A-Infos (en) Australia, ACF, Picket Line - Race and capitalism - Why the fight against one is always a fight against the other (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The fight against racism cannot be separated from the class struggle. 
Modern thinking about race emerged from the horrors of colonialism, and 
was fundamental to the rise of capitalism. The division of humanity into 
races, and the idea of inherent racial difference or superiority, 
poisons the working class as viciously today as it did 500 years ago. It 
is a tool that the ruling class uses to scapegoat, dehumanise, and pit 
workers against each other.
Capitalist society teaches us to think of race as something natural-an 
unchangeable fact as inevitable as the sun rising. This couldn't be 
further from the truth. The belief that people can be placed into rigid 
social categories or that we can assume shared traits based on physical 
appearance or (perceived) ancestry has no scientific backing.

How we think about 'race' today has nothing to do with science or 
'natural' tribal instincts. Racism is generated by class societies and 
governments. It takes its current form because this serves the interests 
of the bosses, and the capitalist system as a whole.

Justifying dispossession
Capitalism could not, and cannot, survive without racism. As a system 
driven by a compulsion for accumulation, capitalism always demands 
more:more land; more resources; more workers who can be exploited to the 
maximum possible extent.

Pseudo-scientific ideas about race were developed as a way to justify 
the violent conquest of indigenous land, the plundering of resources, 
and the exploitation of particular racialised groups. This was the basis 
for European colonial dominance, which has shaped the last 500 years of 
global development. Out of this violent economic expansion, colonialism 
built, sustained, and entrenched white supremacy within an oppressive 
racial hierarchy.

Australian capitalism is founded on dispossession and the attempted 
eradication of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, whose 
sovereignty remains unceded. The racial hierarchy forged through 
colonisation continues to determine access to land, housing, employment, 
and justice.

Indigenous communities face systematic underfunding and punitive 
interventions, while migrant workers are hyper-exploited in low-wage 
sectors that sustain capitalist profit. Racism serves a dual function as 
both a material and ideological tool in Australia-dividing the working 
class along racial lines and deflecting anger away from the capitalist class

The shifting lines of race
Because race isn't natural, racial categories have never been fixed. 
Different groups have been marginalised or accepted depending on the 
needs of capital. In the 19th century, Irish immigrants were portrayed 
as inferior; by the mid-20th century, Italian and Greek migrants were 
cast as criminal threats to white Australia. Today, things are 
different. In Australia, whiteness has incorporated some immigrant 
workers, particularly from Europe, while maintaining the oppression of 
Black, Asian, and Indigenous peoples. Racism continually reconfigures 
itself to preserve class rule and block solidarity, taking whatever 
shape capital deems necessary.

The White Australia Policy is a textbook example of this. It was 
explicitly designed to keep Australia 'white' through immigration bans 
on non-European peoples, while simultaneously exploiting Pacific 
Islander labour through 'blackbirding', an indentured servitude system 
in Queensland's sugarcane fields. This racial logic continues to shape 
Australian identity: 'good citizenship' is equated with whiteness, where 
the nation's borders, policing, and welfare systems are instruments of 
racial control.

Class unity, not nationalism
The recent mobilisation of nationalist groups as part of the 'March for 
Australia' illustrates how racism is weaponised to bolster support for 
the ruling class and break down working class unity.

Nationalist movements use race and citizenship as a way to build 
cross-class alliances. The purpose is to bind a segment of the working 
class to the economic, political, and social interests of the ruling 
class. They appeal to a 'shared identity' to foster a false sense of 
equality between classes, and weaken the threat of class struggle. The 
supposedly shared national or racial identity is then used to scapegoat 
and enact violence against those of us who fall outside of the approved 
bounds.

This is how racism functions as a system of division and social control. 
To overcome it, we need to confront it in all its forms. On the one 
hand, that means physically mobilising against fascists in the streets 
and confronting racist ideas wherever else we find them. But it also 
means uniting together in class struggle and making racial justice union 
business.

It's up to all workers, whatever their background or identity, to send 
racism into the dustbin of history. It is a stain on humanity which 
needs to be smashed. But as long as we live under capitalism, the ruling 
class will ensure that it survives. The struggle against economic 
oppression is necessarily a struggle against racism, and the struggle 
against racism inevitably requires the power of a united working class. 
The two kinds of oppression are part of a single social system: 
capitalism. And capitalism will never be overthrown as long as workers 
remain divided by hatred.

https://ancomfed.org/2026/01/race-and-capitalism/
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