Today, July 26, 2013, represents the 60th year anniversary of the historic attack on the Moncada Military Garrison in Santiago de Cuba.  This attack was carried out by young Cuban revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro Ruz, Raul Castro, Juan Almeida, Camilo Cienfugos, and others.  The rebels were attempting to overrun the garrison, secure the arms inside, and use that victory to propel their effort to overthrow the viciously oppressive regime of Fulgencio Batista.  The Bastista dictatorship was hugely unpopular in Cuba because of it's massive corruption, terrorist violence against the populace, and it's firm cooperation with U.S. imperialist interests, including the full access to the island nation by the criminal Mafia crime family. 

The attack against the garrison on 7/26/53 was unsuccessful and most of the rebels were imprisoned.  The movement was reorganized and revitalized two years later in 1955 when dozens of the original participants in the 7/26/53 attack were reunited in a Mexico City jail.  Present for this reorganization effort were the Castro brothers, Almeida, Cienfugos, and an Argentine medical doctor who happened to be thrown into the same jail for participating in protests against U.S. destabilization in Guatemala.  That doctor's name was Ernesto "Che" Guevara.  The band of rebels adopted the Argentine Guevara as a part of their mission and regrouped under the name "The July 26th Movement."  After being underestimated by the Central Intelligence Agency and Mexican Intelligence, the rebels were unceremoniously released where they embarked upon reigniting the revolutionary movement in Cuba.  The group, with Guevara, returned to Santiago de Cuba in 1956.  Only a handful of the 82 rebels imprisoned in Mexico survived the sinking of the Granma ship off the shore of Santiago, but those 11 survivors were able to safely escape into the mountains and initiate their guerilla campaign against the Batista regime.  With a well organized support movement in the urban areas and well disciplined and highly tactical guerilla units operating in the Sierra Maestra mountains, the rebels began to gain success.  On Janurary 1, 1959, the rebels marched successfully into the streets of Havana and since that time, Cuba has fought, and continues to fight to maintain and develop their socialist revolution.

In the contemporary times of 2013 and beyond, where revolution for many people is more of an idealistic concept than a material and historical one, Cuba remains committed to it's developing socialist revolution.  They still have many obstacles to overcome, but they have established a system that successfully and efficiently meets the basic needs for all of it's citizens.  Even those who presently defect from Cuba, like U.S. professional baseball sensation Yasiel Puig, are forced to admit their decision isn't based on lack of resources.  When interviewed, Puig freely admited that he had sufficient food, healthcare, and education in Cuba.  His desire to come to the U.S. had nothing to do with oppression, but everything to do with wanting more material wealth for himself.

Cuba's journey towards socialist construction will require continued advancements in the areas of education so that historically backward ideas and practices like racism, sexism, and homophobia, are wiped out, but in fairness, the Cuban revolution has made strides in these areas that far outrace it's Caribbean contemporaries.  Plus, the socialist model of free quality education is the best way to insure reactionary ideas are gradually and systematically wiped out.  Mariana Castro is the daughter of Raul and Vilma Espin and she is the Director of Sex Education in Cuba.  Her recent very public comments about confronting and eradicating racism, homophobia, and sexism in Cuba are clear examples of this progress.  

Cuba is liberalizing it's policies on revenue development to open up markets and further industrialize the country.  This is a necessary economic strategy since socialism functions most effectively when utilizing the industrial capabilities of a former capitalist system.  There are no rules in socialist development that say you have to do things in any particular order.  Cuba is a former colony and as a result, much of what's happening now is necessary to strengthen socialism in that country.  They are on the right path and they don't need help from moralist "revolutionaries" in North America and Europe.  They also won't be intimidated by terrorist supporting anti-communist hacks on the right.  The truth is the world owes the July 26th Movement revolutionaries a huge thank you for providing a model of resistance for modern day revolutionaries and people committed to justice.

