There's something a bit insane about the part denouncing the closing down of
situations where people gather. All of the countries that closed down, coupled
with testing and tracing the contacts of infected people, were able to get the
pandemic under control, countries like China, South Korea, and New Zealand.
It's certainly true that the lockdown and tracing can be used for less pure
purposes, but to condemn it out of hand is, to me, ridiculous. The Governor of
New York has ordered the opening up of Long Island starting today. Between
Saturday and Sunday, Suffolk County had 111 new cases and 9 deaths from
Covid-19.
Miriam
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Monday, June 1, 2020 7:46 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] A Pre-Revolutionary Situation Has Opened Up in the
U.S.,,
A Pre-Revolutionary Situation Has Opened Up in the U.S.
Statement by the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 31 May
2020, <http://www.thecommunists.net/> www.thecommunists.net
1. Unprecedented developments are shaking the U.S. and the world.
The brutal murder of George Floyd by the U.S. police has triggered a wave of
mass protests in all major cities. In the course of the last five days these
protests have transformed into a popular uprising. People are chanting “No
Justice, No Peace!” and there are popular slogans directed against the police
like “The Enemy is Blue!”. Many demonstrators are not afraid to confront the
police, reflecting that people are losing pacifist illusions. They are burning
police cars and even torched a Minneapolis police station. In addition, mass
anger and poverty as a result of the worst economic slump since 1929 have
provoked a series of lootings.
2. It is a key characteristic of this uprising that it is not only
black people demonstrating but people of all color including many white youth.
This reflects that while protest against racism and police violence are the
immediate causes of this uprising, there can be no doubt that the dramatic
impoverishment (36 million people are currently unemployed) and the
ultra-reactionary and equally ultra-incompetent Trump Administration are
crucial underlying reasons for the current events.
3. The authorities try to crackdown the mass demonstrations with
utmost brutality. Several demonstrators have been already killed, police vans
drive recklessly into demonstrations, journalists are attacked, shot at or
arrested, etc. Curfews have been imposed in all major cities which however fail
to stop the protests. The National Guard and the Military Police have been put
on short notice so that they can intervene within hours. And President Trump
has already threatened to send federal troops in order to smash the popular
uprising. Such a move would without doubt provoke an open civil war. All these
developments confirm the RCIT’s thesis that there has been a global shift
towards authoritarianism and state bonapartism. In such a political
environment, the police – and the capitalist state apparatus in general – is
emboldened to viciously attack the popular masses and even the media.
4. At the same time, the power of this uprising has resulted in
what seems to be cracks within the repressive state apparatus. There have been
spectacular scenes in Flint (Michigan), Camden (New Jersey), Santa Cruz
(California), Kansas City (Missouri), Fargo (North Dakota) and Ferguson
(Missouri) were police either joined the protests, hold banners in solidarity
(“End Police Brutality”[!], “Standing in Solidarity”) or kneel in Floyd’s
memory. While it would be criminal to have any illusions in the possibility to
reform the capitalist police, such individual acts are important signs of
demoralizations within the ranks of the enemy. Revolutionaries should call
individual police to refuse orders directed against the popular uprising.
5. The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT)
repeats that the most important tactics now are the organizing of popular
assemblies and the formation of committees of action in workplaces,
neighborhoods, schools and universities. Such committees should decide about
the demands and the course of action. They should also elect delegates so that
there can be a regional and national coordination. They should also demand from
community and popular organizations, trade unions, the DSA etc. to
unconditionally support the movement. Such assemblies should also form armed
self-defense committees in order to defend the communities against the enemy in
blue and to drive the police as much as possible out of the communities. Most
importantly, the movement should orientate towards organizing a general strike.
6. In the RCIT statement published yesterday we already pointed to
dramatic character of this popular uprising. We wrote that the “quick
developments have brought Minneapolis and other cities on the verge of a dual
power situation”. However, the spectacular events in the last 30 hours have
resulted in a profound escalation of this explosive crisis so that we can state
now that a pre-revolutionary situation has opened up in the U.S. Any further
escalation, e.g. Trump ordering federal troops to impose a bloody crackdown
could immediately open revolutionary situation and a civil war.
7. It is needless to say that these events have a profound
significance not only for the U.S. but for the whole the world. This is already
reflected in the fact that thousands of people march in solidarity in London,
Berlin, Copenhagen and many other cities. However, since the U.S. is a decaying
but still the most powerful imperialist state, a pre-revolutionary development
in the heart of the imperialist world order has by its very nature a profound
global character. The next days and weeks will allow a more precise analysis.
But what we can already say now is the following: after the global
counter-revolutionary shock-and-awe offensive of the ruling class in the past
2-3 months under the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen already a
renewed popular uprising in Lebanon and Hong Kong. However, the current events
in the U.S. are by far the most significant strike of the masses against the
global counter-revolutionary offensive. This development is not surprising
since this global counter-revolutionary offensive takes place within a historic
revolutionary period characterized by the decline of capitalism and the
acceleration of the contradictions between the states and classes. In such a
period, sudden turns in the world situation are inevitable and reactionary
attacks only prepare future political explosions. We have no doubt that the
current events in the U.S. are not the last example for this development.
