Revolution, not Police Reform here ♦ All Cops Defend Capitalism and Enforce its Fascism here ♦ 
World’s Workers Need Communist Revolution, Not Police Reform
EL SALVADOR, February 10— “We have returned to the 1970s and perhaps worse,” said a worker. He was referring to the Army’s presence in the streets alongside the police. Daily, young people, whether in gangs or not, are put up against the wall to be searched, beaten, and often arrested. This is always in working-class areas. These practices under the present “regime of exception” also occurred during the civil war (1980-1992).
In the 1990s, the FMLN and the government signed peace agreements to end the civil war. One agreement created the National Civil Police. This reform replaced existing police forces (the National Guard and the Treasury Police, among others) with a new one formed from members of the old police forces and ex-guerrillas.
They changed the color of the uniform and used fewer insignia. That is, they tried to take away people’s idea of police as punitive and murderous. But the end was the same. They left in charge the same ones whose hands were stained with workers’ blood.
These police forces were the ones that massacred our class brothers and sisters with an excess of barbarity. They disappeared them, tortured them, and murdered them in a failed effort to stop the revolution. The organized masses put up a battle, but their leaders negotiated, and the long-awaited changes did not take place.
We can say with certainty that police reform failed, as it has failed in the US and other countries. Police protect the residences, banks and businesses of the bourgeois class and repress working class neighborhoods. The role of the police is to protect the bosses from the workers’ fury.
The working class organized in the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) does not fight to reform the capitalist system or its police. We fight for communism until victory.
Over thirty years later, these reformed police forces are still being accused of committing injustices. They are currently in charge of official government repression.
Every day, around the world, people die at the hands of police. Recently police arrested a young Black man in the USA, Tyre Nichols, near his home, for “reckless driving.” They beat him brutally, causing his death. The police officers who killed him are Black, but that does not mean that this crime is not racist.
Racism is embedded in the minds of these police officers whether Black or white; it is institutional. The system has guaranteed that. When we fight for the communist system, we are fighting to end the racist ideology of capitalism that divides the working class.
No firing or imprisonment of police can be called justice. Nor will it end these crimes. Only Communism will root this out.
Police forces are formed on lines that correspond to the interests of the capitalist system. We cannot wait for another Tyre Nichols, another Sandra Bland, another George Floyd to organize ourselves. Indifference and passivity in the face of racist murder only favors racist capitalism.
The organized masses will end this nightmare. We are more and united. We are strong.
The International Communist Workers’ Party organizes the working class to fight against these racist crimes. We have shared the leaflet on the murder of Tyre Nichols and discussed it in the ICWP collectives here.
No amount of police reform is going to solve this problem. Police forces have been created to attack the working class.
Our communist line must expand throughout the world. Our efforts to recruit more workers must be constant. Communism will end the material basis of racism, eliminating the wage system. There will be no police. The organized working class will be able to solve any problems that arise.
One example of how this is possible: Refugees who had been living in Mesa Grande in Honduras returned in the 1980s to repopulate the community of Guarjila in the department of Chalatenango, which they had abandoned due to the war.
While in exile, they had learned a level of organizational structure that allowed them to organize themselves very well. They achieved a 0% infant mortality rate, made the population literate, and took care of security without government help for many years.
In Communist society, workers will be responsible for leadership, organization, and development without any need for police.
Let’s Be Clear: Cops Defend Capitalism and Enforce Its Fascism
UNITED STATES, February 11—There is no escaping the filmed horror of Tyre Nichols’ murder by Memphis police. Comrades and friends searched for communist answers from coast to coast in the US and beyond.
At first, some focused on the second-degree murder charges quickly leveled against five Black cops (compared with other cases of white cops). It took a week for the struggle among East Coast comrades, co-workers, and family to reach a consensus: “A cop is a cop is a cop” no matter what their race, gender, nationality, religion, or caste.
“You’ll never see a cop arrest the CEO for exploiting workers,” said a Boeing friend in Seattle who was arrested on the picket line during a strike.
“And it doesn’t matter if the CEO is Black,” added another. “He’ll still harass and fire you if it means more profits.”
“The cops are given free rein to murder to protect capitalism and terrorize workers,” said a third. She researched the history of Cerelyn Davis, Memphis Police Department’s first Black female chief. Before coming to Tennessee, she led the Red Dog unit of the Atlanta police. Like the Memphis SCORPION unit she created, the Red Dog unit murdered at will.
International Hatred of Killer Cops
A Filipino activist brought a friend to a recent ICWP meeting. The first thing on the agenda was what to do about the Tyre Nichols murder. The friend said that he usually goes to demonstrations of other groups when racist killings like these happen, but they didn’t know of any.
Whether or not other groups organize demonstrations, our immediate task is to discuss the issue with the people around us, presenting a communist analysis.
A comrade reported from a recent ICWP steering committee that a comrade from India attending school in the US was already discussing this attack and the need for communism with friends he knows in various US states. He related the deadly attack on Tyre Nichols to capitalism’s attacks on Muslims and Dalits in India.
This led to a discussion about how the fascist Duterte/Marcos Jr. regimes used cops and the army to massacre thirty thousand. Our Filipino friends living in the US feel an obligation to struggle with their US friends, linking the atrocious murder of Tyre Nichols to the slaughter in the Philippines.
We all agreed that we must recruit soldiers. Are cops the same?
“There is a difference,” said a comrade. “If you stay in the police force, you must adopt the cop attitude that you have free rein to murder for capitalism. History shows that all policing supports the needs of the bosses in a particular historical epoch. The history of soldiers show they can be won to revolution.”
The meeting ended with plans to build a communist base in the schools where we distribute three hundred Red Flags each issue. Students and teachers consistently tell comrades that Red Flag is the “best literature” and “their favorite paper.” The burning question is how we can develop these enthusiastic readers into communist organizers.
A Filipina friend formed a student group last year where she volunteered. A comrade plans to talk with her about what the comrade can do at the high school where she volunteers. What kind of group did our friend form and how does that compare with what our comrade has in mind?
“Now is the time,” the comrade declared, “when capitalism is in crisis and workers and students are angry and looking for answers.”
In truth, the time is long past due to end capitalism. Communist solutions will find a more receptive audience as capitalism reveals its deadly racist, fascist nature. The Tyre Nichols murder—like the innumerable horrors of capitalism—calls comrades and friends to redouble our efforts to build the ICWP in preparation for communist revolution.
Read our Pamphlet:
To End Racism, Mobilize the Masses for Communism
Front page of this issue
