How should we democratic socialists, we inheritors of the cause of Marx and Engels, respond to the protests, riots, and occupations that have been taking place across the Western World?
Regardless of the fact that some individuals belonging to them may be lovely people off the clock and in their personal lives and/or may carry out the occasional genuine act of self-sanctioned and emotionally-driven heroism, and regardless of the fact that some individuals belonging to them have some misgivings about carrying out certain duties assigned to them and/or misgivings about “police culture” in general, police forces of capitalist governments, are not incidentally or independently foul/oppressive entities capable of being transformed into forces of relative good. They are intrinsically, among other things, forward pickets and terrorist contingents of Capital’s army. The slogan “ACAB”, in that it does not offer opportunity for resignation, defection, mutiny against the state during the Socialist Revolution, and redemption, may be a bit much, but the statement “all cops as cops are oppressors” most certainly isn’t. Even what is held by most to be the “good” work of capitalist law enforcement agencies, what is deemed by the majority of people to be a simple prevention of theft, protection of property from vandalism and trespassing, and prevention of civil and personal violence, is truly an effort to protect Capital inspire and reinforce in the masses false notions about the nature of the state and protect capitalist economic activity, is principally protection of productive and non-productive property of Capital and the exploitative petty bourgeoisie and an effort to make workers feel life is stable and safe enough for the carrying out of regular economic activity (that is, regular economic activity for Capital). Any good that results from their efforts is pitifully insufficient and a mere concomitant of their intended result. And given that institutions designed to oppress the bulk of the population are necessary components of capitalist states, the grand tools of class oppression, police forces or institutions of civil oppression analogous to them will always exist in capitalist societies. Whatever name they have gone or will go by, as long as capitalist states exist, they are bound to exist. We true democratic socialists, we inheritors of the cause of Marx and Engels, know all of this.
Intra and extra-societal racisms and bigotries of all sorts are everywhere stoked and reinforced by Capital to keep the various sections of the global working class pitted against one another. As long as Capital holds any reins of power, it will employ “divide and conquer” tactics against those rules over. The oppression, demonization, and scapegoating of the Black workers of our societies is an effort to oppress both White workers and the scapegoated Black workers themselves- the bloc of Capital that controls the states of the Western World and their divisions, partly through the actions and policies of the law enforcement agencies and “justice systems” of these states and their divisions, and in its greater effort to preserve their status as obedient reserve mobs and paramilitaries for Capital, prevent them from recognizing that non-White workers face the problems they face themselves and are victimized by their own victimizer, and keep them from meaningfully agitating for the amelioration of even their own economic and social misery, instills bigoted and sanctimonious attitudes towards Black workers in huge sections of White workers. This White hostility in turn produces, and is accompanied by a direct companion campaign on the part of Capital to produce, a general attitude of resentment in a great many Black workers of our societies (together with most other groups of non-White workers of our societies the figurative dalits of Western societies) towards the relatively, but by no means absolutely, privileged White workers (by far the largest group of figurative shudras of Western societies) who reside next to them under the boot of Capital. This hostility serves to keep Black workers from recognizing that White workers are victimized by a common grand victimizer and face a great many of the same problems faced by themselves, and serves to keep Black workers, like the White workers (albeit to a lesser extent, given their consciousness of their relative poverty), from meaningfully agitating for amelioration of even their own economic misery. And as long as Capital remains in control, it will try to sow racial discord. All of this is obvious to any true democratic socialist.
We democratic socialists sympathize with the rank and file of those raging in the streets across the Western World. What we are witnessing is indeed mass rage against what we know to be a deliberately racist and racially-divisive capitalist institution, an arm of the dictatorship of the capitalists. The killing of George Floyd by a sadistic hireling of Capital pushed the justified general zeitgesit of anger, created by another recent crime of Capital (even if it, like the killing of George Floyd, may not be widely understood as such), the disgusting mishandling of SARS-CoV2/COVID-19 crisis, over the top in both Black populations and a great many sections of White populations. Tens of millions upon tens of millions of people are righteously furious.
