Racism, anti-racism, weapons of the ruling class

We are publishing this contribution by a close sympathiser who was moved to write it in response to the barrage of bourgeois propaganda about the racist riots in Britain and the response by the main factions of the ruling class. We fully endorse its clear denunciation of this ideological attack, as well as the article's exposure of the true "record" of capitalism when it comes to the mass killing of children.

ICC

 

The race riots breaking out across the UK (except Scotland), showing a frenzy of hatred aimed at migrants and Muslims to the point of calling them to be burnt alive, are taking place within a framework of extensive poverty and deprivation that’s been increasing over the last decades in Britain. The scapegoating of migrants and Muslims has been whipped up by openly fascist elements and spread on social media platforms such as Elon Musk’s “X”, where he pursues his Trumpian agenda assisted by other platforms including those set up in the interests of Russian imperialism.

Pitting worker against worker or worker against oppressed is a trick of the ruling class that long predates social media, existing since the beginning of capitalism itself. The major parties of the British state, including the Labour Party, have been stoking up racial tensions for decades and particularly during the life of the last Conservative government where migrant victims of capitalism, mostly destined to join the workforce on levels of greater exploitation or of joining the black economy – which the bourgeoisie is well aware of – are further victimised and terrorised by all levels of unrelenting racist bourgeois propaganda promoted by the right wing press. All this is effectively taken up by the BBC which becomes a major component of capitalist division.

During strikes, the “race riots” or incidents of racial tensions during the second half of the twentieth century, the “independent” BBC news would go for comment on these issues to

cab drivers, market stallholders and shopkeepers with predictable results, but its role in dividing and attacking the working class has become much more sophisticated since. Under the guise of “balance”, the BBC has promoted conspiracy theories and climate change denial, and promoted such despicable individuals as Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage, as well as keeping up a permanent propaganda barrage against “illegal immigrants” and “boat people” which matched the Conservative governments trawl for “illegals” under Prime Minister May, its “Rwanda” policy under Sunak, and the blatant whipping up of xenophobic fears by Home Secretary Braverman and other senior politicians.

But the BBC’s “balance” also promotes anti-fascism, anti-racism, identity politics, multiculturalism and the specifics of this or that group which also undermines solidarity and weakens the working class. These are other forms of nationalism or the defence of nationalism in disguise, and the only “anti-nationalism” that exists is the internationalism and solidarity of the working class and its own struggle.

The terrible killings of three young children at a social event in Southport at the end of July turned into – and were deliberately turned into – a firestorm of hatred against brown, black and Asians – any old scapegoat. The young man arrested for the murders, the son of a migrant with Rwandan heritage who has been working in Britain for years, appears to be mentally distressed but the colour of his skin was more relevant to the agenda of the forces of populism, racism and division.

Decomposing capitalism and the killing of children

In this context, the killing of children in capitalist society bears some examination. The random or planned killing of children is not a new phenomenon but one that belongs to class society which has been greatly expanded and “perfected” by capitalism. In Dunblane, Scotland, 1996, a middle-aged man entered a primary school and shot 16 children and one teacher dead while wounding 15 others. Doctors and nurses have been involved in mass infanticides (Beverly Allit, Lucy Letby, etc). Mass killings of children in nurseries seem to be happening frequently in China and Russia also. At an elementary school in Sandy Hook, USA, 2012, 26 people were shot dead, including 20 children aged between six and seven years old. An event outrageously denied by conspiracy theorists and some populists. “USAFacts” reports that in the USA “From the 2000–01 to 2021–22 school years, there were 1,375 school shootings at public and private elementary and secondary schools, resulting in 515 deaths and 1,161 injuries.” In 2000-1 there were 30 shootings (stabbings not included). These figures steadily increased as capitalist decomposition took its toll, rising dramatically from 2017/18, to reach 327 separate attacks in 2021-22. It’s difficult to find correct figures for infanticides in Britain from the Home Office but it’s clear that most children are killed by their parents or someone that they knew.

The lives of the children of the working class and the oppressed are nothing to capitalism and – as has always happened – this precious commodity is wasted with abandon. Throughout the wars of the 20th century, the wholesale slaughter of civilians through bombing, shelling or mass executions have become the norm, and thus all the great capitalist nations have been totally complicit in the mass extermination of children.

Today, Netanyahu’s Zionist regime is carrying out wholesale acts of terrorism and murder against children, aided and abetted by its Western allies. And in Sudan today, where all the major imperialisms (US, UK, Russia, France, as well Middle Eastern Emirates and local powers) are fomenting war, the fate and plight of children is probably much worse than Gaza. Capitalism is the killer of children.

Turning a particular murder of 3 children into a battle of hatred and xenophobia on such a scale is a reminder of the dangers of decomposition and populism to the working class. Defence of nationalism, the nation state, “our country”, whether from the right, but particularly from the left, is indefensible from a communist perspective and a trap for the working class. The only way to effectively confront the effects of the decomposition of capitalism is for the workers, as workers, to fight on their own terrain of the class struggle.

B. 7.8.24