Ferguson Youth Defy KKKops

FERGUSON, Missouri, August 11 —  “Racism means? We got to fight back!” came the shout down West Florissant Avenue, as hundreds of Black youth and PL’ers took the streets one year after the murder of Mike Brown by the racist Ferguson Police Department. In defiance of both the Ferguson PD and a thunderstorm, we chanted and stopped traffic.
PLP sent contingents from the South, the Midwest, and Los Angeles to Ferguson to organize around the one-year anniversary of Brown’s murder. Because of PLP’s consistent work in Ferguson over the past year, we have been welcomed by workers there. We received an especially warm response at CHALLENGE sales near the site of Mike Brown’s murder, a segregated Black working-class area. Many residents agreed with our analysis on the need for multiracial unity and workers’ power.
We have developed relationships with Ferguson youth who have organized themselves under the name of Lost Voices. For three nights in a row, PL’ers have joined with them and other young protesters in nightly marches from West Florissant Avenue to the Ferguson Police Department. These energetic marches would start small, with 50 to 60 people and a few cars, and then grow into masses of hundreds that took over the street. When PLP and Lost Voices led chants on the bullhorns, they were picked up by the rest of the marchers. These marches were powerful and loud, with a level of militancy that many people haven’t experienced before – even veteran members of PLP.
Ferguson: School for Communism
Many PL’ers have learned a lot about commitment and perseverance from the young people of Ferguson. Less experienced PL’ers have gotten a crash course in how to protest and fight back in this class struggle against the Ferguson PD and the capitalist state.  The lessons they have learned are invaluable.  
While standing shoulder to shoulder in this struggle, PLP has also struggled politically with our friends in the community to share our vision of the fight for communism. PL’ers held a study group that stressed the need for multiracial unity while discussing the divisive role played by all types of nationalism and the false notion of “white skin privilege.”  Some friends of PLP defended the idea of needing a “Black space,” and a comradely and passionate discussion ensued. PL’ers argued that ideas like “Black spaces” are pushed by the ruling class through organizations like Black Lives Matter, which is funded by the Ford Foundation and billionaire imperialist George Soros.  These backward ideas can only mislead workers into aligning with bosses of like “identity.” Unity with bosses is a death trap that leads workers to fight each other instead of the ruling class. PLP fights for worker unity: Asian, Latin, Black and white.
It is our discipline as a Party that allows us to grow and advance. Discipline means learning to recognize the limits of a situation.  During one march, the numbers of workers and community members dwindled to the point that continuing to hold the street would have unnecessarily risked our comrades and friends. Once the Party leadership determined it was time to leave the street, we made a tactical retreat. One individual who’d joined the march toward the end criticized the Party for leaving when we did.  He was a provocateur who wanted to attack the cops on the spot or provoke the cops into attacking the marchers. PLP believes in organizing a mass party for mass revolutionary violence, not spontaneous anarchy!
The Struggle Sharpens and Continues
Later that day, the police showed up in riot gear, and shots were fired between them and some community members. This gave the cops their opportunity to crack down. Tyrone Harris, who’d just graduated from high school and was a classmate of Michael Brown, was shot by St. Louis County Police. He is currently in a local hospital where his family has been banned from entering.
Our primary focus has been on the youth and community who were most active in the rebellion over the past year. However, this Summer Project has given us a new perspective on organizing and opened new possibilities for struggle. After the police crackdown, we attended a public meeting with progressive local clergy who are organizing their parishioners in direct action against racism in the area. We also are planning a rally and CHALLENGE sale at the hospital where Tyrone Harris is being held. We will reach out to health workers to make the connection between racist police terror and the racist healthcare system.
The fightback in Ferguson is far from over, and PLP’s work here is just getting started! Getting all workers to see that the Ferguson fight is their fight will be another nail in capitalism’s coffin. Multiracial unity of the entire working class is the only way to smash this entire system, and PLP’s Summer Project is bringing that future closer!