As the holidays arrive, millions of people confront the fact that time with family means a visit to a jail, prison or juvenile hall where their loved ones are being treated like animals. In the midst of this, and a major crisis specifically in the juvenile jails, the National Revolution Tour went out to reach people with the real way out of this madness.
A recent exposé in the Los Angeles Times laid bare a months-long crisis in LA County's juvenile halls: overcrowded conditions have been a hell for hundreds of youths this system has nothing for. Jammed together with others already seen as “rivals,” fights have been exploding among youths whose anger and frustration are boiling over. Out of concern for their own safety (and not the young people they are allegedly charged with keeping safe), guards have been refusing to come to work. The county then uses the excuse of low staffing as a reason to put children in isolation cells and use pepper spray and other violence—treating these youths as animals to be controlled. They have been cancelling school and sometimes even visitation with family and lawyers. Meanwhile, in the adult county jail system in LA—the largest in the world—the day-to-day conditions there are described by many visiting or coming out in a single word: torture.
The recent Interviews with the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian lay out the only answer to this nightmare: an actual revolution. And in these Interviews, BA speaks directly to this section of youth that are being brutally suppressed by this system, who are right now fighting and killing each other. BA recognizes their potential to not just be part of ending their own oppression, but to be part of a force that's ending all oppression through an actual revolution. He sees and speaks to their deeper aspirations for a future worth living in and he struggles hard with them to put their lives, creativity and energy into a real chance to get this system off their backs, and off the backs of the people of the world. If we are to make good on that chance, there is an urgent need to connect BA's leadership with this section of people and have societal impact with the fact that there is this revolutionary leadership. The crisis in juvenile hall presented a big need and opening to do that.
Los Angeles RevComs talk to people across the street from Twin Towers. Photo: revcom.us
We've planned a multifaceted effort to have a big impact: reaching people directly out front of juvenile hall and county jail at visiting hours; projections of graphics and video on the outside walls of these torture chambers as an act of defiance and to spread on social media; and a press conference this coming Tuesday, aiming to involve people from different strata who want to speak out about this and who are moved by BA's message and challenge.
Intensity, pain... and revolutionary engagement in front of the jails
We spent a day reaching people at visiting hours going to see their loved ones inside of county jail and juvenile hall—showing clips from the BA Interviews, and distributing a flyer asking them to “Give The Best Gift You Could Give, A REAL Way Out Of The Madness.” “...there IS a way out, real hope. Not by looking to heaven but by making revolution right here on Earth. There is a way to do that, out of the conditions today. And there is leadership for that way, in Bob Avakian.”
In talking to people, we immediately felt the intensity and pain people were dealing with. People whose adult children with mental illness are being put in jail instead of getting the treatment they need. A woman talked about the constant lockdowns. She said recently, during a five-day lockdown she fought for four days before they did a mental health check on her suicidal son who was supposed to be checked every 24 hours.
At the juvenile hall, one woman talked of the pain of the fact that this will be her son’s third birthday inside, and he's just 17. She talked of how being locked up in these conditions isn't about rehabilitation but makes people worse—more cynical and uncaring. Many parents at the hall said the youths are kept very divided, and one man told us that his son had been beat up by other youths at another juvenile hall before he was transferred to this one.
A woman waiting for her husband to be released read the flyer and watched a one-minute clip from the Bob Avakian Interviews where he explains what a revolution is. She said she knows about this because of her life, telling how she has had three people in her life in this jail. One was her brother who was locked up and deported and then killed in Mexico.
At both county jail and the juvenile hall we also showed people a short clip where BA tells people to get out of thinking about things in terms of “being the fucker or the fucked,” because the real terms are being enslaved or emancipated. And we showed people a few minutes of the segment where BA speaks directly to those youth caught up in the hardest hell.
At county jail, some people took extra palm cards. And we talked with people about what it means that there really is a way out of this madness... and they have a role to play in “giving the best gift they could give...” introducing people to this revolutionary leader. One woman said she was very inspired by this idea, that things didn't have to be this way.
At county, a man who watched the fucker/fucked clip responded “that’s how my son thinks” and pointed out that meanwhile all of them are in this same jail and these conditions. He wants to challenge his son with what he heard from BA. Overall, people got a sense they were hearing someone who knows what they’re going through and respects them and is telling something real about why and struggling with them about a real way out, and their role in this. And we talked with people about the moment we're in, a time where because of the crisis throughout society and splits among the rulers, revolution has become more possible. When talking about the fascists who follow Trump, this got nods of recognition and concern.
In addition to this more positive response, there was some sharp struggle. We contrasted real revolution with people getting on their knees and praying while this system keeps killing people—a couple fascist-minded people, including a Hebrew Israelite who set off yelling but wouldn't stay to engage in a real debate. We also had a sharp struggle with a couple who argued that you need to fix white people through slow education, then ended with one of them upholding Ye and his statement that Hitler had good qualities. While these didn't end up having a larger impact, it was important we stepped in a way that was polemical to try to open up the wrong frameworks that we know are there.
Among people who really gravitated to BA and the message of revolution, we had some experience with actually organizing those people. When we put to people “give the best gift you could give—a real way out of this madness,” many were eager to figure out how to do that—including taking extra materials and giving ideas of how best to reach more people and a couple people donated to spread this to others. This is something we need to do much more consistently.
We also invited people to participate in Tuesday's press conference and met a couple people who are interested, including a woman who has family inside and started a nonprofit to try to help people when they come out. She watched a BA clip about the confines of this system; it resonated with her because she can see how they shape the youth from an early age to expect prison or an early death. She wants to speak on Tuesday.
We're building for this press conference broadly on the basis of this clip from BA, and response from members of the Revolution Club in Chicago, among artists, lawyers, religious folks and all those who care about this section of people and want to see a way out who might be moved and challenged by what BA recognizes as the potential for these youth... and the need for a real revolution. Stay tuned.
