Outlaw racist and anti-semitic violence

The following is a statement issued by the Communist Party USA August 17.

Last week's rampage by a neo-Nazi at a Los Angeles Jewish community center and the murder of a Filipino postal worker is part of a dangerous pattern. From Oklahoma City to Wyoming, from Texas to Illinois, from Colorado to New York, the country is experiencing a dangerous outbreak of hate violence and murders.

Only united action can prevent it becoming a full-fledged epidemic. The incidents all have a dangerous commonality, an ultra-right-wing racist, anti-Semitic, anti-gay, anti-immigrant and anti-woman - in short, inhuman - outlook. This wave of violence has a name, a cause and a cure. It's called fascism. Its cause is capitalism and its cure is all-people's unity against its ugly symptoms.

Fascism isn't something that appears overnight. It is a process of dehumanizing, terrorist acts. It's a process of attacks on democratic and constitutional rights. It's a process of unleashing raw brutality and eliminating any shred of democracy.

These ideas and policies lie in wait in the boardrooms of corporate America and among the ultra-right forces in government. The leaders of hate groups who call for violence and murder are just expressing the most extreme and reactionary ideology of the ruling class.

Was this latest heinous crime an act of one crazed individual? Or is it part of the process that threatens everyone's hard-won democratic rights?

When corporate America feels cornered, it goes on an ideological offensive. There is a new boldness in its racist and anti-human propaganda. This atmosphere sets the stage for the fascist-fringe forces to act more boldly.

The polluted atmosphere of racism, anti-gay bigotry and violence comes from some of the biggest corporate polluters - those who sponsor the ultra-right talk shows on radio and TV. Even the Internet has its corporate sponsors of hate.

This atmosphere sanctions police to commit brutality and murder. It is an atmosphere in which brutality against women, the bombing of women's health clinics and other violence invades the fabric of our every-day lives. It is an atmosphere where fascist groups feel free to carry out their ugly crimes with impunity.

Some say these crimes are the acts of lone, deranged individuals. They may be loners; they may be crazy; but they do not act alone. They act with the implied consent that comes out of the system of ideas that corporate America and the ultraright live by - that people's lives and the quality of that life are not the bottom line. Maximum profit is.

This reign of terror comes at a time when there is growing unity and struggle against racism, anti-Semitism, anti-gay bigotry, immigrant- and women-bashing and all forms of hate. This unity shows itself in the protests and rallies that have come in the wake of these tragedies, in the call for stricter hate-crimes legislation and gun control.

The unity of all working people - Black, Brown and white - can be found in the 1998 election victories, which sent the ultraright packing and, in California, eventually led to the repeal of the anti-immigrant Proposition 187. Unity against the ultraright can be found in the battle against impeachment.

In recent labor victories - from Virginia shipbuilders, to Los Angeles health-care workers, to North Carolina textile workers - Black, Brown and white workers came together to challenge the drive for profit and get back a piece of what's rightfully theirs.

These hate groups are propped up by the corporate interests who need them to terrorize people and foment disunity in the age-old "divide-and-conquer" strategy of the ruling class. Ugly bigotry and hate crimes are light years away from what the overwhelming majority of American people think. Look at the recent Ku Klux Klan march in Washington DC - a few racists showed up to march, but thousands came to protest against them.

All people - of all races, nationalities, religions and sexual orientation - have a self-interest in speaking out and demanding an end to racist speech and hate crimes. Every democratic organization - trade unions, civil rights groups, women's organizations, youth and students, seniors, religious groups, elected officials, farmers, environmentalists - can join together to demand these terrorist groups be outlawed.

All democratic, fair-minded people can take a stand against racist words and deeds. Challenge hate-mongers on talk radio. Write letters to the editor. Buy newspaper ads. Organize a demonstration or vigil. Demand local, state and federal hate crime legislation and stricter gun control laws.

The majority anti-racist and anti-hate feelings need to be translated into unified legislative and political action for the good of the country, humanity and democracy.