The fascist coup of January 6
This is a coordinated, planned fascist insurrection. Trump supporters passed through police barricades outside the Capitol and entered the building without serious resistance.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The fascist coup of January 6
by David North
The fascist insurrection in Washington D.C.—which resulted in the storming of the US Congress, the panicked dispersal of terrified senators and members of the House, the delay of the official validation of Joseph Biden’s Electoral College majority, and even the occupation of the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—is a turning point in the political history of the United States.
The hoary glorifications of the invincibility and timelessness of American democracy have been totally exposed and discredited as a hollow political myth. The popular phrase “It Can’t Happen Here,” taken from the title of Sinclair Lewis’ justly famous fictional account of the rise of American fascism, has been decisively overtaken by events. Not only can a fascist coup happen here. It has happened here, on the afternoon of January 6, 2021.
Moreover, even if the initial effort has fallen short of its goal, it will happen again.
What occurred yesterday was the outcome of a carefully planned conspiracy. It was instigated by Donald Trump, who has been working with a gang of fascist conspirators strategically positioned within the White House and other powerful institutions, departments and agencies of the state. Wednesday’s operation carries with it the overwhelming stench of the Trump sons, close aides like Stephen Miller, and numerous others working behind the scenes within the military, the National Guard and the police.
The conspiracy utilized the well-known techniques of modern coups. The plotters identified the meeting of the Congress to ratify Biden’s Electoral College majority as the propitious time for action. The assault was prepared by weeks of lying claims by Trump and his minions that the 2020 election had been stolen. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rendered critical service by withholding Republican recognition of Biden’s election for weeks, thus providing time and legitimacy to Trump’s efforts to discredit the election with totally fraudulent claims of ballot fraud.
A majority of Republican congressmen and a substantial number of Republican senators orchestrated Wednesday’s political debate at which the legitimacy of the Electoral College vote was challenged, to provide the necessary pretext for the planned right-wing uprising. The final signal for the storming of the Capitol building was given by Trump himself, who delivered an insurrectionary harangue to his supporters, who—one can be certain—were directed by elements with police, military and paramilitary training.
It has already been widely noted that the fascist gangs encountered virtually no resistance as they stormed the Capitol. In the most critical and vulnerable areas of the Capitol building, the police were hardly to be seen. To politically evaluate the police response on Wednesday, one has only to recall the violence deployed last June against a peaceful anti-police brutality demonstration in Lafayette Park.
Had a left-wing protest been called in Washington to protest Trump’s efforts to overthrow the results of the election, the demonstrators—as everyone knows—would have been met with a massive show of force by the police and National Guard. There would have been police sharpshooters placed strategically on every building in the vicinity of the protesters. Military helicopters and drones would have been circling overhead. The slightest unauthorized movement by the crowd, however peaceful, would have been met with demands for their immediate dispersal, followed within minutes by the launching of barrages of tear gas cannisters. Hundreds, if not thousands, would have been kettled and arrested.
The response of the Democratic Party to the coup has been a pathetic display of political spinelessness. The first hours of the insurrection passed without a single prominent Democratic leader issuing a clear denunciation of the conspiracy, nor did they call for popular resistance to the coup. Former President Obama and the Clintons, who are followed by millions on Twitter, remained silent throughout the day.
As for the president-elect, Biden waited hours before finally appearing before the public. After describing the attack on the Capitol as sedition, Biden made this extraordinary appeal to the leader of the conspiracy, “I call on President Trump to go on national television now, to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.”
Normally, when confronted with an attempt to overthrow the constitutional regime, the political leader threatened by the conspiracy must immediately seek to deprive the traitors of all access to the mass media and a nationwide audience. But Biden, instead, called on Trump to appear on national television—to call off the insurrection he himself had organized!
Biden concluded his remarks with the following clarion call. “So, President Trump, step up.” This bankrupt appeal to the would-be fascist dictator will go down in history as Biden’s “Hitler, do the right thing” speech.
