NEW YORK CITY, January 24 — With the weather snowy and wet, the streets icy and slippery, a forum “Ferguson: Causes, Events, What Happens Now?” took place in the sanctuary of our church. Ten minutes before the beginning of the forum, it appeared that almost nobody would show up, but soon there were almost 100 people sitting in the pews awaiting the start of the forum.
Following the official welcome to the church, a worker sang a song that named and honored many victims of racist police murders. There was tremendous applause for the words and the beauty of the song.
The forum began with introductions of the five speakers: a representative of the New York Civil Liberties Union, a Baptist minister, a mother whose daughter had died in police custody, and two young fighters who went to Ferguson to take part in the struggle. Questions followed.
Ferguson has become a symbol for fighting back militantly against a system which is unequal, corrupt, and racist. Each of the speakers, in their own way, spoke to that. Although there were differences, none of the speakers disagreed about the nature of the system — the main disagreement was on how to fight back.
The lawyer from the NYCLU spoke most forcefully about the fact that the system is not even set up to help us, and that there are many laws that hamstring struggles through the courts. She agreed with direct action on the street, which she said could then be brought to court. She wanted to see equal implementation of laws and improved laws. She is working with others to gain that.
The next speaker briefed the audience on his trip to Ferguson. He started off his talk with a chant for everybody in the church to recite. “Ferguson means fight back!” “Racism means fight back!” He then spoke to the need for mass struggle on a militant level. He called for more marches, demonstrations, etc. He pointed out that this was the lesson of Ferguson. He also spoke about local struggles to improve people’s living conditions against racist landlords and other oppressors and he insisted that they should be carried out the Ferguson way.
The minister spoke next. He had the same feelings about the terrible, oppressive racism in Ferguson and in different parts of the U.S., but said he still believed in the power of prayer. However, workers can’t pray racism away.
A young student, a member of the Progressive Labor Party who had been arrested in Ferguson at a protest, spoke about the need to make a communist revolution in order to end racism all over the world. He said the many injustices we live under cannot be destroyed until all the aspects of the system are destroyed. This means destroying capitalism.
The last speaker was Anita Neal, whose daughter had been killed by the callous racist system. She brought the people to their feet — between her anger and her tears.
Questions from the audience allowed the speakers to go more deeply into each of their philosophical differences. Despite their differences, they all agreed to the need to stand up and fight evil face on. At the end of the forum people remained to talk to each other. Quite a few went out together to eat and talk some more. The afternoon was a success for community involvement. Plans are being laid to involve the church and community more in the struggle against the racist injustice of capitalism.
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BROOKLYN, NY, February 22 — This weekend our club organized a community forum on racism, with more than 40 people attending, including members and guests. There were several topics discussed.
Racist Exploitation and Deportations
A young comrade discussed this topic, arguing that Obama’s new immigration law is a dangerous trap for the majority of immigrants because of the increased controls as a result of “registering.” In addition, immigrant youth will be vulnerable to future wars because they’ll be recruited to fight imperialist wars.
Racism is a tool to intensify capitalist exploitation of the whole working class for use as cheap labor by dividing some groups of workers against others, and allows the bosses to both control the workers and gain “super profits.” Many in the audience were asking, how can we trust this president, who has already deported more than two million immigrants? We cannot. The only people to have confidence in are workers worldwide.
Racism and Police Brutality
Another comrade spoke about this issue and called out the names of all those murdered by the police: Eric Garner, Kimani Gray, Kyam Livingston, Shantel Davis, Michael Brown, and so many more. Names were read of victims from New York, Ferguson, Missouri, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and more.
Racism in the form of police brutality means the jailing of more than two million workers and youth here in the U.S. for slave labor, 70 percent of which are Black and Latin, who have to work for private companies at the miserable wages of $0.08 an hour.
Racism – The Struggle Against Imperialist War and Imperialism
For this topic we discussed the motives and justifications used by the biggest capitalists — the imperialists — to expand their wars to control land and wealth, especially oil in the Middle East. The imperialists impose their wars to terrorize and control the world. Iraq was mentioned as an example, which the U.S. destroyed using the lie it possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Imperialist powers build and sell modern weapons to other countries, like the thousands of chemical weapons Iraq legally purchased from the U.S. during the 1980s. Then the imperialists invade these countries, destroying them so that later their own companies “rebuild” them in exchange for long-term debt.
We also discussed Cuba, which suffered an economic blockade for more than 50 years. Now Cuba is being re-engaged by the U.S. as part of a fake “peace” plan and hopes Cuba can be used as a backyard in future wars, much as how the U.S. has always viewed Latin America as its backyard since the Monroe Doctrine in the 1820s.
There were some comments from the audience, which illustrated racism in the wages they received, discrimination, and exploitation at work. Some detailed kidnappings and abuses when they came into this country, and the miserable housing conditions they confront as they fight eviction efforts. We confirm what we read in CHALLENGE, that Black and Latin families experience racism in all its forms: lower wages and benefits — lousy health care, housing and education — twice the rate of unemployment and wholesale murders at the hands of racist police.
After the forum, we held a small demonstration and chanted militant slogans. We distributed CHALLENGE, and people greeted us as we went by. Everything was well organized, and with the support and presence of experienced Party members, we had a successful forum and demonstration. Now, we are planning our next event before May Day, because people want to know what’s going on with ISIS, France, China, Cuba, and Ukraine.