Amnesty for L.A. Prisoners Jobs & Justice, Not Jails

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Protestors assemble in San Francisco, Calif., hours after the Rodney King verdict is announced.

The fires may be out in Los Angeles, but the embers are still smouldering and can reignite anytime.

President Bush, speaking for a ruling class that was profoundly shocked by the depth of the rebellion, is speaking out of pp. 10-11 both sides of his mouth.

While he makes empty promises of economic aid to south central Los Angeles, including establishing "free enterprise zones" and tax breaks for corporations— solutions that are currently impoverishing workers and peasants in Third World countries-he also is stressing the need for "law and order"

"Federal assistance," he said, "offers no reward for rioting." His mixed message indicates that the ruling rich in this country have no program for addressing the scourge of unemployment, poverty, and racism that sits on the back of the Black and Hispanic communities in every city across the land.

WeRe Wincing But while Bush continues his campaign to turn the victims into the criminals, the victims are speaking out for themselves.

In an interview in the May 31, 1992, edition of the San Francisco Examiner, members of formerly rival Los Angeles street gangs (the Bloods and the Crips), Losoph Ryan/Sochallat Action AMERICaNN give an articulate description of the situation in Los Angeles. "South Central Los Angeles is a Third World country," declared Krashaun Scott, an inactive member of the Los Angeles Crips gang. "There's a south central in every city, in every state. There's no domestic agenda. No five-year plan, no 10-year plan, no 20-year plan."

Cle Sloan, a member of the Bloods, stated that, "We have no rights. The justice system doesn't work for us."

When Sloan was asked about why the "riot" occurred he said, "It was not a riot—it was a class struggle that took place in South Central. When Rodney King asked, 'Can we all get along?,' it ain't just about Rodney King. He was the lighter and it blew up."

The rebellion, Sloan said, was "about the average resident in south central making less than $14,000 annually and one in ten earn less than $5000."

Another gang member stated, "We don't have land, language or a nationality. We don't have jobs or money. So they drop ... guns and drugs into our community. We worked for 308 years. We built Amer ica but did we get paid for it? Somebody owes us."

Who owes is the capitalist class. They reaped tremendous profits off the superexploitation of Black working people and they will continue their campaign of repression and police terrorism to insure the status quo remains unchanged.

The economic plan needed to address the questions posed by these young men from south central won't come from the ruling rich. On the contrary, the conditions that led to the Los Angeles rebellion doubledigit unemployment, no social services, poor housing, and police repression—-cannot be solved by a system that thrives on the special exploitation of these communities.

What frightens the ruling rich the most, however, is that a new generation of fighters against these conditions are beginning to make themselves heard.

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See Special L.A. rebellion supplement