Forum: Hails Ferguson Rebellion, Shuts Down Streets

NEW YORK CITY, December 21 — The Progressive Labor Party and other antiracist protesters escalated the fight against U.S. kkkapitalism here this weekend. Rising fascism in the U.S. — and an onslaught of racist murders by the cops — has left workers and youth no choice but to fight back. These two days in New York demonstrated that workers and youth are not only open to communist politics, but are willing to organize under communist leadership.
Forum: Fight Like Ferguson
A multiracial crowd of over 140 workers and youth filled a Harlem church on Saturday to learn about fighting racist violence. A Ferguson rebel and fighters from Baltimore spoke about the need to build a resistance against racist police terror. On July 18, 2013, Tyrone West, a 44-year-old Black worker, was beaten to death by more than a dozen Baltimore cops. On December 18, seventeen months later, the state’s attorney declared the kkkops had used “objectively reasonable force” and would face no criminal charges. This murder forced workers in Baltimore to fight back. Every time the capitalist state kills one of our class brothers or sisters, it also recruits untold numbers of enemies against itself.
The Harlem forum displayed multiple branches of an antiracist movement budding all at once: the Ferguson rebellion that ignited an international fire to burn this capitalist system down; other local fightbacks, already in place, that enabled the spirit of Ferguson’s resistance to spread; the response in our schools and community organizations, led mostly by youth; the potential to recruit hundreds for communist revolution through bold and consistent political work. PLP has been active for years with families of police murder victims. We have had a significant presence in Ferguson. Our work has begun to bear fruit as the seeds of future actions are being planted.
Taking the Streets of Harlem
After the forum, the participants took the streets. We marched through the Manhanttanville and Grant housing projects, where police raided and arrested 40 young Black people in June in a full-scale racist assault, complete with helicopters. The cops swarmed the projects. They bashed down doors, trashed apartments, intimidated grandmothers and toddlers, and sought to arrest 103 indicted young people.
Complete with wanted posters of Darren Wilson, the killer of Michael Brown, and a banner calling for communist revolution. Marchers chanted, “Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Shut this racist system down!” Residents took CHALLENGE and expressed interest in fighting with us; a group of neighborhood youth joined the march. After we took half of 125th Street, Harlem’s main east-west thoroughfare, the cops were quick to show up. We were not intimidated. Workers threw their fists in the air in solidarity as we stopped traffic. Four Black teenage girls joined us chanting, and continued to follow us on the sidewalk after a cop prodded them off the street.
Our initial plan was to conclude the march with a picket of the State Office Building. But after seeing the outpouring of workers’ solidarity, we continued to march past the building and picketed in the street, blocking traffic all four ways. Drivers refused to move their cars. Their response showed us that many workers are ready to fight and take communist leadership.
The forum and rally were led by youth who organized against the police in Ferguson during the week following the no-indictment verdict for Michael Brown. That experience gave PL youth courage and confidence to defy cops in New York. We have many more lessons to learn and battles to fight, but this weekend showed that everything we do counts. Every time we protest, we intensify the potential for more rebellion.
Building Ties in the Working Class
Without deep and broad ties to the working class, the militancy and political sharpness of communists would be for naught. In addition to our Ferguson and Baltimore friends, two young people from upstate New York we met in the Ferguson jail came to this weekend’s actions. When asked to name the most gripping part of their trip, these new friends talked about PLP’s collectivity and organization. “You have dedication and love. Having this collective is beautiful…this bond. A big bond among everybody, that’s what really impacted me….Where I come from, [it’s about] them not having a clear view of the world. But y’all give people a chance to open up to y’all…to be themselves…to decide for themselves. I’m going to tell my people that you are real!” The relationship we built among youth we’d just met is based on communist confidence in the working class. PLP aspires to build a world based on collectivity and need, not individualism and profit.
‘We Surpassed Fear’
The following day, Sunday, we marched down Church Avenue in Brooklyn. Kyam Livingston was a 37-year-old Black worker killed in 2013 in a Brooklyn holding cell by gruesome medical neglect. Family and fighters marched despite the brewing terrorization of protesters after the killing of two cops in Bedford-Stuyvesant the day before (see page 1). Kyam’s mother cried, “I will fight for you, Kyam, until I die. Every day!”  As the youth and workers of Ayotzinapa, Mexico, have declared, “They have taken so much from us that they have even taken away our fear.”
As one of our new friends said, “How the officers dedicate their lives to kill us, we gotta dedicate ourselves to fight back. I don’t even know him [Mike Brown], but I’ll put my life on the line… We ain’t got no guns but we staying strong…People ask how you turn up like that. Simple fact is we surpassed fear. Ain’t nobody scared no more.”
Armed with the courage to fight back, multiracial unity will lead to more rebellions. It will open the door to a mass organized movement under communist leadership. With armed struggle to defeat capitalism, an egalitarian communist world where racism, sexism, and imperialist war will be outlawed, will rule the day.