NEW YORK CITY, August 13—“Why do police killings, especially of Black and Latin youth, continue despite mass protests and uprisings? Is it even possible to stop these murders without also getting rid of the system of capitalism, which depends on racism to exist?” More specifically, capitalism needs racist cops. They enforce all the racist inequalities that capitalism needs from wage and income inequalities to mass incarceration. These were some of the ideas discussed by more than 70 people at a screening and discussion of the documentary film Profiled. The film tells the stories of families and friends of youth killed by police, and the multiracial struggles they continue to lead against these racist killings (See Page 8).
Come to “Hoops for Justice”
Two of the organizers featured in the film spoke at the screening about becoming antiracist fighters. One of the fighters, Natasha, was outraged by the way the media portrayed her sister Shantel Davis as a criminal when police dragged her out of her car and murdered her in 2013. She turned her anger into organizing the “Justice for Shantel” campaign, supported by growing ties and friendships with members of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP). Natasha invited everyone to the 6th Annual “Hoops for Justice” 5-on-5 Basketball Tournament on Saturday, August 28, to fight racism and honor the legacy of Shantel and Kimani Gray, a 16-year-old Brooklyn youth also killed by police in 2013.
The other organizer said a key turning point in her understanding of why police killings continue to be rampant was when a PLP member introduced her to Lerone Bennett’s essay, “The Road Not Taken.” This essay outlines how the “race problem was a deliberate invention of plantation owners who systematically separated Blacks and whites in order to make money.” Plantation owners who enslaved Black workers passed laws to separate European, African, and Indigenous workers who intermarried, lived together and united to rebel against their common enemy. This was crucial to her being optimistic about the possibilities of defeating racism.
A lifelong struggle against racism
These stories demonstrate how developing personal ties with communists in PLP helps keep antiracist organizers positive even when the possibilities for change seem dim. Attending May Day marches, study groups and witnessing firsthand the dedication to the long term struggle against capitalism and racism points to a communist future where workers run society. Building these close personal ties while fighting racism was a key takeaway from this screening of Profiled. Racism is crucial to capitalism. In particular, cops are the racist thugs that protect the capitalists from rightfully angry workers.
During the several months of planning this screening of Profiled we made new friends who share our antiracist views. Organizers also reached out to high school and college teachers, including some in PLP who have been deeply involved in building ties with family members who are organizing antiracist campaigns against police violence. More than a dozen high school and college students participated in the discussion.
PLP, the real alternative
This event was organized primarily by members and friends of the Progressive Labor Party active within the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), a fake left organization whose leaders serves the main liberal wing of the U.S. ruling class. Thousands of primarily young people have joined DSA since the 2016 Presidential election because they want to see more progressive change, and saw no other alternative. But the capitalist ruling class and their bought-and-paid for politicians cannot and will not abolish the kkkops. The DSA promotes the circus of electoral politics and leads us into working within the capitalist system.
They helped to elect Joe ‘Jim Crow’ Biden president, calling him a “lesser evil” but he is in fact a greater evil. Biden, a longtime archracist in Washington, helped push then-President Bill Clinton’s crime bill that led to the mass incarceration of mainly Black workers. Now he’s trying to do a better job than Donald Trump to organize for war against China and Russia (see editorial, page 2). In other words, the DSA is part of growing fascism within the U.S.
These young people have another alternative—the communist PLP. Party members call for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. Let’s fight for communism where the working class rules. As we develop personal ties with people who want to fight racism, we find they are often open to communist ideas.
Since the Profiled screening, we are organizing to continue to raise the struggle. From the annual Hoops for Justice to fighting to to keep cops out of schools, these antiracist fightbacks help deepen our personal ties, as we build the Progressive Labor Party to fight for a communist world.