l.a. writers collective

Back from Iraq—and Shot by the Police

2006-02-14T16:28:00.000-08:00

(The Following article was published in Revolution #035, February 19, 2006, posted at revcom.us)

On January 29, Elio Carrion, a 21-year-old on leave from Air Force, was in a car being driven by his friend when they crashed into a fence in a neighborhood in Chino, 40 miles east of Los Angeles.

The two friends had just left a party celebrating Carrion's return from a six-month tour in Iraq. It is not clear what happened before the crash — but it is very clear what happened when a sheriff deputy arrived, because the late-night encounter was taped by someone that lives in the neighborhood.

In the video you see Carrion on the ground, his face illuminated by the flashlight of the sheriff hovering above him, just a few feet away, his gun pointed at Carrion. You can imagine a similar scene happening in Iraqi cities like Fallujah or Mosul. In fact, cable news channels have brought images like these to people all across the world: Images of heavily armed U.S. soldiers breaking down doors in the middle of the night, holding M-4 rifles above the heads of defenseless Iraqis.

According to the L.A. Times, the sheriff was yelling profanities at Carrion, telling him to "shut up." The sheriff then ordered Carrion to "Get up, get up." In the video you can see Carrion following the deputy's orders and hear him say that he was unarmed and in the military. At one point, Carrion says, "I'm here on your side." But his words, in this situation, meant nothing to the man holding the gun. In Iraq Carrion was part of the military that occupies an oppressed country and treats the masses of people as "the enemy"; and then he returned home to become the enemy.

"I'm going to get up," Carrions says in the video. But as he pushes himself up, the sheriff fires his weapon at him, striking him three times. Mariela Carrion, Elio's wife, later said that her husband was also kicked in the head, handcuffed and dragged after he was shot.

But this was not the end of the outrage. Elio Carrion was taken to the hospital as a result of three bullet wounds, one of which shattered his femur (the large bone extending from the pelvis to the knee). The day after he was supposed to be released from the hospital, detectives arrived to Carrion's parents' house without warning and demanded to know where he was.

And like in some other cases of police brutality caught on film, the man who taped the encounter, Jose Luis Valdez, is now sitting in jail, arrested days later after the shooting on an eight-year-old warrant in Florida. His fate is not yet known -- he is a Cuban citizen and was taken to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office after his arrest.

Meanwhile, the man who shot Carrion is walking around on paid administrative leave with no charges pressed against him, even though his murderous actions were caught on video.

The mainstream media has been doing their part to make sure the cop goes unpunished, putting on police officials and other talking heads to defend his actions with remarks like, "He was nervous" and "He really meant to say 'Get down,' not 'Get up,'" or that the deputy did what he did because he feared for his life (even though he was the one holding the gun).

Elio Carrion joined the Air Force straight out of high school and served obediently in Iraq. And, on that night in Chino, Elio Carrion did everything he was "supposed" to do in these situations--he obeyed commands, he didn't move without permission, and he told the deputy "I'm going to get up now," hoping that he wouldn't surprise or startle the man holding the gun. And he was shot anyway! Think about what this tells you about how this system views people, especially Blacks, Latinos, and other oppressed nationalities. This is a blatant and cold-blooded statement: "We'll shoot whoever we want, for whatever reason and in whatever circumstances we want, and there's nothing you can do about it."

Nov. 2nd Introduction/ Interview

2005-11-08T10:05:00.000-08:00

This is the initial coverage that I have written for November 2nd. First, is a short interview I did with this really cool young woman from Bravo Medical Magnet in East Los. She said some really good stuff and seemed like she had a good orientation going into Nov. 2nd. Following are short reports from different high school from throughout the L.A. County area. (The only thing is that they are listed here from last to first, so scroll down and read "Students, Not Soldiers" first).

N: My name is Natalie and I go to Bravo Medical Magnet in East L.A.,
Boyle Heights

NG: How did you find out about Nov. 2nd, and what kinds of things went on, on your campus to build up for it?
N: A week ago flyers were passed out. But at the last minute, a lot of people decided not to risk it--not to risk getting in trouble. We were getting threatened by the administration. And seniors, like myself, we would get graduation taken away, we would get all our senior activities taken away (which, actually they can’t legally do because we looked into it). It was supposed to be all these people, but only 15 or 20 people came. But the 15, 20 people that came, we feel like we made a difference.

NG: Were there individual people organizing on campus, or was there clubs on campus organizing?
N: There’s an underground club on campus, which means we’re not official. We tried organizing people to come, and a lot of people that are in this club came despite the consequences.

NG: Why did you decide to come even when they made it seem like you had a lot to loose, especially since you’re a senior?
N: I’ve always believe that you can fight authority, you can break boundaries and make a difference. It doesn’t matter if you’re being told that you can’t make a difference, because you can. I mean, look at all these people here today. You think their administrators said, “Oh yeah sure go ahead.” A lot of these students decided to stand up for what they believe in.

NG: The people who have been organizing Nov 2nd have been talking about it like it’s not your usual protest where you go to a march and then go home. They’re talking about it like it’s the beginning of a movement. What do you think?
N: There’s a lot more protests coming up. I do see it like, it’s not just one protest and that’s going to be it. I think it’s going to be a lot more, and it does take a lot more to let your voice get heard.

NG: Did you decide on yourself that you needed to be here, or did you have some encouraging word from other people to help you decide?
N: No, I wanted to come. When there was a walk-out (against the war)three years ago when I was a freshman, I walked out. I really wanted to come to this and I don’t care what I have to lose. I rather know in my conscious that I did something right. I do have friends that came today, but it’s not because of them that I came.

NG: What about you friends? Did they need to see the importance of coming here?
N: Not really. Some of them were a little worried about losing their senior privileges, but in the end they were like, “Screw that. This is more important!”

NG: The way I look at it, is even if you do get a ticket for walking out or some kind of punishment, what’s that compared to what’s happening to the people of Iraq. Also, I think, people forget how much a walk-out can mean. The East L.A. high school blow-outs in 68 had a very big impact, as did the walk-outs against prop 187 did back in the 90’s.
N: These actions do make a difference. For people that backed down or didn’t come because they think it doesn’t make a difference: it does! People do remember and it will come up in the future. They will look back at history and say, “These people did it, why didn’t you?”

"His Lies Killed Thousands"

2005-11-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

By Nikolai Garcia (based on interviews)

Over on the Westside a group of students from New Roads School, a small private school in Santa Monica, organized a walk-out. They met on their quad and left their school, from Olympic and Stuart, and marched to 3rd Street.

A group of young girls from the school said there was no trouble from administration and one of them said, "It's kind of unfortunate because it would've been nice to go against authority." They talked about walking out a couple of years ago against the war in Iraq and getting Saturday detention. Another girl said, "They told us, 'It's going to go on your record that you walked-out for peace,' which is okay beause I want people to know that."

They all had reasons to want to drive out the Bush regime. One girl who was worried that women would lose their right to abortion had a sign she made which said, "Keep your rosaries out of my ovaries." Another girl talked about how disgusted she was that the U.S. could just go over to another country and force a different government on them.

The call to drive out the Bush regime felt right to them. "Clinton got impeched because he had sex...and this guy's lies killed thousands and thousands of people and we can't impeach him? That's ridiculous," said one of them.

One of the girls who was aked why she thought Nov. 2nd was different from other protests said, "I've been to other protests before where you go, you state what you're there for, and then you just go home and don't really do anything about it. I really hope that this time things change...that every single day, whereever you are you go out and protest for this war to stop." One girl said, "we need a social revolution."

“Forget That, We’re Standing Up!”

2005-11-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

By Nikolai Garcia (based on interviews)

As soon as they got to school, the students of Van Nuys High School knew they would have a battle on their hands as they noticed a larger police presence than usual around their campus. More and more police arrived as the time for the walk out approached.

