Newark, August 20 — A multiracial group of  250 workers, students, community activists and others, marched today to condemn the racist cop murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Abdul Kamal (an unarmed black man shot and killed by cops in Irvington, N.J. last year). The event was called by the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), an activist community group. The protesters continuously chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot,” while marching down Market Street to the center of Newark. Many onlookers responded favorably to the militant tone of the march. A total of 240 Challenges were distributed.
Progressive Labor Party members mobilized people from mass organizations to attend this event. The class struggle in this area has been increasing, and a few more of our friends are involving themselves in larger political events than in the past. This presents PLP with more opportunities for growth, but also important challenges.
Liberal Rulers Mislead Workers Away from Fightback
In the wake of the militant antiracist rebellion of black workers and students in Ferguson, Mo. against the murder of Michael Brown by cop Darren Wilson, the liberal sector of the ruling class is pulling out all the stops to squelch this fightback. These bosses want to mislead workers into supporting any solution other than communist revolution to the systematic killings of young black and Latin workers by racist cops. The contradiction between what masses of workers really need and what various activists and community leaders are saying was on full display in the speeches given.
Various speakers couched the demand for “justice” for these three and others killed in calls for investigations by the U.S. Justice Department, or beefed-up local Civilian Complaint Review Boards (CCRB). But New York City has a CCRB already. Only 14.4 percent of the complaints filed with the CCRB last year resulted in any recommendation for action against the cop. And, of those complaints that were substantiated, only half resulted in any discipline, for an overall rate of 7.2 percent. In fact, NYPD chief cop Bratton recently complained that the CCRB was “overcharging” NYPD cops as he ignored many findings of misconduct (NY Times, 8/26/14).
The call at the rally for intervention by Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate Kamal’s shooting will lead to a similar dead end. The liberal rulers consciously use Holder to try and cool angry workers. Promising Justice Department “investigations” is guaranteed to lead to something less than “justice” for murdered black workers and students. Many past shootings, like those of Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell (a total of 91 bullets fired), never even led to charges against the killer cops. In the few cases that have actually led to a conviction of the cops involved (as in the 1999 torture-murder of Earl Faison by the cops in Orange, N.J.), the cops are only jailed on “violation of civil rights” charges, which leads to much shorter sentences than murder or even manslaughter convictions.
One speaker at the rally pointed out the connection between mass racist unemployment in places like Ferguson and the police terror needed to keep angry black and Latin workers under control. That speaker also pointed out that it is the rulers’ fear of domestic rebellions, not the “fight against terrorism,” that motivated their distributing out tanks, armored vehicles and advanced weaponry to local police departments. The speaker told the crowd that neither bullets nor tear gas would stop the fight to smash racism. He was warmly applauded.
PLP knows that police reform will never stop racist cop murders. Hiring more black cops, taking away military weaponry and more government “investigations” are just masks to cover up the cops carrying out the bosses’ real agenda — terrorizing and murdering restive and angry workers, many of them black and Latin. Only a communist revolution will bring the true justice that workers want and need.