This comes from A World To Win news
service. As I stated earlier this year, we will not be so hard on Bob Avakian,
leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
“Taking
to the Streets,”
And Refusing to Let This Go Down
May 9, 2022
With the leaking of the draft Supreme Court decision, making
clear the intent of the “conservative” majority on the Court to abolish the
right to legal abortion, there is an outpouring of righteous outrage from
masses of women, and people generally who hate injustice. But there is also a
louder and louder drumbeat, from politicians of the Democratic Party (and those
who are slavishly dependent on them), insisting that any meaningful opposition
to this must be funneled (once again) into voting for Democrats. This argument is dead wrong. And,
all too often, it is raised as a rationalization for accepting that the right
to abortion will be ended—that a Supreme Court decision ripping away this right
is a “done deal,” and the only hope lies in electing Democrats in future
elections.
As part of this argument, we hear things like: “You see—if
Hillary Clinton, instead of Donald Trump, were president this would not have
happened. What more proof do you need that elections make all the difference?”
(This is often accompanied by pointing out that the “conservative” majority on
the Supreme Court was appointed by Republican presidents, and in particular
that three members of the Court were appointed by Donald Trump, who had made
very clear that he intended to appoint “justices” to the Court who would move
to overturn Roe v. Wade,
the Supreme Court ruling and long-standing legal precedent that established and
has, until now, maintained the right to abortion nationwide.) But this views
things way too narrowly, failing to see (or to take into account) the larger
picture of what is going on in society (and the world) overall—including the
reasons why someone like Trump got elected, and how the move to outlaw abortion
achieved such powerful momentum and became such a powerful force. I will get
into this more fully through the rest of this article, but first it is
important to emphasize this basic principle: Regardless of whether people vote or not, what is urgently needed now is massive,
sustained mobilization and resistance to make clear that taking away the right
to abortion will not be allowed to go down, that things will be shut down
before people will accept the right to abortion being taken away.
Now, in answer to the argument that everything depends on voting
for the Democrats, we can begin with this basic truth: Even the right to vote was not won by
voting. That
is not how Black people, women, and others won the right to vote. It was won by
protesting and fighting against injustice. And that is also
true for other rights that have been won when powerful forces have been
determined to deny people those rights—it is true in general for truly
meaningful positive changes in society. Even where rights that were formerly
denied are finally recognized (and “formalized”) by an act of government, this
comes about fundamentally as a result of masses of people rising up to demand
change.
The right to abortion itself was won in the first place as a
result of massive protests and rebellions in the 1960s and the first part of
the 1970s, including the movement for women’s liberation at that time.
Denying
the Right to Abortion Is About Controlling, and Degrading, Women
In order to understand fully why relying on the Democrats, and
funneling everything into voting for them, is a completely wrong approach, it
is very important to be clear on what is at the heart of this fight around the
right to abortion, and what role the Democrats have played in regard to this.
As I have emphasized many times, this fascist offensive to outlaw abortion
is not about “saving babies”—it is about controlling
women, and reducing them to “handmaid” breeders of children, under the
domination of men.
For one thing, the overwhelming majority of abortions are
performed relatively early in pregnancy, when the fetus (not a baby but a fetus) is tiny and has not yet
developed the organs and other features that constitute an independent human
being capable of living on its own outside the woman’s body and without her
bodily functions. (And in terms of the very small percentage of abortions that
are carried out significantly later during the woman’s pregnancy,
overwhelmingly these are done because of risk to the basic health, or even the
life, of the woman, and/or because the fetus has such severe abnormalities that
it could not survive on its own, or would suffer terribly for however long it
did survive.)
The truth that abolishing the right to abortion is not about
“saving babies” is also sharply revealed in the fact that the forces that are
driving this move to outlaw abortion also want to do away with birth control as
well—which, as a number of people have pointed out, could soon
follow in the wake of a Supreme Court decision taking away the right to
abortion. Once again: The
drive to outlaw abortion is about controlling women, enforcing
their subordination to men and a male supremacist society.
If you observe the fascist maniacs who rally against the right
to abortion and harass women at abortion clinics, you will see these
Christian fundamentalist
fanatics waving their Bibles while they shout at women to stop
striving for independence and obey the Biblical command to be submissive and
subservient to men. That is
what has been driving the move to outlaw the right to abortion, from the time
that Roe v. Wade established
this right 50 years ago.
In most basic terms, what is involved in the right to abortion
is the lives, the rights, and the basic status of women—as full human beings, and not something less.
Denying women the fundamental right to control their own reproduction
degrades all women, even those who may never get pregnant—it
once again enshrines and enforces the subordination of women to the patriarchy.
