Hundreds of Thousands Protest to End Gun Killings in Schools:
#NeverAgain—“We Want Change!”
March 26, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in cities across the country on March 24, saying “Enough Is Enough.” Many students still fresh with grief over friends whose young lives ended so needlessly... outraged at the politicians who aren’t doing anything to stop gun violence in schools... determined to speak out and demand change.
In Washington, DC, there were several hundred thousand; the crowd in New York was tens of thousands; and large protests were held in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, Denver, and other cities, and in Parkland, Florida, less than a mile from where 17 students and school staff were gunned down on February 14. Many thousands more gathered in dozens of cities across the country. There were protests in other countries including in Tokyo, Japan; Berlin, Germany; Rome, Italy; and Sydney, Australia.
In Washington, DC, Andra Day and Common performed “Rise Up,” Jennifer Hudson sang Bob Dylan’s song from the ’60s, “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, and Lin-Manuel Miranda also performed at the DC rally, and many other celebrities performed or spoke at rallies in other cities.
The anger and determination of people was loud and visceral, from the stage and in the crowd. Among the youth in the crowds and from those who spoke at the rallies, there was a basic feeling that something is really wrong with a world where kids and teachers are getting gunned down in their classrooms. And there is a real sense that “we are ones who have to bring about change, it’s up to our generation and we have right on our side.”
In the wake of the school shooting in Florida, students are awakening and are coming straight up against a hideous manifestation of the real nature of this system and society and the horrors and madness it spawns. Big questions are posed, and people are trying to figure out why this is happening. There is a streak of contempt for the politics as usual that has allowed this to happen. And there’s a lot of fear and anger at the current situation where people see all this ugly shit coming from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Republicans. People are trying to figure out what to do, and all kinds of solutions are being discussed and debated, with a lot of conflicting ideas in the mix.
But the truth of the matter is: Mass violence is woven into the very fabric and DNA of the USA. It is rooted in the origins and history of America, its system and its political structures, the social relations and the culture it has given rise to and continues to reinforce. There can be NO solution that doesn’t recognize that to change this, you have to get at these roots. There can be no understanding of the so-called “gun culture” in this country without recognizing the whole history of white reactionaries, especially in the wake of the upheavals of Black people in the 1960s, being armed to the teeth to protect white supremacy and “their way of life,” how racialized violence has been fostered by not just the NRA, but by politicians and those in the highest offices of government. And there can be no figuring out how to stop all this without recognizing how the violence of war is built into the very fabric of what America does around the world. (See here for more on this.)
Hundreds of thousands concerned about gun killings in schools were being politically mobilized by and around the politics of the Democratic Party. And the message from the stage and among most in the crowds was that people need to demand change from politicians, support those candidates who support gun control, and get out and vote.
As people are trying to figure out how to put a stop to these horrific murders, the “solutions” being offered in a big way are dead ends that would corral people into working within the very system responsible for violence and oppression, not just here in the U.S. but even more so around the world—and for decades and decades, from slavery, wars of empire, and much more.
At the same time, people at the protests were very receptive and open when revolutionaries introduced them to the communist leader Bob Avakian and the need for a radical, revolutionary solution. Thousands of people around the country got palm cards about Bob Avakian’s film, THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In The Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America. A Better World IS Possible. In a number of cities, youths took up and carried signs from the Revolution Club that said, “The system has no future for the youth, the revolution does.” It’s clear that some sections of those who were out on the streets were roiling with deeper questions, given what is happening here and around the world.
Refuse Fascism was out in cities across the country, and thousands of copies of the new call “THIS NIGHTMARE MUST END: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!” got out that day.
It is positive that so many people, especially many, many high school students, are out in the streets demanding change. Big questions are being posed and this outrage needs to turn into many hundreds of thousands of people, awakening to political life, digging into why these horrific killings are happening and how to stop it for real. As revcom.us has written, addressing the students who are demanding that school shootings end:
As you awaken to the horrors of this country and what it does, lift your sights to the emancipation of all of humanity. Otherwise none of these burning outrages will end, and in many ways you could end up being pitted against others whose lives are being wantonly destroyed by the same system that is responsible for the school shootings you’re rightly outraged about.
The real insanity is leaving in place this capitalist-imperialist system built on racism, genocide, and misogyny which doesn’t give a shit about youth in Parkland, Florida, or people anywhere else. It’s the same system that’s driving the world toward environmental calamity with global warming, and threatening it with nuclear holocaust. It’s going to take nothing less than an actual revolution to change that.
To those agonizing over the latest school shooting and those who abhor it—dig more deeply into the history of this country and the nature of this society. Rise up, resist, and revolt against all abuses and outrages going on, and against the system underlying them. Come to revcom.us and get into the most radical revolutionary vision, strategy, and plan for a whole new world, without the needless carnage and insanity that is an American hallmark.
Chicago
Photo: Special to www.revcom.us/Revolutionnewspaper
Honolulu, Hawaii
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