At the Democratic National Convention (DNC) the imperialist Big Fascists put on display the political coalition that they hope can defeat Donald Trump and the Small Fascists that he represents. The Big Fascists are going all out, calling on their fake progressives, various military leaders, and anti-Trump Republican Party leaders to fight off the Small Fascists.
The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) maintains that these liberal politicians, representing the Big Fascists, are the greater threat to the working class. They want to build multiracial support for reforms that will feed their drive towards war against imperialist rivals, China and Russia. PLP says that workers from different countries have no interest in killing each other. The whole damn capitalist system has to go. Workers should run the world–that’s communism.
Big Fascists vs Small Fascists
If it’s not just electoral politics between the Republicans and Democrats, then what’s going on? There’s a split between two capitalist factions: the Big Fascists and the Small Fascists.
The Small Fascists are mostly domestically oriented capitalists like the Koch brothers looking to cut taxes for immediate profit. They are unwilling to spend money fighting wars to defend the worldwide U.S. empire. This means a racist gutting of social services at home and a retreat of U.S. imperialism internationally. Their base is mainly organized through evangelical churches and white nationalist movements. At the Republican National Convention, the Republicans were openly appealing to racist police terror and Klan-type vigilantism. It’s not a party that can lead the U.S. in the world war that the Big Fascists are preparing for. Reject them all!
The Big Fascists, representing finance capital and the imperialist wing of the capitalist class, are looking to build a multiracial coalition to support U.S. imperialism. They need to win Black, Latin, Asian and white workers to sacrifice for finance capitalists like JP Morgan Chase and Exxon Mobil in a war with China, Russia or both. Reject them!
The party of the international working class is the Progressive Labor Party. Capitalism can never serve the needs of workers. It is a racist, sexist, decaying system. PLP says workers can run all aspects of society. That’s communism.
U.S. imperialist Big Fascists unite behind Biden
The Small Fascists have gained power through the Republican Party, now led by president Donald Trump. He has succeeded in marginalizing Big Fascist Republicans such as the Bush family, Colin Powell, Robert Mueller, etc. We saw this at the DNC.
The Big Fascists trotted out military leaders, many of them Republicans. Republican politicians like former Ohio Governor John Kasich, former NJ Governor Christine Todd Whitman, and 27 former members of Congress came out in support of Biden.
Additionally, military leaders who served U.S. Imperialism overseas also came out for Biden. Colin Powell oversaw the invasion of Panama and Iraq in the 1990s, then helped the U.S. invade Iraq again in the 2000s. He endorsed Biden with over 70 former national security officials. Directors of the FBI and CIA (again many Republicans) are supporting Biden and the Democrats (NYtimes, 8/20).
While unity is essential for the Big Fascists—and deadly for the working class— it may not be enough to defeat the Small Fascists.
Consolidating the phony progressives
Over the last 15 years the Small Fascists have been able to seize upon opportunities that culminated in a Trump presidency. The Big Fascists need to appear anti-racist, anti-sexist, and pro working class while continuing to serve finance capital and build patriotism and pass some possible reforms in order to prepare for world war. So they continue to pander to Black and Latin workers.
In 2016, 12 percent of Sanders supporters ended up voting for Trump (NPR, 8/24/17). The Big Fascists need to win back these workers in 2020. So they enlisted misleaders like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Michelle Obama to endorse Biden.
These Big Fascists know that they need to win Black workers to support Biden whose racist track record has become visible since announcing his candidacy. Biden worked with openly racist segregationists James Eastland and Strom Thurmond to pass racist anti-crime bills that led to the mass incarceration of mainly Black and Latin workers (NYTimes, 6/25/2019).
Racist and sexual predator Biden is not a point of strength for the Big Fascists. They installed a Black and South Asian woman Kamala Harris—a top prosecutor with a history of mass incarceration and a racist “lock em up” mentality—to attract a set of multiracial voters. They are riding on an identity politics ticket.
These Big Fascists view the November election as vital to the future of U.S. imperialism. The working class will lose either way. Our future lies with communism where workers run everything. As protests continue against racist police killings, the Big Fascist Democrats are trying to take protestors from the streets and into electoral politics. We need to organize in the streets against racism and against the entire capitalist system.