Huge US anti-racist protests herald new movement

Danny Katch writes that Huge US anti-racist protests herald new movement.

SATURDAY'S PROTESTS marked a further step for the emerging movement for racial justice against the police.

By bringing in larger numbers than ever before, they demonstrated that growing numbers are challenging the legitimacy of police departments as agencies in charge of administering justice. They gave people a focal point to organize classmates, co-workers, and social circles and put them in touch with future organizing—at the New York City march, there were two separate trainings for future direct actions being circulated.

There will be many challenges moving forward there will be many challenges, starting with the questions of what type of organization can be formed to carry forward the struggle and how they can give shape to the spirit of the protests that have erupted since the two grand jury decisions in Ferguson and New York City.

There will doubtless be disagreements over the way forward—the conflict on stage in Washington, D.C., showed as much. But that's a necessary part of rebuilding the struggle against racism and injustice in the U.S.

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This is how participatory democracy evolves. The genesis is chaotic and many mistakes are made. The key element to success is respect for other people. One needs to have a willingness to listen and discuss all ideas.

Unfortunately, dogma and sectarianism are poison to such movements.

This movement will eventually fizzle out as did the ant-war movement from 2003. The major roadblock to all such movement is the unwillingness of the majority of people to challenge the legitimacy of Capitalism. People are quite willing to admit that certain aspects of Capitalism are not working properly. But it is gigantic step from there to challenge the legitimacy of the system.

In this case, most young people will admit that the police do not act to protect them. They have had the continual harrassment by being moved on, stopped from having fun, being too rowdy.

But, they have not developed the political understanding of why the police act as they do. They tend to believe that better behaviour on the part of the police will solve the problem. They want to participate in the system, not overthrow it. In other words, the gates need to open wider, not tear down the castle.

The behaviour of the police and the justice system are all determined by their place in the Capitalist system. The key to the Capitalist system is the private ownership of the means of production. The police and the justice system exist to protect that.

Any threats to that are to be resisted violently and suppressed. In essence, society is divided into those who have and those who have not. The police and the justice system instinctively know to protect the former and attack the latter.

A massive police presence did everything it could to keep the protests out of the streets, and to disrupt and split up the march. At one point, police forced their way in between demonstrators, refusing to let either side cross the street to rejoin the others—even as shoppers crossed freely against the crosswalk signals. As protesters chanted, "The streets are public, let us cross!" and "Do we really need a shopping bag just to cross the street?" people on each side coordinated a plan, and eventually reunited the march.

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Such movements cannot sustain themselves until they face the question of legitimacy of Capitalism. If they accept that, then the movement will die because continuation means acceptance that the system is not working and cannot be reformed.