Black Lives Matter! Latino Lives Matter! All Lives Matter!
by Joe Veale | February 9, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Listen to audioOn MLK Day this year, there was a march of 200 or more in Santa Ana, California. One of the main signs of the people marching said: Black Lives Matter!
Santa Ana is mainly Latino. The marchers were Latino, Black, and white.
Santa Ana was home for two of our youth – Manuel Diaz and Joel Acevedo – that BA talks about in the beginning of the film REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
Manuel and Joel were killed – in cold-blooded fashion – by the Anaheim, California police.
People also held signs saying: Latino Lives Matter! As well as other signs demanding justice.
This was a beautiful sight!
Black people stood up in Ferguson, Missouri, after a pig pumped at least six bullets into Michael Brown – murdering Michael Brown in broad day light. The pig who did this was not even arrested – they stood up again refusing to accept the grand jury verdict of: “justifiable homicide” – of Mike Brown – and they were joined by people of all “races”/nationalities when they stood up and powerfully said: HELL NO!
Thousands stood up again in New York after a gang of thuggish pigs choked Eric Garner to death. We all heard Eric speak his last words as he was gang tackled by NY police: “I can’t breathe!” – again the grand jury said this was “justifiable homicide” – again this was met with a big:HELL NO! – by thousands pouring into the streets saying: Black Lives Matter! – which struck a deep cord with Latino people – immigrants – women – with millions of people – high school students – college students – artists – people who have relative privilege joining – uniting – with those who do not – beginning to question what kind of fucking society is this that we live in?!
We need to build on this kind of unity. Sharpen it – as we spread and intensify this struggle for justice.
But in the face of this beautiful development, some have stepped forward to divide the people. To pit them against each other. To divert this beautiful development into something else.
Into a scramble to get a “better” place on the “totem pole.” A scramble to get privilege in this system that rests upon profound inequalities and injustices. Into a scramble that pits one group of the people against other groups of the people. Blacks vs. Latinos. Blacks vs. white people. Trying to direct people into fighting to “own” a little slice of oppression. Compete with others to do this.
Fighting to divert people back into the dog-eat-dog ways of thinking and acting that keeps them trapped in the killing embraces of this capitalist-imperialist system.
Trapped in conditions where the very, very brutal, very, very de-humanizing murder of Brown and Garner – are repeated and justified over, and over again.
When you come face to face with that reality... what are you going to do? When you come face to face with the fact that this is essential for the maintenance of the system... what are you gonna do?
This is what the scramble to “own” a piece of this oppression diverts people away from confronting: confronting reality the way it really is in order to change it.
This narrow, petty outlook of “me and mine” weakens the ability of the masses to stand up and fight. Stand up and resist. Stand up to put a STOP to the criminalization, mass incarceration, police terror, murder, and genocidal assault against Black and Latino people.
It weakens instead of strengthens our ability to make these struggles further contribute to building the movement for revolution – to finally get rid of this life stealing and spirit crushing capitalist-imperialist system.
Yes! Linking the struggles today with the movement to get organized for an actual revolution.
Hastening the time when we can in our millions and millions rise up to get rid of this system – to overturn it – to defeat and dismantle it – its repressive forces – its system of police – courts – its prisons – its military – that backs up and enforces this capitalist-imperialist system and all the suffering and horrors its brings down on tens and tens of millions of people here and literally billions more around the world.
This is what revolution is all about. It is not about anything else.
It is not about trying to “piggy back” – or “hitch a ride” – on “my” vs. “your” struggle. It is about fucking eliminating this shit. Eliminating all exploitation, oppression – the pain, the suffering – the horror, the stunted lives, the shackled growth, the mangled bodies – that are produced and reproduced in the millions – every fucking day under this capitalist-imperialist system.
We need revolution. We do not need to be trying to “own” exploitation and oppression. Yours or anybody else’s.
It is not about struggling to “own” any part of this shit. It is not about trying to improve your position on the “totem pole.” Or trying to be the biggest and baddest bottom feeder. It is about revolution. It is about getting free. A world community of freely associating human beings. Communism. This is what it is all about.
This is what Bob Avakian, the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, is all about. This is what the RCP is all about. This is what revcom.us is all about, Revolution newspaper, the Revolution Club.
