Text version of the Militant, a socialist newspaper  
the Militant, a socialist newspaper
about this site directory of local distributors how to subscribe submit a photo or image order bundles of the Militant to sell
news articles editorials columns contact us search view back issues
The Militant this week
IN SPANISH
El Militante
FRONT PAGE ARTICLES
Justice for the Jena 6!
Drop the charges now!

 
Minnesota meat packers rally to defend union
NLRB calls decertification election
 
Jena 6 fight resonates widely
 
Campus meeting on Cuban 5 draws students, others in D.C.
 
White House: Iraq ‘drawdown’ part of long-term troop presence
 
Meat packers union sues ICE over Swift raids
 
Underdevelopment magnifies impact of Indonesia quakes
FEATURE ARTICLES
March on Washington opposes war in Iraq
Record of Militant Fightning Fund
Click here for the record
FORUMS
CALENDAR
EL MILITANTE
SUBMIT LETTER TO THE EDITOR
SUBMIT FORUM
SUBMIT TO CALENDAR

A socialist newsweekly published in the interests of working people
Vol. 71/No. 36      October 1, 2007

 

SPECIAL EVENTS
Click here for Militant Labor Forums or for Calendar Events

(lead article/editorial)
Justice for the Jena 6!
Drop the charges now!
 
The Daily Town Talk/Tia Owens-Powers
July 31 march through Jena, Louisiana, demanded justice for six Black students.

We stand with the thousands marching in Jena, Louisiana, and in solidarity actions across the country on September 20 to demand justice for the Jena Six.

These six Black youths face felony charges with possible decades-long prison terms because they stood up to racists who hung nooses at their high school. Far from an “innocent prank,” nooses are aimed at terrorizing Blacks and anyone else who gets “out of line” in capitalist society. They recall decades of legal and extralegal violence—from Klan lynchings to cop riots.

The harsh prison sentences hanging over the heads of the Six are all too familiar for millions of working people caught up in the capitalist “justice” system. Black men are more than seven times as likely to be imprisoned as whites. Blacks make up 41 percent of the prison population, but just 13 percent of the overall population.

Racism permeates the entire capitalist system. In the workplace, the employers profit from paying Blacks less and forcing them into the dirtiest, most dangerous jobs. This discrimination helps drag down the working conditions of all workers. Bosses foster anti-Black prejudices in an attempt to keep the class divided and to prevent workers from fighting together for better conditions.

But the racist oppression the rulers mete out is only one side of the story. Workers who are Black have a long political record in the United States of playing a leadership role in mass struggles that is disproportionately weighty compared to their numbers in the working class as a whole. This record begins in the closing years of the U.S. Civil War and the postwar battle for Radical Reconstruction, through the battles that built the unions and the industrial labor movement, through antiracist struggles during World War II. The mass civil rights and Black liberation struggles from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s had a social and political impact on the working class and the labor movement that continues to this day.

This legacy is an enormous strength for the working class today, as fights against deteriorating safety conditions, declining wages, and antiunion assaults become more and more pressing. Workers who are Black will be an indispensable component of the fighting political vanguard of the labor movement in the sharpening class battles ahead.

When asked by a reporter in 1965 if he was trying to wake Black people up to their oppression, Malcolm X replied, “No, to their humanity, to their own worth, to their heritage.”

Five decades ago, workers and peasants in Cuba woke up to their humanity. They took political power out of the hands of the exploiters and made a socialist revolution. With that act, they eliminated the material roots of racist oppression. Today, workers and peasants in Cuba have a powerful tool to combat racism—a government that represents the interests of the majority.

As Cuba’s toilers learned, the capitalist rulers will never correct injustice of their own accord. Joining mobilizations in defense of the Jena Six can help expose this frame-up and make the rulers pay a high political price for the blatant racism they foster. Justice for the Jena Six! Drop all the charges now!
 
 
Related articles:
Jena 6 fight resonates widely

Printer logo 
Printer-friendly version of this article


 
 
 
 
Home | Text-version home