One Struggle is an anti-imperialist organization, and that entails zooming out from specific struggles in order to bring a broad analysis of the moment. We attempt to not only react to the crisis in front of us, but to look at how the intersection of capitalism and the movement to resist it have brought us to where we are, and to some degree where we see it taking us. It is sort of a practice of specific observation, general analysis, specific application…and then back to specific observation and general analysis, round and round until we understand our enemy enough to defeat them. Our task is to draw other progressives to us to organize, and to construct and build unity around an analysis of the historical development of capitalism and imperialism up to now. We then can go back to these theories for the purpose of testing them in specific applications through practice.
The mania of the current US election cycle combined with the global health crisis of COVID-19 has left us feeling battered and raw, hardly with a guess as to which way is up. These are the times that we are grateful to have the general analysis, or theory, to come back to. We asked ourselves, what the fuck is going on?! And then remembered when we’ve asked that question before, the answer was – capitalism is in crisis! We can ground ourselves in recognizing the chaos of this moment as expressions of this. The global consolidation of fascism is an attempt to manage the economic crisis politically and ideologically. From this vantage point, we aren’t running around trying to put out fires, but trying to gather people and power to shut down the arsonists for good.
Supreme Court: Still Capitalist BUFU
We wrote about the Supreme Court during the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to assert that it is just another stage for capitalists to sort out their internal conflicts at our expense. Now with the third Trump-nominated supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett, the dominance of the right-wing representation of capital is being solidified in the courts. It is clear that this judicial body is not operating by the will of the people, so what is it for then? It is a tool used by the ruling class to further the political, ideological and economic domination of the masses.
Ideologically, the Supreme Court reinforces the bourgeois conception of “rights” as being things that must be acknowledged or awarded by courts and judges in order to be legitimate. People see laws as impartial rules that can work for them, and so they dedicate time and resources to make a “just” system, supportive and representative of the people whose lives it influences. This is the power of ideology, because even though the supreme court has come with absolute trash rulings during the most defining moments of US history, even though it is the deciding factor in a system that blatantly, violently victimizes poor people and people of color, we still regard it as being capable of providing justice. Rather than doing anything progressive for the masses, the court serves to divide us, pacify us and disorganize our resistance. Sometimes this means throwing us a bone through allowing us governance of our own bodies, defending against the pollution of our water and air, or challenging the whims of a xenophobic president. These moments are meant to be enough to convince us that the whole arrangement isn’t bonkers, to trust “the rule of law” and “democracy”.
Politically, the division of the court along the lines of “conservative” or “liberal”, although this does have tangible and important effects, are not representative of the needs of the people, but of the battling factions of the capitalist class. Laws and rulings can be leveraged to drum up support for one camp and/or demonize another. Amy Coney Barrett will affirm the desires of a conservative political base by appealing to christian values, creating barriers for immigrants, and rescinding socially progressive “rights.” This base doesn’t disappear by expanding the courts to make the scale tip to the left, and the global rise of fascism doesn’t cease because Americans are spared some aspects of the brutality of capitalism. Whatever way you cut it, our political action at this point does more to organize us under capitalist interest than our own, and it shows in our powerlessness to affect actual change. At our borders there are detention centers where children are dying from preventable illness, women are being raped and sterilized, people are straight up disappearing. Last year when the supreme court had the chance to do something about this, the “conservative” justices carried the ruling in favor of indefinite detention at any time. And so many were confused, asking how could their neighbor want such horrific violence inflicted on innocent people? That’s the political domination – forcing us to organize along the lines of what groups of capitalists will or won’t do to us for their own benefit, and claiming those positions as our own.
Economically, the division is not so stark. For quite a few decades it hasn’t been a liberal or conservative court – it’s been the Chamber of Commerce’s court. Since 2006, the chamber has won 70% of cases. This year alone they made large strides in weakening the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, made it harder for victims of racial discrimination to retaliate legally, and supported the construction of a natural gas pipeline through national parks, among other business-interest victories. It is not only about the cases they win in the court, but the fact that 73% of the cases that the supreme court chooses to look at have Chamber of Commerce briefs attached. And guess who they’re endorsing to replace RBG? The court may lean conservative, liberal or center but their true “moral compass” points wherever the chamber of commerce leads. We will suffer under the political squabbles of the capitalist class, and at times may gain ground in this regard, but on the economic front all laws and regulations will take the same stance: fuck the workers.
Ultimately, the supreme court stands in the way of the masses achieving justice. Fixating on the fight for the vote or for bourgeois democratic rights is letting the capitalists set the terms for this fight. Class warfare is already happening, and capitalist’s gloves are coming off before we’ve organized ourselves enough to even step into the ring. Let’s stop glorifying and depending on bourgeois representatives to inch us closer to progress, and instead build up each other to have the power to get there ourselves.
