USMLO Public Forum ·
Buffalo, NYUS at the Crossroads: The People Must
Prevail!
The United States Marxist-Leninist Organisation (USMLO)
organised a public forum in Buffalo, New York, on April 29. The forum analysed
concrete problems facing the polity in the US. It elaborated the need for the
working class to build its own alternative by Creating Politics of
Empowerment.
Among the current problems analysed were discussions by
the bourgeoisie on bipartisan rule, the impeachment crisis and danger of civil
war, the bourgeoisie’s programme of reinventing government and the
increasing conflicts between federal and state authority, known as
"state’s rights". Kathleen Chandler, General Secretary of the
USMLO, addressed the significance of these issues for the people in the keynote
speech.
Below we reproduce some excerpts from Kathleen
Chandler’s keynote speech, as printed in Voice of Revolution, the
publication of the US Marxist-Leninist Organisation, May 10, No.131.
The bourgeoisie is striving to escape the all-sided crisis
of their system with what is called the Third Way. They are working to convince
the American people to take this Third Way path, presenting it, as Clinton puts
it, as a "21st century American revolution — of opportunity,
responsibility and community". Clinton is expressing the need of the
bourgeoisie to preserve the status quo, at a time when imperialism has shown
itself to be completely unable to solve the problems facing the people, here
and abroad. In pushing their Third Way alternative, the ruling class is
striving to justify what is, while blocking any discussion on the alternative
of the working class, the alternative of revolution and socialism.
• • • • •
Settling scores with chauvinism means that we, as Americans,
must fight for a government that puts the interests of the world in first place
and on that basis, serves the interests of the American people. It is by
putting the interests of the world in first place, that we can make a break
with the chauvinism that says America first, last and always. We can focus on
identifying the interests of the world’s people, giving them first
consideration, insuring that we unconditionally support the struggles of the
peoples for their rights. This stand serves our interests and also necessarily
brings to the fore our task to be the gravediggers of US imperialism.
• • • • •
Civil war is one of the disasters that could occur as the
bourgeoisie desperately tries to reconcile this outdated system with existing
conditions. The ruling class perhaps forgets that the people have the
experience of the last civil war. At that time, the opportunity to go from a
war against Black slavery to a war against wage slavery, a war to end all
slavery, was missed. Armed with their own aim and mission, and led by their own
communist party, this time the working class could turn such a disaster into
the victory of revolution.
• • • • •
Conditions are crying out for a new society, one that puts
meeting the well-being of the people, here and abroad, at the centre. But we
are to ignore the disasters imperialism imposes and instead accept US democracy
as a solution to our problems. US democracy, enshrined in the Constitution,
serves and protects the right to private property and the social relations of
master and slave based on it. "Equality of opportunity" has always
been the cornerstone of the US political and economic system. The Constitution,
by protecting property rights, ensures that all those who want to accumulate
wealth have the opportunity to do so. But it clearly does not guarantee the
rights of the people. It does not provide for peace and prosperity. Poverty is
the greatest violence in US society, and this democracy has proven itself
incapable of solving this problem. More than 200 years experience demonstrates
the utter failure of "equality of opportunity" to provide for the
well-being of the people, here and abroad.
• • • • •
American chauvinism strives to reconcile that which cannot
be reconciled. The interests of the working class cannot be reconciled with the
interests of the US ruling class. This is what life is telling us in hundreds
of ways, day in and day out. … Clinton trumpets the prosperity of today
and says that it is possible because his administration has been
"pro-labour" and "pro-business". Such a thing is not
possible. But people can be convinced that it is possible, because they can be
blinded by the chauvinism of having the "good life". This same
chauvinism is used to gain acceptance for aggression abroad, in the name of
peace. Doublespeak is used to call aggression "peacemaking", and
because there is a belief that American democracy has merit, conciliation with
this aggression occurs.
• • • • •
It is the very essence of US democracy to preserve property
rights. This is what the Constitution enshrines and precisely what we must
abolish. To seek to solve the crisis in favour of the status quo of master and
slave is to crush the aspirations of the billions of people on the world scale
who want to end US dictate. The interests of the working class can only be
served by giving unconditional support to the peoples fighting for their rights
and by eliminating the relations of master and slave, on a world scale and here
at home.
• • • • •
At this critical juncture, the American working class has a
new opportunity to do its duty and put an end to US imperialism. To do so it
must settle scores with the conciliation with the US Constitution, which is the
basis of US democracy. There can be no conciliation with the calls of the
bourgeoisie for one America, for joining together on a Third Way to disaster.
There can be no conciliation with the new arrangements the US bourgeoisie is
trying to put in place, with its re-inventing government and bipartisan rule.
There can be no conciliation with US dictate and its current effort to impose
its values world-wide.
