US capitalism Offers the Carrot In the Wake of Black Lives Matter Protests.

But the stick is still there.

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

I am very optimistic about the future. Why is that the reader might ask. Why would I not feel optimistic is my response. The US working class has stepped or should I say, leapt on to the world stage and has sent shivers through the bones of the most powerful and ruthless ruling class on the planet.

And I am going to stress; the US working class is in motion here. It’s not the organized sector of the US working class in the main, but it is the working class no less.

What sparked off the present global protest movement is the black workers and youth that have decided that they will not tolerate the ongoing murder of black people, especially black men, and boys by the US state security forces. The black population has never tolerated it but this is different, and let’s not forget, it is a centuries old struggle here. After the Rodney King beating by cops in LA in 1992, we saw the uprising in Los Angeles and more recently after Eric Garner was murdered in Ferguson Missouri there were ongoing protests that spread beyond Ferguson; but in the main, these protests were contained within the black community.

But in the wake of numerous savage murders, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, a jogger corralled and assassinated by an ex-cop, his son and their racist friend, Breonna Taylor, murdered in her bed by police that stormed her apartment, and George Floyd in Minneapolis, the protests have become widespread and have ignited a US and world-wide response.

More importantly, these protests include young people from different cultures, communities and racial groups. Native people, Asians, Latinos and white youth are all present in this movement.  There is no doubt in my mind that young white workers are acting partly in genuine solidarity with Black America and people of color as the victims of racism, but they are also being drawn in to the Black Lives Matter protests as they see the future offers very little for them. They are concerned about climate change. The cost of public education is beyond their means without a lifetime of debt. Transportation, health care, housing, endless US wars, all these issues are crisis issues in the US.

What has clearly been a black revolt has changed everything. Things will never be the same. Look at what has happened:

Netflix CEO, Read Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin have pledged $120 million for historically black colleges like Spellman and Morehouse.

Paypal has pledged a “$530 million long-term economic opportunity fund to support black and underrepresented minority businesses and communities.” The media reports.  “For far too long, Black people in America have faced deep-seated injustice and systemic economic inequality," says Paypal CEO Dan Schulman (net worth $200 million)

Apple’s Tim Cook has pledged $100 million for a Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (Tim Cooks Net Worth is $625 million)

You Tube, owned by Alphabet, Googles parent company, has pledged $100 million. Larry Page one of the controlling shareholders of Alphabet is worth $62.6 billion

“We recognize Aunt Jemima’s origins are based on a racial stereotype“, says Quaker Foods chief marketing officer Kristin Kroepfl. So this brand that has existed for 141 years has been laid to rest.

Uncle Bens Rice, is another brand based on a racial stereotype that has entered the garbage can of history. All of the culprits in the corporate world are scrambling to find racially offensive images and dump them. They’re trying to safeguard profits.

Amazons Jeff Bezos is tweeting against racism and pledges 10 million to organizations supporting “…..justice and equity, including the NAACP and the National Urban League.” Bravo Jeff. Jeff is worth $160 billion according to Forbes.

And after being blacklisted by the NFL, demonized by the sexual deviant racist in the White House and accused by the right wing media, of desecrating the US flag and disrespecting veterans, the billionaires that own the NFL have decided that Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco quarterback was right.

Apple’s Tim Cook tweeted, “The unfinished work of racial justice and equality call us all to account. Things must change, and Apple's committed to being a force for that change. Today, I'm proud to announce Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, with a $100 million commitment.”

So the Quaker food guy, Cook, other corporate leaders and billionaires “recognize” that racism is a problem and appear to have taken steps to address it.

And this is the lesson we must drum in to our heads: They are liars. It took 141 years to recognize that the Aunt Jemima logo was steeped in racial stereotypical imagery? The corporate CEO’s the millionaires and billionaires have had an epiphany? I think not.

