What will us revolutionaries do when we’re needed?

By

史蒂夫・奥多

Recently, I read a site by a party I haven’t known much about, the Rural Peoples Party. As with many of these parties and their sites, they explained why they were disenchanted with some of the other revolutionary left parties and internationals.

I did notice their opinion on the Revolutonary Communist Party:

The Rural People’s Party:

“THE IMPORTANCE OF APPLYING THE JUCHE IDEA IN THE U.S.

With the the latest addition to Bob Avakian's "new" synthesis, (http://revcom.us/a/131/New_Synthesis_Speech_PT-3-en.html), the RCP is so far gone that they might as well denounce Comrade Stalin and adopt Trotsky's Permanent Revolution. They have officially abandoned Leninist principle that the best way to contribute to the world revolution is to seize power in one's own country.”

Actually, Avakian has spent a lot of his time writing about his vision for a future Revolutionary America. So he is interested in revolution here at home. What is missing is HOW to achieve this revolution. I could also say that about The Rural People’s Party, although there may be documents that I haven’t seen yet where they explain how they plan to initiate revolution here.

It is an important point, because, despite the name calling and criticisms of these various parties against each other, we are about to enter a revolutionary period, similar to the 1960s or the 1930s, where capitalism failures are just too obvious to ignore, for the common man.

But how do we convert revolutionary rhetoric into revolutionary action when the time calls for it?

It was Herbert Marcuse who wrote: “Society takes care of the need for liberation by satisfying the needs which make servitude palatable and perhaps even unnoticeable.”

He was right. With the working class driving big cars, owning TVs, having food and liquor, and with the use of religion and scare tactics, the bourgiese has convinced most working people that they have it best, even though the are actually slaves to their corporate masters and their vote really means nothing to them at all.

But three things are changing that:

1. Global climate change that is destroying people’s homes with record floods, tornatos and hurricanes. It will eventually lead to food shortages.
2. Peak oil, the over reliance on petroleum products that not only drive up the price of gas, but will drive up the price of food and cause a collapse in the present housing booms as suburbanites realize they can’t afford to drive two hours to work every day.

1. The war, which is directly related to Peak Oil. In order to keep our access to the last few drops of oil we have to control the entire Middle-east. There is little doubt that the wars that the US is starting in the Middle-east are a result of the The “Project for the New American Century.” According to Wikipedia:

“The Project for the New American Century website states the following "fundamental propositions": "that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle."^[2]

Its original "Statement of Principles" of June 3, 1997, posted on its current website, begins by framing a series of questions, which the rest of the document proposes to answer:

As the 20th century draws to a close, the United States stands as the world's pre-eminent power. Having led the West to victory in the Cold War, America faces an opportunity and a challenge: Does the United States have the vision to build upon the achievements of past decades? Does the United States have the resolve to shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests?^[21]

In response to these questions, the PNAC states its aim to "remind America" of "lessons" learned from American history, drawing the following "four consequences" for America in 1997:

• we need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future;
• we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values;”

The bottom line is simple: Our government won the cold war, now let’s build a modern empire, using warfare if necessary and the American values are that America will control the resources of these less developed contries, while building puppet governments to enforce this new empire.

Bush will probably initiate some kind of military conflice with Iran to cause instasbility and eventually that government’s collapse. As the US begins to gain control of Iraq, the stability of both Afghanistan and Pakistan are likely to destabalize and require more US troops. US troops may also be involved in Iran. So even if McCain doesn’t win the next election, the Republican Party may have this country so entrenched in war, that we really will be facing a century or war.

All of this means that this country will face the end of suburbia, possibly the end of our so called “love affair with the auto” and constant loss of our young men and women to a war that more and more people will eventually see our government for what it really is.

There are already rightwing survivalists who saw this coming years ago. The left needs to look at it closely and consider what we will all do if this government implodes and splinters into a system of war lords staking claims to power right here within the US.