The Fall of US Capitalism and the Victory of Socialism, part II
Our Strategy for Victory
In order to build socialism, we must build a working class movement and wage a struggle for Revolutionary Democratic Control by the Working Class. This struggle is revolutionary because it demands the total overthrow of the bourgeoisie, it is democratic because it insists upon the direct election of delegates and the subordination of the minority to the majority, and it represents total control by the working class because the political bodies we are forming are made up only of the working class.
Revolutionary struggle does not manifest in a single instance of outrage by the masses. Revolutionary struggle is a dialectical process – the exploited class gradually builds its strength, while at the same time it degrades the strength of the ruling exploiter class. These small quantitative changes in the relative power of the two opposing classes, over time, lead to a qualitative change — the victory of the exploited and the destruction of the exploiter. In the revolutionary class struggle to construct socialism, the means of achieving these quantitative changes is the development of democratic workers power. It is the construction of working class political organizations — i.e., Workers Councils — that allows workers to express and channel their power against the capitalist ruling class, building their power starting at the local level and liquidating the capitalist state by means of the workers state. A situation where Workers Councils have gained enough strength and developed to the point where they can effectively challenge the power of the capitalist state is known as 'dual power'. In every successful socialist revolution, the establishment of dual power has been a necessary prerequisite to the complete political victory of the proletariat over the capitalists.
Political Education
The working class must have a political party which actively studies the experience of workers everywhere, analyzes and summarizes this experience, and uses their analysis to determine the correct course of action. The creation of a political party allows the working class to bring forward its own interests as a class, rather than being drowned by the media’s flood of bourgeois liberalism.
The formulation of the correct political line also gives the working class a point around which to rally, and prevents workers from being conned by reformist liberals who make sweet promises but secretly wish to crush the revolutionary struggle. In order to endure the many great setbacks of class struggle, workers must not only have something to struggle against, but also have something to struggle for. Political education illuminates both the evils of imperialist-capitalism and the liberatory path towards socialism. This is what will transform the working class into a class unto itself, separate and distinct from the bourgeoisie.
The Multinational Communist Party, which seeks to provide the political leadership of the workers’ struggle, tirelessly works to strengthen the connection between workers and the party. Without the support of the workers, a communist party will be liquidated by the capitalist state. Worker democracy is also the party’s first line of defense against liberalism — it grounds the political superstructure of the party in the base of the workers’ material interests.
A clear ideological line will guide the working class in the formation of organs of democratic workers power — worker steering committees and Workers Councils. The exercise of democracy strengthens the workers’ commitment to the struggle because workers will begin to understand that they can have control over the world around them, that they have a right to a say in the economy into which they contribute so much.
The Black Working Class
Why is the struggle of the Black working class so important to our revolutionary struggle? In the US, the acute exploitation of Black people first took the form of slavery and then sharecropping. Following this was the Great Migration wherein Black agricultural workers were forced to flee the rural south and travel to northern and western cities where they worked in heavy industry.
Today, a disproportionate percentage of low-wage laborers in the US are Black people, increasingly forced out of cities by industrial collapse and exponential rent extraction into economically declining suburbs. U.S. concentration camps imprison Black people at a higher rate than any other group. The objective of this system of under-employment and mass incarceration is to maintain Black workers as the core division of the reserve army of labor. The perpetual creation of low-wage Black workers creates downward pressure on the wages of all workers, aggravating racism that divides the working class. It is impossible to end the exploitation of the working class as a whole without a clear plan to fight the particular exploitation of Black workers.
This history of exploitation has in turn produced a history of revolution. People of African descent have waged a struggle for national liberation in North America for centuries, and any socialist struggle in the US must be formed around this revolutionary core. Slave revolts, post-WWI armed defense, the Deacons for Defense, and the Black Panthers are the most notable examples of Black militant revolutionary struggle. It is critical that we recall and reteach this history because it builds confidence in the revolutionary movement.
Because of their exploitation and history, the Black working class forms the most stable base from which committed revolutionaries and active workers will be found — the bedrock of our revolutionary struggle. Further, if Black workers are not organized, capitalists will use them as a wedge to defeat the revolution. To nurture this revolutionary base, we have to attack white supremacy in all its forms and strengthen the internal solidarity of the Black working class.
Attacking white supremacy means engaging in political strikes against employment discrimination, wage discrimination, police violence and mass incarceration. It also necessitates political education amongst non-Black workers to correct mistaken ideas and chauvinism. Strengthening internal solidarity means building caucuses of Black workers within our Workers Councils, and guaranteeing their representation in the decision making and political leadership of the revolutionary struggle.
Class Struggle
“The Russian bourgeois revolution of 1905 revealed a highly original turn in world history: in one of the most backward capitalist countries, the strike movement attained a scope and power unprecedented anywhere in the world… Russia was the first to show the world, not only the growth, by leaps and bounds, of the independent activity of the oppressed masses in time of revolution (this had occurred in all great revolutions), but also that the significance of the proletariat is infinitely greater than its proportion in the total population; it showed a combination of the economic strike and the political strike, with the latter developing into an armed uprising, and the birth of the Soviets [Councils], a new form of mass struggle and mass organization of the classes oppressed by capitalism.” — Lenin, “‘Left-Wing’ Communism: an Infantile Disorder”
The mobilization of the working class is the power of the revolutionary working class in motion and the method by which we seize the means of production. If the collective working class has control over the means of production, exploitation can be rolled back and surplus value can be directed towards the interests of society as a whole.
