot.com/
Hosted by Annie Day, Will Reese & Sunsara Taylor
Back by popular demand and real necessity, on Sunday, August 8, the campaign around "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have" will hold a second fundraising web-a-thon, from 4pm - 10pm, EST.
Every week the headlines scream out at us that we need a radically different world. Thursday, July 29th, Arizona will begin enforcing an unjust, immoral, and unconstitutional law that threatens the lives of immigrants. Yesterday, 90,000 secret military documents that paint a devastating picture of the brutal invasion and occupation of Afghanistan were leaked from inside the U.S. military. The cop who shot Oscar Grant in the back as he was detained, lying face down on a subway platform, killing him, was convicted only of "involuntary manslaughter" showing the reality behind the "post-racial society."
This is not the best of all possible worlds and we do not have to live this way! We are building a movement for revolution, now, and you should be a part of this.
So, start organizing your friends to watch together on Sunday August 8. Spread this email to your lists, make a donation and challenge your friends to match it and join the movement for revolution.
On June 20, several hundred people watched the first webathon. 160 people donated and we surpassed met the goal. $10,048 has been raised. This was a success and showed the potential of "giving people the means to become part of this revolutionary movement, and organizing into this movement everyone who wants to make a contribution to it, who wants to work and fight, to struggle and sacrifice, not to keep this nightmare of a world going as it is but to bring a better world into being." [From Message and Call]
This time, with your help spreading the word and challenging others to donate we want to triple the number of people who watch online, and double the number of donors. Our goal is to raise $12,000 towards special projects to popularize Bob Avakian's leadership, including:
online advertising of The Revolution Talk; New York City "Revolution in the Park" outdoor film series; initial promotion and publication of BAsics; and more.
Check out the schedule and get your friends organized to watch. Tune in for special topics; design your own appeals based on this schedule:
4-5 EST / 1-2 PST Introduction; We Are Building a Movement for Revolution
5-6 EST / 2-3 PST Make Bob Avakian a Household Name: Hear the Revolution Talk & More on BAsics
6-7 EST / 3-4 PST A Capitalist Oil Spill: A System Not Fit to Be Caretaker of the Planet, And the Revolution We Need! featuring Raymond Lotta
7-8 EST / 4-5 PST Prisoners Connect with the Revolution
Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund programming
8-9 EST / 5-6 PST Arizona Freedom Summer featuring Travis Morales & Why Do People Come here? by Bob Avakian
9-10 EST / 6-7 PST The Revolution We Need; The Leadership We Have
So, hold the date, make your plans, and tune in on Sunday August 8!
Instructions for tuning in at "Put Revolution on the Map" next week.
Some ways in which proceeds from the June 20 webathon spread revolution:
Detroit: A billboard high over inbound I-75, and also right in sight of thousands of commuters leaving Detroit on a major street announced the Revolution Talk by Bob Avakian. As thousands of participants in the US Social Forum poured into the city, they got the Message & Call; they had a chance to hear deep and varied presentations from Revolution newspaper correspondents, learn that the revolution is real, and join Carl Dix and others standing with the people in the wake of the police execution of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones.
Arizona Freedom Summer: "We don't have an immigration problem. We have a capitalist problem!" Their call says, "Come join us in Arizona. This is a summer of resistance and revolution. Come with a spirit of defiance and a determination to stop the ugly white supremacy and repression being put into law and unleashed on immigrants and anyone that "looks illegal!" SB 1070, the fascist anti-immigrant law, goes into effect in Arizona on Thursday July 29. Carloads are going to join the protests now, and to spread Revolution. Reporter's notebook from Arizona Freedom Summer.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Friday, July 09, 2010
INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER: UNACCEPTABLE!
From Revolution Books, Berkeley
INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER: UNACCEPTABLE!
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
The Whole Damn System is Guilty!
The killing of Oscar Grant, an unarmed 22-year-old Black man, was a cold-blooded murder. It was a towering crime. This verdict is a slap on the wrist. It is another crime of the system.
Under the law, 2nd degree murder is the unjustified, intentional killing of a human being. Involuntary manslaughter is a much lesser offense, and carries a much lighter sentence. We saw the videos. From the beginning, the cops were the ones driving the action. Detained, lying face down, putting his hands behind his back while one cop kneeled on his neck, Oscar was shot in the back. Cold-blooded murder, a totally unjustified and brutal act.
Think about it: If this case did not involve police, the situation would be completely different.
Imagine if seven ordinary people had swarmed the BART platform that night, rousted people off the train—cursing them with racist epithets — kicking, and shoving people to the ground, and then killing a man who was lying face down — shooting him in the back. Imagine if dozens of people had seen it. If they videotaped it. What had happened wouldn’t even be a question. It would be obvious. Murder.
This involuntary manslaughter verdict tells cops everywhere they can kill and get away with it. And this verdict tells the people that when we or people we love are gunned down, a slap on the wrist to a cop is the best that we can get.
Let's tell the truth — this system lets cops get away with brutality and murder every single day. The only reason that Mehserle even had to face murder charges at all — and everyone should know this almost never happens — is because the people rose up and fought for justice. And now the defenders of this system are saying that the battle for justice hurt the people. Bullshit. It’s the system the cops enforce with their brutality that hurts the people.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to live in a society where our youth are gunned down by the police who get away with it over and over, where immigrants are criminalized by just the way they look, where oil gushes into the gulf and marshes week after week killing rich sea life and a whole way of life for many thousands. We could build a society where police brutality and other injustices are done away with and people work together to build a new society. Building that kind of society would take a revolution. We need such a revolution and right now we are building a movement for revolution.
The system is rotten. We don’t have to live this way. We need a Real Revolution!
