The reactionary Proposition 209 bars "preferential treatment" based on race or gender in public employment, education, and contracting in California. The measure was passed in last November's election by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent, after an intense debate and many street actions opposing the proposition.

Affirmative action is central to removing barriers of racial and sex discrimination in jobs, education, housing, and other institutions. Capitalist politicians argue against "racial preferences" to justify their assault on programs won by Blacks during the massive civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and subsequently by other oppressed nationalities and women. But preferences aren't a recent development - it's just the bosses always "preferred" to divide the working class based on race and gender until Blacks, Chicanos, women, and others stood up and demanded equal rights.

The latest attack on affirmative action is a blow to the union movement and to the working class as a whole. The ruling will put wind in the sails of rightists who scapegoat Blacks, immigrants, and women, while paving the way for deeper assaults. The court action already has spurred similar initiatives in several other states.

Discrimination is institutionalized in capitalist society. Moreover, the very way that capitalism operates day in and day out constantly reproduces and thus reinforces inequalities, to the benefit of the employers. As the economic crisis of capitalism deepens, the bosses are forced to attempt to lower all wages. Affirmative action pushes back this attempt to pay some workers less. The employers and their government will never act on their own ensure equality, and will back every discriminatory practice in the workplace, schools, and elsewhere.

Class-conscious workers and youth, along with the union movement, must demand that the employers and their government establish and enforce affirmative action measures - including quotas - to guarantee the inclusion of oppressed nationalities and women in the workplace, college admissions, loans, and housing. This will put the working class in the best position to build the unity needed to fight for jobs for all, a shorter workweek with no cut in pay, to raise the minimum wage, and for other such demands.  
 
 
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