When a profound crisis grips the system as a whole which exploits and oppresses masses of people, the objective possibility is greatly heightened of actually putting an end to the system that has exploited and oppressed them.
That is a quote from my article Why Black People Flooded into the Union Army in the Civil War...And What That Has to Do with Now, which is available at revcom.us. In this present article, to echo the title of another important work of mine, I am going to dig further into how the current crisis in this country not only involves something truly terrible—the rule and actions of murderous fascist lunatics, headed by Donald Trump, and the potential for this to become even more terrible—but also the possibility of something really and profoundly emancipating to be wrenched out of this situation: an actual revolution, aimed not just at defeating this fascism but at sweeping away the system that has given rise to this fascism, and replacing it with a fundamentally different and far better system. 1
First, it is important to clarify what the system that rules in this country actually is. The essence, the fundamental nature, of what rules in this country is not “democracy”—it is the system of capitalism-imperialism: a system based on ruthless exploitation and murderous oppression, not just within this country itself but, in even more extreme ways, throughout the world.2
Contrary to what is constantly preached at us, there is this essential reality:
The political system in this country is the rule—the dictatorship—of the section of society that dominates the economic system—the capitalist-imperialist class—a dictatorship that finds concentrated expression in the monopoly of political power, and more especially the monopoly of “legitimate” violence, exercised by the political representatives of this system and its ruling class. All the dominant processes and institutions of this system (including its elections) fundamentally serve and enforce this dictatorship. In its “normal” form, and as administered by the “mainstream” section of the ruling class, this is a dictatorship representing the interests of the capitalist class as a whole, and this dictatorship is more or less disguised as “democracy” and “rule by the people,” with basic adherence to a “rule of law” which ultimately embodies and reflects the basic relations in society and serves the fundamental interests of the ruling class while being applied, however unequally, to people in society generally....
The rule of the Trump regime is the dictatorship of one section of the ruling class, which is determined to impose fascism as the form of capitalist-imperialist rule, utilizing the force and violence of the state (police and military forces and repressive institutions of government, such as the FBI, “Homeland Security,” etc.) not only against people in society as a whole but also against the “mainstream” section of the ruling class. With fascism, dictatorship is open, blatant, undisguised dictatorship, and the exploitation and oppression that is the actual basis and nature of this system of capitalist-imperialism, within this country and internationally, is blatant, undisguised exploitation and oppression, unrestrained by the “norms” and “rules” of “mainstream” capitalist-imperialist dictatorship.3
What is crucial to grasp, in all this, is that this fascism of the Trump regime is not something “alien to” or somehow in fundamental conflict with, the basic nature of this country and its ruling system. No, this fascism came to power through the “normal processes” of this system—and, fundamentally, it has grown out of the very soil of this system. On the other hand, despite the claims of some superficial “pseudo-leftists,” this fascism is not just a continuation of the “normal” exploitatative and oppressive relations of this system.4 This Trump/MAGA fascism is an extreme expression of this system as it is running up against its limits, as American imperialist supremacy in the world is facing a profound challenge, particularly from a rising capitalist-imperialist China.5 (Shortly after the death of Mao in 1976, socialism in China was overthrown and capitalism restored, and in the decades since then China has developed as an increasingly powerful capitalist-imperialist country.)
The “mainstream” section of the ruling class in this country (represented generally by the Democratic Party) does have definite, very real and in many ways serious, differences with the fascist Republican Party and the Trump regime. But the Democratic Party, no less than the Republican Party, is an instrument of American capitalism-imperialism, and its differences with the fascists are confined within the terrible terms of this system and are firmly grounded in the determination that American imperialism, with all its horrific war crimes and crimes against humanity, must remain the dominant power in the world. (Among other things, this can be seen in the nature of the criticism from “mainstream Democrats” about how Trump has handled—or, in their view, mishandled—the war against Iran: These Democratic establishment critics are attacking Trump “from the right”—not denouncing him for the war crime of waging an unprovoked war of aggression against Iran, but criticizing him for supposedly “giving away too much to Iran” in the “peace deal” that Trump is attempting to work out with Iran.)
