I call on all working people and other supporters of democratic rights to unconditionally condemn the cop assault, engineered by the city administration of New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, on demonstrators at the end of the Million Youth March in Harlem on September 5.
At the end of a four-hour rally that was peaceful and disciplined - despite repeated provocations by city cops all day - hundreds of police officers in riot gear stormed the platform immediately after the final speaker's talk. They attacked those on the stage and shut off the sound system as two police helicopters buzzed over the thousands gathered on Malcolm X Boulevard. Giuliani, who ordered the police to end the rally one minute after the permit had expired, claims the cops beat people up in "self-defense."
But the city administration was itching for a confrontation all day, with a virtual military occupation of the center of Harlem. From early that morning 3,000 cops set up multiple metal barricades and closed down nearby subway stations to discourage people from attending. Hundreds, if not thousands, who tried to join the action had to wait for hours and were later herded by the police inside the boxed-in area one-by-one. Some were turned away by cops, being told there was no more room to enter the designated area.
This abusive treatment of the overwhelmingly Black participants - many of them workers and young people - and the police attack at the end reflect the deep hatred and contempt by the ruling class for working people who are Black.
The Giuliani administration did not have much success in its effort to capitalize on the anti-Semitic slurs and race- baiting demagogy of Khallid Muhammad, one of the main organizers, to paint the event as a "hate march."
Thousands turned out for this rally to express their dignity and desire to combat racism and police brutality. Khallid Muhammad's oratory against Jews and other reactionary demagogy was not shared by most working people who took part in the march. It was also many of the veteran residents of Harlem who showed discipline and averted others from falling into the trap of provocation that cops set up repeatedly during the day.
The fact that the rally took place, despite the city administration efforts to ban it, was a blow to Giuliani's attacks on democratic rights. For the rulers of New York City the unsuccessful attempt to shut down this march was a continuation of their attempts to close down space for protest by other working people. That's what the city's Republican and Democratic fathers tried to do with the ban on protests by striking taxi drivers and the police assault on a demonstration of construction workers earlier this year. It's also a reflection of the social polarization that is sharpening as working people - often with Black workers in the vanguard as in the Apollo theater stage workers strike and the telephone workers walkout against Bell Atlantic - resist the bosses' offensive on our living standards and hard-won rights.
The discipline and dignity of the overwhelming majority of those who attended the Million Youth March thwarted the attempts by the authorities to create an incident that would give them an excuse them to shut down the rally. This is another indication of the vanguard role of the Black nationality in defending democratic rights and in the struggle to rid society of the scourge of racism and class exploitation. The cop assault at the end of the rally was a desperate attempt to reverse this victory for democratic rights.
I will use my campaign to join with others in demanding: Drop all charges against organizers of the Million Youth March! Oppose all restrictions by the city administration on democratic rights!