USA: Flatbush rebellion pamphlet

It can be downloaded (PDF) at THIS LINK. 

Excerpt:

3. WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

Rebellions like the one in Flatbush are happening across the world. In Paris, Oakland, London, and Cairo, rebellions are shaking the system. They’re happening because tens of millions of young people are being denied a future, and they’re angry about it.

For most young people in the U.S. today, there are very few jobs to be found. And those that exist don’t pay enough to cover rent or tuition, let alone raising a family. In some parts of the country, 50% of young black men are unemployed, and those with college degrees are mopping floors to pay their debts. The only choice young people have today is between grueling dead-end jobs at McDonalds, unemployment, prison, or death. And they know it. When adults tell them to “get a job” or “work their way up,” they are smart enough to know it is a lie, and they don’t listen. Some young people try to give their lives meaning by hustling, getting props from their friends, and getting a memorial mural on a brick wall somewhere when they die. This may give them a sense of honor, and a few friends may remember them. But it doesn’t change the larger system that denies the vast majority of people a good life. 

We live in an economic system called capitalism. The situation of young people today is not an accident, but something that’s an inherent part of our society: it happens on purpose. In our society, everyone is caught between unemployment and shitty employment. When we’re unemployed, we have some free time but risk starvation. When we’re employed, we earn a little money but have to sell ourselves to a boss for hours on end. This rat race is what keeps the system moving. The system demands that everyone must work at exhausting jobs and make profi ts for others, or be searching for work, desperate and poor.

Some people think they can escape this rat race if they work hard enough, but the reality is that most people never do. And if they escape it, they have to forget their hood roots, and become the new exploiters of the hood. 

This is why the rebellions will keep coming. NOT because young Black people are uncontrollable, inherently criminal, or fucked up. Rebellions will happen because people rise up against injustice. Because today, a whole generation is being thrown in the garbage, and it is refusing to be forgotten.

Source: Fire Next Time.