A little over two months have passed since Abelardo de la Espriella (ADLE) took office, and it already feels like an eternity. The ADLE regime is moving full steam ahead, waging battles on many fronts simultaneously, with the aim of completely remaking not only the government but also society: ranging from the unwavering defense (and support) of the rich and ultra-rich at the expense of the great majority; the promotion of religious fundamentalism that seeks to shatter the principle of a secular state; the attack on the freedom of the press; the reestablishment of oppressive patriarchal control over women; the promotion of a culture opposed to diversity, truth, and critical thinking; the intention to eliminate any obstacle to the extensive exploitation of the environment; through to the intensified repression, the criminalization of protest and the persecution of anyone who dissents (even within the ruling classes), as concentrated in the "Anti-terrorist" Statute, which recalls the unfounded accusations, witch hunts and fear imposed by the fascist-leaning Security Statute of Turbay [president of Colombia 1978-1982], and the "democratic security" of Uribe’s regime [2002-2010], but which takes it to even more extreme levels.

These attacks strike swiftly and intensely. They horrify, with the aim of exhausting the opposition and increasing public tolerance. They occur in a context where far-right and fascist forces are on the rise in various parts of the world. In Latin America, the so-called "orange wave" is gaining strength, with sectors of the ruling classes of the old and new fascist-leaning types (from the pro-Nazi forces of the old conservative "Leopards" party of a century ago, to figures like Gilberto Alzate, Laureano Gómez, and Fernando Londoño, to Laureano's grandchildren and great-grandchildren and their ilk in the ADLE government) willing to kneel before the fascist Trump and subjugate these countries to U.S. imperialism in an even more all-around way, with the full package of anti-communism and religious fundamentalism. A central element of this “orange wave” program is “public safety” and “fighting crime,” but that’s a sleight of hand; their objective is not to “fight crime” but to impose a police state fascist regime and carry out terror against the people, which is central to fascism.

These fascists are not “demented” individuals or merely “power-hungry” and “craving revenge”; they rise from the very soil of this capitalist-imperialist system. They are hellbent on preserving that system “by any means necessary,” at a time when that system is facing (what has the potential to be) the greatest crisis in its history (two of the system's major crises in the 20th century led to world wars). The climate crisis, the escalating confrontation between the imperialist superpowers the United States and China, the collapse of “international law” and the global “order” headed by the United States since the end of World War II, which revealed the deepening and the intensification of conflicts dating from either the post-war period or the collapse of the Soviet social-imperialist bloc, such as the genocide against the Palestinian people, the war in Ukraine, the crises throughout the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, etc.—along with the lie that this global order represented justice, equality for all and a better future—are showing in various ways the existence of a generalized crisis of the system.

In many ways, this system continues to show that it cannot represent a desirable future for humanity. But this crisis of the capitalist system does not in any way mean that the system will collapse on its own. That requires the organized effort of millions upon millions of people to overthrow it. It requires a revolution. A real revolution, for real. Here, and in many other countries as well.

A revolution is not just a popular uprising or “explosion.” It is the action of masses of people, organized and led to wage an increasingly conscious struggle to abolish all systems and relations of exploitation and oppression, and to lead humanity to move beyond them.

The extreme crisis of the system that has led to the rise of fascists everywhere, from Trump to Milei, De la Espriella and the Bolsonaros, can also create opportunities for a radical change of the opposite kind (a positive change!): a real revolution, on the road to emancipating all of humanity. It is clear (or should be): “The crisis and deep divisions in society can only be resolved through radical means, of one kind or another—either radically reactionary, murderously oppressive and destructive means, or radically emancipating revolutionary means” (revcom.us).

If the fascist and reactionary regimes currently in vogue consolidate and strengthen, the revolutionary struggle becomes more difficult (although it’s never easy!), and even the possibility of a radically different future is put in jeopardy. Therefore, yes, resistance against these fascist regimes, including that of ADLE (with a significant social base among Catholic fundamentalists and the myriad Pentecostal churches), is extremely important. We must not allow this regime to go unpunished for its crimes, and we must confront each outrage with ever-stronger resistance (from the framework of the revolutionary transformation of society). Resistance must broaden, deepen, and become more resolute, drawing more people from every corner of society to stand up and say NO! But ultimately, if this resistance remains confined within the framework of this system, limited to the electoral path or sheltering under the wing of one or another sector of the ruling classes, we will not escape fascism or all the horrors this system inflicts.

Some have even used the possibility of a new “societal explosion” as a warning to the ruling classes (and as an aspiration of their own). Such an outbreak is a possibility, but not inevitable. And however encouraging and courageous it may be, a new “explosion” in and of itself will not bring about the kind of change that is needed. The uprisings in Iran, or the “Spring” of the early 2010s, demonstrate this. There may even be a new “explosion,” but if it ultimately remains within the same framework, things will remain fundamentally unchanged, and it could even deepen the pessimism of significant sectors of society that need to be filled with objectively based hope. 

“What we face” and “the obstacles in our path” also, in a key sense, include the thinking of the people—all the completely incorrect and harmful ways of understanding and dealing with reality. Not only among the enemies of the revolution, but also among its friends—in fact, among those who most need this revolution and will form the backbone of its forces.

As a letter published in the newspaper Revolution (revcom.us) aptly points out: “We have zero chance of bringing forward millions of people to make revolution without massively and radically transforming the thinking of the people. And we have zero chance of massively and radically changing the thinking of the people without fierce, uncompromising ideological struggle to wrench people out of all of the bullshit—and there is a lot of it!—that they are caught up in and winning them to revolution.”

You cannot fight by thinking within the same framework as the exploiters and oppressors, which is the same framework as that of the reformists (and no!, questioning reformism as a method for truly changing society does not mean opposing reforms that improve people's conditions): that "we have to wait for the pendulum to swing to the left" (a little less to the right) in the midterm elections, here or "there," that the "democratic checks and balances," that the "separation of powers," blah blah blah. It is necessary that a great many people come to grasp a framework of thought that allows them to understand, in order to transform, the concentrations of contradictions that constitute true societal fractures (seismic faults), and that a great many people join the revolutionaries in putting an end to the injustices generated by these societal fractures:

The struggle to end the degradation, dehumanization and patriarchal subjugation of women, and all oppression based on sexual orientation or gender; the struggle to halt the degradation and destruction of the environment; the struggle to end the impoverishment, unemployment and growing hunger that these cause, as well as the painful moral and intellectual degradation to which this system condemns many people, especially the youth of the basic masses; the struggle to end the war against the people, the massacres, the forced displacement, and the criminalization of youth, including the bloody repression of those who have risen up yearning for change; the struggle to end the discrimination and oppression of Indigenous people and of Black people, and the racism and xenophobia used to justify other problems such as unemployment and poverty; the struggle to end the suffocation and persecution of dissent and critical and scientific thought, and the promotion of all kinds of superstition; and the struggle to end imperialist wars and the deepening of imperialist domination and food dependence of countries under the yoke of imperialism, such as Colombia.

Putting a STOP to these injustices, structuring these struggles into a genuine movement for revolution, is a crucial part of a strategic approach to a real revolution. This requires the convergence (the joining together from the perspective of a true revolution) of the separate acts of resistance into a mass movement and a political crisis to drive out the regime as a whole, as a vital part of the struggle to defeat the whole system of imperialist capitalism, as part of a similar process worldwide.

We need a broad, deep, and determined anti-fascist and anti-imperialist struggle! Don't normalize! Don't accommodate! Don't collaborate!

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