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THE REST OF THE NEWS by Lorenzo Komboa Ervin


BLACK PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO REBEL !!


A massive anti-cop rebellion has broken out in Cincinnati over the police
shootings of 15 Black men, ranging in ages of 12- 44 years old, all
unarmed. The latest case of Timothy Thomas, a 19-year old brother,
allegedly wanted for misdemeanor traffic offenses, was gunned down last
week by a crazed white cop. The Black community has risen up in a
massive protest against this racist occupying army, poverty, and other
forms of mistreatment. Now, we are being told by various White
politicians and their paid Uncle Toms that even more massive police
violence should be trained on us "to keep the peace", and "stop the
violence". Not the cop violence and murder, which has gone on for years,
but the current rebellion by our people against police forces.


I have heard this garbage for years. Going back to the 1965 Watts
rebellion, when Black folks rebelled after years of LAPD racist brutality, it
was a line put forth by the white ruling class and its Negro spokespersons
that we were "torching our own neighborhoods". Never mind that we
didn't own a damn thing in the ghetto, that it was the cops themselves
shooting and torching Black homes, and that this was a clearly a struggle
with deep roots in historical oppression, the government's line was duly
picked up by the negrosie, and passed off as "truth", along with "the
police right to stop looters" and "we need peace". Not about
justice justice, not about stopping police murders of our people, but that
we must stop our resistance against our oppressors. That is their only
concern, restoring "law and order."


We are an oppressed people, who have the moral and political right to
rebel. We are fighting oppression, and seeking freedom. We are
opposing terrorism by military agents of the white government. We have
been historically enslaved, and our youth are being imprisoned and killed
in massive numbers, so we must fight back or become an extinct species.
There are those who say that if we will only be "peaceful" those in power
will listen to us. This has never happened, and truthfully none of the civil
rights bills of the 1960's outlawing Southern segregation, and other
concessions of that period, would have been passed if the white
government was not afraid of Black people erupting in the streets. So
street rebellion is effective.


Neither I nor anyone else can say with complete accuracy, but I think we
can soon expect to see other such rebellions in various American cities
because similar contradictions exists, and even more murderous police
forces guard the white rich of those places. For example, Detroit is a city
which could go up at any time. It leads the USA in the number of fatal
police shootings of civilians, most of whom are Black. It has a corrupt
government, which allows violence by police, drug-peddling, robbery, and
other offenses by officers. There are Detroit officers, like Eugene Brown,
who have killed several persons, and yet never been punished. He is
protected by the Mayor and the police union. Although worse in Detroit,
police brutality goes on all over the country, along with political coverups
to protect them. I hear white folks and middle class negroes say that if we
arm ourselves and resist, "even more of us will be killed." I don't propose
individual resistance, but rather community defense, and I believe then
we will talk about funerals on both sides.


Our task, as an oppressed people, is to work to overthrown white
supremacy and capitalist rule. That is the true nature of this government,
not a so-called democracy" where we can expect fair treatment. This
system is based on and maintained by our oppression. This is why I
believe that the task of Black radicals is not to call for new federal
legislation, an FBI investigation, or a citizen review board. We must
educate our people about the truth of this system, and begin to build a
mass resistance movement against racism and internal colonialism. This
resistance should be by any means necessary, and we must have an
armed self-defense policy. I have always rejected pacifism. We must
seek to build dual power base, and begin to win over the masses of the
people, build a militia to protect it, and push the police and white
government out of the community entirely. We must begin to govern
ourselves, and create a new zone of Black power. The activists have got
to stop looking in from the outside and doing all our organizing on the
comfortable college campuses or suburbs, and begin to organize in the
impoverished neighborhoods where the action is taking place. As
activists, we have got to stop waiting on crises like the Cincinnati
rebellion, and begin to set up organizing projects to make sure they don't
happen, and when they do we can effectively retaliate. Yes, we have a
right to rebel in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and anywhere
else we are oppressed.


We are a class of poor and oppressed peoples who are fighting
capitialism and racism all over the world. We are not alone, and when we
fight we will find that the people of the world support our struggle.