Amended and adopted by the 10th Congress of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization
1—Introduction
The purpose of this document is to identify some of the key features of the political terrain that we will be fighting on in the period ahead. There is no doubt that the situation is both fluid and unstable, so if there is a shift in the objective conditions, we will need to quickly identify what is new, when quantitative changes are leading to qualitative ones, and what the main thing is in any given situation.
As communists we find ourselves in very advantageous circumstances. We have been able to lead important and sizable mass struggles. By way of example, we played an important role in the marches on the 2024 DNC and RNC. Radicalization is taking place on a large scale, resulting in extraordinary growth in our size and capacity. One would need to look back to the early 1970s to find a period that is as favorable for the construction of revolutionary organization.
The 2020 George Floyd rebellion was the single most important political event since the 1970s. Twenty-seven million people came into motion, putting the Black national question front and center, while sweeping away the illusion that U.S. imperialism was somehow unchangeable and immutable. The opposite pole was January 6, 2021, when Trump attempted a coup to remain in power. The echoes of both events are shaping our current reality.
2—The accelerating decline of U.S. imperialism
The decline of U.S. imperialism is picking up speed. The U.S. share of world trade in goods has declined about 40% since 1970. The U.S. share of world GDP is about half of what it was in the aftermath of World War II. The U.S. has retreated from the economic architecture that underpinned the “American Century1.”
In recent years, management of declining U.S. empire has been bipartisan. Both Trump and Biden disengaged from the WTO and adopted measures to “delink” the economy from China. While there are significant differences between the industrial policies of Trump and Biden, neither embraced the “let the market decide” laissez-faire approach that is touted by neoliberals2.
3—Base and superstructure
A communist analysis of changes in society grasps the fact that changes in the economic base (productive forces and relations of production) will result in changes in the superstructure (politics, government, culture, religion, etc.). Also, the superstructure can alter the economic base, meaning that there is a dialectical relationship between the two.
Lenin made the point that monopoly capitalism was moribund—capitalism in the period of terminal decline and decay. As such, monopoly capitalism has challenges utilizing advances in science and deploying more advanced productive forces in general3.
The Trump administration has embraced backward technologies as it moves to revive the coal industry and recommission coal-fired power plants. While it is correct to fight for the preservation of jobs in mining and the basic industries, moving away from mass utilization of electric vehicles amounts to a retreat from more advanced productive forces. The same goes for the rejection of wind and solar power.
Animated by visions of quick profits, the Trump administration has rolled back needed environmental protections of all kinds. This includes green-lighting mining projects that are harmful to the interests and sovereignty of Indigenous people, while being destructive to the environment4.
Climate change denial and the opposition to vaccinations are symptomatic of anti-science views that are now being promoted at the highest levels of government5. Climatology is a science that has the capacity to model climate change. On Trump’s Truth Social one can find all sorts of conspiracy theories explaining what is happening with the weather.
The fact that at the apex of the country’s public health system sits Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a man who promotes disproven claims that vaccines cause autism, says it all. People have died and will die because of the willful ignorance of the Trump administration. Trump and the billionaires got vaccinated for COVID, while promoting vaccine skepticism among the broad masses of people.
4—Sharpening contradictions
The decline of U.S. imperialism is sharpening all of the basic contradictions present in society: the contradiction between the monopoly capitalists and the multinational working class, between the ruling class and oppressed nationalities, and between the monopoly capitalists and women and LGBTQ people. This provides the material basis for the intensification of polarization, and the phenomenon of different states or even cities having different legal systems which accord people varying democratic rights (this includes the right to abortion).
The sharpening of the contradictions is in sharp relief in the fight for immigrant rights. Our organization views the attacks on immigrants as a function of national oppression. Militarized ICE raids and troop deployments to major cities are serving to pull U.S. society apart, and this can be seen in mass protests and rebellions (LA), divergent court rulings, and a degree of non-compliance by some state and local authorities (Chicago).
There are developments which are more reflective of contradictions in the enemy camp, such as the government shutdowns which become more frequent and larger with the passage of time. The impeachment attempts are another example. And then there are the things that are not normal in modern U.S. politics, such as the “weaponization” of the Department of Justice and the prosecution of Trump’s bourgeois political opponents. One feature of the Trump administration is a willingness to push up to, and beyond, the limits of bourgeois legality.
Any major economic downturn or crisis will sharpen the aforementioned contradictions. The capitalists will do what they always do—try to shift the burden of the crisis onto the backs of the working class. Most state governments (and many local ones) will experience budget crises6, resulting in attempts to push austerity measures. The most likely political impact will be to make Trump and the Republicans less popular.
