TrotskistMarx
6th May 2012, 07:24
An article about wether black people, latinos and all US workers unify
The anti-immigrant drive comes in the context of growing attacks on workers and oppressed people, as just one part of the general assault on workers and poor. The murder of Trayvon Martin has focused attention on racist brutality against Black and Latino people by vigilantes as well as the police. Incarceration rates for young Black and Latino men are at record levels. Muslims are a tremendous target of profiling, as the recent NYPD scandal about the monitoring of student groups testifies. The poverty and unemployment statistics for people of color, especially youth, are staggering. Obviously there is a strong basis for common cause among people of color.
If the immigrant rights movement is to revive and become an effective fighting force, it must seize opportunities to unite with broader numbers of workers, especially Black workers who have been the prime victims of racism through this country’s history and who have a powerful and militant tradition. As well, Black workers who can already see through the divide-and-conquer scheme of the ruling class are in a good position to fight for united action with other victimized workers.
While the hostility to Blacks and Latinos by too many white workers and middle-class people is obvious, the system also encourages hostilities between Black and Latino people as well as hostilities between American-born and foreign-born, and so forth. Again, one agency for this is the Democratic Party, which often poses as the champions of oppressed people in contrast to the blatantly racist Republican right. But the Democrats’ main role is to effectively derail struggles for equality and justice that inevitably clash with the needs of capitalism and imperialism. Directly and indirectly, different sections of the working class are set up to fight with each other, nationally and internationally, while the capitalist bosses continue to benefit. It is probably most tragic when different groups of oppressed people are pushed to fight over a shrinking pie out of a desperation created by a system that no part of the working class can control.
The capitalist system fosters racism, national chauvinism and other poisons in order to divert the working class from understanding who its real enemies are. Only through forging a united fightback that also takes fighting racism seriously can such obstacles be overcome. Interracial and international working-class unity is a burning necessity. More white workers can also come to see the need for such unity, and there are anti-racist white workers and youth who already see it.
This does not mean that Blacks, Latinos and other national, ethnic and religious minorities have to wait for white workers to join the struggle. There are many instances where oppressed groups have indeed been forced to fight for their survival without much help from better-off white workers – and in isolation from each other as well. And these historic struggles, each of which came out of specific traditions and circumstances, accomplished a great deal in the past – and will enrich the struggles ahead.
At the same time there have been many examples of workers beginning to overcome these divisions and uniting in struggle. A common defense would be the most powerful way forward. The League for the Revolutionary Party (LRP) has often advocated a perspective of a general strike against the capitalist attacks as the best way to build a united defense.
What about this “General Strike”?
The activists operating under the umbrella of Occupy Wall Street in New York and elsewhere have been advocating a “General Strike” for May Day this year, in a way that is – sadly – pure fantasy. As we explained in our bulletin analyzing the OWS phenomenon, the symbolic resistance to Wall Street last fall initially got a lot of support from the working class public, despite the fact that the occupiers were mainly better-off middle-class youth. The leading forces in OWS also lacked any perspective of working-class struggle or a Marxist understanding of capitalism and what would be needed to turn the tide. Thus they failed to make the necessary demands on the trade unions, the main organizations of the working class, as well as other important mainstream organizations that claim to represent people of color. (See Occupy Wall Street: A Marxist Assessment for our full analysis.)
The unions, even though they represent a small percentage of workers, have big resources and influence. They are capable of launching major struggles against Wall Street and the capitalist bosses in general that could unite union workers with the vast majority of non-union workers. But they refuse to do so because the union leaders are loyal supporters of the Democratic Party and the capitalist system.
It is necessary for workers and youth to begin to seriously discuss the importance of mass action and the relevance of a serious general strike strategy for changing the balance of forces in this country. It can be an invaluable tactic. As revolutionary socialists, when we pose the need for such mass action as a general strike, we explicitly raise the need to fight against such current misleaders of our class who stand as a huge obstacle to the exercise of working-class power. We do not hide the fact that we think that reformist misleaders will inevitably have to be replaced. When we fight for mass action we argue for demands like End All Restrictions on Immigration, Complete Amnesty Now! and Stop All Racist and Chauvinist Attacks! We also raise demands like Stop the Budget Cuts! Jobs For All! and A Program of Public Works to help unify the working class and show how to start to solve the unemployment crisis and provide the quality services and infrastructure the whole society needs.
Socialist Revolution Is the Only Solution!
But such measures and many others equally critical cannot be achieved so long as capitalism and imperialism continue to exist. Through the experience of powerful independent struggles, workers will see that real victories are possible. There is no value in believing that some or another section of the capitalist class is going to fight on our behalf in any serious way, but such illusions can be overcome over time. Through experiencing our strength as a class, more workers and youth will also come to see the need to get rid of the capitalist system entirely. The most politically conscious workers and youth must join together to build a new, revolutionary party of the working class that can show the way to win immediate aims while raising consciousness of the need for socialist revolution.
