When will the US working class move into action? Consciousness.

US workers demonstrating for better wages.

When will the US working class move into action. ? This is a question that is asked a lot. If the union leadership would develop a program against the bosses offensive and mobilize mass direct action of the over 13 million members of the unions to defeat this, and draw in the rest of the working class then the working class would move tomorrow. The problem is the refusal of the union leadership to fight. As the socialist revolutionary Trotsky said the crisis of society, of humanity, is the crisis of the working class leadership. It holds down the working class which is the only force that can end capitalism and build a new society.

So given this situation when will the Us working class move? One of the reasons the union leadership have been able to get away with their refusal to fight and keep the US working class from launching a generalized offensive, has been the domination of US capitalism over its rivals worldwide. Because of this US capitalism has been able to build up massive profits and reserves with which it has been able to provide the necessities of life for the majority of the US working class. This, along with the political monopoly they hold through their two capitalist parties, and the censorship of ideas they have through their ownership of the media and their undemocratic domination of the education system, the US bosses have been able to keep the working class relatively quiescent for the past decades. Pretty much since the 1930's. There have been important working class struggles but the union leadership was able to behead and defeat these.

But the organizers of this blog are confident the relative quiescent of the US working class will not last. Why is this so? The main reason is that US capitalism is losing its domination of the the world economy, its domination over its rivals. Along with this it is in massive debt. It is already sliding towards a position where it will not be able to provide the necessities of life for the majority of its working class population. When this happens, when the majority of the working class in the US are not able to get the necessities of life from the existing system of US capitalism, then they will move to seek an alternative to that system. They will move from their pretty much inactive stance and move into struggle. This is what will happen. Flowing from this is the question of when is this likely to happen. Is this time anyway soon? Timing is very difficult when big processes are being considered. But there are hints that this might be sooner rather than later.

Last weekend there was a meeting in Washington of the seven top economic powers. It focused on the relationship between the Chinese currency and other world currencies especially the dollar. The representatives of the capitalists in the countries grouped around the US tried to force the Chinese leadership to increase the value of their currency to let goods from other countries compete better. They were not able to get China to go along. An official from the Euro Zone put it this way: "We have come to the end of a model where seven advanced economies can make decisions for the world without the emerging countries. Like it or not we just have to accept that." This is a definitive statement from this top spokesperson of the advanced capitalist countries, the US and its close capitalist stooges no longer dominate at will. What this means for US capitalism it it can no longer loot the world and build up riches and reserves with which it can placate enough of its own working class to keep the US working class from moving into action. A new period is opening up.

I have friends from two different families, they do not know each other, their politics are not close to mine. They believe much of what they are told by capitalism. All their lives they have believed that they should never take anything from the state, that they should "stand on their own two feet" that they should pull themselves up "by their own bootstraps." They were able to survive and continue to base themselves on this capitalist propaganda and approach to life when US capitalism dominated the world and it was able to give enough to keep the majority of the working class with the necessities. But in the past few weeks both these families have had members apply for food stamps. They would never have done this in the past. It would have been unthinkable for them. I know they have not yet moved into struggle. But their consciousness and their relationship to US capitalism, its state and propaganda has changed. Times are changing. people are changing. Consciousness is changing.

Of course we should not only see the issue as an economic one. The black revolt of the 1960's and the anti Viet Nam war revolt in and out of the military in the same period, the womens' revolt, reflected major changes in consciousness and were motivated the great struggles of the time. The present wars and occupations in the Middle East and Central Asia could yet stir a mass revolt at home. The revolts of the 1960's, the black revolt, the anti war revolt, the women's revolt, all gave US capitalism a kick in the backside to see that they had to make more concessions at that time. Such revolts can develop again and open up new mass movements of struggle. But the major factor keeping the US working class relatively quiescent over the past decades, along with the refusal to fight of the union leadership, has been US capitalism's domination of the world economy and its ability to loot the world economy and share some of this with sections of the US working class at home.

But what this Euro Zone official says confirms that we have come to the end of an era. US capitalism no longer dominates the world economy as it did in the past. It is in massive debt. It is being challenged by rivals and especially China. US capitalism has been pushed into a new era, and with this we are at the beginning of a shift in consciousness of the US working class. US capitalism no longer able to provide the necessities for the big majority will begin to look very different from US capitalism when it was able to provide the necessities for the big majority. US workers will draw the conclusions that they will have to organize and fight. This is not too far in the future. It is the jobs of activists to build fighting movements and caucuses in the unions, workplaces, communities, schools and colleges to take on the capitalist offensive against working people and speed up this process. This will also challenge the union leadership's effort to continue with their refusal to fight and to repress those who are trying to fight.

Some people might thing that we the organizers of this blog want life to get much more difficult for working people in order that this will force them to fight. This is not so. We do not want working class people to suffer more. And this is not necessary for a mass movement to develop. It is all up to the union leadership. If the union leadership would change its ways there would have been a mass fighting movement long before now. The problem is with the union leadership. They will not fight, not only that, but they crush any attempt by the working class to fight. Because of this a mass generalized movement of struggle can only come about when working class people become desperate. We do not want this. We are working to avoid this by trying to build fighting opposition movements. But the union leadership controls the huge union movement and block attempts to fight at every turn. It is the union leadership whom we have to see are responsible for it being just about inevitable that the US working class will have to suffer even more before they draw the conclusion they need to organize and actually get themselves into action and organize to fight. We do not want this. But the leadership of the unions control the union members, suppress all attempts to fight and hold the movement back. They are to blame.

US capitalism's failure to get its way at the meeting in Washington and the statement by the Euro Zone official show that the time when US capitalism is dominant and can loot the world at will is over. They show that the time when US capitalism can provide the necessities for the majority of the US working class is coming to any end. A new era is on the horizon. Socialists and activists of all kinds must recognize this and step up their organizing and take steps to clarify their program and methods, move more decisively to build united fronts of struggle around mass direct action fight to win tactics, and in this way speed up the process whereby the US working class will move into action. When this happens it will shake the world and weaken capitalism world wide and strengthen the working class worldwide. And put democratic socialism on the agenda of the mass of the world's population once again.