Following is a talk
given in the Opening Plenary of the Nov. 13-14, 2010, National Conference on Socialism
sponsored by the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Hello brothers and sisters, my name is Tina Kelly and I have
been a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation for several years now.
I joined the Party because I wanted to make a change in this backwards system
and I understand the only way is through being in a revolutionary party.
Being part of a revolutionary party means that you are in
the struggle. The party has taught me discipline through education and
organizing. We are out in the streets, at the metro, at events, and in the
neighborhoods talking to the working class about issues ranging from gang
injunctions and police brutality to racist immigration laws, anti-lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender bigotry, and more.
If you live in Southern California, I am sure you have
received or seen stickers, flyers, palm cards and posters leading up to this
conference. All of this hard work from members and friends of the PSL is a
vital part of organizing events such as this. Visibility teams are reaching many
hundreds of thousands of people not just in L.A. County but all over the
country. But it is not easy. We have many obstacles trying to prevent us from
organizing the people, including the government using police and sheriffs
officers to stop us.
Just several weeks ago I was stopped, harassed, arrested and
booked for a felony. How many of you have seen election posters and signs
placed on electrical polls soliciting your vote? Have you ever seen or heard of
any of the many politicians or their staff getting arrested or fined for their
advertisement? Why should this be different for us? I will tell you why: The
ruling class is class conscious and is afraid to lose power. They want to
suppress any movement that empowers the working class – who represent the vast
majority of society – to deter them from rising up. This is why it is so
important to stay organized and keep our agitation going, and to never give an
inch when it comes to our First Amendment rights.
I spent over 24 hours going through the system, the entire
time having to endure the guards barking orders, sitting around in cold cells,
being patted down, and being treated
worse than animals. Of course this was just a small taste of the indignity our
brothers and sisters who are locked up in prison have to endure on a daily
basis.
The whole time I was in there I did not have to worry about
how I was going to get out. There were comrades working from the time I was
arrested until I left the women’s prisons. My bail was posted and there were
comrades waiting several hours for me to be released.
While I was in a holding cell I heard stories from the women
who were there. Most of these sisters were blaming themselves when really most
of them were victims of their circumstances. I spoke to them about drugs in our
neighborhoods and how people of color are being subjected to harsher punishment
then their white counterparts. This is one tool the system uses to divide poor
and working people, attempting to pit them against each other.
As I continued to talk to these women I explained to them
some of the reasons why the prison-industrial complex is such a corrupt system
and why it really does not help society the way the mass media and politicians
claim. The police are out there using racist tactics. They are stopping people
of color and questioning them for walking down the street or pulling them over
while they are driving. If questioned on their tactics, the most common
response from the police is that they fit a description of interest. What does
that really mean? That all people of color around age 19-30 look alike? Really?
But this is not the only lesson we
have in our history. Let’s go back to World War II. Imperialist Japan’s attack
on Pearl Harbor was used to justify a racist terror campaign that ultimately
led to the brutal internment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese
Latin Americans who were illegally imprisoned in concentration camps.
My family has firsthand knowledge
of this horrendous act. My family were U.S. citizens who were taken from their
flower farm in Redondo Beach, put on a bus, and taken to the Santa Anita Race Track.
The horses were taken out of their stalls and the detainees were told to clean
the stalls because that was where they were going to sleep. So not only were they
forced to leave their belongings and homes, but they were treated as subhuman.
Later my family was forcibly taken
to Arkansas
and put in a camp there. In late 1944, the Supreme Court ruled that the
detainment of citizens was unconstitutional. On Jan. 2, 1945—after three years of
internment—the exclusion orders that banned persons of Japanese ancestry from
the West Coast were rescinded. The war was almost over. The campaign of racist
hysteria was toned down for the moment.
Freed internees were given a
meager $25 and a train ticket to their former home. My family could not afford
to get home to California. So they were sent to live in another closed down
camp. The government was so hasty to remove these “enemies to the state,” but
once the hysteria subsided, the government did not bring them back home.
My family’s experience and what I
have gone through personally pushes me to fight harder and with more militancy.
I know my education is ongoing but my dedication to the Party and the fight for
revolution is strong. I look forward to continuing to work with my comrades and
future comrades in the struggle for justice.
An injustice to one is an injustice to all!
Same struggle, same fight!
