Tag Archives: Police brutality in Ferguson

Don’t shoot, Black men & women are people too!

For those who came of age in the 1960s & 1970s, it’s almost unimaginable the tsunamic power of the Civil Rights & Black Power movements could come to this in 2014: “Don’t shoot; Black men are people too!” But racist subordination is so fundamental to modern capitalism it cannot function without it so they worked tirelessly to co-opt civil rights activists into the power structure (particularly of the Democratic Party) & to destroy, even murder, Black activists like Malcolm X whose souls were not for sale. That’s why political activists like Mumia Abu-Jamal & thousands of Black teens are sitting in jail cells for crimes they did not commit.

Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, & hundreds of other Black teens will not have died in vain. To name only a few: Eric Garner, Ramarley Graham, Oscar Grant, Amadou Diallo, Nicholas Heyward, Jr., Greg Chavis, John Crawford, Sean Bell, Kimani Gray, Shantel Davis, Anthony Baez, Walwyn Jackson, Ernest Duenez, Jr., Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., Noel Polanco, DJ Henry. The call for justice in their names will be emblazoned on the banners of the new civil rights & Black power movement.

The crisis of leadership affects all movements for social change. There is probably no more bought off & mortgaged leadership than that of the trade unions in almost every country. Compromisers wheel & deal themselves into position to more effectively betray the cause of human freedom from tyranny & get a good salary & pension in the bargain. There is almost no instance where the Democratic Party is not in there handing out grants, honorifics that mean nothing, & a chance to meet the US president someday. Big deal! For those with a healthy conscience & a measure of self-respect, it’s not enough reward for a Mephistophelean bad deal.

If you want to know where the necessary Black leadership is coming from, check out the Ferguson protesters & the dozens of solidarity rallies around the country. That leadership will be young, male & female, tough as nails & not open to compromising–the stuff Malcolm X was made of. It’s coming. Can you feel it coming? Can you feel another tsunami gathering strength?

 

Police deny Bill of Rights to Black community

Ferguson tear gas victim August 18 2014

So while (Reverend, my ass!) Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson are over at the church leading the police department in prayer, the Missouri National Guard is out in the streets taking care of business against thousands of unarmed, peaceful protesters demanding an end to police violence & their democratic rights under the US Bill of Rights–like the right to assemble & protest.

This woman is being treated (with milk) for tear gas damage she suffered. The National Guardsmen know one tear gas canister is worth a thousand “praise the lords” if you want to maintain racist tyranny.

(Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images)

The world you save will be your own.

Wash. DC rally:solidarity with Ferguson (Gabriella Demczuk:NYT)

There are lots of photos now of Ferguson solidarity rallies around the US. There’s a lot of militance expressed because so many families have lost beloved to police violence. Being a political activist in the Black community can be extremely dangerous because just being a Black teen is so dangerous–& because any time kids get together to play ball or make time with each other or go to the convenience store to get Skittles they’re considered a threatening gang.

This photo is at a solidarity rally in Washington, D.C., where the police department has distinguished itself for the racist treatment of Blacks. There’s something particularly compelling about this young boy with his tee-shirt of Trayvon Martin when you remember that the US war on Black youth is directed at this good looking kid & his peers.

Racism is so pivotal to capitalist rule & military policy they’re willing to destroy this young boy’s life; they socially engineer him out of opportunity, try to maneuver him out of school & into the prison system, vilify him & try to demoralize him with a thousand vicious lies pumped out of universities & think tanks.

This could only happen because Black political leadership (like Al Sharpton) is completely bankrupt & hogtied to the Democratic Party & because whites believe the slanders & ignore that “an injury to one is an injury to all.” And of course, that means everybody is going down together.

It’s long since time for that “old time religion” that understands the mantras of solidarity are not just ceremonial but the iron laws of social transformation.

If there’s a Ferguson solidarity rally in your town, grab a placard & hit the streets. The world you save will be your own.

(Photo by Gabriella Demczuk/NY Times)