When We Fight, We Will Win

Peacefully if possible,
Forcibly if necessary

Our culture is dominated by a set of beliefs that make us think that it's human nature for people to subjugate each other. It's become "common sense" that capitalism is the only way. But it isn’t true. Occupy was forcefully evicted by the state in collaboration with the complicity of the media. But it was incredibly successful in getting the message of the 99% and 1% out there. It was a training ground for many activists and it created a "psychological break" that allows us to more easily discuss capitalism and anti-capitalism and socialism. You never really know how close you are to freedom. We need to see ourselves as part of an interconnected worldwide movement that can win. We need to understand more and more the incredible forces of capitalism and how to oppose it. We don't always win every battle for sure, but when we fight we win our humanity. We build community. If we don't fight, we have already lost the war. We cannot miss any opportunity to fight for a new world. For sure, we lose in many cases but we have to fight because we have no other option. At least when we fight, we have the possibility of winning. In the act of resistance, we empower ourselves and our community. We develop the kind of organizations and strength that we are going to need to change this world. As Noam Chomsky has said, we choose optimism over despair. We know that movements make men and women, but men and women make movements. Movements cannot exist unless they are carried on by people; in the last analysis it is the human hand and the human brain that serve as the instruments of revolutions.

We, revolutionists, seek the emancipation of the working class and the abolition of all exploitation, not another rivet in the chains of wage slavery. The revolutionist recognises that the organization that is propelled by correct principles. The revolutionist will not make a distinction between the organisation and the principle. The principle and the organisation are one. In order to accomplish results or promote principle, there must be unity of action. Charlatans, one after the other, have set up movements that proceeded upon lines of ignorance; movements that bred hopes in the hearts of the people; yet movements that had to collapse. A movement must be sound in its ideas or it cannot stand. A falsely based movement is like a lie, and a lie cannot survive. All these false movements came to grief, and what was the result? - disappointment, stagnation, diffidence, hopelessness. If bluff and blarney could save a movement, the Left would be imperishable but alas the left-wing parties rise and fall with the utmost frequency. These false movements have confused the judgment of people, weakened their hope and their courage. Hence the existing apathy in the midst of misery; hence despondency despite opportunities for resistance.

Revolution is the inevitable response of the world’s people to exploitation and oppression. It is an irreversible trend in history. No great event nor revolutionary change in society is possible without the active participation and support of the people. Out of their own interests the exploiting classes blurred the historical role of the masses whom they looked upon as knaves and fools. Historians record only the feats of individuals, heroes and kings, or well-known generals, overlooking the role of the common people. It was not until the birth of Marxism that the masses were recognised as makers of history. This discovery was one of Marx’s important contributions. Socialists have been accused for many years of wanting to overthrow capitalism by force and violence. When they accuse us of this, what they are really trying to do is to imply that we want to abolish capitalism with a minority, that we want to force the will of the minority on the majority. The opposite is the truth. We believe we can win a majority of the people to support a change in the system.

Everything you use, everything you eat or wear, your car, your housing — you didn’t make any of these things. We don’t produce these things as individuals. We produce socially. We have a division of work in the whole world for that matter. People in one part of the world make things which people in another part of the world use. But, even though we produce socially, through co-operation, we don’t own the means of production socially. And this affects all the basic decisions made in this society about what we produce. These decisions are not made on the basis of what people need, but on the basis of what makes a profit. Take the question of hunger. There are people going hungry all over the world. Farmers don’t make their decisions by saying: “We need a lot of corn to feed people, so I’m going to plant a lot of corn.” They never say that. They say: “How much money am I going to make if I plant corn?” Did you know that if decisions were not made on this basis, then there exists the potential to feed the whole world…plus more?  Take the question of housing, we could build beautiful free homes for every family. We could wipe out every slum in a few years. The potential exists, not only in the factories and materials for building, but in the potential to build new machines and factories. Yet, they are not going to solve the housing question because it’s not profitable.  You have the unemployed who are not hired because it’s not profitable to hire them. Then you have the people in the army, not to mention the police, and others who consume a great deal but don’t produce anything. Then you have things like the people in finance, in sales and in the advertising industry. They don’t do anything really useful or necessary. In addition, business ignores the environment. If you designed a vehicle for the car industry that would last 50 years, they wouldn’t use it. Because that would destroy the purpose of making cars, which is to produce profits. So built-in obsolescence and shoddy consumer goods. Another example of how the potential for meeting human needs is destroyed because of the profit system. Say you are a capitalist, and you’re about to build a factory. Do you say: “I’ll build it where it’s nice, where there are trees and fresh air, and where the workers will have nice homes and will be able to go mountain climbing or hunting or swimming?” No, that’s not the way you think. You say: “Well, where’s my market, where are my raw materials coming in, how can I make the most profit?” And this means you might build the factory where you will pump even more poison into the air. Air pollution is another example of a problem which stems directly from this system. Remember when they first discovered smog. They said: “Hey, look, there’s smog.” And they warned that if the smog increased to a certain point it would be dangerous. But, when they got past that point, they changed the danger level. And the smog is still getting worse. And now they tell us that all the rivers are polluted. In other words, it’s not that they just can’t meet the problem that exists. Things are getting worse.

