spiegel is a fourth-year history student
By Lital Spiegel
Right-wing demagogue David Horowitz, a notorious apologist for
American slavery, appeared here at UCLA in “A Rally for
America” alongside the equally sinister Dinesh
D’Souza.
Their aim was to whip up pro-war patriotism and advance the
capitalist rulers’ “anti-terror” witch hunt
targeting foreign students, immigrants, black people, labor,
leftists and anti-war youth.
Horowitz was obviously upset that there were more balloons than
supporters at his right-wing rally. With his usual penchant for
“Big Lie” smears, he slandered Marxist protesters as
“fascists.” In a whining letter to the Daily Bruin,
Horowitz bemoans the unfavorable press coverage and ludicrously
claims that the Spartacus Youth Club “had obviously come to
prevent anyone from hearing what Dinesh D’Souza and I had to
say” (“Coverage of rally shows leftist fear,”
Viewpoint, Jan. 17).
In fact, the aim of Horowitz and D’Souza’s speech
was to intimidate and muzzle all anti-racist and anti-war voices on
college campuses. We protested in order to expose their attempts to
justify racial oppression and imperialist war.
Horowitz expects black youth to roll over silently in the face
of his racist provocations. What really enraged him was the sight
of 60 or more black and minority students, organized by the African
Student Union, who marched through Westwood Plaza and protested
alongside our demonstration. Horowitz and D’Souza claim
slavery left no enduring legacy on American society and that racism
against minorities no longer exists ““ this is a manifestation
of their racism.
Last spring, Horowitz orchestrated a national advertisement
campaign on college campuses that attacked reparations for black
people on the grotesque basis that slavery actually “created
wealth for black Americans.” D’Souza likewise blames
poverty among blacks and Latinos on “shocking moral
behavior” and the lack of a “work ethic.” These
are revolting lies ““ the truth is America is a racist society
for blacks and minorities to live in.
While opposing Horowitz’s racist agenda at home, the ASU
leadership consciously sought to disappear any opposition to U.S.
imperialism’s war in Afghanistan. The ASU refused to allow
the SYC a speaker at their separate rally in Meyerhoff Park, due to
vocal opposition to U.S. imperialism. An unsigned flyer distributed
at their rally characterized the bombing of devastated Afghanistan
as a fight “for the protection of human life.”
This is a grotesque accommodation to racist American
imperialism. U.S. imperialist military adventures are always
accompanied by domestic repression, particularly targeting labor,
blacks and immigrants. The fight against black oppression is
integrally linked to the struggle against U.S. imperialism.
Much of Horowitz’s fire is directed at liberals, who think
that peace is patriotic and war is just a bad policy. Horowitz has
named a whole swath of society ““ from left liberals like Noam
Chomsky, to black Democrats like Barbara Lee, to every anti-war
student ““ as “The Enemy Within.”
Horowitz’s talk of “treason” comes at a time
when immigrants are facing government persecution. Many foreign
students are already afraid to attend college in the United States,
and those already here live in fear of being rounded up and held
for “voluntary questioning,” not knowing whether they
will be detained. Campus administrations nationwide have handed
over the names of foreign students to the FBI. At UCLA, students of
Near East and Muslim backgrounds, particularly those associated
with the Muslim Student Association and Al-Talib, have been
targeted for special scrutiny.
But what America’s racist rulers can actually get away
with will be determined by the level of class struggle. A united
demonstration of the multiracial working class’s power can
spike the bosses’ racist “national unity”
campaign.
The fight against racism, poverty and war has to be linked to
the struggle against the entire capitalist system that produces
them. We seek to win radical youth to the understanding that a
revolutionary workers’ party is needed to champion the cause
of all the oppressed in the fight for socialist revolution.