On the 2020 U.S Presidential Election and The Meaning of International Solidarity
In this decade of the 21st century, the workers and socialist of the metropole (U.S.A) must decide whether they will fight alongside the people of the Global South or collaborate with the imperialist bourgeoisie.
In the 59th presidential election of the United States, we see that the determining character of the American socialist and social movement is to abandon any means of class struggle domestically (let alone internationally). Leaving the nations of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean to fend off whoever the monopoly capitalist send to attack national projects occurring outside of Western domination, which tend to be far more resilient than the struggles happening here on Turtle Island (North America as refered to by First Nation People/ author referencing the U.S).
In the U.S, the defeat of the working-class movement that occurred earlier this year, not limited to but can be identified, with the mobilizations that occurred with the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign, showed that both parties primary purpose is to ponder to the bourgeoisie and not fight for the lives of working peoples. Bernie, like the American Left, collaborated with war-criminals and looters, again.
This defeat of working-class politics within the democratic party has left us with the clear message that any attempt at collaborating with the bourgeoisie of the U.S will be quickly destroyed in the interest of preserving the imperialist domination over capital and the state. Both preserving the capitalist system. The American Left trend of collaborating with modern-day liberal, progressive, or social democrat (democratic socialist) has failed because we do not have a defined working-class movement. V.I Lenin noted well in What Is to Be Done, “an essential condition for such an alliance must be the full opportunity for the socialists to reveal to the working class that its interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of the bourgeoisie.” For decades U.S repressions like the red scare and COINTELPRO have made the development of socialist politics difficult. But without socialist politics at the center, our attempts of building a successful socialist project to overcome imperialism will inevitably crumble to the weight of liberalism's betrayal to the working class. In other words, any attempt of a worker’s movement that doesn’t have its own classic character as the definite point of struggle will always fail.
Lenin then notes “ by advocating the theory of the blunting of social contradictions, by declaring the idea of the social revolution and of the dictatorship of the proletariat to be absurd, by reducing the working-class movement and the class struggle to narrow trade-unionism and to a “realistic” struggle for petty, gradual reforms. This was synonymous with bourgeois democracy’s denial of socialism’s right to independence and, consequently, of its right to existence; in practice it meant a striving to convert the nascent working-class movement into an appendage of the liberals.”
Image From The Zapatista's Critical Thought in the Face of the Capitalist Hydra IContributions by the Sixth Commission of the EZLN
The left was not and is not being bamboozled, we cannot leave this election process or begin this decade without the advancing out of the American Circus called an "election". Julius Nyerere said, “The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them”. So why is it that we have abolitionists, socialist, anarchists, and all those who are supposed to stand against imperialism collaborating on their knees?
The reality is, the actions of the American Left collaborating with the Biden campaign are utopian and non-scientific. Their actions are to abandon anything remotely close to building a working-class organization willing and able to confront the root of our issues.
Finance capital is in crisis. We can see that the process of overproduction in the economy runs simultaneously to the robing of the workers of the world and has grown more volatile in recent years. The response to this kind of crisis of capitalism is moving from bourgeois parliamentary dictatorship (in the U.S congressional) to complete barbarism of financial capitals rule over the workers (i.e Fascism). What we see today is the precursor for a transition of state rule, but through working-class politics, it can be defeated.
Rather than operating on the basis of socialist strategy and tactics, “the sum total of the lessons learned by the proletariat and its allies in their world-wide, century-long battle against the exploiting classes” (William Z. Foster Chairman to Communist Party U.S.A) . The American left chose to collaborate with finance capital and the imperialist’s wreaking havoc on the lives of billions of people.
Do not let the traitors of the struggle for human dignity fool you. The devastation from capitalism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism in the age of imperialism will not be lessened or heightened by the mere elections of two parties and individuals who hold the same political line. The motion of history is brought about not by individual men but by the laws from the economic system of production of that epoch. It is something we inherit, recreate but most importantly have the ability to change if we consciously unify to change it. We must recognize, as Claudia Jones recognized through the science of Marxism-Leninism, “that these conditions were man-made and therefore could be changed by mankind”. We cannot overcome capitalism by collaborating with imperialists, we must work to unify the proletariat and all working-peoples to build a working-class movement here on Turtle Island.
The devastation happening domestically and abroad will not end unless we fight to end it. We cannot begin to dream of its rewards if we are not willing to sacrifice. The people of Yemen are suffering from the largest famine in the last hundred years due to Saudi Arabian collaboration with the U.S military to protect resources. The list of people suffering under U.S imperialism is far too long to list here. The atrocities date back to the founding of the constitution and have occurred under everyone elected in the American circus.
The Havok that is occurring across our planet shows that our strongest allies for survival are the National Liberation Struggles that have been able to develop their national projects outside the rule of imperialism. In closing, I will borrow some words from Amilcar Cabral:
“To end up with, I should just like to make one last point about solidarity between the international working-class movement and our national liberation struggle. There are two alternatives: either we admit that there really is a struggle against imperialism which interests everybody, or we deny it. If, as would seem from all the evidence, imperialism exists and is trying simultaneously to dominate the working class in all the advanced countries and smother the national liberation movements in all the underdeveloped countries, then there is only one enemy against whom we are fighting. If we are fighting together, then I think the main aspect of our solidarity is extremely simple: it is to fight - I don't think there is any need to discuss this very much. We are struggling in Guinea with guns in our hands, you must struggle in your countries as well - I don't say with guns in your hands, I'm not going to tell you how to struggle, that's your business, but you must find the best means and the best forms of fighting against our common enemy: this is the best form of solidarity.”
Our actions must not only bear in mind that our successes and failures affect the super-exploitation and pirating occurring in the Global South, but our struggles here in the metropole are premised on the simple fact that our emancipation is not separate from any fight occurring in the world today against imperialism. The freedom of our people in prison cells and ICE-concentration camps can never be won if the American Left chooses to collaborate with our oppressor rather than our brothers, sisters, and others paving the road to Eco-socialism across the Global South. Moving forward, our practice must be based on the strategies and tactics of socialism being applied to our particular conditions. It will require unity, sacrifice, and a great deal of creativity, while always having the vision of socialism ahead.