Vol. 76/No. 7      February 20, 2012

“When they kill young people, the cops claim drugs or guns. The cops frame them,” Molly Gordon told the Militant in the wake of the police killing of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham in the Bronx.

Frame-ups and state-organized violence are tools of the capitalist rulers, as many articles in this week’s issue illustrate—from the streets of New York to the longshore workers in Washington who stood up to union busting, from the frame-up case against Maori rights activists in New Zealand to the death in cop custody of Terrance Briscoe in Australia.

The use of the capitalist state against working people at home is paralleled by their actions abroad. They want us to accept hunter-killer drones, special forces assassinations and full-out military slaughters when needed to defend imperialist interests—all in the name of “peacekeeping,” “stability” and “prosperity.”

The imperialist rulers, along with their petty-bourgeois apologists such as Harvard professor Steven Pinker, present themselves as the bearers of order and enlightenment, making the world a better place for all. (See review on page 6.) Working people need to learn to see through their claims, and develop a healthy contempt for their hypocrisy.

The government of the bosses—with its cops, courts and armed forces—is an instrument of class rule for keeping the toiling majority in line.

This state is wielded by the bosses in their drive for more production and profits. A drive that comes at the cost of life and limb for workers, as in the recent death at a Vale mine in Canada. It serves the capitalists in driving down wages—from the 25 percent cut in the minimum wage in Greece to the 50 percent cut at Caterpillar.

The Militant stands with those confronting the rulers’ frame-ups and violence. We join the longshore workers in demanding all charges and fines against union members and supporters be dropped. And we stand with those demanding that the cops responsible for Ramarley Graham’s death be prosecuted.
 
 
Related articles:
Hundreds protest killing of Black youth by New York cop
NY cops step up targeting of Black youth with drug laws, stop and frisk
Australia: death in police custody sparks protest  
 
 
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