An open letter to the Party for Socialism and Liberation

In solidarity to all my comrades:

Socialism conference participants pack the UCLA auditorium, Dec. 6.

I want to thank the PSL for inviting me to the conference. It was an amazing experience, where I felt I was in a place overflowing with solidarity and promise. I met amazing people from all over the world, from all over our diverse country. I want to thank you for making me feel welcome.

I’m very glad I had such an amazing experience, which helped me realize that there is a vehicle for true, real change in the world.

Coming from a working-class Cajun background in southern Louisiana, with all of its bigotry and poverty, I grew up immersed in exploitation and prejudice. In the current economic crisis, Dow Chemical is threatening to close down a plant near where I grew up, a parish that felt the full brunt of the destructive forces of Hurricane Katrina, which wrecked severe damage on the local fishing-based economy by destroying the trolling boats of the workers there, and historically has been impoverished and divided with racism. The governor of Louisiana secured his election with the use of a racist code during the Jena 6 protests (“We don’t need outside agitators”), and racist supremacist groups are gaining popularity.

Our schools are among the top 5 worst in the country. Our public health is tragically poor, with teen pregnancy and STD rates high. We have one of the most brutal prisons in the country, Angola, holding political prisoners–in fact our incarceration of non-violent offenders should be interpreted as the political imprisonment of our states substantial underclass. Our roads and public transit are in severe disrepair, and new public buildings like libraries seem to appear only in the whiter parts of the state.

Louisiana is experiencing growth among a class of nouveaux riches whites while poor rural whites and people of color live in inadequate housing.

People deserve better than what our economic betters have provided for us. We have a rich multi-national heritage in Louisiana, which was a colonial nexus and melting pot of Afro-Caribbean, European, Native American, South and Southeast Asian, and Latin American cultures–a place that should be united. The Party for Socialism and Liberation will serve as a catalyst for unity, a vehicle for the revolutionary change needed so that none has to starve, or live in ignorance and poverty without employment and in poor health, both mental and physical.

The PSL is the real hope and change that Louisiana needs.

Thank you. In solidarity,

Andrew P. Cheramie

Laissez la révolution rouller!