The
Democrats Have Actually Aided This Fascist Offensive
In the face of this fascist offensive to outlaw abortion—and the
escalation and intensification of this offensive in recent decades—what have
the Democratic “saviors” of the right to abortion been doing? Consistently and
repeatedly compromising with
and actually facilitating this fascist offensive—that is
what, in reality, they have been doing.
And since last year, as it has become clear that the fascist
majority in the Supreme Court was almost certainly going to gut Roe v. Wade, or overturn it
altogether, the Democrats—and many who are dependent on them in the
reproductive rights movement, as well as the “mainstream media” that generally
express their views—have basically acted as if there is no way to stop the
Supreme Court from ripping away this fundamental right from women. They have
argued that all that could be done was to accept this outrage coming from the
Supreme Court and “prepare for a post-Roe world.” While RiseUp4AbortionRights.org has
been sounding the alarm and working to bring about the sustained mass
mobilization and determined resistance that is urgently needed to defend the
right to abortion, overwhelmingly these other organizations and media
encouraged everybody who cares about the right to abortion to “calm
down”—insisting that the right to abortion would still exist in some states,
and there are things like the abortion pill, so women will still be able to get
safe abortions—ignoring the fact that the
fascists are determined to eliminate the right to safe, legal abortion, in any
form, in the country as a whole.
It is true that, very recently, when the continuing attacks on
the right to abortion became more and more blatant and egregious, and it was
made public that the Supreme Court majority was in fact moving to
overturn Roe v. Wade—and
this was giving rise to widespread outrage—the Democrats, and those allied with
them, called for protests. But they still continued
to act as if Roe v. Wade is
going to be overturned anyway, and the only thing that can be done is to vote
for Democrats in the next elections. Of course, it is good that these
organizations have come around now to joining in the calls for mass
protests—and it is very important that these protests be as large and powerful
as possible—but seeking to use these protests as a means for, once again,
directing and funneling things into voting for the Democrats would not be a
good thing, but a very bad thing: It would have the effect of misdirecting,
suffocating and ultimately killing off the mass outpouring of righteous rage
that has now burst forth with the revelation that the Supreme Court is poised
to take away the right to abortion, when that righteous rage needs to be given much fuller, massive
expression in determined, sustained struggle aimed at preventing the
Supreme Court from doing that, and delivering a powerful blow against the
fascist move to effectively enslave women.
The basic capitulation by the Democrats, in the face of the
fascist offensive to outlaw abortion, has gone on over years and decades.
During this time, the Democrats themselves have actually run some so-called
“right to life” (that is, anti-abortion) candidates, and in the name of
“seeking common ground” the
Democrats have constantly ceded the political and moral high ground to
the fascists aiming to eliminate the right to abortion (and roll back
other crucial rights as well). What else is the meaning of the
slogan that Democrats raised for years—that abortion should be “safe, legal,
and rare”? Why rare?
What is very strongly implied in saying abortion should be
“rare” is the notion that there is something wrong with abortion—otherwise, why should it
be rare? This
actually lends support to and reinforces the arguments of the fascists seeking
to get rid of the right to abortion. In fact, the right to abortion, and access
to abortion in healthy and supportive circumstances, has enriched the lives of
women as a whole. It has made it more possible for many to pursue paths in
their lives that would have been foreclosed to them if they had been forced to
continue a pregnancy against their will, and it has made it possible for women
who want to have a child to determine when is the best time, and what are the
best circumstances, for doing so. The right to abortion has also saved the lives of countless women (who
would otherwise have still tried to get an abortion but would have been forced
to do so in unsafe and often deadly situations, which is exactly what happened
before Roe v. Wade made
abortion a right nationwide). And the denial of this right especially affects
low-income women, particularly impoverished Black and Brown women, who often
are the ones in most desperate need of an abortion. At the same time, it is
important to keep in mind that even for women—and girls—who may be in
relatively well off, or even quite well off, situations economically, and could
theoretically afford to travel to an area, or a country, where abortion is
legal, there can still be serious obstacles to getting an abortion: abusive
husbands and boyfriends, tyrannical patriarchal fathers, dogmatic religious
authority, and a number of other factors. Once again, access to safe, legal abortion, as a fundamental
right and a matter of personal choice, is of profound importance for women
overall.
For decades, the Democrats—and those “pro-choice and
reproductive rights” organizations that are dependent on them and slavishly
follow them—failed, or refused, to call people into the streets in consistent and determined mass mobilization
in defense of the right to abortion. This is completely bound up
with the way that they have continually allowed the fascists to seize the moral
and political “high ground” around abortion—instead of fiercely opposing this
fascist offensive by forcefully insisting that there must be the right to
abortion, on demand and
without apology, and that the ability of women to freely decide
when, or whether, to have children is not some kind of “negative” right that
should only be exercised “rarely”—but, on the contrary, is a very great thing and something that all
people who want to live in a just society should boldly and vigorously uphold
and actively support and defend.
