Although it was clearly a reactionary movement celebrating its idol Trump, the images have horrified rulers around the world.
The images that came out of Washington yesterday cannot be a reason for emancipatory forces to rejoice. The men and women who entered the Capitol did not want to express that they no longer want to be governed and ruled. On the contrary, on their flags and banners they made it quite clear that they did not want to accept the defeat of their idol Trump. So it was not an emancipatory act that took place in Washington. It is also significant that an almost invariably white crowd rose up in conformist revolt. Many of them may have actually believed that if Trump falls, socialism and feminism and anti-racism will come with him. Such slogans were spread around the Republican Party for months. But left-wing and emancipatory forces should not now make the mistake of believing this nonsense on their part and interpreting any positive things into Biden/Harris coming to power. This is a different faction within the US ruling class. They will only write another chapter of capitalist rule. They will wage war against the poor in the US, as the Democratic and Republican parties have done in nice turns for centuries. But Biden/Harris should succeed in co-opting parts of the anti-racist and feminist movement that had just developed in the Trump era.
Hope for a different Capitol occupation
But there is hope that a part of the opposition movement now has no illusions in the rule of capital, no matter which character masks lead the presidency. Paradoxically, the images from Washington could even be a signal to the world. One only has to observe how nervous politicians from all continents were when the pictures from Washington went around the world. From the Nato Secretary General to the German Foreign Minister to the FDP MEP Lambsdorf, to name just a small selection, moods of indignation came. You could directly feel their fear because people who do not belong there in the eyes of the ruling class have invaded the Capitol. We will now also hear leftists lamenting again that the Capitol as a place of democracy has been attacked. They have forgotten what was clear as recently as the 1960s to movements like the Black Panther Party or the Weather-People, a lesser-known left movement. The Capitol, the Pentagon, the White House, these are important elements of a state apparatus that wages war against the people of the USA and other countries. It was in the Capitol that the laws were passed that put millions of people in prison in the US and created the prison-industrial complex. It was also in the Capitol that the wars in all kinds of countries were legitimised. For people all over the world who have realised that Biden/Harris are just new faces for the old capitalist rule, the pictures from Washington could paradoxically also be a reason for encouragement. It became clear how quickly those in power around the world hyperventilate because the street is invading the “hallowed halls” of power. We can only hope that for once it will not be people who cry out for a strong man, but who make it clear with the slogan “Everyone must go” that they no longer want to be governed and represented.
The end of representation
Now, one could say that in the current situation, with the weakness of the emancipative forces, this is illusory and that one would have to be satisfied with “lesser evil”, which is what we see in Biden/Harris. But we should not forget that part of the Occuppy movement had effectively blockaded the Port of Oakland in 2013 as part of a general strike. Last summer there was a temporary liberated zone in Seattle for a few days as part of the anti-racist protests, but it was limited to a few streets and soon ended. The biggest problem was that this movement did not succeed in spreading to the big internet corporations in the city. But this is also an indication of how a new left movement could emerge that includes not only a few “alternative” streets but also the wage-earners in central factories. Then councils could be formed that, with the slogan “Everyone must go”, would turn the Capitol, the Pentagon and the White House into places of remembrance of a barbaric prehistory that we call the present.
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