Diverse, Intense & Uncompromising:

A Night in Harlem to GET READY for
#RiseUpOctober in NYC

Updated August 31, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Last night hundreds packed the First Corinthian Baptist Church (FCBC) in Harlem, New York City. There was a kick-in-the-gut, kick-in-the-heart intensity in the air, as a crowd—a majority Black people but many others as well—gathered for a program sponsored by the Stop Mass Incarceration Network to hear Carl Dix, Dr. Cornel West, and others speak to What We Must Do to STOP Police Murder and Terror—Get Ready for #RiseUpOctober: Massive Mobilization to Stop Police Terror & Murder, October 22-24 in NYC.

All night long the question, the challenge, was posed in powerful ways that must reverberate far and wide: WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Co-MC Nkosi Anderson opened by declaring the existence of a “state of emergency” and promising an evening of a wide range of perspectives united to stop police terror in the context of a worldwide movement to stop police terror.

Reverend Willie Francois III, assistant pastor at FCBC, challenged all to be the “architects of a world where all people are free” and insisted “We cannot say Jesus without saying Justice.”

Noche Diaz from the Revolution Club—speaking from his experiences with Black and Latino youth around the country, and Reverend Stephen Phelps—speaking from what he learns from his parishioners, and his activist perspective—testified to the pervasive terror instituted by police around the country.

Former Black Panther, Columbia University professor, artist and activist Jamal Joseph charted the insanity of police murder of Black people from the 1940s, through Eleanor Bumpurs –a grandmother murdered by the NYPD in 1985 through today. Gina Belafonte, co-director of the SANKOFA Foundation founded by Harry Belafonte, led people chanting: “Unapologetically Black, we ready, we coming!” “Are we rising up in October?” (Audience: yeah!).

Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a former senior policy analyst for, and whistle-blower on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and activist with the DC Hands Up Coalition reported on outrage and resistance to the mayor of Washington, DC’s plans to put 500 more police on the streets.  She said her son had been stopped over 30 times, and each time he could have been dead and this why she’s part of calling for Rise Up October.

Family Members Speak

Co-MC Kimberli Diaz brought family members of victims of police murder to the stage. From deep in their hearts, they shared pain and outrage. Every story could fill a book, a movie, be told in a hundred songs, and they can be seen at the video of the event.

They included: Juanita Young, mother of Malcolm Ferguson murdered by NYC police in 2000; Mertilla Jones, grandmother of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones, murdered in front of her eyes by Detroit police in 2010; Sharon Irwin, grandmother, and Lorien Carter, aunt, of Tony Robinson, who was killed by Madison, Wisconsin police this year; LaToya Howell, mother of 17-year-old Justus Howell, murdered by Zion, Illinois police this year; Nicholas Heyward, Sr., father of Nicholas Heyward, Jr, murdered by NYC police in 1994 at age 13, while playing with a toy gun; Reginald Owens, father of Naim Owens, killed by the NYPD in 2014, and stepfather of Kheil Coppin, killed by the NYPD in 2007; and Joanne Mickens, whose son Corey Mickens was murdered by the NYPD in 2007.

Serious About Fundraising

This riveting testimony gave a sense of the fury and power that will be injected into societal debate and struggle over police terror in NYC on October 22-24.

Before Carl Dix and Cornel West spoke, Reverend Jerome McCorry, faith coordinator for the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, and Will Reese, from the NYC Revolution Club, called on people to step up and donate the kind of serious funds necessary to bring representatives of a hundred families of people murdered by police to NYC for Rise Up October, and travel the country to tell their stories, and to make Rise Up October possible, starting with several people who literally rose to the challenge—standing up and donating $500.

Carl Dix and Cornel West

Carl Dix and Cornel West are co-initiators of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and of Rise Up October. Their presentations were a dynamic expression of the diversity of outlooks, agendas and philosophical frameworks of those coming together for Rise Up October, and of the powerful love, unity, and determination to STOP police terror and make October 22-24 a serious step towards changing everything.

Carl Dix framed his message in a recent quote from Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA:

There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done— by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.

Carl Dix broke down the “unspeakable ugliness”—here, and around the world, every kind of oppression and exploitation. The lessons of the lynching of Emmett Till and the crimes of the government against the Black and poor people in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He called out the deaths—from Vietnam to Iraq to Korea—in U.S. wars for empire. He called out how this system is trying to deny women the right to decide if and when to have a child, the devastation of the environment, the persecution of immigrants and the insults of “that fascist idiot Donald Trump.”

But he also broke down the “potential for something of unprecedented beauty” to be brought to life through a total revolution. The need to seize power “from the hands of the capitalist exploiters.” And the basis to do that, and the critical role of Bob Avakian’s “breakthroughs in revolution” in making that possible, and called on people to get into BA and the revolution.

And then, coming from that, he spoke to the concrete urgency and necessity of Rise Up October in depth and detail, including responding in depth to those who insist the movement must limit itself to what the system considers “reasonable demands.” (Read text of Carl Dix’s speech here)

Cornel West challenged people with a history of the oppression and resistance of Black people in the U.S.A.: “Hated people, taught the world so much about love. Denied justice but taught the world so much about justice. Traumatized, but taught the world so much about how to be cool. Black people at our best have been truth tellers, that means we’ve been cross bearers before we were flag wavers.”

He called out a “challenge in the age of Obama:” “Once we got a Black president we got too many people more concerned by the breakthrough at the top and then lose sight of those stuck in the basement… what Franz Fanon called the ‘wretched of the earth’ in the midst of the American Empire.” He called on people to stand up and straighten their backs.

Near the end of his presentation, he leaned in to the audience, faced the families of victims of police murder, pointed to the faces of the victims and declared “their afterlife [will] work through us. Because we gonna have Sankofa, which means we not gonna move forward til we first look back, and remember the best of those who came before us. That constitutes wind at our back. That’s what Stop Mass Incarceration’s about. That’s why I call it the love train. Get on the love train! Curtis Mayfield said you don’t need no ticket, just get on board! Get on board! Stop mass incarceration and decide what side you’re really on. And come with us.”

* * *

The evening ended with Travis Morales announcing plans, and ways into this, for everyone. Afterwards, as people headed out, dozens hung out on into the night, drinking in the energy and passion, and discussing next steps. At the end everyone was singing Hell You Talmbout.

Here’s how you become part of this:

• Send a tax-deductible contribution to “Stop Mass Incarceration/AfGJ” with “Rise Up October” in the memo field/line to Stop Mass Incarceration Network, PO Box 941, Knickerbocker Station, New York City, NY 10002-0900
• Follow the Stop Mass Incarceration Network at stopmassincarceration.net; @StopMassIncNet; and on Facebook at Stop Mass Incarceration Network.
• Call 646.709.1961

And stay tuned to revcom.us and Revolution newspaper

 

 

Artists for Justice & NYC Revolution Club leading singing of “Hell You Talmbout”

Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution

Send us your comments.

If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.