Solidarity with Kaepernick’s protest!

The following statement was issued Sept. 7 by Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. president.

We support San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and other athletes backing the fight against police brutality and racist discrimination by refusing to stand when the national anthem is played at sports events. They deserve the solidarity of working people.

Kaepernick’s action reflects the impact of recent protests against police killings in cities and towns across the country, and reinforces those struggles — from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Chicago and New York; from Fresno, California, to Council, Idaho.

“There are injustices being made,” said Kaepernick’s teammate Eric Reid after he knelt with him during the anthem Sept. 1. “I just wanted to show him I support him and I know there are other people in this country that feel the same way.”

They carry on the legacy of Muhammad Ali, the world heavyweight boxing champion prosecuted for refusing to be drafted to fight in Vietnam in 1967. “My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother,” he said at the time, “or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me ‘nigger.’”

They recall the Black power fist salutes of Olympic medalist runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the playing of the American anthem at the 1968 Olympics. “He’s involved in a movement,” Carlos said of Kaepernick last week. “He’s jumped into the pool of human history.”

The capitalist rulers try to use widespread respect for athletes — whether in the Olympics, professional football or other sports — to promote the notion that all Americans have common interests and to whip up patriotic support for their imperialist wars.

Kaepernick’s courageous stance is counterposed to the close relationship between National Football League owners and Washington’s military brass. The Defense Department laid out at least $6.8 million in recent years to bang the drum for Washington’s war machine at NFL games — from having members of the military sing the national anthem to unfurling giant American flags on the field at sporting events. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers regularly send team members to MacDill Air Force Base to meet leaders of the U.S. Central Command, which directs Washington’s Mideast wars from its headquarters there.

Critics of Kaepernick call his actions “divisive.” In fact they help inspire and unify working people, making them more confident to fight against the capitalist rulers attacks on the working class here and around the world.

Related articles:
Kaepernick’s protest against police brutality gains support

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