From the Streets of Ferguson/St. Louis:

Thousands Answer the Call – “Come to Ferguson”

by Li Onesto | October 13, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

October 11, 2014.

Over the last 24 hours hundreds and hundreds of people have come into St. Louis –by car, bus, and plane.  From the East Coast, the West Coast and cities and towns all in between. They have come to stand with thousands more in Ferguson and the whole St. Louis area who have been OUTRAGED at the total INJUSTICE of the murder of Michael Brown and the fact that now, after two months, the killer cop, Darren Wilson is still walking free.

On Saturday this all came together as at least 2,000 people rallied and took to the streets to demand JUSTICE for Michael Brown and an END to police murder, brutality and racial profiling. This was part of the Weekend of Resistance, called by Hands Up United, Organization for Black Struggle, and a coalition of local and national organizations.

The crowd was very multi-national and multi-generational with the youth taking the initiative and providing the whole thing with a sharp and defiant edge. There were banners representing many groups who had organized to come and march in contingents. To list just a few: the Union Theological Seminary from New York City; the Ethical Society of St. Louis, students from a number of historically Black Colleges including Fisk University, Philander Smith College  and Harris Stowe State University; the Metro Trans Umbrella Group (who talked about how transgender people also face police brutality); the National Nurses Organizing Committee; and Amnesty International. At least 75 people marched under the banner: “From Palestine to Ferguson– End Racism Now.” Unions were also represented including the Chicago Teachers’ Union and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU). The Stop Mass Incarceration Network had a contingent and its STOP SIGN poster saying, “Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation Must be STOPPED” was taken up by many in the crowd.  

The streets of St. Louis, October 11, 2014, Photo: Li Onesto/Revolution/revcom.us

Within this mix people got connected with the movement for revolution through Revolution newspaper and cards for the November 15 Dialogue between Bob Avakian and Cornel West on Revolution and Religion. Folks from the Union Theological Seminary contingent told revolutionaries that notices about the Dialogue were up all over their school, and they were planning to go. 

The march took off through the streets of downtown St. Louis for over an hour. One chant/demand that revolutionaries had in the very beginning of this struggle introduced—“Indict, Convict! Send the Killer Cop to Jail! The Whole Damn System is Guilty as Hell!” has now become one of the chants that is frequently taken up by the whole crowd—at all the protests—and was heard in the streets today. 

Then people gathered for a rally MC’d by poet Tef Po and Ashley, AKA Brown Blaze.

Tef Po kicked things off by talking about how it had now been 64 days since the murder of Mike Brown and not one person has been held accountable for his murder and how another brother had just been lost at the hands of the police in South St. Louis—Vonderitt Myers, shot 17 times. He said, “What’s going on the ground here is we’re still knee-deep in the situation and we’re still fighting... the foot soldiers, the young people, we have not packed up our bags and gone home. This is not a fly by night moment, this is not a made for TV revolution, this is real people standing up to a real problem and saying we ain’t taking it no more.”

First to be brought up on the stage were the youth who’ve been out in the streets everyday since the murder of Michael Brown. One young woman, from the group Lost Voices, talked about the importance of women getting involved in this struggle and announced a women’s caucus in Ferguson for the next morning to talk about the role of women in this movement—and she ended by saying, “We’re not just fighting for Ferguson but for the whole world.” Another young woman talked about how the young people have been on the frontlines getting arrested, maced and hit with rubber bullets and yet “I’ve been arrested three times, I have spent more time in jail than Darren Wilson and it’s ridiculous. We are sick of it, we are sick of it, we are tired. And we want St. Louis to know in front of this arch that we aren’t going anywhere until you stop killing us. And we mean that.”

The mother of Vonderritt Myers came on stage and sat with a photo of her with her son. Vonderritt Myers was shot down on October 8 by police in a barrage of 16-17 bullets.  (See, St. Louis Police Murder Another Black Youth in a Barrage of Bullets: This MUST STOP NOW!)  Speakers included a representative from the CBTU, a representative from the Palestinian delegation, and the Organization for Black Struggle.  People heard about the struggle in Ohio against the murder of John Crawford in a Walmart store, and how recently people occupied and shut down the police station there.  A representative of Michael Brown’s family also spoke. The rally ending on a powerful and significant note—Tef Po told the crowd, we got a lot of work to do now and went on to announce that October 22 is a National Day of Action Against Police Brutality. He said, “It’s a day of ACTION on a national level against police brutality. So and what that means is that you need to take this energy back home, think about it, marinate in it, feel inspired, feel motivated, go home and turn your city out.”

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