Trans Power! Black Power! All Power to the People!

Today is June 12th, 2020. Today is the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting. Today the Trump administration finalized changes to the legal definition of sex discrimination that will make it once again legal for doctors to refuse to treat trans people based on gender identity. Today news broke of the murder of two black trans women this week, one of them in Liberty Township. Today we must reaffirm that black trans lives matter. Today we must stand in unconditional solidarity with the families and friends of Riah Milton and Dominique "Rem'mie" Fells and extend them our deepest condolences. Today we mourn, today we feel every iota of grief and anger we are still capable of. And we can’t turn away from it. That sorrow, that rage, comes from a place of love, of unconditional love for every member of the working class, for everyone oppressed and exploited by the present capitalist world order. They are all our comrades, our siblings, and to stand in solidarity with them is our highest calling. It is that love that stands at the heart of the socialist project, that enables us to carry on after today in the fight for human liberation, for the right of all to live and to flourish.

Trans people, especially trans people of color, are at a heightened risk of violence both from police, as was the case in the police shooting of Tony McDade, and from the "random" stochastic terrorism perpetuated by the ruling class against trans workers. The struggle against this state violence and ruling class terror cannot be separated from the struggle against capitalism itself. Queer liberation and black liberation cannot be separated and can only be achieved by a militant working class socialist movement that tears this system up by its roots. The police who brutalize and murder us must be demilitarized, defunded, and dismantled. The landlords and bosses who discriminate against us and weaponize racism and transphobia to reinforce their own political and economic power must be overthrown and crushed beneath our heels. Today is a day for mourning the dead, but tomorrow we fight like hell for the living. Tomorrow, and every day after, is day for trans power, a day for black power, a day for workers’ power!