Memphis, TN. – On January 10, 29-year-old Tyre Nichols died in the hospital after sustaining injuries from five Memphis police officers. Nichols was found to have died due to extensive bleeding. Nichols was reportedly pepper sprayed, tazed and then beaten after being restrained. The family's attorney, Antonio Romanucci, made comments to the press emphasizing the extreme brutality of the murder.

There have already been protests in Memphis held by friends and family of Tyre Nichols, where they shouted the common phrase, “Say no more. Release the video!” demanding footage of the murder of Nichols.

In news interviews, Tyre Nichols’ cousin, Jamicka Hill, has compared the extent of Nichol's injuries to those of Emmet Till. The video footage was so violent that many in his family were not able to finish watching it.

Authorities were unclear about when the video showing the execution of Tyre Nichols would be released [it is to be released January 27]. The Memphis police have prepared for massive protests.

The five officers who were responsible for the death of Nichols were fired on Friday, January 20, and were arrested on charges of 2nd-degree murder on January 26th. The responsible officer's names are Tadarrius Bean, Demetruius Haley, Emmit Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith.

Capitalist news outlets have focused on the fact that the offending officers are African American, claiming that this means the murder was not an example of racist discrimination. This is an argument that misses the forest for the trees. African Americans in the United States are an oppressed nationality, who are oppressed as a group both economically and with state violence at the hands of the police. Unarmed Black people are murdered by police with regularity. Regardless of the race of particular officers, the function of the police as an institution is to protect private property and enforce the oppression of African Americans, as well as other oppressed nationalities.

Tyre Nichols' family and the broader community of Memphis have taken to the streets to demand justice. The George Floyd uprising of 2020 showed the power of nationwide, mass mobilization against racist police killings. The frantic efforts at cover-up and damage control on the part of the Memphis Police Department, as well as authorities preparations to subdue mass protests, show that the ruling class is afraid that Tyre Nichols' death has the potential to spark unrest.

#MemphisTN #PoliceBrutality #StopPoliceCrimes #jailKillerCops

Memphis, TN – At midnight on Tuesday, October 5, workers at Kellogg’s factories across the United States went on strike. Union workers in Memphis say the company made an unacceptable offer at contract time.

Rob Eafan, a member of the local union’s leadership, said of the contract, “The company wants to have a permanent two-tier wage system, with reduced wages and benefits for our new employees. The bottom line: it’s all about corporate greed. The company made record profits throughout this pandemic while working us record hours,” he said. “And they had record bonuses of 158%.”

The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 252G in Memphis has attracted huge support from the community. The union membership in Memphis is predominantly Black and Chicano. Hundreds of passersby honked their car horns in solidarity, bus drivers raised their fists when they passed by the striking workers, even politicians could not stay away from the picket line.

Shelby County Commissioner Reginald Milton, representing the heavily-Black and working-class neighborhoods of Orange Mound and South Memphis, showed up to stand on the picket line. “The reality is, the workers are the backbone of this country,” said Milton. “These are people who get up early in the morning and go to bed late at night, making sure all the things we need are delivered, made and produced for our family. These people deserve a fair wage.”

The Kellogg’s strike is a part of a wave of labor unrest, coming after strikes by workers at Nabisco and Frito-Lay earlier this year. The George Floyd uprising of 2020 has inspired an unprecedented wave of militant actions in the labor movement, the movements of oppressed nationalities, the movement for women’s rights, the right to vote, and many other people’s movements. The labor movement is rising – and class struggle is being waged on the shop floor.

#MemphisTN #PeoplesStruggles #Strikes #Bakery #Confectionery #Kelloggs #TobaccoWorkersAndGrainMillersLocal252G

Memphis, TN – On July 17, over 40 people gathered at the intersection of South Cooper Street and Young Avenue here for a rally called by the Memphis chapter of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, in coalition with Memphis Voices for Palestine. Representatives from Never Again TN and Jewish Memphians for Social Justice, two Jewish-led organizations, were also present.

