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Afscme Local 444, retired
The “Southern police
system ... represents a crucial and strategic factor in race relations,” with
extreme brutality cases of “Negroes being killed by policemen.”
These
words, written some 70 years ago by Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal, were
conclusions drawn as a result of his study on race relations in the US. * It comes as no surprise to many people and
certainly not to black folks. But it also shows how worthless these sort of
academic studies are when it comes to dealing with the problem of racism in
society. They could be used to organize resistance, as a force for change as
valuable information is in them. But no, you see, we have freedom of
information, but who owns the means of communicating that information to the
masses is another issue; stuff like this is better left on the shelf and for
the interest of academics.
Workers
meanwhile get a dose of sports or (Un) Reality TV shows to keep us occupied. What is more important than Brad and Angelina's divorce. The
authorities will not make such details as easily available to the masses as
this year’s Raider schedule or Halloween Sale, so it’s our job to seek them out
and use them in our struggle against the capitalist offensive becasue if history
is going to be brought to the masses, it will be a well scripted version
brought to you by WalMart, Disney or Hollywood.
The social role of the police has not changed since these words were written; they are an armed branch of the state and the state is not an institution devoid of class content. The state, or government as we call it, is an organ of class rule. The police are the front lines in the maintenance of class rule. In the urban ghettos where unemployment is high, opportunity limited and potential for revolt strong, they are there to keep order, in other words to ensure no politicized movement for change arises. In times of increased open warfare between labor and capital, they are there to ensure strikes are broken, scabs allowed to work and anti-union injunctions obeyed.
I think most workers, even American workers, would agree we
do not live in a classless society and it is inevitable in such a construct
that those who govern society, and who are in a minority numerically and who
have incredible wealth, want to keep it that way. The rest of us who work and whose labor is
the source of that wealth, are always trying to increase our share of it.
Because we outnumber them and at times threaten this set up, the ruling class
uses many different tactics to divide us. The most successful tactic here in
the US has been racism or more accurately the color line. In Northern Ireland where everyone was pretty
much the same color, religion plays that role.
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Hubert Harrison “World
Problems of Race,” 1926 Source
Racism, while having horrific consequences for people of
color in the US, especially people of African descent, has harmed all workers.
The reason a white worker is paid less in the South than the North is because
of racism although that gap is narrowing. Racism has meant workers were divided
and alienated from each other, workers’ organizations were kept out or non-existent,
and the bosses have more power. Despite years of concessions and refusal of the
labor hierarchy to fight back, unionized workers are still better off, we have
better wages and benefits and a vehicle that allows us to confront sexism and
racism on the job. As individuals we are close to powerless.
That is why all workers and unionized workers especially
should speak out and support the protests and movements against racism and
police brutality. When the anger reaches the point where people lash out, smash
stores, trash cars and in the most extreme, attack innocent individuals, we
have to look beyond immediate events. We have to look at the underlying causes
of the explosion. We have to look at the facts the media keep hidden.
A few weeks ago I saw some white nationalist on TV talking
about the violence that erupts in the urban black communities and how they
destroy our cities. When these urban uprisings or riots occur we hear
capitalist politicians black and white talk about restraint and how bad violence
is; that people should respect property, work through established channels etc.
The black politicians are somewhat different as they feel the pressure from the
black masses and their own class positions are threatened by the revolutionary
potential of the black working class, so they are forced in one way or another
to pay lip service to the urban poverty and racism that is the root cause of
these social upheavals. In addition, for the
black middle and upper middle class, the affects of racism have been so acute and
prolonged that practically all of them will have a relative sometime or
somewhere that has experienced police harassment, actual violence and certainly
racism in the courts and justice system itself.
It is institutionalized racism, the racism that is woven in
to the fabric of US and capitalist society that weighs heavily on the black
population in particular; it’s not just about being called a name. It is the
historic exclusion from housing, jobs, education, politics, access to
capital and police brutality that is at the root of this crisis.
This doesn’t mean white workers aren’t exploited. Most poor
people in the US are white because there are more of us. The millions of
Europeans that came to the US from the peasants of Southern Italy to the starving
Irish were not here on vacation and rarely by choice. It is the percentages
that are so high and as Europeans are white skinned, we do not face this social
alienation and discrimination based on the basis of our skin tone. **
It is this incredible social weight that many white workers
fail to see. Or when we do, it is not presented in a way that offers a united
way out so people close their minds to it, try to avoid it and get on with
their lives grateful its not happening to them even though they feel sympathy
with the victims of it. Thee is a lot of coercive pressure in US society to keep one's mouth shut. There is a chasm between how workers approach this
issue, especially in the rank and file of the unions and the workplace compared
to the liberals and the petit bourgeois academic left. White workers are not
wrong to think the white liberals solution to the problem will mean they will
lose out. The reality is that workers unity is what will ensure we all have a
secure future.
