The U.S. was founded on the principles of freedom and democracy. The American Revolution opened the door to freedom just enough for the emerging class of capitalists to take the reigns of society from the English Crown.

It took an American Revolution, the Civil War and Reconstruction to free African Americans from slavery. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1869, gave African American men the right to vote, and it was not until 1920 that Black and white women gained suffrage. Despute these and other important victories by anti-racist forces, the poison of racism, discrimantion and bigotry still stains our society.

To state the matter bluntly, racism still exists because racism is still good for business in the capitalist United States. Racism divides worker from worker, and justifies low wages, discrimination, harassment, and criminalization aimed at workers of color. Discrimination on the basis of race justifies paying lower wages to minorities for the same work as white workers. Women of color are discriminated against on the basis of their gender as well as their race. In this way, racism compounded with sexism allows the bosses to extract more profit from workers of color and thereby drive down wages for all workers.

Some say racism benefits whites, at the expense of the Black, Brown, Yellow, and Red. But the real color of racism is Green, because racism serves only wealth.

Racism still exists, but it certainly has changed since 1942 when Columbus introduced the greedy aims of imperialist capitalism to North America. The civil rights movement of the 1940s to 1960s changed the landscape of U.S. life. The cause of the interracial freedom riders and the herioc fighters who gave their lives for freedom won the hearts of our nation and the world. Discrimination based on race, and many of the institutional tools of racial oppression were outlawed. Anti-racist struggle beat back racism, and sent racism running for the shadows.

Today, the Ultra-Right, led by the likes of George Bush, are fanning the flames of race-hatred once again. These racist politicians are blaming immigrants, African Americans, recipients of welfare, and children for the problems of the nation-the same problems their policies created.

Many of the major attacks today against working people, particularly working youth, are sharpened with racism. Prisons are a big business in the U.S. today and a source of cheap labor. They are built rather than schools, based on the idea that youth of color are "throw-away" people, unworthy of education. Immigrant children are turned away from hospitals and schools, based on the idea that peoplewho work the land and are from a different country don't deserve basic human rights. And, most recently, the hard-won affirmative action mandates, which are the main guards against institutional racism, are being gutted. With their loss, young people of color will have no protection against racism keeping them from college or a good job. But oppressed people are fighting back. Youth in particular are taking to the streets to fight against racism.

Latino, African American, American Indian, Asian American and white youth are uniting to fight for a better world.

The Young Communist League (YCL) is a part of that fight. The YCL brings the message of unity and the weapon of organization to every place where racism attempts to divide young people from each other. Every fight against racist policies and hate crimes is an important blow to the system of racism.

But it will take another American revolution to truly fulfill the promise of our nation's founding principles. As long as capitalism exists, greed will always seek out racism. Socialism, the system where working people of all colors have the power in society, is the only way to eliminate the material basis for racism. This is the goal of the Young Communist League: to fight racism wherever it rears its ugly head, and to wipe away the stain of racism, once and for all, by building a socialist U.S.A.