CHICAGO, July 21—Today, communists from Progressive Labor Party (PLP) joined organizations #FreedomForMohawk, #NoMore Foundation, and #DefundCPD for the spirited “From Mohawk, With Love” Anniversary Rally (see CHALLENGEs from 12/3/20). The event, which brought almost 40 people out, was created to highlight the struggles and triumphs of Jeremey “Mohawk” Johnson in the first year since his arrest in August of 2020.
Workers, students, and community organizations banded together in a show of support and solidarity for Mohawk’s case, while sharing donated food, clothing, household items, and literature. Those of us in PLP helped set up tables and supplies, lead chants, give speeches and distribute over 200 copies of CHALLENGE newspaper.
Throughout the last year, we have helped organize within a citywide defense committee to maintain a militant presence in front of the Cook County jail and courthouse, a bedrock of the capitalist bosses’ racist and sexist legal system. But this time we opted for a change in tactics, taking the fight right to the office of Scott Waguespack, the alderman (city councilman) who represents the city ward where Mohawk currently lives.
Predictably, Waguespack has done nothing to assist in getting the charges against Mohawk dropped, despite our appeals. But given politicians’ role in maintaining this racist profit system that thrives off state terror and incarceration, this should come as no surprise.
The abolition of oppressive class structures and the liberation of the international working class necessitates mass revolutionary struggle under the leadership of the communist PLP. The fight to free Mohawk is intertwined with the broader fight to smash deportations and imperialism, in order to  establish an egalitarian communist world.
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During one of her many speeches given while leading the rally, Mohawk’s close friend and former roommate spelled the situation out clearly: “They (the bosses) are never gonna stop.” It’s true that we cannot have any illusions that we can appeal to the bosses’ “moral sensibilities;” their use of state terror against our class will only sharpen as capitalism spirals deeper into crisis.
That is why we must continue to stand with, not only Mohawk, but all of our fellow workers within the prison and court systems that continue to be tortured, abused, and murdered by the capitalist state. Mohawk has been on EHM this long because the courts want us to forget about him so they can just throw him in prison, but we will not let that happen.
We will rally in front of every alderman’s office, court house, and street corner until Mohawk’s charges are dropped. We are committed to fighting with our entire class against a racist capitalist system that can never serve our needs, and building the international Party that will one day put that system finally in its grave!