PLP and fighters call out racist liberal bosses

BALTIMORE, September 10—As the weekly West Wednesday rallies continue to demand accountability for the murder of Tyrone West by twelve to fifteen Baltimore Police and a Morgan University officer, President Donald Trump spent most of a week tweeting that the city of Baltimore is a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.” This disgusting racism means, in his eyes, that the people of this majority-Black city are sub-human.
Two of the liberal bosses in Baltimore organized a statement by ten major capitalists and their allies – published as an op-ed in the local Sun newspaper – to seemingly defend Baltimore against Trump’s venom. The article praised their large investment activities in the city as moving the city to ever-greater prosperity. A speaker from Progressive Labor Party at one of the West Wednesday rallies, pointed out that anti-racist organizers should not be misled into thinking that Trump’s liberal opponents, those who signed the statement, are in any way our allies in the fight against racism.
Daniels, misleader # 1
One organizer of the newspaper statement, Ron Daniels, is the President of Johns Hopkins University. Just a few months ago, Daniels used a massive mobilization of city police to suppress the 37-day sit-in that was boldly fighting for three powerful, anti-racist demands:  
Stop the administration’s plan for Hopkins to have its own private armed police force.
Stop the University’s complicity with ICE. Specifically, end university contracts funded with millions of dollars from ICE, to train medics, without whom many viciously anti-immigrant ICE activities cannot be conducted.
Support accountability regarding the cops who murdered Tyrone West.
Ever since the very beginning of the sit-in, protestors at West Wednesday have included Hopkins students, and they know, all too well, that Daniels is definitely not our friend.  
Plank, misleader # 2
Kevin Plank is the other organizer of the newspaper statement against Trump’s racist remarks about Baltimore. Plank is the CEO of Under Armour, which is headquartered in Baltimore, and participates in racism globally. Virtually all of Under Armour’s products are made by third-party manufacturers in some 15 countries, with about 60% of the company’s products made under sweatshop conditions in China, Jordan, Vietnam, and Malaysia (Capital Gazette, 2/11/17).
In Baltimore, Plank – who is one of Maryland’s richest men–is developing a large new section of the city known as Port Covington, which will include offices, shops, apartments, and the new headquarters for Under Armour, all on a long waterfront expanse, a plan that profits from the crumbling conditions of predominately Black working class neighborhoods.
When Daniels and Plank were named, during the Party member’s speech, there were loud boo’s for each of those men, from participants at West Wednesday. It was therefore easy for the PLP speaker to stress that the liberal, anti-racist & anti-Trump mask worn by these two capitalist organizers – Daniels and Plank – must be ripped off, for they, even more than Trump, directly exploit and oppress the workers and students of Baltimore. At one point, the speaker said, “The liberal businessmen like Plank, and the liberal education leaders like Daniels, in a certain sense are more dangerous than the right-wingers like Trump because they fool us, and therefore can get away with more horrible realities.”
In response, one of the students who had boldly participated in the sit-in, called out, “That’s right! That’s dope.”
Much the same can be said about the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and other liberal politicians will not lead us to an anti-racist future, despite their posturing. Perhaps even more effectively than Trump and the Republicans, liberal politicians will lead us to more intense racist exploitation and world war. They will attempt to rally the multi-racial working class of the U.S. into a nationalist force to defend U.S. imperialism, as its empire sinks in relation to that of its imperialist competitors, like China.
The event ended with an invitation to attend the CHALLENGE discussion group, right after the rally, once each month. PLP members in Baltimore vow to continue to raise communist politics in these bold anti-racist actions one CHALLENGE at a time. This action is affectionately known as C-DAWWG (Challenge Discussion After West Wednesday Group). This November we will celebrate our one-year anniversary with perhaps some cake and commitment to analyze and change the world.
The only way out of the false choice between liberal and conservative bosses is to build a mass movement to fight them both, and ultimately get rid of them and their racist system altogether with revolution and communist workers power!