Antiracist March on the Beach

click hereLos Angeles, August 8 — A multiracial group of 70 women and men transformed the scene on Ocean Front Walk in Venice Beach by marching through the crowds chanting, “Justice for Brendon Glenn; Justice for Jason Davis!” and “Black, Latin, Asian, White, to smash racism we must unite!” The response was overwhelmingly positive.
Brendon Glenn was an unarmed, homeless Black man shot to death by an LAPD kkkop on May 5. In the months since, the only word from the LAPD is that they are “conducting an investigation.” The police have refused to release video from a surveillance camera, leading the marchers to chant, “Release the video. Now!” The cops involved—Clifford Proctor and Jonathan Kawahara—are apparently on paid home leave. The shooter, Proctor, is Black, exposing the lie that racist killings are solely the work of white cops, or individuals’ racist ideas.
How did this Venice march come about? Members of a Unitarian Universalist church, including several members of the Peace & Social Justice Committee (PSJ), attended the UU General Assembly (GA) in June, where a resolution was passed supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. A PSJ member suggested that our committee push for a #BlackLivesMatter banner in front of our church. PL’ers on the committee explained why, in the crucial fight against the racist police terror, unemployment, and healthcare of this system, we should not support Black Lives Matter organizations.
PLP fights racism and racist police terror at every turn, so it is important to show that the BLM movement, while attracting thousands who have the best anti-racist intentions, has a ruling class-funded leadership that divides the working class through identity politics. Billionaire George Soros funds them. These ideas are dangerous to our class, as they try to convince Black workers that they should have an alliance with Black bosses and not with their white, Latin, and Asian working class sisters and brothers. History shows that our class can never win without multiracial unity.
PL’ers on the committee did not entirely win that argument this time, but there was agreement on dropping the hashtag (#) from the banner, to support the concept but not the organization, and including “Racism” with the “No” symbol over it, as inspired by the anti-racism buttons many of our church members have been wearing.
Applying PLP’s understanding that anti-racist class struggle is a critical ingredient for building a revolutionary communist movement capable of defeating capitalism, we suggested that PSJ organize a rally and march in response to the police murder of Brendon Glenn.
The committee enthusiastically adopted that idea, and over the next several weeks we involved nine other local organizations as co-sponsors. (Black Lives Matter did not respond to invitations through its national and LA websites.) Fourteen members of our congregation were among the participants; we aim to bring at least 30 to the next march on September 26.
PLP has a history organizing in this church, getting to know people, developing confidence in each other, fighting for our ideas, distributing CHALLENGE, and helping lead other struggles, such as support for car wash and hotel workers.
Fight Racism
As we organized for the August 8 march, the LAPD killed again in Venice. Jason Davis, a homeless white man, was killed by the kkkops July 13. They claimed Jason, who appeared to be mentally ill, had a knife. The only thing visible, in a video made by a bystander, is a box cutter on the sidewalk about 10 feet from Jason’s body.
At the rally, a speaker said that her whole life she benefitted from “white skin privilege” and intended to use her privilege to support the movement against police killings of Black men. Another speaker responded, admiring her anti-racist dedication, but argued that white working people are also exploited and oppressed by capitalism, but not to the same degree as Black workers.
As evidence against “white skin privilege,” he said, “Look at a chart that breaks down unemployment by so-called ‘race.’ In a period where Black unemployment is going up, does white unemployment go down? No. It also curves up, although to a lesser degree.”
He said the same could be seen in healthcare, education and housing, and that the U.S. soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan were disproportionately (to their percentage in the U.S. population) white non-Hispanics. “Is that a privilege?” he asked. He concluded that white working people can be far more than “allies” or “supporters” of Black workers; they are comrades in struggle.
In fact, the concept of “white-skin privilege” is one more divisive tactic that convinces members of the working class that white and non-white workers do not have the same enemy and the same fight. It hides the true nature of capitalism—a system built on exploitation of the entire working class, no matter the ruling-class imposed “race” of a worker, because that is how profit is made. The super-exploitation and oppression of Black workers does not mean that white workers are “privileged”—it allows for all workers’ wages and living conditions to be lowered.
The continued struggle of PL’ers in their churches, workplaces, and schools against the concepts of “white skin privilege” and against BLM-promoted “Black-only spaces” is crucial in uniting the working class. To smash this capitalist system that builds itself on the backs of the working class, all workers must see themselves as having the same enemy, the same fight, and as communist fighters for a better future!