Take Down the Confederate Monuments—and Shut Down the White-Supremacist Fascists!
May 17, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Around 100 racists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, on the night of Saturday, May 13. They railed against the city’s plans to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee—who led a war to defend and expand the enslavement of Black people—from a public park. The crowd carried torches that evoked a KKK lynch mob, and chanted “We [white people] will not be replaced” and “Blood and Soil” (a slogan from the Nazi German regime that carried out the genocidal slaughter of six million Jews and millions of other people in the mid-20th century).
Saturday, May 13, racists rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in front of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The crowd carried torches that evoked a KKK lynch mob, and chanted “We [white people] will not be replaced” and “Blood and Soil” (a slogan from the Nazi German regime that carried out the genocidal slaughter of six million Jews and millions of other people in the mid-20th century). Photo: AP
The neo-Nazi “alt-right” leader Richard Spencer played a prominent role. Spencer is a big Trump supporter—last November he led a celebration in Washington, DC of Trump’s election with people chanting “Hail Trump” and giving the Nazi salute. In Charlottesville, Spencer said: “We will not be replaced from this world. Whites have a future. We have a future of power, of beauty, of expression.” He spoke of the “common brotherhood” of white people “from Portugal to Siberia, and… North America.”
Similar mobs have been mobilized in other places to defend Confederate symbols, including recent actions in Pikeville, Kentucky, and New Orleans, where the racists, according to news accounts, came armed and/or dressed “ready for battle.” (It is also important that in every case, significant numbers of anti-racist forces mobilized to challenge and denounce these actions.)
This violence-tinged defense of slave owners and genocidal regimes of the past is not just about “history”—it is BLATANT terrorism being directed specifically against Black people, and more broadly against all the groups being targeted by the Trump/Pence regime: immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and anyone who stands with them. And notice that Trump, Pence, and their whole crew have been dead silent about this terrorism!
There are four things that need to be made clear on this question:
1. It would be a very good thing if, instead of removing these monuments in the middle of the night as was done in New Orleans, there were public ceremonies at which the masses of people were able to speak about the history of slavery and its effects down to today—and if people move to tear down the statues and other monuments to those who speak for slavery, they should be defended. The debate and controversy that this stirs up should then be used to deeply educate people about the true history of the U.S., so that growing numbers—including white people—come to hate and despise everything these monuments stand for.
2. The fact that this is not happening right now—and on top of that, reactionary racists are actually trying to STOP these statues from being removed, and bringing torches and coming “ready for battle” when they do—shows that even the basic question of slavery being wrong, with all the implications that has for the humanity, treatment, and even right to live of Black people, is far from settled in these times. In fact, this is treated as some kind of legitimate topic for “discussion” in the media, and when the city of Charlottesville tried to sell the Lee statue, a judge delayed that for six months.
3. Neither Trump nor Pence—nor, needless to say, notorious white supremacist and Attorney General Jeff Sessions—has uttered a word to condemn this or to rein in these mobs. This points both to their need to encourage and unleash a violent fascist movement to enforce their whole program and to the fact that this fascist program includes a strong genocidal component directed at Black people in particular and virulent assaults against Latinos, immigrants, Muslims, and others.
4. Cast away illusions—prepare for struggle! The emboldening and unleashing of organized reactionary mobs has been and is an integral feature of the Trump/Pence fascist regime. These are shock troops being built up to attack and suppress the masses, to counter the regime’s ruling class opponents, and potentially to carry out genocidal attacks on Black people. This makes clear that this regime, and the reactionary social forces that are cohered around it, are not going away without an all-out struggle. Spencer and the rest of the KKK/Nazi monsters cannot be tolerated—they need to be shut down wherever they appear, as one key component of millions rising up to drive the Trump/Pence regime from power.
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