The Uprising in Missouri Illustrates the Need for Communism

With all that is happening in these dark days of the dark night that the working class is being brutalized under, there is a general feeling of powerlessness: the “what can I do about it?” syndrome. This passivity-bred powerlessness is vital to the interests of the ruling class. All of the massive problems facing the working class today are primarily caused by inter-imperialist rivalry. This passivity was smashed by the murder of a young man, Michael Brown, in St. Louis by the racist police. The murder of the young Missouri teen and father in Staten Island by racist pigs illustrates how before a ruling class can attack its rival ruling class, it must attack its own working class even more viciously. The purpose if these attacks is for the ruling class to discipline us in order to wage war, and this process is called fascism.
The uprising in Missouri, though inspiring, parallels the peasant uprisings that would rage like a firestorm until they were extinguished.

The killing has drawn comparisons by some civil rights leaders with the 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a Florida neighbourhood watch organiser who was acquitted of murder charges. PLP supports these rebels who are angry with the racist police, and we would have liked to see and have participated in this same action initiated by Garner’s death in Staten Island. We find it welcoming to see angry Black workers opening fire on the KKKops at the injustice of the racist system. In contrast to the narrative the police constructed in order to blame the teenage victim, Dorian Johnson, who said he was with Michael Brown, gave a different version of the police murder:

He told local broadcaster WALB a police officer told them to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk, and when they continued walking, the officer confronted them.
Protesters have called for the police officer to be prosecuted with murder…

A resident on the street where the shooting occurred told the Associated Press news agency Brown had his arms raised but the police officer stood over him and shot him (execution style).

The major contradiction inherent in this uprising is that the violence against the state, the petty bourgeoisie, and the reappropriation of products, called “looting” by the press, though inspiring to the working class, will not lead to Communism. It may lead to a temporary reform where the pigs may hesitate a bit more before murdering another black member of the working class, but it will not fundamentally alter the nature and role of the KKKops as the protectors of private property and inequality.

We must take to heart that in order for us to make systemic and lasting change, we must build revolution where we are. We need to build the Progressive Labor Party so that we can make a concrete and lasting change, not just rise up like a firestorm and then be put down. PLP condemns the racist police and the ideology of racism that justifies their action. We were born in the heart of the Harlem uprising and fully support workers rising up and fighting back, but the PLP must grow if we are to change the daily misery and exploitation of inter-imperialist rivalry.