FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
|
|
FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM! |
International Communist Workers Party | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4 — A friend invited us to bring Red Flag to an open discussion at a community college, about Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Omar Abrego, and at least 90 others killed by US police during August, 2014. About 30 students and a dozen faculty and staff attended, mostly brought by word-of-mouth and classroom announcements.
One student identified herself as a cousin of Ezell and helped to set a serious and angry tone.
A teacher opened the discussion by stating that we were there not only because of the racist murders but also because of all the ways that the system is attacking young people with mass unemployment, mass incarceration, and a poisonous culture.
She emphasized that “their futures are blighted by the crisis of global capitalism that is dragging us to the brink of environmental catastrophe and widening wars” and that “the promise that education will insulate [youth] from racism and poverty is a cruel hoax.”
A black administrator with a Ph.D. later proved this point when he described how his own cousin was brutalized by the LAPD last spring.
People are fighting back. We must “envision and fight for the future they deserve,” the teacher concluded, “one in which all can contribute their abilities and talents to the common good, where all lives are valued and none snuffed out, all work respected and not exploited, where we know each other without fear and guarantee our own collective security and welfare.”
Those at the meeting agreed on a lot but disagreed too. Some nodded when a Red Flag comrade said that racism comes from capitalism and the solution is communism. Many thought that the police just need to be trained better. One said that she felt safer with police around, but more asked, “Who will protect us from our protectors?”
There were also sharp disagreements over education. Several teachers mentioned that the college is creating an “equity plan” so that more black students will get degrees. That was their strategy for fighting racism. Another teacher suggested privately that this “equity” project (created by a pot of state money) could be used to bring up the issue of racist cops on campus. Students, however, wanted to deal with this issue directly. Three decided to organize other students around it.
Someone suggested a study group to discuss the systemic roots of racism in capitalism. We should have seized this moment to circulate a sign-up sheet for a Party study group. That’s what our friends at the school should organize, not around “equity” or reforming the police. The “future we deserve” is communism, and the sooner more people learn that, the better.
About forty students took Red Flag that day, a dozen at the meeting, including Ezell’s cousin and other new organizers. They know many more students, and will meet others in their classes. We hope that some of them will help expand the distribution of Red Flag hand-to-hand on campus, and maybe publicly on campus and at Party industrial concentrations.