Get Out Revolution December 25-January 1, 2007

Updated from 12/22/06

ALERT! - The orientation below has been updated to emphasize some points in going forward for the weekend and through next week.

Further orientation, people should read the cover story in this week's Revolution newspaper (www.revcom.us) as well as the past coverage (including the statement from Carl Dix, http://www.revcom.us/a/072/cdseanbell-en.html, and the local RCP statement from a couple weeks ago, http://www.revcom.us/a/072/RCP-Seanbell-en.html).

This is a SHARP AND IMPORTANT moment - we should all be looking at this whole political terrain and atmosphere from the perspective of taking responsibility for bringing forward repolarization that's favorable for revolution, and putting this to the masses to take responsibility for too, and leading them to do this.

We should continue to fight for the orientation that POLICE BRUTALITY MUST STOP. We should also be learning from people more deeply what they think needs to happen (not just generally, though that's an important discussion to have too, but what kinds of resistance do they think is needed ie neighborhood, city wide marches, walkouts... important to do this "active investigation"), and how they can work to making them happen.

The reprinted poster (backpage of this week's Revolution) is a centerpiece of our plans over the next week. We have gotten out about 1,500 of the 2,000 posters that were printed. People really like the posters but we have not raised the funds to pay back the printing costs. Teams should set financial goals, make plans for reaching those goals and fight through on the plans to reach the goals. We should focus attention at a lot of the businesses and among the masses with whom we've done work - distributing stacks of these posters and the papers, and putting emphasis on raising the funds for both. These should go up in store windows, in apartment windows, doors in housing projects and be passed out at demonstrations. That back poster is a very sharp and powerful visual expression of the epidemic of police murder and many, many people should take up spreading these throughout society.

Also, the plans include everyone taking responsibility for on the spot and close on the heels showings of the Bob Avakian, Revolution DVD and listening sessions of the new 7 talks and Q&A session (www.bobavakian.net). Through this whole process, there should also be growing Revolution distribution and discussion groups. Each team should be setting real goals for these this week.

As well as taking responsibility to assist in giving mass expression to the desire and need for broad resistance and putting forward the demand to STOP POLICE BRUTALITY, we also have a responsibility to bring revolutionary communism straight up into this. And on that basis bringing forward waves of masses of people who are taking up and spreading this.

Read the article in this week's Revolution from Carl Dix (http://www.revcom.us/a/074/religion-en.html) - "Praying Won’t End Injustice - We Need to Understand the World As It Is, and Make Revolution to Change It!" We should take this article, and the spirit of this article, to everyone we're talking to!

When people ask us "What should we be doing right now?" we should be learning what they think, discussing the content and guidance in Revolution newspaper with them (particularly some of the polemics on what's needed and what's not) and an important part of the answer - Revolution newspaper and Bob Avakian's work are critical tools in preparing for revolution and need to be spread broadly, now. They should take this up as a part of all that (check out Some Crucial Points of Revolutionary Orientation, http://rwor.org/a/055/crucialpoints.html - this gets into the importance of raising political and ideological consciousness now).

Each team should get back to all of their contacts in a very timely way right now, and if you get a new contact, they should be followed up with within 24 hours. This is a critical part of moving and growing all this quickly.

Finally, the point isn't "to be in the mix" in some kind of narrow way but to really maximize the righteous mass political outrage and through all that, and in its own right, struggling with people about the problem and the solution to this epidemic of police murder. We should be putting out the challenge very broadly and boldly to check out and get down with the Revolutionary Communist Party and to become an emancipator of humanity.
_____________

Our plans for this week include the following goals for the paper. Teams should review where they are in relationship to meeting the goals for quantity of papers and finances, set new plans, and fight through on those plans.

Harlem 100 - 150
Brooklyn 200
Queens 300 (including Wednesday)
Bronx 100
Thursday Demonstration 400
Youth 350
Shopping Areas (Floating Team) 200

The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade have plans to be at high schools and colllege campuses, in the Bronx, throughout the week, and their newspaper goal is 350. They should keep in mind a need for a sticker in all this (if they meet someone who could design this, or if someone they already know could). They should also be heading up these Revolution contingents at the demonstrations this week, bringing in large numbers of people.

PS Given the Knicks controversy people should be spreading the talk on the NBA from Bob Avakian, The NBA: Marketing The Minstrel Show and Serving the Big Gangsters (www.bobavakian.net) and should be wearing and selling the sports t-shirt (we need more of this, and less of this).

Going Forward from 12/22 - UPDATED ORIENTATION

ALERT! - The orientation below has been updated to emphasize some points in going forward for the weekend and through next week.

Further orientation, people should read the cover story in this week's Revolution newspaper (www.revcom.us) as well as the past coverage (including the statement from Carl Dix, http://www.revcom.us/a/072/cdseanbell-en.html, and the local RCP statement from a couple weeks ago, http://www.revcom.us/a/072/RCP-Seanbell-en.html).