The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri provoked
an extended period of anger that was replicated in other cities including cities around the world. We have
witnessed this so many times in response to events like these and the failure
of the courts and justice system to do anything about it. Rodney King, Oscar Grant,
Trayvon Martin Amadou Diallo and so many more examples come to mind.
But these individual events, as tragic as they are, are just
the spark that ignites the anger that cannot be contained any longer at
conditions that are so overwhelming even the presence of an army of police
cannot stop it. As Martin Luther King said, “Riots
are the language of the unheard.”, in other words, one cannot condemn
people rioting, if one doesn’t condemn the conditions that cause them. We only
have to look at early colonial US history when riots and mass meetings, what the
authorities called “the mob” were
commonplace because the political avenue was closed to most people.***
After Ferguson, the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigated the
Ferguson police department. And let’s be clear, this probe occurred for one
reason and one reason only, the growth of the Black Lives Matter Movement, ongoing
protests against police brutality and racism, including the recent inclusion of
sports figures led by Colin Kaepernick and the protests his actions provoked
and, yes, riots.
I apologize for the length of this commentary but it can’t
be helped. I took the time to review some of the DOJ’s findings. Here is an
example of the Ferguson Police Department’s activity and some actual cases :
Despite making up 67
percent of the population, African-Americans have accounted for 85 percent of
all traffic stops, and were the subject of 90 percent of the citations and 93
percent of the arrests made by Ferguson police over the last two years.
One of the charges where blacks are cited more often than whites: "Manner of Walking," which is issued to blacks 95 percent of the time. (my added emphasis)
African-Americans are
also 70 percent less likely to have their charges dismissed by a judge.
* In 2014, a black
couple let their young children urinate in the bushes at a park. An officer
threatened to arrest the parents for allowing the children to expose
themselves. He took the man into custody for parental neglect, and when the
woman began videotaping the interaction the police officer yelled, “You don’t
videotape me!” The officers drove away and the woman followed, continuing to
tape. The officer stopped the car and arrested the woman on traffic citations.
* Another woman called
police to report a separate domestic disturbance and was given a summons for an
occupancy permit violation. She said, according to the officer’s report, that
she “hated the Ferguson Police Department and will never call again, even if
she is being killed.
* A man
was leaving the police station when officers arrived to take custody of another
man wanted on a state charge. The officers stopped the man who was leaving and
asked for his ID. He declined, saying he didn’t have to provide it. The man
also declined to be frisked. Then, when the man offered his ID, the officers
interpreted his hand movement as an assault and took him to the ground. The man
was charged with two counts of failure to comply and two counts of resisting
arrest.
* In July 2012, a police officer arrested a business owner
on charges of Interfering in
Police Business and Misuse of 911 because she objected to
the officer’s detention
of her employee. The officer had stopped the employee for
“walking unsafely in the street” as he returned to work from the bank.
*One white individual who has lived in Ferguson for 48 years told investigators that it feels like Ferguson’s police and court system is “designed to bring a black man down ... (there are) no second chances.”
*One white individual who has lived in Ferguson for 48 years told investigators that it feels like Ferguson’s police and court system is “designed to bring a black man down ... (there are) no second chances.”
Other charges include: Disorderly Conduct for giving the middle finger and using
obscenities; Manner of Walking for being in the street; Failure to Comply for
staying to observe; Interference with Officer; Assault on a Law Enforcement
Officer; and Endangering the Welfare of a Child (themselves and their
schoolmates) by resisting arrest and being involved in disorderly conduct.
In other words, the black residents of Ferguson were
tormented and harassed day in day out by the police. Their lives were a
constant cycle of harassment, arrests, fines, late fees, failure to appear
notices and arrest warrants and jail time. This is not limited to Ferguson and is experienced to one extent or another by all poor people in this society. The
police in urban ghettos are occupation forces.
The DOJ report notes that residents were arrested on trumped
up charges because residents used profanity or gave a cop the finger. As the
report points out, residents were denied their First Amendment rights so the
cops made up other violations like “manner
of Walking”.
Of course, capitalism is a violent system and all workers
are victims of its violence in one way or another. For black people,
institutionalized racism, extreme violence and exclusion from the norms of
society goes back a long way. But even if we consider the period from Gunnar
Myrdal’s study in the 1940’s to today, a couple of things stand out. One is
that the US capitalist class is incapable of eliminating racism in society as it is crucial as a divide and rule tactic, sometimes openly and overt, and at
all times subtle and covert. Malcolm X
was right when he said, “You can’t have
capitalism without racism.”
The other is the incredible tolerance, patience and humanity
of people that they have to be pushed to the edge of the abyss before the anger
overwhelms them. Death while fighting the enemy is the preferred option. Imagine
if the financial and human resources used to defend US capitalism’s profits
abroad were used to rebuild our cities, we’d eliminate urban blight and
literally create millions of jobs. But that’s not how capitalism works.
