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Vol.64/No.8      February 28, 2000 
 
 
Defend affirmative action!  
{editorial} 
 
 
Students, unionists, and other working people in Florida are setting the pace in what is shaping up to be one of the largest demonstrations to defend affirmative action in years on March 7 in Tallahassee.

Rollande Girard, the Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of Miami-Dade county, said at a roundtable discussion at a local community college that "affirmative action was won through the fights and mobilizations of working people and mobilizations are needed to defend and extend it." That fighting spirit and confidence in the power of the exploited and oppressed is gripping thousands across the state, who see a chance to strike a blow against the assault on affirmative action and democratic rights in general.

It should give inspiration to many to see the real face of the majority of the population in Florida stepping forward. Often portrayed as a right-wing haven, the fact is that millions of working people, African-Americans, Latinos, and other oppressed nationalities labor in mills, factories, and fields across the state. The fact that they can be actors in history, and not just acted upon, was lost on Governor Bush when he sought to "defend" them through his "One Florida" initiative against a drive to extend California's anti-affirmative action legislation to that state.

Much of the propaganda used to justify the elimination of affirmative action, as well as busing to desegregate schools, is that the United States has advanced so far that such measures are no longer needed in what is becoming a color-blind society.

It is true that massive battles of the civil rights movement and subsequent struggles against racist and sexist discrimination have pushed back the ability of the government and the corporations to openly carry out racist and sexist practices in hiring, promotion, educational opportunities, housing, and other aspects of daily life.

These victories tremendously strengthened the labor movement, making it harder for the bosses to pit worker against worker on the basis of the color of one's skin, sex, country of origin, or sexual preference.

But the reality of the workings of the capitalist system and the need of the multibillionaire rulers of the United States to perpetuate racism and sexism shows the lie to the proclamations of Democratic and Republican party politicians or pundits in the big business media. National oppression and the second-class status of women are fundamental to this class-divided society. They have been a pillar upon which the ruling families of America have built their power and wealth from the start.

Oppression reinforces exploitation and the social relations upon which it rests. Both directly in lower wages and indirectly in worse social conditions the capitalist class financially profits from race and sex discrimination. They also maintain their power and outmoded social system through their ideological rationalizations that, in the end, keep working people divided.

From President William Clinton on down the pious "helpmates of the downtrodden" offer their visions of one America. The reality is that every state institution, every corporation, every aspect of social and political life in capitalist society offered by them is infused with discrimination and daily affronts people of color and women especially.

The need for affirmative action does not start with a particular nationality, sex, or age group. It starts with the results of the workings of capitalist society. In every social indicator--wealth, income, hunger, average years in school, housing conditions, unemployment, access to health care--it is oppressed nationalities and women who come out on the bottom. This remains true despite the economic upturn. When a recession hits, the rule of "last hired, first fired" will come home with a vengeance.

Uniting the working class and preventing the capitalists and their institutions from tearing apart those who work and labor for a living is the aim of affirmative action. Building and joining the March 7 protest is one important way to push back the offensive to end affirmative action as well as the ideological underpinnings of this anti-working class drive.  
 
 
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