Comments from the frontlines of Baltimore
The following edited comments were posted on Facebook by Baltimore activist and Workers World Party member Lee Patterson.
Today: The real enemies are the killer cops and the capitalist state, not starving people in scalding poverty.
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Calling impoverished, hungry, disenfranchised, undervalued people “looters” is an atrocious slur by the media to divide our class in a time of rebellion. The true looters are the gambling industry, Michael Beatty [of Beatty Development Group], [H&S Bakery magnate John] Paterakis, RG Steel [Corp.] as well as [Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake]. We can’t let the neoliberal crowd dictate the narrative on our oppression. Not one demand has come from them to STOP KILLER COPS! The violence is still coming from the cops as we are told to “respect” the “rule of law.” Hell, Nat Turner burned down his own plantation. Fuck this one and the police!
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Some poor and working people need to be made aware of what class they belong to. Cops are the protectors of the capitalists and they enforce the rule of capital and the rich. Cops are not the protectors of freedom and justice for poor and working people. They are the bullies who oppress the community.
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April 29: The capitalists are using the mother from Baltimore who punished her child for “participating in the riots” as a figure to control the narrative in favor of the businesses and the police, who think that windowpanes and capitalist products matter — not Black lives.
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And don’t forget the burning down of a Black Philadelphia neighborhood in 1985 by the police against MOVE.
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Stop the “300 Men March” puppets from organizing the people against themselves. Rallying people to be against “looters” is an attempt to foster disunity against the capitalist occupiers in order to help the capitalists win, and so poverty and suffering unabated can continue.
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Capitalism is being allowed to dictate the narrative on MSM [mainstream media]. Insured windows matter and not Black lives.
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It’s the New Rising Sun under another day of fascist war and imperialist occupation of Baltimore. Fists up! Fight back!
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April 28: Right now, we are emphasizing solidarity with the 345 prisoners in central booking. Holding demos outside of the jail. We were threatened with arrest yesterday as we were demonstrating and told to “cross the street” to get us out of the view of prisoners. Going back to Ground Zero. But also organizing for Friday and Saturday. This Friday the decision in the Freddie Grey case may be decided. Get ready for an explosion.
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If property damage is more upsetting to you than institutionalized racism, your moral compass needs a realignment.
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SLAVE MENTALITY. “Cleaning up” for the city. How much is the city paying you to clean up businesses? These are some of the same folks, doing the “clean-up,” who called hungry, impoverished people “thugs.” They are doing the city sanitation workers’ jobs for free.
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Stephanie Crawling-Snakes, the worst mayor ever. 21st century Marie Antoinette. Mayor of gentrification and racist complicity.
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Yes, fuck capitalist media, that demonizes youth and the oppressed and cheerleads the despots, rulers and their fascist police force. Fuck the police, National Guard and the racist AmeriKKKan capitalist system.
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It’s not “looting” that is happening. It is the liberation of goods for the human needs of the people. People are fighting back against the war on the poor. It is the end of the month, when people are at their poorest and are forced to go to food pantries and churches for help as food stamps and rent subsidies have been cut. Baltimore is a Third World country, where decayed abandoned housing roofs are falling inwards and trees grow through the windows while the glitter of Harbor East and Johns Hopkins gentrification rises in the sunshine. The class distinctions and economic apartheid are becoming so clear to the most oppressed. The smoke of pre-revolutionary consciousness is in the air, and we communists must take full advantage to further raise the consciousness of our class towards the direction of socialism.
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The police propagated the rumors and lies about Crips and Bloods coming to “attack” the police, and the rebellion was provoked by the police as well as by extreme poverty and police bullying. The ruling class media keep portraying the youth as “thugs” while completely ignoring police killings and poverty. People are becoming more aware of class and their oppression, and now is the time for us comrades to assist the people in their growth in class awareness. The demonizing of the youth by the capitalist media is to promote divisions between working-class people. … The rebellion makes sense. We have to start to guide the peoples in a revolutionary direction. Freddie Grey was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and the potential match stroke towards revolution.
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It was exhilarating yesterday, myself and comrades Colleen and Lamont picking up our “Justice 4 Freddie Grey” placards and going out to show solidarity with the community. On my way to the office on the bus yesterday, it was an adrenalin rush to hear ordinary working-class people talking about police murder and poverty. I gave high-fives to people getting on the buses, as they were all made fare-free. Drivers were saying, “Never mind your passes or your fare. Just get on, hurry-up.” As I was on the way, people were saying that they were tired of low wages and budget cuts and that the system, police and and the politicians are responsible for the rebellion in the streets and that the poverty and violence of the system finally exploded.
When I got to the office and went out with my comrades, we went out into the streets and as we were walking out to Penn-North [a Baltimore neighborhood], people saw our signs and asked for them, gave us fists up and shouted solidarity. People were excited.
We walked into the area to see riot police in a war posture intimidation line. They beat their nightsticks into their shields as they shouted “MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!,” closing in on the people as the CVS smoked and burned. Then came the smoke bombs and we comrades stayed together as people charged the police back, shouting, “FASCISTS!” But what was really inspiring was to see people liberating the stores and supermarkets for toilet paper, meats, food, diapers. … This rebellion was more than about Freddie. It was about water cutoffs, poverty and police murder and systemic oppression, as well as blue-on-Black violence.
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We don’t collaborate with the police or state or have any persons associated with the capitalist state leading the people’s marches.
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With all of the calls to “stop protesting,” who’s calling for the cops to STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE?
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To blame “outside agitators” is to attack the nationwide solidarity in the struggle to say “Black Lives Matter” and fight against police murder.
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Nothing was said about the provocations from white baseball fans towards protesters, who were called the N-word, or towards the white protesters in solidarity with the struggle being called “N-lovers.”
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The anger of Black people against capitalism exploded in rebellion last night. The pain of homelessness, joblessness, miserable poverty and total violence against human needs came back as payback against the ruling class. “Fuck that, fuck you and fuck CNN” was what the people told the capitalist media, that time after time lied about the reality of their existence.
The expressions demonizing the rebellion are based on white privilege. A window pane busted in a department store can be replaced. But the lives of Freddie Grey, Tyrone West, Anthony Anderson as well as Preston Barnes, Simmont Thomas and others could not be replaced. Racist denials of job opportunities, prison records, as well as homelessness exploded into a rebellion against the capitalist system in Baltimore, and are about to explode nationwide.
People are upset about the militarization of the cops all over the U.S., a violent provocation of war from the capitalist class. The violence doesn’t come from “outside protesters” but from the capitalist class itself. People no longer are “comfortable” with their oppression and are fighting back. It’s RIGHT to rebel! Fuck the police and the capitalist system!
The violence of cutbacks against the poor, water being turned off, record homelessness and record poverty took its toll on the people and it resulted in destruction and an explosion in anger of the oppressed. We don’t want to “replace” capitalist politicians. We want to destroy capitalism, the whole system and its politician crooks.
