Shaka A. Shakur calls for new united student movement

The following article was first published by the Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign, a member-organization of the Indianapolis Liberation Center. You can hear Shaka read the statement below in a video below the text.

Editorial introduction

In this article/video (see below), titled “The need for a radical Student Congress that is centralized,” Shaka A. Shakur makes a concrete call for convening a new radical student congress, highlighting the historically decisive role students and workers have played in revolutionary processes. All those interested in convening such a Congress, contact Shaka at shaka@shakashakur.org, freeppnow@proton.me, or any of the ways listed here.

The need for a radical Student Congress that is centralized

Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s and ‘70s you had radical student movements and activism on college campuses and universities throughout the u.s. This is whether it was protesting and organizing against racial segregation and Jim Crow laws or the Vietnam War and the military draft or pushing for a radical transformation of society and the government as a whole. A lot of these efforts and movements led to radical organizations and other formations that, on some levels, helped to transform amerikan society as We knew it. One of the main, or primary, strategies used by a lot of these groups and activists to bring about this transformation was one of direct action: disruption of normal operations, no business as usual, also the art of boycotting.

When y’all see this around various foreign wars, issues dealing with abortion rights, around Black Lives Matter and the killing of New Afrikans/Black folks in general, by the state… by state actors and other agents as well, the question begs to be asked as to why We don’t see more of such around mass incarceration or the Prison Industrial Complex as a whole. We see spurts, rallies, and sometimes marches that might explode on the scene. But it is usually connected to certain actions, areas, or regions, or just localized and not part of a coordinated national strategy with long-term strategy geared toward specific revolutionary goals and objectives (something that the Spirit of Mandela and Prison Lives Matter organizations are working on. Download the three-phase of the Front of the Liberation of the New Afrikan Liberation [FROLINAN]).

This includes the lack of strategy and vision for cultivating genuine, principled political relationships and infrastructure with politically-inclined or active prisoners behind the walls. Note: i did not only say “Political Prisoners” i said “politically active” because prisoners as a whole, as an oppressed class, need to be organized beyond some of the boundaries of so-called race and sexuality. How many of you younger people know about the former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the organization of Stokley Carmichael, and the role that they played within the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power movement? What about how this organization not only organized thousands of students, but also went into the deep south and confronted racist and segregationists, and organized around some of the more pressing issues of their times?

What are some of the more pressing issues of Our times right now? No, it’s not racism: racism is to amerika what apple pie is. We care about structural/institutional power/oppression that helps facilitate and enforce the policies and ideas of racism. The powers of the world of capitalism, imperialism, and globalization have shifted, where genocide and super-exploitation are the main attraction at this hard theme park? A theme park that wants you focusing on the ring masters instead of the genocide that is staring you in your face inside of amerika’s borders. You don’t have to search outside of the empire to locate it.

People are in an uproar about Trump, which in my opinion reveals a lack of political and ideological maturity. There has always been a Trump, whether he was called Dick Cheney, Nixon, Oliver North, J. Edgar Hoover, or George Bush. Trump is just so reactionary that he has no filter and is not polished enough to put a cover on his shit, like a “Slick Willie” Bill Clinton for example, who got away with passing one of the most racist and neo-fascist crime bills in modern times, and which Biden supported and voted for. A law that Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Obama all acknowledged the extremely negative impact upon Black and Brown communities, and yet none of them had the guts to repeal it. What is even worse is that these people got it passed with no serious challenge from to so-called left and prison abolition movement (while We are waiting for, or voting for, the lesser of two evils, ugh!)

A radical Congress

One question that needs to be asked is whether or not people are serious about bringing about real structural change to the system? Imagine if We took the more serious student groups, the more politically-orientated, and formed them into a Congress? A Congress that could meet virtually and hold webinars to hammer out points of unity, a charter, and an agenda? A Student Congress that could also be broken down into regions and would be responsible for reaching out to and organizing other student bodies/organizations in their region; that could form a mini-Congress—or blocs—with reps to the larger or centralized Congress?

These types of structures allows us to better communicate and also get better organized, develop stronger and more effective strategies. It also allows us to get on the same page when responding to the repression by the state or the reactionary attacks by right-wing forces. There are some organizations calling for a nationwide general strike in 2028. Now, let’s say We had this Congress in place and they came out in support of such a strike. Let’s say organizations like the Spirit of Mandela, Prison Lives Matter, and other organizations come out in support of their general strike and also called upon prisoners across the empire to join them. Let’s say you had revolutionary organizations of grassroots organizations appealing to the leaders of street organizations in various sects to ceasefire and came out the support of Political Prisoners and criminal justice reform.

