A new civil rights movement is arising in the United States. Across America from New York to California, in all of the major cities, there have been militant, disruptive demonstrations involving altogether tens of thousands in protests against the police killing of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and the failure of grand juries in either Missouri or New York to indict the police officers who killed them. Beginning in Ferguson, Missouri (near St. Louis) in August, the protests have continued throughout the fall, culminating in a massive movement for days in December. On December 13 hundreds of thousands of protestors marched New York City and Washington, D.C. and other cities. We may be at the beginning of something new, big, and important. We see once again in these demonstrations—as we saw in Los Indignados of the Plaza del Sol and the Tahrir Square and Occupy Wall Street protests—the challenge: will a largely spontaneous mass movement create new organizations, push forward new leaders, develop a social and political program, or will the receding tide of the movement leave little behind? The African American civil rights movement of the 1955-1975 period created a whole series of organizations—SCLC, SNCC, and the Panthers—as well as important leaders such as Rev. Martin Luther King, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker and Malcolm X. Will this new movement create its own organizations, leaders, analyses and programs to match the moment?
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 04:48:40 +0000
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