On May 13, on Chicago’s West Side police shot and killed yet another Black man, 26-year-old Sharell Brown. A Progressive Labor Party member was informed soon after the deadly shooting by one of their hospital co-workers. They quickly relayed this to fellow Party members who went door-to-door in an effort to get more information about the killing. It was reported on the Internet that Sharell was shot multiple times in confrontations with two cops, who—of course—claimed he was shooting at them. PL’ers went to neighborhood people to give PL’s perspective on the need to organize in order to advance the fight against these racist murders. They brought CHALLENGE with them too to help bring home that racism pervades the whole country and is the life-blood of U.S. capitalism. Capitalism needs and breeds racist hatred and racist murder, and if there’s going to be an end to racist murders it means building and winning the revolutionary fight for communism. It’s the only way.
Just like police killings all over the U.S., this police murder came as no surprise to the West Side. Police murders here are not rare. Last summer, another young Black man, 15-year-old Steven Rosenthal was killed by a cop who claimed that Steven committed suicide at the back door of his grandmother’s house after being chased on foot by the cops. PLP joined Steven’s family and friends in many marches to protest this fake account, which was supported by the Chicago Police Department.
The lives of Black folk in poor neighborhoods like the West Side are cheap to capitalist bosses. They not only don’t care but have to harass, pin crimes on, jail and terrorize working people, especially Black workers, to keep them down. The police are an essential part of the whole machine that oppresses working people and then blames them for the problems we face. Those who run the U.S. look like they’re above it all, because the cops do their dirty work.
PL’ers distributed CHALLENGEs and made contacts in an effort to develop a bigger base to keep the fight going. We’re clear that we need to get the word out to our co-workers and neighbors. One way was to have our May Day March and Dinner this year in the community itself. As we marched, many said that we all need to get better organized. It’s said that the bosses create their own gravediggers, but it’s not enough to be a gravedigger. You have to take the life out of capitalism first to have something to put in the grave. We’ll be continuing to protest this latest killing and to organize for the struggles to come.