Adapted from a document drafted by Eljeer Hawkins and approved by Socialist Alternative’s National Committee, February 2015

We have entered a new phase in the struggle against racism and capitalism in the United States. “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) started after the death of Trayvon Martin and then became a protest movement. The BLM banner is a powerful affirmation of the humanity of black workers, poor and youth. Every 28 hours a black or brown person is killed by police, vigilante or extra-judicial violence. Police kill black Americans at nearly the same rate as the lynchings during the Jim Crow era; young black men are 21 times more likely to be shot dead by police than white men. BLM has captured the imagination of a generation of new activists in the U.S. and globally.

This is a re-emergence of the black masses onto the scene of U.S. history after decades of defeat, sell-outs, decimation and mass incarceration. The current radicalization must be seen in the context of the limits given by the immediate past of a low-level of general class consciousness in society and a historically very low level of struggle in the black community. This is further complicated by the lack of militancy of the remaining civil rights leadership from the 1960s and 70s; those who weren’t assassinated or imprisoned have largely been bought off and co-opted by the establishment. The Obama Presidency both signifies the limits of pro-capitalist identity politics but also gives confidence to black youth that they could get support in society and can defeat racism.

The revolt against police violence took new form in Ferguson and New York in recent months, with daily determined demonstrations and a new layer of activists emerging. There is partial rejection of the old civil rights leadership, which is uneven geographically and generationally, and new organizations thrown up by struggle.

The mood to fight is influenced by the economic crisis and Occupy. At its height, the protests took mass direct action to block highways and occupy symbols of police violence, economic inequality and racism. Now, the movement is in at least partial retreat. There is a danger that the advanced activists will cut themselves off from the broader masses by taking isolated direct action. We should advocate tactics and a strategy that give the activists an approach that can bring broader layers along with them.

The first phase of the movement is over, but the new activists aren’t going away, and a new phase will emerge. This has been only one wave of struggle. There will be more atrocities, more protests, more movements in the coming months and years.

Socialists, while building actions to indict the killer cops and win demands against racist policing, also need to boldly connect the dots to a program that can defeat racism in all its forms. We must connect the battle against police violence to clear economic demands: for a $15 an hour minimum wage and massive jobs programs as well as quality education and housing. We must put forward tactics of mass action while calling on unions and organizations like the NAACP – where they have influence – to support this struggle. We put forward our slogans and demands to be taken up by the broader movement because we want to point towards victories in the here and now. But we must also boldly point to a socialist solution and the need to build a multiracial socialist force in the fight to once and for all end poverty, racism and corporate domination.

See more about this story here.