Over the past several years, particularly since the beginning of the 2008 global financial crisis, the protests and struggles of the peoples of the world have set the world on fire as they fight back against the misery and suffering imposed on them by a handful of ultra-wealthy capitalists.
They face the consolidation of a world fascist order, led by the U.S. In the U.S., the political and economic elements of fascism are already in place. The social features of fascism are starting to emerge. The horrendous Newtown, Connecticut killings are the latest example, but these kinds of violent acts are becoming more frequent. Before Newtown there were the killings at the movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado and before that the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida.
Added to these well-publicized killings are the daily hardly publicized killings taking place around the country. In 2012, there were over 500 homicides in Chicago. The U.S. police kill a Black person every 36 hours. A woman is murdered in the U.S. every three hours. U.S. bombs and drones kill men, women and children internationally. The militarization of the economy and the drive toward war are real.
The reality is that capitalism at its foundation — wage labor — is being destroyed. Human life has been cheapened to the lowest level because of the elimination of human labor. We see it everywhere — in the joblessness, the growing hunger, the lack of medical care, and the escalating violence. We see it in the relentless campaign by the capitalist class to convince the American people that this reality is in their interests. We see it in the steady shift in the thinking of the American people as they struggle to understand their plight and grasp for resolutions to their problems.
The article “Elections 2012: Austerity, Third Parties and the Global Economy” discusses the relationship between the growing economic competition for markets among the capitalists of the world, why this competition inevitably will lead to war, and how the 2012 elections were crucial to preparing the American people to accept the fascist resolution of war, austerity and violence.
It also shows that the underlying social antagonism and bipartisan austerity of today makes it impossible for the two-party system to contain the class struggle. This is giving rise to a growing impulse from various forces to come together in a third party that can take political steps to redress the rising tide of grievances experienced by the American people.
The various strands that make up the outlook of the American people, including the prevalent ideology of “as long as it’s not me, I don’t care,” and the unraveling of a sense of community and social responsibility, are all part of the terrain of values, thinking and views that revolutionaries must take into account. The culture of violence is particularly extreme in the U.S. and is helping to prepare the way for the consolidation and enforcement of a fascist society.
The article “Paradoxes in American Thinking” examines the contradictions in the thinking of the American people revealed by the 2012 elections. On the one hand, they maintain their allegiance to the capitalist class and its institutions, still hoping that their problems will be solved as they always have been. On the other hand, they are increasingly dissatisfied, open to new ideas, and for many, increasingly willing to act to resolve the social ills of the country.
The polarization that is taking place in society is giving rise to a section of people who care about what is happening in the world and are beginning to fight for the basic demands of life for themselves and others. The cover article “Chicago Teachers Union Strike – The Politics of Power” shows that the peoples’ anger against attacks on public education, and their growing awareness of the inequalities of wealth and poverty, provided the environment that carried the strike beyond the traditional contract struggle into a social consciousness of class against class.
No ideological current in American history has been more devastating to the fight for class understanding than racial ideology. The article “Race and the New Class” discusses how ideologies arise in history, the material foundation for racial ideology in the capitalist era, and how, with new technologies, the material foundation for all past ideologies, including racism is crumbling.
For the first time in human history, the material foundation exists to make possible a society that can provide for all. It means that for the first time we can not only envision — but can win — a world where people can finally be free to become fully human, free of fear, of poverty, violence and desperation. To win this world, workers must align their thinking with the promise of what the new technologies make possible and unite on that basis. Revolutionaries must take up the challenge to reach out to our people and give voice to the vision of this future that is now possible.
January/February 2013. Vol23.Ed1
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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