"What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 - 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington." - John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, August 24, 1815What follows is a brief synopsis of "Thinking about Revolution," which can be found in its entirety at http://newdemocracyworld.org/revolution/Thinking.pdf
Once again the time has come for revolution in America. Instead of a British king we have a ruling class of bankers and billionaires who control the government and all the important institutions of society. The future holds misery for the many and privilege for the few.
Some elements of that structure include:
- All who contribute to society have free and equal access to its goods and services, which are shared according to need, not bought and sold. Money is not used. There are no rich and no poor.
- All the things that people use to produce goods, such as factories and mines and large tracts of land, belong to all the people. These things are a common treasure for all of society, not the property of a few.
- The goal of economic production is to provide the goods and services people need and want, not to make profits for capitalists.
- All political power is vested in local community and workplace assemblies. Congress, state legislatures, city and town councils, and all other instruments of the former capitalist state are disbanded.
- The Pentagon, the military, the police, and other instruments of capitalist power are dis-banded. Communities organize to meet local needs for safety and protection.
- Some people believe a better world is not possible because inequality and greed are "human nature." We reject this view. The logic of capitalism is dog-eat-dog competition, yet most people in their everyday lives struggle to create loving and supportive relationships with their loved ones and friends and co-workers, in the face of a brutal culture. Most people, in other words, are engaged in a struggle against capitalist values. The most personal acts of kindness and the most public and collective acts of revolution are on continuum of struggle to humanize the world.
Others believe the history of Communism shows that revolutions only make things worse. We argue that the undemocratic fate of Communist revolutions lay in Marx's view of the world. Marx accepted the capitalist view, that economic development is the basis of human development, and the capitalist view of human nature, that individuals seek only their own self-interest. Marxism thus presented Lenin with a question: "Who shall look to the needs of the whole society?" Lenin's answer: the Communist Party.
Still others think that the great power of the ruling elite makes revolution impossible. While capitalism has enormous tactical power, it is strategically at perhaps its weakest point in history. The capitalist system holds no promise, not even an illusion, of a better world for most people.
There remain only two alternatives for the world's people: either be sucked ever deeper into a vortex of war, tyranny, suffering, and mass liquidations - the planned die-off of "excess" populations in societies that cannot be sustained - or make a fresh start, rebuilding society on a fundamentally different model.
We have been on the defensive for too long, trying to stop one more bad thing from happening - a very demoralizing situation. We need to go on the offensive.
How can we do that? The revolutionary strategy we propose is to confront capitalism's right to exist and the possibility of an alternative society: to make the need and possibility of revolution the issue of public and private discussion, the issue in every struggle, the issue wherever people come together to discuss their concerns. This is how we can take the offensive
John Adams wrote in 1815 that the American Revolution was not the revolutionary war. The war was only "an effect and consequence of the Revolution in the minds of the people, from 1760-1775." This is the Revolution that we are here attempting to achieve: a Revolution in the minds of a world of people, to transform their sense of the possibilities of human society and of their own power to fulfill them. From this Revolution in the minds of the people will come the transformation of society.
Consider the evolution of a single person: As a baby and child he is only a "consumer," requiring love and support from his family to survive. As an adult, he also becomes a "producer," adding his own personal efforts to the overall effort of the group to survive. And as an elder, if he was wise, he also becomes a capitalist, supplementing his income from what he has invested (or saved) while a more active producer. We don't necessarily expect old people to fall totally out of production, but they tend to "work" at their own pace at chores they enjoy rather than a full-time job.
So the life of almost every person includes a "capitalist" phase, unless he is somehow prevented from saving on the pretext that the group will support him as his family did when he was a child. I think that is an unrealistic assumption to make.
Therefore, I fail to see how capitalism is the root of the problem. I believe that the criminal mind is that root, and that we will be harassed by it no matter what "system" we adopt, until we begin to recognize it exists and start doing something about it.