Fight cop brutality, defend free speech!

The fight against police violence and abuse has changed social relations in the United States. The ruling families have been forced to rein in their cops. More of those who kill or brutalize Blacks and others find themselves fired and on trial. Today’s victories, and the growing class unity that they advance, build on the historic victory of the Black-led proletarian mobilizations that overthrew Jim Crow segregation in the 1950s and ’60s.

For more than a year Chicago cops and city officials tried to cover up the killing of Laquan McDonald by Officer Jason Van Dyke. But protesters, angry and undaunted, wouldn’t relent. As a result of the pressure Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder, the mayor has been forced to fire the police chief and damning videos of other cop killings have been made public.

Weeks of protests and a rebellion by African-American youth in Baltimore last spring led to charges against six cops involved in the death in custody of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. The first trial began Dec. 2.

There is less police violence today, and more attention and protest when it occurs.

The class character of the police — who maintain capitalist rule by brutality, intimidation and feeding workers into the criminal “justice” system — hasn’t changed. But our class has made gains, increasing its strength, consciousness and unity.

Each victory expands confidence and fewer cover-ups are successful. Others are inspired to stand up — like the family of 19-year-old Zachary Hammond, shot to death by police in Seneca, South Carolina, and residents of Council, Idaho, where 62-year-old rancher Jack Yantis was killed by the cops.

Many on the left point to wider coverage of protests against police abuse to say racism and cop killings are increasing and that Caucasian workers are becoming more racist. They miseducate and mislead fighters seeking to understand the class struggle today and find the road to end the dictatorship of capital once and for all.

The demagogy of leftists in the working-class movement and on campus, whose answer to those they disagree with is to shout them down, deal blows to open debate on politics and finding a road forward. Workers worldwide need political space to debate, protest and learn from each other’s experiences.

Glorifying the shouting down of those you disagree with is a deadly threat to the workers’ movement, whose history is replete with examples of groups — like Benito Mussolini in post-World War I Italy and the Larouchites in the 1970s — who, in times of sharp class conflict, were transformed out of the socialist movement to fascist thuggery.

Related articles:
Chicago actions protest cop killings, cover-up
Justice Dept. announces probe of city police
Baltimore: First cop on trial in killing of Freddie Gray
Attacks on right to free speech are blow to the working class

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