South Africa: Youth in Struggle

From Martin Legassick in South Africa

14 June 2013

Abahlali BaseMjondolo Movement Youth League Press Statement

AbM Youth League: Building Tomorrow's Leaders Today

On June 16 South Africa will be commemorating the youth of 1976 who lost their lives in Soweto struggling for Justice, Freedom and Democracy. Today's youth will be told to obey today's leaders in order that we should show proper respect to those who lost their lives in 1976. But the reality is that what the youth of 1976 struggled for has not been implemented as they have wished.

The beauty of Freedom and Democracy was supposed to be everyone.

Today it is for the rich. Rich people are getting the multi-racial education and the poor still have the third-rate education which back then was known as Bantu Education. Rich people get jobs. They have cars. They have nice houses. They can get married and move on with their lives. They are safe.

This is Freedom to them.

The poor have to survive as we can. We go in circles and not forward.

We live in shacks. We live in shit and fire. We are evicted. We have no safe

and easy transport. The police treat us as criminals. They beat us if we try

to organise. If you are young and poor you are treated as a threat to society

and not as the future of society. Hector Peterson, Chris Hani, Steve Biko and other comrades who died for our Freedom and Democracy did not die for this. We do not respect their sacrifice by accepting that this is Freedom.

For many of the youth it is too painful to face reality. Some people just

enjoy the night clubs and watching movies. For some of the youth night clubs and moves are Freedom. Others are using drugs to cope with the pain of their lives. Some of us have given ourselves the courage to stand together by being together in struggle. With this strength we can see clearly.

The reality is that for us as the youth of the shack dwellers, the youth of

South Africa, the youth who sees beyond the Night Clubs and movies, there is no Democracy and Freedom other than the Democracy and Freedom we create for ourselves in struggle. Freedom and Democracy is not just about voting. It is not about being in nice fancy places. It is about being able to think, and do things for yourself. It is where there is nothing for you without you. It means being able to take responsibility for your own life and your own future. It means building a society in which everyone counts. It means sharing land, wealth and power.

We are the youth of today. We want to continue where Hector Peterson and

others have left from. This is how we should respect their sacrifice Tomorrow is ours so therefore we need to brighten it today. The struggle continues.

As the Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League we will be having our Annual General Meeting in our Movement Head Quarters on 16 June 1976. This will be the time for the youth to choose its own leaders for another year. On June 17 we will be having our Soccer Tournament.

We are Building Tomorrow's Leaders Today!!!

For more information please contact:

Bangeni Gumede: Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League (079 977 1723)

Bandile Mdlalose: Abahlali baseMjondolo General Secretary (071 424 2815)

Mazwi Nzimande: Abahlali bseMjondolo Youth League President (031 304 6420)

http://www.abahlali.org

Sekwanele!

No House! No Land! No Vote!

Everyone Counts 

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The struggle for youth identity and self worth

We are posting this short piece which was submitted by a single mother and reader of the blog. We're sure many young people can relate to it.

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Do you love yourself?  Quite a hard question to answer, huh?  I had always thought that that was the one inquiry in which the answer would be incredibly obvious.  However, I learned through wrestling with my own self-image and esteem that I did not, in fact, know the response to this seemingly simple question.  And it is questionable whether anyone really knows.  However, I will leave that discussion to the experts.  I have realized that it is not such a simple question to answer, and that a person must truly know themselves in order to know the answer.  However, none of this information was ever given to me as I was growing up.

In kindergarten, as every other child, I was taught basic academic and social skills:  reading, writing, sharing, playing with others, and so on.  One basic, essential ability, however, was left out of the mix.  I did not realize until I was about fifteen years old that I did not truly love myself.  I did not even know how to treasure and respect my own self.  Love is one thing that we are never taught.  We are told to love our parents and friends, and that someday we would come to love that “special someone.”  However, no one ever bothered to mention that before you can love anyone else, you must love yourself first and foremost.  I had always believed that because I felt the love of my family members, I was automatically surrounded by love from the inside out.  However, I never even thought about the fact that loving and encouraging family members will not always be present.  I had not even imagined for a second that there would someday be people in my midst who were not there solely to heighten my self-esteem.

           
I came to the conclusion that not being able to find the good within my own self is a debilitating “disease,” because it did not allow me to see the truth.  Due to the lack of confidence and any sense of self-worth, I was left to depend on the value judgments of others to define who I was.  However, between junior and senior high school, I overwent a whirlwind of changes and experiences, all of which have shaped who I am today.

