Interview with Lorenzo Komboa Ervin

Link : There are many who assert that racism against blacks in North America is more or less a thing of the past. Sure, you have fringe groups who occasionally commit atrocities; but we've come a long way. America now has two African Americans in prominent government positions; one is the Secretary of State. What is your response to this assertion?

Lorenzo Komboa Ervin : Well, the forms of racism have changed. We've had a civil rights movement and a black power movement in the 1960s, which defeated the overt forms of racism. But what we haven't had is the complete eradication of racism. We have an increase of official forms of racism and racist terrorism: police brutality, which is rampant amongst people of colour in the United States.
We've got poverty, which is concentrated most heavily in black working class communities. You have millions living in the streets; whole families are sleeping in the streets because they don't have the basic income needed to survive. We've got an increase in young black males being criminalized by the white government and the police.

The fact that you have black faces in high places is meant to pacify the population. So what we have is a new form of racism that includes these black politicians, and these so called black "representatives" and "civil rights activists" as a means of covering up for the state.

L : The conditions ensured by the American government provide a breeding ground for rebellion. Do you think that a violent rebellion is in the making, or at least a movement that parallels the civil rights movement?

LKE : I don't think that the civil rights movement will be seen again. It was a limited movement for limited gains in the sense that it didn't try to overthrow the capitalist system. What you will find is a redefinition of class from the old idea of the white industrial worker to this class of people, the despised class of people who have no status in society. They have been forced into circumstances that are virtually inhuman and they are forced to fend for themselves the best they can. They are criminalized and thrown into prison. Their imprisonment itself has been turned into a cottage industry: there are private prisons, all which are designed to make a profit for the state and private companies.

The capitalist economic structure has created these conditions. They have consciously underdeveloped the black community. They have created the so-called "ghettos." They have created them as a policy of social control.

L : Perhaps you have heard that Concordia University has endorsed in its own fashion the protest against the 'Summit of the Americas' in April by granting would be student demonstrators some flexibility in postponing their final exams in April.

Along with this decision comes an issue that has been hotly debated in some circles: the use of violent protest or alternative tactics rather than passive demonstrations. How effective are peaceful demonstrations in your opinion?

LKE : Well, what is happening is that these demonstrations are being managed by the police and by the capitalist government. Their effectiveness is really being called into question.
First, if you can have a demonstration these days with two million people and they do nothing but stand there, they do not constitute a political threat. If two million people back in the 1960s got together and had a demonstration, it would be a serious threat to the government, maybe even causing the government to collapse, as what happened with the [Lyndon B.] Johnson government. The government controls the process. It is a ritual, not a threat.

I think that in fighting fascism, and in fighting police brutality, we have got to use a variety of tactics. We can't be handcuffed by middle class demands and ideas about using non-violence. As Malcolm X said: "by any means necessary". It is very important to understand that. If we don't constitute a threat to the system, if we don't make them think that their precious lives or their profit structures are in danger they will not take us seriously at all.