The world today cries out for radical, fundamental change.
We live on a planet where tens of millions of people died in the two world wars in the 20th century, and in other wars since then…and where large parts of humanity today continue to be caught up in brutal and destructive wars, resulting in massive loss of life and incalculable agony.
We live in a world where millions die from easily preventable diseases…and still more face hunger as a daily fact of life. We are locked inside a worldwide economic system that dispenses crumbs and extends privileges to a relatively small number, while forcing billions to seek desperately for work that more often than not numbs the mind, crushes the spirit and destroys the body…an economic system which has devastated and despoiled nature itself and now has put the future of human life into question.
We walk through our days in a world where the lives of countless children are ground up and destroyed, some as child laborers and even outright slaves, others as the victims of poverty and humiliation…their potential crushed, or their lives cut short. And everywhere, women—one half of humanity!—still face the gauntlet of rape and abuse, and the continual oppression and hostility that comes in forms both traditional and “modern.”
People whose sexual orientation or identity is different from the dominant norms in society—and this is particularly and acutely so where this in some significant way conflicts with the prevailing patriarchal sexual relations—are discriminated against and persecuted, and many are subjected to brutal, even murderous attacks.
Tens of millions of people in this country face a life of grinding exploitation and bitter desperation. Many have been driven here from countries which have been plundered by U.S. capital, only to find themselves dubbed “illegal” and forced into the shadows by Gestapo-like persecution. Especially among Black people, as well as other peoples of color and oppressed nationalities, great masses of people have been cast aside because they can no longer be profitably exploited. Instead of recognizing their humanity and unleashing their potential, this system has criminalized them—with one in nine young Black men locked down in prison, and with Black and Latino youth having to face harassment, brutality, and the constant threat of death at the hands of the police whenever they walk out the door. Meanwhile the apple-pie racism of America festers and often boils over, in forms old and new.
On top of all that, this economic and social system forces everyone to look at, and to treat, everyone else as potential competitors and antagonists. “Dog eat dog” and “look out for number one” are the true commandments of this society. Those who try to make things better, within the confines of this system, find their efforts constantly frustrated, unable to get at the underlying problems.
As a result of all this, alienation and despair run rampant, and people feel as if their lives are empty and meaningless. And for relief? Either the mindless chase after ever more commodities, or the false fantasies and consolation of religion.
But the cruelest fact of all is this: IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY! For here is the glaring contradiction: in today’s world the production of things, and the distribution of the things produced, is overwhelmingly carried out by large numbers of people who work collectively and are organized in highly coordinated networks. At the foundation of this whole process is the proletariat, an international class which owns nothing, yet has created and works these massive socialized productive forces. These tremendous productive powers could enable humanity to not only meet the basic needs of every person on the planet, but to build a new society, with a whole different set of social relations and values…a society where all people could truly and fully flourish together.
Friday, October 14, 2011: Civil disobedience at the door of California Department of Corrections 1515 S Street, Sacramento
Larry Everest, Contributor to Revolution newspaper (revcom.us), author Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda, (www.LarryEverest.org)
Gregory “Joey” Johnson, revolutionary communist activist, interviewed in the film William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, defendant in the US Supreme Court flag burning case Texas v. Johnson.
Maryann, a World Can’t Wait activist, mother of a California prisoner
All of us have a moral responsibility to stand up for the basic rights and humanity of those held behind bars, and build a determined movement outside prison walls demanding CDCR grant the prisoners’ just demands and immediately halt its retaliation against hunger strikers.
Prisoners’ Five Core Demands:
1. End to group punishment and administrative abuse.
2. Abolish the debriefing policy, and modify active/inactive gang status criteria.
3. Comply with Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006 recommendations regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement.
4. Provide adequate and nutritious food.
5. Expand and provide constructive programming and privileges for indefinite SHU status prisoners.
Recently, the Chicago police have killed 6 people and shot 12 within a period of four weeks. The corporate media in the city remains silent on this outrageous rampage unleashed on the people, instead focusing on the propaganda of the police in relation to youth violence. Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis announced an Iraq-esque militarized “surge” of police in the city to intimidate and terrorize communities, including conducting roll calls in the streets with patrol cars blaring sirens and flashing lights and SWAT teams in full gear. Weis has admitted that his goal is to intimidate the people with a militarized presence: “When people see police officers in uniform like this, it sends a message. I’ll admit they are a little intimidating and they do have more of a military presence, but if that will cause people to disperse an area or maybe not engage in criminal activity, I’m willing to send that message.”
Opposing this murderous rampage and campaign of intimidation and terror by the Chicago police is vitally important. To that end, a contingent marched this weekend in the Bud Billiken Parade, the largest African American parade in the United States.
A huge banner reading “Get in the Streets to Stop Police Terror! Indict – Convict – Jail the Killer Cops” was banned from entering the parade by parade organizers and police. A police sergeant stated that he didn’t want signs exposing and protesting the police shootings to “rile up the crowd.” Above is a picture of the banned sign, and below is a shot of the parade organizers and gang of police that stopped the sign from entering the parade.
Eventually the contingent was allowed to march in the parade, carrying and passing out 15,000 Revolution newspaper broadsheets with the headline “Chicago Cops Shoot 12, Kill 6 in 4 Weeks: Trigger Happy Police… and a Criminal System”, as well as posters of the victims. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the contingent was the only one in the entire parade to have four police ATVs “escorting” it the through the entire parade.
Many people in the parade threw up the fist and chanted along with the contingent calling for the indictment, conviction, and jailing of the killer cops. Others along the parade route were stopped by the police from entering and joining the contingent.
At the end of the parade, it started pouring rain, and people took shelter under a roof of a Citgo gas station. There was a massive police presence there, including numerous police on horses pushing through the crowd and several police wagons. After a period of time, the police announced to the people huddling under the roof to escape the torrential downpour that if they didn’t leave within 5 minutes they would all be leaving in the police wagons…
Today marks the fifth year anniversary of the start of the U.S. imperialist war of aggression in Iraq. Across the country thousands of people gathered to voice their opposition to the ongoing war, which has claimed the lives of over a million Iraqis and nearly 4,000 Americans. I attended the protest and march in Chicago.
The rally started at Federal Plaza, where a large group gathered before a stage to hear music and speakers. Throughout almost this entire time I was kneeling on the ground in an orange jumpsuit and black hood to visually remind people and bear silent witness to the torture being committed daily by the U.S. government, so I didn’t have the opportunity to take many pictures. I did a brief interview with a videographer concerning the nature of the orange jumpsuit and hood demonstrations and discussed the correlations between the policies, practices and techniques of torture being used by the U.S. government in the War of Terror and the methods and practices used in the U.S. prison system.
The above picture is from very early in the rally. After gathering together in Federal Plaza, we proceeded to march through the streets of downtown Chicago, most people carrying signs and banners, some drumming, others shouting for the end of the occupation of Iraq. Our voices echoed through the urban canyons of the Windy City as we made our circuitous march through the streets. We marched from Federal Plaza, around downtown and up Michigan Avenue – the city’s premier shopping strip – and through the Gold Coast.
As we ended the march we gathered in the street, many commiserating and dancing, showing solidarity with those around the country and the world who were protesting or feeling the brunt of the jackboot of U.S. imperialism. Before long the police attempted to force us out of the street, as they rushed in on ATVs and Segways.
Although they moved people a bit off the street initially, far too many people refused to move and at the time I left shorty thereafter a huge group of people were still gathered in the streets, dancing and cheering for the freedom of the people to oppose the monumentally disastrous agenda of the ruling class in America…
