There is a profound disruption taking place n the economic foundation of society itself. A consequence of the new electronic tools of production is that fundamentally the economy is becoming increasingly “laborless.” The result is that the ruling class is employing every means at its disposal to maximize its shrinking profits by denying access to the basic necessities of life to a growing section of workers it no longer needs. That puts these new laborless workers in direct antagonism to the class which rules society. They must fight to survive and to secure the necessities of life – food, water, shelter, health care, education.
A broken economic system reveals the strategic weakness of the ruling class. The failure and clear intention never to provide for the food, housing or other basic requirements of life are exposed as a moral atrocity. How can a ruling class that so callously regards a growing section of the working class as superfluous be allowed to continue its rule? Nowhere is this immoral bankruptcy more apparent than in the conditions of millions of homeless in our society. It is the clearest indictment of the failure of a system based on private property, and deteriorating conditions of work, education, healthcare and access to food and water are all tied to homelessness.
This most impoverished section of the workers, across all color lines, is rising to combat their intolerable conditions of life. The article on “Baltimore: The Struggle Against Police Violence and the Fight for Class Unity” shows how in the growing response of the workers the ruling class is forced to drop any pretense of democracy and to unleash a police state as “the political attempt to maintain a social system of privilege by force and violence after its corresponding economic base has changed.” The only response must be to “use every instance of oppression and brutality to fight for the unity of our class.”
As the article “Water: It Belongs to All of Us” expresses it “ Water is life. No water = death.” On the one hand, as the capitalist class moves to define water as a property right, the workers on the other hand are losing their ability to pay and are finding themselves cut off. They have no choice but to fight for free access to water for all.
The article on the “Impulses Toward Third Party Opens Way for New Ideas” shows how the disregard of human rights, the rampant police killings and brutality, the militarization of the police and their expanding role as an “occupying force” are part of the expression of the polarization in society that is weakening the ties that bind the working class ideologically to the ruling class. It is in the context of this destruction of the capitalist system that third party motions develop. They are on the one hand an attempt on the part of the bourgeoisie in an unstable political environment to “misdirect” the working class in a time when the bribe that ties the workers to the ruling class can no longer be delivered.
On the other hand the people are losing faith in the system and see no future for themselves in it. They are searching for alternatives. This makes revolutionary propaganda even more critical. Without it, “the populist movements will only lead the workers back under corporate control and into the arms of the fascists.”
The article on the “New Politics Emerging in Chicago” is a concrete case in point. The growing disparity between wealth and poverty is reflected in the recent mayoral election campaign there, and shows the beginnings of the development of an independent politics. The agenda of the political elite there is to maximize profits wherever they can and in the process to eliminate a superfluous population. “Those whom they do not need, they will not feed.” But “the fight for Chicago’s dispossessed to have political representation is emerging.”
We are standing on the cusp of a new stage of the revolutionary process in America. “From the Editors: The Pursuit of Happiness,” recognizes that while we are embarking on a march that is qualitatively new, our revolutionary times are grounded in and arise out of the revolutionary beginnings and the history of America. Ours is a uniquely American revolution, and our cause today is to realize the aims and vision of a revolutionary class that has struggled so valiantly over the centuries to achieve a cooperative society, where all of the basic needs of humanity are fulfilled.
July/August Vol25.Ed4
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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