Liberalism Creates an Artificial Divide Between the Workers
Despite being supportive of the Workers’ Movement for real political power in words, the Left-leaning Liberals are doing active harm to the movement's ability to independently pursue the interests of the working classes. And despite being rhetorically opposed to the Workers’ Movement's interests, Right Liberal parties and organizations such as the Libertarian Party and RATWM are helping it's independent development.
Why this is the case may not be immediately clear, until we realize that what is simply referred to as “left” and “right” in US politics are synthetic political positions. Both are still inherently Liberal in the philosophical sense, and are simply the right and left hand of Capital, of the Bourgeoisie.
When we say that these political positions are “synthetic”, we mean so in a specific context; as they apply to the political interests of the Working Classes. While the issues that define the separation between the synthetic Left and Right are real issues, with real impact on peoples’ lives, it is undeniable that these issues are direct products of Liberalism and Capitalism. The philosophy, and it's political and legal doctrines were directly the products of the Bourgeoisie under Feudalism, and created specifically for the purposes of morally justifying their interests against the Feudal states of Europe. The Proletariat, the industrial working class, did not exist in any significant numbers, and could not shape this ideology, or create its own under these conditions; as a result, Liberalism is not an ideology of the Working Classes. This means that politics based in Liberalism creates a division between branches of the Workers independently of their collective interests when they support either the Left or the Right hand of Liberal Capitalism, and thus (as it applies to the Working Classes) these are Synthetic Politics.
But how does the Synthetic Left hurt the workers, even when they try to organize the workers? It's because these Left Liberals’ understanding of “progressiveness” is detached from any real, historical context of the word. They have no real understanding of what is moving and developing, what it is they are supposed to be progressing.
When we study history, we see societies being built on, and determined by, their Mode of Production. The way people interact and relate to each other in the course of how they produce things fundamentally determines how their societies look, and how they develop. In short, as men produce, so do they live. And further, as they live, so do they think.
But critically, we see that these societies are, always and inevitably, developing towards a fundamental change in how they produce things; a change in the relationships that facilitate it. The Roman slave economy was always developing towards Feudalism, because of the different competing groups, opposite tendencies, and opposed forces that it created within Roman society itself. Feudalism was always developing towards Capitalism, because of the same reasons. The theft from the Serfs forced a portion of them to urbanize, and produce their lives in a different way; Feudalism forced the richer Peasants, merchants, and the lower Nobility to become Capitalists, who were destined to overthrow Feudalism by the strength of their growing economic power.
Progress from the previous historical Mode of Production towards the next. This is fundamentally what Progress means; and by extension, Progressive means whatever is pushing society towards it's next historical Mode of Production. But the Liberals have forgotten this; they've re-defined Progressive to mean anything opposed to the social problems of society, regardless of whether or not it helps push society towards it's next economic stage of development. There is no “progress” under Liberalism, because they completely misunderstand the ideas behind it.
Both Synthetic Right and Left Liberals have defined themselves on a Moral interpretation of our present stage of society. The Right Liberals believe that Capitalism in itself is morally good, while the Left believes that Capitalism is morally bad as an extension of its social contradictions; but both are entirely wrong. Capitalism is simply a historical stage of Society's economic life, inevitable and necessary just as both Feudalism was necessary and Socialism is inevitable. And as a consequence, despite the fact that these are real issues facing real people, we are powerless to win by basing our practice on Bourgeoisie morality. Marxism is the Ideology of the Working Classes, and corresponds to Socialism, just as Liberalism corresponds to Capitalism; it is only through Marxism that we can win.
But because Liberalism has detached itself from a historical understanding of our present society, this has allowed the Democratic Party to position itself as both supporters of LGBTQ persons and minority groups, and simultaneously an enemy of the Working Classes. And within the Two-Party System of the United States, within the sham of Democracy set up by the government of the Capitalist class, support of these issues inherently means opposing the Workers, precisely because the same candidates who support these issues within the existing political framework are also the most active enemies of the workers.
This doesn't mean that LGBTQ rights, or the struggle of Black Americans for representation and practical, real equality cannot co-exist with the Workers’ struggle for Socialism, that they cannot support each other. Instead, it simply means that the Democrats, who are the political representatives of Finance Capital, are the most aggressively opposed to and capable of resisting the Proletariat, the workers, taking political power.
By extension, all organizations who tail the Democrats and reinforce this synthetic division between branches of the working classes, such as PSL and their rejection of non-left workers, invariably support the class war against the workers through their actions, even if they may oppose it with their words.
But this doesn't address the question of why the Right Liberals have come to support the Workers’ Movement by their actions, despite their rhetorical opposition to it, in a mirroring of the Imperialist Left. To answer this question, we have to understand that minority groups have genuinely been exploited and opressed under Capitalism. Whether it is Jim Crow laws, or laws criminalizing homosexuality, it is undeniable that under Capitalist society, these minority groups have been subjected to Social and Legal persecution. By acknowledging this fact, the Democrats have been able to convince many of the Left Liberals that they support these struggles, even though they do everything they can to defend the political domination of society by an exploitative ruling class which was and still is directly responsible for these evils in the first place.
