As the U.S. empire crumbles from both without and within, the main wing imperialists of the U.S. ruling class seem ready to crack down on the America First bosses fronted by Donald Trump. Equating the January 6 Capitol Building insurrection to 9/11, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the insurrection an assault from “within” (Guardian, 9/17), while former President George W. Bush urged Americans to confront “violent extremists at home” (Washington Post, 9/11).
Facing a still out-of-control Covid-19 pandemic, a military debacle in Afghanistan, and a collapsing infrastructure, these Big Fascist finance capitalists are wounded and desperate—which makes them even more dangerous. They’ve been unable to rein in the more openly racist Small Fascists, who have hijacked the Republican Party and the U.S. Supreme Court, and have made serious inroads in the rank-and-file military. They’ve been unwilling to discipline their own ranks of greedy billionaires. These divisions give inter-imperialist rivals China and Russia a huge opening. And with the mainwing U.S. rulers less and less able to govern by the old rules of liberal democracy, they’re moving faster than ever toward fascism and World War III.
As capitalists scramble to protect their profits, the working class is expected to pay the price, swallow the lies, and shed the blood. But Progressive Labor Party has other plans! We call on the international working class to reject the bosses’ call for patriotism—and to counter with communist internationalism. Join us and help eradicate the deadliest virus worldwide—capitalism!
Build Back Better: fraud on the working class
The Big Fascists’ dominance rests on U.S. financial and military power, its strategic control of the Middle East, and the flow of oil to Europe, Asia, and Africa. As they lose ground to China, both economically and militarily, the U.S. bosses need to win the patriotic loyalty of masses of workers to fight and die in the global conflict to come.
Enter Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” bill. With promises to fund greener energy, broadband, highways, housing, and new jobs, the proposal is essentially a bribe to win workers to support the Big Fascists’ agenda. What remains to be seen is whether the Biden-led bosses can summon the unity and discipline needed to pass the bill.
The Small Fascist Republicans have vowed to fight the tax hikes needed to fund Biden’s bill. But the Big Fascists’ main problem is that their own ranks are unwilling to make the needed sacrifices. Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, wants to scale down the package by half—and slow the transition to clean energy. It’s no coincidence that Manchin “has personally grossed more than $4.5 million” from the coal companies he founded in the 1980s (The Intercept, 9/3).
Leading mainstream business groups–the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, and the National Association of Manufacturers–have also pushed back against the corporate tax hikes (modest as they would be) that Biden and the main wing need to pay for the bill (Business Insider, 3/31).
This fight exposes the short-term thinking and lack of discipline within the ruling class. But no empire falls without a fight, and the liberal bosses are likely to move to more open fascism sooner than later. They have no choice—they must unify their own class to prepare for war.
War preparation
Biden’s plan also calls for $180 billion in new research and development for emerging technologies for the military. Without stepping up their investments and innovations for mass slaughter, the U.S. risks falling behind China and jeopardizing the bosses’ “future economic competitiveness and … national security” (C4ISRNET, 3/31). In a related development, the U.S. bosses made a deal to supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, a clear “effort to reset the naval balance in the Pacific, as China expands its territorial claims and threatens Taiwan” (New York Times, 9/22). More broadly, the strengthening alliance known as “the Quad”—a coalition of the U.S., Australia, India, and Japan—“represents one of the most consequential challenges to Chinese ambitions in the years ahead” (foreignaffairs.com, 8/6).
But despite these attempts to “pivot” to Asia and block China’s dominance in the region, the U.S. ruling class is hobbled by division and disarray—a big factor in the accelerating decline of U.S. imperialism. More and more workers see U.S. society for what it truly is—a rotten stew of police murder, mass unemployment, and racist and sexist inequality. Capitalism will never work for workers. It cannot be fixed. The only alternative is communism, a world run by and for the international working class.
The Covid disaster
Covid-19 has been an utter disaster for the capitalist bosses and Exhibit A for why they are unfit to run society. With the Delta variant on the rampage and the pandemic death toll once again exceeding 2,000 a day, Big Fascist media like the New York Times are blaming Small Fascist Republican governors who have rejected mask mandates and other common-sense public health measures.
But the biggest problem for the finance capitalists is the incompetence and mixed messaging of their own institutions, like the Centers for Disease Control and the Food & Drug Administration, which have caved to political and business interests in “getting America back to work.” Meanwhile, liberal politicians like New York Mayor Bill de Blasio are recklessly pushing millions of students into crowded school buildings, less than fully vaccinated teaching staffs, and vague safety protocols (Chalkbeat 8/21, Pix11 8/19).
Vaccine and mask mandates represent the Big Fascists’ attempt to discipline their class and win workersbut the strategy isn’t working.  Without the staff or facilities for smaller classes, teachers and students know that social distancing rules are a joke. At the same time, many workers have been swayed by anti-science rhetoric as well as rightful mistrust in the government wand are refusing to get vaccinated.
As a result, the pandemic rages on. Millions of workers worldwide have lost their jobs and are facing homelessness, eviction, even starvation. Many lack even basic healthcare or access to testing or vaccines. The global pandemic is not a “natural” disaster. It is proof positive that capitalism must be smashed with communist revolution.
Great danger and opportunity
Under communism, workers would be ensured access to vaccines, treatment, and preventative health that would have contained the pandemic long before it killed millions around the globe. Without the profit motive, scientists would work for the betterment of humanity, rather than depending on corporate funding. Workers would take sick days without fear of losing their jobs or being unable to provide for their families. All workers –and healthcare workers most of all—would have the protective equipment they need to do their jobs safely.
As the capitalist world grows increasingly unstable, the working class is entering a period of great danger and opportunity. The danger is the threat of world war inching closer as the U.S. empire nears the brink of collapse. The opportunity is to smash this racist, sexist system and turn imperialist war into a class war for workers’ power. Capitalism is the true pandemic, and communism is the only cure. Join PLP and place another nail in the bosses’ coffin.