Speech from the Anti-Imperialist Contingent

We Continue the Struggle Against Imperialism
Speech given by Mel Pilbin of the Heads Up Collective at the day-after-the-election protest at Powell and Market


It's great to see you all out tonight. It's so important that we are in the streets today to express our outrage and demonstrate the power of our movements. My name is Mel Pilbin and I am a member of the Heads Up Collective and part of tonight's Anti-Imperialist Contingent. Heads Up is honored to be speaking. The connections that are being made in this march between U.S. imperialist war and the war on the working poor and people of color in this country are exactly the types of connections we need to be making to help build power and unity as a left radical movement. And power and movement building are going to be more necessary than ever over the next four years.

The Heads Up Collective formed shortly after September 11th to do anti-war organizing in the Bay Area that made explicit the connections to the wars being waged domestically. We are a white, anti-racist, anti-imperialist collective that prioritizes doing movement building work with economic and racial justice struggles led by poor people and people of color. We organize in the anti-war and global justice movements with a focus on Palestinian liberation and supporting anti-racist analysis and practice among
predominately white sectors. Our overarching goal is to help build revolutionary, multi-racial, working-class led movements in the Bay Area.

Heads Up joins today with Siafu, Global Intifada, and our close allies to form the Anti-Imperialist Contingent. Siafu is a delegation of Bay Area anti-imperialist activists of color and white anti-racist allies that came together to protest the RNC. Global Intifada is a multi-racial affinity group within Direct Action to Stop the War that has a strong focus on supporting Palestinian Liberation and resisting racist attacks on civil liberties.

Our theme for tonight¹s march is the "Ghosts of the dead and the
disappeared". In the tradition of Dia de los Muertos, we mourn the victims and honor the lives of those killed at the hands of U.S. Imperialism. Imperialism is the global system that causes the war abroad and the war at home in the U.S. We come together tonight to help make visible the struggles of Third World peoples around the globe as well as the policies that make those struggles necessary.

Today we are faced with the same system that we were faced with yesterday and therefore we have the same task we have always had; to build a broad and powerful revolutionary grassroots movement led by exploited and oppressed people and ready to challenge U.S. imperialism in solidarity with grassroots movements on a global scale.

As white folks in the movement we need to continue to build on the connections between local struggles and movements on an international level and work to support the leadership coming from oppressed communities. This is not just about liberation of other people, but also about our own liberation from these systems of oppression and from Capitalism.

We know we cannot vote for freedom within this two party system. We know real democracy comes from grassroots organizing, leadership and
self-determination in oppressed communities.

Despite the disappointing outcome of the elections, I am inspired by what we are a part of building here and now. As we march today challenging the war in Iraq, the occupation of Palestine and U.S. intervention globally, we must also continue to challenge the daily war waged against exploited and oppressed communities within this country. Understanding how the issues are interconnected brings our movements together. We must continue to join in struggle to unify our movement and build power for what lies ahead.

The Heads Up Collective is proud to be in the streets with all of you tonight expressing our outrage and demonstrating our hope and revolutionary vision for a world beyond the Bush regime and Beyond U.S. Imperialism.

*Messaging developed by the Anti-Imperialist Contingent was used in this speech.