Racism is a weapon used by capitalism to divide the working class. As with other oppressions, it diverts the anger of the working class at their oppression away from the ruling class and turns it on parts of the working class fers under capitalism and racism assists the maintenance of the capitalist system. Fighting against racism is in the interests of the white working class, since ultimately attackin racism also attacks capitalism.
But the reason that racism is such an effective tool for dividing the working class, is that in their everyday lives. workers clearly benefit from it, because it is, sible for the cheapness of the goods that everyone buys.
White people benefit from very direct ways, for instance if two people apply for a job, and one is white, the other black, the white person is more likely to be employed.
But also in more indirect ways; tobacco, coffee, tea sugar, chocolate, bananas, all these things that are in plentiful nly because they can be made very profitable through using very cheap labour.
The whole capitalist system survives because of the inequality of economies between the rich, mostly white, advanced capitalist countries and the countries of the *Third This inequality itself was created with the help or Without it. the empire oullding of the 19th century would have been impossible.
Imperialism
The major imperialist Spain, rance etc. relied on the working classes of their respective countres to ac cept their actions abroad, and stirred up racist feeling to ensure that acceptance Although many of these colonised gained their independence, the reliance on exporting virtually all their goods to the advanced capitalist states.
Racism grew not only out of colonisation, but from the slave trade. Before slavery, white people had only heard vague rumours of the existence of people with a different skin colour.
When slavery began to bring Africans to work on the plantations in the West Indies and America, the practice was justified by insisting that the slaves were not actually human, but a lower form of primate. Siave owners and traders, knowing BRING OUR BLACKGS BACK about racism. that they were dealing in human lives, maintained this myth to prevent the poor whites from linking up with the slaves to fight the imperialist system.
Just preventing a united attack was not enough however. And the slave owners, in contant fear of slave uprising: sed brutal methods to keep the slave population weak. The most minor of 'offences' were punished with flogging: mutilation, castration and branding.
Civil War Although now, the American Civil War is painted as a great victory for numanitarsanism. and the battle against cruel siavery, it was actually the outcome of a struggle between the DID THIS Racism in the US Army during the Vietnam War meant that for many black Americans the anti-war struggle was also old southern plantationowning oligarchy and the new capitalist class from the North who wished to expand their influence and markets.
Fighting against slavery was only a byproduct of the North's war campaign. And indeed, for a long time Lincoln tried to prevent this becoming an issue so as not to alienate the slave owners in the border states Racism is inextricably linked with capitalism and thus racism cannot be destroyed without the overthrow of the capitalist system.
Anti-racism But the specific struggle against racism cannot simply be collapsed into the overall anticapitalist fight. It needs a strugTHE gle of the whole working class to defeat capitalism, but within that a permanent struggle against all forms of racisn A struggle which includes, vitally, the self-organisation of black people, to ensure that racist poison is uprooted.
The self-organisation of people is crucial to a powerful mobilisation of black communities. Without black people themselves taking the ead in struggles against racism, without the building of strong black organisations the antiracist struggle will be gravely weakened.
That's why self-organisation is not a tactical question or an added extra, but a crucial component of the struggle for racial equality.