“Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating” speaks to this decisive question:
Why did so many Black people (nearly two hundred thousand) join the Union Army fighting against the southern Confederacy during the Civil War in the 1860s?1
Throughout the hundreds of years of enslavement in North America, and specifically during the nearly 100 years of slavery in the USA after its founding, there was continued resistance of various kinds by those who were enslaved—smaller scale resistance, as well as organized and spontaneous escapes, punctuated at times by major slave rebellions. Yet, despite heroic efforts—in the face of brutal repression—this resistance did not involve anything like the majority of slaves, nor did it put an end to slavery. But, as “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating” emphasizes, the Civil War in the 1860s brought about the possibility of a major, really profound change at that time:
[T]he country, and those who ruled it, had split apart, and masses of Black people could sense that, in this situation, there was a real possibility of putting an end to their enslaved condition, which did happen as a result of that Civil War.
This is the basic reason why so many Black people flooded into—and fought so heroically and self-sacrificingly in—that Civil War.
It is critically important to grasp the significance of this: Among people who are exploited and oppressed, there will always be resistance and rebellion—but, when a profound crisis grips the system as a whole which exploits and oppresses them, the objective possibility is greatly heightened for actually putting an end to that system.
As I have pointed to in a number of works (including in my recent articles on the Declaration of Independence) it is a fact that, although slavery was finally abolished as a result of the Civil War:
[A]fter a brief period of Reconstruction (beginning in the mid-1860s, with the end of the Civil War), which provided certain basic rights for Black people, this was reversed only a decade later, with Black people subjected once more to the vicious exploitation of white plantation owners (many of them former slave-owners) and the terror of the Ku Klux Klan and the power structure in the South in particular, with the collaboration of the ruling capitalist class as a whole.2
Still, this should not be allowed to obscure (or blot out) the crucial point which is worth re-emphasizing here: 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.
The Civil War was a rare time when it became possible to put an end to one horrific form of oppression: outright slavery. The present situation involves a rare time when it has become possible to make a powerful leap toward finally eliminating and uprooting all forms of oppression and exploitation.
In what follows here, drawing from a number of different works, I am going to walk through how this situation has come about, through a process marked by a number of crucial historical turning points, and I will dig into what must be understood, and what is to be done, to seize on this situation now, in order to have a real chance to make the powerful emancipating leap that has become possible.
Why Concessions Were Made to the Civil Rights Movement—Why These Changes Did Not Put an End to the Oppression—And What That Has to Do with Now
The answer to the first part of this (why these concessions were made) is spoken to in “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating”:
With changing conditions in this country, and in the world as a whole, over the time since the end of World War 2...it has been necessary for the ruling class, in order to maintain “order and stability” in this country, to make certain concessions to the struggle against white supremacy, male supremacy, and some other oppressive relations, while at the same time insisting that this is all part of “creating a more perfect union” and “further perfecting the great democracy that has always existed in this country.” This has also been necessary in order for the rulers of this country to continue promoting it as “the leader of the free world,” which they say must remain the dominant power in the world—but which, in reality, is the most oppressive and destructive power, plundering masses of people as well as the earth.3
In sum:
As I have examined in other works, these concessions—this extending of certain rights, particularly in the decades following the end of World War 2 (in 1945)—as much as they resulted from the heroic struggle and sacrifice of masses of people, have also been based on the needs of the ruling class of this country, in terms of the functioning of the economy and the stability of rule of the capitalist-imperialist system, in the context of international competition and rivalry.4
But, again, these changes, as significant as they were, did not, and could not, put an end to the overall oppression of Black people and other people of color, women and LGBT people, and others—because this oppression is built into the system of capitalism-imperialism that rules in this country (and dominates in the world overall).5
In fact, as shown in Part 3 of the series on the Declaration of Independence (And Related Questions), even as certain civil rights laws and policies were being adopted in the 1960s, this was being accompanied by, and increasingly turned into, attacks on these rights, through heightened government repression, carried out by the ruling class as a whole, and both of its political parties (Democrats as well as Republicans) particularly through a declared “war on crime.”6
And now:
[A] section of that ruling class—a fascist section—has emerged and risen to power which is determined that reversing much of these gains, and trampling on basic rights and legal principles, within the country and internationally, is necessary for the maintenance of this system within the country and its dominant position in the world, in the face of serious challenges, especially from China. (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.)7
Where Did This Fascism Come From?
