President Trump’s threats to use the military and unleash brutal force against protesters have failed to stop people from coming out on the streets across America. High-handed police tactics and thousands of arrests have also failed to quell the protests. The police violence and threats to use military power have proved counterproductive so far.
The spontaneous protests that erupted after the brutal killing of George Floyd, an African American man in police custody in Minneapolis, have now spread to over 85 cities across the US. People are defying curfews, blockades and warnings to express their rage against continued police violence, institutional racism and discrimination against the African-American community.
There is also anger against President Trump's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, with 40 million Americans already having lost their jobs. Unemployment and poverty is on the rise in the US.
Mainstream media and the Trump administration are concentrating hard on the issue of violence and lootings. Yes, that happened in some cities. But these violent elements are a small minority. Hundreds of thousands of people across America are involved in peaceful protests.
Rightwing media and the ruling elite are trying to discredit the protest movement on the basis of the looting. Some are using the familiar argument of putting liberal democracy in danger. But in reality, it is not the massive protests on the streets or some violent actions of some protesters that put liberal democracy in danger.
The continued refusal to radically reform the power structure, criminal justice system and to end police violence and increased authoritarianism by American elite poses real dangers to liberal democracy.
Without bringing radical and far-reaching changes and reforms in the political, economic and social structure, real change in the lives of millions of poor and working class African Americans will never come.
People resort to protests on the streets when they start to believe that the political system is not working for them. When they believe that liberal democracy is not working in their interests and political leaders are not listening to their demands and cries of change. Before taking to the streets, they try different options available to them in the electoral field. For example, millions of young and working class people tried to elect Bernie Sanders as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party to represent their aspirations and interests.
But the Democratic Party establishment blocked that effort and paved the way for Joe Biden to take on President Trump in the coming November presidential elections. This has frustrated many people who were hoping to bring progressive change through Bernie Sanders. They are also showing their hopelessness and powerlessness to change the political course through demonstrations and protests.
Mass protest movements undoubtedly put pressure on the ruling elite to listen to the slogans and demands of protesters. The mass protests that erupted following the death of George Floyd have forced the authorities to take action against the white police officer at whose hands George Floyd died.
The mass protests have forced the ruling class to accept the fact that America needs to reform its criminal justice system and police force.
But to win important reforms, the protest movement needs to go beyond expressing anger and rage against repression, police violence and worsening living conditions. It needs to develop a concrete programme and slogan. The numbers and scale of the protests are important factors in pressing the demand for change but equally important are the programme and slogans of a movement.
The protest movement needs a well-thought-out programme for police and criminal justice system reforms. The main issue at the moment is to democratise the police system and to empower the local communities and neighbourhoods to monitor the police actions and to make it accountable.
One protester sums up the mood of the protest movement in these words, “This isn’t just about George Floyd. This is about years and years of being treated as less than people – and not just by [the] police. It’s everything. We don’t get proper medical [care]. We don’t get proper housing. There’s so much discrimination, and it’s not just the justice system. It’s a whole lot of things.”
Malcolm X once famously said: “You can’t have capitalism without racism.” That is especially the case with American capitalism, which developed on the brutal repression and super exploitation of black people brought into the US as slaves. Modern America was built on the backs of the black population and genocidal killings of indigenous people.
The African-American population has a long history of struggle for their political, democratic and economic rights. They have sacrificed a lot to win their rights. Laws were made to end the discrimination and racism against the black American population. But laws alone cannot end discrimination and racism embedded in state institutions and society. To end that a country needs radical changes in the system.
The writer is a freelance journalist.