In celebration of African American History

By Jarvis Tyner

Remarks given at the Communist Party of New York's African American History Month event Feb. 27 in New York City

As we gather here this afternoon our hearts go out to the family of Amadou Diallo. After their tragic loss they now have to endure the added pain of the acquittal.

We are here this afternoon to protest the miscarriage of justice. We are here to protest the "Gestapo" tactics of the Street Crimes Unit.

We are here to protest against the racism of the NYPD, of Rudolph Giuliani of George Pataki, Trent Lott, Jesse Helms and Henry Hyde - the whole bunch of ultra-right Republicans that dominate Albany, the U.S. House and Senate.

We are here to protest the racism of George W. Bush and John McCain. The two Republican front runners for the highest office in the land are guilty of racism.

Yesterday about three thousand people marched through Manhattan. The mood was angry, militant and disciplined.

It was a large, youthful, multiracial turn out. The spirit of struggle was high, determined to continue until the kind of racist police violence that took the life of Amadou Diallo is brought to an end.

This is Black History Month, in the militant spirit of WEB Du Bois, Ida Wells, Fanny Lou Hamer, Paul Robeson, Fredrick Douglas and Ben Davis and Henry Winston, we protest and call on all progressive forces to unite and defeat racism. It must be defeated on the streets and at the polls on Nov. 7.

The verdict in the Amadou Diallo murder case is cause for great concern. Letting the four cops off with out even a slap on the hand was a miscarriage of justice. It sends a dangerous signal that it's all right to shoot innocent people in cold blood. It cheapens the lives of Black and Latino youth.

These cops took this young mans life because they couldn't tell the difference between a wallet and a gun. How tragic they saw a wallet and thought it was a gun. Could it be they saw a Black face in the doorway and racist assumptions made them panic?

That question was never explored in the trial. The Bronx district attorney decided not to raise the issue of race. Without that, you can't explain why the cops did this.

During the trial, the defense actually charged that Amadou Diallo caused his own death. They said he didn't respond to their commands properly. They said he turned around too quickly. To blame this young African for his own death is truly to blame the victim. It's absurd and an insult to the intelligence of the people and the memory of young Amadou. The fault for his death lies with the police and their racial profiling.

But it goes further. The fault also lies with Mayor Giuliani. It was the mayor who's responsible for the Street Crimes Unit. It is Giuliani who has promoted the tactics used by them. In October, on CBS News, while discussing NYPD policy, he said, " When they make the decision to shoot they have to shoot to kill." This is Giuliani's thinking.

Remember this was the mayor, who led the racist rally of police. It was Giuliani who attacked the squeegee guys, the street merchants, and the homeless.

It's Giuliani who wanted to take children away from welfare recipients if they didn't agree to go into his horrible shelters.

It was Giuliani who created the atmosphere that led to the killing of Anthony Baez and the near death of Abner Louima. All of these policies have created the atmosphere for the brutal racist tactics of the NYPD.

His attacks on public workers and construction workers, on youth and poor folks in general have created this anti-working class atmosphere in New York City.

In Giuliani's New York the rich have gotten obscenely rich and the poor poorer. This city has some of the richest people in the world and a poverty rate that's double the national average.

The brutal racist, anti-working class policies of Rudolph Giuliani protects the profits, wealth and the privileges of the rich landlords, stockbrokers and corporate bosses. Racism is a barbaric idea.

It is proven a million times, we are all equal and should be treated that way. Yet our capitalist class keep the ball and chain of racism in our government, in the arts and in academia. It shows that capitalism with all of its technology is still perpetuating barbarism.

The best response to the acquittal of the murder of Amadou Diallo is the defeat of Giuliani and the Republican-right at the polls in November. Giuliani is a national figure in the Republican ranks and he has ambitions for higher office.

If he loses his bid for U.S. Senate he will lose a lot of standing nationally and becomes a lame duck mayor who has very little chance of winning higher office.

