Invention of the white race

Charles Brown charlesb at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us
Thu May 28 11:00:26 PDT 1998


The CPUSA initiated a fight for super seniority for Black workers in industry in the late forties, an origin of affirmative action. Walter Reuther opposed it as reverse discrimination.

Charles Brown


>>> Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com> 05/28 11:55 AM >>>
Jim Devine:
>whatever the reactionary content of the whole argument that hearfield and LM
>present, the fact is that in California, the big corporations _opposed_ the
>anti-AA state-wide iniative (the number of which I've forgotten). They like
>having simple formulas for dealing with complex issues.
>

I disagree with this. The ruling class as a whole does not favor affirmative action. This does not mean that there will be token defenses of it, such as the kind that Clinton exhibits. The overall direction of US black-white relations since the Reagan era began with Jimmy Carter and now continues with Bill Clinton. For analysis of the impact of affirmative action, I recommend Andrew Hacker's latest book. He makes the point that it was never implemented in private corporations to any great extent, only in the public sector. For the best account of its origins, I recommend Gerald Horne's book.

Louis Proyect

(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)



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