Thousands march to 'Save Our Cities, Save Our Children!'

Scan page 7

BUD FOR CITIES 1* YUA AND JOBS NOT JAILS NG STATES RACISM, & CUTBACKS PEOPLES MOVEMENT FOR A BALTIMORE, Md.-In the aftermath of the rebellion and outrage that swept SouthCentral Los Angeles and the rest of the U.S. in the days following the acquittal of the criminal cops in Simi Valley, Calif., tens of thousands marched on Washington D.C. on May 16.

The march to "Save our Cities-Save Our Children," an action called by the U.S. Conference of Mayors late last fall, became a mass protest of the neglect of the nation's cities and of racial injustice.

As in recent protests around the country, the marchers were predominately Black, with one-fourth to one-third being white, Latino, and Asian. Many were African American youth who had spear-headed local protests.

Organizers said 200,000 marched, while U.S. Park Police claimed to have counted only 35,000. D.C. police estimated 150,000.

Participants represented trade unions, especially from New York and New Jersey, community organizations, homeless groups, students and teachers, churches, and political groups.

Marchers came from cities along the Eastern Seaboard, from Pittsburgh, from Atlanta; smaller contingents came from Midwest communities. A group of NativeAmerican activists traveled from Alaska to participate. Over 500 buses were chartered from New York City alone.

From Baltimore, an estimated 7,000 par(The following is an abridged version of an editorial in the May 17, 1992, issue of Granma International, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party (CC), on the events in Los Angeles and how they relate to Cuba-the editors)

Angeles and 12 other U.S. cities. With his own house the imminent social explosions of his own country, continue determining its own way of life.

ticular exasperation and wrath. We can't help but by blood and fire the restoration of capitalism.

• The entrails of a society built on hate and inequality acquittal of the perpetrators of that beating, greeted wives. It was the clamor of a justice debased.

It is obvious that the jury delivered its verdict in system that uses it and sustains it.

has deep historical roots. There is economic violence.

violence. And there is police violence.

FEDERAL NO BAL HELP APSOME JOBS NOT JAILS ticipated. About 90 buses carried demonstrators, leaving from the State Office complex, from churches, from every comer of this majority-Black city.

Mary Slicher, director of a community group working with homeless and jobless men and women, pointed out in the May 17 Baltimore Sun, "We've had tremendous cuts in our programs. Our priorities are just so backwards. We need to put our FROM POLICE BRUTALITY, 3277130* AILS K. Condylos/Impact Visuals resources where our needs are—and I most Americans feel that way."

Curtis Price of Street Voice, which organized a delegation of homeless, was also quoted in the Sun as saying, "The homeless have a voice, too." Several busloads of homeless women and men attended the march from Baltimore.

The "Save Our Cities-Save Our Children" march called for massive funding for jobs, housing, education, healthcare, and the environment. Federal aid for urban programs, cut over the last decade, has lett millions of children hungry, and millions of workers unable to find jobs. Demonstrators called for money to be taken from swollen military spending to fund human needs.

Politicians speaking at the march, primarily Democrats, sought to put the onus for the increasing misery of working people on the Reagan/Bush Republican administrations. They denounced the cuts as "callous Republican neglect."

However, some speakers, many signs, and numerous chants opposed the bi-partisan Republican and Democratic party enforcement of "belt tightening."

Jay Dover, a Baltimore city high school student active in a student-community coalition (Bentley Memorial Student Pantry), which provides bulk food and hot meals in the Greenmount community, was asked what brought out the four busloads from that area. He replied, "People realized we all have a stake in fighting for the empowerment of our communities. But this [May 16] needs to be a starting point."

May 16 reflected the anger and frustration working people feel today, especially Black workers in the cities. It gave them a national voice of protest against the Rodney King verdict.

For the politicians, on the other hand, it was merely pressure on the Bush Administration—nothing more. This became clear during the rally, and left many demonstrators frustrated. They realized that a single march would not win the massive funding necessary to create jobs, build housing, and so on. They were seeking an on-going organized campaign, a movement that can unite all the victims of the capitalist U.S. government's priorities.

That challenge remains for working people to organize an effective fightback.