“We [must] soberly appraise the actual situation, not on the basis of our wishes but on the basis of the actual state of affairs.”
- Georgi Dimitrov, 1935

When Dimitrov made his statement before the Communist International in 1935, the world working class movement was faced with the rise of fascist powers in Europe and the beginnings of threats of war. He stood there, at that moment, before the representatives of the world's communist parties to report on the “actual situation” not how they wished it was, but how it actually was. This speech, and that meeting, led to the formulation of what was known as the United Front, an effort that organized anti-fascist forces in the leading nations against the fascist powers. This strategy was based on an extensive and detailed assessment of the conditions they faced, the strengths and weakness of the enemy, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the working class forces. History records that their efforts, in conjunction with the military contribution of the Soviet Union, were pivotal in the defeat of the fascist powers.

Fascism is once again raising its head. It does so today, however, under very different conditions. This requires that revolutionaries make extensive and detailed assessments of these conditions, the nature and character of fascism today, and on that basis, devise the strategies and tactics that conform to the current realities. Fascism today is not, as it was in the 1920s and 1930s, rooted in the instability of the transition from agriculture to industry and the subsequent political battles between the capitalists and the proletariat over an expanding capitalist system. Fascism today is arising upon the social destruction of the system wrought by electronics and is the capitalists' worldwide solution to the threat to private property relations. Underlying this world historic transformation is the steady implementation, spread and consolidation of labor-replacing technology spawning labor-less production on the one hand, and worldwide poverty and devastation on the other.

Revolutionaries must understand what to do in the face of the capitalists' drive to “release the capitalists from the restrictions of bourgeois democracy and all that entails - the replacement of one state form with another, the unrestrained rule of capital's interest, and as, necessary, the consolidation and legalization of their openly terrorist dictatorship.” (LRNA, Political Report to the Standing Committee, September 2007)

In this issue, we publish in full the September 2007 political report of the LRNA Standing Committee, “Anti-Immigration Movement: Cutting Edge of a Fascist Social Movement.” The report analyzes the roots of fascism today, its growth and development within the ebb and flow of the social motion, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of not only the ruling class, but our class as well. It is within this context that we can see how the ruling class is moving the anti-immigration struggle to the fore in its battle to guarantee a political base for its goals internationally and at home.

It is key for revolutionaries to find in the very society that surrounds them, the forces that can - and, owing to their social position, must - constitute the power capable of sweeping away the old and creating the new, and to enlighten and organize those forces for the struggle. The article “New epoch ushering new revolutionary forces” responds to crucial strategic questions raised by one of our readers. What was the difference between past revolutions and today? What is the historical force upon which we must rely today? The article examines the objective character of the revolution today and the origins of the force that is arising that can, if brought to its potential, have the social energy to overturn the system. The article contrasts this situation with the revolutions of the past era in which the strategies and tactics, and the organizational forms required to carry forth the battle were necessarily different.

What then must revolutionaries do today? The article “What is a revolutionary” addresses just this question. A social response is getting underway. It is increasingly discontented with the existing political forms and rebellious against the old ways of seeing. It longs for new perspectives, for someone to propose a resolution worth fighting for, for a winnable strategy that will get us there. How this process plays out is not at all predetermined. Many factors enter into it, but key is a vision of what is possible, the intellectual development of the combatants as to their interests as a class, and organization and activity based on that understanding. The article explores the role of revolutionaries today - as the purveyors of new ideas - and the necessity for an organization of revolutionaries - to implement strategy and tactics along the lines toward the cooperative, communist resolution of the problem.

 

December.2007.Vol17.Ed6
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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