A Moment of Reckoning
- Pauline Easton -  July 29, 2020. Wall of Veterans,
and behind them Wall of Moms, form the front lines in protest demanding
end to police violence and impunity in Portland, Oregon.
The experience of the resistance movement in the United States and with
the Trump presidency reveals first and foremost how decision-making
takes place in the United States and who controls the decision-making
process. This was also revealed by the presidencies which preceded this
one, no matter what period of history or circumstances, or the
personality of the president or style of his rule or political party
which was said to have come to power. Nonetheless,
with the advent of the neo-liberal arrangements after the collapse of
the former Soviet Union, a virulent counterrevolution moved in to
occupy the space for change. The demand of the imperialists prevailed
that all those who do not espouse a market economy, a multiparty
democracy and human rights as defined by the imperialists, are rogue
and illegitimate. This counterrevolutionary drive of the imperialists,
in turn, exacerbated all the contradictions inherent in a system based
on relations of production which can no longer contain the productive
forces or control them. Violence became the
preferred method of control and to quell all opposition. States of
exception and rule on the basis of emergency powers have become
permanent, all in the name of preserving the liberal democratic
institutions, bringing the coronavirus under control, peace and other
justifications which prove themselves to be as irrational as they are
unsustainable. Despite the U.S. declaring itself
the "indispensable nation" and the U.S. democracy "the most advanced in
the world," the material conditions do not abide by the wishes of the
rulers. Today, the clash between the governing
authority and the people over where the country is headed is deepening
in an unprecedented manner. As the persistence of the resistance to
U.S. rule shows, the demands for equality, justice and accountability
cannot be silenced or stopped. Everywhere people are making clear that
the elections will not decide these issues; they will be settled by the
people and their fight for rights to be recognized on a modern basis.
Rejection of the Juridical Viewpoint In
this regard, people are rejecting the juridical viewpoint pushed on
them to salvage the anachronistic democratic institutions which
perpetuate the existence of an authority which rules over them. This
juridical viewpoint is one of the obstacles facing the people of the
United States at this time which they are rejecting.  A main feature of
this viewpoint is for problems to be looked at as being legal or
illegal. This viewpoint is intended to draw everyone into providing
solutions that defend the existing anachronistic democratic
institutions and draw everyone into a pro and con debate. This also
directs attention to, and often reliance on, the courts and state
agencies to settle the issues.
It is a limited and
narrow view stuck within existing arrangements which have led to an
unprecedented clash between the conditions and the authority, between
the Old striving futilely and irrationally for immortality and the New
striving to be born so that a new authority is established which is
consistent with the conditions today. The juridical
viewpoint leaves the people and their drive for empowerment out of the
equation altogether. They are not seen as the force for change. Their
discussion and organizing for empowerment are not to occur. The
monopoly media play their role in taking and keeping debate for or
against Biden or Trump, all to stymie the broad discontent with the
whole set up that exists in the U.S. and suppress the people's striving
for change which favours them, not the rulers who are clearly not fit
to govern. Similarly, attempts to use the sentiment
against Trump to draw people into this pro and con debate confine
discussion within the existing arrangements rather than elaborating
that the system is dysfunctional and new arrangements of people's
empowerment are needed and what they may be. A
Period of Transition We are in a period of
transition. The old arrangements do not function and do not serve us --
while the New is yet to be born. Organizing must be directed to
facilitating that birth and to uniting all who are favoured by
empowerment to join these efforts to develop modern institutions,
modern collective forms where the people themselves are the
decision-makers.  Fidelity must be
to the ensemble of human relations and what they reveal, not to the old
arrangements of the U.S. Constitution and what is called civil society.
As we join our counterparts in the United States by fighting within our
own country on all the issues which concern civil rights, our vantage
point -- how we look at problems -- cannot be a juridical vantage
point. We do not limit ourselves to defending civil rights. Unlike the
rulers, we say the conflicting interests involved as concerns
individual and collective interests in relation to the general
interest; and all individuals and all collectives in relation to the
common good can be harmonized. Individual and collective interests can
be put on a par by providing democracy with a modern definition
suitable to the needs today. A modern definition of democracy, in
content and form, is required to accomplish this. The endeavour to
bring that definition into being will constitute the modern democratic
personality which suits the world today.
Harmonizing
interests is the act of being of the democratic personality. A modern
democracy is a means by which to ensure that such a democratic
personality can flourish. Rights are not privileges
which rulers can give or take away based on whether the giving or
taking benefits them. They cannot be sacrificed on the altar of
elections. Equality is not a god-given inalienable right interpreted as
a social construct subject to manipulation by those who rule. It is
linked to membership in the collective body and belongs to all as a
matter of their objective being. As an attribute inherent to its modern
definition, equality confers on all members of the body politic the
right to participate in arriving at the decisions which affect their
lives and to implement them, sum up the experience of their
implementation and trace a path forward from there. Only if
the fundamental principle of equality is recognized on a modern
objective basis can those who violate the decisions of the collective
be held to account. The current election in the
United States imparts nothing akin to equality. It is the ongoing and
broadening struggle of the working people of all origins and creeds
which imparts the equality conferred by membership. A modern democracy
will enshrine such an equality which bans racism,
discrimination and all abuse of the human person and of the
social and natural environment. It will ban the use of force
in settling conflicts within and between nations, provide economic
well-being and protect the social and natural environment.  People are
expressing their deepest desires through their demands. In order to
realize their aims, they are drawing the warranted conclusion that
forms of struggle from the past, based on the Constitution and what it
informs in the way of definitions and ways and means, have to be
changed. New forms are needed so that the working people can grasp and
fight for the realization of those demands which could improve their
situation, bring peace, democracy and justice, and protect the natural
and social environment. The new situation demands a new approach and
solutions that working people want.
In this regard,
at this time, the usual election efforts and propaganda to embroil the
people by lining them up behind one candidate or the other of the two
main cartel parties vying for power, Republicans and Democrats,
convince no one that they can rely on the politicians of the rich and
their rule to resolve the problems they face. Government at all levels
has shown itself to be racist and thoroughly undemocratic. This is
evident in the elections themselves, as voter suppression of various
kinds is widespread and the whole set up is racist and discriminatory
and obviously designed to maintain the relations which keep the narrow
private interests in power. The crucial part of the
reckoning taking place is that people see the necessity to keep matters
in their own hands and are organizing for a democracy of their own
making. The example of the nurses across the United
States organizing vigils the week before the election to mourn the dead
and fight for the living shows the consciousness which has imbued the
movement. The nurses are targeting all elected officials for their
failures concerning COVID-19. Many others have planned actions for
after the elections as well. The stand is firm: it
is the people and their fight for the rights of all which achieve
accountability and redress. A modern democracy must be brought into
being which invents arrangements suitable to the working people no
matter what their race, national origin, gender, creed or belief.
Security lies not in better use of police powers but in the
fight for the rights of all. It is a moment of reckoning across the
country; a time when the effects of all the past injustices have caught
up with those who form the ruling class and have benefited from them.
After these elections, nothing will remain as it has been. The
people's will must prevail to make sure the outcome favours them, not
imperialism and all reaction.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 42 - November 1, 2020
Article Link:
A Moment of Reckoning - Pauline Easton
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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