MXGM Self-Defence Manual

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Malcolm X Grassroots Movement March 2013
themselves into a broad multi-national coalition to sustain the mass mobilizations, initiate a
citywide organizing drive, and develop a unified strategy and program of action. This coalition
was one of the first forces to call for and organize a general assembly, similar to those utilized
by the Occupy movement in 2011, and to call for a “general strike” to ensure that its demands
were met. This broad coalition, in addition to various organizations taking individual
initiative, built a statewide “Justice for Oscar Grant Movement”, that had a national and
international following. Throughout 2009 and 2010 this movement employed a diversity of
tactics to keep the pressure on the government, and ensured that the trial of Johannes
Mehserle, the police officer who murdered Oscar Grant, was a political trail, even after it was
moved from the Bay Area to Los Angeles in the attempt to protect the police. This movement
and the pressure it was able to employ was the determining factor in ensuring the conviction of
Johannes Mehserle in 2010.
Resources:
1. Documents written and compiled by the organization Advance the struggle
http://advancethestruggle.wordpress.com/justice-for-oscar-grant/
2. “An Open Letter to the Oscar Grant Movement” by Kali Akuno
http://navigatingthestorm.blogspot.com/2010/07/open-letter-to-justice-for-oscargrant.html.
3. “Open Letter” Part 2 by Kali Akuno
http://navigatingthestorm.blogspot.com/2010/07/open-letter-to-justice-to-oscargrant.html.
Anaheim, CA
In response to the Anaheim, California Police Departments extrajudicial killings of two Latino
men, Manuel Angel Diaz, 25 and Joel Acevedo, 21 on July 21 st and 22 nd , 2012 respectively, the
Latino community in Anaheim engaged in a sustained direct action mobilization against the
Police department and Anaheim city officials for well over two weeks. Latino residents and
their allies used a range of tactics including marches, rallies, sit in’s, a picket of Disneyland and
occupations of intersections and police and city offices to ensure that business could not
proceed as usual to guarantee that their issues were addressed. In addition to the intolerable
police killing of at least five Latinos in the past year, the mobilizations drew attention to the
vast inequality between white and Latino communities in Anaheim and the colonial status of
Latinos who comprise 54% of the population and have virtually no representation in City
government. Over the course of several months this mobilization for justice for the two stolen
lives turned into a sustained political drive to transform the city by putting more Latino’s into
key political offices. As of February 2013, the drive for justice and accountability for the
extrajudicial killings committed by the Police continue, as does the drive for political
representation and more power within the framework of the Anaheim government.
Resources:
1. Anaheim: A Tale of Two Cities http://youtu.be/Nao4z6Dghco.
2. Latino protests in Anaheim continue http://www.latinopov.com/blog/p=5891.
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