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Panther Spirit in DC: Organizing Against Trump’s Fascist Push · The Real News Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to this edition of Rattling the Bars.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, Manson Moussa.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The presence of the National Guard in the District of
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Columbia costs $ 3 million a day and an estimated $ 2. 9
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: billion in the next presidential election. Recently, I covered two
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: organizations that are pushing back against their president. PACA, Pan-African
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Community Action, who primarily organize in the southeast section of
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the District of Columbia, Anacostia Area, and Free D.C. Take
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: a look. We're the Black Workers Wellness Center. I'm talking
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to Alex from the Pan-African Community Action, PACA. And the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: day they're having political education formed because of the 60th
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: anniversary of the Black Parental Party. And we're doing political
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: education in its rawest forms. So tell us a little
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  Speaker 1: bit about Packer.
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  Speaker 2: We're a group of African and black people organizing in
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  Speaker 2: Southeast D.C.
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  Speaker 3: For power.
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  Speaker 2: We're trying to build up institutions that are made up
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  Speaker 2: of just ordinary working class people, working class black people.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: We're trying to build up alternative institutions that are able
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: to challenge the pre-existing institutions that are currently failing us.
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  Speaker 2: We see failing healthcare. We see funding going towards police
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: and National Guard. At the same time, we're seeing cutting
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: off from SNAP benefits, disinvesting from education, affecting black children.
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  Speaker 2: And so we believe in a power shift, and the
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  Speaker 2: only way to achieve that power shift is through building
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  Speaker 2: up a mass movement. And we've been organizing down here
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  Speaker 2: for 10 years.
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  Speaker 4: When we look at our communities, we see occupying police forces,
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: We see education we don't control, history we don't define.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: We see institutions we don't have, whether it's healthcare, whether
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: it's housing, whether it's transportation. So the colonization we're experiencing domestically,
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  Speaker 4: the Panthers saw that as linked to the anti-colonial struggles
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: taking place around the world.
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  Speaker 3: In America, black people... are treated very much as the
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Vietnamese people or any other colonized people because we're used,
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  Speaker 3: we're brutalized, the police in our community occupy our area,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: our community as a foreign troop occupies territory.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Earlier today we was in Free D.C. downtown where they
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: was protesting the occupation by the National Guard.
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  Speaker 5: We want to be really clear that it is time
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  Speaker 5: for these armed soldiers to leave D.C. and leave our community.
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  Speaker 5: We're in the middle of an election right now. We've
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: seen them standing in front of polling locations, standing in
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: front of ballot boxes. We've seen them at our schools.
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: We've seen them all over our transportation system for all
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  Speaker 5: over a year. It is time for the Guard to leave.
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: I mean, from August 11th to January of 2029, can
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: you imagine? It's billions of dollars. It is a clear
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: effort to violate our rights and to suppress... dissent and
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: we're not going to stand for it.
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  Speaker 1: They're blocking both sides of the street. They're at the
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  Speaker 1: top on 3rd Street, 3rd D.C. and at the bottom
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  Speaker 1: on 3rd and Constitution. They're definitely representing the right to
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: civil disobedience.
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  Speaker 5: Nobody in D.C.
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  Speaker 3: Wants them.
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  Speaker 1: They're a hassle to us and they don't do anything
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  Speaker 1: good and they're taking a lot of our money and
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  Speaker 1: they make the city feel unsafe because of their presence.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm not interested in having them here any longer.
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  Speaker 6: And I think the National Guard are making our streets
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  Speaker 6: less safe. They're scaring people away from U Street Corridor,
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  Speaker 6: which is such a vibrant place where young people like
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  Speaker 6: to come and gather and they are chasing everybody out
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  Speaker 6: of our city and our businesses.
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  Speaker 2: And it's not good for us.
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  Speaker 5: We're going to be in all the places. We also
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: will be over at Bard Early College at 3 p.m.
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  Speaker 5: today because the soldiers have been walking around with HSI
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: and FBI in front of that school for weeks. Nobody
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: asked you to be there. Nobody wants you there.
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  Speaker 2: Our D.C.
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  Speaker 5: Council, who we elect, have been clear, unanimously sending letters
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  Speaker 5: to every single governor saying, remove your troops. You are
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: not wanted here. At the end of the day, they
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: say the soldiers are going to be here until January
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: of 2029. We know why they say January of 2029, right?
