BALTIMORE, March 6—Two days before the trial of Derek Chavin for robbing the life of George Floyd, antiracists and six families whose loved ones were murdered by the kkkops here  rallied to denounce capitalist state terrorism. The West Coalition, with Progressive Labor Party (PLP), organized a demonstration for the prosecution of killer-kkkop Derek Chauvin, the reopening of all local cases of murder-by-police, and the jailing of those cops too! As the masses here fight racist police terror and demand more accountability, it’s becoming more common to hear—even if the speaker is not a member of PLP—that communist revolution is the only solution!
‘They are killing us’
Since the murder of Tyrone West in July 2013, antiracists protested in what became the West Wednesday rallies every week, which since the pandemic have been live-streamed to between 150 and 600 viewers. In fact, the 400th protest will be held as this issue of CHALLENGE goes to press.
Today, about 20 cars, decorated with antiracist posters, caravanned down Greenmount Avenue for two-and-a-half miles. Lyrics of our throbbing music trumpeted the need to stand up against racist police.
The whole way, Tawanda Jones, sister of Tyrone, stood up through the car's moonroof. Her fist was in the air, inspiring enthusiastic onlookers on the sidewalks.
Arriving at City Hall for a high energy, two-hour rally, joining the West family were women and men, representing five more families, each of whom had a loved one murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in blue.
“I imagine what my brother was screaming,” sister Tawanda Jones grieved, referring to when her brother Tyrone West was repeatedly tased, maced, and beaten to death by 11 to 15 cops.
She went on to say, about the early days of the struggle for accountability, “Everyone thought my family was crazy. Now you see! They are killing us!”
‘They brought the war to me’
Jarrel Gray’s uncle performed a spoken-word poem, condemning the criminal in-justice system, in which he tells of his nephew’s death, caused by the electric noose of 50,000 volts from repeated tasings.
Many reformers tout tasers as a reasonable weapon for law enforcement. However, we know that more than 1,000 people in the U.S. have died, during the last two decades, after police shocked them with tasers. The stun gun was ruled to be a cause, or contributing factor, in 153 of those deaths. Nine in ten who died after being tased were unarmed (Reuters).
Leonard Shand’s sister, Tracy, boldly condemned the imperialist roots of U.S. history. Then, Nicole Pettiford spoke. Her family was doubly terrorized, having her father-in-law, Anthony Anderson, and 16-year-old-daughter fall to police and police-instigated violence. In response to cop killings, committed with no consequences, she warned, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander!”
Now raising their four children on her own, Marah O’Neal spoke about the horrendous police killing of her former husband, Jamaal Taylor. She explained, “They brought the war to me. They’re going to stop killing our Black men… our children… our Black women… our Latino people… our white people too. Trust and believe they’re going to get this work. It’s all of us versus them!”
‘We need a revolution’
A speaker for Progressive Labor Party unwaveringly declared, “We need a revolution. We need to destroy this capitalist system, and create a brotherly and sisterly world of equality,” a point greeted with enthusiastic cheers, though of course not from everyone.
The Party speaker also explained that fellow workers on the job taught him how racism really works: “It’s a trick by the capitalist class to divide and conquer the working class.”
During applause in response, another speaker shouted out, “Say it again!”
The multiracial crowd of about 50 hissed at the mention of Maryland’s Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of (Killer) Rights, and roared “Shame!” at cops nearby when they were pointed out.
Antiracist learn from LA struggle
Leading up to this event, ever since November of 2018, Progressive Labor Party has led a late-evening CHALLENGE discussion group, once a month, for interested antiracist in the West Wednesday struggle. The affectionate name for this gathering is C-DAWWG, meaning CHALLENGE Discussion After West Wednesday Group. In those sessions, we recently completed the third and final discussion about lessons to be learned from a great report by comrades in Los Angeles (see struggle, page 1).
It tells the exciting story of their bold organizing work: in the fight against police brutality, against evictions, to widely share the important understanding that communism is the only solution, and to recruit new members, thereby expanding the strength of PLP. As communists do, the LA comrades also honestly discussed strengths and weaknesses in their work, and we learned from that too.
Antiracist struggle bears communist fruit
PLP here also recently launched a new study group for folks who are seriously thinking about joining PLP. Our expectation is that this new collective will likely morph into a Party club, which is the basic local organizational unit of Progressive Labor Party.
At this caravan and rally, however, no CHALLENGE newspapers could be distributed, because they were already gone, having all been taken by participants at the rally in Annapolis, two days earlier. We will increase our numbers.
So even if Chauvin’s trial leads to a cellblock, tiny specks of justice will not easily quench the flame towards greater action.
The victory here is antiracist fighters seeing the need and having the commitment to begin the long fight towards building a new society without racist police terror. That system is communism. By growing the Party in numbers and strength, communist influence and leadership can reach more of the working class until one day we are powerful enough to seize state power with communist revolution.