Workers Need Revolution and Communism, not Democracy and Justice

Government workers strike in Tunisia here ♦ US January 6 Hearings here ♦

U. S. January 6 Hearings:  Fight Sharpens Among US Rulers Workers Need Communist Revolution, Not Capitalist Democracy or Fascist Coups

USA, June 21— Donald Trump, his allies and supporters are “a clear and present danger to American democracy,” declared retired judge J. Michael Luttig.  Luttig addressed a televised meeting of the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

Luttig is a prominent arch-conservative Republican with close ties to the most right-wing US Supreme Court justices. He testified as an advisor to Mike Pence, formerly Trump’s vice-president.   His testimony shows that a powerful bloc of US capitalists, though deeply divided on social issues, are uniting to squash a threat to their ability to rule.

“Trump and his cronies have no low they wouldn’t cross,” remarked a friend.

“The wheels of justice grind slow but grind fine.” (Sun Tzu) is how a comrade summarized her friends’ reactions to the hearings.  They want to see Trump and his cronies behind bars.

But it’s power – not “justice” – that’s at stake. 

The word “justice” unites two ideas:  righteousness, fairness, equity on one hand, lawfulness on the other.  But capitalism’s “rule of law” protects private property and the exploitation of the propertyless masses. So “justice” is a contradiction where the rulers use the illusion of fairness to get us to support the unequal legal system that serves them and not us.

In no society is it “lawful” to overthrow or interfere with the government.

Luttig’s “clear and present danger” references a Supreme Court doctrine about how the government can limit freedoms of speech, press, or assembly. That 1951 case concerned government suppression of the Communist Party USA.

The CPUSA built illusions that communism could be achieved through elections.  The International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) has no such illusions.

Our work today – distributing literature, building ties with workers and youth, participating in their struggles – may be legal in the US although not everywhere.  But whenever and wherever we get close to leading revolutionary masses to seize power and build communism, we will be completely illegal.  We prepare today for that struggle.

Right now, though, the US rulers are wielding their anti-communist legal precedents against the fascist coup-plotters.  They seem ready to crush the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers that led the assault on the Capital.  Coeur d’Alene, Idaho,  police arrested 31 members of the white-nationalist “Patriot Front’ before they could attack a recent Pride event.

Greg Jacob, Pence’s former lawyer, testified about what would have occurred if Pence had followed Trump’s orders to declare him the winner.   “An unprecedented constitutional situation …that might well then have to be decided in the streets.”

That could happen in 2024.  Would local police side with pro-Trump fascists?  Would National Guard or regular Army units suppress them? The rulers are worried.

As Luttig said, on January 6 “Americans were at war with each other – over our democracy.”

This isn’t just a metaphor.  Rep. Mo Brooks (R, AL) told Fox News that “we need our guns” so that “we can take back our nation.” The Texas Republican Party just asserted its state’s right to secede.

US imperialism faces this growing internal crisis while its Russian and Chinese competitors challenge it globally with increasing success. Another civil war is not impossible. The Soviet Union broke up – the United States could too.

This internal conflict is not a class struggle between workers and capitalists. It is a fight among capitalists:  those who are using the democratic process to stay in power and those (including Trump) who can’t. Over 700 people were arrested for the January 6 attack. Over half were CEOs, business owners or professionals like architects, doctors, and lawyers. Only 7% were unemployed. Relatively few were workers.

The masses of disaffected workers and youth – including white workers and youth – are not won to racism and fascism. The January 6 Commission wants to win them to actively support democracy and justice. That means supporting capitalist state power and laws that chain them in wage slavery.

We must expand our efforts to mobilize the masses to communism worldwide. The rulers use charismatic leaders when they can and (more often) fear of a “greater evil.”    They control most of our access to information. They have their legal monopoly of force.

But we have the only solution to the mounting problems of workers everywhere:  a communist society where all work as they are willing and able and all share according to need. Where the masses, organized by ICWP, make decisions collectively based on communist principles and full information.

Let’s seize history and start building our communist future.

June 16— Government workers in Tunisia paralyzed this north African country with a nationwide strike.  Workers demanded increased wages to counteract inflation. They denounced the government’s proposed spending cuts and privatization. President Kais Saied wants these to satisfy the International Monetary Fund amidst an economic crisis. Masses are also furious with Saied’s revision of the 2014 constitution to increase his power. Tunisia was the only country to emerge from the Arab Spring with the democracy demanded by the masses.  As ICWP said then, we need to fight for communism – not for democracy.

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