His hopes of running for president will be over. It would be a tremendous step forward if we can defeat Giuliani and clear the way for the election of a more progressive senator and mayor.

Giuliani's defeat would send a strong message nationally, the ultra right, against racism and police violence.

A defeat for Giuliani would be a step towards defeating the right wing majority in the U.S. Senate. A vote against Giuliani is also vote against Trent Lott, the Senate majority leader, who is associated with the Conservative Citizen Council whose predecessor was the White Citizen's Council.

Just six seats and Lott can be removed as the head of the Senate. In the house it's only a handful of seats and Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is out and Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) becomes the majority leader.

Rep. Charles Rangel from Harlem is in line for chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee and that right wing racist Rep. Bill Archer (R-Texas) would be out. Rep. John Conyers (R-Mich.) would be is next in line to replace Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the Judiciary Committee. This would be a big step forward. It would take the movement off the defensive and lay the basis for people's offensive. It would be a great way to start the new century.

The Republican Party has become the party of open racism. It is the party of David Duke. Both of the front runners in the Republican primary are on record for flying the flag of the slaveholders.

They are the party of racial profiling, mandatory sentencing and jail instead of jobs. They are the most aggressive foes of Roe v. Wade, the elimination of affirmative action and a "union free" environment. Because of their policies, more Black youth are in prison then in college today and our government is building more prisons then schools and public housing.

Millions more are hungry and homeless and in the last decade millions have gone from low pay to no pay. Twenty million children are hungry and trapped in poverty; 40 million have no health care and the real income of the average working family is steadily declining.

It's no mistake that George W. Bush speaks before racist groups. Bob Jones University is a racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic institution. It was set up as a racially segregated institution. Bush knew that. He was making a direct appeal to racism. But John McCain is no different. He's no moderate.

Just before the South Carolina vote he used a racist slur against Asians when talking about the Vietnamese people. And the media is accepting this totally. But we must not. When questioned about the use of the term, he boldly proclaimed his right to use open racism because he was talking about his "Communist captors" during the war.

McCain thinks racism is alright if you cover it with anti-communism. I don't remember a presidential election when a major candidate openly used a racist slur. Not even George Wallace did that. If McCain disagrees with the politics of a Black, Latino, or Jewish person, it's okay to use a racist or anti-Semitic slur? That's what he's saying.

First of all I don't think dropping bombs on civilians makes you a hero. The truth is, if it wasn't for a Vietnamese soldier who pulled him out of his plane, McCain would have drowned. And it was the Vietnamese army that protected him from the people of the village he had just bombed.

It is clear the Republicans cannot activate their base without an open appeal to racism. This is why they must be defeated.

This is Black History Month. And we are here to celebrate also. There are many profound lessons from our country's long history of heroic struggle. Today there is an anti-racist majority in our country that can set back and defeat racism.

The confidence of the Communist Party in the anti-racist majority is rooted in our Marxist-Leninist science and many decades of hard fought struggles.

We are a party founded on the belief that the fight against racism is inseparable from the fight for socialism. We are the party of Du Bois, Robeson, William L. Patterson, Ben Davis and Claudia Jones.

The Party led the way in integrating the labor movement. It built the most successful multi-racial movements of the poor, unemployed and hungry in our history.

It led the movements that freed Scottsboro 9, Angelo Herndon, Angela Davis and Wilmington 10. It pioneered the building of the U.S. movement for sanctions against apartheid South Africa.

Motivated by this science, our party has fought for Black, white and Brown working-class unity because it is key to a better life - it is key to advancing humanity to a higher stage. And humanity will move to a higher stage. That brighter day is socialism, Bill-of-Rights socialism.

Let's work together on the 2000 election struggles. Then the movement can take the offensive and work to reverse the terrible effects of the Contract "on" America, and take the offensive for jobs, education, health care, justice, Social Security, for equality and peace. This is all possible. We can win.

Jarvis Tyner is a vice chair of the Communist Party USA.