May First Statement on the Current Protests
We Truly Believe We Will Win
Statement by the Board of Directors of May First Movement Technology
June 3, 2020
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As a vicious novel pandemic has made the failings of a society thriving on injustice visible to all, and the economy has become increasingly fragile and unsustainable…
As the truth of governance based on neglect, violence and lies has exposed itself by government ineptitude in relation to the pandemic and systemic racism…
As the long-standing culture of daily repression, most often felt by the brutality of police against communities of color and the intrusiveness of surveillance, grows in spite of being clearly exposed…
As the myth of a “better life” for the youth of this country has been shattered by the excruciating failures and pressures of their own lives…
As the looming threat to human survival that is the climate crisis continues unabated and unchallenged by authorities…
As it has become clear that we live in a society that is no longer functional…
People in over 140 cities and towns of the United States, particularly youth – braving the pandemic and the menace of tear-gas, batons, bullets, other physical violence and arrest – have taken to the streets in militant and uncompromising protest. They represent us all and their actions continue to encourage more and more people.
We at May First Movement Technology are part of this movement of resistance. We understand that growth in the technology of popular communications is an outcome of this situation: a response by the human race to its need to survive through collective practice and communication. We also understand that this technology developed by the human race has proven its worth in the organizing of these demonstrations. If there is any lesson to be drawn from what’s happened, it’s how critical this resource is and how important it is for us to protect, improve, and expand it.
We are committed to participating in that effort and in supporting, in any way we can, the resistance movements organizing for collective liberation.
Many of our members are on those streets. All of our members are supportive of and stand with them. We want to make available to these movements the communications, information and technology we have. We are already involved in efforts to improve that technology and make it more useful to those movements and reflective of their needs and cultures. Finally, we are part of the world- wide effort to build a communications system that is independent of corporate control and government interference and we intend to accelerate that initiative.
As a people of color and women-led organization, May First Movement Technology affirms the necessity of POC leadership in this moment and that is the leadership that is guiding this movement of resistance.
Regardless what happens right now, it’s clear that this major and emerging development in the struggle is essential to human survival and that will deepen and intensify in the future.
We will be there side-by-side with liberation movements to meet the challenges and seize whatever opportunities new developments present. We truly believe that we will win.
The Board of May First Movement Technology.
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