The economic crisis of today is not going to disappear. Rather, the desperate drive of capitalists to boost their profits rates will inevitably push imperialists to intervene more aggressively in the “third world” as well as intensify competition between the great powers themselves. Ultimately, another Great Depression would bring the danger of world war to the fore, unless this rotten system can be overthrown through international revolution.
The uprisings that have swept the Middle East in the last year have already shown the potential of working and oppressed masses to rise up and fight for revolutionary change. But so far Egypt and Tunisia have also confirmed that struggles against imperialism and for democratic freedoms and economic wellbeing cannot succeed if they remain trapped within the limits of capitalism. Capitalist profit-making in general demands that the masses in the oppressed countries be kept in desperate poverty. The great imperialist powers in particular must continue their super-exploitation of the natural resources and labor of the neo-colonies. Under these conditions, democracy cannot flourish and true national liberation and the end of poverty is impossible in the oppressed nations of the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.
The obstacles now facing the people of the Mideast show the need for socialist revolution and also show the need for an international revolutionary party. Socialist revolution is necessary but it can only achieve its aims as part of a developing internationalist working-class movement, and with a perspective of supporting similar revolutions internationally. Capitalism and imperialism carry out their exploitation and oppression on an international scale, and the fight to overthrow their rule must be carried out on the international scale as well. Thus we advocate not just a revolutionary party in the U.S., but an international organization, the re-creation of the Fourth International founded under the leadership of the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.
We appeal to workers and youth who are interested in our analysis, our proposals and our perspective to contact us. Join us in building the necessary fightback today, and join us in the fight for the socialist future!
Down With HB 56, SB 1070, and All Anti-Immigrant Laws!
Stop the Deportations! Complete Amnesty Now!
Democrats and Republicans:
Two Parties of Racism, Anti-Worker Attacks, and Imperialist War
For Workers’ Mass Action Against the Capitalist Attacks! Jobs For All!
Socialist Revolution Is the Only Solution!
Build the Revolutionary Party of the Working Class!
Re-Create the Fourth International!
Whole article: http://www.lrp-cofi.org/statements/mayday2012.html
.
The anti-immigrant drive comes in the context of growing attacks on workers and oppressed people, as just one part of the general assault on workers and poor. The murder of Trayvon Martin has focused attention on racist brutality against Black and Latino people by vigilantes as well as the police. Incarceration rates for young Black and Latino men are at record levels. Muslims are a tremendous target of profiling, as the recent NYPD scandal about the monitoring of student groups testifies. The poverty and unemployment statistics for people of color, especially youth, are staggering. Obviously there is a strong basis for common cause among people of color.
If the immigrant rights movement is to revive and become an effective fighting force, it must seize opportunities to unite with broader numbers of workers, especially Black workers who have been the prime victims of racism through this country’s history and who have a powerful and militant tradition. As well, Black workers who can already see through the divide-and-conquer scheme of the ruling class are in a good position to fight for united action with other victimized workers.
While the hostility to Blacks and Latinos by too many white workers and middle-class people is obvious, the system also encourages hostilities between Black and Latino people as well as hostilities between American-born and foreign-born, and so forth. Again, one agency for this is the Democratic Party, which often poses as the champions of oppressed people in contrast to the blatantly racist Republican right. But the Democrats’ main role is to effectively derail struggles for equality and justice that inevitably clash with the needs of capitalism and imperialism. Directly and indirectly, different sections of the working class are set up to fight with each other, nationally and internationally, while the capitalist bosses continue to benefit. It is probably most tragic when different groups of oppressed people are pushed to fight over a shrinking pie out of a desperation created by a system that no part of the working class can control.
The capitalist system fosters racism, national chauvinism and other poisons in order to divert the working class from understanding who its real enemies are. Only through forging a united fightback that also takes fighting racism seriously can such obstacles be overcome. Interracial and international working-class unity is a burning necessity. More white workers can also come to see the need for such unity, and there are anti-racist white workers and youth who already see it.
This does not mean that Blacks, Latinos and other national, ethnic and religious minorities have to wait for white workers to join the struggle. There are many instances where oppressed groups have indeed been forced to fight for their survival without much help from better-off white workers – and in isolation from each other as well. And these historic struggles, each of which came out of specific traditions and circumstances, accomplished a great deal in the past – and will enrich the struggles ahead.
