On the Democratic Party Move to Open an Impeachment Inquiry

September 25, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Last night, the Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy “Piglosi” Pelosi initiated impeachment proceedings against Donald “Mein Trumpf” Trump.  This signals an important new development in the struggle against the Trump/Pence fascist regime.  It marks a much sharper division among the rulers over the moves by the Trump/Pence regime to institute full-out fascism and as such provides a potential opening for the masses to burst through “from below.”  All who want to see an end to this fascist regime should be seizing on what is a potential opening to bring forward masses and organize, as soon as possible, massive sustained nonviolent struggle in the streets, aimed at driving out the entire fascist regime.  Any illusions that “it’s all over now,” any idea that “we can leave things to the Democrats, it’s only a matter of time” would be extremely destructive—for reasons we’ll explain below.  Now is the time for redoubled efforts—NOT relaxing!

This move carries great risks for the section of the rulers that Piglosi represents.  This is why she has resisted it for a long time.  The fears pointed to by Bob Avakian still remain.  She only undertakes this high-risk move now because continuing to do nothing in the face of Trumpf’s rampages would pose even greater risks to the interests of the imperialist ruling class, as she sees them, and the stability of the system.  

Piglosi took great care to cast this in terms of the “national security” interests of the U.S.—that is, the interests of the U.S. empire in continuing to dominate and exploit the masses and despoil the planet.  But these are NOT the interests of the masses of people, worldwide or in this country.  The fundamental interests of the masses lie in the overthrow of all forms of imperialist rule, in a revolution to do away with all exploitation and oppression; a revolution that aims to emancipate all humanity.  

At the same time, the imposition of the grotesque fascist form of bourgeois imperialist rule—with the greatly heightened risks it carries of war and total environmental destruction, the tremendously intensified oppression it means for masses of people, and the much greater repression it carries for all forces working for a better world, including revolutionaries—is totally antagonistic to the interests of humanity, and must be defeated.  The slogan we originally raised in the wake of Trump’s election remains correct and extremely important: “In the name of humanity, we REFUSE to accept a fascist America.”

Piglosi also raised the violation of Constitutional norms and the rule of law.  Trump has in fact violated such norms for his entire rule.  The section of the rulers that Trump represents strongly believes that the imposition of a full-out fascist regime is in the interests of the U.S.  This requires the imposition of straight-up dictatorial methods against the masses, and it also requires the suppression of other forces in the ruling class. 

The forces represented by Piglosi may believe that Trumpf has “crossed a line” in that regard with his latest apparent attempt to utilize the government of Ukraine to bring down Joe Biden; and/or they may also believe that this step too blatantly violates what have been legitimating norms of imperialist rule up to now.  We cannot read their minds. But they are almost certainly calculating that if they continued to do nothing in the face of this, they would lose too much “credibility” among those masses whose anger and resistance they are “charged” with corralling and domesticating.

As we have posted on our website since Trumpf’s rise to the presidency:

Fascism 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.”

At the same time—and this can be seen through studying the examples of Nazi Germany and Italy under Mussolini—while it will likely move quickly to enforce certain repressive measures in consolidating its rule, a fascist regime is also likely to implement its program overall through a series of stages and even attempt at different points to reassure the people, or certain groups among the people, that they will escape the horrors—if they quietly go along and do not protest or resist while others are being terrorized and targeted for repression, deportation, “conversion,” prison, or execution.

Does this not describe the process at work today?  Yet Piglosi and the vast majority of Democratic politicians, even today, still refuse to call the Trump/Pence regime out for what it is—fascist.  For three years they have been complicit with it, and their refusal to call it what it is shows that they still aim to conciliate with it.  Were they to call it out as fascist, straight-up, the implications would be tremendous: that everyone must do everything they can to mobilize masses in their millions to STOP and DRIVE OUT such a regime, and that business as usual cannot go on until this is done.  This illustrates again why the Democratic Party can not be allowed to define the parameters and aims of the struggle to drive out this regime and their efforts to misdirect the struggle must be sharply and consistently struggled against.

But it would be a terrible mistake for all those who DO want a better world to stand aside from the now heightened crisis.  As we have also pointed out for two years now:

The Democrats, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, etc., are seeking to resolve the crisis with the Trump presidency on the terms of this system, and in the interests of the ruling class of this system, which they represent.  We, the masses of people, must go all out, and mobilize ourselves in the millions, to resolve this in our interests, in the interests of humanity, which are fundamentally different from and opposed to those of the ruling class.

This, of course, does not mean that the struggle among the powers that be is irrelevant or unimportant; rather, the way to understand and approach this (and this is a point that must also be repeatedly driven home to people, including through necessary struggle, waged well) is in terms of how it relates to, and what openings it can provide for, “the struggle from below” —for the mobilization of masses of people around the demand that the whole regime must go, because of its fascist nature and actions and what the stakes are for humanity.

NOW is the time to seize and widen the potential opening here, to bring masses forward to recognize the need AND the possibility to drive out this regime.  The call of Refuse Fascism for masses to come into the streets, wave upon wave building into the millions and more, and drive out this regime, must be taken everywhere with redoubled effort.  The mass meetings called for this weekend by RefuseFascism.org to develop plans to launch these sustained, mass, nonviolent protests that do not stop until the regime has been removed from power must be built far and wide, and even before these meetings people should be taking meaningful actions to rally masses to stand up.

Revolutionaries should go all-out to bring people forward to this fight, showing the links to the deep and defining contradictions of this system—the 5 STOPS—and the need for revolution, while at the same time broadly uniting around the need to drive out the regime.  Bob Avakian’s filmed speech, THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible, is more timely than ever, and showings should not only be set up, but ways should be found to show clips from the film and the film itself on the streets in the days leading up to and coming out of these meetings this weekend.  At the same time, revolutionaries should be linking this struggle to the very important upsurge now going on against the destruction of the environment, joining in and striving to give leadership to that struggle as well, developing fighters on one front into fighters on all fronts, and doing everything from the standpoint of the masses’ most fundamental interests: revolution, nothing less.