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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/summer-of-big-challenges-and-intense-struggle-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

A Summer of Big Challenges and Intense Struggle

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

As spring turns to summer, the situation in the world, and in this country, is very intense. There is potential for eruptions “in the routine,” of one kind or another. We are seeing this right now in Turkey as massive struggle seemingly erupted “out of nowhere” and now the people must confront the force of the government and reaction. We are seeing it in a negative way in Syria, where the imperialists maneuver and intrigue in a horrific civil war, with unforeseeable and possibly explosive consequences. We may see this around Guantánamo, where the eyes of the world are on the hunger strikers standing up to America’s lawless torture dungeon. There is the quickening pace of natural disasters, aggravated by capitalism’s insanely heedless destruction of the environment—disasters which under this system almost inevitably give rise to dislocation, suffering, neglect, repression, and crisis.

A Cauldron of Contradictions

There is all that, and then there is what is going on right here, in the U.S. This week begins the trial of George Zimmerman, who has admitted to stalking and killing the Black youth Trayvon Martin. The eyes of millions and tens of millions are focused on this. On one side, there are the masses of people, especially Black people, who see the murder of Trayvon Martin as an outrage concentrating a whole chain of oppression and abuse and are determined to draw a line on this one, along with those from all walks of life who stand with the demand for justice and for an END to “open season” on minority youth. On the other side, there are those who defend the whole white supremacist mentality and system represented by George Zimmerman, along with the police—who immediately treated the murdered Black teenager as the criminal—and the criminal justice system itself, which only even considered charging Zimmerman because of the massive outcry and protest. One way or another, what comes out of this showdown will set big terms for all of society on what will be tolerated... and what will not.

At the same time, in California, prisoners who have been locked down in the torture of solitary confinement for years and even decades have announced their determination to go on a hunger strike if their very basic demands for humane treatment and reforms are not met. 2.4 million people are kept in the U.S. prison system—the largest number of any country in the world. At last count, more than 80,000 were held in long-term solitary confinement—a practice that most of the world regards as torture. Whether these prisoners are crushed... or whether their sacrifice reaches millions and forces the state to back down... this too will have huge consequences.

Meanwhile, across the country, state legislatures are moving at a breakneck pace to outlaw abortion—and to thereby force women who become pregnant, for any reason, to become mothers. The restrictions on abortion, and the whole offensive to stigmatize those who need abortions and perform abortions, has already gone way too far and done way too much damage, while the voices of opposition to this have been way too muted and repressed. These new laws take it a whole leap further—will this be the summer that a full-throated opposition again erupts? Again, whether this happens—and how it happens—will have powerful consequences far beyond the summer on people’s lives and futures and how they understand them.

Add into that cauldron of contradictions BA Everywhere—the campaign to raise big money to get word out on Bob Avakian’s analysis of the SOURCE of these problems... and, even more, the SOLUTION to them. Scores and hundreds of people will be going all over, bringing forward thousands more to donate money to get the word out, in film showings and other forms, about the way out of this madness and the leadership to forge that way. Imagine, as all these contradictions and struggles simmer and bubble and maybe boil over, that THIS answer is out there as a dynamic force on the terrain, exercising a growing magnetic power... raising people’s sights... and spurring people forward.

But that is not all. There is, as well, the environmental crisis and the growing efforts and plans of people to act to stop this... there are the constant outrages by the police... there is the continuing exposure of repressive acts by the Obama administration... and there are yet other social and political faultlines, only some of which may be apparent right now. Any of these alone, or any combination of these, or even something totally unanticipated... could lead to what the RCP’s statement “On the Strategy for Revolution” calls “sudden jolts and breakdowns in the ‘normal functioning’ of society, which compel many people to question and to resist what they usually accept.”

The statement on strategy then goes on to say—and this is very important—that “No one can say exactly what will happen in these situations—how deep the crisis may go, in what ways and to what extent it might pose challenges to the system as a whole, and to what degree and in what ways it might call forth unrest and rebellion among people who are normally caught up in, or feel powerless to stand up against, what this system does.”

“No one can say in advance exactly”—but what we can say is that what the movement for revolution does in such a situation, as well as in the “normal times” out of which such situations erupt, can have a powerful positive effect. And the converse is true as well—if a movement for revolution fails to analyze reality in a way that correctly identifies the possibility for and emergence of such jolts, or if it fails to maximize the potential of such jolts to hasten the development of revolution at any step along the way... well, this can have a powerful negative effect.

These are the stakes.

Meeting the Challenge

This—the actual events in the world, the dynamics driving forward and giving rise to these events, and the potential within those events to develop in all kinds of different directions, including ones favorable to revolution—is the reality. This is the situation that the movement for revolution confronts.

The movement for revolution has brought forward important plans to impact all this. The dynamic factor and leading edge in all this is the BA Everywhere campaign—including the summer plans to much more powerfully project into society the voice and leadership of Bob Avakian (BA), and the understanding that he has brought forward on revolution and the new synthesis of communism. (See "Summer 2013 BA Everywhere Campaign: Making a Difference".) There are also plans, underway right now, to unite and lead people in struggle around the murder of Trayvon Martin, the prisoners’ strike, and the whole genocidal program of mass incarceration. (See "We Are All Trayvon! The Whole Damn System is Guilty!" and other articles at revcom.us.) There is a plan to reverse the whole dynamic around the right to abortion. (See "Revolution Interview with Sunsara Taylor: Abortion Rights Freedom Ride, From both coasts, and through the middle of the country" and more at revcom.us.) And there is the ongoing effort to expand the reach of the revcom.us website, which analyzes and speaks to the whole rapidly changing world from the scientific communist viewpoint, puts forward the liberating communist vision of the future, and gives guidance and leadership to people in understanding, and acting on, significant developments in every sphere.

All these plans, taken together, aim to carry out the objective recently put forward by BA:

THIS MOVEMENT FOR REVOLUTION MUST NOW BECOME A REAL FORCE, POWERFULLY IMPACTING AND INFLUENCING ALL OF SOCIETY... bringing forward growing numbers of those this system has cast out and cast down, who must be and can be the driving force of the fight to put an end not only to their own oppression, but all oppression, all over the world... drawing in many others, from all walks of life, who are inspired to join this same cause... preparing minds and organizing forces, Fighting the Power, and Transforming the People, for REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS.

These plans flow out of an analysis of reality and how to change it, in line with that objective. A few points on these plans:

• These plans cannot be conceived of as a static, one-two-three set of directions. The way we implement and act on these plans has to be as dynamic and fast-moving as reality itself. These plans have to enable us to change the reality we face—that’s the point of them!—and we all have to be alive to new things developing, both as a result of what we do and as a result of unexpected developments in relationship to these faultlines as well as in other arenas. We have to constantly be analyzing what is going on in reality in its largest dimensions, as well as digging into and drawing out the meaning of our own work in changing the world, and what new challenges—and opportunities—all of that may pose, and how we may have to change and develop our plans in the face of all that. And the whole movement has to be involved in doing that.
  
  
• These are not plans for a stroll in the park on a sunny afternoon. What we are setting out to do involves going up against the system, in struggle. Reactionaries hit back, hard. The more effect you have, the harder they hit you. Revolutionaries, and all those who want a better world and dare to stand up against this madness, need to prepare for that and need to be able to politically come back again stronger in the face of all that. That means always exposing the enemy and what they do, raising people’s conscious understanding, and then mobilizing and bringing forward still more people to respond. This is a critical and necessary part of how movements for revolution develop... part of how more and more people come to see the need for and the possibility of revolution and part of how they become tempered and prepared to win such a revolution. This means being able to pivot on a moment’s notice—going all-out when there are breakthroughs in the people’s struggle to multiply those breakthroughs, and going all-out when there are attacks on the movement to defeat those attacks and turn them into further advances.
  
  
• These cannot be plans for a relative handful of revolutionaries to carry out. These must be plans that build-in ways for masses of people to come into things, to be part of the revolution while they are still learning about it, and to unleash their creativity and initiative to meet the great needs that pose themselves to this movement. This is a key part of our strategy. It is a crucial element in being able, when times change, to have the capacity to defeat the forces of repression, and one that must be built-in from the beginning. And it is an essential thing about the world we are trying to bring into being and what this movement is all about.

As people are getting active, they must be organized—in everything from very basic forms and organizations around specific struggles, on up through Revolution Clubs; and those who become convinced of the need for communist revolution, and begin to see themselves as emancipators of humanity, need to come all the way into the Party itself, the absolutely necessary instrument for revolution.

Scientifically Measuring—and Advancing—the Struggle... Toward REVOLUTION

We cannot do any of this without theory, without the science of communism. Theory is how we understand reality—including its underlying dynamics and the potential within it—and without it we will grope blindly in the dark. These plans themselves are drawn from applying theory both to our own practice and to the insights of others, extracting lessons and, on that basis, developing policies and plans to change the world.^*Theory is key to people raising their sights, and changing how they think and feel about things, as they are getting involved in fighting the power. All summer we must not only get the DVD of Bob Avakian’s BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! speech out to thousands, and learning from their responses to it, we must be getting deeper into it ourselves. We’ve got to be getting deeper into BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian, grasping its content and applying it as a guide to action, in the broadest sense and in the closest quarters with the enemy. And then we have to take what we learn about reality through carrying out this practice and sum that up, using our theory, further developing a scientific understanding of reality to push forward the movement for revolution.

The revcom.us website will play a crucial role in doing all of this—in this whole process of fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution. It will introduce tens of thousands and more, all over the world, to this movement, this leader, this Party, the communist vision of a radically better world, and the whole scientific way of understanding and changing the world. It will expose to people WHY things are happening—the key events, and the meaning behind those events. It will show people WHAT the movement for revolution is doing in response to all this, WHAT lessons should be drawn, and HOW they can be part of it—including enabling them to see their own contributions and impact. It will introduce people to what has been done by the first wave of communist revolutions—and to Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of what can be done in the next, including the concentration of that analysis and vision in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal).

In all of this, we need to be measuring everything we do by the statement on the strategy for revolution—which is all about how we could, starting from today, actually hasten the development of a situation where millions of people would be ready to fight and sacrifice for revolution, and where they would be prepared to win such a revolution. This kind of work—the work we are undertaking right now, this summer—can be and has to be part of what the statement on strategy puts forth:

All this can enable the revolutionary movement, with the Party at the core, to confront and overcome the very real obstacles in its path...to advance and grow, through ongoing work, and through a series of critical leaps in times of sudden breaks and ruptures with the “normal routine”...to prepare the ground, and accumulate forces, for revolution—and have a real chance at winning. It is how thousands can be brought forward and oriented, organized and trained in a revolutionary way, while beginning to reach and influence millions more, even before there is a revolutionary situation...and then, when there is a revolutionary situation, those thousands can be a backbone and pivotal force in winning millions to revolution and organizing them in the struggle to carry the revolution through.

And then the statement goes on to conclude:

For those who have hungered for, who have dreamed of, a whole different world, without the madness and torment of what this system brings every day...those who have dared to hope that such a world could be possible...and even those who, up to now, would like to see this, but have accepted that this could never happen...there is a place and a role, a need and a means, for thousands now and ultimately millions to contribute to building this movement for revolution, in many different ways, big and small—with ideas and with practical involvement, with support, and with questions and criticisms. Get together with our Party, learn more about this movement and become a part of it as you learn, acting in unity with others in this country, and throughout the world, aiming for the very challenging but tremendously inspiring and liberating—and, yes, possible—goal of emancipating all of humanity through revolution and advancing to a communist world, free of exploitation and oppression.

It is this, and nothing less, that must animate and guide what we do this summer.

 

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* The Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA puts it this way:

The ultimate point of this line is to transform the world. There is a back-and-forth interaction between the development of line and the transformation of the world that drives this whole process. This is the theory/practice/theory dynamic, and it is the heart of party life.

Bob Avakian has characterized this dynamic in this way: “proceeding at any given time on the basis of our theory and line, as determined collectively and through the structures, channels and processes of the party; extracting lessons from our practice and raising these up to the level of theoretical abstraction, but also drawing from many other sources (including the thinking and insights of others), and applying the scientific outlook and method of communism, dialectical materialism, to repeatedly synthesize all this to a higher level, in the development of and through the wrangling over theory and line—which is then returned to and carried out in practice, on what should be a deepened and enriched basis. And on...and on...and on....”

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/indefinite-solitary-confinement-a-form-of-torture-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Indefinite Solitary Confinement:

A Form of Torture... An Instrument of Repression and Genocide

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Download PDF Poster of this page

* Prisoners at the Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) Security Housing Unit (SHU) who catalyzed the 2011 hunger strikes to stop long-term solitary confinement have announced they plan a new hunger strike (and work stoppage) in July 2013. These prisoners are about to draw a line in the sand and set a deadline for California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to adhere to their promise to change their torture policies. Thousands of prisoners live in super-maximum prisons. Pelican Bay is known as one of the harshest “super maximum” prisons in the country.

* Solitary confinement is a form of torture. International human rights organizations and bodies have condemned it, and the devastating psychological and physical effects have been well documented by medical and psychological experts. Yet today, tens of thousands of individuals are detained inside cramped, concrete, windowless cells in near total isolation for between 22 and 24 hours a day in U.S. prisons, with no human contact, no chance to feel the sun, to see the moon and stars, or to breathe fresh air.

* Prolonged solitary confinement is an instrument of repression. In Pelican Bay State Prison alone, more than 500 SHU prisoners have been isolated under these devastating conditions for over 10 years, more than 200 for over 15 years, and 78 have been isolated in the SHU for more than 20 years. In California alone, at least 11,730 people are housed in some form of isolation, and over 3,000 in high-security isolation SHU units. Yet solitary confinement for as little as 15 days is widely recognized to cause lasting psychological damage to human beings and is considered to be torture under international law.

* Placement in the SHU is not part of an individual’s court-ordered sentence. It’s an administrative act on the part of the prison authorities—very often based on a prisoner’s alleged association with a prison gang. And the only way out of SHU isolation is to “debrief”—to inform on other prisoners (to become a state informant)... after being tortured for weeks, months, years, and sometimes decades.

* SHU prisoners at Pelican Bay initiated two hunger strikes in 2011. They developed “5 Core Demands” that zeroed in on the demands to abolish the “debriefing” process and to end conditions of isolation and long-term solitary confinement. The “5 Core Demands” also included demands to end group punishment, provide adequate and nutritious food, and to expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for those prisoners being held in SHU indefinitely. These 2011 hunger strikes were extraordinary developments in recent U.S. history. Not since the Attica Prison Rebellion of 1971, after the murder of George Jackson at San Quentin Prison, had the U.S. seen a prison hunger strike this long and widespread.

* The torture conditions at Pelican Bay, and long-term isolation in particular, are part of a system of mass incarceration of over two million people, mostly Black and Latino, that is part of a slow genocide that could become a fast genocide. Other states beyond California practice long-term solitary confinement. On March 23, 2013, the New York Times exposed how 300 immigrants—who have not been convicted of any crime and in many cases are not even charged with criminal offenses—are held in solitary confinement at the 50 largest detention facilities in the U.S.

* In essence the USA is a dictatorship, and this can be seen when you examine up close the mass incarceration and prison torture regime this system has put into place. Now the U.S.'s massive prison system and super-max high-tech torture chambers are being exposed as unjust, immoral, and illegitimate in the eyes of important sections of this society, and internationally, along with the ongoing torture of illegally detained men at the U.S. prison at Guantánamo.

* Torture is unequivocally unacceptable, no matter what labels are put on these prisoners, and the prisoners’ demands are just, reasonable, and as urgent as ever. Now, more than ever, people have a moral responsibility to act in a way that corresponds with the justness of these prisoners’ demands and in a way commensurate with what is truly at stake. Carl Dix, of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA and the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, recently issued a call that includes: “We need to spread the word on the planned hunger strike and the Call for unity inside and outside the prisons. We need to gather statements of support for the actions of the prisoners. We need to plan tribunals and other forms to involve broad sections of people in standing with the hunger strikers. If at all possible, we must through this protest force the state of California to meet these demands and make it unnecessary for these prisoners to take such a desperate action; but we must also be prepared to support them through what might indeed be a necessary and very difficult struggle.”

* If waging determined struggle in support of the prisoners’ demands takes people to a place that challenges existing beliefs about the way the U.S. is “supposed” to be (but in fact is not), there is a challenge to not turn back, but to dig deeper into the actual problem and solution and take responsibility for that ... with revcom.us an essential resource.

Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution!

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/sunsara-taylor-on-abortion-rights-freedom-ride-en-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Revolution Interview with Sunsara Taylor

Abortion Rights Freedom Ride

From both coasts, and through the middle of the country

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

 

Revolution: StopPatriarchy.org has called for a summer of actions to fight for abortion on demand and without apology. Would you sketch out for us the developing plans around this call?

Sunsara Taylor: First of all, to understand why we're doing this, we have to confront the fact that abortion rights in this country right now are in an absolute state of emergency. There is an all-sided, many-fronted assault on women's right to abortion and even birth control. There are the violence, terror, and threats against abortion providers. There is the avalanche of legal restrictions. The last two years have seen record restrictions on abortion access, and this year has already seen 278 new restrictions introduced around the country. Abortion has been marginalized and stigmatized within medicine, taken out of most primary care; it's not taught in medical schools unless students fight for it. Ninety-seven percent of rural counties don't have an abortion provider. Eight doctors and employees of clinics have been murdered! Roe v. Wade is being aggressively undermined in the courts and in the court of public opinion. And abortion has become more stigmatized than ever before. One in three women has had an abortion, and you can hardly find a single woman in public life or, for most people, in their actual day-to-day life of people that they know that has admitted to them that they had an abortion. Most people go years and years—men especially, "I never knew anybody who had an abortion," and they just have no idea: it's their mother, their sister, their cousin, people that they're working with.

We are on track to a situation where women will lose this right. And let's be very clear up front: taking away this right, forcing women to have children they don't want, is a form of enslavement.

So, in this context, we are launching this Abortion Rights Freedom Ride with kick-off rallies in San Francisco and New York on July 23, bringing together hundreds and thousands of people to stand up and send off these Freedom Riders, who will caravan from both sides of the country, making stops and rallying support along the way, to converge at our first big stop in North Dakota in late July.

On August 1, several laws are set to go into effect in North Dakota. One is a fetal heartbeat law that will ban abortion once a heartbeat is detected in a fetus through a vaginal ultrasound—at about six weeks when most women don't even know they're pregnant. So it's a really extreme and outrageous law. There's a lot of expectation that the law will not stand—it's utterly unconstitutional. But it indicates the ferocity and the intentionality of the anti-abortion movement, the fact that it passed at all should be a wake-up call.

The more immediately dangerous law set to go into effect will require abortion providers in the state to have hospital admitting privileges. Now, North Dakota has only one clinic in the entire state, in Fargo, and the doctors there have to fly in from out of state, because abortion providers have to put their lives on the line and there's not that many who are willing to go through all that. So they will not be able to get those admitting privileges and this, if not overturned, would make North Dakota the first abortion-free state. So we will be standing with the clinic and others who have been fighting this—but also protesting the women-haters and legislature and churches behind it. We will hold a big ceremony and award some of these fascists the "Forced Motherhood Is Female Enslavement" Award, which will take the form of a big bloody coat-hanger. (Wire coat-hangers are what many women used to try to induce their own abortions when it was illegal, and a great many women died from doing that.)

Through August, we'll then go down to South Dakota, which also has only one abortion clinic. We'll go through Nebraska where Dr. LeRoy Carhart has been viciously targeted; Wichita, Kansas, where Dr. George Tiller was assassinated, and where for several years Julie Burkhart has fought very hard to reopen the clinic and recently has; and she's under death threats; she's under legal threat; she's under incredible pressure; and so we want to go there and support her and the clinic and also confront these fascists who are doing the kind of things that get people murdered. Then we'll cut through Arkansas, another state that recently passed a fetal heartbeat abortion ban and has only one abortion clinic. And we will end in Jackson, Mississippi, which was at the heart of the civil rights movement and has the only abortion clinic left in Mississippi, a state that has incredible rates of impoverishment, especially among Black women who have almost no access to abortion in large parts of that state and the region.

It's a month-long tour with two major elements: we're both confronting the Christian fascists and exposing them for the woman-haters they are. And we're rallying support and drawing forward our side—the people who want to preserve this right but who have been atomized and put on the moral and political defensive, who have not seen either the need or the possibility to stand up as a collective force, in mass resistance to defeat this war on women. So we're going to come from both coasts and travel down the heart of the country. And then call on people to converge with us along the way, especially in Mississippi.

Revolution: So the caravans from the two coasts would be starting...

Taylor: July 24. The send-off rallies will be on the 23rd and then the next day they hit the road.

Revolution: There was an inspiring letter from a prisoner recently in Revolution and on revcom.us ("Defending the Right to Abortion, and Transforming the People for Revolution") in which the brother recounted struggling hard with a fellow prisoner who opposed abortion. What's the importance of everyone—in particular men, but all kinds of people—taking up the fight for the right to abortion?

Taylor: To put it very simply, if women, half of humanity, are not free, then no one is free. That's just a reality. But to get into it a little more deeply, this attack on abortion is not incidental. It's very bound up with the way women have been treated for millennia—ever since the very first emergence of class divisions and of exploitation and oppression, of private property and the state, ever since human beings thousands of years ago went from living in more or less egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies. It's very important to note that the oppression of women by men is NOT owing to "human nature." In fact, for tens of thousands of years, human beings lived without organized forms of oppression and divisions, including without the oppression of women by men. But when private property and the state and class divisions emerged, women's role got fundamentally transformed. Women became the property of men and breeders of children, breeders of new lines of inheritance of either the haves or the have-nots, the ruling class or the exploited. Controlling women's virginity before marriage and their sexuality from then on, making sure they only had sex with their husbands, was essential not only to the particular men who wanted to hand their property down to their children and not someone else's—but actually this control over women became very essential to maintaining and organizing class societies as a whole. This is as true, even if different in its forms and appearance, today in this capitalist- imperialist-dominated world as it was in feudal or slave societies.

If you drill down to the root of what gives rise to any form of oppression—whether it is the gruesome history of oppression of Black people in this country and the way that continues today with one very sharp concentration of this being the literal mass incarceration that amounts to a slow genocide, you know, with one out of every eight Black males in their 20s in jail or prison; whether it be the wars of domination and plunder that are driven by the engine of imperialist conquest; whether it be the destruction of the environment on a massive scale—you'll see that it comes from a common root and a common system. And that this system also requires and gives rise to the oppression of women. You cannot shatter that system, you cannot overthrow that system, you can't make revolution to get rid of that system, without taking up the fight for the liberation of women. A big part of what Bob Avakian has fought for in one of the dimensions of the new synthesis of communism that he has forged over decades is that if you understand this deeply and scientifically, you actually grasp that unleashing the fury of women, unleashing the pent-up fury at thousands of years of being treated as chattel, abused, degraded, violated, raped, ridiculed, demeaned and diminished in a million ways—unleashing the fury against that is not only a powerful and potent and necessary force for the liberation of women, but it is a driving force in making revolution as a whole.

This is why something BA has emphasized—both now in the struggle to prepare for and, with the emergence of a revolutionary crisis, to seize state power, and in the context of the new revolutionary society that is working to dig up the remnants of oppression and exploitation and advance towards genuine communism, that is, human emancipation—is extremely important. And in some inspiring ways, this was given expression in that letter from a prisoner you referenced. BA says:

In many ways, and particularly for men, the woman question, and whether you seek to completely abolish or to preserve the existing property and social relations and corresponding ideology that enslave women (or maybe "just a little bit" of them) is a touchstone question among the oppressed themselves. It is a dividing line between "wanting in" and really "wanting out": between fighting to end all oppression and exploitation—and the very divisions of society into classes—and seeking in the final analysis to get your part in this.

That's the heart of the matter, and it's a challenge to men—and it's a challenge to all people who dream of and yearn for and want to fight for an end to exploitation and oppression in any form, that you have to make this your fight. It's also spoken to very powerfully in BA's new talk, BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! where he makes very clear the only people who should fear the unleashed fury of women and who should not be out there fighting to help foster this and joining in with it are people who want to preserve this oppressive and destructive order.

Revolution: You emphasized the urgent need for people to take action around the question of abortion, people from different viewpoints who see the importance of acting. At the same time, as a revolutionary communist, you're putting forward an analysis of where women's oppression comes from, and the need for revolution, nothing less, to actually get at the root of it. So talk about how these things interrelate.

Taylor: Well, I think for a whole host of reasons the conditions women face are increasingly violent and degrading and horrific all around the world. And then there are all the other oppressive things I spoke about earlier like the destruction of the environment, the mass incarceration of oppressed people here, unjust wars and even things like the really gross and revolting culture that has everyone so alienated and degraded and really unhappy—all of this, and many more things that would take us a long time to talk about. It really is a reality that this world is a horror—and it doesn't have to be this way. It is not because of human nature, it is because of the nature of the system. And we need a revolution. We need a revolution as urgently as possible. To get rid of this, and to bring about a whole different world. That's possible, and that's needed. People need to be getting into that and fighting for it, very firmly. And putting BA out there—this is the BA Everywhere Campaign, raising a lot of money to promote BA Everywhere—letting people know that there's a viable, radical alternative to this world, a real new synthesis of revolution and communism, that there's a leadership for this revolution and a strategy. All this needs to be going on. And as people step forward to fight around these different faultlines, around mass incarceration and around the degradation and enslavement of women, around all of these things, that's going to be favorable for hastening the transformation of people in a revolutionary direction and the repolarization in society in a revolutionary direction. So it's very important for those of us who are coming from recognizing the need for revolution to really appreciate that this is a moment when a lot needs to be put on the line to bring people forward in mass struggle against these outrages, in combination with the all-around work that we're doing as revolutionaries, including around BA around this newspaper, Revolution, and revcom.us, getting them out everywhere.

But at the same time, you don't have to be coming from that perspective to recognize that there is a state of emergency facing women. Each and every one one of us who refuses to see women reduced to the status of slaves needs to be in this fight right now. And you should support this Freedom Ride: donate, send a message of support to the clinics for us to deliver, join us for a leg of the tour, spread it on social media. There is no good reason not to stand up and fight against this. What is at stake is literally the future and the lives of the half of humanity that is born female. This is what we are all responsible for.

And as we're doing this, as we're standing shoulder to shoulder, we should be debating. People should want to be debating and getting into and trying to understand it. And actually people will be more open to it, the more they fight back, the more the big questions do open up to people. Why does this keep happening? Why are we in 2013 fighting a battle over birth control, over abortion? Why are these fights being refought? Where is this coming from? How can it be ended? And we want to be in there putting forward very clearly where this is coming from, and what it will ultimately take, what kind of revolution is ultimately needed. But also learning from other people, where they're coming from, and standing shoulder to shoulder with them. And as people get into this—BA has put it very powerfully in the "Invitation" that he put out, where he says, act on what you know to be an outrage, continue to fight against those things which drove you into political struggle at the beginning. As you do this, there's a responsibility of people to really come to understand how to really end this and to explore and to learn what different people are saying and what's actually true about that. And if you as you investigate this, as you're standing up and fighting with us, you come to understand the source of the problem is the system and the solution we need is communist revolution, don't turn away from that because it challenges your assumptions or takes you out of your comfort zone, follow that wherever because the fate and future of humanity is what's at stake, and fighting our way out of this. And understanding that, you should pursue it. There's a back and forth between standing up and fighting and getting into those bigger questions. And we are eager to lead and to learn in that whole process and both parts of that process.

Anybody and everybody who really does not want to see women reduced to the status of slaves needs to stand up and fight right now. And you need to join with this Freedom Ride. Donate towards it. Send a message of support with us to the clinics that we'll be traveling to. Join us for a leg of the tour—in North Dakota, or Wichita, or Mississippi. Sign the statement I mentioned at StopPatriarchy.org/abortionondemandstatement and send it to everyone you know, asking them to do the same. Get that to authors, musicians, and other prominent people for their signatures. Raise money for this effort. Reach out to people you know in the places we are traveling through—Fargo, Bismarck, Minneapolis, Jackson, Little Rock, Nebraska, Cleveland... check StopPatriarchy.org for the full list—to help with housing and reaching out locally. There are many different ways to help and there's no excuse for not standing up and fighting with this. It does not have to be that these Christian fascists and patriarchs and these women-haters slam women backwards. But it will happen if we don't fight. So everybody has to join this fight. We all must take responsibility for STOPPING THIS—that is the measure we are all responsible to.

Revolution: What would it mean if this assault on abortion is allowed to win—so that abortion is not just increasingly difficult or even impossible for growing numbers of women, but actually outlawed altogether?

Taylor: It has to be understood deeply that being forced to have children you don't want—it means you have to give up everything you're planning. You have to foreclose your dreams and ambitions. That's your life. If you choose to have a child and are in a position to raise it in a way that you feel is right, that can be a beautiful thing. But to be forced to have a child is to essentially be told that all you are is a breeder. And to live in a society that denies that right, means that mostly young girls will be coming up not even having those larger dreams and ambitions. Because in the eyes of society, it will be very clear that they are not regarded as full human beings. Bob Avakian [BA], in his talk Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About, put this very powerfully. He said, and I'm paraphrasing: Denying women the right to abortion is like rape. It is the forcible control of women, of their bodies, of their lives, of everything about them, by a male supremacist, male-dominated society.

It's worth it to look at El Salvador, which is a vision of where we are headed if we don't stop this. Abortion there is illegal in all circumstances and women are jailed for having abortions or even miscarriages deemed "suspicious" by the state, and doctors and nurses are required to turn in women who are suspected of aborting fetuses, and if they don't those doctors and nurses will be sent to prison.

Young people don't remember when abortion was illegal. And it's very important that people who do remember help young people understand what it was like, but also all of us must understand that if this right is taken away again, it's going to be even worse than that, because of the ideological assault, because of the level of surveillance and criminalization... it's going to be worse than before Roe v. Wade.

The other thing that's very important is: people who've had abortions more recently also need to tell those stories. On the tour we'll be collecting and amplifying these stories as part of destigmatizing abortion.

Revolution: You've sketched a picture of this very dangerous emergency situation threatening the right to abortion. Yet there's not a commensurate movement of tens and hundreds of thousands and millions of people taking to the streets to stop this. Can you speak to this?

Taylor: Well, I think there's three major things involved.

First, there's just tremendous ignorance. Even most people who sense that things are getting bad, who maybe are sending extra donations to Planned Parenthood or whatever because they see it is losing its funding (which must be opposed!), don't really understand how bad it is. And this ignorance of the actual situation is owing fundamentally to the next two factors.

The second thing is that we've been living through several decades of reactionary assault overall and revenge against the advances made by women in the 60s and 70s in particular.

Let's not forget that the idea that women are full human beings is very new, historically speaking. Millions of people fought heroically for this—millions did so in the context of the great revolutionary struggles of the last century in the Soviet Union and China, even as they had shortcomings in how they went at this they brought about radical and liberating changes for women as well as people as a whole. In the 1960s and '70s in this country there were very powerful revolutionary upsurges of the 1960s overall and the women's liberation movement was a very important element of that. But the revolutions in the Soviet Union and later in China were defeated and reversed. And revolution in this country was never made. So, the advances that were won could not be sustained and this system set about—both through its spontaneous functioning as well as through its conscious policy—to take revenge against the people for daring to have risen up. This has included a very conscious and extremely vicious revenge against women for having dared to challenge thousands of years of traditions chains.

This is not a "backlash" because people "went too far." This is revenge, precisely because people didn't go far enough and the capitalist-imperialist system that has patriarchy and male-domination woven into its fabric and its functioning remained intact.

