Protests against police violence continue across the US

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/07/prot-s07.html



By Jacob Crosse
7 September 2020

This weekend marked 100 days of protests in the US against police violence since the Memorial Day murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police department. Large demonstrations were held in rural towns as well as major cities in the face of new instances of police brutality and murder and an increasingly virulent and violent law-and-order campaign led by the Trump administration, with the complicity of the Democratic Party.

The overwhelmingly peaceful, multiracial and multiethnic protests are being met with tear gas, stun grenades, baton charges and mass arrests by riot police for the most part mobilized by Democratic governors and mayors, while Trump and the Republicans denounce the protesters as anarchists, socialists and terrorists and incite fascistic vigilantes to attack them.

This explosive situation is only the prelude to a mass movement of the working class, driven forward by the death and poverty being meted out by the ruling elite and all of its political representatives in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ruling corporate-financial oligarchy, even as it enriches itself over the bones of pandemic victims, feels itself besieged. It is terrified at the prospect of a mass movement against capitalism, increasingly exposed before the world as a bankrupt and criminal system.
The breadth and duration of the protests express the courage and determination of millions to fight for a more egalitarian society, free of racism, repression and social inequality. But this must be elevated into a conscious struggle for socialism that brings together all sections of the working class, from educators to autoworkers, both in the US and around the world.

A recent report from the US Crisis Monitor, associated with Princeton University, noted the global nature of the protests. It stated: “In the weeks since Floyd’s killing, at least 8,700 demonstrations in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement were reported across 74 countries, including the US. Demonstrators focused their outrage on American symbols—including embassies, consulates and Trump properties—but they also rallied around local cases of police brutality and racial inequality.”

Since the protests in the US began in May, at least 19 protesters have been killed, including three within the last two weeks.

Last Thursday, a police task force headed by US marshals shot and killed Michael Reinoehl hours after an arrest warrant had been issued for him in connection with the killing of a far-right Patriot Prayer member during a protest in Portland on August 29. Right-wing vigilante and ardent Trump supporter Kyle Rittenhouse killed two protesters and injured another in Kenosha, Wisconsin less than two weeks ago.

The corporate media has increasingly cast the protests as violent and aggressive and portrayed the police as responding to unprovoked attacks by demonstrators. This is belied by the facts. The Princeton report points out that between May 24 and August 22 there were more than 10,600 “demonstration events,” of which over 10,100, “or nearly 95 percent” were peaceful protests, while less than 570 involved “demonstrators engaging in violence.”

The authors of the report noted that in demonstrations that did become violent, aggression was often instigated by right-wing militias and racist gangs such as the Three Percenters, the Ku Klux Klan, the Proud Boys, the Boogaloo bois and the New Mexico Civil Guard.

Demonstrations over the weekend included:
Rochester, New York

Saturday marked the fourth straight day of protests against police murder in upstate New York, following the release of bodycam video showing police torturing and murdering 41-year-old Daniel Prude on March 23 of this year. Over 1,500 protesters marched to the Rochester Police Department headquarters chanting, “No justice, no peace.” In the evening, the police, backed by armored vehicles, fired pepper balls and tear gas into the crowd. The police say they arrested eight people Thursday, 11 Friday and nine more on Saturday night.
Portland, Oregon

Ignoring pleas from Democratic Governor Kate Brown to end the protests, hundreds of demonstrators once again took to the streets, resulting in over 50 arrests Saturday night. Prior to protests on Thursday, Governor Brown issued a statement declaring that “the violence must stop… All who perpetrate violent crimes must be held equally accountable.”
Louisville, Kentucky

Police were nowhere to be found for several hours Saturday as protesters were confronted by over 400 heavily armed “patriots” led by Dylan Stevens, a self-described “staunch supporter of Trump, police, our troops, 2nd amendment, America and the Flag!” Stevens, who in a recent YouTube video defended the Rittenhouse slayings as “100 percent self-defense,” organized a counter-protest at Jefferson Square Park, where protesters demanding justice for Breonna Taylor have peacefully gathered since May 28 to demand the officers involved in her killing be arrested.

