Ferguson, MO, November 30 — More than forty Progressive Labor Party members and friends from New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles traveled here this weekend to express solidarity with the workers of Ferguson and demonstrate against racist police terror. In the wake of the grand jury’s refusal to indict racist killer kkkop Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown, young members of Progressive Labor Party learned how to organize under pressure. We met the escalation of police repression with an escalation of our own, training a significant number of new fighters and recruiting more than a dozen — mostly Black, Latin, and Asian women — to the Party.
The rebellion of the workers in Ferguson has led and inspired the international working class. They have shown us a glimpse of the power of multiracial fightback under militant Black leadership. The weekend’s impact went far beyond its relatively modest scope. It showed that when communists put forward a revolutionary line in bold defiance of the bosses and police, workers respond and unite with PLP into battle.
PL’ers and Friends Walk the Walk
Upon arriving in Ferguson on Friday, November 28, our comrades and friends immediately organized to go to a demonstration in front of the Ferguson police department, where community members have been protesting every day since Michael Brown was killed on August 9. There we met many friends and contacts our Party has made over successive trips to Ferguson, where cops had declared a ban on marching in the street. Against the opposition of liberal and religious misleaders, more than 150 mostly Black workers joined in taking the street and closing an intersection near the police department. The cops responded by lining up in riot gear and declaring the streets off-limits to demonstrations.
PLP has a long and proud history of challenging police bans on marching in the street, dating back to the Harlem Rebellion of 1964. Sustaining this history of militancy, we first rallied on the sidewalk in front of the police station. Several of our comrades called upon the community and the National Guard troops guarding the station to join our march and fight back. One older Ferguson resident spoke movingly of his memories of the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955, and how the situation has not changed for Black workers in the United States.
PL’ers then made the decision to march into the street, prompting the riot police to charge. They attacked our line and arrested a total of 16 comrades and protesters, brutalizing the demonstrators with batons and chemical weapons. We responded with chants that reflected our communist ideas, such as: “The cops, the courts, the Ku Klux Klan, all a part of the bosses’ plan!” Throughout the weekend, we tried to clarify how the capitalist ruling class uses racist terror and the state apparatus to protect its profit system and to divide and discourage all workers from fighting back.
The police attack galvanized community people who had gathered there. Many were moved to support us after witnessing the cops’ viciousness, and the class treason of the liberal misleaders encouraged the police to arrest us.
New Leaders Step Up and Continue the Fight
Prior to our arrival, according to residents, the confrontations with Ferguson police had been brave but spontaneous. By marching down Florissant Street and temporarily closing the intersection by the police station, PLP followed the leadership of the bold local fighters and also brought discipline and organization to the front line. The arrests posed a significant challenge for the PL’ers who survived the waves of police charges. Following our Party’s emphasis on building youth leadership for a mass party and adhering to militant discipline, our remaining comrades treated those who’d been beaten and pepper-sprayed. Although many were inexperienced at providing political and tactical leadership, PL’ers and friends closed ranks, with several friends of the Party stepping up to provide leadership.
The next morning, Saturday, we met to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of our activity. We assigned new teams and formed an agenda to meet more local workers. After attending a mass meeting at a nearby church, where we met with friends in the community, one team went door-to-door in Ferguson to sell CHALLENGE. Another attended a rally that afternoon, with a third team remaining at the church with additional arriving comrades from Chicago to participate in discussions there. In this way we were able to bring more workers and students to our barbecue dinner and forum that evening.
Solidarity with Ferguson Workers
The dinner helped strengthen our relationships with the Ferguson community. As one rebel put it, PLP represents the true meaning of the word “solidarity,” while everyone else “just puts it on Facebook or comes through here like they’re shooting a music video.”
Following dinner, we invited our friends to come back out with us for another rally. Police presence was tripled around the Ferguson police station, with groups of riot cops standing by in adjacent alleys. This time we were received even more warmly by the community, who exchanged hugs with us and joined our chants.
While the young leaders of that evening made the estimate not to challenge the police in taking the street following the previous night’s losses, our presence brought out crowds of Black workers in front of the police station. They kept coming, even as we left to recover our comrades from jail, who were being held for 24 hours from the previous night. None of the comrades were charged. The police riot had nothing to do with “legality” under the bosses’ racist system. The cops acted simply to harass and intimidate us — but they failed!
In follow-up discussions from the Party’s trip to Ferguson, the consensus was that the weekend inspired and moved all who had come. Besides the new comrades who stepped up their commitment to smash racism and fight for communism by joining the Party, many more re-committed to build our PLP.
Why Join PLP?
Why should workers, students and soldiers join Progressive Labor Party? Because it’s the only fighting organization that defines and confronts capitalism as the source of racist police terror. The capitalist class — and their cops and KKK-tied militias who lined the rooftops in Ferguson — are terrified of an organized, disciplined, multiracial movement led by communists. We have a lot of work ahead of us. But we emerged from this weekend one step closer to building a mass Party that will shatter this racist capitalist system once and for all. PLP salutes the Ferguson rebels. We invite all workers to join our international Party and fight back like Ferguson for communist revolution!