During the nutrition break students gathered their friends to get ready to walk out. Administration locked all gates and worked to make it as close to impossible. One youth reported that after going into the main building he saw that the front doors were closed with a red rope. He said he and a friend opened the doors and let about 30 people out.

Cops were outside waiting for them threatening them with fines and arrests. The kids still went on and that’s when some youth were arrested or pepper-sprayed. Inside the school many hundred more students were being cornered by deans and principals. About 60 students decided that jumping over the fence would be their only way out-and they did it!

The first wave of students who went through the front doors was told that pictures would be taken of them and they would be expelled the next day. “They told us, ‘If you go to this protest you will get suspended and get expelled,’ but we were like, ‘Forget that, we’re standing up!’”

At first, some of the student organizers thought that the majority of students who walked-out were doing it just for fun, but were glad to be proven wrong when they recognized their fellow students at different rallies throughout the day.

Other students got really creative in escaping from campus even after
the school went on lock-down and teachers were forbidden to let students out of classrooms. One young women said she was able to get out of her P.E. class, found a fence to jump (with the help of two other youth) and hid inside a donut shop until her mom could pick her up and drive her to meet up with friends.

Military Horror at Jefferson High School

2005-11-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

as told to Nikolai Garica (by a Teacher's Aid that works at Jeff)

"I went to school today and everybody was talking about the walk-out; there were stickers and flyers everywhere! There were a bunch of students who were walking out at noon and as we were walking into the quad we notice that there are military recruiters everywhere! It turns out they made today military recruitment day. The student--hundreds of students--were so afraid to walk-out of the school because they saw military everywhere!

"People were ready. Almost everybody had stickers on their clipboards and folders and everybody was talking about it in the hallway. 'Noon! Noon! Noon,' people were telling each other. But they saw the military recruiters and they went back into their classes. It got very quiet, people were just so dumbstruck at seeing so many military recruiters. There had to have been more than 50 recruiters from the army, the navy and the marines."

Students, Not Soldiers!

2005-11-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

By Nikolai Garcia (eyewitness account)

Students Not Soldiers Struggle won out over spontaneity in Montebello on Nov. 2nd. Since no walk out was called for, a group of 30 plus students from Montebello High School decided to meet up at a burger stand near the campus to join up with actions along Wilshire Blvd. Not long after 8 a.m. the group got restless--wanting to hook up with other students--and decided to go to the bus stop, for the journey out of the Eastern suburb and into the Downtown L.A. area.

As the group walked towards the bus stop, cars started honking at them. It was clear that having some sort of march would make an impact. At the bus stop, the question was raised: Should they just take a bunch of buses downtown? Or would they march all the way to the busy East L.A. corner of Atlantic and Whittier and take the bus from there?

The majority of students agreed that if they took the bus, it would only mean that they ditched school that day. They saw that having a march, even if small in numbers, would make a bigger impact on the community. Indeed, people came out of their homes and businesses to see what the students were up to, grabbing flyers and cheering them on. One man even got out of his red pick-up to applaud the youth.

They marched down Whittier Blvd. for at least a mile, taking a small detour into a large shopping center with lots of people. They stopped only once when they saw a homeless man pushing around a shopping cart full of items, including an American flag, which the youth bought from him and “decorated.”

All through the march, the students were loud, their biggest chant being, “Students, Not Soldiers!” This was in part due to the intense actions at their school the past two weeks, which had been filled with organized protest inside the school against military recruiters. In fact, they got the administration to keep recruiters off campus for at least a month.

The highlight of their march came when they finally got to Whittier and Atlantic and hopped on the bus. As the bus driver was told where the group was going, she said, “Oh I know. My daughter is going to be down there too.” She didn’t charge them fare and the students cheered.

I'm baaack!

2005-11-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

After a long hiatus, I have returned to the nether world of the internet. Very soon, I will post some very cool stuff about all the action here in L.A. in driving out the Bush regime! In the meantime, check out www.worldcantwait.org and look up the youth ans student section to see some of the cool and daring things that we have been doing on campuses around the country and plans for AFTER November 2nd.

3 illegal entrants, Katrina evacuees, could be deported

2005-10-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Not sure about the date on this, but damn, capitalism sure likes to kick you when you're down!

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - After heeding the Bush administration's call to seek help regardless of status, a handful of illegal entrants who fled Hurricane Katrina have been ordered to appear for deportation hearings.

Three undocumented immigrants were met by immigration agents at the El Paso airport when they were flown in from the Gulf Coast along with other evacuees, said Leticia Zamarripa, Immigration and Custom Enforcement spokeswoman in El Paso. A fourth person, a permanent legal resident, was questioned and released, she said.

The immigrants went through background checks and fingerprinting and were released with orders to appear for deportation hearings, Zamarripa said. They were allowed to go to other shelters in Texas, said Ouisa Davis, an attorney for one of the immigrants. She did not have details, including the date of the initial questioning.

In another instance, state troopers in West Virginia called in immigration agents on Sept. 4 when a woman alleged that she was sexually assaulted by another passenger on a bus carrying evacuees to Camp Dawson, agency spokesman Dean Boyd said Monday.

The accused passenger and a companion, both from Central America, were taken into custody, Boyd said. When immigration officials interviewed the woman, she refused to press charges or testify. The accused immigrant denied her allegations. He and his companion remained in custody.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Homeland Security Department encouraged storm victims, including illegal entrants, to seek help. The appeal was made in English and Spanish.

The agency stopped short of assuring that information about immigration status would not be shared with authorities.

The law enforcement actions have left at least one group concerned about lending its influence to the federal government's efforts to reach immigrants affected by the storm.

The White House was "actively communicating to us and the Spanish-language press that everyone could come forward," said Cecilia Munoz, a vice president for the National Council of La Raza, the largest U.S.-based Hispanic advocacy group.

"If federal authorities are using this as an enforcement opportunity, it creates a moral dilemma for us in how do we advise our constituents," Munoz said. "We are getting mixed signals."

Munoz said she supports law enforcement action when a crime has been committed.

Kanye West Rips Bush During NBC Telethon

2005-09-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

Although Kanye is making hip-hop less and less about "gangsta" I'm not really a fan of his stuff. However this article and some of his recent comments on homosexuality in rap are making me want to give his work a second listen.

September 03, 2005, 11:50 AM ET
Kanye West Rips Bush During NBC Telethon

It began, fittingly enough, with jazz from New Orleans natives Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton Marsalis. But "A Concert for Hurricane Relief," a heartfelt and dignified benefit aired on NBC and other networks last night (Sept. 2), took an unexpected turn thanks to the outspoken rapper Kanye West.
Appearing two-thirds through the program, he claimed "George Bush doesn't care about black people" and said America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."
The show, simulcast from New York on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and Pax, was aired live to the East Coast, enabling the Grammy-winning rapper's outburst to go out uncensored.
There was a several-second tape delay, but the person in charge "was instructed to listen for a curse word, and didn't realize [West] had gone off-script," said an NBC spokesperson.
West's comment about the president was cut from NBC's West Coast airing, which showed three hours later on tape.Comedian Mike Myers was paired with West for a 90-second segment that began with Myers speaking of Katrina's devastation.
Then, to Myers' evident surprise, West began a rant by saying, "I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food."While allowing that "the Red Cross is doing everything they can," West declared that government authorities are intentionally dragging their feet on aid to the Gulf Coast.
Without getting specific, he added, "They've given them permission to go down and shoot us." After he stated, "George Bush doesn't care about black people," the camera cut away to comedian Chris Tucker.
Concluding the hour a few minutes later, host Matt Lauer noted, "emotions in this country right now are running very high. Sometimes that emotion is translated into inspiration, sometimes into criticism. We've heard some of that tonight. But it's still part of the American way of life."
Then the entire ensemble performed "When the Saints Go Marching In."In a statement, NBC said, "Kanye West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him, and his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks."
It would be most unfortunate," the statement continued, "if the efforts of the artists who participated tonight and the generosity of millions of Americans who are helping those in need are overshadowed by one person's opinion."

read the rest at: www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054572

"It's A Long Way From Sweden to South Central"

2005-07-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

Distasteful, ugly and cheap
That is how you make me feel
Capitalism stole my virginity

The L.A. Writers Collective (well, most of them) had an impromptu get-together last night when we found ourselves outside the door of the Poison Apple, a new punk club in South Central L.A., hoping we would ALL get in to see the best thing to ever come out of Sweden, The (International) Noise Conspiracy. Dozens of people were standing outside the door as 11 o' clock neared. The reason being that many were left without the opportunity to buy a wristband and gain entry to the show. And this happened because a) T(I)NC hasn't done a proper tour of the U.S. in at least two years; b) the show was only $5 (when it could've easily been $15 at any other venue) and c) T(I)NC is one of the best bands to see live! Knowing all this, I arrived an hour (6:30) before doors opened, (and even then there was still a big line), to get a wristband.