REVOLUTION BOOKS, Berkeley
2425 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94704
510-848-1196 revolutionbooks.org
INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER: UNACCEPTABLE!
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
The Whole Damn System is Guilty!
The killing of Oscar Grant, an unarmed 22-year-old Black man, was a cold-blooded murder. It was a towering crime. This verdict is a slap on the wrist. It is another crime of the system.
Under the law, 2nd degree murder is the unjustified, intentional killing of a human being. Involuntary manslaughter is a much lesser offense, and carries a much lighter sentence. We saw the videos. From the beginning, the cops were the ones driving the action. Detained, lying face down, putting his hands behind his back while one cop kneeled on his neck, Oscar was shot in the back. Cold-blooded murder, a totally unjustified and brutal act.
Think about it: If this case did not involve police, the situation would be completely different.
Imagine if seven ordinary people had swarmed the BART platform that night, rousted people off the train—cursing them with racist epithets — kicking, and shoving people to the ground, and then killing a man who was lying face down — shooting him in the back. Imagine if dozens of people had seen it. If they videotaped it. What had happened wouldn’t even be a question. It would be obvious. Murder.
This involuntary manslaughter verdict tells cops everywhere they can kill and get away with it. And this verdict tells the people that when we or people we love are gunned down, a slap on the wrist to a cop is the best that we can get.
Let's tell the truth — this system lets cops get away with brutality and murder every single day. The only reason that Mehserle even had to face murder charges at all — and everyone should know this almost never happens — is because the people rose up and fought for justice. And now the defenders of this system are saying that the battle for justice hurt the people. Bullshit. It’s the system the cops enforce with their brutality that hurts the people.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to live in a society where our youth are gunned down by the police who get away with it over and over, where immigrants are criminalized by just the way they look, where oil gushes into the gulf and marshes week after week killing rich sea life and a whole way of life for many thousands. We could build a society where police brutality and other injustices are done away with and people work together to build a new society. Building that kind of society would take a revolution. We need such a revolution and right now we are building a movement for revolution.
The system is rotten. We don’t have to live this way. We need a Real Revolution!
REVOLUTION BOOKS, Berkeley
2425 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94704
510-848-1196 revolutionbooks.org
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Bob Avakian, "What to the slave is your fourth of July? From the past to...
Check this clip from Bob Avakian's landmark Revolution talk, "What to the Slave is Your Fourth of July? From the Past to the Present" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljXoAfxTMdg and in Spanish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCTE5sLUSMk
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
On the Ground in Detroit: June 21
Revolution in Detroit - June 21 - Part 1 & 2
Follow Carl Dix on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Carl_Dix
and also follow the on the ground reports by Revolution correspondent Alice Woodward on the revolutionaries in Detroit at www.revdetroit.blogspot.com
Part 2
Follow Carl Dix on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Carl_Dix
and also follow the on the ground reports by Revolution correspondent Alice Woodward on the revolutionaries in Detroit at www.revdetroit.blogspot.com
Part 2
Friday, June 18, 2010
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Detroit: June 15th--30 — Be There!
Put Revolution on the Map
On May 12th, the Detroit police murdered 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones. Then they treated her family like criminals, arresting her grandmother and testing her for drugs and gun powder residue and making her father lay on the floor in the very room his little girl had just been blown away in, his face in her still warm blood. Then the authorities blamed Aiyana’s family for their little girl’s murder. These pigs are lying thru their teeth! This is wrong, it is illegitimate and it is unacceptable. AND WE MUST NOT ALLOW THEM TO GET AWAY WITH THIS! Come to Detroit and join us in letting people know that there is a revolutionary movement which will not be backed down in the face of this kind of stuff, and which says: “The days when … this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world … when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness … those days must be GONE. And they CAN be.”
But that’s not all that’s happening in Detroit. The United States Social Forum is happening on June 22-26 – thousands of people coming from all over the country, and beyond, putting their heads together and debating about how to make a different better world. And this revolutionary movement will be there, too – part of the debate, and learning from everyone we can, even as we’re going to boldly put forward our revolutionary solution to this madness.
We’re going to take the need for communist revolution – how it’s the only way to deal with all this – and the existence of our leadership – Bob Avakian and the Party he leads – out to both these sections of people. But that’s not all. The movement for revolution is going to do all it can to bring these two forces together – the basic people in Detroit seething over brutality and injustice, and the activists coming to Detroit to wrangle with making a different and better world. We’re going to work to create a very positive, and very rare, chemistry in this fucked-up society which does everything it can to keep people divided and fearing one another.
If you are sickened and outraged by the police murder of Aiyana Stanley-Jones... if you are outraged by crimes against the environment in the Gulf and the Nazi anti-immigrant laws in Arizona... if you are righteously infuriated by the U.S. rampaging around the Middle East with its thug Israel and you want to fight for a radically different and radically better world where all these things don’t constantly happen… and if you are most definitely down with the Message and Call from the RCP,USA “The Revolution We Need… The Leadership We Have”… if you want to get Bob Avakian and his liberating, emancipating message known to many many thousands in Detroit and beyond… then drop everything and COME TO DETROIT THE 2ND HALF OF JUNE!
Get there June 15th and stay for the whole time. Be there for the United States Social Forum June 22-26, and bring the outrage of the masses in Detroit at this murder into this important gathering of radical activists. And bring the desire of these activists for a better world out among the masses in Detroit. Get there for any part of this time that you can. But get there.
