ANNAPOLIS, JANUARY 18—“Racism means we got to fight back!” Protesters chanted in front of the Maryland state capitol, where Tawanda Jones spoke at a rally of 200 workers and youth for her brother Tyrone West, a Black worker murdered by the racist police. Progressive Labor Party members participated in this multiracial rally on this night of below-freezing temperatures to add communist heat to the workers’ demands to end the state’s protection of the police from their racist crimes.
At heart-wrenching part of the rally, victims of Maryland racist police terror were called out by name, city or county, and racial background. Most of the dead were Black, but they also included Latin, Asian and white victims. For each, a paper with his or her name was held up, and anyone at the rally, who wished to volunteer, came up to take the paper, thereby representing and honoring that person by lying in the dark on the freezing concrete, and joining the growing die-in (see photo). Lawyers Mall, the open space outside the legislative buildings, ran out of space, with so many bodies—a chilling spectacle.
LEOBOR = Racist Terror Against Workers
The Maryland Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights (LEOBOR) is a law containing the strongest legal protections for police of any state in the US. The law was passed, years ago, as part of the notorious “War on Drugs.” This phony “war” was a decades-long excuse by U.S. bosses to intensify racist police terror in the U.S., and imperialist terror for workers across Latin America.
In another part of Maryland—Prince George’s County—PL’ers have done neighborhood canvassing against LEOBOR with the Prince George’s Peoples’ Coalition and the Maryland Coalition for Justice and Police Accountability. Tonight, we invited our friends to an upcoming Baltimore PLP forum, to discuss and organize for communist revolution as the way to finally end police brutality.
The protest was one of many high points in the struggle during the past year, a year in which PLP has played a significant role. We distributed leaflets and CHALLENGE newspapers to Black, Latin and white workers and youth. We have consistently participated in the inspiring West Wednesday rallies, held in memory of Tyrone West, every week in Baltimore. These modest-sized but powerful street protests combine profound anger alongside deep, sisterly and brotherly compassion for one another. This combination is the foundation for our growing international communist movement in Maryland.