CHICAGO, February 5—The capitalist ruling class has again showed that their prosecution of racist kkkops who murder workers is just a farce. A multiracial and militant group of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members and friends held a CHALLENGE sale and open protest at a busy intersection on the city’s south side against the release of Jason Van Dyke, the white cop who murdered Black teenager LaQuan McDonald in October 2014.
As Van Dyke serves less than half of an already insulting six-year prison sentence ordered in 2019, workers are reminded that the torture and murder of our class by the klan-in-blue is not a crime under capitalism. The ongoing violence committed by kkkops IS their job! They fulfill their primary purpose of instilling fear, control, and terror among our class so that the bosses’ property is protected and their ability to exploit us remains intact.
The liberal response is for workers to beg the police and politicians for less violence. Workers are convinced by politicians and so-called "community leaders” to blame each other for racist and sexist conditions and to keep our class bound to their deadly system. The lack of quality housing and safe schools, an abundance of unhealthy food, scant economic opportunities, and profiting off of the suffering and alienation of workers are all purposeful attacks by the ruling class to maintain power.
PLP pushes for all workers to join us boldly in challenging this whole capitalist profit system worldwide and burying it forever with communist revolution!
Capitalist "justice" means death for our class
As workers have developed new and energetic means to fight back against capitalist abuses during this pandemic period, the bosses have been on a high, fearful alert. Kkkop killings of workers have continued, especially as workers increased their efforts to hold them accountable. Misleaders in our area presented the conviction of Van Dyke as a victory. During the trial, workers voiced their distrust of the bosses’ legal system and were punished for it. Even when the higher-ups sacrificed Van Dyke, PLP continued to demand justice.
Nationally in the U.S. from 2018 to 2022, police have killed 4,542 people (mappingpoliceviolence.org). These brazen murders increased in 2020, as many workers took to the streets to protest the ruling class protection of their power and profits and their sacrifice of workers’ lives.
Despite the bosses’ attempts to drill their toxic ideologies into our heads, Black workers continue to reject racism and the illusion of powerlessness to lead the working class in holding cops and their capitalists accountable for this terror. These actions have encouraged multiracial offensives around the world, and offer an inspiring glimpse at the ability of our class to create an antiracist, antisexist communist society after passing through the fires of revolution.
Fighting for communism is the only answer
During our action, PLP members and friends took turns on the bullhorn blasting the ruling class and their continuous defense of their primary hit squad of enforcers. Workers in cars, buses, and traveling on foot in the freezing winter temperatures stopped to take copies of CHALLENGE and some talked with PLP members about their experiences with the racist police and how it affects them.
Ever since the initial cover-up and subsequent release of the video of LaQuan’s murder seven years ago, we have been in the thick of the mass fightback, advocating for communist revolution as the only solution for working people. In 2016, our Party even led the action that held Van Dyke responsible for murdering LaQuan to his front door (See CHALLENGE, 7/15/16). Van Dyke’s early release proves again that the racist torture and murder of our class is all part of the ruling class's plan. Standing with other workers to hold the bosses responsible and building the Party is part of our plan to free our class!
Workers know the threats that we continuously face under capitalism. Almost everyone has a story of how they, or someone they are close to, have been drastically affected by brutal attacks from the system. As a Party, we fight the capitalist system with and for other workers. As we build with each other, we want to win our class sisters and brothers to the reality that we will never truly be free of these abuses under capitalism. We have to build the Party, strengthen our political line and practice, and make the fight for communism an integral part of our lives now.
