350,000 march against war and racism - We’re already at war!
www.sfbayview.com “They can take my taxes, send me to war, but can’t feed me.” - 2Pac by JR “I couldn’t see myself taking part in nothing where I would help and aid in any way the shooting and killing of these Asiatic dark Black people who haven’t called me nigger, haven’t lynched me, they haven’t deprived me of freedom, justice and equality, they haven’t assassinated my leaders. I couldn’t see myself shooting little Black babies and Black children who don’t even have food to eat.”
- Muhammad Ali against the Vietnam War, 1964
Just as Willie Ratcliff, publisher of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, stated in his speech Saturday at the historic anti-war rally, the Black community has been engaged in war ever since we left the shores of Africa in chains over four centuries ago. So if the country is going to start a true anti-war movement, then this anti-war movement needs to begin by addressing the war that the Ameriklan government and big business via the police are waging on Black communities right here. Then we can span the world.
The Oakland police who identify themselves as the “Riders” terrorizing, beating, killing and falsely imprisoning Black people in Oakland, that’s war! The SFPD beating up Black teenagers in Hunters Point, fondling the bodies of teenage Black girls and beating a 14-year-old boy into a concussion in front of their parents who were being held at gun point last MLK Day, that’s war! The Swat Team, the SFPD and Sheriff’s Department in riot gear running up in Thurgood Marshall High on Oct. 11, 2002, beating up and arresting 11 Black students and a Black teacher and not being held accountable, that’s war! Capt. Puccinelli from the Bayview police station commanding officers in both of these instances of terrorizing Black people still having a job in the Black community and not being brought up on assault and organized crime charges, that’s war!
The San Francisco Police Department forcibly drugging Askari X, that’s war! The Chicago police murdering unarmed 21-year-old Michael Walker on Oct. 27, 2002, in the Cabrini Green projects, that’s war! Aaron Patterson being tortured and forced to “confess” to a crime that he didn’t commit, then having almost two decades stolen from his life in an Illinois concentration camp, that’s war! The almost decade-long political imprisonment and two assassination attempts in three months on the life of Young Chairman Fred Hampton Jr., that’s war! The assassination attempt by uniformed Chicago police of POCC Defense Minister Akbar in Chicago, that’s war!
Banks operating in Black communities, refusing to loan money to Black businesses, that’s war! Amerikkka trying to overthrow the governments of Haiti, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Brazil, that’s war! Amerikkka drilling for oil in Alaskan national parks and offshore, polluting land, air and water for wildlife and future generations, that’s war!
Gov. Gray Davis of California cutting over $2 billion from education and increasing prison funding, that’s war! The nation’s prison system refusing to grant medical treatment to Black Panther prisoners like Seth Hayes because of their righteous political beliefs, that’s war! The United States holding over a million Black people in prison, that’s war! The Ameriklan government violating our human rights, that’s war!
I just had to state that because at Saturday’s rally, many of the speakers were trying to mimic speeches by Dr. King like “I Have a Dream” or some speech at the anti-Vietnam War rallies in the ‘60s, using a lot of colorful rhetoric instead of making real connections as to what our real problem is; the arrogant attitude, policies and decision-making of the United Snakes government from an international all the way down to a local level.
People say it was the biggest protest in the history of San Francisco. The crowd was enormous, estimated to be about 350,000 people rallying in the streets against the Bush regime’s threats against Iraq. People were everywhere.
For most of the people at the rally, it was a day for them to feel like they were adding their voice to the opposition. But the real test comes when the question is asked, what are they ready to do - besides attending a rally to stop the direction in which George Hitler Bush is taking the world.
One organized response planned for the day that the U.S. initiates war on Iraq is a nationwide boycott and strike. So remember, when it starts to go down, don’t buy anything or go to work or to school. That’s how we can screw up the economy and take the profit out of big businesses that think war is profitable. We should also start looking into alternatives like solar energy, and using our car less, so we don’t have to buy stolen oil from the Bush regime.
Some of the better speakers that I heard from the stage Saturday were Miguel Molina from La Onda, a radio show on KPFA, Tony Gonzalez from the International Indian Treaty Council, and Hatem Bazian, a Palestinian activist. Unfortunately, although I heard one rapper, there wasn’t a single speaker who represented the voice of Black youth in the Bay Area, which is a bad start for the anti-war movement in relation to the young Black community and the war that we’re engaged in from hood to hood, nationwide.
Simultaneous anti-war marches were organized in D.C. and 30 other countries throughout the world, including South Africa, Japan, Germany, France, Russia and Egypt, which resulted in millions on the same day worldwide speaking out against Amerikkka’s global oppression. I just hope everybody takes this anti-war attitude back home and speaks out against the way African and other oppressed people are being treated worldwide, from Hunters Point and Port-au-Prince to Soweto, Harare and Cairo, because not enough is being said or done to offer solidarity to our people who are fighting for self-determination on European/European-minded occupied land worldwide.
In gauging the results of Saturday’s rally, as Malcolm used to say, “Only time will tell” if the sleeping oppressed have been awakened into action.
Email JR at fire@sfbayview.com.