4 December 2014

The latest development in the case of Darren Wilson, the cop that murdered Michael Brown, all sounds familiar to communities victimised by state killings in the North of Ireland. State killers are beyond sanction. Again, what defines the US is the blatant unashamed racism of its bourgeoisie and its untouchable state machine. The grand jury on the racist killing of Michael Brown has produced the expected outcome. The killer cop will not be indicted.

The detail provided to the grand jury that did not support Wilson’s version of events was ‘criticised, ridiculed and attacked’. Witnesses were insulted dismissed and discredited. The ‘failure’ to indict is in spite of the fact that almost all witnesses agreed that Michael Brown had been running away from Wilson after being injured by a gunshot, that he had his hands up and that he was surrendering when the cop shot him dead. Camera phone recordings have been analysed which show that after a pause in firing Wilson resumed shooting and killed the unarmed and already wounded man who was in no position to threaten the cops life. This alone should have been enough to indict Wilson. The injuries supposedly sustained by Wilson in the initial altercation were caused by Brown trying to escape from Wilson’s attempt to throttle him and were wildly exaggerated, he was only slightly grazed on one cheek and X Rays showed nothing but Wilson wasn’t questioned about this fabrication. Instead a campaign was launched to support him that has practically made him a millionaire and he is being allowed to retire from the police a wealthy man. 

Mike Brown is far from alone in his sad demise, an African American man is killed by the racist state every 28 hours, the latest being a child of 12 years. Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun when he was mercilessly gunned down by cops. It took only two seconds for them to decide to kill him and like Mike Brown he was given no chance to surrender.  

The response to the Grand Jury finding was immediate and swept across the US like wildfire. Protests were held in Ferguson itself and right across the US. A protest was held at Free Derry Corner, outside the American Embassy in London and smaller protests occurred across Europe. In the US the protests took a turn which indicates a growing recognition that the roots of racial oppression lie in American capitalism. Protests were organised to close down the profiteering glut of the Black Friday sales, the object being to hit the pockets of the corporations and businesses that benefit from the police state and support and nurture its killer cops. 

The mobilization against racial murder and police impunity is not the only mobilistion in the US. The Walmart struggle for a decent wage continues and the fast food workers are still in an increasingly determined struggle for their claim for a $15 an hour wage. These struggles are significant and as the temperature generated by the capitalist crisis rises they give the lie to the idea that workers are helpless and cannot organize on their own defence. The political weather is shifting and the desperate attempts by moribund leaderships in the fight for racial equality, in the unions and left groups who subordinate the workers to the democrats are all failing to contain workers anger. More and more people are convinced by the cop killings that bourgeois justice is simple a con and it is capitalist society itself we must deal with.

We look forward to a mass mobilislation and to a new party of the working class – a party of revolution.