Workers were kept divided, at each others' throats, and in some cases were used as the shock-troops to keep down the superexploited minorities. The worker-farmer Populist movement was destroyed by this racism, and the U.S. Labor movement seriously set back. In addition, this ideology of racism played the key role in preventing the development of communist consciousness on a mass scale. Because racism is an integral part of capitalism, serious anti-racists should become communists. Only by destroying the system on which it rests can racism be eliminated.
Liberalism pushes pacifism as well as legalism, disarming the anti-racist struggle.
Liberalism rejects the view that racism stems from capitalism, blaming it instead on individual prejudice, and singling out the white worker as the villain. Only communist ideas and organization can give the leadership which will ensure that anti-racist organizers avoid these pitfalls. And communists must point out that the logic of real anti-racism leads inevitably to an openness to communist ideas. Because racism is an integral part of capitalism, communists must be anti-racist organizers. Winning people to these ideas involves convincing them at least of the truth and importance of our analysis of racism.