Carl Dix on the October Month of Resistance:
"The genocidal program is real... it's illegitimate... it's immoral... it must be stopped"
by Carl Dix | September 8, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Carl Dix gave this talk at the BA Everywhere picnic celebration in Harlem, New York City, on September 1, 2014:
Now look, what happened in Ferguson was not just the fact the police killed a young Black man. Because that happens all the damn time, it happens too damn often and it needs to stop. But what drew us down there was when the people stood up, especially the young people, saying no more of this shit, we've had this too long, we're not taking it anymore. And when I saw that, I was like, we got to go down there, and I got on the phone with some people and they came. And then when we were down there we said more people need to come and we sent another letter out to bring more people down because this has gotta stop and it's up to us to stop it.
People have to be standing up and saying, "This stops today, we're on it and we're not going back until we stop this shit." And that's what those young people in Ferguson said, day after day in the face of tear gas, rubber bullets, sound cannons, "peacekeepers" who were telling them, "We're going to keep you under control for your own good—keep you peaceful and calm," which would then just mean this shit would just keep coming down the way it's been coming down for too damn long.
Now the people rising up in Ferguson changed everything—it's got people all across the country talking about police murder, talking about this shit. But then on the other hand, it ain't changed anything yet—because that killer cop is still walking the streets. Just like the cops that murdered Eric Garner in Staten Island. Just like the cops who murdered that young brother Ezell Ford in Los Angeles. Just like the cops who murdered that brother in Dayton in the toy lane in the Walmart store and all kinds of killer cops all across the country.
This has got to stop and we got to continue a fight for justice around all of these cases. But we also have to connect them to a larger struggle. Because this is a key part of a genocidal program that's being brought down that centers around criminalization of Black and Latino people—warehousing them in prison, unleashing their pigs to brutalize and even murder them. We gotta step to this and we gotta stop it.
And here's a big thing that we gotta do: this Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror and the Criminalization of a Generation. Because what we're saying with this is: This genocidal program is real, it's illegitimate, it's immoral, and it must be stopped. And we're calling on everybody—everybody who has an ounce of justice in their hearts—to become a part of stopping this. This month has got to be a month of tens of thousands of people all across the country stepping out in determined mass resistance, saying no more to mass incarceration, no more to police terror, no more to treating our young people like criminals, no more repressing people who want to stand up and do anything about it. You all got to be a part of that.
A key part of it is going to be October 22. Here in New York City we need tens of thousands people in the streets. It's going to be 1:00 pm in Union Square. Now I know folks got to go to school, folks got to go to work, in general. But not on that day. That's got to be a day of no work, no school, no business as usual. You gotta stop killing our kids, you gotta stop dragging people off to prison, you gotta stop all of this shit. That's a key part of the month.
And then there's other parts of the month. There's going to be sermons in churches, mosques and synagogues, events on campuses, cultural events. All of this bringing tens of thousands together to say no more to this shit. This is very important. You got to be a part of this. Talk to people here about it, and get involved.
Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.