We don’t have to wait.

We can and must build the foundation for a mass party over the next three to four years, by the year 2020.

It won’t be the size of the Democrats or Republicans by 2020, but it will be of a size that they will start having to notice us and taking us seriously, and which we can use to launch and begin being seriously considered as a force that can get to that size soon enough, and become a mass party soon enough.

If we put off concrete goals and specific deadlines forever, we don’t get anywhere. We must give specific numbers, even if we debate what those numbers are: say, some kind of non-Democrat collective party structure with at least 10,000 members by 2020.

2020 VISION

Another recession is impending by the year 2020 because of the 8-12 year cycle that governs recessions

by the year 2020 because of the 8-12 year cycle that governs recessions Almost 43% of people under the age 30 have a positive view of socialism

Trump will enter office with the lowest rating of any president in the last 40 years, at 44%

Mass waves of struggle occur spontaneously beyond any control or preparation by organizations or organizers, as described by Rosa Luxemburg — our job is to consolidate these waves into organization with political ideas rather than feel responsible for initiating them. These waves will occur soon and we must build a mass party out of them.

I suspect the next 3 years of Trump’s self-destabilization will be so explosive that my expectations will actually turn out to be conservative

Let’s not act like we have the luxury of time against global warming; any serious strategy discussion of building a mass party has to address that we are actually working against a ticking clock

RECESSIONARY CYCLES

Recessions occur every 8 to 12 years under capitalism. It’s just a fact of life. The one before 2008/9 was in 2001. Before that it was 1990-1. Just look at the list on Wikipedia. Marx had a section in Capital listing them too.

The last recession was 2008/9. I’m not an economics guru but things have been completely dismal in terms of market fundamentals and financial reforms setting the stage for the next recession. The rate of profit to decline over time has been in full effect during this recessionary cycle, setting up the next contraction to be vicious.

Given that only now, in 2017, are we just now hitting 2008/2009 levels of employment — nearly a full decade after the last recession — this means it took almost the entire recessionary cycle to make up for the jobs lost in the last crash, with almost all of those jobs being crap, ie not even real job recovery.

With sentiment already leaning much harder to the left than before, with Bernie-style populism actually far outsurging Trump type politics despite the obstructive Democratic primary electoral logjam and rigging, this means the economic hardship and political response to the next crash will be serious. We won’t have to wait three years for an Occupy like we did with the last recession. It could be immediate.

OPINION IS WITH US

43% of people under the age of 30 have a positive view of socialism.

Trump will be the least popular President upon entering office for the last forty years.

The majority of the population supported neither candidate, and most were voting not out of support for either one, but simply to stop the other one.

Congress’ approval rating is at 19%.

Several socialist organizations are seeing large growth spurts already.

WHEN THE WAVE BREAKS, NO ONE WILL KNOW, BUT IT’S SOON ENOUGH

Rose Luxemberg said, as apparently even the Sanders organization people are saying now (but I was thinking it as it pertains to spontaneous riots first!) “before a revolution happens, it is perceived as impossible; after it happens, it is seen as having been inevitable.”

Frankly I think it will be bigger than Occupy, bigger than Sanders. I think it will make them look like jokes. I think it will be like Tahrir square in the United States, something in response to Trump, or some kind of labor uprising, or something completely unexpected and wildly unpredictable. The USA is a dry haystack waiting to go up in flames.

Luxemberg’s quote is really important to keep in mind. What form will it take? Mass protests against Trump? Police brutality riots that go from moderate size to…so huge they sweep up the entire country? Sudden unexpected labor strikes that turn contagious? Occupy 2.0? Some or all of the above? Who knows? Was anyone expecting the Dakota Pipeline thing to get so big? Was anyone expecting the Sanders campaign to get so big? Was anyone expecting Occupy to get so big? Was anyone expecting the Egyptian revolution to get so big?

By definition you never know if an action has a point until after you do it, so there’s actually no point in doing anything on a basis of whether it will bloom into mass action. Participate in mass action if you feel like it. It comes and goes spontaneously.

The point is simply this: IT’S SO EASY TO LOSE FAITH THAT IT’S COMING, AND AS SOCIALISTS AND MARXISTS, WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT AS HORRIBLE AS THE ELECTION WAS, MORE WAVES OF SPONTANEOUS MASS ACTION ARE ON THEIR WAY TO RESUSCITATE THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT.

That’s all I’m saying. Have faith in the spontaneous waves. Trust in historical materialism. Trust in the Force.

TRUMP IS CHAOS; CHAOS IS OPPORTUNITY

Trump is so out of his fucking mind with his Twitter account that he routinely fucks up basic diplomacy and legislative maneuvering by talking out his ass. He is all impulse, no statecraft or managerial competence.

Even the slightest successful opposition on our part could create beautiful cascading cycles of repression and resistance that could bloom into full-blown revolution.

Why is the Left acting like a bunch of fucking cowards, so afraid of Trump? We should be overjoyed. We are revolutionaries. For revolutionaries, chaos is an opportunity.

Us whiny little Millennials forgot something during 2016: Life is a roller coaster. You’re supposed to scream.

The screaming is supposed to be fun. Enjoy your screaming. Because more is on the way.

Trump came to power with the ruling class in the weakest and most divided state it has ever existed in. The Republican Party is in shambles, having nearly destroyed itself being humbled by a total outsider wrecking every single one of its lame contenders.

The Democrats snatched defeat from the jaws of victory after purging the populist Sanders who would have saved their brand. Instead they are now an ex-Establishment turned into a minority party out of power stopping at nothing to pull every dirty trick to sabotage the incoming regime.

So we have two sides of the political class, internally ravaged by themselves, and also at each other’s throats.

Both liberal and conservative wings of the media are straight up accusing each other of making news up.

We have the opportunity to build an opposition to Trump based not on liberalism, but on socialism.

It’s up to us.

This is our generation’s challenge to meet.

Let’s get to work.