Justicia para George Floyd 12 Editorial – Crisis económica 12 Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org Vol. 62, No. 23 June 4, 2020 $1 Not a riot — REBELLION!By Monica Moorehead various degrees of murder, and Chauvin be charged with first-degree murder. June 1— A militant, youth-led upris- An independent autopsy on June 1, paid ing, ignited by police terror, has swept for by the Floyd family, found that police across the United States like wildfire, were responsible for his death by “medical and is now entering its second week. Even asphyxia” when he was deprived of oxygen Trump’s proudly declaring himself the to the brain for almost five minutes. He “law-and-order” president by threaten- died at the scene, not at the hospital. This ing the presence of federal troops in many autopsy’s findings contradict the initial cities— and the present catastrophic findings released by the Hennepin County COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in over medical examiner, which claimed that pre- 102,000 U.S. deaths and rising— have existing conditions caused Floyd’s death, not been able to contain this uprising not homicide by cops. sparked by a horrific videotaped police On May 26 protests began to erupt in murder exposed on May 25 for the whole Minneapolis and other cities demand- world to see. ing justice for Floyd and arrests of the For almost nine minutes, George Floyd, officers. In an audacious act on May 28, PHOTO: BRAD SIGAL a 46-year-old Black man, was tortured youth torched the Minneapolis Police Minneapolis, May 27. More pictures, pp 6-7. and then lynched by Minneapolis police Department’s Third Precinct headquar- as he lay face-down and handcuffed in the ters, where the four officers had worked. street. One police officer pressed his knee Dozens of curfews declared in many to Floyd’s throat while two police officers cities— backed up by the presence of Defend resisters! pinned him down on his stomach. Before local and state police and the National Floyd completely lost consciousness, he Guard— have not deterred young peo- was yelling “I can’t breathe” and calling ple from exercising their right to stay in Defend the uprising! for his late mother. Floyd was initially the streets to let their outraged voices detained after being accused of using a be heard, even if they had to take arrests People are rising up, rising up against Tenn., the city hall and courthouse were counterfeit $20 bill. for “civil disobedience,” if necessary. police violence! Smoldering rage ignited in set on fire. Cop cars were overturned and Even though the police officers— Derek Thousands of people have been arrested a firestorm throughout the U.S. when police burned in New York City, Rochester, N.Y., Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander for breaking curfew over six days of lynched George Floyd in Minneapolis on Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cleveland, Los Kueng and Tou Thao— were fired after political outrage, expressed by burning May 25. Immediately there Angeles and elsewhere. And, the incident, none of them were immedi- cop cars and shutting down bridges and was public outrage, after see- editorial yes, “property” was dam- ately arrested and charged with Floyd’s interstates. ing how white supremacists aged, the property of capi- death. It took four days after the lynching Even reporters from mainstream media killed Ahmaud Arbery as he jogged through talist banks and big chains— Wells Fargo, for John Harrington, commissioner of the like CNN and MSNBC have either been his neighborhood and after invading police Starbucks and AutoZone torched and other Minnesota Department of Public Safety, to detained or indiscriminately hit with rub- shot Breonna Taylor to death in Kentucky buildings caught in the spreading blaze. announce that Chauvin was arrested and ber bullets and pepper spray, along with while she was asleep in her own bed. All For centuries in the U.S., white suprem- charged with third-degree murder and sec- protesters. Isolated incidences of young were Black; all are dead. acists— as agents of the state or as vigi- ond-degree manslaughter. The other offi- people, including children, being tased, The videotape of Floyd being lynched lantes like the Ku Klux Klan who “work cers still have not been arrested or charged. pepper-sprayed and knocked down by by a cop during long minutes of deliber- hand-in-hand” with the state (sometimes The Floyd family is demanding that offi- riot police were caught on videotape and ate strangulation propelled thousands and one and the same)—have lynched African- cers Lane, Keung and Thao be charged with Continued on page 5 thousands of people— multinational, mul- American people and other people of color tigendered workers and oppressed people with impunity. To this very day, it is almost of all backgrounds— into the streets. impossible to get a charge of murder— The people held the racist “injustice sys- much less a conviction— when a cop kills a tem” and the cops accountable. The Third person of color “in the line of duty.” JUNE IS PRIDE MONTH Precinct building in Minneapolis— where It took four days of countrywide protests the four cops who killed Floyd were sta- and physical rebellions to get just one of LGBTQ2+ solidarity 8 tioned— was burned down. In Nashville, Continued on page 10 Larry Kramer, 1935-2020 9 Food, housing and water 3 4–5 Trump, WHO, Big Pharma 3 • Celebrating Anti-Racist Protests Mumia’s birthday • Photos from around U.S. 6-7 • Resistance roundup • Whose violence? 