![]() ![]() ![]() They were given added benefits, such as tax exemptions to do so. The poor white men constituted the rank and file of the militias and later (beginning in 1727) the slave patrols. (Scottish coal miners were held in slavery in the same period of time.) Quite simply, the poor whites were needed and used as a force to suppress the main labor force: the African chattel slaves. These privileges did not come from the kindness of the planters’ hearts nor from some form of racial solidarity. We have often, however, fallen into an elitist or perhaps defeatist view that dismisses the possibility of organizing significant numbers of white people particularly working class whites. 2) Our own tendency, at its best moments, has recognized the leading role of national liberation and the essential position of solidarity to building any revolutionary consciousness among whites. More specifically, opportunism either justifies the generally racist history of the white working class and our left or romanticizes that history by presenting it as much more anti-racist than reality merits. of national liberation struggles, a failure to make the fight against white supremacy a conscious and prime element of all organizing, and, related to the above, a general lack of revolutionary combativeness against the imperial state. This has entailed an unwillingness to recognize the leading role within the U.S. 1) The main position by far has been opportunism. There have been two basic responses to this reality by the white left. ![]()
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