​​PLP Speech at the 416 West Wednesday

Baltimore, MD, July 14—Communists have a responsibility—in the fight against police terror, and in all struggles against racism—to go beyond reformism. Think for a moment about the fight against slavery. Looking back, the people we most respect are those who were dedicated to fully abolishing that institution: the hundreds of thousands of folks like Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, and John Brown. We don’t look back, with heartfelt admiration, at people who thought slavery couldn’t be defeated, and therefore devoted themselves to the lesser goal of trying to make it slightly less horrific.
Similarly, today, we must work hard to share a very important understanding: capitalism—which is the root of racism and police terror—can and must be abolished. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) in Baltimore strives  to make that contribution, as part of our vigorous activities supporting the weekly West Wednesday rallies, streaming events, and other parts of the struggle—demanding accountability for the vicious police murder of Tyrone West on June 18, 2013 and for all victims of police terror. In ahave recently made the decision to join Progressive Labor Party.
As an example of striving to fulfill our responsibility—bringing a revolutionary perspective into the reform struggle—here is an excerpt of a speech given by a member of Progressive Labor Party at a recent West Wednesday streaming event.

Not long ago, in May, President Joe Biden met with the family of George Floyd. After the meeting, Biden said, “…we need to build lasting trust between the vast majority of the men and women who wear the badge honorably and the communities they are sworn to serve and protect.
In other words, he says the vast majority of cops are honorable, and we need to trust them. But we know that racism is systemic. What does that actually mean? Think about it. If police were really here to serve and protect, the police cars and helicopters would be everywhere equally. Why are they concentrated in working-class neighborhoods, especially neighborhoods in which the residents are predominately Black & Latin? It has to do with power and control.
High up on the scale of power are the owners of factories and businesses. Above them are the large banks. For example, when Intel wants to build a new factory to make computer chips, the cost is about $10 billion. Businesses like Intel usually don’t have $10 billion. They have to borrow it from the biggest banks.
The owners and directors of the biggest banks really run things. Systemic racism allows business owners to pay Black and  Latin workers less than white workers. That’s how businesses make about a third of their profits. All workers are exploited, but paying lower wages to [non-white] workers is super-exploitation. On top of that, capitalists use systemic racism to divide the working class, weakening our unity. The billionaires want white workers to refuse to unite with Black workers. This disunity keeps us from fighting successfully against our common enemy, the capitalists.
The combination of super-exploitation, together with divide-and-conquer, probably accounts for a huge chunk of their profits—from racism! The big banks know this. They have think-tanks that make policy. No matter who is the mayor or governor or president, the big bankers control the economy and the government. That means they have ultimate control over the role of the cops, the courts, the state’s attorneys, and the attorney general.
Remember, after Freddie Gray [in Baltimore, 2015] was killed, and people fought back, the rulers brought in every local police force—plus the National Guard—and concentrated those forces to protect what’s important to them: major businesses, Hopkins, the Central Police station, and City Hall. At the same time, the National Guard and the police forces attacked and locked up hundreds of people who didn’t hurt anyone, but who DID challenge this system. When you get to the heart of the matter, we live under a dictatorship of the capitalist class. No matter who gets elected, the capitalists call the shots.
Yes, [Derek] Chauvin may spend years in jail, where he belongs, for killing George Floyd. But only seven cops in the whole United States have been convicted for murder since 2005. The cops kill about 1,100 people a year. If you do the math, that means just one single cop will get convicted of murder for every 2,500 people they kill. This is systemic racism. It serves the capitalist class. They want to make us fearful, so they can control us, make us passive, and continue to make their profits off our backs.
Think about the onlookers who felt horrible while watching Chauvin steal the life of George Floyd. Why didn’t they rush in and pull Chauvin off the neck of George Floyd? The young woman, Darnella Frazier, who videotaped the horrific murder, wakes up at night thinking about this, and feels awful that she couldn’t do more. In the middle of the night, all by herself, she apologizes to George Floyd.
The onlookers didn’t rush in to drag Chauvin off of George Floyd’s neck because they knew they would most likely be brutalized, arrested and incarcerated—if not killed. That’s capitalist power. It has to go!
Progressive Labor Party has a vision of the future, something worth fighting for. There is a broad range of political thought within the West Coalition, and we respect one another. But speaking from the viewpoint of Progressive Labor Party, the future we need is communism. That means sharing all the wealth that the working class produces.
We will defeat racism. We will build a new world of sisterhood and brotherhood. We will abolish the wage system. No more buying and selling of human labor power.
Let’s not forget capitalism and racism arose together historically. They cannot be separated. To defeat racism, we must defeat capitalism. And to defeat capitalism, we must defeat racism.
Biden won’t do this. Marilyn Mosby [the Baltimore City State’s Attorney] and Brian Frosh [Maryland’s attorney general] won’t do this. Brandon Scott [Baltimore’s mayor] won’t do this. On the national level, there have been 30 presidents since the end of slavery, and—during that whole century and a half—they have not defeated modern racism. Politicians won’t—and can’t—end racism.
WE must be the ones to fight for a future without systemic racism. Dare to struggle. Dare to win!