DAVIS, CA, December 3—Mounting a tabletop in the center of the local university cafeteria, a student started chanting, “Black lives matter!” “It is our duty to fight!” and other anti-racist chants. Forty students then rallied and obstructed entrances inside the cafeteria in protest of the racist police murder of Laquan McDonald in Chicago.
‘Remember The Dead…’
Organized by a campus group called Davis Stands With Ferguson, the students also denounced the vicious, firing-squad-like execution of Mario Woods, a 26-year-old Black man, in San Francisco a day earlier (see page ). Meanwhile, three other groups stood in front of three entrance doors, holding signs protesting racist police killings. Students were greeted by their fellow students and their signs as they entered and left, bringing the issue of racist police killings up front to several hundred students at the noon lunch hour.
‘…Fight Like Hell For The Living!’
Planning for today’s action began on November 18, after students had assembled at the plaza outside the Memorial Union to write the names of victims of racist police violence. On the Tuesday before the rally, students gathered once more to finalize the details of today’s action.
These actions show that students are aware and angry, know how to organize, and can act together. In a follow-up discussion, a general student strike on campus was proposed as a goal. We will continue to be involved in the planning and execution of these actions to build solidarity between students and faculty.
Progressive Labor Party encourages these students to continue these bold actions! We will struggle with the students to continue organizing students on campus, and organize and build a movement that includes campus workers.
PLP organizes workers, students and soldiers unite and build a mass international communist party that can end capitalism, and its racist police terror and imperialism, once and for all. Only a communist revolution, which unites all workers in the fight against racism and for egalitarian communism can end police racism forever and give our class the future that we want. We look forward to helping these students sharpen the fight against racism on campus, and fighting alongside them in the struggles ahead!