8. The RCIT has emphasized from the beginning of the current
counter-revolutionary offensive that the lockdown in fact is not directed
against the pandemic but rather as a preventive anti-democratic attack of the
ruling class. We said that in order to fight a pandemic the popular masses do
not need state repression but a serious health program (protective equipment,
mass testing, free hospitalization, free mass testing, expansion of the public
health sector under workers and popular control, etc.) We denounced the
treacherous Lockdown Left which supported the lockdown and the anti-democratic
banning of public assemblies and demonstrations. What we see now is a powerful
confirmation of our analysis. Wherever the workers and oppressed want to fight
for their rights, they have to break the lockdown regime and the so-called
“social distancing” rules. This has been the case in Lebanon, Iraq, Hong Kong
and the U.S. It is evident that the fighting masses are much more progressive
than the opportunist Lockdown Left which adapts to the pressure of the liberal
middle class and the reformist labor bureaucracy (which in turn adapts to
sectors of the ruling class). The developments of the past 2-3 months are a
powerful lesson: the Lockdown Left supports the counter-revolutionary offensive
under the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic. The militant sectors of the masses
break and ignore the lockdown regime! The RCIT and all authentic
revolutionaries are on the side of the fighting workers and oppressed and
denounce the treacherous Lockdown Left.
9. Furthermore, the current events are also a powerful confirmation
of the RCIT’s slogan which we have elaborated in our documents. We said that
given the dramatic shift of the ruling class towards repression and state
bonapartism, the key slogan will be the transformation of the state of
emergency into a popular uprising. The events of the past weeks in Lebanon Hong
Kong and now the U.S. are a powerful confirmation that this slogan reflects the
objective dynamic of the current period. Finally, we also point out that the
mass protests in the U.S. (as well as in Hong Kong) confirm the RCIT’s thesis
that the democratic question is a key feature of the current class struggles.
Naturally, such struggles are often connected – directly or indirectly – with
economic issues.
10. Comrades, brothers and sisters! Two months ago, we published an
Open Letter with the title “Act Now because History is Happening Now!” Can
anyone doubt that this has been an accurate characterization of the current
world situation and the corresponding tasks?! We call revolutionaries to unite
and to join us in the most important task to build a Revolutionary World Party.
Only such a party can finally organize an international socialist revolution
and the liberation of humanity from exploitation and oppression! We desperately
need such a party because, as we have seen, the majority of the so-called left
opportunistically adapts to state bonapartism or to one or the other
imperialist power (e.g. China, Russia, EU). We need an international
organization, free from such opportunism, social-bonapartism and
social-imperialism. And we need it NOW. Comrades, brothers and sisters, let us
join hands in working for such a historic tasks! Join the RCIT!
International Bureau of the RCIT
* * * * *
We refer readers to the following RCIT documents:
USA: Justice for George Floyd! Workers and youth of all color: unite in
struggle! For self-defense committees against the police! Organize a general
strike now! 30 May 2020,
<https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/north-america/usa-justice-for-george-floyd/>
https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/north-america/usa-justice-for-george-floyd/
China / Hong Kong: Down with the National Security Law! Organize and mobilize
against the looming counter-revolutionary onslaught by the Stalinist-Capitalist
regime!, 23 May 2020,
<https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/china-hong-kong-down-with-the-national-security-law/>
https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/asia/china-hong-kong-down-with-the-national-security-law/
Lebanon and Iraq: Forward with the Popular Uprising! 12 May 2020,
<https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/forward-with-the-popular-uprising-in-lebanon-and-iraq/>
https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/forward-with-the-popular-uprising-in-lebanon-and-iraq/
For our analysis of the global COVID-19 crisis we refer to numerous documents,
including a new book, which have been collected at a special sub-page in our
website:
<https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/collection-of-articles-on-the-2019-corona-virus/>
https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/collection-of-articles-on-the-2019-corona-virus/;
see in particular our new book by Michael Pröbsting: The COVID-19 Global
Counterrevolution: What It Is and How to Fight It. A Marxist analysis and
strategy for the revolutionary struggle, April 2020,
<https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/the-covid-19-global-counterrevolution/>
https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/the-covid-19-global-counterrevolution/; ;
see also the RCIT Manifesto: COVID-19: A Cover for a Major Global
Counterrevolutionary Offensive. We are at a turning point in the world
situation as the ruling classes provoke a war-like atmosphere in order to
legitimize the build-up of chauvinist state-bonapartist regimes, 21 March 2020,
<https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/covid-19-a-cover-for-a-major-global-counterrevolutionary-offensive/>
https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/covid-19-a-cover-for-a-major-global-counterrevolutionary-offensive/.
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--
___
Steven Pinker
“It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer.
But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the earth. Overcoming
naive impressions to figure out how things really work is one of humanity's
highest callings.
[Can You Believe in God and Evolution? Time Magazine, August 7, 2005]”
― Steven Pinker
