By Keegan D., Red Phoenix correspondent, Illinois.

Every year liberal bourgeois think tanks and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) release reports that claim to rank and determine the levels of democracy within countries around the globe. Somehow the US ranks near the top consistently, with only a few of these democracy ratings being bold enough to knock off points for Trump’s attempted coup in January of 2021. As citizens, we see these reports praise our democracy. But simultaneously we have watched an unelected, unrepresentative, and anti-democratic judicial body revoke the rights of Americans consistently over the past several years.

The largest setback in women’s rights in decades was the repeal of Roe v. Wade, which protected the right to abortion nationwide, in June 2022. This was the first of several major repeals of American peoples’ rights. Over the past week the Supreme Court has released several highly regressive rulings that will be detrimental to several minority communities as well as the proletarian class as a whole. These cases will be far from the end of this court’s reactionary rulings as each case becomes a precedent to further the removal of rights and privileges of oppressed communities. A look inside three of the most recent rulings show just that.

Student loan relief ruling

The court’s ruling on Biden’s proposed bill to relieve student loan debt was 6-3 against, which blocked over 20,000 students from receiving relief. America is already one of the few developed nations without some form of universal or free college education, and this ruling sets the potential for this to happen back even farther. College education has become highly necessary for a majority of American workers who enter into the workforce, but the high cost of education in a profit-motivated system creates a major barrier for impoverished and minority communities. Education on a community-wide scale is absolutely key to ending cycles of poverty, but America’s current college system perpetuates that cycle. Those few who do overcome the systemic disadvantages for impoverished people and get into college are often weighed down by student loans after graduation that limit their abilities to use their degrees to better their own economic situations, let alone their communities. Biden’s proposal, while a step in the right direction, was only a reformist measure to provide minimal relief from large, unpayable student loans. The Court’s decision against this “small step” from the administration not only prevents people from receiving relief, but can be used by the court as a precedent to stop further attempts to address the inherent flaws in America’s higher education system.

Affirmative action ruling

The Court also attacked college students of the future by ruling 6-3 against affirmative action in the admissions process. Affirmative action is the often misunderstood policy where in assessing entry applications, colleges can consider the race of a student in order to maintain diversity on campus. All applicants still have to first meet the other required standards for admittance, before the applicant’s identity is considered. This was to address the severe disparity between white populations and historically oppressed minority groups. Affirmative action first began to appear in the college admission process in the late 1960s when individual colleges developed programs to promote diversity on campuses. The move by these schools was in response to over a decade of protests centered around the end of segregation, racial discrimination, and poverty. People of oppressed races and nationalities, workers, and students had begun to develop more political and revolutionary attitudes throughout the decade with groups like the Black Panther Party, American Indian Movement, Students for a Democratic Society, and politicized labor unions. Capitalist institutions reeled back in fear at this level of political organization among the toiling masses, and were quick to institute half-measures in an attempt to placate the radical sentiments of these groups. Affirmative action was a key response by universities to do just that. Affirmative action of course left a lot to be desired in terms of addressing systemic issues at the root of disparity between white students and minority groups in education. Issues of class and problems related to primary education still needed to be addressed to properly fix that. However, from a reform standpoint, affirmative action was a progressive measure. Overall, both of these decisions by the Court attacked the availability of necessary education. The rulings will further create a two-tier system of haves and have-nots. They will maintain the entrapment of a population of the working class in brutal and oppressive wage labor, much to the benefit of the American bourgeoisie. These decisions will also deepen the inequalities between racial groups that intersect with the class oppression of the proletariat as a whole.

The removal of LGBTQIA+ protections

The third recent ruling by the court determined that businesses could refuse service to LGBTQIA+ individuals on the grounds of “free speech.” Again, the vote was 6-3 in favor. This ruling was made in response to a Colorado business owner who refused to make wedding websites for queer marriages, previously illegal under Colorado law. This comes following a sharp rise in anti-queer sentiment from conservatives and reactionaries. The rhetoric against LGBTQ+ peoples began with anti-transgender prejudices, with right-wingers arguing that transgender individuals were indoctrinating children. This delusion is often based on grossly misreported accounts of drag shows for kids. But in the first place, drag is not the same as being transgender. This reflects a fallacious assumption that homosexuality is linked to pedophilia, typically drawn from the unfortunate historical practice of pederasty. But in modern times this belief has evolved into thinking that the queer community as a whole are “groomers.” As anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments grew, several lawmakers and judges began to pass bills and rule against protections for these communities. The Colorado case is no different. The right to refuse service based on sexual orientation also potentially re-opens previously solved issues of not allowing service based on race, ethnicity, religion, and political beliefs as well.

An unelected body with authority for life

Not a single person who has decided on any of these cases was elected by the American people, let alone the American working class. Three of these Justices were put in power by the most reactionary president in decades, to rule against the rights of the American working class until their death or voluntary retirement. You cannot reform a system that puts in place people whose power to revoke civil rights is life-long. As capitalism’s contradictions become more untenable, reactionary ideologies become more aggressive to defend capital in its dying breaths. The supreme court is stacked with reactionary ideologues, and the court is used as a tool to defend capitalism.

While the removal of rights from different communities can seem unrelated to that core objective, all of these decisions work in tandem with one another. Together they diminish the power of the proletariat, and maintain bourgeois control. Instead of voting for Democrats, who chose to do absolutely nothing to stop the Court, or waiting for enough of these reactionary judges to drop dead from old age — and foolishly counting on future bourgeois leaders to represent the proletariat’s interest — a different type of action is required. Solidarity between various oppressed groups and the working class as a whole must come together on the basis of our shared oppression. All of these cases attack the most powerless members of the working class. Without proletarian solidarity and organization there is little in the way to stop further abuses against us. We have seen the power of the proletariat make the bourgeoisie tremble before, which has won concessions that unfortunately placate the class movement, such as affirmative action. We must not be satisfied by half measures. With political organization the bourgeoisie and their Supreme Court lackeys can do little but tremble in the face of a united proletariat. Without, they will continue to proudly and boldly strip our rights in service of the capitalist system. The choice is ours.

Categories: Education, Government, LGBTQIA+, U.S. News, Workers Struggle