by iSpit
FOR REVOLUTIONARY Marxists, there is an inextricable link between racism and capitalism. Capitalism is dependant on racism as both a source of profiteering, but more importantly as a means to divide and rule. Racism is necessary to drive a wedge between workers who otherwise have everything in common and every reason to ally and organize together, but who are perpetually driven apart to the benefit of the ruling class.
Thus, any serious discussion about Black liberation has to take up not only a critique of capitalism, but also a credible strategy for ending it. For Marxists, that strategy hinges on the revolutionary potential of a unified, multiracial and multi-ethnic working class upheaval against capitalism.
Marxists believe that the potential for that kind of unity is dependant on battles and struggles against racism today. Without a commitment by revolutionary organizations in the here and now to the fight against racism, working class unity will never be achieved and the revolutionary potential of the working class will never be realized.
Yet despite all the evidence of this commitment to fighting racism over many decades, Marxism has been maligned as, at best, “blind” to combating racism and, at worst, “incapable” of it. For example, in an article published last summer, popular commentator and self-described “anti-racist” Tim Wise summarized the critique of “left activists” that he later defines as Marxists. He writes:
[L]eft activists often marginalize people of color by operating from a framework of extreme class reductionism, which holds that the “real” issue is class, not race, that “the only color that matters is green,” and that issues like racism are mere “identity politics,” which should take a back seat to promoting class-based universalism and programs to help working people. This reductionism, by ignoring the way (more…)