At the same time there have been many examples of workers beginning to overcome these divisions and uniting in struggle. A common defense would be the most powerful way forward. The League for the Revolutionary Party (LRP) has often advocated a perspective of a general strike against the capitalist attacks as the best way to build a united defense.
What about this “General Strike”?
The activists operating under the umbrella of Occupy Wall Street in New York and elsewhere have been advocating a “General Strike” for May Day this year, in a way that is – sadly – pure fantasy. As we explained in our bulletin analyzing the OWS phenomenon, the symbolic resistance to Wall Street last fall initially got a lot of support from the working class public, despite the fact that the occupiers were mainly better-off middle-class youth. The leading forces in OWS also lacked any perspective of working-class struggle or a Marxist understanding of capitalism and what would be needed to turn the tide. Thus they failed to make the necessary demands on the trade unions, the main organizations of the working class, as well as other important mainstream organizations that claim to represent people of color. (See Occupy Wall Street: A Marxist Assessment for our full analysis.)
The unions, even though they represent a small percentage of workers, have big resources and influence. They are capable of launching major struggles against Wall Street and the capitalist bosses in general that could unite union workers with the vast majority of non-union workers. But they refuse to do so because the union leaders are loyal supporters of the Democratic Party and the capitalist system.
It is necessary for workers and youth to begin to seriously discuss the importance of mass action and the relevance of a serious general strike strategy for changing the balance of forces in this country. It can be an invaluable tactic. As revolutionary socialists, when we pose the need for such mass action as a general strike, we explicitly raise the need to fight against such current misleaders of our class who stand as a huge obstacle to the exercise of working-class power. We do not hide the fact that we think that reformist misleaders will inevitably have to be replaced. When we fight for mass action we argue for demands like End All Restrictions on Immigration, Complete Amnesty Now! and Stop All Racist and Chauvinist Attacks! We also raise demands like Stop the Budget Cuts! Jobs For All! and A Program of Public Works to help unify the working class and show how to start to solve the unemployment crisis and provide the quality services and infrastructure the whole society needs.
Socialist Revolution Is the Only Solution!
But such measures and many others equally critical cannot be achieved so long as capitalism and imperialism continue to exist. Through the experience of powerful independent struggles, workers will see that real victories are possible. There is no value in believing that some or another section of the capitalist class is going to fight on our behalf in any serious way, but such illusions can be overcome over time. Through experiencing our strength as a class, more workers and youth will also come to see the need to get rid of the capitalist system entirely. The most politically conscious workers and youth must join together to build a new, revolutionary party of the working class that can show the way to win immediate aims while raising consciousness of the need for socialist revolution.
The economic crisis of today is not going to disappear. Rather, the desperate drive of capitalists to boost their profits rates will inevitably push imperialists to intervene more aggressively in the “third world” as well as intensify competition between the great powers themselves. Ultimately, another Great Depression would bring the danger of world war to the fore, unless this rotten system can be overthrown through international revolution.
The uprisings that have swept the Middle East in the last year have already shown the potential of working and oppressed masses to rise up and fight for revolutionary change. But so far Egypt and Tunisia have also confirmed that struggles against imperialism and for democratic freedoms and economic wellbeing cannot succeed if they remain trapped within the limits of capitalism. Capitalist profit-making in general demands that the masses in the oppressed countries be kept in desperate poverty. The great imperialist powers in particular must continue their super-exploitation of the natural resources and labor of the neo-colonies. Under these conditions, democracy cannot flourish and true national liberation and the end of poverty is impossible in the oppressed nations of the Middle East, Latin America and Asia.
The obstacles now facing the people of the Mideast show the need for socialist revolution and also show the need for an international revolutionary party. Socialist revolution is necessary but it can only achieve its aims as part of a developing internationalist working-class movement, and with a perspective of supporting similar revolutions internationally. Capitalism and imperialism carry out their exploitation and oppression on an international scale, and the fight to overthrow their rule must be carried out on the international scale as well. Thus we advocate not just a revolutionary party in the U.S., but an international organization, the re-creation of the Fourth International founded under the leadership of the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.
We appeal to workers and youth who are interested in our analysis, our proposals and our perspective to contact us. Join us in building the necessary fightback today, and join us in the fight for the socialist future!
Down With HB 56, SB 1070, and All Anti-Immigrant Laws!
Stop the Deportations! Complete Amnesty Now!
Democrats and Republicans:
Two Parties of Racism, Anti-Worker Attacks, and Imperialist War
For Workers’ Mass Action Against the Capitalist Attacks! Jobs For All!
Socialist Revolution Is the Only Solution!
Build the Revolutionary Party of the Working Class!
Re-Create the Fourth International!
Whole article: http://www.lrp-cofi.org/statements/mayday2012.html
.