The rally was called in response to a small Christian Zionist protest in East Memphis, a neighborhood that most of Memphis’ Jewish population calls home, one week earlier. That rally brought traffic to a screeching halt, forcing the residents to hear the slogans and propaganda of a movement that wants to cast all Jews into Israel to bring about ‘Armageddon.’

The July 17 demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and held signs decrying U.S. support for the Israeli state. The crowd chanted, “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes!” “No aid, no walls, the occupation will fall!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

The residents of Cooper-Young greeted the protesters as they marched down Cooper Street. Many raised fists from the porches of the restaurants, others clapped as the march passed by. One Palestinian man waved a keffiyeh from his car as he drove past the march, wiping tears from his face. “¡Viva, viva, Palestina!” he yelled in unison with the demonstrators.

#MemphisTN #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #MemphisVoicesForPalestine #MiddleEast

Memphis, TN – Members of AFSCME and other unions, along with civil rights activists, marched in Memphis, April 4, the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. King was in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers, members of AFSCME Local 1733, at the time of his 1968 murder.

The march comes at a time when public worker unions are facing attacks and responding with a growing wave of resistance.

#MemphisTN #AFSCME #DrMartinLutherKingJr #Antiracism

Memphis, TN – Organizers, community members and activists from around the country converged on the city of Memphis, Tennessee on March 30 to protest the presence of the Ku Klux Klan, which held a rally on the courthouse steps. Anti-Klan protesters were met with an extreme show of force by the militarized Memphis Police Department who showed an extreme and flagrant disregard for free speech.

The anti-Klan demonstration began with a march, organized by the Ida B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality, from Court Square towards the courthouse. The march passed a ‘free speech’ cage that was surrounded by riot cops armed with semi-automatic assault rifles, shotguns, chemical weapons launchers, snipers on the rooftops and dogs. Inside the cage were a large number of people who had gathered to make their opposition to the Klan’s presence known. The march stopped briefly to deliberate and then decided to continue into the cage to join with the people already there.

A line stretched around the block to gain access to the cage because police set up a ‘free speech’ checkpoint where every person who entered the cage was made to empty their pockets, be patted down, go through a metal detector machine and then be wanded with a handheld metal detector. After this process, police officers stole all signs, flags, banners, literature, newspapers, pamphlets, flyers, umbrellas and many other items from protesters and threw them in the trash. One young student wearing a t-shirt portraying an image of Huey Newton was told by police that he must take his shirt off and turn it over to police before he could enter; when he refused he was immediately escorted out of the area by police.

After a passing this checkpoint, demonstrators, who were now stripped of their signs, were forced to walk several hundred yards through a gauntlet of riot cops standing shoulder to shoulder before entering a large parking lot surrounded on all sides by a chain link fence and a militarized police force. Just barely visible on the other side of the cage behind several rows of riot police and police on horses another several hundred yards away, the Klan stood on the courthouse steps in white hoods and robes waving racist flags.

Protesters chanted, “What do we do when Memphis is under attack? Stand up, fight back!” “Cops and Klan work hand in hand!” and “KKK out of Memphis!” Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) member Preston Gilmore said, “The Klan isn't the only white supremacist terrorist organization here in Memphis today. The Memphis Police Department is a racist terrorist organization responsible for the deaths of many mostly Black Memphians and their open protection of the Klan and harassment of protesters demanding an end to racist attacks on the city is a testament to this fact.”

Organizers from Tennessee plan to continue the fight against white supremacy on the weekend of April 5-7 in Montgomery Bell State Park in Dickson County, Tennessee. The park plans to host a major white supremacist conference that will include the Klan, neo-nazis, holocaust deniers, anti-immigration thugs and other racists and fascists. The Coalition to Shut Down AmRen will rally on April 5 and 6 outside the Montgomery Bell Park Inn and Conference Center, demanding that the racists’ conference be shut down. There will also be a counter-conference called “Not in Our State” on April 6. For more information about these actions go to: www.facebook.com/events/543463712354434

#MemphisTN #KuKluxKlan #Antiracism