The same cannot be said about my comrades who called me an hour after the venue had stopped selling wristbands, while 50 other people stood outside hoping there was still a chance they could gain entry. I thought there was a better chance of running into a group of nonsectarian Trotskyites who don't liquidate the National Question, than of my comrades getting in. But, they came anyways, and they braved it out in the alley, (unlike MANY who had their hopes crushed and left), and ended up getting in while T(I)NC played their first song. And man, was it worth it!!!

"It's nice to see you all dressed up," said Dennis Lyxzen, T(I)NC's singer, who then warned everybody that by the end of the night we would all be just a "sweaty mess." (Indeed, as it must have been 90-something degrees in the small, packed venue with no air conditioning). The crowd grooved to some of the bands less popular material, but then got really into it when they heard the familiar first notes to Smash It Up: "I wanna smash it up for the workers/ who spend hours into nothing/ I wanna smash it up for my sisters/ who got caught up in this funky system."

"It's along way from Sweden to South Central," said Dennis, and everybody cheered! He talked about the difference and importance of being able to play at this small all-ages club in South Central, as opposed to some big venue on the Sunset Strip. The last time I saw T(I)NC play, (about two years ago at the Glass House), they were matching outfits and everything. This time, however, there was no time to worry about mod fashion, as the singer took off his shirt almost as soon as he got on stage. It was so hot inside that a group of people who had been near the front of the stage ended up rushing out of there during the middle of the set to get some air outside.

Not only does T(I)NC have good political stances, but they also have a good stance on supporting the local music scene. When most big bands tour, they usually bring along bands that their labels are trying to promote. But, in this case, they consciously made sure that all the bands that played before them (Holy Hydraulics, the Divided Lines, The Tender Box) were all local bands.

Their set was only 45 minutes long, and it only ended because of the heat. "I don't want you to die [because of the heat], and I know I don't want to die in South Central one way or another," said the singer before announcing their last song, (which they dedicated to all the bands that played that night and the people who put on that show), a song called Capitalism Stole My Virginity--and then the room exploded!

Robbed out of our bleeding hearts, smashed our illusions, tore them
all apart
Now we are unsentimental and unafraid to destroy this culture
that we hate
Tired of being nothing when we should be everything
And on every forehead of every little whore there's a sign that says:
Baby, we're all born to die
Distasteful, ugly and cheap
That is how you make me feel
Capitalism stole my virginity

RC4 TOUR HITS LOS ANGELES

2005-07-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

Revolution #010, July 31, 2005, posted at revcom.us

Revolution received the following correspondence from the Los Angeles Writers Collective:

A brief look into the first stop of the RC4 tour:

Los Angeles Saturday, July 23 rd --The RC4 tour hit the ground running this week in Los Angeles.

Stirring controversy wherever they spoke--on the airwaves, in house meetings, and at a full panel discussion at Cal State Dominguez Hills--the RC4 kicked off their visit here, bringing straight to the people the compelling vision of the communist revolution developed by Bob Avakian.

The RC4 made a deep case as to why people have no interests in protecting or putting up with this rotten system. And they challenged people to take up the fight for the emancipation of all of humanity through communist revolution.

They spoke to the need--and the real possibility--for the masses of people in the ghettos and barrios, the factories and neighborhoods--the masses of oppressed and proletarian people--to rise to the challenge of leading millions and millions of people in this country to break the chains that are literally choking this planet and keeping people all over the world trapped in a horrible life.

In a word they challenged all who heard them to become the emancipators of humanity. And they struggled hard--and with a lot of love-- for people to cast aside the mental chains that hold them back from fulfilling this great need.

LIBERATION WITHOUT GOD
At the Cal State panel, Akil Bomani spoke passionately and powerfully about how he gave up religion to take up communism after reading Bob Avakian's Preaching From a Pulpit of Bones that contrasted Biblical morality and communist morality:

"I was introduced to the revolutionary vision of communism, and this all sparked my criticism of the world and the way out of all of this madness.

"It was when I myself took to doing something that the Bible and Christianity explicitly forbids--that is questioning reality and asking why and how--it was then that I was able to take a critical look at the world, at this system and at the immense and unspeakable anguish it has caused billions to this day.

"I was able to take a critical look at the prospects of actually overthrowing this system and end all the forms of exploitation and oppression attached to this system, forms of exploitation and oppression that the Bible does not denounce but upholds in many ways. I was able to take a critical look at how that could actually be done and at the writings of Bob Avakian."

REVOLUTIONARY LEADERSHIP
The RC4 confronted the nationalism and identity politics that are so prevalent among the masses-- and struggled with people to look at things from the point of view of how we're going to free all of humanity--a communist viewpoint--and not from the viewpoint of freeing "my nation, my people"--and ultimately the "me first" mentality.

Revolutionary leadership and what qualifies someone to be a leader was a hot question. Some people made the argument that they don't want to follow a "white man."

Carl Dix said that the caliber of a leader should be judged by the content of what they are bringing forward, not by their nationality. If people were locked in a horrible prison for life and someone came along who knew the way out, would the prisoners say, well I don't want to know how to get out of here because you are the wrong nationality!

"Look, here's the deal. There is a leader who has come forward, who is pointing to the way out of this, who is pointing to a future that we can get to, and is showing us the way to get there.

"The challenge for people is to look at the content of what the leader is bringing forward. That's what we gotta grab hold of. Because if you want to get out of all this mess the criteria for leadership is not, what nationality is the leader:what race:or what gender. But instead, what is the content of the vision that leader is putting forward, and, what is the program they're putting forward to realize that?

"You see, that is the challenge. We are not saying, 'follow Bob Avakian blindly' or 'follow the RCP blindly.' We're saying, grapple with the content of the vision of the future society being brought forward. And grapple with the program that's being brought forward to realize this."

Clyde Young came at this same question from a another angle. He said when a leader of the caliber of Bob Avakian comes forward, that is something to celebrate. He said that Bob Avakian is the flower and fruit of the struggle of the masses during the 1960s, but he's much more than that. Bob Avakian is someone who has gone on to develop the revolutionary science of communism--critically building on the achievements of the past, re- envisioning socialist society under the dictatorship of the proletariat, and taking up problems of how to build a revolutionary movement of millions and millions of people that can actually transform dreams into reality.

"Leaders like Bob Avakian are very rare and special leaders. When an outstanding leader comes forward like this I think it is very important for people to recognize that leader and to learn as much as they can from that leader, to promote that leader, and to defend that leader:

"Some people have said to us: 'This is just going to mean we just have to go along with everything he says and it leaves no room for us to contribute and for us to be part of the revolutionary struggle and to bring our ideas, and creativity to the table.'

"But I think that it is important to recognize that when revolutionary leaders like this come forward-- it opens up the possibility for the masses of people's creativity and the masses of people themselves to come forward and contribute on a whole other level, in a whole other way than they can under this system.

