SMASH POLICE TERROR WITH COMMUNIST REVOLUTION
FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 2021 AT 4:40PMOn April 20, Minneapolis killer kkkop Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder for the execution of George Floyd, a racist atrocity that set the international working class on fire last summer. The liberal capitalist bosses and their media were quick to celebrate the verdict as evidence that “the system worked.” In fact, however, Chauvin’s conviction was the exception that proves the rule. Beneath the bosses’ charade of “democracy” and “the rule of law'' lies the ugly truth: The capitalist profit system cannot work without violence, coercion, oppression, and racist and sexist exploitation.
The bosses need mad dog cops to intimidate workers’ fightback against the racist, sexist profit system. As we march on May Day, the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) declares that we must end these legalized lynchings—by smashing the capitalist rulers who sanction them. Cops can’t be brought to heel with reform legislation or oversight boards or body cameras. There’s one way to put these gangsters with badges out of business for good: with communist revolution.
Murder as usual
Under capitalism, police terror is business as usual. On average, on-duty cops in the U.S. kill 1,000 workers a year. From 2005 through 2018, according to a study at Bowling Green State University, fewer than one percent of these killers were arrested for murder or manslaughter (https://www.bgsu.edu). Only four—around three-hundredths of one percent—were convicted of murder. Were it not for a brave 17-year-old who recorded more than eight minutes of Chauvin choking Floyd to death last May, the cop would likely be walking free today.
Since March 29, when the Chauvin trial began, three workers a day have been killed by the bosses’ death squads (The Hill, 4/21). Chicago’s gestapo chased down 13-year-old Adam Toledo in an alleyway and killed him as he stood with his hands in the air (see CHALLENGE, 4/28). Barely 10 miles away from where George Floyd took his last breath, 20-year-old Daunte Wright was murdered for the capital crime of expired license plates (New York Times, 4/23). Even as the verdict against Chauvin was announced, 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was fatally shot four times after calling the police for help.
Fighting back against kkkop terror
In the wake of Ma’Khia’s murder, fellow officers shouted out “Blue Lives Matter!”—a slogan that affirms the cops’ freedom to slaughter Black, Latin, and immigrant workers at will. The police knew that Ma’Khia’s murder would be another match to ignite working-class rage (Newsweek, 4/21). Over the past year, millions of workers in more than 50 countries have taken the streets in solidarity with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, Stephon Clarke, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and too many others.
Under capitalism, murder-by-cop is a worldwide phenomenon. Last June, 14-year-old João Pedro Matos Pinto became one of more than 600 people killed by police in the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil—in less than six months. On April 27, in Bangladesh, at least five were killed and dozens injured “after police opened fire on a crowd of workers protesting to demand stolen wages and a pay rise at a Chinese-backed power plant” (reuters.com, 4/17). On March 27, a worker from Honduras named Victoria Salazar was killed in Tulum, a tourist hot spot, after a Mexican cop—taking a page from the murderer Chauvin—knelt on her neck (elpais.com, 4/6).
But just as bosses worldwide use U.S. racism as a model to terrorize workers in their own countries, anti-racist movements can be schools for workers to put communist ideas into practice for the communist future to come. When PLP joins these mass movements and struggles side by side with the working class, we teach and learn the importance of antiracist fightback and class struggle.
Imperialists sharpen their knives
In the context of inter-imperialist competition and a period of capitalism in crisis, the U.S. bosses have an insoluble problem. On the one hand, they need their killer cops to keep the working class in check—a policy that goes back to the 18th-century slave catchers, the original U.S. police forces. On the other hand, this brazen terror undercuts the rulers’ ability to rally its allies against its rivals under the banner of “human rights.” As the U.S. tries to focus the world’s attention on China’s racist attacks on the Uighurs in Xinjiang, China and Russia joined 23 other countries in a joint statement at the United Nations to condemn “systematic racist discrimination and violence.” They cited the cases of George Floyd and Jacob Blake, the Black worker who was shot in the back and paralyzed in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after cops were called to respond to a domestic dispute (American Military News, 10/7/20).
The liberal U.S. rulers also desperately need to figure out how to win more Black and Latin workers to fight and die in the next global imperialist war. That’s the impetus behind Jim Crow Joe Biden’s latest reformist crumb to rein in killer cops: The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The legislation would officially ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants and eliminate “qualified immunity,” which gives cops a license to kill without getting sued. But even if anyone believed that this law would change the KKKlan-in-blue’s behavior when so many others have failed, the cops have nothing to worry about. Because of splits in the ruling class and hard-core Republican (Small Fascists) opposition in the U.S. Senate, the bill’s passage is “extremely unlikely for now” (New York Times, 3/4).
Workers cannot trust liberal rulers like Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who are bought and paid for by finance capital. They will stab us in the back as soon as the latest reform struggle no longer fits their agenda.
PLP is the party of the international working class
Outgunned but far from outnumbered, workers continue to fight back. From the striking farmers in India to the women workers in El Salvador who occupied Florenzi Industries, the courage and resilience of the working class is an unstoppable force, even during a deadly pandemic. We have seen our class forge mutual aid networks in Haiti and stop evictions in the United States. We’ve seen workers in Colombia risk their lives to protest police murder. Whether large or small, every fightback has the potential to win more workers to fight for a communist world.
The police will always serve the ruling class; they are the bosses’ blunt instruments for control. Under communism, a society with no money, profits, or exploitation, there won’t be any need for them. Workers will be accountable to one another. The collective will resolve problems and disagreements based on what’s best for our class. While we agree with those who chant to abolish the police, we know that it can’t be done in isolation. We’ll need to abolish the whole rotten capitalist system to get these thugs’ knees off our backs.
On May Day, across five continents and in more than two dozen countries, Progressive Labor Party will bring our revolutionary line to the masses. It’s the holiday of the international working class, the time when our fight for one party, one class, and one world is on full and open display. United, workers cannot be defeated. We continue to fight for a communist world. Join us!
