Editor’s note: The following is a response to the discussion question on class struggle, racial justice, and the road to socialism.

Living overseas allowed me to see more clearly the “template” of hate and oppression that is employed as a tactic by the capitalists. Anything the Party can do to help people see beyond their home culture and see into one another will help expose the capitalist lies. Expand horizons, grow experiences, and share stories of oppression and special oppression on a global level.

Growing up in the US with the “White vs. Black” thing, I was witness to the American variant of the “template.” Then living in the UK exposed me to the “Protestant vs. Catholic” thing, or British variant of the “template.” What Whites are taught to hate about Blacks in the US, Protestants were taught to hate about Catholics in the UK. A strikingly similar systematic disadvantage is faced by both American Blacks and British Catholics. It is the same prescription of division—the tactic and template of capitalist oppression. Seeing the template for what it is allowed me to see past the racism I inherited from Uncle Sam.

If we are to get past this “template,” we must tie the struggle for social and political equality to the struggle for economic change. To change the social and political structure, we must first change the economic structure because the former follows from the latter. To change the economic structure, we must build the proletarian revolution. The only way we can fight for social and political equality for African Americans is to build this revolution, get rid of the capitalist economic structure, and replace it with a socialist economic structure.

Image: derek*b, Creative Commons, BY-SA 2.0.

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