*****
People who want to volunteer to go to Detroit or make a financial contribution to this effort should get in contact with us right away. Write, call, e-mail: Libros Revolucion/Revolution Books (see page 15 for information for different cities) or RCP Publications at Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654 – 773-227-4066 – rcppubs@hotmail.com. Please give your name, e-mail, phone number so someone can get back to you right away. Checks can be made out to RCP Publications (marked “Detroit Effort”)
On May 12th, the Detroit police murdered 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones. Then they treated her family like criminals, arresting her grandmother and testing her for drugs and gun powder residue and making her father lay on the floor in the very room his little girl had just been blown away in, his face in her still warm blood. Then the authorities blamed Aiyana’s family for their little girl’s murder. These pigs are lying thru their teeth! This is wrong, it is illegitimate and it is unacceptable. AND WE MUST NOT ALLOW THEM TO GET AWAY WITH THIS! Come to Detroit and join us in letting people know that there is a revolutionary movement which will not be backed down in the face of this kind of stuff, and which says: “The days when … this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world … when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness … those days must be GONE. And they CAN be.”
But that’s not all that’s happening in Detroit. The United States Social Forum is happening on June 22-26 – thousands of people coming from all over the country, and beyond, putting their heads together and debating about how to make a different better world. And this revolutionary movement will be there, too – part of the debate, and learning from everyone we can, even as we’re going to boldly put forward our revolutionary solution to this madness.
We’re going to take the need for communist revolution – how it’s the only way to deal with all this – and the existence of our leadership – Bob Avakian and the Party he leads – out to both these sections of people. But that’s not all. The movement for revolution is going to do all it can to bring these two forces together – the basic people in Detroit seething over brutality and injustice, and the activists coming to Detroit to wrangle with making a different and better world. We’re going to work to create a very positive, and very rare, chemistry in this fucked-up society which does everything it can to keep people divided and fearing one another.
If you are sickened and outraged by the police murder of Aiyana Stanley-Jones... if you are outraged by crimes against the environment in the Gulf and the Nazi anti-immigrant laws in Arizona... if you are righteously infuriated by the U.S. rampaging around the Middle East with its thug Israel and you want to fight for a radically different and radically better world where all these things don’t constantly happen… and if you are most definitely down with the Message and Call from the RCP,USA “The Revolution We Need… The Leadership We Have”… if you want to get Bob Avakian and his liberating, emancipating message known to many many thousands in Detroit and beyond… then drop everything and COME TO DETROIT THE 2ND HALF OF JUNE!
Get there June 15th and stay for the whole time. Be there for the United States Social Forum June 22-26, and bring the outrage of the masses in Detroit at this murder into this important gathering of radical activists. And bring the desire of these activists for a better world out among the masses in Detroit. Get there for any part of this time that you can. But get there.
*****
People who want to volunteer to go to Detroit or make a financial contribution to this effort should get in contact with us right away. Write, call, e-mail: Libros Revolucion/Revolution Books (see page 15 for information for different cities) or RCP Publications at Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654 – 773-227-4066 – rcppubs@hotmail.com. Please give your name, e-mail, phone number so someone can get back to you right away. Checks can be made out to RCP Publications (marked “Detroit Effort”)
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Carl Dix Speaks to the Youth On the Murder of Aiyana Jones
Everybody’s talking about crime - But who are the real criminals.
I was in Detroit for the funeral of Aiyana Jones. The police murdered this 7yr old girl, and then they treated her family like they were criminals, arresting her grandmother and making her father lay face down in his daughter’s blood. These pigs acted with wanton disregard for the lives of this Black family. A determined struggle for justice for Aiyana is needed in the face of this outrage.
The authorities in Detroit are blaming Aiyana’s family for the murder their pigs committed. They say the cop’s gun went off accidentally when her grandmother struggled with the cop. And they say Aiyana’s family put her in harm’s way by shielding the guy the cops were after.
Even if any of this were true, it wouldn’t justify what they did to Aiyana. They threw a grenade into a house they knew kids lived in, and they ran into the house guns drawn AND shooting. Are they saying it’s legitimate to kill children if they get between them and somebody they’re after? Are they saying they can be judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one?
Moreover, these pigs are lying. The guy the cops had the warrant for lived in the apt upstairs, over top of Aiyana’s home. The pigs ran into the wrong place and blew away a little girl. There’s a video of what happened that night. The lawyer for Aiyana’s family has seen the video, and he says it proves the cops are lying. The cops have the video and have refused to let it be shown. If that video backed up the cops’ story, it’d be all over the TV.
Now a lot of people are saying Aiyana’s murder was caused by the culture of crime and violence in Detroit – that because Black youth are killing each other, the cops have to operate like they do. The Detroit police chief said people concerned about what happened to Aiyana have to do more snitching to the cops. At Aiyana’s funeral, Rev Sharpton, who did the eulogy, said, “I’m going to start looking at the man in the mirror. We’ve all done something to contribute to this.” – referring to Aiyana’s death.
This is pure poison. It comes down to blaming the masses for the shit the system enforces on them. Look, I’m not naive. I know the youth are into some bad shit – gangs, crime and drugs; killing each other and preying on the people. But who’s responsible for all this? The capitalist system. The system has sucked the jobs out of the ghettos, moving them ½ way across the world where they can exploit people even more viciously. The system has created schools that are like prisons. Our youth have no legitimate way to survive and raise families. They face futures of prison, the military, or early graves. Even a mainstream economist has said crime is a rational choice for the youth, the best one they can make under the circumstances.
Anybody who wants to do something about crime and violence has to target what’s responsible for all this – the capitalist system.
Now, I want to speak to the youth, youth out there with their defiant attitudes and sagging pants, youth who are in gangs and involved in the underground economy trying to make it or earn some respect.
Look I know the system offers you no future. Unleashing pigs to beat you down, dragging you into court where no one is on your side, framing you up on BS charges and throwing you in jail even if you’ve done nothing wrong. I know they say your lives are worthless, and this has scarred you deeply, physically and emotionally. I know the impact that watching your families lose jobs and homes, seeing your fathers locked up or missing from your lives can have.