5—Role of the Democratic Party
While it is not monolithic, the Democratic Party is one of two major parties of monopoly capitalism. Biden/Harris lost the election due to complicity with the genocide in Palestine (the vote in Michigan, for example) and the fact they were tone deaf to the deteriorating economic condition of the multinational working class. It can be said that the Biden years paved the way for Trump’s return to power.
On a national level, the Democratic Party has not decisively opposed the genocide in Gaza—in fact, assistance to the genocide has been the policy followed by most of its politicians. Nor has the Democratic Party been a particularly effective opposition force. Certainly, it cannot be relied on to stop Trump’s agenda.
Our approach to elections has never been one of abstentionism. Rather we have looked at four factors—is one of the candidates a special danger; is the election a referendum on a major social question (for example, a war); are any of the candidates an electoral manifestation of the national movements (Harold Washington, Jesse Jackson); and is there an option to promote independent political action?
On the local level the situation is more complex. For example, we are supportive of Chicago’s Brandon Johnson administration, which is progressive, has provided serious resistance to the Trump administration (especially on the issue of immigrant rights), and is part of the fight for Black political power and full equality.
6—Trump and the politics of decline
In some ways, Trump is an ideal political representative of a declining empire. He is a racist and reactionary demagogue who trades in the toxic. His erratic policies are based on contingency and immediate political gains—with the goal of realigning U.S. politics for the purpose of building a political project that can hold power over the long term.
The denial of voting rights in the form of gerrymandering is a function of national oppression. It is also part of the political project that Trump and company intend to utilize to keep the majorities in the House and the Senate. A related point is attacks on the funding mechanisms used by Democratic Party politicians.
Trump’s cabinet has been marked by contradiction. While some of the most important positions have been filled by experienced ideologues, many of his appointees are outrageously unqualified, chosen for nothing more than their loyalty and the size of their wallets.
None of this has taken place in a social vacuum. It has a history in the political brand that can be traced back to Nixon’s Southern Strategy7, the Reagan administration, Newt Gingrich and the Tea Party8. Adding fuel to the fire has been the rise of new billionaires (many of whom attended Trumps inauguration) that have not been fully integrated into the traditional ruling class.
A goal of the Trump administration is replacing federal administrators and workers that are deemed insufficiently “loyal.”9 Mass firings and forced retirements have hit hundreds of thousands of federal employees—in some cases the aim is privatization, in others, it is simply the withdrawal of public services.
The courts have been a venue of struggle for many Trump administration initiatives, and while some measures have been blocked, given the composition of federal courts—up to and including the Supreme Court—the courts will not be the place where the Trump agenda is defeated.
There is a political/ideological aspect to this reactionary reordering of government. Don’t like the data on climate change? Get rid of the data and the people collecting it. Much of U.S. history is a history of resistance and a catalog of crimes. The administration’s response has been to close museum exhibits and post signs at national parks urging right wingers to complain about facts they don’t like.
There are also numerous attacks on the empire’s tools of “soft power” such as the National Endowment for Democracy. These cuts will weaken the role of the U.S. internationally.
7—Things are coming apart
Mao once stated, “‘Lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s own feet,’ from a Chinese folk saying to describe the behavior of certain fools. The reactionaries in all countries are fools of this kind.” Trump and company certainly fit the bill.
Given that the reactionary agenda that is being carried out is a long one, we cannot possibly talk about all of its aspects. Given that we concentrate our work in particular movements, oppressed nationality communities, industries and workplaces, there are some general observations that we should make. We also understand that the situation in the U.S. today is changing rapidly.
The main conflict shaping the political situation today is Trump’s attempt to carry out mass deportations of immigrants. This could change, but it is a safe bet that this will remain a defining feature of the coming period. Specifically, the militarized ICE raids, which include FBI, DEA, DHS, etc. accompanied by the National Guard, and in the case of Los Angeles, 700 Marines, is impacting all areas of our work, and has resulted in a level of militant struggle that has not been seen since the George Floyd Rebellion.
While the National Guard deployments in Memphis and Washington, D.C. have a real “tough on crime” anti-Black edge10, in both cities there has also been a significant increase of mass deportation efforts.
Accompanying the federal deployments has been mass resistance in the streets, which is the principal factor sharpening the opposition to the deployments by government on a local and state level. This opposition is indicative of the degree of polarization and the emergence of two legal systems, where the recognition of democratic rights varies in a qualitative way depending on where you live. In Chicago, measures for noncompliance with ICE are being carried out by the city government; in next-door Iowa, it is illegal for cites to adopt sanctuary laws that limit collaboration with ICE.