The Whole Ruling Class Is Determined to Maintain the Dominance of American Imperialism—But There Are Very Real Differences Over How to Do This
A critical dimension of these differences is the fact that, for the fascists, “America First” means refusing to be bound by the terms and conventions of the “world order” that the U.S. has enforced, with tremendously violent destruction, since the end of World War 2 (in 1945). In the predominant view among the fascists, this “traditional” approach, with its alliances and declared pretensions of adhering to international law, is now placing unacceptable limits on the exercise of brute American imperial power. (Among other things, this is reflected in the statements of Donald Trump, in an interview with the New York Times and elsewhere, that there are no limits on his power, other than his own “morality” [!!], and the blustering of “War Secretary” Pete Hegseth about removing the restraints on the killing force of the American military. Even the insistence on changing the title of Hegseth’s position from Secretary of Defense to Secretary of War, is an expression of this brutish orientation.)6
Despite some pretense to the contrary, the fact is that, just in the period since 1945, the U.S., under Democratic as well as Republican adminstrations, has repeatedly violated international law through wars, invasions, coups and other violent and massively destructive interference in other countries. (The American Crime series, at revcom.us, chronicles and analyzes in depth the war crimes and crimes against humanity continually committed by the U.S., not just since 1945 but throughout the history of this country and throughout the world, as well as “at home.”) But the fact that the Trump fascist regime willfully and wildly acts not merely with disregard for, but with a determination to trample on, the alliances and conventions of the “international order” established under American hegemony after World War 2—this, for the “mainstream” section of the ruling class, is a cause for grave concern and definite alarm. (Among other things, this is manifested in the differences over the war in Ukraine—with the “mainstream” section of the ruling class determined to utilize Ukraine to wage a “proxy war” against Russia, with the aim of weakening Russia—while Trump and his associates are not committed to this in the same way.)
All this on the part of the fascists, along with their trampling on “traditional democratic norms” and operating principles of capitalist class rule (dictatorship) within this country iteslf, is the cause and the basis for very real, sharp—and, in some significant dimensions, deep—divisions within the ruling class. But, as I have pointed to before, on the terms of this system, the Trump/MAGA fascists have a definite advantage over the “mainstream” section of the ruling class.
The essential reason the “mainstream” section of the ruling class is at a disadvantage in opposing the fascist section comes down to this: The way this system has been held together in this country for more than 150 years, since the end of the Civil War in the 1860s, can no longer work—can no longer hold it together in the same way—and a radical resolution is required as a means of dealing with the profound and acute contradictions that this system of capitalism-imperialism is caught up in, as a result of its own fundamental relations and dynamics. A radical reactionary resolution—fascism—is, in the short term, a possible means for dealing with this situation, on the terms of this system. But, while a radical resolution is objectively required, on the terms of this system there is no possible radical resolution on the other side of the political divide (a radical revolutionary resolution). To bring about such a positive radical resolution requires moving beyond—making a fundamental break with—this system. And the “mainstream” section of the ruling class has neither the desire nor the ability to do that.
Why There Is “No Lincoln” Now
In basic terms, this is not the time of Lincoln, in the mid-19th century. At that point, this country was continuing its expansion, particularly to the West, with the ongoing genocidal devastation of the native peoples (as well as the theft of a huge territory from Mexico), but the “United States” was not then a major world power in the way it has been for more than a century now. Specifically, at the time of the Civil War, in the 1860s, the U.S. was not the dominant imperialist power in the world, in the way it has been since the end of World War 2. Today, there is a lot more to lose for the imperialists if their “home country,” the foundation of their empire, becomes embroiled in, and seriously weakened by, an actual civil war.
To put in another way: For Lincoln, not to wage civil war, to prevent the southern Confederacy from breaking away and forming a separate country, would have resulted in a greatly weakened “United States.” In the present time, for the “mainstream” section of the ruling class to engage in a new civil war, in order to decisively defeat fascism in this country, would involve the great risk of unraveling the country as a whole—and, in any case, reducing what was left of the country to, at most, a “second rate” power, incapable of imposing its dictates on the rest of the world. The “cohesion” of the USA, as any kind of unified country, would be very hard to maintain, under those circumstances.
