What Is To Be Done?

"There has never been too much of such “pushing on from outside”; on the contrary, there has so far been all too little of it in our movement, for we have been stewing too assiduously in our own juice; we have bowed far too slavishly to the elementary “economic struggle of the workers against the employers and the government”. We professional revolutionaries must and will make it our business to engage in this kind of “pushing on” a hundred times more forcibly than we have done hitherto.-V.I. Lenin “What Is To Be Done”

A disease has infected the American left.

A disease of passivity.

We march and chant and shout slogans, but no one will do anything significant because they are waiting to reach some undefined, arbitrary (and constantly shifting, to provide an unlimited number of excuses) threshold of popular support. As if, when a certain point is reached, a switch will be flipped allowing the American left to actually act instead of just sitting on their hands. Until then, we can do nothing except block off streets and write witty slogans on signs. Meanwhile, the bourgeoisie drown the world in blood and rake in profits hand over fist.

It seems that nothing can spur us to action. Even though the situation has progressed to such an extent that our comrades are grabbed off the streets and sent to for-profit prisons to be tortured and deported for the crime of opposing genocide and apartheid, we still do nothing. Even as the American gestapo roams the streets rounding up migrants to be sent to Guantanamo Bay, we still do nothing. Even as bombs rain down on Gaza night and day, we still do nothing. As the Trump regime promises further repression, we still do nothing.

All the voices from the left cry out that to act now would be “adventurism”, a sin that they view as worse than torture and death. No, according to what counts as the left in this country, the worst crime that anyone could commit is to resist the state’s terror, to stand up and fight back for real instead of just chanting it in the streets.

But why? Why do we submit ourselves to such terror?

The Nature of the Infection

The Party is the organized detachment of the working class. The Party is not only the advanced detachment of the working class. If it desires really to direct the struggle of the class it must at the same time be the organized detachment of its class. The Party's tasks under the conditions of capitalism are immense and extremely varied. The Party must direct the struggle of the proletariat under the exceptionally difficult conditions of internal and external development; it must lead the proletariat in the offensive when the situation calls for an offensive; it must lead the proletariat so as to escape the blow of a powerful enemy when the situation calls for retreat; it must imbue the millions of unorganized non-Party workers with the spirit of organization and endurance. But the Party can fulfil these tasks only if it is itself the embodiment of discipline and organization, if it is itself the organized detachment of the proletariat. Without these conditions there can be no question of the Party really leading the vast masses of the proletariat. -J.V. Stalin “The Foundations of Leninism”

It is easy to attribute inactivity to a lack of courage, labeling individuals as cravens afraid of disrupting their standard of living. It’s simple! If basic needs such as food, shelter, and comfort are met, there is no incentive to sacrifice for a better future and world.

This theory, however, oversimplifies the issue and lacks dialectical complexity. Americans have been rising, and they have been acting. From George Floyd to Standing Rock and everything in between, there have been recent examples of resistance among the American people. However, as they are lacking in direction and leadership these acts of resistance are little more than random outbursts, incapable of enacting any meaningful social change.

A police station and liquor store set ablaze in Minneapolis during the George Floyd uprisings. Source: New York Crimes

Even when Americans have risen en masse such as the George Floyd uprisings and college encampments, it has been done in an individualistic manner with no co-ordination among the various groups which did not allow them to use their numbers to their fullest advantage, thereby making it simple to isolate and defeat them in detail. Without a unified goal or clear leadership, these anarchic movements burn out on their own, wasting the time and courage of their participants in actions that are seemingly designed to fail.

Some left-wing groups believe workers will liberate themselves, with the role of the party to merely support spontaneous movements. However, history shows that successful movements need strong leadership, which the left lacks. The organized left in America follows rather than leads, failing to provide necessary direction for social struggles. The only difference between an army and a mob is leadership and organization, and it is that area where the left has failed utterly.

