I am currently teaching a paper on African American freedom struggles at Uni at the moment, and I cant help but feel its somewhat relevant right now. There has been a lot of despair in my news feed since the weekend (yes I live in a bubble and yes I am aware of it) and people wondering what to do next, and how to change the country because were not in government. But there is no need to despair. If there is one lesson to be learned from African American freedom struggles is that the fight is NEVER over. NEVER. Have you seen Ferguson? The battle never stops raging, and the fight is permanent. African Americans have been fighting for hundreds of years for justice, and and are still fighting every single day. And sadly, they probably always will be. The political mainstream has never been of help in those struggles, it has been organised direct action in the streets and in communities that made a difference. These actions have been non-violent sometimes, and much more self defense oriented at others. But the successful ones have ALWAYS, ALWAYS been organised. The political establishment have always done everything they can to keep people from their party and from their quarters. This will always be the case and nothing is different today. So to everyone thats not happy with Saturdays result, heres the truth - nothing is different. Changing the government would have been one step, but it wouldnt have been the total answer anyway. Half of the three quarters of people that voted didnt want what we have now so there are plenty of people dissatisfied and hungry for change. But we need to do organise and present viable actions, not just spontaneous eruptions of anger, or pinning our hopes on changing things from the top down. Even then, the battle for fairness and equality will never be actually over. No revolution, be it peaceful or bloody, solves all the problems. Humanity is too complex for that. But hopefully itll hopefully improve. Working for fairness is a never ending battle. If African American heroes like Ella Baker, Ida B Wells, A Philip Randolph, Malcolm X and Robert F Williams can risk everything they had in the face of insanely brutal violence and hatred, we can fight against a bunch of old rich white guys in suits who have never done an honest days work in their life. We dont have to put up with a millionth of what Ella Baker faced, so dont be discouraged. Be ENCOURAGED. We live in one of the best places on earth, and I love this country - were just gonna make it better.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 02:30:54 +0000
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