Sexual predator Larry Nassar abused at least 256 women while he was the medical doctor for USA Gymnastics (USAG) and the Michigan State University Athletic Department. He will spend the rest of his life in prison as Judge Rosemarie Aquilina proclaimed that she was glad to “sign his death warrant.” But it’s not just Nassar and the many other sexual abusers that are being exposed. The whole damn capitalist system has to go!
Sexism inseparable from Olympics
As doctor for USAG, Nassar travelled to many Olympics with the team. The Olympics are capitalism at its’ worst. Money and nationalism rule. Corruption is rampant. At this year’s Winter Olympics much of the Russian team was suspended for doping up their athletes with performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). Nassar did his vile abuse at the Summer Olympics, where often young girls are the stars. But it was not just Nassar. “… In 2004, journalist Scott Reid let us know that gymnasts training for Team USA were subjected to near-starvation diets—900 calories per day to fuel a world-class athlete. The purpose of this was to delay the onset of puberty, when the natural development of a woman’s body makes her less adapted to acrobatic tumbling” (Washington Post, 1/26).
Though some of the brave women that are coming forward and confronting their abusers are famous entertainers or athletes, most are working class women who have had very little recourse in a depraved capitalist world. Sexual predators are all over the world because capitalist culture promotes it. The profit motive is primary and this goes beyond sports. Women are particularly vulnerable because of the imperialist wars around the world as capitalists fight to control valuable resources. They make up a huge proportion of refugees worldwide living in deplorable conditions. According to a United Nations report, during the Clinton administration, U.S. bombing of Iraq killed 500,000 women and children. Women are used as sex slaves and their bodies are mutilated in many parts of the world.
Many of Nassar’s victims and some journalists express sentiments that point to a systematic failure. Charles Pierce says “Burn it all down” (Sports Illustrated, 1/24). Survivor Kyle Stephens despairs that “I have received messages from survivors all over the world detailing their abuse and isolation… When an Instagram message is the only place that victims can speak their truth, we are failing” (Washington Post, 2/16).
Democratic politicians, no ally of workers
Cynically politicians, mainly Democrats, are stepping in to coopt this uprising against sexual abuse into a vote for me movement. New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is calling on the Justice Department to investigate the Olympic Committee. Michigan Democrats are calling on Judge Aquilina to run for the Michigan State Supreme Court. But the Democratic Party has been integral to sexual abuse from President Bill Clinton and his intern to Democratic Party donor Harvey Weinstein. It really is the whole damn system that has to go.
So here we are with another Olympics full of divisive nationalism, poisoned by drugs, awash in corruption, and driven by money, a perversion of sports. Sports should be for everyone to have fun and stay healthy. There was a brief glimpse of this in the early days of the Soviet Union and China after their socialist revolutions. There were sports clubs everywhere, often attached to factories. Workers were given time to exercise during work. That was before the restoration of full-blown capitalism in those countries. Now we are facing the ultimate capitalist depravity, world war. Women standing up to each and every sexual predator is a big plus. Let’s take the struggle one more step to rebuild a communist movement for a decent, egalitarian world. Then we can build healthy relationships between men and women.