WWP leader speaks at West Coast meetings
In the words of Malcolm X, don't vote for a system of
enslavement
By Gloria La
Riva
San Francisco
Larry Holmes, a national leader of Workers World Party and
an initiator of Millions for Mumia, spoke at several Black
History Month events on the West Coast sponsored by WWP in
mid-February.
In San Francisco on Feb. 10 and in Los Angeles and San
Diego, Holmes focused on the ongoing struggle against the
brutal racism of the U.S. prison-industrial complex, and the
suppression of the African American people's civil rights in
the recent U.S. presidential election.
He opened up talking about the execution of Wanda Jean
Allen, "the first Black woman who was executed in 50 years in
the U.S. "
"The day after the execution you could hardly find a word
about it in the national media. It got maybe two lines in the
Oklahoma newspapers. Here it is, the first Black woman
legally lynched, it was a big outrage.
"You know why it wasn't covered? Let's talk about the
obvious reason. It was a few days before the inauguration and
they didn't want people to be thinking about execution,
because you have Bush as president who is associated with
more executions than anyone else.
"It is hard," said Holmes, "to celebrate Black History
Month with more than 2 million people in U.S. prisons, 35
percent of them African American, with more than 3,600 people
on death row, more than 50 percent of them African American
or Latino, with Mumia Abu-Jamal, our revolutionary brother
still facing death.
"And so this important month that came about as a result
of the struggle against racism and cultural genocide must be
an opportunity to plan the militant struggles that will
liberate all oppressed people," Holmes said.
Holmes gave tribute to the heroic prisoners who engaged in
the biggest prison rebellion in U.S. history, 30 years ago
this year, the Attica rebellion of Sept. 4-9, 1971.
1964 and 2000
He also compared the 2000 presidential elections to 1964
and the searing commentary given by revolutionary leader
Malcolm X in his famous 1964 speech, "The Ballot or the
Bullet."
Holmes said, "What happened in Florida makes me think
about Malcolm X's words. His speech was a polemic against
what happened during the 1964 election. It was in his view a
big effort to scare Black people into voting for Lyndon
Johnson out of fear of [Sen. Barry] Goldwater."
Holmes reminded the audience of Goldwater's blatant
rightwing, racist, warmongering program, and how the
Democrats tried to contrast Johnson. "Malcolm went over who
Johnson was, a downright racist, descendant of slave
masters.
"Malcolm basically said, 'If you vote for him ... then you
vote for a system that perpetuates your enslavement, and you
shouldn't be surprised after you cast your vote, if your
relative is next to get lynched. Voting for Tweedle Dum and
Tweedle Dee is not going to free you.'"
Just days after the Israeli election of Ariel Sharon,
Holmes saluted the Palestinian people who maintain their
struggle in the face of such brutal repression, before and
after the elections there.
"It was good to see the demonstrations in Gaza and West
Bank the day after the elections, where they had both Sharon
and Barak's pictures in a kind of equal sign, like they're
both the same."
Holmes' talk was the basis for much discussion afterwards.
He pointed to the many ways that the Black struggle
continues, against racism, poverty, prisons and the system.
Most heartening was his call for dedicating Black History
Month to Black women in prison, "in fact," he said, "to all
women in prison."
Autumm Beard, a college student and lifelong resident of
Bayview Hunter's Point in the city, emceed the Feb. 10 Black
History Month forum in San Francisco. Beard told the audience
that it was the Black historian, Carter Godwin Woodson, who
put Black history on the map with his designation of "Negro
History Week" in 1926.
Born to former slaves and a coal miner himself in
Kentucky, Woodson was not able to enter high school until he
was 20 years old.
After working in the coal mines and pursuing his
educational dreams, he became Harvard University's second
Black doctoral recipient. Later his organization, the
Association for the Struggle of Negro Life in History
successfully got Black History Month official recognition in
1976.
Beard said, "Before his work, this field of vital history
of African Americans had been largely neglected or distorted
under the control of bourgeois capitalist historians."
Willie Ratcliff, publisher of San Francisco Bay View
newspaper, a prominent African American weekly in the city,
also spoke at the meeting. Ratcliff said that it is
impossible to talk of just racial justice, without also
talking of economic justice, of the right to housing, the
right to a job, food and education.
Significant audiences also attended the public WWP forums
in Los Angeles and San Diego.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS
:: SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page