Houston correspondence: Revolution… In the Street… In Jail…
August 25, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
This weekend, revolutionaries went through sections of a Black neighborhood and other parts of the city with the message "It's Right to Rebel, stand with the people of Ferguson, fight the power and transform the people for revolution."
We also were building anticipation for the historic announcement to be made on September 1st.
We got out over a hundred copies of Revolution, with several people buying bundles of the paper to get out to their family and neighbors.
Many people spoke to how closely they have been following what's going on in Ferguson on the news and are glad that people are not backing down on demanding justice. One man said, "people have been persistent and consistent, that's why the system have had to listen". People were outraged at the police attacking the protestors. One woman said that she's afraid to have her kids go outside, not because she's afraid of what other people will do, but because she's afraid of what the police will do. One woman outside the county jail said, "so people can't speak out now, they're trying to silence us, even as they kill one more Black man." One young man said that the media has been lying and causing confusion about all this. There was a lot of back and forth among people about a lot of this confusion. At times, we read out loud the points of orientation in the paper, and it helped clarify things for people.
There was a lot of debate over how can revolution end all this police murder, and all forms of oppression. This was tied in with questions on is it right to rebel, or is it worth it to rebel. Some young men argued that they are fighting the system every day, just to survive, and in Ferguson, the system have sent in their National Guard, tear gas and rubber bullets, how can they be defeated? As some of them argued that it is impossible, one young man bought a bundle of papers and said that he's going to get it out to others who will listen. Many times over in these two days, we got into the strategy for revolution with people and introduced them to BA.
At one of the projects, an Egyptian man spoke about how important leadership is. He said that millions of people in Egypt rose up and they prided that they had no leadership, but that is in fact a bitter lesson. They didn't have the necessary leadership and the revolution failed there. He was very interested in finding out about BA. Throughout the weekend we were inviting people to come to the Labor Day BA Everywhere fundraising gathering.
A little bit later, as we were eating lunch, a young man came up to us and said that people are talking about change, but what kind of change are we talking about. We talked about BA and Revolution Nothing Less and he bought two shirts and said that he is going to wear it and put it up on Instagram.
On Saturday night, we went out to a hip-hop dance competition. As we agitated and chanted, groups of youth grabbed up the QR cards of BA's New Year's message and some of them immediately went to the revcom website on their phones. Many of them were attracted by the "3 Strikes" poster and said that they are sick and tired of seeing youth gunned down by the police, so how can this all end? One group who came from Oklahoma took a bunch of papers and materials for the October Month of Resistance and said that they have been looking for something they can do to stop all the madness. A couple of them said that they would listen to BA's New Year's message on the bus ride home because they want to find out about this revolution and get involved.
On Sunday, as we were outside of a county jail agitating and distributing Revolution to families of the prisoners inside, a good number of people stopped to talk. Many of them started talking about their own experiences with the police and how they are relating to the anger of the people in Ferguson. At a certain point, we started chanting, 'hands up, don't shoot. Michael did not have to die we all know the reason why, the whole system is guilty" As masses became more involved in the chanting and getting the paper, the Harris County sheriffs came down and arrested two of the revolutionaries. As we and the masses kept on chanting, people started taking videos with their phones, and grabbing up the paper. Three people came up and said that they want to be witnesses to the arrests, because as one woman said, "it's not right to arrest people for speaking up."
We went back into the Black neighborhood with news of the arrests and to call on people to get the paper out more broadly and to donate and raise money for bail. While we did not collect a lot of money that evening, several people said to come back after the first of the month because they want to give something. We also called on other people from the middle strata to get involved and to donate to get the revolutionaries out of jail. In a few hours, people donated over $1000. A young man who has been supportive of the movement for revolution, found out that people were arrested and kept the police from towing their car by feeding the parking meter all day until they were released.
The revolutionaries who were arrested took the message of REVOLUTION: NOTHING LESS! and BA's leadership into the jails; lots of discussion around women's oppression, Ferguson, the children at the border, and Palestine. Some controversy, when an older, jaded Black man who has been in and out of prison, told the revolutionary to shut up, he didn't want to hear that shit... a Black youth, said some of us are interested, want to hear about this, others in the discussion were some Chicano youth, and others.
After the revolutionaries got out, they engaged with others. A cab driver who started out just hustling a fare, got into it with the revolutionaries. He said, "if there was a revolution they'd just send out the National Guard. The rev pointed out, yes, they are that vicious, but we have a strategy to deal with that... the guy said he would check out revcom.us to find out more about this including the Statement on Strategy, and "On the Possibility..." It was also pointed out that we're not talking about launching revolution now, but preparing for when millions will rise... and what is happening in Ferguson, the way people are standing up exactly to the National Guard and curfews, has deep lessons about the ability to go up against that and is part of preparing the ground, the people, and the vanguard for that kind of future situation.
Several people in the jail said they would check out the revcom.us site, including one man who said he didn't know how to use a computer, but it turns out has a smartphone so he can learn how to use the Internet on it.
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