RALLY, COMRADES! THE VOICE OF THE LEAGUE OF REVOLUTIONARIES FOR A NEW AMERICA VOLUME 31, EDITION 3 MAY-JUNE 2021 RALLYCOMRADES.LRNA.ORG $1 DONATION U.S.-Mexico Border is a Battlefield Over Fascism Global migration has been on the rise, with cheap corn produced with mechani- at this time estimated at 281 million peo- cal harvesters and government subsidies ple seeking safety and security, as well as in the U.S. Midwest. Unable to compete, basic survival. People’s homelands have many Mexican small farmers became le- been disrupted by war, climate change, gal “guest workers” in the U.S. or joined the inability to live off the land, and fear the millions of undocumented. of the actions of their governments. This Sonny Perdue (Secretary of is the story of the history of the United Agriculture under Trump) explained the States, where 44.8 million total foreign- intention H-2A, the U.S. guest worker born are living. In the rest of the Americas, program for agriculture, in a January 2020 massive displacement of people also re- speech to growers. He said, “to separate sults from the years of U.S. imperial- , which is people wanting ism & political meddling in countries to become citizens, [from] a temporary, like Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, legal … That’s Venezuela, Haiti, and others. what agriculture needs, and that’s what Corporations can go where they we want. It doesn’t offend people who please without the hardships and suf- Chicago protest against ICE and Customs and Border Patrol Detention Centers. are anti-immigrant because they don’t fering of the people struggling for the Photo: Antwon McMullen/Shutterstock want more immigrant citizens here.” This future of their children and themselves. continued discrimination is clearly evi- Not too long ago, this quotation on the pal federal criminal law enforcement agen- escalated. This authority covers 200 mil- dent in the proposed Farm Workforce Statue of Liberty was viewed as the stan- cies combined, such as the Federal Bureau lion people in the U.S., giving ICE the abil- Modernization Act of 2021, to be voted dard for our nation of Immigrants: “Give of Investigation, Drug Enforcement ity to function as a fascist national police on in the U.S. Senate. me your tired, your poor, your huddled Administration, Secret Service, Marshals force. After the murder of George Floyd Anti-immigrant propaganda ignores masses yearning to breathe free.” Today, Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, by Minneapolis police in 2020, the border the financial contributions they make, on the Southern U.S./ Borderlands Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. tactical police force (BORTAC) was de- top of the wages they get underpaid. An has become its opposite, where fascistic ployed to protests there, in Washington, estimated half of the nation’s undocu- policies attack the of thou- SPREADING FASCISM D.C., and in Portland, Oregon. United We mented immigrants are believed to be sands each day. TO THE BORDER Dream reports that ICE has agreements working under fake Social Security num- American residents are always under From 2003 to 2018, Immigration and with 78 local law enforcement agencies bers, which means they are paying taxes surveillance when crossing the border. Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is re- in close to half of all states, granting the into Social Security. The ITEP (Institute So are immigrants, especially Central sponsible for immigration and for non- authority to enforce to on Taxation and Economic Policy) esti- Americans, whose exodus from border enforcement, spending grew by 85 1,514 officers. mates that state and local governments and violence by drug cartels and govern- percent, from $3.3 billion to $7.4 billion. also take in $11.74 billion a year in vari- ments is confronted at the U.S./Mexico ICE chronically misleads appropriators, EXPLOITATION ous taxes and fees paid by undocument- border by militarized enforcement from engages in fiscal mismanagement, and ig- Immigration laws have always been ed immigrants. Yet, Social Security and both countries. Thousands are deported nores attempts at congressional oversight. used as a jobs control measure, guarantee- other benefits are not collected by those from the U.S. without any hearing be- In their annual budget requests, ICE false- ing the exploitation of migrants and thus who have paid into the programs -- in es- fore a judge. The unaccompanied chil- ly claims additional needs, alleging rising holding down conditions for all workers. sence, subsidizing U.S. retired workers. dren have been deported back to the immigrant populations in their custody. In particular, the ruling class has ensured In addition, the money sent to rela- violence that they fled from in the first Besides artificially inflating operational its profits in agriculture by super-exploit- tives back home by documented and place. Families live in tents and go with- needs, ICE routinely functions as an agen- ing immigrant labor. The North American undocumented immigrants has become out their basic needs. They face further cy exempt from congressional oversight, Free Trade Agreement (1994) caused the the lifeblood of many developing coun- violence for months and months, wait- as though taxpayers wrote the agency a displacement of small farmers in Mexico ing for their number to be called, so they blank check. ICE routinely overspends off their lands, when Mexico was flooded Continued on page 6 can receive an application to enter the U.S. its budget for enforcement and detention, The growth in arrests, detentions, and de- then pleads with Congress to financially portations only benefits corporations that bail out the agency. exploit the desperate ones lucky enough In 1925, Adolf Hitler wrote of his ad- CONTENTS to find a job. miration of America’s immigration laws Since the creation of the Department in Mein Kampf. Under the new American Inside: Break from the Ruling 2 May Day: To Understand 5 of Homeland Security in 2003, the fed- fascism being developed by our ruling eral government has spent an estimated class, the treatment of immigrants is even Class, Chart Our Own Path is to Hope $324 billion on immigration enforcement. worse. The colossal rise of funding for Meanwhile, for-profit prisons and immi- CBP (Customs and Border Protection) Juneteenth 2021: Revolutionary 3 Police Killings and Our 5 grant detention centers were guaranteed has steadily transformed southern border Reconstruction Today Fight for Class Unity increased public dollars, as were compa- communities into a heavily militarized nies providing air travel to return deport- zone, where the number of border agents ed people to their native lands. A recent doubled from F.Y. 2003 to F.Y. 2016. A From the Editors: 3 Capitalism Creates 6 report from the Migration Policy Institute little-known 1953 law defined the bor- The Meaning of January 6 Food Scarcity, showed that immigration enforcement der as a region covering 100-miles inland, Communism Distributes agencies received $24 billion in 2018, or where migrants and even citizens could Taking the Offensive to 4 Abundance $4.4 billion more than they did in 2012. be stopped and interrogated for immi- Defeat Fascism This amounts to 34 percent more than the gration status. $17.9 billion allocated for all other princi- Today, the use of that power is being Break from the Ruling Class, Chart Our Own Path up yet.” U.S. jobs disappeared forever. Just as in 