BLM Movement Grows Stronger

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/4744
Date Written:  2016-09-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2016
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21467

The vanguard leadership of the young women who started the Black Lives Movement with the #Blacklivesmatter on Twitter, after the killings of Trayvon Martin in Florida and Michael Brown in Missouri, continues to advance and has led to similar formations in other countries.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

A 10-point program is outlined ranging from the rights of Black youth, immigrants, the LBGT community and an end to mass surveillance of Black communities. It is discussed under a key category: "End the War on Black people."

There are five other broad categories: support for economic reparations; calls for demands to invest in Black communities and divest from forces that oppress Black people; for economic justice, community control and ending Black incarceration; independent Black political power and self-determination.

The detailed platform (available on the website) is the most important independent political action program since the National Black Independent Political Party and Black Power conventions in the 1970s.

It is an organizing tool that takes the movement beyond where it is today and can win broad political support for fundamental change. It does not rely on elections as a Movement even though individual activists may run for office.

Elected Black officials stress working within the system and urge African Americans to join the electoral process. The Black Lives Matters leaders know better. Mass public actions are what bring real change. That's why their ongoing protests against police murders and violence along with the new Platform points the way forward.