BROOKLYN, NY, August 25 — “Racist cops you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide” rang out as demonstrators chanted throughout the summer in front of the 67th police precinct.

New York City’s cops, courts and media hoped to cover up the racist murder of Shantel Davis, a 23-year-old unarmed black woman who, on June 14, black NYPD Detective Phillip Atkins falsely accused of having a criminal record. For months protestors have fought back, forcing New York’s rulers to respond.

Shantel’s family and supporters, including many organized by PLP, have defied the cops, marching in the streets to that precinct without a permit, a change from earlier legal sidewalk marches.

The committee has also sent a solidarity statement to Anaheim, Ca., anti-police brutality demonstrators and collected hundreds of online and paper signatures demanding that Brooklyn DA (District Attorney) Charles Hynes indict Atkins.

Days after the more militant march and a growing petition drive, Hynes offered to meet with Shantel’s family. Before that there was no indication of a criminal investigation. The bosses figured they’d gotten away with another racist murder. But the actions of Shantel’s family, PLP and other supporters forced Hynes to act, however limited.

The Two-Faced D.A.

At the meeting Hynes privately promised he would investigate Atkins for possible criminal charges. Publicly he promised nothing. Hynes even demanded that supporters refrain from public protests while he met privately with the family, citing blatant police lies that we were going to storm his office and sit in.

Some supporters on the street, including a PL’er and a family member, wanted to stick to the support committee’s decision to protest. But others, some family members in the meeting and mainly the ISO (International Socialist Organization), wanted to obey the DA instead. The supporters did not protest. At a discussion days later we in PLP argued it was a mistake not to protest.

Hynes works with the cops on a daily basis. As the DA, he unjustly jails masses of mainly black, Latino and immigrant youth, largely for non-violent drug offenses. But the courts, cops and capitalists need these legal lynchings to help the bosses create fear and hopelessness.

Hynes letting Atkins walk shows other cops that racist police terror is still acceptable under capitalist law. Workers deserve a communist system — without unemployment, wage slavery and racism — that educates healthy young people to work productively for our class needs. 

PLP Grows in Class Struggle

PLP unites the working class to fight back against racist double unemployment rates for black and Latino workers and youth, constant police harassment, oil wars for profit, cuts to education and health funding and racist anti-immigrant laws.

These fights enable PLP to grow and to learn how to lead a communist, worker-run society. But the DA only wants Shantel’s family and supporters to give up and go away. Not protesting signaled to Hynes that it won’t take much to make that happen. After discussion, the committee decided to continue forward with a more militant approach.

At the final August march, despite smaller numbers, we again demonstrated in the street at the 67th precinct. When a police Lieutenant, flanked by two cops, ordered us to get back behind the barricades and to turn off our bullhorn, no one obeyed. Noticing our determination, the cops backed off. 

But no U.S. mayor, DA or police commissioner has ever locked up a cop for murder, even with determined protests, like the 2000 rebellion in Flatbush, Brooklyn, against the police murder of Patrick Dorismond (see box, page 5).

To truly win justice for Shantel Davis and all the other victims of capitalism, workers must build a movement not only to rebel against racism but also to destroy its source, capitalism, with communist revolution.

At the last August rally, Shantel’s uncle blasted the police for protecting drug pushing, dirty cops like Detective Atkins and for wounding nine bystanders days before while shooting an armed gunman in Manhattan. But he also insisted there are good cops like those in Shantel’s family.

One PLP member, originally from South Asia and recently returned from Haiti, spoke about how racist cops attack workers worldwide. She said the police, a tool of the state, are used to serve the bosses. All cops are enemies of workers. The real problem is capitalism. She called on workers to fight directly for communist revolution and join PLP.  

PL’ers are continuing to work with the family to force the DA to indict Atkins. But we know workers can’t rely on the bosses’ courts for justice.

The growth of a fighting PLP is the only way to guarantee that the bosses won’t get away with racist police murder. No matter how long it takes, PLP will eventually lead the working class to smash the bosses’ cops and courts and establish a communist society worthy of Shantel Davis and every worker struck down by capitalism worldwide.

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA — On July 21, the Anaheim police (APD) executed Manuel Diaz on Anna Drive. The next day they killed Joel Avecado. These deaths are a heavy loss for their families, friends and communities. The Anaheim police have killed at least eight young workers this year.

Every day, kkkops are killing and brutalizing young workers. Black, Latino and immigrant are the most attacked. Asian youth in Orange County’s Westminster, Filipinos in Los Angeles, and young white workers are also the targets of the bosses’ police.

