Defeat Capitalism’s Racism and Fascism — Fight for Communist Workers’ Power
USA, April 21—The first child known to have died of Covid-19 in Detroit was five-year-old Skyler Herbert, a black child of two first responders.
Michigan has over 31,000 Covid-19 cases and least 2,391 deaths. The Detroit area, home to the automobile industry and historically a concentration of black workers, is one of the hardest hit with 76% of the deaths. African Americans account for more than 40% of Covid-19 cases in Michigan, but only 14% of the people.
On April 15, Trump supporters carrying American flags and assault weapons rallied on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, demanding that the governor rescind stay-at-home orders and re-start the economy. Trump tweeted “Liberate Michigan!” His fascist ally Bolsonaro in Brazil shows up at similar rallies without a mask, advocating getting everyone back to work now.
Similar fascist rallies have taken place or are planned in many US cities. Some have carried the Confederate flag, symbol of racism. In South Dakota, a heroic young woman ripped the Confederate flag from a fascist’s truck.
Race, Class and Coronavirus
Public health agencies track the “race” of Covid-19 cases and deaths. They don’t track class, but obviously people who are poor, homeless, unemployed, incarcerated are at much higher risk than capitalists. Because of racism, black, latinx and immigrant members of our class are overrepresented in these groups.
Millions of poor, homeless, unemployed, and incarcerated white workers are also at high risk. But the rulers hide those statistics so we don’t see the power that we have as a united working class. When we look at things this way, we can see that the US working class is huge—a force to be reckoned with, not a minority to be maneuvered.
The fascists don’t care about any workers’ lives. They advocate for “opening the economy” and argue that the lives of workers are an acceptable trade-off for the bosses’ profits.
New York Times Magazine (April 10) ran an on-line forum titled “Restarting America Means People Will Die. So When Do We Do It?” The German newspaper Der Spiegel ran an article by a Green Party sociologist calling for reopening businesses because “dying [is] a natural process that makes room for new life.” These are thinly disguised fascist ideas!
DENVER, USA, April 19—Health care workers block fascist rally calling for an end to the lockdown. These workers risk their lives everyday to care for Covid-19 patients. They know that ending the lockdown will mean more patients with Covid-19.
Liberal Reformers Misunderstand the Capitalist State
So, should we be calling on the government to provide more PPE to hospitals? More test kits and contact tracing? To quarantine infected people and stay at home longer to flatten the curve?
Many of our friends think so.
Others are fighting on behalf of working people who lost their jobs. Over ten million applied for unemployment insurance in March alone. Millions more are ineligible and facing a rent crisis on May 1. Organizers are fighting for state and local governments to declare a moratorium on evictions, rent and mortgage payments. Others demand that the government open vacant hotel rooms or provide food for all.
These short-term measures could help, but they are no solution. Rents and mortgages would pile up to be paid later – how? We need a new way of life that guarantees that our collective needs are met.
But the liberal and openly fascist capitalist politicians are only arguing about how soon to re-open the economy and get people back to work. And what combination of charity and police terror will prevent revolution.
As the deaths mount and people go hungry, workers are angrier and more desperate. Capitalism can only offer a choice between starving at home or getting sick at work.
We can’t rely on the bosses’ state. The fascists fighting for their right to catch coronavirus, like our friends fighting for pro-worker reforms, are making demands on the government. But the government is the bosses’ state. It exists to guarantee and protect their profits. They may throw us a few crumbs they think will keep us from rising up to overthrow them. They will call out their racist cops to suppress us (but not the fascists). They will prop up their banks and make war against their imperialist rivals. But they will never protect the working class!
And we can’t just stay at home and hope we survive. We must actively, boldly, and carefully mobilize masses for communism. The comrades in South Africa who are defying curfew to distribute Red Flag, the comrades in India and El Salvador who are bringing the masses food and communist ideas, and the comrades in Los Angeles who have taken Red Flag to grocery shoppers are leading the way.
To end to racism and fascism, to fight for the life and wellbeing of the masses, we need to get rid of the capitalist state and their system of racist, sexist wage slavery for profits. In its place we must build a communist system, where the workers – led by our International Communist Workers’ Party – ourselves make decisions and exercise power. Where no one ever has to pay rent or buy food. Where everything is produced and distributed based on relationships of collectivity without money, profits, or banks.
Only communism, based on human need, can protect, and advance the masses. For that we need to build a mass ICWP everywhere, in the face of this crisis, to mobilize for communism, and nothing less.
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