[Part of Groundings in the Communist World Outlook. Click here for the table of contents.]

Introduction

• The first two sessions showed that there is a class, the bourgeoisie, that rules society. They control the major wealth and the means of production. They are driven by the logic of profit and capital accumulation, not meeting people’s needs.
• The bourgeoisie is only a small minority of the population, but they have a monopoly on power. How is that so? How do these motherfuckers keep their grip on society when they exploit and oppress the majority of humanity?
• They do so through exercising a class dictatorship—a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat and all the exploited and oppressed people of the world.

The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie

• All societies divided into antagonistic classes are dictatorships of one class over others. Slave societies: slave masters over slaves. Feudal societies: the aristocracy (feudal lords) over serfs or peasants. Capitalist society: the bourgeoisie over the proletariat. The dictatorship of the ruling class is exercised through the state—the government, the political structures, the army, the police, etc.
• That doesn’t necessarily or usually mean one person as a dictator, but that there is only democracy among the ruling class, and dictatorship is exercised over other classes.
• While the US claims to be a democracy for all, in reality the masses have no power over the important decisions. Without ownership over capital and the means of production, we have no power over how things are produced, how resources are used, and how products are distributed. Elections in this society only offer limited political choices over which political representatives will preside over a government that serves the bourgeoisie, serves the capitalist system. You cannot vote for who will own and control the means of production. Democracy under capitalism can only be bourgeois-democracy.
• Control over all the other major institutions of society—the education system, healthcare, the media, cultural institutions, etc.—is also in the hands of the bourgeoisie. This is true both in terms of ownership (who owns CNN, FOX News, NFL teams, hospitals, etc.?) and in terms of whose ideas and politics dominate, whose class interests these institutions serve. When you go to school or turn on the news, you get indoctrinated in bourgeois ideology. Schools and the media are examples of the ideological state apparatuses of the bourgeoisie.
• But class dictatorship isn’t just exercised by the ruling class getting you to accept their rule. They can fool some of the people some of the time, but they can’t fool all of the people all of the time. The masses periodically rise up in rebellion.
• To prevent rebellion and to stamp it out when it does occur, to keep the exploited and oppressed in line, the bourgeoisie has repressive state apparatuses—the military, the police, the prison system, immigration police, intelligence agencies like the CIA, etc. These use force against the masses to enforce bourgeois dictatorship.
• Among those who work in the repressive state apparatuses, obedience to bourgeois class interests is demanded, and the most reactionary attitudes towards the masses are cultivated. Think of how police, judges, and prison guards treat people, how much racism is stamped into the entire “justice” system.
• Within the ideological state apparatuses, there is more room for contention, because ideas cannot simply be forced on people. There are plenty of people who work in the ideological state apparatuses—progressive teachers, for example—who do not side with the most reactionary attitudes towards the masses. So within the ideological state apparatuses, there are many potential cracks in the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie that can be opened up. There are far fewer cracks in the bourgeoisie’s repressive state apparatuses, but even there, some do emerge, such as in the rank and file of the US military during the Vietnam War.
• For communists, we look at those cracks as opportunities to break down the whole wall that is the bourgeois state.

The need for proletarian revolution

• We cannot end the exploitation and oppression of the masses unless the masses control the means of production and the key institutions in society—the repressive and ideological state apparatuses.
• Given the reality of bourgeois dictatorship, that means we have to overthrow the bourgeoisie, destroy their state (government, military, police, etc.), take hold of their wealth and capital, seize the means of production so that we can produce for people’s needs and all-around development, and construct new institutions serving the masses of people and eradicating oppressive social relations and ways of thinking. In place of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie will be the dictatorship of the proletariat.
• That will require revolution—an all-out war—but a people’s war, fought by relying on the masses of exploited and oppressed with the support of other classes and individuals taking their side.
• Such a revolution is possible because the class at the base of society—the proletariat—is the class that makes society run in the first place, producing all that we need to survive, from food to buildings to infrastructure to transportation to services. Yet while its labor runs society, the proletariat is bitterly exploited, thrown out of work when no longer needed, forced to live in the worst conditions, and subjected to the worst brutalities of the bourgeoisie’s dictatorship (police brutality, prison, deportation, etc.). Therefore, it has a material, class interest in overthrowing bourgeois rule, and can run society without the bourgeoisie.
• Unlike previous exploited classes, the proletariat works in conditions of socialized production. It cannot liberate itself as a class by taking a piece of the machinery or getting a plot of land, but has to take collective ownership of the socialized means of production. That makes it a class capable of collectively wielding the means of production for the benefit of humanity. And that, in turn, gives it a class interest in eliminating all exploitative and oppressive social divisions. Furthermore, the proletariat is an international class, producing what humanity needs in a global production process. That gives it a material class interest in proletarian internationalism, ending exploitation and oppression all around the world, not just in whatever nation it finds itself.
• As the Manifesto of the Organization of Communist Revolutionaries states, “In the US, the proletariat includes the immigrants exploited in the fields, food production facilities, and service jobs; the ‘surplus populations’ whom the capitalist class has no productive use for and so are locked in prisons, confined to ghettos, and have no choice but to work in the illegal economy to survive; and millions of others slaving away in low-wage factory work, the service and food industries, transportation, shipping, and other economic sectors of harsh exploitation. The proletariat in the US numbers in the tens of millions. Though multinational, the proletariat in the US is disproportionately made up of Black, Latino, and other oppressed nationalities due to the crucial role of white supremacy in the foundation and functioning of capitalism-imperialism in the US. From the housing projects to the prisons to the fields, fast food restaurants, and factories, the proletariat can and must be organized as a revolutionary force capable of leading the overthrow of the US capitalist-imperialist ruling class.”

Between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie: the middle classes and the united front under the leadership of the proletariat

• The proletariat in the US numbers in the tens of millions. It is a sizable minority of the population. It is strategically positioned to overthrow bourgeois rule and establish proletarian rule—the dictatorship of the proletariat—and lead the socialist transition to communism. But it cannot do this alone, and must draw other classes into the revolutionary process.
• Between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat are various middle classes. That includes the petty-bourgeoisie—people who own small businesses or who have education and expertise that enables them to work in positions of mental labor for higher salaries. It also includes upper sections of the working class, who perform manual labor but get paid high wages or salaries based on the spoils of imperialism and have stable jobs with benefits. We call them the well-paid working class. (Optional terminology note: those upper sections of the working class have historically been called the labor aristocracy and bourgeoisified workers.)
• The revolutionary struggle involves a battle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat for the allegiance of those middle classes.
• Unlike in the oppressed countries that make up most of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, in the US, those middle classes constitute a large portion—numerically, the majority—of society. This is because the US is the top imperialist power, and the US bourgeoisie has plenty of loot from its exploitation and plunder of the world. It dispenses a portion of that loot to the middle classes to buy off their allegiance. Consequently, those middle classes develop a material stake in bourgeois rule and US imperialism.
• For some sections of those middle classes, that stake is high, and they wind up siding with the bourgeoisie. For others, that stake is low, or is mitigated by the fact that bourgeois rule thwarts their desires to serve humanity. For example, many healthcare workers, even some highly paid doctors, want to improve the health and well-being of the masses, but are prevented from doing so by the profit motive in command of the healthcare industry.
• In the US, bourgeois rule is also exercised through white supremacy—the exploitation and oppression of Black people from slavery to sharecropping to urban ghettos and wage exploitation to unemployment, police brutality, and prisons. This is a subject we will return to in depth in session 5. For now, it’s important to note that white supremacy gives white people a material and ideological stake in bourgeois rule to some degree, while giving Black people, Indigenous people, Latinos, and other oppressed nationalities as a whole a material stake in proletarian revolution to some degree. In addition to white supremacy, other forms of oppression, such as the oppression of women (the subject of session 6) also create contradictions and conflicts in society.
• To defeat the bourgeoisie in battle and run a new society, the proletariat has to bring sections of the middle classes under its leadership, and lead struggles against all forms of oppression, including white supremacy and patriarchy. To do so, it must develop a united front under the leadership of the proletariat over the course of the various struggles in society and especially during the all-out struggle to overthrow the bourgeoisie. As the Manifesto of the Organization of Communist Revolutionaries states, “In the US, the solid core of the united front is the unity between the multinational proletariat and its goal of communism, on the one hand, and the struggles of the various oppressed nationalities and nation(s) within the US for their liberation. This is a strategic recognition of the fact that white supremacy, the genocide of Indigenous peoples and theft of their lands, the history and ongoing oppression of Black people from slavery down to today, the seizure of Mexican and overseas territories, and the oppression and exploitation of various immigrants are at the foundation and functioning of capitalism-imperialism in the US. Uniting with the struggles of the various oppressed nationalities and nation(s) within the US and diverting them towards revolutionary objectives will thus be a crucial means by which the united front under the leadership of the proletariat will be built.”

