And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay -
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again -
The land that never has been yet -
And yet must be - the land where everyone is free.

- Langston Hughes, "Let America be America again", 1938

In less than two months, the elections will be over and the country will have a new President. No matter who wins, the two major parties have sounded their warning to our class - the world belongs to the propertied, the elite of all nations, regardless of color or gender. We can continue to try to convince ourselves that "the lesser of two evils" is a viable strategy, or that the "politics of begging" will fill that empty belly, or pay our utility bills, or put gas in our cars to get to that second or third job. Yes, we can continue to do this, and we can see all that we have worked for crumble like dust in our hands. Or we can draw a line beyond which we will not retreat, and make our stand there.

Taking that stand is not a matter of courage; revolutionaries have that in abundance. It is a matter of direction, of strategy, of moving forces in alignment with the motion of history. In his poem, Hughes wrote not only of the oppression of the African American, but of all workers, "the poor white, fooled and pushed apart/the Negro bearing slavery's scars/the red man driven from the land/the immigrant clutching the hope I seek ." He spoke of a class, one that lived only as long as it could work, who yet despised and disenfranchised by the rulers of this country were, in the end, America's only hope to "Let America be America again."

Yet how is this class to be prepared for this momentous and historic task? This is the question we must begin to discuss.

As the article "Revolution" shows, revolutions do not just happen, they have to be made. The process of revolution begins with the introduction of new tools and technologies, but it is people that determine the outcome. Consciousness, understanding, and human will make the difference between victory and defeat.

But we must also look at where we are in this overall process of revolution. From this vantage point, we can figure out how to get from where we are now to where we need to be. The article Global Economic Transformation: Dangers and Opportunities shows that the implementation of labor replacing technologies, driving and generalized by the development of a world economy, is leading to not only to economic crisis, but to inevitable political crisis and laying the foundation for world revolution.

Armed with this assessment we can begin to work out the next steps toward moving the growing struggle along the path toward the resolution of the problems faced by our class. "The Struggle for Nationalization: A Key Battlefield" addresses this alignment of strategy and tactics. The capitalists are beginning to call for the nationalization of key industries in order to protect their own interests. By engaging on this battlefield, revolutionaries can develop consciousness, moving people to force the government to act as the government of the people and developing them politically on the basis of their class interests. In this battle to force their will - their survival - on the capitalist-controlled government, they can learn, from their own experience, the need to take over the corporations and create a new society.

To organize and develop this class it has to have a political party of its own. Using the Republican Party of the pre-Civil War Period as an example, "The Rise of New Parties: Lessons from History" shows that new parties arise at times of economic change and the parties that emerge from the fray are the ones that most truly reflect the needs of the times.

Today the crying need is for a class party that can organize, develop and assert the independent class interests of the growing ranks of the dispossessed - from the industrial workers throughout the Rust Belt to the destitute wandering the streets in search of homes. Such a party is essential for our class to develop and assert its class interests, and, in doing so, move forward toward the transformation of society.

October.2008.Vol18.Ed5
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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