PHOTOS: Adrian Gracia
“It’s time we show our power. People power is alive and real.” Rousemary Vega walks the walk she talks. A Chicago mother of four, Rousemary is uniting with many struggling for justice in the police murder of Laquan McDonald. She is on the front lines seeking justice for our city. Outraged citizens are fighting to hold accountable a Mayor (Rahm Emanuel) who has continually lied and tried to deceive them.
Rousemary says, “We need to build our forces. Our main concern is the heartless criminal corruption of city government and the police. It is about what you know and feel in your heart. We’ve been robbed of our city and our trust. How can we continue when the leader (Mayor Rahm Emanuel) is a criminal? The Department of Justice will investigate the police department, but they won’t investigate the Rahm administration.”
Rousemary knows why the teens are moving into leadership in this fight. Their generation is threatened. “We should listen to them and amplify their voices.” With jobs increasingly being done by robots many people don’t fit into the ‘city fathers’ plan. Rosemary says, “There are others worse than Rahm, but he holds the city captive with rubberstamp aldermen.” Government works for the banks and developers who are buying up real estate and controlling all decisions.
To win Rousemary champions the idea of class unity: “We have to be connecting. This is the city of big shoulders. We have to work shoulder to shoulder, brainstorming, bringing neighbors together, working together to collaborate and grow. There are different agendas and visions. We have to show through a passion a vision of unity. It is difficult to build unity, and there is a lot of work to be done.”
She supports recall efforts but does not want energy to be channeled away from direct action. “They want to divert us from being on the front lines.” Many in power would like things in Chicago to settle down so they could go back to pocketing bribes from developers. “Chicago is not going to riot. Chicago’s angry and hurt. These aldermen trying to pacify us need to be charged with criminal fraud. This is a fight for humanity.” The people who are suffering hunger, homelessness, loss of schools, incarceration and murder by the police have had enough. They won’t stop till there is justice. Speaking of justice, Rosemary tells us a mock trial of Rahm ‘s administration will be held. We predict the verdict: Guilty as Charged.
Increased Police Shootings: Coincidence or Strategy?
From the Editors
The publicity around the 2014 murder of Laquan McDonald by Chicago police has again focused a spotlight on the campaign of terror the police are waging against the people.
The corporate media paint police violence as solely an issue of racism; which it is, but it’s also a class issue, it’s both. It is an assault on the working class and on democracy itself. Police brutality and killings are the face of the drive toward a complete fascist takeover of America.
Given American history, their assault falls first and heaviest on workers of color. The result is that the class nature of the attack is hidden. Their goal is to make it appear that the attack is solely because of color in order to isolate one section of workers from the rest of the class. This division paves the way for a full-fledged police state.
The role of revolutionaries is to show the people that the rulers are using the race question to hide the fact that they are step-by-step imposing a police state on our entire society. To stop a complete police fascist takeover, every instance of police violence and disregard for constitutional rights must be fought. Reject the rulers’ deception.
Fight for justice for Laquan McDonald!
