Charleena Protests Call on Us to Mobilize for Communism
SEATTLE, USA, June 27— The Town Hall overflowed with furious, frustrated people. Workers and students of all races, sexes and ages came to voice their outrage at the racist murder of Charleena Lyles, but the anger of older black women stood out. Many had lost children, friends or other relatives to police killings. Some had been in the struggle against racist police terror for decades —to no avail. Communism will put an end to this frustrating cycle of racist cop killings.
Angry Seattleites filled a University of Washington lecture hall built to seat 800. They filled the seats, the hallways and an overflow room, culminating a week of nearly daily protests that involved thousands. As expected, the Mayor and the Police Chief were no-shows.
Charleena Lyles, a 30-year old black woman, was shot dead in front of three of her four children. She had called the cops because she thought someone was breaking into her house. Instead of helping her, they killed her because she had a knife.
The crowd was in no mood to be placated. “Every City Council has failed to make the police accountable,” said a woman speaker, dismissing the nice words of the city council members in the panel at the head of the meeting.
“Fix the system. We are dying. We are burying our children,” said another, receiving heartfelt agreement from the crowd.
Many speakers voiced the general frustration. They did not want to ever have to be back for the same reason: another cop murder.
“But they will be [coming back again]!” said a party friend at Boeing after receiving a report of the meeting.
Bitter experience has taught him, as it has many at the meeting and demonstrations, that cops are essential for building terror in the working class, especially among workers and youth of color. Civilian oversight committees, federal consent degrees and court trials (that some called for) won’t change this. That is what the cops are paid to do: protect and serve the bosses.
If we don’t want to come back year after year, month after month, to protest yet another racist cop killing, we need to mobilize for communism. That’s what our comrades advocated at the biggest demonstration and the Town Hall. That’s the message hundreds received in our leaflet ( here) and Red Flag.
In communism, the party will regularly organize mass meetings at workplaces and in neighborhoods so that workers will have an active role in all decisions that affect their lives.
We would organize an entirely different kind of “Town Hall” to respond to racist murder. We would not have a meeting meant to allow people to vent their frustration and then carry out an oppressor-led investigation organized by the cops for months or years.
First, we would not have a police force, hence no racist cop murders. However, we will have mass meetings to deal with any heinous, racist acts. They will be held at worksites, learning centers and everywhere workers and youth congregate. The facts will be presented, but most of all these meetings will be dedicated to mobilizing masses to make sure we don’t have to come back yet again. Workers and students will leave these meetings with a plan (that they worked out) to stop the racists dead in their tracks.
All this will be possible because communism will eliminate the material basis for racism. As our leaflet said:
“Only communism can end racism (and with it racist police terror) first by abolishing money, private property, and the wage system. Everyone will work collectively to supply everyone’s needs on an equal basis. Resources (raw materials, labor) will be allocated based on workers’ needs, not profit. Without wages, there will be no such thing as cheap labor. No exploitation and therefore no racist super-exploitation. No ruling class, no borders, no wars and no racist cops.”
To end police terror and racism, we need millions of people to be mobilized for communism. We need a communist revolution. If we learned anything from the past week’s meeting and demonstrations, it is that the frustration and anger of the masses opens the door to just such a mobilization.
Some chant for real justice for Charleena. That will never happen under capitalism, but we can end the system that murdered her. Join the ICWP and help us end racist police terror for good.
