https://themilitant.com/2018/12/08/working-class-must-lead-rural-revolt-against-capitalist-rulers/
Working class must lead rural revolt against capitalist rulers
Vol. 82/No. 47
December 17, 2018
Around the world, a mood of angry revolt is spreading among the “people
from nowhere” — workers, family farmers and the rural poor, those who
never have a voice in the big business press. Whether wage slaves or
debt slaves, they are increasingly saying, “Enough!” after being pushed
towards the edge for years by a rapacious profit-driven system built on
their backs, and being ignored or treated like dirt by bosses, bankers,
politicians and government bureaucrats of whichever ruling-class party
is in power.
Exploding in small cities and towns in the rural areas and working-class
suburbs of France, and onto the streets of Paris, the “yellow vest”
movement is a powerful example of this rebellious sentiment.
Class contempt for the provincial “deplorables” oozes from every pore of
the ruling families and wealthy professional layers and meritocrats who
staff the capitalist rulers’ government. The protesters have defiantly
hurled this back, calling themselves “les beaufs,” or “rednecks.”
The “green” taxes by French President Emmanuel Macron, which he has
since suspended, were merely the spark that ignited tinder-dry
deep-seated popular anger over the rulers’ unrelenting assaults on our
livelihoods.
These workers say they don’t follow any of the bourgeois political
parties or the top union officialdom — none have shown themselves to
care one whit for what today’s deepening crisis of capitalism is doing
to working people.
At the farmers’ demonstration in Quebec — a nationalist and
protectionist action covered in this issue that was backed by the main
union federations — protesters asked their Canadian rulers to use
tariffs and other steps to hit the products of workers and farmers of
other countries. But working-class internationalism is what is needed.
These actions pose the question of who will lead the countryside — the
capitalist rulers or the working class?
The challenge is for working people to rebuild the labor movement — a
bureaucratic shell of what it was in the past — to fight to win allies
to the cause of the emancipation of the downtrodden majority. For the
revolutionary vanguard of the working class, the challenge is to set the
example, to act as tribunes of the people, raising demands that advance
the interests of farmworkers, family farmers and other toilers in the
countryside.
It is the working classes — including family farmers and other toilers —
who work the products of nature to create all wealth, and are the
guardians of all culture. Only in the custody of the working class can
the environment be protected from the ravages of capitalism.
This is only possible if working people can win over today’s version of
a peasants’ revolt to form an alliance to take political power out of
the hands of the propertied rulers and use it to transform social
relations — and ourselves — to build a society based on human need, not
capitalist greed.
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‘Yellow vest’ protests force French gov’t to back down
PARIS — In face of sustained mass, popular mobilizations from rural
areas as well as working-class suburbs, French Prime Minister Edouard
Philippe announced Dec. 4 a six-month suspension of the proposed hike in
car fuel taxes. These proposed taxes were…
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •‘Yellow vest’ protests force French gov’t to back down
•Working class must lead rural revolt against capitalist rulers
•Disaster from Camp Fire is result of capitalist rule
•Welcome to the 1,404 new readers of the ‘Militant’!
•‘We won!’ Marriott hotel workers vote to end strike, return to work
•National coalition against censorship says stop Florida bans on ‘Militant’
Feature Articles •Moscow launches assault on Ukraine access to Sea of Azov
Also In This Issue •Canadian nationalism, tariffs dead end for working
farmers
•At G-20 US, China rulers reach truce in trade dispute
•Florida victory boosts fight for ex-prisoners’ voting rights
On the Picket Line •Minn. Somali Amazon workers fight speedup,
discrimination
•Canadian postal workers protest gov’t order to go back to work
•Striking Kentucky concrete workers fight bosses’ ‘final offer’
Books of the Month •Castro: ‘Internationalism is paying our debt to
humanity’
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