Above: Luigi Mangione supporters outside the Supreme Court, Stefan Jeremiah, AP Photo
At the start of December 2024, the plans of our imperialist ruling class were actually going quite well, even amid the unraveling of their global hegemony. They were losing the economic war to China, as they continue to do so. But in tactical terms, they’d recently gained numerous advantages. And for the world’s revolutionary forces to sufficiently change the power balance, there would first have to be new major shake-ups. There’d need to be disruptions to the imperial psyop machine; disruptions in popular consciousness that could be turned towards mass mobilization.
In that historically pivotal moment from last year, Washington was in place to overthrow Assad, and would soon succeed in doing so. This would cripple the Axis of Resistance, letting Zionism’s genocide expand and accelerate. And there wouldn’t be enough domestic resistance to counter the empire’s next schemes, because the pro-Palestine movement had been made to largely fizzle out; the campus repression was working, which encouraged the security state in its next crackdown plans. These plans, along with the latest steps in the extermination campaign, have largely succeeded.
But throughout this recent series of imperial triumphs, there’s been a certain destabilizing event; one that’s not big enough to take down the system on its own, but that exemplifies a gargantuan shift in mass consciousness. This event was the killing of a healthcare CEO on December 4, 2024, and the mass movement which that act catalyzed. The Luigi Mangione movement has proven that the USA’s people are a lot more advanced than many revolutionary intellectuals might believe them to be; it’s demonstrated a widespread presence of workers who have great potential for joining with the class struggle, if they’re given the means for doing so. And it’s connected to another mass awakening event that we’ve recently seen, which is the revolt within MAGA.
That so many within Trump’s base have recognized his neocon activities as betrayals, and not accepted the policies of “Silicon Valley MAGA,” shows the limitations on the empire’s recent psyops. Our ruling class has tried to use MAGA as a tool for selling war, genocide, and oligarchic power consolidation, but a growing element inside MAGA is becoming disillusioned.
By election day in 2024, Gaza had already caused the Democratic Party to collapse, so Silicon Valley MAGA was the narrative control tool our ruling class turned to. This isn’t working either, though, because the masses have become narratively unmanageable. All the ruling class ideological tricks keep failing, from Bernie-style social democracy to Trumpian “right populism.” Now the psyop managers are trying to direct the MAGA base towards controlled opposition “alt” media, and this tactic is so far largely successful; but it hasn’t stopped the Luigi movement from continuing to gain mass pull.
The Luigi movement’s persistence is indicative of which direction the American people are going to head next. As the third world war progresses, our government keeps destroying our liberties, and the economic collapse gets worse, the reaction from the masses is going to be to keep embracing things like the Luigi movement. And, most importantly, to seek out voices which speak to the class-based rage that Luigi represents. This is why it’s the correct strategy for us communists to show ourselves as friends to those who support Luigi. While the class war progresses to its next stage, only those who take the right stance on this issue will be able to capture the proto-revolutionary energy that’s spreading across our society.
This energy is not something that came from the psyop machine, which is why the ruling class keeps struggling to manage it. Our rulers feel comfortable enough to keep going on the offensive in the third world war, expanding the slaughter of Palestinians, Yemenis, and others; yet there are certain weaknesses within their system, which they increasingly fear will bring them down.
They know that if Palestine wins, or Russia wins, U.S. capitalism will no longer be able to exist as it does now. They also know that should the USA’s people build a sustainable and strong workers movement, one that acts in tandem with the globe’s anti-imperialist forces, then the damage from these geopolitical losses will be multiplied. It will also make these foreign policy losses themselves much more fast and severe, because our movement in the United States has real potential to impact how Washington’s wars go. A strong international united front is instrumental for the victory of the Palestinians, the Russians, the Yemenis, and all others who are resisting the hegemon. The more of the U.S. masses we bring into the fight against our imperial war machine, the more the third world war will backfire on those who’ve started it.
“If the anti-imperialist camp triumphs in World War 3, a new era of revolutionary upsurge surpassing the period immediately after World War 2 will begin,” observes Stephen Cho of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform. “On a global scale, imperialism and fascism will suffer decisive blows, and anti-imperialist and communist forces will be greatly strengthened.” It’s because of this prospect, where the empire’s war escalations end up bringing its own downfall, that the security state is expanding the crackdown so much. To carry out its next plans, the system will have to stop any effective U.S. revolutionary movement from emerging. And because the system keeps being strained, the potential for such a movement keeps growing. This is the inescapable reality that our ruling class is reacting to.
In 1966, after Indonesia underwent a military coup which led to political mass murder, the Communist Party of Indonesia affirmed that capitalism’s control systems are fundamentally weak; they’re weak because capital is opposed to the interests of the people. The problem is that when the revolutionary forces fail to harness the power of the people, these systems will be able to crush the people. Said the Party: “From a strategic point of view, the imperialists and all reactionaries are weak, and consequently we must despise them. By despising the enemies strategically we can build up the courage to fight them and the confidence to defeat them. At the same time we must take them all seriously, take into full account of their strength tactically, and refrain from taking adventurist steps against them.”
The emergence of the Luigi movement, and the revolt within MAGA, both prove the reactionary order’s strategic weakness. The ruling class efforts to police mass consciousness keep failing, with new narrative disruptions happening at an ever-more frequent pace. There’s no avoiding these disruptions, because they’re the inevitable outcome of a dying system.
We cannot tail after the spontaneous energy of the masses, that would just be a surrender to the forces of chaos and collapse. To bring victory for the people, we must actively lead the people towards workers revolution, which is the only way to end the destructive process we’re experiencing. Our task is to take advantage of the systemic weaknesses the collapse is creating, turning this into a victory for the forces which oppose the imperial order. If we can keep building upon this mission’s progress, even as the state’s attacks on us multiply, then the people will be able to overthrow their capitalist dictatorship.
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