Policing Under Settler Colonialism: A Look into Cincinnati's Class Struggles
Cincinnati Community Aid & Praxis and Cincinnati Socialists
5/11/2025
Since May Day 2024, the class struggle in Cincinnati and the tri-state area has taken a myriad of forms. The United States is an illegitimate settler republic built upon the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the enslavement of African peoples. Far from being a forgotten event in the past, settler colonialism shapes class relations in Cincinnati today and manifests in several forms. In the realm of national oppression, Cincinnati’s police primarily function to quell Black national unrest and secondarily to protect private property rights.
For decades, a nonprofit development corporation named 3CDC (Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation), in conjunction with the bourgeois state, has formed a significant part of class struggle in Cincinnati in the form of police violence. Cincinnati Socialists’ statement on 3CDC reads as follows:
"3CDC and the Cincinnati City government do not represent the interests of working class Cincinnatians, but those of the corporate oligarchy that view our neighborhoods as nothing more than potential business opportunities. The needs of the people should always take priority over the requirements of capital. Cincy Socialists demands that 3CDC be abolished and their power be handed over to those impacted by their decisions: the people of Cincinnati!"
The policing of land and private property leads to the terrorism of neighborhoods and sweeping of houseless encampments. Recently, this pattern of violence has consisted of eradicating houseless encampments in Camp Washington and other neighborhoods in conjunction with gentrification. These initiatives are made possible through the collaboration with white settlers who call on the police and state to eliminate “crime.” A recent manifestation of this was the policing and condemnation of St. Francis Seraph Church in Over-the-Rhine for “attracting crime.”
A recently popularized refrain of ruling class ideology has been that “no one wants to work.” This line is a trick obscuring how perpetual unemployment benefits owners because perpetual instability and the creation of a reserve army of workers for the capitalist class makes for a more efficient exploitation of labor. Furthermore, white settlers are continually being galvanized to collaborate with the bourgeoisie by acting as vigilantes against “crime” and “drug dealers.”
Part of the enforcement of perpetual instability is housing instability. Cincinnati’s renters are at the mercy of landlords withholding the right to shelter. To make matters worse, Cincinnati is renowned for being an “eviction-friendly city,” according to the real estate investment group Vision & Beyond. The struggles between landlords and tenants have also been pronounced. Cincinnati Tenants Union, CCAP, and Cincy Socialists have been developing their collective capacity to further organize tenants. Plans are in place to expand these connections, and hopefully, more future collaboration will be realized in the second half of 2025.
Policing has extended to violent opposition to protests against settler colonialism in Palestine. Pro-Palestine protests have emerged at the University of Cincinnati with a variety of groups and coalitions. Recently, this escalated to the point where a UC student was arrested for waving a Palestinian flag on campus in response to Islamophobic and misogynistic demonstrators holding signs saying “women are property” and “Muslims are terrorists.” The same country professing the universal right to freedom of speech is more than happy to arrest students for protesting while letting bigots spread hate speech.
Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition is one example of a new coalition hosting a variety of events. CPSC’s charter states:
"The Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition comes together in solidarity with the struggle for justice, liberation and self-determination of Palestinians and all oppressed people in the world. Only with full equality and opportunity among all people, can we hope for a world in which peace will triumph over war and military aggressions, including that of the US and Israel."
Cincinnati Palestine Solidarity Coalition, Students for Justice in Palestine UC, and the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation have been following through on this mission statement by promoting solidarity among organizations and Cincinnati in general through many rallies and events.
The student movement has demonstrated immense bravery and commitment to international solidarity in the midst of fierce state repression. Solidarity with the struggle against settler colonialism in Palestine is absolutely necessary for anyone organizing in the so-called United States. We must draw the connection and study how their organizing applies to our organizing against settler colonialism in the United States.
As a means to better organize the Communist left in Cincinnati, Cincinnati Community Aid & Praxis (CCAP) and Cincy Socialists hosted a unity conference in March 2025 to establish a second order organization. This is the manifestation of a fruitful collaboration, and the new formation of a unity organization will bolster our ability to galvanize the masses of Cincinnati for continued struggle. Cincy Socialists is dedicated to thoroughly researched posts and pieces pertaining to escalating class struggles occurring locally in Cincinnati. Cincinnati Community Aid & Praxis (CCAP) is a communist organization dedicated to survival programs. Both organizations share a dedication to developing their members into capable Marxist organizers.
Cincinnati Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) and Cincy Socialists have both dedicated significant amounts of time to assisting with CCAP’s survival programs—including weekly trash pick-up, monthly free food serves, and weekly free shower program. Work in survival programs (Distributing harm reduction products, free food, clothes, etc.) has taken place in the form of weekly events at Piatt Park, aiding the houseless population in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Food Not Bombs, The Party for Socialism and Liberation, Coalition for Community Safety, and Triiibe have consistently been serving the people every month. CCAP and Cincy Socialists step in for weekends with 5 Saturdays. Hopefully, our capacity to serve the people of Cincinnati and execute survival programs will increase as the year progresses.
Amazon/KCVG occupies a significant shipping nexus and an acute terrain of labor struggle. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “The Amazon Air Hub, which is at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport location in Hebron, is the company's largest in the world and is located about 20 minutes south of Cincinnati. Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of the company, broke ground on the $1.5 billion air hub in 2019.” The exploitation of labor at Amazon Air Hub in Northern Kentucky has manifested in union-busting and firing a worker for union organizing. Many union-busting efforts have been reported to the National Labor Relations Board.
There are many events, struggles, and organizations which have not been covered. Repression has intensified towards the LGBTQ population of Cincinnati, and ICE deportations of immigrants has intensified as well. Specifically, mistreatment of ICE detainees in Butler County Jail (See CincSoc’s Instagram post for more information). There are too many struggles to give sufficient time to. We ask that you please engage further with the organizations and publications that have been discussed in this article as well as the myriad of others at the statements page of the Cincinnati Socialists website and the Red Clarion page on the Unity-Struggle-Unity Press website to gain a more comprehensive view of the struggles in Cincinnati and the organizations waging them.
Ultimately, both CCAP and CS stand in solidarity with the proletariat and all other classes being oppressed by the bourgeoisie of the imperial core and the states that represent their interests. Solidarity is to be found in all of the struggles previously mentioned, and so many more, because they are interconnected and rooted in the fundamental contradictions inherent in capitalism and settler colonialism. We must organize against national oppression and recognize the existence of the Black and Indigenous interior colonies that have been repressed and subjugated to the bourgeois state for generations. The intersectionality and necessity for solidarity between these struggles is imperative to challenge and eventually dismantle the international capitalist power structure.