January 6
Events in the United States
Counterrevolution Within the Counterrevolution - Pauline Easton - 
Given the evidence available at this time, what took place
at the Capitol building in Washington, DC on January 6 is a
counterrevolution within the counterrevolution. It becomes
increasingly evident that President Donald Trump staged a coup to keep
the presidency in his own hands but this failed due
to the defection of Vice President Mike Pence followed by others.
Furthermore, due to the way things unfolded with the images of
destruction, intimidation and hooliganism within the Capital
building, Senate Chamber and House Speaker Pelosi's office
broadcast across the world, Trump could not maintain the military
united behind him either. The failed coup was then used by
President-Elect Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in an
effort to unite the federal policing and military bureaucracies behind
Biden to preserve the union and avert civil war. Pence and other
Republicans, including those like Senator Ted Cruz who stuck to their
stand of questioning the validity of the election, disassociated
themselves from the violence and Trump and have moved to preserve their
own careers and the Republican Party to fight another day.  Biden
has deliberately called the rampage which took place at the Capitol, an
insurrection. Social media footage is revealing the extent of the
damage caused by the rampage. Five people died, including a protestor
killed by police and a policeman who was bludgeoned while on duty. It
was certainly no small matter but how does calling it an
insurrection account for the President of the United States assaulting
Congress?
Donald Trump received some 73 million
votes in the
election, to Biden's 81 million votes. This is thus more than a
criminal "mob" or armed militia on a rampage. When Biden calls it an
"insurrection," he does not define what that is or what makes it so, or
the consequences. He is defining his presidency as the one which will
restore law and order and the values the U.S. stands for, which is
exactly what Trump says. Furthermore, many in the top echelons of the
Democratic Party and media who have long despised Donald Trump are
calling for retribution through impeachment.
The
FBI are identifying those who broke the law, with federal charges to
date limited to 15 people, for "violent entry and disorderly conduct on
Capitol grounds" and "intent to impede government business." About 40
others face lesser charges of unlawful entry and curfew violations.
Interestingly, despite a Trump executive order imposing a mandatory
10-year sentence for any action that "destroys, damages, vandalizes, or
desecrates" government property, no such charges are being made. The
indication is that the FBI, like those in Congress, are not yet
pursuing more serious charges, including those of insurrection or
sedition. This is likely part of an effort to lessen conflicts
among the ruling factions and avert violent civil war. The
word
rampage describes violent or excited behaviour that
is reckless, uncontrolled, or destructive; a state of violent
anger or agitation. In a limited way it seems to aptly describe
what took place on January 6. The reason we call it a
counterrevolution within the counterrevolution is because we are
not just dealing with two sides -- one side which engaged in an
insurrection and another which defends democracy. The whole
picture is greater than the sum of its parts which cannot be
aggregated in any case.  The
counterrevolution against the standards and levels
societies had hitherto achieved in the post-World War II period
got underway under U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) and British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) when they unleashed
neo-conservatism and claims that there is no society, just
families, family values and individual right. This put the nail
in the coffin of social welfare states and their institutions and
organizations and set the course to restructure the state to
eliminate any vestiges of public right, the public good or public
authority. It was accompanied by the collapse of the Soviet Union
and the counterrevolution initiated there by Mikhail Gorbachev in
the name of glasnost and perestroika
-- openness
and restructuring. Counterrevolution and retrogression took place in
quick succession in the former peoples' democracies of eastern Europe
(1989-1990) and the Soviet Union itself collapsed in 1991. An
anti-social offensive and retrogression became
the consequence of counterrevolution and capitalist restoration in
those countries. In the U.S., Britain, countries of western Europe,
Canada and others the trappings of the social welfare state were
dismantled in favour of rule by decree. An anti-social offensive and
retrogression also occurred and continues, often using justifications
to pay the rich.
In the U.S., the
military-industrial complex
that emerged after World War II and further developed in this period is
the merger of the military-industrial complex with the public
authority. There is a
war government, with the development of massive military and
federal policing bureaucracies. Private interests are
increasingly taking over government functions and institutions.
