Build Class Unity In The Fight Against Racism!
Statement from the PSL (Party for Socialism and Liberation candidates Gloria La Riva and Eugene Puryear.
Since its inception, U.S. capitalist society has been marked by extreme racism. This has been the predominant tool used by a tiny class of super-rich capitalists to keep the exploited, divided and fighting each other. That has been true since the beginning of slavery in the United States in 1607 and continued with the evolution of industrial capitalism. That system allowed the ultra-rich to grow richer and kept a section of the white workers functioning as their pawns. The aim of racism is to divide and weaken the working class, derive super-profits from the lowest paid workers and force down the wages of all workers.
The struggle of those who have been most oppressed by the racist system has led to major legal social and economic reforms. We are involved in the struggle to win reforms that challenge the institutionalized racism dominating the social and economic landscape of this country. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have been the most far-reaching legislative acts. They were only achieved by the largest social movement in U.S. history. Nonetheless, pervasive, racism remains a dominant fact of life. Youth fro the Black, Latino and other nationally oppressed communities are confronted daily with police brutality and murder. Our young people routinely face racist profiling in commercial establishments, as well as being shut out and “tracked” by racist practices in the educational system. The ruling class assault on hard won gains from past decades continues.
Affirmative action and equal education are under attack by the ruling class and its governments at federal and state levels. Affirmative action, which had barely begun to redress the gross inequalities suffered by oppressed nationalities and women, has been rolled back, gutted and repealed outright in many areas.
The Black and Latino population continues to lag behind the majority white population in access to decent housing, good paying jobs and medical benefits. A system of virtual medical apartheid has let to vast differences in the life expectancy between the Black, Latino and Native Indian population with that of whits in the United States. Police brutality and mass incarceration that has led to the imprisonment of 2.2 million people are tools of repression visited on the black community. The importation of drugs into the oppressed communities is a source of human suffering for the people and mega-profits for various networks of capitalists. Every major bank has been found guilty of laundering drug money, but it is not the banker who languish behind bars.
Black, Latino and other communities of color occupy the most exploited segment of the working class, facing grinding poverty, unemployment and low wages, compounded by racist violence and police state terror.
We demand that the Black community be compensated fully, with the interest, for the historical racism and wrongs forced upon them by capitalist America. The wealth stolen from Black people by corporations, institutions and the government must be repaid in full.
The La Riva / Puryear campaign puts the struggle against racism, police brutality, and the prison-industrial complex as a top priority. This is the basis for building the unit of the multinational working class against our common enemy, the racist capitalist class of bankers and corporate owners.
Get Involved In The Campaign!
Contact the Party for Socialism & Liberation
votePSL.org. 202.543.4900. campaign2008@votePSL.org
0 comments
Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment