The Murder of Nipsey Hussle: Analysis… Experience… and the Need for Transformation

April 15, 2019 | revcom.us

 

The killing of Nipsey Hussle in front of his clothing store two weeks ago in Los Angeles has set off an extraordinary outpouring. His murder concentrated the outrage and pain that so many of the oppressed bear, seeing their loved ones cut down by violence—whether carried out by the police or by the oppressed acting against each other. What heightened it further was that Nipsey Hussle was someone who was seen by people as having “made it,” but had not left where he came from and was trying, by his own lights, to “give back.”

People very broadly have been wrangling with the meaning of his death and life. The National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour and the LA Revolution Club have been out with Revolution in the thick of this, listening to and struggling with people. For many among the masses—for most—the grief has been mixed with a sort of acceptance that the basic and bitter facts of life for most of the oppressed will never fundamentally change. Of those drawn to change, most spontaneously seek out roads rooted in the system that gives rise to the very conditions that kill thousands of Nipseys a year. This has been strongly reinforced by the likes of Louis Farrakhan and Barack Obama, who spoke at the funeral or sent messages. But for a critical minority, the struggle waged by the Revolution Club over the source of the problem (capitalism-imperialism) and the solution (revolution) provoked engagement. In a few cases, people were looking for this; in more cases, it took struggle. The fact is this: people need what only the revolution can bring to them.

Thursday, the day of his funeral, witnessed thousands packing the downtown venue where it was held and thousands more in the streets all along the way. In the days before and since, there’s been a more or less constant scene at Crenshaw and Slauson, the corner where Nipsey Hussle was killed. And this has continued to simmer throughout the city as we’re collectively and scientifically sorting through all this ourselves. We’re including below a statement from the Revolution Club released the day before Nipsey's funeral; two reports giving different perspectives from members of the National Revolution Tour; an earlier article written by Joe Veale; and a short poem.