https://www.newsghana.com.gh/milwaukee-explodes-during-summer-of-demonstrations-targeting-police-brutality/

Article by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/, on the Milwaukee rebellion and the conditions that gave rise to this outbreak of anger over the police killing of an African American youth Syville Smith. Milwaukee is considered the worst place to live for African Americans in the United States. The report was published by News Ghana.

“… Although this is an election year in the U.S. neither of the two ruling class parties have addressed the burgeoning crises in the cities and suburbs across the country. The administration of President Barack Obama has not undertaken any policies that specifically address the oppression of African Americans.

Obama is supporting the candidacy of Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of state. There is very little enthusiasm for the Clinton candidacy among African Americans even in light of the openly extreme right-wing propaganda of Republican candidate Donald Trump. Consequently, the African American question will not be a focus of the campaign unless the people themselves escalate the level of mass mobilization and unrest on a national level.

Between Trump’s racist xenophobia and Clinton’s patronizing approach to the African American and oppressed communities, there is no alternative outside of independent political organization and actions. This is the major challenge facing the African American people to take the lead in developing tactics and strategies that extend beyond spontaneous demonstrations and urban rebellions…”

Abayomi Azikiwe is the Editor of the Pan-African News Wire, http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/2bnLVdp

“…Capitalism has left the Black youth in Milwaukee, Madison and elsewhere in the state — along with other oppressed people and a growing number of poor and working-class whites — with bleak futures with low-wage or no jobs. Black communities are occupied and beloved family members are gunned down by the police.

As the Coalition for Justice wrote on Aug. 14: “What happened last night was a revolt and an uproar, not just a disturbance. The media has no problem to classify us at thugs. … The people are angry. The people are fed up, and the people are demanding their freedom.”

The Black youth of Milwaukee have the right to rebel against genocidal conditions! Resistance is justified from Africa to Palestine to Milwaukee! Police and National Guard occupiers out of Milwaukee now! Stop the War on Black America!”

http://bit.ly/2bnLVdp

Sister Angela Walker:

I am a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I am old enough to remember the murder of Ernest Lacy by the Milwaukee Police Department in the early 80s. I have witnessed, over the years, the erosion of our public school system, the defunding of our public transit system, de-industrialization that disproportionately hurt the Black community here, and gentrification which is currently looming. Milwaukee’s Black community has had to contend with mass incarceration, job discrimination, and subsequent generational poverty for decades, while the rest of our state watched it happen. As long as these things were contained in the Black community, it was acceptable.

The very recent murder of a 23 year-old Black man by the Milwaukee Police Department has brought to a head the simmering anger this community has been harboring, and rightly so. The expectation that people will simply tolerate indignity and abuse is absurd. As a revolutionary socialist, I fully support direct action and the need for careful organization and political education to accompany it. I believe that this is not the time to mince words about how we got here in Milwaukee, and that we have to be very explicit in calling out the capitalist white supremacist attitudes in our state that created the conditions people are rebelling against. The only way forward for us is to be honest about the root causes of poverty in this city and work diligently to correct that. Until Black people’s dignity and humanity are respected, Milwaukee will continue to be the volatile place it has become, and all of the police saturation in the world will not change a thing.

I said it. I mean it. If we are serious about solutions, then it’s time we stop playing politics as usual.

Sister Angela Walker denounces Scott Walker and his Wall Street bosses August 2, 2013 at a protest at the National Governor’s Association in Milwaukee. [Photo: WI BOPM]