This is a SHARP AND IMPORTANT moment - we should all be looking at this whole political terrain and atmosphere from the perspective of taking responsibility for bringing forward repolarization that's favorable for revolution, and putting this to the masses to take responsibility for too, and leading them to do this.

We should continue to fight for the orientation that THIS MUST STOP. We should also be learning from people more deeply what they think needs to happen (not just generally, though that's an important discussion to have too, but what kinds of resistance do they think is needed ie neighborhood, city wide marches, walkouts... important to do this "active investigation"), and how they can work to making them happen.

The reprinted poster (backpage of this week's Revolution) is a centerpiece of our plans over the next week. We have gotten out about 1,500 of the 2,000 posters that were printed. People really like the posters but we have not raised the funds commensurate with that quantity of posters. Teams should set financial goals, make plans for reaching those goals and fight through on the plans to reach the goals. We should focus attention at a lot of the businesses and among the masses with whom we've done work both - distributing stacks of these posters and the papers, and putting emphasis on raising the funds for both. These should go up in store windows, in apartment windows, doors in housing projects and be passed out at demonstrations. That back poster is a very sharp and powerful visual expression of the epidemic of police murder and many, many people should take up spreading these throughout society.

Also, the plans include everyone taking responsibility for on the spot and close on the heels showings of the Bob Avakian, Revolution DVD and listening sessions of the new 7 talks and Q&A session (www.bobavakian.net). Through this whole process, there should also be growing Revolution distribution and discussion groups. Each team should be setting real goals for these this week.

As well as taking responsibility to assist in giving mass expression to the desire and need for broad resistance and putting forward the demand to STOP POLICE BRUTALITY, we also have a responsibility to bring revolutionary communism straight up into this. And on that basis bringing forward waves of masses of people who are taking up and spreading this.

Read the article in this week's Revolution from Carl Dix (http://www.revcom.us/a/074/religion-en.html) - "Praying Won’t End Injustice - We Need to Understand the World As It Is, and Make Revolution to Change It!" We should take this article, and the spirit of this article, to everyone we're talking to!

When people ask us "What should we be doing right now?" - we should engage people with the guidance in the paper, particularly some of the polemics on what's needed and what's not, and say - This newspaper is a tool for preparing for revolution and need to be spread broadly, now.

The furor around the Knicks is a moment where the Chairman's NBA Talk and the T-shirt are to the point.

Each team should get back to all of their contacts in a very timely way right now, and if you get a new contact, they should be followed up with within 24 hours. This is a critical part of moving and growing all this quickly.

Finally, the point isn't "to be in the mix" in some kind of narrow way but to really maximize the righteous mass political outrage and through all that, and in its own right, struggling with people about the problem and the solution to this epidemic of police murder. We should be putting out the challenge very broadly and boldly to check out and get down with the Revolutionary Communist Party and to become an emancipator of humanity.
_____________

Our plans for this week include the following goals for the paper. Teams should review where they are in relationship to meeting the goals for quantity of papers and finances, set new plans, and fight through on those plans.

Harlem 100 - 150
Brooklyn 200
Queens 300
Bronx 100
Shopping Areas (Floating Team) 200

The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade have plans to be in the Bronx and their newspaper goal is 350. They should keep in mind a need for a sticker in all this (if they meet someone who could design this, or if someone they already know could).

All-Out Effort Needed This Weekend

50 shots. Crisis in Iraq. These things and others continue to develop and sharpen up. Within that, this paper is the only source that is sharply exposing what's happening and why, and the only way it could be solved. This paper is the only one saying this actually has to stop. Everyone should be itching to get out to masses with this paper.

We still need to follow through with the orientation of actively investigating what people think of the paper's analysis of things, and working together with people to figure out the next steps to take, how to bring forward emancipators of humanity, and how to wage the struggles in front of us in ways that contribute to repolarization for revolution. The people we bring forward around this newspaper are the people who will bring forward others, taking bundles of papers to distribute, taking part in arranging showings of the DVD large and small, and more.

And send reports to getoutrevolutionnyc@yahoo.com.

Everyone should figure out how this weekend to get out among the masses with Revolution newspaper. The current and the last issue should be distributed together. They should also be stuffed with flyers for the October 22 Coalition rally in Jamaica on 12/20. Particularly, there are two marches on Saturday responding to the 50 shots that killed Sean Bell and seriously wounded his two friends.

Is there a volunteer to make a second banner saying "Justice for Sean Bell! 50 More Reasons - We Need Revolution"?

The two marches:

1. "Shopping for Justice" march starts at 59th and 5th at noon on Saturday. This has the potential to be large.

2. In Jamaica Queens, the weekly march starting at the memorial on Liverpool Street and 94th Avenue at noon. Last week the march went through the neighborhood, and may do so again.

