Communism Values Workers’ Lives—Capitalism Doesn’t here ♦ To End Racist Murders, We Need to Build the ICWP here ♦
Communism Values Workers’ Lives – Capitalism Doesn’t!
SEATTLE (USA), September 20— A speeding police car driven by cop Kevin Dave struck and killed Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old graduate student from India, last January. Recently released body cam footage showed cop Auderer, Vice President of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, laughing about it. The city “should just write a check,” he said. “Eleven thousand dollars. She had limited value.”
Masses are outraged. Three demonstrations in three days, at the corner where Kandula was killed, demanded “Justice for Jaahnavi, jail killer cops.” Other signs said, “Jaahnavi had more value than SPD” (Seattle Police Department).
To the capitalists who unleash their racist killer cops, workers’ value is limited to the profits they can squeeze out of us. Those capitalists and their cops are of absolutely no value to us.
Workers produce everything of value. By taking power with communist revolution, we will organize ourselves to produce and share what we need. Communist collective production will foster pro-social behavior and relationships. Only by destroying the system that feeds on every anti-working-class ideology can we create a world free from racism and sexism.
There is a long, deadly history of anti-Asian hate in the US and Canada. Recently, Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum was vandalized by a sledgehammer-wielding man spewing anti-Chinese hate. The cops took 45 minutes to respond. And Seattle cop Burton Hill was recorded using racist and sexist language against his Chinese-American neighbor.
This escalation of anti-Asian racism within the Seattle Police Department in the last few years is not the result of “a few bad apples.” It reflects the buildup of anti-Asian hated caused by the inter-imperialist rivalry between the US and China.
Major newspapers in India ran front page articles about the racist attacks on Kandula. But at the same time, the Modi regime promotes xenophobic violence against Muslims and Dalits. Pogroms have murdered thousands, and the threat is constant.
India’s media hypocritically expose US capitalism’s racism because of Indian rulers’ conflicts with US imperialists in the context of the US/China-Russia rivalry. Everywhere in the world, the bosses need to divide the working class in this and many other ways. We cannot be fooled by the false self-righteousness of one set of capitalist rulers.
Racism is a major tool that all capitalists use to divide the working class. As the push toward war escalates, the bosses get more desperate to win workers to fight each other, using racism, nationalism, xenophobia. This intensified racism is crucial for them even as they need to prepare unified multi-racial armies for coming wars.
ICWP comrades joined members of the South Asian community and others in the protests. We distributed about thirty Red Flags at the small demonstration we joined. Many appreciated the front-page pictures and article from India.
A new friend from the anti-APEC events told us about the actions. That reminded us to be consistent about developing the relationships we make when we bring communist politics to struggles.
Local South Asian organizers say they plan to escalate protests if the police department doesn’t “take action” against cops Auderer and Dave. But the best way to honor Jaahnavi Kandula and the millions who are mocked and tortured and killed by racist, sexist capitalism worldwide is not by just “saying their name” or demanding police reform. From Seattle to Delhi, it is by joining the ICWP to make revolution for communism.
To End Racist Murders, We Need to Build the ICWP – But How?
SEATTLE (USA), September 24— Is a communist world possible? How can we get there? That’s what comrades and friends wondered while discussing the racist murder of Jaahnavi Kandula. (See story page 1)
Ten comrades and friends got together after the protest we attended. After a delicious meal, a comrade who went to the demonstration asked everyone to help her write about what these racist attacks mean.
The vibrant conversation that followed highlighted not only the question of racism and the cops, but also whether we can build a base and recruit to our International Communist Workers’ Party.
The discussion first focused on fighting racism. One comrade said that the Seattle police already had a bad reputation when he came here in 1965. He was surprised neither by the murder nor the cops’ response.
He thought it important to teach history correctly in our schools. “Black history and Native American history are American history,” he said. “We have all been living together for five hundred years connected but controlled. And separated by the rulers.”
We discussed the potential for teachers to give a communist perspective on history. Too frequently they are kept from presenting truthful information to students. One teacher talked about how he is careful to build a base at his school with teachers and others who have a pro-working-class perspective.
Can we win students to communism and the party? Some friends didn’t see how it was possible to do this work in the schools. They thought students would react badly to open requests to join the party. They also worried that families would complain.
Part of the answer is that educators and paraprofessionals must build relationships not only with students and teachers, but also with students’ families. Party collective discussions help us learn to do this.
What must we do to get to a communist world? A retired Boeing worker asked point blank if a comrade who had worked at Boeing thought workers were receptive. Two other retired Boeing workers gave several examples when workers responded positively to communist politics. One gave ideas for a poster the party can make for the upcoming contract negotiations.
Comrades said that communism is the only way we can possibly all live together, taking care of each other. But there are questions about how this could happen. Can we get rid of money and produce for need, rather than profit? Everyone seemed to agree with the idea, but some were skeptical that it could ever happen.
Afterward, a close friend asked a comrade how we would ever be able to change the system. She sees the possibilities of a communist world, but “how can we ever get there?” The comrade said that “continuing the fight and growing the party is what will make this possible.”
“I get that!” the friend agreed. We hope to convince her soon to become a member of ICWP.