This article originally appeared in the Howard University Newspaper, the Hilltop
On Sept. 26, prisoners in California reinitiated a hunger strike to protest their inhumane conditions at Pelican Bay State Prison. The prisoners are located in isolation, or, the technical term, Segregated Housing Units (SHU) or Administrative Segregation. SHU is confinement to a cell approximately 10 feet by 6 feet with no windows, little to no human contact for 23 hours a day. But get this; some of them have been in SHU for five, 10, and 20 plus years! They have five core demands:
1. Eliminate group punishments.
2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria.
3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long term solitary confinement.
4. Provide adequate food.
5. Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates.
In other words, they are asking the California Department of Corrections to observe their basic human rights. (I mean "provide adequate food," really?)The last strike, in July of this year, lasted a little of more than three weeks after California officials stated they would comply with the demands. But, according to Mutope Duguma (James Crawford) who issued the call, little has been done to follow through on the prisoners' concerns.
Amnesty International has repeatedly called the treatment of prisoners in the US torture. That isn't surprising. Remember those photos from Abu Ghraib? Well, several of the troops who conducted the torture techniques there were correctional officers in US prisons. In short, they'd been practicing on black folk in prison for years.
In 1971, the prisoners who took part in the uprising at Attica in New York were reacting to the racist mistreatment by guards, overcrowding, and lack of adequate medical care. In response to the uprising, Governor Rockefeller ordered state troopers to retake the prison, leaving ten hostages and twenty-nine inmates dead. By portraying the multiracial uprising as, in the words of Richard Nixon, "basically a Black thing", the State was able to justify the massacre.
Just last year, Police Commander Jon Burge was convicted of lying about torturing over one hundred Black men in Chicago jails. Some of his victims spent years in prison for confessing to a crime they didn't commit.
The resistance to these conditions is growing. Over $12,000 prisoners throughout California, and in parts of Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Arizona, have [been] at some point rejected food in support of the strike. Last year, in Georgia, prisoners in six prisons went on strike to receive compensation for jailhouse labor.
So whether it's strikers in Pelican Bay or prisoners at Red Onion in Virginia stating their fingers are being broken arbitrarily by correctional officers (no that's not a misprint, Google it), we must support them with statements from our organizations. We must tell the governor to concede to their demands. We must provide monetary support for the prisoners' organizational efforts. At the end of the day, in disproportionate numbers, these are OUR people. Let us never forget our own that are trapped in the belly of the beast.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
SAMI Statement in support of Pelican Bay Strike & Occupy Wall Street
Students Against Mass Incarceration
(SAMI-Howard University
Police State in Action from New York to California
NYPD, CDCR, Use Strong-Arm Tactics against Peoples Movement
The NYPD showed its true colors on October 1st as they faced off with protestors on the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstration of five-thousand originated from lower Manhattan at the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) encampment, as protestors marched across the bridge to Brooklyn the police trapped, or “kettled,” the march and carried out a mass arrest of over seven-hundred. This followed a week of harassment of the OWS encampment and actions by police. As OWS has drawn from increasingly wider layers of disaffected and exploited people, its clear that NYPD tactics are aimed at stifling the movement.
On Thursday September 29th California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation threatened harsh reprisals against hunger-striking prisoners. At least six thousand California inmates are refusing meals in eight prisons across the state. Inmates are striking for the second time this year over inhumane living conditions, including some inmates being held for decades in windowless cells. The response of the prison authorities has been to threaten to throw more inmates into these dungeon-like isolation cells.
The rich and powerful have been waging a fierce struggle against the working class and oppressed communities from which they wring their massive profits. Now, at the seat of American economic power, and in its deepest, darkest dungeons the people are starting to fight back. At their essence these two struggles are about power. Whether the powers of war, racism, and profiteering will control the streets and operate a brutal far-flung complex of repressive institutions. Or whether they will be forced to yield to the power of the popular masses.
The occupation movement continues to grow, and the will of the striking prisoners remains strong. Now is the time to take action, to stimulate and swell the ranks of the struggle against the profit-over-everything, racist, sexist, brutal, and obsolete capitalist system.
