October, 2006

Editorial: Moving from racial division to class unity

Sign seen during a recent demonstration for immigrant rights in Washington, D.C. PHOTO/DAVE RANSOM

Ask any American who are the majority of the poor in this country, and chances are they will tell you most are Black. Yet, while it's true that people of color are poor in disproportionate numbers, the fact is that two-thirds of the poor in America are white.

We have been taught to believe that poverty is Black because it suits the interests of this country's wealthy, corporate rulers to have us believe that. It hides the reality that poverty is spreading across the nation, that it is rooted in an economic transformation, and that it has less to do with who we are as individuals and more to do with which class we belong to: rich or poor.

The concepts of race, racism and white supremacy did not arise spontaneously -- they were created, nurtured and promoted by the European capitalists as capitalism developed some 500 years ago, and these ideas were used to justify the conquest of other nations. As capitalism spread to the Americas, bringing African slavery with it, the American capitalists developed an especially virulent form of racism to prevent poor whites from uniting with the slaves. That ideology of racism, coupled with the social and economic privileges extended to the white poor, bound the whites to their rulers and thus divided the workers.

Even with the end of slavery, the ruling class was able to continue dividing the poorest workers by giving petty privileges to white workers, and enlisting a section of the whites in campaigns of violence and terror against African Americans. The segregation and discrimination, the lynchings and the disenfranchisement of African Americans were aimed at disenfranchising the whole working class. The isolation of the Black workers laid the basis to attack the rights of all workers.

One of the clearest examples from recent years was the passage of so-called "welfare reform" legislation in the mid-1990s. This law was passed after some 15 years of anti-Black propaganda aimed at painting poverty as Black and the welfare system as a "free ride" for Blacks at the expense of white workers. The capitalist politicians successfully created the myth of the Black "welfare queen" to justify eliminating the system of public aid.

The result? "Welfare reform" created a pool of slave labor ("workfare"), dragged everyone's wages down and left the growing numbers of unemployed, white and Black, with no safety net.

The capitalists have been able to get away with this in the past because the market economy was expanding, labor was needed, and the ideology of white supremacy could be reinforced with good-paying jobs and other benefits offered to a section of workers in return for their support of the ruling class and its profit-driven system. That day is gone forever.

The computer and the robot are wiping out jobs by the millions, and global competition for the jobs that remain is driving down everyone's wages. A growing mass of workers is becoming absolutely equal in their poverty, regardless of their color. The economic foundation for "racial" unity is being destroyed, and a foundation for working class unity across the color line is being created. That foundation is the common demand of the poor for a new society that will guarantee the necessities of life to everyone, regardless of ability to pay.

But class unity will not come about automatically. It has to be fought for. We workers have suffered long enough from being divided. If we let the demands of the poorest among us be our guide, this will lead us toward the class unity that will ensure our ultimate victory.