But we democratic socialists must not, as some previously in our ranks have, be dishonest with ourselves or be outright led away from true Marxism and democratic socialism and into Montagnardism, Blanquism, Leninism, Stirnerism, Proudhonism, Bakuninism, Narodnaya Volyaism, and fetishization of spontaneity. We must not be carried away by wishful thinking, raw feelings, opportunism, or adventurism and deviate from the only path that leads to socialism. We must understand that while it is indeed demonstration of the recent cracking of the prevailing cultural hegemony and development of a most embryonic form of class consciousness in tens of millions upon tens of millions over the past several months, almost none of this movement, this overwhelmingly spontaneous action, is informed by mature class consciousness and none of what it is carrying out is truly socialist revolutionary action. It is not capable of in the areas it is prevalent of overthrowing Capital and the capitalist state, realizing and successfully defending from armed reaction government by the working classes towards the realization of socialism, and starting the Socialist Revolution. It is not anywhere close to class conscious enough in its thinking, nor in possession of enough firepower, nor anywhere close to broad enough to be such a movement- it must be understood that it is not in alliance with class conscious working classes of the non-Western World (indeed, such working classes do not yet exist in the non-Western World any more than they do in the Western World, either in those areas under the whip of the non-Western imperialist blocs of Capital or those areas under the whip Western imperialist blocs of Capital- imperialist blocs of Capital that, in today’s world, could exploit a power vacuum in Western societies caused by socialist revolutionary action if they were not meaningfully challenged by the populaces under their whip while such action was underway in the Western World) and is opposed by massive numbers of heavily-armed presently socially reactionary civilian workers and military personnel (as we know, themselves exploited workers, and while oppressors in the employ of capital, generally more sympathetic with the general public, and less conscious of their “bully” status and much less involved in daily “hands on” oppression of their own societies than those individuals belonging to law enforcement agencies) in the Western World who must be emancipated from their bigotries and developed into socialist revolutionaries, as well.
We are still years of aggressive educational effort, organization, and agitation away from a well-informed and firm socialist revolutionary consensus of all sections of the working classes, from a socialist revolutionary situation, from capacity to overthrow the present regime and realize dictatorship of the working classes. So-called “revolutionary action” in liberal democratic capitalist societies not carried out by a firm class conscious consensus of all sections of the working classes and not guided by efficient organization is in many cases heroic in nature, but it is not socialist revolutionary action.
Yes, the people were furious and a great many of them are now more furious (and, yes- unfortunately, in some cases in reaction to this movement), but they have not yet fully linked the problems at play here and they do not yet understand the structures of power that oppress them. Again, we must see this for what it is- crowds of justified, but insufficiently class conscious and poorly-organized rage. It is partly led by Montagnardist, Blanquist, Leninist, Stirnerist, Proudhonist, Bakuninist, Narodnaya Volyaist adventurists and opportunists who may masquerade as fellow inheritors of the cause of Marx and Engels, as true democratic socialists and some who indeed were genuine Marxists and democratic socialists and have recently fallen into the quagmire of opportunism and adventurism, of Montagnardism, Blanquism, Leninism, Stirnerism, Proudhonism, Bakuninism, and Narodnaya Volyaism. Again, its leadership is not democratic socialist, nor is its rank and file. It is certainly not a democratic socialist, not a Marxist, consensus of all sections of the working classes. Veneration of the present action as socialist revolutionary action on the part of the politically read, including fellow self-described Marxists and democratic socialists, is either dishonesty with ourselves and wishful thinking or genuine descent into opportunism, adventurism, or fetishization of the spontaneous. We know non-supermajoritarianism and spontaneous action in general cannot deliver victory. Belief to the contrary, belief that spontaneity and anything less than widespread, fully class conscious supermajoritarianism can directly begin to deliver the end of the dictatorship of the capitalists and set humankind on the path to socialism is Blanquist, anti-Marxian, and functionally counter-revolutionary.
The predominant conception of the state both in the movement in the streets and outside it is a primitive one that holds it to be independent of Capital- there is occasionally in the minds of many workers belonging to and outside the movement be a vague notion of “the powerful” or “the Man”, but there is little more than that. Most belonging to the movement in question do indeed think that police forces in the employ of the states we live under, through being rebranded, subjected to some “reform” legislation, deprived duties related to simple “mental health” incidents, and forced to recruit more members of the communities they most viciously oppress into their ranks, can be transformed into relative forces for good. Many among the crowds in the streets cheer on the bourgeois politicians and pundits joining the crowds and speaking to them. Many among them even seem to be halfway pacified by Capital’s efforts to lead the movement down a road of simple general iconoclasm and destruction of stone idols themselves, rather than one that leads towards the destruction of the economic system that put the stone idols up.
