The state, racism and repression
From a talk given by Betsey Piette at the Dec. 6-7 New
York conference on reviving the struggle for socialism.
To rebuild the movement for socialism, we must
honestly examine the barriers that stand in our way. We must
challenge the ideology that says things will get better if only
we exercise our right to vote, because the U.S. claims to be a
democracy--no matter how exploitative, how politically
repressive, how widespread the denial of basic human
rights.
It's not by chance that the income gap in the U.S. between
the wealthiest 1 percent and the rest of the population grows
wider by the hour. Let's not harbor any illusions about which
class calls the shots.
"One of the most democratic republics in the world is the
United States, yet nowhere is the power of capital, the power
of a handful of billionaires over the whole of society, so
crude and so openly corrupt as in America." Lenin wrote these
words in 1919 in a short essay entitled "The State."
Lenin defined the state as a machine for maintaining the
rule of one class over another by force. In "The Origin of The
Family, Private Property and the State," Frederick Engels
described primitive communal society when there was no state.
The state developed as society formed into classes--slave
owners and slaves; feudal lords and serfs; capitalists and
workers--based on the evolution of private property.
Engels wrote: "The state is a product of society at a
certain stage of development--an admission that the society is
so divided into irreconcilable, antagonistic class interests
that the class in power needs a force to stand above society
for the purpose of keeping the conflict in check. The very
existence of the state is proof that the class differences can
not be reconciled."
The state serves as a special apparatus for the systematic
subjugation of people by force, coercion and violence. Prisons,
police, courts, armies and laws codifying discrimination work
to exploit and oppress the working class and poor. The names of
ruling class families and corporations may change, but the core
of U.S. "democracy"--the rule of capital--remains the same.
Political repression, racism, sexism, homophobia and
xenophobia are all cornerstones of this system. The "founding
fathers" of the United States even penned a Constitution that
allowed slavery and denied political and economic rights to all
but property-owning white men.
The U.S. capitalist state has always fostered racism to
maintain its power. I'm from Philadelphia, the so-called cradle
of U.S. democracy whose symbol, the Liberty Bell, now sits atop
the site where George Washington enslaved Africans. The U.S.
Constitution was signed in Independence Hall, which was built
by unpaid slave labor.
Philly is notorious for its brutally racist police force.
During the 1970s, Mayor Frank Rizzo's police raided the Black
Panther Party office, handcuffed and stripped Panther members
for the press to photograph. Years later this same police
department dropped a bomb in West Philly, murdering 11 MOVE
members. Philly's police force originated in the
1830s--recruited from gangs of white goons to terrorize
immigrants, striking workers and the movement to abolish
slavery.
The struggle to free political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal has
focused world attention on Philadelphia as the "death penalty"
capital. In the 1970s Mumia was the target of the federal
COINTELPRO program. This fall, the FBI targeted the incumbent
African American mayor, John Street, in the midst of his
re-election campaign.
When it comes to racism and repression, there is nothing
unique about Philadelphia.
Capitalism uses the illusion of "free" elections to maintain
its domination, offering the best candidates money can buy. The
capitalist media tells workers which candidates are
"legitimate" and which issues really count. Is the candidate
"tough on crime"--for more cops and prisons? Does he put down
welfare moms, oppose gay marriage, and attack affirmative
action and abortion rights? Then he's their man--usually a
white man.
Democracy, the hallmark of ancient Greece, existed only for
the slave-owning class. Capitalist states may have parliaments;
they can be democracies, republics or even fascist
dictatorships. But all exist solely to protect the profit
system.
When Bush calls the U.S., Britain and Israel "models of
democracy," he really means they provide unfettered
opportunities for imperialism. Who could miss the irony that it
took 7,000 bodyguards to protect George W. Bush, the "leader of
democracy," from British anti-war demo nstrators in
November?
Will there be a need for a state apparatus under socialism?
If we understand that the state functions to provide a means
for the class in power to keep the class conflict in check, it
makes sense that for a period of time the workers and oppressed
will need a state to solidify and maintain their rule over
their former oppressors.
For the slaves in ancient Greece or those in the 19th
century U.S., rebellion was the only way to end their
oppression. The same holds true for workers today. However,
it's not enough for workers to just take over the capitalist
state; we need to abolish it and replace it with a socialist
state designed to eliminate every vestige of capitalism's
legacy of exploitation and oppression.
Only then will we be on the way to eliminating the need for
a state once and for all.
Reprinted from the Jan. 22, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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