The writing
is on the wall.
Adventures in capital exploitation of super oppressed
communities including school privatization, real estate speculation and
gentrification, water privatization, food price manipulation, placement of
toxic polluting facilities, foreclosure fraud, exploitation by financial institutions,
super exploitation of labor through minimum wage, lack of benefits, dangerous
work conditions, profiting off of mass incarceration and mass detention
targeting Black and Brown communities, and many other means of accumulating
wealth at the expense of super exploited impoverished communities, depends upon
these super oppressed sectors being in disarray and disorganized.
The youth led demonstration today could indeed be one of the
most monumental political mobilizations in NJ in recent history. My guess is that right now there are
political and economic forces in NJ and perhaps elsewhere that are to say the
least – concerned about the success of today’s event in Newark.
The dilemma for those
billionaires and future billionaire hopefuls that want to profit from some of
those exploitative practices listed (and many more) is that in order for them
to succeed in doing so, they require not only status quo, but the continued
concentration of political, economic and social power and control into fewer
hands and the continued erosion of freedoms and political power for those
groups victimized by such policies.
*The potential threat to that continued accumulation of
wealth and power represented by today’s event, and the potential for the movement
that is afoot to continue to grow in strength and numbers, sophistication, level
of organization, command for the issues and the ability to make the connection
to the systemic roots of the issue is not a minor one.*
It is incredibly possible that the today’s event can serve
as a trigger for even greater unity across generations, across organizations, across
focal points of activist groups, to plant the seedlings of hope that change is
not only possible but is starting to occur.
That means that future mobilizations could even be more effective,
larger and a greater challenge to business as usual.
Another potential – if the students decide, is that Newark
now has the potential to link up first with the youth of the other large cities
of NJ and then with the youth of all of the enclaves of super exploitation as
well as picking up unity with disillusioned sectors of youth in NJ suburbs, as
well as across state lines to Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, Chicago
and beyond.
Envision for a moment the education going on inside the
youth efforts, the cross germination of skills, the study of history of
struggle. Imagine the lifelong impact
these experiences are having on the youth participants – today is indeed one of
the highlights in the lives of the participants – a glorious day that they can
remember and draw upon as they get further engaged in struggle. Even the naysayers and those that know the
system is not working but have given up on themselves, on hope and on the idea
of struggling for change cannot be aware of what happened today without filling
up with hopeful ideas and the question of doubting their past rejection of the
option to struggle.
The system is concerned for sure and they need to get a
handle on what is happening. In
Baltimore, after the recent youth rebellion the “powers that be” were able to
quickly settle on the option of going after participants (or anyone that
happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time) with arrests, high bail
and the threat of lengthy prison terms.
In Newark, since this protest was peaceful and orderly – that option is
not readily available – but it is no doubt front and center on the mindset of
those that are charged with maintaining power relationships.
Mass incarceration is indeed one of the main reasons that
the privatization efforts in Newark, Camden and throughout the US in major
cities is so far along, it has undermined the communities ability to resist
these kinds of encroachments. In Newark
it is one of the reasons why the most serious challenge is coming from the
young people – because so many the next generations on up are entangled with legal
challenges, debts, probation, parole or outright locked up.
I have always maintained that the primary motivator of mass
incarceration in the US is to disempower super oppressed communities, to strip
them of their ability to effectively organize and resist, thus leaving their
communities the cities where they reside open to plunder and exploit.
But there is a crack in the wall right now – Newark has
unified with the youth at the helm. The
youth have shown their sophistication, their rejection of attempts to
compromise their principles.
As NJ DOT COM reports today, a chant that was widely heard
goes as follows:
"We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win. We
must love and protect one another. We have nothing to lose but our
chains."
What NJ DOT COM neglected to report that this is a quote of
Assata Shakur, freedom fighter, community organizer, former Black Panther who
is living in exile in Cuba after escaping from a prison term after she was
almost killed by police and then prosecuted in a sham trial for the death of
cop that occurred during that incident that she was not responsible for.
While the powers that be continue to vilify Assata Shakur
and are trying to interfere with the move toward normalization of relations
with Cuba over Assata Shakur, the youth of Newark (and at demonstrations across the country where
this famous quote is chanted) are looking to her legacy as an inspiration for
system challenging struggle.
For our part, organizations and activists throughout NJ need
to stand in solidarity with the Newark students and make sure there are no discipline measures or attempts to criminalize their activities.
We need to also recognize the importance of our struggle
against mass incarceration – imagine if there were not 35000 NJ residents in
state and local prisons and jails in NJ – imagine if they were back in the
communities and joining efforts like today’s monumentally historic event. The ability for the super wealthy to continue
to accumulate wealth and power would be set back.
I hope that our organization and other decarcerators can
have an opportunity to engage the youth of Newark in a discussion on the issue
of mass incarceration. I also would like
to urge our membership and supporters to figure out how we can get behind and
with the Newark people and the Newark youth in this struggle.
The type of unity shown today is exactly what we need to do
to show the powers that be that they need to take seriously our initiative of
the NJ Decarceration Act and other measures to COMPLETELY AND SWIFTLY overturn
mass incarceration in NJ. It is not only
about the freedom and liberation for the incarcerated and relief for their
families – but it is about the political, economic and social empowerment of
super oppressed communities – to mount systemic challenges like the one mounted
by the Newark Students Union, the youth of Newark, NJ Communities United and so
many other organizations and supporters that made today successful.
Links:
Newark Students Union
Patch: WATCH: Students Organize Massive Walkout Protest in Newark
Links:
Newark Students Union
Patch: WATCH: Students Organize Massive Walkout Protest in Newark
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