Worcester, MA, August 25—Earlier this month our Progressive Labor Party (PLP) contingent in Worcester joined forces with members from Racism Free Worcester Public Schools, Defund Worcester Police, and Showing Up For Racial Justice to rally for working class students and demand that police be removed from the school system. An integrated and multi-racial group of nearly 75 workers took turns making speeches and leading chants in an effort to advance the battle against systemic racism during the event, which was called by the Massachusetts Human Rights Commission.
The small but mighty demonstration was held in Lincoln Square near the local police station. As leaders from different organizations took turns at the mic, PLP members made our line clear when we demanded this racist capitalist system be shut down.
Our members explained the school-to-jail pipeline and showed the crowd that allowing kkkops in our schools is hurting working class students. We explained that defunding the police isn’t enough, we need to first kick them out of schools and furthermore fight for a world where racist murderers aren’t handed guns and get out of jail free cards.
We also took the opportunity to explain the importance of multi-racial unity and fightback. An integrated, international working class is necessary to end capitalism.
As speeches wrapped up, we then led about 50 people from the original gathering across the street to the entrance of the police station. We led chants ranging from “Black Lives Matter” to “George Floyd” to chants that put the entire system and its lackeys on trial: “Nazi cops, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!”
We later learned that the local police union equated us to terrorists and made demands that one of our comrades be fired from his current volunteer job. Albeit brief, our militant and organized moment of fightback was met with more pushback from the bosses than the rest of the reform demonstration.
These kkkops know that the bosses’ capitalist system is currently protecting them and they know that when PLP comrades chant “SHUT THIS RACIST SYSTEM DOWN!” we’re not calling for reforms, or reduced funding; we are calling for a workers’ revolution, and nothing scares them more.