President
Trump had this to say about professional athletes taking a knee
during the National Anthem: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of
these NFL owners,
when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a
bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’”
What
was the response? The Pittsburgh Steelers refused to take the field
during the Anthem. Many of the Super Bowl champion New England
Patriots took a knee. National Anthem singers at two separate games,
Meghan Linsey and Rico Lavelle, took a knee while performing. The
Oakland Athletics’ Bruce Maxwell, was the first baseball player to
take a knee. Basketball star Steph Curry refused to attend the White
House celebration for the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors.
The
new cast of “Star Trek: Discovery” took a knee on their premiere
night. The list goes on. The expressions of solidarity are
incredible. Despite his absence on the field, the NFL Player’s
Union awarded Kaepernick with the Week One MVP for his charity work.
He recently donated $25,000 in the fight for DACA.
It
is likely that the NFL owners are scrambling to find a way around
slumping popularity to maintain their profit margins. Dallas Cowboys
owner Jerry Jones originally loathed the kneeling protests, yet he
linked arms with his players and took a knee before the national
anthem during Monday Night Football on Sept. 25. The spectacular
photo-op was a perfect way to begin blurring the lines between the
original intent of Kaepernick’s protest and the owners’
self-interest.
League
ratings continue to fall. The NFL boycott and player protest is
working. Broadcasting stocks took a nosedive this week, a fall of
between 1% and 8%. Trump attributed the low ratings to “new league
rules” that penalize excessively hard tackles. This hyper-masculine
explanation defies all scientific evidence of increased brain trauma
among current and retired players. Recent discovery of one of the
most severe case of Stage 3 Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)
was found during an autopsy of Aaron Hernandez, who committed suicide
while awaiting trial for murder charges.
Fans
are turning away from the NFL because they are sick and tired of
injustice. They want to stand in solidarity with Kaepernick. What
does it mean for the working class when the president calls for the
best paid workers to be fired for their political beliefs? He is
signaling to employers everywhere that it is open season to fire
workers for expressing their own unique ideas.
Is
it unrealistic to consider an NFL player strike? The deepening
political consciousness of professional athletes is opening an
interesting arena in the class struggle. This includes a solidarity
letter to Kaepernick penned by military veterans: “However you
choose to use your voice, please do so with an understanding that
many veterans do not condemn the protest of activists like Jackie
Robinson, Colin Kaepernick and everyday Americans seeking justice.
Indeed, we see no higher form of patriotism.”
The
U.S. government pays millions to NFL owners to convene patriotic
displays during games. It can be argued that the Pittsburgh Steelers’
not appearing on field during the “Star Spangled Banner” was a
type of brief work stoppage or wildcat strike. The patriotic illusion
is not successfully created when the players are not standing and
saluting the flag.
Workers
everywhere are getting a real lesson that the U.S. flag really
represents police brutality, war, and the bosses’ profits. What
could a player strike accomplish? It could quickly resolve
Kaepernick’s status on the NFL owners’ blacklist and put an end
to harassment by Trump and the bosses. A player strike could also
build confidence in the working class and serve as a popular example
for the power of mass collective struggle against the bosses.
>> The article above was written by Ernie Gotta, and is reprinted from Socialist Action.
1 comment:
Lol Nope! The revolution always consumes itself!
Socialists only make Democrats switch to Republicans!
Hahhahahahahahahahahaha!
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