The insurrection in the U.S. Capitol was no one-off. It marked an explosion of the divisions in the U.S. ruling class that have simmered to a boil—and that point to even bloodier battles in the years to come. As U.S. imperialism spirals into decline and rival imperialists in China are poised to become the world’s top-dog capitalist superpower, the U.S. bosses are falling out like the thieves they are. A subordinate but rising faction, the “America First” wing fronted by Donald Trump, is challenging the liberal finance capitalists who have ruled the globe since World War II.
This split can’t be reconciled by a “democratic” election, the charade the bosses use to perpetuate their capitalist dictatorship. It won’t be healed by Trump’s leaving office in disgrace, or by the inauguration of liberal viper Joe Biden in the armed camp known as Washington, D.C. One side—most likely the finance capital liberals, who still have the upper hand—must smash the other.
In a time of fear, volatility, and a murderously mishandled pandemic, it’s important to remember that the international working class has no dog in this fight. Both wings of the ruling class stand for fascism (see glossary, page 6). Both spell misery and death for the working class. Trump’s Small Fascists are a nest of gutter racists and white nationalists funded by right-wing billionaires who make most of their money within the U.S. The liberal Big Fascists build their mountains of profits from genocidal wars, ruthless international exploitation, and vicious racist inequality.
Pushed to the edge, the finance capital liberals are building fascism with a multiracial cover, a few crumbs for the working class, and the rhetoric of fake compassion. After disciplining their own class, they’ll demand “sacrifice” for their system and enlist workers to die in their next world war. Make no mistake, the Big Fascists are no lesser evil. As they grow more desperate, they will stop at nothing.
We live in a period with only two roads. One is imperialist war and full-blown fascism. The other is communist revolution. The task of Progressive Labor Party is to build a revolutionary communist movement to smash capitalism once and for all.
Small Fascists make inroads
Contrary to the myth of a grass-roots movement of alienated white workers, the Small Fascists are orchestrated and financed by the likes of the super-rich Koch and Mercer and DeVos families. A new group with deep pockets, the anti-tax and anti-regulation Club for Growth, “has emerged as one of the biggest backers of the Republican lawmakers who sought to overturn the U.S. election results” (The Guardian, 1/16). Assured of this financial support, 147 Republican members of Congress spit in the finance capital’s face and challenged Biden’s election the day after the Capitol attack. Nearly two hundred of them voted against impeaching Trump for inciting it.  
The January 6 siege revealed the Small Fascist infiltration of the U.S. military and police forces around the country. Local police chiefs are turning their own people into the FBI (Washington Post, 1/16). Fearful of rogue elements in their ranks, the military was forced to conduct fresh background checks on National Guard troops sent to D.C. to safeguard the inauguration (defenseone.com 1/16).
Big Fascists are the main danger
For the first time, as the Small Fascist loyalists tried to disrupt the presidential election and kidnap and assassinate the opposition leadership, the U.S. ruling class was unable to impose a peaceful transition of power. Exposed and humiliated, the Big Fascist finance capitalists are struggling to regain control. Dozens of companies, including Marriott International, Dow, Airbnb, and Morgan Stanley, declared an end to donations to any member of Congress who voted to block Biden’s victory (New York Times, 1/11). Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a shameless opportunist who walked in lock step with Trump for the last four years, is now blaming the ex-president for the Capitol attack and suggesting he might support an impeachment conviction.
History shows that in periods of crisis, capitalists need to build fascism to survive. Since the pro-war liberals are best positioned to win the battle within the U.S. ruling class, they pose the greatest danger. The Big Fascists’ response to 9/11, beyond the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, was to pass the Patriot Act. It created massive surveillance and a militarized police state that continues to terrorize mainly Black, Latin, and Muslim workers (Inthesetimes, 6/17/2020). Flash forward to Jim Crow Joe Biden and “Top Cop” Kamala Harris and their plan to unveil a domestic terrorism bill. While their immediate target may be the Small Fascist militias, the main wing bosses will ultimately use it against Black working-class leaders and antiracists.
To preserve their hold on power, the Big Fascists’ strategy is to build a multiracial fascist movement. As Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, the leading Big Fascist think tank, recently wrote: [I]f America’s differences are not to be the country’s undoing, more young Americans must meet and work together with those of other classes, colors, religions, and backgrounds' (foreignaffairs.com, 1/11).
Haass’s solution? A new system of voluntary national service—a first step toward a compulsory draft for the coming war with China.
Drive toward war accelerates
Over the long term, the intensifying U.S. civil war can only benefit the Chinese ruling class, which looks increasingly stable and strong by comparison. As the world’s regional bosses are forced to choose sides, many of them—especially in Africa, the fastest-growing economy in the world—are looking more and more toward China.
“Signs of this are already evident in...the European Union’s investment treaty with China [and] the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade bloc in Asia” (foreignaffairs.com, 1/12). As the U.S. finance capitalists see their empire imploding, they have a powerful incentive to go to war before it’s too late.
The future can be shaped by our class
With the rulers sharpening their long knives against one another, there’s one big unanswered question: How will workers respond to the movement toward war and fascism? The greatest danger for our class is that a large section of workers will be terrorized into running into the arms of the Big Fascists. But we cannot forget that Biden, Pelosi, and the rest are the same racists who generated the 1994 mass incarceration crime bill (authored by Biden himself), mass impoverishment welfare reform, and countless coups and wars that have slaughtered millions of workers around the world.
We call on workers to reject the liberal bosses and their sham democracy with the same force that they reject open fascists like Trump. The solution to smashing the fascist menace is communism, a state run by and for workers. As a class and as a communist party, we must build a revolutionary movement to destroy capitalism once and for all. Join Progressive Labor Party!