On the Current Status of the American Insurrection
By: Red Diamond
Tags: Communism, Socialism, Blm, Blm Protests, Revolution

A quick analysis (and update) by Red Diamond.

Special thanks to “Dash the Internet Marxist” (u/thedashrendar). This article builds upon the information and predictions in his, and you should should read his article “The Current Dilemma of the Ruling Class in the United States” first if you have not.

What’s This?

It has been 10 days since “Dash the Internet Marxist” wrote their analysis of the current anti-police movement in the United States , and much has happened since then. I hope to shed some light on some of these developments, and give an educated prediction of where we’re now headed.

The Problem (For Us):

Over the past week, the grand political obstruction apparatus of the American bourgeoisie (colloquially known as “The Democratic Party”) has carried out a comprehensive campaign to warp, deform, and manipulate this movement into something they have full control of. This process is known as “recuperation”. Recuperation in the sociological context means to appropriate radical actions and language, and remake them into something less dangerous to the establishment. This process happened to us as follows:

The movement burst into life in the final days of May with a loud, clear demand: Abolish the Police. Liberal wreckers, some consciously, some unconsciously, began the first steps of the recuperation campaign: The lack of public education on police and prison abolitionist politics was weaponized against the masses. A message began to be spread by Liberal wreckers that “Abolish” does not quite mean “abolish”, but to take funding away from police to reduce their power. Slogans on the ground then started to shift from “Abolish the Police” to “Defund the Police”. While dedicated (and educated) organizers and organizations continued to push for Abolition, the vast majority were all now putting their energy behind “Defunding”. This too, was now weaponized against the masses: Lack of public knowledge about how police funding works allowed Liberal wreckers to then start pushing the message that “Defund” does not actually mean “Defund”, instead meaning “We take away their scariest, army-est guns and toys, and pass some reforms to make them less likely to be violent”. Slogans on the ground again shifted, from “Defund the Police” to “Reform the Police”. The movement was, as a result, successfully polarized into a radical, educated, abolitionist camp still pushing their line militantly, and a confused, disorganized, “reformist” camp quickly seizing power over vast swaths of the movement. Now with the vast majority of the movement under their direct control, the Liberal wreckers dealt their killing blow: “Reform” does not mean “Reform”. It actually means “Give the police a few more rules, as a matter of fact, rules that they don’t actually have to follow if they feel their life is in danger.”

Now as Democrats nationwide pass “sweeping police reform bills” with big promises that this time they will actually work, the national movement has effectively lost the vast majority of its liberal support. People who were, just a week ago, pouring all their support into the people fighting on the streets, now want to know why they all won’t just go home. The problem has been solved… right?

No, Not at All:

If you’re feeling demoralized by the last segment, you’re in luck, as I now bring good news. Well, not quite good news though, as this “good news” still involves an unacceptably large amount of our fellow workers being murdered by the police due to liberal obstruction. This movement has actually succeeded greatly at something, and that is massively increasing public awareness of police violence, especially and particularly police violence against Black Americans.

These “reforms” WILL fail. The past two weeks have shown that even under the tightest scrutiny, even during a literal protest against police violence, the police are incapable of putting a pause on their brutality. Now, of course, there are material reasons for this that Dash explained perfectly in their original article, and for the sake of time I won’t be repeating them here.

The point is, when these reforms completely fail (and they certainly will!) and America closely watches ten, maybe twenty, maybe thirty more people get killed by our newly “reformed” police officers, the fire will return. Hopefully in a literal sense.

The reality for the American bourgeoisie is that they are already very far downhill. As we pull and scrape them ever downwards to our own liberation, their own claws are digging deeper into the crust out of desperation. They are running out of options to appease us, and the only “nails” they have left holding them up are the ever-more-fascist reactionaries clinging to Trump, and the reality-disconnected liberal vanguard who think Joe Biden will return things to normal. “Normal”, of course, meaning “I personally can ignore the problem again”.

When these last bastions of support fail (and they will), America will come tumbling down the hill. Not quite a revolution, but a collapse. What comes of this collapse is up to us. The number one priority of socialist organizations in the immediate future needs to be establishing the framework for an inevitable dual-power scenario. When the state comes crashing down and the surviving leaders resort to fascism to regain control, the Socialists need to be ready to provide an alternative, and ready to defend (and implement) it with force.

We are already beginning to see the cracks in the state’s legitimacy widen. Seattle has maintained a six-block “autonomous zone” for multiple days now, and while there is no shortage of concerns for their safety among us, the fact that they were able to seize any territory for any amount of time from the US government is a massive victory, even if only a symbolic one. Like the burning of the Minneapolis Third Precinct, it showed the people of America that their oppressors are not invincible. In fact, they are far from it.

Update June 13th: The liberal wreckers have now begun a campaign to recuperate the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) into the “Capital Hill Organized Protest (CHOP)”.

Every tiny victory we gain is another hammer to the brick wall that is the legitimacy of the United States. Right now everything matters, so get to it. Educate, Agitate, Organize. Your life depends on it.