The System is in Trouble!

The System is In Trouble!

The Revolutionary Autonomous Communities Newsletter Editorial

rac@riseup.net
www.copwatchla.org

Things are moving and changing, and there is potential for revolutionary change within the empire. You know that the system is in trouble when the Democratic Party is running a Black Man and a Woman for president of the US. Barak Obama himself is running with a stamp slogan of "Change." It is without doubt that people want change. This is the reason why the Democrats (who don't represent the interests of people of color, women, working class, unemployed, queer people or anybody who is oppressed in fact) is running these two candidates. They want to bring back into mainstream-american politics all those who dream of change.

The question is can we rely on the same government that has created these current conditions? A government that has exterminated Natives, enslaved Africans, continues to steal land and colonize people, has 2 million people behind their prisons, and maintains their power through a fascistic military state. The history of this country is one of genocide, mass torture and rape and cannot go on any longer. Is it enough to put a token president in their White House and have the people settle for the lesser of two evils?

They only see fit for people to get involved in "decision making" every four years during their elections. While the rest of the time their media is used to keep us passive and out of their institutional power structure. They rather have us in their prison and military industrial complex. We are just slaves to them, but the reality is that we DO have the power to take back our lives and our communities. Working-class indigenous people and colonized people run this empire and the world.

Revolutionary Autonomous Communities believes that we have to create our own institutions where in our neighborhoods we can organize ourselves, feed ourselves, defend and protect ourselves, educate ourselves, and change the conditions OURSELVES. We cannot wait for change to happen on its own, or for someone to bring change to our doorstep. We have to begin to build that change where we live, where we work, where we go to school, and in general wherever we are. Change will not happen by putting who they conceive to be the "right person" to rule over us.

No one individual can create the change we want to see. We need a revolutionary movement. This will only happen with the same working class, indigenous and colonized people in the forefront. That means that those who are working for a different world have to start building together. The state understands the times as well, that is why they are setting precedents and targeting those who are resisting and who are fighting for revolution. The Black Riders Liberation Party in Los Angeles and the Puerto Rican Independence Movement are some examples where the state has targeted people who are putting in work to bring about this change. The reason why they attacked the May 1st Immigrant rights march in McArthur Park is because the power structure is afraid of the growing movement.

Revolutionary Autonomous Communities (RAC) is currently building alliances with organizations with similarities to us, so we can begin laying down the foundation for a revolutionary movement within this beast that is called america. We also understand that "our solidarity with others is our best defense." The state will seek to isolate revolutionary organizers from the people, so we have to seek to build those alliances (around principled unity, simultaneously continuing to dialogue over our differences) while we build our base in the community.

This change we dream of is urgent, but "our dreams will never fit inside their ballot boxes."