California (USA), August 3— “Darkness hovers over the oppressed peoples in the United States this summer,” said a comrade responding to the flagrant police murder of Corey Ruiz in Madison, Wisconsin on July 22.
Enraged workers and youth nationwide were still protesting the ICE murders of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas on July 7 and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Maine on July 13. We know there will be no “justice” for them. Or for Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Keith Porter. Or for over seventy-five who have died in ICE custody this year.
What about Nolan Wells and Juliana Nzita? Is racist capitalism responsible for their deaths?
Nolan Wells, a Black 18-year-old, died on July 4th during a boating outing with a group of white friends in Mississippi. We don’t know what happened to him. We do know that his friends were wealthy and connected. And that local officials rushed to rule out foul play before the investigation was even finished. New evidence seriously questions the results of the official autopsy.
Juliana Nzita, a Black 16-year-old, was “found hanging from a tree” in a North Carolina churchyard in May. The history of racist lynching, especially in the US South, makes it extremely unlikely that a Black person who chose suicide would do it from a tree. From a branch twice as high as she was tall. But the case was closed with a ruling of suicide in a week, without an autopsy, locating her cellphone, or interviewing the man who reported finding her body.
Capitalism needs racism to survive. Without racism, working people would have long ago united to overthrow our oppressors. Racism allows us to dismiss these deaths of Black teenagers in the US South. “She killed herself.” “He was drunk.” “He picked the wrong friends.”
Comrades elsewhere have their own examples. The murder of our comrade Zipho in Gqeberha (South Africa) was never investigated by the state. Nor the disappearances and deaths of thousands of indigenous women throughout North America. The Israeli state tacitly condones crimes against Arab Israeli citizens and encourages settlers to attack Palestinians. Drug lords in Mexico kill with impunity, with the collusion of the state. Unless perhaps if they kill an American tourist.
The capitalist state is not neutral. Prof. Terence Keel documented the LA County coroners’ office’s complicity in letting cops off the hook when people die in police custody. Concerning Nolan Wells, he commented, “For generations, Black and Brown families have been failed by a death investigation system that too often blames victims, overlooks critical evidence, or reaches conclusions before all the facts are known.”
But, as Black American scholar W. E. B. DuBois reportedly said, “The system cannot fail those it was never designed to protect.”
The deaths of our friends and comrades just don’t matter to the capitalist state. It wasn’t set up to protect workers. It was set up to protect property and guarantee our oppression. And when suspected racist murders are not investigated, the killers are given a free pass to attack us again.
We should follow the example of Black communists in Alabama during the 1930s, urged a comrade. Faced with beatings, jailings, killings, and other attacks, they didn’t despair or retreat. “They fought back, not only by demanding reforms, but by building the party.”
Comrades in South Africa marched defiantly to Comrade Zipho’s memorial, demonstrating their commitment to building the ICWP. This is our response to the murders of our class siblings. Join us in building the party that fights for a communist world where workers in power can end racism and exploitation in all its forms.
Read To End Racism: Mobilize Masses for Communism here