If we don’t get it, shut it down! Families unite to build antiracist movement

Los Angeles, CA – While the bosses just finished parading Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention, hoping to win workers back to capitalism, women from nine different families testified to the brutality that this system perpetrates on workers daily. Initially LA City Council member Curren Price, a leading Black politician of the Democratic party, promised to have a Zoom forum where people could speak to the trauma the “Shootin’ Newton” police station has caused them over the years. But liberal misleader Price reneged, as all politicians are only interested in protecting the capitalist system.
So the workers took over. A family member proclaimed, “If he doesn’t want to help us, we will make our own community forum!” This was a call to action! For nine months, members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) have deepened our ties with three families who themselves have numerous ties to other families in the fight against racist police brutality. After spending months organizing with communists, the families are skeptical of the promises politicians make. It has also become clearer to many that communist revolution is the long-term solution to ending racist police murders. Today we organize caravans and forums. In the future the working class will run the world.
Families unite to organize against racist kop killings
Members of three different families of victims of police violence met with PLP to plan our big event. Everyone took on various roles: organizing security, developing the program with MCs, musicians, poets and street artists.  We pushed each other to do more and supported each other in both  growth and development. Most of the key leaders of this committee are women.
For the action, we arrived early to take one lane of traffic and the entire city block that the Newton Police Station sits on. We covered an open area with street art, posters, altars of their lost loved ones, a children’s play tent, and a recovery station. Even though it was 95 degrees, 200 people joined the four-hour speak-out that included 10 speakers, three musical performers, and a poet. The anger was palpable. The unity was fierce! Fists in the air, speaker after speaker echoed a similar sentiment; while police may have stolen their family members, they did not steal their fighting spirit! When the MC shouted, “If we don’t get it”, the crowd screamed back with fists raised, “shut it down!”
No justice from racist system – commit to a lifelong fight
One mother acknowledged that she will never get justice from a racist system, but committed every breath in her body to what she recognized is a lifelong fight. The crowd demanded an end to racist police murders. But the question remained, “HOW?”  A Party member spoke next. Most other organizations call for justice and maybe to defund the police. Only PLP calls for getting rid of capitalism. Our comrade connected his political development to a PLP-led Summer Project in Los Angeles organizing with garment workers, workers in maquiladoras in Tijuana, Mexico and responding to a two-day rebellion following the murder of 14-year old Jose Gutierrez in 1995.  Police terror is part of an exploitative system where the police try to control the most oppressed, mainly Black, Latin and immigrant workers. Jim Crow Joe Biden, architect of racist mass incarceration, and Top Cop Kamala Harris are the best the liberals have to offer our class. Whether they use language like “Defund” or “Dismantle” they will never abolish their armed, racist protectors of capitalism.  Our comrade called on those present to read CHALLENGE and consider joining Progressive Labor Party as we fight shoulder to shoulder in this struggle.
Following the speak-out, we led a caravan to the Southeast police station that killed David Flores, father of two.  We met his sister while distributing literature and a petition about Alex.  Months later, we met David’s mother at a protest for Andres Guardado who was killed by the LA Sheriff’s on June 18, 2020.  Since then, the families of Alex Flores and the Party have become close and the mother has joined the committee.  When we caravanned slowly through South Central, the mostly Black, Latin and immigrant workers came out of their homes, cars and raised fists and chants in support.  Some even joined our caravan.  It was clear that the police have no support from these workers. As we organize and expand the base of PLP, the cops’ days will surely be numbered.
The movement against racism expands
This event also brought us closer to other families whose loved ones were murdered by the KKKops.  One of the families approached us to provide sound and lead chants at their event the following weekend to commemorate the three-year “angel-versary” of their loved one, Cesar Rodriguez. He was brutally killed by the Long Beach PD after being thrown in front of a moving train on August 29, 2017.  We were honored to do so!  Now we are building with them, hoping to include them in our committee.  
After LA Sheriff’s murdered 29-year-old Black worker, Dijon Kizzie, the Alex Flores family came with the Party that night to join the hundreds protesting.  At another march, the mother of David Flores joined in support of Dijon Kizzie.  It is becoming more and more evident that many workers no longer view these killings as isolated incidents, but reflective of this whole racist system.  But like the Italian communist, anti-fascist saying goes, “They killed us and killed us until there were millions of us!”  The Party here in LA has done our best to deepen our ties with the families and community, while also connecting this fight back to our jobs and mass organizations.  As we organize at our jobs, we can increase our presence at these protests against the most vulgar and overt forms of racist terror on Black and Latin workers. We  do this while distinguishing ourselves from reform leaders and opportunists-in-struggle, providing  a vision of communism  run by the working class!