2021, the movements to defund the po- Inside Of course, the truth is that America has the 19th century, our ruling class has en- lice continue. Unlike in the past, this so- Rally, Comrades! a long history of violence against Asians, couraged us to fight scapegoats rather cial force against police violence has the which can be traced at least back even be- than our real enemy. “From the Editors historical moment on its side. Real class fore the , which forbade — The Meaning of January 6” explains unity is now possible thanks to the very the immigration of Chinese women into the strategy necessary to keep our strug- same electronics applied to production A year of violence against Asian the U.S., and the gle independent of the interests of the destroying the capitalist system. Hope Americans, blamed for the so-called of 1882, which ended the immigration capitalists. lies in the fact that the struggles around “China flu,” culminated in increased of Chinese men. After Asian immigrants This issue of Rally, Comrades! docu- police killings and the past year of the bloodshed at the one-year anniversary had been exploited for decades during ments how fear and anger have fueled the COVID-19 pandemic are laying bare the of the pandemic. The New York Times doc- the Gold Rush and the building of the ruling class’s move toward fascist rule. In inequities of the country. uments at least thirty attacks on Asians Transcontinental Railroad, a downturn in “U.S.-Mexico Border is a Battlefield Over “Capitalism Creates Food Scarcity, in March 2021, not counting the March the economy created a wave of anti-im- Fascism,” we see how this scapegoating Communism Distributes Abundance” 16 Atlanta murders of six Asian women. migrant sentiment that led to these bans. continues. At the Southern border, fas- details the practical American roots in Thousands of Americans protested across World War II saw Japanese Americans cist attacks on thousands are escalating ranching and farming that demand a the country the following weekend, in- forced into concentration camps. as immigration enforcement agencies move toward a new economic system. cluding many Asian Americans who had Certainly, some of the social destruc- receive 34 percent more funding than Freed from corporate control, we have never protested before. tion we’ve experienced this past year is to all other principal federal law enforce- the means and resources to feed everyone, Texas House Representative Gene Wu blame, including the pandemic itself (al- ment agencies combined. In “Taking the even in the vicinity of the nation’s urban told The Wall Street Journal, “Many people most mishandled as badly as the Spanish Offensive to Defeat Fascism,” we also see and metro areas. The sooner we learn to in the past, even my own parents, basical- Flu of 1918). But today’s social destruc- how parts of the ruling class exploited produce for need and not for profit, the ly said, ‘Hey, as long as we’re quiet and tion starts with the destruction of the ba- deeply ingrained prejudices to lay siege better. we work hard, and we’re the good minor- sis of our economy. In a digital economy to the Capitol. Finally, two reflections on historical ity, then we will be protected.’ ” Now Wu that needs less and less human labor ev- But this issue of the paper also high- celebrations show how the vision of the says that the American dream is “not pro- ery day, 2021 saw billionaires grow expo- lights our class’s increasing efforts toward past has renewed relevance today. “May tection... Your number just hasn’t come nentially more wealthy while ten million political understanding and unity. We Day: To Understand is to Hope” reaches discuss growing resistance at the border, for the original holiday’s vision of worker including such activism over the “right unity and declares, “Our hopes for change to remain” in homelands and the military must rest on a clear understanding of the mobilizations at the U.S.-Mexico border. social destruction that’s underway and Our article on the Capitol attack empha- how revolutionary change can be devel- A Vision for a New America sizes the electoral victories of 2020 and oped out of it.” Meanwhile, “Juneteenth Subscribe to Rally,Comrades! for $20/year January 6, and the growing understand- 2021: Revolutionary Reconstruction ing among our working class that our Today” shows how the conscious polit- Arm the American people with truth and a vision of a new world. “multiracial working class has to break ical unity of the new class — an aboli- Subscribe at http://rallycomrades.org/subscribe from both ruling class parties.” tionist class — will lead to the political Or send a check or money order to: In “Police Killings and Our Fight for formations to reconstruct society and fi- LRNA attn. Rally, Comrades!, P.O. Box 477113,Chicago, IL 60647 Class Unity,” we note that, though po- nally realize the vision of the emancipat- lice violence has actually escalated over ed slaves and of all people for freedom, the past year and in the early months of equality, and justice for all. RC

EDITORIAL POLICY League of Revolutionaries Rally: to bring back together and put in a state of order, as retreating troops [to return to attack] for a New America Comrade: a person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause

Rally, Comrades! is the political paper of the League of Today, whether through words or deeds, vast numbers of socially conscious people Revolutionaries for a New America. In this period of growing motion declare themselves revolutionaries in opposition to the degenerating social and and developing polarization, Rally, Comrades! provides a strategic economic conditions. The League’s mission is to unite these scattered revolutionaries outlook for the revolutionaries by indicating and illuminating the on the basis of the demands of the new class, to educate and win them over to the line of march of the revolutionary process. It presents a pole of cooperative, communist resolution of the problem. scientific clarity, examines and analyzes the real problems of the The demands of this new impoverished class for food, housing, education, revolutionary movement, and draws political conclusions for the tasks healthcare and an opportunity to contribute to society are summed up as the demand of revolutionaries at each stage of development in order to prepare for a cooperative society. Such a society must be based on the public ownership of for future stages. It is a vehicle to reach out and communicate with the socially necessary means of production and the distribution of the social product revolutionaries both within the League and outside of the League, according to need. to engage them in debate and discussion, and to provide a forum for these discussions. Articles represent the position and policies of LRNA, P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, IL 60647 the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. [email protected] | 1(773)486-0028 | lrna.org Editors: Steve Teixeira, Mary Kay Yarak Visit the Rally, Comrades! website! Editorial Board: Danny Alexander, Brooke Heagerty, Kimberly King, John Slaughter rallycomrades.org Photo Editor: Daymon Hartley, Kimberly King The Rally, Comrades! bilingual website provides online access to all issues of Rally, Comrades! It is a political resource for our readers, and provides up-to-date Reach us at: RALLYCOMRADES.ORG articles, statements and analysis of key questions of importance to revolutionaries.

