Mehserle
shoots Oscar Grant in the back on BART platform
As we marked the anniversary of the uprisings in Oakland that were
sparked by the murder of unarmed Oscar Grant while face down on the
ground by BART(local transit) police, no justice has been served. An
anniversary vigil was held on New Year’s 2010, but the crowds and energy
had dissipated from a year ago. This may have been a result of weed and
video games, but we think it may have been the left wing of white
nationalism who did the most to defuse the resistance.
Anniversary Vigil
The vigil was held at the Fruitvale BART station where Oscar Grant was
shot on New Year’s 2009. Upon my arrival I saw police surveiling the
vigil. I also saw news organizations with their cameras video taping. I
had a rag covering my face partially to keep from being taped by pigs.
The head of security, which was being run by the Nation of Islam (NOI),
approached me and gave me a little trouble. Apparently they thought the
rag on my face symbolized the acts of rebellion that took place last
year in response to the murder and they didn’t want a repeat. If they
were concerned with the security of protesters and not property they
would not facilitate the pigs surveillance efforts.
Later, people met up at the Humanist Hall to continue the vigil for
Oscar Grant. The pigs came sure enough, but what was interesting is that
the same NOI persyn that approached me was hugging the pig “Negotiators”
(which was written in big letters on their jackets) who showed up. This
seemed to indicate a higher level of collusion between event “security”
and the pigs than we saw last year with CAPE running around trying to
keep people from confronting police or any other symbol of wealth and
power. How are people supposed to organize safely in a space openly
infiltrated by police? The same people who shot Oscar Grant in the
back!? If groups like NOI and CAPE don’t keep the pigs out then all they
are doing is serving to pacify the people, not secure them.
The first speaker spoke what I feel to be a criticism of the people
there. A divide and conquer tactic straight out of the government play
book saying that people there had different agendas, as if we weren’t
there to support Oscar Grant and work for change. She criticized others
“agendas” while preaching a pacifist line, and insisting that we be led
by the Oscar Grant family in the fight for justice. By labeling others
lines as “agendas” she tried to delegitimize lines opposed to pacifism,
while pretending her agenda didn’t exist. History has shown that the
oppressor will not loosen their grip without the oppressed rising up in
arms. This was the only significant event we know of to mark the
anniversary and it was dominated by those who saw no need for
fundamental change.
After that, the NOI ministers got up and preached a revolutionary
gospel. One NOI minister made the point that its the gangster or thug
that needs to be organized for revolution and that they will be the ones
to fight and win freedom. On the surface this was the speech that
resonated most with the MIM(Prisons) line, but the NOI and their
offshoots like the New Black Panther Party have been consistently petty
bourgeois in their practice and line since the murder of Malcolm X,
despite rhetoric to attract the lumpen to their ranks.
The rcp=u$a got up and talked about communism and atheism bringing a
pseudo-anti-religious perspective to the debate. They said something
very interesting. They said that we shouldn’t criticize the movements
but just get in there and lead the movement. This makes no sense.
Criticism and self-criticism is at the root of dialectical materialism.
Which is why the rcp=u$a continues to fail to be seen as a viable
vehicle for revolution.
The latest on the case are that the shooter, Johannes Mehserle, has been
charged with murder, but the case has been moved from Oakland to Los
Angeles. Mehserle is out on bail with the support of police unions that
are backing his defense. So far there has been much to see as the case
develops that has exposed the vast injustices of the system, but the
battle to convict Mehserle itself is not so strategically important for
us. The state has much more invested in the outcome of the case. A
conviction would be the first murder conviction against a cop in the
united $tates. A failure to convict could prove problematic for them,
and the reverberations will likely now be in both Oakland and Los
Angeles.
We encourage strategic legal battles as a form of struggle in order to
expose the system and create room for the oppressed to live and
organize. Simultaneously, we are clear that the injustice system is not
fast nor even effective.
Organizational Lessons
What is more important is learning organizing lessons from what happened
around the struggle for justice for Oscar Grant. Two detailed papers
have been well-distributed on the topic. One is by a group of anonymous
anarchist writers, another is by a self-proclaimed “Marxist” group
called Advance the Struggle(A/S), that is focused on uniting the
“working” class. Comically, the rcp=u$a who got up to condemn analysis
and criticism of the movement are outdone here by a group of
self-proclaimed anarchists. Let us begin with the anarchist discussion,
as we largely addressed their line in our
original
article on the riots.