A new type of organizing is required. More militant, disciplined organizing designed to prepare people for a prolonged period of struggle. It is necessary to re-imagine the role of a party. Rather than simply a book club, we must make the transition into a hardened cadre of dedicated revolutionaries, with the end goal of building not an amorphous movement for vague political goals, but a concrete, flesh-and-blood organization which can confront the state and the people who run it and win.

The problem lies not in personal bravery but a lack of discipline and a misinterpretation of history. An emphasis on ancient theory combined with a lack of historical understanding has resulted in a movement that is so well educated it has infinite excuses for doing nothing. While there can be no revolutionary movement without revolutionary theory, it cannot and should not exist on it’s own.

Dialectical materialism serves as an analytical tool for understanding history, not as an end in itself. Understanding dialectical materialism without historical context is akin to a mechanic buying tools yet refusing to repair cars due to fear of soiling their hands, a waste of time, of resources and effort. In other words, knowledge of theory is not enough. We must also study history.

A cursory examination of recent history, viewed through the lens of dialectical materialism, reveals the futility of a passive strategy. The increasing repression by the regime in Washington and the material conditions now facing humanity necessitate immediate action.

For the first time, humanity at large, rather than one individual people or nation, faces an existential threat from capitalism-induced climate change. It is too late to escape this trap, we are already caught in its jaws. Coastal areas are rapidly submerging as we speak, threatening major cities and even entire nations.

NOAA images showing the disappearing Louisiana coast. Source: NOAA

As the current regime in Washington undoes even the token environmental legislation designed to curb the worst excesses, we can be certain that conditions will deteriorate further in the coming years. Even with full national mobilization, it would take decades of dedicated work to undo the worst of Capitalism’s terrible hangover.

Despite the ongoing climate apocalypse, the capitalists have made a conscious decision to put their foot to the floor, accelerating consumption to make up for the falling rate of profit. The system will carry on with the accumulation of wealth by any means and at any cost. Capitalism operates with the ideology of a cancer cell: relentless growth regardless of the consequences to the host. It should be treated the same and eliminated.

Global temperature (top) graphed against the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Bottom) Source: manuelgarciajr.com

If we set aside the ravages of capitalism-induced climate change, the reality of this system is still one of monstrous, bloodthirsty excesses. In the 30 years since the fall of the USSR, capitalism is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people worldwide through both direct and indirect warfare.

In Russia alone, Capitalism caused the deaths of at least 5 million people from 1991 to 2001. The butcher’s bill in the Union republics is another 3 million, at an absolute minimum. Most of the states were so wracked by corruption and anarchy that they simply lacked the infrastructure to count their dead.

The population growth in all ex-Soviet nations is still negative and the rates of hunger, homelessness and poverty all vastly exceed that of even the last days of the USSR. Even before the war in Ukraine, there were over 800,000 homeless children in the nation of around 40 million, forced to suffer because the machinations of Capitalism have deemed their lives to be superfluous.

The entire United States homeless population, at the height of the nation’s greatest housing crisis in the postwar era, is under 600,000. In the “repressive” Soviet Union, housing was a human right, guaranteed to all under their constitution.

Soviet children enjoying their new “freedom” by huffing glue, 1994. Source: www.geenstijl.nl

In the so-called Global War on Terror, 5 million innocent people have been killed by the United States, it’s proxies and the forces unleashed on these innocent countries with almost complete bipartisan support in the government. Before that, the same guardians of the “rules-based international order” starved over 1 million Iraqis to death and murdered over 1.5 million people through the intentional destabilization of Yugoslavia. These crimes are ongoing all throughout the world today, so the more you look, the more bodies you find. Therefore these numbers are both incomplete and constantly rising.

I would be remiss not to mention the situation in Palestine in more detail, as it is both one of the most pressing issues facing us and one of the most emblematic of the monstrous nature of American imperialism. The rogue apartheid state known as “Israel” has been committing genocide in broad daylight with the full, unquestioned support of both parties. Even the Zionists themselves admit that they could not continue fighting without American support, and yet our government insists it has no leverage even as it ships them more weapons. Of course, this country provides more than weapons, it also provides a bottomless line of credit and constant diplomatic cover. This has never been more obvious than today.

