GPNJ stands with People’s Organization for Progress on this day in its demand for reparations. The date of this important action conflicts with our previously scheduled statewide meeting and special convention; therefore, many of us cannot be physically present at the march. Know that our spirits are with you and we wanted to communicate our solidarity in this struggle.
The struggle for reparations is part of the fight for a just world. We recognize that after centuries of systemic oppression – from the Middle Passage, to slavery, to share-cropping, the convict-lease system, Jim Crow laws and redlining – the struggle is ongoing. To this day the black community faces the mass incarceration state and the permanent threat of state violence through extrajudicial killings. We realize that all of these problems are different manifestations of the same white supremacist system, and we acknowledge that many of our members benefit from this system.
It is a system that will not be fixed by appeals to “color-blindness.” It was conscious discrimination and violence that created the current situation, and it will take a conscious approach to justice to make the radical changes we need. GPNJ recognizes that to truly embrace solidarity we must shed the attitudes and commitment to white supremacy that are maintained by the system and actively combat these attitudes within ourselves, within our organizations, and within our institutions, and society. We do this because the struggle for black liberation is part of the fight for our collective liberation. None of us are free until all of us are free. So long as there is an oppressed community among us, the oppressor class can continue to exploit those divisions to keep us from achieving justice.
So today we reaffirm our commitment to the struggle for reparations. State-sanctioned injustice must be met with state-sponsored justice for those affected. While we recognize the need for this struggle to be led by the black community, we will stand with you in solidarity and unity of purpose.
In Solidarity,
The Green Party of New Jersey