Los Angeles March: Expose Capitalism’s Sexist Nature

LOS ANGELES, January 21—The word went out to all working-class sisters and brothers that Donald Trump was here to stay. Workers are still in shock how a gutter racist is now holding the highest position as president. Progressive Labor Party has been optimistic for our class, as we’ve been engaged in anti-racist and anti-sexist class struggles.
We showed how capitalism must be shut down and how we need multiracial unity, not identity politics, to fight racism. We’ve seen how capitalism treats sexist like rapist Brock Turner who got an early release by only serving three months instead of the bogus six! Racist police murders that have had zero convictions and just recently the cops that murdered Ezell Ford walked. We’ve continued to see how capitalism protects racists like the KKK and other fascist groups. These are all prime examples of the sexist and racist oppression that working class sisters and brothers deal with under capitalism.
People of all races took the streets. The fact that masses were out there showed that workers are listening. Through our mass work in a church, we helped organize over 100 congregants from numerous churches around Los Angeles. It’s still unclear how big our contingent was since we were unable to converge our groups.
We were stuck for hours like sardines. Many people were mostly enjoying humorous signs, taking selfies or photos of signs and the multiple performance artists. Most of the chants were the same as usual, but a few stood out like, “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.” The rest included,  “Not my president.” We were unable to see speakers. The only speakers we heard were giving directions on how to detour to get to City Hall.
A fellow church member held a poster of “No Racism”, which had the names of women and men that lost their lives to police violence. The names show how women and men mostly of color are seen as disposable objects. It would have been nice to see more signs that pointed out racism or immigration.
A member of our contingent said, “We should have been marching while Obama was deporting 2.5 million people and while Hilary was supporting wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.” Most members of our contingent, however, still think the problem is Trump, not the capitalist system. We have a lot of work to do.
Of all the signs we saw throughout the march, there was no doubt that capitalism was not on the side of the workers. We must be sharper and oppose the illusion that this is what democracy looks like. So we asked, “who benefits from sexism, racism and capitalism?” In order to defeat this system, women and men must struggle together to see one another as equals. Our answer is to unite against sexism and racism and dismantle capitalism and fight for communism.