Greetings to Unitarian Universalists gathered at the 2016 General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio.
Unitarian Universalists congregants, including the communist Progressive Labor Party members, in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, CA, and Brooklyn, NY, among others, have joined some mass, militant, and multiracial fightbacks to protest the kkkop murders of Black and Latin workers. The upsurge in participation in these movements is partly the result communists and CHALLENGE urging UU congregants to be beacons of antiracism and proponents of a communist world under the leadership of PLP.
Fighting Back in CALI
In Santa Monica, CA. our Peace & Social Justice Committee organized marches in August, September, and October to demand justice for three men murdered in Venice, CA. Brendon Glenn and Jason Davis were killed by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) kkkops; Jamal Lee Warren by a beachfront hotel owner and his security guard. After Glenn was killed May 5, 2015, hundreds of people voiced their anger at a town hall meeting, but nothing followed. We reached out to local anti-racist organizations and advocacy groups for homeless people, as well as to our friends at First UU LA, to join our protest marches on Venice Beach.
At the marches, we demanded the police release a security-camera video showing how Glenn was killed. LAPD police chief Beck says the video shows that Glenn, who was unarmed, was shot in the back by kkkop Clifford Proctor while lying on in the street. In an effort to pacify protestors Beck recommended that LA District Attorney Jackie Lacey prosecute Clifford Proctor, the LAPD cop that killed Glenn. Unsurprisingly Lacey claims she is “still investigating.” We can’t get justice under capitalism, but we are determined to not let Glenn and others die in vain. We have initiated a petition campaign to demand that Lacey prosecute Proctor, and we plan to demonstrate at her office.
In addition to participating in the marches in Venice, our People’s Liberation Unitarian Universalist Group held a march that included UUs from Santa Monica in November through our church’s neighborhood, Koreatown. This march was held a few days after the one-year anniversary of the non-indictment of Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, MO kkkop who killed Michael Brown. Our chants were militant, echoing our will to keep on fighting in the face of capitalist oppression against our brothers and sisters. One of our chants was, “Mike Brown means...Fight back! Omar Abrego means...Fight back! Kyam Livingston means... Fight back!” And fight back we will!
At a potluck dinner after the march we discussed how to further the movement against racist actions by police. A forum at First Church on the history of policing in the U.S. grew out of that discussion. This forum was a step in the right direction in understanding how policing has and will always benefited the capitalist class.
Combined action by Santa Monica and LA UUs was one impetus toward the founding of a countywide UU social justice group, jUUstice LA. We are pushing for jUUstice LA to make the fight to indict Brendon Glenn a focus for all 12 UU congregations in LA County. At the First UU, we’ve agreed to make the struggle around Brendon Glenn a key part of our work; we are making weekly speeches with our candle-of-hope ritual.
The Struggle Continues in Brooklyn
In Brooklyn, we are fighting back as well. The murder of Kyam Livingston, Shantel Davis, Kiki Gray, and Akai Gurley has spurred the working class and the communist PLP of Brooklyn into action.
In particular, members of our social justice committee has joined Kyam’s mother, Anita Neal, in monthly rallies since Kyam’s death in July 2013. These rallies have united the family, church members, and members of the West Indian community near where Kyam lived to press for release of the video and the names of the custody officers who abused Kyam and refused her medical treatment.
We are also fighting back by leading discussions, including “The Language of Oppression, How it Hurts Us All,” and sponsoring yearly Juneteenth (a holiday to commemorate the abolishment of slavery in Texas, see page 6) celebrations. This year’s celebration, “Tapestry of Justice in Blues and Poetry,” included a song about people killed by the NYPD. Since 2001, we’ve held an annual joint dinner in solidarity with the local Muslim community. Following that example, First UU LA and Santa Monica UU joined an interfaith march in March in solidarity with the LA Muslim community.
Multiracial Unity Against Racism
The marches and rallies in LA and Brooklyn were multiracial in participation. These were visual representations of our desire to unite all members of the working class in the fight against racism. Speakers, for example, affirmed that the racist oppression and super-exploitation of non-white working people hurts and divides white workers as well. The depression of wages and social welfare for Black, Latin, indigenous, and Asian, and immigrant workers pave the way to depress the wages and fightback of the whole working class—this includes white workers. U.S. wages that average 30 percent higher for white males than Black males are still inadequate to live on. And the millions of white workers with low-paying jobs, including many college graduates, live in poverty—not privilege.
The theory of “white skin privilege” is one communists refute, though it is a prevalent belief in the UUA. This ruling-class theory does a poor job in explaining racist divisions and oppression, but a very good job in turning people of the same class into enemies. Our main enemy is the ruling class.
At the rallies and marches, we stressed white privilege theory reinforces the capitalist drive to divide working people based on so-called “race.” A concrete example is police murder and of white men and women, such as Jason Davis. Since slavery, cops have been getting away with the murder of and brutality toward Black working people; they’ve learned they can do the same to white working people. We must unite and fight racism; not segregate and talk about racism.
The outpouring of open racism that has coalesced around U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump campaign intensifies this challenge. We must mobilize our congregations to fight back against all racism, especially the systematic racism presided over by liberals such as Obama, Clinton, and Sanders.
For the GA two years ago, we wrote a pamphlet showing why the Seven UU Principals cannot be achieved without communist revolution. You can request a copy from
While helping lead these anti-racist struggles, communists in PLP have the task of showing why racist police and racism in general are inherent to capitalism, and why defeating racism therefore requires communist revolution. Communism will a global system without borders run by workers and in the interests of workers. The source of racism, capitalism and profit, will be eradicated. Ask us all about it! We urge all UU members and everyone belonging to the working class to join PLP in fighting racism building a better world for the working class!
