Following up with the excellent article in the 9/23 CHALLENGE on John Brown’s raid, there are lessons still to be learned from this courageous action. His plan was to seize the weapons there and start arming the enslaved workers who would then lead a large-scale rebellion against slavery. With the recent increased violence in the United States by racist cops and vigilante racists, and (on a much smaller scale) antiracists, it is worth exploring the decade that led to the U.S. Civil War.  By the end of the 1850s the use of violence to settle political disputes had become something of a norm.  
Like all forms of class society, slavery itself relied on ruling class violence, both organized and spontaneous.  Nat Turner’s 1831 armed rebellion catapulted the anti-slavery movement into a new phase, where immediate abolition became an increasingly popular program. Abolitionists like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Sojourner Truth, William Lloyd Garrison and many others, joined this fight. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act extended the reach of the enslavers into the North to capture accused runaways, but abolitionists often attacked these kidnappers, sometimes freeing the runaways. Frederick Douglass said, “The only way to make the Fugitive Slave Law a dead letter is to make a dozen or more dead kidnappers.”
Northern capitalists defeat southern enslavers
At the same time northern finance and industrial capitalists were expanding, even looking at profiteering opportunities all over the world. To the backward, southern slave owning class, King Cotton depended on enslaving Black workers indefinitely even if it meant seceding and forming their own country. Even worse, this southern ruling class had a stranglehold on federal power, controlling the Supreme Court and the presidency into the 1850s. The logic of the infamous Dred Scott Supreme Court case of 1857 gave a green light to expand slavery.   
The rising northern capitalists needed a united country and unimpeded command of federal power to build an empire that would eventually encompass the world.  Lincoln’s promise that slavery would not expand to new territories fit the needs of northern capital.  Lincoln’s seizure of the White House in 1860 was intolerable to the slaveocracy who then quit the Union.   To discipline and control these secessionists, Lincoln waged war to bring them back.  Immediate emancipation, the long-time abolitionist goal, but never one of Lincoln’s, was a wartime necessity forced on to the ruler’s agenda by thousands of brave, enslaved Black workers. In the chaos of war they made countless desperate bids for freedom by running away to Northern lines.  With the southern enslavers defeated, the federal government “would end slavery under conditions controlled by whites, and only when required by the political and economic needs of the business elite of the North. It was Abraham Lincoln who combined perfectly the needs of business, the political ambition of the new Republican Party, and the rhetoric of humanitarianism…” (Howard Zinn, The People’s History of the United States)
U.S. imperialists face Chinese imperialists and racist domestic isolationists
Today there is again a split within the U.S. ruling class, but the world situation is much different. After almost a century of vicious Jim Crow racism, an industrial revolution built on the sweat and blood of millions of workers, two world wars, Korea, Vietnam and countless other wars, the U.S. imperialists briefly ruled a worldwide empire. They controlled both the Republican and Democratic political parties. But now rising Chinese imperialism, resurgent Russian imperialism and even many regional wannabe imperialists are challenging them as their global power fades.  These rulers presided over a breathtaking assault on workers’ standard of living since the 1970s that has accelerated with the 2008 crisis and it’s billionaire-friendly ‘recovery.’ And now, there is a domestically oriented group of capitalists that have taken over the Republican Party led by Donald Trump. Violence has been increasing, with cops and neo-Nazis on the offensive and some antiracist, armed resistance. As the November election approaches more violence is expected. There is even talk of civil war.
Today the Big Fascist, imperialist section of the U.S. ruling class has no Lincoln. They have feeble, 77 year old Joe Biden. And the domestically oriented, Small Fascist capitalists have unhinged, egomaniac Donald Trump. The Big Fascists are building fascism under the guise of saving a democracy that never existed. They are trying to build a multiracial patriotism to prepare for war with China and or Russia. They are even trying to pose as antiracists to save their worldwide empire. The Small Fascists want an isolationist Fortress America based on racism.
Unite to fight racism and organize for communism
If violence escalates before or after the November election, masses of workers and students should get into the streets attacking racism. Let’s organize our unions, tenant organizations, student groups, and churches to make racists afraid again. If politicians are calling for the vote, or a recount, or such, we organize direct action against racism and sexism. If there is chaos in the streets, we should organize and focus actions against racist targets and call for antiracist demands. Above all we should make clear that this capitalist system has to go. The working class can and should run the world. That’s communism. Join the Progressive Labor Party in the fight for worker’s power and communist revolution.