Letters of September 16

Straight Outta Ferguson
This summer I traveled with friends to Ferguson, MO to stand united with the anti-racist fighters there on the one-year anniversary of Mike Brown’s murder. We spent time on Florissant Rd. where the center of fightback has occurred. On the streets of Ferguson there is a sentiment among masses of people that you can fight the racist terror of the police and you can win!
As we spent more time in the community, we visited the neighborhood and spot where Mike Brown was murdered. We spoke with residents about the killing and the year of fightback. We talked about Challenge and the need to build a party around multi-racial unity to end these racist attacks once and for all.
We met a woman who lives in an apartment overlooking the spot where Brown was murdered. Speaking with her highlighted the ways in which the bosses have attempted to erase the memory of Brown and the anti-racist struggle in Ferguson.  
She first pointed out that almost no one is aware of a security camera located on the corner of her building. The camera was installed well before the incident occurred and overlooks the exact spot where Mike Brown’s body fell. The footage from the camera has never been seen despite requests from residents to view the tape. She also said that friends of hers who recorded the entire shooting had their cameras and phones confiscated by police and never returned.
As we talked, she pointed to a community memorial for Mike Brown that is located in the middle of the street where Brown died. The memorial is made up of stuffed animals, flowers, and balloons. She explained how the memorial has been destroyed several times by vandals under police protection. Despite these attempts to erase the memory of Brown, the community continues to rebuild the memorial. The family has attempted to make this  “unofficial“ memorial permanent. However, the city would not approve a memorial in the street and in order to draw attention away from where the incident occurred, approved an “official” memorial located on a sidewalk hundreds of feet away.
As we ended our conversation, she pointed to the apartment buildings in the area. She explained that most of the units were empty because many of the residents have moved out. She told us how the apartment complex owners had illegally gone into resident’s apartments in order to find evidence of illegal activity that could be used to threaten them. Fearing attacks from the police, many residents have left. She explained that by forcing the residents who witnessed the incident out of the neighborhood, the slumlord apartment owners and local police force work together in an attempt to stifle the anti-racist fightback in Ferguson.
This experience taught me that the working class is open to our ideas of multi-racial unity. Many workers understand that the racist police murders are part of a larger system of oppression and exploitation of the working class. The more workers we know, the more we will know about what is happening to our class. The experience of Ferguson has taught and will continue to teach our party and our members invaluable lessons in how we can wage war against the bosses and their racist system.
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Israel,U.S — Same Struggle
I am a member of the party in Israel-Palestine since 2010. This year, for the first time, I attended the Summer Project in New York City. This taught me much about the local way of political work. I also had a chance to meet friends and comrades from all around the world. I saw that the struggles we have here in Israel-Palestine are the same kind of struggles others are fighting worldwide: sexism, racism, and the class struggle. Therefore all around the world, we are fighting the same war: to fight against capitalism. Racism and sexism will die with it. We also all fight against borders, which are barriers that divide and conquer workers.
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PLP, not Politicians!
This year marked the 3rd annual Hoops for Justice basketball tournament. This yearly event is hosted by the friends, family and community of Shantel Davis and Kyam Livingston, two Black women gunned down by the racist NYPD. Hoops for Justice is about commemorating their lives, bringing the community together, and demonstrating that we will keep fighting back! I was standing at PLP’s literature table, lined with our anti-racism buttons, pens, and CHALLENGEs. Among the goodies were t-shirts that said, “Don’t vote. Revolt!” A man came up to me and asked if the shirt meant that we should vote for communists, or if it meant that we shouldn’t vote at all. I replied that we need to get rid of the system because racism is the bedrock of capitalism, and a different politician won’t change that fact. He claimed to agree, but then said that it was the same thing as telling people not to work even though we need to eat. His argument was so absurd that I barely knew how to respond, but I told him that work is necessary in order to produce essential goods like food and shelter. The key difference between work under capitalism and communism, however, is that we control our own labor power under communism and that it is not exploitative.  On top of that, the difference between work and voting is that one is essential for society to work while the other is not. He kept incessantly repeating his argument that we are telling people not to work before eventually realzing he had been beat, shrugging, and walking away.
Unbeknownst to me, this man was a local politician who is idolized in the community. Right after our conversation, he took photos with the Black youth participating in the tournament and left without socializing or getting involved in the activities. This conversation and his photo-op reinforced the fact that politicians have little substance. Their arguments are hollow and they do little for the working class unless it makes themselves look better. PLP, on the other hand, fights in the streets with the working class and makes clear-cut, common sense analyses of the system. Today strengthened my belief that the answer to this racist, oppressive system lies not with democratic politicians but with revolutionary communism and PLP.
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Washroom breeds Communists
The other day, I went into a public restroom where several women were waiting for an open stall. There were two stalls and the lock on the door of one of them was broken.  The women were patiently waiting their turn for the other one. I mentioned that we could hold the door closed for each other so we could use the one with the broken lock. They all said they’d rather wait. Instead of waiting, I asked one of them if she’d hold the door for me. She agreed and then when I was done, she was happy to have me hold the door for her.
It occurred to me that this was a small example of how capitalism and communism train us to think. Unlike communism, capitalism trains us not to rely on others and not to think outside the box. Just imagine when our class has the power to put into practice the best solutions to all our problems big and small. What a wonderful world it will be!
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Class Struggles in the Confederacy
I often wondered what it would be like living in Nashville during the U.S. Civil war. After reading Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War by David Williams, I thought that I would have found many likeminded antiracists.
Mr. Williams makes the fine point that the first distinction of the civil war is one of class. The big difference is the division between the Slave owning class and the non-slave owning class. The slave owning elite owned all the fertile land and wanted to maximize their profits by growing the money crops of cotton and tobacco. They needed thousands of slaves to cultivate these crops. This elite class controlled the political structure that wanted to secede from the Union and form the Confederate States of America where slavery could flourish.
The non-slave owning class could see no purpose in fighting this war, but they were called upon to furnish the soldiers. They were promised by the elites that the soldiers and their families would be taken care of and fed by the Confederates. From the very beginning these promises turned into lies.
First, the cash crops of cotton and tobacco occupied all the fertile land and sufficient land to grow food was not available. The planter class also exempted themselves from serving in the military, which caused resentment and hatred among the fighting soldiers, who called it a rich man’s war and the poor man’s fight. Desertions from the Confederate Army started practically from the beginning of the war especially after they instituted conscription.
Southern women played a brave and important role in weakening the Army of the South. They hid and protected the deserters and draft-dodgers from the Confederacy. Since there were food shortages caused by the planter’s refusal to grow food, the southern women organized raids on the food warehouses and distributed it among the hungry.  
In addition, the slaves and ex-slaves worked with Confederate deserters and union sympathizers. They also joined the union armies. Aside from these activities the slaves also sabotaged and spied on the confederate soldiers’ movements.
When supporters of the flag talk about the heritage of the confederate flag, they should remember that most non-slave owning workers were opposed to the war and that the Union Army was made up of 25% Southerners. The cover of the book, which displays a generic Civil War soldier holding a U.S. flag and a Confederate flag in Double Springs Alabama, depicts the irony of those who refer to Southern heritage when claiming the flag. The statue depicted represents the soldiers from the area who volunteered to fight in the war: 239 for the Union and 112 for the Confederacy.
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