Ferguson. Racism: An open letter to all who oppose racism.

By Sean O'Torrain    Anti  Racism. Trade Union leaders and activists.  Missing in Action.

The so-called Justice Department has found a host of vicious racist emails which were sent out by the Ferguson police department from police department premises and using police department computers. We print some examples below. But before we do so we have a word or two for the trade union leaders, all trade union activists and also all European American workers in fact all workers. That word is simple. Get off your ass and openly oppose and organize against racism.

There are two reasons you must do this. One, it is the right thing to do. When young black males are getting killed by the cops at 21 times the rate of young white males any decent self respecting person has to speak up. If you do not then you have no integrity. Your silence will rot your soul. The other reason the trade union leaders, all trade union activists and all European American and all workers must speak up is this. If you do not then the anti racist movement will be led or rather misled by the African American middle class and will be taken along the path of white versus black.

If this happens it will increase racist division. This in turn will strengthen the divide and rule policies of the bosses and their system. It is not difficult to understand. The class that runs this country are tiny minority. They are out numbered 99.9 and more by the working class majority. In order to rule this minority must divide the majority. So they repress and kill and imprison African American and Hispanic American minorities in much greater numbers than the European American population. They then say see it is those African Americans and Hispanic Americans themselves who are to blame. Left out is the 300 years of slavery when African American workers did not receive one cent of wages for their labor, left out is the racist investment policies by the overwhelmingly European American capitalist class, which is mainly aimed at the more European American neighborhoods.

Unless a united workers movement is built to fight these vicious racist divide and rule policies of the US capitalist class then the minority populations will be even more repressed and suffer even more. And along with this the working class as a whole will be further divided and thus weakened and thus less able to fight the capitalist offensive which is cutting wages and jobs, and all that is needed for working people to have a decent life.

So back to the trade union leaders, the trade union activists and all European American and in fact all workers. To repeat get off your ass and fight racism. The trade union leaders are about useless. I do not know if anything can be expected from them. They stand beside Obama, the war criminal and representative of Wall Street grinning like Cheshire cats in their ill fitting suits. They cannot believe that they are welcomed to the White House. Of course they are welcomed. They hold back any attempt by the working class to fight the capitalist offensive and drive any worker who wants to fight this offensive out of positions of influence. But just in the off chance that there might be one trade union leader with a brain in their head or a sliver of backbone, we address this open letter first and foremost to the union leaders. They have said that Ferguson is not their affair. They are very wrong there. In their stupidity the hurtle towards the edge of the precipice with their eyes shut. The more Fergusons the more the working class will be divided and the more the trade union and working class will be divided. Of course one of the things that keeps their eyes closed are the huge salaries that they award themselves from their members dues.

But it is not only the union leaders to whom we address this letter. We also address it to every union activist and member. Have you called a meeting in your workplace to discuss Ferguson and the other daily racist events? Have you gone to the meeting of your union local and moved a resolution against racism, the events in Ferguson and elsewhere and moved that your union organize workplace meetings, mass rallies and national demonstrations and direct actions against racism. If you do not do this then you will be following the refusal to lead and the inaction of the union leaders. You will be part of the problem not part of the solution.

Finally we also address this letter to all members and supporters of all left groups and all groups, left liberal whatever who oppose racism. Have you gone to your union meetings and moved a resolution to take mass direct action against racism, have you held workplace school and college meetings against racism, explaining that racism in the last analysis is the weapon of the employer class to divide the working class and rule the working class and extract more profits from the working class.

See the vicious racist emails sent by Ferguson cops below. these people should not be cops.

In its investigation of the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department, the Justice Department said it found "direct evidence of racial bias" in e-mails from and interviews with "influential Ferguson decision makers," including police commanders and court supervisors, all of whom are current employees.

Several officials "expressed discriminatory views and intolerance with regard to race, religion, and national origin," the report concluded. It described the communications as "unequivocally derogatory, dehumanizing, and demonstrative of impermissible bias."

The Justice Department cited the following e-mails as "illustrative":

• A November 2008 e-mail stated that President Obama would not be president for very long because "what black man holds a steady job for four years."

• A March 2010 e-mail mocked African Americans through speech and familial stereotypes, using a story involving child support. One line from the e-mail read: "I be so glad that dis be my last child support payment! Month after month, year after year, all dose payments!"

• An April 2011 e-mail depicted Obama as a chimpanzee.

• A May 2011 e-mail stated: "An African-American woman in New Orleans was admitted into the hospital for a pregnancy termination. Two weeks later she received a check for $5,000. She phoned the hospital to ask who it was from. The hospital said, 'Crimestoppers.'"

• A June 2011 e-mail described a man seeking to obtain "welfare" for his dogs because they are "mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can't speak English and have no frigging clue who their Daddies are."

• An October 2011 e-mail included a photo of a bare-chested group of dancing women, apparently in Africa, with the caption, "Michelle Obama's High School Reunion."

• A December 2011 e-mail included jokes that are based on offensive stereotypes about Muslims.

Officials sent the e-mails from their city accounts "almost without exception" and apparently during work hours. Investigators found no evidence that anyone was disciplined or that anyone asked the sender to stop sending such e-mails, which were forwarded to others.

"Critically, each of these e-mail exchanges involved supervisors of FPD's patrol and court operations," the Justice Department wrote. "FPD patrol supervisors are responsible for holding officers accountable to governing laws, including the Constitution, and helping to ensure that officers treat all people equally under the law, regardless of race or any other protected characteristic.

"The racial animus and stereotypes expressed by these supervisors suggest that they are unlikely to hold an officer accountable for discriminatory conduct or to take any steps to discourage the development or perpetuation of racial stereotypes among officers."