On Feb. 27, a group of 40 white supremacists held a demonstration on the steps of the California State Capitol in Sacramento against what they called the “genocide” of white Afrikaner and Boer South Africans. The racists were outnumbered by a determined counter-protest.
The racist rally was organized by a group called the South African Project, joined by a range of white supremacist groups including neo-Nazis, skinheads, “traditional” white supremacists, Christian Identity adherents, and racist prison gangs. The demonstrators had obtained a permit to protest and were extended police protection and escort.
The leadership of the SAP attempted to hide the racist nature of its organization and cause by asking participants to refrain from certain slogans and wearing certain clothes. But the White Power tattoos could not be hidden, nor could the Nazi salute of one of the demonstrators. In addition, the group flew the despised Apartheid flag of South Africa.
The South African Project falsely claims that a mass genocide of white South Africans is occurring. The real oppressors in South Africa were the white colonial settlers who brutally exploited the indigenous Black South Africans. Far from being the victims of a mass genocide, to this day, long after the overthrow of Apartheid, white South Africans continue to enjoy disproportionate access to wealth and resources accumulated through centuries of racist rule.
The anti-racists were comprised of a group of about 70 mostly young, militant demonstrators. Called by Modesto Anarcho, counter-demonstrators included students, Occupy groups from various surrounding cities, members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation as well as concerned unaffiliated people outraged by the message of the racist rally. The counter-protest was highly multinational, including Latinos, Blacks, Asians, Natives and whites.
After the demonstrations, as the white supremacists were leaving the Capitol, anger boiled over and objects were thrown between the opposing groups. The police, an armed wing of the capitalist state, immediately rushed the anti-racist group, tackling and striking them. In response, counter-protesters chanted: “Cops and Klan go hand in hand!”
There is a long history of the police in the United States helping white supremacists. Often, as was the case in the Jim Crow South, the police and the Klan were one and the same. Even today, while the police often show hostility towards progressive and anti-racist demonstrators, they are often sympathetic towards white supremacists.
The Southern Poverty Law Center recently reported that the number of neo-fascist hate groups had risen in 2011, the third consecutive annual increase. The report found that the number of such groups operating in 2011 was 1,018, up from 1,002 the year before. White supremacist groups manipulate white workers into scapegoating people of color, creating an obstacle to unity and solidarity between workers of all races against their common oppressor.
The number of white-supremacist groups has ballooned since the election of Barack Obama. By offering racist conspiracy theories about the secret “takeover” of “white America,” such groups divert the attention of poor whites from their real enemies on Wall Street. In fact, the fascistic fantasies of the radical right also divert the consciousness of progressives by making the capitalist government seem like something that needs to be defended from fascism. These groups thus divide the working class against itself and thereby carry out the will of the capitalist ruling class.
Working-class unity between all races and nationalities on the basis of militant opposition to racism is a victory for all workers. We must continue to mobilize and fight back against racism in all its forms.
