Nazis have killed at least one anti-racist protestor in Charlottesville, Virginia by driving a car into a rally.
White supremacists have killed at least one anti-fascist protestor in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dozens of others have been wounded using mace spray, projectiles and batons from the fascists but also from the local police.
On Friday night, a group of Nazis cornered students on campus before brutally assaulting them. Police were on site but refused to step in. On Saturday, a group of Nazis ploughed a car into anti-fascists, killing one and wounding countless others. Despite this, US President, Donal Trump, has refused to condemn the Nazis, blaming ‘all sides’ for the violence.
The hate march, billed as ‘Unite the Right’, was organised to oppose the removal of a statue of Confederacy General, Robert E. Lee. Lee is a symbol of a dark and deeply racist South.
During the American Civil War, Lee allowed his soldiers to capture free blacks in the north for enslavement. He also reneged on a deal struck by his father-in-law to free slaves after his death. Instead, Lee had a number of them locked up before being sold back into slavery.
Among the racists, fascists and white supremacists were David Duke, former leader of the Ku Klux Klan and Richard Spencer, the ‘Alt-Right’ leader who has called for the “peaceful” ethnic cleansing of America.
Far right nationalists have been emboldened by the election of Donal Trump. Trump is himself a racist, who has banned Muslims from entering the United States and labelled Mexicans rapists and criminals. He has also repeatedly called for violence to be used against protestors.
Last year at one of his rallies, Trump told his supports that a Black Livers Matter activist ‘should be roughed up’. He also promised to pay the legal bill of anyone who ‘knocked the crap out of anti-trump protestors’.
Capitalism Creates Racism
This normalising of far right politics is not by chance. Trump consciously selected extreme white nationalist, Steve Bannon, as his Chief Strategist. Bannon, an ex-investment banker with Goldman Sachs and editor of racist news platform Breitbart, openly attacks Muslims, feminists and the left. Like the rest of Trump’s administration he is also staunchly pro-capitalist.
Over the last 40 years, the American ruling class has been on the attack. The US is now one of the most unequal counties in the world with the top 1% holding as much as 45% of the wealth. To make sure that this continues, people like Trump and Bannon need to find convenient scapegoats.
Racism against the victims of the systems suits this purpose perfectly. Instead of putting the blame on the capitalists who create the chaos, the Alt-Right have been well funded to direct this anger towards black people, Muslims and immigrants.
Racism is a poison that lets the rich off the hook. Progressive forces must confront the fascists on the streets and never allow them space to breath. But we also must remember that they get their funding from an American establishment hell bent on ruling through fear and division.
Capitalism has always used racism to divide the working class in America so we need to smash the Nazis on the streets and smash the system that creates them.