Notions of serving the public good are eliminated. This is part
of the counterrevolution of the period. It also means the problem
of uniting the military and policing bureaucracies as part of
preserving the union and preventing civil war takes on great
significance. The concerted assault by the rulers
on U.S. institutions of
democratic governance was further advanced with the election of Bill
Clinton on a platform of change in 1992. Ronald Reagan introduced a
direction for the economy to pay the rich. This included the war
profiteers and energy moguls. The Soviet Union’s collapse
unleashed the U.S. imperialist striving for world domination. By the
time Clinton came to power this policy was well entrenched. Clinton
defeated George H.W. Bush who had launched the first
Iraq war with the stated intent to remove "a regime that
developed and used weapons of mass destruction, that harboured
and supported terrorists, committed outrageous human rights
abuses, and defied the just demands of the United Nations and the
world." This and subsequent wars were no longer politics
through
other means which would eventually be settled through negotiations and
peace accords. They became desperate efforts to bring spheres of
interest under U.S. control and, failing ready submission through
bribery, threats and killer sanctions, then by means of wars of
destruction. This policy abroad has been combined with increasing
repression at home, including a massive prison and detention
apparatus and efforts to split the polity on the basis of race,
religion or gender to impede the people uniting in action to
achieve their own empowerment.  The assault on
the democratic institutions has led to the
destruction of the political parties which have become cartels
and operate as coalitions. They spend billions and engage in
disinformation to control the police powers of the presidency and
other positions of power. The Congress has consequently also
degenerated, as have elections, with neither serving to unite the
massive military bureaucracy and contending factions vying for
power, with wars no longer serving that purpose. Now we are
witnessing one wing of government, the presidency, attacking
another, Congress, for purposes of strengthening executive power.
Biden, in speaking about the events, has not defended Congress as
a legislative body with powers. He says how he, as President,
will restore law and order, not permit the Justice Department to
act like his personal law firm, and the like. The aim is to
further strengthen the Office of the President and his ability to
use police powers. It is not to provide the change demanded by
the people for rights and empowerment but rather to further the
counterrevolution against the people.
It
shows that
narrow private interests have seized control of the
decision-making powers at both the federal and state levels. Since
Clinton's presidency and call for change, change which favours the
people has been the casualty in the U.S. One president after another
has perfected the use of police powers, using the office of the
president to surpass the bounds of all hitherto permitted conduct. With
9/11 President George W. Bush declared a permanent state of exception
following which justifications for violating civil liberties have
become the norm. Torture, wars of aggression and killer sanctions go
hand in hand with the perpetuation of police killings with
impunity, mainly of Black people, the inhuman treatment of
refugees, undocumented workers, immigrants and children, the
incarceration of ever-larger numbers of people who are criminalized as
a matter of course, along with other crimes the U.S. regularly commits.
The entire Department of
Homeland Security is established with its massive police forces and
bureaucracy, all for purposes of repression and impunity to use force.
Only those who seek to appease the U.S. imperialists repeat the mantra
that the United States is a democracy or a civil society with
democratic institutions. For 30 years, all of this
has constituted a counterrevolution
whose results can be seen in the state of the U.S. economy, the
private health care and insurance systems and inability to deal
with the COVID-19 pandemic (with one death for every 1,000
people), the length of the food lines, the treatment of veterans,
seniors, the homeless, women and children, besides Blacks, Puerto
Ricans, peoples of the Americas and Asians as well as the violations of
the
inherent rights of Indigenous nations. Now, there is a crisis of
confidence in U.S. governing institutions. The many millions who
voted for Trump as well as those voting for Biden are angry with
government failures and express their lack of confidence that problems
will be solved in their favour.
The crisis of confidence in U.S. governing institutions means
that
the vast majority of people are angry and not in agreement with the
direction of the country. Some 20 million held protests for
more
than 100 days
after George Floyd was killed, all viciously attacked by police forces.
Many millions more supported these actions, as they had previously
joined and supported demonstrations defending immigrants and refugees
and their children. There is a drive among the people to have control
over policing, budgets and for a new direction for the economy and
politics, which will no doubt continue.
The
counterrevolutionary
forces organized this rampage on the Capitol building on January 6,
including using armed militias, to try and subvert this drive and
divide the people. The failed coup attempt on the part of Donald Trump
and his attack on Congress is a counterrevolution within the
counterrevolution which has now unleashed a wave of revenge-seeking
among the rulers, which will polarize their factions even further.
None of their efforts, including those by Biden, will unite
the
federal policing and military bureaucracies, let alone the people of
the United States, or solve a single problem facing the U.S. democracy
still touted as the greatest in the world. Only a modern
nation-building project will set the United States on a course which
can unite the people behind a common cause. Led by the U.S. working
class, such a project requires that the democratic renewal of the
political decision-making process be put at the centre of its concern.
It must strive to bring into being a government and institutions of
governance which have a modern democratic anti-war personality and
respect the sovereignty and equality of the peoples of the world. A
modern constitution is required to replace all remnants of the present
constitution which was a compromise with slavery and maintains the rule
of the propertied elite and institutions which favour narrow private
interests over the masses of the people.
This article was published in
Volume
51 Number 2 - January 10, 2021
Article Link:
Counterrevolution
Within the Counterrevolution
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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