Letter: Join Marxist Unity Group!
Letters
Letter: Join Marxist Unity Group!
Letters

Letter: Join Marxist Unity Group!

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When the Constitution became law in 1788, Benjamin Rush declared its realization “as much the work of a divine providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament were the effects of a divine power.”1 Decades later, the radical abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison presented a dramatically different interpretation when he excoriated the document as “the source and parent of all the other atrocities – a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell.”2 The slaveholders’ rebellion was defeated in 1865, but the undemocratic structure of the Senate, the Electoral College, and Supreme Court survived. Today, we remain trapped under the weight of that Constitution which guarantees the political and social domination of the increasingly divided capitalist class and serves as their most resolute point of unity.

The alternative to the political domination of the working class majority by the capitalist minority is a democratic state: the democratic republic. As Marx explained, the working class, upon being elevated to the plateau of political power, will use its newfound power “to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class.”3 The eradication of the undemocratic Constitution and its replacement by the democratic republic is the political revolution necessary to begin the social revolution. Our strategy: winning the battle for democracy. Our goal: communism. 

The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party believed the demand for political democracy would win the hearts and minds of the Russian people. “Anyone seriously and sincerely desiring political freedom will raise the banner of a republic proudly and bravely,” wrote Lenin, “and all the live forces of Russian democracy will certainly be drawn to that banner by the politics of the tsarist-landowner gang.”4 And they were correct: “the slogan of the foremost workers of the capital — long live the democratic republic! — [spread] through thousands of channels, in the wake of every strike, reaching the backward sections, the remotest provinces, the ‘people’, the ‘depths of Russia’!”5 

Marxist Unity Group is proud to reclaim the understanding within Marxism that in any country with a working class majority, “democracy means the dominion of the working class, neither more nor less.”6 The theory of the coming third American revolution will necessarily draw on the democratic foundations of Marx, the mid-19th century constitutional disloyalty of Garrison, and the socialist republicanism of Lenin. 

To win the battle for democracy, the working class must organize into a political party independent of our imperialist bourgeoisie. The party’s banner will demand a new constitution, and all the forces of democracy will be drawn to fight under that banner to obtain freedom from capitalist oligarchy. The party will be democratic, and an internal culture of open debate will nurture it to a massive size. To that end, we fight for a DSA based on political independence, programmatic unity, electoral discipline, and internal discussion.7

Marxist Unity Group’s membership application is open through August 24. Please consider joining us in fighting the Constitution and realizing a democratic republic. 

-MUG

 

 

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  1. Michael J. Klarman. The Framers’ Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution. Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2016.
  2. “A Covenant with Death and an Agreement with Hell.” Massachusetts Historical Society. 2005, https://www.masshist.org/object-of-the-month/objects/a-covenant-with-death-and-an-agreement-with-hell-2005-07-01.
  3. Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. London; Chicago, IL: Pluto Press, 1996.
  4. V.I. Lenin. “The Election Platform of the RSDLP.” https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1912/mar/00c.htm.
  5. V.I. Lenin. “The Revolutionary Upswing.” https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1912/jun/17.htm.
  6. Friedrich Engels. “1881: A Working Men’s Party.” https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/07/23.htm.
  7. Marxist Unity Group’s Seven Points of Unity. https://www.marxistunity.com/points-of-unity-and-immediate-tasks.