Message to my compatriots, brothers, and sisters in struggle: Power concedes nothing without a demand (F. Douglass) The reason why rightwingers and the racist police can shout cynical slogans like Blue Lives Matter when #BlackLIvesMatter is the seeming vacuum demanding what needs to be done in the wake of #PoliceViolence and the much less noticeable but equally violent denial of justice for the murder of Black men (can Black women, Brown, Native/Indigenous, and Asian men and women be far behind?) by a state intent on reinforcing the subjugation of the working, poor, and unemployed classes. Rage against police impunity, the mass incarceration of oppressed people of color, and the fact of legalized immunity for police and state repression is and has been necessary and justified. But the fact that argely Only rage is being demonstrated is an indication of the weakened state and position of oppressed people bound by a political leadership either conspiring to maintain our subjugation or impotent in its ability to challenge an administration simply because no one wants to believe that a #President of color is so corrupted and bankrupt that his only real allegiance is to the class of rich and powerful. To date, there are really few peope proposing any real counterpoint to the state of police occupation of Black and Brown communities. It seems that it is possible for us to rage and say the F . . .the police but no one seems to want to speak--in any meaningful way--about how best to end police violence and remove the occupation off the necks of our communities. Today, friends and colleagues throughout the country, including here in Minnesota are going to be engaged in disrupting business as usual at a time when many people are hoping to escape earthly toils to find some solace in giving to each other. Many such ordinary people will doubtless be forced to look within with guilt about their reverie and, we can hope, they will find it possible to stand in solidarity against the damn shame of police repression. And, others will grumble about how none of this is our fault, so, why are these protesters causing trouble. . . There will be arrests and the requisite indignation along with the displays of solidarity for people only trying to demonstrate peacefully. And in the news stories there will be the requisite (for the bourgeois press) accounts of how a few protesters caused mayhem all in context of that damn shame of police repression. But,many will say, what are we to do? Dont we need the police to protect us? And we will say well, yes, but they should protect us, too: all within the context of the damn shame of police repression. So, I urge all of you, my compatriots, friends, sisters and brothers in the struggle for a better world: WE NEED TO DEMAND an alternative to the state of police repression. It is NOT a damn shame that it exists and it is not necessary for us to have a police force whose allegiance is only to the protection of property, profit, and the exploiters of our society. The rule of law is no real law if it is designed only to subjagate the vast majority in the interests of the enrichment and aggandizement of the privileged few or to create a gradient buffer between layers of the oppressed; from the more privileged white workers among us and the more subjugated Black, Brown, Native/Indigenous, Asian, and others among us. I call for the following: Police Out Now from Black and Brown and other oppressed communities. Community Control of Oppressed Peoples neighborhoods. The formation of organized Constituent Assemblies to determine a) the actual safety and security needs of our communities and b) who should be entrusted--elected--to carry out community safety and security. We can also demand an #EndtoGunViolence and start with disarming the police and the determination of democratic laws, enforceable by the forces organized by community assemblies, for the existence of arms in our communities.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 16:53:29 +0000
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