> The murder of Troy Davis is an abomination, but what percentage
> of people understand that.
I'm going by what Doug wrote on his blog:
http://lbo-news.com/2011/10/30/angela-davis%E2%80%99-advice-identify-with-the-defeated/
"But she reportedly told the OWS gathering at Zuccotti tonight to: 1) identify with Troy Davis, and 2) study the Attica prisoners for pointers on how to become a “dangerous class.”"
Identify with Troy Davis is another way of saying what Che and others also said -- feel an injury to others in your class as an injury to yourself. White skilled workers in the U.S. -- for example -- must *identify* themselves with those who are not as privileged as they are. This is really essential for white skilled workers to advance substantively (rather than adjectively) in promoting their own freedom. If this is what Angela Davis told OWS, then it makes a lot of sense.
This is different from the issue of whether the poorest, most disadvantaged segment of the working class is in a position to lead the whole class politically in a particular historical context. We shouldn't have a preconception about leadership, which is a highly contingent phenomenon. It's a rather fortuitous political phenomenon.
For example, one can make the case that, as a result of historical contingency (i.e. a bunch of causes, many of which are *not* essential to how our global society functions) young working people in North Africa have been effectively the political leaders of the workers of the world in recent times (as OWS acknowledges). That doesn't mean that Egyptian workers are in a position to liberate white skilled U.S. workers for good.
I say this, because on Facebook, Doug related what Angela Davis (apparently) said to the thesis that Black prisoners are the political "vanguard" of the working class. It's definitely a sign of maturity of working people, when they demonstrate solidarity with the most impoverished and oppressed sectors of their class, and what Angela Davis (presumably) said was very likely an attempt to help the WS Occupiers to increase their political maturity by learning about the experience of their brothers and sisters in the prison system. Now, we cannot rule out that people in prison may lead the way. Nelson Mandela was a case of a leader in prison who, from his confinement until early 1990, was absolutely capable of shaking the foundations of the apartheid political system. So, we shouldn't rule that out as a possibility either.