Students Against Mass Incarceration remains committed to the struggle against the repressive apparatus that seeks to keep order in the face of class exploitation and racial oppression. We extend our solidarity to those in the streets and in the prisons who continue to fight against austerity and the oppressive police state.
###
About SAMI
SAMI was founded in February 2011 at Howard University. The mission of the organization is to raise awareness about the prison industrial complex, political prisoners, and recidivism. We feel the aforementioned are the fundamental issues of our generation and can only be addressed through radical and militant Black activism linked to previous social movements but revised for a 21st century context.
Contact: 607-339-8188 or stdntsagainstmassincarceration@gmail.com
(SAMI-Howard University
Police State in Action from New York to California
NYPD, CDCR, Use Strong-Arm Tactics against Peoples Movement
The NYPD showed its true colors on October 1st as they faced off with protestors on the Brooklyn Bridge. The demonstration of five-thousand originated from lower Manhattan at the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) encampment, as protestors marched across the bridge to Brooklyn the police trapped, or “kettled,” the march and carried out a mass arrest of over seven-hundred. This followed a week of harassment of the OWS encampment and actions by police. As OWS has drawn from increasingly wider layers of disaffected and exploited people, its clear that NYPD tactics are aimed at stifling the movement.
On Thursday September 29th California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation threatened harsh reprisals against hunger-striking prisoners. At least six thousand California inmates are refusing meals in eight prisons across the state. Inmates are striking for the second time this year over inhumane living conditions, including some inmates being held for decades in windowless cells. The response of the prison authorities has been to threaten to throw more inmates into these dungeon-like isolation cells.
The rich and powerful have been waging a fierce struggle against the working class and oppressed communities from which they wring their massive profits. Now, at the seat of American economic power, and in its deepest, darkest dungeons the people are starting to fight back. At their essence these two struggles are about power. Whether the powers of war, racism, and profiteering will control the streets and operate a brutal far-flung complex of repressive institutions. Or whether they will be forced to yield to the power of the popular masses.
The occupation movement continues to grow, and the will of the striking prisoners remains strong. Now is the time to take action, to stimulate and swell the ranks of the struggle against the profit-over-everything, racist, sexist, brutal, and obsolete capitalist system.
Students Against Mass Incarceration remains committed to the struggle against the repressive apparatus that seeks to keep order in the face of class exploitation and racial oppression. We extend our solidarity to those in the streets and in the prisons who continue to fight against austerity and the oppressive police state.
###
About SAMI
SAMI was founded in February 2011 at Howard University. The mission of the organization is to raise awareness about the prison industrial complex, political prisoners, and recidivism. We feel the aforementioned are the fundamental issues of our generation and can only be addressed through radical and militant Black activism linked to previous social movements but revised for a 21st century context.
Contact: 607-339-8188 or stdntsagainstmassincarceration@gmail.com
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The Racial Roots of Campus Policing
The article originally appeared in the Howard University student newspaper the Hilltop
"Overseer, Overseer, Overseer, Overseer
Officer, Officer, Officer, Officer!
Yeah, officer from overseer
You need a little clarity?
Check the similarity!"
-KRS One, "Sound of Da Police"
On Sept. 16, the Students Against Mass Incarceration (SAMI) held a rally at the flagpole on The Yard in support of
Troy Davis, inviting community members and the media to protest the injustice of the impending execution. Not only was the media barred from campus, but HUPD stated that because the protest was not authorized by the university, the rally could not take place.
When the point was raised that fraternal organizations did not need authorization to do stepping routines on the yard, SAMI was told "that's a tradition." Well, in the militant tradition of Howard student takeovers in 1925, 1968, and 1989 SAMI preceded with the rally, consequences be damned.
Why did the campus police attempt to stop the rally? In an article entitled "The Modern Campus Police" John Sloan shows that contemporary campus police are a response to the student rebellions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Think about it, Black students all over the country were taking over administration buildings and the anti-war movement was in full swing.