12/5 - Orientation for Next 2 Weeks and Plan for this week

This is a moment when many people are open to engaging on what kind of world we want to live in and how to get there. Everyone should be read the newspaper carefully and taking direction from it on what needs to be done and how to do that. The paper needs to get out there in a big way, and the Chairman needs to be out there in a big way too. The Chairman and this paper can make a difference in the habits and assumptions people have had all their lives of the way things are and what’s possible. Below are several things that the paper is promoting that should be taken up very broadly.

1. The Party statement. This is a very good statement and many people over the weekend really liked what it was saying on why this keeps happening and the possibility of a revolutionary solution. Many took bundles to distribute. We should continue to get it out broadly. The entire statement was not included in this issue due to space limitation, but should be stuffed in each newspaper. Another 3,000 are being printed and bundles should be put in the hands of masses. It is also on the newspaper web site in its entirety.

2. 50 Reasons To Get Rid of This Rotten System Thru Revolution! - written by Carl Dix. He gets into resistance from a revolutionary perspective, how to get to a rev situation from the the present, what socialist society would look like, as well as communist revolution.

3. The Two Weddings Two Dreams poster on the back page. Teams can enlarge it to use as a poster. A nice one should be taken to the Sean Bell’s memorial shrine. We should encourage people to reproduce it and and get it up. If anyone knows or meets someone (contacts, vendors, entrepreneurs) who would take initiative in making this into a T-shirt, don’t hesitate to begin that process, and send a note to getoutrevolutionnyc@yahoo.com.

4. The DVD by the Chairman. As many people are searching for answers, they have got to meet Chairman Avakian. His video is essential to people meeting him. The questions he addresses are those posed by these times and he answers them as no one else can. The DVD needs to get to people at the protests, and everywhere where people are everyday, ie.., in the barber shops, the community centers, the laundromats, the libraries, the restaruants, the beauty salons, everywhere. There should be showings of it, including on the spot, and people that see it should spread the word to their friends and relatives. Teams should make particular plans to distribute the DVD.

5. "We need less of this and more of this" t-shirts - should definitely should be on the scene when teams go out.

Plans for the next couple weeks

The newspaper and the Chairman’s DVD should get out very broadly. Contacts (including the onces we met last weekend) should be called or e-mailed to join us or get bundles of newspapers, fliers, DVD to distribute or to join teams. Let them know where we’ll be so they can come pick-up their materials, and if they can’t come then, when can they hook up. When e-mailing, the statements and articles from the newspaper should be attached. Aim to sell out each issue of the newspaper, develop new regular readers, get subs, contributions to the newspapers and fliers. Prepare bundles in advance: 10s ($4) and 20s ($8). You can give out 4 bundles of 20s for 80 papers. Masses with little or no income can distribute this paper in the same capacity as a newsstand, keeping part of the $. The banner with the slogan from the party statement was well-received at the Sean Bell's wake/funeral. It would be good for teams to make and take similar banners when going into the neighborhoods. People would get a sense right away what we're saying.

Plans should definitely include getting with people and watch segments of the DVD. Active investigation is essential. Talk to people about why these police murders keep happening by the modern day slave catchers, talk about what they think should be done, and make plans with them then for how they will get to people they know as well as those they don’t yet know with the newspaper and the DVD. Get deeply in the 3 essential questions. We really need to listen to what people are saying. We should be out everywhere in the next couple weeks, but pay particular attention to the neighborhoods, learning from those we meet and unleashing them to get out to others.

The Youth Brigade should make plans to go to both the campuses and the neighborhoods, bringing forward students to go with them to the projects and youth from the projects to the campuses. They should also get student clubs to get bundles of this particular paper for distribution. How are these clubs seeing all that is going on and how are they acting?

Tentative Schedule (Neighorhood teams should make definite plans)

Tuesday:
- call and e-mail all contacts with articles from the paper. Ask them to join the rev contingent at the Dec 6th demo. Give people hook up spots where they can get the newspaper/DVD on other days. Set up DVD showings for the next couple weeks.

Wednesday
- Harlem team - during day
- campuses - day - youth

-4:00 pm - NYC Police Are Out Of Control! City-Wide Protest Demonstration
NYPD Headquarters Demonstration.

Thursday
- day - Harlem team
- day - campuses - youth
- PM - Brooklyn team, including college. Any possibility of a day team at the college?
- afternoon and/or PM - Jamaica - memorial, hospital, neighborhood.

Friday
- after work - Brooklyn team

Saturday
- Jamaica
- Brooklyn, including farmers market
- Harlem
- Spanish paper in Manhattan

Sunday
- Union Square - floating team or store to do table?
- Upper West Side - floating team
- Jackson Heights Spanish newspaper

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Below are a list of events happening in the next week (except for the last one). This was put together quickly, so floating team should decide which of these to go to.

