Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Class Struggle and Revolutionary Strategy

Editorial of Left Voice Magazine #5: We are seeing situations of instability, class struggle, and opportunities for the Left. Now, more than ever, socialists need a clear strategy for building up working-class power.

Left Voice

December 11, 2019
Facebook Twitter Share
Photo: Matías Baglietto

Class struggle is back. After many years of one-sided class war, working people across the world are rising up against the ravages of capitalism.

The opening shots were fired by the Yellow Vests in France. Sparked by rising fuel prices and austerity measures, this mass movement garnered international attention as protestors defied bans and injunctions, endured ruthless repression, and forced the government to retreat.

Get your copy of Left Voice magazine, which includes this editorial.

In late October, millions of people took to the streets of Chile. The trigger for this revolt was an increase in subway fares, but people on the streets chanted, “It’s not 30 pesos, it’s 30 years.” The movement is challenging the repressive neoliberal regime, passed down from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. As this issue goes to press, a civic-military coup, backed by the United States, has deposed Evo Morales in Bolivia. But the popular resistance in El Alto and elsewhere is opposing the new, self-appointed authorities, having stemmed, at least for the moment, the advance of the right.

In Ecuador, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, and other places, movements started out with different demands but quickly began to confront capitalist regimes that cannot offer more than minor concessions. In the United States, one year after a wave of teachers’ strikes swept the country, workers at the iconic General Motors Company went on strike for 40 days—the longest strike at GM since 1973.

Come to the release party for this issue on Friday, December 13, at 6:30 pm at Starr Bar, 214 Starr Street, Brooklyn.

After decades of retreat for the left, working-class organizations need to be rebuilt or radically transformed and the idea of a classless society brought back into the imagination of working-class people.

Given this situation, the left needs to think the question of strategy. We can look at the experience of Salvador Allende’s government in Chile in the 1970s to critically assess the idea of a “democratic” road to socialism. Doing so will provide insights into the current struggles against the Chilean government. While the masses demand “Out with Piñera,” the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) and the misnamed Communist Party seek to negotiate with the government. Paying lip service to the mass demonstrations, these reformist parties seek to channel the popular outrage into an institutional, controlled process.

Meeting the demands of Chile’s workers, youth, and women will require more than the crumbs offered by Piñera. It will require severe measures against the big capitalists who control the country’s wealth and resources. This cannot be accomplished via state institutions inherited from the dictatorship. A realistic strategy for working people fighting for their interests inevitably involves a confrontation with the capitalist state and the construction of a new order based on workers’ power. Although still small and scattered, bodies of workers’ self-organization are beginning to emerge: council-like structures that link the different sectors in struggle and have the potential to form a new leadership for the masses.

The situation in Chile poses all the old questions of revolutionary strategy. This is at a time when many socialists in the United States—both former revolutionaries and lifelong reformists—have declared that revolution will never take place in a country where the bourgeoisie has long granted democratic rights. This is part of their justification for lining up with the candidates of the Democratic Party of the bourgeoisie. The current issue of Left Voice magazine is an attempt to combat this defeatism, providing concrete examples of how revolutionaries around the world are intervening in this new moment of class struggle, and putting forward concrete steps to rebuild a revolutionary left in the United States.

The new period that is opening up is pregnant with situations of instability, class struggle, and opportunities for the Left. Reformists will attempt to save capitalism in times of crisis. Now, more than ever, socialists need a clear strategy for building up working-class power.

Facebook Twitter Share

Left Voice

Militant journalism, revolutionary politics.

Ideas & Debates

The World Kissinger Built Must Die Too

Henry Kissinger died at 100 years old. But his legacy remains in the brutal world system he built and the future generations of imperialist ghouls he inspired. They all must go.

Samuel Karlin

November 30, 2023
All That's Left, the podcast from Left Voice.

#AllThatsLeftPod: A Brief History of Anti-Zionist Jews

In this episode, we interview writer and historian Nathaniel Flakin about the history of socialist, anti-Zionist Jews.

Left Voice

November 16, 2023

Left Voice Magazine for November 2023

This issue includes two articles for the centennial of the "German October" of 1923. We also write about the feminist uprising in Iran, the UAW strike, and left-wing debates on Hamas.

Left Voice

November 14, 2023

1923: The Revolution Was Possible

What strategic lessons can we draw from the failed “German October”? An excerpt from the book “Socialist Strategy and Military Art.”

Emilio Albamonte

November 14, 2023

MOST RECENT

The New Hollywood McCarthyism Emerging Around Palestine

Over the past week, a new Hollywood McCarthyism has emerged: multiple people in Hollywood have jobs and representation over their support of Palestine. We must denounce and fight these attacks which weaken the movement and scare supporters into silence.

Sybil Davis

December 3, 2023
A UAW sign is held next to a "Free Palestine" sign

The UAW Has Called for a Ceasefire. It’s Time for All of Labor to Stand Up.

The UAW International union has joined calls for a ceasefire and is exploring how to divest from Israel. This is a step which should inspire union activists to take up the fight to bring their union into the fight against Israel's attack on Gaza and the struggle against imperialism.

Rose Lemlich

December 2, 2023

Robert Habeck Wrote a Play Praising a Right-Wing Mass Murderer

Germany's Green vice chancellor strikes many as an idealist who has been struggling with the tough realities of government. Yet before he was a national politician, he wrote a play that opens a window into a dark soul.

Nathaniel Flakin

December 1, 2023

Fact Check: Did German Leftists Try to Bomb West Berlin’s Jewish Community Center in 1969?

Answer: No. The bombing was undertaken by West Germany’s domestic secret service, originally founded by Nazis.

Nathaniel Flakin

November 29, 2023