UK Solidarity: "White People are Joining Us". These are Good Times

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

There are very positive developments coming out of the latest acts of violence by the police against people of color in the US. We should not be lost and buried by those obsessed with property damage and place that above black lives and a minority of de-politicized and de-classed people.  Given the complete betrayal of the heads of organized labor here in the US (Where are they one might ask) and the absence of a national leadership and social force that can pull all the aspects of the movement against capital together, it is vulnerable from all sorts of alien forces, not just the state and it will inevitably have periods of confusion and steps forward and steps back. But there is a great leap forward at this moment and the virus is not the only thing that has changed the game.

Believe me, the ruling elites are afraid. They will do whatever they can to undermine the unity and global solidarity we see in this movement. The organized working class, those in crucial positions in the economy and production and distribution of society's necessities, must take note. The US military we saw in Washington today will be used against us as strikes are terrorism to the bosses. Strikes are looting, are violent assaults on the bosses' profits as far as they are concerned. Using the military is a dangerous step as 40% of the US military are minorities, they are the sons and daughters of workers.

The organized workers cannot avoid a struggle with the present union leadership that suppresses militancy and  any rank and file movement from below that threatens the relationship they have built with the bosses based on labor peace. When capitalism goes in to crisis, their first move is to bail it out. We cannot ignore the present leadership that has led strike after strike in to defeat after defeat. The GM strike that left the other two major auto companies unscathed, in fact, continued the partnership program with them while GM workers were on strike is an example of why organized labor's rank and file cannot continue to follow and must lead. The 14 million members of the trade unions cannot sit back and accept the present leadership's slogan "leave it to us". We must join this movement.

These youth are our future. Black America has reached a point almost of no return, they cannot continue to allow the murder of  unarmed black men, the abandoning of the public school system and the continued conditions in their communities that breed violence, despair and a life of never ending trauma for their children to continue.  In a war like this, the torching of a police building is a legitimate target. We can change the world, but we cannot do it without class unity without the workers of the world recognizing the bond that we have with each other.