This site will post videos, statements, opinions and articles issued by Carl Dix, a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party USA. Other statements and articles by Carl Dix may be accessed at http://revcom.us/movement-for-revolution/stop-mass-incarceration/stop-mass-incarceration-carl-dix.html
Friday, October 14, 2016
America Was NEVER Great!
Overthrow—Don’t Vote For—This System!
Coming to Cities and Towns to Organize YOU into the Revolution
I'm on theRevolution National Organizing Tour 2016-201. Here we are today in Chicago, speaking with students.
@Carl_Dix shows Chicago students what the revolution will do with this system's laws after we seize power. #RevCom
Come
to a program to launch a pathbreaking new book by Bob Avakian: THE NEW
COMMUNISM: The science, the strategy, the leadership for an actual
revolution…eventbrite.com
*****************
I invite you to join CornelWest and CarlDix in launching Bob Avakian's pathbreaking new book #TheNewCommunism
on Saturday October 8 in Harlem at The Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture. This event is for everyone agonizing about the state of
the world and hungering for fundamental change. After, join us for a
celebration and reception down the street at Revolution Books to raise
funds to get BA's work more widely known. RSVP & get tickets here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1128928543850115/
Friday, September 23—Carl Dix called revcom.us from Charlotte, North Carolina, and gave us the following statement as he
marched in tonight’s protest:
When I saw that video of Keith Lamont Scott’s wife watching
and recording her husband’s murder, it made me mad as hell—and it made
me want to go rushing through Charlotte to find some people and call on
them to TAKE TO THE STREETS.
At first I had some trouble finding people. And then I heard people are
in the streets downtown, and I rushed to catch up with them. There’s
not as many people as yesterday, but it is still hundreds of people.
It’s mostly a youthful crowd. Look, it’s beautiful.
There are people of different races and nationalities, and
they took to the streets and started marching around shutting down
downtown Charlotte. But they had an aim in mind in doing that. As they
marched, they made a move to Interstate 77. The police were acting as if
they were in position to try to stop this, when the move happened. The
police had actually blocked the highway themselves as a way to try and
keep the protesters off the highway. It did them no good. The protesters
had one way to get on the highway and double-downed another. And all of
a sudden, hundreds of us were on the highway, marching.
9/24/16: Carl Dix from the Revolutionary Communist Party speaking in
Charlotte, NC, at the end of a rally and march demanding justice for
Keith Lamont Scott, murdered by Charlotte police.
The people are very determined. They are angry. They are
calling for the release of the tapes. They are taking up the chant
“Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cops to Jail! The Whole Damn System Is
Guilty as Hell!” There’s a lot of “Black Lives Matter,” a lot of “No
Justice, No Peace.” There are a lot of very determined people in the
streets. And that’s needed in the face of this onslaught of police
murder after police murder after police murder—and the whole system
going into motion to justify it. People standing up and resisting and
saying “We’re Not Gonna Take This Shit Anymore!” and meaning it and
acting on it.
And the other thing that’s needed is that this has gotta be
connected with the revolution. Because we need an actual revolution. We
gotta get rid of the system that does this to people again and again and
is responsible for all the other horrors. Because there is no way you
can solve this problem within this system. It’s built into its fabric
and framework. When cops kill and brutalize Black people and Latino
people, it’s not rogue cops violating the procedure—it’s police doing
their job.
We’ve got to hammer that home to people and bring to them that
we need revolution—and that we’ve got the leadership for it in Bob
Avakian (BA), and we’ve got the strategy and programmatic approach for
that revolution. And we need to connect that to how we have to get
organized now for an actual revolution.
I hope I’m coming through, ‘cause I’m marching along, and
there’s a lot of chanting going on. People ought to give themselves a
roar for what they’ve accomplished tonight. They did it, and they’re
gonna keep doing it. People are chanting, “We’re young, we’re strong,
we’re marching all night long.” I got a lot of determination, but I’m
not that young, so I’ll see how long I can go.
But look, this is beautiful, it’s powerful, it’s important.
And it’s gotta get connected to a movement for an actual revolution to
get rid of the system that’s responsible for the horrors.
