Behind the Mobilization of Racist MilitiasReports in the corporate media are promoting armed racist militias, saying they are prepared to interfere at polling places on November 3 and to take action after the election if Trump loses.
Many of these militias include current or former police, sheriffs and members of the military and have secured military-grade weaponry. They are known and often infiltrated by agencies like the FBI, as has long been the case with the KKK and neo-Nazi forces. They are not "independent" and separate from the state as is being promoted, but rather an arm of the racist state to implement its violence. The concern among the ruling circles about these militias and control of them is such that the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a leading council that brings various ruling factions together to work out relations, is calling the mobilization of these militias "an extraordinary danger to U.S. democracy." The CFR says that these armed groups include those calling for sedition and "a new American civil war." The CFR ties this in with its concern for the "nearly 13,500 demonstrations and protests that have occurred throughout the country since the killing of George Floyd." While it says that "the overwhelming majority [...] have been peaceful," they "have exacerbated tensions and polarized political positions."
The threat of civil war is of grave concern to the rulers who would like to preserve the union and avoid open violent conflict. They all recognize that big states like California, Texas and New York could easily become independent. Regional alliances are also being cobbled together, such as between New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and they too could constitute independent states. The increasing conflicts between the states as currently constituted and the Office of the President -- over COVID-19, immigration, funding and the use of policing agencies -- indicate the extent of the deepening of the conflicts of interest.
But the rulers' biggest concern is that the largest faction, the people -- also referred to as "the mob" -- is relentless in its pursuit of its demands for justice, an end to police brutality, impunity, racist discrimination and for equality. The fight of ever broader sections of the people has the imprint of being increasingly conscious and organized. Expression is given every day to the right to speak in one's own name, to provide the rights of all with a guarantee and for control over the decision-making power. There is widespread recognition that front-line workers together with all workers can do a far better job of providing non-violent political solutions and accountability than those currently in power. The mobilization of the racist militias has more to do with attempts to divert people's anger from the racist U.S. state to these groups. It is to stir up anger so as to pit people against each other, while the state appears to be "above the polarized people," acting to protect them, rather than the source of the racism and violence which plagues U.S. society. Of course, it is also to have these groups "at the ready" to disrupt and attack the resistance, as has already occurred, so as to justify an even greater federal and military intervention after the elections. A possible "national emergency" using such groups and resistance to them could also occur between election day and the inauguration in January. The mobilization of militias is not mainly about Trump the individual but, rather, about the character of the U.S. state and its ability to retain power and remain undivided in the face of ruling class divisions and the broad rejection by the people of the current direction of the country. It is the state that is mobilizing the racist militias and the state that is organizing for far greater violence and repression against the people, using these groups to achieve the suppression of the people and provide it with a justification. (Voice of Revolution. Photos: S. Devol, D. Kruauthamer, Radical Graffiti)
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
A lot of
attention is focused on Trump's call for an "army for Trump" which is
enlisting people to be at the polls -- something considered by many to
be intimidation of voters and poll workers. In addition, note is taken
time and again of Trump's comment during the first debate with rival
Joe Biden that groups like the racist, anti-Muslim, anti-people "Proud
Boys" should "stand by" for action if he loses in what he has called a
"rigged" election. Other groups like the so-called Oath Keepers, KKK
and various Hitlerite groupings are also said to be at the ready.
What is left out
is that the tensions exacerbated are those between the broad majority
of people from all walks of life and nationalities who are supporting
the resistance -- and the government and their policing agencies. More
than 20 million people have directly participated in protests and stood
firm against police violence. The "polarized positions" are those among
the rulers, as the factions representing narrow private interests vie
for power. These private interests are not interested in resolving
their conflicts since any reconciliation would interfere with their
achieving the total control they require to be able to dispose of all
the natural and human resources as they wish. Far from the election
serving to reach a kind of settlement between the factions, no such
settlement is in the offing. On the contrary, concerns about civil
unrest and use of the militias is ratcheting up the tensions and
blocking rational inquiry and deliberation on what the unfolding events
reveal about the problems in which the U.S. democracy is mired.
With the military
and many federal, state and local policing agencies also divided, the
rulers cannot predict whether such forces would submit to Trump as
Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, or oppose him in the event he
loses and refuses to leave office. Or, as Biden has said, would they
agree with using the military to remove Trump from office and repress
the resistance in the name of a "peaceful democratic transition" and
preserving the union.