A
major problem besetting society, and one that is justifiably
receiving an enormous amount of attention, is the problem of racism -
a sickness that infects all of our society. Racism is an evil that has subjected millions to degrading
and humiliating discrimination. On more than one occasion seething
unrest, resentment and frustrations of the exploited and oppressed
Negroes exploded into violence. While a great deal of effort has been
made to minimise and alleviate the effects of racism, nothing --
absolutely nothing -- has been done to eliminate its cause. The basic
cause of racism is not the false ideas or racial myths conceived and
spread by the white supremacists. Rather, the cause of racism is the
competitive, strife-ridden, class-divided capitalist system of
society under which we live, and under which we desperately attempt
to survive.
Race
hatred is not an ancient and inherent thing. On the contrary, all
this prejudice, and the very concept of race, is the product of the
modern era, of the era we call capitalism. There were other fears,
other hatreds, other prejudices, but before the capitalist era men
and women never discriminated against their fellows because of the
colour of skin. People are wrong to say "race prejudice always
has been and always will be." The capitalist system as a breeding
ground for race prejudice. The Socialist Party, dedicated to bringing
to birth a world of freedom, peace and brotherhood, feels a deep
sympathy for all who resist the degradation and oppose racial
discrimination. We applaud their militant spirit. We fully share
with them their yearnings for a better life. Nevertheless, candour
compels us to point out that their struggle is essentially a struggle
against an effect; it does not get at the cause of the race problem.
And as long as the cause remains, the evil also remains and adds its
poison to the body politic. Prejudice is peculiarly a product of the
capitalist era.
Consider
carefully the following facts. Under capitalism the means of social
production -- land, factories, mines, media, transport, etc. -- are
owned by a relatively small class of capitalists. The great majority
of the people own no tools of their own, nor have access to them, and
in order to live they have to go to the capitalists to sell their
ability to work as a commodity. The capitalists buy this labour, (or
more precisely, labour power), at the market price. But the workers
produce a good deal more than is represented by their market price –
many times more. In the science of political economy Marxists call
the difference between what the workers get paid in wages and what
they produce "surplus value." The capitalist takes this. Of
course, he doesn't put it all in his own pocket. He has to share with
the landlord, the banker, the tax collector, and a lot of other
parasitical hangers-on of capitalism. This is the way the
exploitation of working people takes place.
Today,
we think it is self-evident that the less the capitalist has to pay
for this labour, that is, less wages, the more he can take for
himself. This brings us very close to one of the reasons why racial
minorities are segregated and humiliated and held down to a status of
second-class citizenship. To put it bluntly, by forcing racial
minorities into submissive patterns of behaviour the ruling class
supplies itself with a cheap, unresisting workforce. This is one way
the capitalists benefit from race prejudice and race discrimination.
But there is another, more subtle way. We have shown that labour's
product is divided between the wages paid to the workers and the
surplus value taken by the capitalists. The capitalists, either
because they are forced by competitive compulsions, or out of sheer
profit hunger, constantly try in one way or another to increase their
share. Contrarily, the workers resist and strive to maintain their
living standards, and even improve them. Here we can see the focal
point of the class struggle that rages in modern society. Socialists
hold that this struggle is irrepressible and irreconcilable. It can
be ended only when the workers, male and female, black, brown and
white, skilled and unskilled unite as a class to put an end to
capitalist exploitation. The point is this -- race prejudice is one
of the most insidious, and effective devices ever invented to keep
the workers divided and fighting each other. it
is in the capitalists' interests to prevent the working class from
uniting, instead of forming a solid front against their exploiters.
Another
factor to be noted is the competitive nature of capitalism. And it
isn't just the capitalists who are competing against each other; the
workers also are cast in the role of competitors. They must compete
for jobs. Now, then, the fewer the number of workers competing for
the jobs, the better chance each person has. And one way to keep the
competition down is just to keep minorities who are easily identified
by the colour of their skins, out of the labour market. Of course,
there has got to be some justification for such discrimination. So we
find it in the myths that circulate about races. These myths and
libels are not looked at too carefully. They are believed when it
serves one's material interests to believe them. And so the working
class is kept divided, the capitalist class remains in the saddle --
and the outmoded capitalist system keeps all of society in turmoil
and conflict, postponing the day of international peace and social
harmony.
What
is the answer? How are men and women to win fulfillment of their
dream of a cooperative commonwealth? How can we purge our minds of
prejudice, to understand that the colour has no more real
significance than whether someone is tall or short, fat or thin, or
blonde or brunette? There is
but one way. That is to remove the capitalist cause of race
prejudice, and to lay a sound economic foundation for fraternity. The
Socialist Party says that we must outlaw private ownership of the
land and industries. We must make the means of social production the
property of all the people socially. Then, instead of producing
things for sale and profit, we will carry on production to satisfy
human needs. In short, we replace the competition and strife of
capitalism with the cooperation and collective interests of socialism
which shall cause the factories and fields to yield an abundance
without arduous toil. With socialism, drudgery, poverty and social
misery will be banished forever.
To
establish socialism, the workers of the world must organise
non-violently and politically to demand at the ballot box that all
the means of life become the collective property of society.