We have seen atrocities in Gaza that harken back to the 1940s. Ironically, the Zionists who use the memory of the Holocaust as a cudgel are inflicting another one on Gaza. The atrocities are almost beyond counting. From gang rape to mass murder, the Zionists have filmed themselves committing the ghastliest crimes on the Palestinian people. It seems like every day we get more evidence from the perpetrators themselves, laughing and joking as they brutalize the Palestinian people for social media likes and sick mementos.

As shocking as it is, the saddest truth in Gaza is that this is nothing out of the ordinary. This has been their life, or what passes for life, for decades. The genocide did not begin in 2023, not in 2018 when we watched IOF snipers shoot unarmed children during the Great March of Return, and not in 1994 when Gaza was turned into a prison. It began when the Zionist state was founded in 1948 and has been ongoing ever since.

Despite hours and hours of footage from both sides, the same people who told us that Saddam Hussein had WMDs are telling us that there is no evidence of genocide in Gaza. We have seen the evidence with our own eyes and yet we allow it to continue, acting as if we are powerless in the face of these crimes.

Even Bernie Sanders loudly insists that the Zionists have the “right to defend themselves” against the indigenous people they have put into open-air concentration camps. Every politician in congress insists that the Zionist entity has a “right to exist” yet says nothing about Palestine and its people’s right to do the same. It’s clear that some people have more “right to exist” than others.

Throughout it all, the resistance has begged us to open a second front. To do anything to physically stop the genocide. Rather than targeted action to degrade the capability of the Zionists to wage war, we responded with random violence against Starbucks windows and occupations of libraries while American arms factories worked third shifts to meet the increased demand. Even basic research could have revealed that the depth of collaboration in America is far more than a few businesses selling the Zionists coffee and yet it seems that the best we can do is this surface level, liberal analysis.

While the resistance views their struggle through a military lens, their supporters view theirs as nothing more than a performance. The goal of these skits can be little else besides personal gratification and the soothing of guilty consciences. Ask yourself one question. Even if Starbucks quit selling coffee to the Zionists tomorrow, what difference would it make? The nature of capitalism means someone else would quickly fill the gap. We can only hope to starve out the Zionist monster through systemic change and targeted action, not random violence against cafés.

The lump sum of leftist “resistance” to genocide. Source: Daily Emerald

This does not imply that our approach should be restricted to direct action alone. We must utilize whatever tactics are fitting for the situation. All sorts of organizing should be welcomed as long as can be proven effective.

It should be noted here that many of the non-violent tactics throughout history have been anything but. Even the so-called pacifist Mahatma Gandhi intentionally provoked violent responses from the state by targeting key economic infrastructure of the occupier, and then physically disrupting it with massive “peaceful raids.”

Gandhi urged his followers to not resist the violent repression, garnering popular support by correctly portraying the state as bloodthirsty for attacking unarmed people. In essence, Gandhi weaponized shame against the occupiers.

Gandhian tactics are considerably more confrontational than those commonly used by the left in America. While we seek to avoid confrontations with the police, Gandhi welcomed them. Indeed, according to his biographer, Gandhi even encouraged his followers to sacrifice their own children on the altar of “non-violent” resistance.

“Farson saw one woman hold up her baby and endeavor to secure for it a crack on the head. When he expressed his horror to her through an interpreter she remained unmoved, anxious only to sacrifice her baby for the cause.” -Chadha, Rediscovering Gandhi, 298

Gandhi’s followers beaten by police on horseback. Source: aajtak.in

As of now, there exists no party which could lead even a Gandhian struggle in America. With both violent and non-violent disobedience off the table, the only alternative is obedience. The problem is simple. Rather than hard-working, self-sacrificing cadres willing to put their lives on the line for a cause, we have become an insular club of cloistered academics.

Every minute we wait, more people are dying.

As I write this, American bombs rain from the sky on the long-suffering people of Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Somalia and so many others. Entire families and communities are wiped from the face of the earth via what we are told are “precision strikes” by a cowed corporate media that exists to maximize profits for their shareholders, not tell the truth.

