FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
	International Communist Workers Party
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“Shining a Light, A Concert for Progress on Race in America,” was broadcast simultaneously on four channels on November 20 and sponsored by The United Way. 
Bruce Springsteen led off with “American Skin (41 Shots),” referring to the 41 shots the police took when they murdered African immigrant Amadou Diallo in 1999. John Legend, Rhiannon Giddens, and Pharrell Williams were among the headliners. George Lopez called out Donald Trump. Sounds good, right?
Some of us thought that this would be an honest conversation because these socially conscious artists were behind it. We found out that this was actually too much to ask. An honest conversation would involve talking about the material basis of racism in the wage system, and capitalism itself. An honest conversation would at least mention the fight for a communist system where we could end racism once and for all. But you can’t talk about that on TV.
There was some great music. The best was probably Jill Scott singing the anti-lynching ballad “Strange Fruit,” written by a communist and sung by Billie Holiday.
What was the worst?  The constant emphasis on forgiveness from the Mother Emmanuel congregation, nine of whose members were murdered in cold blood by a white racist?  The interview with the mother in Baltimore filmed hitting her son upside the head for protesting the police murder of Freddie Gray?  Leaving out Sandy Bland, killed in Texas in police custody?
Or maybe it was the interview with the wives of five white and one black cop in Ferguson talking about how hard the protests over the police murder of Michael Brown have been on them.  While the police have killed a thousand people in the US this year so far, they want us to see the police as our protectors against neighborhood criminals. Actually they are the defenders of the biggest criminals—the capitalists and their racist system.
There is tremendous mass anger over racist police terror. The ruling class is working overtime to contain that anger. Funneling protestors into electoral politics is one tactic. Winning people to sympathize with the police, rather than their victims, is another. This concert, raising money for a monument to those killed at Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, argues for forgiveness, rather than taking to the streets.
The closing song, “One man could change the world” pushed individual solutions of “redemption and forgiveness” and the ballot box to derail the protests. We’ve got a collective solution—mobilize the masses for communism!

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