The Kind of Revolution We Need

Abstract

Many of us realize how drastically the political and social climate has changed in the last five years. Most of the gains won by labor and the civil rights movement are being rolled back. Strikebreaking is the order of the day. The corporations are getting concessions from workers, and the unions are powerless to resist because today's capitalism no longer needs labor as it did in the past, before robots and before advanced methods of transportation and communication made it possible to export jobs overseas. Affirmative action has been all but abolished, welfare is being cut, cheap jobs are the only ones available. Women are under attack, anti-abortion groups dominate the news, sexism is on the rise, and homosexuals are being made the scapegoats because people are looking for easy answers to complex questions. Even social security is no longer secure. In fact, every gain that we have come to consider our god-given right but which was a result of hard struggle is being taken away. Yet we stand helpless and divided, more often than not blaming one another, while the counter-revolutionary forces exploit our differences to dehumanize us further by encouraging us to fight over crumbs.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.