08) BUILD THE ANTI-RACISM MOVEMENT

 

From the Public Sector Workers Club of the Communist Party (Ontario)

 

            On March 21 progressive people the world over will observe the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. On that day, in 1960, police of the South African Apartheid regime opened fire and killed 69 unarmed children, women and men at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville. The demonstration was called against the apartheid state's "pass laws" which provided a racist "legal" basis for vicious discrimination to favour an elite white ruling class.

            Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the General Assembly of the United Nations called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination (resolution 2142).

            It is an unfortunate fact that little headway has been made against racism in the world and there is much to be done here in Canada. As we approach this day the struggle against racial discrimination in Canada is far from won. The struggle goes on in the west with skinhead attacks on a young progressive family, and in the east with a cross burning on the lawn of a mixed race couple.

            It continues on the unemployment lines with disproportionate representation by visible minorities and in the workplace with unfair wages and opportunities. It is widespread and institutionalized across the country with discrimination against First Nations' land rights and injustice. And it also continues in areas where you would think it should never take hold ‑ in the courts and in our unions.

            Racism is a cancerous tool that is perpetuated by ignorance and is deliberately promoted to divide, undermine and disrupt progressive organized groups and political parties. It is a weapon that promotes hatred and is wielded with the purpose of self gain and exploitation. It thrives in justifying and enforcing colonial domination, imperialism, and terrorism.

            It has had official sanction in early colonial times, in Nazi Germany and its allies, in the South African apartheid regime, and it is very much alive in the Israeli state policies and in the "settler" communities, and in many extremist religious and imperialist organizations and states. It's the old divide and conquer strategy.

            Communists, Marxists and socialists recognize its use by ruling classes and their henchmen as a tool to erode and confuse progressive social and political movements and labour groups. Racism cannot be a tool of the genuine left because it is self defeating for their cause in the long run, but that hasn't prevented well meaning groups from erroneously taking a racist position. In the 1920s the South African Communist Party briefly carried a banner calling for the exclusion of blacks as foremen and blasters in the gold and coal mines when employers sought to replace whites with blacks to undermine white wages. The party ultimately corrected itself, and as is well recognized, was a leading force in the anti‑apartheid struggle.

            Social and other scientists no longer use race as a reliable differentiator for analysis, preferring geographic, economic and historic indictors. But what can the ordinary person do? The least we can do is examine our own racism, and fight it wherever it rears its ugly head in our own lives. In our workplace and in social settings it has to be challenged at its first appearance and discussed openly and intelligently, because disruptive forces are not above using the accusation of racism to impede and disable progressive organizations to prevent action. We need to be alert to failures of democracy in our unions and our political organizations. We need to connect with progressive social organizations, including the Communist Party, to build a strong force for democracy and ultimately a just society in which there is no possibility of, and no will to make gains through racism.

(The above article is from the March 16-31, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)