NAPP Community Action Press Conference
Friday 14th October 2011
The interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament is calling for a day of ‘Community Action’ for Friday, 14th October 2011, commencing with a ‘Press Conference’ from 10.00am-12.00pm, at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Town Hall Approach Rd, N15 4RX (Tube: Seven Sisters; Buses: 149, 259, 243, 476, 230, 123, 41, 341); followed by a static protest at 10 Downing Street, where a letter to the Prime Minister will be delivered and where we will maintain a presence, from 2:00pm-4:00pm.
This Action is concerned with the unlawful killing of Mark Duggan, which sparked the uprisings of August 2011 and the racist oppressive kneejerk reaction of the state; as well as the broader issues of the disproportionate, ever increasing ‘Black Deaths in Custody’ and police harassment.
We contend that the government’s explanation as to the causes of the uprisings, as motivated by “gangs,” “opportunism” and “mindless, criminal thuggery”, is short-sighted, blinkered and inept and disregards the patent injustice that ended the life of yet another young Blackman. Further, the call for tougher laws, harsher policing, rubber bullets, water cannons and army intervention, as well as a fast track legal process, excessive sentencing, housing eviction, cancellation of welfare benefits, in addition to which youths, including children of 10/11yrs, are being harassed on the streets, snatched from their homes and abused by the police, smacks of blatant violations of law and human rights. There is no doubt that this uprising was an indictment of an unjust society. In addition to the killing of innocent African (Black) men, with impunity, are budget cuts that deprive poorer people of desperately needed services; self serving MPs and their expense scandals; the bribery of the top echelon of the police force by the press; gratuitous transfer of public funds to unscrupulous bankers; the ever growing wealth gap between the impoverished majority and the tiny rich minority, the sharp rise of University tuition fees and the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance.
It is sad that it takes a rebellion to bring the real problems of this society to the surface. Even more regrettable, is the government’s professed ‘solution’ which ignores legitimate material and political aspirations, but calls for the further killing and demonising and criminalising of young people. We reject the portrayal of our young people as looters and arsonists. We are not a community of looters. Rather, we have been looted for over 400 hundred years by successive British governments and businesses, through slavery, colonialism and the relentless economic exploitation our homelands. We are an oppressed community with no stake in a society, built with our labour and sweat. Our youths are assaulted everyday by the police, the courts, the schools and the media.
The killing of Mark Duggan is supposedly being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which has never brought justice to our people and recently exonerated the Police in whose ‘custody’ Smiley Culture allegedly stabbed himself through the heart, in his kitchen, when they allowed him to make himself a cup of tea, while raiding his home for (unfound) drugs. Hence, we have no confidence whatsoever in the IPCC. We note that 5 Black men have been killed in police custody this year, including, Kingsley Burrell Brown, Demetre ‘T.Dot’ Fraser and Jacob Michael.
All African individuals and organizations are called to ‘United, Organised Action,’ to end the state killing of our young men and in demand for truth and justice as well as reparations for the victims’ families and the Afrikan (Black) community as a whole.