The underlying causes and dynamics of this rise to power of fascism are explained in HUMANITY ON THE BRINK: A Forced March Into the Abyss, or Forging a Way Forward Out of the Madness?:
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.)8
Even though it has been marked by protest and resistance against the atrocities of the fascist regime in power, the situation today is truly terrible—and, looking on the surface at what is happening, it can readily seem that this terrible situation is likely to continue, and get even worse. But, that is only part of the picture—and there is this crucial point:
To understand why we are confronted with the situation we are, it is necessary not merely to respond to—and in effect be whipped around by—what is happening on the surface at any given time, but to dig beneath the surface, to discover the underlying mainsprings and causes of things, and arrive at an understanding of the fundamental problem and the actual solution. This means coming to the scientific understanding that we are living under a system, and what that system actually is (the system of capitalism-imperialism); working to grasp the deeper relations and dynamics of this system and how this is setting the framework for how different sections of society spontaneously think and react to events in society and the world; and what is the possible way forward to transforming all of this in the interests of the masses of humanity and ultimately humanity as a whole.9
The fundamental way forward out of this madness is an actual revolution, to abolish and uproot this whole system and replace it with a fundamentally different, truly emancipating system. Again, looking on the surface, it can easily seem like there is no realistic possibility for this revolution. But, again as well, we need to dig beneath the surface, which makes it possible to understand this: precisely because of the way that this system is running up against its limits, this is a rare time when an actual revolution becomes more possible—because, in giving rise to an extreme, fascistic version of this system’s fundamental exploitative and oppressive relations, this is also shattering the unity within the ruling class that has been critical for the stability of rule of this system, and all this is shaking the belief among so many that “the way things have always been is the way they will continue to be.” Approached scientifically, with dialectical and historical materialism (examining the actual reality we are confronted with, the historical roots of this reality, and in particular the sharpening contradictions within this reality) it can be seen how the rise to power of a fascist regime, headed by Donald Trump, is itself a demonstration of profound and acute contradictions within this system, including this critical fact:
[T]here really are “two countries” within this country.
This, in a real sense, is an extension of a fundamental division that has existed since the beginning of the so-called “United States” of America, with its foundation in slavery and genocide—a division which has never really been resolved throughout the history of this country—not through the Civil War in the 1860s, and not through changes that were brought about through the 1960s and in the years following.
As I have said before, there is a direct line from the pro-slavery Confederacy, at the time of the Civil War, to the fascism of today, with its determination to make America once again openly, aggressively white supremacist, male supremacist, and anti-LGBT people.
(This is from my social media message #102, available @BobAvakianOfficial.)
To refer to crucial analysis in “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating,” these divisions:
cannot be resolved within the framework that has existed, and has held things together, for nearly 150 years, since shortly after the end of the Civil War which led to the abolition of slavery—they cannot be resolved on the basis of the capitalist “democracy” that has been the “normal” means of capitalist rule (dictatorship) for so long.
Again from my social media message #102:
There can be no good resolution under this system because, despite the false promises and lies of the “mainstream section” of the ruling class (represented by the Democratic Party) the whole system rests on ruthless exploitation—and oppression based on race, sex and gender, the plunder of the environment and of people throughout world, as well as the devastation of war—all this is built into the ruling system of capitalism-imperialism.
This rare situation, with the deepening and sharpening conflicts among the ruling powers, and in the society overall, provides a stronger basis and greater openings to break the hold of this system over masses of people.
One crucial dimension of this “rare time” situation is the fact that the profound and acute divisions within the ruling class hold the potential for the dominant institutions of this system, including institutions of violent repression, to split and break apart to a significant degree—especially in the context of a mass revolutionary upsurge. This is especially the case since major government institutions of violent repression include significant numbers of people who are drawn from bitterly oppressed sections of society.
The Necessary Conditions, and the Challenge, to Make a Real Revolution
The necessary conditions for revolution are spoken to in concrete terms in HUMANITY ON THE BRINK.
A revolution becomes possible, even in a powerful country like this, when three main factors have been brought into being:
A crisis in society and government so deep and so disruptive of the “usual way of doing things,” that those who have ruled over us, for so long, can no longer do so in the “normal” way that people have been conditioned to accept.