While talking to a very close homeboy comrade from the East Coast, we discussed everthing from neo-colonialism in Africa to the Zimmerman verdict.  At one point in our conversation, he asked me when I had last burned a U.S. flag.  I paused because I realize it has been awhile.  The gap in activity in that area has nothing to do with any shyness or adversion to burning that worthless rag. I've burned dozens of them in my lifetime.  I've burned U.S. flags in front of hundreds of people, at backyard BBQs, on video.  I even burned the flag the funeral home gave me when I buried my father (when your loved one was a veteran, they give you a flag).  I joyfully took that flag, called a bunch of friends and comrades, and we used the occasion to give a proper salute to my dad while burning the stars and stripes that day.  By the way, it should be noted that my dad was no patriotic American.  He was drafted against his will, resistant every second he was in the military, and although he didn't tell me much when I was growing up, he did make it clear to me that joining the U.S. military was not an option.  Anyway, I think you get the point, I have absolutely no respect or attachment to that damn red, white, and blue flag.  In light of the Zimmerman verdict and the exposure of the clear political divide between people who see their interests tied to the U.S. political/economic empire (primarily the white petit bourgeois class with a sprinkling of those of color with the same class interests) and those who see their interests aligned with the masses of people on the planet (most working class people of color and whites, peasants, revolutionary intelligentsia, etc. - to make it easier, I'll refer to those elements in the words of Sekou Ture e.g. the people's class and the anti-people's class) there seems to be strong effort on the part of those in the anti-people's class to characterize African people as violent, irrational, ungrateful, and just an overall burden to the decent (white) folk of the good ol U.S.A.  So, in the context of the red, white, and blue, which if nothing else represents violence, irrationality, disrespect, and the very definition of terrorism, I have a short message for the anti-people's class. 

First, stop trying to pin the violent label on African people.  I don't care how many fake rap videos and movies you have seen, the truth is all, not some, but all of the weapons manufacturers are white people.  In case you didn't know that, I'm talking about Glock, Smith & Wesson, Remington, Ruger, Luger, Dow Chemical, McKesson, McDonald Douglass, etc.  I don't even know one African who has a chemistry set or a reloader machine so how the hell did we become the poster children for violence in this world today?  Who invaded Africa?  Who invaded the Americas?  Who terrorized those peoples?  Who incarcerates more people than anyone in history?  Who killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan for what?  Who's police kill more people than would ever be killed in any so-called terrorist attack?  Who subjugates Africa, the Americas, and most of the world today?  The answer of course is the anti-people's class.  The violence confused elements of the people's class inflicts on eachother is minimal at best compared to the destruction the anti-people's class has reaped on the world and in spite of your continued efforts to highlight our difficulties with one another, the people's class is becoming more and more conscious of it's existence, and it's importance everyday.

Secondly, millions of African people worked in this country for 350 years without receiving a single paycheck and certainly no benefit packages.  The wealth accumulated from that labor established the banking and insurance industries in the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere, as well as providing extensive weatlh to Europe, which are the primary reasons the white Western world has ruled and continues to dominate the political and economic landscape.  All of this while the masses of Africans remain in poverty.  The anti-people's class lives lives with extended opportunity and options due to the privilige created by the racist infrastructure that built and maintains capitalism, but yet the masses of Africans, instead of being boiling mad and working everyday to overthrow this system, still have hope and respect for it, even when it slaps us again in the face as it did with the Zimmerman verdict.  Yet, we are characterized as the ungrateful ones?  You better be grateful we don't burn this damn place all the way down to the ground.

Finally, the only burden today is a Western capitalist system, built and maintained through exploitation, that sucks the blood from the masses of humanity while robbing them of their rightful opportunity to contribute productively to a society that serves their interests and provides support and respect for their children and future generations.

You are goddamn right I burn U.S. flags.  Not just conferderate flags, although I've burned some of them too, but your beloved red, white, and blue, U.S. flag.  I burn the hell out them.  I know that makes the anti-people's class mad, but I care about as much about what you think of me as you care about the interests of the people's class.  Plus, you can't refute my reasons for burning them.  I do so because everything they represent is a slap in the face to my existence as a human being.  While that damn flag represents freedom and justice to anti-people's class partisans everywhere, the people who established this empire all owned my ancestors and participated directly in the exploitation of my people and humanity.  That flag today represents an agenda of domination, lies, and exploitation.  That's why I burn it.  I give training on how to burn your flag to dozens of youth and I'll continue to do so, but this is only in the context of also training them how to educate and organize people.  Burning the flag is only symbolic.  It symbolizes a changing of the political, economic, and social order from one where money is most important to one where people are the priority.  You know, building a larger, stronger, more coherent people's class.  Soon we will advance past symbolism and seize the power we need and deserve.  But, in the meantime we will use all symbolism available to us to wake up people on the right side of history.  So get used to it because it's burn baby burn time!