2 RALLY, COMRADES! RALLYCOMRADES.LRNA.ORG MAY-JUNE 2021 Juneteenth 2021: Revolutionary Reconstruction Today The news that slavery was abolished dance of society through its control of the victorious ruling class of the North, with industrial economy that relied on it. finally reached Texas on June 19, 1865, economy and every level of government. the Southern ruling class subordinate to The political alliance of the freed peo- over two years after Abraham Lincoln’s Abandonment by the government of our Northern finance capital (Wall Street), ple and the abolitionist Republicans led Emancipation Proclamation. Today we people is the result. The scarcity lie is laid that prevented freedom for African to a hopeful but too brief period of in- celebrate June 19, Juneteenth, as the end bare by the $1.3 trillion increase in the Americans and the entire working class. creasing freedom in the South called of U.S. slavery. Hundreds of thousands of Reconstruction. In 1865 Congress estab- people, Black and white, sacrificed their lished the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen lives to end chattel slavery and open up and Abandoned Land to introduce a the possibility of a society of freedom and Real freedom means the abolition of free labor system in the South, establish equality. Yet legal emancipation and true State violence, including police terror schools, secure fair treatment for Black freedom are not the same. The enslaved and white unionists, provide aid to the were set “free” with no compensation for and the poverty imposed on so many destitute, and generally help the millions over 200 years of back-breaking labor and of freed people and poor whites in the no means to survive economically or be people by the corporate ruling class. South. But the Bureau was woefully un- independent of their former “owners,” derstaffed and underfunded, with an an- few legal or political rights, and precari- nual budget about equal to the cost to ous physical safety. fight the Civil War for one week. Still today, the masses of the U.S. peo- combined wealth of the nation’s 657 bil- The defeat of Reconstruction brought Reconstruction was set back by ple are not free. Every year, police kill lionaires since the pandemic lockdowns relative unity to the ruling class. The de- Andrew Johnson, who became President about 1,000 people nationwide and bru- began. Clearly, there is abundant societal velopment of industrial production, most- after Lincoln’s assassination, pardoned talize and harass thousands more. Black, wealth to provide true freedom for all. ly in the North, drove the conflict that most of the former Confederate planters Indigenous, and Latinx Americans suf- led to the Civil War. The Northern rul- and ordered their confiscated property fer at the highest rate, but workers of all RECONSTRUCTION BETRAYED ing class needed to break the “slave pow- returned. Fortunately, the Republican- colors are targeted by our increasingly Speaking on July 4, 1875, Frederick er” of the Southern planters, whereby the controlled Congress began overruling fascist corporate State. Most people mur- Douglass asked, “If war among the whites South controlled Congress with a con- Johnson and legislated what became dered, terrorized, and incarcerated by the brought peace and liberty to Blacks, what stitutional provision that counted slaves known as Radical Reconstruction. The police are poor. will peace among the whites bring?” It as 3/5 of a person. The new industrial Reconstruction Amendments passed be- Real freedom means the abolition of was not white unity that forestalled Black productive forces in the North came into tween 1865 and 1870 abolished slavery State violence, including police terror and freedom. Poor whites in the South were conflict with the productive relations of (13th Amendment), made all people born the poverty imposed on so many peo- largely enemies of their Southern plant- slavery in the South, leading to war. in the U.S. citizens (14th Amendment) ple by a corporate ruling class. Instead er rulers, and poor whites in the North, After the Civil War, the ruling class and promised voting rights to Black men of meeting people’s needs for housing, many of them new immigrants, were cru- still needed the back-breaking labor of (15th Amendment). food, clothing, healthcare, and educa- elly exploited by the Northern industri- cotton picking, both for the Southern ag- Radical Republican leaders, such as tion, the ruling class hoards the abun- alists. It was the renewed unity of the ricultural economy and for the Northern Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, fought for equal rights and opportu- nities for Blacks and poor whites, and for Confederate leaders to be punished. During Radical Reconstruction, those The Meaning of January 6 born into slavery could now vote and own land. In parts of the South, Blacks more “conservative” forces called for understanding the root of the problem, and whites could ride together on trains From the Editors prosecuting those who broke into the which is capitalism. Reacting to only and eat together in restaurants. All over Capitol, seeking to distance themselves the most hate-filled racist elements the South sprouted new schools and pub- and their issues from the ideological actually helps the State strengthen its lic relief projects aimed at improving the The January 6th storming of fringe. Some so-called conservative repressive apparatus for coming col- lives of the free people and poor whites. the Capitol led directly to the 2nd Republicans voted for impeachment, lisions with the new class. That appa- Approximately 2000 African American Impeachment of Donald Trump. but others against impeachment, re- ratus claims their only target is “white men served in public office before Government and corporate leaders flecting differences over inner-Re- supremacist terrorism,” just as they’ve Reconstruction’s violent overthrow. fought intensely over that, which only publican politics, but not fundamental done with “gang” youth or “border Reconstruction brought hope to many masked how united they have become differences over the fascist strategy of criminals.” It also obscures how so- of the Deep South’s poor whites, just as about imposing new forms of fascism greater corporate-government integra- called “moderate” political leaders it did for African Americans. Before the on the American people. Fascism today tion and control. have assisted the step-by-step con- abolition of slavery, the free labor of poor is already taking shape on the basis of Revolutionaries