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  Speaker 5: We're standing here in front of the Capitol. We know
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  Speaker 5: what happened in January of 2021. And so what we
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: say is that we will not tolerate that. They can't
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  Speaker 5: do this without our consent. If we start collectively... refusing
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: to go to work, refusing to go to school, refusing
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  Speaker 5: to shop in the face of their blatant attempts to
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  Speaker 5: consolidate power, then they can't get away with it. And
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  Speaker 5: it's already working. We're already winning. What we know is
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  Speaker 5: that when we act collectively, it works. Even multi-billion dollar
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  Speaker 5: corporations have to give in to us. And even this
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  Speaker 5: corrupt regime cannot stand if we act collectively and refuse
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  Speaker 5: to consent. So that's what we're building our way towards.
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  Speaker 5: You know, neighborhood by neighborhood, person by person, training by training,
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  Speaker 5: we are building towards having enough collective power that they
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  Speaker 5: cannot get away with it.
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  Speaker 1: And in terms of your strategy about the occupation, National Guard, and...
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  Speaker 1: Ward seven and eight, how do y'all see y'all being
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  Speaker 1: effective in terms of like y'all organizing?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, historically Ward seven and eight has been red lines,
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  Speaker 2: experiences the most disinvestment. from health care, from education, always over-policing.
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  Speaker 2: And now we're seeing over-policing on a broad level across
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  Speaker 2: the entire D.C., but it always starts with Ward 7
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  Speaker 2: and 8. It always starts with these metro stations, Anacostia,
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  Speaker 2: Congress Heights, Southern Avenue. We see the FBI, the DHS,
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  Speaker 2: the National Guard here first. And so we understand that
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  Speaker 2: it does affect all of D.C., but it hits Ward
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  Speaker 2: 7 and 8 the hardest. This is where people experience
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  Speaker 2: the most oppressed conditions.
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  Speaker 6: There's the most.
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  Speaker 2: Poverty down here. There's already a heightened police presence even
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  Speaker 2: before the National Guard here. And so everything with the
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Safe and Beautiful Task Force and National Guard is just
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  Speaker 2: making it more violent. It's bringing out more tension in
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  Speaker 2: these areas, and it's heightening the need for us to
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: organize for ourselves, too.
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  Speaker 1: What are Summer Packers' primary objectives in terms of organizing?
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  Speaker 1: We're here to talk about the Black Panther Party, and
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  Speaker 1: we know their day. evolved and got to a place
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  Speaker 1: where they had survival programs, and here we call them
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  Speaker 1: Survival Pendant Revolution. The ultimate goal of the programs was
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  Speaker 1: to turn them over to the community so they become
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  Speaker 1: a part of the infrastructure for revolutionary activities. So what
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  Speaker 1: are some of the programs y'all got?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: So our objectives are similar to the Panthers in the
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  Speaker 2: sense that we also have survival programs. We have our
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  Speaker 2: People's Pan-African Wellness Front, which is a health clinic, which
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: we operate every fourth Sunday, where we try to bring
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  Speaker 2: people in to volunteer and work together. We provide free
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: blood pressure testing, glucose testing. We have activities like yoga.
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  Speaker 2: We have free grocery distribution, which includes locally grown vegetables
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: and fruits. Oftentimes we have speakers come in and give lectures.
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  Speaker 2: So that's just one example of a space where the
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: community can come together and provide for ourselves, training people
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: to become organizers for our mass movement. Another one of
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: our programs, the Transit Solidarity Program, that's a program we
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: have going on this weekend where we take community donated
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Smart Trip cards, we put money on them, and we
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: distribute them at Anacostia Station. And we do this to
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: basically heighten the contradiction between ourselves, the people coming together
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: to provide for working class people just trying to access
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  Speaker 2: Metro versus the state, which is dumping upwards of $ 3
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  Speaker 2: million a day into FBI, DHS, National Guard, MPD to
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: occupy and patrol these stations. Ticket people, $ 50, $ 100 just
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: for trying to access the bus.
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  Speaker 6: It's ridiculous.
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  Speaker 1: As you can see, people are standing up against the
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: military industrial complex, policing, and the National Guard in the
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  Speaker 1: nation capital and around the country. October the 15th marked
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  Speaker 1: the 60th anniversary of the Black Panther Party. And one
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  Speaker 1: of the things the Black Panther Party stood for among
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: many was community control over the police. As you can see,
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  Speaker 1: it's the community that's opposed to the presence of the
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  Speaker 1: National Guard and heavy-handed policing in the District of Columbia.
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  Speaker 1: We ask that you continue to look at the real
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: news and rattling the bar. And weigh in on these issues.
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  Speaker 1: All power to the people.