As the howls of anger against black pro football players Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson continue unabated, they highlight the bosses’ efforts to divert anger from the biggest abusers, racists and oppressors of women and young people.
Sexism is rampant under capitalism. Driven by the need to force women into low-wage jobs and no-wage labor (to raise the next generation of workers), capitalism has both tacitly and openly encouraged degradation of women. Women are crudely objectified by capitalist culture. Young men are encouraged to use women as if they were commodities.
The National Football League has long been a focal point for some of capitalism’s most racist and sexist ideology. The NFL turns a blind eye to its players’ worst behaviors. It highlights half-naked cheerleaders. It exploits and then tosses away the broken bodies and injured brains of young athletes drawn to the sport as a long-shot escape from poverty. It promotes military flyovers and chants of “USA” as the U.S. ruling class — along with its imperialist proxy state, Israel — murders masses of men, women, and children in the Middle East. Why isn’t the National Organization of Women screaming about these atrocities?
The latest outburst around domestic violence by NFL players only deepens the damage, despite the NFL’s hypocritical show of concern for the players’ families. There is no justification for the actions of Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice. Janay Rice and Peterson’s four-year-old son were harmed and damaged, perhaps for life, and most people know that. Yet why the outrage from so many who say nothing about the massive damage done to black women, children and men by this racist system? On August 30, the New York Times reported that the racial wealth gap in the U.S. is worse than it was in South Africa under apartheid. The average black or Latin household has a mere six percent of the net worth of the average white household. The black-white income gap is 40 percent greater today than in 1967. The average black boy born in the U.S. today will die five years earlier than the average white boy.
The outsized anger at black men who do bad things is one more way that racism infects capitalist culture. What appears on the surface to be criticism of abuse has turned into another attack on black men. Racists are given free reign to unload their hatred. People who are tired of the racist nature of the criticism are silenced or misguidedly try to defend Rice and Peterson and get attacked as excusers. Yet many people are defending Danny Ferry, the general manager of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team who made a racist statement about Luol Deng, an NBA player.
There are vast crimes against black workers in this country every day. Young men are murdered by the police while district attorneys refuse to prosecute racist cops. Schools serving black children are decimated. In fact, by every measure of income, health care and education, black workers suffer disproportionately under capitalism. No wonder that the bosses want to divert our anger toward a pair of football players!
It is no coincidence that the furor directed at Rice and Peterson comes on the heels of the rebellion in Ferguson, Missouri. What happened in Ferguson shook the bosses’ system. The image of furious black workers fighting back against the cops and their lackeys exposes the weakness of capitalism’s grip on the working class.
As the mass outrage at the murder of Michael Brown put the bosses on the defensive, they became desperate to look for even more ways to build racism and a fear of black workers. Their aim is to try to undermine the multi-racial, anti-racist anger built by the rebellion. Black athletes, paid millions, are easy marks. But the most brutal abusers of women and children are the capitalists who now sit in judgment. We need to put them out of action — for good.

Port-au-Prince, August 17 — A speech by Haitian Pres. Martelly in a recent “home government” meeting in Miami with members of his cabinet and the Haitian-American business community, appealed to his base to reject the candidacy of Moïse Jean-Charles, a fake leftist, for Haitian Senate. “I don’t want anyone to vote for a communist,” ranted Martelly.  
This anti-communist braying reminds one of the old practices of  his political mentor, the murderous dictator François Duvalier. Duvalier eliminated those communists, and the merely progressives, the so-called “kamoken” (“bitter pills”) who were critical of his fascist state. In fact, Duvalier won the support of the U.S. bosses and their minions in the Kennedy Administration by declaring himself the “world’s foremost anti-communist.” Martelly is following suit, declaring himself an enemy of communism to please his bosses in the U.S. Embassy. Don’t let us forget, the sons of the tiger Duvalier still are tigers. While Jean-Charles is only a minor thorn in Martelly’s foot, we know from experience that the misery created by the capitalist system cannot be reformed, either by the ballot box or by any other means.
We have to take this speech seriously, because the old practice of eliminating communists can resurface as Martelly, the Haitian ruling class, and their U.S. bosses feel their system threatened — not by Jean-Charles and the coming elections, but more importantly by the anger of the working class and the advanced ideas of their growing communist leadership. Workers increasingly cannot live under the capitalist system.
