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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 19, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Protesters demand: "Shut down the CIA!"

By Sharon Black in Baltimore

Braving cold, wet weather, students, youths and community activists descended on the downtown Baltimore federal courthouse Dec. 5 for a city-wide protest. They demanded an end to CIA drug running, and that the CIA be abolished altogether.

Close to a hundred protesters chanted and marched for two hours. They demanded reparations for all communities affected by the crack cocaine epidemic; jobs for young people, not jails; money for schools, education and recreation centers; and an end to racism in sentencing.

All-Peoples Congress youth organizer Nicole Wood said: "The drug epidemic has devastated practically every neighborhood in Baltimore. The recent revelations of CIA involvement in bringing drugs into our communities has angered everyone we have talked to during our campaign.

"There is genuine understanding on a grassroots level that blame for the devastation needs to be directed to those at the top--not only the CIA, but the banks and big business."

Wood was just one of many speakers who discussed the CIA's role abroad as well as at home. Several--including Madison/Morning Neighborhood Association organizer Eric Easton and Bill Goodin of the Universal African-American Peoples Organization--referred to the 1961 CIA murder of Patrice Lumumba of the Congo.

Student representatives from Morgan State University and the Black Student Union of the University of Maryland at Baltimore County spoke. Delegations also came from Towson State University, Sojourner-Douglass College and Coppin College.

DeAngelo White, a student activist from Morgan State University, said: "Youth are mobilizing now because we have been vilified the most by the phony drug war. Now we are turning it around and waging our own struggle against the forces that are really responsible."

Demonstrators cheered when Monica Moorehead, who was Workers World Party's 1996 presidential candidate, said, "This fight is also a battle against capitalism."

Leslie Salgado, a local activist who has spearheaded work in support of Cuba, raised the issue of solidarity with the Nicaraguan people and the African American community here in Baltimore. Baltimore Homeless Union organizer Truxton Sykes spoke of his many years' work as a veteran in exposing the CIA's role.

The All-Peoples Congress had initiated plans for the protest. A broad array of organizations endorsed it. These included the Central American Solidarity Committee, AFSCME Local 1072 President Sally Davies, AFSCME Local 1459 President Pat Brown, Sojourner-Douglass College, the Universal African-American Peoples Organization, Workers World Party, and many local groups.

All-Peoples Congress spokesperson André Powell, who chaired the rally, said: ·Our fight will not end at this protest. The criminal acts of the CIA, the banks and big business will not be swept under the rug.

"We will continue our work here in Baltimore in the communities most affected. Many of our other battles are closely related--whether it's for jobs for youths, workers' rights, or against police killings. We will continue to press our demands."

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