Friday, December 8th

6:30 pm. PUBLIC MEETING >Bloomberg calls it “excessive.” We call it MURDER! Come to a panel discussion featuring: Yusef Salaam, wrongly convicted >and imprisoned in the Central Park jogger case; Margarita Rosario, >founder of Parents Against Police Brutality, whose son Anthony was >killed by the NYPD; and Brian Jones, an activist, teacher and member of >the International Socialist Organization. Juanita Young will also be at this event. St. Mary’s Church, 521 W. 126th (between Broadway and Amsterdam. 1/A/B/C/D to 125th Street). ponsored by the International Socialist Organization

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9

11:00 A.M. Assemble - March 12 NOON. IN MEMORY OF SEAN ELIJAH BELL. They marched for Justice and Change! Join in Solidarity 168th Street, (Between Jamaica and Archer Avenue ). Take F train to 169th Street Station or E train to the Parson Archer Station. NAACP Metropolitan Council of New York City

1:00 – 3:00 PM. New York City Impeachment Forum. Concert Hall Featuring Elizabeth Holtzman, former Congress Member, Cindy Sheehan, co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, Bob Fertik; co-founder of Democrats.com, ImpeachPAC.org and Impreach ForChange.org. This is part of a national weekend of Town Hall Meetings on Impeachment sponsored by Democrats.com, Progressive Democrats of America, and our allies in ImpeachForChange.org. It follows our successful ImpeachForChange kickoff event on Veterans Day in Philadelphia with former Rep. Liz Holtzman and Cindy Sheehan. Sponsored by Democrats.com.

Admission: $10. New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th Street at Central Park West, New York, NY 10023 Phone: 212-874-5210 Fax: 212-595-7258

3:00 PM - NY Historical Society Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery Slavery and its repercussions have provoked compelling responses in the world of visual art. This unique exhibition of forty-four contemporary works on that theme reveals how history and art can spark a powerful conversation. Take the insider tour with co-curators Cynthia R. Copeland or Kathleen Hulser, and discover the fascinating stories of the works created specially for this exhibition.

Full Price Ticket (Non-Members): $15.00 Member Cost: $8.00 Student/Senior/Educator Cost: $10.00

Speaker Bio(s). Co-curator Cynthia R. Copeland is the director of the American Revolution Digital Learning Project, a life-long learning website at www.amrevonline.org, and has been an educator and curator at the New-York Historical Society for over a decade.

Co-Curator Kathleen Hulser has been public historian at the New-York Historical Society since 1999, and has curated such exhibitions as Reading Uncle Tom's Image, Petropolis: A Social History of Urban Animal Companions, and Up on a Roof.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10th

11:00 am. STREET THEATER. Remember how George Bush told us how the terrorists hate us for our freedoms-- and we'd better go shopping or they win? Meet at Triangle Park at Herald's Square, Broadway and 34th Street.

On Sunday, December 10 (International Human Rights Day) JOIN the "Guantanamo detainees" dressed in orange jumpsuits and black hoods are heading into the thick of Macy's holiday shopping.

Sure, Bush's approval rating is down below 30%... and sure, some of our freedoms (like habeas corpus and the rights to a lawyer, not to be tortured, and not to be spied on) have shrunk a bit... but the President would want you to keep your holiday spirits high... and what could be more joyously compatable with George Bush's America than shopping and torture?

We have 100 jumpsuits. This is something anyone can do!

Call or write to sign up now to let us know we can count on you to be there.
1/2/3/4/B/D/F/Q/R/N and PATH trains. Contact Tony: 917-273-8317. email: nyc@worldcantwait.org

"The competing television news images on the morning after Thanksgiving were of the unspeakable carnage in Sadr City — where more than 200 Iraqi civilians were killed by a series of coordinated car bombs — and the long lines of cars filled with holiday shopping zealots that jammed the highway approaches to American malls that had opened for business at midnight...There is something terribly wrong with this juxtaposition of gleeful Americans with fistfuls of dollars storming the department store barricades and the slaughter by the thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, including old people, children and babies. The war was started by the U.S., but most Americans feel absolutely no sense of personal responsibility for it." from "While Iraq Burns"--November 27, 2006, New York Times , by Bob Herbert

"Let us be clear: torture can never be an instrument to fight terror, for torture is an instrument of terror. The prohibition on torture is well established under international law. It is also unambiguous and absolute. It is binding on all States in all territories under their jurisdiction or effective control. It applies in all circumstances, in times of war as in times of peace. Nor is torture permissible when it is called something else: cruel and inhuman treatment is unacceptable and illegal, irrespective of the name we give it." -from the office of the UN General Secretary

1:30 PM. "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers". Ceremonial Hall, New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th Street at Central Park West, New York, NY 10023 Phone: 212-874-5210.

A 52 Minute film followed by a critique of the Iraq Study Group’s Report. Moderator: Muriel Berger.

