*Editorial Note: There was correct criticism over the usage of the word “non-existent” in regards to the social and cultural conflicts that take place within the working-class. This was an incorrect attempt at shortening “conflicts that need not and should not exist”. The latter correct phrasing now replaces the old.
The ceaseless cycles of crisis within capitalism leads the ruling class to ever more depraved and deceitful tactics to maintain their grip on power and keep the working class weak and disunited. The cost of living has increased dramatically, essential goods and services have exploded in price, all while pay is stagnant and working conditions have not improved. Popular dissatisfaction grows and the various groups within the US bourgeoisie and their henchmen in the state aim to exploit the fear and anxiety experienced by the working class in this growing crisis. This is all in an attempt to divert the worker’s attention away from the economic nature of this struggle.
This has taken the form of reactionary and discriminatory policies advanced in Louisiana, Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, to name a few. These policies reflect the consensus of conservative and religious electorate in order to manage the ever-growing socio-economic problems. However, the analysis cannot stop here. The religious element is a crucial element in the construction of the institutions of the capitalist state. The religious obscurantism behind these divisive policies has paired itself with anti-communism, serving as an instrument in dividing the workers. Discrimination against immigrants, women, and the LGBTQ+ community goes hand-in-hand with the demonization of the struggle for socialism-communism which is inspired by principles of equality. In this way, the fragmentation of the working class, with important sections of it embracing the anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda, is at the same time a measure for a “united” capitalism. At the helm of the reactionary and conservative values, we find the likes of DeSantis and other Republican leaders.
However, do not be fooled into believing that the Democrats, who cover capital with a rainbow, can change the balance of power within society between the exploiter and the exploited. Social rights are not satisfied by grandiose words about “equality” or by invoking the alleged freedom of individual choice. They are claimed and conquered by participating in the social, class struggles, against those who slaughter their rights because our position in society, nourished by the deprivation of many, is with the majority of those who work as wage earners. The issue therefore cannot be the replacement of social rights with “individual choice”. The political satisfaction of social rights can only be achieved in the collective struggle for the overthrow of the rotten exploitative system, based on contemporary social needs. Participation in this struggle is a social action, an element for the development of the personality of each and everyone, and the cultivation of the abilities and inclination that each person has. On the contrary, when individualism, or distorted concepts of “individual identity” dominate popular consciousness and action of the new generations, everyone is then isolated in the face of the system that breeds social inequalities and discrimination.
The confrontation between the Democrats and the Republicans over the struggles of the LGBTQ+ movement are merely the tactics of the bourgeoisie to hegemonize and exploit these struggles for its own gain. The values promoted by these capitalist parties are those which were promoted in the times of 1989-1991: the counterrevolution and the subsequent fall of socialism. It is from this viewpoint, that the attacks on the rights of LGBTQ+ people and the recent attacks on the rights of women, in the case of abortion bans, create conflicts that need not and should not exist within the working class while attacking social rights in favor of the profits of capital. They further justify the criminalization of the conquest of the communist and workers’ movement. A true project for the radical transformation of society must take civil demands and make them march alongside social demands, always keeping in mind who the enemy is on the path towards the definitive overthrow of this system and the elimination of exploitation and social discrimination once and for all.
