“…the class which at present holds social and political control…places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death”. – Frederick Engels in 1845
We mourn with George Floyd’s family and unite with the uprisings over state violence that are happening from coast to coast.
Engels’ concept of social murder never rang truer than today. After centuries of state sponsored violence on Black bodies in the forms of chattel slavery, lynchings, deteriorated living conditions, shootings, and so much more, we continue to see Black life snuffed out at an alarming rate in multiple ways.
On Monday, May 25th, Minneapolis white police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd in plain sight and on camera. While the murderer has now been arrested, his accomplices remain free. The recording went viral, building on tensions already stoked by the widely publicized murders of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and the attempted attack on Christian Cooper, and sparking an ongoing uprising in Minneapolis that is quickly spreading across the country. And in the wake of Floyd’s murder and the ensuing uprisings, Tony McDade, a Black Trans Man, was killed by the police in Tallahassee, FL on May 29th.
In a country already reeling from the trauma of disease, death, and economic despair that are disproportionately impacting Black and Brown communities, we are now again confronted with the longstanding crisis of police brutality and the white supremacist violence at the core of traumas that shape daily life for Black and Brown people. It is inspiring to witness the fruits of labor of the radical wing of the Black Liberation Movement in the uprisings that are surfacing and coming like waves with thousands of activists and organizers. These new waves of uprisings are demonstrating more righteous anger, more militancy, and have managed to mobilize a greater multi-racial constituency. It has been many years since such a bright light has been shown on the white supremacist nature of U.S. capitalism, and the intensity and clarity of that light may open the way to more mass resistance over the coming months.
The Covid19 global pandemic is still the central part of life as we know it. Thus, we can’t ignore that we will likely see spikes in confirmed cases in the coming weeks as a result of Republican controlled states re-opening too early and because of the many thousands of courageous people demonstrating.
Lift up the names and lives of the people unjustly stolen by police brutality and white supremacy! We join with the people to fight for a different world. Moments like these, as tense and frightening as they may be, make it feel like that world is within reach.