understand that struction of fascist economic and po- whites could not compete with slave la- the merger of the corporations and the today’s electronic revolution, private- litical structures already operating. bor, making high and government, where the ruling class di- ly owned and controlled by the capi- When Americans believe that the wages significantly lower than in the rectly dominates the economy, politics, talist class, is provoking widespread only fascists are the openly white su- North. The Reconstruction era temporar- and society. They need a social base to social destruction. The new class of premacist kind, they can be pulled into ily “freed” both poor whites and the for- consolidate their hold on the State. workers being pushed out of any pro- supporting one or another liberal pol- mer slaves by providing more consistent The forced entry into the Capitol by ductive place in society inevitably itician who is also serving the ruling employment, new access to public edu- just under 1,000 people emerged from launches a growing struggle for gov- class shift towards fascism. The new cation, and access to the ballot. a January 6th March to Save America ernment to ensure their needs are met. class can avoid that and keep their During Reconstruction, Congress and with 30-40,000 participants. Though The strategy of the ruling class is to struggle independent of the interests the Freedmen’s Bureau attempted to se- united by the belief that Joe Biden was defend the system of private proper- of the capitalists by insisting that the cure political rights and basic needs for elected because their votes were sto- ty at all costs; tactically, it attacks the government ensure food, housing, and the formerly enslaved and poor Southern len, the more ideological groupings new class of workers, first economi- healthcare for all regardless of proper- whites. With the end of Reconstruction, were consciously white supremacist cally, who as a result bear the brunt of ty ownership or ability to pay. Fighting Southern fascism crushed these efforts and fascist. But a larger number, more the current crisis, and secondly, in the for that today prepares a future path with vigilante violence by the KKK and representative of the 74 million who form of the brute force of a develop- toward abolishing the private property other white supremacist terrorist groups, voted for Trump, were there to “Stop ing police state. of the ruling class and creating a new convict leasing, forced sharecropping, and the Steal.” They bought the Big Lie. We must fight racism wherever it is, kind of communist economy and a co- the denial of the Black and Republican Later, some spokespeople for the and we can do this most completely by operative society. RC vote. Following the Hayes-Tilden com- Continued on page 4

MAY-JUNE 2021 RALLYCOMRADES.LRNA.ORG RALLY, COMRADES! 3 Taking the Offensive to Defeat Fascism Secretariat, League of Revolutionaries for a is a form of class rule that makes use of time, several senators noted that if the and acting moment. None of us — re- New America, May 2021 white supremacy historically and today. protesting forces had been Black, Brown, gardless of our class – can do just what And ruling class forces are trying to de- or Indigenous — the police would have we want to do, because we want to do it. The stakes for our multiracial, multi- velop a plan for implementing it – for shown up in full riot gear with reinforce- We can only do what conditions allow us gendered and multigenerational working how they will save capitalism and private ments, including the National Guard, to to do. So we have to make a careful stra- class are urgent and huge. It is essential to property with less and less labor needed quell any uprising. tegic analysis of conditions, forces, and grasp the current conditions and to chart to produce and distribute goods and ser- motion. Strategically, we know that we a strategic political path to our common vices and fewer consumers able to pur- THE TERRAIN WE ARE ON have to overthrow the capitalist system future. Election 2020 offers lessons about chase them. Working class and movement organi- and white supremacy, as an ideological class power rooted in the history of the Trump and his lackeys among elect- zations, many led by Black women and and material force within it, in the U.S. U.S. South – in capitalism, white suprem- ed and appointed officials enabled and propelled by the urgency of the moment, and globally. To move toward this revo- acy, and fascist rule, and in opposition- engaged in a series of unprecedented overcame extensive voter suppression lutionary resolution, we have to connect al multiracial working class struggles events from the November 3 election and mobilized in record numbers in the our tactics to our strategy. A few key tac- across the centuries. The election also onward – repeating the big lie that the midst of the pandemic to vote in 2020. tical processes for working class struggle expresses the crises and contradictions election was stolen in the face of massive The presidential vote was primarily a vote that fight capitalism and ruling class con- of the current political moment. Today’s evidence, judicial judgments, and reality to defeat Trump and the rapid motion to- trol include breaking from capitalist class working class is increasingly impover- to the contrary. This is a pattern Trump ward fascism and was not, for the most political parties, making demands that ished and dispossessed because of the forces engaged in throughout his term part, a vote for Biden. confront the capitalist system, and polit- irreversible capitalist crisis based in the in office as they pursued a fast track to- The electoral terrain is difficult to nav- ical education that moves working class ongoing digital revolution. We are dying ward fascist rule. igate. Over 361 voter suppression laws forces toward revolutionary class con- from COVID-19 and living on a planet in In the early hours of January 7, af- are pending and/or passed in 47 states, sciousness and struggle for the future. ecological crisis. The political crisis is on ter the Trump incited insurrection at the disproportionately in the South, to block full display. Capitol, 139 Republican House members working class voters, especially voters WORKING CLASS UNITY and 8 Republican Senators still challenged of color, from exercising their vote and Today’s multiracial working class has JANUARY 6 the presidential vote. On January 13, the voice. to break from both ruling class parties. On January 6, Trump