"The thing is the police have been unleashed
by the system to brutalize and even murder people and then when people
refuse to continue accepting it, the police are unleashed to crush them
standing up... The police are killing us, and everything that the system
says you are supposed to do, people have done: they have elected
officials who they thought would stop it, they have tried to get body
cameras, they’ve held town hall meetings; tried to get reforms passed
and still police continue to kill people and get away with it no matter
how horrific the circumstances. And then they tell people, “Wait for the
investigation.” But what is there to investigate? In Tulsa, Oklahoma
the man had his hands up on the car and they shot him and they are
saying “wait for us to investigate” and told outright lies that
contradicted by the video. In Charlotte, they are saying “We have a
policy that we can’t release the video.” So you should believe the
police story until you learn different. But why should we believe them
if they lie all the time?" - Carl Dix, founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Once More, Lying, Murdering Pigs Run Amok What Time Is It?
Time and Past Time to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution
From the Revolutionary Communist Party, posted on revcom.us:
Tulsa... Charlotte... Columbus... How long?
People
have tried all the “solutions” this system says work: a Black
president. Campaigning for candidates. More police training. The
“Department of Justice.” White House conferences. Body cameras.
Lawsuits. Community policing.
None
have stopped police murder after murder after murder. They won’t work.
They can't work. Because police murder is built into this system.
If
you didn't believe that when you saw it in Ferguson and Staten Island,
the system has showed you again and again and again. When they murdered
Freddie Gray in Baltimore...Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge...Philando
Castile in Minneapolis-St. Paul...and now Tyre King, Terence Crutcher,
Keith Lamont Scott, and countless others all over this goddamn country.
What do we do?
"It
is very important that people rise up and refuse to accept the
continual murder of people, particularly Black people as well as
Latinos, by police—this, and the other outrages and atrocities
continually perpetrated by this system..., cannot go down without people
fighting back and rocking back the powers-that-be. But this must be
built toward revolution—an actual revolution that overthrows this system
at the soonest possible time—because there is no solution to these
outrages under this system, and as long as we live under this system,
this will go on...and on. There is a way that we can make a real
revolution—and bring into being a radically different and better
society: we have the strategy, program, and leadership for this
revolution, in the work of BA and the Party he leads, the Revolutionary
Communist Party..."
Look at the video of the police executing Terence Crutcher. Look at
how they walk him over to his car with his hands up and make him assume
the position with his hands on his car. And look at how they tase him
and gun him down for nothing.
And it’s even worse than it looks. Terence wasn’t involved in
any criminal activity. His car stalled on the road. There was no reason
to treat him as anything other than a motorist who needed help, but
these pigs saw him as a dangerous suspect. A pig in a helicopter
hovering above the scene said he looked like “a bad dude.” And as
someone they had a license to murder. The pig who fired the kill shot
was on her radio saying she wasn’t getting cooperation from Terence even
tho’ the video shows him walking with his hands up back to his car. And
a police spokesperson gave their official statement to the press which
was full of lies to try to justify this murder. She claimed Terence
refused to cooperate with officers and reached into his car as why they
had to gun him down.
Look at this video and tell me why anyone should believe anything
the pigs say about why they brutalize and murder people. Or why we
should listen when the authorities tell us to wait for the investigation
to be concluded; or rely on the Justice Department to get justice.
Tell me why we should listen when Obama tells us about all the
progress Black people have made in this country. Back in the day, white
people in the South used to hurry to not miss it when the KKK had
announced they were going to lynch a Black person. Look at those pigs in
the video racing onto the road and drawing their guns so they could get
in on this modern day lynching. All that’s changed is the color of the
uniforms worn by those carrying out the lynchings.
This must be STOPPED! What will it take to do that? This is a
presidential election season, and I can guarantee you that whoever ends
up in the White House, this system will keep unleashing its police to
brutalize and murder Black people. Body cameras on police? We’ve seen
videos of police killing people – Eric Garner, Tamir Rice,
Gilbert Flores and many others, and still police kill people again and
again; and the system exonerates them when their murderous deeds get
dragged into the light of day. These pigs in Tulsa knew their actions
were being recorded, and they still murdered Terence.
It’s going to take revolution to end this horror once and for
all. We have to get rid of the system that needs to have its front line
enforcers out there enforcing terror on people that it has no future
for. No future except engaging in some hustle to try to survive,
incarceration, fighting and killing each other or being murdered by the
cops. We should live in a world where those entrusted with public
security would sooner lose their own lives than kill or injure an
innocent person. It’ll take revolution, nothing less, to bring that kind
of world into being.
And we in the RCP are organizing for an actual revolution right
now. In Bob Avakian (BA) we have a leader who knows how to make
revolution and has developed a vision of the kind of world we could
create thru making revolution. If you want to see this and all the other
horrors this system enforces on people around the world and in this
country ended once and for all, you need to become part of this
revolution.
