Letter from Young Revolutionary

Get With A14! Struggle with No Apology to Get Free

April 2, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

It was exciting to go on mass transit pushing for A14! I put my BA shirt on and hit it. People were looking at me funny. I had A14 stickers all over me and my hoodie up to represent for my boy Trayvon Martin. I would pull out my Stolen Lives banner and hold it up to the people. I would tell them these are some of the thousands that have been murdered by police and this is a total outrage. I would ask people how they felt looking at all the Stolen Lives. People would say they felt bad; some people would lower their gaze.

Then I announced that I was pushing for A14 and if this picture of the people shot by police fucks with you, it shows you still have a conscience and that once you know what is going on you all have a responsibility to act and stop this shit! One guy argued with me that his father was a police for over 20 years and what should I tell my dad. I said tell him to quit. He said hell no and he got real mad. I said there are no good cops and used a quote by BA on the role of the police. So then he went on about Black-on-Black crime and why I wasn't protesting that. I told him because there is a system in place that put these youth in the situation they are in and no amount of pulling their pants up is going to stop the police from killing them. He was mad and he joined another lady and they started making fun of me and saying how I was the most stupid revolutionary they had ever met. I had to hold myself back, and then I thought, just state the facts. So I told everyone that these two people hate me more than they hate police murder. I said what kind of person finds the murder of unarmed youth funny? I said these people are laughing while the families of these stolen lives are crying rivers of tears. I said people are literally burying their children and if that shit is funny to you then you need to check your humanity. That really brought some reality back for a lot of people.

I would go on different transit and just stick to the truth. I told people about the crossroads we are at and A14 was about retaking the initiative. I was focusing on getting high school students to take up A14. I would get contacts from a lot of kids. I met one girl that said she cried so much when they killed Mike Brown and then let the killer off. I told her that I cried too. She said it does not matter we can't stop this system doing what it wants to do. I said we have a Party, a strategy and a Constitution for the new society, and we don't have to live this way if we make a revolution. I walked with her to the bus. A gathering of high school students were there. I passed out A14 fliers and stickers and held up my Stolen Lives poster and agitated the crowd. People were taking a lot of my material and saying they were going to put stickers on all kinds of creative places.

I had lots of fun talking to people. I thought that it is going to take struggle with people to get them free. Struggle with no apology.

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