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Joseph "Lil Joe" Johnson
grew up in the Pueblo Del Rio housing project in South Central
Los Angeles (the "Pueblos"). At the age of 11 or 12
years old, Joe became a "gang" member in the
"Pueblo Condors." A so-called "gang" is an
organization of working-class youth, organized on a community
basis. Joe was the youngest in this teenage group.
In 1959 or '60, Joe moved with his family
from the Pueblos to Compton, California. In Compton, Joe joined
the local community "gang" that called themselves the
"Barbarians." Again, Joe was the youngest and,
consequently, the smallest member of that "gang."
Because Joe was the youngest and smallest of the
"gang," Joe was called "Little Joe." The
nickname stuck and, to this day, he is referred to as "Lil
Joe" from Compton.
The Compton Barbarians merged with a Watts
"gang" calling themselves the Baby Orientals. The Baby
Orientals were based in the Imperial Courts housing projects in
Watts, California. In about 1961, Lil Joe was arrested for being
"incorrigible, " and for fighting. At the age of 13,
the Juvenile Court sentenced Lil Joe to six months at a
"junior camp" called Camp Hondo.
At Camp Hondo, Lil Joe organized the Black
inmates into a "Blood Brotherhood." After a "race
riot," Lil Joe was expelled from Camp Hondo and sent to
Nellis in Whittier, California, a part of the California Youth
Authority. At the age of 14, and after spending about a year and a
half in
custody , Lil Joe was released (in 1963) from the
California Youth Authority. Lil Joe remained "free,"
and on the streets on parole for the next six months. At 15, Lil
Joe was arrested for fighting, and was returned to California
Youth
Authority , this time sent to Preston
in Ione, California . He was incarcerated for another year
and a half.
At Preston, Lil Joe was assigned to an all
day school unit. Together with five or six others who were a
part of the school unit, Lil Joe used his spare time to read
Encyclopedia articles about Africa and Islam. While studying
about Islam, Lil Joe read an article by Louis Lomax on Malcolm
X, entitled "When the Word Is Given." After that, Lil
Joe became "Muslim. "
At Preston, Lil Joe and others organized
the Blacks into a Black organization. But, Lil Joe was singled
out as the so-called "leader" of this Black
organization, and was placed in solitary confinement for six
months. The prison psychiatrist used to do ideological battles
with Lil Joe, but did allow him to have a Koran – which was
the first book that he read.
Although he was Muslim, Lil Joe had to
capitulate and pretend to be Christian in order to be released
from Youth Authority. In 1964, Lil Joe was released from
Preston. The Watts Riot in 1965 changed the consciousness of
most young Blacks in Los Angeles, and gang members became
revolutionaries instead. Those who were serious found their way
to Marxism, but, at any rate, to "Maoism." Many became
members of the Black Panther Party.
Lil Joe did not agree with the "10
Point Program" of the Black Panther Party and, therefore,
he never became an actual member -- although he worked closely
with the Party.
On the street, and back in Compton, Lil Joe
organized tenant associations against "landlords." The
Compton police tried to kill him, which forced him to go
underground and to leave Compton.
Lil Joe resisted conscription (the
"draft"), and became part of the anti-war movement. In
the anti-war movement, Lil Joe came into contact with communists
of varying strata -- Stalinists, Trotskyists, etc. – and began
to study their literature.
At age 23, in 1971, Lil Joe was arrested
for possession of a gun and did six months in the County Jail in
downtown Los Angeles. Joe organized the Trustees at Old County
into a "union," and the Trustees went on strike. The
newspapers reported the strike, which prevented the Guards from
carrying out their plan to have Lil Joe assassinated by an
inmate. Instead, Lil Joe was transferred to the "New County
Jail," where he did the remainder of his time in isolation.
By the 1980s the "black liberation
movement" in America was all but destroyed, and Lil
Joe found himself homeless for 10 years. He ended up in the
Pico-Union District, which is largely comprised of immigrants
from Central America. Lil Joe used to argue with other homeless
people about the political events, the cops, the collapse of the
Soviet Union, the War on Iraq, and other issues. By this, Lil
Joe came to the attention of an underground Meso-American group
that was involved in protecting immigrants from police and
lumpen abuse. Lil Joe joined and worked with this group for
10 years in defense of the community.
In 1992, the Los Angeles "Rodney King
Rebellion" occurred, and Lil Joe wrote political graffiti that
advocated class war and denounced the State. Lil Joe was
protected by the people in the community, but, finally, the cops
caught up with him and he was picked up and interrogated by the
cops and the FBI. After that, the cops were constantly harassing
Lil Joe, and he could no longer work effectively in the
community or regularly write his political graffiti.
Because of the police harassment, Lil Joe
was forced from the Pico-Union District, and he found living
space in a home for the elderly and disabled in the general Los
Angeles area. There, Lil Joe re-established contact with
survivors of the "black liberation movement" from the
'60s and '70s and he, subsequently, joined Labor Party
Advocates.
Once the Labor Party had its founding
convention (in 1996), Lil Joe and others fought for a class
political perspective within the Labor Party. Because of their
radical political perspective within the Los Angeles Chapter of
the Labor Party, that Chapter stopped having regular meetings.
Lil
Joe and his comrades from the '60s established connection with a
union local located in the Pico Union District, and organized
the "Inner-City Los Angeles Labor Party Organizing
Committee," which did outreach, political, and community
work in that immigrant community of the Pico Union District.
The national leadership of the Labor Party
forced the Inner-City Los Angeles Labor Party Organizing
Committee to disband.
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updated 11 April 2009 |
