Uncle Sam, the Real Terrorist - RTC Racial Justice Rally at the Federal Building

Uncle Sam, the real terrorist
The people rally for racial justice locally and globally
by Tiny - POOR Magazine, PNN

"See those men in ugly blue polyester over there? They all have one thought: ‘Obey, obey, obey.’” As I listened to Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights address the police who stood at attention in massive presence around our small crowd gathered at the Racial Justice Rally held in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco Monday, I nodded my head in agreement but didn't realize how much of a prophecy his words were to become.

As the rally progressed, many amazing speakers, poets, organizers and folk lifted their voices in commitment to the movement for racial and economic justice locally and globally.

“I am here to speak on behalf of Iraqi people who don't have any voice right now," said Samina Faheem of American Muslim Voice, speaking softly to the crowd. "I was part of the anti-war rally on Saturday. This was the first rally organized after the torture of Iraqi prisoners unfolded. To my surprise there were 10,000 people. I was hoping that there would be tens of thousands of people."

At this point, Samina broke into tears and couldn't continue speaking. The crowd stood in mourning with her. After several minutes, she continued, "I needed to see thousands of Americans screaming about the torture of Iraqis.

"George Bush said at a recent celebration, 'The children are doing such a wonderful job collecting school supplies for Iraqi children.' Does anyone know that the Iraqi children don't have schools, they don't have fresh water or teachers or food. What are they going to do with Bush's school supplies?"

Racial Justice Day was organized by Books Not Bars in collaboration with Reclaim the Commons, a movement to teach and demonstrate sustainable, life-affirming alternatives to corporate power. The organizers have presented a series of events starting June 6 to protest the conference of the G-8 – a group of the eight largest economies in the world - being held in Georgia and the pharmaceutical industries’ biotech conference being held simultaneously in San Francisco.

"We are here to recognize the intense parallel between global oppression and local oppression. Do not forget that the torturers in Iraq were trained in the prison system here,” said Mesha Irizarray of the Idriss Stelly Foundation, describing the day’s purpose.

After Samina spoke, the mic was given up to a young rapper, LINX, who critiqued mainstream rappers’ commercial interests. "They put us in institutions, they separate our families, they spend money incarcerating and destroying us and then they kill us,” he rapped.

Next we heard from a truly inspirational elder, Allen Feaster, who lost his son to the racist, classist California Youth Authority earlier this year on Jan. 19. "I cannot touch my son ever again,” he said, “but I can touch the minds of America."

And then Mr. Feaster became my personal hero when he said: "America, you need to wake up, stop putting your money into prisons. Put it into education, put it into child care so mothers don't have to work 24 hours a day just to support their kids."

As the speakers one by one continued to tell the truth, I became increasingly aware of the growing police presence that surrounded us, and when the rally ended it was decided that the group would walk to police headquarters at 850 Bryant in solidarity with a woman named Laurie who, as one of the organizers of the event, was arrested by the cops for some ancient traffic violations.

As the group walked peacefully towards the police station, we were escorted by several hundred cops - on bikes, on foot, in cars. When I reported this to Dee, co-editor of PNN, she called the Mayor’s office. To her question, “Why are there all these cops on the streets?” one of Mayor Newsom’s assistants replied, "Because the community wanted it."

"Whose community?" Dee asked. And then the woman hung up on her.

This interchange reminded me of Van's inspiring closing words at the rally: "We’re gonna fight together and love together and liberate these blue polyester fools too."

For more information on Reclaim the Commons, go to http://www.reclaimthecommons.net. To support the work of Samina Faheem, visit http://www.amuslimvoice.org. Read more about issues of poverty and race written by the people who face them daily at http://www.poormagazine.org