The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

White Workers Are Dying Young

Nov 9, 2015

The national media reported on a study showing that middle-aged white people have been dying at increasing rates since 1999, after many decades of decreases in death rates.

The study linked the increasing death rates to increases in suicides, drug and alcohol overdoses, and alcohol related liver diseases. The study’s authors said they didn’t know why this was happening.

The media make it an issue of “whites” in general—without mentioning the white working class and what’s been happening to it.

Newsflash! The white working class has been suffering through an economic crisis that, despite some ups and downs in the stock market, has been going on for a couple of decades. Their mortality rates are increasing because they’re starting to experience some of the same problems and illnesses that black workers have been exposed to for much longer due to high unemployment, poverty, and inequality.

The way the media talk about “whites” in general hides the fact that the white working class is being pushed back rapidly. The attack on them is part of the attack on the whole working class.

What kind of society is it where one class has all this wealth in their hands, then puts this kind of information in their papers, and then acts like no one knows why it happened?

Guess what? Workers know!