The Democrats, let alone the media, have no intention of exposing the full depth of the conspiracy and holding its plotters and organizers responsible. The effort to cover up the crime has already begun, with the media already bloviating on the need for Democrats and Republicans “to come together in bipartisan unity.”
The decision of the Senate, in the evening hours, to uphold Biden’s election is not the end of the crisis.
Appeals for “unity” with the conspirators clear the path for the next effort to carry out a fascist coup d’état. This is the lesson of the invasion of the state Capitol last April by armed fascist thugs in Lansing, Michigan and the subsequent conspiracy in the autumn of 2020 to kidnap and assassinate the Democratic governor of the state, Gretchen Whitmer. The Democratic Party and media quickly suppressed coverage of these crimes and hardly defended Whitmer against the attack. The plotters, thus far, have received little more than a slap on the wrist.
The Democrats’ response to the fascist conspiracy is not dictated by merely cowardice or stupidity. Rather, as representatives of the financial-corporate oligarchy, they are frightened that the exposure of the criminal conspiracy and its political aims would ignite a mass response within the working class that spirals into a movement against the capitalist state and the interests it serves.
The effort to conceal the conspiracy must be opposed. Workers must take up the demand for the immediate removal and arrest of Trump. He cannot be allowed to remain in power, utilizing the immense power of the presidency to continue his plotting. His retention of the White House represents a massive threat to the people of the United States and the world. Trump still has the power to declare a national emergency and even launch war. His finger remains on the nuclear trigger.
Nor should his co-conspirators be left in office. The Republican senators and congressmen involved in the conspiracy must be likewise removed from the Senate and Congress, arrested, place on trial and sent to prison.
The continuing reference by the Democrats to their “Republican colleagues” is itself a mockery of democracy.
The demand must be raised for a public investigation with open hearings, aimed at identifying all those involved in the conspiracy, leading to their arrest and imprisonment.
Absolutely no confidence should be placed in the in-coming Biden administration—assuming that his inauguration is not blocked by a further uprising—to hold the conspirators to account and defend democracy.
It must never be forgotten that Biden and the Democrats represent nothing more than another political faction of the same ruling class. As Obama declared immediately after Trump’s election, the conflict between the Democrats and Republicans is nothing more than an “intramural scrimmage,” i.e., a friendly fight between members of the same team. In a statement issued Wednesday evening, Obama singled out Republicans for praise, writing obsequiously: “I’ve been heartened to see many members of the president’s party speak up forcefully today.” The only purpose of such a statement is to conceal the truth about the extent of the fascist coup.
The events of January 6, 2021 must be taken as a warning. The working class must elaborate a political strategy and plan of action to defeat future efforts to impose a dictatorship.
The political and economic dynamic of capitalist reaction and counterrevolution will continue, even with Trump out of office. This dynamic will not abate after January 20. The Democratic Party, whose congressional and senatorial delegation is stacked with millionaires and people with the closest ties to the CIA and the military, are no less capable than the Republicans of organizing a conspiracy to suppress democratic rights.
In any event, the policies of the Biden administration, which will pursue policies set by Wall Street and the military, will perpetuate and escalate the anger and frustrations exploited by the fascists.
Throughout the past year, as it has conducted an unrelenting struggle against the ruling class policy of herd immunity, the Socialist Equality Party has shown in detail the connection between the ruling class’s inhuman response to the pandemic and the Trump administration’s assault on democratic rights.
The danger has not passed.
It is essential to build a network of rank-and-file committees in factories and workplaces capable of organizing broad-based popular resistance through the mobilization of all sections of the working class.
Above all, workers must understand that the disintegration of American democracy is rooted in the crisis of capitalism. In a society riven by staggering levels of social inequality, it is impossible to preserve democracy.
Draw the lessons of January 6!
Take up the fight for socialism and the defense of democratic rights!
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This distinctively American form of fascism will not go quietly into the night. The working class can no longer afford to wait for events to play out. The working class must enter directly into the stream of political events with their own working class agenda. Where to start?
The demand must be raised for a public investigation with open hearings, aimed at identifying all those involved in the conspiracy, leading to their arrest and imprisonment.