"That is, unity between people coming forward and learning from leaders, but at the same time contributing as much as they possibly can to the revolutionary struggle--contributing their understanding and contributing all they can to the revolutionary struggle as well--there is that dialectic, back and forth:"

In short, Clyde made the point that when a leader like this emerges they are inextricably linked to the masses realizing their revolutionary potential - and ultimately the people of the world realizing the potential of moving to a communist society.

Many questions popped from the audience: A Black youth wanted to know "What is the proletariat?" He also asked, "So how you gonna reach the majority of proletarians when most of them are all religious and it's clear to me that none of you guys are religious, so how are you gonna sway them to be communists?"

Another person focused on the question of the proletariat in power and wanted to know how the RCP would not allow "power to corrupt," but instead stay on the road to communism.

Later, someone else asked about the role of immigrants in the revolution given that many of them are undocumented.

Joe Veale told Revolution what this tour is aimed at trying to bring forward:

"Look, the problem in the world is that there is all this wealth, all this technology that's controlled and dominated by a class of capitalists.

"All this technology and all this human wisdom could be used to benefit the masses here and all over the world.

"Everybody on this planet could have a decent life: no one has to go cold during the wintertime, no one has to go hungry, no one has to die for lack of water, everybody could read and write and be enriched in sports and culture.

"And the only thing standing in the way of that are these capitalists who rip off all this wealth, and use it to enrich this system.

"We need a revolutionary communist movement that is in the struggle and knows that this is the problem--we need millions and millions of people who realize that if the masses could take power and come together to share in all of this wealth and knowledge in a collective way -- this represents the solution and the way out. So this is a part of what this tour is about--to begin to build the kind of revolutionary communist consciousness out here now that can prepare to lead the masses to change the world."

The RC4 TOUR WILL BE IN THE LOS ANGELES AREA THROUGH THE END OF JULY.
NEXT STOPS: NEW YORK AND CHICAGO.

WATCH THE RC4 WEBSITE www.rc4tour.info FOR NEWS.

E-mail: rc_speaks@yahoo.com

SUPPORT THE RC4 TOUR: send checks and money orders to:
"RC4 Speaking Tour"
and mail to
P.O. box 941
Knickerbocker Station,
NY, NY 10002-0900

Phone/FAX: 866-841-9139 ext 2670

Also contact Carl Dix at comradecarl@hotmail.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolution Online
http://revcom.us
Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497

Murdering Enforcers Have No Right to Rule, Word from the RC4, On the LAPD Massacre of Raúl Peña and His 18-Month-Old Daughter Suzie

2005-07-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

Revolution #009, July 24, 2005, posted at revcom.us

On July 10 an LAPD SWAT team steamrolled into Watts and savagely butchered Raúl Peña and his 18-month-old baby Suzie.

These murdering enforcers have no right to rule the world! The brutal, bloodsucking capitalist system they are sworn to serve and protect has been in effect over us for too damn long. It's got to stop. Every day in many different ways we see the brutality and misery their rule brings down on the world. And on July 10, in Los Angeles, the LAPD hammered it home again.

One hundred cops took over a neighborhood and surrounded a scared, desperate, and mentally ill man and his baby daughter. Then they cut them into ribbons by firing more than 60 gunshots into an office no bigger than a closet. No one could've survived their murderous assault.

They say they came to help, to save lives and protect the people. They even say they wanted to save the baby. This is a cold lie. But it is more than a lie. These are the words of enforcers who think they have the right to gun down the masses of people and walk away to do it again.and again.and again.

We're sick of their lies and we know what happened. It was cold-blooded murder, plain and simple.

All kinds of people saw what happened. Family members and friends tried to stop it. When Lorraine Lopez tried to plead for the life of her baby daughter and Raúl, who is her life partner, the police drove her away from the scene. They had no interest in anyone doing anything to try to resolve this situation. Their only interest was in blowing him away. They even put a gun to the head of another woman who tried to help by talking to Raúl.

Piling insults on top of lies they turned around and blamed Raúl for his daughter's death. At first they said Raúl had shot Suzie. Then they said he tried to use Suzie as a human shield. Lies on top of lies.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the L.A. County Coroner found that there were three bullets in Suzie's body--three bullets from police assault rifles. Suzie died from a police bullet in her brain.

The biggest lie was when the police chief said some of his cops were so shaken by what happened that they wished they could trade places with the baby. No!

Why do these police kill like this? It is because they are trained to shoot first and defend their actions later. They are trained to look at the masses of people as "the enemy" and they are trained to think that people like Raúl and Suzie are disposable and dispensable. They are trained to terrorize the people who the system they protect rules over. And they are trained to make it very clear that if anyone dares to defend themselves against their murdering fire--whether they are in a state of mental upset, as Raúl was, or whether they are just defending themselves--that the only ones who have the right to use armed force are the enforcers of this system.

What kind of society would allow an atrocity like this to happen? What kind of system would endorse its enforcers committing a foul murder like this? A bloodsucking capitalist/imperialist society. They do this to keep the oppressed masses and the proletariat in a situation where the capitalist system can exploit them--and if they can't exploit them today, then they want to make sure they can exploit them tomorrow!

How can anyone look at the murders of Raúl and Suzie and think this system has any legitimacy at all!

These cops had a choice and they chose to kill Raúl and Suzie.

Look, people go off sometimes, they get sick and go off, especially living under all the pressures this society puts people under. That's what happened to Raúl. We want a new world, a world where people are free from all oppression and their lives matter.

How would we handle something like this in a society where power was in the hands of the proletariat? We've seen how this system handled it--they blew Raúl and Suzie away. In a revolutionary society, we would handle a situation like this completely different. Instead of holding a gun on people who wanted to help, we would mobilize the neighborhood to figure out how to handle the situation. Our people's police would sooner put themselves in danger than kill an innocent person, especially a little child. This is the way the proletariat has handled this kind of thing in the past when it's been in power and it's how we will handle that in a future revolutionary society right here in the belly of the beast.

The police terrorize people with murders like this. This time it backfired. In fact, things are cracking open. People are taking to the streets in outrage, and they're dealing with big questions. People are talking about unity between Blacks and Latinos. People are talking about changing the world, and they're looking for leadership.

We, the Revolutionary Communist 4, know this. We're in Los Angeles to speak to people about what needs to be done and how to do it. We're going to be dealing with people's hardest questions about why the world is the way it is and what needs to be done to totally transform it. It's going to take millions of people rising up in revolution and a communist understanding of the world to get beyond the misery and degradation this system brings down on people and create an entirely different future.

We're going to bring to people the leadership we have to realize this future--Bob Avakian, the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party. And we're going to challenge people to break with the things that stand in the way of them becoming emancipators of humanity.

The World Can't Wait-- Thoughts on Driving out the Bush Regime

2005-06-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

by Sunsara Taylor

Revolution #007, June 26, 2005, posted at revcom.us

Every day I think of Dilawar. I picture his 22-year-old body chained to the ceiling of a U.S. military prison in Bagram, Afghanistan as the seconds stretched on into days until finally he couldn't wait any longer. Neither can we.

As men are blindfolded and dragged from their homes in Iraq, as Arabs and Muslims are rounded up and detained in the U.S. without charges, and as youth from South Central to the South Bronx are imprisoned in record numbers, brutalized by police, and targetted for correction by Laura Bush: the world can't wait.

As villages are emptied of people by AIDS in Africa and China, as families in the ghettos and farmlands of the U.S. lose children in a war based on lies, and as immigrants are hunted by racist vigilantes on the Mexican border: the world can't wait.

As religious fundamentalism threatens to enslave women, treating them like incubators and denying them the right to make the most intimate and profound decisions about whether or not to have a child, as gay couples are denied marriage and their children are harassed, as the rule of law is replaced by religious dogma and the rule of the Bush regime, and as science itself is suppressed at great risk to the planet: the world can't wait.

THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT!

THE PEOPLE NEED TO DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME.