Since campus security could not put down these rebellions, the National Guard often had to be called in. At places like Jackson State, South Carolina State, and Kent State some students were even killed in campus rebellions. Therefore, the campus police did their historical and assigned role: putting down any and all potential radical student activity.
Thus, the campus police and the American police force appear to have similar origins and purposes, maintaining "order" and squashing any potential acts of rebellion. Several scholars and commentators have traced the origin of American policing to the slave patrols in the American south. Slave patrols were composed primarily of lower class whites who put down insurrections of enslaved Africans and caught those who attempted to escape enslavement.
Armed with this information, no Black person should be shocked by the over-policing in our communities or by that campus police officer who flies on his Segway to the scene of a student protest, but is mysteriously missing when you need an escort.
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense stated that the role of the police in Black communities is similar to that of an occupying army. The primary purpose of police is to protect property: Howard University, its image, reputation (oh yeah, and you, the student [intellectual property],too). Whether on campus or in the community, understanding that the purpose of the police is primarily one of social control can only serve to enlighten and enhance our inevitable interactions with them as Black youth.
This does not mean that individual Black policeman are our inherent enemies, but the police are an institution. Although individual Black policeman are our potential working class allies, unfortunately, that is not usually the case at Howard, or in the world.
As students, acknowledging and challenging the racial roots and consequences of policing—in all its forms--is an important step towards stopping the trend of criminal injustice in our communities.
"Overseer, Overseer, Overseer, Overseer
Officer, Officer, Officer, Officer!
Yeah, officer from overseer
You need a little clarity?
Check the similarity!"
-KRS One, "Sound of Da Police"
On Sept. 16, the Students Against Mass Incarceration (SAMI) held a rally at the flagpole on The Yard in support of
Troy Davis, inviting community members and the media to protest the injustice of the impending execution. Not only was the media barred from campus, but HUPD stated that because the protest was not authorized by the university, the rally could not take place.
When the point was raised that fraternal organizations did not need authorization to do stepping routines on the yard, SAMI was told "that's a tradition." Well, in the militant tradition of Howard student takeovers in 1925, 1968, and 1989 SAMI preceded with the rally, consequences be damned.
Why did the campus police attempt to stop the rally? In an article entitled "The Modern Campus Police" John Sloan shows that contemporary campus police are a response to the student rebellions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Think about it, Black students all over the country were taking over administration buildings and the anti-war movement was in full swing.
Since campus security could not put down these rebellions, the National Guard often had to be called in. At places like Jackson State, South Carolina State, and Kent State some students were even killed in campus rebellions. Therefore, the campus police did their historical and assigned role: putting down any and all potential radical student activity.
Thus, the campus police and the American police force appear to have similar origins and purposes, maintaining "order" and squashing any potential acts of rebellion. Several scholars and commentators have traced the origin of American policing to the slave patrols in the American south. Slave patrols were composed primarily of lower class whites who put down insurrections of enslaved Africans and caught those who attempted to escape enslavement.
Armed with this information, no Black person should be shocked by the over-policing in our communities or by that campus police officer who flies on his Segway to the scene of a student protest, but is mysteriously missing when you need an escort.
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense stated that the role of the police in Black communities is similar to that of an occupying army. The primary purpose of police is to protect property: Howard University, its image, reputation (oh yeah, and you, the student [intellectual property],too). Whether on campus or in the community, understanding that the purpose of the police is primarily one of social control can only serve to enlighten and enhance our inevitable interactions with them as Black youth.
This does not mean that individual Black policeman are our inherent enemies, but the police are an institution. Although individual Black policeman are our potential working class allies, unfortunately, that is not usually the case at Howard, or in the world.
As students, acknowledging and challenging the racial roots and consequences of policing—in all its forms--is an important step towards stopping the trend of criminal injustice in our communities.
Friday, September 16, 2011
We are Troy Davis
On September 21, 2011, an innocent man could die. That is the execution date that the state of Georgia has set for Troy Anthony Davis. In 1989, Davis was convicted of murdering a white police officer named Mark Allen MacPhail. An off-duty cop, MacPhail was working as a security guard outside of a Burger King, when he was shot multiple times.
