Full-Scale Violent Repression
When it quickly became clear that the local police forces were not able to quash the uprisings, national guard forces were mobilized in many cities. And when even those combined forces looked incapable of containing the rebellions in key cities, President Lyndon Johnson ordered the deployment of army troops in Washington, DC, Baltimore, and Chicago. All told, over 50,000 army and national guard troops were deployed in dozens of cities.
A "riot control" headquarters led by a general was set up in the Pentagon, as well as a special high-level team in the White House. This was the first time since the Civil War that troops had been deployed to guard the national seats of power.
There were reports of debates among black soldiers at the Fort Meade base in Maryland as orders came in to the 6th Calvary regiment to occupy Washington, DC. Officers received orders to be on alert for "conspiracies" among black troops, including among the U.S. forces in Vietnam.
In Chicago, occupied by 11,000 federal troops, a number of black men were shot and killed--probably by police, though no pig was ever even identified as a killer, let alone charged. Shortly after the authorities restored "order" in the city, Mayor Richard Daley made clear how the pigs had been given a license to murder: he commanded the police chief to order his cops to "shoot to kill" anyone suspected of arson. Later media reports claimed that 46 people died nationally in the April 1968 rebellions, 41 of them black, 14 teenagers. But no one really knows how many were actually killed by the police and troops. More than 20,000 people were arrested.
This was a naked display of the institutions and organs of violent repression wielded by the rulers of this capitalist-imperialist system, who prey upon the masses of people here and around the world. The rulers were able to re-impose their "order" after days of rebellion. But people broadly saw the real nature of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in this country, even if they did not have a full scientific understanding of this. Instead of being intimidated, many people were further enraged by this and compelled into opposition and struggle against the system, among black people and also more broadly.
As the rulers came down violently on the uprisings, the U.S. Congress rushed to pass a new civil-rights act on April 10 that officially banned discrimination in housing. They hoped that people would believe the system was open to reform. But the law also contained new repressive measures--like making it a felony to cross state lines to "incite a riot," which was used against black revolutionaries and others.
Turning PointApril 1968 marked a turning point in the struggle in the U.S. Many, many more people had to face up to the fact that they faced a vicious enemy that was ruthless--even against those who resisted peacefully. More people started considering radical and revolutionary ideas and strategies. They wanted to struggle--and win--against the rulers and their system.
People were increasingly seeing the limits of the civil rights movement that began in the early '60s, and the Black Liberation Movement was rising explosively. In the period following the rebellions, organizations like the Black Panthers and the Revolutionary Union, forerunner of the Revolutionary Communist Party, led by Bob Avakian, attracted new fighters. There was a widespread sense that big, fundamental changes were needed; and many from different sections of the people raised, confronted, and debated big, consequential questions: What were the actual changes that were needed in society and in the world? How were those changes going to be made? What kind of ideology and what kind of leadership did you need? How should the masses of people be mobilized and organized? What would it take to actually defeat the enemy?
This oppressive monster, the system of U.S. capitalism-imperialism, still rules today--and now in an even more grotesque, dangerous way in the form of the fascist Trump/Pence regime. More than ever, there is a crying, urgent need for an actual revolution that can bring an end to this system and open the door to a radically new, liberating system aiming toward the emancipation of humanity. The struggle of black people to be free of their oppression is a key part of this revolution. And a significant section of black people can come to recognize the great social need to step up to help give leadership to that revolution. As Bob Avakian points out:
There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways--putting an end to this in the only way it can be done--by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.
(Article changed on April 4, 2018 at 00:33)
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