The magic weapons of proletarian revolution

• The united front is one of what communists have called the three magic weapons—the key strategic tools for overthrowing the bourgeoisie.
• The most essential magic weapon is the communist vanguard party. This is an organization of those, from the proletariat and other classes, who are most committed to the proletarian revolution and the goal of communism. Members of the vanguard party are trained in communist ideology and revolutionary strategy and tactics. They integrate with the masses and organize them in class struggle, using a “from the masses, to the masses” method of leadership developed by Mao Zedong called the mass line. They bring the masses a class-conscious understanding of society—an understanding of how different class interests, bourgeois vs. proletarian, motivate the actions of different classes in society—through agitation and propaganda. They dedicate their lives to the masses and to revolution.
• The vanguard party is organized on the basis of democratic centralism, which means, in the words of the Manifesto of the Organization of Communist Revolutionaries, “rigorous discussion and debate over how to advance the revolution combined with unified action under a centralized strategy and leadership. The vanguard is built and operates so wisely and so well that the bourgeoisie and its repressive state apparatus cannot easily destroy it or even know how it functions and who is part of it.”
• Around and under the leadership of the vanguard party are the subjective forces for revolution: various organizations and institutions that develop the class-consciousness, fighting capacity, and revolutionary organization of the masses. (See the OCR’s “All roads lead to revolution” manual for further explanation, and consider filling in this bullet point with practical examples.)
• The third magic weapon is the revolutionary army of the proletariat. This is the military force, under the leadership of the vanguard party, that will overthrow bourgeois rule on the battlefield. Given the relative stability of the imperialist US and the far reach of the bourgeoisie’s repressive state apparatus, the revolutionary army of the proletariat cannot be built until the proletariat has a real shot at winning a revolutionary civil war. However, building the subjective forces for revolution will lay the groundwork for the future revolutionary army of the proletariat, both its fighting force and its logistical support, and the socialist government that will be formed after the revolution. And opportunities for mass combativity and revolutionary violence in the run-up to the formation of the revolutionary army of the proletariat will provide crucial rehearsal experience. Revolution in the US will most likely start with the launch of an organized insurrection in multiple urban centers and the initial seizure of power by the proletariat in some areas and then be followed by a civil war between the revolutionary army of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie’s military, with each side vying for territory and seeking to swing sections of people over to its side.

How do we get to the point of launching proletarian revolution?