And in the face of the ebbing of the radical upsurges and a vicious wave of counter-revolution, the most radical and even revolutionary streams of the women's liberation movement got isolated and also ran up against big challenges they weren't able to fully navigate. At the same time, the streams which had always been more bourgeois in their orientation (that is, more aimed at fighting for women to be equally included at every level—including the top levels of politics, finance, and military—of this system of exploitation and oppression) were absorbed pretty wholesale into the Democratic Party. And through all this, the Democratic Party (or the various forces whose leadership has been closely wedded to the Democratic Party like NARAL or Planned Parenthood) came to be seen as the only "real" outlet for those concerned about women's oppressed status. This is a deadly illusion and a deadly trap—and this has had a tremendously demobilizing and disorienting effect on several generations now.

I mean, the Christian fascist assault that's been unleashed really got going under Reagan, and it went to new levels under Bush the Second, and a lot of the new attacks have been driven by these totally outlandish lunatic Republican fascists. But this, fundamentally, has never been simply a "Republican war on women." It is the system's war on women—and the Democrats, while having real differences with it, and real opposition to some elements of it—have continuously conceded more and more ground to this assault. I mean, who would have thought even 10 years ago we would be fighting over birth control! And the Democratic Party leadership has really led in demobilizing the people who support abortion, putting them on the political and moral defensive. Hillary Clinton called abortion "tragic." Bill Clinton said it should be "safe, legal, and rare," implying that there's something wrong with it. And then you have Obama, who has over and over sought "common ground" with fascists and religious fanatics. Plus, he seems to have a real personal jones against Plan B contraception (often called the morning-after pill). The FDA approved it for over-the-counter distribution, but then Obama's head of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius overruled that. That over-ruling was challenged in court, but then the Obama administration challenged it back. So, people have lost the sense of the need—and the possibility—of relying on ourselves and waging fierce mass political struggle to defeat this war on women—which is the ONLY way it can be defeated.

Third, and this flows from what I was just describing, there have been major setbacks in terms of the political and ideological and moral and scientific understanding of people around abortion. It is positive and liberating for women to be able to choose abortion. It is utterly immoral, illegitimate, and vicious and cruel and women-hating to force women to have children that they don't want. But, there's a lot of defensiveness around this and a big tendency for pro-choice people to focus on things like "Oh, what about a woman who's raped?" or "What about a woman whose life is in danger? Shouldn't we have an exception for her?" Of course women like that should be able to get abortions, and the fact that a lot of the restrictions don't make exceptions for rape or for incest or for the life of the woman—this just exposes how vicious and hate-filled the anti-abortion movement is. But at the core, the truth has to be told: this fight is about the status and role of women in society. It's NOT about babies. Fetuses have the potential to become people, but they are a subordinate part of a woman's body and they don't have a separate biological existence or a separate social existence. But that woman is a human being. Fetuses don't have rights. Fetuses are not people. Women are human beings.

That's why our lead slogan on our statement and this Freedom Ride is: Abortion on Demand and Without Apology. A number of people have told us, "You can't say that in North Dakota. I personally agree with you. But it won't get over in North Dakota. (Or in South Dakota, or Midwest, Mississippi, whatever.)" But we've seen that there's a section of people, and I believe that there's many thousands, probably many tens of thousands of people, for whom right now, when they hear this, they're like, "Yes, that's right."

The idea is not that you're going to move millions of people overnight on this. You're going to speak to millions of people. But we're going to mobilize those people who have the most anger and the most clarity, and we're going to give them the ideological and moral certitude, and the scientific grounding. And also we're going to fight in a way that models refusing to accept any of this degradation, shame, enslavement, or oppression of women in any form. And we are going to lead those thousands of people to step forward and fight around this with us. And that's going to have a huge effect on them, as well as a huge effect on changing how millions more are seeing this.

So, I think these three things come together.

But what's not so visible to people is that if there is political leadership and clarity and a force that is daring to fight against it and put something on the line to stop this; there's millions and millions of people who can, and who really must, be brought forward to defeat this war on women. Those of us doing this Freedom Ride are prepared and determined to be that force and bring forward and lead those millions.

Revolution: As you have been out there building for this Abortion Rights Freedom Ride, what kinds of responses have you been getting?

Taylor: We've just begun. And we've gotten a very positive response from a number of people who have spent decades on the front lines of this fight around abortion rights and providing services. We've been in touch with a number of very courageous abortion providers who have been giving us quite a bit of insight and helping make connections in the areas we'll be traveling through. Also, David Gunn, Jr., the son of David Gunn who was the first abortion doctor to be assassinated, recently wrote a very powerful piece about why, from his own experience and perspective, he is supporting this freedom ride called "I Won't Back Down."

Then, the day we put it up online, Sikivu Hutchinson who does two Black free-thinking, feminist blogs, signed and posted the statement we put out ("Abortion on Demand & Without Apology for Every Woman in Every State: The Reversal of Abortion and Birth Control Rights Must Stop Now!"), as did PZ Myers who has the most popular science blog in the world.

Within 24 hours, over 350 more people signed. And a very significant thing is that many left comments that picked up on the most uncompromising parts of the statement like, "Women are not incubators," and "Forced motherhood is female enslavement," or "Abortion on demand and without apology." Some said straight up, "Thank you for finally putting this out so clearly and sharply!" This is a very powerful, if still beginning, indication that there are people out there who want to see this fascist shit called out, and who have been waiting for something like this. We want to publish this statement in North Dakota when we're there.

The statement calls out the state of emergency. It also clarifies the moral high ground on this question. It says very bluntly that yes, the country is divided over the question of abortion. And that makes sense, because abortion really concentrates how you view women. Are women fundamentally incubators and breeders of children, or are women full human beings? If they're full human beings, they have the right to decide for themselves when and whether they have children. Forcing women to have children against their will is a form of enslavement. So the statement cuts through that.

The fight around abortion has never been about babies. The whole anti-abortion movement is set on restoring a whole view of women that has been around for thousands of years, with the cult of virginity up until marriage that then gets morphed into the cult of motherhood and obedience to the husband. If you need proof of this, just look at the fact that they all [anti-abortion movement] oppose birth control.

The leaders of this movement are rooted in the Bible where woman (Eve) is blamed for the so-called "original sin" of tempting Adam out of the Garden of Eden. According to this myth of the Bible, everything bad that has ever happened to human beings since then is because of this—it is all Eve's (woman's) fault. And the only way women can redeem themselves for this supposedly "great crime" is to obey their husbands and to bear children. It says it right in the Bible, in Timothy 2:13-15. So this is why they are so opposed to women having access to abortion, and it's also why they all oppose birth control. Their real goal is to slam women back into a Dark Ages role.

Revolution: The war on women involves other aspects, in particular the whole culture of pornography, which keeps on getting more cruel, violent, and degrading toward women. So how do these different elements relate?

Taylor: We have identified a real state of emergency around abortion rights, and that is the leading edge of what StopPatriarchy is initiating this summer, and uniting people very broadly to fight against that. At the same time, it's important to pull back the lens and look at what this is part of. Anywhere you look on the globe, the question of the role and status of women is assuming ever more acute expression. Women are straining to enter into realms that have been for centuries and millennia closed off to women, in the workforce, education, public life. politics, and the media. At the same time, everywhere on the globe there's an intensifying of violence and degradation against women that's being unleashed. Look at the epidemic of gang rape in India and Brazil and really all over the world; or the Islamic fundamentalism that is growing in huge parts of the world, with the shrouding of women, the imprisoning of women in the homes, the raping, the honor killings of women; or look at the way that women's advance fought for in the '60s and '70s has been turned back. The sexual revolution, for instance, in this country had a very positive overall thrust to it—women casting off the shame around their sexuality, asserting for the first time in thousands of years that their sexuality was not something to be owned by men but to be experienced by women themselves on their terms and in ways that were mutually pleasurable and mutually respectful, whether with men or women or whatever. But then it and the whole movement of the times didn't go as far as it needed to go. We didn't have a revolution and this system remained intact. And so those movements ebbed, and the system really did set to work, consciously as well as spontaneously through its workings, to turn that sexual freedom into further commodification of women's bodies and the more open and vicious and mainstreaming of sexualized degradation and patriarchal male-dominated terms. So you have the mainstreaming of very cruel and violent and humiliating and degrading pornography. And this goes along with the trade in women as chattel, as sex slaves in the sex industry all over the world in the millions and millions.

And these are not just surface phenomena; these things are driven by very profound shifts taking place in the world: mass migrations caused by imperialist penetration ever more deeply into the Third World, the growth of huge slums, the ravages of war, technological developments, as well as the struggles of people in many different ways. All these very huge changes have both undermined many traditional forms of life and many traditional forms of patriarchy, while at the same time produced immense suffering and insecurity which, in turn, has contributed significantly towards what really can only be called a revenge—a hate-filled, violent, and dehumanizing revenge—against women.

So StopPatriarchy is addressing the way this is sharpening up in this country and makes the sharp point: there really is no fundamental difference between reducing women to breeders, to objects just for turning out babies, and reducing women to sex objects to be plundered and humiliated and used and abused for the sexual titillation of men. That's all part of a package of a real revenge against women. We're fighting all of that. And precisely because of how profound these shifts are and how many people are being profoundly affected by them, we see the basis for millions and millions of people to be led to stand up and fight against all this. So, that is where StopPatriarchy is coming from, even as right now we are taking responsibility for bringing together broad forces, including some who maybe don't fully agree with us on pornography, for example, to stand up right now against these growing assaults on abortion rights.

Revolution: I wonder if you could speak specifically to the claim that is made that abortion clinics target women of color—Black and Latino women, in particular—and that abortion among Black and Latino women is a form of genocide?

Taylor: So, yeah, in the anti-abortion movement there has been a campaign over several decades, but really intensifying over the last couple of years, to equate abortion among Black people and Latinos as a form of self-genocide. There have been billboards put up all over the country that say, "The most dangerous place for a Black youth is in its mother's womb." They are seizing on the fact that Black and Latino women have higher rates of abortion than white women to accuse Black and Latino women of carrying out genocide against their babies. This is one of the most vicious and hateful campaigns.

First of all it's a lie. A Black woman, a Latino woman, any woman who chooses to terminate a pregnancy is not killing a baby. That's just a fact: fetuses are NOT babies. Fetuses of Black women are NOT Black babies. Fetuses of Latino women are not Latino babies. All those fetuses are subordinate parts of the woman's body. And when a woman voluntarily undergoes an abortion, that is just her making a decision over her own reproduction and her life as a whole. Her right to do this is a positive thing. And the anti-abortion movement is against sex education and against birth control, so they don't really get any right to fucking speak about this. Even more fundamentally, I don't care how many abortions a woman gets or how often it goes on among any particular section of women, if women don't have the right to determine for themselves when and whether they will have children, they are not free. And if women are not free, then no one is free—and this applies to oppressed peoples as well, if Black women are enslaved to their reproduction, if they are reduced to breeders and forced to have children against their wills, then there is no way that Black people as a whole can get free. So I reject the whole notion that there is something negative about women getting abortions—at whatever rate—when they feel they need them. If there are social conditions of life that compel a woman to terminate a pregnancy when she would have wanted to bring it to full term, those conditions and the source of them need to be fought, but that is very different than forcing them to reproduce! Women's role is not to "make babies"—it is to "hold up half the sky" (as they used to say in revolutionary China) to join together with men to rise up against all the many forms of oppression and exploitation, to be just as involved in learning about and fighting to change the whole world, and to be treated with respect and equality by men in this whole process and in every realm.

Having said that, we do have to come back to the fact that this is America. There is not only a whole history of the most horrific and brutal oppression of Black people and Latinos and Native Americans and other oppressed peoples right here within these borders (and this goes along with the subjugation of whole nations and peoples by the U.S. around the world), this oppression continues and is intensifying today. One of the forms this has taken is the coercive sterilization of oppressed women. There is a whole history of Puerto Rican women, Black women, Native American women, and other oppressed-nationality women within this country being coerced or outright forced into undergoing sterilization. Sometimes a woman would be in labor without insurance and the hospital would only deliver her baby if she signed papers agreeing to be sterilized. Sometimes women were told they would lose their welfare benefits if they didn't undergo sterilization. A lot of times women weren't even told anything. At one point, not all that long ago, something like 20-30 percent of all women of child-bearing age among these oppressed groupings had been sterilized. Now, that is a form of the system preventing a whole section of people from being able to reproduce. That is racist; frankly it's genocidal. But that is very, very different—it is a world apart—from women among the oppressed deciding for themselves which pregnancies to carry to term and which ones they do not want to continue.

And today one of the main forms this oppression is taking—speaking of genocide—is the actual genocide of mass incarceration, criminalization, caste-like segregation of the formerly incarcerated, and rampant police terror, brutality and murder. In response to the lie that has been blasted on that billboard I just mentioned, you want to know where the most dangerous place for a Black youth is? For Ramarley Graham, it was walking into his own home when police decided to chase after him and shoot him dead in front of his grandmother and his little brother. For Trayvon Martin, it was walking home from the corner store while wearing a hoodie. For Aiyana Stanley-Jones, it was sleeping on the couch with her grandmother when the police shot through the door and killed her at seven years old. Every 40 hours the police murder a Black person in this country. And then there are the gang-injunctions and stop-and-frisk and the whole cradle-to-prison pipeline—that is what is stealing the future of our Black and brown youth.

These fascists who put up these billboards and make these claims, they never talk about any of this—and because they don't, they are actually covering for the real genocide that is going on, directing oppressed people's attention away from the system and towards further blaming and shaming the very women hit hardest in many ways by this system. And then all this blame and shame against Black and Latino women is used as a bludgeon to further strip all women of the right to abortion.

So, this kind of shit really must not be tolerated—and the influence of this ideological poison (especially its influence among sections of Black and Latino masses of people) has to be fought and turned around.

Revolution: Are there any final words you want to leave people with, coming back to what is immediately posed as you and others get ready for this Abortion Rights Freedom Ride?

Taylor: Returning to the whole, it really is a very urgent situation that women are facing and it is not going to just go away on its own. Bob Avakian put it very scientifically a number of years ago when he said that the question and role of the oppression of women is posing itself more and more acutely and it is inconceivable that it will be resolved on anything other than very radical terms. What is yet to be determined is whether that will be a radically reactionary resolution—and we can see the dimensions of that being hammered into place around us—or in radical revolutionary terms, which is also very possible but will require tremendous courage and conviction and scientific leadership and struggle and sacrifice to bring into being. And how this gets resolved has very high stakes for—and will interpenetrate with—the struggle to put an end to all other forms of oppression and exploitation. What happens around this, which way this gets resolved, is not scripted. In a very real way, how this unfolds, what resolution we get—really, what kind of future generations of women and young girls are going to come up into—depends on what we do.

So what is posed for us very acutely right now is the need to step out there and take on and beat back this fascist assault on women with the aim of changing how millions in this country are viewing this critical issue. We need to unite with and lead many, many others coming from many different perspectives to do this—from getting out there in the streets with us, to telling their abortion story, to going down to the local clinic to escort, to sending money to support those who are going on the Freedom Ride, to offering legal support, to many, many other ways. And any and all of us who understand the pressing need to fight for the full equality and liberation of women need in the course of this to build up the organization and influence of the movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women as it takes on the entire war on women, including with its focus on pornography and the sale of women's bodies as well. And, at the same time as all of this—and fundamentally this will strengthen the basis to do what I was just speaking about and it is the only way any of this will ultimately contribute to the emancipation of humanity as a whole—getting into it with people and revealing how all these horrors flow from this system of capitalism-imperialism and the kind of revolution we need, and the leadership we have, to put an end to this system and all the nightmares it brings for humanity once and for all.

 

 

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Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Turkey: A bright carnival in the shadow of a revengeful state

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Editor's note: The following is drawn from new coverage including the article "Turkey: A bright carnival in the shadow of a revengeful state" distributed by A World To Win News Service.

A World to Win News Service is put out by A World to Win magazine, a political and theoretical review inspired by the formation of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the embryonic center of the world's Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations.

 

1) "It started out about a park, but now it's about everything," someone tweeted in the middle of the night as protesters fought police in Istanbul's Taksim Square. As we go to press, massive protests are raging throughout the country of Turkey. The events began on Tuesday morning, May 28, when some 50 protesters stood in front of the bulldozers about to attack the trees in Gezi Park, adjacent to Taksim Square.

Taksim Square is a major gathering place, hangout, and location for political and cultural activities. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced that much of the square would be leveled and replaced with a bizarre replica of a military barracks serving the oppressive Ottoman Empire that once stood on this site, along with a shopping center, condominiums, and a new mosque. Erdogan's role has been to shore up the Turkish ruling class power structure in large part through Islamicization of society, including imposing religion and tightening the oppression of women. In the days following the initial protest, the park was occupied around the clock by youth in affinity with the global Occupy movement and others determined to save one of the city's last green spaces.

 

2) At 5 am on Friday May 31, police attacked. They fired rounds of tear gas into tents with people sleeping in them, including children; they sent in bulldozers to roll over everything and set fire to the encampment. Hundreds of protesters, journalists, and passersby were injured. An attempted sit-in was dispersed. Instead of putting an end to the protests, this assault made many thousands of people from all walks of life feel that they had to come to the rescue. Some people chanted, "Thanks, Tayyip, for the wake-up call."

News coverage described youth throwing stones and other objects, fighting back against police in pitched battles that lasted all day and all night. The next day, the police withdrew from the square and protesters closed off the entrances with high barricades built of cobblestones and appropriated police crowd-control barriers, street signs and other items.

The protesters are high school and university students and teachers (the universities suspended final exams); artists, architects, city planners, and other intellectuals (some of the very first demonstrators); doctors and lawyers (their associations defended the protesters, and many came to help them); slum youth and their parents, many of Kurdish origin (Kurdish people are an oppressed nationality within Turkey and in other countries in the region); white collar workers and business people; shopkeepers (often handing out lemons and milk to sooth eyes burned by tear gas and pepper gas); pushcart peddlers; and housewives of all backgrounds, including traditional peasant families, some covered, most not. A few days later the two public service union confederations called a two-day strike and their members joined the youth.

 

3) In response to the protests, a government spokesman said, "It doesn't matter what you do. We made a decision and we will follow through with that decision." A bridge that is part of the project, he announced, would be named Yavez (the Great) Sultan Selim, after the 16th-century hereditary ruler who made the Ottoman Empire a caliphate (Islamic state), also infamous for the slaughter of members of the Alevi religious minority. And the regime has continued to use violence to attempt to suppress the uprising.

 

4) In the clashes with the police, in the assaults and counter-assaults, countless women were in the forefront of the fighting, relishing a chance to battle for what they see as a clash over what kind of world they will live in. There were women in sun dresses holding out their arms to mockingly gesture "bring it on" to the riot police; women in thin tank tops, their hands wrapped in rags so that they could grab tear gas canisters; many young students in jeans, some wearing head-scarves and a few with Occupy face masks as well; and other women of all ages and classes.

The police, who were spraying people in the face with streams of pepper gas and firing bone-breaking, flesh-penetrating baton rounds at close range, displayed a particularly violent hatred for women.

Few women entered into this fray without an awareness of the special dangers, but perhaps their enthusiasm for symbolic and physical confrontation stems from a feeling that they are a central target of Erdogan's reactionary Islamic program. He tried to ban caesarean section births and put restrictions on abortion, not so much in the name of religion but because, as he once opined on TV, "Turkish women" (meaning ethnic Turks, not the country's minorities) should have more babies. In the blatantly patriarchal climate Erdogan has helped foster, honor killings, long a plague in Turkey, have risen sharply, with little prosecution. This participation by women is not just an interesting and positive feature. It is one of the best characteristics of this movement.

 

5) Less than three weeks before the protests, Barack Obama had Erdogan visit the White House and praised the U.S.'s "partnership" with his regime. With the outbreak of the protests, a White House spokesman issued a hypocritical statement claiming to support "full freedom of expression and assembly" in Turkey. But for many decades the U.S. has been the main imperialist overlord of Turkey and has propped up a succession of brutal, reactionary regimes that massacred opponents, oppressed nationalities, and revolutionaries. The ruling class of Turkey plays an important role policing the region on behalf of U.S. imperialism—including right now serving as a key conduit for U.S. intervention in Syria. The inspiring protests are rocking a country that, especially in recent years, U.S. imperialism has seen as a relatively reliable and stable ally and enforcer for its interests in Central Asia and the Middle East.

People in the U.S. have a particular responsibility to support the uprising in Turkey, and oppose repression against the protesters, as well as moves by the rulers of the U.S. to tighten their domination of the country and advance their interests in the midst of the uprising in Turkey.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/306/how-long-by-joe-veale-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

HOW LONG?

by Joe Veale | June 9, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

In reading the May 23-29 issue of the Black-owned newspaper Los Angeles Sentinel, there was one article that especially jumped out and grabbed me, making my blood boil.

The article is speaking about how with the passage of a new law, the state of California will now be notifying parents and guardians when their children are placed in the gang database.

What grabbed me in this way and I'm quoting from the article here: "In California, individuals can be added to the CalGang Database without being arrested or accused of a crime, based solely on interviews by police during routine stops. The CalGang Database is then used to add people to gang injunctions, support arguments for enhanced sentencing in court and disqualifying entire families from living in public housing."

And it goes on to say "Children as young as ten are included in this database..."

This is one of the ways that the school to prison pipeline begins. Today, there are close to 200,000 people in California prisons. There is an equivalent of this CalGang program in every major U.S. city, so that now there are over 2.4 million people locked up nationally, the majority of whom are Black and Latino. And THIS slow genocide is what the Stop Mass Incarceration Network is talking about and working to put an end to.

I can't help but be reminded of what happened to some of my friends, as well as family members, who were sent to jail as children in the early 1960s. My 12-year-old brother was arrested and sent to California Youth Authority (CYA) for defending himself against a physical assault by a teacher in West Berkeley, a poor and Black neighborhood (see Bob Avakian's memoir From Ike to Mao and Beyond..." for a sense of segregated Berkeley of that time).

This was my brother's first encounter with the police. And it was the first time our whole family felt totally powerless as my grandmother and five of us kids all went to court, crying and pleading for my brother's release. Our anguished compassion and love for my brother meant nothing to the judge, who sent my brother away for a year. His life was over. He was raped and came out of CYA refusing to accept that we lived in poverty, and would go in and out of CYA on parole violations. At 18, my brother ended up taking his own life.

CH was one of my best friends who I knew since elementary school. By the time he was 10 years old, he was put into CYA "for fighting." His life was basically over from then on. He spent more time in CYA and state prison than on the streets. I ran into him in prison when we were both in our early 20s. I could still talk to him but it was clear that prison and its brutal treatment had robbed him of much of his humanity and his personality. One of their torments was to repeatedly promise him parole, and then renege for no real reason. I was the only person who could reach him because we grew up like brothers, but he was no longer the person I knew and loved.

During those years, any time I was also sent to county jail or prison, it would be more like an informal high school reunion. My brother and CH, like millions today trapped in America's INjustice system, have the potential to contribute so much, under a radically different society. But this will take a revolution.

So when BA asks the question at the start of his live talk BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! of "how long must this nightmare of oppression and brutality go on?", it makes me think of all this and also all the other great suffering of humanity all over the world.

But what's most significant today is that because of BA's new synthesis of communism, all this suffering is no longer necessary.

 

Editor's note: Joe Veale was actively involved as a member of the Black Panther Party in the revolutionary upsurge of the 1960s. He's a veteran comrade of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, having joined the Party in the 1970s.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/all-eyes-on-sanford-florida-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Trial of Trayvon Martin's killer begins

All eyes on Sanford, Florida

by Li Onesto | June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Sanford, Florida, June 9—People poured into the streets after the murder of Trayvon Martin in February 2012 because they saw that this was NOT an isolated incident, that it was yet another killing in a long history of Black youth gunned down by racist vigilantes or brutal police. And people were determined that this time, the killer would NOT go free. After that outpouring, George Zimmerman was arrested and is now going to trial.

That anger has not gone away. People across society remain outraged over the cruel death of a young Black male and are determined that there be justice in this case.

As we wrote last week, “there are very high stakes in the trial of Trayvon Martin’s killer. Will this system that rampages around the world bringing slavery, suffering and death have its way—imposing its verdict that the life of a young Black man is worth nothing?”

Or will there be a different verdict in court, a verdict that represents justice for Trayvon? And even beyond this trial verdict, there needs to be a “societal statement”—a statement made in the streets and throughout society that this system and those it controls cannot have an open season on our youth.

The stage is set for an intense back-and-forth—society-wide—between those fighting for justice and those who would not only set back this struggle but who are for a vicious and ominous tightening of the chains of oppression.

And all this is concentrated in the town of Sanford itself where mass protests are expected on the opening day of George Zimmerman’s trial.

Enter the Courts and Police

Enter the courts and law enforcement. The Seminole County (where Sanford is located) Circuit Court has decreed that protesters around the courthouse will only be allowed “oral protest” and that signs that express what the authorities deem to be opinions “on any subject” are confined within—penned into—so-called “Public Assembly Zones.”

These Public Assembly Zones are pens outside the courthouse which will be set up and enforced by the authorities. Outside these pens, if you are carrying a sign that expresses what the authorities decide is an opinion (as opposed to what they consider a “fact”) you will be subject to being charged with and penalized for being in contempt of court.

Importantly, the ACLU of Florida has stepped up to counter this in a letter written to the chief judge of the court  charging that these rules effectively ban “expressive conduct and speech which are well within the ambit of protected expression under the United States and Florida Constitutions.”

An example the ACLU gives in their letter is telling: if you have a sign that says George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, that is a fact. But if your sign says “Too Many Black Youth are Being Killed” (many people think this is also a bald fact), any police officer could decide that is an “opinion” and go after you if you are outside the protest pen.

Think about this... if you are walking near the courthouse through town expressing yourself or carrying a sign or maybe holding a protest in the area and expressing your opinion about the murder of Trayvon and the nature of the society we live in, some pig can make a ruling that if you are outside the protest pen, your speech is illegal and you will be subject to punishment.

And there’s more... if you do decide to join the protests in the protest pens, you have to agree to be searched. And note, this includes the searching of your wallet and cell phone. As the ACLU stated in their letter addressed to the chief judge, what this means is that in order to exercise your First Amendment right to free speech, you must give up your Fourth Amendment right to “be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”  As the ACLU points out, “A cell phone is an electronic device, and even when an individual is subject to a lawful arrest, a warrant is required to examine its contents.”

This kind of intimidation and planned repression and crackdown is totally unacceptable and illegitimate. For all the rulers of this country yak on and on about “freedom of speech,” what they are setting up in Sanford reveals the true nature of their state—which maintains a monopoly on the use of supposedly legitimate violence and which uses that violence (or the threat of it) to enforce the will and interests of the ruling class over all of society.

And let’s make no mistake...the interests of the powers-that-be in this situation are to defend “the whole white supremacist mentality and system represented by George Zimmerman, along with the police who immediately treated the murdered Black teenager as the criminal and the criminal justice system itself, which only even considered charging Zimmerman because of the massive outcry and protest.” (see “A Summer of Big Challenges and Intense Struggle”). The will and interests of those who rule over society are to keep the people down when their struggle threatens to go beyond the bounds and confines the powers-that-be deem acceptable.

The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office is gearing up for the trial and has announced that it will also be working with other law enforcement agencies across Central Florida.

But I’ll say two things about all this: One, all this repression, from the ruling class and their law enforcers who didn’t even want to charge George Zimmerman with murder until mass protest forced their hand, is entirely unconstitutional (as the ACLU points out) and illegitimate and, two, instead of being intimidated and accepting these attempts to suppress our struggle, anyone who stands for justice will take a stand against this repression and refuse to be intimidated. Too much is at stake for anything less.

Voices from Sanford

Correspondents from Revolution newspaper have been out in the community in Sanford getting a feel for how people are seeing the trial, and the situation people face. The following notes are from their interviews:

...On the day that we arrived we talked with two men outside a barbershop here in Sanford. One of the men described the situation here in Sanford, the police harassment, and the years of dehumanization faced by Black people. He talked about the police stopping and harassing his white boss for driving him home from work. “I’m black and he’s white. He’s in a Black neighborhood, so they assume he’s buying drugs, but even when they know he’s not, they fucked with him.” These are the types of stories you hear around here. There is so much still simmering under the surface.

... I ask a woman named Virginia how she looks at what it took for prosecutors—after a month of not pressing charges, and when Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law was being invoked to justify the killing—to finally charge George Zimmerman with murder. She says: “That made the whole community and everybody all over the world rejoice because we were vindicated. We knew there should have been an arrest made and there wasn’t an arrest made. So when he didn’t take stand your ground, that was great because he didn’t have a ground to stand on in the first place because if he had just listened to what the dispatcher said, he wouldn’t have been in the position he was in and Trayvon would still be alive.

“And I don’t like the fact that they’re trying to make the media think that Trayvon was the thug, that he was the aggressor. He wasn’t the aggressor. He was just minding his own business...”

Virginia said, “We’re staying at a peaceful state because we’re waiting to see what’s gonna happen in the court.” She said, “We’re still planning on staying peaceful even after the fact, no matter what the outcome, because the law either going to do it or god’s going to do it.”  And then she said, “So we’re waiting. But as far as our young generation, they want to see action. They’re tired of talk; you understand what I’m saying? They’re tired of talk.”

Later she added, “Can I say this? When the killing of Trayvon Martin happened, that’s when it was the last straw. The last straw. And that’s why, I told one interviewer, we’re just getting now to trying to trust the Sanford police department. And if we find out that we can’t trust the justice system here in Sanford, then we in trouble. Then we are absolutely in trouble because we already know that we had to deal with a lot of good ole boy system.”

Orlando Sentinel: “Communists gather to protest on eve of Trayvon Martin trial”

On June 9, the online edition of the Orlando Sentinel—the largest-circulation newspaper in Central Florida, ran an article titled “Communists gather to protest on eve of Trayvon Martin trial” along with a photo of revolutionaries and others displaying the quote from Bob Avakian on the back page of this issue.

The article quoted Noche Diaz saying, “We came out to bring a delegation to show that people down here who are facing this aren’t fighting this alone,” and “People are taking this fight around the country to connect the struggles of Trayvon Martin with the struggles of injustice against the whole system of mass incarceration of black and Latino youth.”

And the Sentinal reported, “The protesters appeared for about an hour and chanted, “Trayvon did not have to die. We all know the reason why. The whole system is guilty.”

 

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/emerging-outrage-scandal-over-massive-government-spying-on-people-in-US-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

As We Go to Press...

Emerging Outrage, Scandal over Massive Government Spying on People in the U.S.

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On June 5, an article by Glenn Greenwald in the British newspaper the Guardian revealed that the FBI and the National Security Agency (NSA) used the PATRIOT Act to obtain a secret warrant ordering Verizon—one of the nation's largest phone networks—to turn over data on every single call that went through its system. As additional exposure comes to light, it is becoming more and more clear that this is just the tip of an iceberg.

The New York Times wrote: "There is every reason to believe the federal government has been collecting every bit of information about every American's phone calls except the words actually exchanged in those calls." And now more revelations, of an almost surreal nature, of government spying on the activities of everyone in the U.S. are coming to light as we go to press. Articles in the Guardian and the Washington Post have already revealed that the NSA is able to capture Internet communication from the servers of nine leading U.S. companies that includes people's search history as well as the content of emails, file transfers, and live chats.

This level of unprecedented invasive spying on every detail of the activity, thinking, associations, and political views—including oppositional politics—of every single person in this country reveals much about the real nature of this society and those who rule it in the name of "protecting the safety of Americans."

What does it tell you about the nature of the democracy that exists in this so-called land of freedom and opportunity that those who rule society feel compelled to micro-monitor every phone call, and apparently millions and millions of emails, web searches, and online associations?