and his loyalists House voted for the second time to im- The ruling class and its two political And we have to move toward forming a incited and carried out an armed insurrec- peach Trump for inciting the violent in- parties are fraught with contradictions. working class third party that is politically tion of white supremacists and conspiracy surrection at the US Capitol – with 197 The current moment has revealed the capi- independent from the capitalist class. To theorists and believers at the U.S. Capitol, Republicans opposed. The Senate im- talist class interests in both the Democratic accomplish this, we need to continue our to challenge the Electoral College certifi- peachment trial of Trump ended on and Republican Parties and how they rule participation in the electoral process and cation of Biden as president. Certification February 13 with a verdict of “not guilty.” and control the working class. The center in the ongoing policy struggles around did happen in the early hours of January Trump and his Republican Party min- cannot hold. The polarization and fractur- solutions to our problems. The demands 7. This was the action of an organized in- ions continue to work 24-7 in Congress, ing within both ruling class parties and be- and solutions we put forward have to surrectionary force embedded within the in their home districts, in the media, and tween the classes is erupting. fight capitalism and take our struggle on mob and coordinated with elected offi- at CPAC (Conservative Political Action The government’s totally inadequate the offensive. Our survival depends on cials, law enforcement, and military — ac- Conference) to consolidate as much of a response to the basic needs of the people the protection of the earth, and the dis- tive and veterans — who facilitated the social base for fascist rule as possible and and the planet is in plain sight. While the tribution of the vast abundance of goods mob and removed barricades, unlike the to pursue scorched earth policies with the US working class is being thrust ever deep- and services based on human need, and violent treatment of Black lives and pro- intent of creating massive confusion, de- er into poverty and crisis, US billionaires not ability to pay. A few specific examples gressive movement demonstrators. struction, and chaos. reaped $1 trillion since the beginning of of political tactics to fight capitalism that The insurrection is an expression of The February 23 Senate hearing on the the COVID pandemic in March 2020, with various fronts of struggle are demanding the broad and deep social base for fas- colossal security breach at the US Capitol the stock market climbing to new highs. include unified action as a political tool of cism and helps the ruling class assess how during the insurrection on January 6 re- This absolute polarization of wealth and working class power, abolition of the po- quickly they can or how slowly they have vealed a total failure of timely sharing of poverty has to be interrupted. The histor- lice and prison industrial complex includ- to move toward the consolidation of fas- federal intelligence with appropriate DC ic material and ideological reality of white ing ICE, implementation of a green plan cist rule. Fascist rule in the and Capitol police officials. At the same supremacy and gender oppression within for a 100 percent renewable carbon free capitalism – from the earliest phase of co- energy system by 2030, and honoring all lonialism, genocide, and chattel slavery to Indigenous treaties and lands. We have to the present – is expressed in every aspect end our crises, not just lessen our pain. Juneteenth 2021: of our lives. The Biden-Harris adminis- We need a critical mass of working tration is squarely in the Wall Street cor- class forces with a shared vision of the Continued from page 1 porate wing of the Democratic Party and world we are fighting for. This work- promise, Hayes became the president in needless COVID-19 deaths, poverty wag- is proposing, at best, concessions that do ing class unity and class consciousness return for federal troops being withdrawn, es, homelessness, student debt, climate not disrupt capitalism. The ruling class requires serious study along with po- and the old slaveholder class returned to devastation, and all forms of fascism. is fighting to protect their power, wealth, litical demands and electoral work and power in the South. Jim Crow then be- Driving this motion is a new class. It is and private property. Fascism is the only struggle in the street. Political education came the rule in a South that terrorized created by the digital revolution eliminating political path open to the ruling class to is an essential weapon in the battle for African Americans and the whites who jobs and making a cooperative economy nec- defend their needs and interests, wheth- ideas, vision, and the future. We have to advocated for equality, suppressing the essary. To survive, this class must abolish er slow or fast tracked. But, fascism is not break with ruling class ideology and lies wages and rights of all Southern workers, capitalism and any private property system, inevitable. of white supremacy. We have to break even to this day. where the means of survival are held in the Working class forces are in the fight of with ruling class history and its practices hands of a few. This abolitionist class is ob- our lives. In the main, we have been fight- of class exploitation, genocide, and gen- REVOLUTIONARY jectively fighting for the distribution of life’s ing tactically for our immediate needs and der oppression. To do this means to study RECONSTRUCTION necessities according to need. survival. It’s important that our electoral society and the world as they really are The estimated 26 million participants The conscious political unity of the participation and our defense of the right and have been. It means to understand in mass protests in response to the police abolitionist class will lead to political to vote not become a defense of bourgeois the revolutionary process and the qualita- lynching of George Floyd last May sug- formations to reconstruct society and democracy, and that we move toward po- tive change in the economy we are living gests a political impulse to complete the finally realize the vision of the eman- litical independence from the ruling class. through. It means to grasp our political revolution that began with Juneteenth. cipated slaves and of all people for Our fight is ongoing. This moment is criti- task and political challenge of going on People of all colors have risen up to op- freedom, equality, and justice for all. cal to lay out our bold vision of the world the offensive, fighting capitalism, defeat- pose degenerating social and economic Revolutionaries direct our efforts to de- we want and need. ing fascism, and winning and holding the conditions: police terror, systemic racism, veloping that conscious unity. RC This is a powerful learning, teaching, future for humanity and our planet. RC