An essential reason for the Democrats’ increasing capitulation
to the fascists is this: While the fascists are determined to rally their
“base” behind their lunatic views and their aggressively oppressive and repressive
“agenda,” and they eagerly welcome the ways this challenges and tears up the
“established norms,” the Democrats are dedicated to an increasingly failing
attempt to maintain those “norms” and to continue trying, even as they fail, to
“overcome the divisions and polarization in society.” This is an orientation
and an approach that is bound to perpetuate
very real horrors, including male supremacist as well as white
supremacist oppression, brutality and terror, and to continually give rise to even greater
horrors.
The capitulation by the Democrats in the face of the fascist
offensive is also sharply revealed by the fact that the Democrats refuse to
challenge—directly, consistently, and with any real conviction—the Christian fundamentalist lunacy that
is the “moral basis” for the fascists’ fanatical opposition to abortion. (This
Christian fundamentalism has a great deal in common with the Islamic
fundamentalism of forces like the Taliban in Afghanistan—and one of the main
things they share is the fanatical conviction that women must be subordinated
to and dominated by men, forcefully if necessary.)
Why won’t the Democrats really challenge this? An important part
of the answer is that the Democrats, whether or not they are personally
religious (and specifically Christian), base themselves on the conviction that
religion, and in particular Christianity, is necessary in order to hold together their system of
capitalism-imperialism, which is full of cruelly exploitative and
oppressive relations and divisions that could tear the country apart, if
religion did not play a major role in “holding it together,” in the face of
this terrible exploitation and oppression, and the brutality and murder that
enforce it. The Democrats are very aware that, even if they raise mild
criticisms of Christian fundamentalism,
or strongly insist on the constitutional “separation of church and state,” the
Christian fascists will relentlessly attack them for being “anti-Christian”
(even though Christian fundamentalism is
an extreme, and extremely oppressive, version of Christianity and is not the
same as Christianity in general).
The Democrats’ basic capitulation around “the separation of
church and state,” was sharply revealed when, in the early 2000s, an atheist
parent (Michael Newdow), who is also a lawyer, challenged the phrase “under god” (“one nation, under
god”) in the “pledge of allegiance” that school children in particular are
often compelled to recite. His case went to the Supreme Court, and even though
the Court ruled against him (on the narrow basis that he did not have legal
standing to make this challenge), Newdow had a very strong Constitutional basis
for his arguments that this phrase (“under god”), as promoted by government
institutions, is a clear violation of “the separation of church and state” and
discriminates against people who are not religious. Did the Democrats support
this challenge by Newdow? No. In fact, large numbers of Democratic politicians,
including prominent members of Congress, made a point of gathering not to rally in support of
Newdow and the principle of “the separation of church and state,” but instead
to publicly and loudly recite the “pledge of allegiance” and particularly emphasize the words “under
god.”
With their orientation
and approach, the Democrats can never, and will never, resolutely challenge the
Christian fundamentalists’ “moral” basis for opposing and seeking to outlaw
abortion, nor will the Democrats mobilize the kind of determined,
sustained massive opposition to this fascist offensive that is
necessary to preserve and extend rights that are vital for the masses of women,
and the masses of people as a whole.
“Don’t
Tell Me Elections Don’t Make a Difference!”
They DO—But NOT in the Way You Mean
Here is a most fundamental truth: The reason the Democrats act
in the way they do is because they
are representatives, functionaries, and enforcers of this
capitalist-imperialist system—one of the two bourgeois ruling class
parties of this system. A key role and objective of the Democrats is to
maintain the “orderly functioning” of this system. A key part of doing that,
while maintaining people’s “allegiance” to this system, is keeping people’s
vision and activity restricted within the
structures and processes that serve to perpetuate
and reinforce this system’s rule—and a crucial part of that is
getting people to believe that elections are the only (or by far the most
meaningful) way to bring about positive change. In opposition to that
continually propagated notion, the actual reality is that, under this system:
Elections:
are controlled by the bourgeoisie; are not the means through which basic
decisions are made in any case; and are really for the primary purpose of
legitimizing the system and the policies and actions of the ruling class,
giving them the mantle of a “popular mandate,” and of channeling, confining,
and controlling the political activity of the masses of people.1
And now, on top of this fundamental
reality, the fascist Republican Party is even more aggressively rigging
elections—moving to suppress votes, further “gerrymandering” districts
(redrawing the boundaries of voting districts to favor Republican candidates)—and,
in a number of states, establishing the basis for Republican-dominated state
legislatures to overturn the results of elections, if they do not go in favor
of the Republicans. Already, as I have pointed to before, the way the electoral
system has been set up in this country greatly distorts things so that,
elections often do not reflect the “will of the people”—even as that is
supposedly expressed through the electoral processes of this system—and that
will be all the more true with the moves the Republicans have been making to
manipulate and control elections.2
(For further, and more specific, analysis of the peculiarities,
and distortions, of the electoral system in this country, see the Additional
Note at the end of this article.)