This developing scandal comes on the heels of recent exposures of persecution of government whistle-blowers and reporters. The U.S. government is viciously persecuting Bradley Manning for exposing U.S. war crimes. Obama is upholding his right to kill anyone anywhere on his say-so (supposedly mediated by assurances that this is OK, because he's Barack Obama, not George W. Bush). The U.S. is torturing and force-feeding illegally detained men at Guantánamo. And there is a looming hunger strike against psychologically devastating long-term solitary confinement in California prisons.

All these outrages demand determined political opposition—increasingly connected to a REAL alternative to this system of torturers, murderers, and mega-invasive spying.

Revolution encourages our readers to be in the midst of discussions—online and in the public squares—and protests that break out in relation to the revelations of massive government spying on people's phone calls and Internet activity. Correspond with revolution.reports@yahoo.com, stay tuned to, and spread the word far and wide that people should be checking in frequently at revcom.us for ongoing and developing revolutionary exposure and analysis of this developing situation.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/interview-with-sal-silva-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

From The Michael Slate Show

Interview with Sal Silva, Father of David Sal Silva—Victim of Police Murder

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

This is the transcript of an interview on The Michael Slate Show on KPFK Pacifica radio on May 24 with Sal Silva, whose son David Sal Silva was killed by sheriff's deputies in Bakersfield, California on May 8. David was a 33-year-old Latino man and father of four young children. Michael Slate's questions have been slightly edited for publication.

 

Michael Slate: Can you tell the listeners the story of your son? What happened to him?

Sal Silva: Well, the facts as we know them are pretty much out in the open as far as he—I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but he had some kind of an altercation or verbal argument with his longtime girlfriend. He had left the house and I think he was heading over to Kern Medical Center. I believe he was trying to get some kind of help. I don't know exactly what it was.

He was turned away from there and asked to go somewhere else which was right across the street from the Kern Medical Center. At some point I guess he was drunk, and he passed out on the ground. I believe before that he was sleeping on the grounds of Kern Medical Center and a guard had come up to him and told him, "Hey, you can come here, but you can't sleep here." He wandered across the street and I guess he passed out, according to one of the witnesses that I talked to, like he just fell down, straight on the ground. After that point, I believe the guard or someone had called 911, saying that there was a drunk man sleeping on the ground. After that, I believe the first responder was a canine officer, and he responded by I believe trying to rouse him up. At some point he got the dog out of his car and the dog was mauling David, and from everything I could see, it looked like at some point there were several officers just whaling away at him with batons. It looked like they were doing batting practice basically. Like you said, they murdered him on the street, basically. They murdered him on the street.

I don't condone the fact that my son was drunk, or passed out. But in what world does that kind of crime meet that kind of punishment? And then, where—who, whether the sheriff or anyone can say that that's justifiable. Now they're trying to say that my son had high blood pressure, that he had meth in his system, that he was depressed. I don't know. "He died of natural causes," that's what they're trying to say. I mean, really?! How can anyone say that, after what they saw on the video? They're essentially saying, don't believe your lying eyes or your lying ears because we did nothing wrong here. He died of natural causes. He's 33 years old.

Slate: I saw just yesterday where they came out and they ruled David's death to be "accidental." And they said that he had a heart attack. And the first question you're looking at, it's, "Well, what the hell brought on that heart attack?" even if that was true. The man was being beat to within an inch of his life. What would bring on a heart attack? Something like that? And they're doing a big effort to demonize David all that they can—and people have to be clear about this—none of these things that they talk about David having done are, as you said, in what kind of world would you get the death sentence for that?

Sal Silva: According to them, that's justifiable. Honestly, I pretty much, everyone in our family and anyone that has any information or has any knowledge about this case, I don't think that we are surprised whatsoever, by what the sheriff said. Under any circumstances—there are no circumstances where they have any liability in this matter, although they murdered my son. They say, "Oh, he died of natural causes." Really—don't believe your eyes. Don't believe your ears. Don't believe the witnesses. Don't believe anything, but believe what our good sheriff has to say. As far as I'm concerned, he is an accomplice to murder.

Slate: Absolutely. I agree with you 100 percent. Let's talk about what you said about the witnesses. There were a number of witnesses to what was going on. Let's talk about that, because they also—the demonization—suddenly [the police] were finding all these things in their backgrounds and accusing them of having committed crimes or being charged with things in the past, as if that should then undercut, as you said, their eyes and what they saw, and in fact what many of them had recorded. Can you talk about the witnesses and how you found out about this whole scene?

Sal Silva: Well, as soon as it happened, we went over to the area where the altercation took place, and we met people pretty quickly that said, yeah, they saw things and they recorded it. We actually talked to several people, two or three people that had the videophones taken away from them. They told us how they were held in their apartments without even being able to move away from the phone or go to work or anything, for 12 hours. They were held hostage so [the police] could retrieve those videos on the phones. And the phones hadn't been returned for several days. I don't understand why in this day and age someone couldn't have just asked the people for a copy of the videos that were on the phone and taken that. I don't understand why one of the phones mysteriously didn't have any video on it. I had spoken to the lady that took the video and she told me that not only did she take the video, she saw the video on the phone. So obviously there was video on the phone, but they don't have any video on the phone anymore.

The sheriff is saying that the press and the media are all trying to sensationalize it. I don't know what planet this guy's from. How can anyone say that someone being passed out drunk on the street justifies being beaten to death like a dog? Screaming! You can hear it on the video. You can see the baton strikes, even though the video is pretty grainy, there's no question as to what happened. But according to the sheriff, he died of natural causes because he was overweight and had a heart attack. Really? I just can't believe anybody that could believe that. It's like they're murdering us when they come up with this stuff every day. There's no liability on their part. Basically the police can do whatever they want to whoever they want.

The sheriff also said several things on the television when he made his press conference that were just down and outright lies. He said that this case would be handled no different than if it were any civilian case. Well, I'd like to ask the sheriff, if I were involved in an altercation like that, and I was suspected of beating someone to death, or being involved in any kind of incident like that, would I be able to go home, investigate myself and then tell you that I could get back to you? Would I be able to do that? Would you be able to do that? Well, they can do that. It's preposterous.

Slate: Yeah. It's preposterous; it's enraging. Every time they murder someone, one, you always know what's going to be at the back end of their investigation. It's going to be "justifiable homicide," or their actions were justifiable. But they also murder our people twice. They murder the people once when they actually carry out the act, and then they proceed to murder them by attacking their reputation and trying to make it seem like the person did something to deserve it.

Sal Silva: You're right. You're absolutely right. And the only thing that they could find, my son's total "criminal history," was public intoxication or something like that. I mean, really, is he some kind of mastermind criminal, a murderer? I couldn't even believe that they would come up with that. And then the people that had the videos, of course they're demonizing them because they had some kind of criminal history and things like that, so you can't believe anything they say.

However, one thing I don't understand. They have obtained records stating that my son had methamphetamines in his system, which I really don't believe he did. My son had ADHD, and he did take medication for it. And in some cases, I've heard that that could come up as some kind of meth or some kind of—I'm not really that familiar with these drugs. But I'd like to find out if they drug-tested any of the officers that were there. Did they do that?

Slate: Good point. One of the things that the sheriff said was, well, you know, we didn't do any head blows. And of course, all the witnesses said they saw these eight cops...

Sal Silva: I saw his head. There were definitely head blows. His head was just purple in the back of his head. I saw him. That was a lie. But he says it, and he's sheriff. I think that that statement was being prepared the day the incident happened, regardless of what the outcome was going to be. Maybe some of the small facts could have been changed around, but that was already set up. There is no way that the Sheriff's Department is at fault for anything here, according to the sheriff.

Slate: One thing I want to know, because what happens is exactly what you say, the demonization of David. And as I said, murdering you twice. I want you to tell people, what was David like?

Sal Silva: David was—and everyone would say this—David was a big teddy bear. He was a big guy, but he smiled, and he could just light up a room. He had four kids that love him to death, went everywhere with them. He basically took care of all his kids, had four kids. He was a loving father.

I think one of the things that I can remember, I guess the best, and I think his mother mentioned it to me the other day, and it reminded me of how kind he was: David didn't have much money ever. He wasn't really working. He was just barely squeaking by. On Father's Day, I can remember—my ex-wife said the same thing about Mother's Day. My ex-wife said every Mother's Day he would buy her some peanut brittle, buy her some candy from the 99¢ store and get a good card, and how much that meant to her. Well, he did the same thing for me. It was just stuff that you would never think of being very important or certainly not expensive, stuff from the 99¢ store, but it's something that came from his heart. Because he wanted you to know that he was thinking about you and he loved you, and that's the kind of person that David was.

Slate: One of the things that your other son, I think Chris is his name?

Sal Silva: My youngest son is Chris.

Slate: He's been speaking out a lot. He made a point that he never thought that much about what the police do until David was murdered, and then he went and investigated it. And he made a statement about this has to stop. What about in your case? Were you aware of the history of the Bakersfield police?

Sal Silva: Just like many people, unless it affects you personally, you hear about it, you read about it. You kind of think, well, they must have deserved it, or—you know. But I certainly, just like my son Chris, have a whole different perspective on this now. There's absolutely no justification for something like this, to a human being: any human being, much less a son that is loved and has kids, a family that loves him. Perhaps he had a drinking problem. There's no justification for something like this. In my whole outlook on the system, the system is broken.

Slate: I want to ask you two questions. One, this is your moment to say completely what you think about the murder, and to the police about what they did. And then I want to ask you what you say to the people who are listening now.

Sal Silva: I would just say that anyone that has seen or heard anything about this story and was listening to what the Sheriff's Department has publicly stated, you can make up your own mind as to what happened. I think all the facts are pretty much out there: the way that they have tried to demonize my son, they way that they take absolutely no responsibility for anything. My son actually died of natural causes because he had a heart attack. I mean, really!

And to the people out there that are listening to this that were just like me just a few weeks ago, that thinks every time that something like this happens, it must have been justifiable, the people must have—they must have asked for the beating or being killed, or whatever the police officer did: I hope you never have to walk in my shoes. I hope that something like this doesn't happen to a loved one in your family. Because then you would understand what's going on and how wrong it is.

People do have to stand up. We have to get justice. We have to change the system that obviously, if there's eight police officers involved, if there's a sheriff involved, and not one person, not one, says we could have done something differently. We shouldn't have done this; we shouldn't have done that. No. They have no responsibility. And that is just—it kills me.

 

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/306/bradley-manning-trial-opens-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Bradley Manning Trial Opens

Exposing War Crimes Is an Act of Moral Courage, Not a Crime!

June 6, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

The court-martial of Bradley Manning began on June 3 at Fort Meade, Maryland. Manning is charged with "aiding the enemy" for his alleged role in releasing computer files to the organization WikiLeaks. Many of these files exposed, for the first time, horrific war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the alleged act of bringing to the world's attention the actual war crimes of his government and the army he served in, Bradley Manning is facing the possibility of many years, even life, in prison. He has already been jailed for over three years and subjected to almost a year of brutal, degrading torture by federal and military officials.

The trial of Bradley Manning is the most significant political trial in this country in many years. As a recent article on revcom.us said, "The continued sadistic persecution of Bradley Manning reveals much about the ways the U.S. coheres its empire, and the fearful, vengeful punishment it seeks to extract when it is exposed. Far from being the worldwide champion of such 'democratic values' as freedom of speech and freedom of the press, as the representatives of this system never tire of proclaiming, a look beneath the system's façade reveals a gruesome reality of murderous wars, atrocious war crimes routinely covered up, and harsh persecution of people who expose these crimes.

"The government is out to silence and shut down any individual or any media outlet that exposes the truth about crimes committed by the U.S. military. Anyone who wants to see truth revealed, war crimes exposed and stopped, and justice done must demand that the persecution of Bradley Manning be ended, his charges dropped, and that he be freed."

The prosecution said in their opening statement that Bradley Manning consciously and willfully put lives—American lives—in danger. "This is not a case about an accidental spill of classified information. .... This, Your Honor, this is a case about a soldier who systematically harvested hundreds of thousands of documents from classified databases and then literally dumped that information on to the Internet and into the hands of the enemy. Material he knew, based on his training and experience, could put the lives and welfare of his fellow soldiers at risk. This is a case about what happens when arrogance meets access to sensitive information."

The government is trying to portray Bradley Manning as an arrogant, depraved, criminal individual who "craved notoriety," and who "literally dumped" hundreds of thousand of documents "into the hands of the enemy."

In fact, as Manning's attorneys brought out in their opening statement, Manning is a human being of deep morality, compassion for any people who suffer injustice—not just Americans, great conviction, and the courage to act on that conviction. They described an incident on Christmas Eve 2009 in Baghdad that was a turning point for Bradley Manning.

Manning and other soldiers were elated when they learned that a convoy of U.S. vehicles they were monitoring had evaded explosive devices placed in the road. But soon after, a car with a family of five Iraqi people, two adults and three children, drove over the bombs. All were severely injured and hospitalized. One person died.

As the lawyer explained, "Everyone [in the Army barracks]...was celebrating. Everyone was happy. Everyone but PFC Manning. He couldn't celebrate. He couldn't be happy. The reason why is he couldn't forget about the life that was lost on that day. He couldn't forget about the lives and the family that was impacted on that Christmas Eve. And from that moment forward PFC Manning started a struggle.

"...His struggles led him to feel that he needed to do something, that he needed to do something to make a difference in this world. He needed to do something to help improve what he was seeing. And so from that moment forward, and that was January of 2010, he started selecting information that he believed the public should hear and should see. Information that he believed that if the public saw would make the world a better place. But importantly, information that he specifically selected that he believed could not be used against the United States. And information that he believed, if public, and everyone knew it, could not be used by a foreign government."

Bradley Manning came face-to-face with the monstrous horrors of the wars the U.S. was waging and the routine cover-up of these atrocities. As he said at a court appearance in February, "I believe that if the general public had access to the information, this could spark a domestic debate as to the role of the military and foreign policy in general. ...I felt I accomplished something that would allow me to have a clear conscience."

Hundreds of people rallied at Fort Meade in support of Bradley Manning at the beginning of his trial. Other events are being held across the world this week. An "I Am Bradley Manning" video challenges viewers to ask themselves what they would do if they had been in Manning's position, and to act in support of him now. Among the people it features are Alice Walker, Moby, Wallace Shawn, Maggie Gyllenhall, and Oliver Stone.

Debra Sweet, national director of World Can't Wait, told a reporter at the Fort Meade rally, "He [Manning] has given us a look inside the way this government bullies and pushes around whole countries, the way it has treated the Guantánamo prisoners, the way its treated other prisoners of war ... What is it that your government's doing? Torturing people! He said, I did this because I thought if regular people knew what their government was doing it would start a conversation."

Lawyers say the trial of Bradley Manning may last from 6 to 12 weeks. This "conversation"—and the fight to free Bradley Manning and to oppose the wars and atrocities he exposed—must continue and deepen. Revolution will have further coverage of this important trial as it develops.

 

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/senator-proposes-crushing-gang-by-mass-roundup-and-incarceration-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

How Slow Genocide Can Go to Fast Genocide:

U.S. Senator Proposes "Crushing" Gang by Mass Roundup and Incarceration

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Mark Kirk, U.S. Senator from Illinois (Republican), recently proposed that the Gangster Disciple gang be "crushed" by rounding up 18,000 of them in Chicago and imprisoning them. He said "I would like a mass pickup of them and put them all in Thomson Correctional Facility. I will be proposing this to the assembled federal law enforcement agencies of the ATF, DEA, and FBI." He said he would promote a national bipartisan coalition to push for a federal role to address the problem of gangs.

What would they be charged with? "Drug dealing" and "murdering people, which is what they do," said Kirk. Apparently he means all 18,000 of them, based on nothing but guilt by association. He said "if they complain" about these mass arrests "just say this is about the death of Hadiya Pendleton," advocating collective punishment for the recent shooting of a high school student. Kirk also said, "I think it is completely within the capability of the United States government to crush a major urban gang." The other U.S. Senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin (a liberal Democrat), stood together with Kirk at the press conference where he made this statement.

Congressman Bobby Rush (who was in the Black Panther Party in the 1960s) called the plan "an empty, simplistic, unworkable approach" from an "elitist white boy." A huge brouhaha was raised against Rush who was attacked as a racist for the "elitist white boy" comment and a hue and cry was raised for him to apologize, while Kirk was broadly given kudos by the media and politicians for this outrageous racist plan to round up thousands without due process. A Chicago Tribune editorial was titled "Can the Gangster Disciples Be Crushed? Kirk's Idea Has Flaws, but Credit Him for Pushing." It called the gangs "a blight on the city and a grim daily affliction for the people whose neighborhoods they occupy." Within a week Rush backtracked, and he appeared together with Kirk and announced that "our hearts are in the same place" and that they were going to work together against gang violence.

To the extent criticisms were raised of the plan, almost all of them centered not on the outrageous immoral, illegal, and genocidal nature of the plan, but that it had "logistical flaws" and was "unworkable" in its current form, because it would cost too much to implement—specifically that it would require large numbers of police and federal forces to round people up and larger prisons to hold them. Lip service was paid to "reducing crime" by improving the schools and creating more jobs, at a time when the Mayor and school board are shutting over 50 grade schools and many Black men have no chance of ever getting hired at a legitimate full-time job—and there are no proposals to "crush" joblessness.

By defining the basic problem of the plan as its cost and the difficulty of practical implementation instead of identifying the real problem as a fascist genocidal program aimed at demonizing and rounding up a whole section of people, the terms are being set in society that it is legitimate to consider that tens of thousands of people, who have already been driven by the system into the margins of society and demonized for it, should be "crushed"—and the only question is HOW to do it. This must be exposed and opposed. Given the realities of white supremacy in this society and all the atrocities committed in service of maintaining the oppression of Black people under this system, if these terms are set and accepted in society, then it's not a big leap for it to "make sense" to decide at some point that the most "cost-effective" way to deal with a whole section of people that this society has no place for is to kill them.

Far-fetched? Christian fascist leader Pat Robertson has called for the death penalty for "habitual criminals." He argues, "Society must pay for the anguish suffered by the victims of crime, then pay again each year to hold the criminal in prison, a cost equivalent to an Ivy League college education. The biblical model is far wiser...the hard-core, habitual criminal was permanently removed from society through capital punishment."

Bob Avakian has written about this, "we cannot avoid recognizing that the logic of Robertson's call for applying 'the biblical model' for crime and punishment involves an unmistakable suggestion of a 'final solution' against the masses of people in the inner cities as well as preparation for the use of extreme repression, and even execution, to punish a broad array of activities which today are treated as minor offenses or as no crime at all." (from "The Truth About Right-Wing Conspiracy...And Why Clinton and the Democrats Are No Answer")

Today in post-9/11 America, in the name of "safety" and "protecting people," people can be tortured and imprisoned for years at Guantánamo without being charged, American citizens can be executed by drones far from a battlefield with no due process, the entire population of the U.S. and much of the world can have their phone calls, emails, and social media surveilled by the government, and now Kirk is proposing that thousands and thousands of people can be rounded up and locked up for supposedly being associated with a gang.

Carl Dix and the Stop Mass Incarceration Network have pointed out that there is already a "slow genocide" of Black and Latino youth going on and that if it is coupled with silence this can lead to fast genocide. This whole plan and the reality behind it must be loudly and widely exposed and opposed.

Stop Mass Incarceration! Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/306/interview-with-jules-lobel-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Interview with Jules Lobel, Lead Attorney for California Lawsuit Against Solitary Confinement

June 6, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Editor’s note: Prisoners at the Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) Security Housing Unit (SHU) who catalyzed the 2011 hunger strikes to stop long-term solitary confinement have announced they plan a new hunger strike (and work stoppage) in July 2013. See “New, Important Developments in Battle to Stop Torture in California and U.S. Prisons” for background on this critical struggle, and look to revcom.us for ongoing coverage.

Jules Lobel is the President of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He is the lead attorney in the important lawsuit, Ashker v. Brown, a lawsuit brought by prisoners against solitary confinement in the Pelican Bay Secure Housing Unit (SHU) in California.

 

A Note on the Interview
We are publishing this interview, which aired on April 26, 2013, courtesy of The Michael Slate Show on KPFK radio, Los Angeles. The views expressed by the interviewee are, of course, his own, and he is not responsible for the views expressed elsewhere in this newspaper and website. Michel Slate’s questions have been slightly edited for publication.

 

Michael Slate: Let's give people an overview of what the case is about, where it came from, what are the main issues that are being raised.

Jules Lobel: It challenges the solitary confinement up in Pelican Bay, in which prisoners are living in a small cell, essentially 80 square feet, twice the size of the average American walk-in closet, with no windows. They never get any phone calls. Pelican Bay is one of the most isolated places in the United States. It's about seven hours from San Francisco, 14 hours from LA where most of the prisoners are from, and therefore they get very few family or social visits. There's virtually no programming: no educational programs. They get recreation, but in another small area, which is theoretically outside, but it's got very, very high walls, and a mesh grate that covers it so you barely get any sun. they stay in these cells 23 hours.

Now, many people might say, well, how long could I survive in such a place? You know, 15 days, a month, maybe a year. We have almost a hundred prisoners who've been there over 20 years, and about 500 who've been there over ten years. So these people are spending decades in these kinds of conditions. And you might also say, well, what do they do to get in there? They must have done something heinous in prison: they killed a prison guard—well, for most of my clients, they have never done anything in prison that's a serious infraction.

You get put into this Pelican Bay solitary unit, which holds a thousand prisoners, simply by having some association with, or membership in, a prison gang. And the way that California determines who has association is you might have an artwork, like a Hispanic prisoner—and most of the prisoners there are Latinos—has an Aztec warrior with a spear pointed in a certain way, and California says, well, this is indicative that you're in some prison gang. And that's all you had to have done. You don't have to show any behavior that's misconduct, or that's antisocial, as long as you have some artwork, or your name appears on a list, or you write something that could be considered gang-related, you get put into this solitary unit for years and years and years.

And for most of them, there's no way out. The only way out is to do what's known as "debriefing," which is become an informant for the state, and not only foreswear your allegiance to the gang, but also tell the prison authorities everything you know about the gang, assuming, by the way, that any of these people know anything. And after 20 years, it's hard to imagine that even if they did know something, and even if they were members, they would know something much now.

So you have to become an informant, which puts you and your family at risk, and which my clients are unwilling to do, most of the people are unwilling to do. So they languish there with no hope of getting out, and spend decades there. Probably many of them will spend—unless something happens, will spend their whole lives there. At least that's what they have to contemplate.

So we brought a suit challenging this as cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th Amendment, and also violation of the due process clause, because the Supreme Court has held that in this kind of confinement, you have to give people periodic hearings which are meaningful. And these folks aren't getting any meaningful hearings at all. They're just essentially rubber-stamped and kept in. Every six years they get some kind of review, but the review is essentially a rubber stamp.

So our claim essentially is that this is torture. And it violates both the Constitution and the international law agreements prohibiting torture. It's cruel and unusual punishment and it's a violation of due process to warehouse people like this for years without any meaningful hearings.

Slate: One thing that struck me is how routine all of this is, the dehumanization of the prisoners that are sent to the SHU, the dehumanization is just so damn routine. Even when you're talking about the fact that they can sit there and say—and I read various things that came out from the Center for Constitutional Rights and other things that talked about how, when people are looking for medical care, when they're looking for psychological health care, they're looking for different things, just some things that are bare necessities of staying alive, that they're routinely told, "Well, you know how to get better medical care." To do exactly what you're saying, become a snitch, get debriefed. I know a lot of prisoners have been very severely impacted by the many years in solitary. But one of the things that's inspired a lot of people I think around the world is the fact that these prisoners are also some of the prisoners—some of the prisoners who are involved in the lawsuit that you brought, some of them were also people who've been very heavily involved in the hunger strikes that basically echoed what was said in Attica back in the 1970s, that we are human and we demand to be treated as such. That to me is an essential point of all this.

Lobel: Yeah, I think our most basic claim is that this type of solitary for this amount of years is designed to and does strip people of their human dignity and their basic humanness. Because a key element of being human is social interaction. We are inherently social beings. We want to talk to somebody else, we want to have some interaction. These folks have not had normal human interaction for 20 years, many of them. By normal human interaction, I mean they have the ability to talk by yelling through the walls to their next door neighbor, in the cell next to them. But they never see anybody's face. These cells are four walls. There are no windows. There are little holes where sometimes you might be able to catch a glimpse of somebody. But they're basically stripped of the social interaction and the environmental stimulation which is a basic human need of all humans. But despite that, as you point out, many of my clients are people who have decided to resist this. And in that resistance, I think they've struggled to regain their humanness.

In fact, they did a study of prisoners of war who were put in solitary, and as John McCain said, solitary is in a way the cruelest form of punishment because it attacks your spirit. But they found that the one way that these prisoners of war could prevent going totally crazy was to resist. And that's what these folks at Pelican Bay are doing and they've written a letter to Governor Brown saying that unless California significantly changes what's going on up there, ends indeterminate solitary sentences where instead of just getting a sentence of one or two or three years, you get a sentence for your life—unless they do that, then they are planning on going back on hunger strike on July 8. And I think the world, and California hopefully will pay attention to them.

Slate: As you were talking about this dehumanization, I was thinking, even the exercise yard that they talk about—not yard, the exercise pen—is called a "dog run." There's this whole thing that comes in around this, and I remember reading in a press release that the CCR put out that said that—it quoted some of the prisoners, and one of them talking about feeling like he was silently screaming 24/7, and another one talking about how his biggest worry is he had been in there so long that he was forgetting or he had forgotten what the touch of another human felt like, what a human touch felt like, what somebody else's skin touching your skin felt like. And you think about psychologically what happens to somebody in terms of what does make us human, what is required for a human being to actually flourish as a human.

And then I was thinking, even this thing of—I want people to know, to really contemplate this a little bit too, is that out of all the people that are in Pelican Bay, only 66 are actually in there for some kind of behavioral cause, some kind of misbehavior. That others are in there because of assertions and innuendo, and even some, I would venture to think that some are also in there for some of their political ideals.

Lobel: Many of the people are in there for their political beliefs. For example, one of my clients, a man by the name of Ron Dewberry who has an African name, Sitawa, he's there primarily because he's written pamphlets, and written histories of Black nationalist struggles and movements. And because of that they say he's a gang member. For many of the people it's because of their political ideology and not because of any behavioral misconduct that the outside world would think would be really bad, like riots or violence or something like that. I think this is a form that California uses to control people and not really to prevent violence in the prisons. I don't think it's worked to prevent violence. I think the function really is to repress people in the system.

Slate: The prisoners have actually issued a call for the unity of all the various nationalities inside the prison and outside the prison, and saying, look, when things start to get hot, step back and think a bit and let's put things into a bigger cause. And I thought that was really important in terms of what you're talking about, in term of these guys are—they are considered the worst of the worst. That's what we're told all the time, they're the worst of the worst. And they're living in what is unimaginable. I was just watching Herman's House the other day, on Herman Wallace in Angola, the man who's spent the longest time in solitary confinement in the country, and you're looking at the way that some of these prisoners are able to actually fight back and rise above that, it's extremely inspiring. And I do think the point of people actually standing in support and fighting in support of what the prisoners are doing is extremely important. And I wanted to ask you this. There's a whole point that's come out here where in the lawsuit that you guys brought against the state of California, the state has come back and said, well, really, they were asking for it to be dismissed because they say that since the hunger strike, they've already set in motion all kinds of reforms, and there's processes being put into place right now that will actually answer all of the demands of the prisoners. What do you guys say to that?

Lobel: The prisoners say, and we agree, that the reforms are a sham, that they're cosmetic, designed to make people believe that they're actually doing something without real serious movement. For example, they claim that it's going to be a new behavioral-based system. But it still can be the case that you can get put into solitary, to Pelican Bay, and you can be maintained there simply because of some association with a gang, as opposed to some specific misconduct. And as you pointed out, often people are put in there simply because some informant says, well this guy is a member of the gang. Well, the informant said that and he's trying to get out and he's saying whatever. We know that, when people are under enormous pressure, psychological pressure to inform, they'll say many things and may or may not be true, and that's why people are there now.

You made one other point which I want to comment on which is a very important thing has happened up there, which is that 32 leaders of different ethnic groups, Hispanics, whites, Blacks, have put out a call throughout the California prisons, not only for unity, but to end ethnic and racial violence in California prisons. You would think that the California authorities looking at this, and I believe it's had an effect already in the California prisons, would say, well this is a really good thing. We should encourage it. Instead they introduced this document as evidence that these folks are gang leaders and have tremendous control over their subordinates. Namely they're trying to urge everybody to end violence. Again, it's ironic that California looks at this statement, which I consider historic, as simply another form of gang activity.

Slate: I wanted people to get a sense of what goes on. During the hunger strike or maybe a little after that, Terry Thornton, who I don't think is any longer the prison spokesperson, but she may be, but she was at the time. She made a statement about when everybody's attention was focused on solitary confinement—and people should know, California is the only state that has indefinite solitary confinement, still uses it. It was thrown out a century ago as too cruel, too barbaric, in a time when a lot was cruel and barbaric. And it was noted then and California still to this day is the only state that actually practices and uses indefinite solitary confinement, meaning you can go in there when you're 22 and turn around you're 72 and you're still sitting in a small little box. And she had the audacity to say, "Is it really solitary confinement if you can take correspondence courses and watch something like 27 channels on your own TV? If I went to prison, I wouldn't want to share a cell with anybody." Now contrast that with what you said when you said that solitary confinement is beyond the pale for any civilized nation. Let's talk about that.

Lobel: Two things and then I'll answer your question. One is that I believe that this situation in Pelican Bay and California is the domestic equivalent in a way to Guantánamo. Because people are put into this situation indefinitely. They have no hope of getting out. And they haven't been charged with anything. They are simply there because they're believed to be, in this case gang members, in Guantánamo, terrorists. But there's no formal charges. And it's the same thing that we have here in California.

The second thing is I don't think it's quite accurate to say no other state practices indefinite solitary confinement. What California does, however, which is fairly unique is it practices it on a wholesale variety. There are people like Herman Wallace who have been in indefinite solitary confinement for many years in other states. But California has thousands of them. And that's where California is unique, in the numbers and also in the draconian nature of the conditions.

Now in terms of "This isn't really solitary confinement; it's not really so bad. People can watch TV, people can take correspondence courses." It's true. People can watch TV. But if the listener imagines themselves sitting in a large closet with no windows 23 hours a day and going out only to something which is marginally different for one hour a day, for many, many years, I think if you really put yourself in that situation you could see the terrible toll it must take on the human condition. To say that you can take a correspondence course or that you can watch TV doesn't go to the essence of our being, which is communicating with people. You can't communicate with a TV. Some people do talk at TVs, but the TV doesn't talk back. Now you can communicate possibly with the guy in the other cell, but you never see him, and it's not normal communication to shout over walls.

If this happens to you over years and years and years, it eventually crushes, or it's an attempt to crush, what makes us human. And even these guys who are survivors here, and many of my clients are—they haven't gone crazy, they don't claim that they're crazy. In a way then, they're the survivors, but it's taken a terrible toll on them. And I think it's totally insensitive and a flight from reality for the California officials to say, well, this really isn't solitary. They should try it for a little bit, and I'm sure they'd find it solitary.