Martelly and his masters are far from stifling the reality of daily life that confronts the workers and students of Haiti. That reality always removes the veils that try to hide the misery and capitalist exploitation in Haiti. The PLP has no choice but to grow and increase the militancy of our struggle and resistance against capitalism and imperialism. In fact, the entire international working class must fight and declare war on the exploiters, no matter where they are. Because, to quote Karl Marx, “the interests of the proletariat is that of humanity. “
Don’t Vote — Revolt!
In the capitalist world today, communism is illegal, it is a crime. Because the system is in danger and communism is the only solution for all, Martelly and Co. attack communism. These words are at the same time a sign of weakness, but also a call for repression against communists wherever the revolutionary movement is growing. You can even see it when the politicians speak about elections; they are worried about the reaction of the masses. Because these elections — the attempt to pull the wool over workers’ eyes — are possible only if the working class accepts them and participates.
That’s why we have to continue to chant, “Revolt, Don’t Vote!” Communists haven’t yet won the confidence of the masses. However, the actions that communists undertake now make the bosses and their politicians tremble. That’s why they have declared war. Well, it goes both ways! The PLP and the working class also declare war on the bosses and their rotten, racist, warmongering system. “Fight for communism, power to the workers!”

PARIS, September 13 — The Socialist government running France for the bosses since May 2012, is wobblier than ever. The bosses’ other governing party, the right-wing UMP, has been discredited by the 2007-2012 Sarkozy regime’s policies and by current scandals. The National Front fascists are eager to grab power. That’s France today: social fascists versus open fascists. The elections are a mechanism by which French banks and businesses (finance capital) maintain state power. Whether it’s the liberal fascists or the outright fascists, both sides spell disaster for workers.
The Sarkozy gang upped the retirement age and lowered retirement pensions, broke the historic strike of undocumented immigrants by promising them papers (which most strikers never received) and pushed racism. In a 2007 speech, Sarkozy adopted the racist stereotype that black people are child-like, saying, “The African man has not entered history sufficiently.…Africa’s problem is that it lives too much in the present.”
Disgusted, many voters believed François Hollande’s election campaign speech: “My true opponent….will never be elected, and yet he governs. That opponent is the world of finance.”
But since they took power, the Socialists have pursued the same fascist pro-boss austerity policies as Sarkozy. In January, then-Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced, “I am a social-democrat [a right-wing Socialist] and so is the president,” while defending a 10-billion-euros giveaway, supposedly to enable French bosses to compete better with other imperialists.
After the social fascists lost control of 155 cities in the nation-wide municipal elections, president Hollande named a new Prime Minister, Manuel Valls. More window-dressing — Valls pursued the same pro-boss policies as Ayrault.
Meanwhile, unemployment continues to explode — 20.3 percent in July. Deportations of undocumented workers continue — 27,000 in 2013 — which is not surprising, as Valls infamously complained in June, 2009 when he was mayor of Evry, about seeing “too many non-white faces” at the city flea market. By August, Hollande’s approval rating had fallen to 17 percent.
More and more Socialist deputies and ministers became dissidents, fearful that in the 2017 elections, the government’s disastrous policies would deprive them of their comfortable positions. Hollande and Valls responded on August 25 by ousting the dissidents.
Now, the Socialists’ governing majority in the National Assembly is a bare 50.2 percent and is expected to lose control of the Senate in this fall’s elections.
The UMP is broke due largely to shady financial deals during Sarkozy’s 2012 election campaign. Sarkozy himself is under investigation for various crimes. The party is divided into warring factions, with two others, François Fillon and Alain Juppé, vying with Sarkozy for the party’s 2017 presidential nomination.
Anti-Arab Racism Hurts All Workers
But the bosses have a third option: the openly fascist National Front (FN). In August, FN leader Marine Le Pen proclaimed her readiness to govern France. And the fascists are indeed getting ready.
This intensified anti-Arab and immigrant racism will  continue to drive down wages and benefits for all workers. It will be useful should French troops be needed as cannon fodder in Obama’s coalition in the fight for oil profits in the Middle East.
In September at the FN’s summer conference hall, a sign said, “The DPS [its storm trooper organization] is recruiting…everywhere in France.”
A hot theme at that conference was the racist, paranoid belief in the supposed replacement of French people by Arabs. Le Pen’s foreign policy councilor, Aymeric Chauprade, said: “You see it every day, this change in the population…the big replacement is obvious.” The head of the FN youth organization repeated the theme: “If we don’t do anything, our people will be replaced.”
