As the ruling class attempts to impose fascism to maintain the system of private property that is the source of their power and wealth, a strong and diverse social force is rising up to oppose them. This new class of workers that is being created by labor-replacing electronic technology embodies a new social force. Unable to survive today’s economy because their jobs have been eliminated, this new class must fight for a new society that is based on the distribution of such necessities as food, housing, clothing, healthcare, and education, according to need.
The article, “We Face the Same Enemy,” explains how the ideology, presented by the representatives of the ruling class, demonizes Muslims, Mexicans, Central Americans, Haitians, and others, to place the blame on migrants for the inability of American workers to make ends meet. In reality, the responsibility for global suffering lies with new labor-replacing technology, controlled by an economic system based on private property, a system that the ruling class must protect at all costs. Migrants and U.S. workers of all nationalities face the same enemy – a ruling class – which keeps them divided to prevent the class unity required to reconstruct society in the interests of all humanity.
As is pointed out in “Strategy and the Political Center of Gravity Today,” it is inside the new class that we find the current political center of gravity. The progression of labor-replacing, automated production throughout the economy is forcing the ruling class to strike at its base of political support, by destroying the stable economic conditions of millions of formerly secure workers, that politically tied the mass of society to the ruling class. Their economic stability and security was the foundation for their acceptance of ruling class ideology and their political support of ruling class policies. We call these millions of formerly secure workers the dispossessed section of the new class. They are the current political center of gravity that both sides have to fight over.
Women are fighting for the whole class because their position in society demands it, as is discussed in “Women Demand a Transformed World.” This past January, for the third consecutive year, women took to the streets across the U.S. to protest against government policies and call for justice and equality. The women of a new class of workers – contingent, part-time, low-paid, unemployed, homeless – have had to fight for basic necessities, without which they and their children cannot survive. They fight for the end to violence against them and their families, for the social support they need, to be able to care for their aging parents, for healthcare, education, childcare and for food on the family table. Their fight has thrown them into a position of leadership in the movement around these necessities.
Single payer, improved Medicare for all, is not a pipedream, as is made clear in “The Fight for Healthcare for All.” The only thing that has kept comprehensive healthcare from being provided to all the people of the United States is refusal, on the part of the ruling capitalist class, in their drive to produce maximum profits at the expense of the people. The ruling class uses the Democrats and Republicans, in a two-party system of rule, to trick, exploit, and oppress us. They have the political power to deny us healthcare for now, but the article argues that healthcare is a right, and rights are fought for. Only with a society of the people, by the people, and for the people, where ownership of the social means of production, including the healthcare industry, is public property owned by society, are we going to solve this conundrum in healthcare, along with all the other basic demands for the necessities of life.
As is clear in this edition’s “From the Editors: The Meaning of Venezuela,” there is a global workers’ movement in the making. Social upheavals are increasing, and protests, marches, and civil disobedience worldwide are characteristic of this epoch. The world’s workers need democracy, peace, and the economic conditions to build a stable and cultured life. These demands are the basis of unity for the workers of the world and tie U.S. workers to those of Venezuela.
The role of American revolutionaries is to develop the consciousness of the American working class as it fights its own ruling class for education, healthcare, food, housing and against war. In these battles for the necessities of life, we bring to the fore our real class interests so that we, the working classes of the world, can unite and fight for our future. Together, we can insure that society’s productive capacity is transformed from private property to public property, so the abundance made possible by today’s advanced technology can be shared and utilized by all. RC
March/April 2019 Vol29.Ed2
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