The booing of players taking the knee by Millwall fans attending the first "live" match since the lockdown, came as a shock. But bad enough as that was, these racists then claimed that this had nothing to do with racism! They said they were merely against Black Lives Matter - BLM - "because it is a political organisation"! What's more, Boris Johnson's Environment Secretary, George Eustice immediately chimed in to agree with them... No surprise there, though.

    Of course, this idea that BLM is a "political organisation" is ridiculous. BLM really is the epitome of a "movement", embracing many ordinary people - and yes, for sure, many political organisations support it. Those who refuse to acknowledge this, however, often come from political organisations themselves. Like Trump-Republicans or the far-right, whether in the USA, or here in Britain. It is politically-organised racists, in particular, who are likely to counterpose that no, "all lives matter", or come up with the argument that BLM is "political". In truth, they support the cops' killing season against black men in the USA, including the deliberate murder of George Floyd. They support the singling out of black youth by cops over here. Indeed, black lives do not matter to them.

    So it is side-stepping the issue to answer them by saying "we are for equality", or "we are against discrimination" when the problem here is racism, pure and rotten. Since the Millwall incident, this is what has been happening: players held up placards "against inequality", instead of taking the knee - although one did hold up his fist! These may just be symbolic gestures, but they have come to mean solidarity against killer cops and against the wider, racist establishment.

    And yes, it is true that racism will not be eradicated by kneeling, or any other gesture. Racism is part of the class system which divides workers in order to keep them in their place. So it is this system which has to be targeted. And by the way, for that task, a political organisation is indispensable!