Nine people originally stated that they witnessed Davis shoot Macphail but, today, seven witnesses have recanted their testimony. Several now assert they were coerced by local law enforcement. One witness who worked at the Burger King states he cannot read, but was forced to sign a written confession. In addition, there is not one shred of physical evidence--such as a gun--which connects Davis to the crime.
His case has gained international support and calls for clemency from such well-known figures as former United States President Jimmy Carter, anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Georgia Congressman John Lewis, and many more. This is Troy Davis' fourth execution date. Each time the international outcry has been so great that the state of Georgia has issued a stay of execution. This time, however, the Supreme Court has refused to hear his case.
The racist nature of the criminal justice system is hardly a revelation to most black people in America. While Nelson Mandela is now arguably the most celebrated ex-political prisoner in the world, the late Black Panther Party member Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt never experienced such reputation reversal, after spending twenty-seven years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Better yet, maybe someone should ask Sean Bell's young New York widow and fatherless daughters what justice means to them. There are so many examples of the horrors black people have experienced at the hands of the criminal justice system that criminal injustice has become the norm. How many of us, brothers especially, were raised to anticipate and handle interactions with law enforcement? Despite our best efforts, some of us still failed during those encounters. Even more of us know someone who did. Troy Davis was one of those people, and because of it, his life has been hanging in the balance for the last two decades.
As Howard students, it is up to us to stop settling for the status quo. We cannot simply be those parents who raise our children to anticipate injustice. Instead, it is time for us to be the young adults who challenge it.
An International Day of Action has been called for this Friday September 16. Mr. Davis has been saved several times before, and it is up to us to do it again. For our parents and grandparents, for Sean and Geronimo, for every brother and sister we know who has ever been a victim of criminal injustice, for ourselves, and most importantly for our brother, we must stand again and again and say, "We are Troy Davis."
Monday, September 12, 2011
Students Against Mass Incarceration
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Sunday, September 4, 2011
The Capitalist Circle of Life
“The average Black male
Will live a third of his life in a jail cell
Cause the world is controlled by the white male”
“Police State” -Dead Prez
This blog orginally appeared in the Hilltop, Howard University student newspaper
Earlier this year, Wachovia Bank, now Wells Fargo, was fined by the U.S. government for laundering $378 billion in drug money from 2004-2007 to Mexican drug lords. This raises the question: How do other US institutions benefit from the drug trade? The answer to this question has important ramifications for Blacks in the US.
In 1998, Congressman John Conyers submitted A Tangled Web: A History of CIA Complicity in Drug International Trafficking into the Congressional record. Furthermore, according to the Dark Alliance series published in San Jose Mercury News by Gary Webb, in order to fund covert operations in Nicaragua, the CIA assisted the Contras in selling cocaine to street organizations in South Central Los Angeles in the 1980’s.
At the same time, the U.S. passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 & 1988 that established mandatory minimum sentences (MMS), statues that require judges to set a sentence no lower than a predetermined number of years, establishing automatic punishment for drug offenders. Although there is no substantive chemical difference between crack and powder cocaine, in the 1980’s, a mass hysteria developed regarding crack and violence that contributed to the passage of harsher drug laws for the possession of crack than for the possession of cocaine. Because Blacks disproportionately use crack and whites disproportionately use powder cocaine, these drug laws were a major contributor to the explosion in the number of Black people trapped in the clutches of the prison industrial complex (PIC).
As Eric Schlosser asserts, “the PIC is a set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment.” This includes prison management companies such as Corrections Corporation of America and companies that pay prisoners as little as $.25/hour for their labor. Of course, this is all legal because the 13th amendment, which allegedly abolished enslavement, states “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States.” In other words, contradicting article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which outlaws slavery, enslavement is still legal in US prisons.
The passage of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which reduced sentencing disparities for the possession of crack versus powder cocaine, is a step in the right direction, but it is still inadequate.
Once released from prison, returning citizens face numerous obstacles. They can legally face employment discrimination, be denied public housing, and lose access to student loans and voting rights. In her book, The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander argues that returning citizens can legally be treated like a Black person in Alabama in the 1940’s.
