As I write this, it is now early May, 2026. Yet even at this early date, the mainstream press is already focused on the ‘’Midterm Elections’’, counting down the months before the ‘’Big Vote’’, of November. As if that vote is about to change anything of substance!
It is referred to as the ‘’Midterm Elections’’, as it falls between the two ‘’Presidential Elections’’, of 2024 and 2028. Each and every Member of the House of Representatives are running for office, all 435 of them, as each serves a two year term.
In addition, there are 100 Senators, and each serves a six year term. Every two years, one third of them, or 33 this year, have to run for office.
The Republican Party, led by President Donald Trump, has a majority in both ‘’Houses of Congress’’, which is to say the House of Representatives and the Senate. Yet there are countless Americans, including those who consider themselves to be ‘’progressive’’, or ‘’Leftist’’, or even ‘’Socialist’’, who are ‘’hoping and praying’’ that enough Democrats and ‘’Independents’’ can be elected, within both Houses of Congress, to reverse that majority, and pass laws to enact some meaningful change.
Without doubt, such people are honest, hard working, tax paying, law abiding, patriotic citizens. As such, they deserve our utmost respect, as well as our support. We are prepared to offer them every assistance, in their goal of electing progressive people to Washington. At the same time, we hope to achieve our goal of raising their level of awareness, to that of class conscious people.
It is a fundamental tenet of Marxism, that the conditions of life, of the working class, the proletariat, do not lead to the awareness of itself, as a class. This class awareness must come from an outside source, that of middle class intellectuals. Bear in mind that both Marx and Lenin were middle class. Yet both ‘’turned their backs’’ on a rather comfortable, middle class life style, in order to work in the service of the common people.
The best way to raise the level of awareness of the common people, both workers and family farmers, is by becoming involved in that which interests them. As they are currently interested in the Midterm Elections, that deserves our immediate attention.
There is certainly no harm in working towards the goal of electing ‘’progressive people’’, whether Members of the Democratic Party or an Independent Party, perhaps as an ‘’Independent Socialist’’, to either or both Houses of Congress. Yet to expect that this could possibly result in any meaningful change, as a result of a majority, is simply not reasonable.
The reason for this is quite simple. Both ‘’Houses of Congress’’, which is to say the Senate and House of Representatives, are part of that which is referred to as the ‘’state apparatus’’, or merely ‘’the state’’. This elaborate state apparatus has been established for one purpose and one purpose only- to crush the ‘’lower classes’’! Especially the working class, the proletariat!
The system is set up to ensure that each and every Member of Congress, as well as every Senator, regardless of the political party, serves the same class! The multi billionaires! The monopoly capitalists! The bourgeoisie!
Even though there is the odd ‘’renegade’’, and in particular the ‘’Members of the Squad’’, led by AOC, that is exceptional. It is simply not reasonable, nor is it possible, to expect to elect sufficient Members, to either House of Congress, to enact any significant change. After all, the state apparatus, which has been set up by the bourgeois, the monopoly capitalists, in order to crush the working class, the proletariat, cannot be used by the proletariat, in order to crush the capitalists. On the contrary, the existing state apparatus must be smashed, at the time of the Revolution,and replaced with a working class state apparatus, in the form of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. In that way, and only in that way, can the determined resistance of the capitalists be crushed, as they make every effort to ‘’restore their paradise lost’’. That is a basic tenet of Marxism.
This is not to imply that we should surrender that ‘’field of battle’’, that of any federal election, to our class enemies, the bourgeoisie. On the contrary, it is our duty to fight those people, wherever and whenever we find them! If nothing else, those who take part in those battles, will become schooled in the class conflict. Besides, it is reasonable to expect that we should win the odd ‘’skirmish’’.
Yet there is a reasonable chance of success, of winning numerous elections, and not just those in Washington. This can only serve to assist our cause. Those who are elected will find out that the monopoly capitalists are in charge, and fully intend to remain in charge. Nothing of substance will change. The capitalists will not allow this.
It is the duty of Scientific Socialists, which is to say Communists, to raise the level of awareness of the working class. As it is customary in American society, to deny the very existence of classes, that is a ‘’tall order’’. Yet it must be done.
For that reason, we will start with a few basic definitions. Those readers who are middle class may find this to be somewhat tiresome, but it cannot be helped. After all, our focus must be upon the working class.
