Los Angeles, February 5–“When the working class is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” The fight back in Los Angeles this time took the form of a documentary screening and forum against police brutality. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) brought two families together from both coasts to demonstrate the power of multi-racial unity in the fight against racism. The importance of this unity cannot be overstated. Without it, the working class is fragmented and weak. With it, we can smash capitalism for good!
With string lighting and fancy hors d’oeuvres courtesy of the mass organization connections of a comrade, the space looked more like a chic art gallery than a forum on police brutality. But as 85 multi-racial, multi-generational, workers and students filed in, it was clear that everyone meant business. We were all there to unite against police brutality and more importantly how to change this racist system that relies on it to control our class.
Justice for Alex Flores
Only under capitalism can a simple phone call to the police about a concern surrounding a minor altercation end in the murder of someone. That’s exactly what happened to Alex Flores on the morning of November 19, 2019 when he was savagely gunned down by KKKiller cop Steven Ruiz in a South Central neighborhood.  Since that date, the family, community members, and members of PLP have held dozens of marches from the site of the shooting to the Newton police station to demand justice.  
Throughout that fightback, PLP has reminded the family that every 12 hours someone is murdered by the police. The importance of that discussion has always been to identify the systemic nature of police murders and communism as the only way to achieve true justice. PLP members also told the family of all the organizing we have done against police murder on the east coast and offered to connect them with those struggles.
After two months of PLP organizing with the family of Alex Flores around their fight for justice, we were now able to start to build the coast to coast ties. While planning the event with the family, they wanted to bring more awareness to what happened to Alex, but reiterated multiple times, they didn’t want this to just be about Alex, but rather “all the stolen lives.” Every day this family sees more and more how capitalism robs the working class of our humanity and the only antidote is to unite and overthrow this system.
Police murder means fight back
PLP’s strategy for mobilizing with the family comes from decades of experience of doing this kind of work. The connections we have made with other victims families of police brutality from the Bronx, to Brooklyn to Baltimore, and more supported the struggle here and reinforced the resounding call that “an injustice to one is an injustice to all.” So when the family member of a police brutality victim from New York is willing to fly across the country to show support to the family of Alex Flores and represent PLP and the work we do in the process, it reminds us that our currently small organization has a much wider reach than we often recognize.  In fact, our friend from NYC invited two friends and activists living in LA to our event, introducing them to the Party.
After watching the infuriating, yet inspirational, film “Profiled” which spotlights two families who lost people to the murderous 68th Precinct in Brooklyn, NY, we hosted a panel discussion session. Panel members gave detailed accounts about organizing justice for Alex Flores, Brendon Glenn (a homeless man killed by LAPD on Venice Beach) and others murdered by the KKKops.
The important point was made that we cannot rely on having Black and Latin workers as police, judges, mayors, district attorneys, etc. The cop who killed Shantel Davis is Black. The cop who killed Alex Flores is Latin. The LA district attorney, Jackie Lacey, a Black woman, has not indicted a single cop for murder even though roughly 400 people have been killed by LAPD during her eight years in office (The Guardian, 8/24/18). All these people, regardless of skin color, uphold the system of capitalism that continues to brutalize us.
Through the discussion, a Black student/worker and friend reminded the crowd that capitalism will always take back reforms we fight for, so we can never stop fighting to change the system. A 15-year-old Latin student called out the imperialist nature of the United States and another attendee compared the police in our communities to the U.S. military presence in other countries.
One question from the floor was “when is it ok to call the police when you feel unsafe?” The overwhelming consensus of the room was “NEVER.”\Instead, several proposals from the panel and the floor were for taking care of each other and our communities ourselves and that if we lived in a more communist society, we certainly wouldn’t have to fear our own class brothers and sisters.  
Onward to May Day
At the end of the night, there was a tremendous feeling of power and desire to get more involved in the fight back. A young Latin mental health care worker found the event inspiring and was blown away by the amount of organizing in the community happening. People took buttons and signed up to attend upcoming rallies and marches. This forum is just one step to making the police killing of Alex Flores a more mass issue. As we shared stories of fighting back against police terror across the country, we showed the family a vision of where their struggle can go and how it can be expanded.
We have a long way to go to get the participants to take the step of joining the PLP in the fight for communism, but this forum was a small step in that struggle. We will continue to organize with the Flores family. Our next major call is for a May Day march through the neighborhood and to report at the May Day dinner of all the fight back between now and then. The struggle for communism continues! Join us!