4 RALLY, COMRADES! RALLYCOMRADES.LRNA.ORG MAY-JUNE 2021 May Day: To Understand is to Hope

Hope: to cherish a desire with anticipa- owners of capital. third are part-time, contingent, below mands. Permanent exclusion from ob- tion; to want something to happen or be Today, the electronic revolution is de- minimum wage workers. Immigrants taining their basic needs compels them to true. stroying industrial capitalism and its abil- are a big part of this sector. Another fight for the government to ensure the dis- ity to provide jobs and incomes to the growing part of the new class are those tribution of the social product according Understand: to grasp the meaning of. extent it once could. Capitalism’s defin- who were once securely employed and to need. And high technology automa- ing characteristic is that owners of capital housed and now are part of the structur- tion produces such abundance amid such (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) exploit human labor to produce commod- ally unemployed, facing absolute destitu- poverty that distribution by need is not ities, which workers must purchase with tion. Their old lifestyles acted as a social only necessary, it is now also possible. On this May 1st, International their wages to live. Labor-replacing tech- bribe to win their loyalty to the system, Struggles by the new class for free uni- Workers’ Day, the struggle for immedi- nologies, like industrial robots, are com- so this bribed section of workers would versal healthcare and an end to home- ate needs is finally being drawn into clos- pletely shattering that relationship. connect the mass of workers to the cap- lessness may intend to merely reform er connection with the historic struggle Society is polarizing into two great italist class. Many are educated, socially the system, but will actually require the for systemic change. Capitalism cannot camps — one side possessing the vast conscious, and used to organization, so transformation from a system of capital- provide the economic security it once did, wealth of society, the other living perma- the destruction of their old position can ist private property to one where soci- and humanity’s hopes for a better world nently in abject poverty and want. This be of enormous political benefit to the ety owns the means of production. That can now stand on the firm foundation of has birthed a whole new social class, class struggle. defines a communist economic system, The Southern movement for land, this understanding. useless to a capitalist class that no lon- While it is traditional for May Day whether it is called that or not. It makes Since March 2020, over half a million ger needs them. “Social class” refers to discussions to focus on strikes and oth- the struggle of the new class inherent- equality, economic democracy, and people infected with COVID-19 died be- the roles different sectors of the popula- er struggles over working conditions, to- ly revolutionary, despite still having to cause of U.S. government and health tion play within the production of soci- day’s disruption of the economic role of overcome historical social divisions of voting rights arose out of necessity. corporation neglect. More Americans ety’s wealth. Though it’s common to hear millions of workers has reduced their color, region, etc. voted than ever before, throwing Donald people describe America’s classes as up- ability to effectively bargain for better Those divisions can be overcome Trump out of office and expressing their per, middle, and lower, actual class re- conditions. This has weakened the labor through united struggle for basic needs, demand for the government to protect lations of production involve more than unions and allied organizations, whose reinforced with the class political under- them. And almost exactly one year ago in just a group’s level of income. The work- struggles were once the focus of May 1st standing provided by conscious revolu- Minneapolis, on May 25th, George Floyd ers that electronic methods are expelling celebrations. There will still be strikes and tionaries. On this International Workers’ died at the hands of police, as had so from their previous, more stable roles labor actions by the employed workers, Day, while the struggle for immediate many African Americans before him. The are becoming part of a new propertyless but the growing mass of unemployed needs is being drawn into closer connec- movement to stop these murders quickly “proletarian” class, whose ranks are being and homeless can’t get their needs met tion with the historic struggle for system- grew into the biggest sustained protest in filled from many social strata. that way. ic change, there is finally a material basis American history, with millions fighting For example, among the still-em- These members of the new class must for humanity’s hopes for a better world in hopes of making things better. ployed sector of this new class, about a confront the State to achieve their de- to become realized. RC When the fighters and voters of 2020 witness the Biden Administration serve the corporations and their ruling class owners during 2021, there will be an ex- plosion of anger instead of hope. However, Police Killings and Our Fight for Class Unity lost hope and anger alone cannot guide the struggle without political conscious- The city of Minneapolis made production using human labor ness. Witness the millions who voted for a $27 million settlement with the to production using robots in Trump out of anger over deteriorating family of George Floyd, mur- one form or another. One result conditions, only to have their anger mis- dered by police last year. Officer is that greater sections of society directed against immigrants and other vul- Derek Chauvin was found guilty are being separated from a way nerable social groups, while nothing was of Floyd’s murder. The trend to pay for housing, buy food, and done to solve their actual problems. of fatal police shootings in the afford to keep on utilities. Our hopes for change must rest on a United States is increasing, with A class is being created