This year we got a concentrated dose of what has long ailed our country — historical systematic racism, anti-government militias bent on violence against politicians, governments at every level that put the interests of the corporations ahead of the people. COVID-19 and the massive protests after the George Floyd murder exposed the full meaning of these long-standing horrors to our class.
These events were like signposts, indicators, if you will, of a much deeper process at work. To move forward after the election, we need to understand these processes, how they have advanced our fight, and the solutions they hold for us. The articles in this issue of Rally, Comrades! share our perspective of the problems we face, what we can do about them, and a vision for the future.
The often-heard statement “These elections are like no other in our history” is true because the conditions are unlike any other in history. Global transformation is shattering and transforming all existing social and political relationships. Automated production within the wage labor value system is polarizing society with unheard-of wealth on one side and unheard-of poverty on the other. It is destroying the basis of modern society, and it lies at the heart of the economic and political crisis that is engulfing the globe. It is giving the struggles around the world a revolutionary character.
Going forward, any U.S. Presidential administration, Democrat or Republican, would have had to grapple with this historical reality and its results. The U.S. ruling class today, and their political mouthpieces, are not in disagreement about the defense of the private property system and U.S. global hegemony. They are in dangerous disagreement over how those goals should be accomplished. This is why they are fighting so hard to get our class behind one or another of their competing proposals and political parties within the electoral and every other arena.
At the same time, it is impossible to maintain the existing political and economic order with the new economic foundation that is being created. For the ruling class, fascism is the only way out. For us, the working class, the fight for a cooperative, communist society is the only path.
“After the Elections: The Fight for our Future” shows the direction our fight must take. If we accept the domination of corporate property in the form of a fascist state, then government that derives its just powers from the “consent of the governed” will become a thing of the past. The alternative is to plan now to make a fight for real democracy, take government away from corporations, put it genuinely in the hands of the people, and reorganize the economy around distribution according to human need instead of private profit. We cannot secure real and lasting democracy as long as control over the necessities of human life is left in the hands of private corporations.
Our class needs its own political movement to clear the way for this new society. This movement is beginning to develop before our very eyes.
“What Kind of Government do We Need to Survive the Pandemic?” shows how the rising resistance of the people is rooted in a new awareness of how our government works hand in glove with the corporations to protect the interests of the ruling class, even to the extent of transforming moral values to justify their actions.
This reality has opened up the fighters thinking about the need for new solutions — unity based on our common economic interests and the practical solution of providing people with what they need. Revolutionaries play an important role by showing a vision of how our society’s wealth could be used for the benefit of all once it is freed from private ownership.
We see this new understanding in all areas of the fight. “Immigrant Youth Seek Unity Against the System” shows how the most socially conscious immigrants’ rights organizers realize that today they cannot just mobilize a struggle for immigrants’ rights within the existing system because the whole economic and political system is no longer working. The system’s abuse of immigrants cannot be ended without ending its ability to abuse any section of the poorest class of Americans.
“From Fighting Eviction to Cancelling Rent” shows that rising demands for rent forgiveness or cancellation is a precursor of the kind of housing system that modern technology makes possible. It is time for humanity to find a way to create a system where housing is made available regardless of ability to pay.
The demands of our class are well within our grasp. Today, we have the technology so that no one has to risk their lives to work or go without adequate healthcare or struggle for our most basic survival needs. In fact, we have the technology today to re-envision the whole concept of basic needs so that all Americans can have what we need to live the life we dream of living.
The fight for basic needs that has guided us through this electoral season will continue to guide us in 2021, but when we recognize our power as a class, that very fight will transform from one of survival to one of human liberation. RC
November.December 2020 Vol30.Ed6
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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