Washington, DC, November 25 — Over 1,000 marchers — Black, white, Latino, and Asian — closed down Chinatown in DC’s central business district as outrage grew over the non-indictment of killer cop Darren Wilson. PLP youth led the communist contingent in the march, with masses of students and workers taking up the militant class-conscious chants sounding over the bullhorn. Over 300 CHALLENGEs and 200 PLP flyers were eagerly taken by protesters. Multiple contacts were made. The night before at midnight, three hours after the verdict, hundreds of Howard University students marched to the White House and then to Congress to protest the racist travesty of justice.
Since then, there have been daily actions trying to halt “business as usual,” with protests at the U.S. Justice Department leading to blockades of roads during rush hour and similar tactics at the major train/subway interchange. The exoneration of the cop who killed Eric Garner breathed fresh anger into the movement, and protests continue.
Students have held many meetings to plan further actions at local sites. At one high school, a PL’er organized a discussion with videos and stories from Ferguson, the link between Ferguson and the struggle at her school, plans for upcoming marches, and the need for bolder action at her school. New students have stepped forward through this work to up the ante at their school. Similar activities continue throughout the region.
Many protesters are beginning to understand that there is no way to end racism as long as capitalism rules society. Stopping traffic by itself won’t stop capitalism, but building a revolutionary party for the long struggle ahead will create the basis for a new anti-racist world! Join and build the PLP.

NEWARK, NJ — The struggle over police terror has sharpened here and it has provided an opportunity for more working-class youth to give leadership. Over the past two weeks, multiracial demonstrations have shut down the main streets in the city and have gotten a lot of support from passing drivers. During one demonstration, after kkkop Daniel Pantaleo got away scot-free with the murder of 43-year-old Black worker Eric Garner, workers left the bus stops and the sidewalks to join the march as it went down Broad St.
On the campuses, students are making plans for more militant actions across the city. As a result, we are starting to see a relationship forming between the college and high school students in the city. This is an improvement for the student movement. While most of the demonstrations have been about education, organizing an antiracist fight against police terror will bring the movement to a higher level.
The Party has been involved in both of these demonstrations. At one, we distributed over 100 CHALLENGEs and 250 leaflets, calling for destroying the capitalist system. Many of our friends were happy to see us out there in response to the misleaders who just spoke about peaceful protesting and urging young people to vote. This is a way of co-opting militant antiracist anger into passive acceptance of the bosses’ system.
Over the past month, we have been able to discuss CHALLENGE and our analysis of racism and police terror to many students involved in this struggle. Many of these young people, while still arguing for a federal investigation, are open to PLP and the need for communist revolution. Through more struggle, we can win them to not only being leaders of the working class but also leaders of our Party.

Brooklyn, NY, November 21 — Today the Justice for Kyam Livingston Committee held the latest monthly demonstration in its campaign to hold the racist prison kkkops accountable for the death of this 37-year-old Black woman in a Brooklyn Central Bookings holding cell.
Kyam’s family and the committee have guaranteed that each month there has been some action to mark the date of her death. Although there are similarities in the monthly actions, change has occurred as well. A core leadership has formed closer political and personal ties.
PL’ers in the committee have supported family members who have turned their grief and anger at their personal loss into organizing efforts. We have connected the dots from this racist murder to the other murders of Shantel Davis and Kimani Gray in Flatbush to the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in Staten Island. Each was a case of systemic police terror.
Tonight, speakers from Church committees, unions, and neighbors joined the family in calling for Justice for Kyam. Speakers, including PL’ers, called for demonstrations when the grand jury’s verdict was announced. PL’ers reminded everyone of the history of no indictments in the past and not guilty verdicts when cases against cops came to trial. We also called into question the nature of capitalist society. Racism, it was pointed out, is the main way the capitalist rulers are able to exploit the entire working class. They divide both to conquer each. Terror is their weapon of intimidation.
What we see, after more than a year of demonstrations and speak-outs, is that the bosses’ tactics and lies can be defeated.
Months of struggle against being penned in during our demonstrations resulted in the barricades being removed.
Our regular presence has led to more neighbors, Black, Latin and white, stopping on their way home to listen to our speeches and chants, getting CHALLENGE and joining our demonstrations. Moreover, more participants agree that this racist system has got to go!

In our Brooklyn PLP club, we’re constantly struggling to get all workers the chance to live with dignity. An opportunity came during the first week of December when, along with a mass organization in which we are active, we participated in the fast food workers’ strike. There were nearly 2,000 people in the rally and demonstration we attended very early in the morning in Manhattan, where we distributed CHALLENGE.
The speakers focused on their rejection of the miserable salary we earn which barely covers our necessities, arguing that workers need $15 an hour and the right to unionize to get benefits.
A comrade from our club spoke at the rally and expressed solidarity with the campaign, and of course, supported the proposed raise in pay for all workers. He connected the campaign against the racist police murder of Eric Garner, observing that unemployment and the miserable salaries that barely keep workers alive deny us from living with dignity. People applauded our comrade warmly.
At the rally we could see the expression on so many people’s faces who wondered about the Grand Jury decision of the previous day, which found no reason to indict the cops who murdered Eric Garner. All of the evidence, all of the images, all of the proof that incriminated this murderer dressed in blue was useless. Now, as a sick joke, they will wear body cameras, even though the entire racist murder was recorded and put on the internet.
We are in the middle of this campaign and will continue in the struggle to win the new friends we made closer to PLP. Although our progress is slow, we’ll forge ahead until we achieve the victory of our international working class.
A Brooklyn Worker