I get why you’re angry, why you don’t want to play by the system’s rules, why you’re impatient and want to fight. But answer me this – are you going to let this system, the very system that put you in this situation, keep on playing you? Are you going to keep swallowing and spitting back out their message, that you’re nothing but a criminal, an animal out to kill or be killed? Are you going to keep on being a tool for this system, doing dirty work that serves its interests, killing each other and preying on the people? Or joining their military to go off to do the same shit for them in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Or are you going to cast off what they say about you and prove them wrong. Are you going to rise above what this system has put on you, not by getting on your knees and praying to a non existent god. That won’t ease your conscience or stop the never ending nightmares you see happening around you every day.
What you gotta do is get out of the shit you’re into and get into the revolution. Refuse to become what the system is trying to make you into. Take the rage that burns within you, rage that is completely justified, and direct it where it needs to be. Become a fighter for the revolution, an emancipator of humanity. You have heart and a brain – use them to get into this revolution. Spread the message of this revolution, that things don’t have to be this way, that thru revolution we could end the way the police brutalize and even murder people, end the wars this system inflicts on the world, end the way the great majority of humanity is forced to endure poverty and misery while a handful live in obscene wealth. Grapple with the questions involved in making revolution and building a new society that could meet people’s needs and deal with the problems we face.
Use your rage to stand up against the outrages this system brings down on people here in the US and around the world. Like the cold blooded murder of Aiyana Jones and all the other people these pigs have murdered.
The days when the system can just keep on doing what it does to people here and all over the world, when people aren’t inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages, and to build up the strength to end this madness, those days must be gone, and they can be.
Make your life about something that really matters, not just for yourself and those around you, but for all of humanity. Do something to get rid of this system that has robbed you and all the people of this planet of lives worthy of human beings.
The choice is yours. Are you gonna continue to let this system play you, are you going to end up in an early grave or in prison or a mindless killer in their military? Or are you going to rise above it, getting with the revolution, waking other people up, shaking them out of their silence and passivity, helping jump off a new stage of revolution.
This system has no future for you. But the revolution certainly does.
Get with the revolution.
I was in Detroit for the funeral of Aiyana Jones. The police murdered this 7yr old girl, and then they treated her family like they were criminals, arresting her grandmother and making her father lay face down in his daughter’s blood. These pigs acted with wanton disregard for the lives of this Black family. A determined struggle for justice for Aiyana is needed in the face of this outrage.
The authorities in Detroit are blaming Aiyana’s family for the murder their pigs committed. They say the cop’s gun went off accidentally when her grandmother struggled with the cop. And they say Aiyana’s family put her in harm’s way by shielding the guy the cops were after.
Even if any of this were true, it wouldn’t justify what they did to Aiyana. They threw a grenade into a house they knew kids lived in, and they ran into the house guns drawn AND shooting. Are they saying it’s legitimate to kill children if they get between them and somebody they’re after? Are they saying they can be judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one?
Moreover, these pigs are lying. The guy the cops had the warrant for lived in the apt upstairs, over top of Aiyana’s home. The pigs ran into the wrong place and blew away a little girl. There’s a video of what happened that night. The lawyer for Aiyana’s family has seen the video, and he says it proves the cops are lying. The cops have the video and have refused to let it be shown. If that video backed up the cops’ story, it’d be all over the TV.
Now a lot of people are saying Aiyana’s murder was caused by the culture of crime and violence in Detroit – that because Black youth are killing each other, the cops have to operate like they do. The Detroit police chief said people concerned about what happened to Aiyana have to do more snitching to the cops. At Aiyana’s funeral, Rev Sharpton, who did the eulogy, said, “I’m going to start looking at the man in the mirror. We’ve all done something to contribute to this.” – referring to Aiyana’s death.
This is pure poison. It comes down to blaming the masses for the shit the system enforces on them. Look, I’m not naive. I know the youth are into some bad shit – gangs, crime and drugs; killing each other and preying on the people. But who’s responsible for all this? The capitalist system. The system has sucked the jobs out of the ghettos, moving them ½ way across the world where they can exploit people even more viciously. The system has created schools that are like prisons. Our youth have no legitimate way to survive and raise families. They face futures of prison, the military, or early graves. Even a mainstream economist has said crime is a rational choice for the youth, the best one they can make under the circumstances.
Anybody who wants to do something about crime and violence has to target what’s responsible for all this – the capitalist system.
Now, I want to speak to the youth, youth out there with their defiant attitudes and sagging pants, youth who are in gangs and involved in the underground economy trying to make it or earn some respect.
Look I know the system offers you no future. Unleashing pigs to beat you down, dragging you into court where no one is on your side, framing you up on BS charges and throwing you in jail even if you’ve done nothing wrong. I know they say your lives are worthless, and this has scarred you deeply, physically and emotionally. I know the impact that watching your families lose jobs and homes, seeing your fathers locked up or missing from your lives can have.
I get why you’re angry, why you don’t want to play by the system’s rules, why you’re impatient and want to fight. But answer me this – are you going to let this system, the very system that put you in this situation, keep on playing you? Are you going to keep swallowing and spitting back out their message, that you’re nothing but a criminal, an animal out to kill or be killed? Are you going to keep on being a tool for this system, doing dirty work that serves its interests, killing each other and preying on the people? Or joining their military to go off to do the same shit for them in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Or are you going to cast off what they say about you and prove them wrong. Are you going to rise above what this system has put on you, not by getting on your knees and praying to a non existent god. That won’t ease your conscience or stop the never ending nightmares you see happening around you every day.
