Robert Cuffy is an organizer with the People’s Strike Network, the New York City organization of the Fight for our Lives Coalition, confronting one of the most powerful police departments in the U.S. Cuffy is also a member of the Organizing Committee of the New York City Afrosocialist Caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and a co-founder of the Socialist Workers’ Alliance in Guyana. I’ve divided our conversation into two pieces that are more or less self contained, though best absorbed together. First we discuss the current protests in their broader historical context, including the question of why now?