REVOLUTION 88

A Rare Time, and Urgent Need—for Revolution—Not Continuing Enslavement to this System

A Rare Time, and Urgent Need—for Revolution—Not Continuing Enslavement to this System.

This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION—number Eighty-Eight.

Recently, in opposition to the scientifically-grounded understanding that voting for Harris in this election will contribute to perpetuating the horrors of this system—this “familiar argument” was raised once again:

“If Democrats lose [the upcoming election] there is no fighting for a new system as the other side already has their new authoritarian system planned out and ready to roll it with project 2025. Battles are how you win wars and losing this election means the initial war is over and lost. Then a much harder war begins that we can’t win without great casualties.”

This utterly fails to actually think outside the framework, and confines, of this system. It ignores—or downplays, and does not really come to terms with—this important reality, which I emphasized in my message number 85: As horrific as Trump is, supporting Harris and the Democratic Party means enlisting as willing accomplices in the crusade of U.S. capitalism-imperialism to remain the world’s number one exploiter, oppressor and plunderer of people and the environment, even at the cost of risking the future, and the very existence, of humanity.

This is not a simple-minded insistence that there could never be a time when, in effect, supporting a “lesser evil” Democrat could be correct. In fact, there were very particular, and very exceptional, circumstances in 2020 which meant that, precisely from the strategic standpoint of working for revolution, it was necessary to vote for Biden. But now is not such a time— and the actual circumstances now mean that voting for Harris involves reinforcing this monstrous system and working against the revolution that is urgently needed—and in fact is possible in this time we are living in, now.

In previous messages, and specifically in numbers 51 through 55, I went deeply into this basic point: why it was necessary to vote for Biden in 2020, why it is correct and crucially important not to vote for Biden (or Trump) now, and what this has to do with actually making revolution. (When I made this statement, Biden was still the Democratic Party candidate for President; but the same truth applies now, when Biden has been forced out of the race, and has been replaced by Harris.)

(In those messages I referred to important analysis, providing the foundation for this position—including in my January 2021 New Year’s Statement A New Year, The Urgent Need For A Radically New World —For The Emancipation Of All Humanity, and in “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating,” both of which are available at revcom.us. This analysis not only remains true, it is all the more crucial now, and it needs to be seriously engaged by anyone honestly wrestling with the huge stakes of what is going on in this country—and in the world overall.)

In messages numbers 71, 72, 74, 75 and 76 through 79, I have shown how the description mass murderer, of Palestinians and others, and mass incarcerator—particularly of Black people and Latinos—accurately captures what Kamala Harris has actually been in her “service” to this system and its dominating role in the world.

And, further, as made clear in number 87:

In the world as a whole, the very functioning of this system of capitalism-imperialism—including the actual policies of Biden and Harris—is leading to the accelerating destruction of the environment. (At revcom.us, there is extensive exposure of the actual policies, and the lies and misleading claims, of the Biden/Harris administration, regarding the environment.)

In arming and backing the actions of Israel, the U.S. government is not only enabling the genocidal slaughter of Palestinians but is also increasing the possibility of a war with Iran, and perhaps an even wider and more destructive war. At the same time, by massively providing weapons, as well as intelligence and strategic direction to Ukraine, the U.S. government, headed by the Biden/Harris administration, is already indirectly at war with Russia, while also making preparations for military confrontation with China —all of which could lead to world war, between nuclear-armed imperialist powers, with the possibility of wiping out human civilization as we know it.

And again, from message 87:

Besides the ugly truth of what Harris is really all about, there is the fact that, in the election this November (assuming it is held then), if Harris were to win the majority (not just in the popular vote but also the Electoral College count) it is almost certain that Trump and the Republicans would refuse to accept this, and things would likely be thrown into chaos and upheaval, even beyond what happened with the last presidential election (in 2020)....

The country as a whole is being torn apart by divisions that can no longer be covered over and things can no longer be held together in the way they have been for generations....

Everything will very likely be coming to a head and coming up for grabs this year, 2024, with the presidential election this year a sharp focus of the fight between the dominating ruling class parties—Democrats and Republicans—a fight that is very likely to break all out of the bounds of the “normal way” they exercise power over the people, and keep their whole murderous system going....

This kind of deep division—and especially this bitter antagonism among the powers-that-be—has not been seen in this country since the time of the Civil War way back in the 1860s....

This is not a time to be siding with one group of oppressors or another. This is a rare time—a very rare opening—a chance that may come only once in a lifetime—a chance to take advantage of the deep divisions among the ruling oppressors and go after their whole system, with the aim of bringing the whole thing down, and putting something much better in its place.