This is the crucial background for why the “mainstream” section of the ruling class is essentially afraid of, and determined to avoid, a new civil war—even if that means allowing fascist rule to become fully consolidated, with the truly terrible consequences of that. That is why there is “no Lincoln” now—no leading figure among the “mainstream” section of the ruling class who is willing, as Lincoln was, to risk everything in order to defeat a reactionary force (in that case, the slavery-based Confederacy) that was directly moving to destroy what had been the basis of unity of the country.
In the view of the “mainstream” section of the ruling class, continuing with the trajectory the country has been on since the end of World War 2—within the country and in terms of the “world order” the U.S. has violently imposed and maintained—is the best, and really only, way to maintain the rule of this system and the dominant position of the U.S. in the world.
Among the fascist section of the ruling class (and those in its “base” among the population), there is the fanatical insistence that the continuation of things in the way they have been going in recent decades (and really since the end of World War 2) will lead to the destruction of the only America that they believe is worth preserving and living in: a male supremacist, white supremacist country, based on a whitewashed, chauvinistic view of “the superiority of western civilization” and held together ideologically by an aggressively anti-scientific fundamentalist Christian zealotry. This is why these fascists are not only willing, but determined, to reverse concessions that have been made in the fight against oppressive relations within this country and to essentially “act unilaterally” in the international arena, relying on the massive destructive machinery of the U.S. military as the means to dictate terms in the world arena and enforce “America First.”
In light of all this, there is this important statement in HUMANITY ON THE BRINK, drawing from my 2021 New Year’s Statement:
To the degree that things are maintained within the limits of this system, this will actually have the effect of furthering the horrors for humanity that are built into this system, while also reinforcing and giving further impetus to the underlying economic—and the social and political—forces that will strengthen the fascism that has already shown great strength in this country (and a number of others).
The crucial point is: Things must not be maintained within the limits of this system!
Revolution: The Fundamental, the Only Truly Emancipating, Resolution
With the definite advantages that fascism actually has, in the short-term and on the terms of this system, there is this basic fact, spoken to in HUMANITY ON THE BRINK (drawing again from my 2021 New Year’s Statement):
[Fascism] as an open and aggressive dictatorship, trampling on and perverting the rule of law, relying on violence and terror, on behalf of the predatory capitalist system and as an extreme attempt to deal with profound social division and acute crises (both within the country and in the global arena)... might hold things together, in an extremely negative way, for a certain period, [but] in the final analysis this cannot succeed—cannot indefinitely preserve this system of capitalism-imperialism, and cannot lead to any future but one of horrors for humanity, if indeed we have a future at all. And the supposed “alternative,” as represented for example by the Democratic Party in the U.S., involving a “more democratic” means of exercising the rule of this system, will also continue to embody and enforce terrible and completely unnecessary suffering for the masses of humanity and pose an existential threat to humanity as a whole, even if not always through the same brute and unmitigated juggernaut of horrors as the fascist form of capitalist dictatorship.
This brings things back to the statement at the very beginning of this article: When a profound crisis grips the system as a whole which exploits and oppresses masses of people, the objective possibility is greatly heightened of actually putting an end to the system that has exploited and oppressed them.
Despite the character, and the very real limitations, of “mainstream” ruling class opposition to the fascism that now holds the ruling position within this system, the divisions within the ruling class are real, and are sharp and deep. This division within the ruling class, and the profound crisis of the system that it both reflects and heightens, constitutes one of the crucial elements of a rare situation where a revolution to abolish this whole system becomes possible, in a way it is not in “normal times.”
One again, the crucial point is: Things must not be maintained within the limits of this system!