that clear understanding of the social destruc- a total of 292 civilians having is being forced to fight for actu- tion that’s underway and how revolu- been shot in the first four months al existence, with a government tionary change can be developed out of of 2021. There were 1,004 fatal doing little to address the prob- it. For over one-hundred and thirty years, police shootings during 2020. lem. The ruling class is calculat- International Workers’ Day on May 1 has At least six people were fa- ing that, in the final analysis, if served as a rallying point for that kind of tally shot by officers across the they can’t handle the situation, thinking. In the late 1880s, this holiday United States in the 24 hours af- then they will let the police han- was organized to unite industrial work- ter jurors reached a verdict in the dle it. ers internationally as they fought for the murder case against Chauvin; The police work to protect the 8-hour day. By 2006, millions in vari- more than 100 people were killed by police in the U.S. dur- capitalist system. Stopping the police goes hand in hand ous countries marched on International ing three weeks of Chauvin trial. Two children are among with transforming the entire system of political power that Workers’ Day in defense of undocument- those murdered: 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago, and guarantees that police will continue to kill, and that pover- ed migrants. 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant of Columbus, Ohio. ty will continue to spread. And for all those years, May Day Millions of people across the country and international- Historically in the U.S., the hard-fought battles for labor events included socialists and commu- ly participated in protests on the heels of uprisings in many unity could not be won so long as economic inequality ex- nists who inspired working people with cities in response to the killing of George Floyd. There were isted between Black and white workers. This is changing as a vision of a future without capitalist ex- close to 1,000 recorded instances of police brutality during huge numbers of workers are being pushed into econom- ploitation. Nevertheless, capitalism con- the protests. The overwhelming sentiment is that the police ic and political instability. Electronics applied to produc- tinued to extend its reach throughout the forces must be controlled, and that money be removed from tion has finally created the conditions for real class unity. world, and during its enormous expan- policing and put into the communities. The struggles around police killings and the past year of sion, the struggles for concessions and for The murders of civilians at the hands of the police, with the COVID-19 pandemic are laying bare the inequities of systemic change were conducted some- Blacks disproportionally represented, is not just a continu- the country. what separately from each other. Workers ation of the police brutality of the past. They are happen- The fight against racial and class inequality is the foun- could sometimes win immediate battles ing under new conditions of a fundamental change from dation for a new working-class unity. RC but not destroy the class power of the

MAY-JUNE 2021 RALLYCOMRADES.LRNA.ORG RALLY, COMRADES! 5 Capitalism Creates Food Scarcity, Communism Distributes Abundance Among those severely impacted by lies. Corporate Ag uses scarcity tactics largest employer of documented and un- lation. It is clear capitalism cannot be capitalism are the workers we depend on through supply and demand econom- documented citizens, and recipient of the reformed. As members of the Ranchers- the most—those that keep us fed. Small ics for one purpose — drive up product least amount of government funding.” He Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (RCALF) farms and ranches are slowly dying, as prices. is a graduate of beef cattle sciences at the found, the process becomes arduous we witness the onslaught of corporate Is this the country we envision? How University of Wyoming in Laramie. and severely litigious. RCALF assem- enterprise in the agriculture industry. It can we focus our agricultural efforts on bled a group of small beef cattle produc- is time to envision socialized agriculture producing for need and not for profit? FIGHT FOR SUSTAINABLE VISION ers when Tyson corporation bought IBP and return to the values and ways of life There are many obstacles, but it is not an There are many burgeoning efforts to (another multi-billion-dollar meatpack- that sustain us. impossible vision. In June, the Wyoming localize and collectivize agricultural econ- ing corporation). Collegiate Cattleman’s Association omies in rural America. The Swain Ranch The case, Pickett v. IBP, argues that THE BIG FOUR (WCCA) successfully lobbied the state of Western Colorado began a beef collec- “IBP and the other packers set an unfair Today, just four major corporations government to allow beef producers tive early in the summer of 2020, pairing and unreasonably low price for cattle and own 80 percent of the beef cattle mar- to market to their local communities. with the local meat processor in Nucla, when the Plaintiffs reject the low price, ket in the U.S. Known as “The Big Four,” Federal regulation requires beef to be pro- Colorado, and devised a system to help IBP and the other three packers slaugh- Tyson, JBS, ICB, and Cargill, are the na- cessed in USDA-approved meatpacking make locally raised beef more accessible ter cattle from their own captive supply tion’s meatpacking tycoons. Small ranch- plants, supplied with the appropriate hor- to residents of Montrose County. They and/or exclusive marketing agreements, ers are forced to market their product mones, supplements, and vaccinations to are feeding working-class families with and leave the Plaintiffs without a buy- through The Big Four or risk going out of be sold to the consumer. high-quality food. er for their cattle, so that the Plaintiffs business. Generational family farms are This process forces small ranchers In ’s Bay Area, Strauss have to accept the lower price.” In other disappearing across the nation, and the into the corporate model, and the prob- Family Farm of Inverness is a model for words, the corporations force scarcity in land, being devastated as it falls into the lem is associated with cost. The average local sourcing. Their dairy products are the market to drive up their profit mar- vast corporate system. While this system salary of the independent rancher is just marketed to just four surrounding