2006 Black and Brown Unity-An Alliance for Justice and Human Rights

LN
Black and Brown Unity:
An Alliance for Justice
nnf, f,uman Rights
HurricaneKatrinawas a 2lst Centurysnapshotof the
genocldaldirectionof the US government,It exposed
the nealityof US democracyfor worklng classAfrican
AmerlcansanHpeoplesof color.flhere has yet to be a
massiveupsurgethat expressesthe deep outrageof
the Afrlcan AmBrican masses agalnst the US
governmentfor this crime againsthumanlty.
The US governmentcut funding for the upgradingof
GulfCoastleveesthat could havepreventedhundreds
of majority African Americandeaths nnd the massive
'property damageand destructionfrom the flooding
causedby HurricanesKatrina and Rita. YBt it almost
immediatelygrantedfundingfor the consffuctionof a
700 mile long wall along the US-Mexican
border to
prevent lmmigrant Mexicanand Latino workers from
entering into the US to search for work. In otherwordsnno moneyfor leveesto act as "wallsfor life" but
multi millionsfor the buildingof a "wallof death."
The upsurgeamongLatinosthroughoutthe USagainst
the criminalizationand attacks on undocumentedLatino immlgrantsandthe politicaltoneof resistanceit is
setting,must be seenas a direct challengeto the Bush
@
led government and corporate agenda that left
thousands of African Americans to die in the Gulf
Coast. The Reconstructionmovement developingin
the GulfCoastand amongAfricanAmerlcansnationally
must embraceand unite with thls growingmovement
as a call to action for all o[ the oppressedto boldly
resistrepressionand genocide.
The effortsby the USgovernmentand corporatemedia
to dividp African Americans and Latinos are no
acciHent, The system recognizes that African
American-Latino unity would bring about a powerful
working class challengeto the corporate rulers who
super-exploitBlack anH Brpwn labor while denying
both full Hemocratlcrlghts.
arethe mostneOur wagesarethe lowost;our conrmunities
gleotedby local, statoand federalgovernment,
The regions
wherethe majorityof our peoploshavelivodsinoethe founding of the US - in the Southand Southwest, is whereour
peoples a^re most politically subjugated;systematically
disenfranchised
andsufferedthe mostbrutalracisttroatment.
Theuriity of thesetwo oommunities
wouldconstitutea major
political force in this oountryfor humanrights and global
justice,
When Mexico won its independencefrom Spain in
1821, it banned slavery throughout its country.
Thousandsof runaway slavss from the UB went into
Mexico. This set it at odds with the Southern
plantation owners and the US government who
declaredthat white supremacyshould be the law of
the land-promoting "Manifest Destiny" as its
imperialist slogan. Its opposition to slavery was a
factor leading to the US government'sannexaltionof
l/2 of Mexico'scountry.
o
MexicoailowedBlacksto crosstheir border to escape
slavery;African Americansmust support the right of
Mexicanand Latinos to cross the US borHer without
repressionand criminalizationin searchof work and
socialneedsto supporttheir families.
US corporationshave moved hundreHsof companies
to Mexico to exploit cheap labor and. to impose
economic policies on the Mexican governmentlike
NAFIA that has caused massive unemploymentfor
many Mexicanagriculturalworkers and small farmers.
Unemploymentin the North and Miflwest especially
AfricanAmericanworkers due to corporategreed hns
also createda reversemignationback to the South
since 1970.Both migrationsresult from US economic
oppressionof African Americanworkers in the USand
Mexicanworkersin Mexico"
The dispersal of thousands of mainly African
Americansthroughoutthe USfrom the Gulf Coastwas
a racist act using the disasterto carry out a form of
ethnic cleansing-reducinglthe Black majority ln New
Orleansand the Gulf Coast in the interest of white
politlcalrule and corporateproflts. The evacueesatre
experiencinggovernment abuses*forced evictions,
votingrights denieHand racist treatmentfrom FEMA.
The meHia has crimlnalized Hurricane Survivors,
labeling[hem as "rapists", "drug dealers"anH "con
artists" lnvading other people's communities.This
criminalizationis done to hide the abuses of the
government and to try and justify government
repressionagainstpeople insteaHof addressingtheir
poverty and suffering that their corporate policies
helpedto create.
African Americanevacueeshave become internal US
migrantswith an uncertainfuture.
g
largest
and super-exploited
As lthe [wo
nationally
oppressed
populatflons tnside the US, the fait of,African
Arnericans
and Latinos
are connected.
They will be
manipulated
by corporate
Hriven policies
that force
both
jobs"
to
conepete
for
low
wage
making
concessions
to eitl-er grou.p to win their political allegiance;
or they
can becorne
allies
in a common
struggle. Black and. Brorwn unity would. help to expose
the Heep racist nature Df US democracy
and raise the
bar of the stru.ggle against racism among those who
really want radical change.
The struggle
against the US systenr of oppression
is
not a competition
between
the oppressed
to declare
themselves
as ttre leaders of the struggle. The initiative
from any sector of the oppressed
must be seen as an
opening for all of the oppressed
to come forward and
.intetsify
their struggles.
The May 1, 2006 national political strike eind boycott of
jobs and bu.sinesses was a major and historic protest
against US policies
of xenophobfia
that seek to rnake
Latino irnmigrants
a scapegoat for the economic crises
facing US workers,
including
attempts to exploit fears
caused
by
9/ll
promoting
by
undocu.mented
immigratflon
as a possible
avenu.e for "terrorist"
and
thus- a threat to US national
security, It was a call to
action
for people
to boldly
challengp
a government
that crirninalizes
people .for trying to work to support
their farniliesl that would leave its people to die in the
Gulf Coast, and that spends billioni
fof wars to kill and
dominate the world.
May
lst, a day celebrated
by millions
of workers
throughout
the world to express the need for worker
solidarity
in the struggles
for workers
rights
and
human rights. It rnu,st also become a mobilization
that
launches
for building
Black and Brown
.a directlon
unity as a core foundation
for the unity of people of
color and workers.
End Afrlcan
Reronstruction
Aitrerlcan
and Latlno National
oppression:
in the US Gulf Coast and Immigrant
Rights Now!
By Saladin Muhammal 4/la/O6
BWFII P. O- Box 1863 Rocky Mount, NC 27AOz