Revolution in Our Time: On the Anger of the Oppressed and the Quest for Everlasting Justice
By: Seth W.D. Schouten
Tags: Communism, Revolution, Politcs, George Floyd

Protestors gather outside a burning police precinct on May 28, 2020. © Stephen Maturen, Getty Images via AFP.

A man dead. A people angered. A violent eruption. And there’s nothing to lose but chains.

Violence begets violence. The liberal media has been quick to condemn the actions taken by the rioters throughout the United States protesting the brutality of the American police state and the anti-Black position of that nation’s leadership. They claim that violence is no way to get your message across. Burning buildings just turns the narrative against you.

Here’s the thing: the rioters didn’t start the war.

The African-American community was born out of violence. The history of Black individuals in America is one of slavery and oppression. Active, violent oppression. It’s a history that has yet to be truly reconciled and is an ugly mold is showing its head again.

Violence begets violence.

Who started the violence?

People liked to pretend that following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the death of MLK, racism and the legacy of slavery simply went away. However, we do remember how that story ended, right? King was murdered proving that society was still had a long road towards justice.

Violence begets violence.

Flash forward to the present day. The President of the United States of America, the Leader of the Free World, Donald J. Trump says via his Twitter account that “once the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Then it happened. The militaristic-police of the USA attacked the protestors. They fired the first shots of tear gas. They shot rubber bullets at people simply standing on their porches. They pepper-sprayed ten-year-old girls. They arrested news reporters on live television. They were the ones getting giddy over attacking the protestors.

Are we surprised? The history of the police in the United States begins with slave-catchers in the Antebellum South. In other parts of the world, they were used to suppress the working class and protect the upper class. They’re more content with patrolling the outside of poor neighbourhoods to prevent crime and drugs getting out than actually stepping into those places and helping.

This is why we call the police class traitors. This is why we cry ‘all cops are bastards!’ They only exist to oppress us.

Violence begets violence.

Taylor Swift proudly declared to Trump on social media that “we will vote you out in November.” A message of well-intentioned hope, but it shows the naïvety of the liberal mindset. Joe Biden, the front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, represents the same system that Trump does. In reality, there is no ideological difference between Democrats and Republicans. They half-heartedly pander to their bases with vague promises while only existing to satisfy their own needs.

Donald Trump isn’t an anomaly in American politics. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” shouldn’t surprise us. It’s the natural extent of the fascistic trajectory of the American regime. Republicans and conservatives are actively pushing for it. Democrats and liberals are blind to it.

Violence begets violence.

The Black community and their allies have every right to riot. For, in the words of the great Martin Luther King, Jr., “a riot is the language of the unheard.” They have been unheard. They have been actively oppressed. They have been violated. The riots are only a retaliation.

I had a friend post a photo of a burning car of his Instagram saying “war does not solve war.” My friend, like so many others, is mistaken. The goal is not simply to end the war but to win it. It’s a war the working class and the oppressed peoples of the world must win to find freedom. The system we find ourselves in is set up against the low in society. It is only through the violent removal of that system that freedom and peace can be achieved.

Violence begets violence.

Unlike what Taylor Swift and the other members of the liberal bourgeoisie may tell you, simply voting will not set us free. The oppressors would never let their system be their downfall. The only thing we can hope for is a revolution. A revolution of the mind, a revolution of the body, and a revolution of the soul.

“Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.” — Karl Marx

For those of us who are not Black, we find ourselves victims of the same system — although manifesting in different ways. We may be oppressed by our gender, our sexuality, our economic status, our housing status, or our unwilling and impossible to escape participation in the hell-scape of capitalism. We, each in our own way, struggle against the system. The one thing we owe to each other is relentless, never-ending solidarity for we all share a common enemy.

Do not let the tragedy of George Floyd and the thousands of other Black men and women who have died at the hands of the oppressors dishearten you. Let it radicalise you. For, “to be radical is to grasp things by the root.” The root of our problems is where we must go if we want to overcome evil.

We can overcome injustice if we stand together. Unlike what they may make you believe, we do not have to wander through life alone. We can be a working-class united against the powers of capitalism, racism, imperialism, and the thousand other ghouls of the world. That’s how we win the war.

Solidarity forever! Power to the people! Revolution in our time!