Revolution in America: Capitalist Domination and the Means of Resistance

Chapter 4: France, Russia and China.

 Before we continue with the central matter which this book was written for, we must first look back and analyze the three most renown Proletarian revolutions that made an impact to history, so as to know what all to avoid and what all to apply in the Proletarian revolution in America.

 The first official event had occurred in France, namely the Paris Commune, which was in 1871. After the defeat at the Battle of Sedan and Napoleon III's surrender to Bismarck in 1870, a rapid decrease in industry had begun to affect the workers, peasants and immigrants of Paris in a negative way. With tensions among workers, peasants and immigrants rising, sided with the repression of the government, the Commune had been formed to hold up to the Proletariat's demands for a "Democratic and social Republic". 

 In "The Civil War in France", Engels had commented on the Paris Commune, saying:

"From the outset, the Commune was compelled to recognize that the working class, once come to power, could not manage with the old state machine; that in order not to lose again its only just conquered supremacy, this working class must, on the one hand, do away with the old repressive machinery previously used against itself, and, on the other, safeguard itself against its own deputies and officials, by declaring them all, without exception, subject to recall at any moment.

"Of late, the Social-Democratic Philistine has once more been filled with wholesome terror at the words: Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Well and good, gentlemen, do you want to know what this dictatorship looks like? Look at the Paris Commune. That was the Dictatorship of the Proletariat". (pp. 12 & 16 online, English edition, 2009, Engels postscript)

 Unfortunately, this "dictatorship" did not last long, as the army of the French Republic suppressed the Commune on the 28th of May, 1871, yet even today, it is still remarked as being the first successful and efficient Socialist revolution in all of history. Diverging, we shall critique Engels's claim that the Commune was a "Dictatorship of the Proletariat". Instead of a "Dictatorship of the Proletariat", the writer finds that the Commune was, more or less, a prelude to Council Democracy, in which the delegates were entirely responsible for their duties and were subject to recall at any time. 

 Decades later, in Russia, the Soviets (Councils) of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in Petrograd had forced Tsar Nicholas II and his family to abdicate the throne on February (March in the New Style) of 1917, resulting in the dissolution of the final absolute monarchy in history and the establishment of a Provisional Government, headed by Alexander Kerensky. However, the Provisional Government supported the Capitalists and Aristocrats, not the workers, peasants and soldiers of Russia. Due to this, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, or Lenin, had gained more supporters. Then, in October 25th, 1917, the Bolsheviks had voted 10-2 for an armed uprising against the Provisional Government in the name of the Petrograd Soviet. Soon after, 43,00 Bolshevik elites, dubbed the Red Army, took the Winter Palace, thus overthrowing the Provisional Government and establishing the Soviet Union. Tragically, the Soviet Union would fall to State Capitalist Bureaucracy under the New Economic Policy and by Stalinist doctrine after Lenin's death in 1924, which would, as a consequence, cause a gradual downfall towards collapse, which happened on December 26th, 1991.

 After WWII, in China, the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong, ensued in a civil war that lasted all throughout 1949. Despite American assistance towards the Kuomintang, the Communists began liberating China state by state. After the Communists reached Beijing, Chiang Kai-shek and two million Kuomintang supporters and officials left for Taiwan, and on October of 1949, Mao had declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China in Tiananmen Square, officially establishing a Communist state. This, too, would fall to State Capitalist Bureaucracy through the Maoist doctrine, yet China has not collapsed, like the Soviet Union did, but it has, instead, become a global power, and it is only a matter of time until the "People's" Republic of China collapses, as well.

 If there is anything to learn from the three, it is this: America must not follow the examples of France, Russia and China; despite some positives within all three, such as Council Democracy, Vanguardism and the tactics of revolution, we must use their regimes as an example of what to avoid, for we must make our own path, in regards to the revolution and afterwards, lest we risk suffering from State Capitalism and collapse.

 To prevent such a repeat, we must do the following:

1. We must not take away, but increase the provision of freedoms among the Proletariat;

2. We must disregard, yet adapt from, our U.S. Constitution, so that the freedoms already possessed and promised will no longer be abused, distorted or taken away, and;

3. We must work towards the "classless, stateless" society that the Marxist doctrine predicted.

 Should we not follow these three, then we will collapse, and we will be unable to recover.