In this, our July/August issue, we look to the growing movement that is sweeping the country. This movement is not simply opposing, defending, or standing against something. It is fighting for something, and it is the task of revolutionaries to show the meaning of the fight.
This is so, because the foundation of this movement is the economic revolution that has caused an irreconcilable antagonism between new automated means of production and the old capitalist system of buying and selling labor power. Regardless of what this movement may think now, or think it knows now, this movement has no choice but to overturn the existing order and replace it with a cooperative communist society.
“The Fight for Water is a Fight for a New Society” exposes the corporate takeover of one of the most basic of necessities – water – and the role of the government in facilitating this takeover. We can see what the question of the immorality and danger of this merger of the corporations and the government presents to the peoples of not only our country but the world. Fighting for making water a human right means fighting for the public ownership of water and other life-giving natural resources.
“Women Leading the Fight in the Interests of all Society” shows that women are leaders in today’s most active motions for a new society. They are fighting for health care, housing, water, the earth, better wages, quality public education, and against sexual violence and harassment, the firearms corporations, police murder of unarmed people, and the deportation and separation of families. All of these women are fighting for the entire working class, as they demand the government provide the basic necessities of life.
“Confronting the System in Silicon Valley,” analyzes the significance and reasons behind the political power of the technology industry, with a focus on Silicon Valley. The struggle for a better life by workers who live there is held back by the economic and political power of the tech industry. The article also shows how Silicon Valley is microcosm of a world-wide process wrought by electronic revolution and the revolutionary transformation it engenders.
Our cover article, “Revolutionary Work in 21st Century Elections,” examines the process of consciousness, how it develops through its various stages, and reflects a relationship between ideas, the economy, and the social struggle. The article examines how the electoral process offers one of the broadest available arenas for worker participation in the political struggle and for revolutionaries to influence the thinking of the workers. It shows how revolutionaries work within the electoral arena for class unity, class political organization, and the vision of a peaceful and cooperative society.
“Electoral Politics: Key Arena for Rising Movement” examines the ways in which the workers are being compelled to enter the electoral arena to fight for their basic needs. Regardless of party labels, they are unleashing a debate about whether we can have true democracy when corporations dominate the economy and the government. They are demanding a different kind of society where the interests of the majority – the working class – take priority. Once it is grasped by millions, that we are a class with independent interests from the ruling class, the fight of the people for political power to create a new cooperative society will leap forward.
The electoral arena is a key battleground and is a means to educate millions of people to prepare for the battles that lie ahead. Class interests can be clarified, when the workers use the electoral process to help carry out their fight to force the government to guarantee that their basic needs are met.
Finally, “From the Editors: Reverend Pinkney is Free! ” celebrates the victory of the entire movement in the freeing of one of its steadfast leaders, Reverend Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan. Benton Harbor and Reverend Pinkney are at the center of what can only be described as a fascist offensive, first taking over government and operating it in the interests of the corporations, and then moving to contain and crush the rising motion of especially those workers cut off from obtaining the necessities of life. He represents a new kind of leader, who is uncompromising and steadfast in the fight to meet the needs of the people.
In his own words: “Let us make this struggle a victory for all the people. Let us take control of this country, away from the corporations, and build a society where the people, not the corporations, make the decisions.” Reverend Pinkney stands as a beacon for all revolutionaries who are engaged in this fight.
July/August 2018 Vol28.Ed4
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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