A revolutionary people in the millions and millions, with their “allegiance” to this system broken, and their determination to fight for a more just society greater than their fear of the violent repression of this system.
An organized revolutionary force—made up of continually growing numbers of people, from among the most oppressed but also from many other parts of society—a force which is grounded in, and is working systematically to apply, the most scientific approach to building for and then carrying out revolution, and which is increasingly looked to by masses of people to lead them to bring about the radical change that is urgently needed.
As HUMANITY ON THE BRINK continues this important analysis:
These factors for revolution, as a whole, clearly do not exist right now—but, again, this is one of those rare times when these factors for revolution could be brought into being....
The first condition essentially exists now, and this situation is continually intensifying—particularly through the accelerating juggernaut of the Trump fascist regime.
As for the second and third conditions, these are seriously “lagging” behind the development of the first condition. In regard to the second condition, while there are millions, and tens of millions, who are deeply disturbed and outraged by the escalating outrages of the Trump/fascist regime, there has been, up to now, very little (there is a near complete lack of) hunger and searching for a radical solution outside the framework of the existing system. Closely interconnected particularly with the status of things in regard to the second condition, while revolutionary communist forces based on the new communism do exist, at this point they are far short of what they urgently need to be, quantitatively (very small numbers) and qualitatively (a very uneven grasp of and application of the new communism).
In the context of the deepening, and overall intensifying, situation relating to the first condition...initiative must be seized to transform the second and third conditions, through struggle—both struggle against the oppressive system and the intensification of its atrocities under the Trump fascist regime, and fierce ideological struggle to raise people’s sights beyond the narrow confines of this system, to win rapidly growing numbers of people (including among those not presently in motion) to recognize and seize on the necessity and the possibility for a real revolution to sweep away this system as a whole—which, among its overall ongoing atrocities, has given rise to the Trump fascist regime.
Once again, if and as rapidly growing numbers of people are awakened to the necessity, and the possibility, to seize on this rare time to move in a revolutionary direction, this can have major influence and reverberations, echoing powerfully within and having a major impact on the ranks within dominant institutions of this system—in turn making the possibility and the conditions for revolution more favorable, in a way they are not in “normal times.”
And once more as well, there is this crucial point: The possibility for all this cannot be recognized by merely looking on the surface of things—but can be grasped by applying a scientific approach to digging beneath the surface, to get to the deeper reality and driving dynamics of the situation—and specifically the profound and acute contradictions within that reality.
The Time for Slave-Owners and Capitalist Exploiters Needs to Be Over—This Is a Time for a Radically New, Fundamentally Emancipating Revolution
In relation to all this, there is this basic and essential understanding, sharply pointed to in “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating”:
This is not the time of the Civil War in the 1860s, when the goal of those fighting against injustice was to abolish slavery, and—in terms of who ruled society—the only possible positive outcome was the consolidation and strengthening of the rule of the rising capitalist class centered in the North. That time is now long gone. And this system of capitalism, which has developed into a system of worldwide exploitation and oppression, capitalism-imperialism, is long outmoded—long past its expiration date, long past any circumstances where it could play any positive role. The goal now must precisely be getting rid of this whole system of capitalism-imperialism.
As emphasized in Part 3 of the series on the Declaration of Independence (And Related Questions):
While massive nonviolent mobilization aiming to bring about the defeat and removal of the Trump fascist regime remains crucially important, even more crucially important is for masses of people to come to, and decisively act on, the scientific understanding that the fundamental solution to all this is not to bring about the restoration of the “mainstream” form of the dictatorship of this long outmoded and truly monstrous capitalist-imperialist system of exploitation and oppression—not to harken back to a Declaration and a Revolution of slave-owners and capitalists, 250 years ago—but instead: What is radically different now is that the revolution that has become possible, and urgently necessary, is a revolution—the communist revolution—whose fundamental aim is to do away with all exploitation and oppression, everywhere.
