Revolution Club Member Arrested at CCNY:
I Was Proud That I Was Getting in Trouble Because This Proclamation Is Calling for People to Fight for a Future Society
May 21, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Revolution: What were you thinking when you got arrested on campus.
A: Right when it happened, I was thinking about the reasons why we were getting arrested. And I was angry that this was being banned, but I was proud that I was getting in trouble because of the message we were taking out, because if you look at this proclamation it is about the future. It is calling on people to think about the future of society, and not just think about it but working to bring it forward and to fight for it.
And in spite of the fact it is being banned, it is what people need. Not only people discussing this, but thinking about what kind of world we are living in, whether or not it is necessary and whether we can get free of this nightmare. So that being banned is totally illegitimate.
I have been reading about the Russian revolution, in the book 10 Days That Shook the World. And I’m thinking about what they were doing at that time, what Lenin and other leaders were fighting for, and the people in massive numbers, transformed, fought for a whole different society, giving up their lives. They sacrificed all they were—in such a heroic way—not for getting more for themselves or to step on people, but for humanity. People were constantly talking about the world revolution, about bringing forward a whole world free of oppression—they had that in mind.
And at this point, that’s not the mood of people now, of students, of the intellectuals, of people in general. So, bringing that to the people, with the goal in mind to get more people thinking about the future: what kind of future we can have, putting out the new synthesis of communism—which is the framework to understand and transform the world—bringing that to the people—I felt proud of doing that! It felt historic! This is my personal experience. I still have a lot to learn. But it felt historic that there are people in the world taking that stand and I feel proud of being one of them.
I have fears. There are implications of being connected with something that is openly saying that is organizing now to overthrow the system. But what was going through my mind was that this is what needs to be done. It doesn’t matter what the repercussions are. It is worth taking that risk. I know this was just one day in jail for me—but I also understand that it was the force of the state coming down on a movement for revolution, and on those who are taking this stand.
There were two moments during this day that I felt like crying—because things happened that were so moving. One was sitting with all the people in central booking, thinking about this not being just a good cause, but one that can liberate humanity, and sitting with all these women who were locked up for illegitimate reasons. And right there it hit me, the historical aspect of it, where we’re standing now—the stand that we take now—how much it matters for the future of the people.
It felt right—even if I was uncomfortable, being locked up for 18 hours, being moved around by cops who were threatening us, making fun of us, harassing us. When some women were fighting in another cell, one cop said, “You hear?, welcome to the party!—is this what you want to be doing with your life?” So it was uplifting to see things more in perspective, to see that what they were telling us is not what defines the truth, in fact the truth is that this proclamation is actually important for the future of humanity. And seeing myself with that perspective felt right.
The other time I got emotional was walking into the courtroom and seeing the support of people in the movement, knowing they have our back. It is not like what the cop was saying, “These people don’t care about you, they just want you to work for them.” Of course we did not take that shit then, they do not know what they’re talking about. But to see the support: Sunsara Taylor was there, the Revolution Club was there—even people who lately haven’t been that close to the club. Revolution newspaper was there. And then coming to Revolution Books the next day, everybody knew what happened. It felt like real community, you know? On a personal level, it felt like overwhelming love, as I was still trying to make sense of all this.
It was very important that when we went out to eat after we got out of jail, what Noche and Sunsara were saying- what we did was right, what they did was wrong. The other person arrested with me was saying “I finally saw myself as you see me, in opposition to how the cops see me.” Because it is traumatic how the cops treat you. You can start thinking you are a criminal. But we had the support of the people who have the future in mind—making sure we knew that their force was illegitimate.
Coming down on us in the way that they did, that’s what is wrong. Even when they do that good cop and bad cop stuff—I don’t care if you are treating me "nice", you are putting handcuffs on me, so you are on the wrong side. You can get confused by how they treat you—they say “I’m trying to help you.” No, fucker, you are putting me in jail because of this. If you were trying to help, you would quit this job and let me go free.
Q: Talk about the statement initiated on campus opposing what happened, and demanding this repression of the message of revolution stop.
A: The Revolution Club, working with a student who was very pissed off about this, initiated a petition denouncing what happened. This has been a whole learning experience for people. I was in jail at the time, but I was talking with someone in the Revolution Club and she told me students at CCNY were really pissed off about what happened to us, and more of them were reading the proclamation.
Some were saying things like I don’t agree with all these ideas but I don’t think this should be banned from the school, and even worse putting people in jail for this. The Revolution Club called everyone we have met over the past months to tell them about what happened, and the response was very supportive of us. So I came to see that there is a potential to take the struggle farther, where people come to see what is the role of the police as an institution, and even the role of the school, in repressing these. And there is potential to change the situation, even on the campus.
When I heard all this, about people’s response to the arrest, I understood better that responding to repression is way beyond those who have been repressed; it is true on so many levels. We put our bodies on the line and were repressed, raising, because of that repression, the support of lots of different people, which also creates the potential for exposing more of what goes on in this school and in society in general. It is the force of the state coming to repress these ideas illegitimately, and that has the potential of people coming to see the reality of what it is.
This is a place where Carl Dix and Sunsara Taylor spoke on their tour. And now this is bringing the situation on this campus to a different level—after the campus tour, and getting the proclamation out in different places. And in response to what happened to us, people are saying that’s actually not right, whether they agree with it all or not. So there is not just support for us to get out of jail—we’re already out, although we still have an open case—but to bring to a better understanding of why these ideas are being banned, and in the principal aspect, to bring them the ideas themselves.
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