After several heated confrontations, including at least two instances where pistols were unholstered by associates of Stevens, the counter-protesters left the park, only to be replaced by over 24 riot police.

The Democratic Party and the presidential campaign of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have remained silent on the recent murders of protesters, while condemning violent protesters and demanding that they be arrested and prosecuted.

In a CNN interview on Sunday, vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris did not mention the names of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, both murdered by Rittenhouse, nor did she comment on the police slaying of Michael Reinoehl last Thursday. When questioned by interviewer Dana Bash if she believed Kenosha cop Rusten Shesky should be charged for shooting Jacob Blake in the back seven times, Harris, a former prosecutor, backtracked on earlier statements, saying she thought “charges very much should be considered... but everyone is entitled to due process, everyone, including police officers.”

If Trump Wins, COVID-19 Will Likely Plague America for Foreseeable Future

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tlI-nd1Cuw&ab_channel=TheHumanistReport

US enters new phase of coronavirus pandemic: Report estimates more than 400,000 deaths by January

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/07/pers-s07.html



7 September 2020

As summer turns into fall, the United States is entering a new and even more dangerous phase of the coronavirus pandemic. Scientists and epidemiologists are concerned that as temperatures cool, people will engage in more activities indoors rather than outside, helping to spread the virus. The combination of the pandemic with the flu season, which generally begins in October in the US, could completely inundate hospitals, testing centers and health facilities.

The principal factor creating the conditions for an even more horrific death toll in the coming months, however, is the ruling class’ policy of “herd immunity”—that is, allowing the virus to spread without any restraint.

The death toll is already staggering. The US will soon surpass a new milestone of 200,000 deaths, possibly by the end of this week. COVID-19 has already become the third leading cause of death in the country, behind only heart disease and cancer.
Last week, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington released a new report estimating that 410,000 people will have died by the end of the year.

More than 400,000 people! This is greater than the entire population of New Orleans, Louisiana or Cleveland, Ohio. If the IHME projections are realized, by January 1 more people will be dead from the coronavirus in the space of less than a year than American soldiers died in World War II over the course of nearly four years. More than one out of every 1,000 people living in the United States will have succumbed to the virus.

The Trump administration is spearheading a policy that it knows will lead to death on a massive scale. The White House’s new pandemic adviser, Scott Atlas, has argued explicitly in favor of ending social isolation measures to allow the disease to run rampant.

A focal point to this homicidal policy is the drive to open schools and get teachers back to work, as that is seen as critical to forcing workers back on the job. Many colleges and universities have already reopened, becoming centers for the transmission of the virus. In the case of one school, SUNY Oneonta, 17 percent of students tested positive less than two weeks after classes resumed, forcing the school to shut down and send everyone home.

This will be replicated many times over with the reopening of K-12 schools this month. The policy implemented in the United States is being repeated, in different forms, internationally. From the UK to Spain to Brazil, governments are pushing for the reopening of schools even as the pandemic accelerates. In France, new cases have surged far above the earlier peak in May, just as 12 million students are being sent back to school. In India, the government of Narendra Modi is eliminating all remaining restraints on transportation and business operations, even as the country has surpassed Brazil for the second most coronavirus cases, trailing only the United States.

As the World Socialist Web Site has explained from the beginning of the pandemic, the response of world governments has been determined not by social need and public health but by profit. It is these same social interests that are creating the conditions for a horrific expansion of the disease in the coming months ahead.

Trump is pursuing a policy dictated by Wall Street. The administration, however, has many aiders and abettors. In the media and the political establishment, the attitude that prevails to the staggering loss of life is indifference. Crocodiles have shed more tears than what is offered up by media pundits and Democratic Party politicians.

