A Call for: Emergency Action in Solidarity with University of Missouri Black Students
November 10, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The following is the call for the November 12 actions appeared at theblacktribune.org:
CALL TO ACTION: Nationwide Demonstration in Solidarity with Mizzou
MO State activist, Ravyn J. Brooks, calls for black students & allies to demonstrate in light of systemic racism in public and private academic institutions
Dear Fellow Black Collegians & Allies:
“We are obliged to act in times of injustice; understanding that these incidents are not isolated, but an outburst of systemic racism in public and private academic institutions, it is our duty to confront the administrations of these institutions.” – National Black Student Caucus
As collegians, students of color, and believers in justice, we are obliged to expose the systemic oppression and racial tensions that bleed across our campuses! It is our moral duty to stand in solidarity with the black students at University of Missouri—Columbia, Concerned Student 1950, Jonathan Butler, and student-athletes on the football team in the fight for the removal of their system President, Tim Wolfe. His negligence of (therefore, participation in) the explicit racially charged and unjust events occurring on the campus since October is unacceptable. We owe solidarity to Missouri State University—Springfield, and all black students nationwide as we fight administrative neglect, abuse of power, and a lack of adequate resources.
To show solidarity, we will organize nationwide, on-campus demonstrations. We will uphold the demands issued by Mizzou students, as well as individual demands respective to our institutions. These demonstrations will be scheduled for the same day (Thursday, November 12, 2015). It is crucial that these demonstrations be organized and focused. Each campus coalition is allowed discretion over the kind of demonstration it wishes to organize; however, for the sake of unity, each demonstration should incorporate signs reading:
“#ConcernedStudent1950”
“I Support Jonathon Butler”
“#BlackCollegiateSolidarity”
“#FireTimWolfe”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!”
Please forward this message to as many black organizations on collegiate campuses as diligently as possible as the action is very time sensitive. We must take advantage of this momentum to let administrations all across the nation know that we are not just tokens for “diversity” and “inclusion,” and are serious about justice!
If you are interested, please e-mail me at rb.theblacktribune@gmail.com with the subject line: “Black Collegiate Solidarity Demonstration.”
Peace and Love,
Ravyn Brooks
Missouri State University, 2017
A Missouri State University student has issued a call to action for Thursday, November 12: "Emergency Action in Solidarity with University of Missouri Black Students." This call was originally issued before University of Missouri President Timothy Wolfe and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin were forced to step down because of the student protests—but the call for emergency action is still going forward, and it has been taken up on at least 14 different campuses.
As of Tuesday night, November 10, universities and colleges committed to participating in this action include: Missouri State University, Southeast Missouri State University, Missouri Western University, Webster University, Stephens College, University of Central Missouri, Missouri Baptist University, Loyola University-Chicago, Columbia University, DePaul University, University of Missouri Kansas City, Rockhurst University, Kansas State University, University of Kansas.
The call to go forward from the protests at University of Missouri and spread the fight to campuses across the country is very significant and important. As Carl Dix, co-initiator of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party, said in his statement of support for the University of Missouri students: “All this indicates that there is a new generation that is not going to take the racism constantly hammered on people by this white supremacist society, that they are willing to put things on the line to stop it, and that when this kind of bold stand is taken it attracts, and compels, others to support it and also step into the fight. This is a very important moment in relation to the struggle throughout the society against the oppression of Black people and other oppressed peoples, and it is part of focusing the thinking of millions to what is fundamental in this society.”
We call on our readers to unite with and support these actions on campuses across the country—and to join them where you can. Take out to the students the basic truth that this system has no future for Black youth. And the understanding that we need a whole different system that will eliminate the oppression of Black people and other oppressed people, as well as all the other outrages and horrors of this system. That bringing such as system into being requires an actual revolution—nothing less! That making this revolution requires science and leadership—and that we have this science and this leadership in Bob Avakian, the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
And take out to students that right now—as part of hastening and preparing for this revolution, as well as taking further the fight to STOP the racist terror of the police—students and others must go into the streets in a major way on November 22, one year since the police murder of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black child playing with a toy gun in Cleveland. The system has been moving to exonerate the cops who murdered Tamir, and this must not be tolerated. Join the protesters nationwide who will be saying on that day: Indict, convict, send the killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell!
Get out copies of the statement from Carl Dix to everyone (download PDF of the statement to print) at the campus actions. Bring Stolen Lives posters and banners—with the faces and names of people murdered by police. Spread the word and organize for the November 22 actions on the one-year anniversary of the police murder of Tamir Rice. Back-pack copies of BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian—a great way to introduce people to BA. And distribute copies of Revolution newspaper.
Send reports, photos, and videos from the November 12 actions to revolution.reports@yahoo.com.
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