El Paso Dayton. Gilroy. Add these cities to the growing list of mass shootings that have occurred in the U.S. in 2019 alone. Of the 968 victims, 196 people have died. The shooting in El Paso, Texas on August 3 was among the deadliest attacks in the U.S. motivated by gutter racism. It happened as the greatest terrorist of all, U.S. imperialism, is declining around the world and is rotting internally. The answer is multiracial working-class unity and comradeship as we fight against racism and sexism now and for an egalitarian, communist world in the future.
While the “threat of the great replacement,” or the idea that white people will be replaced by Black, Latin or Asian people was cited by the shooter in El Paso, the actions of these “domestic terrorists,” are motivated by racist and/or sexist hatred which is connected to a deeper and often overlooked trend of social and economic alienation. The U.S. working class is disaffected, isolated and living in a constant state of uncertainty and fear—fear of losing their jobs, healthcare, homes and more. Youth are mired in hopelessness, increasingly turning to suicide and/or drugs. Some horrifically turn to mass killing sprees as a way of achieving some form of notoriety. Capitalism and imperialism breed and profit from a culture of drugs and violence.
Racism and violence at the U.S.-Mexico border are nothing new. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, politicians, big businesses and the Texas Rangers often depicted Mexicans and indigenous peoples as criminals to justify the theft of land and resources. At the present, the brutality of racism is intensified, with President Donald Trump calling Mexicans drug dealers, criminals, and rapists. He has appealed to his base to “build a wall” to keep immigrants out of the U.S. His administration has locked up and detained thousands of immigrants and asylum seekers from Latin America, separating families and denying their rights to claim asylum—a legacy continued from former Democratic president Barack Obama.
Capitalism begets violence
Mass shooting trends clearly indicate the intensification of racism, a result of the toxicity that capitalism breeds. Politicians are spinning their wheels, saying these mass shootings are mental health issues, or are the result of violent video games. They squawk about gun control and make calls for universal background checks.
However, the real culprit is the capitalist profit system and its rotten culture of individualism, racism and sexism. In a period of escalating inter-imperialist competition and declining U.S. global dominance, capitalists are seizing every opportunity to use tragedies such as mass shootings for their own purposes. There is an increase of police force presence. Fascism is increasing with calls for more vigilance and surveillance to create and encourage a culture of paranoia and distrust among workers. These deadly mass shootings have only exacerbated fears and anxiety that capitalists have always used to divide workers against each other, especially the fear of being replaced by some other “race.”
Opportunity for bosses to build fascism
Politicians and the bosses’ media use psychology to explain what’s behind U.S.’s “domestic terror problem.” They would rather have people believe that these “lone wolves” are isolated individuals who act on extreme beliefs independently.
Instead, these shootings are an opportunity to build all-class unity. The liberal wing of the U.S. ruling class would love to use these shootings as a way to build allegiance to the system. In the name of safety, the working class will face greater surveillance and repression. Due to racism, this will disproportionately affect Muslim, Black, and immigrant workers. The lesson here is that capitalism begets violence. Capitalists cannot keep the workers “safe.” Only the working class can provide that.
Meanwhile, the U.S. rulers are preparing for the inevitable global land war to defend their dying empire. They need masses of workers ready to fight against China and Russia, thinking they are defending some non-existent democracy and the “American Dream.” This imperialist wing of the U.S. ruling class wants workers to have guns only to kill workers in other nations as they defend the bosses’ worldwide empire.
While this single incident may be the deadliest mass shooting in “modern” U.S. history, it pales in comparison to the mostly Black, indigenous and Latin workers murdered by the police every year in the U.S. It pales in comparison to the number of killings that are a result of U.S. military operations around the world in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. A system that engenders violence cannot be part of the solution.
Opportunity for us to build communism
The rulers have no answers for the working class. They are fighting profiteering wars all over the world, and the big imperialist powers are preparing for world war. And it is only the workers that fight and die in these wars and many more in the coming world war, quite possibly with nuclear weapons. So let’s sharpen our struggles against racism and sexism. Let’s promote a better world, run by the working class, for the working class. That’s communism. Let’s plant those revolutionary communist seeds in every struggle that we are in. Join us. Join the international, revolutionary, communist Progressive Labor Party!