The claim that is repeatedly made by Biden and the Democrats that Trump is “an abject failure and incompetent” (as Kamala Harris put it over the weekend) is an evasion and coverup. In fact, the Trump administration has proven quite competent in the implementation of ruling class policy in relation to the pandemic which has been bipartisan.

Democrats, from Biden and Harris to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, fully endorsed the massive handout to Wall Street in March and support the homicidal policy of forcing workers back to work and students back to the classroom. The mantra is that everything must be done to “get the economy going”—that is, resume the flow of profits.

The Democrats offer no program or policies to halt the pandemic. As the election enters its final stage, their central focus is on what has preoccupied them throughout the Trump administration: the demand for a more aggressive campaign against Russia. In the face of a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands, they are preparing a war that would kill millions.

Workers cannot allow themselves to be subordinated to either faction of the ruling class in the upcoming election. The working class must intervene in this crisis with its own program and policies.

There is already growing anger and opposition. Teachers have begun organizing independent committees to resist the homicidal back-to-school campaign. The scale of the social crisis, with millions of people out of work and facing poverty, eviction and hunger, is creating the conditions for a social explosion.

At the same time, there are mounting protests over police violence. In Portland, protests have been held for more than 100 straight days. Over the past two weeks, demonstrations have erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin following the shooting of Jacob Blake and in Rochester, New York after the release of video showing the police murder of Daniel Prude. Protests have been spurred on by the response of the police and the Trump administration, including the deliberate incitement of fascistic violence.

The critical question is the development within the working class of a united and coordinated mass political movement for socialism. The protests against police violence cannot be isolated. They must be connected to the resistance of teachers, autoworkers, transit workers, service workers and all sections of the working class to the ruling class and the capitalist system.

The Socialist Equality Party, along with our sister parties in the International Committee of the Fourth International, fights for a program that meets the needs of the working class. The back-to-work and back-to school campaigns must be halted, with all workers and parents receiving full income until the pandemic is brought under control.

There must be an internationally coordinated campaign to save lives. The wealth of the billionaires must be expropriated and the trillions of dollars handed out to the banks reclaimed to meet urgent social needs, including universal health care, emergency relief for the unemployed, and the cancellation of debt, mortgage and rent payments.

Consider the following: The IHME states that 200,000 people in the US could die by the end of the year. The 200 richest individuals in the country have a collective wealth of more than $2 trillion, which, if put at the disposal of society as a whole, would allow for a colossal investment in health care and public education infrastructure. It would be more than enough to ensure that everyone had a sufficient income to sustain themselves while the disease is brought under control. The lives of 200,000 vs. the wealth of 200...

The implementation of such elementary measures to stop the pandemic is a revolutionary question. It is inseparable from the fight by the working class to take political power in its own hands, to restructure all of social and economic life on the basis of social need and not private profit.

The ruling class and its parties are the parties of death and profit. The working class must fight for life and socialism. This is the basic issue that is posed in the months ahead.




Joseph Kishore—SEP candidate for US President

ACTIVIST KEVIN ZEESE PASSES AWAY

By Telesur English.

September 6, 2020

https://popularresistance.org/activist-kevin-zeese-passes-away/

The Dedicated, Long-Time Organizer Is Being Remembered For His Important Work On The Frontlines Of Countless Struggles For Justice.

U.S. lawyer, advocate, writer, activist-organizer and comrade, Kevin Zeese, passed away on Sunday morning.

Zeese, alongside his partner Margaret Flowers, was the Co-director of Popular Resistance, an online resource providing news and information, which brings together movements for peace and economic, racial and environmental justice.

He sat on the advisory board of Courage Foundation defending Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Jeremy Hammond, Chelsea Manning and other whistleblowers, where he stood up for dissidents and journalists.




In 2019, Zeese was among a group of U.S. solidarity activists who became known as the ‘Embassy Protection Collective’ for participating in a weeks-long live-in at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington DC.