4:00 PM. TOWN HALL MEETING. Drive Out the Bush Regime! They have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Start impeachment!
Pope Auditorium, Lowenstein Building, Fordham University (Columbus Circle Campus), Corner of 60th Street and Columbus Avenue, Manhattan

If war crimes, legalized torture and crimes against humanity are not reason to impeach, what is?

Featuring:

CINDY SHEEHAN, Co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace
SUNSARA TAYLOR, member of the national advisory board of World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime and writer for Revolution newspaper.
JOHN NICHOLS, Washington, DC correspondent for The Nation and author of The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism.
LYNNE KATES, Shut Down Guantanamo Organizer, Center for Constitutional Rights
CAROLYN HO, mother of Lt. Ehren Watada who is facing jail for refusing orders to go to Iraq

Sponsored by WORLD CAN WAIT, New York City Chapter. Co-sponsors include: National Lawyers Guild, Fordham University Law School Chapter, United for Lt. Watada, Father Luis Barrios, and Iglesia San Romero (list in formation)

For more information contact: 212-969-0772, or nyc@worldcantwait.org or visit www.worldcantwait.org

MONDAY, DECEMBER 11th 2006

6:00 PM,: An Evening with Professor Ward Churchill Hosted by the New School's, Women of Color Organization.

Indiginist Scholar, Activist and Professor Ward Churchill will be making a historic and rare appearance at the New School in lower Manhattan on Monday December 11th. Mr. Churchill will address the ongoing attempts to erase indigenous history in a talk titled "Sterilizing History: The Fabrication of 'Innocent Americans'". Do not miss this historic and groundbreaking evening!

Wollman Hall of The New School 65 West 11th Street, 5th Floor (Enter at 66 West 12th Street, walk through the courtyard into the next building which is 65 W11th street, and take the elevator to the 5th floor)

8:00 PM - 10:00 PM. INAUGURAL RAPHAEL LEMKIN HUMAN RIGHTS AWARDS: TO DO WHAT IS JUST & RIGHT/LA’ASOT TZEDEKAH U’MISHPAT. CONGREGATION RODEPH SHOLOM, 7 WEST 83RD STREET AT CENTRAL PARK WEST, NYC RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS-NORTH AMERICA, the only rabbinic association in North America dedicated to human rights for all, that represents more than 1,000 rabbis of every Jewish denomination across the U.S. and Canada, hosts this gala benefit evening honoring:

• RABBIS DAVID FORMAN, BEN HOLLANDER & DAVID ROSEN, FOUNDERS, RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (Israel);
• B’TSELEM: THE ISRAELI INFORMATION CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES (Executive Director JESSICA MONTELL will accept the award);
• CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS (President MICHAEL RATNER will accept the award).

Noted author, activist and Moment magazine founder LEONARD FEIN will serve as Master of Ceremonies. Special presentations will be made by leading Israeli feminist DR. ALICE SHALVI (Schecter Institute for Jewish Studies, Jerusalem); longtime Jewish advocate RABBI DAVID SAPERSTEIN (Religious Action Center); and attorney, author and former U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN ELIZABETH HOLTZMAN. Acclaimed Klezmer musician ALICIA SVIGALS (formerly of The Klezmatics) will perform.

The Raphael Lemkin awards were named after attorney and tireless human rights activist RAPHAEL LEMKIN (1901-1959) who coined the word “genocide.” The event is taking place in conjunction with RHR-NA’s historic First North American Rabbinic Conference on Judaism & Human Rights that will be held in NYC Dec 10-12. More than 250 rabbis, cantors, rabbinic and cantorial students from every Jewish denomination will participate in the conference.

The Raphael Lemkin Awards are open to the public. Tickets are $150/regular and $75/limited income and available online at www.rhr-na.org.

TUESDAY< DECEMBER 12th

9:00 AM - 4:30 PM First North American Rabbinic Conference on Judaism & Human Rights, UJA-Federation Conference Facility, 130 East 59th Street at Lexington Avenue, NYC

RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS-NORTH AMERICA, the only rabbinic association in North America dedicated to human rights for all and which represents more than 1,000 rabbis of every Jewish denomination across the U.S. and Canada, sponsors the conference.

Among the leading scholars and human rights experts who will present at the conference: Scholar in Residence: Dr. Moshe Halbertal, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Special Guest Scholar: Dr. Alice Shalvi, Schecter Institute for Jewish Studies, Jerusalem Rabbi Saul Berman,Edah (Orthodox) Rabbi Tzvi Blanchard, CLAL (Orthodox) Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (Reconstructionist) Rabbi David Ellenson, Hebrew Union College (Reform) Rabbi Art Green, Hebrew College (Conservative) Rabbi Sue Levi Ellwell, Union of Reform Judaism (Reform) Rabbi Edward Feld, Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Congregation Beth Simchat Torah (Reform) Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun (Renewal) Rabbi Dov Linzer, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Orthodox) Ruth Messinger, American Jewish World Service Michael Posner, Human Rights First Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights Ken Roth, Human Rights Watch Pamela Shifman, UNICEF Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center (Renewal)

Scholars, experts and RHR-NA organizational representatives available for interviews. Bios and photos also available. Limited conference sessions are open to the general public.