Slate: And I think on that point, it just bears out what you said: beyond the pale of any civilized nation. And frankly, someone that could make a comment like that, oh boy! Jules, thank you very much for joining us today.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/BA-everywhere-at-art-murmur-in-oakland-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

BA Everywhere at Art Murmur in Oakland

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From a reader

At last week's BA Everywhere Conference at Revolution Books Berkeley, we made ambitious plans to push out around the San Francisco Bay Area—getting Bob Avakian and the message that big money is needed to project his voice and leadership through society. A highlight was the "First Friday" Art Murmur in Oakland—where a very diverse crowd numbering well into the thousands streams by art galleries, various booths, musical acts, food trucks and more. A crew of about a dozen of us went out—including three who are new to the movement for revolution. The main attraction: the big flat screen TV which had been donated at the conference by a supporter, playing the new film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! It looked great! A good number of people stopped to watch some of the film (one bought the DVD). As the multitudes streamed by, we handed out DVD palmcards—"that's what's playing right there, you need to get it!" Supporters of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network also had a table and were building Monday's "Hoodie Day"—"We Are All Trayvon Martin." Many took fliers and stickers—very glad someone was there with that message. Besides Art Murmur, crews went to farmers' markets, festivals, and other events in Berkeley, Oakland, and Marin County north of San Francisco. This weekend was a good start—it was just that, a start!

 

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Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Genocidal Realities

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

In speaking to the situation facing Black and Latino people in the U.S.—the mass incarceration and school-to-prison pipeline, the criminalization and demonization of a whole generation of youth, the overt or just-below-the-surface racism prevalent in society, etc.—Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party has said what is taking place is a slow genocide that could quickly turn into a fast genocide. This new regular feature in Revolution highlights aspects of this slow genocide.

* * * * *

According to federal government statistics for 2010, Black people were four times as likely to be arrested on charges of marijuana possession as were whites, although the use of marijuana among the two groups is about the same. In some states, including Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois, Black people were eight times as likely to be arrested as whites.

* * * * *

A recent Cheerios cereal commercial that depicts a family with a white mother, Black father, and a biracial child touched off a huge white supremacist reaction. YouTube comments for the ad had to be turned off because of the flood of racist posts.

* * * * *

A recent report on "disciplinary" practices in New York City schools for the 2011-2012 school year, compiled by a task force led by a former chief judge of the State of New York, revealed that Black students were 14 times more likely than white students to be arrested for incidents at school. The report said that “the overwhelming majority of school-related suspensions, summonses and arrests are for minor misbehavior, behavior that occurs on a daily basis in most schools.” A New York Times editorial noted that these are things "that would once have been handled by the principal."

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/on-the-way-to-sanford-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Postings from Sanford: The Trial of Trayvon's Killer, The People's Demand for Justice

Trial of Trayvon Martin's Killer Begins

All Eyes on Sanford, Florida

by Li Onesto | June 6, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

I'm on the plane, on my way to Sanford, Florida to cover the opening day of the trial of George Zimmerman—the racist vigilante who murdered Trayvon Martin.

People poured into the streets after the murder of Trayvon Martin because they saw that this was NOT an isolated incident, that it was yet another killing in a long history of Black youth gunned down by racist vigilantes or brutal police. And people were determined that this time, the killer would NOT go free. After this George Zimmerman was arrested and is now going to trial.

That anger has not gone away. People across society remain outraged over the cruel death of a young Black male, and are determined that there be justice in this case.

As one man told the Revolution reporter last year: "This goes way down into past history, from before we were even born until now. I really can't put into words how deeply I feel about it."

As we wrote last week, "there are very high stakes in the trial of Trayvon Martin's killer. Will this system that rampages around the world bringing slavery, suffering and death have its way—imposing its verdict that the life of a young Black man is worth nothing?"

Or will there be a different verdict in court, a verdict that represents justice for Trayvon. And even beyond this trial verdict, there needs to be a "societal statement"—a statement made in the streets and throughout society that this system and those it controls cannot have an open season on our youth.

The stage is set for an intense back-and-forth—society wide—between those fighting for justice and those who would not only set back this struggle but who are for a vicious and ominous tightening of the chains of oppression.

And all this is concentrated in the town of Sanford itself where mass protests are expected on the opening day of George Zimmerman's trial.

Enter the Courts and Police

Enter the courts and law enforcement. The Seminole County (where Sanford is located) Circuit Court has decreed that protesters around the courthouse will only be allowed "oral protest" and that signs that express what the authorities deem to be opinions "on any subject" are confined within—penned into—so-called "Public Assembly Zones."

These Public Assembly Zones are pens outside the courthouse which will be set up and enforced by the authorities. Outside of these pens, if you are carrying a sign that expresses what the authorities decide is an opinion (as opposed to what they consider a "fact") then you will be subject to being charged with and penalized for being in contempt of court.

Importantly, the ACLU of Florida has stepped up to counter this in a letter written to the chief judge of the court charging that these rules effectively ban "expressive conduct and speech which are well within the ambit of protected expression under the United States and Florida Constitutions."

An example the ACLU gives in their letter is telling: if you have a sign that says George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, that is a fact. But if your sign says "Too Many Black Youth are Being Killed" (many people think this is also a bald fact), any police officer could decide that is an "opinion" and go after you if you are outside the protest pen.

Think about this... if you are walking near the courthouse through town expressing yourself or carrying a sign or maybe holding a protest in the area and expressing your opinion about the murder of Trayvon and the nature of the society we live in, some pig can make a ruling that if you are outside the protest pen, your speech is illegal and you will be subject to punishment.

And there's more... if you do decide to join the protests in the protest pens, you have to agree to be searched. And note, this includes the searching of your wallet and cell phone. As the ACLU stated in their letter addressed to the chief judge, what this means is that in order to exercise your First Amendment right to free speech, you must give up your Fourth Amendment right to "be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures."  As the ACLU points out "A cell phone is an electronic device, and even when an individual is subject to a lawful arrest, a warrant is required to examine its contents."

This kind of intimidation and planned repression and crackdown is totally unacceptable and illegitimate. For all the rulers of this country yak on and on about "freedom of speech," what they are setting up in Sanford reveals the true nature of their state—which maintains a monopoly on the use of supposedly legitimate violence and which uses that violence (or the threat of it) to enforce the will and interests of the ruling class over all of society.

And let's make no mistake...the interests of the powers-that-be in this situation are to defend "the whole white supremacist mentality and system represented by George Zimmerman, along with the police who immediately treated the murdered Black teenager as the criminal and the criminal justice system itself, which only even considered charging Zimmerman because of the massive outcry and protest." (see "A Summer of Big Challenges and Intense Struggle" in this issue of Revolution). The will and interests of those who rule over society are to keep the people down when their struggle threatens to go beyond the bounds and confines the powers-that-be deem acceptable.

The Seminole County Sheriff's Office is gearing up for the trial and have announced that they will also be working with other law enforcement agencies across Central Florida.

But I'll say two things about all this: One, all this repression, from the ruling class and their law enforcers who didn't even want to charge George Zimmerman with murder until mass protest forced their hand, is entirely unconstitutional (as the ACLU points out) and illegitimate and, two, instead of being intimidated and accepting these attempts to suppress our struggle, anyone who stands for justice will take a stand against this repression, and refuse to be intimidated. Too much is at stake for anything less.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/what-does-it-mean-to-call-for-calm-in-the-face-of-injustice-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Postings from Sanford: The Trial of Trayvon's Killer, The People's Demand for Justice

What Does It Mean to Call for "Calm" in the Face of Injustice?

by Li Onesto | June 6, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Together with the open threats of repression by the authorities, a group of local Black pastors have been working with the U.S. Department of Justice since the murder of Trayvon Martin. They say their mission is to "try to keep everyone calm."

These pastors have already made it clear that they will be out there playing the role of trying to put the lid on any protests or rebellions that may occur. And what really strikes me here is that they are saying this—first of all knowing that there wouldn't even be a trial if people had not taken to the streets, in anger—and not even knowing what the outcome of this trial is going to be. In other words they are saying, in effect, that even if there is a verdict that is extremely UNJUST that they will still tell the people that they should just chill out and basically do nothing, except perhaps work within the very same system that is carrying out these horrendous crimes against the people and then justifying all this!

For example Pastor Sharon Patterson, one of those who has been invited to sit in the courtroom, said, "We, as religious leaders, can have a calming presence. We can soothe tensions... it's important that people listen to the facts from someone who is there and tell them that the wheels of justice are turning and to stay calm."

It was of such shameful, immoral acquiescence and collaboration with injustice and repression that the legendary Reggae musician Peter Tosh sang:

Everyone is crying out for peace, yes
None is crying out for justice

I don't want no peace
I need equal rights and justice

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/storm-brewing-in-sanford-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Postings from Sanford: The Trial of Trayvon's Killer, The People's Demand for Justice

Storm Brewing in Sanford

Sunday, June 9, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From a member of the Revolution reporting team:

As Tropical Storm Andrea moved through Florida, a crew of revolutionaries rolled into a new storm, Sanford, Florida. White supremacy and the oppression of Black people have battered the people of Sanford for years: from slavery to Jim Crow, to the New Jim Crow of mass incarceration. One year ago, lightning struck in the form of George Zimmerman's 9mm bullet. Seventeen-year-old, Trayvon Martin lay dead. Zimmerman walked out the back door of the Sanford police station, alive and free. Growls of thunderous outrage rolled throughout the country as news of Trayvon's murder came to light. Thousands of people rolled into Sanford and into streets around the country chanting WE ARE ALL TRAYVON! This storm was far too big to ignore. In an effort to calm the storm, the police arrested and charged George Zimmerman with the murder of Trayvon. The people felt victorious.

In the wake of Zimmerman's arrest, the BAsics Bus Tour came through Sanford. Revolutionaries on board connected with many people in Sanford. The bus tour raised many people's eyes to revolution and pushed people to consider the possibility of a different world and led them to question the system that breeds people like George Zimmerman and demonizes youth like Trayvon Martin. Many people bought copies of BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian and Revolution newspaper.

Groups gathered to watch the Revolution DVD. People learned about the movement for revolution and shared their stories of life in Sanford. People told stories of life under Jim Crow, like when an "unknown" white racist burned down the city school in an attempt to block integration and how when the school was finally "integrated," whites went to school in the morning and Blacks in the afternoon... the same facility, but still just as segregated. Elders told the story of the last attempted Klan march into neighboring Goldsboro and laughed proudly about the Klan fleeing as they came upon a group of Black residents standing armed at the entrance of the neighborhood.

Now the revolution has returned to Sanford. On the eve of George Zimmerman's trial, we are stepping out and into the streets, attempting to learn from the people and raise people's sights to the fact that an outpouring of visible resistance is needed once again to convict George Zimmerman. We are bringing out Bob Avakian's work and BA Speaks: REVOLUTION— NOTHING LESS! We are struggling with people over why this system cannot deliver justice and why it will take a revolution to get beyond the reoccurring horrors and denials of justice heaped on the people daily, in Sanford and all around the world.

On the day that we arrived, we talked with two men outside a barbershop here in Sanford. One of the men described the situation here—the police harassment and the years of dehumanization faced by Black people. He talked about the police stopping and harassing his white boss for driving him home from work. "I'm Black and he's white. He's in a Black neighborhood, so they assume he's buying drugs, but even when they know he's not, they fucked with him." These are the types of stories you hear around here. There is so much still simmering under the surface.

Today, a new storm is brewing. We are planning to raise the banner with BA's "No More Generations" quote in front of the courthouse, officially announcing to the world: WE ARE ALL TRAYVON! THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY! We are calling on the people of Sanford to come out Monday at 9 am in front of the courthouse to once again demand justice and lift the sights of people around the world who catch hell every day and are eagerly looking to Sanford for hope. At noon, we will be raising our hoods with others around the nation for National Hoodie Day. This is the beginning of what will be a long fight and people don't always recognize their role in history, especially when they're presently living it. We are here to make history with the people of Sanford. We are here to win this struggle. Nothing is settled. What you do now matters.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/voices-from-sanford-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Postings from Sanford: The Trial of Trayvon's Killer, The People's Demand for Justice

Voices from Sanford

June 9, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Correspondents from Revolution newspaper have been out in the community in Sanford getting a feel for how people are seeing the trial, and the situation people face. The following notes are from their interviews:

...On the day that we arrived we talked with two men outside a barbershop here in Sanford. One of the men described the situation here in Sanford, the police harassment, and the years of dehumanization faced by Black people. He talked about the police stopping and harassing his white boss for driving him home from work. “I’m Black and he’s white. He’s in a Black neighborhood, so they assume he’s buying drugs, but even when they know he’s not, they fucked with him.” These are the types of stories you hear around here. There is so much still simmering under the surface.

... I ask a woman named Virginia how she looks at what it took for prosecutors—after a month of not pressing charges, and when Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law was being invoked to justify the killing—to finally charge George Zimmerman with murder. She says: “That made the whole community and everybody all over the world rejoice because we were vindicated. We knew there should have been an arrest made and there wasn’t an arrest made. So when he didn’t take 'stand your ground,' that was great because he didn’t have a ground to stand on in the first place because if he had just listened to what the dispatcher said, he wouldn’t have been in the position he was in and Trayvon would still be alive. But he took matters in his own hand. And we want him to get a fair trial. But there are some things I want to know.

“First of all, I want to know why is it that you took it upon yourself to handle the matter. And number two, what were the things that you said before you took his life? There had to be a reason he was screaming help, that Trayvon was screaming, help, help, somebody help me. Now evidently, the gun could have been out. It could have been pointed, he already said what he had to say and the decision was already made. There was seven minutes from the time of the 911 call to the time of the murder. Seven minutes, you understand what I’m saying? What could have happened in seven minutes? Here you are on the phone. Then I need help. Then bang. What could have happened in seven minutes? What could Trayvon do within seven minutes, if he was beating him up like he [Zimmerman] said he was?

“And I don’t like the fact that they’re trying to make the media think that Trayvon was the thug, that he was the aggressor. He wasn’t the aggressor. He was just minding his own business...”

“The police automatically assumed that Trayvon was wrong. Trayvon automatically was considered the one that did the attacking; you understand what I’m saying? Zimmerman was the one with the gun! They found no gun on Trayvon, but they ran drug tests and everything on Trayvon. Why didn’t you do a drug test on Zimmerman? If I had been the one that would have went after another white person they would have hurried up and did a drug test on me and everything else; you understand where I’m coming from? I wouldn’t have walked. Anybody Black wouldn’t have walked. We’re being stalked, we’re being profiled, we’re being harassed.”

Virginia said, “We’re staying at a peaceful state because we’re waiting to see what’s gonna happen in the court.” She says, “We’re still planning on staying peaceful even after the fact, no matter what the outcome, because the law either going to do it or god’s going to do it.” And then she says, “So we’re waiting. But as far as our young generation, they want to see action. They’re tired of talk; you understand what I’m saying? They’re tired of talk.”

Later she added, “Can I say this? When the killing of Trayvon Martin happened, that’s when it was the last straw. The last straw. And that’s why, I told one interviewer, we’re just getting now to trying to trust the Sanford Police Department. And if we find out that we can’t trust the justice system here in Sanford, then we in trouble. Then we are absolutely in trouble because we already know that we had to deal with a lot of good ole boy system.”

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/orlando-sentinel-communists-gather-on-eve-of-travon-martin-trial-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Orlando Sentinel: “Communists gather to protest on eve of Trayvon Martin trial”

June 9, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On June 9, the online edition of the Orlando Sentinel—the largest circulation newspaper in Central Florida, ran an article titled “Communists gather to protest on eve of Trayvon Martin trial” along with a photo of revolutionaries and others displaying the following quote from Bob Avakian:

“No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.”

The article quoted Noche Diaz saying, “We came out to bring a delegation to show that people down here who are facing this aren't fighting this alone," and "People are taking this fight around the country to connect the struggles of Trayvon Martin with the struggles of injustice against the whole system of mass incarceration of black and Latino youth."

And it reported, “The protesters appeared for about an hour and chanted, "Trayvon did not have to die. We all know the reason why. The whole system is guilty."

 

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/report-from-sanford-june-10-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

June 10: Report from Sanford

June 12, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On June 10, the trial of George Zimmerman was set to begin at 9 am at the Seminole County Criminal Courthouse. In the front of the building a whole line of press was set up with their cameras pointing to the front doors. Suddenly a group marched onto the scene—a delegation from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Chants rang out: "Trayvon did not have to die. We all know the reason why. The whole system is guilty!" "Trayvon Martin, Emmett Till, No More Youth Getting Killed. The Whole System Is Guilty!"

The media, which included local, national and international press, started running full speed down the road to meet the march with dozens of cameras capturing the signs: A 4'x8' banner with the BAsics 1:13 "No More Generations" quote by Bob Avakian; posters of Revolution front covers advertising revcom.us; a banner with artwork of Trayvon Martin and Emmett Till, saying "NO MORE" with signatures from the nearby Black community of Goldsboro; Bob Avakian Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less posters, and more. For the next three hours Noche Diaz, spokesperson for the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and the Revolution Club in New York, did at least 20 interviews, getting out the message that "There's a delegation that came down here to show the people of Sanford they are not alone. There are people across this country who are saying, 'We are all Trayvon Martin.' People saw themselves in the hoodie-wearing Trayvon who was hunted down and treated like a criminal and there's many more who are not here, people who are not the youth of color, people who are not racially profiled, but who do not want to live in a society where a whole population of people is isolated and targeted in this way. We want a whole different world."

A few dozen people came to protest and take a stand in front of the courthouse, including people who had been part of protests around the country after the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012. People came from the nearby Black community of Goldsboro as well as other parts of Sanford and nearby Orlando. Two young women who had to pay a traffic ticket tried to go inside the courthouse with Trayvon Martin t-shirts. One woman who drove eight hours from Atlanta brought the sign that she had carried in the 2012 demonstrations. A group of Black law students from FAMU came as observers. Cephus Johnson, "Uncle Bobby," the uncle of Oscar Grant, and Beatrice X, the director of the Oscar Grant Foundation, had come all the way from the San Francisco Bay Area. Oscar Grant was the 22- year-old Black youth shot and killed by a BART cop—the cop was subsequently found guilty of involuntary manslaughter but only sentenced to two years and only served 290 days.

At 12 noon, the revolutionaries gathered in the front of the courthouse. With others all around the country for National Hoodie Day, here at ground zero in Sanford, Florida, hoodies went up and the chant rang out strong and loud: "We are all Trayvon! The Whole Damn System Is Guilty!"

 

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/hoodie-day-NYC-justice-for-trayvon-martin-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Harlem and Union Square in NYC:
Determined and Defiant Protesters Demand JUSTICE for Trayvon Martin

June 9, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

"I don't want to live in a world where this happens, and keeps happening. Whenever something like this happens, the rules are bent so they don't work for Black people... I don't want to live in a world where we have to protest for justice—why can't there just be justice?" —A 14-year-old woman telling Harlem protesters why she was there

On the eve of the first day of the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin, a powerful storm drenched New York City with rain that at times reached torrential levels that sent pedestrians running for cover. In spite of this, and in the face of large police presence, a total of about 100 people came out to demand justice for Trayvon, over the course of about three hours of protests that were organized by the Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN).

First in Harlem and then later at historic Union Square, people spoke bitterly about the murder of Trayvon, and how it related to the never-ending and ever-escalating oppression that Black people face throughout the U.S. People spoke of their anger and their fears, but also of their pride in standing up with others to fight it, and their determination not to back down.

• A middle-aged Black professional woman in Harlem said, referring to a dramatic life-size cutout of Trayvon, said: "When I look at this image it makes me think of my sons and of my grandsons. And I'm afraid for my sons. We cannot let him [Zimmerman] walk away from this, or it's like saying that anyone can kill one of our kids on the street and walk away." Another woman from Harlem, speaking at Union Square, raised that she feared a genocide directed at Black men.
• A young Black man at Union Square said, "I'm here because Trayvon could have been me, he could have been any of my friends, he could have been anyone I know."
• A youth in Harlem who is active with the Revolution Club said "I'm a student, and when I leave my college they stop me for no reason. It makes me afraid for my little brother and sister."
• A young black Hispanic man at Union Square said that friends asked him if he wasn't scared going out in the street in a hoodie [because the police or racists would target him] and he told them, "I'm scared in a hoodie, I'm scared in shorts—I'm scared any time I might have an encounter with the police." And he went on to say that he was glad to be working with SMIN to fight this.

In Harlem people rallied in St. Nicholas Park and got out stickers saying "We Are All Trayvon Martin/The Whole System Is Guilty" to over 50 high school students who were grabbing them and putting them on on-the-spot.

Then they marched through the area, chanting "Trayvon Did Not Have to Die; We All Know the Reason Why; The Whole System Is Guilty." They started the march with 15 people and grew to over 25 as people joined along the way. When the rain became too much they retreated into a subway and were getting out leaflets, stickers and copies of Revolution to people getting on or off the trains. A half dozen people went from there to the rally at Union Square where there were more expressions of defiance and determination.

SMIN organizers and Revolution Club activists also spoke at both rallies, and emphasized that the stakes in the Zimmerman trial are indeed very high. On the negative tip, as other speakers had pointed out, if he walks and there is not major resistance it will send a message to the police and other reactionaries that they have an even freer hand to attack and kill Black youth.

But on the positive side, especially seen in connection with other sharp struggles unfolding this summer, like the planned hunger strike of the California prisoners, resistance to mass incarceration, and struggle on other fronts, there was potential to reshape the political terrain in a way that will inspire and encourage many more people to lift their heads and join the struggle. And they talked about a whole arc of action over the summer in relation to all this. This gave people a sense of not only the righteousness of what they were doing that day, but of how it could be part of strategically impacting the way the world is and how it could be.

Many people at both rallies came on short notice off of emails or Facebook postings; others saw it happening and joined on the spot. Most people who were there did not know each other at the start, but by the end, as people shook hands, hugged, exchanged contact information and discussed what to do next, there was a real sense of having accomplished something together, of being at the beginning of something.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/hoodie-day-chicago-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Chicago Hoodie Day

June 12, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From a reader:

Downtown Chicago rush hour traffic was jolted awake by a roving march that grew to 75 people wearing hoodies and carrying banners with the image of Trayvon Martin in his hoodie, homemade signs, banners signed by high school students—delivering the message "We Are All Trayvon Martin! The Whole Damn System is Guilty!" The rally and march was part of National Hoodie Day to mark the start of the trial of George Zimmerman—the wannabe racist cop who murdered Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black youth wearing a hoodie and carrying Skittles and an Arizona iced tea in Sanford, Florida in February 2012.

The group was a mix of nationalities and ages, from people in their 70s to a toddler carried by its mother. Family members of Aaron Harrison and Darius Pinex (both killed by Chicago police) joined the protest wearing hoodies and carrying signs about their sons and linking this to the fight for justice for Trayvon Martin. One of the mothers wore a target on the back of her head with the hoodie up—where the police had shot her son. A former prisoner with his son and wife were in the house, along with activists for prisoners rights and people from Occupy. Several families came to represent—making their own signs.

Describing his feelings about the event a Revolution Club member said, "I came out because I know people forget about things that aren't close to them. And to make people see there were people out here fighting for justice for Trayvon."

Another Revolution Club member said, "I was proud to be there. Proud to be standing up for Trayvon and for my son. We are concerned people and we want to see Zimmerman's ass in jail."

A young white woman told of how glad she was that this protest had been called, how she had known about the trial coming up and kind of put it out of her mind until she heard about the protest. She had so much wanted to do something to express her feelings.

Clyde Young, a revolutionary communist and a former prisoner, spoke passionately to the high stakes involved in this battle. He stressed that there would be no trial if it weren't for the mass outpourings of outrage. Young said that this is just the beginning in terms of winning justice for Trayvon Martin and that the people nationwide need to be in the streets raising the slogan: We Are All Trayvon! The Whole Damn System Is Guilty! and demanding Justice for Trayvon.

Gregory Koger, a revolutionary communist who spent many years in solitary confinement during his youth, drew the connections between the hunger strike called by prisoners at Pelican Bay to protest the torture of indefinite solitary confinement with the struggle for justice for Trayvon and how this is part of building a movement to stop mass incarceration.

The 3 Strikes poster featuring a quote by Bob Avakian speaking of the history of slavery, Jim Crow and now the New Jim Crow was read aloud and at the end a number of the protesters joined in shouting, "That's it for the system, 3 strikes and you're out!"

Protesters wound through the streets of the loop from Daley Plaza to Millennium Park—a major tourist attraction. As people marched into the park there was no hesitation—and no one tried to stop them, even though this showcase Chicago park has been off limits to protests in the past. And then they marched back again.

Along the way people in the crowds making their way home through the evening rush broke into smiles when they saw the march, many raising fists or giving other signs of encouragement. A woman in an African turban across the street jumped up and down in joy upon seeing the protest, raising both fists in the air. And support and encouragement came from people of all ages and nationalities; white middle class people in business attire grinned approvingly, giving words of encouragement to protesters. It seemed like everyone was taking stuff and looking at it seriously.

Young activists from Occupy and the Revolution Club led the chants. People in the protest carried banners that had been signed and/or made by students at high schools and throughout Chicago. In the week preceding Hoodie Day students (as well as teachers and some school staff) had taken up stickers and in other ways had become active in the struggle to see to it that the system can't stamp the murder of Trayvon Martin as "Justified."

Over the past weekend people in the South and West Side ghettos took up similar activity in preparation for the trial as a van with a sound system and a few revolutionaries wound its way through these areas. At one park, young men stopped their basketball game and came off the court to listen to revolutionaries speak about the importance of this political battle and to take up stickers, sign a banner, and rally. Many of the youth there added chants of "Justice for Dakota Bright" and "Justice for Corey Harris," two teenagers murdered by the police in separate incidents. They had both played basketball at that park.

In a neighborhood on the West Side a group of youth playing basketball at a hoop in the street stopped their game and grabbed handfuls of stickers and fliers. As the sound car pulled away, instead of resuming their game these youth took the stickers and fliers and started down the street, handing them out to people sitting on their porches.

Hoodie Day fell on the last day before summer vacation at one alternative school but the handful of students there took it up, signing a banner and posing with their hoodies on. A guard at the school handed out stickers to all the students coming in.

As another Revolution Club member said, "This was a good beginning."

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/national-hoodie-day-bay-area-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Hoodie Day—SF Bay Area

June 13, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From readers:

Fifty people gathered at the Fruitvale BART train station in Oakland for a rally, and another 25 at 14th and Broadway in downtown Oakland. Thousands of stickers got out at area high schools and the KMEL Jams concert and other outings leading up to and on Hoodie Day.

In a Neighborhood

The Revolution Club in a neighborhood held a "hoodies up for Trayvon photo day" at a park in the community on June 9.

The afternoon began with making a banner that read, "We are all Trayvon, the whole damn system is guilty." This banner was to be used at the next day's demo. A group of shorties took up this assignment enthusiastically, painting the banner with the slogans but also putting their names on it. This drew other youth and adults to their activity, "supervising" the painting and adding their names. And pretty soon groups of youth were seen standing together, holding up various display of Revolution centerfolds of BAsics 1:13, and on a couple of occasions reading out loud the quote from BA, which has struck a chord with so many people. An hour later, the same scene happened again with another wave of shorties and adults.

Palm cards of BAsics 1:13 were distributed widely along with hundreds of Trayvon stickers and posters. Clips of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! were shown to several individuals on the spot also.

Later on in the afternoon, six members of a social club in the community showed up, wearing black hoodies, ready for a video production for justice for Trayvon which had been pre-arranged from a week prior. A rapper from the Revolution Club stepped up to the beat track from a local rap group in the hood, as the social club moved to the beat, speaking to the deep sentiment from those in the hood that "we are all Trayvon Martin."

Afterward, the social club and others passed their phones around taking pictures for their hash-tags, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook friends. People were proud of what they had done, wanting to do more; and the social club then set up a video showing/discussion of the DVD BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! specifically for their next meeting.

At Castlemont High

At Castlemont High School in East Oakland, a racially mixed crowd of about 60 students were greeted leaving the campus on June 7, the last day of school (before finals) with a small contingent of Revolution Club members and others holding banners and placards reading, "We are still Trayvon Martin." A beat track from the boom box chanted Trayvon's name over and over as students came forward individually to hold up the banner that was signed by many from their school during the week.

It was quite a challenge to buck the peer pressure and step out, as about 20 students took turns one by one holding the banner, not quite gelling a critical mass of students to change the tide. Some of those students holding the banner went to others standing on the side and challenged them to join in. And later the banner was moved by a couple students to the front of the school so others were having their pictures taken. All this went on, with people on the street occasionally joining in, including an older woman in a wheelchair, and with posters and stickers of Trayvon quickly getting out, while at the same time some other students actually snuck out the back entrance.

Then a member of the Revolution Club began a rap as over 30 whistles were passed out. At first it was cacophony, but when the rapper chanted, "Trayvon Martin didn't have to die; we all know the reason why, the whole damn system is guilty" in time to the beats (Too Short's track "Blow the Whistle"), people began to change their tune from "fuck the police" to "yeah the whole damn system is guilty!" And the whistling then kept the beat!

 

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/hoodie-day-crenshaw-los-angeles-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Hoodie Day–Crenshaw District, Los Angeles

June 13, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From a reader:

A very spirited and determined rally and march was held in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles for National Hoodie Day. Led by the slogans "We Are All TRAYVON!" and "The Whole Damn System is Guilty," 70 people "hit the streets" on Crenshaw Blvd. during rush hour traffic and brought business as usual to a virtual stop. The march went up and down Crenshaw Blvd., in the street the entire way, impacting many hundreds of motorists as well as people on the street. Crenshaw Blvd. is a major thoroughfare in South Central Los Angeles and the Crenshaw district is an historic and present-day commercial and cultural hub of Black people in Los Angeles.

The march was warmly welcomed and embraced by the masses up and down Crenshaw. People came out of storefronts to give fist salutes and take pictures, and cars by the dozens honked their horns in unity. The march was covered by the LA Times, a picture appearing in the Tuesday edition under the heading "Jury Selection Begins in Zimmerman Trial" with the photo caption of the Leimert Park event described as "one of a series of nationwide demonstrations." TV channels KCBS 2 and KCAL 9 and Telemundo 52 also reported on the protest, as did KABC 790 Talk Radio.

Leading up to the march, speakers from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and the Revolution Club South Central led a short rally to cohere the crowd and convey to the marchers that any chance at justice in this case is up to us in a real sense and any chance for justice will require a major struggle from here on. Speakers contextualized the Trayvon Martin murder, that it is part of a systematic program of suppression that includes 2.3 million in prison and the torture of 80,000 people in the U.S. prison system through long-term solitary confinement. With the George Zimmerman trial, will this system have its way—imposing its verdict that the life of a young Black man is worth nothing? Or will there be a different verdict—in the court and in society—because WE SAY NO MORE: that "open season" on Black and Latino youth won't be tolerated by millions of us from throughout society, that we say NO to the murder of Trayvon and NO to all the racist murders of youth by vigilantes and police and NO to the mass incarceration of 2.4 million people? We had something powerful to declare on this day about which outcome we will fight for.

Joe Veale, a veteran comrade of the Revolutionary Communist Party, gave an impassioned speech to set the tone, and the context, for the march. Joe spoke of the children being swept up into gang databases. Of how such gang databases are one way the school to prison pipeline begins, how these databases are in every major city, and this is how the massive incarceration campaign of Black and Latino people leading to 2.4 million in prison in the U.S. has gone down. Joe talked about how all this brings to mind what happened to Joe's own family back in the 1960s. Joe's 12-year-old brother was arrested and sent to California Youth Authority (CYA) for defending himself against a physical assault by a teacher. This was his brother's first encounter with the police. His family was powerless to do anything about it, and his family's anguished compassion and love for his brother meant nothing to the judge and court. At that point, as Joe Veale said, Joe's brother's life was over and he went in and out of CYA for several more years and at 18 took his own life. Joe spoke to Trayvon Martin's murder and asked "How Long..." will this nightmare of oppression and brutality go on, and spoke to the power of Bob Avakian's "new synthesis of communism" as the road out of this nightmare.

