Anti-racists tell fascist gang "No nooses"
By Tyneisha Bowens
Jena, La.
Jan 24, 2008
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Anti-racist activists from many parts
of the country march in Jena, La.,
Jan. 21.
photo Tyneisha Bowens
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One hundred and fifty anti-racist activists continued the legacy of Martin
Luther King Jr. on Jan. 21 as they confronted members of the white supremacist
organization, the Nationalist Movement, in Jena, La. The event took place on
Martin Luther King Day in this small Louisiana town that has been the stage for
what is being called the new civil rights movement.
The Nationalist Movement was in Jena for what they called “Jena
Justice Day,” which was in opposition to the September 2007 mobilization
of tens of thousands people in support of the Jena 6 and the overall message of
equality that Martin Luther King Jr. preached. The white supremacists recently
won a suit with Jena giving them the right to march there without a permit,
carrying nooses and white cross flags and even firearms. Various anti-racist
organizations, groups, and individuals drove into the city to say “No to
nooses!”
The diversity of the anti-racist group, which included Black, Latin@, Arab,
Asian, Native and white folks, showed the unity that is being forged between
oppressed nationalities in the United States. People came out from Los Angeles;
Chicago; New York; New Orleans; Atlanta; Jersey City, N.J.; Durham, N.C.; and
Jena.
At 9 a.m. the anti-racist activists met at two checkpoints outside of Jena
and caravanned in for safety. “We have been harassed by the police,
pulled over and ticketed almost everyday,” explained one of the
organizers from the January 21 in Jena Committee. After caravanning into the
town, the anti-racists held a rally in Jena’s park where the crowd
listened to speakers including police brutality activist Juanita Young, Rev.
Raymond Brown of Louisiana’s National Action Network, a representative of
the youth group FIST—Fight Imperialism, Stand Together, Carl Dix of the
Revolutionary Communist Party, a member of the Common Ground Collective and
activists from cities across the country.
After the rally the group of about 150 marched from the park to the
courthouse where 15-30 white supremacists were holding their rally. En route to
the courthouse, the march received acknowledgment, support and adversity from
the residents of Jena. However, the people of Jena did not come out in support
of the white supremacist rally.
As they climbed the hill toward the courthouse chanting “No Nazis, No
KKK, No Fascist USA!” the anti-racists saw a wall of police. The strong
police presence was an attempt to force the march into a “free speech
zone” in the back of the courthouse. But the march successfully pushed
back the police line and asserted its constitutional rights of assembly and
free speech.
At the front of the Jena courthouse the protesters confronted the racists,
drowning out their message of white supremacy with the message of justice,
unity and equality.
Though there were only 15 Nationalist Movement members present, the
overwhelmingly racist presence of the state—the police, courts and
prisons—was much larger. Agents from the local, state and federal law
enforcement agencies protected the armed and threatening white supremacists
from the unarmed crowd speaking out against racism and hate.
Peter Gilbert of FIST, who participated in the rally with a delegation of
FIST and International Action Center members from Raleigh, N.C., and New York,
said: “The collusion of the state was apparent at every level. It was the
state that gave the white supremacists the right to march unpermitted and
armed; it was the state that gave them the front of the courthouse; and it was
the state that was protecting them.”
The anti-racists effectively drowned out the Nationalist Movement’s
message and showed the white supremacists and the state that this kind of
racism will not go unanswered. The march, having achieved its goal, moved back
to the park where a rally and caravan into the community ended the event.
The presence of the white supremacist Nationalist Movement, whose leaders
are small businesspeople from outside Jena, in a small and economically
underdeveloped town like Jena, shows the rising tide of racism as a reaction to
the economic crisis. However, the relatively higher numbers of anti-racists
shows that a multinational, unified movement is becoming more prepared to
counter these attacks.
Bowens spoke at the anti-racist rally representing FIST.
