Over five-hundred reports of abuse and harassment were made to the police in Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve. What exactly happened remains unclear. What is not uncertain is that the assaults in Cologne have been used by the ruling class and the right-wing media to attack and demonise immigrants, dividing the working class.
The ugly face of Obama’s “hope we can believe in” has been starkly revealed. The extrajudicial killings of Michael Brown andEric Garner, unarmed black males killed by white police officers, have set off an emotional firestorm of protests and outrage on a scale not seen in the US in many years. It is the task of the Marxists to help people draw out the revolutionary conclusions implicit within the situation.
The murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner have reverberated loudly worldwide. From New York to Palestine to Mexico, young people are fed up with this racist system that sanctions the death penalty for stealing a piece of candy, and are connecting their struggle across borders. In London, too, thousands of young people have taken to the streets in solidarity, with Marxist students showing their support at the demonstrations taking place.
We publish here an analysis of the history and programme of the Black Panther Party – the militant organisation that was at the forefront of the Black Power movement in the USA in the 1960s and 70s – by John Peterson of Socialist Appeal USA. In the wake of the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, now is an important time to ask: which way forward for the fight against racism and oppression?
An overwhelming 95 percent of black voters cast their ballots for
Barack Obama. The scenes on the streets in Chicago and around the
country were full of jubilation, as many working people, both Black and
white, fervently believe that change is now on the horizon.
Many
commentators from the mainstream media share this exuberance, and have
even compared Obama to Moses. Spike Lee, the famous director of such
films as Do the Right Thing, Bamboozled, Malcolm X, and others, has
gone so far as to say that America has moved beyond race…Has the U.S.
truly moved beyond racism? We don’t think so.
Today marks 40 years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., shot in the face on the 2nd floor balcony of the Lorraine
Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray was imprisoned for the
assassination, though never granted a trial for his murder. Given the
US government’s targeting of radicalised black leaders at this time,
whoever pulled the trigger did the state’s dirty work for them. The
King family never accepted Ray was responsible.
This series suggests a significant change
at the BBC. Generally Auntie’s representation of the working class has been
shaped within a tradition of liberalism which is supportive of the underdog or
sympathetic to those who fall through the welfare state safety net. This series fuels the problems by
making racism respectable and writing working class solidarity out of history.
It also presages the rise of Thatcher’s children within the media-ocracy. Be
warned – Tories at work – Auntie can turn nasty.
This month marks the 200th anniversary of the official abolition of slavery and the passing of the Slave Trade Act, which made the capture, and transport of slaves by British subjects unlawful.
The Second American Revolution [The U.S.
Civil War] was a tremendous step forward, but it never realized its
promise to Black Americans. The real winners in the Civil War were the
Northern capitalists who opened up new markets and obtained a huge new
supply of dirt-cheap labor. Nearly a century and a half after the
abolition of slavery in the U.S.A., we are very far from achieving
genuine equality for all, regardless of race, color or sex. Despite a
number of advances achieved through the struggles of black people in
the 1960s, the position of black Americans remains one of clear
disadvantage. Originally published in the book Marxism and the USA, published by and available from Wellred.
The United States is the richest and most powerful country on the planet. Yet despite
this, the poison of racism remains an integral part of America. Blacks, together with the
other racial minorities, remain the most exploited section of society, mostly employed in
the lowest-paid and menial jobs. Racism remains an everyday part of their desperate
existence. Today, despite all the "reforms" of the last thirty-odd years, blacks
continue to suffer from lynchings and violence at the hands of the state, racist
organisations and individuals, as well as being forced to live under conditions of mass
poverty and oppression. The recent gruesome murder of a black man in Texas who was dragged
to death behind a truck is a vivid reminder of American racism. Black youth are faced with
daily harassment and intimidation by the police.