From: mim%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (Maoist Intl'ist Mvmnt)
Subject: DC:Statehood is Not Enough!
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 01:08:56 GMT



Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

from the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)

MIM Notes, Issue 71: December, 1992


                   D.C. statehood is not enough

                           by a comrade

One month before the elections Congress forced the most expansive,
racist death penalty initiative seen yet onto the ballot. A white
Senator from Alabama proposed the initiative, outraged when his
white aide was killed recently on Capitol Hill. The tough-on-crime
measure was markedly *not* a response to the deaths of hundreds of
Blacks in the city every year.

Studies have shown that the death penalty used as a tool for
nation and class oppression. This particular measure went further,
expanding the crimes for which the death penalty could be imposed.
It also would have the executions performed in the District, but
rather in the home states of the white guys who proposed this in
the first place! The methods of execution were not specified on
the ballot, and therefore could have included electrocution in
Alabama, lethal injection in Texas, or gassing in North
Carolina.(2)

The referendum was overwhelmingly defeated, by a 2-to-1 vote. The
loudest opposition came from church leaders and local politicians,
including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt
Kelly. But the strongest vote against the initiative came from the
city's poorest, most crime-ridden areas. The media expressed shock
at this, expecting poor Black people who are sick of crime to vote
to kill other poor Black people who are sick of being
oppressed.(3) The masses from the poorest neighborhoods know that
the death penalty doesn't deter killings, and neither does
increased police "protection."

"Thou Shalt Not Kill" signs went up all over the city. Ministers
opposed the measure on moral and religious grounds rather than
political, but noted the disproportionate impact on young Black
men, especially when the victim of the killing is white.(4) The
problem is, some who voted against this initiative would vote for
the death penalty if put on the ballot by D.C. residents.

Statehood

The death penalty measure was politically tied to the idea of
statehood for the District of Columbia. And now that Clinton and
more Democratic Congressional representatives have been elected,
the statehood furor is moving at greater speeds, with continued
begging of Congress for a statute that would create the 51st
state. Statehood supporters are calling for voting representation
in Congress and two Senators like every other state.

Many believed that if D.C. residents accepted an initiative from
Congress, all hopes of attaining statehood would be lost. Further,
area politicians are now celebrating Clinton's victory, hoping it
will mean increased autonomy and eventual statehood for the
District.(5) (Remember, Clinton is the one who wants to put
100,000 more pigs on the streets and who brags about executions in
Arkansas during his governorship.)

One person noted that D.C. needs "more funding for education,
recreation and after-school programs."(6) While an improvement
over cops and executions, government-run educational programs will
not stop "crime." The only thing that can possibly stop crime is a
revolutionary reallocation of resources to the masses, which will
not be accomplished through D.C. statehood.

People fighting for statehood focus on the issue of taxation
without representation -- D.C. pays highest federal taxes per
capita -- and some liken the situation to that in Azania.(7) But
what about those oppressed nations that do live in states that
have "representation"?

In 1973 Congress passed the Home Rule Act, which gave the District
limited dominion over local affairs, but the federal government
still retained veto power over all acts. Since 1979 the D.C.
Statehood Party has been campaigning for a statehood initiative to
bring more autonomy and self-determination to D.C. The name of the
proposed state is New Columbia, a tribute to the colonialist
monster Columbus.

The proposed constitution and Bill of Rights sounds much like any
other, including "freedom from discrimination" and laws against
violence against people because of nationality, poverty, race,
citizenship, sex, sexual orientation, etc.(1) These ideas sound
great, but Amerikans have yet to see them put into practice by
this white imperialist patriarchy.

The call for statehood ignores the fact that Blacks, Latinos, and
Indigenous peoples are oppressed even when they live in states
with federal representation in Congress. The call for statehood is
a liberal one, focussing on the racism of the status of D.C.
today. But if we want ITAL real END ITAL change and not just the
kind of change promised by Clinton and the Democrats, then we need
revolutionary calls for an overthrow of the entire Amerikan
system, not a call to include more Blacks in the ranks of Congress
and the Senate.


Notes:

1. "The Statehood Option" in Facts & Issues, League of Women
   Voters of D.C. Education Fund, 1985.
2. Flier of Equal Justice, USA; A Project of the Quixote Center,
   Hyattsville, MD.
3. Washington Post 11/5/92, p. C1.
4. Flier of "Committee Against All Killing."
5. W.P. 11/5/92, p. C10.
6. W.P. 11/5/92, p. C14.
7. Community News, Howard University 6/7/90.


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