http://socialistaction.org/newark-the-million-peoples-march/
Newark: The Million People’s March
Published July 24, 2015. | By Socialist Action.
Jan. 2015 Tony:Bl.5
March against police brutality, racial injustice, and economic
inequality: Saturday, July 25, 12 noon. The march begins at the Lincoln
Monument, Springfield Ave. & W. Market St., Newark, N.J. Below are
articles about the march by Lawrence Hamm, chairman of the People’s
Organization for Progress, and Glen Ford, executive editor of Black
Agenda Report:
By LAWRENCE HAMM
Police brutality is an ongoing, growing and deadly problem in the United
States of America. It includes the unwarranted and unjustified killing
of unarmed people, the use of excessive force, the violation of peoples’
constitutional rights, racist and discriminatory practices, criminal
activity, corruption and misconduct, increased militarization of police
forces, and the failure of the criminal justice system to hold police
accountable.
Police brutality is not an isolated problem. It is a historical problem
with roots that are deep in the social fabric of this country. It must
be seen within the broader context of racial and economic injustice and
inequality.
While the victims of police brutality come from all racial groups in
society, the vast majority come from African American, Latino, Native
American and other communities of color. They are overwhelmingly poor
and working class. Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Abdul Kamal, Kashad
Ashford, and Rekia Boyd are among the recent victims.
Police brutality has been and continues to be the cause of social unrest
in the country. Throughout contemporary U.S. history incidents of police
brutality have sparked explosive episodes of civil rebellion and unrest,
with the most recent being that of Ferguson, Missouri.
The failure of the criminal justice system to hold police officers
accountable is causing a political crisis as more people discover that
police brutality goes unpunished. Police kill unarmed civilians and are
not even charged.
One grand jury after another fails to indict police officers. The cases
of Michael Brown and Eric Garner being the most recent examples. This is
perpetuating a growing belief that the criminal justice system is racist
and illegitimate.
Police brutality is a serious and longstanding problem. For decades
attempts have been made to reform the police. These efforts have only
been successful when tremendous sustained political and social pressure
have been brought to bear upon the appropriate government institutions.
For these reasons the People’s Organization For Progress (POP) is
calling a MILLION PEOPLE’S MARCH Against Police Brutality, Racial
Injustice, and Economic Inequality. We will march to demand an end to
police brutality and justice for all of its victims, police reform, and
an end to the problems of racial injustice and economic inequality which
lead to police brutality.
Do everything you can to spread the word about the meetings and the
march. This is a huge project, and we are going to need all the support
we can get to make it happen.
For more information call the People’s Organization For Progress (POP)
at(973) 801-0001.
By GLEN FORD
These are the remarks of Glen Ford, executive editor of Black Agenda
Report, who spoke at a news conference in Plainfield, N.J., to help
build the July 25 Million People’s March in Newark.
I know that everybody here, because you care about justice enough to be
here, probably saw the movie “Selma.” And of course, Selma was the great
moment, in 1965, that pushed the country over the hill in terms of
getting the Voting Rights Act.
Now, there are many folks who think that that was all that Black folks
needed—to get the vote—that the movement was over, that there was no
need for Black Power, there was no need for an end to income inequality.
There was no need to agitate for the kind of country that doesn’t
participate in wars 24 and 7 all year long!
Some people thought that all we needed was the vote, and all we needed
to do was get some congressmen and mayors and city council people
elected—and maybe a president one day! To get folks into corporations,
and get more generals appointed in the military—and everything would be
fine. Black folks would just be regular citizens of the United States.
But they were wrong. Because the folks that we were agitating up until
1965 did not change after ’65. They had allowed us some demands like the
right to vote and public accommodations and such—but it was very grudgingly.
And they said that if we were not going to stay in our place, then they
were going to create a place for us. And that place was the prisons.
Their response to the civil rights movement, to the Black Power
movement, to the general movement for economic justice was the mass
Black incarceration state. So we go from 1970, when there were only
about 250,000 people in the federal and state prisons of the country, to
a high point just a little while ago of 2.4 million. We go from a
situation in the mid-1960s, when 70 percent of the prison inmates in the
country were white, to a situation in which 70 percent of the prison
inmates are Black or Brown.
This is pay back for our movement. And many of our elected officials and
our dignitaries—our rich folks, the folks who many of us would like to
look up to and wish we could dress like, wish we had the privileges they
have—many of these folk think that we don’t need a movement, as if they
are oblivious to the fact that one of eight prison inmates in the world
is an African American. That there are more Black and Brown people in
U.S. prisons than in the entire prison system of China, when China has
four and a half as many people than we have.
What does that mean? It means that if you go by the raw numbers, the
United States is the biggest police state in the world. I know that
Plainfield doesn’t have as grave a police problem as lots of places, but
it is part of the United States—and that means it’s part of the biggest
police state in the world! And our people are all over this country, and
they’re catching hell!
So we need to be going to Newark, just like folks from all over the
country are going to Newark, to not just speak about the conditions in
Plainfield but the conditions of our people all over. Thank you.
Photo: Tony Savino / Socialist Action
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Posted in Actions & Protest, Black Liberation, National Oppression,
Police & FBI. | Tagged Million Peoples' March, Newark, police.
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