  In this paper it is shown that unique solutions to the relativistic Boltzmann
equation exist for all time and decay with any polynomial rate towards their
steady state relativistic Maxwellian provided that the initial data starts out
sufficiently close in $L^\infty_\ell$. If the initial data are continuous then
so is the corresponding solution. We work in the case of a spatially periodic
box. Conditions on the collision kernel are generic in the sense of
(Dudy{\'n}ski and Ekiel-Je{\.z}ewska, Comm. Math. Phys., 1988); this resolves
the open question of global existence for the soft potentials.
