By Malcolm Suber
The billionaire ruling class and its bought-and-paid-for politicians, newspaper editorial writers, and TV talking heads are in a tizzy about the possibility that Bernie Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist, could win the Democratic party presidential nomination. They ask: haven’t our scare tactics and fairy tales worked? Have we produced a century of anti-socialist propaganda in vain? Haven’t workers and youth absorbed our basic teaching that capitalism = good; socialism = bad?
Never mind that the rich U.S. ruling class, with its much hyped “freedom of speech,” has done everything in its power to suppress dissent among the working class and oppressed. The billionaires’ control over public education give them years to hammer into our heads that the “free enterprise system” is preferable to “collective ownership.”
The purpose of red-baiting is to prevent the working class and the oppressed from discovering their own history of struggle to achieve checks on the rapacious greed and disregard for human life by the capitalist class. The 8-hour day, the elimination of child labor; the right to have unions, sick pay and paid vacation time, as well as the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid are all progressive reforms wrested from the ruling class through working class struggle.
The U.S. ruling class downplays the revolutionary, violent struggle that led to the founding of this country. “Revolution” is treated as an historical event that was perhaps good and necessary in the 18th century but dangerous today.
Don’t be fooled: to end the rule of the capitalist class, revolution is certainly needed today. Our task is to organize the workers through teaching and defending our revolutionary history as an inspiration and guide to our struggle today.
The billionaire ruling class and its flunkies in the bourgeois state are dismayed at the popular interest in socialism, no matter what brand. A majority of workers and youth are beginning to realize that capitalism holds no hope for the future. This terrifies the billionaires because in a socialist society they would be forced to give up some of their ill-gotten gains. Just about everyone except for billionaires accepts that they should not be allowed to dodge all taxes and shuffle their stolen wealth among off-shore bank accounts.
Both capitalist political parties, Democrats and Republicans are the willing tools of the ruling class and allow the rich to control the US government. Most of the laws proposed by Congresspeople and Senators are actually written by the paid lobbyists of the rich. The capitalists ply “our” representatives with bribes, convincing them that they too can enjoy the leisurely life of the rich if only they pledge to be sponsors for the lucrative government contracts that are awarded to their companies.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) leadership is panicking because their rigged primary system is actually proving an avenue for more people to examine Bernie Sanders’ Democratic Socialism. They are trying to force a Biden v. Sanders showdown where Biden will champion the line that socialism is an unwinnable with the USA electorate. We believe that workers will choose socialism, the only system that promises improved living and working conditions for the masses of people ground down by the current capitalist regime.
We are duty-bound to beat back the vicious red-baiting unleashed by the ruling class. Let us have discussions about the kind of society that best advances the living conditions of the working class.
At the same time, we must distinguish reform and revolution. Reform leaves in place the private ownership of the main means of production such as factories, mines, utilities, banks, etc. Revolution calls for the rule of the working class under which the property of the rich will become the property of the working majority, democratically run and administered to meet the needs of the working class.
We must fight to counter the confusion and deceptions advanced by the capitalists and all their propaganda outlets. We must make the case for revolutionary socialism.