You need to read BA’s book, THE NEW COMMUNISM, and
other works by him, you need to run with the Revolution Club, spreading
the word that we have the leadership, the science, the strategy and
program, and the basis for organizing people for an actual revolution,
and in Fighting the Power, and Transforming the People, for Revolution,
mobilizing people to fight back whenever the system perpetrates
atrocities on the people.
A Basic Point of Orientation: revcom.us
It is very
important that people rise up and refuse to accept the continual murder
of people, particularly Black people as well as Latinos, by police—this,
and the other outrages and atrocities continually perpetrated by this
system (as concentrated in the 5 Stops), cannot go down without people
fighting back and rocking back the powers-that-be. But this must be
built toward revolution—an actual revolution that overthrows this system
at the soonest possible time—because there is no solution to these outrages under this system, and as long as we live under this system, this will go on...and on. There is a way that we can make a real revolution—and bring into being a radically different and better society: we have the strategy, program, and leadership for this revolution,
in the work of BA and the Party he leads, the Revolutionary Communist
Party. Everywhere we go, and in everything we do, even as we are
continuing to learn more about it, we need to be spreading the word
about this revolution far and wide, and organizing for this revolution,
drawing people around and into the Revolution Clubs, on the basis of the statement from the RCP Central Committee.
August 28, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick called
it right when he refused to stand up for the national anthem, saying:
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in the flag of a country that
oppresses Black people and people of color.”
What is there to celebrate
about the history of America? It being founded on stealing the land
from the native inhabitants? It developed its wealth and power based
on the enslavement of Black people? The invasions of Mexico and many
other countries in the Caribbean and South America? What is there to
celebrate in what America does today? The way women are subjected to
disrespect and brutality? The massive deportation raids that tear
families apart and disappear people? The wars for empire that devastate
countries and force people to flee their homelands? America is not now
and never was great! Kaepernick took a heroic stand when he said he
wasn’t going to show pride in this country while the bodies of Black
people killed by police pile up in the streets.
What about you?
Kaepernick put a lot on the line in making this stand. Sports figures
who have refused to go along with enforced patriotism and worship of
America in the past have paid a heavy toll. Muhammad Ali was stripped
of his heavyweight boxing championship when he refused induction into
the U.S. army because he saw that the real enemy of Black people was in
this country, not the poor people in Vietnam fighting to free their
country. For taking this stand, they stripped him of his heavyweight
boxing championship, which cost him millions of dollars he could have
earned. Even knowing this, Kaepernick said, “If they take football
away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is
right.”
Kaepernick is putting a whole lot on the line, and he’s doing the right thing! We must ALL have his back.
The killing will not stop just because people tweet about it, or
because they grumble about it when yet another video of a modern-day
lynching by police hits the news. People have to put themselves on the
line. Even when the risk is great. I learned this 46 years ago when I
refused to go to Vietnam and kill for this country. I was sentenced to
two years in military prison for this, but I kept my humanity—and
helped stop a genocidal war.
Colin Kaepernick saw the video of the police murder of Alton
Sterling. In response, he said: “This is what lynchings look like in
2016! Another murder in the streets because the color of a man’s skin,
at the hands of the people who they say will protect us. When will they
be held accountable?” And he took a bold stand to stop this from
happening again and again. You have seen the videos of police gunning
people down, beating them to death, tasing and choking them to death.
What are YOU going to do? What are YOU going to put on the line to stop
this genocide?
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Monday, August 15, 2016
August 15, 2016
Media Advisory
Contact: 347 450 4701
Interviews available with Carl Dix
Carl Dix Responds to Milwaukee Police Chief Flynn over Police Murder
We
in the RCP stand with the people who are fighting the power today to
STOP the terror police inflict on Black people, and we work to transform
the people for revolution, which is what's needed to end this and all
the other horrors this system enforces on people in this country and
around the world.
Pig
Chief Flynn also tells us that the cop who killed Sylville Smith acted
“within lawful bounds.” This system has also told us that the cop who
murdered Dontre Hamilton acted within “lawful bounds;” that the cop who
murdered Tamir Rice in Cleveland acted within “lawful bounds;” that the
cops who murdered Freddie Gray in Baltimore acted within “lawful
bounds;” and I could go on and on listing murdering cops who have been
exonerated by this system.
