Youth on the Move!
2015Joe Auciello 2015-01Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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Even a brief look at the racial landscape in America today would convince a reasonable person that, in essential ways through the years, too little has changed. Differences in wealth, income, education, employment, incarcera tion, etc.—differences that are growing to the disadvantage of Blacks—are still based on race. The election of a Black man as president and the election of other minorities to office have brought no overall improvement in the daily In fact, Jim Crow, if he ever went away, has returned. Police departments throughout the country certainly think so, and the Supreme Court has backed them. So, Black males, especially, continue to be profiled, stopped and frisked, harassed, and shot with distressing regularity. The growth of a Black middle class has not fundamentally altered this reality. Just ask Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. the next time he is arrested when he misplaces his Yet, within the framework of this racially charged country, significant if un expected change is emerging. In Ferguson, Mo., New York City, Cleveland, and other cities where Black men have been shot or killed, people of many races and ethnic groupings—including whites, Asians, and Latinos—and especially the young, participate in the demonstrations, marches, die-ins, and civil dis Tony Savino / Socialist Action In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to deny freedom to Dred Scott, a slave living in Missouri. The decision stated that Black people have “no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” Today, as yesterday, the racist system of capitalism operates much the same in real life—if no longer on paper.
Each day adds to the deadly toll as racist killer cops walk free. Grand juries failed to indict Darren Wilson, the cop who murdered Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Mo., last summer and officer Daniel Pantaleo, who choked to death Eric Garner, 43, in Staten Island, N.Y., in July. The Brown and Garner cases have galvanized a new generation of antiracist youth—especially African Ameri cans, many of whom are women—who are taking to the streets in outrage.
Adding fuel to their anger were the cop shootings of two African Ameri cans—Akai Gurley, 28, in a Brooklyn stairwell on Nov. 20, and Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old in Cleveland, gunned down in a park on Nov. 22.
The anger has spread internation ally to protests in London, Tokyo, Mel bourne, Toronto, and many other cities. The video of Garner’s savage murder was viewed worldwide and gave the lie to Washington’s propaganda that U.S. capitalism and imperialism deliver “equality” and “democracy” to occu pied countries such as Iraq and Afghan istan. U.S. racism is 400 years old and it Tony Savino / Socialist Action still continues—despite having a Black president in the White House!
The current anger comes almost three years after the big nationwide mobilizations that followed the mur der of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year old gunned down in February 2012 by a racist vigilante in Florida. In New York City, Ramarley Graham, 18, was killed inside his Bronx home by a cop without a warrant right in front of his family in 2012; Kimani Gray, 16, was shot seven times, three from behind, in 2013 in Brooklyn. All of the above victims were unarmed. life of Black America.
The number of killings by police thugs is almost mind numbing. A Malcolm X Grassroots Movement study found that an African American is killed by police or a vigilante every 28 hours! Outra geously, there are no official national house key. numbers of police killings of Black and Hispanic youth by U.S. law enforce ment. USA Today (Jan. 1) reported that only 750 out of 17,000 law enforce ment agencies even report the num bers. The Wall Street Journal found that (continued on page 9, in “A brief history of political Islam”) (continued on page 10, in “A brief history of political Islam”)
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VOL. 33, NO. 1, JANUARY 2015 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG U.S. / CANADA $1 Killer cops go free
INSIDE SOCIALIST KING
‘The Interview’ — 2 Victory at McDonald’s — 5 Political Islam — 9 Martin Luther King — 3 Cuban Five released — 6 Abolish grand jury — 11 CIA torture — 4 Canada revol. history — 8