However, merely counting the bodies is also reductivism. Capitalism does so much damage to the living that they may envy the dead.

Untold thousands are still held in black sites all around the world, tortured and brutalized off hearsay. They cannot be released due to fear of their stories becoming public, but they cannot be charged because they have done nothing wrong. Millions more have been displaced, forced to flee their homes for good thanks to an endless cycle of proxy warfare.

In “civilized” Europe, these migrants are robbed of their valuables, put in camps, exploited for cheap labor and ruthlessly victimized by criminals both legal and otherwise. Their lives are reduced to how much profit they can generate for the very same people who destroyed their homes and overthrew their governments.

These are the lucky ones. The less fortunate simply drown at sea, attacked by pirates or police and left to wash up on the shores of “civilized” Europe. As the war in Ukraine rages on, another generation of refugees have found their way to Europe, ready for exploitation anew.

The reaction of our politicians, even those on the “left” of the spectrum of mainstream politics, has shown us that the path of gradual reform is nothing more than fantasy. To wit, the section of the ruling class which sits in supposed opposition to Trump was obliterated when they tried to unite us behind one of the men most responsible for the disastrous policies which caused all this war and terror.

The Democrats think we have forgotten that it was Biden who sat behind George W Bush, telling us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in the silo 45 minutes from launch. Even before the full-scale invasion of Iraq in 2002, Joe Biden had spent a decade pushing for a war.

He was far from the only one. Without Democratic support, the “Global War on Terror” could not have happened. Without their lies, millions would still be alive today. While they have glossed over this inconvenient truth, we cannot allow ourselves to forget.

Beyond war, the Democratic party has not delivered any of the changes necessary. Even when they hold majorities in congress the Democrats have only expanded the list of conflicts overseas and passed only token environmental laws, all of which have already been undone. This shows us that systemic change is necessary, and this is change the Democrats cannot deliver. After all, the system is partially of their making, and in turn, it sustains their party through massive political graft and corruption.

Even our supposed saviors, people like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, shed crocodile tears for photo ops while they continue to maintain, year in and year out, the military and surveillance panopticon which is both the world’s most prolific killer and by far its largest polluter. In their minds, the only problem inherent to the American empire is that it does not distribute the loot equitably enough. When these so-called progressives had leverage during the Biden administration, they used it to maintain the system rather than force concessions. This is not an exception for them, but the rule.

They make performative gestures against the Republicans when they have no power but refuse to fight back against their own party’s maleficence when they do. They do not organize their followers to do anything except vote for the same Democrats who have caused all these problems.

In essence, people like Bernie and AOC exist to funnel the energy of the left into the Democratic party, where it can be safely dissipated inside the colossal machine. If they had genuine conviction, they would organize their followers into a new voting bloc capable of putting pressure on the Democrats to force concessions and yet they continually bow to the Democratic party without getting anything in return.

AOC crying into a camera. Source: Twitter

This is the farthest left of what is considered acceptable by our system. Even if the reformists had a genuine desire to change the system, they are outnumbered, outgunned and vastly outfunded. Their insistence on working within a system which was designed specifically to destroy them means that they were doomed from the very beginning. Maybe in 50 years they will have a large enough bloc of voters to get free healthcare and guaranteed vacation in a dead world and their best-case scenario is still wildly insufficient to resolve the crises facing us today.

This is the material situation facing us. The working people of the world are staring down the barrel of a loaded gun and the maniacs in Washington will never stop talking about how much they want to shoot.

Yet, despite this urgency, the left in America do not act. They still sit on their hands, sure of nothing besides the time is not right, at best slowly “building a movement” as the world continues to burn. It is imperative that we begin the transition to a more militant movement. The best time to do this was 20 years ago, the next best time is now.

We must join or form our own organizations and tighten our ranks. The time has come for us to lead by example, for a bold, self-sacrificing party to take charge in the struggles to come.

We do not have any more time to wait.