We took off on the march, determined to be out in the streets powerfully on National Hoodie Day, and to stay in the streets until there is justice, clear that what happens in the trial of George Zimmerman is NOT a settled question and that we should not forget there would not even be "a day in court" if it wasn't for the people acting in their tens of thousands last year.

People had come to the protest ready to "hit the streets" and march: they'd received leaflets on Crenshaw in the weeks leading up the event and at recent high school graduations, and some had heard about the march through radio programs on the local Pacifica radio station. Masses took to the bullhorns and held up the banners. Some seriously, and joyously, ran up and down and on both sides of the street all along Crenshaw Blvd. during the march, rushing up to cars, passing out information on the battle for justice for Trayvon, and what is at stake with this, and called on everyone in their cars and walking on the street to "join us."

And some youth came off the street and joined this march, hitting the streets with us. The Stop Mass Incarceration Network led the march, Revolution Club members—many emblazoned with "Revolution—Nothing Less!" t-shirts (promoting the new DVD film of Bob Avakian's talk) led the marchers in chants "Trayvon did not have to die; we all know the reason why; the whole system is guilty!" and "Trayvon's killer can't go free, stand up, get in the streets!" and the Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc brought a colorful cultural punch to the march. We don't think a march quite like this has hit the streets on Crenshaw in quite a while! One woman said "There needs to be marches all around the U.S... this (Trayvon Martin) is not the only one... it made national news but this is not the only one... we still live in a racist country and Black men are still being screwed by the system." Another person spoke out: "we need to protest, and make our voice heard. ...they should not be murdered for having a hoodie on or walking through their neighborhoods."

At a concluding rally, Rev. Richard Meri Ka Ra Byrd, of KRST Unity Center for Afrakan Spiritual Science, spoke, as did a representative of the Revolution Club Los Angeles, and statements of support came from Blase Bonpane, Executive Director of the Office of the Americas, and writer and journalist Erin Aubry Kaplan.

An attack by a small but disruptive group of extreme narrow nationalists was launched during the concluding rally. Pure and simple, these narrow nationalists were upset that a diverse group of people were standing up to demand justice for Trayvon and by carrying out this attack made clear they oppose people standing up to resist and fight to stop racist murders of our youth! They did all they could to stop people from getting organized to stop murders of youth like Trayvon, interrupting speakers, and at one point launched a physical attack on the stage. The MCs on the stage rallied the masses at the event to stand up and defend this event and rebuff this attack, repeatedly stressing why we were there and why this matters. The people at this event, who had just completed a significant march, wanted to hear the speeches from special guests, and weren't going to and did not tolerate this effort to break up and wreck this event. This attack was outrageous and these forces were disruptive and they did prevent important speeches from being fully delivered, yet their attack was not successful, and the rally continued, including with an emphasis on getting organized to build the muscles of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network throughout the country and in LA.

Through the day, it was made clear we were acting in concert with people throughout the country who had taken up We Are All TRAYVON! National Hoodie Day actions in New York, Sanford and Jacksonville , FL, Dallas, TX, Cambridge, MA, Twin Cities, MN, Milwaukee, WI, the Bay Area and Fresno in Northern CA, and in Cleveland, OH, Detroit, MI and Chicago IL. Today we made clear, and we let the powers-that-be know, that people will not be silent, that we are not going to stand by and tolerate the racist murder of Trayvon Martin or anyone else, whether from racist vigilantes or racist police departments throughout the country.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/national-hoodie-day-houston-detroit-cleveland-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

National Hoodie Day—Houston, Detroit and Cleveland

June 13, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Houston

Revolutionaries took a banner reading "We Are All Trayvon! The Whole Damn System is Guilty!" to a housing project in town. Many people wrote and spoke of their hopes for justice. One older man, who wrote in very large letters so that his name would stand out, fist-bumped "I'm with you" and made sure that his son also signed. A few people who expressed that "It's never gonna stop" engaged over why all these police murders are happening and how revolution can put an end to these racist murders. Ten copies of Revolution were sold, and people got a few dozen "Three Strikes" and "No More Generations..." posters and a few hundred palm cards to get out.

Detroit

From readers:

Two of us went to Detroit's Rosa Parks Bus Terminal on National Hoodie Day. There was significant rage and some determination to carry this fight on to the busses, into schools, and other places beyond today. People, especially the youth, enthusiastically put on hoodie stickers or saved them for school the next day. One man asked, "What about all the Trayvons who are murdered that we never hear about?" Others pointed out that this was nothing new; racists have been murdering Black people throughout the history of this country. As one man put it, "It's been open season on Black people for a long time." A young woman said it's not just black men who catch it, they shot a seven-year-old girl a couple of years ago (referring to the police murder of seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones). An older Black man spoke about the lynchings of the 1930s and '40s. A few people bitterly pointed out that it's not just in the South that murders like Trayvon's go on. It happens everywhere.

There were a lot of youth at the terminal that day. They were angry at the murder of Trayvon and the ongoing attacks they face. Some spoke bitterly of all the times they've been harassed and hassled by the cops and drew the links between police and vigilantes like George Zimmerman. We had a large poster with the centerfold from Revolution newspaper with BAsics 1:13 that got a really positive response from the youth. One young man said, "That's us, condemned even before we are born. It's like they think we are all criminals just because we were born Black." A group of high-school-age youth said they will take the message about Trayvon and George Zimmerman's trial back to their school and on to Facebook to "spread the word." We distributed the BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! palm cards, consciously linking these outrages with revolution and BA.

Cleveland

From a reader:

About a dozen people gathered downtown in pouring rain carrying posters with "We Are All Trayvon! The Whole Damn System is Guilty!" and pictures of Trayvon Martin. Others joined in on the spot. Youth got stickers and some put their hoodies over their heads with fists raised. Motorists honked their horns. Some demonstrators made a connection between justice for Trayvon and the need for revolution by passing out BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! palm cards. Among those passing out palm cards was a relative of a person killed last November by Cleveland cops. The group marched to the "Justice" Center chanting "Trayvon did not have to die! We all know the reason why! The whole damn system is guilty!"

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/national-hoodie-day-from-news-reports-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

National Hoodie Day from news reports...

June 12, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

• The Buffalo News reported: "About three dozen people, all clad in hooded sweatshirts, marched down Bailey Avenue on Monday afternoon, holding signs and chanting on the day jury selection began for the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman, the Florida man who killed teenager Trayvon Martin last year. Drivers showed approval by honking their horns at the marchers' signs, which bore slogans such as 'Stop Profiling Youth' and 'United Against Racism.' The rally was part of National Hoodie Day, an event activists around the country organized to coincide with the start of the Zimmerman trial and to call attention to racial profiling and other problems affecting urban youth in the United States." Protesters included activists and students from different community organizations and schools (photo at: National Hoodie Day brings out dozens of Buffalo marchers).

   

• The Chinese language newspaper World Journal in San Francisco had substantial coverage of Hoodie Day in the San Francisco Bay Area at the Fruitvale BART station. It explained to readers that the events were in solidarity with Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American teenager killed by a volunteer policeman in Sanford, Florida who was unarmed, and carrying "only iced tea and a bag of candy." It reported that protesters chanted "We are all Trayvon” and that the Fruitvale BART station was where police killed another African-American youth, Oscar Grant. (see: 世界新聞網-北美華文新聞、華商資訊 - 聲援佛州少年馬丁)

 

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/five-points-of-orientation-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Five Points of Orientation
On the Revelations of Government Surveillance

June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On June 5, an article by Glenn Greenwald in the British newspaper the Guardian revealed that the FBI and the National Security Agency (NSA) used the PATRIOT Act to obtain a secret warrant ordering Verizon—one of the nation's largest phone networks—to turn over data on every single call that went through its system.

That was the tip of an iceberg. As new exposures came to light, the New York Times wrote: "There is every reason to believe the federal government has been collecting every bit of information about every American's phone calls except the words actually exchanged in those calls." As we post this, new revelations are coming to light. Leaked NSA documents state that data is collected "directly from the servers of these U.S. service providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple." Articles in the Guardian and the Washington Post have exposed that this includes people's search history as well as the content of emails, file transfers, and live chats.

And the Guardian reports that a hundred billion pieces of intelligence were collected from U.S. computer networks in one 30-day period ending in March this year from people in other countries around the world, and outrage is erupting in Europe and elsewhere.

The government has been straight-up lying about all this. On March 12, James Clapper, director of national intelligence, was asked at a Congressional hearing if the National Security Agency collects "any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans." His answer: "No sir." Then he added: "Not wittingly."

The exposures are based on revelations by Edward Snowden—a former CIA contractor who courageously came forward to blow the whistle on crimes committed by the U.S. government. He told Glenn Greenwald, "I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in."

This developing scandal comes on the heels of recent exposures of persecution of government whistle-blowers and reporters. The U.S. government is viciously persecuting Bradley Manning for exposing U.S. war crimes. Obama is upholding his right to kill anyone anywhere on his say-so (supposedly mediated by assurances that this is OK because he's Barack Obama, not George W. Bush). The U.S. is torturing and force-feeding illegally detained men at Guantánamo. And there is a looming hunger strike against psychologically devastating long-term solitary confinement in California prisons.

The situation continues to unfold rapidly. Look to revcom.us for ongoing coverage and analysis. Here we present...

Five Basic Points of Orientation
On the Revelations of Government Surveillance

1. As the scope of government surveillance is dragged into the light, those in power, starting with President Barack Obama, claim all this is to "help us prevent terrorist attacks." And Obama characterized the surveillance as "modest encroachments."

No. This is massive surveillance of all manner of activities of billions of people around the world. And it is driven not by concerns for the safety of Americans, much less anyone else.

The fundamental framework for understanding the scope and intensity of all this surveillance is concentrated in this statement by Bob Avakian:

"The essence of what exists in the U.S. is not democracy but capitalism-imperialism and political structures to enforce that capitalism-imperialism. What the U.S. spreads around the world is not democracy, but imperialism and political structures to enforce that imperialism."
BAsics 1:3

This capitalist-imperialist system enslaves workers in its sweatshops in Bangladesh and its oil fields of Saudi Arabia. It has created a planet of slums and environmental devastation, its morality and culture have produced an epidemic of rape. And this system wages constant wars around the world against threats from rivals or smaller-scale reactionary forces, and brings down violent repression against legitimate protest and opposition to its crimes. That is why this state sees the vast majority of people on the planet—billions and billions of people—as potential threats, and maintains such intense and broad surveillance. And that is why the state apparatus—the dictatorship of the capitalist-imperialist class (the bourgeoisie)—does what it does to people.

All this surveillance is not just about monitoring everyone's thoughts and actions (horrific as that is), it is about CONTROLLING everyone's activity, communications, and thinking. It is about being able to bring the full power of the state down on them at a moment's notice. This system kills people—even U.S. citizens—simply on the president's say-so. It has "rendered" people to secret "black sites" around the world for horrific torture (and Obama has steadfastly refused to expose or prosecute those torturers and those who gave the orders). This is a system that locks up more of its population than any nation on earth—by a long shot.

For all their talk about democracy and rights, what has been revealed so far is activity that shreds basic rights supposedly guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution: The Fourth Amendment, which supposedly prohibits unreasonable or warrantless searches of people, property, and documents; and the First Amendment, which claims to guarantee freedom of speech and the press, and the right to protest—just for starters. As for promises in the Constitution that "No person... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"—that too is totally out the fucking window. So all this surveillance is not only immoral and illegitimate, it is unlawful to boot. The fact that there are so few in Congress who even intend to make a show of objecting to all this, and so many who have vented "righteous indignation" in attacking those who have made the leaks, further reveals that virtually everyone at the top levels of government actually takes for granted that this society really is—beneath all the promises of democracy for all—a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie over everyone else.

2. Throughout society, the question being posed around Edward Snowden is "hero or traitor?" Powerful figures in the ruling class, like Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the national intelligence committee, called Snowden's revelations "an act of treason." Such threats are ominous and must be opposed. But by any objective measure, and from the perspective of a morality that values lives and freedom, the facts speak for themselves:

Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the famous "Pentagon Papers," wrote in the Guardian: "In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material—and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago" [when Ellsberg risked life in prison to leak documents that exposed U.S. government lies about the Vietnam War].

Snowden worked in the U.S. intelligence world for almost a decade and knows the risks he is taking. He told Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald, "Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me." But he said, "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

Snowden told Greenwald he had "a very comfortable life" but "I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."

And he acted now because "You can't wait around for someone else to act."

3. Exposing great crimes is no crime! And now people need to demand that no charges be brought against Edward Snowden. There is a need for people to not let individuals like Snowden and Bradley Manning bear the brunt of this all alone, but rather to speak out, to protest, to resist what is unlawful and illegitimate authority.

Where people do protest, they should be supported; and those protests—not only against this, but against Guantánamo, torture, indefinite detention without trial, and the whole program of torture, outlined in the World Can't Wait ad, "Close Guantánamo Now." That ad is a very good place for people to speak out, sending this ad to everyone you can reach. But more needs to be done!

4. The forces of repression are powerful, but they are not all powerful. Yes they have massive repressive technology, but their power ultimately depends on people.

People like Bradley Manning, people like Edward Snowden—people who start out believing that America is trying to do good all over the world, and then find out the truth. This is an Achilles' heel of this system. In the '60s, the fact that thousands, then hundreds of thousands, and finally millions stood up against the Vietnam War (in which the U.S. killed between two million and four million Vietnamese people, according to the then Secretary of Defense) and said that THIS IS WRONG and condemned that war as immoral and as having utterly NO justification, had an impact on those who were charged with carrying out that criminal war. And many of those people felt compelled and able to refuse to carry out or be complicit in war crimes, even at great personal risk and sacrifice. And as time went on, all this impeded the ability of the government to continue that criminal policy and carry out those crimes.

5. There is another way society can be organized. The new synthesis of communism, brought forward by Bob Avakian, is a basis for a society that is moving to end all forms of oppression thoughout the world, and in that context not just allowing but protecting and promoting dissent.

This is brought to life in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal), from the RCP (CNSRNA).

The Preamble to that Constitution explains:

"In contrast to the way in which the capitalist-imperialist state serves and enforces the interests of a small ruling group of exploiters, the New Socialist Republic in North America, with the continuing leadership of the Revolutionary Communist Party, bases itself on, and proceeds from, the fundamental interests of those most bitterly exploited and oppressed under the old system, and the masses of people broadly, and provides the means for them to play an increasingly widening role in the exercise of political power and the functioning of society in accordance with those interests–in order to carry forward the struggle to transform society, with the goal of uprooting and finally eliminating all oppressive and exploitative relations among human beings and the destructive antagonistic conflicts to which these relations give rise."

Read the whole document at revcom.us.

In that light, Article III of the CNSRNA, "Rights of the People and the Struggle to Uproot All Exploitation and Oppression" incorporates far greater rights for people than the U.S. Constitution, which represented a system that had at its foundation exploitation and oppression, including slavery and genocide of the Native peoples.

In keeping with the mission of the emancipation of all humanity, the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America says: "[T]he orientation of the government, and that promoted in society overall, must be to not only allow but to value dissent, as well as political, philosophical and in general intellectual and cultural ferment and diversity, and to promote and foster an atmosphere in which all this can flourish. This shall find expression and be embodied in government policy and action, as well as in the law, including that part of law and policy specifically intended to protect the legal and civil rights and liberties of the people in this Republic." And it goes on to flesh out specific rules for ensuring this.

This system is compelled by its nature to trample the rights it proclaims as it enforces misery and exploitation and a million crimes flowing from that. It has done so from the time it was founded through the genocide of the Native Americans and slavery (both sanctified in its Constitution), and it continues to do so with a vengeance around the world today.

As the workings of this system draw millions into questioning and resistance, and in the context of struggling side-by-side with all who refuse to accept this, there is a moment and a challenge to pose the REAL alternative to all this as concentrated in the CNSRNA.

 

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/urgent-challenge-to-readers-donate-to-revcom-presence-in-sanford-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Urgent Challenge to Readers:
Donate to Maintain the Presence of revcom.us in Sanford, Florida!

June 16, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

What if... at this moment when the eyes of the world are on the trial of the killer of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, those eyes were seeing photos and reading, hearing or watching interviews in mainstream media that put a focus on revcom.us!

And what if those eyes were being challenged to go to revcom.us for exposure, analysis, and connection to a whole radical alternative to this system, and the revolutionary leadership to make that possible.

We are not challenging you to donate funds to get that off the ground—IT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.

This is a call for funds to sustain and continue the presence and promotion of revcom.us in Sanford!

Money is needed right now to send revolutionaries to Sanford and sustain their presence there during the trial of Trayvon Martin's killer, so that the reality there can continue to be reported in to revcom.us/Revolution newspaper, and people around the U.S. and all over the world can continue to be connected with revcom.us.

This is moment when we call on everyone reading this appeal... yes, the hardcore readers who are at revcom.us every week or every day, but also—and especially right now—to readers who open their e-subs to Revolution once in a while, or who come to revcom.us at moments when they are driven by world events to see what the revolution has to say, and also to readers with substantial financial resources:

DONATE GENEROUSLY, NOW, TO MAINTAIN REPORTERS AND PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH REVCOM.US IN SANFORD—TELLING THE STORY TO THE WORLD, AND CONNECTING IT WITH THE WHOLE OF THE REVOLUTION AT REVCOM.US

For more on the challenges and struggle facing people at this moment, including the role of recom.us in all this, see the editorial in the current issue of Revolution, "A Summer of Big Challenges and Intense Struggle"

Donate through your local Revolution distributor, or send check or money order to RCP Publications, PO Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654; or donate online by clicking this button—earmarked for "Revolution Reporter Fund."

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/all-out-for-summer-2013-ba-everywhere-indiegogo-fundraising-campaign-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

All Out for the Summer 2013 BA Everywhere Indiegogo Fundraising Campaign!

June 12, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Important—and joyous—BA Everywhere events are planned this weekend, June 14-16, in cities across the country.

These events are occurring in the wake of shattering revelations of massive government surveillance, overseen and fiercely defended by the head of state, President Barack Obama, a constitutional law scholar. And they're taking place in the midst of an intensifying cauldron of contradictions marked by the struggles around Guantánamo, the trial of George Zimmerman for stalking and killing Trayvon Martin, the upcoming California prisoners' hunger strike, the upsurges in Turkey. In this context, these weekend picnics and fundraisers launching the summer of BA Everywhere—the campaign to raise big money to get word out on Bob Avakian's analysis of the SOURCE of these problems... and, even more, the SOLUTION to them—assumes an even greater import and urgency, as big questions are posed about the very nature of this society, with potential opportunities and challenges for the movement for revolution to advance at and through this juncture. The Revolution editorial "A Summer of Big Challenges and Intense Struggles" (June 16, 2013) offers orientation that is critical to this moment.

Launching the Summer 2013 BA Everywhere Campaign: Making a Difference, the events this coming weekend should be marked by the revolutionary élan (edge/flair) of what this campaign is all about: raising big funds to make BA a household name, and to spread the vision and work of BA—the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live, the book BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian, and his whole body of work representing a new synthesis of communism—among all strata of people so that BA becomes a point of reference in society. This campaign should draw forth broad numbers of people to be part of getting the word out about BA, and the ways should be provided for people of different strata and backgrounds, with different perspectives and thinking, "to find their own level" to engage, participate, and contribute.

The key initiative of the summer campaign coming off these weekend events is the online fundraising initiative—on the crowd-funding platform Indiegogo—to raise the seed money for the summer plans. And the aim through those summer plans is for even bigger fundraising efforts looking forward to the fall and winter. The objective of the Indiegogo campaign is to raise $20,000 ($20K)—reaching and involving newer and growing numbers of people, in the context of a widening and deepening societal engagement with BA.

Crowd-funding can be a very important way to reach and involve lots of people—to have a bigger societal impact through the fundraising itself, to build momentum, and to help forge and manifest a national social movement. While the "virtual" online aspect is really important, crowd-funding—and BA Everywhere—is ultimately about people. And what is critical throughout is what we do in "the real world," working with and involving people contributing at different levels and in different ways—and the synergy of all this with the online aspect.

Initial Work and Preparation

The success of the Indiegogo fundraising campaign requires some initial work and preparation to create the necessary buzz and momentum at its launch (when the online fundraising and its website go live). This is needed to get word of this Indiegogo campaign spreading far beyond "those we know"—the immediate social circles and those we happen to meet directly on the streets or in outings—so that the profile of this campaign is raised and its reach widened.

To facilitate this, the actual go-live launchdate for the online fundraising is scheduled for Thursday, June 20. Prior to that—starting now, through the June 14-16 weekend fundraising events, and the days after (June 17–20)—is a period of all-out preparation and mobilization, constituting a "soft-launch" for the Indiegogo campaign, working with and involving people towards a successful launch (go-live) on the 20th.

There are three inter-related aspects to this preparation:

• Mobilizing people. Those who have seen the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live—and have an appreciation of the difference it has made, and will make, and who feel "people need to see this"—are an embryonic solid core to be forged, led, and unleashed in this campaign as part of the summer plans, bearing testimony to the film and its impact, spreading the word widely in various ways (including online, in email and Twitter), and contributing funds. These hundreds, if not thousands, of people nationwide need to be mobilized with the launching of this campaign, providing necessary momentum in the beginning stages. Think of everybody who can and needs to be part of this and let them know of the Indiegogo campaign. There are those who have had a serious engagement with BA—those who have been part of other BA Everywhere initiatives like the BAsics bus tours, fundraising for the film of the April 11, 2011 event on Indiegogo, and the April 11 celebration itself, etc; and those who consider themselves part of the larger movement for revolution—who should be provided ways to contribute at different levels and in different ways.
  
  This initial mobilization of those we already know is critical to the success of this crowd-funding campaign which, in line with the overall objectives of BA Everywhere and the larger movement for revolution of which it is a part, rests on being able to reach—and involve—newer people in increasing waves, on the street, in the projects, the playhouses and progressive resorts, and online.
  
  

• Lining up donors. Mobilizing people for this Indiegogo campaign includes lining up a range, diversity and breadth of initial donors ($1 to $10K+ donations), with some bigger donors ($500+ donations) who can provide the initial momentum required to launch this on the right scale. The process to secure such donations should be initiated immediately, including setting up meetings with such prospective donors. These bigger pledges can be committed and publicized as "matching" funds for what is raised at mass outings during the first weekend of the Indiegogo campaign (June 22 weekend) in the neighborhoods—through penny jars, yard and bake sales and other forms. Throughout the summer, and BA Everywhere overall, there needs to be a mutually reinforcing relationship between advances—in engagement, participation, involvement and contribution—among the bedrock section of the masses of people, those this system has cast off, AND among the middle and wealthier strata.
  
  
• Buzz/momentum at launch. The go-live date for the Indiegogo campaign, Thursday, June 20, should be marked by email and Twitter feeds spreading the word, online donations among those previously lined up and newer folks, and comments and testimonials posted online. The following weekend should be marked by mass outings to the neighborhoods of the oppressed as well as to the neighborhoods of the middle and wealthier strata, to places they congregate and visit—from basketball courts to progressive theaters. Word needs to get out very broadly online and on the street, generating some buzz and initial excitement and momentum—with significant fundraising in quantity ($ terms), and in the number/breadth of donors. This should complement the Days of Solidarity with the Struggle to End Prison Torture! called for that June 21-23 weekend.

In the Coming Days

The proposed "soft-launch"/"rolling start" should give time and space to prepare better conditions for generating the required momentum at go-live of the Indiegogo campaign. This weekend's events and the days after are significant in this regard—and some concrete ways to facilitate this preparation are the following:

• Make people aware. Formally, and informally, talk with people about the Indiegogo campaign, generate excitement and momentum for it, mobilize and organize people to be part of it—contributing to the fundraising, lining up donors big and small, and spreading it by creating buzz and momentum among friends, family, colleagues, etc. A new postcard will be available soon, with more specific info about the Indiegogo campaign and a QR code.
  
  
• Get video/audio/written testimonials. A simple form for a testimonial can be "I Donated to BA Everywhere, and You Should Too." If people wish, they can speak to what moves them about BA, responses to BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!/BAsics, from their own perspectives. These testimonials are a very important contribution, and they will be posted online throughout the campaign, individually and in collage. The testimonials going into and coming off the premieres of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! in March are really powerful and give a glimpse of the impact such statements can have. Both video and audio testimonials are needed. If necessary, there are artistic ways to film testimonials so people's identities are not necessarily obvious. Be creative—for example, shorties coming together and saying as a group "Donate Now to BA Everywhere" can be a powerful visual. This is a crucial and much-needed way for people to contribute, so ensure that there is sufficient logistical/technical preparation for gathering testimony of good sound/image quality. Send testimonies to revolution.reports@yahoo.com and baeverywhere@gmail.com.
  
  
• Learn. Get people's thinking/ideas and learn how to make this campaign successful, and how they can contribute. Send in their—and your—thinking/ideas on all this. This will be "a summer of experimentation and learning." For example, ask youth and others about social media and how best to spread the word—and involve them in the process.
  
  
• Plan collective forms. These can include a range from house parties to specific outings to a museum, a barbecue, or all kinds of other places. This also brings to the fore the concept of building community—an aspect of BA Everywhere. At house parties, clips of the film can be shown, provoking discussion, debate and engagement, and funds raised (including through auctions and raffles of donated items and artworks). Do people know artists who would potentially do fundraising performances, small and big, or local progressive authors who would do readings as fundraisers?
  
  
• Sign up people. To the BA Everywhere Twitter account so they can follow and spread it. To the local BA Everywhere committees and its specific initiatives.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/stop-government-surveillance-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Stop Government Surveillance
Connect with the Revolution

June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Day after day new revelations about the surveillance by the U.S. government of the phone and Internet use of billions of people around the world, including every phone call made in the U.S. itself, come to the surface. And those in power, from Barack Obama on down, defend this illegitimate, immoral—and unlawful—shredding of basic rights that people are supposed to have. Daily, there is discussion and debate on TV and in print of what has been exposed and what stand people should take...

And let's be clear... this massive spying on the phone calls and Internet activity of billions of people around the world is being carried out by a ruling class in this country that sees the vast majority of humanity as a potential threat to their system of exploitation and oppression, and has proven over and over that it uses this kind of data to carry out terrible crimes. They collected data on Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton's living situation to assassinate him in 1968. They used their data mining to target a remote, barren, mountainous village in Yemen for missile attacks on December 16, 2009, murdering dozens of innocent civilians, many of them children.

The more data these monsters have about people's personal lives, medical records, political activity and networks of friends and associates, the more horrific the crimes they can commit. They need to be stopped now through determined political protest and resistance, including by having the backs of heroes like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden (see "Five Points of Orientation on the Revelations of Government Surveillance"), and journalists who have the courage and honesty to make sure the crimes that are being exposed are not covered over or whitewashed.

This is a moment when many people throughout society and around the world are compelled to think about and debate big questions: What drives such moves by the state? What kind of society do they want to live in? And this is a moment when people's thinking can go through dramatic changes. And this is a moment when people can feel compelled to act in different ways. At this moment, readers of Revolution newspaper need to be out among the people, in the midst of the debate and controversy. Leading and learning from the people...learning and leading as we go out among the people. Wherever there are manifestations of discontent, wherever people speak out, protest and resist, we need to be there bringing a revolutionary understanding and analysis to people, while uniting with their resistance. Revolution bookstores could call together forums and discussions of the Five Points of Orientation. Panels can be organized which draw together people with different points of view. And more.

Send in reports about going out around this—what kind of protest and resistance is going on, responses to the Five Points of Orientation, what you are learning, etc. And let us know of events around this that are being planned so we can post them on revcom.us. Send reports and notices to revolution.reports@yahoo.com.

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Upcoming Events

New York City, Wednesday, June 19, 7 pm

Emergency Forum, be part of taking a stand at this decisive moment:
We Will Not Be Complicit...We DO NOT Consent!
No Government Spying on Whole Populations. Hands Off Snowden & Manning. Close Guantánamo NOW.
Featuring Prominent Voices of Conscience
Great Hall, Cooper Union, 7 E. 7th Street, New York City
Sponsored by World Can't Wait, co-sponsored by the Continuing Education Department, Cooper Union

Chicago, Sunday, June 30, meet at 11 am at N. Broadway & Sunnyside

Join, build, and march in the Gay Liberation Network's Bradley Manning contingent at the Gay Pride Parade.

Boston, Thursday, July 4, 1 pm, Dewey Square

Festival of Resistance
Join activists from diverse Boston and Massachusetts-based justice movements to express our outrage over the growing surveillance state. Whether we spend our time working to fight climate change or to stop the wars, we must unite with one voice to fight for our basic rights to speech and freedom. Be ready to march.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/interview-with-shayana-kadidal-center-for-constitutional-rights-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Revolution Interview

Shayana Kadidal, of the Center for Constitutional Rights, on the Government's Massive Phone and Internet Spying

June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Revolution Interview
A special feature of Revolution to acquaint our readers with the views of significant figures in art, theater, music and literature, science, sports and politics. The views expressed by those we interview are, of course, their own; and they are not responsible for the views published elsewhere in our paper.

 

The exposures that have come out since the first week of June, first reported by investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, have brought to light large-scale spying by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) on the phone and Internet activity of billions of people in this country and around the world. This is a dangerous and ominous assault by the U.S. government against people's basic rights, aimed at monitoring and controlling everyone's thinking, communications, and activity. (See "Five Basic Points of Orientation on the Revelations of Government Surveillance" at revcom.us.)

In this light, Revolution talked to Shayana Kadidal, senior managing attorney for the Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York City, to learn more about this massive surveillance by the U.S. government. Among the cases Kadidal has been involved in at CCR are legal challenges to the NSA's warrantless surveillance program.

In this interview, Kadidal links the current revelations of the huge spying going on under Obama to the government surveillance exposed during the George W. Bush years, and to the PATRIOT Act, the law passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks that vastly expanded the government's repressive powers. In particular, he points to Section 215 of that law, which allowed the government to obtain all kinds of records of people's activity—including books borrowed from libraries, with the libraries prohibited from even notifying their patrons that they are being spied on. Section 215 is now being used as the "legal" basis for some of the vast spying being carried out.

 

Revolution: Would you give us a picture of what has emerged, since the current exposures first began recently, about the vast spying by the U.S. government on phone calls and on Internet activity?

Shayana Kadidal: The first set of stories indicated something that we had heard of in general in the past, as far back as May 2006, which is that the government is building a huge database of basically all the calling records from all the major phone companies in the United States. So, the story included an order from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court mandating that Verizon Business, basically the old MCI, turn over all calling records of its customers—who called you, and who you called, when those calls happened, and if there's cell phone location data, and all that kind of thing. Turn that all to the government for a three-month period.

Now, when it came out, people were thinking, a three-month period, maybe this was triggered by the Boston bomb attacks that happened only 10 days before. But that didn't make much sense, because the investigation was over after 10 days and this was a three-month warrant and wasn't in any way narrowed down to things that were linked to Boston. Eventually [Senator] Dianne Feinstein confirmed this was just a renewal order—every 90 days they get the same order, going back all the way seven years now to 2006. So it basically is the same program that USA Today reported on in '06. And USA Today reported they were getting this from a whole bunch of other phone companies as well.

So pretty much we know now that the government has a huge database of all phone records. They did get this court order under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act—known often as the "Library Provision," because this was a provision that was very controversial when it was passed, not because it let the government do this kind of craziness but they could get people's library records—they could tell what books you've taken out.

