Working class activists and U.S. President cross paths in Baltimore

Oct. 31 — We and President Joe Biden had very different Tuesdays. But somehow, we crossed paths in Baltimore City, Maryland. 

In the first place, Biden and these writers are very different kinds of people. We’re members of the Peoples Power Assembly, working on the “Amazon: Invest in Workers, not Genocide” campaign. Biden is a segregationist from Delaware who, right now, is in charge of the biggest, most violent, and most profitable military apparatus in the world.  

When we woke up on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, all we knew was that we’d be leafleting around the Amazon warehouses, getting the word out about the campaign. 

When Joe Biden woke up that Tuesday, his staffers and the Secret Service already had his itinerary mapped out. All the appropriate police and city officials had been contacted and coordinated with. Every photo op was carefully vetted, every available police and military vehicle had full gas tanks, and all personnel had a full kit.

His “visit” to the city was nothing more than a stop for ice cream (in one of Baltimore’s most gentrified neighborhoods) and a speech at the port. Outside those two stops, Joe Biden traveled with a small army of armed security. 

He must have been going to his speech at the port when we crossed paths. 

We had already finished leafleting around the warehouse in Sparrows Point for the day. We’d been leafleting around the Broening Highway warehouse for maybe half an hour when we saw Baltimore City police shutting down roads. Curious, we hung around to see what was happening.

Sure enough, the motorcade appeared. We made sure to film its entirety so we could let Joe know we were there and what we were raising to the working class.

While we traveled on foot to meet the workers where they were, the president, boxed away in his “Beast” — the presidential armored limousine — pushed people as far away from him as possible. The sirens of the convoy rang out in unison until they spotted us. One by one the pattern switched and the volume intensified as if to deter us from filming our “public servant.” 

Of course, the public was not invited to his speech at the port. 

It was his usual fare—folksy lip service that rang hollow. It’s clear that the White House is desperate to protect its left flank and knows very well that it has to at least appear to address the issues of working people in Baltimore. 

In one moment, he congratulated the dockworkers on the higher wages they earned through their strike against automation and, in another, claimed his party would lead the way in the “modernization” of America’s ports. This was a slap in the face of the dockworkers who continue to fight against the tide of automation.

Keep in mind that most of the funds the President announced for Baltimore’s ports are still only theoretical. He made no real commitment to fund the rebuilding of the Key Bridge, only that he is “calling on Congress” to pass a bill.

It would go a much longer way if he accomplished any of the demands we raised on his most recent visit. There’s a lot of money in the war budget that’s funding a genocide that could be spent on infrastructure.

Ultimately, it’s all far too little and far too late. No new bridges or tunnels are going to curb the rising police violence across the city. No “modernized” port is going to relieve the food deserts. Schools across the city don’t have drinkable water, heat, or air conditioning.

While the ruling class and their personal army in Baltimore City Police continue to get money, the people of Baltimore continue to survive as their public infrastructure remains ignored and crumbling.

What the workers need is a revolutionary change that is far-reaching and absolute. No president or agency has the answers; only the people know what the people need. The people stand with the workers, not with war profiteers or genocide enablers!

Long live Baltimore’s oppressed and working class, and long live international solidarity!