Last week, the conflict among those who rule this country grew immeasurably more extreme and explosive with the 37-count indictment of Donald Trump for illegally mishandling classified documents and lying to the FBI about it. Trump’s minions, in Congress and out, immediately talked about “war,” and Trump himself said that this was the “final battle.” The Democrats, along with other forces in the ruling class, insisted in turn that Trump must answer for these charges.
But between the fascists on the one hand and the mainstream forces around the Democrats on the other, there is no answer in the interests of humanity. The fascists want to hammer down a society in which the oppression of Black people and other people of color, women and LGBTQ people, and immigrants is even more violent, more hate-filled, more systematic, and more repressive than it is under the “normal” workings of capitalist rule. Plus, they stand for American chauvinism and virulent ignorance run amok.
But what of the Democrats? In fact, they have used their term in office to wage a proxy war against their imperialist rival Russia through aiding and “advising” the Ukrainian army, while preparing and beating the drums for an even more deadly war with their main rival China. For all their lip-service to “being green,” they continue to increase reliance on polluting fossil fuels. Biden may try to enlist Republicans in some of this and brag when he gets “a bipartisan compromise”—but nothing he has done, or can do, can actually stop the way society is being pulled apart from bottom to top.
In the pamphlet Organizing for an Actual Revolution: 7 Key Points, the revcoms state that:
The crisis and deep divisions in society can only be resolved through radical means, of one kind or another—either radically reactionary, murderously oppressive and destructive means, or radically emancipating revolutionary means.
The resolution to that crisis this week may have moved much closer.
The Clash Sharpens
Kari Lake, the former candidate for governor of Arizona who Trump had introduce him on his first speech after the indictment, said on Saturday:
I have a message tonight for Merrick Garland [the attorney general] and Jack Smith [the federal prosecutor in charge of the case] and Joe Biden – and the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well, this one is for you. If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me, and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA.
That's not a threat, that's a public service announcement.
And the fascist social base that sees Trump as the only one who can deliver on the extreme nightmare vision of white supremacy, patriarchal oppression and totally unleashed American chauvinism that to them feels like “bringing back the ‘good ol’ days’” does not intend to let Trump be put in prison, or not be reinstalled as president.
The mainstream ruling class, for its part, has talked of national security and the rule of law. While Biden has adopted the posture of “standing above the fray” by refusing to comment, some key Democrats went on the attack. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said that the former president “put our national security in grave danger as he pursued yet another lawless personal agenda by pilfering and hoarding government documents.”
But what is this “national security”? Let’s look again at some of the material that Trump is accused of mishandling. Plans to wage nuclear war. Plans to invade Iran. And who knows what else? “National security” in the U.S. has always meant nothing but violently enforcing and “defending” a worldwide empire of exploitation and oppression by any means necessary—including nuclear war, which could end the very existence of humanity.
True, the Democrats also say that they are defending the rule of law and the principle that “no person is above the law.” And that IS an important, indeed critical, principle for a just society. But they too violate the law when they deem it to be in their system’s interests. For instance, what about the border, where Biden clearly violates the law in his outrageous refusal to even grant hearings for refugees seeking asylum. Then there’s the murder after murder by police where Biden may tut-tut in some of the most egregious cases, but mainly does nothing but continue to demand MORE funds for the pigs.1
Yet a real answer to this madness does exist: an actual revolution, aiming to implement the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian, BA, which would put into place a radically different economic system as well as emancipating relations among people.
We—everyone who wants to live in a decent world fit for future generations—cannot allow the sole choice facing masses of people to be between two sections competing to rule a death-bound system. We need something radically different—and we need to work and fight like people never have before to get it.
Who Will Fight for the Interests of Humanity?
The U.S. empire, which has sat atop of and sucked the blood of world humanity for hundreds of years, is now in utterly uncharted territory. In the speech that lays out the foundational analysis of the period we are in today and the roadmap to traverse it, BA says that:
“[L]eft to itself”—that is, if the current character and dynamics of all this remain on the same course they are now on—this situation, the divisions characterizing it, and the outcome resulting from it are almost certainly going to become even more terribly negative. So, all this must be radically changed, in what is a relatively brief, “compressed” period of time—not just weeks or months, but also not decades. If things have not already fully erupted before then, the scheduled presidential election of 2024 is very likely to be a critical focal point and turning point, through which the fascist Republicans will attempt to gain and lock down power over society, and put an end to any possibility of a future “transfer of power” away from them.
With the Republicans’ continuation of the Big Lie that the last (2020) presidential election was stolen from Trump, their moves to suppress votes, and their whole orientation that, in any case, with regard to the 2024 presidential election (assuming there is one), the only acceptable outcome is that they are declared and confirmed as the winner—all this has made clear that they will allow no “peaceful transfer of power” in government, unless it results in their coming to power. Growing numbers of fascist-oriented people in this country are prepared to use violence in pursuit of their perverse notion of “making America great again”—and the Republican leadership is ready to resort to this, if they cannot come to power otherwise. Already Republican elected officials, including members of Congress, are whipping up sentiments in favor of such violence and supporting fascist mobs who have engaged in this violence.
Does this not strike you as even more true today than it was nearly two years ago, when BA wrote it?
Where Will YOU Be? What Will YOU Do?
Those are the questions that everyone has to answer in the crucible of the days we are living in now. So let’s talk for real.
We revcoms have a thoroughly scientific method of analyzing the world and human society—the new communism, brought forward by Bob Avakian—and this method can enable everyone to learn to see beneath the surface to understand why these “shocks to the system” have erupted, why this makes revolution more possible than in “normal times,” and how a vanguard force, even one that starts out extremely small, could actually wrench an emancipating revolution out of the madness around us.
We revcoms have the sweeping vision, firm foundation and concrete blueprint for a new liberating society in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian—a constitution that can enable millions, once power has been seized, to build a society on new, emancipatory foundations.
We have the “road map”: the strategy that can enable us to bring forward the needed millions. And we have a rare and unique leader in Bob Avakian to lead this. So here in this fateful week is the challenge:
If you are already part of this movement for revolution in any way—it is time to way step up “your game” to a whole other level, and to work with others to do the same.
If you are one who has been watching this movement at a distance, that time should be over—you need to take the next step forward.
And if you are just coming to this for the first time, get into it. Yes, do your homework but do it now. Dig into the Bob Avakian Interviews and watch The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show. Donate and raise funds from others to support this work. And step in yourself. Bring your dreams and your ideas and your desire to change the world for real to the revcoms.
In 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, Bob Avakian spoke of “deepening divisions and bitter clashes throughout society, as well as ‘at the top.’” He said that “the polarization will continue to sharpen, with forces grouped around and led by the Republican Party becoming even more aggressive in insisting on imposing, including by violent means, their vision of what ‘makes America great,’ with all the very real horrors, on top of horrors, that this involves.” What is urgently needed, he said, “what is possible—and what must be actively, tirelessly worked for, in order for there to truly be a positive outcome to all this—is a fundamentally different alignment in the country as a whole: a Repolarization that is favorable for, and brings forward the necessary forces for, Revolution—a real revolution to overthrow this system, and bring into being a radically different and much better system.”
This repolarization is urgent and it is on everyone reading this to be part of bringing it into being. The events of the past week bring ever more forcefully home the stark message: the future of humanity is literally in the balance, and we are called upon to shape it.