10 • Empty Cleveland jail! • Worker solidarity 11 Brazil & COVID-19 11 Page 2 June 4, 2020 workers.org Workers World A communist newspaper, a collective organizer this week ◆ In the U.S. By Minnie Bruce Pratt World newspaper: “A [communist, revolutionary] news- paper is not only a collective propagandist and a collec- Not a riot— rebellion........................... 1 This is a slightly edited version of a talk given during tive agitator, it is also a collective organizer. … [It] may WW: communist newspaper, collective organizer ..2 the “What Road to Socialism?” webinar held by Workers be compared to the scaffolding erected around a building Big banks profit from COVID-19 .................3 World Party on May 16. under construction; it marks the contours of the structure Economics behind the rebellion..................3 and facilitates communication between the builders, per- When I first started writing for Workers World/Mundo mitting them to distribute the work and to view the com- Striking packinghouse workers win ..............3 Obrero newspaper, longtime comrade Leslie Feinberg said mon results achieved by their organized labour.” Trump, WHO and the pandemic .................3 to me that older comrades always told hir, “Remember, no When Workers World Party was established in 1959, Marc Lamont Hill on Mumia’s birthday...........4 Party action is over until it’s written up for the paper!” the founders followed Lenin’s lead in immediately estab- Behind the Walls: Resistance roundup............4 That’s because the newspaper is an integral gear in lishing Workers World as a national newspaper, with the Workers World Party’s Marxist-Leninist democratically first issue coming out in March 1959. Now—61 years Cleveland action demands prisoner release........5 centralized process. later—the paper continues to publish on a daily basis on Historic uprising resists racism, killer cops ...... 6-7 That perspective comes from V. I. Lenin’s 1901-1902 the web and in a downloadable weekly PDF print edition. Solidarity with all LGBTQ2+ workers! ............8 book, “What Is to Be Done?” In one section, “Plan for The process Lenin outlined is still followed by Workers Organizing health care for patients, not profits.....8 an All-Russia Newspaper,” Lenin sharply argued that a World/Mundo Obrero. Every week an appeal for news and national revolutionary newspaper was needed to effec- suggested articles is sent out to the entire membership Women and gender-nonconforming people fight . 8 tively accomplish communist organizing in the vast ter- and branches, along with an invitation for any comrade Workers’ assemblies............................8 ritory of imperial Russia, including its conquered nations. or candidate to participate in the weekly national editorial Workers unite to fight racism, cops, pandemic.....9 Lenin argued against social democratic proposals that meetings, held by phone and on the web. To rebel is justified . 10 there should be only local individual newspapers. These In these meetings the editorial staff discusses news and democratic socialists predicted that a party structure— topics of the week from a revolutionary Marxist perspec- ◆ Around the world and ultimately revolution—would somehow coalesce (!) tive, and a new issue of the paper is put in motion. These out of these small, separate efforts. analyses and reports then return to the local level through Bolsonaro the ‘biggest threat’ to COVID response ..11 Instead, Lenin advanced a structure for a national rev- the newspaper for review, study and growth in action. ◆ Editorial olutionary communist newspaper. First, comrades report For more on “WW Newspaper and Communist on the facts of local conditions from far-flung and dispa- Organizing,” see our online class at workers.org. And final Defend resisters; Defend the uprising! ............ 1 rate locations to the national newspaper. Next, national news flash! There is a new, dynamic Prisoner Page in WW editorial and political comrades analyze that informa- called “Tear Down the Walls!” that is bringing forward the ◆ Noticias en Español tion from a Marxist perspective to glean insights into the struggles of incarcerated people as an integral part of the Justicia para George Floyd? .................... 12 overall current state of the working class under imperialist global working class. Crisis económica.............................. 12 capitalism. You can read those stories and more in Workers Finally, through the reports chosen and the analyses World/Mundo Obero every day at workers.org—where developed for the national newspaper, the theoretical as Marxist-Leninists, we “write it up for the paper!” impact of local reporting circulates back to organizers and readers.