Revolution Books received this email:

April 5, Thursday 7 pm meeting to update on developments and make further plans for April 19th facebook your friends http://www.facebook.com/events/336266843087061/ http://twitter.com/stolenliveschi    This country imprisons more people than any other country on the planet. On Thursday, April 19th, everyone who is concerned about injustice must join in saying─ NO TO MASS INCARCERATION ─in a loud voice. There must be rallies and demonstrations in cities across the country. College and high school students must hold teach in's and other actions on their campuses. There need be cultural events held on that day. The architects and enforcers of mass incarceration must be challenged over the inhumanity of the policies they are inflicting on society.   A lot of important work has been done on this front. Michelle Alexander and others have done a lot of exposure of the horrors of mass incarceration. Prisoners, activists and others concerned about injustice, including a number of prominent have been involved in building resistance to this problem. It is crucial that this resistance be taken to higher level─NOW.    We must do this because: 2.4 million people, 60% of them Black or Latino, are held in prisons across the US. Racial profiling practiced by police and courts serves as a pipeline to these horrific numbers. People in prison are subjected to torture-like conditions. The formerly incarcerated face discrimination, even after they've served their sentences.     We must do this now because in this very political time─with the presidential elections heading into full swing─the horror of racially targeted mass incarceration is being hardly mentioned. And when it does come up, it is raised only to call for even harsher measures. Only our independent mass action can puncture this atmosphere─putting this injustice forcefully before society and challenging everyone who is concerned about justice to take a stand. IN CHICAGO CONTACT:   oct22.chicago@yahoo.com 312-933-9586 STOP MASS INCARCERATION NETWORK 866-841-9139  ext-2670 STOPMASSINCARCERATION@YMAIL.COM http://stolenliveschi.blogspot.com/ http://twitter.com/stolenliveschi

March 31,  Saturday 7 pm 

Trayvon Martin, Mass Incarceration, and the Need for Revolution 

A Presentation By Clyde Young at Revolution Books

  

2.4 million people most of them                                

Black and Latino in prison!

Racial profiling a pipline to prison

for generations of our youth

 
Former prisoners discriminated against on virtually every front.

 

 

Clyde Young says;

"all this comes down to a slow genocide which could easily accelerate", Young breaks all this down and speaks to where things are headed if action is not taken. Listen to Young discuss "what kind of revolution is needed to eliminate mass incarceration and all the brutality and misery this capitalist system enforces on humanity once and for all".

Clyde Young is a Revolutionary Communist and a former prisoner. He served time in juvenile facilities as a teen. His transformation from a life of crime to a revolutionary, while serving a 20-year prison sentence for armed robbery, is discussed in an interview in The Bandana Republic: A Literary Anthology by Gang Members & Their Affiliates (Soft Skull Press, 2008) Clyde Young has written articles supporting the two prison hunger strikes in 2011--these hunger strikes involved thousands of prisoners. He is currently working to expand the Stop Mass Incarceration--Were Better Than That Network, a network that includes such prominent figures as Carl Dix, Cornel West, and Herb Boyd.                                                                                                                                           

Read the recent Revolution Newspaper article
"A Modern American Lynching"

Listen to Carl Dix speak to Mass Incarceration+Silence =Genocide 

Join and build for Raising

The Fight to Stop Mass Incarceration to a New Level

April 19  A National Day of Action  

 

On the Murder of Trayvon Martin by RCP

On the Murder of Trayvon Martin 

Statement by the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

On February 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin went out to buy some snacks at the nearby 7-Eleven. George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain in a small gated community in Sanford, Florida, was driving around in his SUV.

  

Zimmerman called 911, saying Martin looked "real suspicious"--i.e., he was a young Black male, walking around in a hoodie. After the 911 dispatcher told Zimmerman not to pursue the youth, Zimmerman followed Trayvon Martin, got out of his car and then confronted Martin. Zimmerman was carrying a 9-millimeter handgun. Trayvon Martin was carrying a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea. There was yelling, then a gunshot. Trayvon Martin lay face down in the grass with a fatal bullet wound to the chest. Zimmerman was taken into custody, questioned and released. To this day, he has not been arrested and charged with any crime.

It is very good and very important that people, not only in Sanford, Florida, but all over the country, are outraged by the murder of Trayvon Martin and are making their outrage known in many different and creative forms of protest. It is also important that, in connection with the murder of Trayvon Martin, the memory of Emmett Till--wantonly murdered by white supremacists decades ago--is being raised to express the fact that people have seen this go on for far too long and will not stand by to see it happen yet again.

At the same time, the fact that yet another Emmett Till moment can arise--that yet another outrage of this kind can take place--today, more than 50 years after the original Emmett Till lynching, and that this murder of Trayvon Martin is not an isolated incident but only the latest of an endless chain of such acts that are perpetrated, condoned and covered up by the powers-that-be, shows very powerfully that, this time around, we must not settle for anything less than stopping this, once and for all--we must build a movement to really and finally put an end to these and countless other outrages that spew forth from this system, by sweeping away this system through revolution. This is deadly serious and we must take this up very seriously.

Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

March 23, 2012

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Copy and post this statement all over the web. Print and distribute it broadly, including at the movie lines for The Hunger Games and posting where appropriate. Link to it online at  revcom.us. Download  PDF of statement for printing.

 

* * * *

Watch "They're Selling Postcards of the Hanging" from a film of a talk by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the RCP,USA. Listen, download, repost and spread everywhere!

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Three Strikes...

      by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

Color PDF - 11x17
Color JPG for posting on web
Black and white - 11x17

Read Revolution newspaper online at revcom.us.

Justice for Trayvon Martin - Protest today (Saturday March 24) Noon, Daley Plaza.

Contact Revolution Books to join us in taking out the above statement and

Revolution newspaper to protests, movie theaters, churches and schools.

   

Monday, March 26, 7 pm, at Revolution Books 

Meeting to build for April 19 National Day of Action to Stop Mass Incarceration. 

Sunday, March 25 at 4pm  

The Cultural Revolution in China...Art & Culture...Dissent & Ferment

...and Carrying Forward the Revolution Toward Communism

Join us for the second discussion of an article by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party on the Cultural Revolution in China (which lasted from the mid 60s to the mid 70s when China was a genuine socialist country).  This article, based on an interview of Avakian by Michael Slate, goes deeply into the complex situation and problems which were facing the Chinese Revolution, and how by launching the Cultural Revolution Mao broke with the Soviet model in order to address these challenges. The article takes up the aims, methods and contradictions of this cultural revolution including on questions of the role of art and artists, as well as the struggle in society in general during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
Read the article here 

Read in Spanish
Or listen to the interview here   

DATE CHANGED TO TUESDAY MARCH 27, 7pm
Join us at Revolution Books, 1103 N. Ashland

Monday, March 26, 7 pm

to build for the April 19 National Day of Action to  

Stop Mass Incarceration

Revolution Books received the following announcement: 

RAISING THE FIGHT TO STOP MASS INCARCERATION TO A NEW LEVEL

April 19 National Day of Action

P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station, New York, New York 10002 * 866-841-9139 x2670  email: stopmassincarceration@ymail.com  

 Friends,               

The past months have seen important advances to develop resistance to mass incarceration. There has been further work done to expose the horrific injustice that mass incarceration inflicts on so many in society. Organizations fighting this battle have come into existence and some of those that already existed have grown and developed. It is important to note the activity that has developed among students around mass incarceration. And there have been important examples of determined mass resistance to this problem. Especially important have been the several hunger strikes by prisoners in California's Special Housing Units (and the statements of support for the strikers issued by prominent voices of conscience) and the civil disobedience campaign in New York aimed at stopping "stop & frisk."

But much more needs to be done. When it comes to mass incarceration, the reality in U.S. society remains horrific:

• More than 2.4 million people, most of them Black or Latino, remain warehoused in prisons across the country;
• Black and Latino youth are treated like criminals by the police and the criminal justice system, guilty until proven innocent, if they can survive their encounters with police to prove their innocence;
• Former prisoners wear badges of shame and dishonor even after they serve their sentences-discriminated against when applying for jobs, denied access to government assistance, not allowed in public housing, denied the right to vote.

On top of this is the plain fact that many people in the country still don't know about this ugly reality and most of those who do know about it feel it is the result of criminal activity by those in prison and that it helps to keep them safe from crime.

THIS IS NOT TRUE! MASS INCARCERATION RESULTS FROM THE SYSTEM HAVING CRIMINALIZED GENERATIONS OF YOUTH!  WE HAVE THE FACTS TO MAKE THE CASE ON THIS. AND WE MUST STEP UP OUR EFFORTS TO DO THAT!

There is great urgency to do this. As the presidential election approaches and the terms of debate around what issues are to be discussed in determining the future direction of the country get set, mass incarceration isn't being mentioned as a problem by any of the major candidates-not by Obama and not by any of the Republicans vying to challenge him. On the contrary, we are getting the kind of ugly racism that goes with and reinforces the whole program of mass incarceration... and conciliation with that racism. This must be transformed. Mass incarceration, what leads to it and its consequences have to become something that people across the country are aware of and feel compelled to take a stand against. And many more of them need to join the resistance to it. Only our efforts can make that happen!

To advance our efforts to do just this, we propose:

• A day of national action in April. On this day, demonstrations, rallies, teach-ins, and other actions would be held focusing on bringing out the reality of mass incarceration and calling on people to join the resistance to it would be held in cities across the U.S. These actions need to draw in many different institutions-especially schools and churches-and different sections of people in society. A special focus of this activity should be college campuses and high schools.

• A national conference drawing together the forces working to build resistance to mass incarceration. Such a conference could bring together organizations and individuals working on different fronts of this battle; discuss and debate the cause of and solution to this outrage; develop a comprehensive approach to this battle and a plan of action going into the fall. THIS CONFERENCE SHOULD AIM AT NOTHING LESS THAN RADICALLY CHANGING THE NATIONAL TERMS OF DISCUSSION ON THIS.

