Racist NYPD attack on MLK day here ♦ Comrade in El Salvador’s experience in guerrilla army here ♦ Party Collectives key to Communist Work here ♦
Racist New York City Police (Again) Use Excessive Force, Arresting Dozens on M.L.K. Day
On January 18, 2021 the nation was still reeling from right-wing, Trump supporters having stormed and rioted at the Capitol building in Washington, DC. That night, NYC saw dozens arrested in Lower Manhattan the night of the Martin Luther King’s Birthday holiday.
According to the police and to witnesses, their “crime” came down to having participated in a march organized by Black activist groups.
Perhaps unironically, this happened shortly after the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, had sued the New York Police Department and the Mayor’s Office, over their handling of protests this past summer, after George Floyd’s death.
Videos posted online by witnesses and participants showed New York Police Department officers with helmets, batons and zip ties pushing against protesters who had gathered on the streets and sidewalks near City Hall.
This racist attack was barely covered by mainstream news outlets. But images of officers yanking individual protestors out of a crowd began circulating widely on Twitter and TikTok. The images were near copies of those from last summer, when Black Lives Matter demonstrators had flooded the streets of New York and other major U.S. cities.
Ms. James’ lawsuit calls for control of the Police Department to be stripped from the mayor and given to an independent panel. The State’s Attorney General said that her office had found “an egregious abuse of police power; rampant, excessive use of force; and leadership unable and willing to stop it.”
She continued, “There was ample ability and opportunity for the city and N.Y.P.D. leadership to make important changes to the way that officers interact with peaceful protesters, but time and time again, they did not.”
Ms. James’ actions are admirable. But civil litigation, including oversight and reforms, will not end the racial bias and unnecessarily militarized presentation of law enforcement agencies in the U.S.
Only complete abolition of the police, and their replacement with unarmed, social welfare and human safety personnel, under a system that is of and for the people, such as communism, will eradicate the crisis of police racism and violence.
(Information and image from New York Times, January 18, 2021)
—New Comrade In Los Angeles (USA)
Comrade in El Salvador Talks About His Experience in the Guerrilla Army
El Salvador—My father sent me to the national army in 1974 and I left at the end of 1975. My brother was already organized in the base committees of the Front (FMLN). He was my first contact with the organization that was growing among the farmworkers and some young workers and students from the city. He asked me when I was going to go on leave so he would organize the groups of farmworkers to teach them how to arm and disarm the weapons, as well as the tactics of war they taught me in the barracks. We would leave at night and take them to the countryside.
This is a clear example of the importance of winning soldiers to our party.
In the government army I also worked in military health. When I finished my two-year term my father wanted me to continue my military career. But my mother was against it. She realized how the army and the so-called security forces like the National Police, National Guard and Treasury Police, captured workers for any reason and tortured and killed them.
I applied for a position in the Ministry of Health and was accepted because of the experience I had gained in the army. But my real task was to organize the workers so that they would not continue to be oppressed and exploited by the rich. Being a promoter of health, I could not leave aside the problems we faced as poor people and in every talk that I gave imparted the need to organize against the bosses.
But they denounced me and reported me to the right-wing paramilitaries several times to interrogate me, so I would give them information. But I did not tell them anything. They told me that I was a red communist. They locked me in a dark room and put a gun to my head, but I never agreed to the charges they said they had against me and the organization.
The guard was looking for me to kill me, but since they didn’t’ find me, they went to where my parents lived and tortured them. But my parents were saved that time. Then we sent them to the refugee camp in Honduras and that’s how my relatives and I fully entered the civil war.
We went to the mountains, at the border with Honduras. We dispersed among the sawmill workers and there we organized several young people for the organization. We started a music group to attract more young people. After several experiences, I was given the mission of being a healthcare worker and had internationalist doctors under my command, I learned to do different types of healthcare work.
I am very happy that they come to visit me and leave me Red Flag newspaper. I am convinced that communism is the only solution. The young people have to follow the line of the party and distribute Red Flag so that the change of systems for which we have fought can be achieved. I’m going to give them cheese to take, cheese for pupusas that I make so they can eat it on the way.
—a veteran of the struggle
Growing Party Collectives: Key to Communist Work
The day after the US Capitol riot, our party collective welcomed a new member. She had been joining our weekly Zoom discussion group, online chats and international Zoom forums for almost five months. She was taking responsibility for certain tasks.
Then she asked a comrade, “How does someone officially become a member of ICWP? Am I a member yet?”
“Certainly, we consider you a member,” he replied. “There is no protocol. Only the decision that you want to fight for a communist society and contribute as you can. It doesn’t matter if there are still disagreements or the desire to understand some things better. Things get clearer as we go along.”
Before diving into the fascist coup attempt, we tried to get clearer about what it means to belong to a party collective.
We understand that party work depends on “networks” of friends, relatives, co-workers. We encourage them to read Red Flag and other literature. We discuss communist ideas with them and ask them to circulate Red Flag to their own networks. Our new member had just sent it to 40 people
We agreed that the party needs “concentrations” that are strategically key to mobilizing for communism.
But we are still struggling for clarity about groups the party organizes. One idea, presented at an international forum, is that “party collectives” should mainly be discussion groups where we connect with newly-interested people. This idea sees “study-action groups,” in contrast, as being made up of “all people who carry the work into the world.”
The leader of our collective presented a different, contradictory idea. She said that party collectives (sometimes called cells or clubs) are for both discussion and carrying out the work. These are interrelated. Members of party collectives commit to discussing current issues, theory and practice. From these discussions come concrete plans for action.
Different members contribute to carrying out these plans in different ways, as they are willing and able. We are committed to evaluating this work as frankly and objectively as we can, through criticism and self-criticism. We improve our plans and our work.
These plans often include discussion or study groups that meet the needs of members and friends at a particular time. Our collective’s weekly Zoom group was an example. Also, we usually invite some friends (who are not yet members) to join meetings of the party collective.
The collective, not the individual member, is the basic unit of the party. Each collective should have specific responsibilities connected with one or more concentrations. Members of our collective have helped “from the outside” with the transit concentration. Most of us have responsibilities around producing Red Flag. But we are still seeking a workplace, community organization or other concentration where we can work together to build the party.
Our collective generally agrees with this (second) view. It will become clearer in practice. We discussed what we are and aren’t willing or able to do. We planned for three members to start a new “Collective Liberation” book club, and for the discussion group to continue biweekly.
We live in critical times. We need to win more young people to work with us instead of relying on the Democratic Party.
Sharpening contradictions of capitalism, including the political fight in the US, make it increasingly important that every party member participate actively in a party collective that builds the party and expands our work. We welcome more discussion of what this means and requires.
Party collective in Los Angeles (USA)
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