The history of revolution shows that fundamental change in society does not occur without the introduction of new ideas. What we have in our favor today, over any other historical period, is that the conditions are favorable for abolishing private property forever. Millions are being propelled into motion against the capitalist system, but revolutionary transformation cannot take place unless there is an understanding of the root of the problem and the solution. Poverty and oppression, or even the energy of a global movement against today’s horrendous conditions – only create the opportunity for change. They have never on their own created revolution. Only a vision of what’s possible can do that. That’s what we mean when we talk about introducing new ideas. What’s new today is that a society that nourishes the material, intellectual, spiritual and cultural needs of all its people is possible. The role of revolutionaries is to help align the people’s thinking with the possibilities of today.

How revolution comes about

Once the objective conditions for revolution are in place, the intellectual development of the people is key to revolution. By objective, we mean those processes that exist independent of thought – the qualitative changes in the means of production that disrupt the economic and social order. In this era automation and globalization have created an explosion of destitute people who are living in urban slums.

Revolution comes about as a result of conscious revolutionaries utilizing the objective changes to develop the subjective side of the revolution. By subjective, we mean the ideological expressions in peoples’ minds about the objective processes – their beliefs, hopes, and visions, their religious and spiritual life. This ideological process – that is, what people think and believe – is currently dominated by the ruling class. Revolutionaries focus their activity here.

Revolutionaries must bring the people a vision of what the new material conditions make possible. Today, a world of plenty is being created by the new technology. Without this vision, people will always fall prey to the ideas of their rulers who limit the struggle to reform. With new thinking, the people can play their role in making history. New ideas are therefore the most revolutionary thing there is. In this sense, the subjective is key.

How do we know revolution is possible?

Many see the changes in the economy today as only an intense stage of contradiction within the capitalist system. They see job loss, but also job creation. Their conclusion is that only reform is possible today.  But an accumulation of facts doesn’t make an objective analysis. It’s the scientific understanding of what those facts mean that allows revolutionaries to make assessments that allow for correct strategy and tactics.

Revolutionaries use the scientific method to accurately estimate a situation and then align their propaganda and intellectual efforts to the task at hand. Based on the conclusions of observation, study and experimentation, they make political decisions on how to move history forward. Without this approach, they cannot accurately determine what ideas and organizational forms must be introduced to the movement at each stage of the revolution.

Scientific investigation relies on historical conclusions. Any investigation of society begins with the conclusions about social phenomena observed for centuries. That is, social revolution begins with the emergence of qualitatively new means of production in the economy and ends with the reorganization of society around the new tools.

Therefore, the League of Revolutionaries for a New America started its inquiry by asking – is something qualitatively new going on in the economy today? It became clear that production with labor replacing technologies such as robots and computers was setting in motion the destruction of a society based on wage labor.

Observation, experience and research showed that new labor-replacing technology – robots and computers – had been introduced into production. For example, Ford’s River Rouge auto plant employed 60,000 workers in the late 1940s. In the early 1990s, after the introduction of new technology, it had greater production with only 16,000 workers. Michigan today is still the leading auto-producing, state, yet it has the highest unemployment in the nation. The robot is permanently replacing workers. The social effects have been devastating. In the wealthiest nation in the world, Detroit alone has 45,000 people too poor to afford water for their homes.

This was only one of the many indications that something qualitatively new was happening in society. We could see that production with robots is an antagonism to a society based on wage labor. The capitalist system, based on buying and selling of labor power, is being irreversibly destroyed.

As significant for revolutionaries, this process is creating a revolutionary new social force – a new class – which is being cast out of the capitalist system with no way to survive without fighting the system. It is this class that can provide the social energy to overturn the capitalist system.

These conclusions pointed to an even greater urgency that revolutionaries line their activity up with this new reality. The objective factors are in place. The only solution to the ills of today is to gain the political power to create a new society. A moment is coming when the people will be able to choose what kind of society that will be. Will they choose and fight for an economic paradise, or fall prey to the manipulations of the ruling class only to find themselves living in a fascist society? The answers will be determined by what revolutionaries do. Science helps us describe the new situation, stay on course, and provide the understanding and vision to insure victory.

New ideas make the difference

Capitalism, a system based on the buying and selling of labor power, is coming to an end, but there is no guarantee that private property will end. Private property has been in existence since the overthrow of primitive communal society. The rulers have no intention of giving up their age-old privileges. They won’t unleash the privately owned gigantic new productive forces and the world of plenty science and technology makes possible until a powerful, conscious mass of people makes it happen. Once again, this is why the subjective, intellectual process is the leading factor in revolution.

Our country’s history offers ample warning of the consequences of failing to align peoples’ thinking with the possibilities offered by the objective changes. After the Civil War, the possibility of a more democratic America existed for the American people. Despite the tremendous upheavals and opportunities offered, the workers never gave up the ideology of the capitalists and they never took the program of the Freedman as their program. The result was the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, and the subjugation of all workers through the oppression of the African-Americans.

Today, the future of humanity is at stake. The task is clear. The new class must become conscious of its own interests as a class. It must become conscious of its own practical strivings for a world where the fruits of society are distributed to all regardless of ability to pay. It is the role of revolutionaries to utilize all possible means – through speaking, writing, and cultural expressions to point the way out of humanity’s crisis. Armed with such an understanding, the new class can fulfill its historical mission to take society toward a new world. The League or Revolutionaries for a New America has taken up this task. Join us.

 

August.2006.Vol16.Ed5
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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