Second Opinion / COMMENTARY FROM OTHER MEDIA : KKHJ RADIO (Spanish) : Is the Class Struggle Now the Racial Struggle?

Editor’s note: The San Diego County town of Alpine was in the news in recent months because of an apparent vigilante attack on a group of migrant workers following an accusation of rape (which the district attorney later declined to prosecute) against a migrant. The following editorial indirectly concerns issues raised by the attack and its aftermath.

The class struggle was once recognized as a fact: workers and bosses in an aggressive labor dispute. The boss would tacitly argue that anyone asking for a pay raise or going on strike was a leftist or a communist. The class struggle belonged to an era that is fading. But it has left in the “revolutionaries” a vacuum of ideals which is apparently being filled by the racial struggle. Russia is currently facing a serious ethnic problem. The recent “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia has shocked the world. And in eastern Germany, former communist youngsters hunt down Armenians, Muslims and Asians and shoot them.

Here in Los Angeles, with its more than 40 ethnic groups, racial hostility continues to grow. The recent L.A. riots were interwoven with racial hatred and xenophobia. On the job there is racial tension. As the Hispanic population continues to increase and acquire political and economic power, other races, fearing displacement, create an explosive situation, which could ignite at any moment. What everyone seems to be forgetting is the fact that this great nation emerged and developed in the crucible of all the world’s races.