5:30-7:30 PM. An Emergency Public Forum to Discuss The shooting death of Sean Bell and its implications for Police-Community Relations, ANOTHER MOTHER'S SON. John Jay College, North Hall Room 1311, 445 W. 59th Street (10th Avenue)

Dear Colleagues and friends,
My heart is very heavy at the killing of yet another young man by the NYPD. Sean Bell's death made the headlines because of the excessive amount of weaponry – 50 bullets. But every year at least 45 innocence people are killed in New York city alone by aggressive policing tactics. And the overwhelming amount of those killed are young men of color. I encourage you to all come to this critical event and bring at least one person with you. Policing Must change in New York, if any of us are to be truly safe. Warmly, tami

Screening the award winning Documentary "Every Mother's Son"

Sponsored by The Center on Race, Crime and Justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Comments and Open Mic from 6:30PM-7:30PM. Comments and Commentary from: Tami Gold, Hunter College

Director of "Every Mother's Son"; Prof. Delores Jones-Brown, John Jay College, Author of "Fatal Profiles: Too Many Tragic Mistakes not Enough Justice"; Prof. Matthew Johnson, John Jay College, Department of Psychology

Let Your Voice Be Heard!!!!! Open and free to the public

7:30 PM. International Tribunal organized by Uhuru Movement, African Poetry Theatre in Jamaica, 646 464 0604

WEDNESDAY< DECEMBER 13, 2006

7 to 9 PM. Community Forum on Solutions to Police Misconduct and Injustice, House of the Lord Church, Speakers: Charles Barron, Esmeralda Simmons (Ctr for Law and Social Justice); Noel Leader (100 Blacks in Law Enforcement), Diop Olugbala (Uhuru Movement)

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14

06:30 PM – NY Historical Society. Frederick Douglass, Lincoln and the Civil War. New York Divided: Lincoln David Blight, Harold Holzer, and James O. Horton will discuss Lincoln, Douglass, and their changing views on liberty, slavery, and American society. The speakers will also explore the meaning of the Civil War and African American participation in the conflict, the personal relationship between the two men, and the significance of that relationship for all Americans. Readings from the writings of Frederick Douglass will be performed by actor Charles Turner.

Full Price Ticket (Non-Members): $15.00 Member Cost: $8.00 Student/Senior/Educator Cost: $10.00

Speaker Bio(s) David Blight is Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University. Harold Holzer, co-chairman of the U.S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, has authored, co-authored, or edited 26 books on Lincoln and the Civil War. James O. Horton is Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History at The George Washington University and co-author of Slavery and the Making of America. Charles Turner is an accomplished actor of the stage and screen who also has taught and directed at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, among others.

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JANUARY, 2007

Wednesday, January 24

6:30 pm. Lawrence Wright: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 Lecture and book signing. Cooper Union, The Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street, at Third Avenue

Lawrence Wright, renowned author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11—a 2006 finalist for the National Book Award—is coming to The Cooper Union to talk about his book as well as reveal his assessment of Al-Qaeda's current activities and what we may expect of them in the future. While interviewing more than 500 people, including Osama bin Laden's best friend in college; a reporter for Al Jazeera, the Arabic news network; and Richard A. Clarke, the former White House counter terrorism chief, Wright's book delves into the history of terrorism and provides a step-by-step recount of the terrorist attacks leading up to and including September 11. Heralded as a "remarkable new book about Al-Qaeda" by the New York Times Book Review (8/1/06), the author's compelling ability to describe events in a larger cultural and political context has made The Looming Tower "one of the best books yet on the history of terrorism," according to Publishers Weekly (11/6/06).

Lawrence Wright is an author, screenwriter and a staff writer for The New Yorker. He is a graduate of Tulane University, in New Orleans, LA, and the American University in Cairo, where he taught English and received an M.A. in applied linguistics.
This lecture is made possible by the Benjamin Menschel Distinguished Lectureship, established with a generous grant from The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.

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Do not keep stacks of papers at your house. We aim to sell out. If you can sell them in a day or so, fine. Otherwise, bring them back to the store so frantic phone calls don’t have to be made to find out who has papers.

Send reports within 2 days of outing.

Statement from RCP NY Branch: JUSTICE FOR SEAN BELL! 50 MORE REASONS -- WE NEED REVOLUTION

JUSTICE FOR SEAN BELL!
50 MORE REASONS --
WE NEED REVOLUTION

What do the police see when they see three young Black and Latino men in a Nissan Altima? A target. Doesn't matter if you have a PhD or work at McDonald's. It doesn't matter if you're doing something desperate to survive or if you are trying to stay off the streets.