Now I know a lot of readers are thinking 'if only we could.' and I can just see some people shaking their heads and saying 'that communist girl has really gone over the edge this time.' But being a reality-based girl— who is coming from a scientific place in terms of how we are going to emancipate all of humanity—I have some reality-based ideas on how this could be possible.

And one of the most important things people need to do in order to even imagine the possibility of accomplishing such a monumental task is to break out of the confines of the political-process-as-usual.

Everyone who does not want to live in the "world according to Bush" needs to break out of the dynamic where the terms and the issues and the leaders are defined and limited by various representatives and defenders of this bloodsucking system. And progressive people and oppressed people really need to break out of the confines of the institutions, organizations, and political thinking dominated by the Democratic Party.

Frankly, too many people are suffering from the disease of looking-for-leadership-in-all-the-wrong-places. And as a result, too many people who want to change the world remain locked in a dynamic that stifles their ability to really see a whole different world, squanders their energies, and channels imagination into dead-end paths of conciliation with intolerable injustices.

And it is so very urgent that millions of people break out of the death-grip of all this politics as usual and come together to do something really unprecedented. Millions of people need to un-clip their wings from the Democrats and from the strategies that give backing to their efforts and take independent historic political action.

Together we need to create a whole new dynamic based on acting on principle, telling the truth, doing what's right and actually mounting a real fight to save the future and the planet!

*****

Reality check: More than a million people defied a stifling jingoistic atmosphere, repeatedly and courageously taking the streets against the Iraq war. Yet the debate in the presidential election remained over who could make the best Commander-in-Chief, how the war started, and how to continue the occupation of Iraq. Kerry never once said the simple and obvious fact that millions knew in their hearts: that Bush had lied through his teeth about everything .

Over a million people marched in D.C. in a March for Women's Lives and to defend abortion. Yet the debate in Congress and Senate and among presidential hopefuls remained over how much to restrict abortion and how strongly to condemn it, and not a single voice spoke up to say a world where women are reduced to incubators is intolerable!

82% of the country objected to Congress and the President intruding upon Terri Schiavo's deathbed. Hundreds of towns passed ordinances against the Patriot Act. In over 100 cities people organized protests against the end of the filibuster. And yet both ruling parties came together in Congress to pass a "Palm Sunday Compromise" to intervene around Terri Schiavo, to legitimize torture, and to accept a filibuster "compromise" which paved the way for openly racist judges and judges who want to impose biblical law.

What does this tell us? It is time to wake up to reality. Because the world can't wait.

*****

Some have spoken of a pre-civil-war atmosphere in the U.S. And millions of people are really distressed about how the Democrats are unwilling and incapable of mounting any serious opposition to the Bush regime on anything that matters.

My thinking on this whole situation has been informed by the analysis of Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and based on a scientific analysis of the world situation, he has made a powerful case for the need and the possibility for the masses of people to wrench a dramatically different future out of this dire situation.

Bob Avakian has analyzed the major changes in the world and transformations in U.S. society that have created a situation where the Republican strategy for how the U.S. empire should dominate the world has a certain edge within ruling class circles. These underlying economic, political and ideological factors in the world—combined with an aggressive, arrogant and relentless drive to impose their agenda— have led to the situation we face today where the Bush regime has cynically used the events of 9/11 to hammer into place a global reality suited to the interests of their bloodsucking system. And they are on a roll.

So the way I see it, either the people in this country remain locked in a deadly dynamic, while all around us a rising crescendo of Christian fascist foot-soldiers provide chilling glimpses of their nightmarish "new normalcy." Or, people urgently and decisively establish OUR own dynamic based on the understanding that the world can't wait and the people must drive out the Bush regime. a different dynamic based on principles, on seeking the truth, and rallying millions to take independent historical action.

We need to spread a spirit of being "politically at war"—which means a commitment that there is no common ground with intolerable injustices and literal horrors. We need to be building mass protest and upsurge against everything this Bush regime stands for. And we need to develop communities of resistance that can have each other's backs and withstand the counterattacks that are sure to come.

On November 2, when the Bush regime will be strutting and celebrating the anniversary of their re-election and bragging about how they are remaking the world in their image—we need a nationwide outpouring to declare: THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT. We need to send a message to the world—that a new movement of resistance has arrived to DRIVE THE BUSH REGIME FROM POWER.

The world can't wait. We need to start now, building a solid core of people whose real and profound discontent, anxiety, and anger about the whole direction of society and the world trumps their commitment to remaining confined within the existing political framework. I am firmly convinced there are today millions and millions of such people. And on the basis of that solid core, through our creative energies, imaginations, and courage, we need to be constantly expanding and drawing in people from every sphere of society and every part of the country—and saying to millions more: "Come with us. We know where to go and we know how to get there!"

We have a choice to make. The world can't wait. Its time to drive a regime from power.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolution Online
http://revcom.us
Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497

Al Otro Lado--To The Other Side

2005-06-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

By Nikolai Garcia

Note: None of the quotes in the following review are verbatim, as I was not taking notes in the theater. Everything is from memory.

Al Otro Lado--To The Other Side
Directed by Natalia Almada

Magdiel is a very talented song-writer. Throughout this documentary you see him composing corridos on the spot. Unfortunately, not many people outside his small town of La Reforma, in Sinaloa, Mexico, know about his talent. His town offers him no future. Although he and his father work hard in the fields and in the sea catching shrimp, they barely manage to brake even. The residents of the town say that the only people who have anything (money) are the ones involved in drug trafficking. Magdiel says he could be in that business if he wanted to, but he wants something better. He knows he is talented, but says that no one will come looking for him. He has to go to the other side in order to find his fame and fortune.

To understand Magdiel's story you must have some understanding about corridos, which are like ballads that usually tell a story. (In many articles before this one, corridos have been described as the equivalent of rap music, with homage being paid to famous heroes and infamous outlaws). To give you an understanding about the world of corridos the director goes about interviewing prominent singers and composers of corridos who speak about the legendary figures in the corridos genre; a young generation of singers in Los Angeles "who speak English but sing in Spanish"; how much truth and myth there is in a corrido; and mostly, about immigration. "The Mexican government wants to get rid of people and the United States needs cheap labor," says one composer.

Immigration, of course, is the big topic in the documentary, as early on in the film Magdiel announces, after he has written a corrido for a local coyote, that he has agreed to cross him over. From there the director switches directions a bit and gives the audience footage of immigrants that have just gotten caught by the border patrol. She interviews one of these men while he is getting medical treatment. Although the filming takes place in the blackness of night you can clearly see the damage done to the man's feet after spending two and a half days walking in the desert. When she asks what they will do now, they respond that there is nothing else to do but "try again."

But an even more starling scene comes by way of Chris Simcox, one of the founders of the Minutemen. The director and her crew follow Simcox as he searches for immigrants along the Arizona border. "We're a neighborhood watch," he says of his team, dressed mostly in army fatigues. Simcox follows what he refers to as fresh prints and a bit later under some bushes he finds a group of immigrants. "Our president says that we should be vigilant of anything suspicious," says Simcox, "And I don't think there's anything more suspicious that some people hiding in some bushes in your backyard." (Later, after the screening, during a Q & A session with the director, she tells the audience that she thought the whole thing was a joke, but when they came upon the people in the bushes it all felt very disturbing).

The film crew interviews the captured immigrants and tell the director that they were only in search of work. Simcox interjects and says, "What he say? Same old story--he's looking for work. Well, I wish there was something we could do but...No mas illegals."

(Seeing and hearing Simcox I was reminded that only hours earlier I was at a counter-protest in front of a Home Depot in Alhambra. There was a call by Save Our State (SOS) to harass day laborers and a few showed up with their American flags and signs that read, "Viva La Migra." SOS is one of the many groups that have been springing up all over the country, inspired by Simcox and other vigilantes, who hate that their country is becoming "less American" and more of a "third-world cesspool").

"Have you tried coming here legally," asks the director. "We have, but it's too difficult to get visas," says one of the captured, "They have too many requirements like proof of homeownership and bank account. Well, if we had that, we wouldn't need to come here."

