Whose streets?
Our streets!
By Imani Henry
Tuesday, Aug. 1. It was absolutely exhilarating to take
the streets of Philadelphia and hold them for over two hours.
No permit, no negotiations with the police... If they said
left, we went right, carrying the International Action Center
banners demanding "Not one more lynching," "New trial for
Mumia" and "Justice for Robert Brown and Thomas Jones."
We started with about 40 people on the sidewalk. Soon
there were a few hundred. Larry Holmes was chanting on the
microphone and people just started to join us, taking
placards and chanting with us. Soon we captured the street,
seizing hold of intersections and marching against the flow
of traffic.
At one point we surrounded a group of Republican delegates
boarding a bus. We faced off against riot police and held the
block so they could not move.
We provided support to those courageous young activists
who were locking down buildings and creating blockades, so
the cops could not brutalize them. Other affinity groups used
our march as an escape route, joining up with us for a while,
then running off to get to another blockade site.
It was fortunate that the banners carried such a strong
anti-racist message. The police raided the warehouse holding
the puppets and signs the R2K forces had prepared. We were
able to help by giving the day's activities an open political
expression.
But most of all, everyone saw the march as a victory--a
mobile action that shut down the streets in defiance of
racist repression and the death penalty.
At JFK Blvd. and 15th St., right in front of City Hall,
several of us from the IAC shut down the intersection in the
name of Shaka Sanfoka and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Joined by other
protesters, we battled police on bicycles, whose newest
tactic is to ram their bike wheels and handles into
people.
It took them over an hour to arrest us. Meanwhile,
hundreds of people chanted for the freedom of Mumia.
There's nothing like chanting "Whose streets? Our
streets!" and knowing for a fact that the streets belong to
the people.
Imani Henry is a national co ordinator of Rainbow Flags
for Mumia.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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