• A statement of conscience that sharply and concisely lays out the harsh and unjust reality that mass incarceration inflicts on millions. This statement would be circulated for signature among prominent voices of conscience, published in various significant publications and publicized nationwide.

• A major concert or other cultural event opposing mass incarceration, featuring a broad spectrum of artists.

We urge people to respond to this proposal, including with additional ideas for how to advance this fight in this critical time period.

Signees (in formation):

Gbenga Akinnagbe, Actor
Rafael Angulo, Professor of Social Work, USC
Nellie Bailey, Occupy Harlem
Kendra Castaneda, Prisoner Human Rights Activist with a family member in CA State Prison Segregation Unit
Solomon Comissiong, Executive Director, Your World News Media Collective (http://www.blogger.com/)
Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist, co-initiator of Campaign to Stop "Stop and Frisk"
Kelley Lytle Hernandez, Professor of History, UCLA
Robin DG Kelley, Distinguished Professor of History, UCLA
Wayne Kramer, Jail Guitar Doors USA, Co-Founder
Sarah Kunstler, Esq., National Lawyers Guild NYC*
Rev. Janet Gollery McKeithen (Unity Methodist Clergy), President, Methodist Federation for Social Action, Cal-Pac
Mary Ratcliff, Editor, San Francisco Bay View Black National Newspaper
Cornel West, author and educator, co-initiator of Campaign to Stop "Stop and Frisk"
Clyde Young, Revolutionary Communist, and former prisoner

March 12, 2012

*For Identification Purposes Only.

 

Friday Night  Movies at Revolution Books For International Women's Month  Fundraiser for Revolution Books-Donation All donations go for Revolution Books to have tables at Printers Row, the Green Festival and spring concerts.   March 30 - If These Walls Could Talk - 7:00pm If These Walls Could Talk is a 1996 made for television movie, broadcast on HBO. It follows the plights of three different women and their experiences with abortion. Each of the three stories takes place in the same house, 22 years apart: 1952, 1974, and 1996. The women's experiences in each vignette are designed to demonstrate the popular views of society on the issue in each of the given decades.   April 6th - Good Friday Special  - Magdalena Sisters - 7:00pm Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.

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CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY  March 10, Saturday   Watch & Spread this Talk -- STOP THE WAR ON WOMEN!!!! From the Expanding Porn Industry to the Aggressive Religious Patriarchs -- End the Enslavement and Degradation of Women! http://sunsara.blogspot.com/  http://vimeo.com/37949703        Thursday March 8, 6:30 - Prepare for Saturday's IWD march and rally -  make banners and signs, eat Pizza at Revolution Books 1103 N. Ashland Ave, Chicago Saturday, March 10, 12 noon.  Rally and March - Gather at the Marilyn Monroe Statute, Pioneer Plaza 401 N.Michigan Ave. March to Holy Name Catholic Church at N. State and Superior

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Out of Denial and into the Streets  

International Women's Day 2012 

 Saturday March 10 at 12 noon

Join Us-Protest- Speak Out!

Bring your Outrage! 

 Our voices must be heard

12 noon - Gather and rally at the Marilyn Monroe statue

Pioneer Plaza 401 N. Michigan Ave

12:30 - March to Holy Name Cathedral N. State and Superior   

• End Pornography and Patriarchy:The Enslavement and Degradation of Women!
• Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!   

The Marilyn Monroe statue concentrates how women are personified as sex objects.  The degradation of women is mainstream and in the public square.  The statue has become a place for men to snap pictures of her crotch, leering at her underpants and exposed backside. It is sexual voyeurism and is part of the enslavement of women.

 

"At the same time (the Catholic Church) and Christian fundamentalist-driven assault is imperiling abortion, birth control, real sex education and women's lives. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people who do not conform to traditional patriarchal gender and sexual norms are demonized and threatened. Abortion doctors are killed. Women who seek abortions-or even birth control-are stigmatized. 2011 saw the largest spate of legal restrictions on abortion since Roe v. Wade in 1973."

 

We are told that "equality for women has been won" and that "there are no limits to what girls can achieve." BULLSHIT!

Every 15 seconds a woman is beaten. Every day three to four women are killed by their partners. One out of four female college students will be raped or sexually assaulted while in college.

In recent years, pornography has become increasingly violent, cruel, degrading towards women; women are referred to as "cumdumpsters" and "fuckbuckets"; the "money shot" (ejaculation in a woman's face) is standard; humiliating cruelty-like violent "ass-to-mouth" penetration-is normalized, and racist bigotry is sexualized. Meanwhile, the broader culture has been pornified: pole dancing is taught at gyms, "sexting" is a national phenomenon among teens and the strip club is the accepted backdrop to "male bonding." All this is tied in with, and reinforces, the trafficking of millions of women and girls as literal chattel in the international sex industry.

This is NOT society becoming more comfortable with sex. This is society becoming saturated with the sexualized degradation of women. If you can't imagine sex without porn, you're fucked.(read more)

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