The following is a talk given in the International Solidarity and
Awards Session of the Nov. 13-14, 2010, National Conference on Socialism
sponsored by the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
I have been a member of the
Party for Socialism and Liberation in New York City for two years. I am also a
student organizer. Last year, my club on campus was able to get students on a
bus to protest the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the PSL, I work on a
community-based project against police brutality in Brooklyn, New York, where
we hold community organizing meetings to take down a racist policy of the NYPD
called “stop and frisk.” This policy allows Black and Latino youth to be
stopped and criminalized on the streets for no reason at all.
It can get hectic balancing
being an organizer with school and work. But I remember myself before I joined
the party. I was a victim of the contradictions of capitalism in the richest
country in the world. I was forced to live for two years in a shelter.
When I first entered the
shelter, I thought I should work hard to save money and be out in no time. But
I quickly learned that it’s not about how hard I was working, but rather who
could profit off me. I had a full-time job and went to school full-time, but on
the little off time that I had I managed to visit almost 50 different
government and non-profit organizations, which all denied me help for the same
reasons—I made “too much” money.
Apparently, under this system,
there is a certain amount of funding available to help people like me, but
people with kids or those making illegally low incomes are preferred, since the
government would allot more funding to those agencies. I made the federal
minimum wage, not a penny over, and had banked $12,000 the year before, but my
income was calculated before taxes and depended on how many kids I had. I was
also denied several low income housing opportunities—Why? Because I didn’t make
enough money for low income housing.
They call it being caught in
red tape, but I call it B.S. It was not the first time that the system had
failed me.
I was with a very abusive
boyfriend for five years and was terrified to leave because I knew what he was
capable of. When I called the police, they either didn’t come or took forever,
and by the time they did finally come, it felt like a game of 21 questions
rather than genuine help. So, I just had to take action myself. Fortunately, I
was able to leave the situation before it got worse.
I joined the PSL while I was
still living in the shelter because I got tired of the oppression, tired of the
feeling that I could not change things and, just like the situation with my
ex-boyfriend, I swore that I would never go back to that. I had to move forward
and do something.
I joined the PSL because of the
beauty of the strong women leadership, but most importantly, I joined to
organize. I want to see a system that puts people over profits, where basic human
rights, like housing, education and jobs are given to the masses of working
people, who are the driving force of our society. I want to see a system where
it is illegal for a man to harm a woman and, if they do, real consequences
follow.
So today, I speak as a former
victim. I was once a battered woman who lived in a shelter. And today, I speak
as a proud organizer, who encourages you all here today to join the movement
for change.
I encourage everyone—women and
men, young and old—to join the PSL. As long as there is capitalism, there will
be oppression, racism, homelessness and so many other social ills this system
creates only to profit from.
By organizing to overturn this
rotten system, you can be part of the solution that we all need. You can fight
beside me and all my sisters and brothers in struggle. We are all in the PSL
because we are fighters and survivors. And if you join us, you will not regret
it because we fight to win.
