We're looking at it in the same way, then, with systemic racism being something that can be sorted out.

We can disagree on the "working class racially divided by ruling class on purpose" bit - Personally I think that theoretical arguments like that rather obscure the real problem in countries like the US, India, China, Russia - rulers aren't dividing up the working class; bureaucrats and politicians are elected by the masses, and systematically debase one section of society based on no more than the colour of their skin / tribe / etc. There really doesn't appear to be a grand unified capitalist plot - hell, capitalists would benefit from richer black people just as much as the oppressed - it's just racism plain and simple.

Yesterday evening, the Asheville branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation joined with marchers gathered in solidarity with the people of Minneapolis and against the systemic racist police violence the ruling class deploys as a matter of course against Black people and Black communities. We gathered and marched peacefully and nonviolently, and were met with police violence and state repression, as cops fired gas, pepper pellets, and rubber bullets into the crowd while it knelt in protest. This is the true face of American life under the dictatorship of capital. Nothing can or will end it until the entire capitalist system and its violent state apparatus are swept into the dustbin of history; it's coming yet, for a' that.

The police in Boston intentionally incited a riot last night. They destroyed their own vehicle, tear gassed peaceful protesters, and then had the MBTA close all the train stations early to trap everybody downtown. They also attempted to ram into a large crowd with a police van.

The riot last night was not the fault of the peaceful protesters. The blame falls entirely on the Boston Police Department.

Louisville was turned into a war zone over the weekend. National Guard has at least one confirmed kill of an innocent and unarmed civilian, naturally a black man. I'm sure there are others that will come to light. There is footage of LMPD smashing cache's of bottled water and milk. Bottled water. And milk.

I'm clocked into work but I feel like a shell of a human being. They might have to fire me today because I cannot take these calls back to back and pretend everything is "okay". I don't feel okay.

As an activist that was part of the Arab Spring 2011, I see a lot of similarities to what's going on right now in the US. And let me tell you that you have been manipulated into wasting a huge opportunity to reform your police force, because this is the issue here, don't get fooled into believing otherwise.

The protests have been infiltrated and twisted into what they're now. Police officers stood down and encouraged a state of unlawlessness to emerge.
You guys have a lot of ways with which you can effect change but you choose to naively fall into the trap and dilute the martyr of George Floyd.

Welcome to the third world, America. We'll keep each other company down here.

I'm not unconfused about the meaning of this.

I can tell you that where I was, while there were certainly infiltrators, the protesters never did anything unlawful beyond the purely symbolic act of taking the streets and stopping traffic. The violence was entirely initiated and carried out by the police, while protesters literally took a knee in silence.

On the larger point, policing in the United States is beyond reform. The entire system is rotten all the way to the root. It is foundationally and inextricably intertwined with capitalist exploitation and white supremacy. No amount of quantitative change can alter its fundamentally unjust character. It would require a qualitative change—the entire system from the ground up would have to be something other than what it is—and qualitative change is not reform; it is revolution.

This is everything I've heard from friends and friends of friends who were there. Things are going to get much, much worse.

Even my hometown of Mankato isn't immune to pigs being pigs. We gathered for a peaceful demonstration against a ridiculous curfew, and the cops suddenly decided that the clearly laid out exemption for the press was no longer valid, and arrested our two journalists. Luckily I don't trust the cops one bit, so I filmed it.

There's another one tomorrow night that many of the same friends of mine that went last night are going to be at. There's also another protest in Providence on Friday that so far looks to be even bigger than the first one. My wife is actually pretty convinced that this one is gonna be the one that violence erupts at.

As long as classes exists in a society with more than one race, racism will be maintained in it and lead to people dying because of their skin color, through murder and other ways. The thing is, if dealing with classes, we are dealing with the problems of classes, including systemic racism. If attempting to deal with the currently most prominent issue, there will always be new issues put forth as the dealing with classes is perpetually postponed. I'm not saying don't do anything countering specific issues like systemic racism, or even more specific ones like racism in a local police department or something. But have no illusions of solving the problem by doing so. It's temporarily cooling down an issue that will keep returning unless it's crushed at a fundamental level.


The state is a tool for exercising power, one class over another. Even if people elect politicians, they do so "informed" by news media, textbooks from school, other literature, and other channels providing a narrative. In a capitalist society the by far most prominent channels are never unbiased regarding issues connected with class interests.

'Plot' is a bit if a loaded but unnecessary word here. It's about ownership of the means of production and the instinct to act out of self interest. Class interest is just the common interest of people in one and the same class, and classes don't have colors, sexes, genders, sexual orientations, etc.

Capitalists don't benefit in any fundamental way from poor people, regardless of color etc., getting rich. Capitalism is based on competition and has a monopolistic tendency, that is, a decreasing percentage of people own an increasing percentage of wealth.

Recommended reading on that: https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/ ... /index.htm

Today the president of the United States told dozens of governors in a conference call that they needed to use force to "dominate" protesters, and also stated he has put the Joint Chiefs of Staff "in charge" of stopping the protests.

One of his most public sycophants on the Hill stated that Trump should send in the 101st Airborne and "if necessary, the 10th Mountain, 82nd Airborne, 1st Cav, 3rd Infantry—whatever it takes to restore order. No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters." He served in Iraq, so presumably he knows exactly what no quarter means in a military context.

David McAtee, Louisville business owner, killed by authorities

Excerpt from above article:



And another report on this:
https://twitter.com/Stephon_Dingle/status/1267532689684520961

Can we just have a civil war and get it over with already?

