Malcolm X. "You cannot have capitalism without racism."
We should not be confused because a black man is President. This country is still run by white capitalists and racists. They try and hide this but every now and then their real thinking slips out. Haley Barbour is a white Republican who was until recently chairman of the Republican Governors Association. In other words he is a major player in US capitalism. Barbour recently made a speech which tried to cover up the role of the so called Citizens' Councils which existed in the South in the 1950's and 1960's. These were KKK fronts and they organized to defend segregation. Barbour praised these Citizens Councils for their peace keeping role in his speech.
There was such an outcry he has had to back off. Barbour had said in his speech that in Yazoo City the Citizens' Council was "an organization of town leaders which passed a resolution which said that anybody who started a chapter of the KKK would get their ass run out of town." McArthur Straughter the present mayor of Yazoo City said he had a different memory of the Citizens' Council in his town in the 1960s, the time Barbour is speaking about. He and other African Americans were arrested for trying to enter a soda shop. In a recent book Joseph Crespino, discussed a 1955 incident in Yazoo City in which the Citizens Council published the names of 53 black parents who had petitioned the school board to adopt a policy of integration. Of those parents, 51 lost their jobs and businesses. Just imagine the economic and social impact of this on the lives of these black families.
Racism still runs through US capitalism like a dirty polluted river. Black people's unemployment rates are many time higher than whites. The numbers of black people in prison are proportionally much greater than their numbers in society. And at the heart of this are the divide and rule policies of US capitalism and related to this their drive for cheap labor. When slavery was ended a very large number of black skilled and unskilled workers became available to work in the paid workforce and also to set up their own businesses. The white capitalists and their creatures the KKK wanted none of this. The white capitalists did not want black businesses to compete with them. The KKK, lynching, burning and slaughtering black people was their answer. They also mobilized the most backward white workers to their side by appealing to them on the basis that these newly freed black workers would take their jobs. The "solution" offered to the white worker was to support the white capitalist racist to defend their own job. Many of the union leaders in actions that were a shame and a disgrace went along with this and stood for white only unions.
There was such an outcry he has had to back off. Barbour had said in his speech that in Yazoo City the Citizens' Council was "an organization of town leaders which passed a resolution which said that anybody who started a chapter of the KKK would get their ass run out of town." McArthur Straughter the present mayor of Yazoo City said he had a different memory of the Citizens' Council in his town in the 1960s, the time Barbour is speaking about. He and other African Americans were arrested for trying to enter a soda shop. In a recent book Joseph Crespino, discussed a 1955 incident in Yazoo City in which the Citizens Council published the names of 53 black parents who had petitioned the school board to adopt a policy of integration. Of those parents, 51 lost their jobs and businesses. Just imagine the economic and social impact of this on the lives of these black families.
Racism still runs through US capitalism like a dirty polluted river. Black people's unemployment rates are many time higher than whites. The numbers of black people in prison are proportionally much greater than their numbers in society. And at the heart of this are the divide and rule policies of US capitalism and related to this their drive for cheap labor. When slavery was ended a very large number of black skilled and unskilled workers became available to work in the paid workforce and also to set up their own businesses. The white capitalists and their creatures the KKK wanted none of this. The white capitalists did not want black businesses to compete with them. The KKK, lynching, burning and slaughtering black people was their answer. They also mobilized the most backward white workers to their side by appealing to them on the basis that these newly freed black workers would take their jobs. The "solution" offered to the white worker was to support the white capitalist racist to defend their own job. Many of the union leaders in actions that were a shame and a disgrace went along with this and stood for white only unions.
The thirties and the sixties have resulted in huge steps forward against racism. This has to be recognized. These advances came about because of the struggles of the working class and especially the black working class and youth. But we have to watch. The Barbour's and the rest of them are still lurking with their racist ideas and still running this country. They will continue to do so as long as there is capitalism. Obama just because he is black does not change this. He is a capitalist politician who presides over racist US capitalism and makes no effort to end its racist essence. Malcolm X said you cannot have capitalism without racism. This is as true today as it was when he said it. The battle against racism is the battle to unite the working class against capitalism and to build a democratic socialist society.
Sean.
1 comment:
What a tragedy this is. Devide poor people and then exploit their labor. Slavery came first and then share cropping. The system has mentally crushed poor folk and poverty has sucked the life out of them. We got to create more equality and thus more hope throughout the world.
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