Capitalism has just given rise to no less than two crises, which are happening at the same time. The corona virus is sweeping the world, leaving death and devastation in its wake. At the same time, the capitalist world is now entering a Second Great Depression. More death and destruction!
As Lenin pointed out in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, ”Crises of every kind -economic crises more frequently, but not only these- in their turn increase very considerably the tendency towards concentration and monopoly.”
The twin crises we are currently experiencing are providing us with very clear cut examples of this. In the last three weeks alone, an estimated 17 million workers filed for unemployment insurance benefits. Countless small businesses are shut down, the vast majority of which will never reopen. Even after the country recovers from the effects of the corona virus, the depression will continue. The major businesses, the monopolies, the ”chains” of super markets, airlines, railroads, hotels, mines and mills, for example, are open for business now and will continue to remain open. The only difference is that now, they do not have any competition from the small business owners. The monopolies are now stronger, more complete. Those whom the capitalists have deemed ”Too Big To Fail” will thrive, while the rest of us, those who are Too Small To Succeed, will go the way of the dodo bird.
This is to the advantage of the monopoly capitalists, the billionaires, the Sacred Six Hundred, the bourgeoisie. They own these corporations, and have already given themselves trillions of dollars of tax payer money. For the benefit of those who are not aware, I will point out that a trillion is a thousand billion! The crisis continues to intensify. The small business owners, the middle class, the petty bourgeois is being wiped out. As Lenin put it, ”it is the petty bourgeois that every war and every crisis ruins and destroys first”. Yet they are not the only ones who are facing ruin.
Millions of workers, proletarians, are losing their jobs, soon to lose their houses and everything else they own, including their life sayings, forced into bankruptcy. And the bourgeoisie? They are rolling in wealth! They have never been richer. Those who used to have billions now have tens of billions! This is truly ”the best of times, the worst of times”.
This is another way of saying that the situation is revolutionary. The suffering of the common people, the members of the public, is severe and about to become ever more intense. The capitalists expect us to suffer through this depression, much as our grand parents suffered through the first great depression. Possibly they are not aware that we are not our grandparents. We are far more aware than they ever were. We are not about to put up with the this crap, as our grandparents did. Perhaps we should let them know this!
The internet, movies and popular television shows have helped to educate the members of the public. Now it is up to conscious people, Marxists, to further educate the working class, to raise their level of awareness, to explain to people the existence of classes, of the necessity of revolution and the subsequent Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. We currently live under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The capitalists are in charge and fully intend to remain in charge. The only alternative is the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat. As we live in a class society, there is no third alternative.
We can learn from the Russian revolution, as it was similar to the current situation, but there were also important differences. Three quarters of the Russian population was composed of peasants, most of whom had no education. As most of the country was not highly industrialized, it was different from the current American situation. As Lenin put it, ”In such a country it was quite easy to start a revolution”. On the other hand, in such a country, carrying through the revolution is exceptionally difficult. Or as Lenin phrased it, ”it was easy for the Russian revolution to begin but difficult for it to take further steps.”
Lenin went on to compare the Russian revolution to that of highly industrialized countries, within Europe. ”The European revolution will have to begin against the bourgeoisie, against a much more serious enemy and under immeasurably more difficult conditions. It will be much more difficult for the European revolution to begin. We see that it is immeasurably more difficult to make the first breach in the system that is holding back the revolution. It will be much easier for the European revolution to advance to the second and third stages.” That is because ”the degree of organization and solidarity of the proletariat there is incomparably greater.” He went on to say that ”It is more difficult to start a revolution in West European countries because there the revolutionary proletariat is opposed by the higher thinking that comes with culture, and the working class is in a state of cultural slavery.”
That which applies to Western Europe also applies to America, but with an additional difference. In respect to America, there is one more detail which has to be taken into account. As Lenin also stated, ”The trade unions have never embraced more than one fifth of the wage workers in capitalist society, even under the most favourable circumstances, even in the most advanced countries… only a small upper stratum were members, and of them a very few were lured over and bribed by the capitalists to take their place in capitalist society as workers leaders. The American socialists called these people ‘labour lieutenants of the capitalist class….who were bribed and bought by it.”’
The point is that there are members of the working class, within America, who are quite well paid, ”bribed” by the capitalists, those who may or may not be union leaders, but quite content to serve their masters, the capitalists. To these ”labour lieutenants of the capitalist class”, may I suggest that you ”mend your ways”. You are probably not aware of the fact that you are about to become a target of the revolution. Feel free to ”convert”, as otherwise the experience of the revolution will make you wish you had. If there is one thing we find more contemptible than the capitalists, it is their belly crawling boot lickers.
Now to the American women, my female comrades, I can only say that you have proven yourselves to be excellent organizers. That is fine, as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. Those of you who are not aware of the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin have to ”brush up”, to educate yourselves. Those of you who are aware of the revolutionary theories have to put it into practice. Face the fact that capitalism has had its day, it is in its death throes. There is no way out of this crisis, this depression. The world will never again be the same.
Now is the time to step up, to distinguish yourselves as revolutionary leaders, to follow in the footsteps of Rosa Luxembourg. She was a fine revolutionary, one who devoted her life to the cause of revolution. She refused to compromise her principles, never became a revisionist, never betrayed the working people. It was for that reason that she paid the ultimate price, was murdered by the reactionaries. May her sacrifice be an inspiration to women around the world!
To American men, my comrades, may I offer similar advice. Now is no time to march for paltry reforms -not that it ever was- but to march for the revolution, to overthrow the capitalists, the bourgeoisie. Join your women folk, protect them, prepare to do battle. They call us ”rednecks”, so embrace the term. Wear red kerchiefs, perhaps over your nose and mouth, to prevent the spread of the virus. Do not allow fear of the virus to divert you from the greater enemy, the bourgeoisie. March to destroy capitalism. March for your women and children. March for scientific socialism. March for the Dictatorship Of the Proletariat!
Gerald McIsaac Science Project 