Beyond that, there is the more fundamental reality that the
actual interests of the masses of people can never be realized under this
system, which is based on exploitation and oppression and the rule (in fact
the dictatorship) of
the capitalist class, whose wealth and power rests on this exploitation and
oppression, in this country and in vast areas of the world as a whole. On this
basis, the capitalist class dominates control of the economy and all the major
institutions of society, and maintains a monopoly of political power and of
“legitimate” armed force and violence, as exercised by the police and military,
and enforced by the courts.
All this makes clear how totally ridiculous is the insistence,
by the Democrats (and those who echo them), that everything depends on
elections, and voting for Democrats is ultimately the only way to bring about
positive change.
In reality, relying on elections, under
this system, is a demobilizing dead end and deadly trap in terms of any real
effort to bring about a more just society.
The
Actual Answer to the Fascist Offensive... And the Fundamental Solution
Right now, as opposed to relying on and being restricted by the
Democrats, everyone who
refuses to see women reduced to breeders of children, dominated by men and a
male supremacist society, everyone who cares about living in a just society,
needs to be taking to the streets—and staying in the streets—in massive, sustained,
growing protest and rebellion aimed at preventing the Supreme Court (and fascists more
broadly) from denying women the right to abortion, with everything that would
represent (and the terrible future it foreshadows). Forced motherhood
IS female enslavement.
By mobilizing massively—with passionate, powerfully demonstrated
determination not to allow the right to abortion to be taken away—there is a
real chance that the Supreme Court will be forced to back off the move to take
away this fundamental right. And if, even in the face of this determined mass
mobilization, the fascists on the Court (and in society overall) still go ahead
with their move to outlaw abortion, then this mass mobilization in support of
the right to abortion will have put people in a stronger position to continue
the fight for this right, and for a more just society overall.
Fundamentally, to bring about a more
just society and world, what is needed, and all the more urgently now, is a
revolution to overthrow this whole system, which both Democrats
and Republicans represent and work to enforce, even as they have sharp
differences between them over how to
do this. In “Something Terrible, Or Something
Truly Emancipating,” I have analyzed in depth why this is a rare time when revolution becomes more
possible, even in this powerful country. It is crucially
important to understand why this is so—which has to do with the already very
deep, and continually deepening, divisions, not only in the country overall but
particularly within the ruling class, and why that ruling class cannot continue
to rule in the “normal way” it has for generations—and how to move to build up
the revolutionary forces with the strategy and organization capable of seizing
on this rare opportunity, not in order to achieve a “peaceful transfer of
power” from one section of the capitalist-imperialist ruling class to another,
but to bring about a seizure
of power by a revolutionary people, numbering in the millions and
millions and determined to bring about a truly emancipating change—bringing
down this monstrous system and building up a radically different and far better
system.3
There is an urgent need for the determined, scientifically
grounded work of those who are already with this revolution to shake awake
growing numbers of people—to transform
the thinking of masses of people, away from blindly “playing
by the rules” of this system and confining themselves to futile attempts to
effect fundamental change by “working within the system”—winning them instead
to a scientific understanding of the possibility and the need for revolution,
the means for making that revolution, and what that revolution is aiming for.
Unite
All Who Can Be United to Stop the
Move to Outlaw Abortion
Right at this critical juncture, there is a profound and
pressing need for a broad,
powerful, and sustained mobilization
of people determined to prevent the right to abortion from being taken away—uniting all who can be united,
including people who have become convinced that revolution is necessary, and
those who believe that it is crucially important now to “take to the streets”
to defend this fundamental right to abortion, but also believe that it is still
necessary to vote.
Right now, the fight for the right to abortion is a
crucially important focus and faultline of the fight for a more just society—a
decisive battle to determine whether women are going to be reduced to
“handmaid” breeders of children, effectively enslaved by a male supremacist
society, or whether they, and masses of people
overall, are going to be strengthened in their ability and determination to be
full, and fully emancipated, human beings.
_______________
FOOTNOTES:
1. Bob Avakian, Democracy: Can’t We Do Better Than That?,
Banner Press, 1986. Information about ordering this book can be found at BA’s Collected Works at
revcom.us. [back]
2. “This
Republic—Ridiculous, Outmoded, Criminal.” This article
by Bob Avakian is available at revcom.us. [back]
3. “Something
Terrible, Or Something Truly
Emancipating: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility Of
Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed, A Necessary Foundation, A
Basic Roadmap For This Revolution” is also available at
revcom.us. And the Constitution
for the New Socialist Republic in North America,
authored by Bob Avakian, which contains a sweeping vision and concrete
blueprint for a radically different and far better system, is available as well
at revcom.us. [back]
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