Storming Congress: Don’t be Shocked
Organize a Workers’ United Front against fascism!
Fascist Trump supporters demanded that Trump be declared president again, even though he lost the popular vote. An all-white regiment of men armed to their teeth marched into DC and stormed Congress to stage an outright coup. The photos taken from the scene of the crime speak volumes. The aggressors meant business; they were carrying automatic guns, ropes and handcuffs to take hostages, and Dixie flags with “Trump is President” inscriptions. There are also photos of the police opening the gate and encircling the gunmen to protect them against arrests by other policemen!
Within a few hours of the siege on Congress, right-wing paramilitary gangs in other states such as Oregon and Kansas took it to the streets. There is no way that the FBI and other security agencies were oblivious to plans of violence by the fascists on a mass scale. They allowed it to happen, nonetheless. There is no question that Black Lives Matter protesters, leftists, workers, or people of color organizations would have been shot dead for much less havoc! Events in both DC and around the country point to a synchronized, tightly knit organization by the fascists, in tandem with the police.
None of this should be a surprise to anyone. The pandemic combined with Trump’s racist rhetoric and policies has untethered the vile racism that has existed in this country since its inception. The U.S. is based on both the genocide of the indigenous population and upon slavery. Capitalist politics has pit one ethnic group against the other for years, driving down the wages of all workers. U.S. imperialism has uprooted workers internationally, especially from Latin America, and forced them to migrate to the States. This has added fuel to the fire for these racist thugs. Trump speaks hatefully about the oppressed while his actions continue to widen racial divisions within the working class. These tensions can only result in racist violence. We should not have been surprised. In fact, many of us, especially revolutionaries, have predicted this for years.
For the last few months, the United Front Committee for a Labor Party (UFCLP) has warned against the violence unleashed both by the police and by the paramilitary gangs against protesters who demand justice for the victims of police terror. We called attention to the increasingly organized nature of the so-called “counter-protests” called for by white supremacists. We demanded that the Left and the organized working class form United Fronts and Public Safety Committees. When the Republicans seemed to be retreating in the face of the slim Democrat victory, we pointed out that this concession was a tactic to buy time and whip up support. Our warnings didn’t come out of the blue but from careful observation of Trump’s tactics and actions. Throughout the summer, Trump did everything in his power to put down the anti-racist popular revolt and steal the election. He deposed the Commander of the Armed Forces when the latter refused to deploy troops against the people in revolt. Trump’s threats to overturn the election and stay in power no matter what the results dictated were commonplace. Today, we are witnessing their culmination! This is not the ordinary racist “mob” that this country is unfortunately used to. This is an organized fascist attack.
The trade union leadership has been missing in action, allowing the capitalist politicians, both Democrat and Republican, to follow the lead of their bosses, permitting Trump to become leader of the “free” world. Trump did not just appear from thin air. The ground has been laid for him for more than four decades. By the 1970s working class people began to take a hit: outsourcing became the lynchpin of capitalist development, privatization of public services held sway, and many workers were barely able to hold on to their jobs. At the same time, the Southern Strategy was employed, pitting white working-class people against workers of color. The union leadership took no stand against the cuts. In fact, when air traffic controllers went on strike in 1981, the workers were left high and dry by the bureaucrats who refused to call for a general strike to support them. Capitulations like this eventually threw white workers into the clutches of a demagogue like Trump. Nonetheless, the trade union so-called leaders have been supporting Democrats who have time and again demonstrated that they are as anti-worker as the Republicans. We are still asked to put our faith in the police who are the same goons that shoot Black people daily. The chickens are now coming home to roost! This outburst was inevitable!
We shouldn’t harbor any illusions that the Democrats will come to our rescue, for they are unwilling to fight even for their democratically won election. Today’s events proved irrefutably that relying on the forces of “law and order” to uphold their own rules is a deadly mistake. In fact, the mayor of Portland has now said he is gunning for Antifa instead of the Proud Boys who created the crisis in Portland in the first place. Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, went on national TV to announce that he will no longer tolerate dissent and therefore will be going after Antifa. One can expect this kind of rhetoric more and more from public figures. We have seen this all before. Capitalism has already plunged the world into two world wars and countless others, killing untold millions. The capitalists and their politician servants are criminals against humanity.
This kind of carnage will continue if we let it, impacting people of color the worst. This country is in deep crisis because capitalism is gasping for breath in its death throes. Unless there is a working-class movement to cohere a coordinated challenge against this capitalist assault, repression against people who are fighting for their legitimate rights will go on. The police will come down harder on people of color for any perceived transgressions.
We need to build a political party based on working class self-activity, and eventually, we need a society that is built and controlled by workers. The only way we will survive the devastation of wars foisted on working class people globally is to change society from one based on profits to one based on human cooperation. That means building a socialist society. As a first step, we need to form a labor party independent of capitalist politicians that will guide the working class to fight for their rights and the rights of all oppressed people.
This incident at the Capitol will be the first of many. We have to decide as workers how to stand tall and firm against fascists to defend and expand our democratic conquests, and how we can eventually rid the world of capitalism.
Forward for Workers’ United Front against Fascism! Forward for a Workers’ Party! Down with the Fascists! General Strike to defend and expand our democratic conquests!
—United Front Committee for Labor Party, UFCLP, January 6, 2021