Vote in 'CHOICE 681 MILITANT See Page 4 Published in the Interest of the Working People Built/ the Student Strike! Vol
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE Vote in 'CHOICE 681 MILITANT See page 4 Published in the Interest of the Working People Built/ the Student Strike! Vol. 32 - No. 17 Monday, April 22, 1968 Price 10¢ -See page 5 :::JIIIIlllllllllllllllllllllllllll!tllllllllllltllllllllllllllllllllllltlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll\lllllllllll!!lllllll!llllllll!llllllllll!llllllllliiiiiiii!JII!!IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!III~ Join the April 2 7 Morell! -See page 4 ~ - ~ By Elizabeth Barnes APRIL 16 - One of the largest of the 125 ghetto rebellions that followed the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King took place in the nation's capital. This week I had the opportunity to talk with Joe Miles, a 19-year-old black militant from Washington, D.C., who told me what it was like during the angry, massive, three-day protest there. Washington was one of the first cities to explode and Joe Miles witnessed some of the first incidents. He told me that immediately after Dr. King was killed on Thursday he walked down to 14th and U Streets in the center of the ghetto. The crowds that gathered there expressed shock and sadness over the assas sination. But then, as time passed, the sadness turned to anger. Entire Sections in Flames "First I heard that a brick had been thrown through a win dow, and then a fire began to bum in a pawnshop," Miles said. ''The rebellion had begun." Although the revolt on Thursday night tended to stay in that one area, Miles said that by Friday, as he walked around, he could see entire sections of Washington in flames, "especially the three major business areas around 7th, H and 14th Streets where black people have been robbed and exploited for years." Miles said the smoke around the Capitol was so thick he could only see the floodlights. "The White House was surrounded by federal troops," he added. "As orange-colored flames hit the sky behind the Capitol I noticed a machine gun post being set up on the steps." No Guilt Feelings About Expropriations On Friday, after participating in a rally at Howard Univer sity, Miles went down to 7th street, one of the major business areas in the black community, to see what was going on. He said there were crowds of people in the street, some of them carrying expropriated merchandise from the stores. "Nobody had any guilt feelings about it," Miles said. "People felt this was owed to them by the store owners who rob the black community every day of the year.'' Referring to the general mood as one of "black unity," Miles described how almost everyone he passed would express this by saying, "Peace Brother," or "What's happening, Brother," or other phrases. One brother exclaimed, "It's great to be black!" Miles described how the whole community was involved in the expropriation of goods. People who were strangers to each other cooperated in taking goods they needed and piling them into carts, cars, shopping bags, etc. "There were women, teenage girls, kids - it was spontaneous, it just seemed to happen," Miles said. "No one even talked about outside agitators, or anything like that. It would have seemed too ridiculous." Free Ice Cream for Children In the middle of the whole thing he saw a guy who had somehow gotten hold of a cop's helmet and whistle. He was in the middle of the street directing traffic with all kinds of elab- orate motions. · On another occasion, after black people took over High's ice cream place, a long line of kids waited their turn outside the store, as a man dished out free ice cream. When I asked about any resentment in the community because of the fires, Miles said that as far as he could tell only a small percentage of the buildings burned were people's homes, and in most cases these were above storefronts. ROUGH GOING. Unidentified GI is comforted by comrade after breaking down under strain of But, he added, "Of course there were negative reactions to combat. Scene occurred during battle near Pleiku, an area that has been site of fierce battles the rebellions - but these were in a minority. The majority of with liberation forces. With prospects of negotiation Gis will be under even greater strain. They black people were favorable to the events of the weekend." now have added strain of realizing they are risking their lives in a war that U.S. may be compelled According to Miles many people seemed to regard the out to give up on. Gis will certainly be among those who will be most insistent in demanding that gov (Continued on Page 6) ernment not stall on negotiating a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam. Page Two THE MILITANT Monday, April 22, 1968 Fiiilefalantl Oak/anti Rally Honor Slain Panther Leader According to an April 10 dis· all Bell Systems and the Western patch in the Wan Street Journal, Electric Company (manufacturers By Jeff Rozier reimprisonment, but Bobby Seale a tentative agreement in the Mem and installers of central office announced that the motorcade phis sanitation workers' strike is OAKLAND, Calif. - More than telephone equipment). 