Revolution Club, NYC, in Baltimore:
“Justice for Freddie Gray!”... “We are the Revcoms, the mighty, mighty Revcoms!”
July 4, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a member of the Revolution Club, NYC:
Carl Dix speaking about the illegitimate verdict in the trial of Caesar Goodson for the murder of Freddie Gray. Photo: Special to revcom.us
On June 23, the day the verdict was scheduled to come down in the case of Caesar Goodson, one of the pigs who gave Freddie Gray the rough ride that led to his death, the New York City Revolution Club took up the call to be down in Baltimore. All indications suggested the verdict would be not guilty or just a slap on the wrist. Nine people from NYC piled into in a rented van paid for by funds raised by and for the Club and its work. The group was made up of people from the core of the NYC Revolution Club, other people who are involved in the Club’s work, some volunteers from out of town who came to run with the Club and the NYC Revolution Books store, and one very new person taking it all in and learning what the Club is about. Men, women, different nationalities. All 20 and 30 somethings, except for one teenager.
At 10 am, the Revolution Club showed up, marching into the front of the courthouse as a force and chanting “Everywhere we go, people wanna know, who we are, so we tell them, WE ARE THE REVCOMS, the MIGHTY MIGHTY REVCOMS!” and “Justice for Freddie Gray! Send those killer cops away! What’s the problem? The whole damn system! What’s the solution? REVOLUTION!” The media swarmed on us and we all lined up along the front of the courthouse, where RCP spokesperson Carl Dix began to speak about how this case was an injustice on top of an injustice, a mockery of justice, and the fact that this was a concentration of an illegitimate system that needed to be gotten rid of at the soonest possible time through revolution.
After about an hour, we got word that the verdict on Goodson was “not guilty” of ALL charges! This unfortunately did not come as a shock to most of us, but it was so outrageous. Carl Dix continued to speak to a lot of media about how illegitimate this verdict was, and how it was another example of why this whole damn illegitimate system has got to go.
Photo: Special to revcom.us
Not long after the verdict came down, the Revolution Club led a march around the courthouse, and through the downtown area during the lunch hour. We felt there was a real need to let everyone know what had just gone down; to speak to how outrageous this was, and the injustices it concentrates; to call more people into this immediate struggle today; and to let people know there is a force out there getting organized to overthrow this system at the soonest possible time.
In the afternoon we moved to the Gilmor Homes, the neighborhood in an area called Sandtown where Freddie Gray lived. The Revolution Club had been out in this neighborhood many times over the past year introducing people to the movement for revolution and the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian. We were joined by a couple middle-aged Black women from Baltimore who wanted to run with the Club, and a youngster from the neighborhood who has been running with the revolution since last year and following revcom.us periodically to stay up on what’s up with the revolution.
We started the afternoon drilling in a park on the edge of the homes, getting ready to march through the neighborhood, on point! We entered the homes, marching as a force chanting, “We are the REVCOMS” and “Justice for Freddie Gray.” We met a lot of people who had heard about the verdict, some who hadn’t; others came up to us knowing we had come for this reason, as we had been in the neighborhood leading up to this, and were anxious to hear what had happened at the courthouse. Carl Dix agitated to groups of people about how outrageous the verdict was, what this concentrates, and the need for people to not accept this, to continue to resist the ways this system comes down on them, and to not allow themselves to become broken wretches.
On the ride back from Baltimore, the nine in the van discussed the experience, fearlessly persevered in several sing-alongs of various catchy tunes, and listened to the interview of Bob Avakian by Cornel West.
Find out about Bob Avakian here...
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