The U.S. government helped to introduce drugs into society, passed harsh drug laws, set up a prison industry to profit, over-policed Black communities, and, to top it all off, US banks laundered the drug money. It’s a parasitic, capitalist circle of life.
Will live a third of his life in a jail cell
Cause the world is controlled by the white male”
“Police State” -Dead Prez
This blog orginally appeared in the Hilltop, Howard University student newspaper
Earlier this year, Wachovia Bank, now Wells Fargo, was fined by the U.S. government for laundering $378 billion in drug money from 2004-2007 to Mexican drug lords. This raises the question: How do other US institutions benefit from the drug trade? The answer to this question has important ramifications for Blacks in the US.
In 1998, Congressman John Conyers submitted A Tangled Web: A History of CIA Complicity in Drug International Trafficking into the Congressional record. Furthermore, according to the Dark Alliance series published in San Jose Mercury News by Gary Webb, in order to fund covert operations in Nicaragua, the CIA assisted the Contras in selling cocaine to street organizations in South Central Los Angeles in the 1980’s.
At the same time, the U.S. passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 & 1988 that established mandatory minimum sentences (MMS), statues that require judges to set a sentence no lower than a predetermined number of years, establishing automatic punishment for drug offenders. Although there is no substantive chemical difference between crack and powder cocaine, in the 1980’s, a mass hysteria developed regarding crack and violence that contributed to the passage of harsher drug laws for the possession of crack than for the possession of cocaine. Because Blacks disproportionately use crack and whites disproportionately use powder cocaine, these drug laws were a major contributor to the explosion in the number of Black people trapped in the clutches of the prison industrial complex (PIC).
As Eric Schlosser asserts, “the PIC is a set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment.” This includes prison management companies such as Corrections Corporation of America and companies that pay prisoners as little as $.25/hour for their labor. Of course, this is all legal because the 13th amendment, which allegedly abolished enslavement, states “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States.” In other words, contradicting article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which outlaws slavery, enslavement is still legal in US prisons.
The passage of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which reduced sentencing disparities for the possession of crack versus powder cocaine, is a step in the right direction, but it is still inadequate.
Once released from prison, returning citizens face numerous obstacles. They can legally face employment discrimination, be denied public housing, and lose access to student loans and voting rights. In her book, The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander argues that returning citizens can legally be treated like a Black person in Alabama in the 1940’s.
The U.S. government helped to introduce drugs into society, passed harsh drug laws, set up a prison industry to profit, over-policed Black communities, and, to top it all off, US banks laundered the drug money. It’s a parasitic, capitalist circle of life.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
African Youth on the Move
"All Wi Doin' is Defendin' so get ready for war!"
-Linton Kwesi Johnson “All Wi Doin’ is Defendin”
Once again, African youth are on the move. From the June 23rd movement in Senegal that is challenging the authoritarian policies of President Wade to flash mobs in Philadelphia to anti-government revolts in Malawi to the rebellions of London African youth are at the center of contemporary militant resistance.
Although the UK uprisings are multi-racial in character, the rebellions were ostensibly caused by the murder of Mark Duggan, a 29 year old African father of four, by the police but, in reality, is just one more example of the militant African response to the brutal aspects of global capitalism. According to the IPCC, Mark Duggan did not fire a gun but instead, the bullet said to have been fired by Duggan was police issued.
However, the rebellions in London must be viewed as a continuation of insurrections in the Caribbean and African continent against British enslavement and colonialism. A few examples are Morant Bay (1865), Jamaica (1968), and the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (1950s). The Caribbean psychologist, Frantz Fanon states “violence is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair and inaction; It makes him fearless and restores his self-respect.” Due to the psychological aspects of imperialism, the colonized, in this case “Black Britain”, is made to feel the colonizer is inherently superior or ordained by God to rule, therefore, violence is a means of expressing African agency and humanity.