1,500 people gathered at Lake was called off. "We have word near-the "only item still to be Ben S. Gilmer, president of the Merritt here April 12 for a post that the pigs are preparing a resolved is money.'' American Telephone and Tele slaughter. Every store and busi Two key issues-union recogni funeral rally in memory of Bobby graph Company, announced at that James Hutton. Hutton, 17 -year-old ness in Vacaville is shut tight. tion and an automatic dues check time that the various companies There are roadblocks and cops all off-have already been agreed to treasurer of the Black Panther in this vast monopoly in the com Party, was killed by Oakland over the place, so we aren't going. by the city. munications field had made a police April 6. "You blacks are probably wait The city of Memphis has stood money offer which was the "larg ing for me to say that we should firm on its only money offer to est ever"-approximately 5.6 per Eldridge Cleaver, author and leader of the Black Panther Par burn the town down to the ground. date-8 cents per hour, which cent. You're not? Maybe you're more ty, was wounded in the police ~t would bring wages up to $1.78 per The strike was scheduled to hip. We aren't going to have any hour-a munificent $71.20 week tack and is now being held m begin with the Easter weekend, cust~dy at the Vacaville state more riots, any more spontaneous ly gross pay, which is only slight but was deferred until April 18 riots. We're going to get organized ly higher than the federal gov prison for parole violation. An "to avoid a heightening of ten other member of the Black Pan to defend ourselves and our com ernment's estimate of the poverty munity." sions stirred by the assassination ther Party, Warren Wells, was level for a couple. Most of the of Dr. Martin Luther King ..." James Forman, SNCC leader and sanitation workers have families wounded in the same attack and (New York Times editorial, April spoke at the rally with a bullet Mjnister of Foreign Affairs of the to support. 15) Black Panther Party, spoke. This strike, which began as a in his hip. The Times editorial thinks the Cops and detectives stared out "Bobby Hutton was a born rev trade union fight for higher wages 400,000 communications workers olutionary," he said. "All blacks and better working conditions, at the throng frol;ll the roof of the are unreasonable in their de are born revolutionaries because evolved swiftly into a struggle of Alameda County Court House mands. But it also admits that they are born in a white racist the whole black community in across the street, and many more Joseph A. Beirne, president of the were around the rally area. As society and a society in which Memphis. The death by assassina racism permeates the whole econ tion of Dr. Martin Luther King, CWA, is "obliged to deal with the rally was going on, four more political reality"-the fact that Panthers were arrested by Oak· omic structure. The hog's been in who came to Memphis to support the stream for 400 years. Some the strike, tore a few of the scales most of the major contracts ac land police on "suspicion of rob cepted by union memberships in call this system capitalism and of indifference from the eyes of bery." the last period have been for much "LBJ, Lynchin' Baines Johnson, some call it imperialism, but it is some of the national labor leaders. Kathleen Cleaver, wife of Eld· talks nonviolence to us. We will exploiting and damming up the But the monies contributed ($.50,000 more than the miserable 5 per cent considered "rational and non ridge Cleaver, read a telegram .to talk it to them. If they are non world. That's why the brother said from the UAW and $20,000 from inflationary." the rally from Betty Shabazz, Wid violent, okay, but otherwise when that· Ho Chi Minh and Castro are the AFL-CIO) and the token ap ow of Malcolm X, which read in they attack we will defend our fighting it in their own way. pearance of some of the bureau It also concedes that Beirne is part: "The question is not one of selves. We will fight back against "You can't purify a hog, All the crats is not enough.