The ‘’common people’’, by whom I mean workers and family farmers, tend to believe the American propaganda. Such propaganda is most impressive, intense and continuous. They believe that their ‘’democratically elected officials’’, whether Republican or Democratic, go to the capital of Washington, in order to represent them. Such is hardly the case! The system is established so that all elected officials, regardless of the political party, serve the same class!
The current situation can be compared to the Occupy Movement of 2011. At that time, countless working people were of the same opinion. They actually thought that their political leaders were not aware of the ‘’inequality’’ that existed, within society. So they decided to exercise their democratic right to protest, to occupy certain areas. The government responded with a certain brutality. In this way, the working people learned that the government does not represent them. It crushes them.
That same lesson must be learned, once again. No doubt, the veterans of the Occupy Movement can assist in this noble endeavour. Experience is such a great teacher! Especially when combined with those who warn beforehand.
For that reason, it is appropriate for all of us to assist citizens in voting for candidates, in the Midterm Elections, of their choice. We can also encourage citizens to join the two mainstream political parties, as card carrying members, and run for office. As I have covered this in previous articles, there is no need to go into it here.
The idea is to ‘’take the bourgeois at their word’’. They say that ‘’if we do not like the way things are, we should change it from within’’. So be it! Run for any and all political offices! Encourage your families and friends to do the same! Your platform can contain certain slogans:
Increase The Pensions! Tax Free! Free Education! All Student Loans To Be Abolished! Increase The Minimum Wage! Defend The Bill Of Rights! Defend The Right To Bear Arms! Tax The Rich! Make Everyone Pay Their Fair Share! Abolish ICE! All Immigrants Legal!
In this way, you are sure to gain the support of the retired people, all students, the trade unions and sports enthusiasts, among others. A great many others! In fact, it is reasonable to expect almost all working people to support you, in your run for political office.
It is also reasonable to expect the ruling class of monopoly capitalists, the bourgeoisie, to oppose you, to place every obstacle in your way. In this way, they will stand more exposed.
This brings us to working class people, technically referred to as proletarians, those who sell themselves by the hour. Such people are also known as ‘’wage slaves’’, or ‘’hourly employees’’, or simply ‘’workers’’. Those who are able to ‘’make ends meet’’, to ‘’put food on the table’’, as well as ‘’keep a roof over their heads’’, are not middle class! They are merely more ‘’fortunate’’ than so many other working people, who are reduced to the point of homelessness, living in vehicles, or even ‘’on the streets’’.
Family farmers, as the name implies, are composed of families who own some property and grow crops, of various sorts. These may include vegetables, fruit, berries and livestock, usually a combination of the afore mentioned. In most parts of the world, they are referred to as peasants. At least in North America, many farmers tend to work as hourly employees, whenever possible, in order to supplement their meagre income from the farm. In this way, they become both workers and farmers.
It is note worthy that all workers and family farmers, at least here in North America, tend to refer to themselves as ‘’common people’’, or ‘’the little guy’’, or members of the ‘’rank and file’’, or even ‘’blue collar’’. They generally find the term ‘’masses’’ to be somewhat offensive, when applied to themselves. As well, the term ‘’backward’’ should be avoided, as so many workers think it means ‘’stupid’’. A more appropriate term is ‘’less advanced’’, when used in reference to those workers who are considered to be more ‘’conservative’’, or ‘’Right Wing’’ or even ‘’MAGA’’. So I suggest that the words ‘’masses’’ and ‘’backward’’ be avoided, whenever possible, when used in reference to the working people.
Middle class people, or small business owners, are referred to as ‘’petty bourgeois’’, in that petty means ‘’small time’’, and bourgeois means ‘’capitalist’’. Many of them have succeeded in investing their limited capital in a small business, if only a machine, and either run it themselves, or hire someone to run it for them. The more fortunate, those who are more successful, are able to hire people, even numerous people, to work for them.
It is the middle class which is of particular interest to us, especially the ‘’upper middle class’’, as they are aware of the existence of classes, and the conflict between them. Many of them have also been to University, and thereby exposed to the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin. More accurately, they were taught the distortion of those revolutionary theories. Now certain of the older ones, who have been blessed with years of experience, have been forced to admit that ‘’Marx was right’’.
They say this with the utmost bitterness, and are determined to ‘’weather the approaching storm’’, the Second American Revolution, which they know is rapidly approaching. Many of them are currently hoarding gold and other ‘’precious minerals’’, presumably in safety deposit boxes. As if that is about to do a world of good!
