Initial Reactions to the January 6th Storming of the U.S. Capitol

We are publishing this article written by a close sympathiser, of the ICC in the US, which defends our general analysis of the significance of the events of January 6 in Washington, and points out the role of those ardent apologists of bourgeois democracy – the Trotskyists, “Democratic Socialists” etc - in helping to strengthen the repressive apparatus of the state.   ICC

The March to Save America

The results of the 2020 election have been a point of contention due to widespread conspiracy theories among a sector of American voters and deep mistrust in both of the two major parties to adhere to a “fair” election. The prevailing sentiment amongst supporters of the Democratic Party was that the campaign for Donald Trump had colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 election. The full truth to this story demonstrates the bourgeoisie’s corruption and disregard for the democratic rights which they had established in their own revolutions centuries ago. The sentiment amongst supporters of the Republican Party now, in the wake of Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in November of 2020, is that the Democrats have rigged voting machines, thrown out mail-in ballots (the use of which increased this election cycle due to the Covid-19 pandemic), and schemed in other various ways to ensure their victory. While the underhanded tactics of the ruling class are certainly well-documented, the proof of widespread election fraud remains lacking, culminating in the President himself promoting news stories with sources that trace back to unconfirmed, unhinged conspiracies on message boards. In lieu of this belief that the election results were illegitimate, conservative mouthpieces sprang up and spoke out against the election of Biden. These rightist figures, groups, organizations, etc. began to organize the March to Save America on January 6th in Washington, D.C. with no clear goals but to demonstrate against the election results, “stop the steal” of the election, and prevent the ruin of the United States by the supposedly communist boogeyman, the “Chinese puppet” Joe Biden constructed by the most conspiratorial of the right. January 6th would be the day that patriots would stop the certification of the election results and the confirmation of the election of Joe Biden.

The “Insurrection”

The speeches at the official March to Save America rally were dangerously provocative and included vague calls to action, calls for “trial by combat”, and calls to march down to the Capitol building and show the strength of the protesters coming from President Trump and members of his inner circle. The way this march ended was not the peaceful fizzle expected, nor was it the clashing of rightists and police officers with antifascist demonstrators common to these sorts of rallies. It ended with an unprecedented action unseen in the history of the United States: a great mass of protesters storming the Capitol building and forcing their ways into the halls of Congress. The response of the police was lackluster at first as a rowdy crowd became rowdier, pushing forward against an underprepared police presence. Rather than immediate confrontation, the police attempted to verbally de-escalate before more physical tactics were used to attempt to hold demonstrators back. These tactics proved ineffective, and demonstrators soon stormed the Capitol steps and forced their way into the building; soon there were people flooding into the halls of Congress and the offices of legislators, some stealing objects and vandalizing the walls while others simply stood around and took photos of themselves in defiance. As the perimeter was breached, Representatives and other Capitol staffers were evacuated through tunnels under the building. Some, like Democratic Representative of New York’s 14th District Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, were forced to hide in their office bathrooms. Some of the invaders were armed and some had zip-ties, implying intention to take hostages to stop the certification of the election. In the chaos, some were trampled, one woman was shot, and the body count was confirmed, after the dust had settled, to be five people killed.

The Aftermath

In the aftermath of this scuffle, it may be possible to see some of what the Biden administration has in store for the next four years: the strengthening of the security and law enforcement apparatuses of the state under the pretense of crushing the dangerous Trump cult. Populism has been forced out of the White House, but remains in the streets and in many of the Representatives elected to Congress back in November. The Democratic majority in government now must fight against the receding tide of populism, while piggybacking off of the disastrous past four years. While Hillary Clinton promised a continuation of the Obama legacy, Biden does not signal a return to the “normalcy” of Obama’s presidency. Biden’s foreign policy, for example, will not be a reversal of Trump’s, but will build itself off of the blunders and carelessness of the past four years; one needs only to look toward his provocation of China on the military front, guaranteeing military protection of the disputed Senkaku Islands under Article 5 of the US-Japan security treaty. When it comes to social unrest, it appears that the ferocity of the state will be in continuity with the Trump presidency as well.

Leftists have been open in their support for the arrest and prosecution of those who stormed the Capitol, acting in unofficial cooperation with federal agencies to identify those who participated. These same leftists have spent the previous summer marching out in the streets for Black Lives Matter, defending riots as legitimate expressions of popular anger, and are now happy to expose their political opponents to the same agents who arrested, beat, shot at, and gassed them in droves. The left has been more than happy to become the cops they themselves have been speaking out against. However, it’s not enough that the leftists should engage in police-like behavior; this behavior is in direct support of the defense of democracy and support for incoming president Joe Biden. This demonstrates the trap of democratic and anti-fascist ideology as espoused and spread by the left: since capitalism always creates anti-democratic and fascist tendencies which will always threaten those nominal liberties which democracy grants to the national population, when does the defense of democracy give way to class struggle? At what point does the working class which is dissolved into movements for the defense of democracy immediately reconstitute itself on its own ground against fascism and democracy and for communism?

The communist left clearly knows that the answer is never, which is why we always resolutely stand against any movement which harms the development of the proletariat as an independent political force of its own. The same leftists who have spent so much time and energy setting themselves up to be the allies of the workers in the public eye have proven themselves once again to be false friends: mobilization behind the leftist political project has proven itself to be a mobilization for the preservation of bourgeois society as it has countless times in the past. The left’s own demands which have been used to gain popular support have been cast aside as the political project of the Democratic Party’s almost unrivaled administration begins. Their cries to defund the police, which have made their way into the halls of Congress, have swiftly been replaced by calls for a harder stance on the same actions which they take when confronted with the injustices of the capitalist system. The left has paraded workers into the streets under various banners through the Trump presidency, not one of these banners being the self-activity of the workers, and now it must march these workers off the streets and back into passivity; this final demobilization will go hand-in-hand with future mobilizations of Trump supporters to discredit street mobilization of any political faction. The left has served its true purpose openly: the deception of the workers with the intent to keep their feet firmly planted on the bourgeoisie’s ground. 

So it is in this light that we can plainly set out what must be done by militants and sympathizers of the proletarian milieu: the fight against the all illusions and mystification of the real situation must go on. It must be affirmed that the events of demonstrations like this are a symptom of a decadent society that is decomposing and rotting on its own feet, that the opposition of the left to the right seeks to crush the workers just like the opposition of the right to the left, and that the only solution to the issues of crumbling capitalist society is proletarian revolution.

Noah Lennox, February 2nd, 2021