If you missed the screening and you live in L.A. you have another chance of watching the film this Wednesday. Check out www.LAfilmfest.com for place and time. The rest of you will have to wait until next year when the film makes its debut on public television.

Wanted: A Massive Movement to Drive the Bush Regime from Power

2005-06-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

We received the following from comrades who see an urgent need for a major leap in the people's resistance.

Other countries have driven hated regimes from power—why not here? Is there any country whose direction has a more disproportionate impact on the future of the whole planet?

Too Radical?

Today, just eight months since the November election and the "revolution" called for by Bush's right- wing Christian supporters, we are witnessing the most radical assault on the separation of church and state that this country has ever experienced. In a word: this country sits on the verge of theocracy. Yesterday's "lunatic fringe" now sits securely in the halls of power. When powerful senators threaten federal judges on the Schiavo case and then to go on to single out a Supreme Court justice for citing international law in a recent decision barring the execution of minors, you get a whiff not just of flagrant hypocrisy but the stench of crimes against humanity and where this agenda is headed.

These are not ordinary Christians or Conservatives but Christian Fascists and they are stalking not just the red states for the control of people's minds. Under the now famous "moral values" exit polls of 2004 lurk traditional values that have uniquely American strains of puritanism, slavery, and genocide. These are theocrats who actually believe that God is speaking through the presidency of George Bush, and Bush has appointed them at every level of his administration. They intend to put their stamp on society and everyone in it—and they have already gone very far. Whether they succeed or fail to get their "nuclear option" today, they are a monster demanding to be fed who will not stop until their agenda of theocracy is fulfilled.

Whether they get their way depends hugely on if people face what is unfolding and snap out of a denial that such a thing could happen here. History is far too haunted with the memories of people from Germany to Rwanda who never thought that neighbors living side by side and intermarried for generations could possibly be on opposite sides or taken off in the night.

Writing in The New York Times , cultural critic Frank Rich aptly put it this way,

"the majority of American colonists didn't believe in witches during the Salem trials either—any more than the Taliban reflected the views of a majority of Afghans. At a certain point, and we seem to be nearing that point, fear takes over, allowing a mob to bully the majority over the short term. (Of course if you think the end is near there is no long term.)"

This country now stands before the world and history with a president who condones torture. No wonder the subjects of the new empire in other countries feel they should have had a vote in this election. This is an utterly intolerable situation and one that growing numbers of people are ready to massively repudiate—including thousands if not millions of people who voted for George Bush and are waking up to the ugly reality of what they bought and what it's wrought.

This regime has to be driven from power and it could happen! It is important to recall the millions who were present in the streets with people across the planet to oppose the Iraq war and that just six months ago millions engaged in a groundswell of hopeful political activity to drive Bush from office through voting. But no vision, no coherent alternative to Bush was ever on the electoral playing field.

The world can't wait until 2008 to put a halt to this.

We don't want to tell future generations "we were waiting for the pendulum to swing." We want to tell them we were the people who said NOT IN OUR NAME! What is needed is to launch the kind of massive resistance that can drive this regime out.

November 2, 2005, the anniversary of Bush and Cheney's re-election. How will the first year of the Christian fundamentalist "revolution" look? Will the country continue to pitch more and more to the right, with opposition so ineffective that there will be no choice but to be swept along? Or will the whole world witness the opening rounds of an upsurge that can conjure up the specter of Spain and the Ukraine, the fall of the Berlin Wall, or Nixon? It can — if people conceive of themselves as politically at war in an all-out battle for the future.

Anything less is not commensurate with the challenge we face.

We in the RCP are approaching this as repolarizing society for revolution, and we are sincere about learning from and uniting with people from many different perspectives who also see the need to rid the world of the Bush regime. We can tell you from our personal experience, talking to people across the country as we passed out millions of the statement "The Battle of the Future Will be Fought from Here Forward," that people are waiting for the next wave of protest to be unleashed...but they want to know that it will really make a difference.

Very Radical!

Let's talk about how to make it happen—contact us at drivethemout@yahoo.com

Judy Baca's monument in Baldwin Park under attack

2005-06-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

The following is a statement written by Judith F. Baca, an artist, whose monument in Baldwin Park, CA is under attack by Save our State and the Minuteman Project that is affiliated with them.

* * *

May 12, 2005

An “anti-illegal immigrant” group, Save Our State, of Ventura County, emboldened by their recent victory at the removal of a billboard referring to “Los Angeles, Mexico” is now demanding the removal of the wording on a twelve-year old monument in Baldwin Park, California, entitled Danzas Indigenas. I was commissioned to produce this work in 1993 by MTA and the City of Baldwin Park in collaboration with the Kate Diamond Architectural Group.

The monument consists of a 20 ft arch, 100 ft plaza and 400 ft train platform. Produced with extensive public input, the monument includes five languages: English, Spanish, Gabrielino, Chumash, Luiseño and is a layering of indigenous, Spanish and mestizo history, which is associated with the site.

Included also are the contemporary voices and diversity that is indicative of contemporary Baldwin Park. Asked to produce a work that was “mission in theme” that reflected the majority population of Latinos in the City of Baldwin Park, and in keeping with my practice as an artist for inclusion of community members in my design process, I designed this work to include the “past” and “present” of the region and the voices of local residents. Of particular interest to me was the sites proximity to the mission of San Gabriel. The arch in the Plaza is conceived of as a fragment of a mission arch. Its intention was to become a site of public memory for the people of Baldwin Park; to make visible their invisible history.

Local residents sentiments were included in the “present” side of the monument, with verbatim quotes sandblasted into the surface of the arch. Local residents of all ages and ethnic groups were recommended by the arts committee and the city council and interviewed. They were asked about their hopes for the future of Baldwin Park.

Additional statements from community members on the arch – which are not included in the discussion of the monument by the Save Our State group – include “Use your brain before you make up your mind”, “not just adults leading but youth leading too", “a small town feeling”, "when the Indians died the villages ended” and “the kind of community that people dream of rich and poor, white, brown, yellow all living together”. These statements all represent the community’s desires, and are featured prominently in the work of art.

The work is not a work of a lone artist working without relationship to the community, but rather a representation of community sensibilities and sentiment of the time. While this group has cast the artwork as part of a “Reconquista movement”, it is in fact neither advocating for the return of California to Mexico, nor wishing that Anglos had never come to this land. This statement “it was better before they came”, was deliberately ambiguous. About which “they” is the anonymous voice speaking? The statement was made by an Anglo local resident who was speaking about Mexicans. The ambiguity of the statement was the point, and is designed to say more about the reader than the speaker – and so it has.

The quote “this land was Mexican once, was Indian always, and is, and will be again” is by a critically acclaimed Chicana author, Gloria Anzaldua. On the Save Our State website, she is referred to as a “dead Chicana lesbian.” I chose this quote because the mission is one mile from the Mission San Gabriel, and descendants of the Gabrielinos still live in the region, making Anzaldua’s text particularly relevant to the increasing indigenous population. A correct reading of the quote makes it clear that this is not about Mexican “reconquista”, but about the land returning to its origins.

This is not a question only of my rights as an artist to not have my copyright violated, but also a question of “revisionist history” carved out twelve years after an extensive democratic public process produced this work. It is the collective vision of the people of Baldwin Park that is under attack by this Ventura group. What is most deserving of respect are the voices that are represented in the monument. Also deserving of respect, are the voices of the ancient indigenous who say in the first person “memory and will power” is how we retain the knowledge of our culture.

Our capacity as a democracy to disagree and to coexist is precisely the point of this work. No single statement can be seen without the whole, nor can it be removed without destroying the diversity of Baldwin Park’s voices. Silencing every voice with which we disagree, especially while taking quotes out of context, either through ignorance or malice, is profoundly un-American.

Nine Inch Nails in the news

2005-06-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

I found this in the L.A. Times today...