Such people tend to lead lives of ‘’quiet desperation’’, waiting for the ‘’axe to fall’’. They are well aware of the fact that the bourgeoisie has recently decided that merely five businesses are ‘’Too Big To Fail’’. They are equally well aware of the fact that ‘’every coin has two sides’’. The ‘’other side of that coin’’ is the fact that all other businesses are ‘’Too Small To Succeed’’!
We can expect a few of these reasonably intelligent, misguided individuals, to ‘’come to their senses’’, to face the fact that capitalism has ‘’had its day’’, and that Scientific Socialism, in the form of Council Power- as Council is the English translation of the Russian word Soviet- and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, is ‘’on the horizon’’.
The reason I say that this is of ‘’particular interest to us’’, is because those people, members of the middle class, are about to find themselves thrust into the ranks of the proletariat, the working class. They bring with them the awareness of the existence of classes, as well as the conflict between those classes. It makes no difference whether they enter the working class voluntarily, or against their will, ’’kicking and screaming’’, so to speak. It is their knowledge which is the important thing.
To such people, I have something to say: Welcome, My Brothers and Sisters, My Fellow Workers, My Comrades!
Fear not, your previous years of experience, in the service of the monopoly capitalists, the bourgeoisie, will not be held against you! On the contrary, you can use that experience to drive home the point that classes exist, and that the conflict between the classes, which is about to break out into open class warfare, is very real!
Further- as I suspect you may have already ‘’guessed’’!- feel free to face the fact that you have no future under capitalism. If nothing else, the multi billionaires have made that abundantly clear!
That is the ‘’bad news’’, to use an old, worn out joke, as I cannot resist the temptation. The ‘’good news’’, is that you have a bright, shining future under Scientific Socialism.
After the successful Scientific Socialist Revolution, under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, your skills and training, in the fields of management and organization, will be in demand. You can expect to be rewarded, and most handsomely.
What is more, even before the outbreak of the Insurrection, which will overthrow the monopoly capitalists, smash the existing state apparatus, and establish the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, you still have an important role to play. That ‘’important role’’ involves raising the level of awareness of the working class, making them aware of themselves as a class, with their own class interests.
As well, feel free to become deeply involved with Councils, which are ‘’underground organizations’’, concerned with assisting working people, in various ways. These include, but are not limited to, arming, equipping and training workers, as preparation for the approaching Insurrection.
This brings us to the fourth class, that of the multi billionaires, or ‘’monopoly capitalists’’, or ‘’imperialists’’, the members of the class of people known as the ‘’bourgeoisie’’. They are also completely ‘’reactionary’’, which is to say that they are completely opposed to any change. In popular terms, we say that they are ‘’ultra conservative’’. They are also ‘’opportunists’’, which is to say, completely devoid of principle. Lying is their specialty! As well, they are complete parasites, as they contribute nothing to society. They specialize in investing their considerable capital, in various parts of the world, demanding a sizeable return on their investments. They care only about themselves and their immediate families. Regardless of the amount of money they have, it is not enough. They want more! They are the greatest enemies of the working class!
Those are the four main classes of people, which currently exist in North America. Only the remnants of other classes remain in existence, and very few of them. The bourgeoisie has done a fine job of simplifying the class struggle! To this day, ever more family farmers and small business owners are being driven into bankruptcy, and into the ranks of the working class. For that reason, the class struggle is increasingly becoming strictly that of capitalists versus workers, bourgeois versus proletarians! Both family farmers and small business owners are members of a ‘’dying breed’’.
It is also reasonable to expect that the forth coming Second American Revolution, will ‘’kick off’’, with that which is commonly referred to as a ‘’popular uprising’’, technically referred to as an ‘’Insurrection’’. Such an event may or may not be spontaneous. The more carefully planned and executed, the less spontaneous, the greater the chances of success.
We can further expect the people taking part in this Revolution, to act in a manner which is something other than that which is generally considered to be within the bounds of ‘’socially acceptable behaviour’’. And rest assured, coating the class enemies of the working people with tar and feathers, and parading them through the streets, certainly qualifies as ‘’exceeding the bounds of decency’’.