But because the Democrats have both supported the minority groups within Capitalism, and opposed the working classes, this has required that they become supportive of Imperialism to facilitate this expanded Ruling Class they wish to create. Because Capitalism inherently exploits the workers to create profit, the Democrats’ project of Rainbow Imperialism necessarily demands that more wealth be extracted from foreign Nations to increase the scope of the ruling class within Capitalism; expanding the Bourgeoisie to include not only white males, but minorities, women, LGBTQ people, etc. requires that more wealth be extracted and stolen from the workers of the world, so that there is more profit to divide between them. It means that the workers in the United States must be exploited more intensely to fund these increasingly costly, and increasingly less successful wars against Nations who are increasingly able to successfully resist.
Imperialism not only harms the working class, but it's wars and conflicts are harmful to Small Capital, and Industrial Capital; only Finance Capital and the Military Industrial Complex directly benefit from these conflicts themselves. Imperialism has the effect of reducing the real wages of the working classes by causing international sanctions which increase the SNLT of Commodities, hampering trade which directly increases prices, and by increasing armaments production which is inherently Inflationary in nature; war equipment which creates new money in the economy by its Production, and is deliberately sent to be blown up in foreign soil, can only increase Inflation. More money is created by financing of debt for its production, and the commodity associated with its creation is destroyed instead of increasing the supply of Commodities against which the currency is valued.
Therefore, the small and medium Capitalists such as independent business owners and small, light industry production such as glass, metal stamping, etc, are defending on three fronts between the increasing inflation eroding their Rate of Profit, the increasing costs of production from reduced trade, and the Workers’ declining ability to afford these products in the first place. Thus they have direct interests in opposing Imperialism's wars alongside the Workers, even though they only profit by the exploitation of the Workers themselves.
As an extension of this position, this does not mean that an independent Workers’ Movement must pursue opression and exploitation of minorities, but simply that we must resist an expansion of the Ruling Class at the expense of the Workers, even if it means that these minorities are under-represented in the exploiting Bourgeoisie. It means we must oppose Imperialism, even if it means the Bourgeoisie as a Class remains socially backwards and bigoted. What have the workers as a class benefited if LGBTQ owners exploit the workers alongside Cis white owners exploiting workers? And how can our rulers being detached from the masses, be anything but a benefit to the Revolutionary Vanguard?
Neither does it mean that the Workers can rely on the small and medium Capitalists as reliable allies. What it means is that their interests are aligned on the issue of Imperialism's offensive wars, and that they can make a temporary, tactical alliance with them to push back pro-Imperialist Liberals, but that they cannot afford to forget that these temporary Allies will eventually turn into enemies once the immediate crisis of Imperialism is overcome, and to be prepared for that moment, and proactively organize the workers to take the offensive against these small and medium Capitalists, even while they currently secure our right flank.
Because organizations like RATWM have built themselves outside of the influence of the two main Parties in the United States, they have provided a space where the ideas of the Proletariat, the working masses, can fight their way forward and develop without being redirected towards support for one of the two main Bourgeoisie parties or the cowards tailing them. This is why the Communists following Marxist Dialectical-Materialism have joined with Libertarians in RATWM; because even though they may disagree on other issues, all workers have a practical interest in ending Imperialism's foreign wars, and they have built an organization where the workers can develop on their own, pursue their own independent interests.
This is also why parties like PSL have attacked it; in rejecting the Democratic Party, the Workers have also necessarily rejected the Liberals’ idea of Social Progressiveness, which these Liberal organizations put as more important than the Class Struggle.
Despite the fact that this has done nothing to advance society towards it's next historical stage, to fundamentally change the relationships of production within society, the Liberals still call this Progressive. We can see the culmination of this Left Liberalism in parties such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Because RATWM is opposed to Imperialism, it is necessarily fighting against the Liberal project of expanding the Bourgeoisie. And because organizations like PSL have adopted a Left Liberal interpretation of history, they necessarily see this opposition to Imperialism as being Reactionary, because it also means opposition to the idea that the various Social Struggles are the most important. We see this in their attacks on Socialist organizations who are not “left” enough.
This Democratic Tailism, where Left organizations follow behind and tail the Democrats, even while being nominally independent, is a poison to the Workers’ Movement. When PSL and other tailist organizations reject the workers because they have different attitudes on LGBTQ or Minority issues, this only weakens the Workers’ Movement as a whole.
It should be no surprise to us that different people, living in different conditions, with different relationships within production, and exposed to different ideas, have different attitudes towards various social issues. But Liberal organizations such as PSL have put these opinions on Social problems ahead of Class Consciousness. The Synthetic Left have replaced the Class Struggle with a Social Struggle.
The only possible conclusion from this flawed, and historically inaccurate thinking is that the Workers are inherently Reactionary, and not worth organizing. And from this, it is clear that in order to build a true Workers’ Movement, we have to break free of the Democratic influence over our organizing spaces. We have to combat Liberalism wherever it sprouts up within our organizations, and cut out the poison it brings to the Class Struggle if the Workers are to take political power within their societies. To free the Workers, we have to wage an uncompromising Class Struggle, and adopt an uncompromising Proletarian political line. At this point in time, we have to support the interests of the Workers first and foremost, and subordinate everything else to it as secondary, even if it means working with organizations on the Synthetic Right.
When we break the Workers’ Movement free from Bourgeoisie influence, not only will the Class Struggle advance, but it will carry the numerous minority interests and Social Struggles with it too. When minority workers can independently pursue their primary interests as Workers first and foremost, they can finally start the task of organizing as Latino workers, as Indigenous workers, as LGBTQ workers. These groups can begin organizing for their interests within the Class that is destined to take political power, and overthrow the old order, and not within the Class that is destined to be overthrown.