In The Logic of Black Urban Rebellions Dr. Daryl Harris contends “Black urban rebellion is a tactical response to contemporary forms of White domination and an act in which key core values of the African experience are sustained”. In other words, violent revolt is a legitimate form of resistance that contributes to African progress against police terrorism and economic inequality.
Due to the restructuring of global capitalism over the past forty years, the UK has experienced a marked increase in the level of inequality to the point where today it is the 2nd most unequal country in Europe. At the same as Reaganomics was advanced in the US, Thatcherism was promoted by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the UK. Thatcher believed in the neoliberal ideology of Milton Friedman. The five characteristics of neoliberalism are 1) government deregulation 2) reducing public services 3) trade liberalization 4) privatization and 5) smashing unions. These policies have had devastating consequences for Blacks who are disproportionately poor and working class and employed in the manufacturing and public sector. Of course, oppression breeds resistance and resistance breeds more repression.
According to a report written by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Black people are 15% of the prison population but only 2% of the general population. In other words, Blacks are seven times more likely to be imprisoned than the general population. Then, in 1994 Britain instituted the the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. The act allows the police to search anyone in a designated area without specific grounds for suspicion. Africans are twenty six times more likely to be searched. In addition, since 1998, over 330 people have died in police custody and not one police officer has ever been convicted. These are the conditions led to the rebellion in Brixton (1981), Broadwater Farm (1985), and now, Tottenham (2011).
It must be remembered the revolts are primarily a response not only to the recent global economic crisis and austerity measures but the past forty years of neoliberal global capitalism. Unfortunately, because a process was not put in place to train the next generation of organizers African youth particularly in the UK and US lack a radical ideology similar to the Black Panther Party (in the UK & US).
This deficiency in mentorship can be alleviated by the creation of independent Pan African institutes taught by veterans of the Black Power Movement. The role of the institute is to transmit Left Pan Africanist ideology, strategy, organizing, and other basic skill sets. The students of the institute would then set up freedom schools and day care centers to transmit Left Pan Africanism to the generation behind them. One of the books all African youth should study participating in the institute or not is The Anarchist Cookbook; it has some great recipe’s!
Davies, Caroline. “Deaths in police custody since 1998: 333; officers convicted: none” The Guardian. Friday December 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/03/deaths-police-custody-officers-convicted
Fanon, Frantz. Wretched of the Earth. Grove: New York. 1963.
Fessy, Thomas. “Senegal rapper Thiat rocks President Wade” BBC News. August 4, 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14403302
Harker, John.” For Black Britons, this is not the 80s revisited. It's worse” The Guardian. Thursday August 11, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/11/black-britons-80s-mps-media
Harris, Daryl. The Logic of Black Urban Rebellions: Challenging the Dynamics of White Domination in Miami. London: Praeger. 1999.
James, Winston. “The Black Experience in Twentieth-Century Britain,” in Philip Morgan and Sean Hawkins, eds., The Black Experience and the Empire, Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004).
Ramesh, Randeep. “More black people jailed in England and Wales proportionally than in US” The Guardian. October 11, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/oct/11/black-prison-population-increase-england/print.
Thornburgh, Nathan. “London’s Long Burn.” Time Magazine. August 22, 2011.
Vasagar, Jevan. “Mark Duggan did not shoot at police, says IPCC” The Guardian. August 9, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/mark-duggan-police-ipcc
“July 20 Protest Demands” Malawi Today. http://www.malawitoday.com/news/896-july-20-protesters-demands. July 22, 2011.
-Linton Kwesi Johnson “All Wi Doin’ is Defendin”
Once again, African youth are on the move. From the June 23rd movement in Senegal that is challenging the authoritarian policies of President Wade to flash mobs in Philadelphia to anti-government revolts in Malawi to the rebellions of London African youth are at the center of contemporary militant resistance.
Although the UK uprisings are multi-racial in character, the rebellions were ostensibly caused by the murder of Mark Duggan, a 29 year old African father of four, by the police but, in reality, is just one more example of the militant African response to the brutal aspects of global capitalism. According to the IPCC, Mark Duggan did not fire a gun but instead, the bullet said to have been fired by Duggan was police issued.