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The not guilty verdict for George Zimmerman is several hours old now.  Reports are coming in from all over the world of spontaneous demonstrations against the verdict  There are even some sporadic reports of some acts of rebellion.  Tensions are very high.  African people, and all peace loving citizens, are enraged at the prospect that a 17 year old African child could be openly and savagely killed with absolutely no recourse and accountability.  People are frustrated because we've traveled down this road many times before.  Since these feelings we have right now are not new, our rage is supplemented by the ignorant, insensitive, and outright racist attacks against African humanity that we are subjugated to each time something like this happens.  For example, rightwing idiots - from talk radio to television to print media to athletic club hot tubs around the country - are saying things like "he (Trayvon) had no right to be in that neighborhood!"  "Zimmerman was doing his job!"  "There was no evidence to convict Zimmerman!"  These types of ignorant comments are so feebleminded that they almost don't deserve responses, but since a lot of well intentioned, but ignorant, people are subjected to those comments, it's important to refute them.  The facts in this instance are clear.  What happened is a 17 year old African child was walking to the store from his father's house, which was in the same neighborhood.  He was confronted by George Zimmerman and Zimmerman shot and killed him.  That's all any of us who weren't there know for sure.  Now regardless of whatever dishonest white people say about this situation (and their well trained negro lackies as well), anyone reading this knows that if this was your 17 year old son who was murdered, and the same facts laid out above were consistent, you know damn well that you would be yelling from the mountain top that Zimmerman is a murderer.

So since we all know the above, how does this type of thing happen in a so-called civilized society?  Well, the answer is this obviously isn't a civilized society.  We can't ever confuse technology with civilization.  The truth is this is an extremely barbaric society where money is more important than people.  It's a society where African life was introduced to it as property in a system that was maintained for 350 of the 500 years we have existed in large numbers in this hemisphere.  That's 70% of our time spent in this society.  I would argue that the last 150 years, or 30% of our time here, has been spent reinforcing those reactionary values that African life is inferior, or worth less.  So for those barbaric people out there who demonstrate their stupidity by saying things like "white people didn't riot when O.J. was acquitted" the educated response is white people have been rioting against African people with systematic violence for 500 years.  The complete anniliation of the entire town of Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921 by white law enforcement, for no reason whatsover, and the Philadelphia, Penn, police dropping C4 on the entire African community in 1985 in an attack against the peaceful MOVE Organization.  These are just two simple examples of this systematic violence.  We can add in the racist disparity of arrests and sentencing to round out the injustice.  For those of you who are soft in the head, that means African people - men and women - get harsher sentences then whites for the same convictions.  So, there is absolutely no question that the system is just as racist today as it was 300 years ago.  That means the systematic racism is alive and well.  African life has less value.  If you understand that, then you understand why it doesn't matter one bit whether Zimmerman is white, "Hispanic", Ukrainian, or Martian.  You should also understand why  there should be no surprise when something like this happens.  In fact, no one should be shocked or even disappointed by this verdict.  Everything worked exactly as it was designed to work.  The attorneys, both the prosecution and defense, played their roles perfectly.  The judge played her role as expected.  The jury response and decision was 100% predictable and the media did exactly what it's set up to do, spread ignorance, lies, and fortify the foundation of white supremacy in it's messaging.   So if this is the reality, is there a solution and if so, what is it?

The solution can't be continued faith in the capitalist system.  If anything, this verdict is clear and continued proof that as long as African people are disorganized and weak, we lack the power to hold the system accountable to our interests.  That means, in our current state, when things like this happen, the best we can do is hope and pray for justice because we have no means to insure we receive it.  We also can't just continue to say the solution will come from putting our faith in God.  Doing so is tantamount to addressing problems by avoiding them e.g. getting high or drunk.  Whether we get high on drugs, or a fantasy message of hope, there's no difference at the end of the day.  Finally, we can't go out and break windows and set fires.  This type of response may give us some individual sense of power, but it does absolutely nothing to address the problems that create this reality.  It's quite clear what the solution is.  We have to make the decision that until we come together as African people, as peace loving people from all communities, and organize to politically educate our families, friends, co-workers, etc., we can expect more of the same.  Until we build organizational capacity to confront and overturn this racist, capitalist, sexist, power structure, we will forever be grieving, losing, and wondering when our day of justice will come.  Our day will come when we make it come.  So the question everyone has to ask themselves today is what organization do you belong too?  What are you doing to make that organization stronger, committed, and prepared to contribute towards improving these terrible conditions?  How can we empower our communities so that we are no longer forced to rely on racist structures that are designed to oppress us to bring us justice?  We are asking each of you weigh your rage today and think through that critical question.  If you don't do that, then you are not really concerned about what happened to Trayvon Martin or anyone else.  You should simply accept the reality that many more Trayvon's will be killed by racist individuals, confused fools of all races (including other Africans), police, etc.  If we don't know about something then we can't be held accountable to it's consequences, but once we know, then it now becomes our responsibilitty.  We know we can't trust the capitalist system.  We know this.  So our refusal to accept this reality and organize to do something about it places any future blood, wherever it happens, on our hands?  Let's get organized people!  We can address these problems.  Join some organization working for justice!  Let's make the changes we need to make to build for a positive future.  We can't do it as individuals.  We can only do it as organized sectors in all levels of this society.  Are you ready and committed to do more than just get angry and complain?