That is most certainly true, and yet during times of Revolution, the polite norms of civilized society, tend to ‘’fall by the wayside’’. As the members of the ‘’lower classes’’, in this case the workers and family farmers, rise up and challenge the ‘’upper classes’’, the monopoly capitalists, those who have crushed and exploited them all their lives, we can expect to witness instances of mass brutality. Such behaviour is characteristic of all Revolutions, and calls for a little explanation.
The class of people known as the bourgeoisie, the multi billionaires, have a certain ‘’hold’’ over the working class. This is referred to as ‘’spiritual power’’, and is every bit as real as the physical force elements of repression. As that is the case, it too, must be destroyed.
As well, the ‘’criminal element’’, which includes mobsters of various persuasions, politely referred to as ‘’organized crime’’, also exerts a great influence over the working class. This is another way of saying that working people are terrified of them. With good reason, I might add!
This spiritual power, that of both the monopoly capitalists and the mobsters, must be smashed. I refer to this power as ‘’invisible chains’’, and consider them to be supremely dangerous, if only because they cannot be seen. The working class can be expected to overcome this spiritual power, to ‘’break these invisible chains’’, by publicly humiliating both the monopoly capitalists and the mobsters.
As a result of this anticipated public humiliation, we can expect all such recipients, to become ‘’sweetly reasonable’’. The mobsters will be only too anxious to disclose the location of all the ‘’buried bodies’’, as well as all the accomplices to their crimes, in an attempt to secure leniency. In addition, we can further expect all capitalists to ‘’come clean’’, to reveal the hiding places of their wealth, including that of precious metals.
The preceding pretty well covers the class struggle, as it relates to raising the level of awareness of the working class, the proletariat. We can think of that as one ‘’field of battle’’, the ‘’practical field’’, so to speak. Yet there is another area which demands our attention. That lies within the ‘’field of theory’’, or as I prefer to think of it, as a ‘’Roadmap to Scientific Socialism’’.
As I have made clear in previous articles, the working class is spontaneously gravitating towards Scientific Socialism. Yet as they do not know how to get there, they can be compared to a driver who is lost, driving around in circles. We all do this, when we are ‘’lost’’. Finally, ‘’when all else fails’’, we break out the road map!
This is my somewhat less than subtle way of comparing the Scientific Socialist Revolutionary theories, of Marx and Lenin, to a road map. It is by following those Revolutionary theories, and only by following those Revolutionary theories, that the working class, the proletariat, can arrive at their goal of Scientific Socialism.
Yet to this day, there are countless people who are only too anxious to dispute that fact. These include all bourgeois scholars, and a considerable number of self described Socialists, including those who claim to be Scientific Socialists, also known as Communists.
This is anything but a new phenomenon. On the contrary, the criticism of all of the fundamental tenets of Marxism, and not just the Revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin, has been emanating from the Universities, for some considerable time.
The response of the ‘’Leftist’’ people, including those who claim to be ‘’Scientific Socialists’’, or ‘’Marxists’’, or ‘’Marxist-Leninists’’, or ‘’Communists’’, or just plain ‘’Socialists’’, has been very interesting. Many of them have embraced these ‘’revisionist’’ theories.
In the interest of giving credit where credit is due, it must be stated that a few of them openly admit to being ‘’revisionists’’. That stands in stark contrast to the vast majority, those who make every effort to revise those revolutionary theories, of Marx and Lenin, while doing so in their name!
This was the same problem Lenin faced, shortly after he and a few other middle class intellectuals, formed the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, in 1898. He quickly was confronted by the fact that the Party was divided. There were a considerable number of Members who wanted to ‘’change the Party platform’’, so to speak.
Bear in mind that Scientific Socialism was, at that time, referred to as ‘’Social Democracy. At the time the Party split, it was referred to as Bolshevism. And after the October Revolution of 1917, the name was changed to Communism.
In his article, What Is To Be Done?, he explained the difference. In the following, that which Lenin stated, I have placed in quotes. The italics within those quotes, are those of Lenin:
‘’Social-Democracy must change from a party of the social revolution into a democratic party of social reform….The possibility of putting socialism on a scientific basis and of proving that it is necessary and inevitable from the point of view of the materialist conception of history was denied, as also were the facts of growing impoverishment and proletarianism and the intensification of capitalist contradictions. The very conception, ‘ultimate aim’, was declared to be unsound, and the idea of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat was absolutely rejected. It was denied that there is any difference in principle between liberalism and socialism. The theory of the class struggle was rejected on the grounds that it could not be applied to a strictly democratic society, governed according to the will of the majority, etc.’’
