The essence of the class conflict we’re seeing take place across the North American continent is one between the side that’s for growth, and the side that’s against growth. It’s the institutions of monopoly finance capital, as well as the radical liberal counter-gangs which they cultivate, that are working to prevent the growth our society needs. They’re trying both to prevent the re-industrialization of America, and to further de-grow the economy. This effort by the monopolists and their footsoldiers to not just hold back history’s progression towards the next stage of growth, but also destroy what economic strength we still have, makes these forces actively reactionary.
The effort to keep bringing down living standards is fundamentally tied to monopoly capital’s drive towards endless wars. As the monopolists intensify the exploitation of the USA’s people, and use corporate price gouging to further transfer wealth upwards, they’re funneling ever more resources into military adventures and occupations. They need degrowth to keep waging warfare against more and more of the world; this is apparent in how the U.S. empire’s operations are dependent on austerity. The monopolists are now acting to take austerity to a new level, one that involves an engineered inflation crisis which the people aren’t allowed to find relief for. Our leaders have long abandoned any serious efforts to invest in the economy here, because their priorities are to expand the war machine and to crush the workers.
That’s why to find who’s on the side of progress, and who’s on the side of reaction, we foremost need to look at where political actors stand on these macro-level socioeconomic questions. Does somebody support growth, and seek to end imperialist wars? Then should they show themselves to be principled in advancing these goals, they’re on the side of progress. What Marxists need to understand is that this applies to a great deal of conservatives and libertarians, who’ve increasingly been coming to an orientation that’s opposed to monopoly capital’s wars. At the same time, growth is something these demographics have a great desire for, as evidenced by how these days conservative politicians can only succeed by promising to revitalize industry. We need to take this into account within our mass work, and within our coalition-building efforts. We also need to grasp that many of the leftists who ostensibly are aligned with communism truly fall within the reactionary category, because they’re anti-growth and hostile towards multipolarity.
These are the things we must consider as we figure out who to ally with in the class struggle. Just because somebody is socially progressive, or describes themselves as “anti-colonial,” doesn’t necessarily mean they’re on the side of progress. A great deal of the actors who take these stances are in practice reactionaries, because they oppose the utilization of industry and work against any serious anti-imperialist efforts. Once again, these issues are intertwined. The leftists who say that China’s use of markets to achieve industrial growth makes it a capitalist state, or who say that the Belt and Road Initiative is imperialist, also take the stance that an industrial growth project on the North American continent would be “fascist.”
It doesn’t matter that these Chinese projects have been lifting hundreds of millions from poverty, or that industry would realistically be the way to end poverty where we are. Growth is simply seen as bad, for the same reason that China and the other anti-imperialist countries are seen as bad.
The lesson to take from this is that we shouldn’t align with people based on how far to the left they are, but on how good a job they do at countering the degrowth imperialism of the monopolists. Moreover, the point of communism isn’t to be leftist in the first place; communism and leftism aren’t the same thing, as Lenin helped clarify in “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder. Communism transcends the ideological spectrum of bourgeois politics, because its entire role is to advance history to a stage of development beyond the one where this spectrum exists. Our task is to bring civilization to its next evolutionary epoch, which means the forces we need to align ourselves with are the ones that share an interest in ending the present epoch. The era where growth is suppressed for the sake of maintaining super-profits.
It’s this reality about what communists in the USA must do that’s largely why so much of the left has rejected growth, and has opposed the struggle against U.S. hegemony. Pursuing growth and the defeat of imperialism means making an alliance with the elements of the ruling class which aren’t invested in monopoly capital’s geo-strategic games, due to these games harming domestic industry.
Leftists often call this united front strategy “Strasserism,” in reference to the Strasserite “socialists” who aligned with Germany’s fascists. But the Strasserites invested themselves in the wing of the ruling class which received support from monopoly finance capital, rather than with the wing that actually had a stake in seeing big capital lose. The latter is what today’s pro-growth communists are increasingly seeking to do: enter into a coalition with the forces that have enough resources to be able to stand against the monopolists, but aren’t loyal to the monopolists. It’s for this same reason that we don’t seek unity with fascists, like how the Strasserites did; fascism and anti-Jewish hate were the things that monopoly capital elevated to power, and that therefore got embraced by such opportunists on the left. We obviously don’t intend to do the equivalent of what the Strasserites did, both because fascism is incompatible with communism and because our united front is one between big capital’s enemies.
Revolutionaries have historically been able to win by making allies out of the ruling class elements which aren’t of the highest level, and which are willing to help defeat big capital by any means necessary. That’s one of the steps we’ll need to take as well; we have to take full advantage of the intensifying conflict between the different wings of the ruling class.
The leftists who oppose this strategy naysay about how it will supposedly bring communism’s defeat. Yet there’s massive historical precedent for communists prevailing after fighting alongside small capital against the old order. The Chinese revolution, which saw communists gain support from the bourgeois elements who found the old governmental system unacceptable, is one example of this. As Mao wrote: “Our enemies are all those in league with imperialism - the warlords, the bureaucrats, the comprador class, the big Landlord class and the reactionary section of the intelligentsia attached to them. The leading force in our revolution is the industrial proletariat. Our closest friends are the entire semi-proletariat and petty bourgeoisie.”
We know we’re capable of making the equivalent kinds of alliances, because the United States is not exceptional. And an increasing amount of the people who are coming to communism understand this. Leftism isn’t the only ideological orientation from which people are entering into communism; there are plenty of Marxists who started out as libertarians, conservatives, or simply people who were politically unaffiliated. We can build an iteration of communism that lacks leftism’s baggage, and that can therefore outmaneuver the reactionaries.
Emphasizing how communism means growth is a crucial part of how we’ll be able to make these alliances, as well as gain support from workers across the ideological spectrum. Anti-communist dogma says that communism means everyone is equally poor, and that everyone gets paid the same. Whereas degrowth leftists have ironically been affirming this idea, the communist elements which truly align with existing socialism recognize that the opposite is true. Growth is how China has eliminated extreme poverty, and how the PRC and its partnered countries are building a prosperous new world. If we communicate this reality to the USA’s people, we’ll show them a demonstrable solution to the decline which monopoly capital is subjecting our society to.
Growth is what can connect Americans to the other peoples around the globe who have an interest in overthrowing the monopolists. It’s the thing that’s letting these people abroad become free from neo-colonialism, and the thing that will let us bring prosperity to our hollowed out economy. Therefore it’s the rallying point that can simultaneously bring mass education on anti-imperialism, and lift the average worker up to a revolutionary consciousness. By putting forth this vision, wherein we bring the benefits of Eurasia’s growth to our own continent, we’ll gain the support needed to prevail against growth’s enemies.
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