- Sat 28 March, 12pm, Central London
- March for a socialist alternative to racism, war and austerity
- Meet from 11.30am on Park Lane/Upper Grosvenor Street Corner for speeches
The need to combat racism and the far-right is urgent. Nigel Farage’s racist right-populist Reform UK is currently leading in most polls. In the Summer, 100,000 people turned out to far-right activist Tommy Robinson’s ‘Unite the Kingdom’ demonstration in London.
In response, Together – a new anti-far right alliance – has called a national demonstration in London for Saturday 28th March. Socialist Students is calling on students to join our contingent on the demonstration, to help us raise the need for a socialist alternative to capitalism as a central part in the fight against racism.
Capitalism means racism, war and austerity
Capitalism is an inherently unequal system that puts the profits of the billionaires above the needs of the billions of people around the world. To maintain this unequal set-up, the capitalist ruling class has always relied on racism to enable its brutal exploitation. Racism was used to justify the trafficking of ten million people by the slave trade, and later to justify colonial rule by British imperialism and other capitalist powers across the world.
Today, capitalist politicians continue to stoke racist ideas in an attempt to divide working-class people and weaken our collective ability to fight back. And they have plenty of reasons for wanting to sow racism and all forms of division, at a time when their system can only deliver more war, climate chaos, and falling living standards. The ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran, and the chaos that has already wrought on the world economy, underlines how capitalism today can only bring instability for our futures.
Build a socialist alternative
The Labour government has no alternative. They are firmly on the side of the billionaire bosses and have overseen yet more austerity and cost-of-living crisis. By so blatantly attacking the living standards of working-class people, Labour creates the space for Reform UK to falsely pose as an ‘anti-establishment’ alternative ‘standing up for the little people’. If we want to stop Nigel Farage becoming the next prime minister, then we have to build a political alternative to the pro-capitalist, austerity policies of not just Reform but Labour and all the establishment parties.
We need to build a mass movement of workers and young people for the resources we need for a decent life. We have to demand: ‘Migrants aren’t to blame – take the wealth off the super-rich. For jobs, homes and services for all, not racist division!’. That kind of movement could bring working-class people from all backgrounds together in a united fightback that cuts across racism and identifies the real enemy: capitalism.
As the American civil rights activist Malcolm X said: “You can’t have capitalism without racism”. And if racism is embedded in the current system, then we need a new system: a socialist system which would eliminate the root cause of racism by taking economic and political control out of the hands of the small minority at the top who profit from inequality and division.
If you want the Together march to be a step towards building the mass anti-racist and socialist movement that is needed, join the Socialist Students contingent on March 28th and join your local Socialist Students society on campus.
A march can be an important start – but to end racism, we need to build a sustained movement that can challenge the capitalist system that profits from and reproduces reactionary ideas day-in, day-out.
Do you want to be part of the socialist, anti-racist challenge in this May’s elections?
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), which Socialist Students is part of, is appealing for the widest-possible anti-austerity stand in the upcoming May elections. That would be a powerful way of putting forward a socialist political alternative to Reform, Labour, and all the establishment parties.
For that message to have an impact on the national political debate, there needs to be the widest possible presence for a socialist alternative, including in the media coverage of the elections. To break through the media blackout, we must hit the Ofcom threshold for “fair media coverage”. This requires standing at least 840 candidates under a party registered with the Electoral Commission. Could you be one of them? Click here for more info
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