BROOKLYN, December 21 — Many words can describe the 29 demonstrations, one a month for two and a half years, for justice for Kyam Livingston, a Black woman worker murdered by the capitalist bosses and their cops’ medical disregard. But the ones that give the most hope are, “If we don’t get it—shut it down!” These words are powerful. They can be heard at our rallies against police terror, anti-Muslim racism and racist deportations. They remind us that workers have the power to change and run the world—and that all of our struggles are connected.
‘Shut the Whole Damn System Down’
But the bosses don’t want us to shut it down. The system is designed to keep workers busy and distracted from our need for militant fightback and communist revolution. The bosses tell us to go to court, talk to politicians, or start petitions—“proper channels” that never accomplish anything. They do not want us to fight back, because they know that is where our real power lies. When workers strike, when people refuse to buy into the rulers’ lies, when we shut down the wheels of capitalist murder—that is when real change begins to happen.
The latest Kyam rally gave us more proof of this. Fighters, both new and old in the struggle, many of them members or friends of Progressive Labor Party, spoke on Kyam Livingston’s street corner before we stopped traffic. We chanted, held signs and released balloons in her honor. This time we escalated the fight by marching down the street and yelling, “Justice for Kyam Livingston, killed in a Brooklyn cell!” The militancy of our multiracial group excited people, and we handed out 250 CHALLENGEs and even more leaflets. People stopped to listen and take CHALLENGE. Those in stores came out to talk to us and donate money. Some thanked us for standing up for the working class; some even joined the demonstration. When the working class unites against racist terror, we can see our power and potential to smash the brutal capitalist system.
Prison System Oppresses Women
As always, the police stood across the street, laughing and talking indifferently—until Kyam’s mother, Anita, called them out with sharp words. She said that when one cop is hurt, the whole city pays attention, but when working people are injured or murdered by these lackeys of capitalism, the media look the other way. One speaker stressed that a system so unequal does not deserve to exist. Capitalism feeds off the backs of working people who go to work every day, only to die next to the rat droppings and roaches in Brooklyn Central Booking.
Our fight is also a fight against sexism. Kyam was left to die when complaining of stomach pain. Like her, there are billions of women worldwide who are denied vital healthcare services and ignored in health emergencies. Some 507 maternal deaths occur every day worldwide because healthcare services for women are often last on the list of necessary resources (United Nations, 12/3/15).
Kyam’s death was tragic but not exceptional. According to criminal justice researcher Tammy Anderson’s The Incarcerated Woman (2002), women prisoners “still receive fewer health care services” than their male counterparts. Women inmates have reported prison medical professionals who are “under skilled, often withhold medical care, and show little care or concern for them or their needs...despite their greater medical needs, women inmates receive fewer services and inferior care.” This criminal neglect is worse yet for Black, Latin, and immigrant women. The pervasive mistreatment of incarcerated women, be it in immigration detention centers or prison, reflects the sexist exploitation and division that is essential to capitalism.
Someday We Shall Rule the Earth
At the end of the rally, Anita distributed candles and balloons and asked everyone to release them into the air. With tears in her eyes, she looked up and said, “This is another Christmas that I am spending without you. Merry Christmas, Kyam.”
The working class can and will have better. Our class will win with working-class women leaders like Kyam and those in PLP, whose leadership grows out of their experience of the day-to-day fight against sexism and racism. As “They Shall Rule the Earth,” a song in PLP’s album Revolution, reminds us: “The working women of all shores, working night and day, often for no pay—in your liberation, men will too find salvation. Someday they shall rule the earth.”
The struggle for justice for Kyam Livingston and all the other victims of police terror is a struggle for the working class. These are long and hard battles, but it is the constancy and commitment of those who come every month, wherever the battle lines are, that can and will lead to a better world. Struggles like this one are schools for communist revolution.
Dare to struggle–dare to win.