I’m back to talk more about revolution: how, in the situation that is now rapidly intensifying, a revolution involving millions of people could actually succeed.

In my last message (Number Ten) I spoke to the basic approach and some basic principles to guide revolutionary fighting forces in taking on and defeating the powerful armed forces of repression of this system, as the conditions that make this possible are brought into being. And I called attention to the fact that at revcom.us there is the very important statement, Revolution—Building Up The Basis to Go For The Whole Thing, With A Real Chance To Win: Strategic Orientation And Practical Approach, and a five-part series Revolution: A Real Chance To Win, where I go more extensively and in depth into the strategic approach that could make it possible for this revolution to actually win.

Here, I am going to get further into the relation between the overall developing situation and the possibility for a revolution to have a real chance to win.

In this country right now there is a deepening crisis and bitter, profound divisions among the powers-that-be.

A big part of the population, and a major section of the ruling class, represented by the Republican Party, has become fascist: based on open and aggressive white supremacy, male supremacy and other oppressive relations—refusing to accept the outcome of elections it does not win, determined to gut and pervert “the rule of law,” trample on people’s rights, and adopt what amounts to an undisguised capitalist dictatorship, ready to use violence not only against masses of people but also against its rivals in the ruling class. This fascist section of the ruling class no longer believes in, and has more or less openly abandoned, what have been the “cohering norms”—the regulating set of beliefs and processes—of this system.

The other section of the ruling class, represented by the Democratic Party, is trying to maintain the “democratic” form through which this system exercises political power—an actual dictatorship—over the masses of people in this country, in order to maintain its system of brutal exploitation and murderous oppression, backed up by mass slaughter, which this ruling class continues to carry out all over the world.

The presidential election this year, 2024, will be a sharp focus of the fight between these ruling class parties—Democrats and Republicans—a fight that is very likely to break all out of the bounds of the “normal way” they exercise power over the people, and keep their whole system going.

This could lead to armed clashes between the opposing sections of the ruling class, which could even develop into large-scale military confrontation—a new kind of civil war. In any case, this kind of profound crisis within the ruling system is bound to affect every part of society, and every major institution of this system, including its armed forces—with the real potential for major splits in those institutions.

The fascists in this country as a whole are not as great in numbers as those who are opposed to the fascists, but these fascists are driven by an irrational fanaticism, fueled by the notion that this country will not be worth living in, if they do not take extreme measures to reverse the way things are going. They also have a lot of initiative because a major section of the ruling class is made up of fascists, who dominate very important institutions, including the Supreme Court, and they are also willing to act outside of the “normal procedures” of this system and mobilize violent fanatics to achieve their goals.

At the same time, among the majority of people who are opposed to this fascism, too many are still going along with “the way things have always been,” clinging to the hope that “somehow things will work out as they always have”—while many are also weighed down by the belief that nothing can be done to change the very negative direction of things. The Democratic Party is deathly afraid of mobilizing masses of people in the way that would be necessary to decisively defeat the fascists, because the Democrats fear that this could lead to things “getting all out of control,” threatening their whole system.

This is where the forces for revolution come in: bringing out sharply the reality of what is happening, and why, and bringing alive the only positive solution to all this; acting, urgently and decisively, to change the whole alignment, the whole “polarization” in society—rapidly repolarizing things in a way that is increasingly favorable for revolution—winning masses of people, from every part of society, to break with this whole system and come over to the side of the revolution.

The forces for revolution must come to the fore in the fight against the fascists—and do so not with the aim of preserving, or restoring, the “democratic” form of this murderously oppressive system of capitalism-imperialism, but with the strategic goal of bringing down this whole system, and bringing something much better into being.

As the fight is carried forward, to defeat the forces seeking to preserve, or restore, this blood-soaked system, in one form or another, it would become possible to win over even greater numbers from different parts of society to join the revolution, including many who had been part of the armed forces and other key institutions of this system.

In my previous message (Number Ten) I emphasized this: An important factor in all this is the contradiction that among the ranks of this system’s armed forces are large numbers who have been drawn from among Black people, Latinos, women and other oppressed people, while that oppression is built into the very system of capitalism-imperialism that they are supposed to fight for. This contradiction is an important part of the basis to win over to the revolution many who start out as part of this system’s armed forces, as things develop and the attempts to crush the revolution are defeated, leading to a dynamic that is increasingly favorable for the revolution.

All this will make for an extremely complicated situation, but one which holds not just the possibility of things becoming even more terrible than “normal life” under this system but also the potential to wrench something profoundly positive out of all this—an actual, emancipating revolution— IF the revolutionaries, and rapidly growing numbers of people organized into the ranks of the revolution, firmly grasp this possibility, and act boldly, with scientifically-grounded determination, to seize on this rare situation.

To emphasize again a crucial point: The possibility for the forces of revolution to win an all-out fight to put an end to this system depends, first of all and fundamentally, on bringing forward a revolutionary people, from among the most bitterly oppressed, and all parts of society, first in the thousands, now, and then in the millions, as a powerful revolutionary force, organized from the start and consistently with a country-wide perspective, impacting all of society and changing the terms of how masses of people see things and how every institution has to respond.

With thousands organized into the ranks of the revolution, now, millions can be won to revolution; and with millions won to revolution, there could be a real possibility for this revolution to win.

In the situation that is continuing to develop in increasingly intense ways, a revolutionary movement with a powerful influence and organized forces among the most oppressed, and in all parts of society, has a real chance to wage, and win, the fight for this emancipating revolution, on the basis of the strategic understanding and approach I have spoken to in these messages.

This is serious—and for anyone who is serious, I urge you once again to go to revcom.us and get into the works I mentioned at the beginning of this message: Revolution—Building Up The Basis to Go For The Whole Thing, With A Real Chance To Win: Strategic Orientation And Practical Approach, and a five-part series Revolution: A Real Chance To Win.