This is what you need to be about if you want to get free.
Think about it... are you out to get the franchise on suffering and oppression or are you out to dig out and overturn the very soil, the very ground, that make exploitation and oppression necessary? Do you want to create new soil, a new system – with a new foundation – where All oppressed humanity, male and female, are oppressed no more? A revolutionary new socialist system on the path to a communist world – where no group is trying to “own” oppression because no longer is there any oppression or exploitation to “own.”
The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) from the RCP gets into this – see how we must and can make the struggles we fight today be part of getting to a whole new society – and a whole new world.
Why should Black and Latino people fight against each other? Why should they compete against each other? For what? What sense does it make?
But some Black people say Black Lives Matter! is only for Black people. That Latino Lives Matter! should not be brought into this.
Some Latinos say: Latinos should not get involved into a struggle that is mainly about Black people because it will make Blacks a “stronger” force – give them stronger “backing” in this system.
ALL this is harmful and really BULLSHIT!
People who say this are
#1 Wrong. Black Lives Matter! raises big, fundamental questions: Do you want to live in a society where Black Lives do NOT Matter or do you want to live in a society where they do? Black lives, Latino lives, the lives of women – where ALL Lives Matter? How strongly do you want this? How badly? Enough to get with this revolution?
#2 Some people are confused. They are not clear on how these struggles are linked – have a common root and a common solution. They easily get pulled between uniting in this struggle for justice and following through on their convictions, on the one hand, and misdirecting their anger – misdirecting it into competing with others – looking out for their “own.” Stuck on a treadmill going nowhere. Nowhere good. Such people should stay active, hook up with the RCP, Revolution Club, revcom.us – quickly get clear about all this and stop allowing yourself to be played.
#3 Then there are counter-revolutionaries. They are a small distinct group. Fundamentally different from the other two groups. Though there can be overlap in thinking.
They not only play on the spontaneous strivings of some who are out to “own” oppression – as being what is realistic and possible – they go a step further – in every way conceivable they try to block up and prevent people from getting on the only pathway that will lead to eliminating this shit. They do all they can to prevent this. All they can to prevent people from discovering what is it going to take to get free. They do all they can to prevent people from discovering and hooking up with the revolutionary leadership they need to go forward with this.
They directly or indirectly work for the system.
Who does that serve?
You want to lay “claims” to this shit? Really? – put down a stake on it? – be the first to get the patent on suffering – really?
This can only – no matter what anyone says – this can only lead to perpetuating the very conditions – the very system – the very genocidal assault on Black and Latino people – with all the pain, trauma, misery, horror this involves.
Look at 12-year-old Tamir Rice and 15-year-old Andy Lopez. Murdered in cold blood by the police. Look at Ezell Ford and Omar Obrego living in the same South Central neighborhood in LA – murdered by the pigs from the same precinct. Look into the prisons, the jails... who do you see? The majority are Black and Latino. Look at the person who is in the cell next to the one you are in... who do you see? Look at who is on probation or parole. Look at their families. The millions whose life is being stunted in some way by this.
You are being played big time – condemning yourself and others to a genocidal assault by trying to “own” a stake in this shit – what you need to do is raise your sights and join the fight to eliminate this brutal shit. Do not stop until it is completely eliminated. Do not pull back if you find this pursuit takes you out of your comfort zone. Keep going.
And if you are out to really eliminate it then you welcome everyone in the struggle for justice. The more the merrier. It’s gonna take all of us and lots of revolutionary leadership to eliminate this horrific shit.
If you want to see Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, and whites unite in their common highest interest – in the interest of revolution – if you want to see people put an end to “racial hostilities” like the prisoners pulled together to do during the California Prison Hunger Strike – You got to make it happen by getting with this movement for revolution and going out challenging and struggling with others to do the same.
Unity on a revolutionary basis. Steeped in a deep scientific understanding of what is the problem and how revolution is the common solution.
You can not do this from the sidelines – pointing – saying there needs to be more unity. More Latinos should take part in Black Lives Matter! And Blacks should be more welcoming of Latino Lives Matter! in the struggle.
All that is true. As revolutionaries we join in all resistance against oppression. No matter what the nationality or gender. As revolutionaries we fight against all oppression. We bring out to people how different oppressions are linked. How they stem from a common source and have a common revolutionary solution.
