In the middle of an election year, Donald Trump has been impeached. And acquitted. The impeachment and trial constituted a battleground in which the ruling class fought it out over how, in a world of instability and polarization, to advance U.S. global economic and geopolitical power.
As the article “China’s Rise and the Historical Decline of the U.S.” points out, the policies of the Trump administration are an expression of the process of polarization, not the cause. The world order that has been in place since the fall of the Soviet Union, a unipolar, hegemonic order dominated by the U.S., is now being challenged by the rise of a new, multipolar world order.
Underneath all of the posturing and rhetoric are the dark realities of a world economy in crisis. The ruling class today does not disagree about what must be done to preserve private property and maintain U.S. domination globally. However, they do not agree over how that should be accomplished.
As “From the Editors: Impeachment and Our Fight” indicates, Trump should be impeached. For that matter, the whole ruling class should be “impeached.” They have proven that they are unfit to rule. Now, with the “green light” of acquittal, forces within the Trump administration see themselves in a position to shape and advance the merger of the State and the corporations: A fascist economy and society.
The global crisis and the failure of the ruling class to resolve it is graphically expressed in the “unnatural disasters” that afflict not only human beings but the survival of our planet. The article “Superbugs: Intersection of Technology, Healthcare and Ecology” describes the development of how superbugs, harmful bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, are part of a growing list of unnatural disasters that have been engendered by the failures of capitalism and the private property system.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Every effort by the ruling class to resolve the crisis in their favor only worsens the plight of the world proletariat, globally and here in the U.S. Out of necessity, the workers who have been discarded and victimized are forced to fight for the very right to life itself. Workers are beginning to break with their rulers and to wage a battle for the necessities of life: food, shelter, clean water, and a clean environment, education, healthcare.
The impeachment and trial of Trump is a battleground where the ruling class is fighting out how to clear the way to resolve the crisis in their favor. The elections of 2020 can also be viewed as a battleground. This time it is not only various representatives of the ruling class that is putting forward their solutions. The new class of workers is taking their fight for their basic needs into the electoral arena. The door is being opened to political revolution. But as the article “Opening the Door to Political Revolution” points out, political revolution is more than a slogan. It is a life and death political struggle to claw control of government away from the corporations, return their resources to the public, and establish a working-class democracy. This can be summed up as a cooperative economy, where housing, food, health care, and education are available to each according to their need and from each according to their ability.
From Skid Row in Los Angeles, the article “Women’s Homelessness is a Crisis of Civilization” reports how homelessness among women is increasing in drastic ways. It rightfully understands that this is a crisis facing civilization, even while it remains the greatest hidden story in the U.S. In the words of one homeless mother: “When we talk about the unhoused, women are not valued when they lose their housing, their family. They are the most vulnerable. This is very deep; we cannot stay still. We cannot waste time; we need to rise for the sake of our daughters, our granddaughters.”
“Epochal Change Brings Forth New Leadership” emphasizes the reality we are describing. America is a vast country, and its history shows that mass uprisings are key to the revolutionary process here. Political organizing has to be local to prepare for this inevitability, deeply imbedded in the grievances of the community, and giving rise to local leaders who are in touch with these aspirations and motion.
During these times of epochal change, new demands are put upon a new class equalized by poverty, oppression, and exploitation. And they are rising to the challenge. The door to revolution is being opened by individuals, local groups and organizations all across the country, as well as finding expression in the elections. The revolution is global, it is national, but in the first place, the revolution is local. RC
March/April 2020 Vol30. Ed2
This article originated in Rally, Comrades
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