Prior to the establishment of political supremacy, the seizure of the means of production begins by degree. This can be done because ownership itself is merely the collection of privileges that the owner is granted over a property by the state. Workers can wrest these privileges from the capitalists one by one.
Class struggle is the struggle over surplus value, beginning with the economic strike. As the struggle becomes political and then revolutionary, the economic strike begins again, but now at a new and higher stage. The economic demand for a greater share of surplus value is no longer constrained to raising wages for the individual worker. Now, the workers strike in order to divert surplus value into the workers’ movement as a whole. The workers use their increasing share of surplus value to increase their capacity to organize and to strike again. In doing so, the revolution begins to feed itself.
Herein lies the importance of a vast connected network of workers’ organizations in the form of Workers Councils. Workers Councils must be the organs of working class power, the prototype of the workers’ state, and the first step in the development of dual power.
Mobilization gradually raises the class consciousness of the workers. Each time workers unite to successfully achieve a common objective, their confidence in the struggle increases. Moreover, the resistance of the capitalist state exposes the contradictions between the ruling class and the workers, clarifying the enemies of the revolution.
Over time, the escalation of worker mobilizations will weaken the capitalist class. At the same time, the organizational structures of the Workers Councils, which bind workers together, will be strengthened by their continued use and political development. In this way, repeated mobilizations will weaken the enemy forces while strengthening ours. We must steadily amass victories. Capitalism can not be defeated in a single blow. We must gradually, but consistently, chip away at capitalist power. This will create openings to strike larger blows, which must be immediately seized.
Worker Steering Committees
Victory in our revolutionary struggle will be achieved by bringing a majority of workers in each of the most populated metro-areas of the U.S. into Workers Councils. Class struggle is the battle over surplus value and Workers Councils are the vehicle that workers use to plan, organize, and execute that struggle. The more workers engaged in struggle, the more surplus value is stripped from the capitalists and returned to the working class. Therefore, every city with a thriving Workers Council weakens the economic control of the capitalist ruling class and strengthens the economic power of the revolutionary working class.
To achieve this, the Multinational Communist Party and worker-organizers all over the country must communicate a clear political direction to unite workers and maintain a forward march in the class struggle. We must also build democratic workers power in the form of Workers Councils, and we must steadily and continually win victories – both large and small – against the capitalists.
The worker steering committee is the basic building block of the Workers Council. A steering committee is a group of workers on a job site who come together to plan the strategy and tactics of their struggle. The steering committee recruits their coworkers, conducts propaganda and education, and leads their mobilizations.
The workers in the steering committee are the organic leaders - workers who are connected to many of their coworkers and are honest, hardworking, trustworthy, and respected by their peers.
The committee must also be representative. Each and every special oppression in a given workplace must have representation in the workers steering committee. Without this, whole sections of the workplace will be left out of the organizing process and will be used as a wedge by the capitalists.
The Revolutionary Campaign
As stated above, victory in our revolutionary struggle will be achieved by bringing a majority of workers in each of the most populated metro-areas of the U.S. into Workers Councils. Every city with a thriving Workers Council weakens the economic control of the capitalist ruling class and strengthens the economic power of the revolutionary working class. This relationship, with one side growing weaker and the other growing stronger, makes up the dialectic of revolutionary struggle. The small, quantitative changes in the relative strength of the ruling class and the exploited class cumulatively and over time lead to a qualitative change — the destruction of the ruling class and the triumph of the exploited class.
To carry out the construction of Workers Councils we must advance in waves. This is done through the repeated process of expanding, consolidating, and expanding again. Expanding means going to new areas, finding worker leaders, forming them into steering committees, and pulling the masses of workers towards these steering committees. Consolidating means strengthening and formalizing the workers' organizations. Initially, the nucleus of the workers steering committee gathers a loose, informal mass of workers around it to participate in education and mobilization. But over time, the steering committees must actively formalize these structures. The steering committees must frequently hold general meetings where the masses of workers participate. Eventually the workers will elect delegates to form a Workers Council and consolidate workers control in a given area.
This alternating pattern of consolidating and expanding allows us to conserve our energy and to plan effectively. If we were to only expand, organizers would wear out. Moreover, without formal structure, workers organizations would dissolve over time — or even disband when faced with severe defeats. Consolidating gives us time to plan future expansions. Likewise, clinging to our corner and refusing to expand will only provide the ruling class time to mount a full assault and wipe us out.
The process is not linear — there will be set-backs and forced retreats. We can not stubbornly hold our ground in situations that would lead to our destruction. Consolidation and expansion is also not uniform. In some regions, worker organizations will be expanding while in others, worker organizations will be consolidating. Local decisions must be made based on a concrete analysis of concrete conditions.
But, victory is achievable. Capitalism will fall and socialism will win. We will raise the class consciousness of the proletariat through tireless political education. We will organize the working class and solidify their organizations with proletarian democracy. We will build Workers Councils and lay the groundwork for the workers state. We will achieve the liberation of Black people and all oppressed nations, and we, the united working class, will write the closing chapter of the history of capitalist exploitation.