That or let this fucking place break up into sections, California Republic, Texas Republic, Florida, Appalachia, and New England. There. Problem solved.

It’s time to arm the protesters to fight back.

I don't think breaking the country up would solve anything, it would just stratify the problems into specific little areas, with some of those areas becoming even more violent than others.

Asheville, NC? Good grief, and we have a black sheriff there. This is ridiculous.

Quick reminder that while PlayStation is still an evil company by way of being a multi-billion dollar company, they're by far the least evil console manufacturer and frankly gaming companies on the planet by a loooooong way. Pushing the PS5 reveal because "more important voices need to be heard right now" is a god-tier move.

Gamers B so mad right now. Genuinely considering ditching the PC and joining the console cult.

That's a bit much... but, well, while I'm personally leery of woke brands, I appreciate that Sony didn't just put out a statement and nothing more, but also even clapped back at idiots going "All Lives Matter" and matched donations to BLM from employees and all. So I'll give them reluctant credit there.

Plus, making fragile/racist gamer bros mad is a worthwhile endeavour in and of itself.

I'll never convert, PC till the day I die

Interesting to read the police spin version of events - were the people hit by cars on the interstate actually hit by cars, or did the police run them over ?

According to the police chief, too much protesting corrupts the message - shocker

https://eu.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2020/06/01/why-did-asheville-officers-first-fire-tear-gas-protest/5311654002/

The music industry and its affiliates are making June 2nd a day of mourning of sorts with a trendy hashtag (theshowmustbepaused). A lot of bands and metal labels have followed suit.

So the Midwest would be part of Appalachia in this scenario?
Time for me to move to Canada, thanks.

I watched it happen. It wasn't the cops. We took over an interstate and blocked traffic and some people lost their fucking minds. Some prick in a Dodge Challenger went around the line of stopped cars on the shoulder at full speed, then a yahoo in a pickup truck got inspired and did the same thing right behind. Fortunately, everyone was able to dive out of the way, but it was a near thing.

Yea, I don't want anything to do with Appalachia, either.

On June 19th, Bandcamp will donate 100% of their share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/ban ... fundraiser

For any of yall who are unfortunately missing the opportunity to rumble with the oinks, you can always pitch in to a nearby bail-fund: https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory We're probably gonna start seeing mass arrests here soon.

Saw news from a few cities about policemen laying down their weapons and joining the protesters. Small, isolated incidents, but they exist.

I'm sure some of them are genuine about it. I know some cops really do see the truth of it. It's just a matter of what they do next and how we can change the system so that this stuff stops happening. There needs to be serious reform to the whole 'good ol boys' system that allows these guys to go four days without getting arrested, etc.

Kneeling with the acting muscle of your oppressors isn't progression, it's a photo op. It's copraganda, if you will. A lot of the same cops that knelt with protesters were suited and booted, spraying them with mace and rubber rounds just moments later.

What Jonpo said. Boston police knelt and prayed and held hands until it got dark. Then they took out the tear gas. It's a PR move right out of the COINTELPRO playbook.

Exactly. The system is that rotten that any seeming sincerity SHOULD be regarded with utter cynicism. I don't doubt that there's decent human beings in law enforcement but the evidence I've seen of their crimes far outweighs any belief I may conjure for the system actually working.

I'll trust these men when they renounce their badges and uniforms and stand with the people who have fallen victim to the institution they currently represent. Not before.

Depends where you are. If you’re further south you might be sucked up into the Republic of Texas, if you’re further north, I dunno. Maybe be annexed by Canada. Who knows. I’m more or less doing a generic geographic split whether it be amicable or by force. But shits gotta change, we’re a divided nation, so fuck it, let’s make the divides permanent. It was fun while it lasted but RIP

Providence rioted last night. An out-of-state group of possible white nationalists organized a "protest" in the city that almost immediately turned into a riot. The mall I work in got broken into, stores looted and ransacked in the mall and all around downtown, and a police van was smashed and set on fire. The state has activated the National Guard, and the city has installed a curfew of 9:00 PM starting tonight. There's another BLM rally in the city on Friday starting at 4:30 PM that's looking to be even bigger than the one I was at last Saturday, and I guarantee you nobody is gonna abide by that curfew.

I'm pleasantly surprised by all the metal bands expressing solidarity with the protests on social media. Alcest, Myrkur, and Equilibrium, among others. It's not much, but it's better than silence.

The police fired tear gas upon a group of us protesting at the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, VA last night. With no warning or provocation. Twenty minutes before curfew (not that it's acceptable after curfew). This is coming after hundreds of arrests the night prior, entirely for the offense of walking on the streets and breaking curfew.

Anyone out there that doesn't think the police are the problem is part of the problem.

Read the arrest record. They weren't "White Nationalists" and most of the rioters are from Rhode Island.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/us/p ... tz2SkJUofQ

Pretty bipartisan response on getting rid of cops using military equipment. It's not the whole issue but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Those fucking statues are a goddamn disgrace to our country.

DC is starting to look a bit like the ending to The Dispossessed.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... w-of-force


Also, I'm not sure what's weirder about this video: the specter of dozens of Army vehicles going down the street in DC or the fact that said Army vehicles need police escorts for some reason.
https://twitter.com/mariselapenny/statu ... 1954231298
https://twitter.com/FitzFox5DC/status/1 ... 3821479937