BROOKLYN, NY, August 9 —The Shantel Davis Committee and PLP organized the third annual Hoops for Justice basketball tournament yesterday in Shantel Davis’s and Kimani Gray’s memory, two Black youth murdered by kkkops. Players waiting to compete looked through CHALLENGE as announcers mixed in play-calling with political consciousness. This tournament kicked off Progressive Labor Party’s summer project, a week of political actions concentrated among training youth to be communist organizers.
Teachers determined to see their students as more than “suspects” united with Shantel’s sister and local coaches to pull off the event. CHALLENGE is not only connecting the dots of racist, senseless murder — from Pakistan to Ukraine to New York City to Missouri. It’s also become the news source for many youth. The youth are listening. Families stricken by racist cop murders are forming bonds of fightback. We refuse to forget our working-class sisters and brothers taken from us. PLP will carry the call for justice forward to the only solution that can put a stop to racist cop murders: communist revolution.
Hundreds of people were involved in Hoops for Justice—playing basketball, organizing the food, watching the games and more. A highlight of the day was when a group of young women from the community held a Double Dutch contest and invited one of the lead organizers to jump in.
Solidarity with Ferguson
Hoops for Justice is part of our work around these police murders. The following day, we rallied in solidarity with the working class in Ferguson who staged mass demonstrations on the anniversary of the murder of Mike Brown, teen killed by cops (see front page). A multiracial, international group of PLP distributed scores of CHALLENGE with the front page headline, “Death to the Klan!” Workers joined in on our chants.
This mainly Black, immigrant working-class neighborhood has been PLP’s stomping grounds for decades. So when Kyam Livingston was murdered by disregard, while custody of the cops who ignored her calls medical attention, PLP supported the fightback. We’ve brought our revolutionary line to the working class in the neighborhoods these youth lived and where they were killed.
Why? The misleaders, supported by the ruling class, talk about “just a few bad cops,” or in Black Lives Matter, try to build a movement limited only to Black workers. We talk with workers about capitalism’s need to target and terrorize Black workers from fighting back. Cops are part of that terrorization strategy.
While this is only the third year that Hoops for Justice has taken place, it is a community tradition. Next year, we plan to feature tennis and handball clinics and continue to bring our message of multiracial unity, class struggle and communism. See next issue for a report on how we concluded the summer project!