My elementary years predisposed me towards being preoccupied with the idea of personal value as defined by physical appearance and the possession of either a boyfriend of girlfriend.  And since I failed to fulfill those requirements, I truly believed I had nothing to offer.  I felt dejected and useless.  I continued to harbor these feelings of rejection until my mother realized that it was much more than just a phase that I was struggling through.  She began to post signs throughout the house, proclaiming such things as “You are special, April” and “I love you.”  However, the most important thing my mother taught me during that time was to say the phrase “I’m beautiful” everyday in the mirror to myself.  She shared a story of how this simple phrase helped her through one of the most difficult points of her life.  And so I began to repeat that phrase every morning before I trotted off to school; staring at my reflection in the mirror and repeating this phrase over and over again until I believed it.

It took a long time in order for me to even be comfortable saying “I’m beautiful,” after a few months, I really felt sure of myself and confident in the fact that I had much to offer and that physical appearance does NOT determine a person’s value.  I also learned through this ritual that being beautiful is not just a physical detail; being beautiful has everything to do with who I am inside and what I feel about my whole self.  And I carry that ideal now.

In a nut shell, my bouts with my personal self-confidence shaped me in numerous ways so that I now know my strengths and weaknesses, and I have the knowledge that no matter what, I have to believe in myself.  This belief will enable me to achieve the dreams that I have built, and no one can shatter these dreams.  I will succeed with the love I have within myself and the confidence that this love provides.  You are right, Mom, I am special!

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Racial profiling is not the product of someone's imagination

You have to watch this. A young friend of mine, a black youth, once told me how he felt every time he went in to a store. People were always watching him assuming he was up to no good. I used to work in the streets of Oakland with a crew of guys. The foreman might be a Japanese American or a Latino guy, the truck driver was black, I might be the only white guy.  But whenever a member of the public wanted to know what was going on or what was wrong, they invariably came and asked me. I would have to send them over to the foreman.  Even black folks came and asked me.

This is a very powerful video about racial profiling.  The most important thing is that racism is part of the system, it is built in to it, institutionalized.  Dealing with it as an individual problem as opposed to a social one is not enough.  As Malcolm X said, "You can't have capitalism without racism." 

Next time you think a black youth seems to display what seems to be some unwarranted anger or suspicion, give them a little slack in how you deal with it. It's no wonder people go off.

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Suspend Oakland Schools Superintendent Tony Smith

by Jack Gerson

The following leaflet was distributed at today's citywide membership meeting of the Oakland Education Association (OEA -- the Oakland teachers union). It was distributed again at this evening's meeting of the Oakland school board. For those outside the Oakland area, Tony Smith is the schools superintendent (for more details on Smith, see our previous blog post here.) Otherwise, the leaflet speaks for itself -- and it speaks volumes about the ongoing privatization and systematic dismantling of public education.

                                                   Suspend Tony Smith

                                          No More Cover-ups

             No More Victimizing Students, Staff, Community

                   No to Gary Yee as Interim Superintendent

Tony Smith is on the way out. But not soon enough.

Serious charges have been made against Smith, against the school district’s chief lawyer (Jacqueline Minor), and against past and present OUSD police chiefs Peter Sarna and James Williams.  One of the OUSD cops involved in the killing of Raheim Brown, Jonathan Bellusa, says that Smith and Minor tried to coerce him into giving the same version of the shooting as the other cop involved, Barhin Bhatt (who shot and killed Raheim Brown). Bellusa, acknowledging that he ordered the first shots, says the subsequent rounds that killed Brown were unnecessary because Brown was already incapacitated.  Bellusa says that he’s been singled out for retaliation because of this, and because he brought complaints of racist harassment against former OUSD police chief Peter Sarna.

Bellusa’s charges must be taken seriously and investigated transparently, with full community involvement. Did Smith and his legal staff try to manipulate and cover up how Raheim Brown was murdered? Why did Tony Smith want to promote Barhin Bhatt to OUSD police chief after he killed Raheim Brown (only community outrage blocked this)? Why did killer cop Bhatt command the OUSD police invasion of the Lakeview sit-in – tapping away at his gun holster in the presence of children? 

Then there’s the big picture:  the privatization and destruction of Oakland public schools, victimizing low-income areas and especially targeting the black community. We’re all aware of how OUSD was laid low by six years of state takeover: privatizing -- $80 million+ per year in outsourced contracts; downsizing – closing or “redesigning” more than half of Oakland public schools, closing libraries in most middle schools, eliminating electives, shutting down vocational programs, laying off support staff (custodial, clerical, food service, building repair and maintenance, security, …), quadrupling charter school enrollment  while shutting down public schools and driving out  nearly 20,000 public school students,  increasing teacher turnover dramatically,  punishing students for creativity and rebelliousness by focusing on rote learning and obedience enforced by high stakes testing. All low-income areas were hard hit. West Oakland and East Oakland communities were hit hardest.