What you gotta do is get out of the shit you’re into and get into the revolution. Refuse to become what the system is trying to make you into. Take the rage that burns within you, rage that is completely justified, and direct it where it needs to be. Become a fighter for the revolution, an emancipator of humanity. You have heart and a brain – use them to get into this revolution. Spread the message of this revolution, that things don’t have to be this way, that thru revolution we could end the way the police brutalize and even murder people, end the wars this system inflicts on the world, end the way the great majority of humanity is forced to endure poverty and misery while a handful live in obscene wealth. Grapple with the questions involved in making revolution and building a new society that could meet people’s needs and deal with the problems we face.
Use your rage to stand up against the outrages this system brings down on people here in the US and around the world. Like the cold blooded murder of Aiyana Jones and all the other people these pigs have murdered.
The days when the system can just keep on doing what it does to people here and all over the world, when people aren’t inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages, and to build up the strength to end this madness, those days must be gone, and they can be.
Make your life about something that really matters, not just for yourself and those around you, but for all of humanity. Do something to get rid of this system that has robbed you and all the people of this planet of lives worthy of human beings.
The choice is yours. Are you gonna continue to let this system play you, are you going to end up in an early grave or in prison or a mindless killer in their military? Or are you going to rise above it, getting with the revolution, waking other people up, shaking them out of their silence and passivity, helping jump off a new stage of revolution.
This system has no future for you. But the revolution certainly does.
Get with the revolution.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Statement on Aiyana Jones Murder by Detroit Police
My name is Carl Dix and I’m with the Revolutionary Communist Party and I have something to say about the police murder of 7 year old Aiyana Jones in Detroit this week.
The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world… when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness… those days must be GONE. And they CAN be.
Aiyana Jones was sleeping in her own home when she was burned with a stun grenade thrown through her window by Detroit police and then shot in the head and killed by police.
Don’t tell me this was an accident that couldn’t have been avoided—they threw a stun grenade into a home, burning Aiyana while she slept. Then they fired the bullet that killed Aiyana while they were still on the porch outside. All this happened despite the fact that Aiyana’s cousin, Mark Jones, was outside pleading with them that there were children inside.
Don’t tell me the cops were remorseful over Aiyana’s death— they made her father, Charles Jones, lay face down in broken glass and in his little girl’s blood, all the while lying to him, telling him Aiyana was OK. Then they arrested the grandmother, and when they took her for a drug test, they PUT HER IN CHAINS.
Don’t tell me this is just “one bad apple” – because after this murder, the police department started lying to cover it up. They cooked up a lie that the murdering cop’s gun went off by accident and blamed this on the alleged resistance of Aiyana’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones.
Don’t tell us to be patient until all the facts come out -- it turns out the cops who killed Aiyana had pointed his gun at a 2 year old girl several years earlier and he hasn’t been punished for that outrage.
Don’t tell us to wait patiently while the cops investigate and find out what happened—the cops are spreading lies about how this happened and trying to cover up the truth. A TV crew was filming the police while all this happened, and the cops confiscated the film and haven’t let anyone see it.
Don’t tell us to wait for the federal government to come in and investigate this—cops have killed innocent people again and again, in Detroit and all across the country. Whether the feds come into the cases or not, these murdering pigs almost always get away without any punishment.
People in Iraq and Afghanistan have faced the same thing that was perpetrated on Aiyana's family. Night time raids, stun grenades, family members killed. This is standard procedure for the US military too--shock and awe. What kind of system is this that perfects this kind of procedure and carries it out against people all over the world, again and again.
There's been rivers of tears and oceans of blood. Why do we have to live in a society where cops can brutalize and murder people and get away with it? Why do we have to live in a society where people can work hard all their lives and do everything they're supposed to, and then see their homes taken away from them because of the workings of capitalism's financial system? Why do we have to live in a world where billions of people live on the edge of starvation, dealing with misery and disease while a handful live in obscene wealth?
We don't. Things don't have to keep going down like this. Things don't have to be this way.
It is this capitalist system that has got us in the situation we are in today, and keeps us there. And it is through revolution to get rid of this system that we ourselves can bring a much better system into being. The ultimate goal of this revolution is communism: a world where people work and struggle together for the common good… Where everyone contributes whatever they can to society and gets back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings… where there are no more divisions among people in which some rule over and oppress others, robbing them not only of the means to a decent life but also of knowledge and a means for really understanding, and acting to change, the world.
And look, if you’ve heard bad things before about communist revolution – that’s just more of this system’s lies. The fact is, when we have state power, we can crfeate a totally different and far better society for people to live in. When we are leading a new revolutionary society, our public safety officers would sooner take a bullet themselves then kill or injure an innocent person and that is just the beginning.
This revolution is real. We have the leadership we need in Bob Avakian and the Revolutionary Communist Party. And right now we are building a movement for revolution. Fighting the power and transforming the people for revolution.
Get with the revolution!
What future does this system have to offer our youth? Being blown away by some trigger happy cop? Being trapped in ghettos and barrios that have been stripped of jobs and opportunity? Having little in the way of legitimate ways to survive and raise families? This system has no future for our youth, but the revolution certainly does.
Don't tell us about crime and gangs--It's your system that's really criminal.
Don't tell us about being patient and not to get angry--this has gone down again and again. We're right to be angry and we should express that anger.
Little Aiyana is dead, and the cops are lying about it to cover up their foul murder. We don't want to or need to hear their phony apologies or watch them shed crocodile tears. Come out to her funeral, show her, her family and oppressed youth all over the world some love. Protest her outrageous murder. And join the movement for revolution!
The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world… when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness… those days must be GONE. And they CAN be.
-30-
The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world… when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness… those days must be GONE. And they CAN be.
Aiyana Jones was sleeping in her own home when she was burned with a stun grenade thrown through her window by Detroit police and then shot in the head and killed by police.
