The death of Muhammad Ali, as the ex-world heavy-weight boxing champion, Cassius Clay, chose to call himself, triggered an outrageous number of hypocritical tributes. From Obama to the entire British media, including the most racist rags - they've all gone out of their way to claim the deceased as their own!

So the xenophobic Sunday Express had a full page entitled: "Boxing legend Muhammad Ali's special relationship with Britain". But, in fact, all it was about, was the 3 fights that Ali had in London - 3 out of over 70, not much of a "relationship", let alone a "special" one! As to the Sunday Times, it carried a huge 2-page headline claiming "'Honorary Brit' would have loved being Sir Muhammad."

But, on the contrary, Ali's real claim to fame - apart from his boxing skills - is precisely his determination to stand by what he believed in, without conceding anything to the establishment.

Against racism and the Vietnam war

Unlike most sport figures, Ali was not out just to make a name for himself. From the early 1960s - and for as long as his Parkinson's disease allowed him to stand in a ring - he used his fame to champion the black people's cause, at a time when segregation was rife in the USA.

Ali was born to a poor family, in Louisville, a town which was - and still is today - the scene of police shootings of black youth. Revolted by the racism of the society he was living in, Ali was convinced by Malcolm X to join the Nation of Islam - as a way of asserting black people's dignity in a society which treated them as underdogs.

Later on, he was to give his support to the Black Panthers (or Black Panther Party for Self-Defence), an organisation set up by radical blacks to defend themselves against the attacks of the racist Ku-Kux-Klan thugs and the brutality of the police.

But it was probably Ali's stance against the Vietnam war, which inspired most people. In 1966, when 500 soldiers were being killed in Vietnam every week and twice as many Vietnamese, Ali was drafted into the army. But he refused, stating:

"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?"

Going further, Ali called on others to follow his example: "I won't be used by powerful white men as a tool to kill other people who are fighting for their own beliefs and freedoms, and neither should you, especially if you're poor and/or black."

Making this stand was to cost Ali dearly. But he was prepared to face it: "I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We've been in jail for 400 years."

Eventually, in 1971, his 5-year jail sentence was overturned. In the meantime, however, he had been deprived of his boxing licence for 3 years, at the height of his physical capability.

The need to fight, yes, but collectively

Ali's public stance reinforced those who were opposing the draft - and the growing anti-war movement in the US. More importantly, it reinforced the young working class soldiers who were resisting the war in Vietnam itself, thereby helping to make the US army so unmanageable that the US government was finally forced to withdraw its troops.

Contrary to the way in which the powers-that-be portray him today, Ali was not - and never wanted to be - an icon. But for several generations - in the US and beyond - he was a living example that keeping your head down was not an option against racism and war: fighting back was the only choice worth making.

Muhammad Ali never claimed to be more than he actually was. He never claimed to be able to offer a future to the working class and poor at the receiving end of this society. He simply wanted to inspire among them, a sense of dignity and a determination to stand by their beliefs, against the injustices which plague this society. And this is what he should be remembered for.

However, one man, no matter how gifted and famous, could not - and cannot - change society on his own. This world may be, superficially, a bit less racist, at least in the richest countries, than it was in the days of Ali's youth. But it is definitely at least as unequal - if not more.

And the only way to change this, together with ridding society of racism and wars, is to get rid of the system which is the root cause of these diseases - the profit system. And, to this end, we will need millions of us to be inspired by Ali's defiance and determination - but millions standing up and fighting collectively, in order to free society from the corrupt parasitism of capitalism.