This statement by Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, was released in Pittsburgh Oct. 28.
The Socialist Workers Party condemns the anti-Semitic assault and killing of 11 Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh Oct. 27. Working people and the entire labor movement should speak out against this attack, and offer solidarity with the Jewish community here.
Robert Bowers, who was arrested for the killings, posted numerous threats against Jews and denunciations of Jewish organizations for their support to immigrants and refugees seeking asylum in the United States. Bowers attacked President Trump for being under the control of Jews.
This kind of Jew-hatred, and its murderous consequences, rises to the surface in times of crisis under capitalism, as class tensions sharpen. The scapegoating of Jews for economic and social problems is a deadly threat to the working class. It is used to turn working people away from challenging the roots of the carnage we face — the dog-eat-dog private-profit system that Democrats and Republicans work to uphold. Ultimately capitalist rulers use anti-Semitism to try to crush the labor movement and impose dictatorial rule when they determine it is the only way to save their system from the working class taking political power.
There is no broad expansion of rightist or fascist currents in the United States today. And the owners of industry and finance don’t feel the need to turn to the goons and thugs of fascist gangs to preserve their class rule. They continue to rely on their Democratic and Republican parties, and their two-party shell game, to keep workers and others picking the “lesser evil.” Much of today’s anti-Semitism comes from the middle-class left, forces whose opposition to Israel carries over into broader Jew-hatred.
But history has shown capitalists will use Jew-hatred and fascist thuggery in increasingly organized and deadly ways as the decay and crisis of their system deepens. Attacks against Jews by isolated rightist outfits and individuals, like Bowers, will grow if not countered by the working class and its organizations. There is less racism, less anti-immigrant sentiment among working people today than at anytime in U.S. history.
Socialist Workers Party candidates campaign across the country uniting in struggle with anyone being scapegoated and victimized — Jews, Muslims, and immigrants. We oppose the U.S. government’s attempts to use the killings in Pittsburgh to promote use of the death penalty. Our candidates are advancing a course to lead the working class and our allies to take power and begin organizing society in the interests of the vast majority.
In a statement issued last December by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes, titled “For Recognition of a Palestinian State and of Israel,” the Socialist Workers Party explained, “We are for whatever helps working people organize and act together to advance our demands and struggles against the capitalist governments and ruling classes that exploit and oppress us.”…
“We are for whatever renews our class solidarity and self-confidence, advancing us along a revolutionary course toward a united struggle for workers power.”
Along those lines we join in fighting Jew-hatred and anti-Semitic attacks wherever and whenever they occur.