Sean Bell was going to marry Nicole Paultre on November 25. They were getting ready to start a life together with their two young children, thinking of moving south, out of the city. Instead, Sean was killed when the police fired a rain of 50 bullets into his car as he and his friends drove away from his bachelor party. It doesn't matter what Sean Bell was doing--he and his friends were Driving While Black. One of the cops who shot into the car emptied his gun and reloaded and kept firing. Sean's two friends who survived, Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, were handcuffed to their hospital beds until outraged visitors intervened.

Why does this keep happening -- in New York and all over the country? Why does it happen with white cops, Black cops, Latino cops? Under white mayors, Black mayors, Latino mayors; with Democratic administrations, Republican administrations? Why does it keep happening -- under "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani who displayed nothing but contempt for Black people when he was the Mayor of New York and is now considered "viable" presidential material, and under the supposedly more "fair-minded" Mayor Bloomberg, who rushed to express "condolences"?

ENOUGH. We don't need condolences and justifications for crimes that are intolerable and inexcusable in the first place. We need this to stop. And there is only one way this will ever be ended for real: revolution. Such a revolution is possible, once the right conditions develop. Once there is a major, qualitative change in the nature of the objective situation, where all of society is in a profound crisis, owing fundamentally to the nature and workings of the system itself -- and along with that there is the emergence of a revolutionary people, numbering in the millions and millions, conscious of the need for revolutionary change and determined to fight for it.

Think about how we got here with our hearts are full of pain. We live under a capitalist system that first flourished in the "new world" of the Americas on the blood of slaves stolen from Africa and Native Americans sent to their deaths in silver mines. Children who didn't work hard enough in the mines had their hands cut off. Slaves who tried to escape had their achilles tendons cut so they couldn't try to walk away again -- but they could still work in the fields.

The blood of slaves flows down into the veins of modern-day global capitalism and imperialism -- joined by the blood of child prostitutes in Thailand and rug-weavers in Asia who never see daylight, joined by the blood of whole families and villages wiped out in Africa for lack of the AIDS drugs locked up by pharmaceutical companies calculating profit and loss balance sheets. Joined by the blood of 100s of 1000s of Iraqis killed in an American war and occupation to remake the world for this global capitalist empire. Bishop Lester Williams, who was going to marry Sean Bell and Nicole Paultre and now is burying Sean, called his death an execution, and said to the New York Times: "It's little Iraq, I'm sorry, especially toward the Blacks in the community. We don't feel protected."

This system is what the police exist to "serve and protect." They are nothing but modern-day slave-catchers for a system of profit based on the exploitation of people here and around the world who have nothing to lose and can only live through selling their work -- when they can get work. The master's whip has been replaced by the NYPD standard issue semi-automatic and they gun people down again and again, until it seems like we can't have any more tears left. This is why this keeps happening, no matter how many Black and Latino cops get hired and no matter how much "diversity training" they get and no matter how "sensitive" the mayor is.

Today, a "leaner and meaner" globalized American empire ships whole factories across the globe to more brutally use people in every corner of the world, and millions of Black people and others who can't be profitably exploited fill the prison growth industry in the US. Right-wing religious fanatics like Pat Robertson and others close to, or in, positions of power, contemplate Biblical punishment for those they consider a "stain" on society. Thousands died in Hurricane Katrina and thousands more were separated from families as they were removed from New Orleans -- not because of a natural disaster but because of a criminal regime. Meanwhile the President can now legally put anyone he decides is an "enemy combatant" in secret prisons, to be tortured, for the rest of their lives.

If you think Black people and those on the bottom of society have always caught hell and it couldn't get any worse, think again. A core of the ruling circles in this country is following the logic of genocide.

But slaves can resist and rebel and rise up. Empires can lose wars and empires can fall. And history has shown that the situation of millions of Black and other oppressed people is like a volcano at the foundation of the US empire. Where will liberation come from? Not from getting on our knees to imaginary gods. We need to start lifting our heads. We need massive political resistance to all the outrages of this system, we need to prepare minds and organize forces politically. This is how the ground would be prepared for a proletarian revolution that would have a serious chance of winning, a revolution with a backbone of millions, of all nationalities, with nothing to lose – a revolution that has an answer to this deeply hated, centuries-old oppression that this system can never have.

Think about what it would be like if the power of a revolutionary state was in the hands of the masses of people, and the state apparatus backed them up in doing away with every remnant of oppression. The people's police would handle any of these situations totally differently from the enforcers in this society. Our Chairman, Bob Avakian, has said that in a revolutionary socialist society, "We would sooner have one of our own people's police killed than go wantonly murder one of the masses. That's what you're supposed to do if you're actually trying to be a servant of the people. You go there and put your own life on the line, rather than just wantonly murder one of the people."

Such a revolution is possible. Many groups of people protest and rebel against things this system does, and these protests and rebellions should be supported and strengthened. Yet only those with nothing to lose but their chains can be the backbone of a struggle to actually overthrow this system and create a new system that will put an end to exploitation and help pave the way to a whole new world.

