January 29–Tyre Nichols was a young worker, full of love and life. Memphis cops beat him to death for no reason other than to prove they dominated the working class. Which is their job.
“They police some neighborhoods and serve others,” emphasized an MSNBC host. “It’s the power of the state,” “It’s the culture of policing,” said others. What they never say is that the state exists exactly to serve the capitalist class. A huge part of that is policing working-class neighborhoods like Hickory Hill for fear of revolution.
Policing in the US grew out of armed patrols that terrorized and enforced the enslavement of Black workers. With the rise of the industrial working class, the capitalist rulers unleashed their cops on all workers.
That’s how racism works – and xenophobia, casteism, and the rest. Capitalists single out part of the working class for super-exploitation. Blame them for the misery that capitalism causes for all workers. Divide our class against itself, then try to terrorize us into submission.
The fascist police culture operates to discipline a racially divided working class.
Five Black cops were quickly fired, arrested, and charged for the murder of Tyre Nichols. Their paramilitary SCORPION force was shut down. That’s unusual – and reformers like Rev. Al Sharpton and Ben Crump say it shouldn’t be. They want more local and federal laws and more enforcement. But even they can’t pretend this will save the lives of the next Tyre.
“All of the reforms failed at the same damn time,” declared lawyer and activist Derecka Purnell. “Black cops, body cameras, multiple cops on the scene, tasers instead of guns—so how is more reform the answer?”
It’s not. The answer is revolution. Communist revolution.
Because we the workers are many, the capitalists who exploit us are few. As their economic crisis deepens, they have fewer illusions to offer us – look at the massive job cuts in the supposedly “safe” tech sector.
And they have fewer crumbs to throw our way. US imperialism is staring World War III in the face as tank warfare escalates the US/NATO war against Russian imperialism in Ukraine. And as Japan rearms to confront Chinese imperialism in Asia-Pacific.
Fascist police terror – from the US to El Salvador and India and beyond – is the last resort of capitalists desperate to force us into line to produce and defend their profits. Their biggest fear is that the masses will unite against them for communist revolution.
In the US, they attack Black workers most viciously because of the leadership they have given to the whole working class in wildcat strikes, urban rebellions, and resistance to imperialist wars.
The whole damn profit system must go.
We must build an entirely different system on the ashes of the old. Communism is that system: Workers uniting as a class. Collectively deciding what and how to produce to meet the needs of the masses. Sharing according to need, without markets or money or exchange. Without borders or racism. Without conditions that create mental illness or anti-social behavior, but with the resources to address such problems when and if they arise.
Mobilizing for communism means armed struggle to defeat the forces of the capitalist state. It means political struggle to convince soldiers, sailors, and Marines, along with other workers and youth worldwide, that we can win the world we need and deserve.
Join the International Communist Workers’ Party to fight racist police terror by mobilizing the masses for communism. Organize meetings, rallies, and strikes for this goal. Read and distribute Red Flag. Get in touch!
This leaflet in PDF here
International Communist Workers’ Party
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