You can’t be a legitimate prison abolitionist movement if you ain’t talking about the release of and in support of Political Prisoners and POWs (Political Prisoners of War). Back in the ‘80s, it was students who took point in demanding various companies in the U.S. divest from supporting apartheid South Africa. It was a movement to not support companies that did business in South Africa.

The same as it should be for those that support the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the crimes of the Israeli government, or that continue to benefit off of the super-exploitation of Third World Countries: Countries like Haiti that have been exploited and taken advantage of by the U.S., France, and the Bill and Hillary Clinton foundation, for example, that has milked Haiti for millions. Yes, millions.

In the ‘80s it was ACT UP who, as a mass movement, engaged in direct action and disrupted business as usual when We still didn’t know what the disease of AIDS and HIV was. ACT UP was one of the first mass organizations to challenge politicians and the pharmaceutical and medical industry; to do something and tell the public what was going on around this disease. And they did indeed ACT UP!

These are serious times from climate change/environmental impact to mass incarceration, from thousands of womyn, especially womyn of color, dying from both medical neglect and medical misdiagnosis to a roll back of the right to choose and control their own bodies.

We see rogue governments slaughtering and bombing millions of people while refusing to respect the sovereignty of other Nations/Countries without fear of sanction or accountability—while paying dues to a toothless and spineless United Nations.

In the 21st Century, you now hear politicians talking about amending the constitution, removing the 14th Amendment, and challenging the so-called legitimacy of the “Birthright” of those born within the empire/u.s. While i believe that Black people represent an oppressed neo-colonized New Afrikan Nation, what does such a change in the (illegitimate) u.s. constitution mean for New Afrikan folks, who had 2nd class citizenship imposed on Us in the first place through an illegal process?

While Trump and the 2025 creators is trying to slide this in under the smokescreen of “illegal immigration,” it will set an ugly and dangerous precedent. It is also a dog whistle for more right-wing reactionary groups.

Throughout history, it has always been Students and Workers that have played a decisive role in any serious revolutionary movement or process that was a challenge to state power.

Colleges and Universities should be a hot bed of ideological struggle, idealism, and debate around critical issues.

Ideological struggle is both necessary and beneficial to the organizing of such a mass movement. We should be having discussions and debates around questions of Domestic Genocide & Neocolonialism, National Liberation Struggles, the Commonality and Intersectionality of various forms of oppression on an international level, Self-Policing, and Community Empowerment, Patriarchy and Homophobia, Violence in Communities of color, etc. (We cannot say We believe in freedom and justice if it doesn’t apply to all human beings and it is this violence that is leading to such a high murder rate of womyn and children in throughout the empire).

These are issues and questions that should be being discussed by students on a national level and platform in order to bring about a stronger unity and cohesiveness:

How do We build a movement in this day and age of talk of constitutional amendments, use of the military against its “citizens?”
This includes this time/era of banning books and rewriting history under the guise of defeating “wokeism:” a modern-day version of burning books.
How do We develop a united front and move as a clinched fist on a national level in the days of an ultra-conservative and right-wing Supreme Court before the hammer and intense repression comes down?

On critical issues of importance, where there needs to be a national response, it can’t always be a reactionary or spontaneous response. We can’t always be issue-orientated where We are responding to a social media post. It has to be a method to the madness and you have to have a vision as to that which you are fighting for and the world in which you want to live. And with that comes a strategy and development of tactics. As part of that comes ideological struggle and discussion around critical issues. And with that comes organizational structure.

What that means is: We become more proactive instead of just being defensive orientated. What does that produce? It produces the ability to be more effective and have a greater impact. It produces the capacity to put a call out that could be responded to by hundreds of thousands, it allows Us to come out in defense of one another, it allows us to put in place checks and balances against unchecked oppressive power or a neo-fascist dictatorship.

I challenge in general all progressive student groups and organizations, but i challenge specifically New Afrikan/Black, Hispanic, and First Nation groups and organizations to put together a nationwide zoom meeting by the Spring of 2025 as the first step to laying the foundation for the creation of this Congress. Let it begin with a collective conversation.

FREE THE LAND!

Shaka A. Shakur
www.ShakaShakur.org
shaka@shakashakur.org

Note

Recently, it has been widely reported that approximately a dozen men at the Red Onion Supermax Prison have been setting themselves on fire to protest the conditions of confinement and human Rights violations at the prison. When i say widely reported, I’m talking about both internationally and nationally, both mainstream and progressive media, as well as alternative press.

In Westville, Indiana, a $2 billion Super High-Tech Maximum-Security Prison is being built to replace the Indiana State Prison. That is $2 billion with a “b,” to house human beings in a little ass cage. Question: Where is the outrage? Prisoners setting themselves on fire in the era of MAGA!

Where is the prison abolition movement on this and where is the moral outrage of the student movement” on this? How can We generate the same energy around mass incarceration that We see around that of a Free Palestine? No disrespect.