The anarchist piece is mostly a story, and probably the most complete
documentation of what went on those days in January 2009. Both papers
did a thorough critique of the non-profit/reformist coalition turned
police that we touched on last year. The Coalition Against Police
Execution (CAPE) imposed it’s “security” on a large spontaneous
movement. While this was an inappropriate role for them to assume, it
should be noted that CAPE’s organization gave it an advantage over the
disorganized angry crowd. And while the anarchists recognized CAPE
members as their friends in social life and A/S sees them as workers
duped by non-profits funded by imperialism, they were really
representing a clear class position of the petty bourgeoisie. They
served to protect businesses and prevent conflicts with the police as a
matter of principle not a strategy of struggle.
As the anarchists pointed out, riots (can) work. We can’t get free by
rioting, and in many cases riots end in more repression and no gains.
They are not a strategy to be promoted as the anarchists do. But in this
case they put more pressure on the state than hugging pigs, holding
vigils and asking for “police oversight.” What those nights represented
was a budding system of justice outside of the established imperialist
order. Meanwhile, the non-profit/reformist movement did much to pressure
the existing institutions to prosecute Meserhle and reform the policing
system to defuse independent justice. But if we want to stop the
killing, what the oppressed need are their own institutions. An
institution is something that is consistent that we can rely on. Not
something we pray for every day and emerges in an eruption of
undisciplined energy once every 5 years.
The anarchist authors are avowed focoists, claiming that “our actions
create a contagious fever.” But as we said at the time, “nights of Black
youth roving the streets among groups of riot cops, being videotaped and
snatched to prison cannot continue much longer.” And to the anarchists
disappointment, it did not. Power must be built and fought for, it is
not something we can just reach out and grab. We promote a strategy that
depends on deep political understanding among as broad a population as
is sympathetic to revolutionary change. Advance the Struggle agrees with
this, but their assessment of who is sympathetic is stuck in outdated
dogma.
A/S opens their paper, “Justice for Oscar Grant: A Lost Opportunity?”
claiming that the “working class people of Oakland… found an inadequate
set of organizational tools at their disposal.” Who are they talking
about? It’s not “workers” who are being murdered by pigs, it’s oppressed
nation youth. The anarchists at times also fall into this dogmatic
analysis by talking of “those of us who toil in Oakland.” Just because
Oscar Grant had a job doesn’t mean this is a battle between the workers
and the bosses.
The most interesting critique in the A/S piece that we have not seen
elsewhere is regarding the so-called “Revolutionary Communist Party -
USA” (rcp=u$a). Again the main point of A/S is that there was no
vanguard in place to lead the movement for justice for Oscar Grant. Here
they address the rcp=u$a’s lame attempts to play this role. They
correctly criticize the rcp=u$a for setting up the students they
organized to fail, which had the effect of diffusing further militant
organizing among oppressed nation youth because their leaders were in
jail. Their vague, nonexistent, and false political line and failure to
correctly organize for revolution plays an integral part in the
imperialist plan to keep the people disorganized and divided.
As we mentioned last year, the Panthers were a common topic of
discussion as the budding movement faced a leadership void. A/S made
some correct analysis about the way the Panther legacy has been
transformed into a justification for non-profit/charity type organizing.
This is reinforced by founding and leading members who still get a lot
of respect in the Bay Area. The anarchists also provide an elementary
discussion of the Panthers in their paper.
While both groups of authors turn around and condemn nationalism, this
experience demonstrates the need for it. Everyone lamented the lack of
the BPP, the Maoist, Black nationalist vanguard of the late 1960’s.
Today we have the Nation of Islam dominating the role of Black
nationalism. Nationalism is relevant because it is the oppressed nations
that are targeted by police terrorism and concentration camps.
Nation-based organizing is the best path to get us away from the
non-profiteering and the dogmatic “worker”ism that has so clearly
muddied the waters in this period of struggle. The experiences in
Oakland reinforce the Maoist class analysis and the importance for
having one. The petty bourgeoisie has dominated the movement for justice
for Oscar Grant, while white nationalist revolutionaries vie for
influence from the sidelines.
notes:
Justice for Oscar Grant: A Lost Opportunity? by Advance the Struggle.
2009.
Unfinished
Acts: January Rebellions. Oakland, California 2009.