Washington, D.C., September 22—The Howard University bosses felt pain from their ill-advised decision to invite former FBI Director James Comey to be the featured speaker at the University’s opening Convocation. Over 20 students organized as “HU Resist” inflicted that pain. They marched into the auditorium just before Comey was to speak singing the old protest song, “We Shall Not Be moved.”
The protesters then chanted, “Get out James Comey! You’re not our homie!” and “No justice, no peace, no f***ing police!” They read a list of Black members of the working class killed by the police.
Comey tried to speak but could not be heard over the chanting and finally sat down. The protesters marched out to join a bigger rally outside the auditorium. They rallied on the Yard (the main campus), growing in numbers.
The…students issued a statement saying Comey “represents an institution diametrically opposed to the interests of black people domestically and abroad. While his tenure at the FBI has finished, his impact on our community remains.”
In particular, they faulted him with propagating what some officials have called “the Ferguson effect” — a theory that the rise in violent crime is due to police being fearful of facing public criticism for being too violent, and therefore avoiding confrontations with criminals (Washington Post, 9/22).
The Ferguson effect is racist, unproven, and coined by the recently retired chief of the St. Louis police department, Doyle Sam Dotson III. This racist theory was used by Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago, Chuck Rosenberg, director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and of course James Comey. The Ferguson effect more reflects the trepidation of kkkops following the Ferguson rebellion. That’s a good thing. It shows how threatened the rulers feel of the possibility of class-conscious Black workers armed in rebellion. That idea that this resulted in an increase of violent crimes is how the rulers’ way to warrant an increase of police in the neighborhoods, part fascism, and all racism. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) stands in solidarity with Howard students for calling out the system’s racism.
The students then marched to the administration building to confront the President Wayne A.I. Frederick. Cowering in his office, he ordered the building locked down, and finally re-opened it two hours later after the rally ended.
HU Resist first stepped into the spotlight last semester as they protested the secret, on-campus meeting of President Frederick with the racist billionaire Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education. Several of the antiracist fighters also traveled to Charlottesville in August to confront the Nazis who rallied there (see CHALLENGE, 9/13).
Fight Elitism, Build Working-Class Consciousness
HU Resist is fighting back against elitism at the University; one HU Resist member declared, “Howard is doing exactly what it was designed to do: to be an institution for the future of the black elite.” HU Resist wants to demolish this type of culture and replace it with one of responsibility and empathy with the surrounding community. Unifying with working class communities throughout the Washington area is a great idea as the next step in the struggle.
The PLP calls on HU Resist to link up with the Washington area transit workers, who have their own militant history and are under sharp attack from management bosses. The future of a worker-student alliance against racism and capitalism is bright. Such an alliance can intensify the class struggle in all its dimensions and move our struggle closer to revolution and victory!
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Who Is Comey?
James B. Comey is best known for his October Surprise, an October 28 letter to Congress, essentially reopening a closed investigation of Clinton and her aids, which allegedly damaged Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency (CHALLENGE, 1/11).
But, Comey’s entire career has been a part of the (in)justice system of the United States that is responsible both for mass incarceration and vicious imperialism abroad. He is part and parcel of the ruling class’s ongoing attack on the global working class, including racist and international aggression and torture—par for the course for capitalism.
As Deputy Attorney General in 2005, he signed a memo in 2005 approving 13 forms of CIA torture during interrogation including waterboarding, wall slams, sexual humiliation, confinement in small boxes, subjection to extreme temperatures and stress positions, extreme sleep deprivation, and other forms of torture.
As FBI Director, he justified mass incarceration in a speech given in 2015. He also doubled the reward to $2 million for the capture of Black nationalist Assata Shakur, who has political asylum in Cuba. He led the charge to get Apple Inc. to install a “back door” for U.S. surveillance agencies to use, declaring at a cybersecurity conference in 2016, “There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America; there is no place outside of judicial reach.” (CNN 3/9/16).
He left the Department of (in)Justice in 2005 to work as general counsel for Lockheed Martin, the largest defense contractor in the U.S. and a key part of the US imperialist infrastructure. Five years later, he joined senior management person at Bridgewater Associates, a major investment firm, and then in 2013 joined the board of HSBC Holding, a major finance company that was in big legal trouble over money laundering for drug dealers and alleged terrorists.
“Comey led FBI surveillance of Black Lives Matter activists and leaders while directing the agency. Comey is set to lead a lecture series at Howard University this year” (BET, 9/23).
Like the City University of New York students did to war criminal David Petraeus in 2013, the Howard students have an opportunity to make Comey’s visit a memorable one.
Why at Howard?
Why, did Howard University invite him to launch this academic year at Convocation? Probably to demonstrate HU’s commitment to the existing capitalist order including some of its most heinous aspects. But here is what racist university President Frederick wrote to the campus community prior to the event:
“I am pleased to welcome Mr. James Comey to deliver the 150th Opening Convocation address... He will enlighten us and share with us his experiences and his expertise. Formerly the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), appointed by President Barack Obama, Mr. Comey is a man steeped in his ethics.”
If Comey is “steeped in his ethics”, we are facing a poisonous cup of tea.