Savant on Baltimore

Already there are some young Black people who say "We need to bring back the BLack Panthers." These youngsters in their late teens or early 20 weren't even BORN then. But it is the legend of the Panthers, and their symbolism of militant resistance, that they seem to have in mind." This shit ain't going away. If the cops walk there will hell to pay. You may recall what I said to you when you were in Baltimore back in 2010. I spoke of the pent up anger within the Black community--especia lly among the dispossessed masses of our black poor and working class. You may remember in that published interview of me that you read, that an interviewer asked whether I thought the riots such as happened in Baltimore after King was killed, and in many other cities that same year (1968) and earlier, could happen again. I recall now that it was a Zimbabwean woman from Balt Univ, who asked that question. I told her that I wasn't looking forward to this, but it was certainly possible because the same conditions exist (or have gotten worse) for the MASS of my people as existed then. I said that Baltimore and most other cities powder kegs. That the elites, black and white (and others), are sitting on social dynamite and don't even seem to notice. Well the dynamite exploded. Duh....how long have we been warning of this? Well there are a lot of activity this weekend. They include at least one meeting of people seeking to organize this discontent in ways which will make the resistance more effective than the futile outbreaks of rock and bottle throwing and the smashing of windows. For as I told one colleague and comrade: Rebellion doesn't need justification, but rather EDUCATION and organization. We must become more organized, more politically sophisticated, MORE (not less) militant, and (as Dr. King even argued) to contest "the whole order of society.

-Savant
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A black cop can (and sometimes do) racially profile other black people. There are white racist Negroes with pretty much the same white racist frame of mind as we find in among the most reactionary bigots. Some are so eager to be accepted as part of the club that they are even WORSE than the white cops. And those Black and Latin cops who try to move against the grain, who speak out, are severely punished. It's the entire police system. As some the protesting groups here in Baltimore are now saying, we had to rid ourselves of the entire system. Black, Latin and poor communities (including whites) are continually subject to police abuse, police terror. We have come to the point, as some protestors are saying, when we will simply have to DISMANTLE the police, and replace them with a force subject the democratic control of the communities in which they work. When the protests against police terror began nearly a year ago, I was saying that while an admirable nonviolent discipline has been maintained, it is not guaranteed to persist indefinitely. The riots in Baltimore are just a warning sign. For those of us who regard those youngsters as our younger brothers and sisters (not thugs and criminals), our effort must be to organize and educate. I do not say to the disinherited youth of our ghettoes "Don't be angry, and don't rebel." Indeed, I say that " It is natural to be angry at injustice; and that there is something mentally and morally wrong with those who are not angry. It is RIGHT to rebel, and that it is those woo are not in rebellion, or are even in collaboration, who ought to explain themselves. But sporadic outbreaks such as this is not the way to effectively wage a struggle of liberation. You must become politically educated and organized." What both the peaceful demonstrations ---and they have been 99% despite the media sensationalistic focusing on incidents--and the violent out break indicate is that we're entering an era in which oppositional movements on the scale of the 1930s and 1960s are becoming possible again. The mood of the masses is changing

-Savant

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I am prouder than ever of my community here in Baltimore. To see my people rally for justice in numbers not seen since the 1960s (when I was a child), to also large numbers of others rallying to our cause---whites, Latinos, Asians, Jews, Arabs, and innumerable others--indicates to me that we CAN build a must just society than we have, that we can be better than we are. What's important is that while Baltimore now in the national limelight, it is part of a larger movement addressing a larger problem. Very importantly, many people are pointing out the police terrorism is only part of the picture. It is part of a larger shameful portrait of structural racist oppression and economic exploitation. It is all of piece in the same system that can give us a forest or prisons while shutting down schools; a system that can vastly expand mass incarceration but not education. A system of gentrification in which the police, as the armed enforcers of the status quo, essentially defend a system no only of racism, but of class privilege, a system of rapidly ballooning divisions between haves and have not. Given the deeply rooted racism of American society, and given that a disproportionate part of the have-nots are black and brown, the police, whose job is to defend the privileged against the rest of us, must necessarily inflict---at least for now--the bulk of the brutality on our community. It has been noted by a number of people who've spoken at rallies here in Baltimore how quickly the National Guard and even police from other states and cities were deployed to defend PROPERTY in our cities compared to the slowness or inability of such responses when it is a question of the needs of ordinary human beings. Too bad the people of New Orleans during the Katrina disaster couldn't received such swift aid as is available when property is threatened. At any rate, I think we can prevail. We must keep up our energies. And as our people are now in motion, we must organize this popular insurgent energy.

-Savant

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Direct your complaints to the white corporate elite who created this mess, and the corrupt Negro bourgeoisie of the AA political class who collaborated with them to gentrify our city, destroy manufacturing jobs, and offer mass incarceration to our youth instead of jobs and education. How about tourism? I tell you what: COME to Baltimore (and carefully conceal your white arrogance), and talk to some of the people in the West Baltimore ghetto where Freddy grew up, or the East Baltimore ghettoes where I grew up and talk to THEM about tourism. Property value? That's about the ONLY thing that is valued in capitalist America. I've said numerous times in this an other threads---and more importantly in REAL TIME to some of my angry young brothers in the streets of Baltimore--that this sporadic violence, this looting and battling with rocks armed pigs with military weapons, is NOT the way to advance the struggle for liberation. Only I make it clear to them--unlike the white racists and Negro reactionaries who see 15 and 16 years old kids as thugs an criminals--that their lives DO matter, and matter far more than the property which arouses so much concern. I emphasize ORGANIZED resistance, and political education. My attitude, like the attitudes of Dr. King and the Panthers--who also were against rioting, but not organized struggle---is that one human life is worth more than all the gold of Fort Knox. But it s property which the police and national guard are primarily designed to defend. Rioting is the outcry of the powerless, or as Dr. King said somewhere the language or "voice of the unheard." You ask who will compensate those who have suffered losses, and I take it you mean the property holders. The smaller enterprises certainly have my sympathy. The larger ones have insurance and government aid. But who will compensate for the HUMAN LOSSES of the masses of the people in this city? Who will compensate for the lives destroyed by this system, indeed this fascistic police system with its pervasive racist barbarism? Who will compensate the losses of the disinherited and dispossessed---the very people whom Dr. King lovingly described as the "disinherited children of God"---but white racist and Negro elite opportunists and reactionaries alike call "thugs and criminals."? Who will compensate them for generations of losses? And what are a few looted stores compared to their LOOTED LIVES? The very manner in which reactionaries (and now I include many liberals as well as conservatives) is itself part of the problem. As for me, I will stand with the disinherited and the dispossessed

-Savant

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Aujourd'hui, La Lutte continue Aujourd'hui, je va au manifestation des "historically black colleges and universities" (HBCU) a 10 heures, ce matin. Nous marchon au Memorial Plaza. This is exhausting, but who care? Justice calls us forth!

-Savant


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