Revolutionaries tell Councilman Withers, IF YOU are not going to support the people, WE will call YOU OUT! He gets the chalked street treatment.

Brett Withers

by Rod Williams - The revolutionaries have really got in for Brett Withers. "The people" are calling him out. Left wing revolutionaries are always "the people." Castro, Moa, Ho Chi, Lenin, Pol Pot all represented "the people."

Withers offence? He voted to fund the police department. During the deliberations over the budget there was one amendment that slashed the police budget almost in half and Withers voted against it. There was another amendment that restored in the Bendes budget, which was before the Council, the level of police funding that had been in the Cooper budget. Withers voted for it.

He tried to explain his vote in a lengthy Facebook post. I reprinted it in this blog and you can read it here. I thought he did a good job.

There was no plebiscite to determine if Brett's constituents wanted to abolish the police department or not, and Withers was duly elected by the voters of his district to represent them but we know how it works. Constituents are not "the people," voters are not "the people;" that is just bourgeois parliamentarianism. The revolutionaries discern what is the general will of the people and apply it in particular cases and if you disagree; well, you are an enemy of "the people."

 So, he has gotten the chalked street treatment. That sure is better than the firing squad or the guillotine or getting your house fire bombed; the revolution is still young. Getting chalked is pretty mild. Actually, chalking is the one form defacement of public property I would allow if I was the one in the position of discerning the will of the people. Chalk is temporary and washes off and does no permanent damage.

To show that despite that one vote that deviated from the way the revolutionaries wanted him to vote and to show he really was a bona fied progressive, he showed a collection of Communist books that he still had on his book shelf. In addition to having Communist books on his book shelf, Withers is a member of a maginalized community. Apparently that doesn't help.  Being part of a marinalized group and having commie books on your book shelf is not good enough.  Brett needs to learn that if you do not support the people then you are a counterrevolutionary and a running dog of Imperialism.

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