Band pulls out of MTV show

From Associated Press
Nine Inch Nails dropped out of the MTV Movie Awards after clashing with the network over an image of President Bush that the band planned as a performance backdrop. The Bush image was to accompany the song "The Hand That Feeds," which obliquely criticizes the Iraq war.
MTV said it was disappointed the industrial rock band would not perform but had been "uncomfortable with their performance being built around a partisan political statement." The Foo Fighters will perform in place of the Trent Reznor-led band at the awards being taped Saturday in L.A. Reznor said in a statement posted on the band's website that the image of the president would have been "straightforward." "Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me," he said.

I knew MTV was all about playing crappy music videos, but when did it become about artistic censorship too. And what's with Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters filling in. They should have refused to play as their way of supporting NIN.

Minuteman Campaign USA

2005-05-31T08:54:00.000-07:00

Several hundred anti-immigrant "activists" gathered for a conference in Las Vegas this past weekend.

Guest speakers included Barbara Coe, a co-author of California's Proposition 187, James Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, Congress member from Colorado Tom Tancredo, and relatives of 911 victims.

Throughout the conference the Minutemen, rabid anti-immigration activists, a former INS agent who offered his "expertise" in human hunting, and other vigilantes made plans to form a multi-state coalition of organizations that would be called the Minuteman Campaign USA.

William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, said, "The spring of 2005 will be looked back upon as the time when America woke up and started taking this country back."

The conference hall was full of violent and hateful energy as the conference participants chanted, "Send them home!" "Send them home!" A reporter for the L.A. Times said that it was reminiscent of a religious revival.

* * *
There were also significan protests outside the conference. I will post of some more information on this and some pictures very soon . . .

Minutemen speak in Garden Grove, CA-- man drives into crowd and hits 4 people

2005-05-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is from Indymedia L.A.

Wednesday, May 26. Yesterday the man who hit four pro-immigrant protesters with his van was released by the police while four other protesters who were peacefully demonstrating their anger toward the anti-immigrant group, the minutmen, are still in jail. Some are detained on bail as high as $50,000 for allegedly throwing bottles of water at the police. Police officers also felt threatened by a person in a wheel chair (I kid you not), and they arrested him without any apparent reason other than being an easy target for arrest.

On television Jim Gilchrist denied the protesters allegations of being a racist although, yet on the same day, his friends and allies displayed signs targeting only undocumented immigrants from Mexico—not undocumented immigrants from Canada or Europe.

http://la.indymedia.org/

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gilchrist27may27,1,277238.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Schwarzenegger scheduled to be commencement speaker at Santa Monica College

2005-05-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

What?!

Administration at Santa Monica College asked Arnold Schwarzenegger to give the commecement address at the graduation on June 14th. Students and faculty are outraged at this and are planning to make a statement soon. Check in, we'll give you an update on any announcements as soon as they come in!

Check out this article printed in Revolution:
Border Vigilantes: Praised by the Terminator
by Luciente Zamora, Revolution #3, May 22, 2005

http://rwor.org/a/003/border-vigilantes-terminator.htm

Calexico, CA: Border Patrol goes to the movies!

2005-05-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

A new "public service announcement" from the border patrol will be previewing in movie theaters throughout the Inland Empire in California.

Crucé por los dólares, crucé por seguirlo. Porque me la pintaron fácil. Hay muchas razones para cruzar la frontera. No más cruces en la frontera.

You cross for the money, you cross in your search of it. Because they said it was easy. There are many reasons to cross the border. No more crosses at the border.

The Border Patrol says that they're launching this campaign targeting immigrants to "save lives" and with the hopes of preventing deaths along the border.

If the Border Patrol were really interested in "saving lives" they wouldn't be so chummy with armed fascists like the Minuteman Project. If they were about "saving lives" they would abandon their posts-- then people wouldn't be forced to cross the most treacherous parts of the desert with the hope of actually making it to the other side.

They Border Patrol is not about saving lives-- it is their job to protect the border between an imperialist country and a third world country it exploits.

This advertisement campaign is about instilling fear within undocumented immigrants about, while at the same time playing the "good guys."

Three Graphic/Comic Novels You Must Read (Part 1)

2005-05-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

-By Nikolai Garcia

Y The Last Man: unmanned
Written by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Pia Guerra
126 pages, $12.95 www.vertigocomics.com

The year is 2002 and an unexplained plague has killed every living being with a Y chromosome. In other words, every male, human or animal, is dead. (2.9 billion--48% of the global population).

Better yet, look at it this way: 99% of landowners are gone, as well as 495 of the Fortune 500 CEOs and 100% of Catholic priests, Orthodox Jewish rabbis and Islamic Imams.

However, there still seems to be one last man on earth: Yorick, and Ampersand, (his pet monkey), mysteriously remain alive, (possibly due to a ring he bought at a magic shop). Yorick, a New Yorker, travels to Washington D.C. to find his mother, Congresswoman Jennifer Brown, who before the plague was having a hard time with male members of her own party because of her views against abortion, and is now one of only 73 women holding the U.S. government together.

When they reunite, Yorick's mother wants him to start helping to repopulate the earth almost immediately. "But how can I," he asks, "when the woman I love is in Australia?" (Drama!)

Yorick wants to find his girlfriend, but instead is asked to accompany Agent 355 (some kind of super-tough secret agent) to find Dr. Alison Mann, the worlds leading expert on human cloning. (Yorick's mother, by the way, has just changed her mind on the idea of cloning).

Along the way they encounter the Amazons, a gang of women who are happy that "Mother Earth" has wiped their oppressors off the earth. They did not lose brothers, fathers and friends. For them, what they lost were rapists, dictators and serial killers.

Some very provocative questions are raised when reading this graphic novel: What real power do women have under the current system? Are men the problem? Would women make capitalism a much nicer system to live under?

One of the most interesting (and funny) parts in the book occurs not long after Yorick and his mother reunite. All of a sudden the White House comes under fire. "Who the hell is shooting at us, mom? Terrorists?," asks Yorick. "Worse," she replies, "Republicans."

Because three-fourths of the remaining Senators and House Representatives are Democrats, the wives of dead Republicans demand that their husband's seats be given to them. This causes a confrontation involving guns.

"After all the men died, I thought you guys would be holding hands down at the United Nations or something," Yorick says after the violence erupts. Needles to say, Yorick's vision of a perfect society run by women soon disappears.

This graphic novel has it all: A great plot, action, suspense and hilarious lines. The only thing that's missing is an ending because this is only the first volume in the long collection.

(Next week: "The Birth of A Nation")

(This one's for Damian) A Short Review of the New Nine Inch Nails Album

2005-05-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get so lonely I could...
Why do you get all the love in the world?
Why do you get all the love in the world?

I put on Nine Inch Nails' new album, "With Teeth," and with the first track, All the Love In the World, I'm quickly transported back to my Jr. High school days.
All of a sudden, I'm depressed that Julie B. hasn't called me in hours and I'm trying to answer the age-old question, "Just how much bad poetry (about being sad) can you fit into a 90-page notebook?"

After reminding myself that I left Edison middle school a long time ago, a question pops into my head, "This whole album can't be just about sadness and loneliness, can it?" I mean, with all the stuff going on in the world, in this country, I'm sure an artists such as Trent Reznor has some kind of statement to make. Right?

Damn straight!

The fourth track, The Hand That Feeds, is Reznor's wake-up call to all those that go through life never questioning anything. And, it's a challenge to those who know there's something wrong going on, but have done nothing to change it.

...Got your chin held high
And you feel just fine
Cause you do
What you're told
But inside your heart
It is black, it is hollow
And it's cold
Just how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?

There is definitely a lot to say about the feeling of alienation that a lot of people suffer from living in this society. (Which NIN has always spoken to). But for me, this one track makes the purchase of the album worth it. (That, and the fact that Dave Grohl does some cool drumming throughout the record). So, go buy it!