Such a revolution is possible. There is a political Party that can lead such a struggle, a political Party that speaks and acts for those with nothing to lose but their chains: the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. This party has the vision, the program, the leadership, and the organizational principles to unite those who must be united and enable them to do what must be done.

Such a revolution is possible. All those with a burning desire to see a drastic change for the better; all those who dare to dream and to act to bring about a completely new and better world: Support this Party, join this Party, spread its message and its organized strength, and prepare the ground for a revolutionary rising that has a solid base and a real chance of winning.

Check out the writings and works of Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist party. Read and distribute the RCP's "REVOLUTION" newspaper. Get organized with the revolutionary movement. Become an emancipator of humanity.

The Revolutionary Communist Party * New York Branch * November 29, 2006

Literature of the Revolutionary Communist Party and works of Bob Avakian available at: Revolution Books

revcom.us
bobavakian.net
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Friday:
4 PM. Wake for Sean Bell. Join the Revolution contingent. Meet at 108th Ave and Merrick and go to the church one block away. Take E train to the last stop, then take a cab. See note below for more orientation and details.

7 PM. Funeral for Sean Bell.

Saturday

11 AM. New Black Panther Party is calling for a rallly. Meet at 94th Avenue and Liverpool. Take the D train to Sutphin exit and meet at the shrine for Sean Bell.

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We are sending this out to invite all to take part in a REVOLUTION contingent at the funeral of Sean Bell. This contingent is of people who want to see the real solution of revolution happen at the soonest possible moment. People who read and want to spread Revolution newspaper because this is the lifeline of a revolutionary movement that has to grow, right now. People attracted to the leadership of Bob Avakian, including how he breaks down what a REVOLUTION is all about on his DVD: “Revolution – Why It’s Necessary – Why It’s Possible –What It’s All About”.

This REVOLUTION contingent will group up at 3:30 pm on Friday, 12/1, at the corner of Merrick and 108 Avenue, one block from the church. Anyone who wishes to join later than that can find us outside of the church with our banner. All who agree with what is said below are welcome to join. For more information, call Flaco at (917) 553-4704.

Directions: Sean Bell's funeral is tomorrow, Friday. The wake is from 4 to 7 pm, and the funeral is at 7 pm. It is at the Community Church of Christ in Jamaica, near where 108 Avenue crosses Merrick/167 Street. The nearest train is the E to Jamaica Center - last stop). It would be a long walk from there, so it's probably better to get a cab.

The 7 Talks (and Q&As) referred to are available as MP3 files on www.bobavakian.net. Revolution newspaper website is www.revcom.us.
This will be a somber and serious and determined presence. Not a “newspaper distribution team” (though we will do that as appropriate).

**Appearance and demeanor really matters. DRESS CODE: all black with red armbands. Neat and clean. **

This contingent is for people to represent and spread to others what they are coming to learn and understand is a way forward out of the waking nightmare where people come out of their houses every morning wondering what will happen if they run into the NYPD or some other enforcer -- where these enforcers keep murdering people year after year, in city after city, whether the cops are white, Black, Latino, male, female. Whether the mayors are white, Black, Latino, etc. Whether the administration is Republican or Democrat. And where the military enforcers murder and brutalize people in Iraq and all over the world to extend this American best-of-all-systems. ENOUGH. No more justifications, no more "condolences." We've cried a river of tears and you would think there can't be any left. We need revolution and there is a leadership showing the way, leading people to be ready when the time is right (and only then) and showing how a new society can be way more liberating than even when revolutions held power before.

We need to be going to everyone we know in the neighborhoods, around the youth, on the campuses and asking them: **What are we going to do about this?** Are we going to be with the people right now, in a deeply painful, enraging moment, and bring to them the one hope of getting out of this?

This is what this REVOLUTION contingent is for. It is to convey and bring to people what they need more than anything: a party and a leader that is ready and willing to lead the way out of this, and people should get with this right now. People should take up the newspaper “Revolution” as the lifeline of this revolutionary movement that should grow right now -- right this minute. People should listen to clips of Bob Avakian’s 7 Talks (available at www.bobavakian.net) -- right now. Right this minute and into the night. People will be and should be in the streets after the funeral -- and then they should go sit down and talk, figure out how to spread this revolutionary movement among all the people who hate the way things are, deep down into their bones. NOW.

We will have a banner that says:
JUSTICE FOR SEAN BELL!
50 MORE REASONS--
WE NEED REVOLUTION

On www.bobavakian.net, click on and listen to Q&A no. 9 speaking about Black people and revolution in this country. Be prepared to cue up and listen to this with people wherever you go.

Also check out and use the segment of part 2 of the first talk - “Why We’re In The Situation We’re In Today and What To Do About It – A Thoroughly Rotten System and the Need for Revolution” - on "preliminary transformation" in discussions with people.