There, he and three others were arrested, jailed and charged for defending Venezuelan sovereignty against a breach of international law as members of the Venezuelan opposition planned an illegal takeover of the property, with the help of U.S. authorities.

Margaret Flowers, Adrienne Pine, David Paul and Zeese were fearless in their rejection of the US-orchestrated coup attempts in Venezuela and stood firm on the principles of sovereignty, the self-determination of peoples, non-interference and peace and were persecuted because of it.




An outpouring of tributes can be seen on social media, with fellow activists remembering Zeese’s fight for justice on issues including poverty, economic justice, war, healthcare, and more.

At the time of his passing, Zeese was involved in the campaign against the attempt to extradite Julian Assange.

His dedication and commitment to social justice and his great capacity as an organizer, strategist and visionary will be remembered.

KEVIN ZEESE: A GIANT IN THE WORLD OF ACTIVISM

By Andrea Merida Cuellar and Robert Smith, 

HowieHawkins.com.

September 6, 2020

https://popularresistance.org/kevin-zeese-a-giant-in-the-world-of-activism/

“Kevin Leaves An Enormous Hole In His Wake.”

“He would want his legacy to be that we filled it by multiplying our efforts to bring about a better world,” Hawkins said.

The Hawkins/Walker campaign is very sad to report that our Press Secretary, comrade-in-arms and brother, Kevin Zeese, passed away last night. He was 64 years old.

“I lost a friend. All of us lost a prolific, tireless, and principled advocate and activist for peace and justice. My condolences go out to his partner, Margaret Flowers, also a committed activist, his family, and the many people whose lives were enriched by Kevin and his work,” Howie Hawkins said.

Kevin was a giant in the world of activism, from peace and justice to cannabis legalization to healthcare to independent politics. He was a well-known scholar, attorney, and writer. He was co-editor of Popular Resistance, one of the left’s most popular sources for news and opinion from a left-radical perspective, which he led with his partner, Dr. Margaret Flowers. He served as Press Secretary for the Nader/Camejo campaign in 2004.

He was most recently in the news as one of the Embassy Protection Collective, one of the last four to protect the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C. against the forces of the illegitimate presidency of Juan Guaidó and the passivity of the secret service and federal security forces of the Trump administration. Kevin, Margaret and others nonviolently resisted the embassy’s takeover by puppets of the United States and tenanted the diplomatic building with the permission of the Venezuelan government for more than a month. Ultimately, they were arrested and after a trial plagued with restrictions against the defense, all federal charges brought by the Trump administration were dropped.

Kevin was also an active force of solidarity with several Latin American movements, causes and peoples against US imperialism and illegal intervention. He worked tirelessly to denounce US illegal sanctions and covert operations that affect the progressive efforts of the peoples of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba, and beyond. His legal background only strengthened his conviction about the illegality of all these US unilateral sanctions that only increase the suffering of millions of Latin Americans.

“This unexpected loss of a compassionate and hugely intellectual friend is stunning,” commented Angela Walker, the Green Party nominee for vice president. “My thoughts are with his partner, his family and with all who love him,” she continued.

“Kevin leaves an enormous hole in his wake. He would want his legacy to be that we filled it by multiplying our efforts to bring about a better world,” Hawkins said.

The Labor Day Graph That Says It All

if we hope to ever rebuild an economy that works for everyone, we’re going to need many more workers in unions and a much stronger labor movement.


David Sirota
Sep 7




Here is the one graph everyone should see on Labor Day:



This graph comes from the Economic Policy Institute — it shows the relationship between union density and the percentage of national income going to the richest 10 percent of Americans. As you can see, the larger the share of the American workforce that’s unionized, the lower the share of national income goes to the super-rich — and vice versa.

Forward this graph to your family and friends. Tweet it. Post it on your social media feeds.

On this Labor Day, remind everyone you can that if we hope to ever rebuild an economy that works for everyone, we’re going to need many more workers in unions and a much stronger labor movement.

