Texas has always been the front line in the fight for abortion rights. This simple medical procedure has been illegal in the state since the writing of its first penal code in 1857. The entire justification for this law is blatantly racist. As a slave state with a large Mexican population, Texas leadership was concerned that “the wrong people were going to be having more kids and the right people were going to be having fewer kids.” Maintaining white birth rates was seen as fundamental to preserving white power in Texas.
This abortion ban was enforced to varying degrees over the following century, generally only if the patient experienced complications. Then, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and the rise of feminism brought new scrutiny to the fairness of such bans. In 1970, two young lawyers from Dallas, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington, brought forth a case challenging Texas’s century old ban on abortion. Roe v Wade worked its way to the Supreme Court, and in 1973, the right to privacy regarding medical decisions was declared victorious, and ensured the right to abortion up to the point of fetal viability.
With Roe now the law of the land, Texas’s ban became essentially moot, but was never removed from the penal code. For the nearly 50 years since the ruling, the far right wing of the Texas bourgeoisie, along with the conservative religious right, has been working diligently to recriminalize abortion care. In the last decade, as the majority of the population moved politically and socially left, the far right has made strides in chipping away at the human rights of Texans.
Famously, in 2013, state senator Wendy Davis delivered an impassioned 11 hour filibuster to stop a bill which would have banned abortion after 20 weeks, and established such strict regulations on medical facilities that provide abortion care that 37 of Texas’s 42 clinics would have been forced to close. Her win that evening was a relief for millions of poor and rural Texans who would have lost access to this healthcare procedure.
A similar bill was passed the next legislative session.
Eight years later, in September 2021, SB8 was enacted, outlawing abortion after 6 weeks since last menstrual period. This sneaky bill got around Roe protections by instituting a $10,000 bounty on those who help a Texan obtain abortion access. Any person could bring forth a lawsuit against a friend, partner, healthcare worker, even an Uber driver who assisted a Texan in terminating a pregnancy.
In anticipation of the reversal of Roe, Texas also passed a “trigger law” in 2021. This full abortion ban went into effect 30 days after the Dobbs decision was released. As the law now stands, anyone who helps Texans receive abortion care, this includes friends, family social workers, doctors, nurses, anyone who helps them receive abortion care, is subject to 99 years in prison, a $100,000 fine, andloss of medical license if applicable. The only time an abortion is legal is when the pregnant Texan is on their literal deathbed. They will allow a patient to go into septic shock before evacuating an already deceased fetus.
This ban comes at the same time that the state is actively assaulting the rights of transgender Texans. Make no mistake, these attacks are related. The far right comes after anything that doesn’t fit their ideal cis, white, evangelical lifestyle. They criminalize the existence of anyone who challenges their hegemony.
So what is to be done? Texans are angry, scared, and in desperate need of direction. There is an election coming up, and the main focus appears to be, “Vote them out.” The opposition to the far right in Texas is putting all of their energy into Democratic candidates this election cycle, but they are sending a lot of mixed messages, adding to further confusion.
At a recent rally put on by Women’s March Austin, most speakers focused on increased voter turnout in November. A speaker from Planned Parenthood Central Texas stated that “there is one man to blame for this, and that is [current governor] Greg Abbott.” This statement unfortunately fails to name the true culprit, the systems of patriarchy and capitalism. It implies that removing one man from office would solve all the problems currently facing Texans suffering under these systems. We must dismantle these systems of oppression if we are ever to liberate ourselves.
How can anyone know how to fight against encroaching fascism if those currently leading us are afraid to name it? This void in leadership gives room for communists and the greater political Left to step in and organize. It is time for communists to educate and lead the masses. We understand what it takes to defeat fascism; in 1945, our predecessors famously stopped one of the most dangerous fascist movements in history.
As The Communist Party, we can use the existing framework of bourgeois electoralism to spread our message of working class liberation. If we understand that fascism is a violent reaction of capital in distress, that it is the most reactionary, chauvinistic, and imperialist aspects of finance capital, then the only true way to vote against fascism is to vote for anti-capitalist candidates. The Party absolutely must run its own socialist candidates. This can be done openly where it is allowed, or covertly under a major party’s banner in states like Texas where our Party is illegal. We do not need to win every one of these races for this method to be successful. Just using the platforms given to political candidates would be an incredible boost in spreading our message of working class liberation. We use these existing systems to bring more people into the struggle, and perhaps in future elections, we can win some institutional power and work to destroy the system from the inside.
The second method for approaching bourgeois elections is to volunteer with local “progressive” candidates. There are actually plenty of candidates willing to work with the Communist Party. The Austin club has been canvassing with a local city council candidate who approached us about working together. Some of the benefits of this approach include relationship building, which will give us a pool of support to draw from when we are ready to run our own candidates. Communism is about creating community, and we can expand our reach by working with established progressive candidates. By working on these campaigns, we also get to see how the system works from the inside, which helps us prepare to run our own candidates in the future. The more involved we are at the grassroots level, the more we can force the system to bend to our will.
In cases where there is no progressive candidate to work with, we should support the best of the bad options. Most Texans understand that Democrats won’t be willing or able to undo all the evil the GOP has brought upon our state, but will they slow the bleeding? Maybe. We all hate the idea of “lesser evil” voting, but generally a Band-Aid is better than another bullet hole. If a Democrat is vowing to stop the prosecution of abortion pills, then they are better than the GOP candidate who wants to charge distribution of medication as murder. It truly is that simple. Accept the Band-Aid while we continue to build revolutionary power.
It is important to note that the other side of supporting a major party candidate is that we absolutely MUST point out the failures of that candidate. Some may put forward milquetoast positive reforms, but we live under a system which cannot be reformed. When liberal politicians inevitably fail their constituents, and they always will, it is our job to educate our community as to WHY they failed - because they support the oppressive system of capitalism that is crushing all of us. We show them a better way. We never just vote for the lesser evil. We use them as an educational tool, and continue building our revolutionary movement.
Beto O’Rourke is the Democratic candidate for Texas governor, and the only candidate with even a slim chance of beating the GOP incumbent, openly fascist, Greg Abbott. Most communists and those on the greater Left are supporting him in this race. Will Beto be willing or able to fundamentally change things in Texas? Will he have the ability to reestablish abortion rights? Will all the clinics that were forced to close reopen under him? No, there is no magic wand to wave which will fund, build, open, and staff clinics. It will take years to undo the damage caused by this abortion ban. Will his election pause the prosecutions, and allow us to continue to organize for a better future? Yes.
There are many limitations to working within the bourgeois electoral system, but that does not mean that it isn’t worth participating, and encouraging others in our community to participate. We must take advantage of every avenue available to us to advance the struggle against patriarchy and capitalism. Many working people believe in and actively participate in bourgeois elections. It would be foolish of us to neglect to utilize that path ourselves. We must meet the people where they are. Go to their events. Talk to them at work or in bars or in parks and at protests. Actively participate in their elections. Talk to them about what they care about. Educate them, and lead them towards the realization that we need radical, systemic change.
The number one goal as communists must be growing the Party and building the working class movement towards socialist revolution. Every single thing we do is with that goal in mind. While we fight for small concessions from the bourgeoisie, none of our problems will ever be solved under capitalism. Capitalism relies on continual crisis, and threats of removal of our rights to keep us in line. The only path that leads towards liberation of the working class is socialist revolution.
Revolution is simultaneously a process and the goal of the process, because the goal is not static - revolution is not a state of affairs to achieve, but constant progress towards better states of affairs, and we must always educate, organize, agitate, and yes, vote with these goals in mind.