Demanding a Government that Meets Human Needs
Demanding a Government that Meets Human Needs
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The accelerating social revolution is forcing workers to enter the political arena, not only for their survival but also to defend the democracy they need to carry on the battle. At the same time, it is forcing the ruling class to resort to fascist tactics to maintain power. The fascist offensive in the United States is underway. An assault on the right to vote is happening state by state, modeled after the “Negro disenfranchisement” movement that swept the South from 1890 to 1910. Laws against the right to protest are similarly spreading across the country, including laws to legalize running over protestors with cars and SUVs. The government is deliberately increasing poverty by refusing to enact the $15 minimum wage and by the 25 states that have refused to allow people to receive extended unemployment benefits. People in poverty who are then evicted and lose their homes are treated as criminals by police and swept mercilessly from place to place.
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What we see here, and what we saw during the January 6 Capitol insurrection, is what is called the “social face of fascism.” We see this in the expansion of white supremacist groups. We see it inside local police departments and inside ICE and the Border Patrol. But the cause of fascism is greater than the formation of groups of people doing evil things. Fascism also has an economic face: the merger of large corporations with the State.
Economic Face of Fascism
The technological revolution has created a situation where the private property economy no longer needs human labor the way it did during the agricultural and industrial eras. Human labor is increasingly being replaced by automation and artificial intelligence. Corporations are required to maximize profit and will not tolerate interference in their businesses by a government that represents people they do not need, especially people demanding their human rights. The fewer workers they need, the more they promote measures to discard democracy and transform government into a corporate dictatorship.
Significantly, many of the corporations that pledged in January (for public relations reasons) to stop funding the 147 legislators who voted to overturn the election have now changed their mind or “clarified” their position and resumed support for politicians committed to overthrowing democracy.
Sometimes the fascist offensive appears to be a partisan, Republican-led attack on democracy, and there is certainly no question that the Republican Party leadership is committed to establishing a new Jim Crow-type dictatorship in America. There are still significant tactical differences between the major parties, and revolutionaries should take advantage of any opportunities these create for protecting the interests of workers suffering from unemployment, evictions, and denial of health care. But we dare not allow ourselves to be deceived that these tactical differences amount to a different strategic aim.
Leadership in both parties is fully committed to protecting private property and corporate profits by blocking the unity of the working class, destroying its fighting capacity, and stripping it of the ability to influence government policy.
Bipartisanship
The clearest example of this is what is happening at the U.S.-Mexico border. Historically, the border has served as an important model and testing ground for introducing fascist policies into the United States. In spite of his softened rhetoric, President Joe Biden has continued and even stepped up many of the cruelest and most racist practices instituted by Donald Trump, stripping migrants of their rights to due process and to apply for asylum. He has refused to rescind Trump’s so-called Title 42 policy that expels migrants within hours without a hearing, without a “credible fear” interview, without even receiving a registration number or being entered into Border Patrol records. Title 42 was implemented based purely on the pretext that it was a public health measure – even though it has no health impacts at all and was actually opposed by the Center for Disease Control.
Another example of two-party corporate domination is the “bipartisan” infrastructure bill currently being promoted in the Senate by President Biden and others. While the bill would provide $579 billion for badly needed improvements in roads, bridges, and ports, including replacing America’s lead pipes, its funding mechanisms are a combination of accounting tricks and massive giveaways to corporations. One example, called “asset recycling,” would sell off public resources to corporations for short-term gain. In 2009, for example, the City of Chicago sold the rights to its parking meter revenue for 75 years, a deal that brought it $1.15 billion but will cost Chicago residents $11.6 billion over the life of the contract.
Fortunately, resistance to the bill is rising in Congress, not only over its financing but especially over what it leaves out. “No climate, no deal!” has become the rallying cry of the Squad in Congress and the Sunrise Movement in the streets. As Sunrise’s Varshini Prakash said, “Anything less than a robust jobs and climate package is a death sentence for our generation.” Senator Bernie Sanders has discussed an alternative, comprehensive $6 trillion bill that would fund not only physical infrastructure but green energy, housing, health care, education, child care, and other critical safety net programs.
Going on the Offensive
This objective motion toward fascism does not mean we cannot or should not fight it with every fiber of our being. What it does mean, however, is that when we resist attacks, we have to simultaneously organize to go on the offensive against the corporate power behind the social face of fascism. We have to strike it at its weakest point: the fact that the corporate, private property system cannot meet the basic human needs of the people, including housing, health care, food, clothing, and education of our children. The battle for our basic needs is not only a necessity for survival. It is the most effective arena for defending democracy. It is also a school where revolutionaries can develop and share their vision and strategy for reorganizing society for the benefit of all.
The remnants of democracy that still exist are important, especially to the extent that they still allow for working-class communication, unity, and political education. We cannot sustain an offensive against the corporate dictatorship without social consciousness – the idea that we are members of a common working class and that we are exploited by a ruling class that is alien to us and does not have our interests at heart. Social consciousness empowers workers to never again be misled to follow a billionaire politician as their savior and turn their backs on their very own class brothers and sisters.
It is the responsibility of revolutionaries to march side by side with workers through all the twists and turns of the struggle toward ever greater unity and greater consciousness. An indispensable part of this is participating in electoral campaigns and using campaigns and elected positions as powerful platforms for advancing the people’s demands. Elected positions can be instrumental, not because they can solve all our problems, but because they can be used to expose and resist the system and educate and organize our people.
In Oakland, California, for example, the recent election of more City Council members committed to meeting human needs has transformed the political paradigm. Before the pandemic, corporate predators were hollowing out city government with layoffs and hiring freezes. Now the debate has been shifted to one of good governance: how to distribute the necessities of life to the people who need them.
The City Council’s approach to the issue of defunding police has been to prioritize human needs, especially housing and homelessness programs. Oakland’s unhoused population doubled between 2015 to 2019. The African American share of Oakland’s overall population was decimated by displacement, falling from 45 percent to 24 percent, while its share among unhoused residents rose to 70 percent. The Council purchased motels and hotels, provided rental assistance, and expanded support services.
When the Council decided on its budget in June 2021, it defunded the police by some $18.4 million, despite the outrage of its corporate critics. By shifting funds to human services, youth programs, violence prevention, and alternative responses to calls for assistance, it expects to make Oakland safer by freeing up police to focus on violent crimes. At the same time, the Oakland School Board and Peralta Community College District voted to completely terminate their contracts with police and sheriffs and diverted funds into mental health and student services.
By themselves, these measures cannot defeat fascism. One city alone cannot reverse the political climate of an entire country. But what is happening in Oakland is also taking place in other cities and congressional districts all across the nation. It is a building block in the emerging political revolution. The task of revolutionaries is to participate in this motion every step of the way and proclaim, share, and expand their vision of a world where wealth is distributed based on meeting human needs instead of private profit. The same technology that tears apart our system as long as it is under corporate control also contains the power to free the world forever from back-breaking labor, poverty, and misery. RC
September/October 2021 Vol31.Ed5
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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