Another major part of the right-wing agenda is attacks on the democratic rights of transgender people, which include denying gender-affirming health care and bodily autonomy, limiting access to accurate government documents, as well as housing and job discrimination. Trans youth are being stripped of the protections that their cis peers enjoy and are particular targets of these measures. All of this creates a framework designed to push trans people to the margins of society.
While it has long been the case that democratic rights vary by place in this country – for example the right to gun ownership or public workers’ right to unionize11—quantitative change leads to qualitative change, and on many fronts, including labor law, women’s and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, the political superstructure is moving in two different directions. The same thing can be said about the right to vote, where we are seeing a process of disenfranchising oppressed nationalities.
Like in the period leading to the 1860 Civil War, the country is being pulled apart12.
8—A period of political repression and rebellion
Far from a dark cloud of reaction descending and smothering all that is progressive, the upcoming period will be one of widespread conflict. Mao once referred to the reactionary Chiang Kai-shek as the top recruiter for the Communist Party of China. Trump is ours.
The protests of millions against Trump are an extremely important development. A broad anti-Trump movement has come into being. Despite any defects this movement has, it is a very good thing, representing a rejection of the administration’s racist and reactionary agenda. The anti-Trump protests and the militant responses to the federal occupations explode the myth that the whole country is marching lockstep toward some sort of authoritarian dystopia.
As in the case with any objective social phenomena, communists have the task of not only analyzing, but also that of interacting. The most basic question is what we oppose and what we support, and if we think something is positive, are we going to try to lead it. It is a fact that there is some backward stuff in the anti-Trump movement (such as support for the proxy war with Russia, or the tendency to place faith in the political party—the Democratic Party—which paved the way to the situation we are now in) but it does not change the principal aspect of the matter. Attempts to build a “politically pure” anti-Trump movement that ignores the forces in motion will end in failure.
The other side of the dialectic is repression. It is real. It has and will take different forms. And we can expect that we will see a lot more of it.
The Trump administration and its supporters in Texas, Florida, and elsewhere are building legal frameworks that criminalize those who exercise their democratic rights. These measures range from laws that make it OK for motorists to run down protesters to the many supporters of immigrant rights who are now facing federal charges. There are also the executive orders that green-light killings by cops. The list goes on and on.
The repression against those who stand with Palestine is of particular importance. On the one hand it is not new thing. The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 has been used to criminalize supporters of Palestine, for example the case of the Holy Land Foundation13. The repression that started under Biden and has picked up steam under Trump is an attempt to suppress the movement, particularly on the campuses.
Our organization is no stranger to repression. On September 24, 2010, about 70 FBI agents carried out raids on the homes and offices of antiwar and international solidarity activists, including many leading members of our organization. Twenty-three activists were subpoenaed to grand jury and risked real jail time by refusing. An energetic defense that relied on mass mobilization, uniting all who could be united for defense work, and a sound legal strategy resulted in us defeating that attack.
Our organization is second to none when it comes to pushing back against repression, and we have expanded our capacity for defense work.
We take repression seriously, and this includes violence initiated by reactionary and/or fascist gangs and militias. This danger will grow in the coming period.
9—On the possibility of fascism
In the entire period of monopoly capitalism, fascism is a latent tendency or possibility. When identifying what fascism is, the most essential feature is the use of open terror by the ruling class, meaning the legal possibility to organize for socialism are slim to nonexistent. That is not the situation now, nor is it likely to be in the immediate future.
It is a fact that there are fascist groups and there are people in government who are pro-fascist. Their attacks should be met head on. The U.S. has always been a repressive place. Even as it went to war against German fascism and was an important part of the world anti-fascist coalition, 120,000 Japanese Americans were put in concentration camps.
All quantity contains quality—and there is a whole political landscape between a capitalist democracy and open terror (fascism) that could be very different than what we have experienced over the past 50 years.
Fascism is a tool of the most reactionary monopoly capitalists to prevent revolution.14 We are not in a revolutionary situation currently. An effective strategy against fascism would necessitate building the broadest possible united front to stop it, for example the Popular Front employed by communists from the mid-1930s on. If there is a genuine danger of capitalist democracy being replaced by open terror, we will adjust our strategy and organizational functioning accordingly.
10—Balance of forces
In our program we say, “Our basic strategy for revolution and socialism is building a united front against the monopoly capitalist class, under the leadership of the working class and its political party, with a strategic alliance between the multinational working class and the oppressed nationalities at the core of this united front.” We want to unite all who can be united, which includes other classes and social groups who can be mobilized to oppose our rulers.
To that end, we are engaged in a diligent effort to build up work in the labor movement where we promote class struggle trade unionism. As a whole, the working class is dissatisfied with its condition. Unfortunately, the attacks on federal workers have not been met with an energetic response from most union leaders. One of our tasks is to put some spine into the labor movement.
