Labor must fight racism
Workers’ unity on the picket line in Boston.
There are 26 million black Americans. They suffer 13% unemployment while the national average is 7%. 41% of black youth are unemployed. Blacks make up 12% of households yet own only 4% of the nation’s wealth.
Thirty-six percent of blacks and 47% of black children live in poverty. This is in the richest country in the world where the number of millionaires has now reached 1 million and where over $313 billion a year is spent on arms, which is more than the total Gross National Product of Canada.
Black Revolution
Life for the majority of black Americans is a nightmare. But it is a nightmare which has not gone unchallenged. The most heroic of the black revolts of this century took place in the 1950s and 1960s. Malcolm X called it the “Black Revolution.” It shook white-capitalist-dominated America to its foundations and inspired youth and workers all over the world.
Hundreds of thousands of blacks marched and demonstrated, occupied restaurants and public buildings, demanding civil rights, an end to discrimination and decent jobs and wages. Explosions took place in the ghettos, black workers revolted and organized in the armed services in Vietnam and in the factories of Detroit.
International movement
This revolt was part of a worldwide movement. Workers, peasants and youth moved into struggle in Africa and the entire underdeveloped world against capitalism and landlordism. They fought the Stalinist dictatorship in Hungary in 1956. They fought capitalism in the advanced capitalist countries as in the 10 million strong general strike in France in 1968. And the youth organized against the Vietnam War. The “Black Revolution” looked toward and in turn inspired these events.
Congress of Industrial Unions
This revolt came out of the struggles to build the CIO and the gains the new unions meant for black and white workers. Black workers won increased living standards in the new unions and gained experience in organizing. This raised the expectations and the ability to struggle of the black people as a whole.
“Black Revolution,” drawing with it sections of the white youth, won some victories in the area of civil rights, voting rights and racial segregation. These were institutionalized in the Voting Rights and Civil Rights acts of the early 1960s which removed most of the worst discrimination on these fronts in the South.
This black revolt merged with the revolt of the army in Vietnam, the anti-war movement at home and the movement of organized labor in the strike wave of 1970–1976. American big business moved to try to cut across the revolt. It used repression combined with promises of concession.
Black leaders were murdered, promises were made for more spending in the cities and the quota system known as Affirmative Action was introduced. Quotas of minorities in employment were to be monitored and enforced by lawyers and the courts. These measures to derail the mass movement of the “Black Revolution” combined with other factors and the movement tailed off. The struggle against racial discrimination was removed from the streets to the courts and lawyers of big business. The results were predictable. The gains made by blacks relative to whites peaked in 1970 when the quota system came into force.
Camouflage
The quota system helped a tiny minority of mainly middle class blacks. Their gains were used to camouflage the fall in living standards of the majority.
Between 1972 and 1982 the number of black managers and officials rose by 83% to 445,000. The percentage of blacks earning $35,000 per year rose from 5.3% in 1970 to 8.6% in 1982.
For the majority of blacks, the working class and the unemployed, conditions got worse. The percentage of black households with annual income below $10,000 per year in 1970 was 37.8%. By 1982, this had increased to 42.6%. Median black income as a percentage of median white income rose from 55.3% in the early 1960s to 61.3% in 1970 under the pressure of the mass movement, but fell back to 55% in 1985.
Oppose Reagan
While the quota system did not work as shown by the statistics above, and while it tended to drive a wedge between the workers along the lines of race and sex, Reagan’s attempts to dismantle the quota system must be opposed. If he succeeds in this it will give a green light to racists to go on the offensive against the blacks and all especially-oppressed minorities.
The labor movement must take up the fight against racism. In doing so it must realize that the quota system offers no way forward. Labor must openly confront and mobilize its forces to fight racism. It must put the struggle against racism clearly on the agenda of the labor movement.
Labor’s program
Black Americans cannot end their special oppression on their own. They must link their struggle to the struggle of the working class as a whole. And labor cannot win its struggle against the employers unless it fights racism.
Labor must therefore fight on a program which can solve the problems of all the especially-oppressed minorities: Native and Asian- Americans, Latinos, as well as blacks. Jobs for all on trade-union rates of pay is central.
The struggle must be taken up for a 32-hour work week with no loss of pay, and for 32 hours work or 32 hours pay. A reduction to 35 hours in manufacturing alone would provide 3.7 million jobs.
On top of this, a crash house-building program and a public works program must be fought for to build schols, hospitals, and recreational facilities, and to rebuild the infrastructure. All work provided in these programs must be at union rates of pay and with union benefits.
The housing and public works programs would have as a priority the areas of greatest need. This would not only mean the oppressed ghettos of racial minorities but all areas of slum housing and discrimination. This program would unite all working-class and poor people in struggle.
End discrimination
Labor must step up the struggle for control over hiring and firing and against discrimination on the job. It must also set up hiring halls and fight for training facilities under union control and with full pay in areas of high unemployment.
The union boards which control hiring and firing must have elected representatives from the local areas on them as full members. These boards must also spearhead a campaign to sign up the unemployed at the hiring halls and at the training centers.
Labor must also see to it that its own house is in order. Educational bodies and committees to fight racism and discrimination must be set up at all levels to combat the racist ideas of the bosses which may have gained adherents among workers. Racists must be banned from holding any position in the union movement and all members of fascist organizations, such as the Ku Klux Klan, must be expelled from organized labor.
Capitalism and racism
In 1965, Malcolm X stated, “You cannot have capitalism without racism.” In 1966, Martin Luther King stated, “There’s something wrong with capitalism… maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.” In 1968, Fred Hampton said, “We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism.”
As the economic crisis worsens, the nightmarish conditions for blacks and all especially-oppressed will also worsen. Racism, poverty, and unemployment can only be ended by a united labor movement fighting on a socialist program.