Eris Rosenburg | Red Phoenix correspondent | Minnesota–

“The American workers will not follow the bourgeoisie. They will be with us, for civil war against the bourgeoisie… I also recall the words of one of the most beloved leaders of the American proletariat, Eugene Debs, who wrote in the Appeal to Reason, I believe towards the end of 1915, in the article “What Shall I Fight For” that he, Debs, would rather be shot than vote credits for the present criminal and reactionary war; that he, Debs, knows of only one holy and, from the proletarian standpoint, legitimate war, namely: the war against the capitalists, the war to liberate mankind from wage-slavery.”

V.I. Lenin, Letter to American Workers (1918)

As the 2024 election cycle draws to a close, as Marxist-Leninists we again declare our opposition to the farcical circus that is bourgeois electoralism. We endorse no bourgeois candidates and support no arguments for lesser evil electoralism. Whether it is the bipartisan “civility” found in the 2024 Vice Presidential debate where fascist candidate J.D. Vance and run-of-the-mill imperialist Tim Walz patted each other on the back, Harris’ declarations that transgender healthcare is not of concern to her and that voters will have to accept her support for Israel’s genocide in Palestine, or the Democratic Party’s tactic of allowing the GOP to implement antisocial policies while quietly continuing those policies when their turn at the helm comes, we can find no shred of progress in capitalist power-sharing schemes. 

Through the use of gerrymandering, lobbying, and mass media, the bourgeoisie deftly block any and all attempts at reformism. Aside from the historical example of political bargaining whereby the bourgeoisie, fearful of a revolution, grants concessions to the working classes under the banner of social democracy, we are left lacking in examples of meaningful change within the confines of liberal electoral politics. In fact, these concessions are typically wrapped in red tape and full of disqualifying clauses, in addition to being gradually stripped away by the states that do give them. To further illustrate the disparity of power between workers and capitalists, even liberal academics have acknowledged the futility of voting in effecting change, declaring in academic terms that no democracy exists in the United States and that the average worker has near-zero influence on the political process. Thus, no matter which party wins at the ballot in a bourgeois dictatorship, the proletariat always loses. Marx said it best: every few years the people get the choice to decide which member of the ruling class misrepresents them.

It has been established that voting on the national level has little to no effect on addressing the issues faced by the working classes. That said, while it is our duty to not take the high-sounding, empty slogans provided by bourgeois propagandists at face value, we must grapple with their rhetoric to find what kernels of genuine intent lie behind the façade. To broadly dismiss all bourgeois messaging as mere posturing and to pretend that the status quo will hold forever is to engage in dogmatism, is to reject dialectical and historical materialism, is to mislead the masses and set back the cause of revolution. 

“What would happen if capital succeeded in smashing the Republic of Soviets? There would set in an era of the blackest reaction in all the capitalist and colonial countries, the working class and the oppressed peoples would be seized by the throat, the positions of international communism would be lost.” 

Joseph Stalin, Report at The Seventh Enlarged Plenum of the E.C.C.I.

To be clear: we are finally in the midst of a resurrection of the communist movement after decades of setback by Browderites, Khruschevites, Marcyites, Eurocommunists, and all other colors of revisionists. But this resurrection is not taking place in a bubble. The forces of the revolution are still in the process of growing their numbers, raising their level of education and militancy, and building trust with the masses, as we have seen with the record growth of the union movement and the heroism of the student movement in standing with Palestine. And while it is true that we are currently observing a crisis of the upper classes in the United States, questions remain about the preparedness of both the various communist parties to lead, as well as the masses’ preparedness to fight. Where are the large unions that can be mobilized for a general strike? Where are the soldiers who have prepared to throw their lot against their imperialist commanders? How many seasoned cadres do we have? And what level of discourse are mass organizations operating at? Workers’ organizations across the United States are dealing with a lack of infrastructure and rigor in organizing that should have been cultivated ten, fifteen, twenty years ago – and they are doing so under the encroaching storm clouds of fascism, impending world war, and climate collapse. A cursory examination reveals we need more time and twice as much effort on the part of every revolutionary to succeed. To allow a misstep in either theory or practice at this crucial stage would doubtless result in a defeat for the proletariat an order of magnitude worse than in the previous century. To use a phrase coined by the author Martin Empson for his book of the same name and adapted from Luxemburg’s famous quote: socialism, or extinction.

But it is not a mere matter of organizing and outreach – we must carefully consider our message to the masses while staying vigilant to avoid falling into error. The fundamentally incorrect position of declaring Harris to be equal to Trump would only serve to injure, and as implemented by some of our contemporaries, has already injured the relationship of the working masses to various communist organizations. To state that a craven dime-a-dozen imperialist politician represents the same kind of threat to the working class as a fascist demagogue is to insult the working class’ intelligence and argue they are incapable of perceiving existential threats to their existence. What do we mean by this? Donald Trump represents the momentary leader of the openly reactionary bourgeoisie. He and his running mate have declared to the world their list of targets to violently remove from the American political scene: 20 million alleged undocumented people, legal immigrants of various nationalities, the “radical left,” women who do not adhere to traditional gender roles, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, among others. He and his cohorts previously attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 Election, declaring intentions to pardon those convicted for their involvement on Jan. 6, 2021, and have threatened to contest the 2024 Election “violently” if they lose. These are not empty threats, as evidenced by two developments in particular: Trump v. United States (2024), and the former President and co. ‘s involvement with Project 2025.

In light of the above, the correct answer is neither to become a sycophant of the Democratic Party, which also represents the interests of our class oppressors and continues to enable unjust wars and genocide. Quite the opposite: it is a necessity that we double our criticisms of this compromising party given the false consciousness it pushes to the American workers, and emphasize the importance of building up independent proletarian political power. To quote Marx: “Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention. They must not be led astray by the empty phrases of the democrats, who will maintain that the workers’ candidates will split the democratic party and offer the forces of reaction the chance of victory. All such talk means, in the final analysis, that the proletariat is to be swindled.” 

We must scrutinize the correctness of our line with twice the effort, and double our organizing and education efforts. We must field our own candidates for greater public reach at every level of electoral politics, and build up instruments of proletarian culture and proletarian news outlets. We must combat the inheritance of the student movement’s fixation on organizing exclusively on campuses; we must branch out and agitate directly among the working masses, among the unions, and among veterans. Time is of the essence, and we have a world to win.

Categories: Elections, Government, U.S. News