Tony Smith wasn’t brought in to undo the damage done by the state takeover. No, he was brought in to continue their program, to deepen it, to give it polish and spin with “passionate” rhetoric and claims of his “racial sensitivity.” Spin and hype to cover the ongoing corporate-backed attacks. He is their creature, a creature of the Eli Broads and the Bill Gates. And he made things worse. Tony Smith went after the most vulnerable. He tried to cut early childhood education, and met teacher / staff / community resistance. He tried to cut Special Education, and met even fiercer resistance. But he did succeed in virtually eliminating the Adult education program. When Tony Smith arrived in 2009, Adult Education served 25,000 students. He shut down more than 95% of the program, victimizing the most vulnerable: single mothers, high school dropouts looking for a second chance, and immigrant workers desperate to learn language and customs.

And Smith has brought more charter schools – including semi-private ones. More school shutdowns. More program cuts. Bigger class size.  A high school dropout rate of nearly 50%. The most vulnerable areas, communities and neighborhoods were the hardest hit by the attack on anchors of the communities, their neighborhood public schools and their main source of hope, the hope of a future for their children. Heartless atrocities that can only be explained by a combination of malevolence and incompetence. Even before Smith closed five more elementary schools last June – four predominantly black, one predominantly Latino – young children in largely black Northwest Oakland (North of Macarthur, West of MLK) were being shipped by bus to schools in the far corners of East Oakland (beyond the Coliseum).

And now all hell is breaking loose. YouTube videos are circulating of students fighting students and even of students fighting teachers. We blame Smith, and we blame the board that approved his policies and, at best, turned a blind eye to what was going on. At best.

So we demand a full and transparent inquiry into Sgt. Bellusa’s charges, with full community involvement.

We demand the immediate suspension of all those named, pending the outcome of the investigation: OUSD superintendent Smith, OUSD chief legal counsel Minor, OUSD police chief Williams, Rahim Brown’s killer Bhatt.

We demand that the board not appoint Director Yee – or any other board member – to the superintendent position (be it “acting”, “interim”, or permanent) pending the completion of a full, transparent investigation of the charges.   What has Yee done to stop the blatant racism, class bias and violence embodied in the District police actions and the endless cuts in schools and programs?  Absolutely nothing!

Jack Gerson, OEA retired, former member OEA Executive Board & Bargaining Team
Bob Mandel, OEA retired, former member OEA Executive Board & Bargaining Team
Gerald Smith, former BPP, member Oscar Grant Comm. & Justice for Alan Blueford
Bob Wells, Oakland Adult Education, retired

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Newtown massacre and the debate about gun ownership

As to be expected, the local paper yesterday had yet more extensive coverage of the aftermath of the Newtown CT massacre and the need for gun control, in particular the banning of assault rifles. For the uninitiated, an “assault rifle” is one that is semi-automatic meaning that each time you pull the trigger, the spent cartridge is ejected and another shell enters the chamber while an automatic is a weapon that fires continuously as long as you have the trigger depressed.   It is simple to convert these types of weapons.

Politicians in San Francisco intend to introduce legislation banning hollow point bullets and require anyone buying more than 500 rounds at a time to register their purchase with the police.  The intent is to remove ammo “meant to cause extreme damage” the SF Chronicle reports although it would seem to me if one is forced in to a position to have to point a gun at someone and especially if they had to use it, causing extreme damage would be the intention.  Death is about as extreme as it gets I suppose. It is something no person under normal circumstances would relish doing, including in a war scenario, but war is not what we might consider a “normal” circumstance for most of us, neither should the conditions that some people live under.

“Ammunition specifically designed for law enforcement and the military has no reason to be in our homes and on our streets.”, says SF Mayor Ed Lee.  Knowing that the police are the only armed force in society is very reassuring to the relatives of the28 black youth shot by police in the first three months of 2012 I’m sure; “Of the 28 killed people, 18 were definitely unarmed. 2 probably had firearms, 8 were alleged to have non-lethal weapons.”  One youth shot himself in the head while handcuffed in the back of a police car and after being frisked twice

I lived in East Oakland, a few miles north of here for almost 20 years.  Much of East Oakland is referred to as the “killing zone” due to the homicide rate.  There have been 124 homicides this year according to Chip Johnson who has a regular column in the SF Chronicle.  Johnson laments that despite having no gun store, the city is “awash with guns”, many of them are brought in by dealers who buy them in Nevada and other areas, and cites police department statistics that show there were 530 shootings in the city where humans were the intended targets.  There have been 736 instances so far this year where vehicles or homes were hit and half of all shootings are never investigated according to data.  Many of those who have been moved to action by Newtown consider the tragic deaths of youth in Oakland just the way things are, it’s the normal situation---“just life in Oakland”.  There are no calls for massive state intervention in the form of jobs, education, infrastructure, to end this crisis.  Just the opposite, the cuts we are facing worsen these conditions. And as well intentioned as people may be, candlelight vigils won’t solve things either.