The overt fascists have also circulated a fake ministerial letter on the social networks. It “earnestly advises” city governments to sponsor “a weekly beginner’s course in Arabic” as an extra-curricular activity in primary schools, and is supposedly signed by the Education Minister. This fabrication follows that the Eiffel Tower will become a mosque, that French schools will forbid the “plus” sign because it resembles a Christian cross, that school canteens will stop serving pork, and similar anti-Arab lies.
Large numbers here are apparently swayed by this racist garbage. According to a September 4 opinion poll, if presidential elections were held today, the FN would win up to 32 percent of the vote; UMP between 17 and 25 percent; and the Socialists 17 percent percent in the elections’ first round. In the second round, the FN would win a run-off against the Socialists but would lose in one against the UMP. In all cases, the bosses would win.
All three parties — from social fascists to open fascists — are financed and run by the bosses. For workers, the only solution to racism, fascism, mass unemployment and government austerity is communist revolution, to establish a society run by and for workers. Arab, African, French workers of the world unite!

Comrade Val Woodward, a staunch antiracist and champion of the working class, died on June 6 at age 87. Starting in the early 1970s, Val and his wife Clare organized the International Committee Against Racism (InCAR) in Minneapolis-St. Paul. InCAR was founded nationally by the Progressive Labor Party to combat racism on the job, in education and in academic publications.
Val’s antiracist and pro-working-class teaching and actions permeated his life. When serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II, Val ended up in the brig after pummeling a fellow sailor who was spouting racist epithets, stopping him in his tracks.
Val applied his knowledge and education in the field of genetics to serve the cause of fighting racism. He was a professor of genetics at Kansas State, Wichita State, and Rice University. He then taught for 33 years at the University of Minnesota, where his course on Heredity and Human Society became one of the school’s most popular. He won virtually every teaching and human rights award at the school.
But Val’s outstanding contribution was in leading the fight against academic racism wherever it reared its ugly head, under the principle that racism hurts all sections of the working class. This was especially true in his exposure of the academic racists who stoked white supremacy in the 1970s on campuses across the U.S. — the Schockleys, Jensens, and Herrnsteins. The national media disseminated their unfounded claims about unemployment being caused by genes and not by capitalist inequity, and about “inferior” intelligence being inherited by black, Latin and Native American workers.
Val was among the leaders in unmasking flawed data on “IQ genetics” and participating in campus demonstrations against college-sponsored talks that presented racist conclusions as scientific fact. Helped by Val’s leadership, hundreds joined InCAR to demonstrate at the U. of M., exposing academic racism and opposing the sponsorship of neo-Nazis and KKK’ers. Val taught the history of academic racism in the classroom and in churches, training hundreds and leading them in scores of antiracist protests.
During the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s and ’70s, Val was often invited to speak at churches, clubs, sororities, fraternities and commencement ceremonies. He would explain how the atrocities of slavery and racism were based on scientific-sounding claims in deeply flawed publications. The realization of InCAR’s core principle — that racism most hurts black, Latin and Native American workers, but also hurts white workers — led to the growth of PLP during this period.
As a widely respected geneticist, Val was invited to join a delegation to North Vietnam toward the end of the Vietnam War. He participated in an international conference exposing the horrors and genetic damage of Agent Orange, the defoliant produced by Dow Chemical and dropped by U.S. bombers on civilian populations. Val was among those who brought this evidence back to the U.S., leading to scores of demonstrations challenging Dow recruiters on campuses.
Val taught students from around the world, introducing them to the Marxist analysis that racism and racist injustice are deeply embedded in the fundamental economic inequality of capitalist society. He was also an excellent athlete well into his 70s. For decades he effectively infused his antiracist outlook into the playing fields and courts where he and numerous students met to enjoy a game.
A true internationalist, Val maintained relations with many international students throughout his life, as they continued to visit him at the U. of M. and after his retirement in 2000. He authored scientific books and papers explaining the sources of racism, including Human Heredity and Society and Biology As A Social Weapon. Val passed on his antiracism to his three children, eight grandchildren and their offspring.
All who knew Val were impressed by his warmth and humor, which never failed to draw you to him as a friend. He is remembered both as a teacher and an active fighter for a world free of racism, a future that is closer because of Val’s lifetime of struggle.