Ninety-five million American workers are permanently unemployed, according to a recent Harris poll. They are no longer included as being a part of the work force. In a wage-based economic system, a worker with no job means no money. No money means that worker has no means to obtain even the basic necessities of life: food, water, shelter, education or health care.
This is the situation in America today. And the real cause of it is that the American workers are being placed in the untenable position of having to compete with the robot. It is not the fault of the Mexicans, it is not the fault of the Chinese, and it is certainly not the fault of the American worker, no matter your color, nationality or gender. The real cause is that the new electronic, automated technology means that millions of workers are no longer needed. In an economic system based upon human labor and private property that means the system is irrevocably broken. The ruling class is desperately putting forward all kinds of “solutions” to fix, repair or reform the system so that it works again.
There is no going back. History shows that there have been times like these, when the only solution is to move forward to reorganize society on a new basis, in alignment with the new economy and its new tools. The year 1860 was such a time. American history up until that time had been dominated by a slave-based agrarian economy. Capitalist industry was rapidly developing in the North, fueled by new steam-powered machinery. Out of the developing polarization, a new third party, the Republican Party led by Abraham Lincoln, won the election in 1860 with 40 per cent of the vote. Only the Civil War was able to finally resolve the conflict in favor of the new industry.
We face a similar situation today. A new technology is forcing the leap to a new stage in human history in which society is reorganized on a new foundation. It is this reality that is finding expression in the elections today. More than two-thirds of the American people understand that the country is headed in the wrong direction and that something must be done. After all of the turmoil of the electoral season and the demand to move in a different direction, we get the two most unpopular nominees in history, the candidates no one wants.
The meaning of this election is that nothing is being resolved by it. The elections are only preparing the ground for the battle to continue. The demand of this moment is to advance the process in which a “political revolution” is carried forward on the basis of this new class, united around a program designed to finally decide the matter in their own interests.
We are in a battle for the future of America. For the revolutionaries, those who understand that fundamental change is necessary, it means the building of a political revolution that will truly transform America in favor of humanity.
July/August 2016 Vol26.Ed4
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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