United States Polarizing – Inequality and State Violence Escalating: Resistance, Rebellion and Transformation

• In Event: 547 - Section on Teaching and Learning in Sociology Paper Session. Addressing Contentious Issues in the Classroom

Abstract

Ferguson sparked rebellion across the U.S. to resist growing poverty, white supremacy, and today’s militarized police state. This paper analyzes the historical and systemic roots of these 21st century “lynchings” and uprisings within US capitalism and the white supremacy, patriarchy, exploitation, and oppression endemic since its origins. Though forms of white supremacy, poverty, and state violence have changed, their content continues in new forms. The current moment is one of antagonism between the rapidly transforming productive forces and the social relations of production rooted in the buying and selling of labor power, creating a rupture in society. It is the foundation of the emergence of the new class – the precariat – a section of the working class that is unable to sell its labor power, to secure wages, and the necessaries of life itself. The precariat increasingly confronts the state directly – demanding basic needs, an increase in the minimum wage, a response to climate change and a safe environment, a stop to mass incarceration, police killings, detention, and deportation. The resolution to these centuries’ old problems, we argue, can only be realized through the transformation from global capitalism and developing fascism to a cooperative, egalitarian society in which all human needs – material, cultural, and spiritual – are met, people are valued for their humanity and diversity, and the earth is preserved for the generations. Included is a globalization fact sheet, “Globalization, Precarity, Dispossession & State Violence,” a political and popular education tool for movement spaces and classrooms.

Authors

• Walda Katz-Fishman, Howard University

• Jerome Scott, League of Revolutionaries for

• Shaneda L Destine, Howard University