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Vol. 80/No. 38 October 10, 2016
(lead article, Socialist Workers Party statement)
Socialist Workers Party: Protest police brutality!
Buffie Stephens/UNC Charlotte
More than 400 people march Sept. 28 at Charlotte campus of University of
North Carolina. Broad discussion on need to take a stand against cop
brutality followed killing of Keith Scott.
The following statement was released in Charlotte, North Carolina,
Sept. 28 by Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S.
vice president.
The Socialist Workers Party stands with workers and young people here
protesting the police killing of Keith Scott. I and my running mate
Alyson Kennedy, and SWP members all across the country, have joined in
demonstrations — from Ferguson, Missouri; to Council, Idaho; to Staten
Island, New York; to Baton Rouge, Louisiana; to Minneapolis — with the
growing number of people of all races and nationalities who say,
“Enough!” to cop killings.
These actions against police brutality — aimed at the working class and
disproportionately at workers who are Black — are having an impact.
While they are episodic, not yet part of an organized national movement,
they build on the historic transformation won by the powerful
working-class movement led by African-Americans that smashed Jim Crow
segregation in the 1950s and ’60s.
This is seen in how swiftly the rulers had to move to bring down the
Confederate battle flag, the hated symbol of Jim Crow, across the South
last year. It is felt in the growing refusal to accept police killings
and other abuses of the capitalist state and in the changing
consciousness and confidence of millions of workers that my supporters
and I find when we knock on doors across the country.
This is the reason the capitalist rulers have taken some steps to rein
in their cops. For instance, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, charges were filed just
days after Officer Betty Jo Shelby shot and killed Terence Crutcher.
Spurred by protests in 2014 against police killings, the Washington Post
began recording people shot dead by police in 2015. By the end of the
year the total was 991, 26 percent of them African-Americans — double
the proportion of the population that is Black.
Some said this shows the rise of police killings. But in fact police
brutality and racist violence have fallen dramatically from the days of
Jim Crow — in the North as well as the South.
What is new is the broad public attention cop attacks get, the bravery
and willingness of thousands to capture the shootings on video and the
widespread outrage over the killings. Millions are discussing why these
assaults take place, the character of the social system from which they
arise and what can be done to end them once and for all.
Police serve and protect the wealthy rulers, not only defending their
property, but carrying out their divide-and-conquer methods to maintain
state power. Police violence against workers is baked in the cake of
capitalism and can’t be reformed away.
As a result of the mighty battles that overthrew Jim Crow, there is more
unity and solidarity between Black and Caucasian workers today than ever
before. And we’re in a stronger position as it becomes clearer there is
no answer under the political rule of the bosses and bankers to the
deepening crisis of their capitalist system and the misery, brutality
and wars it foists on the back of our class.
We have to organize in our millions to fight back, through which we will
become politically capable of organizing to take political power ourselves.
This course requires leadership. Join the Socialist Workers Party!
Related articles:
Killing by Charlotte police sparks protests, discussion
Athletes’ protests against killings by cops spread
Socialist Workers Party is workers’ party! Runs against capitalist rule
SWP finds thirst for workers’ party in UK, Canada
Socialist Workers Party launches $100,000 fund drive
Join SWP campaigning, contribute funds
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