I do not agree with this view, but one can hardly blame some black folks who argue that at the root of this crisis is a conscious plan to eliminate them as a people entirely. It surely must feel this way. It is a staggering condemnation of our society that the situation is as bad today if not worse than when Myrdal wrote those lines. What goes on in our prisons is a crime against humanity, for all people incarcerated, but again, blacks are a disproportionate percentage of that population.
I do not agree with this view, but one can hardly blame some black folks who argue that at the root of this crisis is a conscious plan to eliminate them as a people entirely. It surely must feel this way. It is a staggering condemnation of our society that the situation is as bad today if not worse than when Myrdal wrote those lines. What goes on in our prisons is a crime against humanity, for all people incarcerated, but again, blacks are a disproportionate percentage of that population.
Anyone defending the police and security forces under these
circumstances is a collaborator at best and a racist at worst. We know society
treats people differently. I cannot be the only male whose wife asked me to
accompany her to the auto-repair shop because they treat her differently as a
woman. Pay no attention to the white petit bourgeois and their allies in the communities
of color who call for you to “check your
white privilege at the door” or “own up to your white privilege”. This accomplishes nothing except appeasing the
conscience of the person that says it.
Black working class people want allies in the struggle against racism and the conditions that they face. Give credibility to their explanation of the world and how they are treated in it, at the very least do that. They have never asked for anything more than that. Separate yourself from the white racist capitalist class. Support Kaeprernick and be vocal about it. It’s not rocket science. Don’t be silent and here’s a concrete example of what will strengthen unity between black and white workers and help all of us next time (probably within 24 hours after I post this) a black guy will be shot by police. Instead of getting to work in the morning and asking how the Warriors did, say, “Damn! Another brother shot by the cops, we have to do something to stop this as the government isn’t. I’m disgusted with our police and justice system.” If you’re uncomfortable with the term “brother” substitute “black guy” or African American if that’s what you feel comfortable with. You don’t need a Phd in sociology to start there.
Black working class people want allies in the struggle against racism and the conditions that they face. Give credibility to their explanation of the world and how they are treated in it, at the very least do that. They have never asked for anything more than that. Separate yourself from the white racist capitalist class. Support Kaeprernick and be vocal about it. It’s not rocket science. Don’t be silent and here’s a concrete example of what will strengthen unity between black and white workers and help all of us next time (probably within 24 hours after I post this) a black guy will be shot by police. Instead of getting to work in the morning and asking how the Warriors did, say, “Damn! Another brother shot by the cops, we have to do something to stop this as the government isn’t. I’m disgusted with our police and justice system.” If you’re uncomfortable with the term “brother” substitute “black guy” or African American if that’s what you feel comfortable with. You don’t need a Phd in sociology to start there.
Other things unionized workers can do is pass resolutions at
our locals condemning what we are witnessing and linking it to jobs, housing, education and other social issues that affect the working class as a whole. Send them to all the
higher bodies, labor councils etc. and to municipal bodies like the school
boards and city councils. Let them know we are not asleep and we won’t stay
silent. We will face opposition from the labor hierarchy in this venture but if
we are serious about wanting a future for our children we cannot avoid a confrontation
with them as they have the same worldview as the 1%. They see profits a
sacrosanct and worship the market as the answer to all things.
Mass incarceration of people capitalism has abandoned, the
five million who lost their homes in the crash of 2008, the catastrophe in
Flint, a working class city where our government that puts profits before
people poisoned the public water supply, the BP spill, the bail out of the
bankers, the destruction of our environment, the driving down of wages and
conditions that took decades to win------these are all connected and are all
union business. It is likely we will see another recession or slump before the
end of 2017, we must put a stop to it and we must return to our roots embodied
in that great US working class slogan, “An
Injury to One is an Injury to all.”
If you don’t condemn institutionalized racism and validate
the views of society that most black people have then you can’t condemn riots.
If we don’t want riots, unorganized justifiable anger, we must help build the
movement, the united working class movement that can organize that anger; that
can channel in to a political alternative. We must speak out when the BLM
movement is attacked and condemn the “blue
lives matter” rubbish for what it is.
We must do the same with the “All
Lives Matter” crowd. Of course all lives matter. But obviously black lives
not so much. When you ignore the brutal reality some people face or question it
when it’s this obvious, it is an insult to them, no wonder they get angry. We
can be critical, but not in a way that puts us in the camp of the enemy and
those that support the system that lies at the root of the problem, capitalism.
* Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem
and Modern Democracy
** See Theodore Allen’s two volume work, The Invention of the White
Race for the theoretical basis for the White Race construct. Also Lerone
Bennett, The Shaping of Black America, particularly pay attention to chapter
three. Visit Jeffrey B Perry’s
website for further information on this subject. In particular here: The Developing Conjuncture
*** For good stuff about this see: Pauline Maier From Resistance to
Revolution, Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to
Britain 1765-1776
and: Gary B Nash: The Urban Crucible, Social Change, Political
Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution
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