How do we go about changing this situation? How do we make it so that we can really fulfil our potential as human beings? First, it is necessary to realise that we have a ruling class. And it’s very important that everyone should get to know and recognise their ruling class. The ruling class is very small. In fact, proportionately, it is the smallest ruling class in the history of any society yet they have the real power. All the institutions under capitalism are ideological institutions in the sense that all of them maintain and demand support for the system. So it should be no surprise to you that the higher you go in a corporation the people become more and more reactionary, more and more pro the system; they are more and more for whatever crimes the system has to commit. They simply wouldn’t be there if they weren’t. Many believe that the ruling class has unlimited power. We cannot be naive about the ruling class. They will suppress opposition to them insofar as they can get away with it. And they will use whatever means available if it suits their needs. But they will try to keep the repression in the bounds of what they can get away with without waking up the mass of the people, without destroying the illusion of democracy. Because, if the mass begins to wake up, that’s a big danger. Instead, the ruling class simply picks two people, or three, and they say: “Okay, everybody, we’re having elections. You have the choice of who.” Then they have their candidates have a debate. But the debate isn’t entirely phony. The debate often represents a real living struggle between different positions within the ruling class. The ruling class resolves many of the smaller tactical differences they have among themselves through means of elections. Obviously, such elections do not in any way mean that the people have a voice in ruling this country. At the same time, the masses of people believe in democracy. And this belief in democracy is something that actually weakens the rulers. And it is something that gives us real power. There is a power relationship between the masses and the ruling class based on the potential power of the working class. Because of this power relationship, you can do many things. It gives us what we call free speech. It gives us free assembly. It gives us the right to organise political parties legally. The newspapers can published legally even though they attack the system. They don’t suppress these newspapers because they know that the minute they start suppressing papers, it’s going to wake people up and bring a reaction. The only hope the ruling class has is if it can isolate the revolutionaries completely from the rest of the people. That is why the number-one task of all revolutionaries who really want to change the system is to know how to reach the people. the ruling class has also had experiences, from which they have gained knowledge. They’ve been running the United States without even any major political opposition for years and years now. They know how, when an opposition develops, to try to suppress it, to knock it down, while at the same time how to co-opt and absorb it and buy it off.

Let me explain what a reformist is. A reformist is someone who doesn’t like what capitalism does, but likes capitalism. They try to solve the problems created by the system by supporting the system. They were trying to change the system from within. They hope a Bernie Sanders victory will be a substitute for building an independent political movement of the working people against the ruling class. What they are looking for is a shortcut. . But they’re not going to change it by themselves. You can’t change it without the American people. And you certainly can’t change it against them. What is happening is that the left are merely expressing frustration. Just like those who support Sanders, they don’t have the patience and the understanding of the need to mobilise the people, to win them over, to involve them in the struggle through mass movements. They have to be won over, and our whole strategy, everything we do, has got to be directed at winning them. Are we going to be able to do it?

The case for socialism is based on democratic ideas. The word “socialist” doesn’t even need to used. Because what socialism means is not simply that socialists come to power but that a class — the masses of the working people — come to power and act in their own interests, self-empowerment,  self-liberation, self-emancipation. The key to victory is motivating the majority. Any struggle that neglects this will only end in disaster. There is no shortcut to change the system.