“Imperialism is the highest stage of development of capitalism. Capital in the advanced countries has outgrown the boundaries of national states. It has established monopoly in place of competition, thus creating all the objective prerequisites for the achievement of socialism. Hence, in Western Europe and in the United States of America, the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat for the overthrow of the capitalist governments, for the expropriation of the bourgeoisie, is on the order of the day.” V.I Lenin: (1916) The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination
Wage earners need not be informed of their exploitation, but they must learn the nature of it. Where does this exploitation begin and by whose hands must it end? Within Imperial core countries, the revolutionary potential of the working class has been subverted by the exploiting capitalist class, in part, through the vehicle of consumerism. The primary stage of the revolution, development of class consciousness among the masses, has yet to come about partially due to this subversion. Identitarian politics coupled with identitarian consumption commodifies the way in which we interact, obfuscating latent potential for class solidarity. The city-dwelling working class has differing material interests than the rural working class, but the nature of their exploitation is the same - Monopoly capital. Their distinct material conditions combined with a two party system tends to produce two distinct, yet equally reactionary tendencies - liberalism and conservatism. Both parties bow to the altar of capital. Both parties are imperialist.
The barrier to real working class unity becomes apparent when analyzing one’s own perceived identity as it relates to access to consumption. Does the way you dress, eat, live, and spend determine who you are? Does it communicate who you are to others? How can we foster a community that transcends these societal limitations?
Access to goods and services in American society is often confused for self expression. Put another way, self expression under capitalism is necessarily dependent on one's access to goods and services. Self-expression itself has become packaged and sold to the working class to their detriment. This commodification of self has fractured the working class into subsets seemingly devoid of class consciousness. The working class identity itself has become atomized, and in its place, aspirational, reactionary neoliberal, and consumerist identities have become the norm.
Workers with the advantage of generational wealth, high earning workers, workers with good credit, and college educated workers all have greater access to personal wealth accumulation than poor workers, rural workers, and peasants. This access itself can be a barrier to class solidarity, and the individual sense of security outweighs the underlying need for social revolution. The highest wage earners and those with generational wealth have their basic needs met while also having more access to credit, traveling, luxury goods, wealth accumulation, and expensive experiences, further separating them from their working class interests. This access to consumption itself drives a wedge between high and low wage earners by implying a class distinction where none exists. The lack of class consciousness leads some of these workers to petit bourgeois aspirations. These are still working class individuals, albeit in an elevated position. Revolutionary potential among this subset, while low, can be materially beneficial to the revolution once realized.
Under empire, those without generational wealth must resort to the credit system, giving more and more of their hard earned money back to the banks. While they have more access to home ownership, they won’t actually purchase the home from the bank for 30 years. For example; a mortgage for $220K today at 6% means at maturity the buyer will have paid $474K in total. 115% OVER the asking price. At every turn, the capitalist system is designed to predate on and take advantage of our desire for security for the benefit of those who own the capital. This process itself extinguishes community and trades it out for individuality, each picket fence representing another barrier to solidarity. The atomization of society is a crucial component in the deradicalization of a society. Revolutionary potential is lower among the “middle class” due to their adherence to the status quo for the sake of individual perceived security.
Poverty in rural communities means lower access to goods and poor living conditions. Poverty in the city means payday loans, pawn shops, and food bank lines. When the impoverished lose everything, they are relegated to surviving on the streets. Those on the streets are dehumanized and routinely incarcerated. Helping the houseless builds community and solidarity. Taking care of the material needs of the most oppressed in society and building a revolutionary movement are not mutually exclusive.
Mao regarded the peasantry as having the most revolutionary potential, and his analysis proved correct through the Chinese Revolution. But we do not live in feudal China. We require a contemporary analysis of our material conditions and the current contradictions in order to build a cohesive movement with staying power. CTRRG published An Overview of the Movement in its Current State, which provides a lucid analysis of the revolutionary movement more broadly and provides an answer to the question of the next steps forward: an All-Empire Workers League.
“In order to develop revolutionary consciousness, we must learn how revolutionary consciousness can be raised to the highest point by stimuli from the vanguard elements. We recognize and appreciate the decades of hard, sometimes dangerous work done in the name of revolution by the older socialist parties. Perhaps we wouldn’t exist at all were it not for their efforts. It is our sincere wish to operate in complete harmony with these older groups. But we must create new impetus and greater intellectual and physical energy if the forces of reaction are not to win another extended reprieve.”
-George Jackson (1972) Blood in my Eye
The struggles experienced by each subset of the working class vary, but the source of their struggle remains the same: monopoly capitalism and imperialism. The focus must shift from simply the aesthetic differences to the material similarities of our precarity and those who create it for any semblance of class solidarity to become a reality. The path forward lies in the eventual development of a truly revolutionary, decolonial Communist Party, built upon revolutionary theory from all parts of the world, which can unite all oppressed peoples in the struggle against capitalism and imperialism. The primary stage of revolution is yet to be achieved in the United States, but the opportunity grows each time the contradictions become more and more insoluble. Join an existing organization, start a reading group, or get involved with a mutual aid group in your community. You have nothing to lose but your chains!
RedHelpATX is a revolutionary mutual aid group dedicated to feeding the houseless, strengthening networks of community defense, and furthering the science of Marxism-Leninism. Donate if you can! Your financial support goes directly toward assisting the houseless community in Austin.