Update: The event will be streamed live at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRJyu9PpMN8&feature=youtu.be

The nationwide protests against racist police violence have been inspiring, and as socialist organizers we fight for political reforms like defunding the police that can meaningfully restructure our society for justice and peace. On Friday, join us for a discussion with Alex Vitale, Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and author of The End of Policing (temporarily free as an e-book) on how we can organize for lasting political reform.

We're living through another wave of racial terrorism and police murders of black people. Working class people and working class communities of color in the United States have just lost tens of millions of our jobs through no fault of our own. As a result of the structure of the racial capitalism, the victims of COVID-19 are overwhelming black people and people of color, who disproportionately are low-wage essential workers who cannot work from home, and who disproportionately cannot afford quality healthcare. Throughout this crisis, politicians at all levels of government are overwhelmingly in the hands of the capitalist class, and are doing all they can to bail capitalists out at the expense of the working class.

We know that neoliberal capitalism leaves millions of us to starve and to be targeted, harassed, and imprisoned. We have a carceral and police system designed to target the poorest among us instead of providing universal, class-wide social programs for our health, housing, and dignity. Without universal social reforms that undermine the basis of poverty, the capitalist class divides the working class and targets the most vulnerable among us. This is how we have ended up with a years-long pandemic of US police killing people, often without consequences. They are fulfilling their role in society, and it is our job to change society to eliminate that role. Let's discuss how we can do that together and organize for justice for all.