HARLEM, November 22—In a follow-up to the march on November 1 in Brooklyn (see 11/20 issue), over a thousand protesters marched in Harlem to call out the New York Police Department’s racist policing tactics within the Metropolitan Transit Authority. The event was called without permit and the kkkops came out in force in an effort to intimate the antiracists. Nonetheless, protestors bravely took over the streets repeatedly with chants such as “How do you spell racist? NYPD!”
Racism is part of the ride
The MTA is revving up its anti-working class and racist fare-evasion crackdown efforts. This essentially translates into more racist profiling and police terror in the transit system. The crimes of these cops include handcuffing a woman worker selling churros, punching teenagers, arresting candy sellers, and pulling guns on suspected fare-evaders. In addition to this, Governor Andrew Cuomo plans to ratchet up the presence of cops (by 500!) in the subway by next year.
Members and friends of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joined the protest and distributed hundreds of CHALLENGE newspapers. Some young marchers, frustrated with the capitalist system and liberal politicians like Mayor De Blasio who help carry out racist attacks on Black and Latin workers, received the newspaper with enthusiasm. The working class in Harlem were also interested in our message, and many joined the march or chants as it passed by.
Police come from slave patrols and the Klan
One political weakness of the mass march is evident in its main slogan, “f*ck the police.” This line from N.W.A.’s 1988 song suggests individual terrorism and violence against individual police as the answer.
The problem at hand is a systematic one. In the United States, the institution of the police is rooted in the slave system. Much like how Cuomo’s cops will patrol the subways, slaveowners hired men to patrol for runaway enslaved workers. The patrollers protected property and sought out unsanctioned gatherings and any signs of potential revolt. Later the patrols were replaced by the likes of the Ku Klux Klan.
While slavery was abolished, it has been replaced by wage slavery. While the legally sanctioned slave patrollers are gone, they have been replaced by the terror squad of the government, the NYPD. To get rid of the police system, we must attack it at its root—capitalism and its need to exploit workers as well as suppress any potential revolts. Only an organized communist organization has the means to get rid of capitalism, and that means revolution.
Cops attack
The evening was also marked by attacks from police on the protest. Marchers successfully took the streets and even blocked a bridge to the Bronx. The police arrested dozens. At times, they rushed the crowd and tackled protesters to the pavement. The following day, many rallied at the city jail to support those arrested.
While the capitalists may use their control of state power to attack and brutalize our class, PLP  knows we can ultimately win by mobilizing workers, students, and soldiers to tear this whole system down with communist revolution.