Re: [A-List] July 4 and the Marx vision - theory of AmericanRevolution 2

[Waistline2@xxxxxxx]

The Revolution of 1776 was big by any estimate. The  Revolution of 1776 
ushered in something new in human history . . . a whole new  epoch of political 
revolution under the banner of national liberation. National  liberation meant 
more than "me and my country" being liberated from "you and  your country" 
because it happened in a very distinct economic and social  context. 

1776 was big. 1776 birthed what would be called the  national liberation 
movement and this process of national liberation went on for  another two hundred 
years. It reached its peak with the tidal waves of national  liberation 
uprisings between 1940s through 1970s. 

It should come  as no surprise than many Americans have always supported 
national liberation  throughout the world as a lofty and noble goal and this 
included American  resistance to the reckless and criminal war against the 
Vietnamese. More  complicated reasons are involved in why a section of our bourgeoisie 
has always  fought against the closed colonial system that prevented their 
investment of  finance into all areas of the world. 

Nevertheless, 1776 inspired a  vision because it was a new thing in history. 
The French bourgeoisie and the  British bourgeoisie had a revolution to free 
themselves from the feudal estate  system and its political restraints that 
were based on serf and master and a  system of privilege when you did not have to 
proceed anything . . . but rather  has force and connections with owners of 
landed property. 

America  was different. America was founded as a capitalist colony. This 
meant that it  was owned by England and its supreme purpose in life was to ship 
goods and  resources back to the mother country - the Crown. For the first time 
in history  a revolutionary colonial revolt was bound up with the revolution 
against  feudalism, because the American bourgeoisie wanted freedom from feudal 
England.  

The United States is perhaps the only country in the world, most  certainly 
in the Western Hemisphere, that was never tainted with feudal economic  
relations. Canada was, Mexico was and everything else south of the border was  
tainted. 

To say the revolution of 1776 was a national democratic  revolution is not 
enough. To say there was not feudal economic relations is not  enough. 1776 was 
an agrarian bourgeois democratic revolution and all the  agrarian classes more 
than less are destined to disintegrate in the face of the  advance of modern 
industrial. The vision of 1776 could only be advanced when the  foundation for 
the industrial bourgeoisie had been laid and they assumed power.  

People fight for ideas. People fight for their vision even when  they cannot 
achieve their vision. Each time they gain a little bit more as  society 
develops the economic legs to make a noble vision attainable. As  technology 
develops and the mighty forces of production expands a new generation  recast the old 
vision in their image based on what they conceive as possible.  

The clearest thinking people in 1776 understood that unless  national 
liberation emancipated the slaves they would have to fight the  revolution over again 
to achieve the vision put forth. George Washington was the  largest slave 
holder at the time and Jefferson ... well we know his history and  the difference 
between his vision and real life as a slave master. In this  sense, the Civil 
War was a continuation of 1776. 

In the same sense  we can see in the growing revolution today that the 
subjective side of the  social process - how people actually think things out, is 
inexplicably connected  to the vision proclaimed by the Civil War or the "Second 
Edition" of the  American revolution. This vision could not and was not 
achieved. The vision was  mass democracy or a nation - not a union of people or 
distinct ethnic groups,  conceived in liberty and justice for all. 

What is democracy?  Democracy is the rule of the people and such rule must 
rest upon the ability of  the people to choice freely. That, in turn means 
independence or individual  freedom. Independence and individual freedom rests upon 
a person's secure access  and control over the necessities of life. If I 
depend on someone else for food,  shelter and clothing, then I am a person's 
slave. If I am compelled to do that  person's bidding to secure the necessities of 
life, then I am that person slave  no matter how democratic and subtle the 
command is. 

The ideas of  Jefferson democracy rest on this understanding. Hence, the 
demand for  independence provided by the small family farm and land ownership. The 
 Revolution did not achieve Jeffersonian democracy, nor did the Civil War.  
History seems to keep repeating itself on a higher and spiraling level and the  
social movements keep demanding the same thing under changing conditions and  
each time the demands of the vision of 1776 advances the revolutionary 
process.  In this sense there is a chain of demands from one revolution to the next, 
 culminating in the outbreak of warfare. 

The specific feature of  the unfolding social revolution in the American 
Union and how people are  compelled by their own history to think things out, can 
be traced back to the  vision of 1776 . . . and this is the modern theory of 
the American social  revolution. 

Marxism has never faired well in the American Union  for a complex of reasons 
grounded in our country as a country of immigrants. Our  history is extremely 
violent and revolutionary. Where else on earth has a  section of the 
bourgeoisie gone into Civil War with another section? The  agrarian bourgeois fought 
the industrial bourgeoisie in the bloody conflict.  This was markedly different 
from the colonial revolts of the Second World  Imperial War era or the time 
of Lenin. 

In shaping the theory of  the American Revolution - Third Edition, old 
concepts and ideology of the past  is useless. No one in their right mind advocates 
for a Soviet America because  Sovietism was an industrial form of democracy no 
matter what its hardships and  harshness. Democratic circles of industrial 
workers as owners of production is  something connected to the ascendancy of the 
industrial system.  

The diverse peoples of America do not think in such concepts and  an 
important reason is that we have left the ascendancy of the industrial system  a 
couple of decades ago. The vision of 1776 and Lincoln  . . . and then the  decades 
of the Civil Rights Movement and its aftermath drives the vision of  
individual freedom and give meaning to liberty and justice for all.  

I remember an early slogan from the late 1950 and early 1960s of  the Civil 
Rights activists - "Ain't I A Man?" Does his not hearken to the vision  of 1776 
and the declaration that all men are created equal and endowed with  certain 
inalienable rights by their creator? 

The vision of one  revolution becomes the cause of the next and society 
fights out the social  questions to achieve the vision. 

What stands before us is  something different and new in human history. To 
limit our vision to  overthrowing the power of capital and investing the state 
with the title of  property holder does not conform to American history and our 
distinct stage of  development of the material power of production. The 
property relation itself  can be abolished. 

Liberty and justice - freedom for the  individual, rests exclusively on their 
ability to access the system to meet  their basic needs, uninhibited by the 
demand to sell ones labor power as the  precondition. The exact features of a 
new system and what is possible will come  into focus as the revolution in the 
technological regime intensifies.  

The vision on July 4th is a nation - not union, conceived in  liberty and 
justice for the individual. 

Melvin  P.