Destruction of statues seeks to erase history we need to know – The Militant

....“Without slavery, no Greek state, no Greek art and science, without slavery, no Roman Empire. But without the basis laid by Hellenism and the Roman Empire, also no modern Europe. We should never forget that our whole economic, political and intellectual development presupposes a state of things in which slavery was as necessary as it was universally recognized,” he said. “In this sense we are entitled to say: Without the slavery of antiquity no modern socialism.”

The working class has an interest in developing a long view of history — understanding how civilization emerged from the earliest toolmakers; how exploitative social systems developed as ruling classes subjugated the toiling majority; and especially how human progress is driven by inevitable rebellions of slaves, serfs, laborers and other oppressed classes throughout history. Through revolutionary struggles more advanced social systems replace outmoded ones.

The bosses and their government want us to believe that people are inherently greedy and capitalism will last forever. But history teaches that the working class and its exploited and oppressed allies are capable of uniting to overthrow dog-eat-dog capitalism, transforming ourselves in the process, and taking political power into our own hands. This will be the mightiest weapon possible for working people to carry forward the battle to end Black oppression and every form of human degradation inherited from millennia of class-divided society....

Destruction of statues seeks to erase history we need to know – The Militant