It turns out they haven't used it very much for that. But they got an order that was much broader than what the statute seems to permit from some compliant FISA judges to let them do this program. A couple things about that: When Congress passed the PATRIOT Act, it wasn't exactly a great moment for civil liberties but they at least thought there was some level of accountability that was gonna come from the fact that these FISA judges were supposed to review the government's surveillance requests to make sure that they were relevant to ongoing investigation. And that the relevance requirement would at least mean that any order that got approved would be somewhat narrow. You know, not just all calls in, all calls out for a whole company, for a long period of time. So that was one measure of oversight, the FISA court, right? Which we know rubber-stamps most orders. It's staffed with judges hand picked by the Chief Justice, so either Roberts or Rehnquist picked all these folks. They operate in secret. They never publish any of their opinions. They've historically been a rubber stamp—they didn't reject a single one, I think, out of the first like 20 years of requests that the government gave them. I think five rejections out of first 19,000 orders or something like that. Not a lot of review there.

The other thing that was supposed to be an accountability mechanism was that at the end of the year, Congress was supposed to get a report on how many times this libraries provision had been used. But if they get one order that covers an entire 10-million-subscriber phone company, for every single call that anyone makes, it's gonna be very deceptive reporting. They could report at the end of the year, we had five orders, and that could cover 95 percent of the American phone-using public.

So all the accountability mechanisms failed, and already relatively broad surveillance authority passed in the PATRIOT Act was used much broader than it should have been used, in part because of these failures of the accountability mechanism.

Revolution: And what about the surveillance on people's Internet activity—the NSA's PRISM program?

Kadidal: Yes, but one more point, in terms of why anyone should care. Look, you can tell an awful lot about the content of communications by noticing the patterns of when they happen. So if an AP reporter phoned three people in the House of Representatives and the next day publishes an embarrassing story, revealing some embarrassing government secrets, it's not too hard for government to put together what that journalist was talking about on the phone with his sources, right? The metadata is almost more important than content there. Similarly, if some Congressperson, it turns out, was calling phone-sex lines repeatedly over the course of several years, that becomes sort of J. Edgar Hoover territory in terms of what the intelligence agencies would be able to blackmail that Congressperson with.

Revolution: This data is collected and stored. So they can go back over time.

Kadidal: Right. They certainly can. The administration's main defense on this has been that, well, they need another order to go back and search the database. [Speaking of the government,] "You guys can't tell from the document that was leaked, but there are a whole bunch of other rules that govern this program, it's been around for seven years, so the judges don't write it all out in orders. But in order to search this database there are different things that are required."

Is that plausible? It doesn't seem plausible on the basis of what's in the order. Would it be a plausible arrangement? These are the kind of things we need to investigate and figure out, right? The Congress needs to dig into it. The American public needs to demand answers to it. That's pretty much the phone thing in a nutshell.

One last thing about this. Because this went through PATRIOT Act 215, which requires a court order from this rubber-stamp court, a lot of people don't realize this, but in order to get your phone records, they don't need a warrant. All they need to issue is a subpoena. The Supreme Court decided in a case called Smith v. Maryland in 1979, that the numbers you dial are not protected in the same way the contents are. For the content they need a warrant from a judge. They need to be able for a domestic call to prove probable cause you're involved in some crime, that they need the wiretap in order to investigate. To get your phone records, all they need to do is to submit an affidavit that says they're interested in getting your phone calling records for purposes of some investigation. It's a very easy standard to hit. The government uses these subpoenas much more often than they use actual traditional warrants.

So just to give you an example, it not only applies to phone records but to anything that's like that—kind of akin to the address written on the outside of a letter rather than the contents of the letter. And the theory of the Supreme Court was, well you're turning this information over to the phone company, a third party, in order for them to use it in routing your calls so you don't expect that it's going to be private. Plus it shows up on your billing records and that kind of thing, it's just not private in the same kind of way because it's turned over to a third party. So what else is turned over to a third party? Your banking records. Your credit information. Emails that you count on your ISPs to move around, right? They're only protected by an additional statute that Congress created after the Smith decision. What else? Documents in cloud storage. Certain types of chat. There are a whole slew of things people would assume they need a warrant to get, and yet they don't. So that's kind of an important point, I think.

Here you've got this ridiculously broad surveillance authority through a court order, but they don't even need that much. And obviously if they're just subpoenas to the phone companies, the only way that'll ever come out is if the phone companies tell, right? But phone companies are usually gagged from revealing that order. They were gagged with a 215 order, for instance. That's right in the text of the order, that they can only tell their own lawyers, that's the only outsiders they can tell, if the lawyers want to challenge it on behalf of the phone company. But they can't tell their customers whose records are being turned over.

In terms of the subpoenas, there are different rules. Some of them are called national security letters. There may be similar gag rules there. But the important point is that the telephone companies are in such a heavily regulated industry, and antitrust laws on the rates they can charge, in terms of taxation on certain types of services, bandwidth, that they have no incentive whatsoever to stand up to the government, they have even less than a typical corporation does.

Revolution: All this is outrageous enough—but then came the revelations about PRISM, the Internet spying by the NSA.

Kadidal: In terms of the PRISM thing. The crazy aspect of this seems to be, we know the government has some sort of hard-wiring into the systems of the phone companies. Now there were some indications of this from very far back. If you'll remember, Electronic Frontier Foundation brought a case in spring of 2006 that was based on some inside whistleblower type of documents they had gotten from a guy named Mark Klein who worked at AT&T. And Klein indicated that basically, in the San Francisco switching station where these huge fiber optic cables would come up from under the ocean and then network into the domestic network, the NSA had a special room inside AT&T's big switching facility on Folsom Street. And in that room they basically siphoned off one whole copy of everything that was coming off of these massive fiber optic cables that carry all these international communications. So basically they were sucking in everything, from right inside the phone company.

Given that, it shouldn't be that surprising that they seem to have some kind of hard-wired capacity to plug right into the systems of Google and Apple and Microsoft and whoever else, right?

Revolution: The companies say they have not given the government a "back door" to their systems.

Kadidal: The companies' CEOs and other spokesperson types have denied knowing this. But, look, the program itself is going to be classified. So the people who know about the technical details are going to be sort of the low-level tech managers who actually handle the implementation, and maybe some of the lawyers. They're not going to be the chief executives. Even if that guy or woman did have a security clearance, they're not going to be able to talk about it. So I don't know why anyone is surprised by these denials. It's probably just something that's coming out of ignorance more than anything else, which is again a consequence of the classification system.

So in terms of PRISM, further revelations from the government in defense of their position have basically said, look, this is just a technical system we have set up to implement surveillance under the FISA Amendment Act, the changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the summer of 2008. Key points there are that that Act was essentially passed basically to codify the NSA program that the New York Times revealed in 2005—this very sweeping, almost gather everything, anything the government wants with any minimal degree of suspicion without too much individualized intervention by the FISA court. And this is basically the same thing. You go to FISA court, and the court approves not a single warrant at a single target but a whole program of surveillance. You put in your criteria—this is roughly what we're going to look for. Could be as broad as "all calls to Israel" or "all calls back and forth to Venezuela" or whatever. And as long as it's aimed mostly at gathering the communications of foreigners, the court rubber-stamps it, and then they go off and implement it.

So this statute, unlike the phone thing—where the statute was read more broadly than it should have been, the court shouldn't have granted the order and Congress should have gotten better reporting—here, the statute itself was ludicrously broad. And who was a key player in getting it passed? Basically Senator Obama switched his vote on it, and that took surveillance completely out of the political arena. Obviously, he was preparing to finalize his presidential campaign in summer of 2008, and he didn't want this to be a disputed issue, I guess. But that really took a lot of the steam out of the movement that had built up when the NSA disclosures first happened in late 2005, because now it wasn't a political issue anymore between the parties.

Revolution: How much of all this surveillance that has now come out do you think is directed expressly at monitoring and even suppressing political dissent and opposition?

Kadidal: Well, there are plenty of political movements that are already regarded as quasi-"terrorist" by the government, right? So all sorts of activism relating to Gaza, relating to Cuba, relating to various revolutions in the Middle East over the last few years, are already on the government's radar. The question almost should be how much does the government even distinguish between terrorism and political activism. But then there's the chilling effect too. I mean, just knowing that the government has this database, and if they decide that your group is a threat in the future even if they don't believe that now, that they can pretty much figure out everything about your associational patterns, that's going to dissuade people from coming out and networking politically, right? So that in itself is a huge, huge problem. I might analogize it to the kind of, the efforts of various Confederacy states during the 1960s to get at the NAACP's membership lists.^*

Revolution: What's come out so far already seems almost surreal in terms of how vast the surveillance is—but at the same time you get a sense that it may be just the tip of the iceberg. What's your thoughts on that?

Kadidal: Yeah, well, I don't think we've seen the end of Glenn Greenwald's reporting on this either. So hopefully there'll be a lot more. But part of that is the consequence of the fact that this agency, the NSA, we don't even probably know its budget breakdown. The top-line budget for the NSA and CIA is enormous—I think it's something like $40 billion for both of them. We know they have about 40,000 employees, so they're bigger than the CIA. We only know that because people have estimated from satellite photos of their parking lot. So there's very little knowledge about the capabilities that these folks are building. Very little oversight of that either, because everything about their budget and operation is completely off the public books. That in itself is a huge problem. There are reports—Wired magazine seems to run a story every month about the new facilities they're building, what they might be up to. But it comes to have a kind of a science fiction feel.

I think one of the great things about the phone records order [issued to Verizon] is that actually seeing the order really... as a lawyer it has an impact on you. You look at it, it looks like the boilerplate of a traditional warrant. But when you get to the point where they're supposed to make the specific description—you know, "this person talking on this line about this kind of criminal activity"—instead it just says, "Give us everything"... "Give us all phone records of foreigner calls"... and "all domestic calls." So from an emotional standpoint, just kind of realizing what it's all about, what's happening—having the actual document makes a great impact. It shows a little bit the value of even the most minimal form of transparency—you know, one order out of many, many, many.

 

* Note from Revolution: In the early 1960s, a number of former slave states—Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia—ordered the NAACP to turn over their membership rolls under various legal pretexts. Given the tight relationship between the state governments and police on one hand and groups like the KKK on the other, it was clear that surrendering the lists would subject members to harassment, economic retaliation, and even lynchings. The NAACP waged a legal fight against the orders, but the orders and the threat of huge fines for non-compliance virtually put a stop to the activity of the organization in these states for years. [back]

 

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/check-it-out-dirty-wars-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Check it out...
Dirty Wars

June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From a reader:

I want to ask every reader of this paper to go see, as soon as you can, the movie Dirty Wars, by Jeremy Scahill and David Riker. It is a highly relevant, courageous, and very well-done movie exposing the real crimes behind the so-called “war on terror”—and yes, I know that Obama doesn’t call it that any more... but if you want to know the reality of the way that he has taken forward what Bush began, if you want to know the scale and scope of it and then how it plays out and what it looks like and feels like on the ground, then you MUST see this film. If you want to see how “the dots” are connected from the surveillance that is now so controversial—and that government spokespeople blandly assure you is for “your safety” and “aimed at the ‘bad guys’”—you must see this. You may think you know all that, but believe me—you don’t know it like this, on this level. And if you are one of those still all-too-many who don’t want to know that... then you REALLY need to see this.

This movie comes at an important time. Truths are being forced into the national consciousness. But what will be done with that truth—what impact will it have—will it lead to further exposures and serious opposition—will those telling the truth be silenced, or worse? These questions are far from settled.

I could not help while watching this movie but think of Bob Avakian’s point how imperialism on the one hand and Islamic fundamentalism on the other “reinforce each other, even while opposing each other.” You see before your eyes this ugly dynamic going on. Nor could I forget the important subsequent point to that, that “at the same time we have to be clear about which of these ‘historically outmodeds’ has done the greater damage and poses the greater threat to humanity: It is the historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system, and in particular the U.S. imperialists.” [BAsics, 1:28, pp. 20-21] And I was also spurred by this to review “Unresolved Contradictions, Driving Forces For Revolution” by BA—and found the whole first part (“Once More on the Coming Civil War...and Repolarization for Revolution,”) very illuminating and the first section in particular (“Breaking Out of a Deadly Dynamic”) very relevant.

There are other important positive elements to this movie. It is well-done artistically—including the very haunting original music from the Kronos Quartet. There are things to learn about conflicts among the ruling forces themselves and there are aspects of Scahill’s method that are thought-provoking. But the basic point is this: there are truths here that need to be learned and popularized.

 

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/june-10-national-hoodie-day-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

June 10—National Hoodie Day:
Saying NO MORE to Open Season on Black Youth!

June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On June 10, national and international attention was focused on Sanford, Florida, where the trial of George Zimmerman, the vigilante murderer of Trayvon Martin, opened with jury selection. A very important thing that many of those eyes saw was people taking to the streets and acting in other ways to deliver the message, "We Are All Trayvon! The Whole Damn System Is Guilty!" National Hoodie Day, called by the Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN), was taken up in cities across the U.S. by people of different nationalities and garnered much local and some national coverage in print and broadcast media.

In Sanford itself, a delegation that included Cephus "Uncle Bobby" Johnson and Beatrice X, the uncle and aunt of Oscar Grant, who was murdered by cops in the Oakland/San Francisco area on New Years Day, 2009 and Noche Diaz, a member of the NYC Revolution Club and an activist in the Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN) brought the message to ground zero in Sanford in the fight for justice for Trayvon. This fight was also taken up in Boston; Buffalo, NY; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Detroit; Fresno, CA; Jacksonville, FL; Los Angeles; Milwaukee; New York City; the Oakland/San Francisco area and the Twin Cities in Minnesota.

In the days leading into Hoodie Day, high school students snapped up stickers bearing the slogans, posed for pictures wearing hoodies, and signed banners. Teachers in Chicago contributed money to get more stickers printed, and people on the streets of Harlem donated $300 to send Noche to Sanford. Thousands of stickers and fliers went out to people attending a hip-hop concert in Oakland.

The call for Hoodie Day was spread widely on Facebook and Twitter. Chaka Khan, who gathered dozens of actors and musicians to do a tribute song for Trayvon following his murder last year, tweeted: "2Day is National Hoodie Day. Will u stand with me? RT #Justice4Trayvon. Arsenio Hall was among 50 people who retweeted this message. Others who tweeted about it included Chuck D, Cornel West, the Prison Watch Network and Occupy Wall Street.

On June 10 itself, people took to the streets in powerful marches and rallies. 70 people were in the street in LA's mostly Black Crenshaw District. Traffic stopped as Aztec Dancers mixed with high school students of different nationalities to express bitterness at how Trayvon's murder concentrated the way Black youth are targeted in this society. 75 marched through downtown Chicago, wearing hoodies and carrying signs and banners. The "3 Strikes" quote from Bob Avakian was read aloud at the rally, with the crowd joining in on the last line: "That's it for this system; 3 strikes and you're out!" In NYC, rallies in both Harlem and at Union Square gathered 70 people, some of whom braved torrential rains to come out, and some of whom joined the demonstrations when they came upon them in the streets. In Buffalo, NY, marchers wound through a Black community, bringing traffic to a standstill and drawing support from drivers and people walking by, some of whom joined the march.

This is just to give a taste of what went on in cities around the country.... but go to "Updates from Sanford and Around the Country: The Trial of Trayvon's Killer—The People's Demand for Justice" to read full reports:

 

Oakland, CA. 50 people gathered at the Fruitvale BART train station where Oscar Grant was murdered by the police; another 25 were at 14th and Broadway in downtown. In the afternoon, six members of a social club in the community showed up, wearing black hoodies, ready for a video production for justice for Trayvon which had been pre-arranged a week prior. A rapper from the Revolution Club stepped up to the beat track from a local rap group in the hood, as the social club moved to the beat, speaking to the deep sentiment from those in the hood that "we are all Trayvon Martin." Afterward, the social club and others passed their phones around taking pictures for their hashtags, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook friends. People were proud of what they had done, wanting to do more; and the social club then set up a video showing/discussion of the DVD BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! specifically for their next meeting.

 

Crenshaw District, LA. 70 people hit the streets for a very spirited and determined rally and march in the Leimert Park area during rush hour traffic, bringing business as usual to a virtual stop in the Crenshaw district—an historic and present-day commercial and cultural hub of Black people in LA. People came out of storefronts to give fist salutes and take pictures, and cars by the dozens honked their horns in unity. Masses took to the bullhorns and held up banners; seriously and joyously running up and down the street, rushing up to cars and passing out information on the battle for justice for Trayvon; some youth came off the street to join. The march was covered by the Los Angeles Times and several TV and radio stations.

 

Harlem and Union Square, New York City. Some 100 people came out, first in Harlem, then later in Union Square, speaking of their anger and fears, but also of their pride in standing up with others to fight it, and their determination not to back down. In Harlem people rallied in St. Nicholas Park and got out stickers saying "We Are All Trayvon Martin/The Whole System Is Guilty" to over 50 high school students who were grabbing them and putting them on on-the-spot. Then they marched through the area, chanting "Trayvon Did Not Have to Die; We All Know the Reason Why; The Whole System Is Guilty." They started the march with 15 people and grew to over 25 as others joined along the way.

 

Downtown Chicago. Rush hour traffic was jolted awake by a roving march that grew to 75 people wearing hoodies and carrying banners with the image of Trayvon Martin in his hoodie, homemade signs, banners signed by high school students—delivering the message "We Are All Trayvon Martin! The Whole Damn System is Guilty!" The crowd included family members of those killed by Chicago police. One mother wore a target on the back of her head with the hoodie up—where the police had shot her son. A former prisoner with his son and wife were in the house, along with activists for prisoners rights and people from Occupy. Young activists from Occupy and the Revolution Club led the chants. People in the protest carried banners that had been signed and/or made by students at high schools and throughout Chicago. In the week before in a neighborhood on the West Side a group of youth playing basketball at a hoop in the street stopped their game and grabbed handfuls of stickers and fliers. As the sound car pulled away, instead of resuming their game these youth took the stickers and fliers and started down the street, handing them out to people sitting on their porches.

These actions provided a necessary counterpoint to the attempts of Zimmerman's legal defense team in this case, abetted by the media, to drag Trayvon's reputation through the mud to justify Zimmerman murdering him. It took thousands of people taking to the streets across the country to force the authorities to arrest Zimmerman and put him on trial. It will take more of the same to have a real shot at justice in this case.

As a member of the Revolution Club put it, "This was a good beginning." SMIN is calling for people to remain focused in on this case, ready to put their hoodies back up, and express their rage at the bulls-eye on the backs of oppressed youth in the streets and in other ways at key points in this case.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/voices-from-florida-opening-day-of-zimmerman-trial-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Voices from Sanford, Florida

Opening Day of Zimmerman Trial: We are All Trayvon Martin! We Demand Justice!

June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

June 10 was the opening day of the trial of George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin. A number of people gathered in front of the Seminole County Courthouse, including many who had protested in 2012 to demand the arrest of George Zimmerman. A team of Revolution reporters was there talking to people and the following are excerpts from some of those interviews and conversations:

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Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson (uncle of Oscar Grant)

You came all the way from Oakland, California. Can you tell us what brought you here today?

Again, we're here in Sanford; one, to support the Trayvon Martin family and, as a family that has experienced the murder of my nephew at the hands of a racist cop on January 1, 2009 and going into the racist criminal justice system to experience the treatment that we encountered as a family in this system, we know how important it is that this family have the support that they need in order to get through this criminal process—as well as just the simple murder—not simple, but the heinous murder of their son Trayvon.

The video of your nephew's murder was caught on multiple cell phone cameras and was viewed by people around the country. People were outraged. Judging from your experience, what will it take to get justice for Trayvon Martin?

We cannot rely on the system in order for Trayvon to get justice and if by chance he gets justice, it was by design, to trick the community into believing the system works. The system is by design working the way it’s supposed to by not allowing us to get a fair trial or justice in this system. And so what we have to do as a community—as people across the United States—is to support this family and let the system know that there's a community out here that is saying NO MORE! You know... and we demand justice because we are Trayvon Martin...I am Oscar Grant. So with the community out here being strong, it has to be visual. It has to be outraged and it has to let the system know that we're not going to take this any more!

Of course we send our love out to Trayvon Martin’s family and again we're here to represent the Oscar Grant Foundation as well as connect with the Revolution and Stop Mass Incarceration Network team here—to speak to this issue of this heinous act of murder by George Zimmerman of Trayvon Martin. We will be here in order to get this justice—because we know how important it is—because we as a family experienced some of the most heinous acts within the system when it came to just sitting in trial.

Right, right, and in your case there was protest throughout the trial...both immediately after Oscar's murder and during the trial of the cop [who killed Oscar, Johannes Mehserle].

Right. What people have to realize is how important it was with the protests and the rallies in California, especially in Oakland, because it brought the first police officer in California state history to be charged, arrested, convicted and sent to jail! Though it was a slap in the face [the cop served only 11 months—less than half of his two-year sentence], it was the first time in [California] history that has ever happened. Since the murder of Oscar, there's been over 25 murders by police officers and not one single family yet has secured an officer being arrested, charged, convicted, and sent to jail.

So protest matters in Zimmerman’s case?

Protest matters in all these cases.

“Still Hurting”

I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. I got inspired by this movement because of what happened to Trayvon. Basically, I have a grandson, and I'm, as you say, we're all family and we're all one. So, I decided to go to the march on the capital in Atlanta (in 2012 to demand the arrest of Zimmerman) and I promised that I'd be down here for the trial.

So, you drove down here?

Yeah. I drove down here yesterday. I came by myself.

That's like some determination.

Oh, definitely. Definitely.

So, let's go back like a year and a half when you first heard about the murder of Trayvon Martin.

I dreamt about it a lot like as if I was there. I still hurt. I felt like it didn't have to go that way. It didn't have to happen that way. There were warning signs and, you know, he could have went the other way with it but he decided to take it into his own hands, take matters into his own hands. So, yeah, I was pretty hurt about it. I felt like I needed to do something about it.

And how did you feel when Zimmerman just walked into the front door of the police department and walked out the back?

Pissed. Yeah, you’re asking for emotions. Totally pissed. But what I was even more upset about was that, you know, so many people donated money to get him out.

You mean after he was arrested.

Yeah. After he was arrested.

But what about the fact that at first he wasn't even arrested?

Yeah. Now that's the spark that started everything. I think that actually got us going and got America thinking about, you know, are we still back in the '60s or the slavery days and all that stuff. So, I really think that him not getting arrested really woke us up, that it still exists and racism still exists and we need to go ahead and take care of it once and for all. We really have came a long way but we have went so far back.

I went out to the capital. That's what I was talking about. We had a protest, we had a march and everything. It was huge.

So how did you feel then when you found out Zimmerman had been arrested?

Relieved. I feel like it was my child that this had happened to and I felt the same thing the mother felt. I felt overwhelmed with joy. Because it took too long. It shouldn't have took a year and a half to have court.

You carried this sign from then to now?

Yeah, for a whole year and a half. The same sign.

The picture on it is a picture of your grandson? It says: “Could he be the next Trayvon Martin?”

Yeah.

How do you feel, what do you think it’s going to take to get justice?

Honest people. I have no faith in the justice system. That’s just being honest about it. I hope that honest people prevail, that they listen to the facts and they really look at the overtones of what its saying to people. People think they can walk around and shoot an innocent child. I just don’t get that. Just because he’s walking with a... they’re saying it’s not because of a hoodie, but in reality it IS because of a hoodie. He had on a hoodie and he looked “suspicious.” I’m just going by what was said.

“My hoodie does not mean I’m a criminal”

Your t-shirt, it says: “My hoodie does not mean I’m a criminal” and it’s got a picture of Trayvon Martin. Why don’t you start there.

Well, first of all, give it all to god. I’m here in support of the legal team for the case of Trayvon Martin. This is very important. This case has history behind it and also it is to eradicate illegal justice all over the world, really. It’s not just in Sanford, it’s all over. So that is why I have the shirt on that says, “My hoodie doesn’t mean I’m a criminal.” And you know that’s profiling. Just because someone is wearing a hoodie doesn’t mean they have mean intentions. No. So that’s why I’m wearing the shirt. And like again, I’m here to support the defense team for justice.

Now, when you say this has larger ramifications can you explain what you mean by that?

What I mean by that is that you have injustice all over the United States. You have Trayvon Martins that we have never even heard of all over the United States and it just so happens that we lost a young man because he was profiled, because he was wearing a hoodie, you know, he lost his life, for really nothing. Hopefully the outcome of this case will really somewhat kind of rewrite Stand Your Ground, if not get rid of it all along. Stand Your Ground is so vague and grey it doesn’t make sense. So that’s what I mean by larger ramifications, that if people do right and there is a guilty verdict I’m almost positive that you’re gonna see the law change as far as Stand Your Ground. And that’s what I mean by the bigger picture.

And what about the bigger picture outside the legal arena?

Well, I’m kinda hoping that all law enforcement all over the United States and the world really pay attention because there’s a large statement here that we’re proclaiming if George Zimmerman is guilty we’re hoping that everyone takes heed to that and sees that just because you’re wearing a badge and just because you have some legal authority behind you doesn’t mean you can be a crazy person or some kind of security guard thinking he’s superman or whatever. It’s a lot of things we’re hoping will come out of this and I’m quite sure it will.

“I Want to See Justice”

78-year-old white guy with a sign that says: “I wish I did not have to be here”

Take us back to the beginning, when you first heard about the murder of Trayvon Martin, how did you feel?

That one of our kids got murdered. You know, when I looked at it, to me, I say it was premeditated. He walked out of his apartment with a handgun. What are they made for? They are made for shooting people. And when he followed him, that is premeditation. So that’s my feeling, that it was premeditated murder. But you have to remember, Trayvon was “armed”—he had Skittles and iced tea. We’re gonna have to contact the Feds and tell them that before you can buy Skittles and ice tea you have to have a background check because that was what he had and so that’s dangerous, I guess.

Especially if you’re wearing a hoodie...You were here protesting last time before Zimmerman was arrested?

Yeah, there were 20,000 people here... and I had this same sign, “I wish I did not have to be here.” It took over a month after the murder to arrest Zimmerman. This country is racist, this central Florida is racist and I know more about racism than anybody here because I study it, I give lectures on it, I give speeches on it.... but I am prejudiced against bigots...and something I just can’t stand is sexism, racism, discrimination against same sex marriage and stuff like that, stuff like that just bother me.

Why did you feel it important to be out here on the first day of the trial?

I would like to be here every day. Because I want to see justice. And I don’t think you’re going to see justice if you don’t see demonstrators, you know because that’s what got him arrested. And what we want to see is justice.

Beatrice X, Director of the Oscar Grant Foundation

I am out here to support the family of Trayvon Martin and to support all the families who may have children that are Trayvon Martin. And we’re here because the state of California and families who have lost loved ones in the same manner of Trayvon Martin wish they could be here. I’m the Director of the Oscar Grant Foundation and now I’m married to Uncle Bobby, Cephus Johnson, the uncle of Oscar Grant.

Oscar was a young man, 22 years old, who had a daughter, who was murdered on the Fruitvale BART station on January 1, 2009. And he was murdered while he was lying flat with his hands behind his back. And he was a good guy, he was a young man, making his way through life, loved his daughter, wanted to marry his fiancée, and he was looking forward to a prosperous new year.

So when that happened, you got involved?

I did, because we saw the video. I have a son, at that time he was 14. And so to see that, Oscar was my son. And it was very painful, so that’s why I got involved. Because to see something like that and do nothing, that says a lot. As a community, to just lay down and watch a video like that and do nothing, if we had done nothing that would have said a lot. Nothing’s gonna change if we don’t change it. And so, that’s why I think, they had different kinds of people in slavery. I’m Black. So, you know what I’m saying? I would have been with Nat Turner, OK? I would have been with Harriet Tubman, OK? So, that spirit is very important. It’s very important, because if it doesn’t happen you can’t wake up other people. Even though a lot of people was like, oh they was scared, a lot of people was happy that something happened. And so when people do nothing, nothing happens. And we have to do something, we have to wake up. We have to wake up. Wake up people! I say that all the time. Wake up! We have it bad. What about our children and our grandchildren. I got two grandsons. I do not want, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, that this is the same plight. Something wrong with that picture.

When Trayvon was murdered people came out all over the country, including in the Bay Area. And two universal things came out. People said, “We are all Trayvon, that could have been me, that could have been my son.” And people brought up the memory of Emmett Till.

Because here we are, all these years later, the same thing. And that’s what I’m talking about. If we don’t wake up, wake up everybody—if we don’t wake up, then 50 years later, it’ll be the same thing. So that’s why Emmett Till came out. Because it’s the same thing, it’s the same thing. And if we delude ourselves then we’ll be the next family trying to seek justice for something that’s been going on for a long time. And we shouldn’t wait until it happens to us. That’s what we tell people, don’t wait until it happens to you to get involved. Because you don’t know when it will. We hope it never do. This is a group nobody wants to be in. No one wants to be in this group, OK, where you have lost your loved one, especially in that manner and then you get no justice for it.

Some say that now that the trial of Zimmerman has started we should wait and see what happens...

An activist don’t move like that, OK? An activist gonna get busy, that’s all there is to it. If you don’t stand up, if you see something you don’t like, then you gonna stand up for it, that’s what an activist do.... That’s what we do, if you’re a real activist. That means you’re activated for justice. That means you’re activated to fight.

What about those who say wait and see...

That’s because they’re in denial about this racist criminal justice system.

Speak to them.

What I would say is wake up! That’s all I can say. At this point, what I would say is wake up. There’s too much history. Wake the hell up.... Either you want something to change or you want it to stay the same. That’s the time we’re in. There’s no middle right now. Either you’re with it or you’re not. So there’s a time for everything. There’s a time to lay back and do nothing. There’s a time to do something. There’s no middle ground no more. We’re out of that time. We really are. But we don’t see. But we will feel the effects of not doing nothing. We are feeling the effects of not doing nothing. So all I can say is wake the hell up. Everything is out there, it’s on the news, you see it every day, you see it in your community, it’s in your family, you live it. OK? Because it’s there. But people choose not to deal with things. And if you want to live a surface thing and not deal with reality, then you’re going to get the consequences of not dealing with reality. And reality will slap you in the face, OK?

“We Don’t Feel Safe”

Young Black woman in her early twenties living in West Palm Beach, leaving the courthouse after paying a ticket inside.

My son is eight. He wears hoodies. Would you have shot my son if you had seen him walking from the store? ... If he's not found guilty [Zimmerman] with the evidence they have presented already... we're already in a messed-up time... it's gonna be worse, worse. It's gonna cause a whole other BOOM! ... As a family we don't feel safe living here at this time because we don't even feel like Zimmerman's going to be found guilty of this murder.

Sanford, if it's not drugs, they don't care ... that's point blank. It took them [the cops] almost 30 minutes to get out there to the scene where he [Trayvon] was shot at. There was another Black guy over there shot and killed ... two months and they closed his case ... they don't care who did it. Just another nigger dead. There's another killing every two weeks.

Reacting to B.A.'s Three Strikes quote on the back page of Revolution newspaper:

I'm not even trying to be funny. If they were to ever go back to this state of mind. Seminole County is already right here [points to picture of lynching]. If they were to change the laws today to go back to this... within two hours there would be somebody in this predicament here in Seminole County. Last week a guy went to jail for... he bought the beer. He hadn't opened the beer, but he had bought the beer and he didn't have an ID on him to say that he was 21. This cop came and picked him up by the shirt and threw him on the ground. We were right there! Then you got three cops, one guy he maybe 160 pounds, knee in his back. This was at Little Sammy's Store on 1792! That's why I say... there's really no justice. There hasn't been no justice in Sanford, Florida since god know how long. That's why I had to get my kids out of this town.

Hashtag for Trayvon Martin

I’m a 23-year-old African-American law student/freelance writer. I attend Florida A&M University, College of Law. I am here to offer support mostly to Trayvon Martin’s family and to take a stand for justice. I came down here with my little sister, I brought her with me but some of my other classmates and other colleagues will also be down here today to offer support.

A year ago, when this first happened, what happened when you first heard about the murder?