A system that gives its stamp of approval to wanton police terror is
absolutely illegitimate. It's been around too long and needs to be
gotten rid of through revolution. In a revolutionary society, as Bob
Avakian, the leader of the RCP, has said, “...[W]e would sooner have one
of our own people’s police killed than go wantonly murder one of the
masses.”
We in the RCP are organizing right now for an actual revolution
to get rid of this system and bring into being the kind of society
where the kind of state sponsored brutality being inflicted today would
be no more.
*******************
Milwaukee Explodes in Righteous Rebellion as Police Kill Again!
August 14, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Saturday night people in Milwaukee poured into the streets in
rebellion after police gunned down another Black man. The authorities
wasted no time in demonizing the person gunned down, 23-year-old
Sylville Smith—saying that he was armed and had a lengthy criminal
record—trying to justify the murderous actions of their cops. But still
people took to the streets, in the face of cops flooding the
neighborhood armed to the teeth and even shooting at people to try to
force them to disperse. People have righteously defended themselves in
the face of this savage pig violence.
This rebellion is right on time. Despite police wearing body
cameras, despite Department of Justice reports that expose the racism
and abuse in police departments across the country, despite commission
meetings and talk of reforms, police continue to kill people again and
again. And the whole system continues to exonerate the killer cops when
their murderous deeds get dragged into the light of day. People in
Milwaukee have refused to accept this state-sponsored murder in
silence, and they are right to do so. And everyone who stands for
justice must have their backs.
This spirit must be built on and spread. In order to end the
horror of police getting away with murder, it has to become part of an
actual revolution; one that overthrows this system, defeating and
dismantling its institutions of violent suppression, and brings into
being a totally different and far better system. We need to live in a
world where those responsible for public security would sooner lose
their own lives than kill or injure an innocent person. It'll take a
revolution to bring that kind of world into being.
The Revolutionary Communist Party is organizing right now for
that actual revolution. The Party is preparing the ground—influencing
people and society as a whole toward revolution and toward fighting the
outrages of society… the Party is preparing the people—raising people's
sights to the different world that is possible and the leadership we
have in Bob Avakian and the Party he leads to realize that world… and
preparing the vanguard—getting ready for the time when millions can be
led to go for revolution, all-out, with a real chance to win.
If you hate seeing police murder Black people and others
again and again, if you want to see a world where this horror is no
more, get with the RCP and the ACTUAL revolution it is organizing! Go
to www.revcom.us and join with the Revolution Club. Get organized for an actual revolution!
Take to the Streets Everywhere to Say: Police Murder Must STOP!
Condemn the Police Murder
of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge!
Another Black man has been murdered in cold blood by the police. This
time it was Alton Sterling who was confronted by police while selling videos
outside his long-time friend's store. The pigs beat him down and shot him. You
can see them holding him down and kneeling on his arms while one of the
pigs pulls out his gun and shoots Sterling.
The system's mouthpieces are urging that people remain calm and wait for
the results of the investigation. The hell with that. We know what happened. We
can see what happened and what's in the works. Police have murdered another
Black man, and the system is going to work to exonerate the killer cops. We've
seen it time and time again – Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Rekia
Boyd, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray and now Alton Sterling. This must STOP!
It's part of centuries of savage oppression this system has inflicted on
Black people, from slavery thru Jim Crow segregation and lynch mob terror right
up to mass incarceration and police terror today. There has been too damn many
people murdered by police, especially Black and Brown people. This must STOP!
How long with this white supremacist system continue to get away with
unleashing its pigs to brutalize and murder people? Until it's brought down
thru revolution – that's how long.
The terror police are unleashed to enforce in Black and Latino
communities in cities across the country is built into the fabric of this
system, and it will take revolution – nothing less to end it and all the other
horrors this system forces people to endure here in this country and around the
world. And we in the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) are organizing right
now for an actual revolution, one that overthrows this system and builds a
totally different and far better one in its place.
Everybody who hates injustice needs to do 2 things.
One, take to the streets, stand up and make it
crystal clear that there MUST be justice! The eyes of the world are on Baton
Rouge, and if we act like nothing's happened the authorities and their system
will get away with what they're already working on doing – getting the killer
cops off. We cannot allow that to happen.
And
2, people need to get ready to make a real revolution to bring this system
down. IF you hate the way that police get away with murder and all the other
horrors this system brings down on people here and around the world, you need
to get with the actual revolution the RCP is organizing for. Get into the work
of and follow the leadership of Bob Avakian, the leader of the RCP, who has
developed the understanding and strategic approach for making this revolution.
