I assume this has been covered already (I'm new), and I welcome recommendations of existing material! (E.g. Imperialism by Lenin seems like it'd be relevant)
I'm reading State and Revolution, and am trying to map it to the conditions in the US.
From chapter 2 (emphasis mine):
The overthrow of bourgeois rule can be accomplished only by the proletariat, the particular class whose economic conditions of existence prepare it for this task and provide it with the possibility and the power to perform it. While the bourgeoisie break up and disintegrate the peasantry and all the petty-bourgeois groups, they weld together, unite and organize the proletariat. Only the proletariat — by virtue of the economic role it plays in large-scale production — is capable of being the leader of all the working and exploited people, whom the bourgeoisie exploit, oppress and crush, often not less but more than they do the proletarians, but who are incapable of waging an independent struggle for their emancipation.
My understanding is that large-scale production has largely been moved outside of the US. I imagine this is also true of most imperial core countries.
If that's true, doesn't it follow that the US has a small, relatively weak proletariat?
And if THAT'S true, what's the path to revolution in the US? Without a powerful proletariat, there can't be a proletarian revolution, right?
I could see one answer being:
- Weaken US imperialism (e.g. through revolutions in imperial periphery)
- US is forced to re-develop it's own productive capacity
- Developed productive capacity results in strong proletariat
- (Wait for contradictions to sharpen?)
- Revolution
Another (more likely?) could be:
- Get conquered
In both of those cases, the immediate work is to weaken the power of the US as a whole, right?
What are the main tools the US uses to project power, and how could orgs weaken them from within? Organize, obviously, but organize to do what? Mutual aid and unions seem clear, anything else?
I'd also be curious about any work on other paths to revolution in the imperial core. This might be straying outside of Marxist-Leninism, but has there been any theory around a revolution lead by a different class?
E.g. perhaps a deeply racist country could have a revolution based on race? ...though the majority of people in the US are white. E.g. the black panthers were threatening enough that the state infiltrated and killed them.
Anyway. Interested in y'all's thoughts - sorry if these are basic questions.
The strategy is build the party. You mentioned Marxism-Leninism, so that is your big picture strategy. We can't assess or influence conditions without a worker's party, that is, organized expressions of working class power. If you arent convinced of the partyist line, then it is "build the mass movement." Those are the two coherent trends in USAmerican socialism.
I'm not saying that you can't know next steps, I'm saying you can't learn them from me. If you can't connect your local work with a national movement then what is the point of either? You can't learn this from YouTube, or even from a book. you have to join in somewhere and do work. That is the actual point of Marx and Lenin.
Big picture options to get started.
salt a union if you aren't in one already. Will need support from local orgs/party
Join DSA and get involved in a campaign. Don't believe DSA haters, the org is what we make of it. Great if you want to engage in electoral strategies, education, and politics.
PSL is another national org, smaller and expressly and ideologically ML, but very practical and organized. Mobilizes good presences at public protests nationwide, and runs some compelling larger national propaganda campaigns. PSL can be very inside baseball so as I'm not a member I never really know what is up with them, but ive had mostly good interactions.
Communist Party USA - CPUSA is not bad. Lots of educational resources that go back for a long history, good people.
Local campaigns and movements - some of the smartest most radical people you will meet are like running some local campaign in your city, they know everybody and they need help, just go help them, you'll learn a ton.
Another major trend in organizing labor is the Jane McKelvey-ist strategy, outlined in "No Shortcuts", and sometimes referred to as "deep organizing".
UAW reformer president Shawn Fain is encouraging unions to negotiate their contracts to expire on May 1, 2028. Since a general strike would be technically illegal, this allows large labor organizing efforts in the open capable of shutting down huge sectors of the economy, the anti war movement will only radicalize labor further.
You might want to research the national strike wave of the early 1930s. 1934 is the closest the USA has ever come to socialism, and in 1935 organized labor was made legal and the white working class got a new deal.