The writer is a student at Santa Monica College. He delivered this brief speech on behalf of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) at an event denouncing U.S. prison conditions.
The prison-industrial complex and the military-industrial complex are inextricably linked together in the United States. They are two facets of the same corrupt system—two sides of the same coin.
Prisons are concentration camps for the poor. They are racist institutions. Their primary aim is to keep those
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The U.S. corporate elite utilize this system to exploit working people by paying them the lowest wages possible, reaping in the highest profits for themselves. A society in which progress is measured by profit is a deeply unequal one.
Another expression of the system is waging imperialist wars. Just as 2.2 million of our sisters and brothers are locked up behind bars in the United States, the imperialists have killed over 2 million Iraqis over the past 14 years—all for corporate profits.
The ANSWER Coalition urges everyone in Los Angeles to come out on March 17, at Hollywood and Vine, at 12 noon, to protest against the war in Iraq and racism at home.
The interests of working-class and progressive people within the U.S. are the same as working and poor people in Iraq. Only a united movement independent of both the Democrats and Republicans can bring about lasting change here at home and around the world.
For more information call ANSWER-LA at 323-464-1636, email [email protected] or visit http://www.answerla.org/.