Go to the web site: revcom.us. Join the Revolution Club to Fight The Power, and
Transform The People, For Revolution!
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Judge Finds Baltimore Cop Found “Not Guilty” of Killing Freddie Gray
A Modern Day Dred Scott Decision for a Modern Day Lynching
The judge’s not guilty verdict on all charges in the case of
officer Goodson comes down to the authorities sending a message that their
police can do any damn thing that they want, especially to Black people, and
they won’t be punished for it.It is a
modern-day Dred Scott Decision, conveying that Black people have no rights that
this system’s police are bound to respect, issued after the modern-day lynching
of Freddie Gray.
Freddie was perfectly healthy when he encountered those
police.But after they chased him, beat
him down, tortured and arrested him for nothing, threw him in the van bent up
like a pretzel and screaming in pain, and then rode him around the city for 45
minutes when it would have taken only 2 minutes to get him to the police
station, Freddie had suffered a fatal injury.Now the courts are finding the cops “not guilty” on the installment
plan, one by one.
Bob Avakian has said the role of the police is not to
protect and serve the people, but to protect and serve the system that rules
over the people. And I challenge anyone to tell me why that statement doesn’t
capture the reality, the reality of a system that has ruled again and again in
cases where police have brutalized and murdered people that the police have
committed to crime.
What is criminal is this system, and its whole
justice system.It needs to be gotten
rid of through revolution, nothing less.That’s what it’s going to take to stop the horror of police getting away
with murder, and all the other horrors this system brings down. We in the
Revolutionary Communist Party are organizing
right now for an actual revolution at the soonest possible time.Anybody who hates the horror of seeing
police getting away with murder again and again needs to get with this
revolution and get with this leader Bob Avakian (BA).
And everyone needs to look at this exoneration of another
killer cop, and answer the question: “which side are you on?” Are you on the
side of saying it’s all right for the system to give police license to instill
terror, that it’s alright for the police to get away with brutalizing and
murdering people, especially in Black and Latino communities?Or are you on the side that sees this is
unjust and illegitimate?If you’re on
that side, you can’t just say you’re on that side, you’ve got to act like
you’re on that side, and you’ve got to join the fight to stop it.
Carl Dix in Baltimore: “Take to the Streets
if Police Officer Goodson is Let Off, or Given a Slap on the Wrist in
Death of Freddie Gray”
What: #JusticeforFreddieGray rally When: 10:00 am Thursday June
23 Where: 100 Calvert Street @ Lexington Street, Baltimore MD
Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party, in Baltimore today,
called for “powerful outpourings of protest, in Baltimore and all
across the country,” if Caesar Goodson, the Baltimore police officer
charged with murder in the death of Freddie Gray last year, is not
found guilty by the judge Thursday.
Dix
said Monday’s closing arguments in the trial of Goodson, the cop
prosecutors originally charged with giving the “rough ride” to Freddie
Gray, “amounted to more grease on the skids that would lead to letting
this killer cop slide out of court free, or at most end up with a slap
on the wrist for conviction on a minor charge.”
Dix warned, “This amounts to the system declaring that its police
can brutalize and murder Black people and get off without any
punishment; that Black people have no rights that the police are bound
to respect.”
He joined others speaking out to stop murder by police, called on
people to gather at the court:
Baltimore Press Conference / Speak-out demands “Justice for Freddie Gray – CONVICT & JAIL the Murdering Cops”
As court let out on Monday, June 13, 20 people held a press conference and speak-out at the Baltimore courthouse where Caesar Goodson—the cop who subjected Freddie Gray to a “rough ride” over a year ago—is on trial for murder. Goodson’s trial is the third of police involved in the murder of Freddie Gray. The first two trials ended without convictions. This event was a statement from people who will not let the IN-justice system cover up the truth or let the murdering police go free on the installment plan.
The main speakers were: Carl Dix, of the Revolutionary Communist Party, co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network with Dr. Cornel West; Tawanda Jones, sister of Tyrone West, who was murdered by Baltimore police on July 18, 2013; and Rev. Carl David Olson, Minister, First Unitarian Church of Baltimore. A recorded message from Dr. Cornel West was played.
