As I write this, the revolutionary motion in various parts of the world is gaining in intensity. In particular, the working people of Hong Kong, France and America are currently in the vanguard of the international working class movement. This is most encouraging, as it is most unusual to see such motion on three continents, in highly industrialized countries, at the same time.
In America, the loyal servants of the bourgeoisie, belly crawling boot lickers one and all, are betraying their fear of the revolution by advising the working people not to ”move too far to the Left”. They are so afraid of revolution and the subsequent Dictatorship Of the Proletariat, that they do not dare even to use the word socialism.
They have every reason to be afraid, as American working people are now spontaneously gravitating towards socialism. As yet, most have not consciously embraced the fundamental tenets of Marxism, if only because they have yet to be exposed to Marxist propaganda. It is up to conscious people, those who are Marxists, aware of the existence of classes and the antagonism between the classes, to bring this awareness to the working class. The current situation in America provides an opportunity to do just that.
Most Americans are now carefully watching the political gong show which is unfolding in Washington. This provides Marxists a golden opportunity to raise the level of awareness of working people, proletarians. The impeachment and upcoming trial of Trump can be used as particulars to drive home the fundamental points of class conflict.
As I write this, Trump is almost certain to be impeached within a week. Very soon, the full House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the Congress, will vote on two articles of impeachment. He is about to be charged with abuse of power and contempt of Congress. I say about to, as the Congress is controlled by the Democrats and a simple majority vote is required to impeach the president. He will then go on trial by the Senate, probably after New Years.
The trial by the Senate is not so straight forward. In order to be convicted and removed from office, two thirds of the Senators must find him guilty of at least one charge. As there are one hundred senators, this means that sixty seven of them must vote to convict. A great many people, including most journalists, are of the opinion that this is not about to happen. After all, fifty three of those senators are members of the same party as Trump. This Republican Party, also known as the GOP, Grand Old Party, is famous for sticking together. At least, that used to be the case.
Now the situation has changed, and dramatically so. The revolutionary uprising of the people is causing great concern in Washington, among other places. The voters are holding their democratically elected leaders accountable, properly so. As a result of this, during a recent vote which took place in the Senate, twelve Republican senators ”crossed the floor”, as it is called, and voted with the Democrats, in opposition to Trump and the Republican Party.
As is well known, in order to remove Trump from office, twenty Republican senators will have to ”cross the floor” and vote with the forty seven Democrats, giving the sixty seven votes needed to remove Trump from office. This means that an extra eight Republican senators will have to break ranks and vote with the Democrats. A great many people, or at least most journalists, consider this to be extremely unlikely.
On the other hand, I consider this to be quite likely. We can expect the senators to bow down to the pressure ”from below”, as it is called. We can also expect this pressure to intensify, as countless people watch carefully this spectacle unfolding in the capital of the nation.
It is up to Marxists to drive home the point that the removal of Trump from office, even if it takes place, will change nothing. The capitalist will remain in charge. A different figure head will assume the office of presidency, and the profits of the capitalists will continue to soar.
It is best to regard the impeachment and up coming Senate trial of Trump as an educational opportunity, a preparatory school for the victory of the proletariat, over the bourgeoisie. It may help to think of this as training for the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat, as that is precisely what it is. As a bonus, working people from various other countries are also closely following the events which are unfolding in America.
We can expect these revolutionary motions in various parts of the world to spread and overthrow the capitalists in several highly developed countries. Lenin made it quite clear, shortly after the Russian Revolution of November, 1917, when he stated that ”For the victory to be lasting, we must achieve the victory of the proletarian revolution in all, or at any rate in several, of the main capitalist countries.”
It is clear that capitalism has had it day. It is rotten to the core and dying. It is also clear that the capitalists are blissfully unaware of this. They are determined to continue to crush and exploit the working people, in order to maintain their life of luxury. We can expect their resistance to the revolution, at least in the most highly developed countries, to be most desperate.
It is partly for this reason that a revolution in such highly developed countries is more difficult to start, but once successful, far less difficult to carry through. The proletariat in these countries are far more numerous and more advanced than their counterparts in petty bourgeois countries. The vast majority of such workers tend not to be so corrupted by the petty bourgeois mentality, which is so prevalent in less developed countries.
After the revolutions are successful in several advanced capitalist countries and the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat is well established in each, then the long range goal is to create a central location, one capable of directing the international tactics of the revolutionary proletariat in its struggle for a world Soviet republic. The situation of America now makes it a prime candidate for such a centre. But first, the vanguard of the American proletariat has to be won over to the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat, and against bourgeois democracy.
It is to be hoped that all Marxists will take some comfort and inspiration from the report of Lenin to the Second Congress of the Communist International. In that report, he made it quite clear that ”with the aid of the proletariat of the advanced countries, backward countries can go over to the Soviet system and through certain stages of development, to communism, without having to pass through the capitalist stage.”
We can only stress that this requires a world Soviet republic. This may happen in the not too distant future, as it is very likely that the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat will soon be established in several advanced capitalist countries, in North America, Asia and Europe. As most of the advanced strata of the proletariat in those advanced capitalist countries now have access to various digital devices, and as those same advanced workers are now deeply dissatisfied, it should not take a great deal of effort to raise their level of consciousness to that of revolutionary Marxists.
With that in mind, we must once again stress the importance of slogans, soon making these a subject of everyday conversation:
Workers of the World, Unite!
Scientific Socialism!
Dictatorship Of the Proletariat!
Gerald McIsaac Science Project 