Don’t tell me this was an accident that couldn’t have been avoided—they threw a stun grenade into a home, burning Aiyana while she slept. Then they fired the bullet that killed Aiyana while they were still on the porch outside. All this happened despite the fact that Aiyana’s cousin, Mark Jones, was outside pleading with them that there were children inside.
Don’t tell me the cops were remorseful over Aiyana’s death— they made her father, Charles Jones, lay face down in broken glass and in his little girl’s blood, all the while lying to him, telling him Aiyana was OK. Then they arrested the grandmother, and when they took her for a drug test, they PUT HER IN CHAINS.
Don’t tell me this is just “one bad apple” – because after this murder, the police department started lying to cover it up. They cooked up a lie that the murdering cop’s gun went off by accident and blamed this on the alleged resistance of Aiyana’s grandmother, Mertilla Jones.
Don’t tell us to be patient until all the facts come out -- it turns out the cops who killed Aiyana had pointed his gun at a 2 year old girl several years earlier and he hasn’t been punished for that outrage.
Don’t tell us to wait patiently while the cops investigate and find out what happened—the cops are spreading lies about how this happened and trying to cover up the truth. A TV crew was filming the police while all this happened, and the cops confiscated the film and haven’t let anyone see it.
Don’t tell us to wait for the federal government to come in and investigate this—cops have killed innocent people again and again, in Detroit and all across the country. Whether the feds come into the cases or not, these murdering pigs almost always get away without any punishment.
People in Iraq and Afghanistan have faced the same thing that was perpetrated on Aiyana's family. Night time raids, stun grenades, family members killed. This is standard procedure for the US military too--shock and awe. What kind of system is this that perfects this kind of procedure and carries it out against people all over the world, again and again.
There's been rivers of tears and oceans of blood. Why do we have to live in a society where cops can brutalize and murder people and get away with it? Why do we have to live in a society where people can work hard all their lives and do everything they're supposed to, and then see their homes taken away from them because of the workings of capitalism's financial system? Why do we have to live in a world where billions of people live on the edge of starvation, dealing with misery and disease while a handful live in obscene wealth?
We don't. Things don't have to keep going down like this. Things don't have to be this way.
It is this capitalist system that has got us in the situation we are in today, and keeps us there. And it is through revolution to get rid of this system that we ourselves can bring a much better system into being. The ultimate goal of this revolution is communism: a world where people work and struggle together for the common good… Where everyone contributes whatever they can to society and gets back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings… where there are no more divisions among people in which some rule over and oppress others, robbing them not only of the means to a decent life but also of knowledge and a means for really understanding, and acting to change, the world.
And look, if you’ve heard bad things before about communist revolution – that’s just more of this system’s lies. The fact is, when we have state power, we can crfeate a totally different and far better society for people to live in. When we are leading a new revolutionary society, our public safety officers would sooner take a bullet themselves then kill or injure an innocent person and that is just the beginning.
This revolution is real. We have the leadership we need in Bob Avakian and the Revolutionary Communist Party. And right now we are building a movement for revolution. Fighting the power and transforming the people for revolution.
Get with the revolution!
What future does this system have to offer our youth? Being blown away by some trigger happy cop? Being trapped in ghettos and barrios that have been stripped of jobs and opportunity? Having little in the way of legitimate ways to survive and raise families? This system has no future for our youth, but the revolution certainly does.
Don't tell us about crime and gangs--It's your system that's really criminal.
Don't tell us about being patient and not to get angry--this has gone down again and again. We're right to be angry and we should express that anger.
Little Aiyana is dead, and the cops are lying about it to cover up their foul murder. We don't want to or need to hear their phony apologies or watch them shed crocodile tears. Come out to her funeral, show her, her family and oppressed youth all over the world some love. Protest her outrageous murder. And join the movement for revolution!
The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world… when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness… those days must be GONE. And they CAN be.
-30-
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
12 Iraqi Civilians Murdered By US Troops Firing From Apache Helicopter
THIS MASS MURDER MUST BE ROUNDLY CONDEMNED!
The video recently released by Wikileaks cries out for a response of outrage and condemnation. (You can view this video at Wikileaks.org.) This video shows US forces in Iraq launching an unprovoked assault from an Apache Helicopter on a group of Arab men in July of 2007. After the attack one of the men he tries to crawl to safety, and the helicopter fires at him again! Then a van pulls up and tries to pick up the dead and wounded, and the helicopter fires a missile at it, killing and wounding more people, including 2 children! US ground troops arrive and pick up the children to take them to a hospital. The helicopter relays orders to leave the children to be picked up by Iraqi police, if they survive till the Iraqi police arrive. In all, 12 people were killed in this murderous assault.
The initial US response to complaints over this assault was: "There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in a fire fight with hostile forces." "The actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the rules of engagement." And "No innocent civilians were killed on our part deliberately. Our forces took great pains to prevent that. We did everything we could to help them. We don't know how the children were hurt." These are all lies aimed at keeping those who did not witness the assault in the dark about what really happened.
Two of the men attacked were carrying cameras, and none carried weapons of any kind. No one took any hostile action against the US forces, even after the unprovoked assault. The soldiers in the helicopter acknowledged that the people in the van were picking up bodies right before they fired a missile at them. And in the video you can clearly see that the children in the van before the helicopter fired at it.
This was mass murder carried out at a safe distance, firing at people who were in no way threatening the US forces. And the soldiers were calm and upbeat as they went about this murderous deed in a callous and uncaring way. They lie that the men have weapons and have fired at them and joke as they kill people for no good reason! Another thing that stands out is how eager they are to kill. They plead several times, "Let us shoot," as they await the OK to kill the defenseless people below them. When someone in the helicopter says they have wounded children, another soldier replies, "It's their fault for bringing their kids to a battle!"