The Deeply, Deeply Felt Desire, and the Real Possibility, to Finally Be Rid of Centuries of Oppression
As also discussed in Part 3 of the series on the Declaration of Independence (And Related Questions):
Despite the significant increase in the Black petite bourgeoisie (middle class) and, on a smaller scale, the emergence of extremely wealthy Black bourgeois, “the reality (ceaselessly demonstrated in everyday life, and through countless scientific studies and investigations) is that segregation, discrimination and overall racist oppression continue, and continue to have terrible consequences, for Black people and others who have suffered the systemic, and often murderous, racism of this system—in housing, education, employment, health care, with police, courts and prisons—in every part of society.” (That is from Part 1 in this series, “Profound Inequality, Brutal Oppression—and Crude Distortion of the Actual Foundation and Nature of this Country,” which is also available at revcom.us.)
And:
In Imperialist Parasitism and Class-Social Recomposition in the U.S. From the 1970s to Today: An Exploration of Trends and Changes, Raymond Lotta analyzes how precisely changes in the economy within the U.S. itself—in the context of the heightening parasitism of the U.S. economy, in which a great deal of production has been shifted to poorer countries where people are more vulnerable to extreme exploitation by capital—has, among other significant developments, led to a situation where large numbers of youth in the inner cities in the U.S. have been effectively locked out of the formal economy. This has resulted in the reality that (as “conservative” author Edward Luttwak put it bluntly in his book Turbo Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy): for large numbers of youth in the inner cities, crime has become a rational choice. Whatever Luttwak’s intention, this is objectively yet another profound indictment of the bankruptcy (and completely outmoded nature) of this system of capitalism-imperialism!
Along with mass incarceration and murder by police, and repressive measures like Stop and Frisk, over recent decades laws have been passed and policies adopted by police which amount to the pre-emptive criminalization of youth in the inner cities—for example, preventing youth from gathering in public places in more than very small numbers, on the basis they “might be” part of a gang and might commit a crime! There have also been the “three strikes” laws which mandate extremely severe punishment for the third conviction of a felony, even in situations where that third felony (or one or more of the previous felonies) might actually be a relatively lesser crime. And, as Elizabeth Hinton demonstrates in her book, increasingly after the mid-1960s, measures that even claimed to be addressing the desperate conditions that provide an impulse, and often a very real necessity, for criminal activity, have been replaced by an increase in repression and punishment for crime.10
In the short run, this has had a definitely negative impact and influence on the sections of Black youth in particular who are subjected to and caught up in these conditions—which are not of their own making but result from the basic, historically evolved relations and underlying dynamics of the system that rules over the masses of people.
At the same time, as I have observed in HUMANITY ON THE BRINK (and other works), in response to their changing conditions over the past several decades, other negative tendencies have developed among different sections of Black people, including a retreat into religious fatalism and despair at the possibility of positive emancipating change in this real world, and an undermining of the orientation of struggling collectively against their oppression as a people, with the largeness of mind and generosity of spirit that has historically characterized masses of Black people, even while they have been subjected to the most horrific oppression.
(HUMANITY ON THE BRINK contains further elaboration regarding negative influences and trends among Black people in recent decades, and the underlying material basis for this.)
All this is objectively a continuation of the fact that, even as this has taken different forms in different periods, and affected different sections of Black people in some different ways and to different degrees, the oppression of Black people, as a people—including in the most barbaric ways—has been a constant and defining feature of this country, from its founding 250 years ago, with its roots in slavery and genocide, up to the present day.
But what is profoundly different now is that the basis exists to finally put an end to this seemingly endless horror, through a revolution—the revolution based on the new communism which I have developed—whose fundamental goal is to put an end not just to one form of enslavement, only to have that replaced by yet another terrible form of oppression—but to do away, finally, with all forms of oppression and exploitation, of all people everywhere.
Once more, for the reasons spoken to here—and analyzed more fully in works I have referenced here (and others available at revcom.us)—this is a rare time when this revolution has become more possible. And, to emphasize again this crucial point: This rare time must not be squandered—wasted, thrown away—by continuing to act on the terrible terms of this system, in all the ways it drags people down, causes them to act against their own fundamental interests, and suffocates their better, higher aspirations. This rare time must be actively, boldly seized on—by people joining the ranks of the new communist revolution, which need to urgently and rapidly grow in order to get in position to have a real chance to win, in the fullest and most emancipating way.
For all who hunger for (or even dream about) a radically different world, free of all the madness and suffering to which so many are so unnecessarily subjected, what is urgently needed now is not to miss, not ignore, not throw away the rare possibility—but to SEIZE THE TIME!
