From: peercy@crhc.uiuc.edu (Mike Peercy)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.society.civil-liberty,alt.individualism
Subject: Re: industrial racism (was: <None> was: Employee vs. Employer rights)
Date: 15 Apr 92 21:54:32 GMT
Organization: Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: dopey.crhc.uiuc.edu

ddc1@jaguar.uofs.edu writes:

| peercy@crhc.uiuc.edu (Mike Peercy) writes:

| > If blacklists and boycotts were ever
| > effective at institutionizing the previous beliefs in racism, that is
| > certainly argument to get the government out of the picture now and let
| > societal engines institutionalize the current beliefs in civil equality.

| 	What about the way the capitalists used racism to keep workers from
| organizing unions in the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th
| centuries?

I do not deny that blacklist and boycott were used at the turn of the
century for "bad" things.  (I do not know for sure one way or the other,
as no one has posted references to it.)  My point is that today's social
environment is such that blacklist and boycott would work for "good"
things, while the government simply throws wrenches in the works.

| > So, left to its own devices, the free competition for labor will result
| > in more blacks being hired.  This will result in a shorter supply of black
| > unemployed and a greater supply of white unemployed.  Thus the price of the
| > black worker rises and that of the white worker falls.

| 	That is until the white will work for less than the black then the
| black will be out of a job until they will work for less than the white...If
| you play it right it works well.

You really don't ascribe much intelligence to the average laborer, do you.

| 	It was the socialists who were pushing for equality of the races, sexes
| and ethnic groups and it was the capitalists who were against it because it
| was
| in their best interest. So after seeing racism in a free market like the ones 
| around the turn of the century I don't think that it would be any better the
| next time around.

Keeping in line with my previous example of South Africa, perhaps you
remember the slogan of the South African Communist Party in the 20s:
"White Workers of South Africa Unite!"

I agree that world socialist unions (e.g., the IWW) were, on the whole,
truly egalitarian in their outlook.  However, these dropped the ball and
the conservative AFL/CIO type unions became the spokesgroups for labor.
Of course, I don't claim it is their fault.  The Progressive Era
federal government (and industry, too) was petrified at the vision of
revolutionary socialism.  So they essentially found the most conservative
unions they could and built labor law around them. 

But, in general, I think it is mistaken to attribute racism to capitalists: 
they seriously want only the cheapest labor, regardless of race.  If you
want to see who most benefits from racist hiring practices, look at the
majority of voting union members and note their race.

Noting their gender and age also permits an illuminating reading of the
labor reform of the early part of this century.

Mike Peercy
peercy@crhc.uiuc.edu