The Rest of the News
April 16, 2001
Black People Have a Right to Rebel
By Lorenzo Komboa Ervin <komboa@hotmail.com>
A massive anti-cop rebellion has broken out in Cincinnati
over the police shootings of 15 Black men, ranging in ages
from 12-44 years old, all unarmed. The latest case is of
Timothy Thomas, a 19-year old brother, allegedly wanted for
misdemeanor traffic offenses, who was gunned down last week
by a crazed white cop. The Black community has risen up in a
massive protest against this racist occupying army, poverty,
and other forms of mistreatment. Now, we are being told by
various White politicians and their paid Uncle Toms that
even more massive police violence should be trained on us
"to keep the peace", and "stop the violence." Not the cop
violence and murder, which has gone on for years, but the
current rebellion by our people against police forces.
I have heard this garbage for years. Going back to the 1965
Watts rebellion, when Black folks rebelled after years of
LAPD racist brutality, it was a line put forth by the white
ruling class and its Negro spokespersons that we were
"torching our own neighborhoods." Never mind that we didn't
own a damn thing in the ghetto, that it was the cops
themselves shooting and torching Black homes, and that this
was a clearly a struggle with deep roots in historical
oppression, the government's line was duly picked up by the
negro bourgeoisie, and passed off as "truth", along with
"the police right to stop looters" and "we need peace." Not
about justice, not about stopping police murders of our
people, but that we must stop our resistance against our
oppressors. That is their only concern, restoring "law and
order."
We are an oppressed people, who have the moral and political
right to rebel. We are fighting oppression, and seeking
freedom. We are opposing terrorism by military agents of the
white government. We have been historically enslaved, and
our youth are being imprisoned and killed in massive
numbers, so we must fight back or become an extinct species.
There are those who say that if we will only be "peaceful"
those in power will listen to us. This has never happened,
and truthfully none of the civil rights bills of the 1960s
outlawing Southern segregation, and other concessions of
that period, would have been passed if the white government
was not afraid of Black people erupting in the streets. So
street rebellion is effective.
Neither I nor anyone else can say with complete accuracy,
but I think we can soon expect to see other such rebellions
in various American cities because similar contradictions
exist, and even more murderous police forces guard the white
rich of those places. For example, Detroit is a city which
could go up at any time. It leads the USA in the number of
fatal police shootings of civilians, most of whom are Black.
It has a corrupt government, which allows violence by
police, drug-peddling, robbery, and other offenses by
officers. There are Detroit officers, like Eugene Brown, who
have killed several persons, and yet have never been
punished. He is protected by the Mayor and the police union.
Although worse in Detroit, police brutality goes on all over
the country, along with political cover-ups to protect them.
I hear white folks and middle class negroes say that if we
arm ourselves and resist, "even more of us will be killed."
I don't propose individual resistance, but rather community
defense, and I believe then we will talk about funerals on
both sides.
Our task, as an oppressed people, is to work to overthrow
white supremacy and capitalist rule. That is the true nature
of this government, not a so-called "democracy" where we can
expect fair treatment. This system is based on and is
maintained by our oppression. This is why I believe that the
task of Black radicals is not to call for new federal
legislation, an FBI investigation, or a citizen review
board. We must educate our people about the truth of this
system, and begin to build a mass resistance movement
against racism and internal colonialism. This resistance
should be by any means necessary, and we must have an armed
self-defense policy. I have always rejected pacifism. We
must seek to build dual power bases, and begin to win over
the masses of the people, build a militia to protect it, and
push the police and white government out of the community
entirely. We must begin to govern ourselves, and create a
new zone of Black power. The activists have got to stop
looking in from the outside and doing all our organizing on
the comfortable college campuses or suburbs, and begin to
organize in the impoverished neighborhoods where the action
is taking place. As activists, we have got to stop waiting
on crises like the Cincinnati rebellion, and begin to set up
organizing projects to make sure they don't happen, and when
they do we can effectively retaliate. Yes, we have a right
to rebel in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and
anywhere else we are oppressed.
We are a class of poor and oppressed peoples who are
fighting capitalism and racism all over the world. We are
not alone, and when we fight we will find that the people of
the world support our struggle.
Copyleft (c) 2001 Lorenzo Ervin. Redistribute Freely.
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