You Can't Have Capitalism Without Racism. (Malcolm X)

I was sitting in a local coffee shop yesterday and couldn't help overhearing a conversation that was taking place between two men who were obviously big shots in the local political scene.  One of them was telling the other about how the local schools had declined over the years.  The reason, he said, were all the kids coming to our schools from Oakland.

Oakland is the city that borders us to the north and the working class population of Oakland is overwhelmingly people of color, African Americans, Latinos, South Sea Islanders etc.  Coupled with this, they are low waged and then there's the language issue. As he went on about this I thought about what a racist argument this is.  Things have changed in the sense that he can't blurt this out say it quite so blatantly, but this is what it is all the same.

The other thing is imagine what effect this has on the education of working class youth and youth of color when someone with political influence has this view.  It is evidence of how racist the society is, that racism, sexism, are integral to it.  I remember some time ago when Yussef Hawkins was killed by a racist mob for daring to enter the Howard Beach section of NYC to buy a car.  Jesse Jackson, whose class politics were somewhat more pronounced at the time, made the point that there is more racism in the editorial office of a famous national paper than is to be found in these communities; they're just more polite about it, and they have real power.

I don't know who this person was but I will find out and approach him at the opportune moment.


Feeling Tired
If those of you still working are feeling more fatigued lately so you should.  The productivity of nonfarm US businesses increased 6% between the end of 2007 and March 2010, increasing at a 6.9 percent annual rate during the fourth quarter of 2009 alone. This reason for this jump in productivity is simple; fewer people are working but those still employed are producing more per hour.  The capitalist class is squeezing more value out of workers which is good for profits.  Overall hours worked have declined about 8.9% thanks to unemployment and this combination of factors has driven  output upwards to the point that it is now only 3.4% below its December  2007 level according to the BLS.
So hours worked have decreased as more workers are idle which means labor power is not being purchased at the same level,  but surplus value is on the rise due to increased exploitation of that Labor power.  Capitalism at work.

So some have it good. But for workers the alternatives have been cuts in public services, lost homes, lost jobs, no medical care, and for those still employed, increased hours, a faster pace, constant fear of losing ones income as the mountain of unemployed workers lingers on the fringes of the job market.  The employers are in heaven.

This is civilization?