HARLEM, June 13 — Today 150 angry residents of 2 Harlem housing projects and fighters held a militant rally in the pouring rain at the State Office Building nearby. Longtime local church friends gave out fliers and invited protesters to our next action group meeting and a flier decrying racism and calling for revolt against racist police and housing authority abuses. Progressive Labor Party distributed 60 CHALLENGEs.
Grant and Manhattanville are two huge public housing projects on either side of 125 St in West Harlem. Altogether there are about 4,500 residents and 1,900 youth.
The residents, poor and nearly all black, are treated like dirt by the racist cops and politicians. There are no after-school programs in the local schools, and there are none in the projects either. There isn’t even an indoor recreational area, and the outside sports courts are in poor repair.
The unemployment rate for young men is around 50 percent, and there are no job training programs. Columbia University has taken over the property across the street to expand its campus, driven hundreds out of their homes, and is gentrifying the whole area.  In return, they had promised to spend millions to provide services and opportunities to local youth, but have done nothing.
It is no wonder that some young people turn to drugs and violence in these conditions. There has been one murder and 19 shootings in the last three years.  But in response, hundreds of police with helicopters overhead made a military incursion into the projects on June 4. They broke down doors with battering rams,  trashed whole apartments, and handcuffed old women and children. Over 100 indictments were handed down, many more than the numbers who have been involved in gang activities. If any of these young men are convicted of even minor crimes, they will be banned from living with, or even visiting, their families. There is no doubt that fascism is here in the projects of NYC.
All the residents of Grant and Manhattanville are angry, as well they should be, although some say we just need better cops. Many have the illusion that better trained “community” police would keep young people on track and decrease crime. In reality, the role of the police is to protect the interests and property of the rich. The NYPD can shoot black and brown youth — murdered 16 in 2012 — with impunity and inner city youth rightly hate them. Seventy four percent of people shot in the first half of 2013 were black. Twenty two percent were Latino.
The young people do need to fight back, but it should be against racism, unemployment, poverty and lousy schools, not against each other.
We need to help build an ongoing organization among these tenants and youth that exposes the nature of the system and fights back militantly against this capitalist cesspool that is destroying its poorest workers and youth.