If wealth continues to concentrate at the top...

On Labor Day weekend, eight weeks before one of the most consequential elections in American history, it’s useful to consider the inequalities of income and wealth that fueled Donald Trump’s victory four years ago – and which are now wider than ever.

No other developed nation has nearly the inequities found in the US, even though all have been exposed to the same forces of globalization and technological change. Jeff Bezos’s net worth recently reached $200 billion and Elon Musk’s $100 billion, even as 30 million Americans reported their households didn’t have enough food. America’s richest 1% now own half the value of the US stock market, and the richest 10% own 92%.

American capitalism is off the rails. The main reason is that large corporations, Wall Street banks and a relative handful of exceedingly rich individuals have gained enough political power to game the system.

Chief executives have done everything possible to prevent the wages of most workers rising in tandem with productivity gains, so most gains go instead into the pockets of top executives and major investors. They’ve outsourced abroad, installed labor-replacing technologies and switched to part-time and contract work.

They’ve busted unions, whose membership shrank from 35% of the private-sector workforce 40 years ago to 6.4% today.

They’ve pushed government to slash their own taxes, unravel safety nets for the poor and middle class, and reduce investment in education and infrastructure. They’ve eliminated a raft of labor protections. They’ve defanged antitrust enforcement, allowing their monopolies free rein. The free market has been taken over by crony capitalism, corporate bailouts and corporate welfare.

This massive power shift laid the groundwork for Trump. In 1964, almost two-thirds of Americans believed government was run for the benefit of all the people. By 2013 almost 80% believed government was run by a few big interests. The erosion in public trust was particularly steep in the wake of the Wall Street bailout and Great Recession. In 2006, 59% of Americans thought government corruption was widespread. By 2013, 79% did.

Much of the political establishment wants to attribute Trump’s rise solely to racism. Racism did play a part, to be sure, but racism’s sordid history in American politics long predates Trump.

What has given Trump’s racism – as well as his hateful xenophobia, misogyny and jingoism – particular virulence has been his capacity to channel the intensifying anger of the white working class. It is hardly the first time a demagogue has used scapegoats to deflect public attention from the real causes of its distress.

Trump speaks the language of authoritarian populism but acts in the interests of America’s emerging oligarchy. His deal with the moneyed interests was simple: he’d stoke divisiveness so Americans wouldn’t see how the oligarchy has taken over the reins, twisted government to its benefit and siphoned off the economic rewards.

He’d make Americans so angry at each other that they wouldn’t pay attention to CEOs getting exorbitant pay while slicing the pay of average workers, wouldn’t notice the giant tax cut that went to big corporations and the wealthy, and wouldn’t be outraged by a boardroom culture that tolerates financial conflicts of interest, insider trading and the outright bribery of public officials through unlimited campaign donations.

This way, the moneyed interests could rig the system while the president complained that the system was rigged by a “deep state.”

Notwithstanding all this, Trump trails Joe Biden in the polls. Trump’s inexcusable failure to contain the coronavirus is having a larger impact on swing voters than the divisiveness he foments. Death has a way of concentrating the mind.

But if Biden is elected, he would be well advised to remember the forces Trump exploited to gain power, and to begin the task of remedying them. The solution is not found in mere redistribution of income. It is found redistributing power. Income isn’t a zero-sum game in which some people’s gains require other people’s losses, but power indubitably is. Some have it only to the extent others don’t.

If wealth continues to concentrate at the top, no one will be able to contain the corrupting influence of big money on the American system and the anger it unleashes. As Justice Louis Brandeis once said: “We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

Thanks for reading,

Robert Reich




P.S. I’ll be going Live tomorrow, September 7, at 11:30am PT/2:30pm ET for a Labor Day discussion about Trump’s repeated attacks on working people, and the injustice of billionaires' wealth soaring as millions are unemployed and on the brink of eviction. Please join me on my social media channels.