Celebrate the 4th in struggle

Though hostilities began earlier and Mecklenberg County declared independence May 20, 1775, today celebrates our Independence Day. It was one of the first national liberation wars, though since then our country has been the enemy of the independence and sovereignty of many countries for more than a century.  The War for Independence, the American Revolution, was also one of the first bourgeois democratic revolutions, the type of revolution in which the capitalist class seizes power from the declining feudal elite and - ideally - creates a more or less democratic political system and advances the capitalist economy.  The French Revolution and the English Civil War are two other famous examples of bourgeois democratic revolutions.  Our revolution was further advanced when the Northern industrial capitalists had to help destroy slavery and temporarily advance democracy in the South in their struggle to seize national power from the Southern agricultural capitalists.  Equality before the law was also advanced in the Civil Rights struggle, Gay Liberation, and other movements after WWII.  

 

These revolutions are part of the progressive role of capitalism and the capitalist class in history.  But in countries that still have feudal remnants and imperialist oppression, the capitalists are increasingly willing to settle with feudalism and imperialism, because they correctly fear that once the people rise up in revolution, and mass action is required since there are not enough capitalists to carry out a revolution on their own, the people will radicalize and also overthrow capitalism.  Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is a rare capitalist leader of a modern-day revolution, while Maoists are a leading force in Nepal's bourgeois democratic revolution. 

 

But the bourgeois democratic revolution is only the first of two stages in modern revolution, and the advanced capitalist countries have one step left.  In the Russian Empire, the bourgeois democratic revolution failed in 1905 but succeeded in 1917 and the capitalist and republican Provisional Government was established.  But a few months later the proletarian or socialist revolution, led by the Bolsheviks in alliance with other groups, seized power from the capitalists and created the Soviet form of working class democracy and advanced the socialist economy.  Revisionism has triumphed in every socialist country, resulting in counter-revolution, just as reaction sometimes temporarily succeeded in reversing capitalist revolutions, such as in France.  Because of the popularity of socialism, many capitalist revolutionaries have called themselves Marxist and said they were leading socialist revolutions, such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.       

 

Now the question is, when will we claim our own power, like the patriots did in the 1770's against Britain, and realize that we don't have to accept the present order and that "another world is possible," and that it is socialist?   

 

At present, we are facing rearguard action just to safeguard the level of democracy and rights we have left from attacks by the Bush Administration and the majority of the Democrats in Congress, so below is a notice from the national Bill of Rights Defense Committee about an ad in today's New York Times and the People's Campaign for the Constitution.  The capitalist parties say they uphold the gains of the American Revolution, but most of their politicians are enemies of democracy and the Bill of Rights, but in the popular movement fighting for those rights are those supposedly no good communists, so which parties are really patriotic and democratic?  I say what I mean, unlike some of the Democrats in Congress.     

Dear [ ],

Our signature ad, "A Declaration for Our Times," is in today's New York Times on page A-17.  You can see the ad with its nearly 600 signatories here.

You can also use our audio and video recordings of the declaration to spread its message  beyond the pages of the Times.

The declaration will help bring the administration's constitutional violations into focus.  Just as importantly, it will promote the People's Campaign for the Constitution (PCC) as a means for people to act locally, within community coalitions, to hold incumbents and candidates for congressional seats accountable for the oaths they must take to defend the Constitution. Correcting the unbalanced concentration of executive branch power that this administration has amassed will be extremely challenging, no matter who wins the presidential election.

We ask you to support this grassroots organizing and education campaign by bringing it to your community.  With the Constitution on our side, we can reverse the freedom-robbing government actions and policies that are threatening our nation's future. Please sign the pledge for the People's Campaign for the Constitution if you have not already done so.

Please forward widely.

Thank you for all you do.

Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Address: 8 Bridge Street, Suite A, Northampton, MA 01060
Web: www.bordc.org/
Email: info at bordc dot org
Telephone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116