Is the US moving to the Right? And why?. Between non-revolutionary and pre-revolutionary situation Increased polarization Ruling class move to the right.

Is the US moving to the Right?

And why?

Between non-revolutionary and pre-revolutionary situation

• Increased polarization

• Ruling class move to the right

Ruling class moving to the right (all sectors from liberal to far right)

• Maintain control

• Maintain levels of profit with worse economic situation

• Prefer to maintain control without struggle– This is a symptom of more challenge to their

domination

Working class becoming conservative

• fear of unemployment

• fear of deportation or incarceration

• Continuing passivity of former years

Middle class/petit bourgeoisie also becoming more

conservative• To defend economic interests and

privilege they are scared of losing and have faith that the ruling class can protect

• Become base of support for far right

Attacks on Reproductive Rights/ Women

• Abortion legislation that limits access and funding

• Abstinence only sex-education• Political de-legitimization of feminist struggles• Co-optation of these energies completely into

non-profits• “Progressive legislation” allowing LGBTQ

communities to marry and join the military incorporates queers into status quo and stifles queer resistance

• States passed 83 laws restricting access to abortion, nearly four times the 23 laws passed in 2010.

Why?

• Maintenance of family as fundamental building block of capitalist society

• Repression of women to limit their role and political potential to organize

• Focus off of systemic issues (poverty, education) to put blame on individual choice and morality

Attacks on immigrant communities

• SB 1070 and copycat laws• Ethnic studies attacks• Move from physical raids to i-9 audits

(electronic raids)• Secure communities• E-verify• Physical violence• War on Drugs

Secure Communities

October 2010

May 2012

E-verify

• More than 404,000 employers, large and small, across the United States use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of their employees, with about 1,200 new businesses signing up each week.

-Number of immigrant detainees have doubled to about 400,000 a year

-half are held in private prisons

Detention Centers

SB 1070 in Arizona-copycat laws in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah

Why such strong attacks on this community?

• Immigrants have revolutionary potential given their place in production, their numbers and the revolutionary consciousness brought from their countries of origin

• Because of their crucial place in production, it is necessary for capitalists to have control through fear of deportation and loss of jobs while still extracting huge amounts of surplus value from their work

• Useful to divide working class through racism, criminalization of people without papers as “illegal”

• Useful division of Latinos between “good” and “bad”-divides the group and families, detracts from systemic exploitation onto personal choice and culpability

Attacks on democratic civil rights

• Patriot Act

• NDAA

• Heightened surveillance (online, phone calls, gang injunctions)-also connected to SB1070 and S-Comm

• Stronger repression of some political militants and actions (Occupy, specifically targeting Anarchists)

• Since January 2002, 779 men have been seized and brought to Guantanamo

• 600 have been released-most of them not charged

• As of September 2012, 166 detainees remain at Guantanamo.

Privatization of Public Education

• Charters

• Destruction of teacher’s unions and protections

• Sub-contracting to non-profits, philanthropists

• Standardized tests

Why?• One of the last public industries that can be

privatized for corporate gain– Not only save money– Makes money-off of testing, etc

• Hurting economy and low education priority has created material conditions of (even worse) public schools

• Way to have capitalist/corporate control over what is taught, how it is taught and who it is taught to

Tea Party• Tea Party name (and specific consolidation) is new but

not the demographic or politics• Change in numbers over time

– 2010- 1000 chapters– 2012- 600 chapters

• Demographics of tea party supporters• Used as a way to scare people with fascism in order to

get people to vote democrat• No solid leadership

Polarization is bad for the ruling class

• They want to rule without us knowing

• Polarization helps the working class see the only 2 options, their choice and that history and the current moment is that of class struggle

• Polarization is a sign of their weakness and our challenge

This polarization is not fascism

• There will not be fascism until there is strong working class resistance

These attacks and move to the right are still destructive

• As revolutionaries we must engage in this struggles– Passively accepting them will allow attacks to

intensify– These struggles are crucial for building

movement on the left– We must call out liberals for their passivity on

these issues because of fear of something worse

– Passivity guarantees something worse