We Need Communism to End Sexism, Racism and All Exploitation
Women’s March, Los Angeles, 2017
USA – Millions of women and men marched a year ago when Trump became US President. They were furious about his crude sexism, his anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant racism and all the other threats he made against the working class.
This year, masses of women and men are marching again. The threats have become reality. And because of the sexism and racism built into capitalism, working-class women (especially black and immigrant women workers) have borne the brunt of them. No wonder so many are taking to the streets! They’re mad as hell.
March organizers are doing their best to divert this anger into electoral politics. They say: “First we march, then we vote!”
We say: “First we march for communism, then we win it with armed revolution!”
Communism will end bosses and borders, cops and wage slavery. We’ll build a world where we work together for the good of all, rather than the profits of a few.
Communism will allow us to win the fight against the racist and sexist lies and practices that the bosses have used to divide and oppress us. It will eliminate the profit system, and its inevitable wars for profit. These imperialist wars daily murder hundreds of our class sisters and brothers around the world. They have created the biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
Capitalism’s global crisis of overproduction sharpens inter-imperialist rivalry and intensifies attacks on the working class everywhere. Both Democrats and the Republicans are committed to capitalism and therefore to squeezing maximum profits from the workers. They have different strategies about how to carry out these attacks, but neither party – nor any other electoral party –will end them. Only communist revolution can put the working class in power and meet the masses’ needs.
Racist police terror and health care for profit impose a special burden on black mothers. They are almost four times as likely to die after childbirth than white women in the US. Erica Garner, a 27-year-old black mother, took up the fight against racist police terror after cops murdered her father while he protested, “I can’t breathe!” She, like increasing numbers of black women, died in December of a heart attack brought on by the stress of racist terror.
Israeli occupation, backed by US imperialism, imposes a special burden on Palestinian women. Ahed Tamimi, age 16, faces ten years in prison for slapping an Israeli soldier in front of her home in the Palestinian West Bank, moments after soldiers had shot her 15-year-old cousin point-blank in the face with a rubber bullet. Three other men in her family have been killed. Her mother and a female cousin are also in jail.
Racist immigration laws and policies, including reversal of Temporary Protected Status and the Muslim ban, impose a special burden on immigrant women in the US and elsewhere. Jennye Pagoada López, 32, miscarried in detention while being denied health care. Young women in federal detention who want abortions have to fight for them.
Wage slavery itself imposes a special burden on women workers. The ability to hire and fire allows bosses to determine the economic survival of women and their families. This empowers them to sexually harass and assault working women. #MeToo and #TimesUp put faces on women’s anger, but all working women face these attacks.
None of this started with Trump-Pence.
New York City cops killed Eric Garner under Bill de Blasio, a “progressive” Democrat. Obama’s “Justice” Department did nothing. When Erica took up the fight, serial rapist and Democratic Party donor Harvey Weinstein urged Hillary Clinton’s campaign to silence her.
Democrats and Republicans alike have supported the apartheid Israeli regime as an instrument of US imperialist policy for nearly 70 years. Israel has been largest recipient of US military aid in the world under both Democrats and Republicans, giving the US a military foothold in this oil-rich strategic region.
Obama’s administration deported 2.4 million immigrants. The Democrats support a Dream Act that would actually be a green-card draft for the US Army. They still support divisive and exploitative immigration policies.
Democratic as well as Republican politicians and donors have been notoriously complicit in sexual harassment and assault.
We need communism
Capitalism needs racist and sexist terror to divide the working class and make maximum profits off the labor of all women workers and men of color. As the crisis of overproduction intensifies, murderous wars in the Persian Gulf region and elsewhere will intensify. Voting can’t end these policies. They are baked into capitalism.
That’s why the angry masses must take up the only struggle that can create the world that we need. Don’t be diverted into the dead-end of capitalist elections! We must mobilize ourselves to fight for a communist future.
Women’s March, Los Angeles, 2017