Other participants included Wayne AmonRa, outspoken voice in West Baltimore with a radio show on WOLB-FM; Rosemary, a retired nurse with years of experience with spinal cord injuries who has been monitoring the trial; Derek, who has protested every day of trial and Montrell, an outspoken victim of police brutality from East Baltimore; and Darlene Cain, whose son Dale Graham was shot and killed by Baltimore police in 2008.
Justice for Freddie Gray – CONVICT & JAIL the Murdering Cops
What: Press Conference When: Monday June 13 4:30 pm Where: North Calvert & East Fayette, Baltimore, MD
Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party said today:
"Baltimore police murdered Freddie Gray OVER A YEAR AGO. They came up on him for no reason and assaulted him. They bent him like a pretzel, to the point where his screams of pain were heard a block away. Then police threw Freddie Gray in a van and subjected him to the “rough ride” that has terrorized and tortured so many Black people in Baltimore. By the time they were through with him, Freddie Gray was near dead. He died a week later. Together, these police murdered Freddie Gray. They are ALL murderers and accessories to murder. Police saw him not as a human being but a Black man who they were licensed to torture and kill. This was a modern day lynching.
Over and over police in America kill Black and Brown people with impunity. What was different this time is that the youth of Baltimore rose up. Their uprising was followed by days of outrage and protest by people from all walks of life – especially students. The uprising and the aftermath forced the hand of the powers-that-be to bring charges against six police who murdered Freddie Gray.
But ever since, the wheels of injustice have worked to cover up what really happened, deny justice, and let the murdering police go free. They are letting the murderers walk on the installment plan. And media coverage has worked 24-7 to focus people’s attention on anything but the real issue: JUSTICE for Freddie Gray.
The first trial of the police who killed Freddie Gray ended in a mistrial. The second ended in an acquittal. Right now Goodson, the cop accused of ignoring Freddie Gray’s desperate demand for medical help, throwing him in the back of a police van, and subjecting him to a rough ride – at the end of which Freddie Gray was near death – is on trial for murder. This trial CANNOT be another whitewash. It CANNOT be another mockery of justice. What is needed to change things is for PEOPLE to take things into our own hands. We are making clear: there MUST be justice in this case. We are not asking, we are demanding:
Justice for Freddie Gray!
Convict the killer police and send them to jail!
The days when police can kill with impunity must be gone, and they can be gone.
People talk about their
admiration for Muhammad Ali and profess to embrace his legacy. I have a serious
question and challenge to put to them, and especially the prominent Black
people among them: Are you ready to stand and act for principle as he did? Muhammad
Ali put himself on the line to stand up against the oppression this system was
bringing down on Black people. When the powers that be told him he had to join
their army and be part of the military machine being unleashed to drown the
liberation struggle of the Vietnamese people in blood, Ali responded in bold
and clear terms:
“No, I am not going ten
thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to
continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world
over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned
that to take such a stand would put my prestige in jeopardy and could cause me
to lose millions of dollars which should accrue to me as the champion. But I
have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is right
here.”
This stand cost him the
heavyweight boxing championship of the world and millions of dollars. And it
put him at risk of being jailed for years, but he stood firm and refused to
back down. This is what was most inspiring about Muhammad Ali: his willingness
to put it all on the line to oppose terrible wrongs.
Today, the same system
continues to inflict savage oppression: horrific numbers of particularly Black
and Latino people, including many youthand even young children,brutalized and murdered by vicious
police. How many videos must you see of people gunned down or beaten, tased or
choked to death by the police, responding only with weak sympathy for the
victims, and begging the system for justice someday? How long will you stand
aside while the system backs up their killer cops again and again, seldom
putting any of them on trial—and in the few cases where cops have been tried,
virtually never convicting any of them, or at most giving them a slap on the
wrist? “Justifiable homicide”? No. Ali said then, and we must say now: “This is the day when such evils must
come to an end.”
Ali, in a short poem,
said: "Me, Whee!" With props to his exuberance, I am going to take a
liberty with his rhyme to say: Yes: You, me,WE knowthis horrific police brutality and
murder is still going down. Are you/are we going to stand up and say
unequivocally that these and other horrors perpetrated by this system must
stop?ARE YOU/ARE WE GOING TO PUT IT ON THE
LINE TO FIGHT TO STOP THESE CRIMES AGAINST THE PEOPLE?I’ve been doing this for a long
time and will continue to so. Are you ready to join this fight? The time is
now. THIS IS THE LEGACY
THAT MUST NOT ONLY BE SPOKEN OF, BUT ACTED ON.
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.
