The anti-racist rebellion in Ferguson, sparked by the cold-blooded murder of 18-year old Michael Brown, shows that when push comes to shove, the racist police are no match for a united fighting working class. Led mostly by unemployed youth, the rebels have basically routed the Ferguson and St. Louis County police and the black State Police Captain, broke the curfew and forced the Governor to call in the National Guard. And they are still fighting back.
PLP members were warmly welcomed by the rebels, with about 250 of them receiving CHALLENGE newspaper. We are in touch with dozens of fighters, and sending more comrades to the scene.
Despite the racist news coverage, there has been almost no looting, with the rebels’ anger focused like a laser on the cops. And the more they fight back the rebels are receiving overwhelming support here and internationally.
So now the FBI, State Police, Highway Patrol and National Guard troops are swarming this town of 21,000 people that no one much cared about two weeks ago. But not only have they stood up to the armed force of the racist capitalist class, they have also defied the ruler’s snake-oil salesmen, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who rushed there to put out the fire. And they have defied the pleas of Obama to “protest peacefully.”
Michael Brown would have been another in that long line of racist police killings, except this time the youth exploded in anti-racist rebellion, showing us all what’s possible. The racist billionaires and their government can’t teach our kids to read and can’t create jobs for young people. But when the people rebel, there’s no limit to what they will spend in military equipment and personnel and racist media coverage to try to stamp it out.
The anger in Ferguson is more than justified. And whatever violence has taken place has been fueled by the viciousness of the cops and the system they protect. The murder of Michael Brown is not an isolated event. This is not going to stop, until we stop it, by overthrowing the racist rulers with armed communist revolution. The cops are killing us because they need to terrorize us into accepting that the racist profit system that has nothing to offer but a future of poverty and war. We don’t accept it, and neither do the Ferguson rebels and their countless supporters.
We call on everyone to build support for the rebellion at school, at work, in your church or union. Participate in mass rallies and marches and get your union or community group to join in. But most of all join and build the revolutionary communist PLP. Let’s build a world based on equality, where racist terror is outlawed and the racist billionaires buried.