Taking the message to the people

Workers World Party and the International Action Center were both present at the Millions More Movement rally on Oct. 15 in Washington, D.C. One of their missions was to hand out flyers about the Dec. 1 Day of Absence, which will mark the 50th anniversary of the day our sister in the struggle, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat to a white man.

Millions More Movement rally, Oct. 15.

People not only accepted and welcomed this flyer and expressed solidarity with this call, but many families asked for more copies so that they could take them back to their children’s schools. Some educators said they would discuss this in their classrooms. Childcare providers began to explain the chain of events in Montgomery to their little ones who were just beginning to read. Overall the response was incredible. We gave out tens of thousands of these flyers. I am sure that people will remember us as they deal with the sorrow of the passing of Rosa Parks.

In addition to handing out newspapers and Dec. 1 flyers, the main mission was to educate and organize. We were camped out on the sidelines of the rally with a banner that read “Smash Capital ism & National Oppression.” This is a beautiful, colorful banner that has Malcolm X and Harriet Tubman on one side and Sojourn er Truth and Fred Hampton on the other, along with the red, black and green Black Liberation flag. As we all know, the MMM rally drew hundreds of thousands of people. Hundreds stopped to take pictures under that banner. At times there was a line of people waiting to take a picture with friends and family under our banner.

We began to wonder if people were just interested in the colorful banner or if they were also in agreement with what the banner read. This brings me to this one incident that confirmed that people were reading what this banner said. There was a group of about 13 youth of African descent. They all huddled under the banner for a group photo. One youth stood back and read the banner and said, “I am for smashing national oppression, but I ain’t against capitalism.” Carl Muhammad heard this young man make this statement. One of the youth tried to persuade his friend, “Come on man, just take the picture.” His friend responded again, “No man, I am not against capitalism.” At that point Carl said to the young brother, “What you don’t understand is that capitalism created national oppression.”

Carl began a class right there. The youth gathered around as Carl explained, “Capi talism is the root of all of the problems that the poor, workers, and people of color in this country face daily. Look at the clothes you wear, the jewelry that you have on, the food that you eat and the house you live in. We, as workers, produced all of these things yet we don’t own the means of producing any of it. That in and of itself is a form of oppression.” This discussion went on for at least a half an hour and it was all positive, all good. We began to hear from the same young man responses like, “Man, I didn’t know that,” and “I need to check that out.”

This is the kind of organization and education that needs to be taking place nationwide. We all agree that our youth are being denied the education that will involve them in the struggle for true peace and justice in this country. This youth took a stand based on the information that he had, and Carl gave him some truth and started the process of turning him around. Carl set an example of how we need to take our message to the streets.

Gloria Verdieu
San Diego