This is precisely the same nonsense that is being put forward by our current crop of social chauvinists, those who are socialists in words, chauvinists in deeds. The only difference is that, for the moment, we have no true Communist Party, in existence.
In particular, the Democratic Socialists of America, possibly the largest of the lot, are fighting for ‘’Democracy and Reforms’’, rather than socialism. Yet they still refer to themselves as socialists! Is it too much to expect honesty from such people?
‘’Thus, the demand for a definite change from revolutionary Social-Democracy to bourgeois social-reformism was accompanied by a no less definite turn towards bourgeois criticism of all the fundamental ideas of Marxism. As this criticism of Marxism has been going on for a long time now, from the political platform, from university chairs, in numerous pamphlets and in a number of scientific works, as the younger generation of the educated classes has been systematically trained for decades on this criticism, it is not surprising that the ‘new, critical’ tendency in Social-Democracy should spring up, all complete, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter. The content of this new tendency did not have to grow and develop, it was transferred bodily from bourgeois literature to socialist literature.’’
That is true to this day! It is primarily the ‘’younger generation of the educated classes’’ who attend University, and in University, they are exposed to all of the ‘’bourgeois criticism’’, the distortion, the revisions, of ‘’all the fundamental ideas of Marxism’’. Then the ‘’younger generation of the educated classes’’ have managed to ‘’transfer bodily’’, these revisions, from ‘’bourgeois literature’’ to the various ‘’Leftist Parties’’, including those which claim to be Communist! No wonder the working people are confused!
‘’To proceed….If democracy, in essence, means the abolition of class domination, then why should not a Socialist minister charm the whole bourgeois world by orations on class cooperation? Why should he not remain in the cabinet even after the shooting down of workers by gendarmes has exposed, for the hundredth and thousandth time, the real nature of the democratic cooperation of classes?….And the reward for this utter humiliation and self degradation of socialism in the face of the whole world, for the corruption of the socialist consciousness of the working class- the only basis that can guarantee our victory- the reward for this is imposing plans for paltry reforms, so paltry in fact that much more has been obtained from bourgeois governments!’’
Here in North America, the federal government agency known as ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been caught on video tape, more than once, committing cold blooded murder! Yet no charges have been laid! As well, countless people, alleged to be ‘’illegal immigrants’’, have been arrested and deported, without due process of law, as is guaranteed in the Constitution. Others, including young children, infants, have been separated from their mothers, and placed in prison! Various federal agencies have defied federal court orders, and not just ICE. Once again, the ‘’corruption of the socialist consciousness of the working class’’, is in ‘’full swing’’, as ‘’Leftist organizations’’, including those who claim to be Marxist, are calling for ‘’paltry reforms’’. Bear in mind that the ‘’socialist consciousness of the working class’’, is the ‘’only basis that can guarantee our victory’’!
‘’He who does not deliberately close his eyes cannot fail to see that the new ‘critical’ tendency in socialism is nothing more nor less than a new species of opportunism. And if we judge people not by the brilliant uniforms they deck themselves in, not by the imposing appellations they give themselves, but by their actions, and by what they actually advocate, it will be clear that ‘freedom of criticism’ means freedom for an opportunistic tendency in Social Democracy, the freedom to convert Social Democracy into a democratic reformist party, the freedom to introduce bourgeois ideas and bourgeois elements into socialism’’.
Right to the heart of the matter! No wonder working class people are confused! Those who claim to be Socialist, even Communists, are openly calling for ‘’class collaboration’’, sometimes in words, more frequently in deeds. Such people are completely devoid of principle, opportunists. Do not judge a book by its cover!
As Lenin stated, it is the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, which is the ‘’touchstone of a true Marxist’’! It is also a fact that true Communists, Scientific Socialists, call for Soviet Power, in that Soviet is a Russian word, which means Council. Those who are social chauvinists, avoid the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, as well as Soviet Power, as if they were infectious diseases!
To this day, the Democratic Republic remains democracy for the chosen few. Here in North America, that means a handful of multi billionaires, a tiny minority, are in charge of the democratic republic. For the vast majority of people, especially the working class and the family farmers, it remains that which it always has been. The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
With Most Sincere Communist Greetings,
Gerald McIsaac