Socialism is possible in the United States. It is possible for the working class and the oppressed to remove the capitalists from power and construct a society of true justice and peace, a society that works in the interest of the vast majority.
The capitalists, the owners of wealth, industry and the banks, make up a tiny minority of the world’s population. We greatly outnumber them. We are the vast majority, and revolution is in our interests.
What we need is socialism, a system based on workers’ control of society, of workers’ ownership of the economy. It is a system based on collective and rational planning for people’s needs. It is a system based on equality for all.
What worker, especially the tens of millions of low-waged workers like janitors, dishwashers and hospital attendants, would not want to have the right to a job, a real living wage, food, proper clothing, health care, housing, education and much more? What worker would not want to collectively own the products of her or his labor if given the chance?
If workers had an opportunity to seize power in a moment of isolation, crisis and weakness for the big capitalists, and they felt confident in their success, a huge number of workers would fight to end their oppression.
A socialist society would give us the tools to successfully wage a war on racism, sexism and homophobia. It would give us more power to fight disease, save the environment, and save lives during natural disasters. We would get rid of the police and the prisons and so much more.
We do not need capitalism. Forty-seven million people in the United States do not have health insurance. Infant mortality, poverty and hunger are on the rise as corporations make record profits. ExxonMobil is making $10 billion in profit every three months.
The United States produces nearly $15 trillion of goods and services every year. We have the wealth and technology to eliminate poverty and hunger. Instead, 75 million people are living in poverty. According to an article published in the New York Times this month, in the South 17 out of every 1,000 African-American babies dies during birth.
Contrary to the proclamations of U.S. imperialists, it is not socialism, revolution and worker’s power that is outmoded and in the dustbin of history. It is the capitalist who has outlived his usefulness. It is the capitalist class’s private ownership of the banks, energy companies, medical industry, food production, and housing that is holding humanity back.
The U.S. multi-national working class—those of us who sell our labor power to the bosses—we do not need the capitalists. We already make everything, distribute everything. We have our hands on the machinery of society. We create a huge surplus of value with our combined labor. We are an immense force poised to take the reins of history into our own hands. All we lack right now is the opportunity, consciousness and organization.
The U.S. working class has tremendous revolutionary potential. We reject the notion that workers here in the United States—especially the most oppressed workers—cannot grasp their importance or fulfill their potential. We know that we can.
Workers started fighting and organizing against exploitation and oppression from the very beginning of capitalism. People have always found the means to fight against their oppressors. The idea of socialism and the formulation of revolutionary socialism arose over time through the direct struggle against the capitalist system and its institutions.
Socialist revolution in the United States requires fight against racism, sexism and homophobia
We do not have our heads in the sand. We know that many U.S. workers, especially from more privileged sections of the working class, are infected with imperialist chauvinism, racism, sexism, homophobia and all manner of ideas and habits that only serve to divide us. We know that we live in a world still dominated by capitalism and all of its daily oppressions, attacks and divisions.
But we also know that the interests of workers and owners are ultimately irreconcilable. They need to make as much profit as possible and we need to work and eat and have a place to live. Capitalism guarantees us none of these essentials.
As a social class, the working class is bound together by the system’s need to exploit labor to create wealth, or capital. We are united by capitalism into one mighty collective economic and social force. The racism, sexism and homophobia of the ruling class, especially in the United States, are necessary devices for the capitalists to divide workers.
Only a vigorous working-class struggle against all forms of racism, sexism, homophobia and all oppression will be able to defeat capitalism. Revolutionaries must seek to promote unity in the fight for socialism by being an integral part of all workers’ struggles, and especially the struggle of the most oppressed workers. Consciousness and unity in our class arise out of struggle and organizing.
The capitalist empire will fall
Why can’t we break the stranglehold of the U.S. capitalist class? It is true that the United States is powerful. The United States makes up 25 percent of the world’s economy. The United States spends more on the military than all other countries combined. They have over 700 bases in 130 countries. Every U.S. city, large and small, has a highly militarized police force to protect the property of the rich.
But every empire that has existed has fallen and every social system that has dominated the human landscape has given way to a new social system. When capitalism replaced feudalism, one ruling class was replaced with another. In the place of one exploited class, serfs, another exploited class emerged, workers.
The U.S. empire will fall because the age of the ruling classes has run its course. The working class is the first exploited class in history that has the social organization and the technological means at its disposal to produce enough food and shelter for everyone. An equitable distribution of wealth is possible. But capitalism stands in the way and the imperialists will of course resist their downfall. They will continue to wage murderous wars for plunder and profit.
A socialist revolution in the United States would not be the first revolution and it would not be the first time there was a socialist revolution. There have been such revolutions in Russia, China, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and in other countries. There have been anti-colonial revolutions all over Africa, Asia, Latin American and beyond. Apartheid was defeated in South Africa and in the Southern states of the United States. Slavery was defeated in the United States through great struggle.
Revolutionary change is possible.
The history of all social systems has been the history of class struggle, and ultimately, of revolutions. The fundamental foundations and institutions of society have undergone periodic and earth shattering revolutions. Capitalist revolutions from 1642 to 1848 swept aside the feudal age of kings and priests all over Europe.
The 1917 Russian Revolution overthrew the tsar (the king), the landowners, and the capitalists. It embarked on a course of socialist construction that altered the entire world relationship of power. The Russian Revolution and its example sparked revolutionary struggles all over the world.
All these revolutions came during crises of the existing social system. Another crisis will come in the United States. The capitalist system of greed, exploitation and suffering for workers is unstable and irrational. The U.S. working class has a monumental role to play.
The worldwide socialist revolution has gone through many victories and defeats. There are many battles ahead. Ultimately, we will win.
