Point of Orientation on the Struggle to Prevent the Trump-Pence Fascist Regime

December 19, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Today we face the serious threat of fascism—of an openly terroristic form of rule directed against the masses, with few if any legal safeguards. And we face this not as a possible prospect in the future, but as the outcome of the inauguration of Trump and Pence in the highest, most powerful offices of the land in little more than a month. The facts and urgency of this case are spelled out in “A Month of Resistance To Stop This Fascism” (the Mission and Plan, for short) and exposed in a wealth of other material at this site, and don’t need to be repeated here.

Coming from the standpoint of emancipators of humanity, of people who see the burning need for a revolution to overthrow this system at the soonest possible time, we understand the need, right now, to throw our all into preventing this Trump-Pence fascist regime from coming to power. In doing this, there are contradictions—relationships between different things—which we need to understand and apply.

First, all forms of rule in any system dominated by capitalism-imperialism are dictatorships of the capitalist-imperialist class (or bourgeoisie). This is basic. As Bob Avakian has put this:

When a monopoly of political power—and, in a concentrated way, the monopoly of “legitimate” armed force—is in the hands of one group in society, and that group excludes others from that monopoly of power and force, then that is a dictatorship of the ruling group—or class—regardless of whether or not that ruling group allows those it excludes from power, and over whom it rules in fact, to take part in elections to vote for different representatives of the ruling class, as happens in the U.S. and a number of other countries. Political rule in the U.S., regardless of whether or not there is an open and undisguised tyranny, is and always has been a bourgeois dictatorship, a dictatorship of the ruling capitalist class (or, in the early history of the U.S., before the defeat and abolition of the slave system, through the Civil War, what existed was the dictatorship of the ruling classes—the slaveowning as well as the capitalist class, or bourgeoisie).
—BAsics 1:23

We now face the prospect of a more or less “open and undisguised tyranny” coming to power, in the form of the Trump-Pence regime. This is fascism: that is, “the exercise of blatant dictatorship by the bourgeois (capitalist-imperialist) class, ruling through reliance on open terror and violence, trampling on what are supposed to be civil and legal rights, wielding the power of the state, and mobilizing organized groups of fanatical thugs, to commit atrocities against masses of people, particularly groups of people identified as ‘enemies,’ ‘undesirables,’ or ‘dangers to society.’”

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A further point: as such a regime is being instituted, and once it has been instituted, it is foolish to count on “cooler heads” among the capitalist-imperialists to prevent it. Again, we’ll draw on BA:

These right-wing politicians (generally grouped within the Republican Party) can, will, and do actively mobilize this essentially fascist social base...yet, on the other side, the sections of the ruling class that are more generally represented by the Democratic Party are very reluctant to, and in fact resistant to, mobilizing...the base of people whose votes and support in the bourgeois political arena the Democrats seek to gain. This (Democratic Party) side of the ruling class generally is not desirous of—and in fact recoils at the idea of—calling that base into the streets, mobilizing them either to take on the opposing forces in the ruling class and their social base or in general to struggle for the programs that the Democratic Party itself claims to represent and actually in some measure does seek to implement....

As an amplification of the basic point here, it is important to recognize this: Within the framework of the capitalist-imperialist system, and with the underlying dynamics of this system, which fundamentally set the terms, and the confines, of “official” and “acceptable” politics, fascism—that is, the imposition of a form of dictatorship which openly relies on violence and terror to maintain the rule and the imperatives of the capitalist-imperialist system—is one possible resolution of the contradictions that this system is facing—a resolution that could, at a certain point, more or less correspond to the compelling needs of this system and its ruling class—while revolution and real socialism, aiming toward the final goal of communism, throughout the world, is also a possible resolution of these contradictions, but one that would most definitely not be acceptable to the capitalist-imperialist ruling class nor compatible with the imperatives of this system!
—BAsics 3:11

This perfectly describes the situation today: the forces grouped around Trump-Pence are putting in place a ruling group and regime that will viciously bring the hammer down on tens of millions in this country in a way that goes way beyond “the everyday workings” of capitalist dictatorship; they will much more seriously threaten the very prospect of human existence, through both an increased possibility of nuclear war and a much more breakneck pace of environmental destruction; and yet Obama and the like tell us to “give him a chance,” to “hope for success.” NO!

The certainty, should the Trump-Pence clique come to power, that they would do all this—that they would essentially “keep their promises” (not so much for “jobs” but to viciously repress the masses of people and seriously threaten concentration camps and even an outright “fast” genocide at some point, that they would “make America ‘white’ again,” so to speak through terrorizing, imprisoning, and expelling whole sections of people, racial and religious “minorities,” as well as unleashing violence against women, gay people, and others who do not conform, and eviscerating any semblance of dissenting or even inquiring political and intellectual expression)—poses an enormous challenge.

To make it very clear: If people are beaten down and repressed it is NOT better for revolution. If the masses are decimated, and all their strivings for something better are decimated, if their organizations—including the vanguard—come under severe and open violent repression, we’ll be that much further away from what we need.

To prevent this from happening, it is important right now that the entire movement for revolution join with and work to help mobilize everyone who opposes, or could be won to oppose, this regime to prevent its taking power. Those in the movement for revolution, for these next five weeks at least, need to focus their efforts on THIS. Actually winning—actually joining with others to do what is called for in the call to action “NO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America” and the Mission and Plan, and in so doing preventing this regime from seizing power, must be the number one task.

Those in the Revolution Clubs and others who struggle to mobilize people for revolution should make clear that they ARE fighters for the emancipation of all humanity and followers of BA, that we need a revolution, that people should be going to revcom.us every day to learn what is going on and how it fits into making that revolution... but they should most of all emphasize that right now the most pressing thing is for EVERYONE who gets what this Trump-Pence regime is all about to get organized to win the enormous battle now being joined.

Further: right now, in this immediate period, when there is a pressing need to mobilize tens of millions of people (and to reach probably 100 million to do that), we cannot spend time in long discussions with people, or with each other for that matter. We are in a major political battle, in which the lives of millions, possibly billions, are directly in the balance. It is really as if a tsunami is looming directly offshore and we have a very limited time to get people to safety. We need to go to people most of all with the Call to Action and the Mission and Plan and, once they indicate basic agreement, immediately get down with them on what needs to be done and how they can contribute and organize others to contribute.

Revcom.us will be extremely important in this period. Every day it will post new exposures of what the Trump-Pence regime is putting into place and planning to do, answer new arguments and questions that are coming up, spotlight resistance and the building movement to prevent this, and showing how all this links to revolution and communism. As people are awakening and drawn to this site, they will meet and get into Bob Avakian—what he is all about and what he has brought forward, the new communism.

The task is urgent. The challenge is clear. The way forward is there. The time is NOW!

 

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