I cried, I sobbed. That could have been my brother, it could have been my father, it could have been me. It’s just kind of one of those universal injustices. And I pray that justice is served.

When you say it could have been you, it could have been your brother..., explain that.

I think it’s easy for people to make simplistic assessments about who they think a threat is, so sometimes a brown face with a hoodie on is an easy assessment for some people to make and is more than likely what happened here.

And what do you think about the fact that they let Zimmerman walk free at first?

Um-hum! That is just evidence of privilege, privilege and bias and whose values and whose lives are perceived as worthwhile in society and whose aren’t...

And so you were out there protesting to get Zimmerman arrested?

I protested more so on social media at that particular time, people tweeted, people Facebooked, they shared stories, they blogged about it, it was huge.

Some people are waiting to see what happens, others have come here today to make a statement....

It is early yet, I hope that more will come. But just because we don’t see their physical bodies here it doesn’t mean they’re not offering support. Again social media is huge, not just in this country, but in the Middle East, Arab Spring, all of that. People can do a lot of important things through technology. Look at the hashtag for Trayvon Martin, people are speaking out.

“This happens all the time”

I do commercials and music videos and I'm running a foundation taking care as well for the disabled and right now I'm trying to influence in a positive manner, for such awful things that's been going on.

Ok. So, give me your thoughts on this whole matter here.

If the races were switched over I feel it would have went down a lot different. Also, as well, most importantly, this is not even the first case nor the last case. But thankfully it got highlighted. But it just happens so much and it's horrible that it happens this much and there's not anybody doing anything about it and the system just wants you to sit home and don't worry about it and let them take care of it instead of people really giving their opinion...

When you say "This happens all the time," what do you mean by "this"?

I mean as in, the Black, Latino treatment; police force, the way the people perceive the actions on what's going on by the Black and Latino race and that's what I mean by "this"—and the way that it's handled after these type of things happen where there's a death or it's just treated in the wrong manner.

You live in Sanford?

No, I live in Orlando. But I've been through, not obviously to the extent of this, but I've been through a lot in my own lifetime.

Explain that. You mean being racially profiled by the police?

Yeah. Racially profiled by the police. I mean, right now I'm 29 years old, approximately around like 5'8". I give myself about 5'9" on a good day with some good shoes. But, um...

How many times have you been stopped?

I've been stopped, I'd say probably about a couple of times a month. But I'm used to it. But the worse thing is that I've been profiled as a 6'2" guy. I mean I'm almost 30 years old and I've never been six foot yet. So, I don't know how these things are happening. I've been stopped and arrested and heard over the cops' intercom that they'd found the perpetrator that's six foot two...

They were looking for a six foot two guy and they stopped you.

Yeah. And I got stopped.

But you were the “right color.” They were looking for a Black man.

Yeah. Basically. That's what they should have just said: We're looking for a Black guy... That's about where it goes, so, you know, I get tired of it.

But you're saying that you get stopped literally two or three times a month.

Easily. Easily. Especially because of what I do. I work nighttime, I do shows, I do music videos, I'm up late, I'm driving late, so I get pulled over. My tags are good. All my lights are good. You pull me over, Oh you’re.... I fit the profile.

And plus you never know. It could lead from this to that to that. You could be dead.

Exactly. Exactly. So, who's to say you're using your powers of justice and your badge to do whatever you want now. You know what I mean? To treat people how you see fit. Like you ARE the law. And this is not the law.

 

 

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/grasping-the-moment-to-have-a-national-and-international-impact-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Grasping the "moment" to have a national and international impact with Bob Avakian's message: "No More..."—BAsics 1:13

Raising significant funds in Harlem for "human billboard" in Sanford, Florida

June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From readers:

As the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin began on June 10, these words of Bob Avakian, emblazoned on a "human billboard" in Sanford, Florida were already drawing attention:

No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that. (BAsics 1:13)

In order to do this starting as the trial opened, money had to be raised—and fast. Over $150 was raised in four hours on Saturday on the street in Harlem and another $120 was raised at Harlem churches on Sunday.

Our agitation touched people deeply and we challenged people to donate—and more boldly up front calling on people to make larger donations than we have done in the past, to really making a difference.

There was a deep sense of anger around what happened to Trayvon and a deep connection people felt with this quote when they read it. An older Black woman pulling a cart behind her was overheard saying, "They better not let that racist walk free! They gonna see something if they do!" This sentiment was echoed in Spanish with great indignation: "¡NO! ¡No podemos permitir eso! [We can't let that happen.]" One man spoke of a volcano of anger. On various occasions people related the police murders, like of Ramarley Graham, in response to the points around the genocidal atmosphere against Black people being created. A woman who lives in the projects and who has the book BAsics by BA said that she had recently been out protesting against stop-and-frisk and was very disturbed by the moves to criminalize Trayvon. "There's got to be protest around this!" A neighbor of hers has the DVD of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!, and they are making plans to get a group together to show it. People took stacks of flyers and cards of BAsics 1:13 to get out in their buildings, their schools, and their churches. One middle-aged woman said, "My pastor supported the last National Hoodie Day and he should promote this!" One young woman said she would be taking over the microphone at a party that night to make an announcement. Young people promised to post the "National Hoodie Day" on Facebook.

But to actually raise the kind of money we needed to raise that weekend, and more to start to make the kind of breakthrough we need around fundraising among the basic people for BA Everywhere, we had to break with tendencies to "aim low." It took a while, but we increasingly began to start off asking for $5 or $10 donations—and a number of people indeed responded by giving us $5 or $10 donations, while others found their own level.

There is the challenge now to really follow up with all those who made a significant contribution, to build wave upon wave.

Then, on Saturday, June 15—people were back on the streets of Harlem, building on what had been learned and what had been accomplished. But this time, a challenge had been made: a person with more financial resources pledged to donate $3 for every $1 raised in Harlem on Saturday. This was important on many levels. We took this challenge out to the people, aiming to raise $250. Indeed, we exceeded our goals, raising $288 in Harlem on Saturday—which when combined with the 3-to-1 matching funds has meant a total of $1,153 for the campaign to get BA Everywhere in one day. We hope this experience will inspire others to make similar matching pledges and for people in Harlem or other areas of the oppressed to meet those challenges.

BAsics 1:13 was touching people deeply and many people, young and old, including basic masses, folks who have seen us and known us for a long time and many we just met, felt compelled to donate 5 and 10 dollars to get this statement everywhere. People were glad to contribute when they heard that it was on the human billboard in Sanford and that more money was needed for another group of volunteers to go to Sanford to, as we put it in our flyer: "get it seen in a big way, going up in the face of those who hate what this quote says and represents, and into the hearts of many thousands who have hopes and dreams of a radically different world where there is truly 'No More of That.'"

The matching challenge had a positive impact, with some giving who would not have given otherwise, and others giving increasing the amount that they donated.

Where we fell down was not challenging and working with people we knew to go beyond donating to actually raising funds from others themselves, with the BAE raffle an important gateway/means for doing that in a form very familiar to people.

Raising this money in Harlem and already seeing the effect that putting BA's message out to a national and international audience, as we saw with this "human billboard," gave us our first taste this summer of the power and importance of the BA Everywhere campaign so that Bob Avakian's analysis of the source of the problems in the world and even more the solution to them, is out there so that thousands, even millions are debating and examining them. That has been very important. But a taste is not a whole meal. So with that in mind, we also broadly invited people to the BA Everywhere Barbecue and Picnic to kick off the whole summer of "Taking BA Everywhere, Raising Funds and Making a Difference" on Sunday the 16th, which we will report on very soon.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/military-escalation-in-syria-yet-more-horrors-in-store-for-the-syrian-people-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

U.S. Military Escalation in Syria...Yet More Horrors in Store for the Syrian People

by Larry Everest | June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On June 13, the Obama administration announced it was escalating U.S. military involvement in the war in Syria by openly and directly supplying the Syrian opposition with weapons and military equipment for the first time, and by positioning more U.S. military forces in neighboring Jordan.

The U.S. has been intervening in Syria, in one form or another, since the uprising against Bashir Al Assad's reactionary regime began in March 2011. After initially hesitating, the Obama administration declared that Assad must go, not because he's a butcher, but because the U.S. calculated Assad's fall could strengthen the U.S. position in the Middle East by weakening its main adversaries—Iran and its Shi'ite fundamentalist allies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Fueling a Reactionary Slaughter

What has this intervention by the U.S. and its allies accomplished so far? It's helped fuel and prolong a horrific, reactionary slaughter. Nearly 100,000 Syrians have been killed, one million more driven from the country, and another four million driven from their homes inside Syria. According to human rights agencies, both sides in the conflict—including the forces the U.S. is seeking to cohere and shape into a new regime—have carried out kidnapping, torture, and summary assassinations of their opponents and civilians. Tens of thousands in Syria have died, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

The current situation is a humanitarian crisis on top of already existing humanitarian crises. Tens of thousands of people who fled Iraq during and in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion and occupation ended up seeking refuge in Syria. Today they are being forced to flee again, back to Iraq where they face conditions the UN describes as "high rates of unemployment, dismal basic services and ongoing sectarian strife." What little possessions they fled Iraq with have been lost, and they are being pushed back out of Syria traumatized, desperate, broke, and homeless.

And conditions for the half-million Syrian refugees in camps in neighboring Jordan are so bad that many are returning to war-wracked Syria, which a UN report called the "best bad choice." One refugee who lives in the Za'atari camp where 120,000 people try to survive in tents and caravans in the middle of the desert said, "Life is too expensive outside Za'atari, but unbearable in the camp." The UN reports that in this camp, "Riots occur almost daily over perceived injustice in distribution and general frustration over insufficient help." (See "For some, the best bad choice: Returning from refuge to Syria" at irinnews.org.)

And what does this latest U.S. move of giving some "rebels" military assistance have to do with alleviating this humanitarian nightmare? Nothing. So why should anyone expect this, or further imperialist involvement, would do anything other than more of the same—fueling a slaughter?

U.S. Aims and Interests

The U.S. claims they are escalating their aid because the Syrian regime is using chemical weapons. First of all, international agencies with any credibility have found at least as much evidence that the U.S.-backed forces are using chemical weapons. But beyond that, the U.S. is not motivated by, and escalating U.S. intervention is in no way justified by, whatever crimes are being committed by the Syrian regime. The motives of the U.S. have nothing to do with the use of nerve gas, much less the interests of the people of Syria.

Those fighting against Assad are a mixed bag of reactionary Sunni religious fundamentalists, including jihadists, and wannabe U.S. clients. (There are perhaps 1,000 different militias operating in Syria.) Nonetheless, for over a year, the Obama administration has been supplying these pro-U.S. elements with materiel, intelligence, and training, while trying to shape and control their politics. U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey have supplied weapons to them.

Voices in the U.S. ruling class have raised concerns about the dangers for U.S. imperialism in being drawn into a quagmire. But the U.S. is driven to escalate its intervention by recent military setbacks for the opposition, as well as perceived need by the U.S. to exercise more control over the political agenda of the opposition. In fact, the U.S. may be cynically arming the Syrian opposition, not in hopes this will turn the tide, but mainly to drag out the fighting and weaken and tie down Iran and Iran's ally, Hezbollah, which have sent fighters and military support to the Assad regime.

And the decision to openly and directly arm the Syrian "rebels" may only be the tip of the iceberg of U.S. military escalation. The Obama administration is reportedly stationing F-16 fighter jets and Patriot missile batteries in neighboring Jordan and may be preparing to impose a "no fly zone" over Syria. With Russia and Iran also increasing their support for the Assad regime, this U.S. action may turn out to be a very ominous turn, along with moves by Iran and its allies, turning the Syrian conflict into a regional conflict, with very dangerous and unpredictable consequences.

U.S. actions in Syria are the latest episode in the horror film we've been watching for the last 12 years. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan, then Iraq, escalated threats against Iran, built up its regional enforcer Israel, intervened in Libya, and escalated drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, while continuing to back brutal tyrants in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Turkey, and across the region. All these are pieces of one overarching campaign to violently maintain U.S. control of the vast swath of the planet from West Africa through the Middle East to Central Asia—a geographic crossroads with over 60 percent of the world's energy reserves—that is a crucial component of the U.S.'s global empire of exploitation. All this to maintain a regional order that has already brought decade after decade of misery, oppression, and death.

The fact that in large part the U.S. is confronting, and is confronted by, reactionary Islamic jihadist forces does not in any way mitigate the nature of what the U.S. is doing. In fact, many of these jihadist forces are direct offshoots of things like the CIA arming Osama bin Laden to fight the Soviets during the Cold War. And every time a U.S. missile blows up a village, from Afghanistan to Yemen, these actions drive people into the arms of such fundamentalist forces.

Opposing U.S. Aggression, Fighting for Another Way

People in the U.S. cannot simply stand back and look on with horror at what's unfolding in Syria and the Middle East. Active, visible political opposition to this U.S. escalation—and all U.S. and Israeli crimes in the region—is called for!

As Revolution wrote recently, "Such visible opposition—even if small at first—can be a very positive and dynamic force on the terrain as events unfold. The more resistance to the U.S. and Israel is informed by the orientation of opposing both reactionary Islamic Jihad and U.S. imperialism—and let's be clear that it's the U.S. that has been responsible for the lion's share of death in the Middle East—the more there is an inspiration and basis for people around the world, including in Syria, to be part of bringing forward another way, beyond the reactionary 'alternatives' fighting it out on the ground in Syria today."

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/immigration-and-two-constitutions-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

Immigration and Two Constitutions:
Heartless and Vicious... v. Starting from the Interests of Humanity

June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

The situation for undocumented immigrants in the USA today is hellish. Infants carried across deserts and mountains by their mothers; young people trying to improve their lives and those of their families by coming to the U.S. and working hard at backbreaking jobs at minimum wage or less—until they are caught up in an immigration raid and deported, their families torn apart; others dying horrible deaths when the water runs out as they try to cross the vast deserts, or while packed into suffocating trucks.

To the capitalist-imperialist system, these immigrants—driven here by the workings of imperialism as it destroys economies and wreaks havoc on lives around the world—are nothing but objects to be mercilessly exploited.

Right now there is "debate" in Congress over an "immigration reform" bill. On careful examination, this "reform" has nothing to do with reforming the oppressive situation confronting immigrants but does have everything to do with further ramping up the brutal militarization of the U.S./Mexico border and instituting highly repressive attacks on and registration of millions of immigrants in this country, in order to better control and exploit this segment of the population—all under the guise of extending a "path to citizenship."

Compare the whole orientation and approach to immigrants in this system to Article II, Section H in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) from the RCP, "Immigrants, Citizenship and Asylum."

 

From Article II, Section H in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)

H. Immigrants, Citizenship and Asylum.

1. Throughout its history and its development into an imperialist power, the United States of America depended on the exploitation, often in extreme conditions, of generations of immigrants, numbering in the many millions, who were driven to the USA as a result of oppression, poverty, war and upheaval. These immigrants–including those from Europe who came to the USA during the latter part of the 19th and the first part of the 20th century, or at least several generations of them–were also subjected to discrimination and demeaning treatment, although after a period of time many of these immigrant groups were integrated into the larger “white European” population in the USA and, on the basis of expansion and conquest by U.S. imperialism, and the spoils acquired in this way, many were able to rise from the ranks of the working class and poorer sections of the population and become a part of the “American middle class,” with a more or less privileged position in relation to especially the lower and more exploited sections of the proletariat and the masses of Black and Latino people and others concentrated, and forcibly contained, within the decaying and repressive confines of the inner cities of late imperial America.  At the same time, and in a heightening way through the end of the 20th and the first part of the 21st century, as a result of the domination and plunder carried out by U.S. imperialism throughout most of the Third World in particular, and the devastation and massive dislocation that resulted from and accompanied this, great numbers of immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, as well as other parts of the Third World, were driven to the U.S., many of whom were not able to secure legal entry and consequently were forced to live in the shadows and remain vulnerable to extreme exploitation as well as to discrimination and to violence and terror carried out by the state and by mobs encouraged by reactionary policies, actions and statements of the government and government officials.  And the ruling forces of the imperialist USA seized on this situation to further tighten control over, and unleash more terror against, these immigrants and to subject many of them to even more extreme exploitation, while whipping up a xenophobic and fascist anti-immigrant atmosphere.

The defeat and dismantling of the imperialist USA and its machinery of violent destruction and repression has radically changed this situation. In this revolutionary struggle, and its victory, large numbers of immigrants, as well as masses of Black people and other oppressed nationalities within the former imperialist USA, played a crucial role, and they can and must continue to play a vital part in the continuing transformation of society, and the world as a whole, as part of the backbone of the New Socialist Republic in North America.

2. At the time of the establishment of the New Socialist Republic in North America, all those residing within the territory of this Republic–with the exception of those who played a leading role in opposing the revolution which brought about the establishment of this Republic, and/or who may have been found guilty of war crimes and/or other crimes against humanity–shall have been accorded citizenship in this Republic, with the rights and responsibilities of citizens, in accordance with this Constitution. And, from that time forward, all those born within the territory of the New Socialist Republic in North America, as well as all those, wherever they are born, who have at least one parent who is a citizen of this Republic, shall be citizens of this Republic.

3. The orientation of the New Socialist Republic in North America is to welcome immigrants from all over the world who have a sincere desire to contribute to the goals and objectives of this Republic, as set forth in this Constitution and in laws and policies which are established and enacted in accordance with this Constitution. From the time of the establishment of the New Socialist Republic in North America, anyone residing outside of the territory of this Republic who wishes to enter its territory, and any such person wishing to become a citizen, or a permanent resident, of this Republic, must follow the relevant laws and procedures which have been established on the basis of this Constitution. Anyone who applies for asylum in this Republic and, through the relevant procedures that have been established for this purpose, is found to have been persecuted, or to have a well-founded fear of persecution, on account of having taken part in just struggles against imperialist and reactionary states or other reactionary forces, or on account of scientific, artistic, or other pursuits which have brought them into conflict with reactionary powers and institutions, shall be afforded asylum in the New Socialist Republic in North America, so long as they pledge to act in compliance with the Constitution of this Republic, and do act accordingly. Provided that they do not engage in any serious violation of the laws of this Republic, people granted asylum have the right to remain within the territory of this Republic for as long as they choose to do so, and shall be accorded the same rights as citizens, with the exception that, so long as they have not become citizens, they may not vote in elections or be elected or appointed to public office. They shall have the right, after a certain period, determined by law, to become citizens of this Republic, with the same rights and responsibilities as all other citizens.  The citizenship process, as well as review of the asylum status of all those granted asylum, shall be carried out in accordance with the laws and procedures established for these purposes.

4. Anyone who is discovered to have entered the territory of this Republic without following the relevant laws and procedures, shall be detained and provided with a timely hearing, conducted by the government institution with the relevant responsibility, to determine the reasons for their presence within this Republic.  In connection with this process, such persons may apply for asylum or seek residency on some other basis, and these requests will be considered in the light of the basic orientation and principles set forth here.  If, however, evidence emerges which would indicate that the person, or persons, in question have entered the territory of this Republic not only by means that are in violation of its laws, but also with the intent to further violate the law in an effort to carry out sabotage or otherwise do harm to this Republic and its people, then criminal proceedings shall be instituted against such a person, or persons, in accordance with laws and legal procedures established on the basis of this Constitution.

 

 

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Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

A Spring Thunder Resonating Far and Wide

June 20, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

The following was written by a contributor and is being posted in both English and Turkish:

A social uprising on a scale not seen in recent decades has burst into the open like spring thunder, rejecting the way things are and opposing the direction they are heading. It has rapidly spread across Turkey, bringing a massive number of protesters into the streets in more than seventy cities and towns all the way from Istanbul to Diyarbakir. And it has brought forward a whole lively chorus of international solidarity from four corners of the world.

Since the end of May an explosion of a political crisis of tremendous significance has seized the center stage, sharply polarizing the whole society, drawing millions into debate and exposing all the basic rotten and oppressive nature of the existing social order and its fundamental assumptions. One defiant young woman, in the heat of pitched battle with the police, proudly responded, "It is not about a few trees, this struggle is about our souls!", to a journalist inquiring about what motivated the relentless surge of the protests.

On the surface it was the brutal attack by the riot police and the authorities at 5 o'clock in the morning on the 31st of May to evict 50-100 people peacefully protesting the planned demolition of Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park that sparked the whole social uprising. However from behind the thick fog of cr-gas and crippling shots of high pressure water cannons and concussion grenades of the first day engagements, it became clear that a new and fresh and determined force, a young generation of rebels has emerged, increasingly impatient with and intolerant of the existing political and social reality in Turkey.

The depth and scope of the rebel forces arrayed against the regime of the AKP (the Justice and Development Party), which has been ruling since 2002, reveals the sharp intensification of the contradictions. The young people from universities and the shantytowns, middle class people from all walks of life, artists and intellectuals are united with those who have been recently dislocated from the countryside, demanding the resignation of the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with the people who are outraged with the systematic islamization of the state and the public space and growing imposition of Islamic values and traditions and unrelenting promotion of religion-based morals. At the center and in the front ranks of this rebellion stand women who are furious about the encroachments on their bodies, lives and freedoms and the restrictions of abortion, and the government dictats about how many children a "patriotic," "good mother" should have. People who are outraged about the state sponsored efforts to erode or reject scientific truths like Darwin's theory of evolution are also part of the protests. The sympathizers of revolutionary groups and organizations fight alongside the people who oppose the deterioration of the environment and those who demand real freedom of speech, a stop to internet censorship and the arrests of journalists for even mild truth telling or criticism. Hence the slogan "Tayyip Resign!" loudly echoes between battle lines and barricades in different cities, representing a deep loathing of the AKP regime.

The AKP came to power cultivating an image of the "underdog" and promising a "just economic order" and development. Now the truth of this is clear in all its ugliness: an orgy of speculation, profiteering, and cronyism, all done with the help of the state: huge construction projects such as Istanbul Canal (a new artificial Bosporus), the Third Bridge or yet another "the biggest mosque ever" and many others. Not only are these projects aimed at enriching a handful of "pious AKP entrepreneurs," they are also ecological disasters that waste water resources, provoke land erosion and destruction of irreplaceable historic archeological treasures. An out-of-control mosque building program is masquerading as urban planning.

People are fed up with the regime's increasingly bellicose and arrogant swaggering in the region. They are glorifying, whitewashing and instrumentalizing the heritage of the Ottoman Empire. Foreign affairs minister Davutoglu's pseudo academic thesis about the importance of the Turkish state's "strategic depth" for governing the region in cahoots with the real masters of the region—the U.S. and European imperialists—represents their predatory aims and over-sized appetite. The fueling of sectarian reactionary civil war in Syria amply manifests this. And now they are coming to a cynical agreement with some Kurdish nationalist forces in order to chase after the reactionary regional ambitions of the Turkish ruling class and to stomp on the legitimate aspirations of the Kurdish people in the process.

Despite the public posturing of the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with his dismissive tone laced with overt threats against the protesters, there are signs within his ruling party that a gnawing sense of being under siege is making itself felt. There is talk of breaking ranks with Erdogan's leadership in order to deal with the developing legitimacy crisis of the reign of the Islam-based traditionalist pro free-market AKP which has been in government for 11 years.

What Lies Underneath the Surface

For the past three decades giant changes have been sweeping Turkey as part of the quickened pace of "globalization" in the world as a whole. During this period capitalist development has intensified in Turkey, which has meant new capitalists who want their share of the state power and their right to a "fair share" in the loot. This same process of development has also led to dislocation of millions of peasants and subsistence farmers, driven to bankruptcy and pushed into the shantytowns or to migrate abroad. This process of displacement and upheaval has been reflected in culture, ideas and morals. One strong tendency has been nostalgia for traditional values and morals such as seen in "Arabesque" music. Women have in massive numbers been brought out of the house and forced to feed their family as low wage laborers. Yet these same women are the victims of this Islamic and feudal ideology and the yearning for traditional values and lifestyle. The much vaunted modernization of Turkey has gone hand-in-hand with increasing occurrence of degradation and brutalization of women even including horrific honor killings. This is the bloody secret of the "pious entrepreneurship" model that symbolizes so much of the consciously cultivated posture of the AKP machinery.

The AKP came into existence and was propelled into power as an expression of these drives and contradictions toward, on the one hand, an increased "modern capitalist development" and, on the other hand, the promotion of traditional values and religious ideology—its "politics of piety." On the one hand, the AKP represents the unashamed defense and practice of "free market" capitalism and exploitation, working hand-in-hand with imperialism, yet their claim to power, their ideological cohesion and their appeal to a section of the people is increasingly rooted in religious ideology (Islam) and its nostalgic yearning for a traditional way of life that is being undercut by the very workings of the world capitalist system that the AKP is salivating over.

In the world today, and especially in the Middle East and North Africa, these two conflicting but interdependent drives are shaping political events and posing reactionary alternatives, contending with each other, and fueling reactionary violence and manipulation. Aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, Somalia, the imperialist "war on terrorism," the ongoing confrontation with Islamic Republic of Iran, all of this is marked by this same dynamic. The so-called "Turkish Model" was touted, as recently as May 31, as an example of mitigating and harmonizing unbridled capitalist, imperialist fueled development with reactionary outmoded Islamic political regime. Many in the region and in Turkey believed that this gymnastic leg splits was the best possible option available. Three elections were won with this self-delusion and this model was being sold (or pushed down the throats) as the deadening, stifling final curtain of the Arab Spring.

The current explosion is the sudden surfacing of these insoluble contradictions.

The efforts to reconcile imperialist-fueled capitalist development and western bourgeois democracy with a "harmless" moderate dose of Islam cannot achieve its aims. Tayyip may not be Taliban or Bin Laden, but he too is both an agent and a product of these same two opposed tendencies that he cannot possibly control. And this is one of the reasons he is so uncontrollably arrogant in his speeches.

The other side of the same dream was that Turkey would go from being a feasting ground for foreign imperialism to taking a seat at the imperialists' own table: the hopes of joining the European Union. From the beginning of the Turkish Republic in 1923 the goal of reaching the level of the "West Civilization" has been the dream of all of the rulers in Turkey. The AKP promised to deliver what even Ataturk and the generals could not. Beyond and above the fact that this was self-delusional, why should the peoples of Turkey want to aspire to take part in the pillaging of others or be proud of being a "strategic partner" (actually cop and torturer) for world class marauders, to protect a system which puts billions of dollars in the hands of a handful while billions of people are degraded? Where international sex slave trade becomes a big industry, child labor persists and the environment sustains irreparable damage? Isn't the effort to resurrect the grandeur of the Ottoman Empire nothing but a dream of Turkey taking its coveted place in the world imperialist system?

The most important fruit of the social rebellion against AKP, its ideology, its heavy hand and its project of society is the emerging collective realization that a completely different, opposing society must be brought into being.

Fighting Our Way and Bringing Forth a Radically New Society

People in Taksim Square and increasing numbers around the country want to participate in determining the direction of the country. They want to make good use of their passions and their talents to contribute to create a better society. There is a growing sense of the need to be good caretakers of the planet and not sacrifice the earth for money grubbing. Women and men dream of a society where patriarchy, the oppression and degradation of women can be overcome through struggle. Where one nation no longer lords it over others. People yearn for genuine cooperation and community and to get out from under the dog-eat-dog competition and indifference characteristic of the capitalist and imperialist world.

All of what people are fighting for and in fact much, much more is possible in Turkey and in the whole world. It is possible through a communist revolution. As "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have, A Message, And A Call, From The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA" put it:

"Communism [is] a world where people work and struggle for the common good....Where everyone contributes whatever they can to society and gets back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings... Where there are no more divisions among people in which some rule over and oppress others, robbing them not only of the means to a decent life but also of knowledge and a means for really understanding, and acting to change, the world."

Without this vision, without a determined struggle to emancipate humanity from the life devouring social divisions and antagonisms, people's hopes and dreams for a different world, without exploitation and oppression, cannot be realized.

The conditions necessary to reach communism exist in the world today. Extremely advanced productive capacity exists and links together people all over the globe. But under the existing social system, this very capacity can only be used for the accumulation of ever greater private capital. And the greatest resource of all—the masses of people themselves—are held back from contributing to solving the needs of every one. Not only are unemployed workers and displaced farmers left idle, even those who have had the chance to gain important knowledge and skills are not allowed to use them in the service of the people. The condition and the oppression of women, of the half of human society, is a striking manifestation of the imprisonment of humanity.

The fundamental reason that society goes on and on this way is that the small minority who benefits from the existing setup, the exploiting classes, have the control of the state—the government, the army, the police, the bureaucracy. And the economic and political domination also is reflected in the ideas, culture, ethos, etc. which draw on systems, past and present, of exploitation and oppression and contribute to keeping the people enslaved.

So there has to be a revolution, a real revolution, if society is going to be transformed. By this we mean the overthrow and dismantlement of the existing state and its replacement by a radically new political power, a socialist state, in which the exploited in alliance with the middle class and professionals govern society with the leadership of a visionary vanguard party.

Such a socialist society could only exist as a "base area" for revolution in the region and the world.

Most importantly, a socialist society would be a transition from the society of today toward the future communist world. It could only exist if it is a lively, colorful society full of debate, struggle and experimentation. A society that would be a joy to live in.

But for the possibility and desire of revolution to actually lead to a successful revolution there has to be a revolution in theory and ideology. There has to be a section of people who consciously take up the revolutionary theory and the responsibility to lead the masses in seizing power and embarking on the process of transforming society. This is the importance of the New Synthesis of Bob Avakian: a re-envisioning and reinvigorating of communist revolution. He scientifically examines the history of proletarian revolution and contemporary society, and the new knowledge emerging from different fields of human activity. The result is a Marxism that is more scientifically grounded, more emancipatory and makes the revolutionary transformation of society more desirable and even more feasible.

A Glimpse into Such a Future

In broad strokes it is possible to see two major features of immediate revolutionary transformation that need to be at the heart and center of any genuine revolutionary programme. First, there is the whole spider web of connections to the world imperialist system that keep Turkey and similar societies economically, politically and culturally entrapped and dependent. A real revolution can not just try to tinker with these chains, or even worse, try to figure out how to somehow "use" this or that connection to the imperialist world system as some kind of leverage or advantage. The modern imperialist-centered tourism industry in Turkey, to take one clear example (or petroleum involving other countries in the region) is a major chain on the people and the whole society and most definitely not a potential vehicle for "national liberation."

The second immediate objective of the revolution is unleashing a whole process of social transformation which will sweep away the reactionary, patriarchal and backward social relations which continue to weigh so heavily on the masses of people and the whole society.

The fact of the matter is that these two major objectives can only be achieved through genuine, revolutionary, socialism.

The events at Avenue Bourgiba, Tahrir Square and now in Taksim Square and Gezi Park electrified the world, not only as focal points of resistance, but also as "free zones" full of lively debate over the direction of the movement and society as a whole. The daring to criticize anything and anyone that was felt to be standing in the way. Under the reactionary rule this kind of activity was met with police charges, thugs on camel back, television blackouts, and secret informers. In the socialist society of the future this kind of ferment will not only be "tolerated," it must be welcomed and fostered by the leaders of the society and its revolutionary institutions. Protest and mass upheaval, a spirit of daring to think, to re-evaluate, to criticize, will exist on a scale never seen in history and involve the masses of people normally "locked out" of intellectual and political life as well as the intellectuals and artists who will continue to have a crucial role to play in the conditions of the new society. The state power will protect the rights of the people to carry out these kinds of struggles. To be clear, opposition to socialism can be expressed as long as these opponents do not try to actually overthrow the system by illegal means.