There is no money for jobs, schools and hospitals, but the bosses make sure the police and military are well funded. Bosses rule more and more through force. The cops protect Disneyland’s profit interests and pit gangs against each other. The old adage “bosses rule through the carrot and the stick” is changing; there is no money for carrots, only for the sticks. This is what we call the rise of fascism; when capitalism is in crisis, off comes the mask, and out come the dogs. 

Workers Drove Out Cops

The workers here are part of a tight-knit community. When Manuel was killed, they protested. They fought the police, and defended their children from the dogs APD unleashed against them after Manuel’s death (see CHALLENGE, 8/1). The workers forced the cops and ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) out of Anna Dr. for weeks. 

There is great hatred for the APD and great love for Manuel. Forty of his friends, relatives and neighbors organized a car wash to help his family pay for his funeral and other expenses. There were over 500 people at his funeral. 

At all these events and more, Progressive Labor Party was active, expressing our sorrow, anger and solidarity with Manuel’s family and community. We contributed to the car wash. PL’ers organizing in churches participated. The younger comrades washed cars alongside the young workers.

PL’ers were at Manuel’s wake in Pioneer Park. With true working-class morale, the family served 50 of us a delicious lunch. We brought drinks and discussed Manuel, revolution, and communism.

During a conversation with his sister, we cried with her over the murder of her baby brother. We became Facebook friends and said we would not let Manuel’s death and the death of all working-class youth be forgotten. One day, the cops and their masters will pay for their crimes against the working class: in blood.

PLP is taking this struggle back to our jobs, schools, and organizations. We have sold CHALLENGEs here. We also began a petition in our churches titled “Anaheim is our Arizona.” It is on the windows of bakeries, on the walls of bars of our neighborhood. 

Links Killings to Capitalist Crisis

We organized service workers from the University of California (UC) to visit the residents. They are now discussing how to support the Anna Dr. community. There has been much discussion about the crisis of capitalism and why the police are unleashed on young workers. The struggle, and the love for Manuel Diaz as a son of our class, has made us work harder in winning workers to communism and PLP. In one church, the CHALLENGE distribution numbers have tripled.

We will continue using CHALLENGE to fight in solidarity with workers demanding justice and vengeance on the cops who shot our youth down. The bosses will not get away with unleashing their dogs against women and children. We are planning a protest with the residents to march to Anaheim’s civic center. 

The cops are scared of workers; they should be. The workers of Anna Dr. have shown courage and determination. We have learned much from them. We have many friends who are outraged at the naked racism of the cops. We tell them about the communist movement, and PLP’s history in fighting against the bosses’ racist police.

We will be in more demonstrations, fundraisers and memorials. We will work hard to get our friends to join PLP. We have a world to win! United under communist leadership the working class will make a revolution. Our work in Anna Drive is another step in the journey to communism.

The state of Illinois owes $83 billion to the pension fund of state university workers and teachers, state gov’t workers, and suburban and downstate public school teachers.  The state wants to reduce its obligation to the thousands of workers who paid into the fund, and who either plan to retire or who now depend on their pension to survive.  These workers don’t receive social security, and unlike high-ranking retired state officials, their pensions are barely enough to live on.  

At a rally organized to protest the proposed cuts, a retired teacher spoke of how she depends on her $28,000/yr pension after teaching for 30 years.  She and many other pensioners feel betrayed by the state for breaking the promise of a secure retirement in exchange for years of service.  But what else can we expect from a rotting, decrepit system.

Why Now?

The state pension funds have been under-funded for years, either through mismanagement, corruption, or stealing.  U.S. capitalism is generally declining in comparison to China, Russia, Germany, and others and when the bosses are in trouble they attack workers. This means that bailout money is only available for banks, not for workers’ pensions.

 The so-called liberal democracy turns more to police terror, racism and fear to control workers.  These fascist developments also occurred in Germany, Japan, Italy, and Spain prior to World War II.

Bosses Reduce Wages to Increase Exploitation and to Compete Globally

When the bosses’ system is being squeezed they reduce our wages and pensions, as well as our standard of living in order to compete on the world market.  Wisconsin and Indiana recently abolished the collective bargaining rights of state workers, which will mean lower wages and benefits.  The Chicago Cook County bosses have terrorized workers by closing Oak Forest Hospital, and engineered widespread layoffs. Detroit teachers suffered mass layoffs, and across the U.S. bosses are privatizing education in order to smash teachers’ unions.

