Protest and Rebellion Break Out as the Cop Murderer of Michael Brown is Let free by Grand Jury Protesters Call For No School, No Work, Boycott of Black Friday By Steven Argue Another unarmed man has been murdered by police and once again, the police have gotten away with it. This time it was Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson Missouri. Michael Brown, a Black man, was about to begin college. According to a study of racial profiling, Black men in Ferguson are twice as likely as whites to be stopped by police. A grand jury has decided in Missouri that it was within the rights of the police to gun down an unarmed black man with his arms in the air. This decision out of Missouri is on the level of the Dred Scot decision of 1857 that Black men have no legal rights that a white man is legally bound to respect. Of course the racist D.A. Office in Ferguson never had any intention of prosecuting the cop who murdered Michael Brown. If they had any intention of justice, they had every legal ability to prosecute without a grand jury decision. So they stand with the rest of the murderous and racist capitalist state. At its heart that repressive state is composed of its racist, anti-worker, and murderous cops, judges, prisons, politicians, and prosecutors. In response, protests have broken out in a number of cities across the country. Police have tear gassed and bombed protesters in Ferguson. Injuries are reported from small bombs dropped on protesters. Protesters have burned two police cars, one cop was reportedly shot, but not seriously injured. Many businesses have gone up in flames. A general strike and boycott of black Friday has been called without official backing for all workers and students due to Darren Wilson, the white cop who shot and murdered the unarmed black man, Michael Brown, not being prosecuted. Days after this police murder, Mayor James Knowles urged people to have faith in the process, but the people know better and protested for weeks. Anonymous also carried out direct action against government computers. Justice is extremely rare under America’s racist capitalist government. In the case of Rodney King, despite videotape showing the cops using enough force to kill a man, the police were acquitted in their first trial. In that case it took a mass six day uprising in 1992 that destroyed over a billion dollars in property to win a new trial for the criminal cops. In the subsequent trial, two cops, Koon and Powell, were found guilty. For a change, two brutal cops went to prison for their crimes. In addition, the 1992 uprising forced the resignation of LA’s Chief of Police. On a small scale, property was also redistributed through “looting”. Yet, the people paid a heavy price for this action with all kinds of repressive government forces mobilized in the streets including the Marines, 53 people were killed, around 2,000 people were injured, and nearly 20,000 people arrested. Yet, the destruction of a billion dollars in property was not without sense, because much of what was destroyed was owned by the ruling capitalist class, our oppressors and exploiters. Another rare case where a small amount of justice was won was the case of Oscar Grant in Oakland California. Oscar Grant was clearly shown in video being handcuffed and executed by Oakland’s BART Police. Yet, to jail the guilty cop took a mass movement that included protests and a strike by the Oakland Longshore union (ILWU) shutting the Port of Oakland down. The killer of Oscar Grant got off easy with a conviction on a manslaughter charge, but the case was unusual in the fact that the cop did any time at all for his crime. The true predators in America span from the politicians and judges who hold the highest positions of power all the way down to their badged minions and racist wannabes who patrol the streets, killing with impunity. They represent the wealthy capitalists who own America. Obviously, in capitalist America for those who hold power, the lives of young Black men are cheep. No protest, no strike, and no rebellion by itself will change these facts. To truly jail all of the criminals who are responsible and bring racial justice to America will take a proletarian revolution carried out by America’s multi-racial working class. That revolution must completely smash the capitalist state, at its heart the police, courts, prisons, and military to build new institutions based on racial equality and economic justice. Instead of destroying the property of the capitalists, our goal needs to be one of completely expropriating the entire capitalist class and using our ownership of the economy to guarantee everyone a job, housing, education, healthcare, security, and a clean environment through a new socialist economy based on human needs rather than profit. Building the kind of revolutionary party capable of leading such a revolution is a goal of the Revolutionary Tendency. Justice for Michael Brown and All Victims of Police-State Terrorism! For Resistance to the Racist Capitalist State! For Mass Protests and Strikes! For Armed Workers’ Self-Defense to Protect Ourselves, Our Families and Our Homes! Towards a Revolutionary Party of the Multiracial Working Class For Proletarian Socialist Revolution That Will Bring Justice, Including Prison For Racist Murdering Cops! -Steven Argue of the Revolutionary Tendency Revolutionary Tendency https://facebook/RevolutionaryTendency
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:18:47 +0000