While the George Floyd Rebellion represented a high tide for the Black liberation movement, there has been a sustained level of struggle that is very significant. Of special importance has been the fight against police crimes and for community control of police. The Chicano national movement is growing rapidly as the fight against mass deportations becomes sharper. In resisting the deployment of troops to urban areas, it is possible to build multinational unity between the African American and Chicano/Latino national movements. In and around both the Black and Chicano national movements there has be an increase in the level of organization and consciousness.
Expanding communist organization in the labor movement and the national movements is vital to building the strategic alliance.
We continue to attach great importance to the struggles for democratic rights and we will continue our efforts to push back against attacks on LGBTQ people. We see the attacks trans people as a kind of the tip of the spear that is being used to further a reactionary agenda. There are a host of issues—from the rights of the undocumented, to voting rights, and women’s and reproductive rights—where we will continue to build and lead meaningful fightbacks.
The balance of forces in this country is improving, and the groundwork is being laid for conflict on a big scale. While we are in a pre-revolutionary situation, we are accumulating the forces for the battles to come.
11—The future is bright
We expect that our extraordinary growth will continue. The polls say that many question capitalism and that a growing number of people are embracing socialism.
As revolutionaries, we understand the limitations of social democracy, and we will always draw a firm line of demarcation. We will also apply the mass line and have the approach of patiently winning people over to our views.
We know that a single spark can start a prairie fire, but we cannot be certain what that spark will be. That means we will continue to take as many people possible as far as they will possibly go. There are sure to be difficulties ahead, but on our road—the freedom road—the future is ours and the future is bright.
Notes
1 The U.S. had 15% of worlds trade in goods in 1970, while in 2025 it was only 9%, a 40% decline. (Source: WITA Washington International Trade Association). The term “American Century” was coined by the U.S. publisher Henry Luce during World War II to describe the emerging role of the U.S. in the world.
2 Examples include in September 2025 Trump used his “golden share” of U.S. Steel to prevent idling of the Granite City, IL Steel mill. Biden subsidized solar panels, wind power, electric vehicles. Trump is enacting measures to revive the coal industry.
3 Lenin states in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: “As we have seen, the deepest economic foundation of imperialism is monopoly. This is capitalist monopoly, i.e., monopoly which has grown out of capitalism and which exists in the general environment of capitalism, commodity production and competition, in permanent and insoluble contradiction to this general environment. Nevertheless, like all monopoly, it inevitably engenders a tendency of stagnation and decay… Certainly, the possibility of reducing the cost of production and increasing profits by introducing technical improvements operates in the direction of change. But the tendency to stagnation and decay, which is characteristic of monopoly, continues to operate, and in some branches of industry, in some countries, for certain periods of time, it gains the upper hand.”
4 For example, the attempt construct a giant copper mine in Oak Flats, AZ on land that is sacred to the Western Apache.
5 At his speech to the UN in 2025, President Trump spoke about climate change, saying, “It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion.”
6 State governments have eliminated many taxes on the wealthy and corporations which means even a relatively small decline in tax revenue can lead to major budget shortfalls.
7 The Republican Party strategy to bring about a political realignment in the South by appealing to pro-Jim Crow voters.
8 The Tea Party was a reactionary current in the Republican Party that gained sway of the House of Representatives around 2010.
9 Before 1883 federal jobs went to supporters of whoever controlled the White House, the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act laid the basis for the modern civil service.
10 At the time of writing 4 of the 5 cities where the National Guard has been deployed have Black mayors.
11 The 1947 Taft-Hartley act created the legal framework for “right to work” states, and the 2018 Janus Supreme Court decision made the situation worse.
12 An important difference being that prior to the Civil War there were two distinct social systems (modes of production) in the U.S.
13 In 2001 the government seized the assets of the country’s largest Muslim charity (the Holy Land Foundation) and proceeded to jail some of it’s principal leaders. The prosecution claimed they provided material support to the Palestinian resistance.
14 Stalin, in his Report to the 17th Congress of CPSU in 1934, stated, “In this connection the victory of fascism in Germany must be regarded not only as a symptom of the weakness of the working class and a result of the by the betrayals of the working class by Social-Democracy, which paved the way for fascism; it must also be regarded as a sign of weakness of the bourgeois, a sign that the bourgeois is no longer able to rule by the old methods of parliamentary and bourgeois democracy, and, as a consequence, is compelled in its home policy to resort to terrorist methods of rule…” By weakness of the working class, Stalin means the powerful German Communist Party lost the race to power.