After a bitter four-month strike, Caterpillar, a global company based in Joliet, Illinois, forced its workforce to accept a contract that more than doubles workers’ healthcare payments, freezes pensions and provides no raise for workers with the most seniority. All this while the CEO makes $17 million a year and the company just reported record profits.

Why Workers Should Consider Communist Revolution

The bosses’ effort to save their dying system means one attack after another against the interests of the working class.  They will continue to cut pensions, schools, hospitals, public transport, and terrorize workers through a police state, and endless imperialist oil wars.  Communist revolution would mean mobilizing millions of workers to smash the state and establish a new system, communism, eliminating money, racism and sexism.  Society would be based around the needs and wants of the producers of all value, the working masses, under the leadership of the Progressive Labor Party. Join us.

BROOKLYN, AUGUST 15 — Downstate Hospital workers held a rally on August 8 to fight proposed layoffs and to keep the hospital open. This week, nearly 400 workers received pink slips. 

The threatened closing and layoffs affect all workers but are particularly racist and sexist. Downstate serves mainly poor black and Latino workers, most whom are Caribbean immigrants. The workers are mainly black, Latino and immigrant women. Capitalism is built on, and breeds, racism and sexism. These divisions cannot be eliminated without destroying the root cause. 

The civil rights movement of the sixties forced the state to hire more nonwhite workers and to provide more services. Now, in a racist election year reversal, politicians — from President Barack Obama to Vice President Joe Biden to Presidential candidate Mitt Romney to Vice President nominee Paul Ryan to NY Governor Andrew Cuomo — are falling over each other to cut budgets by attacking workers for capitalism’s problems. They will never be honest about how bosses steal the wealth all workers create.

Government spending goes for their massive imperialist war machine and to finance capital via interest on government bonds. Communists of Progressive Labor Party do tell workers the truth: through mass action, rallies, discussions, and the international workers’ paper, CHALLENGE.

PLP fights against racist and sexist budget cuts, unemployment, and healthcare cuts. Several thousand jobs and the medical care of some 440,000 patients will be lost each year. With so much at stake, some workers would expect the union leaders to fight back. 

The unions UUP, CSEA and PEF called this rally for show. No electric sound system was provided for the speakers. The union misleaders had no plan to stop the cuts and closing; their job is to placate us. Several clergy and politicians spoke but brought NO congregants or constituents to stop this theft of jobs and patient care.

This is the biggest life-and-death issue in New York City, yet the community has no idea Cuomo plans to close Downstate. The politicians, union leaders, and all the government lackeys serve capitalism. Their interest is to protect profit and therefore, any unity with them spells a trap and death for workers.  

After the rally, workers remarked, “we should have gone in the street, maybe then media would cover the impending closure.” Workers showed anger over the undercover state police presence (see box) by asking the cops “why are you taking our pictures” and then the cops pointed out rank-and-file militants to the hospital bosses. 

These are signs that workers want to do more; these are young workers who know serious working-class struggle is more than letter-writing and lunch-hour rallies. They are thinking about having a job action or a strike. When they mention job actions in union meetings the leadership goes crazy, saying, “No, because we are bound by the New York State Taylor law.” The union leaders build demonstrations for angry workers to let off steam.

PLP fights, not for scraps, but for revolution. We will destroy these union bosses, politicians and the profit system worldwide. When involved in the daily struggles, we can effectively expose how capitalism divides us along racist, sexist, and nationalist lines in order to make maximum profits and remain in power. As we fight for international workers’ unity, we learn to use our power to build a communist revolution.

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Union Causes Arrest of Retiree Activist

Following a July 25 demonstration, a long-time former Local 1199 union member and shop steward was arrested by Downstate Hospital security. Only after he was in handcuffs did he learn there was a warrant for his arrest.

In the weeks before his arrest, this recent retiree had been involved in activities to fight against layoffs and closing of Downstate. He had attended a meeting of 1199 at the affiliated Long Island College Hospital (LICH), which was called to discuss LICH layoffs.

An 1199 organizer blamed Downstate workers for LICH layoffs. This retiree rose to challenge this anti-worker divisive tactic. He called for solidarity to fight all layoffs and closings.

The organizer’s response was to kick the retiree out of the meeting and call hospital security. Although he left the meeting and hospital without contact with LICH security, the union organizer’s call had resulted in LICH pressing charges of criminal trespass.

We see how the unions and the state serve to subdue workers’ fight-backs.