Truckers Protest Growing and Spreading

The experience of previous revolutions has revealed, that such revolutions usually start with shut downs in the transportation industry. From there, they guickly spread to other branches of industry. 

I consider this to be significant, because here in North American, a couple of years ago, the Canadian truckers occupied the capital city of Ottawa, and then blocked various border crossings. As the protest spread, a great many farmers joined them.

More recently, there were calls for truckers to once again occupy Ottawa, but that never happened. In much the same manner, there was talk of sending a great many trucks to the southern border of America. That too, never took place.  

Now, certain of the American truckers are rising up, calling for a boycott of the city of New York. As yet, it is not clear that this boycott is effective. There are reports, as yet unconfirmed, that as many as twenty percent of the truckers are refusing to drive into New York City. 

True, many of them are protesting in support of Donald Trump. That is of secondary significance. The main thing is that they are becoming politically active. It is very likely that they are not fully aware of the political power they have. 

The truckers are fond of voicing an expression: ‘’If you bought it, we brought it.’’ There is considerable truth to this. Almost everything that consumers buy off store shelves, has been brought in by truckers. If the truckers stop trucking, the country will soon be brought to a standstill.

Almost certainly, most truckers are workers, hourly employees, proletarians. Yet some of them are owner – operators, in that they own the trucks they drive. Technically, these drivers are classified as lower middle class, small business owners, or petty bourgeois. In fact, they live in constant fear of losing their trucks, with good reason. Frequently, their trucks are repossessed by the banks, and they return to being hourly employees, proletarians.

Among the truckers, as can be expected, leaders are emerging. Yet as also can be expected, these leaders are not class conscious. They are clearly angry and frustrated, with good reason. They are also well aware that there is strength in numbers. So of course they want to band together and lash out, but lack focus, as they are not aware of the fact that they are at the centre of a class conflict.

This is to be expected, because the conditions of life, within the working class, do not lead to the workers becoming aware of themselves, as a class, with their own class interests. That awareness must come from an outside source. That outside source is middle class intellectuals. 

The fact is that Marx, Engels and Lenin, were middle class intellectuals. They turned their backs on a relatively comfortable middle class life style, so that they could work in the service of the working people, by whom I of course mean the hourly employees, the proletariat, as well as the family farmers, otherwise known as peasants. In this, they performed a magnificent job.

We can only stress the fact that they were Scientific Socialists, and placed the study of society, including capitalism, on a scientific basis. 

Perhaps it would be best to let Marx explain this, in his own words. in a letter to Weydemeyer, dated March 5, 1852: “And now as to myself, no credit is due to me for discovering the existence of classes in modern society or the struggle between them. Long before me bourgeois historians had described the historical development of this class struggle and bourgeois economists, the economic anatomy of classes. What I did that was new was to prove: (1) that the existence of classes is only bound up with the particular, historical phases in the development of production (2) that the class struggle necessarily leads to the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, (3) that this Dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society.’’

From the detailed study that Marx made, of society in general, and capitalism in particular, he proved that ‘’the class struggle necessarily leads to the Dictatorship of the Proletariat’’. We should note that the ‘’class struggle’’ to which Marx was referring, is of course the class struggle between the workers, the proletariat, and the capitalists, now the billionaires, the bourgeoisie. 

Marx goes on to state that this class struggle ‘’necessarily leads to the Dictatorship of the Proletariat’’. The key word here is ‘’necessarily’’. This is to say that the monopoly capitalists, the billionaires, the bourgeoisie, must be first overthrown, through revolution, and then crushed. After the revolution, the Proletariat must exercise Dictatorship over them. Otherwise they will return to power.

There is a reason that the working people are largely unaware of the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin. These theories are not taught in public school. They are taught only in University, and then only with a view to distorting them. As very few working class people can afford to attend University, they remain largely ‘’in the dark’’.

As it is mainly only the middle class that is able to attend University, and become exposed to the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin, it follows that it is up to middle class Marxist intellectuals to bring this awareness to the working class. The best way to do this is through the creation of a Communist Party, one which calls for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Such a Party can serve the working class, as well as farmers and at least the lower strata of the middle class. 

