By Saladin Muhammad
Since the September 11 World Trade Center attack, the presidential administrations, campaigns and the current 2016 presidential election, have intensify the levels of government repression against working-class Blacks and people of color, and Muslim’s, contributing to widening the divisions within the general US working-class.
The militarization of the police and their killings with impunity, unapologetically gives license to police to be judge, jury, executioner and occupation forces defending corporate property, expansion and profits against acts of protest, worker strikes and rebellions from the most oppressed and exploited sections of society.
While there is an understanding by many that corporate America dictates and shapes America’s domestic and foreign policies, corporate America has not been a major target of the fight back against the police killings.
In North Carolina, the NC Public Service Workers Union-UE Local 150, the Southern Workers Assembly (SWA) supported by Black Workers For Justice have begun a campaign to unite the working-class at the points of production and service in calling out their employers to speak out against these police killings and the death squad culture of American policing. It points out that these police killings are targeting a section of the working-class whose labor helps to create the profits for the employers, economy of society and their communities.
The campaign while at its beginning stage and mainly at workplaces where UE 150 and SWA have levels of organization and memberships, has 5 main steps:
- agitation pointing out that the lives of Black and workers of color are threatened by the police killings as they travel to and from work and reside in their communities
- conduct a petition campaign at the workplace to collect worker signatures calling on their employers to publicly speak out against these police killings and the failures of the system to effectively address this
- forming a delegation and take petitions to the employers
- holding 15 minute information pickets at the entrance of workplaces calling on the employers to speak out to publicly promote the struggle at the workplace
- holding worker and community forums to educate about how these police killings and the racist climate that has been intensified by the economic and political crisis is a major threat to communities, families, and individuals especially of the Black and people of color working-class, and how the climate of division and hatred seeks to prevent working-class unity against these injustices and the other attacks.
The SWA is calling on other local and national unions, worker organizations and worker centers to join in this campaign. The campaign has model resolutions for unions and worker organizations. There are petitions for workers to collect signatures and later deliver to their employers. If you are interested in promoting and supporting the campaign at your workplace contact at info@southernworkers.org.