The danger of only looking at revolution through the lense of revolting against a particular state, rather than the destruction of the State overall means we are only challenging a certain rulership instead of the idea of being ruled.
The fight is against the state and all those who are in place to protect it
So while many may celebrate Bratton’s resignation understand that William Bratton™ will continue to be the top cop-for-hire, even after he resigns.
It is not enough to just say we need to abolish the police, we must abolish the state as well.
As the country debates whose lives matter, the prisons and cemeteries are filled with the ones who don’t. White armed men continue to commit arsons and mass shootings, seizing land with their weapons never to be labeled terrorists. This, along with a government that is suffocating the non-white world, filling their skies with drones that in a moment’s notice can be made to hone in on whomever has been labeled an enemy combatant or a terrorist.
As we move forward it is important that we reflect on our immediate history and whether the tactics that have been used are ones that support us towards our liberation. The role of hierarchy in black movements often reinforce systems of oppression that many of those are fighting against. The traditional black leadership that I spoke about before has become irrelevant to this new generation of resistance, and because of this we are seeing a new generation of leadership put in place to help guide us to the promise land.
“In this time of highly propagated media you could probably market Fascism as something fashionable and chic. The public would eat it up. Have it run a candidate that’s a TV show host they love to hate just to draw them in, or wrap it up in Feminism, ‘cause it’s time to smash some glass ceilings (for some of us), or better yet throw some Socialism on it for others ‘cause you know you can’t be a socialist and a fascist.”
As the political landscape for the 2016 Presidential race begins to reveal itself, we are reminded again that democracy exists only in theory in this country. With a long list of American plutocrats, the presidential nominee list reads like an unredacted CIA torture report. Yes, American citizens will have a chance in November to vote for either new money or old money but either way money always wins. Let’s not kid ourselves, America has always been run by the oligarchs. Although the fact that we may yet again have another Bush or Clinton in the Whitehouse, the idea of only a few families running the country is as American as the Rockefellers and the Roosevelts. Don’t let the headlines and the righteous indignation from the left fool you – we are not in jeopardy of losing our democracy, we never had it.
As people begin to ask themselves how we can make this movement sustainable we must take into account the various layers of our struggle. We must make sure that we are working towards more than just momentary change, but for true liberation of all black people.
With the Democratic governor preemptively declaring a state of emergency, Ferguson community members and supporters nationwide are preparing for the grand jury investigation that will result in no indictment for Darren Wilson. This… Continue reading