Agree or disagree, and why.
Trump, Don Jr., Giuliani, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley, all need to be arrested and charged with sedition and possibly insurrection.
Those terrorists with the Trump hats, flags, and stars -n-bars need to be arrested and charged as well.
What happened yesterday will happen again.
Only, it didn't. What I saw was a bunch of people mostly just standing around, some waving flags or whatnot. As much as the media tried to sensationalize the "violence", it wasn't much more than that. If this was a coup, it seems rather an ineffective and aimless one. The impression overall was that a bunch of Trump supporters stormed the capitol building and then, basically, asked "now what?" after which they allowed themselves to be pushed out. If there were demands issued, they so far remain unreported by the media.
Nor is it true that American democracy has been exposed as a myth. This is evident in that we're still a democracy and this spectacle at the capitol had zero chance of changing that. Democracy wasn't threatened by this episode because there was no factor in it that could have changed the outcome we have. Instead of recognizing this obvious fact, we are told that democracy is, or was, in danger. Um, no. It never was. None of Trump's efforts gained the least amount of traction in trying to overturn the election. We were bombarded with ideas like "what will the military do?", "is Pence going to nullify the electoral college?", "will the Trump picked Supreme Court install Trump as president again?" All of these things, with which the media pundits spent endless amounts of time speculating about were not real things. No one in government had the least concern about them at all, in spite of what they said publicly. They were purely submitted for the shaping of public opinion. The military gave classes on the military's roll in our nation, meaning it didn't involve itself in the question. The Pence question was a non-question because he had no legal authority to do other than what he did and no court would support it if he had. None of the courts, including SCOTUS gave Trump's claims the time of day. Even so, we still had endless speculation of what "could" happen. Please!
And people complain about Qanon. Even if this were true it would have to have been one of the most incompetent, ineffective and aimless conspiracies in history. But, hey, who doesn't love a good conspiracy, right? How about this one, and given the way things turned out, might make more sense. Someone on the left knew this was likely to happen and, conspiring with the capitol police, let it happen so that Trump and Trump supporters would look even worse than they already did? If we're going to just start tossing out unsupportable (at this time) theories, why not include that one?
No, what I think happened here is fairly simple and straightforward. Occam's razor and all that. A bunch of people who thought, rightly or wrongly, an injustice was being done did something stupid and pointless to draw attention to this fact. It wasn't a coup. It wasn't insurrection. It was just people being people but people with political agendas are using it to present something more advantageous to themselves.
That's what I see.
And all whipped up to a frenzy by Trump, Giuliani, Et.al...... just prior to them moving on the capital. That's what you aren't willing to connect.
Um, what makes you say that I don't make this connection?
Did you? Ever thought of mentioning it to complete your thoughts and communicate them?
No, I didn't mention it because I don't think it relevant to what I was actually discussing. Specifically, my view of some of the article's claims. That a coup actually happened. Democracy was defeated. All the scary untrue accusations meant, in my opinion, to tell the unthinking what to think and what should be done about it.
If you think differently about it I'd be interested to hear your opinions, but not if they concern telling me what mine should be.
The World Socialist Web Site [WSWS], voice of the Socialist Equality Party [SEP] under the International Committee of the Fourth International is the sole outlet to give consistent warning of yesterday's eventualities. On October 14, 2019, it published a Statement from the Political Committee of the Socialist Equality Party demanding Trump's immediate removal from office. The first of eight grounds for this demand was:
'Trump is utilizing the power of the presidency to create an unconstitutional and illegal dictatorship.'
The WSWS published further warnings of yesterday's action on June 4, 2020 and on September 24, 2020 . On October 27, 2020, the WSWS published information on an online discussion of this matter hosted by the SEP. It hosted a further online meeting on November 19, 2020 .
As recent as yesterday, the WSWS published a demand that ' coup plotter Trump ' be removed from office immediately.
Yesterday's events [and more] were anticipated and addressed repeatedly by the WSWS. Yesterday was no surprise to anyone who has followed the SEP record on the matter.
