A fight for ‘equal’ opportunity

Saturday, August 19, 2017 - 01:00

Prof Carlo Fonseka supported the fascistic regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa and still believes that he has done the correct thing. Any person who could support criminal racist activities of Mahinda regime cannot be a rationalist leave apart being a Samasamajist.

While speaking among the ‘Polpot socialists’ of anti SAITM meeting, Carlo has lamented that 8,000 state medical students are sacrificed for the benefit of 1,000 private medical students. He has forgotten logic or mathematics or both. No one has sacrificed state sector medical student, except lunatics who have dragged them out for a cause that is unjust from top to bottom. There is and there was private education in parallel with free or non paid state sector education in this country; as it is common to many liberal bourgeoisie countries in the world.

Not only the bourgeoisie but also rich middle class parents did not want to compete with proletarians, and opted out for private education. When the percentage of rejects at the university entrance became massive, the private university education became the only avenue for the rejected but good A/Level qualified students. Obviously, this opening is only for those with means in this capitalist setup.

Higher studies

Thus higher studies became an attractive business and faculties develop for engineering, technology, management, accountancy, humanities, law etc. for medicine it was difficult with the requirement of heavy investment. But the necessity was real; because biology qualified students were in despair compared to private sector students in engineering and other subjects. In this scenario some people dared to invest in a college for medicine and SAITM was born. While, all those colleges in private sector for engineering, technology, etc are given helping hand by the professionals in each field, in medicine doctors got wild and created unimaginable stupidity, to not only to disrupt SAITM- the coming up private medical college, but also the education of the state sector medical students. All those are now dragging the country into a Polpotian terrorist revolution. How my senior Samsamajist, Carlo could fall into such mess and to imagine that he is in the last battle in the Marxian sense is beyond me.

While we are challenged by chauvinist politics which destroyed the old guard of leftist, mainly Samasamajist; in the western world new things are happening. Yes, racist chauvinists are still there, but challenge is positive. In western countries it is quite easy for the middle class intellectuals to brand the working class as the most rabidly chauvinist and racist group of the whites.

White supremacy

In US, however whether they’re brandishing Confederate flags or vociferously vowing to “Make America Great Again,” their beliefs about white supremacy are completely exposed for the world to witness. This is simplistic than serious; but it is much harder to see how those at the top in the economic pyramid not only greatly benefit from white supremacy but actually use racism to their advantage — generally from behind the scenes. Clearly, when these pandiths hold the working class responsible for white supremacy, other whites are absolved of racial wrongdoing. By allowing the spread of civic ignorance, by propagating historical lies and political untruths, and by spreading an insidious form of racism, upper class whites are undoubtedly just as culpable — if not more so — than working class whites in the quest to maintain white supremacy.

Certainly I am not defending the racism of working-class whites, or any excuse; but we must understand the ways in which white supremacy and power are completely intertwined. Throughout American history, or in general western history, the economic elite or the bourgeoisie have used vile forms of racism to perpetuate the current hierarchy — politically, socially and economically.

White supremacy is most commonly conceptualized and introduced as a way for lower-class whites to feel socially superior to people from other ethnic backgrounds. It is more important to recognize that white supremacy is a tried-and-tested means for upper class whites to grow their wealth and power.

Pitting labourers of different races against each other, raising racial fears through sensationalistic and profit-driven media projects and politically making scapegoat of entire nationalities, American and western white elite have successfully modernized age-old strategies of using racism to prevent the formation of a broad coalition of people along class lines. Thus they have undermined the Marxist clamour for the unity of the proletariat.

Jeremy Corbyn

Then after a turbulent period, somewhat suddenly arrived Bernie and his British counterpart Jeremy Corbyn, to challenge the white supremacist system in the western world. Since his grassroots presidential campaign took Bernie the world by storm, Senator Bernie Sanders has been widely credited with bringing socialism back into the mainstream of American politics and introducing an entire generation to left-wing politics.

As a major presidential candidate who unabashedly identified as a democratic socialist, Sanders essentially resurrected an idea that has been considered thrown out in American political discourse for many decades: that there is an alternative to capitalism and that is socialism. In the same time Jeremy Corbyn began his career as a representative delegate for various trade unions and workers federations. He became the Secretary of Hornsey Constituency Labour Party branch, and continued in both roles until elected MP for Islington North. As a backbench MP he was known for his activism and rebelliousness, frequently voting against the Labour whip, including when the party was in government under Tony Blair and Brown. Ideologically, Corbyn too self-identifies as a Democratic Socialist.

Of course be sure, the concept of white privilege must seem far-fetched to working-class whites who come from generations of cyclical poverty living in proletarian areas in the western world. They constantly are told that African-Americans or African Europeans are the primary recipients of welfare and social benefits, and that policies like affirmative action are greatly detrimental to all whites. By controlling key aspects of the economy, especially education, politics and the media, the white elite bourgeoisie often very easily manipulate less affluent whites.

Educational system

Firstly by governing and managing the education system in the western world, the upper classes remain in control of the equality of opportunity. While much of western world is plagued by an underfunded, failing public school system that gets exponentially worse the deeper area’s poverty, the affluent live in areas with higher property taxes, and thus, better local school systems.

Despite this disparity, the rich also are always able to send their children to private schools, escaping the bleak educational realities that most others are left to suffer. Secondly, elite authority over the educational system also means regulation over the teaching of subjects like history, government and civics. An overwhelming majority of citizens have shockingly little understanding of their own past and their own government, often leading to lower-class political apathy.

Thirdly, a small number of extremely wealthy white men control and operate much of the western media. With just a handful of corporations owning the majority of country’s media, it is worth remembering that news today is essentially a product to be sold, a commodity. The media monopoly obviously presents valid concerns about fair and balanced reporting. Each of the few very powerful, rich bourgeois has its own reasons for deciding what qualifies as “news.”

Finally, business owners and corporate leaders have historically sought to powerful tool in preventing unionism; to keep workers segregated, either physically or by job. Since industrial revolution times, masters attempted to engender racism between poor white labourers and enslaved blacks, trying to keep each side distrustful of the other. By perpetuating and encouraging a vile form of racism, they attempted to establish psychological segregation, ultimately thwarting the prospect of an interracial coalition. Even today, elites use white supremacy as a means to prevent the idea of same society or Samasamajism!