Ferguson 2015: It Was—and Is—Right to Rebel! Was in the Air!!!
August 8, 2015: Marching through the streets of Ferguson to the police station.
(Photo: Special to Revolution/revcom.us)
August 10, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The weekend of the anniversary of the murder of Mike Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri cop, and the ensuing courageous and determined struggle for justice, saw a wide range of marches, vigils, and protests around the country, with more to come early next week. A powerful and rebellious Ferguson Rocks concert Saturday night in St. Louis featured Tom Morello and the Freedom Fighter Orchestra, Jessica Care Moore, The Coup, Outernational and others. Carl Dix made a blistering challenge to the crowd at the concert to take up and be in the streets at Rise Up October, October 24 in NYC.
The high point -- to this moment -- was a determined and defiant late night march of hundreds of mostly youth – Black and white – through the streets of Ferguson up to an intense confrontation at the Ferguson Police Department.
Saturday night in Ferguson
A Revolution correspondent on the scene reported: It was—and is—Right to Rebel! was in the air!!! With the anniversary of the murder of Michael Brown approaching, many Black youth and others gathered along the main drag of Ferguson, West Florissant Avenue, hanging out on their cars, some selling t-shirts and buttons, lots of people talking about Mike Brown and the hundreds of others killed by the police.
Revolution Club members and revcom people and people from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network were getting out Rise Up October palm cards, agitating on the bullhorn and getting people signed up to organize for Rise Up October. and some of us were getting out Revolution newspapers. Lost Voices, an organization of Black youth formed last year as a result of the rebellion, had set up an encampment that was a pole of attraction for all kinds of youth and the leading force in the march that took off from West Florissant, through side streets to the Ferguson Police station. Youth hanging out of cars were yelling “Fuck the Police”, and “Hands UP, Don’t Shoot!”, horns blowing and blowing.
At Union Square in New York City. Pictured is Nicholas Heyward Sr, father of Nicholas Heyward Jr., killed by NYPD at age 13. Photo: Jerry Michael Jones
As the march reached the police station, at least 300 Black and white youth confronted the pigs guarding the station. Youth, sisters and brothers, stood on a barrier yelling at the pigs calling them out for the crimes and the terror against Black people. When the crowd yelled “FTP, Fuck the Police” you could feel the hatred the youth feel about the murder of Mike Brown by Darren Wilson and his getting away with it, and the deep hatred they feel about all the others killed by police. They were yelling and pointing fingers at the police denouncing the horror they bring down on Black people every day.
There were all kinds of political messages on signs in the crowd, and banners and signs like ”Justice for Sandra Bland,” and “Justice for Mike Brown.” A Revolution Club member with a bullhorn called on people to mobilize thousands to take the level of resistance to a higher level and be part of a massive protest in New York City on October 24. He said, “There is a slow genocide going on. Which side are you on? Are you going to let the genocide go on or are you going to be on the side of stopping it. And revolution nothing less is needed to end these horrors once and for all. We have a Party, the Revolution Communist Party that has a strategy to make revolution. Check it out.”
August 9, 2015: Called by Black Llives Matter Cambridge, around 350 people rallied and marched through Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Photo: Special to revcom.us)
In the aftermath of the night’s action a young Black woman said, “Our voices need to be heard about the police killing Black people and tonight they were heard.” A member of Lost Voices said, “What happened last year unleashed a beast. And that beast has been tamed too many times. Not tonight. “ As we were leaving the scene, one comrade said, “What happened tonight was reminiscent of the first night of the rebellion a year ago.“
It was clear that the defiant ones who the powers-that-be have tried to crush both physically and through the media, the defiant ones who stood up in the face of tear gas, tanks, rubber bullets, live machine guns, curfews, hundreds of arrests in the face of political firemen urging people to be calm while the police murder people over and over were in the streets Saturday night. Their message was loud and clear: we are determined to stop the pigs from murdering us and we the people will stop them.
Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.