This line of inquiry is not well received here because it faults the Democratic Party for its failure and refusal to offer a principled program countering the rise, growth and mainstreaming of a distinctively US fascist movement. That resistance can/must come solely from the working class -- directly entering the stream of political events with its own demands.
Miss the part where 14 officers were injured, the mob physically broke into the Capitol building and invaded the Senate chamber and multiple offices forcing a suspension of Congress' constitutionally mandated duty?
Nope. Miss the part where I said "mostly"? From what I saw, most of the people appeared to be outside and most of them were not doing much of anything except standing or walking around. Of course, there were those who weren't just doing that.
Yes they did. The Evidence is what happened wednesday. It does not matter that the officials, courts and what have you did not give Trump the time of day, because there are millions of people who believe, based on his lies, that he has been wronged. That is what is important. You can take all of your courts and put them in a bag with most of congress and throw them out because these people do not care. They showed this by their actions at the president's request. These peoples false beliefs are the problem.
The danger of not thinking critically.
Those who entered the building need to be charged with sedition and given the maximum penalty. The DoJ needs to bring the hammer down on everyone they can as hard as they can, including Trump and his idiot "lawyer".
Out of curiosity, why do you draw the line at those who entered the building?
Sorry, but I had to laugh out loud when I read this.
How can anyone confuse Sovereign Citizens with Fascists? How can anyone believe that people demanding government get off their backs, people who bemoan political correctness, and people who refuse to wear masks would tolerate the government imposed and enforced regimentation of society espoused by Nazis and Fascists?
What happened at the Capitol has more in common with Little Big Horn than with a beer hall putsch. Donald Trump has more in common with Geronimo than with Hitler.
The steadfast effort by exceptionally smart stupid people to create a phony homogenized Euro-centric American history has blinded us to our real past. We've lost the lessons of our American history. America was created on the frontier by stubborn, resourceful, and self-sufficient settlers; not by European statecraft.
The exceptionally smart stupid people are clueless because they do not know American history and, obviously, don't want to learn. Fascists? What a moronic comparison.
The violence done to the English language by progressives can't be overstated. They hear buzzwords and just call anything they don't like by it. Safire would have a field day updating his dictionary with these idiots.
Nerm has made it clear that he is not a progressive.
I suppose the same way you are confusing the insurgents with Sovereign Citizens.
Your use of the label 'Little Big Horn' illustrates utter ignorance. So does comparing Trump to Geronimo.
More argle-bargle.
Well YOU fabricated it, so there's that.
I am not confused because these people are too white. These groups are airing the same grievances and making the same demands as did the western Indians. What is happening has more similarities with the Indian Wars than with the Civil War.
Trump has been claiming the rights of indigenous people. The complaints have been about intruders and invaders taking land, destroying culture, and ending a way of life. Trump has been playing the role of Crazy Horse; not Armstrong Custer. Trump certainly has not been playing the role of Adolf Hitler.
The history of the Indian Wars isn't a fabrication. The Federal government really did force Indians onto reservations then broke promises and failed to abide by treaties. Highly educated, big city liberals justified their actions by claiming to 'civilize the savages'.
High minded liberals called Geronimo's Apache uprising an insurgency, too. Geronimo was fighting for survival. The high minded liberals were fighting for ideology.
Seriously Nerm, that is some galactic bullshit. Please, just stop.
Wow, I thought your first paragraph was bad.
Nerm, I have no idea where you get the bullshit you post but it could use a heavy dose of reality and a thorough review of factual history.
Here's just a little clarification for you Nerm:
Crazy Horse was a Lakota war leader. He didn't send out others to fight for him and then leave to hide in his bunker.
None of which is revelatory or justifies your ridiculous comparison of Trump to Geronimo Nerm.
BTFW, Teddy Roosevelt a 'liberal'?
I recall reading past comments about the 2020 BLM violence stating that sometimes violence is necessary for change.
Many comments supporting Antifa as antifacist as they beat down people and set cities on fire. And they expect to be taken serious.