FIST Boston Statement On The #BlackLivesMatter Movement
by Danny Haiphong
“When the President of the NYPD union tweeted that the NYPD was a ‘wartime police department,’ he certainly could have been speaking about every police department in the country.”
On December 20th, the racist establishment blamed the #BlackLivesMatter Movement for the murder of two NYPD cops. Mayor De Blasio urged protesters to stop demonstrating out of respect for the police. Just a few weeks earlier, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh questioned the “motives” of the demonstrations. He blamed protesters for the two million dollars the City has spent in police overtime to repress demonstrations in Boston. The political establishment clearly wants the movement for Black lives to end. Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST) answers with a loud HELL NO and declares unconditional solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter Boston and all struggling against racism and police brutality.
FIST Boston believes this is a special moment, one that has revolutionary potential. The movement for Black Lives is a response to decades of racist police brutality. Every 28 hours, a Black American is killed by American law enforcement. Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in NYC, and the hundreds of Black people that die yearly at the hands of the police do not merely signify America’s “race problem.” Police genocide of Black America rests on the foundation of the United States of America: Imperialism.
Imperialism is the last stage of capitalism. Capitalism has consolidated into a system dominated by corporate and financial monopolies owned by a tiny ruling class. This system is in crisis and survives only by depriving the majority of people on the planet both the means and power to live a decent life. The primary function of the police is to keep imperialism intact. The police ensure Black America, Indigenous America, and the majority of people of color live under a constant state of social and economic violence.
“FIST believes our task is to claim the right to rebel.”
The police protect the ruling class while public schools, healthcare, and social services are cut and privatized. Yet, the US government gives them billons in tax dollars to murder Black people. US imperialism also spends trillions on a global police force that conducts wars of aggression all over the world. A recent study suggests that US imperialism is directly responsible for the murder of 20-30 million people since 1945. The people of Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are fighting against the same murderous imperialist system terrorizing Black America and imprisoning them in the largest prison system in the world.
US law enforcement has developed into militarized occupation army with a direct relationship to the Pentagon. Their response to the uprising in Ferguson is case in point. The National Guard responded to protests in Ferguson faster than they did when Hurricane Katrina struck Black New Orleans in 2005. Drones have visibly flown overhead demonstrators in nearly every major city. Police have come out armed with weaponry and armor found on military bases in Afghanistan. When the President of the NYPD union tweeted that the NYPD was a “wartime police department,” he certainly could have been speaking about every police department in the country.
FIST believes our task is to claim the right to rebel. In the words of Black Panther Bobby Seale, we must seize the time! FIST is a youth-led revolutionary organization dedicated to overthrowing the imperialist system in place of a socialist system that is run by, and meets the needs of, the people. A revolutionary movement that overthrows imperialism must be led by the oppressed. We believe the movement for Black Lives must continue. We declare solidarity and support for the #BlackLivesMatter movement in Boston and everywhere it resides.
If you are interested in joining or working with FIST, please contact: bostonfist@gmail.com
Christopher Bruce is Policy Director of the Georgia ACLU.
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