And there is nothing like a developed strong democratic socialist internationalist spirit among most of the workers, especially those relatively cold towards and loudly condemning the protests, riots, and occupations. Massive heavily armed sections of the working classes on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line, under the whip of the Canadian state, and even in pockets of Europe can be fed racial and ethnic chauvinist red meat and called out to act as divide and conquer paramilitary for Capital and deflect blame for extreme crowd control methods from the state, and the simple truth is that the most socially reactionary civilian citizenry, to say nothing of the political sympathies of those in the law enforcement agencies and militaries, is at the present better-armed in these places than that belonging to this movement is. The old bigotries must suffer severe blows from revelation of the true self-interest of the sections of the working classes they hold sway over before and development of feelings of camaraderie between all sections of the working classes before the Socialist Revolution can take place. The ugly fact is presently non-seditious capitalist militaries, presently non-seditious capitalist law enforcement agencies, and their reactionary auxillaries in waiting at the moment have most of the weapons.
Once again, this all is indeed a manifestation of rage against the oppressors, proof of the development of an embryonic form of class consciousness, and a tremendous opportunity for education, but it is not itself the Socialist Revolution. Once again, this rage manifesting itself in these protests and riots needs to be constructively channeled and, with effort, developed into true democratic socialist revolutionary sentiment. Once again, the anger of the well-armed reactionaries opposing it needs to be destroyed with educational effort and revelation of true self-interest and turned from sentiment that will keep the working classes tied up with infighting into true democratic socialist revolutionary sentiment. Once again, we democratic socialists know only a combined class conscious will of all sections of the working classes, consisting of, among others, both those tens of millions presently belonging to this movement and those tens of millions presently opposed to it alike, can carry out the Socialist Revolution, can abolish the capitalist state, establish the dictatorship of the working classes, and implement a state agenda for the realization of mature socialism, a mode of production under which almost all residual chauvinisms that have survived the initial realization of a socialist revolutionary consensus of the masses in a weakened form are incinerated by the emancipatory light of internationalist economic democracy and global economic cooperation and planning.
Yes- The transition to rule by the working classes, and from thenceforth to the establishment of socialism, would be bloody and partly consist of widespread and severe civil unrest. We democratic socialists, we students of Marx and Engels and inheritors of their cause, do not make a fetish out of simple nonviolence. We know that any mature consensus for the realization of economic democracy demonstrated by even the most lopsided votes would violently clash with the capitalist states and other forces of Capital- any democratic mandate for the establishment of a true government of the working classes and the expropriation of Capital would be reacted against violently. We democratic socialists must work to build such a movement of all sections of the working classes of the world capable of passing such a mandate and defending it with force. But it would take much arduous effort and time to build such a movement. It would take the formation of political parties capable of educating and meaningfully agitating on every front, becoming major components of pre-revolutionary social life and pre-revolutionary mutual aid, and contesting and winning elections. It would take an arming of the whole revolutionary citizenry. It would, once again, take the dealing of severe blows, by revelation of and appeal to real self-interest, of chauvinist attitudes that keep the revolutionary potential of huge sections of the working classes of the world from blossoming into full class consciousness and feelings of universal working class camaraderie. It would take he building of seditious mindsets in the military reactionaries presently in control of most of the weapons- it would take years of former servicemen won over to the cause of socialism hampering the recruitment efforts and propagandizing the ranks of the militaries around the world, revealing the true purposes of the militaries to their active and reserve ranks, and developing potential for widespread mutiny in response to orders to carry out imperialist war and defy the democratic will of citizens. It would take hampering of the the recruitment efforts of law enforcement and encouraging the defection of those members of police officers with a conscience and providing a sense of security to those willing to whistle blow and inform for the forces of socialism.
And across the Western World, that all would amount to, among other things, a radical shift in the thinking of presently reactionary White workers precipitated by educational effort on the part of us democratic socialists- to, among other things, the development of class conscious feelings of camaraderie between presently reactionary White workers and other workers and the bringing of presently reactionary White workers to the realization that they can redeem themselves, be self-confident, and proudly play an honorable role in history. The Socialist Revolution would certainly not be delivered by accommodation of presently-existing White bigotry and a tempering or belittling of Black and general non-White outrage against racial injustice, but it would also certainly not be delivered by a general assumption that White workers are doomed to descend into general intra-proletarian violent reaction, and/or exclusion of White workers, and/or denial of the fact that they as a group can become a force for good, and/or general sanctimonious garbage and endless White self-flagellation. It would be delivered by socialist radicalization of both the presently genuinely bigoted among the White workers, those workers they presently have bigoted feelings towards, and all other sections of the working classes of the world, and the coalescing of these groups into a movement for the emancipation of mankind.
The Socialist Revolution could begin less than a decade from today! But, again, we have much work to do.
-Strom McCallum