As I have written before: On the part of Black people, as a potentially crucial and powerful force for this unprecedented, truly historic revolution, this means giving life, in the most meaningful way, to this reality—which, through all the horrors Black people have been subjected to, remains profoundly true:
Among Black people in their masses there continues to be “the sometimes openly expressed, sometimes expressed in partial ways, sometimes expressed in wrong ways, but deeply, deeply felt desire to be rid of these long centuries of oppression of Black people.”
And once more:
There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done—by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.
_______________
FOOTNOTES:
1. 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 is available at revcom.us. [back]
2. This statement regarding the reversal of Reconstruction, shortly after the end of the Civil War, is found in Parts 2 and 3 of the series THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (And Related Questions): INVENTIONS AND DISTORTIONS OF REALITY AND HISTORY—IN THE SERVICE OF REAL AND REPEATED ATROCITY. This series is available at revcom.us. [back]
3. My 2021 New Year’s Statement includes this important analysis:
Since the end of World War 2...the situation of Black people has dramatically changed. These changes were initially based in increased mechanization and other transformations in agricultural production, and the economy overall; they were driven by a powerful upsurge of struggle of Black people, wrenching concessions out of the ruling class in this country that was anxious to maintain its image as “the champion of democracy” and “leader of the free world,” especially in its confrontation with the Soviet Union for a number of decades after World War 2. As a result of these and other factors, Black people’s oppression is no longer centered around brutal exploitation in the rural south, in conditions of near slavery (and in some cases actual slavery) backed up by Ku Klux Klan terror, but instead involves a situation where masses of Black people are segregated and concentrated in urban areas throughout the country and subjected to systematic discrimination and continual brutality and murder by the police.
(This 2021 New Year’s Statement, A New Year, The Urgent Need For A Radically New World—For The Emancipation Of All Humanity, is available in BA’s Collected Works at revcom.us.)
An extensive and in-depth analysis of why and how significant changes were brought about in the situation of Black people in the decades after the end of World War 2 (in 1945) is also contained in my book THE NEW COMMUNISM, The science, the strategy, the leadership for an actual revolution, and a radically new society on the road to real emancipation, particularly in pages 26-30 in Part 1, “Method and Approach, Communism as a Science.” [back]
4. This statement, on the reasons for the extension of certain rights after the end of World War 2 (in 1945) is from Part 2 of THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (And Related Questions): INVENTIONS AND DISTORTIONS OF REALITY AND HISTORY—IN THE SERVICE OF REAL AND REPEATED ATROCITY. [back]
5. In “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating”—and a number of other works, including “Racial Oppression Can Be Ended—But Not Under This System”—I examine why oppression based on race, as well as sex and gender, cannot be ended under this system of capitalism-imperialism, and how a radically different, socialist system can move to finally abolish and uproot this, and other oppression and exploitation. (The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which I have authored, provides a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint for this emancipating society. The statement from the revcoms WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM, includes important summaries of basic principles and provisions in this Constitution.) [back]
6. 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 refers to two important books—The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander and Elizabeth Hinton’s book From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime, The Making of Mass Incarceration in America—which, as their titles indicate, contain very important analyses which powerfully document the ongoing terrible reality—and the existence of new forms—in which racial oppression continues to be an essential part of “American democracy,” refuting the ridiculous notion that this country somehow became “colorblind,” with the election of Obama supposedly “proof” of this.
Footnote number 7 in Part 3 of the series on the Declaration of Independence (And Related Questions), also elaborates on important aspects of how “crime” has been fostered by the dynamics of the ruling system of capitalism-imperialism, and has been used as a rationalization for the kind of brutal repression documented in the books by Alexander and Hinton referred to here. [back]
7. This statement (on the rise to power of a fascist regime) is also from 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. [back]
8. HUMANITY ON THE BRINK: A Forced March Into the Abyss, or Forging a Way Forward Out of the Madness? is available at revcom.us. [back]
9. This statement, on the need to dig beneath the surface, is from my 2021 New Year’s Statement, as quoted in HUMANITY ON THE BRINK. [back]
10. This analysis concerning youth in the inner cities locked out of the formal economy, and how this relates to “crime being a rational choice” for many of these youth, is from footnote 7 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. [back]