• Launching a revolution might sound crazy when we look at the seeming strength of bourgeois rule today. But it’s been done before. And it can be done again by drawing lessons from previous experiences and analyzing the conditions we face today to develop a sound revolutionary strategy that builds up the subjective forces for revolution and weakens the rule of the bourgeoisie.
• The basis for building the subjective forces for revolution and weakening bourgeois rule is in the antagonistic contradictions and crises that are generated by bourgeois rule.
• First and foremost among those contradictions are the class antagonisms faced by the proletariat, from exploitation in the labor process to displacement, high rents, dilapidated housing and infrastructure, and homelessness, from police brutality and prison to the way undocumented immigrants are forced to hide in the shadows, from neglect and mistreatment in healthcare to an oppressive and stultifying education system. The subjective forces for revolution can be built by mobilizing the masses to wage class struggle around these class antagonisms, developing their class-consciousness, fighting capacity, and revolutionary organization in the process and delivering blows to the bourgeoisie.
• Besides direct class antagonisms between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, various political, social, and cultural conflicts constantly emerge in society and generate debate and resistance, from the struggle over abortion rights, to protests against imperialist wars, to mass concern and action in relation to climate change. The revolutionary proletariat and its vanguard party must enter into these debates and resistance movements, push them in the most revolutionary direction possible, and develop ties, organization, and communist cadre out of those efforts.
• Given that the US is the top imperialist power in the world today, struggles against US imperialism and exposure of US imperialism are an important part of developing the class-consciousness of the proletariat in the US and winning other sections of people over to the side of the proletariat. To make revolution in the US, we need masses of people to identify the US bourgeoisie as the enemy of the people of the world, see it as our obligation to the world to overthrow them, and refuse the bribes they offer us (in the form of consumer items and a higher standard of living) based on their plunder of the world. That’s what proletarian internationalism means in the US context.
• More generally, the subjective forces for revolution and revolutionary consciousness can be cultivated in all the cracks of society, whenever people start questioning the injustices of bourgeois rule or rising in resistance against it. This is even true within the bourgeoisie’s ideological state apparatuses to some extent (examples: teachers, media, radical lawyers in court, etc.).
• Crises—political, economic, and cultural—present opportunities for bold interventions by the subjective forces of revolution that can challenge the legitimacy of bourgeois rule and swing large numbers of people over to the side of the revolutionary proletariat. Bourgeois rule lurches from one crisis to another, from the 2008 financial collapse and housing crisis, to conflicts over bourgeois elections (2016, 2020, 2024), to the COVID-19 pandemic. And when the masses rise up in rebellion, such as in the summer of 2020 against police brutality and the oppression of Black people, that creates a crisis for bourgeois rule. If we are able to bring the subjective forces to bear on these crises, we can make leaps forward in the class-consciousness, fighting capacity, and revolutionary organization of the masses.
• Ultimately, it’s up to us to create favorable new conditions, including the opportunity to launch the revolution, through struggle. The basis for revolution is in the existence of the proletariat, the class that is strategically positioned to overthrow bourgeois rule and run society in a whole new way. The openings for revolution are in the contradictions, conflicts, and crises generated by bourgeois rule. Seizing on those contradictions and crises is where wielding the three magic weapons and building the subjective forces for revolution comes in.

Discussion questions

Why must any society divided into antagonistic classes be a dictatorship of the ruling class over other classes? How is this analysis different than what we are taught in school about democracy?

How does the bourgeoisie exercise its class dictatorship over the masses?

What’s the difference between ideological state apparatuses and repressive state apparatuses?

What (potential) cracks are there within the bourgeois state, and how can we take advantage of those cracks to overthrow bourgeois rule?

Why must bourgeois rule be overthrown in order for the masses to be free from exploitation and oppression?

What is the proletariat, and what makes it different from other classes, even other exploited classes? In the US, who is part of the proletariat? Why is the proletariat strategically positioned to make revolution and run a new, socialist society?

Who are the middle classes in the US? What are their class interests?

Why must the proletariat lead a united front involving other classes to make revolution? Why can’t the proletariat just make revolution on its own? How can the proletariat go about building that united front?

What is the communist vanguard party, why is it necessary to make revolution, and how does it lead the masses to make revolution?

What is the revolutionary army of the proletariat and why is it necessary?

How do we get to the point where it’s possible to launch the struggle to overthrow bourgeois rule and for the proletariat to seize power?

What does class struggle under communist leadership look like? What are some examples today or historically? How can today’s class struggles be led to develop the subjective forces for revolution?

Besides class struggle by the proletariat, what are other ways to build the subjective forces for revolution?

Why is proletarian revolution both necessary and possible in the US? What do we have to do to make it happen?

Key terms

class dictatorship, ruling class

state, state power

dictatorship of the bourgeoisie

democracy

ideological state apparatuses

repressive state apparatuses

dictatorship of the proletariat

people’s war

proletariat (in the US)

petty-bourgeoisie, mental labor

the well-paid working class

the united front under the leadership of the proletariat, the solid core of the UFuLP

the three magic weapons of proletarian revolution

communist vanguard party

(proletarian) class-consciousness, fighting capacity, and revolutionary organization

antagonistic contradiction, class antagonism, class struggle

agitation, propaganda

subjective forces for revolution

revolutionary army of the proletariat

proletarian internationalism