Chicago protest against U.S. threats of war against North Korea
Carl Dix and the Revolution Club: “Don’t Fight For Uncle Sam…Our Fight is Here!”
July 14, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On July 11, in front of an Armed Forces Recruiting Station on Chicago’s South Side, Carl Dix and the Revolution Club went up against the Trump/Pence regime’s threats to make war against North Korea.
The Revolution Club marched into the parking lot of the strip mall where the imperialist death-recruiting center is located. The message on their banner was bold and clear:
To all Black and other oppressed people… and to all people who stand for justice—DO NOT FIGHT FOR UNCLE SAM IN NORTH KOREA—OR ANYWHERE ELSE!! Our Fight is Right Here!
In front of the military center, Carl Dix took the mic to tell people:
The United States is threatening war with North Korea. You got Donald Trump with his finger on the nuclear button, threatening to push it to start a war, telling us that this war is in some way a defense against a madman in Korea. But... a war between the United States and North Korea would be a war of a nuclear-armed bully, the United States, against a small country. And it would be a disaster for humanity. No one—not Black people, not other oppressed people, not anybody who cares about justice should fight in that war. In fact no one should fight in the United States' wars because these are wars for empire....
… you got this system, this capitalist-imperialist system, whose rulers unleash their cops to patrol Black and Brown neighborhoods like occupying armies spreading terror, brutalizing and even murdering people there. Warehousing people in prison. Pinning people down in segregated communities in cities like Chicago and elsewhere. Gearing the educational system to fail people. And then they wanna come to our young people and say “You gotta fight for your country.… It becomes your country when they go to war—they say ‘you got to go out and fight for it.’”
Well I say bullshit. This system... is unleashing attacks on immigrants, Muslims, attacks on women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people, that has everybody’s rights to protest and exercise free speech under attack, that’s even attacking sections of the capitalist media—this is not our system, its fight is not our fight. No one should fight in this war with Korea, no one should fight in any of the wars of this system.
But there is a fight that we should wage and that’s a fight to get rid of this system in the only way possible and that’s by getting organized into a revolution to overthrow this system to defeat and dismantle its military, police force and all the rest and to bring a whole different world into being. That is a fight that’s ours.... We got the leadership that we need for this revolution in Bob Avakian, the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, a man who has developed a strategy and approach for how to make revolution in a country like this, how to get in position to be able to lead millions of people to go all out for revolution when the time is right, to do that with a real chance to win and a vision of the kind of world we could bring into being. A world where the exploitation and oppression of this system has been done away with once and for all. We do have a fight and people need to get with that fight. They need to check out this revolution. They need to check out the leadership we have for this revolution in Bob Avakian. They need to get with this revolution.
Struggle with and among the people
An important part of this action at the military recruiting station was to actually STOP people from going in and joining the U.S. military. It was slow at the recruiting station while the Revolution Club was there (a lot of recruiting is done at schools and other places). Then, a 19-year-old Black youth walked up, headed towards an appointment at the recruiting station. It was not his first time there—he was in the process of being recruited into the military. When a Revolution Club member stopped him to talk, he said he wanted to make his life about something and was not seeing anything else out there for him. The revcom told him, “Look, the only time you count to this system is when they are ready to use you to kill other people. The reason there is nothing for you out here is ’cause they don’t give a shit about you. They want to keep you trapped in this shit here and all over the world. And to join their armed forces to enforce this shit all over the world.”
The young man replied, “I can’t argue with that.” The revcom told him, “They also have armed white supremacists to enforce all this shit—they don’t see police killing people as a problem, they see people fighting against it as the problem. If you want to make your life about anything, don’t join the enemy’s army—join the revolution. Joining the military makes about as much sense as a slave joining the slave master.” The young man said a few times, “I didn’t see it that way,” and didn’t really say much more. But he did walk away after that conversation instead of going in for his appointment with the imperialist recruiters.
Other people going through the parking lot said they were in agreement with what they were seeing and hearing. Some stopped to listen to Carl Dix. There was struggle among the people too. A woman who took some flyers and passed them out on the corner near the recruiting station gave one to a guy who looked at it and then tried to give it back to one of the revcoms, saying, “I’m only concerned about Black people.” The woman heard this and struggled with him, saying this IS about Black people! The revcom added, and it is not just about Black people, it is about ALL OF HUMANITY getting free. The man decided to keep the flyer.
A U.S. military veteran who works with Refuse Fascism also spoke and announced the July 15 nationwide protests to drive out the Trump/Pence regime. A vet from the Revolution Club also spoke.
After this bold action held the sidewalk in front of the U.S. Armed Forces recruitment center for over an hour, Carl concluded, saying the Revolution Club will be joining in the July 15 protests and calling on everyone to be there.
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