However, the rebellions in London must be viewed as a continuation of insurrections in the Caribbean and African continent against British enslavement and colonialism. A few examples are Morant Bay (1865), Jamaica (1968), and the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (1950s). The Caribbean psychologist, Frantz Fanon states “violence is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair and inaction; It makes him fearless and restores his self-respect.” Due to the psychological aspects of imperialism, the colonized, in this case “Black Britain”, is made to feel the colonizer is inherently superior or ordained by God to rule, therefore, violence is a means of expressing African agency and humanity.
In The Logic of Black Urban Rebellions Dr. Daryl Harris contends “Black urban rebellion is a tactical response to contemporary forms of White domination and an act in which key core values of the African experience are sustained”. In other words, violent revolt is a legitimate form of resistance that contributes to African progress against police terrorism and economic inequality.
Due to the restructuring of global capitalism over the past forty years, the UK has experienced a marked increase in the level of inequality to the point where today it is the 2nd most unequal country in Europe. At the same as Reaganomics was advanced in the US, Thatcherism was promoted by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the UK. Thatcher believed in the neoliberal ideology of Milton Friedman. The five characteristics of neoliberalism are 1) government deregulation 2) reducing public services 3) trade liberalization 4) privatization and 5) smashing unions. These policies have had devastating consequences for Blacks who are disproportionately poor and working class and employed in the manufacturing and public sector. Of course, oppression breeds resistance and resistance breeds more repression.
According to a report written by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Black people are 15% of the prison population but only 2% of the general population. In other words, Blacks are seven times more likely to be imprisoned than the general population. Then, in 1994 Britain instituted the the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. The act allows the police to search anyone in a designated area without specific grounds for suspicion. Africans are twenty six times more likely to be searched. In addition, since 1998, over 330 people have died in police custody and not one police officer has ever been convicted. These are the conditions led to the rebellion in Brixton (1981), Broadwater Farm (1985), and now, Tottenham (2011).
It must be remembered the revolts are primarily a response not only to the recent global economic crisis and austerity measures but the past forty years of neoliberal global capitalism. Unfortunately, because a process was not put in place to train the next generation of organizers African youth particularly in the UK and US lack a radical ideology similar to the Black Panther Party (in the UK & US).
This deficiency in mentorship can be alleviated by the creation of independent Pan African institutes taught by veterans of the Black Power Movement. The role of the institute is to transmit Left Pan Africanist ideology, strategy, organizing, and other basic skill sets. The students of the institute would then set up freedom schools and day care centers to transmit Left Pan Africanism to the generation behind them. One of the books all African youth should study participating in the institute or not is The Anarchist Cookbook; it has some great recipe’s!
Davies, Caroline. “Deaths in police custody since 1998: 333; officers convicted: none” The Guardian. Friday December 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/03/deaths-police-custody-officers-convicted
Fanon, Frantz. Wretched of the Earth. Grove: New York. 1963.
Fessy, Thomas. “Senegal rapper Thiat rocks President Wade” BBC News. August 4, 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14403302
Harker, John.” For Black Britons, this is not the 80s revisited. It's worse” The Guardian. Thursday August 11, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/11/black-britons-80s-mps-media
Harris, Daryl. The Logic of Black Urban Rebellions: Challenging the Dynamics of White Domination in Miami. London: Praeger. 1999.
James, Winston. “The Black Experience in Twentieth-Century Britain,” in Philip Morgan and Sean Hawkins, eds., The Black Experience and the Empire, Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004).
Ramesh, Randeep. “More black people jailed in England and Wales proportionally than in US” The Guardian. October 11, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/oct/11/black-prison-population-increase-england/print.
Thornburgh, Nathan. “London’s Long Burn.” Time Magazine. August 22, 2011.
Vasagar, Jevan. “Mark Duggan did not shoot at police, says IPCC” The Guardian. August 9, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/mark-duggan-police-ipcc
“July 20 Protest Demands” Malawi Today. http://www.malawitoday.com/news/896-july-20-protesters-demands. July 22, 2011.
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