From the Revolution Club Chicago:

As Trial of Pig Who Killed Laquan Begins:
Fighting the Power, and Transforming the People, for Revolution

September 10, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From the Revolution Club Chicago

On Wednesday, September 5, the trial began of the murdering pig who killed Laquan McDonald. The Revolution Club Chicago issued a statement, “THE MURDERER OF LAQUAN MCDONALD MUST NOT WALK FREE! WE NEED AN ACTUAL REVOLUTION!! AND WE NEED YOU TO BE PART OF IT!” and has started to get out to the people about what is happening with this trial and what we need to do now to not allow it to be an accelerator to genocide against Black and Brown people, but instead to make it be a way we advance the revolution and break out of being encircled and crushed.

On the beginning day of the trial, the Revolution Club marched into the protests in formation and marched in front of the courthouse chanting, “Indict, convict, send the killer cop to jail, the whole damn system is guilty as hell!” and “It’s time, it’s time, to get organized for an actual revolution!” This was part of a whole scene where a number of organizations rallied across the street, and people going in to their court dates and who were drawn to the Revolution Club presence stopped and chanted along with us or stepped in to march for a couple minutes.

A few days later, the Revolution Club went out to a big street festival on the South Side, mobilizing a crew to get out to the people with the message about this trial and spreading the word of the revolution we need, the leadership and strategy and organization we have, and what we need to do now to build for revolution. We took a banner that said, “Convict Van Dyke, the Whole System Is Guilty!” and we had a flyer announcing the important new film and upcoming preview showing of the talk by Bob Avakian, Why We Need an Actual Revolution and How We Can Really Make Revolution.

As happens routinely in this city, almost immediately the authorities attempted to intervene and stop this message from connecting with people—police, some of the festival organizers, and a private security company tried to physically and violently move us. An attorney who was out with the club worked hard to get the police to follow their own laws and back off of this attack. She did this in the context of everyone in the Revolution Club crew standing strong and continuing to reach out to the masses, and then the people at the festival responding to the message we were bringing.

A crowd gathered in support of the Revolution Club, with some people directly stepping in to yell at the security guards and festival organizers and others walking up in the middle of everything to ask for flyers and then passing them out to people walking by. As the authorities were backing off, a well known community figure in the area who was part of the festival came up and shook the hand of everyone in the Revolution Club crew, signaling his support to friend and foe. A bit later, a different festival organizer came and offered us the use of an empty booth, where we set up and reached out to people the rest of the time we were there. People came up throughout the day saying they were proud of us.

In Chicago, the word that the Van Dyke trial is starting is still beginning to get out, but almost everyone knows the name Laquan or the story of what happened to him. Shot 16 times while he was walking away from the police. He was 17 years old. When the video came out, it showed how ALL the pigs had lied and completely made up the story that Laquan was trying to attack the police with a knife, and that the killer pig Jason Van Dyke “feared for his life.” The police superintendent and the mayor covered up the video for a year.

The other part people know and feel is the pain, because it never leaves. Not when the killing continues day after day. Not when so many have lost so many to the violence among the people that bubbles up continuously from the poisonous depths of this system that has no future for the youth, and to police guns cutting down children and fathers and grandmothers, cousins and brothers, husbands and lovers, terrorizing the masses of Black and Brown people.

What people remember less clearly or never understood is how the protests that erupted when the video came out rocked the city, how people lifted their heads when they stood up and how their protests reached into other sections of society, into the suburbs and into the upscale downtown theaters, how people who usually don’t see, SAW and felt something about the brutal oppression and systemic violence committed against Black people, standing with and supporting the protests in the streets. Breaking down that division is something that has to happen again and even stronger. The situation of Black people being dehumanized and portrayed as vicious criminals and savages has caused tsunamis of unnecessary suffering—and in the current situation, the attacks on Black and Brown people are intensifying with the openly white supremacist, fascist Trump/Pence regime in power.

As we said in our statement, “From the slave catchers to the KKK lynch mobs to the heavily armed police of today, this system has always terrorized the masses of Black people as a whole. To put an end to this, the whole system needs to be overthrown, and we have to protest and resist the brutality of this system NOW as part of how we get ready for the time when millions can be led to go for revolution, all-out, with a real chance to win.”

This month, as this trial unfolds and as people need to be spreading the word of this revolution and taking to the streets in protest, there will also be something happening that can change the whole equation in a powerful way. On September 22, the Revolution Club Chicago is hosting a preview screening of a new talk from Bob Avakian: Why We Need an Actual Revolution and How We Can Really Make Revolution. Bob Avakian is the leader of the revolution and the architect of a new framework for human emancipation, the new communism. He gave this talk in several cities this summer. We have never had a leader like BA and there has never been a talk like this on this topic. Everybody who wants to see an end to white supremacy and all the horrors this system rains down on people not just here, but all over the world—the wars for empire, the degradation of women, the destruction of the environment, the criminalization of immigrants—needs to hear the case made by Bob Avakian. And starting now, be part of organizing thousands and influencing millions for revolution.

 

Revolution Club Chicago at street festival on the South Side. Above and below.