As revolutionary socialists, it is our objective interest that the system of capitalist oppression be eliminated from all nations, and for all time. As such we must make our home in the class whose historic role it is to overthrow this system, the international proletariat. It is indeed the truth that the working-class appears very different today than it did two hundred years ago when industrial capitalism first began to emerge. Since the rise of industrial capitalism, and merchant capitalism before it, the proletariat has changed and grown in many ways to the current state where the class now encompasses the majority of the global population. We have also grown in our knowledge base and abilities. The worker of today must be able to understand and do things that would have seemed like science fiction to the scientists and engineers at the turn of the last century. The previous class of landless, illiterate serfs has been replaced by a working-class able to read and write. As a result of all this we have also grown greatly in turns of organized class power. All of this though is not to say that the proletariat of the world is not oppressed under the capitalist system.
In order to assault this exploitation, we, the organized working-class must struggle in the name of our interests against the capitalist class and their coordinators. Towards this end we must organize ourselves in those places where the proletariat congregate: in the trade and industrial unions, at workman's clubs and associations and in the workplace itself. We must fight for workers unity and solidarity so that we may be more able to assert our rights for higher wages, and for an end to racist, sexist and homophobic discrimination in our places of work. Every step we as a class have taken towards these goals has been accomplished by actively and openly trespassing on those areas that were one the complete and exclusive realm of the owners of industry.
We must work towards the construction of One Big Union, an organization of all workers, including the unemployed, the homeless, undocumented immigrants and prisoners and sex workers, excluding all agents of the boss class able to hire and fire, or possessing equivalent coercive or punitive powers. As revolutionaries and communists we must dedicate ourselves to the struggle of unorganized workers for the right to form unions that truly represent and protect the interests of the new, multinational workplace. We must also organize outside the workplace, in the neighbourhoods and communities of the working-class to struggle for a better standard of life, which means better housing, schools and health care. We must also organize on the political front, into parties of the working-class. The electoral front is a vital arena for the struggles of the working-class. Electoral politics have been and always will be an area of political struggle, to improve their daily lives, to gain a greater measures of political power and to win important reforms. Most importantly is allows to expose the people to our messages and ideas, showing them there is indeed another way forward, that the current state of affairs is not inevitable. It is also vital that in our organizations we struggle for the organization workers from oppressed nationalities workers, from the LGTBQQ community and women.
Along with struggles amongst the working-class, we as communists also must seek international unity and solidarity with all other forces, armed and unarmed, who are engaged in the struggle against imperialism. Global events and developments over the last twenty years have caused a great shift in the revolutionary left marked in large part by feelings of confusion and demoralization and also marked by calls for rethinking, refoundation and regroupment. Now more than ever, as the tide of neoliberal globalization grows, we must learn to put aside past sectarianism, and and work towards building new forms of unity and solidarity. The leaders of the past, both good and bad, are long dead, and while looking up to them and the examples and theories they left for us can encourage and teach us, arguing over who was a what compared to who gets us no where. We need to stop arguing about the past and work towards the past.
World-wide fundamental change is required on the part of the revolutionary left. We can not succeed without unity and cooperation. The formation of organizations like the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and Solidarity, both of whom are outgrowths of the need to regroup, as well as attempts by the Socialist Party USA, Freedom Socialist Party and Peace and Freedom Party to establish closer electoral ties show that at least in some sectors of the left the realization of the need for change is alive and well. It is our duty as revolutionaries to seek unity with other revolutionary organizations, including the revolutionary nationalist forces like Unión del Barrio. We must also be equally dutiful in building a united front with progressive, non-revolutionary movements and organizations for social justice. The construction of these united fronts, where both revolutionaries and non-revolutionaries from oppressed communities and the working-class can come together, is critical to our struggle.
I do not have all of the answers, no one does, but it is my belief that revolutionary nationalist forces, from the American south-west to Palestine, to Ireland to Africa, and other forces on the left have rich and varied experiences from which we can all learn. I believe that it is only through the building of multi-tendencied left movement, where can dissent and difference of opinion can be aired openly, that we can bring strength to the mass movements for progressive change around the world.
Through out all of this we must remain clear one thing; capitalism is our enemy. There can be no reconciliation now. But in order for us to not only fight, but also to win, we must understand the enemy's nature.
Capitalism dominates our economic system. Under capitalism, a handful who own the factories, the mines, corporate farms and the banks control the wealth that the majority of the people produce. It is this system that we are fighting.
