As soon as I got off the plane from Los Angeles in St. Louis for the Ferguson October weekend, I was picked up and taken straight to the demonstration against racism.  Over one hundred were marching and we in Progressive Labor Party (PLP) were there with a large bullhorn, a vivid banner and militant chants.
Chants like “Who do we want? Darren Wilson. How do we want him? Dead. They left Mike Brown dead” were yelled.
The following day we attended a showing of a documentary of the work which the group Lost Voices has been involved in since the Ferguson kkkop Darren Wilson murdered Mike Brown. Near the end of the documentary a member of Lost Voices came in, interrupted the movie and said “We gotta go downstairs. The cops got the homie in the parking lot.” Everyone got up and went downstairs. Multiple cops had one car trapped in a parking stall. People yelled “What did they do?” The protesters, now a crowd of about 50, started chanting “Hey hey! Ho ho! These killer cops have got to go!” As the chanting become louder the cops backed down and the protesters moved up. Finally the cops got in their cars and drove off.
Afterwards, we finished watching the documentary and started a conversation with a young man who is one of the leaders of Lost Voices about capitalists who own the means of production and how they are the real enemies. We talked about CEOs, the cops and the federal government that make up their murder squads, and their whole state apparatus. They all have the blood of millions of working-class people on their hands.
Comrades also went door to door in two different apartment complexes. One was the complex where Mike Brown was murdered. The response was great. Many people took Challenge, and contacts were made.
Striking while the iron was hot, we spoke with a woman, a cashier, and security guard inside a convenience store. The woman was stunned by the fact that I flew to Ferguson from LA to join the fightback and stand in solidarity with my working-class brothers and sisters. I asked a comrade to run outside and grab a few Challenges for the woman, the cashier, and the security guard. He came back and handed the workers and the woman Challenge. We told them who we were and why we were there and asked them see to read Our Fight on page 2 of CHALLENGE.
The last night we were there, hundreds of students occupied St. Louis University. The students sent out mass texts, and tweets, asking for food, blankets, and water because they were ready to hold the college for days.
All of this fightback by the workers and students in Missouri has inspired me. These are the class struggles we in PLP have to be involved in and I’m glad I was there. When I return home, I’m going to give talks at various colleges in the area about the fightbacks against the racist pigs and the system for which they murder us to protect.
Young Red