The fact that “there is no Lincoln now”—that there is no representative, and no effective force, within the “mainstream” section of the ruling class that is determined to go all-out to decisively defeat the fascists, whatever that takes—this has definite immediate negative consequences. But, in more fundamental and strategic terms, it speaks to the urgent need for the masses (the tens and tens of millions) who deeply hate this fascism to come to this scientific understanding: it is this system of capitalism-imperialism that has given rise to this fascism...this fascism is an extreme, and extremely grotesque, expression of the ruthlessly exploitative and murderously oppressive nature of this system as a whole...the continuation of this system and its domination in the world would have terrible consequences for the masses of humanity, and ultimately humanity as a whole...the only positive resolution to all this is an actual revolution, to abolish this system and bring into being, in its place, something far better, something truly emancipating—and the very crisis of which this fascism is an acute expression represents, on the other side of things, the heightened possibility for this truly emancipating revolution.
_______________
FOOTNOTES:
1. The “other important work” referred to here is SOMETHING TERRIBLE, OR SOMETHING TRULY EMANCIPATING: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility Of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed, A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap For This Revolution, which is also available at revcom.us. [back]
2. For nearly 100 years after the American Revolution which began in 1776, the system that ruled in this country was a combination of slavery, centered particularly in the South, and developing capitalism, centered in the North. As I analyzed in Part 3 of THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (And Related Questions): INVENTIONS AND DISTORTIONS OF REALITY AND HISTORY—IN THE SERVICE OF REAL AND REPEATED ATROCITY:
[I]n basic and essential terms this [American Revolution] involved the increasingly antagonistic conflict between two different exploitative and oppressive forces: on one side, the British empire, headed by a king, and on the other side, American slave-owners, along with merchants and other elements of the developing capitalist class.
Through the Civil War in the 1860s, the slave system was abolished and the capitalist class spread its domination throughout the expanding country, even as “compromises” were continually made with the former slave-owners and other brutal oppressors of Black people, especially (though not only) in the South, and Mexican-Americans were cruelly exploited and viciously oppressed, particularly in the Southwest, where a huge territory had been ripped away from Mexico as a result of a war of aggression by the U.S. in the middle of the 19th century—the so-called Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. A main objective and purpose of the U.S. in waging this war was to expand the territory for slavery, particularly in what became the state of Texas. (An important analysis of the domination of Mexico by U.S. imperialism and the consequences for Mexican people in both countries, is contained in An Imperialist Parasitic Harvest: Savagely Exploitative and Entrenched, A contribution on the Historical Roots of the U.S. Domination of Mexico, by Juan Rojo, which is available at revcom.us.)
Part 3 of the series on the Declaration of Independence (And Related Questions), “NO to a Celebration of Slavery, Capitalist Exploitation and Worldwide Plunder—This is a Time for a New, Urgently Needed, Truly Emancipating Revolution,” is available at revcom.us, along with Parts 1 and 2. [back]
3. This statement on the actual dictatorship that rules in this country—and the different forms of this dictatorship—is from HUMANITY ON THE BRINK: A Forced March Into the Abyss, or Forging a Way Forward Out of the Madness? HUMANITY ON THE BRINK further elaborates on this fundamental point about the dictatorship of the capitalist class which actually rules in this so-called “great democracy”:
As one significant example of the way in which this dictatorship, and its “rule of law,” “ultimately embodies and reflects the basic relations in society and serves the fundamental interests of the ruling class,” there is the fact that it is perfectly legal, under this system, for capitalists to “lay off” masses of people, if they can no longer be profitably exploited, even if this means that those who are “laid off” might become homeless, or even starve; but it is definitely illegal for people in this desperate situation to just take the basic necessities they lack, without paying for them, even if the reason they cannot pay for them is because they have been denied employment. All this corresponds to the basic “property relations” of the capitalist system. The “rule of law” in any system will essentially be an expression of those basic property relations—most fundamentally the production relations of the underlying mode of production....
In the more overtly political dimension, as spoken to in my social media message number #17, beneath the outer shell of “democracy” in this country there is "living proof that this so-called 'great American democracy' is in reality a dictatorship, where the power of the ruling institutions is used to viciously persecute, punish, and even eliminate people who pose a threat to the interests of the ruling class. Along with the murder by police and mass incarceration of thousands and millions of people in this country...there is the vicious repression being brought down against people protesting the genocide in Palestine carried out by Israel, with the full backing of the U.S. government and both ruling class political parties (Democrat and Republican)."