In today's world capitalism organizes globally, generally without care for national borders. Blocs of capital of increasing size compete ever more intensely for economic growth and profits. Under this dog-eat-dog system, you have one of two options: you either destroy your competition, or they will destroy you. The drive to eliminate competitors in search of ever higher profits is what sends the corporations to all corners of the world, seeking cheaper raw materials and corrupt local governments that will insure a "friendly investment climate." Capitalism continuously seeks cheaper labour costs. This is why we see so many plants closing down and moving "off-shore," i.e. into the Third World. The capitalists have also proven themselves willing to murder in order to ensure the low labour costs and a cooperative local regime, as the example of Coca Cola in Colombia shows us everyday.
The capitalist class rules the world. They constantly play lip-service to the idea of a democracy, where the people rule, however, this is their democracy, not ours. More than a democracy, this current system is a plutocracy, rule by the rich. If you aren't one of them you might as well not even show up on voting day, and indeed many do not They rule the electoral system with they dollars, yen, euros and pounds. Once more, it is simply not just that it takes millions in currency to run for high office these days, it is that the state, this system of organized violence, the police, the army, the navy, the air force, the prison system, were set up and developed to have one goal and one goal only, to serve and protect the interests of the propertied classes, to uphold the rights of property over those of the people. Capitalism is by its very nature a system of force and violence. Poverty is built into the very core of its operation.
The capitalist class will do all in its power to maintain its undeserved power and authority over the vast majority of the human population. History has shown again and again that they will stop at nothing to maintain their wealth and power. As Emma Goldman said, and Che Guevara observed first hand, no capitalist class, in any country, is going to give up its power just because it lost a vote, and even if such a thing were possible the capitalists would have declared voting illegal some time ago.
Capitalist democracy, or rather plutocracy, is protected by the threat of force against the masses. The governments of the capitalist nations don't just go to war to protect its profits overseas and take control of new markets, they have also shown many times a willingness to send their armed forces and police against their own people, to end militant strikes, student demonstrations and urban rebellions against injustice.
However capitalism is way more than just the economic system, it is the whole social system. Capitalism does not just exist in the abstract, it is also a system based racial/national oppression, patriarchy and homophobia and heterosexism. In the the U.S. capitalism was built on land stolen from the Indigenous peoples and by the forced labour of Africans kidnapped from their homeland. One of the greatest tools of the the capitalists is to keep the working-class against itself along racial lines since colonization. This racist view of the world promoted among the white ruling-class is constantly reinforced by the institutional racism of U.S. society.
This racist system was enforced by the imposition of a small, but relative differential in the treatment of white workers over workers of colour. This system preferential treatment created small but real privileges for white workers. It has worked to such an extent that the system is either protected or ignored by the white working-class. Until this false sense of superiority is combated fully in organizations and within the wider working-class, no real unity among the proletariat and national movements can possibly be sustained.
Due to nature of institutional racism and national oppression, people of colour often suffer even greater politically, socially and economically. The white supremacist world view is also often internalized, by way of schools and other institutions, among people of colour, producing a sense of self-hatred and self-destructive behaviour. We must struggle with our white brothers and sisters to educate them to the fact that racism and white supremacy ultimately hurt all workers and that the unity of all workers will benefit them as well. Workers from the oppressed nationalities must also recognize though that the enemy is not the white man but the system of capitalism. Playing into racism, from other side, only works to further divide us as a class and plays right into the hands of the bourgeoisie
While it is also true that the majority of white workers do not significantly benefit from the oppression of people of colour, racism has been used many times to successfully divide progressive social movements throughout history. Racism only has the effect of intensifying and prolonging the super exploitation of oppressed nationalities. It is also of particular danger because, should fascism come to power in the west, it will do so primarily by exploiting racial fears and divisions. One has to look no further than U.S. fears over a Mexican immigrant invasion or the literal construction of a fortress Europe. A socialist revolution will by necessity require the unity and solidarity of the entire working-class with the revolutionary movements of oppressed nationalities, and this united front will be the primary social force to lead the charge and usher in socialism.
Long Live the World's Indigenous!
Long Live the Excluded of the Entire World!
Long Live the Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Capitalist Struggle!
Long Live the Tireless Defense of Mother Earth!
Long Live Our Dead Forever!
Democracy! Liberty! Justice!
In Peace and Solidarity
Rowland Keshena
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