The statement that the troops' actions were in accordance with the rules of engagement only serves to underscore that the war in Iraq Afghanistan are unjust and immoral. As does the reported response to the leaking of the video. Craig Considine writes that a secret report from the Army Counterintelligence Center, also leaked by Wikileaks, says, "Wikileaks represents a potential force protection, counterintelligence, operational security and information security threat to the US Army." This report also suggests that those responsible for leaking this report be hunted down and prosecuted.
I’m a Vietnam era veteran and war resister from inside the US army. This assault brought back bitter memories. Of the My Lai massacre, where US soldiers murdered several hundred Vietnamese villagers and burned down their village. Of US warplanes bombing irrigation facilities in farming areas and dropping napalm on defenseless villagers. Of earlier cover ups and lying justifications. Of attempts to prosecute those who exposed war crimes, not those who ordered or carried them out.
None of this--the murderous assault or the official response should surprise anyone. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are unjust, immoral wars, wars in which whole cities like Falluja have been flattened, in which wedding parties have been bombed at least 6 times! And the US has perpetrated war crimes like these since its very beginning, a beginning which has at its foundation genocide against the native inhabitants and theft of their land. This is why the Revolutionary Communist Party says in its Statement, The Revolution We Need ... The Leadership We Have that this capitalist/imperialist system "brings horror upon horror, a nightmare seemingly without end, for the vast majority of humanity ... wars, invasions and occupations ... assassinations and massacres ... planes, missiles, tanks and troops of the USA bombarding people in faraway lands while they sleep in their homes or go about their daily lives, blasting their little children to pieces, cutting down men and women in the prime of life, or in old age ..."
Everyone with an ounce of conscience needs to think about this latest outrage perpetrated by this rotten system. Think about the 12 people killed in this unprovoked, murderous assault. Think about the 2 children who were severely wounded. Think about the sense of loss this caused for their loved ones and friends. Think about all this, and respond to it with outrage and condemnation, and with a sense of urgency.
--Carl Dix
-30-
The video recently released by Wikileaks cries out for a response of outrage and condemnation. (You can view this video at Wikileaks.org.) This video shows US forces in Iraq launching an unprovoked assault from an Apache Helicopter on a group of Arab men in July of 2007. After the attack one of the men he tries to crawl to safety, and the helicopter fires at him again! Then a van pulls up and tries to pick up the dead and wounded, and the helicopter fires a missile at it, killing and wounding more people, including 2 children! US ground troops arrive and pick up the children to take them to a hospital. The helicopter relays orders to leave the children to be picked up by Iraqi police, if they survive till the Iraqi police arrive. In all, 12 people were killed in this murderous assault.
The initial US response to complaints over this assault was: "There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in a fire fight with hostile forces." "The actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the rules of engagement." And "No innocent civilians were killed on our part deliberately. Our forces took great pains to prevent that. We did everything we could to help them. We don't know how the children were hurt." These are all lies aimed at keeping those who did not witness the assault in the dark about what really happened.
Two of the men attacked were carrying cameras, and none carried weapons of any kind. No one took any hostile action against the US forces, even after the unprovoked assault. The soldiers in the helicopter acknowledged that the people in the van were picking up bodies right before they fired a missile at them. And in the video you can clearly see that the children in the van before the helicopter fired at it.
This was mass murder carried out at a safe distance, firing at people who were in no way threatening the US forces. And the soldiers were calm and upbeat as they went about this murderous deed in a callous and uncaring way. They lie that the men have weapons and have fired at them and joke as they kill people for no good reason! Another thing that stands out is how eager they are to kill. They plead several times, "Let us shoot," as they await the OK to kill the defenseless people below them. When someone in the helicopter says they have wounded children, another soldier replies, "It's their fault for bringing their kids to a battle!"
The statement that the troops' actions were in accordance with the rules of engagement only serves to underscore that the war in Iraq Afghanistan are unjust and immoral. As does the reported response to the leaking of the video. Craig Considine writes that a secret report from the Army Counterintelligence Center, also leaked by Wikileaks, says, "Wikileaks represents a potential force protection, counterintelligence, operational security and information security threat to the US Army." This report also suggests that those responsible for leaking this report be hunted down and prosecuted.
I’m a Vietnam era veteran and war resister from inside the US army. This assault brought back bitter memories. Of the My Lai massacre, where US soldiers murdered several hundred Vietnamese villagers and burned down their village. Of US warplanes bombing irrigation facilities in farming areas and dropping napalm on defenseless villagers. Of earlier cover ups and lying justifications. Of attempts to prosecute those who exposed war crimes, not those who ordered or carried them out.
None of this--the murderous assault or the official response should surprise anyone. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are unjust, immoral wars, wars in which whole cities like Falluja have been flattened, in which wedding parties have been bombed at least 6 times! And the US has perpetrated war crimes like these since its very beginning, a beginning which has at its foundation genocide against the native inhabitants and theft of their land. This is why the Revolutionary Communist Party says in its Statement, The Revolution We Need ... The Leadership We Have that this capitalist/imperialist system "brings horror upon horror, a nightmare seemingly without end, for the vast majority of humanity ... wars, invasions and occupations ... assassinations and massacres ... planes, missiles, tanks and troops of the USA bombarding people in faraway lands while they sleep in their homes or go about their daily lives, blasting their little children to pieces, cutting down men and women in the prime of life, or in old age ..."
Everyone with an ounce of conscience needs to think about this latest outrage perpetrated by this rotten system. Think about the 12 people killed in this unprovoked, murderous assault. Think about the 2 children who were severely wounded. Think about the sense of loss this caused for their loved ones and friends. Think about all this, and respond to it with outrage and condemnation, and with a sense of urgency.
