U.N. meeting exposes U.S. imperialism’s hypocrisy

A United Nations Human Rights Council gathering in Switzerland heard testimony from oppressed groups inside the United States who exposed Washington’s official state policy of gross violations against peoples of color and workers in general.

Though it criticizes other states, particularly in the developing regions of the world, the U.S. ruling class itself manipulates racism, and national and gender oppression in efforts to maintain dominance over the majority of people both inside and outside its borders.

During the long struggle to end racism, national oppression and all forms of inequality and discrimination, African-American and left movements have a history of addressing international bodies regarding oppression and exploitation.

Marcus Garvey appealed on behalf of African people to the League of Nations. Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois and William L. Patterson of the Civil Rights Congress presented a document to the U.N. in 1951 entitled, “We Charge Genocide.” Malcolm X tried to bring the U.S. imperialists before the U.N. in 1964-65.

All along, the most advanced sectors of the oppressed have recognized that the struggle for liberation and self-determination must be approached on an international level.

The Bush administration refused to participate in the UNHRC. Its pretext was that it disagreed with the policies of represented governments — most of whom were in the developing regions — and refused to be subject to their questioning.

Currently the UNHCR includes representatives from China, Cuba and Libya, all states on Washington’s enemy list. Nonetheless, the Obama administration has agreed to participate and attended the early November meeting in Geneva, when U.S.-based groups testified that the U.S. government engages in blatant discrimination against Muslims and other oppressed communities of color.

Civil rights and human rights organizations also revealed that police engage in brutal attacks in urban U.S. communities and that there are numerous political prisoners imprisoned for decades among the largest per capita prison population in the world.

Right-wing media outlets here have attacked the Obama administration for even agreeing to attend the Geneva meeting, where the ruling class’s crimes against humanity can be exposed and discussed at a public international forum.

Rightists attack U.N. forum

A Nov. 4 Fox News article says the Geneva hearings represent “a gamble by the Obama administration to join the council in the first place, rather than shun it in disdain, as the Bush administration did.”

Another critic of the UNHCR is Jim Kelly, director of international affairs for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. Kelly claims that there is no need for oppressed peoples inside the U.S. to speak before or appeal to such world bodies because the rights they are calling for are already guaranteed under the Constitution.

However, these conservative commentators refuse to ask the question that if the U.S. is a democratic state then why does the overwhelming majority within the people of color communities still say that there is institutionalized racism? Why is democracy defined only by elections held every two to four years, where the two main parties that dominate the political system represent the ruling class?

Why are there no real debates within the corporate media or referenda held among the people to determine policy related to the aspirations and needs of the working class and the oppressed? Issues of war and peace; the need for full employment and a living wage; universal health care; quality education; the elimination of racism, sexism, and lesbian/gay/bi/trans/queer oppression; the rights of the disabled, children and seniors; the preservation of the environment; and growing food deficits are not subjected to a democratic process in the U.S.

In socialist countries like Cuba, all citizens are guaranteed the right to education, housing, employment and health care. Under socialism official state policy is committed to ending racism and gender oppression. The elimination of social classes and the right to self-determination for the oppressed are enshrined in the political culture and framework of a socialist society.

As the founder of the Russian Revolution and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the USSR), V.I. Lenin stated as early as 1920 that “under the guise of the equality of the individual in general, bourgeois democracy proclaims the formal or legal equality of the property owner and the proletarian, the exploiter and the exploited, thereby grossly deceiving the oppressed classes. On the plea that all men (and women) are absolutely equal, the bourgeoisie is transforming the idea of equality, which is itself a reflection of relations in commodity production, into a weapon in its struggle against the abolition of classes. The real meaning of the demand for equality consists in its being a demand for the abolition of classes.” (Draft Theses on National and Colonial Questions, 1920)

Demands show need for organized struggle

By highlighting workers and oppressed peoples’ conditions inside the U.S., the witnesses draw attention to the need for organizations that speak directly to the tens of millions subjected to racism, exploitation and bigotry. These rights can only be won when the fundamental structures of capitalist society are uprooted and replaced by socialism.

Participants in the UNHCR meeting in Geneva, which includes representatives of the U.S. Human Rights Network, encompassing organizations such as the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the Black Workers for Justice, the National Conference of Black Lawyers and others, have made demands on U.S. imperialism to adhere to international norms related to nondiscrimination and the right to self-determination. In the short term, the representatives of the oppressed workers in Geneva are insisting that the U.S. acknowledge its unjust policies and adopt resolutions in support of the downtrodden and the exploited.

The progressive forces in Geneva demanded that the U.S. implement a number of conventions related to ending discrimination, and that no new laws are needed for their enactment.

Overcoming the continued oppression and exploitation of the working class in the U.S. requires a protracted struggle. If the affected groups unite in a program of action aimed at winning economic security, the end to imperialist wars, the elimination of racism, sexism and all forms of inequality, the force of such a movement can effectively change the political landscape of the U.S. and the social relations of the people residing inside the country. It can help bring relief to other workers and oppressed peoples around the world.