Image from Tampa Bay TimesThanks for reading Rainer’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. When Marxists Speak Out wrote their recent May Day statement The Escalation of the World War Danger and the Need for a New Communist International
The slavery economic mode never passed on; due to the thirteenth amendment, corporations all over Amerika profit off the backs of prison slaves. Who were often pipelined into those cages, given mandatory minimums far beyond what they actually did, mandated to ‘work’(read: slave) at the end of a baton, or at the end of deliberate coercive tactics, and then left in a place where their likelihood of recidivism is so high that they’ll be right back in clink within six months. The economic mode did not change, it just put on a layer of camouflage that you’ve fallen for. Because you’re not in community with those who’ve been there.
And y’all don’t get in the way one bit. Never have I ever seen a white person interpose themselves between a cop and their soon-to-be victim. What ‘working class revolution’ can I count on out of y’all when I can’t even count on y’all to stop a pig? Speaking of, how am I supposed to believe the collective you would be abolitionists in the event of the return of mask-off, societal chattel slavery in these circumstances where y’all don’t even stop pigs? Your analysis just is not there.
Many nations maintained slave labor (slave relations) after evolving into feudalism and even into capitalism. What constitutes a system of production are the relations of the classes to the means (and by large majority here it is proletariat and bourgeoisie), the nature of the economy itself in relation to the production of resources (the exploitation of surplus labor value), and the method of production of resources in the economy (industry). Many aptly describe capitalism as “slavery with extra steps” and on the surface debt slavery does look a lot like slavery, however in economic terms they are as different as apples and oranges.
It is true, our society has not radicalized to the point that “de-arrests” happen frequently. I understand your cynicism however ask any proletarian (I’m speaking in strict terms of economic relations…those workers who’s job is to produce commodities), things do not simply come into existence, they must be crafted and that takes time and effort. I also understand your fear of the slave mode of production coming back, however thankfully there is a simply fact which should put some ease into your mind: Slavery is obsolete economically speaking. Society advanced to the extent that slavery because too expensive, too inefficient, and too chaotic as society developed and evolved. That is why a class as wicked as the bourgeoisie went along with it’s abolition (many systems transitioned into hybrids before outright changing, many bourgeois were also slave owners at one time). All we could see is an expansion of slave relations however that would be to the detriment of the economy. If America collapsed into barbarism and such things did return in a hypothetical situation, the now ancient American economy would be easily overtaken by larger more advanced economies in the world, namely China as they are the dominant economic force in the world today and are geographically close.
Solidarity, class consciousness, the breaking of liberal programing…it all takes time and effort. Change is a process, and no process has ever been completed by not taking action towards it’s development.
Hey, I’m wading into an old discussion that’s totally out of my depth here, but I just wanted to post a counter-example to what you said. This doesn’t invalidate what you said and that’s not my intention, as this is obviously a rare exception, but I just wanted you to know that it has happened. Perhaps it will give you a glimmer of hope.
https://atlantablackstar.com/2023/02/10/were-much-more-scared-of-the-f-police-in-this-situation-than-this-guy-video-shows-seattle-police-standoff-with-unarmed-black-man-until-crowd-intervenes/