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218 11 Social Justice Programs The Young Lords were committed to fighting for social justice on all fronts. Like the Black Panthers, they ran various clothing and food programs to serve the poor people of their communities. They were stalwart antidrug advocates because they saw first-hand the impact of heroin on the people of their communities . They also made significant demands for prisoners’ rights and against prisoner abuse in New York. These essays from the Palante newspaper document what programs the Young Lords implemented and why they implemented them. YLO Feeds Children (From the newspaper Palante, 8 May 1970, volume 2, number 2) In this capitalist society, we are denied certain necessities such as food, clothing and decent shelter. We go to school without eating a hot breakfast and can’t concentrate on our own schoolwork as a result. How can we concentrate on doing any learning when our stomachs are growling? We are then told by teachers that we are stupid and can’t learn, giving us a defeatist attitude for the rest of our lives. The YOUNG LORDS ORGANIZATION realizes this, so we have instituted breakfast programs in our communities. One such program is at Emmaus House at 241 E. 116th Street. This Breakfast Program feeds 30 young Brothers and Sisters before they go to school. At this Program, they receive nourishing meals, such as fruit, juice, bacon, and hot chocolate. We do this in order to educate our People as to how a socialist society cares for the basic necessities of a People. The 13th Point of our 13 Point Program states, “We want a socialist society” meaning complete liberation, free food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, transportation, utilities, and employment for all. If the YLO can find hungry children, then people should really question themselves as to why, under this present system, where they have the money to put a man on the moon, people shouldn’t go hungry. We realize that the reason for this is that the man is out there for himself, and that he couldn’t care if young Puerto Rican and Black Brothers and Sisters go hungry, as long as the man is making his money. This pig talks of our violence while we are brutalized by his violence, by the violence of hungry children, illiterate adults, and diseased old people. This is why the 12th Point of our Program states that “Armed Self-Defense and Armed Struggle are the only means to Liberation.” The YOUNG LORDS ORGANIZATION is educating our people to the fact that when a government oppresses the People, we have the right and it is our duty, to abolish it and create a new one. Social Justice Programs 219 HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE! VENCEREMOS! Connie Morales Young Lords Organization Bronx Branch Free Clothes for the People (From the newspaper Palante, 22 May 1970, volume 2, number 3) The YOUNG LORDS ORGANIZATION has been running a series of Free Clothing Drives. The latest one was held on April 25, 1970, when over 300 mothers came and got clothes and kitchen utensils. Our cry is a very simple and logical one. Puerto Ricans came to this country hoping to get a decent job and to provide for their families, but it didn’t take long to find out that the amerikkkan dream that was publicized so nicely on our island, turned out to be the amerikkkan nightmare. We live in the worst housing, and have to pay the most rent. We work the hardest and longest under the most inhumane conditions, yet we don’t make enough bread to buy clothes for our children to go to school. We have to see our families live on rice and beans and crap all week. As servants of the people (Revolutionaries), we have committed ourselves wholeheartedly to the development of our Nation of Borinquen and all humanity. We understand that our people can only be educated through observation and participation. The YLO arrived at this conclusion not because we think that people are stupid, but because so many groups or individuals have used us so much—like politicians use workers—that even our own people didn’t give a damn about listening to the LORDS’ political program. We had to SHOW our people what we were all about, and not TALK so much. After seeing what we were all about by example, our people got involved, at first in El Barrio, in the struggle for liberation. Soon, all Puerto Ricans...

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