The mass movement, the events of the past month, taking to the streets, mass direct action, diverse and multi-racial protests, including around the world, have shocked the US ruling class and they are responding with some carrots. Their response to the racism in US society is a business decision forced on them by objective circumstances.

Apple has accumulated billions off the backs of workers in East and Southeast Asia and is assisted in this robbery by undemocratic ruthless regimes that refuse to allow independent unions and have murdered union activists that try to organize. It has a cash pile of almost $200 billion.

Amazon is a notorious anti-union employer like all of them. Those that are still organized in the US have waged a decades long war against organized labor and driven wages and working conditions back to pre-war conditions and living standards have been savaged by both Republican and Democratic administrations alike. Both parties have funded the bloated US war machine.

We must not be fooled by this apparent recognition by sections of the US capitalist class that racism is a problem. It has always been a problem and capitalism won’t fix it. The money is nothing but chump change. It is not an accident that much of the cash is an attempt to give black capitalism a boost in an effort to strengthen this layer that can act as a buffer zone between the white racist ruling class and the revolutionary potential of the black workers and youth.

Powerful lessons will be drawn from this experience as young people discover what works and what doesn’t. The role of the state, the police, the political parties that defend the system will be scrutinized further and the need for a political party of our own, a party of working people that can provide a vehicle for genuine independent political activity will inevitably arise as will the need to organize along national and international lines. Throughout the world, workers are fighting back against the savagery of the market and imperialist policies as they strive to eradicate the legacy of colonialism. We cannot win without an international movement of millions of workers.

In 2006 there was a huge Mayday march in the US, that has been referred to as a General Strike as Latino’s and undocumented immigrants stopped work to protest xenophobia and racism. Some two million participated. The usual suspects, opportunists, the Catholic Church and its army of full timer’s, Latino politicians, sections of the Latino petit bourgeois and other Democratic Party representatives were there to ensure the protest stayed within the bounds of what was acceptable to the Democratic Party and the heads of organized labor that support it. This is inevitable anytime working people go on the offensive and it is always a danger that must be confronted decisively.

The US Presidential election is on the horizon, and-----dare I say it----it appears Trump will lose assuming people have the ability to participate in the vote. The alternative is not much better but Trump is so despised perhaps some of the almost 100 million that opted out in 2016 might participate. There is no guarantee Biden and Co. will be much better and they will play their usual role of derailing any independent movement of the working class. But the Democratic Party is under strain as its left wing challenges the old guard and its likely to split at some point.

But when the COVID-19 dust settles whenever that may be, the stimulus has to be paid for and we know which class will pay it. Moody’s a few weeks ago suggested there will need to be cuts of some $500 billion the next two years. As states cannot run deficits, cuts will have to come through increased taxes and cuts in public services. That will not be met kindly after US workers and the middle class bailed out capitalism twice in a decade.

In 2018, a section of organized labor, teachers and others around education, shocked the US labor movement striking in states where strikes were illegal, dominated by Republican governors and legislatures and against the wishes of the official leadership.  It seems inconceivable to me that organized labor, with 14 million members, will not go through some internal struggles alongside the class battles that lie ahead and will hopefully join them.  This will up the ante and open the door to more systematic changes in how society and the economy is organized. A huge percentage of US society, supports some form of socialism.

The dominant socially crucial industries must be taken in to public ownership. Energy production, agriculture and how we grow food, the banks and finance industry that determines how capital is allocated, health care and the pharmaceutical industry, public transportation and human shelter, (housing) have to be taken out of private hands. Amazon UPS, and giants like Federal Express must be taken over and made departments of the United States Postal Service, the most reliable and efficient social service in the nation. We cannot build a democratic socialist world without an international worker’s movement and we can’t do it without the US working class ending capitalist rule at home. It’s important to always remind ourselves of Malcolm X who said that “You can’t have capitalism without racism”. So if we want to eliminate racism, we have to eliminate capitalism and we can’t do that without working class unity.

These are some necessary steps we must take if we are to save the planet and our place on it.