--Carl Dix
-30-
Monday, March 29, 2010
Tavis Smiley’s “The Black Agenda is the American Agenda”
Friends,
I’ve had a busy month, and I wanted to drop you a note about one part of that month—Tavis Smiley’s “The Black Agenda is the American Agenda” event in Chicago on March 20th. This event came out of a dispute between Tavis and Rev Al Sharpton, among others, over whether President Obama needed to have, or even to address, a Black agenda. This event focused on an important question, one that is up for large numbers of people in this country. That question is, how to assess Obama’s 1st year plus in the White House? To be blunt, do we need to give “the brother” more time to affect the kind of changes needed, or is the oppression of Black people runs so deep in this society that Obama couldn’t do anything about it if he wanted to? I’ll speak to this question in a minute.
Tavis’ panel of 11 notable Black people contained an array of divergent views. Angela Blackwell-Glover felt that the Black agenda was clear, and Obama was quietly working on it, tho’ she wished he’d be more vocal about that. From the other end, Cornel West felt that the cabinet and advisors Obama had surrounded himself with and the failure to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pointed to a failure to act for change. Dorothy Tilghman urged people to get active, “to mobilize people to speak out for the things they need, just like other groups do.” Julianne Malveux felt that the depth of the conditions faced by Black people underscored the urgent need for an approach directly geared to these problems. Louis Farrakhan said that Obama had been selected to sit in the White House to represent white interests. Michael Eric Dyson went so far as to say, “Obama is not Moses. He’s Pharaoh!”
Despite this diversity of views, there was an overall framework that all the speakers stayed within, and I think this is framework is one that needs to be broken out of. That framework was that the way to work to end, or at least ease, the oppression Black people face is within the confines of this system. This approach limits people to working to pressure those with the power to do something about the problems they face.
The problem with this approach is that the oppression of Black people and all the other problems people face today around the world are built into the very fabric of the imperialist system we live under. Staying within the confines of the system means putting up with these problems and working to lessen them.
But things don’t have to be this way! We could end the oppression of Black people, the wars for empire, the oppression of women, the starvation and disease, everything foul people endure today thru revolution. All this is why we in the Revolutionary Communist Party are involved in a campaign centered on broad distribution of the statement, “The Revolution We Need … The Leadership We Have.” The goals of this campaign are to put revolution back on the map in this country, introduce people to the leadership we have for this revolution in Bob Avakian and to mobilize a core of people who are clear on the need for revolution and are determined to fight for it.
Had I been on this panel, all this would have been injected into the discourse. The 4000 plus people who attended this event, must of whom were in their seats in the auditorium when it began at 8 AM sharp, would’ve heard a radically different alternative to staying within the channels the system puts out there. Which is something I think is critically needed today.
I’ll write more on the other things that have taken me from DC to LA to Chicago and back to NY soon. Anyone who wants to get more info on Tavis’ event in Chicago should go to the web site: www.tavistalks.com.
Carl
I’ve had a busy month, and I wanted to drop you a note about one part of that month—Tavis Smiley’s “The Black Agenda is the American Agenda” event in Chicago on March 20th. This event came out of a dispute between Tavis and Rev Al Sharpton, among others, over whether President Obama needed to have, or even to address, a Black agenda. This event focused on an important question, one that is up for large numbers of people in this country. That question is, how to assess Obama’s 1st year plus in the White House? To be blunt, do we need to give “the brother” more time to affect the kind of changes needed, or is the oppression of Black people runs so deep in this society that Obama couldn’t do anything about it if he wanted to? I’ll speak to this question in a minute.
Tavis’ panel of 11 notable Black people contained an array of divergent views. Angela Blackwell-Glover felt that the Black agenda was clear, and Obama was quietly working on it, tho’ she wished he’d be more vocal about that. From the other end, Cornel West felt that the cabinet and advisors Obama had surrounded himself with and the failure to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pointed to a failure to act for change. Dorothy Tilghman urged people to get active, “to mobilize people to speak out for the things they need, just like other groups do.” Julianne Malveux felt that the depth of the conditions faced by Black people underscored the urgent need for an approach directly geared to these problems. Louis Farrakhan said that Obama had been selected to sit in the White House to represent white interests. Michael Eric Dyson went so far as to say, “Obama is not Moses. He’s Pharaoh!”
Despite this diversity of views, there was an overall framework that all the speakers stayed within, and I think this is framework is one that needs to be broken out of. That framework was that the way to work to end, or at least ease, the oppression Black people face is within the confines of this system. This approach limits people to working to pressure those with the power to do something about the problems they face.
The problem with this approach is that the oppression of Black people and all the other problems people face today around the world are built into the very fabric of the imperialist system we live under. Staying within the confines of the system means putting up with these problems and working to lessen them.
But things don’t have to be this way! We could end the oppression of Black people, the wars for empire, the oppression of women, the starvation and disease, everything foul people endure today thru revolution. All this is why we in the Revolutionary Communist Party are involved in a campaign centered on broad distribution of the statement, “The Revolution We Need … The Leadership We Have.” The goals of this campaign are to put revolution back on the map in this country, introduce people to the leadership we have for this revolution in Bob Avakian and to mobilize a core of people who are clear on the need for revolution and are determined to fight for it.
Had I been on this panel, all this would have been injected into the discourse. The 4000 plus people who attended this event, must of whom were in their seats in the auditorium when it began at 8 AM sharp, would’ve heard a radically different alternative to staying within the channels the system puts out there. Which is something I think is critically needed today.
I’ll write more on the other things that have taken me from DC to LA to Chicago and back to NY soon. Anyone who wants to get more info on Tavis’ event in Chicago should go to the web site: www.tavistalks.com.
Carl
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