RACISM must be understood as an instrument of exploitation in the workplace and beyond.

Far from being an abstract phenomenon of ideas and influences, racism is a dynamic which is deeply rooted in the structures of exploitation, power and privilege.

Consequently, the radical tradition of resistance to racism by black workers through the strategy of self-organisation is also far from being random or accidental.

It is often literally a matter of life and death.

At the root of black resistance is the link between race and class. To treat them as completely irrelevant to each other is to weaken the struggle against both class and race inequality.

Racism is determined by the ruling class to protect its own interests and race discrimination, direct or indirect, has always been closely tied to both employment and political considerations.

That is why we must always maintain a clear focus on the role of racism in the sharpest arena in the conflict that exists between capital and labour – that of the workplace.

If we accept the central role of racism in the fight between capital and labour then, for me, it follows that socialists must treat seriously the need for anti-racist action to be central to our work.

This does not mean just reiterating how long you have been an anti-racist without any demonstrable evidence to prove it.

The fact that you might have once read something by Angela Davis or Claudia Jones or that you or your parents might have a love for the music and activity of Paul Robeson simply will not cut it for black workers.

Neither does it mean ignoring the central role that black workers must play in deciding how best to go about winning our own liberation.

We are under racist attack and have been for the entirety of my lifetime and for many generations before my parents were even born.

Black people want collaborators in the fight against racism rather than just warm words of commitment that we are supposed to just accept on trust.

Black and white workers predominantly occupy the same place in society – a society dominated by capital.

While we share the same working-class interests we are forced by the monopolist minority to compete with each other for limited resources – which leads to racism.

It also leads to the need to find ways of resisting racism through such strategies as black self-organisation as well as in united black and white anti-racist organisations.

I do not believe that black self-organisation divides the working class as a white comrade insisted to me recently.

I take the view that it is a platform from which we can build class consciousness which, in turn, can strengthen the working class — from which we are often excluded as being a core component.

I believe that it is a fundamental mistake to reduce race to class but also an error of the highest proportions to try to understand class without race.

I do not suggest for a moment that everyone involved in black self-organised formations is knowingly or even willingly taking part in class struggle.

I once heard someone say that you don’t have to believe that you are engaging in the class struggle to take part — no more than it is necessary to believe in the theory of relativity to fall from an aeroplane.

Black workers, like other workers, are forced to struggle against the excesses of capital from necessity.

For black workers the added immediate ingredient to be resisted is racism. To not resist racism or class exploitation would be, in my opinion, to acquiesce to it.

The act of resistance to racism takes on the form of a wider resistance to class oppression.

This is why white resistance to racism becomes a necessity.

Without white workers resisting racism the working class remains divided and in a therefore weaker position in the conflict with capital.

We should resist, as the legendary African-American communist Henry Winston once said, a “skin strategy” for resisting racism. I take this to mean that it is not only black workers who must resist racism.

To reduce black self-organisation to this level is as deeply insulting as the tokenism that is the hallmark of many who describe themselves as anti-racist without doing anything to prove it beyond giving fine speeches in a room full of self-congratulatory people who do little to back it up.

While I believe that it is in the vital interests of the working class to unite against racism, black self-organisation has played a central role in cultivating the ground for the growth of the necessary unity.

Without black self-organisation, I am doubtful that anti-racism would have been high enough up the agenda — even in many parts of the left — for anything meaningful to happen.

I support the view of another leading US communist from years gone by, Gus Hall, when he argued that black groups or caucuses within unions ”strengthen the entire working class” and they “add a significant element to the black liberation movement.

“They are an important link between the working class and the black community. It is of the greatest significance that the black caucuses have not moved towards splitting the working class. Instead, they are a factor for unity on a higher plane.”

By highlighting the nature of the black self-organisation within trade unions I draw an important distinction in this book.

Black self-organisation within trade unions in Britain provides a distinct dynamic that contributes to the development of class unity to resist both racism and class exploitation.

This is not to minimise the worth of other forms of self-organisation outside of trade unions. But unions play a particular and vital role in building working-class resistance.

Workplace resistance to racism by black workers cannot be divorced from the activities that were (and are) taking place elsewhere such as in political parties, international solidarity, community campaigns, access to public services such as education and housing as well as in campaigns against the various resurgences of the far right.

There is an organic link between these areas of activity, with many of the same people involved in black self-organisation within trade unions taking an active role in these other campaigns.

The important role of the black sections movement in the Labour Party to the development of self-organisation in trade unions is far too often underplayed, as is the unique contribution made by the Indian Workers Association.

The role played by the Communist Party of Britain with its uncompromising anti-colonial and anti-racist agitation in Britain also needs to be discussed more.

I will discuss all of these contributions in the coming weeks.

The fight against racism was and is being waged in a multi-layered way and all fronts by black workers.

Not least of which is the internationalist dimension to the struggle against racism – indivisible, in many ways, from the struggle taking place in the belly of the beast itself.

Whether through education, housing or by seeking access to goods and services such as mortgages, racism was and is being resisted by black workers, usually by self-organised means.

The left should be celebrating black self-organisation, not criticising this black effort to resist racism. The task is to find ways of making sure that socialist theory is deeply embedded in a way that will ensure it leads to revolutionary practice.