 

This past Sunday, my special person and I decided to take a drive up to Mt. Hood to the adventure park up there.  She was the driver, in her economy car.  By practice, she's a conservative driver.  She doesn't speed or take any unnecessary chances behind the wheel.  That's why we were both wondering what the deal was when an Oregon State Trooper vehicle pulled up closely behind us on Route 26 East - between the town of Sandy and the forest that gives way to Mt. Hood.  Of course, no sooner did we trade expectations of being pulled over when the lights started flashing.  She immediately pulled off and the patrol car pulled off, partially blocking the right lane.  The officer trudged up towards us on the passenger side of the vehicle where I was seated.  When he got to the window he leaned over, one foot in front of the other, with his rear leg being his gun side.  He looked into the vehicle over his spectacles and under his troooper hat, and blurted out "good afternoon, I'm Officer Negro Piglet!"  Obviously, that's not exactly how he introduced himself, but that's exactly what I heard after "good afternoon" because when I looked at this individual, I saw someone of African descent, about 5 foot 6, and probably 195 lb.  With a very chubby face, his specs sat firmly in place over his pug nose which rested on a thick mustache.  Taking all this in, I can say quite honestly that this man physically resembled a cartoonish version of a pig.  This, coupled with his demeanor, which reeked of short man's complex, made the title of his name used in this post the most natural next thought that came into my mind as he spoke to us. 

After introducing himself, he proceeded to inform us that his reasoning for pulling us over was my partner didn't change over into the fast lane as she passed him, which he huffed, is Oregon law.  Her response was that she hadn't even seen him.  I knew I hadn't seen him, but then I'm sure I had probably dozed off momentarily because I remember a dream about sitting on the street in West Africa eating a yummy plate of plaintains and mangos.  Anyway, his immediate response to my partner's explanation was to tell her in the most haunting fashion that it's her responsibility to know all Oregon driving laws, after which he asked to see her license and registration.  After checking around she realized she had forgot her wallet and license to which he tauntingly replied "that's not good!"  Being as the atmosphere of us being severe criminals who were solely at his mercy had been firmly established, he then proceeded to tell my partner that he has the ability to properly identify her based on asking her questions that only she would know.  Then he ended by telling her that he could take her to jail for driving without a license and if she lied to him he would take her to jail once he confirmed the lie.  For my part, I had a very difficult time looking at this person so I kept my eyes pointed straight ahead, although I couldn't resist rolling them repeatedly at the drama induced statements he was making.  I also couldn't help, but ponder the irony of the situation.  Here was an African man, in the middle of a place where very few Africans existed, talking to persons of color as if they are criminals that need to be put in their place for the outrageous crime of forgetting a license and not moving over a lane on the freeway. 

Look, we fully get it that municipalities are strapped for cash right now.  Banks and major capitalist corporations are continuing to steal all the financial resources for their exploitative agenda while public services suffer.  As a result, we know police are encouraged and even ordered to write tickets as often as possible since that's ready revenue for the public coffers.  Since those coffers pay police salaries, they have incentive to cooperate.  If we make a minor infraction and a cop sees it and his/her eyes go "chi ching" we get that, but save your sorry talkoff.  We are not the scum of the Earth because we missed your minor BS.  Besides, if you have such a strong method of confirming someone's identity when they forget their driver's license (as he made very clear to us) then what's the production in issuing threats to someone lying about their identity?  Wouldn't it be better to take their information, run it through the system, and then if there are discrepancies, you have all the time and power to go into your rant about people being lower than roaches and rats for lying to you. 

What's the point here?  The point is the condescending way in which we were talked to illustrates why the vast majority of law abiding working people, of all nationalities, despise police and have absolutely no trust in them.  People aren't stupid.  We know it's highly unlikely that a rich white couple is talked too in the exact same manner when stopped.  In fact, it's highly unlikely that such a couple is even stopped, regardless of what they do.  I see plenty of people like that speeding past me all the time, yet I rarely see them pulled over and statistics bear out that they are much less likely to be pulled over, even when they should be.  And, for all of you nazi police apologists, don't waste your time responding about how difficult a job the police have.  Most of that difficulty they generate themselves by this type of systematic  behavior, or don't you see the necessity for them to take personal responsibility and make the right decisions and stop prejudging and criminalizing everyone?

It's completely reasonable to me that I should not be expected to humanize and respect anyone who doesn't do the same for me.  Therefore, when I'm talked to in that fashion, as I have been by police of every erk for decades, then you better believe I'm going to do the same to them - thus my characterization of Officer Negro Piglet.  There he is, sitting by the side of the road, engaging in the most basic and low level behavior, just like his human contemporaries who sell out their people to represent this system and just like his animal relatives in the trough.