Avakian's vision of socialism is one where controversy, dissent, struggle over right and wrong, and mass debate are woven into the fabric of the society, not the exception. Resources (publications, television stations, meeting halls and so forth) must be made available so that these rights are real and meaningful, unlike the bourgeois democracy where money, connections and ownership empties "free speech" of most of its meaning. This orientation is not a pious wish to be cast aside at the first difficulty. In the future socialist societies there will certainly be vicious enemies at home and abroad that will do everything to bring back the reactionary system, but all-too-often the realities of such enemies and the need to combat them has been seen as a reason to resort to heavy-handed methods and to not rely on and bring forward the masses of people.

The new socialist societies of the 21st century must be marked by an unprecedented expansion of individual rights throughout the population. The state itself will be qualitatively different from currently existing states in that it will be a result of the revolution of the masses, but this will not change the fact that there will still be contradictions between the state and the people as long as it is still necessary to have a state at all. The democracy that will exist and the guarantee of individual rights will be part of the struggle to keep the social transformation moving forward and will create more favorable conditions for the advance of the revolution.

Take, for example, the important question of the fight for a scientific world outlook and opposition to religious outlooks that weigh heavily on the thinking of the masses. In basically all of countries in the region including Turkey and across the globe as well, whether by law or just the weight of family and tradition, the media, and sometimes thugs, people are not encouraged to explore and debate alternative outlooks, and those who don't believe are often cowed into silence. There must be a strict separation between religion and the state. The educational system must treat religion according to the same scientific standard used to examine all other social phenomena. There will be no state-imposed official ideology, including the ideology of communism.

A radically different socialist society will handle the discussion over religion much differently. We know that for a long time there will be people who reject the scientific world view of communism and cling to religion. Freedom of religion will be respected and no one will be pressured to pretend to be something they are not. On the other hand, the communists will not back away from the struggle over religion and world outlook more generally, because it will be impossible to achieve a communist society until people look at the world as it actually is and on that basis transform it. This struggle in the sphere of thinking between believers and revolutionary communists can be a real and exciting "school" through which millions can participate, learn and transform.

Sound Familiar?

Many people say, the communist revolution has been tried and it was a failure in the Soviet Union and Mao's China. It is true that these socialist revolutions were ultimately defeated, but to call these revolutions "tyranny" or a "nightmare" is a vile slander. It is worth considering who it is that most considers these socialist states a disaster: the very representatives of the same exploiting classes that were overthrown by these revolutions! The actual fact is that these revolutions put power in the hands of the masses for the first time in history and dared to undertake and realize never before seen social transformations. It is not surprising that these initial efforts contained shortcomings and errors, some of which were serious in both implementation and conception.

Some people argue that the communist revolution may succeed in meeting the material needs of the people but at the unacceptable price of forfeiting freedom and individuality. But despite real errors, this is not a fair characterization of those societies. More importantly, today Avakian's new synthesis offers a different and more emancipatory way of understanding and leading the revolutionary transformation. In the light of this new understanding it is important to grasp that while revolution must have as its center the millions of downtrodden and oppressed, the goal of the proletarian revolution is not revenge, but the emancipation of all humanity.

Conclusion

The upsurge in Turkey is closely linked to the winds of hope and change that have been sweeping through the region and often called the Arab Spring. While this had been a most necessary breath of fresh air and unleashed great enthusiasm, even bringing the fall of some regimes, these movements have not yet led to real revolution.

The same conditions, the same fault lines and contradictions, can also, in the absence of a real revolutionary alternative, lead to horrors as well. Witness the bloodbath in Syria in which two reactionary sides are abusing and misusing the masses of people.

A great and tremendous moment is being played in the history of Turkey. It requires a real revolution in thinking as well, if the aspirations of the people are to be fulfilled. We have the great advantage that more rigorously scientific and revolutionary understanding exists in the new synthesis that can serve as a theoretical foundation for initiating and carrying through a new process of communist revolution.

At this moment it is crucial that a determined struggle must be waged so that the present movement continues to advance and forces the government to back down in the face of the people's just demands. The forces on the side of the people must strive to unite their ranks closely and solidly against this regime and the rulers of this system, while understanding clearly that the known reactionary forces and their political symbols such the blood-soaked flag of the Turkish state cannot possibly aid those who are fighting the police and the hated government of the same state. We cannot defeat our oppressors while holding up their flag or defending their outlook. What it stands for must be understood and it must be rejected.

It is a liberating feature of this movement that it has brought into the open many burning issues of the conditions of society and the world to debate and struggle and in doing so brought together a broad spectrum of people from all walks of life. It is vitally important to reach out and win over a lot more forces from broad sections of the people, including from among the proletarian and downtrodden social groups. The AKP and other reactionaries cannot be allowed to continue to fool and mislead many of them against this movement and the future it must be fighting for.

There are many who yearn for revolutionary change, many dream of revolution, again. And others are just beginning to realize why it is necessary. It is decisively important to debate, struggle over and clarify our thinking about how to make revolution and emancipate humanity. To draw correct lessons from past revolutions, to develop clear strategic conceptions about how to initiate and carry through revolution in today's world towards human emancipation worldwide is a task that cannot be put off or belittled. Old tired run-of-the-mill arguments for communism will no longer suffice. Engaging with Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism is essential for all those who desire to arm themselves theoretically and politically to prepare the ground and the forces for the revolution that cries out to be made.

Step forward, Turkey and the whole world needs to be transformed through revolution!

 

Ishak Baran, June 15, 2013

Supporter of Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism and a veteran participant of the Maoist movement in Turkey.

Distributed by the Revolutionary Communist Manifesto Group (Europe) rcmanifestogroup@yahoo.co.uk

 

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Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

From A World to Win News Service

Turkey: A bright carnival in the shadow of a revengeful state

June 20, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

June 5, 2013. A World to Win News Service. "It started out about a park, but now it's about everything," someone tweeted in the middle of the night as protesters fought police in Istanbul's Taksim Square.

The events began on Monday morning May 28, when some 50 protesters stood in front of the bulldozers about to attack the trees in Gezi Park, adjacent to Taksim Square. In the following days, the park was occupied around the clock by youth in affinity with the global Occupy movement and others determined to save one of the city's last green spaces. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced that the Ottoman military barracks that once stood on this site would be reconstructed to house a shopping center and condominiums, alongside a new mosque. The symbolic and provocative nature of his announcement became even more apparent when it came out that he had decided to rip up the trees now and bring in the architects later.

This project represented the intersection of Islamism and the most speculative and monopolistic aspects of Turkish capitalism under Erdogan. The purpose was to demolish a square centered on a monument to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who transformed Turkey's shattered Ottoman Empire by founding a secular republic after World War I, and make developers and financiers linked to the prime minister's inner circle even more filthy rich.

At 5 am on Friday May 31, police attacked. They fired rounds of tear gas into tents with people sleeping in them, including children, sent in bulldozers to roll over everything and set fire to the encampment. Hundreds of protesters, journalists and passers-by were injured. An attempted sit-in was dispersed. Instead of putting an end to the protests, this assault made many thousands of people from all walks of life feel that they had to come to the rescue. Some people chanted, "Thanks, Tayyip, for the wake-up call."

Youth throwing stones and other objects fought back against police in pitched battles that lasted all day and all night. The next day, the police withdrew from the square and protesters closed off the entrances with high barricades built of cobblestones and appropriated police crowd control barriers, street signs and other items. Supporters left their cars and buses to block police access. Nearby apartment dwellers offered their facilities for protesters. The square was turned into a place for political debate, concerts and dancing, a lunch area for curious and supportive office workers, and home away from home for people who came for their first-ever political protest and never left. It acquired a first aid station and a library.

Many people didn't come with the intention of fighting but under attack did so anyway. There were jokes on the theme of "Gezi gazzi"—I couldn't help it, I was gassed (drunk), or I was tired but I got gassed up at Gezi.

They were high school and university students and teachers (the universities suspended final exams); artists, architects, city planners and other intellectuals (some of the very first demonstrators); doctors and lawyers (their associations defended the protesters, and many came to help them); slum youth and their parents, many of Kurdish origin; white collar workers and businesspeople; shopkeepers (often handing out lemons and milk to sooth eyes burned by tear gas and pepper gas); pushcart peddlers; and housewives of all backgrounds, including traditional peasant families, some covered, most not. A few days later the two public service union confederations called a two-day strike and their members joined the youth.

Heedless of the protest, the prime minister held the scheduled ceremony inaugurating the construction of a third bridge across the Bosphorus, a project designed to delight real estate and financial speculators and bring the final expulsion of the lower classes and nature itself from that part of the city. Speaking of the Gezi demonstrators, he said, "It doesn't matter what you do. We made a decision and we will follow through with that decision." The bridge, he announced, would be named Yavuz (the Great) Sultan Selim, after the sixteenth-century hereditary ruler who made the Ottoman Empire a caliphate (Islamic state), also infamous for the slaughter of members of the Alevi religious minority.

While the main TV channels were broadcasting beauty pageants and cooking shows and ignoring the news, the Twitter hashtag #Direngeziparki became the world's most popular, with 25 million people following it. Erdogan was to label Twitter and other social media "the worst menace to society."

Led by a commandeered construction vehicle originally brought in to demolish the park, youth attacked the Prime Minister's Istanbul offices. Tens of thousands of people from the part of the city on the other side of the Bosphorus confronted police and marched across a bridge normally closed to pedestrians to join the protests.

A late-night aerial video of the city shows lights blinking on and off in solidarity, in apartment buildings stretching far across the city, and everywhere there is the din of people beating pots and pans or banging spoons against street lamps, even in Bulgurlu, considered a stronghold of Erdogan's AKP governing party.

The offices of the governing party were set ablaze in Ankara and Izmir. Demonstrations and fighting with police also took place in Adana, Antalya and many dozens of other cities and towns, in as many as three quarters of Turkey's provinces.

In the clashes with the police, the assaults and counter-assaults, countless women were in the forefront of the fighting, relishing a chance to battle for what they see as a clash over what kind of world they will live in. There were women in sun dresses holding out their arms to mockingly gesture "Bring it on" to the riot police; women in thin tank tops, their hands wrapped in rags so that they could grab tear gas canisters; many young students in jeans, some wearing head-scarves and a few with Occupy face masks as well; and other women of all ages and classes.

Some women fought; some milled around like most people; some brought fresh bread and tea to keep everyone going; some went home and banged out the rhythm of chants in their neighborhoods. The police, who were spraying people in the face with streams of pepper gas and firing bone-breaking, flesh-penetrating baton rounds at close range, displayed a particularly violent hatred for women. Photos on the Web show one or another defiant woman caught in a crossfire of gas-loaded water cannons strong enough to cause serious injury.

Few women entered into this fray without an awareness of the special dangers, but perhaps their enthusiasm for symbolic and physical confrontation stems from a feeling that they are a central target of Erdogan's program. He tried to ban Caesarean section births and put restrictions on abortion, not so much in the name of religion but because, as he once opined on TV, "Turkish women" (meaning ethnic Turks, not the country's minorities) should have more babies. In the blatantly patriarchal climate Erdogan has helped foster, honor killings, long a plague in Turkey, have risen sharply, with little prosecution. This participation by women is not just an interesting and positive feature. It is one of the characteristics that is best about this movement.

Another of its characteristics is that it is an outpouring of opposition to the government by many tens of thousands of people, while the opposition political parties have not been playing a directing role. The focus is on the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Many protesters demand that he listen to the people. Others, from the first, called for his resignation and increasingly his head. But this is more of a massive convergence of diverse streams than a political coalition.

There is a general unease with Erdogan's recent speed-up of the Islamization of Turkey's society. Recently the world-renowned pianist Faisal Say was tried and convicted for a Tweet comparing the Moslem vision of heaven to a house of prostitution. A young couple got in trouble for kissing on the Istanbul metro. The sale of alcohol was limited, and Erdogan declared that only alcoholics touch it. This was understood as a slap at Ataturk, who made a political point of drinking as part of establishing a Westernized, non-religious state and society.

Angered by all this, in a residential neighborhood near Taksim Square a very elderly woman and the much younger woman from the countryside who cleans her apartment marched out of their apartment building arm in arm, bought some beer and sat down on a bus stop bench. They sipped a little and held their cans in the air so that the world could see their solidarity with the protesters who chanted, "Thanks for banning alcohol, now we've come to our senses." People also held mass kiss-ins.

Now in the streets there seems to be an enormous desire for unity. In a city torn by deadly football rivalries, there were marchers wearing the t-shirts of one team and the scarves of their bitter enemies. A widely-posted photo shows a trio of young men making the hand signs of the fascist Grey Wolves, the secular Kemalists and the leftists. There were gay rights banners and a few portraits of Ibrahim Kaypakayya (the founder of the Maoist movement). The main opposition party, the deflated CHP that considers itself Ataturk's heir, has not played much of a role so far. Many protesters voted for Erdogan and many people are sick of all the political parties. But the most common political symbols have been badges, banners and portraits of Ataturk. While Kurds as individuals are participating and there are occasional banners and chanting in support of the PKK and its leader Abdullah Ocalan, in general the question of the liberation of the Kurdish people has been lost in a sea of Turkish flags.

Some of the protesters are religious believers who feel that Erdogan is instrumentalizing their faith. Some are opposed to religious rule in general. Most seem to consider themselves secular. But this secularism itself covers contradictory trends. Kemalism (as Ataturk's ideology is called) has always been reactionary. His vision of the "unity" of Turkey has always meant oppression of the Kurds and other minorities who make up a large part of the population. When marchers in Istanbul chant, "We are Turks, not Arabs"—one of Ataturk's signature ideas, hitching Turkey to the Western powers instead of the Arab world—this kind of opposition to Islamism is poisoned with Turkish chauvinism and reactionary ambitions for regional domination as a willing junior partner to the Western imperialist powers.

While opposing a religious state, Ataturk's heirs repressed non-Sunni schools of Islam (such as the Alevis) and gave state support to the Sunni religious establishment. Although Ataturk banned the public wearing of head-scarves for women and promoted what are perceived as Western values in other ways, the Turkish state he founded has both relied on the traditional mould of patriarchy and promoted a more Westernized (and sometimes decadent) form.

In fact, the most fervent followers of Ataturk have been Turkey's generals, who kept their country under an iron heel for much of the late twentieth century with the blessing of the imperialist powers. The complaints emanating from Washington and other Western capitals about Erdogan's "authoritarian turn" have to be seen in that light. Ironically, some of the"leftist" parties now in the streets against Erdogan and going along with the Kemalists gave him their support or assent until now, with the excuse that "He saved us from the generals."

This kind of confused thinking is especially dangerous in a confusing situation. The political and class coalition around Erdogan is fraying, although not necessarily irreparably. As an informed observer explained it, Erdogan became prime minister with the support of the Tusiad, the association of Turkey's most powerful imperialist-dependent capitalists, the heads of holding companies that own big banks and monopolize industrial sectors such as textile, appliances and other export items and construction. At a time when globalization was forcing a restructuring of Turkey's ruling class and the traditional parties had become ineffectual, his task was to repair the power structure and broaden its social base by bringing in newly arising, traditional, Islamic-minded rural capitalists who like to call themselves the "Anatolian tigers" as a signal of their aspirations for wealth and power. He also appealed to the pious rural population and those coming into the cities.

Erdogan promoted himself as a tough guy from the slums of Kasimpasha, not far from Taksim. But his political success with sections of the ruling class was based on the fundamental promise not to radically change anything. His way of dealing with the urban poor was a reactionary populism based on a kind of cultural revenge against the "Tarabya," people from an opulent, secular Istanbul quarter. This was combined with "the Kurdish card," his long-term attempts to bring the PKK and Kurdish capitalists under his wing, simultaneously mitigating the "Kurdish problem" and acquiring an ally with influence among an important segment of the rural and urban poor.

However, the headlong economic development under his leadership has brought political changes. There is a question as to whether he still feels a need for the support of the lesser, "Anatolian" newly rich, and a feeling that his program is meant to favor the country's biggest financial forces and encourage the kind of "bubble" speculation that may take Turkey down the path of Greece. Many people at various levels are worried that Erdogan's policies regarding Syria will pull his country into a regional ethnic and religious civil war. It can be said with certainty that many people at the top are worried that he is endangering rather than solidifying the ruling coalition.

At the same time, his "urban development" policies represent the enrichment of a very tight circle of government-connected corporations and big-shots whose power (including over the media) is widely resented among other capitalists. "Urban renewal" has taken place at the expense of poor neighborhoods. Economic growth has brought an intensification of class polarization. In areas where the AKP once handed out bread it is now moving schools and other facilities to the suburbs and forcing people to move out, not by open force, but by persuading them to sign contracts for new housing in distant areas before their old homes are torn down. Often these contracts put people more than ever at the mercy of feudalistic obligations to powerful individuals. This is not so popular. It is also significant that the PKK has helped keep cities in the Kurdish east (like Diyarbakir) less turbulent than other areas so far.

Discontent with Erdogan's programmatic disregard for forces whose support or at least assent has been so crucial to his success is matched by outright alarm at his confrontational political style, as if Turkey's fate rested on him alone. His arrogance isn't without basis, since his ruling coalition might not be able to survive without him, but it might not be able to survive with him, either.

In addition to what is going on in the streets, there are other signs of cracks in the ruling class. Army units have failed to help the police in several incidents. The head of the judge's association issued a warning to Erdogan, implying that his political style is un-Islamic. The fact that five-star hotels have turned their lobbies into emergency medical facilities for demonstrators and even provided staff (in contrast to Starbucks, which closed its doors), is an interesting turn of events, but it may not be unrelated to such splits and a general feeling that a further slide toward an Islamic regime would be bad for business, not the least tourism.

Some forces are trying to sew things together again, with or without Erdogan. The move by Turkish Deputy PM Bulent Arinc to apologize to protesters may be a question of "good cop, bad cop." The Turkish stock exchange, which had dropped sharply, popped up again after this gesture. Trying to peel off some of the movement's segments, Arinc called the protests against the uprooting of the trees "just and legitimate" and condemned the "excessive force" by the police, but at the same time said that the movement had been taken over by "terrorist elements" and refused to call off the police, ban the use of tear gas or issue an amnesty for those arrested. He said that now the demonstrators were just looters ("capulcu"). This promoted a worldwide wave of all kinds of people posting videos of themselves on the Net, introducing themselves in serious or funny ways and declaring, "I am a capulcu."

Actually, there has been remarkably little looting and relatively little destruction, aside from tearing up pavements and urban fixtures to make barricades and gather projectiles to use against the police. On the contrary, the youth have been assiduously cleaning up the mess left by the fighting to demonstrate their political seriousness and perhaps recycle materials for future use.

The atmosphere is festive in Taksim and other places as people celebrate their victories, freely act out their life styles and project their visions of a future happy society. But it would be extremely dangerous to ignore the viciousness and strength of the state and the possibility that Erdogan will pursue "double or nothing" tactics to show that he and he alone can lead it.

Erdogan has said that because he received 51 percent of the votes in the last elections no one has the right to challenge him. He also said that demonstrations were occurring only in the biggest cities, and that the rest of the country supported him. He warned that he might not be able to keep his half of society at home much longer. Threatening not just repression but something more like a civil war, he declared, "Taksim Square cannot be an area where extremists are running wild. If this is about staging a protest, about a social movement, I would... gather 200,000 where they gather 20, and where they gather 100,000, I would gather a million party supporters. Let's not go down that road."

Two young men have been reported killed so far, by unknown persons, in Istanbul and Ankara, and some observers see this as the work of AKP militias. Civilians with knives have been reported to be joining police in beating and torturing demonstrators trapped in alleyways. In the southwestern city of Antalya, the AKP youth organization attacked demonstrators.

No matter what approach the state takes, the situation is very dangerous for the ruling class, because any retreat by the regime may embolden the people in the streets, while a refusal to make any concessions may further enrage them. At the same time, the extremely contradictory nature of the movement against Erdogan is both an advantage and a source of danger for those aspiring to radical social change, because it embraces very different ideas about what society should look like—for instance, whether the Turkey they want is one where minorities and women are dominated, and the whole country is dominated by imperialism.

The fact that cracks have appeared among Turkey's ruling classes and reactionaries is potentially a great advantage for those seeking radical change. But to the degree that people in this movement do not achieve some clarity about the need to oppose both Kemalism and Islamism, there is a danger that one or other of the various reactionary forces and not the people may benefit from this moment.

 

A World to Win News Service is put out by A World to Win magazine, a political and theoretical review inspired by the formation of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the embryonic center of the world's Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations.

 

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Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/307/interview-with-terry-kupers-on-the-devastating-effects-of-prison-isolation-en.html

Revolution #307 June 16, 2013

From The Michael Slate Show:

Interview with Psychiatrist Terry Kupers on the Devastating Effects of Prison Isolation

June 20, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

This is a transcript of a November 2012 interview on The Michael Slate Show (KPFK FM Los Angeles) with Dr. Terry Kupers, psychiatrist and expert on the psychological effects of prison conditions, including isolated confinement in supermaximum security units. He has pointed to a shocking increase in suicides among California prisoners subjected to solitary confinement in so-called Security Housing Units (SHUs). Dr. Kupers is Institute Professor at The Wright Institute and Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

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Michael Slate: What are you talking about there when you say solitary confinement pushes many prisoners to suicide?

Terry Kupers: It's really sort of the tip of the iceberg. What we've got is an imprisonment binge in this country. We've got almost two-and-a-half million people in prison. And they have not been able to build prisons fast enough, and building prisons isn't the solution, but what we get is a lot of crowding. Crowding causes an increase in violence, an increase in psychosis, an increase in suicide. And as a false solution, what I call a historic wrong turn in the '80s, when the population was already five times what it had been in the '70s, they started building entire prison units dedicated to solitary confinement. And these became known as "Supermax" prisons, in California, at Pelican Bay or Corcoran, or Tehachapi in Southern California.

So what happens is that people spend 24 hours a day in their cell by themselves with nothing to do. They have no activities. And they have very limited visits. That kind of conditions, considered torture in the international community and by the human rights groups, causes psychiatric symptoms. And one of the most serious, or the one that becomes public the easiest, is when someone actually kills themself. And we have an epidemic of suicide in the prisons. It's more than twice as frequent as it is in the community.

But in any prison system, and this includes California's Department of Corrections, 50 percent of the actual completed suicides, where someone dies, occur among the 6 or 7 percent of the population who are in solitary confinement. So it seems to me that makes it clear that solitary confinement plays a large part in causing suicide. And then we get this memo from the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, which is the federal prison system, to all of the inmates, telling them not to kill themselves, instead of, for instance, dealing with the conditions that cause people to kill themselves.

Slate: Just incredible and repulsive. I tell you. Terry, you once wrote that three months, just three months, giving people a sense of the impact of solitary confinement on prisoners' mental health, and the fact that this could roll over into suicide easily, you said that three months of solitary confinement can in fact mean lasting emotional damage. Let's talk about that a little.

Kupers: Yes, it's actually very impressive. I'm an expert witness in class action lawsuits, and I give psychiatric testimony, both about the mental health damage and about the conditions that cause damage. Solitary confinement—crowding is one such condition which causes psychiatric damage—but solitary confinement definitely causes a long list of symptoms, including anxiety, paranoia, problems thinking, problems with memory. And one of the main symptoms is despair. That what happens is, people in solitary confinement with no one to talk to and nothing meaningful to do, just lose all hope for the future. And they just think they're going to be in solitary until they die, and they make the choice that they'd just rather die now.

So they attempt suicide. The mental health care for people who attempt suicide is terrible. They're put in an observation cell typically, which is just a cell with a transparent side to it so everybody can see them. They're in there naked. And they're left there until essentially they cry "Uncle," and say, "I'm not suicidal any more. Take me back to my cell." Then they're taken back to their cell and unfortunately a large number of them do kill themselves.

Slate: You know, you just have to ask that question about what kind of system is this that would rely on this, this barbaric torture, as their means of rehabilitation. Clearly it's not rehabilitation. And actually one of the things that you said in an article that I read, that you wrote a couple of years ago, continuing along this line, you said that this solitary actually breaks prisoners down and practically guarantees that they will never function normally in society again. That's a pretty heavy statement.

Kupers: Well, and it's true. I mean, watch any of the rates that we measure: the recidivism rate—when people get out of prison they're most likely to go back, do a crime and go back to prison—or the parole violation rate. Both of those rates have been climbing precipitously in California over recent decades. And in the same period of time, what we've done is turned away from rehabilitation, even though the California Department of Corrections is called, "corrections and rehabilitation," very little rehabilitation goes on.

The Supermax prison sort of typifies the anti-rehabilitation concentration. It's just punishment. The worse and worse punishments, the more that people break down under the awful conditions. So a large proportion of the prisoners—6% to 8% of prisoners are in solitary right now, but actually most prisoners rotate through solitary and they'll do months or years in solitary sometime in their prison term. And then that makes them less capable of functioning, either in a program inside prison, like a rehabilitation program, if they're lucky enough to find one, and in the community when they get out. So that basically what's happening is our system is breaking people so that they'll never function again. This is especially the case with people with mental illness, which society has been kind of shunting into prisons for decades.

Slate: One of the things you make a point about in another article—you make a point about the direct connection between the increase in mentally ill people in prisons and jails, and the fact that there's more mentally ill people in prisons and jails than in psychiatric hospitals today, and you talk about the relationship between that and solitary and suicide. Let's talk about that a little bit. The system creates madness in prison, and exacerbates madness that already exists.

Kupers: You know, Michael, we have been disappearing people with mental illness. What's going on in the community, if you look around, there's very little in the way of public mental health services. In the '60s, with President Kennedy, we had the Community Health Centers Act, and there were public clinics where people who didn't have a lot of affluence could go and get treatment for their serious mental illness.

Over the decades since that time, the funding for public mental health, like all social safety net programs, has been diminishing, as has support for housing, low income housing and such. And what that's done is left people with serious mental illness, who tend to be the lowest income bracket, it's left them without services, without a place to live. A lot of them become homeless, and then for one reason or another, sometimes laws the city makes against panhandling or something, they get thrown into jail, and then eventually find their way into prison.

So what society has done is disappeared the population of people—those with low income who are suffering from serious mental illness—inside the prisons. And then the attitude is, "Lock 'em up and throw away the key." No one really pays attention to what happens to them in there. And I think people conveniently think, "Well, probably they're getting mental health care in prison." Well they're not. The budget for mental health care in prison is as bad or worse than it is in the community proportionately. And so they're getting very little care. And selectively, they get thrown into solitary confinement, because they don't quite know how to behave in such a way that you get on the good side of the guards. The guards don't know what to do with them, because they're a little unusual, and sometimes bizarre. So the guards end up punishing them, which is all they know how to do. They put them in solitary confinement. And in solitary confinement—there's very good research about this, or very frightening research—their mental illness get worse, and they're more prone to suicide.

Slate: Just amazing. I keep saying that because the more you talk, and the more I uncovered in reading your material—people need to investigate this and actually start giving a damn about what the hell is happening behind these prison walls. And one of the things, Terry, you talked about, and this really struck me because the movie The Snake Pit always stuck in my mind. And it seemed to be a point where people's social consciousness began to develop, or at least develop some consciousness of the horrors that were going on in supposed mental health hospitals. You talk about the conditions that prisoners are facing in jail now is actually worse than the kind of situation that was described in that movie The Snake Pit

Kupers: Well, yes, we've actually reproduced the conditions The Snake Pit was about. Erving Goffman was a sociologist, a sociologist of deviance in the '50s and '60s, and wrote a book called Asylums, which a lot of us sort of grew up on. In that book he describes a young man who is taken by his parents to a hospital because they think that he's crazy. He complains he's not crazy and he gets louder and louder protesting that he's sane. They take him to the emergency room and a psychiatrist hears him protesting and says, "Well, you're absolutely right. He must be crazy to be protesting so loud," and locks him up in the hospital.

The kid then gets increasingly inappropriate and angry and throws a chair through a window and they lock him up in a little solitary seclusion room. They take away his clothes and all writing materials. And in that seclusion room he starts smearing feces on the wall. And what Goffman says is that if you look at that, we are progressively taking away every human method of communicating from this young man. We're not listening to his protests. And he's becoming more and more extreme in his attempts to communicate.

Well that's exactly what's going on in the prisons today. And in these solitary confinement units, we have prisoners, grown men, smearing feces on the wall. And they're naked. They have nothing in the cell with them and they're left there for months alone. And the staff then say, "Well, they're manipulating to get out of solitary." They're being driven crazy by the conditions.

Slate: The excuse that's always given to the public in general is that, "Look, you don't understand. We are dealing with the worst of the worst. You want us to stop solitary confinement? This is simply punishment. This is simply behavior control. This is simply preventing the worst of the worst from unleashing massive amounts of violence in the prisons." What do you say to that?

Kupers: Well, we should have a longer discussion about that. It's absolutely false, and research is showing that. I was involved in a class action lawsuit the ACLU brought in Mississippi, where there was a Supermax prison at Parchman, Mississippi State Penitentiary: a thousand cells of solitary confinement. And in the course of the lawsuit, the Department of Corrections in Mississippi agreed with the ACLU and our experts that they had too many people locked up in solitary and they agreed to let them go. So they let 800 prisoners of the thousand that were in solitary confinement—released them into the general population.

Now, according to the logic that you just put forward, that is, that solitary confinement is necessary because they take care of the worst of the worst, one would think that if you released them out of solitary, the violence rate would go up, not just in that prison, but elsewhere in the system. In fact, the violence rate went way down, precipitously, when they released those individuals from solitary, in the entire prison system. And the individuals that were released received very few disciplinary infractions.

That's just one piece of evidence. There are many disproving the idea that this decreases violence. It actually increases violence, and not only at the time that people are put in solitary, but afterward, because eventually you have to let them out. And say a person has an eight-year sentence to prison. If they spend the entire eight years in solitary, at the end of the eight years, they're supposed to be released because the court only sentenced them to eight years,. Now they're coming out of prison having no social interactions, just angry exchanges with guards, and absolutely no meaningful activities for eight years. How well are they going to do out in the community, and how safe is the community going to be?

Slate: Exactly. I kept thinking about this. I read your piece about Mississippi and I thought that was extremely important, and that was one of the reasons I wanted to get into this question. And I kept thinking too, here we're talking about the prisoners unleashing violence. If you think in California—remember the way they set up the gladiator bouts between prisoners? And the intense violence that's unleashed on the prisoners by the guards themselves, including setting up things where people were actually encouraged to kill each other for sport. To me this is the kind of thing when you talk about that and then—and I have one more quick question. You kept mentioning that mental health doesn't exist in prison. What is the state? Let's just give people—we talked about all these horrors—what is the state of mental health care available to prisoners today?

Kupers: Well, there's a fallacy in public thinking about this, and that is that we think we have mental health services in prisons that we don't have in the community. The truth is, the mental health item in the corrections budget—corrections budgets tend to stay flat. That is, while everything else, including education and roads is being cut, the budget for corrections in the state budget process tends to stay flat. But actually what's happening is that the guards' salaries and the administrators salaries are going up, and the construction costs are going up, but if you check the item for mental health services within the corrections budget, it keep going down, approximately like it does in the community.

So there's less and less mental health services. And what you get in solitary frequently is a psychiatrist who's working very few hours. He's got hundreds of patients who are in a cell by themselves. He walks around to the front of the cell and says to the prisoner, "How are you doing? Are you hearing voices? Are you still feeling suicidal?" In prison there's a huge stigma about being weak or having a mental illness, so the prisoner is not going to admit to a psychiatrist standing at his cell door, "Yes, I'm hearing voices." So he's just going to nod him away. He's going to say, "Go away. I'm fine."

And so what happens is a prisoner essentially gets no care. The psychiatrist is coming to see if he needs to change his medication. The prisoner is refusing to talk to him because he'll be badly stigmatized and probably beaten or killed by other prisoners because he has a mental illness. So nothing happens in the way of mental health care. And that's approximately average.