Fight On To Free the Jena 6!

Thursday, September 20, was a great day for the people!

Tens of thousands came out from the grassroots to demand that the Jena 6 be freed and that this outrageous injustice be stopped. Nothing like this mobilization—nothing like its spirit or turnout or determination—had been seen in a long, long time.

After so long of being told “the system is too powerful and we’re too messed up”…after so long of those in power relentlessly hammering on the people…we once again got a glimpse and a feel of the people’s potential strength and the potential weakness of those who ride atop this rotten system.

But it’s not just Jena. It’s the whole thing—the way this system chews up so many Black and other minority youth, and everything else they’ve been bringing down on people for years and years and more. And it’s a fact: the only thing that has prevented these young men from being totally railroaded already, and that has won some beginning concessions, has been the power of the people in struggle. Coming out of Jena, we have to redouble our determination to completely free the Jena 6.

Right now, immediately, we have to get the word out further and wider. Take this paper, now; it not only tells the real story of the Jena 6, it shows why it happened and why things like this keep happening. It puts things in the light of the whole society that so badly cries out for revolution. If you don’t have some, order it—and take it out by the hundreds and hundreds this next week. Take it to the high schools, so the youth can learn about this. Take it to the places where people work and live and hang out. Listen to people’s outrage at this injustice, as well as their joy for what was accomplished with this demonstration on September 20. Work with them to give all that further political expression. Build the resistance to the injustice in Jena, and spread the idea of revolution.

Now is the time to push forward. As our editorial in this issue concluded: “There are real stakes in this struggle. There is a real battle to WIN. The people cannot allow this injustice to go down. The people must stop, through mass political action, this violent enforcement of white supremacy and prevent yet another case of Black youth disappearing into the system’s dungeons. The Jena 6 must be freed. And all this must become part of a growing revolutionary movement.”

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