Why is this happening? Because fundamental interests of U.S. capitalism-imperialism are at stake.
There are many other examples that sharply illustrate this basic truth about the actual dictatorship under the “normal democratic” rule of this system—such as the outlawing of opposition to the U.S. role in World War 1, and the imprisoning of Japanese people in concentration camps during World War 2 (which was done during the administration of the great “hero” of “progressive” bourgeois democrats, Franklin Delano Roosevelt). [back]
4. Another erroneous notion (put forward at times by more serious people but also by various very un-serious opportunists) is that Black people in particular “have always been under fascism.” This ignores the very real and very significant changes that have occurred in the situation of Black people in the history, and in particular the more recent history, of this country.
It could be argued that, after the reversal of Reconstruction (which lasted for only a decade after the Civil War—basically from the second half of the 1860s through the first half of the 1870s) Black people, particularly (though not only) in the South, were subjected to a form of overtly terroristic dictatorship that had much in common with fascism. But the situation for Black people underwent very significant changes after the end of World War 2 (in 1945), with the passing of civil rights legislation and other measures which made segregation and discrimination based on race formally illegal. Of course, as I have spoken to in a number of other works, all during this time, brutal, literally murderous oppression of Black people has continued—but it would fly in the face of and constitute a serious distortion of reality to act as if all the concessions that were made to the struggle against the oppression of Black people were irrelevant and there was no difference between the situation of Black people during the period after World War 2 and their situation before that war. What is also particularly relevant and important is that this erroneous position ignores, or seriously underestimates, the very real, all-around attack by the Trump fascist regime on rights that have been won—a fascist regime which is dropping all pretense of recognizing, and is determined to wipe out any recognition of, the historical and ongoing oppression of Black people, while outrageously claiming and acting as if it is white people who are discriminated against in this racist country!
Important analysis—and reference to works with further analysis—of the factors giving rise to the changes in the situation of Black people after World War 2 is contained in my article (available at revcom.us) Why Black People Flooded into The Union Army in the Civil War...And What That Has to Do with Now, including footnotes to that article. [back]
5. HUMANITY ON THE BRINK elaborates on this critical point:
This fascism is a concentrated expression of the fact that this system of capitalism-imperialism is running up against its limits. It is proclaimed that in this country there is “liberty and justice for all,” but there is a whole history, and continuing reality, of savage inequality and brutal, literally murderous oppression of Black people and other people of color. There is the ongoing oppression based on sex and gender. Even short of all-out war between imperialist powers, this system is the fundamental cause of continuing wars as well as environmental devastation and plunder of countries throughout the Third World especially—all resulting in the uprooting of huge numbers of migrants into the U.S. (and other capitalist-imperialist countries). All this is built into and results from the basic relations, dynamics, and compulsions of this system, which cannot provide any positive answer to all this. At the same time, it remains true that where there is oppression there will be resistance—and the righteous resistance and rebellion against the oppressive relations and actions of this system has in turn strengthened the appeal of fascism among sections of the people, and of the ruling class, who are determined that not only the basic oppressive relations, but the most extreme expressions and excesses of this, must be brutally enforced. (In this country this is concentrated in the slogan “Make America Great Again,” while it finds different particular expressions in countries in Europe, and elsewhere, where powerful fascist forces have developed as an horrific expression of these basic contradictions. In my social media message #118, available @BobAvakianOfficial, I get into some of the key dimensions of this more fully.) [back]
6. Some differences have surfaced in the “MAGA ranks” in regard to the proposed agreement to end the current war against Iran—with some in those ranks expressing the criticism that this proposed agreement would give away too much to Iran. But that is essentially an expression of, or in line with, the dominant position among the core MAGA fascists that there should be no institutional or other restraints on the raw use of massively destructive American military power. [back]
