Claim “All Resources are tied up at Occupy Philly”

The Black is Back Coalition will hold a press conference and demonstration on Thursday, Oct 27 at 9am at Dilworth Plaza of City Hall to protest the Philadelphia City Commissioner’s decision to deny the Black is Back Coalition permit application to hold its November 5th march entitled “Stop the Wars! Build the Resistance!” which is planned to travel south down Broad St from Susquehanna to Thompson.  To justify its decision the City claims that the police department does not have the resources needed to properly “secure” the march because all of their resources are currently tied up in Occupy Philadelphia. 

 

The denial of a permit to hold the march is a blatant violation of the Black is Back Coalition's and the African community’s democratic and legal right to free speech - given the fact that Occupy Philly and Philly Against War have both held recent marches without a "permit." 

 

According to the U.S. constitution, exercise of one’s right to free speech is not dependent upon on the budgetary constraints of the government, budgetary constraints which would not even exist if the City was not spending $80,000 per week on providing security for Occupy Philly.  For the City to claim that it cannot find the money to staff a 2 hour march while it spends so much on Occupy Philly is clearly dishonest and revealing of the true standards by which it determines what political protest it will allow to happen.

The Black is Back Coalition is clear that, at the root of the City’s denial of the permit to hold the Nov 5 march, is an attempt on its part to undermine and frustrate the efforts being made by the African liberation movement within U.S. borders to rebuild itself after suffering a vicious military assault at the hands of the U.S. government in the 1960’s. 

To prevent the march entitled “Stop the Wars! Build the Resistance!” is to silence the voice which attempts to expose  the U.S. government’s continued war of aggression waged against the Black community through neo-colonial forces such as Barack Obama and Michael Nutter.  To prevent the march from happening is to deny the people the right to criticize the U.S. government in Philadelphia and elsewhere for its anti-African, anti-democratic policies of stop and frisk, youth curfew and $1 billion police/prison/court budget that come at the expense of any form of economic development for the oppressed and exploited African community.

The Black is Back Coalition is calling on the participants and leaders of Occupy Philly and other social movements in Philadelphia to stand in solidarity with it as it demands the City grant the permit to hold the march.  The Coalition states that the progressiveness of any social movement in this country should be determined in relation to the stand that such a movement takes on the question the U.S. government's war on the Black community - a war that literally provides economic stimulus for the general U.S. economy, particularly its finance capital sector.  There will be a press conference and rally held in protest of the City’s decision on Thursday at 9am at Dilworth Plaza.  The Black is Back Coalition invites everyone to attend this very important event.  For more information call 267-702-3250 or email philly@blackisbackcoalition.org