Vol. 74/No. 28      July 26, 2010

“Workers are living through the initial stages of a depression the likes of which we have never seen. Cutbacks are mounting. In California the wages of state workers are being chopped, teachers laid off, library hours reduced, bus and train fares are rising, and more and more workers face speedup and unsafe conditions on the job. We see the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continuing, as well as the environmental destruction in the Gulf.

“As working-class struggles intensify against these assaults, and they will, the cops will be mobilized against us, as they always have in the past. That makes the significance of the fight to convict the cop who killed Oscar Grant so important,” Harris said. “The protests of working people were responsible for Mehserle being brought to trial and convicted.”

Harris explained that the police are used to protect the wealth and interests of the ruling class. They are used to intimidate workers, to teach obedience and strike fear, to discourage workers from fighting for their rights.

That is why, he said, despite the many killings carried out by police every year, it is rare for a cop to ever be charged, much less be convicted and go to prison. Government prosecutors pressure families of those abused or killed by cops to be quiet or take money compensation to stop any fight for justice. “The rulers do not want cops to serve jail time.” Harris said. “They do not want to tie their hands.”

Harris pointed to the example set by Oscar Grant’s family in standing up to the pressure to not pursue the case against Mehserle. “Any class-conscious worker who saw how the family members conducted themselves at the trial, with strength and dignity, could stand a little taller today because of it.”

“The Socialist Workers campaign will reach out broadly to explain the stakes for working people in the fight against police brutality,” Harris said. “And we will explain that to stand up to what is being inflicted on working people we need fighting unions and a revolution in this country to take the power out of the hands of the capitalist rulers who are responsible for the disastrous conditions millions of workers face today.”
 
 
Related articles:
Socialist campaign in N.Y. defends workers’ interests
Iowa socialists kick off campaign, ballot effort
Miami meeting hears protests over killing of Black man by cop
1,000 protest in Oakland after Grant trial
Fight against police brutality  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home