The Democrat-aligned oligarchy will try to use last week’s racist violence as an excuse to impose a corporate brand of fascism.
“The events of January 6 have given the rulers an opportunity to move even more rapidly to narrow the range of acceptable political thought and participation.”
Two Januarys ago, an obscure politician from a minor political party named Juan Guaido assumed a one- month chairmanship of the Venezuelan National Assembly. Then he promptly declared himself the interim president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
The bizarre declaration had no legal standing. But that did not stop the Trump administration and later, the European Union, from recognizing this fictional presidency.
For most in the world, this was yet another in a series of illegal U.S. efforts to control the politics of countries in the global South. Supporting dictators, overthrowing governments with violence and destroying nations have been at the center of each of the U.S. global policies since the United States became the leader of the colonial/capitalist Western alliance in 1945.
But as Malcolm X once said, “The chickens have come home to roost.”
“Supporting dictators, overthrowing governments with violence and destroying nations since 1945.”
However one might characterize the events of January 6 or the several weeks since the election, one thing is certain: Millions of people in the United States have lost respect for U.S. institutions. Across the political spectrum, people are adopting a common cry that the U.S. government doesn't represent their interests.
Decades of neoliberal austerity, low wages, de-industrialization, privatization of public services like healthcare facilities, the looting of public resources to transfer to the military-industrial complex and the inability of the state to protect the fundamental human rights of the people have created the crisis of legitimacy that has made it difficult for the U.S. ruling class to govern in the same old way.
And so, as BAP predicted when we launched in April 2017, the elites default to repression. The events of January 6 have given the rulers an opportunity to move even more rapidly to narrow the range of acceptable political thought and participation. Calls have come from some quarters of the public for retribution against the individuals that “breached” the Capitol. Now, state authorities—including Big Tech companies that have emerged as unrecognized agents of the state—have moved remarkably close to branding Trump supporters as criminal elements who deserve to be relegated to the social death that de-platforming renders today.
“Millions of people in the United States have lost respect for U.S. institutions.”
These dangerous times require sober, unemotional analysis and clear politics for those of us who have always been on the receiving end of U.S. political repression.
The ongoing crisis of the colonial-capitalist system is creating new expressions of what might be referred to as fascism. One framework defines fascism as the “open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital.” When the whole ruling class—led by finance capital—line up with Joe Biden and Democrats, we must be careful in our analysis and positions.
The Democratic Party agenda for restoring “legitimacy” to the system will come at a cost. As oppressed peoples and workers in the United States who are in alignment with the laboring classes and oppressed nations of the world, we must not allow fascists in any guise to rebuild legitimacy at our expense.
Visit the Black Alliance for Peace website at https://blackallianceforpeace.com
COMMENTS?
Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport
Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com
Panthers and their radical Black contemporaries are now the stuff of Hollywood -- but with more leather jacket than political substance. The Review Team offers some historical correctives.
A Blacklist against those who oppose Israeli policies is now in effect at Fordham University, and can be expected to grow.
Salute to City of Angels’ son! He wrote, he wrote, he wrote And he wrote… Ramparts, The Progressive, The Nation, Mother Jones, Dateline Havana, 48 hills…
The Black-murder-by-cop next door to Minneapolis shows the world the dehumanization that is built into the white supremacist DNA of settler-colonialism will continue to produce crimes against our c
Like Christ on the third day, detainees in St. Louis jails have risen to challenge state oppression.