San gin. In contrast, small producers are left plagues every aspect of world agriculture, $70,000 per year. The cost of construct- Francisco Bay counties. Their operation to whatever “trickles down.” from crop and vegetable farming to dairy ing a local meatpacking operation is $1.2 is congruent with USDA organic require- In this way, we are fighting capital- and beef production, this piece focuses million without government assistance. ments and a clear vision for environmen- ism with more capitalism, which is not on how the capitalism model hurts small, Republican lawmakers are only too hap- tal sustainability using refillable glass the solution. It temporarily alleviates independent beef ranchers in the U.S. py to provide subsidies for meatpacking bottles. Not only is it beneficial for the the symptoms of a caustic economic sys- Scarcity and the exploitation of re- plants, affordable only to corporate-class locality and the environment, but small tem. Constant litigation severely depletes sources drive the capitalist structure. Big producers. farmers and ranchers provide a much small ranchers’ resources, even with the Ag has wasted 12 million pounds of po- Jordan Williams, president of the higher quality product than their corpo- help of groups like RCALF, while mini- tatoes, dumped milk into drainage bins, WCCA, says, “Corporate agriculture rate counterparts. mally impacting the major corporations. and ground millions of eggs into compost, brought in upwards of $30 billion in ex- The fight for this more sustainable vi- Our class is continually being devastat- in a time when hundreds of thousands of ports of beef, pork, and chicken alone. sion lies in dismantling the Big Four and ed by this corporate system, and we must working families are either unemployed Imagine if that money would have gone the capitalist economic system and work- build something entirely different in its or underemployed due to the pandem- to the actual producers! We are talking ing to collectivize local economies. This place. ic, and struggling to feed their fami- about the country’s largest workforce, the cannot come in the form of more regu- PRODUCTION FOR NEED By working to collectivize the whole of the agricultural economy, we are re- turning to the basics of human nature. We U.S.-Mexico Border Battlefield Over Fascism support our class directly, when empow- ering the working farmers and ranchers than any President, leading activists to instead of to social needs. In class unity to distance themselves from the corporate Continued from page 1 call him the “Deporter-in-Chief.” lies our strength. capitalist system. In the world of agricul- tries, which would face even more pov- Whether Democrat or Republican ad- There is growing resistance, such as ture, the small farmer and rancher have erty and emigration without it. Mexico ministrations, immigration policies have the activism over “the right to remain” in one goal in mind: feeding people. received $36 billion in 2019, $40.6 billion always served the interests of the ruling homelands and the mobilizations at the We have the means and resources to in 2020. Guatemala, Honduras, and El class. In past eras, their goal was getting US-Mexico border. We must support their feed everyone, even in the vicinity of the Salvador received a record $17 billion in cheap labor in, then throwing them out. demands and demonstrate our class unity nation’s urban and metro areas. The soon- 2019 alone. Worldwide, remittances have Today, immigration policy serves them by calling for abolishing ICE as a first step er we learn to produce for need and not reached a level of $500 billion! Billions as part of new fascist methods for con- to ending all aspects of militarization at for profit, the better. Not to mention that more are made by the companies that run trolling the dispossessed on both sides the border. We must demand the repeal the food quality of produce, dairy, and this money transfer industry. of the border. The separation of families of the Migrant Protection Protocols and meat products that are raised locally and Trump’s wall was a political distrac- and caging of children, the immediate ex- ensure due process for asylees. The gov- sustainably is completely set apart from tion and manipulation to consolidate his pulsions without due process, and Title ernment must reunite all families that it what you find in the grocery store! political base, especially its white suprem- 42 exclusions blamed on COVID-19 are separated and provide real immigration In many ways, rural communities acist section. However, we should also all part of an immoral system of exploi- reform for all who have been living in give us a view of what kind of commu- remember the anti-immigrant actions of tation and unnecessary death. and contributing to the United States. nist future is possible. The ruling class Democratic presidents like Bill Clinton. People in America and across the is moving swiftly to buy more land and His IIRIRA 1996 bill established the de- WHAT MUST WE DO? world have the same needs and demands, water rights, and capitalism will contin- portation machine, that Human Rights The attack on immigrants/migrants and all are part of the same objectively ue to erode the land and livelihood of our Watch says “eliminated key defenses and refugees is not only immoral in and revolutionary process. By uniting in de- class. Reorganizing society based on pub- against deportation and subjected many of itself, it’s part of the ruling class shift fense of immigrants and against every fas- lic ownership of all we need to survive more immigrants, including legal perma- to fascist methods of rule. It might seem cist policy being used against us all, we and flourish means taking control out of nent residents, to detention and deporta- only to be an attack on the migrant popu- strengthen everyone’s struggle to live free corporate hands. By building socialized tion.” He also extended a 325-mile fence lation, but it is, in fact, an attack on demo- of poverty and government violence. We agriculture, we strengthen the hands that along the border between California and cratic rights and thus on the working class take a step towards a society free of ex- feed us and recognize that the earth is still Mexico in 1993. Barack Obama’s adminis- as a whole. The public’s money has gone ploitation, discrimination, and class dom- abundant in the right hands. RC tration deported 2.5 million people, more to technology and military corporations ination. RC

6 RALLY, COMRADES! RALLYCOMRADES.LRNA.ORG MAY-JUNE 2021