Over the past couple of weeks, the U.S. news cycle has been dominated by the upcoming Presidential election. The most recent Presidential and Vice Presidential debates are coming on the heels of an incredible summer of struggle, which has left many workers taking stock in local politicians and governing institutions. At the forefront for many workers is Kamala Harris who is being paraded as a progressive choice simply because she is Black and Asian. She is another example of the bosses using identity politics to pacify the working class into voting and co-signing their own demise (see editorial).
The ruling class needs workers to believe in their institutions. As cynicism builds and splits in the ruling class continue to deepen, both the Big Fascists and Small Fascists are preparing to do anything to reclaim U.S. dominance. What they have planned is truly despicable and will result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of worker’s lives – just look at the over 200,000 U.S. workers who have died during the butchering of the Covid-19 crisis. In order to tamper a worker-led uprising, the ruling class (both wings) need workers to vote-in their leaders to ensure that when they usher in rising fascism they can say, this is the future we chose for ourselves.
The only identity is worker
In the hands of the bosses, identity politics are used to weaken and divide workers across race lines. At his address at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery march Martin Luther King Jr. said:
If it may be said of the slavery era that the white man took the world and gave the Negro Jesus, then it may be said of the Reconstruction era that the southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow. He gave him Jim Crow. And when his wrinkled stomach cried out for the food that his empty pockets could not provide, he ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man. And he ate Jim Crow. And when his undernourished children cried out for the necessities that his low wages could not provide, he showed them the Jim Crow signs on the buses and in the stores, on the streets and in the public buildings. And his children, too, learned to feed upon Jim Crow, their last outpost of psychological oblivion.
King points out that race as an identity has always been used to fissure the working class to keep them from rising up. In modern times, Jim Crow segregation has either been proudly celebrated by Donald Trump’s racists base or shrouded in euphemisms by liberal fascists like Harris and her running-mate Jim Crow Joe An idea that the liberal fascists continue to push on workers is “Safe Spaces.” A constructed idea where people of the same race are encouraged to segregate and gather, promoting an identity other than that of WORKER.
No safes spaces under capitalism
Under capitalism, however, there are no safe spaces for workers. By dividing workers, like King points out, bosses sow mistrust and strife between people. But PLP knows that multiracial, multigenerational, and anti-sexist fight back is the REAL and only safe space for the working class.
As displayed this summer, workers are sick and tired of being told how to take back the streets they built. Workers are sick of being told that protest and fight back is too disruptive. Workers are sick of being pitted against one another.
But the ruling class, particularly the liberal fascists will do anything to keep us in line and party to their for-profit plans, with voting their number one tactic.
Revolt, don’t vote
While reform struggles will never break the chains of the working class, they do provide us with schools for communism. Black workers are key to revolution, and their leadership on the streets is instrumental in building working class confidence.
We are still in a dark night and many of us will struggle at home, at our work places, and with our friends and family over the idea that voting will not liberate the working class. Individualism, cynicism, despair, and fear of Trump’s gutter racism are plaguing workers today. But our potential is stronger than ever.
Don’t be fooled or blinded by identity politics and top kkkop candidates.
You are a worker. I am a worker. WE are the working class and united we can smash this racist capitalist system.
Don’t vote, revolt!