CHICAGO, November 24—For the third straight year, Progressive Labor Party brought a multi-racial, multi-generational spirited contingent to the Black Friday protests, organized in opposition to the racist Chicago Police Department. Beyond just fighting for another reform or targeting capitalist profits for one day, our collective struggled with workers present over international communist revolution as the only permanent solution to the racist and sexist capitalist system.
Capitalist Bosses Need Killer Kops and Fascism
The first mass Black Friday protest here in Chicago took place in November 2015, just days after the release of dashboard video showing racist killer cop Jason Van Dykkke pumping 16 rounds into the lifeless body of Black teenager Laquan McDonald. The video had been kept under wraps for over a year by the city government, including racist Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who knew perfectly well that the racist murder would undoubtedly destroy his campaign for re-election that previous April.
The protest in 2015 involved hundreds of angry workers and students blocking the entrances of high-end retail stores and shutting down traffic on the elite Magnificent Mile downtown. With each following year, the protests have decreased in size, as the city’s bosses have slickly thrown some crumbs towards the workers and given the illusion of progress and reform of their criminal injustice system.
Earlier this month, 17 people wrongly convicted by the racist courts were exonerated as preliminary charges and discipline were brought against notorious kkkop Sergeant Ronald Watts and several other goons under his command. The capitalist bosses are hoping that this news will distract workers in the city away from the fact that the City Council voted almost unanimously to build a massive new Police Academy and hire at least a thousand more kkkops to terrorize, extort, and kill more and more of our working-class sisters and brothers.
The bosses need increasing fascism and police terror to oppress the working class, who will justifiably rebel and organize against the intolerable economic and political conditions that capitalism inevitably creates. If the international working class is ever to live in a world free of fascist police terror, deportations, and imperialist war, the struggle needs to take the form of a mass international revolutionary movement led by the communist PLP to crush the bosses and capitalism once and for all!
Communist Speech Sets the Tone
Armed with communist banners, fliers, CHALLENGE, and a bullhorn, our Party contingent connected with the protest at Water Tower Plaza for the kick-off rally. Various leaders of reform struggles, community organizations, and victims of racist police terror gave their testimonies to call out the racist and sexist nature of the kkkops and the capitalist system. For the second year in a row, a PL comrade gave an impassioned speech that pushed the need for a more revolutionary scope to the struggle.
The comrade stressed the importance of international working class solidarity and revolutionary fightback in an era of increasing imperialist rivalry, deportations, and war. He highlighted the mass worker fightback in regions like Kishana, Congo and Oaxaca, Mexico that took place during the past year. He called on workers in Chicago and everywhere to be uncompromising in the struggle to destroy capitalism and build workers’ power through communism worldwide. The comrade’s speech was met with loud applause and provided more of an opening for our collective to share our literature with the workers and students present.
Sharpening Chants
After the speeches, the protest once again took to the streets in order to begin blocking the entrances to billion-dollar capitalist businesses on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Our contingent was fired up after the rally, picketing the storefronts in rhythm with our fellow anti-racist fighters and using our bullhorn to lead several chants.
When we found the chants to be too soft on the bosses, we took the opportunity to inject some more revolutionary and class-conscious messages. For example, when the chant went “The people united, will never be defeated!” we were quick to change it to “The workers united, will never be defeated!”
This caused some friction with some of the main organizers of the demonstration, who wanted us to stick to the approved chant sheet, but still won the support of a number of anti-racists nearby who were more open to our line of working class power.
Fight to Win
Although as communists we don’t believe that capitalism can be reformed in any significant or lasting way to serve the needs of our class, it is still essential and inspirational to take place in these mass demonstrations and grassroots struggles. These smaller fights help build the class consciousness and the relationships necessary to understand that the international working class can truly move mountains when we unite in our common interests against capitalism. PLP will continue to build the fight to win workers to communist revolution as the path to a better world.