As revolutionary communists we also bring out the deeper links – how Blacks and Latinos are in great numbers part of a common group at the bottom of society – the proletariat – who can free itself only by freeing all humanity. Only by eliminating all oppression everywhere in the world.
We should recognize that some people are gonna only want to fight against what affects them directly. We unite with them but we do not change who we are when we do.
Join this movement we ARE building for revolution. Contribute to helping people see the unity but also the difference between fighting against one oppression – and fighting against all oppression. The movement for revolution includes both kinds of people. But revolution can only happen if it is led by the revolutionary movement with the party at its core to get rid of all oppression – get rid of this system and replace it with a new system. With new values, morals, ways of thinking – new ways of relating to each other. New ways of producing and reproducing the necessities for the surviving – and the thriving of human beings.
You got to make the struggle for revolution – and the cohesion that comes from that – the unity – the feeling of community happen by ACTING NOW – in common – putting your ass on the line for it – going against the grain. Millions of Blacks and Latinos are part of the same group of people, the same class, that is the potential backbone and driving force for this revolution.
This is real. This is what is possible. Because of the way the world could be at this stage of human history, and because we have the leadership to make it real and possible. This leadership – this understanding – the RCP – This leader – BA – is what you need – dare to get off the sidelines – act now – become a fighter in the movement for revolution – transform yourself in the process – become a leader of others in this process – give your life over to the cause of human emancipation. Give it over to revolution – nothing less.
Think about that for a minute.
So much more is possible than the dog-eat-dog shit this system makes us do to each other.
Ironically, so much more is possible because of the very workings of this capitalist-imperialist system itself.
Its crimes, suffering, and horrors – have also created the basis to overturn and surpass this system. It has brought large groupings of people together around the globe to work in a collective and interdependent way – globalization – (At the base – at the heart of this – are the proletarians with nothing to lose but their chains) to produce and reproduce the necessities of life.
This goes on and can only go on in the most criminal way – the most horrific way – conditions that force mass suicides – crumbling buildings that crush people – people if working can barely live – can barely eat – starving babies stumbling on the edges of a village in the Horn of Africa – stalked by buzzards – in Mexico students are disappeared and murdered for protesting – when this system has no more need for people – need to exploit them as instruments to make profits – people are treated as waste – in the U.S. this means people treated as surplus population, as “thugs,” “criminals,” guilty just for being – treated as animals, demons – and all kinds of other shit.
What is even more killing than this – is the fact that all this is so unnecessary. Humanity can live in a whole different way.
You see – millions of Blacks, Latinos, immigrants, Native Americans, whites, and others – women and men in the U.S. – are part of this worldwide class that has nothing to lose – whose interest lies in making this revolution – organizing society on a new revolutionary foundation, where the necessities of life – intellectual, cultural, and physical – are increasingly taken hold of – and utilized to raise the all-around living conditions of those at the very base of society – and the masses over-all – while also creating more freedom for dissent and contrast – for learning – for discovering what is true – for more room to breathe for everyone, people used to working with ideas and people new to working with ideas – engaging in this process – learning from this – as society goes forward...
And most importantly, all this is utilized to not only defend the gains of the revolution here – but fundamentally to advance, support, and spread this revolution all around the world.
This party is deeply rooted in the science of this revolution. Intensely passionate about it. It is led by the greatest revolutionary communist in the world today. Bob Avakian (BA). See the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!Watch the video of the simulcast of the Dialogue between BA and Cornel West: “Revolution and Religion: the Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion” (a high-quality film is coming soon).
It deeply and scientifically understands how to apply that right here in the “belly of the beast.”
The RCP has developed the strategy for doing exactly that. It is right there in the supplement to chapter 3 in the book BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian. Study this. Become part of this – become part of the movement to prepare the ground, prepare the people, and prepare the leadership – the thousands now who are the backbone and driving force for this revolution – which today must reach and influence millions – “hastening while awaiting” the development of a revolutionary crisis – which will require winning millions more to become part of the backbone and driving force to carry through with this revolution – to go all out for it... with a real chance to win. In the fullest sense. To emancipate humanity.
This is what we need. Get with this now.
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