Movement: marathon vs. treadmill
Gazi criticized Jones for failing to address the problems of colonialism, imperialism and white power.
“Hearts don’t build this world. Power, systems and violence build this world. Organizations build this world.
“Revolutions build this world. People are tired. They’re asking, black lives matter, but to what end? The overall question is, to what end?”
Jones deflected the political content of the criticism and focused on the manner in which it was delivered. He said he found the criticism so offensive that he compared it to an act of “black on black crime.”
Jones insisted that the confrontation with Clinton was broadly misunderstood by the masses of African people who watched it with feelings of embarrassment.
“The point of the action wasn’t to go in there to propose policies…,” said Jones.
“It was about her heart and her mind and what is happening with her personally now that she can understand the consequences of the violence that she’s caused.”
Chairman Omali Yeshitela responded:
“To have this confrontation with Hilary or anyone for that matter and say, ‘We want you to tell us what to do’, instead of saying, ‘This is what our demands are, this is where we are going— it does us a disservice!"
The Chairman explained that the movement has a responsibility to have demands to provide leadership so that the people can have a vision of where we are trying to go.
“Otherwise,” the Chairman said, “it’s like thrusting a people who want to run a marathon onto a treadmill. It makes a lot of motion but doesn’t go any place.”
Reject false leadership!
“We have in the making a viable movement, the first since the revolution was crushed in the 1960s.
We have a greater responsibility than to simply ask the oppressors, ‘What are you going to do with us?’”
Jones defensively insisted he does not speak for Black Lives Matter. “BLM is a decentralized network of 26 chapters,” a common refrain repeated by BLM spokespersons whenever they are met with criticism.
On August 28, the Democratic National Committee announced its official endorsement of Black Lives Matter.
We must reject false leadership that seeks to drag us into a self-defeating struggle to convince our oppressors that our lives matter.
We will never be free until we achieve black power over our own black lives.
As Herdosia Bentum of the Ferguson branch of the Uhuru Movement said as she stood before the Black Power Matters conference in August with the marks of police rubber bullets on her legs,
“If we ain’t struggling for power, we ain’t struggling for nothing! This is not a game!”
Struggle for Power!
Demand Black Community Control of the Police!
Black Power Matters!
Uhuru!
