Why U.S. Supreme Court gutted affirmative action
1989Adam Wood 1989-07Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 3 →
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SOCIALIST ACTION JULY 1989 The past couple of months have seen 30 years of civil rights struggles and gains crippled by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In cases of discrimination by employers, the court has ruled that employees must disprove assertions that hiring and firing practices are governed purely by "business concerns." The Court had ruled previously that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was directed at "the consequences of employment practices, not simply their motivation" (Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 1971).
The Court has now ruled that affirmative action victories won on the job can be challenged in court by white employees. The Court has also decided that while employers may not discriminate on the basis of race or sex when hiring, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 does not cover racial harassment on the job.
In addition to these blows, the Supreme Court upheld the right of employers in transportation and other industries to violate the privacy of their workers with mandatory drug tests.
A constitutional amendment?
Meanwhile, the president and the capitalistowned media are preparing to go to war with the Court over its most "horrible" and "unspeakable" decision to date!
President Bush is calling for a constitutional amendment. It's not to safeguard the rights of Blacks, women, Latinos, and other victims of prejudice. Nor is it to protect a worker's right to a job free from employer harassment and drug tests.
Bush is coming to the rescue of the most "helpless," victim of the Court's assault-the American flag. That's the "old Glory" that waved proudly over the atomic explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the flag that draped the coffins of 55,000 U.S. servicemen during the Vietnam War; the Stars and Stripes that billowed in the tropical winds over the wreckage of Grenada.
The hoopla over the flag mRupT covering up the real damage done by the Court. But what is behind these rulings?
American capitalism entered the post-World War II period as the dominant world power, with enough wealth to make concessions to its own workers in exchange for social stability. The social-protest movements of the period were able to win major victories without creating an entirely new economic and social system.
But for the past two decades, beginning in the last years of the Vietnam War, U.S. capitalism has been on the decline. Overproduction and a low rate of profit have plagued American industry, while competitors in Japan and West Germany have caught up and surpassed many elements of U.S. technology. The United States is now the world's largest debtor nation.
Quo the The capitalist class has been forced to take their losses out on working people in this country in the form of lower wages, cutbacks in social programs, and attacks on democratic rights that gave working people more room to maneuver.
The recent Supreme Court decisions should be seen in this context.
By attacking affirmative action, civil rights, and the right to privacy for workers, the Court has taken from working people some of the control they had over their jobs and lives-and it has handed more control over to the bosses.
The Court's actions should not be blamed on this or that right-wing justice on the bench, either. The decisions of this court reflect a pressing need of the entire capitalist class to cut back the Amercan workers' standard of living. The justices on the Court were put there to carry out the needs of the capitalist class, and they did their job.
As long as we live in a society where profit takes priority over human needs, no social gains will ever be secure. When times are tough, education, health, and wages will be the first to go.
Working people in this country will have to fight again for the rights stolen by the Supreme Court. But the capitalist class and its government will be much less willing to make concessions this time around. The fight for civil rights today will ultimately have to end with a new society free of capitalists and their courts.
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of community spirit. He helped support the chamber of
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COPS! SORRY! | THOUGHT YOU WERE BURNING A FLAG!