In Spring 2015, the New York/New Jersey District of Liberation Road sponsored a forum entitled “Ferguson: The Movement So Far and Lessons for Coming Struggles.”The first speaker was our comrade, Montague Simmons, Chair of the legendary Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis. These five videos, roughly 5 minutes each, provide an inside and in depth look at what up to the Ferguson eruption and what happened after the murder of Mike Brown.
Part 1
Montague Simmons tells how little the St. Louis area has changed since his childhood,explaining how it’s a long-term experimental laboratory in racial segregation.[arve url="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZTq6UaJ1fzw" align="left" title="1. Montague Simmons of OBS on St. Louis and Ferguson" description="Montague Simmons of OBS on St. Louis and Ferguson" upload_date="Jul 5, 2015" /]
Part 2
The Organization for Black Struggle has been organizing around about police violence andother injustice in the Black community since 1980 and Montague Simmons talks about how thegroup was ready to move on August 10, 2014.[arve url="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s660bMK857U" align="left" title="2. Montague Simmons of OBS on the Organization for Black Struggle" description="Montague Simmons of OBS on the Organization for Black Struggle" upload_date="Jul 5, 2015" /]
Part 3
As the protests continue, Al Sharpton is deployed to quiet things down, leading to the first splitin the united front and then the creation of a new coalition to support the young people in thestreets and address policy questions.[arve url="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e9KXfR9DOpM" align="left" title="3. Montague Simmons of OBS on the Ferguson uprising" description="Montague Simmons of OBS on the Ferguson uprising" upload_date="Jul 5, 2015" /]
Part 4
Although local forces initially told outside folks not to come, some capable organizers cameanyway and helped provide capacity for a quickly organized national action and localinfrastructure.[arve url="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tkf664FFbqY" align="left" title="4. Montague Simmons of Organization of Black Struggle on Building a Movement" description="Montague Simmons of Organization of Black Struggle on Building a Movement" /]
Part 5
Montague Simmons talks about conversations in St. Louis focused on how to go beyondreforming the police into a creating a transformative vision in which the community takes onmany of the functions of the police.[arve url="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qxrjBJctHm4" align="left" title="5. Montague Simmons, Chair of the Organization of Black Struggle" description="Montague Simmons, Chair of the Organization of Black Struggle" /]