Why Black Community Control?
Simply put:
*95 percent of all Philadelphia prisoners are African (English and Spanish speaking)
*The prison system in Pennsylvania and throughout the u.s. has always been an instrument through which the economic exploitation and political repression of black people has occurred and through which treme economic stimulus occurs for the capitalist ruling class and general white population.
*This exploitation and repression has protected the status quo for a political economy rooted in colonialism, the special operation of black people.
Historically the white population has united with the capitalist ruling class, lending endless amounts of support to this colonial political economy, in exchange for material benefits (ie better jobs, housing conditions, education and training facilities, etc).
This ability to sacrifice the interests of the African community for the short term gain for any given sector of the white population is what we call political opportunism the sacrificing of the long term interests of the people for short term selfish gains.
This opportunism has created the basis for the nearly unanimous support for the Democratic party, the police and capitalism as a whole by white people.
The only social force capable of putting forth a thorough, uncompromising criticism of the colonial capitalist system is the African community, which has nothing to gain from white opportunism. White people are incapable of thoroughly criticizing capitalism.
Therefore, in honor of the African community and all the Africans who died and suffer at the hands of this system in ways not even recognized by the u.s. government, we characterize the demand for the elimination of the police budget and the outlawing of capitalist exploitation as the demand of the African community and a control manifestation of black community control.
Black community control means the will of the slave becomes the law. It means an end to slavery, exploitation and police brutality against the masses who want a society in which the wealth produced by the workers is socially controlled by the workers.
Some disagree with the characterization of white neighborhoods or white people as working class, and with the notion that the white community should have any relationship to the institutions we will build through our control of the mayor seat.
We identify the principle of unity as that being opposition to the pigs budget and existence, and we call on white people, white workers, customers, passengers, etc to unite with the true security solution for the African community and the entire population.
What makes our stance non opportunistic is that we:
a. COMPLETELY OPPOSE the police department existence which is the front line army in defense of the material interests of the ruling class and that has only served as an instrument to repress black people.
B. We charge the capitalists to bear the grunt of the expenses associated with running the city. No wage taxes against the WORKERS. tax the capitalist!
Those who find a problem with this stance simultaneously offer up no meaningful strategy to expel the police from society and seize reparations from the ruling class, the strategic enemies of the struggle for socialism.
We do not sacrifice the interests of the black community at all. That shit is jus a tactic of our oppressor and they neo colonial agents.