#Fuck12Friday is here again to tell you about why we don't fuck with 12!! Did you think we forgot?? This week, we're going over the adversarial history of policing and labor in Chicago. read! share! learn sumn!
First and foremost, it's in the interest of capital (big business, money, white people) to maintain our stratified, unequal social order and police are the front lines of that effort #Fuck12Friday
Throughout history, and especially in Chicago, police have violently suppressed labor organizing and uprisings that empower working class people or threaten the social order (socialist, anarchist, communist, etc. organizing) #Fuck12Friday
1865 - The inherent purpose of policing/incarceration as a tool to force labor is probably most apparent in the Constitution's 13 amendment: "slavery is o.k. if you're being punished for a crime" #Fuck12Friday
There are so many instances in Chicago's history in which police forces have been called on for the sole purpose of ending peaceful strikes and getting people back to work #Fuck12Friday
1877 - The Great Labor Uprising of 1877 "brought [Chicago] close to a state of general strike". The mayor mobilized the "special police" to execute mass arrests and violently end the strike. At least 18 were killed. #Fuck12Friday
1881 - Some of the earliest efforts to professionalize the police were made, i.e. patrol wagons and uniforms. These kinds of cosmetic changes have never made the police less racist or less violent - This is simply how state forces attempt to legitimize themselves #Fuck12Friday
This is why Eddie Johnson's claim that we can't make CPD less racist, but we can make them "more professional" is so insidious. "Professionalizing" a violent institution only serves to insulate it from criticism (as it perpetuates harm) #Fuck12Friday
1886 - A mass protest was held in support of the May Day strike at McCormick Harvester. One of the primary demands was an eight-hour work day. The Chicago Police, under the command of Captain Jon Bonfield, fired into the crowd and killed four people #Fuck12Friday
1886 - The Haymarket Affair was a result of those deaths - around 2,000 political radicals rallied to condemn the murders. A bomb was thrown and a police officer was killed. In response, police open fired into the crowd #Fuck12Friday
1886 - The subsequent bomb raids and death sentences (aftermath of the Haymarket Affair) are an early example of the retaliation & terror campaigns against organizers and the general public that police use to assert their domination #Fuck12Friday
1894 - After an unexplained 25% wage cut, Pullman employees went on strike for months. When police were sent in strikers were shot, clubbed, and stabbed.The strike ended after ~34 were killed by police. #Fuck12Friday
1920 - Palmer Raids: "On New Year's' Day, Chicago police [raided] the homes and gathering places of political dissenters and labor activists, arresting about 150 people..." #Fuck12Friday
1937 - Memorial Day Massacre - At the memorial day strike of the Republic Steel Plant in South Chicago, police were deployed on behalf of Republic Steel. The police ordered the strikers to disperse and then fired into the crowd, killing 10 #Fuck12Friday
During the Memorial Day Massacre, Republic Steel provided officers with food and ammunition before they violently ended the strike #Fuck12Friday
Capital and the state often have shared interests and these are the only two entities that can deploy the police en masse. Labor power threatens those interests and that's why so many labor uprisings are met with police terrorism #Fuck12Friday
Labor solidarity invokes fears of large-scale class conflict which leads to police intervention and suppression. Police have never been a tool of or for the people #Fuck12Friday
Police are literally our enemy. They exist to terrorize the public and to accommodate capital by impeding the ability of workers to act in concert #Fuck12Friday
A lot of info from this week's #Fuck12Friday was pulled from the Chicago Police & Militarization Timeline by We Charge Genocide. Check it out for more on the history of policing in Chicago bit.ly/33SprJJ #Fuck12Friday
Tune in next week and we'll get to more recent history!! #Fuck12Friday