This was the very thing that Lenin managed in Russia, in 1898, with the creation of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. The name of the Party was later changed, first to the Bolshevik Party, then to the Communist Party. Bear in mind that those who fight for socialism, also fight for democracy.

Yet in North America, this is not happening. There are numerous parties and groups, some of which claim to be Marxist, while denying the necessity of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. These parties are revisionists, as they are determined to revise the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin. We can have nothing to do with those parties, as they are completely devoid of principle. 

Others claim to be socialist, but not Marxist. Such people are referred to as utopian socialists, and tend to fight for reforms under the democratic republic.

These people deserve our respect, as they are the natural and desirable allies of all true Marxists, Communists.

Incidentally, Lenin refers to the lack of a true Communist Party, as a ‘’great misfortune’’. 

But then, Lenin was also of the opinion that a ‘’mighty, popular revolutionary movement, may rectify this deficiency’’. He went on to stress the importance of ‘’exposing traitors and renegades’’ to the working class, as a means of ‘’supporting revolutionary groups of genuine internationalist workers, who are to be found in all countries. The proletariat will very soon turn away from the traitors and renegades and follow these groups, drawing and training leaders from their midst.’’

This is to say that, in the absence of a true Communist Party, we can expect to find ‘’revolutionary groups of genuine internationalist workers’’. This makes complete sense, as ‘’birds of a feather flock together’’. In other words, people with similar interests and beliefs tend to ‘’buddy up’’. Advanced workers come together in groups!

Lenin also made it clear that a successful Scientific Socialist revolution does not necessarily require a Communist Party, but it does require a progressive class. The working class, the proletariat, is that progressive class. We can expect the vast majority of working people to follow the lead of the ‘’group of internationalist workers’’, especially the ‘’leaders in their midst’’.

Now it is up to those groups of advanced workers to ‘’take the bull by the horns’’, to ‘’self educate’’, to learn the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin. They will have to train themselves, to rise to the level of true Communists! 

This is not as difficult as it may sound. There is certainly no need to go to University! Most working people are now quite cultured and own, or at least have access to, various digital devices. Time to put those devices to good use!

The fact of the matter is that a great deal of revolutionary literature is now available on the internet, and can be easily downloaded. So I suggest that the most advanced, ‘’internationalist’’ workers, download the most important works of Lenin, especially State and Revolution, as it is the most relevant. That book explains the importance of smashing the existing state apparatus, at the time of the revolution, and replacing it with another state apparatus, for the purpose of crushing the billionaires. This state apparatus is known as the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, the ‘’touchstone’’ of a true Marxist, according to Lenin. I understand that it is even available in audio form, so that workers can listen to that while driving or working.

I also recommend Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, What Is To Be Done?, and Left Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder, also by Lenin. An understanding of those key revolutionary works will enable workers to become proper Communists, Scientific Socialists.

As Lenin mentioned, those workers who are advanced, ‘’internationalist’’, tend to come together, in ‘’groups’’. In turn, the vast majority of less advanced workers will ‘’soon turn away from the traitors and renegades, and follow these groups’’. From these groups of advanced workers, leaders will emerge, and from reading the essential works of Marx and Lenin, will receive valuable training.

There is no need for these groups of advanced workers to get together in person, and in many cases, such a gathering may not be indicated. There is no shortage of government agencies which are constantly on the lookout, for those whom they consider to be ‘’subversives’’. These groups can ‘’gather’’ on the internet, in that which is referred to as ‘’live streaming’’. At that time, they can freely discuss that which Lenin wrote, in his major works.

In this way, from within certain groups of advanced workers, potential leaders will receive the proper training. Their level of awareness will rise, they will become class conscious, true Marxists, focused on revolution. They will become aware of the necessity of revolution, of smashing the existing state apparatus, and crushing the existing class of monopoly capitalist parasites, the billionaires, under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. 

It is these working class revolutionaries, true Marxists, Communists, who will lead the revolution to victory. We will know that these advanced workers are successful, that countless working class people are listening to them, when the expression Dictatorship of the Proletariat, is being openly discussed. May the banners and signs proclaim:

Workers of the World, Unite!

Dictatorship of the Proletariat!

Scientific Socialism!