Alongside this report there is one about another innocent bystander in East Oakland shot by a stray bullet and Johnson makes it plain in his column that Oakland, despite California’s “tough gun laws” is proof they’re not working.  Elderly people, young children and babies have also been killed by stray bullets fired in the process of a robbery or internecine wars between various drug gangs. It is indeed tragic.

There is no doubt there is a crisis in US society that is related to homicides, particularly among black youth in the inner cities, most of these deaths are young black males shot by other young black males. The influx of hard drugs, especially crack cocaine in to the inner cities, is considered to have been a major factor in the increased gun violence over the past 20 years.  There are numerous sources that claim the CIA was responsible for the introduction of crack cocaine into the inner cities in this period and the injury and death rate among black males tripled.

But in these very same communities there is an even worse crisis and that is the economic one.  In August 2011 the black youth unemployment rate was 46.5% according to Business Insider.  Some put the unemployment rate in some urban areas as high as 80%. The BLS reported that more than half the black males between the ages of 12 ands 19 were unemployed in 2010.  US society has prison for these young people, prison and drugs. No matter what race religion or color you are, putting this many young people on the streets with nothing g to do and no chance of a job will lead to trouble.

Mass killings like those at Newtown and Columbine are more often than not committed by the children of middle or upper middle class families. Adam Lanza’s father is a GM executive.  We can discuss gun control all we like but there is more afoot here.  Lanza’s family had come apart.  That his mother would have assault rifles and other weapons lying around the house where a son with known emotional issues could lay his hands on them is questionable but of secondary importance. 

I am no expert on family life or human psychology.  But I do know that life in the US is an extremely stressful one.  There is very little security here and when hard times hit, you are very much on your own. The constant reminder that the individual is in control of their destiny overwhelms you.  I often wonder what it must be like to be 20 years old.  We cannot escape the world around us.  We are told we should own this car or have that job, buy those shoes if we want to be respected.  Success is the hedge fund manager, the business owner, the actor or the baseball star.  We must have these things but most of us never will.  If we don’t have them, it’s our fault. And there are no workers here, just watch Hollywood movies, if we are portrayed at all we are non-thinking stupid, beer drinking slobs. Look at the houses people have, the opulence, this is not America.

The pressures of a materialistic, individualistic, winner-take-all society destroy personal relations and family life.  This is true no matter what one’s social position and for the executive types the competition becomes fiercer and fiercer in the race to the top so it’s no wonder the family fragments.  Someone wrote recently that in capitalist society, and we’re in the belly of the beast in the US, alienation, depression and a sense of emptiness are normal reactions.  The US mass media, afraid to show a breast on television glorifies violence as young children watch endless hours of murder and mayhem.  The US military is heavily involved in the design and production of the extremely violent video games our young people play.  They are good training for the hand/eye coordination needed for modern warfare. You’ll be a good drone operator if you can master the video games. One study found that: "70% of nine- to eighteen-year-olds report playing violent M-rated (for Mature players seventeen and older) games."  and that 89% of video games were found to contain some violent content. This is what should be discussed in a serious way. *

The crisis in US society is a result of how society is organized; it is a crisis of capitalism.  The millions of people that have lost their shelter; the millions who have lost all due to medical needs, the disenfranchised youth in the inner cities that have no future but the prison industrial complex that houses more human beings than that of any other country and the thousands of people thrown out of the country’s mental health institutions only to end up homeless---this is what there needs to be a national debate about, followed by action. I have been involved in campaigns for renters’ rights and have been stunned at times by the horrific conditions many of the slumlords’ victims have to endure, many of them single mothers with children.  Let’s talk about that.

In the shadow of the Newtown tragedy, the politicians responsible for this social crisis are now calling for a debate about gun ownership and magazine capacity.  These same politicians have instituted policies domestically eliminating social services that kill and maim more children than tragedies like Newtown.  They have supported a foreign policy that has murdered hundreds of thousands of children in other countries in their defense of US corporations’ profits. Obama cries no tears for Pakistani or Afghani children his drones have wiped out. There are some 18 suicides a day among veterans from what I have read. What causes that, a high capacity clip?

No sensible person opposes serious background checks and other steps to prevent firearms from ending up in the wrong hands. But let’s not let them use the issue of gun ownership to obscure the real cause of the sickness that pervades US society, the crisis of capitalism and their worship of the market.

* http://law.wlu.edu/deptimages/Law%20Review/66-3WhitakerBushmanVideo.pdf

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