Racism is not about colour or religious belief or national origin, it is a mechanism to further the exploitation of the working class by the propertied class - WIVL-9.08.01
Why a conference on racism? This question has to be asked. Why are the imperialists suddenly so interested in ‘addressing’ this issue? Racism has been exploited by monopoly capital to put worker against worker so that they can increase their level of exploitation/i.e. to raise the profits of the bosses and help divide the resistance against them. A fundamental fight against racism can only be waged by a fight against the capitalist system itself. The imperialists are calling this conference because all over the world, the working class is no longer prepared to accept this form of super-exploitation. The conference is being called to divert the challenge from the working class against capital into a dead end, into a direction that does not challenge the capitalist system itself. That the pressure from the working class is increasing is not surprising, over the past 100 years there has been a massive decline in the peasantry worldwide, while at the same time the process of proletarianisation[ie the creation of a working class] has proceeded apace, gradually weakening the remains of feudal, nationalistic and tribal consciousness. In fact the existence of racism, as a tool to be exploited by the capitalist class, has become a fetter [hinderance] to capitalist profits. Declining profit levels internationally, force the capitalist increasingly, to cut into the wages paid to privileged sectors of the working class in the imperialist centres. For the capitalist, the abundance of immigrant workers in the imperialist centres are a pool from which there is pressure to lower the wages of the privileged workers. What the capitalists need is a mechanism from which to lower wages overall, ie rescuing their profit levels. What better way than for the capitalist to pose as the champions of the fight against racism! This points to why the conference is being held in South Africa. So why is the conference being held in South Africa? The conference is being held in South Africa because the capitalists have achieved a miracle here. Since 1652 with the arrival of Van Riebeeck on behalf of the Dutch imperial power, and the imposition of class divisions in South Africa, racism was promoted through statutory exploitation [that is, through the laws]. Now, the statutory exploitation has been removed and replaced by parliamentary exploitation under Madiba magic “democracy”. Capitalism-imperialism managed to head off a revolution here, and now, based on free capitalist relations, they are continuing to super-exploit the working class. The capitalists and pro-capitalist forces are lining up from all corners of the world to learn how the capitalists and their new local managers, the ANC government, have headed off the revolutionary tide, while keeping the relations of exploitation intact. One of the main themes of the conference will be how to enforce the existing measures against racism. No doubt massive tomes will be presented on how to advance the fight against racism. All this will be carefully kept within the existing state structures on national and international level, in other words through the very mechanisms by which the capitalist class maintains their control. [state structures and the UN]. The essence of the transition in South Africa was precisely to keep capitalism in place. There was a process of watering down the democratic demands of the masses until a level that was acceptable to the capitalist class, while keeping it sufficiently vague, in order to create the illusion that something genuine was being done. Whatever measures that could threaten the profits of capital were then later changed when the revolutionary tide had ebbed. All along the captains of capital remained in charge while some famous figures took charge, urging the masses to be patient. A similar process is bound to emerge at the conference, with Mbeki and others taking front line in their role of the henchmen of imperialism. The height of forced removals and rise of segregated areas and facilities took place precisely at the height of an investment campaign by imperialism into South Africa. Investments poured into South Africa precisely when the working class resistance had been smashed. For the monopoly capitalist, the racist relations as implemented by the state was precisely the form of their super-exploitation in South Africa in the 1950’s and 1960’s. In other words, the capitalists made their billions of profits, precisely out of the conditions of state enforced racist exploitation. Now, racial discrimination has been removed from the statute books, but racism still thrives through separate group areas, separate schools, mass homelessness and huge squatter camps in the townships, etc. Forced integration is being held hostage by the banks and the housing and construction monopolies- who only build for profit. The only ones who have been able to move are not the working class but the middle class. The roots of racism Racism is widespread, due to the capitalists promoting divisions among the working class, on grounds of colour, religious belief, nationality, or regional origin. A divided working class means greater exploitation, and thus more profits for the bosses. In the period of human development prior to class divisions, all members of the group were operating on an equal basis. In this period there was no racism and the relations between members of the group reflected this. But as the method of production and technique developed and differences developed among people, racism started. In other words, racism started when society was split into classes, a more privileged group and subjugated sections. A multitude of different forms of nationalism and racism emerged, and was accentuated and promoted by whoever was the ruling group, in order for them to maintain their control. Thus racism developed also in the period of slavery and feudalism, and still exists today under capitalism. In fact it may be said, as long a society are divided into classes, racism will have a material basis from which to remain. The South African, the Israeli and the USA have in common that they at one stage had institutionalized racism. [In the case of the Israeli state, the Zionist racist basis is still very much alive, and part of the imperialist justification for the division of Palestine]. In the USA, in a multitude of ways, through the mass media and the state institutions, the capitalists promote racist divisions among the working class. There are many examples of this, eg their immigration laws and state attacks on people of colour. Here we mention just one example: Mumia Abu Jamal, a journalist, falsely accused of killing a policeman in 1981, and 20 years later, is currently still on death row. The person who killed the cop has admitted to this but Mumia has not been released. In fact, the state authorities are still tossing and turning, over whether to give Mumia a retrial, let alone set him free. There have been many other cases of black people being falsely accused and still spending decades in jail! Yet the US state wants the entire world to accept them as the guardians of human rights internationally! Wherever the US state machine intervenes, it is only to guarantee the domination of the handful of monopoly capitalists, primarily based in the USA. The US state machine is as much holding the working class in the US in chains, as they are holding the international working class in wage slavery. How to end racism? The ANC government has failed dismally to eradicate racism in South Africa. The Working Class must not have illusions in the coming racism conference. The ANC government has created institutions such as Human Rights, Truth and Reconciliation, structures on affirmative action, etc. These institutions just create illusions that racism and the evils of the capitalist system are being addressed. Their real aim is to redirect the masses’ revolutionary anger into a harmless dead end. The capitalist class on whose behalf, all the most violent of attacks against the working class and lower middle class, were committed, were not even brought to book. A begrudging verbal apology from the captains of Anglo and other monopoly capitalists was all that was forthcoming. Some of the press even portrayed these beasts as champions fighting against ‘apartheid’!! The multitudes of generals, top government officials, and the leaders of the fascistic Inkatha movement, were left untouched. In fact, many of them are still in the state apparatus. Those who are out, departed with golden handshakes! Who can forget the over 25000 people killed over a period of ten years from 1985, by the combination of the Inkatha killing machine and the state apparatus! Inkatha was backed by the state while US, French German and British imperialism boosted the state up to the end and beyond. All this was covered up. In short, the true role of imperialism-capitalism in perpetrating the most violent of racist attacks on the working class for decades, has been blurred and deflected! This conference will be just a talk show for bourgeois intellectuals and their imperialist masters. It is just another ploy to tie the working class into the system. Ending racism means the removing of the fundamental basis upon which it thrives, namely, we have to eliminate class society. Thus we need to direct the fight against racism towards the fight against the capitalist class and for its political liquidation. The capitalist class and the state apparatus are the main obstacles to racism being purged from society. Let us unite the working class, irrespective of colour, of religious belief, or of national origin, to lead the fight against racism, while rallying all other victims of racism behind such a struggle. This same principle holds true for workers in the US, as it does for workers in Palestine, and in South Africa. Indeed this general principle applies to all corners of the globe. Let us not fall prey to opportunists who see the fight against racism as a way for their self-advancement. Workers of the world unite! We have nothing to lose but our chains! FORWARD TO SOCIALISM! |