(p.s. While some of us were getting depressed wondering if Julie B. was going to sit next to us in algebra class and singing along to the lyrics of Hurt, Trent Reznor was actually going through some real tough shit! Read about it in his own words: www.viceland.com/issues/v12n3/htdocs/up.php)

Border Vigilantes: Praised by the Terminator

2005-05-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

by Luciente Zamora

Revolution #3, May 22, 2005, posted at revcom.us

Throughout the entire month of April, several hundred retired border patrol agents, ex-Marines, former corrections officers, neo-Nazis, white separatists, and others answered a call from the "Minuteman Project" to protect the "homeland" from "the invasion of illegal aliens." The Minutemen vigilantes patrolled a 23-mile stretch of the Arizona/Mexico border.

In the week after the month-long Minuteman Project ended, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger commended these vigilantes on a right-wing radio station, KFI AM. He said, "I think they've done a terrific job... They've cut down the crossing of illegal immigrants a huge percentage. So it just shows that it works when you go and make an effort and when you work hard. It's a doable thing."

What does it say about the times we are living in when the governor of the largest state in the U.S. (and a state with a huge immigrant population) openly praises vigilantes who hunt down immigrants and says that these Minutemen--many of whom are neo-Nazis and white separatists--are "exemplary citizens"? Isn't it similar to how Hitler praised his stormtroopers for beating and murdering Jewish people?

Schwarzenegger also condemned human rights groups who set up water stations in the desert to help immigrants crossing the dangerous terrain. He said, "What we're doing basically is, by not really securing the borders, we're saying: `Look, here are the various water stations. Here are the places where you can cross the borders. Here is where we're going to help you.' The whole system is set up to really invite people to come in here illegally, and that has to stop."

Again, this is reminiscent of Nazi Germany, when Hitler persecuted those who helped the Jews. Schwarzenegger not only reveals his cruel inhumanity--he is also setting these people up as targets for legal action as well as targets of the vigilantes.

What kind of a depraved monster would say such things about immigrants who are desperately trying to cross the border in search of means of livelihood, and people who are trying to do what they can to help prevent poor people from losing their lives? Schwarzenegger's cold-blooded words stem from the outlook of the class he represents. To him and those who rule this society, undocumented immigrants and people who try to help them are "criminals"--while vigilantes and Migra agents who hunt down the immigrants are "heroes."

Schwarzenegger's support of the Minutemen is another indication that these human hunters are getting backing from powerful sections of the ruling class. Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo recently invited Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox--founders of the Minuteman Project--to Washington, DC, to attend a Congressional "Immigration Reform Caucus," which hailed the Project as a success.

Simcox and Gilchrist have said that the response to the Minuteman Project has been so great that they are planning to embark upon a national fundraising campaign to spread Minuteman chapters across the country--especially border states like Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California--to patrol the border and to protest businesses that hire undocumented workers.

Immigrants have been under attack and even killed at the hands of vigilantes and ranchers along the border for years. But there is a new momentum to what Simcox described as "a civil defense type movement in the absence of a government which can meet the basic needs of citizens"--in other words, a fascist "grassroots" movement.

In California, the Border Watch--a project launched by a group calling itself the Friends of the Border Patrol--is organizing on a "grassroots" level to patrol the San Diego/Mexico border this summer. Border Watch is signing up police officers, ex-military personnel, Minutemen, and other vigilante forces. They are also trying to enlist volunteer pilots to patrol from the air. They are set to begin training sessions this June and plan to dispatch patrols in August to the mountainous and beach regions in San Diego.

The group is headed by Andy Ramirez, the former executive director of the Save Our State initiative (S.O.S.). In 1994 S.O.S. put Proposition 187--a measure making it illegal to provide undocumented immigrants education, health services, and other social services--on the California ballot. There was massive opposition to the proposition, which passed but was later overturned in the courts. However, the reactionary movement behind Prop 187 did not go away--in fact, it has gained even more force.

Ramirez, whose grandfather was a Mexican immigrant, says the government is not doing enough to "protect the homeland." He wants the Border Patrol and the U.S. military to basically seal the border--and in the meantime, he says the mission of Friends of the Border Patrol is to get "ordinary citizens" to do the job the government isn't doing.

Ramirez also calls for intensified repression against immigrants beyond the border area: "Let the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. military patrol our borders, and resume sweeps for those who have illegally entered the U.S."

Travis Morales of the Revolutionary Communist Party, San Francisco Bay Area, points out, "People need to stare at this straight in the face. In Arizona, for several years, the Border Patrol has been cooperating with vigilantes who hunt down immigrants crossing the border to survive. Now this has gone much further with the deployment of the armed Minutemen. The governor of the largest state gives his approval and invites them to patrol the border while Congresspeople promote them as a success.

"While Bush and company are pushing to institute a right-wing Christian fundamentalist theocracy, armed fascists are being unleashed at the border with high-level backing and support as part of the overall fascist program. Sections of the ruling class are politically and organizationally mobilizing armed fascist stormtroopers and training them to go after immigrants and others seen as threats to `national security.'

"These latest moves remind me of what Chairman Avakian discusses in the article `The Coming Civil War and Repolarization for Revolution in the Present Era.' In it he refers to Newt Gingrich talking about how never has the country been so divided as it is now since the 1840s and 1850s in the period before the Civil War. In other places Avakian also discusses Pat Buchanan's worry, coming from a reactionary point of view, that deep cultural and social divisions are tearing the U.S. apart. The Minutemen and other fascist thugs are one part of the solution to this dilemma- -outright brutal suppression of opponents and those seen as problems for the ruling class.

"If the legitimacy of armed fascist thugs is established and they are allowed to hunt and attack immigrant without intense and determined opposition that knocks them back on their heels, this will be further horror heaped upon the millions of immigrants driven from their home countries by U.S. domination. And does anyone think this will stop here? Given the moves toward Christian fascist theocracy, this will be just the beginning. This is not the future. This is now."

These fascist groups need to be hit hard politically. They cannot be allowed to gain the upper hand and establish themselves as the "new normalcy." People need to figure out the ways to take on these American-style stormtroopers.

Think about what happened when Hitler and the Nazis were not stopped. Think about what will happen if the fascist tide we're confronted with today is not stopped.

(Esto Ocurrio Ayer) This Happened Yesterday

2005-05-15T14:47:00.000-07:00

-By Nikolai G

"Minutemen go home! Minutemen go home!" A crowd of more than 300 Chicano activists and progressive forces yelled at a small group of anti-immigrant protestors in Baldwin Park, CA.

The anti-immigrant forces were members of Save Our State (SOS), one of the groups that helped put the racist, anti-immigrant proposition 187 on the ballot in California back in the early 90's. They were there to protest a monument in the city that they considered offensive because it contained the quote, "This land was Mexican once,/ was Indian always/ and is,/ And will be again," (from Chicana feminist writer Gloria Anzaldua).

Baldwin Park police had to call in additional forces from surrounding cities and Sheriff deputies to protect the small anti-immigrant group from the progressive forces who refused to stay within the official counter-demonstration zone, (about two blocks away), and marched to confront the racists.

The counter-protesters, which was estimated at the height of the day to be more than 600, (including many youth from the neighborhood), stood their ground and got in the face of SOS members, who waved their American flags and held signs like, "This land is my land. This land is not your land. And never will be." (Their numbers did not reach more than 40 and at the end dwindled to about 15).

Loud and victorious cheers were heard once the SOS members finally retreated to their cars (with protection from the police, of course).

Trip out: I didn't find out about this until the day before and was worried that no one would come out to oppose these ignorant fuckers. But when I got there--I swear--I ran into every Chicano activist, poet and musician that I have met in the last five years!
Oh! Great fuck'n news! The great photojournalist Mukai will start working with the LAWC and will hopefully post up her photos from yesterdays event. Also, Leila Cielos, who's BEEEEN working with us will officially join the blog soon! ).